Who were main arms suppliers to Saddam in war against Iran

TEHRAN, Sep. 22 (MNA) – During the eight years of the Imposed War (1980-88) against Iran, many countries provided financial and military aid to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, with US, France, and Germany as major contributors.

The following is the list of the countries which aided Iraq during the (1980-88) Imposed War against Iran: 

The United States:

The United States was Saddam's most important encourager to attack Iran. With the fall of the imperial regime in Iran, the Americans had no more access to the vast oil resources of our country, and immediately after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, they started their hostile campaigns and attacks against Iran. The failed Tabas Military attack, the Nojeh coup, and dozens of other plots were some of the US government's anti-Iran moves at the time.

When the Americans failed in all these plots, they encouraged the then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to attack Iran.

In the second year of the war, when the Islamic army ousted the occupying forces, the US government simultaneously launched four operations in support of Saddam and against Iran:

1) Operation Staunch: Diplomatic attempts to identify the entry points of weapons into Iran and prevent the shipment of military equipment to the country

2) Financial operations: Efforts to meet the financial needs of Iraq through American companies

3) Intelligence operations: Providing military information on Iran to Iraq

4) Anti-Iranian operations in international organizations: Condemnation of Iran in these organizations and preventing Iranian officials from conveying their rightful messages to other countries.

The Soviet Union:

A major part of the weapons Iraqis needed during the war was supplied by the Soviet Union. The country greatly assisted Saddam in the war by providing him with modern equipment and weapons.

The most advanced warplanes, helicopters, tanks, and other such equipment were delivered to Iraq by the Soviet Union during the eight-year war.

Russian military commanders also trained Iraqi commanders and taught them ways to counter the Iranian army and the best methods and tactics to attack Iran.

Europe:

France and Germany aided Iraq more than any other European country. Super Étendard carrier-borne strike fighter aircraft and laser missiles – one of the latest achievements of the French military industry – were provided to the Iraqi army. Due to their high cost, Super Étendard aircraft were leased to the Iraqi army so that Iraqi pilots could easily use them to bomb Iranian soldiers and cities.

When all this aid failed to save Saddam's defeated army, Germany rushed to Saddam's aid by sending chemical weapons, enabling Saddam to use 6,000 tons of chemical bombs against the Iranian people. Saddam's army killed 1,100 people in Sardasht and other parts of Iran and 5,000 others in Halabja using chemical weapons.

Italy and Belgium were other supporters of Iraq in the war against Iran by providing the country with advanced anti-tank missiles and helping Iraq build long-range artillery and strengthen other parts of its military.

Arab countries:

Home to the world's largest oil and gas resources, these Arab countries were Iraq's main financial and manpower aid.

These Arab countries also deployed war prisoners from Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Somalia and the Persian Gulf Arab states to fight in the Iraqi army.

The airspace of these countries was also under the control of Iraq during the war, and Iraqi planes used their airspace to attack critical areas in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and the southern provinces of our country.

Other countries:

Countries such as Brazil and Argentina, which were relatively advanced in the military industry at the time, supplied weapons to Iraq. Some others such as Latin American and African countries either lacked the ability to aid Iraq or were neutral, such as Turkey and Pakistan.

During the war, 50 countries directly supported Saddam. I will give just a few examples to better clarify the situation: At the beginning of the war, the United States said that it did not directly support Saddam, but Imam Khomeini (r.a.) said from the beginning that Saddam was a lunatic and a US pawn – a fact that became clear after the presence of US bases in Iraq and Egypt was revealed.

In Karbala 4 and 5 operations, the Soviet Union provided 150 tanks to Iraq; the French delivered their first long-range aircraft to Iraq, and the Germans provided Iraq with both chemical and nuclear weapons and technology. Kuwait, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia all contributed $80 billion to Saddam, while Iran had an annual budget of only $7 billion during the war. These figures clearly show our situation during the war and show that it was only through our resistance spirit and ceaseless efforts that we managed to stand against the enemy and win the war.   

The excerpt is taken and translated from the Islamic Development Organization Information Database, The Role of Countries in the Iraq-Iran War, Hossein Eslafi, 22 Sep. 2009.

News Code 163845

As rats swarm California cities, Gov. Newsom bans popular poison to protect wildlife

by Ryan Sabalow, The Sacramento Bee 
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020
  

Credit: AskJoanne/Wikipedia

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill Tuesday that seeks to protect mountain lions and other wildlife from being poisoned by a popular form of pesticide.

The move raises questions about how the state will manage its growing urban rat population, which some experts say is surging due to the spread of homeless camps across California.

Newsom signed Assembly Bill 1788, which bans, with few exceptions, the use of what are known as "second generation anticoagulant rodenticides" until state pesticide regulators develop plans to ensure they're not harmful to wildlife.

Just about every major environmental group supported the bill authored by Assemblyman Richard Bloom, a Santa Monica Democrat. They argued the toxins are being found in often lethal levels in birds of prey and predatory mammals, especially bobcats and mountain lions.

The toxins build up in their systems as the animals consume rodents that are dying from the poisons. Nine in every 10 dead mountain lions state scientists test have the toxins in their livers.

"By pulling these four highly toxic rat poisons from the hands of pest control operators, California is giving sensitive species like mountain lions a bit of a fighting chance," Debra Chase, chief executive of the Mountain Lion Foundation, said in a written statement..

Pest control companies, the California Chamber of Commerce, apartment management associations and other business groups opposed the bill. They say the poisons are critical to controlling a rat and mouse population that has exploded in some major California cities, often in low-income areas and around homeless camps that have poor sanitation and piles of trash.

In recent years, the megalopolis of Los Angeles County has seen skyrocketing cases of a rodent-borne disease called typhus.

State environment officials last year, meanwhile, faced a major public relations crisis when they announced they planned to set out the poisons to control rats that had taken over the Sacramento CalEPA building courtyard it shares with a daycare center's outdoor playground.

Environmental groups were furious, and in response, the state agreed to use another type of poison.

The building houses the Department of Pesticide Regulation, which in 2014 prohibited the use of the poisons to anyone but state-certified pest control operators.

Newsom signed the bill just weeks after the National Park Service announced that biologists in the Santa Monica Mountains had found a dead mountain lion and a dead bobcat that had been killed by the poisons.

The cougar was the sixth mountain lion wearing a GPS-tracking collar to die from the poisons in a years-long study in the region.

Rat poisons are part of the reason why state regulators are considering protecting Southern California and Central Coast cougars under the state's Endangered Species Act.

The bill provides some exceptions for the continued use of the poisons on farms, food storage and processing facilities, medical centers, or when needed to keep rodents like the non-native swamp rats called nutria from tearing up levees. A public health official also can order the poison set out to prevent or address a public health crisis.

Newsom's been an ardent supporter of the state's big cat population over the years. His father, Judge William Newsom, who died in 2018, was a founding board member of the Mountain Lion Foundation.

"My father was a naturalist and a strong advocate for the preservation of mountain lions, and I grew up loving these cats and caring about their well-being," Newsom said Tuesday in a press release. "He would be proud to know that California is taking action to protect mountain lion populations and other wildlife from the toxic effects of rodenticides."

 

Anglo-Saxon warlord found by detectorists could redraw map of post-Roman Britain

First burial of its kind in mid-Thames region suggests it was more important than previously thought

UNIVERSITY OF READING

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE REMAINS OF THE WARLORD. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF READING

Archaeologists have uncovered a warrior burial in Berkshire that could change historians' understanding of southern Britain in the early Anglo-Saxon era.

The burial, on a hilltop site near with commanding views over the surrounding Thames valley, must be of a high-status warlord from the 6th century AD, archaeologists from the University of Reading believe.

The 'Marlow Warlord' was a commanding, six-foot-tall man, buried alongside an array of expensive luxuries and weapons, including a sword in a decorated scabbard, spears, bronze and glass vessels, and other personal accoutrements.

The pagan burial had remained undiscovered and undisturbed for more than 1,400 years until two metal detectorists, Sue and Mick Washington came across the site in 2018.

Sue said: "On two earlier visits I had received a large signal from this area which appeared to be deep iron and most likely not to be of interest. However, the uncertainty preyed on my mind and on my next trip I just had to investigate, and this proved to be third time lucky!"

Sue, who along with other members of the Maidenhead Search Society metal detecting club had visited the site several times previously, initially unearthed two bronze bowls. Realising the age and significance of the find, she stopped digging and the Club, in line with best practice, registered this discovery with the Portable Antiquities Scheme. (PAS).

The PAS Finds Liaison Officer for Buckinghamshire undertook a targeted excavation to recover the very fragile bronze vessels and, in the process, recovered a pair of iron spearheads suggested that the context was likely to be an Anglo-Saxon grave.

Thanks to their actions, the bowls and spearheads were identified and conserved, and following Sue's generous donation, are soon to go on display at Buckinghamshire Museum in Aylesbury.

Recognising the importance of the burial and the need for more detailed archaeological investigation, a team led by the Department of Archaeology at the University of Reading carried out a full survey and excavation in August 2020. The burial was at a very shallow depth, making the excavation crucial to protect it from farming activity.

Dr Gabor Thomas, a specialist in early medieval archaeology at the University of Reading, said: "We had expected to find some kind of Anglo-Saxon burial, but what we found exceeded all our expectations and provides new insights into this stretch of the Thames in the decades after the collapse of the Roman administration in Britain.

"This the first burial of its kind found in the mid-Thames basin, which is often overlooked in favour of the Upper Thames and London. It suggests that the people living in this region may have been more important than historians previously suspected.

"This guy would have been tall and robust compared to other men at the time, and would have been an imposing figure even today. The nature of his burial and the site with views overlooking the Thames suggest he was a respected leader of a local tribe and had probably been a formidable warrior in his own right."

The early Anglo-Saxon period was one of great change in England with significant levels of immigration from the continent and the formation of new identities and power structures in the vacuum created by the collapse of the Roman administration around 400 AD. Around a century later - the period in which the Marlow Warlord lived -England was occupied by local tribal groupings, some of which expanded into Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, such as Wessex, Mercia and Kent.

The region of the mid-Thames between London and Oxford was previously thought to be a 'borderland' in this region, with powerful tribal groups on each side. This new discovery suggests that the area may have hosted important groups of its own. It is likely that the area was later squeezed out or absorbed into the larger neighbouring proto-kingdoms of Kent, Wessex and Mercia.

A team involving archaeologists from the University of Reading and local volunteer groups carried out a two-week excavation of the site in August 2020 with the kind permission of the supportive landowner. This activity included geophysical survey, test excavations, and a full excavation of the grave site.

Found buried with the Marlow Warlord were a sword with an exceptionally well-preserved scabbard - making it one of the best-preserved sheathed swords known from the period -made of wood and leather with decorative bronze fittings, spears, bronze and glass vessels, dress-fittings, shears and other implements.

These objects are currently being conserved by Pieta Greaves of Drakon Heritage and Conservation. Further analysis of the human remains will be carried out at the Department of Archaeology, University of Reading, to help determine the man's age, health, diet and geographical origins.

Michael Lewis, Head of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: "This is a great example of archaeologists and metal-detectorists working together. Especially important is the fact that the finders stopped when they realised they had discovered something significant and called in archaeological assistance. By doing so they ensure much more could be learnt about this interesting burial."

Michael Lewis, Head of the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, said: "This is a great example of archaeologists and metal-detectorists working together. Especially important is the fact that the finders stopped when they realised they had discovered something significant and called in archaeological assistance. By doing so they ensure much more could be learnt about this interesting burial."

The team are now hoping to raise funds to pay for further conservation work, to allow some of the finds to go on display to the public at the Buckinghamshire Museum in 2021, when their newly refurbished permanent galleries re-open.

To donate, visit https://reading.hubbub.net/p/marlowwarlord

 

STOP THE BLEED training has saved lives from Sierra Leone to Connecticut

Participants retained knowledge from the course and demonstrated a willingness to help in a bleeding emergency according to two new studies

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS

Research News

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VIDEO: STOP THE BLEED TRAINING HAS SAVED LIVES FROM SIERRA LEONE TO CONNECTICUT. view more 

CREDIT: AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS

CHICAGO: The STOP THE BLEED® course teaches a skill with lifesaving potential that is easy to learn and globally relevant. Two studies presented at the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2020 provide evidence that STOP THE BLEED® training is effective and has made a lifesaving difference around the world.

In one study, an hour-long STOP THE BLEED® course was taught to 121 nursing students at the Kabala Nursing School in rural Sierra Leone. After one year, a survey was administered to the participants to learn whether they encountered bleeding emergencies and whether they were able to administer bleeding control techniques. Seventy-six people responded to the survey, reporting a total of 190 encounters with life-threatening bleeding situations.

The most common injuries requiring a bleeding control intervention were motorcycle collisions (34 percent), knife wounds (19 percent), and car accidents (13 percent). Participants reported they most commonly used wound packing (41 percent), direct pressure (26 percent), and tourniquet application (20 percent). Because they were able to intervene, nearly all of the patients (94 percent) survived, with a majority (82 percent) reporting to the hospital for further medical care.

"People are getting basic medical knowledge, which is essential. With or without a medical background, they can apply this knowledge to save a life," said Samba Jalloh, MB, ChB, of the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences, Freetown, Sierra Leone.

In low-to-middle income countries (LMICs), access to health care can be sporadic and the burden of injury can be significant. The findings from this study provide evidence that STOP THE BLEED® training can be implemented in LMICs with sustained success in treating bleeding emergencies before a patient is able to be transported to a hospital.

"Here, there are a lot of risks. Transportation is not very safe, and hospitals can be far away from villages. Knowing how to stop the bleed is very important. People are using the skill to save lives," Dr. Jalloh said.

The researchers stressed that these findings demonstrate enormous lifesaving applicability of STOP THE BLEED® training in Sierra Leone. They noted that future studies should focus on the specifics of adapting bleeding control for use in other LMICs.

"With the efforts of Dr. Jalloh, the course became a mandatory component of house staff training in Freetown. Successful technique usage and course dissemination have encouraged us to think of ways to improve bleeding control training in the United States and abroad. These findings support further emphasis on lifesaving prehospital interventions and represent a great example of sustainable, bidirectional global surgical teamwork," said lead study author Vennila Padmanaban, MD, a surgical resident at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark.

In another study from researchers in Connecticut, STOP THE BLEED® course attendees demonstrated a strong proficiency of bleeding control knowledge after one year, and course participants, including previously untrained attendees, reported successfully applying hemorrhage control techniques to save lives.

"In our study, we had people as young as 14 and as old as 64 report that they used bleeding control skills. Eight of these people had not undergone any previous training in bleeding control and seven of the people who used the skills did not work as a first responder or in a health care setting," said lead study author Jeremy Fridling, a fourth-year medical student at the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University, North Haven, Conn.

The researchers tracked 1,030 STOP THE BLEED® course attendees, administering surveys before and after the course, as well as six and twelve months later. Of the respondents, 31 participants (8.4 percent) applied bleeding control skills to live victims, with 29 (93.5 percent) reporting a successful outcome.

In the post-course surveys, the average response was between "agree" and "strongly agree" for confidence in knowledge and skills. Notably, the average response (on a 1-5 scale) significantly increased from pre (4.1) to post (4.6), six-month (4.4), and twelve-month (4.5) for willingness to treat a victim with serious bleeding.

"This study is a validation that regular, ordinary people--if you train them and give them a chance and empower them to do a public good and stop bleeding--can stop bleeding with a successful outcome," said study coauthor Lenworth Jacobs, MD, MPH, FACS, professor of surgery, University of Connecticut, and Medical Director, ACS STOP THE BLEED® program.

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Coauthors of the Sierra Leone study are Vennila Padmanaban, MD; Umaru Barrie, BS; Jeremy Badach, MD; Peter Johnston, MD; Wei Wei Zhang, MD; and Ziad C. Sifri, MD, FACS.

Mr. Fridling and Dr. Jacobs' coauthor of the Connecticut study is Richard Feinn, PhD.

"FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons.

Citation: Bleeding Control Training in West Africa: One Year of Encounters, Interventions and Outcomes. Scientific Forum. American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2020.

Citation: Lives Saved and Public Empowerment One Year Following Bleeding Control Training. Scientific Forum. American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2020.

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 82,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. For more information, visit http://www.facs.org.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for

 

AI predicts patients at highest risk for severe pain, increased opioid use post-surgery

Model helps guide anesthesia approaches to limit opioid exposure

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS

Research News

CHICAGO - Artificial intelligence (AI) used in machine learning models can predict which patients are at highest risk for severe pain after surgery, and help determine who would most benefit from personalized pain management plans that use non-opioid alternatives, suggests new research being presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2020 annual meeting.

Some patients experience more severe pain after surgery and need higher doses of opioids for longer periods of time, which increases their risk for opioid abuse disorder. By knowing which patients are at higher risk for severe post-surgical pain, physician anesthesiologists can create an anesthesia plan using non-opioid alternatives - such as nerve blocks, epidurals and other medications - to more effectively address pain and reduce the need for opioids.

Currently physicians use time-consuming questionnaires to identify patients at higher risk for severe post-surgical pain, asking about their history of anxiety, sleep quality and depression. In this study, researchers sought a faster, more effective method using machine learning, where a system learns and evolves based on data it is provided. They created three machine learning models that analyzed patients' electronic medical records, which identified that younger age, higher body mass index, female gender, pre-existing pain and prior opioid use were the most predictive factors of post-surgical pain.

"We plan to integrate the models with our electronic medical records to provide a prediction of post-surgical pain for each patient," said Mieke A. Soens, M.D., lead author of the study and an anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and anesthesiology instructor at Harvard Medical School, Boston. "If the patient is determined to be at high risk for severe post-surgical pain, the physician anesthesiologist can then adjust the patient's anesthesia plan to maximize non-opioid pain management strategies that would reduce the need for opioids after surgery."

In the two-part study, researchers looked at data from 5,944 patients who had a wide variety of surgeries, including gallbladder removal, hysterectomy, hip replacement and prostate surgery. Of those, 1,287 (22%) had consumed 90 morphine milligram equivalent (MME) in the first 24 hours after surgery, which is considered a high dose. In the first part of the study, they used 163 potential factors to predict high pain post-surgery, based on a literature search and consultation with experts. From there they created three machine learning algorithm models (logistical regression, random forest and artificial neural networks) that mined the patients' medical records and whittled the 163 predictor factors down to those which most accurately predicted patients' pain severity and potential opioid needs after surgery.

In the second part, they compared what the models predicted to actual opioid use in those same patients. They determined all three models had similar predictive accuracy overall: 81% for logistical regression and random forest methods and 80% for artificial neural networks. That means the models accurately identified which people were more likely to have severe pain and need higher doses of opioids about 80% of the time.

"Electronic medical records are a valuable and underused source of patient data and can be employed effectively to enhance patients' lives," said Dr. Soens. "Selectively identifying patients who typically need high doses of opioids after surgery is important to help reduce opioid misuse."

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THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS

Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific society with more than 54,000 members organized to raise and maintain the standards of the medical practice of anesthesiology. ASA is committed to ensuring physician anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of patients before, during and after surgery to provide the highest quality and safest care every patient deserves.

For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about the role physician anesthesiologists play in ensuring patient safety, visit asahq.org/WhenSecondsCount. Join the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2020 social conversation today. Like ASA on Facebook, follow ASALifeline on Twitter and use the hashtag #ANES20.

 

How the brain helps us navigate social differences

Our brain responds differently if we talk to a person of a different socioeconomic background from our own compared to when we speak to someone whose background is similar, according to a new imaging study by UCL and Yale researchers.

UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

Research News

 

Our brain responds differently if we talk to a person of a different socioeconomic background from our own compared to when we speak to someone whose background is similar, according to a new imaging study by UCL and Yale researchers.

In the study, published in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 39 pairs of participants had a conversation with each other while wearing headsets that tracked brain activity.

Researchers found that, among pairs of people who had very different socioeconomic backgrounds - calculated according to education level and family income - there was a higher level of activity in an area of the frontal lobe called the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The area is associated with speech production and rule-based language as well as cognitive and attentional control.

The findings support previous research suggesting that frontal lobe systems play a role in detecting bias and helping us to regulate our behaviour to avoid bias expression. The increased activity in the left frontal lobe was observed in both participants and was more alike than the brain responses of participants talking to someone of a similar background.

In a questionnaire following their task, participants paired with people of different backgrounds reported a slightly higher level of anxiety and effort during their conversation than those in similar-background pairs.

Professor Joy Hirsch (UCL Medical Physics & Biomedical Engineering and Yale) said: "For the first time, we have identified the neural mechanisms involved in social interactions between people of different backgrounds.

"I believe our findings offer a hopeful message. We know that humans can have positive social encounters with others who are different. Now we have the neurobiological basis - our brains have apparently developed a frontal lobe system that helps us deal with diversity."

Participants' brain activity was tracked using a new technique called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which monitors blood flow and blood oxygenation by measuring changes in near-infrared light and involves wearing only a light headset. Previous studies have involved using MRI scans, which require patients to lie down and keep still, making conversation difficult.

The conversation task lasted for 12 minutes and involved participants being randomly assigned four subjects on themes such as "What did you do last summer?" and "How do you bake a cake?"

After their conversation task, participants were asked about the level of education they had completed and their parents' annual income and given a score based on these details. Pairs of participants were classified as either "high-disparity" or "low-disparity" depending on how different their scores were.

The two groups - different-background pairs and similar-background pairs - were matched in terms of age, race and gender, minimising the impact of these variables on the results. The participants were recruited from Yale's home city of New Haven in Connecticut, both from within the campus and beyond. They ranged in age from 19 to 44 and had a wide variety of socioeconomic backgrounds.

Lead author Olivia Descorbeth, a Yale University graduate who came up with the research proposal while still at school, said: "We wanted to know if the brain responded differently when we talked to others of a different socioeconomic background. Now we know that it does and that humans have a neurobiology that helps us navigate social differences."

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Senior author Professor Hirsch's joint appointment between UCL and Yale is made possible by the Yale-UCL Collaborative, an agreement that promotes joint research and enables teaching to be shared between the two institutions.

The study received funding from the National Institute of Mental Health, of the US National Institutes of Health.

 

A tale of two cesspits: DNA reveals intestinal health in Medieval Europe and Middle East

New research proves the feasibility of retrieving bacterial DNA from ancient latrines

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR THE SCIENCE OF HUMAN HISTORY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE MEDIEVAL LATRINE AT RIGA DURING EXCAVATION view more 

CREDIT: ULDIS KAL?JIS

A new study published this week demonstrates a first attempt at using the methods of ancient bacterial detection, pioneered in studies of past epidemics, to characterize the microbial diversity of ancient gut contents from two medieval latrines. The findings provide insights into the microbiomes of pre-industrial agricultural populations, which may provide much-needed context for interpreting the health of modern microbiomes.

Over the years, scientists have noted that those living in industrialized societies have a notably different microbiome compared to hunter-gatherer communities around the world. From this, a growing body of evidence has linked changes in our microbiome to many of the diseases of the modern industrialized world, such as inflammatory bowel disease, allergies, and obesity. The current study helps to characterize the change in gut microbiomes and highlights the value of ancient latrines as sources of bio-molecular information.

Ancient Gut Microbiomes: Exploring the Bowels of History

Piers Mitchell of Cambridge University specializes in the gut contents of past people through analysis of unusual substrates. By looking at the contents of archaeological latrines and desiccated faeces under the microscope, he and his team have learned volumes about the intestinal parasites that plagued our ancestors.

"Microscopic analysis can show the eggs of parasitic worms that lived in the intestines, but many microbes in the gut are simply too small to see," comments Mitchell. "If we are to determine what constitutes a healthy microbiome for modern people, we should start looking at the microbiomes of our ancestors who lived before antibiotic use, fast food, and the other trappings of industrialization."

Kirsten Bos, a specialist in ancient bacterial DNA from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and co-leader the study, was first skeptical about the feasibility of investigating the contents of latrines that had long been out of order.

"At the outset we weren't sure if molecular signatures of gut contents would survive in the latrines over hundreds of years. Many of our successes in ancient bacterial retrieval thus far have come from calcified tissues like bones and dental calculus, which offer very different preservation conditions. Nevertheless," says Bos, "I was really hoping the data here would change my perspective."

The team analyzed sediment from medieval latrines in Jerusalem and Riga, Latvia dating from the 14th-15th century CE. The first challenge was distinguishing bacteria that once formed the ancient gut from those that were introduced by the environment, an unavoidable consequence of working with archaeological material.

The researchers identified a wide range of bacteria, archaea, protozoa, parasitic worms, fungi and other organisms, including many taxa known to inhabit the intestines of modern humans.

"It seems latrines are indeed valuable sources for both microscopic and molecular information," concludes Bos.

No Modern Matches for Ancient Microbiomes

Susanna Sabin, a doctoral alumna of the MPI-SHH who co-led the study, compared the latrine DNA to those from other sources, including microbiomes from industrial and foraging populations, as well as waste water and soil.

"We found that the microbiome at Jerusalem and Riga had some common characteristics - they did show similarity to modern hunter gatherer microbiomes and modern industrial microbiomes, but were different enough that they formed their own unique group. We don't know of a modern source that harbors the microbial content we see here."

The use of latrines, where the faeces of many people are mixed together, allowed the researchers unprecedented insight into the microbiomes of entire communities.

"These latrines gave us much more representative information about the wider pre-industrial population of these regions than an individual faecal sample would have," explains Mitchell. "Combining evidence from light microscopy and ancient DNA analysis allows us to identify the amazing variety of organisms present in the intestines of our ancestors who lived centuries ago."

Despite the promise of this new approach for investigating the microbiome, challenges remain.

"We'll need many more studies at other archaeological sites and time periods to fully understand how the microbiome changed in human groups over time," says Bos. "However, we have taken a key step in showing that DNA recovery of ancient intestinal contents from past latrines can work."

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Parents less aware when their kids vape than when they smoke

UCSF study says strict household rules are best way to prevent tobacco use

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO

Research News

 

Most parents know or suspect when their child smokes, but they are much more likely to be in the dark if the child vapes or uses other tobacco products, according to a large national study by researchers at UC San Francisco.

The study, which tracked more than 23,000 participants aged 12 to 17 years old, found that parents or guardians were substantially less likely to report knowing or suspecting that their child had used tobacco if the child used only e-cigarettes, non-cigarette combustible products or smokeless tobacco, compared to smoking cigarettes or using multiple tobacco products.

The researchers also found that when parents set strong household rules about not using tobacco - applying to all residents - their children were less likely to start tobacco use. Just talking to kids about not smoking was far less effective. The study publishes at 9:01 p.m. PT, Oct. 4, 2020, in Pediatrics.

"We know that tobacco-free homes are a key tool to help prevent smoking by kids," said corresponding and senior author Benjamin Chaffee, DDS, MPH, PhD, an associate professor at the UCSF School of Dentistry. "What studies haven't examined is how tobacco-free homes stack up against other approaches and how much tobacco-free home rules might help with other tobacco products beyond smoking.

"Tobacco use by children is troubling, and dentists, like all healthcare providers, should be concerned about preventing youth tobacco use," Chaffee said.

Over the last decade, the smoking landscape has dramatically changed, especially among youth, for whom cigarette smoking has declined while use of electronic cigarettes soared. Last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that more than 1 in 4 high school students was vaping.

The new study used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study to investigate parental awareness of youth tobacco use and the role of household tobacco rules in preventing smoking. In addition to cigarettes and e-cigarettes, the study looked at non-cigarette combustible products (including cigars, pipes, hookahs, and bidis), and smokeless tobacco (including snuff, chewing tobacco, snus, and dissolvable tobacco).

It found that parents were more likely to know or suspect that their child was using a tobacco or nicotine product if the child was older, male, identified as white, and lived with a tobacco user, as well as if the parents were less educated. Mothers were singled out as more aware than fathers.

The researchers also found that teens and tweens living in homes with the strictest rules prohibiting tobacco use were 20-26 percent less likely to start using tobacco, compared to youth living in the most permissive homes.

The investigators suggest that parents:

• Don't smoke;
• Create tobacco-free home environments that include all parts of the home;
• Establish strict rules against all tobacco use that apply to all members of the household;
• Have high-quality, clear communication with youth about not using tobacco.

"Low parental awareness of e-cigarette use belies rising public attention to youth vaping," said co-author Tsu-Shuan Wu, a student at the UCSF School of Dentistry. "Youth tobacco use is a considerable public health concern, regardless of the tobacco product used, and parents play a very important role in tobacco prevention.

"Creating tobacco-free home environments is one approach parents can use to set norms and expectations about tobacco use," she said. "And for healthcare providers, raising parental awareness should be part of overall guidance and tobacco-prevention support."

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Funding: Support was provided by the National Institutes of Health grant number U54HL147127 and the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation.

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Body size of the extinct Megalodon indeed off the charts in the shark world

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

Research News

 

IMAGE: SCHEMATIC DRAWING SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SIZES OF ALL KNOWN 70 NON-PLANKTIVOROUS GENERA (GROUPS) IN THE SHARK ORDER LAMNIFORMES, COMPRISING MODERN (IN GRAY) AND EXTINCT (IN BLACK; WITH... view more 

CREDIT: KENSHU SHIMADA

A new study shows that the body size of the iconic gigantic or megatooth shark, about 15 meters (50 feet) in length, is indeed anomalously large compared to body sizes of its relatives.

Formally called Otodus megalodon, the fossil shark that lived nearly worldwide roughly 15-3.6 million years ago is receiving a renewed look at the significance of its body size in the shark world, based on a new study appearing in the international journal Historical Biology.

Otodus megalodon is commonly portrayed as a super-sized, monstrous shark, in novels and films such as the 2018 sci-fi thriller "The Meg," but it is known that the scientifically justifiable maximum possible body size for the species is about 15 meters (50 feet). Nonetheless, it is still an impressively large shark, and the new study illuminates exactly how uniquely gigantic the shark was, according to Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University in Chicago and lead author of the study.

Otodus megalodon belongs to the shark group called lamniforms with a rich fossil record, but the biology of extinct forms is poorly understood because these cartilaginous fishes are mostly known only from their teeth. Based on measurements taken from present-day non-planktivorous lamniforms, the study presents an equation that would allow estimations about the body length of extinct forms from their teeth. The study demonstrates that O. megalodon that reached about 15 meters (50 feet) is truly an outlier because practically all other non-planktivorous sharks have a general size limit of 7 meters (23 feet), and only a few plankton-eating sharks, such as the whale shark and basking shark, were equivalent or came close to the size. The study also reveals that the Cenozoic Era (after the age of dinosaurs, including today) saw more lamniform lineages attaining larger sizes than the Mesozoic (age of dinosaurs) Era.

Warm-bloodedness has previously been proposed to have led to the gigantism (over 6 meters, or 20 feet) in multiple lamniform lineages. The new study proposes their live-bearing reproductive strategy with a unique cannibalistic egg-eating behavior to nourish early-hatched embryos to large sizes inside their mother to be another possible cause for the frequent evolution of gigantism achieved by lamniform sharks.

Understanding body sizes of extinct organisms is important in the context of ecology and evolution. "Lamniform sharks have represented major carnivores in oceans since the age of dinosaurs, so it is reasonable to assert that they must have played an important role in shaping the marine ecosystems we know today," said Shimada.

"This is compelling evidence for the truly exceptional size of megalodon," noted co-author Michael Griffiths, a professor of environmental science at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. Co-author Martin Becker, also a professor of environmental science at William Paterson University, added, "this work represents a critical advancement in our understanding of the evolution of this ocean giant."

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