Scientists make sustainable polymer from sugars in wood

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Research News

 

Scientists from the University of Bath have made a sustainable polymer using the second most abundant sugar in nature, xylose.

Not only does the new nature-inspired material reduce reliance on crude oil products, but its properties can also be easily controlled to make the material flexible or crystalline.

The researchers, from the University's Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies, report the polymer, from the polyether family, has a variety of applications, including as a building block for polyurethane, used in mattresses and shoe soles; as a bio-derived alternative to polyethylene glycol, a chemical widely used in bio-medicine; or to polyethylene oxide, sometimes used as electrolyte in batteries.

The team says additional functionality could be added to this versatile polymer by binding other chemical groups such as fluorescent probes or dyes to the sugar molecule, for biological or chemical sensing applications.

The team can easily produce hundreds of grams of the material and anticipate that production would be rapidly scalable.

Dr Antoine Buchard, Royal Society University Research Fellow and Reader at the Centre for Sustainable and Circular Technologies, led the study.

He said: "We're very excited that we've been able to produce this sustainable material from a plentiful natural resource - wood.

"The reliance of plastics and polymers on dwindling fossil fuels is a major problem, and bio-derived polymers - those derived from renewable feedstocks such as plants - are part of the solution to make plastics sustainable.

"This polymer is particularly versatile because its physical and chemicals properties can be tweaked easily, to make a crystalline material or more of a flexible rubber, as well as to introduce very specific chemical functionalities.

"Until now this was very difficult to achieve with bio-derived polymers.

"This means that with this polymer, we can target a variety of applications, from packaging to healthcare or energy materials, in a more sustainable way."

Like all sugars, xylose occurs in two forms that are mirror images of each other - named D and L.

The polymer uses the naturally occurring D-enantiomer of xylose, however the researchers have shown that combining it with the L-form makes the polymer even stronger.

The research team has filed a patent for their technology and is now interested in working with industrial collaborators to further scale up production and explore the applications of the new materials.

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The study was published in the prestigious chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition (in open access) and was funded by the Royal Society and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Post-surgical patch releases non-opioid painkiller directly to the wound

New polymer promises localized pain control for critical first four days

DUKE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

DURHAM, N.C. - A Duke-led team of scientists has developed a bio-compatible surgical patch that releases non-opioid painkillers directly to the site of a wound for days and then dissolves away.

The polymer patch provides a controlled release of a drug that blocks the enzyme COX-2 (cyclooxygenase-2,) which drives pain and inflammation. The study appears Jan. 10, 2021 in the Journal of Controlled Release.

When they started "We were making hernia meshes and different antimicrobial films," said Matthew Becker, the Hugo L. Blomquist professor chemistry at Duke, and last author on the paper. "We thought you could potentially put pain drugs or anesthetics in the film if you just sew it in as you're stitching the person up, then you wouldn't necessarily have to prescribe any opioids," Becker said.

The work grew out of a $2 million grant Becker received from the state of Ohio at his previous institution to investigate non-opioid pain management , one measure toward fighting a nationwide epidemic of opioid drug abuse. Since arriving at Duke in 2019, Becker's team has partnered with Duke pain control expert Dr. Ru-Rong Ji and his team to refine the idea.

The polymer itself, comprised of poly(ester urea) homopolymers and co-polymers, is also special, Becker said.

"Most polymers that are used in medicine swell, and everything comes out at once," Becker said. But this polymer erodes slowly, and its painkiller dose and longevity can be controlled simply by varying the surface area and thicknesses. "The film is about like a piece of paper."

"If you can get four or five days of pain control out of the patch and not have to take those other pain drugs, not only do you avoid some of the side effects and risks of addiction, you're concentrating therapy where you need it," Becker said.

Rat studies also showed that the painkiller stayed in tissues close to the patch site, rather than dissolving into circulating plasma.

Becker said the patch should be able to provide three or four days of wound-pain management, which is the critical period for post-surgical pain. The implantable film would be particularly useful in endoscopic procedures and instances where the physicians and patients would like to avoid opioid exposure such as Cesarean births and pediatric surgeries. In studies with mice that mimic the neuropathic pain of diabetes, the pain patch was placed against a nerve and provided a four-day nerve block.

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This research was sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp, 21st Century Medical Technologies and the Ohio Third Frontier Opioid Challenge. Becker and co-author Natasha Brigham have filed provisional patent applications with the University of Akron Research Foundation. Becker also is a board member and equity holder in 21st Century Medical Technologies.

CITATION: "Controlled Release of Etoricoxib from Poly(ester urea) Films for Post-Operative Pain Management," Natasha Brigham, Rebecca Nofsinger, Xin Luo, Nathan Dreger, Alexandra Abel, Tiffany Gustafson, Seth Forster, Andre Hermans, Ru-Rong Ji, Matthew Becker. Journal of Controlled Release, Jan. 10, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2020.11.052

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accurac

Use of telehealth jumped as pandemic shutdown began

Use is highest for mental health services

RAND CORPORATION

Research News

 

Use of telehealth jumped sharply during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, with the approach being used more often for behavioral health services than for medical care, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Between mid-March and early May 2020, telehealth was used by more than 40% of patients with a chronic physical health condition and by more than 50% of those with a behavioral health condition, according to findings published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Overall, almost half of the people who were undergoing treatment when the pandemic shutdown began reported using some form of telemedicine.

Researchers found that the use of telehealth for behavioral health conditions was lower among women and among people over the age of 60. Use of telehealth also was lower among Non-Hispanic Whites relative to Non-Hispanic Blacks, and was lower among those with less than a high school education relative to those with a college degree.

"While the increased use of telehealth was widespread, some groups of Americans reported using the services less often than others," said Dr. Shira H. Fischer, the study's lead author and a physician researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "If telehealth use is going to remain high, we need to ensure equity of access, particularly for behavioral health care where education, age and gender were all associated with levels of use."

In a finding with important implications for the future of telehealth, researchers also found that during the pandemic a large majority of telehealth users connected with their own doctor rather than a new or unfamiliar doctor.

Prior to the pandemic, patients frequently were reluctant to use telehealth because it often meant seeing a provider other than their own physician. According to researchers, sustaining the ability to see one's own doctor through telehealth may be critical to making telehealth a permanent part of routine health care.

Many reports have documented a spike in the use of telehealth services after the shutdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. The increase was made possible by emergency regulatory changes that were adopted to promote use of telehealth.

RAND researchers examined the increase in telehealth by surveying 2,052 adults who are a part of the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative internet panel. The questions about use of telehealth were part of a larger survey about life during the pandemic that was fielded between May 1 and May 6.

When the pandemic began, nearly 40% of the Americans surveyed were being treated for a chronic physical health condition, while 15% were being treated for a behavioral health condition. Since the pandemic started, 16% had considered seeking care for a new or recurrent condition.

The study found that among patients who were receiving care when the pandemic began, 11% had used telehealth that included video conferencing from the middle of March to early May, a period of less than two months. In contrast, a survey conducted with the same panel in 2019 found that fewer than 4% had ever used video conferencing with a doctor.

Among people who used telehealth services, researchers found that the use of video telehealth was less common for physical health care (14% of patients) than for behavioral health care (30% of patients).

Lack of insurance was associated with lower telehealth use for new conditions, while use of telehealth was more common in the Northeast than other parts of the nation.

"There is a wide expectation that telehealth will continue after the pandemic ends. Lessons from the use of telehealth during this period should inform policy for the post-COVID-19 era," Fischer said.

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Other authors of the study are Lori Uscher-Pines, Elizabeth Roth and Joshua Breslau. Funding for this research was provided by gifts from RAND supporters and income from operations.

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

Instead of pushing students entrepreneurship, they should be helped to make a better decision

According to an international study by two researchers at Pompeu Fabra University and at Abu Dhabi University, entrepreneurship education today does not help students understand what motivates them

UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA - BARCELONA

NEWS RELEASE 11-JAN-2021

Research News


Many policymakers and educational institutions hope to boost their economies by stimulating students' entrepreneurial intentions. To date, most research concluded that entrepreneurship education could increase these intentions by improving the image that students have of entrepreneurship as a career option, making them see how their environment can help them become entrepreneurs or increasing their self-confidence regarding their entrepreneurial skills. However, recent studies show that even if these goals are achieved, students' entrepreneurial intentions often do not grow.

Anne van Ewijk, an adjunct lecturer of Management at Abu Dhabi University, and Wiebke Weber, deputy director of the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology (RECSM) at the UPF Department of Political and Social Sciences, launched an international project that involved several universities in nine countries on six continents: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Finland, Kenya, Malaysia, Netherlands, UAE and the United States. The article has been published recently in the online edition of Journal of Business Venturing Insights, which specializes in research related to entrepreneurial phenomena. s part of the results of this project, the researchers confirmed an alternative dynamics to entrepreneurial intentions in education: "Students make more pronounced decisions for or against entrepreneurship when they are highly aware of what they want in life", they say. And they add: "Unfortunately, entrepreneurship courses included in the study, on average, did not help students better understand their life goals", which is a skill that did not increase greatly either with older age or with a higher level of studies.

According to the authors, when trainers facilitate an understanding of these life goals, they will improve the "sorting effect" (whereby students become more convinced about whether entrepreneurship is right for them or not): "Thus, enterprise training will contribute to the selection of aspiring entrepreneurs who are more motivated", they assure.

This study is a first step towards a new idea of what to measure in studies on the formation of entrepreneurial intentions in entrepreneurship education, in addition to the variables from dominant intention models. Future studies with larger samples could complete these findings with more information of what is happening inside and outside the classroom, or investigating solving possible goal conflicts of future entrepreneurs.

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Landmark human study is first to reveal strong links between gut microbes, diet and health

Researchers identified microbes that positively or negatively correlate with an individual's risk of certain serious conditions, including diabetes and heart disease

UNIVERSITÀ DI TRENTO

 EWS RELEASE 11-JAN-2021

Research News

 

Diets rich in certain plant-based foods are linked with the presence of gut microbes that are associated with a lower risk of developing conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to recent results from a large-scale international study that included researchers from King's College London, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the University of Trento, Italy, and health science start-up company ZOE.

Key Takeaways

• The largest and most detailed study of its kind uncovered strong links between a person's diet, the microbes in their gut (microbiome) and their health.
• International study uses metagenomics and blood chemical profiling to uncover a panel of 15 gut microbes associated with lower risks (and 15 with higher risks) for common illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.
• Some of the identified microbes are so novel that they have not yet been named.
• These findings could be used to provide personalized dietary advice for better health, based on gut microbiome testing.

The PREDICT 1 study analyzed detailed data on the composition of participants' gut microbiomes, their dietary habits, and cardiometabolic blood biomarkers. The researchers found evidence that the microbiome is linked with specific foods and diets, and that, in turn, certain microbes in the gut are linked to biomarkers of metabolic disease. Surprisingly, the microbiome has a greater association to these markers than other factors, such as genetics. Their report, authored by Dr. Francesco Asnicar (University of Trento) and Dr. Sarah Berry (King's College London) and coordinated by Tim Spector (King's College London) and Nicola Segata (University of Trento), appears in Nature Medicine.

Dr. Sarah Berry, Reader in Nutrition Sciences at King's College London said, "As a nutritional scientist, finding novel microbes that are linked to specific foods, as well as metabolic health, is exciting. Given the highly personalised composition of each individuals' microbiome, our research suggests that we may be able to modify our gut microbiome to optimize our health by choosing the best foods for our unique biology."

For example, the findings reveal that having a microbiome rich in Prevotella copri and Blastocystis species was associated with maintaining a favorable blood sugar level after a meal. Other species were linked to lower post-meal levels of blood fats and markers of inflammation.

Professor Tim Spector, Epidemiologist from King's College London, who started the PREDICT study program and is scientific founder of ZOE explains, "When you eat, you're not just nourishing your body, you're feeding the trillions of microbes that live inside your gut."

Researchers also discovered that the makeup of subjects' gut microbiome was strongly associated with specific nutrients, foods, food groups and overall diet composition. The researchers found robust microbiome-based biomarkers of obesity, as well as markers for cardiovascular disease and impaired glucose tolerance, which are key risk factors for COVID. These findings can be used to help create personalized eating plans designed specifically to improve one's health.

"I am very excited that we have been able to translate this cutting edge science into an at-home test in the time it has taken for the research to be peer reviewed and published," says Spector. "Through ZOE, we can now offer the public an opportunity to discover which of these microbes they have living in their gut. After taking ZOE's at-home test, participants will receive personalized recommendations for what to eat, based on comparing their results with the thousands of participants in the PREDICT studies. By using machine learning, we can then share with you our calculations of how your body will respond to any food, in real-time through an app."

The researchers found in subjects who ate a diet rich in healthy, plant-based foods were more likely to have high levels of 'good' gut microbes. Conversely, diets containing more highly processed plant-based foods were more likely to be associated with the 'bad' gut microbes.

"We were surprised to see such large, clear groups of what we informally call 'good' and 'bad' microbes emerging from our analysis," affirmed Nicola Segata, PhD, professor and principal investigator of the Computational Metagenomics Lab at the University of Trento, Italy and leader of the microbiome analysis in the study. "It is also exciting to see that microbiologists know so little about many of these microbes that they are not even named yet. This is now a big area of focus for us, as we believe they may open new insights in the future into how we could use the gut microbiome as a modifiable target to improve human metabolism and health."

PREDICT 1 was an international collaboration to study links between diet, the microbiome, and biomarkers of cardiometabolic health. The researchers gathered microbiome sequence data, detailed long-term dietary information, and results of hundreds of cardiometabolic blood markers from just over 1,100 participants in the U.K. and the U.S. PREDICT 2 completed its primary investigations in 2020 with a further 1,000 U.S participants, and PREDICT 3 launched a few months ago.

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About King's College London

King's College London is one of the top 10 UK universities in the world (QS World University Rankings, 2018/19) and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 31,000 students (including more than 12,800 postgraduates) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 8,500 staff.

King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF), eighty-four per cent of research at King's was deemed 'world-leading' or 'internationally excellent' (3* and 4*).

Since our foundation, King's students and staff have dedicated themselves in the service of society. King's will continue to focus on world-leading education, research and service, and will have an increasingly proactive role to play in a more interconnected, complex world. Visit our website to find out more about Vision 2029, King's strategic vision for the next 12 years to 2029, which will be the 200th anniversary of the founding of the university.

World-changing ideas. Life-changing impact. Kcl.ac.uk

About ZOE

ZOE is a healthcare science company helping people understand their body's responses to food. By using machine learning combined with large scale human studies, ZOE is decoding the impact of nutrition on health. ZOE leads the PREDICT Studies and the COVID Symptom Study, which are the world's largest community research programmes of their kind in nutrition and COVID-19 respectively.

Located in London and Boston, ZOE was founded by Professor Tim Spector of King's College London, data science leader Jonathan Wolf and entrepreneur George Hadjigeorgiou. ZOE was named one of the Deloitte Fast 50 Rising Stars in 2019 for the company's contribution to science enabled by technology and machine learning.

For more information on ZOE's mission and science, visit joinzoe.com.

About the University of Trento

The University of Trento is a dynamic, research-oriented university, with excellent teaching and research opportunities and top-notch facilities. Today, the University (founded in 1962) is still small-medium in size, but great in quality, capable of playing a high-profile role at European and international level.

Moreover, the University's 11 Departments and 3 Centres cover a wide range of academic subjects and specializations. Most of the courses offered at the UniTrento are taught in English. This broad academic offer is complemented by a proven experience in the organization of double, multiple and joint degrees.

Additionally, national and international rankings place the University of Trento among the best Italian universities.

Furthermore, UniTrento participates in many research networks and has signed prestigious cooperation agreements with important research centres and universities throughout the world. Researchers and young entrepreneurs from all over the world find fertile ground in Trento to create and develop start-ups.

For further information: https://www.unitn.it/en

Study reveals strong links between gut microbes, diet and metabolic health

A large-scale international study uses metagenomics and blood analysis to uncover gut microbes associated with the risks for common illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease.

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

Research News

BOSTON - A diet rich in healthy and plant-based foods is linked with the presence and abundance of certain gut microbes that are also associated with a lower risk of developing conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to recent results from a large-scale international study that was co-senior authored by Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH, from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). The report appears in Nature Medicine.

"This study demonstrates a clear association between specific microbial species in the gut, certain foods, and risk of some common diseases," says Chan, a gastroenterologist, chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit at MGH, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. "We hope to be able to use this information to help people avoid serious health problems by changing their diet to personalize their gut microbiome."

The PREDICT 1 (Personalized Responses to Dietary Composition Trial 1) metagenomic study analyzed detailed data on the composition of participants' microbiomes, their dietary habits, and cardiometabolic blood biomarkers. The researchers found strong evidence that the microbiome is linked with specific foods and diets, and that, in turn, its composition is also associated with levels of metabolic biomarkers of disease. Further, the microbiome has a greater association with these markers than other factors, such as genetics.

"Studying the interrelationship between the microbiome, diet and disease involves a lot of variables because peoples' diets tend to be personalized and may change quite a bit over time," explains Chan. "Two of the strengths of this trial are the number of participants and the detailed information we collected."

PREDICT 1 is an international collaboration to study links between diet, the microbiome, and biomarkers of cardiometabolic health. The researchers gathered microbiome sequence data, detailed long-term dietary information, and results of hundreds of cardiometabolic blood markers from just over 1,100 participants in the U.K. and the U.S.

The researchers found that participants who ate a diet rich in healthy, plant-based foods were more likely to have high levels of specific gut microbes. The makeup of participants' gut microbiomes was strongly associated with specific nutrients, foods, food groups and general dietary indices (overall diet composition). The researchers also found robust microbiome-based biomarkers of obesity as well as markers for cardiovascular disease and impaired glucose tolerance.

Epidemiologist Tim Spector of King's College London, who started the PREDICT study, says: "When you eat, you're not just nourishing your body, you're feeding the trillions of microbes that live inside your gut."

For example, having a microbiome rich in Prevotella copri and Blastocystis species was associated with maintaining a favorable blood sugar level after a meal. Other species were linked to lower post-meal levels of blood fats and markers of inflammation. The trends they found were so consistent, the researchers believe that their microbiome data can be used to determine the risk of cardiometabolic disease among people who do not yet have symptoms, and possibly to prescribe a personalized diet designed specifically to improve someone's health.

"We were surprised to see such large, clear groups of 'good' and 'bad' microbes emerging from our analysis," says Nicola Segata, PhD, professor and principal investigator of the Computational Metagenomics Lab at the University of Trento, Italy and coordinator of the analysis of the microbiome data in the study. "And it is intriguing to see that microbiologists know so little about many of these microbes that they are not even named yet."

Curtis Huttenhower, PhD, a co-senior author who co-directs the Harvard T.H. Chan Microbiome in Public Health Center, adds: "Both diet and the gut microbiome are highly personalized. PREDICT is one of the first studies to begin unraveling this complex molecular web at scale."

Francesco Asnicar, PhD, and Sarah Berry, PhD, are co-first authors of the study. Other collaborators were from health science company ZOE, which supported the research.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

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

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UK

BAME* parliamentary candidates not picked to fight 'winnable seats' in areas with less tolerance towa

BAME parliamentary candidates not picked to fight 'winnable seats' in areas with less tolerance towards diversity, study suggests

*Black, Asian, Middle Eastern

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

 NEWS RELEASE 11-JAN-2021

Research News

 

The study found a "systematic and quantifiable pattern" of political parties officers opting against fielding minority candidates where they perceive that their non-white appearance might prevent a win. This includes constituencies already held by the party, and those within reach, requiring just a small swing in the vote to change hands.

Dr Patrick English, from the University of Exeter, who carried out the research, said: "This combination of public opinion and party strategy is one of the most significant blockages to electing parliaments which fully reflect the ethnic diversity of their populations, and works in tandem with and drives other exclusionary forces.

"Though much research has focused on potential voter discrimination, focusing on the behaviour of voters alone misses any discrimination which might occur prior to elections."

There would need to be around non-white 95 MPs would need to 'reflect' the size of the minority-ethnic British population - estimated at around 14.5 per cent in England and Wales, according to the most recent Annual Population Survey results. As it stands, only 65 MPs currently fit this profile.

Traditionally, Labour and Conservative candidate selection for British General Elections is handled by local branches and organisations of political parties, with applicants approved and vetted through national processes.

Dr English used regression analysis to show the relationship between election candidates and public opinion since 1997, using a specially created database. Candidate ethnic minority status was determined using online visual information, including social media, candidate pages and news articles. A seat was considered winnable at a given election if the party already holds the seat or it required less than a 5 per cent swing to change parties.

Local public opinion on diversity was measured by combining questions about race and immigration from five different sources: the European Social Survey, the British Election Study, the British Social Attitudes survey, and the European and World Values studies.

There was a rise in the total number of ethnic minority candidates fielded in British General Elections over the study period, with a particularly sizeable jump between 2010 and 2015. The Labour Party provided more opportunities than their Conservative counterparts in four out of seven of the elections in the study, including in 2017 and 2019.

London was far ahead of all other regions in terms of the percentage of seats there 'opened up' for minority representation. Opportunities were also relatively high in the South East and the West Midlands. There were very few "winnable seat" opportunities given to minority candidates in Wales, the North East, the South West, or the East Midlands.

Attitudes in London and Scotland towards immigration were more positive than other regions, while - with the exception of recent years - attitudes in regions such as Wales and the North East are much less positive on average. Some regions did not see such a dramatic change in recent years as others, with Yorkshire and the Humber, the South West, and the North West remaining fairly low on the scale compared to others such as the South East and the West Midlands in later years.

Dr English said: "Sadly this analysis suggests opportunities for BAME candidates wanting to stand for parliament are not equal, and processes for selecting candidates do not treat everyone fairly. This means electoral success is too often biased away from too many.

"Political parties are charged with being 'gatekeepers' to representation, and while they ultimately provide the vast majority of representational opportunities, they can also create punitive pressures on prospective candidates from 'non-traditional' backgrounds seeking to become representatives."

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THIRD WORLD USA 

Latinx low-income workers hardest hit by SF COVID surge

Ongoing inequality highlights need for community-based test-and-respond strategy to halt spread of infections among most vulnerable, organizers say

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO

Research News

COVID-19 infections are once again rising at an alarming rate in San Francisco's Latinx community, predominantly among low-income essential workers, according to results of a massive community-based testing blitz conducted before and after the Thanksgiving holiday by Unidos En Salud -- a volunteer-led partnership between the Latino Task Force for COVID-19 (LTF), UC San Francisco , the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (CZ Biohub), and the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH).

Unidos En Salud launched their "Healthy Holidays" initiative the weekend before Thanksgiving (Nov. 22-24) in San Francisco's Mission District, where they have been perfecting their community-based surveillance testing and response program and solidifying relationships with community members through the LTF since April. The initiative then expanded testing after the holiday (Nov. 29-Dec. 1) to three additional highly impacted neighborhoods -- the Bayview, Excelsior, and Tenderloin.

"Cases have been surging for weeks, and it was clear that the holiday season this year was going to present a high risk for accelerating the spread of the virus," said UCSF infectious disease expert Diane Havlir, MD, co-Founder of the Unidos En Salud initiative, who presented initial findings to LTF community partners on December 7, 2020. "Rather than wait and see what would happen, UCSF and the Latino Task Force decided to respond proactively with a surge of our own, in partnership with DPH, focused on the communities where we knew the hammer was going to fall hardest."

"As the region enters a renewed phase of lockdown, these results are a reminder the brunt of this disease is still being felt by Latinos and people without the economic privilege to easily shelter in place. Because existing disparities, it is often those with the least who are being hurt the most, people who are often working multiple jobs just to make rent and keep food on the table for themselves and family," said LTF Health Committee Chair, Jon Jacobo, one of the initiative's organizers. "If we truly want to turn this pandemic around, we need to fundamentally change how we are addressing the pandemic and how we are supporting the most vulnerable among us."

Findings Show Continued Outsize Impact on Latinx Community, Ongoing Asymptomatic Spread

Following six days of intensive and strategic door-to-door community canvassing by LTF volunteers -- which focused on census tracts with the highest number of cases according to SFDPH data -- the Healthy Holidays initiative ultimately tested more than 6800 people before and after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Organizers reported a test positivity rate of 4.4 percent across the initiative's four post-holiday test sites, exceeding the city's 2.9% 7-day average during the current surge, as of December 9.  Although just over half of those tested were Latinx, a disproportionate 79 percent of positive results came from the Latinx community. At the Mission test site at 24^th St. BART Plaza, where overall cases were highest, one in ten Latinx individuals tested positive for the virus. Infection rates were also particularly high among low-income workers, including food and beverage workers and day laborers, as well as among people with indigenous backgrounds, particularly from Mexico and Central America.

The initiative found that about a third of infected individuals were asymptomatic at the time of testing and more than half were unaware of having been exposed to the virus, emphasizing the need for continued vigilance in combating a disease that can spread rapidly without detection.

"These ongoing partnerships for prevalence studies in high-impacted communities continue to inform local health strategy and policies," said Dr. Grant Colfax, Director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. "The information and data gathered help guide not only health policy but the city's overall approach to supporting communities disproportionately impacted by this virus."

Rapid Antigen Tests Enabled Results, Quarantine and Support Within Hours

Unidos En Salud previously conducted one of the first field tests of the BinaxNOW rapid antigen test, manufactured by Abbott, in a community setting at their September testing pop-up at the 16^th and Mission BART Plaza. Collaborators at CLIAhub, the joint UCSF/CZ Biohub COVID diagnostic laboratory that has provided test analysis for all of the group's initiatives, compared BinaxNOW results to PCR results from the same individuals and found the rapid test to be extremely reliable at identifying infected individuals during the most infectious phase of the disease.

In the much larger holiday testing event, the group put the BinaxNOW tests to use for the first time as a proof-of-concept of their potential usefulness in broader surveillance testing efforts. As in September, individuals at the group's Mission District test site gave two nasal swabs, one to be sent for standard PCR analysis at CLIAhub, and the second inserted on site into a BinaxNOW card, which is similar to a pregnancy test, providing results within 15 minutes. The speed of the results allowed team members to notify those who tested positive within hours rather than days, and to provide on-site counseling and support for immediate quarantine. The rapid results also allowed SFDPH to quickly initiate contact tracing.

Comparison to PCR results from the same individuals, completed 24 to 48 hours later, showed the tests had accurately identified more than 99 percent of individuals considered to be highly contagious. The researchers also found the tests to perform well in children, contrary to recent reports.

The CLIAhub and Unidos En Salud teams published their analysis of the performance characteristics of the BinaxNow rapid tests in symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals in this community setting January 4, 2021 in the Journal of Infectious Disease. The study's corresponding author is CLIAhub director Joe DeRisi, PhD, who is co-president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a UCSF professor of biochemistry and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

Community Wellness Teams, Home Visits Connect People with Resources to Isolate

For all who tested positive, whether on PCR or rapid tests, LTF Community Wellness Team members followed up to connect infected individuals to support for successful quarantine, including food, cleaning supplies and referrals to resources such as city-funded isolation and quarantine hotels.

"The LTF Community Wellness Teams are unique compared to the traditional test and contract trace approach," said Valerie Tulier-Laiwa, Coordinator of the LTF.  "This additional support from our Community Wellness Teams is essential to make isolation and quarantine successful and stop the spread of the virus among Latinx and low-income people."

The initiative also complemented SFDPH contact tracing with a follow-up home testing program for infected individuals living in large households, connecting as many as possible with resources for effective isolation through LTF's Community Wellness Teams.

"Community members I spoke with at the testing site who tested positive on rapid tests were eager to get close contacts tested out of a sense of responsibility for protecting loved ones, coworkers, and the larger community," said UCSF infectious disease clinical fellow Luis Rubio, MD, who was part of the initiative's clinical response team.

Volunteers provided rapid and PCR-based testing to household members within a day of the initial positive result and then again after a week. These visits included a trusted community health worker who could answer questions and give households specific guidance on how to safely isolate.

"Having rapid COVID-19 test results and dedicated time and space for household contacts to ask the community health worker questions was very much appreciated by families and we hope these services will support people in large households to effectively isolate and quarantine and decrease transmission," said UCSF infectious disease specialist Carina Marquez, MD, who led the household testing program.

To Halt Pandemic: Low-Barrier Community-Based Testing and Rapid Response

Unidos En Salud organizers, who have now provided free COVID-19 testing to 14,000 people since April through their regular weekly and larger pop-up initiatives, believe the community-based test-and-respond approach they have developed in their work in the Mission District could be a model for more effectively controlling the virus amidst the current frightening surge.

"We need to be making it as easy as possible for everyone in communities most affected by the virus to get tested regularly, symptoms or no, and to get people who test positive into isolation as quickly as possible with supportive services to cut off the chain of transmission. This approach will continue to be critical as the new vaccines become available," said Havlir, who is chief of the UCSF Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases and Global Medicine.

To reach as many people in affected communities as possible, regardless of symptoms or resources, the group's low-barrier testing is not only free, but requires no reservations, no health insurance, and no identification -- anyone can walk up and get tested. It is also community based and staffed -- located at convenient public transit hubs and community centers in the most affected neighborhoods, and organized, staffed and operated by members of the community being served.

"A critical component of our success is the many volunteers from the community who are involved in initial canvassing, coordinating testing onsite and the Community Wellness Teams that follow up with people who test positive," Jacobo said. "This has let us provide wrap-around services that are tailored to the need of each patient but are also culturally competent, and all are built upon the trust we have been building through our deep relationships with the community."

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About UCSF:

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is exclusively focused on the health sciences and is dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. UCSF Health, which serves as UCSF's primary academic medical center, includes top-ranked specialty hospitals and other clinical programs, and has affiliations throughout the Bay Area. Learn more at ucsf.edu, or see our Fact Sheet.

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New climate change study: Number of people suffering extreme droughts will double

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

NEWS RELEASE 11-JAN-2021


EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State University is leading a global research effort to offer the first worldwide view of how climate change could affect water availability and drought severity in the decades to come.

By the late 21st century, global land area and population facing extreme droughts could more than double -- increasing from 3% during 1976-2005 to 7%-8%, according to Yadu Pokhrel, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering in MSU's College of Engineering, and lead author of the research published in Nature Climate Change.

"More and more people will suffer from extreme droughts if a medium-to-high level of global warming continues and water management is maintained at its present state," Pokhrel said. "Areas of the Southern Hemisphere, where water scarcity is already a problem, will be disproportionately affected. We predict this increase in water scarcity will affect food security and escalate human migration and conflict."

The research team, including MSU postdoctoral researcher Farshid Felfelani, and more than 20 contributing authors from Europe, China and Japan are projecting a large reduction in natural land water storage in two-thirds of the world, also caused by climate change.

Land water storage, technically known as terrestrial water storage, or TWS, is the accumulation of water in snow and ice, rivers, lakes and reservoirs, wetlands, soil and groundwater -- all critical components of the world's water and energy supply. TWS modulates the flow of water within the hydrological cycle and determines water availability as well as drought.

"Our findings are a concern," Pokhrel said. "To date, no study has examined how climate change would impact land water storage globally. Our study presents the first, comprehensive picture of how global warming and socioeconomic changes will affect land water storage and what that will mean for droughts until the end of the century."

Felfelani said the study has given the international team an important prediction opportunity.

"Recent advances in process-based hydrological modeling, combined with future projections from global climate models under wide-ranging scenarios of socioeconomic change, provided a unique foundation for comprehensive analysis of future water availability and droughts," Felfelani said. "We have high confidence in our results because we use dozens of models and they agree on the projected changes."

The research is based on a set of 27 global climate-hydrological model simulations spanning 125 years and was conducted under a global modeling project called the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project. Pokhrel is a working member of the project.

"Our findings highlight why we need climate change mitigation to avoid the adverse impacts on global water supplies and increased droughts we know about now," Pokhrel said. "We need to commit to improved water resource management and adaptation to avoid potentially catastrophic socio-economic consequences of water shortages around the world."

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(Note for media: Please include a link to the original paper in online coverage: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-020-00972-w)

Michigan State University has been working to advance the common good in uncommon ways for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU focuses its vast resources on creating solutions to some of the world's most pressing challenges, while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

For MSU news on the Web, go to MSUToday. Follow MSU News on Twitter at twitter.com/MSUnews.

Asian water towers on tighter budget despite a warmer and wetter climate

More river runoff won't quench thirst in Indus and Ganges basins

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES HEADQUARTERS

Research News

 

IMAGE: MORE RIVER RUNOFF WON'T QUENCH THIRST IN INDUS AND GANGES BASINS view more 

CREDIT: TPE

The Third Pole centered on the Tibetan Plateau is home to headwaters of over 10 major Asian rivers. These glacier-based water systems, also known as the Asian Water Towers, will have to struggle to quench the thirst of downstream communities despite more river runoff brought on by a warmer climate, according to a recent study published in Nature Climate Change.

By constraining earth system models for precipitation projections, together with estimated glacier melt contributions, the study quantified the wet-season runoff of seven rivers at the Third Pole, and found it would increase 1.0-7.2% by the end of the 21st century for warming in the range of 1.5-4°C. However, the study also showed that rising water demands from the growing population will outweigh warming in determining water scarcity in the Indus and Brahmaputra basins, especially at higher warming levels. "Regretfully, a large proportion of the local population will continue to experience severe water stress even with a wetter climate," said WANG Tao, lead author of the study and a professor at the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

"Estimates of future Third Pole precipitation in earlier IPCC reports vary greatly, indicating huge uncertainties," said YAO Tandong, co-author of the study and co-chair of Third Pole Environment (TPE), an international science program for the interdisciplinary study of the region. "By constraining earth system models on the basis that westerly-monsoon interaction is the main driver of water cycle changes at the Third Pole, we significantly increased the confidence of future precipitation projection," said YAO.

This study also highlighted the need for policies promoting adaptation in the region. "We recommend measures such as increasing crop use efficiency and dam regulations in these basins to secure future water, food security and environmental sustainability under the Paris climate targets" said YAO.

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The study was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research (STEP), a TPE related science project.

Impacts of climate change on our water and energy systems: it's complicated

A team of researchers from Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Barbara propose a framework for evaluating climate change adaptations, provide a case study of California

DOE/LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE DOS AMIGOS PUMPING PLANT IN MERCED COUNTY AND CALIFORNIA AQUEDUCT ARE PART OF THE CALIFORNIA STATE WATER PROJECT, AN ENERGY-INTENSIVE PUBLIC WATER PROJECT THAT DISTRIBUTES WATER THROUGHOUT THE STATE.... view more 

CREDIT: CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF WATER RESOURCES

As the planet continues to warm, the twin challenges of diminishing water supply and growing energy demand are intensifying. But because water and energy are inextricably linked, as we try to adapt to one challenge - say, by getting more water via desalination or water recycling - we may be worsening the other challenge by choosing energy-intensive processes.

So, in adapting to the consequences of climate change, how can we be sure that we aren't making problems worse?

Now, researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), UC Berkeley, and UC Santa Barbara have developed a science-based analytic framework to evaluate such complex connections between water and energy, and options for adaptations in response to an evolving climate. Their study, "Evaluating cross-sectoral impacts of climate change and adaptations on the energy-water nexus: A framework and California case study," was published recently in the open-access journal Environmental Research Letters.

"There have been many analyses on how climate change could affect the water and energy sectors separately, but those studies were not typically looking at interactions and feedbacks between the two," said lead author Julia Szinai of Berkeley Lab's Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division. "Our paper develops a generalized framework that identifies how climate change affects these coupled water and electricity systems, and potential adaptations to future gaps in supply and demand. By doing so, we illustrate often-overlooked tradeoffs and synergies in adapting to climate change."

"In developing this project, Julia led a remarkable effort to integrate the climate impacts and feedbacks between the energy and water sectors," said co-author Daniel Kammen, a professor of energy and resources at UC Berkeley. "What is critical to planning our future under climate change is to capture - in both simplified and full dynamical models ¬- how interdependent are our infrastructure choices."

In applying the framework they developed to California, which relies on the snowpack for a good deal of its water and expends significant amounts of energy to transport water from the northern to the southern part of the state, they found that there are two possible adaptation pathways: one that is energy intensive and one that can actually save both water and energy.

"One of the most important points of the paper is that adapting our water system to climate change can either significantly exacerbate electricity grid stress, or on the flip side, it could help to alleviate it," said co-author and Berkeley Lab climate scientist Andrew Jones. "If we focus on adapting the water system by using big transfers of water across basins, or by using energy-intensive desalination, that's just going to make the electricity problem much more difficult. If, on the other hand, we adapt the water system by conserving water, it's actually a win-win situation because you're also reducing the energy required for water."

Currently, a staggering 19% of California's electricity consumption goes toward water-related applications, such as treating it, transporting it, pumping it, and heating it. Additionally, about 15% of in-state electricity generation comes from hydropower. Such interdependencies are referred to as the water-energy nexus. The state has already seen some impacts that climate change could have on these highly interdependent water-energy systems; for example, extended droughts and reduced snowpack have resulted in spikes in electricity consumption from groundwater pumping and hydropower deficits, which were made up by generating electricity using dirtier fossil fuels.

Looking ahead, the researchers integrated data across a number of fragmented studies to estimate the overall range of possible water and energy futures under various climate scenarios for the state at the end of the century. Their analysis found that the greatest direct climate change impact on the electricity sector in California will likely come from two factors: higher air conditioning loads and decreased hydropower availability. In the water sector, the greatest and most uncertain impact of climate change is on future water supplies. In the worst case, available water supplies could decrease 25%, and in the best case could increase 46%.

Applying their framework to California's water-energy future, they found that, if the state were to adapt to the worst-case water scenario by choosing the most energy-intensive technologies, it could result in an energy imbalance as large as that caused by climate change itself (increased air conditioning use and decreased hydropower availability being the climate change factors having the greatest direct energy imbalance impact).

"I think this is the first study to show that water sector adaptation can have as large of an impact on the electricity sector as the direct effect of climate change itself," said Jones. "So, if we pursued the energy-intensive path to water sector adaptation then it is as large as the direct effect of climate change, in the worst case."

Co-author Ranjit Deshmukh, a professor of environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara and faculty scientist at Berkeley Lab, noted, "Going forward, the electricity sector could leverage its close coupling with the water sector to enable balancing of increasing wind and solar generation in California as the state strives to meet its low-carbon-emission goals. For example, energy-intensive equipment such as water pumps or desalination plants, with adequate water storage, could be operated during times of plentiful solar and wind energy, and turned off at other times."

Next, Szinai, a UC Berkeley graduate student, said she plans to develop detailed models of both water and electricity systems so researchers can run simulations under various climate change and climate change adaptation scenarios, ultimately aiding planners in building out both the electrical grid and water resources.

"This study has highlighted the benefit of coordinated adaptation planning between the two sectors, so we're now linking a more detailed water resources management model and an electricity planning model that can demonstrate resilient pathways for building out electricity infrastructure in the Western U.S. when climate change impacts are included from the water sector," she said.

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This study was supported by the DOE Office of Science and the National Science Foundation. It is part of DOE's HyperFACETS project.

Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 14 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab's facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.