Journal Reference:

Charles J. Norsigian, Heather A. Danhof, Colleen K. Brand, Firas S. Midani, Jared T. Broddrick, Tor C. Savidge, Robert A. Britton, Bernhard O. Palsson, Jennifer K. Spinler, Jonathan M. Monk. Systems biology approach to functionally assess the Clostridioides difficile pangenome reveals genetic diversity with discriminatory power. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022; 119 (18) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119396119

The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the bacterium causes approximately 500,000 infections in the United States annually, with severe diarrhea and colitis (inflammation of the colon) as characteristic symptoms.

The researchers’ findings are published in the April 27, 2022 online issue of PNAS.

C. difficile is the most dominant cause of hospital-associated infections, in part from the use of antibiotics, which can kill enough healthy bacteria to allow C. difficile to grow unchecked. Infections are particularly dangerous in older persons. One in 11 people over the age of 65 who are diagnosed with a hospital-associated case of C. difficile die within one month, reports the CDC.

“C. diff is persistent and pervasive,” said senior author Jonathan M. Monk, PhD, a research scientist in the Systems Biology Research Group at UC San Diego, directed by Bernhard O. Palsson, PhD, professor of bioengineering and an adjunct professor in the UC San Diego School of Medicine. “It doesn’t cause typical diarrhea. Most people do recover, but some become seriously ill, require hospitalization and some die from complications like kidney failure or sepsis.”

To better understand the genetic features of C. difficile — and thus develop models that can identify and predict its complex and constant evolution — researchers used whole-genome sequencing, high-throughput phenotypic screening and metabolic modeling of 451 bacterial strains.

This data was used to construct a “pangenome” or entire set of genes representative of all known C. difficile strains, from which they identified 9,924 distinct gene clusters, of which 2,899 were considered to be core (found in all strains) while 7,025 were “accessory” (present in some strains but missing in others).

Using a new typing method, they categorized 176 genetically distinct groups of strains.

“Typing by accessory genome allows for the discovery of newly acquired genes in genomes of pathogens that may otherwise go unnoticed with standard typing methods,” said co-author Jennifer K. Spinler, PhD, an instructor in pathology and immunology at the Baylor College of Medicine. “This could be critical in understanding what drives an outbreak and how to fight its spread.”

Thirty-five strains representing the overall set were experimentally profiled with 95 different nutrient sources, revealing 26 distinct growth profiles. The team then built 451 strain-specific genome scale models of metabolism to computationally produce phenotype diversity in 28,864 unique conditions. The models were able to correctly predict growth in 76 percent of measured cases.

“One of the strengths of the presented work is the cohesion of distinct biological data types into comprehensive systems biology frameworks that enable analysis at scale,” said first author Charles J. Norsigian, PhD, a data scientist in the Systems Biology Research Group. “By interpreting strains of C. difficile in a population context, we were able to bring to light pertinent strain features regarding nutrient niche, virulence factors, and antimicrobial resistance determinants that might have otherwise gone undetected.”

Co-authors include: Bernhard O. Palsson, UC San Diego; Heather A. Danhof, Colleen K. Brand, Firas S. Midani, Robert A. Britton and Tor C. Savidge, Baylor College of Medicine; and Jared T. Broddrick and Jennifer K. Spinier, NASA Ames Research Center.

Journal Reference:

Charles J. Norsigian, Heather A. Danhof, Colleen K. Brand, Firas S. Midani, Jared T. Broddrick, Tor C. Savidge, Robert A. Britton, Bernhard O. Palsson, Jennifer K. Spinler, Jonathan M. Monk. Systems biology approach to functionally assess the Clostridioides difficile pangenome reveals genetic diversity with discriminatory power. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2022; 119 (18) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2119396119

The researchers’ findings are published in the April 27, 2022 online issue of PNAS.

Using a new typing method, they categorized 176 genetically distinct groups of strains.

Journal Reference:

Haiying Long, Barbara A. Kerr, Trina E. Emler, Max Birdnow. A Critical Review of Assessments of Creativity in Education. Review of Research in Education, 2022; 46 (1): 288 DOI: 10.3102/0091732X221084326

KU researchers analyzed studies published in eight major creativity, psychological and educational journals between 2010 and 2021 to get a better picture of the state of creativity assessments. The results showed that creativity continues to be primarily assessed by divergent thinking or creativity tests, self-report questionnaires, product-based subjective techniques and rating scales. That lack of innovation in assessments shows a refined approach is needed to build creative profiles of students, better understand how creativity develops through the span of education and encourage it in multiple domains of schooling, according to the researchers.

“There are a lot of conversations about how much improvement that creativity research in education needs. We want to promote creativity with schools and students through assessments that can be applied in classrooms. We also want to reform the current high-stakes, narrowly focused standardized tests in education — maybe by using creativity assessments as an alternative,” said Haiying Long, associate professor of educational psychology and lead author of the study. “But before we are able to achieve these purposes, we want to have a better idea of the state of creativity assessments in education over the last decade and understand what has been done and what needs to be done.”

The study, written with co-authors Barbara Kerr, Williamson Family Distinguished Professor of Counseling Psychology, and Trina Emler and Max Birdnow, doctoral students in educational leadership and policy studies, all at KU, was published in the journal Review of Research in Education.

The analysis also showed that research on assessments in creativity tends to be evenly split between educational and psychological assessments. Those in education tend to focus on college more than K-12 education, while the psychological studies depend overwhelmingly on psychology undergraduates as research subjects. That is potentially problematic, the authors wrote, as those students overwhelmingly tend to be white and female, meaning they do not present a broader picture on how the assessments interact with diverse populations.

The studies are also increasingly international. That trend is encouraging, but the United States continues to lead the field. Because of that, students in many countries receive no creative assessments, while others take assessments developed in the U.S. that often do not directly translate to other languages and cultures, Long said.

Creativity assessments fall into three major approaches, the most common of which is creative or divergent thinking tests. While the tests have shown to be reliable and valid in assessing students’ divergent thinking ability, they often are not tested for all potential domains and tend to focus only on intelligence or focused primarily on one aspect such as cognitive, emotional or conative aspects of creativity, according to the researchers. That problem existed to varying degrees across self-report questionnaires and product-based assessments as well. The analysis found that there are new approaches to assessing creativity appearing, but most research continues to focus on the dominant approaches of the last several decades.

“All of these approaches have been used in the field for a long time,” Long said. “There are new tests or scales focusing on other aspects of creativity, such as creative potential, creative self-efficacy, creativity in different domains, but the review shows just how much the field is not changing. If you don’t want to change the field, it is hard to improve it.”

Perhaps most troubling, the studies on creativity assessment are primarily conducted with white students in the United States and often lack information on racial or ethnic compositions of students in international studies. That prevents further understanding of who is and is not assessed and whether there are any equity issues, the authors wrote. Also, the effect of gender socialization on creativity of girls in K-12 education has rarely been addressed, and issues of privilege and socioeconomic inequities — such as which students at underprivileged schools are assessed — are rarely explored.

The authors close the study with several recommendations to address the shortcomings of creativity assessments in education. Ideally, all students would be screened for cognitive, personality and motivational characteristics by kindergarten to establish baselines for creative approaches with reassessments at key stages. Using multiple approaches to identify and encourage students to use creativity across domains and use of assessments outside the traditionally dominant approaches would better serve students as well, they wrote. However, the researchers acknowledge challenges in the way of that goal, including better translating research from the lab to teachers who need assessments in classrooms. To address that, the authors also called for a close collaboration between creativity researchers and educators in schools by using a service model and providing teachers with more professional development on creativity.

Long praised her colleagues in KU’s creativity research group, including her co-authors as well as notable KU scholars Yong Zhao and Neal Kingston, who are working on innovative ways to assess creativity and ask deeper questions about who is assessed for creative potential, how creativity assessments can reform educational assessment more broadly, improve students’ creative educational experience and contribute to an equitable and democratizing education.

“We want to fill the gap between research and practice with better ways to identify creative students. When students are selected for gifted and talented programs, it is widely based on intelligence and seldom on creativity tests,” Long said. “If you don’t think a student has high intelligence ability, they won’t be selected for the programs. In school districts, that creativity assessment is used to identify gifted and talented students. It is considered simply a side effect of intelligence. At the same time, we do see promise for creativity assessments in addressing these questions. They can provide more equitable information than they currently do, and we want to push the field forward and do better.”

Journal Reference:

Haiying Long, Barbara A. Kerr, Trina E. Emler, Max Birdnow. A Critical Review of Assessments of Creativity in Education. Review of Research in Education, 2022; 46 (1): 288 DOI: 10.3102/0091732X221084326

Journal Reference:

Megumi Kasajima, Karen Eggleston, Shoki Kusaka, Hiroki Matsui, Tomoki Tanaka, Bo-Kyung Son, Katsuya Iijima, Kazuo Goda, Masaru Kitsuregawa, Jay Bhattacharya, Hideki Hashimoto. Projecting prevalence of frailty and dementia and the economic cost of care in Japan from 2016 to 2043: a microsimulation modelling study. The Lancet Public Health, 2022; 7 (5): e458 DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00044-5

Taking care of the older members of society is a common concern around the world. Japan is famous for its long-lived residents, the number of which continues to rise. In 2020, almost 30% of the Japanese population was aged 65 years or older, and this age group is not projected to peak until 2034. Caring for people with age-related ailments, such as dementia and frailty, poses a challenge both to individuals and public health care systems.

Microsimulation models, which are computer models that can provide detailed analysis on an individual basis, are currently used to project future population health in some countries, such as the U.K. and the U.S. Professor Hideki Hashimoto and researchers at the University of Tokyo, along with researchers from Stanford University in the U.S., wanted to create a new microsimulation model for Japan, which would take into account more diverse conditions than had been considered before.

“We developed a new Japanese microsimulation model that accounts for 13 chronic conditions (including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, depression and dependency), as well as frailty and dementia,” explained Hashimoto. “Using an ultralarge data system, we were able to ‘follow’ a virtual cohort of more than 40 million people aged 60 and over from 2016 to 2043.”

According to Hashimoto, projections of aging in Japan usually rely on the “average” status of older people and so don’t consider the diversity of the population. “I believe that problems of aging are a matter of health gaps over the course of people’s lives,” he said. “Our projection brings attention to a widening health gap among older people. It highlighted that women with a less than high school education aged 75 or over are more likely to be affected.”

Identifying where health gaps like this exist could be used to better inform public policy, not only about health care but other influential aspects of life. “Japan’s case may suggest that improvement in educational attainment, as well as population health, could be a key to making a healthier and more manageable aging society,” said Hashimoto.

Positively, this study shows hope for a future where many people live longer and more healthy lives. “People might believe that an increase in cases of dementia is inescapable, given population aging. However, in this study we found that in Japan, despite an aging population, the number of people with dementia is expected to decrease over the next two decades,” said Hashimoto. “Population aging does not necessarily mean an increase of social burden for care, but it does bring a diversity of problems that requires careful study and science-based policy attention, to close the health gap.”

Journal Reference:

Megumi Kasajima, Karen Eggleston, Shoki Kusaka, Hiroki Matsui, Tomoki Tanaka, Bo-Kyung Son, Katsuya Iijima, Kazuo Goda, Masaru Kitsuregawa, Jay Bhattacharya, Hideki Hashimoto. Projecting prevalence of frailty and dementia and the economic cost of care in Japan from 2016 to 2043: a microsimulation modelling study. The Lancet Public Health, 2022; 7 (5): e458 DOI: 10.1016/S2468-2667(22)00044-5

Nastał sezon wiosenno-letni, a wraz z nim coraz cieplejsze dni. To dobry moment na porządki i to nie tylko w naszym domu. Dlaczego? Dostaję od Was coraz więcej wiadomości z pytaniami, jak szybko zmienić swoje nawyki żywieniowe i poprawić formę, by przygotować się na powitanie sezonu. Niestety nie istnieje jeden, magiczny sposób, a na wszystko potrzeba czasu. Dlatego tak samo, jak przygotowujemy nasz dom czy garderobę na powitanie wiosny, tak samo zachęcam Was do zadbania o swój organizm.

Okres jesienno-zimowy to czas, gdy na zewnątrz robi się coraz zimniej, dni są coraz krótsze. Czujemy się zmęczeni, senni, na nic nie mamy ochoty. Nasz organizm i kondycja psychofizyczna są osłabione. Dlatego, gdy nadchodzi marzec, a wraz z nim pierwszy powiew wiosny zaczynamy powoli wybudzać się z naszego zimowego snu. To dobry moment na zmiany. Często pytacie mnie o poradę, jak się zabrać do takich “wiosennych porządków” w naszym organizmie? Chciałybyście zdrowiej się odżywiać, ale brakuje wam czasu na robienie zakupów, gotowanie, a często też po prostu nie wiecie co dokładnie i w jakich ilościach powinnyście jeść, żeby osiągnąć upragnione efekty. Spokojnie, na szczęście nie musicie posiadać specjalistycznej wiedzy, by zacząć zmiany.

Na początku swoich postanowień wiosennych warto wesprzeć się specjalistami, którzy potrafią ułożyć zdrową i zbilansowaną dietę według waszych potrzeb. Takie wsparcie oferujemy w SuperMenu. W moim cateringu dietetycznym możecie dobrać wariant dopasowany do waszego trybu życia oraz celów, jakie chciałybyście osiągnąć. Jednym z Was zależy na przybraniu na wadze, inne chciałby pozbyć się dodatkowych kilogramów, niektóre z Was intensywnie trenują i potrzebują odpowiednich składników odżywczych. Po okresie jesienno-zimowym dobrym pomysłem jest również wzmocnienie swojej odporności i ogólnej kondycji organizmu.

Na jaką dietę postawić w okresie wiosenno-letnim? Polecam te, które sama sezonowo stosuję! 🙂

Dieta Intermittent Fasting

Inaczej post przerywany, to model żywienia, opierający się na stosowaniu postów naprzemiennie z oknami żywieniowymi, w czasie których należy spożyć określoną według zapotrzebowania energetycznego ilość kalorii i niezbędnych składników odżywczych. Wyróżnia się dwa podstawowe modele postu przerywanego: pierwszy, w którym przeprowadza się posty trwające minimum 24 godziny w wymiarze całego tygodnia oraz drugi, polegający na wyznaczeniu w obrębie doby przedziału godzinowego przypadającego na okres postu. W naszej diecie zastosowaliśmy koncepcję polegającą na spożywaniu posiłków w określonym oknie żywieniowym 16/8, co oznacza w pierwszym przypadku 16-godzinny okres postu oraz 8-godzinne okno żywieniowe. Możliwe są również przedziały 18/6 i 20/4. Głównym celem tego wariantu jest przywrócenie prawidłowego rytmu dobowego i poprawa metabolicznych mechanizmów regulacyjnych, co może się przekładać na szereg korzyści zdrowotnych.

Dieta SIRT

Powstała z myślą o osobach, które dążą do redukcji nadmiernej masy ciała, ale jednocześnie chcących zadbać o swoje zdrowie. Wariant ten charakteryzuje się wysoką zawartością produktów, które aktywują sirtuiny wpływające m.in. na poprawę metabolizmu i przyspieszenie spalania tłuszczu, spowolnienie procesów starzenia organizmu, a także regulację poziomu glukozy oraz insuliny. Ich duże spożycie ma również dobroczynny wpływ na samopoczucie i zdrowie. Polega na włączeniu do diety tzw. sirtfoods czyli produktów, które najsilniej pobudzają tzw. geny długowieczności. Geny aktywujące sirtuiny odgrywają istotną rolę w procesie utraty nadmiernej masy ciała, wpływając na regulację glikemii i poziomu insuliny. Ich aktywacja może być także korzystna w przypadku zarówno profilaktyki, jak i występowania chorób, takich jak cukrzyca typu II czy chorób neurodegeneracyjnych jak choroba Alzheimera czy choroba Parkinsona.

Dieta Wspomagająca Odporność

Nakierowana jest na wzmocnienie organizmu w okresach obniżonej odporności. Program żywieniowy zawiera dobroczynne składniki i mikroelementy takie jak witaminy z grupy C, A, E, kwasy omega-3, cynk, selen, miedź. Posiłki są bogate również w niezbędne do wzmocnienia organizmu przyprawy: imbir, kurkuma, cynamon oraz zioła pochodzące z własnych szklarni – tymianek i oregano.

Który wariant będzie odpowiedni dla Was? Jeśli nadal nie wiecie, warto swój wybór skonsultować z naszym dietetykiem z SuperMenu. Więcej informacji o dostępnych wariantach znajdziecie na: TUTAJ 🙂

Na jaką dietę postawić w okresie wiosenno-letnim? Polecam te, które sama sezonowo stosuję! 🙂

Dieta Intermittent Fasting

Dieta SIRT

Dieta Wspomagająca Odporność

Jennifer Lopez evidentemente celebra que a sus 52 luzca como de 30, y es que la cantante puede darse el lujo de seguir siendo una de las celebridades más atractivas. Por eso, hicimos un recuento de los secretos (revelados y no revelados) de pies a cabeza de la eterna juventud de la diva del Bronx.

1) Jennifer Lopez recomienda invertir en buenos cosméticos

No es adicta a los cosméticos, de hecho la vemos mucho presumiendo de su look al natural, pero cuando se trata de hablar de éstos, la sexy cantante recomienda hacer una inversión en buenos productos, así la piel no correrá ningún riesgo, pues dicen que lo barato sale caro.

2) Así es la sencilla rutina para el cuidado de la piel de Jennifer Lopez

Si creían que la celeb es de las que hace de todo para tener ese cutis impecable, digno de presumirlo al natural como recientemente lo ha hecho en las redes sociales, ¡están equivocadas!

JLo ha confesado no ser fan de tratamientos faciales como peelings o cosas por el estilo; hace lo básico: utiliza protector solar y luego se aplica humectante, lo más que hace en cuanto a tratamientos se refiere es aplicarse una que otra mascarilla.

3) JLo mantiene la piel radiante con más agua y menos sol

Los mejores trucos confesos por Jennifer Lopez consisten en beber mucha agua y procurar alejarse del sol. Podemos ponerlos en práctica, ¿no?

4) ¿Jennifer Lopez usando faja reductora?

Aunque siempre la vemos perfecta, hace algún tiempo se le pudo captar con uno de sus secretos de belleza: una faja reductora. La famosa faja de la marca Spanx, creada por Sara Blakely, ha sido muy recurrida por muchas famosas. Creemos que JLo no la necesita, pero siempre es un recurso de seguridad para todas las mujeres.

5) La mascarilla para el pelo de Jennifer Lopez

Para Jennifer Lopez cuidarse el pelo debe ser todo un ritual, pues de verdad nos encanta porque luce muy sano y lleno de vida. Para ella, lo importante es tener un pelo bien hidratado, por lo que una vez a la semana se aplica una mascarilla reparadora por cualquier daño que pudiera haberle hecho.

6) JLo considera primordial la calidad del sueño

Entre sus rutinas de belleza, la actriz asegura que está la de siempre tratar de conseguir un buen descanso, digamos dormir lo suficiente (8 horas) para lucir espectacular. ¡El cuerpo lo agradece!

7) Ritual de JLo para llegar a las alfombras rojas

La cantante ha compartido su rutina para lucir radiante a cada alfombra roja a la que asiste: se pone una mascarilla y toma un buen baño para relajarse. Creo que cuanto mejor te sientes, mejor te ves. Después voy a tomar un café y veo pasar el día sin prisas. No me gusta correr .

8) El smoothie verde de Jennifer Lopez para rejuvenecer y tener energía

Gracias a un smoothie de espinacas (por cierto, su bebida favorita) podemos verla llena de energía todo el día y sin parar. Y no es un secreto, pues la cantante compartió la receta de la famosa bebida creada por ella y Marco Borges, un fisiólogo de ejercicios: Mezcla en la licuadora 1 puño de espinacas, 1 plátano congelado, 1 taza de leche de arroz, 2 cucharadas de almendras o mantequilla de girasol y 1 cucharada de proteína en polvo hasta obtener la consistencia deseada. ¡Suena delicioso!

9) Jennifer Lopez y su rutina de ejercicio

El cuerpo tan envidiable que luce la neoyoquina es producto de una muy buena alimentación pero además de su disciplinia al ejercicio. Su mejor recomendación es es el baile, al cual le dedica duras jornadas, hasta seis horas diarias.

10) ¿JLo sigue una dieta vegana?

Aunque JLo siempre se ha caracterizado por sus adoradas curvas, tras su ruptura con el bailarín Casper Smart se le vio con una figura menos voluptuosa pero sensacional. ¿La razón? Adoptó el veganismo como su nueva disciplina nutricional, es decir, que renunció al consumo de carne y ahora su alimentación se basa en productos derivados de las plantas y que provengan del suelo.

1) Jennifer Lopez recomienda invertir en buenos cosméticos

2) Así es la sencilla rutina para el cuidado de la piel de Jennifer Lopez

Si creían que la celeb es de las que hace de todo para tener ese cutis impecable, digno de presumirlo al natural como recientemente lo ha hecho en las redes sociales, ¡están equivocadas!

3) JLo mantiene la piel radiante con más agua y menos sol

Los mejores trucos confesos por Jennifer Lopez consisten en beber mucha agua y procurar alejarse del sol. Podemos ponerlos en práctica, ¿no?

4) ¿Jennifer Lopez usando faja reductora?

5) La mascarilla para el pelo de Jennifer Lopez

6) JLo considera primordial la calidad del sueño

7) Ritual de JLo para llegar a las alfombras rojas

8) El smoothie verde de Jennifer Lopez para rejuvenecer y tener energía

9) Jennifer Lopez y su rutina de ejercicio

10) ¿JLo sigue una dieta vegana?

La edición número 94 de los Premios de la Academia tuvo varios momentos llenos de emoción. Si bien la bofetada de Will Smith a Chris Rock fue el hecho más mediático de la gala, la ceremonia contó con momentos en que la música latina fue protagonista.

Durante la fiesta después de la premiación, el actor Anthony Hopkins sacó sus mejores pasos para bailar salsa, puntualmente el tema ´Llorarás´, del artista venezolano Óscar D’León. En un video que circula en redes sociales se observa cuando el dos veces ganador del Premio de la Academia lleva a su pareja al centro de la pista para entregarse al ritmo de la música.

Aunque el baile duró unos pocos segundos, la notable alegría de Anthony Hopkins hizo que el video se hiciera viral rápidamente en redes sociales. De hecho, esta no es la primera vez que el protagonista de Hannibal sorprende con sus pasos, ya que en la plataforma TikTok el multifacético artista galés ha sido sensación gracias a los videos en los que muestra su sabor.

En marzo de 2021, Hopkins publicó un video en su cuenta oficial de TikTok bailando el tema ´Tu sonrisa´, merengue interpretado por Elvis Crespo. Vistiendo una camisa caribeña, pantaloneta y lentes de sol, el actor bailó mientras decía “soy colombiano”. El video acumula más de 650.000 Me gusta en la plataforma.

La conexión de Anthony Hopkins con la cultura latina tiene nombre: Stella Arroyave, su esposa desde 2003. La mujer, quien nació en Popayán, emigró a Estados Unidos en su juventud con el sueño de ser actriz. Primero se radicó en Nueva York y luego en Los Ángeles, donde abrió un negocio de antigüedades y una galería de arte en Malibú, según recoge la revista Vanity Fair.

Precisamente, fue allí que conoció a Anthony Hopkins, con quien se casó para -como él mismo lo ha dicho- cambiar su vida. Uno de sus efectos inmediatos que tuvo la llegada de Stella a la vida del actor fue que lo ayudó a dejar de lado su adicción al alcohol, además, lo sumergió en la gastronomía y la cultura colombiana.

“Estoy casado con una mujer optimista a prueba de todo que es feliz desde que se levanta […]. Stella me enseñó a disfrutar de la vida. Y lo digo porque yo estuve a punto de matarme años atrás por culpa del alcohol. Estuve al borde del precipicio. Pero di un paso atrás y ahora sé que cada día que vivo es un regalo”, destacó Hopkins en una entrevista citada por Vanity Fair.

El actor más longevo en ganar un Óscar

Anthony Hopkins, de 84 años, es uno de los actores más reconocidos en la industria del cine. Ha protagonizado y participado en numerosas películas, como El silencio de los inocente, Hannibal, El padre, Crimen perfecto, ¿Conoces a Joe Black?, La máscara del zorro, e incluso en el universo cinematográfico de Marvel, donde interpretó a Odín en las películas de Thor. Desde clásicos del séptimo arte hasta éxitos comerciales, el galés es una de las figuras más respetadas en la gran pantalla.

En 2021, Hopkins se convirtió en la persona más longeva en ganar un premio Óscar a mejor actor -a sus 83 años-, por su participación en El padre. Su primera estatuilla la ganó en 1991, por su actuación en El silencio de los inocentes. En total, ha sido nominado a los premios de la Academia en seis ocasiones, llevándose el reconocimiento máximo en dos ocasiones.

En su colección de trofeos también figuran reconocimientos de los premios Globo de Oro, Bafta, Emmy, del Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, SAG, de la Crítica Cinematográfica, entre otros.

El actor más longevo en ganar un Óscar

En su colección de trofeos también figuran reconocimientos de los premios Globo de Oro, Bafta, Emmy, del Festival Internacional de San Sebastián, SAG, de la Crítica Cinematográfica, entre otros.

Lvi vstoupili do zápasu lépe a rychle odskočili na 5:1. Náskok ale dlouho neudrželi a ve druhé polovině úvodní sady se nedokázali prosadit v útoku. Ztratili ji 19:25.

Začátek druhého setu vypadal úplně stejně, domácí trenér Jiří Novák si opět vzal za stavu 1:5 oddechový čas. Karlovarsko znovu rychle srovnalo a v hostujícím týmu nizozemského univerzála Kaye van Dijka vystřídal Slovinec Matej Mihaljovič. Ten se na této pozici usadil a právě při jeho podání Lvi otočili ze 13:15 na 18:15. Set pak s přehledem dotáhli k výhře 25:22.

Foto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Adam Zajíček z Karlovarska, Luke Smith z Prahy, Patrik Indra z Karlovarska ve finále volebalové extraligaFoto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Třetí sada ale patřila znovu Karlovarsku, které tentokrát na začátku vedlo a pak při podání reprezentačního smečaře Lukáš Vašiny odskočilo do náskoku 16:10. Dvojnásobní čeští šampioni získali sadu v poměru 25:21 a ocitli se jeden set od vítězství.

Nástup do čtvrtého dějství ale znovu nezachytili a pražský klub si postupně vypracoval dokonce dvanáctibodový náskok (18:6). V závěru Západočeši zkorigovali stav, ale prohráli 17:25.

Tie-break byl nejvyrovnanější. Lvi byli blízko vedení 13:10, když Vašinova smeč letěla daleko do autu, ale videorozhodčí odhalil dotek sítě loktem jednoho z blokařů a stav se posunul na 11:12 z pohledu domácích. K mečbolům se prosadili jen hosté. Ten první za stavu 14:13 pokazil Aleksandar Nedeljkovič podáním do pásky, ale při posledních dvou výměnách se neprosadil nejproduktivnější hráč zápasu Indra. První smeč poslal do připraveného trojbloku, druhou do autu.

Foto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Volejbalisté Lva Praha (zleva) Jakub Janouch, Aleksander Nedeljkovic, Luke Smith ve finálovém duelu s Karlovarskem.Foto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Ambiciózní Lvi udělali první krok k tomu, aby po třiceti letech vrátili trofej do Prahy. “Byl to hrozně těžký zápas. Myslím, že nás to stálo spoustu sil. Byla tam trošičku nervozita u nás i u Varů. Pro nás hrozně důležité vítězství a jedeme do Prahy,” řekl České televizi trenér Tomáš Pomr. Jeho kolega Novák litoval špatných úvodů většiny setů. “Mě trošku mrzí ten výkon. Tři rozjeté začátky 1:5 je hrozně moc ve finále, stálo nás spoustu sil to dotahovat. Trošku nás trápil příjem,” uvedl.

Sérii o třetí místo lépe zahájily České Budějovice, které doma porazily Odolenu Vodu 3:0 po setech 25:21, 25:22 a 25:23. Jedenácti body k tomu přispěl Radek Mach, který po sezoně ukončí extraligovou kariéru. Vzhledem k tomu, že se série o bronz hraje na dva vítězné zápasy, tak možná dnes nastoupil naposledy na domácí palubovce jihočeského klubu, v němž strávil devatenáct sezon. “Už hrajeme trochu na morálku. Vyhraje ten, kdo najde víc sil. Mám osm titulů, ale kdybychom získali tenhle bronz, tak to pro mě bude jako zlatá medaile,” řekl blokař, který všech osm titulů získal s Českými Budějovicemi.

Jeho kvality ocenil i trenér soupeře Martin Kop. “Mach nás zase trápil celý zápas, patřil k nejlepším. Je to obdivuhodné, co dokázal, celá jeho kariéra byla skvělá,” uvedl. Také série o třetí místo bude pokračovat v sobotu.

Play off volejbalové extraligy mužů:
Finále – 1. zápas:
Karlovarsko – Lvi Praha 2:3 (19, -22, 21, -17, -14)
Rozhodčí: Krtička, Kvarda. Čas: 152 min. Diváci: 1172.
Karlovarsko: Vašina 10, Zajíček 6, Indra 32, Wiese 10, Patočka 9, Keemink 1, libero Pfeffer – Ihnát 7, Římal, Kočka. Trenér: Novák.
Lvi Praha: Nedeljkovič 12, Janouch 2, Smith 16, Todua 9, Van Dijk 2, T. Kriško 15, libero Moník – Pljaseckyj 1, McCarthy 4, Mihaljovič 16, Vodička. Trenér: Pomr.
O 3. místo – 1. zápas:
České Budějovice – Odolena Voda 3:0 (21, 22, 23).
Nejvíce bodů: Licek 12, Mach 11, Schouten 8 – Hladík 16, Ščadilov 13, Carmody 8.

Lvi vstoupili do zápasu lépe a rychle odskočili na 5:1. Náskok ale dlouho neudrželi a ve druhé polovině úvodní sady se nedokázali prosadit v útoku. Ztratili ji 19:25.

Foto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Adam Zajíček z Karlovarska, Luke Smith z Prahy, Patrik Indra z Karlovarska ve finále volebalové extraligaFoto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Nástup do čtvrtého dějství ale znovu nezachytili a pražský klub si postupně vypracoval dokonce dvanáctibodový náskok (18:6). V závěru Západočeši zkorigovali stav, ale prohráli 17:25.

Foto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Volejbalisté Lva Praha (zleva) Jakub Janouch, Aleksander Nedeljkovic, Luke Smith ve finálovém duelu s Karlovarskem.Foto: Slavomír Kubeš, ČTK

Play off volejbalové extraligy mužů:
Finále – 1. zápas:
Karlovarsko – Lvi Praha 2:3 (19, -22, 21, -17, -14)
Rozhodčí: Krtička, Kvarda. Čas: 152 min. Diváci: 1172.
Karlovarsko: Vašina 10, Zajíček 6, Indra 32, Wiese 10, Patočka 9, Keemink 1, libero Pfeffer – Ihnát 7, Římal, Kočka. Trenér: Novák.
Lvi Praha: Nedeljkovič 12, Janouch 2, Smith 16, Todua 9, Van Dijk 2, T. Kriško 15, libero Moník – Pljaseckyj 1, McCarthy 4, Mihaljovič 16, Vodička. Trenér: Pomr.
O 3. místo – 1. zápas:
České Budějovice – Odolena Voda 3:0 (21, 22, 23).
Nejvíce bodů: Licek 12, Mach 11, Schouten 8 – Hladík 16, Ščadilov 13, Carmody 8.

Journal Reference:

Teresa Menzel, Nora Meides, Anika Mauel, Ulrich Mansfeld, Winfried Kretschmer, Meike Kuhn, Eva M. Herzig, Volker Altstädt, Peter Strohriegl, Jürgen Senker, Holger Ruckdäschel. Degradation of low-density polyethylene to nanoplastic particles by accelerated weathering. Science of The Total Environment, 2022; 826: 154035 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154035

Polyethylene is a plastic that occurs in various molecular structures. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) is widely used for packaging everyday consumer goods, such as food, and is one of the most common polymers worldwide as a result of increasing demand. Until now, there have only been estimates as to how this widely used plastic degrades after it enters the environment as waste. A research team from the Collaborative Research Centre “Microplastics” at the University of Bayreuth has now systematically investigated this question for the first time. The scientists developed a novel, technically sophisticated experimental set-up for this purpose. This makes it possible to simulate two well-known and environmentally linked processes of plastic degradation independently in the laboratory: 1.) photo-oxidation, in which the long polyethylene chains gradually break down into smaller, more water-soluble molecules when exposed to light, and 2.) increasing fragmentation due to mechanical stress. On this basis, it was possible to gain detailed insights into the complex physical and chemical processes of LDPE degradation.

The final stage of LDPE degradation is of particular interest for studies addressing the potential impact of polyethylene on the environment. What the researchers discovered was that this degradation does not end with the decomposition of the packaging material released into the environment into many micro- and nanoplastic particles, which have a high degree of crystallinity. The reason is that these tiny particles have a strong tendency to aggregate: they attach rapidly to larger colloidal systems consisting of organic or inorganic molecules and are part of the material cycle in the environment. Examples of such colloidal systems include clay minerals, humic acids, polysaccharides, and biological particles from bacteria and fungi. “This process of aggregation prevents individual nanoparticles created by polyethylene degradation from being freely available in the environment and interacting with animals and plants. However, this is not an ‘all clear’ signal. Larger aggregates that participate in the material cycle in the environment and contain nanoplastics do often get ingested by living organisms. That is how nanoplastics can eventually enter the food chain,” says Teresa Menzel, one of the three lead authors of the new study and a doctoral researcher in the field of polymer materials.

To identify the degradation products formed when polyethylene decomposes, the researchers employed a method that has not been widely used in microplastics research: multi-cross-polarization in solid-state NMR spectroscopy. “This method even allows us to quantify the degradation products yielded by photooxidation,” says co-author Anika Mauel, a doctoral researcher in inorganic chemistry.

Bayreuth’s researchers have also discovered that the degradation and decomposition of polyethylene also leads to the formation of peroxides. “Peroxides have long been suspected of being cytotoxic, meaning they have a toxic effect on living cells. That is another way in which LDPE degradation poses a potential threat to natural ecosystems. These interrelationships need to be studied in more detail in the future,” adds co-author Nora Meides, a doctoral researcher in macromolecular chemistry.

The detailed analysis of the chemical and physical processes involved in the degradation of polyethylene would not have been possible without the interdisciplinary networking and coordinated use of state-of-the-art research technologies on the University of Bayreuth’s campus. In particular, these include scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), NMR spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC).

Journal Reference:

Teresa Menzel, Nora Meides, Anika Mauel, Ulrich Mansfeld, Winfried Kretschmer, Meike Kuhn, Eva M. Herzig, Volker Altstädt, Peter Strohriegl, Jürgen Senker, Holger Ruckdäschel. Degradation of low-density polyethylene to nanoplastic particles by accelerated weathering. Science of The Total Environment, 2022; 826: 154035 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154035

Journal Reference:

Changyong Guo, Di Wen, Yihong Zhang, Richie Mustaklem, Basil Mustaklem, Miou Zhou, Tao Ma, Yao-Ying Ma. Amyloid-β oligomers in the nucleus accumbens decrease motivation via insertion of calcium-permeable AMPA receptors. Molecular Psychiatry, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01459-0

The study, led by Yao-Ying Ma, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology, was recently featured in the publication Molecular Psychiatry. The team of researchers identified a receptor in the brain that leads to a loss of neurons and synaptic structure when used in an Alzheimer’s disease model.

The investigation focused on the nucleus accumbens, a critical brain region processing motivation. Located in the ventral striatum, this region is not studied much among Alzheimer’s disease researchers, Ma said; it’s mainly researched to understand motivational and emotional processes. Previous studies, Ma said, have shown that the volume of nucleus accumbens, like the cortical and hippocampal regions in the brain, is reduced in adults with Alzheimer’s disease.

Ma, who is relatively new to the field of Alzheimer’s disease research, has a background in drug addiction studies and synaptic communication — the process by which neurons talk to each other in the brain. Some of the neuropsychiatric symptoms among people who suffer from substance abuse — apathy, mood swings, anxiety — are also found in Alzheimer’s disease patients.

“Even before the onset of cognitive deficits, a significant number of Alzheimer’s patients start showing mood swings, and they have a greater chance to have symptoms of depression,” Ma said.

These neuropsychiatric symptoms, however, tend to occur earlier than memory loss, but no effective treatments are available, Ma said. She emphasized that there is an urgent need to understand why those symptoms exist and how they correlate with cognitive deficits. Ma said this study identified synaptic calcium permeable receptors (CP-AMPARs) in the nucleus accumbens in an Alzheimer’s disease model. The receptor, which is normally absent in that part of the brain, gives permission for calcium to enter the neurons. This leads to an overload of calcium, which leads to a breakdown of its synaptic structure. In turn, calcium accumulation triggers a cascade of intracellular changes that can be lethal to the neuron by amplifying calcium overload via a positive feedback mechanism.

This synaptic loss in the brain causes motivation deficits. Knowing this, Ma said that targeting these receptors in the brain and blocking them could prevent or delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease associated neuropsychiatric symptoms, and ultimately cognitive deficits.

“If we can postpone the pathological progression in one of the affected areas, like the nucleus accumbens,” Ma said, “that may delay pathological changes in other regions.”

Journal Reference:

Changyong Guo, Di Wen, Yihong Zhang, Richie Mustaklem, Basil Mustaklem, Miou Zhou, Tao Ma, Yao-Ying Ma. Amyloid-β oligomers in the nucleus accumbens decrease motivation via insertion of calcium-permeable AMPA receptors. Molecular Psychiatry, 2022; DOI: 10.1038/s41380-022-01459-0

“Even before the onset of cognitive deficits, a significant number of Alzheimer’s patients start showing mood swings, and they have a greater chance to have symptoms of depression,” Ma said.

“If we can postpone the pathological progression in one of the affected areas, like the nucleus accumbens,” Ma said, “that may delay pathological changes in other regions.”

Journal Reference:

Xiaofei Li, Hui Wang, Xiang Yu, Gundappa Saha, Lydia Kalafati, Charalampos Ioannidis, Ioannis Mitroulis, Mihai G. Netea, Triantafyllos Chavakis, George Hajishengallis. Maladaptive innate immune training of myelopoiesis links inflammatory comorbidities. Cell, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.043

In a new paper in Cell, researchers from the School of Dental Medicine, together with an international team including colleagues at the Technical University of Dresden, lay out the mechanism by which innate immune memory can cause one type of inflammatory condition — in this example, gum disease — to increase susceptibility to another — here, arthritis — through alterations to immune cell precursors in the bone marrow. In a mouse model, the team demonstrated that recipients of a bone marrow transplant were predisposed to more severe arthritis if their donor had inflammatory gum disease.

“Although we use periodontitis and arthritis as our model, our findings go above and beyond these examples,” says George Hajishengallis, a professor in Penn Dental Medicine and a corresponding author on the work. “This is in fact a central mechanism, a unifying principle underlying the association between a variety of comorbidities.”

The researchers note that this mechanism may also prompt a reconsideration of how bone marrow donors are selected, as donors with certain types of immune memory caused by underlying inflammatory conditions might put bone marrow transplant recipients at a higher risk of inflammatory disorders.

Basis in the bone marrow

In previous work, Hajishengallis had partnered with co-corresponding author Triantafyllos Chavakis of Technical University of Dresden and collaborators to explore the role of innate immune memory. Their findings showed that, just like the adaptive immune system’s T cells and B cells, the innate immune system’s myeloid cells, such as neutrophils and macrophages, could “remember” past encounters, becoming more responsive when exposed to a new threat. The work also pinpointed how this memory was encoded, tracing it to the bone marrow, and showed that this “trained immunity” could be transferred from one organism to another through a bone marrow transplant, protecting recipients from cancer through an innate immune response.

While that is good news, Hajishengallis and Chavakis also believed that trained immunity could be detrimental in the right contexts. While attending a meeting on innate immunity in Greece in 2019, the two scientists brainstormed over dinner at an outdoor tavern, jotting down their thoughts on a napkin. They later formalized some of their hypotheses about this potential “dark side” of trained immune in a publication in Nature Reviews Immunology in 2021.

“The thoughts went like this: We knew the gum disease periodontitis increased the risk of comorbidities like cardiovascular disease,” says Hajishengallis. “And the reverse is also true: People with the inflammatory disease colitis, for example, have an increased prevalence of periodontal disease. Different mechanisms have been proposed, but no one unifying mechanism could explain this bidirectionality.”

“We started thinking about a possible unifying mechanism that could underlie the association between several distinct comorbidities,” says Chavakis.

Building on their earlier discovery related to “trained” precursors in the bone marrow, the scientists set out to see whether they could trace the source of the association between comorbidities to the innate immune training they already knew was happening in the bone marrow.

Setting out to test this hypothesis, the team first showed that, within a week of inducing a mouse to have periodontal disease, the animal’s myeloid cells and their progenitor cells expanded in the bone marrow. Examining these cells weeks later, after periodontitis was intentionally resolved, the researchers did not notice significant changes in how the cells looked or behaved.

However, these progenitor cells appeared to have memorized the inflammation they were exposed to, as they harbored important epigenetic changes: alterations in molecular markers that affect the ways genes are turned on and off but do not alter the actual DNA sequence. The researchers found that these alterations, triggered by inflammation, could alter the manner in which the genes would be expressed after a future challenge. The overall pattern of epigenetic changes, the researchers noted, was associated with known signatures of the inflammatory response.

Mice with induced periodontal disease also had more severe responses to a later immune system challenge, evidence of trained immunity.

To put the whole picture together regarding the link between inflammatory conditions, the “critical experiment,” as Hajishengallis explains, was a bone marrow transplant. Mice that had periodontitis, a severe form of gum disease, served as donors, as did a group of healthy mice serving as controls. Two hundred stem cells from their bone marrow were transplanted into mice that had never had gum disease and which had had their own bone marrow irradiated. A few months later, these mice were exposed to collagen antibodies, which trigger arthritis.

“Mice that received the transplant from mice with periodontitis developed more severe arthritis than mice that received a donation of stem cells from periodontally healthy mice,” says Hajishengallis.

“And higher joint inflammation in recipient mice was due to inflammatory cells deriving from the periodontitis-trained stem cells,” says Chavakis.

Further experiments suggested that the signaling pathway governed by a receptor for the molecule IL-1 played a vital role in contributing to this inflammatory memory. Mice that lacked IL-1 receptor signaling could not generate the immune memory that made the recipient mice more susceptible to comorbidities, the researchers found.

The work has implications for bone marrow transplants in humans, a common course of therapy in addressing blood cancers.

“Of course, it’s a great thing if you find a matching donor for bone marrow transplantation,” says Hajishengallis. “But our findings suggest that it’s important for clinicians to keep in mind how the medical history of the donor is going to affect the health of the recipient.”

The work also underscores that blocking IL-1 receptor signaling could be an effective approach to mitigate against these knock-on effects of trained immunity.

“We’ve seen anti-IL-1 antibodies used in clinical trials for atherosclerosis with excellent results,” Hajishengallis says. “It could be that it was in part because it was blocking this maladaptive trained immunity.”

Follow-up projects are examining how other inflammatory conditions, may be linked with periodontal disease, a sign, the researchers say, of how crucial oral health is to overall health.

“I’m proud for the field of dentistry that this work, with significance to a wide range of medical conditions, began by investigating oral health,” Hajishengallis says.

George Hajishengallis is the Thomas W. Evans Centennial Professor in the Department of Basic and Translational Sciences in the University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine.

In addition to Hajishengallis and Chavakis, coauthors on the study were Penn Dental Medicine’s Xiaofei Li, Hui Wang, and Gundappa Saha; Xiang Yu of Penn’s Department of Biology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University; Technical University of Dresden’s Lydia Kalafati, Charalampos Ioannidis, and Ioannis Mitroulis; and Mihai G. Netea of Radboud University of Medical Center and the University of Bonn.

The study was supported in part by the National Institutes of Health (grants DE029436 and DE031206) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Journal Reference:

Xiaofei Li, Hui Wang, Xiang Yu, Gundappa Saha, Lydia Kalafati, Charalampos Ioannidis, Ioannis Mitroulis, Mihai G. Netea, Triantafyllos Chavakis, George Hajishengallis. Maladaptive innate immune training of myelopoiesis links inflammatory comorbidities. Cell, 2022; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.03.043