Culture

In the first all-sky survey by the eROSITA X-ray telescope onboard SRG, astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics have identified a previously unknown supernova remnant, dubbed "Hoinga". The finding was confirmed in archival radio data and marks the first discovery of a joint Australian-eROSITA partnership established to explore our Galaxy using multiple wavelengths, from low-frequency radio waves to energetic X-rays. The Hoinga supernova remnant is very large and located far from the galactic plane - a surprising first finding - implying that the next years might bring many more discoveries.

Massive stars end their lives in gigantic supernova explosions when the fusion processes in their interiors no longer produce enough energy to counter their gravitational collapse. But even with hundreds of billions of stars in a galaxy, these events are pretty rare. In our Milky Way, astronomers estimate that a supernova should happen on average every 30 to 50 years. While the supernova itself is only observable on a timescale of months, their remnants can be detected for about 100 000 years. These remnants are composed of the material ejected by the exploding star at high velocities and forming shocks when hitting the surrounding interstellar medium.

About 300 such supernova remnants are known today - much less than the estimated 1200 that should be observable throughout our home Galaxy. So, either astrophysicists have misunderstood the supernova rate or a large majority has been overlooked so far. An international team of astronomers are now using the all-sky scans of the eROSITA X-ray telescope to look for previously unknown supernova remnants. With temperatures of millions of the degrees, the debris of such supernovae emits high-energy radiation, i.e. they should show up in the high-quality X-ray survey data.

"We were very surprised that the first supernova remnant popped up straight away," says Werner Becker at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. Named after the first author's hometown's Roman name, "Hoinga" is the largest supernova remnant ever discovered in X-rays. With a diameter of about 4.4 degrees, it covers an area about 90 times bigger than the size of the full Moon. "Moreover, it lies very far off the galactic plane, which is very unusual," he adds. Most previous searches for supernova remnants have concentrated on the disk of our galaxy, where star formation activity is highest and stellar remnants therefore should be more numerous, but it seems that many supernova remnants have been overlooked by this search strategy.

After the astronomers found the object in the eROSITA all-sky data, they turned to other resources to confirm its nature. Hoinga is - although barely - visible also in data taken by the ROSAT X-ray telescope 30 years ago, but nobody noticed it before due to its faintness and its location at high galactic latitude. However, the real confirmation came from radio data, the spectral band where 90% of all known supernova remnants were found so far.

"We went through archival radio data and it had been sitting there, just waiting to be discovered," marvels Natasha Walker-Hurley, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia. "The radio emission in 10-year-old surveys clearly confirmed that Hoinga is a supernova remnant, so there may be even more of these out there waiting for keen eyes."

The eROSITA X-ray telescope will perform a total of eight all-sky surveys and is about 25 times more sensitive than its predecessor ROSAT. Both observatories were designed, build and are operated by the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. The astronomers expected to discover new supernova remnants in its X-ray data over the next few years, but they were surprised to identify one so early in the programme. Combined with the fact that the signal is already present in decades-old data, this implies that many supernova remnants might have been overlooked in the past due to low-surface brightness, being in unusual locations or because of other nearby emission from brighter sources. Together with upcoming radio surveys, the eROSITA X-ray survey shows great promise for finding many of the missing supernova remnants, helping to solve this long-standing astrophysical mystery.

A large study of people in 28 countries found men aged 50 and over had a 60% greater risk of death than women, partly explained by heavier rates of smoking and heart disease in men, although the gap varied across countries, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) .

"Many studies have examined the potential impact of social, behavioural and biological factors on sex differences in mortality, but few have been able to investigate potential variation across countries," writes Dr. Yu-Tzu Wu, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, and Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, United Kingdom, with coauthors. "Different cultural traditions, historical contexts, and economic and societal development may influence gender experiences in different countries, and thus variably affect the health status of men and women."

The study examined different socioeconomic (education, wealth), lifestyle (smoking, alcohol consumption), health (heart diseases, diabetes, hypertension and depression) and social (spouse, living alone) factors that might contribute to the mortality gap between men and women aged 50 and older. The data included more than 179,000 people across 28 countries and more than half (55%) were women.

"[T]he effects of sex on mortality should include not only physiologic variation between men and women but also the social construct of gender, which differs across societies. In particular, the large variation across countries may imply a greater effect of gender than sex. Although the biology of the sexes is consistent across populations, variation in cultural, societal and historical contexts can lead to different life experiences of men and women and variation in the mortality gap across countries."

The findings are consistent with the literature on life expectancy and death rates.

"The heterogeneity of sex differences in mortality across countries may indicate the substantial impact of gender on healthy aging in addition to biological sex, and the crucial contributions of smoking may also vary across different populations," write the authors.

The researchers recommend that public health policies should account for sex- and gender-based differences and the influence of social and cultural factors on health.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - For teens, pandemic restrictions may have meant months of virtual school, less time with friends and canceling activities like sports, band concerts and prom.

And for young people who rely heavily on social connections for emotional support, these adjustments may have taken a heavy toll on mental health, a new national poll suggests.

Forty-six percent of parents say their teen has shown signs of a new or worsening mental health condition since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health at Michigan Medicine. Parents of teen girls were more likely to say their child had a new onset or worsening of depressive symptoms and anxiety than parents of teen boys.

"Just as young people are at the age of being biologically primed to seek independence from their families, COVID-19 precautions have kept them at home," says poll co-director and Mott pediatrician Gary L. Freed, M.D., M.P.H.

"Pandemic-related lifestyle changes have wreaked havoc on teens' lives, with many experiencing disruptions to their normal routines. Our poll suggests that pandemic-era changes may have had a significant mental health impact for some teenagers."

The nationally representative report is based on responses from 977 parents of teens ages 13-18.

One in three teen girls and one in five teen boys have experienced new or worsening anxiety, the poll suggests. More parents of teen girls than parents of teen boys note an increase in anxiety/worry (36% vs. 19%) or depression/sadness (31% vs. 18%).

But similar proportions of parents report negative changes in their teen's sleep (24% for girls vs. 21% for boys), withdrawing from family (14% vs. 13%) and aggressive behavior (8% vs. 9%).

Recent research has shown teen depression during the pandemic to be associated with teens' own fears and uncertainties, as well as high levels of parental stress, Freed notes.

"Isolation during the pandemic may be triggering new problems for some teens but for others, the situation has exacerbated existing emotional health issues," Freed says.

Parents in the poll say their kids seem hardest hit by changes in social interactions over the last year, with three in four reporting a negative impact on their teen's connections to friends.

Many parents say their teens have been texting (64%), using social media (56%), online gaming (43%), and talking on the phone (35%) every day or almost every day. Few parents say their teens have been getting together in person with friends daily or almost every day, indoors (9%) or outdoors (6%).

"Peer groups and social interactions are a critical part of development during adolescence. But these opportunities have been limited during the pandemic," Freed says. "Many teens may feel frustrated, anxious and disconnected due to social distancing and missing usual social outlets, like sports, extracurricular activities and hanging out with friends."

Parents who note negative changes in their teens' mental health have tried different strategies to help their teen, the Mott Poll suggests, including relaxing COVID-19 rules and family rules on social media, seeking professional help and even using mental health apps.

"Parents play a critical role in helping their teens cope with the stress of the pandemic," Freed says. "There are strategies parents can engage to help, whether or not their teen is showing signs of problems. One of the most important things for parents to do is keep lines of communication open; ask their teen how they are doing and create the space for them to speak honestly so they can provide help when needed."

More Mott Poll findings on methods parents have used to improve children's mental health and what Mott experts recommend:

1. Relaxing family rules

Half of parents have tried relaxing family COVID-19 rules to allow their teen to have more contact with friends, with most (81%) saying it has helped. Freed says families should encourage social interactions that follow COVID-19 safety guidelines, such as spending time outside or participating in activities wearing masks and socially distanced.

Half of parents have also loosened social media restrictions - and most (70%) say it helped. Experts recommend that families allow teens to engage with peers on age-appropriate platforms but to continue providing boundaries to ensure screen time doesn't interfere with other health-related behaviors, such as physical activity and sleep. This could mean banning electronics close to bedtime, encouraging or only allowing social media use during designated times of the day.

2. Talking to an expert

One in four parents sought help for their teen from a mental health provider, with three-fourths feeling it helped.

A third of parents also talked to teachers or school counselors, with over half (57%) saying that strategy was helpful.

"Teens may experience a wide range of severity of mental health problems, but if parents hear their teen express any thoughts of suicide or self-harm, they should seek mental health assistance immediately," Freed says.

3. Trying a Web-based program

A quarter of parents encouraged their teen to try a web-based program or app to improve their mental health, and 60% say it has helped. A third of parents in the poll also looked for information online (58% say it helped.)

Apps may make therapy more accessible, efficient, and portable, Freed notes, but parents should consult their primary care provider or other trusted sources for app recommendations as well as for online resources about teen mental health.

4. Keeping communication open but also giving space

One in seven parents in the poll reported their teen has withdrawn from family since the start of the pandemic.

Parents may try to show teens they're not alone by sharing some of their own worries and successful strategies that help them cope while asking questions that create a safe space for candid conversations.

At the same time, Freed notes, it's also normal for teens to crave privacy from their family. Giving them space for some quiet time, creative time or music time can be helpful to their mental health.

5. Encouraging sleep hygiene

Child health experts emphasize the importance of sleep for teens, especially when they are under stress. Almost one in four parents in the Mott Poll say their teens were experiencing negative changes in their sleep since the pandemic started.

Experts recommend helping teens craft a healthy and productive routine to their days and nights - whether they're in virtual or in-person school. This includes a regular sleep and wake cycle that fits with their online learning schedule, other responsibilities around the house and their interactions with peers and family. Making time to get outside is also helpful in regulating sleep.

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) - High-powered magnets are small, shiny magnets made from powerful rare earth metals. Since they started showing up in children's toys in the early 2000s and then later in desk sets in 2009, high-powered magnets have caused thousands of injuries and are considered to be among the most dangerous ingestion hazards in children.

When more than one is swallowed, these high-powered magnets attract to each other across tissue, cutting off blood supply to the bowel and causing obstructions, tissue necrosis, sepsis and even death. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found them dangerous enough that in 2012 they halted the sale of high-powered magnet sets and instituted a recall followed by a federal rule that effectively eliminated the sale of these products. This rule was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals in December 2016.

A recent study led by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy, Emergency Medicine, and the Central Ohio Poison Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital along with the Children's Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) analyzed calls to U.S. poison centers for magnet exposures in children age 19 years and younger from 2008 through October 2019 to determine the impact of the CPSC rule and the subsequent lift of the ban.

The study, recently published in Journal of Pediatrics, found that the average number of cases per year decreased 33% from 2012 to 2017 after high-powered magnet sets were removed from the market. When the ban was lifted and high-powered magnet sets re-entered the market, the average number of cases per year increased 444%. There was also a 355% increase in the number of cases that were serious enough to require treatment in a hospital. Cases from 2018 and 2019 increased across all age groups and accounted for 39% of magnet cases since 2008.

"Regulations on these products were effective, and the dramatic increase in the number of high-powered magnet related injuries since the ban was lifted - even compared to pre-ban numbers - is alarming," said Leah Middelberg, MD, lead author of the study and emergency medicine physician at Nationwide Children's. "Parents don't always know if their child swallowed something or what they swallowed - they just know their child is uncomfortable - so when children are brought in, an exam and sometimes x-rays are needed to determine what's happening. Because damage caused by magnets can be serious, it's so important to keep these kinds of magnets out of reach of children, and ideally out of the home."

The study found a total of 5,738 magnet exposures during the nearly 12-year study period. Most calls were for children who were male (55%), younger than six years (62%), with an unintentional injury (84%). Approximately one-half (48.4%) of patients were treated at a hospital or other healthcare facility while 48.7% were managed at a non-healthcare site such as a home, workplace, or school. Children in older age groups were more likely than younger children to be admitted to the hospital.

"While many cases occur among young children, parents need to be aware that high-powered magnets are a risk for teenagers as well," said Bryan Rudolph, MD, MPH, co-senior author of this study and gastroenterologist at CHAM. "Serious injuries can happen when teens use these products to mimic tongue or lip piercings. If there are children or teens who live in or frequently visit your home, don't buy these products. If you have high-powered magnets in your home, throw them away. The risk of serious injury is too great."

"Significant increases in magnet injuries correspond to time periods in which high-powered magnet sets were sold, including a 444% increase since 2018," said Middelberg. "These data reflect the urgent need to protect children by preventive measures and government action," Rudolph emphasized. Both Middelberg and Rudolph support the federal legislation, "Magnet Injury Prevention Act," which would limit the strength and/or size of magnets sold as part of a set, as well as reinstatement of a CPSC federal safety standard that would effectively restrict the sale of these magnet products in the U.S.

An interdisciplinary, multinational research team presents a new class of chemical compounds that can be reversibly oxidized and reduced. The compounds known as 'pyrazinacenes' are simple, stable compounds that consist of a series of connected nitrogen-containing carbon rings. They are suitable for applications in electrochemistry or synthesis, as the researchers describe in the science journal Communications Chemistry.

Redox reactions play an important role in our everyday life. In these reactions, one compound releases electrons and is oxidized, while another accepts electrons and is reduced. Such redox reactions are exploited by living organisms, for example, to store energy.

Redox reactions also play a crucial role in electrochemistry, where energy can be stored or transported in the guise of chemical compounds. Most chemical syntheses also involve reduction and oxidation reactions at their fundamental levels. Researchers around the world are therefore looking for simple, stable chemical compounds that can be reversibly oxidized and reduced and thus also function as reducing or oxidizing agents.

Multi-stage oxidation possible

The teams led by Dr. Jonathan P. Hill from the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba (Japan) and Professor Thomas Jung from the University of Basel and the Paul Scherrer Institute (Switzerland) have now shown experimentally for the first time that pyrazinacenes meet these requirements and can be reversibly oxidized in a multi-stage process.

The pyrazinacenes are a new category of compounds made up of connected rings of carbon, nitrogen and hydrogen atoms. They were first designed, synthesized and chemically characterized in solution by the Hill team.

In solution, the compounds, which can consist of different numbers of connected rings, can reversibly release and accept electrons. This aspect, which would otherwise be studied in a test tube, has now for the first time been observed experimentally on a surface by the Jung team from the Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute at the University of Basel. "The pyrazinacenes oxidize reversibly on a surface in several steps. For their technical application, it is important to know that they also support redox reactions when bound to surfaces," reports Dr. Fatemeh Mousavi, who characterized pyrazinacenes in the Jung group.

Oxidation state can be recognized

Using scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the scientists observed that the compounds arrange themselves differently depending on the oxidation state. In the native reduced form (obtained directly after synthesis), the molecules are isolated and immobile when deposited on a surface, while they mobilize to form chains after a first oxidation step. A second oxidation step changes the geometry of the molecule and they are again isolated and immobile.

Interestingly, the oxidation and reduction reactions of the pyrazinacenes are not only affected by a chemical impulse, but can also be stimulated by light so they can be considered photo-redox active.

"Our investigations have shown that pyrazinacenes are an interesting class of compounds that can be used to support photoredox-based reactions in chemical synthesis, or act as indicators of electrochemical processes," concludes Thomas Jung.

A discovery by University of Queensland pain researchers may allow some future cancer patients, including children with leukaemia, to avoid their chemotherapy's worst and most debilitating side effects.

Professor Irina Vetter and Dr Hana Starobova thought "turning off" the inflammation that is one of the body's natural reactions to the chemotherapy drug vincristine might reduce its accompanying pain and unpleasant symptoms.

"We found the anti-inflammatory drug anakinra substantially reduced the awful nerve symptoms for which vincristine chemotherapy is known," Professor Vetter said.

"Importantly, it did not reduce the effectiveness of the chemo."

Anakinra is an existing rheumatoid and juvenile arthritis treatment and the Institute for Molecular Bioscience researchers plan to test it soon on human chemotherapy patients taking vincristine.

"Vincristine is used to treat cervical, brain and lung cancers, leukaemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphomas," Professor Vetter said.

She said the finding was specific to vincristine and anakinra, although early findings suggested anakinra may help relieve symptoms of some other chemotherapy drugs.

"Unfortunately chemo's side effects are sometimes so terrible that people interrupt their treatment or end it, putting them at risk of succumbing to their cancer," Professor Vetter said.

"Reducing the chemo's unpleasant symptoms ultimately will save lives and a lot of patient suffering."

The Kids' Cancer Project part-funded the research and the charity's chief executive, Owen Finegan, said the researchers' choice to test a known and approved drug meant relatively fast translation to clinical use.

"This discovery will flow through to patients much more quickly than if the researchers had developed a completely new drug," he said.

"This is likely to bring better treatment for kids with cancers including acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, sarcoma, medulloblastoma and neuroblastoma.

"We are also delighted that these findings - initiated to help children - will also benefit adults."

The researchers made the discovery while studying how vincristine causes sensory nerves to function abnormally.

Dr Starobova said neuropathy was one of the chemotherapy drug's most unpleasant and severe side-effects, causing tingling and numbness in hands and feet, pain, and muscle weakness leading to limping.

"Unfortunately these symptoms can persist long after treatment," Dr Starobova said.

"The only way to ease them is to lower the vincristine dose, but this lowers the treatment's effectiveness against the cancer.

"Where chemotherapy is concerned, neuropathic pain results from immune cells infiltrating the nerves and inflammation running wild."

Claire Bermingham of Lennox Head said her son Archer, 4, still suffered from his 2019 vincristine treatment for leukaemia and doctors estimated the side-effects would last eight years.

"Archer has peripheral neuropathy, foot drag, headaches, jaw pain and occasional raspy voice," Mrs Bermingham said.

"He can't take stairs, hold a pen, write his name, use scissors or do lots of other things children his age can do.

"People think once treatment is over and the cancer is in remission, that it's all over - that's not the reality."

Mrs Bermingham said she was delighted to hear about the discovery at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

"It's great that researchers are prioritising kinder, gentler cancer treatments for children," she said.

Professor Vetter said inflammation was a natural response in the body to injury or infection, but unchecked it could cause its own issues.

Since the finding, she and Dr Starobova have joined forces with their IMB colleague and inflammation expert Professor Kate Schroder.

"Kate's group focuses on inflammasomes - the molecular machines that trigger the immune response," Professor Vetter said.

"Working together allows us to accelerate this research."

Their next step will focus on how vincristine activates immune cells.

A study by a research team from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and China's first digital-only bank WeBank has found that security, service quality and system quality are the most important factors for customers who use mobile banking.

Two in five respondents (40%) said that the security they felt while carrying out transactions on mobile applications was their most important consideration.

This was followed by the level of service quality (25%), which referred to whether the banking applications could fulfil users' needs, such as carrying out transactions and easy access to credit card services.

System quality, which considers the performance of the application, including compatibility with different mobile phones and loading speeds, came in a close third (24%).

The results of the study were published in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, an academic publication by Elsevier, last December.

The researchers said their study which ranked factors that are important in determining customer loyalty would be useful to financial institutions who are looking at improving their mobile banking applications.

Already widely used in China prior to COVID-19, mobile banking applications have seen a sharp rise in uptake throughout Asia during the pandemic, as the touchless payment systems provided by most mobile banking applications have gained traction.

The NTU-WeBank team obtained their results after surveying 224 mobile banking users of a large bank in China in 2019. Over three-quarters of the respondents (79%) were frequent users of mobile banking, meaning that they used it at least once a week.

The researchers said that although the study was conducted in China, the results are applicable to other countries where mobile banking has a high level of adoption, such as Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Associate Professor Xu Hong, from NTU's School of Social Sciences who led the study, said: "It was already known that all these factors: security, service quality, system quality, and interface design had an impact on customers, and this study highlights implications for banks' strategies for retaining their mobile banking users, as well as exploring how to capture new customers."

Assistant Professor Yu Han, from NTU's School of Computer Science and Engineering, who co-led the research, said: "Our study has implications for banks' strategies for retaining their mobile banking users, as well as exploring how to capture new customers."

Assoc Prof Xu and Asst Prof Yu are part of the team at the Joint NTU-WeBank Research Centre on Fintech which initiated this study. The joint centre was launched in early 2019 with the aim of developing new technologies to support Banking 4.0, where banking can be personalised and done anytime, anywhere.

Mr Joe Chen, Executive Vice President of WeBank, said: "The findings are relevant to other banks who are increasingly rolling out more digital solutions, which include payment, lending, and wealth management applications. As mobile banking worldwide is becoming increasingly accepted as replacement for branch-based banking in many countries, it is important for banks to know the factors that affect and influence customer loyalty. In this regard, the Joint NTU-WeBank Research Centre will continue to generate research outcomes and innovations for the benefit of the Fintech industry."

NTU Senior Vice President (Research) Professor Lam Khin Yong, added: "The NTU-WeBank partnership is another example of the University's strong links with the private sector. It also shows our strong support for industry collaborations that accelerates the translation of research into innovation and commercial adoption. This study also serves as a good example of interdisciplinary research involving faculty from the social sciences and computer science, as it solves a very important issue in today's fintech industry."

A multi-pronged approach to build customer loyalty

The team's analysis of the results also showed that a mobile application's interface design had a strong and positive impact on respondents' evaluation of system and service quality.

This is despite it scoring relatively low compared to other factors surveyed in the study. For example, the team found that respondents tended to associate good interface design, such as smooth transitions between pages, with optimal system quality and high security.

The findings also outlined a larger correlation between several factors that were surveyed. For example, service and system quality and interface design were found to be important in sparking user loyalty, which the researchers defined as "the intention to continuously use the mobile banking product and recommend it to others."

After analysing the survey results, the team advised that mobile banking operators should focus on providing multi-level security features to increase the users' sense of security when using the applications.

Such features might include pop-up messages that alert users to the potential risks that could occur when using mobile banking services, as well as a well-documented policy statement from the financial institution.

Besides providing users assurance of their security while using the applications, Assoc Prof Xu added: "The level of service quality, which encompasses factors such as the levels of reliability, responsiveness, and empathy from bank staff, could enhance users' satisfaction and increase their usage of mobile banking services."

"By providing a stable and secure mobile banking system that boasts fast responses and efficient service, banks can encourage customers to continue using their mobile banking application, while ultimately strengthening user loyalty. The results can also help improve their overall mobile banking strategy and cater the functions of their apps to the needs of different age groups."

Next steps: overseas studies

To further their research on loyalty intention in mobile banking, the NTU-WeBank team is looking to conduct studies in other countries and regions to identify other determinants that could affect customer loyalty.

Assoc Prof Xu said the team will continue to leverage the computing platform which it has developed to collect and analyse user experience data for future studies.

"We believe the large-scale immersive studies we will conduct using our computing platform powered by social computing and social media technologies will be able to help banks gain more insights into customers' intentions," said Assoc Prof Xu.

Researchers at UniSA have developed a cost-effective new technique to monitor soil moisture using a standard digital camera and machine learning technology.

The United Nations predicts that by 2050 many areas of the planet may not have enough fresh water to meet the demands of agriculture if we continue our current patterns of use.

One solution to this global dilemma is the development of more efficient irrigation, central to which is precision monitoring of soil moisture, allowing sensors to guide 'smart' irrigation systems to ensure water is applied at the optimum time and rate.

Current methods for sensing soil moisture are problematic - buried sensors are susceptible to salts in the substrate and require specialised hardware for connections, while thermal imaging cameras are expensive and can be compromised by climatic conditions such as sunlight intensity, fog, and clouds.

Researchers from The University of South Australia and Baghdad's Middle Technical University have developed a cost-effective alternative that may make precision soil monitoring simple and affordable in almost any circumstance.

A team including UniSA engineers Dr Ali Al-Naji and Professor Javaan Chahl has successfully tested a system that uses a standard RGB digital camera to accurately monitor soil moisture under a wide range of conditions.

"The system we trialled is simple, robust and affordable, making it promising technology to support precision agriculture," Dr Al-Naji says.

"It is based on a standard video camera which analyses the differences in soil colour to determine moisture content. We tested it at different distances, times and illumination levels, and the system was very accurate."

The camera was connected to an artificial neural network (ANN) a form of machine learning software that the researchers trained to recognise different soil moisture levels under different sky conditions.

Using this ANN, the monitoring system could potentially be trained to recognise the specific soil conditions of any location, allowing it to be customised for each user and updated for changing climatic circumstances, ensuing maximum accuracy.

"Once the network has been trained it should be possible to achieve controlled irrigation by maintaining the appearance of the soil at the desired state," Prof Chahl says.

"Now that we know the monitoring method is accurate, we are planning to design a cost-effective smart-irrigation system based on our algorithm using a microcontroller, USB camera and water pump that can work with different types of soils.

"This system holds promise as a tool for improved irrigation technologies in agriculture in terms of cost, availability and accuracy under changing climatic conditions."

Intake of a high-fat diet leads to an increased risk for obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and fatty liver. A study in mice from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that it is possible to eliminate the deleterious effects of a high-fat diet by lowering the levels of apolipoprotein CIII (apoCIII), a key regulator of lipid metabolism. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

Increased levels of the protein apoCIII are related to cardiovascular diseases, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Researchers at the Rolf Luft Research Center, Karolinska Institutet, have previously shown that apoCIII increases in the hormone secreting part of the pancreas, the islets of Langerhans, in parallel with the development of insulin resistance and diabetes.

The same researchers have now studied two groups of mice who were fed a high-fat diet from the age of 8 weeks, and a control group of mice on a normal diet. One of the groups on a high-fat diet received so-called antisense (ASO) treatment after 10 weeks on the diet to decrease apoCIII levels, and the other group had already been treated with ASO from the start thereby preventing an increase in apoCIII.

"After a period of 10 weeks, all of the mice in the first group were obese, insulin resistant and had liver steatosis. However, after ASO treatment, still being on the high-fat diet, there was a normalisation of glucose metabolism, weight and liver morphology," says Ismael Valladolid-Acebes, assistant professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, and first author of the study.

In the group that was treated with ASO directly from start, the development of metabolic derangements was prevented, and the animals had the same body composition and metabolism as the control mice on a normal diet. The mechanisms underlying the effects of the apoCIII-lowering treatment involve increased lipase enzyme activity and receptor-mediated uptake of lipids to the liver. Fatty acids were transferred by fatty acid oxidation to the biochemical process in the liver called the ketogenic pathway and then converted to ketones that were used for heat production in brown adipose tissue.

"Thus, we could demonstrate that a lowering of apoCIII levels, despite ongoing intake of a high-fat diet, not only protects against, but also reverses the deleterious fat-induced metabolic derangements by promoting an overall increased insulin sensitivity," says Lisa Juntti-Berggren, professor at the Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, and senior author of the study.

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, an international team of researchers have published a review of the best techniques to collect airborne aerosols containing viruses.

In the review, which was published by the Science of the Total Environment journal, a team led by the University of Surrey concluded that the most effective way to collect and detect airborne pathogens, particularly viruses, was to use cyclone sampling techniques.

For example, the sampler draws the air through the cyclone separator. It then uses centrifugal forces to collect the particles on a sterile cone containing the liquid collection vessel, such as DMEM (Dulbecco's minimal essential medium). The collected sample can then be readily used for any analysis for virus detection.

The research team hope that this wide-ranging review can serve as an information hub packed with the best methods and samplers involved in airborne virus collection.

The study is part of the INHALE project - an EPSRC funded project that aims to assess air pollution's impact on personal health in urban environments. The project involves Imperial College London, the University of Surrey and the University of Edinburgh.

The INHALE team also reviewed effective techniques for capturing fine (PM2.5) and ultrafine (PM0.1) particles to understand their toxicity and their role on reactive oxygen species in cells, their elemental composition and carbon content. The team also set out to find the best solution to prevent samples from being destroyed, a common problem found in toxicological experiments that makes large sample collection challenging. The study concluded that Harvard impactor samplers could be used for both indoor and outdoor environments to effectively collect these fine and ultrafine samples.

Professor Prashant Kumar, lead author of the study and Founding Director of the Global Centre for Clean Air Research at the University of Surrey, said: "The scientific community will have to become more efficient and resourceful if we are to overcome foes such as airborne viruses and air pollution. Knowing the right tools to use - as well as how and where to use them - is crucial in our ongoing fight to make the air we breathe cleaner and safer for all."

Professor Fan Chung, co-lead of INHALE from Imperial College London, said: "I am pleased that this timely review found support for the techniques that have been adopted in the INHALE research program. The collection of ultrafine particles is of particular importance because of the commonly found difficulties of collecting enough for toxicity studies. Ultimately, the success of INHALE will depend on the ability to capture enough of these fine and ultrafine particles as far as possible in their natural state."

Professor Chris Pain, co-lead of INHALE from Imperial College London, said: "Understanding the application of these sampling techniques is hugely important for environmental and health research in general and for the INHALE project itself, particularly concerning collecting ultra-fine particles."

The Cabeza de los Gatos waste rock pile, left from mining activities in the town of Tharsis (Huelva), underwent a rehabilitation process consisting of remodelling the slope of the pile, applying liming materials and then a layer of soil. Finally, trees and shrubs typical of the area were planted and a hydroseeding with a mixture of shrub and herbaceous seeds was applied. Twelve years later, a study led by researchers from IRNAS-CSIC, in collaboration with Sabina Rossini Oliva, a researcher from the University of Seville and the Environment and Water Agency of Andalusia (AMAYA), has proven the effectiveness of this sort of rehabilitation.

"The results obtained show that the steps taken were successful. Now, twelve years later, woody vegetation covers the upper part of the rehabilitated area and provides a green visual landscape for the inhabitants of the village. Furthermore, it has been proved that the aerial part of the vegetation growing on this upper part does not present significant levels of potentially toxic trace elements," Rossini explained.

In contrast, experts point out that the lower part of the slope is almost devoid of vegetation. Moreover, some of the plants growing at the base of the slope, such as gum rockrose (Cistus ladanifer), have cadmium concentrations exceeding the maximum tolerable level for animals, meaning they represent a toxicity risk for livestock.

"Our view is that this anomaly stems from acidic drainage from the pile which has caused a sharp drop in soil pH at the bottom of the slope. This has increased the presence of potentially toxic trace elements and thus their accumulation in plant leaves. This adverse effect has manifested as lower vegetation cover," the University of Seville researcher added.

In light of the results obtained, an alternative technique is proposed for the rehabilitation of mine rock waste piles by classifying and selectively managing the mine waste. This technique consists of managing excavation waste and selecting it based on its geochemical properties; separating materials that may generate acid from those that do not. The non-acid-generating waste should then be placed on the outside of the waste rock pile as a protective layer to prevent water contamination. This reduces infiltration rates, seepage and the negative effect of acid drainage from the mine.

In asthma, the airways become hyperresponsive. Researchers from Uppsala University have found a new mechanism that contributes to, and explains, airway hyperresponsiveness. The results are published in the scientific journal Allergy.

Some 10 per cent of Sweden's population suffer from asthma. In asthmatics, the airways are hyperresponsive (overreactive) to various types of stimuli, such as cold air, physical exertion and chemicals. The airways become constricted, making breathing difficult.

To diagnose asthma, a "methacholine test" is commonly used to determine whether a person is showing signs of airway hyperresponsiveness. Methacholine binds to what are known as muscarinic receptors in the smooth muscle cells lining the inside of the trachea. These muscle cells then begin to contract, causing constriction of the trachea.

In the new study, the scientists show that the airway hyperresponsiveness induced by methacholine is due partly to the body's mast cells. The research was conducted using a mouse model of asthma, where the mice were made allergic to house dust mites.

Mast cells, which are immune cells of a specific type belonging to the innate immune system, are found mainly in tissues that are in contact with the external environment, such as the airways and the skin. Because of their location and the fact that they have numerous different receptors capable of recognising parts of foreign or pathogenic substances, they react quickly and become activated. In their cytoplasm, mast cells have storage capsules, known as granules, in which some substances are stored in their active form. When the mast cell is activated, these substances can be rapidly released and provoke a physiological reaction. This plays a major part in the body's defence against pathogens, but in asthma and other diseases where the body starts reacting against harmless substances in the environment, it becomes a problem.

In their study, the researchers were able to demonstrate that the mast cells contribute to airway hyperresponsiveness by having a receptor that recognises methacholine: muscarinic receptor-3 (M3). When methacholine binds M3, the mast cells release serotonin. This then acts on nerve cells, which in turn control the airways. Thereafter, the airways produce acetylcholine, which also acts on M3 in smooth muscle cells and makes the trachea contract even more. A vicious cycle is under way.

The scientists' discovery also means that drugs like tiotropium, which were previously thought to work solely by blocking M3 in smooth muscle, are probably also efficacious because they prevent activation through M3 in mast cells. Accordingly, the ability of mast cells to rapidly release serotonin in response to various stimuli, thereby contributing to airway hyperresponsiveness, has been underestimated.

Scientists have long theorized that supermassive black holes can wander through space--but catching them in the act has proven difficult.

Now, researchers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have identified the clearest case to date of a supermassive black hole in motion. Their results are published today in the Astrophysical Journal.

"We don't expect the majority of supermassive black holes to be moving; they're usually content to just sit around," says Dominic Pesce, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics who led the study. "They're just so heavy that it's tough to get them going. Consider how much more difficult it is to kick a bowling ball into motion than it is to kick a soccer ball -- realizing that in this case, the 'bowling ball' is several million times the mass of our Sun. That's going to require a pretty mighty kick."

Pesce and his collaborators have been working to observe this rare occurrence for the last five years by comparing the velocities of supermassive black holes and galaxies.

"We asked: Are the velocities of the black holes the same as the velocities of the galaxies they reside in?" he explains. "We expect them to have the same velocity. If they don't, that implies the black hole has been disturbed."

For their search, the team initially surveyed 10 distant galaxies and the supermassive black holes at their cores. They specifically studied black holes that contained water within their accretion disks -- the spiral structures that spin inward towards the black hole.

As the water orbits around the black hole, it produces a laser-like beam of radio light known as a maser. When studied with a combined network of radio antennas using a technique known as very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), masers can help measure a black hole's velocity very precisely, Pesce says.

The technique helped the team determine that nine of the 10 supermassive black holes were at rest--but one stood out and seemed to be in motion.

Located 230 million light-years away from Earth, the black hole sits at the center of a galaxy named J0437+2456. Its mass is about three million times that of our Sun.

Using follow-up observations with the Arecibo and Gemini Observatories, the team has now confirmed their initial findings. The supermassive black hole is moving with a speed of about 110,000 miles per hour inside the galaxy J0437+2456.

But what's causing the motion is not known. The team suspects there are two possibilities.

"We may be observing the aftermath of two supermassive black holes merging," says Jim Condon, a radio astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory who was involved in the study. "The result of such a merger can cause the newborn black hole to recoil, and we may be watching it in the act of recoiling or as it settles down again."

But there's another, perhaps even more exciting possibility: the black hole may be part of a binary system.

"Despite every expectation that they really ought to be out there in some abundance, scientists have had a hard time identifying clear examples of binary supermassive black holes," Pesce says. "What we could be seeing in the galaxy J0437+2456 is one of the black holes in such a pair, with the other remaining hidden to our radio observations because of its lack of maser emission."

Further observations, however, will ultimately be needed to pin down the true cause of this supermassive black hole's unusual motion.

Since the pandemic hit, researchers have been uncovering ways COVID-19 impacts other parts of the body, besides the lungs.

Now, for the first time, a visual correlation has been found between the severity of the disease in the lungs using CT scans and the severity of effects on patient's brains, using MRI scans. This research is published in the American Journal of Neuroradiology. It will be presented at the 59th annual meeting of the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) and has also been selected as a semifinalist for that organization's Cornelius Dyke Award.

The results show that by looking at lung CT scans of patients diagnosed with COVID-19, physicians may be able to predict just how badly they'll experience other neurological problems that could show up on brain MRIs, helping improve patient outcomes and identify symptoms for earlier treatment.

CT imaging can detect illness in the lungs better than an MRI, another medical imaging technique. However, MRI can detect many problems in the brain, particularly in COVID-19 patients, that cannot be detected on CT images.

The study was led by Achala Vagal, MD, professor in the department of radiology, and Abdelkader Mahammedi, MD, assistant professor of radiology. Both are UC Health radiologists and members of the UC Gardner Neuroscience Institute.

"We've seen patients with COVID-19 experience stroke, brain bleeds and other disorders affecting the brain," says Mahammedi. "So, we're finding, through patient experiences, that neurological symptoms are correlating to those with more severe respiratory disease; however, little information has been available on identifying potential associations between imaging abnormalities in the brain and lungs in COVID-19 patients.

"Imaging serves as proof for physicians, confirming how an illness is forming and with what severity and helps in making final decisions about a patient's care."

In this study, which was conducted not only at UC, but also at large institutions in Spain, Italy and Brazil, researchers reviewed electronic medical records and images of hospitalized COVID-19 patients from March 3 to June 25, 2020. Patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19, experienced neurological issues and who had both lung and brain images available were included.

Of 135 COVID-19 patients with abnormal CT lung scans and neurological symptoms, 49, or 36%, were also found to develop abnormal brain scans and were more likely to experience stroke symptoms.

Mahammedi says this study will help physicians classify patients, based on the severity of disease found on their CT scans, into groups more likely to develop brain imaging abnormalities. He adds that this correlation could be important for implementing therapies, particularly in stroke prevention, to improve outcomes in patients with COVID-19.

"These results are important because they further show that severe lung disease from COVID-19 could mean serious brain complications, and we have the imaging to help prove it," says Mahammedi. "Future larger studies are needed to help us understand the tie better, but for now, we hope these results can be used to help predict care and ensure that patients have the best outcomes."

As the driver of global atmospheric and ocean circulation, the tropics play a central role in understanding past and future climate change. Both global climate simulations and worldwide ocean temperature reconstructions indicate that the cooling in the tropics during the last cold period, which began about 115,000 years ago, was much weaker than in the temperate zone and the polar regions. The extent to which this general statement also applies to the tropical high mountains of Eastern Africa and elsewhere is, however, doubted on the basis of palaeoclimatic, geological and ecological studies at high elevations.

A research team led by Alexander Groos, Heinz Veit (both from the Institute of Geography) and Naki Akçar (Institute of Geological Sciences) at the University of Bern, in collaboration with colleagues from ETH Zurich, the University of Marburg and the University of Ankara, used the Ethiopian Highlands as a test site to investigate the extent and impact of regional cooling on tropical mountains during the last glacial period. The results have been published in the scientific journals Science Advances and Earth Surface Dynamics.

Formation of plateau and valley glaciers

"The Ethiopian Highlands are currently not covered by ice, despite its elevation of over 4,000 m," explains Groos, who studied the glacial, climatic and landscape history of the Bale and Arsi Mountains in the southern highlands as part of his dissertation. "Moraines and other land forms, however, attest to the fact that these mountains were glaciated during the last cold period," he continues.

Moraine boulders in the Bale and Arsi Mountains were mapped and sampled in the field and later dated using the chlorine isotope "36Cl" to accurately determine the extent and timing of past glaciations. The researchers were in for a surprise: "Our results show that glaciers in the southern Ethiopian Highlands reached their maximum extent between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago," says Groos, "several thousand years earlier than in other mountainous regions in Eastern Africa and worldwide." In total, the glaciers in the southern highlands covered an area of more than 350 km² during their maximum. In addition to the cooling of at least 4 to 6 °C, the extensive volcanic plateaus above 4,000 m favored the development of glaciation in this magnitude.

The researchers gained important insights by comparing the specially reconstructed glacier fluctuations in the Ethiopian Highlands with those of the highest East African mountains and climate archives from the Great African Rift Valley. "The cross-comparisons show that the tropical mountains in Eastern Africa have experienced a more pronounced cooling than the surrounding lowlands," Groos concludes. "Furthermore, the results suggest a nonuniform response by East African glaciers and ice caps to climate changes during the last cold period, which can be attributed to regional differences in precipitation distribution and mountain relief, among other factors," he continues.

The enigma of the stone stripes

During their fieldwork on the central Sanetti Plateau in the Bale Mountains, the researchers also came across gigantic stone stripes (up to 1,000 m long, 15 m wide and 2 m deep) outside the area of the former ice cap. "The existence of these stone stripes on a tropical plateau surprised us, as so-called periglacial landforms of this magnitude were previously only known from the temperate zone and polar regions and are associated with ground temperatures around freezing point," Groos said. However, the average ground temperature on the Sanetti Plateau is currently about 11 °C.

The large boulders and basalt columns that make up the stone stripes originally came from heavily eroded rock formations and volcanic plugs. As things stand, the researchers assume that the stone stripes were formed during the last glacial period through natural sorting of the previously chaotically distributed rocks in the course of the periodic freezing and thawing of the ground near the former ice cap. However, locally this would have required a drop in the mean ground temperature of at least 11 °C and in the mean air temperature of at least 7 °C. Whether this unprecedented cooling is a regional phenomenon or exemplary for the cooling of tropical high mountains during the last glacial period must be shown by future studies from other tropical mountain regions.