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In many social animal species individuals share child-rearing duties, but new research from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, finds that bonobo mothers go the extra step and actually take action to ensure their sons will become fathers. This way bonobo mothers increase their sons’ chance of fatherhood three-fold.
“This is the first time that we can show the impact of the mother’s presence on a very important male fitness trait, which is their fertility,” says Martin Surbeck, a primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. “We were surprised to see that the mothers have such a strong, direct influence on the number of grandchildren they get.”
Surbeck and his colleagues observed wild populations of bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as wild populations of chimpanzees in Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Uganda. They found that while both bonobo and chimpanzee mothers would advocate for their sons in male-on-male conflicts, bonobo moms went the extra mile to aid their sons’ copulation efforts. This involved protecting their sons’ mating attempts from other males and intervening in other male’s mating attempts.
The bonobo mothers were also able to use their rank in the bonobo’s matriarchal society to give their sons access to popular spots within social groups in the community and help them achieve higher male status — and therefore, better mating opportunities. The authors note that these interactions were rare in chimpanzee societies and did not have an effect on male fertility; in chimpanzees males hold dominant positions over females, making the actions of chimp mothers less influential than those of bonobo mothers.
Interestingly, bonobo moms did not extend similar help to their daughters, nor were there any observations of daughters receiving assistance in rearing their offspring. “In bonobo social systems, the daughters disperse from the native community and the sons stay,” Surbeck says. “And for the few daughters that stay in the community, which we don’t have many examples of, we don’t see them receiving much help from their mothers.”
Moving forward, Surbeck and his team would like to better understand the benefits these behaviors confer on bonobo mothers. Currently, they think that it allows for an indirect continuation of their genes. “These females have found a way to increase their reproductive success without having more offspring themselves,” he says, noting that the prolongation of the post-reproductive human female lifespan, as well as the early-age at which human women can no longer bare children, may have evolved from this indirect method of continuing their genetic line.
Surbeck acknowledges that gathering data on post-reproductive lifespans of females in chimp and bonobo communities will require a long-term, collaborative study, similar to this one. “Without the help and participation from all of the field sites where data was collected, these important interactions could have been overlooked,” he says. “Now as the director of a bonobo field site, I’m looking forward to further exploring this topic.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
From the toothpaste you squeeze on your brush first thing in the morning to the yogurt you slurp down to the fabric softener that keeps your pajamas cozy and soft, gels are ubiquitous in consumer products, foods, and in industrial applications, too.
However, until now, scientists have been unable to explain the microscopic structures within gels that impart their elasticity, or springiness, nor how those structures form. A team of scientists from the University of Delaware, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University and University of Michigan discovered that the elasticity of gels arises from the packing of clusters of particles in the gels, which the group dubbed locally glassy clusters.
This research, described in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, could help people engineer better materials and products at the microscale. This insight could help companies in the consumer products, biotechnology, and agriculture sectors and beyond.
Many companies formulate and sell gel products, and sometimes, the stiffness of gels changes as a result of instability. Eric Furst, professor and chair of UD’s Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and one of the paper’s corresponding authors, keeps an old bottle of fabric softener on a shelf in his office and uses it to demonstrate what happens when gels separate or “collapse.” The product is supposed to be easy to pour, but when it goes bad, it becomes gloppy and unappealing.
“Our results provide insight into how to engineer cluster size distribution to control stiffness, flow, and stability of gel materials,” said Furst.
The first author of the new paper is Kathryn A. Whitaker, who received a doctoral degree in chemical engineering from UD in 2015 and is now a senior research engineer at Dow in Midland, Michigan.
Investigating gels
Gels are semi-solid materials that flow like liquids but contain solid particles, too. When scientists examine these substances under a microscope, they see that the solid particles within gels form a network, like the structure of a building. To make the substance flow so that you can squeeze it or spread it thin, you need to break that structure. When this requires a lot of force, the substance is stiff and has a high elastic modulus. When less force is required, the substance flows easily and has a lower elastic modulus.
The research group led by Furst studied a gel made of particles of poly(methylmethacrylate) latex (PMMA), commonly known as acrylic, dispersed in a mixture of two colorless liquids, cyclohexane and cyclohexyl bromide. They found that this gel was composed of glassy clusters of particles connected to each other with weak areas in between. To understand how these clusters contributed to the gel’s properties, the team wanted to determine the boundaries where each cluster began and ended.
“This is like Facebook,” said Furst. “We were trying to figure out — who is connected locally to whom?”
Collaborator James W. Swan, assistant professor of chemical engineering at MIT, conducted simulations to explore the physics behind the clusters. He then applied graph theory, the mathematical study of graphs, to the simulation data to figure out which clusters connected to each other, identify the edges of each group and color-code the clusters. It was like defining the boundaries of intermingling friend groups.
Next, the researchers compared the simulation results to physical studies of the gels and confirmed that the connections and distributions matched their predictions. They determined that the way these locally glassy clusters pack together determines the material’s elastic modulus. The interconnected clusters act as rigid, load-bearing units within the gel.
“Until now, no one had seen and described how these clusters packed and how they affected elasticity,” said Furst. “We brought the puzzle together.”
The paper’s authors also include Zsigmond Varga, a process development engineer at ExxonMobil; Lilian C. Hsiao, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at North Carolina State University and Michael J. Solomon, a professor of chemical engineering and Dean and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Graduate Studies, Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan.
This paper was years in the making as the investigators followed up on lingering questions that bothered them and prompted them to keep working.
“This discovery was the result of the teamwork of the principal investigators, the experimental skills of our students, and the passion and tenacity we all brought as we worked through this problem,” said Furst.
Funding for this project came from the International Fine Particles Research Institute, the National Science Foundation, the American Chemical Society (ACS) Petroleum Research Fund.
The slender, rod-shaped Bacillus subtilis is one of the best-studied bacteria in the world, a go-to system for exploring and understanding how bacteria grow, replicate, and divide. One of its outstanding mysteries has been how it manages to keep its precise diameter while growing and and getting bigger end-to-end.
This week, a team led by Ethan Garner of Harvard University describes the opposing and balanced enzymatic actions that keep B. subtilis from bulging wide while it builds up its inner cell wall and elongates. The study, in Nature Microbiology, is a collaboration with microscopy developer Rudolf Oldenbourg of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL).
“I had been impressed by Rudolf’s work for many years and always hoped that I (or someone) would introduce polarization microscopy to bacterial cell biology,” Garner says. This paper was his opportunity.
With polarization microscopy, scientists can visualize the orientation of individual molecules in a live cell, and how that orientation may change over time. “Polarization microscopy was key to this project,” Garner says, giving his team essential and hard-to-obtain information on the orientation of material that B. subtilis adds to its cell wall as it grows.
“As I have been giving talks on this work, the bacterial community has been incredibly impressed by this [polarization microscopy] assay,” Garner says. “There are many other bacteria that people want to explore with it.”
Oldenbourg, a senior scientist at MBL, is happy to oblige. “We are standing ready to support the bacteria research community through the OpenPolScope Resource at MBL,” he says.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Marine Biological Laboratory. Original written by Diana Kenney. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Researchers used detailed images of the heart to look for signs of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
AI appears better than specialist doctors at diagnosing the disease from lung scans, say researchers.
Doctors might want to be more aggressive about treating children who swallow a button battery and appear to be out of danger, a preliminary study suggests.
The small, round batteries – found in everything from watches to remote controls to toys – have become an increasingly common cause of young children’s trips to the emergency room.
Possibly fatal
“Button batteries are everywhere,” said lead researcher Dr Racha Khalaf. “And they’re small and shiny, and attractive to kids.”
Whenever a child swallows a battery – or might have swallowed one – parents should get to the hospital right away.
The biggest worry is a battery stuck in the oesophagus, according to Khalaf, a paediatric gastroenterologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora.
When that happens, the battery can quickly burn through the tissue there and cause serious, or even fatal, damage. So doctors act right away, threading an endoscope down into the throat to remove the battery.
The situation is different if X-rays show the battery has moved into the stomach. If it’s not causing symptoms, guidelines say doctors can wait to see if the child passes it naturally.
But in the latest study, Khalaf’s team found that even in symptom-free children, button batteries that make it into the stomach can damage the lining there. That suggests doctors should consider removing them in those cases, too, the researchers said.
Erosive damage to stomach
The findings are based on records from 68 children treated at four paediatric hospitals between 2014 and 2018. All had an endoscopy procedure to retrieve a button battery from the stomach. Many had no symptoms when they arrived at the hospital.
Overall, Khalaf’s team found, 60% of the children showed some erosive damage to the stomach lining.
“We saw one major adverse event,” Khalaf said.
In that case, she explained, the battery created a hole in the child’s stomach because it sat there for so long. (Doctors estimated it had been there for nearly five days.)
But even in less-severe cases of stomach-lining erosion, Khalaf said, the concern is that the damage could progress: Doctors can’t know if or when the battery will pass.
Button batteries are a concern both because they can cause severe injury – and because of their ubiquity in home products, according to Dr Danielle Orsagh-Yentis, a paediatric gastroenterology fellow at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
A rise in ingestion of batteries
In a study published in the May issue of Pediatrics, Orsagh-Yentis and colleagues found that about 100 US children per day land in the ER after accidentally swallowing a foreign object. The rate is almost double what it was in the mid-1990s.
There was a rise in ingestion of batteries, specifically – and a button battery was to blame almost nine times out of 10.
The new findings, Orsagh-Yentis said, suggest that button batteries may cause stomach erosion more often than doctors think.
“The findings are interesting, and as clinicians we need to reflect on them,” said Orsagh-Yentis, who was not involved in the new research. “They underscore a need for vigilance in managing these cases.”
Never leave batteries lying around
However, she said, this type of study – a review of patient records – cannot prove that removing button batteries from the stomach rather than letting nature take its course actually improves kids’ outcomes.
In addition, any medical procedure has potential risks. Removing a battery via endoscope does carry a small risk of bleeding or perforation, Khalaf noted.
For parents, she said, the most important thing is to prevent these incidents in the first place: Always store battery packs in a safe place where kids can’t reach them. And when replacing a battery, dispose of the old one properly – never leave it lying around.
If your child does swallow a battery – or you think he or she has – get medical care right away, Khalaf stressed.
Khalaf was to present the findings at the annual Digestive Disease Week meeting, in San Diego. Studies presented at meetings are generally considered preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Image credit: iStock
NEXT ON HEALTH24X
A British woman with an extremely rare allergy to water has revealed the heartbreaking struggle of her day-to-day life.
Niah Selway from Sussex in England has such severe reactions that a single drop of water can cause an intense burning sensation across her body that lasts for hours.
The 21-year-old was diagnosed with aquagenic pruritus – a condition in which contact with water of any temperature causes intense itching, without any visible skin changes, according to Rare Diseases.
“I’m suffering in a really severe way, and no medication or treatment has had any substantial effect,” Niah said.
Even though Niah’s organs aren’t affected and she can still drink water, everything from her own tears to sweat can trigger an allergic reaction on her skin.
“It doesn’t matter where the water touches me. If a drop touches my arm the pain will spread to my back and torso, sometimes to my whole body.
“When I have a bath my whole body burns for hours on end.
“Over time I worked out a routine. Either way it’s painful but I’ve found ways to make it a little less traumatic.
“For instance, I don’t wash my hair in the bath anymore. I do it separately to feel less pain.
“There are so many things people don’t think about, such as sweat, urine and tears.
“Sometimes I’ll have a reaction on my body. I’ll start crying because of it and have one on my face too.
“It’s basically a disability because of the things I can no longer do.
“In the morning I get to the toilet and I’ll have an allergic reaction to the first thing I do.
“I also can’t do much exercise apart from yoga and walking because I can’t sweat, and on hot days I’ll have to be stuck in front of the fan.
“My day is working around my pain,” she said.
The young woman’s symptoms are so intense she’ll often fall asleep from exhaustion after a reaction.
Despite consulting numerous specialists for nearly four years, they’re yet to find the cause.
Niah, who experienced her first reactions at the age of five, said her condition worsened through puberty.
“Initially it would happen about every 10 showers.
“The doctors weren’t showing any concern for it, so I thought maybe I’m just not good at dealing with pain.
“Then in my teens it became every single shower or bath, and it got to the point where I wasn’t able to ignore it,” Niah said.
In 2018, Niah, who started a YouTube channel, came to the realisation that her illness wouldn’t allow her to lead a normal life.
She credits her strength to her parents, Bob and Antonia, and boyfriend Mark.
“I stopped focusing on what’s going to happen and try to make now as positive as it can be,” Niah said.
“My family have been amazing, even in little things, like doing the dishes.
“They just take all water-related responsibilities away from me, and they have adapted their lives around mine.
“I always worried when my condition got bad that my friends would leave me because I couldn’t do stuff with them, like going out and clubbing.
“But they’re amazing. They’re really understanding and make any effort to try and see me.”
Source: Magazine Features
Pictures: CATERS/WWW.MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA
More women are seeking surgery, possibly to get a body that looks good in trendy gym clothing, says surgeon.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a collective term that is used to describe a series of lung conditions such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis. COPD is categorised as an obstruction of the airflow that can’t be treated with an inhaler.
According to previous Health24 reports, the biggest risk factor for COPD is cigarette smoke. But not only smokers suffer the debilitating consequences of COPD. There are a number of factors that can increase a non-smoker’s risk of COPD:
1. Environmental factors
According to Professor JR Joubert, a pulmonologist from Stellenbosch, environmental risk factors such as smoke from coal and wood fires and exposure to dust, fumes and vapour play a big role in the development of COPD. The chronic inhalation of noxious particles and gas tends to stimulate inflammation of the lungs over a prolonged period of time, resulting in progressive damage to lung tissue.
Research published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), at least 15% of COPD cases result from conditions in the workplace where employees are exposed to noxious particles and gas. Workers are exposed to coal mine dust and crystalline silica especially in the mining and construction industries. Other industries linked to an increased risk of COPD included rubber, plastic and leather manufacturing, textile manufacturing and building services.
What you can do: Ensure that your workspace is properly ventilated. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that there should be proper containment between harmful substances and people. If you know that your workplace is hazardous, go for regular check-ups, and wear proper protective gear while working.
2. Secondhand smoke
Secondhand smoke exposure has been deemed a risk factor for a number of respiratory ailments, sinusitis and allergic rhinitis. Conclusions of studies researching the effect of secondhand smoke on COPD have been divided, some claiming that secondhand smoke does not increase the prevalence of COPD. However, the American Lung Association claims that there are an estimated 40 000 deaths related to secondhand smoke each year and that secondhand smoke can exacerbate respiratory problems.
What you can do: Encourage family members to quit smoking, don’t allow cigarette smoke inside confined indoor spaces and don’t sit in smoking areas in restaurants and bars. If you are a smoker yourself, be mindful about smoking around family members and friends, especially young children.
3. Previous respiratory illnesses
Having had respiratory illnesses such as asthma or bronchitis during childhood or as an adult can increase your risk for non-smoking related COPD. According to a study published in the journal Lung, COPD diagnosed by a physician occurred in an estimated 29% of the population with a history of asthma. The prevalence of COPD was higher in adults with active asthma, even if they were lifetime non-smokers.
What you can do: Keep a close eye on any new respiratory symptoms if you currently suffer from asthma. Keep your asthma symptoms in check and regularly go for medical checkups to rule out COPD.
4. HIV
There is evidence that shows that HIV, either on its own or along with secondary infections and tuberculosis, could increase the risk of COPD. This could be either due to repeated respiratory infections, the effect of the virus on lung tissue or the result of decreased immunity, but the exact cause needs to be investigated in more detail, says Prof Joubert.
What you can do: Get the appropriate healthcare to control secondary infections related to HIV.
5. Genetic factors
A deficiency in a protein made in the liver can cause up to 5% of COPD cases. This protein is called alpha-1 antitrypsin and the deficiency is caused by various genetic factors.
What you can do: Be aware of your family’s health history and check if there are any lung conditions, especially in those who are non-smokers.
6. Age
People over the age of 40 have a higher risk of COPD, and the risk increases as you get older. There is increasing evidence that the ageing process can cause lung abnormalities linked to COPD.
What you can do: Don’t ignore symptoms that might signal respiratory problems. Go to the doctor if you experience wheezing, coughing and shortness of breath.
Image credit: iStock
