Culture

WHAT:

The plant compound apigenin improved the cognitive and memory deficits usually seen in a mouse model of Down syndrome, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. Apigenin is found in chamomile flowers, parsley, celery, peppermint and citrus fruits. The researchers fed the compound to pregnant mice carrying fetuses with Down syndrome characteristics and then to the animals after they were born and as they matured. The findings raise the possibility that a treatment to lessen the cognitive deficits seen in Down syndrome could one day be offered to pregnant women whose fetuses have been diagnosed with Down syndrome through prenatal testing. The study appears in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

Down syndrome is a set of symptoms resulting from an extra copy or piece of chromosome 21. The intellectual and developmental disabilities accompanying the condition are believed to result from decreased brain growth caused by increased inflammation in the fetal brain. Apigenin is not known to have any toxic effects, and previous studies have indicated that it is an antioxidant that reduces inflammation. Unlike many compounds, it is absorbed through the placenta and the blood brain barrier, the cellular layer that prevents potentially harmful substances from entering the brain. Compared to mice with Down symptoms whose mothers were not fed apigenin, those exposed to the compound showed improvements in tests of developmental milestones and had improvements in spatial and olfactory memory. Tests of gene activity and protein levels showed the apigenin-treated mice had less inflammation and increased blood vessel and nervous system growth.

The NIH portion of the study was conducted at the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). Additional funding was provided by the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).

WHO:

Diana W. Bianchi, M.D., NICHD Director and senior investigator of the NHGRI Medical Genetics Branch, is available for comment.

ARTICLE:

Guedj, F. et al. Apigenin as a candidate prenatal treatment for Trisomy 21: effects in human amniocytes and the Ts1Cje mouse model. American Journal of Human Genetics. 2020.

ASPB is pleased to announce the publication of noteworthy research investigating water-saving alternatives for photosynthesis in temperate environments, which are likely to become hotter and drier in the future.

Drought causes major crop losses in many regions of the world, and climate change threatens to exacerbate the occurrence of drought in temperate as well as arid regions. In new work published in The Plant Cell, Dr. Nadine Töpfer from the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, along with colleagues from the University of Oxford in the U.K., analyzed the potential for engineering drought-resistant plants via introduction of Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM). They used a sophisticated mathematical modelling approach to study the effects of introducing CAM photosynthesis, which is used by plants that are able to thrive in arid conditions, into C3 plants, which tend to thrive only in areas where sunlight intensity and temperatures are moderate and water is plentiful.

Most plants, including some major crops such as rice, wheat, oats, and barley, use C3 carbon fixation, in which CO2 taken up during the day through stomatal pores in the leaf is used immediately in light-driven photosynthesis reactions. Unfortunately, this leads to significant water loss through these pores in hot, dry conditions. CAM is an alternative carbon fixation pathway that temporally separates CO2 uptake from carbon fixation, allowing the plant to open stomata for CO2 uptake in the cool of the night and store the carbon internally. The CAM plant then closes its stomata during the heat of the day to minimize water loss, and releases the stored CO2 inside the leaf cells to be used for light-driven photosynthesis during the day.

Using simulations across a range of temperature and relative humidity conditions, the authors asked: Would full CAM or alternative water-saving methods be more productive in settings where C3 crops typically are grown? They found both that vacuolar storage capacity in a leaf is a major factor that limits water-use efficiency during CAM and that the environmental conditions shapes the occurrence of different phases of the CAM cycle. Mathematical modeling also identified an alternative CAM cycle that involves mitochondrial isocitrate dehydrogenase as a potential contributor to initial carbon fixation at night.

Lead author Nadine Töpfer, who did the work during the tenure of a Marie-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship in Professor Lee Sweetlove's group in Oxford, said: "Modelling is a powerful tool for exploring complex systems and it provides insights that can guide lab and field-based work. I believe that our results will provide encouragement and ideas for the researchers who aim to transfer the water-conserving trait of CAM plants into other species."

Their results revealed not only that the water-saving potential of CAM photosynthesis strongly depends on the environment, with the daytime environment more important than that at night, but also that alternative metabolic modes, distinct from those of the naturally occurring CAM cycle, may be beneficial under certain conditions such as during shorter days with less extreme temperatures. This timely work provides valuable insights that will help us prepare for the challenges of growing food crops in increasingly hot and dry temperate environments.

What The Study Did: This study examined the seropositive prevalence of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, China, by sex and age group.

Authors: Yongman Lv, M.D., of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan, China, 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/jamanetworkopen.2020.25717)

Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support 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.

HANOVER, N.H. - October 23, 2020 - A phenomenon of quantum mechanics known as superposition can impact timekeeping in high-precision clocks, according to a theoretical study from Dartmouth College, Saint Anselm College and Santa Clara University.

Research describing the effect shows that superposition--the ability of an atom to exist in more than one state at the same time--leads to a correction in atomic clocks known as "quantum time dilation."

The research, published in the journal Nature Communications, takes into account quantum effects beyond Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to make a new prediction about the nature of time.

"Whenever we have developed better clocks, we've learned something new about the world," said Alexander Smith, an assistant professor of physics at Saint Anselm College and adjunct assistant professor at Dartmouth College, who led the research as a junior fellow in Dartmouth's Society of Fellows. "Quantum time dilation is a consequence of both quantum mechanics and Einstein's relativity, and thus offers a new possibility to test fundamental physics at their intersection."

In the early 1900s, Albert Einstein presented a revolutionary picture of space and time by showing that the time experienced by a clock depends on how fast it is moving -- as the speed of a clock increases, the rate at which it ticks decreases. This was a radical departure from Sir Isaac Newton's absolute notion of time.

Quantum mechanics, the theory of motion governing the atomic realm, allows for a clock to move as if it were simultaneously traveling at two different speeds: a quantum "superposition" of speeds. The research paper takes this possibility into account and provides a probabilistic theory of timekeeping, which led to the prediction of quantum time dilation.

To develop the new theory, the team combined modern techniques from quantum information science with a theory developed in the 1980s that explains how time might emerge out of a quantum theory of gravity.

"Physicists have sought to accommodate the dynamical nature of time in quantum theory for decades," said Mehdi Ahmadi, a lecturer at Santa Clara University who co-authored the study. "In our work, we predict corrections to relativistic time dilation which stem from the fact that the clocks used to measure this effect are quantum mechanical in nature."

In the same way that carbon dating relies on decaying atoms to determine the age of organic objects, the lifetime of an excited atom acts as a clock. If such an atom moves in a superposition of different speeds, then its lifetime will either increase or decrease depending on the nature of the superposition relative to an atom moving at a definite speed.

The correction to the atom's lifetime is so small that it would be impossible to measure in terms that make sense at the human scale. But the ability to account for this effect could enable a test of quantum time dilation using the most advanced atomic clocks.

Just as the utility of quantum mechanics for medical imaging, computing, and microscopy, might have been difficult to predict when that theory was being developed in the early 1900s, it is too early to imagine the full practical implications of quantum time dilation.

Boston, Mass. - The COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally disrupted U.S. healthcare organizations. Hospitals have faced drug and device shortages and created new ICUs overnight. Care plans have evolved out of necessity, and hospitals' carefully constructed patient flow systems were up-ended.

In an article published today in NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, leaders and clinician researchers from Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH) propose using complexity science -- a field concerned with understanding dynamic, unpredictable systems, such as the human brain, economies or climates -- to identify strategies that healthcare organizations can use to respond better to the ongoing pandemic and to anticipate future challenges to healthcare delivery.

"COVID-19 has been a painful reminder that healthcare -- both as an industry and as a series of complex organizations -- has evolved slowly over time, as have the metrics and models we use to assess quality, safety and accommodate future needs," said lead author Jennifer Stevens, MD, MS, Director of the Center for Healthcare Delivery Science at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), part of Beth Israel Lahey Health. "The principles of complexity science offer three strategies healthcare leaders can employ to manage operations during the COVID-19 pandemic: engaging diverse perspectives in leadership teams, staying open to new metrics, and creating forecasting tools that reflect complex healthcare systems."

Engage diverse thinkers in a dashboard design

Noting that individuals are often unable to see the "big picture" from within a complex system like healthcare, Stevens and colleagues recommend bringing additional, perhaps unexpected voices to leadership teams. For example, while epidemiologists naturally guided healthcare leadership teams in the context of COVID-19, Stevens and colleagues suggest including patient and/or community representatives, physicians from disciplines that may be more tangentially related to the current crisis, or clinical and operations staff from the communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic to crisis response teams. "Voices from these various perspectives can expand the vantage point, allowing healthcare leaders see more of the complex system and implement strategies that anticipate future needs," said Stevens.

Identify metrics that triangulate different sides of a complex healthcare system

Identifying a broader range of relevant metrics can also expand leaderships' view of the complex system. For example, patient demographics were a largely unreported variable early on the in pandemic -- before physicians had a clear picture of how tightly race, ethnicity and other socioeconomic factors were linked to the risk of contracting and dying of COVID-19.

"Having a better understanding about the disparate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color could have helped healthcare leaders better anticipate the flow of patients coming into clinics, well as the implications for clinical staff, and personal protective equipment needs," said Stevens. "Healthcare leaders must be open to new metrics and watchful for undervalued variables, or we may find ourselves so focused on one set of metrics that we miss the significance of more meaningful data."

As an example of a metric with shifting value, Stevens and colleagues described how the significance of the number of patients with COVID-19 in BIDMC's ICU changed as spring turned into summer in 2020. In the spring, patients with COVID-19 presented to the hospital with severe respiratory symptoms and required immediate critical care services. The rising number of patients admitted with COVID-19 meant the hospital would need additional ICU beds and ventilators, personal protective equipment and other healthcare resources.

However, once the state of Massachusetts and the hospital deemed it safe to reinstate urgent and elective procedures as summer began, all patients were tested for COVID-19 upon admission. The universal testing yielded infected but asymptomatic patients who had come to the hospital for reasons unrelated to COVID-19.

"Suddenly, we were admitting asymptomatic patients with COVID-19 who wouldn't require the same resources and care as the patients critically ill with the novel coronavirus," said Stevens. "So the meaning behind the number of COVID-19 patients at BIDMC really shifted over the early months of the pandemic."

Create forecasting tools that reflect healthcare's complex systems

The team also suggests that forecasting tools must truly reflect the complex realties of the COVID-19 pandemic. To build a model that does that, the team used machine learning to pull relevant data from each of the 13 hospitals and three business units that make up the Beth Israel Lahey Health system, rather than depending on published reports from China or Italy. Next, they added publicly available local cellphone data to the model, revealing how much people were moving around and interacting with other people. Taken together, these data sources -- reflecting both shifting local public health policies as well as the shifting new social norms of behavior as the pandemic wore on -- contributed to a model capable of providing timely and locally relevant predictions.

"Our model leverages the principles of complexity to guide hospital leadership, providing weekly updates to a group of healthcare leaders about how and when a new surge of infections may arrive," Stevens said. "Models need to reflect the shifting health and policy landscape - to allow for the complexity of the pandemic itself - for any healthcare organization to meaningful make use of them.

"Healthcare is facing one of its greatest challenges, in part because our comfortably familiar metrics and dashboards, which were designed to handle the problems of a complex system, couldn't see the 'big one' coming," said Kevin Tabb, MD, president and CEO of Beth Israel Lahey Health. "Adapting to new realities that COVID-19 brought to the fore requires that healthcare leaders build new models that reflect the true complexity we are facing, engage new voices, and remain flexible and curious about our metrics. We are still squarely in the middle of this earthquake, and we have many aftershocks ahead."

Women living in poorer households of Dhaka, Bangladesh are unwilling to give birth at maternal healthcare facilities.

A new study, published in PLOS ONE, found that the women living in Dhaka slums were reluctant to use institutionalised maternal health care for fear of having to make undocumented payments, unfamiliar institutional processes, lack of social and family support, matters of honour and shame, a culture of silence and inadequate spousal communication on health issues.

Based on her PhD study undertaken at Flinders University, Associate Professor Sanzida Akhter of Dhaka University and her Flinders University supervisors, Associate Professors Gouranga Dasvarma and Udoy Saikia highlighted the reasons behind these women's reluctance to give birth in hospitals, despite government efforts to expand services across the country.

The authors of the paper say that their research highlights the importance of providing pregnant women with information to help them break free of fears about hospital childbirth, the hidden costs of healthcare and bridging cultural relations with providers.

"Even though low-cost health care facilities may be within their reach in terms of physical distance and affordable, these women and their families are unwilling to deliver their babies at such health facilities," say the authors.

"The financial, physical and social limitations of the women and those of their family members prevent them from seeking maternal health care at health facilities. They do not make any effort to overcome these barriers because they appear to be content with their age-old perception of pregnancy and childbirth as part of nature and not a special event worth giving any special attention to."

The contrast in the practice of maternal healthcare and childbirth between lower and upper socio-economic status women was also identified, with an example where 61% of the richer women opt for Caesarean Section deliveries compared to only 13% of the poorer women.

"This difference in maternal health care services and childbirth practised by the Bangladesh women clearly indicates that childbirth is influenced by a woman's socio-economic status and her cultural perception of childbirth."

The study also found poor behaviour by doctors and a lack of interpersonal communication with healthcare providers added to the pregnant women's reluctance to rely on traditional medical options.

"The women rightly expect to be treated respectfully and get information explained to them clearly but when their expectations aren't fulfilled, they rejected the thought of going there again. This is a situation, where 'interpersonal relations' go beyond simply only providing accurate information."

BUFFALO, N.Y. - The prescription of potentially inappropriate medications to older adults is linked to increased hospitalizations, and it costs patients, on average, more than $450 per year, according to a new University at Buffalo study.

The research, which sought to determine the impact of potentially inappropriate medications on health care utilization and costs in the United States, also found that more than 34% of adults age 65 and older were prescribed these problematic drugs.

"Although efforts to de-prescribe have increased significantly over the last decade, potentially inappropriate medications continue to be prescribed at a high rate among older adults in the United States," says David Jacobs, PharmD, PhD, lead investigator and assistant professor of pharmacy practice in the UB School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Collin Clark, PharmD, first author on the paper and clinical assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, adds, "The average age of the U.S. population is rising, and older adults account for a disproportionate amount of prescription medications. Harm to older adults caused by potentially inappropriate medications is a major public health challenge."

As the human body ages, the risk of experiencing harmful side effects from medications increases. Potentially inappropriate medications are drugs that should be avoided by older adults due to these risks outweighing the benefits of the medication, or when effective but lower risk alternative treatments are available.

The study, which was published in August in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, used the 2011-2015 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey - conducted annually by the U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - to examine the prescription of 33 potentially inappropriate medications or classes of medications to adults 65 and older.

Among the potentially inappropriate medications examined were antidepressants, barbiturates, androgens, estrogens, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, first-generation antihistamines, and antipsychotics.

Among the 218 million-plus older adults surveyed, more than 34% were prescribed at least one potentially inappropriate medication. Those patients were, on average, prescribed twice as many drugs, were nearly twice as likely to be hospitalized or visit the emergency department, and were more likely to visit a primary care physician compared to older adults who were not prescribed potentially inappropriate medication.

Patients who received these medications also spent an additional $458 on health care, including an extra $128 on prescription drugs.

"De-prescribing is currently at an early stage in the United States. Further work is needed to implement interventions that target unnecessary and inappropriate medications in older adults," says Jacobs.

Research confirms what a lot of folks have guessed: as we age, motivation wanes and getting off the couch and out the door becomes more challenging.

A new research article looks at the correlation between passion, grit and a positive mindset in people aged 14 to 77. This is the first study that addresses these links across such a broad age group.

The article suggests that passion and grit are strongly correlated early in life, especially in boys. Young people who are passionate about something are willing to go the distance to achieve it.

"Our passion controls the direction of the arrow, what we're fired up about and want to achieve. Grit drives our strength, how much effort we are willing to put in to achieve something," says Professor Hermundur Sigmundsson at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's (NTNU) Department of Psychology.

This is exactly the correlation that researchers believe is extra important for a person to get really good at something. Truly passionate individuals are willing to work the hardest to become the best. And they persevere. Men, more than women, depend on passion for doing something, but otherwise the links between these qualities are pretty much the same between the sexes.

The connection between passion and a positive mindset enables you to believe that you will indeed get good at what you are passionate about. Encouragement and positive mindset show a similar pattern. Everything is connected to everything - at least while you're young.

But this correlation fades as we get older.

The survey includes 917 participants who were divided into several age groups.

"The correlations remain pretty similar from age 14 to 53," says Sigmundsson.

But as soon as you end up in your 50s, a shift happens. The connection between passion and grit becomes almost non-existent. In theory, it takes a lot more for us to actually do something.

So lazier people in their 50s can be full of good intentions and in theory be enthusiastic about doing something. But when it comes right down to it, should this be interpreted to mean that older people rarely stick with things unless they find something they're really interested in?

Sigmundsson confirms that yes, we could say that.

People 50 years and up can be very passionate, but tend to have less grit. Or vice versa.

"What this means is that it's more difficult to mobilize our grit and willpower, even if we have the passion. Or we may have the grit and willpower but aren't quite as fired up about it," the professor says.

Positive mindset works the same way. Maybe you're still passionate about something, but you've lost faith that you'll actually be able to achieve your goals. Or you think you can handle the activity, but you just don't have that fire in the belly for it anymore.

"The correlation between grit and the right mindset diminishes with increasing age. The willpower and belief that we're getting better aren't as closely linked anymore," says Sigmundsson.

So what can we do about this decline in get-up-and-go?

"You have to work to find meaningful activities and interests that you can follow up with grit and willpower. Igniting the spark is important, regardless of age," says Sigmundsson.

You simply have to actively seek what you are passionate about if you haven't already done that. There are no shortcuts.

You need to find and develop your interests. In addition, you have to recognize the important connections between passion, grit and a positive mindset. You have to keep at it, train and feel free to ally yourself with others who inspire and help you.

This applies to getting better at an activity but also to maintaining what we have already achieved. And that is true not only for our physical fitness, but also for our mental acuity.

"'Use it or lose it' is the mantra, and this aligns with neuropsychology as well," says Sigmundsson.

"Use it or lose it. This aligns with neuropsychology as well."

Sigmundsson quotes an 85-year-old world champion for old boys skating: "You can never stop."

"Keeping at your chosen activity is the key," says the professor.

Leukemia frequently originates from the so-called leukemic stem cell, which resides in a tumor promoting and protecting niche within the bone marrow. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, have found a new way to make these cells vulnerable by specifically dislodging these cells from their niches.

Since blood cells have a limited lifespan, are lost during bleeding or are used up during infections, they must be replaced continuously. This supply is ensured by the so-called hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow. These cells can develop into any type of blood cell.

Since blood cells have a limited lifespan, are lost during bleeding or are used up during infections, they must be replaced continuously. This supply is ensured by the so-called hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow. These cells can develop into any type of blood cell.

In chronic myeloid leukemia, the hematopoietic stem cell undergoes a genetic mutation by recombining chromosome 9 and 22. As a result, gene building blocks fuse that would otherwise not be in contact with each other. The incorrectly assembled chromosome is called Philadelphia chromosome and harbors the construction manual for the so-called BCR-ABL oncogene. This causes the leukemic stem cell to behave selfishly and divide at the expense of healthy blood stem cells.

Without Kindlin-3 no leukemia

A leukemic stem cell creates an environment termed the malignant niche that ensure its survival and proliferation. To remain in this tumor-promoting niche, the leukemic stem cell uses so-called integrins to attach itself to a scaffold of extracellular proteins, the so-called extracellular matrix, and to neighboring cells. In the leukemic stem cell, the activity and function of the integrins is facilitated by an intracellular protein called Kindlin.

Peter Krenn, first author of the study, explains: "The isoform Kindlin-3 is only used by blood cells. If mice harbor leukemic stem cells that lack Kindlin-3, they do not develop leukemia. Without Kindlin-3 and active integrins, the leukemic stem cells cannot attach themselves to their niche environment and are released from the bone marrow into the blood. Since they cannot home elsewhere either, they remain in the blood. There the leukemic stem cells lack the urgently needed support, which they usually receive from the niche, and die."

New therapeutic approach: Kindlin-3 and CTLA-4

The new finding that the leukemic stem cells express a protein called CTLA-4 on their surface, which is absent from healthy blood stem cells, allowed the researchers to distinguish a leukemic blood stem cell from a healthy blood stem cell. The scientists used the CTLA-4 receptor as a shuttle to deliver a Kindlin-3 destroying compound, into leukemic stem cells. Peter Krenn explains: "CTLA-4 is only briefly present on the cell surface and is then rapidly recycled back into the cell and then back to the cell surface again. This enabled us to introduce a Kindlin-3 degrading siRNA into the cell by coupling it to a CTLA-4-binding RNA sequence, which is called aptamer. The leukemic stem cell without Kindlin-3 is flushed from the bone marrow and the leukemia loses its origin and runs out of fuel".

Peter Krenn summarizes: "In our current study we have developed a new therapeutic approach to treat chronic myeloid leukemia in mice. However, the principle of the therapy is universally valid. The inhibited Kindlin-3 production and consequent loss of integrin function prevents the cancer cells from being able to adhere and settle in tumor-promoting niches. I assume that this method will also prevent the cancer cells of other types of leukemia from settling and that these diseases could thus become much more treatable".

It may seem a bit contradictory at first glance, but increased flexibility in our workday may have given us less flexibility in the work itself.

The daily press and the nascent research literature on COVID-19 speculate on the long-term consequences of the coronavirus situation. These could change the way we think about the methods we employ in our working life, especially with regard to home offices and digital collaboration.

Several large companies, both internationally and nationally, have announced that they plan to continue the option of working from home for anyone who also wishes after the pandemic. The arguments for this include:

Greater flexibility in organizing work and family life situations seems to significantly reduce stress for many people.

Time that was previously used for commuting or travelling between meetings can now be used for other things, which in turn may lead to higher productivity.

One common argument is that a home office situation provides fewer distractions and can make us more efficient.

Employers, for their part, see an opportunity for reduced travel costs and less need for office space.

Working from home is also happening in academia, and several universities have said that the home office option will continue.

On the other hand, it has been pointed out that people cannot work exclusively in physically separate environments. We need opportunities to meet with colleagues and experience the social cohesion and replenishment this provides.

The consequences of this kind of distributed work situation for workplace practices constitute an important aspect that has received less attention so far. How does working from home affect collaborative efforts and the quality of work, both in smaller teams and in larger work communities?

The article "Learning of academics in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic," describes how academic practices changed, quite significantly, under the conditions we have worked under since March.

One conclusions is that we cannot expect work practices to remain the same when we move them. As conditions change around practices, so do the practices themselves.

In two parallel projects, an international coalition of researchers led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) collected data from students and academic staff. They focused on their work and study situations during the corona pandemic.

The data includes 1600 students and 16 lecturers in a course called Experts in Teamwork offered at NTNU. Students provided feedback through questionnaires, written exam reports and in-depth interviews. The lecturers represented different faculties and departments and were also interviewed in depth.

The preliminary findings show great variations in the consequences that the new work and study situations have had for individuals and for groups.

Some people became more efficient in their new work setting, for example because they had fewer distractions and work became easier to prioritize. But others became less efficient, for example due to lower motivation and lack of daily structure.

Some individuals thought it was beneficial to have more peace and flexibility in their daily life, while others felt lonelier and less motivated due to the lack of social and physical contact with fellow students and colleagues.

A number of the academic staff also had a much busier schedule due to home schooling their children. This factor is less relevant in a situation without a pandemic.

The study also found many of the positive elements of distributed teamwork and working digitally that are mentioned at the beginning of our article.

However, one finding stands out as a paradox.

While working from a home office, or as a distributed team, provides significantly increased flexibility for the work situation, it could provide less flexibility in carrying out the work, both in terms of meeting colleagues, collaborating and teaching.

This flexibility issue, or paradox, is largely related to a much greater need for structure, planning and clear communication in the digital modality. Meetings and teaching need to be planned in much more detail, and the digital form makes it difficult to deviate from the plan.

We lose the ability to pick up cues from the room, like we do when we are in a physical space together. Several communication-related aspects of working digitally also make it difficult to achieve a good flow, as well as to make spontaneous and necessary changes.

The researchers also found that the threshold for making small and necessary clarifications with collaborators is significantly higher in the digital realm. The flexibility to complete a task is therefore reduced and can affect the quality of what we do.

For example, people risk working alone with a task for too long, assuming rather than clarifying along the way. We don't want to disturb people, and we don't know what they are doing right now. Researchers found this to be the case both for students who worked synchronously, and for academics who mostly worked asynchronously.

Home offices may offer benefits for many, but it is hardly advantageous for everyone. More people will probably choose to work from home more than they did before, even when the pandemic has subsided. But having the opportunity to convene physically is still important, not only for each of us to meet our social needs, but also for the employer and for the quality of the work.

Research Assistant Professor Dr Michael PITTMAN (Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, Division of Earth and Planetary Science & Department of Earth Sciences) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), recently showed that powered flight potential evolved at least three times and that many ancestors of close bird relatives neared the thresholds of powered flight potential, suggesting broad experimentation with wing-assisted locomotion before flight evolved (see Notes). In a new study, Dr Pittman and Dr Thomas DECECCHI, Assistant Professor of Biology at Mount Marty University, broadened their collaboration on flight origins research to the scansoriopterygids, a rare group of theropod dinosaurs believed to glide using strange bat-like wings. Living around 160 million years ago in what is now northern China, they weighed about 1kg and probably feed on insects, seeds, and other plants. For the first time, Dr Dececchi, Dr Pittman and the rest of the international team tested this gliding hypothesis through quantitatively reconstructions of scansoriopterygid flight capabilities. If confirmed, this bat-winged gliding lifestyle will be unique to scansoriopterygids as it is not found in any other dinosaurs. It would also make scansoriopterygids the most distantly related theropod dinosaurs to birds that could glide. Thus, testing this gliding hypothesis is important for understanding how flight evolved among theropod dinosaurs.

Scansoriopterygids were an evolutionary dead-end

To do this, fossils were scanned using Laser-Stimulated Fluorescence (LSF), a laser-based imaging technique co-developed at HKU, which can reveal bone and soft tissue details that can't be seen under standard white light. The team then used mathematical models to predict how scansoriopterygids might have flown, testing many different variables, including weight, wingspan, and muscle placement. They found that scansoriopterygids did not have powered flight potential but were capable of clumsy gliding. "They could glide, but they weren't very good at it. If I were them I would have been particularly worried about predators!" says Dr Pittman. Scansoriopterygids were not part of the independent originations of powered flight in dinosaurs, which happened at least three times: once in birds and twice in dromaeosaurid 'raptors'. Their poor gliding capabilities and existence in a short interval of time suggests that they were an evolutionary dead-end. But what exactly doomed this strange experiment? "The two scansoriopterygid species we studied were so poorly capable of being in the air that they just got squeezed out," says Dr Thomas Dececchi. "Maybe you can survive a few million years underperforming, but with birds, pterosaurs, gliding mammals all around, scansoriopterygids were simply squeezed out until they disappeared."

Gliding is not an efficient form of flight as it can only be done if the scansoriopterygids are already at a high point. However, it did help keep them out of danger. "If an animal needs to travel long distances, gliding costs a bit more energy at the start, but it's faster. It can also be used as an escape hatch. It's not a great thing to do, but sometimes it's a choice between losing a bit of energy and being eaten," says Dececchi. "Once scansoriopterygids were put under pressure, they just lost their space. They couldn't win on the ground. They couldn't win in the air. They were done." The new findings support the emerging picture that dinosaurs evolved flight in several different ways before modern birds evolved. Asked about future plans, Pittman added, "Our team continues to uncover a greater sense of the breadth of experimentation involved in getting dinosaurs into the air. We plan to reveal even more details moving forward, particularly the different routes taken by dinosaurs to occupy the skies."

A team of leading environmental experts, spearheaded by the University of Nottingham, have warned that the current war on plastic is detracting from the bigger threats to the environment.

In an article published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews (WIREs) Water, the 13 experts* say that while plastic waste is an issue, its prominence in the general public's concern for the environment is overshadowing greater threats, for example, climate change and biodiversity loss.

The interdisciplinary team argue that much of the discourse around plastic waste is based on data that is not always representative of the environments that have been sampled. The aversion to plastic associated with this could encourage the use of alternative materials with potentially greater harmful effects.

The authors warn that plastic pollution dominates the public's concern for the environment and has been exploited politically, after capturing the attention of the world, for example through emotive imagery of wildlife caught in plastic waste and alarmist headlines. They say small political gestures such as legislation banning cosmetic microplastics, taxing plastic bags, and financial incentives for using reusable containers, as well as the promotion of products as 'green' for containing less plastic than alternatives, risks instilling a complacency in society towards other environmental problems that are not as tangible as plastic pollution.

The article's authors call on the media and others to ensure that the realities of plastic pollution are not misrepresented, particularly in the public dissemination of the issue, and urges government to minimise the environmental impact of over-consumption, however inconvenient, through product design, truly circular waste-management, and considered rather than reactionary policy.

Dr Tom Stanton, a co-author who led the work while in the University of Nottingham's School of Geography and Food, Water, Waste Research Group, said: "We are seeing unprecedented engagement with environmental issues, particularly plastic pollution, from the public and we believe this presents a once in a generation opportunity to promote other, potentially greater environmental issues.

"This is a key moment in which to highlight and address areas such as 'throw-away' culture in society and overhaul waste management. However, if there is a continuation in prioritising plastic, this opportunity will be missed - and at great cost to our environment."

The article also highlights that plastics are not the only type of polluting material originating from human activity that contaminates the environment. Other examples include natural textile fibres such as cotton and wool, Spheroidal Carbonaceous Particles (remnants of fossil fuels), and brake-wear particles from vehicles - all of which are present in different places, where they may have adverse environmental effects. The authors note that these materials are often much more abundant than microplastics and some, such as glass, aluminium, paper, and natural fibres, are associated with 'plastic alternatives' that are marketed as solutions to plastic pollution, but in reality side-step the inconvenience of changing the consumption practices at the root of the problem. The eco-toxicological impacts of some of these materials are less well known than plastic and microplastic pollution, yet they could have significant impacts.

The authors conclude that that a behavioural science approach should be taken to assess society's relationship with single-use items and throw-away culture, and to overhaul waste mismanagement.

They say there is an understandable desire to minimise the global plastic debris in the environment which should not be discouraged, but positive action to minimise plastic pollution needs to be well informed and should not exacerbate or overshadow other forms of environmental degradation associated with alternative materials.

The article states that solutions are likely to come from a greater focus on designing materials and products that can be recycled, that have their end-of-life built in, and that markets and facilities exist to recycle all plastic waste.

Our eyes are sensitive to only three spectral color bands (red, green, blue), and we all know that we can no longer distinguish colors if it becomes very dark. Spectroscopists can identify many more colors by the frequencies of the light waves, so that they can distinguish atoms and molecules by their spectral fingerprints. In a proof-of-principle experiment, Nathalie Picqué and Theodor Hänsch from the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics (MPQ) and the Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU) have now recorded broad spectra with close to one hundred thousand colors in almost complete darkness. The experiment employs two mode-locked femtosecond laser and a single photon counting detector. The results have just been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

A mode-locked femtosecond laser emits hundreds of thousands of sharp spectral lines which are spaced precisely evenly in frequency. Such laser frequency combs are now widely used to count the oscillations of a laser wave and they serve as clockworks in optical atomic clocks. The frequency comb technique has been highlighted when the 2005 Physics Nobel Prize was awarded to Theodor Hänsch and John L. Hall.

During the past fifteen years, Nathalie Picqué at the MPQ has harnessed frequency combs for new approaches to broadband optical spectroscopy. In her technique of "dual-comb spectroscopy", all the comb lines of one laser interrogate a sample simultaneously over a broad spectral range, and the comb lines of a second laser with slightly different spacing interfere on a fast photodetector for read-out. Pairs of comb lines, one from each laser, produce radiofrequency beat notes in the detector signal. These radiofrequency signals can be digitized and processed by a computer. Any optical spectral structure in the sample reappears as a corresponding pattern in the comb of radio-frequency signals. Optical signals are effectively slowed down by a large factor equal to the laser repetition frequency divided by the difference in repetition frequencies. The unique advantages of this powerful spectroscopic tool include virtually unlimited spectral resolution, possible calibration with an atomic clock, and highly consistent acquisition of complex spectra without any need of scanning or mechanically moving parts.

Picqué and Hänsch have now demonstrated that dual-comb spectroscopy can be extended to extremely low light intensities in the photon counting regime. The interference signals can be observed in the statistics of the clicks of the photon counting detector, even if the power is so low, that only one click is registered over the time of 2000 laser pulses, on average. Under such circumstances it is extremely unlikely that two photons, one from each laser, are present in the detection path at the same time. The experiment cannot be explained intuitively if one assumes that a photon exists before detection.

The ability to work at light intensities a billion-fold lower than usually employed opens intriguing new prospects for dual-comb spectroscopy. Nathalie Picqué explains: "The method can now be extended to spectral regions where at most feeble frequency comb sources are available, such as the extreme ultraviolet or soft x-ray region. Spectroscopic signals can be acquired through highly attenuating materials or through backscattering over large distances. And it becomes feasible to extract dual comb spectra from nanoscopic samples down to single atoms or molecules, which produce only feeble fluorescence signals."

Theodor Hänsch remembers the moment in the laboratory when an interference pattern first emerged in the statistics of detector clicks: "I felt thrilled. Even after working in laser spectroscopy for more than 50 years, it seemed quite counter-intuitive to me that single detected photons could be "aware" of the two lasers with their large number of comb lines and of the complex spectrum of a sample."

There has never been a more dangerous time than the COVID-19 pandemic for people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as diabetes, cancer, respiratory problems or cardiovascular conditions, new UNSW Sydney research has found.

Among the adverse impacts of the pandemic for people with NCDs, the study found they are more vulnerable to catching and dying from COVID-19, while their exposure to NCD risk factors - such as substance abuse, social isolation and unhealthy diets - has increased during the pandemic.

The researchers also found COVID-19 disrupted essential public health services which people with NCDs rely on to manage their conditions.

The study, published in Frontiers in Public Health recently, reviewed the literature on the synergistic impact of COVID-19 on people with NCDs in low and middle-income countries such as Brazil, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Nigeria.

The paper, which analysed almost 50 studies, was a collaboration between UNSW and public health researchers in Nepal, Bangladesh and India.

Lead author Uday Yadav, PhD candidate under Scientia Professor Mark Harris of UNSW Medicine, said the interaction between NCDs and COVID-19 was important to study because global data showed COVID-19-related deaths were disproportionally high among people with NCDs - as the UNSW researchers confirmed.

"This illustrates the negative effect of the COVID-19 'syndemic' - also known as a 'synergistic epidemic' - a term coined by medical anthropologist Merrill Singer in the 1990s to describe the relationship between HIV/AIDS, substance abuse and violence," Mr Yadav said.

"We applied this term to describe the interrelationship between COVID-19 and the various biological and socio-ecological factors behind NCDs.

"So, people are familiar with COVID-19 as a pandemic, but we analysed it through a syndemic lens in order to determine the impact of both COVID-19 and future pandemics on people with NCDs."

Mr Yadav said the COVID-19 syndemic would persist, just as NCDs affected people in the long-term.

"NCDs are the result of a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental and behavioural factors and there is no quick fix, such as a vaccine or cure," he said.

"So, it's no surprise we found that NCD patients' exposure to NCD risk factors has increased amid the pandemic, and they are more vulnerable to catching COVID-19 because of the syndemic interaction between biological and socio-ecological factors.

"The evidence we analysed also showed there was poor self-management of NCDs at a community level and COVID-19 has disrupted essential public health services which people with NCDs rely on."

Tackling NCDs in the COVID-19 era

Mr Yadav said the researchers' findings led them to recommend a series of strategies for healthcare stakeholders - such as decision-makers, policymakers and frontline health workers - to better manage people with NCDs in light of the COVID-19 syndemic.

"Healthcare systems - such as Australia's - do have some of these strategies in place, but they need improvement," he said.

Highlights from the recommended strategies include:

Develop plans for how to best provide health services to people with NCDs, from the moment they are assessed through to their treatment and palliation.

Develop digital campaigns to disseminate information on how to make positive behaviour changes and better self-manage NCDs and COVID-19.

Decentralise healthcare delivery for people with NCDs: involving local health districts and investing in community health worker programs could help to mitigate future outbreaks. In addition, tailor self-management interventions for people with NCDs.

Ensure effective social and economic support for people with NCDs who are vulnerable to catching COVID-19, particularly Indigenous, rural, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and refugee communities, as well as people with severe mental illness.

Evaluate technology-assisted medical interventions to improve healthcare services, because complex case management, assessment and support is increasingly being done via telehealth appointments or other technology.

Why healthcare must focus on prevention

Mr Yadav said high-income countries could also learn from the researchers' findings.

"COVID-19 has been a major threat to people with NCDs in developed countries - for example, new statistics from Britain show that in 2020, high numbers of people in England and Wales died from NCDs at home after shunning the healthcare system because of the pandemic," he said.

"In Australia, COVID-19 will increase inequality and poses a risk to some high and middle-income earners, but it's a double threat to others such as Indigenous, rural, CALD and refugee communities, as well as people with severe mental illness - as reflected in our paper."

Mr Yadav said in Australia in 2018, the most recent data available, 89 per cent of deaths were associated with 10 chronic diseases.

"The Australian healthcare system needs a bigger focus on preventive healthcare, to improve outcomes for patients with NCDs and prevent more people from developing these diseases amid the COVID-19 pandemic," he said.

Mr Yadav said putting serious preventive healthcare investment on the backburner could lead to individual, societal and economic upheaval in the long-term.

"If this trend continues, Australia will struggle to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.4, which is to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by a third by 2030 - relative to 2015 levels and to promote mental health and wellbeing," he said.

"Investment in prevention today will help save healthcare costs in the long-term, help reduce the incidence of NCDs and enhance our resilience against future pandemics."

(Boston)--The field of forensic anthropology is a relatively homogenous discipline in terms of diversity (people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with mental and physical disabilities, etc.) and this is highly problematic for the field of study and for most forensic anthropologists.

At the core of the forensic sciences are basic sciences and the STEM fields, which have struggled with increasing diversity and inclusion. The lack of diversity in the STEM fields and the forensic sciences is concerning because it can limit the types of questions being asked in research.

"As forensic practitioners, we do not reflect the demographics of the highly dynamic populations that we serve across the country. Relevant and successful research relies on a diversity of ideas, perspectives and experiences, and without such diversity, the field stagnates and does not keep up with important issues that are relevant to society," explained corresponding author Sean Tallman, PhD, RPA, assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).

In order to explore the demographics of the forensic anthropological community and perceptions of diversity and inclusion, an anonymous survey was sent out to the Anthropology Section of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), which included more than 500 individuals. The survey consisted of 48 questions that asked about demographic information; whether participants believe that diversity exists in various educational contexts; their experience with diversity, inclusion, and harassment at the AAFS annual meetings; and what the field could do to increase diversity and inclusion.

The data then was analyzed for trends in order to propose actionable measures that could produce meaningful change that positively impacts diversity and inclusion in forensic anthropology. According to the researchers they found many forensic anthropologists had experienced or witnessed discriminatory behavior within the AAFS, which is the scientific society that most forensic practitioners maintain membership in the U.S. "Problematically, many individuals in forensic anthropology do not know how to report incidents of discrimination or harassment that occur at the AAFS," added Tallman.

While the discipline has been slow to address issues of diversity, inclusion and discrimination, Tallman believes the field can mitigate these issues through regular tracking of membership demographics by the AAFS, reassessing graduate admission requirements and indicators of success, creating mechanisms for reporting discrimination and harassment, targeted outreach, and developing mentorship opportunities.

"Striving for a culture of diversity through inclusion in forensic anthropology helps to reflect the greater populations that we serve and encourages us to challenge our own assumptions and inherent biases that can complicate the analysis of skeletal remains in forensic casework. Diversity and inclusion initiatives should be substantial and well-supported, rather than merely token gestures to increase the number of minorities or underrepresented groups."