Newly identified hormone may be a critical driver of type 1 and type 2 diabetes

A newly discovered hormone named fabkin helps regulate metabolism and may play an important role in the development of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, according to research led by the Sabri Ülker Center for Metabolic Research at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study showed blood levels of fabkin were abnormally high in mice and human patients with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that blocking the activity of fabkin prevented the development of both forms of diabetes in the animals. Fabkin likely plays a similar role in humans and the hormone complex could be a promising therapeutic target, according to the researchers.

"For many decades, we have been searching for the signal that communicates the status of energy reserves in adipocytes to generate appropriate endocrine responses, such as the insulin production from pancreatic beta cells," said senior author Gökhan S. Hotamisligil, director of the Sabri Ülker Center. "We now have identified fabkin as a novel hormone that controls this critical function through a very unusual molecular mechanism."

The findings will be published online in Nature on December 8, 2021.

Many hormones are involved in the regulation of metabolism, such as insulin and leptin. Fabkin is different from traditional hormones in that it is not a single molecule with a single defined receptor. Instead, fabkin is composed of a functional protein complex consisting of multiple proteins, including fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4), adenosine kinase (ADK) and nucleoside diphosphate kinase (NDPK). Through a series of experiments, the researchers determined that fabkin regulates energy signals outside of cells. These signals then act through a family of receptors to control target cell function. In the case of diabetes, fabkin controls the function of beta cells in the pancreas that are responsible for insulin production.

More than a decade ago, Hotamisligil and colleagues discovered that a protein known as FABP4 is secreted from fat cells during lipolysis, the process in which lipids stored within fat cells are broken down, typically in response to starvation. Numerous studies have since shown correlations between circulating FABP4 and metabolic diseases including obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. However, the mechanism of action was unknown.

In the new study, the researchers showed that when FABP4 is secreted from fat cells and enters the blood stream, it binds with the enzymes NDPK and ADK to form the protein complex now identified as fabkin. In this protein complex, FABP4 modifies the activity of NDPK and ADK to regulate levels of molecules known as ATP and ADP, which are the essential units of energy in biology. The researchers discovered that surface receptors on nearby cells sense the changing ratio of ATP to ADP, triggering the cells to respond to the changing energy status. As such, fabkin is able to regulate the function of these target cells.

The authors showed that the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas are a target of fabkin and that the hormone is a driving force behind the development of diabetes. When the researchers used an antibody to neutralize fabkin in mice, the animals did not develop diabetes. When the antibody was given to obese, diabetic mice, they reverted to a healthy state.

"The discovery of fabkin required us to take a step back and reconsider our fundamental understanding of how hormones work." said lead author Kacey Prentice, research associate in the Sabri Ülker Center and Department of Molecular Metabolism. "I am extremely excited to find a new hormone, but even more so about seeing the long-term implications of this discovery."

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An easy relationship between a beetle and its yeast symbiont

Japanese lizard beetle larvae feed on yeast injected from their mothers' abdomens into the bamboo stems they are growing in. Now, scientists at Nagoya University have made a surprising discovery: the yeast can digest some complex sugars in the bamboo woody tissue, but it doesn't. Instead, it consumes much simpler and more available sugar sources.

"This was a real surprise," says Nagoya University bioagricultural researcher Wataru Toki. "While yeast can indeed decompose those indigestible components, our analysis shows the yeast actually grows on small molecule monosaccharides." The results are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Female Japanese lizard beetles carry the yeast Wickerhamomyces anomalus in a specialised pocket-like organ. In spring, they dig holes in bamboo and insert their eggs and the yeast. W. anomalus grows into a sort of fungal garden that the very hungry beetle larvae munch on as soon as they hatch.

In other symbiotic relationships, fungi typically break down complex sugars into more digestible chunks that their host insects can feed on. Toki and his colleague, Dan Aoki, wanted to know whether this was also the case in the relationship between the Japanese lizard beetle and W. anomalus.

Their research suggests not. The scientists used a technique called ion exchange chromatography to analyse and compare the sugar content of fresh bamboo pith, and pith colonized by yeast alone or by yeast and beetle larvae. The comparison revealed that the yeast mostly ate the simple free sugars glucose and fructose.

This surprised the scientists because further tests showed that the yeast can actually digest some complex, indigestible sugars if necessary.

"Bamboo is not only a farm for the yeast but also a house for the larvae. So the larvae can live in a strong house safely because the house is not decomposed by the food," explains Toki.

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Infant stars identified at the center of our galaxy

What was previously identified as a gas and dust cloud at the centre of our galaxy actually consists of three very young stars. That is the result of a new study led by scientists from the University of Cologne's Institute of Astrophysics. The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) - a telescope with mirror diameters of 8.20 metres on the summit of Cerro Paranal in Chile - provided the data for the study, which has appeared in The Astrophysical Journal. The stars began to form less than 1 million years ago, which is very young in astrophysical terms. By comparison, our sun is just under 5 billion years old.

In 2011, an object was found by means of the infrared data measured by the Very Large Telescope, promising to reveal an unprecedented process at the centre of our galaxy. Based on a multi-wavelength analysis, scientists determined that it must be a cloud of gas and dust, which was named G2. The interaction with the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, SgrA*, should have torn G2 apart and caused proverbial fireworks. The researchers assumed that when G2 collided with SgrA*, various processes would cause the gas and dust to make the black hole flare up. But that did not happen.

In addition, there were other factors that gave astronomers around the world a headache and fuelled controversial discussions. Studies showed that the temperature of G2 is almost twice as high as that of surrounding dust sources. One possible explanation for G2's temperature is the extreme number of stars at the centre of our galaxy. So these stars could have heated up G2. The only question is why all other known dust sources at the centre of the galaxy show a much lower temperature. The black hole, SgrA*, was also ruled out as a heat source. The temperature of G2 should have increased the closer the supposed dust cloud came to the black hole - like we would feel if we approached a radiator. However, the temperature remained constant over a long period of time, although the distance to the black hole varied. The more closely G2 was observed around the world, the more it became apparent that the cosmic object had to be more than just a cloud of gas and dust.

The new results show that G2 actually consists of three individual stars. 'We had the opportunity to observe the centre of our galaxy ourselves several times with the Very Large Telescope.

Together with the data from the Southern Observatory archive, we were able to cover a period from 2005 to 2019,' said lead author Dr Florian Peißker from the Institute of Astrophysics. The unusual structure of the data was also helpful in locating G2. Each pixel of the captured image has an associated spectrum that covers a very specific and detailed waveband. For the scientists, this offers an enormous level of detail. 'That G2 actually consists of three evolving young stars is sensational. Never before have stars younger than the ones found been observed around SgrA*,' Peißker said.

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New phenomenon: Forest mammals eavesdrop on messy monkeys

Eavesdropping doesn't just belong in the playbooks of police officers and spies. It is also a phenomenon that plays out among animals. Previous studies have shown that certain species, especially birds, listen to each other for warnings of nearby predators. But a new study from the University of Copenhagen reveals that a variety of mammals eavesdrop on one another when it comes to finding food.

Two biologists from the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Linnea W. Havmøller and Rasmus W. Havmøller, spent nine months in a Panamanian rainforest studying how coatis and agoutis, among other forest mammals, cash in on the messy table manners of monkeys.

"Monkeys are messy eaters. After just a few bites of a fruit, they let it fall to the ground. Other species benefit from this habit. But to do so most effectively, they need to know where and when the monkeys are eating. Here, our study demonstrates that mammals use eavesdropping," says the study's lead author, Linnea W. Havmøller, a Smithsonian Fellow and doctoral student at the University of Copenhagen's Natural History Museum of Denmark.

The eavesdropping consists of the fact that terrestrial fruit-eating mammals -- in this case, coatis and agoutis, listen in when capuchin and spider monkeys eat fruits up in trees. The arboreal monkeys' often- dropped, half-eaten fruit falls and becomes a tasty treasure for the terrestrial creatures below. And these animals are ready to move in as soon as they hear the sound of fruit falling to the ground.

"It is clear that, when terrestrial animals hear monkeys in a tree, they head towards that tree. It's as if their ears are telescoped, which lets them hear the lunch bell from wherever it's ringing. This gives them access to food that would otherwise be inaccessible at the time," explains Rasmus W. Havmøller, a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

Crucial access to food

According to the researchers, the eavesdropping strategy is not just a convenient way to get a little extra food for themselves -- it can play a vital role for animals. In Panama, there is a period of time each year when almond trees alone produce the majority of food for a great many species -- including those four studied by the researchers.

"During this season, there is incredibly little to eat in the forest -- other than the prodigious quantities of fruit from this one type of tree. However, terrestrial animals can't access these fruits unless monkeys drop them. For these animals, the eavesdropping method means that they gain access to food in greater quantities and far sooner than the long time it would take if the fruits were left to fall on their own. And during some periods, it is crucial for their food gathering," says Linnea W. Havmøller.

Ramus W. Havmøller continues:

"In the bigger picture, this means that in areas where monkeys have been removed from the local environment -- typically as a result of hunting or destroyed forest -- there can be a large and negative cascade effect. Not only will the species of mammals which depend on the fruit being dropped by monkeys suffer -- there can be an impact on the entire rainforest ecosystem because terrestrial fruit-eating animals help disperse the seeds that allow the forest to reproduce."

While previous observations of the eavesdropping phenomenon have been recorded by pen and paper -- and are at risk of misinterpretation -- the UCPH researchers adopted a variety of technologies. They collected data using GPS collars, camera traps, speakers playing monkey sounds, and traps that collected fallen fruit.

Data from the study show that over 90% of the fruit which landed in the traps had bite marks and was half-eaten by monkeys, and that the fruit that fell outside the traps was eaten almost immediately.

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Are scientists homing in on a cure for Parkinson’s disease?

A molecule that shows promise in preventing Parkinson's disease has been refined by scientists at the University of Bath in the UK, and has the potential to be developed into a drug to treat the deadly neurodegenerative disease.

Professor Jody Mason, who led the research from the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at Bath, said: "A lot of work still needs to happen, but this molecule has the potential to be a pre-cursor to a drug. Today there are only medicines to treat the symptoms of Parkinson's -- we hope to develop a drug that can return people to good health even before symptoms develop."

Parkinson's Disease is characterised by a specific protein in human cells 'misfolding', where it becomes aggregated and malfunctions. The protein -- alpha-synuclein (αS) -- is abundant in all human brains. After misfolding, it accumulates in large masses, known as Lewy bodies. These masses consist of αS aggregates that are toxic to dopamine-producing brain cells, causing them to die. It is this drop in dopamine signalling that triggers the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease, as the signals transmitting from the brain to the body become noisy, leading to the distinctive tremors seen in sufferers.

Previous efforts to target and 'detoxify' αS-induced neurodegeneration have seen scientists analyse a vast library of peptides (short chains of amino acids -- the building blocks of proteins) to find the best candidate for preventing αS misfolding. Of the 209,952 peptides screened in earlier work by scientists at Bath, peptide 4554W showed the most promise, inhibiting αS from aggregating into toxic disease forms in lab experiments in solutions and on live cells.

In their latest work, this same group of scientists tweaked peptide 4554W to optimise its function. The new version of the molecule -- 4654W(N6A) -- contains two modifications to the parental amino-acid sequence and has proven to be significantly more effective at reducing αS misfolding, aggregation and toxicity. However, even if the modified molecule continues to prove successful in lab experiments, a cure for the disease is still many years away.

Dr Richard Meade, the study lead author, said: "Previous attempts to inhibit alpha synuclein aggregation with small molecule drugs has been unfruitful as they are too small to inhibit such large protein interactions. This is why peptides are a good option -- because they are big enough to prevent the protein from aggregating but small enough to be used as a drug. The effectiveness of the 4654W(N6A) peptide on alpha synuclein aggregation and cell survival in cultures is very exciting, as it highlights that we now know where to target on the alpha synuclein protein to supress its toxicity. Not only will this research lead to the development of new treatments to prevent the disease, but it is also uncovering fundamental mechanisms of the disease itself, furthering our understanding of why the protein misfolds in the first place."

Professor Mason added: "Next, we'll be working to how we can take this peptide to clinic. We need to find ways to modify it further so it's more drug-like and can cross biological membranes and get into the cells of the brain. This may mean moving away from naturally occurring amino acids towards molecules that are made in the lab."

This research also has implications for Alzheimer's disease, Type 2 diabetes and other serious human diseases where symptoms are triggered by protein misfolding.

Dr Rosa Sancho, head of research at Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "Finding ways to stop alpha synuclein from becoming toxic and damaging brain cells could highlight a new pathway for future drugs to stop devastating diseases like Parkinson's and dementia with Lewy bodies.

"We're pleased to have supported this important work to develop a molecule that can stop alpha synuclein from misfolding. The molecule has been tested in cells in the laboratory and will need further development and testing before it can be made into a treatment. This process will take a number of years, but it is a promising discovery that could pave the way for a new drug in future.

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Speaking 'baby talk' to infants isn’t just cute: It could help them learn to make words

A new study suggests that when parents baby talk to their infants, they might be helping them learn to produce speech.

The way we instinctively speak to babies -- higher pitch, slower speed, exaggerated pronunciation -- not only appeals to them, but likely helps them learn to understand what we're saying. New research from the University of Florida suggests that baby talk can have another, previously unknown benefit: helping babies learn to produce their own speech. By mimicking the sound of a smaller vocal tract, the researchers think, we're cluing babies in to how the words should sound coming out of their own mouths.

"It seems to stimulate motor production of speech, not just the perception of speech," said Matthew Masapollo, Ph.D., an assistant professor in UF's Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and director of the UF Laboratory for the Study of Cognition, Action, and Perception of Speech in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. "It's not just goo-goo ga-ga."

In the study, the researchers changed the frequency sounds to mimic either an infant or adult vocal tract, and then tested how infants reacted. Six- to eight-month-old babies "displayed a robust and distinct preference for speech with resonances specifying a vocal tract that is similar in size and length to their own," they wrote.

Four- to six-month old babies didn't have that preference, suggesting that older babies' dawning ability to control their voices and make words out of babble could be what makes the infant-like sounds more appealing.

Though baby talk may sound simple, it's accomplishing a lot, says coauthor Linda Polka, Ph.D., of McGill University.

"We're trying to engage with the infant to show them something about speech production," she said. "We're priming them to process their own voice."

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Large future changes in climate variability

There is growing public awareness that climate change will impact society not only through changes in mean temperatures and precipitation over the 21st century, but also in the occurrence of more pronounced extreme events, and more generally in natural variability in the Earth system. Such changes could also have large impacts on vulnerable ecosystems in both terrestrial and marine habitats. A scientific exploration of projected future changes in climate and ecosystem variability is described in a new study published in the journal Earth System Dynamics, representing the result of a broad collaborative partnership between the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea and the Community Earth System Model (CESM) project at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in the US.

The team conducted a set of 100 global Earth system model simulations over 1850-2100, working with a "business-as-usual" scenario for relatively strong emissions of greenhouse gases over the 21st century. The runs were given different initial conditions, and by virtue of the butterfly effect they were able to represent a broad envelope of possible climate states over 1850-2100, enabling sophisticated analyses of changes in the variability of the Earth system over time. The nominally one-degree (~100km) resolution of the model, in conjunction with the 100-member set of runs, represented an unprecedented set of technical challenges that needed to be met before advancing to the goal of assessing how climate variability is impacted by sustained anthropogenic changes to the climate system. "We met these challenges by using the IBS/ICCP supercomputer Aleph, one of Korea's fastest supercomputers" says Dr. Sun-Seon Lee from the ICCP, a co-author of the study who ran the simulations together with her NCAR colleague Dr. Nan Rosenbloom. For the project, approximately 80 million hours of supercomputer time were used, and approximately 5 Petabytes of disc space (approximately 5000 normal hard discs) were required for storage of the model output.

The main finding of the study is that the impact of climate change is apparent in nearly all aspects of climate variability, ranging from temperature and precipitation extremes over land to increased number of fires in California, to changes in bloom amplitude for phytoplankton in the North Atlantic Ocean. Each of these changes has important impacts for sustainable resource management. As an example, occurrences of extreme precipitation events over the 21st century (between 2000-2009 and 2090-2099) indicate that extremes are expected to become more commonplace over many regions. These projected changes in precipitation extremes are in fact representative of the omnipresence of changes in extremes in the future across a broad range of climate and ecosystem variables, which has important implications for future adaptation strategies.

"In addition to large-scale changes in extreme events, our study also identified large-scale changes in the structure of the seasonal cycle over the 21st century, showing an enhanced growing season length over the continental regions north of 50°N," says Dr. Keith Rodgers from the ICCP, first author of the study and a co-lead of the CESM2 Large Ensemble Project. Largely due to mean state warming and ensuing changes in the timing of the retreat and advance of winter snow cover, by the end of the 21st century growing season length is projected to increase by three weeks.

Taken together, the computer simulations reveal that across our planet we can expect widespread changes in climate variability, ranging in timescales from synoptic storms to seasons to that of El Niño to decades. Dr. Gokhan Danabasoglu, a co-author of the study and a co-lead of the project, says "an important step moving forward will be to identify more fully the potential societal impacts and to communicate the implications for adaptation strategies." This broader study has already motivated a number of more specialized scientific investigations using the tremendous volume of output from the simulations, spanning topics from marine ecosystem impacts to hydrological changes that affect water supply.

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A young, sun-like star may hold warnings for life on Earth

Astronomers spying on a stellar system located dozens of lightyears from Earth have, for the first time, observed a troubling fireworks show: A star, named EK Draconis, ejected a massive burst of energy and charged particles much more powerful than anything scientists have seen in our own solar system.

The researchers, including astrophysicist Yuta Notsu of the University of Colorado Boulder, will publish their results Dec. 9 in the journal Nature Astronomy.

The study explores a stellar phenomenon called a "coronal mass ejection," sometimes known as a solar storm. Notsu explained that the sun shoots out these sorts of eruptions on a regular basis -- they're made up of clouds of extremely-hot particles, or plasma, that can hurtle through space at speeds of millions of miles per hour. And they're potentially bad news: If a coronal mass ejection hit Earth dead on, it could fry satellites in orbit and shut down the power grids serving entire cities.

"Coronal mass ejections can have a serious impact on Earth and human society," said Notsu, a research associate at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at CU Boulder and the U.S. National Solar Observatory.

The new study, led by Kosuke Namekata of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and formerly a visiting scholar at CU Boulder, also suggests that they can get a lot worse.

In that research, Namekata, Nostu and their colleagues used telescopes on the ground and in space to peer at EK Draconis, which looks like a young version of the sun. In April 2020, the team observed EK Draconis ejecting a cloud of scorching-hot plasma with a mass in the quadrillions of kilograms -- more than 10 times bigger than the most powerful coronal mass ejection ever recorded from a sun-like star.

The event may serve as a warning of just how dangerous the weather in space can be.

"This kind of big mass ejection could, theoretically, also occur on our sun," Notsu said. "This observation may help us to better understand how similar events may have affected Earth and even Mars over billions of years."

Superflares erupt

Notsu explained that coronal mass ejections often come right after a star lets loose a flare, or a sudden and bright burst of radiation that can extend far out into space.

Recent research, however, has suggested that on the sun, this sequence of events may be relatively sedate, at least so far as scientists have observed. In 2019, for example, Notsu and his colleagues published a study that showed that young sun-like stars around the galaxy seem to experience frequent superflares -- like our own solar flares but tens or even hundreds of times more powerful.

Such a superflare could, theoretically, also happen on Earth's sun but not very often, maybe once every several thousand years. Still, it got Notsu's team curious: Could a superflare also lead to an equally super coronal mass ejection?

"Superflares are much bigger than the flares that we see from the sun," Notsu said. "So we suspect that they would also produce much bigger mass ejections. But until recently, that was just conjecture."

Danger from above

To find out, the researchers set their sights on EK Draconis. The curious star, Notsu explained, is about the same size as our sun, but, at just 100 million years old, it's a relative youngster in a cosmic sense.

"It's what our sun looked like 4.5 billion years ago," Notsu said.

The researchers observed the star for 32 nights in winter and spring 2020 using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and Kyoto University's SEIMEI Telescope. On April 5, Notsu and his colleagues got lucky: The researchers looked on as EK Draconis erupted into a superflare, a really big one. About 30 minutes later, the team observed what appeared to be a coronal mass ejection flying away from the star's surface. The researchers were only able to catch the first step in that ejection's life, called the "filament eruption" phase. But even so, it was a monster, moving at a top speed of roughly 1 million miles per hour.

It may also not bode well for life on Earth: The team's findings hint that the sun could also be capable of such violent extremes. But don't hold your breath -- like superflares, super coronal mass ejections are probably rare around our getting-on-in-years sun.

Still, Notsu noted that huge mass ejections may have been much more common in the early years of the solar system. Gigantic coronal mass ejections, in other words, could have helped to shape planets like Earth and Mars into what they look like today.

"The atmosphere of present-day Mars is very thin compared to Earth's," Notsu said. "In the past, we think that Mars had a much thicker atmosphere. Coronal mass ejections may help us to understand what happened to the planet over billions of years."

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Ethiopian monuments 1,000 years older than previously thought

Rising as high as 20 feet, ancient stone monoliths in southern Ethiopia are 1,000 years older than scientists previously thought, according to a new study in the Journal of African Archaeology.

A Washington State University research team used advanced radiocarbon dating to determine the often phallic-shaped monoliths, or stelae, at the Sakaro Sodo archeological site in Ethiopia's Gedeo zone were likely created sometime during the first century A.D.

The only other attempt to determine the age of the more than 10,000 stele monoliths located at various sites in the Gedeo zone was conducted by French scientists in the 1990s. It provided a far more modest construction date of around 1100 A.D. for the monuments of Tuto Fela in the northern part of Gedeo.

Under consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Sakaro Sodo and other archeological sites in the Gedeo zone have the largest number and highest concentration of megalithic stele monuments in Africa. The standing stones range widely in size, function, and arrangement in the landscape.

While many of the monoliths have fallen and/or are undecorated, a few have intricately wrought faces and other anthropomorphic designs carved into the stone that can be seen today.

Despite the impressive nature of the archeological site, little is known about why or how the monoliths were built.

"This is one of the most understudied archaeological sites in the world, and we wanted to change that," said Ashenafi Zena, lead author of the study and a former WSU doctoral researcher now at the State Historical Society of North Dakota.

Zena, an Ethiopian native, originally decided to conduct a study of the stones after traveling to the region with his doctoral advisor Andrew Duff, a WSU professor of anthropology, in 2013.

"It was shocking to see such a large number of monuments in such a small area," Zena said. "Looking at the stones, many of which had fallen to the ground and some have broken into pieces, I decided to focus my dissertation work there instead of investigating cave sites in southern Ethiopia."

In addition to pushing back the date of the earliest monoliths' construction by a millennium, the researchers also determined where the ancient builders of the site likely quarried raw stone for the project. They also identified, for the first time, the earliest known sources of obsidian artifacts that were recovered from the Gedeo stele sites.

Surprisingly, most of the obsidian the researchers identified at Sakaro Sodo originated some 300 km away in northern Kenya, illustrating that the people at Sakaro Sodo obtained most of their obsidian raw materials through some form of exchange or trade.

While little is known about the pastoral and/or agricultural people who populated the Sakaro Sodo region of southern Ethiopia at the turn of the first millennium, the new construction dates of the stele monuments identified by Zena and Duff appear to coincide with the arrival of domesticated animals in the region and the beginnings of more complex social and economic systems.

"One of the reasons why this research is important is because it has the potential to shed new light on what the earliest people in this area were doing for a living as well as what their cultural and social practices were," Duff said.

Existing archaeological, ethnographic, and living megalithic stele traditions in the region suggest that the oldest stele sites in Ethiopia at Sakaro Sodo and other nearby locations were likely created for two purposes: to commemorate the transfer of power from one generation to the next or to record and commemorate group achievement.

"The diversity of function of the stele in Ethiopia is really fascinating," Duff said. "For example, we know that the more recently constructed stele monuments of Tuto Fela in the north part of Gedeo were used as burial markers. While the linear placement pattern of the earliest stones at Sakaro Sodo makes us think they may have been markers to signify the passing of generational leadership."

While the political situation and the recent escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ethiopia make following up on the investigation in the near term difficult, the researchers have several future projects in the works that they hope to continue as soon as possible.

One project involves more additional archeological investigations at other stele sites in the areas with colleagues at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. The other is a project led by Duff and current WSU doctoral student Addisalem Melesse who are working with the Ethiopian Department of Archeology and Heritage Management to determine how the stele sites can be better managed to both preserve the heritage of the region and generate tourism.

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Preterm birth risk strongly linked to pre-eclampsia

Women who gave birth to a premature baby after developing pre-eclampsia were 17 times more likely to experience another preterm birth if pre-eclampsia emerged again, new Curtin University research has found.

The study, published in the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, examined more than 125,000 women who experienced two consecutive singleton births in Western Australia from 1998 to 2015.

About 27,000 babies are born prematurely -- or before 37 weeks' gestation -- across Australia each year, with preterm birth the leading cause of death and morbidity in children up to five years of age in the developed world.

Lead author and PhD candidate Jennifer Dunne, from Curtin's School of Population Health, said the findings showed the strongest link between preterm birth and pregnancies complicated by pre-eclampsia, a serious pregnancy condition that is usually characterised by high blood pressure, protein in the urine and severe swelling.

"When both pregnancies were complicated by pre-eclampsia, the risk of a subsequent preterm birth increased 10-fold after an initial term birth and 17-fold when the first birth was preterm, compared to women who had an uncomplicated first pregnancy," Ms Dunne said.

"This study also found that there was a three-fold higher risk of women experiencing a subsequent case of pre-eclampsia after a preterm birth in the first pregnancy that was not complicated by pre-eclampsia.

"Until recently, a first birth at full term was considered a reduced risk for a preterm delivery in the next pregnancy. However, there is emerging evidence that a complicated first pregnancy, regardless of whether the baby was delivered early or at full term, increases the subsequent risk of a baby being born prematurely."

Ms Dunne said the main pregnancy complications examined included pre-eclampsia, placental abruption (the detachment from the wall of the womb), small-for-gestational age and perinatal death (a stillbirth or a neonatal death in the first 28 days).

"Having any of the four complications in their first pregnancy puts women at an increased risk of a preterm birth in their next pregnancy, regardless of whether that first birth ended at full term or preterm," Ms Dunne said.

"Likewise, women whose first pregnancy ended in a preterm delivery were at an increased risk for each pregnancy complication in the second pregnancy.

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