Giant iceberg on collision course with South Atlantic island breaks up

An enormous iceberg that has been heading toward South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic has broken up into three large chunks, according to scientists.

© Provided by NBC News

The iceberg — dubbed A68a by scientists — broke off from the Larsen C ice shelf in Antarctica in 2017. In recent weeks, it has come close to South Georgia Island, a remote British overseas territory off the southern tip of South America, raising concerns for the island’s wildlife.

Scientists worry that an iceberg could grind into the seabed of the wildlife-rich island of South Georgia and disrupt underwater ecosystems. They were also concerned that one or more icebergs might block penguins making their way into the sea for food.

A large number of whales, seals, and penguins feed off the coast of South Georgia.

© Provided by NBC News Image of A68a iceberg disintegrating into three large fragments on Tuesday. (European Space Agency)

Andrew Fleming, of the British Antarctic Survey, has been tracking A68a for over three years and told NBC News that two new icebergs, named A68e and A68f, were “calved” away from A68a on Tuesday.

The two new fragments, 253 and 87 square miles each, as well as the original A68a, now more than 1,000 square miles in size — about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island — are still huge, according to Fleming. They are expected to continue drifting close to South Georgia island and the potential for them to ground on the island still exists.

“The fragmentation does not remove the chance of it happening, but it won’t now be as one huge piece,” Fleming said. “But there is still the potential for it to disturb things.”

Satellite imagery provided by the U.S. National Ice Center on Tuesday showed the boundaries of where the ice chunks have separated.

Satellite data has been crucial in monitoring the iceberg on its journey from birth to destruction, Adrian Luckman, satellite imaging glaciologist with U.K.'s Swansea University, told BBC.

"As well as being one of the largest icebergs ever recorded, A68 must also be one of the most watched," Luckman said, adding that the iceberg is finally beginning to disintegrate nearly 3.5 years since it calved away from Larsen C Ice Shelf.

Fleming said it will become more clear where the new iceberg chunks are headed in the next couple of days or weeks, but they are expected to be pushed by the ocean currents to the north side of the island.

He also expects more breakage as the two new iceberg fragments start disintegrating further.

VIDEO World's biggest iceberg shatters after collision (msn.com)

Evidence for a massive paleo-tsunami 

at ancient Tel Dor, Israel

by Public Library of Science

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Geoprobe drilling rig extraction of a sediment core with evidence 

of a tsunami from South Bay, Tel Dor, Israel. Credit: T. E. Levy

Underwater excavation, borehole drilling, and modelling suggests a massive paleo-tsunami struck near the ancient settlement of Tel Dor between 9,910 to 9,290 years ago, according to a study published December 23, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Gilad Shtienberg, Richard Norris and Thomas Levy from the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology, University of California, San Diego, U.S., and colleagues from Utah State University and the University of Haifa.

Tsunamis are a relatively common event along the eastern Mediterranean coastline, with historical records and geographic data showing one tsunami occurring per century for the last six thousand years. The record for earlier tsunami events, however, is less defined. In this study, Shtienberg and colleagues describe a large early Holocene tsunami deposit (between 9,910 to 9,290 years ago) in coastal sediments at Tel Dor in northwest Israel, a maritime city-mound occupied from the Middle Bronze II period (2000-1550 BCE) through the Crusader period.

To conduct their analysis, the authors used photogrammetric remote sensing techniques to create a digital model of the Tel Dor site, combined with underwater excavation and terrestrial borehole drilling to a depth of nine meters.

Along the coast of the study area, the authors found an abrupt marine shell and sand layer with an age of constraint 9,910 to 9,290 years ago, in the middle of a large ancient wetland layer spanning from 15,000 to 7,800 years ago. The authors estimate the wave capable of depositing seashells and sand in the middle of what was at the time fresh to brackish wetland must have travelled 1.5 to 3.5 km, with a coastal wave height of 16 to 40 m. For comparison, previously documented tsunami events in the eastern Mediterranean have travelled inland only around 300 m—suggesting the tsunami at Dor was generated by a far stronger mechanism. Local tsunamis tend to arise due to earthquakes in the Dead Sea Fault system and submarine landslides; the authors note that an earthquake contemporary to the Dor paleo-tsunami (dating to around 10,000 years ago) has already been identified using cave damage in the nearby Carmel ridge, suggesting this specific earthquake could have triggered an underwater landslide causing the massive tsunami at Dor.

This paleo-tsunami would have occurred during the Early to Middle Pre-Pottery Neolithic B cultural period of the region (10,700-9,250 years ago 11,700-10,500 cal BP), and potentially wiped out evidence of previous Natufian (12,500-12,000 years ago) and Pre-Pottery Neolithic coastal villages (previous surveys and excavations show a near absence of low-lying coastal villages in this region). The re-appearance of abundant Late Neolithic archaeological sites (ca. 6,000 BCE) along the coast in the years after the Dor tsunami coincides with the resumption of wetland deposition in the Dor core samples and indicates resettlement followed the event—highlighting residents' resilience in the face of massive disruption.

According to Gilad Shtienberg, a postdoc at the Scripps Center for Marine Archaeology at UC San Diego who is studying the sediment cores, "Our project focuses on reconstructing ancient climate and environmental change over the past 12,000 years along the Israeli coast; and we never dreamed of finding evidence of a prehistoric tsunami in Israel. Scholars know that at the beginning of the Neolithic, around 10,000 years ago, the seashore was 4 kilometers from where it is today. When we cut the cores open in San Diego and started seeing a marine shell layer embedded in the dry Neolithic landscape, we knew we hit the jackpot."

Explore further

Sediment cores from Dogger Littoral suggest Dogger Island survived ancient tsunami
More information: Shtienberg G, Yasur-Landau A, Norris RD, Lazar M, Rittenour TM, Tamberino A, et al. (2020) A Neolithic mega-tsunami event in the eastern Mediterranean: Prehistoric settlement vulnerability along the Carmel coast, Israel. PLoS ONE 15(12): e0243619. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0243619

Journal information: PLoS ONE

Research busts mental health coping myth

by University of the Sunshine Coast

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

People with extreme psychological distress have exceeded the limits of their own resources, and need support from others to cope, according to new research led by USC Australia.

The mental health research by USC's Thompson Institute was published in Journal of Affective Disorders Reports, based on a survey of more than 500 university students in the United States.

It found that healthy coping strategies—such as mindfulness and distraction—certainly work, but sometimes they are not enough.

Lead author and Professor of Suicide Prevention Helen Stallman said the findings contradicted a common belief that people who were in extreme distress were not resilient or did not have healthy coping mechanisms.

"What we have found busts the myth that mental health services and workers should encourage extremely distressed people to build resilience or learn healthy coping strategies like relaxing or distracting activities," she said.

"Support should not focus on 'fixing' the person who is suffering, it should focus on other ways to help reduce their overwhelming distress.

"While we may consider people in mental distress to be lacking in resilience, they are the most resilient people but have too much to cope with," she said.

"We found that the majority of extremely distressed people already used healthy coping methods such as mindfulness techniques before turning to unhealthy methods to feel better such as emotional eating, aggression, alcohol, drugs and self-harm, social withdrawal and suicidality."

Professor Stallman said the study means that if we want to support people who are upset, we need to use what we call the "Care Collaborate Connect' model to ensure people feel supported, rather than being expected to cope alone.

"Care' is the initial intervention when someone is upset, so listening without interrupting and validating their experience.

"'Collaborate' starts with asking how they are coping and 'connect' involves suggesting they talk to a health professional, like their GP, if things keep getting them down."

Professor Stallman hoped the research would inform changes in public messaging around mental health and improve the delivery of needs-based mental health care.


Explore further

New app supports a plan to cope and a strategy for suicide prevention
More information: Helen M Stallman et al. Modelling the relationship between healthy and unhealthy coping strategies to understand overwhelming distress: A Bayesian network approach, Journal of Affective Disorders Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jadr.2020.100054

Journal information: Journal of Affective Disorders

Provided by University of the Sunshine Coast

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Lava lake forms as Hawaii volcano erupts after 

2-year break

by Audrey McAvoy

A plume rises near active fissures in the crater of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. People are lining up to try to get a look at the volcano on the Big Island, which erupted last night and spewed ash and steam into the atmosphere. A spokeswoman for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park says the volcanic activity is a risk to people in the park Monday and that caution is needed. (M. Patrick/U.S. Geological Survey via AP)

Lava was rising more than 3 feet (1 meter) per hour in the deep crater of a Hawaii volcano that began erupting over the weekend after a two-year break, scientists said Tuesday.

Kilauea volcano within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island was gushing molten rock from at least two vents inside its summit crater, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A lava lake has formed, rising about 440 feet (134 meters) from the bottom of the crater.

Since the eruption began Sunday night, Kilauea has spewed some 2 billion gallons of lava (10 million cubic meters), enough to cover 33 acres (13 hectares). The lava has been contained inside the deep crater.

It isn't threatening to get close to people or cover property, like when Kilauea erupted from vents in the middle of a residential neighborhood in 2018 and destroyed more than 700 homes.

Still, the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory has warned residents to beware of potentially high levels of volcanic gas, rockfalls and explosions.

When erupting, Kilauea tends to spew large volumes of sulfur dioxide, which forms volcanic smog, or vog, when it mixes with oxygen, sunlight and other gases in the air. The state Department of Health warned residents to reduce their outdoor activities if they encounter volcanic smog conditions.

Kilauea is one of the world's most active volcanoes, having erupted some 50 times in the last century. Between 1983 and 2018, it erupted almost continuously. It had a lava lake in its crater for the last decade of that eruption.

In this photo provided by the National Park Service, people watch an eruption from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano on the Big Island on Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. The volcano shot steam and an ash cloud into the atmosphere which lasted about an hour, an official with the National Weather Service said early Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. (Janice Wei/National Park Service via AP)

A plume rises near active fissures in the crater of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano on Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. People are lining up to try to get a look at the volcano on the Big Island, which erupted last night and spewed ash and steam into the atmosphere. A spokeswoman for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park says the volcanic activity is a risk to people in the park Monday and that caution is needed. (M. Patrick/U.S. Geological Survey via AP)

In this photo provided by the U.S. Geological Survey, lava flows within the Halema'uma'u crater of the Kilauea volcano Sunday, Dec. 20, 2020. The Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island has erupted, the U.S. Geological Survey said. (U.S. Geological Survey via AP)


Explore further Volcano erupts on Hawaii's Big Island, draws crowds to park

© 2020 The Associated Press. 

GeoBeats

Volcanic eruption boils off massive lake

 1 day ago

Duration: 01:01  VIDEO Volcanic eruption boils off massive lake (msn.com)

For months, Hawaii's Kilauea volcano site had been home to a deadly water lake. The lake was over 130 feet deep with a volume equivalent to almost 200 Olympic swimming pools. It showed temperature reading as high as 185 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, water 154 degrees Fahrenheit or higher can scald humans instantaneously. However, that lake's life came to an abrupt end as the volcano started erupting on December 20. Lava began flowing from three fissure vents inside the crater. The lava cascaded into the summit water lake and in no time, boiled off the water. The water lake is now gone and a new lake made up of lava sits at the base of the crater.

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Earthlings and astronauts chat away, via ham radio

BEFORE THE INTERNET THERE WAS HAM RADIO!

by Samantha Masunaga

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The International Space Station cost more than $100 billion. A ham radio set can be had for a few hundred bucks.

Perhaps that explains, in part, the appeal of having one of humankind's greatest scientific inventions communicate with Earth via technology that's more than 100 years old. But perhaps there's a simpler explanation for why astronauts and ham radio operators have been talking, and talking, for years.

NASA astronaut Doug Wheelock was just a few weeks into his six-month mission at the space station when feelings of isolation began to set in.

Wheelock would be separated from loved ones, save for communication via an internet phone, email or social media. At times, the stress and tension of serving as the station's commander could be intense.

One night, as he looked out a window at the Earth below, he remembered the space station's ham radio. He figured he'd turn it on—see if anyone was listening.

"Any station, any station, this is the International Space Station," Wheelock said.

A flood of voices jumbled out of the airwaves.

Astronauts aboard the space station often speak to students via ham radio, which can also be used in emergencies, but those are scheduled appearances. Some, like Wheelock, spend their limited free time making contact with amateur radio operators around the world.

"It allowed me to ... just reach out to humanity down there," said Wheelock, who interacted with many operators, known as "hams," during that stay at the space station in 2010. "It became my emotional, and a really visceral, connection to the planet."

The first amateur radio transmission from space dates to 1983, when astronaut Owen Garriott took to the airwaves from the Space Shuttle Columbia. Garriott was a licensed ham who, back on Earth, had used his home equipment in Houston to chat with his father in Oklahoma.

Garriott and fellow astronaut Tony England pushed NASA to allow amateur radio equipment aboard shuttle flights.

"We thought it would be a good encouragement for young people to get interested in science and engineering if they could experience this," said England, who was the second astronaut to use ham radio in space.

An almost-all-volunteer organization called Amateur Radio on the International Space Station, or ARISS, now helps arrange contact between students and astronauts on the space station. Students prepare to ask questions rapid-fire, one after another, into the ham radio microphone for the brief 10-minute window before the space station flies out of range.

"We try to think of ourselves as planting seeds and hoping that we get some mighty oaks to grow," said Kenneth G. Ransom, the ISS Ham project coordinator at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Typically, about 25 schools throughout the world are chosen each year, said Rosalie White, international secretary treasurer at ARISS.

"Not too many people get to talk to an astronaut," she said. "They get the importance of that."

The conversations are a treat for the astronauts as well.

"You're talking to someone and looking right down at where they are," NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold II said.

Over the last 10 years, ham radio has become more popular, experts say, with about 750,000 licensed amateur operators across the U.S. (not all of whom are active on the air). Helping to drive that interest: emergency communications.

"Ham radio is when all else fails," said Diana Feinberg, Los Angeles section manager for the American Radio Relay League, the national association for amateur radio. "Unlike other forms of communication, it does not require any kind of a switched network."

But for some hams, the allure is the opportunity to connect with people all over the world—or even above it.

During his 10-day shuttle mission in 1983, astronaut Garriott spoke with about 250 hams all over the world, including King Hussein of Jordan and Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Garriott died in 2019.

"From my perspective, even from a young age, it was very obvious how globally inspirational that moment was," said his son Richard Garriott. "People from Australia and America, just all over, had tuned in, and it clearly touched them. No matter what their station was, no matter where physically they were, they all became part of this global experience."

It's not surprising that Richard Garriott followed his father's example with a 2008 flight to the space station as a private astronaut. During his free time on the 12-day mission, the younger Garriott made contact with so many hams on the ground—including his father—that the two pieces of paper he brought to record contacts filled up during his first day on the radio.

"Any moderately populated landmass, without regard to time of day or night, you would find a bountiful group of enthusiasts who are ready to make contact," he said.

What drives this desire for contact? Amateur radio operators love a challenge, particularly when it comes to reaching remote or unusual locations.

"We're always, in amateur radio, talking to people we don't know," England said. "If we didn't enjoy the adventure of meeting other people through that way, we probably wouldn't have been amateur radio operators."

Amateur operator Larry Shaunce has made a handful of contacts with astronauts over the years, the first time in the 1980s, when, as a teenager, he reached Owen Garriott.

More recently, Shaunce, 56, made contact with NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor in 2018.

"Hello, this is Larry in Minnesota," he said after Auñón-Chancellor acknowledged his call sign.

"Oh, Minnesota!" she replied, adding that she could hear him "super clear" up in space and that he must have nice equipment.

"It's always exciting when you talk to somebody in space," said Shaunce, an electronic technician in Albert Lea, Minn. "You just never know. I monitor the frequency all the time."

James Lea knows that reaching the space station can be hit or miss. He and a friend once pulled over near a farm in Bunnell, Fla., as the space station flew overhead.

The pair sat in a truck with an antenna on the roof and the radio equipment in the cab. After a few tries, they heard Auñón-Chancellor respond: "Hey, good morning, Florida. How are you?"

Lea, 53, a filmmaker and engineer, recalled that he and his friend were "sitting in the middle of a cabbage field. The fact that she came back to him was kind of incredible."

Lea's daughter Hope has tried for years to reach the space station but has never gotten a response. She got her ham radio license at age 8. Now 14, Hope is thinking about becoming an astronaut and going to Mars, her father said.

David Pruett, an emergency physician from Hillsboro, Ore., tried to contact the space station using a multi-band amateur radio with a magnetic mount antenna, placed in a pizza pan to improve performance. Working from his dining-room table, he made many fruitless attempts. But one day, the space station got close to the West Coast, and Pruett again put out the call.

"November Alpha One Sierra Sierra," he said, using the amateur radio call sign for the space station.

Seconds of silence stretched after Pruett's identification: "Kilo Foxtrot Seven Echo Tango X-ray, Portland, Ore."

Then came a crackle, then the voice of astronaut Wheelock. At the close, both signed off with "73"—ham lingo for "best regards." Remembering that first conversation in 2010 still makes the hair on Pruett's arms stand up.

"It was absolutely unbelievable," Pruett said. "To push that microphone button and call the International Space Station and then let go of the button and wait, and then you hear this little crackle, and you hear Doug Wheelock come back and say, 'Welcome aboard the International Space Station'—it's just mind-boggling."

Pruett and Wheelock went on to have 31 contacts in all, one when Pruett was stuck in a traffic jam in Tacoma, Wash.

"I feel like I struck up a friendship with him," said Pruett, 64, who chronicled many of his contacts on YouTube. "I can only imagine that their workload is very tight, and they've got precious little free time, but I think it was very generous of him to donate as much of his free time to amateur radio operators as he did."

Wheelock remembers Pruett well.

"David was one of the early contacts I made," he said. "He was one of the first voices I heard as I was approaching the West Coast."

Wheelock's other ham radio contacts made similarly deep impressions on him—including a man from Portugal he spoke to so many times that Wheeler and his fellow astronauts once serenaded him with "Happy Birthday to You."

Wheelock also made contact with some of the first responders who worked to rescue the 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days in 2010.

"I just wanted to give a word of encouragement … to let them know that there's someone above that cares about what they're doing and what's in their path," he said.

During a six-month mission from 2005 to 2006, NASA astronaut William McArthur spoke via ham radio with 37 schools and made more than 1,800 individual contacts in more than 90 countries.

"That's just an infinitesimally small percentage of the world's population, but it's a lot more than I think I could have directly touched any other way," he said. "I wanted to share with people who maybe were random, who maybe didn't have a special connection or insight into space exploration."

It also allowed for some variety in his conversation partners. During his mission, McArthur's main crew mate was Russian cosmonaut Valeri Tokarev.

"I love him like a brother. We're very, very close," he said. "But still, it's one other person for six months."


Explore further Ham video premiers on space station

©2020 Los Angeles Times

E-cigarettes, as consumer products, 

do not help people quit smoking, study finds

by Vicky Stein, University of California, San Francisco

DECEMBER 23, 2020 

E-cigarette use has risen steeply and mostly without regulation over the past decade. The devices have diversified into a dizzying array of vape pens, tank systems, 'mods,' and more, mass-marketed and sold to the public. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the midst of considering whether to approve thousands of pre-market applications for the sale of e-cigarettes as consumer products.

In these applications and related advertisements, the owners of e-cigarette brands claim that their products help smokers quit and can therefore be considered "appropriate for the protection of public health," as stipulated by law. But a new systematic review by UC San Francisco researchers of the scientific literature on this topic puts those claims to the test.

In the new study, published December 22, 2020 in the American Journal of Public Health, a team led by UCSF's Richard Wang, MD, MAS, surveyed the scientific community's understanding of e-cigarettes and found that, in the form of mass-marketed consumer products, they do not lead smokers to quit.

In their paper, the authors write, "If e-cigarette consumer product use is not associated with more smoking cessation, there is no population-level health benefit for allowing them to be marketed to adults who smoke, regardless of the relative harm of e-cigarettes compared with conventional cigarettes. Moreover, to the extent that people who smoke simply add e-cigarettes to their cigarette smoking (becoming so-called dual users), their risk of heart disease, lung disease, and cancer could increase compared with smoking alone."

"The question we explored is of both scientific interest and public health interest," said Wang, assistant professor of medicine, "and we hope that the FDA will pay attention to our study as they try to make these decisions." Wang was joined in the study by co-first author Sudhamayi Bhadriraju, MD, a former UCSF postdoctoral fellow who is now a pulmonologist at Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City, Calif., and senior author Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D., professor of medicine.

The authors searched the literature, compiling results from 64 studies to answer this question. The studies selected for formal analysis encompassed observational studies, in which participants were surveyed, but not directed, about their use of e-cigarettes, as well as clinical trials in which smokers who were trying to quit were given free e-cigarettes under medical supervision.

This distinction mattered for their analysis, Wang noted. "In observational studies, you're basically asking people 'out in the wild' about their use of e-cigarettes that they've purchased themselves from a corner store, without specific guidance to quit. But in a randomized trial you're testing a product, treating it like a therapy—a medicine—to see if an e-cigarette or some other product is more conducive to quitting."

In their analysis of observational studies that involved groups of people who already smoked and used e-cigarettes, whether or not they wanted to quit, the team found no appreciable effect of e-cigarettes on participants' ability to quit. In the next group of studies, which surveyed smokers using e-cigarettes who did indicate a desire to quit, the researchers also found no effect.

Then the team tried to tease apart the effects of frequency of use—whether people who used e-cigarettes daily might quit at different rates than people who used them less often. The researchers found that daily users quit at a higher rate than more infrequent users, although they cautioned that most participants in U.S. studies fall into the second category.

Finally, they examined nine clinical trials, which provided some type of e-cigarette, for free, to participants who were specifically encouraged to use the devices to help them quit. Though the devices and the controls employed in the studies differed, Wang concluded that being provided with certain e-cigarette products in a clinical trial context led to more quitting than some other therapies.

The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA) charges the FDA with only allowing e-cigarettes on the market when manufacturers can prove their tobacco-based products are "appropriate for the protection of public health." But the FDA delayed enforcing the law until a federal court order required companies to submit pre-market approval applications to the agency before September 2020 in order to continue selling e-cigarettes to consumers. The FDA is now evaluating thousands of such applications to sell e-cigarettes.

"It's important to recognize that in clinical trials, when certain e-cigarette devices are treated more like medicine, there may actually be an effect on quitting smoking," said Wang. "But that needs to be balanced against the risks of using these devices. Also, only seven e-cigarette devices were studied in the clinical trials. Whether the effect observed with these seven devices is the same or different than that of the thousands of different e-cigarette products available for sale is unknown."

In addition, he said, the new study does not analyze the increase in youth and teen smoking as a result of e-cigarette marketing and availability, nor does it compare the negative health effects of e-cigarettes to traditional tobacco products.

With regard to the current decision before the FDA, Wang said, "The standards that the FDA has to apply to approve e-cigarettes as consumer products or therapeutic devices are fundamentally different."

Explore further  

E-cigarette use high among recent quitters but rare among those who gave up longer ago

More information: Richard J. Wang et al. E-Cigarette Use and Adult Cigarette Smoking Cessation: A Meta-Analysis, American Journal of Public Health (2020). 

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305999

Journal information: American Journal of Public Health


Provided by University of California, San Francisco

Light smokers may not escape nicotine addiction, study reveals

by Pennsylvania State University

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Even people who consider themselves to be casual cigarette smokers may be addicted, according to current diagnostic criteria. Researchers at Penn State College of Medicine and Duke University found that many light smokers—those who smoke one to four cigarettes per day or fewer—meet the criteria for nicotine addiction and should therefore be considered for treatment.

"In the past, some considered that only patients who smoke around 10 cigarettes per day or more were addicted, and I still hear that sometimes," said Jonathan Foulds, professor of public health sciences and psychiatry and behavioral health, Penn State. "But this study demonstrates that many lighter smokers, even those who do not smoke every day, can be addicted to cigarettes. It also suggests that we need to be more precise when we ask about cigarette smoking frequency."

According to Jason Oliver, assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Duke University, when assessing nicotine addiction—clinically referred to as 'tobacco use disorder'—clinicians are encouraged to fully assess the 11 criteria listed in the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5). As a shortcut, he said, clinicians more typically ask smokers how many cigarettes they smoke per day.

"Lighter smoking is correctly perceived as less harmful than heavy smoking, but it still carries significant health risks," Oliver said. "Medical providers sometimes perceive lighter smokers as not addicted and, therefore, not in need of treatment, but this study suggests many of them may have significant difficulty quitting without assistance."

The researchers examined an existing data set from the National Institutes of Health, including more than 6,700 smokers who had been fully assessed to find out if they met the DSM-5 criteria for tobacco use disorder. They found that 85% of the daily cigarette smokers were addicted to some extent—either mild, moderate or severe addiction.

"Surprisingly, almost two thirds of those smoking only one to four cigarettes per day were addicted, and around a quarter of those smoking less than weekly were addicted," Foulds said.

The researchers found that the severity of cigarette addiction, as indicated by the number of criteria met, increased with the frequency of smoking, with 35% of those smoking one-to-four cigarettes per day and 74% of those smoking 21 cigarettes or more per day being moderately or severely addicted.

The findings appeared Dec. 22 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"This was the first time that severity of cigarette addiction has been described across the full range of cigarette use frequency," said Foulds, a Penn State Cancer Institute researcher.

Oliver added that the study highlights the high prevalence of tobacco use disorder even among those considered to be light smokers and provides a basis from which treatment can begin to target this population.

"Previous research has found that non-daily smokers are more likely than daily smokers to make a quit attempt," Oliver said. "Clinicians should ask about all smoking behavior, including non-daily smoking, as such smokers may still require treatment to successfully quit smoking. Yet, it is unclear the extent to which existing interventions are effective for light smokers. Continued efforts to identify optimal cessation approaches for this population remain an important direction for future research."


Explore further E-cigarettes 'gateway' to smoking for non-smokers

More information: Jason A. Oliver et al. Association Between Cigarette Smoking Frequency and Tobacco Use Disorder in U.S. Adults. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published: December 22, 2020 DOI:doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.10.019

Journal information: American Journal of Preventive Medicine

Provided by Pennsylvania State University

Chemists convert plastic bottle waste into insecticide sorbent

by Tomsk Polytechnic University

DECEMBER 23, 2020
 

Credit: Tomsk Polytechnic University

Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University proposed a method to create a sorbent for imidacloprid insecticide removal from water. The sorbent belongs to metal-organic frameworks, a class of non-conventional materials. The TPU chemists grew such a framework on polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a material used to produce regular plastic bottles. The method is quite simple and allows converting used materials into a useful product. The research findings are published in Applied Materials Today.

Metal-organic frameworks are substances with a three-dimensional structure, where clusters or metal ions are bridged by organic ligands. The result is a porous material with the properties of both metals and organic compounds.

"Due to their porous structure and a number of other properties, metal-organic frameworks have a high potential as sorbents. We are particularly interested in the problem of insecticide sorption. Insecitides are extensively used in modern agriculture and accumulated in soil and water.

We have proposed a new method to synthesize a metal-organic framework named UiO-66 with zirconium ions. The source material is what interests us first of all," Pavel Postnikov, the research supervisor and Associate Professor of TPU Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences, says.

The researchers experimented with imidacloprid. This is one of the most widespread insecticides used in agriculture, including against Colorado potato beetles.

"Imidacloprid accumulates in natural water bodies penetrating from soil. According to Canadian researchers, imidacloprid was detected in waters around the world at concentrations ranging from 0.001 to 320 micrograms per liter. UiO-66 is usually derived at high temperatures and pressure using commercial terephthalic acid. However, we used PET consisting of ethylene glycol with terephthalic acid. This acid is a structural material for organic linkers in frameworks and plastic bottle material already contains it," Oleg Semyonov, one of the article authors and Junior Research Fellow at TPU Research School of Chemistry and Applied Biomedical Sciences, explains.

To create a framework, the chemists cut the plastic into small squares and partially destroyed them in an acidic solution. Then, zirconium salts were added to the solution.

"Terephthalic acid is partially released from PET forming small "anchors" on the surface of the plastic pieces while a part of the acid remains in the solution. Zirconium ions attach to the "anchors" and then, the process of self-assembly inherent to metal-organic frameworks occurs and further results in a framework formed on the plastic surface. This framework is sensitive to imidacloprid and due to its porosity and physicochemical properties, it attracts insecticide molecules removing them from water," the researcher says.

"During the experiments, we ran the insecticide solution through the sorbent. The effective water purification took 15 grams of sorbent per 1 liter, which is a very good indicator. Besides, the sorbent may be reused several times. We reached up to five cycles during our experiments. However, we expect that the sorbent will retain its properties much longer," the scientist says.

In future practice, this sorbent can be used in filtration systems, for instance, at agricultural enterprises.

"Our sorbent also has one more advantage. Usually, metal-organic frameworks are powder-like. They choke filters so that filtration systems should be designed considering this feature. The particles of our sorbent are larger and they do not choke a filter.

In addition, due to larger particles, the throughput of the sorbent is higher and liquids penetrate easier. According to our calculations, in this case water passage requires one hundred times less pressure as compared to powders. Ultimately, it is important for the technology development and use of this sorbent in a real technological process," Oleg Semyonov adds.

The scientists are currently conducting experiments using other metal-organic frameworks derived from PET.


Explore further  

Using a porous porphyrin to reclaim precious metals from electronic waste

More information: Oleg Semyonov et al, Smart recycling of PET to sorbents for insecticides through in situ MOF growth, Applied Materials Today (2020). 

DOI: 10.1016/j.apmt.2020.100910

Provided by Tomsk Polytechnic University

Virus hunters delve into Gabon forest in search for next threat

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The scene looks like something out of a science fiction movie, or maybe some dystopian TV series.

Six men in yellow biohazard suits clamber in suffocating heat towards a cave in the heart of the Gabonese jungle.

Their quest: to unlock new knowledge on how pathogens like coronavirus leap the species barrier to humans.

In the cave is their goal—a colony of bats.

"Our job is to look for pathogens which could endanger humans and understand how transmission happens between species," explained Gael Maganga, a professor at the University of Franceville.

Bats can be hosts to viruses that do not harm them but can be dangerous to Homo sapiens, often crossing via other animals.

COVID-19 is just the latest microbe believed to have taken the zoonotic path from animals to humans.

It notably follows three other respiratory viruses, MERS in 2012, SARS in 2003 and H5N1 flu in 1997; the haemorrhagic virus Ebola in 1976; and AIDS, which is believed to have crossed over from chimps about a century ago, possibly through hunters who handled infected meat.

Bat cave

Getting to the cave is hard work. The team have to almost wade through thick soil, pieces of bark and russet-coloured leaves that exhale the musky perfume of the forest.

The environment here—hot and humid and filled with natural hazards—is tough for humans, but perfect for viruses.

Bit by bit, the scent of damp earth yields to the smell of bat droppings, which eventually becomes suffocating in the sticky air. Bees and silvery butterflies dance around the heads of the virus hunters, their faces dripping in sweat beneath their goggles.

Above them, the tree tops seem to lose themselves in the sky, and gnarly creepers hang down, as if suspended from the heavens.

The mouth of the cave suddenly rears up ahead, and a stream of bats flies out. A thick white bedding of bat droppings spreads across the ground and the rocks.

Maganga calls on the team to stretch a net across the cave's dark maw and the bats, suddenly sensing the alien presence of humans, start to hunker down inside.

But one of the scientists moves forward, shining his torch inside. Bats fly out and get caught in the net.

Now the real scientific stuff can begin. The team take out sterile swabs and take samples from the bats' mouths and rectums.

These are then carefully stored for transport back to the lab, where they will be analysed for any emerging pathogen.

Species contact

To any who would blame the bats for the catastrophe of coronavirus, the scientists are bluntly dismissive.

Human encroachment on their habitat, they say, has brought the two mammal species into closer, riskier proximity.

"Human behaviour is often the cause of an emerging virus," said Maganga. "Today, with population pressure, intensified farming or hunting, contact between humans and animals is more and more frequent."

Maganga is also co-director of the Emerging Viral Diseases Unit at Franceville's Interdisciplinary Centre for Medical Research (CIRMF).

It hosts one of Africa's two P4 laboratories—ultra-high-risk labs that operate at top levels of security.

A report issued in October by the UN's biodiversity panel IPBES said there were up to 850,000 viruses that exist in animals and may infect humans.

Seventy percent of emerging diseases circulate in animals before jumping to humans, and each year around five new diseases break out among humans, it said.

Pauline Grentzinger, a vet at the Lekedi Nature Park, a biodiversity haven near Franceville, warned against the conventional thinking "that it's humans on one side and animals on the other."

"In health terms, what happens with one (species) has a repercussion on the other. To protect natural fauna is to protect humans," she said.

Hunters not deterred

In Gabon, every outbreak of Ebola has occurred in the Zadie Caves area, which lies close to the border with the Republic of Congo. CIRMF researchers have found samples of Ebola virus among bats, confirming that the flying mammals were the host.

Maganga has also uncovered a number of coronavirus strains circulating among bats, including some that are close to the COVID-19 strain that infects humans.

Despite the obvious risk, hunters still come into the area to hunt for animals—antelopes, gazelles, monkeys and bats.

In April, Gabon imposed a ban on the sale of bats and pangolins, another species deemed to be a potential vector of coronavirus.

But villagers living near the caves say they have yet to see a case of COVID—and for many, poverty seems to trump any danger.

"In one night, I can earn a month's money," said Aristide Roux, a 43-year-old hunter, showing the body of a gazelle on a tree stump by the side of the road.


Explore further  Thai scientists catch bats to trace virus origins

© 2020 AFP

Climate change demands same leadership as COVID-19, and Australia is failing

by Medical Journal of Australia

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A leading Australian medical clinician and researcher has called on the Federal Government and the health sector to commit to showing the same leadership on climate change as was shown during the COVID-19 public health crisis.

Laureate Professor Nicolas Talley AC, a world-renowned neurogastroenterologist and Editor-in-Chief of the Medical Journal of Australia said in an editorial, published today, that Australia's response to COVID-19 had been "strong and effective."

"Key to this success was the valuing by governments of science and data to guide decision making.

"The pandemic forced politicians from across the Australian political divide to prioritize the evidence and expertise of the medical, scientific and public health communities over the voices of conservative commentators, business leaders and politicians," wrote Professor Talley.

"Tough political decisions were made for the sake of the nation's health.

"This bipartisan, science-based approach is a model for the future management of climate change, if implemented alongside an appropriate national plan."

Professor Talley cited research which showed that 2019 was Australia's hottest and driest year on record, with average temperatures 1.52°C above normal and mean rainfall 40% below the 30-year average before 1991. Australia's 2019–20 bushfires burned 10 million hectares, directly killed 33 people and destroyed more than 3000 homes. Smoke engulfed major capital cities, including Sydney and Melbourne, and smoke exposure caused an estimated 417 excess deaths and over 3000 hospital admissions.

"Australia's leading medical and nursing bodies have recognized climate change as a health emergency," wrote Professor Talley. "Governments of states and territories have committed to zero net carbon emissions by 2050, with climate change adaptation plans incorporating the health sector and investment in renewable energy."

Professor Talley called on the Federal Government to establish a National Health and Climate Change Centre within the Australian Department of Health to develop a National Plan for Health and Climate Change with real-time monitoring.

"Australia has an obligation under the Paris Agreement to submit enhanced nationally determined contributions by the end of 2020," he wrote. "We recommend that the Australian Government agree to a target of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, which is what is likely required to limit global warming below 1.5°C."

Additionally, Professor Talley called on the health and medical sector to play its part. "Australia's health sector should commit itself nationally to zero net carbon emissions by 2040 in line with the National Health Service in the UK, preferably with the states and territories responsible for implementing evidence-based interventions," he said. "Reducing unnecessary medical tests and procedures will serve to reduce carbon emissions, health care costs and harmful outcomes. Research funded by the NHMRC and the Medical Research Futures Fund should guide better ways to efficiently reduce the carbon footprint of Australia's health care services."

On 3 December, the MJA co-published the MJA-Lancet Australian Countdown special report on health and climate change, which showed that "Australia has no decisive national plan to address climate change and its health consequences."

Explore further Vaccines alone won't keep Australia COVID-safe

More information: Nicholas J Talley et al. Health and climate change MJA–Lancet Countdown report: Australia gets another failing grade in 2020 but shows signs of progress, Medical Journal of Australia (2020). DOI: 10.5694/mja2.50895

Journal information: Medical Journal of Australia

Provided by Medical Journal of Australia

UNIVERSAL BASIC INCOME
Fewer tourists meant less money for wildlife during the pandemic – but there's an alternative

by Joseph Hamm, The Conversation

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

"Nature is healing" read social media posts at the outset of the pandemic, as birdsong replaced the drone of traffic during lockdown. But for wildlife conservation in Africa, the reality was very different. Anti-poaching operations in protected areas were paused or restricted to limit the spread of the virus, leaving populations of threatened species like the African lion vulnerable. Now these areas are confronting COVID-19's economic fallout, and research suggests that illegal hunting, mining, deforestation, and bushmeat consumption all tend to increase during downturns.

Safari tours and other forms of wildlife tourism in Africa generate more than US$29 billion each year. Whether it's the salaries of park rangers or money for community outreach and education, much of the funding for conservation comes from this tourism revenue, including 80% of the annual budget of South African National Parks. Travel restrictions during the pandemic have gutted visitor numbers, with 90% of African tour operators reporting a drop in bookings of three-quarters or more. Many protected areas were suffering severe budget shortfalls even before the pandemic.

COVID-19 exposed the fragility of this model of conservation, but is there another way?

Conservation basic income

The idea of a conservation basic income (CBI) was recently proposed to fund efforts to safeguard biodiversity. The concept is simple: people living alongside endangered wildlife receive an unconditional monthly income to reduce their dependence on hunting for bushmeat or chopping down trees for timber and firewood.

You may have already heard of something similar. Several economists and politicians have suggested that governments could improve social security by paying each citizen a universal basic income – a regular and guaranteed payment sufficient to cover basic needs, including food and housing.

Instead of relying on tourist numbers remaining stable, the money for a CBI program could be raised in a way that's more dependable and resilient to shocks, such as a tax on carbon pollution. The UK government's recent ten-point environment plan included another option with its commitment to "green finance," which would involve governments encouraging private investment in environmental causes. CBI could also work in areas where there are many threatened species, but few tourists, such as central Africa.

Paying for ecosystem services

Another approach aiming to tackle conservation's over-reliance on tourism is monetising ecosystem services. This is an arrangement in which habitats like woodland and the environmental services they provide, like carbon storage, are bought and sold on an international market. Wildlife can be protected as a result, and businesses or states can offset their pollution or environmental damage by investing in these schemes, which now number more than 550 worldwide, with annual transactions in the region of US$40 billion.

Both wildlife tourism and payments for ecosystem services attach a monetary value to biodiversity, whether as a draw for tourists, or to maintain useful ecosystem services. This is supposed to prioritize protection ahead of more damaging methods of generating income. But in reality, these incentives often fail to compete with the appeal of more lucrative industries, such as logging or mining.

A new approach

Instead of paying for services, a conservation basic income compensates local people for the infringements and costs that conservation entails. Tourists might pay a lot to visit well-guarded reserves filled with wildlife, but restrictions on harvesting resources from these areas directly affect local communities. Having a guaranteed monthly income could mean people have less cause to resort to small-scale mining or poaching, and could help them recoup the losses that living alongside large wild animals incurs, such as livestock taken by predators.

It's still a relatively new idea though and hasn't been implemented yet, but one charity is raising money to conduct a two-year trial in an area of Zimbabwe with high levels of poverty and poaching. Each month, every adult would receive US$50 and every child US$20 (paid to their mother or guardian), with payments delivered by mobile phone.

As with any new idea, questions abound. Would increased income result in bigger environmental impacts, as people can more easily afford land-clearing equipment, for instance? Is it possible that such a scheme attracts new arrivals to the area, increasing local pressure?

It's important to remember that the threats facing the world's biodiversity are varied. Economic considerations form only part of a complex picture. How CBI would interact with a cultural tradition like Maasai lion hunting, for instance, is still unclear. But 2020 has exposed the fatal flaws in a conservation model reliant on wealthy tourists and regular air travel. New ideas are vital in the effort to safeguard the environment post-pandemic.


Explore further Divergent wildlife conservation perspectives in Africa
Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

A RADICAL IDEA WORKS

Ethnic studies curriculum tied to increased graduation, retention rates, study finds

by San Francisco State University
DECEMBER 23, 2020

Students taking a College of Ethnic Studies course. 

Credit: San Francisco State University

 

In 1968, San Francisco State University activists made history by organizing the longest student-led strike in the U.S.

 What did they want? 

Curricula that represent people of color.

This demand was met a year later when the University formed its College of Ethnic Studies (CoES)—the first of its kind in the nation. Since then, various research studies have shown that ethnic studies courses could give a big boost to student success. A recent report with San Francisco State data supports that idea.

Written by College of Ethnic Studies Dean Amy Sueyoshi and Associate Provost of Institutional Analytics Sutee Sujitparapitaya and published this semester in the journal Ethnic Studies Review, the paper takes a quantitative look at ethnic studies. Using data from the University's Division of Institutional Analytics, Sueyhoshi and Sujitparapitaya show a strong correlation between ethnic studies curricula and high retention and graduation rates.

"We should look at education as a way to bring opportunity to all people regardless of their background," Sueyoshi said. "It's a way to distribute wealth and create an educated citizenry. The report shows ethnic studies can support that."

The report's analysis is based on a sample of 22,250 first-time freshmen who first enrolled at SF State between the Fall 2008 and Fall 2013 semesters. The data shows that SF State students with a major in the CoES had high six-year graduation rates. (Six-year graduation rate is defined as the percentage of students who graduate within six years or less.)

For example, when looking at students who entered the University in Fall 2010, CoES majors had a six-year graduation rate of 77 percent. To put it into perspective, data from the National Center for Education Statistics indicates that the average six-year graduation rate for public institutions is 61 percent.

Even students who did not have a CoES major but had a CoES minor showed a high graduation rate. For the Fall 2013 cohort, students with a CoES minor had a six-year graduation rate of 85 percent.

What might these findings suggest? Sujitparapitaya says that it validates some of the prior qualitative research on the value of ethnic studies. Those research reports suggest that ethnic studies could lead to higher student engagement and retention.

"There are studies that recognize that when students see themselves in curriculum or can relate to it, they perform better," Sujitparapitaya said. "That's the essence of ethnic studies."

Sujitparapitaya cautions, though, that correlation should not be confused with causation. But even with this caveat, Sueyoshi says discovering this data is a major development for higher education because it quantitively validates past qualitative research on how ethnics studies curricula support student success.

"Ethnic studies courses are meant to be relevant to and representative of different types of students," Sueyoshi said. "We know through qualitative research that courses designed this way can lead to better student engagement." In turn, it could lead to higher retention and graduation rates, she added.

Some higher education administrators and policy makers question whether ethnic studies curricula is worth investing in. The report shows why the answer is yes, Sueyoshi says.

"If we care about graduation rates and if we care about the success of underrepresented students, then we should invest in ethnic studies courses," she said. "This data shows that."

Explore further  

Black, Latino families urged to emphasize college graduation rates in enrollment decisions

More information: Amy Sueyoshi et al. Why Ethnic Studies, Ethnic Studies Review (2020). 

DOI: 10.1525/esr.2020.43.3.86

Provided by San Francisco State University

AMELIORATING CAPITALI$M

Study explores diversity-innovation link in pulp and paper industry

by Laura Oleniacz, North Carolina State University

DECEMBER 23, 2020
 

The Talley tower welcomes students returning to campus for the fall 2020 semester. 

Credit: Becky Kirkland

Innovation is key to corporations' success, allowing companies to identify and respond to new market opportunities. In a new analysis, researchers from North Carolina State University compared companies ranked among the world's most innovative with the largest pulp and paper companies to understand how diversity among company leaders may affect innovation.


The study, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, analyzed the gender, ethnicity, age and educational background of members of the boards of companies in the pulp and paper industry. Researchers then compared those findings with the composition of the boards of companies considered to be among the world's most innovative according to Boston Consulting Group's 2018 annual survey and ranking. The study uncovered differences in diversity trends that researchers say could be important to a company's ability to innovate.

"You can see subtle differences in the composition of the boards from a diversity perspective," said the study's senior author Marko Hakovirta, professor and chair of the NC State Department of Forest Biomaterials. "Those subtle differences, in my opinion, can escalate to the culture of innovation in the company. That goes to the selection of the CEO, who is on the management team and what the innovation agenda of the corporation is."

The Abstract sat down with Hakovirta to talk about the link between diversity in the company's board and innovation.

TA: Why did you focus on the pulp industry?

Hakovirta: The pulp and paper industry, while it has the potential for innovation, has typically been considered very traditional. The perception is that there haven't been many changes in products or technology. This industry is nowadays called the "bioeconomy," and is highly focused in creating sustainability solutions. We wanted to explore the level of diversity on the boards of the largest bioeconomy companies by revenue by looking at age, gender, ethnicity and education. We compared what we found to the composition of boards of companies considered to be highly innovative.

TA: What are some of the opportunities for innovation in pulp and paper?

Hakovirta: There are opportunities for disruptive innovation related to some of the paper manufacturing processes that are about 100 years old. I would really like to see radical innovation where the fossil-based plastics are totally replaced in packaging, or business models that create solutions to better recycle some of those products. There are a lot of packages that are difficult to recycle because of the plastics or the aluminum in them. I'd like to also see more radical solutions when it comes to digitalization and big data.


TA: What were your major findings about how the two types of companies differed in terms of diversity on their boards?

Hakovirta: In some of the pulp and paper companies, there were cases where you had one ethnicity in the board. When you look at the most innovative companies, you don't see that happening.

In terms of the age of the board of directors of the bioeconomy, there was quite a different distribution. It's more senior. The most innovative companies have a broader distribution, which shows us they have more openness to getting younger folks.

When you looked at the gender side, the distribution was almost the same; there was no major difference there.

There were differences in the educational background of board members between the two groups. The board of directors of pulp and paper companies have business or economics degrees, even though these are very technical companies. It might be related to the fact that in these bioeconomy companies where the investments for new mills can cost hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, you need to do a lot of investment planning. Whereas in case of the innovative companies, they have more engineering backgrounds which may perhaps be more connected to technical product innovations.

TA: Why were you interested in diversity and innovation?

Hakovirta: The best, most effective team is the team that has members with diverse backgrounds, and diversity of thought. Innovation is all about new thinking—challenging the norm. If you don't have a diverse team on the board, then that open thinking and practice of challenging the norm may not be as common. And you can see that in this paper. The more diverse the board is, the more likely that companies are considered innovators.

TA: What should companies take away from this?

Hakovirta: Companies should challenge themselves to think about board composition and the selection process. When they select board members, they should look at what skills, capabilities and backgrounds are of interest to the really high-level strategic direction of the company. If they want to be seen as innovators, diversity is a part of their strategy. Pulp and paper or bioeconomy companies should show the real commitment to innovation by having individuals on their boards who represent more diversity and thus diversity of thought and openness to innovation culture.


Explore further Boys' club barriers create issues for Australian boards

More information: Marko Hakovirta et al. The importance of diversity on boards of directors' effectiveness and its impact on innovativeness in the bioeconomy, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-00605-9