It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, May 24, 2020
Pac-Man reinvented by Nvidia AI on its 40th birthday
by Peter Grad , Tech Xplore
Forty years ago Friday the most popular video game of all time was released.
Pac-Man was designed by a nine-person team at the Japanese company Namco.
Today, the game has been born again, this time the result of an artificial intelligence model undertaken by Nvidia Research. And it was accomplished without an underlying game engine, the standard procedure for designing such games, but rather by training a neural network by having it "watch" 50,000 hours of the original game.
GameGAN is considered the first neural network model employing generative adversarial networks. In this type of system, one network learns to recognize patterns within images and create its own distinctive images in a fashion similar to the origjnals. An adversarial computer is tasked with distinguishing between real mages and the manufactured ones.
In this instance, Nvidia researchers did no game programming, but rather relied on GameGAN to examine Pac-Man libraries and then construct its own scenarios of the game. In other words, with artificial intelligence, a realistic copy of the game was created even though there is no code mapping the game's fundamental rules.
"This is the first research to emulate a game engine using GAN-based neural networks," according to Seung-Wook Kim, the lead Nvidia researcher on the project. "We wanted to see whether the AI could learn the rules of an environment just by looking at the screenplay of an agent moving through the game. And it did.
Researchers are pleased with the results of the regenerated Pac-Man, but see applications beyond gaming in the future. The system can be applied to robotics where machines will work side by side with humans in cooperative manufacturing ventures, for instance. Self-driving cars are another field ripe for research.
"We could eventually have an AI that can learn to mimic the rules of driving, the laws of physics, just by watching videos and seeing agents take actions in an environment," said Sanja Fidler, director of the Nvidia research lab in Toronto. "GameGAN is the first step toward that."
For Rev Lebaredian, vice president of simulation technology at Nvidia, it all comes down to simple observation.
"It learns all of these things just by watching… similar to how a human programmer can watch many episodes of Pac-Man on YouTube and infer what the rules of the games are and reconstruct them."
Nvidia says it will make the game available on its online AI Playground later this year.
Six fun facts about Pac-Man:
— Pac-Man is often cited as the most popular video game of all time. According to the Davie Brown Index, is has the highest brand awareness in its class of all video game characters.
— According to Money magazine, the Pac-Man franchise has sold an estimated 44 million games since May 22, 1980. And as of 2016, it generated more than $14 billion in revenue.
— The first person credited with having won a perfect score of 3,333,360—earning the maximum possible score in the first 255 levels by eating all dots, energizers, fruits and enemies, without losing a life, and using extra lives to score the maximum on level 256—was Billy Mitchell in 1999. As of 2019, seven other players have attained that level.
— Pac-Man is part of the Smithsonian Institution's collection and is in the New York Museum of Modern Art display.
— Guinness World Records lists Pac-Man for eight records, including "Most Successful Coin-Operated Game."
— The game, created in Japan, was originally named Puck Man, but that was changed to Pac-Man for release in the English-speaking world because developers feared mischievous teenagers would alter the nameplates to spell out a distasteful word. More information:blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2020/05/ … 2#cid=_so-yout_en-us
First commercial space taxi a pit stop on Musk's Mars quest
by Seth Borenstein
In this Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2016 file photo, SpaceX founder Elon Musk speaks during the 67th International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico. Starting with the dream of growing a rose on Mars, Musk's vision morphed into a shake-up of the old space industry, and a fleet of new private rockets. In 2020, those rockets are scheduled to launch NASA astronauts from Florida to the International Space Station—the first time a for-profit company will carry astronauts into the cosmos. (AP Photo/Refugio Ruiz)
It all started with the dream of growing a rose on Mars.
That vision, Elon Musk's vision, morphed into a shake-up of the old space industry, and a fleet of new private rockets. Now, those rockets will launch NASA astronauts from Florida to the International Space Station—the first time a for-profit company will carry astronauts into the cosmos.
It's a milestone in the effort to commercialize space. But for Musk's company, SpaceX, it's also the latest milestone in a wild ride that began with epic failures and the threat of bankruptcy.
If the company's eccentric founder and CEO has his way, this is just the beginning: He's planning to build a city on the red planet, and live there.
"What I really want to achieve here is to make Mars seem possible, make it seem as though it's something that we can do in our lifetimes and that you can go," Musk told a cheering congress of space professionals in Mexico in 2016.
Musk "is a revolutionary change" in the space world, says Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, whose Jonathan's Space Report has tracked launches and failures for decades.
In this Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2018 file photo, a Falcon 9 SpaceX heavy rocket lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. The Falcon Heavy, has three first-stage boosters, strapped together with 27 engines in all. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
Ex-astronaut and former Commercial Spaceflight Federation chief Michael Lopez-Alegria says, "I think history will look back at him like a da Vinci figure."
Musk has become best known for Tesla, his audacious effort to build an electric vehicle company. But SpaceX predates it.
At 30, Musk was already wildly rich from selling his internet financial company PayPal and its predecessor Zip2. He arranged a series of lunches in Silicon Valley in 2001 with G. Scott Hubbard, who had been NASA's Mars czar and was then running the agency's Ames Research Center.
Musk wanted to somehow grow a rose on the red planet, show it to the world and inspire school children, recalls Hubbard.
"His real focus was having life on Mars," says Hubbard, a Stanford University professor who now chairs SpaceX's crew safety advisory panel.
In this Thursday, April 11, 2019 file photo, SpaceX lands two of the first-stage boosters side by side, eight minutes after liftoff at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
The big problem, Hubbard told him, was building a rocket affordable enough to go to Mars. Less than a year later Space Exploration Technologies, called SpaceX, was born.
There are many space companies and like all of them, SpaceX is designed for profit. But what's different is that behind that profit motive is a goal, which is simply to "Get Elon to Mars," McDowell says. "By having that longer-term vision, that's pushed them to be more ambitious and really changed things."
Everyone at SpaceX, from senior vice presidents to the barista who offers its in-house cappuccinos and FroYo, "will tell you they are working to make humans multi-planetary," says former SpaceX Director of Space Operations Garrett Reisman, an ex-astronaut now at the University of Southern California.
Musk founded the company just before NASA ramped up the notion of commercial space.
In this Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2019 file photo, SpaceX tests their StarHopper, successfully hovering 500 feet above the launch site and safely landing at the company's facility in Brownsville, Texas. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald via AP)
Traditionally, private firms built things or provided services for NASA, which remained the boss and owned the equipment. The idea of bigger roles for private companies has been around for more than 50 years, but the market and technology weren't yet right.
NASA's two deadly space shuttle accidents—Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003—were pivotal, says W. Henry Lambright, a professor of public policy at Syracuse University.
When Columbia disintegrated, NASA had to contemplate a post-space shuttle world. That's where private companies came in, Lambright says.
After Columbia, the agency focused on returning astronauts to the moon, but still had to get cargo and astronauts to the space station, says Sean O'Keefe, who was NASA's administrator at the time. A 2005 pilot project helped private companies develop ships to bring cargo to the station.
In this March 4, 2019 photo made available by NASA, the uncrewed SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, with its nose cone open to expose the docking mechanism, approaches the International Space Station's Harmony module. It was the first Commercial Crew vehicle to visit the ISS. (NASA via AP)
SpaceX got some of that initial funding. The company's first three launches failed. The company could have just as easily failed too, but NASA stuck by SpaceX and it started to pay off, Lambright says.
"You can't explain SpaceX without really understanding how NASA really kind of nurtured it in the early days," Lambright says. "In a way, SpaceX is kind of a child of NASA."
Since 2010, NASA has spent $6 billion to help private companies get people into orbit, with SpaceX and Boeing the biggest recipients, says Phil McAlister, NASA's commercial spaceflight director.
NASA plans to spend another $2.5 billion to purchase 48 astronaut seats to the space station in 12 different flights, he says. At a little more than $50 million a ride, it's much cheaper than what NASA has paid Russia for flights to the station.
In this Thursday, May 29, 2014 file photo, Elon Musk, CEO and CTO of SpaceX, walks down the steps during the introduction of the SpaceX Dragon V2 spaceship at the headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., designed to ferry astronauts to low-Earth orbit. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Starting from scratch has given SpaceX an advantage over older firms and NASA that are stuck using legacy technology and infrastructure, O'Keefe says.
And SpaceX tries to build everything itself, giving the firm more control, Reisman says. The company saves money by reusing rockets, and it has customers aside from NASA.
The California company now has 6,000 employees. Its workers are young, highly caffeinated and put in 60- to 90-hour weeks, Hubbard and Reisman say. They also embrace risk more than their NASA counterparts.
Decisions that can take a year at NASA can be made in one or two meetings at SpaceX, says Reisman, who still advises the firm.
In 2010, a Falcon 9 rocket on the launch pad had a cracked nozzle extension on an engine. Normally that would mean rolling the rocket off the pad and a fix that would delay launch more than a month.
In this Monday, Sept. 17, 2018 file photo, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa speaks after SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk announced him as the person who would be the first private passenger on a trip around the moon in Hawthorne, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson) This artist's rendering made available by Elon Musk on Friday, Sept. 29, 2017, depicts a SpaceX rocket design on the Earth's moon. (SpaceX via AP, File)
In this Saturday, Sep. 28, 2019 file photo, SpaceX's Starship Mk 1 is illuminated against the night sky at the South Texas Ground Control Station in Brownsville, Texas. Starting with the dream of growing a rose on Mars, Elon Musk's vision morphed into a shake-up of the old space industry, and a fleet of new private rockets. Now, those rockets will launch NASA astronauts from Florida to the International Space Station—the first time a for-profit company will carry astronauts into the cosmos. (Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald via AP)
In this Monday, Sept. 17, 2018 file photo, Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa speaks after SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk announced him as the person who would be the first private passenger on a trip around the moon in Hawthorne, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
This artist's rendering made available by Elon Musk on Friday, Sept. 29, 2017, depicts a SpaceX rocket design on the Earth's moon. (SpaceX via AP, File)
But with NASA's permission, SpaceX engineer Florence Li was hoisted into the rocket nozzle with a crane and harness. Then, using what were essentially garden shears, she "cut the thing, we launched the next day and it worked," Reisman says.
Musk is SpaceX's public and unconventional face—smoking marijuana on a popular podcast, feuding with local officials about opening his Tesla plant during the pandemic, naming his newborn child "X Æ A-12." But insiders say aerospace industry veteran Gwynne Shotwell, the president and chief operating officer, is also key to the company's success.
"The SpaceX way is actually a combination of Musk's imagination and creativity and drive and Shotwell's sound management and responsible engineering," McDowell says.
But it all comes back to Musk's dream. Former NASA chief O'Keefe says Musk has his eccentricities, huge doses of self-confidence and persistence, and that last part is key: "You have the capacity to get through a setback and look ... toward where you're trying to go."
Saltmarshes about 30 miles (50 km) southeast of New Orleans are vulnerable to drowning. Credit: Torbjörn Törnqvist
Given the present-day rate of global sea-level rise, remaining marshes in the Mississippi Delta are likely to drown, according to a new Tulane University study.
A key finding of the study, published in Science Advances, is that coastal marshes experience tipping points, where a small increase in the rate of sea-level rise leads to widespread submergence.
The loss of 2,000 square miles (5,000 km2) of wetlands in coastal Louisiana over the past century is well documented, but it has been more challenging to predict the fate of the remaining 6,000 square miles (15,000 km2) of marshland.
The study used hundreds of sediment cores collected since the early 1990s to examine how marshes responded to a range of rates of sea-level rise during the past 8,500 years.
"Previous investigations have suggested that marshes can keep up with rates of sea-level rise as high as half an inch per year (10 mm/yr), but those studies were based on observations over very short time windows, typically a few decades or less," said Torbjörn Törnqvist, lead author and Vokes Geology Professor in the Tulane Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
"We have taken a much longer view by examining marsh response more than 7,000 years ago, when global rates of sea-level rise were very rapid but within the range of what is expected later this century."
The researchers found that in the Mississippi Delta most marshes drown in a few centuries once the rate of sea-level rise exceeds about one-tenth of an inch per year (3 mm/yr). When the rate exceeds a quarter of an inch per year (7.5 mm/yr), drowning occurs in about half a century.
"The scary thing is that the present-day rate of global sea-level rise, due to climate change, has already exceeded the initial tipping point for marsh drowning," Törnqvist said. "And as things stand right now, the rate of sea-level rise will continue to accelerate and put us on track for marshes to disappear even faster in the future."
While these findings indicate that the loss of remaining marshes in coastal Louisiana is probably inevitable, there are still meaningful actions that can be taken to prevent the worst possible outcomes. The most important one, Törnqvist said, is to drastically curb greenhouse gas emissions to prevent sea-level rise from ramping up to rates where marshes will drown within a matter of decades.
The other one is to implement major river diversions as quickly as possible, so at least small portions of the Mississippi Delta can survive for a longer time. However, the window of opportunity for these actions to be effective is rapidly closing, he said.Louisiana wetlands struggling with sea-level rise four times the global average
More information:Tipping points of Mississippi Delta marshes due to accelerated sea-level rise,Science Advances(2020).DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaz551
King penguins in a colony in Antarctica emit so much nitrous oxide—also known as laughing gas—from their feces that a team of researchers studying them went "cuckoo" from the fumes.
The scientists, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, were investigating the effect of glacier retreat and penguin activity on greenhouse gas emissions. To do this, they went on a research trip to South Georgia, an island in the southern Atlantic ocean, where the world's largest colony of king penguins live—around 150,000 breeding pairs, the team notes.
Penguin feces, known as guano, is known to release huge amounts of nitrous oxide (N2O). This is a potent greenhouse gas, with a warming effect around 300 times that of carbon dioxide (CO2). The N2O is created when the penguins eat fish and krill that have absorbed large amounts of nitrogen via phytoplankton. Nitrogen is released from the guano, and the soil it lands on converts it into N2O.
As well as being a greenhouse gas, N2O is also used as a sedative by dentists, and some people use it recreationally because of its psychoactive effects. These include making the user feel euphoric and relaxed, and causing fits of laughter.
"After nosing about in guano for several hours, one goes completely cuckoo," lead researcher Bo Elberling said in a statement. "One begins to feel ill and get a headache. The small nitrous oxide cylinders that you see lying in and floating around Copenhagen are no match for this heavy dose, which results from a combination of nitrous oxide with hydrogen sulphide and other gases."
As a greenhouse gas, most N2O comes from agricultural soil management. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says N2O accounts for 6.5 percent of all America's man-made emissions. Elberling said N2O emissions at the colony are around 100 times higher than a newly fertilized field in Denmark. "It is truly intense," he said.
Findings from the research trip have been published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. In it, the team say that as glaciers retreat, more land will be exposed and this is likely to alter the level of greenhouse gasses emitted from these regions.
"Penguins have been considered to be an ideal 'bio-indicator' of ecosystem and environmental changes, as changes in populations and colonies reflect direct and indirect ecological responses to climatic changes," they wrote. "Changes in penguin colonies, penguin activity and the associated addition of guano are known to significantly influence terrestrial soil and ecosystem processes and thereby can turn soils into [greenhouse gas] emission hotspots."
The scientists looked at changes to N2O, CO2 and methane (CH4) by analyzing soil samples taken from different areas of the island. These were incubated and assessed for greenhouse gas production and consumption. Findings showed soil was heavily influenced by penguin activity. In areas penguins frequent, there was increased CO2 and N2O production, as well as a fall in CH4 consumption. When they applied penguin guano to soil in controlled experiments, they also found a "significant increase" in CO2 and N2O, and a drop in CH4 consumption.
This, they suggest, shows the increase in nutrients that penguin guano provides leads to more greenhouse gas production. If penguins populations expand as glaciers retreat and more land becomes ice-free, there could be an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, they conclude.
"While nitrous oxide emissions in this case are not enough to impact Earth's overall energy budget, our findings contribute to new knowledge about how penguin colonies affect the environment around them, which is interesting because colonies are generally becoming more and more widespread," Elberling said in a statement.
Stock photo of a king penguin. Researchers find penguin guano increases levels of CO2 and N2O.ISTOCK
New studies reveal extent and risks of laughing gas and stimulant abuse among young people
by European Academy of Neurology
The extent and risks associated with recreational abuse of laughing gas and psychostimulants by young people have today been revealed in two studies reported at the European Academy of Neurology Virtual Congress.
In one study, researchers from Turkey reported increasing stimulant use amongmedical studentsapproaching their final exams, despite the substantial risks to their health. In the second study, researchers from the Netherlands detailed the neurological outcomes associated with recreational use of laughing gas (nitrous oxide), suggesting that, for some individuals, permanent neurological damage can occur.
Increasing use of psychostimulants among medical students:
The increasing and widespread use of psychostimulants among medical students as they progress through their training has been revealed by a team of researchers from Istanbul in Turkey.
The team studied 194 medical students who completed an online survey evaluating their stimulant use, side effects, and academic performance grades. First-year students (n=93; control group) were compared with fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-year students (n=101; study group).
"Non-medical use of prescription stimulants has become a growing public health concern on university campuses over the past two decades," explained Dr. Suna Ertugrul from the Demiroglu Bilim University in Istanbul, Turkey, who presented the results of the study. "Medicine is one of the longest and most competitive degrees to study for and many students believe that using stimulants helps to enhance their academic performance and live an active life."
The Turkish researchers found that 16.1% of their study group were using psychostimulants such as methylphenidate and modafinil compared with 6.8% of the control group. Three-quarters of the study group reported experiencing side effects, including insomnia, high heartrates and agitation. No differences were observed in the academic performance between the stimulant users and non-users.
"Our study confirms that stimulant use increases during the course of studying for a medical degree, but that this does not improve academic performance as these students believe," said Dr. Ertugrul.
Recreational use of laughing gas:
The recreational use of laughing gas, which is used as an anaesthetic agent in dental practices and during labour, is on the increase, resulting in growing numbers of patients with neurological problems reporting to specialist outpatient clinics and emergency rooms.
"In our neurologic practice, we are seeing more and more patients with neurological problems resulting from recreational use of laughing gas," explained Dr. Anne Bruijnes from the Zuyderland Medical Center in Heerlen, Netherlands, who presented the study findings at the meeting. "We saw our first patient in 2017, and since then the number has increased steadily, so we decided to conduct a retrospective study to describe the clinical features and outcomes of the patients we've seen."
According to the study team, 13 patients with an average age of 21 years were treated at the medical centre between 2017 and 2019. The most common symptoms reported were paresthesias (tingling and numbness in the hands, legs, arms and feet) and lower limb weakness. Eight patients (62%) were given a clinical diagnosis of axonal polyneuropathy, two (15%) showed evidence of spinal cord degeneration, and three (23%) showed clinical symptoms of both polyneuropathy and spinal cord degeneration (myelopolyneuropathy). All patients received vitamin B12 supplementation and were advised to stop using laughing gas.
Laughing gas usage is thought to be on the increase with one in 11 young people aged 16-24 using it annually. Many users are unaware of potential consequences, which can also include paranoia, breathing problems and even death.
"Most of our patients made a full recovery, however, some continued to have minor symptoms and three experienced difficulties with everyday activities and were referred to a rehabilitation physician," she said.
Dr. Bruijnes believes the true extent of the laughing gas problem may not be known, with many abusers failing to seek medical help. "This is a major cause for concern," she said. "Whilst this study is on a relatively small sample, we know that laughing gas use is on the increase. We now know that it causes a vitamin B12 deficiency, which can affect the spinal cord and lead to permanent damage if not treated promptly."
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2. McCabe SE, Knight JR, Teter CJ, et al. Non-medical use of prescription stimulants among US college students: prevalence and correlates from a national survey. Addiction 2005;100(1):96-106.
3. Teter CJ, McCabe SE, LaGrange K, et al. Illicit use of speci?c prescription stimulants among college students: prevalence, motives, and routes of administration. Pharmacotherapy 2006;26(10):1501-10.
4. Conjaerts SHP, Bruijnes JE, Beerhorst K, Beekman R. Nitrous oxide induced polyneuropathy. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd 2017;161:D204.
5. Lan SY, Kuo CY, Chou CC, et al. Recreational nitrous oxide abuse related subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord in adolescents - A case series and literature review. Brain Dev 2019;41(5):428-35.
6. The Guardian, Nitrous oxide users unaware of health risks, nurses warn, 21 May 2019.
7. Choi C, Kim T, Park KD, et al. Subacute combined degeneration caused by nitrous oxide intoxication: a report of two cases. Ann Rehabil Med 2019;43(4):530-34.
8. De Bruin, et al. Subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord due to recreational use of nitrous oxide. Tijdschr Neurol Neurochir 2019;120(2):68-72.
Provided by European Academy of Neurology
Lidar used to track mosquito activity in Africa to help combat malaria
Culex on milimeter paper. Credit: Mikkel Brydegaard
An international team of researchers has used lidar to track mosquito activity levels in Africa as part of an effort to combat malaria. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the group describes how the lidar was used and what was learned from their study.
Lidar is alight detectionand ranging system similar to radar, but instead of using sound, it uses light from a laser. Its precision allows for a wide variety of applications. In this new effort, the researchers used it to detect mosquito activity. Their work involved setting up a lidar system close to a village in Tanzania—the system scanned the surroundings continuously for five days and four nights, counting the number of mosquitoes it detected. The system was able to differentiate mosquitoes from other insects by counting wing beats—mosquitoes flap their wings at different rates than other insects. The lidar system was able to count mosquitoes for distances up to 596 meters.
The study was conducted as part of an ongoing effort to battle malaria—a disease that kills approximately a half-million people each year, mostly in Africa. Scientists believe that through study of mosquitoes and the parasites that cause malaria, they will be able to develop new and better ways of combating the disease. One such area of study surrounds their activity—pinpointing times of highest activity would help to better direct pesticide application and other efforts.
The lidar system used by the researchers counted over 300,000 insects, enough to provide the researchers with sufficient data to see patterns. They found that mosquitoes, as suspected, travel mostly during the morning and evening hours.
The researchers also wanted to know if the mosquito activity was part of a circadian rhythm, or if it was simply a reaction to light conditions. To find out, they carried out an experiment similar to the first, but conducted during a solar eclipse. The lidar showed the mosquitoes changing their behavior to suit the low-light conditions—they became more active, proving that their behavior is based on light conditions.
Multiple sclerosis risk 29% higher for people living in urban areas, new research reveals
Air pollution could be a risk factor for the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study conducted in Italy has found.
by European Academy of Neurology MAY 23, 2020
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Air pollution could be a risk factor for the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study conducted in Italy has found.
The research, presented today at the European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Virtual Congress, detected areduced riskfor MS in individuals residing inrural areasthat have lower levels of air pollutants known as particulate matter (PM). It showed that the MS risk, adjusted for urbanisation and deprivation, was 29% higher among those residing in more urbanised areas.
The study sample included over 900 MS patients within the region, and MS rates were found to have risen 10-fold in the past 50 years, from 16 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 1974 to almost 170 cases per 100,000 people today. Whilst the huge increase can partly be explained by increased survival for MS patients, this sharp increase could also be explained by greater exposure to risk factors.
The analysis was conducted in the winter, given that this is the season with the highest pollutant concentrations, in the north-western Italian region of Lombardy, home to over 547,000 people.
Commenting on the findings at the EAN Virtual Congress, lead researcher Professor Roberto Bergamaschi explained, "It is well recognised that immune diseases such as MS are associated with multiple factors, both genetic and environmental. Some environmental factors, such as vitamin D levels and smoking habits, have been extensively studied, yet few studies have focused on air pollutants. We believe that air pollution interacts through several mechanisms in the development of MS and the results of this study strengthen that hypothesis."
Particulate matter (PM) is used to describe a mixture of solid particles and droplets in the air and is divided into two categories. PM10 includes particles with a diameter of 10 micrometres of smaller and PM2.5 which have a diameter of 2.5 micrometres or smaller.
Both PM10 and PM2.5 are major pollutants and are known to be linked to various health conditions, including heart and lung disease, cancer and respiratory issues. According to the World Health Organisation, 4.2 million deaths occur every year because of exposure to ambient (outdoor) air pollution.
Three different areas were compared within the study region based on their levels of urbanisation, of which two areas were found to be above the European Commission threshold of air pollution. "In the higher risk areas, we are now carrying out specific analytical studies to examine multiple environmental factors possibly related to the heterogeneous distribution of MS risk", added Professor Bergamaschi.
The number of people living with MS around the world is growing, with more than 700,000 sufferers across Europe. The vast majority (85%) of patients present with relapsing remitting MS, characterised by unpredictable, self-limited episodes of the central nervous system. Whilst MS can be diagnosed at any age, it frequently occurs between the ages of 20-40 and is more frequent in women. Symptoms can change in severity daily and include fatigue, walking difficulty, numbness, pain and muscle spasms.
This artist's rendering made available 
