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)
Friday, June 09, 2023
Aston University wins £1.8m to boost West Midlands low carbon markets
Aston University and local industry to develop technology to convert organic material into commercially valuable products
Sawdust, diseased trees and dried chicken litter among what can be transformed into sustainable bioproducts
West Midlands companies are invited to join a cluster to develop new low carbon products for growing markets.
Aston University is to receive £1.8 million to transform the West Midlands into a powerhouse of low-carbon product development and commercialisation.
The University will be building on its existing research facilities to lead the region’s Biochar CleanTech Accelerator as part of the West Midlands Innovation Accelerator.
The project was set up with the aim to secure export contracts for low carbon products worth over £200 million, to be made by a regional industrial cluster.
It is hoped that the development of a low-carbon business cluster in the West Midlands will open up new domestic and export markets to help rebuild the region’s engineering and manufacturing status.
Biochar, a sustainable form of charcoal, can be used as a soil and plant growth enhancer. It stores carbon in the ground, so there are fewer greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Other products such as oils can be used as low carbon fuels for boilers and engines and the liquid by-product can be used for low carbon weedkiller, fungicide and plant growth.
Aston University’s innovative technology is installed at its urban biochar demonstrator in south Birmingham.
Tim Miller, director of engagement at EBRI, said: “This new development has the potential to rebuild product development, engineering and manufacturing in our region.
“The project aims to commercialise knowledge, facilities and the results of long-term university research for the benefit of the environment and our regional economy.
“Using the University’s existing expertise and facilities we have the potential to launch new technology-based opportunities as they emerge and mature,
The Biochar CleanTech Accelerator is part of the West Midlands Innovation Accelerator which was first announced in the government’s 2022 Levelling up White Paper and started this spring. It is funded through a share of a £100m from Innovate UK, to be divided by three regional innovation accelerators over the next two years.
Launched by the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) in March 2023, it will target investment on projects enabling new solutions around Medical and Clean Technologies, to further reinforce the region’s position at the frontier of the UK innovation revolution.
The University will also play a key role in two other projects in the West Midlands Innovation Accelerator.
IMAGE: THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA RESEARCHERS’ NEW METHOD OF SEARCHING FOR THE HYPOTHETICAL AXION INVOLVES MEASURING THE “DECAY” OF THE PARTICLE INTO TWO MUONS—KNOWN PARTICLES THAT ARE ESSENTIALLY THE HEAVIER VERSION OF THE ELECTRON—AS ILLUSTRATED IN THE ABOVE IMAGE.view more
CREDIT: RAYMOND CO, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
One of the most high-profile mysteries in physics today is what scientists refer to as the “Strong CP Problem.” Stemming from the puzzling phenomenon that neutrons do not interact with electric fields despite being made up of quarks—smaller, fundamental particles that carry electric charges—the Strong CP Problem puts into question the Standard Model of physics, or the set of theories scientists have been using to explain the laws of nature for years.
A team led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities theoretical physicists has discovered a new way to search for axions, hypothetical particles that could help solve this mystery. Working in collaboration with experimental researchers at the Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory, the physicists’ new strategy opens up previously unexplored opportunities to detect axions in particle collider experiments.
The researchers’ paper is published and featured as the Editor’s suggestion in Physical Review Letters, a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Physical Society.
“As particle physicists, we’re trying to develop our best understanding of nature,” said Zhen Liu, co-author of the paper and an assistant professor in the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy. “Scientists have been tremendously successful in the past century in finding elementary particles through established theoretical frameworks. So, it’s extremely puzzling why neutrons do not couple to electric fields because in our known theory, we would expect them to. If we do discover the axion, it will be a great advance in our fundamental understanding of the structure of nature.”
One of the primary means for studying subatomic particles, and potentially discovering new ones, is collider experiments. Essentially, scientists force beams of particles to collide—and when they hit each other, the energy they produce creates other particles that pass through a detector, allowing researchers to analyze their properties.
Liu and his team’s proposed method involves measuring the “decay” product—or what happens when an unstable heavy particle transforms into multiple lighter particles—of the hypothetical axion into two muons—known particles that are essentially the heavier version of the electron. By working backward from the muon tracks in the detector to reconstruct such decays, the researchers believe they have a chance to locate the axion and prove its existence.
“With this research, we’re expanding ways we can search for the axion particle,” said Raymond Co, co-author of the paper and a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy and William Fine Theoretical Physics Institute. “People have never used axion decay into muons as a way to search for the axion particle in neutrino or collider experiments before. This research opens up new possibilities to pave the way for future endeavors in our field.”
Liu and Co, along with University of Minnesota physics and astronomy postdoctoral researcher Kun-Feng Lyu and University of California, Berkeley postdoctoral researcher Soubhik Kumar, are behind the theoretical part of the research. They’re a part of the ArgoNeuT collaboration, which brings together theorists and experimentalists from across the country to study particles through experiments at Fermilab.
In this paper, the University of Minnesota-led theoretical team worked with the experimental researchers to perform a search for axions using their new method and existing data from the ArgoNeuT experiment. The researchers plan to use the experimental results to further refine their theoretical calculations of the axion production rate in the future.
The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science; the National Science Foundation; the United Kingdom Research and Innovation’s Science and Technology Facilities Council; and the UK’s Royal Society.
In addition to Liu, Co, Lyu, and Kumar, the team for this paper included researchers Roberto Acciarri, Bruce Baller, Vincent Basque, Flavio Cavanna, Roni Harnik, Ornella Palamara, Wanwei Wu, and Tingjun Yang (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory); Corey Adams (Argonne National Laboratory); Rory Fitzpatrick and Joshua Spitz (University of Michigan); Bonnie Fleming and Giacomo Scanavini (Yale University); Patrick Green (University of Manchester, University of Oxford); Kevin Kelly (European Organization for Nuclear Research or CERN); Karol Lang (University of Texas at Austin); Ivan Lepetic (Rutgers University); Xiao Luo (University of California, Santa Barbara); Mitchell Soderberg (Syracuse University); and Andrzej Szelc (University of Edinburgh).
Women are less willing to take risks than men because they are more sensitive to the pain of any losses they might incur than any gains they might make, new research from the University of Bath School of Management shows.
Researcher Dr Chris Dawson, associate professor in business economics at the University of Bath School of Management, said the findings were significant and could help explain sex-specific outcomes in different employment sectors, and in financial markets.
‘It is widely acknowledged that men, across many domains, take more risks than women. These differences in how the sexes view risk can have significant effects,” Dr Dawson says.
‘For instance, differences between the sexes in risk taking can explain why women are less likely to be entrepreneurs, are underrepresented in high-paying jobs and upper management, and less likely to invest their wealth in equities markets than men. Despite these important implications, we still know very little about why women take fewer risks than men.
“My research attempts to fill that gap. When thinking about risky choices, people tend to assess the probability of losing something alongside an evaluation of how painful that loss would be. I found that women take less risks than men as they focus more on the possibility of losing and anticipate experiencing more pain from potential losses,” he adds.
Previous research suggests that women are more risk averse than men, and this study investigated the joint role of two psychological characteristics to explain the differences – loss aversion, the idea that losses loom larger than gains, and optimism.
To measure loss aversion, Dr Dawson used data from 13,575 people from the UK British Household Panel Survey to assess how changes in household income from one year to the next predict changes in psychological wellbeing.
He found that income losses are less painful for men than for women with no difference in the psychological responses to income gains between the sexes.
When asked how they saw themselves financially a year from now with expectations about outcomes under the individual’s control, men were significantly more optimistic than women.
The research indicates that this optimism may be linked to men’s overconfidence about their abilities compared to women which previous studies have highlighted.
If women are both less optimistic about the probability of favourable outcomes occurring and less confident in their abilities than men, they will naturally evaluate a given gamble as being riskier, the research says.
Overall, the study finds that women report a lower willingness to take risks than men with 53 percent of this gap accounted for by the higher levels of loss aversion amongst women and a further 3 per cent attributable to the lower levels of financial optimism amongst women.
Loss aversion and optimism still have significant effects on risk attitudes even after controlling for the personality traits such as openness, neuroticism and extraversion.
Notes to editors
The study data categorises people into male and female based on their biological sex (self-reported)
For further details or interview requests, please contact Dolly Chadda, BPS communications officer at dolly.chadda@bps.org.uk or the University of Bath Press office at press@bath.ac.uk
University of Bath
The University of Bath is one of the UK's leading universities both in terms of research and our reputation for excellence in teaching, learning and graduate prospects.
The University is rated Gold in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), the Government’s assessment of teaching quality in universities, meaning its teaching is of the highest quality in the UK.
In the Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 research assessment 87 per cent of our research was defined as ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. From developing fuel efficient cars of the future, to identifying infectious diseases more quickly, or working to improve the lives of female farmers in West Africa, research from Bath is making a difference around the world. Find out more: http://www.bath.ac.uk/topics/research/
Well established as a nurturing environment for enterprising minds, Bath is ranked highly in all national league tables. We are ranked 8th in the UK by The Guardian University Guide 2022, and 9th in The Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2022 and 10th in the Complete University Guide 2022. Our sports offering was rated as being in the world’s top 10 in the QS World University Rankings by Subject in 2021.
The British Psychological Society
The British Psychological Society is a registered charity which acts as the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK, and is responsible for the promotion of excellence and ethical practice in the science, education and application of the discipline.
As a society it supports and enhances the development and application of psychology for the greater public good, setting high standards for research, education, and knowledge; disseminating its knowledge to increase public awareness.
It strives to:
be the learned society and professional body for the discipline
make psychology accessible to all
promote and advance the discipline
be the authoritative and public voice of psychology
determine and ensure the highest standards in all we do
Cleveland: Researchers presentingpreliminary data from a clinical trial aimed at discovering a cure for sickle cell disease reveal positive results among its first patients.
Sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder, is a painful and debilitating condition for which there are few approved therapies.
Researchers involved in the multicenter Ruby Trial presented an update on the safety and effectiveness of a single dose of EDIT-301, an experimental one-time gene editing cell therapy that modifies a patient’s own blood-forming stem cells to correct the mutation responsible for sickle cell disease. Results are being presented at the European Hematology Association Hybrid Congress in Frankfurt, Germany.
The first four patients, two of whom were treated at Cleveland Clinic Children’s, had their stem cells collected for gene editing. The patients then underwent chemotherapy treatment to destroy their remaining bone marrow, making room for the repaired cells that were later infused back into their body.
This is the first time a novel type of CRISPR gene-editing technology – known as CRISPR/CA12 - is being used to edit human cells in a clinical trial. This technology is a highly precise tool to modify blood stem cells genomes to enable robust, healthy blood cell production.
The data showed new white blood cells in all four patients at about four weeks with no severe adverse effects. Patients also achieved a normal level of hemoglobin, which is the most important component of red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body. The patients also have been free of sickle cell disease’s associated pain attacks for a period of 11 months and seven months following therapy.
“New treatments like this are critical for people who have sickle cell disease,” said principal investigator Rabi Hanna, M.D., director of the pediatric blood and bone marrow transplant program at Cleveland Clinic Children’s and and principal investigator at Cleveland Clinic Children’s. “These initial results provide hope that this new technology will continue to show progress as we work toward creating a possible functional cure for this devastating and life-threatening disease.”
While there are an estimated 1 million to 3 million people in the United States who have the sickle cell trait, there are only about 100,000 people with sickle cell disease. Sickle cell trait and the disease are found more often in certain ethnic groups, including African Americans. In the United States, about one in 365 African American babies have sickle cell disease.
Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that leads to the production of abnormal hemoglobin, which is a red protein responsible for transporting oxygen in the blood. Normal red blood cells are round and can move through small blood vessels to deliver oxygen. However, in people with sickle cell disease, the genetic change in DNA causes a chemical alteration in hemoglobin and alters the shape of red blood cells into a sickle, blocking them from passing through narrow blood vessels. They can clog or break apart which also leads to decreased red blood cell life, and increased iron storage in the liver and heart. This can cause conditions such as liver fibrosis, liver failure, stroke, cardiomyopathy and heart failure along with severe pain.
For most people with the condition, medications can modify disease severity and treat symptoms. However, despite current therapies, the average life of a sickle cell patient, is in the mid 40s. A blood or marrow transplant can cure sickle cell disease, but the transplant often requires a sibling donor and has the potential for severe graft-versus-host disease, which is when donor bone marrow or stem cells attack the recipient.
The Ruby Trial aims to enroll 40 adult patients, ages 18 to 50, with severe sickle cell disease. Patients will be monitored closely after treatment for up to two years.
About Cleveland Clinic Children’s
Cleveland Clinic Children’s is a part of the Cleveland Clinic health system and offers full medical, surgical and rehabilitative care for infants, children and adolescents. Cleveland Clinic Children’s supports 389 beds in four acute care hospitals and one post-acute specialty hospital. In addition, pediatric services are available at more than 50 outpatient clinic locations across Northeast Ohio. A staff of more than 300 full-time pediatricians and sub-specialists see 750,000 pediatric visits each year and provide hospital care for 13,000 children per year. Cleveland Clinic Children’s is a non-profit, multi-specialty academic medical center integrating clinical care, research, and education. Cleveland Clinic Children’s consistently ranks among the “Best Children’s Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report. Visit us online at www.clevelandclinic.org/childrens and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/clevelandclinicchildrens.
LHAASO Records entire process of a tera-electronvolt gamma-ray burst during death of a massive star
IMAGE: LHAASO DETECTED GRB 221009A AT A SIGNIFICANCE LEVEL OF MORE THAN 250 STANDARD DEVIATIONSview more
CREDIT: IMAGE BY IHEP
New research findings on the gamma-ray burst (GRB) named GRB 221009A from the Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) were published online by the journal Science on June 8, 2023. The study, entitled "A tera-electronvolt afterglow from a narrow jet in an extremely bright GRB 221009A," was completed by the LHAASO international collaboration.
About two billion years ago, a massive star more than 20 times heavier than the Sun used up the fusion energy from its nuclear fuel, instantly collapsed, and triggered a massive explosion, thus unleashing a collimated burst of cosmic fireworks known as a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that lasted hundreds of seconds. The high-energy gamma-ray photons, generated from the collision between the fireball and interstellar matter, traveled through the vast universe and headed straight toward Earth. In the evening of October 9, 2022, at 13:20:50 UT, these photons reached the field of view of LHAASO, where over 60,000 gamma-ray photons were collected. After several months of analysis, scientists finally unveiled the details of this explosion event.
LHAASO precisely measures for the first time the entire light curve of high-energy photons from the afterglow of a GRB
The flux of photons collected by LHAASO indicates that they came from the radiation following the main burst. The main burst, namely the prompt emission, is the initial massive explosion characterized by intense low-energy gamma-ray radiation. The following burst, known as the afterglow, is produced when the ejected matter collides with the surrounding interstellar gas at speeds very close to the speed of light. "LHAASO accurately measured the complete process of the afterglow for the first time, comprising the entire phase of tera-electronvolt gamma-ray flux from rise to decay," said CAO Zhen, principal investigator of the LHAASO project, spokesperson for the LHAASO collaboration, and professor at the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Based on the observation of tens of thousands of GRBs, scientists have developed seemingly perfect theoretical models and have strong confidence in them. LHAASO observed the complete high-energy light curve that other experiments have yet to reach, providing a perfect data base for precise tests of these theoretical models. Given the rarity of this event, which probably occurs only once a millennium, it is expected that this observed result will remain one of the best for the next several decades or even centuries.
LHAASO measures for the first time the rapid enhancement process of high-energy photon flux from a GRB
"At the beginning of onset of the afterglow, LHAASO detected for the first time the extremely rapid enhancement of photon flux," said YAO Zhiguo, a professor at IHEP and one of the corresponding authors of the paper. Within a time interval of less than two seconds, the flux increased by a factor of more than one hundred, followed by a slow rise that conforms to the expected characteristics of an afterglow. The early rapid enhancement phenomenon exceeds the expectations of previous theoretical models. This leads to a question: What mechanisms are actually at play. The published results would spark in-depth discussions within the scientific community regarding the mechanisms involved in GRBs, including energy injection, photon absorption, and particle acceleration.
LHAASO unveils the mystery of the brightness of the brightest-of-all-time GRB
LHAASO observations have shown that high-energy radiation decreases more rapidly in brightness around 10 minutes after the start of the afterglow. "This can be explained by the fact that the ejected material after the explosion forms a jet-like structure, and the rapid decrease in brightness occurs when the radiation angle extends to the edge of the jet," said WANG Xiangyu, a professor at Nanjing University and one of the corresponding authors of the paper. Due to the extremely early occurrence of this brightness transition, the measured angle of the jet is inferred to be extremely small, only 0.8 degrees. This is the smallest known jet angle to date, indicating that what was observed is actually the brightest core of a typical internally bright and externally dark jet. "The observer happens to be directly facing the brightest core of the jet, and it naturally explains why this gamma-ray burst is the brightest in history and why such an event is so rare," said DAI Zigao, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China of CAS and one of the corresponding authors of the paper.
LHAASO's data-intensive observations at high-energy will reveal more mysteries
Within the short duration of this event, the number of photons LHAASO recorded exceeded the cumulative number of photons observed from the "standard candle" Crab Nebula over the past few years. "If the selection criteria were slightly relaxed, the photon count could even reach 100,000!" said ZHA Min, a professor at IHEP and one of the corresponding authors of the paper. As a comparison, other instruments in the similar energy band had detected less than 1000 photons in other GRBs so far, and they are only able to detect photons tens of seconds after the burst." As of now, there are still many unknowns in this burst event, and LHAASO scientists are still analyzing the data, in order to reveal more secrets. Please stay tuned for the subsequent analysis results from LHAASO," said Prof. CAO, expressing optimistic expectations for further achievements from LHAASO.
Background information: GRB
GRBs are the most intense astronomical explosion phenomena in the universe since the Big Bang. They refer to the sudden increase in gamma-ray emission from a particular direction in the sky. GRBs can last as short as a fraction of a second or as long as several hours. Short-duration GRBs are produced by the merger of two nearby compact celestial objects such as black holes or neutron stars, while long-duration GRBs are caused by the collapse and explosion of massive stars (supernovae) when their fuel is exhausted.
On October 9, 2022, at 13:16:59.59 UT, the Fermi spacecraft first detected an exceptionally bright GRB, which was assigned the name GRB221009A according to international convention. Subsequently, dozens of space- and ground-based detectors observed this burst. This GRB is a long-duration event, with its brightness surpassing that of previous GRBs by several tens of times. The extremely high photon flux saturated the detectors of multiple international experiments. China's LHAASO, the High-Energy Burst Explorer (HEBS) satellite, and the Insight-HXMT satellite simultaneously detected this GRB, achieving wide-ranging observations spanning 11 orders of magnitude in energy. The preprint of the satellite observations was published on March 28, 2023. Subsequent joint data analysis based on both space- and ground-based observations has been extensively carried out, and more research findings will be published successively.
Background information: LHAASO
LHAASO, one of China's major national scientific and technological facilities, aims to conduct cosmic ray observation and research. It is located on Haizi Mountain, Daocheng County, Sichuan Province. It has an average altitude of 4,410 meters and covers approximately 1.36 square kilometers. LHAASO consists of three kinds of arrays: the Kilometer Square Array (KM2A), which is a ground-based particle detector array covering one square kilometer and composed of 5,216 electromagnetic particle detectors and 1,188 muon detectors; the Water Cherenkov Detector Array (WCDA), which covers 78,000 square meters and comprises of 3,120 detection cells; and the Wide Field-of-view Cherenkov Telescope Array (WFCTA), consisting of 18 telescopes. LHAASO enables wide-band and compound measurements of gamma rays and cosmic rays from high-energy celestial sources, facilitating research in astrophysics and related fields.
The current results are primarily provided by the WCDA. The WCDA utilizes 360,000 tons of purified water as a medium and employs 6,240 photomultiplier tubes placed underwater. It measures the secondary products of gamma rays or cosmic rays produced in the atmosphere, by collecting Cherenkov light signals generated by these secondary particles in water. The energy range of gamma-ray observations spans two orders of magnitude, from around 100 GeV to more than 10 TeV. With its wide field of view and high duty cycle capability, the WCDA has prominent advantages in capturing transient celestial phenomena like GRBs.
The LHAASO project is jointly funded by China's National Development and Reform Commission and the Government of Sichuan Province. The construction phase lasted for four years, commencing in July 2017. Facility construction was completed, and instruments became fully operational in July 2021.
Currently, 32 domestic and international universities and research institutes have become member institutions of the international collaboration of LHAASO, which includes approximately 280 collaborating scientists.
Reviews from Peter Meszaros, professor at Pennsylvania State University
Thanks to LHAASO's very large observing area and advanced detector technology, this is the first time that the synchrotron-self-Compton component of the external shock early afterglow light curve has been detected at TeV energies. This, furthermore, shows a deceleration feature providing a measurement of the bulk Lorentz factor of about 440. It also shows a light curve break, interpreted as a jet opening angle of about 0.8 degrees, which reduces the total energy of the jet to about 10^51 ergs, consistent with other GRBs.
Reviews from GAO He, professor of Department of Astronomy, Beijing Normal University
GRBs are the most violent explosive phenomena in the universe, with energy emitted within a few seconds equivalent to the total energy radiated by the Sun over 10 billion years. After half a century of research, scientists have realized that GRBs originate from very extreme physical environments, such as high magnetic fields, strong gravity, and ultra-fast speeds. As such, GRBs have become extreme physics laboratories favored in the field of astrophysics and even fundamental physics. People expect to use GRBs to study the cosmic evolutionary history, the origin of heavy elements, and the validity of relativity, as well as other significant questions. However, a profound understanding of the physical origins of GRBs themselves is a prerequisite for addressing these issues.
Up to now, tens of thousands of GRBs have been detected by human, and almost every breakthrough in understanding GRBs has been driven by observations of exceptional events. On October 9, 2022, the brightest GRB ever recorded (later named GRB221009A) was detected, and scientists estimated that such a bright GRB passing through the Earth occurs once in thousands of years. Human was incredibly fortunate this time because GRB221009A happened to fall within the optimal field of view of LHAASO. Living up to expectations, LHAASO provided the complete light curve and energy spectrum of a GRB at TeV energies for the first time, significantly promoting our understanding of GRB radiation mechanisms and jet structures.
Comments from anonymous reviewers invited by the journal
1. LHAASO Collaboration presents a very important, breakthrough observation of the earliest GRB afterglow in the TeV energy range.
2. This is an extraordinary experimental result that deserves to be published rapidly and is perfectly suited to the journal - it is likely to become one of the best cited papers in the field. I congratulate the collaboration on this result - that provides a completely new perspective on GRBs from this "once in a lifetime" event.
3. LHAASO observations of GRB 221009A caught for the first time the rising phase of the afterglow radiation … I'd like to congratulate the LHAASO Collaboration for the outstanding result.
Researchers are working on sustainable technology to harvest solar power in space – which could supplement life support systems on the Moon and Mars.
In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists assess a new technique which could convert renewable, green energy from outside the Earth’s atmosphere. They are taking advantage of photosynthesis – the chemical process plants undergo every day to create energy – to help the space industry become more sustainable.
The research led by the University of Warwick evaluates the use of a special device known as semiconductor to absorb sunlight on Moon and Mars. It is hoped that the devices could promote Martian life support systems.
These “artificial photosynthesis devices” undergo the same processes which keeps plants alive on Earth – they convert water into oxygen using only sunlight whilst recycling carbon dioxide. These integrated systems have the advantage of directly using solar power and could save on weight on long-term space travels in comparison to traditional systems currently in use on the International Space Station – making space travel more efficient.
There is a need for efficient and reliable energy sources in space to enable the exploration of our solar system. It is hoped that the technology could be installed on the Moon and Mars to harvest green energy to help power rockets and complement life support systems for the production of oxygen and other chemicals as well as the recycling of carbon dioxide. The insights gained in this study with respect to improving device efficiencies also feed back into their optimization for Earth applications and also provide insights into the performance of traditional solar cells in space.
Assistant Professor Katharina Brinkert, Department of Chemistry, said: “Human space exploration faces the same challenges as the green energy transition on Earth: both require sustainable energy sources. With sunlight being so abundantly available in space, we have shown how this source could be used to harvest energy – much like plants back on Earth – for life support systems for long-term space travel. The technology could provide ample oxygen production and carbon dioxide recycling on both Moon and Mars.”
IMAGE: THE FIRST PREPVACC VOLUNTEER PARTICIPANT RECEIVES AN INJECTION AT THE LAUNCH OF THE LAUNCH OF THE PREPVACC TRIAL AT THE MASAKA SITE OF THE MRC/UVRI AND LSHTM UGANDA RESEARCH UNIT, ON TUESDAY 15 DECEMBER 2020.view more
CREDIT: PREPVACC INVESTIGATORS
Investigators have announced the completion of participant enrolments into the PrEPVacc trial at all four sites in East and Southern Africa. Led by African researchers, PrEPVacc is the first HIV vaccine efficacy trial to be conducted in East African countries and it is the only HIV vaccine efficacy trial being conducted in the world at present.
PrEPVacc is testing two different ways to prevent HIV, at the same time, which includes HIV vaccine regimens against a placebo (saline), and a new form of oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against the existing standard for PrEP.
Enrolment targets were achieved by all sites and enrolment concluded in March 2023. They began in December 2020 in Masaka, Uganda; in July 2021 in Mbeya, Tanzania; and in September 2021 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and in Durban, South Africa.
PrEPVacc’s Trial Director Dr Eugene Ruzagira, based at the MRC/UVRI & LSHTM Uganda Research Unit in Uganda said:
“Our profound thanks are due to all of the PrEPVacc study participants whose commitment is helping to move the field of HIV prevention forward both for their country and for the world. We are truly grateful to each of them, and to all the community members and supporters, friends and family who are behind them.”
“Congratulations to all the PrEPVacc teams on reaching their enrolment targets for the trial. They have worked hard and skilfully through very challenging periods during the COVID-19 pandemic in order to successfully and safely reach this point.”
“As we move into the post-recruitment phase there are still many participant study visits ahead during 2023 and into 2024. I urge everyone involved in PrEPVacc to remain committed and engaged through all of the visits, helping to ensure we produce the clearest results from this study that we are capable of. The study is scheduled to disseminate its findings by December 2024. We have already shared outcomes of our social science work with relevant stakeholders and we are committed to sharing news about all results that emerge from PrEPVacc with the study participants and their communities first.”
Participants are healthy adults aged 18-40 years who have voluntarily given full informed consent to take part in the PrEPVacc study, which has been approved by their site’s Research Ethics Committee. Study data reported by the end of May 2023 showed that 2,215 potential participants were screened for enrolment, and 1,512 participants were subsequently enrolled. Of the enrolled participants, 1,504 had started vaccinations, 623 were still receiving vaccines, and 671 had completed their fourth vaccination (of four scheduled).
The Masaka and Durban sites have enrolled both men and women while the Mbeya and Dar es Salaam sites have enrolled only women. Across all sites, 13% of participants are men, and 87% are women.
Participants in PrEPVacc are strongly committed to the study. By the end of their contribution over 17 months after the first vaccine injection, they will have made at least 15 study visits.
Participants received injections of either one regimen combining DNA with a protein-based vaccine, or a regimen combining DNA, MVA and a protein-based vaccine, or a placebo (saline). They were all also offered study PrEP as Descovy or Truvada through to two weeks after the third injection, and thereafter as locally sourced PrEP equivalent to Truvada. They received information on how best to incorporate PrEP in combination prevention against HIV.
Due to the challenges of successfully recruiting and enrolling into a clinical trial during the COVID-19 pandemic, and supply challenges with the MVA vaccine, PrEPVacc’s Investigators proposed a change to the randomisation of enrolled participants from 1:1:1 to 1:1 and discontinued enrolment to the MVA-combination vaccine arm in all sites by June 2022. Notwithstanding this change to enrolment, vaccinations and follow-ups have continued as planned in all arms. The trial minimum enrolment target was revised from 1,668 participants to 1,400, with encouragement to enrol beyond this in anticipation that some participants would miss their second or third vaccines and be excluded from the main vaccine analysis. The proposal was approved by PrEPVacc’s independent governance committees (https://www.prepvacc.org/organisation-and-governance).
PrEPVacc is not a licensure trial. Its findings will inform scientists as to whether developing either of the two different combination vaccine regimens for preventing HIV is worthwhile or not, even with the smaller sample size. If vaccine efficacy is shown, and the combination vaccine is safe, the result will need to be confirmed through a further trial or trials. PrEPVacc will also provide insights into PrEP adherence when needed for prevention and whether the new form of PrEP (Descovy) is as acceptable, safe and effective as the available oral standard PrEP (Truvada) among women.
The PrEPVacc trial was preceded by a preparedness study known as the “Registration Cohort” which gave research teams a better understanding of the community and HIV infection rates in the context of PrEP roll-out. During the Registration Cohort, sites developed a Community Advisory Board or Community Working Group whose members are local people who partner with the researchers and bring the concerns and interests of the community and study participants to the researchers. They also review study material to check that the language and messages used are simple and acceptable to their communities.
PrEPVacc is led by African researchers from Entebbe in Uganda, at the MRC/UVRI and LSHTM Uganda Research Unit. They are supported by 15 partner organisations, six from Africa, six from Europe and three from the US. The Sponsor of PrEPVacc is Imperial College London. See Notes to Editors (1) for a full list of partners.
The PrEPVacc study is funded by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), as part of the EDCTP2 Programme supported by the European Union. See Notes to Editors (2) for a full list of funders.
During the recruitment and enrolment phase, an animated video version of the participant information sheet was used to explain the study to participants. It can now be found at https://youtu.be/zHYC6SKKobc
Behind PrEPVacc there are 80 senior scientists, clinicians, social scientists, community liaison specialists and professional support roles, from 15 partner organisations. They have extensive experience working with HIV and other infectious diseases, as well as clinical trials, and specifically in carrying out HIV vaccine and PrEP trials across Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
Medical Research Council / Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Unit, Uganda
Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania
National Institute for Medical Research - Mbeya Medical Research Centre, Tanzania
HIV and other Infectious Diseases Research Unit, South African MRC, South Africa
Imperial College London, UK
Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, UK
Centre Hospitalier Universitaire vaudois, Switzerland
Karolinska Instituet, Sweden
Medical Center of the University of Munich (LMU), Germany
PrEPVacc is a public-private partnership. The European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) awarded a grant of €15M for the study and all of the institutional partners are providing co-funding through staff salaries. Gilead Inc and Inovio Pharmaceuticals are giving support to the project through materials and medicines. PrEPVacc is also supported by USAID and PEPFAR, USMHRP, SVRI, SAMRC, UKRI,the Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
