A better understanding of climate change: Researchers study cloud movement in the Arctic

Precise measurement of the warming and cooling of transported air masses for the first time

Date: September 4, 2024

Source: Universität Leipzig

Summary:

Special features of the Arctic climate, such as the strong reflection of the sun's rays off the light snow or the low position of the sun, amplify global warming in the Arctic. However, researchers are often faced with the challenge of modelling the underlying climatic processes in order to be able to provide reliable weather forecasts. Scientists succeeded in precisely measuring the movement of air masses from and to the Arctic. This will contribute to a better understanding of the processes accelerating climate change in the region.


FULL STORY

Special features of the Arctic climate, such as the strong reflection of the sun's rays off the light snow or the low position of the sun, amplify global warming in the Arctic. However, researchers are often faced with the challenge of modelling the underlying climatic processes in order to be able to provide reliable weather forecasts. Scientists from the HALO (AC)³ aircraft campaign have succeeded in precisely measuring the movement of air masses from and to the Arctic. This will contribute to a better understanding of the processes accelerating climate change in the region. Their research has been published in a European Geosciences Union paper.


"We want to make fundamental and ground-breaking progress in our understanding of Arctic amplification and improve the reliability of models for predicting the dramatic warming in the Arctic," says Professor Manfred Wendisch, Director of the Institute for Meteorology at Leipzig University and lead author of the study.

In mid-March 2022, the large-scale international research campaign HALO (AC)³ began its investigation of changes in air masses in the Arctic.

Researchers from Leipzig University and several other research institutions are involved.

During the campaign, they used special aircraft to study the movement of air masses to and from the Arctic via northward moist- and warm-air intrusions (WAIs) and southward marine cold-air outbreaks (CAOs). Two low-flying aircraft and one long-range, high-altitude research aircraft were flown in close formation whenever possible.

"We observed air mass transformations over areas of open ocean, the marginal sea ice zone and the central Arctic sea ice," says Wendisch.

The HALO AC³ aircraft campaign was conducted over the Norwegian and Greenland Seas, the Fram Strait, and the central Arctic Ocean in March and April 2022. A new observation strategy was used to track the changes in the air masses. This enabled the researchers to measure the moving-air parcels twice along their transport pathway. The meteorologist explains: "This allowed us to quantify the warming and cooling of the transported air masses for the first time. For example, we have shown that cold air that breaks out of the Arctic and heads south warms up to three degrees Celsius per hour on its way from the sea ice to the open sea. In addition, the humidity of the air increases as it moves south." The scientists also studied changes in cloud properties as air masses are transported. This unprecedented data is currently being compared with calculations from the German weather forecast model.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Universität Leipzig. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:Manfred Wendisch, Susanne Crewell, André Ehrlich, Andreas Herber, Benjamin Kirbus, Christof Lüpkes, Mario Mech, Steven J. Abel, Elisa F. Akansu, Felix Ament, Clémantyne Aubry, Sebastian Becker, Stephan Borrmann, Heiko Bozem, Marlen Brückner, Hans-Christian Clemen, Sandro Dahlke, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Julien Delanoë, Elena De La Torre Castro, Henning Dorff, Regis Dupuy, Oliver Eppers, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Sarah Grawe, Silke Groß, Jörg Hartmann, Silvia Henning, Lutz Hirsch, Evelyn Jäkel, Philipp Joppe, Olivier Jourdan, Zsofia Jurányi, Michail Karalis, Mona Kellermann, Marcus Klingebiel, Michael Lonardi, Johannes Lucke, Anna E. Luebke, Maximilian Maahn, Nina Maherndl, Marion Maturilli, Bernhard Mayer, Johanna Mayer, Stephan Mertes, Janosch Michaelis, Michel Michalkov, Guillaume Mioche, Manuel Moser, Hanno Müller, Roel Neggers, Davide Ori, Daria Paul, Fiona M. Paulus, Christian Pilz, Felix Pithan, Mira Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Maximilian Ringel, Nils Risse, Gregory C. Roberts, Sophie Rosenburg, Johannes Röttenbacher, Janna Rückert, Michael Schäfer, Jonas Schaefer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Jörg Schmidt, Sebastian Schmidt, Johannes Schneider, Sabrina Schnitt, Anja Schwarz, Holger Siebert, Harald Sodemann, Tim Sperzel, Gunnar Spreen, Bjorn Stevens, Frank Stratmann, Gunilla Svensson, Christian Tatzelt, Thomas Tuch, Timo Vihma, Christiane Voigt, Lea Volkmer, Andreas Walbröl, Anna Weber, Birgit Wehner, Bruno Wetzel, Martin Wirth, Tobias Zinner. Overview: quasi-Lagrangian observations of Arctic air mass transformations – introduction and initial results of the HALO-(AC)³ aircraft campaign. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2024; 24 (15): 8865 DOI: 10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024


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Witness 1.8 billion years of tectonic plates dance across Earth’s surface in a new animation

Two tectonic plates meet in Thingvellir National Park, Iceland. VisualProduction/Shutterstock

THE CONVERSATION
Published: September 5, 2024

Using information from inside the rocks on Earth’s surface, we have reconstructed the plate tectonics of the planet over the last 1.8 billion years.

It is the first time Earth’s geological record has been used like this, looking so far back in time. This has enabled us to make an attempt at mapping the planet over the last 40% of its history, which you can see in the animation below.

The work, led by Xianzhi Cao from the Ocean University in China, is now published in the open-access journal Geoscience Frontiers.

Plate tectonics over the last 1.8 billion years of Earth history.

A beautiful dance

Mapping our planet through its long history creates a beautiful continental dance — mesmerising in itself and a work of natural art.

It starts with the map of the world familiar to everyone. Then India rapidly moves south, followed by parts of Southeast Asia as the past continent of Gondwana forms in the Southern Hemisphere.

Around 200 million years ago (Ma or mega-annum in the reconstruction), when the dinosaurs walked the earth, Gondwana linked with North America, Europe and northern Asia to form a large supercontinent called Pangaea.

Then, the reconstruction carries on back through time. Pangaea and Gondwana were themselves formed from older plate collisions. As time rolls back, an earlier supercontinent called Rodinia appears. It doesn’t stop here. Rodinia, in turn, is formed by the break-up of an even older supercontinent called Nuna about 1.35 billion years ago.
Why map Earth’s past?

Among the planets in the Solar System, Earth is unique for having plate tectonics. Its rocky surface is split into fragments (plates) that grind into each other and create mountains, or split away and form chasms that are then filled with oceans.

Apart from causing earthquakes and volcanoes, plate tectonics also pushes up rocks from the deep earth into the heights of mountain ranges. This way, elements which were far underground can erode from the rocks and end up washing into rivers and oceans. From there, living things can make use of these elements.

Among these essential elements is phosphorus, which forms the framework of DNA molecules, and molybdenum, which is used by organisms to strip nitrogen out of the atmosphere and make proteins and amino acids – building blocks of life.

Plate tectonics also exposes rocks that react with carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Rocks locking up carbon dioxide is the main control on Earth’s climate over long time scales – much, much longer than the tumultuous climate change we are responsible for today.

Iceland is on a plate boundary, which makes for frequent volcanic activity. Thorir Ingvarsson/Shutterstock
A tool for understanding deep time

Mapping the past plate tectonics of the planet is the first stage in being able to build a complete digital model of Earth through its history.

Such a model will allow us to test hypotheses about Earth’s past. For example, why Earth’s climate has gone through extreme “Snowball Earth” fluctuations, or why oxygen built up in the atmosphere when it did.

Indeed, it will allow us to much better understand the feedback between the deep planet and the surface systems of Earth that support life as we know it.
So much more to learn

Modelling our planet’s past is essential if we’re to understand how nutrients became available to power evolution. The first evidence for complex cells with nuclei — like all animal and plant cells — dates to 1.65 billion years ago.

This is near the start of this reconstruction and close to the time the supercontinent Nuna formed. We aim to test whether the mountains that grew at the time of Nuna formation may have provided the elements to power complex cell evolution.

Much of Earth’s life photosynthesises and liberates oxygen. This links plate tectonics with the chemistry of the atmosphere, and some of that oxygen dissolves into the oceans. In turn, a number of critical metals – like copper and cobalt – are more soluble in oxygen-rich water. In certain conditions, these metals are then precipitated out of the solution: in short, they form ore deposits.

Many metals form in the roots of volcanoes that occur along plate margins. By reconstructing where ancient plate boundaries lay through time, we can better understand the tectonic geography of the world and assist mineral explorers in finding ancient metal-rich rocks now buried under much younger mountains.

In this time of exploration of other worlds in the Solar System and beyond, it is worth remembering there’s so much about our own planet we are only just beginning to get a glimpse of.

There are 4.6 billion years of it to investigate, and the rocks we walk over contain the evidence for how Earth has changed over this time.

This first attempt at mapping the last 1.8 billion years of Earth’s history is a leap forward in the scientific grand challenge to map our world. But it is just that – a first attempt. The next years will see considerable improvement from the starting point we have now made.

The author would like to acknowledge this research was largely done by Xianzhi Cao, Sergei Pisarevsky, Nicolas Flament, Derrick Hasterok, Dietmar Muller and Sanzhong Li; as a co-author, he is just one cog in the research network. The author also acknowledges the many students and researchers from the Tectonics and Earth Systems Group at The University of Adelaide and national and international colleagues who did the fundamental geological work this research is based on.

Authors

Alan Collins

Alan Collins is a Friend of The Conversation.
Professor of Geology, University of Adelaide
Disclosure statement
Alan Collins receives funding from The Australian Research Council (he is an ARC Laureate Fellow), AuScope and the MinEx CRC. He also has funding from a number of State and Federal Government bodies as well as BHP, Santos, Empire Energy, Teck Australia and the CSIRO.

Newly discovered viruses in parasitic nematodes could change our understanding of how they cause disease

Date: September 4, 2024

Source: Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 

Summary:

New research shows that parasitic nematodes, responsible for infecting more than a billion people globally, carry viruses that may solve the puzzle of why some cause serious diseases.


FULL STORY

New research shows that parasitic nematodes, responsible for infecting more than a billion people globally, carry viruses that may solve the puzzle of why some cause serious diseases.

A study led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) used cutting-edge bioinformatic data mining techniques to identify 91 RNA viruses in 28 species of parasitic nematodes, representing 70% of those that infect people and animals. Often these are symptomless or not serious, but some can lead to severe, life-changing disease.

Nematode worms are the most abundant animals on the planet, prevalent in all continents worldwide, with several species infecting humans as well as agriculturally and economically important animals and crops. And yet in several cases, scientists do not know how some nematodes cause certain diseases.

The new research, published in Nature Microbiology, opens the door to further study of whether these newly discovered viruses -- only five of which were previously known to science -- could contribute to many chronic, debilitating conditions. If a connection can be proven, it could pave the way for more effective treatments in the future.

Mark Taylor, Professor of Parasitology at LSTM, said: "This is a truly exciting discovery and could change our understanding of the millions of infections caused by parasitic nematodes. Finding an RNA virus in any organism is significant, because these types of viruses are well-known agents of disease. When these worms that live inside of us release these viruses, they spread throughout the blood and tissues and provoke an immune response.

"This raises the question of whether any of the diseases that these parasites are responsible for could be driven by the virus rather than directly by the parasitic nematode."

Parasitic nematodes including hookworms and whipworms can cause severe abdominal problems and bloody diarrhoea, stunted development and anaemia. Infection with filarial worms can lead to disfiguring conditions such as lymphoedema or 'elephantiasis', and onchocerciasis, or 'river blindness', that leads to blindness and skin disease.


The study authors propose that these newly identified viruses may play a role in some of these conditions. For example, Onchocerciasis-Associated Epilepsy (OAE) that occurs in children and adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa has recently been associated with onchocerciasis, but it is not known why this causes neurological symptoms such as uncontrollable repeated head nodding, as well as severe stunting, delayed puberty and impaired mental health.

One of the viruses in the parasites that cause onchocerciasis identified in the new study is a rhabdovirus -- the type that causes rabies. The authors of the study suggest that if this virus is infecting or damaging human nerve or brain tissue, that could explain the symptoms of OAE.

The full extent and diversity of the viruses living in parasitic nematodes, how they impact nematode biology and whether they act as drivers of disease in people and animals now requires further study.

The illuminating discovery of these widespread yet previously hidden viruses was first made by Dr Shannon Quek, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at LSTM and lead author of the new study, who had initially been using the same data mining method to screen for viruses within mosquitoes that spread disease, before deciding to investigate nematodes.

Dr Quek, who is from Indonesia, a country burdened by many parasitic nematodes, said: "As a child, I saw a lot of people infected with these diseases and I suffered from the dengue virus on three occasions. That got me interested in tropical diseases. Diseases caused by parasitic nematodes are very long-term, life-long illnesses that persistently affect people. It has a significant impact on people's quality of life, their economic outputs and mental health.

"There are a lot of studies about the microbiomes of mosquitoes, and how the bacteria that lives inside can block the spread of viruses, which might stop vector-borne diseases like dengue. This interplay between organisms in the same host led me to think -- what else might be inside parasitic nematodes as well? Which after my discovery will now be the focus of our research."

Story Source:

Materials provided by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:Shannon Quek, Amber Hadermann, Yang Wu, Lander De Coninck, Shrilakshmi Hegde, Jordan R. Boucher, Jessica Cresswell, Ella Foreman, Andrew Steven, E. James LaCourse, Stephen A. Ward, Samuel Wanji, Grant L. Hughes, Edward I. Patterson, Simon C. Wagstaff, Joseph D. Turner, Rhys H. Parry, Alain Kohl, Eva Heinz, Kenneth Bentum Otabil, Jelle Matthijnssens, Robert Colebunders, Mark J. Taylor. Diverse RNA viruses of parasitic nematodes can elicit antibody responses in vertebrate hosts. Nature Microbiology, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41564-024-01796-6


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Traditional infrastructure design often makes extreme flooding events worse

Massive 2014 flooding event in southeast Michigan showed why systems thinking beats local thinking in flood protection

Date: September 4, 2024

Source: University of Michigan

Summary:

Much of the nation's stormwater infrastructure, designed decades to a century ago to prevent floods, can exacerbate flooding during the severe weather events that are increasing around the globe.


FULL STORY



Much of the nation's stormwater infrastructure, designed decades to a century ago to prevent floods, can exacerbate flooding during the severe weather events that are increasing around the globe, new research led by the University of Michigan demonstrates.


The problem lies in traditional planning's failure to recognize flood connectivity: how surface runoff from driveways, lawns and streets -- and the flows in river channels and pipes -- are all interlinked. The result is interactions, often unanticipated, between different stormwater systems that can make flooding worse.

"When we design, we typically focus on localized solutions," said Valeriy Ivanov, U-M professor of civil and environmental engineering and co-first author of the study published in Nature Cities. "We have an area of concern, sometimes it's a single plot of land, or a set of parcels that need to be connected by stormwater infrastructure, and we design specifically for those areas.

"But those areas are impacted by flooding that occurs around them, and that means designed stormwater infrastructure may have unintended consequences."

The study is based on record-breaking rainfall that hit Metro Detroit on Aug. 11, 2014, resulting in flooding across the region. The disaster closed highways, stranded drivers, and caused power outages and property damage to over 100,000 homes, with a cost of $1.8 billion. Researchers analyzed data from that event, particularly from the city of Warren, and placed their findings in the context of current U.S. stormwater design standards and flood warning practices to develop policy recommendations.

Those include:Stormwater system designs should take a holistic, systemwide approach to flood mitigation, rather than the conventional approach focused on local solutions.
Design guidelines for stormwater systems should be revised to consider connectivity in urban landscapes, including flows in subsurface infrastructure such as pipes and sewers, open channel flows such as rivers and streams, and overland flows over natural and built surfaces.
Advanced computer models that represent the full spectrum of stormwater elements and the behavior of water in them should be mandated.
Design scenarios should represent the diverse spectrum of factors that control water flow in urban areas, such as complex rainfall patterns, antecedent soil water conditions, and the operation of existing stormwater drainage systems.
Flood hazard mapping approaches should expand their focus beyond river-adjacent floodplains to include risks in urban areas that may be far from permanent bodies of water.

"Current flood mapping practices are indicative of outdated thinking that needs to change," said Vinh Tran, U-M assistant research scientist in civil and environmental engineering and co-first author. "Whether it's the Federal Emergency Management Agency or someone else producing it, they only provide estimates for floodplains that are near rivers. But here's the problem: In cities, flooding can happen far from any river or stream.


"Take Warren, Michigan, for example. The official flood maps didn't show flood risks in parts of the city that were miles from any major waterway. And it's not just Warren -- this is typical all over the country."

According to FEMA, flooding is "the most common and costly disaster in the U.S." That risk is increasing due to climate change.

Financially, it's a problem. FEMA notes that between 1980 and 2000, FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program paid out $9.4 billion in insurance claims. Over the following 20-year period, the program paid out $62.2 billion -- an increase of over 660%.

"Without updated designs, the economic impact of flooding will only grow, placing a heavier burden on governments and taxpayers," said Jeff Bednar, environmental resources manager for Macomb County and a research contributor on the project. "By investing in resilient infrastructure now, we not only protect our environment but also strengthen the foundation for economic growth."

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Michigan. Original written by Jim Lynch. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:Vinh Ngoc Tran, Valeriy Y. Ivanov, Weichen Huang, Kevin Murphy, Fariborz Daneshvar, Jeff H. Bednar, G. Aaron Alexander, Jongho Kim, Daniel B. Wright. Connectivity in urbanscapes can cause unintended flood impacts from stormwater systems. Nature Cities, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s44284-024-00116-7


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Researchers discover that sustained neck exertions change the spine and muscles, causing pain

Researchers show sustained exertions could disturb the neck's mechanical structure and increase the risk of neck pain

Date: September 4, 2024

Source: Texas A&M University

Summary:

Using high-precision X-ray imaging to track spine movements during neck exertion tasks, researchers discovered that sustained neck exertions cause muscle fatigue that then exaggerate the cervical spine curvature. This leads to neck pain.

FULL STORY

Learning new languages, sending emails, attending a virtual class, or speaking to loved ones halfway around the world are just some of the tasks accomplished by touching a button on a smartphone. Unfortunately, the ease and convenience of modern devices have also come with a painful crick in the neck. The sedentary nature of work and prolonged use of hand-held devices and computers have contributed to a sharp increase in neck pain.


While fatigue in neck muscles has long been suspected of causing pain, the actual mechanical changes in the spine and muscles that precede weakness remain an outstanding question.

Now, using high-precision X-ray imaging to track spine movements during neck exertion tasks, Texas A&M University researchers have discovered that sustained neck exertions cause muscle fatigue that then exaggerate the cervical spine curvature. This leads to neck pain.

Their results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"We are talking about subtle movements of the neck in statically held positions, which are hard to capture. They are also highly complex because there are so many individual pieces in the neck, or as we call, motion segments," said Dr. Xudong Zhang, professor in the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. "With this study, we have, for the first time, provided unequivocal evidence that fatigue causes mechanical changes that increase the risk."

Zhang said this understanding can help to make informed decisions about how we work and the design of products (e.g., head-mounted wearables) that can potentially reduce the risk of neck pain.

Prevalence Of Neck Pain

Neck pain is one of the most common musculoskeletal disorders, and globally, around 2500 people out of 100,000 have some form of neck pain. In fact, by 2050, the estimated global number of neck pain cases is projected to increase by 32.5%. An important risk factor for neck pain is bad posture sustained over long periods. Consequently, working long hours on the computer in a stooped position or prolonged use of smart devices are important contributors to neck pain.

Neck posture is maintained dynamically by the bones of the spine pulled into position by the muscles that attach to them. Although the neck is highly flexible, it is also very unstable.

"The muscle drives movements by producing force," said Zhang. "We hypothesized that when different muscles' force production abilities diminish, the bone positions change and that can be captured."

Measuring Fatigue

To test their idea, they recruited healthy volunteers in a "sustained-till-exhaustion" neck exertion task. The subjects maintained their necks in the neutral, 40° extended (bent backwards) and 40° bent forward for a certain duration. The investigators used electromyography (EMG) to measure muscle electrical activity. In particular, they objectively measured muscle fatigue through changes in the frequency of the EMG signal. In addition, they used high-precision, dynamic X-ray technology to track small-amplitude cervical spine movements that were of the order of a few degrees.

"We imagined the cervical spine as a cantilever bridge," said Zhang. "If there is excessive and/or repeated stress on the bridge, it might sag or buckle; similarly, if the muscles get fatigued, the cervical spine may deflect."

The researchers' experimental paradigm validated that sustained exertions indeed lead to EMG signals of fatigue. Biomechanically, the muscular fatigue modified the spine's mechanics, which then increases the propensity for injury.

Additional Investigation

As a next step, the researchers will develop dynamic biomechanical models, a novel approach that promises to provide a more realistic understanding of the muscular events that precede fatigue. Unlike the model in this study that assumes static neck exertions, the dynamic model will capture subtle but consequential changes in the muscles and bones over time.


Story Source:

Materials provided by Texas A&M University. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:Yu Zhou, Curran Reddy, Xudong Zhang. The deflection of fatigued neck. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024; 121 (34) DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2401874121


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KOREA

Appeals court to decide legality of oriental medicine practitioner's use of lidocaine

기자명 Koh Jung Min
Published 2024
KOREAN BIOMEDICAL REVIEW

The appeals process of the case concerning an oriental medicine practitioner’s use of lidocaine has been completed, leaving only the trial court's verdict. Lidocaine is a local anesthetic used to numb tissue and relive pain.

The medical community is watching to see if the ruling that banned the use of specialized drugs by oriental medicine doctors, unlike the legal verdict on their use of diagnostic equipment, such as ultrasound devices and electroencephalographs (EEGs), will be upheld.

The Seoul Southern District Court trial addressed whether the use of lidocaine by oriental medicine practitioners was illegal. (Source: The court’s website)

On Thursday, the Seoul Southern District Court's Criminal Division held the final arguments of the appeal hearing against an oriental medicine doctor, initialized as just Mr. A, who was charged with violating the Medical Service Act by mixing local anesthetic lidocaine in a medicine needle.

The oriental medicine practitioner was accused of practicing medicine without a license by injecting 87 patients with lidocaine mixed with bee venom solution into painful areas for two months from November 2021. On Nov. 10, 2023, a lower court found him guilty of unlicensed medical practice, as the use of lidocaine was outside the scope of his license.

“Lidocaine is a specialty drug that must be licensed in Western medicine and used under the direction and supervision of a physician, and so an oriental medicine practitioner cannot prescribe and dispense lidocaine, nor can he administer and use it,” the lower court said. “It is also difficult to believe that Mr. A has been rigorously verified to have Western medical expertise and skills to use lidocaine.”

The court also said that as lidocaine is injected directly into the body with a syringe, “there are health and hygiene risks associated with the use of specialized drugs,” and “it cannot be considered an auxiliary tool for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) practice since it is an invasive method. It added that specialty drug use could not be authorized for oriental medicine practitioners along the same lines as diagnostic equipment, such as ultrasound and electroencephalographs.

The oriental doctor appealed the first court ruling and immediately appealed. The Association of Korean Medicine (AKOM), a group of oriental doctors, also supported A, arguing that it is legal for a TCM doctor to use lidocaine as an aid. Members of the association attended the final arguments in the second trial.

Defendant argues he ‘used the drug to the lowest limit for pain relief’

In court, Mr. A's defense team presented a video of the actual needle manufacturing and procedure.

Regarding the “health and hygiene harm caused by injecting lidocaine into the body with a syringe” pointed out by the first trial court, Mr. A countered that lidocaine should be viewed as “mixing the drug with a pain-free agent in the process of preparing the needle rather than directly injecting it into the body.” He also said, “In the past 40 years, no acupuncturist has been administratively penalized or convicted for using a syringe in the past 40 years,” citing the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s authoritative interpretation.

The defendant’s legal team also said Mr. A is a practicing acupuncturist with over 20 years of experience and is “the most highly trained professional in the world when it comes to syringes (used for acupuncture).” They argued that acupuncturists are “trained and educated to deal with the risks of acupuncture, which exceed the risks of lidocaine” and that the trial court erred in finding that harm occurred because the acupuncturist administered lidocaine in an invasive manner using a syringe.

The lawyer added that it doesn't matter if the risk of lidocaine itself, not the act of injection, is the issue. Given that the lidocaine was used “at the lowest possible dose of 0.05 cc for pain relief, a dose that is between 200th and 400th of the dose typically used for anesthesia and less than the dose used in allergy testing, how can the risk be assessed as high?” he asked.

‘A wrong ruling that forces oriental medicine practitioners to use only herbal preparations’

The defense team also refuted the first court's ruling that oriental doctors should use licensed medicines based on safety and efficacy review standards. The first trial applied a Supreme Court precedent in 2022 that banned Shinbaro Tablet-Apitoxin Injection by oriental medicine doctors. The notification of the Ministry of Food and Safety (MFDS) has since changed.

“In the MFDS notification on herbal medicines, the criteria for safety and efficacy from an oriental medicine perspective have disappeared. The health center's survey on the use of herbal medicines by oriental medicine practitioners excluded new drugs made from natural products, such as Shinbaro-Apitoxin. Not a single TCM practitioner has been administratively punished or convicted for using Shinbaro or Apitoxin,” the defense lawyer said. “Nevertheless, the first trial listed the scope of TCM practitioners’ use of medicines based on the old notification that had already been changed.”

They continued, “It seems that the first trial was based on the argument that doctors and herbalists should use medicines that have undergone biologics notification and should be used by herbalists. However, the standards for safety and efficacy in drug approval are the same whether it is a biological drug, synthetic drug, or herbal drug.”

The defense added that the claim that there are separate standards for reviewing Chinese herbal preparations based on the principles of Chinese medicine is wrong and does not reflect the actual situation and that ”the type of notification process a drug has undergone cannot be an indicator of a practitioner's licensing behavior.”

They also noted that there have already been cases where prosecutors have decided not to prosecute a TCM practitioner for using lidocaine injections. In that case, the prosecutor argued that “the use of lidocaine was necessary to relieve pain in the course of herbal treatment, and therefore the use of lidocaine in the clinic. It cannot be said that the practitioner intended to practice Western medicine, they added.

“Lidocaine is not used alone for medical purposes. It depends on what the procedure is. If you use lidocaine to practice TCM, then the use of lidocaine is also a subordinate and instrumental purpose for TCM,” the defense team said. “Looking at the overall behavior, it cannot be said that it is related to TCM.”

‘Why should only oriental medicine patients endure pain?’

The lawyer also said that the first trial court's judgment that Mr. A, an oriental medicine doctor, had “sufficiently verified western medical expertise and skills” to use lidocaine was wrong. The reasoning was that the test was based on whether the doctor was “properly trained” rather than whether he was “practicing medicine other than what he was licensed to do. He said that Chinese medicine already provides sufficient education on the use of lidocaine.

“The general manual of oriental medicine specialists and textbooks on acupuncture teach the use of lidocaine. It even states that lidocaine should be used during bee venom acupuncture to prevent pain shock,” the defense team said. “A TCM practitioner should diagnose according to KCD disease codes (like a medical doctor). They learn how to diagnose and treat diseases according to modern medicine. Western medicine accounts for 75 percent of the total education in Chinese medicine schools. How can you say that a TCM doctor cannot use lidocaine because they are not properly educated?”

They continued, “The Supreme Court stated that new areas of oriental medicine can be created to reflect the changing development of medicine. Why should a patient who comes to an oriental medicine clinic have to endure pain to be treated? Naturally, it should be possible to prevent pain shock and reduce pain (by using lidocaine).”

“Chinese acupuncturists and American acupuncturists use lidocaine. In the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Australia, lidocaine is also available to dental hygienists, who are non-medical personnel. In Korea, nurses and midwives, who are public officials dedicated to health care, can use it,” they said.

Requesting acquittal, they said, “A universal remedy should be universal, not monopolized by certain professions. The law should be interpreted to keep the options open to healthcare consumers within a reasonable range, not monopolized by certain professions.”

The prosecution made no arguments other than asking the court to dismiss the defense's appeal.

‘As a medical professional, I tried to provide better treatment methods’

In his closing statement, Mr. A stated that, as a medical professional, he used lidocaine to improve patient care and asked the court to consider the challenges faced by oriental medicine practitioners.

“Despite the great effectiveness of acupuncture, the procedure was painful, and some patients had allergic reactions. Even I was uncomfortable with the procedure because of the pain when I inserted the needles myself, and this made me think about how to reduce the pain felt by patients,” he said.

“We oriental medicine practitioners also consider the patient's compliance level and make various efforts to reduce the procedure's pain,” he said. “It would be very frustrating for our patients to have a good treatment that is helpful for many conditions and then have it become unavailable in the future.”

Sentencing by the appeals court will be made at 2 p.m. on Oct. 17.

 Mindfulness meditation reduces pain through distinct brain mechanisms

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University of California - San DiegoSep 5 2024

Pain is a complex, multifaceted experience shaped by various factors beyond physical sensation, such as a person's mindset and their expectations of pain. The placebo effect, the tendency for a person's symptoms to improve in response to inactive treatment, is a well-known example of how expectations can significantly alter a person's experience. Mindfulness meditation, which has been used for pain management in various cultures for centuries, has long been thought to work by activating the placebo response. However, scientists have now shown that this is not the case.

A new study, published in Biological Psychiatry, has revealed that mindfulness meditation engages distinct brain mechanisms to reduce pain compared to those of the placebo response. The study, conducted by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, used advanced brain imaging techniques to compare the pain-reducing effects of mindfulness meditation, a placebo cream and a "sham" mindfulness meditation in healthy participants.

The study found that mindfulness meditation produced significant reductions in pain intensity and pain unpleasantness ratings, and also reduced brain activity patterns associated with pain and negative emotions. In contrast, the placebo cream only reduced the brain activity pattern associated with the placebo effect, without affecting the person's underlying experience of pain.

The mind is extremely powerful, and we're still working to understand how it can be harnessed for pain management. By separating pain from the self and relinquishing evaluative judgment, mindfulness meditation is able to directly modify how we experience pain in a way that uses no drugs, costs nothing and can be practiced anywhere."

 Fadel Zeidan, PhD, Professor of anesthesiology and Endowed Professor in Empathy and Compassion Research at UC San Diego Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion

The study included 115 participants, which consisted of two separate clinical trials in healthy participants, who were randomly placed into groups to be given four interventions: a guided mindfulness meditation, a sham-mindfulness meditation that only consisted of deep breathing, a placebo cream (petroleum jelly) that participants were trained to believe reduces pain and, as a control, one group listened to an audiobook. The researchers applied a very painful but harmless heat stimulus to the back of the leg and scanned the participants' brains both before and after the interventions.

To analyze the participant's brain activity patterns, the researchers used a novel approach called multivariate pattern analysis (MVPA), which uses machine learning to disentangle the many complex neural mechanisms underlying the experience of pain, including those stemming from specific heat stimulus, negative emotions and pain responses that are driven by the placebo effect. The researchers were then able to identify if mindfulness meditation and placebo engage similar and/or separate brain processes.

Although placebo cream and sham-mindfulness meditation lowered pain, the researchers found that mindfulness meditation was significantly more effective at reducing pain when compared to placebo cream, sham-mindfulness meditation and the controls

They also found that mindfulness-based pain relief reduced synchronization between brain areas involved in introspection, self-awareness and emotional regulation. These parts of the brain together comprise the neural pain signal (NPS), a documented pattern of brain activity thought to be common to pain across different individuals and different types of pain. In contrast, the placebo cream and sham-mindfulness meditation did not show a significant change in the NPS when compared to controls. Instead, these other interventions engaged entirely separate brain mechanisms with little overlap.

"It has long been assumed that the placebo effect overlaps with brain mechanisms triggered by active treatments, but these results suggest that when it comes to pain, this may not be the case," said Zeidan. "Instead, these two brain responses are completely distinct, which supports the use of mindfulness meditation as a direct intervention for chronic pain rather than as a way to engage the placebo effect."

In modern medicine, new therapies are generally deemed effective and reliable if they outperform placebo. As the present study found that mindfulness meditation is more powerful than placebo and does not engage the same neurobiological processes as placebo, the findings have important implications for the development of new treatments for chronic pain. However, it will take more research to demonstrate these effects in people living with chronic pain as opposed to healthy participants.

In the long term, the researchers hope that by understanding the distinct brain mechanisms underlying mindfulness meditation, they can design more effective and accessible interventions that harness the power of mindfulness to reduce pain in people with various health conditions.

"Millions of people are living with chronic pain every day, and there may be more these people can do to reduce their pain and improve their quality of life than we previously understood." said Zeidan. "We are excited to continue exploring the neurobiology of mindfulness and how we can leverage this ancient practice in the clinic."

Source:

University of California - San Diego

Journal reference:

Riegner, G., et al. (2024). Mindfulness meditation and placebo modulate distinct multivariate neural signatures to reduce pain. Biological Psychiatry. doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2024.08.023.

Why Pain During Wound Healing May be a Good Sign

Sensory neurons grow into injured tissues and modulate the immune system to promote healing.



Sneha Khedkar
Sep 5, 2024 | 

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ABOVE:Neurons that sense pain grow into injured tissue and help it heal in mice.

©iSTOCK, recep-bg

The skin and muscles frequently encounter injuries; while the skin forms a protective barrier against external insults, muscles can strain on stretching.1,2 Both tissues possess an elaborate repair program to effectively respond to and recover from injuries.

Tissue healing requires intricate synchronization between different cell types, particularly those of the immune and nervous systems, that act at distinct steps in the process to restore the tissue close to its original state.3 However, researchers were unaware of the exact extent of interaction between these cell types in tissue repair.

In a new study, scientists found that neuron endings grow into injured skin and muscle tissue and communicate with immune cells through a neuropeptide to promote tissue healing.4 These findings, published in Nature, provide insights on how neurons enable healing and open up potential therapeutic targets for regenerative tissue healing strategies.


“There are many different actors in the regeneration process,” said study author Mikaël Martino, a regenerative medicine scientist at Monash University and Osaka University. Although stem cells are the most commonly studied players, previous studies indicated crosstalk between the nervous and immune systems, which motivated Martino’s team to explore these following an injury.5
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Getting to the Root of Skin Healing
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First, the team investigated how sensory neurons that detect pain, tissue injury, and inflammation modulate the immune system upon tissue damage. When they destroyed a subset of these cells in mice, they observed slower post-injury healing in their skin and muscles, whereas wounds of mice with intact sensory neurons healed within an expected timeframe.

The team next tracked sensory neurons to visualize their participation in tissue healing in mice. They observed that after injury, neuron endings grew in clusters around the damaged tissue, helping to innervate the area. The extent to which the sensory neuron endings grew into the damaged tissue was surprising, said Martino. “I was really excited to see, indeed, the nerve growing inside.”


Using immunofluorescence techniques, the scientists then discovered that the sensory neuron endings expressed a neuropeptide called calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP). This neuropeptide plays a role in wound healing and acts via the CGRP receptor complex on its target cells.6

To investigate whether CGRP modulated immune cell activity in injured tissues, the researchers generated mice whose immune cells lacked the receptor activity modifying protein 1 (RAMP1), a component of the CGRP receptor complex, rendering the cells unresponsive to CGRP. Upon wounding, these mice showed significantly impaired healing compared to wild type mice.

The team then profiled different cell populations during tissue healing using flow cytometry to gain insights into the immune players. They found that neutrophils, monocytes, and macrophages in injured mice with ablated sensory neurons behaved differently—the cells were present in higher numbers and showed more inflammatory characteristics—than those in mice with intact sensory neurons.


Neuron endings extend into tissues undergoing repair and influence immune cell function. A neuron ending cluster (red) surrounded by immune cells (yellow/orange) in an injured muscle.
Mikaël Martino and Yasmin Alshoubaki

Further investigations revealed that CGRP suppressed the recruitment of these cells to the injured tissue and accelerated their clearance after the cells had contributed to the initial phase of tissue healing. This helped reduce inflammation and shifted the damaged tissue toward a pro-repair state.

“What was really impressive about this study is it helped us understand the mechanism that neurons play in enabling healing,” said Yvon Woappi, a systems bioengineer at Columbia University, who was not involved with the study. Although he was not surprised that sensory neurons modulated the immune system during tissue repair, since these cells play key roles in inflammatory responses, Woappi noted, It’s elegant that someone was able to empirically demonstrate this by some very careful, rigorous experiments.”

In addition to studying the neuro-immune interaction, Martino’s team also explored its therapeutic potential. They tested the effect of purified engineered CGRP on skin and muscle injuries in mice with ablated sensory neurons and found that CGRP treatment promoted the closure of wounds even in the absence of sensory neurons. The treatment showed similar effects in diabetic mice that had damaged neurons in the body, or peripheral neuropathy. In these animals, CGRP improved wound closure and muscle regeneration compared to untreated mice.

“[This shows that] we probably can design new wound healing strategies for patients that have neuropathies by leveraging this neuro-immune interaction,” Martino said.

“It’s very encouraging to see such a dramatic effect on both skin and muscle healing in an animal model,” said Woappi, who, while enthusiastic about the findings, believes that the study lacks data on the applicability of the results to humans. “Although it’s an elegant study, well-performed in animal models, just a publicly available dataset of human tissue could have given some insight as to whether this mechanism is conserved in a human relevant context.” However, he believes it likely that a neuro-immune interaction may exist in humans since skin healing in rodents and humans is highly conserved.

 Algae Perform Photosynthetic Manoeuvres In The Dark

Arctic microalgae can grow in light levels 100 times lower than previously thought.

Hoppe and colleagues discovered that Arctic microalgae can photosynthesize and grow in incredibly dim light, challenging our understanding of ocean productivity. Their findings suggest that marine life in polar regions and deep waters may be more active than we realized.

The researchers found algal growth resumed under sea ice at daily average light levels of just 0.04 μmol photons m⁻² s⁻¹ in late March. This is 10-100 times lower than previous estimates and approaches the theoretical minimum light requirement for photosynthesis.

As part of the expedition, they froze the German research icebreaker Polarstern in the icepack of the central Arctic for a year in 2019, in order to investigate the annual cycle of the Arctic climate and ecosystem. The team used autonomous light sensors deployed under Arctic sea ice during the year-long expedition. They also tracked algal growth by measuring chlorophyll concentrations and carbon uptake in water samples,

The extremely low light levels supporting net growth were unexpected and suggest marine primary production may occur more extensively than previously thought. The photosynthetic habitat in the global ocean could therefore be significantly larger than previously assumed.
[O]ur threshold would deepen the bottom of the euphotic zone from 23 to 54 m. This substantially increases the vertical extent and thus the total volume of the euphotic zone in the world’s oceans and may change our view on upper twilight zone ecology and biogeochemistry.


Hoppe, C. J. M., Fuchs, N., Notz, D., Anderson, P., Assmy, P., Berge, J., … & Wloka, J. (2024). Photosynthetic light requirement near the theoretical minimum detected in Arctic microalgae. Nature Communications, 15(1), 7385. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-51636-8

 

Excessive light pollution may increase risk of Alzheimer's, especially in younger people

by Frontiers

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

In some places around the globe, the lights never go off. Streetlights, roadway lighting, and illuminated signs can deter crime, make roads safer, and enhance landscaping. Undisrupted light, however, comes with ecological, behavioral, and health consequences.

In the US, some states have legislation in place to reduce light pollution; however, levels of lght at night remain high in many parts of the country. Now, researchers there have investigated correlations between outside nightly light pollution and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

"We show that in the US there is a positive association between AD prevalence and exposure to light at night, particularly in those under the age of 65," said the first author of the study, Dr. Robin Voigt-Zuwala, an associate professor at Rush University Medical Center. "Nightly light pollution—a modifiable environmental factor—may be an important risk factor for AD."

The work appears in Frontiers in Neuroscience.

High intensity, high risk

The researchers studied light pollution maps of the lower 48 US states and incorporated medical data about variables known or believed to be risk factors for AD in their analysis. They generated nighttime intensity data for every state and divided them into five groups, from lowest to highest nighttime light intensity.

Their results showed that for people aged 65 and older, AD prevalence was more strongly correlated with nightly light pollution than some other disease factors, including alcohol abuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, and obesity. Other risk factors, like diabetes, high blood pressure, and stroke were more strongly associated with AD than light pollution.

For people aged under 65, however, the researchers found that higher nighttime light intensity was associated with a greater AD prevalence than any other risk factor examined in the study. This could suggest that younger people may be particularly sensitive to the effects of light exposure at night, the researchers said.

It is unclear why younger people could be more vulnerable, but it could be due to individual differences in light sensitivity. "Certain genotypes, which influence early-onset AD, impact the response to biological stressors which could account for increased vulnerability to the effects of nighttime light exposure," Voigt-Zuwala explained. "Additionally, younger people are more likely to live in urban areas and have lifestyles that may increase exposure to light at night.

Curtains and masks

The researchers hope that their findings can help educate people about the potential risks of light at night. "Awareness of the association should empower people—particularly those with risk factors for AD—to make easy lifestyle changes," said Voigt-Zuwala. "Easy to implement changes include using blackout curtains or sleeping with eye masks. This is useful especially for those living in areas with high light pollution."

Furthermore, light exposure inside the home could be as important as light exposure from the outside. While the researchers did not examine the effects of inside light in the present study, they said that blue light has the greatest impact on sleep, and using blue light filters, swapping to warm light, and installing dimmers in the home could effectively reduce light exposure.

The researchers pointed out that their results are based on a subset of the US population, and that people may not be living in areas with high light pollution all their lives—both could impact individual outcomes. They also said that further research is needed to better understand how light at night influences AD.

More information: Robin M. Voigt et all, Outdoor Nighttime Light Exposure (Light Pollution) is Associated with Alzheimer's Disease, Frontiers in Neuroscience (2024). DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1378498

Journal information: Frontiers in Neuroscience 

Provided by Frontiers 

Fighting the late-night bright light could reduce risk of diabetes