Researchers have identified the molecule that attracts the insect that transmits citrus greening disease, a development expected to help farmers control a plague that has destroyed trees in growing regions of Brazil and the United States.

The scientific breakthrough, shared with Reuters exclusively on Tuesday, is the result of six years of research on Diaphorina citri, the vector of citrus greening disease.

The molecule was discovered by Fundo de Defesa da Citricultura (Fundecitrus), a research center sponsored by farmers and orange juice producers in Brazil, in partnership with the University of California, Davis and the University of Sao Paulo’s Agricultural College, known as Esalq.

The next step will be to synthesize the pheromone from the molecule and create a product that will work as a kind of trap to attract and neutralize the insect. Then scientists hope to reduce the spread of a disease that resulted, since 2005, in the destruction of almost half of Brazil’s current orange tree area.

“This will not cure greening disease, but it will allow us to work in an intelligent and assertive way against the insect,” Juliano Ayres, general manager at Fundecitrus, said in a telephone interview.

The first commercial solution should be available to farmers in a year, said Walter Leal, the Brazilian researcher representing UC Davis who participated in the interview.

Based on government data, Brazil’s main producing regions of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais have almost 175 million trees planted on around 415,000 hectare (1.025m acres), Fundecitrus said.

Around 32 million trees are infected, the data show.

Citrus greening, or Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus, is incurable and one of the most serious citrus plant diseases in the world, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.

The infected trees produce fruits that are green, misshapen and bitter, unsuitable for sale as fresh fruit or for juice.

Most infected trees die within a few years, the USDA said.
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Former President Barack Obama on Tuesday told a summit of mayors driven to act after President Donald Trump rejected the Paris climate accord that cities and states are the “new face of American leadership” on climate change.

Obama, who did not mention Trump by name, made a quick appearance at the conference hosted by his former chief of staff, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He said it was an “unusual time” with the U.S. as the only country to walk away from the Paris agreement, but it was a chance for local leaders to come together and fulfill promises the country has made.

“Ultimately the work is done on the ground,” Obama said. “Cities and states and businesses and universities and nonprofits have emerged as the new face of American leadership on climate change.”

Charter turns to mayors

Chicago officials billed the North American Climate Summit, which began Monday evening, as the first of its kind for the city. Leaders elsewhere have taken similar action, despite Trump’s announcement earlier this year that the U.S. would pull out of the 2015 Paris agreement, which involves nations setting benchmarks to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases. The U.S. won’t technically back out until 2020 because of legal technicalities.

The idea is to fill the void left by the actions of the Republican president, who has worked to reverse much of Obama’s approach to foreign policy, Chicago officials said. Trump has said the terms of the agreement should be more favorable to businesses and taxpayers.

The Chicago charter calls for mayors to achieve a percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that’s equal to or more than what is outlined in the Paris agreement. It also calls for them to work with scientific and academic experts to find solutions. Some mayors have specifically agreed to commitments to expand public transportation and invest in natural climate solutions such as tree canopy and vegetation.

Trump isn’t mentioned by name

Emanuel said the current resident of the White House — not mentioning Trump by name — and his environmental officials are in denial on climate change despite facts.

“Climate change can be solved by human action,” he said. “We lead respectively where there is no consensus or directive out of our national governments.”

Mayors from 51 cities including Paris, Mexico City, San Francisco and Phoenix attended the summit.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said city residents will be the victims if action isn’t taken.  

“We cannot afford to be cautious,” she said. 
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The white-tailed prairie dog will not be declared an endangered or threatened species after the U.S. government deemed on Tuesday there was no danger despite declines in its population from human development and disease.

The decision was a victory for energy companies and ranchers who could have seen increased restrictions on lands that are open to oil and gas development and livestock grazing.

Environmentalists more than a decade ago petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide Endangered Species Act protection to white-tailed prairie dogs, found only in Western states.

Years of legal wrangling ensued, and in 2014 the Fish and Wildlife Service was ordered by a U.S. judge in Montana to correct gaps in a review of threats posed to the rodents, which build elaborate burrows in parts of Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Utah.

In the finding released on Tuesday, federal wildlife managers said their assessment of habitat destruction, poisoning, recreational shooting and other stressors affecting white-tailed prairie dogs, named for their white-tipped tails, showed the creatures to be resilient.

“The white-tailed prairie dog is not currently in danger of extinction and is not likely to become in danger of extinction within the foreseeable future,” the Fish and Wildlife Service said in a statement.

Prairie dogs now occupy just a fraction of the land where they historically made their underground homes, said Matthew Sandler, attorney for Rocky Mountain Wild, a party to the petition to officially protect the animals.

“It’s hard to know if the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision is based on the best available science or a political decision to put economic benefits above the environment,” he added.

U.S. wildlife managers on Tuesday disputed Sandler’s assertions, saying that data show that white-tailed prairie dogs have declined in number but not in distribution. Agency spokesman Ryan Moehring also emphasized that its assessment of the animal “is based on the best-available scientific and commercial information.”

White-tailed prairie dogs are said to be less social than the other types of North American prairie dogs, all of which give warning “barks” when predators or other intruders are near.

White-tailed prairie dogs are mostly found at altitudes of 5,000 to 10,000 feet (1,500 to 3,050 meters) in desert shrub or grasslands and must eat enough vegetation in mild seasons to survive months of winter hibernation, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Our knees handle more stress than any of other joints.  So it’s no wonder that knee pain affects so many of us.  If you go to any sporting event, you’ll notice that the athletes’ knees really get a workout. But it’s not only athletes who suffer knee injury.

People of all ages, including children, can suffer knee pain. Knees are the largest and most complex of our joints.  They are also used more than any other joint in our bodies.   

Studies have found that teenage girls are particularly vulnerable to knee damage during their growth spurt in puberty.  Researchers found that certain leg muscles at this age need extra help getting stronger so girls can avoid knee injury.  Sometimes exercise is all that’s needed to take the stress off our knees, but sometimes surgery is the only solution.  

More options to repair injuries

While people with arthritis might need their entire knee replaced with metal and plastic parts, there are more options now for younger people with less serious situations. 

A case in point is Monica Bates, who has marched in the University of Missouri alumni band for years, and for years, she had trouble with her right knee.  She used to wear a knee brace. When her knee pain didn’t go away, she thought she was going to be sad and bent over for the rest of her life.

Fortunately for Bates, researchers at her alma mater just happened to pioneer a bone-and-cartilage preservation system that reduces the need for metal and plastic implants. This system, Missouri Osteochondral Allograft Preservation System, or MOPS, can be used to treat many disorders of the knee, hip, ankle and shoulder. 

Patient’s cartilage used

Dr. James Stannard, developed this procedure with James Cook, a veterinarian who heads a regenerative orthopaedics laboratory and is director of operations and research at the university’s BioJoint Center.  Stannard is chair of orthopaedic surgery at the university’s School of Medicine

The technique replaces a patient’s damaged cartilage with healthy donor cartilage. Stannard said, “Instead of  bringing in man made material, which is our best effort to replicate what nature or God has given you, we’re bringing in the exact same material so it’s a transplant.”

Bates qualified for the procedure because she was young, active and she didn’t need an artificial knee. 

Stannard says the goal is to eventually stop using metal and plastic.  Metal and plastic joint replacements wear out over time. Patients with these replacements may have to give up activities they enjoy, like running or skiing.

  Fixing a ‘pothole’ 

There’s another relatively recent procedure that uses cartilage from healthy tissue in the patient’s own knee. Dr. Seth Sherman, also at the University of Missouri, has performed this surgery called MACI, or Matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implantation. The procedure is likened to repairing a pothole in a road, it’s minimally invasive, but not intended to repair an entire knee.

“Through a small scope procedure we take your cells from a non-essential aspect of your own knee so they won’t cause harm and then we bring it to a laboratory and we actually expand and multiply your own cell and implant them back in,” is how Sherman explains it. 

This procedure is used to treat defects in the cartilage that covers the surface of the joints so movement is smooth and pain-free. It’s a two-step procedure. The first involves taking a small biopsy of healthy cartilage from a non-weight bearing part of the patient’s knee. The patient’s cells are then grown on a sterile collagen membrane that is later cut to size and implanted into the part of the knee that had a defect in the cartilage, much like repairing a pothole. 

These procedures are recommended for younger, active patients. Right now, total or partial knee replacement helps older patients with arthritis move again pain-free, but that may one day change.

Ways to help your knees

In the meantime, people of all ages can protect against knee damage by warming up before playing sports and by keeping off extra weight that puts additional stress on your knees. Another thing people can do is maintain a healthy weight to reduce the stress put on their knees. 

As for Monica Bates, it’s been more than a year since her surgery, and she’s back to marching in the alumni band pain-free.

“I am so able to do so many things. That’s the part I love about it.  Monica is back!”
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The opioid crisis in the U.S. has destroyed the lives of thousands of people, tearing apart families and communities. For addicts, the road to recovery is long and hard and often fraught with many setbacks. It is estimated just three percent of substance abusers manage to stay clean for a lifetime. Jeff Swicord profiles one opioid user who is battling for her sobriety at a residential rehabilitation center in Miami, Florida
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Market research estimates the U.S. baby food industry took in $53 billion in 2015. That market is expected to reach $75 billion by 2050. But baby food has not changed much in the past few decades, leading a small California startup to enter the market with what they say is a new choice for working families. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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Doctors across the U..S could soon be prescribing formerly illegal drugs as therapy for two hard-to-treat diseases – childhood epilepsy and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. A growing body of scientific evidence is leading the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take a closer look at cannabidiol, an extract of marijuana, and MDMA, an ingredient in the party drug ecstasy.

The makers of a cannabidiol product named Epidiolex have now completed all three phases of FDA-approved clinical studies. The submission for FDA approval includes clinical data on 1,500 patients, 400 of whom had used it for more than a year. If it is approved, Epidiolex could be part of the legal arsenal for treating epilepsy within a year.

MDMA

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) is a non-profit organization focused on beneficial medical uses of psychedelics and marijuana. It funded six Phase 2 FDA-approved clinical studies of MDMA combined with therapy for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The only PTSD medicines currently approved by the FDA usually don’t work well, says Boulder, Colorado, psychiatrist Will Vanderveer, “and leave millions of people still symptomatic and suffering. And dying from suicide.”

Vanderveer worked with psychotherapist Marcela Ot’Alora, the study’s principal investigator, on the three-month long protocol, which included a monthly dose of MDMA and weekly therapy sessions. There were 28 participants. When they were given MDMA, therapists stayed with them during the eight hours the drug was active, helping them recall past traumas in a more effective way.  

Ot’Alora says the MDMA promoted trust with the therapists, and the insights gained were profound.

“It could be crying, it could be even screaming. They realize, ‘wow, I was completely going away and dissociated from the experience, and now I see what was really happening.’ Anger can come up, really getting in touch with the anger at what was done to them.”

Karen, one of the participants, was plagued by nightmares and dread after being sexually abused as a child. She says that decades of therapy and anti-depressant drugs did not help, but this protocol did.

“I don’t walk around just thinking I’m garbage anymore. You know, I feel like, wow, you know, I’m kind of a good person here.” James was a combat medic, and returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with PTSD. He tried a number of different therapies, but still felt like he was in a dark cave, with no way out. Then he found the MDMA study. In an on-line documentary about the study, he describes the drug as “a kind of light,” and the therapists as “guides. And I could see around the cave and figure out how to get out of there. It was really helpful.”  

The MDMA plus therapy protocol eliminated symptoms in nearly 70 percent of the participants previously diagnosed with treatment resistant PTSD.  The final step before requesting FDA approval as a prescription medicine is Phase Three trials, which are scheduled to begin next year.
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NASA has nailed an engine test on a spacecraft 13 billion miles away.

Last week, ground controllers sent commands to fire backup thrusters on Voyager 1, our most distant spacecraft. The thrusters had been idle for 37 years, since Voyager 1 flew past Saturn.

To NASA’s delight, the four dormant thrusters came alive. It took more than 19 hours — the one-way travel time for signals — for controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, to get the good news.

Engineers wanted to see if these alternate thrusters could point Voyager 1’s antenna toward Earth, a job normally handled by a different set that’s now degrading. The thrusters will take over pointing operations next month. The switch could extend Voyager 1’s life by two to three years.

Launched in 1977, Voyager 1 is the only spacecraft traveling through interstellar space, the region beyond our solar system. Voyager 2 is close on its heels — nearly 11 billion miles from Earth. The thruster test worked so well that NASA expects to try it on Voyager 2. That won’t happen anytime soon, though, because Voyager 2’s original thrusters are still working fine.

The Voyager flight team dug up old records and studied the original software before tackling the test. As each milestone in the test was achieved, the excitement level grew, said propulsion engineer Todd Barber.

“The mood was one of relief, joy and incredulity after witnessing these well-rested thrusters pick up the baton as if no time had passed at all,” he said in a statement.

The twin Voyagers provided stunning close-up views of Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 also offered shots of Uranus and Neptune.
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Governments must do far more to include the needs of young people in the global fight against HIV and AIDS, according to a new report. Despite progress in tackling the disease, it is estimated that 1,700 new HIV infections occur every day among young people around the world, and the problem is particularly acute in Africa.

It is time policymakers recognized that HIV-positive adolescents face unique challenges, says the report from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, alongside the charity Sentebale.

Among the recommendations are that young people receive adequate psychosocial support; a human rights-based approach to testing and care, and finding ways to sensitively discuss sex and relationships for adolescents living with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.

​Professor Rashida Ferrand, who co-authored the research, says too many barriers are in place.

“We really need to be thinking about all the barriers at every step in that broad environment, both at facility level in clinics et cetera, but also recognizing the fact that most of the time young people do not spend in facilities. So, we have to think of modifying the environments and the barriers that those environments place,” Ferrand said.

Campaigners say many adolescents in Africa are unaware of their HIV status and are afraid to get tested.

‘Every single day I face stigma’

Twenty-three-year-old Masedi Kewamodimo was born with HIV. Both her parents died from AIDS. Growing up in her native Botswana, Masedi grew frustrated with the barriers she faced and decided to reveal her HIV status in order to campaign for better treatment.

“It is one of the most difficult things I have faced in my whole life. Every single day I face stigma.  People talk about it because one they fear it; two, they assume certain people within our society have it; and three, they feel like they cannot welcome people who are living with HIV and AIDS,” Kewamodimo told VOA.

The charity Sentebale, which helped put together the policy recommendations, was co-founded by Prince Harry, who is newly engaged to American actress Meghan Markle. She has also campaigned on health issues in Africa.

Earlier this year, the prince chaired a meeting in London on adolescents with HIV, titled “Let Youth Lead,” and called for a change in global education on the disease.

“Young people, the first time they know of the first time they hear anything about HIV and AIDS is probably by the time it is too late.  Whether it is in the education system here in the UK, whether it is across Africa, whether it is across the world, HIV needs to be treated exactly the same as any other disease,” Prince Harry said.

Campaigners hope the royal couple’s star power will help them spread the vital message that young people’s needs and fears must be addressed in the global drive to tackle HIV and AIDS.
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A growing body of scientific evidence is leading the U-S Food and Drug Administration to take a closer look at two illegal drugs that the federal government deems to have “no currently accepted medical use.” Now both are nearing the finish line for potential approval, as legal prescriptions for the treatment of childhood epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder. From Boulder, Colorado, Shelley Schlender reports.
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