Culture

What The Study Did: Rates and characteristics of needle stick and other sharps injuries among resident physicians and other staff at a large health care center were examined in this study.

Authors: John G. Zampella, M.D., of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamasurg.2020.4112)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflicts of interest disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

More than 250 million people suffer from COPD, a progressive inflammatory lung disease. On the list of the most frequent causes of death worldwide, COPD ranks third behind heart attacks and stroke. The primary cause of COPD is exposure to cigarette smoke. Ninety percent of COPD patients are or have been chronic smokers. Other risk factors include exposure to air pollution. Despite intensive research efforts, there is no cure for COPD. Resulting fibrosis and lung epithelial cell death are key features of COPD, preventing patients from breathing effectively. Current therapies focus on relieving symptoms (mainly breathlessness and cough with phlegm) and reducing the progression of the disease and its comorbidities (mainly muscle wasting). In severe cases, patients are in need of lung transplantation.

Focus on tissue regeneration

"One of the biggest issues in COPD is that the lung cannot regenerate itself", says Dr. Ali Önder Yildirim, Director at the Institute of Lung Biology and Disease at Helmholtz Zentrum München and lead of the new study. "Therefore, a treatment that cures the disease needs to focus on lung tissue regeneration and blocking of lung epithelial cell death."

In 2009, the research group of Univ. Prof. Mathias Heikenwälder at DKFZ prevented liver tissue from chronic inflammation and fibrosis. They had achieved this by blocking the lymphotoxin beta receptor signaling pathway within the liver, which is responsible for the activation and organization of immune cells as well as for chronic liver inflammation leading to fibrosis. "This is why we have long suspected that the blocking of lymphotoxin beta receptor could also play a role in regenerative processes in other organs," explains Heikenwälder.

The development of diseases in the liver and the lung show many similarities. In COPD, immune cells form newly organized structures in the lung, so called tertiary follicles, which are known to play an important role in the disease progression. The formation of these follicles requires the activation of the lymphotoxin beta receptor in the lung - the same receptor which was targeted in Heikenwälder's study in the liver. "We wanted to investigate on the role of this receptor and its signaling in COPD and whether we might be able to use it in a therapeutic setting", says Yildirim. The researchers therefore blocked the signaling of the lymphotoxin beta receptor in lungs of mice which had developed smoke-induced COPD typical immune cell follicles, fibrosis and lung epithelial cell death.

Full restoration of lung tissue in mice

The result: Blocking of lymphotoxin beta receptor signaling in mice lung tissue disrupted the formation of the immune cell follicles, prevented lung epithelial cell death and, surprisingly, at the same time triggered lung tissue regeneration. "The lung in those mice regenerated despite the continuous exposure to chronic cigarette smoke. We observed a full restoration of lung tissue", says Dr. Thomas M. Conlon, part of Yildirim's group at Helmholtz Zentrum München. "Moreover, as the mice lungs healed, co-morbidities such as muscle wasting also improved."

The researchers found that the regeneration of compromised lung epithelial cells is induced by so-called Wnt signaling which is automatically activated through the blocking of lymphotoxin beta receptor signaling in those cells. "Wnt signaling is an essential pathway for lung development. In COPD, it gets switched off preventing lung tissue from being able to repair and regenerate" says Heikenwälder. In previous experiments, re-activation of Wnt signaling in mice has been proven to induce lung repair.

Novel therapeutic approach

"This could become a novel therapeutic approach for COPD. Our idea is to develop lymphotoxin beta receptor blockers for COPD which reduce lung epithelial cell death and lung inflammation. The automatic activation of Wnt signaling could then induce lung tissue regeneration", says Yildirim.

In first preclinical experiments, the group showed that the lymphotoxin beta receptor signaling in human lung tissue is identical to the signaling in mice. This offers great potential for implementing lung regenerative medicine approaches in the clinic. To achieve this ultimate goal, the researchers aim to test this novel therapeutic approach published in Nature journal in human clinical trials over the coming years.

Two population screen and treat programmes commonly prescribed to prevent older people falling have no impact on reducing fractures, researchers from the University of Warwick and University of Exeter have concluded.

As part of the largest clinical trial of its kind in the UK, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, the team examined two approaches to preventing falls in older people to find out if they also resulted in fewer fractures. Their results, published today (4 November) in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that these programmes are not effective, when using a population screening approach, in reducing fractures in older people.

Up to one in 20 older people with a history of falling sustains a fracture annually, with some being admitted to hospital or needing to move to a care home. One in three people with a hip fracture dies within one year. Hip fractures alone cost the UK over £2 billion per year. Strategies to prevent fall-related fractures are desperately needed.

The study examined two screen and treat programmes: multi-factorial fall prevention (MFFP), and exercise for people at increased falls risk. People living in the community were screened for falls risk and invited to attend the programmes. Both interventions are widely used in health services internationally, and prescribed regularly for older people.

Multi-factorial fall prevention involved a one-hour assessment with a trained health professional for eight risk factors for falls. Following this, participants would either be given specific advice, see their GP for a detailed medication review, or be referred for physiotherapy-led exercise. The exercise programme ran for six months during which they were seen by a physiotherapist and exercised at home.

The trial recruited 9803 people aged 70 and older - with the eldest being 101 years old - and who were living in the community (i.e. not in a care home). They were asked to complete a short questionnaire to determine their individual risk of experiencing a fall and those with a higher risk of falls were provided with a falls prevention advice booklet, then randomly assigned to take part in either the 6-month exercise programme, the multi-factorial fall prevention programme, or no further intervention beyond the advice booklet. By taking a population-based screening approach, rather than targeted approach focusing solely on those already being treated for falls, the researchers could build a realistic picture of the broader impact of these programmes on all older people.

The researchers then used data from NHS Digital, combined with general practice records and reports from the participants themselves, to determine how many times they went to hospital or attended Accident and Emergency with a fracture over the course of 18 months. When they compared fracture rates from both screen and treat programmes to those who had only received the advice booklet, they found no reduction in fracture rates between them.

Lead author Professor Sallie Lamb of the University of Exeter, who began the research while working at the University of Warwick, said: "Whilst this is a disappointing result, it shows that we must continue to invest in research and development to reduce fractures in older people. We need to think about the broader causes of fractures, and also understand more about what happens to cause falls."

Co-author Professor Martin Underwood from Warwick Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Warwick said: "Exercise programmes and multifactorial fall prevention are commonly advised for older people at risk of falling based on evidence that they reduce falls, but until now the evidence hasn't shown that they reduce fractures. We have shown beyond reasonable doubt that these interventions are ineffective at reducing fractures."

Co-author Professor Julie Bruce from Warwick Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Warwick said: "We saw benefits to the general health of people doing exercise and a short-term reduction in the number of falls after exercise. People completing the 6-month exercise programme became stronger and their balance improved but that did not translate into a reduction in fractures in the long term. The take home message is that we would encourage older people to do physical activity and keep mobile because of the health benefits."

They belong to the bark beetle family, and they are the only animals in nature, along with leaf-cutter ants and some termites, that practice agriculture: ambrosia beetles. These insects, which are about two millimetres in size, carry fungal spores into their nests and sow them in specially created tunnels in the wood. They then care for the growing fungal cultures that serve as food for them.

Like farmers, the beetles also have to defend their fungal cultures against pests, such as other fungi that threaten to overgrow the gardens. Individually living beetles could hardly manage this work. This is why ambrosia beetles have developed sophisticated social systems over the course of evolution, similar to those of bees and other social insects. "This is unique in beetles," says Würzburg biologist Peter Biedermann.

Biedermann is fascinated by ambrosia beetles. He studied them at the Biocentre of Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany. "Because they have been practicing this type of sustainable agriculture for 60 million years, I am interested in how they combat harmful fungi. Perhaps we can learn from the beetles for our own agriculture".

Fascinating social system discovered in second beetle species

Ambrosia beetles are spread all over the world. In the case of the Fruit-tree pinhole borer (Xyleborinus saxesenii) native to Europe and invasive worldwide, Biedermann described an extraordinarily highly developed social system already in 2011 (publication Biedermann & Taborsky, PNAS). He has now found a similar social system in the sugercane shot-hole borer Xyleborus affinis, which lives in the tropics of the Americas. No other beetles with this peculiarity are known so far.

Biedermann presents his new findings on the social system of the American beetle in the magazine Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution: After a beetle mother has established a new nest with fungal gardens and the first offspring develops, many young beetles stay with their mother for the time being. They help her to care for the fungi and to raise the offspring.

Female workers can reproduce

This is comparable to the workers of the bees. "In contrast to the sterile bee workers, however, the female beetle workers are capable of reproduction: depending on their life situation, they decide whether they will eventually establish their own nest, whether they will lay eggs in the birth nest themselves or whether they will exclusively help the mother," says the biologist.

This social system is termed cooperative brood care, which is very rare in nature and is a preliminary stage to the eusocial system of social insects with their sterile workers and a fertile queen. These beetles could help science to understand the evolution of sociality.
Abundance of "weed fungi" determines activity

In his study, Biedermann has also discovered new information about the sugercane shot-hole borers farming activities. The beetles adjust their fungal care behaviour according to whether there are many or few "weed fungi" growing in the nest. Furthermore, it was shown that beetle daughters who do not reproduce themselves help with the work in the nest, but otherwise show less social behaviour than their egg-laying sisters.

Peter Biedermann recently took over the professorship for forest entomology and forest protection at the University of Freiburg in Germany. His next step there will be to investigate whether ambrosia beetles can distinguish between weedy and food fungi on the basis of their odour and how the beetles selectively weed or chemically control the fungal weeds.

Bethesda, Maryland (Nov. 4, 2020) - Early identification and removal of cancerous colorectal polyps is critical to preventing the progression of colorectal cancer and improving survival rates. The U.S. Multisociety Task Force on Colorectal Cancer has released new guidance for endoscopists on how to assess colorectal lesions for features associated with cancer, discuss how these factors guide management, and outline when to advise surgery after malignant polyp removal.

Key recommendations from the U.S. Multisociety Task Force on Colorectal Cancer, which is comprised of leading experts representing the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), include:

Management of malignant polyps must begin with a thorough and knowledgeable endoscopic assessment designed to identify features of deep submucosal invasion.

In nonpedunculated lesions with features of deep submucosal invasion, endoscopic biopsy and tattooing should be followed by surgical resection.

Nonpedunculated lesions with high risk of superficial submucosal invasion should be considered for en bloc resection and proper specimen handling.

When pathology reports cancer in a lesion that was completely resected endoscopically, the decision to recommend surgery is based on polyp shape, whether there was en bloc resection and adequate histologic assessment, the presence or absence of unfavorable histologic features, the patient's risk for surgical mortality and morbidity, and patient preferences.

Predicting the outcomes of actions in order to make good decisions is a critical role of brain function. This process is thought to work through two fundamentally different mechanisms called "model-free" and "model-based" learning. Though fundamental for flexible and adaptive behaviour, the neurobiology of model-based learning remains poorly understood.

Now, in a study published in the scientific journal Neuron, scientists pin down a brain area crucial for this type of learning and demonstrate how its activity encodes multiple aspects of the decision-making process.

Disentangling cognitive schemes

"Model-free and the model-based learning are distinct, but complementary", says lead author Thomas Akam, a researcher at Oxford University, who worked together on this study with Rui Costa, investigator at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown and now Director and CEO of Columbia's Zuckerman Institute, and Peter Dayan, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen

Whereas the model-based approach relies on understanding the underlying structure of the problem and creating a plan, for instance figuring out the best route to get to a new restaurant, the model-free approach allows you to act quickly with less mental effort in familiar situations.

"The model-free approach simply consists of opting for actions that gave a good result in the past. So in this example, after multiple visits to the restaurant, making the trip would become completely habitual, freeing your mind to focus on other things", Costa adds.

According to the authors, we switch between these modes of acting all the time without even realising. For instance, if you find a closed road on your habitual route to the restaurant, you may quickly transition to the model-based approach to come up with an alternative.

"The two approaches often operate in parallel, which creates a challenge in studying the neural basis of the model-based decision making", says Akam.

To isolate the contribution of these two cognitive schemes, the researchers developed a novel experimental task.

A custom-made puzzle

"We adapted a task that was originally developed for humans so that we could study brain mechanisms in mice", says Akam.

Mice would initiate a trial by poking their noses into one of two central ports, located one above the other. This would light up one of two side ports where the mice could collect a water reward (one located to the left and the other to the right of the central ports).

To do the task well, the mice had to figure out two key variables. The first was which side-port was more likely to offer a reward. And the second was which of the central ports activated the more rewarding side port. Once the mice learned the task, they would opt for the action sequence that offered the best outcome.

Though this task may seem artificial, Akam points out that it captures certain important features of real-world decision-making. "Just like in real life, the subject has to perform extended sequences of actions, with uncertain consequences, in order to obtain desired outcomes", he explains.

To promote flexible learning strategies, every now and then, one of two changes would happen. "One manipulation was to switch the mapping between the central and the side ports. The other was to change which of the side ports had a higher probability of giving reward", Akam explains.

How was this experimental approach useful for disentangling the different cognitive schemes? "In principle, the task can be solved by either model-free or model-based learning; mice could simply learn the model-free prediction 'top is good', or they could learn a model of the task 'top leads to left, left to reward ", Akam says. "However, these different strategies would generate different patterns of choices. By looking at the subjects' behaviour we were able to assess the contribution of either approach."

When the team analysed the results - about 230,000 individual decisions - they learned that the mice were using both approaches in parallel. "This confirmed that the task was suitable for studying the neural basis of these mechanisms", Costa says. "We then moved on to the next step - investigating the neural basis of this behaviour."

A neural map of model-based learning

The team focussed on a brain region called anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)."Previous studies established that ACC is involved in action selection and provided some evidence that it could be involved in model-based predictions," Dr. Costa explained. "But no one had checked the activity of individual ACC neurons in a task designed to differentiate between these different types of learning"

Remarkably,the researchers discovered that the activity of the neurons created a map that represented various aspects of the behaviour of the mice. "By looking at the pattern of activity across the population we could decode very accurately where in the trial the subject was. For instance, if it was about to choose the bottom port, or was moving from the top to the right port, or receiving a reward on the left", Akam recounts.

In addition to representing the animal's current location in the task, ACC neurons also encoded which state was likely to come next. "This provided direct evidence that ACC is involved in making model-based predictions of the specific consequences of actions, not just whether they are good or bad", says Costa.

Moreover, ACC neurons also represented whether the outcome of actions was expected or surprising, potentially providing a mechanism for updating predictions when they turn out to be wrong.

Finally, to test whether the ACC was needed for model-based decision-making, the team silenced ACC neurons in individual trials while the animals were deciding what option to choose. As a result, "mice failed to correctly update their strategy, suggesting that silencing ACC prevents the animals from using model-based predictions. Consistent with this interpretation, ACC silencing had a stronger effect on subjects who relied more on a model-based strategy", Akam explains.

"These results were very exciting," Costa points out. "These data identify the anterior cingulate cortex as a key brain region in model-based decision-making, more specifically in predicting what will happen in the world if we choose to do a particular action versus another."

Next steps

According to the authors, a big challenge in contemporary neuroscience is understanding how the brain controls complex behaviours like planning and sequential decision making. "Our study is one of the first to demonstrate that it is possible to study these aspects of decision-making in mice", says Akam.

"These results will allow us and others to use the powerful tools for monitoring and manipulating brain activity available in this species to build mechanistic understanding of flexible decision making", he concludes.

In a small study of adults with major depression, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that two doses of the psychedelic substance psilocybin, given with supportive psychotherapy, produced rapid and large reductions in depressive symptoms, with most participants showing improvement and half of study participants achieving remission through the four-week follow-up.

A compound found in so-called magic mushrooms, psilocybin produces visual and auditory hallucinations and profound changes in consciousness over a few hours after ingestion. In 2016, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers first reported that treatment with psilocybin under psychologically supported conditions significantly relieved existential anxiety and depression in people with a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.

Now, the findings from the new study, published Nov. 4 in JAMA Psychiatry, suggest that psilocybin may be effective in the much wider population of patients who suffer from major depression than previously appreciated.

"The magnitude of the effect we saw was about four times larger than what clinical trials have shown for traditional antidepressants on the market," says Alan Davis, Ph.D., adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Because most other depression treatments take weeks or months to work and may have undesirable effects, this could be a game changer if these findings hold up in future 'gold-standard' placebo-controlled clinical trials." The published findings cover only a four-week follow-up in 24 participants, all of whom underwent two five-hour psilocybin sessions under the direction of the researchers.

"Because there are several types of major depressive disorders that may result in variation in how people respond to treatment, I was surprised that most of our study participants found the psilocybin treatment to be effective," says Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., the Oliver Lee McCabe III Professor in the Neuropsychopharmacology of Consciousness at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. He says the major depression treated in the new study may have been different than the "reactive" form of depression in patients they studied in the 2016 cancer trial. Griffiths says his team was encouraged by public health officials to explore psilocybin's effects in the broader population of those with major depressive disorder because of the much larger potential public health impact.

For the new study, the researchers recruited 24 people with a long-term documented history of depression, most of whom experienced persisting symptoms for approximately two years before enrolling in the study. The average age of participants was 39; 16 were women; and 22 identified themselves as white, one person identified as Asian and one person identified as African American. Participants had to taper off any antidepressants prior to the study with the help of their personal physician to ensure safe exposure to this experimental treatment.

Thirteen participants received the psilocybin treatment immediately after recruitment and after preparation sessions, and 11 participants received the same preparation and treatment after an eight-week delay.

Treatment consisted of two psilocybin doses given by two clinical monitors who provided guidance and reassurance. The doses were given two weeks apart between August 2017 and April 2019 at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Behavioral Biology Research Building. Each treatment session lasted approximately five hours, with the participant lying on a couch wearing eyeshades and headphones that played music, in the presence of the monitors.

All participants were given the GRID-Hamilton Depression Rating Scale - a standard depression assessment tool - upon enrollment, and at one and four weeks following completion of their treatment. On the scale, a score of 24 or more indicates severe depression, 17-23 moderate depression, 8-16 mild depression and 7 or less no depression. At enrollment, participants had an average depression scale rating of 23, but one week and four weeks after treatment, they had an average depression scale score of 8. After treatment, most participants showed a substantial decrease in their symptoms, and almost half were in remission from depression at the follow-up. Participants in the delayed group didn't show decreases in their symptoms before receiving the psilocybin treatment.

For the entire group of 24 participants, 67% showed a more than 50% reduction in depression symptoms at the one-week follow-up and 71% at the four-week follow-up. Overall, four weeks post-treatment, 54% of participants were considered in remission - meaning they no longer qualified as being depressed.

"I believe this study to be a critically important proof of concept for the medical approval of psilocybin for treatment of depression, a condition I have personally struggled with for decades," says entrepreneur and philanthropist Tim Ferriss, who supported the funding campaign for this study. "How do we explain the incredible magnitude and durability of effects? Treatment research with moderate to high doses of psychedelics may uncover entirely new paradigms for understanding and improving mood and mind. This is a taste of things to come from Johns Hopkins."

The researchers say they will follow the participants for a year after the study to see how long the antidepressant effects of the psilocybin treatment last, and will report their findings in a later publication.

Griffiths, whose research with psilocybin, begun in the early 2000s, was initially viewed by some with skepticism and concern, says he is gratified by Johns Hopkins' support and heartened by the dozens of startups and research labs that have followed suit with their own research. He says numerous companies are now actively working to develop marketable forms of psilocybin and related psychedelic substances.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 17 million people in the U.S. and 300 million people worldwide have experienced major depression.

A recent study has shown that it may be possible to dampen the workings of the subconscious brain to prevent alcohol relapse, the results leading to a world-first trial of a personalised smartphone app called "SWiPE".

Cognitive Bias Modification, a new form of computerised brain-training, is focused on training the brain to automatically avoid alcohol cues, with findings showing that early relapse was reduced by 17 percent after four sessions of CBM, compared to those who received a "control" (placebo) version of the task.

Regular drinkers have a 'cognitive bias' to alcohol cues such as places, sights, smells, and social situations that remind them of drinking, subconsciously capturing attention, driving impulses to seek out and drink alcohol. When these cues become less attention-grabbing and less rewarding, our subconscious brain has less influence on our behaviour, leaving more room for our conscious brain to drive decision-making.

Published in JAMA Psychiatry and led by researchers from Turning Point, Monash University and Deakin University, the study has resulted in researchers developing a CBM smartphone app called "SWiPE" where people can upload alcoholic beverages or brands they wish to train their subconscious brain to avoid, while at the same time 'approaching' images of more positive, healthy activities they want to do more of.

Associate Professor Victoria Manning, Head of Research and Workforce Development, Turning Point and Associate Professor in Addiction Studies, Monash University says "preventing relapse in the period following alcohol detox is really important because that is when people engage in psychological treatments and peer support groups that have shown to help people recover from alcohol problems."

"A lot of the time, people wanting to quit or take a break from alcohol experience a form of internal conflict - they know it's important not to drink, but at the same time, they really want to have a drink".

Our conscious brain allows us to think about the things we'll gain by not drinking - saving money, better sleep, better health, better relationships - and it enables us to focus on some of the positive, healthier things we can do instead. The problem is that there is also the subconscious brain at work saying "go on... have one, it will relax you, make you feel better, you deserve it", even if those benefits are not entirely- true or just short-lived. Unfortunately, all too often, the subconscious brain wins the battle.

The researchers are really encouraged by these results: "Being easy-to-implement, safe and requiring only a laptop and joystick, we'd love to see CBM routinely offered as an adjunctive intervention during inpatient withdrawal, to optimise patient outcomes" says Associate Professor Victoria Manning.

"We know only a small percentage of people with alcohol problems seek treatment. Therefore, having low-cost, widely-available, evidence-based interventions available outside of traditional treatment settings will mean more people have access to anonymous and convenient, easy to use support tools when they most need them."

The team is currently examining SWiPE's feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness at reducing alcohol consumption and cravings and preliminary findings suggests app-delivered CBM is also looking very promising.

Researchers from Beijing Normal University, Peking University and National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) found that there is weak correlation between fast radio bursts(FRBs) and soft gamma-ray repeater J1935+2154(SGRs). The study was published in Nature on Nov. 4.

The detection of FRB 200428 associated with the galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 provides crucial clues to the generation of FRBs.

They used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) to conduct multi-band joint observations of the Milky Way magnetar SGR J1935+2154.

In April, Dr. LIN Lin from Beijing Normal University, first author of the study, proposed monitoring SGR J1935+2154, a soft gamma-ray repeater showing FRB like pulses, to explore the origin of FRBs. FAST detected no pulse during the campaign, particularly around the arrival time of 29 high-energy bursts.

Combined with CHIME and STARE-2 detections, FAST's results cover eight orders of magnitude on the brightness scale, thus providing the most stringent limit to the radio flux of this Galactic fast radio burst (FRB) sources.

"The weak correlation could be explained by special geometry and/or limited bandwidth of FRBs," said Prof. ZHANG Bing from University of Nevada, corresponding author of the study. "The observations of SGR J1935 start to reveal the magnetar origin of FRBs, although other possibilities still exist."

While continuing the monitoring of SGR J1935+2154, the unprecedented sensitivity of FAST has potential for revolutionizing our understanding of radio transients. In May of this year, Prof. ZHU Weiwei from NAOC, co-author of the study, published the first new FRB discovered by FAST.

According to Prof. LI Di, co-corresponding author of the study, FAST's chief scientist, "FAST has discovered more than five new FRBs and has detected more than 1,600 pulses from known repeating sources. FAST is and will be making unique contributions to this young and active field."

In the vast universe, some extremely strong radio waves occasionally blink, with duration of only milliseconds. Such fast radio bursts were discovered by astronomers in 2007. Puzzling questions arise: Who sent them? What information is conveyed by these radio bursts?

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) has revealed some mystery of the fast radio bursts, according to a study published in Nature on Oct. 28.

More than 30 burst sources have been found until last year. These bursts randomly emerge in the sky, which implies that most of them are not from the Milky Way but outside.

In 2017, astronomers finally caught a repeating FRB source from that several bursts emerge in a few hours. The burst source is found to come from a galaxy 3 billion light years away in the deep Universe.

The large collecting area makes FAST the most sensitive telescope over the world and the precisely controlled adopt reflectors enables it to make excellent focus and track on celestial targets.

In the trial open semester in 2019, Dr. LUO Rui, first author of the study, a PhD student from Peking University, hoped to use FAST to see if a radio burst FRB 180301 repeats or not. Fortunately, four bursts were detected during the two-hour observation session on July 16, 2019. This is an exciting result, but no bursts were detected in the four-hour observation on September 11, 2019.

Considering the position uncertainty of originally reported from the first discovery by the Australian telescope, a research team led by Prof. LI Kejia from Peking University, Prof. HAN Jinlin from National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC), and Prof. ZHANG Bing from University of Las Vegas discussed and changed the observations strategy by monitoring the target by using the central beam of 19-beam receiver of the FAST and made the full-polarization data recorded.

On October 6 and 7, FAST detected 11 bursts in six hours. Totally, FAST detected 15 bursts in 12 hours. The intensity profiles of these bursts are quite different from each other, but definitely they come from one source, similar to the repeating burst source astronomers previously found, with a similar distance of three billion light-years away, and a similar burst rate but much less luminous.

The most intriguing results come from the careful analysis on the polarization signals of the 11 radio bursts recorded by FAST. Among the 11 bursts detected by FAST, the polarization properties of seven bursts could be well-measured, which showed not only interesting swings of polarization, but also the diversity of swings.

Such a diverse polarization behavior had never been seen in any radio bursts previously. It means that the bursts are produced in the magnetosphere of compact stars with extremely magnetic fields, such as neutron stars, and disfavors the shock models produced by jets of plasma as proposed by many scientists.

In the past, polarization signals from only a few of some 30 bursts have been recorded, either showing flat polarization angle swing, i.e. constant polarization direction of radio waves, or variable position angle in one-off bursts. The significance results obtained by FAST observations settle down the debates between the two schools of theoretical models.

As of today, FAST has conducted intense astronomical observations to many celestial objects, and has discovered more than 230 new pulsars in the last few years.

Fishermen working on Lake Tanganyika in eastern Congo experience a lack of safety and want better enforcement of existing regulations. They also report a decline in the lake's fish stocks. These are some of the findings of a large international study led by KU Leuven (Belgium) based on 1018 interviews with stakeholders in the area. The study was published in the Journal of Great Lakes Research.

Lake Tanganyika is the second largest freshwater lake in the world and is located in four countries: the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Burundi, and Zambia. The fisheries on the lake play a vital role in providing food to eastern Congo, one of the poorest regions in the world.

Exploitation of natural resources and pollution put the fish stocks under pressure. Researchers now show that fishermen experience a lack of safety on the lake and there is a reported decline in fishery yield. Fishermen and other stakeholders ask for protection, access to safety gear, and better enforcement of existing fisheries legislation. The team consisted of researchers from, among others, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, the Belgian Royal Museum of Central Africa and the Congolese Centre de Recherche en Hydrobiologie (CRH).

Outdated regulations

Fishermen working on Lake Tanganyika mainly catch three species: perch and two species of sardines. The fish are sold on the beaches to saleswomen, who then sell them on markets. Regulation of fishing is limited. Government employees collect catch statistics on the beaches and check if any illegal materials, such as beach seines or mosquito nets, are being used. To ensure that fish stocks are not depleted, good management is indispensable. However, the current regulations are four decades old, and no longer relevant for the situation today, since the number of fishermen has increased exponentially. In order to adapt the regulations to the needs of fisheries stakeholders, it is important to have insight into their opinions and views.

The researchers conducted and analysed 1018 interviews with fishermen, salespeople, government employees and other stakeholders of the fisheries. Fishermen, salespeople, and officials indicate that the catches of the three target species are decreasing and that fish are also getting smaller over time. These could be indications of overfishing of the system. "However, the study participants did not attribute this to overfishing or overpopulation", says Maarten Van Steenberge, who coordinated the study. As a result, fishermen and others are not in favor of stricter regulations, as they do not see the benefit.

Illegal practices

A stricter fisheries policy has little chance of succeeding if the local population does not support it. "We do notice that although the fishermen are not open to tightening the regulations, they do demand a stricter application of the existing rules, for example to prevent unfair competition from fishermen who fish with illegal materials", says Pascal Masilya Mulungula, researcher at CRH in Uvira, Congo.

Illegal fishing practices like catching juvenile fish near the shore with mosquito nets, has detrimental effects on the stocks. However, these illegal fishing practices are mostly carried out by impoverished women, who lack any other source of food and income, and this income to support their families. Strict application of the rules, which forbid this type of fishing, should thus go together with alternatives sources of income for these people.

Unsafe

The interviews with fishermen also revealed that their main concern is a lack of security. "Fishermen report dangerous conditions on the lake, such as high waves and strong winds. They are also regularly attacked by gangs or extorted by soldiers or security officers", says Els De Keyzer, who carried out the research. The fishermen ask for more security equipment, such as lifejackets, and strict action against gangs and corruption.

This was the first time that stakeholders of the Lake Tanganyika fisheries were interviewed about these issues on such big scale, providing unique insight into the problems and needs related to these fisheries. The authors handed over their findings to the local administration in a policy brief. "We hope that this study will be used as a starting point for policymakers who want to adapt the regulations to current conditions. Since the stocks are shared between four countries, future research should focus on how much willingness there is for collaboration between stakeholders around the lake," concludes De Keyzer.

Since the dawn of space exploration, humankind has been fascinated by survival of terrestrial life in outer space. Outer space is a hostile environment for any form of life, but some extraordinarily resistant microorganisms can survive. Such extremophiles may migrate between planets and distribute life across the Universe, underlying the panspermia hypothesis or interplanetary transfer of life.

The extremophilic bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans withstands the drastic influence of outer space: galactic cosmic and solar UV radiation, extreme vacuum, temperature fluctuations, desiccation, freezing, and microgravity. A recent study examined the influence of outer space on this unique microbe on a molecular level. After 1 year of exposure to low Earth orbit (LEO) outside the International Space Station during the Tanpopo space Mission, researches found that D. radiodurans escaped morphological damage and produced numerous outer membrane vesicles. A multifaceted protein and genomic responses were initiated to alleviate cell stress, helping the bacteria to repair DNA damage and defend against reactive oxygen species. Processes underlying transport and energy status were altered in response to space exposure. D. radiodurans used a primordial stress molecule polyamine putrescine as a reactive oxygen species scavenger during regeneration from space exposure.

"These investigations help us to understand the mechanisms and processes through which life can exist beyond Earth, expanding our knowledge how to survive and adapt in the hostile environment of outer space. The results suggest that survival of D. radiodurans in LEO for a longer period is possible due to its efficient molecular response system and indicate that even longer, farther journeys are achievable for organisms with such capabilities" says Tetyana Milojevic, a head of Space Biochemistry group at the University of Vienna and a corresponding author of the study.

Together with the colleagues from Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Science (Japan), Research Group Astrobiology at German Aerospace Center (DLR, Cologne), Vienna Metabolomics Centre (ViMe) at the University of Vienna and Center for Microbiome Research at Medical University Graz, researches answered the question not only till which extend but how extremophilic microbes can tolerate drastic space conditions.

Today, a multitude of industries, including optics, electronics, water purification, and drug delivery, innovate at an unprecedented scale with nanometer-wide rolls of honeycomb-shaped graphite sheets called carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Features such as light weight, convenient structure, immense mechanical strength, superior thermal and electrical conductivities, and stability put CNTs a notch above other material alternatives. However, to supply their rising industrial demand, their production must be constantly scaled up, and therein lies the main challenge to using CNTs.

While scientists have been able to grow individual CNTs approximately 50 cm in length, when they attempt arrays, or forests, they hit a ceiling at around 2 cm. This is because the catalyst, which is key to CNT growth occurring, deactivates and/or runs out before CNTs in a forest can grow any longer, driving up monetary and raw-material costs of CNT production and threatening to cap its industrial use.

Now, a ceiling-breaking strategy has been devised by a team of scientists from Japan. In their study published in Carbon, the team presents a novel approach to a conventional technique that yields CNT forests of record length: ~14 cm--7 times greater than the previous maximum. Hisashi Sugime, Assistant Professor at Waseda University, who led the team, explains, "In the conventional technique, the CNTs stop growing due to a gradual structural change in the catalyst, so we focused on developing a new technique that suppresses this structural change and allows the CNTs to grow for a longer period."

The team created a catalyst based on their findings in a previous study to begin with. They added a gadolinium (Gd) layer to the conventional iron-aluminum oxide (Fe/Al2Ox) catalyst coated onto a silicon (Si) substrate. This Gd layer prevented the deterioration of the catalyst to a certain extent, allowing the forest to grow up to around 5 cm in length.

To further prevent catalyst deterioration, the team placed the catalyst in their original chamber called the cold-gas chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chamber. There, they heated it to 750°C and supplied it with small concentrations (parts-per-million) of room temperature Fe and Al vapors.

This kept the catalyst going strong for 26 hours, in which time a dense CNT forest could grow to 14 cm. Various analyses to characterize the grown CNTs showed that they were of high purity and competitive strength.

This achievement not only overcomes hurdles to the widespread industrial application of CNTs but it opens doors in nanoscience research. "This simple but novel method that drastically prolongs catalyst lifetime by supplying ppm-level vapor sources is insightful for catalyst engineering in other fields such as petrochemistry and nanomaterial crystal growth," Sugime says. "The knowledge herein could be pivotal to making nanomaterials a ubiquitous reality."

Coronavirus has infected more than 40 million people around the world and has caused more than a million deaths in less than a year. Moreover, it is still not clear why some people who contract the virus show no symptoms whereas others may die or suffer very severe consequences. Although age, illnesses and previous treatments can be used to give a prognosis in some cases, it is still not possible to state for certain how each case of coronavirus will evolve. One of the treatments that have been discussed in regard to their role in the evolution of COVID-19 has been statins. This drug helps to reduce cholesterol in the blood and thus prevent cardiovascular diseases. It is currently taken by one in four people and is the most widely used medicine among the general public. Now, a research by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) and Pere Virgili Institut (IISPV) led by Lluís Masana has found that people who are being treated with statins have a 22% to 25% lower risk of dying from COVID-19. The research results have been published in the European Heart Journal - Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy.

The study was carried out through the Network of Lipid and Arteriosclerosis Units of Catalonia and collected information from 2,159 patients infected with SARS-COv-2 from 19 hospitals in Catalonia during the first wave of the pandemic from March to May. The researcher evaluated one hundred clinical variables per patient such as age, sex, previous illnesses, cholesterol levels, evolution of the virus, treatments used for COVID-19, and so on. The researchers then compared death rates of patients being treated with statins with death rates among those who were not and they also analysed the effect of withdrawing statins when the patient was admitted to hospital. "In our comparison, we adjusted the groups so that they were comparable in terms of age, sex and the existence of earlier illnesses", explained Masana, who has coordinated the study from the Lipid and Arteriosclerosis Research Unit at the URV's Department of Medicine and Surgery, which is a member of the CIBERDEM Network bringing together research groups working on diabetes and metabolism in Spain. Masana is also a researcher at the Sant Joan University Hospital in Reus.

The percentage of patients who died in the group not treated with statins was 25.4%, whereas it was 19.8% among those who were, that is to say 22% lower. "The data indicate that treatment with statins prevents one in five deaths", indicated Masana. Furthermore, if treatment with this medicine continued during hospitalization, mortality fell by up to 25%, thus preventing one in four deaths.

Consequently, Lluís Masana went on to say that "not only do these findings demonstrate that treatment with statins has no negative on the evolution of COVID-19, they also show that it significantly reduces patient mortality".

One of the indirect effects of the pandemic is that some people have stopped taking preventive measures aimed at combatting chronic diseases or maintaining general health, and this has been the case with statins. "Some health professionals have even advised their withdrawal in the belief that they could worsen the effects of COVID-19", said Masana. In this regard, in addition the virus to directly causing death in some patients, complications and overall mortality can increase due to the withdrawal of these drugs and regular monitoring of the use of this medicine. "In the case of statins, we have demonstrated that fear of the pandemic should never be used as an excuse to suspend treatment", concluded the researcher.

Although the research was never intended to demonstrate that administering statins to COVID-19 patients would reduce the risk of death, it does open the way for studies that may confirm this finding.

A rise in negative health behaviours - such as lack of sleep, exercise and an unhealthy diet - is connected to poorer mental health during the tightest restrictions of Scotland's COVID-19 lockdown, a new study has confirmed.

Research conducted on 20 May 2020 and led by University of the West of Scotland (UWS), in partnership with Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU), has concluded that these changes contributed to a higher negative mood and that maintaining, or even improving, health behaviours in a lockdown situation is key to sustaining positive mental health.

The study, funded by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO), also found a link between increased alcohol consumption when living with children, and a poorer diet if the person's working status had been affected by COVID-19.

Dr Joanne Ingram, Lecturer in the School of Education and Social Sciences at UWS, said: "When the Scottish Government instigated the initial societal lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many subsequently experienced significant lifestyle changes, alongside the stresses of potentially catching the virus or experiencing bereavement.

"We know that stressful situations and poorer health behaviours, such as higher alcohol consumption, unhealthy diet, poorer sleep quality and physical inactivity are frequently linked to poor mental health; however, our objective was to examine changes in health behaviours and their relationship with negative mood during the COVID-19 lockdown."

The study found that:

Increased alcohol consumption was linked to living with children, but not to negative mood.

Poorer diet was linked to more-negative mood, and to changes to working status. Those who had changed their work status due to the COVID-19 pandemic reported that their diet had become unhealthier.

Poorer sleep quality was linked with more-negative mood, and with 'shielding' from the virus. Shielding was the only COVID-19-related factor which was associated with changes in sleep quality.

Being less physically active was related to more-negative mood and student status, with those studying full-time seeing a greater reduction in their physical activity.

Being more physically active was linked to having or suspecting COVID-19 infection within the household.

Households where COVID-19 had been experienced or suspected were associated with increasing their physical activity.

Dr Joanne Ingram added: "This study adds to reports on poor mental health during lockdown and identifies lifestyle restrictions and changes to health behaviours which may be responsible for higher negative mood. Our data suggests that it is advisable to maintain or improve health behaviours during pandemic-associated restrictions, which is important to highlight whilst restrictions are on-going."

Dr Christopher Hand from the Department of Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University, said: "While we found a relationship between negative change in health behaviours and higher negative mood, our results weren't all doom-and-gloom. We saw that large numbers of people were able to make healthy changes during lockdown, and these positive changes were associated with better mental health outcomes.