Hi Reddit, My name is Nick Wareham and I am Director of the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge. My research focuses on the genetic and environmental determinants of type 2 diabetes and the translation of epidemiological knowledge into preventive action. I also served as a guest editor on the PLOS Medicine special issue on Diabetes Prevention. I also wrote the editorial entitled “ ‘The Clinical and Public Health Challenges of Diabetes Prevention: A Search for Sustainable Solutions” in which we discuss how diabetes is driven by rapid economic development and how attempts to deal with a public health problem by clinical approaches to prevention will be unaffordable and unsustainable in many countries. We focus on the need to develop effective and sustainable public health interventions for the prevention of type 2 diabetes that can be implemented in both resource-rich and resource-poor health care systems. I am joined by Fumiaki Imamura and Jenna Panter, two scientists at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at the University of Cambridge, who also contributed research to the Diabetes Prevention issue of PLOS Medicine. Jenna is a Senior Research Associate in the MRC Epidemiology Unit. Her research focuses on examining patterns and determinants of change in physical activity and evaluating environmental and policy interventions to promote activity. Jenna recently published an article titled ‘Cycling and Diabetes Prevention: Practice-Based Evidence for Public Health Action’ in PLOS Medicine in which the authors discuss the findings from a linked paper by Rasmussen and colleagues on changes in cycling and risk of developing type 2 diabetes. In the article, the authors highlight the need to conduct rigorous evaluations of interventions to promote physical activity which will provide evidence about how researchers can create a genuinely population-based public health strategy for the prevention of diabetes and other chronic diseases. Fumiaki is a Senior Investigator Scientist at the MRC Epidemiology Unit. His research focuses on effects of dietary components and behaviours with a risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Fumiaki recently published a study titled “Effects of Saturated Fat, Polyunsaturated Fat, Monounsaturated Fat, and Carbohydrate on Glucose-Insulin Homeostasis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Randomised Controlled Feeding Trials” in PLOS Medicine. I am also a co-author of a study published by the EPIC-InterAct Study in the PLOS Medicine, ““Association of Plasma Phospholipid n-3 and n-6 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids with Type 2 Diabetes: The EPIC-InterAct Case-Cohort Study”. In the two studies based on published trials and the Europe-wide observational investigation, respectively, Fumiaki and colleagues indicate that fat commonly present in vegetable oils is good to reduce the burden of type 2 diabetes in many countries. We will be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Us Anything! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @JennaPanter, @fumimamu and @mrc_epid.

Hi Reddit, We are Jessie Abbate, Carmen Lia Murall, and Christian Althaus, infectious disease researchers collaborating between France (Research Institute for Development), Switzerland (University of Bern), and Germany (Max Planck Institute). Collectively, our work focuses on the epidemiology, ecology, and evolution of pathogens, including human viral infections. We recently published a study entitled “Potential Impact of Sexual Transmission on Ebola Virus Epidemiology: Sierra Leone as a Case Study” in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Recent observations show that Ebola virus can remain active and transmissible in sperm for up to 9 months, meaning patients can remain infectious after they recover from the initial symptomatic phase of the disease. We developed a mathematical model to study the potential impact of sexual transmission on the size and duration of Ebola outbreaks such as the 2013-2016 epidemic in West Africa. Using the epidemiological data from Sierra Leone as an example, we found that despite very few additional cases, sexual transmission from survivors could extend the duration of the epidemic substantially, allowing cases to continue popping up throughout 2016 and highlighting the need for care providers to stay alert for this possibility. We will be responding to questions from 1pm EDT (10 am PDT) – Ask Us Anything! Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter @jessieabbate @cl_murall @c_althaus.

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Hi Reddit, My name is Professor Damien Keating and I am a cell physiologist at Flinders University in the School of Medicine. My research focuses on understanding how cells release chemical signals to each other and how this relates to certain diseases such as diabetes. I recently published a paper titled A Syntenic Cross Species Aneuploidy Genetic Screen Links RCAN1 Expression to β-Cell Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Type 2 Diabetes in PLOS Genetics. In this study we wanted to identify what might drive pancreatic beta cell dysfunction and reduced plasma insulin in type 2 diabetes (T2D). If those beta cell changes don’t happen people don’t develop T2D. We tackled this in a different way by looking at diabetes in Down syndrome (where chromosome 21 is triplicated), as beta cells in individuals with Down syndrome show the same defects observed in T2D beta cells. Using a screening approach combining Down syndrome mouse models and human T2D beta cells, we arrived at a single lead candidate, RCAN1. We then provided functional evidence that increased RCAN1 expression causes defects in beta cell mitochondrial function and insulin release that are observed in T2D beta cells. We hope this will provide a platform to examine whether affecting RCAN1 function or expression could have positive influences in T2D. I look forward to chatting with you all on this topic from Australia. I will be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Me Anything! Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter @dj_keating.

Hi Reddit, My name is Emily Bucholz. I am a pediatric resident at Boston Children’s Hospital but did my doctorate at Yale School of Medicine. My doctoral research focuses on sociodemographic and clinical predictors of life expectancy after heart attacks. I am particularly interested in how risk factors for the development of coronary heart disease affect long-term survival after heart attacks. I am the lead author of a study recently published in PLOS Medicine titled “Underweight, Markers of Cachexia, and Mortality in Acute Myocardial Infarction: a Prospective Cohort Study of Elderly Medicare Beneficiaries”. In this study, we studied over 50,000 Medicare beneficiaries to examine the effect of underweight on survival after heart attack. We used two techniques (adjustment and stratification) to disentangle the effects of low weight from comorbidity and frailty, which can also lead to weight loss and poor health outcomes. We found that being underweight was an independent risk factor for higher short- and long-term mortality after heart attack. There are several potential explanations for these findings including decreased physiologic reserve, lower rates of guideline-based therapies, and genetic predisposition. Regardless of the mechanism, we conclude that strategies to promote weight gain after heart attack – both in the hospital and after discharge –are worthy of testing. My co-authors were Ms. Hannah Krumholz and Dr. Harlan Krumholz. I will be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Me Anything!

Hi Reddit, My name is Nicholas Money. I’m a biologist at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and specialize in the study of fungal growth and reproduction. I am fascinated by the extraordinary mechanisms of spore discharge in these organisms that include high-velocity spurts, exploding gas bubbles, and a catapult that launches mushroom spores. I am the senior author of a 2015 paper in PLOS ONE titled, “Mushrooms as rainmakers: How spores act as nuclei for raindrops”. A couple of years ago I was struck by research by atmospheric chemists that suggested that 50 million tons of fungal spores are ejected into the atmosphere every year. This made me wonder whether the mechanism of drop expansion that powers the discharge of mushroom spores could be reactivated once the spores were airborne. If this happened in clouds, it could play a significant role in the condensation of water and stimulate rainfall. The PLOS ONE paper reports experiments that offer a proof of concept using environmental scanning electron microscopy. This work was co-authored by my doctoral student, Maribeth Hassett, and long-term collaborator Mark Fischer, a physicist at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. I’ll be answering questions at 1pm ET – Ask Me Anything!

Hi Reddit! I’m Nick Warren Ruktanonchai, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Southampton. I’m interested in understanding how people move, which helps us predict when, where, and why some people become exposed to areas with infectious diseases. And I am Cori Warren Ruktanonchai, a PhD student in Geography & Environment at the University of Southampton–as you may have noticed by the names, I also happen to be Nick’s wife! I’m interested in using spatial statistics to better locate pregnant women, mothers and newborns at risk of adverse health outcomes. We recently published an article titled “Identifying Malaria Transmission Foci for Elimination Using Human Mobility Data” in PLOS Computational Biology, mapping where people got malaria based on their travel patterns. We combined data from 1.19 million mobile phones in Namibia with a map of malaria prevalence to predict areas where the most people get infected. We hope that by targeting these hotspots, elimination efforts can both send help where it’s most needed and reduce transmission nationwide. Call and text locations from mobile phones are a great tool for knowing where people have been. At Flowminder, we’ve used mobile phone data to not only help governments and NGOs predict the spread of disease, we’ve also used it to understand how people move after catastrophes, including a PLOS Medicine paper on the 2010 Haiti earthquake and a PLOS Currents paper on the 2015 Nepal earthquake. We’ll be answering your questions at 1pm ET – Ask Us Anything! Don’t forget to follow Nick on Twitter at @nruktanonchai and Cori at @cwruktanonchai. Also, the Flowminder Foundation can be found at @flowminder, and the WorldPop Project at @WorldPopProject!

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A document by PLOSScienceWednesday . Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by PLOSScienceWednesday . Click on the document to view its contents.

Hi Reddit, Our names are Ruã Daros, João Costa, Marina von Keyserlingk, Maria Hötzel, Heather Neave and Daniel Weary. We are researchers from the University of British Columbia in Canada and the Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina in Brazil. Our research focuses on animal welfare, how to use changes in behaviour to make inferences about the quality of life that animal’s experience. We recently published a study entitled “Separation from the Dam Causes Negative Judgement Bias in Dairy Calves” in PLOS ONE. Young farm animals, including dairy calves, are often separated from the dam far earlier than what occurs under natural conditions. Farms animals are also sometimes subjected to painful procedures like hot-iron dehorning. The aim of this study was to better understand the effects of these routine procedures on the emotions of animals. One way to investigate mood states is to look for evidence of judgement biases. We tested for cognitive biases in calves before and after separation from the cow and dehorning, and found diminished responding to intermediate, ambiguous stimuli (evidence of a pessimistic response) following both physical pain and social loss. This paper illustrates one approach to investigating emotional states in animals, and draws parallels in the emotional experience of physical and social pain. We will be online at 1pm EST (10am PST), and we look forward to hearing your questions about our work! Please also follow us in Twitter @ubcAWP.

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