Anti-insulin protein helps queen ants live five times longer than workers

Good news! Towards longevity!

"... The research revealed that in a certain species of ant this anti-aging pathway is activated when workers transition to the position of queen and helps the insects live five times longer. ...
queens tend to live for between four and five years, while workers barely last longer than seven months. ...
Here the researchers discovered that when the ant’s ovary production kicks into gear another protein is expressed. Called Imp-L2, the molecule is described as a kind of “anti-insulin” protein. This protein blocks insulin signaling in different pathway found in fat cells and it's this mechanism that is thought to trigger the incredible lifespan-extending feature of the queen. ..."

From the abstract:

"In most organisms, reproduction is correlated with shorter life span. However, the reproductive queen in eusocial insects exhibits a much longer life span than that of workers. In Harpegnathos ants, when the queen dies, workers can undergo an adult caste switch to reproductive pseudo-queens (gamergates), exhibiting a five-times prolonged life span. To explore the relation between reproduction and longevity, we compared gene expression during caste switching. Insulin expression is increased in the gamergate brain that correlates with increased lipid synthesis and production of vitellogenin in the fat body, both transported to the egg. This results from activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) branch of the insulin signaling pathway. By contrast, the production in the gamergate developing ovary of anti-insulin Imp-L2 leads to decreased signaling of the AKT/forkhead box O (FOXO) branch in the fat body, which is consistent with their extended longevity."

Anti-insulin protein helps queen ants live five times longer than workers

Insulin signaling in the long-lived reproductive caste of ants (no public access)

Robots can be used to assess children’s mental wellbeing, study suggests

This might be an interesting or even promising approach!

"... The children were willing to confide in the robot, in some cases sharing information with the robot that they had not yet shared via the standard assessment method of online or in-person questionnaires. This is the first time that robots have been used to assess mental wellbeing in children. ...
During each session, the robot performed four different tasks: 1) asked open-ended questions about happy and sad memories over the last week; 2) administered the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ); 3) administered a picture task inspired by the Children’s Apperception Test (CAT), where children are asked to answer questions related to pictures shown; and 4) administered the Revised Children’s Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) for generalised anxiety, panic disorder and low mood. ...
Study participants all said they enjoyed talking with the robot: some shared information with the robot that they hadn’t shared either in person or on the online questionnaire. ..."

From the abstract:

"Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) show promise in helping children during therapeutic and clinical interventions. However, using SARs for the evaluation of mental wellbeing of children has not yet been explored. Thus, this paper presents an empirical study with 28 children 8-13 years old interacting with a Nao robot in a 45-minute session where the robot administered (robotised) the Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ) and the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS). Prior to the experimental session, we also evaluated children’s wellbeing using established standardised approaches via online RCADS questionnaires filled by the children (self-report) and their parents (parent-report). We clustered the participants into three groups (lower, medium, and higher tertile) based on their SMFQ scores. Further, we analysed the questionnaire response across the three clusters and across the different modes of administration (self-report, parent-report, and robotised). Our results show that the robotised evaluation seems to be the most suitable mode in identifying wellbeing related anomalies in children across the three clusters of participants as compared with the self-report and the parent-report modes. Further, children with decreasing levels of wellbeing (lower, medium and higher tertiles) exhibit different response patterns: children of higher tertile are more negative in their responses to the robot while the ones of lower tertile are more positive in their responses to the robot. Findings from this work show that SARs can be a promising tool to potentially evaluate mental wellbeing related concerns in children."

Robots can be used to assess children’s mental wellbeing, study suggests | University of Cambridge Robots can be better at detecting mental wellbeing issues in children than parent-reported or self-reported testing, a new study suggests.

Can Robots Help in the Evaluation of Mental Wellbeing in Children? An Empirical Study (open access)

Researchers discover new way fat cells talk directly with the brain

Amazing stuff! This discovery may offer new treatments for e.g. obesity, diabetes!

"... Up until now it was thought that the nerves extending into fat tissue were mostly linked to this sympathetic nervous system pathway. ...
Two novel methods were deployed in this research. One is called HYBRiD, and it renders fat tissue transparent, allowing researchers a unique window into the paths of neurons. The other method is dubbed ROOT, and it lets the researchers study exactly how certain neurons localized in fat tissue communicate with other parts of the body. ..."

"... For years, it was assumed that hormones passively floating through the blood were the way that a person’s fat—called adipose tissue—could send information related to stress and metabolism to the brain. Now, Scripps Research scientists report in Nature that newly identified sensory neurons carry a stream of messages from adipose tissue to the brain. ...
“The discovery of these neurons suggests for the first time that your brain is actively surveying your fat, rather than just passively receiving messages about it,” ...
The researchers discovered that nearly half of these neurons didn’t connect to the sympathetic nervous system, but instead to dorsal root ganglia—an area of the brain where all sensory neurons originate. ...
The experiments revealed that when the brain doesn’t receive sensory messages from adipose tissue, programs triggered by the sympathetic nervous system—related to the conversion of white fat to brown fat—become overly active in fat cells, resulting in a larger than normal fat pad with especially high levels of brown fat, which breaks down other fat and sugar molecules to produce heat. Indeed, the animals with blocked sensory neurons—and high levels of sympathetic signaling—had increased body temperatures. ..."

From the abstract:

"Adipose tissues communicate with the central nervous system to maintain whole-body energy homeostasis. The mainstream view is that circulating hormones secreted by the fat convey the metabolic state to the brain, which integrates peripheral information and regulates adipocyte function through noradrenergic sympathetic output. Moreover, somatosensory neurons of the dorsal root ganglia innervate adipose tissue. ... Here we developed viral, genetic and imaging strategies to manipulate sensory nerves in an organ-specific manner in mice. This enabled us to visualize the entire axonal projection of dorsal root ganglia from the soma to subcutaneous adipocytes, establishing the anatomical underpinnings of adipose sensory innervation. Functionally, selective sensory ablation in adipose tissue enhanced the lipogenic and thermogenetic transcriptional programs, resulting in an enlarged fat pad, enrichment of beige adipocytes and elevated body temperature under thermoneutral conditions. The sensory-ablation-induced phenotypes required intact sympathetic function. ..."

Researchers discover new way fat cells talk directly with the brain

Scripps Research scientists eavesdrop on communication between fat and brain Newly discovered sensory neurons send messages from fat tissue to the brain and could eventually be co-opted to treat obesity or metabolic disease.

The role of somatosensory innervation of adipose tissues (open access)

Fig. 1: Adipose tissues receive robust somatosensory innervations

Picture of the day: Election integrity matters

 How often does it happen? One time is too much!

Credits: Voter Fraud Cases Continue to Occur, Putting Fair and Free Elections in Jeopardy

Cleaner at Israeli Defense Minister Gantz's house convicted for offering to spy for Iran

They say life is stranger than fiction! What kind of a drug was this cleaner on or how stupid one can be? 

Israel probably has one of the best and most vigilant intelligence services in the world.

Mercy prevailed in this case given the fairly lenient sentencing!

"... According to a Justice Ministry statement, Omri Goren Gorochovsky, 37, from Lod, offered to supply information from within Gantz’s house, including classified documents from his computer.

The attempt was thwarted by the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), and no classified material was revealed, the Defense Ministry said. ..."

Cleaner at Gantz's house convicted for spying for Black Shadow - Israel News - The Jerusalem Post He has been sentenced to 3 years in jail in a plea deal.

Parents indicted for raping their daughter for 13 years and prostituting her

What a horror and sick story! One of the takeaways is that this was only possible, because the mother collaborated and facilitated these repeated crimes.

Not only that, the mother actively participated in the sex crimes against her daughter.

As is so often the case, there is a woman involved facilitating rape! This is a subject rarely mentioned.

P.S. This is actually the second such case reported out of Israel. I blogged here about a similar case just two months ago. This is a little bit odd!

Parents indicted for raping their daughter for 13 years - Israel News - The Jerusalem Post

Pelosi seeks ambassadorship to Italy if GOP wins House majority in midterms. Really!

Does she think the upcoming mid-term elections are lost? It seems so!

What! Why can't this 82 year old nutty and erratic woman just retire and spend some time with her grand kids!

Please spare the Italians having to deal with her!

Living in a gerontocracy!

Pelosi seeks ambassadorship to Italy if GOP wins House majority in midterms | Fox Business Biden has not yet nominated an ambassador to Italy since entering White House

The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil (Official Lyric Video)

Enjoy! Pleased to meet you! One of Rolling Stones best songs!

Whitney Houston - My Love Is Your Love (Live on Top Of The Pops 1999)

Enjoy! Some unusual twists and turns!

France to restart all nuclear reactors by winter amid energy crunch

Bravo! Vive la France!

Joseph Pulitzer: The Birth of Yellow Journalism

Recommendable!

Is this Europe's oldest treaty signed in the Pyrenean foothills around 1375?

Very recommendable! It is celebrated every year since then with good food, music and dance!

Qudit Computers Go Beyond Ones and Zeroes

Recommendable! Could this be a breakthrough?

From the abstract:

"Most quantum computers use binary encoding to store information in qubits—the quantum analogue of classical bits. Yet, the underlying physical hardware consists of information carriers that are not necessarily binary, but typically exhibit a rich multilevel structure. Operating them as qubits artificially restricts their degrees of freedom to two energy levels. ... Here we demonstrate a universal quantum processor using trapped ions that act as qudits with a local Hilbert-space dimension of up to seven. With a performance similar to qubit quantum processors, this approach enables the native simulation of high-dimensional quantum systems, as well as more efficient implementation of qubit-based algorithms."

“Qudit” Computers Go Beyond Ones and Zeroes - IEEE Spectrum New machine works with eight qudits, each capable of encoding seven states at once

A universal qudit quantum processor with trapped ions (no public access, but article above contains link to PDF)

Deutschland hat gewaltige Vorräte an Erdgas im Boden, aber Fracking ist Taboo!

Der gewaltige Unverstand in der Bananenrepublik D. lässt sich so einfach erkennen!

Lieber Erdgas aus Russland importieren als selbst produzieren und sich in Abhängigkeit begeben! Welcher Kleingeist!

Umweltschutz als Ersatzreligion! Opium des Volkes! Gartenzwerge berauscht jeglicher Vernunft!

Fracking - Im Untergrund | Cicero Online Deutschland hat gewaltige Vorräte an Erdgas im Boden. Doch sie werden nicht geborgen – aus Angst vor der Fracking-Technologie. Dabei sind deren Gefahren beherrschbar. Das stellte bereits vor dem Ukrainekrieg eine Expertenkommission der Bundesregierung fest. Doch die Ampel ignoriert deren Bericht, weil sie den Konflikt mit Umweltaktivisten scheut.

Zwei Atomkraftwerke sollen bis April 2023 als Notreserve bereitstehen. Wirklich!

Wieder ein besonders schlechter Witz aus der Bananenrepublik D.!

Doch immerhin bis April 2023 und nur zwei von drei Atomkraftwerken! Unglaublich!

Deutsche Atomkraftwerke gehen planmäßig vom Netz Der Atommeiler im niedersächsischen Emsland wird wie geplant zum Jahresende stillgelegt. Isar 2 und Neckarwestheim sollen allerdings bis Mitte April 2023 noch als Reserve zur Verfügung stehen.

Doppelgängers (look alike humans) Similar in Looks and DNA

Amazing stuff! Fascinating! Where is my Doppelgänger? 😊

The massive proliferation and availability of facial photos on the web etc. has made it possible to identify unrelated human beings who are close human doubles in large numbers as far as the similarity of their faces is concerned.

I was not aware that the German word doppelgänger also has entered the English language until now.

“... To answer that question, [researchers] first needed to find doppelgängers. The team collaborated with Canadian photographer François Brunelle, who has been collecting and sharing portraits of look-alikes around the world since 1999 as a part of his “I’m not a look-alike” project. ...

The team found that people who look very similar are also very similar genetically, says Esteller. Comparing the 16 pairs of true look-alikes with 16 other pairs photographed by Brunelle that hadn’t been scored as look-alikes by all three algorithms, the researchers found that true look-alikes shared more genetic variants with each other than did the 16 less similar pairs. However, the true look-alike pairs differed when it came to patterns of gene expression and bacterial communities. ...
the team used “a very extensive questionnaire,” which revealed that physical features such as weight and height also tended to be similar in doppelgängers, as did lifestyle traits, such as smoking habits and educational attainment. ... "

From the abstract:

"The human face is one of the most visible features of our unique identity as individuals. Interestingly, monozygotic twins share almost identical facial traits and the same DNA sequence but could exhibit differences in other biometrical parameters. The expansion of the world wide web and the possibility to exchange pictures of humans across the planet has increased the number of people identified online as virtual twins or doubles that are not family related. Herein, we have characterized in detail a set of “look-alike” humans, defined by facial recognition algorithms, for their multiomics landscape. We report that these individuals share similar genotypes and differ in their DNA methylation and microbiome landscape. These results not only provide insights about the genetics that determine our face but also might have implications for the establishment of other human anthropometric properties and even personality characteristics."

Doppelgängers Similar in Looks and DNA: Study | The Scientist Magazine®

Look-alike humans identified by facial recognition algorithms show genetic similarities (open access)

English for trippers: A Desertion for dessert at the desert oasis?

 A soldier deserted in the desert!

50 years after the 1972 Munich Olympic Games massacre of Israeli athletes and staff

I was 11 years old when this happened! It was a shock to me to learn what human depravity and evil is capable of!

These Arab terrorists and murderers brutally violated the spirit of the Olympic Games for all the world to see:
"... Each Panhellenic festival was marked by a truce, or ekecheiria, which literally means “holding of hands.” Inscribed on a bronze diskos displayed at Olympia, the truce not only allowed athletes and fans to travel safely, but also provided a common basis for peace among the Greeks. ..." (Source)

Nothing could have justified the acts of these Arab psychopaths and fanatics! It was the most stupidest thing they could do in front of running cameras and a world audience! How much did this attack harm their cause?

Then, on 9/11/2001 followed the attack on the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan.

Will Liz Truss be the next Thatcher? Hopefully!

 Boris Johnson had the opportunity to be a great Prime Minister. He blew it!

Brexit: I am so glad that the British citizens decided to leave the EU.

It was reported that she changed her political views drastically several times during her political career. An omen or just typical political bad mouthing? Let's hope she will turn out to be more like Thatcher than May!

The World urgently needs a better Western leader than e.g. the demented and senile 46th President of the U.S. Macron or Scholz are barely mentionable.

Liz Truss is UK's next prime minister, succeeding Boris Johnson

Michael Wood: The Story of India

I just started to watch this great documentary series from 2007 again on YouTube! I will add more episodes as time passes by.

Very recommendable! Michael Wood is such a gifted story teller and his encounters with all kinds of people is fascinating! He captures the splendor and variety of India quite well.

BBC The Story of India - Episode 1 - Beginnings

BBC The Story of India - Episode 2 - The Power of Ideas

BBC The Story of India - Episode 3 - Spice Routes and Silk Roads

BBC The Story of India - Episode 4 - Ages of Gold

BBC The Story of India - Episode 5 - The Meeting of Two Oceans

BBC The Story of India - Episode 6 - Freedom

How This Florida Town Became The Sea Sponge Capital Of The World

Recommendable! Why did some Greek immigrants like Tarpon Springs on the Gulf Coast of central Florida so much. Something you probably did not know about Florida! 😊

Join us in the Google AI Test Kitchen

Very interesting approach to test early stage new technology! Volunteer guinea pigs please come forward! Don't burn your paws or inhale too much smoke! 😊

"... That’s why we introduced an app called AI Test Kitchen at Google I/O earlier this year. It provides a new way for people to learn about, experience, and give feedback on emerging AI technology, like LaMDA. Starting today [8/25/2022], you can register your interest for the AI Test Kitchen as it begins to gradually roll out to small groups of users in the US, launching on Android today and iOS in the coming weeks.
Similar to a real test kitchen, AI Test Kitchen will serve a rotating set of experimental demos. These aren’t finished products, but they’re designed to give you a taste of what’s becoming possible with AI in a responsible way. Our first set of demos explore the capabilities of our latest version of LaMDA, which has undergone key safety improvements. ..."

Join us in the AI Test Kitchen

Credits: Synced Global AI Weekly

Corals Upend Longstanding Idea About Genetic Inheritance in animals

Amazing stuff! More variety for sessile animals!

"... The finding points to a new source of genetic variation in coral that may hasten the rate at which these organisms evolve and adapt. ..."

From the abstract:

"Since 1892, it has been widely assumed that somatic mutations are evolutionarily irrelevant in animals because they cannot be inherited by offspring. However, some nonbilaterians segregate the soma and germline late in development or never, leaving the evolutionary fate of their somatic mutations unknown. By investigating uni- and biparental reproduction in the coral Acropora palmata (Cnidaria, Anthozoa), we found that uniparental, meiotic offspring harbored 50% of the 268 somatic mutations present in their parent. Thus, somatic mutations accumulated in adult coral animals, entered the germline, and were passed on to swimming larvae that grew into healthy juvenile corals. In this way, somatic mutations can increase allelic diversity and facilitate adaptation across habitats and generations in animals."

Corals Upend Longstanding Idea About Genetic Inheritance | The Scientist Magazine® Most animals can’t pass on mutations that arise spontaneously throughout their lives—but Elkhorn corals can.

Inheritance of somatic mutations by animal offspring (open access)

Fig. 1. Detection and mapping of somatic mutations across a parent coral colony and five nearest neighbor colonies (ramets) from the same coral genet

Fentanyl’s stops your breathing before you realize it

Recommendable! This should scare the heck out of fentanyl users or would be users! Why not advertise this more prominently to would be users!

"... tests of the brain’s electrical activity revealed fentanyl’s effects over time and indicated that the drug stops people’s breathing before other noticeable changes and before they lose consciousness.
In the study, electroencephalogram (EEG) tests were run for 25 patients undergoing general anesthesia for surgeries lasting two hours or more. The researchers discovered that certain EEG patterns were associated with respiration, sedation, and loss of consciousness. ...
The EEG tests ... revealed that fentanyl begins to impair breathing about four minutes before there is any change in alertness and at 1,700-times lower drug concentrations than those that cause sedation. “This explains why fentanyl is so deadly: it stops people’s breathing before they even realize it,” ...
The findings make it clear that no amount of fentanyl would be safe outside of a clinical setting with trained specialists. ..."

From the abstract:

"Opioid drugs influence multiple brain circuits in parallel to produce analgesia as well as side effects including respiratory depression. At present we do not have real-time clinical biomarkers of these brain effects. We describe here the results of an experiment to characterize the electroencephalographic signatures of fentanyl in humans. We find that increasing concentrations of fentanyl induce a frontal theta band (4-8 Hz) signature distinct from slow-delta oscillations related to sleep and sedation. We also report that respiratory depression, quantified by decline in an index of instantaneous minute ventilation, occurs at ≈ 1700-fold lower concentrations than those that produce sedation as measured by reaction time. The EEG biomarker we describe could facilitate real-time monitoring of opioid drug effects and enable more precise and personalized opioid administration."

Study reveals fentanyl’s effects on the brain – Harvard Gazette

An EEG Biomarker of Fentanyl Drug Effects (open access)

Bat neurons can rapidly switch computations

Amazing stuff! Intriguing experimental setup! This study may lead to a better understanding of neurons as neurons appear to be much more dynamic and multitasking than previously thought.

"... “Most brain research projects focus on one type of behavior at a time, so little is known about the way the brain handles dynamically changing behavioral needs,” ...
when spotting another animal flying rapidly toward them, the bats promptly raised their rate of echolocation clicks, signifying elevated attention levels. As their attention increased, a rapid shift occurred in the neural circuits in the bats’ hippocampus, the main brain area responsible for navigation, among other functions. The scientists discovered this shift by recording electrical signals from individual neurons in this area, known as place cells. ...
To the scientists’ surprise, this switch occurred extremely rapidly, within some 100 milliseconds, or one-tenth of a second. ...
Some parts of the brain have already been shown to be less rigidly determined than thought – a phenomenon known as plasticity – but this occurs on slower time-scales, reflecting longer-term biochemical changes in the brain’s synapses, the connections between neurons. ..."

From the abstract:

"Throughout their daily lives, animals and humans often switch between different behaviours. However, neuroscience research typically studies the brain while the animal is performing one behavioural task at a time, and little is known about how brain circuits represent switches between different behaviours. Here we tested this question using an ethological setting: two bats flew together in a long 135 m tunnel, and switched between navigation when flying alone (solo) and collision avoidance as they flew past each other (cross-over). Bats increased their echolocation click rate before each cross-over, indicating attention to the other bat. Hippocampal CA1 neurons represented the bat’s own position when flying alone (place coding). Notably, during cross-overs, neurons switched rapidly to jointly represent the interbat distance by self-position. This neuronal switch was very fast—as fast as 100 ms—which could be revealed owing to the very rapid natural behavioural switch. The neuronal switch correlated with the attention signal, as indexed by echolocation. Interestingly, the different place fields of the same neuron often exhibited very different tuning to interbat distance, creating a complex non-separable coding of position by distance. Theoretical analysis showed that this complex representation yields more efficient coding. Overall, our results suggest that during dynamic natural behaviour, hippocampal neurons can rapidly switch their core computation to represent the relevant behavioural variables, supporting behavioural flexibility."

Neurons Caught Rapidly Switching Gears - Life Sciences | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries A new study suggests that neurons are not programmed for a single task, but rather are highly dynamic and agile

Natural switches in behaviour rapidly modulate hippocampal coding (open access)

Extended Data Fig. 2: Bats were attentive to the other bat during cross-overs, as indicated by increased echolocation click-rate.

English for trippers: The bowl, the bowel, and bowling

Having frequent bowel movements inside a bowling alley is no fun!

Bowling alley or bowling bowl?

Targeted and personalized bacteriophage treatment of intestinal inflammation

Amazing stuff! This seems to be very promising approach!

"... researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of a potential therapy for killing inflammation-causing gut bacteria in a targeted manner: by using viruses that infect them. ...
“There are thousands of different phages, and their big advantage is that each of them specializes in attacking a different type of bacteria,” ...
They compared the composition of gut microbes in healthy volunteers to that in people with two major forms of inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. A detailed computational analysis helped them zero in on several bacterial strains not found in the healthy individuals that were substantially enriched in people with the disease, particularly in those whose condition was worsening. The study participants were recruited from four countries in different parts of the world – France, Germany, Israel and the United States – to make sure that the results would hold true regardless of locale. After identifying several strains of the Klebsiella pneumoniae bacterium as likely contributors to intestinal inflammation, the researchers confirmed this finding by implanting these bacteria into mice used for the study of inflammatory bowel disease. Indeed, the human Klebsiella pneumoniae strains associated with this disease worsened inflammation and intestinal damage in recipient mice.
They compared the composition of gut microbes in healthy volunteers to that in people with two major forms
Next, the researchers screened thousands of phages, selecting about 40 that were most active against the human bacterial strains they had identified as being related to intestinal inflammation. ... scientists used recent insights into the molecular mechanisms of this arms race in order to give their phages the upper hand against the bacteria. That is, they looked for the ideal combination of phages that would prevent the bacteria from fighting back. A cocktail of 5 phages was selected based on genetic profiles, structural features revealed through electron microscopy and extensive combinatorial screening for activity against a variety of Klebsiella pneumoniae strains, including ones resistant to antibiotics. Taken together, these 5 phages prevented the emergence of bacterial mutants that could spread resistance. ..."

From the abstract:

"Human gut commensals are increasingly suggested to impact non-communicable diseases, such as inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), yet their targeted suppression remains a daunting unmet challenge. In four geographically distinct IBD cohorts (n = 537), we identify a clade of Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) strains, featuring a unique antibiotics resistance and mobilome signature, to be strongly associated with disease exacerbation and severity. Transfer of clinical IBD-associated Kp strains into colitis-prone, germ-free, and colonized mice enhances intestinal inflammation. Stepwise generation of a lytic five-phage combination, targeting sensitive and resistant IBD-associated Kp clade members through distinct mechanisms, enables effective Kp suppression in colitis-prone mice, driving an attenuated inflammation and disease severity. Proof-of-concept assessment of Kp-targeting phages in an artificial human gut and in healthy volunteers demonstrates gastric acid-dependent phage resilience, safety, and viability in the lower gut. Collectively, we demonstrate the feasibility of orally administered combination phage therapy in avoiding resistance, while effectively inhibiting non-communicable disease-contributing pathobionts."

The Viruses That Fight Disease - Life Sciences | Weizmann Wonder Wander - News, Features and Discoveries

Targeted suppression of human IBD-associated gut microbiota commensals by phage consortia for treatment of intestinal inflammation (no public access)

Members of the 5-phage cocktail for treating inflammatory bowel disease, viewed with an electron microscope

The Indian woman who taught the United Kingdom how to cook Indian food on TV in 1982

Recommendable! Meet the original spice girl! Salivate! 😊

India raises concern over UK's transfer of Pakistan arms to Ukraine

You better pray that the Russo-Ukrainian war does not turn into World War III. More and more countries are getting involved by the day.

On sleep loss leads to the withdrawal of human helping across individuals, groups, and large-scale societies

I guess, this latest study confirms longstanding conventional wisdom! Sleep more, be happier! 😊 Being well rested means so much!

This study also sheds new light on the many detrimental effects of daylight savings time! I am so glad I live in Arizona (except for the Navajo Nation), which does not obey DST! This relic of World War I should finally be abolished!

From the abstract:

"... Across 3 replicating studies, here, we demonstrate that sleep loss represents one previously unrecognized factor dictating whether humans choose to help each other, observed at 3 different scales (within individuals, across individuals, and across societies). First, at an individual level, 1 night of sleep loss triggers the withdrawal of help from one individual to another. Moreover, fMRI findings revealed that the withdrawal of human helping is associated with deactivation of key nodes within the social cognition brain network that facilitates prosociality. Second, at a group level, ecological night-to-night reductions in sleep across several nights predict corresponding next-day reductions in the choice to help others during day-to-day interactions. Third, at a large-scale national level, we demonstrate that 1 h of lost sleep opportunity, inflicted by the transition to Daylight Saving Time, reduces real-world altruistic helping through the act of donation giving, established through the analysis of over 3 million charitable donations. Therefore, inadequate sleep represents a significant influential force determining whether humans choose to help one another, observable across micro- and macroscopic levels of civilized interaction. The implications of this effect may be non-trivial when considering the essentiality of human helping in the maintenance of cooperative, civil society, combined with the reported decline in sufficient sleep in many first-world nations."

Sleep loss leads to the withdrawal of human helping across individuals, groups, and large-scale societies | PLOS Biology (open access)

NASA: Artemis I Launch Attempt Scrubbed again

What is going on at NASA? Too much diversity, inclusion, and equity or ESG or Global Warming Hoax/Climate Change Religion nonsense? 

Perhaps, a manifestation of a case of severe mission creep?

Artemis I Launch Attempt Scrubbed – Artemis

Marijuana legalization in Latin America

Recommendable! Can some lessons be learnt here? The question of legalizing and regulating drugs in a society is controversial.

Many questions remain:

E.g. what about heightened individual responsibility when consuming recreational drugs (e.g. car crash involving drugged driver)?
E.g. how do we make sure that children are not consuming recreational drugs (it is already difficult with alcohol).

E.g. how does the legalization of marijuana affect other, still illicit drugs?

"In January, Mexico approved new rules for medical marijuana, marking another step toward potential full legalization of the drug. The move followed the 2018 decision by Mexico’s supreme court that the prohibition of recreational marijuana was unconstitutional, and the Senate’s passage in November 2020 of legislation to legalize recreational marijuana use, which is expected to go before the Lower House in the coming months. Legalization would make Mexico the largest legal marijuana market in the world, but it is several years behind Latin America’s cannabis pioneer. 

In 2013, Uruguay became the first country in the world to legalize marijuana. Although Uruguay decriminalized possession of the drug in 1974, the country’s decision to attempt full legalization was controversial. ...

Importantly, legalization did not signal deregulation: Only Uruguayan pharmacies are allowed to sell the drug, and the regulations limit its sale to citizens who register with the government and limit their purchase to ten grams a week. ...

Uruguay’s experience offers insights for Mexico and other countries contemplating legalization.
Despite fears of an explosion in marijuana use in Uruguay, there has only been a five percentage point increase in users since 2013. Still, official producers have failed to meet demand; only a third of users purchased marijuana from the regulated market in 2018.

To expand on the supplies from the Canadian International Marijuana Corporation and U.S.-based Simbiosys, Uruguay issued three more production licenses in 2019, to U.S.-based Biopharmaceutical Research Company and Uruguay-based Jabelor and Legira. Uruguay-based Fotmer, Dormul and Burey are licensed to produce medical marijuana for Uruguay. In 2020, the Canadian firm Boreal opened a medical hemp processing plant in Uruguay. ...
Now, marijuana growers in Uruguay are ready to look beyond domestic users, especially should major markets like Mexico open up. Brazil legalized medical marijuana in 2019 but does not permit its local production, creating an opportunity for Uruguayan producers. For the 12 Uruguayan firms exporting marijuana last year, the principal markets were Portugal, Switzerland and Israel. Uruguay began to export marijuana in 2019 and doubled exports in 2020, to $7.3 million. ..."

Marijuana: Made in Uruguay | Wilson Center (from February 2021)

Homeoffice-Regeln von Bundesarbeitsminister Heil für den Winter sind überzogen

Die Spinnereien in der Bananenrepublik gehen munter weiter! Kanzler Scholz entpuppt sich mehr und mehr als unfähig!

Heil ist heillos!

Nach den chinesischen Kommunisten kommen gleich die Deutschen mit blödsinnigen Maßnahmen in der post Covid-19 Ära! Ziemlich grotesk!

Homeoffice-Regeln von Hubertus Heil für den Winter sind überzogen Die geplanten Homeoffice-Regeln von Arbeitsminister Heil sind überzogen. Unternehmen und ihre Mitarbeiter haben inzwischen gelernt, mit der Pandemie umzugehen.

English for trippers: Surely surly

Don't mix them up! Surely confusing why these two very dissimilar words are so similar in its spelling. It may cause a cause bad temper! 😄 

Study finds enzyme in the brain is a regulator for body weight

Good news!

"... In a new study, they found that removing the enzyme from neurons in a part of the brain known as the hypothalamus led mice to gain weight and burn less fat. This finding, they say, suggests that the enzyme could be a target for treating metabolic disease. ...
For the study, Yale researchers focused on an enzyme called O-linked b-D-N-acetylglucosamine transferase, or OGT. ...

As a first step, researchers observed what happened to OGT in neurons of the ventromedial hypothalamus when food intake was adjusted. They found that when mice consumed less food, OGT levels went up. ...
... bred mice that lacked OGT in neurons of the ventromedial hypothalamus. They found that the mice gained weight very quickly on a normal diet, becoming much heavier than typical mice even though they were eating the same amount of food and were just as physically active. ...
But in the study, mice lacking OGT didn’t burn fat as much as other mice when food was restricted. ..."

From the abstract:

"The ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) is known to regulate body weight and counterregulatory response. However, how VMH neurons regulate lipid metabolism and energy balance remains unknown. O-linked β-D-N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification (O-GlcNAcylation), catalyzed by O-GlcNAc transferase (OGT), is considered a cellular sensor of nutrients and hormones. Here, we report that genetic ablation of OGT in VMH neurons inhibits neuronal excitability. Mice with VMH neuron-specific OGT deletion show rapid weight gain, increased adiposity, and reduced energy expenditure, without significant changes in food intake or physical activity. The obesity phenotype is associated with adipocyte hypertrophy and reduced lipolysis of white adipose tissues. In addition, OGT deletion in VMH neurons down-regulates the sympathetic activity and impairs the sympathetic innervation of white adipose tissues. These findings identify OGT in the VMH as a homeostatic set point that controls body weight and underscore the importance of the VMH in regulating lipid metabolism through white adipose tissue–specific innervation."

Study finds enzyme in the brain is a ‘metastat’ for body weight | YaleNews

Ventromedial hypothalamic OGT drives adipose tissue lipolysis and curbs obesity (open access)

Fig. 8. OGT is required for the neuronal activity of the VMH.

Making oxygen injectable into the human body

Amazing stuff! Could become a life safer!

"... a new approach to transporting gases in aqueous environments using porous liquids. The authors identified and tailored multiple porous frameworks that can store much higher concentrations of gases, including oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2), than normal aqueous solutions. This breakthrough may hold the key to creating injectable sources of oxygen as a bridge therapy for cardiac arrest, creating artificial blood substitutes, and overcoming longstanding challenges in preserving organs for transplants. ...
Liquids with permanent microporosity are a new class of materials that are composed of microscopic porous particles dispersed in a liquid medium. ..."

From the abstract:

"Liquids with permanent microporosity can absorb larger quantities of gas molecules than conventional solvents, providing new opportunities for liquid-phase gas storage, transport and reactivity. ... Here we report a generalizable thermodynamic strategy to preserve permanent microporosity and impart high gas solubilities to liquid water. Specifically, we show how the external and internal surface chemistry of microporous zeolite and metal–organic framework (MOF) nanocrystals can be tailored to promote the formation of stable dispersions in water while maintaining dry networks of micropores that are accessible to gas molecules. As a result of their permanent microporosity, these aqueous fluids can concentrate gases, including oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2), to much higher densities than are found in typical aqueous environments. When these fluids are oxygenated, record-high capacities of O2 can be delivered to hypoxic red blood cells, highlighting one potential application of this new class of microporous liquids for physiological gas transport."

Designing a way to make oxygen injectable – Harvard Gazette Porous liquids hold promise as bridge therapy, game-changer for artificial blood substitutes, preserving organs for transplant

Microporous water with high gas solubilities (no public access)

Single atoms swim inside the liquid cell of a graphene sandwich

Amazing stuff!

"... a new approach that enables them to track the motion of single atoms on a surface when that surface is surrounded by liquid. They showed that the atoms behave very differently under these circumstances than they do in vacuum. ... .

In their experiments, the ... researchers sandwiched their sample – in this case, atomically-thin sheets of molybdenum disulphide – between two sheets of boron nitride (BN) in a TEM. They then used lithography to etch holes in specific regions of the BN so that the sample could be suspended in the areas where the holes overlapped. Finally, they added two graphene layers above and below the BN and used these to trap a liquid in the holes. The resulting structure, in which the sample is suspended between two layers of liquid, is just 70 nm thick ...

Thanks to this so-called double graphene liquid cell, the researchers were able to acquire videos of the single atoms “swimming” while surrounded by liquid. ..."

From the abstract:

"Single atoms or ions on surfaces affect processes from nucleation to electrochemical reactions and heterogeneous catalysis. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a leading approach for visualizing single atoms on a variety of substrates. It conventionally requires high vacuum conditions, but has been developed for in situ imaging in liquid and gaseous environments with a combined spatial and temporal resolution that is unmatched by any other method —notwithstanding concerns about electron beam effects on samples. ... Graphene liquid cells, on the other hand, have enabled atomic resolution imaging of metal nanoparticles in liquids. Here we show that a double graphene liquid cell, comprised of a central molybdenum disulphide monolayer separated by hexagonal boron nitride spacers from the two enclosing graphene windows, makes it possible to monitor with atomic resolution the dynamics of platinum adatoms on the monolayer in an aqueous salt solution. By imaging over 70,000 single adatom adsorption sites, we compare the site preference and dynamic motion of the adatoms in both a fully hydrated and vacuum state. We find a modified adsorption site distribution and higher diffusivities for the adatoms in liquid phase compared to those in vacuum. ..."

Single atoms swim inside a graphene sandwich – Physics World

Tracking single atoms in liquid in a Transmission Electron Microscope (no public access)

How Stem Cells Contribute to Aging and Age-Related Diseases with Rob Signer

Recommendable! How to slow down the process of ageing! We are getting closer! Introduction by Associate Professor Robert Signer (University of California, San Diego)

Russian Lukoil boss dies after criticizing Ukraine war, the eighth mysterious death of a Russian oil excecutive

Wow! All these suspicious 8 deaths happened in the 9 last months!

India enters an elite club of Naval Powers

Good news! Bravo! The first ingenuously built air craft carrier! India, the new superpower! Take note!

On AlexaTM 20B: Few-Shot Learning Using a Large-Scale Multilingual Seq2Seq Model

Very impressive work by Amazon! Just finished reading it. This research is successfully questioning the trend towards ever larger language models. It also confirms that bidirectional training is better for many tasks than unidirectional.

[2208.01448] AlexaTM 20B: Few-Shot Learning Using a Large-Scale Multilingual Seq2Seq Model

More States Are Mandating Kindergarten. Here Are 3 Reasons Why That’s A Bad Idea

Very recommendable! Important food for thought!

Compulsory kindergarten or schooling negates the fact that children learn at different times and different speeds. It e.g. increases the risk of misdiagnosing (e.g. ADHD, dyslexia) and stigmatize children.

It touches upon the age old fundamental question as to the extent of who is responsible and decides over the well being of children, the parents or the state/society!

"... California is the latest state to try to mandate kindergarten for all students, angling to become the 20th to do so. The California legislature recently passed a bill for compulsory kindergarten attendance that is now awaiting Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature. ..."

More States Are Mandating Kindergarten. Here Are 3 Reasons Why That’s A Bad Idea. - Foundation for Economic Education Kindergarten may be valuable for some children, but it shouldn’t be compulsory.

Immusoft Announces FDA Clearance of IND Application for ISP-001 for MPS I, the First Engineered B Cell Therapy to Enter into Clinical Trials

Good news! Could that be a game changer? This approach may not be limited to rare diseases. This may only be the beginning!

"Immusoft makes history with the first engineered B cell investigational therapy cleared for human trials

Immusoft seeks to improve the treatment of MPS I, a rare childhood disease, through the use of its Immune System Programming (ISP™) approach that utilizes B cells as re-dosable biofactories for therapeutic protein delivery

The company has received FDA Orphan Drug Designation and Rare Pediatric Disease Designation for ISP-001 in MPS I (Mucopolysaccharidosis type I) and will launch its Phase 1 study this year ..."

Immusoft Announces FDA Clearance of IND Application for ISP-001 for MPS I, the First Engineered B Cell Therapy to Enter into Clinical Trials - Immusoft

First material found to "remember" its own history

Amazing stuff!

"... The material in question is vanadium dioxide (VO2), and it’s already known to have some intriguing properties. It’s normally an insulator, but when heated to 68 °C (154.4 °F) its lattice structure changes, meaning it acts like a metal instead. This can make it a great coating for windows or roofs that either block heat from the Sun or let it pass through, depending on the weather. Previous studies have even found that it can conduct electricity without conducting heat. ..."

"... made a chance discovery during his research on phase transitions in Vanadium Dioxide (VO2). VO2 has an insulating phase when relaxed at room temperature, and undergoes a steep insulator-to-metal transition at 68 °C, where its lattice structure changes. Classically, VO2 exhibits a volatile memory: “the material reverts back to the insulating state right after removing the excitation” ...
In his experiments ... applied an electric current to a sample of VO2. “The current moved across the material, following a path until it exited on the other side,” ... As the current heated up the sample, it caused the VO2 to change state. And once the current had passed, the material returned to its initial state. ... then applied a second current pulse to the material, and saw that the time it took to change state was directly linked to the history of the material. “The VO2 seemed to ‘remember’ the first phase transition and anticipate the next,” ... “We didn’t expect to see this kind of memory effect, and it has nothing to do with electronic states but rather with the physical structure of the material. It’s a novel discovery: no other material behaves in this way.” ..."

From the abstract:

"Metal–oxide–semiconductor junctions are the building blocks of modern electronics and can provide a variety of functionalities, from memory to computing. ... Manipulation of structural—rather than electronic—states could provide a path to ultrascaled low-power functional devices, but the electrical control of such states is challenging. Here we report electronically accessible long-lived structural states in vanadium dioxide that can provide a scheme for data storage and processing. The states can be arbitrarily manipulated on short timescales and tracked beyond 10,000 s after excitation, exhibiting features similar to glasses. In two-terminal devices with channel lengths down to 50 nm, sub-nanosecond electrical excitation can occur with an energy consumption as small as 100 fJ. These glass-like functional devices could outperform conventional metal–oxide–semiconductor electronics in terms of speed, energy consumption and miniaturization, as well as provide a route to neuromorphic computation and multilevel memories."

First material found to "remember" its own history

Researchers discover a material that can learn like the brain EPFL researchers have discovered that Vanadium Dioxide (VO2), a compound used in electronics, is capable of “remembering” the entire history of previous external stimuli. This is the first material to be identified as possessing this property, although there could be others.

Electrical control of glass-like dynamics in vanadium dioxide for data storage and processing (no public access)

Gorbatschow und Kohl: Strickjacken-Diplomatie mit Saumagen

Schön, dass die Neue Züricher Zeitung an diese besondere Beziehung erinnert! Leider ist der Artikel hinter einer paywall!

Ich muss leider zugeben, dass ich wohl Rheinland-Pfälzer Sauermagen nie in meinem Leben probiert habe, obwohl mein Heimatland Hessen ja benachbart ist. Bin aber ein grosser Fan von Thüringer Sauerbraten mit Rotkohl und saurer Nieren. 😊

Die friedliche und gelungene Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands gehört mit Sicherheit zu einer der großen Leistungen Helmut Kohls! Mit der Förderung von Angela Merkel hat er einen großen Fehler gemacht.

Gorbatschow und Kohl: Strickjacken-Diplomatie mit Saumagen Der deutsche Bundeskanzler und der Präsident der Sowjetunion waren nach harzigem Beginn einander in Freundschaft verbunden. Sie verstanden sich, weil sie in geschichtlichen Bögen dachten.

Pakistan PM thanks Modi for condolence note. Will Indian humanitarian aid follow?

Will the enormous natural catastrophe result in better relations between Pakistan and India? Hope so!

Fewer babies means fewer geniuses

Declining indigenous populations in Western countries and reduced number of children per woman has consequences. Demography is destiny until now!

The probability that any new born human turns out to be a genius are very small. To recognize and nurture a genius early on is another matter that is not always handled very well.

Probably, artificial intelligence and deliberate improvements to the human brain in the next 20-40 years will accelerate intelligence and knowledge. Dependency on genius may decline.

Just some food for thought!

Powder brushed onto electrodes brings high-capacity batteries closer

Good news! Better batteries are only a matter of time!

"... As the battery is cycled, dendrites begin to form on the anode and can cause the battery to short-circuit, fail or catch fire. We've seen many interesting potential solutions to this dendrite problem, and Rice University scientists have been responsible for more than few, with nanotube films, adhesive tapes and laser treatments just some of the recent examples. ...
a novel brushing treatment. The technique begins with the brushing of the anode to create a textured surface, and then brushing a powder made of phosphorus and sulfur into it. This causes the powder to react with the lithium metal anode to form a fine, protective film that alters its surface energy. ..."

"... constructed test batteries and determined the treated anodes retained ultralow polarization — another damaging characteristic for lithium-ion batteries — for more than 4,000 hours, about eight times longer than bare lithium anodes. ..."

From the abstract:

"Battery designs are swiftly changing from metal-ion to rechargeable metal batteries. Theoretically, metals can deliver maximum anode capacity and enable cells with improved energy density. In practice, these advantages are only possible if the parasitic surface reactions associated with metal anodes are controlled. These undesirable surface reactions are responsible for many troublesome issues, like dendrite formation and accelerated consumption of active materials, which leads to anodes with low cycle life or even battery runaway. Here, a facile and solvent-free brushing method is reported to convert powders into films atop Li and Na metal foils. Benefiting from the reactivity of Li metal with these powder films, surface energy can be effectively tuned, thereby preventing parasitic reaction. In-operando study of P2S5-modified Li anodes in liquid electrolyte cells reveals a smoother electrode contour and more uniform metal electrodeposition and dissolution behavior. The P2S5-modified Li anodes sustain ultralow polarization in symmetric cell for >4000 h, ≈8× longer than bare Li anodes. The capacity retention is ≈70% higher when P2S5-modified Li anodes are paired with a practical LiFePO4 cathode (≈3.2 mAh cm−2) after 340 cycles. Brush coating opens a promising avenue to fabricate large-scale artificial solid-electrolyte-interphase directly on metals without the need for organic solvent."

Powder brushed onto electrodes brings high-capacity batteries closer

Brushing thin films onto electrodes preserves batteries Rice technique shows creating films on lithium anodes gives them longer life

Brushed Metals for Rechargeable Metal Batteries (no public access)

Canada Job Growth in the COVID-19 Era: 87% of all new jobs are in the government sector

Private sector employment is under 50% in Canada? What!

I am looking forward to the post-Trudeau era (father & son) of Canadian politics! I hope, the Canadian citizens will make better choices concerning their political leaders going forward.

"... Meanwhile, there has been almost no net job creation in the private sector (including self-employment). Net jobs increased in the private sector by just 0.4 percent between February 2020 and July 2022 compared to an increase in net jobs of 9.4 percent in the government sector.

An adjustment for population growth shows that the share of adults above the age of 15 employed in the private sector has fallen from 49.3 percent to 48.2 percent during this period.

It is clear that the government sector is disproportionately driving Canada’s labour market recovery. Private sector total employment is now only slightly above pre-pandemic levels and once an adjustment is made for population growth, private sector employment is in fact lower than it was in February 2020. ..."

Comparing Government and Private Sector Job Growth in the COVID-19 Era | Fraser Institute

Ist die Neuverschuldung des Bundes in Wahrheit viermal so hoch?

Immer wieder die selben alten Taschenspielertricks der lebenslangen Berufspolitiker!

Es wird seit Jahrzehnten beklagt, dass die Buchhaltung des Bundes undurchsichtig ist und nicht die Wahrheit der Finanzen und Schulden wiederspiegeln.

Ist die Neuverschuldung des Bundes in Wahrheit viermal so hoch? Kommende Woche beginnen die Beratungen über den Bundeshaushalt. Für den Rechnungshof ist die offiziell ausgewiesene Neuverschuldung von 17,2 Milliarden Euro bestenfalls die halbe Wahrheit.

Why are we still lacking studies of Covid-19 death by age and medical status of the deceased?

I am not aware of such studies for Western countries or such studies are not publicized very well. How many deaths were misclassified (e.g. died with Covid-19 or of Covid-19)? I am afraid a lot!

It would probably confirm that children (now being subjected to vaccination even at very young age) and young adults have little to fear unless they are immune compromised etc.

Who were the elderly that died with Covid-19? How old were they and what were their medical conditions and expected remaining lifetime? 

We still do not understand why government efforts were not quickly more focused and prioritized on the truly vulnerable individuals instead of mandating and maintaining one size fits all measures affecting the entire population and many businesses!

Such studies would probably also confirm that the global Covid-19 pandemic was actually fairly harmless and that many governments severely overreacted for excessive, prolonged times!

Hopefully, time will tell!

OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China

Is this a bombshell and game changer or not? It was reported that on the final day (even final minutes) of socialist Commissioner Michelle Bachelet this report was released by the OHCHR! I have personally not read this report, but I learned about some of its content from media reports.

Just a reminder: It has become quite silent about the Tibetans in the last few decades, but this minority also has been treated horribly by the Communist Party of China for several decades. The fate of the Tibetan Dalai Lama is still uncertain.

The treatment of minorities is the ultimate test of any political regime! The Communist Party of China has frequently failed this test miserably since 1949!

"... Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR in the context of the Government’s application of counter-terrorism and  counter-“extremism” strategies. The implementation of these strategies, and associated policies in XUAR has led to interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions on a wide range of human rights. These patterns of

restrictions are characterized by a discriminatory component, as the underlying acts often directly or indirectly affect Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities ..."

OHCHR | OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China

Die technokratische Illusion: Staatlich geplanter Wandel

Empfehlenswert! Im Geiste von Friedrich von Hayeks' Anmassung von Wissen und Weg in die Knechtschaft sowie Spontane Ordnung!

"... Sie [Konservative sowie Progressive] sind gegenüber einem Wandel mit offenem Ende feindselig eingestellt. Sie wollen beide keinen Wandel, der aus Millionen von Experimenten, also aus Versuch und Irrtum entsteht, sondern höchstens einen, der von politischen Planern herbeigeführt und gelenkt wird. ..."

Liberales Institut - Die technokratische Illusion Technokraten wollen überall die (aus ihrer Sicht) beste Lösung durchsetzen. Doch diese Vorgehensweise birgt Probleme.

Israel and Japan sign new defense agreement as they mark 70 years of relations

Good news!

"Israel and Japan signed a defense agreement allowing for greater military equipment and technology cooperation on Tuesday in a sign of closeness as they mark the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year. ...
Japan announced plans on Wednesday to increase its defense budget and develop longer-range missiles to counter threats from China and Russia. ...
The agreement, officially an expansion of an earlier defense agreement signed with Israel in 2019, helps Japan push its goal of achieving a “free and open Indo-Pacific,” said Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada ..."

Israel and Japan sign new defense agreement as they mark 70 years of relations - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Australia's Uneasy Ties With China

Very recommendable!