Link

One small fragment to bind a protein, one leap for celiacs!

Posted on October 8, 2018 by | 1 comment

In cities such as our own, gluten-free products are becoming increasingly available throughout grocery stores and restaurants. With exception of the health-conscious members of society, who is the primary consumer of these products? One such group is the portion of the population affected by the disorder known as celiac disease.

Rather eating gluten-free for health benefits, celiacs depend on these foods daily to avoid painful illness. In the United States, researchers estimated a prevalence of 1 in 141 peoples affected by celiac disease. Among the people affected many had been undiagnosed leading the researchers to conclude that celiac disease is not as rare as believed in previous years.

What is celiac disease?

What is celiac disease? Celiac disease is a disorder that inhibits those affected from consuming foods with gluten-containing ingredients such as wheat, barley, and rye. Celiac disease harms the small intestine making it incapable of absorbing nutrients during the digestion process which leads to illness. Celiac disease means an abnormal self-defence response is triggered within the body when gluten is consumed causing damage to the small intestine. If celiac disease is left undetected or untreated, common adverse health effects associated include anaemia (iron deficiency caused by iron loss) and osteoporosis (reduced density of bone material that increases chance of fracture). For example, anaemia as an adverse health effect from celiac disease can result because anaemia can be caused by a Vitamin B12 and iron deficiency. Because Vitamin B12 and iron are absorbed in the small intestine, this poses a problem for celiacs whose small intestines are damaged, leading to anaemia that will cause fatigue, weakness, and additional categorical anaemic symptoms.

Figure 1. Image outlining the causes of celiac disease. Source: Kim Moss Electronic Publishing Services Inc. 

Figure 2. Simplified diagram outlining the pathway of inflammation (swelling) for celiac disease caused by gluten antigens (foreign substance that induces a reaction). Source: Nature Genetics

https://youtu.be/nXzBApAx5lY

Video: Celiac disease – causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and pathology. Osmosis YouTube channel.

Why is gluten triggering this disease and how is this discovery a leap forward for the celiac community?

Why is gluten causing these symptoms in people around North America? Gluten is composed of proteins called prolamins that are storage proteins (store key survival components for cells such as amino acids or metals). Prolamins are found in wheat, rye, barley, and corn which are common food ingredients. In a recent study conducted in Austria, a research team has discovered a method that provides the possibility of future treatments for celiac patients. The researchers utilized antibodies (proteins that neutralize invaders such as bacteria) to create fragments that bind and neutralize prolamins. Celiac disease currently requires a gluten-free diet that is expectedly followed religiously. The fragments created bind grains containing prolamin in everyday ingredients and has provided future studies the potential to revolutionize clinical treatments that improve quality of life. Discovered treatments can eventually be used to mask the prolamin, preventing it from being displayed to immune cells so an autoimmune response (self-immune response) is not triggered.

Before believing that you are affected by celiac disease, please be aware that irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and intolerances to foods such as dairy are similar in symptoms. No need to panic yet, but always be sure to check with a physician if you are experiencing symptoms! With the prevalence of celiac disease in the United States being 1 in 141 people, a treatment to reduce gluten sensitivity or inhibit it completely would improve many lives. The production of the antibody fragment that targets prolamin is a leap for the celiac community.

– Vanessa Niedzielski

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News, Uncategorized

Tagged , , , , , ,

How to develop critical thinking skills?

Posted on October 8, 2018 by | 1 comment

Source: New York City: NearSay

When a 13 year old by gives a speech that rivals that of an adult, he can be considered as a genius because it is unexpected for a child to think critically about serious issues. Is it really possible?

Source: MissionSelf

Growing up, people are told to develop their critical thinking skills. It is hard for one to understand how that can happen, especially not knowing how the brain works. However, research has shown that young adolescents are the ones that go through significant brain development and growth. This gives them greater cognitive development and thus, this stage is the beginning of critical thinking.

The prefrontal cortex is the main center in the brain that facilitates critical thinking. Its structure and location in the brain is shown in the figure below. It gives people the potential of consideration and voluntary control of emotional responses, thinking and behavior. Humans have the highest percentage volume of the prefrontal cortex compared to other animals, giving them a higher potential of critical thinking. It is the last part of the brain to mature rapidly changing between 8 and 16 years and continuing into the 20s. The networks in this area are stimulated during these ages, strongly influencing the development of socio-emotional control and high thinking skills, developing into adulthood.

Source: neuroscienceofdating

In the book Mind in the Making, Ellen Galinsky, PhD, gives an articulate revelation that it is important for parents to build on the emotional and social skills as well as intellectual competencies in children during their preschool years. This ensures that they grow up with full potential for their thinking skills to develop. At this stage, there is a lot of curiosity. Curiosity develops when there are new things and a child does not know or understand what these things entail. This is also the same for adolescents and adults. In the video below, Dr. Craig Childress gives a brief description of how critical thinking skills can be developed in children noting that it is important to improve communication with children as they grow.

YouTube Preview Image

Teachers play a significant role of facilitating thinking, opening the door to discourse using open-ended assignments, performance tasks and problem-solving opportunities, which can be used in the application of knowledge through creativity.

Therefore, it becomes important to develop critical thinking skills through the evaluation of evidence, learning the concept of cause and effect, separating fact from fiction and learning from personal experiences and other reliable resources. Experiments and tests can be made up and then hypotheses created and tested where a person can ask questions and evaluate the available information to come up with conclusions. This requires having critical thinking skills where the issue can possibly be identified.

Wenyu Zhao

References

Galinsky, Ellen. “Mind in the making.” National Association for the Education of Young Children: Washington, DC 124 (2010).

 

1 Comment

Posted in Science in the News

Tagged , , , ,

Science says that there is a direct correlation between hugs received and our mood at the end of the day.

Posted on October 8, 2018 by | 2 comments
Image result for hugs

A pure hug!

According to a study done at the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University and published on Wednesday, October 3rd 2018 in PLOS One, a simple hug can increase positive feelings and reduce negative ones on days when people experience emotional conflict.

While there are people who are not big on hugs, most people like receiving hugs from loved ones. For those of us who love receiving and/or giving hugs, we know they feel good and at times we look for any excuse to hug our loved ones. Furthermore, hugs make us feel like we are cared about, but at times we feel awkward and wonder if the other person enjoys, or even benefits, from our hugs. New research shows that hugs can cheer us up and possibly take the edge off of interpersonal conflicts.

The study looked at the social interactions of 404 adults over two weeks. They interviewed the participants by phone every night for two weeks to assess their daily interpersonal interactions. They asked participants about their social activities and partners, experiences of interpersonal conflict, and whether they had received a hug, and their mood that day.

Participants reported having fewer negative feelings and more positive ones on days they received hugs than on days they experienced conflict but not hugs. This trend was found to be true regardless of their gender, race, marital status, and age. It is important to note that women reported more hugs than men.

Previous research also suggests that physical touch (e.g. hugs) prompt positive changes such as the release of oxytocin, a mood-enhancing hormone, as well as a reduction in stress and boost in heart and brain activity.

Huggies

Companies, such as Huggies, use such research as their backbone for advertising their products. A 30 second Huggies commercial from 2015 uses research similar to Murphy’s to sell their product by mentioning the importance and benefits of hugging and how their diapers hug a baby’s body just like his/her mom’s. At the end of the advertisement, the link provided to viewers is “NoBabyUnhugged.ca”.

YouTube Preview Image

Over the past few decades, the importance of hugging and the benefits that one gets from hugging has become the new topic for researchers. Unlike some other research topics, hugs are something we can all relate to. Some of us use hugs as an excuse to get close to someone we like, others use hugs to greet friends and family, while others use it to comfort loved ones. Whatever the reason behind a hug is, we all do it and some of us enjoy them more than others.

It is important to note that Hugs aren’t only advertised by companies, there have been numerous TEDx talks on the benefits and power of hugging too.

Corresponding Videos:

YouTube Preview Image

Ted Talk: Livingston Garland discusses the Importance of Physicality and Restoring Relational Bridges.

YouTube Preview Image

Ted Talk: Tom Krieglstein believes that non-technological moments matter the most.

YouTube Preview Image

Ted Talk: Janet Courtney believes hugs can have the same effect as a magical rainbow.

2 Comments

Posted in Science in the News

A Decrease of 0.5°C Makes A Big Difference to the World

Posted on October 8, 2018 by | 1 comment

What is happening?

Video 1: Warnings From New Climate Change Report
Video Credit: CNN Youtube Channel (https://youtu.be/RvaCM1TNBBk)

Three years ago, 195 nations promised to restrain the emissions of greenhouse gas so that the global warming could be limited to 2°C. This year, however, scientists found that 2°C was absolutely not enough, and a target of 1.5°C should be settled.

According to the “New Climate Report” which was released on October 7th by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC), a decrease from 2 degrees to 1.5 degrees Celsius changes the world to a great extent. If the goal is achieved by 2100, there will be a significant decrease in heat, drought and sea level rise. Hopefully, there will be fewer loss of species. There are two reasons why scientists published this report: Warning policymakers and calling for a lower warming target.

 

Why is it important?

Video 2: Effects of Climate Change Across the Earth
Video Credit: VideoFromSpace Youtube Channel https://youtu.be/uo80xYqZBiw

The failure of achieving the goal suggested in the “New Climate Report” will affect our daily life. The knotty problem we are facing right now is the increasing number of disasters brought by extreme weather. For example, in February 2018, Vancouver experienced severe snowstorms which caused paralyzed traffic and huge economic loss of the city. These snowstorms occurred due to the La Nina Effect ­– The melting sea ice in the Arctic brought icy waters into the Pacific Ocean and forced the coastal areas to have colder winters than they were before. This also increases the overall sea level and is threatening the existence of island countries such as the Republic of Maldives. In addition, stronger and more intense hurricanes have been attacking the US in recent years. What will be worse, however, is that such climate changes will continue and the weather will become more and more extreme.

Figure 1: Effect of global warming on overall temperature: 1.5°C Versus 2°C
Source: Carbon Brief  

Figure 2: Effect of global warming on drought: 1.5°C Versus 2°C
Source: Carbon Brief 

 

How do we achieve the goal and what are the difficulties? 

It will take approximately 30 years to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases to zero and reach a balance (between emissions and reductions). Therefore, “negative emissions” which means carbon dioxide removal must be applied to reverse the greenhouse effect.

However, such a reversing process is not straightforward. According to Hausfather, the linear relationship between increasing temperature and carbon dioxide may break if people start removing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Therefore, the scientists from IPPC believed that people must take actions before the climate become even worse and published “Global Warming of 1.5°C” in the hope of changing policymakers’ minds to settle the target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C instead of 2°C.

 

Olivia Zhou

1 Comment

Posted in Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

Stress Not…

Posted on October 6, 2018 by | 1 comment

Nowadays, it is very common to hear phrases like “I’m stressed out ” or “I don’t know if I can handle the stress”. However, the prevalence of stress in our society should not be accepted due to the negative impact that stress can have on people’s health.

Stress  is an organism’s response to any environmental or physical factor that is perceived as threatening harm ,

Pathway for Cortisol release in response to stress. Source: Top 10 Home Remedies

where the body experiences biochemical changes such as the release of hormones to prepare the system to confront danger or avoid it . Although, some amount of stress can be expected in any healthy individual, prolonged  stress has become a damaging condition in modern environment.  

According to Statistics Canada, in 2014 about 73% of adults between 20 and 64-years-old suffer from some level of stress. These findings, are indicative of increasing stress levels that could have long-term consequences on people’s health.

Source: Canadian Community Health Survey, 2014.
In 2014, 23% of Canadians reported that most days were “quite a bit” or “extremely stressful”. Additionally, females were more likely to report that most days were “quite a bit” or “extremely stressful”

According to the review Human behaviour: A cooperative instinct , stress in small doses enables people to adapt faster to unexpected changes in environmental conditions. Likewise, the presence of danger triggers a response called “fight-or-flight” where the body defenses increases: adrenalin secretion increases, blood flow to the brain and muscles increases. Nevertheless, the experience of being overwhelmed and in constant stress causes damage to health, decrease in productivity and life quality. 

What is the link between stress and the immune system?

According to the article published by GM Lewitus and M Schwartz, cells from the immune and nervous system interact together during stress episodes to secrete memory cells that will help people cope with stress-situations in the future. In other words, this mechanism is used by your body to protect you from possible danger. 

What are the causes of stress? 

When encountering a stressful situation, cortisol is released, it maintains bodily functions consistent. However, when stress is present for an extended period of time, high levels of cortisol inhibit some immune responses causing more susceptibility to infections and does not control properly inflammatory responses.

What are the effects of stress?

Some of the effects include: problems with the digestive and reproductive systems, increase the risk of heart attack  and stroke. In addition, a review article shows that stress can even rewire the brain, leaving people more vulnerable to anxiety, depression, and other mental health problems.

 The skin condition know as psoriasis appears to be linked to constant stress periods rather than medication or diet reasons. Researchers suggest that psoriasis is caused by the regulation of cortisol becoming dysfunctional leading to poor control of inflammatory responses causing this condition.

Therefore, being aware of the negative consequences that stress has on people’s health, will allow to reduce its prevalence in society.  

Effects of stress on the body Source: Live Love Fruit.

Mariana Paspuel

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Directed Enzyme Evolution: A novel technique to speed up evolution and create specialized proteins

Posted on October 6, 2018 by | 1 comment

What would you think if I told you that it is possible to speed up millions of years of evolution in a test tube on the lab?

Well, this is exactly what three scientists independently achieved. The 2018 chemistry Nobel Prizes developed a crazy and revolutionary process called direct evolution. This process uses evolutionary concepts to produce novel proteins with the desired characteristics to be used in distinct fields such as the pharmaceutical industry, the production of renewable energy among others. The revolutionary idea of directed evolution was developed by Prof. Frances H. Arnold, Prof. George P. Smith, and the emeritus research leader Gregory P. Winter. 

Nobel Prize in Chemistry,2018 Nobel Prizes,Chemistry Nobel prize

                                                    Source: Hindustan Times.                                                            Frances H. Arnold, a professor of chemical engineering, was awarded half the Nobel prize for being the first person to use evolutionary techniques since 1996 to accelerate the production and modification of enzymes. Meanwhile, Prof. George P. Smith and Gregory P. Winter worked on using direct enzyme evolution to improve the synthesis of more efficient enzymes used in the pharmaceutical field.

But what is exactly is Directed Evolution?

                             “Life Evolution”                                Credit: GIPHY

Nature over the years has used evolution to create the diverse environment around us. Over the generations, nature has made sure that only the desired and competent genes pass the filter of natural selection. The individuals with the “strongest” characteristics thrive in the environment, leaving better fit  populations. Similarly, these principles were used by the pioneer scientists to accelerate evolutionary processes and replicate pathways in which enzymes are naturally selected.

“Humans have exploited the concept of Darwinian evolution for thousands of years with selective breeding,” said Stefan Lutz, the chairman of the chemistry department at Emory University. “Directed evolution takes this same principle and applies it to the lab.”

Directed evolution works by inducing repeated mutations on bacteria or viruses, creating mutated populations that give rise to the desired enzymes. In each turn of bred the chosen enzyme is artificially selected allowing it to be more specialized over time. Different methods are used to induce random mutations; methods such as  chemical mutagenesis, UV radiation, and DNA recombination. The novel part is the use of the called error-prone PCR, which induces random mutagenesis in the bacterial strains. This technique is well suited for this job because it allows the scientists to keep track of the number of genetic doubling events occurring. This unique process optimizes the use of mutations for evolving enzymes to an improved version of themselves with a more stable folding, solubility, and binding affinity. With this technique, the scientists have rendered enzymes 256 times more effective than before.

Graphic illustrating the work flow for the directed evolution of enzymes

                                     “Directed Enzyme Evolution Technique”                                       Source: Quanta Magazine

The magic of this technique is that directed evolution can be used  as an alternative pathway to solve questions related to life evolution, as well as to study different research areas related to industrial and pharmaceutical processes. The improvement of proteins is used in industrial processes to manufacture biocatalysts that are resistant to extreme temperatures and very harsh environments. Evolved enzymes can be also used as a sustainable way to accelerate chemical reactions for the production of drugs in a very cost-efficient way, and to maximize the production of  certain drugs. Surprisingly, scientists also hope this new technique will help generate new sources of renewable energy, by using the catalytic power of enzymes.

                              ” 3D Enzyme Structure”                                   Source: GIPHY

The discoveries from three inspiring scientists models paved the way for future scientists to use this technique to solve urgent global problems  such as the development of renewable energy sources.

Daniela Yanez

 

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

Tagged , , , ,

Image

Should I change my diet for the sake of the world?

My first impression about meatless Mondays 

It is hard to give up meat! Source: GIPHY

They were just normal Mondays at the Open Kitchen, the cafeteria of Orchard Commons Residence at UBC, but for me, they were the most unsatisfactory days during my first year at university. Mondays were the busiest days in my schedule and I used to get so hungry that all I wanted was a big hamburger. However, I got annoyed after reading a poster about the “meatless” Monday at Orchard Commons and found no hamburger or any meat-containing dish at all! Apparently, it was an alternative implemented to reduce meat consumption.

Should I go vegetarian?

Is it challenging to give up meat? Answer the questions in this flowchart to know if you can become a vegetarian! Source: Dining Out

Why should I care about meat?

Food security is a matter that concerns everybody. We are almost 7.4 billion people on Earth right now, but we will be 9 billion in 2050. According to a well-known paper in Science, the food supply will need to increase by 70% to 100% to feed this population.  The solution is not as simple as increasing the land for agriculture. The truth is that humans do not use the 100% of agricultural land exclusively to feed people, but roughly 36% of the total production is destined to feed livestock. Otherwise, this land would serve to feed 3.5 billion people more. Also, we gain fewer calories from the meat and milk we consumed than the number of calories we waste on feeding animals. We only get 3 calories from beef for every 100 calories of grain we feed on cattle.

Picture of corn piling up outside full silos in Brazil

“A bumper crop of corn piles up outside full silos in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state, which sends much of its grain to China and South Korea to feed their pigs and chickens. The demand for more crops to feed livestock is one reason experts say we’ll need to double crop production by 2050.” Source: National Geographic, May 2014 Issue

Is meat consumption increasing?

Meat consumption is increasing at an accelerated rate. The preference for pork and chicken has increased 4.5 times since the last 50 years, and an overall of 1.5-fold increase for all kind of meat. It is because of the change in the number of people who will eat meat. Economic prosperity has been observed to contribute the shifting from vegetables to meat. People with better income in countries such as China and India, that have a high rate of vegetarian population, will choose a richer diet, boosting the demand for cattle, pigs, and chicken.

The relative area of land occupied by agriculture and other human activities compared with the total Earth surface. Source: National Geographic, May 2014 Issue

Should I give up meat then?

If only Americans shift to a plant-based diet, 91 million cropland acres can be saved and 278 million metric ton of CO₂ would not end up in the atmosphere. Should I change my diet then? It is hard to give up beef. However, little steps can make the way we eat more sustainable. It is as simple as reducing the number of days you eat meat or buying chicken instead of beef. Why? Check this video or go to this link!

(Video: Why meat is the best worst thing in the world? We love meat, but we should make agriculture more sustainable.)

Mirkka Puente

4 Comments

Posted on October 6, 2018 by in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged , , , , ,

Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning: What Are the Relationships Between Them?

Posted on October 1, 2018 by | Leave a comment

If we search for news about Artificial intelligence (AI), a concept of a machine that can think and act like a human, we can find many pieces of relevant news which mention machine learning and deep learning as well. What are the relationships between machine learning, deep learning, and AI? This blog post addresses this question.

 

Artificial Intelligence: A machine with human intelligence

There are many definitions of AI, and it primarily refers to technologies which make a machine think and act like a human. Using AI applications in our daily life is normal and common: When you are at work, you can tell Siri, an AI voice assistant, to add an event to your calendar; when you return home, you can tell Amazon Echo to play music for you. However, there are still many limitations of AI applications which prevent AI applications from solving very complex problems. Machine learning is a method that humans can use to make AI capable of performing like a human.

 

Machine learning: A machine learns and acts based on data

Machine learning is the concept that a computer can learn from some given data and draw conclusions. A computer with human intelligence should be able to learn how to do something instead of being programmed to do so. The concept is simple, but how do we help a machine to learn? To answer this question, scientists have designed machine learning algorithms which allow machines to analyze data and find an optimized method to solve a problem. These algorithms include neural networks, decision tree learning, support vector machines, etc.

 

Deep learning: A neural network with deep layers

“Neural Network : basic scheme with legends” by fdecomite is licensed under CC BY 2.0

A neural network is the fundamental of deep learning. According to the graph above, there are some cells in a neural network. Each cell is a function that takes in some input data and produces an output. A neural network is a computation system that computes results by chaining a lot of cells together. In order to solve a complex problem efficiently, we want to divide this complex question into small questions, and solve each small question using a set of cells. Each cell set is known as a layer. Deep learning is the idea of designing different layers and organizing them into one large-scale neural network. There are many things we can do using deep learning; check out the video below for some examples.

YouTube Preview Image

Video: “Use Cases – Ep. 12 (Deep Learning SIMPLIFIED)” by DeepLearning.TV Source: youtube.com

Conclusion

Original drawing by Baihao Luo

To sum up, machine learning is a subset of AI while deep learning is a subset of machine learning. Machine learning is one of the methods to accomplish AI which enables a machine to learn and act on given data. Deep learning is an algorithm to help a machine learn from data using large-scale neural networks.

 

-Baihao Luo

Leave a comment

Posted in Science in the News

Tagged , , ,