Climate change threatens prospects for further progress in cancer prevention and control, increasing exposure to cancer risk factors and impacting access to cancer care, according to a new commentary by scientists from the American Cancer Society and Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
The commentary, appearing in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, says that progress in the fight against cancer has been achieved through the identification and control of cancer risk factors and access to and receipt of care. And both these factors are impacted by climate change.
The authors say climate change creates conditions favorable to greater production of and exposure to known carcinogens. Climate change has been linked to an increase in extreme weather events, like hurricanes and wildfires, which can impact cancer. Hurricane Harvey for example inundated chemical plants, oil refineries, and Superfund sites that contained vast amounts of carcinogens that were released into the Houston community. Wildfires release immense amounts of air pollutants known to cause cancer. Both events can affect patients' exposure to carcinogens and ability to seek preventive care and treatment; they threaten the laboratory and clinic infrastructure dedicated to cancer care in the United States.
The authors also propose ways to diminish the impact of climate change on cancer, because climate change mitigation efforts also have health benefits, especially to cancer prevention and outcomes. For example, air pollutants directly harmful to health are emitted by combustion processes that also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. Some dietary patterns are also detrimental to both health and the environment. The agricultural sector contributes to approximately 30% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Meat from ruminants have the highest environmental impact, while plant-based foods cause fewer adverse environmental effects per unit weight, per serving, per unit of energy, or per protein weight. Replacing animal source foods with plant-based foods, through guidelines provided to patients and changes made in the food services provided at cancer treatment facilities, would confer both environmental and health benefits.
"While some may view these issues as beyond the scope of responsibility of the nation's cancer treatment facilities, one need look no further than their mission statements, all of which speak to eradicating cancer," write the authors. "Climate change and continued reliance on fossil fuels push that noble goal further from reach. However, if all those whose life work is to care for those with cancer made clear to the communities they serve that actions to combat climate change and lessen our use of fossil fuels could prevent cancers and improve cancer outcomes, we might see actions that address climate change flourish, and the attainment of our missions to reduce suffering from cancer grow nearer."
From Science Daily
May 19, 2020
New study estimates the odds of life and intelligence emerging beyond our planet
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| Alien planet illustration |
We know from the geological record that life started relatively quickly, as soon our planet's environment was stable enough to support it. We also know that the first multicellular organism, which eventually produced today's technological civilization, took far longer to evolve, approximately 4 billion years.
But despite knowing when life first appeared on Earth, scientists still do not understand how life occurred, which has important implications for the likelihood of finding life elsewhere in the universe.
In a new paper published in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences today, David Kipping, an assistant professor in Columbia's Department of Astronomy, shows how an analysis using a statistical technique called Bayesian inference could shed light on how complex extraterrestrial life might evolve in alien worlds.
"The rapid emergence of life and the late evolution of humanity, in the context of the timeline of evolution, are certainly suggestive," Kipping said. "But in this study it's possible to actually quantify what the facts tell us."
To conduct his analysis, Kipping used the chronology of the earliest evidence for life and the evolution of humanity. He asked how often we would expect life and intelligence to re-emerge if Earth's history were to repeat, re-running the clock over and over again.
He framed the problem in terms of four possible answers: Life is common and often develops intelligence, life is rare but often develops intelligence, life is common and rarely develops intelligence and, finally, life is rare and rarely develops intelligence.
This method of Bayesian statistical inference -- used to update the probability for a hypothesis as evidence or information becomes available -- states prior beliefs about the system being modeled, which are then combined with data to cast probabilities of outcomes.
"The technique is akin to betting odds," Kipping said. "It encourages the repeated testing of new evidence against your position, in essence a positive feedback loop of refining your estimates of likelihood of an event."
From these four hypotheses, Kipping used Bayesian mathematical formulas to weigh the models against one another. "In Bayesian inference, prior probability distributions always need to be selected," Kipping said. "But a key result here is that when one compares the rare-life versus common-life scenarios, the common-life scenario is always at least nine times more likely than the rare one."
The analysis is based on evidence that life emerged within 300 million years of the formation of the Earth's oceans as found in carbon-13-depleted zircon deposits, a very fast start in the context of Earth's lifetime. Kipping emphasizes that the ratio is at least 9:1 or higher, depending on the true value of how often intelligence develops.
Kipping's conclusion is that if planets with similar conditions and evolutionary time lines to Earth are common, then the analysis suggests that life should have little problem spontaneously emerging on other planets. And what are the odds that these extraterrestrial lives could be complex, differentiated and intelligent? Here, Kipping's inquiry is less assured, finding just 3:2 odds in favor of intelligent life.
This result stems from humanity's relatively late appearance in Earth's habitable window, suggesting that its development was neither an easy nor ensured process. "If we played Earth's history again, the emergence of intelligence is actually somewhat unlikely," he said.
Kipping points out that the odds in the study aren't overwhelming, being quite close to 50:50, and the findings should be treated as no more than a gentle nudge toward a hypothesis.
Read more at Science Daily
Long-term data show hurricanes are getting stronger
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| Illustration of hurricane seen from space |
A warming planet may be fueling the increase.
"Through modeling and our understanding of atmospheric physics, the study agrees with what we would expect to see in a warming climate like ours," says James Kossin, a NOAA scientist based at UW-Madison and lead author of the paper, which is published today (May 18, 2020) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research builds on Kossin's previous work, published in 2013, which identified trends in hurricane intensification across a 28-year data set. However, says Kossin, that timespan was less conclusive and required more hurricane case studies to demonstrate statistically significant results.
To increase confidence in the results, the researchers extended the study to include global hurricane data from 1979-2017. Using analytical techniques, including the CIMSS Advanced Dvorak Technique that relies on infrared temperature measurements from geostationary satellites to estimate hurricane intensity, Kossin and his colleagues were able to create a more uniform data set with which to identify trends.
"The main hurdle we have for finding trends is that the data are collected using the best technology at the time," says Kossin. "Every year the data are a bit different than last year, each new satellite has new tools and captures data in different ways, so in the end we have a patchwork quilt of all the satellite data that have been woven together."
Kossin's previous research has shown other changes in hurricane behavior over the decades, such as where they travel and how fast they move. In 2014, he identified poleward migrations of hurricanes, where tropical cyclones are travelling farther north and south, exposing previously less-affected coastal populations to greater risk.
In 2018, he demonstrated that hurricanes are moving more slowly across land due to changes in Earth's climate. This has resulted in greater flood risks as storms hover over cities and other areas, often for extended periods of time.
"Our results show that these storms have become stronger on global and regional levels, which is consistent with expectations of how hurricanes respond to a warming world," says Kossin. "It's a good step forward and increases our confidence that global warming has made hurricanes stronger, but our results don't tell us precisely how much of the trends are caused by human activities and how much may be just natural variability."
Read more at Science Daily
Scientists find brain center that 'profoundly' shuts down pain
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| Neurons illustration |
Somewhat unexpectedly, this brain center turns pain off, not on. It's also located in an area where few people would have thought to look for an anti-pain center, the amygdala, which is often considered the home of negative emotions and responses, like the fight or flight response and general anxiety.
"People do believe there is a central place to relieve pain, that's why placebos work," said senior author Fan Wang, the Morris N. Broad Distinguished Professor of neurobiology in the School of Medicine. "The question is where in the brain is the center that can turn off pain."
"Most of the previous studies have focused on which regions are turned ON by pain," Wang said. "But there are so many regions processing pain, you'd have to turn them all off to stop pain. Whereas this one center can turn off the pain by itself."
The work is a follow-up to earlier research in Wang's lab looking at neurons that are activated, rather than suppressed, by general anesthetics. In a 2019 study, they found that general anesthesia promotes slow-wave sleep by activating the supraoptic nucleus of the brain. But sleep and pain are separate, an important clue that led to the new finding, which appears online May 18 in Nature Neuroscience.
The researchers found that general anesthesia also activates a specific subset of inhibitory neurons in the central amygdala, which they have called the CeAga neurons (CeA stands for central amygdala; ga indicates activation by general anesthesia). Mice have a relatively larger central amygdala than humans, but Wang said she had no reason to think we have a different system for controlling pain.
Using technologies that Wang's lab has pioneered to track the paths of activated neurons in mice, the team found the CeAga was connected to many different areas of the brain, "which was a surprise," Wang said.
By giving mice a mild pain stimulus, the researchers could map all of the pain-activated brain regions. They discovered that at least 16 brain centers known to process the sensory or emotional aspects of pain were receiving inhibitory input from the CeAga.
"Pain is a complicated brain response," Wang said. "It involves sensory discrimination, emotion, and autonomic (involuntary nervous system) responses. Treating pain by dampening all of these brain processes in many areas is very difficult to achieve. But activating a key node that naturally sends inhibitory signals to these pain-processing regions would be more robust."
Using a technology called optogenetics, which uses light to activate a small population of cells in the brain, the researchers found they could turn off the self-caring behaviors a mouse exhibits when it feels uncomfortable by activating the CeAga neurons. Paw-licking or face-wiping behaviors were "completely abolished" the moment the light was switched on to activate the anti-pain center.
"It's so drastic," Wang said. "They just instantaneously stop licking and rubbing."
When the scientists dampened the activity of these CeAga neurons, the mice responded as if a temporary insult had become intense or painful again. They also found that low-dose ketamine, an anesthetic drug that allows sensation but blocks pain, activated the CeAga center and wouldn't work without it.
Now the researchers are going to look for drugs that can activate only these cells to suppress pain as potential future pain killers, Wang said.
Read more at Science Daily
May 18, 2020
New model to accurately date historic earthquakes
Three earthquakes in the Monterey Bay Area, occurring in 1838, 1890 and 1906, happened without a doubt on the San Andreas Fault, according to a new paper by a Portland State University researcher.
The paper, "New Insights into Paleoseismic Age Models on the Northern San Andreas Fault: Charcoal In-built ages and Updated Earthquake Correlations," was recently published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Assistant Professor of Geology at PSU Ashley Streig said the new research confirms what her team first discovered in 2014: three earthquakes occurred within a 68-year period in the Bay Area on the San Andreas Fault.
"This is the first time there's been geologic evidence of a surface rupture from the historic 1838 and 1890 earthquakes that we knew about from newspapers and other historical documents," Streig said. "It basically meant that the 1800s were a century of doom."
Building on the 2014 study, Streig said they were able to excavate a redwood slab from a tree felled by early Europeans, from one meter below the surface in the Bay Area. The tree was toppled before the three earthquakes in question occurred. That slab was used to determine the precise date logging first occurred in the area, and pinpointed the historic dates of the earthquakes. Further, they were able use the slab to develop a new model for determining recurrence intervals and more exact dating.
Streig used the dating technique wiggle matching for several measured carbon 14 samples from the tree slab and compared them with fluctuations in atmospheric carbon 14 concentrations over time to fingerprint the exact death of the tree and confirm the timing of the earthquakes. Because the researchers had an exact age from the slab, they were able to test how well the most commonly used material, charcoal, works in earthquake age models.
Charcoal is commonly used for dating and to constrain the ages of prehistoric earthquakes and develop an earthquake recurrence interval, but Streig said the charcoal can be hundreds of years older than the stratigraphic layer containing it, yielding an offset between what has been dated and the actual age of the earthquake. The new technique accounts for inbuilt charcoal ages -- which account for the difference in time between the wood's formation and the fire that generated said charcoal -- and can better estimate the age of the event being studied.
"We were able to evaluate the inbuilt age of the charcoal incorporated in the deposits and find that charcoal ages are approximately 322 years older than the actual age of the deposit -- so previous earthquake age models in this area using detrital charcoal would be offset roughly by this amount," she said.
New earthquake age modeling using a method to correct for this charcoal inbuilt age, and age results from the tree stump are what give Streig absolute certainly that the 1838 and 1890 earthquakes in question occurred on the San Andreas Fault and during those years.
Read more at Science Daily
The paper, "New Insights into Paleoseismic Age Models on the Northern San Andreas Fault: Charcoal In-built ages and Updated Earthquake Correlations," was recently published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.
Assistant Professor of Geology at PSU Ashley Streig said the new research confirms what her team first discovered in 2014: three earthquakes occurred within a 68-year period in the Bay Area on the San Andreas Fault.
"This is the first time there's been geologic evidence of a surface rupture from the historic 1838 and 1890 earthquakes that we knew about from newspapers and other historical documents," Streig said. "It basically meant that the 1800s were a century of doom."
Building on the 2014 study, Streig said they were able to excavate a redwood slab from a tree felled by early Europeans, from one meter below the surface in the Bay Area. The tree was toppled before the three earthquakes in question occurred. That slab was used to determine the precise date logging first occurred in the area, and pinpointed the historic dates of the earthquakes. Further, they were able use the slab to develop a new model for determining recurrence intervals and more exact dating.
Streig used the dating technique wiggle matching for several measured carbon 14 samples from the tree slab and compared them with fluctuations in atmospheric carbon 14 concentrations over time to fingerprint the exact death of the tree and confirm the timing of the earthquakes. Because the researchers had an exact age from the slab, they were able to test how well the most commonly used material, charcoal, works in earthquake age models.
Charcoal is commonly used for dating and to constrain the ages of prehistoric earthquakes and develop an earthquake recurrence interval, but Streig said the charcoal can be hundreds of years older than the stratigraphic layer containing it, yielding an offset between what has been dated and the actual age of the earthquake. The new technique accounts for inbuilt charcoal ages -- which account for the difference in time between the wood's formation and the fire that generated said charcoal -- and can better estimate the age of the event being studied.
"We were able to evaluate the inbuilt age of the charcoal incorporated in the deposits and find that charcoal ages are approximately 322 years older than the actual age of the deposit -- so previous earthquake age models in this area using detrital charcoal would be offset roughly by this amount," she said.
New earthquake age modeling using a method to correct for this charcoal inbuilt age, and age results from the tree stump are what give Streig absolute certainly that the 1838 and 1890 earthquakes in question occurred on the San Andreas Fault and during those years.
Read more at Science Daily
Eavesdropping crickets drop from the sky to evade capture by bats
Researchers have uncovered the highly efficient strategy used by a group of crickets to distinguish the calls of predatory bats from the incessant noises of the nocturnal jungle. The findings, led by scientists at the Universities of Bristol and Graz in Austria and published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, reveal the crickets eavesdrop on the vocalisations of bats to help them escape their grasp when hunted.
Sword-tailed crickets of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, are quite unlike many of their nocturnal, flying-insect neighbours. Instead of employing a variety of responses to bat calls of varying amplitudes, these crickets simply stop in mid-air, effectively dive-bombing out of harm's way. The higher the bat call amplitude, the longer they cease flight and further they fall. Biologists from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and Graz's Inst of Zoology discovered why these crickets evolved significantly higher response thresholds than other eared insects.
Within the plethora of jungle sounds, it is important to distinguish possible threats. This is complicated by the cacophony of katydid (bush-cricket) calls, which are acoustically similar to bat calls and form 98 per cent of high-frequency background noise in a nocturnal rainforest. Consequently, sword-tailed crickets need to employ a reliable method to distinguish between calls of predatory bats and harmless katydids.
Responding only to ultrasonic calls above a high-amplitude threshold is their solution to this evolutionary challenge. Firstly, it allows the crickets to completely avoid accidentally responding to katydids. Secondly, they do not respond to all bat calls but only sufficiently loud ones, which indicates the bat is within seven metres of the insect. This is the exact distance at which a bat can detect the echo of the crickets, which ensures the crickets only respond to bats that have already detected them when trying to evade capture.
This type of approach is rare in nature with most other eavesdropping insects living in less noisy environments being able to rely on differences in call patterns to distinguish bat predators.
Dr Marc Holderied, senior author on the study from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, explained: "The beauty of this simple avoidance rule is how the crickets respond at call amplitudes that exactly match the distance over which bats would detect them anyway -- in their noisy world it pays to only respond when it really counts."
Read more at Science Daily
Sword-tailed crickets of Barro Colorado Island, Panama, are quite unlike many of their nocturnal, flying-insect neighbours. Instead of employing a variety of responses to bat calls of varying amplitudes, these crickets simply stop in mid-air, effectively dive-bombing out of harm's way. The higher the bat call amplitude, the longer they cease flight and further they fall. Biologists from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences and Graz's Inst of Zoology discovered why these crickets evolved significantly higher response thresholds than other eared insects.
Within the plethora of jungle sounds, it is important to distinguish possible threats. This is complicated by the cacophony of katydid (bush-cricket) calls, which are acoustically similar to bat calls and form 98 per cent of high-frequency background noise in a nocturnal rainforest. Consequently, sword-tailed crickets need to employ a reliable method to distinguish between calls of predatory bats and harmless katydids.
Responding only to ultrasonic calls above a high-amplitude threshold is their solution to this evolutionary challenge. Firstly, it allows the crickets to completely avoid accidentally responding to katydids. Secondly, they do not respond to all bat calls but only sufficiently loud ones, which indicates the bat is within seven metres of the insect. This is the exact distance at which a bat can detect the echo of the crickets, which ensures the crickets only respond to bats that have already detected them when trying to evade capture.
This type of approach is rare in nature with most other eavesdropping insects living in less noisy environments being able to rely on differences in call patterns to distinguish bat predators.
Dr Marc Holderied, senior author on the study from Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, explained: "The beauty of this simple avoidance rule is how the crickets respond at call amplitudes that exactly match the distance over which bats would detect them anyway -- in their noisy world it pays to only respond when it really counts."
Read more at Science Daily
Lack of insects in cities limits breeding success of urban birds
Urban insect populations would need to increase by a factor of at least 2.5 for urban great tits to have same breeding success as those living in forests according to research published in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology.
Researchers at the University of Pannonia, Hungary and the University of Sheffield, UK found that providing high quality supplementary food to urban great tits, in the form of nutritionally enriched mealworms, can dramatically boost their breeding success.
"Urban nestlings had considerably higher survival chance and gained an extra two grams of body mass when provided with an insect-rich diet, an increase of 15% compared to the weight of chicks that didn't receive extra food. This is a substantial difference." said Dr Gábor Seress, lead author of the research. "This greater body mass when leaving the nest may increase the chicks' chance of surviving to spring and breeding themselves."
These beneficial effects of food supplementation were not seen in forest dwelling great tits where high quality nestling food is abundant. Although the free meals were also readily received by forest parents.
Reduced breeding success in urban bird populations is well documented but this study is the first to show that insect-rich supplementary food during nestling development largely mitigates these habitat differences. The findings indicate that food limitation in urban environments plays a crucial role in reducing the breeding success of insect-eating birds.
Dr Seress said: "Given the popularity of year-round bird feeding and the abundance of anthropogenic food sources in cities it might seem unlikely that urban birds have limited food. But quantity is not quality. Most songbirds require an insect-rich diet to successfully raise many and vigorous young, and urban areas generally support fewer insects than more natural habitats, especially caterpillars, which are key components of the optimal nestling diet for many species."
The authors say that artificially providing insect-rich food for birds in cities may not be the best solution. "Instead of directly supplying high-quality bird food to enhance urban birds' breeding success, we believe that management activities that aim to increase the abundance of insects in the birds' environment, would be more effective. Insects are the cornerstone of healthy and complex ecosystems and it is clear that we need more in our cities." said Dr Seress.
Increasing insect populations in cities in no easy task. The authors highlight that most urban green spaces are often highly managed which can reduce insect abundance. Modifying how green spaces are managed and encouraging practices like planting trees is likely to benefit both insect-eating birds as well as people.
In the experiment, the researchers studied great tits in nest boxes at urban and forest sites in Hungary, 2017. The urban sites were in the city of Veszprém with nest boxes placed in public green spaces such as parks and cemeteries. The forest site was three kilometres outside of Veszprém in deciduous woodland. At both sites there were broods that did not receive supplementary food to act as controls.
For the supplementary fed broods, the researchers provided nutritionally enhanced mealworms throughout brood rearing period on a daily basis, adjusting the amount in accordance to the brood size to meet 40-50% of food requirements. When nestlings were 15 days old (a few days from leaving the nest) the researchers recorded the size, weight and survival rate of chicks.
To estimate the amount of supplementary food consumed by the chicks and their parents, the researchers mounted small, hidden cameras on the nest boxes.
While the findings demonstrate that providing high quality additional food can boost breeding success, it is unclear to what extent this could increase population size and stability, further work is needed to explore this.
Read more at Science Daily
Researchers at the University of Pannonia, Hungary and the University of Sheffield, UK found that providing high quality supplementary food to urban great tits, in the form of nutritionally enriched mealworms, can dramatically boost their breeding success.
"Urban nestlings had considerably higher survival chance and gained an extra two grams of body mass when provided with an insect-rich diet, an increase of 15% compared to the weight of chicks that didn't receive extra food. This is a substantial difference." said Dr Gábor Seress, lead author of the research. "This greater body mass when leaving the nest may increase the chicks' chance of surviving to spring and breeding themselves."
These beneficial effects of food supplementation were not seen in forest dwelling great tits where high quality nestling food is abundant. Although the free meals were also readily received by forest parents.
Reduced breeding success in urban bird populations is well documented but this study is the first to show that insect-rich supplementary food during nestling development largely mitigates these habitat differences. The findings indicate that food limitation in urban environments plays a crucial role in reducing the breeding success of insect-eating birds.
Dr Seress said: "Given the popularity of year-round bird feeding and the abundance of anthropogenic food sources in cities it might seem unlikely that urban birds have limited food. But quantity is not quality. Most songbirds require an insect-rich diet to successfully raise many and vigorous young, and urban areas generally support fewer insects than more natural habitats, especially caterpillars, which are key components of the optimal nestling diet for many species."
The authors say that artificially providing insect-rich food for birds in cities may not be the best solution. "Instead of directly supplying high-quality bird food to enhance urban birds' breeding success, we believe that management activities that aim to increase the abundance of insects in the birds' environment, would be more effective. Insects are the cornerstone of healthy and complex ecosystems and it is clear that we need more in our cities." said Dr Seress.
Increasing insect populations in cities in no easy task. The authors highlight that most urban green spaces are often highly managed which can reduce insect abundance. Modifying how green spaces are managed and encouraging practices like planting trees is likely to benefit both insect-eating birds as well as people.
In the experiment, the researchers studied great tits in nest boxes at urban and forest sites in Hungary, 2017. The urban sites were in the city of Veszprém with nest boxes placed in public green spaces such as parks and cemeteries. The forest site was three kilometres outside of Veszprém in deciduous woodland. At both sites there were broods that did not receive supplementary food to act as controls.
For the supplementary fed broods, the researchers provided nutritionally enhanced mealworms throughout brood rearing period on a daily basis, adjusting the amount in accordance to the brood size to meet 40-50% of food requirements. When nestlings were 15 days old (a few days from leaving the nest) the researchers recorded the size, weight and survival rate of chicks.
To estimate the amount of supplementary food consumed by the chicks and their parents, the researchers mounted small, hidden cameras on the nest boxes.
While the findings demonstrate that providing high quality additional food can boost breeding success, it is unclear to what extent this could increase population size and stability, further work is needed to explore this.
Read more at Science Daily
Double helix of masonry: Researchers discover the secret of Italian renaissance domes
In a collaborative study in this month's issue of Engineering Structures, researchers at Princeton University and the University of Bergamo revealed the engineering techniques behind self-supporting masonry domes inherent to the Italian renaissance. Researchers analyzed how cupolas like the famous duomo, part of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, were built as self-supporting, without the use of shoring or forms typically required.
Sigrid Adriaenssens, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton, collaborated on the analysis with graduate student Vittorio Paris and Attilio Pizzigoni, professor engineering and applied sciences, both of the University of Bergamo. Their study is the first ever to quantitatively prove the physics at work in Italian renaissance domes and to explain the forces which allow such structures to have been built without formwork typically required, even for modern construction. Previously, there were only hypotheses in the field about how forces flowed through such edifices, and it was unknown how they were built without the use of temporary structures to hold them up during construction.
For Adriaenssens, the project advances two significant questions. "How can mankind construct such a large and beautiful structure without any formwork -- mechanically, what's the innovation?" she asked. Secondly, "What can we learn?" Is there some "forgotten technology that we can use today?"
The detailed computer analysis accounts for the forces at work down to the individual brick, explaining how equilibrium is leveraged. The technique called discrete element modelling (DEM) analyzed the structure at several layers and stages of construction. A limit state analysis determined the overall equilibrium state, or stability, of the completed structure. Not only do these tests verify the mechanics of the structures, but they also make it possible to recreate the techniques for modern construction.
Applying their findings to modern construction, the researchers anticipate that this study could have practical applications for developing construction techniques deploying aerial drones and robots. Using these unmanned machines for construction would increase worker safety, as well as enhance construction speed and reduce building costs.
Another advantage of unearthing new building techniques from ancient sources is that it can yield environmental benefits. "The construction industry is one of the most wasteful ones, so that means if we don't change anything, there will be a lot more construction waste," said Adriaenssens, who is interested in using drone techniques for building very large span roofs that are self-supporting and require no shoring or formwork.
Read more at Science Daily
Sigrid Adriaenssens, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Princeton, collaborated on the analysis with graduate student Vittorio Paris and Attilio Pizzigoni, professor engineering and applied sciences, both of the University of Bergamo. Their study is the first ever to quantitatively prove the physics at work in Italian renaissance domes and to explain the forces which allow such structures to have been built without formwork typically required, even for modern construction. Previously, there were only hypotheses in the field about how forces flowed through such edifices, and it was unknown how they were built without the use of temporary structures to hold them up during construction.
For Adriaenssens, the project advances two significant questions. "How can mankind construct such a large and beautiful structure without any formwork -- mechanically, what's the innovation?" she asked. Secondly, "What can we learn?" Is there some "forgotten technology that we can use today?"
The detailed computer analysis accounts for the forces at work down to the individual brick, explaining how equilibrium is leveraged. The technique called discrete element modelling (DEM) analyzed the structure at several layers and stages of construction. A limit state analysis determined the overall equilibrium state, or stability, of the completed structure. Not only do these tests verify the mechanics of the structures, but they also make it possible to recreate the techniques for modern construction.
Applying their findings to modern construction, the researchers anticipate that this study could have practical applications for developing construction techniques deploying aerial drones and robots. Using these unmanned machines for construction would increase worker safety, as well as enhance construction speed and reduce building costs.
Another advantage of unearthing new building techniques from ancient sources is that it can yield environmental benefits. "The construction industry is one of the most wasteful ones, so that means if we don't change anything, there will be a lot more construction waste," said Adriaenssens, who is interested in using drone techniques for building very large span roofs that are self-supporting and require no shoring or formwork.
Read more at Science Daily
May 17, 2020
Novel treatment using patient's own cells opens new possibilities to treat Parkinson's disease
Reprogramming a patient's own skin cells to replace cells in the brain that are progressively lost during Parkinson's disease (PD) has been shown to be technically feasible, reports a team of investigators from McLean Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in the most recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
PD is the second most common degenerative disease of the brain, and millions of people world-wide experience its symptoms, which include tremor, stiffness, and difficulty with speech and walking. The progressive loss of brain cells called dopaminergic neurons plays a major role in the disease's development. As described in the current report, the use of a patient's own reprogrammed cells is an advance that overcomes barriers associated with the use of cells from another individual.
"Because the cells come from the patient, they are readily available and can be reprogrammed in such a way that they are not rejected on implantation. This represents a milestone in 'personalized medicine' for Parkinson's," says senior author Kwang-Soo Kim, PhD, director of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital, the largest clinical neuroscience and psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
The McLean-MGH team reprogrammed a 69-year-old patient's skin cells to embryo-like pluripotent stem cells (called induced pluripotent stem cells) and then differentiated them to take on the character-istics of dopaminergic neurons, which are lost in Parkinson's. After extensive testing of the cells, Kim ap-plied to the FDA for a single-patient, Investigational New Drug (IND) application and also received the approval of the hospital human subjects ethical review board to implant the cells into the patient's brain.
Bob Carter, MD, PhD, chief of Neurosurgery at MGH and co-senior author, says: "This strategy highlights the emerging power of using one's own cells to try and reverse a condition -- Parkinson's disease -- that has been very challenging to treat. I am very pleased by the extensive collaboration across multiple institutions, scientists, physicians, and surgeons that came together to make this a possibility."
In a series of two separate surgeries in 2017 and 2018 at Weill Cornell Medical Center and MGH, the patient underwent transplantation of the replacement dopamine neurons. Lead author Jeffrey Schweitzer, MD, PhD, a Parkinson's specialized neurosurgeon and director of the Neurosurgical Neurodegenerative Cell Therapy program at MGH, designed a novel minimally invasive neurosurgical implantation procedure to deliver the cells, working in collaboration with Carter at MGH and Michael G. Kaplitt, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon at Weill Cornell.
Two years later, imaging tests indicate that the transplanted cells are alive and functioning correctly as dopaminergic neurons in the brain. Because the implanted cells originated from the patient, they did not trigger an immune response and were not rejected without the use of an immunosuppressant drug. Kim also noted, "We have shown for the first time in this study that these reprogrammed cells are still recognized as self by the patient's immune system and won't be rejected." These results indicate that this personalized cell-replacement strategy was a technical success, with the cells surviving and functioning in the intended manner. The patient has not developed any side effects, and there are no signs that the cells have caused any unwanted growth or tumors.
As for how the patient feels, in the time that has passed since surgery, the patient has enjoyed improvements in his day-to-day activities and reports an improvement in his quality of life. Routine activities, such as tying his shoes, walking with an improved stride, and speaking with a clearer voice, have become possible again. Some activities -- such as swimming, skiing, and biking, which he had given up years ago -- are now back on his agenda. While it is too early to know whether this treatment approach is viable based on a single patient, the authors have the goal of continuing to test the treatment in formal clinical trials.
"Current drugs and surgical treatments for Parkinson's disease are intended to address symptoms that result from the loss of dopaminergic neurons, but our strategy attempts to go further by directly replacing those neurons," says Kim.
"As a neurologist, my goal is to make state-of-the-art treatments available to patients with Parkinson's," says Todd Herrington, MD, PhD, lead study neurologist at the MGH and Parkinson's expert. "This is a first step in developing this therapy. Parkinson's patients should understand that this therapy is not cur-rently available and there is a lot of work still required to prove this is an effective treatment."
While there is optimism about the future of Parkinson's disease treatments because of their work, Schweitzer cautions against declaring victory against the disease. "These results reflect the experience of one individual patient and a formal clinical trial will be required to determine if the therapy is effec-tive," says Schweitzer.
Read more at Science Daily
PD is the second most common degenerative disease of the brain, and millions of people world-wide experience its symptoms, which include tremor, stiffness, and difficulty with speech and walking. The progressive loss of brain cells called dopaminergic neurons plays a major role in the disease's development. As described in the current report, the use of a patient's own reprogrammed cells is an advance that overcomes barriers associated with the use of cells from another individual.
"Because the cells come from the patient, they are readily available and can be reprogrammed in such a way that they are not rejected on implantation. This represents a milestone in 'personalized medicine' for Parkinson's," says senior author Kwang-Soo Kim, PhD, director of the Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory at McLean Hospital, the largest clinical neuroscience and psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
The McLean-MGH team reprogrammed a 69-year-old patient's skin cells to embryo-like pluripotent stem cells (called induced pluripotent stem cells) and then differentiated them to take on the character-istics of dopaminergic neurons, which are lost in Parkinson's. After extensive testing of the cells, Kim ap-plied to the FDA for a single-patient, Investigational New Drug (IND) application and also received the approval of the hospital human subjects ethical review board to implant the cells into the patient's brain.
Bob Carter, MD, PhD, chief of Neurosurgery at MGH and co-senior author, says: "This strategy highlights the emerging power of using one's own cells to try and reverse a condition -- Parkinson's disease -- that has been very challenging to treat. I am very pleased by the extensive collaboration across multiple institutions, scientists, physicians, and surgeons that came together to make this a possibility."
In a series of two separate surgeries in 2017 and 2018 at Weill Cornell Medical Center and MGH, the patient underwent transplantation of the replacement dopamine neurons. Lead author Jeffrey Schweitzer, MD, PhD, a Parkinson's specialized neurosurgeon and director of the Neurosurgical Neurodegenerative Cell Therapy program at MGH, designed a novel minimally invasive neurosurgical implantation procedure to deliver the cells, working in collaboration with Carter at MGH and Michael G. Kaplitt, MD, PhD, a neurosurgeon at Weill Cornell.
Two years later, imaging tests indicate that the transplanted cells are alive and functioning correctly as dopaminergic neurons in the brain. Because the implanted cells originated from the patient, they did not trigger an immune response and were not rejected without the use of an immunosuppressant drug. Kim also noted, "We have shown for the first time in this study that these reprogrammed cells are still recognized as self by the patient's immune system and won't be rejected." These results indicate that this personalized cell-replacement strategy was a technical success, with the cells surviving and functioning in the intended manner. The patient has not developed any side effects, and there are no signs that the cells have caused any unwanted growth or tumors.
As for how the patient feels, in the time that has passed since surgery, the patient has enjoyed improvements in his day-to-day activities and reports an improvement in his quality of life. Routine activities, such as tying his shoes, walking with an improved stride, and speaking with a clearer voice, have become possible again. Some activities -- such as swimming, skiing, and biking, which he had given up years ago -- are now back on his agenda. While it is too early to know whether this treatment approach is viable based on a single patient, the authors have the goal of continuing to test the treatment in formal clinical trials.
"Current drugs and surgical treatments for Parkinson's disease are intended to address symptoms that result from the loss of dopaminergic neurons, but our strategy attempts to go further by directly replacing those neurons," says Kim.
"As a neurologist, my goal is to make state-of-the-art treatments available to patients with Parkinson's," says Todd Herrington, MD, PhD, lead study neurologist at the MGH and Parkinson's expert. "This is a first step in developing this therapy. Parkinson's patients should understand that this therapy is not cur-rently available and there is a lot of work still required to prove this is an effective treatment."
While there is optimism about the future of Parkinson's disease treatments because of their work, Schweitzer cautions against declaring victory against the disease. "These results reflect the experience of one individual patient and a formal clinical trial will be required to determine if the therapy is effec-tive," says Schweitzer.
Read more at Science Daily
Binge drinkers beware, Drunkorexia is calling
Mojito, appletini or a simple glass of fizz -- they may take the edge off a busy day, but if you find yourself bingeing on more than a few, you could be putting your physical and mental health at risk according new research at the University of South Australia.
Examining the drinking patterns of 479 female Australian university students aged 18-24 years, the world-first empirical study explored the underlying belief patterns than can contribute to Drunkorexia -- a damaging and dangerous behaviour where disordered patterns of eating are used to offset negative effects of consuming excess alcohol, such as gaining weight.
Concerningly, researchers found that a staggering 82.7 per cent of female university students surveyed had engaged in Drunkorexic behaviours over the past three months. And, more than 28 per cent were regularly and purposely skipping meals, consuming low-calorie or sugar-free alcoholic beverages, purging or exercising after drinking to help reduce ingested calories from alcohol, at least 25 per cent of the time.
Clinical psychologist and lead UniSA researcher Alycia Powell-Jones says the prevalence of Drunkorexic behaviours among Australian female university students is concerning.
"Due to their age and stage of development, young adults are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours, which can include drinking excess alcohol," Powell-Jones says.
"Excess alcohol consumption combined with restrictive and disordered eating patterns is extremely dangerous and can dramatically increase the risk of developing serious physical and psychological consequences, including hypoglycaemia, liver cirrhosis, nutritional deficits, brain and heart damage, memory lapses, blackouts, depression and cognitive deficits.
"Certainly, many of us have drunk too much alcohol at some point in time, and we know just by how we feel the next day, that this is not good for us, but when nearly a third of young female uni students are intentionally cutting back on food purely to offset alcohol calories; it's a serious health concern."
The harmful use of alcohol is a global issue, with excess consumption causing millions of deaths, including many thousands of young lives.
In Australia, one in six people consume alcohol at dangerous levels, placing them at lifetime risk of an alcohol-related disease or injury. The combination of excessive alcohol intake with restrictive eating behaviours to offset calories can result in a highly toxic cocktail for this population.
The study was undertaken in two stages. The first measured the prevalence of self-reported, compensative and restrictive activities in relation to their alcohol consumption.
The second stage identified participants' Early Maladaptive Schemes (EMS) -- or thought patterns -- finding that that the subset of schemas most predictive of Drunkorexia were 'insufficient self-control', 'emotional deprivation' and 'social isolation'.
Powell-Jones says identifying the early maladaptive schemas linked to Drunkorexia is key to understanding the harmful condition.
These are deeply held and pervasive themes regarding oneself and one's relationship with others, that can develop in childhood and then can influence all areas of life, often in dysfunctional ways. Early maladaptive schemas can also be influenced by cultural and social norms.
Drunkorexic behaviour appears to be motivated by two key social norms for young adults -- consuming alcohol and thinness.
"This study has provided preliminary insight into better understanding why young female adults make these decisions to engage in Drunkorexic behaviours," Powell-Jones says.
"Not only may it be a coping strategy to manage social anxieties through becoming accepted and fitting in with peer group or cultural expectations, but it also shows a reliance on avoidant coping strategies.
"It is important that clinicians, educators, parents and friends are aware of the factors that motivate young women to engage in this harmful and dangerous behaviour, including cultural norms, beliefs that drive self-worth, a sense of belonging, and interpersonal connectedness.
Read more at Science Daily
Examining the drinking patterns of 479 female Australian university students aged 18-24 years, the world-first empirical study explored the underlying belief patterns than can contribute to Drunkorexia -- a damaging and dangerous behaviour where disordered patterns of eating are used to offset negative effects of consuming excess alcohol, such as gaining weight.
Concerningly, researchers found that a staggering 82.7 per cent of female university students surveyed had engaged in Drunkorexic behaviours over the past three months. And, more than 28 per cent were regularly and purposely skipping meals, consuming low-calorie or sugar-free alcoholic beverages, purging or exercising after drinking to help reduce ingested calories from alcohol, at least 25 per cent of the time.
Clinical psychologist and lead UniSA researcher Alycia Powell-Jones says the prevalence of Drunkorexic behaviours among Australian female university students is concerning.
"Due to their age and stage of development, young adults are more likely to engage in risk-taking behaviours, which can include drinking excess alcohol," Powell-Jones says.
"Excess alcohol consumption combined with restrictive and disordered eating patterns is extremely dangerous and can dramatically increase the risk of developing serious physical and psychological consequences, including hypoglycaemia, liver cirrhosis, nutritional deficits, brain and heart damage, memory lapses, blackouts, depression and cognitive deficits.
"Certainly, many of us have drunk too much alcohol at some point in time, and we know just by how we feel the next day, that this is not good for us, but when nearly a third of young female uni students are intentionally cutting back on food purely to offset alcohol calories; it's a serious health concern."
The harmful use of alcohol is a global issue, with excess consumption causing millions of deaths, including many thousands of young lives.
In Australia, one in six people consume alcohol at dangerous levels, placing them at lifetime risk of an alcohol-related disease or injury. The combination of excessive alcohol intake with restrictive eating behaviours to offset calories can result in a highly toxic cocktail for this population.
The study was undertaken in two stages. The first measured the prevalence of self-reported, compensative and restrictive activities in relation to their alcohol consumption.
The second stage identified participants' Early Maladaptive Schemes (EMS) -- or thought patterns -- finding that that the subset of schemas most predictive of Drunkorexia were 'insufficient self-control', 'emotional deprivation' and 'social isolation'.
Powell-Jones says identifying the early maladaptive schemas linked to Drunkorexia is key to understanding the harmful condition.
These are deeply held and pervasive themes regarding oneself and one's relationship with others, that can develop in childhood and then can influence all areas of life, often in dysfunctional ways. Early maladaptive schemas can also be influenced by cultural and social norms.
Drunkorexic behaviour appears to be motivated by two key social norms for young adults -- consuming alcohol and thinness.
"This study has provided preliminary insight into better understanding why young female adults make these decisions to engage in Drunkorexic behaviours," Powell-Jones says.
"Not only may it be a coping strategy to manage social anxieties through becoming accepted and fitting in with peer group or cultural expectations, but it also shows a reliance on avoidant coping strategies.
"It is important that clinicians, educators, parents and friends are aware of the factors that motivate young women to engage in this harmful and dangerous behaviour, including cultural norms, beliefs that drive self-worth, a sense of belonging, and interpersonal connectedness.
Read more at Science Daily
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