"Scuba-diving" lizards use bubble attached to snout to breathe underwater

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: ANOLIS LIZARD REBREATHES EXHALED AIR UNDERWATER USING A BUBBLE CLINGING TO THEIR SNOUTS. view more 

CREDIT: LINDSEY SWIERK

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A team of evolutionary biologists including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York have shown that some Anolis lizards, or anoles, have adapted to rebreathe exhaled air underwater using a bubble clinging to their snouts.

Semi-aquatic anoles live along neotropical streams and frequently dive for refuge, remaining underwater for up to 16 minutes. Lindsey Swierk, assistant research professor of biological sciences at Binghamton University, documented this behavior in a Costa Rican anole species in 2019. She had been shocked to see an anole submerge itself for such long periods and used a GoPro underwater to document the behavior.

"It's easy to imagine the advantage that these small, slow anoles gain by hiding from their predators underwater - they're really hard to spot!" says Swierk. "But the real question is how they're managing to stay underwater for so long."

The researchers conducted experiments documenting routine air-based underwater respiration in several distantly related semi-aquatic anole species. They found that semi-aquatic anoles can respire underwater by ''rebreathing'' exhaled air that is trapped between their skin and surrounding water.

"We found that semi-aquatic anoles exhale air into a bubble that clings to their skin," said lead author Chris Boccia, a recent master of science graduate from the University of Toronto. "The lizards then re-inhale the air, a maneuver we've termed 'rebreathing' after the scuba-diving technology."

The researchers believe that hydrophobic skin, which they observed in all sampled anoles, may have been exaptative, facilitating the repeated evolution of specialized rebreathing in species that regularly dive. Their analyses strongly suggest that specialized rebreathing is adaptive for semi-aquatic habitat specialists. Air-based rebreathing may enhance dive performance by incorporating dead space air from the buccal cavity or plastron into the lungs, facilitating clearance of carbon dioxide, or allowing uptake of oxygen from surrounding water (i.e., a ''physical gill'' mechanism.) The team used an oxygen sensor inside the rebreathed bubbles to determine whether anoles were consuming oxygen from the bubble. In true "scuba-tank" fashion, the researchers discovered that the oxygen concentration in an anole's air bubble decreases over the length of the dive, in support of this idea.

"The finding that different species of semi-aquatic anoles have evolutionarily converged to extract oxygen from their rebreathed air bubbles leads to other exciting questions," says Swierk. "For example, the rate of oxygen consumption from the bubble decreases the longer an anole dives, which could possibly be explained a reduction in an anole's metabolic rate with increased dive time." Binghamton graduate student co-author, Alexandra Martin, is currently exploring whether body cooling during dives may help explain this phenomenon.

"Rebreathing had never been considered as a potential natural mechanism for underwater respiration in vertebrates," says Luke Mahler, an assistant professor in EEB at the University of Toronto and Boccia's thesis supervisor. "But our work shows that this is possible and that anoles have deployed this strategy repeatedly in species that use aquatic habitats."

Swierk and Mahler are planning future projects to better understand the evolution of the physiology and behavior related to rebreathing. "Anoles are a remarkable group of lizards, and the number of ways that this taxon has diversified to take advantage of their environments is mind-boggling," said Swierk.

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The paper, "Repeated evolution of underwater rebreathing in diving Anolis lizards," was published in Current Biology.

OOPS

Pu particles from nuclear testing more complex than previously thought

Plutonium particles from British nuclear testing in outback Australia more complex than previously thought, scientists warn

MONASH UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

More than 100 kg of highly toxic uranium (U) and plutonium (Pu) was dispersed in the form of tiny 'hot' radioactive particles after the British detonated nine atomic bombs in remote areas of South Australia, including Maralinga.

Scientists say that these radioactive particles persist in soils to this day, more than 60 years after the detonations. Previously, we had limited understanding of how Pu was released from these "hot" particles into the environment for uptake by wildlife around Maralinga.

But now, a new study published today in Scientific Reports and led by Monash University researchers warns that the particles are actually more complex and varied than previously thought. This means that the processes which slowly release Pu into the environment are also much more complex and varied.

"The British detonated nine nuclear bombs and conducted hundreds of nuclear tests in outback South Australia between 1953 and 1963," said lead study author Megan Cook, a PhD student from the Monash University School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment. "The resulting radioactive contamination and cover-up continues to haunt us."

"The results of our study profoundly changes our understanding of the nature of hot particles at Maralinga - despite the fact that those were some of the best studied particles anywhere in the world," said study co-author Associate Professor Vanessa Wong.

The research team used synchrotron radiation at the Diamond Light Source near Oxford, UK to decipher the physical and chemical make-up of the particles.

At Monash University they dissected some of the hot particles using a nano-sized ion beam, and further characterised the complex make-up of these particles down to the nano-size in exquisite details.

The researchers demonstrated that the complexity of the hot particles arose from the cooling of polymetallic melts from thousands of degrees Celsius in the explosion cloud during their formation.

"We found that the particles contained low-valence plutonium-uranium-carbon compounds that are typically highly reactive, yet, had been stabilised in the hot-particle matrix for nearly 60 years," said corresponding author Dr Barbara Etschmann.

Between 1950 and 1988 alone there were more than 230 recorded nuclear weapon accidents, including at least 10 with documented release of radioactive particles into the environment. The risks of such incidents are only increasing as international treaties such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty were cancelled.

"Understanding the fate of hot particles in the unique setting of the Australian outback is critical for securing Australia in case of nuclear incidents in the region, and returning all the native land affected by the British tests to the traditional Anangu owners of the Maralinga Tjarutja lands," said study co-author Professor Joël Brugger.

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Vast under-treatment of diabetes seen in global study

Only 1 in 10 people with diabetes in low- and middle-income countries is getting evidence-based, low-cost comprehensive care

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Research News

 

Nearly half a billion people on the planet have diabetes, but most of them aren't getting the kind of care that could make their lives healthier, longer and more productive, according to a new global study of data from people with the condition.

Many don't even know they have the condition.

Only 1 in 10 people with diabetes in the 55 low- and middle-income countries studied receive the type of comprehensive care that's been proven to reduce diabetes-related problems, according to the new findings published in Lancet Healthy Longevity.

That comprehensive package of care - low-cost medicines to reduce blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels; and counseling on diet, exercise and weight - can help lower the health risks of under-treated diabetes. Those risks include future heart attacks, strokes, nerve damage, blindness, amputations and other disabling or fatal conditions.

The new study, led by physicians at the University of Michigan and Brigham and Women's Hospital with a global team of partners, draws on data from standardized household studies, to allow for apples-to-apples comparisons between countries and regions.

The authors analyzed data from surveys, examinations and tests of more than 680,000 people between the ages of 25 and 64 worldwide conducted in recent years. More than 37,000 of them had diabetes; more than half of them hadn't been formally diagnosed yet, but had a key biomarker of elevated blood sugar.

The researchers have provided their findings to the World Health Organization, which is developing efforts to scale up delivery of evidence-based diabetes care globally as part of an initiative known as the Global Diabetes Compact. The forms of diabetes-related care used in the study are all included in the 2020 WHO Package of Essential Noncommunicable Disease Interventions.

"Diabetes continues to explode everywhere, in every country, and 80% of people with it live in these low- and middle-income countries," says David Flood, M.D., M.Sc., lead author and a National Clinician Scholar at the U-M Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. "It confers a high risk of complications such as including heart attacks, blindness, and strokes. We can prevent these complications with comprehensive diabetes treatment, and we need to make sure people around the world can access treatment."

Flood worked with senior author Jennifer Manne-Goehler, M.D., Sc.D., of Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Medical Practice Evaluation Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, to lead the analysis of detailed global data.

Key findings

In addition to the main finding that 90% of the people with diabetes studied weren't getting access to all six components of effective diabetes care, the study also finds major gaps in specific care.

For instance, while about half of all people with diabetes were taking a drug to lower their blood sugar, and 41% were taking a drug to lower their blood pressure, only 6.3% were receiving cholesterol-lowering medications.

These findings show the need to scale-up proven treatment not only to lower glucose but also to address cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as hypertension and high cholesterol, in people with diabetes.

Less than a third had access to counseling on diet and exercise, which can help guide people with diabetes to adopt habits that can control their health risks further.

Even when the authors focused on the people who had already received a formal diagnosis of diabetes, they found that 85% were taking a medicine to lower blood sugar, 57% were taking a blood pressure medication, but only 9% were taking something to control their cholesterol. Nearly 74% had received diet-related counseling, and just under 66% had received exercise and weight counseling.

Taken together, less than one in five people with previously diagnosed diabetes were getting the full package of evidence-based care.

Relationship to national income and personal characteristics

In general, the study finds that people were less likely to get evidence-based diabetes care the lower the average income of the country and region they lived in. That's based on a model that the authors created using economic and demographic data about the countries that were included in the study.

The nations in the Oceania region of the Pacific had the highest prevalence of diabetes - both diagnosed and undiagnosed - but the lowest rates of diabetes-related care.

But there were exceptions where low-income countries had higher-than-expected rates of good diabetes care, says Flood, citing the example of Costa Rica. And in general, the Latin America and Caribbean region was second only to Oceania in diabetes prevalence, but had much higher levels of care.

Focusing on what countries with outsize achievements in diabetes care are doing well could provide valuable insights for improving care elsewhere, the authors say. That even includes informing care in high-income countries like the United States, which does not consistently deliver evidence-based care to people with diabetes.

The study also shines a light on the variation between countries and regions in the percentage of cases of diabetes that have been diagnosed. Improve reliable access to diabetes diagnostic technologies is important in leading more people to obtain preventive care and counseling.

Women, people with higher levels of education and higher personal wealth, and people who are older or had high body mass index were more likely to be receiving evidence-based diabetes care. Diabetes in people with "normal" BMI is not uncommon in low- and middle-income countries, suggesting more need to focus on these individuals, the authors say.

The fact that diabetes-related medications are available at very low cost, and that individuals can reduce their risk through lifestyle changes, mean that cost should not be a major barrier, says Flood. In fact, studies have shown the medications to be cost-effective, meaning that the cost of their early and consistent use is outweighed by the savings on other types of care later.

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In addition to Flood, who is a clinical lecturer in hospital medicine at Michigan Medicine, U-M's academic medical center, the study team includes two others from U-M: Michele Heisler, M.D., M.P.A., a professor of internal medicine and member of IHPI, and Matthew Dunn, a student at the U-M School of Public Health. The study was funded by the National Clinician Scholars Program at IHPI, and by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Harvard Catalyst, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

Variation in SARS-CoV-2 Infection Risk and Socioeconomic Disadvantage Among a Mayan-Latinx Population in Oakland, California

Erin E. Esaryk, MPH¹; Paul Wesson, PhD¹; Jessica Fields, BA^1,2,3; et alFrancine Rios-Fetchko, BA^2,3,4; Christina Lindan, MD, MS¹; Caryn Bern, MD, MPH¹; Alicia Fernández, MD^2,3,4

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(5):e2110789. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.10789

COVID-19 Resource Center

Introduction

US Latinx populations are disproportionally affected by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, with higher rates of infection and associated morbidity and mortality.¹ Although often treated as homogeneous, members of Latinx communities vary by national origin, immigration status, and language.² Oakland, California, is home to many Latinx individuals and an estimated 10 000 Mayan individuals, many of whom speak Indigenous languages.³ Early in the pandemic, community-based organizations (CBOs) in Oakland, California, observed a high frequency of infections among Latinx individuals in general and even higher frequency among Mayan individuals.⁴ Local CBOs, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and public health authorities formed a collaborative to offer diagnostic testing in Fruitvale, a diverse neighborhood that has among the highest cumulative infection rates in Alameda County.⁵ Using data from the resulting SARS-CoV-2 testing event, we examined variation in infection risk and socioeconomic disadvantage within the Fruitvale community.

Methods

This cross-sectional study was approved by the UCSF institutional review board and followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline. Free SARS-CoV-2 testing was provided for individuals of all ages on September 26 to 27, 2020. Adults gave verbal consent for themselves and for participating children. Anterior nasal swab samples were obtained for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing to detect the virus, and venous blood was collected to detect immunoglobin G antinucleocapsid antibodies. Adults completed a survey on sociodemographic characteristics at the testing event. Interviewers fluent in Spanish, 2 Mayan languages, and more than 4 other languages were available. We analyzed cross-sectional associations between demographic and socioeconomic indicators and SARS CoV-2 infection using χ² tests and logistic regression analyses adjusted for age and sex and accounting for household clustering. Statistical significance was set at P < .05. Data analyses were conducted in Stata version 16 (StataCorp). Additional information regarding the methods appear in the eAppendix in the Supplement.

Results

We tested 1186 individuals (1034 [87.2%] adults; 152 [12.8%] children; 610 [51.4%] female participants; mean [SD] age, 40.0 [18.3] years); 108 (9.1%) were Mayan individuals, 661 (55.7%) non-Mayan Latinx individuals, and 417 (35.2%) non-Latinx individuals. Compared with other Latinx individuals, Mayan individuals were more likely to live in households with 5 or more people (49 [53.3%] vs 152 [32.6%]; P < .005), report food insecurity (53 [62.4%] vs 172 [41.8%]; P = .001), have difficulty finding work due to the pandemic (12 [13.0%] vs 31 [5.4%]; P = .01), lack a regular medical practitioner (55 [64.7%] vs 340 [76.2%]; P = .03), and have no health insurance (35 [38.0%] vs 118 [20.7%]; P < .001) (Table 1). Mayan individuals were also more likely to have limited English proficiency compared with other Latinx participants (49 [58%] vs 187 [46%]; P = .04); 41 (44.6%) spoke a Mayan language at home. Mayan and non-Mayan Latinx participants had significantly greater odds of having a positive PCR test compared with non-Latinx participants (Mayan: adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 16.66; 95% CI, 3.54-78.41; P < .001; non-Mayan Latinx: aOR, 8.48; 95% CI, 1.91-37.67; P = .004). Mayan individuals were significantly more likely to have positive serology results compared with non-Latinx participants (aOR, 5.58; 95% CI, 2.13-14.65; P < .001) (Table 2).

Discussion

We found that Latinx participants were more likely to have current SARS-CoV-2 infection than non-Latinx participants, reflecting state and national trends.¹ Our data highlight heterogeneity within the Latinx community, with Mayan individuals having even higher risk than other Latinx individuals. Findings related to socioeconomic disadvantage, including large household size, low income, and food insecurity, likely reflect the heightened susceptibility of Mayan individuals to the pandemic.⁶ In addition, limited English proficiency and access to health care pose challenges for effective public health messaging.

Limitations that reduce generalizability include that the study analyzed a convenience sample of those seeking testing, and that testing and medical referrals were prioritized over questionnaire completion, resulting in missing data. Unmeasured confounding factors could attenuate results.

This study underscores the need to consider heterogeneity within Latinx communities and to prioritize subgroups with higher risks, such as Mayan individuals, in health policies and outreach. Limited Spanish and English proficiency reduce this population’s access to health information and care. Few CBOs or public health departments have Mayan language speakers to provide information and perform contact tracing. Those that do are underresourced. Understanding differential risks within the heterogenous Latinx population can guide more efficient targeting of services. Failure to engage with communities with higher risks increases the likelihood of ongoing transmission and may hinder SARS CoV-2 vaccine uptake.

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Article Information

Accepted for Publication: March 26, 2021.

Published: May 21, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.10789

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2021 Esaryk EE et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Paul Wesson, PhD, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, 550 16th St, San Francisco, CA 94158 (paul.wesson@ucsf.edu).

Author Contributions: Drs Bern and Fernández had full access to all of the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. Ms Esaryk and Dr Wesson are co–first authors and have contributed equally to the work. Drs Bern and Fernández share senior authorship.

Concept and design: Esaryk, Wesson, Lindan, Bern, Fernandez.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: All authors.

Drafting of the manuscript: All authors.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Esaryk, Wesson, Fields, Lindan, Bern, Fernandez.

Statistical analysis: Esaryk, Wesson, Rios-Fetchko, Lindan, Bern.

Obtained funding: Fernandez.

Administrative, technical, or material support: Fields, Rios-Fetchko.

Supervision: Bern, Fernandez.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: Dr Wesson reported receiving grants from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

Funding/Support: The community testing event was funded by the University of California, San Francisco COVID-19 Community Public Health Initiative institutional fund and the Crankstart Foundation.

Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Additional Contributions: We thank the members of the Sanando Juntos Resilient Fruitvale Collaborative who contributed to this study, including: Chris Iglesias, BA (The Unity Council), Jane Garcia, MPH (La Clínica de la Raza), Aaron Ortiz, MPA (La Familia Counseling), Itzel Diaz-Romo, BA (The Unity Council), Paul Bayard, MD, MPH (La Clínica de la Raza), Erik Solorio, BSN, RN (La Clínica de la Raza), Teena-Marie Benitez-Gonzalez, BA (La Clínica de la Raza), Gabriela Galicia, BA (Street Level Health), Gerard Jenkins, MD, MA (Native American Health Center), Laura Miller, MD (Community Health Center Network), Giuliana Martinez, BASc (GM Consulting), Christian Martinez, AA-T (community advocate), Areli Porras-Pozos (community advocate), Kimi Watkins-Tartt, BA (Alameda County Public Health Department), Charleton Lightfoot, MPA (Oakland Fire Department), Juan Raul Gutierrez, MD, MPH (University of California, San Francisco), Alice Fishman, MSc (University of California, San Francisco), Andres Aranda-Diaz, PhD (University of California, San Francisco), Cady Smith, BA (University of California, San Francisco), John Balmes, MD (University of California, San Francisco), Jacqueline Torres, PhD, MPH, MA (University of California, San Francisco), Ana De Oliveira Franco, PhD, DVM (University of California, San Francisco), and Erika Meza, MPH (University of California, San Francisco).

References

1.

Chen  Y-H, Glymour  MM, Catalano  R,  et al.  Excess mortality in California during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, March to August 2020.   JAMA Intern Med. 2020. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7578
ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar

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Rodriguez-Diaz  CE, Guilamo-Ramos  V, Mena  L,  et al.  Risk for COVID-19 infection and death among Latinos in the United States: examining heterogeneity in transmission dynamics.   Ann Epidemiol. 2020;52:46-53.e2. doi:10.1016/j.annepidem.2020.07.007PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref

3.

Garofoli  J. “We are invisible”: coronavirus just made census counting harder in Bay Area. San Francisco Chronicle. Published April 16, 2020. Accessed January 28, 2021. https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/We-are-invisible-Coronavirus-just-made-15203827.php

4.

Foo  PK, Perez  B, Gupta  N,  et al.  High rates of COVID-19 infection among Indigenous Maya at a US safety-net health system in California.   Public Health Rep. Published online February 16, 2021. doi:10.1177/0033354921990370Google Scholar

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Alameda County Public Health Department. COVID-19 data. Accessed January 5, 2021. https://covid-19.acgov.org/data.page

6.

Cervantes  L, Martin  M, Frank  MG,  et al.  Experiences of Latinx individuals hospitalized for COVID-19: a qualitative study.   JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(3):e210684. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.0684
ArticlePubMedGoogle Scholar

In utero exposure to tiny air pollution particles is linked to asthma in preschoolers

Mount Sinai researchers are first to find ultrafine particles from traffic pollution influences asthma risk in US children

THE MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL / MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

New York, NY (May 21, 2021) --Women who were highly exposed to ultra-fine particles in air pollution during their pregnancy were more likely to have children who developed asthma, according to a study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine in May. This is the first time asthma has been linked with prenatal exposure to this type of air pollution, which is named for its tiny size and which is not regulated or routinely monitored in the United States.

Slightly more than 18 percent of the children born to these mothers developed asthma in their preschool years, compared to 7 percent of children overall in the United States identified as having asthma by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other types of pollutants are routinely monitored and regulated to reduce potential health effects, such as larger-size particulate pollution and gaseous pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide. These have been associated with asthma risk in children in prior research. This study controlled for exposure to these other types of pollution and exposure to pollutants following birth, and it still found an elevated risk of asthma in children born to mothers with heightened exposure to ultra-fine particles in pregnancy.

Ultra-fine particulate pollution--particles that are smaller than the width of an average human hair--can get deeper into our lungs and pass into our circulation to cause various health effects. Because of this, the researchers said their toxic effects may actually be greater.

"One reason ultra-fine particulates are not routinely monitored is that there have been a number of unique challenges to measuring them accurately. Fortunately, recent methods have been developed to provide such exposure data which allowed us to conduct this study," said lead author Rosalind Wright, MD, MPH, Horace W. Goldsmith Professor in Children's Health Research, Professor of Environmental Medicine and Public Health and Co-director of the Institute for Exposomic Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

This study included 376 mothers and their children, most of them Black or Latinx, who live in the Boston metropolitan area and were already being followed to assess their health. Mount Sinai researchers partnered with a group of scientists at Tufts University in the Boston area who had developed a way to provide valid daily estimations of ultra-fine particulate exposure which could be linked to the area of the mothers' and children's homes. Many of these women were more likely to live near major roadways with higher traffic density where exposure to these tiny particles tends to be higher.

The researchers followed up with the mothers to find out whether the children were diagnosed with asthma. Most of the diagnoses of asthma occurred just after three years of age.

Pollution's effect in utero can alter lung development and respiratory health. This can lead to pediatric disorders like asthma. How this happens is not completely understood but pollution can alter certain bodily regulatory systems like neuroendocrine and immune function that have been linked with asthma in other studies.

While both boys and girls were affected by prenatal ultrafine particle exposure, this study found that girl babies were more sensitive to ultra-fine particle pollution's effects on asthma risk when exposed in late pregnancy. The reason for this phenomenon is also unclear, but studies show it is possibly due to endocrine-disrupting effects of the pollution exposure.

"This research is an important early step in building the evidence base that can lead to better monitoring of exposure to ultrafine particles in the United States and ultimately to regulation. As we advance methods for measuring these tiny particles, we hope for replication of these findings, both within different geographic areas across the United States as well as globally. Childhood asthma remains a global epidemic that is likely to grow with the anticipated rise in particulate air pollution exposures due to effects of climate change," Dr. Wright said.

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This research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health including the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program.

About The Institute for Exposomic Research

The Institute for Exposomic Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai is the world's first research institute devoted to the intensive study of the exposome, or the totality of environmental influences on human health. The mission of the Institute is to understand how the complex mix of nutritional, chemical, and social environments affect health, disease, and development later in life and to translate those findings into new strategies for prevention and treatment. For more information, visit http://icahn.mssm.edu/exposomics.

About the Mount Sinai Health System

The Mount Sinai Health System is New York City's largest academic medical system, encompassing eight hospitals, a leading medical school, and a vast network of ambulatory practices throughout the greater New York region. Mount Sinai is a national and international source of unrivaled education, translational research and discovery, and collaborative clinical leadership ensuring that we deliver the highest quality care--from prevention to treatment of the most serious and complex human diseases. The Health System includes more than 7,200 physicians and features a robust and continually expanding network of multispecialty services, including more than 400 ambulatory practice locations throughout the five boroughs of New York City, Westchester, and Long Island. The Mount Sinai Hospital is ranked No. 14 on U.S. News & World Report's "Honor Roll" of the Top 20 Best Hospitals in the country and the Icahn School of Medicine as one of the Top 20 Best Medical Schools in country. Mount Sinai Health System hospitals are consistently ranked regionally by specialty and our physicians in the top 1% of all physicians nationally by U.S. News & World Report.

For more information, visit https://www.mountsinai.org or find Mount Sinai on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Russian wildfires and tropospheric ozone pollution over Northern Tibetan Plateau

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: BALLOON-BORNE MEASUREMENT OVER THE NORTHERN TP. view more 

CREDIT: JINQIANG ZHANG

Atmospheric ozone, which can regulate the amount of incoming ultraviolet radiation on the Earth's surface, is important for the atmospheric environment and ecosystems. Tropospheric ozone, primarily originating from photochemical reactions, is the third most prominent greenhouse gas causing climate warming.

A research team led by Dr. Jinqiang Zhang from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences tried to analyze vertical ozone distributions and explore the influence of deep stratospheric intrusions and wildfires on ozone variation in the northern Tibetan Plateau (TP) during the Asian summer monsoon period.

Their findings were published in Atmospheric Research.

Ozone variation over the TP can influence weather and climate change. Unfortunately, surface observation sites on the northern TP are sparse due to the special terrain and harsh climate.

Ozonesonde, developed by the Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation at IAP, was released over the northern TP in 2016, 2019, and 2020.

The researchers found that the deep stratospheric intrusion contributed to the occurrence of large ozone partial pressure in the troposphere.

"We also found that the large wildfire smoke occurring around central and eastern Russia in July 2016 caused ozone pollution in the troposphere over the northern TP, via long-range transport processes," said Dr. Dan Li, the corresponding author of the study.

The researchers warn that due to global warming, wildfires will increase and more pollution can be transported across China via long range.

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RIGHT WING THINK TANK ECHOCHAMBER

A new replication crisis: Research that is less likely to be true is cited more

Papers that cannot be replicated are cited 153 times more because their findings are interesting, according to a new UC San Diego study

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE AVERAGE YEARLY CITATION COUNT PER YEAR FOR STUDIES THAT WERE NOT REPLICATED (ACCORDING TO P VALUE OF THE REPLICATION) IN EACH REPLICATION STUDY, AND FOR THOSE THAT WERE REPLICATED. THE... view more 

CREDIT: UC SAN DIEGO

Papers in leading psychology, economic and science journals that fail to replicate and therefore are less likely to be true are often the most cited papers in academic research, according to a new study by the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management.

Published in Science Advances, the paper explores the ongoing "replication crisis" in which researchers have discovered that many findings in the fields of social sciences and medicine don't hold up when other researchers try to repeat the experiments.

The paper reveals that findings from studies that cannot be verified when the experiments are repeated have a bigger influence over time. The unreliable research tends to be cited as if the results were true long after the publication failed to replicate.

"We also know that experts can predict well which papers will be replicated," write the authors Marta Serra-Garcia, assistant professor of economics and strategy at the Rady School and Uri Gneezy, professor of behavioral economics also at the Rady School. "Given this prediction, we ask 'why are non-replicable papers accepted for publication in the first place?'"

Their possible answer is that review teams of academic journals face a trade-off. When the results are more "interesting," they apply lower standards regarding their reproducibility.

The link between interesting findings and nonreplicable research also can explain why it is cited at a much higher rate--the authors found that papers that successfully replicate are cited 153 times less than those that failed.

"Interesting or appealing findings are also covered more by media or shared on platforms like Twitter, generating a lot of attention, but that does not make them true," Gneezy said.

Serra-Garcia and Gneezy analyzed data from three influential replication projects which tried to systematically replicate the findings in top psychology, economic and general science journals (Nature and Science). In psychology, only 39 percent of the 100 experiments successfully replicated. In economics, 61 percent of the 18 studies replicated as did 62 percent of the 21 studies published in Nature/Science.

With the findings from these three replication projects, the authors used Google Scholar to test whether papers that failed to replicate are cited significantly more often than those that were successfully replicated, both before and after the replication projects were published. The largest gap was in papers published in Nature/Science: non-replicable papers were cited 300 times more than replicable ones.

When the authors took into account several characteristics of the studies replicated--such as the number of authors, the rate of male authors, the details of the experiment (location, language and online implementation) and the field in which the paper was published--the relationship between replicability and citations was unchanged.

They also show the impact of such citations grows over time. Yearly citation counts reveal a pronounced gap between papers that replicated and those that did not. On average, papers that failed to replicate are cited 16 times more per year. This gap remains even after the replication project is published.

"Remarkably, only 12 percent of post-replication citations of non-replicable findings acknowledge the replication failure," the authors write.

The influence of an inaccurate paper published in a prestigious journal can have repercussions for decades. For example, the study Andrew Wakefield published in The Lancet in 1998 turned tens of thousands of parents around the world against the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine because of an implied link between vaccinations and autism. The incorrect findings were retracted by The Lancet 12 years later, but the claims that autism is linked to vaccines continue.

The authors added that journals may feel pressure to publish interesting findings, and so do academics. For example, in promotion decisions, most academic institutions use citations as an important metric in the decision of whether to promote a faculty member.

This may be the source of the "replication crisis," first discovered the early 2010s.

"We hope our research encourages readers to be cautious if they read something that is interesting and appealing," Serra-Garcia said. "Whenever researchers cite work that is more interesting or has been cited a lot, we hope they will check if replication data is available and what those findings suggest."

Gneezy added, "We care about the field and producing quality research and we want to it to be true."

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THE GNOMES OF ZURICH SPRACH

Missing role of finance in climate mitigation scenarios

UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH

Research News

 

Researchers at the University of Zurich show how climate mitigation scenarios can be improved by taking into account that the financial system can play both an enabling or a hampering role on the path to a sustainable economic system.

To limit global warming, a profound transformation of energy, production and consumption in our economies is required. The scale of the transformation means that the financial system must have a proactive role. New green investments are needed, as well as a reallocation of capital from high to low-carbon activities. The Central Banks and Supervisors Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), of which the Swiss National Bank is a member, was recently established with the aim of better understanding and managing the financial risks of climate change. The climate mitigation scenarios developed by the NGFS in collaboration with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations (IPCC) have been a major step in providing financial actors with forward looking views on how low and high-carbon economic activities could evolve over the next decades. However, at this stage, these scenarios are based on large-scale Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) that do not take into account the dynamic nature of the financial system and its actors. "We need to consider how the risk perception of the financial system from the scenarios can change the scenarios themselves," explains Stefano Battiston, professor at the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich.

Expansion of climate mitigation models

In their paper published in Science, Battiston and an international research group - with two authors being also authors of the upcoming IPPC Assessment Report - present a dynamic approach to complement climate mitigation scenarios. By describing what the world might look like in the coming decades, and being endorsed by financial authorities and large investors, climate mitigation scenarios have the power to change markets' expectations today. But this has an impact on the scenarios. "The economic system could go in the direction of the low-carbon transition, but it could also go the opposite way. It depends on what perception of risk the actors form from the scenarios," Battiston says. If investors find climate policies credible, they will adjust their expectations in a timely manner and reallocate capital to low-carbon investments early and gradually, which enables the transition to a more sustainable economy and a smoother adjustment of prices.

In contrast, investors could find the policies non-credible, delay revising their expectations, and do so later and in a sudden way. In particular, Battiston continues, "if financial actors collectively underestimate the risk of a late and sudden transition, the chance of this scenario materializing increases. This outcome could be a problem for financial stability and would therefore be more costly to society. It is thus also a concern for central banks and financial authorities. And it could lead to insufficient reallocation of capital into low-carbon investments. This is why it is so important."

Evaluate climate-financial risk and look at it dynamically

The authors of the study combine the current IAMs with a climate-financial risk assessment (CFR) in a circular way. In doing so, they show how the perception of the financial system and the timing of the introduction of climate policy measures interact in the low-carbon transition. The feedback loop map possible changes in investors' expectations and thus lead to more coeherent scenarios to assess climate-related financial risk.

The findings from the study have practical implications for the implementation of fiscal policy measures, and financial policy and regulation. They shed also new light on the discussion around the principle of "double materiality", which involves taking into account financial as well as non-financial opportunities and risks for financial firms.

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