Researchers urge healthcare providers to routinely ask patients about cannabis use

Discussing use with chronic pain patients who use opioids is especially important

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Nurses and other healthcare providers should talk to patients about their cannabis use the same way they talk about other habits like smoking and drinking: routinely and without judgment.

That should happen, but too often doesn't, said Marian Wilson, registered nurse and associate professor at the Washington State University College of Nursing. She is the lead author on a paper published recently in the journal Pain Management Nursing about shared decision-making in talking about cannabis use.

"We want this paper to guide providers in how they can start opening up this conversation and normalizing it," Wilson said.

The shared decision-making model starts with either the patient or the provider bringing up the topic of cannabis use, then moving on to specifics about that patient's situation, benefits, and risks of cannabis use based on research and evidence, and finally formulating a plan.

"Central to patient-centered conversations is understanding the top priorities of patients," Wilson writes. "Researchers have suggested that clinicians should ask 'What matters to you?' as well as 'What is the matter?'"

Some studies have suggested cannabis use is beneficial to patients with chronic pain who are also using opioids, so many in that patient population are using cannabis or considering it, Wilson said. That's why it's especially important for providers working in pain management to discuss the subject, though patients may be reluctant to disclose cannabis use because they might have been penalized in the past.

Wilson says providers face real challenges in obtaining current, evidence-based information on the benefits and risks of cannabis use. The paper calls for the creation of a centralized, noncommercial, scientific repository of information, research, and best practices on cannabis use. Such a resource will become more important as cannabis legalization spreads nationwide.

"We want providers to ask people about their cannabis use and we want patients to feel comfortable talking about it, but right now many don't," Wilson said.

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For more information: "Shared Decision-Making for Patients Using Cannabis for Pain Symptom Management in the United States," Marian Wilson, PhD, MPH, RN-BC; Tracy Klein, PhD, FNP, ARNP, FAANP, FRE, FAAN; Ross J. Bindler, PharmD; Louise Kaplan, PhD, ARNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, Pain Management Nursing.

 

Health care use drops during pandemic; switch to telemedicine creates disparities

Switch to telemedicine was not enough to offset reductions in in-person care

RAND CORPORATION

Research News

 

During the first two months of the pandemic lockdown, Americans dramatically reduced their use of preventive and elective health care, while increasing use of telemedicine -- but the switch was not enough to offset reductions in in-person care, according to a new study.

The analysis, one of the first to quantify the cuts in elective medical care experienced in March and April, found that the number of mammograms and colonoscopies -- diagnostic procedures that cannot be done via telehealth -- dropped by more than 65% during the period. Overall health care utilization declined by 23% in March and by 52% in April.

Smaller cuts in in-person care and lower rates of telemedicine use were observed among patients who reside in lower-income or predominately non-white zip codes. Researchers say the findings are another example of disparities in health care that have worsened during the coronavirus pandemic.

The study, published online by the journal JAMA Network Open, is based on medical records from more than 5 million Americans who have private health insurance.

"This adds detailed evidence to the anecdotal reports that Americans quit going to see the doctor when the pandemic shutdown started," said Christopher Whaley, the study's lead author and a policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "If important visits are only delayed for a few months, there will likely be no harm. But if patients do not get important screenings, there could be long-term negative health consequences."

Most studies about the change in medical care since the beginning of the pandemic shutdown have used information from a single health system or geographic market to observe changes in use of medical services.

The new study used insurance claims data from 2018 to 2020 from about 200 employers across all 50 states.

Researchers found that for March and April 2020, utilization of colonoscopy decreased by nearly 70% relative to rates observed in March and April 2019. Relative reductions for mammograms was 67% among women ages 46 to 64.

Blood sugar tests dropped by more than 50%, vaccines among children under age 2 dropped by 22% and angioplasty procedures dropped by nearly 17%. A small drop was seen in chemotherapy treatments. In addition, musculoskeletal surgery, cataract surgery and MRIs all dropped by 45% or more.

Use of prescription drugs for high cholesterol and diabetes saw small drops, while use of asthma medications increased by 11% over March and April.

During the same period, telemedicine visits skyrocketed, increasing by more than 4,000% in April 2020 as compared to April 2019. But the increase in telemedicine visits replaced only about 40% of the decline in medical office visits.

Researchers found that patients who resided in lower-income or predominately non-white zip codes had an increase in telehealth visits that was about a third lower than those who lived in the wealthiest neighborhoods.

"The extent to which access barriers to telemedicine contribute to lower rates of in-person care deferral, and thus increases in potential exposure to COVID-19, should be examined in future work," Whaley said.

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Support for the study was provided by the National Institute on Aging and the National Cancer Institute.

Other authors of the study are Megan F. Pera, Jennie Chang, Julia Velasco and Heather K. Hagg, all of Castlight Health, Jonathan Cantor of RAND, Neeraj Sood of USC, and Dena M. Bravata of Castlight Health and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research at Stanford University.

RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not res

 

Changes in health services use among commercially insured US populations during COVID-19 pandemic

JAMA NETWORK OPEN

Research News 

What The Study Did: Researchers examined whether the first two months of the COVID-19 pandemic were associated with changes in non-COVID health care use among a large population of individuals with employer-sponsored insurance, specifically preventive services (e.g., pediatric vaccinations), elective services (e.g., orthopedic surgery) and nonelective services (e.g., labor and delivery care) in March and April 2020 compared with the same months in 2018 and 2019.

Authors: Christopher M. Whaley, Ph.D., of the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, California, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.24984)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Media advisory: The full study and commentary are linked to this news release.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.24984?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=110520

About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is the new online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the us

 

Medicaid expansion linked to lower mortality rates for three major types of cancer

DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE

Research News

 

• Expansion of Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act is associated with decreased mortality for patients with newly diagnosed breast, lung, or colorectal cancer.
• The mortality improvement was due to earlier stage of diagnosis in states that have expanded Medicaid.

BOSTON - In states that have expanded Medicaid availability as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mortality rates for three major forms of cancer are significantly lower than in states that have not expanded their Medicaid, a new study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard University shows.

Data from the study, published online today in JAMA Network Open, suggest that the improvement in mortality results from cancers being diagnosed at an earlier stage in states with Medicaid expansion. Early detection of cancer is often critical to successful treatment of the disease.

The ACA, passed in 2010, gave states the option of expanding eligibility for Medicaid - the government-funded health insurance program for low-income families and individuals - to nonelderly adults with incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. Previous studies involving cancer patients have shown Medicaid expansion to be associated with fewer uninsured patients, increased screening, and stage of disease diagnosis. (Currently, 39 states have expanded Medicaid programs.)

"There has been little research into the impact of Medicaid expansion on cancer mortality [the time from initial cancer diagnosis to death]," says the lead author of the new study, Miranda Lam, MD, MBA, of Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "It's been thought that expansion might improve mortality by fostering earlier detection, earlier stage of diagnosis, and improved access to treatment. On the other hand, it could worsen mortality by creating an influx of newly covered patients that strains hospitals' resources."

For the study, researchers used the National Cancer Database to track 523,802 patients across the country who were newly diagnosed with breast, lung, or colorectal cancer from 2012 through 2015. They compared mortality rates for these patients in states that expanded their Medicaid programs and those that did not. (Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia expanded their programs on Jan. 1, 2014.)

"We found that Medicaid expansion was associated with a significant decrease in mortality compared to states without such expansion," Lam remarks. The expansion group had a 2% decline in hazard of death from the pre- to the post-expansion period. The non-expansion group, by contrast, showed no change in mortality.

If the 2% reduction was achieved in all states with expanded Medicaid, then among the approximately 69,000 patients diagnosed with cancer in those states, 1,384 lives would be saved yearly, researchers calculated.

The biggest difference between the two groups was in patients whose cancers hadn't reached a metastatic stage and are considered curable. When investigators adjusted for the stage at which cancers were diagnosed, improvements in mortality were no longer seen - whether between expansion and non-expansion states or between the pre-expansion and post-expansion period. This suggests that the decline in mortality associated with Medicaid expansion is a byproduct of diagnosing cancer at an earlier stage.

"Increased Medicaid coverage may remove barriers to accessing the healthcare system for screening and timely symptom evaluation, and that can translate into better outcomes for patients," Lam comments.

The investigators also found that the decrease in mortality in Medicaid-expansion states occurred across population groups. "We were reassured to find that patients living in areas of the lowest quartile of median household income showed a modest decrease in mortality after Medicaid expansion," Lam observes. "We also found that the mortality improvements occurred in both Black and white populations."

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The senior author of the study was Nancy Keating, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women's and Harvard Medical School. Co-authors are Jessica Phelan, MS, and Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and John Orav, PhD, of Brigham and Women's and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study was conducted with the support of a KL2 award from Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health Award KL2 TR002542).

About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world's leading centers of cancer research and treatment. Dana-Farber's mission is to reduce the burden of cancer through scientific inquiry, clinical care, education, community engagement, and advocacy. We provide the latest treatments in cancer for adults through Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and for children through Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is the only hospital nationwide with a top 10 U.S. News & World Report Best Cancer Hospital ranking in both adult and pediatric care.

As a global leader in oncology, Dana-Farber is dedicated to a unique and equal balance between cancer research and care, translating the results of discovery into new treatments for patients locally and around the world, offering more than 1,100 clinical trials.

 

Crystals reveal the danger of sleeping volcanoes

A new method shows that it's now possible to estimate the volume of magma stored below volcanoes providing essential information about the potential size of future eruptions

UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE

Research News

 

IMAGE: CATHODOLUMINESCENCE IMAGE OF ZIRCON CRYSTALS FROM NEVADO DE TOLUCA VOLCANO IN MEXICO view more 

CREDIT: UNIGE/WEBER

Most active volcanoes on Earth are dormant, meaning that they have not erupted for hundreds or even thousands of years, and are normally not considered hazardous by the local population. A team of volcanologists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), working in collaboration with the University of Heidelberg in Germany, has devised a technique that can predict the devastating potential of volcanoes. The scientists used zircon, a tiny crystal contained in volcanic rocks, to estimate the volume of magma that could be erupted once Nevado de Toluca volcano (Mexico) will wake up from its dormancy. Up to 350 km3 of magma --about four times the volume of water stored in Lake Geneva-- are currently lying below Nevado de Toluca and their eruption could bring devastation. The new technique, applicable to most types of volcano across the globe, is described in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

The largest volcanic eruptions in the last 100 years were sourced from volcanoes that do not erupt frequently and therefore fly under the "radar" of scientists. Yet today, 800 million people around the world live close to volcanoes and are potentially at risk. A determining factor for the dangerousness of volcanoes is the volume of eruptible magma stored in their bellies, as this is related to the magnitude of future eruptions. Unfortunately, this magma is stored at inaccessible depths of 6-10 km and cannot be directly measured.

Tiny watches with a thermometer

The UNIGE volcanologists used a new approach combining zircon geochronology and thermal modelling to determine the volume of potentially-eruptible magma present in the volcanic reservoirs. "Zircon is a small crystal found in rocks erupted by volcanoes, and it contains uranium and thorium", begins Gregor Weber, a postdoctoral fellow at UNIGE and co-author of the study. "The decay of these radioactive elements allows us to date when they crystallised. Additionally, zircon crystallises only in a specific temperature range. With these two parameters, we can determine how fast the magma is cooling below a volcano. Like a pot of water, the larger the pot, the more time it takes to cool it. We analysed the zircons erupted over the last 1.5 million years by Nevado de Toluca thus determining the evolution of temperature of the magma stored below the volcano over time. This information can be converted into a volume of magma using thermal modelling." This approach has a resolution two times higher than that of existing techniques.

Sleeping monster

The methodology in the study was applied to the Mexican volcano Nevado de Toluca, also called Xinantécatl, a representative example of a dormant volcano located in the vicinity of Mexico City. The results were used to determine the maximum possible size of a future eruption from this volcano, which with 350 km3 could have potentially devastating effect. "The system can quickly wake up if the deep magma supply starts again," warns Weber.

Guiding the radars

This finding is essential for assessing volcanic risk quantitatively. "Knowing the size of a volcanic reservoir is important to identify volcanoes that are most likely to produce a large magnitude eruption in the future. Our method is a new way to evaluate the candidates for such eruptions," explains Weber. This approach is applicable to most types of volcanoes, whether active or dormant, and provides valuable insights into which volcanic systems need to be monitored more closely.

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Core value of the Chengjian fauna: evolution of animals and birth of basic human organs

Scientists explain the significance of Chengjiang fauna, exceptionally preserved fossils found in China

CACTUS COMMUNICATIONS

Research News

 

IMAGE: DR DEGAN SHU FROM NORTHWEST UNIVERSITY AND HIS TEAM DISCUSS THEIR FINDINGS AND HIGHLIGHT THE SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DIVERSE FOSSIL SITE CHENGJIANG LAGERSTATTE IN YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA. view more 

CREDIT: EARTH SCIENCE FRONTIERS

Much of what we know regarding how life--as we know it--came into existence is through the recovery of fossils from various sites in the word. The Chengjiang lagerstatte in Yunnan Province, China, is one such unique site containing very well-preserved fossils (also called the "Chengjiang fauna"), which include soft-bodied animals that normally do not get fossilized. Most of these fossils are 520 to 518 million years old, spanning a part of the Cambrian period when life on earth exploded in diversity, leading to a huge increase in number of species--a phenomenon called the "Cambrian explosion." In a new study, two scientists who spent many years digging deeper into this field, including Dr Degan Shu from Northwest University in Xi'an and Dr Jian Han from Northwestern University in Shaanxi Xi'an, present an overview of their research on the Chengjiang fauna and emphasize its significance. These findings, which are published in Earth Science Frontiers, include significant contributions from Chinese paleontologists, including Prof Shu's group, in collaboration with other international scientists.

The research spanned three decades, each decade bringing important developments. The first decade (1984?1994) led to important findings on basal animals (e.g., sponges and jellyfish) and the subkingdom Protostomia (e.g., molluscs). In the second decade (1995?2005), scientists including Shu's team continued to discover newer animal groups, the most significant being deuterostomes (a large group of animals, which includes humans). In the third stage (2005?now), the Chinese teams continued to add new groups to the animal tree and dug deeper into the relationships between the formation of the tree and the multi-episodic Cambrian explosion. This paved the way for not only the formulation of a three-part phylogenetic tree of early animals but also the hypothesis that the Cambrian explosion occurred in three episodes--the evolution and diversification of basal animals, followed by protostomes, and finally deuterostomes--forming the basis of all forms of animal life today.

On the importance of the Chengjiang fauna, Dr Shu comments, "Today, many people still believe in creationism, and a common argument that they use is an incomplete fossil record. We feel that filling the gaps in the evolutionary tree with transitional forms, such as those found at Chengjiang and other sites, will help us to gradually dispel misinformation about the theory of evolution, especially when we consider the question of how humans came to be. In essence, we can trace the origins of all extant animals, including us, to ancestors in the Cambrian."

In particular, Dr Shu points to the discovery of seminal fossils that demonstrate the early forms of our basic organs evolved during the Cambrian explosion. These include the mouth, brain, heart, and vertebrae. It is through comparisons of Chengjiang fossils from the Cambrian period with those from the Precambrian (before Cambrian) period that researchers realized that Precambrian life did not have these basic organs. This reveals the importance of Chengjiang as a reservoir of fossilized soft body parts, such as the nervous system. In fact, some specimens have such well-preserved nervous systems that scientists could use them to infer how certain species behaved, working from the idea that a complex nervous system implies complex behaviors. This incredible insight offered to us by the Chengjiang lagerstatte provides direct evidence explaining the gradual evolution in the animal kingdom. Dr Shu concludes, "As a compelling testimony of Darwinian theory, the Chengjiang fossils have profound scientific and humanistic significance. Our hope is that the fascinating discoveries at this site will help improve scientific literacy in the public, while also providing new generations of scientists with a framework that they can use to flesh out the animal tree of life."

The Chengjiang fauna, indeed, holds immense significance--both scientific and philosophical. And the extensive efforts by scientists like Dr Shu bring us closer to understanding the most fundamental question today: where lies the origin of life?

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Reference

Authors: Degan Shu and Jian Han

Title of original paper: The core value of Chengjiang fauna: the formation of the animal kingdom and the birth of basic human organs

Journal: Earth Science Frontiers

DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2020.10.28

Affiliations: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments (SKLELE), State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China Northwestern University Museum, Shaanxi Xi'an 710069, China

About Earth Science Frontiers

Earth Science Frontiers is a bimonthly peer reviewed scholarly journal co-sponsored by the China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. It was first published in 1994, and academician Wang Chengshan is the current Editor-in-Chief. Each issue of the journal is centered on a specific geoscience topic and managed by experts in that field as Guest Editors. Each issue also contains a number of articles on self-select subjects. Articles published in Earth Science Frontiers cover all disciplines of earth sciences with emphasis on frontier and innovative basic research. At the same time, the journal also publishes research findings that may be considered contentious. Over the years, Earth Science Frontiers has won several publisher awards, including "The Internationally Most Influential Journal in Chinese Language" and "The Top 100 Outstanding Chinese Scholarly Journals." In 2019, Earth Science Frontiers was selected among top-tier journals to join a national action plan for achieving excellence in science and technology research publishing in China.

E-mail: frontier@cugb.edu.cn
Website: http://www.earthsciencefrontiers.net.cn

About Dr Degan Shu

Dr Degan Shu is an eminent paleontologist and academician currently working at Northwest University in Xi'an, China, as part of the Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments. He received his undergraduate training in Paleontology at Peking (Beijing) University from 1964 to 1969, obtaining his master's degree at Northwest University (Xi'an) and PhD in China University of Geosciences (Beijing). He was a Visiting Scholar at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in 1988, a Humboldt Research Fellow at both University of Bonn in 1988-1989 and University of Wuerzburg, Germany, in 1994?1995, as well as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UK, in 1998. Dr Shu has authored over 100 papers on the Cambrian Explosion in his long career of over 25 years. Dr Shu has also translated Darwin's Origins of Species into Chinese.

 

New genus of chimaerid fish classified with help from Kazan University expert

Evgeny Popov (Senior Research Associate, Laboratory of the Stratigraphy Oil and Gas Bearing Reservoirs) partook in researching Canadodus suntoki.

KAZAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: CANADODUS SUNTOKI, GEN. ET SP. NOV., RBCM.EH2014.065.0001.001, LEFT MANDIBULAR (L?=?50?MM, KM?=?19?MM) PLATE FROM THE SOOKE FORMATION OF VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA. A, B, PHOTOGRAPHS OF A, OCCLUSAL AND B, LABIAL... view more 

CREDIT: ROYAL BRITISH COLUMBIA MUSEUM, KAZAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

A dental plate was found by Canadian national Stephen Suntok on the Pacific coast of British Columbia. Evgeny Popov, a renowned expert in chimaerids, was asked to assist in classification.

"The new species and genus is most close to the extant members of Chimaeridae - Chimaera and Hydrolagus. They are quite widely present in the oceans and comprise about 82% of the existing Holocephali fish," explains Popov.

The dental plate shows that the extinct Canadodus was close in appearance to the extant relatives, with length between 83 and 125 centimeters. Its diet most likely consisted of worms, mollusks, and crustaceans. The dental plate never left Canada - it was studied in Russia via high-definition photos, adds Popov.

As the scientists report, the finding was rather lucky, because vertebrate fossils are rarely found on the shores of Juan de Fuca Strait.

The research significantly contributes to the understanding of chimaerid fauna of the late Paleogene in the Pacific Ocean.

 

The first duckbill dinosaur fossil from Africa hints at how dinosaurs once crossed oceans

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Research News

 

IMAGE: DUCKBILL DINOSAURS EVOLVED IN NORTH AMERICA, SPREADING TO SOUTH AMERICA, ASIA, EUROPE, AND FINALLY AFRICA view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: RAUL MARTIN

The first fossils of a duckbilled dinosaur have been discovered in Africa, suggesting dinosaurs crossed hundreds of kilometres of open water to get there.

The study, published in Cretaceous Research, reports the new dinosaur, Ajnabia odysseus, from rocks in Morocco dating to the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago. Ajnabia was a member of the duckbill dinosaurs, diverse plant-eating dinosaurs that grew up to 15 meters long. But the new dinosaur was tiny compared to its kin - at just 3 meters long, it was as big as a pony.

Duckbills evolved in North America and eventually spread to South America, Asia, and Europe. Because Africa was an island continent in the Late Cretaceous, isolated by deep seaways, it seemed impossible for duckbills to get there.

The discovery of the new fossil in a mine a few hours from Casablanca was "about the last thing in the world you would expect," said Dr Nicholas Longrich, of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, who led the study. Dr Longrich said: "It was completely out of place, like finding a kangaroo in Scotland. Africa was completely isolated by water - so how did they get there?"

Study of Ajnabia's distinctive teeth and jawbones show it belonged to Lambeosaurinae, a subfamily of duckbills with elaborate bony head crests. Lambeosaurs evolved in North America before spreading to Asia and Europe, but have never been found in Africa before.

Reconstructing duckbill evolution, they found the lambeosaurs evolved in North America, then spread over a land bridge to Asia. From there, they colonised Europe, and finally Africa.

Because Africa was isolated by deep oceans at the time, duckbills must have crossed hundreds of kilometres of open water- rafting on debris, floating, or swimming - to colonise the continent. Duckbills were probably powerful swimmers - they had large tails and powerful legs, and are often found in river deposits and marine rocks, so they may have simply swum the distance.

"Sherlock Holmes said, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," said Longrich. "It was impossible to walk to Africa. These dinosaurs evolved long after continental drift split the continents, and we have no evidence of land bridges. The geology tells us Africa was isolated by oceans. If so, the only way to get there is by water."

In reference to this feat, the dinosaur is named "Ajnabia odysseus". Ajnabi being Arabic for "foreigner", and Odysseus referring to the Greek seafarer.

Ocean crossings are rare, improbable events, but have been observed in historic times. In one case, green iguanas travelled between Caribbean islands during a hurricane borne on debris. In another, a tortoise from the Seychelles floated hundreds of kilometres across the Indian Ocean to wash up in Africa.

"Over millions of years," said Longrich, "Once-in-a-century events are likely to happen many times. Ocean crossings are needed to explain how lemurs and hippos got to Madagascar, or how monkeys and rodents crossed from Africa to South America."

But the fact that duckbills and other dinosaur groups spread between continents, even with high sea levels, suggests dinosaurs travelled across oceans as well. "As far as I know, we're the first to suggest ocean crossings for dinosaurs," said Longrich.

The international team of scientists was led by the University of Bath with researchers from the University of the Basque Country UVP/EHU (Spain), George Washington University (USA) and the Natural History Museum of Sorbonne University (France) / Universite Cadi Ayyad (Morocco).

Dr Nour-Eddine Jalil, from the Natural History Museum of Sorbonne University (France) said: "The succession of improbable events (crossing an ocean by a dinosaur, fossilization of a terrestrial animal in a marine environment) highlights the rarity of our find and therefore its importance.

"Ajnabia shows us that hadrosaurs have set foot on African land, telling us that ocean barriers are not always an insurmountable obstacle."

CAPTION

Silhouette showing the size of Ajnabia compared with humans and the contemporary Maastrichtian dinosaur fauna of Morrocco.

 

Two motivational artificial beings are better than one for enhancing learning

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that praise delivered by robots and virtual agents improves offline learning

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Research News

 

IMAGE: A PARTICIPANT TRAINING IN FINGER-TAPPING TASK AND AN AGENT (IN THIS FIGURE, A ROBOT) WATCHING THE TRAINING. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan - Social rewards such as praise are known to enhance various stages of the learning process. Now, researchers from Japan have found that praise delivered by artificial beings such as robots and virtual graphics-based agents can have effects similar to praise delivered by humans, with important practical applications as social services such as education increasingly move to virtual and online platforms.

In a study published this month in PLOS ONE, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have shown that motor task performance in participants was significantly enhanced by praise from either one or two robots or virtual agents.

Although praise from robots and virtual agents has been found to enhance human motivation and performance during a task, whether these interactions have similar effects on offline skill consolidation, which is an essential component of the learning process, has not been investigated. Further, the various conditions associated with the delivery of praise by robot and virtual agents have not been thoroughly explored previously. The researchers at the University of Tsukuba aimed to address these questions in the present study.

"Previous studies have shown that praise from others can positively affect offline improvements in human motor skills," says first author Masahiro Shiomi. "However, whether praise from artificial beings can have similar effects on offline improvements has not been explored previously."

To examine these questions, the researchers asked participants to learn a finger-tapping task under several different conditions, which varied in terms of the timing and frequency of praise, the number of agents, and whether the agents were physically present or presented on a screen. The participants were then asked to repeat the task on the following day, and task performance was compared between the two days.

"We found that praise led to a measurable increase in task performance, indicating increased offline consolidation of the task," explains Professor Takamasa Iio. "Further, two agents led to significantly greater participant performance than one agent, even when the amount of praise was identical."

However, whether the praise was delivered by physical robots or by virtual agents did not influence the effects.

"Our study showed that praise from artificial beings improved skill consolidation in a manner that resembled praise delivered by humans," says first author Masahiro Shiomi. "Such findings may be useful for facilitating learning in children, for instance, or for exercise and rehabilitation applications."

Future work could consider the effects of praise delivered in different environments, for instance, in a VR environment, as well as the effects of greater numbers of agents. A greater understanding of the factors that influence the social effects of robot behavior is essential for improving the quality of human-robot interactions, which are increasingly an important element of education, services, and entertainment applications.

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The article, "Two is Better than One: Social Rewards from Two Agents Enhance Offline Improvements in Motor Skills More than Single Agent" was published in PLOS ONE DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0240622

 

Shining a light on the issue of wine fraud

UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Research News

IMAGE: PHD STUDENT RUCHIRA RANAWEERA LOADS A WINE SAMPLE INTO THE AQUALOG SPECTROFLUOROMETER, WITH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID JEFFERY. view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE.

University of Adelaide wine researchers are developing a fast and simple method of authenticating wine - a potential solution against the estimated billions of dollars' worth of wine fraud globally, but also offering a possible means of building regional branding.

The team of scientists were able to identify the geographical origins of wines originating from three wine regions of Australia and from Bordeaux in France with 100% accuracy with a novel technique of molecular fingerprinting using 'fluorescence spectroscopy', a technology that analyses fluorescence of molecules.

"Wine fraud is a significant problem for the global wine industry, given a yearly economic impact within Australia alone estimated at several hundred million dollars, and globally thought to be in the billions of dollars," says Ruchira Ranaweera, PhD student in the University's Waite Research Institute, who conducted the research.

"Wine authentication can help to avoid any uncertainty around wine labeling according to origin, variety, or vintage. The application of a relatively simple technique like this could be adapted for use in the supply chain as a robust method for authentication or detection of adulterated wines."

The researchers looked at Cabernet Sauvignon ¬- a globally important grape variety and the second most planted in Australia - from three different wine regions of Australia and Bordeaux in France, the birthplace of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The research has been published in the journal Food Chemistry and was supported by Wine Australia and the Australian Government, the Waite Research Institute and industry partners through the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production.

The researchers compared an existing approach for authentication, which involves measuring elements in wine samples using 'inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry' (ICP-MS), with the more simple, rapid and cost-effective fluorescence spectroscopy technique.

"This method provides a 'fingerprint' of the samples according to the presence of fluorophoric or light-emitting compounds," says Ms Ranaweera. "When used in combination with a robust data analysis using a particular machine learning algorithm, it is proving to be a powerful technique for authentication."

In every wine they tested using the novel combination of fluorescence spectroscopy with machine learning-driven data analysis, they were able to correctly allocate the wine to region with the fluorescence data but not with elements determined by ICP-MS.

There are other useful applications of this technology for the wine industry that are available now or in the pipeline, such as phenolic and wine colour analysis, and smoke taint detection.

Project leader Associate Professor David Jeffery, from the Waite Research Institute and the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production, says they hope ultimately to identify specific chemical markers that help discriminate between wine regions.

"Other than coming up with a robust method for authenticity testing, we are hoping to use the chemical information obtained from fluorescence data to identify the molecules that are differentiating the wines from the different regions," Associate Professor Jeffery says.

"This may help with regional branding, by understanding how their wines' characteristics are influenced by the region and how they differ from other regions."

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