Hexbyte Glen Cove
“Our group is primarily focusing on trying to find alternatives to traditional antibiotic therapy because we know the antimicrobials are failing more and more often,” says Dr. Sysoeva, an assistant professor of biological sciences at UAH, a part of the University of Alabama System, and director of the Sysoeva Lab. “Pathogens are notorious about picking up resistances.”
A well-understood urinary microbiome could also prove helpful in general disease diagnostics. “The hope is that in the future we can not only ‘pee on a stick’ to check for pregnancy or infection, but we ambitiously envision that we will be able to detect other diseases, perhaps due to better understanding of how the urinary microbiome reacts to our health changes and conditions,” she says.
The in vitro laboratory research utilized a repository of bacteria isolated from healthy and diseased post-menopausal women that had previously been collected by Dr. Sysoeva and Dr. Nazema Siddiqui, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University.
“As microbiologists, we are very curious to see whether the microbes that are residents in our bladders can resist invasion of the ‘bad guys,’ pathogenic bacteria or uropathogens,” says Dr. Sysoeva. “As a scientific community, we know a lot about the uropathogens because they were characterized for decades. But very little is known about those ‘residential,’ or so-called commensal bacteria.”
Since most female urinary tract microbiomes have been shown to be dominated by lactobacilli, a type of lactic acid-forming bacteria, Dr. Sysoeva’s team chose to focus on them.
“This killing by lactobacilli will even work if the uropathogens have multiple antibiotic resistances,” Dr. Sysoeva says. “It is very exciting to realize that the human bladder is, or can be, colonized by those lactobacilli and possibly be protected from the infection.”
The human microbiome is a collection of all microorganisms living in and on the human body, she says.
“It is thought that, in our bodies, for each one of our cells we have one or more microbial cells. Therefore, microbes are bringing a lot of genes and functionality to our organism, not just infectious disease.”
Many different rooms
While it’s called the human microbiome, it is actually a collection of different microbiomes.
“One can think of it as a house with many different rooms,” Dr. Sysoeva says. “It is because our body has such different spaces—think of your skin properties versus, let’s say, your gut.”
Even within the gastrointestinal tract, the conditions in the oral cavity, stomach or intestines are drastically different and involve different nutrients, oxygen and acidity, she says.
“Therefore, each part will have different microbes and hence their unique microbiome, like the oral microbiome, stomach microbiome and colon microbiome,” says Dr. Sysoeva. “The latter is what most likely we would call a gut microbiome that we’ve heard so much about.”
The human urinary tract is populated by a very low biomass but a diverse community of microbes that are mainly bacteria, she says.
“We call them the commensal urinary microbiome or urobiome for short. The composition of this urobiome is highly variable between people and even in one individual over time, but the composition seems to associate with urinary and general health.”
Dr. Sysoeva’s recent research has uncovered new questions.
“While it is promising in terms of thinking of how we can use our microbiome to prevent and maybe to treat the urinary infections, we see that our assays in the laboratory might not explain everything,” she says.
“For example, we see that lactobacilli isolated from women with recurrent UTIs are also capable of inhibiting the pathogens in test tube laboratory conditions,” Dr. Sysoeva says. “We also found that in some patients the ‘good lactobacilli’ are coexisting with pathogens. As these are initial studies, we do not know why it is so.”
It’s possible that, since samples were collected in the absence of active infection, the lactobacilli are keeping the pathogens in check or that there are other factors at play, she says. Maybe the lactobacilli inhibit the pathogens in the test tube but they’re not in range of each other in the bladder, or the bladder’s condition doesn’t allow them to do so because it affects their metabolism.
“It is the very first study of these interactions and the microbiome is a complex community of microbes that interacts with our cells and our immune system, and that changes with the conditions such as diet or drugs,” Dr. Sysoeva says. “We observe that healthy patients tend to be colonized by certain types of lactobacilli but not others, and that the mechanisms of how microbes compete or kill each other vary.”
Observations that urinary lactobacilli are very diverse are “super important because when we are looking for some ‘good probiotic’ for urinary health or for even a treatment in the form of these ‘good bugs,’ we need to pick the right strains,” she says. “We cannot just tell people to eat yogurt or a random lactobacilli-containing probiotic.”
Future investigations
Further research is needed to investigate which lactobacilli will be able to colonize the bladder and which best resist pathogenic invasions.
“Who will be a good protector?” Dr. Sysoeva asks.
To answer that, the researchers have expanded testing to include more varieties of urinary bacteria, not just lactobacilli.
“We plan to test isolates from patients from different age groups, test more complex interactions and determine how host cells affect those interactions,” says Dr. Sysoeva. “There is a long way ahead of us but I hope it will lead to targeted therapeutics that we can test in clinical trials and alleviate suffering for recurrent UTI patients, or help those with antibiotic resistant infections, which we cannot treat otherwise.”
With aging, both sexes become increasingly susceptible to UTIs, and future research will require similar studies for men, Dr. Sysoeva says.
A goal is to understand development of the urinary microbiome throughout the lifespan, as well as its differences between the sexes and in various metabolic and disease conditions. Under a new grant and in collaboration with Dr. Maryellen Kelly, an assistant researcher professor at the Duke University School of Nursing, and Dr. Lisa Karstens, an assistant professor at Oregon Health and Science University, the microbiome in children will be explored using novel sequencing methods.
Dr. Sysoeva recently submitted two large grant proposals in collaboration with Dr. Siddiqui and Dr. Maria Hadjifrangiskou, an associate professor in the Departments of Molecular Pathogenesis and Urological Surgery at Vanderbilt University and colleagues.
“In both we are aiming to bring our urinary lactobacilli into an animal model, in this case into mice, to test the protective effects and their mechanisms in vivo (in a living organism),” Dr. Sysoeva says. “It will be exciting to expand into this realm with access to the germ-free mice facilities, clinical researchers specializing on pelvic floor disorders and experts in uropathogens.”
More information:
James A. Johnson et al, Commensal Urinary Lactobacilli Inhibit Major Uropathogens In Vitro With Heterogeneity at Species and Strain Level, Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (2022). DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.870603
Citation:
Female urinary tract lactobaccill
% %item_read_more_button%% Hexbyte Glen Cove Educational Blog Repost With Backlinks — #metaverse #vr #ar #wordpress
Hexbyte Glen Cove Russia’s only female cosmonaut to travel to space in September
Hexbyte Glen Cove
Russia’s sole active female cosmonaut, Anna Kikina, is due to travel to the International Space Station in September on a Soyuz rocket, the national space agency said Thursday.
Kikina, a 37-year-old engineer, will be only the fifth professional woman cosmonaut from Russia or the Soviet Union to fly to space.
Last year, the Russian space agency Roscosmos said “our beauty” Kikina would fly aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon as part of a cross-flights deal between Roscosmos and NASA.
On Thursday, Roscosmos said that if the two countries finalise the deal, Kikina will fly to space with the Americans in August, while NASA’s Francisco Rubio will travel on a Soyuz.
But if the deal does not work out, she will travel to the ISS on a Soyuz rocket in September.
The last Russian woman to fly to space was Elena Serova, who spent 167 days aboard the ISS from September, 2014 to March, 2015.
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space when she travelled into orbit on June 16, 1963.
Svetlana Savitskaya was the second woman in space, and the first woman to perform a spacewalk in July, 1984.
In October, Russia also sent to space an actress, Yulia Peresild, who spent 12 days on the ISS shooting scenes for a movie.
By comparison, more than 50 American women have travelled to space.
Roscosmos also said Thursday that three Russian cosmonauts—Oleg Artemyev, Denis Matveyev and Sergei Korsakov—will fly to the ISS in March.
“For the first time in the history of the ISS, the Soyuz crew will include three Russian professional cosmonauts,” the space agency said.
A Roscosmos official said this was because a contract with NASA on joint flights was nearing its end.
“Talks are currently underway to extend the contract,” the representative told AFP.
© 2022 AFP
Citation:
Russia’s only female cosmonaut to travel to space in September (2022, January 20)
retrieved 20 January 2022
from https://phys.org/news/2022-01-russia-female-cosmonaut-space-september.html
This document is subject to copyright.
% %item_read_more_button%% Hexbyte Glen Cove Educational Blog Repost With Backlinks — #metaverse #vr #ar #wordpress
Hexbyte Glen Cove Female and young walruses depend on disappearing Arctic sea ice for food sources
Hexbyte Glen Cove
A new study shows that disappearing sea ice is a significant element of the food web supporting female walruses and their dependent young in the Arctic’s Chukchi Sea. Researchers were able to trace biomarkers that are unique to algae growing within sea ice to connect marine mammals with a food source that is rapidly diminishing in the face of climate change.
“This study builds on work we have been doing in the Bering and Chukchi Seas to show that these tracers of ice algae and phytoplankton can be used to monitor the ecosystem response to disappearing sea ice,” said lead study author Chelsea Koch of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. “Ongoing monitoring of these sea ice biomarkers in walruses and even other organism tissues in the region will potentially help us to identify how the system is responding to changing food sources at the base of the food web as a result of climate change.”
The marine ecosystem of the Pacific Arctic near Alaska is adapted to utilizing fat-rich foods derived from biological production in sea ice. Ice algae blooms lead to a pulse of high-quality food to the sea floor. This in turn supports high abundances of clams and other benthic organisms throughout the Bering and Chukchi Seas—and lots of food for walruses to eat.
However, the loss of seasonal sea ice poses a threat to Pacific walruses, particularly how they use sea ice for rest and to access and forage on these dense offshore clam beds. With the disappearance of sea ice in many recent years near Alaska, thousands of walruses are coming ashore in the late summer on coastal beaches that are distant from the most productive clam beds. Stampedes are also likely to occur with these massive gatherings, leading to additional mortalities.
Based on the migration patterns of adult females and juveniles moving north with the ice edge each spring, Koch and the research team expected to see higher signatures of ice algae in the walruses harvested from the Chukchi Sea. However, results from the northern Bering Sea revealed a more nuanced finding, aligning with the traditional local knowledge of subsistence hunters on St. Lawrence Island.
Walruses were evaluated for Endangered Species Act listing due to the decline of seasonal sea ice in the Arctic. They are also important in some Alaska Indigenous communities as a source of subsistence food.
“One of the interesting findings was that these sea ice biomarkers were consistently higher in the female walruses in the northern Bering Sea compared to the males. These markers are short-lived in walrus livers, on the order of days or maybe weeks. So we know this elevated sea ice signature in the females is not an accumulation from their previous years’ journey into the Chukchi Sea,” said Koch. Researchers were able to trace biomarkers using liver tissues from some animals that were harvested as part of subsistence hunting.
This provides supporting evidence that female foraging behavior differs from the males in the winter and spring months while in the Bering Sea.
The work was carried out in coordination with a number of partners in Alaska and also included scientists from Clark University and the Scottish Association for Marine Science. Samples from the Bering Sea were provided by the University of Alaska’s Museum of the North, who in turn received the samples as donations from subsistence hunters. Samples from the Chukchi Sea were collected by the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management (NSB DWM) as part of their harvest and walrus health harvest monitoring program. Co-author Dr. Raphaela Stimmelmayr of the NSB DWM emphasized that “without the support of the hunters of regional community-based harvest monitoring programs, important studies like this would not be possible.”
More information:
Chelsea W. Koch et al, Female Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) show greater partitioning of sea ice organic carbon than males: Evidence from ice algae trophic markers, PLOS ONE (2021). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255686
Citation:
Female and young walruses depend on disappearing Arctic sea ice for food sources (2021, August 19)
retrieved 19 August 2021
from https://phys.org/news/2021-08-female-young-walruses-arctic-sea.html
This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair deal
Read More Hexbyte Glen Cove Educational Blog Repost With Backlinks —
Hexbyte Glen Cove Female job seekers using less feminine language less likely to get hired, study finds
Hexbyte Glen Cove
Women applying to jobs in male-dominated fields often try to overcome sexism by altering their cover letters to sound less feminine. But that practice might actually be hurting their chances of landing a job, a new study out of U of T Mississauga reveals.
Examining real cover letters to a variety of actual jobs and analyzing applications to an MBA program, Joyce He, a Ph.D. candidate at U of T’s Rotman School of Management, found that women applying for jobs in male-dominated fields would respond to anticipated bias by using less feminine language to deliberately manage gender impressions. While they did not use more masculine language, they did try to conceal their femininity.
That would mean avoiding words that are stereotypically associated with women, which include sensitive, interpersonal, empathetic, helpful, warm and friendly. Examples of words that people associate with masculinity, meanwhile, include competitive, ambitious, confident, outspoken and entrepreneurial.
Notably, words identified as masculine hold higher value in the business world. That’s why associations are made with respect to gender and probability of success, says Sonia Kang, an associate professor at U of T Mississauga’s Department of Management and co-author of the study published in Academy of Management.
“When we see those kinds of words, it’s a cue not only to the fact that this is going to be a man, but also this person is going to be better suited to this particular position,” explains Kang. “That’s why language in all these application materials is so important. They cue to more than just identity.”
He adds that research suggests women’s identity is devalued when they apply for male-dominated jobs and they tend to anticipate discrimination or bias in the selection process.
“They need to hide the devalued part, the feminine side, which is why they use this strategy,” she says, adding that men do not engage in the same behavior when applying for female-dominated roles.
But these attempts by women applicants to manage gender impressions can actually backfire because they clash with deeply entrenched cultural stereotypes.
He explains that there’s an unspoken rule regarding how men and women should act. “Men should behave competitively and dominantly, and women should behave more friendly and communal,” she says. “When you go against the rules or expectations, women especially can receive this backlash or penalty.”
She notes that women who behave counter-stereotypically are seen as more competent but also less likable, which in turn means they are less likely to be hired or even promoted.
This is related to the double-bind women face, Kang continues. She explains that stereotypes suggest men should be in charge because they’re assertive and decisive and get things done. When women take on that role, they’re seen as competent but are less likely to be liked. At the same time, women contend with the stereotype that they should be more nurturing and communal. When women act in line with those gendered stereotypes, they end up being liked but are seen as less competent.
“You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Kang says, adding men don’t have to navigate the same no-win situation. “If (men) are super confident, people don’t care if they’re likable.”
He says that the onus shouldn’t be on women (or minorities) to try to navigate the different biases in the labor market. The onus should be on organizations to reduce bias, which is the root of the problem.
He is now shifting her research focus to design interventions that help de-bias the selection process, saying there’s promising new work focused on systemic problems that target the environment, which is a more powerful way to change behavior. That can include anonymized evaluations or reviewing applications in sets instead of individually.
But systemic solutions take a long time to implement and job seekers can’t wait.
Kang suggests women forced to contend with existing biases in the labor market should approach job applications like an experiment and find what works for them and is successful. That might mean changing how different activities are presented or how a person writes about themself.
“The work really shows it doesn’t help to pretend to be something you’re not,” Kang says. “I know it sounds pithy but be yourself is the takeaway here.”
More information:
Joyce C. He et al. Covering in Cover Letters: Gender and Self-Presentation in Job Applications, Academy of Management Journal (2020). DOI: 10.5465/amj.2018.1280
Citation:
Female job seekers using le
Read More Hexbyte Glen Cove Educational Blog Repost With Backlinks —