It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, March 06, 2021
How does your brain process emotions? Answer could help address loneliness epidemic
Study finds specific brain regions respond opposingly to emotions related to loneliness and wisdom
IMAGE: JYOTI MISHRA, PHD, IS THE SENIOR AUTHOR OF THE STUDY, DIRECTOR OF THE NEATLABS AND ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY AT UC SAN DIEGO SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. view more
CREDIT: UC SAN DIEGO HEALTH SCIENCES
Research over the last decade has shown that loneliness is an important determinant of health. It is associated with considerable physical and mental health risks and increased mortality. Previous studies have also shown that wisdom could serve as a protective factor against loneliness. This inverse relationship between loneliness and wisdom may be based in different brain processes.
In a study published in the March 5, 2021 online edition of Cerebral Cortex, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that specific regions of the brain respond to emotional stimuli related to loneliness and wisdom in opposing ways.
"We were interested in how loneliness and wisdom relate to emotional biases, meaning how we respond to different positive and negative emotions," said Jyoti Mishra, PhD, senior author of the study, director of the NEATLabs and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine.
The study
Canadian scientists and Swiss surgeons discover the cause of excess post-surgical scarring
The finding could improve recovery from abdominal and pelvic surgery
IMAGE: THIS IS THE VIEW THROUGH A MULTI-PHOTON MICROSCOPE AS MACROPHAGES (RED) CONGREGATE AT AN INJURY SITE (GREEN). view more
CREDIT: SUPPLIED BY KUBES' LAB, SNYDER INSTITUTE FOR CHRONIC DISEASE, CUMMING SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY
The body is amazing at healing itself. However, sometimes it can overdo it. Excess scarring after abdominal and pelvic surgery within the peritoneal cavity can lead to serious complications and sometimes death. The peritoneal cavity has a protective lining containing organs within our abdomen. It also contains fluid to keep the organs lubricated. When the lining gets damaged, tissue and scarring can form, creating problems. Researchers at the University of Calgary and University of Bern, Switzerland, have discovered what's causing the excess scarring and options to try to prevent it.
"This is a worldwide concern. Complications from these peritoneal adhesions cause pain and can lead to life-threatening small bowel obstruction, and infertility in women," says Dr. Joel Zindel, MD, University of Bern, Switzerland, and first author on the study who worked on this research as a Swiss National Science Foundation research fellow at the University of Calgary. "People sometimes require a second surgery."
The research published in Science, was conducted in mice and shows the excess scarring is caused by macrophages, a type of white blood cell that rushes to the surgical site to start to repair the injury.
"Joel developed a new method using the highly specialized imaging equipment in my lab that gave scientists the first look at what these macrophages are doing in real-time," says Dr. Paul Kubes, PhD, principal investigator on the study and professor at the Cumming School of Medicine. "We are still working to understand why the macrophages take on this repair work as they are known for attacking pathogens. Whatever they are responding to, it's clear their involvement is causing the scarring problem."
The researchers also discovered two ways to inhibit this natural response. They either removed the macrophages, or they introduced a drug to block the macrophage stickiness. Both processes were very effective in stopping the adhesions.
"We believe the macrophage response has not made the evolutionary leap to understand that surgery is beneficial and not a threat to survival," says Kubes. "It's possible, that the body is reacting to the surgery, that having the organs exposed to the environment is interpreted as a threat, like an attack from a predator. The body doesn't understand that the surgeon will do the critical repair work."
Macrophages are also present in humans, and the research team believes the response seen in mice is likely to translate to both adults and children. They hope to move to trials on human cells, soon, and eventually clinical trials.
"Every surgeon does operations for people who have these abdominal adhesions," says Zindel. "It would be amazing to be able to prevent this surgical complication. It would not only benefit individuals, it would create significant savings for the healthcare system, by reducing hospital costs for readmission and surgery."
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The basic research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council while the clinical application was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Kubes is supported by Heart & Stroke and the CIHR Canada Research Chairs Program and Zindel is supported from a fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
This research was possible with support from the Nicole Perkins Microbial Communities Core Lab, the Live Cell Imaging Resource Laboratory at the Cumming School of Medicine, and the Microscopy Imaging Center (MIC) of the University of Bern.
Research may offer another avenue to tackling sexually aggressive behavior
A new study from the University of Iowa sought to begin development of a possible approach to reduce the risk that college-aged men engage in sexually aggressive acts or risky sexual behavior.
The study authors, led by Teresa Treat, professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Iowa, developed a 12-point list of sexual assault prevention strategies. The list was created by the researchers based on previous research into risk factors that are associated with sexually aggressive acts--such as heavy alcohol consumption, difficulties reading women's cues, and not seeking consent for sexual activity.
The authors found that 71% of the college-aged men surveyed used the sexual assault prevention strategies on a regular basis over the past year. Yet 15% of the survey takers reported they seldom or never used the preventative strategies, and men who said they have engaged in sexually aggressive actions had been much less likely to use the strategies than their peers.
The authors say the strategies may offer a potential avenue to tackling sexually aggressive behavior.
"We think we have a promising set of potential preventative strategies. We found most college men use these prevention strategies regularly," says Treat, the study's corresponding author. "The downside is some college men don't use them much at all. Those college men who don't use them much at all are much more likely to be sexually aggressive. So, future research should aim to evaluate whether they may be useful prevention targets."
The survey group included more than 560 males at Arizona State University and Iowa, who earned course credit in a psychology class. The men answered questions that ranged from general biographical information (age, ethnicity, et cetera) to alcohol consumption, attitudes about women, sexual experience, and attitudes about sex.
The authors are revising the strategies based on feedback from the college students, and hope to administer the survey to a more racially and ethnically diverse pool.
"We also are in the beginning stages of figuring out how these protective strategies might be incorporated into prevention programs for further evaluation," Treat says.
In terms of risky sexual behavior, the study found:
Seven in 10 college-aged men surveyed reported they engaged in risky sexual behavior in the last year. 55% of college-aged men surveyed reported they used the preventative strategies on a regular basis when it came to risky sexual behavior.
Nearly 3 in 10 (29%) of college-aged men surveyed reported they seldom or never used the preventative strategies when it came to risky sexual behavior.
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The study, titled "Protective behavioral strategies for sexual aggression and risky sexual behavior," was published online Jan. 25 in the journal Aggressive Behavior.
Co-authors include William Corbin from Arizona State and Richard Viken from Indiana University-Bloomington.
The National Institutes of Health, through the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, funded the research.
Research identifies impact of teenagescreen use
Two thirds of children use more than one screen at the same time after school, in the evenings and at weekends as part of increasingly sedentary lifestyles, according to new research at the University of Leicester.
Two thirds of children use more than one screen at the same time after school, in the evenings and at weekends as part of increasingly sedentary lifestyles, according to new research at the University of Leicester.
An NIHR study of more than 800 adolescent girls between the ages of 11 and 14 identified worrying trends between screen use and lower physical activity - including higher BMI - as well as less sleep.
The use of concurrent screens (termed 'screen stacking') grew over the course of the week - with 59% of adolescents using two or more screens after school, 65% in the evenings, and 68% at weekends.
Some teens reporting using as many as four screens at one time.
But further analysis showed the use of any screen was still detrimental to the indicators of health and wellbeing. More than 90% owned or had access to a smart phone and using this after school had a knock on effect on their sleep.
Researchers from the Leicester Diabetes Centre at the University measured physical activity and sleep using accelerometers worn on participants' wrists, while those involved in the study self-reported the number of screens they were using at the same time - such as scrolling on a mobile phone while also watching TV - as well as perceptions of self-esteem and physical self-worth.
Dr Deirdre Harrington, Lecturer in Physical Activity for Health led the study during her time at Leicester and now works in the School of Psychological Sciences and Health at the University of Strathclyde. She said:
"Intuitively, we believe there must be negative effects on teenagers of using too many screens at the same time. Our data show it isn't as simple as that.
"This research was done before the COVID-19 lockdown, where much more of our day is spent in front of a screen. More than ever the effects of this on adolescents need to be known - there are positives too, no doubt.
"These adolescents wore an accelerometer 24 hours a day for a week allowing us to capture their daily routines and even estimate their sleep. Uniquely, they also reported how many screens they used at the same time which is not well known."
Melanie Davies, Professor of Diabetes Medicine at the University of Leicester and Co-Director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre based at Leicester General Hospital, said:
"Sadly, this study reminds us that we are in danger of creating a new generation of sedentary children. Increased sedentary time is closely linked to type 2 diabetes, which is increasing in younger age groups.
"The number of young people with type 2 diabetes has gone up by 50% in just five years."
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The study was supported by the National Institute for Public Health Research programme as well as the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, and the NIHR Applied Research and Care (ARC) East Midlands.
Founded in 2012, the Leicester Diabetes Centre is a unique, collaborative partnership between the NHS and the University of Leicester.
Ends
Antibiotic-resistant strains of staph bacteria may be spreading between pigs raised in factory farms
Findings from DNA-sequencing study raise public health concerns
JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
DNA sequencing of bacteria found in pigs and humans in rural eastern North Carolina, an area with concentrated industrial-scale pig-farming, suggests that multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains are spreading between pigs, farmworkers, their families and community residents, and represents an emerging public health threat, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
S. aureus is commonly found in soil and water, as well as on the skin and in the upper respiratory tract in pigs, other animals, and people. It can cause medical problems from minor skin infections to serious surgical wound infections, pneumonia, and the often-lethal blood-infection condition known as sepsis. The findings provide evidence that multidrug-resistant S. aureus strains are capable of spreading and possibly causing illness in and around factory farm communities in the U.S.--a scenario the authors say researchers should continue to investigate.
The study was published online February 22 in Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The researchers in recent years have been collecting samples of S. aureus from pigs, farmworkers, farmworkers' family members, and community residents--including children--in the top pig-producing counties in North Carolina. For the study, they sequenced the DNA from some of these samples to determine the relation of the strains found in pigs and people. They found that the strains were very closely related, providing evidence for transmission between pigs and people. Most of the strains carried genes conferring resistance to multiple antibiotics.
"We found that these livestock-associated S. aureus strains had many genes that confer resistance to antimicrobial drugs commonly used in the U.S. industrialized pig production system," says study first author Pranay Randad, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Bloomberg School's Department of Environmental Health and Engineering.
"These findings warrant future investigations into the transmission dynamics in nearby communities and disease burden associated with these strains in the United States," says study senior author Christopher Heaney, PhD, associate professor in the same department. Epidemiologists have long suspected that S. aureus and other bacteria are transmitted from humans to pigs on factory farms, and thereafter evolve antibiotic resistance within the pigs. The animals are routinely given antibiotics to prevent outbreaks in their dense concentrations on factory farms. The drug-resistant bacterial strains may then be transmitted back to humans, becoming a potentially serious source of disease.
In recent years, Heaney and colleagues have been gathering S. aureus isolates from pigs and farmworkers at factory-scale pig farms in North Carolina, one of the leading pig-farming states. Their research has shown that livestock-associated strains of S. aureus, many of them antibiotic-resistant strains, can be found not only in pigs but also in farmworkers, their family members, and residents living nearby.
For the new study they performed whole-genome sequencing on 49 of these S. aureus isolates to characterize these strains at the DNA level and get a more precise picture of their interrelatedness.
One finding was that all these isolates, whether taken from humans or pigs, belonged to a grouping of S. aureus strains known as clonal complex 9 (CC9).
"This CC9 is a novel and emerging subpopulation of S. aureus that not many people have been studying, apart from a few reports in Asia," Randad says.
The researchers also determined from their analysis that the CC9 isolates from North Carolina were closely related, in many cases implying recent transmission between pigs and people. Moreover, virtually all of the isolates that appeared to be involved in transmission between pigs and humans were multidrug resistant, suggesting that diseases these isolates cause could be hard to treat.
The scope of the study didn't include evaluating S. aureus-related disease among people in the affected communities, but one of the pig farmworkers who carried a CC9 isolate in their nose reported a recent skin infection.
"In other countries, such as in Europe, we see a high level of coordinated research on this topic from a public health perspective, with open access to collect bacterial isolates from pigs raised on factory farms, but so far in the U.S. not as much is being done," Randad says.
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"Transmission of Antimicrobial-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Clonal Complex 9 between Pigs and Humans, United States" was co-authored by Pranay Randad, Jesper Larsen, Hülya Kaya, Nora Pisanic, Carly Ordak, Lance Price, Maliha Aziz, Maya Nadimpalli, Sarah Rhodes, Jill Stewart, Dave Love, David Mohr, Meghan Davis, Lloyd Miller, Devon Hall, Karen Carroll, Trish Perl, and Christopher Heaney.
Support for the study was provided by the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Center for Environmental Infectious Diseases Discovery Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; the GRACE Communications Foundation; the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, among other funding sources.
Species traded legally through Hong Kong with inadequate traceability
Leading to unnoticed over-exploitation of common species
IMAGE: TOP THREE IMPORT AND EXPORT COUNTRIES/TERRITORIES FOR EACH WILDLIFE TRADE CATEGORY FROM 1997 TO 2016 BY TOTAL US$ TRADE VALUE. view more
CREDIT: THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, due primarily to human activity. Illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade is one of the major drivers of these declines, while much wildlife trade is legal, and the quantity of trade provides the opportunity to launder illegally sourced and traded species and products.
Researchers from the Conservation Forensics Lab at HKU and Research Division for Ecology and Biodiversity, analyzed trends in global legal wildlife trade from 1997 to 2016, and revealed that legal wildlife trade averaged $220 billion per year over this period, approximately double the international trade in tea, coffee and spices, and eclipsing - by order of magnitude - annual trade in trafficked wildlife, estimated between $7-23 billion each year.
This tremendous legal trade is declared using the Harmonized System (HS) Code system, a global product classification system which is used for encompassing all traded commodities globally; in which, seafood, furniture and fashion were the largest categories of traded wildlife commodities.
The research shows that legal wildlife trade remains largely unexamined, despite its scale, and that 34% of trade is declared using overly broad codes that only specify taxonomic class and above. The research team therefore suggests that the HS Codes be distilled to increase traceability and help monitor trade. The paper has been published in the science journal Global Ecology and Conservation.
Hong Kong as a major transit hub
The vast majority of legal wildlife trade involved seafood (~82%), with the top trading countries being the USA, China and Japan. When removing seafood from the analysis, Hong Kong was the overall top wildlife trader globally, especially in trade for fashion (furs and skins) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). This indicates the pivotal role of this small territory as a major transit hub for global wildlife trade, especially as a re-exporter: more than 90% of the wildlife/wildlife products imported into the territory are re-exported. Additionally, Thailand and Vietnam are also important re-exporters, as they are among the top five exporters of "processed wildlife". Targeting these locations for resource allocation (financial, personnel, training, equipment) in customs inspections of wildlife could have a maximum impact relative to investment.
This research, led by PhD student Astrid ANDERSSON from the Conservation Forensics Lab at HKU and Research Division for Ecology and Biodiversity, relied on data from the UN Comtrade database, which includes official statistics of international trade. The database uses the HS Code system, in which approximately 5,300 codes encompassing all traded commodities globally. Since the primary function of these code are to provide data for statistics and tax purposes, rather than the ecological considerations, it is not designed to track individual products, and can be very broad, with a single code encompassing up to thousands of species.
CAPTION
USD billions of wildlife and wildlife products are traded internationally without species-level traceability.
CREDIT
Astrid Andersson
Breaking the broad codes for sustainability
Though the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(see note 1) (CITES) appendices track and regulate legal trade in more than 35,000 threatened species, there are still many thousands more species traded for which there is little-to-no traceability, for examples, various reptiles, birds and fish are traded at high volumes and diverse across major markets, and species-level information is lost in these general codes.
Andersson and her colleagues found that much legal wildlife trade is conducted under vague, all-encompassing codes with broad descriptions, some of which are used particularly frequently. For example, CITES does not cover many songbirds, fish, trees or plants traded. These species are often traded as pets, furniture or traditional medicine - the very categories identified as having frequent use of broad codes. The "Live reptile" code includes nearly 10,000 snake, lizard, turtle and crocodilian species, only approximately 10% of which are documented by CITES. In the pet category, 95% of trade in the pets category was declared under broad codes such as "Live ornamental fish", "Other live birds" and "Live reptiles" - not allowing for tracking of trade of individual species. CITES only includes 162 species of fish - which leaves thousands of fish also traded untraceably under the "Live ornamental fish" code.
Critically endangered species such as Straw-headed bulbuls, a songbird popular in the pet trade due to their singing ability, have been driven nearly to extinction due to wildlife trade. Species that are currently common, such as the Oriental Magpie-robin, are increasingly seen in wildlife markets and without sufficient monitoring these could also face severe population declines across their range.
The current HS Code system may not be perfectly designed for tracking wildlife trade, but it is the only available method to date for tracking international legal trade for non-endangered species, and these trades are tracked via the CITES. The authors of the study suggest that the system could be refined to allow for better tracking of wildlife trade. "Our research constitutes a first step in uncovering the issues that are inherent in the current system, and detailing how it can be improved to protect biodiversity," says Astrid Andersson, PhD student and author of the research. "We identify countries/territories where targeted enforcement could be particularly impactful, and priority wildlife trade areas for additional, species-specific code allocation," she adds.
CAPTION
Co-author of the study Hannah Tilley records songbirds for sale in the Hong Kong bird market in Mong Kok.
CREDIT
Astrid Ander
The current prevalence of broad HS Code descriptions provides a low-resolution trade landscape characterized by vague parameters preventing effective monitoring of trade. This impedes enforcement and results in undetected mislabeling of protected species by a number of means, including covert farming and trading in protected species, fraudulent declaration of wild-caught individuals within a farm-sourced shipment, and underreporting trade volumes. These issues would become more detectable if HS Codes relating to wildlife were broken down to genus or species level.
"Unsustainable trade in wildlife poses a major threat to biodiversity globally. While much international wildlife trade is legal, the scale of this trade can lead to unnoticed over-exploitation of species because we cannot properly monitor the level of trade," says Dr Caroline DINGLE, Director of the Conservation Forensics Lab at HKU, Senior Lecturer from
the Research Division for Ecology and Biodiversity and co-author of the study. "It is important to have systems in place which allow us to monitor legally traded wildlife to prevent further biodiversity declines, and to continuously adjust these systems in response to new patterns of trade." Dingle added.
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Note 1: CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. https://cites.org
Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.
Legal wildlife trade needs monitoring to reduce risk of a new pandemic
With three out of four newly emerging infectious human diseases originating in animals, there is an urgent need to monitor the legal trade in wildlife, according to new research by Vincent Nijman, Professor in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University.
With three out of four newly emerging infectious human diseases originating in animals*, there is an urgent need to monitor the legal trade in wildlife, according to new research by Vincent Nijman, Professor in Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University.
Professor Nijman, who has been involved in monitoring and regulating the legal wildlife trade for over two decades, said: "Covid-19 more than anything else has put a spotlight on emerging infectious diseases and how this is linked to the trade in wild animals. Few people are aware of its scale. With literally hundreds of millions of live wild animals being shipped around the world each year, it seems unlikely that diseases are spread through illegal channels only. After all, parasites, bacteria and viruses do not read legal documents or check if they have received the correct stamp."
Dangerous to only focus on illegal wildlife trade
The illegal wildlife trade is often seen as one of the major gateways to zoonotic diseases, that spread from animals to humans. While the illegal trade in tigers, ivory, rhino horn, pangolins and primates is of paramount concern for public health, Professor Nijman says the legal wildlife trade should be of equal concern: "Given that in many instances the legal wildlife trade is several orders of magnitude larger than the illegal trade, it is ineffective and possibly dangerous to focus on the illegal wildlife trade only."
Lack of hygiene in wet markets could drive infection transmission
The Covid-19 pandemic threw attention onto wet markets, now associated closely with zoonotic diseases. But in the wet market of Wuhan, the vast majority of non-domesticated animals (crocodiles, bats, civets, bamboo rats) were legally offered for sale. Professor Nijman notes that "a lack of appropriate hygiene conditions (handwashing, sanitation, separation of wildlife and their parts), make wildlife markets drivers for the transmission of infections."
Dr Chris R. Shepherd, an expert on wildlife trade and the Executive Director of the Monitor Conservation Research Society added: "This study clearly illustrates that there are incredibly serious risks associated with the trade in wildlife, regardless of whether the species involved are traded legally or illegally.
"Clearly the risk of spreading harmful zoonotic disease must be considered when regulating the trade in wildlife, and much more research and preventative measures are essential if we are to avoid further pandemics."
IMAGE: OBSERVING ANIMALS OBVIOUSLY BELONGS TO THOSE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES THAT DIRECTLY DEPEND ON THE PRESENCE OF SPECIES. HOWEVER, THESE SPECIES PROVIDE A NUMBER OF OTHER SERVICES, SUCH AS PEST CONTROL, SEED... view more
CREDIT: THERESA HICKFANG
Functioning ecosystems provide the basis for security, basic material needs, health, social interaction and individual liberty. This is how the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005 described it, dividing ecosystem services into the following categories: The provisioning services; goods such as food, water, firewood and timber, the regulating services; pollination, water filtering function of the soil, flood and erosion protection, and the cultural services; recreation, places of inspiration, and education. Many of these services are indirectly and directly linked to the presence of species. For this reason, species conservation is often put forward as a measure for the conservation of vital natural services.
"However, most previous studies argue that areas important for ecosystem services do not necessarily correspond to those important for biodiversity conservation," said senior author Prof Henrique Pereira from iDiv and MLU. "We were able to show that this is probably because these studies only look at a few ecosystem services, and species-linked services are rarely among them."
In their new study, the researchers selected nine different species-linked ecosystem services for which data were available on the occurrence and distribution of the species providing them in Europe. These are wild food, medicinal plants, fodder, pest control, carcass removal, seed dispersal, wildlife watching, hunting, and existence value; this is the benefit we derive from knowing that rare and endangered species continue to exist. To find out which species provide these services, they searched databases for functional characteristics such as medicinal value, edibility, but also their importance for hunting and wildlife watching.
The researchers then created individual maps of how the providers of these services are distributed in Europe. They then did the same for nine typical biophysical ecosystem services that are not linked to species, such as agricultural production, livestock farming and carbon storage. They compared these maps in computer models and calculated where there is spatial overlap and how the different ecosystem services influence each other.
The results show that, especially on a larger spatial scale, biophysical and species-linked ecosystem services often occur simultaneously. This became more evident the more ecosystem services were considered. The regions where species conservation and ecosystem services play a role thus coincided more often than previously assumed. Negative correlations between the two approaches were found predominantly for agricultural production, which, among other things, limits regulating ecosystem services such as water purification and cultural services such as natural beauty.
"With our study, we show that there are strong connections between species diversity and ecosystem services," said first author Dr Silvia Ceau?u, who conducted the study at iDiv and MLU. She recently joined the Centre for Biodiversity and Environmental Research at University College London. These connections need to be made more visible in assessments of nature's contributions to human wellbeing in order to fully understand how to manage and protect these benefits to humans."
"We're still lacking biodiversity data to truly map species-based ecosystem services at large scales," said Henrique Pereira. "So we need more research on the question of how ecosystem services at the landscape and regional scale depend on the abundance and traits of the species present." For Europe, the researchers are therefore currently establishing the EuropaBON project, which is intended to make this, and other such data available to stakeholders in the future.
IMAGE: EVANGELOS PANOS IS CONVINCED THAT IF SWITZERLAND WANTS TO ACHIEVE THE ZERO-EMISSIONS TARGET BY 2050, IT NEED GREAT EFFORTS. view more
CREDIT: PAUL SCHERRER INSTITUTE/MAHIR DZAMBEGOVIC
Can Switzerland, as planned, cut its CO2 emissions to zero by 2050? In a study, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have investigated what measures would be necessary to achieve this reduction and how much it might cost per person.
In August 2019, the Swiss Federal Council decided on an ambitious target to limit climate change: From the year 2050 onward Switzerland should, on balance, discharge no further greenhouse gas emissions. With this commitment, Switzerland meets the internationally agreed goal of limiting global warming to a maximum of 1.5° C compared to the pre-industrial era.
Now a study by the Paul Scherrer Institute, conducted within the Joint Activity "Scenarios and Modelling" of the eight Swiss Competence Centres for Energy Research (SCCER), probes what options for achieving this goal exist in the energy sector.
"The goal of achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 requires drastic transformations in the provision and consumption of energy in nearly all areas," concludes Tom Kober, head of the PSI Energy Economics Group and one of the study's main authors.
In their analyses, the researchers considered energy-related CO2 emissions as well as CO2 emissions from industrial processes. Today these emissions represent around 80% of the entire Swiss greenhouse gas inventory. Not included in the study's calculations are emissions from international aviation, agriculture - with the exception of emissions from fuel combustion - land use, changes in land use, and forestry, as well as waste - except for emissions from waste incineration. Also, emissions in other countries that are associated with consumption of goods in Switzerland were not a subject of the study.
Electricity from photovoltaics must at least double every decade
The central conclusions of the study are: Between now and 2050, the installed capacity of photovoltaic systems must at least double every decade. With 26 terawatt hours of production envisioned in 2050, photovoltaic systems will be the second largest generation technology group behind hydropower (approx. 38 terawatt hours in 2050). Furthermore, power plants with cogeneration of heat and power, as well as wind power plants, hydrogen fuel cells, and electricity imports, all contribute to meeting the demand for electricity. In the main scenario for achieving the net zero emissions target, overall electricity generation from power plants and storage facilities in Switzerland will increase by around one-fifth, to 83 terawatt hours in 2050. The study assumes that Swiss nuclear power plants will be decommissioned by 2045. The private car fleet would have to be largely based on electric motors by 2050, meaning that by 2030 every third new car registered would have to be fully electric. In addition, the use of heat pumps in service and living areas would have to be significantly accelerated, so that by 2050 they could cover almost three-quarters of the demand for heating and hot water. At the same time, it would be necessary to achieve significant energy savings through accelerated renovation of residential buildings.
If Switzerland wants to achieve the net zero emissions target, a significant increase in electricity consumption must be expected. Thus in 2050, electricity consumption might be around 20 terawatt hours above today's level. A fundamental driver of this growth is the use of electricity to power cars, buses, and trucks, either directly in battery-electric vehicles or indirectly through hydrogen or so-called e-fuels - that is, synthetic fuels, which are produced by means of electricity from hydrogen and CO2. In the stationary sectors, the proliferation of installed heat pumps will increase consumption of electricity. If the necessary efficiency gains in heating and hot water supply are achieved, however, these could compensate for the increased electricity consumption. The study results show that stationary sectors could achieve an almost constant level of electricity consumption.
Besides electrical energy, other forms of energy will play a role. For example, long-distance and freight transport as well as energy-intensive industry offer prospects for new hydrogen applications. To produce such low or zero emission hydrogen requires a substantial amount of sustainably generated electricity would be necessary - 9 terawatt hours in 2050.
It probably won't work without CO2 capture
"If Switzerland wants to achieve the zero emissions target by 2050, then in the future CO2 emissions will have to be reduced every year by an average of one to one and a half million tonnes compared to the previous year," says Evangelos Panos, lead author of the study. "We saw changes in CO2 emissions of this magnitude between 1950 and 1980 - albeit in the opposite direction - back then they increased massively." Though it has limitations, CO2 capture was shown to be necessary to implement the emissions reduction cost-effectively. In some subsectors, it might even be possible to reach a negative balance in terms of CO2 emissions. This would be the case, for example, if biomass is used as an energy source and the CO2 produced during energy generation is not emitted, but rather is captured and stored underground. In the event that this should not be possible in Switzerland - for example due to rejection by the population or because of limited sites for CO2 storage - cross-national transport of captured CO2 and storage in other countries could offer aa alternative. In their study the researchers assume, for the year 2050, a total of almost 9 million tonnes of CO2 would be captured in Switzerland.
"More than two-thirds of the emission reductions required for the net zero emissions target can be achieved with technologies that are already commercially available or are in the demonstration phase," Panos explains. The decarbonised energy system of the future is achievable but would require carbon-free energy sources, for example appropriately generated electricity, biofuels and e-fuels, access to the corresponding transport and distribution infrastructures, and the possibility of importing clean fuels and electricity.
Costs are hard to estimate
With regard to costs, the energy system researchers are cautious. "The costs are very difficult to estimate, because an enormous number of components play a role," Kober says. In the net zero main scenario assumed in the study, the average discounted additional costs of the climate protection scenario compared to the reference scenario with moderate climate protection (40% CO2 reduction in 2050 compared to 1990) in Switzerland would amount to around 330 CHF per person per year (basis 2010) for the period up to 2050. Looking at all of the scenarios examined, one can see a range of average costs between 200 and 860 CHF2010 per person per year, which ultimately reflects different developments in energy technologies, resource availability, and market integration, in the acceptance of technologies, and in preferences regarding supply security. The trend in costs shows, above all, a long-term increase, so comparatively high costs can also be expected after 2050.
The study is based on calculations made with the Swiss TIMES Energy System Model (STEM) of PSI, which maps the entire energy system of Switzerland including the various interactions between technologies and sectors. STEM combines a long-term time horizon with high intra-year temporal resolution and calculates, for various future framework assumptions, the cost-minimal configurations of the energy system and the attainment of different energy and climate policy goals. The model was significantly further developed as part of this research project, especially with regard to the options for realising net zero CO2 emissions scenarios. The model is used to calculate scenarios, not to make predictions, but rather give insights into the diverse interactions in the energy system and thus to make a contribution to decision-making support in politics, industry, and society. Specifically, three main scenarios were examined in this study: A reference scenario, a net zero CO2 emissions reduction scenario, and a scenario that assumes the goals of the Swiss Energy Strategy 2050 without explicitly specifying a CO2 reduction target. In addition, seven different variants of the main scenarios were analysed, such as one variant with high technological innovation potential and another variant oriented towards reducing dependence on energy imports.
CAPTION
Study authors Evangelos Panos (left) and Tom Kober know: Electromobility will play an important role in the energy transition.
CREDIT
Paul Scherrer Institute/Mahir Dzambegovic
In addition to PSI, the following institutions are involved in the SCCER Joint Activity "Scenarios and Modelling" collaborative framework: Empa, EPFL, ETH Zurich, Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, the University of Basel, the University of Geneva, and WSL. The study was financed by Innosuisse - the Swiss Innovation Agency.
Text: Paul Scherrer Institute/Sebastian Jutzi
Original publication:
Panos, E.; Kober, T.; Ramachandran, K.; Hirschberg, S. (2021): Long-Term Energy Transformation Pathways - Integrated Scenario Analysis with the Swiss TIMES Energy systems Model; Report of the Joint Activity Scenarios and Modelling of the Swiss Competence Centers for Energy Research. Download pdf version:
A new review of existing evidence proposes eight hallmarks of environmental exposures that chart the biological pathways through which pollutants contribute to disease: oxidative stress and inflammation, genomic alterations and mutations, epigenetic alterations, mitochondrial dysfunction, endocrine disruption, altered intercellular communication, altered microbiome communities, and impaired nervous system function.
The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Ludwig Maximilian University, and Hasselt University is published in the journal Cell.
"Every day we learn more about how exposure to pollutants in air, water, soil, and food is harmful to human health," says senior author Andrea Baccarelli, MD, PhD, chair of Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia Mailman School. "Less understood, however, are the specific biological pathways through which these chemicals inflict damage on our bodies. In this paper, we provide a framework to understand why complex mixtures of environmental exposures bring about serious illness even at relatively modest concentrations."
We are continually exposed to a mixture of pollutants, which lead to changes in our bodies in multiple domains, from conception to old age. They govern gene expression, train and shape our immune systems, trigger physiological responses, and determine wellbeing and disease.
The paper summarizes evidence for eight hallmarks of environmental insults:
1. Oxidative stress and inflammation: When antioxidant defenses are depleted, inflammation, cell death, and organ damage occur.
2. Genomic alterations and mutations: An accumulation of DNA errors can trigger cancer and other chronic diseases.
3. Epigenetic alterations: Epigenetic changes alter the synthesis of proteins responsible for childhood development and regular function of the body.
4. Mitochondrial dysfunction: A breakdown in the cellular powerplant may interfere with human development and contribute to chronic disease.
5. Endocrine disruption: Chemicals found in our environment, food, and consumer products disrupt the regulation of hormones and contribute to disease.
6. Altered intercellular communication: Signaling receptors and other means by which cells communicate with each other, including neurotransmission, are affected.
7. Altered microbiome communities: An imbalance in the population of bacteria and other microorganisms in our body can make us susceptible to allergies and infections.
8. Impaired nervous system function. Microscopic particles in air pollution reach the brain through the olfactory nerve, and can interfere with cognition.
Not all environmental exposures are harmful. The researchers note that exposure to nature has been reported to have beneficial impacts on mental health.
These eight hallmarks are by no means comprehensive and do not capture the full complexity of the chemical and physical properties of environmental exposures, including mixtures of exposures over the short and long-term. Further research is needed to understand the complex mechanisms by which exposures affect human biology, and how altered processes interact and contribute to disease or confer health benefits, across the life course.
"We need research to expand our knowledge of disease mechanisms going beyond genetics.
Advances in biomedical technologies and data science will allow us to delineate the complex interplay of environmental insults down to the single-cell level," says Baccarelli. "This knowledge will help us develop ways to prevent and treat illness. With the serious environmental challenges like air pollution and climate change, most of all, we need strong local, national, and inter-governmental policies to ensure healthy environments."
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The study's corresponding author is Annette Peters, PhD, director of the Institute of Epidemiology at Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, and chair of epidemiology, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry and Epidemiology, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Tim S. Nawrot, PhD, Hasselt University, Hasselt, Belgium, is a co-author.
Support for the research was provided by a grant from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (874627), the Flemish Research Fund, Belgium (G048420N), and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (P30009089, ES025225, ES032638
