It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
Cannabis use for menopause symptom management
29 Sep 2020
As legislation relaxes regarding cannabis, it is being used to manage numerous chronic health conditions and mood symptoms. A new study indicates that a growing number of women are either using cannabis or want to use it for the management of bothersome menopause symptoms. Study results will be presented during the 2020 Virtual Annual Meeting of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS), which opens on September 28.
In a sample of 232 women (mean age, 55.95 y) in Northern California who participated in the Midlife Women Veterans Health Survey, more than half reported such bothersome symptoms as hot flashes and night sweats (54%), insomnia (27%), and genitourinary symptoms (69%). Roughly 27% of those sampled reported having used or were currently using cannabis to manage their symptoms. An additional 10% of participants expressed an interest in trying cannabis to manage menopause symptoms in the future. In contrast, only 19% reported using a more traditional type of menopause symptom management, such as hormone therapy.
Cannabis for menopause symptom management was most often used in women reporting hot flashes and night sweats. Such use did not differ by age, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or mental health conditions.
"These findings suggest that cannabis use to manage menopause symptoms may be relatively common. However, we do not know whether cannabis use is safe or effective for menopause symptom management or whether women are discussing these decisions with their healthcare providers--particularly in the VA, where cannabis is considered an illegal substance under federal guidelines. This information is important for healthcare providers, and more research in this area is needed," says Carolyn Gibson, PhD, MPH, a psychologist and health services researcher at San Francisco VA Health Care System and the lead author of the study.
The study, "Cannabis use for menopause symptom management among midlife women veterans," will be one of many presentations during the 2020 NAMS Virtual Annual Meeting focused on novel approaches for treating menopause symptoms.
"This study highlights a somewhat alarming trend and the need for more research relative to the potential risks and benefits of cannabis use for the management of bothersome menopause symptoms," says Dr Stephanie Faubion, NAMS medical director.
Native Americans Have Always Answered the Call to Serve: National VFW Day 2020
Native American veterans of the Vietnam War stand in honor as part of the color guard at the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial. November 11, 1990, Washington, D.C. (Photo by Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
National Veterans of Foreign Wars Day, September 29, acknowledges men and women who have served honorably in a foreign war or overseas operation recognized by a campaign medal, received hostile fire, or qualified for imminent danger pay. Active-duty servicemembers who meet the criteria are also welcome. Members today include veterans of World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, the Balkans, the Persian Gulf, Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other expeditionary campaigns, as well as those who have served during occupations. Family members of eligible servicemen and women show their support through the VFW Auxiliary.
The organization’s history dates to 1899, when the American Veterans of Foreign Service and the National Society of the Army of the Philippines were organized to secure rights and benefits for veterans of the Spanish–American War (1898) and Philippine–American War (1899–1902). The two organizations merged in 1914, creating the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States. The VFW was chartered by Congress in 1936.
The VFW defines its role in its mission and vision statements:
To foster camaraderie among United States veterans of overseas conflicts. To serve our veterans, the military, and our communities. To advocate on behalf of all veterans.
To ensure that veterans are respected for their service, always receive their earned entitlements, and are recognized for the sacrifices they and their loved ones have made on behalf of this great country.
Today, more than 1.6 million people belong to the VFW and VFW Auxiliary. They take part in service and social programs at more than 6,000 posts, including posts on American Indian reservations and in Native communities.
In the early 1900s, the warrior tradition of American Indians seemed to face near extinction. The last of the major conflicts over Native American lands had ended a generation before, when the Agreement of 1877 annexed the Sioux homelands—including Pahá Sápa, the Black Hills—and permanently established Indian reservations. With a handful of exceptions, Native warriors no longer engaged in battle to protect their homes, families, and way of life.
“Native Americans served in World War I even though they were not citizens of the United States.” —Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director of the National Museum of the American Indian
That changed in 1917, when the United States formally entered World War I. In need of a much larger military, the federal government began to promote enlistment, and shortly afterward, instituted the draft. It is estimated that more than 12,000 American Indians served in the U.S. military during the war. At a time when a third of Native Americans were not recognized as citizens of the United States, more than 17,000 Native American men registered with the Selective Service. An estimated 12,000 Native Americans joined the U.S. Armed Forces, according to the records of the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs. Between 3,000 and 6,000 Native Americans volunteeres.
The largest group of Native service members came from Oklahoma. Members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma became the military’s first officially organized and trained group of American Indian code talkers. Students of the federal Indian boarding schools volunteered in large numbers—more than 200 from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School alone. Native Americans joined every branch of the military, including a number of Native women who volunteered for the Army Nurse Corps. Unlike African American servicemen and women, Native Americans were not segregated into special units, although there is evidence that they were often given unusually dangerous assignments: About 5 percent of Native combat soldiers were killed during World War I, compared to 1 percent of American soldiers overall.
Through the Citizenship Act of 1919, Congress granted U.S. citizenship to American Indians who had served, if they applied for it. Native Americans’ record of patriotism during the war became the catalyst for the broader Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which recognized all Native Americans born in the United States as citizens.
The United States’ entry into World War II brought large numbers of American Indian warriors back to the battlefield in defense of their homeland. More than 44,000 American Indians, out of a total Native American population of less than 400,000, served with distinction between 1941 and 1945 in all theaters of the war. Servicemen from more than 30 Native nations used their tribal languages as unbreakable codes to transmit vital communications. Among many Native heroes of the war is Ira Hayes (Pima [Akimel O’odham]), who grew up on his parents’ farm in the Gila River Indian Community of Arizona, enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1942, and was one of six servicemen who raised the American flag over Iwo Jima, a moment immortalized at the Marine Corps Memorial.
“There is a camaraderie that transcends ethnicity when you serve your country overseas in wartime.”—Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne), Korea veteran
During the Korean War (1950–1953), battle-hardened Native American troops from World War II were joined by American Indians newly recruited to fight on foreign soil. Approximately 10,000 Native Americans served in the U.S. military during this period. Seven American Indians and Native Hawaiians received Medals of Honor for their bravery and sacrifice in Korea. My uncle, William Hall-Zotigh (Kiowa), proudly served in a MASH unit near Inchon and Taegu. Before his death, he was heavily involved in the Veterans of Foreign Wars and presided over funerals for veterans on behalf of the VFW.
Native American veterans participate in opening ceremonies during the 7th Annual Indiana Traditional Powwow. April 7, 2018, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana. (Jeremy Hogan)
Native Americans demonstrated their patriotism again during the Vietnam era. More than 42,000 Native Americans fought in Vietnam, more than 90 percent of them volunteers. Among the nearly 60 thousand names of individuals killed or missing in action on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall are 232 identified as Native Americans or Alaska Natives.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Natives in United States military took part in combat or other hostilities in Grenada, Panama, Somalia, Bosnia and Kosovo, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Private First Class Lori Piestewa (Hopi) was the first woman killed in action during Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Native American woman known to have died in combat overseas.
“I’m excited about the upcoming memorial. With the all-volunteer service, there are a lot of people who have not served or don’t understand what it means to serve. I guess I want people to recognize how often Native people have volunteered. From Alaska to the East Coast, through all the wars, Native people have always volunteered.” —Colonel Wayne Don (Cupig and Yupik), veteran of Bosnia and Afghanistan
According to the Department of Defense, more than 23,000 of the 1.2 million men and women on active duty in the U.S. military today are American Indians or Alaska Natives. With the completion of the National Native American Veterans Memorial on November 11, 2020, the museum will honor them and all Native veterans. The museum will announce the larger, ceremonial opening when it is possible for veterans and their families to take part.
The National Native American Veterans Memorial is currently under construction on the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Congress charged the museum with creating this memorial to give all Americans the opportunity “to learn of the proud and courageous tradition of service of Native Americans.” Their legacy deserves our recognition.
Join us in recognizing the members and mission of the VFW on social media using the hashtag #VFWDay.
Dennis W. Zotigh (Kiowa/San Juan Pueblo/Santee Dakota Indian) is a member of the Kiowa Gourd Clan and San Juan Pueblo Winter Clan and a descendant of Sitting Bear and No Retreat, both principal war chiefs of the Kiowas. Dennis works as a writer and cultural specialist at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.
TUESDAY, Sept. 29, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. and Canadian restrictions on cornea donations from gay and bisexual men prevent thousands of vision-restoring transplants and need to be changed, researchers say.
A corneal transplant can cure some forms of blindness and visual impairment. The United States bans men from donating if they have had gay sex in the past five years; Canada has a 12-month restriction.
The same debate has raged for years in the United States about blood donations. In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration changed the abstinence period required for gay and bisexual blood donors from 12 months to three months.
The restrictions prevented more than 3,200 corneal donations from gay and bisexual men in 2018, despite a lack of scientific evidence of harm caused by receiving corneas from these men, according to a study published Sept. 24 in the journal JAMA Ophthalmology.
"With millions of people across the world in need of corneal transplants, these discarded corneas from gay and bisexual men could be used to address the shortage and safely restore vision to thousands of patients with corneal blindness or visual impairment," said lead author Dr. Michael Puente, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, in Aurora.
U.S. restrictions on cornea donations by gay men were adopted in 1994 due to concerns aboutHIV. At the time,HIV testswere unreliable up to six months after exposure to the virus that causesAIDS.
Today, however, HIV testing is more reliable, and can identify infection within four to eight days of exposure.
All U.S. corneal donors are required to undergo three separate HIV tests. But even if all three tests are negative, the five-year restriction on gay and bisexual donors remains.
"With modern virologic testing and a better understanding of the low risk of HIV transmission through corneal transplants, this five-year deferral policy for gay men is not supported by current science," Puente said in a university news release. "We ask federal regulators to reconsider these outdated policies which are depriving patients of the possibility of sight restoration."
Many countries -- including Spain, Italy, Mexico, Chile and Argentina -- allow gay and bisexual men to donate their eye tissue just as easily as heterosexual donors, the authors said.
Other countries require abstinence periods far shorter than five years. Britain allows corneal donation by gay and bisexual men after only three months of abstinence, while the Netherlands and France require four months of abstinence, according to the study.
Sentinels of ocean acidification impacts survived Earth's last mass extinction
Two groups of tiny, delicate marine organisms, sea butterflies and sea angels, were found to be surprisingly resilient--having survived dramatic global climate change and Earth's most recent mass extinction event 66 million years ago, according to research published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences led by Katja Peijnenburg from Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands.
Sea butterflies and sea angels are pteropods, abundant, floating snails that spend their entire lives in the open ocean. A remarkable example of adaptation to life in the open ocean, these mesmerizing animals can have thin shells and a snail foot transformed into two wing-like structures that enable them to "fly" through the water.
Sea butterflies have been a focus for global change research because they make their shells of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate that is 50 percent more soluble than calcite, which other important open ocean organisms use to construct their shells. As their shells are susceptible to dissolving in more acidified ocean water, pteropods have been called "canaries in the coal mine," or sentinel species that signal the impact of ocean acidification.
With some pteropods having thin shells and others having only partial or absent shells, such as the sea angels, their fossil record is patchy. Abundant pteropod fossils are only known from 56 million years ago onward and mostly represent the fully-shelled sea butterflies. These observations led to the notion that evolutionarily, pteropods are a relatively recent group of gastropods.
An international team of researchers sampled 21 pteropod species across two ocean transects as part of the Atlantic Meridional Transect programme and collected information on 2,654 genes. Analyzing these data and key pteropod fossils, the scientists determined that the two major groups of pteropods, sea butterflies and sea angels, evolved in the early Cretaceous, about 139 million years ago.
"Hence, both groups are much older than previously thought and must have survived previous episodes of widespread ocean acidification, such as at the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago, and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, 56 million years ago," said Peijnenburg.
Knowing whether major groups of pteropods have been exposed to periods of high carbon dioxide is important as researchers attempt to predict how various marine species may respond to current and future global change.
"Although these results suggest that open ocean, shelled organisms have been more resilient to past ocean acidification than currently thought, it is unlikely that pteropods have experienced global change of the current magnitude and speed during their entire evolutionary history," said Erica Goetze, co-author and University of Hawai'i at Mānoa oceanographer.
It is still an open question whether marine organisms, particularly those that calcify, have the evolutionary resilience to adapt fast enough to an increasingly acidified ocean.
"Current rates of carbon release are at least an order of magnitude higher than we have seen for the past 66 million years," said Peijnenburg. Hence, she stressed the disclaimer "past performance is no guarantee of future results."
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The science team collaborating on this research included Katja Peijnenburg, Arie Janssen, and Deborah Wall-Palmer from Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands; Erica Goetze from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa; Amy Maas from the Bermuda Institute of Marine Sciences; Jonathan Todd from the Natural History Museum, London, U.K., and Ferdinand Marlétaz from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan.
Predator-prey interaction study reveals more food does not always mean more consumption
Scientists at the NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center have developed an unusually rich picture of who is eating whom off the Northeastern United States. The findings, published recently in Fish and Fisheries, provide a close look at fish feeding habits for 17 fish species, predators, and their prey.
The predators are divided into 48 predator-size categories, and 14 prey species. Fish predators included Atlantic cod, Atlantic herring, haddock, goosefish, pollock, spiny dogfish, winter flounder, and yellowtail founder among others. Prey species included forage fish, squid, zooplankton, shrimp-like crustaceans, shellfish, brittle stars, sand dollars, and sea urchins.
"We have the largest, continuous dataset of fish feeding habits in the world at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, and that enabled us to do a study of this scale and scope," said Brian Smith, a food habits researcher at the center and lead author of the study. "We focused on common and important prey for the many predatory fishes of interest, and hopefully filled in some gaps in information relating prey availability to predation."
Feeding patterns within and among different groups of fishes vary by the size of the fish, the abundance or density of the prey, and other factors. Researchers who study marine ecosystems need to account for this predation in their models. Few studies, however, have looked simultaneously at the feeding patterns among different groups of predatory fish -- fish feeders, plankton feeders, and benthic or bottom feeders. The study also looked at how those groups interact with their prey throughout the water column.
Smith and co-author Laurel Smith tested three models using decades of fisheries data that included diet and prey density. The data were collected on the Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf during benthic surveys in the 1950s and 1960s, and during ecosystem sampling surveys beginning in 1973. For this study, the data were used to gain insight into:
The relationship between the amount of prey available in the environment
Consumption rates among multiple prey species
Feeding patterns within and among different groups of fishes that eat similar items.
Among the study findings: most of the fish responded to changing abundance of prey by switching prey, or through a "learning period" when the prey in highest abundance was targeted. That response helps stabilize prey populations, and was prevalent among piscivores (fish eaters). It was often observed for predators with less-specialized feeding habits. Those predators included goosefish and larger sizes of other well-known commercial fishes.
High densities of invertebrate prey, however, revealed decreased feeding by fish that were planktivores and benthivores -- plankton and bottom feeders. For these fish, more food did not translate to more consumption. Researchers found that denser prey may disorient or confuse the planktivores, reducing their feeding on zookplankton. The planktivores include Atlantic herring, Atlantic mackerel, and smaller sizes of pollock, silver hake, spiny dogfish and white hake. Their feeding response is not often considered in studies of marine ecosystems.
The benthivores studied included smaller sizes of Atlantic cod, red hake, and winter skate, and all sizes of haddock, ocean pout, and several flounders and a few other species. These fish ate small benthic invertebrates as small and medium-sized fish. Larger individuals of those same species, however, ate mostly fish and had a different predator-prey relationship.
The study findings provide insight into predation on and by commercial fishery species throughout the water column. This will help with ecosystem modeling since predation needs to be accounted for as competition, or as a direct removal of commercially and ecologically important prey species. Refining the model inputs can also increase our understanding of continental shelf ecology, and improve decision-making for ecosystem-based fisheries management.
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U.S. intelligence reports warn of extremist threat around election
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. security officials are warning that violent domestic extremists pose a threat to the presidential election next month, amid what one official called a “witch’s brew” of rising political tensions, civil unrest and foreign disinformation campaigns.
FBI and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memos say threats by domestic extremists to election-related targets will likely increase in the run-up to the Nov. 3 election.
Those warnings so far have largely remained internal. But New Jersey’s homeland security office took the unusual step of publicly highlighting the threat in a little-noticed report on its website last week.
“You have this witch’s brew that really hasn’t happened in America’s history. And if it has, it’s been decades if not centuries,” said Jared Maples, director of the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness, which published the threat assessment.
Nationwide protests in recent months over racial justice and police brutality have been largely peaceful, but some have led to violent confrontations, including between extremist factions from left and right.
The United States is grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, high unemployment and a contentious presidential election in a polarized political climate.
President Donald Trump last week declined to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election to Democratic rival Joe Biden. Trump has sought to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election because of his concerns about mail-in voting, which Democrats have encouraged during the coronavirus pandemic.
Documented cases of mail-ballot fraud are extremely rare and election experts say it would be nearly impossible for foreign actors to disrupt an election by mailing out fake ballots.
A recent internal FBI bulletin warned that domestic extremists with varying ideologies would likely pose an increasing threat to government and election-related targets in the run-up to the election, according to a person familiar with it. The bulletin was first reported by Yahoo News.
An FBI spokeswoman said the agency “routinely shares information with our law enforcement partners in order to assist in protecting the communities they serve,” but declined to comment on the specific document.
A DHS memo dated to Aug. 17 said ideologically driven extremists and other actors “could quickly mobilize” to engage in violence related to the election. The document, also first reported by Yahoo News, was confirmed to Reuters by a person familiar with it.
The memo said that lone offender white supremacists and other lone offenders with “personalized ideologies” pose the greatest threat of deadly violence.
A DHS spokesperson directed Reuters to early September remarks by acting Secretary Chad Wolf, in which he said that the department “has taken unprecedented actions to address all forms of violent extremism, to specifically include threats posed by lone offenders and small cells of individuals.”
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Trump and his top officials have not so far publicly highlighted any threat by violent extremist groups to the election.
Trump officials have pointed the finger at left-wing anarchists and anti-fascists during protests against police brutality and racism over the summer, but federal court records provide little evidence showing those arrested for violent acts had affiliations to far-left groups.
Last week, the top two DHS officials acknowledged in congressional hearings, however, that white supremacists have posed the most lethal domestic threat to the United States in recent years. FBI Director Christopher Wray said during congressional hearings earlier this month that his agency was conducting investigations into violent domestic extremists, include white supremacists and anti-fascist groups. He said the largest “chunk” of investigations were into white supremacist groups.
White supremacist, anti-Semitic, anti-government, and related ideologies were tied to 77 percent of 454 alleged domestic extremist murders in the past decade, according to data compiled by the Anti-Defamation League, a New York City-based anti-hate advocacy organization, and presented at one of the congressional hearings last week.
National Security Council spokesman John Ullyot told Reuters that Trump’s highest priority is “protecting the U.S. from all threats, both foreign and domestic” when asked if the president had addressed the election threat publicly.
Maples, the New Jersey homeland director, said his agency did not issue a pre-election threat assessment in 2016, but that it was necessary this time around.
“We want our allies and folks across the state to recognize that we need to be thinking about this,” he said.
The New Jersey report outlines three possible scenarios for the November election: a quick election outcome, a protracted process where determining a winner takes months and a legal battle that eventually goes to the Supreme Court.
Each of the scenarios could lead to extremist violence, with the possibility of deadly confrontations between protesters and targeted violence toward police officers, the assessment concludes.
The agency’s report says the extremists will likely be “anarchist, anti-government, and racially motivated,” but does not say which groups pose the greater threat.
The domestic extremist threat has always been present, but is getting more attention this year, according to Mike Sena, president of the National Fusion Center Association, which represents state-run “fusion centers” staffed by federal, state and local public safety personnel who monitor threats and facilitate information sharing.
“We have always had threats during the national election cycles from violent extremists, including terrorist organizations,” he said. “With current events, it is more in the spotlight than ever.”
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan think tank, said in a June report that the outcome of the election could incite violence by the far-right or far-left.
“If President Trump loses the election, some extremists may use violence because they believe - however incorrectly - that there was fraud or that the election of Democratic candidate Joe Biden will undermine their extremist objectives,” the report reads. “Alternatively, some on the far-left could resort to terrorism if President Trump is re-elected.”
Reporting by Ted Hesson and Mark Hosenball in Washington, Kristina Cooke in Los Angeles, Editing by Ross Colvin and Alistair Bell
Chinese journalist targeted in Australian raid calls investigation 'baseless' By Cate Cadell
BEIJING (Reuters) - An Australia-based Chinese journalist whose home was raided as part of an Australian foreign interference investigation in June said the action was unfounded and “baseless”, in an account released by Chinese media.
China announced that Australian intelligence and police had raided four of its journalists as part of a broader investigation into an alleged plot to influence an Australian state politician.
The Chinese journalist, Yang Jingzhong, who was the Sydney bureau chief for the state news agency Xinhua, said Australian authorities raided his home at 6:30 a.m. on June 26 and conducted a seven-hour search, confiscating a number of electronic devices and documents.
“I was shocked, but I quickly calmed down because I knew I had not violated any laws. However, my daughter had never experienced such a scene and was very frightened,” said Yang.
The raids were carried out on the same day as a raid on the office of Shaoquett Moselmane, the Australian politician allegedly targeted by foreign interference efforts.
Australian Federal Police and the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) declined to comment.
This month, Australia named China in a court document as the foreign state under investigation by police in its first foreign interference investigation. Beijing dismissed the allegation as an anti-China smear.
Ties between Australia and its biggest trading partner have been plagued over recent years by Australian complaints of Chinese interference in its politics. China has denied the accusations.
Yang, in his account of the raid, referred to an earlier response from China’s foreign ministry, which said Australia had not given a reasonable explanation for the investigation.
Beijing earlier confirmed that all four journalists had returned to China.
‘FRIENDSHIP AND COOPERATION’
Yang’s account comes amid a broader debate in some Western countries over the overseas activities of Chinese state media, which put an emphasis on promoting China’s image abroad, and amid deepening diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Canberra.
In the past year, the United States has required U.S.-based staff of China’s top state media outlets, including Xinhua, CGTN and the People’s Daily, to register as “foreign agents”.
“I have always put the promotion of friendship and cooperation between China and Australia as the focus of my work,” said Yang, adding that most of his work involved reporting on cultural and economic exchanges between China and Australia.
News of the raids targeting Chinese journalists was released by Beijing shortly after two Australian journalists were evacuated from China, in a tense diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Australian embassy officials.
Chinese police questioned the Australian journalists before they left in relation to the case of Cheng Lei, an Australian journalist with Beijing’s state-run CGTN news channel detained in China in August.
The questioning of the Australian journalists has been widely interpreted as a tit-for-tat response to the raid on Chinese journalists in Canberra, though the China’s foreign ministry has denied they are linked.
Reporting by Cate Cadell; Editing by Tony Munroe and Robert Birsel
FENCES THE END OF THE COMMONS
Chronically understudied, fences hold grave ecological threats
Fences are one of humanity's most frequent landscape alterations, with their combined length exceeding even that of roads by an order of magnitude. Despite their ubiquity, they have received far less research scrutiny than many human-built structures. Writing in BioScience, Alex McIntuff, who was at the University of California (UC), Berkeley, at the time of this research and is now with UC Santa Barbara, and a global team characterize the current state of fence research and generate a typology to guide future efforts.
The authors argue that fences are a particularly difficult to study feature: "Fences have eluded systematic study for so long for good reason. Fences are both difficult to detect, and, at an even more basic level, difficult to define." For instance, definitions that might distinguish fences from walls are ever shifting. Compounding these challenges, McInturff and colleagues say, is the fact that "invasive species rapidly discover and exploit breaks in fences," and therefore, "even where fences can be mapped, either remotely or via ground surveys, characterizing their intactness or functionality requires a closer, and often infeasible, form of evaluation."
Despite the difficulty in studying these structures, the movement-restricting effects of fences have profound ecosystem consequences. "To put it simply, in a fenced world, there are winners and there are losers," say the authors. Generalist and disturbance specialist species fare well, whereas specialist species often struggle with restricted access to habitat, altered community composition, and changes to the ecosystems on which they depend. As an example of the potential "losers," the authors highlight research indicating that "a planned US-Mexico border fence would dangerously restrict gene flow among desert bighorn sheep, isolating populations across the border."
Despite the clear effects of fences on some species, many other interactions remain unexplored, and surprises abound. For instance, the authors describe an Australian conservation fence erected to protect an enclosed nature reserve. Despite performing its intended role well, the fence "was found to have unintended negative consequences for native reptile populations around the enclosure, especially for eastern longnecked turtles. The fence disrupted turtle movement patterns, isolated populations, and led to high mortality rates."
The authors' review of existing literature sheds light on similar knowledge shortfalls, with fences' effects on nontarget being particularly poorly studied. They found that "64% (285 of 446) of the studies were focused exclusively on the effects of fencing on target species--that is, species for which a fence was built. Only 24% of the studies included both target and nontarget species, and in a mere 12% were nontargeted species studied exclusively."
To better address fences' ecological effects, the authors advocate an increased focus on "fence design and placement and fence construction and removal." Only through such efforts, they say, can the field of fence ecology be well positioned to "provide the science to manage and mitigate one of humankind's most pervasive alterations of our planet."
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BioScience, published monthly by Oxford Journals, is the journal of the American Institute of Biological Sciences (AIBS). BioScience is a forum for integrating the life sciences that publishes commentary and peer-reviewed articles. The journal has been published since 1964. AIBS is an organization for professional scientific societies and organizations, and individuals, involved with biology. AIBS provides decision-makers with high-quality, vetted information for the advancement of biology and society. Follow BioScience on Twitter @AIBSbiology.
Oxford Journals is a division of Oxford University Press. Oxford Journals publishes well over 300 academic and research journals covering a broad range of subject areas, two-thirds of which are published in collaboration with learned societies and other international organizations. The division been publishing journals for more than a century, and as part of the world's oldest and largest university press, has more than 500 years of publishing expertise behind it. Follow Oxford Journals on Twitter @OxfordJournals.
Many ventilation systems may increase risk of COVID-19 exposure, study suggests
Ventilation systems in many modern office buildings, which are designed to keep temperatures comfortable and increase energy efficiency, may increase the risk of exposure to the coronavirus, particularly during the coming winter, according to research published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
A team from the University of Cambridge found that widely-used 'mixing ventilation' systems, which are designed to keep conditions uniform in all parts of the room, disperse airborne contaminants evenly throughout the space. These contaminants may include droplets and aerosols, potentially containing viruses.
The research has highlighted the importance of good ventilation and mask-wearing in keeping the contaminant concentration to a minimum level and hence mitigating the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
The evidence increasingly indicates that the virus is spread primarily through larger droplets and smaller aerosols, which are expelled when we cough, sneeze, laugh, talk or breathe. In addition, the data available so far indicate that indoor transmission is far more common than outdoor transmission, which is likely due to increased exposure times and decreased dispersion rates for droplets and aerosols.
"As winter approaches in the northern hemisphere and people start spending more time inside, understanding the role of ventilation is critical to estimating the risk of contracting the virus and helping slow its spread," said Professor Paul Linden from Cambridge's Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), who led the research.
"While direct monitoring of droplets and aerosols in indoor spaces is difficult, we exhale carbon dioxide that can easily be measured and used as an indicator of the risk of infection. Small respiratory aerosols containing the virus are transported along with the carbon dioxide produced by breathing, and are carried around a room by ventilation flows. Insufficient ventilation can lead to high carbon dioxide concentration, which in turn could increase the risk of exposure to the virus."
The team showed that airflow in rooms is complex and depends on the placement of vents, windows and doors, and on convective flows generated by heat emitted by people and equipment in a building. Other variables, such as people moving or talking, doors opening or closing, or changes in outdoor conditions for naturally ventilated buildings, affect these flows and consequently influence the risk of exposure to the virus.
Ventilation, whether driven by wind or heat generated within the building or by mechanical systems, works in one of two main modes. Mixing ventilation is the most common, where vents are placed to keep the air in a space well mixed so that temperature and contaminant concentrations are kept uniform throughout the space.
The second mode, displacement ventilation, has vents placed at the bottom and the top of a room, creating a cooler lower zone and a warmer upper zone, and warm air is extracted through the top part of the room. As our exhaled breath is also warm, most of it accumulates in the upper zone. Provided the interface between the zones is high enough, contaminated air can be extracted by the ventilation system rather than breathed in by someone else. The study suggests that when designed properly, displacement ventilation could reduce the risk of mixing and cross-contamination of breath, thereby mitigating the risk of exposure.
As climate change has accelerated since the middle of the last century, buildings have been built with energy efficiency in mind. Along with improved construction standards, this has led to buildings that are more airtight and more comfortable for the occupants. In the past few years however, reducing indoor air pollution levels has become the primary concern for designers of ventilation systems.
"These two concerns are related, but different, and there is tension between them, which has been highlighted during the pandemic," said Dr Rajesh Bhagat, also from DAMTP. "Maximising ventilation, while at the same time keeping temperatures at a comfortable level without excessive energy consumption is a difficult balance to strike."
In light of this, the Cambridge researchers took some of their earlier work on ventilation for efficiency and reinterpreted it for air quality, in order to determine the effects of ventilation on the distribution of airborne contaminants in a space.
"In order to model how the coronavirus or similar viruses spread indoors, you need to know where people's breath goes when they exhale, and how that changes depending on ventilation," said Linden. "Using these data, we can estimate the risk of catching the virus while indoors."
The researchers explored a range of different modes of exhalation: nasal breathing, speaking and laughing, each both with and without a mask. By imaging the heat associated with the exhaled breath, they could see how it moves through the space in each case. If the person was moving around the room, the distribution of exhaled breath was markedly different as it became captured in their wake.
"You can see the change in temperature and density when someone breathes out warm air - it refracts the light and you can measure it," said Bhagat. "When sitting still, humans give off heat, and since hot air rises, when you exhale, the breath rises and accumulates near the ceiling."
Their results show that room flows are turbulent and can change dramatically depending on the movement of the occupants, the type of ventilation, the opening and closing of doors and, for naturally ventilated spaces, changes in outdoor conditions.
The researchers found that masks are effective at reducing the spread of exhaled breath, and therefore droplets.
"One thing we could clearly see is that one of the ways that masks work is by stopping the breath's momentum," said Linden. "While pretty much all masks will have a certain amount of leakage through the top and sides, it doesn't matter that much, because slowing the momentum of any exhaled contaminants reduces the chance of any direct exchange of aerosols and droplets as the breath remains in the body's thermal plume and is carried upwards towards the ceiling. Additionally, masks stop larger droplets, and a three-layered mask decreases the amount of those contaminants that are recirculated through the room by ventilation."
The researchers found that laughing, in particular, creates a large disturbance, suggesting that if an infected person without a mask was laughing indoors, it would greatly increase the risk of transmission.
"Keep windows open and wear a mask appears to be the best advice," said Linden. "Clearly that's less of a problem in the summer months, but it's a cause for concern in the winter months."
The team are now working with the Department for Transport looking at the impacts of ventilation on aerosol transport in trains and with the Department for Education to assess risks in schools this coming winter.
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Reference:
Rajesh K. Bhagat et al. 'Effects of ventilation on the indoor spread of COVID-19.' Journal of Fluid Mechanics (2020). DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2020.720.
Study shows heating in vaping device as cause for lung injury
Nicotine, THC or Vitamin E oil may not be the primary factor in e-cig or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI)
Irvine and Pasadena, CA - Sept. 28, 2020 - Early results of an experimental vaping study have shown significant lung injury from E-cigarette (eC) devices with nickel-chromium alloy heating elements. The findings were consistent, with or without the use of nicotine, vitamin E oil or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which have previously been thought to contribute to the life-threatening respiratory problem.
The early results, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association by researchers from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) School of Medicine and the Huntington Medical Research Institutes (HMRI), were observed during a larger study designed to explore the effect of e-cigarette and other vaping product use on the cardiovascular system. While conducting experiments, researchers observed eC or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) immediately after switching from a vaping device with a stainless steel heating element, to one that used nickel-chromium alloy (NC).
"The results were so impactful, we felt it imperative to release the initial findings early so that electronic cigarette users could be cautioned sooner, especially considering E-cigarette users are at increased risk of COVID-19," stated senior author Robert A. Kloner, MD, PhD, chief science officer for HMRI and professor of medicine at USC.
The switch in devices occurred in September 2019, when the eC device the team was using went off market and a substitute device was offered as an alternative. The new device was physically compatible with the original exposure system, but the heating element changed from stainless steel (SS) to a nickel?chromium alloy (NC).
"Within an hour of beginning an experiment, we observed evidence of severe respiratory distress, including labored breathing, wheezing and panting," said Michael Kleinman, PhD, professor of occupational and environmental medicine at UCI School of Medicine and member of the UCI Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. "After analyzing lung tissue from subjects in the study, we found them to be severely compromised and observed other serious changes such as lung lesions, red blood cell congestion, obliteration of alveolar spaces, and pneumonitis in some cases."
The current research aimed to study the impacts of breathing in E-cigarette vapors on heart function in a well- established pre-clinical experimental model. Over the course of nearly a year, none of the subjects exposed to vapors from the stainless steel devices, both with and without additives, contracted respiratory distress and only one showed a less than 10% area of inflammation in the lungs. Once the new eC device was introduced, affected subjects showed severe respiratory distress, with labored breathing, wheezing and panting. The lung injury occurred without nicotine, THC, or Vitamin E additives; and may also have been related to higher wattage of power settings on the E-cigarette devices. These preliminary studies will be followed up with additional future studies to systematically try to determine the cause of the lung problem.
"While further research is needed, these results indicate that specific devices and power settings may play a key role in the development of EVALI as much as the additives do," said Kloner. "The harms associated with E-cigarettes and vaping simply cannot be overstated."
Vaping has been proven to cause increased blood pressure, endothelial dysfunction, and the risk of myocardial infarction and stroke. Heating elements in commercially available eC are usually made of stainless steel, nickel?chromium or nichrome, Kanthal nickel, or titanium.
A condition, which was dubbed "E?cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury" (EVALI) was recognized in the United States in June 2019 and peaked in September 2019. In March 2020, there were 2,800 US cases of EVALI and 68 deaths reported. Patients were typically found to be young males and users of E-cigarettes or vaping products whose CT scans revealed lung inflammation and injury. Of note, EVALI can mimic many of the features of COVID-19 pneumonia.
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This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health. In addition to Kleinman and Kloner, several researchers participated in the study, including HMRI researchers Jianru Shi, Wangde Dai, Juan Carreno, Jesus Chavez, and Lifu Zhao; and UCI researchers Rebecca Johnson Arechavala, David Herman, Irene Hasen and Amanda Ting.
About HMRI
At HMRI, our scientists and teams are powered by passion and determination, working tirelessly to uncover new and uncharted solutions to some of humankind's most daunting cardiovascular and neurological challenges, like heart disease, Alzheimer's, neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders. Established in 1952, HMRI's history is rich with impactful research from significant work on the cerebrospinal fluid shunt system for hydrocephalus to the perfection of MRI spectroscopy for use with brain tumors, dementia, stroke, MS, and cancers. Today, our campus in Pasadena, CA, includes biomedical laboratories focused on the connections between the brain and heart, a MRI for clinical studies, and a Liver Center. Our all glass building was designed intentionally to reflect our mission to be transparent with information between leadership, donors and researchers. We invite those who share our passion to join us. Come see it, have a hand in it: Big-impact, life-changing solutions are happening today at HMRI. For more information visit us at http://www.hmri.org.
About the UCI School of Medicine
Each year, the UCI School of Medicine educates more than 400 medical students, and nearly 150 doctoral and master's students. More than 700 residents and fellows are trained at UCI Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The School of Medicine offers an MD; a dual MD/PhD medical scientist training program; and PhDs and master's degrees in anatomy and neurobiology, biomedical sciences, genetic counseling, epidemiology, environmental health sciences, pathology, pharmacology, physiology and biophysics, and translational sciences. Medical students also may pursue an MD/MBA, an MD/master's in public health, or an MD/master's degree through one of three mission-based programs: the Health Education to Advance Leaders in Integrative Medicine (HEAL-IM), the Leadership Education to Advance Diversity-African, Black and Caribbean (LEAD-ABC), and the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community (PRIME-LC). The UCI School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation and ranks among the top 50 nationwide for research. For more information, visit som.uci.edu.
