Sick bats also employ 'social distancing' which prevents the outbreak of epidemics

New study from Tel Aviv University reveals that bats also resort to isolation which can assist in preventing mass contagion

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: IMAGES OF BATS. view more 

CREDIT: YUVAL BARKAI.

The Covid-19 pandemic has introduced us to expressions like 'lockdown', 'isolation' and 'social distancing', which became part of social conduct all over the world. Now it appears that bats also maintain social distancing which might help prevent the spread of contagious diseases in their colonies. In a new study published in Annals of the New York Academy of Science, researchers from Tel Aviv University demonstrate that sick bats, just like ill humans, prefer to stay away from their communities, probably as a means for recovery, and possibly also as a measure for protecting others. The study was conducted by postdoctoral researcher Dr. Kelsey Moreno and PhD candidate Maya Weinberg at the laboratory of Prof. Yossi Yovel, Head of the Sagol School of Neuroscience and a researcher at School of Zoology at the George S. wise Faculty of Life Sciences.

The study monitored two colonies of Egyptian fruit bats - one living in an enclosure and the other in its natural environment. To examine the behavior of bats when they get sick, the researchers injected several bats in each group with a bacteria-like protein, thereby stimulating their immune response without generating any real danger to the bats. Tests revealed symptoms such as a high fever, fatigue and weight loss, and the 'ill' bats' behavior was tracked with GPS.

The researchers discovered that the 'sick' bats chose to keep away from the colony. In the first group, they left the bat cluster of their own accord and kept their distance. In the second group the 'ill' bats likewise moved away from the other bats in the colony, and also stayed in the colony and did not go out in search of food for two successive nights.

CAPTION

Images of bats.

CREDIT

Yuval Barkai.

Research student Maya Weinberg explains that this social distancing behavior is probably caused by the need to conserve energy - by avoiding the energy-consuming social interactions in the group. Weinberg emphasizes, however, that this behavior can also protect the group and prevent the pathogen from spreading within the colony. Moreover, the fact that sick bats don't leave the cave, prevents the disease from spreading to other colonies. "The bats' choice to stay away from the group is highly unusual for these animals. Normally these bats are extremely social creatures, living in caves in very crowded conditions," says Weinberg. "In fact, the 'sick' bats' behavior is very reminiscent of our own during recovery from an illness. Just as we prefer to stay home quietly under the blanket when we are ill, sick bats, living in very crowded caves, also seek solitude and peace as they recuperate."

Prof. Yovel adds that the study's findings suggest that the likelihood of bats passing pathogens to humans under regular conditions is very low, because sick bats tend to isolate themselves and stay in the cave. "We observed that during illness bats choose to stay away from the colony and don't leave the cave, and thus avoid mixing with other bats. This suggests that in order to encounter a sick bat, people must actually invade the bats' natural environment or eliminate their habitats. In other words, if we protect them, they will also protect us."

CAPTION

Prof. Yossi Yovel

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

 

Solar energy-driven sustainable process for synthesis of ethylene glycol from methanol

DALIAN INSTITUTE OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: DIRECT PHOTOCATALYTIC COUPLING OF METHANOL TO ETHYLENE GLYCOL (EG) IS HIGHLY ATTRACTIVE. THE FIRST METAL OXIDE PHOTOCATALYST, TANTALUM-BASED SEMICONDUCTOR, IS REPORTED FOR PREFERENTIAL ACTIVATION OF C-H BOND WITHIN METHANOL TO... view more 

CREDIT: CHINESE JOURNAL OF CATALYSIS

The photochemistry of the future will spring up human industry without smoke, and bring a brighter civilization based on the utilization of solar energy instead of fossil energy. Photochemistry has been used in controlling many reaction processes, especially for the challenging reactions containing selective C-H activation and C-C coupling in chemical synthesis. It is of great interests that a "dream catalytic reaction" of direct coupling of methanol to ethylene glycol (2CH3OH ? HOCH2CH2OH + H2, denoted as MTEG) could be achieved through the solar energy-driven C-H activation and C-C coupling processes, and this MTEG reaction has not been achieved through thermocatalysis yet.

Ethylene glycol (EG) is an important monomer for the manufacture of polymers (e.g., poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET), and can also be used as antifreeze and fuel additive. The annual production of EG is more than 25 million tons, which is primarily produced from petroleum-derived ethylene industrially. Methanol is a clean platform chemical, which can not only traditionally produced from natural gas and coal, but also has been directly synthesized from biomass and CO2. Thus, the solar energy-driven MTEG route provides an alternative process for sustainable synthesis of EG and H2 from methanol directly with great attractions.

Although direct photocatalytic coupling of methanol to EG is highly attractive, the reported photocatalysts for this reaction are all metal sulfide semiconductors, which may suffer from photocorrosion and have low stability. Thus, the development of non-sul?de photocatalysts for efficient photocatalytic coupling of methanol to EG and H2 with high stability is urgent but extremely challenging.

Recently, a research team led by Prof. Ye Wang from Xiamen University and Yanshan University, China reported the first metal oxide photocatalyst, tantalum-based semiconductor, for preferential activation of C-H bond within methanol to form hydroxymethyl radical (* CH2OH) and subsequent C-C coupling to EG. Compared with other metal oxide photocatalysts, such as TiO2, ZnO, WO3, Nb2O5, tantalum oxide (Ta2O5) is unique in that it can realize the selective photocatalytic coupling of methanol to EG. The co-catalyst free nitrogen doped tantalum oxide (2%N-Ta2O5) shows an EG formation rate as high as 4.0 mmol/g/h, about 9 times higher than that of Ta2O5, with a selectivity higher than 70%. The high charge separation ability of nitrogen doped tantalum oxide plays a key role in its high activity for EG production. This catalyst also shows excellent stability longer than 160 h, which has not been achieved over the reported metal sulfide photocatalysts. Tantalum-based photocatalyst is an environmentally friendly and highly stable candidate for photocatalytic coupling of methanol to EG. The results were published in Chinese Journal of Catalysis.

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About the Journal

Chinese Journal of Catalysis is co-sponsored by Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Chemical Society, and it is currently published by Elsevier group. This monthly journal publishes in English timely contributions of original and rigorously reviewed manuscripts covering all areas of catalysis. The journal publishes Reviews, Accounts, Communications, Articles, Highlights, Perspectives, and Viewpoints of highly scientific values that help understanding and defining of new concepts in both fundamental issues and practical applications of catalysis. Chinese Journal of Catalysis ranks among the top six journals in Applied Chemistry with a current SCI impact factor of 6.146. The Editors-in-Chief are Profs. Can Li and Tao Zhang.

At Elsevier http://www.journals.elsevier.com/chinese-journal-of-catalysis
Manuscript submission https://mc03.manuscriptcentral.com/cjcatal

 

Restored peatlands store carbon and mitigate climate change

ESTONIAN RESEARCH COUNCIL

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IMAGE: VIRU TEST SITE USING THE CANADIAN PEAT MOSS APPLICATION METHOD (RIGHT) AND CONTROL PATCH (LEFT) WHERE NOT USED. view more 

CREDIT: TALLINN UNIVERSITY

Estonia has almost 10,000 ha of peat production land that has lain abandoned since the Soviet era, as well as peatland that is in use at present for peat production but whose resources will be exhausted in the near future. There are also 160,000 ha of peatland that have been drained for forestry. The findings from the research conducted by Tallinn University doctoral student Anna-Helena Purre are able to be put to practical use in planning and carrying out the restoration of peatlands and thereafter in evaluating the success of the restoration. What makes these activities topical is the fact that a lot of attention will be directed to ecological restoration from 2021-2030, which the United Nations has named the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.

The water level in bogs in their natural state is constantly high and the vegetation that grows in them is accustomed to such conditions - the synergy between them storing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into the peat in these areas. As a result of draining peatlands, the bogs lose their distinctive vegetation and these areas instead become a source of carbon dioxide (CO2). This can be alleviated by ecologically restoring the areas. Purre's thesis examines the vegetation and exchange of carbon dioxide on peatlands where peat was previously produced or that have been drained for forestry. She compares these results to the vegetation and carbon dioxide flow in undisturbed bogs, assessing the success rate of restoration in restored areas in terms of bog structure (abundance of vegetation) and function (storing CO2 in peat or emitting it into the atmosphere). She also investigates the growth of vegetation and the successfulness of restoration in restored peat production areas dependent on the restoration methods used in experimental sites (species of peat mosses and the density of their spreading, plus reprofiling and fertilising of the peat surface) and the characteristics of residual peat in the experimental sites.

Purre concludes that forest drainage areas which were restored 5-10 years before the measurements were similar to undisturbed bogs in terms of structure and function, but at the same time that recovery was slower in peat production areas. "That result was somewhat expected, because in peat production areas, restoration starts with the bare peat surface and then moves towards the ecological community," she explains. "In forestry drainage, on the other hand, the vegetation already exists and begins to develop after restoration from the vegetation being dry and shade tolerant plant communities to more open and wet plant communities." Purre adds that the carbon dioxide sink function of peatland tends to recover more quickly in restored areas, whereas the development of peatland-specific vegetation needs more time. During her research she determined the impact of different methods of peatland restoration for the peat production areas on the success of restoration and assessed the viability of the moss-layer-transfer-technique developed in Canada in Estonian conditions.

The research contributed to the collection of data regarding the CO2 fluxes. Although previously greenhouse gases fluxes have been measured in the Baltic States using the opaque-chamber method, with which it is only possible to assess the amount of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere through the ecosystem respiration, the data published in this thesis about natural bogs and restored peatlands with forest drainage are the first in the Baltic States to evaluate the entire exchange of CO2 of the ecological community, taking into consideration the amount of CO2 bind via photosynthesis, by measuring this with transparent chambers. "This is very important, since bogs in their natural state mainly store carbon dioxide, slowly bringing down the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and mitigating climate change," Purre adds. "For this reason, it is important to know when and how this function will be restored on disturbed peatlands that have undergone restoration."

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The doctoral thesis is available in Tallinn University Digital Library ETERA. https://www.etera.ee/zoom/126023/view?page=1&p=separate

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Measurement of carbon dioxide.

CREDIT

Timo Penttilä

 

How do plants hedge their bets?

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

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IMAGE: GENETICALLY IDENTICAL ARABIDOPSIS SEEDLINGS GERMINATING AT VARIABLE TIMES. view more 

CREDIT: KATIE ABLEY

In some environments there is no way for a seed to know for sure when the best time to germinate is.

In spring, cues like light, temperature and water may suggest to seeds that conditions are optimal for germination, but a week later an unpredictable drought or frost could kill the emerging seedlings.

So how does a plant make sure that all of its offspring are not killed at once by an ill-timed environmental stress following germination?

There is evidence that some plant species produce seeds that germinate at different times to hedge their bets against this risk. Many species produce seeds that can enter a dormant state and exist in the soil for several years and some also produce seeds that germinate at different times within a season.

This means that if lethal environmental fluctuations do occur, a fraction of a plant's offspring will survive as seeds, which can go on to germinate at another time.

This variability in germination time can be seen even with genetically identical seeds grown in an identical environment.

In agriculture, the variability in germination time can be a problem when you want to harvest the whole crop at the same time. Instead, farmers have to monitor their crops' maturity, taking measurements from multiple individual plants to estimate when the best time is to harvest.

Scientists at the Sainsbury Laboratory Cambridge University (SLCU) used the model plant, thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), to ask: What makes genetically identical seeds germinate at different times?

"We already know that two plant hormones - abscisic acid (ABA) that inhibits germination and gibberellic acid (GA) that promotes germination - interact with each other to control the decision to germinate, but we wanted to know how this interaction creates variability in germination times between seeds", said Dr Katie Abley, researcher at SLCU and joint first author of the research published in eLife.

"By measuring the levels of variability in germination times for hundreds of genetically distinct strains of Arabidopsis, we were able to identify two regions of DNA (genetic loci) that control how variable germination time is. Both loci contain genes that influence how sensitive seeds are to ABA and testing mutants of these genes provided evidence that they regulate variability in germination timing."

Using this new information, the researchers generated a mathematical model of the ABA-GA network to understand how the interactions between ABA and GA could cause a batch of identical seeds to have a range of germination times. They wanted to understand how the network could give rise to different levels of variability in germination time.

"We found that changing ABA sensitivity in the model replicated the experimental germination time distributions that we observed", explained Dr Pau Formosa-Jordan, joint first author and now research group leader at Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne, Germany.

"In the model, groups of seeds with higher sensitivity to ABA germinate in a more spread-out way because, upon sowing, each one of these seeds relies on stochastic fluctuations in the ABA-GA network to switch from a non-germination state to a germination state - which is known as a bistable switch behaviour. Yet, seeds with lower sensitivity to ABA more rapidly and synchronously get to the germination state after being sown, without the need for the stochastic fluctuations. Our stochastic model suggests an ABA-GA bistable switch can generate variability in germination times, with the germination time being influenced by stochastic fluctuations in the levels of hormones."

While the researchers expect there to be other genetic and biophysical effects at play that affect variability in germination time, their findings show that this plant trait is genetically controlled and high or low variability in germination times could, therefore, be specifically selected for in crop breeding programmes or to rehabilitate natural areas with highly variable environments.

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Reference

Katie Abley, Pau Formosa-Jordan, Hugo Tavares, Emily Y. T. Chan, Mana Afsharinafar, Ottoline Leyser, James C. W. Locke (2021) An ABA-GA bistable switch can account for natural variation in the variability of Arabidopsis seed germination time, eLife.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.59485

Funding

This research was supported by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation.

 

Clinical-level emotional/behavioral problems in schoolchildren during the lockdown

SHINSHU UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Efforts to contain the novel coronavirus have caused lockdowns and school closures around the world. These efforts and policies have unfortunately cut off many children from valuable resources such as the opportunity for exercise, access to clean water and food, learning, and socialization. Therefore, the effects on mental health and behavior may be found not just in adults but children. However, studies published thus far have been limited to elucidating the mood of middle school and high school students and the conditions for which mood problems occur remain unclear. Therefore, support and assistance methods to help such students, including younger children remained unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, this study conducted a follow-up study during the time Japan was under a state of emergency and schools were closed in March until May of 2020.

Associate Professor Fumito Takahashi of the Faculty of Education, Shinshu University led this cohort study on elucidating the anguish and problems faced not only by middle school and high school-aged students but also that of grade-schoolers from the first grade and above, until the third year of high school. First graders of elementary-age, who were excluded from the past self-reported surveys due to their inability to articulate their problems on self-report questionnaires, were included in this parent-reported survey, so that the problems in this age group could be understood by teachers, clinicians and policymakers. Not only was the mood of subjects under study such as depression and anxiety, but problematic behaviors such as delinquency, inattention and hyperactivity were successfully elucidated. The study showed that in fact, the inattention and hyperactivity in children grades 1 to 3 were the problems that increased the most during the lockdown.

The cohort study showed that when schools close and there are lockdowns in effect to control the spread of disease, households that have any of the following may need special assistance and support: 1) a household with (a) child(ren) under the age of ten (grades 3 and under), 2) households with low income (under 2 million yen per year) 3) households with children with developmental disabilities.

Dr. Takahashi will continue to research conditions or other support and assistance which allow children to thrive, especially those until adolescence who may have developmental disabilities so that their mental health will not worsen. Such studies aim to make environments in which "characteristics" are turned into "disabilities" fewer and to allocate social resources appropriately for those who experience difficulties so that people of all characteristics can live and thrive.

To realize such a society is not just the work of specialists such as psychiatrists and social workers, but the cooperation of guardians, local residents, pediatricians, nurses, and teachers is crucial. Policies that enable the cooperation of each actor are also important. There remains a lot to do, which means that everyone in any position has a way they can be of help.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by KAKENHI 19H04881 from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).

For more information please read: https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcv2.12007

Air quality improved during India lockdown, study shows

UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON

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IMAGE: STANDARDIZED (A) NIGHT-TIME MODIS LST AND (B) DAY-TIME MODIS LST ANOMALIES (°C) DURING 2020 (24TH MARCH-18TH MAY) AGAINST THE DEMI-DECADAL MEAN FOR THE YEARS 2015-19. THE HISTOGRAM SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF... view more 

CREDIT: ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

Research by scientists from University of Southampton (UK) and the Central University of Jharkhand (India) and has shown the first COVID-19 lockdown in India led to an improvement in air quality and a reduction in land surface temperature in major urban areas across the country.

The study found that travel and work restrictions imposed early in the pandemic resulted in a significant environmental improvement, due to an abrupt reduction in industrial activities and a major decrease in the use of land and air transport.

The international team used data from a range of Earth Observation sensors, including those from the European Space Agency's Sentinel-5p and NASA's MODIS sensors, to measure changes in surface temperature and atmospheric pollutants and aerosols. They concentrated on six major urban areas: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad - comparing data from the 2020 March to May lockdown with pre-pandemic years.

Their findings, published in the journal Environmental Research, provide a strong evidence base for potential environmental benefits through larger scale policy implementation.

The researchers revealed a significant reduction in Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), a greenhouse gas emitted from the combustion of fossil fuels, which equated to an average decrease of 12 percent throughout India and 31.5 percent over the six cities. There was a 40 percent reduction over the national capital, New Delhi. In India alone, about 16,000 premature deaths occur annually due to exposure to poor air quality.

The study also found Land Surface Temperature (LST) over major cities in India substantially declined in contrast with the previous five-year average (2015-2019) with day temperatures being up to 1°C cooler and those at night up to 2°C cooler.

Co- author Professor Jadu Dash, from University of Southampton, commented: "The lockdown provided a natural experiment to understand the coupling between urbanisation and local microclimate. We clearly observed that reduction in atmospheric pollutants (due to reduction in anthropogenic activity during lockdown) resulted in a decrease in local day and night-time temperature. This is an important finding to feed into the planning for sustainable urban development."

Along with surface temperature, the atmospheric fluxes at the surface and top of the atmosphere also significantly declined over major parts of India. The reduction of greenhouse gas concentration, higher atmospheric water vapour content and meteorological conditions played a complex role in the land and near-surface temperature reduction.

Commenting on the research, Dr Bikash Parida, from Central University of Jharkhand said: "Aerosol optical depth (AOD) and absorption AOD showed a significant reduction which could be connected with the reduction in the emission sources across India during the lockdown. The aerosol type sources, such as organic carbon (OC), black carbon (BC), mineral dust, and sea salt also reduced significantly. Moreover, in central India, increases in AOD were attributed to the supply of dust aerosols transported from the western Thar desert region."

Dr Gareth Roberts from the University of Southampton added: "Satellite instruments play a vital role in acquiring information on the Earth's environment in a timely manner. This study has illustrated the importance of Earth Observation data for monitoring changes in the atmospheric pollutants, which are significant health risk, and in highlighting the impact that anthropogenic activities have on regional air quality."

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 FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH

Bar-Ilan University researchers increase life expectancy in mice by an average of 30%

The mechanism through which the protein SIRT6 acts as a 'fountain of youth' allows old mice to conduct the same level of vigorous activity as their young counterparts, without becoming frail

BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: IN A PAPER RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF RESEARCHERS, LED BY BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY IN ISRAEL, REPORT THAT TRANSGENIC MICE EXPRESS HIGH LEVELS OF THE SIRT6 GENE... view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY BAR-ILAN UNIVERSITY

Aging is associated with an overall decline in health and increased frailty, and is a major risk factor for multiple chronic diseases. Frailty syndrome, characterized by weakness, fatigue and low physical activity, affects more than 30% of the elderly population. Increasing our understanding of the mechanisms underlying the aging process is a top priority to facilitate the development of interventions that will lead to the preservation of health and improvements on survival and lifespan.

Cumulative evidence suggests that diet and metabolism are key targetable regulators of healthy lifespan. Prof. Haim Cohen, Director of the Sagol Healthy Human Longevity Center at Bar-Ilan University, focuses much of his research on the SIRT6 protein that is involved in regulating many biological processes, such as aging, obesity, and insulin resistance.

In a study just published in the journal Nature Communications, an international team led by Cohen and his PhD student Asael Roichman -- together with Prof. Rafael de Cabo, of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health, Prof. Manuel Serrani, of the Institute for Research in Biomedicine in Barcelona, and Prof. Eyal Gottlieb from the Technion -- report that transgenic mice express high levels of the SIRT6 gene, and show that their life expectancy can be increased by an average of 30% in both males and females. Translated into human terms this means that a 90-year-old could live until nearly 120!

Furthermore, the mice exhibited significant improvement in overcoming a variety of age-related diseases, such as cancer and blood disorders. Beyond this, strikingly, they were able to conduct the same level of vigorous activity as young mice, and didn't become frail.

Next, through a variety of biochemical methods and metabolic analyses the researchers deciphered the mechanism through which SIRT6 acts as a type of "fountain of youth", facilitating healthy aging. They showed that older animals lose the ability to generate energy in the absence of external energy sources, such as a short fast. On the other hand, the engineered mice maintained an enhanced energy generation capacity from other storage, such as the breakdown of fats and lactic acid. By doing so, they created sugar utilized for energy in muscle and specifically in the brain. In fact SIRT6 activates a physical response that is identical to diets that increase longevity.

"This discovery, combined with our previous findings, shows that SIRT6 controls the rate of healthy aging," says Prof. Cohen, of Bar-Ilan University's Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences. "If we can determine how to activate it in humans, we will be able to prolong life, and this could have enormous health and economic implications." Today, Cohen's lab is developing methods for extending healthy life based on these findings.

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Tuberculosis in Irish prisons: New study recommends increased testing

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Research News

 

Investigators from Trinity College Dublin, the Irish Mycobacteria Reference Laboratory, St James's Hospital, and the Department of Public Health HSE East believe tuberculosis (TB) care in Irish Prisons should be supported, considering the findings of their study which is published today (Tuesday, 1st June, 2021) in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

The study describes an investigation into a large outbreak of tuberculosis which occurred in an Irish prison in 2011. This resulted in 34 people contracting active TB from a single infectious case. The use of Whole Genome Sequencing enabled the investigators to track the course of onward transmission, and to link TB cases identified as recently as 2019 to the 2011 outbreak.

The outbreak resulted in litigation costs to the State of more than €5 million euro. The study found that in addition to the active TB cases, 50% of the prison staff tested as close contacts of cases may have developed Latent TB as a result of occupational exposure. This is an asymptomatic, non-infectious form of TB, which may progress to the active form of TB at a future date, in a small number of cases.

Professor Joe Keane, Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin and St James's Hospital Dublin, and co-senior author of the study said:

"This report shows that tuberculosis is an issue in our prisons and will be followed by a 'test and educate' programme- that will mitigate the risk in congregate settings."

Professor Tom Rogers, Clinical Microbiology, Trinity, and formerly Clinical Director, Irish Mycobacteria Reference Laboratory (IMRL) based at St. James's Hospital, said:

" This report demonstrates the power of whole genome sequencing to enhance epidemiological investigations of TB outbreaks over prolonged periods of time. The IMRL has created a national database of TB genomes which will facilitate future public health investigations of TB in Ireland."

Dr Marcus Butler, vice-president, Irish Thoracic Society said:

"This study, along with recommendations from the CDC TB controllers association and a recent review of TB rates in prisons published by The Lancet Public Health, supports the need for improving early TB diagnosis and care in the Irish prison system, through a three-step approach:

1) A TB information and testing service in prisons

2) A Latent TB clinic at St James's Hospital Dublin

3) A National TB lead to oversee this as part of an integrated national TB control service

This integrated national service should comprise a national TB screening programme for high risk groups, investment in contact tracing and TB surveillance activities, and a TB education and awareness programme for healthcare professionals and the public."

Dr Mary O Meara, Specialist in Public Health Medicine , HSE East said:

"This report supports the need for augmenting the public health contact tracing response for infectious diseases such as tuberculosis."

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More information: A PDF version of the paper 'The largest prison outbreak of TB in Western Europe investigated using whole-genome sequencing' is available upon request to coshea9@tcd.ie

 

Precise data for improved coastline protection

First comprehensive measurements of sea level changes in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea

TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH (TUM)

Research News

 

Researchers working under the leadership of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have conducted the first precise and comprehensive measurements of sea level rises in the Baltic Sea and the North Sea. A new method now makes it possible to determine sea level changes with millimeter accuracy even in coastal areas and in case of sea ice coverage. This is of vital importance for planning protective measures.

For the billions of people who live in coastal areas, rising sea levels driven by climate change can pose an existential threat. "To protect people and infrastructure - for example by building flood protection structures, securing ports or making dikes higher - we need reliable forecasts on sea level trends," explains Prof. Florian Seitz, the Director of the German Geodetic Research Institute at TUM. "However, this requires precise data with high spatial resolution. And until now, the required wide-area coverage was not available."

Especially near coastlines - where so many cities, ports, industry facilities and residential areas are located - the quality of data collected by the radar satellites orbiting the Earth for decades was compromised by high signal-to-noise ratios. The reason: Mountains, bays and offshore islands scatter the signals and distort the reflected echoes. Another problem is sea ice, which covers parts of the oceans in winter, and is impenetrable to radar.

In the Baltic Sea Level project (Baltic SEAL), a team of researchers at TUM worked with international partners to develop algorithms to process the measurement data from radar satellites to permit precise and high-resolution measurements of sea level changes even in coastal areas and beneath sea ice.

Penetrating ice and islands with radar

The researchers chose the Baltic Sea as the model region: "Data from this region are especially suitable for developing new methods because multiple factors make analysis difficult: The complex shape of the coastline, sea ice and wind. At the same time, there are plenty of local sea level measurements to corroborate the results," says project leader Dr. Marcello Passaro. "An analytical method that works in the Baltic Sea can be easily adapted to other regions."

To handle hundreds of millions of radar measurements taken between 1995 and 2019, the team developed a multi-stage process: In the first step, they calibrated the measurements from the various satellite missions so that they could be combined. With specially developed algorithms, they were then able to detect signals from the ice-covered sea water in the radar reflections produced along cracks and fissures. This made it possible to determine sea levels for the winter months. With new computational methods they also achieved better resolution of radar echoes close to land.

As a result, it is now possible to measure sea levels in coastal areas and compare the results with local tidal records. The processed data were then fitted to a fine grid with a resolution of 6 to 7 km using an algorithm developed by the team. The result: A highly precise data set covering the entire region.

The largest rises in sea levels are occurring in the Bay of Bothnia

The analysis of these data for the Baltic Sea shows the regional effects of the rise in sea levels over the past quarter century: The sea level has risen at an annual rate of 2 to 3 millimeters in the south, on the German and Danish coasts, as compared to 6 millimeters in the north-east, in the Bay of Bothnia. The cause of this large rise: Strong south-westerly winds that drive the waters to the north and eastward. This above-average increase in sea level does not pose a threat to coastal dwellers, however, because the land has been rising since the end of the last Ice Age - currently at an annual rate of up to 1 cm.

"Through the newly developed processes for analyzing and combining radar data, we are now in a position to arrive at precise and reliable conclusions on sea level changes in recent decades for other coastal regions as well," adds Dr. Denise Dettmering. The researcher has also created a comprehensive data set for the North Sea region: The sea level there is rising by 2.6 millimeters per year, and by 3.2 millimeters in the German Bight. Local trends can be determined using the data set and the user manual - both of which are freely accessible online. "With the data, researchers can verify their climate models, for example, and public authorities can plan suitable protective measures," says Dr. Seitz.

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Publications:

* Passaro M, Müller FL, Oelsmann J, Rautiainen L, Dettmering D, Hart-Davis MG, Abulaitijiang A, Andersen OB, Høyer JL, Madsen KS, Ringgaard IM, Särkkä J, Scarrott R, Schwatke C, Seitz F, Tuomi L, Restano M and Benveniste J: Absolute Baltic Sea Level Trends in the Satellite Altimetry Era: A Revisit. Frontiers in Marine Science 8:647607, 2021. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.647607

* Dettmering, D., Müller, F. L., Oelsmann, J., Passaro, M., Schwatke, C., Restano, M., Benveniste, J., Seitz, F.: NorthSEAL: A new Dataset of Sea Level Changes in the North Sea from Satellite Altimetry, Earth System Science Data [preprint], 2021. https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2021-103/

More information:

* The European Space Agency (ESA) provides funding for the development of monitoring programs for various parameters of the Earth system, in particular to measure and analyze essential climate variables (ECVs). The ECVs are key criteria describing changes in the Earth's climate. One of them is the sea level. In 2018 the ESA launched a regional study on the Baltic Sea region (Baltic+ Initiative), including aspects of the marine ecosystem. DGFI-TUM is leading the Baltic SEAL project. Other participants are the Technical University of Denmark's National Space Institute, the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Danish Meteorological Institute and University College Cork in Ireland.

Is the U.S. Understating Climate Emissions from Meat and Dairy Production?

New Analysis Indicates Undercounting of Methane Emissions from North American Livestock

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

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Methane emissions from North American livestock may be routinely undercounted, a new analysis by researchers at New York University and Johns Hopkins University finds. The work also notes that in developing countries, where animal agriculture is becoming increasingly industrialized, methane emissions could rise more than expected.

These assessments are based on a review, appearing in the journal Environmental Research Letters, of eight existing studies.

Methane is a global warming gas even more powerful than CO2. Its amount and lifetime in the atmosphere are smaller than CO2, but quantities are still increasing. The United Nations has recently urged that reducing methane emissions is a highly effective way of rapidly reducing global warming.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports these emissions in a national greenhouse gas inventory every year using complex models. But, the researchers write, existing methods that the EPA and other international agencies use to estimate methane emissions from animals are not corroborated by measuring concentrations of the gas in the air.

This omission is significant.

Some previous studies have monitored methane directly in the air using tall towers, airplanes, and satellites, collected above and downwind of animal production facilities. The recent Environmental Research Letters analysis compiled and reviewed several of these atmospheric studies over North America through the last decade. These studies consistently found more methane than the EPA and other agencies expected coming from livestock, in amounts ranging from 39 percent to 90 percent higher than previously estimated.

"Back in 2013, we found that atmospheric methane emissions were higher from livestock and oil and gas producing regions than the EPA was reporting," says Scot Miller, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University and coauthor of the Environmental Research Letters paper. "Since then, the models and atmospheric measurements don't appear much closer to coming into agreement. It's increasingly likely that methane emissions from farmed animals could be higher in North America than is often being reported."

Methane comes from cows' and sheep's digestion, as well as from stockpiles of manure from all farmed animals. In the U.S. and Canada, animal production is nearly entirely divorced from other farming practices like crop production. Pigs and chickens are raised in crowded sheds and their manure is stored in large stockpiles. Dairy cows are crowded into milking parlors and produce more manure than some small cities.

These industrialized changes to rearing animals allow producers to use less feed like hay, corn, and soybeans, translating to fewer resources needed on farms. It was long assumed by the scientific community that this also translates into lower greenhouse gas emissions, too.

"North American meat and dairy producers often tout improvements in their efficiency, claiming that concentrated feeds and confinement have reduced greenhouse gas emissions greatly over the past few decades," observes Matthew Hayek, an assistant professor in NYU's Environmental Studies Department and a co-author of the paper. "Our findings throw those claims into doubt. Individual cows may be belching and emitting less, but that doesn't necessarily translate to entire herds and warehouses of confined animals, and their stockpiles of manure, emitting less."

These assessments have international importance as well, the authors note. Since re-entering the Paris Agreement in 2021, the U.S. is preparing to reduce emissions from all greenhouse gases, including those from animal agriculture.

"This research indicates a need to reexamine or improve reporting methods for methane, which are critical to tracking progress over time," Hayek says.

Other countries may have cause for concern in the future, too. For instance, throughout Asia, meat and dairy consumption is on the rise, and this production is becoming increasingly industrialized. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization previously predicted that East and Southeast Asia's animal emissions will peak around 2030 because U.S.-style technological efficiency in Asia could reduce emissions afterward.

The findings reported in Environmental Research Letters, however, indicate that emissions could actually continue to rise through the year 2050.

"This would further undermine international goals to limit global warming, surpassing 1.5° or 2° Celsius even more quickly than expected," Miller says.

The authors highlight the role of international agencies, development banks, and corporations in hastening the transition toward industrial animal agriculture production.

"This evidence suggests that the banks and government agencies who are funding intensive animal facilities' expansion might be accepting more climate risk than they realize," says Hayek. "Policymakers should consider methane emissions along with a gamut of other major environmental issues stemming from concentrated meat and dairy production, including water pollution and infectious animal-borne disease breakouts, to inform policies that guide food systems toward a better direction."

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac02ef