Northumbria University

A new scanning study of 390 babies has shown distinct patterns between term and pre-term babies in the moment-to-moment activity and connectivity of brain networks. A new King's College London scanning study of 390 babies has shown distinct patterns between term and pre-term babies in the moment-to-moment activity and connectivity of brain networks. Supported by Wellcome and the National institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, this is the first study to analyse how the communication between brain areas changes moment-to-moment in the first few weeks of life. Published in Nature Communications, the study also found that these dynamic patterns of brain connectivity in babies were linked to developmental measures of movement, language, cognition and social behaviour 18 months later. Joint senior author, Dr Dafnis Batallé, Senior Lecturer in Neurodevelopmental Science at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London said: "Although we know how influential brain connectivity is on development, we know little about the patterns of dynamic functional connectivity in early life, and how they link to the way our brains mature. By analysing brain scans from 390 babies, we have begun to identify different transient states of connectivity that could potentially provide insight into how the brain is developing at this age and what behaviours and functions these patterns are linked to as the baby grows older." There is increasing awareness that conditions such as ADHD, autism and schizophrenia have their origins early in life, and that the development of these conditions may be linked to neonatal brain connectivity and its fluctuations over time. Researchers used state-of-the-art techniques to evaluate functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data on 324 full term babies and 66 pre-term babies (born at less than 37 weeks gestation). They assessed how the connectivity changed moment-to-moment during the time the baby was in the scanner to provide a dynamic picture. Previous research with babies has always used a measure of connectivity averaged over time spent in the scanner. Dr Lucas França, first author andAssistant Professor in Computer and Information Sciences at Northumbria University. said: "These findings are a result of carefully adapting methodologies derived from the domains of computer science and physics, specifically employed to unveil the intricacies inherent to the human neonatal brain. When these methodologies are allied to advanced techniques to obtain unprecedented data like the one from the Developing Human Connectome Project, we have a unique opportunity to deepen our understanding of the largely unknown realm of brain dynamics in early life." The study used methods that tap into how the brain connectivity fluctuates: one method that considers connectivity patterns across the whole brain and one that considers patterns within different regions of the brain. The study identified six different brain states: three of these were across the whole brain and three were constrained to regions of the brain (occipital, sensorimotor and frontal regions). By comparing term and pre-term babies the researchers showed that different patterns of connectivity are linked to pre-term birth, for example pre-term babies spent more time in frontal and occipital brain states than term babies. They also demonstrated that brain state dynamics at birth are linked to a range of developmental outcomes in early childhood. Joint senior author, Professor Grainne McAlonan, Interim Director of NIHR Maudsley BRC and Professor of Translational Neuroscience at IoPPN, King's College London said: "This is a real step forward in the use of imaging techniques to investigate how brain activity is continually changing in early life and how this provides a platform to support subsequent developmental milestones in childhood. The difference between term and pre-term babies suggests that time spent in or outside the womb shapes brain development. We now need to try and find out if it is possible to use these insights to identify and help those who need some additional support." The data was sourced from The Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP), which is led by King's College London and funded by the European Research Council. It is providing high resolution magnetic resonance brain images from unborn and newborn babies to scientists worldwide to support a large number of world-leading research projects into brain development and cerebral or mental health disorders. Professor David Edwards, Principal Investigator of dHCP and Head of Department of Perinatal Imaging and Health, King's College London said: "This study shows the power of the large set of data acquired by the Developing Human Connectome Project, an open science programme funded by the European Research Council and led by King's College London in collaboration with Imperial College London and the University of Oxford. The data are freely available to researchers who want to study human brain development."

A new Antarctic ice sheet modeling study suggests that meltwater flowing out to sea from beneath Antarctic glaciers is making them lose ice faster.    A new Antarctic ice sheet modeling study from scientists at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggests that meltwater flowing out to sea from beneath Antarctic glaciers is making them lose ice faster. The model's simulations suggest this effect is large enough to make a meaningful contribution to global sea-level rise under high greenhouse gas emissions scenarios. The extra ice loss caused by this meltwater flowing out to sea from beneath Antarctic glaciers is not currently accounted for in the models generating major sea-level rise projections, such as those of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). If this process turns out to be an important driver of ice loss across the entire Antarctic ice sheet, it could mean current projections underestimate the pace of global sea-level rise in decades to come. "Knowing when and how much global sea-level will rise is critical to the welfare of coastal communities," said Tyler Pelle, the study's lead author and a postdoctoral researcher at Scripps. "Millions of people live in low-lying coastal zones and we can't adequately prepare our communities without accurate sea-level rise projections." The study, published October 27 in Science Advances and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, and the Cecil H. and the Ida M. Green Foundation for Earth Sciences at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at Scripps, modeled the retreat of two glaciers in East Antarctica through the year 2300 under different emissions scenarios and projected their contributions to sea-level rise. Unlike previous Antarctic ice sheet models, this one included the influence of this flow of meltwater from beneath glaciers out to sea, which is known as subglacial discharge. The two glaciers the study focused on, named Denman and Scott, together hold enough ice to cause nearly 1.5 meters (5 feet) of sea-level rise. In a high emissions scenario (IPCC's SSP5-8.5 scenario, which assumes no new climate policy and features 20% higher CO2 emissions by 2100), the model found that subglacial discharge increased the sea-level rise contribution of these glaciers by 15.7%, from 19 millimeters (0.74 inches) to 22 millimeters (0.86 inches) by the year 2300. These glaciers, which are right next to each other, sit atop a continental trench that is more than two miles deep; once their retreat reaches the trench's steep slope, their contribution to sea-level rise is expected to accelerate dramatically. With the added influence of subglacial discharge, the model found that the glaciers retreated past this threshold about 25 years earlier than they did without it. "I think this paper is a wake up call for the modeling community. It shows you can't accurately model these systems without taking this process into account," said Jamin Greenbaum, co-author of the study and a researcher at Scripps' Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics. A key takeaway, beyond the understudied role of subglacial discharge in accelerating sea-level rise, is the importance of what humanity does in the coming decades to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, said Greenbaum. The low emissions scenario runs of the model did not show the glaciers retreating all the way into the trench and avoided the resulting runaway contributions to sea-level rise. "If there is a doomsday story here it isn't subglacial discharge," said Greenbaum. "The real doomsday story is still emissions and humanity is still the one with its finger on the button." In Antarctica, subglacial meltwater is generated from melting that occurs where the ice sits on continental bedrock. The main sources of the heat melting the ice in contact with the ground are friction from the ice grinding across the bedrock and geothermal heat from Earth's interior permeating up through the crust. Prior research suggested that subglacial meltwater is a common feature of glaciers around the world and that it is present under several other massive Antarctic glaciers, including the infamous Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica. When subglacial discharge flows out to sea it is thought to accelerate melting of the glacier's ice shelf -- a long floating tongue of ice that extends out to sea beyond the last part of the glacier that is still in contact with solid ground (known as the grounding line). Subglacial discharge is thought to speed up ice shelf melting and glacial retreat by causing ocean mixing that stirs in additional ocean heat within the cavity beneath a glacier's floating ice shelf. This enhanced ice shelf melting then causes the upstream glacier to accelerate, which can drive sea level rise. The notion that subglacial discharge causes additional ice shelf melting is widely accepted in the scientific community, said Greenbaum. But it hasn't been included in sea-level rise projections because many researchers weren't sure if the process' effect was sufficiently large to increase sea-level rise, mainly because its effects are localized around the glacier's ice shelf. Pelle said subglacial discharge came onto his radar in 2021 when he and his colleagues observed that East Antarctica's Denman Glacier's ice shelf was melting faster than expected given local ocean temperatures. Puzzlingly, Denman's neighbor Scott Glacier's ice shelf was melting much more slowly despite virtually identical ocean conditions. To test whether subglacial discharge could reconcile the melt rates seen at the Denman and Scott ice shelves, as well as whether subglacial meltwater might accelerate sea-level rise, the team combined models for three different environments: the ice sheet, the space between the ice sheet and bedrock, and the ocean. Once the researchers married the three models into one they ran a series of projections up to 2300 using a NASA supercomputer. The projections featured three main scenarios: a control that featured no additional ocean warming, a low emissions pathway (SSP1-2.6), and a high emissions pathway (SSP5-8.5). For each scenario, the researchers created projections with and without the effect of present-day levels of subglacial discharge. The model's simulations revealed that adding in subglacial discharge reconciled the melt rates seen at Denman and Scott Glaciers. As for why Scott Glacier was melting so much slower than Denman, Pelle said the model showed that "a strong subglacial discharge channel drained across the Denman Glacier grounding line, while a weaker discharge channel drained across the Scott Glacier grounding line." The strength of the discharge channel at Denman, Pelle explained, was behind its speedy melt. For the control and low-emissions model runs the contributions to sea-level rise were close to zero or even slightly negative with or without subglacial discharge at 2300. But in a high emissions scenario, the model found that subglacial discharge increased the sea-level rise contribution of these glaciers from 19 millimeters (0.74 inches) to 22 millimeters (0.86 inches) in 2300. In the high emissions scenario that included subglacial discharge, Denman and Scott Glaciers retreated into the two-mile-deep trench beneath them by 2240, about 25 years earlier than they did in the model runs without subglacial discharge. Once the grounding lines of the Denman and Scott Glaciers retreat past the lip of this trench their yearly sea-level rise contribution explodes, reaching a peak of 0.33 millimeters (0.01 inches) per year -- roughly half of the present-day annual sea-level rise contribution of the entire Antarctic ice sheet. Pelle said the trench's steep slope is behind this explosive increase in sea-level rise contribution. As the glacier retreats down slope, its ice shelf begins losing thicker and thicker slabs of ice from its leading edge. This process of ice loss quickly outpaces ice accumulation at the ice sheet's interior, causing further glacial retreat. Researchers refer to this process as "Marine Ice Sheet Instability," and it can promote explosive ice loss from glaciers like Denman and Scott. Researchers refer to topography such as the trench beneath Denman and Scott Glaciers as a retrograde slope and worry that it creates a positive feedback loop by which glacial retreat begets more retreat. Large areas of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, such as Thwaites Glacier, also have retrograde slopes that, while not as dramatic as the Denman-Scott trench, contribute to fears of broader ice sheet instability. "Subglacial meltwater has been inferred beneath most if not all Antarctic glaciers, including Thwaites, Pine Island, and Totten glaciers," said Pelle. "All these glaciers are retreating and contributing to sea-level rise and we are showing that subglacial discharge could be accelerating their retreat. It's urgent that we model these other glaciers so we can get a handle on the magnitude of the effect subglacial discharge is having." The researchers behind this study are doing just that. Pelle said they are in the process of submitting a research proposal to extend their new model to the entire Antarctic ice sheet. Future iterations of the model may also attempt to couple the subglacial environment with the ice sheet and ocean models so that the amount of subglacial meltwater dynamically responds to these other factors. Greenbaum said that the current version of their model kept the amount of subglacial meltwater constant throughout the model runs, and that making it respond dynamically to the surrounding environment would likely make the model more true to life. "This also means that our results are probably a conservative estimate of the effect of subglacial discharge," said Greenbaum. "That said, we can't yet say how much sea-level rise will be accelerated by this process -- hopefully it's not too much." Part of Greenbaum's upcoming fieldwork in Antarctica, supported by NSF and NASA, aims to directly investigate the impacts of subglacial meltwater in both the East and West Antarctic ice sheets. In collaboration with the Australian Antarctic Division and the Korea Polar Research Institute, Greenbaum and his collaborators will be visiting the ice shelves of Denman and Thwaites Glaciers in East and West Antarctica, respectively, looking for direct evidence that subglacial freshwater is discharging into the ocean beneath the glaciers' ice shelves and contributing to warming. In addition to Pelle and Greenbaum, the study was co-authored by Christine Dow of the University of Waterloo, Adrian Jenkins of Northumbria University, and Mathieu Morlighem of Dartmouth College.

People looking to reduce their cholesterol and trim fat from around their waist could try swapping meat for Quorn protein, according to the findings from a new study, which saw positive effects in both areas in just two weeks. People looking to reduce their cholesterol and trim fat from around their waist could try swapping meat for Quorn protein, according to the findings from a new study by Northumbria University, Newcastle, published in the European Journal of Nutrition, which saw positive effects in both areas in just two weeks. Researchers from the University found that participants who ate Quorn products -- the popular mycoprotein-based meat substitute -- over just a two-week period, saw a significant 12% drop in 'bad' LDL cholesterol and a 7% fall in total cholesterol, compared to those who ate similar products made from red and processed meat. In addition, they also reduced their waist circumference by close to 1cm (0.95cm) on average over the 14 days. Such a drop in total cholesterol levels could, according to medical research, reduce a person's risk of dying from a cardiovascular disease, such as a stroke or coronary heart disease, by as much as 9% . Waist circumference is a good measure of abdominal fat and a key marker of cardiovascular health, with a near 1cm reduction in the mycoprotein group, achieved within a short period, suggesting potential benefits for heart health and body composition. The investigator-blind trial -- which involved 20 healthy male adults who were randomly assigned to consume 240 grams per day of red and processed meat or an equivalent amount of Quorn over two 14-day periods -- also revealed further heart health benefits from consuming mycoprotein, the unique ingredient in all Quorn products. Researchers identified a clinically meaningful trend toward lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure in the mycoprotein group, potentially contributing to improved cardiovascular health. The findings come after the latest annual Health Survey for England estimated that well over half (59%) of adults suffer from raised cholesterol , almost two-thirds (64%) are overweight or living with obesity and almost a third (30%) have high blood pressure . All three are known to cause cardiovascular disease -- meaning millions of people could be at risk of a potentially fatal heart attack or stroke. High cholesterol is mainly caused by diets high in saturated fat, carrying excess fat around your waist and not exercising enough, and is described, alongside high blood pressure, as one of the 'silent killers' that are often symptomless and only identified through a medical emergency. Elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, often referred to as 'bad' cholesterol, can lead to the build-up of fatty plaques in a person's arteries, which restrict blood flow and increase their risk of a heart attack or stroke. Currently, high LDL cholesterol is associated with a quarter (115) of the 460 heart and circulatory disease deaths recorded in the UK every day. Almost eight million people in the UK rely on statins to lower their cholesterol, but there is growing concern, following shortages, about the affordability of these drugs, with the most prescribed statin, atorvastatin, recently increasing in price from 49p to £5.30 over a six-week period . Maintaining a healthy waist circumference is also known to be important for preventing future heart attacks and strokes. A larger waist typically indicates that there's excess fat around and inside organs and when this happens in the liver, for example, it pushes out too much fat and sugar into the blood, increasing the risk of coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes. This is a particular risk when excess fat is carried around the lower torso in the abdominal area. Commenting on the study findings, lead researcher Dr Daniel Commane, Associate Professor in Nutritional Sciences at Northumbria University, said: "At a time when millions of people have high cholesterol and excess tummy fat, this study is the latest of several human dietary intervention trials where mycoprotein has demonstrated significant cardiovascular benefits. "It's important as it highlights how making a simple dietary change to consume mycoprotein can deliver impressive heart health benefits in a very short period of time, cutting the risk of a person dying from cardiovascular disease by as much as nine per cent according to some models. It also demonstrates how mycoprotein could play a key role in supporting weight loss and long-term weight management -- which is hugely important when we consider the health risks of obesity and that almost two in three people in England are clinically overweight. "This latest study builds on previous research we conducted, which revealed that Quorn mycoprotein significantly reduces the presence of cancer biomarkers and improves gut health." Fungi-based proteins like Quorn's mycoprotein are a separate kingdom of food, distinct from plant-based foods, and they are increasingly being recognised for their distinct nutritional attributes. Cultivated via the age-old process of fermentation, mycoprotein is a 'complete protein' that's low in saturated fat, contains no cholesterol, and is recognised as a healthy source of protein and fibre. Quorn mycoprotein forms part of a healthy and sustainable diet, with mycoprotein included in the Eatwell Guide , the UK Government's healthy eating guidelines. Tim Finnigan, Scientific Advisor for Quorn Foods and Visiting Professor at Northumbria University, said: "While many millions of people have been diagnosed with raised cholesterol or high blood pressure, there are millions more who remain undiagnosed, and tackling these silent killers should remain an absolute priority. "There's a myriad of solutions to these challenges, some costing more than others, but what is clear from this research and other recent studies, is that people can make a huge difference to their heart health just by adding mycoprotein to their diet. "Made by fermenting a naturally occurring fungus, it replicates the taste and texture of meat incredibly well and is supported by a rich evidence base of more than 20 published studies showing its health benefits as a quality protein."