Sweet sorghum: Sweet promise for the environment

IMAGE: THE KIT1 SORGHUM VARIETY DEVELOPED BY KIT ACCUMULATES A HIGH AMOUNT OF SUGAR AND THRIVES PARTICULARLY WELL UNDER TEMPERATE CLIMATE CONDITIONS. view more 

CREDIT: BOTANICAL INSTITUTE, KIT

New sorghum variety developed at KIT shows increased sugar accumulation and can be used for energy and materials production -- scientists report in Industrial Crops & Products

KARLSRUHER INSTITUT FÜR TECHNOLOGIE (KIT)

Research News

 

Sweet sorghum can be used to produce biogas, biofuels, and novel polymers. In addition, it can help replace phosphate fertilizers. A new sweet sorghum variety developed at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) accumulates particularly high amounts of sugar and thrives under local conditions. As the scientists reported in the Industrial Crops & Products journal, sugar transport and sugar accumulation are related to the structure of the plants' vessels. This was the result of a comparison between sweet and grain sorghums. (DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2021.113550)

As the world's population grows, the demand for food, raw materials, and energy is also on the rise. This increases the burden on the environment and the climate. One strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to grow so-called C4 crops. These carry out photosynthesis particularly efficiently, are therefore more effective in fixing carbon dioxide (CO2), and build up more biomass than other plants. Usually, they are native to sunny and warm places. One of the C4 plants is sorghum, also known as great millet, a species of the sorghum genus in the sweet grass family. The varieties that are particularly rich in sugar are called sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench). Other varieties include grain sorghum used as animal feed. Sorghum can be grown on so-called marginal land, which is difficult to cultivate, so it does not compete with other food or forage crops.

A new sweet sorghum variety called KIT1 has been developed by Dr. Adnan Kanbar in the Molecular Cell Biology Division research group headed by Professor Peter Nick at the Botanical Institute of KIT. KIT1 accumulates particularly high amounts of sugar and thrives especially well under temperate climate conditions. It can be used both energetically, i.e. for the production of biogas and biofuels, and as a base material for the production of novel polymers. The estimated sugar yield per hectare is over 4.4 tons, which would correspond to almost 3,000 liters of bioethanol. In addition, the digestate produced during biogas production can be used for fertilizers to replace phosphate fertilizer, which will soon be in short supply.

The Plant Stem Anatomy is What Matters

Researchers at Nick's laboratory, which is part of the Institute for Applied Biosciences, and their colleagues at the Institute for Technical Chemistry at KIT and at ARCUS Greencycling Technology in Ludwigsburg compared the KIT1 sweet sorghum and Razinieh grain sorghum varieties in order to investigate the different sugar accumulation behaviors in the plant stem. For the study, published in the Industrial Crops & Products journal, the team looked at the stem anatomy. This includes the thickened areas (nodes) and the narrow areas or spaces between nodes (internodes), but also transcripts of important sucrose transporter genes as well as stress responses of plants to high salt concentrations in the soil. Sugar accumulation was highest in the central internodes in both genotypes. However, a relationship was found between sugar accumulation and the structure of the vessels that serve to transport water, solutes, and organic substances. The vessels are grouped into vascular bundles. These consist of the phloem (bast part) and the xylem (wood part). The phloem mainly transports sugars and amino acids, while the xylem's primary function is to transport water and inorganic salts; in addition, the xylem has a supporting function. The study revealed that in KIT1 and five other sweet sorghum varieties, the phloem cross-sectional area in the stem is much larger than the xylem cross-sectional area - the difference is much more pronounced than in the Razinieh grain sorghum variety. "Our study is the first one to look at the relationship between the structure of the vascular bundles and sugar accumulation in the stem," Nick says.

Sweet Sorghum Copes Better with Salinity Stress

As the study further revealed, salinity stress led to higher sugar accumulation in KIT1 than in Razinieh. The expression of sucrose transporter genes was higher in KIT1 leaves under normal conditions, and increased significantly under salinity stress. "Besides anatomical factors, there also some molecular factors that might contribute to regulating sugar accumulation in the stem," Kanbar explains. "In any case, KIT1 responds better to salinity stress." (or)

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Original Publication

Adnan Kanbar, Ehsan Shakeri, Dema Alhajturki, Michael Riemann, Mirko Bunzel, Marco Tomasi Morgano, Dieter Stapf, Peter Nick: Sweet versus grain sorghum: Differential sugar transport and accumulation are linked with vascular bundle architecture. Industrial Crops & Products, 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2021.113550

Abstract at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2021.113550

Contact for this press release:

Sandra Wiebe, Press Officer, phone: +49 721 608-41172, e-mail: sandra.wiebe@kit.edu

Being "The Research University in the Helmholtz Association", KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment. It is the objective to make significant contributions to the global challenges in the fields of energy, mobility, and information. For this, about 9,600 employees cooperate in a broad range of disciplines in natural sciences, engineering sciences, economics, and the humanities and social sciences. KIT prepares its 23,300 students for responsible tasks in society, industry, and science by offering research-based study programs. Innovation efforts at KIT build a bridge between important scientific findings and their application for the benefit of society, economic prosperity, and the preservation of our natural basis of life. KIT is one of the German universities of excellence.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for SORGHUM 

 

Proliferation of electric vehicles based on high-performance, low-cost sodium-ion battery

A large-capacity anode material is developed for sodium-ion batteries by using low-cost silicone-based oil. This process, if commercialized, is expected to significantly reduce manufacturing costs

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

IMAGE: GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT view more 

CREDIT: KOREA INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY(KIST)

Various automobile companies are preparing to shift from internal combustion (IC) engine vehicles to electric vehicles (EVs). However, due to higher cost, EVs are not as easily accessible to consumers; hence, several governments are subsidizing EVs to promote sales. For EV costs to compete with those of IC engine vehicles, their batteries, which account for about 30% of their cost, must be more economical than that of IC-based vehicles.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) has announced that Dr. Sang-Ok Kim's team at the Center for Energy Storage Research had developed a novel, high-performance, economical anode material for use in sodium-ion secondary batteries, which are more cost-effective than lithium-ion batteries. This novel material can store 1.5 times more electricity than the graphite anode used in commercial lithium-ion batteries and its performance does not degrade even after 200 cycles at very fast charging/discharging rates of 10 A/g.

Sodium is over 500 times more abundant in the Earth's crust than lithium; hence, sodium-ion batteries have drawn considerable attention as the next-generation secondary battery because it is 40% cheaper than lithium-ion batteries. However, compared to lithium ions, sodium ions are larger and, thus, cannot be stored as stably in graphite and silicon, which are widely used as anodes in such batteries. Hence, the development of a novel, high-capacity anode material is necessitated.

The KIST research team used molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a metal sulfide that has garnered interest as a candidate for large-capacity anode materials. MoS2 can store a large amount of electricity, but cannot be used because of its high electrical resistance and structural instability that occur during battery operation. However, Dr. Sang-Ok Kim's team overcame this problem by creating a ceramic nano-coating layer using silicone oil, which is a low-cost, eco-friendly material. Through the simple process of mixing the MoS2 *precursor with silicone oil and heat-treating the mixture, they could produce a stable heterostructure with low resistance and enhanced stability.

*precursor : A material in a stage before becoming a specific material in a metabolism or reaction.

**Heterostructure: A structure created by combining two or more materials

Furthermore, the evaluation of electrochemical properties indicated that this material could stably store at least twice as much electricity (?600 mAh/g) as the MoS2 material without coating and could maintain this capacity even after 200 rapid charge/discharge cycles. This excellent performance was achieved by the formation of the ceramic nano-coating layer with high electric storage capacity, which imparts high conductivity and rigidity to the MoS2 surface, resulting in low electrical resistance of the material and high structural stability.

Dr. Sang-Ok Kim, stated "We could successfully solve the high resistance and structural instability problems of MoS2 through the nano-coating surface stabilization technology. As a result, we could develop a sodium-ion battery that can stably store a large amount of electricity. Our method uses cost-effective, eco-friendly materials and, if adapted for the large-scale manufacturing of anode materials, can lower production costs and, hence, boost the commercialization of sodium-ion batteries for large-capacity power storage devices."

CAPTION

Schematic of the synthesis process of the nitrogen-doped MoS2-based anode material.

CREDIT

Korea Institute of Science and Technology(KIST)

This study was supported by a KIST's institutional R&D project and the Korea Research Foundation's Outstanding New Researcher Support Project funded by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) The results of this study were published in the latest issue of the international journal in nanotechnology 'ACS Nano' (IF: 14.588, top 5.260% in JCR).

Evolution -- two routes to the same destination

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN

Research News

 

Fruit flies have found at least two solutions to the problem of sorting their sex chromosomes: a matter of life and death.

Sex determination in animals often depends on the unequal segregation of specific chromosomes. Female cells generally possess two X chromosomes, while male cells contain one X and one Y chromosome. The latter, which is inherited from the male parent, has far fewer genes than the X. In the fruit fly Drosophila, male cells make up for the fact that they have only one X chromosome by boosting the level of expression of all of its genes by a factor of 2. This phenomenon, which is known as dosage compensation, requires that the X chromosome in males be regulated differently from all the others. A team of molecular biologists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munichs Biomedical Center led by Professor Peter Becker has now shown that, over the course of 40 million years, members of the genus Drosophila have discovered at least two different ways of making this vital distinction.

"In light of the significance of dosage compensation, one might expect that the principles behind the specific recognition of the X chromosome in males would be highly conserved," says Becker. "In other words, the process should work in essentially the same way in all Drosophila species. However, when we compared the two species Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila virilis, we discovered, to our surprise, that they use distinct mechanisms for this purpose." Significantly, the primary components involved in dosage compensation - the proteins MSL2 and CLAMP, together with the non-coding RNA roX - are found in both species. So their last common ancestor presumably possessed the genes that code for these products.

The two species diverged about 40 million years ago, and since then they have evolved in parallel. The new study shows that, during this period, the mediators of dosage compensation and their binding sites on the X chromosome have evolved in different ways. As a result, the relative influence of, and the interactions between, the components have changed. Among other things, in D. melanogaster the copy numbers of certain DNA sequences on the X chromosome have increased. In parallel, the DNA-binding domain of the MSL2 protein has acquired the ability to recognize these sequences, and they now play a critical role in the recognition of the X chromosome in this species.

In D. virilis, on the other hand, these sequences have not been amplified. Their recognition by MSL2 therefore depends on its interaction with the CLAMP protein to a much greater extent than in the case of D. melanogaster - even though the CLAMP protein can also bind to many sequences on the other chromosomes. "We assume that the non-coding roX RNA inhibits the binding of MSL2 at these sites", says Becker. The study has therefore uncovered a new role for this RNA. Up until now, researchers had assumed that roX comes into play not at the level of sequence recognition, but at a later stage in the dosage compensation process.

These findings have interesting evolutionary implications. "As the sex chromosomes continue to diversify, the emergence of alternative but equally effective solutions to the problem of balancing the activity of the genome demonstrates that evolution is not a deterministic process," Becker points out.

VIMS study uncovers new cause for intensification of oyster disease

Rise in disease virulence due to evolving parasite, not just drought

VIRGINIA INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE

Research News

 

IMAGE: PANEL A SHOWS THE ORIGINAL FORM OF THE DERMO PARASITE PERKINSUS MARINUS, WITH BLACK ARROWS INDICATING TYPICAL DERMO CELLS AND THE WHITE ARROW A DIVIDING FORM, ALL INFECTING CONNECTIVE TISSUES... view more 

CREDIT: © R. CARNEGIE/VIMS.

A new paper in Scientific Reports led by researchers at William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science challenges increased salinity and seawater temperatures as the established explanation for a decades-long increase in the prevalence and deadliness of a major oyster disease in the coastal waters of the mid-Atlantic.

Dr. Ryan Carnegie, the paper's lead author, says "We present an entirely new lens through which we can view our last 35 years of oyster history in the Chesapeake Bay region. We now know the great intensification of Dermo disease in the 1980s wasn't simply due to drought. It was more fundamentally due to the emergence of a new and highly virulent form of Perkinsus marinus, the parasite that causes Dermo."

In an unusual twist, the team's evidence suggests that transformation of this native parasite was in response to evolutionary pressures brought by the impacts of another, non-native oyster parasite known as MSX, first seen in Bay waters in 1959. Dermo's mid-80s rise in virulence, along with decades of overharvesting, habitat destruction, and the earlier devastation of MSX, brought the Bay's traditional oyster fishery to a historic low.

Carnegie says his team's findings can help better manage the Bay's modern oyster industry, which is now on the upswing due to disease-resistant aquaculture strains, reef restoration, and limits on the wild harvest. "The lesson," he says, "is that pathogens like P. marinus are highly dynamic, and our disease surveillance must be attentive to any changes that may occur. This includes the emergence of more virulent strains, or variants that may have different forms or life histories than we expect. Management should be continually tuned to any changes in disease dynamics."

The team's findings also give scientists and fishery managers a better understanding of the "rock-bottom" era for Bay oysters between the late 1980s and early 2000s. "The oysters reached this level of devastation not because they were unable to deal with Dermo after decades, if not centuries or millennia, of exposure," says Carnegie. "They hit rock bottom because they were challenged with a brand-new form of the parasite, and needed time to adapt. And now they are adapting, which is key to the oyster's recent recovery in the region."

Along with Carnegie, the paper's other authors are the late Susan Ford of Haskin Shellfish Research Laboratory at Rutgers University; Peter Kingsley-Smith of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources; and Rita Crockett, Lydia Bienlien, Lúcia Safi, Laura Whitefleet-Smith, and Eugene Burreson of VIMS. Funding for the study comes from the VIMS Foundation A. Marshall Acuff, Sr., Memorial Endowment for Oyster Disease Research.

CAPTION

The sharp transition from the original form of Dermo (light blue) to contemporary (dark blue) in Chesapeake Bay (A), South Carolina (B), and New Jersey (C). Weighted prevalence in the Virginia panel is a conventional measure of Dermo disease in oyster populations, and shows that the change in Dermo's form in Virginia coincided with the increase in Dermo prevalence within Bay oysters.

CREDIT

© R. Carnegie/VIMS.

Evidence for a more virulent Dermo parasite

Dermo disease results when the eastern oyster Crassostrea virginica is infected by the protozoan parasite Perkinsus marinus. Infected oysters grow more slowly, exhibit poorer body condition, and reproduce less successfully than their healthy counterparts. Severe infections lead to oyster death and release of parasites into the surrounding water, potentially infecting other nearby oysters as they filter water for food. The disease does not affect people who eat the shellfish.

Native to the Gulf Coast, Dermo was first recorded in the Chesapeake Bay in 1949, though it had likely been there far longer. Prior to the 1980s, it typically occurred as a chronic disease that killed about 30% of oysters annually, mostly older animals that had been exposed to the parasite for several years. But, says Carnegie, "Around 1986, Dermo suddenly became an acute and profoundly destructive disease capable of killing more than 70% of host oysters within months of infection." The increased virulence of the Perkinsus parasite persists today.

Because the parasite's infectiousness is known to increase with higher salinity, scientists initially attributed the mid-1980s spike in Dermo's virulence to a multi-year drought that had struck the mid-Atlantic around that time, raising coastal salinities as freshwater input from rivers decreased. Increasing seawater temperatures also promote increased Dermo disease, and ocean warming has been blamed for the northward increase in Dermo's range since the 1980s. As time passed, however, Carnegie and other researchers began to realize that salinity and temperature alone did not fully explain the lasting increase in Dermo infections and associated oyster mortality along the East Coast.

"We began to ask why more protracted and intense droughts in earlier years, before the 1980s, hadn't produced a similar intensification of disease," says Carnegie, "and why subsequent wet periods didn't return the parasite to the low levels of infection characteristic of earlier years."

Motivated by these questions, Carnegie and colleagues compared samples from modern Bay oysters with samples taken in 1960 and stored at VIMS, using paper-thin tissue slices glued onto slides for viewing under a microscope. Finding striking and unexpected differences, they then took a comprehensive look at more than 8,000 tissue samples collected from oysters in Chesapeake Bay, South Carolina, and New Jersey between 1960 and 2018.

"Our analysis," says Carnegie, "clearly showed that a new parasite variant emerged between 1983 and 1990, concurrent with the historical mid-80s outbreaks of Dermo." Changes included a shift in the infection site--from deeper connective tissues to the lining of the digestive tract--changes in reproductive strategy, and a sharp decrease in cell size. In Chesapeake Bay, they found the most pronounced change between oysters sampled in 1985 and 1986, when the modern variant increased in frequency from 22% to 99% of observations.

"The picture that emerges," says Carnegie, "is the rise of a virulent new form of the Dermo parasite Perkinsus along the mid-Atlantic coast in the mid-80s, which dispersed from there and supplanted a form that previously had been widely distributed in Atlantic estuaries. While changes in pathogen virulence have been documented in other systems, the scope of changes we've seen, and their rapid spread across a wide area, is unusual."

"Our work underscores the importance of long-term environmental monitoring," he adds. "Without that, and the maintenance of associated natural history collections, this new perspective wouldn't have been possible."

CAPTION

Dr. Ryan Carnegie (L) of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and postdoctoral research associate Lúcia Safi collect oysters from the waters of the Chesapeake Bay as part of their long-term study of Dermo disease.

CREDIT

© P. Richardson/VIMS.

Evolutionary pressures

The type of changes observed in the Dermo parasite suggest they represent a novel but predictable response to the devastating impacts of MSX, the disease caused by the non-native parasite Haplosporidium nelsoni, which was first reported in Bay waters in 1959. MSX killed more than 90% of Virginia's farmed oysters by 1961, and slashed the harvest of planted oysters from 3,347,170 bushels in 1959 to 361,792 bushels by 1983, an estimated loss of 1.8 billion animals. This decrease was likely compounded by simultaneous losses from wild populations.

A parasite that quickly kills its host effectively destroys its own home. Over evolutionary time scales, natural selection thus often leads to an equilibrium between a native parasite and its host, marked by the type of minor, long-term Perkinsus infections and low rates of Dermo mortality historically observed in Chesapeake Bay oysters.

But when a new parasite arrives on the scene, that evolutionary balance may shift. Carnegie and his team speculate that the devastating arrival of the non-native, MSX parasite in Bay waters drastically disrupted the long-established equilibrium between Dermo and Crassostrea, directly leading to the new, more virulent form of the disease.

"A huge reduction in oyster abundance--like that caused by the arrival of MSX--would severely impact a parasite such as P. marinus that depends entirely on a single host," says Carnegie. As evidence, he notes that Perkinsus declined sharply in abundance beginning in 1959; recent theoretical modeling underscores the possibility that an increase in parasite virulence could be a consequence of such reduction in host resources.

"The changes we saw in the Dermo parasite are likely adaptive with regard to the reduced oyster abundance and longevity it faced after rapid establishment of Haplosporidium nelsoni and MSX in 1959," says Carnegie. "Our findings, we hypothesize, illustrate a novel ecosystem response to a marine parasite invasion: an increase in virulence in a native parasite." An intriguing possibility is that the changes the researchers observed may represent a shortening of the Perkinsus life cycle, as it adapted to oysters with shorter life spans due to mortality from MSX.

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Two U of M Medical School studies provide new evidence to battle drug price increases

A JAMA Network Open study details the costs incurred after price increases in anti-infective drugs, while a JGIM study analyzes state legislative action on drug price increases since 2015

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA MEDICAL SCHOOL

Research News

 

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (06/18/2021) -- Two recent studies led by researchers from the University of Minnesota Medical School add new evidence to the impact of how drug price increases affect U.S. patients and the overall cost of health care.

The first study, published today in the JAMA Network Open, provides new data on how dramatic increases in anti-infective drug prices altered the overall cost of outpatient health care and decreased patient access to appropriate drug treatment. The study protocol was reviewed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and scanned more than 100 million de-identified patient records to find roughly 89,000 cases of interest between 2010 and 2018. The results showed that:

• A standard-of-care (SOC) drug to treat hookworm increased from $32.77 to $1,660, which correlated with a decrease in patients receiving an appropriate drug from 43 percent to 28 percent.

• A SOC drug to treat pinworm increased from $14.81 to $130, which correlated with a decrease in patients receiving an appropriate drug from 81 percent to 28 percent.

• A SOC drug to treat Clostridioides difficile (a control with little price change) remained mostly stable, increasing from $53 to $68, which correlated with an increase in patients receiving an appropriate drug from 69 percent to 77 percent.

"Our study shows that dramatic drug price increases lead to much higher outpatient costs and decrease appropriate drug treatment due to access issues and health care professionals switching to a substandard drug," said co-first author of the study, William Stauffer, MD, MSPH, FASTMH, who is a professor of medicine at the U of M Medical School. "More studies need to be done to confirm these findings, but this should increase policymakers attention as they consider solutions to extreme drug pricing."

The second study looked at state legislative action on the issue so far. Published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, the research team reviewed all U.S. state laws enacted since 2015 to address drug price increases, as well as state bills being considered in 2020, and found several shortcomings. The study has two recommendations:

• Transparency laws were the most common type of legislative action, however, many of the transparency bills considered in 2020 don't require transparency until after the price increases occur -- some up to one year after. The study recommends requiring transparency before price increases occur, so that vulnerable patients have time to seek alternative treatment options.

• Of those states that created affordability review bills, only 22 percent specify OPOE (off-patent, off-exclusivity) brand-name drugs, which are cheaper than patent-protected, brand-name drugs and more prone to price hikes -- as demonstrated by this team's 2020 study. The study recommends creating separate review thresholds for OPOE drugs to ensure they are not misclassified as brand-name drugs, which are allowed higher price increase thresholds.

"Prescription drug price increases inflate national health spending and are disproportionately felt by patients who are uninsured or have high deductibles," said Arman Shahriar, a U of M Medical School student and first author of the study. "Despite prescription drug price increases being a known problem for years, little has been done at the federal level, and states have not been unified in their approach. We want to make state lawmakers aware of the current landscape and future directions of this legislation."

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The first study was funded internally by the CDC, and the second study received private support from Arnold Ventures.

About the University of Minnesota Medical School

The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School, both the Twin Cities campus and Duluth campus, is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu.

PHARMACARE

Impact of a national tender system on biologic and targeted drug costs in Norway

EUROPEAN ALLIANCE OF ASSOCIATIONS FOR RHEUMATOLOGY

Research News

 

At the 2021 EULAR congress, Brkic and colleagues presented data from people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA)treated at Norwegian rheumatology outpatient clinics between 2010 and 2019.

The project BioRheuma (BIOlogic treatment of patients suffering from inflammatory RHEUMAtic disorders in Norway) aimed to monitor people receiving b/tsDMARDs. Anonymized data files from10 participating centres were merged and analyzed over a 10-year period to show the annual total b/tsDMARD cost, as well as the mean cost per patient for all current users, for all those who started treatment, and for initiating patients naïve to b/tsDMARDs. The cost was calculated based on price offers given at the annual tender process for the different years.

The number of registered RA patients in the databases increased from 4909 in 2010 to 9335 in 2019, and the number of patients receiving b/tsDMARDs increased from 1959 (39.9%) in 2010 to 4209 (45.1%) in 2019. The total treatment expenditure of these b/tsDMARD-treated patients was lowest in 2010(226 million Norwegian Kroner[NOK]), highest in 2014 (350 million NOK), and second lowest in 2019 (255 million NOK).

For current users of b/tsDMARDs, when the number of treated patients during follow-up doubled, the mean cost to treat one patient was reduced by approximately 50%.The number of patients starting on b/tsDMARDs roughly doubled, while keeping a steady small increase for naïve patients. These data show that the average annual costs of treating a Norwegian RA patient on a current b/tsDMARDs were reduced by approximately 50% over the ten years 2010-2019by the national tender system. For patients starting on a b/tsDMARD, the average annual cost was reduced by approximately 75%. The consequence for payers is that treatment can be offered at a lower price, and thus costly drugs may become more available for patients. The authors believe that tender mechanisms applied to the commercial pharmaceutical market improve competition, and increase availability and use of costly drugs.

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GAIA LIVES!

The Earth has a pulse -- a 27.5-million-year cycle of geological activity

Analysis of 260 million years of major geological events finds recurring clusters 27.5 million years apart

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: NYU RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT GLOBAL GEOLOGIC EVENTS ARE GENERALLY CLUSTERED AT 10 DIFFERENT TIMEPOINTS OVER THE 260 MILLION YEARS, GROUPED IN PEAKS OR PULSES OF ROUGHLY 27.5 MILLION YEARS APART.... view more 

CREDIT: RAMPINO ET AL., GEOSCIENCE FRONTIERS

Geologic activity on Earth appears to follow a 27.5-million-year cycle, giving the planet a "pulse," according to a new study published in the journal Geoscience Frontiers.

"Many geologists believe that geological events are random over time. But our study provides statistical evidence for a common cycle, suggesting that these geologic events are correlated and not random," said Michael Rampino, a geologist and professor in New York University's Department of Biology, as well as the study's lead author.

Over the past five decades, researchers have proposed cycles of major geological events--including volcanic activity and mass extinctions on land and sea--ranging from roughly 26 to 36 million years. But early work on these correlations in the geological record was hampered by limitations in the age-dating of geologic events, which prevented scientists from conducting quantitative investigations.

However, there have been significant improvements in radio-isotopic dating techniques and changes in the geologic timescale, leading to new data on the timing of past events. Using the latest age-dating data available, Rampino and his colleagues compiled updated records of major geological events over the last 260 million years and conducted new analyses.

The team analyzed the ages of 89 well-dated major geological events of the last 260 million years. These events include marine and land extinctions, major volcanic outpourings of lava called flood-basalt eruptions, events when oceans were depleted of oxygen, sea-level fluctuations, and changes or reorganization in the Earth's tectonic plates.

They found that these global geologic events are generally clustered at 10 different timepoints over the 260 million years, grouped in peaks or pulses of roughly 27.5 million years apart. The most recent cluster of geological events was approximately 7 million years ago, suggesting that the next pulse of major geological activity is more than 20 million years in the future.

The researchers posit that these pulses may be a function of cycles of activity in the Earth's interior--geophysical processes related to the dynamics of plate tectonics and climate. However, similar cycles in the Earth's orbit in space might also be pacing these events.

"Whatever the origins of these cyclical episodes, our findings support the case for a largely periodic, coordinated, and intermittently catastrophic geologic record, which is a departure from the views held by many geologists," explained Rampino.

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In addition to Rampino, study authors include Yuhong Zhu of NYU's Center for Data Science and Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

Wind and waves: A step toward better control of heavy-lift crane vessels

CHINESE ASSOCIATION OF AUTOMATION

Research News

 

Massive heavy-lift crane vessels, capable of hauling thousands of tons, navigate the rough waves and strong winds offshore to construct wind turbines and oil fields in the ocean. An international team of researchers has developed a new modeling system to help improve the control, and ultimately the safety, of such vessels. They published their approach in the April issue in IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica.

"Dynamic positioning allows the ship to stay fixed in a certain location, by acting on the thruster," said paper author Simone Baldi, professor in the School of Mathematics and School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Southeast University in China, and guest with the Delft Center for System and Control, Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands.

This positioning operation acts as a counterbalance. The thruster applies equal force in the opposite direction of the wind or wave that attempts to dislodge the ship.

"However, it sometimes happens that the dynamic positioning does not cope with such changes, leading the ship to oscillate instead of remaining fixed in one spot," Baldi said. "Our approach allows the dynamic positioning to be robust in challenging sea conditions with large waves."

To help the vessels safely work in rough conditions, Baldi and his team augmented the dynamic positioning model system with a digital observer that can translate wind or wave disturbances into specific measurements that reflect position and velocity.

Baldi noted that other proposed models also include observers, but, he said, those observer designs typically depend on vessels responding quickly to measured disturbances -- which is often impossible due to the sheer size of the thrusters and propellers.

To address this challenge, the researchers incorporated known variables, such as the strength of the lines and thrust holding the ship to the construction site, and worst-case scenario ranges for unknown variables, such as wind and waves. The researchers then applied an observer-controller composite that converts motion into measurements to inform operation directions while also allowing the vessel to respond in a reasonable timeframe. The design is guided by key performance indicators while considering the worst-case uncertainty scenarios.

"Currently, we have tested our method in a realistic simulation, which is only a first step," Baldi said.

Next, Baldi said, the researchers hope to test the proposed solution on a small-scale ship under controlled conditions before moving on to tests on heavy-lift crane vessels in the sea.

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J. Ye, S. Roy, M. Godjevac, V. Reppa, and S. Baldi, "Robustifying dynamic positioning of crane vessels for heavy lifting operation," IEEE/CAA J. Autom. Sinica, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 753-765, Apr. 2021.

http://www.ieee-jas.net/en/article/doi/10.1109/JAS.2021.1003913

IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica aims to publish high-quality, high-interest, far-reaching research achievements globally, and provide an international forum for the presentation of original ideas and recent results related to all aspects of automation.

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Footprints discovered from the last dinosaurs to walk on UK soil

UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH

Research News

VIDEO: FOOTPRINTS FROM AT LEAST SIX DIFFERENT SPECIES OF DINOSAUR -- THE VERY LAST DINOSAURS TO WALK ON UK SOIL 110 MILLION YEARS AGO -- HAVE BEEN FOUND IN KENT, A... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH

Footprints from at least six different species of dinosaur - the very last dinosaurs to walk on UK soil 110 million years ago - have been found in Kent, a new report has announced.

The discovery of dinosaur footprints by a curator from Hastings Museum and Art Gallery and a scientist from the University of Portsmouth is the last record of dinosaurs in Britain.

The footprints were discovered in the cliffs and on the foreshore in Folkestone, Kent, where stormy conditions affect the cliff and coastal waters, and are constantly revealing new fossils.

Professor of Palaeobiology, David Martill, said: "This is the first time dinosaur footprints have been found in strata known as the 'Folkestone Formation' and it's quite an extraordinary discovery because these dinosaurs would have been the last to roam in this country before becoming extinct.

"They were walking around close to where the White Cliffs of Dover are now - next time you're on a ferry and you see those magnificent cliffs just imagine that!"

The footprint fossils formed by sediment filling the impression left behind when a dinosaur's foot pushes into the ground, which then preserves it.

The footprints are from a variety of dinosaurs, which shows there was a relatively high diversity of dinosaurs in southern England at the end of the Early Cretaceous period, 110 million years ago.

They are thought to be from ankylosaurs, rugged-looking armoured dinosaurs which were like living tanks; theropods, three-toed flesh-eating dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex; and ornithopods, plant-eating 'bird-hipped' dinosaurs so-called because of their pelvic structure being a little bit similar to birds.

Philip Hadland, Collections and Engagement Curator at the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery is lead author on the paper. He said: "Back in 2011, I came across unusual impressions in the rock formation at Folkestone. They seemed to be repeating and all I could think was they might be footprints.

"This was at odds with what most geologists say about the rocks here, but I went looking for more footprints and as the tides revealed more by erosion, I found even better ones. More work was needed to convince the scientific community of their validity, so I teamed up with experts at the University of Portsmouth to verify what I'd found."

Most of the findings are isolated footprints, but one discovery comprises six footprints - making a 'trackway', which is more than one consecutive print from the same animal.

This trackway of prints are similar in size to an elephant footprint and have been identified as likely to be an Ornithopodichnus, of which similar, but smaller-sized footprints have also been found in China from the same time period.

The largest footprint found - measuring 80 cm in width and 65 cm in length - has been identified as belonging to an Iguanodon-like dinosaur. Iguanodons were also plant-eaters, grew up to 10 metres long and walked on both two legs or on all fours.

Professor Martill said: "To find such an array of species in one place is fascinating. These dinosaurs probably took advantage of the tidal exposures on coastal foreshores, perhaps foraging for food or taking advantage of clear migration routes."

In the Late Cretaceous period, this part of Kent, and indeed much of the United Kingdom was beneath a shallow sea, but this study also shows unequivocally that the Folkestone Formation was inter-tidal.

Mr Hadland said: "Aside from finding that dinosaurs went to the seaside just like their modern relatives the birds, we have also found new evidence that changes the interpretation of the geology of the Folkestone Formation strata.

"It just goes to show that what has been previously published about the geology of an area isn't always correct and new insights can be made. There is also the potential for almost anyone to make a discovery that adds to scientific knowledge from publicly accessible geological sites."

The paper is published in Proceedings of the Geologists' Association and some of the footprints are currently on display at Folkestone Museum.

CAPTION

A palaeoartist's impression of the dinosaurs and their footprints.

CREDIT

Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth

POPULAR SCIENCE

Research supports protestors' concerns about the future of Llobregat Delta, in Barcelona

New study by the ICTA-UAB shows that residents and visitors highlight the natural and biodiversity values of the Llobregat Delta, in Barcelona

UNIVERSITAT AUTONOMA DE BARCELONA

Research News

 

IMAGE: LLOBREGAT DELTA, IN BARCELONA. view more 

CREDIT: ICTA-UAB

New study by the ICTA-UAB shows that residents and visitors highlight the natural and biodiversity values of the Llobregat Delta, in Barcelona.

A new study undertaken by researchers at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) supports protestors' concerns about damage to the Llobregat Delta in airport expansion plans.

The research, carried out in 2019, found that the well-maintained and unique natural environment of the Llobregat Delta is important or very important to 100% residents and 98.8% of visitors who responded to the survey.

The recently published article in Environmental Science and Policy found that the greatest frustrations that residents and visitors expressed related to the expansion of the airport and urban areas. Participants surveyed expressed concern about future airport expansion plans, and expressed their desire that these plans be modified.

"What is remarkable about the results is the amount of agreement among residents and visitors about the importance of the natural values of the Llobregat Delta. Even though the airport is nearby, people value being able to be able to access a protected natural area so close to Barcelona", explains Dr Sonia Graham, the researcher leading the project. Dr Graham recalls that, "during the interviews, a Barcelona resident told researchers that they would not like the airport to grow larger, and to have an impact on the area. They stated that the impact on the beach area by a possible expansion would be quite a hard blow, horrific". The wetlands, birdwatching huts and walking paths are highly valued ecosystem services and infrastructure that enable residents and visitors to experience and appreciate this unique area.

Beatrice Meo, the lead author of the article, explains that not only are people concerned about the expansion of the airport, they are also worried about the impacts of climate change. "About 90% of residents and visitors are very or fairly concerned about the impacts of climate change on the Llobregat Delta. More than 60% of respondents believe we are already feeling the effects of climate change now", she says.

The work took place between March and June 2019. It involved in-depth interviews and a survey of residents and visitors to the Llobregat Delta. The interviews and survey collected data on what residents and visitors value about the natural environment, and how concerned they are about the impacts of climate change on the delta.

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