Improving hospital nurse staffing is associated with fewer deaths from sepsis

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF NURSING

Research News

 

Researchers at the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, conducting independent research on whether pending nurse staffing legislation in New York state is in the public's interest, found that the wide variation in patient-to-nurse ratios across hospitals in New York is contributing to avoidable deaths for patients with sepsis, a common, high mortality condition.

New York state is a national leader in sepsis care through legislation known as Rory's Regulations named after a child that unexpectedly died in a New York hospital from sepsis. The new study finds avoided sepsis deaths associated with better hospital nurse staffing are much greater than adherence to mandated sepsis care bundles.

The new study shows each additional patient added to a nurse's workload is associated with 12% higher in-hospital mortality from sepsis compared with only a 5% improvement in mortality associated with improved adherence to mandated care bundles.

The study concluded that while Rory's Regulations and sepsis care bundles helped reduce deaths from sepsis, implementing proposed patient-to-nurse ratios in NY state holds promise for much greater reductions in sepsis deaths.

Lead author Karen Lasater, PhD, RN, an assistant professor and CHOPR researcher said, "Results show that improving nurse staffing in New York hospitals could substantially reduce deaths from sepsis over and above the benefits of mandated care bundles."

Additionally, the study showed that while hospital adherence to mandated sepsis care bundles is associated with shorter length of hospital stays, improved nurse staffing at the levels in the pending legislation had more than twice as large an effect on reducing length of stay than the care bundles.

Co-author, CHOPR Director Linda H Aiken, PhD, RN, a senior researcher and professor at the University of Pennsylvania said, "This independent scientific study shows that improvement of hospital nurse staffing holds the best promise for significantly reducing deaths from sepsis which often strikes when it is least expected. Moreover, improving nurse staffing results in cost savings in sepsis care due to shorter hospital stays that can be reinvested in improved nurse staffing."

Background

The study is of 116 hospitals in New York state and more than 52,000 hospitalized patients with a diagnosis of sepsis. On average in these hospitals, nurses cared for 6.3 patients each and staffing varied substantially by hospital from 4.3 patients-per-nurse in the best staffed hospitals to 10.5 patients per nurse in the worst staffed hospitals. There is currently no requirement in New York that hospitals meet a minimum safe nurse staffing standard.

The Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act (A2954/S51032) currently pending action in the NY Legislature sets a minimum nurse staffing requirement for all New York state hospitals that would serve to bring hospitals with poor staffing to an evidence-based minimum standard.

A 2020 Harris Poll sponsored by NursesEverywhere.com found that 90% of the public surveyed believed that hospitals should be required to meet safe nurse staffing standards.

Sepsis is a life-threatening acute condition that results from an infection that might seem harmless initially but can escalate rapidly to death for children and adults. Each year, at least 1.7 million adults develop sepsis and nearly 270,000 die.

Rory's Regulations were enacted by New York state in 2013 after the highly publicized death of a 12-year-old boy with sepsis. The Regulations require hospitals to implement protocols for screening, early diagnosis, and timely treatment of patients with sepsis. More recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) began mandating the public reporting of hospital adherence to evidence-based sepsis care protocols via HospitalCompare. Nurses are responsible for implementing these protocols although no previous research has been done on the impact of nurse staffing on adherence to the protocols. This new study shows the effect of improving hospital nurse staffing on avoided deaths from sepsis is much greater than the care bundles mandated under Rory's Regulations.

Another recent publication on the adverse on patient outcomes on variation in nurse staffing across New York hospitals is:

Lasater KB, Aiken LH, Sloane DM, French R, Martin B, Reneau K, Alexander M, McHugh MD. 2020. Chronic hospital nurse understaffing meets COVID-19. BMJ Quality & Safety. Epub ahead of print 18 August 2020. doi:10:1136/bmjqs-2020-011512. Open Access.

The study was carried out by the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in partnership with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing. Funding for the study was from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, the National Institute of Nursing Research/NIH, and the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Study Citation

Lasater KB, Sloane DM, McHugh MD, Cimiotti JP, Riman KA, Martin B, Alexander M, Aiken LH. Evaluation of hospital nurse-to-patient ratios and sepsis bundles on patient outcomes. American Journal of Infection Control. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/ajic.2020.12.002 Open Access.

About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world's leading schools of nursing. For the fifth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University and is consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools. Penn Nursing is currently ranked # 1 in funding from the National Institutes of Health, among other schools of nursing, for the third consecutive year. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram.

About the National Council of State Boards of Nursing

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) is a non-profit organization based in Chicago whose US members include the nurse regulatory bodies in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and four US territories. NCSBN administers the national registered nurse licensure and other exams and led the development and implementation of the Nurse Licensure Compact that allows a nurse to have one multi-state licensure and practice in the other 34 states that to date have passed the Nurse Licensure Compact.

About the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics

Since 1967, the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn LDI) has been the leading university institute dedicated to data-driven, policy-focused research that improves our nation's health and health care. Penn LDI connects all twelve of Penn's schools, the University of Pennsylvania Health System, and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia through its more than 300 Senior Fellows. See more at ldi.upenn.edu and on Twitter @PennLDI.

Wildfire smoke carry microbes that can cause infectious diseases

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS HEALTH

Research News

Wildfire smoke contains microbes, a fact that's often ignored, but one that may have important health repercussions.

In an article published Dec. 18 in Science, Leda Kobziar and George Thompson called the attention of the scientific community to the health impacts of wildfire smoke's microbial content.

Smoky skies caused by wildland fires are becoming seasonal norms, especially in some parts of the United States and Australia. In 2020, raging wildfires in the Western U.S. have set new records and led to extremely unhealthy or hazardous air quality levels for many weeks in a row.

It's well-documented that exposure to wildfire smoke can damage the heart and lungs. Respiratory allergic and inflammatory diseases, including asthma and bronchitis, are also worsened by smoke exposure.

"The health impact of inhaling wildfire smoke increases dramatically during high-emissions wildfires and with long exposure," said Kobziar, associate professor of Wildland Fire Science at the University of Idaho. "Yet, the risk of infection to the respiratory tract after this exposure is frequently overlooked."

What role do microbes in wildfire smoke play in the spread of disease?

Wildland fire is a source for bioaerosol, airborne particles made of fungal and bacterial cells and their metabolic byproducts. Once suspended in the air, particles smaller than 5 μm can travel hundreds or even thousands of miles. Their movement depends on the fire behavior and the atmospheric conditions. Eventually, they are deposited or inhaled.

Bacteria and fungi can be transported in these wildland fire smoke emissions. While microbial concentration in smoke is higher near the fire source, these microbes may be active agents spreading infection. For example, coccidioidomycoses - a fungus that becomes airborne when soils are disturbed- is the cause of Valley fever, a potentially serious infection.

"We don't know how far and which microbes are carried in smoke," said Thompson, associate professor of Clinical Medicine at UC Davis. "Some microbes in the soil appear to be tolerant of, and even thrive under, high temperatures following wildfires."

As Kobziar explained, "At the scale of a microbe, fire behavior research has shown that heat flux is highly variable, so it may be that many microbes aren't even subjected to the high temperatures for very long. They may also be protected in small clusters of particulate matter."

Kobziar and Thompson proposed a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the nature of the relationship between microbes, wildfire smoke and health. The complexity of the phenomenon calls for the expertise of scientists from different fields such as fire ecology, environmental microbiology, epidemiology, atmospheric sciences and public health and infectious disease.

"With longer wildfire seasons and higher severity trends, there is an urgency to work together in studying the behavior of the microbes carried by the smoke and their impact on human health," Thompson said.

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Article: Kobziar & Thompson, (2020). Wildfire smoke: A potential infectious agent, Science,

 DOI: 0.1126/science.abe8116

LOMBROSIO'S MINORITY REPORT

New study measures neighborhood inequality and violence based on everyday mobility

Finds mobility patterns of its residents and visitors can predict homicides

HARVARD UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

A new study looking at the patterns of movement from 400,000 people offers fresh insights into how a neighborhood's economic conditions mixed with the mobility patterns of its residents and visitors relates to the well-being of the neighborhood and can serve as a predictor of violence.

The analysis, published in the American Sociological Review, develops the concept of neighborhoods that have a "triple disadvantage." These are neighborhoods that score high on common traits measuring "disadvantage" -- such as concentrated poverty, unemployment, and how many residents receive public assistance -- but also have deep connections with similarly disadvantaged neighborhoods through its resident's own mobility and through mobility into the neighborhood from around the city. The authors suggest these networks are formed through everyday movements, such as going to work, leisure activities, or visiting friends or family. Overall, the theory argues that a neighborhood's well-being depends not only on its own socioeconomic conditions but on the conditions of the neighborhoods its residents visit and are visited by.

The findings underscore that neighborhoods, even ones distant from each other, are not islands in isolation but are inherently connected. In fact, the implications of triple disadvantaged neighborhoods are broad and potentially affect a wide range of issues, including community capacity, gentrification, transmission in a pandemic, and racial inequality.

"We're trying to get researchers but also policymakers to think beyond just the characteristics of one neighborhood in isolation, which has driven a lot of research, including my own," said Robert J. Sampson, the Henry Ford II Professor of the Social Sciences and author on the paper. "What we're arguing is that triple disadvantage essentially exacerbates racial segregation [and other related factors]. ... [It's] the compounding of inequality by not just living in poor neighborhoods, but having disproportionate contact with other poor neighborhoods."

The authors draw on a long tradition of research showing that violence is highly concentrated in certain neighborhoods and that a neighborhood's poverty rate is strongly related to homicide. The researchers go beyond this traditional focus on residential areas and combine it with mobility data to study cross neighborhood ties and networks in entire cities.

Analyzing nearly 32,000 neighborhoods and 9,700 homicides in 37 of the largest U.S. cities, the authors show that triple disadvantage metrics can independently predict homicides after adjusting for known links of violence, such as density, race, age, and residential stability.

The authors look at neighborhoods in cities like New York City, Houston, Chicago, and many others, including smaller cities like Kansas City, Miami, Oakland, and Tulsa. Maps are available for all cities.

The researchers found that mobility-based disadvantage - meaning people flowing in and out of disadvantaged neighborhoods -- accounts for roughly one-fifth of the relationship between residential disadvantage and homicide. Digging further, they saw that using measures of triple disadvantage rather than residential disadvantage increased the authors' ability to predict neighborhood homicide counts by almost a third.

"The key there is that taking into account triple disadvantage, or taking into account these everyday mobility patterns, gives us added value in the prediction of homicide patterns," Sampson said. "In other words, that it goes beyond just residential poverty--we show that there's this additional explanatory value with respect to triple disadvantage."

In the study, the authors also show what makes a neighborhood triply disadvantaged can swing the opposite way, too. When those from already advantaged neighborhoods visit and are visited by those from other advantaged neighborhoods, they become triply advantaged. This isolates and segregates affluent neighborhoods.

Working on the paper with Sampson was Brian L. Levy, an assistant professor at George Mason University, and Nolan E. Phillips, a data scientist at Accenture. Both were former postdoctoral fellows at Harvard.

The researchers say their work represents only the tip of the spear and builds on earlier work on segregation. They hope to expand their theory and have others use their methodologies, data, and new geographic data sources to run their own assessments.

"There's a sense in which we hope that these ideas can be used by other researchers to create measures for studies around the world," Sampson said. "Furthermore, we can imagine that researchers and even policymakers could create metrics for other kinds of indicators beyond what we started. ... [The theory] has very expansive possibilities in our view."

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Aboriginal women share their stories on keeping the heart strong

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Research News

 

IMAGE: SPIRIT, CULTURE AND COMMUNITY ARE CORE ATTRIBUTES TO THE HEALTH OF AN ABORIGINAL WOMEN'S HEART. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY STEVE EVANS

More than a decade after committing $130+ billion to Closing the Gap, there has been little improvement in health outcomes experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations.

A significant life expectancy gap remains, with cardiovascular disease the leading cause of death for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, responsible for almost 20 per cent of this gap.

So where have things gone wrong?

A new study led by University of South Australia PhD candidate Katharine McBride in partnership with Aboriginal women suggests the answer may lie partially in the Government's failure to approach health from an Aboriginal perspective.

"Current strategies to address heart disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities are framed within a western context and focus on bad behaviour and a deficit approach," McBride says.

"These policies fail to take into account the unique world view of our first nations women, centred on spirit, culture and community."

The study explored the perspectives of 28 Aboriginal women from five different communities across central and southern Australia, with the work overseen by an Aboriginal Women's Advisory Group. Via yarning circles, women identified 10 attributes which either kept their heart strong or put it at risk, and the drivers of these.

"Identity as an Aboriginal woman, having a healthy body and life, connectedness within family and community and health knowledge all strengthen the heart, according to the Aboriginal women in our study. Stress, grief, racism, government policies and financial hardship were recognised as weakening the heart."

The government's strategy, focusing solely on clinical and behavioural cardiovascular risk factors, fails to recognise the Aboriginal conceptualisation of health which is centred on strength, resilience and connectedness, according to McBride.

The research team, which included Aboriginal women with lived and professional experience of heart disease, recommends a new model of health delivery and care in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and communities.

"Aboriginal women are leaders and nurturers of community. They have described what is needed to have a healthy heart; hopefully the government will heed the message," McBride says.

Her paper, titled "Good Heart: Telling Stories of Cardiovascular Protective and Risk Factors for Aboriginal Women," is published in Heart, Lung and Circulation.

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Notes to Editors

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the largest contributor to preventable morbidity and mortality in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Although age?standardised CVD mortality has fallen by 40% over the past few decades, CVD still accounts for a quarter of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander deaths overall and 21% of all premature years of life lost. CVD events and CVD?related mortality in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population occur, on average, about 10-20 years earlier than in non?Indigenous Australians.

Whilst Aboriginal men have a higher burden of heart disease in comparison to women (68.3% to 41.7% respectively), women do have a higher proportion of some heart, stroke and vascular diseases, and the gap between men and women is much less for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

This information is supplied by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cardiac Health Information website.

Genetic exchange discovered in anciently asexual rotifers

SKOLKOVO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (SKOLTECH)

Research News

 

IMAGE: BDELLOID ROTIFERS (A. VAGA) UNDER THE MICROSCOPE. view more 

CREDIT: E.A. MNATSAKANOVA AND O.A. VAKHRUSHEVA/SKOLTECH

Skoltech's evolutionary biologists discovered recombination in bdelloid rotifers, microscopic freshwater invertebrates, which have long been regarded as 'an evolutionary scandal' due to their presumed ancient asexuality. The existence of such anciently asexual groups calls into question the hypothesis that sexual reproduction is indispensable for long-term evolutionary success of species. However, the recent study published in Nature Communications provides evidence of recombination and genetic exchange in bdelloids.

Sexual reproduction which involves recombination and exchange of genetic material between individuals of the same species is thought to be essential for the long-term survival of species. Although transitions to asexual reproduction are quite frequent in eukaryotes, they typically result in rapid extinction. On these grounds, transition to asexual reproduction is usually regarded as an evolutionary dead end. However, there are a few notable exceptions to this rule, such as bdelloid rotifers which were long assumed to have switched to asexual reproduction several tens of millions of years ago.

An international team of scientists led by Georgii Bazykin, a professor at the Skoltech Center for Life Sciences (CLS), and Alexey Kondrashov, a professor at Moscow State University (MSU), obtained whole-genome sequencing data for several individuals of Adineta vaga and found evidence suggesting recombination in this bdelloid species.

The scientists analyzed whole genomes of 11 A. vaga individuals revealing signatures of recombination and interindividual genetic exchange.

"We have shown that variation within the population of A. vaga is inconsistent with strict clonality and lack of recombination. Bdelloid rotifers are frequently referred to as 'an evolutionary scandal'. However, our results suggest that the status of bdelloid rotifers as an ancient asexual group should probably be reconsidered. Our findings underscore the importance of recombination for the long-term evolutionary success of species. Although some data hint at the existence of meiosis in bdelloid rotifers, mechanisms of genetic exchange in this group of species remain obscure and are subject to further research," comments Olga Vakhrusheva, the lead author and a junior research scientist at Skoltech.

'Poverty line' concept debunked by new machine learning model

New mathematical model uses machine learning to challenge conventional notions of a fixed international poverty line

ASTON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Mathematicians have used machine learning to develop a new model for measuring poverty in different countries that junks old notions of a fixed 'poverty line'.

The study by academics at Aston University, published in the journal Nature Communications, suggests mainstream thinking around poverty is outdated because it places too much emphasis on subjective notions of basic needs and fails to capture the full complexity of how people use their incomes.

They say their new model - which uses computer algorithms to synthesise vast amounts of spending and economic data - could help policymakers worldwide predict future poverty levels and plan interventions to alleviate the problem.

"No-one has ever used machine learning to decode multidimensional poverty before," said lead researcher Dr Amit Chattopadhyay of Aston University's College of Engineering and Physical Sciences. "This completely changes the way people should look at poverty."

Established measures of poverty attempt to identify a threshold monetary level below which a person or household is defined as 'poor'. These definitions trace their origins back to methods developed in the 19th and early 20th century by reformers such as Ernst Engel and Seebohm Rowntree.

Currently, the World Bank sets the International Poverty Line at US$1.90 per day, with around 10% of the world's population - about 700m people - living on less than this. This is based on a subjective assessment of income needed to cover basic needs in the poorest countries, adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP).

In the new study, the researchers analysed 30 years' worth of data from India, dividing expenditure into three broad categories of 'basic food' such as cereals, 'other food' including meat and 'non-food' covering other spending such as housing and transport costs. The model can be applied to any country.

By recognising the 'push-and-pull' interplay between the three categories - more spending in one area usually means a reduction in spending in another -it allows for a more holistic poverty measure that can adjust to the circumstances of individual countries. The researchers combined datasets on incomes, asset and commodity markets from the World Bank and other sources to produce a mathematical model that was able not only to accurately predict past poverty levels in both India and the United States, but also to predict future levels based on certain economic assumptions.

By taking account of the elasticity of supply and demand in the market, the model revises the number of people traditionally deemed 'poor' into a more practical 'middle class'. It can be scaled to reflect conditions in sub-regions of a country, or even scaled down to a single city or neighbourhood depending on the available data.

"Current thinking on poverty is highly subjective, because 'poverty' will mean different things in different countries and regions," added Dr Chattopadhyay. "With this model, we finally have a multi-dimensional poverty index that reflects the real-world experience of people wherever they live and largely independent of the social class they are deemed to belong to.

"Importantly, it's a model that takes account of the economic circumstances people find themselves in - and the factors that can make the biggest difference to their material wellbeing. As such, it can be an important tool for governments and policymakers globally in identifying poverty and putting in place interventions that really tackle it."

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Humpback whale songs provide insight to population changes

UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII AT MANOA

Research News

 

IMAGE: HUMPBACK WHALE OFF MAUI. view more 

CREDIT: HIHWNMS/NMFS ESA PERMIT #782-1719

Approximately 8,000-12,000 of the North Pacific humpback whale stock visits the shallow waters of the Hawaiian Islands seasonally to breed. During this time, mature males produce an elaborate acoustic display known as "song," which becomes the dominant source of ambient underwater sound between December and April. Following reports of unusually low whale numbers that began in 2015-16, researchers at the University of Hawai?i at Mānoa in collaboration with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, Oceanwide Science Institute and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, examined song chorusing recorded through long-term passive acoustic monitoring at six sites off Maui, as a proxy for whale populations between September 2014 and May 2019. The findings were published in Endangered Species Research.

Using autonomous acoustic recorders called an "Ecological Acoustic Recorder," researchers calculated root-mean-square sound pressure levels (RMS SPL), a metric of the average amount of acoustic energy (how loud the soundscape is) per day.

Over the course of the season, RMS SPL levels mirror the whales' migratory patterns. Levels increase starting in November through January when whales start arriving in the waters around the archipelago, peaking in February and March, before decreasing in April through May when whales start migrating back to their high-latitude feeding grounds. Researchers compared overall differences of this pattern and monthly averages of RMS SPL levels among years.

"Between the 2014-15 and 2017-18 seasons, we saw a continuous decrease in overall chorusing levels during the peak months of February and March of between -3 and -9 dB depending on location over the course of this four-year period," said Anke Kügler, a PhD candidate in marine biology, research assistant at the Hawai?i Institute of Marine Biology and lead author of the paper. "Only in the 2018-19 season did levels increase again, reaching 2015-16 at most and even 2014-15 levels at some recording sites. Further, we saw a shift in the seasonal pattern, with peaks shifting to early- and mid-February from late February to early March. Overall, chorusing levels were not only significantly lower during the peak of the season, whales also appeared to depart the islands earlier than in the past."

CAPTION

Humpback whales off Maui.

CREDIT

Lyman/ Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary (NOAA permit 782-1719)

Acoustic energy decreased by more than 50%

When anecdotal reports from the on-water community initially showed lower numbers of whales in 2015-16, this coincided with an El Niño event in the North Pacific. Researchers did not expect to see a decreasing trend for the subsequent two seasons, before chorusing levels seemed to bounce back in 2018-19.

Further, a decrease of acoustic energy -6 dB means a decrease by 50%. While this does not automatically translate into half the number of whales, other researchers visually assessed numbers of mother-calf pairs off Maui and overall whales off Hawai?i Island, and reported seeing declines of similar magnitude during the same time, indicating that researchers captured changes in population levels, not just changes in singing behavior.

"The Hawai?i 'distinct population segments' has been delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 2016, assuming sustainable levels after decades of population increase," said Kügler. "However, in light of global change, continued monitoring is necessary to detect potential negative changes early and implement mitigation and adjust protection measures within Hawaiian waters, if necessary."

An ambassador species

Humpback whales are considered charismatic megafauna that hold a unique place in society, particularly modern Hawaiian culture. Further, whale watching is an important economic resource in Hawai?i. As such, humpback whales are what is called a "flagship species." They have the potential to be the ambassador species for the entire region's ecosystem by helping to raise awareness of threats and global change impacts, on them and other species they share their habitat with, as well as their migration areas.

"The University of Hawai?i has been a global leader in marine mammal research since the 1970s, therefore doing this kind of work and continuing on this tradition of high-impact marine mammal research enables the university to maintain that status as one of world's prime research universities," said Kügler.

"In addition, this collaborative project highlights and strengthens UH's existing long-term connection to NOAA," added Kügler. "I was able to do this research due to this close partnership and collaboration with NOAA and the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary."

CAPTION

Humpback whale off Maui.

CREDIT

HIHWNMS/NMFS ESA Permit #782-1719

Plants can be larks or night owls just like us

EARLHAM INSTITUTE

Research News

 

IMAGE: DR HANNAH REES, POSTDOCTORAL SCIENTIST AT THE EARLHAM INSTITUTE, UK view more 

CREDIT: EARLHAM INSTITUTE

Plants have the same variation in body clocks as that found in humans, according to new research that explores the genes governing circadian rhythms in plants.

The research shows a single letter change in their DNA code can potentially decide whether a plant is a lark or a night owl. The findings may help farmers and crop breeders to select plants with clocks that are best suited to their location, helping to boost yield and even the ability to withstand climate change.

The circadian clock is the molecular metronome which guides organisms through day and night - cockadoodledooing the arrival of morning and drawing the curtains closed at night. In plants, it regulates a wide range of processes, from priming photosynthesis at dawn through to regulating flowering time.

These rhythmic patterns can vary depending on geography, latitude, climate and seasons - with plant clocks having to adapt to cope best with the local conditions.

Researchers at the Earlham Institute and John Innes Centre in Norwich wanted to better understand how much circadian variation exists naturally, with the ultimate goal of breeding crops that are more resilient to local changes in the environment - a pressing threat with climate change.

To investigate the genetic basis of these local differences, the team examined varying circadian rhythms in Swedish Arabidopsis plants to identify and validate genes linked to the changing tick of the clock.

Dr Hannah Rees, a postdoctoral researcher at the Earlham Institute and author of the paper, said: "A plant's overall health is heavily influenced by how closely its circadian clock is synchronised to the length of each day and the passing of seasons. An accurate body clock can give it an edge over competitors, predators and pathogens.

"We were interested to see how plant circadian clocks would be affected in Sweden; a country that experiences extreme variations in daylight hours and climate. Understanding the genetics behind body clock variation and adaptation could help us breed more climate-resilient crops in other regions."

The team studied the genes in 191 different varieties of Arabidopsis obtained from across the whole of Sweden. They were looking for tiny differences in genes between these plants which might explain the differences in circadian function.

Their analysis revealed that a single DNA base-pair change in a specific gene - COR28 - was more likely to be found in plants that flowered late and had a longer period length. COR28 is a known coordinator of flowering time, freezing tolerance and the circadian clock; all of which may influence local adaptation in Sweden.

"It's amazing that just one base-pair change within the sequence of a single gene can influence how quickly the clock ticks," explained Dr Rees.

The scientists also used a pioneering delayed fluorescence imaging method to screen plants with differently-tuned circadian clocks. They showed there was over 10 hours difference between the clocks of the earliest risers and latest phased plants - akin to the plants working opposite shift patterns. Both geography and the genetic ancestry of the plant appeared to have an influence.

"Arabidopsis thaliana is a model plant system," said Dr Rees. "It was the first plant to have its genome sequenced and it's been extensively studied in circadian biology, but this is the first time anyone has performed this type of association study to find the genes responsible for different clock types.

"Our findings highlight some interesting genes that might present targets for crop breeders, and provide a platform for future research. Our delayed fluorescence imaging system can be used on any green photosynthetic material, making it applicable to a wide range of plants. The next step will be to apply these findings to key agricultural crops, including brassicas and wheat."

The results of the study have been published in the journal Plant, Cell and Environment.

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Notes to editors Please contact Greg Jones at the Earlham Institute with any media queries: Tel +44 (0)7792 154497 or greg.jones@earlham.ac.uk

Rees, H. et al, Naturally occurring circadian rhythm variation associated with clock gene loci in Swedish Arabidopsis accessions. Plant, Cell and Environment, 2020. DOI: 10.1111/pce.13941

About the Earlham Institute

The Earlham Institute (EI) is a world-leading research institute focusing on the development of genomics and computational biology. EI is based within the Norwich Research Park and is one of eight institutes that receive strategic funding from Biotechnology and Biological Science Research Council (BBSRC) - £5.43m in 2017/18 - as well as support from other research funders. EI operates a National Capability to promote the application of genomics and bioinformatics to advance bioscience research and innovation.

EI offers a state-of-the-art DNA sequencing facility, unique by its operation of multiple complementary technologies for data generation. The Institute is a UK hub for innovative bioinformatics through research, analysis and interpretation of multiple, complex data sets. It hosts one of the largest computing hardware facilities dedicated to life science research in Europe. It is also actively involved in developing novel platforms to provide access to computational tools and processing capacity for multiple academic and industrial users and promoting applications of computational bioscience. Additionally, the Institute offers a training programme through courses and workshops, as well as an outreach programme targeting key stakeholders and wider public audiences through dialogue and science communication activities.

earlham.ac.uk

Simple and cost-effective extraction of rare metals from industrial waste

Researchers from Kanazawa University recovered palladium and silver metal from industrial waste, which will help reduce pollution and alleviate demand from dwindling natural sources

KANAZAWA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Kanazawa, Japan - Many rare metals are in scarce supply, yet demand for use in electronics, medical instrumentation, and other purposes continues to increase. As waste, these metals pollute the environment and harm human health. Ideally, we would recycle the metals from waste for reuse. Unfortunately, current recycling methods are some combination of complex, expensive, toxic, wasteful, and ultimately inefficient.

In an upcoming study in Chemical Engineering Journal, researchers from Kanazawa University report a major improvement in recovering silver and palladium ions from aqueous acidic waste. Recovery of the metals in elemental, metallic form is straightforward--simply burn the extraction material and collect the remaining metal after further heating.

The researchers chemically modified ultrasmall particles of cellulose, an abundant and nontoxic biopolymer, to selectively adsorb silver and palladium ions at room temperature. Adsorption was nearly complete at acidic pH with acid concentrations of around 1 to 13 percent by volume. These are reasonable experimental conditions.

"The adsorbent selectively chelated the soft acid silver and palladium cations," explains lead author Foni Biswas. "Of the 11 competing base metals we tested, only copper and lead cations were also adsorbed, but we removed them with ease."

Maximum metal ion adsorption was fast--e.g., an hour for silver. Maximum adsorption commonly requires many hours with other approaches.

"Intraparticle diffusion did not hinder adsorption, which is an endothermic, spontaneous chemical process," explains senior author Hiroshi Hasegawa. "Maximum metal adsorption capacities--e.g., 11 mmol/g for silver--are substantially higher than that reported in prior research."

After adsorption, the researchers simply incinerated the cellulose particles to obtain elemental silver or palladium powder. Subsequent higher-temperature incineration converted the powder into pellets. Cyanide or other toxic extractants were not required. Spectroscopic analyses indicated that the final metal pellets were in metallic rather than oxide form.

"We removed nearly all of the silver and palladium from real industrial waste samples," says lead author Biswas. "Obtaining pure and elemental metals proceeded as smoothly as in our trial runs."

Palladium and silver are valuable metals yet natural supplies are increasingly limited. Future needs require that we recycle the metals that we already have in a practical manner. The research reported here is an important development that will avoid supply and distribution difficulties that will only increase in the coming years.

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Devastating skin disease covering up to 70% of a dolphin's body tied to climate change

In collaboration with Australian researchers, The Marine Mammal Center has found that the increasing frequency and severity of storm systems drastically decrease the salinity of coastal waters, causing fatal skin disease in dolphins worldwide

THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER

Research News

 

IMAGE: A CLOSEUP VIEW OF A BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN SHOWS SIGNS OF SKIN LESIONS ASSOCIATED WITH A DEADLY SKIN DISEASE KNOWN AS ULCERATIVE DERMATITIS. IN COLLABORATION WITH AUSTRALIAN RESEARCHERS, THE MARINE MAMMAL... view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT TIM MORGAN © MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY

Scientists at The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA - the largest marine mammal hospital in the world - and international colleagues have identified a novel skin disease in dolphins that is linked to climate change. The study is a groundbreaking discovery, as it is the first time since the disease first appeared in 2005 that scientists have been able to link a cause to the condition that affects coastal dolphin communities worldwide. Due to the decreased water salinity brought upon by climate change, the dolphins develop patchy and raised skin lesions across their bodies - sometimes covering upwards of 70 percent of their skin.

The international study, which can be found here, was co-authored by three internationally respected scientists, from California and Australia:

• Dr. Pádraig Duignan, Chief Pathologist at The Marine Mammal Center
• Dr Nahiid Stephens, a veterinary pathologist at Murdoch University (Perth, Australia)
• Dr. Kate Robb, Founding Director, zoologist, and geneticist of the Marine Mammal Foundation (Victoria, Australia)

The study, published in Scientific Reports, a peer-reviewed natural sciences journal, provides the first-ever case definition for fresh-water skin disease in bottlenose dolphins.

This study comes on the heels of significant outbreaks in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas and Australia in recent years. In all of these locations, a sudden and drastic decrease in salinity in the waters was the common factor. Coastal dolphins are accustomed to seasonal changes in salinity levels in their marine habitat, but they do not live in freshwater. The increasing severity and frequency of storm events like hurricanes and cyclones, particularly if they are preceded by drought conditions, are dumping unusual volumes of rain that turn coastal waters to freshwater. Freshwater conditions can persist for months, particularly after intense storms such as hurricanes Harvey and Katrina. With the increasing climate temperatures, climate scientists have predicted extreme storms like these will occur more frequently and, consequently, will result in more frequent and severe disease outbreaks in dolphins.

"This devastating skin disease has been killing dolphins since Hurricane Katrina, and we're pleased to finally define the problem," said Duignan. "With a record hurricane season in the Gulf of Mexico this year and more intense storm systems worldwide due to climate change, we can absolutely expect to see more of these devastating outbreaks killing dolphins."

The study has major implications for the current outbreak in Australia, which is impacting the rare and threatened Burrunan dolphin in southeast Australia, and could provide professionals with the information needed to diagnose and treat affected animals. Currently, the long-term outlook for dolphins affected with the skin disease is poor. This is especially true for the animals suffering from prolonged exposure to freshwater.

The deadly skin disease was first noted by researchers on approximately 40 bottlenose dolphins near New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"As warming ocean temperatures impact marine mammals globally, the findings in this paper will allow better mitigation of the factors that lead disease outbreaks for coastal dolphin communities that are already under threat from habitat loss and degradation," said Duignan. "This study helps shed light on an ever-growing concern, and we hope it is the first step in mitigating the deadly disease and marshalling the ocean community to further fight climate change."

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ABOUT THE MARINE MAMMAL CENTER:

Headquartered on the site of a former Cold War missile base, The Marine Mammal Center is a global leader in marine mammal health, science and conservation, and is the largest marine mammal hospital in the world. The Center's teaching hospital and training programs operate globally, with its headquarters in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, part of the National Park Service. Expert teams from the Center travel around the world to work with emerging first responders and has itself rescued more than 24,000 marine mammals from 600 miles of its authorized rescue area of California coastline and the Big Island of Hawai'i. The Center's mission is to advance global ocean conservation through marine mammal rescue and rehabilitation, scientific research, and education. For more information, please visit MarineMammalCenter.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.