Exoplanets in 2,034 star-systems get cosmic front-row seat to see Earth

Scientists at Cornell University and the American Museum of Natural History have identified 2,034 nearby star-systems -- within the small cosmic distance of 326 light-years -- that could find Earth merely by watching our pale blue dot cross our sun.

That's 1,715 star-systems that could have spotted Earth since human civilization blossomed about 5,000 years ago, and 319 more star-systems that will be added over the next 5,000 years.

Exoplanets around these nearby stars have a cosmic front-row seat to see if Earth holds life, the scientists said in research published June 23 in Nature.

"From the exoplanets' point-of-view, we are the aliens," said Lisa Kaltenegger, professor of astronomy and director of Cornell's Carl Sagan Institute, in the College of Arts and Sciences.

"We wanted to know which stars have the right vantage point to see Earth, as it blocks the Sun's light," she said. "And because stars move in our dynamic cosmos, this vantage point is gained and lost."

Kaltenegger and astrophysicist Jackie Faherty, a senior scientist at the American Museum of Natural History and co-author of "Past, Present and Future Stars That Can See Earth As A Transiting Exoplanet," used positions and motions from the European Space Agency's Gaia eDR3 catalog to determine which stars enter and exit the Earth Transit Zone -- and for how long.

"Gaia has provided us with a precise map of the Milky Way galaxy," Faherty said, "allowing us to look backward and forward in time, and to see where stars had been located and where they are going."

Of the 2,034 star-systems passing through the Earth Transit Zone over the 10,000-year period examined, 117 objects lie within about 100 light-years of the sun and 75 of these objects have been in the Earth Transit Zone since commercial radio stations on Earth began broadcasting into space about a century ago.

"Our solar neighborhood is a dynamic place where stars enter and exit that perfect vantage point to see Earth transit the Sun at a rapid pace," Faherty said.

Included in the catalog of 2,034 star-systems are seven known to host exoplanets. Each one of these worlds has had or will have an opportunity to detect Earth, just as Earth's scientists have found thousands of worlds orbiting other stars through the transit technique.

By watching distant exoplanets transit -- or cross -- their own sun, Earth's astronomers can interpret the atmospheres backlit by that sun. If exoplanets hold intelligent life, they can observe Earth backlit by the sun and see our atmosphere's chemical signatures of life.

The Ross 128 system, with a red dwarf host star located in the Virgo constellation, is about 11 light-years away and is the second-closest system with an Earth-size exoplanet (about 1.8 times the size of our planet). Any inhabitants of this exoworld could have seen Earth transit our own sun for 2,158 years, starting about 3,057 years ago; they lost their vantage point about 900 years ago.

The Trappist-1 system, at 45 light-years from Earth, hosts seven transiting Earth-size planets -- four of them in the temperate, habitable zone of that star. While we have discovered the exoplanets around Trappist-1, they won't be able to spot us until their motion takes them into the Earth Transit Zone in 1,642 years. Potential Trappist-1 system observers will remain in the cosmic Earth transit stadium seats for 2,371 years.

"Our analysis shows that even the closest stars generally spend more than 1,000 years at a vantage point where they can see Earth transit," Kaltenegger said. "If we assume the reverse to be true, that provides a healthy timeline for nominal civilizations to identify Earth as an interesting planet."

The James Webb Space telescope -- expected to launch later this year -- is set to take a detailed look at several transiting worlds to characterize their atmospheres and ultimately search for signs of life.

The Breakthrough Starshot initiative is an ambitious project underway that is looking to launch a nano-sized spacecraft toward the closest exoplanet detected around Proxima Centauri -- 4.2 light-years from us -- and fully characterize that world.

Read more at Science Daily

Powerful people are less likely to be understanding when mistakes are made

Those with power, such as the wealthy are more likely to blame others for having shortcomings and they are also less troubled by reports of inequality, according to recent research from the University of California San Diego's Rady School of Management.

The study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science defines power as control over valuable resources. The paper finds that people in positions of power are more likely to adopt a "choice-mindset," which means that although they have more choices (the definition of power in many cases) they still see others with less power as having lots of choice, regardless of their situation. Consequently, high-power individuals are more likely to blame others if they perform poorly and they are also more likely to punish them.

"Being in a choice-mindset changes how individuals think, feel and behave," said Yidan Yin, the first author of the paper and recent PhD graduate from the Rady School. "Compared to low-power people, high-power people are less likely to be aware of others' constraints. As a result they assign more blame when people make mistakes or have shortcomings. Thus, they see the current hierarchy as more justified."

The results from the research were derived from three different studies the authors conducted to replicate the findings in different settings.

Research findings hold up in three robust study settings

The first study was conducted via a survey in which the researchers measured the sense of power of 363 members of the general public recruited through the platform Prolific. They also asked the participants to complete a separate survey, claiming it was unrelated, in which they were crowdsourcing how to resolve a human resources issue at the university. The survey explained that their academic department was weighing whether to give an administrative assistant a bonus though they had missed a deadline on a big project due to conflicting priorities. The survey participants who measured as having a greater sense of power overwhelming responded the administrative assistant did not deserve the bonus and that their excuses were without merit.

The second study was conducted with the platform Amazon Mechanical Turk involving 393 members of the general public who were randomly assigned to roles as supervisors and subordinates in completing various tasks. Though the assigned ranks were random, supervisors were told they earned the role for their proficiencies and subordinates were told they were designated as such because they were outperformed by supervisors.

The two groups had to judge the performance of an anonymous individual, who by design, made mistakes in completing their tasks. Once again, the researchers found that those with a greater sense of power (supervisors) were harsher, less understanding with their judgment and recommended punishment more than subordinates.

The third study was done in a lab with UC San Diego undergraduates and mirrored the second experiment. The main difference was that both supervisors and subordinates knew that the target person they had to judge had the rank of a subordinate and therefore less choices. The results from the first two studies held up with subjects that had more power assigning more blame and recommending more punishment.

"Each study was designed to build on the others," Yidan and co-author Pamela K. Smith, associate professor of economics and strategic management at the Rady School write. "In study one, we were measuring power, in study two, we manipulated power and in study three, we created a world in which the judges knew the target person had less power and less choices. We wanted to see if the perceptions remained consistent in all three settings. It was a combination of replication and adding these additional twists and turns."

Implications for more equitable public policy and workplace environments

The results from the study have significant implications for public policy, according to the authors.

"Policymakers are in a position of power and privilege and may be less sensitive to the disadvantages of their constituents," the authors write. "This is especially important as we come out of the pandemic when there are big discussions in the political domain on pulling back on unemployment benefits, or rent assistance. If you are in a position of power, you may assume people are choosing to stay home and not work and they can make better choices. However, you may need to think much more carefully about how many choices citizens have and if you are missing constraints they face."

In addition, the implications are far-reaching for the workplace.

"Mangers should be aware of how many more choices they have than their subordinates and their tendency to project their own choices onto others, especially when employees make mistakes." Yin said.

Read more at Science Dialy

Food protein can eliminate pungency and bitterness of extra virgin olive oil

Researchers have been investigating the potential health-promoting qualities of extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) for decades, including its possible medicinal value for preventing cancer, Alzheimer's, and cardiovascular disease, as part of the well-known Mediterranean diet. However, consumers in the U.S. have been slow to embrace it as a staple in their diet. This reluctance, say scientists, might be in part due to EVOO's bitter taste and pungency, which is caused by the presence of substances known as phenolic compounds, the very ones believed to contribute to EVOO health benefits. In 2005, researchers from the Monell Chemical Senses Center identified one of these compounds as an anti-inflammatory that they named oleocanthal and is mostly responsible for the oil's strong, pungent sensation localized to the throat.

Now, another team from Monell has shown that the presence of certain food proteins, such as those in egg yolk, suppresses EVOO's purported less desirable sensory qualities. The team published their findings in Scientific Reports.

"Knowing that the oil can be consumed without bitterness or stinging sensation might increase the popularity of this healthy food," said first author Catherine Peyrot des Gachons, PhD, a Monell senior research associate. "Our findings show that, in many cases, people are not going to perceive the bitterness and pungency once mixed in food."

While experimenting in the laboratory, investigators put the EVOO into a mayonnaise-like material that would be easier for sensory study participants to assess, rather than drinking unadulterated EVOO from a drinking glass, as is commonly done for EVOO tasting. They discovered that after several hours the oil-mayo mixture was much less pungent and bitter. Even a small amount of egg yolk in the mixture was sufficient to cause this reduction.

"This was a big surprise to us," said coauthor Gary Beauchamp, PhD, Distinguished Member of Monell. "But it probably would not be a surprise to people from the Mediterranean area who are much more familiar with consuming extra virgin olive oil in foods and even neat."

The team showed that proteins in the egg yolk were responsible for eliminating EVOO pungency and bitterness. Others such as whey protein yielded similar sensory suppression. The researchers hypothesize that eliminating bitterness and pungency in EVOO happens when proteins interact with oleocanthal and the bitter-tasting phenolic compounds.

The possibility that oleocanthal could be bound by food protein raises a significant conundrum for scientists. For example, the authors ask, could this binding reduce oleocanthal's medicinal effects in the human body? Or, to the contrary, might it make oleocanthal more available in the human body compared to oleocanthal alone? "We don't know the answer to those questions, but it certainly raises some interesting and important issues of bioavailability of this compound," said Beauchamp.

Read more at Science Daily

Children's beat gestures predict the subsequent development of their oral skills

A study published on 21 May in Child Development shows that the early production of beat gestures with the hands (i.e., gestures normally associated with emphasis that do not represent the semantic content of speech) by infants between 14 and 58 months of age in natural interactions with their carers predicts that in their later development, nearing the age of five, these children obtain better results insofar as their oral narrative skills.

The authors analysed the predictive value of beat gestures, compared with flip gestures of the hands and iconic gestures

However, the study did not find these same effects when children produced other types of gestures, such as iconic gestures (gestures that visually represent the semantic content of discourse, such as moving the hands in the shape of a ball to express "ball") and hand flip gestures (gestures made by twisting the wrist, for example to express "don't know" with uncertainty while raising the shoulders).

The study is the result of collaboration between the UPF Prosodic Studies (GrEP) group and the Department of Translation and Language Sciences and the Goldin-Meadow Lab at the University of Chicago (Illinois, USA), research carried out by Ingrid Vilà-Giménez (UPF and UdG) and Pilar Prieto (ICREA, UPF) with the researchers Natalie Dowling and Susan Goldin-Meadow (University of Chicago, USA) and Ö. Ece Demir-Lira (University of Iowa).

A longitudinal database on language development was used

Through a longitudinal methodology, the study analysed data at different points in the children's development. The data belong to a large longitudinal database on language development belonging to the University of Chicago. The researchers analysed speech and the production of three types of gesture of 45 children aged between 14 and 58 months while interacting with their carers at mealtime or during games sessions or other activities such as reading books. Specifically, they examined the predictive value of beat gestures, compared with flip gestures of the hands and iconic gestures. At 5 years of age, the same children participated in a narrative task in which they had to tell a story from a cartoon without sound.

The study has shown that beat gestures produced by children aged 14 to 58 months play a very important role in narrative development at later stages

The results showed that beat gestures produced by children aged 14 to 58 months play a very important role in narrative development at later stages because they can predict improvements in children's oral skills some years later. Although the results of the study do not provide empirical evidence as to whether such beat gesture simply reflects that the child has the ability to structure speech or multimodally mark elements of speech associated with prominence of speech (i.e., to mark emphasis), the researchers argue that this kind of gesture plays a very important pragmatic role in children's early speech.

It should be noted that these pragmatic functions of beat gestures are related with the function of structuring narrative discourse. Therefore, as the study results would suggest, the authors highlight that it can be stated that the pragmatic functions of beat gestures in children's early narrative speeches may be highly important for the development of their initial speech as well as for developing their oral narrative skills at a later age.

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New class of compounds found to block coronavirus reproduction

A human genetic mechanism hijacked by SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, to help it spread also makes it vulnerable to a new class of drug candidates, a new study finds.

Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, a research team showed that coronavirus reproduction in infected human cells requires chemical changes made by the human protein METTL3 to RNA, a key form of genetic material. Additional human proteins involved in the recognition of modified RNA, YTHDF1 and YTHDF3, were also found to be important to the process.

Published online in Genes and Development on June 24, the study showed for the first time that a molecular inhibitor of METTL3, designed by Storm Therapeutics Ltd and called STM2457, dramatically reduced in cell cultures the replication of both pandemic SARS-CoV-2 and, a less severe, seasonal coronavirus, HCoV-OC43, one cause of the common cold.

"Our results represent the first time a chemical inhibitor of METTL3 has been shown to have an anti-viral effect for coronaviruses, or any virus," says senior study author Ian Mohr, PhD, professor in the Department of Microbiology at NYU Langone Health. "This represents a necessary step in drug development, identifies new targets, and reveals an unexpected strategy to halt the coronavirus lifecycle."

Turning Virus' Weaknesses Against Them

The current study builds on a growing understanding of gene regulation. It has long been established that sequences of As, Gs, Cs and Ts, the molecular letters in the DNA code of genes, are copied into messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that carry the information to the machinery that determines which proteins are made. Only recently has the importance of chemical modification to mRNAs become apparent in the control of protein production. In some instances this process is controlled by the attachment of a methyl group (one carbon and three hydrogens) to an RNA chain, which turns that genetic message off.

Crucially, coronaviruses that replicate inside human cells are known to encode the complete set of their genetic instructions (their genomes) in RNA chains, raising the question of whether human RNA modification enzymes, including those that attach methyl groups, could impact the production of viral proteins that enable them to multiply.

Past work in Mohr's lab had revealed the enzymes that determine whether an A (adenosine), one of the chemical "letters" making up mRNA, is methylated at the N6 position (m6A) is important for replication of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), with regulation by human m6A enzymes of mRNAs shaping the immune response to that virus.

In the current study, the research team showed for the first time that the reproduction of SARS-CoV-2 and HCoV-OC43 requires the action, not only of the human enzyme that installs the m6A methylation on RNA, METTL3, but human proteins that bind to this unusual arrangement of methylated RNA, YTHDF1 and YTHDF3. Remarkably, the researchers also found that the RNA genomes of both study coronaviruses contained this m6A modification.

For the next step, the NYU Langone team partnered with the UK-based Storm Therapeutics, which had run a medicinal chemistry program to develop a compound that best inhibited the action of METTL3. The current study compared the effects of the METTL3 inhibitor STM2457 and an inactive control compound, STM2120, on cultures of human lung cells infected with the seasonal coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2. The researchers then used an imaging technology to track viral infection in thousands of cells treated with different doses of STM2457.

Compared with the same concentration of the inactive control compound, the highest dose of STM2457 reduced the number of HCoV-OC43 infected cells in culture by more than 80 percent, while the same dose of STM2457 reduced SARS-CoV-2 reproduction by more than 90 percent. Further experiments revealed that STM2457 reduced viral RNA and protein levels, but not by affecting the same human immune response mRNAs previously found to be important for HCMV.

"The inhibition of coronaviruses by this molecule is really encouraging but understanding exactly why coronaviruses need m6A RNA modification is important and might enable the design of compounds that work even better," says study first author Hannah Burgess, PhD, an assistant research scientist in the Department of Microbiology at NYU Langone Health.

Moving forward, the research team plans to further investigate precisely how m6A modification influences virus and host gene expression in cells infected with pandemic or seasonal coronaviruses and whether STM2457 can interfere with coronavirus replication and prevent severe disease outcomes in non-human animals.

"We went into it hoping to learn about the differences between the biology of innocuous and pandemic coronavirus infections," says co-corresponding author Angus Wilson, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Microbiology at NYU Langone Health. "If anything we found that both share a dependence upon the m6A methylation machinery. That creates the hope that inhibiting METTL3 may also be useful against future pandemic coronaviruses."

Read more at Science Daily

Earth-like biospheres on other planets may be rare

A new analysis of known exoplanets has revealed that Earth-like conditions on potentially habitable planets may be much rarer than previously thought. The work focuses on the conditions required for oxygen-based photosynthesis to develop on a planet, which would enable complex biospheres of the type found on Earth. The study is published today in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The number of confirmed planets in our own Milky Way galaxy now numbers into the thousands. However planets that are both Earth-like and in the habitable zone -- the region around a star where the temperature is just right for liquid water to exist on the surface -- are much less common.

At the moment, only a handful of such rocky and potentially habitable exoplanets are known. However the new research indicates that none of these has the theoretical conditions to sustain an Earth-like biosphere by means of 'oxygenic' photosynthesis -- the mechanism plants on Earth use to convert light and carbon dioxide into oxygen and nutrients.

Only one of those planets comes close to receiving the stellar radiation necessary to sustain a large biosphere: Kepler-442b, a rocky planet about twice the mass of the Earth, orbiting a moderately hot star around 1,200 light years away.

The study looked in detail at how much energy is received by a planet from its host star, and whether living organisms would be able to efficiently produce nutrients and molecular oxygen, both essential elements for complex life as we know it, via normal oxygenic photosynthesis.

By calculating the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) that a planet receives from its star, the team discovered that stars around half the temperature of our Sun cannot sustain Earth-like biospheres because they do not provide enough energy in the correct wavelength range. Oxygenic photosynthesis would still be possible, but such planets could not sustain a rich biosphere.

Planets around even cooler stars known as red dwarfs, which smoulder at roughly a third of our Sun's temperature, could not receive enough energy to even activate photosynthesis. Stars that are hotter than our Sun are much brighter, and emit up to ten times more radiation in the necessary range for effective photosynthesis than red dwarfs, however generally do not live long enough for complex life to evolve.

"Since red dwarfs are by far the most common type of star in our galaxy, this result indicates that Earth-like conditions on other planets may be much less common than we might hope," comments Prof. Giovanni Covone of the University of Naples, lead author of the study.

He adds: "This study puts strong constraints on the parameter space for complex life, so unfortunately it appears that the "sweet spot" for hosting a rich Earth-like biosphere is not so wide."

Read more at Science Daily

'Urban green space affects citizens' happiness'

A recent study revealed that as a city becomes more economically developed, its citizens' happiness becomes more directly related to the area of urban green space.

A joint research project by Professor Meeyoung Cha of the School of Computing and her collaborators studied the relationship between green space and citizen happiness by analyzing big data from satellite images of 60 different countries.

Urban green space, including parks, gardens, and riversides not only provides aesthetic pleasure, but also positively affects our health by promoting physical activity and social interactions. Most of the previous research attempting to verify the correlation between urban green space and citizen happiness was based on few developed countries. Therefore, it was difficult to identify whether the positive effects of green space are global, or merely phenomena that depended on the economic state of the country. There have also been limitations in data collection, as it is difficult to visit each location or carry out investigations on a large scale based on aerial photographs.

The research team used data collected by Sentinel-2, a high-resolution satellite operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate 90 green spaces from 60 different countries around the world. The subjects of analysis were cities with the highest population densities (cities that contain at least 10% of the national population), and the images were obtained during the summer of each region for clarity. Images from the northern hemisphere were obtained between June and September of 2018, and those from the southern hemisphere were obtained between December of 2017 and February of 2018.

The areas of urban green space were then quantified and crossed with data from the World Happiness Report and GDP by country reported by the United Nations in 2018. Using these data, the relationships between green space, the economy, and citizen happiness were analyzed.

The results showed that in all cities, citizen happiness was positively correlated with the area of urban green space regardless of the country's economic state. However, out of the 60 countries studied, the happiness index of the bottom 30 by GDP showed a stronger correlation with economic growth. In countries whose gross national income (GDP per capita) was higher than 38,000 USD, the area of green space acted as a more important factor affecting happiness than economic growth. Data from Seoul was analyzed to represent South Korea, and showed an increased happiness index with increased green areas compared to the past.

The authors point out their work has several policy-level implications. First, public green space should be made accessible to urban dwellers to enhance social support. If public safety in urban parks is not guaranteed, its positive role in social support and happiness may diminish. Also, the meaning of public safety may change; for example, ensuring biological safety will be a priority in keeping urban parks accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Second, urban planning for public green space is needed for both developed and developing countries. As it is challenging or nearly impossible to secure land for green space after the area is developed, urban planning for parks and green space should be considered in developing economies where new cities and suburban areas are rapidly expanding.

Third, recent climate changes can present substantial difficulty in sustaining urban green space. Extreme events such as wild?res, ?oods, droughts, and cold waves could endanger urban forests while global warming could conversely accelerate tree growth in cities due to the urban heat island effect. Thus, more attention must be paid to predict climate changes and discovering their impact on the maintenance of urban green space.

Read more at Science Daily

Half of young adults with COVID-19 have persistent symptoms 6 months after, study finds

A paper published in the journal Nature Medicine on long-COVID, describes persistent symptoms six months after acute COVID-19, even in young home isolated people.

The study from the Bergen COVID-19 Research Group followed infected patients during the first pandemic wave in Bergen Norway.

"The main novel finding is that more than fifty per cent of young adults up to 30 years old, isolated at home, still have persistent symptoms six months after mild to moderate disease," the leader of the group, Professor Nina Langeland explains.

The most common symptoms were loss of smell and/or taste, fatigue, shortness of breath, impaired concentration, and memory problems.

"There was a significant correlation between high antibody levels and symptoms in home isolated patients, other risk factors for symptoms were asthma or other chronic lung disease," says Professor Rebecca Cox, Head of the Influenza Centre at University of Bergen and Haukeland University Hospital and co-leader of the research group.

Impaired memory and concentration difficulties

In non-hospitalized COVID-19-patients, thirty per cent experienced fatigue which was the most common symptom. Children under the age of 16 years had fewer long-term symptoms than adults, but Associate Professor Bjørn Blomberg, and first author of the article, underlines:

"The cognitive symptoms of impaired memory and concentration difficulties are particularly worrying for young people at school or university and highlights the importance of vaccination to prevent the long-term health implications of COVID-19."

From Science Daily

Language trade-off? No, bilingual children reliably acquire English by age 5

In the United States, more than 12 million children hear a minority language at home from birth. More than two-thirds hear English as well, and they reach school age with varying levels of proficiency in two languages. Parents and teachers often worry that acquiring Spanish will interfere with children's acquisition of English.

A first-of-its kind study in U.S.-born children from Spanish-speaking families led by researchers at Florida Atlantic University finds that minority language exposure does not threaten the acquisition of English by children in the U.S. and that there is no trade-off between English and Spanish. Rather, children reliably acquire English, and their total language knowledge is greater to the degree that they also acquire Spanish.

Results of the study, published in the journal Child Development, show that children with the most balanced bilingualism were those who heard the most Spanish at home and who had parents with high levels of education in Spanish.

Importantly, these children did not have lower English skills than the English-dominant children. Children's level of English knowledge was independent of their level of Spanish knowledge. U.S.-born children who live in Spanish-speaking homes and who also are exposed to English from infancy tend to become English dominant by age 5 -- but some more so than others.

The study, conducted in collaboration with The George Washington University, is the first to describe the outcome of early dual language exposure in terms of bilingual skill profiles that reflect the relations in the data between children's skill levels in their two languages. The study addresses the question of what level of English and Spanish skill can be expected in 5-year-old children who come from Spanish-speaking homes in which they also hear English in varying amounts.

"We found that early in development, children who hear two languages take a little longer to acquire each language than children who hear only one language; however, there is no evidence that learning two languages is too difficult for children," said Erika Hoff, Ph.D., lead author and a professor in the Department of Psychology within FAU's Charles E. Schmidt College of Science on the FAU Broward Campuses.

A key finding from the study is that low levels of proficiency in two languages at age 5 is not a typical outcome of exposure to two languages. Bilingual children who have weak skills in both languages at age 5 may have an underlying impairment or inadequate environmental support for language acquisition.

For the study, Hoff and co-authors Michelle K. Tulloch, a Ph.D. student in the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science; and Cynthia Core, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences within the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University, used an examiner-administered test to measure the English and Spanish expressive vocabulary of 126 U.S.-born 5 year olds from Spanish-speaking families with one or two immigrant parents who have been exposed to Spanish since birth and who have also heard English at home in varying amounts, either from birth or soon thereafter. They also measured indicators of the children's language learning ability.

Prior to this study, differences among bilingual children were described primarily in terms of dominance (English-dominant bilinguals, Spanish-dominant bilinguals) and balance, but that turns out not to be the only way in which bilinguals differ.

"Previous research has tended to treat bilingual children's development in each language as a separate outcome, rather than treating dual language skills as the single outcome of dual language exposure," said Hoff. "This approach not only fails to adequately capture the nature of children's dual language skills, it also leaves unaddressed the question of how the acquisition of one language is related to the acquisition of another."

Findings from this study suggest that dominance is not the same thing as proficiency. Bilinguals differ both in dominance and in total language knowledge. Teachers and clinicians cannot infer a bilingual child's language proficiency from that child's language dominance. There are balanced bilinguals at age 5 who have stronger English skills than some English-dominant bilinguals. Individual differences in dominance are significantly related to home exposure, although the function that relates exposure to dominance is biased toward English.

Balanced language exposure at home does not result in balanced proficiency; Spanish-dominant home exposure appears to be necessary. Individual differences in total language knowledge are significantly related to indicators of language-learning ability, measured in this study in terms of phonological memory and nonverbal intelligence.

Read more at Science Daily

Researchers trace dust grain's journey through newborn solar system

A research team led by the University of Arizona has reconstructed in unprecedented detail the history of a dust grain that formed during the birth of the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The findings provide insights into the fundamental processes underlying the formation of planetary systems, many of which are still shrouded in mystery.

For the study, the team developed a new type of framework, which combines quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, to simulate the conditions to which the grain was exposed during its formation, when the solar system was a swirling disk of gas and dust known as a protoplanetary disk or solar nebula. Comparing the predictions from the model to an extremely detailed analysis of the sample's chemical makeup and crystal structure, along with a model of how matter was transported in the solar nebula, revealed clues about the grain's journey and the environmental conditions that shaped it along the way.

The grain analyzed in the study is one of several inclusions, known as calcium-aluminum rich inclusions, or CAIs, discovered in a sample from the Allende meteorite, which fell over the Mexican state of Chihuahua in 1969. CAIs are of special interest because they are thought to be among the first solids that formed in the solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago.

Similar to how stamps in a passport tell a story about a traveler's journey and stops along the way, the samples' micro- and atomic-scale structures unlock a record of their formation histories, which were controlled by the collective environments to which they were exposed.

"As far as we know, our paper is the first to tell an origin story that offers clues about the likely processes that happened at the scale of astronomical distances with what we see in our sample at the scale of atomic distances," said Tom Zega, a professor in the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the first author of the paper, published in The Planetary Science Journal.

Zega and his team analyzed the composition of the inclusions embedded in the meteorite using cutting-edge atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopes -- one at UArizona's Kuiper Materials Imaging and Characterization Facility, and its sister microscope located at the Hitachi factory in Hitachinaka, Japan.

The inclusions were found to consist mainly of types of minerals known as spinel and perovskite, which also occur in rocks on Earth and are being studied as candidate materials for applications such as microelectronics and photovoltaics.

Similar kinds of solids occur in other types of meteorites known as carbonaceous chondrites, which are particularly interesting to planetary scientists as they are known to be leftovers from the formation of the solar system and contain organic molecules, including those that may have provided the raw materials for life.

Precisely analyzing the spatial arrangement of atoms allowed the team to study the makeup of the underlying crystal structures in great detail. To the team's surprise, some of the results were at odds with current theories on the physical processes thought to be active inside protoplanetary disks, prompting them to dig deeper.

"Our challenge is that we don't know what chemical pathways led to the origins of these inclusions," Zega said. "Nature is our lab beaker, and that experiment took place billions of years before we existed, in a completely alien environment."

Zega said the team set out to "reverse-engineer" the makeup of the extraterrestrial samples by designing new models that simulated complex chemical processes, which the samples would be subjected to inside a protoplanetary disk.

"Such models require an intimate convergence of expertise spanning the fields of planetary science, materials science, mineral science and microscopy, which was what we set out to do," added Krishna Muralidharan, a study co-author and an associate professor in the UArizona's Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Based on the data the authors were able to tease from their samples, they concluded that the particle formed in a region of the protoplanetary disk not far from where Earth is now, then made a journey closer to the sun, where it was progressively hotter, only to later reverse course and wash up in cooler parts farther from the young sun. Eventually, it was incorporated into an asteroid, which later broke apart into pieces. Some of those pieces were captured by Earth's gravity and fell as meteorites.

The samples for this study were taken from the inside of a meteorite and are considered primitive -- in other words, unaffected by environmental influences. Such primitive material is believed to not have undergone any significant changes since it first formed more than 4.5 billion years ago, which is rare. Whether similar objects occur in asteroid Bennu, samples of which will be returned to Earth by the UArizona-led OSIRIS-REx mission in 2023, remains to be seen. Until then, scientists rely on samples that fall to Earth via meteorites.

"This material is our only record of what happened 4.567 billion years ago in the solar nebula," said Venkat Manga, a co-author of the paper and an assistant research professor in the UArizona Department of Materials Science and Engineering. "Being able to look at the microstructure of our sample at different scales, down to the length of individual atoms, is like opening a book."

The authors said that studies like this one could bring planetary scientists a step closer to "a grand model of planet formation" -- a detailed understanding of the material moving around the disk, what it is composed of, and how it gives rise to the sun and the planets.

Powerful radio telescopes like the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, in Chile now allow astronomers to see stellar systems as they evolve, Zega said.

"Perhaps at some point we can peer into evolving disks, and then we can really compare our data between disciplines and begin answering some of those really big questions," Zega said. "Are these dust particles forming where we think they did in our own solar system? Are they common to all stellar systems? Should we expect the pattern we see in our solar system -- rocky planets close to the central star and gas giants farther out -- in all systems?

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'Pack ice' tectonics reveal Venus' geological secrets

A new analysis of Venus' surface shows evidence of tectonic motion in the form of crustal blocks that have jostled against each other like broken chunks of pack ice. The movement of these blocks could indicate that Venus is still geologically active and give scientists insight into both exoplanet tectonics and the earliest tectonic activity on Earth.

"We've identified a previously unrecognized pattern of tectonic deformation on Venus, one that is driven by interior motion just like on Earth," says Paul Byrne, associate professor of planetary science at North Carolina State University and lead and co-corresponding author of the work. "Although different from the tectonics we currently see on Earth, it is still evidence of interior motion being expressed at the planet's surface."

The finding is important because Venus has long been assumed to have an immobile solid outer shell, or lithosphere, just like Mars or Earth's moon. In contrast, Earth's lithosphere is broken into tectonic plates, which slide against, apart from, and underneath each other on top of a hot, weaker mantle layer.

Byrne and an international group of researchers used radar images from NASA's Magellan mission to map the surface of Venus. In examining the extensive Venusian lowlands that make up most of the planet surface, they saw areas where large blocks of the lithosphere seem to have moved: pulling apart, pushing together, rotating and sliding past each other like broken pack ice over a frozen lake.

The team created a computer model of this deformation, and found that sluggish motion of the planet's interior can account for the style of tectonics seen at the surface.

"These observations tell us that interior motion is driving surface deformation on Venus, in a similar way to what happens on Earth," Byrne says. "Plate tectonics on Earth are driven by convection in the mantle. The mantle is hot or cold in different places, it moves, and some of that motion transfers to Earth's surface in the form of plate movement.

"A variation on that theme seems to be playing out on Venus as well. It's not plate tectonics like on Earth -- there aren't huge mountain ranges being created here, or giant subduction systems -- but it is evidence of deformation due to interior mantle flow, which hasn't been demonstrated on a global scale before."

The deformation associated with these crustal blocks could also indicate that Venus is still geologically active.

"We know that much of Venus has been volcanically resurfaced over time, so some parts of the planet might be really young, geologically speaking," Byrne says. "But several of the jostling blocks have formed in and deformed these young lava plains, which means that the lithosphere fragmented after those plains were laid down. This gives us reason to think that some of these blocks may have moved geologically very recently -- perhaps even up to today."

The researchers are optimistic that Venus' newly recognized "pack ice" pattern could offer clues to understanding tectonic deformation on planets outside of our solar system, as well as on a much younger Earth.

"The thickness of a planet's lithosphere depends mainly upon how hot it is, both in the interior and on the surface," Byrne says. "Heat flow from the young Earth's interior was up to three times greater than it is now, so its lithosphere may have been similar to what we see on Venus today: not thick enough to form plates that subduct, but thick enough to have fragmented into blocks that pushed, pulled, and jostled."

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Worrying insights into the chemicals in plastics

Plastic is practical, cheap and incredibly popular. Every year, more than 350 million tonnes are produced worldwide. These plastics contain a huge variety of chemicals that may be released during their lifecycles -- including substances that pose a significant risk to people and the environment. However, only a small proportion of the chemicals contained in plastic are publicly known or have been extensively studied.

A team of researchers led by Stefanie Hellweg, ETH Professor of Ecological Systems Design, has for a first time compiled a comprehensive database of plastic monomers, additives and processing aids for use in the production and processing of plastics on the world market, and systematically categorized them on the basis of usage patterns and hazard potential. The study, just published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology, provides an enlightening but worrying insight into the world of chemicals that are intentionally added to plastics.

A high level of chemical diversity

The team identified around 10,500 chemicals in plastic. Many are used in packaging (2,489), textiles (2,429) and food-contact applications (2,109); some are for toys (522) and medical devices, including masks (247). Of the 10,500 substances identified, the researchers categorized 2,480 substances (24 percent) as substances of potential concern.

"This means that almost a quarter of all the chemicals used in plastic are either highly stable, accumulate in organisms or are toxic. These substances are often toxic to aquatic life, cause cancer or damage specific organs," explains Helene Wiesinger, doctoral student at the Chair of Ecological Systems Design and lead author of the study. About half are chemicals with high production volumes in the EU or the US.

"It is particularly striking that many of the questionable substances are barely regulated or are ambiguously described," continues Wiesinger.

In fact, 53 percent of all the substances of potential concern are not regulated in the US, the EU or Japan. More surprisingly, 901 hazardous substances are approved for use in food contact plastics in these regions. Finally, scientific studies are lacking for about 10 percent of the identified substances of potential concern.

Plastic monomers, additives and processing aids

Plastics are made of organic polymers built up from repeating monomer units. A wide variety of additives, such as antioxidants, plasticisers and flame retardants, give the polymer matrix the desired properties. Catalysts, solvents and other chemicals are also used as processing aids in production.

"Until now, research, industry and regulators have mainly concentrated on a limited number of dangerous chemicals known to be present in plastics," says Wiesinger. Today, plastic packaging is seen as a main source of organic contamination in food, while phthalate plasticisers and brominated flame retardants are detectable in house dust and indoor air. Earlier studies have already indicated that significantly more plastic chemicals used worldwide are potentially hazardous.

Nevertheless, the results of the inventory came as an unpleasant surprise to the researchers. "The unexpectedly high number of substances of potential concern is worrying," says Zhanyun Wang, senior scientist in Hellweg's group. Exposure to such substances can have a negative impact on the health of consumers and workers and on polluted ecosystems. Problematic chemicals can also affect recycling processes and the safety and quality of recycled plastics.

Wang stresses that even more chemicals in plastics could be problematic. "Recorded hazard data are often limited and scattered. For 4,100 or 39 percent of all the substances we identified, we were not able to categorize them due to a lack of hazard classifications" he says.

A lack of data and transparency

The two researchers identified the lack of transparency in chemicals in plastics and dispersed data silos as a main problem. In over two and a half years of detective work, they combed through more than 190 publicly accessible data sources from research, industry and authorities and identified 60 sources with sufficient information about intentionally added substances in plastics. "We found multiple critical knowledge and data gaps, in particular for the substances and their actual uses. This ultimately hinders consumers' choice of safe plastic products," they say.

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New position statement declares that sleep is essential to health

A new position statement from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine emphasizes that sleep is a biological necessity, and insufficient sleep and untreated sleep disorders are detrimental for health, well-being, and public safety.

Published online in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, the statement notes that sleep is vital for health and well-being in children, adolescents, and adults. While awareness of the value of sleep has risen in the last decade, there is a significant need for greater emphasis on sleep health in education, clinical practice, inpatient and long-term care, public health promotion, and the workplace.

"Healthy sleep is as important as proper nutrition and regular exercise for our health and well-being, and sleep is critical for performance and safety," said AASM President Dr. Kannan Ramar. "It is the position of the AASM that sleep is essential to health, and we are urging educators, health care professionals, government agencies, and employers to prioritize the promotion of healthy sleep."

The statement was written by the members of the 2020 -- 2021 AASM board of directors, comprising 11 sleep medicine physicians and a clinical psychologist. In recognition of sleep's significant and multi-faceted connections to health and chronic disease, the authors outlined the following positions:

    - Sleep education should have a prominent place in K-12 and college health education, medical school    and graduate medical education, and educational programs for other health professionals.

    - Clinicians should routinely inquire about sleep habits and symptoms of sleep and circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders during patient encounters, and hospitals and long-term care facilities should optimize sleep conditions.

    - Healthy sleep should be targeted by public health and workplace interventions to improve health-related outcomes, and behaviors that help people attain healthy sleep should be actively promoted.

    - More sleep and circadian research is needed to further elucidate the importance of sleep for public health and the contributions of insufficient sleep to health disparities.

"Education about sleep and sleep disorders is lacking in medical school curricula, graduate medical education, and education programs for other health professionals," said Ramar. "Better sleep health education will enable our health care workforce to provide more patient-centered care for people who have common sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea and insomnia."

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New geochemical study confirms cause of end-Permian mass extinction event

The most severe mass extinction event in the past 540 million years eliminated more than 90 percent of Earth's marine species and 75 percent of terrestrial species. Although scientists had previously hypothesized that the end-Permian mass extinction, which took place 251 million years ago, was triggered by voluminous volcanic eruptions in a region of what is now Siberia, they were not able to explain the mechanism by which the eruptions resulted in the extinction of so many different species, both in the oceans and on land.

Associate professor Laura Wasylenki of Northern Arizona University's School of Earth and Sustainability and Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is co-author on a new paper in Nature Communications entitled, "Nickel isotopes link Siberian Traps aerosol particles to the end-Permian mass extinction," in collaboration with Chinese, Canadian and Swiss scientists. The paper presents the results of nickel isotope analyses performed in Wasylenki's lab on Late Permian sedimentary rocks collected in Arctic Canada. The samples have the lightest nickel isotope ratios ever measured in sedimentary rocks, and the only plausible explanation is that the nickel was sourced from the volcanic terrain, very likely carried by aerosol particles and deposited in the ocean, where it dramatically changed the chemistry of seawater and severely disrupted the marine ecosystem.

"The study results provide strong evidence that nickel-rich particles were aerosolized and dispersed widely, both through the atmosphere and into the ocean," Wasylenki said. "Nickel is an essential trace metal for many organisms, but an increase in nickel abundance would have driven an unusual surge in productivity of methanogens, microorganisms that produce methane gas. Increased methane would have been tremendously harmful to all oxygen-dependent life."

"Our data provide a direct link between global dispersion of Ni-rich aerosols, ocean chemistry changes and the mass extinction event," Wasylenki said. "The data also demonstrate that environmental degradation likely began well before the extinction event -- perhaps starting as early as 300,000 years before then. Prior to this study, the connection between Siberian Traps flood basalt volcanism, marine anoxia and mass extinction was rather vague, but now we have evidence of a specific kill mechanism. This finding demonstrates the power of nickel isotope analyses, which are relatively new, to solve long-standing problems in the geosciences."

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Ancient bones provide clues about Kangaroo Island's past and future

A Curtin University-led study of ancient bones on South Australia's Kangaroo Island has provided new information about the Island's past fauna and an insight into how species may live there in the future.

Published in Quaternary Science Reviews, the researchers analysed around 2,000 bone fragments with the aim of eventually being able to establish a more complete picture of past biodiversity on the Island.

Lead researcher Dr Frederik Seersholm from Curtin's School of Molecular and Life Sciences said DNA studies on such a large scale have never been done on the Island before.

"We identified 33 species, 10 of which are extinct on the island today. We also found DNA traces from both the Eastern and the Western grey kangaroos- which is interesting given it was previously thought that only the Western used to roam the Island," Dr Seersholm said.

"Our research also discovered an extinct population of spotted-tailed quoll, different from both the modern mainland and Tasmanian populations, indicating that it once lived on Kangaroo Island and perhaps other parts of South Australia too.

"While Kangaroo Island is a renowned biodiversity hotspot, and natural haven for several threatened and endemic species, it has been continuously losing species richness since European arrival on the Island 200 years ago.

"From excavations of these ancient fossil bones, we now know more about the species that used to roam the Island before this human-caused decimation."

Dr Seersholm said this research was particularly important in the wake of the major bushfires of 2019/2020 which had a devastating impact on Kangaroo Island's pristine ecosystem.

"We hope our work in accurately identifying species can aid conservation and restoration efforts and help to restore the biodiversity on Kangaroo Island," Dr Seersholm said.

"While more research is needed in this area, our study has confirmed that Kangaroo Island could be a potential haven for the reintroduction of some species.

"If a quoll population should be introduced to the island, it is essential to get a detailed picture of the extinct quoll population. The research has also added the eastern grey kangaroo to the list of potential reintroduction candidates.

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mRNA vaccine yields full protection against malaria in mice

Scientists from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research and Naval Medical Research Center partnered with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Acuitas Therapeutics to develop a novel vaccine based on mRNA technology that protects against malaria in animal models, publishing their findings in npj Vaccines.

In 2019, there were an estimated 229 million cases of malaria and 409,000 deaths globally, creating an extraordinary cost in terms of human morbidity, mortality, economic burden, and regional social stability. Worldwide, Plasmodium falciparum is the parasite species which causes the vast majority of deaths. Those at highest risk of severe disease include pregnant women, children and malaria naïve travelers. Malaria countermeasures development has historically been a priority research area for the Department of Defense as the disease remains a top threat to U.S. military forces deployed to endemic regions.

A safe, effective malaria vaccine has long been an elusive target for scientists. The most advanced malaria vaccine is RTS,S, a first-generation product developed in partnership with WRAIR. RTS,S is based on the circumsporozoite protein of P. falciparum, the most dangerous and widespread species of malaria parasite. While RTS,S is an impactful countermeasure in the fight against malaria, field studies have revealed limited sterile efficacy and duration of protection. The limitations associated with RTS,S and other first-generation malaria vaccines have led scientists to evaluate new platforms and second-generation approaches for malaria vaccines.

"Recent successes with vaccines against COVID-19 highlight the advantages of mRNA-based platforms -- notably highly targeted design, flexible and rapid manufacturing and ability to promote strong immune responses in a manner not yet explored," said Dr. Evelina Angov, a researcher at WRAIR's Malaria Biologics Branch and senior author on the paper. "Our goal is to translate those advances to a safe, effective vaccine against malaria."

Like RTS,S, the vaccine relies on P. falciparum's circumsporozoite protein to elicit an immune response. However, rather than administering a version of the protein directly, this approach uses mRNA -- accompanied by a lipid nanoparticle which protects from premature degradation and helps stimulate the immune system -- to prompt cells to code for circumsporozoite protein themselves. Those proteins then trigger a protective response against malaria but cannot actually cause infection.

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There's more to genes than DNA: How Mum and Dad add something extra, just for you

Biologists at the Universities of Bath and Vienna have discovered 71 new 'imprinted' genes in the mouse genome, a finding that takes them a step closer to unravelling some of the mysteries of epigenetics -- an area of science that describes how genes are switched on (and off) in different cells, at different stages in development and adulthood.

To understand the importance of imprinted genes to inheritance, we need to step back and ask how inheritance works in general. Most of the thirty trillion cells in a person's body contain genes that come from both their mother and father, with each parent contributing one version of each gene. The unique combination of genes goes part of the way to making an individual unique. Usually, each gene in a pair is equally active or inactive in a given cell. This is not the case for imprinted genes. These genes -- which make up less than one percent of the total of 20,000+ genes -- tend to be more active (sometimes much more active) in one parental version than the other.

Until now, researchers were aware of around 130 well-documented imprinted genes in the mouse genome -- the new additions take this number to over 200.

Professor Tony Perry, who led the research from the Department of Biology & Biochemistry at Bath in the UK, said: "Imprinting affects an important family of genes, with different implications for health and disease, so the seventy-plus new ones add an important piece of the jigsaw."

THE IMPORTANCE OF HISTONES

Close examination of the newly identified genes has allowed Professor Perry and his colleagues to make a second important discovery: the switching on and off of imprinted genes is not always related to DNA methylation, where methyl groups are added to genomic DNA- a process that is known to repress gene activity, switching them off). DNA methylation was the first known type of imprint, and was discovered around thirty years ago. From the results of the new work, it seems that a greater contribution to imprinting is made by histones -- structures that are wrapped up with genomic DNA in chromosomes.

Although scientists have known for some time that histones act as 'dimmer' switches for genes, fading them off (or back on), until now it was thought that DNA methylation provided the major switch for imprinted gene activity. The findings from the new study cast doubt on this assumption: many of the newly identified genes were found to be associated with changes to the histone 3 lysine 27 (H3K27me3), and only a minority with DNA methylation.

WHY IMPRINTING MATTERS

Scientists have yet to work out how one parental version of a given gene can be switched (or faded) on or off and maintained that way while the other is in the opposite state. It is known that much of the on/off switching occurs during the formation of gametes (sperm and egg), but the precise mechanisms remain unclear. This new study points to the intriguing possibility that some imprinted genes may not be marked in gametes, but become active later in development, or even in adulthood.

Although it only involves a small proportion of genes, imprinting is important in later life. If it goes wrong, and the imprinted gene copy from one parent is switched on when it should be off (or vice versa), disease or death occur. Faulty imprinted genes are associated with many diseases, including neurological and metabolic disorders, and cancer.

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Climate warming can influence fungal communities on oak leaves across the growing season

Climate warming plays a larger role than plant genes in influencing the number and identity of fungal species on oak leaves, especially in autumn. Recently published in the journal New Phytologist, this research by ecologists sheds light on how warming and tree genes affect the dynamics of fungal communities across the season.

"One of our major findings was that elevated temperature decreased the number of fungal species and changed their community composition, especially in the late season" says Maria Faticov, a researcher at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP) at Stockholm University.

Plants host thousands of microscopic organisms and leaves are no exception. Leaves harbour a large diversity of microorganisms including fungi, bacteria and, less frequently, archaea. Fungi are among the most diverse groups of microorganisms living on leaves. Some of these microscopic fungi cause disease, others can promote plant growth and defend leaves against biotic and abiotic stresses, and still others play an important role in leaf senescence and decomposition.

Climate is one of the main factors influencing fungal development, either directly or indirectly, by triggering plant defences.

"From earlier studies, we know that the number of fungal species and their abundance change as leaves age and the season progresses from spring to autumn. What we do not know is what role climate warming and plant genetic variation play in shaping fungal communities across the growing season" says Ayco Tack, associate professor at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences, Stockholm University.

To answer this question, researchers took on a challenging project -- they built 6 identical cages in a field to the north of Stockholm, each cage the size of a small living room. Scientists put 132 young oak trees into the cages that represented 5 different genotypes. Half of the cages were heated from May to October using ceramic heaters. The remaining ones were left as control and did not have heaters in them. The temperature in the heated cages was increased by ca 2°C to mimic the global temperature increase predicted by scientists to occur by the end of the century. Researchers collected leaves in the early, middle and late growing season and used DNA sequencing to find out which fungi had colonised the leaves. This way they could compare the changes in fungal community structure between the control and warming treatment and also among oak genotypes.

"We observed that fungal community composition drastically changed from spring to autumn, with yeasts increasing in relative abundance and fungal pathogens decreasing. Interestingly, while experimental warming had a major impact on the fungal community, oak genotype explained only a minor part of the variation in the number of fungal species and their composition" says Maria Faticov.

These findings suggest that warming is one of the most important environmental factors shaping fungal community development during the growing season and emphasizes how profound the effects of ongoing climate change may be to plant health and ecosystem functioning.

Researchers did not link the observed change in fungal community structure under warming with plant health and ecosystem functioning. More detailed long-term experiments are needed to predict how changes in the fungal community under climate warming will influence the plants they live on and their surrounding environment.

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One in 6 families in new study spent more than $5,000 to have a baby

The price tag for giving birth in America may bring some families sticker shock -- even for those with private insurance.

And when delivering moms require caesarians or their newborns need neonatal care, some families may spend as much as $10,000 out-of-pocket, according to a new Michigan Medicine-led study.

"Childbirth is the most common reason for hospitalization in the U.S.," said lead author Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D.,a pediatrician and researcher at University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children's Hospital and the Susan B. Meister Child Health Evaluation and Research Center.

"Our findings show that some privately insured families are shouldering an astoundingly high financial burden for childbirth-related hospitalizations."

During 2016-2019, privately insured families paid an average of $3,000 out-of-pocket for maternal and newborn hospitalizations, according to the research in Pediatrics. But for one in 6 families, out-of-pocket spending exceeded $5,000. And when neonatal intensive care was required, the price climbed to over $10,000 for about 1 in 11 families.

"Many privately insured families believe that if they have health insurance, they're protected from the costs of childbirth hospitalizations. Unfortunately, this is simply not true for many families, particularly if their baby needs NICU care," Chua said.

"Having a healthy baby is expensive enough given the costs of diapers, childcare, and baby equipment. Adding a $10,000 hospital bill on top of this can devastate some families."

Researchers analyzed national data of 12 million privately insured enrollees across all states in the country. They identified 398,410 maternal deliveries that were linked to at least one newborn hospitalization covered by the same family plan. Overall, average out-of-pocket spending for the delivery and newborn hospitalizations was $3,068.

When cesarean birth occurred, the average bill was $3,389. When NICU care was needed, the average bill was $4,969. This bill exceeded $10,000 for 9% of instances when NICU care was needed.

About 30% of the time, deliveries and newborn hospitalizations were covered by high-deductible health plans, such as a health reimbursement arrangement or health savings account. Out-of-pocket costs were primarily driven by deductibles and co-insurance.

Chua said he was inspired to pursue the study because of his own personal experience that involved a $5,000 out-of-pocket bill after the birth of his second daughter.

"This is an issue that impacts millions of Americans at some stage in their lives," he said.

"Before delivery, clinicians can help privately insured families understand their childbirth benefits. If large bills are expected, clinicians should advise families to save money, assuming they have the means to do so. After delivery, clinicians should screen families for financial hardship, particularly those experiencing resource-intensive hospitalizations, such as NICU care, and connect them with local resources to address food, housing, and financial insecurity."

While substantial cost-sharing may be justified for low-value care, childbirth is a necessary, high value service, says senior author Michelle Moniz, M.D., M.Sc.,an obstetrician gynecologist at University of Michigan Health Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital. Moniz says policies should aim to alleviate the financial burden of childbirth on families.

Ideally, insurers would waive most or all cost-sharing for these hospitalizations, consistent with the approach taken by Medicaid programs and many peer, high-resource countries, she says.

The new study adds to Moniz' previous study examining the out-of-pocket costs of pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care for mothers. .

"Maternal and childbirth hospitalizations are essential to families' health and wellbeing, with some babies needing longer stays because of complex or unexpected medical conditions," Moniz said.

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