research

EveryAGE Counts: Seven in ten older Australians believe 'ageism against older people is a serious problem,’ but those in their 50s and 60s are significantly more likely to hold this view than those in their 80s and 90s, according to landmark new national polling commissioned for the nation's second Ageism Awareness Day today (Oct 7).

The research also finds a strong majority of older Australians want the government to invest in a national awareness campaign about ageism and its effects. 

This article is about a groundbreaking investigation from the Dept of Mathematics, University of Australia, into the activity of bots in driving social attitudes to the Ukrainian war. It finds that pro-Ukraine bots dominate social media.

Video & transcript. This  research is important because it is telling us how dangerous diazepam (Valium) and its drug family (the benzodiazepines - like Xanax and Serepax, and temazepam etc) are. Speaking as a mental health professional, I can say that people have known for a long time that benzodiazepines cause enormous harm to many people who take them. It is, however, extremely difficult to get this message out because of the power of the drug lobby.

Sometime this summer, Caitlin Creak will be tacking tiny tracking systems slightly larger than a rice grain to the heads of eight male Sydney Funnel-web spiders Atrax robustus to see where they wander at night. “Because this is a dangerous species, I do gas them first,” Ms Creak, a PhD candidate in UNSW Science’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, says.

I know what you did last summer: chemical clues in the marsupial’s whiskers can reveal what they ate months – and even seasons – ago.

Scientists can peer at least nine months into a Tasmanian devil’s past by studying its whiskers, a new study led by UNSW Sydney has found.

The long, wiry whiskers on these stocky marsupials hold chemical imprints from food they’ve eaten in the past – records that can help tell broader stories about their foraging habits, habitat use and how they respond to environmental change.

An international taskforce created by a UNSW Science psychology researcher has recommended a set of neurocognitive and mental health questionnaires to harmonise the assessment of patients with long COVID.

The recommended tests and questionnaires, published in the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, can be used internationally and in a variety of cultural settings.

“Because COVID-19 is a new disease and the research deriving from it is new, we need to develop excellent research methods to address questions, such as: how many people have the problem, how long does it last, how many patients fully recover, do these neurocognitive difficulties precipitate dementia in some people?,” lead author and Research Fellow in UNSW’s School of Psychology, Dr Lucette Cysique, says. “Now we will be able to assess these problems in the best way possible using these expert recommendations.”

Dr Cysique, an expert in HIV neuropsychology, last year set up a group made up of members of the NeuroCOVID International Neuropsychological Society special interest group, which is now a taskforce of more than 120 members. She says the NeuroCOVID International Neuropsychology taskforce recommendations encompass brief, medium, and comprehensive evaluations.

The brief evaluation includes a short screening conducted at a patients’ bedside or by telehealth, and short questionnaire to assess olfaction, taste, and mental health. At the more comprehensive level, there are options for cognitive computerised assessments, standard neuropsychological tests and objective testing of taste and smell. There are also mental health recommendations which cover a wide range of pandemic stress impacts and pre-existing psycho-social vulnerabilities. The recommendations can be applied in all phases of infection as well as in a variety of resource settings.

Dr Cysique and her colleagues trialled the recommended methods in the landmark ADAPT study led by Associate Professor Gail Matthews from the Kirby Institute, who is also Head of Infectious Diseases at St Vincent’s Hospital. The ADAPT study is over 150 individuals who have had COVID-19 for up to two years to understand how people recover following their infection.

“A significant proportion of individuals continue to have a variety of symptoms, or long COVID, several months after acute infection,” Prof. Matthews says.

Researchers within the study are exploring whether abnormalities in the immune response to COVID-19 are driving this new syndrome. “When studying a new phenomenon such as long COVID it is critical that we use a set of well validated globally generalisable measures such as these developed by the NeuroCOVID International Neuropsychology taskforce,” Prof. Matthews says.

Dr Cysique says the recommended methods showed up to 23 per cent of study participants had neurocognitive difficulties six months after infection.

“Importantly, we found that these neurocognitive difficulties were not associated with depression or anxiety but were associated with an increased immune response,” Dr Cysique says.

The use of standard neurocognitive methods was critical in finding this result.

Dr Cysique was one of the first neuropsychologists to recognise that COVID-19 may lead to neurocognitive complications. These complications may result from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, directly infecting the brain or provoking an abnormal immune response, she says.

“Both mechanisms occur in the context of HIV-related neurocognitive complications,” Dr Cysique says.

She says accurately knowing who is experiencing difficulties is the first step for intervention with long COVID.

“We know that some people develop a “brain fog” such as difficulties in concentrating and paying attention and this can persist months after infection,” Dr Cysique says. “In some patients, such difficulties are associated with a feeling of generalised fatigue which can be severe enough that people cannot work as efficiently as they used to.”

She says she hopes that the recommendations will lead to the creation of a large global research database which will produce robust research results to determine what is the frequency of neurocognitive problems in people with long COVID.

“This will assist in developing an accurate picture of what is the burden of neurocognitive difficulties post COVID,” Dr Cysique says. “This in turn will assist in patients’ management and inform health policies.”

A UNSW Sydney study says more evidence is needed before declaring the dingo a feral animal, casting a shadow over state governments’ justification for culling Australia’s largest carnivorous mammal. There is no conclusive evidence that the Australian dingo was once domesticated, UNSW scientists reveal, challenging the notion that the animal is therefore feral.

In a study published today by UNSW Sydney researchers, Professor Bill Ballard and Dr Laura Wilson suggest more research is needed that incorporates ancient DNA and whole genome data before such a conclusion can be made. The pair also examine evidence supporting the idea that the dingo was tamed, rather than domesticated.

The question on whether or not the dingo was ever domesticated is an important one because by definition, a feral animal is one that has returned to the wild following domestication. It overarches an ongoing, politically charged debate between governments, pastoralists, miners, scientists and conservationists throughout Australia.

Legislation

This year the Western Australian government is planning reforms to the Biodiversity Conservation Act which will not only continue to define the dingo as a wild dog that is not native to Australia, but will also remove the classification of the animal as part of Australia’s fauna.

The upshot is that dingoes, which are thought to have lived on mainland Australia for at least 3500 years, could be trapped and killed with impunity, with some pastoralists and mining companies favouring culls to protect people and livestock.

In an attempt to take the heat out of the debate and reintroduce a scholarly framework for discussion, the authors reviewed past research to test whether there are indicators of dingoes being domesticated versus evidence the canids* were merely tamed.

They invoke Darwin’s writings in 1868 to make the distinction between domestication – defined as artificial selection as a result of breeding by humans for desired traits – and the taming of an animal, where a species is unconsciously selected by humans through interaction that may casually benefit both parties.

If there is evidence the dingo was tamed rather than domesticated (and has since reverted to its untamed ancestral wild state), the authors argue the Western Australian government’s policies are “based on an incomplete understanding of the evolutionary history of the canid”.

Genetic markers

Study lead-author Professor Ballard is an evolutionary biologist from UNSW's School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences. He says the research, which examines genetic markers to distinguish untamed and wild canids from ‘feralised’ dogs, could be used to inform management strategies.

“Untamed and wild canids are not expected to carry signatures of artificial selection which are the hallmarks of domestication,” he says.

“In such a case, ancestral dingoes are predicted to have fully intergrated into the ecosystem upon arrival to Australia.

“In contrast, feralised dogs are expected to show genetic signatures of human selection, which would influence the foods they eat, their responses to humans as well as brain functions.

“But even if the latter scenario is true and dingoes can be regarded as once-domesticated, an open question that could be the subject of a future proposal is ‘Does 3500 years of integration into the Australian biota make them native?’”

Morphology

Co-author Dr Laura Wilson, from UNSW’s School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, brings her expertise in morphology to the study. She says expressing the knowns and unknowns about the dingo’s biological and evolutionary profile makes it an exciting time for research on the dingo.

“There are a whole host of morphological features that are associated with domestication in mammals, and dogs actually stand out as the extreme, being the only domesticated mammal to possess the full suite of these features,” she says.

“These include, for example, shortening of the face, reduction in brain size, depigmentation of the skin or fur, development of a curly tail and floppy ears.”

In contrast, pure dingoes have been shown to have cranial growth patterns more similar to wolves than domesticated dogs, larger brains and a more discrete breeding season producing fewer pups than domestic dogs.

Dingoes are also notably less sociable with humans than domesticated dogs, characterised by a weaker ability to interpret gestures and a shorter time maintaining eye contact.

At the genetic level, there is consensus that there are at least two dingo ecotypes (Alpine and Desert) and these are closely related to New Guinea Singing Dogs. The authors note that some studies suggest Alpine dingoes are genetically similar to the African Basenji dog, implying dingoes were historically domesticated but now feralised.

Other studies examine the presence of the Amylase gene which regulates enzymes to help with the digestion of starches. In domesticated dogs, there are far more copies of the gene, which assists with a human-provided, starch-rich diet, whereas in dingoes and their wolf ancestors, copies of the gene exists in lower numbers, suggesting the dingo’s diet was not reliant on humans.

Professor Ballard is in a good position to be talking about dingo genes, having won the World’s Most Interesting Genome competition in 2017. But after looking for clues in support of and against the dingo’s domestication, he is convinced of the need of more research before making decisions about its future.

“We actually know less than I thought,” he says. “So I think it’s time to be more strategic and rigorous with our studies so that debates are based on data and not anecdotes or ‘gut’ feelings.”

* members of the dog family Canidae, including wolves, jackals, foxes, dingoes and dogs.