Anti-vax group in Europe thrives online, thwarts tech effort

By DAVID KLEPPER

A demonstrator holds a placard reading "Scammer, thief, killer, Pfizer" during a protest against the vaccine pass and vaccinations to protect against COVID-19 in front of the Pfizer headquarters, in Paris, on Jan. 29, 2022. An anti-vaccine group that has harassed doctors and public officials in Italy and France is still active on platforms like Facebook despite efforts to rein in their abuse and misinformation. The organization, known as V_V, bombards its victims with dozens, hundreds or even thousands of abusive posts. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

Troubled by the number of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients showing up at his hospital, the French doctor logged on to Facebook and uploaded a video urging people to get vaccinated.

He was soon swarmed by dozens, then hundreds, then more than 1,000 hateful messages from an anti-vaccine extremist group known as V_V. The group, active in France and Italy, has harassed doctors and public health officials, vandalized government offices and tried to disrupt vaccine clinics.

Alarmed by the abuse of its platform, Facebook kicked off several accounts tied to the group last December. But it didn’t stop V_V, which continues to use Facebook and other platforms and, like many anti-vaccine groups around the world, has expanded its portfolio to include climate change denialism and anti-democratic messaging.

“Let’s go and get them at home, they don’t have to sleep anymore,” reads one post from the group. “Fight with us!” reads another.

The largely unchecked nature of the attacks on the indisputable health benefits of the vaccine highlight the clear limits of a social media company to thwart even the most destructive kind of disinformation, particularly without a sustained aggressive effort.

Researchers at Reset, a U.K.-based nonprofit, identified more than 15,000 abusive or misinformation-laden Facebook posts from V_V — activity that peaked in spring 2022, months after the platform announced its actions against the organization. In a report on V_V’s activities, Reset’s researchers concluded that its continued presence on Facebook raises “questions about the effectiveness and consistency of Meta’s self-reported intervention.”

Meta, Facebook’s parent company, noted in response that its 2021 actions were never meant to eliminate all V_V content but to take down accounts found to be participating in coordinated harassment. After The Associated Press notified Facebook of the group’s continued activities on its platform, it said it removed an additional 100 accounts this week.

Meta said it’s trying to strike a balance between removing content from groups like V_V that clearly violate rules against harassment or dangerous misinformation, while not silencing innocent users. That can be particularly difficult when it comes to the contentious issue of vaccines.

“This is a highly adversarial space and our efforts are ongoing: since our initial takedown, we’ve taken numerous actions against this network’s attempts to come back,” a Meta spokesman told the AP.

V_V is also active on Twitter, where Reset researchers found hundreds of accounts and thousands of posts from the group. Many of the accounts were created shortly after Facebook took action on the program last winter, Reset found.

In response to Reset’s report, Twitter said it took enforcement actions against several accounts linked to V_V but did not detail those actions.

V_V has proved especially resilient to efforts to stop it. Named for the movie “V for Vendetta,” in which a lone, masked man seeks revenge on an authoritarian government, the group uses fake accounts to evade detection, and often coordinates its messaging and activities on platforms such as Telegram that lack Facebook’s more aggressive moderation policies.

That adaptability is one reason why it’s been hard to stop the group, according to Jack Stubbs, a researcher at Graphika, a data analysis firm that has tracked V_V’s activities.

“They understand how the internet works,” Stubbs said.

Graphika estimated the group’s membership to be 20,000 in late 2021, with a smaller core of members involved in its online harassment efforts. In addition to Italy and France, Graphika’s team found evidence that V_V is trying to create chapters in Spain, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil and Germany, where a similar anti-government movement known as Querdenken is active.

Groups and movements such as V_V and Querdenken have increasingly alarmed law enforcement and extremism researchers who say there’s evidence that far-right groups are using skepticism about COVID-19 and vaccines to expand their reach.

Increasingly, such groups are moving from online harassment to real world action.

For instance, in April, V_V used Telegram to announce plans to pay a 10,000 Euro bounty to vandals who spray painted the group’s symbol (two red Vs in a circle) on public buildings or vaccine clinics. The group then used Telegram to disseminate photos of the vandalism.

A month before Facebook took action on V_V, Italian police raided the homes of 17 anti-vaccine activists who had used Telegram to make threats against government, medical and media figures for their perceived support of COVID-19 restrictions.

Social media companies have struggled with responding to a wave of misinformation about vaccines since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this week, Facebook and Instagram suspended Children’s Health Defense, an influential anti-vaccine organization led by Robert Kennedy Jr.

One reason is the tricky balancing act between moderating harmful content and protecting free expression, according to Joshua Tucker of New York University, who co-directs NYU’s Center for Social Media and Politics and is a senior advisor at Kroll, a tech, government and economic consulting firm.

Striking the right balance is especially important because social media has emerged as a key source of news and information around the world. Leave up too much bad content and users may be misinformed. Take down too much and users will begin to distrust the platform.

“It is dangerous for society for us to be moving in a direction in which nobody feels they can trust information,” Tucker said.

MISINFORMATION

RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine group kicked off Instagram, Facebook


U.S. midterms bring few changes from social media companies

Strike four: Facebook misses election misinfo in Brazil ads

Russian disinformation spreading in new ways despite bans
___

Follow AP’s coverage of misinformation at https://apnews.com/hub/misinformation.

Real-time evaluation of residual strain improves 3D printed metal parts

Neutron scattering monitors structures during post-production heat treatment to validate production models.

DOE/US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

P

image: Researchers used neutron scattering to measure internal strain in 3-D printed metal samples before (upper right), during, and after (lower right) annealing. Controlling residual strain in laser-printed metal parts helps prevent cracks and failures. view more 

Credit: Image courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory

The Science

Researchers are optimizing industrial designs to produce more efficient parts using additive manufacturing (AM). AM involves “printing” 3-D metal parts layer by layer. Material made using AM methods that employ lasers can have residual strain resulting from rapid heating and cooling during printing. Heat treating, or annealing, parts after they are printed reduces the strain. But too much heat can cause unwanted structural changes. Using neutron diffraction, researchers measured the strain inside samples of AM formed Inconel 625, a common metal alloy. They then used neutron imaging, a complementary technique, to determine the optimal annealing times and temperatures that relieve strain while also minimizing other unwanted changes in the materials.

The Impact

The right heat treatment anneals parts faster without compromising their structural integrity. Scientists can use data from neutron scattering to better understand how to design heat treatment cycles for parts. Data from neutron scattering validate computer models that simulate the amount and distribution of residual strain formed during the AM process. The new model can more accurately predict whether slightly changing the design of a part will make it stronger by minimizing residual strain formation during production. The new model can also indicate if changing the diameter of the AM laser beam or the speed at which it travels will improve production quality.

Summary

Laser-based AM can result in residual strain inside metal parts caused by rapid heating and cooling. Heat treating, or annealing, metal parts afterward reduces strain. Researchers at General Electric (GE) needed to better understand where residual strain forms and at what temperatures annealing should be conducted to relieve the strain to optimize component design and annealing time and temperature. Scientists from the GE Global Research, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Spallation Neutron Source, a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), performed neutron experiments and computational modeling to understand the AM and annealing process. They used neutron diffraction to locate the residual strain in samples of a common metal alloy, Inconel 625. The researchers performed the initial neutron calibration experiments at the NOBORU beamline at the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC). Neutron imaging then enabled them to observe the samples inside a high-temperature furnace, in real time, during annealing. The neutrons easily penetrated the furnace walls and allowed mapping the strain relaxation throughout the entire part during annealing.

The researchers compared the measured stress to computer simulations. They conducted simulations of the AM process to predict the residual stress distributions within the samples as a function of the process parameters. Comparisons of the simulation results to the room temperature experimental measurements showed good agreements when the simulation data are averaged over the volume of the part, confirming the usefulness of the experiments for validating simulation results. The results are helping GE validate its computer models and adjust component designs to reduce residual strain formation during additive manufacturing. This data will also enable GE to anneal its products and optimize the strain relaxation without causing undesirable structural problems.

 

Funding

This research was supported by the DOE Office of Science, the GE Global Research Center, the University of California at Berkeley, and Japan Atomic Energy Agency. The neutron scattering was performed at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science user facility operated by ORNL and at the NOBORU (J-PARC) instrument of the Japanese Spallation Neutron Source. The work on the development of energy resolved imaging and MCP/Timepix detector at the University of California at Berkeley was partially funded through DOE research grants.

Simple method destroys dangerous ‘forever chemicals,’ making water safe

Using common reagents in heated water, chemists can ‘behead’ and break down PFAS, leaving only harmless compounds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES

If you’re despairing at recent reports that Earth’s water sources have been thoroughly infested with hazardous human-made chemicals called PFAS that can last for thousands of years, making even rainwater unsafe to drink, there’s a spot of good news.

Chemists at UCLA and Northwestern University have developed a simple way to break down almost a dozen types of these nearly indestructible “forever chemicals” at relatively low temperatures with no harmful byproducts. 

In a paper published today in the journal Science, the researchers show that in water heated to just 176 to 248 degrees Fahrenheit, common, inexpensive solvents and reagents severed molecular bonds in PFAS that are among the strongest known and initiated a chemical reaction that “gradually nibbled away at the molecule” until it was gone, said UCLA distinguished research professor and co-corresponding author Kendall Houk.

The simple technology, the comparatively low temperatures and the lack of harmful byproducts mean there is no limit to how much water can be processed at once, Houk added. The technology could eventually make it easier for water treatment plants to remove PFAS from drinking water.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances­ — PFAS for short — are a class of around 12,000 synthetic chemicals that have been used since the 1940s in nonstick cookware, waterproof makeup, shampoos, electronics, food packaging and countless other products. They contain a bond between carbon and fluorine atoms that nothing in nature can break.

When these chemicals leach into the environment through manufacturing or everyday product use, they become part of the Earth’s water cycle. Over the past 70 years, PFAS have contaminated virtually every drop of water on the planet, and their strong carbon-fluorine bond allows them to pass through most water treatment systems completely unharmed. They can accumulate in the tissues of people and animals over time and cause harm in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. Certain cancers and thyroid diseases, for example, are associated with PFAS. 

For these reasons, finding ways to remove PFAS from water has become particularly urgent. Scientists are experimenting with many remediation technologies, but most of them require extremely high temperatures, special chemicals or ultraviolet light and sometimes produce byproducts that are also harmful and require additional steps to remove.

Leading PFAS to the guillotine

Northwestern chemistry professor William Dichtel and doctoral student Brittany Trang noticed that while PFAS molecules contain a long “tail” of stubborn carbon-fluorine bonds, their “head” group often contains charged oxygen atoms, which react strongly with other molecules. Dichtel’s team built a chemical guillotine by heating the PFAS in water with dimethyl sulfoxide, also known as DMSO, and sodium hydroxide, or lye, which lopped off the head and left behind an exposed, reactive tail.

“That triggered all these reactions, and it started spitting out fluorine atoms from these compounds to form fluoride, which is the safest form of fluorine,” Dichtel said. “Although carbon-fluorine bonds are super-strong, that charged head group is the Achilles’ heel.”

But the experiments revealed another surprise: The molecules didn’t seem to be falling apart the way conventional wisdom said they should.

To solve this mystery, Dichtel and Trang shared their data with collaborators Houk and Tianjin University student Yuli Li, who was working in Houk’s group remotely from China during the pandemic. The researchers had expected the PFAS molecules would disintegrate one carbon atom at a time, but Li and Houk ran computer simulations that showed two or three carbon molecules peeled off the molecules simultaneously, just as Dichtel and Tang had observed experimentally. 

The simulations also showed the only byproducts should be fluoride — often added to drinking water to prevent tooth decay — carbon dioxide and formic acid, which is not harmful. Dichtel and Trang confirmed these predicted byproducts in further experiments.

“This proved to be a very complex set of calculations that challenged the most modern quantum mechanical methods and fastest computers available to us,” Houk said. “Quantum mechanics is the mathematical method that simulates all of chemistry, but only in the last decade have we been able to take on large mechanistic problems like this, evaluating all the possibilities and determining which one can happen at the observed rate.”

Li, Houk said, has mastered these computational methods, and he worked long distance with Trang to solve the fundamental but practically significant problem.

The current work degraded 10 types of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) and perfluoroalkyl ether carboxylic acids (PFECAs), including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA). The researchers believe their method will work for most PFAS that contain carboxylic acids and hope it will help identify weak spots in other classes of PFAS. They hope these encouraging results will lead to further research that tests methods for eradicating the thousands of other types of PFAS.

The study, “Low-temperature mineralization of perfluorocarboxylic acids,” was supported by the National Science Foundation.

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JOURNAL

Science

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PFAS 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for FOREVER CHEMICALS 

Researchers examine link between pesticides and thyroid cancer risk in Central California area

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES

FINDINGS

In single pollutant models and within a 20-year period, 10 out of 29 reviewed pesticides were associated with thyroid cancer, including several of the most widely used ones in the U.S. These included paraquat dichloride, glyphosate and oxyfluorfen.

Additionally, the risk of thyroid cancer increased proportionally to the total number of pesticides subjects were exposed to 20 years before diagnosis or the research interview. In all models, paraquat dichloride was associated with thyroid cancer.

The study appears in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

CONCLUSION

The authors say this study provides the first evidence supporting the hypothesis that residential pesticide exposure from agricultural use is associated with an increased risk of thyroid cancer.

BACKGROUND

Thyroid cancer incidence has increased substantially in the U.S. during the past 30 years, rising by 3% annually. Some experts attribute the increase to better detection methods, but other reports suggest environmental, genetic and lifestyle risk factors may also explain the upward trend. Few studies have examined environmental exposures on thyroid cancer occurrence, except those focusing on radiation exposure. Previous studies found higher risks for those working in the leather, wood and paper industries, as well as those exposed to environmental solvents, flame retardants and pesticides.

Certain pesticides are established mutagens or have been shown to induce tumor growth and chromosomal abnormalities in vitro. These include glyphosate – the active ingredient in widely used herbicides – and 19 pesticides that induce DNA cell damage in vitro. Pesticides also can alter thyroid hormone production, which has been associated with thyroid cancer risk.

Previous studies of pesticides and thyroid cancer have been inconsistent or had methodology limitations, including self-reporting of exposures, little or no information on specific pesticides and small sample sizes.

California ranks first among U.S. states in agricultural production. Moreover, agricultural pesticide use in California in 2008 totaled 162 million pounds, about 25% of all U.S. usage. Meanwhile, the state has seen increasing rates of advanced thyroid cancer.

This study examines the association between exposure to pesticides, including 19 that were found to cause DNA cell damage, and the risk of thyroid cancer. The researchers hypothesized that pesticide exposure may be a missing link requiring further investigation.  

 METHODS

The authors performed a case-controlled study using thyroid cancer cases from the California Cancer Registry (1999-2012) and controls sampled in a population-based manner. Study participants were diagnosed with thyroid cancer, lived in the study area when diagnosed and were age 35 or older. Control subjects were recruited from the same geographic area and were eligible if age 35 or older and had been living in California for at least five years before the research interview. The study sample included 2067 thyroid cancer cases and 1003 control participants. 

The researchers examined residential exposure to 29 agricultural-use pesticides known to cause DNA damage or endocrine disruption. They utilized a validated geographic information-based system to generate exposure estimates for each study participant.

EXPERT COMMENTS

“The incidence of thyroid cancer has been increasing exponentially over the course of the last few decades,” said Dr. Avital Harari, corresponding author and principal investigator for the study. “Additionally, the risk of advanced thyroid cancers, which can increase risk of mortality and cancer recurrence, has been found to be higher in the state of California as compared to other states.  Therefore, it is essential to elucidate risk factors for getting thyroid cancer and understand potentially alterable causes of this disease in order to decrease risks for future generations.”

“Our research suggests several novel associations between pesticide exposure and increased risk of thyroid cancer,” she added.  “Specifically, exposure to the pesticide paraquat is positively associated with thyroid cancer risk.”

Additionally, exposure to other pesticides, in combination with paraquat in multipollutant models, also suggests an increased risk of thyroid cancer, she explained, and exposure to a greater number of unique pesticides over a 20-year period proportionately increased the risk.

Harari, an Associate Professor of Endocrine Surgery at UCLA Health, said additional research is needed. “Our study warrants further investigation to confirm these findings and better evaluate the actual mechanisms of action.”

DOI: 10.1210/clinem/dgac413

AUTHORS

Corresponding author and principal investigator Avital Harari is a UCLA physician-researcher in the Department of Surgery. Co-first author Negar Omidakhsh and Chenxiao Ling are researchers with the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA. The late Jerome M. Hershman was a UCLA physician-researcher with the Department of Medicine. Co-first author Julia E. Heck is with the College of Health and Public Service at the University of North Texas. Myles Cockburn is with the Department of Preventative Medicine at Keck School of Medicine and Department of Geography at USC.

FUNDING

This research was supported by the University of California Cancer Research Coordinating Committee – “Relation of pesticide exposure to thyroid cancer incidence and stage distribution.” Grant # CRN-15-380517.

DISCLOSURES:

The authors had no disclosures.

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DOI

10.1210/clinem/dgac413 

First real-world study gives detailed new insights into when people with COVID-19 are infectious

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON PRESS RELEASE

Peer-reviewed / Observational study / People

**Infographic and Q&A available**

• Average duration of infectiousness in the study participants was five days 

• Only one in five participants were infectious before COVID-19 symptoms began 

• Two-thirds of cases were still infectious five days after their symptoms began, and one-quarter were still infectious at seven days 

• Lateral flow tests do not reliably detect the start of infectiousness, but can be used to safely shorten self-isolation 

• The researchers recommend that people with COVID-19 isolate for five days after symptoms begin and do lateral flow tests from the sixth day. If tests are negative two days in a row, it is safe to leave isolation. If a person continues to test positive, they should remain in isolation while testing positive but may de-isolate on the 10th day after their symptoms began. Current NHS guidance suggests that people should try to stay at home and avoid contact with others for just five days.

A new study of 57 people with mild COVID-19 estimates how long people are infectious for and when they can safely leave isolation.

The research, which is led by Imperial College London and published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, is the first to unveil how long infectiousness lasts for after natural COVID-19 infection in the community. The study team conducted detailed daily tests from when people were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 to look at how much infectious virus they were shedding throughout their infection.

The findings suggest that in people who develop symptoms, the majority are not infectious before symptoms develop, but two-thirds of cases are still infectious five days after their symptoms begin.

They also suggest that while lateral flow tests do not detect the start of infectiousness well, they more accurately identify when someone is no longer infectious and can safely leave isolation.

Study author, Professor Ajit Lalvani, Director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Respiratory Infections at Imperial, said: “We closely monitored people in their homes from when they were first exposed to the virus, capturing the moment when they developed infection through until they ceased being infectious. Before this study we were missing half of the picture about infectiousness, because it’s hard to know when people are first exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and when they first become infectious. By using special daily tests to measure infectious virus (not just PCR) and daily symptom records we were able to define the window in which people are infectious. This is fundamental to controlling any pandemic and has not been previously defined for any respiratory infection in the community.”

“Combining our results with what we know about the dynamics of Omicron infections, we believe that the duration of infectiousness we’ve observed is broadly generalisable to current SARS-CoV-2 variants, though their infectious window may be a bit shorter. Our evidence can be used to inform infection control policies and self-isolation guidance to help reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2.”

Co-author, Dr Seran Hakki also from Imperial’s National Heart and Lung Institute, said: “There is no longer a legal requirement to self-isolate if you test positive for COVID-19, but most people still want to isolate until they are not infectious. Despite this, there is lack of clarity around how to come out of self-isolation safely. Our study is the first to assess how long infectiousness lasts for, using real life evidence from naturally acquired infection. Our findings can thus inform guidance as to how to safely end self-isolation.”

She adds: “If you test positive for COVID-19 or have symptoms after being in contact with someone with confirmed COVID-19, you should try to stay at home and minimise contact with other people.”

Most complete picture of the course of infectiousness to date

Previous studies estimating how long someone is infectious for have been a laboratory-based human challenge study [1] or have used mathematical modelling.

The new study followed people who were exposed to someone with PCR-confirmed COVID-19 in their home between September 2020 and March 2021 (pre-Alpha SARS-CoV-2 virus and Alpha variant waves) and May-October 2021 (Delta variant wave), including some who were vaccinated and others who were not [2].

Participants completed daily questionnaires about their symptoms [3] and did daily nasal and throat swabs that were sent to a laboratory for PCR-testing. PCR-positive samples were then tested to determine if they contained infectious virus and how infectious the virus was. The researchers also completed 652 lateral flow tests on the samples to determine how accurate lateral flow tests were at identifying actual infectiousness as opposed to PCR-positivity.

Samples from a total of 57 people were used, but not all were included in some analyses because of some participants not sharing information about their symptoms, some people not shedding culturable virus, and some people shedding infectious virus before or beyond the sampling period. As a result, the duration of infectiousness was measured in 42 people. There were 38 people with a confirmed date of when their symptoms started and three were asymptomatic.

Real-world timeline of infectiousness

The study found that the overall median amount of time that people were infectious was five days.

Though 24 out of 38 people tested positive on a PCR test before they developed symptoms of COVID-19 this does not indicate infectiousness and most people only became infectious after they developed symptoms. Only one in five participants were infectious before symptom onset (7 out of 35 cases).

Although levels of infectiousness reduced during the course of infection, 22 of 34 cases continued to shed infectious virus five days after symptoms began, and eight of these people continued to shed infectious virus at seven days.

Current NHS guidance [4] suggests that people should try to stay at home and avoid contact with others for just five days.

Safely self-isolating

To help understand when people may be able to safely leave isolation, the researchers compared levels of infectiousness with lateral flow test results.

They found that the sensitivity of these tests in identifying when someone was infectious was poor at the start of infection, but high after peak levels of infectiousness (sensitivity of 67% vs 92%, respectively). This suggests lateral flow tests are good at spotting when someone is no longer infectious and testing to release people from isolation may work, but they are not reliable for early diagnosis unless used daily.

Based on their findings, the researchers recommend that people with COVID-19 isolate for five days after symptoms begin, then complete lateral flow tests from the sixth day. If these tests are negative two days in a row, it is safe to leave isolation. If a person continues to test positive or do not have access to lateral flow devices, they should remain in isolation and, in order to minimise transmission to others, only leave on the 10th day after their symptoms began.

Professor Lalvani said: “Self-isolation is not necessary by law, but people who want to isolate need clear guidance on what to do. The NHS currently advises that if you test positive for COVID-19 you should try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for five days, but our data suggest that under a crude five-day self-isolation period two-thirds of cases released into the community would still be infectious – though their level of infectiousness would have substantially reduced compared to earlier in the course of their infection.”

“NHS guidance for those with symptoms but who test negative is less clear about how long people should isolate for. Our study finds that infectiousness usually begins soon after you develop COVID-19 symptoms. We recommend that anyone who has been exposed to the virus and has symptoms isolates for five days, then uses daily lateral flow tests to safely leave isolation when two consecutive daily tests are negative.”

The study did not assess the Omicron variants currently circulating. There is some evidence that Omicron variants have a lower viral load and shed for less time than other variants, and the researchers note that their recommendations may be cautious, but still applicable, if this is true.

Most participants in the study were white, middle-aged, had a healthy BMI, and had no medical conditions. In other age groups and in those with medical conditions, these results may vary as they may be slower at clearing the virus.

A person’s infectiousness is one factor involved in transmission, alongside behavioural and environmental factors, such as where people are mixing, and if they are in close proximity to one another.

The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

‘Onset and window of SARS-CoV-2 infectiousness and temporal correlation with symptom onset: a prospective, longitudinal, community cohort study’ by Seran Hakki et al is published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Once the embargo has lifted, the paper will be available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2213-2600(22)00226-0

This press release uses a labelling system developed by the Academy of Medical Sciences to improve the communication of evidence. For more information, please see: http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/AMS-press-release-labelling-system-GUIDANCE.pdf

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/233514/covid-19-human-challenge-study-reveals-detailed/ [2] Overall, 25 of 57 cases had received two vaccine doses and were infected with the Delta variant. Of the 32 unvaccinated cases, 13 were infected with pre-Alpha, 12 with Alpha, and seven with Delta SARS-CoV-2 variants.

[3] The researchers classified COVID-19 symptoms as cough, fever, loss or change in smell or taste and/or having at least two of the following: sore throat, muscle aches, headache and appetite loss.

[4] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/self-isolation-and-treatment/when-to-self-isolate-and-what-to-do/

About the NIHR

The mission of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. We do this by:

• Funding high quality, timely research that benefits the NHS, public health and social care; 

• Investing in world-class expertise, facilities and a skilled delivery workforce to translate discoveries into improved treatments and services; 

• Partnering with patients, service users, carers and communities, improving the relevance, quality and impact of our research; 

• Attracting, training and supporting the best researchers to tackle complex health and social care challenges; 

• Collaborating with other public funders, charities and industry to help shape a cohesive and globally competitive research system; 

• Funding applied global health research and training to meet the needs of the poorest people in low and middle income countries.

NIHR is funded by the Department of Health and Social Care. Its work in low and middle income countries is principally funded through UK Aid from the UK government.

About Imperial College London  

Imperial College London is one of the world's leading universities. The College's 20,000 students and 8,000 staff are working to solve the biggest challenges in science, medicine, engineering and business.

Imperial is University of the Year 2022 in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide. It is the world’s fifth most international university, according to Times Higher Education, with academic ties to more than 150 countries. Reuters named the College as the UK's most innovative university because of its exceptional entrepreneurial culture and ties to industry.

Imperial staff, students and alumni are working round-the-clock to combat COVID-19. Imperial is at the forefront of coronavirus epidemiology, virology, vaccine development and diagnostics.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/ 

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Respiratory Medicine

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

'Onset and window of SARS-CoV-2 infectiousness and temporal correlation with symptom onset: a prospective, longitudinal, community cohort study'

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Aug-2022

Vape starter kits on the NHS could help smokers quit

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Giving out vape starter kit vouchers on the NHS could help even hardened smokers quit, according to a new study from the University of East Anglia.

Researchers worked with GPs and the NHS stop smoking service, which is commissioned locally by Public Health at Norfolk County Council, to set up a pilot vape shop voucher scheme to help patients who had tried and failed to quit smoking in the past.

An evaluation of the scheme, funded by Norfolk County Council, showed it was a big success – with 42% of the entrenched smokers who were referred to it and redeemed their vape voucher having quit within a month.

Due to the success of the pilot, the scheme has been rolled out across Norfolk and the research team hope it could be rolled out nationally to help more smokers quit.

Lead researcher and addiction expert Prof Caitlin Notley, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Research shows that vaping is an effective way of quitting smoking, compared to nicotine replacement therapies like patches and gum. E-cigarettes or vapes are now the most popular way of stopping smoking.

“Our research has previously shown that they may be particularly helpful in helping people to not only quit, but to stay quit for good.

“We wanted to see whether GPs giving out vape shop vouchers, alongside support from the stop smoking service, can help smokers quit. We particularly wanted to target vulnerable and disadvantaged smokers who had failed to quit smoking by other means,” she added.

Dr Louise Smith, Norfolk’s Director of Public Health, welcomed the collaboration with UEA on this council-led initiative to further develop services to support people to quit smoking.

The team worked with GPs in Great Yarmouth, in a bid to help patients with co-morbidities who had tried and failed to quit smoking previously.

Around 21 per cent of people who live in Great Yarmouth smoke tobacco, compared to 14 per cent of people in the rest of Norfolk, and 15 per cent as a national average.

The pilot scheme saw 668 participants referred to receive a vape shop voucher that could be redeemed for an initial starter kit from a local vape shop.

Of these, 340 went on to redeem their voucher.

As well as picking up their starter kit, the participants were given advice about e-liquid strengths and flavours, and provided with additional support from Smokefree Norfolk.

The research team also interviewed some of the participants about their experience, alongside vape shop staff, GPs and staff at Smokefree Norfolk.

Prof Notley said: “This innovative approach saw the NHS local stop smoking service, vape retailers and researchers working together, recognising that other forms of smoking cessation support do not work for everyone.

“This scheme enabled 42 per cent of entrenched smokers who redeemed a voucher to have successfully quit smoking at four weeks. This is especially important because it helped those who have tried and failed to quit smoking many times to move away from tobacco.  

“Overall, the project was well received by smokers as it offered an affordable route into vaping. GPs supported the scheme and appreciated being able to offer an alternative to entrenched smokers,” she added.

The team hope that a similar voucher scheme could be rolled out across the UK, to help more people switch from smoking to vaping, and reduce the number of people that still smoke cigarettes.

The study was commissioned by Norfolk County Council and led by UEA, who worked in collaboration with the public health team and the local stop smoking service Smokefree Norfolk.

‘A pilot e-cigarette voucher scheme in a rural county of the United Kingdom’ is published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research on August 19.

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JOURNAL

Nicotine & Tobacco Research

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

A pilot e-cigarette voucher scheme in a rural county of the United Kingdom

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Aug-2022

Novel hypotheses that answer key questions about the evolution of sexual reproduction

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: EACH GAMETOCYTE GIVES RISE TO FOUR GAMETES. DURING THE FIRST SEXUAL REPRODUCTION EVENT, ONLY GAMETES WITH THE SEX-CONTROLLING MUTATION (S) COULD FUSE TO FORM ZYGOTES. THUS, THE HARMFUL MUTATIONS (D) WERE ELIMINATED (DIE DUE TO DMS) OR WERE DILUTED (NOT SHOWN). IN ADDITION, THE SEX CONTROLLING MUTATION WAS FIXED IN THE POPULATION (YUKIO YASUI, EISUKE HASEGAWA. JOURNAL OF ETHOLOGY. AUGUST 19, 2022). view more 

CREDIT: YUKIO YASUI, EISUKE HASEGAWA. JOURNAL OF ETHOLOGY. AUGUST 19, 2022.

Two novel hypotheses have been proposed that address the “two-fold cost of sex”: one of the biggest enigmas in the evolution of sexual reproduction.

The evolution of sexual reproduction in living beings is one of the biggest mysteries in biology. There are two known modes of reproduction: asexual, where the organism creates clones of itself, and sexual, where gametes from two individuals fuse to give rise to progeny. There are many hypotheses that address various aspects of the evolution of sexual reproduction; nonetheless, there are also many questions that are still unanswered.

The biggest question in the study of the evolution of sexual reproduction is the question of cost. Sexual reproduction requires exponentially more energy than asexual reproduction. Nevertheless, sexual reproduction has two major advantages over asexual reproduction: it results in genetic diversity in offspring, and it eliminates harmful mutations.

Associate Professor Eisuke Hasegawa of Hokkaido University and Associate Professor Yukio Yasui of Kagawa University have proposed and modeled two novel hypotheses which address two open questions in the study of the evolution of sexual reproduction. Their hypotheses were published in the Journal of Ethology.

The researchers proposed hypotheses to address the “two-fold cost of sex”: the cost of meiosis and the cost of producing large numbers of male gametes. Sexual reproduction can be isogamous, where the gametes are all of the same size, or it can be anisogamous, where the female gametes are large, while the male gametes are small and numerous. The hypotheses were tested by computer modelling.

The first hypothesis they proposed is the “seesaw effect” by which a large number of harmful mutations are eliminated. The first individual to have a sex-controlling gene—that allowed for meiosis to occur—produced four gametes. Only gametes with the sex-controlling gene could fuse, fixing it in the population and erasing the cost of meiosis. In addition, any harmful mutations were diluted or discarded depending on whether they were associated with the sex-controlling gene.

The second hypothesis, the development of anisogamy via “inflated isogamy,” was developed from the first hypothesis. They suggest that, originally, multicellular organisms with higher energy generation evolved; then, the gamete size increased (“inflated isogamy”) as the increased resources in larger gametes increased the survival rate of offspring. Then, the male gametes reduced in size to fertilize more female gametes—depending on the inflated female gametes to provide the resources for survival. This strategy does not involve any extra cost on the part of the female; in fact, it may have triggered their counteradaptation to the current-day meiosis in females that results in just one female gamete (the oocyte) per gametocyte.

With these hypotheses, the authors have addressed the question of “two-fold cost of sex”, and have also hypothesized that the first sexual reproduction required only one individual, and was a self-fertilizing event. However, the two hypotheses are still in their initial stages, and further work is required to address specific assumptions and conclusions underlying them.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Ethology

DOI

10.1007/s10164-022-00760-3 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The origination events of gametic sexual reproduction and anisogamy

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Aug-2022