Chip simplifies COVID-19 testing, delivers results on a phone

Programmed magnetic nanobeads enable diagnostic device designed at Rice University

RICE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: A SYSTEM DEVELOPED BY RICE UNIVERSITY ENGINEERS EMPLOYS A STAMP-SIZED MICROFLUIDIC CHIP THAT MEASURES THE CONCENTRATION OF SARS-COV-2 NUCLEOCAPSID PROTEIN IN BLOOD SERUM TO DIAGNOSE COVID-19 IN LESS THAN AN... view more 

CREDIT: LILLEHOJ RESEARCH GROUP/RICE UNIVERSITY

HOUSTON - (Feb. 25, 2021) - COVID-19 can be diagnosed in 55 minutes or less with the help of programmed magnetic nanobeads and a diagnostic tool that plugs into an off-the-shelf cell phone, according to Rice University engineers.

The Rice lab of mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj has developed a stamp-sized microfluidic chip that measures the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) protein in blood serum from a standard finger prick. The nanobeads bind to SARS-CoV-2 N protein, a biomarker for COVID-19, in the chip and transport it to an electrochemical sensor that detects minute amounts of the biomarker.

The researchers argued their process simplifies sample handling compared to swab-based PCR tests that are widely used to diagnose COVID-19 and need to be analyzed in a laboratory.

"What's great about this device is that doesn't require a laboratory," Lillehoj said. "You can perform the entire test and generate the results at the collection site, health clinic or even a pharmacy. The entire system is easily transportable and easy to use."

The research appears in the American Chemical Society journal ACS Sensors.

Lillehoj and Rice graduate student and lead author Jiran Li took advantage of existing biosensing tools and combined them with their own experience in developing simple diagnostics, like a microneedle patch introduced last year to diagnose malaria.

The new tool relies on a slightly more complex detection scheme but delivers accurate, quantitative results in a short amount of time. To test the device, the lab relied on donated serum samples from people who were healthy and others who were COVID-19-positive.

Lillehoj said a longer incubation yields more accurate results when using whole serum. The lab found that 55 minutes was an optimum amount of time for the microchip to sense SARS-CoV-2 N protein at concentrations as low as 50 picograms (billionths of a gram) per milliliter in whole serum. The microchip could detect N protein in even lower concentrations, at 10 picograms per milliliter, in only 25 minutes by diluting the serum fivefold.

Paired with a Google Pixel 2 phone and a plug-in potentiostat, it was able to deliver a positive diagnosis with a concentration as low as 230 picograms for whole serum.

"There are standard procedures to modify the beads with an antibody that targets a particular biomarker," Lillehoj said. "When you combine them with a sample containing the biomarker, in this case SARS-CoV-2 N protein, they bond together."

A capillary tube is used to deliver the sample to the chip, which is then placed on a magnet that pulls the beads toward an electrochemical sensor coated with capture antibodies. The beads bind to the capture antibodies and generate a current proportional to the concentration of biomarker in the sample.

The potentiostat reads that current and sends a signal to its phone app. If there are no COVID-19 biomarkers, the beads do not bind to the sensor and get washed away inside the chip.

Lillehoj said it would not be difficult for industry to manufacture the microfluidic chips or to adapt them to new COVID-19 strains if and when that becomes necessary.

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Programmed magnetic nanobeads paired with an off-the-shelf cellphone and plug-in diagnostic tool can diagnose COVID-19 in 55 minutes or less, according to Rice University engineers.

CREDIT

Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

The National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation and the Rice University COVID-19 Research Fund supported the research.

Read the abstract at https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssensors.0c02561.

This news release can be found online at https://news.rice.edu/2021/02/25/chip-simplifies-covid-19-testing-delivers-results-on-a-phone/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

Related materials:

Lillehoj Research Group: http://lillehoj.rice.edu

Department of Mechanical Engineering: https://mech.rice.edu

George R. Brown School of Engineering: https://engineering.rice.edu

CAPTION

Rice University mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj, left, and graduate student Jiran Li developed a system that uses programmable magnetic nanobeads, an off-the-shelf cellphone and a plug-in diagnostic tool to diagnose COVID-19 in 55 minutes or less.

CREDIT

Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Images for download:

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2021/02/0215_PHONE-1-WEB.jpg A system developed by Rice University engineers employs a stamp-sized microfluidic chip that measures the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein in blood serum to diagnose COVID-19 in less than an hour. The system uses an off-the-shelf cellphone and potentiostat to deliver the results. (Credit: Lillehoj Research Group/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2021/02/0215_PHONE-2-WEB.jpg Programmed magnetic nanobeads paired with an off-the-shelf cellphone and plug-in diagnostic tool can diagnose COVID-19 in 55 minutes or less, according to Rice University engineers. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2021/02/0215_PHONE-3-WEB.jpg Rice University mechanical engineer Peter Lillehoj, left, and graduate student Jiran Li developed a system that uses programmable magnetic nanobeads, an off-the-shelf cellphone and a plug-in diagnostic tool to diagnose COVID-19 in 55 minutes or less. (Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,978 undergraduates and 3,192 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 1 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

First complete coronavirus model shows cooperation

Frontera, Anton 2 supercomputers simulate holistic model of SARS-CoV-2 virion

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, TEXAS ADVANCED COMPUTING CENTER

Research News

VIDEO: COARSE-GRAINED MOLECULAR DYNAMICS SIMULATION OF THE SARS-COV-2 VIRION USING LAMMPS FOR 10 × 106 CG TIME STEPS. view more 

CREDIT: GREGORY VOTH, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.

The COVID-19 virus holds some mysteries. Scientists remain in the dark on aspects of how it fuses and enters the host cell; how it assembles itself; and how it buds off the host cell.

Computational modeling combined with experimental data provides insights into these behaviors. But modeling over meaningful timescales of the pandemic-causing SARS-CoV-2 virus has so far been limited to just its pieces like the spike protein, a target for the current round of vaccines.

A new multiscale coarse-grained model of the complete SARS-CoV-2 virion, its core genetic material and virion shell, has been developed for the first time using supercomputers. The model offers scientists the potential for new ways to exploit the virus's vulnerabilities.

"We wanted to understand how SARS-CoV-2 works holistically as a whole particle," said Gregory Voth, the Haig P. Papazian Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago. Voth is the corresponding author of the study that developed the first whole virus model, published November 2020 in the Biophysical Journal.

"We developed a bottom-up coarse-grained model," said Voth, "where we took information from atomistic-level molecular dynamics simulations and from experiments." He explained that a coarse-grained model resolves only groups of atoms, versus all-atom simulations, where every single atomic interaction is resolved. "If you do that well, which is always a challenge, you maintain the physics in the model."

The early results of the study show how the spike proteins on the surface of the virus move cooperatively.

"They don't move independently like a bunch of random, uncorrelated motions," Voth said. "They work together."

This cooperative motion of the spike proteins is informative of how the coronavirus explores and detects the ACE2 receptors of a potential host cell.

"The paper we published shows the beginnings of how the modes of motion in the spike proteins are correlated," Voth said. He added that the spikes are coupled to each other. When one protein moves another one also moves in response.

"The ultimate goal of the model would be, as a first step, to study the initial virion attractions and interactions with ACE2 receptors on cells and to understand the origins of that attraction and how those proteins work together to go on to the virus fusion process," Voth said.

Voth and his group have been developing coarse-grained modeling methods on viruses such as HIV and influenza for more than 20 years. They 'coarsen' the data to make it simpler and more computationally tractable, while staying true to the dynamics of the system.

"The benefit of the coarse-grained model is that it can be hundreds to thousands of times more computationally efficient than the all-atom model," Voth explained. The computational savings allowed the team to build a much larger model of the coronavirus than ever before, at longer time-scales than what has been done with all-atom models.

"What you're left with are the much slower, collective motions. The effects of the higher frequency, all-atom motions are folded into those interactions if you do it well. That's the idea of systematic coarse-graining."

The holistic model developed by Voth started with atomic models of the four main structural elements of the SARS-CoV-2 virion: the spike, membrane, nucleocapsid, and envelope proteins. These atomic models were then simulated and simplified to generate the complete course-grained model.

The all-atom molecular dynamics simulations of the spike protein component of the virion system, about 1.7 million atoms, were generated by study co-author Rommie Amaro, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego.

"Their model basically ingests our data, and it can learn from the data that we have at these more detailed scales and then go beyond where we went," Amaro said. "This method that Voth has developed will allow us and others to simulate over the longer time scales that are needed to actually simulate the virus infecting a cell."

Amaro elaborated on the behavior observed from the coarse-grained simulations of the spike proteins.

"What he saw very clearly was the beginning of the dissociation of the S1 subunit of the spike. The whole top part of the spike peels off during fusion," Amaro said.

One of the first steps of viral fusion with the host cell is this dissociation, where it binds to the ACE2 receptor of the host cell.

"The larger S1 opening movements that they saw with this coarse-grained model was something we hadn't seen yet in the all-atom molecular dynamics, and in fact it would be very difficult for us to see," Amaro said. "It's a critical part of the function of this protein and the infection process with the host cell. That was an interesting finding."

Voth and his team used the all-atom dynamical information on the open and closed states of the spike protein generated by the Amaro Lab on the Frontera supercomputer, as well as other data. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Frontera system is operated by the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin.

"Frontera has shown how important it is for these studies of the virus, at multiple scales. It was critical at the atomic level to understand the underlying dynamics of the spike with all of its atoms. There's still a lot to learn there. But now this information can be used a second time to develop new methods that allow us to go out longer and farther, like the coarse-graining method," Amaro said.

"Frontera has been especially useful in providing the molecular dynamics data at the atomistic level for feeding into this model. It's very valuable," Voth said.

The Voth Group initially used the Midway2 computing cluster at the University of Chicago Research Computing Center to develop the coarse-grained model.

The membrane and envelope protein all-atom simulations were generated on the Anton 2 system. Operated by the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) with support from National Institutes of Health, Anton 2 is a special-purpose supercomputer for molecular dynamics simulations developed and provided without cost by D. E. Shaw Research.

"Frontera and Anton 2 provided the key molecular level input data into this model," Voth said.

"A really fantastic thing about Frontera and these types of methods is that we can give people much more accurate views of how these viruses are moving and carrying about their work," Amaro said.

"There are parts of the virus that are invisible even to experiment," she continued. "And through these types of methods that we use on Frontera, we can give scientists the first and important views into what these systems really look like with all of their complexity and how they're interacting with antibodies or drugs or with parts of the host cell."

The type of information that Frontera is giving researchers helps to understand the basic mechanisms of viral infection. It is also useful for the design of safer and better medicines to treat the disease and to prevent it, Amaro added.

Said Voth: "One thing that we're concerned about right now are the UK and the South African SARS-CoV-2 variants. Presumably, with a computational platform like we have developed here, we can rapidly assess those variances, which are changes of the amino acids. We can hopefully rather quickly understand the changes these mutations cause to the virus and then hopefully help in the design of new modified vaccines going forward."

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The study, "A multiscale coarse-grained model of the SARS-CoV-2 virion," was published on November 27, 2020 in the Biophysical Journal. The study co-authors are Alvin Yu, Alexander J. Pak, Peng He, Viviana Monje-Galvan, Gregory A. Voth of the University of Chicago; and Lorenzo Casalino, Zied Gaieb, Abigail C. Dommer, and Rommie E. Amaro of the University of California, San Diego. Funding was provided by the NSF through NSF RAPID grant CHE-2029092, NSF RAPID MCB-2032054, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health through grant R01 GM063796, National Institutes of Health GM132826, and a UC San Diego Moore's Cancer Center 2020 SARS-COV-2 seed grant. Computational resources were provided by the Research Computing Center at the University of Chicago, Frontera at the Texas Advanced Computer Center funded by the NSF grant (OAC-1818253), and the Pittsburgh Super Computing Center (PSC) through the Anton 2 machine. Anton 2 computer time was allocated by the COVID-19 HPC Consortium and provided by the PSC through Grant R01GM116961 from the National Institutes of Health. The Anton 2 machine at PSC was generously made available by D. E. Shaw Research."

Survey reveals racial, political differences in COVID-19 responses

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

America's stark racial disparities in health care have been exposed by COVID-19, but a new study from Michigan State University suggests that Black individuals are more likely than conservative White people to adhere to public health standards due to disparities.

The study, published in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, used data from MSU's State of the State Survey that was captured during the initial COVID-19 outbreak from a representative group of 800 adults in Michigan.

"Our findings suggest that although COVID impacts all Michiganders, reactions to COVID are politicized. This is significant because if people base their response to COVID on politics rather than science, they may be placing themselves at risk," said Zachary Neal, MSU associate professor of psychology and study co-author.

What's more: Michigan residents' race impacted how much politics affected their views of COVID.

"When COVID was politicized, partisanship mattered more to White Michiganders than it did to Black Michiganders," Neal said. "This is significant because it could mean that White Michiganders are more likely to misjudge COVID risks due to politics. For example, although Black Michiganders on average said they would comply with stay-at-home orders, only the more liberal White Michiganders said they would comply."

In considering political ideology, the findings reveal that conservative White individuals were more likely to have noncompliance attitudes toward local and state COVID orders than more liberal White people and Black people who tend towards compliance.

Overall, Black Michiganders' attitudes toward the pandemic were more in line with public health recommendations around mask wearing and stay-at-home orders than views held by their White counterparts. Researchers point to a long history of health, social and economic disparities as the driving force. They found that Black Michiganders were more likely to contract COVID-19 or lose their job as a result of COVID-19 and thereby more likely to comply with regulations.

"Black Americans experience a disproportionately greater rate of preexisting conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, that place them at an elevated COVID risk," said Kaston Anderson-Carpenter, MSU assistant professor of psychology and study lead author. "Since social determinants of health adversely impact Black Michiganders, adhering to the restrictions may also be perceived as a preventive health measure. Black people who work in essential jobs may also care for family members who have preexisting conditions, which may also influence their adherence to COVID restrictions."

Using data from the State of the State survey, conducted by MSU's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, Anderson-Carpenter and Neal measured 12 areas of COVID-19 sentiment across four categories: personal impacts, the perceived severity of the virus, the state of Michigan's response to rising caseloads and Michigan's initial stay-at-home order.

Beyond the politicization of the virus, Anderson-Carpenter and Neal's paper reinforces the national conversation about Black people being disproportionately affected by the virus.

"Very little has happened between May and now to reduce racial disparities or political divisions; if anything, both are now worse than before," Neal said. "Knowing now what was happening then -- and, now that we're experiencing another surge in cases -- more resources need to go to the Black communities to address both the health and economic impacts of COVID, particularly now that vaccines are available."

By highlighting the impact of partisan perceptions, the researchers hope their study stresses the extensive disparities related to COVID health care and encourage public health officials to focus on providing assistance to Black communities.

"It is imperative to understand how COVID has been politicized in Michigan as a microcosm of the nation, and we hope the study encourages politicians to make COVID a nonpartisan issue," Anderson-Carpenter said.

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(Note for media: Please include the following link to the study in all online media coverage: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40615-020-00939-9)

Getting ahead of climate change

Earth observation data could help the humanitarian community reduce the destruction of natural disasters

SPIE--INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR OPTICS AND PHOTONICS

Research News

 

IMAGE: PHASES OF FORECAST-BASED EARLY ACTION EFFORTS: DESIGN, OPERATION, EVALUATION. view more 

CREDIT: NAUMAN ET AL.

As climate change increases the occurrence of catastrophic natural disasters around the world, international organizations are looking for ways to reduce the risk of such disasters. One approach under exploration is the humanitarian community's forecast-based early action (FbA), which seeks to enable pre-emptive actions based on forecasts of extreme events.

With FbA, disaster response shifts toward anticipating disasters to ameliorate their destructive effects. However, the development of data-based triggers and metrics for action rely on timely and accurate information. A group of researchers publishing in SPIE's Journal of Applied Remote Sensing believes that some of that information can be provided by Earth observation (EO). In "Perspectives on flood forecast-based early action and opportunities for Earth observations," Claire Nauman et al. focus on flood forecasts and identify opportunities to incorporate Earth observation data into flood FbA.

Efforts have been made to focus on risk reduction, but in the past two decades, only a small percentage of funding for disasters has been spent to decrease disaster risk. The overwhelming majority of funding has been spent on emergency response, reconstruction, and rehabilitation. However, preventive action to avoid disaster losses could provide significant return on investment, both by avoiding losses and by increasing economic activity in areas prone to destructive weather events. However, action often is not taken in response to early warning systems, but only after destruction has occurred. FbA systems are intended to change that fact, enabling pre-emptive action based on a forecast, even under uncertain conditions.

FbA programs often take one of two primary approaches - predefined triggers or real-time forecast-informed decision-making - to determine when action is needed. This paper focuses on predefined triggers because such triggers are a new aspect of FbA that differentiate them from early warning systems. "Triggers are defined by the danger level or magnitude of a forecasted event (e.g., 100 mm of rain over 24 h) and forecast probability (e.g., 80% chance of the event occurring)," the study says.

Recently, FbA triggers have also been defined based on impact, instead of hazard, in keeping with guidelines proposed for impact-based forecasting. For example, an impact-based trigger would prompt action if a defined percentage of homes are forecasted to flood.

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Countries with FbA programs and their associated hazard focus implemented by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Start Network, World Food Program, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.

CREDIT

Nauman et al.

As EO science advances and FbAs become more common, the two communities will find new ways to connect, not only regarding flood impacts but also for other destructive events, such as forest fires, droughts, heat waves, volcanic eruptions, and others. "Flood early warning systems are still many years away from producing forecasts of impact," Nauman says in the study, "but this should not discourage the design of impact-based triggers for early action today."

And as EO scientists and humanitarians continue to cooperate, the researchers say boundary organizations that can bridge the two communities will be key to facilitating the coordination required to help turn science into action and reduce the effects of floods. "For joint success, collaboration is crucial," Nauman said.

Read the open access paper: Claire Nauman et al., "Perspectives on flood forecast-based early action and opportunities for Earth observations," J. Appl. Rem. Sens. 15(3), 032002 (2021) doi:10.1117/1.JRS.15.032002

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Male lyrebirds create an "acoustic

illusion" to snare potential mates

Researchers discover unexpected role for mimicry

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: MALE SUPERB LYREBIRD view more 

CREDIT: ALEX MAISEY, UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG

Ithaca, NY--Famous for their uncanny ability to imitate other birds and even mechanical devices, researchers find that Australia's Superb Lyrebird also uses that skill in a totally unexpected way. Lyrebirds imitate the panicked alarm calls of a mixed-species flock of birds while males are courting and even while mating with a female. These findings are published in the journal Current Biology.

"The male Superb Lyrebird creates a remarkable acoustic illusion," says Anastasia Dalziell, currently a Cornell Lab of Ornithology Associate and recent Cornell Lab Rose Postdoctoral Fellow, now at the University of Wollongong, Australia. "Birds gather in mobbing flocks and the ruckus they make is a potent cue of a predator nearby. The lyrebird recreates that sound when a potential mate tries to leave a displaying male without copulating, or during copulation itself. These two moments are key to male reproductive success, suggesting that mimicking a mobbing flock is a crucial sexual behavior for males."

AUDIO

Male Superb Lyrebird mimicking a mixed-species flock

Dalziell says while it's not clear exactly how males benefit from their extraordinary mimicry, they seem to be setting a "sensory trap" for females. The males may gain a reproductive advantage by tricking the female into responding as if she may be at risk from a predator.

"It's a bit like saying, 'Baby, it's dangerous out there. Stay here with me,'" Dalziell says. The stalling tactic might allow for copulation to happen in the first place or last longer, preventing females from leaving before sperm has been successfully transferred.

The findings also suggest that elaborate bird songs aren't always an honest signal. Instead, sexual conflict and deception could lead to increasingly elaborate mimetic vocalizations. This idea represents an important departure from conventional explanations for song evolution that rely on females' preferences for extravagant male singers.

The researchers have lots of other questions about the odd mating behaviors of the Superb Lyrebird. For example, Dalziell says, they've observed that during copulation, the male holds his wings over the female's head. "Are males 'blindfolding' females to prevent females from detecting the male's deception?" she wonders.

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Female Superb Lyrebird

CREDIT

Alex Maisey, University of Wollongong

This work was supported by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Rose Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, the National Science Foundation, the Australian National University, the University of Wollongong, the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, the Australian Research Council, BirdLife Australia's Stuart Leslie Award program, and the Australian Geographic Society.

Reference:
Anastasia Dalziell, Alex C. Maisey, Robert D. Magrath, and Justin A. Welbergen. Male lyrebirds create an acoustic illusion of a mobbing flock during courtship and copulation. Current Biology, Feb. 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.003.

Internet fiber optics could provide valuable insight into geological phenomena

PENN STATE

Research News

 

IMAGE: BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF THE FIBER-OPTIC CABLES USED FOR THE FORESEE PROJECT IN WHICH SCIENTISTS USED PRE-EXISTING CABLES TO MONITOR GEOLOGICAL EVENTS. view more 

CREDIT: FORESEE, PENN STATE

Fiber-optic cables run underneath nearly all city grids across the United States and provide internet and cable TV to millions, but what if those systems could also provide valuable information related to hazardous events such as earthquakes and flooding? A team of researchers at Penn State have found they can do just that.

The scientists are using fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) technology to turn existing telecommunication infrastructure that is already installed underground into a valuable resource for monitoring ground vibrations.

"We discovered the fibers could pick up a wide variety of signal vibrations, from thunderstorms to human walking steps to music concerts," said Tieyuan Zhu, assistant professor of geophysics at Penn State and principal investigator on the project. "We can even distinguish the specific song at a concert by the patterns of the high and low tones. That's a great demonstration of the sensitivity of these sensors."

Traditional seismic monitoring devices, called geophones, are difficult to deploy in urban areas. Obtaining permission and space to install sensors, protecting sensors against theft and vandalism, and the high costs to maintain them makes it prohibitive to gain reliable long-term data, the scientists said.

DAS technology allows scientists to plug into unused fiber, called dark fiber, greatly reducing the cost and setup time that hinders traditional seismic monitoring devices. A laser interrogator unit simply needs to be plugged into one end of a stretch of fiber to begin collecting data, the scientists said.

"Several experiments in California have been carried out by teams using existing telecommunication infrastructure," Zhu said. "But deploying this technology on the East Coast is important because we have very special geology here."

The soil and shallow bedrock in the Allegheny Mountains region create complex near-surface geophysical properties. The underlying bedrock can slowly dissolve due to circulating groundwater, which can form sinkholes and caverns. Especially in urban areas, sinkhole collapse and settling issues can threaten human safety and property. In addition, strong seasonal variations in temperature and precipitation create a very different environment to that of California.

Zhu and his research team created the Penn State Fiber-Optic foR Environmental SEnsEing (FORESEE) project, the first deployment of the DAS technology in the eastern U.S. The goal of this project was to address the long-standing challenge of real-time monitoring of environmental and subsurface physical, chemical and biological changes in urban areas. FORESEE also aims to develop the DAS fiber sensing arrays to turn the Penn State University Park campus and surrounding areas into a living lab for the collection of high-resolution data on environmental, energy and infrastructure systems. The researchers report their results in Solid Earth.

The team gained access to dark fiber-optic cables beneath the campus and converted the cable to 2,300 seismic sensors using DAS. They then continuously recorded ground vibration data along the 3-mile stretch starting in April 2019. The experiment generated many tens of terabytes of data, which was stored in a network-attached storage server. The server was then connected to an internet network, providing the scientists with remote data access in real time. The density of the DAS recordings provided extraordinary resolution that enabled insight into their cause and allowed the researchers to distinguish between various signals, the scientists said.

The preliminary results suggest DAS has the capability to sense broadband vibrations and discriminate between the seismic signatures of different earthquakes and anthropogenic sources from events such as mining blasts, vehicles, music concerts and walking steps.

But DAS does not come without limitations. Traditional geophones have three components, two horizontal sensors and one vertical sensor, allowing them to capture vibrations in all directions. DAS technology, however, is only able to sense vibrations horizontally as there is no need for vertical sensors in fiber-optic cables meant for internet and cable. Therefore, the data is not as comprehensive as data from traditional geophones.

"We know this is a limitation," Zhu said. "Hopefully in the next five years, this can be overcome by new fiber-optic technology."

In addition to its geological uses, DAS can yield insights into varying patterns of human activities relevant to public health and urban planning. Traffic monitoring and redirection that does not require private cell phone data, gunshot detection, industrial noise pollution monitoring and subsurface water utility monitoring may all be improved through the use of DAS technology, the scientists said. The value of DAS has also been recognized in inaccessible and harsh environments, enabling offshore ocean observations and the ability to monitor permafrost stability in the Arctic.

Now that the researchers know what the technology can do, Zhu said their next step is using DAS to monitor smaller events long-term, like the underground movements that lead to sinkholes and flooding. They also want to look at the events that occur where the atmosphere meets the earth since there is currently no way to monitor how a thunderstorm's energy impacts the solid earth's near surface.

"DAS arrays utilizing existing telecommunication fibers can play an increasing role in the development of resilient, sustainable cities," Zhu said.

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Other contributing researchers included Junzhu Shen, doctoral student, and Sam Hone, graduate student, both in geosciences at Penn State; and Eileen R. Martin, assistant professor of computational mathematics at Virginia Tech.

The U.S. Department of Energy partially supported this work.

Post-wildfire landslides becoming more frequent in southern California

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

Research News

 

American Geophysical Union
U.S. Geological Survey
Joint Release

WASHINGTON--Southern California can now expect to see post-wildfire landslides occurring almost every year, with major events expected roughly every ten years, a new study finds. The results show Californians are now facing a double whammy of increased wildfire and landslide risk caused by climate change-induced shifts in the state's wet and dry seasons, according to researchers who mapped landslide vulnerability in the southern half of the state.

"This is our attempt to get people thinking about where these hazards are going to be before there's even a fire," said Jason Kean, a hydrologist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Denver and lead author of the new study in Earth's Future, AGU's journal for interdisciplinary research on the past, present and future of our planet and its inhabitants. "By proactively thinking about hazards, you can start to develop more detailed response plans for their inevitability."

Damage from a major post-wildfire landslide that occurred on 9 January 2018 near Montecito, Santa Barbara County as a result of the 2017 Thomas Fire.
Credit: USGS/Jason Kean.

Wildfires make the landscape more susceptible to landslides when rainstorms pass through, as the water liquefies unstable, dry soil and burned vegetation. Geologists routinely conduct landslide hazard assessments after wildfires occur, but there is often not enough time between a fire and a rainstorm to implement an effective emergency response plan, Kean said.

In the new study, Kean and his colleague combined historical fire, rainfall and landslide data with computer simulations to forecast where post-wildfire landslides are likely to occur in southern California, how big those landslides might be and how often they can be expected to happen. Their goal was to map which regions of the state are most vulnerable to landslides before they happen, in a manner similar to how geologists map earthquake hazards.

Their results show small landslides can now be expected to occur almost every year in southern California. Major landslides capable of damaging 40 or more structures can be expected every 10 to 13 years - about as frequently as magnitude 6.7 earthquakes occur in California, according to the study. The results also suggest more intense rainfall, which is likely to happen in the coming decades, could make landslides much more frequent.

Combined with recent research showing California's wildfire season is getting longer and the rainy season is getting shorter and more intense, the new findings suggest Californians face a higher risk of wildfires and post-wildfire landslides that can damage property and endanger people's lives.

"We're going to have a longer season to burn and then when it does rain, it's going to come down harder. And that's a bad recipe for these post-fire debris flows," Kean said. "The reason you can expect one just about every year is because it doesn't take very much rain to cause one. The rainstorms that can trigger debris flows - they're kind of garden-variety storms."

Damage from a major post-wildfire landslide that occurred on 9 January 2018 

near Montecito, Santa Barbara County as a result of the 2017 Thomas Fire.

Credit: USGS/Jason Kean.

California's central coast has already seen a significant landslide this year. A portion of Highway 1 near Big Sur was washed out in a landslide in late January after a severe rainstorm. Kean hopes the new study's results can help emergency managers plan out evacuation zones for landslides before they happen.

"We'll still always do hazard assessments after fires because we really want to know the details of the actual fire, but these wildfires scenarios and storm scenarios are useful because we can start looking ahead and have the luxury of time to make a better plan," he said.

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Notes for Journalists

This research study is open access. Download a PDF copy of the paper here. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Paper title:

"Forecasting the frequency and magnitude of postfire debris flows across southern California"

Authors:

Jason W. Kean, Dennis M. Staley: U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado, United States.

This press release and accompanying images are available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/post-wildfire-landslides-becoming-more-frequent-in-southern-california/

 

New treatment location challenges thoughts on addiction

MUSC researchers prove motor cortex is successful target for pain and addiction treatment, which suggests an overlooked area of the brain in TMS treatment

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE MOTOR CORTEX IS LOCATED NEAR THE MIDDLE OF THE SKULL, AND THE DLPFC IS CLOSER TO THE FRONT. AN ELECTROMAGNETIC COIL IS THEN PLACED AGAINST THE HEAD, AND MAGNETIC... view more 

CREDIT: HANLON LAB

Researchers have discovered that there may be a new pathway in the brain that provides pain relief and reduces cravings for opioids.

Over a third of the U.S. population suffers from chronic pain, with little to no reported relief from medication. Transcranial magnetic brain stimulation (TMS) is a noninvasive form of brain stimulation that may offer a new treatment option for these underserved members of our community.

In a recent paper in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina evaluated two different strategies for relieving pain with TMS: applying TMS to the motor cortex and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).

Colleen Hanlon, Ph.D., a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at MUSC and the principal investigator for this paper, expected to support her hypothesis that the DLPFC would be the most effective target for TMS treatment, but the results show just the opposite.

Historically, TMS-based treatments have targeted the DLPFC. In addition to being an FDA-approved target for managing depression, data show that the DLPFC is important in regulating emotions as well as addiction to substances like tobacco, cocaine and alcohol. While the motor cortex has been a popular target for TMS pain relief studies, there was no data to suggest it could also be helpful in opiate users. The new study points to its success as a target.

"I think you can even argue that our data suggests the motor cortex is an overlooked brain region in terms of addiction treatment development," said Julia Imperatore, MUSC research coordinator and lab manager for this study. Hanlon agrees.

Each study participant's head was mapped with coordinates to target specific areas of the brain using a swim cap marked with a permanent marker. Head circumferences differ between individuals, and thus so do the locations of the motor cortex and DLPFC. The motor cortex is located near the middle of the skull, and the DLPFC is closer to the front. Once these locations are determined, an electromagnetic coil is placed against the head, and magnetic pulses are painlessly and noninvasively sent through the skull to stimulate nerve cells in the brain.

After two weeks of administering daily TMS sessions and daily pain and opiate urge assessments, Hanlon's research team reported a significant difference in effects between the two locations. The motor cortex was significantly more effective at reducing the urge to use opioids and the study participant's perception of pain both immediately after treatment and during follow-up assessments. Direct magnetic stimulation to the motor cortex led to a 64-70% reduction in pain.

"This is the first study to evaluate a noninvasive therapeutic treatment to help decrease opiate use in chronic pain patients," said Hanlon. "We have no non-pharmacologic-based treatment options for people, and people are really tired of taking pills."

As a pilot study, Hanlon and Imperatore's paper kicks off a new area of research. It represents the first attempt at a randomized comparison of these two potential treatment targets, and it excites Hanlon because it suggests that the motor cortex is an important and influential part of the addiction process.

"Not only pain but also the urge to use, in this case, opiates," she said. "It's a whole new window of opportunity that we can explore."

Imperatore will be leading future studies to expand the knowledge on this topic, as this pilot study used a small sample size. MUSC will be conducting studies alongside Wake Forest School of Medicine and hopes to offer this new therapeutic option to patients suffering from chronic pain and addiction in the near future.

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As the clinical health system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest quality patient care available while training generations of competent, compassionate health care providers to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Comprising some 1,600 beds, more than 100 outreach sites, the MUSC College of Medicine, the physicians' practice plan and nearly 275 telehealth locations, MUSC Health owns and operates eight hospitals situated in Charleston, Chester, Florence, Lancaster and Marion counties. In 2020, for the sixth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.

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