Culture

Almost one in five patients with COVID-19 may only show gastrointestinal symptoms, according to a review of academic studies published in the journal Abdominal Radiology. The findings of the review suggest abdominal radiologists need to remain vigilant during the pandemic while imaging patients.

Gastrointestinal symptoms associated with COVID-19 vary widely but can include loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and generalized abdominal pain. The researchers who conducted the review report that 18 per cent of patients presented with such symptoms, while 16 per cent of COVID-19 cases may only present with gastrointestinal symptoms.

"There's a growing amount of literature showing that abdominal symptomatology is a common presentation for COVID-19," said Mitch Wilson, a radiologist and clinical lecturer in the University of Alberta's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry.

The researchers, who also included Gavin Low, associate professor of radiology and diagnostic imaging, and medical student Kevin Lui, examined findings from 36 studies published through July 15 to reach their conclusions.

In addition to gastrointestinal symptoms, they also determined potential signs radiologists should look for while conducting abdominal imaging that could be evidence of COVID-19 infection. Those signs include inflammation of the small and large bowel, air within the bowel wall (pneumatosis) and bowel perforation (pneumoperitoneum). The signs are quite rare, said the researchers, and could indicate patients with advanced disease.

"Seeing these things is not necessarily telling us a patient has COVID-19," said Wilson. "It could be from a variety of potential causes. But one of those potential causes is infection from the virus, and in an environment where COVID-19 is very prevalent, it's something to consider and potentially raise as a possibility to the referring physician."

Since the latter half of the 20th century, vacationing has grown increasingly synonymous with tourism. This has been attributed to disposable incomes rising for many people, budget commercial airlines taking to the sky, and multitudes of tour facilitators entering the market, among other things. Now, economies of entire countries depend on tourism. To quote the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO): "Today, the business volume of tourism equals or even surpasses that of oil exports, food products, or automobiles."

Yet, there have been entire communities of people who do not have the luxury to partake in tourism--for monetary, psychological, cultural, or bureaucratic constraints. Social tourism provides these communities the opportunity to fulfill their vacation desires. But according to Professor Jin Young Chung from Incheon National University, Korea, not all such disadvantaged communities are able to make the most of social tourism. Talking about his paper recently published in the Annals of Tourism Research (made available online on 31 October 2019 and offline in the September 2020 issue), he says: "There exists a hidden population who could benefit from social tourism but tend not to participate at all."

Prof Chung is referring to families in which a parent is battling cancer and is terminally ill. Often buried under brutal treatment regimens, the burden of bills, and low morale, these families cannot see vacation as a priority. However, Prof Chung's research tells us that they need a vacation.

Prof Chung and his colleague Prof Steven Simpson of the University of Wisconsin analyzed notes written by approximately 400 such families after they had benefitted from a social tourism program run by a non-profit charitable organization in the US.

"I don't think any of us knew how much we needed a break from all the doctor's appointments..." one family said. "...one of the first thoughts I got was how do I spend as much time as I can with my kids making good memories to last them a lifetime?" a mother had written. Because of this social tourism program, the families had recognized their latent tourism need.

"The most important memory was seeing my daughter's eyes light up and the sound of her laughter," wrote another parent. The trip had gotten families to realize that there were precious benefits to this vacation. Not only did it take them away from the worries of daily life and treatment, it brought them closer and left positive mental impressions on the children.

Several notes also made it clear that these realizations would not have come to fruition if their medical or social points of contact, such as nurses and social workers, had not nudged them to consider the social tourism program. "Public health professionals and health clinics should consider educating oncologists and social workers on the importance of travel and leisure programs for families with a terminally ill cancer parent, where the parent is preparing to leave their children behind and whose families are preparing to live life without them," Prof Chung reiterates.

Researchers of tourism mobility and organizations such as the UNWTO care about making tourism sustainable and accessible for all. But this analysis by Profs Chung and Simpson brings to the fore the fact that hidden communities exist who remain excluded from such focus. It is time research is done to unearth them and understand their needs, so tourism can one day truly become accessible for all.

Prof. Dr. Thomas Kenkmann, geologist from the University of Freiburg's Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, together with mineralogist Prof. Dr. Wolf Uwe Reimold from the University of Brasilia, Brazil, and Dr. Manfred Gottwald from the German Aerospace Center (DLR) published an atlas providing a comprehensive overview of all known impact craters on every continent. The authors present the more than 200 terrestrial impact sites in high-resolution topographic maps and satellite images, complete with detailed geological descriptions and photographs of the crater structures and their rocks. They also explain the essential details of each impact event.

The formation of craters by asteroid and comet impact has always been a fundamental process in the solar system, explains Kenkmann. As the planets developed along with their moons, these impacts played an important part in accreting planetary mass, shaping the surfaces of planetary bodies, and later also influencing their development. And larger meteorite impacts eventually affected the development of life on Earth.

Today, mapping of what can still be seen of the impact structures on the Earth's surface can be done by satellites in low Earth orbit. From 2010 to 2016, the DLR successfully measured the Earth's surface with the radar satellites of the TanDEM-X mission. The acquired data allowed, for the first time, to derive a worldwide terrain model with a height accuracy of up to one meter. From this global digital elevation model the authors have been able to produce this complete topographic atlas of 600 pages with information about all terrestrial impact craters known to date.

On a daily basis, and perhaps without realizing it, most of us are in close contact with advanced AI methods known as deep learning. Deep learning algorithms churn whenever we use Siri or Alexa, when Netflix suggests movies and tv shows based upon our viewing histories, or when we communicate with a website's customer service chatbot.

However, the rapidly evolving technology, one that has otherwise been expected to serve as an effective weapon against climate change, has a downside that many people are unaware of -- sky high energy consumption. Artificial intelligence, and particularly the subfield of deep learning, appears likely to become a significant climate culprit should industry trends continue. In only six years -- from 2012 to 2018 -- the compute needed for deep learning has grown 300,000%. However, the energy consumption and carbon footprint associated with developing algorithms is rarely measured, despite numerous studies that clearly demonstrate the growing problem.

In response to the problem, two students at the University of Copenhagen's Department of Computer Science, Lasse F. Wolff Anthony and Benjamin Kanding, together with Assistant Professor Raghavendra Selvan, have developed a software programme they call Carbontracker. The programme can calculate and predict the energy consumption and CO2 emissions of training deep learning models.

"Developments in this field are going insanely fast and deep learning models are constantly becoming larger in scale and more advanced. Right now, there is exponential growth. And that means an increasing energy consumption that most people seem not to think about," according to Lasse F. Wolff Anthony.

One training session = the annual energy consumption of 126 Danish homes

Deep learning training is the process during which the mathematical model learns to recognize patterns in large datasets. It's an energy-intensive process that takes place on specialized, power-intensive hardware running 24 hours a day.

"As datasets grow larger by the day, the problems that algorithms need to solve become more and more complex," states Benjamin Kanding.

One of the biggest deep learning models developed thus far is the advanced language model known as GPT-3. In a single training session, it is estimated to use the equivalent of a year's energy consumption of 126 Danish homes, and emit the same amount of CO2 as 700,000 kilometres of driving.

"Within a few years, there will probably be several models that are many times larger," says Lasse F. Wolff Anthony.

Room for improvement

"Should the trend continue, artificial intelligence could end up being a significant contributor to climate change. Jamming the brakes on technological development is not the point. These developments offer fantastic opportunities for helping our climate. Instead, it is about becoming aware of the problem and thinking: How might we improve?" explains Benjamin Kanding.

The idea of Carbontracker, which is a free programme, is to provide the field with a foundation for reducing the climate impact of models. Among other things, the programme gathers information on how much CO2 is used to produce energy in whichever region the deep learning training is taking place. Doing so makes it possible to convert energy consumption into CO2 emission predictions.

Among their recommendations, the two computer science students suggest that deep learning practitioners look at when their model trainings take place, as power is not equally green over a 24-hour period, as well as what type of hardware and algorithms they deploy.

"It is possible to reduce the climate impact significantly. For example, it is relevant if one opts to train their model in Estonia or Sweden, where the carbon footprint of a model training can be reduced by more than 60 times thanks to greener energy supplies. Algorithms also vary greatly in their energy efficiency. Some require less compute, and thereby less energy, to achieve similar results. If one can tune these types of parameters, things can change considerably," concludes Lasse F. Wolff Anthony.

The proportion of those, who say that they meet less frequently with family or friends, rose from 65 to 76 percent. Furthermore, 69 percent say, they leave their home less - an increase by 10 percentage points. "With the current increase in the number of infections, people in Germany are becoming more cautious again," comments BfR-President Professor Dr. Dr. Andreas Hensel on the latest developments.

https://www.bfr.bund.de/cm/349/201027-bfr-corona-monitor-en.pdf

The majority considered the measures in force until the end of last week to be appropriate. Nevertheless, acceptance particularly for the restrictions in the cultural sector has decreased from 82 percent at the end of September to 71 percent at the end of October. The recently introduced mandated closing time, that is, closing eating and dining venues in the late evening hours, was supported by 59 percent of the respondents. Two thirds considered the associated ban on selling alcohol to be appropriate.

The current survey also shows that some concerns are growing. Now, around a quarter of the respondents are worried about their physical and mental health and a third (35 percent) about their social relationships. About one in five is still concerned about their own economic situation.

For the first time, the BfR-Corona-Monitor also measured how often the respondents use different types of media to inform themselves about the coronavirus. It was found that for this purpose more than half of the respondents watch television (61 percent) and listen to the radio (55 percent) on a daily basis. For the majority, personal contacts are also an important source of information: 89 percent state that they obtain information by talking to others at least once a week. Print media and social media, however, are used less than once a week or never by most people (50 and 66 percent).

The BfR continually adapts its FAQs on the topic of coronavirus to the current state of science:

https://www.bfr.bund.de/en/can_the_new_type_of_coronavirus_be_transmitted_via_food_and_objects_-244090.html

In Alzheimer's disease, a protein (peptide) forms clumps in the brain and causes sufferers to lose their memory. In a recently published article, a research group at Uppsala University described a new treatment method that increases the body's own degradation of the building blocks that lead to these protein clumps.

In Alzheimer's disease, the peptide amyloid-beta begins to form clumps in the brain. This process is called aggregation and the clumps so created are called aggregates. The treatment methods for Alzheimer's disease that are currently in clinical trials are attempts to bind to these disease-causing aggregates. But they are unable to bind to the smallest aggregates, which many now believe are the most toxic to neurons.

The treatment method developed in the new Uppsala research study using mice degrades the building blocks from which these aggregates form before they have a chance to aggregate. This treatment method therefore reduces the formation of all types of aggregates.

It has long been known that the peptide somatostatin, which was used by the researchers in the Uppsala group, can activate the body's own degradation of amyloid-beta, which is the peptide that forms the aggregates. However, it has not been possible to use somatostatin as a drug in the past because it has a very short half-life in the blood of only a few minutes, and does not cross the blood-brain barrier into the brain where the aggregates are formed.

"So to be able to use somatostatin as a treatment, we fused it to a brain transport protein which allows the somatostatin to enter the brain. This has proved very effective. When we used the transport protein, we also saw that the time that the somatostatin remained in the brain increased to several days, which is fantastic," says Fadi Rofo, doctoral student at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences and the study's first author.

In the study, the researchers saw the greatest effect in hippocampus, the part of the brain that forms memories and the first part to be affected by Alzheimer's disease.

"The fact that we have seen that the effect is most evident in the hippocampus in particular is very good. Our hope is that this method will be able to act in a very targeted way and have few side effects, which have been a problem in other studies," says Greta Hultqvist, assistant professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, who led the research study.

The study was conducted in mice, but the researchers believe that somatostatin would have the same effect in humans and that this type of treatment could be more effective than those trialled so far.

In the condition known as cavernoma, lesions arise in a cluster of blood vessels in the brain, spinal cord or retina. Researchers from Uppsala University can now show, at molecular level, that these changes originate in vein cells. This new knowledge of the condition creates potential for developing better therapies for patients. The study has been published in the journal eLife.

The vascular lesions, or blood-vessel malformations, that appear in a cerebral cavernoma - also known as a cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM) or, in the US, cavernous angioma - resemble mulberries. They bleed easily, which may cause epileptic attack, neurological problems and stroke. The condition is due to genetic mutations that may be inherited or occur spontaneously, and is incurable at present. Surgery is an option but, in patients with the hereditary form in whom new CCMs arise constantly, only a temporary solution.

How, and in which kind of blood vessel, the mutations occur has not been entirely clarified to date. In the present study, the researchers at Uppsala University - in collaboration with IFOM, the FIRC Institute of Molecular Oncology, and the Mario Negri Institute of Pharmacological Research in Italy - investigated endothelial cells. The function of these cells, which line the interior of blood vessels, varies according to vessel type, contributing to the differing features of arteries, veins and capillaries. In all, the scientists have analysed more than 30,000 individual endothelial cells in detail to identify how, and in which vessels, CCMs appear.

"One of the genes that may mutate in the inherited form of CCM is called CCM3. We've examined mouse brain endothelial cells, after specific endothelial deletion of CCM3. The cells were clustered in venous and arterial endothelial cells, and we were able to see that venous endothelial cells were particularly sensitive to loss of the CCM3 gene," says Peetra Magnusson of the Department of Immunology, Genetics and Pathology (IGP).

When CCM3 was lacking in mural endothelial cells of the venous type, the researchers observed increased cell division and abnormal growth of the vessels, leading to the characteristic mulberry-like lesions. The study thus confirms, at molecular level, that the vascular malformations of a cavernoma arise in veins. This had been seen previously only when the structure of the blood vessels had been studied in vessel fragments.

"Another interesting result from the study was that arterial endothelial cells were not affected at all in the same way by losing their CCM3. Although the CCM3 gene was also missing in these cells, they don't contribute to development of the malformations," says Elisabetta Dejana, who led the study.

"Summing up, our findings have brought new knowledge about cavernoma, which should improve the chances of developing improved clinical treatments."

How can new life forms that we cannot see be discovered? Using a novel method based on looking for DNA in soil samples, researchers at Uppsala University have revealed the existence of two hitherto unknown, but very common fungus species. They are thought to perform a key function in the ecosystem, but their exact role remains to be clarified. The study is published in the journal IMA Fungus.

To most people, the word "fungus" conjures up something like a chanterelle or fly agaric, rising vertically from the ground. Since a huge number of fungi do not form distinct fruit bodies, however, they do not catch the eye. This applies, for example, to the newly discovered fungi. Invisible to the naked eye, they are nonetheless common in forest soils in Northern and Central Europe, as DNA analyses of soil samples show.

The researchers found the fungi in soil samples from the Ivantjärnheden field station near Jädraås, in the province of Gästrikland, in east central Sweden. The method developed by the scientists is based on extracting both long DNA sequences, to investigate species interrelationships, and short DNA sequences to get an idea of how common species are.

"Our data show that these two are closely related but distinct species that compete for resources in the soil profile. One wins out, and is dominant, in organic soil; we've named it Archaeorhizomyces victor. In second place we have Archaeorhizomyces secundus, which makes do with resources in mineral soil to a greater extent," says Anna Rosling of the Department of Ecology and Genetics at Uppsala University, who headed the work.

Where the two species coexist - in soil and roots in mixed and coniferous forest - Archaeorhizomyces victor thus predominates in the humus-rich soil. Just a little further down in the ground, where the soil contains less nutrients, victor does poorly and secundus can become widespread.

These species belong to the class Archaeorhizomycetes and, as such, to a group of ancient fungal root endophytes: fungi that colonise plants' root tissue internally and live in symbiosis with the host, enhancing plant performance and causing no obvious harm. From soil samples around the world, the researchers know that this class comprises at least 1,000 species. These fungi are common; in soil samples from Ivantjärnheden, for example, they make up roughly 30 per cent of all sequenced genetic material. This large fungus group was first described scientifically in 2011 and then, too, it was Anna Rosling and her research group who made the discovery, and also succeeded in cultivating two species in their laboratory. The fungi then grew enough to permit more detailed study. Rosling describes them as slow-growing and somewhat beige in colour, and says they form differently shaped spores.

With these two newly discovered fungi, the known species of Archaeorhizomycetes have doubled in number. Even more important, the researchers think, is the fact that they have established a method of identifying new species that does not depend on cultivation, or on finding a fruiting body. And much remains to be discovered in the fungus kingdom. The presence of certain marker genes in soil samples indicates that nearly 90 per cent of all fungi have yet to be scientifically described.

"With our study, we want to give an idea of the tremendous diversity of fungi in the soil and the importance of naming them, even if we haven't seen them with the naked eye yet," Rosling says.

The oil from wild olive trees has excellent sensorial, physicochemical and stability characteristics from a nutritional point of view, according to an article published in the journal Antioxidants. The study, based on the analysis of fruits from wild olive trees of the natural reserve of the Medes islands (Catalonia), reveals that the parameters of the quality of oil are within the values the International Olive Council allowed.

The study represents a first approach to the characterization of wild ivory-white olive trees in Catalonia, and it is led by Rosa M. Lamuela, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barceloa and the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBERobn). The study is also signed by experts from the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the UB (IN2UB), the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA), and the Institute for Research and Training in Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Eccological Production (IFAPA). The study also counted on the participation of the Scientific and Technological Centres of the UB (CCiTUB), among other supporting infrastructures.

Wild olive: the wild variety of the cultivated olive

The wild olive (Olea europaea L. var Sylvestris) ?a tree from the oleaceae family?, is the ancestor of the olive tree (Olea europaea L. subsp. europaea), cultivated from ancient times in order to get oil. Now, the commercial use of the fruit of the wild olives is minoritarian in the food industry, although some peninsular regions use it to make great ecological quality oil.

So far, there was not much information about the phenolic profile of wild ivory-white olives. "The fruit from the olive is featured for its low oil content. However, they have unique features as white fruits with a high content in phenolic elements that could have an effect within the required parameters by the European Union, to have a claim on health (protection of low-density lipoprotein from oxidative damage)", notes Professor Lamuela, director of the Institute for Nutrition and Food Safety (INSA) --located in the Food and Nutrition Torribera Campus-- and head of the Research Group on Natural Antioxidants of the UB.

In the Medes islands, the wild olive has grown under conditions that were marked by the Mediterranean climate and its geological environment (hydric stress, salinity, etc.). "In particular, the phenolic profile of the oil is higher than the one described up to date in a genotype of wild olives in Algeria. This is why we might be in front of genotypes that could be used for food purposes and in programs for the improvement of the traditional olive tree", adds the UB professor.

The organoleptic properties of olive oil from olive trees are similar to those of commercial olive varieties. "This is due to the fact that both oils have similar concentrations of oleocanthal and oleacein, two phenolic compounds that cause perceptions such as itching and bitterness" say researchers Anallely López-Yerena (INSA-UB) and Antonia Ninot (IRTA), first signatories of the article.

Wild olives: protecting the natural heritage and promoting local cultivation

The sector of olive oil has made a significant effort to optimize the process of extracting olive oil in order to maintain a balance between economic performance and oil quality. For twenty years, the renewal of olive groves has favoured the use of some varieties ?Picual and Arbequina? that dominate olive tree groves throughout the country. This practice excludes the agronomic use of many local varieties, which involves a high risk of losing plant diversity.

In this scenario, the olive trees represent a potential example of resilience and adaptation to adverse agronomic conditions. Today, we can still find forests of wild olive trees in southern Spain (Andalusia), as well as genuine wild forms scattered ?especially in disturbed areas or abandoned fields? in areas of the Valencian Community and Catalonia.

The new study is part of a program on cultivated biodiversity aimed at preventing the alarming loss of genetic diversity and promoting the use of local crops. In this framework, the ongoing activities are aimed at the prospection and harvesting of olive populations in Spain, in order to assess their genetic variability and study the potential application in future programs on olive improvement.

"Protected areas such as the Medes Islands can help maintain the biodiversity of species and food such as virgin olive oil. In the future, new studies should be promoted to improve the conservation of wild olive trees, the selection of genotypes with other sensory characteristics better adapted to certain environmental conditions, and the use of genetic material for reproductive purposes. In addition, this knowledge will help us have a better understanding of the history of the plant domestication of the olive tree for the crops", conclude the researchers Anna Vallverdú-Queralt and Julián Lozano-Castellón (UB-INSA-CIBERobn).

By using two different transparent soil substitutes, scientists have shown that soil bacteria rely on fungi to help them survive dry periods, says a study published today ineLife.

The findings indicate that these soil-like substrates may enable researchers to observe the complex interactions of the myriad microscopic creatures that live in soil. This ability is crucial to help us better understand the role that soil and soil microbes play in healthy ecosystems.

Millions of microscopic organisms such as fungi and bacteria live in the soil. They are essential for healthy ecosystems because they support the growth of plants and capture and store carbon from the atmosphere. But studying these processes in real soil can be challenging.

"To advance the study of soil processes, we used transparent soil substitutes that allowed us to use microscopes and other experimental techniques to see and measure the activity of soil bacteria and determine how this activity depends on the fungi," says lead author Kriti Sharma, who completed the study as a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, US, and is now a postdoctoral scholar at Caltech, Pasadena, US.

In the experiments, Sharma and collaborators from Vienna, Austria, successfully grew soil bacteria and fungi in two transparent soil substitutes. One was a synthetic substance called Nafion and the other was a naturally occurring crystal called cryolite. They also demonstrated that it was possible to observe living microbes in these substitutes using a microscope and to measure the organisms' overall metabolic activity and uptake of carbon using a technique called Raman microspectroscopy.

Next, they used the soil substitutes to study what happens to bacteria when soil goes from being dried out to wet again. The experiments showed that while many soil bacteria die or become inactive when soil dries out, bacteria living near dead fungi remain active and use the fungi as a source for carbon. "In this way, fungi promote the activity of soil bacteria in changing environmental conditions," Sharma says.

The transparent soil systems reported in the study will likely be used by many other researchers who study soil ecology, adds senior author Elizabeth Shank, Associate Professor in the Program in Systems Biology and Department of Microbiology and Physiological Systems at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, Massachusetts, US.

"For example, they could be used to explore how interactions between bacteria, fungi, and other microscopic creatures living in soil help support the growth of crops," she says. "Or to better understand how carbon is stored and released from soil, which may be critical to combating climate change. Overall, these transparent soil substitutes are powerful tools that will help us answer many outstanding questions in soil microbial ecology."

Gene therapies are being approved for use in Canada, but could strain healthcare budgets and exacerbate existing treatment inequities across the country. However, there are opportunities to control spending, streamline approvals and support fair access through innovation, coordination and collaboration, according to a new expert panel report from the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA).

"Rapid scientific advances mean potentially life-changing treatments are approaching the clinic at an accelerated pace," said Janet Rossant, PhD, C.C., FRSC, and Chair of the Expert Panel. "These new therapies, however, pose a number of challenges in terms of their introduction into the Canadian healthcare system and ensuring access to those who would most benefit."

The National Research Council of Canada asked the CCA to examine the key legal, regulatory, ethical, social and policy challenges specific to the approval and use of somatic gene and engineered cell therapies in Canada.

Somatic gene and engineered cell therapies treat disease by removing or modifying existing genetic material in a patient, or introducing new genetic material, without passing these changes to future generations. Most treat rare genetic disorders and cancers, however they can cost more than $1 million and have limited evidence of long-term safety and durability.

From Research to Reality describes the stages involved in the approval and use of gene therapies in Canada, and examines the challenges associated with regulatory oversight, manufacturing, access, and affordability. It also identifies emerging solutions that can capitalize on Canadian strengths in research, manufacturing and health-care accessibility.

"The approval and use of gene therapies challenges payers, regulators, industry, patients and families," said Eric M. Meslin, PhD, FCAHS, President and CEO of the CCA. "This report covers many of these challenges as well as possible paths forward, and will help to support evidence-informed decision making in Canada."

THE University of Huddersfield's Archaeogenetics Research Group has mapped out the dispersal of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, responsible for the current worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, putting Europe centre-stage as the main source of the spread.

The group's findings, recently published in a special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Microorganisms, confirm that the virus originated in China and most likely jumped into humans from horseshoe bats. But that it is Europe, not China, which has been the main source for spreading the disease around the world.

The research also suggests that travel restrictions across Britain and Europe seem to have been too little and too late and that the actual spread of the virus to America and other parts of the world was largely via Europe, and not directly from China.

The study focused on 27,000 virus genomes, sampled from all around the world. The researchers usually work on tracking ancient human migrations using mitochondrial DNA, and they capitalised on the fact that the virus genome is similar in crucial respects.

Still, the mammoth size of the database, even back in May when the study began, makes this one of the biggest analyses of its kind ever undertaken.

The intensive data analyses were carried out by clinical geneticist Dr Teresa Rito and evolutionary geneticist Dr Pedro Soares. Both are based at the University of Minho, in Portugal and have worked closely with the University of Huddersfield's Professor Martin Richards and Dr Maria Pala, as part of the Archaeogenetics Research Group, on many occasions. The pair called upon the knowledge and expertise of their colleagues in the UK to help make sense of the data and publish their conclusions in double-quick time.

Professor Richards explained how there is a huge ongoing worldwide effort to understand the spread of the coronavirus and that researchers are trying to make their work available to the public as fast as possible.

As the world continues to face a rapidly spreading pathogen, Dr Pala believes a greater understanding of the virus will better inform and improve upon policies designed to control the spread.

"With thousands of lives still at risk," added Dr Pala, "the need for scientific research is now more crucial than ever."

Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommends vaccinating key populations, such as people at risk of severe illness or death, those at risk of transmitting the virus and essential workers, during the initial rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine in Canada. The preliminary guidance, developed for the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

NACI is an independent external group of 15 experts that advises PHAC on the use of vaccines currently or newly approved for use in humans in Canada, including the identification of groups at risk for vaccine-preventable diseases for whom vaccination should be targeted. PHAC asked NACI to advise on which populations should be prioritized for early doses of COVID-19 vaccine.

While the federal government is doing everything it can to give Canadians access to the safe and effective vaccines, vaccine supply will likely be limited at first, requiring careful decisions about how to protect those at highest risk from COVID-19 and make the greatest impact with an initially limited resource.

"Given anticipated challenges with sufficient supply to vaccinate the entire at-risk population initially, NACI recommends that key populations should be prioritized for COVID-19 immunization, based on evidence of safety and efficacy at the time of vaccine availability, to minimize serious illness and deaths as a result of the pandemic," says NACI chair Dr. Caroline Quach, an infectious diseases specialist and microbiologist at CHU Sainte-Justine, Professor at the Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, and Canada Research Chair in Infection Prevention.

NACI recommends the following populations be prioritized for early immunization:

Those at high risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19 (including advanced age and other high-risk conditions);

Those most likely to transmit COVID-19 to people at high risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19, and workers essential to maintaining the COVID-19 response;

Those contributing to the maintenance of other essential services for the functioning of society; and

Those whose living or working conditions put them at elevated risk of infection and where infection could have disproportionate consequences, including Indigenous communities.

These key populations are not mutually exclusive, may overlap, and are not listed in priority order.

"A safe, effective vaccine could help control the COVID-19 pandemic and minimize the illness, death and societal disruption," says Dr. Quach.

As new information and vaccines become available, NACI will provide updated evidence-based guidelines.

"We hope to have a safe, effective vaccine available as early as possible in 2021, but we expect to have a limited supply initially," says Dr. Theresa Tam, Chief Public Health Officer of Canada. "Once a vaccine is ready, we will need to make important decisions on how to use what vaccine supply we do have -- to make the most impact where we can. The Government of Canada is committed to working with provinces and territories on plans to allocate and administer vaccines to key populations."

Rollout of the vaccine should be guided by principles of equity, feasibility and acceptability to key populations.

"Existing inequities magnified by this pandemic may be exacerbated with the inequitable allocation of vaccines. Efforts should be made to increase access to immunization services and engage racialized and systemically marginalized populations in immunization program planning," says Dr. Quach.

Bankers and environmentalists alike are increasingly calling for capital markets to play a bigger role in the war on carbon. In the absence of a meaningful global price on carbon, however, capital continues to flow freely toward fossil fuels and other carbon-intensive industries. The movement for fossil fuel divestment has been trying since 2012 to reverse this trend. A strong media presence and divestment pledges from high-profile investors notwithstanding, the movement has had little, if any, impact on the market valuation or bottom line of fossil fuel companies to date. A recent Nature Climate Change comment by Felix Mormann, a professor at Texas A&M University School of Law, reveals a number of critical shortcomings that prevent the movement from achieving its stated goals of delegitimizing the fossil fuel industry and reducing its access to capital.

The most fundamental shortcoming lies in the divestment movement's failure to properly differentiate among companies based on their relative contributions to global warming and climate change. "Drawing a binary divestment line between fossil and non-fossil stocks misses the reality that, when it comes to climate action, there are good actors and bad actors on both sides of the divide," notes Mormann. "The current focus on extractive and energy companies has undoubtedly proven media-effective. But it misrepresents the complex push-and-pull dynamics across the value chain of energy and other climate-relevant products and services."

If the divestment movement can be faulted for being under-inclusive as regards non-fossil companies with excessive carbon footprints, then a similar critique can be extended to the movement's investor reach. The latest divestment tally lists more than 1,200 commitments from pension funds, philanthropic foundations, faith-based organizations, and other institutional investors, managing over $14 trillion in assets. Individual investors who hold stocks and other securities for their personal account, however, account for fewer than 60,000 commitments worldwide, representing just over $5 billion in assets. Compared to the nearly $25 trillion in equities owned by individual investors in the United States alone, the latter numbers reveal the divestment movement's egregious failure to mobilize a key contingent of the global financial market--not to mention potential jurors in the court of public opinion.

"The divestment movement deserves huge credit for shining a spotlight on the crucial role that capital markets have to play in the war on carbon," emphasizes Mormann, who also holds an appointment in Texas A&M University's College of Engineering. "But the more I studied it, the clearer it became that major reforms are needed if the movement is to achieve its stated goals and move the needle on corporate climate action."

One such reform that Mormann suggests in his comment is to rebrand beyond fossil fuel divestment toward a more nuanced campaign for low-carbon (re-)investment. To do so, the overly crude fossil vs. non-fossil distinction should be abandoned in favor of a more sophisticated assessment of companies' climate impact and governance, modeled after the ratings of creditworthiness that have long been a staple of capital markets. "Think of a rating agency à la Moody's or Standard & Poor's, only for climate change," explains Mormann. The international non-profit CDP, formerly known as Carbon Disclosure Project, has begun to rate thousands of companies annually on their climate impact and action. Substituting such ratings for the binary fossil vs. non-fossil divestment criterion could go a long way toward mobilizing capital markets, companies, and investors in the quest to combat global climate change.

Palm oil contains abundant quantities of vitamin E compounds, which include tocopherols and tocotrienols. These compounds have anti-oxidant effects, which protect cells from damage from toxic chemical produced by metabolic processes. While tocopherol is a widely known and researched compound, there remains much to learn about tocotrienols.

A team of researchers from Malaysia and Libya recently investigated the effect of tocotrienols extracted from palm oil on mice liver cells. The team investigated the expression levels of genes influenced by a transcription factor Nrf2, and the translocation of the same factor into the cellular nucleus. Nrf2 is known to upregulate phase II drug metabolism in reaction to metabolic processes. The genes activate cellular defense mechanisms. "Our study is the first in vivo study on the effect of tocotrienols on Nrf2on genetic material in the nucleus.," says Azman Abdullah (Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia), corresponding author of the study.

The team observed that the translocation of Nrf2 in mice liver cells is both dose dependent, and functionally relevant. "We observed that the maximum effect of Nrf2 translocation into the liver cell nucleus after administration of the palm oil extract occurred in 60 minutes of administration.", Notes Abdullah, adding that, "The increased concentration of liver nuclear Nrf2 corresponded with increased transcript levels of several Nrf2 regulated genes."

Palm oil is an economical source of vitamin E, and several studies have shown the beneficial effects on the immune system, which include anti-oxidant and anti-cancer activity as well has cytoprotective actions. Researchers hope that these findings pave the way for easily available remedies for a variety of diseases. The current study is published in Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.