COVID-19: The long road to recovery

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

Researchers have identified a pattern of longer-term symptoms likely to be experienced by people who were hospitalised with the COVID-19 infection.

They include fatigue, breathlessness, psychological distress - including problems with concentration and memory - and a general decline in quality of life.

Some patients, particularly those who had been in intensive care, had symptoms associated with cases of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

The findings provide the first detailed insight into problems facing patients recovering from COVID-19 in the UK.

Dr Manoj Sivan, Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Leeds and a Consultant in Rehabilitation Medicine at Leeds General Infirmary, supervised the research project. He said: "COVID-19 is a new illness and we have very little information on longer term problems in individuals after discharge from hospital."

"The emerging evidence is that for some, the road to recovery may take months and it is vital specialist rehabilitation is on hand to support them. This research gives an important insight into patient needs, and that will help shape services in the community."

The findings - Post-discharge symptoms and rehabilitation needs in survivors of COVID-19 infection: a cross-sectional evaluation - have been published in the Journal of Medical Virology.

Dr Stephen Halpin, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Leeds and Consultant with Leeds Teachings Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "This research follows our previous work of predicting COVID-19 patients' long-term needs based on previous coronavirus outbreaks of SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012. The health problems are similar but on a larger scale given the number of people affected."

The research team - involving multidisciplinary specialists from the University of Leeds, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and Leeds Beckett University - followed 100 people recovering from COVID-19, four-to-eight weeks after being discharged from hospital in Leeds.

The COVID-19 survivors were divided into two groups: those who had become critically ill and needed intensive care - 32 people were in this category; and those who were treated on a ward without needing intensive care - 68 people were in this category.

Patients were contacted by a member of the hospital's rehabilitation team and asked a series of questions about their recovery and symptoms they were still experiencing.

Results

The most prevalent symptom was fatigue. More than 60 percent of people who had been treated on a ward reported fatigue, and one-third of them described it as moderate or severe. For patients who had been in intensive care, 72 percent reported fatigue. Of those, more than half said it was moderate or severe.

The second most common symptom was breathlessness. People in both groups said they had feelings of breathlessness which had not existed before they contracted COVID-19. This was higher in the group that had been the most ill, the intensive care group versus those who had been treated in a ward - 65.6 percent versus 42.6 percent.

The third most prevalent symptoms were neuropsychological. The research survey found that almost one quarter of the people who had been on a ward and just under a half of the people who had been in intensive care had some of the symptoms of PTSD.

Writing in the paper, the researchers said: "PTSD symptoms are a well-recognised component of post- intensive care unit syndrome caused by a variety of factors including fear of dying, invasive treatment, pain, delirium, inability to communicate, weakness, immobility, and sensory problems and sleep deprivation."

More than two-thirds (68.8 percent) of patients in the intensive care group and just under half (45.6 percent) of the other group said their overall quality of life had deteriorated.

The researchers say the rehabilitation needs of patients who did not require hospital care need to be further investigated and they are working on understanding this in future research.

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New study sheds light on evolution of hell ants from 100 million years ago

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS

IMAGE: PHYLOGENY AND CEPHALIC HOMOLOGY OF HELL ANTS AND MODERN LINEAGES. view more 

CREDIT: NIGPAS

Ants are the most successful social insects and play an important role in modern terrestrial ecosystems. The origin and early evolution of ants have attracted lots of attention.

Among the earliest fossil ants known, haidomyrmecine "hell ants" from Cretaceous amber reveal an ancient and dramatic early burst radiation of adaptive forms.

Hell ants possessed bizarre scythe-like mouthparts along with a striking array of horn-like cephalic projections. But how did this type of ant evolve? This question was long a mystery.

Now, however, an international research team co-led by Prof. WANG Bo from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology (NIGPAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has confirmed the special trap-jaw predation mechanism of hell ants, providing new insights into their evolution.

The study was published in Current Biology on August 6.

The research team conducted morphological and anatomical analysis of the heads of all hell ants in the amber specimens, in combination with a special predator specimen, and confirmed the "trap-jaw" predation mechanism adopted by hell ants from their morphological and functional aspects.

The scientists reported an instance of fossilized predation that provides direct evidence for the function of dorsoventrally expanded mandibles and elaborate horns.

Their findings confirmed the hypothesis that hell ants captured other arthropods between mandible and horn in a manner that could only be achieved by articulating their mouthparts in an axial plane perpendicular to that of modern ants.

The head capsule and mandibles of hell ants are uniquely integrated as a consequence of this predatory mode and covary across species, while no evidence has been found of such modular integration in extant ant groups.

The results of this study suggest an extinct early burst adaptive radiation into morphospace that was unoccupied by any living taxon. This radiation was triggered by an innovation in mouthpart movement and subsequent modular covariation between mandible and horn.

The new results also suggest that hell ant cephalic integration - analogous to the vertebrate skull - triggered a pathway for an ancient adaptive radiation and expansion into morphospace unoccupied by any living taxon.

New fossil discovery shows how ancient 'hell ants' hunted with headgear

In a 99-million-year-old preserved amber fossil, researchers get a detailed glimpse into how 'Hell Ants' hunted with scythe-like mandibles and horn appendages

NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS DISCOVER A WORKER OF THE HELL ANT CERATOMYRMEX ELLENBERGERI GRASPING A NYMPH OF CAPUTORAPTOR ELEGANS (ALIENOPTERA) PRESERVED IN AMBER DATED TO ~99 MA. view more 

CREDIT: NJIT, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND UNIVERSITY OF RENNES, FRANCE

In findings published Aug. 6 in the journal Current Biology, researchers from New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Rennes in France have unveiled a stunning 99-million-year-old fossil pristinely preserving an enigmatic insect predator from the Cretaceous Period -- a 'hell ant' (haidomyrmecine) -- as it embraced its unsuspecting final victim, an extinct relative of the cockroach known as Caputoraptor elegans.

The ancient encounter, locked in amber recovered from Myanmar, offers a detailed glimpse at a newly identified prehistoric ant species Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, and presents some of the first direct evidence showing how it and other hell ants once used their killer features -- snapping their bizarre, but deadly, scythe-like mandibles in a vertical motion to pin prey against their horn-like appendages.

Researchers say the rare fossil demonstrating the hell ant's feeding mode offers a possible evolutionary explanation for its unusual morphology and highlights a key difference between some of the earliest ant relatives and their modern counterparts, which today uniformly feature mouthparts that grasp by moving together laterally. The hell ant lineage, along with their striking predatory traits, are suspected to have vanished along with many other early ant groups during periods of ecological change around the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 65 million years ago.

"Fossilized behavior is exceedingly rare, predation especially so. As paleontologists, we speculate about the function of ancient adaptations using available evidence, but to see an extinct predator caught in the act of capturing its prey is invaluable," said Phillip Barden, assistant professor at NJIT's Department of Biological Sciences and lead author of the study. "This fossilized predation confirms our hypothesis for how hell ant mouthparts worked ... The only way for prey to be captured in such an arrangement is for the ant mouthparts to move up and downward in a direction unlike that of all living ants and nearly all insects."

"Since the first hell ant was unearthed about a hundred years ago, it's been a mystery as to why these extinct animals are so distinct from the ants we have today," Barden added. "This fossil reveals the mechanism behind what we might call an 'evolutionary experiment,' and although we see numerous such experiments in the fossil record, we often don't have a clear picture of the evolutionary pathway that led to them."

Driving Diversity of Hell Ants & Their Headgear

Barden's team suggests that adaptations for prey-capture likely explain the rich diversity of mandibles and horns observed in the 16 species of hell ants identified to date. Some taxa with unarmed, elongate horns such as Ceratomyrmex apparently grasped prey externally, while other hell ants such as Linguamyrmex vladi, or "Vlad the Impaler" discovered by Barden and colleagues in 2017, was thought to have used a metal-reinforced horn on its head to impale prey -- a trait potentially used to feed on the internal liquid (hemolymph) of insects.

Barden says the earliest hell ant ancestors would have first gained the ability to move their mouthparts vertically. This, in turn, would functionally integrate the mouthparts and head in a way that was unique to this extinct lineage.

"Integration is a powerful shaping force in evolutionary biology ... when anatomical parts function together for the first time, this opens up new evolutionary trajectories as the two features evolve in concert," explained Barden. "The consequences of this innovation in mouthpart movement with the hell ants are remarkable. While no modern ants have horns of any kind, some species of hell ant possess horns coated with serrated teeth, and others like Vlad are suspected to have reinforced its horn with metal to prevent its own bite from impaling itself."

To explore further, the researchers compared the head and mouthpart morphology of Ceratomyrmex and several other hell ant species (such as head, horn and mandible size) with similar datasets of living and fossil ant species. The team also conducted a phylogenetic analysis to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among both Cretaceous and modern ants. The team's analyses confirmed that hell ants belong to one of the earliest branches of the ant evolutionary tree and are each other's closest relatives. Moreover, the relationship between mandible and head morphology is unique in hell ants compared to living lineages as a result of their specialized prey-capture behavior. The analyses also demonstrated that elongated horns evolved twice in hell ants.

While the fossil has finally provided Barden's lab with firmer answers as to how this long-lost class of ant predators functioned and found success for nearly 20 million years, questions persist such as what led these and other lineages to go extinct while modern ants flourished into the ubiquitous insects we know today. Barden's team is now seeking to describe species from new fossil deposits to learn more about how extinction impacts groups differentially.

"Over 99% of all species that have ever lived have gone extinct," said Barden. "As our planet undergoes its sixth mass extinction event, it's important that we work to understand extinct diversity and what might allow certain lineages to persist while others drop out. I think fossil insects are a reminder that even something as ubiquitous and familiar as ants have undergone extinction."

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Barden et al., Specialized Predation Drives Aberrant Morphological Integration and Diversity in the Earliest Ants, Current Biology (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2020.06.106

Researchers: What's in oilfield wastewater matters for injection-induced earthquakes

VIRGINIA TECH

 

IMAGE: IN THIS APRIL 2019 PHOTO, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR RYAN POLLYEA (STANDING) TEACHES UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ABOUT PERMEABILITY IN THE LAB SECTION OF GROUNDWATER HYDROLOGY (GEOS 4804). view more 

CREDIT: VIRGINIA TECH

A team of geoscience researchers in the Virginia Tech College of Science has developed a new theory to explain how and why injection-induced earthquakes continue to occur even when injection rates decline.

Experts have known since the 1960s that when oilfield wastewater is pumped into the ground with deep injection wells, earthquakes can occur. Over the past decade, injection-induced earthquakes have become regular occurrences throughout oil and gas basins worldwide, particularly in the central United States, and potentially in China and Canada, as well.

Oil and gas production are often accompanied by highly brackish groundwater, also known as oilfield brine. These fluids can be five to six times saltier than seawater, so they are toxic to terrestrial ecosystems and have little beneficial use. As a result, oilfield brine is considered to be a waste product that is disposed of by pumping it back into deep geologic formations.

When fluids are pumped into deep injection wells, they alter the naturally occurring fluid pressure in deep geologic formations. These fluid pressure changes can destabilize faults, leading to earthquakes, such as the damaging magnitude-5.8 event in Pawnee, Oklahoma, in September 2016.

Among the more vexing scientific questions about injection-induced earthquakes is why they seem to be getting deeper in such places as Oklahoma and Kansas, where injection rates have been declining due to a combination of earthquake mitigation measures and declining oil and gas production.

In a study published Aug. 5 in Energy & Environmental Science, Ryan M. Pollyea, assistant professor in the Department of Geosciences, and a team of student researchers proposed a new theory that the wastewater itself plays an important role in the processes that cause injection-induced earthquakes.

"We know that earthquakes are getting deeper in Oklahoma," said Pollyea, who directs the Computational Geofluids Lab at Virginia Tech, "so we're trying to figure out what conditions make this possible. Our research suggests that it's caused by combination of the geology, natural fluids in the basement rocks, and the wastewater itself."

Although researchers have known for decades that deep fluid injections can trigger earthquakes, Pollyea said previous research misses some consequential details about how they occur. Specifically, he pointed out that oilfield brine has much different properties, like density and viscosity, than pure water, and these differences affect the processes that cause fluid pressure to trigger earthquakes.

"The basic idea is that oilfield brine has a lot of dissolved solid material, which makes the wastewater heavier than naturally occurring fluids in deep geologic formations," said Richard S. Jayne, a co-author of the study and former Ph.D. student at Virginia Tech who is now a research hydrogeologist at Sandia National Laboratory, "so the dense wastewater sinks, increases fluid pressure, and causes deeper earthquakes than would be predicted if the fluids have the same material properties."

Using supercomputers at Virginia Tech's Advanced Research Computing division, Pollyea and his team tested their idea by producing more than 100 models of oilfield wastewater disposal using various combinations of geologic properties, wastewater temperature, and wastewater density. With this computational approach, the team isolated both the conditions and physical processes that alter fluid pressure in the geologic formations.

"We found that there are really two different processes that drive fluid pressure deep into the basement, where earthquakes occur," saids Pollyea. "The first is called pressure diffusion, which occurs when wastewater is forced into geologic formations that are already full of water. This process has been known for a long time, but the second process occurs when high-density wastewater sinks and pushes lower density fluids out of the way."

According to this new theory, the density difference between wastewater and deep basement fluids is much more important for induced earthquake occurrence than was previously known. "This is one of the areas that has been neglected in induced-seismicity research," said Megan Brown, an assistant professor of geology who specializes in fluid triggered seismicity at Northern Illinois University and was not involved in this study. "Density-driven pressure transients are an intuitive consequence of a density differential between injected fluids and formation fluids."

Although earthquake occurrence has been decreasing in the central U.S. since the peak years of 2014 and 2015, this new theory not only explains why earthquakes are getting deeper in Oklahoma, but it also explains why several magnitude-5+ earthquakes struck Oklahoma in 2016, when injection rates were decreasing state wide.

"One fascinating aspect of our study is that sinking wastewater plumes do not require pumping to migrate deeper underground," said Pollyea, "in fact, they'll continue sinking under their own weight for decades after injections cease, and our study shows that the wastewater doesn't have to be much heavier for this to occur."

In terms of earthquake mitigation and regulatory practices, this study has far-reaching implications: The research team pointed out that high-density brines occur throughout many oil and gas basins in the U.S. But they also argued that using this study in practice requires much more information about the fluids. "This study emphasizes the need for site-specific data and increased sampling," said Brown, because "density differences as a driving factor of near-field pressure transients may also lead to pre-injection mitigation actions."

Pollyea said that his research team is continuing to work on their new theory for the hydrogeologic processes that cause induced earthquakes. "We're really interested to know how our ideas about fluid chemistry affect regionally expansive injection operations in places like Oklahoma and Texas," said Pollyea. "And one of our recent M.S. graduates, Graydon Konzen (a study co-author), has done some exciting new work in this area."

###

In addition to Konzen and Jayne, Pollyea's team included Virginia Tech Ph.D. candidate Hao Wu, along with Department of Geosciences undergraduate students Cameron R. Chambers and Jordan A. Pritchard, both of whom received their bachelor's degrees in May 2020.

Funding for this study came from the United States Geological Survey, Earthquake Hazards Program.

Disclaimer: The views and conclusions contained in this study are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as representing the opinions or polices of the U.S. Geological Survey. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey.

Research explores the impacts of mobile phones for Maasai women

VIRGINIA TECH

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS CONDUCT A GROUP INTERVIEW ABOUT MOBILE PHONE USE AND EMPOWERMENT WITH MAASAI WOMEN IN NORTHERN TANZANIA IN 2018. STANDING, LEFT TO RIGHT: RESEARCH ASSISTANT FELISTA TERTA, LEAD RESEARCHER KELLY... view more 

CREDIT: VIRGINIA TECH

Mobile phones have the power to change the lives of women living in remote communities by reducing barriers to information and increasing access to local economies. However, the introduction of new technologies can hamper efforts to empower women by increasing disparities in power dynamics.

Video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=YOgYpR5cb5w&feature=emb_logo

Associate Professor Timothy Baird of the College of Natural Resources and Environment and Kelly Summers, who earned a master's degree in geography from Virginia Tech in 2019, led a National Science Foundation-funded study examining the impact that mobile phones are having in Maasai communities in Tanzania. Their findings, published in the Journal of Rural Studies, reveal crucial insights into the ways that technology impacts social dynamics in a distinct community in Africa.

A nomadic people adapt to a changing world

The Maasai are an ethnic group of approximately 2 million people, living primarily in Kenya and Tanzania. As one of a number of indigenous groups in Africa to practice pastoralism, which involves the rearing of livestock, the Maasai have traditionally been nomadic, traversing the continent's Great Rift Valley to find grazing land for their animals.

This way of life, which has sustained Maasai for centuries, is evolving rapidly with the widespread expansion of western society and the ideas and technologies that come with it.

"Maasai are moving into a world some might call 'modern,'" noted Baird, a faculty member in the Department of Geography who has been researching Maasai communities since 2005. "Already there are aspects of our own 'western' lives that are evident in their lives. For example, several developments in Maasai society, from the growth of formal education to the spread of organized religion, have led to changes in the traditional structures that shape Maasai lives. From my vantage, mobile phones have been a kind of steroid for accelerating those changes."

For a population that herds livestock across wide stretches of wild savanna, mobile phones are a boon to their economy and life. But few studies have investigated how this new technology is impacting the lives of women in Maasai communities, which are traditionally patriarchal. In family units where men exert significant control, often over multiple wives, it is important to understand how phones have impacted gender dynamics.

"As a man, it's difficult -- and really not appropriate -- for me to have meetings with individual women or groups of women," Baird explained. "Maasai men may be quite uncomfortable with such a setup, and Maasai women may have no experience engaging with a man who is not a relative. So I needed help."

Enter Kelly Summers, who received bachelor's degrees in natural resources conservation and in forestry from Virginia Tech in 2014.

"While I was serving as an agriculture Extension agent with the Peace Corps in Tanzania, I read an article about Tim's research and reached out to him about doing graduate work in Tanzania," said Summers, who is currently working as an environmental protection specialist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. "Because I had experience interacting with women while living in and traveling to remote communities in Tanzania, it was a good fit."

Summers, working with collaborators, including Maria Elisa Christie, director of women and gender in international development for Virginia Tech's Center for International Research, Education, and Development, was able to conduct interviews with Maasai women, trying to puzzle out the difficult question of what women's empowerment might look like in a cultural context bounded by traditions but also stimulated by an expanding world.

"I don't want to paint a monolithic picture of a whole group of people," Summers said. "All of the women I spoke with had multiple identities within their communities: some women owned businesses, and some took on the work of tending to livestock. They were mothers and wives. Some were teachers and some were active in churches. There are a range of identities, and phones impact those identities for better or worse, or both."

Understanding the contexts of empowerment

To understand how a new technology like mobile phones could potentially support women's empowerment, it was important for researchers to understand what empowerment would look like within the specific contexts of Maasai life.

"To unpack this idea of empowerment, we had to characterize our terms and then look for examples of those characterizations," Baird said. "We had to ask: what are the aspects of your social world, what are the physical materials, and what are your own personal assets that allow you to make decisions and then act on those decisions. From that, we could develop more targeted questions about issues that embody empowerment and the factors that promote or obstruct it."

For Maasai women, the barriers to using mobile phones to gain empowerment vary: from access to reliable electricity to technological fluency and literacy, to having the financial resources to pay for data, their ability to use phones is shaped by a broad array of issues that are themselves in a state of radical flux. The study results show that some concerns are unique to Maasai communities, while others seem universal.

"One observation we made was that Maasai women are very much addicted to their phones," Summers explained. "If they can't get a charge or they can't purchase minutes, the feeling they have is very similar to our own anxiety when our phones lose power. We all want to communicate, we all want to be in a community, and phones are becoming a major tool to do that among Maasai women. Those who don't have access to a phone very much feel that they're missing out."

To work around some of the challenges pertaining to access, Maasai women have found cooperative solutions. Baird and Summers cite the important role that informal village community banks play in allowing women to develop business relationships with other women outside their family units, increasing the women's economic autonomy.

While mobile phones are a positive motivator in seeking these burgeoning opportunities, the authors stressed that mobile phones can also reinforce inequalities. For Maasai women, who typically have multiple roles within family and community structures, mobile phones can simultaneously empower an individual in one role while disempowering her in another.

"The same power dynamics that already existed are now playing out with phones," Baird said. "We found that men, the traditional gatekeepers in this society, are the ones who often control women's phones. They can use them as a reward or a punishment, a carrot or a stick."

Summers added that one of their findings is that Maasai men and women used phones differently: "Men will use their phones to talk to people outside their immediate social circle, but women will primarily talk to people they already know: mothers and sisters and other people in their family unit. They are rarely using their phones to reach out to new people."

While mobile phones can be used in ways that empower women, the researchers stress that it is more realistic to view this technology as a new arena where tensions between traditional cultural norms and the growing aspirations to engage in a broadly interconnected world continue to play out. Future efforts aimed at using mobile technologies to advance women's empowerment need to better understand what empowerment would look like within the specific contexts of a distinct culture, and what consequences -- positive and negative -- are risked when new technologies take root.

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What will our cities look like after COVID-19?

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: UBC URBAN PLANNING LECTURER ERICK VILLAGOMEZ view more 

CREDIT: UBC

The past few months have been a highly unusual time as people sheltered in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Schools, streets and stadiums fell silent, tourist hot spots became ghost towns, and sidewalk traffic largely consisted of grocery and food deliveries.

In an article published this week in Cities & Health, UBC planning experts Jordi Honey-Rosés and Erick Villagomez analyzed the implications of these changes on city planning and space design. Alongside other scholars from Chile, China, Mexico, India and Spain, they looked at the measures taken by major cities to cope with the pandemic, and how those efforts transformed and continue to transform urban life.

The researchers say the pandemic is transforming city building, design, energy flows, mobility patterns, housing preferences, green spaces and transportation systems. Many of these changes may be temporary, while others may be permanent.

"In some cases, cities are accelerating the implementation of changes they had in the works already, such as rolling out planned bicycle infrastructure, street calming projects or sidewalk re-designs. In other cases, planners and neighbours are making things up as they go along, experimenting, testing and relying on low-cost interventions," said Honey-Rosés, an associate professor in the School of Community and Regional Planning at UBC.

Erick Villagomez, a part-time lecturer at the school, noted the drop in pedestrian traffic associated with commercial activity during COVID-19. According to the most recent Google Mobility Report, mobility associated with retail and recreation across Canada still sits at about 17 per cent below January-February median levels.

"Although this rate continues to rise slowly, the reduced pedestrian traffic to-date has already had strong effects on many local businesses, many of which have had to close their doors indefinitely. This trend will likely continue until a viable solution to the pandemic is found," said Villagomez.

Over the longer term, the researchers see further changes taking place, with cities likely looking to implement low-cost and temporary street calming and pedestrianization projects. "Streets might need to be re-designed. With online shopping and home food delivery having taken off, there is huge demand for curbside street parking, not only to meet new delivery needs, but also to free space for pedestrians," said Honey-Rosés.

They add that the look and feel of cities that rely on tourism will change, both in negative and positive ways. Businesses may continue to struggle, but there is an increased interest in building a stronger pedestrian-friendly environment. In Toronto, for example, the City accelerated plans to install cycling infrastructure along the popular Danforth Avenue as a part of COVID-19 relief plans.

As well, there is now a greater appreciation of the importance of providing easily accessible opportunities for the enjoyment of nature and a diversity of recreation activities. Cities may revisit the potential of unused spaces such as brownfield sites and building rooftops, citing the staggering amount of rooftops that are underused in many cities and could be converted into rooftop gardens.

Over time, the researchers say our sense of place and space may be permanently transformed. "Public space might still be a place for social interaction, but it may be more difficult for the spontaneous and informal. The pandemic may limit our ability to develop new relationships, especially among strangers," said Honey-Rosés.

On the positive side, the pandemic has given us an unprecedented opportunity to examine the links between urban planning, public space and wellbeing, he added. "Our future city is not preordained, but will be the result of specific decisions about public space. We hope citizens will talk to their leaders and come together with planning and policy professionals to build healthier cities during this crisis and beyond."

Villagomez, who has written extensively about the implications of transforming cities to meet the standard six-foot social distancing protocols, notes that the everyday spaces we inhabit have been shaped by millennia based on dimensions that are much smaller--three to four feet being the most common.

"Right now, people are attempting to adapt systems, behaviours and built spaces based on three-to-four-foot distances to the larger social-distancing dimensions. The results have been very interesting, showing a lot of creativity and innovation. But it's also already evident that cities cannot and will not fully change in every respect to allow six-foot distancing. This will continue to evolve as restrictions change," Villagomez added.

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"The impact of COVID-19 on public space: an early review of the emerging questions - design, perceptions and inequities" was published in Cities & Health and can be accessed at https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23748834.2020.1780074

TRUMP REGIME IS A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY

Inconsistent EPA regulations increase lead poisoning risk to kids, study finds

BROWN UNIVERSITY

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Two federal environmental standards regulating lead hazards in homes and child care facilities have different maximum thresholds, a discrepancy putting more than 35,000 kids in the United States at increased risk of lead poisoning.

That's according to a new study led by a Brown University researcher as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) moves to revise protective standards for dust lead levels on floors and windowsills in buildings constructed before 1978. 

"Lead exposure presents a major risk to hundreds of thousands of children across the nation, and it's imperative that federal EPA regulations offer a clear and consistent standard to reduce that risk," said Joseph Braun, an associate professor of epidemiology at Brown. "Currently, these standards are counterproductive to public health."

In 2019, the EPA tightened the standard for the amount of residential dust lead considered hazardous to children from 40 micrograms per square foot (μg/ft2) to 10 on floors, and from 250 μg/ft2 to 100 on windowsills. The change came after a federal appeals court ordered the agency to reduce dust lead hazard standards after a 2016 lawsuit filed by environmental groups.

Traditionally, the residential standard had been the same as the clearance standard for dust lead levels after completing lead abatement work -- yet despite the more aggressive standard imposed after the court's order, the EPA left the post-abatement clearance standard where it has stood since 2001. Both standards fall under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which authorizes EPA to impose restrictions related to chemical substances.

Conceivably, a risk assessment could identify a dust lead hazard above 10 μg/ft2 but below 40 μg/ft2 on the floor of a home where there is a child with lead poisoning. Braun, an expert on children's environmental health, said an abatement contractor could theoretically do nothing, but given the discrepancy in standards, the unit would pass the clearance. 

"When I read this, initially, I thought this is absolutely crazy," Braun said. 

So Braun and his coauthors wanted to find out how many extra cases of lead poisoning would result from the post-abatement clearance standard being higher than the dust lead hazard standard. 

Their study, published on July 28 in Pediatric Research, found that children in homes with floor dust lead loadings between 10 and 40 μg/ft2 had nearly four times the risk of lead poisoning compared to children from homes with floor dust lead loadings at or under 10 μg/ft2. They estimated that 36,700 cases of childhood lead poisoning - nearly 7% of U.S. children between the ages of 1 and 5 with lead poisoning -- were attributable to this regulatory discrepancy. 

Dust from lead-based paint is a common cause of lead poisoning in young children, Braun said, and so the implications of the double standard are significant. Their greater hand-to-mouth behavior makes them vulnerable to lead exposure.

"I have a two-and-a half year old who puts everything in his mouth," Braun said. "That's how they explore their environment at this age."

Lead poisoning can cause learning disabilities and behavioral problems that last a lifetime and affect kids from all social and economic levels, though those living at or below the poverty line in older housing are at greatest risk. Earlier work by Braun and his colleagues found higher blood lead levels and risk of lead poisoning among Black children compared to white.

For the new study, the researchers looked at 250 children from Cincinnati living in homes built before 1978 -- the year lead-based paints were banned for residential use -- whose mothers participated in a longitudinal pregnancy and birth cohort study between 2003 and 2006. 

Researchers took samples of floor and interior windowsill dust lead loadings with wipes over a 1-square foot area when participants joined the study, when their children turned 1 year old and again when they turned 2. Blood samples were also collected from the children at these same times.

The study adds to a vast body of scientific research guiding housing and environmental policymakers. But Braun points out that the bulk of these studies were completed 20 and 30 years ago when lead exposure was much higher.

"The fact that we're still seeing these relationships at contemporary levels of lead exposure indicates that this is still a significant problem, so that's the real contribution here," Braun said.

The EPA has issued a proposed rule to align the post-abatement clearance standard with the tighter standard revised in 2019. Its two-month public comment period ends on Aug. 24. An EPA spokeswoman said Braun's study will be considered when developing a final rule along with all other feedback received.

Braun said the proposed change still won't go far enough to protect children. In 2012, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledged there is no known safe blood lead level.

The study found children were at 45% higher risk of having blood poisoning at the newly revised floor dust lead hazards of 10 μg/ft2 compared to a more stringent standard of 5 μg/ft2.

"Reducing sources of lead exposure in children is imperative to optimize children's health," Braun said. 

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Braun's coauthors included researchers from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, National Center for Healthy Housing, University of Illinois at Chicago, Macquarie University and Simon Fraser University. The Cincinnati-based longitudinal study was supported by grants from National Institutes of Environmental Health Sciences (P01-ES011261 and R01-ES014575) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (RD-83544201).

NASA satellites capture Isaias' nighttime track into Canada

NASA/GODDARD SPACE FLIGHT CENTER

 

IMAGE: THIS ANIMATION OF NASA-NOAA'S SUOMI NPP SATELLITE IMAGERY SHOWS THE POSITIONS OF TROPICAL STORM ISAIAS FROM AUG. 2 TO AUG. 5 AT NIGHT AS IT MOVED NORTH ALONG THE U.S.... view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY: NASA WORLDVIEW, EARTH OBSERVING SYSTEM DATA AND INFORMATION SYSTEM (EOSDIS).

Tropical Storm Isaias has transitioned into a post-tropical storm as it moved out of the U.S. and into eastern Canada on Aug. 5 and 6. NASA created an animation of nighttime satellite imagery that shows Isaias' track up the U.S. East Coast. In addition, NASA's Aqua satellite provided a view of Isaias' powerful storms over New York and New England.

What is a Post-Tropical Storm?

A Post-Tropical Storm is a generic term for a former tropical cyclone that no longer possesses sufficient tropical characteristics to be considered a tropical cyclone. Former tropical cyclones that have become fully extratropical, subtropical, or remnant lows, make up three classes of post-tropical cyclones. In any case, they no longer possesses sufficient tropical characteristics to be considered a tropical cyclone. However, post-tropical cyclones can continue carrying heavy rains and high winds.

NASA Tracks Isaias at Night

Infrared instruments enable satellites to gather imagery on storms at night because they read temperature. At NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. an animation of imagery from the VIIRS instrument aboard NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite imagery showed the positions of Tropical Storm Isaias from Aug. 2 to Aug. 5 at night as it moved north along the U.S. East Coast.

NASA's Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS) Worldview application provides the capability to interactively browse over 700 global, full-resolution satellite imagery layers and then download the underlying data. Many of the available imagery layers are updated within three hours of observation, essentially showing the entire Earth as it looks "right now."

Isaias' Rain Potential Over New York and New England

On Aug. 4 at 1:53 p.m. EDT (1753 UTC) NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed cloud top temperatures in Tropical Storm Isaias using the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument. Isaias was centered near Albany, New York at the time of the over pass.

about where the strongest storms are located within a tropical cyclone. The stronger the storms, the higher they extend into the troposphere, and the colder the cloud temperatures. AIRS found coldest cloud top temperatures as cold as or colder than minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius). NASA research has shown that cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms that have the capability to create heavy rain.

That heavy rain potential was included in the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast at 5 p.m. EDT, "Heavy rainfall near the path of Isaias, through the Hudson River Valley, is likely to result in flash flooding, particularly through urban areas and the surrounding terrain of the Catskills, Adirondack and Green Mountain Ranges through Tuesday night. Scattered minor to moderate river flooding is likely across portions of the Mid-Atlantic."

Status of Isaias on Aug. 6

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC) on Aug. 6, the center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Isaias was located near latitude 47.5 degrees north and longitude 71.8 degrees west. That is about 55 miles (90 km) north-northwest of Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the north-northeast near 28 mph (44 kph), and this general motion is expected with a decrease in forward speed through tonight.

Maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph (65 kph) with higher gusts. Weakening is expected, and the winds are expected to drop below tropical-storm force this morning. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 140 miles (220 km) to the northeast and east of the center primarily over and near the St. Lawrence River. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1000 millibars.

NHC Forecast for Isaias

The NHC said, "Gale-force winds will continue over and near the St. Lawrence River this morning. Gale-force wind gusts are possible elsewhere over southeastern Quebec today. Rainfall accumulations of 1 to 3 inches are expected along and near the track of Isaias across southern Quebec. The post-tropical cyclone is expected to dissipate over southeastern Canada on Thursday, Aug. 7."

NASA Researches Tropical Cyclones

Hurricanes/tropical cyclones are the most powerful weather events on Earth. NASA's expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as hurricane weather forecasting.

For more than five decades, NASA has used the vantage point of space to understand and explore our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA brings together technology, science, and unique global Earth observations to provide societal benefits and strengthen our nation. Advancing knowledge of our home planet contributes directly to America's leadership in space and scientific exploration.

For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov

TALKING ABOUT SEX WORK WITHOUT CALLING IT THAT

Study finds benefit in more frequent

 HIV screenings for young men who have sex with men

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

 

 A new study has found that HIV screening every three months compared to annually will improve clinical outcomes and be cost-effective among high-risk young men who have sex with men (YMSM) in the United States. The report, led by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), is being published online in Clinical Infectious Diseases.

"Young men who have sex with men account for one in five new HIV infections in the United States. Yet, more than half of young men who have sex with men and who are living with HIV don't even know that they have it," says Anne Neilan, MD, MPH, investigator in the MGH Division of Infectious Diseases and the Medical Practice Evaluation Center, who led the study.

"With so many youth with HIV being unaware of their status, this is an area where there are opportunities not only to improve care for individual youth but also to curb the HIV epidemic in the U.S. Despite these numbers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously determined that there was insufficient youth-specific evidence to warrant changing their 2006 recommendation of an annual HIV screening among men who have sex with men."

HIV screening refers to testing of individuals who do not have symptoms of the infection. As defined by the study, high-risk refers to a recent history of condomless anal intercourse, sexually transmitted infection, or multiple sexual partners. Given the disproportionate impact of the HIV epidemic on YMSM, screening for HIV more frequently than current recommendations could identify infections that would otherwise be missed.

The study used data from the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) on how often HIV occurs in each age group, as well as the stage of disease at the time of diagnosis, to project the probable results of screening every three months, six months, or yearly.

Because a traditional study design to examine how often young men who have sex with men should be screened would be nearly impossible to conduct, the authors used a well-published computer microsimulation model developed by members of the research team.

The analysis revealed that HIV screening every three months, in addition to existing patterns of HIV screening among YMSM, would most improve HIV transmission and life expectancy among these men while remaining cost-effective. However, the results do not apply to youth who do not meet high-risk criteria.

Andrea Ciaranello, MD, MPH, investigator MGH Division of Infectious Disease, senior author of the study, says, "The improvements in life expectancy and reduction in HIV transmission were substantial. With more frequent screening, we also estimated that there would be additional, important improvements in the proportion of YMSM who are able to engage in HIV treatment and have excellent control of their HIV infection."

The authors also highlighted the opportunities for improved implementation of current annual screening recommendations. "If even the current CDC recommendations for annual HIV screening among YMSM could be fully met, important gains could be made both for the health of youth with HIV and in working toward our goal of ending the HIV epidemic," says Ciaranello. "Ultimately, our study underscores the value of ongoing research to examine the most effective ways to increase HIV screening among youth."

Neilan adds, "We found that screening every three months was cost-effective, even if the screening program itself cost up to $760 per person screened. The test itself cost $38-76; this suggests that a large additional investment in innovative HIV screening approaches for youth, including venue-based screening or mobile screening units, would be of good value in the U.S." Neilan is also an Instructor in Medicine, and Ciaranello is an associate pdrofessor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

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Additional co-authors of the report are Alexander J. B. Bulteel, Julia H. A. Foote, Kenneth A. Freedberg, MD, MSc, Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, Pooyan Kazemian, PhD, MGH Medical Practice Evaluation Center; Sybil G. Hosek, PhD, Stroger Hospital of Cook County; Raphael J. Landovitz, MD, MSc, University of California, Los Angeles; Stephen C. Resch, PhD, MPH, Milton C. Weinstein, PhD, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health; A. David Paltiel, PhD, MBA, Yale School of Public Health; and Craig M. Wilson, MD, Department of Epidemiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health.

The Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions (ATN) 110 and 113 studies were supported from the National Institutes of Health through the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with supplemental funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health.

The study also received funding from the Eleanor and Miles Shore Scholars in Medicine Fellowship; the Harvard University Center for AIDS; the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute for Child Health and Human Development; the International Maternal Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Network Early Investigator Award; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; the UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services (CHIIPTS) National Institute of Mental Health; the UCLA Center for AIDS Research; the UCLA Clinical Translational Science Institute (CTSI); the National Institute on Drug Abuse; the National Institute of Mental Health; and the Steve and Deborah Gorlin MGH Research Scholars Award.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with an annual research budget of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In August 2020 the MGH was named #6 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report in it