Billions of celestial objects revealed in gargantuan survey of the Milky Way

NSF’s NOIRLab releases colossal astronomical data tapestry displaying the majesty of our Milky Way in unprecedented detail

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITIES FOR RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY (AURA)

 

IMAGE: ASTRONOMERS HAVE RELEASED A GARGANTUAN SURVEY OF THE GALACTIC PLANE OF THE MILKY WAY. THE NEW DATASET CONTAINS A STAGGERING 3.32 BILLION CELESTIAL OBJECTS — ARGUABLY THE LARGEST SUCH CATALOG SO FAR. THE DATA FOR THIS UNPRECEDENTED SURVEY WERE TAKEN WITH THE US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY-FABRICATED DARK ENERGY CAMERA AT THE NSF’S CERRO TOLOLO INTER-AMERICAN OBSERVATORY IN CHILE, A PROGRAM OF NOIRLAB. THE SURVEY IS HERE REPRODUCED IN 4000-PIXELS RESOLUTION TO BE ACCESSIBLE ON SMALLER DEVICES. view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: DECAPS2/DOE/FNAL/DECAM/CTIO/NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA IMAGE PROCESSING: M. ZAMANI & D. DE MARTIN (NSF’S NOIRLAB)

Astronomers have released a gargantuan survey of the galactic plane of the Milky Way. The new dataset contains a staggering 3.32 billion celestial objects — arguably the largest such catalog so far. The data for this unprecedented survey were taken with the Dark Energy Camera, built by the US Department of Energy, at the NSF’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NOIRLab.

The Milky Way Galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars, glimmering star-forming regions, and towering dark clouds of dust and gas. Imaging and cataloging these objects for study is a herculean task, but a newly released astronomical dataset known as the second data release of the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) reveals a staggering number of these objects in unprecedented detail. The DECaPS2 survey, which took two years to complete and produced more than 10 terabytes of data from 21,400 individual exposures, identified approximately 3.32 billion objects — arguably the largest such catalog compiled to date. Astronomers and the public can explore the dataset here.

This unprecedented collection was captured by the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) instrument on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), a Program of NSF's NOIRLab. CTIO is a constellation of international astronomical telescopes perched atop Cerro Tololo in Chile at an altitude of 2200 meters (7200 feet). CTIO’s lofty vantage point gives astronomers an unrivaled view of the southern celestial hemisphere, which allowed DECam to capture the southern Galactic plane in such detail.

DECaPS2 is a survey of the plane of the Milky Way as seen from the southern sky taken at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. The first trove of data from DECaPS was released in 2017, and with the addition of the new data release, the survey now covers 6.5% of the night sky and spans a staggering 130 degrees in length. While it might sound modest, this equates to 13,000 times the angular area of the full Moon. 

The DECaPS2 dataset is available to the entire scientific community and is hosted by NOIRLab’s Astro Data Lab, which is part of the Community Science and Data Center. Interactive access to the imaging with panning/zooming inside of a web-browser is available from the Legacy Survey Viewer, the World Wide Telescope and Aladin. 

Most of the stars and dust in the Milky Way are located in its disk — the bright band stretching across this image — in which the spiral arms lie. While this profusion of stars and dust makes for beautiful images, it also makes the Galactic plane challenging to observe. The dark tendrils of dust seen threading through this image absorb starlight and blot out fainter stars entirely, and the light from diffuse nebulae interferes with any attempts to measure the brightness of individual objects. Another challenge arises from the sheer number of stars, which can overlap in the image and make it difficult to disentangle individual stars from their neighbors. 

Despite the challenges, astronomers delved into the Galactic plane to gain a better understanding of our Milky Way. By observing at near-infrared wavelengths, they were able to peer past much of the light-absorbing dust. The researchers also used an innovative data-processing approach, which allowed them to better predict the background behind each star. This helped to mitigate the effects of nebulae and crowded star fields on such large astronomical images, ensuring that the final catalog of processed data is more accurate. 

“One of the main reasons for the success of DECaPS2 is that we simply pointed at a region with an extraordinarily high density of stars and were careful about identifying sources that appear nearly on top of each other,” said Andrew Saydjari, a graduate student at Harvard University, researcher at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and lead author of the paper. “Doing so allowed us to produce the largest such catalog ever from a single camera, in terms of the number of objects observed.”

“When combined with images from Pan-STARRS 1, DECaPS2 completes a 360-degree panoramic view of the Milky Way's disk and additionally reaches much fainter stars,” said Edward Schlafly, a researcher at the AURA-managed Space Telescope Science Institute and a co-author of the paper describing DECaPS2 published in theAstrophysical Journal Supplement. “With this new survey, we can map the three-dimensional structure of the Milky Way's stars and dust in unprecedented detail.”

“Since my work on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey two decades ago, I have been looking for a way to make better measurements on top of complex backgrounds," said Douglas Finkbeiner, a professor at the Center for Astrophysics, co-author of the paper, and principal investigator behind the project. “This work has achieved that and more!"

“This is quite a technical feat. Imagine a group photo of over three billion people and every single individual is recognizable!” says Debra Fischer, division director of Astronomical Sciences at NSF. “Astronomers will be poring over this detailed portrait of more than three billion stars in the Milky Way for decades to come. This is a fantastic example of what partnerships across federal agencies can achieve.”

DECam was originally built to carry out the Dark Energy Survey, which was conducted by the Department of Energy and the US National Science Foundation between 2013 and 2019.

Astronomers have released a gargantuan survey of the galactic plane of the Milky Way. The new dataset contains a staggering 3.32 billion celestial objects — arguably the largest such catalog so far. The data for this unprecedented survey were taken with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at the NSF’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NOIRLab. For reference, a low-resolution image of the DECaPS2 data is overlaid on an image showing the full sky. The callout box is a full-resolution view of a small portion of the DECaPS2 data.

This image, which is brimming with stars and dark dust clouds, is a small extract — a mere pinprick — of the full Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey (DECaPS2) of the Milky Way. The new dataset contains a staggering 3.32 billion celestial objects — arguably the largest such catalog so far. The data for this unprecedented survey were taken with the US Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at the NSF’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NOIRLab.

CREDIT

Credit: DECaPS2/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image processing: M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)

More information

This dataset was presented in the paper “The Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey 2 (DECaPS2): More Sky, Less Bias, and Better Uncertainties” to appear in the Astrophysical Journal Supplement. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/aca594 

The DECaPS2 team is composed of A. K. Saydjari (Harvard University and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), E. F. Schlafly (Space Telescope Science Institute), D. Lang (Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and University of Waterloo), A. M. Meisner (NSF’s NOIRLab), G. M. Green (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy), C. Zucker (Space Telescope Science Institute and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian), I. Zelko (Canadian Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics — University of Toronto), J. S. Speagle (University of Toronto), T. Daylan (Princeton University), A. Lee (Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation), F. Valdes (NSF’s NOIRLab), D. Schlegel (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), and D. P. Finkbeiner (Harvard University and the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian). 

NSF’s NOIRLab (National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international Gemini Observatory (a facility of NSF, NRC–Canada, ANID–Chile, MCTIC–Brazil, MINCyT–Argentina, and KASI–Republic of Korea), Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), the Community Science and Data Center (CSDC), and Vera C. Rubin Observatory (in cooperation with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under a cooperative agreement with NSF and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O’odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.

Links

• Research paper
• Photos of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope
• Videos of the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope

Interactive Viewing of Dataset

• Dataset on the Legacy Survey Viewer
• Dataset on the World Wide Telescope
• Dataset on Aladin 

---

JOURNAL

The Astrophysical Journal

DOI

10.3847/1538-4365/aca594 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey 2 (DECaPS2): More Sky, Less Bias, and Better Uncertainties

In the wake of a wildfire, embers of change in cognition and brain function linger

UC San Diego scientists found that persons exposed to the deadly Camp Fire in 2018 displayed altered cognitive function months later; it’s new evidence of a growing phenomenon known as “climate trauma”

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

 

IMAGE: THE CAMP FIRE WILDFIRE IN 2018 BURNED A TOTAL OF 239 SQUARE MILES, DESTROYED 18,804 STRUCTURES AND KILLED 85 PEOPLE. RESEARCHERS SAY IT ALSO PRODUCED LINGERING BRAIN TRAUMA IN SOME OF THOSE EXPOSED TO THE DEADLIEST AND MOST DESTRUCTIVE WILDFIRE IN CALIFORNIA HISTORY. view more 

CREDIT: NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF STANDARDS AND TECHNOLOGY

In November 2018, the Camp Fire burned a total of 239 square miles, destroyed 18,804 structures and killed 85 people, making it the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California history. 

Three years later, researchers at University of California San Diego, published a novel study that looked at the psychological consequences, finding that exposure to “climate trauma” for affected residents resulted in increased and chronic mental health problems, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. 

In a new study, published in the January 18, 2023 online issue of PLOS Climate, senior author Jyoti Mishra, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine, director of the Neural Engineering and Translation Labs at UC San Diego, and associate director of the UC Climate and Mental Health Initiative, delved deeper with her colleagues. The study team reported that in a subset of persons exposed to the Camp Fire, significant differences in cognitive functioning and underlying brain activity were revealed using electroencephalography (EEG).

Specifically, the researchers found that fire-exposed individuals displayed increased activity in the regions of the brain involved in cognitive control and interference processing — the ability to mentally cope with unwanted and often disturbing thoughts. 

“To function well day-to-day, our brains need to process information and manage memories in ways that help achieve goals while ignoring or dispensing with irrelevant or harmful distractions,” said Mishra.  

“Climate change is an emerging challenge. It is already well-documented that extreme climate events result in significant psychological impacts. Warming temperatures, for example, have even been linked to greater suicide rates. As planetary warming amplifies, more forest fires are expected in California and globally, with significant implications for mental health effects.

“In this study, we wanted to learn whether and how climate trauma affected and altered cognitive and brain functions in a group of people who had experienced it during the Camp Fire. We found that those who were impacted, directly or indirectly, displayed weaker interference processing. Such weakened cognitive performance may then impair daily functioning and reduce wellbeing.”  

The study sample included 27 persons directly exposed to the Camp Fire (for example, their homes were destroyed), 21 who were indirectly exposed (they witnessed the fire, but were not directly impacted) and 27 control individuals. All participants underwent cognitive testing with synchronized EEG brain recordings. 

Sixty-seven percent of the individuals directly exposed to the fire reported having experienced recent psychological trauma, as did 14 percent of the indirectly exposed individuals. None of the control individuals reported recent trauma exposure. 

The EEG recordings showed that the brains of those individuals reporting trauma worked harder at interference processing and cognitive control, suggesting a compensatory effort but at a cost: potentially heightened risk of neurological dysfunction elsewhere. 

“The evidence of diminished interference processing, along with altered functional brain responses, is useful because it can help guide efforts to develop resiliency intervention strategies,” said Mishra. 

“As the planet warms, more and more individuals will face extreme climate exposures, like wildfires, and having therapeutic tools that can address underlying neuro-cognitive issues will be an important complement to other socio-behavioral therapies.”

Co-authors include: Gillian K. Grennan from UC San Diego; Mathew C. Withers, California State University at Chico; and Dhakshin S. Ramanathan, UC San Diego and VA San Diego Medical Center. 

For an additional read, you can find this study on The Conversation.

# # #

---

JOURNAL

PLOS Climate

DOI

10.1371/journal.pclm.0000125 

 Study: Gender-affirming hormones improve mental health in transgender and nonbinary youth

Evidence from largest study in U.S. on the impact of gender-affirming hormones, with longest follow-up

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ANN & ROBERT H. LURIE CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF CHICAGO

Transgender and nonbinary youth experienced significant improvement in appearance congruence (or the degree to which physical characteristics align with gender) and sustained improvements in depression and anxiety over two years after starting treatment with gender-affirming hormones, according to a multicenter U.S. study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“Our results provide robust scientific evidence that improved appearance congruence secondary to hormone treatment is strongly linked to better mental health outcomes in transgender and nonbinary youth,” said lead author Diane Chen, PhD, pediatric psychologist with the Gender and Sex Development Program at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “This is critical, given that transgender youth experience more depression and anxiety, and are at a higher risk for suicidality than cisgender youth.”

Many transgender or non-binary teens experience gender dysphoria, or the persistent distress caused by the discrepancy between their gender identity and physical appearance. Gender-affirming hormones (testosterone or estradiol) are used as treatment to foster gender-congruent secondary sex characteristics, such as breast development or facial hair.

"The critical results we report demonstrate the positive psychological impact of gender-affirming hormones for treatment of youth with gender dysphoria,” said senior author Johanna Olson-Kennedy, MD, Medical Director of the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Amidst a landscape of misinformation, we hope these findings support the use of timely and appropriate medical interventions for this vulnerable group of adolescents."

All the centers participating in the study employ a multidisciplinary team, comprising medical and mental health providers, that collaboratively determines whether gender dysphoria is present and gender-affirming medical care is appropriate. For minors, parental consent is required to initiate medical treatment.

“The positive findings of this observational study match the lived clinical experience of mental health experts who, in their many years of providing gender-affirming care, have repeatedly learned from the youth themselves about their mental health,” said co-author Diane Ehrensaft, PhD, Director of Mental Health at the UC San Francisco Child and Adolescent Gender Center, and Professor of Pediatrics. “As the longitudinal study proceeds, we look forward to learning more from this cohort of patients – all of whom were screened carefully before beginning gender-affirming hormone treatment – about their journey going forward.”

The study, the largest of its kind in the U.S., included 315 transgender and non-binary youth ages 12-20 years. Study visits occurred every six months for two years after treatment initiation, which is the longest follow-up reported to date. Researchers examined measures of appearance congruence, depression, anxiety, positive affect and life satisfaction.

They found that overall, appearance congruence, positive affect, and life satisfaction increased, while depression and anxiety symptoms decreased. Appearance congruence was associated with each psychosocial outcome assessed at baseline and during the follow-up period.

"Our results provide a strong scientific basis that gender-affirming care is crucial for the psychological well-being of our patients,” said co-author Robert Garofalo, MD, MPH, Principal Investigator for the study at Lurie Children’s, Co-Director of Lurie Children’s Gender and Sex Development Program and Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. “We must ensure that access to this care remains available to youth with gender dysphoria.”

This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01 HD082554).

 

About Lurie Children’s

Research at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago is conducted through Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. The Manne Research Institute is focused on improving child health, transforming pediatric medicine and ensuring healthier futures through the relentless pursuit of knowledge. Lurie Children’s is ranked as one of the nation’s top children’s hospitals by U.S. News & World Report. It is the pediatric training ground for Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

 

About Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is at the forefront of pediatric medicine, offering acclaimed care to children from across the world, the country and the greater Southern California region. Founded in 1901, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles is the largest provider of care for children in Los Angeles County, the No. 1 pediatric hospital in the Pacific region and California, and among the top 10 in the nation on U.S. News & World Report’s Honor Roll of Best Children’s Hospitals. Clinical expertise spans the pediatric care continuum for newborns to young adults, from everyday preventive medicine to the most advanced cases. Inclusive, kid- and family-friendly clinical care is led by physicians who are faculty members of the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and proven discoveries reach patients faster through The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles—among the top 10 children’s hospitals for National Institutes of Health funding. The hospital also is home to the largest pediatric residency training program at a freestanding children’s hospital in the western United States. To learn more, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, and visit our blog at CHLA.org/blog.

 

About UCSF Health

UCSF Health is recognized worldwide for its innovative patient care, reflecting the latest medical knowledge, advanced technologies and pioneering research. It includes the flagship UCSF Medical Center, which is ranked among the top 10 hospitals nationwide, as well as UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, with campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics, UCSF Benioff Children’s Physicians and the UCSF Faculty Practice. These hospitals serve as the academic medical center of the University of California, San Francisco, which is world-renowned for its graduate-level health sciences education and biomedical research. UCSF Health has affiliations with hospitals and health organizations throughout the Bay Area. Visit https://www.ucsfhealth.org/. Follow UCSF Health on Facebook or on Twitter

---

JOURNAL

New England Journal of Medicine

Do sexual orientation and gender 

identity affect your stroke risk?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO

UCSF-ZSFG Study Suggests ‘Non-Traditional’ Factors Drive Higher Rates

People who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or non-binary may have a higher risk for stroke at a younger age, as well as a possible higher risk for recurrence than those who identify as straight and cisgender, according to a small study in San Francisco. 
 
Researchers from UC San Francisco and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG) reviewed the medical records of 26 stroke patients who identified as sexual and gender minorities and compared them with 78 age-matched stroke patients who were not sexual and gender minorities. Findings appear in Neurology Clinical Practice on Jan. 18, 2023. 
 
While stroke subtypes and traditional stroke risks, such as smoking, hypertension and diabetes, were similar for both groups, the sexual and gender minority patients were more likely to have “non-traditional stroke risks.” These included HIV and current or previous history of syphilis and hepatitis C, conditions that can increase stroke risk as a result of inflammation and blockage of blood vessels.  
 
“While positivity rates were higher for substance abuse, as well as HIV, hepatitis C and syphilis for people in the sexual and minority group, they were more likely to be tested, which may account for them,” said senior author, Nicole Rosendale, MD, a neurohospitalist in the UCSF Department of Neurology and ZSFG. 
 
Of those patients tested for HIV, 8 of the 23 (34.8%) in the sexual and gender minority group were positive, versus none of the 36 patients in the non-minority group. For hepatitis C, 4 of 14 (28.5%) patients tested in the minority group had or had had the virus, compared with 4 of 19 (21%) in the non-minority group. Among those tested for syphilis, 5 of the 19 (26.3%) had or had had syphilis in the minority group, versus none of 25 tested patients in the non-minority group. 
 
The minority group also had a higher rate of substance use, itself a risk factor for all three conditions, with 11 of 18 (61.1%) testing positive for substances in urine tests during their hospital admissions, compared with 19 of 56 (33.9%) in the non-minority group.  
 
Due to the limited number of minority patients in the study, researchers were unable to link specific subgroups to risks, said Rosendale, who is also affiliated with the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences.  
 
“Previous studies have shown that the prevalence of HIV and syphilis is highest in transgender women, and in gay and bisexual cisgender men. Stroke risk appears to be higher in lesbian women than in straight women, with one study showing that they had higher rates of self-reported stroke,” Rosendale said. “There may be many reasons for this – higher rates of smoking, higher prevalence of obesity, effects of discrimination on vascular health and limited access to health care.” 
 
While the average age of stroke patients at the study hospital was 69, the average age of the sexual and gender minorities group was 55.  
 
The researchers also discovered that the minority group was more likely to experience recurrent stroke, despite similar follow-up rates as the non-minority group. “Future research will need to explore the drivers of recurrent stroke, including the role of minority stress,” said Rosendale. “Stigma, prejudice and discrimination create an inherently stressful environment that translates into health issues.” 
 
Co-Authors: Corresponding author is Michael Diaz, MD, clinical fellow in the UCSF Department of Neurology. 

Funding: UCSF Academic Research Systems, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-CTSI Grant Number UL1 TR991872. 
 

 

About UCSF Health: UCSF Health is recognized worldwide for its innovative patient care, reflecting the latest medical knowledge, advanced technologies and pioneering research. It includes the flagship UCSF Medical Center, which is ranked among the top 10 hospitals nationwide, as well as UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, with campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics, UCSF Benioff Children’s Physicians and the UCSF Faculty Practice. These hospitals serve as the academic medical center of the University of California, San Francisco, which is world-renowned for its graduate-level health sciences education and biomedical research. UCSF Health has affiliations with hospitals and health organizations throughout the Bay Area. Visit https://www.ucsfhealth.org/. Follow UCSF Health on Facebook or on Twitter

###

Follow UCSF
ucsf.edu | Facebook.com/ucsf | Twitter.com/ucsf | YouTube.com/ucsf

 

---

JOURNAL

Neurology Clinical Practice

Aspirin as effective as blood thinner injections to prevent deadly complications in patients hospitalized with bone fractures

Multi-center trial of more than 12,000 orthopedic trauma patients likely to change standard of care

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Patients hospitalized with fractures typically receive an injectable blood thinner, low-molecular-weight heparin, to prevent life-threatening blood clots. A new clinical trial, however, found that inexpensive over-the-counter aspirin is just as effective. The findings, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, may lead surgeons to change their practice and administer aspirin to these patients.

The multi-center randomized clinical trial, which included more than 12,000 patients at 21 trauma centers in the U.S. and Canada, is the largest trial ever conducted on orthopedic trauma patients. This multidisciplinary collaboration between orthopedic surgeons and trauma surgeons points to the importance of evaluating techniques used to prevent post-surgical complications, like blood clots and infections, through high-quality, head-to-head comparison studies.

The trial was co-led by the Department of Orthopaedics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) and the Major Extremity Trauma Research Consortium (METRC) based at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“Many patients with fractures will likely strongly prefer to take a daily aspirin over receiving injections after we found that both give them similar outcomes for prevention of the most serious outcomes from blood clots,” said the study’s principal investigator Robert V. O’Toole, MD, the Hansjörg Wyss Medical Foundation Endowed Professor in Orthopaedic Trauma at UMSOM and Chief of Orthopaedics at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). “We expect our findings from this large-scale trial to have an important impact on clinical practice that may even alter the standard of care.”

Blood clots cause as many as 100,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Patients who experience fractures that require surgery are at increased risk of developing blood clots in the lungs and limbs. Large clots in the lungs even can be life-threatening. Current guidelines recommend prescribing low-molecular-weight heparin (enoxaparin) to prevent these clots, although smaller clinical trials in total joint replacement surgery suggested a potential benefit of aspirin as a less-expensive, widely available option.

The study enrolled 12,211 patients with leg or arm fractures that necessitated surgery or pelvic fractures regardless of the treatment. Half were randomly assigned to receive 30 mg. of injectable low molecular-weight heparin twice daily. The other half received 81 mg. of aspirin twice daily. Patients were followed for 90 days to measure health outcomes from the two treatments.

The main finding of the study was that aspirin was “non-inferior,” or no worse than low molecular-weight heparin in preventing death from any cause – 47 patients in the aspirin group died, compared with 45 patients in the heparin group. For other important complications, the researchers also found no differences between the two groups in clots in the lungs (pulmonary embolisms). The incidence of bleeding complications, infection, wound problems, and other adverse events from the treatments was also similar in both groups.

Of all the outcomes studied, the only potential difference noted was in blood clots in the legs, called deep vein thrombosis. This condition was relatively uncommon in both groups as it occurred in 2.5 percent of patients in the aspirin group, and in 1.7 percent of patients in the heparin group.

“This relatively small difference was driven by clots lower in the leg, which are thought to be of less clinical significance and often do not require treatment,” said study co-principal investigator Deborah Stein, MD, MPH, Professor of Surgery at UMSOM and Director of Adult Critical Care Services at UMMC.

The $11.7 million study was funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), (PCS-1511-32745), an independent, non-profit organization that funds comparative clinical effectiveness research to help patients and clinicians make better-informed healthcare decisions.

“This large multicenter study was needed to adequately measure the impact of prophylaxis on the infrequent, but important, outcome of death that is of utmost importance to patients,” said study methods center principal investigator Renan Castillo, PhD, Professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The trial was called PREVENTion of CLots in Orthopaedic Trauma, or PREVENT CLOT.  Patients enrolled in the trial were treated at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at UMMC and 20 other trauma centers in 15 other states, as well as two in Canada. Recruitment started in April 2017 and continued through 2021.

“Many patients don’t like giving themselves injections. It’s not fun in terms of giving the actual injection because it burns, and your stomach tends to bruise more easily compared to aspirin,” said Debra Marvel, a 53-year-old from Columbia, MD, who served as a patient advisor on the study. She received Lovenox (low-molecular-weight heparin) after her legs were crushed in a 2015 pedestrian accident, requiring multiple surgeries at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. “Patients also prefer aspirin because Lovenox can be expensive based on insurance.”

"An estimated one million Americans are hospitalized each year with extremity fractures, and this new finding could help prevent potentially fatal blood clots in these patients using a medication that is cheaper and far easier to administer,” said Mark T. Gladwin, MD, Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor and Dean, University of Maryland School of Medicine. "Given these important results, we can expect the guidelines for the prevention of blood clots to be revised to include the option of aspirin for patients with traumatic bone fractures."

Resources for the Media: Video B-Roll

Addressing the immense public health burden of orthopedic injuries, the Orthopedic Trauma Program at UMSOM ranks first in the U.S. for competitive research funding. Faculty treat some of the most complex patients in North America with a research focus aimed at reducing perioperative complications, improving fracture healing, and accelerating functional recovery after fracture surgery. A recent landmark clinical trial published by UMSOM Orthopedic Trauma faculty in The Lancet found that two antiseptic solutions routinely used by surgeons prior to fracture surgery are equally effective for preventing post-surgical infections.

About the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center

The R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, University of Maryland was the first fully integrated trauma center in the world and remains at the epicenter for trauma research, patient care, and teaching, both nationally and internationally today. Shock Trauma is where the "golden hour" concept of trauma was born and where many lifesaving practices in modern trauma medicine were pioneered. Shock Trauma is also at the heart of the Maryland's unparalleled Emergency Medical Service System. Learn more about Shock Trauma.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 46 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs, and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished two-time winner of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget of more than $1.3 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic, and clinically based care for nearly 2 million patients each year. The School of Medicine has nearly $600 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total population of nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, including 2,500 students, trainees, residents, and fellows. The combined School of Medicine and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of over $6 billion and an economic impact of nearly $20 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine, which ranks as the 8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity (according to the Association of American Medical Colleges profile) is an innovator in translational medicine, with 606 active patents and 52 start-up companies. In the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking of the Best Medical Schools, published in 2021, the UM School of Medicine is ranked #9 among the 92 public medical schools in the U.S., and in the top 15 percent (#27) of all 192 public and private U.S. medical schools. The School of Medicine works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu

About the University of Maryland Medical Center

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) is comprised of two hospital campuses in Baltimore: the 800-bed flagship institution of the 11-hospital University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) and the 200-bed UMMC Midtown Campus. Both campuses are academic medical centers for training physicians and health professionals and for pursuing research and innovation to improve health. UMMC's downtown campus is a national and regional referral center for trauma, cancer care, neurosciences, advanced cardiovascular care, and women's and children's health, and has one of the largest solid organ transplant programs in the country. All physicians on staff at the downtown campus are clinical faculty physicians of the University of Maryland School of Medicine. The UMMC Midtown Campus medical staff is predominately faculty physicians specializing in a wide spectrum of medical and surgical subspecialties, primary care for adults and children and behavioral health. UMMC Midtown has been a teaching hospital for 140 years and is located one mile away from the downtown campus. For more information, visit www.umm.edu.

 

---

JOURNAL

New England Journal of Medicine

DOI

10.1056/NEJMoa2205973 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Aspirin or Low-Molecular-Weight Heparin for Thromboprophylaxis after a Fracture

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Jan-2023

What can we learn from the Impacts of rapid climate change on past societies?

Impacts of rapid climate change on past human societies offer lessons for global warming preparation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO

Greensboro, N.C. (January 17, 2023) – A comprehensive new study led by Professor Gwen Robbins Schug at UNC Greensboro traces the impact of rapid climate change events on humans over the past 5,000 years and offers lessons for today’s policymakers. The meta-analysis of approximately a decade’s worth of bioarchaeology data was published today as a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences perspective article by a team of 25 authors representing 21 universities. 

“In recent years, bioarchaeologists – who examine human remains to understand past populations – have begun focusing on the impact of climate change events on past societies,” Dr. Robbins Schug says. “We have found evidence that – despite popular misconceptions – environmental migration, competition, violence, and societal collapse are not inevitable in the face of rapid climate change.”

Schug and her collaborators assessed human skeleton data and findings from 37 bioarchaeology studies of populations living from 5,000 years ago to 400 years ago. The societies represented spanned the globe, hailing from present-day America, Argentina, Chile, China, Ecuador, England, India, Japan, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Thailand, and Vietnam. 

They found that climate change has been most destructive for hierarchical, urban societies when they lacked flexibility to respond to environmental challenges. “Increased reliance on agriculture can be a problem,” Robbins Schug says. “Small, interconnected rural communities with high utilization of local resources and diverse dietary sources from herding, small-scale farming, hunting, fishing, and gathering were more resilient.” 

The researchers also learned that, when pressured by climate change events, urban societies with high levels of economic inequality were at highest risk for infectious disease and violence. “Diseases and violence spread,” Schug says. “If you want to protect a society, large segments of a population cannot be left vulnerable. It’s a zero-sum game.” 

As the world warms, the scientists hope their current and future findings can help policymakers set priorities that reduce pandemic diseases, poverty, hunger, and violence. 

“Successful strategies,” Schug says, “will support rural livelihoods, encourage diverse practices for obtaining food and other resources, foster equitable distribution, retain our capacity to mobilize when circumstances require, and encourage mutually beneficial relationships among groups and species.”

About UNC Greensboro

UNC Greensboro, located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina, is 1 of only 40 doctoral institutions recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for both high research activity and community engagement. Founded in 1891 and one of the original three UNC System institutions, UNC Greensboro is one of the most diverse universities in the state with 17,000+ students, and 3,000+ faculty and staff members representing 90+ nationalities. With 17 Division I athletic teams, 85 undergraduate degrees in over 125 areas of study, as well as 74 master’s and 32 doctoral programs, UNC Greensboro is consistently recognized nationally among the top universities for academic excellence and value, with noted strengths in health and wellness, visual and performing arts, nursing, education, and more. For additional information, please visit uncg.edu and follow UNCG on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

---

JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Climate change, human health, and resilience in the Holocene

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2023

 How was the solar system formed? The Ryugu asteroid is helping us learn

UCLA scientists reveal that minerals from the asteroid were produced through reactions with water more than 4.5 billion years ago

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES

Mineral samples collected from the Ryugu asteroid by the Japan’s Hayabusa2 spacecraft are helping UCLA space scientists and colleagues better understand the chemical composition of our solar system as it existed in its infancy, more than 4.5 billion years ago.

In research recently published in Nature Astronomy, scientists using isotopic analysis discovered that carbonate minerals from the asteroid were crystallized through reactions with water, which originally accreted to the asteroid as ice in the still-forming solar system, then warmed into liquid. These carbonates, they say, formed very early on — within the first 1.8 million years of the solar system’s existence — and they preserve a record of the temperature and composition of the asteroid’s aqueous fluid as it existed at that time.

The rocky, carbon-rich Ryugu is the first C-type (C stands for “carbonaceous”) asteroid from which samples have been gathered and studied, said study co-author Kevin McKeegan, a distinguished professor of Earth, planetary and space sciences at UCLA. What makes Ryugu special, he noted, is that unlike meteorites, it has not had potentially contaminating contact with Earth. By analyzing the chemical fingerprints in the samples, scientists can develop a picture of not only how Ryugu formed but where.

“The Ryugu samples tell us that the asteroid and similar objects formed relatively rapidly in the outer solar system, beyond the condensation fronts of water and carbon dioxide ices, probably as small bodies,” McKeegan said.

The researchers’ analysis determined that Ryugu’s carbonates formed several million years earlier than previously thought, and they indicate that Ryugu — or a progenitor asteroid from which it may have broken off — accreted as a relatively small object, probably less than 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) in diameter.

This result is surprising, McKeegan said, because most models of asteroid accretion would predict assembly over longer periods, resulting in the formation of bodies at least 50 kilometers (more than 30 miles) in diameter that could better survive collisional evolution over the long history of the solar system.

And while Ryugu is currently only about 1 kilometer in diameter as a result of collisions and reassembly throughout its history, it is very unlikely it was ever a large asteroid, the researchers said. They noted that any larger asteroid formed very early on in the solar system would have been heated to high temperatures by the decay of large amounts of aluminum-26, a radioactive nuclide, resulting in the melting of rock throughout the asteroid’s interior, along with chemical differentiation, such as the segregation of metal and silicate.

Ryugu shows no evidence of that, and its chemical and mineralogical compositions are equivalent to those found in the most chemically primitive meteorites, the so-called CI chondrites, which are also thought to have formed in the outer solar system.

McKeegan said ongoing research on the Ryugu materials will continue to open a window onto the formation of the solar system’s planets, including Earth.

“Improving our understanding of volatile- and carbon-rich asteroids helps us address important questions in astrobiology — for example, the likelihood that rocky planets like can access a source of prebiotic materials,” he said.

To date the carbonates in the Ryugu samples, the team extended methodology developed at UCLA for a different “short-lived” radioactive decay system involving the isotope manganese-53, which was present Ryugu.

The study was co-led by Kaitlyn McCain, a UCLA doctoral student at the time of the research who now works at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, and postdoctoral researcher Nozomi Matsuda, who works in the ion microprobe laboratory of the UCLA’s Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences.

Other co-authors of the paper are scientists from the Phase 2 curation Kochi team in Japan, led by Motoo Ito. This team is responsible for curating particles from the regolith sample collected from the Ryugu asteroid and analyzing their petrological and chemical characteristics by coordinated microanalytical techniques.

The work was funded by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, NASA, the National Science Foundation’s Instrumentation and Facilities program and several agencies in Japan.

---

JOURNAL

Nature Astronomy

DOI

10.1038/s41550-022-01863-0 

ARTICLE TITLE

Early fluid activity on Ryugu inferred by isotopic analyses of carbonates and magnetite

Premature birth linked to poorer school grades in adolescence

But differences in brain function may be driven more by social environment than birth age, note researchers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Premature birth, before 34 weeks of pregnancy, is linked to lower scores in maths and language tests as a teenager compared with those born at 40 weeks, finds a large Danish population study published today in The BMJ. 

The study, however, found no substantial difference in later brain (cognitive) function in babies born between 34-39 weeks and those born at 40 weeks. And the researchers acknowledge that cognitive outcomes are not predetermined at birth but are heavily influenced by social circumstances.

It is estimated that around 15 million infants are born preterm, before 37 weeks of pregnancy, worldwide each year. The final weeks of pregnancy are significant for fetal brain development, and preterm and early-term birth are thought to have a negative impact on later brain function. 

However, previous studies have been relatively small, primarily limited to one measure, or didn’t sufficiently adjust for other factors that could have influenced the results.

To more accurately determine the impact of gestational age—duration of pregnancy in weeks—at birth on long-term cognitive function, the researchers analysed data for all full siblings born in Denmark from 1 January 1986 to 31 December 2003. 

A total of 1.2 million children were born in this period, of whom 792,724 had at least one full sibling born in the same period, which allowed the researchers to take into account hereditary factors such as maternal intelligence.

Using nationwide registry information, the researchers analysed gestational age at birth, along with their exam results in written Danish language and maths at age 15-16, and separately, the results of intelligence tests taken by 227,403 brothers aged around 18, at mandatory military conscription.

Potentially influential factors, including sex, birth weight, parental age and educational level at birth, number of older siblings, and shared family factors between siblings were also taken into account in the analysis.

The researchers calculated how far an exam result was above or below the average grade, and compared this score for siblings at each gestational age to the score for siblings born at term. 

Overall, 44,322 (5.6%) of the 792,724 children were born before 37 weeks. Of these, only those born before 34 weeks had significantly lower than average maths scores than those born at 40 weeks, and grades progressively decreased with increasing prematurity.

For written language, however, only children born at or less than 27 weeks showed a significantly lower than average grade.

Analysis of military conscription intelligence test scores, measured in IQ points, also showed markedly lower test scores for those born before 34 weeks. 

For those born after 34 weeks, there was a less than 1 point reduction in IQ, compared with those born at 40 weeks. But there was a 2.4 point IQ reduction for those born between 32-33 weeks, a 3.8 point reduction for 28-31 weeks, and a 4.2 point reduction for those born at or before 27 weeks.

This is an observational study so can’t establish cause and the researchers also acknowledge some limitations. For instance, smoking during pregnancy was not recorded before 1991, and test results may differ from real-life outcomes such as lifetime income.

But they say the study has the advantage of a large sample size and their sibling comparison design most likely accounts for other factors such as maternal smoking. Results were also similar after further analyses, such as including children who did not take exams, suggesting that the findings withstand scrutiny.

While underlying reasons for these findings are still not clear, the researchers suggest that as low cognitive ability is linked to decreased quality of life and early death, their findings “stress the need for more research into how these adverse outcomes can be prevented.”

They add: “Cognitive outcomes are not, however, predetermined at birth but are heavily influenced by social circumstances and nurturing, and this is why early intervention is warranted for children born early preterm.”

In a linked editorial, Canadian researchers acknowledge that cognitive deficits in early life could have a lifelong influence on a person’s capacity and capabilities.

However, they say that although parents and clinicians should be aware of potential educational and cognitive difficulties associated with preterm birth, “parents should be reassured that the magnitude of these differences is not always substantial, particularly for those born at later gestations.”

And they suggest that sibling comparisons have caveats and that since the causes of preterm birth are complex and poorly understood, “efforts to identify and improve on other socio-environmental factors could be a more successful approach to mitigating any associated neurocognitive deficits.”

---

JOURNAL

The BMJ

DOI

10.1136/bmj-2022-072779 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Gestational age at birth and cognitive outcomes in adolescence: population based full sibling cohort study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2023