These species join a large number of invertebrates recently found in Israeli caves that are new to science. The study was recently published in the Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution journal and has extensive scientific implications for uncovering the evolution of speciation in caves and the historical, geographic, and climatic processes that occurred in Israel.

Doctoral student Shlomi Aharon led the study under the guidance of Dr. Efrat Gavish-Regev, from the Hebrew University National Natural History Collections and Prof. Dror Hawlena from the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior.

“In many cases, these adaptations will lead to the creation of new species, whose distribution is geographically limited in areas with unique ecological conditions, such as a single cave or a system of connected caves,” Aharon says. “In this study, we sought to understand the evolutionary relationships between funnel web spiders with normal eyes that are found at the cave entrance, with those that are further in the cave and are pigmentless, eye-reduced, and even completely blind.”

In the study, the researchers collected the spiders by hand and then conducted a series of microscopic examinations, recorded the morphology, and extracted DNA from each to compare them to sequences of known species of the same genus that exist in GenBank.

“Among the spiders we found, five were unique to different caves, and the two other species were found in several caves in the Galilee and in caves situated at the Ofra karst field, which is now under threat from planned construction,” says Dr. Gavish-Regev. “One of the surprising findings in the study shows that the new species are evolutionarily closer to species from caves in Mediterranean areas in southern Europe than to species living in close proximity to them at cave entrances in Israel.”

Five of the new species described had reduced eyes, while the other two were completely blind. The researchers suggest that the new species developed adaptations to life in underground habitats and speciated in caves, after or simultaneously with the extinction of the ancestor species from which they evolved, which lived outside caves and became extinct due to historical regional climate changes.

“We are currently witnessing the effects of climate change on many habitats, which obliges us to consider, maintain, and promote programs that include the preservation of underground habitats – many of which are at immediate risk,” concludes Professor Hawlena. “We must protect Israel’s unique nature, preserve its underground systems for the future, and further explore the processes that created these systems in the country.”

The team of researchers, led by Prof. Ruth Sperling of the Hebrew University Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, together with Prof. Stephen Stamm from the School of Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky, hypothesize that a new type of primate-specific proteins, translated from molecules of circular RNA, improves the brain’s function in relation to other organisms with a similar number of genes.

RNA is the mediator in turning instructions encoded in DNA into cellular proteins. As part of the process, the RNA is heavily modified: some pieces are cut out and the remaining parts are put back together, to assemble a new line of RNA – which fundamentally changes their composition. Sometimes, these parts form in circles, creating circular RNA.

Circular RNAs are mostly found in the brain and their formation is promoted by genomic elements specific to humans and other primates, called Alu-elements. The human genome consists of about 11% Alu-elements and their expansion in primates correlates with brain complexity.

“For the first time, the team of researchers will focus on new biological aspects of the circular RNA molecules, with the aim of revealing why humans have a stronger and more complex brain than other organisms with a similar number of genes,” Stamm says.

Prof. Sperling, a world-renowned expert in RNA processing, is seeking to understand how circular RNA is created by the splicing machinery in cells, to analyze when this occurs and how it is regulated in the brain.

According to Sperling, “If we do find that we have new proteins, this opens up a completely new research field with essential functions for the human brain.” Such a discovery may have wide implications, for example, on the detection of genetic materials correlated with schizophrenia, epilepsy, autism, or neurological disease.”

The hypothesis is that the new proteins, translated from these specific circular RNAs, substantially increase molecular complexity, which improves brain functions. “Do circular RNAs code for proteins? Do these proteins function? Can they be found in the brain? This is what we are analyzing. It has never been looked at,” Stamm says.

As part of the three-year project, there will be annual two-week RNA biology courses held in the summer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem led by Stamm and Sperling. Students from both universities will have theoretical lectures and do hands-on experiments during the course.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Science Foundation under Award Number 2221921, and United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation under Award Number 2022602.

Referring to the cancellation of Israel's sweetened beverage tax, as "a grievous blow to public health," Hebrew University Prof. Aron Troen, and a renowned worldwide group of senior health scholars have published a letter in The Lancet prestigious medical journal seeking to overturn the harmful, hasty, and costly decision. See attached for text of letter.

Approximately 64 percent of adults in Israel are overweight, defined as a body mass index over 25 according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Childhood obesity is on the rise, and its poor populations carry the greatest burden of associated chronic disease, like diabetes. The direct and indirect costs of obesity to Israeli society are estimated at 20 billion NIS ($5.8 Billion) annually.

"Since its introduction a year ago, the tax has reduced the consumption of sweetened drinks by about 10%," says Troen who is a member of the World Federation of Public Health Associations. “The fact that world health leaders have responded shows what an important issue we’re dealing with. Canceling the tax is irresponsible, an act of public health malpractice, and an outrage.”

In the letter, the authors state that, "Revoking the tax will undoubtedly harm lives and increase the direct and indirect economic costs to Israel's health system and economy, both in the short term and long term. More broadly, this act undermines hard won progress made elsewhere around the world. It is a serious setback for evidence-based public health policy and will be celebrated by vested interests who promote their products and disregard the need for policies that uphold the public's health and welfare. This decision will be seen as prioritizing sectorial political interests over incontrovertible scientific evidence and public health best practice."

The scholars conclude the letter by, "calling on the Government of Israel to reconsider and retract this ill-conceived and hasty decision. Instead, let the revenue from the soda tax be used to combat chronic diseases including obesity, as well as promote nutrition security by increasing economic access to healthy diets, narrowing health disparities, improving the health and welfare of all Israeli citizens, and setting an example for world health leadership."

Other co-authors include Darius Mozaffarian, Dean for Policy at Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science who co-chairs the task force that informed the White House Conference on Hunger and Nutritional Security, Barry Popkin, a world-renowned health economist, and Hagai Levin from the Hebrew University School of Public Health and chair of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians.

About the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel's leading academic and research institution. Serving some 24,000 students from 80 countries, it produces a third of Israel’s civilian research and is ranked 12th worldwide in biotechnology patent filings and commercial development. Faculty and alumni of the Hebrew University have won eight Nobel Prizes and a Fields Medal. For more information about the Hebrew University, please visit http://new.huji.ac.il/en.

About American Friends of the Hebrew University

American Friends of the Hebrew University (AFHU) is a national, not-for-profit organization based in the United States. AFHU is headquartered in New York and has seven regional offices working in close partnership with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. AFHU provides supporters, Hebrew University alumni, and the public with stimulating programs and events, and organizes missions to Israel. The organization’s activities support scholarly and scientific achievement at HU, create scholarships, fund new facilities, and assist the university’s efforts to recruit outstanding new faculty.

For more information, please visit http://www.afhu.org.

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This report delves into each of the individual SDGs and outlines how the University is playing a role in making an impact on these goals.

To read this report, click here

The report also found that:

The victim’s age was 38.1. The youngest victim was 14, and the oldest 68. The average age of the suspect/murderer suspects is 39; the youngest is 19 and the oldest is 65.

38% of the victims were stabbed to death, and 25% were shot with gunfire. The rest of the cases involved the use of an explosive device and drowning, and in some as yet unsolved cases, hanging and the use of substances.

In a third of cases, the suspect was known to the police or welfare authorities from previous violent incidents, or due to economic circumstances. In other cases, the murderer was known to have a criminal or mental health record.

In 36% of cases, at least one child of the victim was present during the event.

In two cases, the murderer committed suicide, and in five additional cases, the suspect or murderer attempted suicide.

A new research study, conducted by doctoral student Amal Khayat and led by Dr. Yael Bar-Zeev and researchers at the Hebrew University’s Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, shows that one of the world’s largest tobacco companies exploited loopholes in the law against advertising smoking products in Israel, and specifically targeted the Haredi population in Israel. The study findings, which were recently published in the academic journal Tobacco Control, reveal a series of advertising strategies that focused on the population group with the lowest rates of smoking in Israel.

Analyzing the marketing data of Philip Morris International, the researchers examined the differences in advertising expenditure over a four-year period between advertising focused on different major population groups in Israel—the general population, the Haredi public, Arab speakers, and Russian speakers. “We conducted a comparison among the advertising expenditures for all Philip Morris cigarette brands and the IQOS brand (a heated tobacco stick that entered the local market in December 2016), in light of regulatory changes that restricted the advertising of tobacco products,” explains Khayat.

While the restriction on advertising tobacco products led to a significant reduction in the company’s marketing expenditures, the study shows that the company exploited legal loopholes in order to subvert the law’s goals and increase its own profits as much as possible. “Even after the law came into effect, the company continued to spend almost NIS 3 million on advertising, with a focus on the printed press,” explains Dr. Bar-Zeev. “While the law restricted print advertising to one advert in each newspaper, 40% of the IQOS adverts placed were giant, two-page adverts, which effectively doubled the product’s advertising space, while still being considered a single advert as allowed by the letter of the law.”

Another strategy used by Philip Morris was adding a QR code to the advert, which readers could scan and then view additional content, beyond that contained in the advert permitted in the newspaper. Furthermore, the adverts featured people smoking IQOS devices in closed public spaces, despite the fact that the law forbids

the use of any tobacco products in such areas. According to the researchers, adverts like this give the impression that such behavior is legally permitted, and exploits the innocence of the majority of consumers, who are not aware of these distinctions.

The study further finds that before the law came into effect, Philip Morris significantly increased its advertising to all the population groups examined, with a particular focus on the Haredi population, which had the lowest rates of smoking in Israel. “Our data shows that since the introduction of the IQOS e-cigarettes, 216 targeted adverts were published, of which 55% were for the Haredi public, 6% for the Arab public, and the rest for the Russian-speaking public,” says Dr. Bar-Zeev. Similarly, for regular cigarette brands, 87% of advertisements were targeted at the Haredi population—a surprising finding given the company’s repeated claims that it is only interested in marketing its products to existing smokers. Dr. Bar-Zeev adds: “We expected that the company would focus on populations with the highest rates of smoking in Israel—men in the Arab sector—and not on the population which has hardly any smokers.”

In the wake of the study findings, the previous Knesset assembly decided to cancel the exception for advertising in the printed press, but deferred implementation of this step for seven years. In discussions, a series of additional restrictions were decided upon for this interim period, including prohibitions on the use of coupons, on the use of QR codes, and on featuring cigarette packs which do not carry the mandatory plain packaging in adverts in the printed press. However, Dr. Bar-Zeev concludes that this is merely “a drop in the ocean,” as the study has proved that the tobacco companies bypass such restrictions, and find creative ways to continue marketing their products and getting a new generation of smokers addicted to them. The researchers argue that only a full and immediate ban on all forms of advertising, combined with strict enforcement of the law, can stop this happening.

The academic articles presenting the study findings are available here:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tc-2022-057585

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tc-2022-057671