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)
IMAGE: EARTHQUAKES DETECTED BY THE DAS SYSTEM.view more
CREDIT: CHEN YANG ET AL
When it comes to optical fibers, the underground optical cables that transmit tons of information at a time are more familiar to us. Few would ever associate optical fibers with earthquake detection.
Recently, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) successfully developed a Distributed Acoustic/Vibration Sensing (DAS/DVS) system with independent intellectual property rights. Taking advantage of the existing communication optical cables, this system can be applied to earthquake detection, geological hazard prediction, subsurface structure imaging and so on.
When an earthquake occurs, the optical cable will be stretched or compressed due to the strain from seismic waves. As a result of elasto-optical effect of coherent laser in fiber optic medium, the amplitude as well as the phase of Rayleigh Scattering will be changed. Thus, by receiving and demodulating Rayleigh backscattering, information about seismic waves can be obtained. The DAS technology takes advantage of the mentioned elasto-optical effect to detect and transmit external oscillation and sound wave signals. With a series of merits like excellent anti-interference performance, high integration level, long-distance transmission, DAS technology has created a new path for earthquake detection and subsurface structure imaging.
The key technology of this system includes DAS laser sources, detection of coherent light, demodulation of beat frequency signal and algorithm. And the equipment now has the capacity of detecting frequency between 10 mHz to 20 kHz, with positional accuracy of 3.5m and detection length of up to 40km.
Since deployed at Mount Zipeng in Hefei, the DAS equipment has successfully detected a magnitude-2.3 earthquake in Dingyuan County, a 2.7-magnitude earthquake in Xuancheng, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake in the Philippines and many other regional and global earthquakes.
When it comes to optical fibers, the underground optical cables that transmit tons of information at a time are more familiar to us. Few would ever associate optical fibers with earthquake detection.
Recently, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) successfully developed a Distributed Acoustic/Vibration Sensing (DAS/DVS) system with independent intellectual property rights. Taking advantage of the existing communication optical cables, this system can be applied to earthquake detection, geological hazard prediction, subsurface structure imaging and so on.
When an earthquake occurs, the optical cable will be stretched or compressed due to the strain from seismic waves. As a result of elasto-optical effect of coherent laser in fiber optic medium, the amplitude as well as the phase of Rayleigh Scattering will be changed. Thus, by receiving and demodulating Rayleigh backscattering, information about seismic waves can be obtained. The DAS technology takes advantage of the mentioned elasto-optical effect to detect and transmit external oscillation and sound wave signals. With a series of merits like excellent anti-interference performance, high integration level, long-distance transmission, DAS technology has created a new path for earthquake detection and subsurface structure imaging.
The key technology of this system includes DAS laser sources, detection of coherent light, demodulation of beat frequency signal and algorithm. And the equipment now has the capacity of detecting frequency between 10 mHz to 20 kHz, with positional accuracy of 3.5m and detection length of up to 40km.
Since deployed at Mount Zipeng in Hefei, the DAS equipment has successfully detected a magnitude-2.3 earthquake in Dingyuan County, a 2.7-magnitude earthquake in Xuancheng, a magnitude-6.6 earthquake in the Philippines and many other regional and global earthquakes.
Less passive screen time, more structure better for kids’ mental health during pandemic
There are a number of simple, practical steps that families can take—including reducing passive screen time and news consumption, having a structured daily schedule and getting enough sleep—that can promote resilience against mental health problems in youth during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Maya Rosen of Harvard University, US, and colleagues.
The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced unprecedented change into the lives of children and adolescents. Many of these disruptions, coupled with pandemic-related stressors, are likely to increase risk for depression, anxiety and behavioral problems in youth.
In the new study, researchers recruited participants from two ongoing longitudinal studies of children and adolescents in the greater Seattle area. 224 youth and their caregivers completed an initial questionnaire assessing social behaviors, psychopathology and pandemic-related stressors in April and May 2020; 184 of these youth and their caregivers completed a similar battery of assessments six months later, in November 2020 through January 2021. Since data on each youth was available from prior to the pandemic, results at each time point could be controlled for pre-pandemic symptoms. The youth ranged in age from 7 to 15 years old, were 47.8% female, and their racial and ethnic background reflected the Seattle are, with 66% of participants White, 11% Black, 11% Asian and 8% Hispanic or Latino.
The number of pandemic-related stressors was strongly associated with increases in both internalizing (β=0.345, p<0.001) and externalizing (β=0.297, p<0.001) symptoms during the pandemic after controlling for pre-pandemic symptoms. Early in the pandemic, youths who spent less time on digital devices (β=0.272, p=.0004) as well as those who consumed less than 2 hours of news per day (β=0.193, p=.010) had lower externalizing symptoms, while greater time spend in nature was marginally associated with lower internalizing symptoms (β=-0.124, p=.074). Getting the recommended amount of sleep (β=0.-0.158, p=.080) and having a more structured daily routine during stay-at-home orders (β=-0.164, p=.049) was associated with lower levels of externalizing psychopathology six months later. Finally, the strong association between pandemic-related stressors and psychopathology was absent among children with lower amounts of screen time and news media consumption. The authors write that the study identifies a set of strategies that can be beneficial to families when considering how to support the mental health of their children during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The authors add: "Mental health problems increased dramatically among children and adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among those who experienced high levels of pandemic-related stressors including serious illness or death of a family member, significant financial loss, and social isolation. A number of simple strategies families engaged in appeared to promote better mental health during the pandemic including having a structured daily routine, limiting passive screen time use, limiting exposure to news media about the pandemic, and to a lesser extent spending more time in nature, and getting the recommended amount of sleep."
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Citation: Rosen ML, Rodman AM, Kasparek SW, Mayes M, Freeman MM, Lengua LJ, et al. (2021) Promoting youth mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study. PLoS ONE 16(8): e0255294. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255294
Funding: Funding/Support: This work was supported by the Bezos Family Foundation (to ANM) for collection of data. This work was also supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human development (F32 HD089514 and K99 HD099203 to MLR) and the National Institute of Mental Health (R01 MH106482 to KAM).
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Promoting youth mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
11-Aug-2021
COI STATEMENT
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
Microplastics hinder the growth of microscopic marine animals
Plastic pollution is not just a problem for larger marine animals: microscopic plankton are also affected, with implications for the entire marine food web
Microscopic marine predators can ingest microplastic, which in turn lowers their growth and overall abundance, finds a recent study published in Frontiers in Marine Science. This has implications for the larger marine animals that feed on these tiny predators, both in terms of available food and the transfer of energy up the food chain.
“The plastic pollution of our oceans isn’t just affecting whales and sea turtles, it also impacts the small, microscopic animals towards the bottom of the food chain,” said Susanne Menden-Deuer, coauthor of this research and a professor at the Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, USA.
“Our study shows that some single-celled marine predators called dinoflagellates ingest microplastic particles, and when they do, they grow 30% more slowly than those that eat just their typical algal prey. Consequently, this can almost halve the abundance of dinoflagellates, which will have an impact on the larger marine animals that feed on these tiny creatures.”
Small but mighty
Dinoflagellates may be amongst the smallest predators in the ocean, but they play a huge role in grazing on phytoplankton – the single-celled algae at the base of the marine food web – and moving this food energy up the food chain to larger animals.
“We know that microplastics the size of phytoplankton exist in the ocean, so we wanted to understand if dinoflagellates ingest these particles thinking they are phytoplankton, and if doing so impacted their growth and ultimately the wider marine food web,” explained Victoria Fulfer, who completed this work as part of her doctoral studies at University of Rhode Island, USA.
The researchers separately incubated three different species of dinoflagellates with algal prey or high concentrations of microplastics in bottles of seawater to see if they ingested the plastic particles. They compared the growth of the dinoflagellates feeding on algae with those fed on plastic.
'Spider-Man' dinoflagellate avoids plastic
“Two dinoflagellate species ingested the microplastics, although one did show a preference for their natural algal prey, suggesting not all of these tiny predators are affected equally. We then observed that the growth of the dinoflagellates that ate the plastic was considerably reduced,” explained Susanne Menden-Deuer. “Interestingly, one dinoflagellate did not eat the microplastic particles. It has a different feeding mechanism to the others. Like Spider-Man, it throws a web around its prey and digests it externally, which would not work for microplastics.”
Fulfer continued, “The reduced growth by the dinoflagellates that ingested microplastics means that the amount of energy transferred up the food chain is also reduced. It is clear the effects of microplastics at the base of the marine food web can have wide-spread consequences, but more research will be needed to understand how far the effects we have seen in this study will radiate through food webs and how soon we might be able to see those effects in the ocean.”
Menden-Deuer said the team also hope to examine how plastic aging may affect the predator’s plastic preference. “We know that bacteria grow on microplastics over time, changing the biology and chemistry on the plastic surface. Much of the signaling and communication in the plankton happens through chemicals. We expect that aged plastics would be eaten even more vigorously than the pristine ones we offered in our experiments.”
JOURNAL
Frontiers in Marine Science
DOI
10.3389/fmars.2021.716349
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Experimental study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Animals
ARTICLE TITLE
Heterotrophic Dinoflagellate Growth and Grazing Rates Reduced by Microplastic Ingestion
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
11-Aug-2021
COI STATEMENT
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest
Most powerful laser in US to begin operations at U-M, supported by $18.5M from NSF
Said to put the U.S. back on the map of high power laser facilities, the 3 petawatt ZEUS laser at the University of Michigan has been awarded $18.5 million by the National Science Foundation to establish it as a federally funded international user facility.
ZEUS is expected to begin its first experiments in early 2022.
"We are really looking forward to the exciting experiments that this new facility will make possible," said Karl Krushelnick, director of the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, where ZEUS's construction is almost finished.
The U.S. built the world's first petawatt laser in 1996 but hasn't kept pace with more ambitious systems under construction elsewhere in the world. This includes two 10-petawatt lasers in Europe and a 5.3-petawatt laser in China, which also has plans to build a 100-petawatt laser. While the new laser doesn't pack as much raw power, its approach will simulate a laser that is roughly a million times more powerful than its 3 petawatts.
ZEUS will primarily be used to study extreme plasmas, a state of matter in which electrons break free of their atoms, forming what amounts to charged gases.
Experiments at the facility are expected to contribute to the understanding of how the universe operates at the subatomic level, how astrophysical phenomena such as jets can be produced by black holes, how materials change on extremely fast timescales, and to the development of smaller and more efficient particle accelerators for medical imaging and treatment.
"Extreme plasma made with 'table-top' laser technology offers a lower-cost alternative for fundamental research in physics compared to large scale particle accelerators, which cost billions to build," said Franko Bayer, project manager of the construction of ZEUS. "We are very excited since this support enables the U.S plasma science community, and us at U-M, to make long-term research plans."
At first, one of the three target areas will launch experiments at half a petawatt, a sixth of its peak power. The laser will send either one or five ultrashort laser pulses per second, with each pulse lasting between 20 and 25 quadrillionths of a second, into targets made of gas—turning gas atoms into plasma. The system will gradually ramp up to full power over two years, scheduled to begin its signature experiments and user operations in October 2023.
That setup will eventually send the full power laser beam into a vacuum chamber where the laser beam will be focused on a gas target with a colliding electron beam traveling in the opposite direction, simulating a much higher power zetawatt laser. While a petawatt is a quadrillion watts, or a 1 followed by 15 zeros, a zetawatt is 1 quintillion watts, or a 1 followed by 21 zeros. This gives ZEUS its name, the "Zetawatt Equivalent Ultrashort pulse laser System." At full power, pulses will come every minute.
In step with operations, the funding from the NSF will ramp up gradually as the ZEUS facility reaches full capacity, providing $1 million for the year starting in October 2021 and $5.5 million for the year starting October 2025, the last year of the award. ZEUS is expected to operate as the most powerful laser in the U.S. and as an open user facility, for at least a decade.
ZEUS will primarily be an international user facility, enabling experimental teams from around the world to travel to U-M to run experiments. Proposals will be evaluated by an external panel of scientists and engineers. Because of the funding from the NSF, there will be no cost to users whose experiment proposals are selected to conduct research.
"We look forward to the greatly increased capability and access to the highest intensity lasers that the NSF ZEUS user facility will provide for the U.S. and international scientific community," said Vyacheslav (Slava) Lukin, the NSF program director for plasma physics.
"From the fundamental physics of light and matter, to powerful astrophysical phenomena like blazars, to compact particle accelerators, the users of the facility will be able to explore a wide range of phenomena while pushing the frontiers of technology."
Co-principal investigators on the award are Igor Jovanovic, a professor of nuclear engineering and radiological sciences (NERS); Alexander Thomas, a professor of NERS, physics and electrical and computer engineering (ECE); Carolyn Kuranz, an associate professor of NERS and climate and space science; and Louise Willingale, an assistant professor of ECE. Krushelnick is also a professor of NERS, ECE and physics.
Superspreading events have proven to be the primary mode of infection driving the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to an inaccurate perception of risk. While more than half a million people in the United States died from COVID-19 during the past year, the public’s perception of infection and mortality remain variable. A survey conducted early in the pandemic found that local perceptions of risk often do not correlate with the national infection rate, leading people to take inappropriate actions. The results are available in the August 16 issue of the journal Decision.
“When the pandemic first began, things seemed scary in the abstract, and for many Americans, the worst of it was not in their own backyards,” said Stephen Broomell, associate professor in the Department of Social and Decisional Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and first author on the study. “It’s difficult to fully understand the risk of something that is not visible, and as many people failed to immediately experience the impacts of the pandemic, local experiences colored how serious they believed the problem was and even what kind of actions they were willing to take.”
Broomell has spent his career studying how people grapple with risk on topics that exist beyond their perception, like tornadoes, climate change and now the pandemic. His research examines why it is so challenging to get groups to make collective decisions to mitigate risk. When the pandemic hit, Broomell and his colleague Patrick Bodilly Kane, a post-doctorate research fellow in the biomedical ethics unit at McGill University, applied a cognitive-ecological approach to predict population-level judgement accuracy regarding pandemic risk.
“There is not one pandemic debate but many pandemic debates,” said Kane. “It is hard for people to connect their experience locally to a global phenomenon.”
The team examined the variability of an individual’s experience with risk by modeling a superspreading progression. Local infection rates were used to approximate an individual’s geographically local perception of the pandemic. The global risk was defined by the national infection rate, which represents the severity of the pandemic. They also conducted a national survey, consisting of almost 4,000 survey results obtained between April 24, 2020 and May 11, 2020.
“It’s not that people were wholly unaware of the national and international infection rates, but because of the way this particular disease spread within clusters, there was a real chance that an individual might not have encountered anyone who they knew to be infected,” said Broomell. “Every community had an equal probability of experiencing a cluster, but for any given community, especially at the beginning, this probability was low.”
In the study, global trends are a combination of all local trends. If the local trends are unreliable, they will not correlate with the global data. For this reason, the team used reliability to gauge the validity of judgements based on local observations from the survey results.
They found that early in the pandemic decision makers were not accounting for super spreading events as a mechanism for infection. While people were relying on high-level institutions for information, community-level organizations lacked support to help people understand the risk. Their results found that county-level daily infection rates are a significant predictor of judgments of national infection rates, as well as the extreme polarization regarding the perception of risk throughout the pandemic.
“Understanding this interplay between what people see and how disease really spreads will help us as we prepare for similar situations in the future,” said Broomell.
The study is based on a survey conducted over 18 days at the beginning of the pandemic. The researchers do not anticipate the results of this survey will be generalizable to perceptions of risk as the pandemic progresses.
“Our work is about COVID-19 but it is so much more than that,” said Kane. “The thing that is creating the disaster is affecting all of us but at different times. This dynamic is present in a lot of places where you might not expect it. People cannot see larger trends because they are caught up with what is in front of them.”
According to Broomell, this study exemplifies a general framework to predict how citizens will react to global risks. A clear understanding of the sources of collective judgment errors can help future generations to respond more effectively to global threats.
“We’ve known for a long time that people have been personally experiencing climate change in widely divergent ways, which, much like with COVID, impacts their sense of urgency to take action,” said Broomell. “While psychological reactions to global climate change will take decades to fully understand, the pandemic played out much more quickly, showing the world how difficult it can be to get people to agree on risks that ultimately affect everyone.”
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Broomell and Kane received funding from the National Science Foundation for the project, titled “Perceiving a Pandemic: Global-local Incompatibility and COVID-19 Superspreading Events.”
JOURNAL
Decision
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1037/dec0000155
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Survey
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Perceiving a Pandemic: Global-local Incompatibility and COVID-19 Superspreading Events
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
16-Aug-2021
Survivors of trauma struggle to move on from the loss of loved ones
Treating post-traumatic stress symptoms early could prevent persistent grief later, study finds
Among individuals who survive a trauma that resulted in the loss of a close friend or loved one, symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder can predict complicated grief – a sense of persistent sadness and an inability to cope – years after the trauma, according to research published by the American Psychological Association.
“Grief is a normal response to the loss of someone close, but traumatic losses may severely harm survivors for years,” said Kristin Alve Glad, PhD, a researcher at the Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies and lead author of the study. “Our findings suggest that when treating trauma survivors, targeting symptoms of PTSD early might help them avoid complicated grief later on.”
For most people who experience grief, feelings of distress and bereavement tend to diminish over time, according to Glad. In the case of complicated grief, instead of fading, symptoms can often linger or worsen and can impair or prevent people from living their normal lives.
“Complicated grief has been defined as a persistent, intense yearning, longing and sadness, usually accompanied by insistent thoughts or images of the deceased and a sense of disbelief or an inability to accept the painful reality of the person’s death,” said Glad.
In the study, published in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, researchers interviewed survivors of a 2011 domestic terrorist attack on Utøya, an island in Norway, who lost someone close to them in the attack. Of the 275 participants, 256 lost a close friend, six lost a family member and 13 lost a close friend and a family member/partner.
Participants took part in individual, face-to-face interviews with experienced health care personnel three times following the attack on Utøya: 4-5 months, 14-15 months and 30-32 months after the attack. The interviews included questions about the post-traumatic stress symptoms and complicated grief reactions (e.g., trouble accepting the death of their loved one, interference of grief in their daily life, troubling thoughts relating to death, avoidance of reminders of the loss and feelings of isolation or distance from others).
Researchers found that participants who reported symptoms of PTSD were significantly more likely to report symptoms of complicated grief as well. They also found that participants who experienced early symptoms of PTSD a year after the attack experienced even greater symptoms of complicated grief years later.
“The fact that we found that PTSD symptoms predicted complicated grief reactions at a subsequent time point, but complicated grief did not predict the development of PTSD, is interesting, because it suggests that targeting PTSD symptoms may hinder later development of complicated grief,” said Glad. “This may have important implications for clinicians working with bereaved trauma survivors.”
The researchers believe that the effects of the terrorist attack on the survivors were particularly severe because they did not just lose a loved one – they were directly exposed to the attack as well. This dual burden of the unexpected loss and the survivors’ high exposure to trauma may result in a different trajectory of PTSD symptoms and complicated grief than for bereaved who are not directly exposed to the trauma.
These findings could apply to anyone who has lost a loved one in a potentially traumatizing way, according to Glad. Knowledge about the relationship between symptoms of PTSD and complicated grief over time may help clinicians develop more effective treatment strategies and formulate better treatment plans for the survivors who struggle the most to cope, the researchers said.
Contact: Kristin Alve Glad can be reached via email at k.a.glad@nkvts.no.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA’s membership includes nearly 122,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people’s lives.
JOURNAL
Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy
DOI
10.1037/tra0001087
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
The Longitudinal Association Between Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress and Complicated Grief. A Random Intercepts Cross-Lag Analysis
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
16-Aug-2021
Stem cell therapy restores injured tendons to full health in study on sheep
IMAGE: THE GROUP TREATED WITH STROMAL VASCULAR FRACTION SHOWED A FINAL TENDON DIAMETER AND A PERCENTAGE HARDNESS EXPRESSION THAT WERE SIMILAR TO THE ORIGINAL HEALTHY TENDON.view more
CREDIT: ALPHAMED PRESS
Durham, NC – Tendon injuries in sheep that were treated with stem cell grafts achieved, in just two months, a diameter and hardness similar to the original healthy tendon, according to the results of a study released in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM). These findings suggest that the treatment, which uses autologous adipose micrografts – grafts of stem cells derived from fat taken from the recipient – presents a safe, reliable and relatively fast way to promote tendon healing.
Tendons are the fibrous tissues connecting muscle to bones. Their job is to transmit the contraction force produced by muscles to the bone they hold, thereby achieving movement. Due to overuse or age-related degeneration, tendon injuries have become a common clinical problem. Damaged tendons heal slowly, and current treatments often can’t manage the pain. They also are unable to restore the tendon’s original structure and functionality.
“Not only does the patient suffer, but the increased incidence rate and ineffective treatments of tendon and other musculoskeletal disorders have resulted in a rise of up to $874 billion from 2000 to 2015, representing an important socioeconomic burden on healthcare worldwide; hence, an effective and affordable therapeutic plan is surely imperative,” said Francesco De Francesco, M.D., a member of the Reconstructive Surgery and Hand Surgery unit at AOU “Ospedali Riuniti” (United Hospitals) of Ancona, Italy. He was co-senior author of the new study, which was a multi-institutional collaboration involving colleagues from his University as well as from the University of Camerino, University of Parma, Polytechnic University of Marche and the University of Ferrara.
In the search for new and better ways to heal injured tendons, the medical world is looking closely at regenerative therapies. In particular, autologous adipose micrografts (AAMGs) and stromal vascular fraction (SVF) are showing promise. SVF, derived from adipose tissue, contains heterogeneous cell populations such as mesenchymal progenitor/stem cells, endothelial cells, pericytes, T cells and M2 macrophages. SVF-derived mesenchymal progenitor/stem cells can be easily expanded in vitro and have the potential to create diverse lineages of cells.
In a previous study on rats, AAMGs and SVF improved tendon healing in 60 percent to 70 percent of treated animals. The purpose of this new study reported on in SCTM was to evaluate the effects of AAMG in sheep with tendinopathy, as larger animals are more comparable to humans than are rodents.
“This is also the first study on an animal model employing a mechanical fat breakdown system (Rigenera Technology, Rigenera®, HBW srl, Turin, Italy) as an alternative to enzymatic digestion to isolate the SVF. The process consists of gently disaggregating adipose tissue using a particular micro-blade grid and a filter for cells within a sterile capsule. This device leads to the generation of a micrograft suspension that is ready for use and rich in SVF, extracellular matrix fragments and growth factors, and facilitates and enhances the regenerative potential of the isolated tissue fragments,” Dr. De Francesco explained.
This procedure is able to maintain the microenvironment of the perivascular niche, while at the same time removing any pro-inflammatory factors. The residual SVF contain pericytes that are able to gradually convert into activated adipose stem cells.
“The resulting AAMG has a great anti-inflammatory and healing effect when applied to musculoskeletal disorders. Moreover, the harvesting procedure is easier, faster, safer, and more reliable and with less morbidity to the donor site than harvesting bone marrow or platelet-rich plasma,” he added.
The team carried out the study by inducing tendinopathy in both common calcaneal tendons (CCT) of 16 female sheep. Tendinopathy is a breakdown of collagen in a tendon, resulting in burning pain, reduced flexibility and limited range of motion.
Four animals were assigned to a non-treated group as a control. Each of the other 12 sheep had one CCT injected with AAMG, while its contralateral CCT was left untreated.
“Two-months post-inoculation, data gained from our analyses showed that in the group treated with SVF the tendon diameter and hardness were similar to that of uninjured tendons. Additionally, we observed positive effects in matrix composition in the treated tendons and in collagen deposits, as well as noted improved blood vessel formation within the lesion sites,” reported co-senior author Michele Riccio, M.D., director of the Reconstructive Surgery and Hand Surgery Unit at AOU United Hospitals of Ancona, Italy.
“Our findings suggest that the beneficial effects of tendon repair induced by SVF is attributable to the maintenance and induction of tendon fiber organization, rather than an increase in a pool of cells as part of the healing process,” he continued. “This further indicates that SVFs represent a safe, reliable and more effective treatment for tendinopathy, with a lower rate of post-intervention complications, than current therapies. We believe it strengthens the rationale for their use as a tendinopathy treatment in humans.”
“This pre-clinical study using stem cell grafts derived from fat to heal tendon injuries holds promise for future treatment for humans,” said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. “These results are certainly promising and indicate a potential therapy to help injuries that occur from overuse or typical degeneration.”
About STEM CELLS Translational Medicine: STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), co-published by AlphaMed Press and Wiley, is a monthly peer-reviewed publication dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology. By bridging stem cell research and clinical trials, SCTM will help move applications of these critical investigations closer to accepted best practices. SCTM is the official journal partner of Regenerative Medicine Foundation.
About AlphaMed Press: Established in 1983, AlphaMed Press with offices in Durham, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, publishes two other internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals: STEM CELLS® (http://www.StemCells.com), celebrating its 39th year, is the world's first journal devoted to this fast paced field of research. The Oncologist® (http://www.TheOncologist.com), also a monthly peer-reviewed publication, entering its 26th year, is devoted to community and hospital-based oncologists and physicians entrusted with cancer patient care. All three journals are premier periodicals with globally recognized editorial boards dedicated to advancing knowledge and education in their focused disciplines.
About Wiley: Wiley, a global company, helps people and organizations develop the skills and knowledge they need to succeed. Our online scientific, technical, medical and scholarly journals, combined with our digital learning, assessment and certification solutions, help universities, learned societies, businesses, governments and individuals increase the academic and professional impact of their work. For more than 200 years, we have delivered consistent performance to our stakeholders. The company's website can be accessed at http://www.wiley.com.
About Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF): The non-profit Regenerative Medicine Foundation fosters strategic collaborations to accelerate the development of regenerative medicine to improve health and deliver cures. RMF pursues its mission by producing its flagship World Stem Cell Summit, honouring leaders through the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Action Awards, and promoting educational initiatives.
JOURNAL
Stem Cells Translational Medicine
DOI
10.1002/sctm.20-0496
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Experimental study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Animals
ARTICLE TITLE
Adipose micro-grafts enhance tendinopathy healing in ovine model: An in vivo experimental perspective study
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
16-Aug-2021
Researchers publish new theory of life’s multiple origins
IMAGE: WHAT IF LIFE IS BETTER UNDERSTOOD ON THE ANALOGY OF THE EYE, A CONVERGENT ORGAN THAT EVOLVED FROM INDEPENDENT ORIGINS?view more
CREDIT: PETE LINFORTH/PIXABAY
The history of life on Earth has often been likened to a four-billion-year-old torch relay. One flame, lit at the beginning of the chain, continues to pass on life in the same form all the way down. But what if life is better understood on the analogy of the eye, a convergent organ that evolved from independent origins? What if life evolved not just once, but multiple times independently?
In a new paper, published in the Journal of Molecular Evolution, Santa Fe Institute researchers Chris Kempes and David Krakauer argue that in order to recognize life’s full range of forms, we must develop a new theoretical frame.
In their three-layered frame, Kempes and Krakauer call for researchers to consider, first, the full space of materials in which life could be possible; second, the constraints that limit the universe of possible life; and, third, the optimization processes that drive adaptation. In general, the framework considers life as adaptive information and adopts the analogy of computation to capture the processes central to life.
Several significant possibilities emerge when we consider life within the new framework. First, life originates multiple times — some apparent adaptations are actually “a new form of life, not just an adaptation,” explains Krakauer — and it takes a far broader range of forms than conventional definitions allow.
Culture, computation, and forests are all forms of life in this frame. As Kempes explains, “human culture lives on the material of minds, much like multicellular organisms live on the material of single-celled organisms.”
When researchers focus on the life traits of single organisms, they often neglect the extent to which organisms’ lives depend upon entire ecosystems as their fundamental material, and also ignore the ways that a life system may be more or less living. Within the Kempes-Krakauer framework, by contrast, another implication appears: life becomes a continuum rather than a binary phenomenon. In this vein, the authors point to a variety of recent efforts that quantitatively place life on a spectrum.
By taking a broader view of life’s principles, Kempes and Krakauer hope to generate more fertile theories for studying life. With clearer principles for finding life forms, and a new range of possible life forms that emerges from new principles, we’ll not only clarify what life is, explains Krakauer, we’ll also be better equipped “to build devices to find life,” to create it in labs, and to recognize to what degree the life we see is living.
IMAGE: SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES PERFORMED A DROP TEST FOR THE W88 ALT 370 SYSTEM, DESIGNED TO REPLICATE A CRANE ACCIDENTALLY DROPPING THE RE-ENTRY BODY ONTO A CONCRETE SURFACE. THE TEST WAS CONDUCTED AT SANDIA’S 185-FOOT DROP TOWER FACILITY, USING THE SAME HANDLING GEAR A CRANE WOULD USE TO MOVE THE WEAPON.view more
CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Sandia National Laboratories and its nuclear security enterprise partners recently completed the first production unit of a weapon assembly responsible for key operations of the W88 nuclear warhead.
“The arming, fuzing and firing assembly is the brains of the warhead,” said Dolores Sanchez, senior manager of the W88 Alteration 370 for Sandia. “It looks for the correct code and the correct environmental signals that will unlock the system, and it also ensures that it’s an authorized flight. In short, it makes sure it always works when we want it to and never when we don’t.”
The Kansas City National Security Campus completed production and shipped the first unit for the W88 Alt 370 arming, fuzing and firing, known as AF&F, assembly at the end of May, three days ahead of schedule. The first fully operable unit was received the next day at the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas. That shipment was followed quickly by completion of the system-level first production unit for the W88 Alt 370 at Pantex in early July.
The W88 nuclear warhead entered the stockpile in late 1988 and is deployed on the Navy’s Trident II submarine-launched ballistic missile system onboard Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines. The weapon was beyond its original design life, and several updates were required to address aging issues and to maintain its current state of readiness. The W88 Alt 370 to modernize the warhead primarily included an updated AF&F assembly and a refresh of the conventional high explosive.
The AF&F assembly redesign was more than a decade in the making and included hundreds of people at Sandia working on more than a dozen major components that needed to be refreshed and requalified because of changes in technologies over the past three decades, said Jed Alderete, manager of the W88 Alt 370 AF&F assembly for Sandia. The assembly includes radar, communication, guidance and other key safety and security components.
“It speaks to the dedication of those involved throughout Sandia and the nuclear security enterprise for over a decade that the AF&F has been completed,” he said. “It is the major piece of the alteration, and it’s a huge accomplishment for all of Sandia.”
Tests ensure AF&F assembly works with W88 warhead
Reaching the first production milestone for the assembly means it underwent an extensive set of tests to ensure it always works when authorized and never otherwise. The full-system W88 Alt 370 went through similar rigorous testing to ensure its reliability and safety. The tests also ensure the AF&F assembly can be successfully integrated along with the W88 warhead into the full weapon system.
Impact, vibration, drops, extreme temperatures and massive electrical impulses are just some of the tests conducted to show the AF&F assembly will operate as intended.
The pairing of computational analysis and advanced computer algorithms with field testing data, including flight tests, combine to validate the AF&F design and its integration into the W88 Alt 370.
Under the guidance of the National Nuclear Security Administration, several national labs and plants have important roles in the program. Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratory are the engineering and design labs for the W88 Alt 370. Sandia also manufactures integrated circuits and thermal batteries and serves as the technical integrator for the complete weapon, assuring that the system meets requirements as a whole and not just as individual parts.
Los Alamos also manufactures detonator assemblies; the Kansas City National Security Campus manufactures polymers, foams, gas transfer system components, cables, lightning arrestor connectors, reentry body hardware, Joint Test Assembly components and the AF&F assembly; the Y-12 National Security Complex manufactures weapon components and performs reacceptance activities; and Pantex is responsible for producing conventional high explosives and assembling the complete W88 Alt 370 system for delivery to the Navy.
