It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, December 04, 2022
Global assessment by HKU Marine Scientists found that Oyster reef restoration rapidly increases marine biodiversity but increased restoration effort is needed to eliminate historical damage
IMAGE: MEMBERS OF THE RESEARCH TEAM DOING BIODIVERSITY SURVEYS OF OYSTER HABITAT AND THE SURROUNDING AREAS IN PAK NAI, HONG KONG.view more
CREDIT: MR KHAN CHEUNG
Global assessments of historical oyster reef distribution have estimated that over 85% of oyster reefs have been lost to overfishing and coastal development. In recent decades, enormous effort has been put into developing and implementing different methods for restoring oyster reefs globally. However, the overall effectiveness of these efforts has remained uncertain because of a lack of assessment of how long it takes for restored oyster reefs to begin to support marine biodiversity and provide ecosystem services to the same level of undamaged reefs.
Dr Bayden RUSSELL and Dr Ashley HEMRAJ from the Swire Institute of Marine Science (SWIMS), and the School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), along with their international collaborators (see remark), utilised an assessment method (recovery debt) to examine the effectiveness global oyster reef restoration to date. They screened over 70 journal articles which compared restored oyster reefs to surviving natural oyster reefs in an attempt to benchmark what constitutes successful recovery of oyster reefs and identify the most successful methods of oyster reef restoration. The research has recently been published in Science Advances.
Their findings revealed that oyster reef restoration initiates a rapid increase in biodiversity and abundance of reef-associated species within two years; however, the recovery rate then decreases substantially, leaving a global shortfall in recovery of 35% below a pre-disturbed state. Following this initial ‘boost’ in recovery, the shortfall in species diversity, ecosystem functions and services will likely be gradually overcome by the development of ecosystem complexity. Therefore, while these young, restored reefs rapidly enhance biodiversity, they will require long-term protection to mature into complex ecosystems and recoup historical losses of biodiversity and ecosystem services.
‘The rapid increase of oysters and fauna on restored oyster reefs is very promising and shows great return for the financial investment and effort put towards restoration. However, it is also clear that newly restored oyster reefs require time to develop into self-sustaining ecosystems, equivalent to remnant oyster reefs. By reducing disturbances to these restored reefs, in particular activities like harvesting or development which damage the reef, we can help them recover faster.’ said Dr Ashley Hemraj, the lead author of the study.
Importantly, the research also demonstrated that some of the most simple and cheap restoration techniques – the use of limestone rock as the base for restoring reefs – can be as effective as more costly techniques.
‘The exciting thing about this research is that it consolidates the outcomes of global efforts in oyster reef restoration and provides some direction for maximising success,’ said the group leader Dr Bayden Russell. ‘We were pleasantly surprised by how rapidly biodiversity increases in the early years after restoration, including recreational and commercially fished species, which provides good motivation and justification for rapidly expanding restoration in regions of the world where restoration programmes are still in the early stages of development.’ Dr Bayden Russell added.
With the recognition that restoration of coastal marine ecosystems is a key component of protecting biodiversity and maintaining the services they provide to humans, this research offers timely direction for achieving these goals with oyster reef restoration.
About the journal paper: Oyster reef restoration fails to recoup global historic ecosystem losses despite substantial biodiversity gain. Science Advances 8, eabp8747.
Remark: Collaborators: Dr Boze HANCOCK: The Nature Conservancy; Dr Melanie BISHOP: Macquarie University; Dr Jay MINUTI: The City University of Hong Kong (Former Postdoctoral Researcher at HKU); Dr Philine zu ERMGASSEN: University of Edinburgh; and Dr Ruth THURSTAN: University of Exeter.
Theoretical diagram of general recovery debt for ecosystems not requiring structural restoration (red dashed line) and recovery debt specific to restored oyster habitats (dark blue lines) where structural restoration is necessary. The yellow line indicates the expected rate of recovery, which slows but stays positive over time. Figure modified from the published paper.
CREDIT
The University of Hong Kong
CAPTION
Dr Bayden Russell documenting the species diversity of a restored oyster reef in Hong Kong.
CREDIT
Miko LUI, The Nature Conservancy HK.
CAPTION
Measuring the growth of oysters on restored reefs is key to understanding restoration success. Photo from Hong Kong.
For media enquiries, please contact Ms Casey To, External Relations Officer (Tel: 3917-4948; email: caseyto@hku.hk) and Ms Cindy Chan, Assistant Communications Director of Faculty of Science (Tel: 3917-5286; email: cindycst@hku.hk).
Oyster reef restoration fails to recoup global historic ecosystem losses despite substantial biodiversity gain
HKUMed researchers found a reduction in hospitalisations and a concurrent increase in deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 in Hong Kong: implications for healthcare planning during public health emergencies
HKUMed researchers at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine at The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed) found a significant reduction in public hospital admissions and an increase in mortality, particularly from cardiovascular diseases, during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong in 2020. The findings, which may reflect avoidable deaths caused by changes in healthcare seeking during the early pandemic, are now published in The Lancet Regional Health - Western Pacific. [link to the publication]
In addition to the respiratory morbidity and mortality caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection, there exists a broad range of direct (e.g. SARS-CoV-2 infection of the heart or brain) and indirect (e.g. increase in cancer mortality due to reduced cancer screening or delayed treatment) public health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and related policy responses. To describe these impacts across many medical outcomes, the research team used comprehensive long-term hospitalisation and mortality data collected from the Hospital Authority and the Census and Statistics Department of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR), to quantify the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They found an absolute reduction of 359,790 hospitalisations in public hospitals largely from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, and 1,873 additional deaths particularly from cardiovascular diseases in 2020, above what would have been expected in the absence of the pandemic. Children under 5 years of age and older adults aged over 65 years were most affected. Reductions in the number of deaths occurring inside public hospitals were accompanied by increases in deaths occurring outside of public hospitals, which may suggest a reluctance to seek care even when gravely ill.
The results of this study suggested important, indirect impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health in Hong Kong, likely resulting from worry about SARS-CoV-2 exposure in hospitals or other barriers reducing timely access to medical services. These impacts may outweigh even the direct consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection in some jurisdictions and high-risk population groups. With the possible emergence of more virulent or transmissible strains of SARS-CoV-2 or other epidemics, medical institutions and policymakers should prepare adequate resources, including risk communication, to ensure maintained access to healthcare for non-infected patients during public health emergencies.
About the research team The researchers from the School of Public Health, HKUMed are: Mr Hualei Xin, PhD candidate; Dr Peng Wu, Assistant Professor; Dr Jessica Wong Yuen-ting, Research Officer; Mr Justin Cheung Kai-him, Research Assistant; Dr Eric Lau Ho-yin, Scientific Officer; Dr Joshua Nealon, Research Assistant Professor; Professor Gabriel Leung, Honorary Clinical Professor; Professor Benjamin Cowling, Chair Professor of Epidemiology, Head of Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Co-Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control.
This project was supported by the Health and Medical Research Fund (grant no. CID-HKU2), the Collaborative Research Scheme (project no. C7123-20G) of the Research Grants Council, and AIR@InnoHK administered by Innovation and Technology Commission of the Hong Kong SAR Government.
About the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, School of Public Health, HKUMed The School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong (HKUSPH) has a long and distinguished history in public health education and high impact research. With world leading research in infectious diseases as well as on non-communicable diseases of both local and global importance, the School has made significant contributions through its research and advocacy to improve the health of populations and individuals, both locally and globally. The School is a leading research and teaching hub in public health on influenza and other emerging viruses, control of non-communicable and infectious diseases, tobacco control, air pollution, psycho-oncology, behavioural sciences, exercise science, life-course epidemiology, population mental health, and health economics, health services planning and management. Work done by HKUSPH researchers has informed international (e.g. the US Food and Drug Administration, Health Canada, the World Health Organization), national and local public health policies.
The School of Public Health hosts the WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control. With a view to protecting the public's health in Hong Kong and across the region, the WHO CC aims to coordinating research on the control and prevention of infectious diseases and providing local and regional education and training in infectious disease epidemiology and control. Members of the WHO CC are involved in the response to COVID-19 and conducted a range of scientific research projects. The team has created a website to share the latest scientific findings and the implications for evidence-based public health policies on the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak [link to website: https://covid19.sph.hku.hk/].
Media enquiries Please contact LKS Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong by email (medmedia@hku.hk).
Hospitalizations and mortality during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Hong Kong, China: An observational study
Ethnic diversity and disparities in access to genetic testing impact prostate cancer development and treatment, research shows
In concomitance with the forthcoming ESMO Asia Congress 2022 in Singapore, 2-4 December, two studies emphasize the need for ethnically diverse prostate cancer genomics data and accessible genetic testing.
IMAGE: DR. RODRIGO DIENSTMANN, GRUPO ONCOCLÍNICAS, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL, AND VALL D’HEBRON INSTITUTE OF ONCOLOGY, BARCELONA, SPAINview more
CREDIT: ESMO - EUROPEAN SOCIETY FOR MEDICAL ONCOLOGY
Singapore, 28 November 2022 – More than 1.4 million men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020 globally, (1) but the molecular characteristics of the disease remain unexplored for the majority of patients around the world. In the final days of the Movember campaign, which every year in November aims to raise awareness of men's health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and men's mental health, (2) in concomitance with the forthcoming ESMO Asia Congress 2022 in Singapore, 2-4 December, two studies emphasise the need for ethnically diverse prostate cancer genomics data and accessible genetic testing.
Prostate cancer is well-established as a BRCA-gene associated malignancy which can develop as a consequence of a hereditary cancer syndrome, and predisposition to the disease is known to vary across different ethnicities, with men of African and Caribbean descent being at increased risk. Only just beginning to be understood, however, is the impact of ancestry on the somatic mutations arising in the tumour, likely as a result of both genetic and non-genetic, societal-environmental factors linked to ethnicity. “Such race-related differences can condition the behaviour of the disease and its treatment, yet our current knowledge of prostate cancer genomics is largely limited to data from Europe and the USA, in which Asian and other non-Caucasian ethnicities are scarcely represented,” said Dr. Rodrigo Dienstmann, Grupo Oncoclínicas, Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology, Barcelona, Spain, an expert not involved in the research.
A study (3) has now confirmed the existence of variations in the genomic landscape of prostate cancer in Chinese men, by performing targeted genetic sequencing on the tumours of 1,016 Chinese patients and comparing the results with publicly available genomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), (4) Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre (5) and Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) (6) cohorts representative of Caucasian men.
“The most important differences we observed were concentrated in castration-sensitive disease and included lower mutation rates in prostate cancer driver genes such as TP53 and PTEN among Chinese patients compared to the Western cohorts, which may partially account for the better prognosis observed in Asian men in this setting,” reported study author Dr. Yu Wei, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Centre, China. According to Wei, this raises the question of whether the benefits demonstrated by current standard therapies in clinical trials with Western patients can be translated to the Asian population given the varying treatment responses induced by different driver mutations.
In the castration-resistant setting, genetic testing for a group of 15 genes responsible for DNA damage and repair (DDR) including BRCA1 and BRCA2 entered clinical practice in 2020 with the approval of PARP inhibitor olaparib, which achieved a 30% reduction in the risk of death for patients with metastatic disease. (7) The Chinese study found mutation rates in genes predictive of response to these therapies to be similar across the races, regardless of disease stage. “This suggests that Chinese patients can equally benefit from PARP inhibitors provided they can obtain access to the treatment, which is why we propose that all Asian men with metastatic prostate cancer should receive genomic testing,” Wei stated.
Commenting on the results, Dienstmann observed: “The genomic heterogeneity we see in metastatic, refractory prostate cancer can be understood as the result of tumour evolution under the pressure of therapy over several years, but it is noteworthy that variation between ethnicities was also observed in the primary tumour, confirming the existence of baseline differences in cancer development across races. These findings are consistent with other recent research on Asian (8) and African (9) populations and underline the importance of increasing the diversity in prostate cancer genomics databases to better understand the molecular epidemiology and thus the testing strategies that need to be implemented in countries around the world.”
The ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for prostate cancer (10) recommend germline genetic testing for BRCA2 and other DDR genes in all patients with metastatic prostate cancer alongside or following tumour testing, but also in individuals with a family history of cancer to allow the early identification of mutation carriers and contribute to the prevention and early diagnosis of tumours in relatives. Far from being a reality, however, access to testing could become a factor in deepening health disparities in the future.
From equal representation to equitable access to treatment
The recommended technology in prostate cancer molecular testing as per the ESMO Precision Medicine Working Group is multi-gene next-generation sequencing, (11) which is costly and requires high-quality testing and complex interpretation. As emerged in the preliminary results of a recent ESMO survey on the Availability and Accessibility of Biomolecular Technologies in Oncology in Europe, this is currently available only in selected academic cancer centres, and scarcely at all in low and middle-income countries. Developing the necessary infrastructure, which also includes resources and workflows for sample acquisition, preparation and storage, is a sizeable undertaking likely to require multi-stakeholder involvement.
“Support programmes from companies like the one exemplified in a survey of physician testing patterns in India (12) are a good and necessary starting point for increasing patient access to testing. Moving forward, insights from these programmes should be made public to allow better understanding of local gaps in access to testing, as well as the prevalence of driver mutations in different patient cohorts. However, these programmes are not sustainable in the long term, and the study authors themselves report that post-test implications, such as drug affordability and availability of genetic counsellors, remain major barriers in India,” said Dienstmann. “National testing programmes will need to be implemented to support access to the medicines, and companies must increasingly engage in public-private partnerships, not just to facilitate the analysis of samples abroad, but to help build the local laboratory ecosystems that can make testing affordable and available to entire patient populations.”
-END-
Notes to Editors
Please make sure to use the official name of the meeting in your reports: ESMO Asia Congress 2022
Official Congress Hashtag: #ESMOAsia22
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This press release contains information provided by the author of the highlighted abstract and reflects the content of this abstract. It does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of ESMO who cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the data. Commentators quoted in the press release are required to comply with the ESMO Declaration of Interests policy and the ESMO Code of Conduct.
3 Abstract 162MO ‘Genomic Characterization Revealed from Prospective Clinical Sequencing of 1016 Chinese Prostate Cancer Patients’ will be presented by Yu Wei during the Genitourinary Tumours Mini Oral Session on Friday 2 December, 16:15 - 17:45 SGT in Hall 407.
7 J S de Bono, J Mateo, K Fizazi, F Saad, N Shore, S Sandhu, K N Chi, O Sartor, N Agarwal, D Olmos, A Thiery-Vuillemin, P Twardowski, G Roubaud, M Ozguroglu, J Kang, J Burgents, C Gresty, C Corcoran, C A Adelman and M Hussain. Final overall survival (OS) analysis of PROfound: Olaparib vs physician’s choice of enzalutamide or abiraterone in patients (pts) with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) and homologous recombination repair (HRR) gene alterations. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2020.08.870
9 W Jaratlerdsiri, J Jiang, T Gong, S M Patrick, C Willet, T Chew, R J Lyons, A-M Haynes, G Pasqualim, M Louw, J G Kench, R Campbell, L G Horvath, E K F Chan, D C Wedge, R Sadsad, I Simoni Brum, S B A Mutambirwa, P D Stricker, M S Riana Bornman and V M Hayes. African-specific molecular taxonomy of prostate cancer. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05154-6
10 C Parker, E Castro, K Fizazi, A Heidenreich, P Ost, G Procopio, B Tombal and S Gillessen on behalf of the ESMO Guidelines Committee. Prostate cancer: ESMO Clinical Practice Guidelines for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2020.06.011
11 F Mosele, J Remon, J Mateo, C B Westphalen, F Barlesi, M P Lolkema, N Normanno, A Scarpa, M Robson, F Meric-Bernstam, N Wagle, A Stenzinger, J Bonastre, A Bayle, S Michiels, I Bièche, E Rouleau, S Jezdic, J-Y Douillard, J S Reis-Filho, R Dienstmann and F André. Recommendations for the use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for patients with metastatic cancers: a report from the ESMO Precision Medicine Working Group. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2020.07.014
12 Abstract 167P ‘Genetic Testing for Prostate Cancer: The Indian Scenario’ will be presented by Ganesh Bakshi during the Poster Viewing Session on Saturday 3 December, 18:00 – 19:00 SGT in the Exhibition Area.
About the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO)
ESMO is the leading professional organisation for medical oncology. With approximately 25,000 members representing oncology professionals from over 160 countries worldwide, ESMO is the society of reference for oncology education and information. Driven by a shared determination to secure the best possible outcomes for patients, ESMO is committed to standing by those who care about cancer through addressing the diverse needs of #ONEoncologycommunity, offering #educationforLIFE, and advocating for #accessiblecancerCARE. www.esmo.org
162MO - Genomic Characterization Revealed from Prospective Clinical Sequencing of 1016 Chinese Prostate Cancer Patients
Y. Wei1, Y. Zhu1, D. Ye2 1Urology, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China, 2Shanghai Cancer Centre, Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center, Shanghai, China
Background: Although disparities in prostate cancer (PCa) incidence and mortality among races have been well recognized, few biological factors driving disparities were identified, due to the lack of genomic data from minorities, including the Asian population.
Methods: A total of 1016 Chinese PCa patients, including 315 locoregional PCa, 313 metastatic castration-sensitive PCa (mCSPC) and 388 metastatic castration-resistant PCa (mCRPC), were prospectively enrolled and underwent targeted sequencing. Genomic data retrieved from the TCGA, MSKCC, and SU2C cohort was used as a comparator representing the White men. The genomic mutations were analyzed using an integrated bioinformatics strategy. The relationships between race and genomic mutations were evaluated using Fisher's exact test and multivariable logistic regression.
Results: Comparative analysis across disease stages revealed mutations in TP53, AR, FOXA1, and cell cycle pathway were enriched in mCRPC. Patients with visceral metastasis harbored more APC mutations compared with patients with bone metastasis. Genomic differences between races were mainly observed in castration-sensitive PCa, with tumors from Chinese men having more FOXA1 but less TP53 mutations in locoregional PCa and harboring fewer TP53, PTEN and APC mutations in mCSPC stage than those from White men. Unlike FOXA1 class-1 enriched in tumors from East Asian, FOXA1 class-2 was less common in East Asian patients and showed no enrichment in metastasis compared with primary cancer in East Asian cohort, in contrast to the findings in Western cohort.
Conclusions: The magnitude of difference in mutation prevalence between PCa from Chinese and White men varied across disease stages and was strongest in castration-sensitive disease. The lower frequency of FOXA1 class-2 mutations in Chinese PCa underscored the mechanistic difference in driving cancer progression between races. We call for more genomic data from minorities with rich clinical information to reduce widening racial disparity and accelerate our understanding of the interplay between germline and somatic mutations on PCa tumorigenesis and development.
Legal entity responsible for the study: Yao Zhu and Dingwei Ye
Funding: Has not received any funding
Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
167P - Genetic Testing for Prostate Cancer: The Indian Scenario
G. Bakshi1, S. Addla2, A.P. Joshi3, S.J. Rajappa4, C.J. Desai5, H. Baxi6, V. Talwar7, P.N. Mohapatra8, S. Shingla9 1Uro Oncology, P. D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Mumbai, India, 2Uro Oncology, Apollo Cancer Institute - Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India, 3Medical Oncology Department, Tata Memorial Hospital - Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, India, 4Oncology department, Basavatarakam Indo American Cancer Hospital & Research Institute, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India, 5Medical Oncology, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., Basking Ridge, Gujarat, USA, 6Uro Oncology, HCG Cancer Centre Ahmedabad, Ahmedabad, India, 7Medical Oncology, Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi, Rohini, India, 8Medical Oncology, Apollo Gleneagles Hospital, Kolkata, Kolkata, India, 9Medical Oncology Department, Medanta - The Medicity, Gurugram, Gurugram, India
Background: Prostate cancer (PrCa) incidence is on the rise and was the 12th commonest cancer in India (GLOBOCAN 2020). Genetic testing for PrCa has been widely advocated owing to its poor prognosis, familial risks associated with underlying mutations and therapeutic implication of these mutations. Data on genetic testing practices related to PrCa among Indian medical and uro-oncologists is meagre. With the availability of mutation-based targeted treatment for PrCa, there exists a need to assimilate the current practice patterns in genetic testing.
Methods: An online questionnaire comprising 12 objective questions was developed, validated by a panel of 9 experts, and distributed. Responses were collected over 2 months, at the end of which 103 medical and uro-oncologists responded. Results were descriptively analysed and concluding statements on current practice patterns and future trends were formulated.
Results: Genetic testing was advised by 64.1% of the oncologists for most PrCa patients. A majority chose to advise genetic testing at the stage of castration-resistant prostate cancer (58.3%). Patients with a positive family history of PrCa were most commonly referred for genetic testing (88.3%). Blood and primary tumor were the preferred specimens sent for testing. A 15-gene panel that play a crucial role in the homologous recombination repair (HRR) pathway was most commonly used (50.2%). Testing of the tumor followed by blood samples was the sequence most commonly followed (44.7%). The primary tumor provided maximum yield on testing for the mutations (42.7%). As per 64.1% of the oncologists, the positivity rate for prostate cancer was <5%. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines were followed by 68.9% of oncologists. Major barriers to genetic testing were affordability (89.3%) and lack of genetic counsellors (70.9%).
Conclusions: Testing for genetic mutations in PrCa is a prevalent practice among oncologists in India. Making genetic testing more affordable through patient-assistance programs and increased awareness of the utility of genetic testing along with the availability of genetic counsellors would help improve access to drugs and facilitate better diagnosis and treatment of PrCa in India.
Editorial acknowledgement: Authors would like to thank AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited in collaboration with BioQuest Solutions PVT. Ltd. India for medical writing assistance.
Legal entity responsible for the study: AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited
Funding: AstraZeneca Pharma India Limited
Disclosure: All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
JOURNAL
Annals of Oncology
British intelligence influenced Finland’s President Kekkonen through his English teacher
Western powers took advantage of the secret communication with the Finnish President Urho Kekkonen and tried to influence his thoughts during the Cold War.
IMAGE: BRITISH PRIME MINISTER LORD MACMILLAN GREETS PRESIDENT KEKKONEN IN LONDON ON THE 8TH MAY IN 1961. TO THE LEFT MRS SYLVI KEKKONEN AND HER MAJESTY’S REPRESENTATIVE LORD HASTINGS.view more
CREDIT: PHOTO: COURTESY BY THE ARCHIVES OF URHO KEKKONEN
Western powers took advantage of the secret communication with the Finnish President Urho Kekkonen and tried to influence his thoughts during the Cold War. New research reveals that Finnish President Urho Kekkonen had a closer relationship with Western Intelligence than was previously known. This is evident fromMikko Virta’sdoctoral research. It examines relations with the West and especially with the Western intelligence services during the Cold War. The investigation also reveals a secret information operation, called Operation Thread, targeted at President Kekkonen by the British. The operation was not previously known about.
Background of the era: Finland’s geopolitical situation was delicate after the Second World war right up to the 1960:ies. Finland needed to balance in order not loose its independence with an imperialist superpower Russia as its neighbour. The 1958 Night Frost (The Night Frost Crisis) was a political crisis that occurred in Soviet–Finnish relations in the autumn of 1958) destroyed the trust of the leading Western powers, Britain and the United States, in Kekkonen. In the eyes of the West, Kekkonen looked like a weak man who was too much under the influence of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and believed that the Soviet Union was winning the Cold War. The situation looked so bad that the Western powers launched an extensive influence operation in which they tried to turn Kekkonen to the West. The President was kept in close contact through ambassadors, he was invited to western capitals and high-ranking western guests were brought to Finland.
Results from the research: -Western powers began to supply Kekkonen with confidential information through secret channels, Mikko Virta explains. Based on the research, the efforts of the Western powers seem to have succeeded to some extent, as Kekkonen himself began to make openings in the direction of the West. Kekkonen was always thinking two steps ahead and he was aware of the possibility of Soviet moles in the Foreign Office and Secret Intelligence Service. Virta’s research shows that the role of intelligence services in Kekkonen's relations with the West was in the forefront. In his youth, Kekkonen had worked for years in the Finnish Security Police (Fi. Etsivä keskuspoliisi, EK). He adopted the practices of the secret police so well that he used them throughout his long political career.
Operation Thread tried to influence leaders The influence operation was connected to Operation Thread of the Information Research Department of the British Foreign Office. Targeted state leaders received personally tailored material from the British Foreign Office’s propaganda department. The goal was to build such a deep relationship of trust with the target persons that their thinking could be influenced if necessary. Kekkonen was one of the most important targets of this operation. - Nothing was previously known about this operation. I half-accidentally found documents related to it in London, which have only been released for use by researchers a few years ago, says Mikko Virta, who has researched the topic for his Doctoral Thesis.
Kekkonen’s English teacher was a British agent - At the beginning of 1961, Kekkonen started intensively studying English, which he barely knew before. Briton JohnHaycraft came to Finland as Kekkonen's language teacher, who moved to live with the presidential couple into their residence. - At the same time, Haycraft acted in an intelligence role and reported his detailed findings about the president's life to London, says Virta.In 1961, Kekkonen visited Britain and personally met the UK leaders. The visits and close contacts improved Kekkonen's relations with the West. Then the Note Crisis between Finland and the Soviet Union, and also the KGB defector Anatoli Golitsyn's claims about Kekkonen as an influence agent of the Soviet Union, tore trust to pieces again.
Relations with intelligence services Already in the 1940s, Urho Kekkonen had made connections with the British and American intelligence services. - Old contacts were used when Western powers needed information about Finland directly from the highest level. As an old intelligence officer, Kekkonen himself was a player, making use of secret connections - both eastward and westward. The most important contact seems to have been the British intelligence officer Rex Bosley,with whom contact was maintained from the 1940s until the 70s. Bosley was also Kekkonen's good friend, Virta concludes.
Researcher, M.A. Mikko Virta will defend his doctoral dissertation at the University of Helsinki on the 3rd of December. More information: The Doctoral dissertation is available in English: https://helda.helsinki.fi/handle/10138/350341?locale-attribute=en Contact: Mikko Virta is available for interviews in English
Hay treated with hot steam is safer for horses but provides them with less protein. The horse forage is treated with steam to rid it of potentially harmful microorganisms and to bind particles that could otherwise be inhaled. However, a team of scientists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) has discovered that this also causes a chemical reaction which damages the proteins in the hay and makes them harder for horses to digest. This can lead to signs of nutrient deficiency in the animals and, for example, impair growth or muscle development. The team reports on their scientific work in the journal Animals.
Hot steam is used to heat hay up to 100 degrees Celsius, which kills harmful microorganisms and binds fungal spores and dust to the hay. "Many horses suffer from lung problems such as equine asthma. The steaming process virtually eliminates all of the living microorganisms and particles in the hay that could be inhaled during feeding and damage the lungs. In theory, the end result is a very good forage," explains Professor Annette Zeyner from the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences at MLU.
However, her team discovered that the treatment also has its disadvantages as the steam damages the proteins in the hay. "A high proportion of the proteins, and the crucial amino acids contained in them, can no longer be digested by the small intestine - in other words the horse lacks these proteins as a result of the steam treatment. However, some of these protein components are essential for horses and they cannot be absorbed in the large intestine," Zeyner continues. The researchers demonstrated this by examining various hay samples. In the steamed hay, they found an increased number of products that are generated by the Maillard reaction, an indication that the proteins in the hay have been damaged. This is a reaction that also takes place when food is cooked, baked or fried and is responsible for browning or the development of flavours. "Proteins are composed of amino acids. The steaming damages them and they form new complexes with sugars in the hay," says the first author of the study, Caroline Pisch, from MLU. This makes them difficult for horses to digest. According to the researchers’ analyses, the treatment reduced the amount of protein that can be absorbed by the small intestine by almost half.
According to Zeyner, this can lead to an undersupply of essential amino acids from the feed protein, which is problematic for growing horses or lactating mares; young horses need proteins to grow, and mares need them to produce milk. To make matters worse, protein deficiency causes very unspecific symptoms in the affected animals. These include impaired muscle development and a dull or shaggy coat with so-called "hunger hair" - long isolated hairs in the horse’s coat. Horse owners can counteract this risk by enriching the animals’ diet with protein-rich single feedstuffs such as yeast and soybean meal or high-quality protein-rich compound feeds.
Study: Pisch C. et al. Effect of Hay Steaming on the Estimated Precaecal Digestibility of Crude Protein and Selected Amino Acids in Horses. Animals (2022). doi: 10.3390/ani12223092
InstallingAdvanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) on all cars in the United Kingdom could reduce car crashes by 24%, researchers in Ireland and Luxembourg have found.
The researchers from Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software at University of Limerick (UL), Ireland and Motion-S, Luxembourg, also found Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) is the most impactful technology, reducing three out of the four most frequent accident categories – intersection (by 28%), rear-end (by 27.7%), and pedestrian accidents (by 28.4%). This research is funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) under their academic-industrial partnership programme.
Based on publicly-available road safety reports from the United Kingdom (UK) for 2019, the research team estimates that a full deployment of ADAS would reduce accident frequency in the UK by 23.8%, representing an annual decrease of 18,925 accidents.
Dr Barry Sheehan of Lero at UL said: “Our research suggests that introducing ADAS across all vehicles would lower the number of road crashes by almost one quarter (23.8%). Furthermore, accidents happening in the two most frequent contexts can be reduced by 29%. That means a reduction of 7,020 accidents on urban roads with clear weather and daylight conditions and 3,472 on rural roads with clear weather and daylight conditions.”
Existing research shows that connected and automated vehicles (CAV) are expected to improve road safety substantially, including reducing accident frequency and severity. According to the American Automobile Association, as of May 2018, 92.7% of new vehicles in the United States have at least one ADAS.
In the UK and the EU, vehicles with ADAS, including Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), are becoming more common. Although these systems provide considerable societal benefits, this research, published by the journal of Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives (TRIP), has revealed their potential impact on accident numbers across various driving contexts.
Lead author Leandro Masello, Data Scientist at Motion-S and PhD Candidate at the Emerging Risk Group, UL, said that although ADAS provides considerable road safety benefits, its performance is often constrained by challenging conditions, like adverse weather.
“The driving environment affects vehicle dynamics and sensor capabilities. A system that suddenly brakes to avoid a crash will perform better in dry weather conditions than in adverse conditions like heavy rain and ice, which reduce tyre traction and can cause the vehicle to skid.
“Similarly, inclement weather also impairs the sensors’ ability to perceive the environment accurately. For example, a snowstorm could obstruct the camera vision system or cover lane boundaries,” added Mr Masello.
Dr German Castignani, co-author and CEO of Motion-S S.A., said road safety reports are a fundamental source of information for the continuous development of the car industry as they help study the distribution of the accidents’ environmental conditions.
“They provide information about the vehicles and casualties involved and the accident circumstances (e.g., geographical, temporal, and road information). Our work leverages such data to estimate the potential reductions in accidents that ADAS can mitigate,” he added.
JOURNAL
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives
