Culture

SAN DIEGO and WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With Election Day less than a month away, a new West Health-Gallup national survey finds more Americans trust former Vice President Joe Biden than President Donald Trump to efficiently lead the U.S. healthcare system through the COVID-19 pandemic. A 52% majority say they trust Biden while 39% say they trust Trump.

The gap is even larger among younger adults age 18 to 29. Sixty-two percent of them place their faith in Biden compared to only 25% who support Trump's leadership of the healthcare system. Biden's lead falls to within two percentage points among adults 65 and older (48% vs. 46%).

The findings are based on a large, nationally representative sample of more than 1,500 U.S. adults in the two days immediately following the Sept. 29 presidential debate. The sample consisted primarily of debate viewers as well as some non-viewers.

While managing the COVID-19 pandemic remains a top issue at the ballot box for most voters (67%) heading into the presidential election, about the same proportion of Americans (66%) say lowering the cost of healthcare is important to earn their vote, according to the survey. Another 45% say a candidate's ability to lower drug costs specifically, is most or among the most important to them.

"Americans need to trust their leaders to do the right thing when it comes to managing the U.S. healthcare system both during and after a pandemic," said Tim Lash, chief strategy officer of West Health. "Unfortunately, at least when it comes to lowering the cost of healthcare, Americans have been burned in the past with empty promises from politicians and sky-high medical bills from hospitals, insurers and pharmacy counters."

Beyond the pandemic and healthcare costs, a 54% majority of Americans say they trust Biden more to ensure racial equality in terms of access to quality healthcare compared to 38% for Trump. White adults were evenly split (46% to 45%) on the candidates, Black adults were nearly 10-times more likely to trust Biden over Trump (84% to 9%) and Hispanic adults were twice as likely (60% to 31%).

"Joe Biden has a clear advantage as the candidate Americans prefer to lead healthcare and create a more racially equitable healthcare system in the United States during this global pandemic," said Dan Witters, Gallup senior researcher. "While some groups were more split, U.S. adults are generally aligned in Biden's favor by wide margins. It will be interesting to see how this plays out at the ballot box in November."

Other Survey Findings

Trust in each candidate to lead the healthcare system during the pandemic splits along party lines. Ninety-five percent of Democrats believe in Biden's abilities while 88% of Republicans trust Trump. Independents give a slight edge to Biden - 47% trust the former vice president over Trump.

Women are significantly more likely than men to trust in Biden's leadership of the healthcare system amid COVID-19 (58% vs. 46%), while men are more likely to trust in Trump (48% vs. 32%).

Democrats are considerably more inclined than Republicans to place high importance on addressing the pandemic (94% to 41%) and reducing healthcare costs (81% to 52%) when casting their vote for president.

88% of Black respondents place a particularly high importance on managing the pandemic in their vote choice compared to 71% of Hispanic respondents and 62% of White respondents.

There is less of a partisan divide when it comes to lowering the cost of prescription drugs - 49% of Democrats cite it as the most important or among the most important issues compared with 41% of Republicans and 44% of Independents.

To read the full results and methodology statement, please visit here: https://news.gallup.com/poll/321716/majority-trust-biden-lead-healthcare-system-amid-covid.aspx.

Quantum mechanics arose in the 1920s - and since then scientists have disagreed on how best to interpret it. Many interpretations, including the Copenhagen interpretation presented by Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg and in particular von Neumann-Wigner interpretation, state that the consciousness of the person conducting the test affects its result. On the other hand, Karl Popper and Albert Einstein thought that an objective reality exists. Erwin Schrödinger put forward the famous thought experiment involving the fate of an unfortunate cat that aimed to describe the imperfections of quantum mechanics.

In their most recent article, Finnish civil servants Jussi Lindgren and Jukka Liukkonen, who study quantum mechanics in their free time, take a look at the uncertainty principle that was developed by Heisenberg in 1927. According to the traditional interpretation of the principle, location and momentum cannot be determined simultaneously to an arbitrary degree of precision ,as the person conducting the measurement always affects the values.

However, in their study Lindgren and Liukkonen concluded that the correlation between a location and momentum, i.e. their relationship, is fixed. In other words, reality is an object that does not depend on the person measuring it. Lindgren and Liukkonen utilized stochastic dynamic optimization in their study. In their theory's frame of reference, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is a manifestation of thermodynamic equilibrium, in which correlations of random variables do not vanish.

"The results suggest that there is no logical reason for the results to be dependent on the person conducting the measurement. According to our study, there is nothing that suggests that the consciousness of the person would disturb the results or create a certain result or reality", says Jussi Lindgren.

This interpretation supports such interpretations of quantum mechanics that support classical scientific principles.

"The interpretation is objective and realistic, and at the same time as simple as possible. We like clarity and prefer to remove all mysticism," says Liukkonen.

The researchers published their last article in December 2019, which also utilized mathematical analysis as a tool to explain quantum mechanics. The method they used was stochastic optimal control theory, which has been used to solve such challenges as how to send a rocket from the Earth to the Moon.

Following Occam's razor, the law of parsimony named after William of Ockham, the researchers have now chosen the simplest explanation from those that fit.

"We study quantum mechanics as a statistical theory. Themathematical tool is clear, but some might think it is a boring one. But is an explanation really an explanation, if it's a vague one?" asks Lindgren.

In addition to the study of quantum mechanics, Lindgren and Liukkonen have many other things in common: they were both members of the same maths club at Kuopio Lyceum High School, they both have done post-graduate research, and both have careers ascivil servants. Liukkonen has already finished his PhD dissertation on endoscopic ultrasound on joints and now works as an inspector at Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority.

"Physics is a great hobby for a civil servant. Together we have agonised over how the interpretations of quantum mechanics make no sense," says Liukkonen.

Lindgren's dissertation currently consists of various mathematical articles trying to explain quantum mechanics. He works full-time as a ministerial adviser at Prime Minister's Office where he has been negotiating such issues as the EU's recovery plan. A decade ago, he also participated in negotiations on Greece's loan guarantees, as a junior official.

Lindgren and Liukkonen's idea of a paradise is a festival conference which would combine short films with lectures on quantum physics.

"Physicists and artists could find new ways to work together - after all, both areas are manifestations of creativity," says Lindgren.

The risk of suicide is clearly elevated in the category of older women with untreated depression who were born outside the Nordic region, compared with corresponding Swedish-born women. This is shown by a study from the University of Gothenburg. Sweden.

"Our results indicate the need for innovative public health measures to meet needs among older foreign-born adults, especially women," says Khedidja Hedna, a researcher at AgeCap, the Centre for Ageing and Health at the University of Gothenburg, and lead author of the article now published in European Journal of Public Health.

Despite the high proportion of suicide in the 75+ age group, there has been very little research on the reasons why this is so. Since medication for depression is regarded as an important strategy for suicide prevention, a research team conducted a major national population study to investigate factors related to raised suicide risk among older adults, with and without antidepressant therapy.

The research was done by merging large national population registers to obtain a group of more than 1.4 million inhabitants of Sweden aged 75 and over, who were monitored for up to eight years. During the period, 1,305 people died by suicide: 907 men and 398 women.

Of the women who took their own lives, 164 had untreated depression; and 42 of the total number of female suicides (398) were of women born outside the Nordic region. Suicide risk was elevated among older immigrant women, and the risk was particularly high among those who did not receive medication for depression.

Among women who took antidepressants, the raised suicide risk was associated with high-status employment before retirement. In men, an elevated risk was found in those who were not treated for depression and who had manual jobs.

Another gender difference was the protective effect of being married, which was seen only in men. Raised suicide rates were observed among unmarried men both with and without antidepressant therapy.

The study was led by Margda Waern, Professor of Psychiatry specializing in suicidology at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg.

"Our results highlight the need for outreach services in healthcare, especially for older women born outside the Nordic region, and also for older men, who may also need measures to reduce their social isolation. The study indicates gender differences in factors related to suicide among people aged 75 and over, and these results may be helpful for personalized, gender-specific strategies for suicide prevention in psychiatric care, primary care and the social services," Waern says.

Osaka, Japan - How do you test, in early-stage research, whether a potential pharmaceutical effectively targets a human tumor, organ, or some other part of the body? How do you grow a new hand or some other body part? Researchers are in the early stages of using 3D cell printing technology to make developments like these happen. A standard way—currently unavailable—to fix the cells in place after printing would help researchers avoid having to 'reinvent the wheel' in every new investigation.

In a study recently published in Materials Today Bio, researchers from Osaka University have used silk nanofibers obtained by mechanical disintegration to enhance the printing process without damaging the cells or cell assemblies. An attractive point of silk for this application is that silk is believed to be a safe material for humans. This development will help bring 3D cell printing research out of the laboratory and into real-world biomedical use.

To obtain the fibers, the researchers started with virgin silk, then removed the protein sericin from it because this protein causes inflammation in patients. Next, the researchers ground the remaining biocompatible material into nanofibers. The fibers can be sterilized—without damaging them—for medical use, with common laboratory equipment.

"Our silk fibers are excellent additives to bioink cell printing media," says lead author Shinji Sakai. "They are compatible with many media, such as those containing gelatin, chitosan, or hyaluronic acid, giving them a broad range of potential applications."

The main purpose of the fibers was to ensure that the cells in the bioink retained their 3D positioning after printing without damaging the cells. The fibers fulfill this purpose by enhancing the integrity of the bioink and minimizing the damaging high mechanical stresses often placed on cells during printing.

"Various mechanical experiments say the same thing: the nanofibers enhanced the properties of the printing media," explains Professor Sakai. "For example, Young's modulus—a measure of stiffness—increased several-fold and remained enhanced for over a month."

The fibers help printed configurations retain their structural integrity after printing. For example, a nose-shaped configuration retained its shape only when printed with bioink containing the silk fibers. Over 85% of the cells in the bioink remained alive after a week in the printed bioink with or without the added fibers, indicating that adding the fibers did not damage the cells.

Current cell printing technology often heavily damages cells or does not retain the intended shape for long. The research here helps overcome these limitations in a way that will help advance drug discovery, regenerative medicine, and many other ongoing high-impact biomedical research fields, and has the potential added economic benefit of reinvigorating the silk industry.

Terahertz light pulses change gene expression in stem cells, report researchers from Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) and Tokai University in Japan in the journal Optics Letters. The findings come thanks to a new tool, with implications for stem cell research and regenerative therapy development.

Terahertz waves fall in the far infrared/microwave part of the electromagnetic spectrum and can be produced by powerful lasers. Scientists have used terahertz pulses to control the properties of solid-state materials. They also have potential for manipulating living cells, as they don't damage them the way that ultraviolet or infrared light does. Research so far has led to contradictory findings about their effects on cells, possibly because of the way the experiments have been conducted.

iCeMS microengineer Ken-ichiro Kamei and physicist Hideki Hirori worked with colleagues to develop a better tool for investigating what happens when terahertz pulses are shone on human cells. The apparatus overcomes issues with previous techniques by placing cells in tiny microwells that have the same area as the terahertz light.

The team used the apparatus to explore the effects of terahertz radiation on induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These are cells that have been taken from skin or blood and changed into stem cells. Scientists are seeking to turn them into other types of cells and tissues to help treat diseases like muscular dystrophy.

"Terahertz pulses can generate a strong electric field without touching or damaging cells," says Hirori. "We tested their effect on iPSCs and discovered that the activity of some gene networks changes as a result of terahertz light exposure."

For example, they found the pulses activated genes involved in motor neuron survival and mitochondrial function. They also deactivated genes involved in cell differentiation, the process in which stem cells change into specialized body cells.

Further investigation found that these genes were influenced by zinc-dependent transcription factors. The scientists believe the terahertz pulses generate an electric field that causes zinc ions to move inside cells, impacting the function of transcription factors, which in turn activate or deactivate the genes they are responsible for.

Hirori says the findings could aid efforts to develop a technology that can manipulate iPSC differentiation into specific cells by turning off specific genes while keeping others on, paving the way for regenerative therapies for a wide range of diseases.

DALLAS -- More than half (56%) of LGBTQ adults and 70% of those who are transgender or gender non-conforming report experiencing some form of discrimination, including the use of harsh or abusive language, from a health care professional. A new American Heart Association Scientific Statement, "Assessing and Addressing Cardiovascular Health in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (or Questioning) Adults," published today in the Association's flagship journal Circulation, suggests improving the cardiovascular health of the LGBTQ population will require a multi-faceted approach that includes researchers, clinicians and public health experts.

In terms of health, LGBTQ orientation is considered a "sexual minority," and transgender or gender non-conforming is considered a "gender minority."

The statement examines existing research about LGBTQ-specific links to cardiovascular health disparities, identifies gaps in the body of knowledge and provides suggestions for improving cardiovascular research and care of LGBTQ people.

"This is particularly important now, at a time when there is increased awareness of health inequities related to unequal treatment and discrimination in the U.S.," says Billy A. Caceres, Ph.D., R.N., FAHA, chair of the writing group for the statement and an assistant professor at the Columbia University School of Nursing in New York City. "LGBTQ individuals are delaying primary care and preventative visits because there is a great fear of being treated differently. Being treated differently often means receiving inadequate or inferior care because of sexual orientation or gender identity."

LGBTQ populations face unique stressors, such as family rejection and anxiety over concealment of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Multi-level minority stressors and general stressors often interact in complicated ways to impair LGBTQ health. In addition, LBGTQ adults in historically underrepresented racial or ethnic groups experience higher poverty levels, insecure housing and fewer health care options compared to their white LGBTQ peers.

The writing group noted trust toward health care professionals is still lacking among many members of the LGBTQ community, and health care professionals need more education on how to provide appropriate care for LGBTQ patients. Caceres says, "It is paramount to include content about LGBTQ health in clinical training and licensure requirements in order to address these cardiovascular health disparities."

Accrediting bodies and organizations responsible for health care professional curricula have not specifically required LGBTQ-related content, thus very little exists in health professional education training. A 2018 online survey of students at 10 medical schools found approximately 80% of students did not feel competent to provide care for transgender patients. Another study of more than 800 physician residents across 120 internal medicine residencies in the U.S. found no difference in knowledge between the baseline and post-graduate years when it came to LGBTQ-specific health topics. The statement notes that the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant began requiring LGBTQ curricular content in September 2020.

The writing committee suggests assessment and documentation of sexual orientation and gender identity information in electronic health records could provide an opportunity to address specific health concerns for LGBTQ patients, and to strengthen our ability to examine cardiovascular health of LGBTQ adults more broadly. They also note basic understanding of the terminology of LGBTQ identities is important. The statement includes a glossary to detail and clarify the various key words and terms used to describe members of the LGBTQ community such as bisexual, transgender, gay, gender nonbinary, etc.

"Health care systems need to play a significant role - to enact policies to encourage and support researchers and health care professionals to ask these questions in a respectful manner and to implement structures that emphasize the clinical importance of understanding the many layers related to caring for people with a minority sexual orientation or gender identity," said Caceres.

The statement also notes that while there's limited information on the cardiovascular health of LGBTQ people, a few risk factors stand out from existing data. They identify areas that require specific cardiovascular health efforts focused on the LGBTQ population:

LGBTQ adults are more likely to report tobacco use than their cisgender heterosexual peers.

Transgender adults had lower physical activity levels than their cisgender counterparts, according to a systematic review. The statement suggests gender-affirming care might play a role in promoting physical activity among transgender people.

Transgender women may be at increased risk for cardiovascular disease due to behavioral and clinical factors (such as the use of gender-affirming hormones like estrogen).

Transgender women and non-binary persons are more likely to binge drink.

Lesbian and bisexual women have a higher prevalence of obesity than heterosexual women.

Future research is needed across the entire spectrum of the LGBTQ community to better understand the complex and multiple levels of psychological and social stressors that can impact the cardiovascular health of LGBTQ people and to develop and implement appropriate interventions that support improved cardiovascular health and overall well-being.

In addition, data is also lacking about differences in risk for cardiovascular disease by race and ethnicity and by socioeconomic level for persons who are members of the LGBTQ community. This is because most previous studies have relied heavily on samples from white, educated LGBTQ adults.

"There is much work to be done to understand and improve the cardiovascular health of LGBTQ adults," Caceres said. "We need more robust research that allows us to draw stronger conclusions, as well as initiatives to increase clinicians' knowledge, thereby improving care and health outcomes for LGBTQ adults."

Black holes are one the most fascinating objects in the Universe. At their surface, known as the 'event horizon', gravity is so strong that not even light can escape from them. Usually, black holes are quiet, silent creatures that swallow anything getting too close to them; however, when two black holes collide and merge together, they produce one of the most catastrophic events in Universe: in a fraction of a second, a highly-deformed black hole is born and releases tremendous amounts of energy as it settles to its final form. This phenomenon gives astronomers a unique chance to observe rapidly changing black holes and explore gravity in its most extreme form.

Although colliding black holes do not produce light, astronomers can observe the detected gravitational waves--ripples in the fabric of space and time--that bounce off them. Scientists speculate that, after a collision, the behaviour of the remnant black hole is key to understanding gravity and should be encoded in the emitted gravitational waves.

In the article published in Communications Physics (Nature), a team of scientists led by OzGrav alumnus Prof. Juan Calderón Bustillo--now 'La Caixa Junior Leader - Marie Curie Fellow' at the Galician Institute for High Energy Physics (Santiago de Compostela, Spain)--has revealed how gravitational waves encode the shape of merging black holes as they settle to their final form.

Graduate student and co-author Christopher Evans from the Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) says: 'We performed simulations of black-hole collisions using supercomputers and then compared the rapidly changing shape of the remnant black hole to the gravitational waves it emits. We discovered that these signals are far more rich and complex than commonly thought, allowing us to learn more about the vastly changing shape of the final black hole'.

The gravitational waves from colliding black holes are very simple signals known as 'chirps'. As the two black holes approach each other, they emit a signal of increasing frequency and amplitude that indicates the speed and radius of the orbit. According to Prof. Calderón Bustillo, 'the pitch and amplitude of the signal increases as the two black holes approach faster and faster. After the collision, the final remnant black hole emits a signal with a constant pitch and decaying amplitude--like the sound of a bell being struck'. This principle is consistent with all gravitational-wave observations so far, when studying the collision from the top.

However, the study found something completely different happens if the collision is observed from the 'equator' of the final black hole. 'When we observed black holes from their equator, we found that the final black hole emits a more complex signal, with a pitch that goes up and down a few times before it dies,' explains Prof. Calderón Bustillo. 'In other words, the black hole actually chirps several times.'

The team discovered that this is related to the shape of the final black hole, which acts like a kind of gravitational-wave lighthouse: 'When the two original, 'parent' black holes are of different sizes, the final black hole initially looks like a chestnut, with a cusp on one side and a wider, smoother back on the other,' says Bustillo. 'It turns out that the black hole emits more intense gravitational waves through its most curved regions, which are those surrounding its cusp. This is because the remnant black hole is also spinning and its cusp and back repeatedly point to all observers, producing multiple chirps.'

Co-author Prof. Pablo Laguna, former chair of the School of Physics at Georgia Tech and now Professor at University of Texas at Austin, pointed out 'while a relation between the gravitational waves and the behaviour of the final black hole has been long conjectured, our study provides the first explicit example of this kind of relation'.

Vaccines currently being developed for Covid-19 should not be affected by recent mutations in the virus, according to a new study involving a University of York virologist.

Most vaccines under development worldwide have been modelled on the original 'D-strain' of the virus, which were more common amongst sequences published early in the pandemic.

Since then, the virus has evolved to the globally dominant 'G-strain', which now accounts for about 85 per cent of published SARS-CoV-2 genomes.

There had been fears the G-strain, within the main protein on the surface of the virus, would negatively impact on vaccines under development. But the research by Australia's national science agency the

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), found no evidence the change would adversely impact the efficacy of vaccine candidates.

The study tested blood samples from ferrets given a candidate vaccine against virus strains that either possessed or lacked this mutation (known as 'D614G').

Professor Seshadri Vasan, who holds an honorary chair in Health Sciences at the University of York, is leading the Dangerous Pathogens Team at CSIRO and is senior author of the paper.

Professor Vasan said: "This is good news for the hundreds of vaccines in development around the world, with the majority targeting the spike protein as this binds to the ACE2 receptors in our lungs and airways, which are the entry point to infect cells.

"Despite this D614G mutation to the spike protein, we confirmed through experiments and modelling that vaccine candidates are still effective.

"We've also found the G-strain is unlikely to require frequent 'vaccine matching' where new vaccines need to be developed seasonally to combat the virus strains in circulation, as is the case with influenza."

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr Larry Marshall said the research was critically important in the race to develop a vaccine.

Dr Marshall said: "This brings the world one step closer to a safe and effective vaccine to protect people and save lives.

"Research like this, at speed, is only possible through collaboration with partners in Australia and globally. We are tackling these challenges head on and delivering solutions through world-leading science."

Researchers have observed black imported fire ants using sand to draw liquid food out of containers, when faced with the risk of drowning. This is the first time this sophisticated tool use has been reported in animals. These findings are published in the British Ecological Society journal Functional Ecology.

A laboratory experiment has shown for the first time that a species of ant has the remarkable ability to adapt its tool use. When provided with small containers of sugar water, black imported fire ants were able to float and feed on the surface, but when researchers reduced the surface tension, the ants started depositing sand grains on the inside of the container leading out of it.

"We found the ants used sand to build a structure that could effectively draw sugar water out of the container to then to be collected" said Dr Aiming Zhou, an associate professor at Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China, and a lead author of the research. "This exceptional tool making skill not only reduced the drowning risk of ants, but also provided a larger space for them to collect sugar water."

The sand structures were found to be so efficient that they could syphon almost half of the sugar water out of the containers in five minutes.

Researchers altered the surface tension of the sugar water by adding surfactant. When surfactant concentrations were over 0.05%, representing considerable drowning risk, ants were observed building the sand structures to syphon sugar water out of the container. These structures were never observed when ants foraged in containers of pure sugar water, indicating an adaptable approach to this novel tool use.

The results not only demonstrate black imported fire ants' ability to use tools to forage but also that they can recognise an increased foraging risk and can adjust their tool use in response to this.

Dr Jian Chen, Research Entomologist at The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Stoneville Mississippi, and another author of the research, said: "We knew some ant species are able to use tools, particularly in collecting liquid food; however, we were surprised by such remarkable tool use displayed by black imported fire ants. Our findings suggest that ants and other social insects may have considerable high cognitive capabilities for unique foraging strategies"

Tool use is seen as an indicator of cognitive sophistication and has mostly been observed in primates and some species of birds. But in invertebrates this behaviour is less well studied and has previously been thought of as hard wired and inflexible.

Black imported fire ants, Solenopsis richteri, are native to South America but are now an invasive species in southern United States after being introduced. Their Hydrophobic exoskeletons allow them to float on water but it's likely that they still face frequent drowning risk in nature because of the importance of liquid foods like nectar and honeydew as a carbohydrate source.

In the study the researchers calculated drowning risk by measuring the proportion of drowned ants in 2.5 cm containers of sugar water with differing concentrations of surfactant. The ants were able to float on the surface of pure sugar water, but the proportion of drowned ants increased significantly with increasing concentrations of surfactant. The researchers then provided ants with sands of varying grain size to test their preferences in creating sand structures when faced with different drowning risks.

Dr Zhou cautions that further studies are needed in this research area, saying: "Our experiments are conducted in the laboratory and only limited to the black imported fire ants." The next steps will be to determine how widespread this behavior is in other ant species. Dr Chen adds: "Our study is the first to touch on this interesting topic. We hope our paper will motivate others to do the related investigations."

The team of Professor Jinyang Liang, a specialist in ultrafast imaging at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), in collaboration with an international team of researchers, has developed the fastest camera in the world capable of recording photons in the ultraviolet (UV) range in real time. This original research is featured on the front cover of the 10th issue of the journal Laser & Photonics Reviews.

Compressed ultrafast photography (CUP) captures the entire process in real time and unparalleled resolution with just one click. The spatial and temporal information is first compressed into an image and then, using a reconstruction algorithm, it is converted into a video.

Developing a Compact Instrument for UV

Until now, this technique was limited to visible and near-infrared wavelengths, and thus to a specific category of physical events. "Many phenomena that occur on very short time scales also take place on a very small spatial scale. To see them, you need to sense shorter wavelengths. Doing this in the UV or even X-ray ranges is a remarkable step toward this goal," says Jinyang Liang, who led the study.

To record in this new range of wavelengths and to develop the technique into a user-friendly product, researchers designed a compact UV-CUP system with Christian?Yves Côté of Axis Photonique Inc. via an academia-industry collaboration. The new system features a patterned photocathode, which is used to simultaneously detect and encode "black light". "Like a standard camera, our technology is passive. It does not produce light; it receives it. Therefore, our photocathode had to be sensitive to the photons emitted as UV light. This design makes our technique a stand-alone system that can be easily integrated into various experimental platforms," says Jinyang Liang, who has been contributing to the development of CUP since his postdoctorate.

Liang worked with François Légaré, also an INRS professor, to generate and take images of UV pulses at the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) laboratory. "The outstanding research environment at the Énergie Matériaux Télécommunications Research Centre of INRS is very helpful. It is so much more efficient when all necessary design, manufacturing, and characterization capabilities are available in the same building."

Dividing up the Reconstruction Problem

"Taking the picture is only the first half of the job," says Jinyang Liang. "It also has to be reconstructed." To do this, the researchers developed a new algorithm, more efficient than standard algorithms, via their collaboration with Boston University. Its strength comes from a division of tasks. "Rather than solve the reconstruction problem as a lump, the algorithm divides the reconstruction into smaller problems that it tackles individually," explains Professor Liang.

With the innovations in both hardware and software, UV-CUP has an imaging speed of 0.5 trillion frames per second. It produces videos with 1500 frames in large format. As a light-speed imager, UV-CUP sees flying UV photons in real time. "It always fascinates me when you can watch the fastest object in the universe in such great detail," says Yingming Lai, a Master's student at INRS and the first author of the article.

The device developed through this international collaboration will be sent to the research laboratory SOLEIL Synchrotron in France to visualize physical phenomena. It could capture laser-plasma generation, a phenomenon that is essential for deducing certain properties of materials, and UV fluorescence, which is important in medical imaging to identify biomarkers linked to diseases.

Parity-time-symmetric photonic and optoelectronic systems is being intensively explored recently, which has been bringing about significant fundamental physics and technological outcomes. One of the main characteristics of a PT symmetric system is its effectiveness in mode selection in a single-mode lasing, in which two cross-coupled and spatially separated resonators with identical geometries are usually employed. A PT-symmetric laser system has a strongly enhanced gain difference between the dominant mode and the side modes, thus making single-mode oscillation possible. However, the strict requirements not only lead to increased structural complexity, high cost, and strong susceptibility to environmental perturbations, but also limit the compactness when on-chip devices are required.

In a new paper published in Light Science & Application, a team of scientists, led by Professor Jiejun Zhang from Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan University has proposed a new technique to realizing PT symmetry in a single spatial resonator. By the manipulation of the polarization-dependent response of the spatial resonator, localized eigenfrequencies, gain, loss, and coupling coefficients of two polarimetric loops formed by lights of orthogonal polarization states can be tuned to achieve PT symmetry. The proposed polarimetric PT symmetry concept opens new avenues for the implementation of non-Hermitian photonic systems, in which a variety of optical parameters, including polarization, wavelength, transverse mode and optical angular momentum, can be used.

As a demonstration, a fiber ring laser based on this concept supporting stable and single-mode lasing without using a high-Q optical filter is implemented. The PT-symmetric system is implemented in a single fiber loop with polarimetric diversity. In the experiment, the fiber ring laser has a cavity length of 41 m with a mode spacing as small as 4.88 MHz. The employment of polarimetric PT symmetry enables effective suppression of the sidemodes with a suppression ratio greater than 47.9 dB. The linewidth of the light generated by the fiber ring laser is measured to be 129 kHz with a wavelength-tunable range of 35 nm.

"In one single physical fiber loop, the polarimetric diversity is implemented by controlling the polarization states of light via polarization controllers. An erbium-doped fiber amplifier is incorporated to provide an optical gain. By tuning the loss, gain and coupling strength of the two polarimetric modes, PT symmetry is implemented, of which can be observed from the output spectrum. Since only a single physical loop is required, the implementation is significantly simplified, and the stability is highly improved."

"The measured laser linewidth is 129 kHz, which is broadened due to the high susceptibility of the system to environmental disturbances due to a long fiber in the cavity. By suppressing those noises using active cavity stabilization techniques or isolated laser systems, the linewidth is possible to be reduced to its Lorentzian linewidth of 2.4 kHz." they added.

"The presented technique provides a new concept of implementing PT symmetry in non-spatial parameter space in photonic systems. Not limited to the polarimetric parameter space, one can adopt this concept by constructing various parameter spaces. With simplified physical structures, this proposed concept is ready to be applied in other fields to promote the application of the PT symmetry mechanism." the scientists forecast.

CAMBRIDGE, MA - October 8 2020--The preprints selected for review in Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 (RR:C19), an open-access overlay journal published by the MIT Press, cover a wide range of subjects, with peer reviewers finding a study that higher levels of cytokines IL-6 and IL-10 are associated with increased severity of COVID-19 is particularly noteworthy and could be useful in clinical care.

And in the first published scholarly peer reviews of pre-print research from Li-Meng Yan, Shu Kang, Jie Guan, and Shanchang Hu--the so-called "Yan Report"--that claims to show that unusual features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome suggest sophisticated laboratory modification rather than natural evolution, reviewers Robert Gallo, Takahiko Koyama, Adam Lauring, and Marvin Reitz rate the study as misleading and write that the "manuscript does not demonstrate sufficient scientific evidence to support its claims."

Peer reviewers similarly flag as misleading new research that non-COVID-19 vaccinations are linked to decreased SARS-CoV-2 rates.

New peer reviews from RR:C19, in order of the evidence scale rating (strong, reliable, potentially informative, not informative, or misleading) as provided by each of the two reviewers:

"IL-6 and IL-10 as predictors of disease severity in COVID 19 patients: results from meta-analysis and regression" by Sujan K Dhar, et al. Preprint | Reviews

Evidence Scale Rating: Strong / Reliable

Summary: This preprint says that higher levels of cytokines IL-6 and IL-10 are associated with increased severity of COVID-19. Reviewer consensus suggests this well-conducted study provides scientific evidence of potential prognostic markers that could be useful in clinical care. Reviewers: You-Wen He and Tsvetelina Velikova

"College campuses and COVID-19 mitigation: clinical and economic value" by Elena Losina, et al. Preprint | Reviews

Evidence Scale Rating: Strong / Potentially Informative

Summary: This is a comprehensive model that covers a timely topic; however, the many estimations that went into the model, as well as the use of "contact-hours" as a key parameter, may make the conclusions subject to uncertainty. Reviewers: Kathy Leung and David Kim

"Lipid droplets fuels SARS-CoV-2 replication and inflammatory response" by Suelen da Silva Gomes Dias, et al. Preprint | Reviews

Evidence Scale Rating: Reliable / Potentially Informative / Potentially Informative

Summary: This study claims infection-mediated lipid droplet biogenesis contributes to SARS-CoV-2 replication while suppressing lipid droplet formation restricts infection. However, these are not fully substantiated by the data offered due to lack of proper controls. Reviewers: Ulrich Desselberger, KJ Helbig, Ebony Alice Monson, and Prasert Auewarakul

"Serum Sphingosine-1-Phosphate as novel prognostic and predictive biomarker for COVID-19 severity and morbidity and its implications in clinical management" by Giovanni Marfia, et al. Preprint | Reviews

Evidence Scale Rating: Potentially Informative / Potentially Informative / Not Informative

Summary: This potentially informative article with some methodological flaws suggests that serum Sphingosine-1-Phosphate (S1P) is associated with COVID-19 severity. Further research is needed to understand if serum S1P could be provided therapeutically to reduce COVID-19 severity. Reviewers: Yoh Takuwa, Hideru Obinata, and Markus Gräler

"Exploratory analysis of immunization records highlights decreased SARS-CoV-2 rates in individuals with recent non-COVID-19 vaccinations" by Colin Pawlowski, et al. Preprint | Reviews

Evidence Scale Rating: Potentially Informative / Misleading

Summary: While the findings from this study are intriguing, the potential for spurious association between vaccination and infection is substantial. There are limitations to the data and findings could be misleading. Reviewers: Andrew Wiese and Shaun Truelove

"Unusual features of the SARS-CoV-2 genome suggesting sophisticated laboratory modification rather than natural evolution and delineation of its probable synthetic route" by Li-Meng Yan, et al. Reviews

Evidence Scale Rating: Misleading / Misleading / Misleading

Summary: This manuscript does not demonstrate sufficient scientific evidence to support its claims. Claims are at times baseless and are not supported by the data and methods used. Decision-makers should consider the author's claims in this study misleading. Reviewers: Takahiko Koyama, Adam Lauring, Robert Gallo, and Marvin Reitz

RR:C19 is published by the MIT Press and the editorial offices are located at UC Berkeley, headed by editor-in-chief Stefano M. Bertozzi, Professor of Health Policy and Management and Dean Emeritus of the School of Public Health at University of California Berkeley. The journal is funded by a grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and hosted on PubPub, an open-source publishing platform from the Knowledge Futures Group.

To learn more about this project and its editorial board, or to sign up for future news and alerts, visit rapidreviewscovid19.mitpress.mit.edu.

EUGENE, Ore. - Oct. 8, 2020 - The exchange of DNA between chromosomes during the early formation of sperm and egg cells normally is limited to assure fertility.

But when there are too many of these genetic exchanges, called crossover events, the segregation of chromosomes into eggs is flawed, biologists have learned in a project done across three labs at the University of Oregon and Northwestern University.

In a paper published online Sept. 4 in the journal PLOS Genetics, researchers documented how the disruptions, as seen in basic research with microscopic roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans), lead to a range of meiotic defects as the chromosomes are subjected to improper spindle forces.

Inaccurate chromosome segregation in humans is associated with Down syndrome and miscarriages. Such segregation defects as seen in the research can result in increased infertility, said UO biologist Diana E. Libuda, the study's principal investigator.

"Over the past century, research has focused on making sure enough crossovers are made during sperm and egg development," said Libuda, a professor in the UO's Department of Biology and Institute of Molecular Biology. "It was known that developing sperm and eggs had ways to make sure that not too many crossovers are made, but it was unclear why."

The research team identified two mechanisms that help counteract defects triggered by excess crossover activity in developing eggs and, thus, assist the coordination of the process that helps assure genomic integrity in new generations.

Libuda had reported in the Oct. 9, 2013, issue of Nature the discovery of a mechanism that inhibits the overproduction of crossovers in roundworms. However, Libuda said, it was not possible at that time to study the downstream effects in cases where too many crossovers did occur. Since then, her lab developed a way to generate extra crossovers on a single chromosome.

That ability led to a National Institutes of Health-funded collaboration with Sadie Wignall of Northwestern University, an expert on high-resolution imaging of structures involved in segregation of chromosomes into developing eggs. What Wignall found led Libuda back to Bruce Bowerman's UO lab to take a look at chromosome segregation in live developing eggs.

"Overall, it was a great joining of scientific strengths to take a multipronged approach to answer this important question," Libuda said.

The research provides fundamental insights that can guide research in other organisms to better understand the mechanisms and, eventually, lead to potential clinical applications.

"The same proteins that we are studying in C. elegans are also in humans," Libuda said. "In fact, most proteins required for fertility are used across organisms that include yeast, fruit flies, nematodes, zebrafish, mice and humans. Research using these microscopic worms has been shown in numerous contexts to have relevance in human health. "

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 7, 2020) -- Most COVID-19 (coronavirus) patients in Southern California during the early months of the pandemic appear to have been infected by a variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus introduced to the region from New York state via Europe, not directly from China, where the virus was first detected, according to a new study conducted at Cedars-Sinai.

The findings were based on a genetic analysis of the virus found in tissue samples taken from 192 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 at Cedars-Sinai.

Investigators said they believed their study was the first published genetic characterization of SARS-CoV-2 in the Los Angeles population using an advanced technique known as next-generation sequencing, which analyzes all the genes, or genome, of a virus or other organism. The study was published Oct. 7 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

"Based on these findings, we concluded SARS-CoV-2 was likely introduced into the Los Angeles community predominantly from New York state but also through multiple other independent transmission routes that included Washington state and China," said Eric Vail, MD, assistant professor and director of Molecular Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai. He was co-senior author of the study.

Specifically, investigators found that about 15% of the virus samples taken from the COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai between March 22 and April 15 were genetically similar to published profiles of SARS-CoV-2 viruses from Asia, while 82% shared close similarities with variants originating in Europe.

"It was surprising to us that New York appeared to be the source of so much of the Los Angeles virus, especially since the first confirmed COVID-19 case in the U.S. involved a person who had returned to Washington state after visiting China," said Jasmine Plummer, PhD, research scientist at the Cedars-Sinai Center for Bioinformatics and Functional Genomics and associate director of the Applied Genomics, Computation & Translational Core. She was the other co-senior author of the study.

In addition, analysis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus using next-generation sequencing proved to be so precise that investigators were able to identify a unique cluster of 13 coronavirus patients, all members of the same religious denomination, living within a 2.4-mile radius of each other. This finding pointed to the potential for using this technique to monitor local community spread of the disease.

"This innovative research provides data to advance comparative genetic analysis of identifying features unique to SARS-CoV-2," said David Frishberg, MD, chair of Academic Pathology and professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Cedars-Sinai. "Sequencing discoveries provide critical information about COVID-19 and its origins and evolution, and they may even help predict its future trajectory."

What The Study Did: A survey study of Texas police officers examines how common mental illness and mental health care use are in a large urban department.

Authors: Katelyn K. Jetelina, M.P.H., Ph.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health in Dallas, 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.2020.19658)

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.