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, July 09, 2021
Depression, suicidal thoughts plague ailing coal miners, study finds
IMAGE: "THIS STUDY HIGHLIGHTS THE UNRECOGNIZED CRISIS OF MENTAL ILLNESS IN MINERS THAT WARRANTS URGENT ATTENTION, RESOURCES AND EXPANDED CARE, " SAID RESEARCHER DREW HARRIS, MD, A PULMONARY MEDICINE EXPERT AT UVA... view more
CREDIT: UVA HEALTH
More than a third of coal miners and former coal miners suffering from black lung disease struggle with depression, and more than one in 10 has recently considered suicide, a new study finds.
The study is believed to be the first to examine mental-health issues in a large population of coal miners in the United States. Based on the troubling results, the researchers are calling for more mental health resources and treatment for current and former miners. They also are urging further study of potential contributors to the problem, including social determinants of health, substance use and workplace safety.
"Although coal mining is on the decline, the rates of black lung in Southwest Virginia continue to increase. Coal miners in Central Appalachia face disparities in health related to a range of complex social, economic, occupational and behavioral factors," said researcher Drew Harris, MD, a pulmonary medicine expert at UVA Health. "This study highlights the unrecognized crisis of mental illness in miners that warrants urgent attention, resources and expanded care."
Miners' Mental Health
Harris serves as the medical director of the Black Lung Clinic at Southwest Virginia's Stone Mountain Health Services, the only federally funded black lung clinic in Virginia. Black lung is a progressive lung illness caused by inhaling toxic coal and rock dust within coal mines. The dust literally blackens the insides of the lungs and leaves patients struggling to breathe. This devastating disease has few treatment options and is increasingly being diagnosed in Central Appalachian coal miners: Out of more than 1,400 coal miners X-rayed in the last year at Stone Mountain, more than 15% had progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of black lung.
To gauge the mental wellbeing of black-lung patients, Harris and his colleagues reviewed data collected at the clinic since 2018 assessing patients for anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
More than 2,800 miners voluntarily completed a mental-health survey. The average age was 66; 99.6% were white; and 99.7% were male.
Of the participants:
883 patients, or 37.4%, reported symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder.
1,005 patients, or 38.9% had clinically significant anxiety.
639 patients, or 26.2%, had symptoms of PTSD.
295 patients, or 11.4%, had considered suicide in the last year. (For comparison, this figure is only 2.9% among Virginia men overall.)
"These rates of mental illness far exceeded those documented in coal mining populations internationally," the researchers write in a new scientific paper outlining their findings.
Rates skewed highest among sicker patients who required supplemental oxygen to help them breathe. Among that group, 47.7% reported anxiety; 48.5% reported depression; and 15.9% reported considering suicide.
The researchers note that depression and other mental-health issues not only affect patients' quality of life but can reduce the likelihood they will stick with their medications.
"The rates of mental illness identified in this large population of U.S. coal miners is shocking," Harris said. "Improved screening and treatment of mental illness in this population is an urgent, unmet need that warrants urgent action."
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Findings Published
The researchers have published their findings in JAMA Network Open. The research team consisted of Harris, Timothy McMurry, Amanda Caughron, Jody Willis, Justin C. Blackburn, Chad Brizendine and Margaret Tomann, McMurry disclosed that he serves as a statistical consultant for the National Institute of Occupational Health and Safety.
Of the same stripe: Turing patterns link tropical fish and bismuth crystal growth
Scientists prove Turing patterns, usually studied in living organisms and chemical systems, also manifest at the nanoscale in monoatomic bismuth layers
IMAGE: THE STRIPED PATTERN FOUND IN A MONOATOMIC LAYER OF BISMUTH IS THE SAME AS THAT FOUND IN THE PIGMENTATION OF CERTAIN TROPICAL FISH. BOTH ARE EXAMPLES OF A TURING PATTERN,... view more
CREDIT: YUKI FUSEYA FROM UNIVERSITY OF ELECTRO-COMMUNICATIONS
One of the things the human brain naturally excels at is recognizing all sorts of patterns, such as stripes on zebras, shells of turtles, and even the structure of crystals. Thanks to our progress in math and the natural sciences, we are not limited to just seeing the patterns; we can also understand how they readily originate out of pure randomness.
A notable example of different natural patterns with a single mathematical explanation are Turing patterns. Conceived in 1952 by the renowned mathematician Alan Turing, these patterns arise as the solutions to a set of differential equations that describe the diffusion and reaction of chemicals satisfying a few conditions. Going well beyond pure chemistry, Turing demonstrated that such equations explain, to a remarkably precise degree, how spots, stripes, and other types of macroscopic patterns appear spontaneously in nature. Turing patterns also play a role in morphogenesis--the process by which living organisms develop their shape. Surprisingly, the underlying mechanisms behind Turing patterns are preserved across vastly different scales, from centimeters in animal pigmentation to micrometers in purely chemical systems. Does this mean that Turing patterns could be found at the nanometer scale, in the positions of individual atoms?
Associate Professor Yuki Fuseya from the University of Electro-Communications, Japan, has recently found that the answer is a resounding yes! A specialist on bismuth (Bi) and its applications in condensed-matter physics, Dr. Fuseya never imagined working with Turing patterns, which are mostly studied in mathematical biology. However, on noticing some mysterious periodic stripes he had seen in Bi monoatomic layers, Dr. Fuseya got the wild idea they might actually be Turing patterns. And after three years of trial and error, he finally found success!
In a study published in Nature Physics, Dr. Fuseya led a research team (which included Hiroyasu Katsuno from Hokkaido University, Japan, Kamran Behnia from PSL Research University, France, and Aharon Kapitulnik, Stanford University, USA) that found concrete evidence that Turing patterns can appear at much smaller scales than previously thought.
The finding of the mysterious Bi stripes was serendipitous; the researchers originally intended to produce a Bi monolayer on a niobium diselenide substrate for studying two-dimensional physical phenomena. What they saw was a pattern of stripes with a period of five atoms, or about 1.7 nm, with Y-shaped junctions. These stripes bore a striking resemblance to those found in some species of tropical fish, which naturally arise as one of Turing patterns. Inspired by this observation, Dr. Fuseya's team studied the Bi monolayer problem in more detail from a theoretical standpoint.
The team developed a mathematical model explaining the underlying physical forces in a way that is consistent with the dynamic diffusion-reaction equations that produce Turing patterns. In this model, the interactions between Bi-Bi pairs, Bi and selenium (Se) pairs, and bond angles in Bi-Bi-Bi triplets were considered. The researchers carried out numerical simulations and verified that the generated patterns accurately resembled the previous experimental findings.
These unprecedented findings pave the way towards a new research direction in nanoscale physics that can consider, and even exploit, Turing patterns. "Based on our findings, we may remove undesirable patterns and make perfectly flat thin films, which are crucial for nanoelectronics. On the other hand, we could use Turing patterns as building blocks for new devices to study unexplored areas of physics," highlights Dr. Fuseya. Another attractive aspect of Turing patterns is that they are not static, despite their appearance. Instead, they are in a state of dynamic equilibrium, which means they can "repair" themselves if they are damaged. "We found that Bi, an inorganic solid, is capable of wound healing just like living creatures. This property could lead to new techniques for producing nanoscale devices by combining diffusion and reaction phenomena," remarks Dr. Fuseya.
It is fascinating to think that order can emerge from randomness in the exact same way at scales that are multiple orders of magnitude apart. This study makes it evident how connections are formed in nature at every scale, from the pigmentation of tropical fish to nanoscale crystal growth!
(4) Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University
(5) Department of Physics, Stanford University
About Associate Professor Yuki Fuseya
Yuki Fuseya obtained a PhD in science from Osaka University, Japan, in 2004, before joining the University of Electro-Communications as an Associate Professor. He specializes in condensed matter physics, especially the physics of Dirac electrons in solids, spin-orbit interactions, the spin-Hall effect, diamagnetism, and bismuth. Dr. Fuseya has published over 60 peer-reviewed paper and received multiple awards throughout his career, including the Young Scientist's Prize given by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology in Japan.
Biomaterial vaccines ward off broad range of bacterial infections and septic shock
A new vaccine technology combining capture of bacterial pathogens with effective immune-reprogramming biomaterials could be applied to a broad spectrum of infectious diseases
WYSS INSTITUTE FOR BIOLOGICALLY INSPIRED ENGINEERING AT HARVARD
IMAGE: THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS HOW A CIVAX INFECTION VACCINE AGAINST A PATHOGENIC E. COLI STRAIN IS PRODUCED AND APPLIED. FIRST, CARBOHYDRATE-CONTAINING SURFACE MOLECULES (PAMPS) OF KILLED BACTERIA ARE CAPTURED WITH MAGNETIC... view more
CREDIT: WYSS INSTITUTE AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
(BOSTON) -- Current clinical interventions for infectious diseases are facing increasing challenges due to the ever-rising number of drug-resistant microbial infections, epidemic outbreaks of pathogenic bacteria, and the continued possibility of new biothreats that might emerge in the future. Effective vaccines could act as a bulwark to prevent many bacterial infections and some of their most severe consequences, including sepsis. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (DCD), "each year, at least 1.7 million adults in America develop sepsis. Nearly 270,000 Americans die as a result of sepsis [and] 1 in 3 patients who dies in a hospital has sepsis." However, for the most common bacterial pathogens that cause sepsis and many other diseases, still no vaccines are available.
Now, as reported in Nature Biomedical Engineering, a multi-disciplinary team of researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School for Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) developed a biomaterial-based infection vaccine (ciVAX) approach as a solution that could be broadly applied to this pervasive problem. ciVAX vaccines combine two technologies that are currently in clinical development for other applications, and that together enable the capture of immunogenic antigens from a broad spectrum of pathogens and their incorporation into immune cell-recruiting biomaterial scaffolds. Injected or implanted under the skin, ciVAX vaccines then reprogram the immune system to take action against pathogens.
"The protective powers of the vaccines that we have designed and tested so far and the immune responses they stimulated are extremely encouraging, and open up a wide range of potential vaccine applications ranging from sepsis prophylaxis to rapid measures against future pandemic threats and biothreats, as well as new solutions to some of the challenges in veterinary medicine," said corresponding author David Mooney, Ph.D, who is a Founding Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute and leads the Institute's Immuno-Materials Platform. He also the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering at SEAS.
In their study, the researchers successfully tested ciVAX technology as a protective measure against the most common causes of sepsis, including Gram-positive S. aureus and Gram-negative E. coli strains. Highlighting the technology's potential, they found that a prophylactic ciVAX vaccine, protected all vaccinated mice against a lethal attack with an antibiotic-resistant E. coli strain, while only 9% of unvaccinated control animals survived. In a pig model of septic shock induced by a different human E. coli isolate, a ciVAX vaccine prevented the development of sepsis in all four animals, while four unvaccinated animals developed severe and sudden sepsis within 12 hours. Finally, using an approach that mimicked a ring vaccination protocol in human or animal populations, a CiVax vaccine, when loaded with pathogen-derived material isolated from animals infected with one lethal E.coli strain, was able to cross-protect animals against a different lethal E. coli strain.
"Our method captures the majority of glycoprotein (and glycolipid) antigens from the pathogens, and presents these in their native form to the immune system, giving us access to a much larger spectrum of potential antigens than vaccines consisting of single or mixtures of recombinant antigens," said co-first author and Wyss Lead Senior Staff Scientist Michael Super, Ph.D. "ciVAX vaccines against known pathogens can be fabricated and stored, but additionally, all components except the bacterial antigens can be pre-assembled from shelf-stable cGMP products. The complete vaccines can then be assembled in less than an hour once the antigens are available, which gives this technology unique advantages over other vaccine approaches when rapid responses are called for." Super conceived the ciVAX concept with co-first author Edward Doherty, who as a former Lead Senior Staff Scientist worked with Mooney on the Wyss' Immuno-Material platform on biomaterials-based vaccines for cancer applications.
Super and Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., who also authored the study, previously developed the pathogen capture technology used in ciVAX, which is based on a native human pathogen-binding opsonin - Mannose Binding Lectin (MBL) - that they fused to the Fc portion of an Immunoglobulin to generate FcMBL. Recombinant FcMBL binds to more than 120 different pathogen species and toxins, including bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. In earlier efforts, the team applied FcMBL to multiple diagnostic problems, and the technology is currently being tested in a clinical trial by the Wyss startup BOA Biomedical as part of a new sepsis treatment.
The second technology component of ciVAX component, the biomaterials-based vaccine technology, was developed as a conceptually new type of cancer immunotherapy by Mooney and his group at the Wyss Institute and SEAS, together with clinical collaborators at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Validated in a clinical trial in human cancer patients, a specifically designed cancer vaccine stimulated significant anti-tumor immune responses. Novartis is currently working to commercialize the vaccine technology for certain cancer applications, and a related biomaterials-based vaccine approach is being pursued by the Wyss startup Attivare Therapeutics, with Doherty and former Wyss researchers Benjamin Seiler and Fernanda Langellotto, Ph.D., who also co-authored this study, as founding members.
To assemble ciVAX vaccines, the team used FcMBL on magnetic beads to capture inactivated bacterial carbohydrate-containing molecules, known as Pathogen Associated Molecular Patterns (PAMPs), from the pathogen of choice, and then simply mixed the complexes with particles of mesoporous silica (MPS) and immune cell-recruiting and activating factors. Under the skin, MPS forms a permeable, biodegradable scaffold that recruits dendritic cells (DCs) of the immune system, reprograms them to present fragments of the captured PAMPs, and releases them again. The DCs then migrate to nearby draining lymph nodes where they orchestrate a broad immune response against the bacterial pathogen. The team found that ciVAX vaccines rapidly enhanced the accumulation and activation of DCs at injection sites and the numbers of DCs, antibody-producing B cells, and different T cell types in draining lymph nodes, and thereby engineered effective pathogen-directed immune responses.
"Beyond the potential of reducing the risk for sepsis in and out of hospitals, our ciVAX vaccine technology has the potential to save the lives of many individuals threatened by a multitude of pathogens, in addition to potentially preventing the spread of infections in animal populations or livestock before they reach humans. It is a terrific example how Wyss researchers from different disciplines and experiences self-assemble around medical problems that urgently need to be solved to create powerful new approaches," said Ingber who is also the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at HMS and Boston Children's Hospital, and Professor of Bioengineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
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Additional authors on the study were Mark Cartwright, Ph.D., Nikolaos Dimitrakakis, Des White, Alexander Stafford, Mohan Karkada, Amanda Graveline, D.V.M., Caitlin Horgan, Kayla Lightbown, Frank Urena, Chyenne Yeager, Sami Rifai, Maxence Dellacherie, Aileen Li, Ph.D., Collin Leese-Thompson, Hamza Ijaz, Amanda Jiang, Vasanth Chandrasekhar, Justin Scott, and Shanda Lightbown. The study was funded by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) under grant# W911NF-16-C-0050, and the National Institutes of Health under grant# 1 RO1 CA223255.
The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences serves as the connector and integrator of Harvard's teaching and research efforts in engineering, applied sciences, and technology. Through collaboration with researchers from all parts of Harvard, other universities, and corporate and foundational partners, we bring discovery and innovation directly to bear on improving human life and society.
Ancient ostrich eggshell reveals new evidence of extreme climate change thousands of years ago
IMAGE: MANDIBLE OF SMALL ANTELOPE IN CALCRETE view more
CREDIT: PHILIP KIBERD
Evidence from an ancient eggshell has revealed important new information about the extreme climate change faced by human early ancestors.
The research shows parts of the interior of South Africa that today are dry and sparsely populated, were once wetland and grassland 250,000 to 350,000 years ago, at a key time in human evolution.
Philip Kiberd and Dr Alex Pryor, from the University of Exeter, studied isotopes and the amino acid from ostrich eggshell fragments excavated at the early middle Stone Age site of Bundu Farm, in the upper Karoo region of the Northern Cape. It is one of very few archaeological sites dated to 250,000 to 350,000 in southern Africa, a time period associated with the earliest appearance of communities with the genetic signatures of Homo sapiens.
This new research supports other evidence, from fossil animal bones, that past communities in the region lived among grazing herds of wildebeest, zebra, small antelope, hippos, baboons and extinct species of Megalotragus priscus and Equus capensis, and hunted these alongside other carnivores, hyena and lions.
After this period of equitable climate and environment the eggshell evidence - and previous finds from the site - suggests after 200,000 years ago cooler and wetter climates gave way to increasing aridity. A process of changing wet and dry climates recognised as driving the turnover and evolution of species, including Homo sapiens.
The study, published in the South African Archaeological Bulletin, shows that extracting isotopic data from ostrich eggshells, which are commonly found on archaeological sites in southern Africa, is a viable option for open-air sites greater than 200,000 years old. The technique which involves grinding a small part of the eggshell, to a powder allows experts to analyse and date the shell, which in turn gives a fix on the climate and environment in the past.
Using eggshell to investigate past climates is possible as ostriches eat the freshest leaves of shrubs and grasses available in their environment, meaning eggshell composition reflects their diet. As eggs are laid in the breeding season across a short window, the information found in ostrich eggshell provides a picture of the prevailing environment and climate for a precise period in time.
Bundu Farm, where the eggshell was recovered is a remote farm 50km from the nearest small town, sitting within a dry semi-desert environment, which supports a small flock of sheep. The site was first excavated in the late 1990's the site with material stored at the McGregor Museum, Kimberley (MMK). The study helps fill a gap in our knowledge for this part of South Africa and firmly puts the Bundu Farm site on the map.
Philip Kiberd, who led the study, said: "This part of South Africa is now extremely arid, but thousands of years ago it would have been Eden-like landscape with lakes and rivers and abundant species of flora and fauna. Our analysis of the ostrich eggshell helps us to better understand the environments in which our ancestors were evolving and provides an important context in which to interpret the behaviours and adaptations of people in the past and how this ultimately led to the evolution of our species'.
Batteries are potentially a game-changing technology as we decarbonize our economy, and their benefits are even greater when shared across communities, a University of Otago-led study has found.
Co-author Associate Professor Michael Jack, Director of the Energy Programme in the Department of Physics, says reducing costs are seeing rapid deployment of batteries for household use, mainly for storing solar and wind power for later use, but they could have a variety of uses in a future electricity grid.
"For example, they could be used to feed energy back into the grid when there is a shortfall in renewable supply. Or they could allow a house to reduce its demand on the grid during times of constraint, thus reducing the need for expensive new lines.
"As we move towards more renewable energy, and increase our use of electric vehicles, these services would be beneficial to a local community and the national grid, not just the individual house with the battery," he says.
The study, published in journal Energy & Buildings, focused on finding the capacity a battery would need to have to keep the peak demand below a certain value for both individual houses and a group of houses.
The researchers considered both load smoothing around the average, and peak shaving, where the battery ensures grid power demand does not exceed a set threshold.
"Our key result is that the size of the battery required for this purpose is much smaller - up to 90 per cent smaller - if the houses are treated collectively rather than individually. For instance, if peak shaving occurred for demand above 3 kW per house, deploying batteries individually for 20 houses would require 120 kWh of storage, whereas deploying them collectively would only require 7 kWh. Sharing batteries or having one battery per 20 houses will be a much cheaper approach to providing these services.
"Another important finding was that as peaks are mainly in winter, the battery would still be largely available for storing energy from solar cells in summer, so this would be an additional service and not competing with the main use of the battery," Associate Professor Jack says.
While electricity markets are not currently set up to harness this potential, the situation is rapidly changing.
"There is currently a trial lead by Aurora Energy and SolarZero to use batteries in the way we have described in our paper to solve issues with constrained lines in upper Clutha. Once proven, this model has the potential to become much more widespread," he says.
In the future, many households may have batteries and be using these, or batteries within their electric vehicles, to provide services to the grid. These batteries and other appliances in homes and businesses will have smart controllers that enable them to reduce demand or feed electricity back into the grid to accommodate the fluctuations of variable renewable supply and minimize the need for grid infrastructure. People responding in this way would be paid for their services to the wider grid.
"This could enable a much lower cost, collective, route to decarbonizing New Zealand's energy system."
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Publication details:
Sizing domestic batteries for load smoothing and peak shaving based on real-world demand data
Jason Mair, Kiti Suomalainen, David M. Eyers and Michael W. Jack
From March through July 2020, an estimated 4.3 million more background checks for firearm purchases occurred nationwide than would have ordinarily -- an 85 percent increase. The total number of firearm purchases during this period was 9.3 million.
From April through July 2020, there was a 27% increase in interpersonal firearm injuries, which includes firearm homicides or nonfatal firearm assault injuries. This is approximately 4,075 more injuries than would be expected for that period.
"Early in the pandemic, there were news reports about an increase in firearm purchasing. Given what we know about the risks of firearm violence associated with firearm access in general, and firearm purchasing surges specifically, we expected to see a relationship between these two during the pandemic," said Julia Schleimer, lead author for the study and a research data analyst at VPRP.
States with the most excess firearm purchases per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)
An earlier study from VPRP had found an association between firearm purchases and violence through May 2020. The present study extended the analysis through July 2020 and examined firearm injuries from domestic violence separately from non-domestic violence.
"We know that access to firearms is a risk factor for intimate partner homicide. Last year, the increase in firearm purchasing combined with stay-at-home orders and multiple other stressors like job loss raised concern about increases in domestic violence," Schleimer said.
As expected, the authors found states where firearm purchases went up the most showed the largest increases in firearm injuries from domestic violence. This was particularly true during April and May when social distancing was at its peak. However, they note results should be interpreted with caution since additional analyses showed that other, unmeasured variables might explain the association.
States with highest average rate of firearm injuries from domestic violence per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)
1. Mississippi 0.23 2. Wyoming 0.17 3. West Virginia 0.16 4. Alabama 0.14 5. Louisiana 0.14
Firearm purchases and non-domestic violence
Surprisingly, the researchers did not find a similar correlation between excess firearm purchases and non-domestic violence at the state level. States with the largest increases in purchases from March through July 2020 did not experience the largest increases in non-domestic firearm violence.
"This was unexpected given prior studies. If we look at the country as a whole, we saw that purchasing and violence both went up on average. But when we looked state-by-state at the places in which firearm purchases increased the most, those weren't the places where the violence increased the most," Schleimer said.
To make these comparisons, the researchers tracked monthly firearm purchases per 100,000 population by state (using background checks as a proxy), along with monthly firearm injuries, fatal and nonfatal, per 100,000 people.
The data include the District of Columbia but not Alaska or Hawaii due to incomplete reporting. The study focuses on intentional, interpersonal firearm violence and does not include suicide or unintentional firearm injuries.
States and districts that had the highest rates of non-domestic firearm violence were the District of Columbia, Illinois, Louisiana, Missouri and Delaware.
States and districts with highest average rate of non-domestic firearm violence per 100,000 population (March-July 2020)
1. District of Columbia 10.2 2. Illinois 3.7 3. Louisiana 3.2 4. Missouri 2.6 5. Delaware 2.3
The results of the study suggest that pre-pandemic firearm access and other factors -- major disruptions to routines, grief from the pandemic, economic strain and unemployment, and civic unrest -- might have been important contributing factors to the pandemic-related increase firearm violence observed through July 2020.
"The increase in purchasing has continued unabated through the first half of 2021, and crime rates have increased as well. We, and others, will continue to examine the relationship between firearm availability and violence," said Garen Wintemute, director of the UC Davis VPRP and professor of emergency medicine at UC Davis Health.
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Additional authors on the study include Christopher D. McCort, Aaron B. Shev, Veronica A. Pear, Elizabeth Tomsich, Alaina De Biasi, Shani Buggs, and Hannah S. Laqueur from the VPRP team.
Support for this research was provided by the Joyce Foundation (grant no. 42400), the Heising-Simons Foundation (grant no. 2019-1728), and the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center.
The UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) is a multi-disciplinary program of research and policy development focused on the causes, consequences and prevention of violence. Studies assess firearm violence, the social conditions that underlie violence, and the connections between violence, substance abuse and mental illness. VPRP is home to the University of California Firearm Violence Research Center, which launched in 2017 with a $5 million appropriation from the state of California to conduct leading-edge research on firearm violence and its prevention. For more information, visit health.ucdavis.edu/vprp/.
New radio receiver opens wider window to radio universe
IMAGE: DISTRIBUTION OF CO ISOTOPOLOGUES IN THE ORION MOLECULAR CLOUD OBSERVED SIMULTANEOUSLY WITH THE NEWLY DEVELOPED BROADBAND RECEIVER. view more
CREDIT: OSAKA PREFECTURE UNIVERSITY/NAOJ
Researchers have used the latest wireless technology to develop a new radio receiver for astronomy. The receiver is capable of capturing radio waves at frequencies over a range several times wider than conventional ones, and can detect radio waves emitted by many types of molecules in space at once. This is expected to enable significant progresses in the study of the evolution of the Universe and the mechanisms of star and planet formation.
Interstellar molecular clouds of gas and dust provide the material for stars and planets. Each type of molecule emits radio waves at characteristic frequencies and astronomers have detected emissions from various molecules over a wide range of frequencies. By observing these radio waves, we can learn about the physical properties and chemical composition of interstellar molecular clouds. This has been the motivation driving the development of a wideband receiving system.
In general, the range of radio frequencies that can be observed simultaneously by a radio telescope is very limited. This is due to the characteristics of the components that make up a radio receiver. In this new research, the team of researchers in Osaka Prefecture University (OPU) and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has widened the bandwidth of various components, such as the horn that brings radio waves into the receiver, the waveguide (metal tube) circuit that propagates the radio waves, and the radio frequency converter. By combining these components into a receiver system, the team has achieved a range of simultaneously detectable frequencies several times larger than before. Furthermore, this receiver system was mounted on the OPU 1.85-m radio telescope in NAOJ's Nobeyama Radio Observatory, and succeeded in capturing radio waves from actual celestial objects. This shows that the results of this research are extremely useful in actual astronomical observations.
"It was a very emotional moment for me to share the joy of receiving radio waves from the Orion Nebula for the first time with the members of the team, using the receiver we had built," comments Yasumasa Yamasaki, an OPU graduate student and the lead author of the paper describing the development of the wideband receiver components. "I feel that this achievement was made possible by the cooperation of many people involved in the project."
When compared to the receivers currently used in the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the breadth of frequencies that can be simultaneously observed with the new receivers is striking. To cover the radio frequencies between 211 and 373 GHz, ALMA uses two receivers, Band 6 and 7, but can use only one of them at a given time. In addition, ALMA receivers can observe two strips of frequency ranges with widths of 5.5 and 4 GHz using the Band 6 and 7 receivers, respectively. In contrast, the new wideband receiver can cover all the frequencies with a single unit. In addition, especially in the higher frequency band, the receiver can detect radio waves in a frequency range of 17 GHz at a time.
"It was a very valuable experience for me to be involved in the development of this broadband receiver from the beginning to successful observation," says Sho Masui, a graduate student at OPU and the lead author of the research paper reporting the development of the receiver and the test observations. "Based on these experiences, I would like to continue to devote further efforts to the advancement of astronomy through instrument development."
This wideband technology has made it possible to observe the interstellar molecular clouds along the Milky Way more efficiently using the 1.85-m radio telescope. In addition, widening the receiver bandwidth is listed as one of the high priority items in the ALMA Development Roadmap which aims to further improve the performance of ALMA. This achievement is expected to be applied to ALMA and other large radio telescopes, and to make a significant contribution to enhance our understanding of the evolution of the Universe.
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These research results are presented in the following two papers published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan.
S. Masui et al. "Development of a new wideband heterodyne receiver system for the Osaka 1.85 m mm-submm telescope: Receiver development and the first light of simultaneous observations in 230 GHz and 345 GHz bands with an SIS-mixer with 4-21?GHz IF output" https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psab046
Y. Yamasaki et al. "Development of a new wideband heterodyne receiver system for the Osaka 1.85?m mm-submm telescope: Corrugated horn and optics covering the 210-375?GHz band" https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psab062
Creating a lab mangrove helps to identify new bacteria
KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)
IMAGE: USING A PIONEERING CULTIVATION STRATEGY, KAUST RESEARCHERS HAVE IDENTIFIED SEVERAL MICROORGANISMS IN RED SEA MANGROVES THAT WERE PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN TO SCIENCE. view more
A pioneering cultivation strategy that recreates a mangrove environment in the lab has enabled identification of novel bacteria residing in Red Sea mangroves and will help improve understanding of mangrove ecosystem stability, resilience and sustainability.
Mangroves are highly productive, dominant coastal ecosystems that line between 60-70 percent of the world's tropical and subtropical coastlines. They harbor diverse microbial communities thought to make up 80 percent of the ecosystem's biomass. Many of the microbial species, families and taxa are unknown to science.
The cultivation strategy was developed by a team of KAUST researchers, including Fatmah Sefrji and Ramona Marasco.
"Red Sea mangroves are particularly interesting because they represent an extreme and unique version of mangrove environments that are exposed to stressful conditions, including high temperatures, salinity and oligotrophy," says Sefrji. "These environmental stresses exert a strong selective force on the mangrove's microbial communities and so favor the presence of unique species and families."
The team's key challenge was to recreate the mangrove environment in the lab so that they could grow the bacteria in their natural setting. They moved portions of the mangrove sediment and seawater to lab-based growth chambers because in artificial media, it is nearly impossible to reproduce all the molecules, such as nutrients and vitamins, and the molecular cross-communication that are necessary for healthy microbial growth.
"It is difficult to successfully cultivate so-called 'microbial dark matter'-- the environmental microorganisms that are unknown to science and have never been cultured before," says Marasco. "There are so many molecules and parameters important for the growth of a given microbial species from a particular setting."
Once the growth chambers were set up, the team cultivated the resident microbial communities by feeding them regularly with nutrients taken from the natural mangrove environment. They then analyzed the genotypes and phenotypes of selected bacterial isolates, discovering a series of new species, and even taxa. Two papers highlight the first two organisms new to science, the bacterium Mangrovivirga cuniculi (new family Mangrovivirgaceae) and a new bacterial strain called Kaustia mangrovi.
"Both organisms grow in the presence of relatively high salinity and temperature and in the pH range typical of mangrove sediment on the Red Sea," says Sefrji. "Despite their similar physiology, each bacterial isolate showed unique physical and biochemical characteristics, confirmed also by the analysis of their genomes."
The researchers hope the identification of these organisms will contribute to a wider understanding of mangroves and provide insight into effective ways of protecting these unique ecosystems, particularly in light of climate change. The ability to cultivate Red Sea mangrove bacteria at scale could have significant implications, and not just for mangroves themselves.
"Cultivating members of a microbial community adapted to the variable and harsh conditions of the Red Sea may represent an important source of metabolites and enzymes for future biotechnological applications," says Marasco. "For example, bacteria that promote plant growth could boost mangrove seedling establishment, while others could confer salt tolerance to cereal crops. We are actively characterizing our novel strains for such capacities."
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Can whale poo help save the planet?
Whales were hunted nearly to extinction. A new report shows how important they are for healthy oceans. They can even help mitigate climate change.
Washington, DC (July 6, 2021) --The International Whaling Commission (IWC) was founded to regulate whaling. Today, it also increasingly focuses on the value of live whales for planetary health. A new workshop report confirms the great ecological value of whales to help mitigate climate change, transport nutrients, enhance marine productivity, and promote biodiversity in marine ecosystems.
The world's leading experts gathered for a three-day workshop in April that was co-hosted by the IWC and the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). The meeting came in response to a 2016 IWC resolution, introduced by the government of Chile, to compile scientific information about the ecological roles of cetaceans (whales and dolphins).
The workshop discussions focused on a number of primary ecosystem functions of cetaceans: nutrient transport both in the water column and between their foraging and breeding grounds, the impact of "whale falls" (when whales die and sink to the seafloor) on biodiversity and carbon storage, and the role of cetaceans as predators and prey. A series of expert presentations provided compelling evidence of the multi-faceted and beneficial impacts of cetaceans on marine ecosystems, such as their contribution to ocean productivity through their excrement (which can impact fishing yields) and their large bodies acting as carbon sinks (which can contribute to combating climate change).
"It is meaningful that the commission embraced the principles of the resolution that we proposed in 2016 for the protection of these marine mammals," said Jose Fernandez, Chilean commissioner to the IWC. "It is a strong recognition -- of a permanent and visionary nature -- about the need and obligation of our society to strengthen an ethical imperative. Its effects will translate into an instrument of enormous effectiveness for the protection and sustainable use of marine resources and ocean ecosystems, as well as to tackle the harmful effects of climate change."
"Scientific evidence demonstrating the valuable role of cetaceans as ecosystem engineers, including their ability to sequester carbon and enhance biodiversity, is expanding each day," said Dr. Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont and the lead author of a primary report prepared for the workshop. "It is critical that the IWC and its members consider this evidence as part of their ongoing efforts to manage and recover cetacean populations."
The workshop highlighted how commercial whaling has contributed to the slaughter of nearly 3 million whales in the 20th century alone, significantly diminishing the animals' ability to mitigate climate change. As some whale populations have recovered following decades of protection, they have resumed their role in helping fix and store carbon. However, that beneficial role continues to be hindered by other threats to cetaceans, particularly bycatch in fishing gear.
"Commercial whaling not only caused the extinction or near extinction of several whale populations, but it also resulted in the catastrophic loss of their ecosystem benefits," said Sue Fisher, marine animal consultant for the Animal Welfare Institute. "We must learn from the mistakes of the past and, for the sake of the whales and ocean health, end commercial whaling once and for all."
"As the world grapples with the dire consequences of climate change, it is imperative that all solutions -- large and small -- are considered to mitigate these threats," said Steven Lutz, senior program officer and blue carbon lead at GRID-Arendal, a United Nations Environment Programme partner based in Norway. "Protecting cetaceans is essential to promoting oceanic blue carbon as a nature-based solution to our changing climate, and it's time for the governments of the world to recognize this important value at the United Nations climate change conference in November."
"The decimation of cetacean populations over the last 200 years has knocked the marine ecosystem out of balance," said Astrid Fuchs, policy manager at Whale and Dolphin Conservation. "We now know that by helping whale and dolphin populations recover, they can help to heal the ocean as part of a nature-based solution to climate and ecological emergencies. For this to happen, the IWC and its member countries must urgently strengthen protections for cetaceans, reducing the risks from bycatch, whaling, pollution and ship strikes, and creating safe places for them to live and breed."
"During the last five decades (i.e., within a whale species' life expectancy), humans have come to learn about their intelligence, social complexities, and whale culture. Now, science reveals more and more about their important role for a healthy ocean and nature-based solution to climate change," said Fabienne McLellan, co-director of international relations at OceanCare focusing to end direct hunts. "While whales became THE symbol for the environmental movement in the 1970s, they should be truly treated as THE symbol for our ocean as our life-support system. We need to protect them with all our efforts, as our life depends on them."
