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  • New From NAP 2012-12-11 12:21:06

    Final Book Now Available

    The theme of this international symposium is the promotion of greater sharing of scientific data for the benefit of research and broader development, particularly in the developing world. This is an extraordinarily important topic. Indeed, I have devoted much of my own career to matters related to the concept of openness. I had the opportunity to promote and help build the open courseware program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This program has made the teaching materials for all 2,000 subjects taught at MIT available on the Web for anyone, anywhere, to use anytime at no cost. In countries where basic broadband was not available, we shipped it in on hard drives and compact disks. Its impact has been worldwide, but it has surely had the greatest impact on the developing world. I am also a trustee of a nonprofit organization named Ithaca that operates Journal Storage (JSTOR) and other entities that make scholarly information available at very low cost.

    The culture of science has been international and open for centuries. Indeed, the scientific enterprise can only work when all information is open and accessible, because science works through critical analysis and replication of results. In recent years, as some scientific data, and especially technological data, have increased in economic value frequently has caused us to be far less open with information than business and free enterprise require us to be. Indeed, the worldwide shift to what is known as open innovation is strengthening every day.

    Finally, since the end of World War II, the realities of modern military conflict and now terrorism have led governments to restrict information through classification. This is important, but I believe that we classify far too much information. The last thing we need today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, is further arbitrary limitations on the free flow of scientific information, whether by policies established by governments and businesses, or by lack of information infrastructure. For all these reasons, the international sharing of scientific data is one of the topics of great interest here at the National Academies and has been the subject of many of our past reports. This is the primary reason why this symposium has been co-organized by the NRC’s Policy and Global Affairs Division—the Board on International Scientific Organizations (BISO) and the Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI). The Case for International Sharing of Scientific Data: A Focus on Developing Countries: Proceedings of a Symposium summarizes the symposium.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics:

  • Prostate cancer now detectable using imaging-guided biopsy, UCLA study shows

     
    Groundbreaking research by a team of UCLA physicians and engineers demonstrates that prostate cancer — long identifiable only through painful, hit-or-miss biopsies — can be diagnosed far more easily and accurately using a new image-guided, targeted biopsy procedure.
     
    Traditionally, prostate tumors have been found through so-called blind biopsies, in which tissue samples are taken systematically from the entire prostate in the hopes of locating a piece of tumor — a technique that dates back to the 1980s. But the cancer now appears detectable by direct sampling of tumor spots found using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, in combination with real-time ultrasound, the researchers say.
     
    The findings are published Dec. 10 in the early online edition of the Journal of Urology and are scheduled for print publication in the journal’s January issue.
     
    The UCLA study indicates that the MRI–ultrasound fusion biopsy, which is much more accurate than a conventional blind biopsy, may lead to a reduction in the number of prostate biopsies performed and could allow for the early detection of serious prostate cancers.   
     
    The study involved 171 men who were either undergoing active surveillance to monitor slow-growing prostate cancers or who, despite prior negative biopsies, had persistently elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), a protein produced by the prostate that can indicate the presence of cancer . The UCLA biopsies using the new technique were done in about 20 minutes in an outpatient clinic setting under local anesthesia.
     
    Nearly all of the 1 million prostate biopsies performed annually in the U.S. are triggered by elevations in PSA levels, and about 240,000 new cases of prostate cancer are discovered each year. Thus, about 75 percent of biopsies are negative for cancer. However, many men with negative biopsies but elevated PSA levels may still harbor malignant tumors — tumors missed by conventional biopsies, said the study’s senior author, Dr. Leonard S. Marks, a professor of urology and director of UCLA’s active surveillance program.
     
    “Early prostate cancer is difficult to image because of the limited contrast between normal and malignant tissues within the prostate,” Marks said. “Conventional biopsies are basically performed blindly because we can’t see what we’re aiming for. Now, with this new method, which fuses MRI and ultrasound, we have the potential to see the prostate cancer and aim for it in a much more refined and rational manner.”
     
    The new targeting process is the result of four years of work funded by the National Cancer Institute and based at the Clark Urology Center at UCLA. 
     
    Since the mid-1980s, prostate cancer has been diagnosed using trans-rectal ultrasound to sample the prostate. Unlike most other cancers, prostate cancer is the only major malignancy diagnosed without actually visualizing the tumor as a biopsy is done, Marks said.
     
    With the advent of sophisticated MRI, the ability to image the prostate improved and provided a picture of tumors within the organ. However, attempting to biopsy the prostate with the patient inside an MRI machine proved to be cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming. But with the development of the new MRI–ultrasound fusion process, the biopsy can now be performed in a clinic setting.
     
    In the study, the volunteers first underwent MRI to visualize the prostate and any lesions. That information was then fed into a device called the Artemis, which electronically fuses the MRI pictures with real-time, three-dimensional ultrasound, allowing the urologist to see the lesion during the biopsy.
     
    “With the Artemis, we have a virtual map of the suspicious areas placed directly onto the ultrasound image during the biopsy,” Marks said. “When you can see a lesion, you’ve got a major advantage of knowing what’s really going on in the prostate. The results have been very dramatic, and the rate of cancer detection in these targeted biopsies is very high. We’re finding a lot of tumors that hadn’t been found before using conventional biopsies.”
     
    Prostate cancer was found in 53 percent of 171 study volunteers. Of those tumors found using the fusion biopsy technique, 38 percent had a Gleason score of greater than seven, indicating an aggressive tumor and one more likely to spread than a tumor with lower scores. Once prostate cancer spreads, it’s much more difficult to treat, and survival decreases.
     
    Robert Meier, a 58-year-old high school art teacher from Visalia, Calif., enrolled in Marks’ study after three of his prostate biopsies came back negative for cancer despite his climbing PSA levels.
     
    In 2008, Meier tore his rotator cuff, and as part of his pre-surgery exam, blood tests were done. His PSA was at six — four or lower is considered normal. His doctor sent him to an urologist, who performed tests to rule out everything else that could be causing high PSA levels, including infection and an enlarged prostate. The doctor found nothing. Meanwhile Meier’s PSA climbed to eight.
     
    A biopsy was performed and was negative. Meier’s PSA jumped to nine, and yet another biopsy came back negative. When his PSA reached 11.7, another round of biopsies was ordered.
     
    “These biopsies can be extremely painful and I was put in the hospital several times so they could be done under general anesthesia,” Meier said. “It takes about a month to recover.”
     
    Like his PSA levels, Meier’s anxiety was also rising. If he didn’t have prostate cancer, why were his levels going up?
     
    After a second opinion in Santa Barbara and months of being tested and treated with a medicine designed to shrink his prostate and lower his PSA, Meier was referred to UCLA and Marks in 2011. By then, his PSA was nearly 18, up more than 10 points in three years. An MRI ultimately revealed a prostate lesion, and he underwent a biopsy using the Artemis device. He did have cancer, and it was aggressive.
     
    “Dr. Marks told me that I had a cancer that could spread and it needed to come out now,” Meier said. “He told me that at my relatively young age and the severity of the tumor, I had no choice.”
     
    Meier’s prostate and 24 nearby lymph nodes were removed robotically at UCLA in February by Dr. Arnold Chin, an assistant professor of urology. Follow-up tests show that Meier is cancer free today.
     
    “This program works,” Meier said. “I had jumped through all these hoops and had all these tests with two different doctors and they found nothing. It took UCLA to determine that I had an aggressive cancer that could have killed me. I feel like I was in very good hands at UCLA.”
     
    The UCLA study team included doctor–scientists from urology, radiology, pathology, the Center for Advanced Surgical and Interventional Technology (CASIT) and biomedical engineering.
     
    “Prostate lesions identified on MRI can be accurately targeted with MR-Ultrasound fusion biopsy in a clinic setting using local anesthesia,” the study states. “Biopsy findings correlate with the level of suspicion on MRI. Targeted prostate biopsy has the potential to improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer and may aid in the selection of patients for active surveillance and focal therapy.”
     
    The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute (RO1CA158627). The MRI and ultrasound fusion technology used in the study is described in this video.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • The Social Biology of Microbial Communities: Workshop Summary

    Cover imageBeginning with the germ theory of disease in the 19th century and extending through most of the 20th century, microbes were believed to live their lives as solitary, unicellular, disease-causing organisms . This perception stemmed from the focus of most investigators on organisms that could be grown in the laboratory as cellular monocultures, often dispersed in liquid, and under ambient conditions of temperature, lighting, and humidity. Most such inquiries were designed to identify microbial pathogens by satisfying Koch’s postulates.3 This pathogen-centric approach to the study of microorganisms produced a metaphorical “war” against these microbial invaders waged with antibiotic therapies, while simultaneously obscuring the dynamic relationships that exist among and between host organisms and their associated microorganisms—only a tiny fraction of which act as pathogens.

    Despite their obvious importance, very little is actually known about the processes and factors that influence the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities. Gaining this knowledge will require a seismic shift away from the study of individual microbes in isolation to inquiries into the nature of diverse and often complex microbial communities, the forces that shape them, and their relationships with other communities and organisms, including their multicellular hosts.

    On March 6 and 7, 2012, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop to explore the emerging science of the “social biology” of microbial communities. Workshop presentations and discussions embraced a wide spectrum of topics, experimental systems, and theoretical perspectives representative of the current, multifaceted exploration of the microbial frontier. Participants discussed ecological, evolutionary, and genetic factors contributing to the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities; how microbial communities adapt and respond to environmental stimuli; theoretical and experimental approaches to advance this nascent field; and potential applications of knowledge gained from the study of microbial communities for the improvement of human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health and toward a deeper understanding of microbial diversity and evolution. The Social Biology of Microbial Communities: Workshop Summary further explains the happenings of the workshop.

  • UCLA cancer scientists identify liposarcoma tumors that respond to chemotherapy

    Liposarcoma, the most common type of sarcoma, is an often lethal form of cancer that develops in fat cells. It is particularly deadly, in part, because the tumors are not consistently visible with positron emission tomography (PET) scans that use a common probe called FDG and because they frequently do not respond to chemotherapy.
     
    Now, using a strategy that tracks cancer cells’ consumption of nucleosides, a team of researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Center has identified a group of liposarcoma tumors that can be imaged by PET scanning using a tracer substance known as FAC. Furthermore, they have found that these tumors are sensitive to chemotherapy.
     
    The team’s findings are published online in the journal Cancer Discovery and will appear in an upcoming print edition.
     
    Led by Jonsson Cancer Center researcher Heather Christofk, an assistant professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA, the scientists employed a metabolomic strategy that detected nucleoside salvage activity in liposarcoma cells taken from patient samples, cells grown in the laboratory and cells grown in mouse models. The nucleoside activity was visible using PET with the UCLA-developed FAC probe (FAC PET), which measures the activity of the DNA salvage pathway, a fundamental cell biochemical pathway that acts as a sort of recycling mechanism to help with DNA replication and repair.
     
    FAC was created by slightly altering the molecular structure of the standard chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, and in the current study, the UCLA research team discovered that the liposarcoma cells with high nucleoside salvage activity were sensitive to gemcitabine chemotherapy.
     
    In clinical practice, this strategy might be used to identify liposarcoma patients, at the time of diagnosis, who would respond well to gemcitabine chemotherapy, saving time on other treatments and possibly extending the lives of this sub-group of patients.
     
    “It was a satisfying study because it has translational potential for liposarcoma patients now — and this is a deadly disease,” Christofk said. “Our metabolomic strategy is also generalizable to treatment strategies for other cancers, and that is something we hope to do.”
     
    The study was a collaboration between basic scientists and clinicians, following the translational paradigm of bench-to-bedside discoveries.
     
    “This was an outstanding transdisciplinary project between a diverse group of physician scientists and basic scientists that translates molecular oncology from the laboratory to the clinic in a rapid and clinically relevant manner,” said Dr. Fritz Eilber, an associate professor of surgery and of molecular and medical pharmacology at UCLA and an investigator on the study. “The findings from this work can be used to directly impact the care of patients with this morbid and lethal malignancy.”
     
    The research was supported in part by NIH grant P50CA0863062. Christofk is a Damon Runyon–Rachleff Innovation awardee, supported in part by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Searle Scholars Program, the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (DP2 OD008454-01) and the Caltech/UCLA Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center (NCI U54 CA151819).
     
    UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has more than 240 researchers and clinicians engaged in disease research, prevention, detection, control, treatment and education. One of the nation’s largest comprehensive cancer centers, the Jonsson Center is dedicated to promoting research and translating basic science into leading-edge clinical studies. In July 2012, the Jonsson Cancer Center was once again named among the nation’s top 10 cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for 12 of the last 13 years.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • New From NAP 2012-12-10 08:45:01

    Final Book Now Available

    Beginning with the germ theory of disease in the 19th century and extending through most of the 20th century, microbes were believed to live their lives as solitary, unicellular, disease-causing organisms . This perception stemmed from the focus of most investigators on organisms that could be grown in the laboratory as cellular monocultures, often dispersed in liquid, and under ambient conditions of temperature, lighting, and humidity. Most such inquiries were designed to identify microbial pathogens by satisfying Koch’s postulates.3 This pathogen-centric approach to the study of microorganisms produced a metaphorical “war” against these microbial invaders waged with antibiotic therapies, while simultaneously obscuring the dynamic relationships that exist among and between host organisms and their associated microorganisms—only a tiny fraction of which act as pathogens.

    Despite their obvious importance, very little is actually known about the processes and factors that influence the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities. Gaining this knowledge will require a seismic shift away from the study of individual microbes in isolation to inquiries into the nature of diverse and often complex microbial communities, the forces that shape them, and their relationships with other communities and organisms, including their multicellular hosts.

    On March 6 and 7, 2012, the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM’s) Forum on Microbial Threats hosted a public workshop to explore the emerging science of the “social biology” of microbial communities. Workshop presentations and discussions embraced a wide spectrum of topics, experimental systems, and theoretical perspectives representative of the current, multifaceted exploration of the microbial frontier. Participants discussed ecological, evolutionary, and genetic factors contributing to the assembly, function, and stability of microbial communities; how microbial communities adapt and respond to environmental stimuli; theoretical and experimental approaches to advance this nascent field; and potential applications of knowledge gained from the study of microbial communities for the improvement of human, animal, plant, and ecosystem health and toward a deeper understanding of microbial diversity and evolution. The Social Biology of Microbial Communities: Workshop Summary further explains the happenings of the workshop.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: |

  • New From NAP 2012-12-10 00:00:00

    Final Book Now Available

    The United States is in the midst of a major demographic shift. In the coming decades, people aged 65 and over will make up an increasingly large percentage of the population: The ratio of people aged 65+ to people aged 20-64 will rise by 80%. This shift is happening for two reasons: people are living longer, and many couples are choosing to have fewer children and to have those children somewhat later in life. The resulting demographic shift will present the nation with economic challenges, both to absorb the costs and to leverage the benefits of an aging population.

    Aging and the Macroeconomy: Long-Term Implications of an Older Population presents the fundamental factors driving the aging of the U.S. population, as well as its societal implications and likely long-term macroeconomic effects in a global context. The report finds that, while population aging does not pose an insurmountable challenge to the nation, it is imperative that sensible policies are implemented soon to allow companies and households to respond. It offers four practical approaches for preparing resources to support the future consumption of households and for adapting to the new economic landscape.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Behavioral and Social Sciences | Health and Medicine | Industry and Labor

  • Latest Updates for BlackBerry

    What’s new in version 1.6.5 of WordPress for BlackBerry?

    • Fixed an issue where stats couldn’t be loaded on some Jetpack sites.
    • The app now remembers the previously opened blog.
    • Removed the support for the AtomPub protocol since it will be removed in WordPress 3.5.
    • Performance and reliability improvements.

    We also added a small patch for the picture uploading issue that some users are still experiencing on WordPress.com.

    Version 2.2.4 of WordPress for PlayBook is available for download on the RIM AppWorld.

    What’s new in version 2.2.4:

    • Thai language support.
    • Fix for loading all pages.
    • Post title added when viewing a comment.
    • Images now link to themselves to better support image lightbox plugins.
    • Fix for duplicate image uploads.
    • Support for BlackBerry 10 Devices.

    We’ve also released the binary package for the new BB10 devices. If you own one of these prototypes, let us know what do you think about the app!

  • UCLA doctors remove man’s heart, replace it with total artificial heart

    Imagine living without a heart. It is possible — if you have a new artificial heart pumping blood through your body. You can even go to the supermarket, watch your kid’s soccer game or go on a hike.
     
    Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center has performed its first procedure to remove a patient’s diseased heart and replace it with a SynCardia Temporary Total Artificial Heart. 
     
    Chad Washington, 35, underwent the seven-hour transplant surgery at UCLA on Oct. 29, led by Dr. Murray Kwon, an assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery. 
     
    The temporary pump will act as a “bridge” until Washington receives a new donor heart.
     
    “Historically, patients with a total artificial heart had to remain hospitalized while they waited for a transplant because they were tethered to a large machine to power the device,” Kwon said. “Today, however, this device can be powered by advanced technology small enough to fit in a backpack.”
     
    “It sounds like a loud grandfather clock going ‘tick-tock’ in my chest, but it doesn’t feel foreign. It’s there to help,” Washington said of the artificial heart. “I’m so glad to be living in an age where technology is moving so fast.”
     
    Washington, an aspiring chef is who is married and has a 4-year-old son, has suffered from heart disease since he was born. From the time he was 10 days old through adulthood, he underwent a series of heart-repair surgeries and had pacemakers and a defibrillator implanted. 
     
    Then his heart deteriorated. He received a heart transplant in February of this year, and for the first time in his life, he knew what it was like to live with a healthy heart. It gave him energy, and he was amazed that he could run 25 minutes on a treadmill.
     
    Unfortunately, after six months of functioning perfectly well, the donor heart started showing signs of a serious form of rejection that did not respond to therapy. Washington’s condition worsened. An immediate re-transplantation with a new donor heart was not an option because his body had built up antibodies that would likely attack a new heart.
     
    Thankfully, the artificial heart offered hope.
     
    “By removing the patient’s diseased donor heart, we removed the source of his end-stage heart failure,” said Dr. Ali Nsair, an assistant professor of cardiology at UCLA. “The total artificial heart — and being off immunosuppressant medications — allows his body to recover and get ready for a heart transplant in a few months.”
     
    Dr. Mario Deng, a professor of cardiology and medical director of the UCLA Advanced Heart Failure/Mechanical Support/Heart Transplant Program added that since the pump’s energy source is portable, Washington can go home and resume normal activities with his family while he waits for a new heart.
     
    “This ability to be at home with family is an important element in helping the patient to maintain a positive outlook during the waiting period,” Deng said.
     
    Approved by the Federal Drug Administration in 2004, the SynCardia Total Artificial Heart replaces both failing heart ventricles and the four heart valves. It works by providing a high volume of blood-flow through both ventricles, which helps to speed the recovery of vital organs and make the patient a better candidate for transplant surgery. 
     
    Once the total artificial heart is implanted, it is connected by two small air tubes known as “drivelines” to a large external driver that powers the heart while the patient remains hospitalized. When the patient’s condition stabilizes post-operatively, he or she can be switched over to the smaller 13.5-pound Freedom portable driver, which can be carried in a backpack, thus giving the patient the freedom to leave the hospital. 
     
    “This technology offers a lifeline for patients who are in severe heart failure and dying,” said Dr. Richard J. Shemin, professor and chair of cardiothoracic surgery at UCLA and surgical director of the UCLA Mechanical Circulatory Support Program. “These patients have run out of medical options and require a heart transplant. The total artificial heart offers advantages over other devices used for mechanical support of patients awaiting a heart transplant. With the new Freedom driver for powering the device, the patients can leave the hospital, live at home and undergo rehabilitation, improving their clinical condition and quality of life as they await their transplant.”
     
    While at home, Washington will follow an exercise and nutrition plan tailored to help him build up strength and improve his health in anticipation of receiving a second donor heart.
     
    “My family and I are so thankful for all of the support we’ve been getting from the doctors and staff here at the hospital, as well as our family and friends,” Washington said.
     
    Originally used as a permanent replacement heart, SynCardia’s Total Artificial Heart is currently approved as a bridge to transplant for people dying from end-stage biventricular heart failure. There have been more than 1,000 implants of the Total Artificial Heart worldwide, accounting for more than 270 patient-years of life. The wearable driver is currently undergoing an U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved investigational device exemption clinical study. For more information, visit www.syncardia.com.
     
    The UCLA Mechanical Circulatory Support Program, directed by Dr. Richard Shemin, professor and chief of cardiothoracic surgery at UCLA, and Dr. Mario Deng, professor of cardiology and medical director of the advanced heart failure/mechanical support/heart transplant program, began in the early 1990s. Its primary mission is to provide cardiac support devices to patients while they await heart transplantation and to serve the rapidly growing heart failure population requiring lifetime mechanical circulatory support. For more information on the mechanical circulatory program and the heart transplant program at UCLA, visit http://transplants.ucla.edu/mcs.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter. 

  • The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine: Science, Governance, and the Pursuit of Cures

    Cover imageThe California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was created in 2005 by The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act (Proposition 71) to distribute $3 billion in state funds for stem cell research. The passage of Proposition 71 by the voters of California occurred at a time when federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells was uncertain, given the ethical questions raised by such research. During its initial period of operations, CIRM has successfully and thoughtfully provided more than $1.3 billion in awards to 59 California institutions, consistent with its stated mission.

    As it transitions to a broadened portfolio of grants to stimulate progress toward its translational goals, the Institute should obtain cohesive, longitudinal, and integrated advice; restructure its grant application review process; and enhance industry epresentation in aspects of its operations. CIRM’s unique governance structure, while seful in its initial stages, might diminish its effectiveness moving forward. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine: Science, Governance, and the Pursuit of Cures recommends specific steps to enhance CIRM’s organization and management, as well as its scientific policies and processes, as it transitions to the critical next stages of its research and development program.

  • New Research Underscores Vulnerability of Wildlife in Low-Lying Hawaiian Islands

    HONOLULU, Hawaii — If current climate change trends continue, rising sea levels may inundate low-lying islands across the globe, placing island biodiversity at risk. A new U.S. Geological Survey scientific publication describes the first combined simulations of the effects of sea-level rise and wave action in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, offering the most detailed and multifaceted assessment available of how island biodiversity may be affected by climate change.

    The publication, “Predicting Sea-Level Rise Vulnerability of Terrestrial Habitat and Wildlife of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,” by Michelle H. Reynolds, Paul Berkowitz, Karen N. Courtot, Crystal M. Krause, Jamie Carter, and Curt Storlazzi is available online. 

    Recent models predict a rise of approximately 1 meter in global sea level by 2100, with larger increases possible in parts of the Pacific Ocean. The Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI), which extend 1,930 kilometers beyond the main Hawaiian Islands, are a World Heritage Site and part of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. These islands – comprising the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, and Kure Atoll State Wildlife Sanctuary – support the largest tropical seabird rookery in the world, providing breeding habitat for 21 species of seabirds, four endemic land bird species and essential foraging, breeding or haul-out habitat for many other resident and migratory wildlife species. 

    “These magnificent seabirds spend the majority of their adult lives at sea: soaring vast distances over open water searching for food in an over-fished ocean. The one thing they cannot do at sea is reproduce,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “And now their breeding ground is in peril.”

    The USGS team led by biologist Michelle H. Reynolds of the USGS Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center modeled what is known as passive sea-level rise (excluding wave-driven effects such as wave flooding and erosion) for islands in this biologically important region. General climate models that predict a temperature rise of 1.8–2.6 degrees Celsius and an annual decrease in rainfall of 24.7–76.3 millimeters by 2100 were applied across the study area.  For the most biologically diverse low-lying island of Laysan, dynamic wave-driven effects on habitat and wildlife populations were modeled for a range of sea-level rise scenarios.

    After collecting new high-resolution topographic data in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency, the researchers modeled sea-level rise inundation, habitat loss, and calculated wildlife vulnerability. Given a passive sea-level rise of 1 meter, they found, about 4 percent of the land mass of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands will be lost. If sea level rises 2 meters, 26 percent of the land mass will be lost. On Laysan Island, within the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, impacts from storm waves as well as groundwater rise were found to greatly amplify the effects of sea-level rise: from 4.6 percent to 17.2 percent inundation in the 2-meter scenario, for instance. Thus habitat loss would be most dramatic in the wave-exposed coastal habitats and most devastating to species with global breeding distributions primarily on the low-lying Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, such as the Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes), Laysan Albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis), Bonin Petrel (Pterodroma hypoleuca), Gray-backed Tern (Onychoprion lunatus), Laysan Teal (Anas laysanensis), Laysan Finch (Telespiza cantans), and Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi).

    This publication may be a useful tool and a starting place for developing climate change mitigation/adaptation plans as well as future scientific studies for this important region.

    caption is available below
    Overlay of Masked Booby and Brown Booby nests mapped on Laysan Island, Hawaii, in 2009, with combined inundation from passive sea level rise, wave driven water levels and rising groundwater. From USGS Open File Report 2012-1182, “Predicting Sea-Level Rise Vulnerability of Terrestrial Habitat and Wildlife of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands,” by Michelle H. Reynolds et al. (High resolution image)

  • New From NAP 2012-12-06 13:15:01

    Prepublication Now Available

    The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) was created in 2005 by The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act (Proposition 71) to distribute $3 billion in state funds for stem cell research. The passage of Proposition 71 by the voters of California occurred at a time when federal funding for research involving human embryonic stem cells was uncertain, given the ethical questions raised by such research. During its initial period of operations, CIRM has successfully and thoughtfully provided more than $1.3 billion in awards to 59 California institutions, consistent with its stated mission.

    As it transitions to a broadened portfolio of grants to stimulate progress toward its translational goals, the Institute should obtain cohesive, longitudinal, and integrated advice; restructure its grant application review process; and enhance industry epresentation in aspects of its operations. CIRM’s unique governance structure, while seful in its initial stages, might diminish its effectiveness moving forward. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine: Science, Governance, and the Pursuit of Cures recommends specific steps to enhance CIRM’s organization and management, as well as its scientific policies and processes, as it transitions to the critical next stages of its research and development program.

    [Read the full report]

    Topics: Health and Medicine

  • Materials and Manufacturing Capabilities for Sustaining Defense Systems: Summary of a Workshop

    Cover imageThe Standing Committee on Defense Materials Manufacturing and Infrastructure (DMMI) conducted a workshop on July 23-24, 2012, to share information and gather perspectives on issues concerning Materials and Manufacturing Capabilities for Sustaining Defense Systems. This workshop, held at the headquarters building of the National Academies, 2101 Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington D.C., was conducted according to the procedures of the National Research Council (NRC) for a convening activity. That is, all workshop participants—including presenters, members of the DMMI standing committee, Reliance 21, invited guests, and visitors—spoke as individuals, and no overall findings, conclusions, or recommendations were developed during or as a result of the workshop. All statements and views summarized in this publication are attributable only to those individuals who expressed them. It is worth noting that the sponsor, Reliance 21, is a Department of Defense group of professionals that was established to enable the DOD science and technology (S&T) community to work together to enhance Defense S&T programs, eliminate unwarranted duplication, and strengthen cooperation among the military services and other DOD agencies.

    The DMMI standing committee named a workshop planning group to develop the workshop agenda and decide on invited guests and presenters, in accordance with the statement of task approved by the Governing Board of the NRC. The planning group also consulted with the Reliance 21 materials and processing community of interest.

    The presentations and discussions during the workshop are summarized sequentially in the main part of this report. As an aid to readers, nine themes have been identified by the author that recurred in multiple presentations and discussions. Materials and Manufacturing Capabilities for Sustaining Defense Systems: Summary of a Workshop explains these nine themes and summarizes the two day workshop.

  • Interior Releases Study of Carbon Storage and Sequestration in Western Ecosystems as Part of National Assessment

    Natural carbon storage by forests, grasslands, wetlands helps counter effects of nation’s carbon emissions; Study finds western U.S. sequesters nearly one and half times as much carbon as Great Plains

    WASHINGTON, DC—Forests, grasslands and shrublands and other ecosystems in the West sequester nearly 100 million tons (90.9 million metric tons) of carbon each year, according to a Department of the Interior report released today.

  • New From NAP 2012-12-05 08:45:01

    Prepublication Now Available

    The Standing Committee on Defense Materials Manufacturing and Infrastructure (DMMI) conducted a workshop on July 23-24, 2012, to share information and gather perspectives on issues concerning Materials and Manufacturing Capabilities for Sustaining Defense Systems. This workshop, held at the headquarters building of the National Academies, 2101 Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington D.C., was conducted according to the procedures of the National Research Council (NRC) for a convening activity. That is, all workshop participants—including presenters, members of the DMMI standing committee, Reliance 21, invited guests, and visitors—spoke as individuals, and no overall findings, conclusions, or recommendations were developed during or as a result of the workshop. All statements and views summarized in this publication are attributable only to those individuals who expressed them. It is worth noting that the sponsor, Reliance 21, is a Department of Defense group of professionals that was established to enable the DOD science and technology (S&T) community to work together to enhance Defense S&T programs, eliminate unwarranted duplication, and strengthen cooperation among the military services and other DOD agencies.

    The DMMI standing committee named a workshop planning group to develop the workshop agenda and decide on invited guests and presenters, in accordance with the statement of task approved by the Governing Board of the NRC. The planning group also consulted with the Reliance 21 materials and processing community of interest.

    The presentations and discussions during the workshop are summarized sequentially in the main part of this report. As an aid to readers, nine themes have been identified by the author that recurred in multiple presentations and discussions. Materials and Manufacturing Capabilities for Sustaining Defense Systems: Summary of a Workshop explains these nine themes and summarizes the two day workshop.

    [Read the full report]

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  • Combination therapy with experimental drug improves outlook for breast cancer patients

    A combination therapy using an experimental new drug shows significant promise for women with a common type of breast cancer in which estrogen causes their tumors to grow, researchers with the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center report.
     
    The treatment, which incorporates the standard anti-estrogen therapy letrozole and the experimental drug PD 0332991, developed by pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc., was found to increase progression-free survival time — the length of time a patient is on treatment without tumor growth — in women with estrogen receptor–positive, HER2-negative cancer, compared with letrozole alone.
     
    The results of a two-part, phase 2 clinical trial testing the new combination therapy were announced Dec. 5 at the 2012 CTRC–AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium in San Antonio, Texas, by Dr. Richard S. Finn, an associate professor of medicine at UCLA and a member of the Jonsson Cancer Center, who led the trial.
     
    The clinical study built on pre-clinical work from the Translational Oncology Research Laboratory directed by Dr. Dennis Slamon, a professor of medicine at the Jonsson Cancer Center and director of the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program.
     
    For the first part of the study, in which 66 patients were enrolled, preliminary results showed significant improvement in median progression-free survival for individuals who were given the new drug combination. The second part of the study enrolled 99 more patients — but only those whose tumors revealed selected biomarkers known as CCND1 amplification and p16 loss.
     
    Retrospective analysis from Part 1 of the suggested there was a clinical benefit from PD 0332991 regardless of the women’s biomarker status. All the other demographic features of the patients were similar, so for final trial analysis, the results of the study’s two parts were combined for presentation at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
     
    The researchers’ analysis showed that the median progression-free survival time for patients on the combination therapy was 26.1 months, compared with 7.5 months for those on letrozole alone. Of the patients with measurable disease, 45 percent of those given the combination treatment had confirmed responses, compared with 31 percent on letrozole alone.
     
    And the clinical benefit rates — tumor shrinkage and/or stable disease for a minimum of six months — were 70 percent with the combination therapy and 44 percent with only letrozole, the researchers report.
     
    “This drug combination demonstrated a dramatic and clinically meaningful effect on progression-free survival in women with estrogen receptor–positive breast cancer,” said Finn. “These results confirm the pre-clinical work we began at the Translational Oncology Research Laboratory.”
     
    Finn and his colleagues published their initial pre-clinical data in 2009, which showed that PD 0332991 blocked two important proteins in cancer cells — cyclin D kinase 4 (CDK 4) and cyclin D kinase 6 (CDK 6) — thus prohibiting the growth of estrogen receptor–positive and HER2-amplified cancer cells in the lab.
     
    With the goal of identifying important targets for cancer therapy in the lab and promptly developing them into patient treatments using the translational paradigm, the investigators then conducted a phase 1 clinical trial in collaboration with Pfizer in which the safety of the drug was tested.
     
    The results of that trial confirmed the safety of PD 0332991, which was taken as a pill and was found to have manageable side effects. This prompted the phase 2 trial comparing the combination of PD 0332991 and letrozole to the standard treatment of letrozole alone.
     
    Critical to the clinical studies were the synergistic interactions observed in the laboratory between PD 0332991 and standard breast cancer drugs tamoxifen and trastuzumab, which are used in treating estrogen receptor–positive and HER2-positive breast cancers, respectively.
     
    “The results of this phase 2 study validate the Translational Oncology Research Laboratory approach,” said Slamon, the study’s senior author.
     
    “By identifying these targets for treatment, we move forward with personalized oncology that greatly improves the chances for this group of patients,” Slamon added. “These results are as exciting as the initial results we saw for trastuzumab (Herceptin) in HER2-positive breast cancers but represent a new approach for a different and larger subset of breast cancers – those that are estrogen receptor–positive.”
     
    The core laboratory research for this project was funded primarily through the Revlon/UCLA Women’s Cancer Research Program and the longtime philanthropic support of Ronald O. Perelman. Additional resources were provided by a U.S.  Department of Defense Innovator Award (W81XWH-05-1-0395) and the Noreen Frazier Foundation. The clinical trial itself was supported entirely by Pfizer Inc.
     
     UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center has more than 240 researchers and clinicians engaged in disease research, prevention, detection, control, treatment and education. One of the nation’s largest comprehensive cancer centers, the Jonsson Center is dedicated to promoting research and translating basic science into leading-edge clinical studies. In July 2012, the Jonsson Cancer Center was once again named among the nation’s top 10 cancer centers by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for 12 of the last 13 years.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.

  • Potential Health Risks to DOD Firing-Range Personnel from Recurrent Lead Exposure

    Cover imageLead is a ubiquitous metal in the environment, and its adverse effects on human health are well documented. Lead interacts at multiple cellular sites and can alter protein function in part through binding to amino acid sulfhydryl and carboxyl groups on a wide variety of structural and functional proteins. In addition, lead mimics calcium and other divalent cations, and it induces the increased production of cytotoxic reactive oxygen species. Adverse effects associated with lead exposure can be observed in multiple body systems, including the nervous, cardiovascular, renal, hematologic, immunologic, and reproductive systems. Lead exposure is also known to induce adverse developmental effects in utero and in the developing neonate.

    Lead poses an occupational health hazard, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) developed a lead standard for general industry that regulates many workplace exposures to this metal. The standard was promulgated in 1978 and encompasses several approaches for reducing exposure to lead, including the establishment of a permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 50 μg/m3 in air (an 8-hour time-weighted average [TWA]), exposure guidelines for instituting medical surveillance, guidelines for removal from and return to work, and other risk-management strategies. An action level of 30 μg/m3 (an 8-hour TWA) for lead was established to trigger medical surveillance in employees exposed above that level for more than 30 days per year. Another provision is that any employee who has a blood lead level (BLL) of 60 μg/dL or higher or three consecutive BLLs averaging 50 μg/dL or higher must be removed from work involving lead exposure. An employee may resume work associated with lead exposure only after two BLLs are lower than 40 μg/dL. Thus, maintaining BLLs lower than 40 μg/dL was judged by OSHA to protect workers from adverse health effects. The OSHA standard also includes a recommendation that BLLs of workers who are planning a pregnancy be under 30μg/dL.

    In light of knowledge about the hazards posed by occupational lead exposure, the Department of Defense (DOD) asked the National Research Council to evaluate potential health risks from recurrent lead exposure of firing-range personnel. Specifically, DOD asked the National Research Council to determine whether current exposure standards for lead on DOD firing ranges protect its workers adequately.The committee also considered measures of cumulative lead dose. Potential Health Risks to DOD Firing-Range Personnel from Recurrent Lead Exposure will help to inform decisions about setting new air exposure limits for lead on firing ranges, about whether to implement limits for surface contamination, and about how to design lead-surveillance programs for range personnel appropriately.

  • 2012 Pecora Awards Presented for Achievements in Earth Remote Sensing

    The U.S. Geological Survey (a bureau of the Department of the Interior) and NASA presented the 2012 William T. Pecora awards for achievement in earth remote sensing to Gilberto Camara of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research and Leung Tsang of the University of Washington in Seattle.

    Camara was recognized for his contributions to remote-sensing leadership as a scientist, program director, manager and agency head. Tsang is one of the world’s leading experts on the theory of microwave remote sensing for geophysical environments. Camara received his award at a meeting of the Group on Earth Observations in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, on Nov. 22. Tsang received his award Tuesday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. 

    “Along with the immensely successful Landsat program, the Pecora awards are a testament to the very high value both the U.S. Geological Survey and NASA place in Earth remote sensing,” said USGS Director Marcia McNutt. “As our planet’s water, soil, and ecosystems continue to be stressed by a growing population and changing climate, it is essential we continue into a fifth decade of Earth observation time series and recognize the excellence of remote-sensing experts.” 

    NASA and the Department of the Interior present individual and group Pecora Awards to honor outstanding contributions in the field of remote sensing and its application to understanding Earth. The award was established in 1974 to honor the memory of William T. Pecora, former USGS director and undersecretary of the Department of the Interior. Pecora was influential in the establishment of the Landsat satellite program, which created a continuous, 40-year record of Earth’s land areas. 

    “I am sure Dr. Pecora would be pleased if he were here with us today and could see how his vision for innovative remote-sensing technology has been realized in the work of the individuals we are recognizing this year,” said astronaut John Grunsfeld, NASA’s associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate. 

    As the former director general of Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, Camara championed broad, open data-sharing policies and practices within the institute that have significantly influenced other domestic and international organizations to emulate this approach. Camara has advanced the linkages between and among remote-sensing technologies and Geographic Information System technologies and applications. 

    Camara also supported programs within the institute to link moderate-resolution imagery from the China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite, Landsat, and other Earth observation missions with the policy needs of the Brazilian government, most notably polices on forestation and deforestation in the Amazon. 

    Tsang’s contributions to microwave remote sensing have laid the groundwork for improved data analysis analyses of remote sensing data and designs of new measurements and satellite observational systems. His work has resulted in  with numerous societal benefits, including monitoring climate change, improving hydrological predictions,  and improving management of water and agricultural resources. His original and pioneering discoveries have resulted in the publication of more than 260 journal articles and four books. 

    Tsang also made major advances in rough surface scattering theory and applications to microwave remote sensing of soil and vegetated surfaces. He developed an improved modeling framework for rough surface and vegetation scattering with fast computational methods that can be directly applied to both active and passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture. 

    For more information:

  • Sunshine, biofuel & the tides, oh my!

    Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory will present a variety of alternative energy-related research at the 2012 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, which runs Monday, Dec. 3 through Friday, Dec. 7 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. Topics to be discussed include improving solar power forecasting, measuring the resources needed to grow algae for biofuel and predicting the environmental impacts of ocean energy. Summaries of some of PNNL’s noteworthy presentations are below.

    Forecasting clouds to improve solar power

    The sun’s fleeting nature has limited our ability to turn sunshine into electricity. While we can easily foretell when the sun will rise and fall each day, predicting the intermittent daytime shading created by continually morphing clouds is much more difficult. Repeated appearing and disappearing acts by clouds lead to large fluctuations in solar power generation, which makes balancing supply and demand on the power grid a challenge. But now PNNL scientists propose using a new approach to predict clouds from 5 minutes to about an hour ahead of time, giving grid operators a chance to adapt before solar power ramps up or down. Initially created for climate research, the approach uses an instrument called a total/diffuse pyranometer. Depending on their size, shape and thickness, clouds can affect light coming from the sun in many different ways to produce varying amounts of sunshine. Total/diffuse pyranometers enable scientists to measure direct and indirect solar radiation, both of which are used in different types of solar power generation. Next, the new approach uses a PNNL-developed method to forecast the clouds that will appear in the near future, what properties those clouds will have and how much direct and indirect solar radiation will make it past the clouds and onto the earth’s surface. PNNL’s Chuck Long will present the research.

    A24E-04: “Near-term forecasting of solar total and direct irradiance for solar energy applications,” 5-5:15 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 4, Room 3008, Moscone West.

    Digging for details on growing algae for biofuel

    Algae have been touted as a promising source of renewable fuel, but questions remain about whether the U.S. has the resources needed to grow it on a large scale. Ongoing PNNL research indicates that algal biofuel’s sustainability can be increased by carefully analyzing the resources available at specific growing sites. Current efforts are building on earlier PNNL research, which involved developing a detailed map of the nation’s freshwater and land resources to calculate algal biofuel production potential. PNNL researchers are digging deeper by also examining alternative water sources such as seawater, the nutrients needed to grow algae, real estate prices and costs to transport algal oil to existing refineries. The combined information will help determine the financial and environmental bottom lines of U.S. algal biofuel. PNNL’s Mark Wigmosta will present a poster that describes early results, including that the Gulf Coast region generally has the nation’s best water supplies and climate for growing algae.

    H53H-1632: “A high-resolution national microalgae biofuel production and resource assessment,” 1:40-6 p.m., Friday, Dec. 7, Hall A-C, Moscone South.

    Modeling tidal power’s environmental effect

    Extracting energy from the natural ebb and flow of the ocean’s tides could help wean the world off of greenhouse gas-producing fossil fuels. But, with very few tidal power projects in existence, it’s difficult to know how such efforts could affect the marine environment. To help answer that question, PNNL scientists developed a detailed, 3-D computer model of a hypothetical bay where seawater enters through a coastal channel. They added tidal turbines to the digitized channel and ran simulations to find out how water flow could be impacted. They found that installing large numbers of turbines can decrease the flushing rate­ — the amount of time it takes to replace the bay’s water with new ocean water. The longer it takes to flush out a bay, the longer it takes to remove contaminants from river runoff and human activity. This could worsen the conditions of bays already experiencing low levels of dissolved oxygen. On the other hand, simulations also showed turbines increase mixing in the water column, which could breathe more life into a bay’s lower waters by transporting more oxygen from the surface. PNNL’s Taiping Wang will discuss the computer model and some of its simulation results.

    OS53D-07: “A Modeling Study of In-stream Tidal Energy Extraction and Its Potential Environmental Impacts in a Tidal Channel and Bay System,” 3:10-3:25 p.m., Friday, Dec. 7, Room 3024, Moscone West.

  • Seasonal-to-Decadal Predictions of Arctic Sea Ice: Challenges and Strategies

    Cover imageRecent well documented reductions in the thickness and extent of Arctic sea ice cover, which can be linked to the warming climate, are affecting the global climate system and are also affecting the global economic system as marine access to the Arctic region and natural resource development increase. Satellite data show that during each of the past six summers, sea ice cover has shrunk to its smallest in three decades. The composition of the ice is also changing, now containing a higher fraction of thin first-year ice instead of thicker multi-year ice.

    Understanding and projecting future sea ice conditions is important to a growing number of stakeholders, including local populations, natural resource industries, fishing communities, commercial shippers, marine tourism operators, national security organizations, regulatory agencies, and the scientific research community. However, gaps in understanding the interactions between Arctic sea ice, oceans, and the atmosphere, along with an increasing rate of change in the nature and quantity of sea ice, is hampering accurate predictions. Although modeling has steadily improved, projections by every major modeling group failed to predict the record breaking drop in summer sea ice extent in September 2012.

    Establishing sustained communication between the user, modeling, and observation communities could help reveal gaps in understanding, help balance the needs and expectations of different stakeholders, and ensure that resources are allocated to address the most pressing sea ice data needs. Seasonal-to-Decadal Predictions of Arctic Sea Ice: Challenges and Strategies explores these topics.

  • Why older adults become fraud victims more often

    Why are older people especially vulnerable to becoming victims of fraud? A new UCLA study indicates that an important clue may lie in a particular region of the brain that influences the ability to discern who is honest and who is trying to deceive us.
     
    Older people, more than younger adults, may fail to interpret an untrustworthy face as potentially dishonest, the study shows. The reason for this, the UCLA life scientists found, seems to be that a brain region called the anterior insula, which is linked to disgust and is important for discerning untrustworthy faces, is less active in older adults.
     
    “The consequences of misplaced trust for older adults are severe,” said Shelley E. Taylor, a distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA and senior author of the new research, which appears Dec. 3 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). “A recent study estimates that adults over age 60 lost at least $2.9 billion in 2010 to financial exploitation, ranging from home repair scams to complex financial swindles. This figure represents a 12 percent increase from 2008.
     
    “Older adults seem to be particularly vulnerable to interpersonal solicitations, and their reduced sensitivity to cues related to trust may partially underlie this vulnerability.”
     
    Taylor and her colleagues report the results of two new studies in PNAS. In the first, 119 older adults between the ages of 55 and 84 (mean age 68) and 24 younger adults (mean age 23) looked at 30 photographs of faces and rated them on how trustworthy and approachable they seemed. The faces were intentionally selected to look trustworthy, neutral or untrustworthy.
     
    The younger and older adults reacted very similarly to the trustworthy faces and to the neutral faces. However, when viewing the untrustworthy faces, the younger adults reacted strongly, while the older adults did not. The older adults saw these faces as more trustworthy and more approachable than the younger adults did.
     
    “Most of the older adults showed this effect,” said Taylor, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and director of UCLA’s Social Neuroscience Laboratory. “They missed facial cues that are pretty easily distinguished.”
     
    The second study was conducted at UCLA’s Ahmanson–Lovelace Brain Mapping Center, where participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans while looking at the faces. This study included 44 participants: 23 older adults between the ages of 55 and 80 (mean age 66) and 21 younger adults (mean age 33).
     
    The younger adults showed anterior insula activation both when they were making the ratings of the faces and especially when viewing the untrustworthy faces. In contrast, the older adults displayed very little anterior insula activation during these activities.
     
    “We wanted to find out whether there are differences in how the brain reacts to these faces, and the answer is yes, there are,” Taylor said. “We found a strong anterior insula response both to the task of rating trustworthiness and also to the untrustworthy faces among the younger adults — but the response is much more muted among the older adults. The older adults do not have as strong an anterior insula early-warning signal; their brains are not saying ‘be wary,’ as the brains of the younger adults are.
     
    “In younger adults, the very act of judging whether a person is trustworthy activates the anterior insula,” she added. “It’s as if they’re thinking they need to make this judgment with caution. This gives us a potential brain mechanism for understanding why older and younger adults process facial cues about trust differently. Now we know what the brain sees, and in the older adults, the answer is not very much when it comes to differentiating on the basis of trust.”
     
    “It’s not that younger adults are better at finance or judging whether an investment is good; they’re better at discerning whether a person is potentially trustworthy when cues are communicated visually,” she said.
     
    Taylor and her colleagues, including lead author Elizabeth Castle, identified that the anterior insula plays the role of telling us “Something’s not right here.”
     
    “Older adults are more vulnerable. It looks like their skills for making good financial decisions may be deteriorating as early as their early-to-mid-50s,” said Taylor, a founder of the field of health psychology who was honored in 2010 with the American Psychological Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
     
    The prototypical victim of financial fraud, Taylor said, is a 55-year-old male who is an experienced investor.
     
    “It’s people with money, who are comfortable with investing,” Taylor said. “Somehow they didn’t get the early warning from their brain that said ‘Don’t invest in that movie, don’t buy that land.’ The financial losses can be huge.”
     
    Castle, a UCLA psychology graduate student who analyzed the data for the brain-mapping study, said the scientists found a “robust” anterior insula response in the younger adults and a “minimal” response in the older adults.
     
    “One of the functions of the anterior insula is to sense bodily feelings and interpret these visceral states for the brain.” Castle said. “This is the response that we see lacking in older adults.
     
    “This neural mapping of bodily states forms the basis of ‘gut feelings’” she added. “This leads us to think that older adults have a diminished gut feeling that something is wrong when someone looks untrustworthy.”
     
    The life scientists did not find significant differences between women and men.
     
    This project is funded by the National Institute on Aging in an effort to understand the reasons for the vulnerability of older adults to financial fraud.
     
    ‘Just hang up’
     
    For Taylor, the topic is personal. Her father and aunt both lost money in financial scams.
     
    “My father was walked to the bank by someone he referred to as ‘such a nice man.’ The guy was a homeless man. Anybody looking at him should have picked up on the cues that said ‘Do not give this man $6,000.’ I still don’t know how my father could not pick up that this was not a nice young man,” Taylor said. Her father was in his mid-70s at the time.
     
    Her aunt bought jewels through the mail.
     
    “When I give talks on this work, I wear the ‘diamond’ earrings that she bought in the mail,” Taylor said. “They are glass.”
     
    What advice does Taylor offer older adults to avoid becoming victims of financial fraud?
     
    “I would tell older adults to just hang up on solicitors. Don’t talk to salesmen pushing investments — just say no. Do not go to the free lunch seminars where there are investment pitches. Stay away from these people,” she said. “I’m not saying that all of these are fraudulent, but the best thing that you can do if your brain isn’t helping you to make these discriminations is not to have to make them. Be very careful what you do with your money. I don’t talk to any solicitors on the phone.”
     
    A pivotal point is when people take money from their 401(k) accounts, including when they take required distributions, starting at age 70-and-a-half.
     
    “That’s when older adults tend to be targeted — 401(k) conversions, required minimum distributions and inheritances,” Taylor said. “These are points when people need to be wary, and many older adults are insufficiently wary.”
     
    What does an untrustworthy face look like?
     
    “The smile is insincere, the eye contact is off; it’s a gestalt,” Taylor said.
     
    (Unfortunately, the UCLA Newsroom is not able to post photos of the untrustworthy faces with this news release because conditions of the study prohibit our doing so.)
     
    Co-authors of the research also include Naomi Eisenberger, a UCLA assistant professor of psychology; Mark Grinblatt, professor of finance at the UCLA Anderson School of Management; and Ian Boggero, a former UCLA psychology research assistant.
     
    UCLA is California’s largest university, with an enrollment of more than 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university’s 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer 337 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Six alumni and six faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
     
    For more news, visit the UCLA Newsroom and follow us on Twitter.