High school junior's consumer seismometer delivers low-cost earthquake early warning

SEISMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Research News

 

IMAGE: VIVIEN HE WITH HER EARTHQUAKE EARLY WARNING DEVICE IN HER MAKESHIFT SOLDERING ROOM CONVERTED FROM A BATHROOM. view more 

CREDIT: VIVIEN HE

A Southern California high school junior has built a low-cost seismometer device that delivers earthquake early warnings for homes and businesses. Costing less than $100 for her to make today, the seismometer could someday be a regular household safety device akin to a smart smoke detector, says its inventor Vivien He.

About the size of a Rubik's cube and encased in clear acrylic, the seismometer has a sleek, consumer-ready look. The device's geophone detects incoming ground motion, while onboard hardware and software translate the geophone's electrical signals into a digital waveform. The device has detected all earthquakes over magnitude 3.0 around Los Angeles since September 2020.

When earthquakes are stronger than the alert threshold set by the user, the device can sound the onboard alarm for on-site warning, send a text message to local subscribers of the regional warning service, and can be controlled from a smartphone.

He presented her research on the device at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)'s 2021 Annual Meeting.She also won a SSA Student Travel Grant, the only high school student among all recipients, to attend the conference free of charge. She is a student at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills Estates. He thanks her science research class teacher, Melissa Klose, for her guidance on scientific research methods and her support in pursuing research opportunities.

He researched, designed, built, and tested the entire device over a summer and fall spent at home under COVID-19 restrictions. Her home lab occupies a corner of a bedroom with "bedside drawers full of little wires and extra geophones and components." she said.

There was also the bathroom she borrowed where the bright light was good for soldering. For acrylic laser cutting, her dad helped her drag a table out of the garage into the yard as a safety precaution.

"I did--don't tell my mom--but I did one time have a little bit of a fire," she admitted.

The seismometer device fills a gap in current earthquake early warning systems, He said, by providing a consumer-friendly, low-cost but built-for-purpose alternative to more expensive, scientific-grade systems like the West Coast's ShakeAlert system. Her device offers a way for people in earthquake zones to gain a few to tens of seconds of warning to take action and automatically shut down utilities and machinery at work.

He has set up a nonprofit, Melior Earth, to help her get the device to those who need an inexpensive earthquake early warning system. "I do have hopes that I would be able to provide this to lower-income families and neighborhoods with less earthquake-proof infrastructure," she said.

Quiet Under Quarantine

He got the idea for the seismometer after reading a paper about the unusual seismic "quiet" that descended over the earth when COVID-19 lockdowns brought a halt to much human activity. "I was wondering whether I would be able to measure that from my own home," she recalled, "and then that quickly evolved into, I wonder if I can measure in my own home and apply it to earthquake early warning?"

She began reading about earthquake early warning and building a giant three-ring binder of highlighted papers, including many from SSA journals. One of her favorite researchers in the field was Richard M. Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismology Lab.

"I really enjoyed the way he explained earthquake early warning systems and the current systems' limitations," He said.

The research gave He the confidence that she could build a low-cost device for earthquake early warning, taking a consumer-based approach versus the conventional public station-based approach. After that, it was time to figure out the components, the programming and the design. She didn't have much expertise going into the project, however, given much of the skills and knowledge needed were outside of school curriculum.

"I went to an MIT hackathon the other day, and what they said is that the secret for hackers is that they just google everything, right?" she said. "And that's kind of like what I did for this project, like, oh, I don't know how this works, just google it!'"

As He will discuss in her SSA presentation, the device evolved over time as her skills improved and she solved design problems along the way. Along with its alert and notification functions, the final design contains a data card that can hold up to four years' worth of standard earthquake waveform files that can also be used for seismological studies.

"Hey, You Guys Hear That?"

He plugged in her first seismometer one night after midnight last September. "And then I went to sleep, and then the next day I woke up and there had been an earthquake in Los Angeles and I was like, oh, it's fate!"

She compared the seismic signal captured by her device to one produced by a U.S. Geological Survey station near her house, "and the waveform looked the same," she recalled.

One of the early successes of her testing period came when "my family was all in the living room and we were all talking and the device started beeping and I said, 'Hey, you guys hear that?' And they were like, 'is it an earthquake?' and then the pendant lights started shaking," she said.

The seismometer has since successfully detected several recent earthquakes in Southern California, and He has competed in science fairs at her school district and Los Angeles County. There, she won the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) Finalist award, which moves her on to compete at the international level next. In addition, she won the Association of Women Geoscientists Award, the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women & Girls 1st Place Award and Scholarship, and the Professional Engineers in California Government's Marylin Jorgenson-Reece Award of Excellence and Scholarship.

He, who turned 17 in February, is working on getting a utility patent for the device. She plans to use her nonprofit to drive consumer adoption for the device, especially making earthquake early warning accessible for the lower-income countries, regions and population.

"The whole point of it is that it would be a consumer product, but I'm not focused on the monetary gain of it," she explained. "I'm more focused on the science of it and just the impact in general on people and on earthquake disaster prevention."

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Frequent internet use by older people during lockdown linked to mental health benefits

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Research News

 

A new study from the University of Surrey has found that among people aged 55 to 75 more frequent use of the internet was beneficial for mental health and quality of life under lockdown. Those who used the internet more, particularly for staying in touch with friends and family, were at lower risk of depression and reported a higher quality of life.

Loneliness and social isolation have been major problems for many under lockdown, and for older people in particular. Loneliness raises risk of depression and other negative health outcomes. In a paper published in the journal Healthcare, researchers from Surrey investigated whether more frequent internet use in older people helped reduce this risk.

Researchers studied 3,491 individual participants drawn from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing in Summer 2020, whilst social distancing measures were in place across the country. Participants were surveyed on the frequency and type of their internet usage - such as information searching or for communication purposes.

Those who reported using the internet frequently (once a day or more) had much lower levels of depression symptoms and reported higher quality of life compared to those who used the internet only once a week or less. Using the internet for communication was particularly linked to these beneficial effects, suggesting that going online to stay connected with friends and family helped combat the negative psychological effects of social distancing and lockdown in adults aged 55-75.

Conversely, the study found that people who mostly used the internet to search for health-related information reported higher levels of depression symptoms. This might be due to a greater degree of worry triggered by reading Covid-19 and other health-related internet sources.

Dr Simon Evans, Lecturer in Neuroscience at the University of Surrey, said: "As social restrictions continue during the Covid-19 pandemic, older people are at greater risk of loneliness and mental health issues. We found that older adults who used the internet more frequently under lockdown, particularly to communicate with others, had lower depression scores and an enhanced quality of life. As the Covid-19 situation evolves, more frequent internet use could benefit the mental health of older people by reducing loneliness and risk of depression, particularly if further lockdowns are imposed in the future."

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Adversity in early life linked to higher risk of mental health problems

Risk can be reduced by improving parent-child relationship and increasing child self-esteem and physical activity

RCSI

Research News

 

Thursday, 22 April 2021 - New research has found that childhood adversity, such as parental conflict, death of a close family member or serious injury, before the age of nine was associated with mental health problems in late adolescence.

However, the research also shows that improving the relationship between parents and children could prevent subsequent mental health problems, even in children who have experienced severe adversities. The research also indicated that improving a child's self-esteem and increasing their levels of physical activity can help to reduce the risk of developing mental health problems.

The study, led by researchers from RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, is recently published in Psychological Medicine.

The research team analysed data from over 6,000 children in Ireland who took part in the Growing Up in Ireland study. The results showed that just over a quarter of children had experienced childhood adversity before the age of nine.

At age 17 and 18, almost one in five of the young people were experiencing significant mental health difficulties. 15.2% had developed internalising problems, such as anxiety or depression, and 7.5% had developed externalising problems, such as conduct problems or hyperactivity.

Those who experienced childhood adversity were significantly more likely to report mental health problems in late adolescence.

Parent-child conflict explained 35% of the relationship between childhood adversity and late adolescent externalising problems. The conflict also accounted for 42% of the relationship between childhood adversity and internalising problems.

The child's self-esteem (also called self-concept) explained 27% of the relationship between child adversity and later internalising problems. The child's level of physical activity explained 9% of the relationship between childhood adversity and later internalising problems.

"Children who experience multiple or severe life events are at an increased risk of mental health problems, but not all of those exposed to such events develop such problems. Our research points to some factors that can be useful for off-setting the risk of mental health problems in those who have been exposed to difficult life events," said Dr Colm Healy, the study's lead author and postdoctoral researcher at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The work was funded by the Health Research Board in Ireland and the European Research Council.

"Among children who have experienced adversity, we found that reducing conflict between the parent and child and fostering a warm relationship can protect them from a broad range of later mental health problems," said Professor Mary Cannon, the study's principal investigator and professor of Psychiatric Epidemiology and Youth Mental Health at RCSI.

"We also found that improving a child's self-esteem and encouraging physical activity may also be useful intervention targets for preventing difficulties with mood and anxiety following earlier adversity. On the whole, this is a hopeful story that points towards effective interventions to improve outcomes for children who had experienced difficulties early in life."

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About RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences

Ranked number one globally for Good Health and Well-being in the Times Higher Education (THE) University Impact Rankings 2020, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences is an international not-for-profit university, with its headquarters in Dublin.

RCSI is exclusively focused on education and research to drive improvements in human health worldwide. It is among the top 250 universities worldwide in the THE World University Rankings (2020) and its research is ranked first in Ireland for citations. RCSI has been awarded Athena Swan Bronze accreditation for positive gender practice in higher education.

Visit the RCSI MyHealth Expert Directory to find the details of our experts across a range of healthcare issues and concerns. Recognising their responsibility to share their knowledge and discoveries to empower people with information that leads them to better health, these clinicians and researchers are willing to engage with the media in their area of expertise.

How is a molecular machine assembled?

Biology

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

Research News

 

 

The study was publihed by the team from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), the Max Planck Institutes of Biochemistry and Biophysics, the Center for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO) and the Chemistry Department at Philipps Universität Marburg, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA, and Université Paris-Saclay, France, online on 12 April 2021 in the journal Nature Plants.

Catalyst of life

Photosystem II (PS II) is of fundamental importance for life, as it is able to catalyse the splitting of water. The oxygen released in this reaction allows us to breathe. In addition, PS II converts light energy in such a way that atmospheric CO2 can be used to synthesise organic molecules. PS II thus represents the molecular beginning of all food chains. Its structure and function have already been researched in detail, but little has been known so far about the molecular processes that lead to the orderly assembly of the complex.

Assembly production

PS II consists of more than 100 individual parts that have to come together in a well-orchestrated process in order to ultimately create a fully functional machine. Helper proteins, so-called assembly factors, which are responsible for the sub-steps, play a crucial role in this process. "Picture them as robots on an assembly line, for example making a car," explains Professor Marc Nowaczyk from the RUB Chair for Plant Biochemistry. "Each robot adds a part or assembles prefabricated modules to end up with a perfect machine."

When figuring out how this is done, the difficulty was to isolate an intermediate product, including its molecular helpers, because such transition states are very unstable compared to the finished product and are only present in very small quantities. Only by using tricks, such as removing a part of the assembly line production, was it possible to isolate an intermediate stage with the associated helper proteins for the first time.

Cold insights: cryo-electron microscopy

Thanks to cryo-electron microscopy, sensitive protein structures, which include PS II transition states, and even the smallest virus particles can be imaged. The data, published in Nature Plants, show the molecular structure of a PS II transition complex with as many as three helper proteins. "During the construction of the PSII structural model, it turned out that one of these helper proteins causes previously unknown structural changes that we eventually linked to a novel protective mechanism," explains Dr. Till Rudack from the Centre for Protein Diagnostics (ProDi). During this assembly step, PS II is only partially active: light-induced processes can already take place, but water splitting is not yet activated. This, as it turned out, leads to the formation of aggressive oxygen species that can damage the unfinished complex. However, the binding of the helper protein and the associated structural change at PS II can prevent the formation of the harmful molecules and, consequently, protect the complex in its vulnerable phase. Another helper protein in turn prepares the activation of the water-splitting mechanism. "As soon as we succeed in identifying any further intermediate stages of this activation, this could be the key to a profound understanding of molecular light-driven water splitting. As a result, we could advance the development of synthetic catalysts for the energy conversion of sunlight into organic substances," conclude the authors.

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New therapy target for malignant melanomas in dogs

HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: ANTITUMOR EFFECT OF ANTI-PD-L1 ANTIBODY. CT IMAGES OF ORAL MALIGNANT MELANOMA (UPPER LEFT) AND ITS LUNG METASTASES (LOWER LEFT) OBSERVED IN A POMERANIAN (12 YEARS OLD, MALE). AS A RESULT... view more 

CREDIT: NAOYA MAEKAWA, ET AL. NPJ PRECISION ONCOLOGY. FEBRUARY 12, 2021

Scientists have shown that the biological molecule PD-L1 is a potential target for the treatment of metastasized oral malignant melanoma in dogs.

There are a number of cancers that affect dogs, but there are far fewer diagnosis and treatment options for these canine cancers. However, as dogs and humans are both mammals, it is likely that strategies and treatments for cancers in humans can be used for canine cancer, with minor modifications.

A team of scientists, including Associate Professor Satoru Konnai from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Hokkaido University, have demonstrated that an anti-cancer therapy that targets the cancer marker PD-L1--a target that has shown great promise for treating cancer in humans--is effective for canine cancer as well. Their findings were published in the journal npj Precision Oncology.

The proteins Programmed Cell Death 1 (PD-1) and its associated molecule, PD-ligand 1 (PD-L1) are involved in the immune response in humans. PD-L1 is overexpressed by many types of cancer in humans, enabling these cancers to suppress the immune response. Studies in mice models and in human cell lines have shown that PD-1 and PD-L1 have great promise in the treatment of cancer as blocking them strengthens the immune response to cancer.

Malignant melanomas are a canine cancer that is both relatively common and fatal. In particular, oral malignant melanomas (OMMs) are highly invasive and metastatic; with treatment, the median survival time is less than two months. As new treatments are needed for this cancer, the scientists chose to explore the options available.

The scientists first developed a novel anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody to detect PD-L1 in various canine cancers by immunohistochemical staining. Using this antibody, they demonstrated that malignant canine cancers expressed PD-L1; out of 20 samples for each cancer tested, nasal adenocarcinoma, transitional cell carcinoma, osteosarcoma and mammary adenocarcinoma had a 100% positive rate, while anal sac gland carcinoma and OMM had a 95% positive rate.

A prior pilot study had shown that another canine chimeric anti-PD-L1 monoclonal antibody had anti-tumor effect against OMM, when tested on nine dogs. For the current study scientists selected 29 dogs with primary OMM and pulmonary metastasis, where the melanoma has spread to the lungs, and most of which had been subjected to at least one round of treatment. These dogs were treated with the chimeric antibody every two weeks, and other interventions to achieve local control of cancer were allowed.

The survival time of dogs treated with the chimeric antibody was significantly longer, with a median survival time of 143 days, compared to 54 days for the control group, from historical data. Thirteen dogs had measurable cancer (i.e., at least one tumor >10 mm in diameter in CT scan), while 16 had non-measurable cancer (all tumors < 10 mm in diameter in CT scan). Five dogs showed tumor response, where the tumor reduced or disappeared due to the treatment. In one of these, all detectable tumors disappeared. In two other dogs, all detectable tumors disappeared, resulting in survival times longer than a year. In the last two dogs, all tumors in the lungs disappeared, but oral and lymph node tumors persisted. The increase in survival time correlated positively with radiation therapy that was simultaneous or began within eight weeks of treatment with the chimeric antibody.

"Our findings are limited by the small size of the historical control group," says Satoru Konnai. "Nevertheless, as there is no systemic therapy that prolongs the survival of dogs with pulmonary metastatic OMM, the increased survival time encourages the further development of anti-PD-L1 therapy in dogs."

CAPTION

PD-L1 immunohistochemical staining in typical oral malignant melanoma (left) and squamous cell skin cancer (right). The tumor cells are stained brown, indicating that they are PD-L1 positive (Naoya Maekawa, et al. npj Precision Oncology. February 12, 2021).

CAPTION

From left: Yusuke Izumi, Naoya Maekawa, Satoshi Takagi, Tatsuya Deguchi and Satoru Konnai, members of the research team.  THE DOG IS AN UNAMED MEMBER OF THE TEAM

CREDIT Hokkaido University

Neuro-researchers find repetitive head impacts can result in functional brain impairments

Brain vital signs concussion study in Bantam and junior A ice-hockey detects significant subconcussive changes in cognitive brain function

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: HOCKEY PLAYER GETS HIS BRAIN VITAL SIGNS CHECKED. RESEARCHERS FIND REPETITIVE HEAD IMPACTS CAN RESULT IN FUNCTIONAL BRAIN IMPAIRMENTS IN YOUTH HOCKEY. view more 

CREDIT: HEALTH AND TECHNOLOGY DISTRICT

Surrey, B.C. Canada and Rochester, Minn., U.S. (April 22, 2021) - Neuroscience researchers at Mayo Clinic Orthopedics and Sports Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, U.S., the Health and Technology District and Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada have published the latest results of their ongoing multi-year hockey concussion study examining changes in subconcussive cognitive brain function in male youth ice hockey players.

The research team monitored brain vital signs during pre- and post-season play in 23 Bantam (age 14 or under) and Junior A (age 16 to 20) male ice-hockey players in Rochester, Minnesota.

"Brain vital signs" translates complex brain waves measured using portable electroencephalography (EEG) at the rink-side, into simple, fast, user-friendly and intuitive results that provide an objective evaluation of cognitive brain function. Called the ABCs of brain function, brain vital signs track three well-established neural responses for Auditory sensation (using a response called the N100), Basic attention (using a response called the P300), and Cognitive processing (using a response called the N400).

The study builds on 2019 results published in Brain: A Journal of Neurology that confirmed significant brain vitals sign changes shortly after concussions were diagnosed in Junior A players. Key results of this study showed undetected impairments remained when players were cleared to return to play using current clinical concussion protocols. Notably, the initial study also reported sensitivity to subconcussive impairments in those players who did not sustain a concussion diagnosis over the course of the season.

The current second phase of the study replicated these results and added the Bantam age group. The latest findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Brain Communications in the advanced articles section.

The results of this new Brain Communications study showed:

• Significant brain vital sign changes in N100 Auditory sensation and N400 Cognitive processing responses for the pre-to-post season comparison across both groups.

• Differences between the Bantam and Junior A ice hockey players showed more changes in the Junior A group.

• Importantly, the subconcussive changes were significantly correlated with the number of head impacts over the season across both age groups and consequently showed more subconcussive changes in brain vital signs.

A subconcussive impact is a mechanical force transmitted to the brain below the threshold for a diagnosis of an acute concussive injury. The effects of these low-magnitude impacts may not even be noticeable to the player or to observers on the sideline. Head impacts in the sport of ice hockey typically result from player-to-player or player-to-boards contact due to body checking, collisions and fighting . Some of these impacts are the consequence of foul play, but many of these events also result from routine, legal on-ice behavior.

"Concussion in sports is a major concern for many and our research has shown that having an objective physiological measure of brain function at rink-side is key to detection and managing concussive impacts," says Dr. Aynsley Smith, principal investigator of the study and Associate Professor of Orthopedics at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The study, funded in part by USA Hockey, was co-led by Dr. Michael Stuart, Professor of Orthopedics at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. It is also part of a larger concussion research team within Mayo Clinic that includes neurology research leadership from Dr. David Dodick, Professor of Neurology at Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S.

Canadian collaborators include neuroscientist Dr. Ryan D'Arcy, an SFU professor and co-founder of the Health and Technology District in Surrey B.C. and Dr. Shaun Fickling, a biomedical engineer, a recent SFU PhD graduate and lead author of the study.

"Our research has shown that repetitive subconcussive impacts triggered compounding effects in brain function changes, which underscores the importance of shifting our thinking and understanding of concussions as a singular acute-injury model to a spectrum of head-impact exposure and effects over time," says Dr. Fickling.

The US-Canadian concussion research team is continuing to advance their collaborative effort.

Says Dr. D'Arcy, "In medicine: you can't treat what you can't measure. With breakthroughs on measurement challenges, we hope to now accelerate treatment innovations for prevention, acute care and extended care concussion management - for all people across a range of different applications. Our partnership is moving into incredibly exciting future steps - stay tuned."

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The research study was designed and carried out by the Mayo Clinic Sports Medicine Ice Hockey Research team, partially funded by USA Hockey Foundation and the Johannson-Gund Endowment. Financial support was also provided by the Mathematics of Information Technology and Complex Systems (MITACS), Natural Sciences and Engineering Council Canada (NSERC) and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

About Mayo Clinic:

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit organization committed to innovation in clinical practice, education and research, and providing compassion, expertise and answers to everyone who needs healing. Visit the Mayo Clinic News Network for additional Mayo Clinic news. For information on COVID-19, including Mayo Clinic's Coronavirus Map tracking tool, which has 14-day forecasting on COVID-19 trends, visit the Mayo Clinic COVID-19 Resource Center.

About Simon Fraser University (SFU):

As Canada's engaged university, SFU works with communities, organizations and partners to create, share and embrace knowledge that improves life and generates real change. We deliver a world-class education with lifelong value that shapes change-makers, visionaries and problem-solvers. We connect research and innovation to entrepreneurship and industry to deliver sustainable, relevant solutions to today's problems. With campuses in British Columbia's three largest cities--Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey--SFU has eight faculties that deliver 193 undergraduate degree programs and 127 graduate degree programs to more than 37,000 students. The university now boasts more than 165,000 alumni residing in 143 countries. http://www.sfu.ca

About Health and Technology District:

The Health and Technology District in Surrey, B.C., is a rapidly expanding ecosystem of innovators and entrepreneurs collaborating with tech companies, scientists, educators and health professionals; each representing a range of business, technologies and research fields. The series of high-tech buildings located and under expansion strategically across from Surrey Memorial Hospital, offers a dynamic community where disruptive impacts are generated through the translation of research, science and technology into global innovations. Within this, the current research is a result of the BrainNET initiative to translate neuroscience knowledge directly into clinical advances in care. http://www.HealthandTechnologyDistrict.com

Media contact: Yvonne Chiang, news@chiangpr.ca

Emergency EMR created in a week to respond to COVID-19 crisis

Lessons learned can be applied in future health crises

REGENSTRIEF INSTITUTE

Research News

 

IMAGE: A TEAM FROM REGENSTRIEF INSTITUTE LEVERAGED OPENMRS, A GLOBAL OPEN-SOURCE EMR, TO CREATE -- IN A WEEK -- AN EMERGENCY EMR FOR FIRST RESPONDERS PREPARING FOR A POSSIBLE INFLUX OF... view more 

CREDIT: REGENSTRIEF INSTITUTE

INDIANAPOLIS -- A team from Regenstrief Institute leveraged OpenMRS, a global open-source electronic medical record (EMR), to create an emergency EMR for Indianapolis first responders preparing for a possible influx of COVID-19 patients. This process was completed in a week to allow Indianapolis Emergency Medical Services (IEMS) to register patients, collect basic clinical information, and send these encounters to Indiana's health information exchange, a crucial element to help the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

IEMS asked Regenstrief research scientists for help as they made plans to create a triage center to treat patients in case the health system in Indianapolis became overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. IEMS needed a faster, easier way to collected patient information and to send these data to the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC), which is managed by the Indiana Health Information Exchange (IHIE). This way patient records would be accessible to health systems and doctors during future visits.

Most EMRs are from large software vendors and vary by health systems. IEMS did not have access to one.

"Our entire team jumped into action, employing the open source system available in OpenMRS," said Jonathan J. Dick, M.D., a project leader and member of Regenstrief's Global Health Informatics program. "We worked with IHIE and IEMS to create forms to enter relevant COVID-19 data into the INPC. Within one week, we were prepared to make the interface live. Thankfully, we never needed to break the glass because the healthcare systems in the state did not become overwhelmed."

This work demonstrates that it is possible to leverage existing tools to create EMRs in emergency situations to improve crisis response.

"We learned valuable lessons from this experience that can be applied to future emergencies. This system can be adapted to work in other states or even countries, and it can be done very quickly," said Burke Mamlin, M.D., a project leader and member of Regenstrief's Global Health Informatics program. "This shows the value of open source and how it can lead to global goods that can benefit us in the United States."

Regenstrief Institute helped to found OpenMRS, which is used to build and manage health systems in underserved countries. The institute continues to be a leader in the worldwide volunteer network, helping with technical direction, implementation and innovation.

The process of creating the EMR was laid out in the peer-reviewed paper "OpenMRS as an Emergency EMR - How we used a Global Good to create an Emergency EMR in a Week" published in the International Journal of Medical Informatics online ahead of print.

In addition to Dr. Mamlin and Dr. Dick, other authors on the paper are Jennifer E. Shivers, MFA, of Regenstrief Institute and Nancy K. Glober, M.D., of Indiana University School of Medicine.

About Regenstrief Institute Founded in 1969 in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute is a local, national and global leader dedicated to a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health. A key research partner to Indiana University, Regenstrief and its research scientists are responsible for a growing number of major healthcare innovations and studies. Examples range from the development of global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records to improving patient-physician communications, to creating models of care that inform practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe.

Sam Regenstrief, a nationally successful entrepreneur from Connersville, Indiana, founded the institute with the goal of making healthcare more efficient and accessible for everyone. His vision continues to guide the institute's research mission.

About OpenMRS OpenMRS is a platform that countries and implementers use to create a customized EMR system in response to actual needs on the ground. OpenMRS is also a global community of contributors who build and maintain the OpenMRS platform and other, foundational OpenMRS technical products. The OpenMRS community brings together a diverse group of individuals with expertise in healthcare, global health, software development, quality assurance, and implementation. These contributors bring a wide range of skill sets together and work collaboratively to build and maintain a robust, electronic medical record system platform.

About Jonathan (J.J.) Dick, M.D. In addition to his role as a research scientist at Regenstrief, Jonathan (J.J.) Dick, M.D., is an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. He also serves as the chief medical information officer for AMPATH.

About Burke Mamlin, M.D. In addition to his role as a research scientist at Regenstrief, Burke Mamlin, M.D., is an associate professor of clinical medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine.

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To Save the Planet, Expropriate the Rich

BYLIZA FEATHERSTONE

JACOBIN

EARTH DAY 2021

No matter how much they flaunt their environmental virtue or how much eco-friendly consumption they engage in, the global 1 percent are almost inherently destructive of the climate. There’s only one way to fix the situation: expropriate them.

Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen attend a gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, 2018. (Jason Kempin / Getty Images


Supermodel Gisele Bündchen graces the cover of Vogue Hong Kong’s special sustainability issue this month, looking radiantly feral, enveloped in long hair, tie-dye, and the massive leafy plants of the Costa Rican jungle. Bündchen is one of the most famous environmental influencers on earth. Her Instagram showcases her nonstop commitment to raising public environmental consciousness, with beatific photos of Bündchen, or her (almost equally good-looking) children enjoying beaches, forests, or houseplants.

Bündchen is not just into the planet for the “likes.” She supports numerous environmental organizations and is famous for her family’s ecologically virtuous behavior. Vogue Hong Kong, describing these commitments, dubbed Bündchen the “selfless supermodel.” She and her husband, legendary quarterback Tom Brady, compost and keep bees. One of their sons even eschews birthday presents out of concern for ocean plastic pollution.

Yet by any measure, despite Instagram paeans to #biodiversity, the Bündchen/Brady household is far less “sustainable” than just about any random household in Kansas or Queens.

With a net worth of $540 million, the Bündchen/Brady family is part of the climate problem, not an inspiring aspirational model of eco-friendliness. The United Nations’ 2020 “Emissions Gap” report found that the emissions of the richest 1 percent of the global population are greater than those of the entire bottom 50 percent combined. In fact, the UN found that while the bottom 50 percent could actually increase its consumption by several hundred percent without affecting human civilization’s chances of reaching the Paris Agreement’s targets for reducing emissions, the top 1 percent urgently needed to reduce its carbon footprint by 30 percent.


As noted in a recent report by University of Sussex researchers (for the Cambridge Sustainability Commission), the climate movement’s emphasis on the contribution of household consumption to climate change often neglects to specify whose consumption we should be most concerned about. As in many other matters, the rich are the problem. The Sussex researchers cite another 2020 study on the growth in global emissions from 1990 to 2015, which found that the richest 10 percent of the planet was responsible for nearly half that growth, with the richest 5 percent responsible for more than a third. By contrast, the carbon impact the world’s poor was “practically negligible.”

Many rich people, like Bündchen, have sincere environmental commitments. But they’re endangering the earth anyway just by doing all the things that rich people do.

Take automobiles, for example. Rich people own too many of them. The higher income a household is, in general, the more vehicles they own. Bündchen and her husband reportedly have about twenty cars.

Another ecological catastrophe of wealth begins, literally, at home. Unless you own or operate a fossil fuel company, heating and cooling your home is probably the most carbon-intensive thing you do. The bigger the home, and the more homes you have, the worse your environmental impact. Rich people’s homes are too big, and they own too many of them.

Bündchen and Brady have lived in many spectacularly large homes, always several at a time. Here are some more of their massive dwellings. Their twelve thousand square foot mansion in Brookline, Massachusetts, which had a yoga studio and a wine cellar, sold for $32.5 million. After renting Derek Jeter’s much bigger mansion in St Petersburg, Florida they bought a $17 million dollar property on Miami’s Indian Creek Island, near Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump. At present, they also have condos in Tribeca, and Big Sky, Montana.

As well, there is no quick way to travel between the Bündchen/Brady estates without abusing the earth further; air travel is a huge culprit in carbon emissions. Here again, the problem is wealth: in any given year — COVID or no — most people never get on a plane, while the world’s wealthiest inhabitants take the vast majority of flights. While the private jets of the superrich represent just a small fraction of those flights, they emit twenty times more carbon dioxide than commercial planes. When rich people get creative about transportation, the results are even worse: a superyacht, with a helicopter pad, pools, and submarines, is by some estimates, the most environmentally horrific asset a person can own.

One reason such data are needed is that many people assume that living a greener “lifestyle” is a luxury (and fawning media over the eco-commitments of celebrities like Bündchen contribute to this misconception). We look at the price of organic vegetables, or the cost of installing geothermal floors, and conclude that lowering our household’s carbon footprint must be, to borrow Catherine Liu’s compelling phrase, a form of “virtue hoarding” available only to the privileged classes.

We might assume that money would liberate people to pursue more earth-friendly habits — springing for that Tesla, or that recycled cotton designer outfit, instead of driving your gas-guzzler to Walmart to stock up on disposable plastic crap. Actually, research shows just the opposite. The environmental toll of all your cheap crap doesn’t compare to that of the private jet you might buy if you were a billionaire. Having too much money, even if you’re a gorgeous Earth Mama like Gisele Bündchen, causes wasteful consumption.

Some — including the Sussex researchers, as otherwise useful as their findings are — present this as a problem of messaging: the wealthy need to be told to step up, take responsibility, and lead greener lives. If you’re part of the global 1 percent and reading this right now, yes, please do that! But the planet will not be saved by this kind of pleading and voluntarism. The simpler and better solution is to deprive the wealthy of the means of pollution, by taking away their money. 

To save the future we must tax, expropriate, or abolish the rich.

ALL OF THE ABOVE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Liza Featherstone is a columnist for Jacobin, a freelance journalist, and the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights at Wal-Mart.

 

Faster air exchange in buildings not always beneficial for coronavirus levels

Modeling study suggests vigorous ventilation can cause spike in viral concentrations

DOE/PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY

Research News

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IMAGE: WHEN THE INFECTED PERSON IN THE OFFICE TO THE LEFT COUGHS, RESPIRATORY DROPLETS CONTAINING VIRAL PARTICLES EXIT VIA THE OFFICE'S VENT IN THE CEILING. SOME DROPLETS EXIT THE BUILDING, WHILE... view more 

CREDIT: ILLUSTRATION/ANIMATION: CORTLAND JOHNSON/SARA LEVINE, PACIFIC NORTHWEST NATIONAL LABORATORY

Vigorous and rapid air exchanges might not always be a good thing when it comes to addressing levels of coronavirus particles in a multiroom building, according to a new modeling study.

The study suggests that, in a multiroom building, rapid air exchanges can spread the virus rapidly from the source room into other rooms at high concentrations. Particle levels spike in adjacent rooms within 30 minutes and can remain elevated for up to approximately 90 minutes.

The findings, published online in final form April 15 in the journal Building and Environment, come from a team of researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The team includes building and HVAC experts as well as experts in aerosol particles and viral materials.

"Most studies have looked at particle levels in just one room, and for a one-room building, increased ventilation is always useful to reducing their concentration," said Leonard Pease, lead author of the study. "But for a building with more than one room, air exchanges can pose a risk in the adjacent rooms by elevating virus concentrations more quickly than would otherwise occur.

"To understand what's happening, consider how secondhand smoke is distributed throughout a building. Near the source, air exchange reduces the smoke near the person but can distribute the smoke at lower levels into nearby rooms," Pease added. "The risk is not zero, for any respiratory disease."

The team modeled the spread of particles similar to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, via air-handling systems. Scientists modeled what happens after a person has a five-minute coughing bout in one room of a three-room small office building, running simulations with particles of five microns.

Researchers looked at the effects of three factors: different levels of filtration, different rates of outdoor air incorporation into the building air supply, and different rates of ventilation or air changes per hour. For downstream rooms, they found an expected clear benefit from increasing outdoor air and improving filtering, but the effect of increased ventilation rate was less obvious.

More clean outdoor air reduces transmission

Scientists studied the effects of adding varying amounts of outdoor air to the building air supply, from no outside air to 33 percent of the building's air supply per hour. As expected, the incorporation of more clean outdoor air reduced transmission risk in the connected rooms. Replacement of one-third of a building's air per hour with clean outdoor air in downstream rooms reduced infection risk by about 20 percent compared to the lower levels of outdoor air commonly included in buildings. The team noted that the model assumed that the outdoor air was clean and virus free.

"More outside air is clearly a good thing for transmission risk, as long as the air is free of virus," said Pease.

Strong filtration reduces transmission

The second factor studied--strong filtration--also was very effective at reducing transmission of the coronavirus.

The team studied the effects of three levels of filtration: MERV-8, MERV-11, and MERV-13, where MERV stands for minimum efficiency reporting value, a common measure of filtration. A higher number translates to a stronger filter.

Filtration decreased the odds of infection in the connected rooms markedly. A MERV-8 filter decreased the peak level of viral particles in connected rooms to just 20 percent what it was without filtration. A MERV-13 filter knocked down the peak concentration of viral particles in a connected room by 93 percent, to less than one-tenth of what it was with a MERV-8 filter. The researchers note that the stronger filters have become more common since the pandemic began.

Increasing ventilation--a more complex picture

The most surprising finding of the study involved ventilation--the effect of what researchers call air changes per hour. What's good for the source room--cutting transmission risk within the room by 75 percent--is not so good for connected rooms. The team found that a rapid rate of air exchange, 12 air changes per hour, can cause a spike in viral particle levels within minutes in connected rooms. This increases the risk of infection in those rooms for a few minutes to more than 10 times what it was at lower air-exchange rates. The higher transmission risk in connected rooms remains for about 20 minutes.

"For the source room, clearly more ventilation is a good thing. But that air goes somewhere," said Pease. "Maybe more ventilation is not always the solution."

Interpreting the data

"There are many factors to consider, and the risk calculation is different for each case," said Pease. "How many people are in the building and where are they located? How large is the building? How many rooms? There is not a great deal of data at this point on how viral particles move about in multiroom buildings.

"These numbers are very specific to this model--this particular type of model, the amount of viral particles being shed by a person. Every building is different, and more research needs to be done," Pease added.

Co-author Timothy Salsbury, a buildings control expert, notes that many of the trade-offs can be quantified and weighted depending on circumstances.

"Stronger filtration translates to higher energy costs, as does the introduction of more outside air than would usually be used in normal operations. Under many circumstances, the energy penalty for the increased fan power required for strong filtration is less than the energy penalty for heating or cooling additional outside air," said Salsbury.

"There are many factors to balance--filtration level, outdoor air levels, air exchange--to minimize transmission risk. Building managers certainly have their work cut out for them," he added.

Additional experimental studies underway

The team is already conducting a series of experimental studies along the same lines as the modeling study. Like the newly published study, the additional analyses look at the effects of filtration, outdoor air incorporation and air changes.

These ongoing studies involve real particles made of mucus (not incorporating the actual SARS-CoV-2 virus) and consider differences among particles expelled from various parts of the respiratory tract, such as the oral cavity, the larynx, and the lungs. Investigators deploy an aerosolizing machine that disperses the viral-like particles much as they'd be dispersed by a cough, as well as fluorescent tracking technology to monitor where they go. Other factors include varying particle sizes, how long viral particles are likely to be infectious, and what happens when they drop and decay.

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In addition to Pease and Salsbury, authors of the published study include Nora Wang, Ronald Underhill, Julia Flaherty, Alex Vlachokostas, Gourihar Kulkarni and Daniel James.

The research, the latest in a series of PNNL findings about COVID-19, brings together PNNL's strengths in building technologies and in aerosol science. The work was funded through the National Virtual Biotechnology Laboratory, a consortium of all 17 DOE national laboratories focused on response to COVID-19, with funding provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory draws on its distinguishing strengths in chemistry, Earth sciences, biology and data science to advance scientific knowledge and address challenges in sustainable energy and national security. Founded in 1965, PNNL is operated by Battelle for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science, which is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. DOE's Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit PNNL's News Center. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram.