Wednesday, April 01, 2020

Possible lives for food waste from restaurants

by University of Córdoba

More than a third of the food produced ends up being wasted. This situation creates environmental, ethical and financial issues, that also affect food security. Negative effects from waste management, such as bad smells or the emission of greenhouse gases, make the bioeconomy one of the best options to reduce these problems.

Research into the field of the bioeconomy and the search for waste valorization strategies, such as agricultural by-products, is the field of research for the BIOSAHE (a Spanish acronym of biofuels and energy-saving systems) research group at the University of Cordoba. Led by Professor Pilar Dorado, they are now taking a step further: they aim to establish the best valorization paths for restaurant food waste. Among the possible lives for restaurant scraps, they are looking to find which one is most effective and which provides the most value.

Along these lines, researcher Miguel Carmona and the rest of the BIOSAHE group, including Javier Sáez, Sara Pinzi, Pilar Dorado and Isabel López García, developed a methodology that assesses food waste and selects the best valorization path.

After analyzing food waste from a variety of different kinds of restaurants with varying degrees of caliber, the main chemical components were characterized, those being starches, proteins, lipids and fibers. The aim of this process was to find out what amounts of what compounds are held in food waste in order to link it to the best option for its transformation.

Once the chemical compounds of the scraps were identified, a statistical study was performed to analyze the variability (how compounds vary and the amounts of some waste compared to other waste).

Identifying compound typology and variability makes it possible to predict the most optimal valorization process depending on the waste, thus helping industries within the circular economy and the resource valorization sector to make decisions.

In this way, the lives of restaurant scraps can be turned into biodiesel, electricity or bioplastic. Specifically, the project that Pilar Dorado heads is developing a biorefinery that would, just as oil refineries do, generate biofuel, bioplastic, biolubricants and products with added value in the chemical, electrical and heat industries from restaurant food waste. In this project, in addition to the methodology that characterizes scraps and chooses the best paths, they have produced bioplastic that can be used as sutures in surgery procedures.

Turning food waste into bioplastics

More information: M. Carmona-Cabello et al, Food waste from restaurant sector – Characterization for biorefinery approach, Bioresource Technology (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2020.122779

Journal information: Bioresource Technology

First complete German shepherd DNA offers new tool to fight disease

by University of New South Wales

Scientists have mapped the genome of the German shepherd, one of the world's most popular canine breeds, after using a blood sample from 'Nala,' a healthy five-year-old German shepherd living in Sydney.

In a paper published today in respected 'big data' journal GigaScience, a global team of researchers from institutions including UNSW Sydney detailed the mammoth task of unravelling the 38 pairs of dog chromosomes to decode the 19,000 genes and 2.8 billion base pairs of DNA, using advanced genetic sequencing technology.

The new genome not only provides science with a more complete biological snapshot of the dog species (Canis lupus familiaris) in general, but also offers a reference for future studies of the typical diseases that afflict this much-loved breed.

Popular choice

UNSW Science's Professor Bill Ballard, an evolutionary biologist who sequenced the genome of the Australian dingo in 2017, says German shepherds are popular choices in the home and the workplace because of their natural intelligence, balanced temperament and protective nature. But after more than a century of breeding for desired physical characteristics, they are particularly vulnerable to genetic diseases.

"One of the most common health problems affecting German shepherds is canine hip dysplasia, which is a painful condition that can restrict their mobility," says Professor Ballard.

"Because German shepherds make such good working dogs, there has been a lot of money spent looking into the causes and predictors of this problem. When working dogs—such as those trained to work with police or to help people with disabilities—end up getting hip dysplasia, then that's a lot of lost time and money that has gone into the training of that dog.

"Now that we have the genome, we can determine much earlier in life whether the dog is likely to develop the condition. And over time, it will enable us to develop a breeding program to reduce hip dysplasia in future generations."

Top dog

Nala, who was described in the paper as "an easy going and approachable 5.5 year old," was selected because she was free of all known genetic diseases, including no sign of hip dysplasia. She was located by well-known TV and radio vet Dr. Robert Zammit—credited as an author of this paper—who Professor Ballard says has amassed X-rays and blood samples of more than 600 German shepherds.

"Now we'll be able to look at those hip x-rays and all the DNA of those dogs and compare them back to this healthy reference female," Professor Ballard says.

Nala isn't the first domestic dog to provide a sample for the mapping of the dog genome. In 2003 a poodle called Shadow provided a sample that resulted in a genome that was 80 per cent complete, followed two years later by the first complete mapping of the genome of 'Tasha' the Boxer.

Gene machines

But in the decade and a half since, technology has vastly improved to the point that the number of gaps—or regions of DNA bases that are unreadable—has fallen dramatically, making the mapping of Nala's genes the most complete yet.

"The biggest difference between the mapping today and in 2005 is that we now use long read sequencing," says Professor Ballard.

"The Boxer's genome was put together with 'Sanger' sequencing, which can read about 1000 bases in length at a time, while the technology that is available today—Next Generation sequencing—can read up to 15,000 bases.

"What this means is if you've got a region of genes that is duplicated and running more than 1000 bases, Sanger sequencing will not be able to tell you which part of the genes that particular sequence comes from. So whereas there were about 23,000 gaps in Sanger's Boxer genome, the Next Gen sequencer had just over 300."

Bred for success

The German shepherd genome is also an advance on 2005's Boxer genome because of the breed itself. As Boxers are more specialised, with more inbreeding in their genetic history, the German shepherd's genome is therefore more generic. The authors believe that this will provide better understanding of the evolution of dog breeds in general.

Professor Ballard reckons this will not be the last time a domestic dog breed's genome is sequenced.

"I would expect that as the costs come down, all the major breeds will have a genome mapped within 10 years, because this will help identify specific diseases, and lots of breeds have known specific diseases."

More genes associated with canine hip dysplasia and osteoarthritis discovered

More information: Matt A Field et al. Canfam_GSD: De novo chromosome-length genome assembly of the German Shepherd Dog (Canis lupus familiaris) using a combination of long reads, optical mapping, and Hi-C, GigaScience (2020). DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giaa027

Journal information: GigaScience

Vermont has conserved one third of the land needed for an ecologically functional future

by University of Vermont

For the first time in more than a century, Vermont and neighboring states are losing forestland to development at a rate of almost 1,500 acres per year. As forest fragmentation gains ground across the New England landscape, where private ownerships and small land parcels are the norm, conserving land for future generations of people, wildlife, and plants becomes more necessary but more difficult.

Vermont is a third of the way there. In a new study, forest conservation experts at the University of Vermont (UVM) confirmed that the state has already protected 33%, or 1.3 million acres, of highest priority targeted lands needed to protect and connect valuable wildlife habitats and corridors.

Most of the currently conserved lands are forested, yet not nearly enough of the state's highest priority targeted surface water and riparian areas—ponds, rivers, shorelines, and wetlands—are protected. Many animals require zones along waterways in which to travel between habitats they need to survive.

The researchers scrutinized Vermont's new state-level vision for conservation, Vermont Conservation Design, meant to create physical pathways for movement of animals and plants across the landscape, especially in a future of changing climate. They compiled a database of Vermont's conserved lands and overlaid them with the state's highest priority landscape targets.

"The State of Vermont and a number of partners have laid out an impressive, thoughtful vision to ensure that Vermont remains a good place for all forms of life in the future," said Carolyn Loeb, a graduate student in the UVM College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' Field Naturalist Program who led the study. "Our goal was to answer the questions: how far have we come, what successes and gaps do we see so far in fulfilling the design, and where do we go from here?"

The study, "Large landscape conservation in a mixed ownership region: Opportunities and barriers for putting the pieces together," was published in the journal Biological Conservation in March 2020 with free online access until April 18, 2020.

Of Vermont's protected land, the authors found that 87% of those acres, or 22% of the state's total land base, are also considered highest priority by Vermont Conservation Design targets.

"Our research indicates that past conservation efforts in Vermont really matter, even though our reasons and perspectives around conservation have evolved," said Loeb.

Historically, forest conservation targeted high elevation settings—think summit of Vermont's Camel's Hump. The study found that the state has adequately conserved higher elevation lands that are also design targets, but lower elevation targets remain a gap among protected areas.

"Vermont is at a critical juncture in conserving the wild and working forest landscapes of the state, as we observe losses in forest cover to development and other land uses," said Tony D'Amato, a professor in the UVM Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. "This study provides a crucial benchmark of current levels of forest protection to help prioritize future conservation actions to achieve the impressive vision Vermont Conservation Design has outlined for sustaining the ecological, economic, and social benefits of Vermont's forests into the future."

Across all 1.5 million acres of Vermont's currently conserved lands, three groups dominate in responsibility for the most protected lands: the national government, the state, and private nonprofit organizations, which can also conserve lands on behalf of other private landowners.

The public sector of national and state government each hold responsibility for 30.5% of protected lands, which include the U.S. Forest Service's Green Mountain National Forest, other federal lands, and the Vermont state parks, forests, and wildlife management areas. The Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation protects the most design-targeted lands of any state agency.

Nonprofit organizations have responsibility for 35.4% of protected lands, while town and tribal entities hold responsibility for 3.6% and 0.01% of conserved lands, respectively.

While public agencies are responsible for most of the highest priority forested area targets in Vermont, nonprofit organizations have protected the largest percentage of highest priority riparian and surface water targets. Nonprofits, such as the Vermont Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy in Vermont, through conservation easements, have played a unique role in protecting these wetlands and waterways. But the study underscores that there are still notable gaps in protecting low elevation and riparian lands identified in the design as very important.

"Going forward, Vermont's nonprofits will play an increasingly important role in land conservation, especially in continuing to protect those areas that are rich with species diversity," said Elizabeth Thompson, Director of Conservation Science at Vermont Land Trust. "Nonprofits are engaging more and more deeply in restoring wetlands that were previously degraded, planting new forests along river shores to slow flood waters and provide wildlife habitat, and protecting unique natural communities while also protecting working forests and farmland."

The authors recommend continued support for collaboration between public and private partners in land conservation, planning for quick response to large and potentially unexpected land sales that are important design targets, increased assistance for nonprofits in gaining protections for under-represented surface waters and connected riparian area targets, and a greater focus on protection of low-elevation targeted lands in Vermont by turning to strategies for better connecting the small ownership, patchworked landscapes that occur in much of the stateIdentifying forests for protection in Borneo

More information: Carolyn D. Loeb et al, Large landscape conservation in a mixed ownership region: Opportunities and barriers for putting the pieces together, Biological Conservation (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2020.108462

FDA wants heartburn meds off the market due to contamination

by Matthew Perrone

The move from the Food and Drug Administration Wednesday applies to all prescription and over-the-counter versions of ranitidine, best known by the brand name Zantac. The drugs are widely used to treat stomach acid and ulcers.

Patients should stop taking any of the medications they currently have and throw them away, the FDA said.

The agency last year said patients could continue taking the medications and did not face health risks from low levels of a "probable" cancer-causing contaminant found in multiple brands.

But officials reversed that decision, saying they've now determined that levels of the chemical increase over time, especially if tablets and capsules are stored at higher temperatures. That poses an unacceptable risk to patients, they said.

"Since we don't know how or for how long the product might have been stored, we decided that it should not be available to consumers and patients," said Dr. Janet Woodcock in a statement.

Woodcock said there are multiple alternative medications to treat heartburn, including Prilosec, Nexium and Tagament.

Many makers of ranitidine drugs already removed their products from the market, including Zantac-manufacturer Sanofi. Additionally several drug store chains pulled the drugs from their shelves last year.

Dozens of recalls have been linked to the same probable carcinogen since last year. The FDA is still investigating the issue and has sanctioned at least one manufacturing plant in India that makes ingredients used in the medications.

The FDA has suspended nearly all U.S. and foreign inspections due to travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus outbreak.

CVS stops sale of heartburn drugs with suspect contaminant

'A battlefield behind your home': Deaths mount in New York

by Robert Bumsted, Angela Charlton and Mark Sherman

A funeral director and a Wycoff Heights Medical Center, employee transport a body, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, in New York. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

New York authorities rushed to bring in an army of medical volunteers Wednesday as the statewide death toll from the coronavirus doubled in 72 hours to more than 1,900 and the wail of ambulances in the otherwise eerily quiet streets of the city became the heartbreaking soundtrack of the crisis.

As hot spots flared around the U.S. in places like New Orleans, Detroit and Southern California, the nation's biggest city was the hardest hit of them all, accounting for most of the state's dead, with bodies loaded onto refrigerated morgue trucks by gurney and forklift outside overwhelmed hospitals, in full view of passing motorists.

And the worst is yet to come.

"How does it end? And people want answers," New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "I want answers. The answer is nobody knows for sure."

Across the U.S., Americans braced for what President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday could be "one of the roughest two or three weeks we've ever had in our country." The White House projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. before the crisis is over, and Vice President Mike Pence said models for the outbreak show the country on a trajectory akin to hard-hit Italy's.

Under growing pressure, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis belatedly joined Cuomo and governors in more than 30 states in issuing a statewide stay-home order, taking action after conferring with fellow Republican Trump. The governors of Pennsylvania and Nevada, both Democrats, took similar steps. Mississippi's GOP was expected to follow suit.

A woman, wearing a protective face mask as a precaution against the new coronavirus, rides in a public cable car in Bogota, Colombia, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Health authorities have begun checking the temperature of commuters as a measure to contain the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Meanwhile, European nations facing extraordinary demand for intensive-care beds are putting up makeshift hospitals, unsure whether they will find enough healthy medical staff to run them. London is days away from unveiling a 4,000-bed temporary hospital built in a huge convention center.

In a remarkable turnabout, rich economies where virus cases have exploded are welcoming help from less wealthy ones. Russia sent medical equipment and masks to the United States. Cuba supplied doctors to France. Turkey dispatched protective gear and disinfectant to Italy and Spain.

Worldwide, more than 900,000 people have been infected and over 45,000 have died, according to a tally kept by Johns Hopkins University, though the real figures are believed to be much higher because of testing shortages, differences in counting the dead and large numbers of mild cases that have gone unreported.

A patient is taken from an ambulance outside St Thomas Hospital in London, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, the hospital is one of many treating Coronavirus patients. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.(AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)

The U.S. recorded about 200,000 infections and about 4,400 deaths, with New York City accounting for about 1 out of 4 dead.

In New York, more than 80,000 people have volunteered as medical reinforcements, including recent retirees, health care professionals taking a break from their regular jobs and people between gigs.

Few have made it into the field yet, as authorities vet them and figure out how to use them, but hospitals are expected to begin bringing them in later this week.

Those who have hit the ground already, many brought in by staffing agencies, have discovered a hospital system being driven to the breaking point.

"It's hard when you lose patients. It's hard when you have to tell the family members: 'I'm sorry, but we did everything that we could,'" said nurse Katherine Ramos, of Cape Coral, Florida, who has been working at New York Presbyterian Hospital. "It's even harder when we really don't have the time to mourn, the time to talk about this."

Medical staff of a mobile unit take samples to test for Covid-19, at the Santa Maria della Pieta' hospital complex, in Rome, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

To ease the crushing caseload, the city's paramedics have been told they shouldn't take fatal heart attack victims to hospitals to have them pronounced dead. Patients have been transferred to the Albany area. A Navy hospital ship has docked in New York, the mammoth Javits Convention Center has been turned into a hospital, and the tennis center that hosts the U.S. Open is being converted to one, too.

With New York on near-lockdown, the normally bustling streets in the city of 8.6 million are empty, and a siren to some is no longer just urban background noise. Cuomo moved to close the city's playgrounds because of too much crowding, but people can still use wide-open green spaces as long as they stay 6 feet apart. Police went around in patrol cars, blaring warnings to obey the rules.

"After 9/11, I remember we actually wanted to hear the sound of ambulances on our quiet streets because that meant there were survivors, but we didn't hear those sounds, and it was heartbreaking. Today, I hear an ambulance on my strangely quiet street and my heart breaks, too," said 61-year-old Meg Gifford, a former Wall Streeter who lives on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

A worker sprays disinfectant to sanitize Duomo square, as the city main landmark, the gothic cathedral, stands out in background, in Milan, Italy, Tuesday, March 31, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Near severely swamped Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, resident Emma Sorza, 33, described an eerie scene.

"I think everyone's just doing what they can, but at the same time it bothers you. Especially if you're around Elmhurst, because you can hear all the ambulances, she said. "There is a truck and people are actually dying. It's like a battlefield behind your home."

Cuomo said projections suggest the crisis in New York will peak at the end of April, with a high death rate continuing through July.

"Let's cooperate to address that in New York because it's going to be in your town tomorrow," he warned. "If we learn how to do it right here—or learn how to do it the best we can, because there is no right, it's only the best we can—then we can work cooperatively all across this country."

Elsewhere around the country, Florida's DeSantis was locked in a standoff over whether two cruise ships with sick and dead passengers may dock in his state. More than 300 U.S. citizens were on board. Two deaths were blamed on the virus, and nine people tested positive, Holland America cruise line said.

A man wears a face mask as he walks past murals of wildlife outside of a subway station in Beijing, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. China's National Health Commission on Wednesday reported a few dozens of new COVID-19 cases, one day after announcing that asymptomatic cases will now be included in the official coronavirus count. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

DeSantis, who is close to Trump, said the state's health system is stretched too thin to accommodate the passengers. But the president said he would speak with him. "They're dying on the ship," Trump said. "I'm going to do what's right. Not only for us, but for humanity."

In Southern California, officials reported that at least 51 residents and six staff members at a nursing home east of Los Angeles have been infected and two have died.

Even as the virus has slowed its growth in overwhelmed Italy and in China, where it first emerged, hospitals on the Continent are buckling under the load.

"It feels like we are in a Third World country. We don't have enough masks, enough protective equipment, and by the end of the week we might be in need of more medication too," said Paris emergency worker Christophe Prudhomme.

Dr. Sherry Yu demonstrates a free-standing booth for COVID-19 testing, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. The isolation booths were created by a collaboration of the hospital's clinical leaders and engineering team, inspired by a South Korean research design. The booths separate clinicians from patients, protect front line providers, and reduce the need for personal protective equipment. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Spain hit a record of 864 deaths in one day, for a total of more than 9,000, while France reported an unprecedented 509 deaths and more than 4,000 in all. In Italy, with over 13,000 dead, the most of any country, morgues overflowed with bodies, caskets piled up in churches, and doctors were forced to decide which desperately ill patients would get breathing machines.

England's Wimbledon tennis tournament was canceled for the first time since World War II.

India's highest court ordered news media and social media sites to carry the government's "official version" of developments, echoing actions taken in other countries to curb independent reporting.

The strain facing some of the world's best health care systems has been aggravated by hospital budget cuts over the past decade in Italy, Spain, France and Britain. They have called in medical students, retired doctors and even laid-off flight attendants with first aid training.

A view of the unusually empty embankment during evening rush hour outside the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. The Russian capital has woken up to a lockdown obliging most people in the city of 13 million to stay home. The government ordered other regions of the vast country to quickly prepare for the same as Moscow, to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

A man wearing a mask to help stop the spread of the coronavirus passes advertising display London, Wednesday, April 1, 2020, stating "Community is Kindness'. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Harare City Council workers wear masks while disinfecting a bus terminal, in Harare, Zimbabwe, Wednesday, April, 1, 2020. Zimbabwe is on a lockdown for 21 days in an effort to curb the spread of the coronoavirus. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

A nurse in protective clothing takes notes from a woman with symptoms of new coronavirus at a carpark that turned into a COVID-19 infection screening center at Chulalongkorn University health service center in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

A volunteer wearing a face shield and mask manages a counter of COVID-19 infection screening center at the Chulalongkorn University health service center in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

A stranded Australian citizen arrives to catch a bus on his way to take a rescue flight from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Stranded tourists from Australia and New Zealand boarded a chartered flight out of Nepal Wednesday. The Nepal Airlines flight had 222 Australians and 28 New Zealand nationals and permanent residents. (AP Photo/Niranjan Shrestha)

A worker disinfects a window in affords to stem the spread of the new coronavirus in Prague, Czech Republic, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. The new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms for most people, but for some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness or death. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

An Israeli woman wears a mask as she crosses the street in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wednesday, April 1, 2020. Israel's military has deployed hundreds of troops to assist police in enforcing health regulations meant to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. Soldiers and police are setting up roadblocks and inspecting passing cars, asking motorists for their reasons for leaving the house. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)

The staffing shortage has been exacerbated by the high numbers of infected personnel. In Italy alone, nearly 10,000 medical workers have been infected and more than 60 doctors have died.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with health problems, it can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia and lead to death.

China, where the outbreak began late last year, on Wednesday reported just 36 new COVID-19 cases.Follow the latest news on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

Healthy-looking people spread coronavirus, more studies say
by Mike Stobbe

In this Tuesday, March 31, 2020 file photo, neighbors line up for free food staples outside Santa Ana primary school in Asuncion, Paraguay, part of an already existing food program through the Education Ministry, as people stay home from work amid the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. According to research released on Wednesday, April 1, 2020, more evidence is emerging that coronavirus infections are being spread by people who have no clear symptoms, complicating efforts to gain control of the pandemic. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

More evidence is emerging that coronavirus infections are being spread by people who have no clear symptoms, complicating efforts to gain control of the pandemic.

A study conducted by researchers in Singapore and published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday is the latest to estimate that around 10% of new coronavirus infections may be sparked by people who were infected with the virus but not experiencing symptoms.

In response to recent studies, the CDC changed how it was defining the risk of infection for Americans. The agency's new guidance, also released Wednesday, targets people who have no symptoms but were exposed to persons with known or suspected infections. It essentially says that anyone may be a considered a carrier, whether they have symptoms or not.

That reinforces the importance of social distancing and other measures designed to stop the spread, experts said.

"You have to really be proactive about reducing contacts between people who seem perfectly healthy," said Lauren Ancel Meyers, a University of Texas at Austin researcher who has studied coronavirus transmission in different countries.

The new study focused on 243 cases of coronavirus reported in Singapore from mid-January through mid-March, including 157 among people who hadn't traveled.

Researchers found that so-called pre-symptomatic people triggered infections in seven different clusters of disease, accounting for about 6% of the locally-acquired cases.

An earlier study in Hubei province, China, where the virus was first identified, suggested that more than 10% of transmissions could have occurred before patients spreading the virus ever exhibited symptoms.

Researchers are also looking into the possibility that additional cases are triggered by "asymptomatic" people who are infected but never develop clear-cut symptoms, and "post-symptomatic" people who got sick, appear to be recovered, but may still be contagious.

It remains unclear how many new infections are caused by each type of these potential spreaders, said Meyers, who was not involved in the Singapore study but was part of an earlier one focused on China.

CDC officials say they've been researching asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections, but the studies are not complete.

In the initial months of the pandemic, health officials based their response on the belief that most of the spread came from people who were sneezing or coughing droplets that contained the virus.

Coronavirus spreads quickly and sometimes before people have symptoms, study finds

Traces of ancient rainforest in Antarctica point to a warmer prehistoric world

by Imperial College London

Researchers have found evidence of rainforests near the South Pole 90 million years ago, suggesting the climate was exceptionally warm at the time.

A team from the UK and Germany discovered forest soil from the Cretaceous period within 900 km of the South Pole. Their analysis of the preserved roots, pollen and spores shows that the world at that time was a lot warmer than previously thought.

The discovery and analysis were carried out by an international team of researchers led by geoscientists from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany and including Imperial College London researchers. Their findings are published today in Nature.

Co-author Professor Tina van de Flierdt, from the Department of Earth Science & Engineering at Imperial, said: "The preservation of this 90-million-year-old forest is exceptional, but even more surprising is the world it reveals. Even during months of darkness, swampy temperate rainforests were able to grow close to the South Pole, revealing an even warmer climate than we expected."

The work also suggests that the carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere were higher than expected during the mid-Cretaceous period, 115-80 million years ago, challenging climate models of the period.

The mid-Cretaceous was the heyday of the dinosaurs but was also the warmest period in the past 140 million years, with temperatures in the tropics as high as 35 degrees Celsius and sea level 170 metres higher than today.

However, little was known about the environment south of the Antarctic Circle at this time. Now, researchers have discovered evidence of a temperate rainforest in the region, such as would be found in New Zealand today. This was despite a four-month polar night, meaning for a third of every year there was no life-giving sunlight at all.

The presence of the forest suggests average temperatures were around 12 degrees Celsius and that there was unlikely to be an ice cap at the South Pole at the time.

The evidence for the Antarctic forest comes from a core of sediment drilled into the seabed near the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers in West Antarctica. One section of the core, that would have originally been deposited on land, caught the researchers' attention with its strange colour.

The team CT-scanned the section of the core and discovered a dense network of fossil roots, which was so well preserved that they could make out individual cell structures. The sample also contained countless traces of pollen and spores from plants, including the first remnants of flowering plants ever found at these high Antarctic latitudes.

To reconstruct the environment of this preserved forest, the team assessed the climatic conditions under which the plants' modern descendants live, as well as analysing temperature and precipitation indicators within the sample.

They found that the annual mean air temperature was around 12 degrees Celsius; roughly two degrees warmer than the mean temperature in Germany today. Average summer temperatures were around 19 degrees Celsius; water temperatures in the rivers and swamps reached up to 20 degrees; and the amount and intensity of rainfall in West Antarctica were similar to those in today's Wales.

To get these conditions, the researchers conclude that 90 million years ago the Antarctic continent was covered with dense vegetation, there were no land-ice masses on the scale of an ice sheet in the South Pole region, and the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere was far higher than previously assumed for the Cretaceous.

Lead author Dr. Johann Klages, from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, said: "Before our study, the general assumption was that the global carbon dioxide concentration in the Cretaceous was roughly 1000 ppm. But in our model-based experiments, it took concentration levels of 1120 to 1680 ppm to reach the average temperatures back then in the Antarctic."UN: Antarctic high temp records will take months to verify

More information: Temperate rainforests near the South Pole during peak Cretaceous warmth, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2148-5 , https://nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2148-5

Journal information: Nature

Reflections on COVID-19 and our destruction of nature

by Radhika Iyengar, State of the Planet

Credit: Salazar Barnz on Unsplash

In 2015 I was helping to draft a UNESCO report, Education for People and Planet. To gather various opinions on the role of education in creating a sustainable planet, I met with a professor of ecology and biodiversity at Columbia University. In my interview with him, he said something that I have never forgotten: "Nature is not your friend—it does what it does."

I think about that now as I look at the last green pepper in my fridge. This is the last vegetable that I have after three weeks of being homebound due to the coronavirus pandemic. Two weeks back, I mustered up some courage, as if I was going out to war, and went to my local Trader Joe's. A place that I used to frequent once a week, always carrying my reusable grocery bags, and saying my usual hellos to the employees who all know my kids and me very well. My kids get stickers from the friendly cashier. However, my visit two weeks back was different. The customers made a line, six feet apart from each other, and the line spilled over the parking lot. After an hour of waiting outside, a Trader Joe's employee handed me a wet wipe to disinfect my cart and I was among the lucky 25 who got to go in. "Twenty-five at a time is the new rule." I wore my yellow kitchen gloves, didn't make any eye contact, and stayed away from people.

While I look at the last vegetable in my fridge, my last pepper, I think about how, three weeks back I attended a course on food waste management in my local library. We exchanged tips on how to use the leftover half of an avocado, or the banana that we take to work that always gets wasted. We decided to purchase only what is required and to manage our fridge better. I had discussed how I need to better educate my kids to stop wasting food. Living in India, poverty and hunger is not invisible. But my kids, that is another story. I keep reinforcing that as per Hindu philosophy, it is a sin to waste food. Gopal Patel talks about sustainability and spirituality. In the COVID-19 days, I generate no waste. In the fear of attempting another war-like situation at the grocery store, I have been rationing food supplies at home and being very careful. It required nature to give me such a practical, mandatory lesson on food management.

I hear that New Jersey's air quality will drastically improve and the residents will breathe cleaner air than ever before. More cars stay at home and humankind will hold back on more destruction. April 18th was our town, Millburn's, Earth Day celebration, which is now postponed to September. My friends and I were planning ways to make our Earth greener, use less plastic, and "refuse, reuse, recycle" our waste. I have so many bins at home to manage my waste—trash, recycling, plastic bag recycling, compost bins. I was so busy trying to fit my waste into these bins to make this Earth greener. Now, I avoid buying, not because I want to, but because I can't. I produce much less waste, not by choice, but due to COVID-19. It took a pandemic to put me in my place.

My window tells me that spring is here. I look outside to admire the yellow blooming flowers. Open my window to get some spring air in my house. I go on my deck to get some sun. I cannot go outside, because there is nowhere to go. Probably starting my fossil fuel-filled car is already enough damage. Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, the minister of environment for Costa Rica, has called on leaders to put climate and biodiversity at the top of the agenda as they respond to the COVID-19 crisis. Probably one of those tree-hugging hippies who will soon be ignored. Greta has gone online, too. Will she be a victim of "out-of-sight, out-of-mind"? Maybe we will go back to our convenient status quo—but will it be easy this time?

For the time being, our new "normal" is here to stay. At the Earth Institute's COVID-19 briefing last week, epidemiologists asked us to prepare for the long haul. COVID-19 will not go away; the effects might get dissipated over many years to come. Many millions will be physically impacted, but Irwin Redlener noted that the impact on mental health will be as rampant as COVID-19 itself. Our communities are not prepared for disaster management, as per Jeffrey Schlegelmilch. Professor Jeffrey Sachs in his public briefing reminded us that this is not just an health issue, but will cost 10-20% of the GDP for many countries. Therefore, it is imperative that the world has an economic plan not just for the current crisis, but also post-crisis as well.

In a recent Mongabay India Series commentary, Gopikrishna Warrier notes that with the changing climate and rainfall, new diseases are emerging. The changing climate causes more stress to wild animals who are already confronted with shrinking habitats, thus making it easier for diseases to jump from animals to humans. A recent article in the Guardian seems to suggest that human destruction of biodiversity has brought us to a tipping point, and therefore it is time to face nature's wrath.

Normally, I am so busy in my life—going to and from the office, and getting the children to school—that there is just no time to think about biodiversity. Now, I am confined to my house. Boundaries have been made. I now imagine the life of a fish, who has limited places to go to because of the plastic we threw at her. Tall trees in Taylor Park that can't move, but inhale all the bad air we give them. I imagine the lives of animals in Disney World, the cute dolphin who jumps out and kisses you and goes back to jail. We have created a new world for them, and nature now creates a new world for us. "Social distancing" is not just for people; we need to maintain a safe distance between animals and ourselves.

I will cook the last pepper with a lot of care. Maybe throw in some potatoes and some curry powder. The core goes into the compost again. The only difference is, this time there will be no food wasted on my table.

Explore furtherCoronavirus is a wake-up call: our war with the environment is leading to pandemics
Provided by State of the Planet

This story is republished courtesy of Earth Institute, Columbia University http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu.

Golden age of Hollywood was not so golden for women

by Northwestern University

The Golden Age of Hollywood is known for its glitz, glamour and classic movies. Northwestern University researchers have peeled back the gilded sheen to reveal an industry tarnished by severe gender inequity.

By analyzing a century of data (1910 to 2010) in the American Film Institute Archive and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), the researchers found that female representation in the film industry hit an all-time low during the so-called Golden Age. Women representation in the industry still is struggling to recover today.

"A lot of people view this era through rose-colored glasses because Hollywood was producing so many great movies," said Northwestern's Luís Amaral, who led the study. "They argue that types of movies being made—such as Westerns, action and crime—caused the decrease in female representation. But we found the decrease occurred across all genres, including musicals, comedy, fantasy and romance."

The study will be published on April 1 in the journal PLOS ONE.

Amaral is the Erastus Otis Haven Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering.

Shining a spotlight on the history of gender imbalance in Hollywood — *Historical trends of gender imbalance in the U.S. movie industry. Credit: Amaral et al, PLOS ONE 2020 (CC BY)*

Consistent findings across all genres and jobs

To conduct the study, Amaral and his team analyzed 26,000 movies produced between 1910 and 2010.

The team looked across all genres—action, adventure, biography, comedy, crime, drama, documentary family, fantasy, film-noir, history, horror, music, musical, mystery, romance, sci-fi, sport, thriller, war, Western and short—to measure how many women worked as actors, screenwriters, directors and producers.

Across all genres and all four job types, the resulting graphs form the exact same "U-shape" pattern. Roles for women increased from 1910 to 1920 and then sharply dropped. Around 1950, the roles steadily increase until 2010.

"In general, we found that the percentage of women compared to men in any role was consistently below 50% for all years from 1912 until now," said study coauthor Murielle Dunand, a former intern in Amaral's laboratory and current student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

'Men hire men'

Amaral said his findings reflect what was happening in the film industry.

Before Hollywood's Golden Age, the industry was fueled by independent filmmakers, and women participation was steadily increasing. From 1910 to 1920, according to Amaral's data, women actors comprised roughly 40% of casts. Women wrote 20% of movies, produced 12% and directed 5%. By 1930, acting roles for women were cut in half; producing and directing roles hit close to zero.

Amaral and Dunand said the data suggest that the studio system, which emerged between 1915 and 1920, is most likely responsible for the shift. The industry condensed from a somewhat diverse collection of independent filmmakers scattered across the country to just five studios (Warner Bros., Paramount, MGM, Fox and RKO Pictures), which controlled everything.

"As the studio system falls under the control of a small group of men, women are receiving fewer and fewer jobs," Amaral said. "It looks like male producers hire male directors and male writers. This is association, not causation, but the data is very suggestive."

Women improve conditions for other women

Then, two groundbreaking lawsuits caused the studio system to break apart. First, Oscar-nominated actor Olivia de Havilland, who had an exclusive contract with Warner Bros., sued the studio in 1943 to be freed from her contract and won. In 1948, the U.S. federal government sued Paramount Pictures in an antitrust case. At the time, movie studios owned their own theaters and distributed their own movies. When Paramount lost, studios could no longer exclusively produce, distribute and exhibit their films.

"These legal changes took the power away from a handful of men and gave more people the power to start changing the industry," Amaral said. "There is a connection between increased concentration of power and decreased participation of women."

Among the insights hidden in the data, Amaral found that women producers tend to hire greater proportions of women to work in their films.

"Producers affect the gender of the director," he said. "Women with power in Hollywood are making conditions better for other women.

Celluloid Ceiling study finds women still largely underrepresented in Hollywood

More information: Amaral LAN, Moreira JAG, Dunand ML, Tejedor Navarro H, Lee HA (2020) Long-term patterns of gender imbalance in an industry without ability or level of interest differences. PLoS ONE 15(4): e0229662. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229662

Journal information: PLoS ONE

Provided by Northwestern University

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