Culture

When humans look out at a visual landscape like a sunset or a beautiful overlook, we experience something -- we have a conscious awareness of what that scene looks like. This awareness of the visual world around us is central to our everyday existence, but are humans the only species that experiences the world consciously? Or do other non-human animals have the same sort of conscious experience we do?

Scientists and philosophers have asked versions of this question for millennia, yet finding answers -- or even appropriate ways to ask the question -- has proved elusive. But a team of Yale researchers recently devised an ingenious way to try to solve this riddle.

Writing on March 29 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they make the case that one non-human species -- the rhesus macaque -- also has a conscious awareness of the world around it.

"People have wondered for a long time whether animals experience the world the way we do, but it's been difficult to figure out a good way to test this question empirically," said Moshe Shay Ben-Haim, a postdoctoral fellow at Yale and first author of the paper.

Researchers have known for a long time that people can be influenced by unconscious subliminal cues -- visual stimuli presented just outside of our threshold for conscious awareness, said Laurie Santos, a professor of psychology at Yale who is co-senior author of the study along with her colleague Steve Chang, associate professor of psychology and of neuroscience, and Ran Hassin of Hebrew University.

"We tend to show different patterns of learning when presented with subliminal stimuli than we do for consciously experienced, or supraliminal stimuli," she said.

If monkeys show the same "double dissociation" pattern that humans do, it would mean that monkeys probably experience the supraliminally presented stimuli in the same way as people do -- as a conscious visual experience.

Ben-Haim, Santos, and their team thought of a novel way to explore whether macaques also exhibit a difference in learning when stimuli are experienced consciously versus non-consciously.

In a series of experiments, they had monkeys and humans guess whether a target image would appear on the left or right side of a screen. Before the target appeared, participants received a visual cue -- a small star-- on the side opposite of where the target would subsequently appear. The researchers varied whether the cue was presented supraliminally or subliminally. When the cue was presented for a few seconds, human participants successfully learned that the target would appear in the opposite location from the cue. But when the cue was presented subliminally -- quickly enough that it escaped people's conscious perception -- participants showed a different pattern of performance; they continued to choose the side that was subliminally cued, failing to learn the rule that the cue predicted the opposite side.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that monkeys showed exactly the same response patterns as the people did: like humans, macaques were able to successfully look to the target location when the cues were presented consciously, but showed the reverse pattern for subliminal cues. This striking result suggests that monkeys have two levels of processing just as humans do, one of which must be conscious.

"These results show that at least one non-human animal exhibits both non-conscious perception as well as human-like conscious visual awareness." said Ben-Haim. "We now have a new non-verbal method for assessing whether other non-human creatures experience visual awareness in the same way as humans."

Paris, Nairobi, London, 29 March 2021 - Five major cooling suppliers are racing to net zero but they represent fewer than ten per cent of the 54 suppliers assessed in a new report, meaning the industry has a lot of work to do to catch up on climate action and reduce pollution from the sector, currently estimated at 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

With the world still falling short of meeting the Paris Agreement goals of holding global temperature rise this century to under 2 degrees C, and pursue 1.5 degrees C, action to reduce the climate impact of cooling will be essential.

According to the International Energy Agency, emissions from cooling are expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2100, driven by heat waves, population growth, urbanization, and a growing middle class. By 2050, space cooling alone will consume as much electricity as China and India today.

The UN has identified cooling as a key sector for action in its Race to Zero Breakthroughs, which are intended to galvanise action ahead of the next global climate meeting, COP26, which is due to take place later this year.

However, Cooling Suppliers: Who's Winning the Race to Net Zero (available at https://bit.ly/3sBhnt0), finds that 49 out of 54 companies assessed have yet to commit to ambitious net-zero targets, despite some efforts to reduce their emissions.

The report - released by the Race to Zero campaign, the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), Carbon Trust and other partners in the UN Environment Programme-hosted Cool Coalition - assesses cooling firms against three key impact areas defined in the Cooling Climate Action Pathway.

These are:

Super-efficient equipment and appliances: Making super-efficient cooling equipment and smart appliances powered by zero-carbon energy the norm;

Ultra-low global warming potential refrigerants; and

Passive cooling: Widespread adoption of measures that avoid or reduce the need for mechanical cooling, including reductions in cooling loads, human-centric design and urban planning.

The report calls on cooling firms to show increased ambition to line up with net-zero commitments from over 100 governments and many other private sector actors.

One company that recently announced new commitments is Johnson Controls, a global leader for smart, healthy and sustainable buildings and producer of cooling equipment. The company has committed to moving its operations to net-zero emissions by 2040. Johnson Controls, which employs 100,000 people in more than 150 countries, is also a member of the Cool Coalition - a group of over 100 companies, governments, cities and organizations working to lower the climate impact of the cooling industry.

"Johnson Controls is proud of its recent commitment to achieve the most ambitious science-based targets by 2030 and net zero carbon emissions before 2040," said Clay Nesler, vice president global energy and sustainability at Johnson Controls. "Smart, healthy and sustainable cooling solutions are key to accelerating the race to zero for our company as well as our customers."

New tools to accelerate cooling action

To help other companies and countries join the race to net zero, Cool Coalition partners are also releasing a suite of products to guide their actions - with the support of K-CEP and the technical expertise of the Carbon Trust.

The report comes alongside the Pathway to Net Zero Cooling Action Plan for the COP26 Champions Team which highlights the areas where progress is needed. The action table has been endorsed by a range of leading organisations and institutions including CLASP, E3G, the Environmental Investigation Agency, IGSD, RMI, UN Environment Programme, University of Birmingham and the University of Oxford.

A 'Cool Calculator' scenario planning tool is also being launched to help companies and governments run simple calculations on key aspects of cooling decarbonization to enable them to identify the set of solutions that works best for them.

Additionally, the UK's Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has launched a net-zero cooling product guide that will allow companies, governments and consumers to cut their cooling footprint by choosing products that are energy-efficient and run on natural refrigerants with ultra-low Global Warming Potential.

"As consumers and producers of cooling look to reduce their carbon footprint, urgent action on both refrigerants and energy efficiency is needed," said Fionnuala Walravens, Senior Campaigner at EIA. "EIA's Pathway to net-zero cooling product list offers a range of climate-friendly solutions available now."

The EIA list also calls on governments to do more to support the uptake of sustainable cooling, by outlining cooling plans in their commitments under the Paris Agreement and looking at legislation to speed up the phasing out of hydrofluorocarbons - climate-warming refrigerants that are now being phased out under an international agreement known as the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.

"The development and expansion of net-zero cooling is a critical part of our Race to Zero emissions," said Nigel Topping, UK High Level Champion for COP26. "In addition to technological breakthroughs and ambitious legislation, we also need sustainable consumer purchasing to help deliver wholesale systems change, and as such I welcome the EIA cooling products guide as an important contribution to accelerating the race."

Additional quotes:

"Efforts to race to net zero cooling present an incredible opportunity to meet ambitious climate, environment and development goals and unlock the clean energy transition" said David Aitken, Director, Innovation at the Carbon Trust. "These tools show how we can get there."

"From healthcare and agriculture, to transportation and buildings, the environmental performance of cooling impacts many sectors' pathways to zero carbon emissions," said Dan Hamza-Goodacre, K-CEP's Non-Executive Director. "We won't get to net zero without concerted and ambitious action on cooling."

One of the biggest longitudinal research studies of its kind in the world led by The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) suggests that positive outcomes for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more common than previously thought.

ASD refers to a group of neurodevelopmental conditions resulting in challenges related to communication, social understanding and behaviour. One in 100 people may have ASD and although a person can be diagnosed at any time, ASD symptoms generally appear and are diagnosed in the first few years of life.

The multi-site study, published in JAMA Open on March 29, applied a strengths-based approach to outcome assessments in children with an ASD diagnosis, measuring participants' proficiency (level of competency) and growth (improvement over time) in five key developmental health areas: communication, socialization, activities of daily living and emotional health (internalizing and externalizing).

The study found that 80 per cent of children experienced growth or proficiency in at least one of the five domains and 23 per cent of children were doing well in four or more of the domains by mid childhood. Core to the study approach was shifting the definition of a 'good outcome' to 'doing well'.

"It was encouraging to find that most ASD children were doing well by 10 years old by some measure. By using different criteria to track their development apart from those used to diagnose autism -- such as ASD symptoms and cognitive ability -- we were able to reframe more holistically how we conceptualized progress in the autism field," says co-author Dr. Peter Szatmari, Psychiatrist in Chief, Department of Psychiatry and Senior Scientist, Neurosciences & Mental Health at SickKids, and Chief of the Child and Youth Mental Health Collaborative between SickKids, CAMH and the University of Toronto.

"Specifying an outcome implies that there's an end point, whereas doing well relates to an individual's circumstances at a particular point in their life's journey with autism -- especially important since these kids are just at the start of a journey."

Strengths-based approach provides more holistic view of "doing well"

Historically, research literature and outcome evaluations have focused on the deficits people with ASD may experience in intellectual or skills development and less has been studied in the Canadian paediatric context.

The researchers followed 272 children diagnosed with ASD from clinics across Canada from the ages of 2 to 10 years old, or mid childhood, a notable age as children transition to greater autonomy and increased social and academic demands.

Unique to the approach was the use of growth as a measurement, which allowed for comparison of whether an individual child improved in a domain against their younger selves.

"Changing the narrative away from a deficit-based system to one that recognizes growth and success can serve as a foundation for building up each unique child as they tackle new skills and developmental stages in life," says Dr. Katherine Cost, co-author of the paper and Research Associate in the Department of Psychiatry at SickKids.

Family context may attribute to positive outcomes

The study also examined contextual factors such as household income, parent coping and family functioning (such as positive communication and support among family members).

The findings indicated that higher household income and better family functioning were important predictors in several aspects of doing well -- suggesting that adequate income and a well-functioning family may help improve outcomes for a child with ASD.

"Contextual factors like household and family functioning remind us that an autism diagnosis exists alongside the social context in which ASD children are growing up," says Cost.

Cost says while social and environmental factors have been studied in relation to their effects on child development, there is little research among children with autism.

A strengths-based perspective on an autism diagnosis can help support a more flexible approach to developing future interventions that's tailored to each child.

"There is no one way of doing well, but these findings open up a new avenue of research to assess what types of specific interventions, such as providing more income resources or alternative treatment planning for families at an earlier stage of development, may help increase the likelihood that more children with ASD will do well over time," says Szatmari.

The team - which also included researchers from Dalhousie University, McGill University, McMaster University, Simon Fraser University, Tel Aviv University, University of Alberta, University of British Columbia, University of Ottawa and University of Toronto - says future research will focus on outcomes among adolescents with autism as well as ways to further incorporate the perspectives of the participants themselves in outcome definition and measurement.

It's no secret. Colorado's forests have had a tough time in recent years. While natural disturbances such as insect outbreaks and wildfires occurred historically and maintained forest health over time, multiple, simultaneous insect disturbances in the greater region over the past two decades have led to rapid changes in the state's forests.

A bird's eye view can reveal much about these changes. Annual aerial surveys conducted by the Colorado State Forest Service and USDA Forest Service have provided yearly snapshots for the state. New collaborative research led by Colorado State University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison now supplements this understanding with even greater spatial detail.

The study, "Effects of Bark Beetle Outbreaks on Forest Landscape Pattern in the Southern Rocky Mountains, U.S.A.," analyzed Landsat satellite imagery between 1997-2019 to quantify how outbreaks of three different insect species have impacted forests across high-elevation forests in Colorado, southern Wyoming, and northern New Mexico. The research team found that while these collective beetle outbreaks impacted around 40 percent of the area studied, the effects of these outbreak varied due to differences in forest structures and species composition across the region.

"In contrast to research that has examined the heterogeneous effects of wildfire on trees, there hasn't been much work on the landscape-level variation in bark beetle effects on forests, particularly across broad areas," said Sarah Hart, co-author and assistant professor in the Forest and Rangeland Stewardship department. "Heterogeneity plays an important role in how these forests will look in the future, where surviving trees will regenerate the forest, and what potential there is for future outbreaks."

Their results indicate that most forest stands affected by insects still have mature trees that can be sources for reestablishing seeds and conditions for the next generation of trees to grow. Areas with tree mortality greater than 90 percent were relatively small and isolated. Unlike severe wildfires that can kill all trees in its path, trees typically survive bark beetle outbreaks, facilitating forest recovery in upcoming decades.

High-resolution, field-level accuracy

Widespread outbreaks of three important bark beetle species have occurred in Colorado's forests since the turn of the century: mountain pine beetle, spruce beetle, and the western balsam beetle (that affects various fir tree species). These bark beetles primarily target large trees with reduced defenses due to lower precipitation amounts and higher temperature trends since the turn of the century.

This research team combined satellite imagery capable of identifying small groups of dead trees with a decade of extensive field data from nearly 250 plots to develop presence and severity maps for tree mortality caused by bark beetle attacks. Having this data combination gave the research team detailed information about how many trees have died in particular places, and helped to identify what may still be causing the death of individual trees.

"These maps give us unique insight into the effects of recent insect outbreaks because they span a large area but also show a lot of detail, and we are confident that they are showing us how many trees are dying because technicians counted trees on the ground," Kyle Rodman, lead author and post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said.

The maps the team produced indicate that areas most impacted by bark beetles are concentrated in northern and southwestern Colorado due to higher concentrations of old lodgepole pine and spruce forests which were then infested by mountain pine beetle and spruce beetle, respectively. Western balsam beetle impacts were also widespread across the region, but these beetles tended to kill fewer trees in any single location.

"Satellite data is a crucial bridge that allows us to take detailed information from individual places and extend this localized knowledge to large areas," Rodman said. "In using these maps, we can see how the forest has changed over the past 20 years during each of these outbreaks."

Fortunately, much of the 25,000 square kilometer study area showed low to moderate levels of tree mortality, with high tree mortality being contained in small and isolated patches averaging only about nine city blocks in overall size.

"People tend to notice what has changed, rather than what has stayed the same," Rodman said. "These forests have changed a lot, but I am hopeful. It will just take a little while for them to recover, but many of these beetle-killed forests are likely to recover within a few decades."

Below please find links to new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. All coronavirus-related content published in Annals of Internal Medicine is free to the public. A complete collection is available at
https://annals.org/aim/pages/coronavirus-content.

Spatial Inequities in COVID-19 Testing, Positivity, Confirmed Cases and Mortality
Usama Bilal, PhD; Loni P. Tabb, PhD; Sharrelle Barber, ScD; Ana V. Diez Roux, PhD
Original Research
Free full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3936

Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read the full text. The corresponding author, Usama Bilal, PhD, can be reached through Gregory Richter at gdr33@drexel.edu.

Injustice in Health: Now Is the Time to Change the Story
Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH; Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH
Editorial
Free full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-1279

Media contacts: A PDF for this editorial is not yet available. Please click the link to read the full text. The corresponding author, Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH, can be reached at agingbraincenter@hsl.harvard.edu.

Toward Understanding COVID-19 Recovery: National Institutes of Health Workshop on Postacute COVID-19
Andrea M. Lerner, MD; Daphne A. Robinson, PhD; Linda Yang, PhD; Carolyn F. Williams, PhD, MPH; Lori M. Newman, MD; Joseph J. Breen, PhD; Robert W. Eisinger, PhD; Johanna S. Schneider, PhD; Adaora A. Adimora, MD, MPH; Emily J. Erbelding, MD, MPH
Special Article: Research and Reporting Methods
Free full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M21-1043

Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read the full text. For an interview with the corresponding author, Andrea M. Lerner, MD, please email niaidnews@niaid.nih.gov.

Update Alert 8: Epidemiology of and Risk Factors for Coronavirus Infection in Health Care Workers
Roger Chou, MD; Tracy Dana, MLS; David I. Buckley, MD, MPH; Shelley Selph, MD, MPH; Rongwei Fu, PhD; Annette M. Totten, PhD
Update
Free full text: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/L21-0143

Media contacts: A PDF for this article is not yet available. Please click the link to read the full text. The corresponding author, Roger Chou, MD, can be reached through Erik Robinson at robineri@ohsu.edu.

A growing number of young people are identifying as part of the LGBTQ+ community, and many are challenging binaries in gender and sexual identity to reflect a broader spectrum of experience beyond man or woman and gay or straight. But not everyone is participating equally in these diverse forms of expression, according to new research from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Psychology Professor Phillip Hammack's latest paper, published in the Journal of Adolescent Research, is shedding light on the social factors that can either hinder or support expression of diversity in sexual and gender identity among teens and young adults. In particular, regional differences and pressures to conform to masculinity may have a dampening effect on expression.

Hammack's research focused on teens between the ages of 14 and 18, who are among the younger members of Generation Z. Researchers wanted an in-depth understanding of these young people's experiences, so they performed detailed research at a small number of field sites in the San Francisco Bay Area and California's Central Valley.

These sites were selected to represent higher and lower levels of resources, rights, and visibility for sexual and gender diversity. Within these communities, researchers surveyed 314 LGBTQ+ teens and conducted extensive interviews with 28 LGBTQ+ youth informants and 24 adult LGBTQ+ leaders.

Almost a quarter of all LGBTQ+ youth surveyed expressed some form of nonbinary gender, and use of they/them pronouns was common. But there was a difference of more than 11 percentage points in the proportion of youth expressing nonbinary gender identity in the Bay Area compared to the Central Valley. Some study participants told researchers that, while they felt diverse sexuality is becoming more broadly normalized, gender diversity is still less accepted.

Researchers found that there was also less open discussion of sexual diversity in Central Valley communities compared to the Bay Area, but in this case, there was no corresponding difference in diversity of sexuality labeling. Study participants often mentioned finding information through the internet and social media, rather than their geographic communities.

"Being online is kind of like the great equalizer for LGBTQ youth, and I think that benefits them all tremendously," Hammack said.

Researchers also noticed that teens who were assigned female at birth seemed more comfortable with diverse forms of gender expression. Among teens in the study group who identified with a nonbinary gender label, 78.7 percent were assigned female at birth. There were also notably more transgender boys in the study than transgender girls.

During interviews, study participants consistently shared stories of how those who were assigned male at birth faced strong pressures to conform to standards of masculinity. Accounts of violence against transgender women of color were common in interviews, along with other fears that it might not be safe for those assigned male at birth to express nonconforming gender or sexual identities.

Hammack said he believes harmful "regulation of masculinity" may stem from feelings of insecurity among boys as gender hierarchies are being challenged. The paper's documentation of these trends contributes to the future of LGBTQ+ research and support.

Ultimately, perceptions of gender and sexuality labels can affect which types of resources are most accessible for teens. For example, Hammack said that cisgender gay males in the research areas were noticeably missing from LGBTQ+ support groups, which may indicate that these spaces are being perceived as "feminine."

Similarly, the study found that some identity labels are racialized in ways that may make boys of color less likely to identify with them. But targeted recruitment efforts could help LGBTQ+ support groups for teens to better reflect the true diversity of the community.

Hammack hopes his research might offer a window into that diversity to create greater acceptance and recognition across all labels.

"I've actually been trying to shift my speech away from saying LGBTQ+, with that uncomfortable plus sign, because there are so many identities that are not captured within that label," Hammack said. "I've been thinking about these issues instead as phenomena of sexual and gender diversity, and I'd like to see more researchers and educators recognizing those nuances within the community."

Humans are creating or exacerbating the environmental conditions that could lead to further pandemics, new University of Sydney research finds.

Modelling from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science suggests pressure on ecosystems, climate change and economic development are key factors associated with the diversification of pathogens (disease-causing agents, like viruses and bacteria). This has potential to lead to disease outbreaks.

The research, by Dr Balbir B Singh, Professor Michael Ward, and Associate Professor Navneet Dhand, is published in the international journal, Transboundary and Emerging Diseases.

They found a greater diversity of zoonotic diseases (diseases transmitted between animals and humans) in higher income countries with larger land areas, more dense human populations, and greater forest coverage.

The study also confirms increasing population growth and density are major drivers in the emergence of zoonotic diseases. The global human population has increased from about 1.6 billion in 1900 to about 7.8 billion today, putting pressure on ecosystems.

Associate Professor Dhand said: "As the human population increases, so does the demand for housing. To meet this demand, humans are encroaching on wild habitats. This increases interactions between wildlife, domestic animals and human beings which increases the potential for bugs to jump from animals to humans."

"To date, such disease models have been limited, and we continue to be frustrated in understanding why diseases continue to emerge," said Professor Ward, an infectious diseases expert.

"This information can help inform disease mitigation and may prevent the next COVID-19."

Other zoonotic diseases that have recently devastated human populations include SARS, avian (H5N1) and swine (H1N1) flu, Ebola and Nipah - a bat-borne virus.

Factors predicting disease

The researchers discovered country-level factors predicting three categories of disease: zoonotic, emerging (newly discovered diseases, or those diseases that have increased in occurrence or occurred in new locations), and human.

Zoonotic diseases: land area, human population density, and area of forest. Areas with high zoonotic disease diversity include Europe, North America, Latin America, Australia, and China.

Emerging diseases: land area, human population density and the human development index. Areas with high emerging disease diversity include Europe, North America,
Human diseases: high per capita health expenditure, mean annual temperature, land area, human population density, human development index and rainfall. Areas with high human disease diversity include North America, Latin America, China and India.

"Countries within a longitude of -50 to -100 like Brazil, developed countries like United States and dense countries such as India were predicted to have a greater diversity of emerging diseases," Professor Ward said.

The researchers also noted weather variables, such as temperature and rainfall, could influence the diversity of human diseases. At warmer temperatures, there tend to be more emerging pathogens.

The analyses demonstrate that weather variables (temperature and
rainfall) have the potential to influence pathogen diversity
These factors combined confirm human development - including human-influenced climate change - not only damages our environment but is responsible for the emergence of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19.

Using data to help prevent outbreaks

"Our analysis suggests sustainable development is not only critical to maintaining ecosystems and slowing climate change; it can inform disease control, mitigation, or prevention," Professor Ward said.

"Due to our use of national-level data, all countries could use these models to inform their public health policies and planning for future potential pandemics."

An international survey that included 600 smokers in the UK has found that cessation messaging focused on easing the burden on our health system is most effective in encouraging people to quit.

The research, which was conducted in April-May 2020, randomly assigned participants to view one of four quit smoking messages, two of which explicitly referenced health implications and COVID-19, one referred more vaguely to risk of chest infection, and one highlighted financial motivations for quitting.

"We wanted to explore the effectiveness of smoking cessation messaging at a time when health systems the world over are beleaguered, and all our lives have had to pivot into pandemic-response mode," said Professor Simone Pettigrew (Head of Food Policy at The George Institute for Global Health), who led the research.

All four messages were effective in terms of increasing participants' intentions to quit within a fortnight and prompting them to seek additional information around COVID-19 risk, with the two messages that specifically mentioned COVID-19 the most impactful:

MESSAGE A. By quitting now, you can reduce your chances of experiencing complications from the coronavirus if you become infected. This will help our overstretched health services to cope with the huge increase in patients.

MESSAGE B. Quit now - it's never too late. Smoking damages your lungs so they don't work as well. This means smokers are more likely to have severe complications if infected by the coronavirus.

Message A (referring to both personal consequences and to the impact on the functioning of the health system) landed best with participants, 34% of whom reported intention to quit and 44% sought additional information about the risks of COVID for smokers.

The latest figures from NHS England reflect a heavily loaded health system, with adult critical care bed occupancy at 67% across England. Public Health England is advising smokers to quit to improve their chances of avoiding infection and surviving COVID-19 if contracted.

This research can help tailor such communication for optimal impact, prioritising messages that reference COVID-related health risk.

A new study suggests that clearing the invasive woody weed Prosopis julifora and grassland restoration in Baringo County, Kenya, may have significant financial benefits for local stakeholders and contribute to climate change mitigation.

Climate change, land degradation, and invasive alien species (IAS) such as Prosopis julifora are major threats to people's livelihoods in arid and semi-arid areas with each of these having negative impacts on ecosystem services - including vegetation biomass, which is a prime resource for pastoralists and agro-pastoralists.

The team, comprising PhD students and established scientists from four countries and different disciplinary backgrounds, developed land use scenarios and assess what the implications of Prosopis management and grassland restoration are for soil carbon accumulation and local communities.

The scientists studied the impacts of Prosopis invasion and grassland degradation on soil organic carbon (SOC) in nine sublocations in Baringo County where it was introduced in the 1980s and promoted by the Kenyan government to provide wind breaks, a source of timber, fuelwood and charcoal.

The study combined data collected by several PhD students of the Woody Weeds project, such as socio-economic data to determine the size of the budget available for Prosopis management (Bekele et al. 2018) and the financial benefits of making charcoal from removed trees, soil measurements to assess changes in SOC following Prosopis removal (Mbaabu et al. 2020) and establishment of grassland. The data were linked to spatially-explicit land cover and land use maps derived from satellite data (Mbaabu et al. 2019). Then, spatially explicit Invasive Alien Species (IAS) management and restoration scenarios were generated.

Dr René Eschen, an ecologist working for CABI in Switzerland and lead author of the paper, said, "While Prosopis does provide these benefits, it has also spread rapidly across a large area, leading to a loss of native vegetation, agricultural areas and grazing land. These changes are primarily driven by Prosopis invasion, along with human activities like deforestation, land clearing, overgrazing, and climate change.

"Our results show that the one-off budget based on the average willingness to pay expressed by inhabitants of Baringo would suffice to manage a considerable area of
Prosopis in Baringo in a single year, and that the conversion of invaded areas into grassland would provide significant financial benefits. A sustained effort over several years might enable sustainable management of a large part of the areas invaded with Prosopis in most sublocations.

"The results also indicate what generates the financial benefit and which areas could be prioritized for treatment. Although Prosopis management is expensive, the results suggest that a large part of the costs in Baringo can be offset by immediate financial benefits from the sale of charcoal. This is important, because the affected communities have limited human and financial resources for environmental management."

The researchers also argue that there are financial and immaterial benefits of restoring grasslands that may re-establish within 30 years if they are not overgrazed. They say that part of the benefits could, in fact, be realized within less than 10 years with only the full accumulation of SOC needing three decades.

Dr Sandra Eckert, remote sensing specialist of the Centre for Development and Environment, University of Bern, Switzerland, said, "Grasslands provide non-monetary benefits, including cultural and regulating services including the regulation of climate, floods and erosion. However, the likelihood of grasses establishing depends on suitable climatic conditions and grazing management.

"With climate change and the associated higher variability of the beginning and duration of the various seasons, grass is considered a more secure crop compared to local staple crops like maize or beans; particularly perennial grass species require less rain for completion of a cropping cycle. Growing grass for seed production is widespread in some of the sublocations, and farmers can also sell the hay."

"Spatial and integrative management scenarios should be used more extensively to support land management decisions, especially where natural as well as financial resources are scarce and where the costs and benefits of managing IAS are unequally distributed among local stakeholders."

This study of Prosopis in Baringo County shows that relatively small investment in IAS clearing and restoration of degraded grassland in Eastern Africa may result in significant benefits for local communities managing the land that will support traditional livelihoods and increase SOC in the long term.

Dr Charles Kilawe, an ecologist from Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, said that the benefits realized from the management of Prosopis juliflora revealed by this study should not be used to promote the introduction of the species to new areas, as this would likely cause serious negative environmental and livelihood impacts.

Dr Eschen concluded, "Addressing climate change and land degradation are major issues that affect livelihoods of many people and that require targeted use of scarce financial resources. This study describes IAS management scenarios using a novel spatial and integrated approach using various detailed data about IAS distribution and density, management costs, financial benefits and land use history.

"Integrating and linking such data may be particularly useful to develop accurate and realistic IAS management scenarios that can be used to illustrate costs and benefits of management interventions, where they are most needed and most cost-effective, and thus help stakeholders select the most appropriate and feasible approach that suits their needs."

In a new publication from Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications; DOI https://doi.org/10.15212/CVIA.2021.0010, Yidan Wang, Gary Tse and Guoliang Li from The First Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi, China and Second Hospital of Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China consider how running with face masks or respirators can be detrimental to the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.

The use of face masks and respirators is an important public health measure to reduce or prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Here the authors discuss the hypothetical mechanisms by which exercise with face masks or respirators can induce detrimental effects on the cardiovascular system, potentially explaining adverse events such as cardiac arrhythmias and spontaneous pneumothorax. Although sudden death associated with the wearing of a face mask during running is a rare event, the risk is higher especially in those with existing cardiac comorbidities. In such cases, a mask designed specifically for runners with no or few side effects of oxygen deficiency should be considered instead.

In a new publication from Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications; DOI https://doi.org/10.15212/CVIA.2021.0009, Wenxiu Liu, Yutong Guo, Yue Liu, Jiaxing Sun and Xinhua Yin from The First Affiliated Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Heilongjiang, China consider calcium-sensing receptors of immune cells and diseases.

The authors review current knowledge of the role of CaSR in immune cells. Calcium-sensing receptor (CaSR), which was initially found in the parathyroid gland, is ubiquitously expressed and exerts specific functions in multiple cells, including immune cells. CaSR is functionally expressed on neutrophils, monocytes/macrophages, and T lymphocytes, but not B lymphocytes, and regulates cell functions, such as cytokine secretion, chemotaxis, phenotype switching, and ligand delivery. In these immune cells, CaSR is involved in the development of many diseases, such as sepsis, cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, rheumatism, myocardial infarction, diabetes, and peripheral artery disease. Since its discovery, it has been controversial whether CaSR is expressed and plays a role in immune cells.

In a new publication from Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications; DOI https://doi.org/10.15212/CVIA.2021.0006, Li Jingxiu, Zhang Fujun, Wei Xijin and Peng Ding from Anhui Provincial Hospital, Hefei, China, Chizhou Second People's Hospital, Chizhou, China, The Affiliated Hospital of Shandong University of TCM, Jinan, China and The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Qingyuan, China consider using three-dimensional Lorenz Scatter Plots to detect patients with atrioventricular node double path caused by interpolated ventricular premature systoles.

A series of related electrophysiology phenomena can be caused by the occurrence of interpolated ventricular premature contraction. The authors recent three-dimensional Lorenz R-R scatter plot research showed that atrioventricular node double path caused by interpolated ventricular premature contraction imprints a specific pattern on three-dimensional Lorenz plots generated from 24-hour Holter recordings.

The authors found two independent subclusters separated from the interpolated premature beat precluster, the interpolated premature beat cluster, and the interpolated premature beat postcluster, respectively. Combined with use of the trajectory tracking function and the leap phenomenon, the results reveal the presence of the atrioventricular node double conduction path.

In a new publication from Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications; DOI https://doi.org/10.15212/CVIA.2021.0001, Zesen Han, Lihong Lai, Zhaokun Pu and Lan Yang from The People's Hospital of Hua County, Henan, China and Henan University of Science and Technology, Henan, China consider the use of nomograms to predict patients with obstructive coronary artery disease.

The authors developed and validated clinical prediction models for the development of a nomogram to estimate the probability of patients having coronary artery disease (CAD).

An individualized clinical prediction model for patients with CAD allowed an accurate estimation in Chinese populations. The Akaike information criterion is a better method in screening risk factors. The net reclassification improvement and integrated discrimination improvement are better than the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve in discrimination. Decision curve analysis can be used to evaluate the efficiency of clinical prediction models.

In a new publication from Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications; DOI https://doi.org/10.15212/CVIA.2021.0002, Pei Huang, Yi Zhang, Yi Tang, Qinghua Fu, Zhaofen Zheng, Xiaoyan Yang, Yingli Yu from The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University) Chang Sha, China and Tianjin University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Tianjin, China consider the study of the left atrial function index in cardiovascular disease.

Some studies have shown that left ventricular structure and function play an important role in the risk stratification and prognosis of cardiovascular disease. The clinical application of left atrial function in cardiovascular disease has gradually attracted attention in the cardiovascular field.

There are many traditional methods to evaluate left atrial function. Left atrial function related indexes measured by echocardiography has been identified as a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease in recent years, but they have some limitations. The left atrial function index has been found to evaluate left atrial function more effectively than traditional parameters. Furthermore, it is a valuable predictor of the risk stratification and prognosis in patients with clinical cardiovascular disease such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation, hypertension, and coronary heart disease.

One million species are under threat of extinction worldwide, primarily due to adverse human impact. The loss of a species is an ethical tragedy, but additionally, it can have dramatic effects on the functioning of ecosystems on Earth. In each ecosystem, species have their roles, just like actors do in a play. These roles depend on the characteristics of the species, like their size, weight, shape, reproductive capacity, or the food resources they use. If some species are similar, they can sometimes substitute each other and keep the ecosystem going even if one of them is lost. However, the accumulated loss of many species can lead to ecosystem degradation with a direct adverse effect on human well-being.

There are so many different species of various kinds that it is extremely difficult to generalize the global functional variation and understand the functional consequences of biodiversity loss. A research group from the University of Tartu took the challenge and compiled data on characteristics of more than 75,000 species of plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, and freshwater fish. The unprecedented global summary of organisms' functions was just published in Science Advances.

All species were projected onto a so-called functional space - a mathematical abstraction of their form and function. In this functional space, similar species are located close to each other, and dissimilar species are far. Overall, the functional space has some "regions" with plenty of species and others with just a few. The leading author, Dr Carlos P. Carmona, notes, "A very interesting result that we found is that, in all these groups, more than half of the species are responsible for less than 20% of the functions performed by the group, therefore implying that 80% of the remaining functions are performed by few species which are functionally unique."

Some particular functions performed by a taxonomic group, such as plants, mammals or freshwater fish, may be shared among many species or only supported by a few species. For example, on a global scale, there are many species of grasses that have similar features and perform similar functions, but there are not many species with the features of a redwood. In the case of functions performed by many species, it is unlikely that the extinction of some of these species will strongly affect the functions of the whole group. On the contrary, if certain functions are performed by only one or a few species, their disappearance will lead to a reduction in the range of functions performed by the entire group.

The research group also explored how much we can lose from the functional space if these one million threatened species do go extinct. Dr Carmona continues, "We wanted to explore how extinctions will affect the functioning of different groups of organisms. We found that large, long-lived, and low-fertility species are universally more likely to be threatened. This is bad news because we know that the largest plants and animals play a hugely important role in functions such as soil fertility, seed dispersion or carbon storage. Their extinction would therefore cause an overall reorganization of the range of functions performed."

Since many species can substitute each other's roles, the functional decline would be up to 5%, with the most dramatic losses happening to freshwater fish. This percentage is lower than the potential loss of species numbers. Still, it can have a major influence on the ecosystem services to humans, like clean air and water, soil fertility, our own food, medicines, building material, or good physical and mental health. In addition, a very large part of the functional space will rely on a much lower number of species, and possible subsequent biodiversity loss will already have a much more dramatic effect.

Dr Carmona also has a clear suggestion to nature conservation authorities: "We propose that species providing unique trait combinations should have a top conservation priority because losing them would imply the complete disappearance of their functions from Earth."