Icequakes likely rumble along geyser-spitting fractures in Saturn's icy moon Enceladus

Seismic activity could give scientists a read on the thickness of the ice encasing the moon and the oceans believed to lie beneath

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

Research News

IMAGE: ICE SHELVES FLOATING ON EARTH'S SOUTHERN OCEAN RISE AND FALL WITH TIDES, CAUSING RIFTS, FRACTURES. ICEQUAKES OCCUR MOST FREQUENTLY WHEN FALLING TIDES PULL THE RIFTS APART. MODELS SUGGEST SEISMIC ACTIVITY... view more 

CREDIT: AGU/ JGR: PLANETS

WASHINGTON--Tidal stresses may be causing constant icequakes on Saturn's sixth largest moon Enceladus, a world of interest in the search for life beyond Earth, according to a new study. A better understanding of seismic activity could reveal what's under the moon's icy crust and provide clues to the habitability of its ocean.

Enceladus is about 500 kilometers in diameter and almost entirely covered in ice. The moon is nearly 10 times as far away from the Sun as Earth and its bright surface reflects most sunlight, making it very cold, yet researchers have long speculated that the ice encases an underlying liquid ocean.

The moon likely experiences massive tidal forces caused by Saturn and the planet's other, larger moons--similar to the way Earth's Moon causes tides on Earth. These tidal motions inside Enceladus warm its interior, crack the surface and sometimes squeeze tall geysers of water vapor through notable cracks called the tiger stripe fractures.

The new study used observations of Antarctic ice shelves to suggest tides on Enceladus may also cause small quakes in the ice at the moon's fractures, like icequakes observed on Antarctica's floating ice sheets.

"[Moons like] these are places that are exciting because they might have life," said Kira Olsen, a geophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. She said that since life is thought to have first developed in our oceans, liquid oceans under the ice of other worlds could be a good place to search for life. The icy crust of Enceladus might also protect the water below from radiation, making it more habitable.

The new study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, AGU's journal for research on the formation and evolution of the planets, moons and objects of our solar system and beyond.

"We have ideas of how thick the ice could be, but we don't have direct observation. Studying ice quakes is a way to get at that information," Olsen said.

Internal tides

To learn more about how Enceladus' tiger fractures might be moving, Olsen and her colleagues turned to floating ice shelves in Antarctica as the closest analogue on Earth for the types of activity they were seeing on Enceladus. They could then use their knowledge about how certain surface features on our planet produce seismic activity to estimate what kind of seismic activity is happening on the distant moon.

The researchers analyzed data collected by seismometers along the Ross Ice Shelf in the southern continent between 2014 and 2016 and compared these to satellite images of the area. They paid particular attention to two seismometers placed next to large rifts on the ice slab.

They related the seismic activity to the stress occurring along these rifts. The majority of icequakes on the Ross Ice Shelf occurred when the rifts were pulling apart, which happens when tides are falling.

We have no measurements of seismic activity on Enceladus, but Olsen and her colleagues created models that compared the types of fractures they saw on the moon's surface with those on the Ross Ice Shelf.

These models showed that the largest amount of seismic activity on Enceladus likely corresponded to the tides. Peak seismic activity there occurs when Enceladus is 100 degrees past the nearest approach to Saturn during its orbit. The ocean underneath the ice at this point acts something like water inside a sloshing balloon. The ice fractures are created at the points of highest stress, where the balloon would break apart.

The icequakes aren't massive along these cracks, even at the peak periods of stress. Olsen describes them more like "almost continuous little pops and fractures.

Mark Panning, a research scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory who was not involved in the new study, said that while the Cassini spacecraft revealed the moon is geologically active, it's difficult to tell how that translates to seismic activity. "The study represents a really key way of investigating what seismicity on Enceladus and other tidally activated icy worlds may look like by looking at the best analogs we can find on Earth," he said.

Olsen said scientists should aim to place seismometers within 10 kilometers of these fractures in any future missions to Enceladus to learn more about what's going on below.

"It's not a quiet out of the way place, but it's a pretty good place to study," she said.

More information about the seismic activity could then teach us more about the thickness of the ice crust on Enceladus. For now, no missions to Enceladus have been planned, but the European Space Agency is planning the JUICE mission to one of Jupiter's icy moons, Europa.

Olsen said that similar work could then be conducted on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, a world also covered with ice that may conceal liquid oceans and is another top pick for potential extraterrestrial life. NASA's Dragonfly mission is scheduled to visit Titan in 2036.

"This kind of work is one of the best ways to try to get an idea of what behaviors we may see on a planetary body that would be an incredible place to do more science," Panning said.

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AGU (http://www.agu.org) supports 130,000 enthusiasts to experts worldwide in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, we advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

Paper title:

"Projected seismic activity at the tiger stripe fractures on Enceladus, Saturn, from an analog study of tidally modulated icequakes within the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica"

 

When bosses are abusive, how employees interpret their motives makes a difference: study

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Research News

A new UBC Sauder School of Business study shows that depending on how employees understand their boss' motivation, employees can feel anger or guilt, and consequently, react differently to abusive supervision.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs was a famously harsh corporate leader, one who pushed his employees to extremes to achieve the company's lofty aims.

But while many aspiring leaders still believe that the "tough love" approach is effective, a new study from UBC Sauder shows that, even when abusive leadership is meant to push employees to new heights, it can land them in deep lows in the long term.

Abusive supervision -- which includes behaviours like yelling at employees, giving them the silent treatment, or putting them down in front of their coworkers -- has long been linked with psychological distress, increased turnover and decreased performance.

But a key question hadn't been properly examined: do employees respond differently when their supervisor's abuse is motivated by different reasons?

For the study, titled The Whiplash Effect: The (Moderating) Role of Attributed Motives in Emotional and Behavioral Reactions to Abusive Supervision, researchers conducted three studies on three continents.

For the first, which involved 1,000 soldiers and officers in the Chinese military, subordinates filled out surveys about the supervision they experienced, the emotions they felt, and how they responded.

The second was a laboratory experiment that involved 156 students and employees at a large American university. There, participants were given different roles as subordinates in a consulting firm, and were subjected to different forms of supervision -- some abusive and some non-abusive -- and were given hints about their supervisors' motivations.

They were also given the opportunity to participate in deviant behaviours against the supervisor, or engage in more positive "organizational citizenship behaviours," or OCBs (helpful actions that go beyond an employee's contract, such as assisting a co-worker with a project, or participating in workplace charity drives).

A third study had 325 employees and supervisors at a Swedish luxury car company fill out daily surveys for three weeks -- for the subordinates, about the abusive supervision they experienced and the emotions they felt, and for the supervisors, about the OCBs and deviant behaviours they observed.

Across all three studies, the researchers found that when employees think their supervisors' abusive actions are motivated by a desire to inflict harm, they are more likely to feel angry.

When subordinates believe their leaders are prodding employees to improve performance, however, they are more likely to feel guilt.

"When you feel like your supervisor is pushing you really hard, it's abusive, and you feel angry. But when they want to motivate you and improve your performance, employees have a strong feeling of guilt," explains UBC Sauder Assistant Professor Lingtao Yu (he, him, his), who named the study after the Oscar-winning film Whiplash, which follows an abusive band teacher and a student he's pushing to extremes.

"They think, 'Maybe there is a gap between what I do and what they expect. Maybe there's room for me to improve.'"

Those different emotions, in turn, lead to different behaviours. Employees who feel their bosses are "out to get them" are more likely to engage in devious or destructive behaviours and less likely to engage in more positive organizational citizenship behaviours, or OCBs.

Those who feel their leaders are pushing them to do better are less likely to act deviously and more drawn to positive corporate behaviours.

"People feel there's something they've done, or that they haven't done enough, so it's not entirely attributed to the other person. They may take some responsibility," explains Professor Yu, who coauthored the study with University of Minnesota Professor Michelle Duffy.

"So, guilt will actually trigger more prosocial behaviors, because the employee wants to do something to rebuild the relationship with the supervisor."

The findings are especially important given that, according to previous research, a third of U.S. employees are estimated to experience abusive supervision, and 45 percent of Europeans can recall an instance when they were either the target of supervisory abuse or observed it.

The study also found people's feelings of guilt don't last, so Professor Yu emphasizes that while the results-driven form of abusive supervision can sometimes have short-term benefits, in the long run it simply doesn't pay -- especially since abusive leadership can cost companies millions in lawsuits, health expenses, and productivity loss.

"Even if you have good intentions, you still want to be more mindful about your leadership behaviour -- and there are many other tools you can use to stimulate your employees' performance," he says. "Abusive leadership should not be the one you choose."

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The outsized impacts of rudeness in the workplace

New study finds rudeness can boost negative emotions, narrowing workers' perceptions and incurring biases in judgment

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Rude behavior is a common form of insensitive and disrespectful conduct that harms employees' performance in the workplace. In a new study, researchers examined the impact of rude behavior on how individuals make critical decisions. The study found that in certain situations, these behaviors can have deadly consequences.

The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), the University of Florida (UF), the University of Maryland, Envision Physician Services, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital.

The researchers looked at the effect of rudeness on workers' tendency to engage in a judgment bias called anchoring, which is the tendency to rely too heavily or fixate on one piece of information when making a decision.

"While small insults and other forms of rude behavior might seem relatively harmless compared to more serious forms of aggression, our findings suggest that they can have serious consequences," says Binyamin Cooper, a Postdoctoral Fellow at CMU's Tepper School of Business and a member of the Collaboration and Conflict Research Lab, who led the study. "Our work demonstrates how dangerous these seemingly minor behaviors can be, whether they are experienced directly or even if people just observer incidental rudeness.

"Let's say that a doctor walks into a patient's room for the first time, and a family member says 'I think he's having a heart attack,'" says Cooper. "Our findings suggest that if on the way to see the patient, the doctor witnessed a rude event between two other people, he or she would be significantly more likely to settle on a diagnosis of a heart attack, even if that is incorrect."

Cooper and his colleagues tested the effects of rudeness on anchoring in four studies across different settings--from medical simulations to negotiations and general judgment tasks. In one study, anesthesiology residents participated in a simulation on life-sized anatomical human models. The simulation was set up to suggest that a patient could have an allergic reaction to one of his medications, which served as the anchor. Before the simulation started, half the residents witnessed a senior doctor enter the room and yell at their instructor for missing a meeting, while the other half witnessed a neutral interaction.

When the patient's condition began to deteriorate later in the simulation, the residents who were exposed to the rude interaction were more likely to diagnose allergic shock, when in reality the patient was bleeding internally, and the diagnosis affected how they administered care. The study also showed that the reason rudeness was so harmful was that it is related to increased high arousal of negative emotions (such as irritability and distress), which predicted the tendency to engage in anchoring.

The practical implications of the study's findings are many, the authors note. For example, physicians exposed to rudeness may incorrectly treat patients for ailments they do not have, while being unaware of their incorrect diagnosis or the reasons underlying it. "Making the wrong decision at a critical moment means that people end up spending too much time going down the wrong path," explains Cooper. "If there's not enough time to realize the error and make up for it, this could be deadly."

In demonstrating that encounters with rudeness cause anchoring, the authors call on managers and organizations to take steps to reduce rudeness among employees, particularly in high-stakes situations where consequences of judgment errors associated with anchoring can be catastrophic. The authors also identified steps organizations can take to mitigate the effects of rudeness.

For example, organizations can train employees to use two skills--perspective taking and information elaboration--to better equip them to deal with the pernicious effects of exposure to rudeness. Because exposure to rude behavior makes people more likely to narrow their perspectives on their own personal experience, having employees imagine themselves viewing the same problem from another's point of view distances them from the strong feelings that they would overwise experience, according to the authors.

Another option is to practice information elaboration by having employees practice identifying the task at hand, and then taking a few moments to stop and think what information they need to help them make a decision.

"These active steps may seem small, but our work shows that organizations can use them to mitigate the harmful consequences associated with rudeness, which can make a big difference," suggests Cooper. "And they can be used in fields other than medicine, including negotiations, legal sentencing, financial forecasting, social exchange relationships, and pricing decisions."

The authors acknowledge several limitations to their study. First, they focused on anchoring as one of the most common decisions-making biases, but it remains to be seen if the effect of rudeness affects other decision-making biases. Second, except for perspective taking and information elaboration, their study did not examine empathy, experience, or other dispositional and contextual factors that may influence the relationship between rudeness and negative emotions.

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More than half of university students surveyed have tried a meat alternative

Top reasons for trying meat alternatives were liking to try new foods, hearing a lot about alternatives, and being curious, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior

ELSEVIER

Research News

 

AUDIO: LEAD AUTHOR ELIZABETH DAVITT, MS, FOOD SCIENCE AND HUMAN NUTRITION, COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE AND LIFE SCIENCES, COLLEGE OF HUMAN SCIENCES, IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY, DISCUSSES A NEW STUDY THAT DETERMINED POSITIVE... view more 

CREDIT: JOURNAL OF NUTRITION EDUCATION AND BEHAVIOR

Philadelphia, July 8, 2021 - Fifty-five percent of Midwest university students had tried a plant-based meat alternative and attributed this choice to the enjoyment of new food, curiosity about the products, and environmental concern, according to a new study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier.

For several decades, there has been a steady growth in consumer concerns about the environmental sustainability of the global food supply, animal welfare ethics, and human health consequences of red meat intakes. To assess the prevalence of plant-based alternatives to meat consumption in students; describe associations between demographics, environmental concern attitudes, and consumption; and determine variables statistically associated with trying the plant-based alternatives, researchers studied enrolled students aged 18-30 at Iowa State University.

"Among the 1,400 students surveyed, we found about 55 percent had tried a plant-based alternative to meat. Individuals who ate plant-based products were more environmentally conscious, more likely to be vegetarian, and more likely to be out-of-state students--so not from Iowa," said lead author Elizabeth Davitt, MS, Food Science and Human Nutrition, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, College of Human Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

When evaluating why there is a correlation between out-of-state students and willingness to try plant-based alternatives to meat, Davitt suggests considering where the study is conducted. "This university in-state is well known for its agriculture degree programs. Iowa is also a top producer of hogs and chickens as well as a top grower for livestock feed. So, that could add some nuance to that result."

Respondents' motivation for trying plant-based alternatives to meat also included enjoying and trying new foods, being curious about these products, thinking they would taste good, and receiving encouragement from family and friends. Individuals who did not consume plant-based alternatives to meat had a less favorable view of meatless meals.

"There are many reasons people chose the foods they eat, but we did find that having a more positive attitude about the environment was associated with having tried a plant-based meat alternative in college students," Davitt said.

https://eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/media/270185.mp3

Research encourages re-evaluation of special nerve treatment for chronic pain

Study examines impact of Paravertebral blocks on health care utilization and opioid prescriptions

LAWSON HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE

VIDEO: DR. ELDON LOH EXPLAINS NEW RESEARCH THAT ASSESSED THE USE OF A SPECIALIZED TREATMENT FOR CHRONIC PAIN AND ITS IMPACT ON HEALTH CARE USE AND OPIOID PRESCRIBING. view more 

CREDIT: LAWSON HEALTH RESEARCH INSTITUTE

LONDON, ON - Hospital researchers from Lawson Health Research Institute have published a recent study that assessed the use of a specialized treatment for chronic pain and its impact on health care use and opioid prescribing.

Paravertebral blocks (PVBs) belong to a broader group of procedures called "nerve blocks." A recent Toronto Star report noted that OHIP has been billed $420 million for nerve block procedures since 2011. PVBs involve injecting medication around the nerves where they exit the bones of the spine, at different locations depending on the patient and the chronic pain they are experiencing.

The regular use of these procedures has been questioned by health care providers due to the high cost and limited evidence of their benefit in reducing chronic pain. While the effectiveness of PVBs has been examined in trauma, cancer pain and regional anesthesia during surgery, they have not been evaluated for use in chronic pain despite widespread use in Ontario.

It is estimated that one in five Canadians live with chronic pain. Pain that persists can affect all aspects of someone's life and health, particularly when it is not being managed.

This new study from London researchers found that 66,310 patients had a PVB between July 2013 and March 2018, and 47,723 patients were included in the study. In the year after a patient's first PVB, there was a significant increase in the number of physician visits. Additional PVBs were frequently performed after the first treatment, with over 26 per cent of patients receiving a PVB ten or more times in one year, with almost eight per cent of patients receiving 30 or more. No overall change was found in opioid dosage in the year after PVB was initiated compared to the year before.

"Frequent use of PVB is common. Initiating treatment with PVCs is associated with marked increases in health care utilization, which includes physician visits and other injection procedures," explains Dr. Eldon Loh, Lawson Associate Scientist and Physiatrist at St. Joseph's Health Care London.

This research provides a broad perspective on the use of PVBs in Ontario, and on the use of nerve blocking treatments in general. There has been a concern for several years about the over use of these procedures; however, this is the first study to systematically document the impact on health care utilization and opioid use.

"We hope that from this study, the appropriate use of PVBs and other pain interventions will be re-evaluated at a provincial level to ensure the use of health resources is being properly managed and we achieve the best outcome for patients," Dr. Loh adds.

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The study, "A Retrospective Cohort Study of Healthcare Utilization Associated with Paravertebral Blocks for Chronic Pain Management in Ontario," published in the Canadian Journal of Pain.

 

Inhaled COVID-19 vaccine prevents disease and transmission in animals

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA HEALTH CARE

Research News

In a new study assessing the potential of a single-dose, intranasal COVID-19 vaccine, a team from the University of Iowa and the University of Georgia found that the vaccine fully protects mice against lethal COVID-19 infection. The vaccine also blocks animal-to-animal transmission of the virus. The findings were published July 2 in the journal Science Advances.

"The currently available vaccines against COVID-19 are very successful, but the majority of the world's population is still unvaccinated and there is a critical need for more vaccines that are easy to use and effective at stopping disease and transmission," says Paul McCray, MD, professor of pediatrics-pulmonary medicine, and microbiology and immunology at the UI Carver College of Medicine, and co-leader of the study. "If this new COVID-19 vaccine proves effective in people, it may help block SARS-CoV-2 transmission and help control the COVID-19 pandemic."

Unlike traditional vaccines that require an injection, this vaccine is administered through a nasal spray similar to those commonly used to vaccinate against influenza. The vaccine used in the study only requires a single dose and it may be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures for up to at least three months. Because it is given intranasally, the vaccine may also be easier to administer, especially for those who have a fear of needles.

"We have been developing this vaccine platform for more than 20 years, and we began working on new vaccine formulations to combat COVID-19 during the early days of the pandemic," says Biao He, PhD, a professor in the University of Georgia's Department of Infectious Diseases in the College of Veterinary Medicine and co-leader of the study. "Our preclinical data show that this vaccine not only protects against infection, but also significantly reduces the chances of transmission."

The experimental vaccine uses a harmless parainfluenza virus 5 (PIV5) to deliver the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into cells where it prompts an immune response that protects against COVID-19 infection. PIV5 is related to common cold viruses and easily infects different mammals, including humans, without causing significant disease. The research team has previously shown that this vaccine platform can completely protect experimental animals from another dangerous coronavirus disease called Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

The inhaled PIV5 vaccine developed by the team targets mucosal cells that line the nasal passages and airways. These cells are the main entry point for most SARS-CoV-2 infections and the site of early virus replication. Virus produced in these cells can invade deeper into the lungs and other organs in the body, which can lead to more severe disease. In addition, virus made in these cells can be easily shed through exhalation allowing transmission from one infected person to others.

The study showed that the vaccine produced a localized immune response, involving antibodies and cellular immunity, that completely protected mice from fatal doses of SARS-CoV-2. The vaccine also prevented infection and disease in ferrets and, importantly, appeared to block transmission of COVID-19 from infected ferrets to their unprotected and uninfected cage-mates.

###

In addition to McCray, UI researchers involved in the study included Kun Li, PhD, and associate research scientist, who helped lead the small animal studies at Iowa, documenting the vaccine's efficacy, and David Meyerholz, PhD, UI professor of pathology.

The research was supported by CyanVac LLC, a startup company based at University of Georgia that is developing vaccines based on the PIV5. McCray, who does not have a financial relationship with CyanVac, also received support from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases

 

Regular rapid testing detects COVID-19 soon enough to stop transmission in schools

Professors Caroline Colijn and Paul Tupper used a mathematical model to simulate COVID-19's spread in the classroom

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Proactive, frequent rapid testing of all students for COVID-19 is more effective at preventing large transmission clusters in schools than measures that are only initiated when someone develops symptoms and then tests positive, Simon Fraser University researchers have found. Professors Caroline Colijn and Paul Tupper used a mathematical model to simulate COVID-19's spread in the classroom and published their research results today in the journal PLOS Computational Biology.

The simulations showed that, in a classroom with 25 students, anywhere from zero to 20 students might be infected after exposure, depending on even small adjustments to transmission rates for infected individuals or environments.

"When schools have reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic, in some places there have been large clusters of infections, and in others very little transmission," says Colijn, SFU mathematics professor and Canada 150 Research Chair in Mathematics for Evolution, Infection and Public Health. "In our simulations, we explored what factors affect cluster size, and what interventions can be used to prevent large clusters."

The researchers tested the effectiveness of two different transmission control strategies.

In the first, when a student (or teacher/staff member) develops symptoms, they are told to stay home, tested using a PCR test, and if the test result is positive, control measures are introduced in the classroom, such as telling the infected individual's close contacts to stay home.

In the second strategy, all students in the class are tested using rapid tests on a regular basis, whether they have symptoms or not. When a student tests positive, there is an intervention to prevent further transmission.

The researchers found that in scenarios with high transmission rates, interventions used in the first control strategy, where preventive actions took effect after a positive test result, were too slow to prevent large outbreaks. Using rapid tests to screen the whole population and catch infections before symptoms developed, as in the second strategy, led to preventing large outbreaks.

"We found that interventions that only took effect after someone developed symptoms and tested positive were too slow to prevent large clusters; only regular monitoring of asymptomatic individuals could prevent the worst outcomes," says Colijn.

Their study is timely as B.C. is expected to enter Step 4 of its reopening in September and concerns remain about a resurgence of COVID-19 in the fall. Regular screening for COVID-19 in the form of rapid testing has not been widely used in B.C. schools, though Alberta and Saskatchewan have plans to deploy rapid testing in schools in the fall, and Nova Scotia has long embraced rapid testing in a variety of settings.

Tupper says they hope to use data on transmission and cluster sizes in schools to estimate key unknowns about COVID-19 in schools, such as the rate of transmission, and how much it varies from classroom to classroom.

"We could then see how transmission depends on preventative measures that are put in place, such as mask use, improved ventilation and hand washing," he says. "This would inform which interventions, after a case is detected, would be the most effective."

The research results could be applied to other settings in which people spend multiple hours per day with the same group of approximately 20-30 others.

"Our results were based on simulations of a classroom, but the same considerations apply to other settings such as workplaces, or communal living settings such as long-term care homes," says Tupper, noting that their previous work points to the effectiveness of regular rapid testing in protecting residents of long-term care homes.

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Tupper's research was supported by an NSERC (Canada) Discovery Grant. Colijn was supported by a Genome BC grant (COV142) and by the Canada 150 Research Chairs program of the Federal Government of Canada. The researchers also thank Covid Écoles Québec for the data on cluster sizes in Québec schools.

 

MRI can cut overdiagnoses in prostate-cancer screening by half

KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET

Research News

IMAGE: MARTIN EKLUND, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MEDICAL EPIDEMIOLOGY AND BIOSTATISTICS AT KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET, AND TOBIAS NORDSTRÖM, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF UROLOGY AT THE DEPARTMENT OF CLINICAL SCIENCES, DANDERYD HOSPITAL... view more 

CREDIT: STEFAN ZIMMERMAN

Most countries have not introduced nationwide prostate-cancer screening, as current methods result in overdiagnoses and excessive and unnecessary biopsies. A new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, which is published in The New England Journal of Medicine, indicates that screening by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and targeted biopsies could potentially cut overdiagnoses by half. The results are presented today at the European Association of Urology Congress.

"Our results from a large, randomised study show that modern methods for prostate cancer screening maintain the benefits of screening, while decreasing the harms substantially. This addresses the greatest barrier to the introduction of nationwide screening," explains Tobias Nordström, associate professor of Urology at the Department of Clinical Sciences, Danderyd Hospital at Karolinska Institutet, who is in charge of the STHLM3MRI study.

Yearly, approximately 1,4 million men get a prostate cancer diagnosis and 375,000 men die from the disease. Previous studies have shown that organised screening can result in earlier detection and thereby reduce the risk of prostate-cancer deaths.

Current screening methods - PSA (prostate-specific antigen) tests combined with traditional biopsies - result in unnecessary biopsies, and the detection of numerous minor low-risk tumours. Consequently, no country except Lithuania has chosen to introduce a nationwide prostate-cancer screening programme, as the benefits do not exceed the disadvantages.

"Refined screening methods are required to reduce overdiagnosis and overtreatment of low-risk tumours, and prevent unnecessary biopsies and biopsy-related side-effects," explains Martin Eklund, associate professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, with joint responsibility for the STHLM3MRI study.

The results of the STHLM3MRI study indicate that overdiagnoses can be halved by substituting traditional prostate biopsies with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and targeted biopsies. The number of unnecessary biopsies and the identification of minor low-risk tumours is reduced, while the new method can detect just as many clinically significant tumours.

STHLM3MRI is a randomised study conducted between 2018 and 2021 with participants from Stockholm County, which included 12,750 men. The participants first provided a blood sample for PSA analysis, as well as analysis by the new Stockholm3 test, developed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet. Men whose tests showed elevated levels were then randomly selected for traditional biopsies or MRI. In the MRI group, biopsies were conducted strictly on suspected tumours identified by MRI.

The study proceeded thereafter by investigating how the Stockholm3 test could be combined with MRI to further improve the method for prostate-cancer screening.

"We will soon present the second of the two main reports from the STHLM3MRI trial where we assess the role of a novel blood test as adjunct to MRI in prostate cancer screening. The future of prostate cancer diagnostics probably includes both improved blood tests and MRI. Nationwide screening for breast and cervical cancer among women has been available in the Western world for some time. We are finally able to show that men can also reduce their risk of malignant cancer through nationwide prostate-cancer screening that utilises modern methods," Tobias Nordström concludes.

Professor Hendrik Van Poppel, Adjunct Secretary General of the European Association of Urology (EAU) said: "It is exciting to see breakthroughs such as this in the field of early detection of prostate cancer. An innovation such as STHLM3MRI makes an even more compelling case for the European Commission to ensure a risk stratified approach to early detection of prostate cancer is adopted across the whole of Europe. The EAU is working hard to ensure that early detection of prostate cancer is addressed in the implementation of Europe's Beating Cancer Plan in order to reduce mortality of Europe's most common male cancer while also dealing with the challenges of overdiagnosis and overtreatment. We are really looking forward to seeing how STHLM3MRI can continue to contribute to this aim".

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The research was financed by the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Karolinska Institutet, Hagstrandska Minnesfonden, Region Stockholm, the Swedish Order of Druids, the Åke Wiberg Foundation, the Swedish e-Science Research Center (SeRC) and Prostatacancerförbundet (the Prostate Cancer Association). Henrik Grönberg, Martin Eklund and Tobias Nordström are partners of the company A3P Biomedical AB, which holds the development rights of the Stockholm3 test.

Publication: "MRI-targeted or standard biopsy in prostate cancer screening", M. Eklund, F. Jäderling, A. Discacciati, M. Bergman, M. Annerstedt, M. Aly, A. Glaessgen, S. Carlsson, H. Grönberg, T. Nordström, for the STHLM3 consortium. The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), online 9 July 2021, doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa2100852.

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Our vision is to advance knowledge about life and strive towards better health for all. Karolinska Institutet accounts for the single largest share of all academic medical research conducted in Sweden and offers the country's broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selects the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

About EAU21:

Europe's biggest urology congress will take place from 8th-12th July 2021 in a virtual setting. With over 1,500 abstracts presented and moderated live, the Annual Congress of the European Association of Urology (EAU21) will be amongst Europe's biggest medical congresses in 2021.

Clinicians, scientists, and patients will meet to discuss topics such as:

• Prostate cancer: new developments to improve treatments of the most common male cancer
• Urinary incontinence: a growing concern for the elderly population
• Practice changing treatments for both bladder and kidney cancer
• Prevention and treatment of urinary stones; 1 in 10 people (55 million adults in Europe) will form a stone at some point
• Special track for representatives of patient advocacy group on Friday 9 July

...and many other conditions related to the male and female urinary tract system and male reproductive organs. Review the full scientific programme on https://eaucongress.uroweb.org/

 

Researchers overcome winking, napping pigs to prove brain test works

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Research News

IMAGE: ADAM JONES, RESEARCH COORDINATOR FOR THE PIGLET NUTRITION AND COGNITION LABORATORY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, SETTLES PIGLET INTO A CUSTOM-BUILT HAMMOCK BEFORE TESTING ITS EYEBLINK REFLEX, A SIMPLE ASSAY... view more 

CREDIT: COLLEGE OF ACES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

URBANA, Ill. - If you've ever been to an eye doctor, there's a good chance you've felt the sudden puff of air to the eye that constitutes a traditional test for glaucoma. It's no one's favorite experience, but the puff is non-invasive and harmless.

Scientists use a similar method to test learning and memory in animals and humans. Like Pavlov's classic experiments linking a neutral stimulus with a physiological response, the eyeblink test pairs a light or sound with a quick puff of air to the eye. With repetition, the animal learns to close its eye, or blink, in response to the light or sound only. It's called associative learning, and the response is ruled by a brain region known as the cerebellum.

While the eyeblink test has been around since 1922, it had never been attempted in pigs until now. In a new study in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, researchers prove the eyeblink test works in 3-week-old pigs, a model species for nutritional neuroscience research in human infants.

"The idea is, if we can improve structural development in the brain through nutritional interventions, it should take pigs fewer trials to learn the rule. We're in the process of assessing the nutrition piece now, but we had to get the test to work first," says Ryan Dilger, professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois and co-author on the study.

Dilger specializes in the effects of nutrition on the developing brain, with much of his work feeding directly into the infant formula industry. He uses neonatal pigs because, unlike rodents, their brain anatomy and structure, gut physiology, and nutritional requirements are strikingly similar to human infants.

Dilger's team typically studies pig brain response to new ingredients through magnetic resonance imaging, MRI, which focuses on the structure and size of various brain regions. They also rely on well-validated behavioral tasks, such as novel object recognition, that reflect activity in the hippocampus and striatum, some of the brain regions related to learning and memory.

But Dilger wanted a tool to specifically assess cognitive processing in the cerebellum. That's when he turned to Henk-Jan Boele and Sebastiaan Koekkoek, eyeblink specialists and neuroscientists at Erasmus Medical Center in the Netherlands.

Although humans and all sorts of animals have undergone the eyeblink test, the behavioral paradigm had never been validated for pigs.

"For human and mouse eyeblink conditioning, we use completely different systems," says Boele, a postdoctoral researcher with dual appointments at Erasmus and Princeton University. "Humans are easy to instruct, usually are very cooperative, and sit still during the experiment, which makes it easy to deliver the puff and measure the eyelid. Mice are mostly head-fixed during the experiment, which makes it easy to deliver the air puff and measure the eyelid. Pigs, instead, were a challenge because we did not want to fixate their head. It was really difficult to reliably deliver the air puff and measure the eyelid responses.

"We tried video cameras, diodes, and all kinds of things, to capture the blink. And we had to use a piece of equipment to deliver the air puff that was very close to the eye to avoid any delays. We need really sharp, short puffs that are not invasive for the animal but are still very precisely timed. So that was a challenge," he says.

The solution was taping a short piece of air tubing next to one eye, and pasting magnetic sensors on the forehead and eyelid to record the blink. The system measured the eyeblink down to the millisecond.

And yes, Boele puffed himself in the eye to test out the system. It worked. "Oh yes, I blinked," he laughs.

To ensure the pigs had free head movement but didn't get up and run around, the researchers placed them in a custom-built sound-dampening box fitted with a pig-sized hammock.

It was apparently very comfy.

Sangyun Joung, a doctoral student in the Neuroscience Program at Illinois and co-author on the study, says, "Each pig had five days of training to habituate them to the hammock and the testing environment. By day three, they were very relaxed, to the point where some of them were literally falling asleep. That was a little challenge for us during the analysis, because that definitely influenced their responses. But it also told us this whole behavior paradigm is not stressful for them. For us, it was interesting and frustrating at the same time."

Once the pigs were used to the setup, the real work began. The pigs did a series of eight tests in a row. The first was the air puff only, to measure the eyeblink reflex. The next six tests paired a small blue LED light with the air puff. The light came on for half a second, 500 milliseconds, and right at the end, with the light still on, the air puff was delivered. That last part, with both the light on and the air puffing, lasted a tiny 50 milliseconds. The final test was the light only - no puff.

The researchers repeated each set of eight tests five times on each of five consecutive days. The time between tests varied a bit to keep the pigs guessing.

"It wasn't just on and off, once per second. The system waits until the eye is in a stable place, and then repeats the test at random times so the pigs can't anticipate the puff," Dilger says.

But they did learn, over the course of the five-day experiment, to anticipate the puff. Pretty soon, pigs were closing their eyes at exactly the 500-millisecond mark during the eighth trial - the one with a light but no puff.

"The timing is perfect. If you look at the conditioned eyelid responses, you can see that the eyelid is closed exactly at the moment the puff would have been delivered," Boele says. "Just perfect motor timing, down to the millisecond. That's beautiful."

The research team learned something else about pigs they hadn't known before.

"We learned that pigs can just close one eye at a time; they can wink. We weren't sure about that, actually," Dilger says. "But because they are pigs, they will frustrate you all day long. Some pigs would just lay there with their one eye closed, which meant we couldn't use that that particular subject. They're smart creatures."

The eyeblink test specifically targets activity in the cerebellum, the part of the brain responsible for making quick, unconscious predictions. These predictions relate to motor responses, such as where to step while you're walking; and cognitive processes, such as predicting what someone is going to say next in a conversation.

"The cerebellum is making short-term predictions all the time, continuously. It's essential to interact with our environment. When we think about learning and memory, often we think about really complex cognitive things, but most of our daily life behavior is just smooth, automatic interactions with our environment," Boele says. "In eyeblink conditioning, your cerebellum basically solves the problem for you. You don't have to think about it. It's making this short-term prediction, and that's what we are studying."

Pigs are born with a more developed cerebellum than human babies. That's clear from eyeblink conditioning tests Boele has done with six-to-eight-month-old infants; they don't typically learn the task at that age.

Unlike humans, pigs need to be able to make motor and cognitive predictions right away, since they can get up and walk around minutes after birth. When Dilger studies the pig cerebellum using MRI, which focuses mostly on structure, he typically doesn't see much change due to nutritional interventions. That's because the cerebellum is more developed at birth in the pig, which makes them a precocial species. But nutritional changes might alter the functioning of the brain region. That is what the eyeblink test will tell him in future studies.

"Often, function follows structure, but not always. Having a nutritional deficiency may show a deficit in eyeblink conditioning, this associative learning task," he says. "We want to be able to use a nutritional intervention as a relatively non-invasive way of understanding cerebellar development here."

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The study, "Young domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) can perform Pavlovian eyeblink conditioning," is published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience [DOI: 10.3389/fnbeh.2021.690019]. Current and former University of Illinois authors include Sangyun Joung, Joanne Fil, Austin Mudd, Stephen Fleming, and Ryan Dilger. Co-authors Sebastiaan Koekkoek and Henk-Jan Boele are affiliated with Erasmus Medical Center.

The Department of Animal Sciences is in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois.

 

Reporting of adverse effects in drug trials has only improved slightly in 17 years, new study shows

UNIVERSITY OF YORK

Research News

Researchers, including academics from the University of York, analysed systematic reviews of 1,200 Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) to assess whether reporting had improved over time.

However, the information the researchers needed to assess what adverse effects were reported (and how they were reported) was only included in less than half of the RCTs they analysed.

Co-author Dr Su Golder from the Department of Health Sciences, said: "Drug trials are conducted to give clinicians information on the benefits and adverse effects of treatments. Our study shows that, disappointingly, there's only been a slight improvement in reporting the adverse effects in trials over the last 17 years."

The study argues that many trials focus on the benefits, rather than the adverse effects of the drug being trialled.

"There is also a tendency to focus only on those harms that are either common, or defined as serious which cause hospitalisation, disability or death. Yet other seemingly minor harms which may be important to patients - everything from diarrhoea and insomnia to rashes, coughs and muscle aches - may be important to capture, especially since it may stop people taking medication," Dr Golder added.

Randomised Control Trials authors were also at times selective about which harms they reported, the study went on to say.

Dr Golder added: "We also need to know if a particular drug affected people differently, for example if it affected females more than males, or if a particular harm increased with age."

The study concluded that the lack of reporting or selective reporting of adverse effects in published clinical trials can promote a false impression of safety and misinform clinical and policy decisions and that the NHS, policy makers and patients all need reliable information about the benefits and adverse effects of treatments to make good, informed decisions.

In 2004, major new guidelines on reporting Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) were published, with the aim of improving the reporting of adverse effects in trials.

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'Time to improve the reporting of harms in randomized controlled trials' is published in the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

 WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

Women and lower-education users more likely to tweet personal information

PENN STATE

Research News

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- When it comes to what users share on Twitter, women and users who never attended college voluntarily disclose more personal information than users from other socioeconomic and demographic backgrounds -- potentially making these populations more susceptible to online privacy threats, according to a recent study led by the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology.

Additionally, the researchers unexpectedly found that neither socioeconomic status nor demographics is a significant predictor of the use of account security features such as two-factor login authentication, and that users from all backgrounds actually shared less personal information than they recalled.

"We didn't find a strong correlation between people's stated attitudes and their observed behaviors, which is pretty contradictory to what privacy literature has explained about people's digital inequality and privacy divide," said Jooyoung Lee, doctoral student of information sciences and technology and lead author on the research paper.

In the exploratory study, the researchers set out to understand whether socio-demographic factors impact the usage of login verification, a user's likeliness to share personal information online, and whether topics of self-disclosure vary across socio-demographic groups.

"There is a robust literature on self-disclosure, but purely data-driven approaches typically don't allow us access to users' gender, education, occupation, race and other sensitive information," said Sarah Rajtmajer, assistant professor of information sciences and technology. "At the same time, there is growing concern about the inequitable distribution of privacy risk amongst different socio-demographic groups with respect to online information sharing. The experimental approach taken in this work allowed us a first attempt to bridge the gap."

According to Shomir Wilson, assistant professor of information sciences and technology, the researchers were motivated to expand on past work that indicated that people in lower socio-economic brackets had more difficulty understanding online privacy controls.

"The original thing we were expecting to see based on the survey methods and prior work actually didn't bear out in that we got negative results on the socio-economic status," said Wilson. "But we got some other results that surprised us and are leading us into next steps."

The Penn State study is novel in that it explores the contents of personal information in self-disclosure along socio-demographic lines. In prior work, only gender and age variables have been primarily explored.

The researchers surveyed 110 active Twitter users and monitored their posting behaviors in more than 6,900 tweets over the course of a month. Then, using statistical analysis methods, they examined the tweets for mentions of topics in 12 categories of self-disclosure -- such as marital status, or location -- and labeled which of the categories, if any, the tweet fit.

Those categories were then measured against six socio-demographic factors -- income, gender, age, education level, race/ethnicity and occupation -- to analyze users' login verification settings, quantity of self-disclosure, and self-disclosure by topic. Finally, a post-study survey was sent to participants to collect their recollection of self-disclosure, which the researchers measured against their actual posts.

"A key distinction between our work and prior work was that prior work surveyed people for their attitudes and beliefs," said Wilson. "We took this a step further: we not only gave people surveys, but we followed them on Twitter to see how they were behaving and if their behaviors actually correlated with what they thought they were doing. And we found that people were sharing less than they thought they were sharing."

Added Lee, "People don't always remember what they share on social media, which could be a really big problem. Reminding people of their sharing behaviors could be a good solution to help them keep track of what kind of data they're sharing publicly."

Rajtmajer added that this is particularly true about the combined information of what they've shared over time, which led the researchers to ask survey participants whether they remembered sharing specific pieces of personal information.

"We know that, most often, the critical worries derive from inferences about an individual made possible by the aggregation of all the various, and often seemingly harmless, details they share," she said. "These inferences can be used to profile, monetize, manipulate and surveil. Already-vulnerable groups in many cases are most at risk."

According to Wilson, there are also scenarios where users don't realize that they are sharing posts containing personal information with an audience that includes their co-workers or the general public. Conversely, there are cases where people might not share enough, not realizing that there are certain pieces of information that their friends and followers might want to know.

"Aligning those two things helps people better understand their public persona and gives people a greater sense of security when they use online social networks," Wilson said. "And that in itself is valuable."

The study unveils that users often can't accurately construct a mental model of their sharing behaviors over a month-long period, which could potentially lead to design updates for social networks to implement features that help users keep track of their sharing behaviors.

"This provides context to how people use these tools, both for the users and for the people creating them," said Wilson.

Eesha Srivatsavaya, an undergraduate data sciences student at the College of IST, was also involved with the project. The team's paper appears in the July 2021 Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies. The work was supported in part by an Accelerator Award from the Center for Social Data Analytics at Penn State.

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