Culture

An international team of astronomers detected phosphine (PH3) in the atmosphere of Venus. They studied the origin of phosphine, but no inorganic processes, including supply from volcanos and atmospheric photochemistry can explain the detected amount of phosphine. The phosphine is believed to originate from unknown photochemistry or geochemistry, but the team does not completely reject the possibility of biological origin. This discovery is crucial to examine the validity of phosphine as a biomarker.

"When we got the first hints of phosphine in Venus's spectrum, it was a shock!", says team leader Jane Greaves of Cardiff University in the UK, who first spotted signs of phosphine in observations from the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), operated by the East Asian Observatory, in Hawai?i. Confirming their discovery required the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, a more sensitive telescope. The reason why she was so shocked is that phosphine can be produced by microbes on the Earth [1] , although the research team does not think that they found life on Venus.

How do you find life on a planet from quite far away? One way is to study its atmosphere and find a biomarker that can be evidence of the presence of living forms. If a molecule in the atmosphere is mainly produced by living organisms and the contribution from abiotic origins is negligibly small, it can be a good biomarker.

The international team led by Greaves, including Hideo Sagawa at Kyoto Sangyo University, studied the signal of phosphine in the radio spectra and found that the amount of the molecule is about 20 parts per billion in the atmospheric molecules. This is quite a small amount, but enough to astonish the researchers. This is because researchers have supposed that most of the phosphorus, if it existed in the first place, would bind with oxygen atoms because the Venusian atmosphere has a huge amount of oxygen atoms, although most of them are in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2).

The team carefully examined the possible origins of the phosphine: production by chemical reaction in the atmosphere driven by strong sunlight or lightning, supply from volcanic activity, and delivery by meteorites. The team found that all of these known processes failed to produce the observed amount of phosphine. The amount of phosphine molecules produced by those processes is 10,000 times smaller than the amount detected with the radio telescopes.

The researchers supposed that phosphine is produced by unknown photochemistry or geochemistry, but they also considered the possibility of biological origin. On Earth, some microbes produce and egest phosphine. If similar living organisms were in the Venusian atmosphere, they could produce the detected amount of phosphine.

"Although we concluded that known chemical processes cannot produce enough phosphine, there remains the possibility that some hitherto unknown abiotic process exists on Venus," says Sagawa. "We have a lot of homework to do before reaching an exotic conclusion, including re-observation of Venus to verify the present result itself."

Venus is Earth's twin, in terms of size. However, the atmospheres of the two planets are quite different. Venus has a very think atmosphere and the devastating greenhouse effect raises the surface temperature as high as 460 degrees Celsius. Some researchers argue that the upper atmosphere is much milder and possibly habitable, but the extremely dry and deadly acidic atmosphere would make it difficult for a life form similar to the ones on Earth to survive on Venus.

Further observations with large telescopes on the Earth, including ALMA, and ultimately on-site observations and a sample return of the Venusian atmosphere by space probes will provide crucial information to understand the mysterious origin of the phosphine.

Thanks to the sniffling noses, coughs, and colds that accompany the colder months of the year, we are all too familiar with the seasonal patterns of some respiratory viruses. A new review published in Frontiers in Public Health suggests that COVID-19, the illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, will likely follow suit and become seasonal in countries with temperate climates, but only when herd immunity is attained. Until that time, COVID-19 will continue to circulate across the seasons. These conclusions highlight the absolute importance of public health measures needed just now to control the virus.

Senior author of the study Dr. Hassan Zaraket, of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, warns that "COVID-19 is here to stay and it will continue to cause outbreaks year-round until herd immunity is achieved. Therefore, the public will need to learn to live with it and continue practicing the best prevention measures, including wearing of masks, physical distancing, hand hygiene and avoidance of gatherings."

Collaborating author Dr. Hadi Yassine, of Qatar University in Doha, affirms and states that there could be multiple waves of COVID-19 before herd immunity is achieved.

We know that many respiratory viruses follow seasonal patterns, especially in temperate regions. For instance, influenza and several types of coronaviruses that cause common cold are known to peak in winter in temperate regions but circulate year-round in tropical regions. The authors reviewed these seasonal viruses, examining the viral and host factors that control their seasonality as well as the latest knowledge on the stability and transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

The researchers explain that virus survival in the air and on surfaces, people's susceptibility to infections and human behaviors, such as indoor crowding, differ across the seasons due to changes in temperature and humidity. These factors influence transmission of respiratory viruses at different times of the year.

However, in comparison to other respiratory viruses such as the flu, COVID-19 has a higher rate of transmission (R0), at least partly due to circulation in a largely immunologically naïve population.

This means that unlike the flu and other respiratory viruses, the factors governing seasonality of viruses cannot yet halt the spread of COVID-19 in the summer months. But, once herd immunity is attained through natural infections and vaccinations, the R0 should drop substantially, making the virus more susceptible to seasonal factors.

Such seasonality has been reported for other coronaviruses, including those that emerged more recently such as NL63 and HKU1, which follow the same circulation pattern like influenza.

"This remains a novel virus and despite the fast-growing body of science about it there are still things that are unknown. Whether our predictions hold true or not remains to be seen in the future. But we think it's highly likely, given what we know so far, COVID-19 will eventually become seasonal, like other coronaviruses," adds Zaraket.

Dr. Yassine states that "the highest global COVID-19 infection rate per capita was recorded in the Gulf states, regardless of the hot summer season. Although this is majorly attributed to the rapid virus spread in closed communities, it affirms the need for rigorous control measures to limit virus spread, until herd immunity is achieved".

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (SEPTEMBER 15, 2020). Researchers at the University of Calgary have developed and validated a clinical prediction scale that can be used to determine which patients are more likely to experience inadequate pain control following elective spine surgery. Armed with this knowledge, spine surgeons can ensure that patients obtain appropriate patient education and individualized clinical care with the goal of improved postoperative pain management.

Detailed findings of this study can be found in a new article, "Development and validation of a clinical prediction score for poor postoperative pain control following elective spine surgery," by Michael M. H. Yang, MD, MSc, MBiotech, and colleagues, published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine.

Background

As the world population ages, greater numbers of people are experiencing spinal degeneration and consequent pain and/or lack of mobility. This is just one reason for the steady increase in the number of spine surgeries over the last few decades. Rapid advances in diagnostic and surgical technologies, and improvements in intraoperative techniques have also led to the increase. Unfortunately, inadequate pain control in the days following spine surgery remains common. The authors state that "30%-64% of patients continue to report poorly controlled pain after spine surgery." Surgery is a valid treatment for many diseases and disorders of the spine, but patient outcomes can be hindered or sidetracked by a painful convalescence. Better prediction of which patients will experience poor postoperative pain control may aid the spine surgeon in designing individual patient care plans to help alleviate the pain.

Present Study

The authors conducted a retrospective cohort study of data from 1300 adult patients who were enrolled in the prospective Canadian Spine Outcomes and Research Network (CSORN) registry between August 28, 2014, and October 4, 2017. These patients had undergone elective spine surgery and required hospitalization for at least 24 hours postoperatively. The most common disorder was spinal stenosis (39%), and the most common complaint was radiculopathy (42%). The patient's postoperative level of pain was measured using an 11-point numerical scale (ranging from 0 = no pain to 10 = worst pain). Pain was assessed in the hospital while the patient was at rest; a pain level greater than 4 was considered poor pain control. During the first 24 hours following surgery, 57% of patients experienced poor pain control.

In the study, patients were randomly assigned to one of two cohort groups: 1) 910 patients to the model development cohort to develop the prediction score for poor postoperative pain control, and 2) 390 patients to the validation cohort to test whether the new scoring system fulfilled its purpose.

Data were examined to determine what patient variables are associated with poor pain control. Beginning with 25 variables, the authors were able to narrow these to seven variables that were independently predictive of poor postoperative pain control: younger age of patient, female sex, higher preoperative neck or back pain score, preoperative daily use of opioid medication, surgery on three of more spinal motion segments, surgery involving fusion, and a higher depression score on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. The authors assigned clinical scores to each of these seven predictors, with patients receiving a total clinical score between 0 and 13. This Calgary Postoperative Pain After Spine Surgery (CAPPS) score was consolidated first into an eight-tier risk classification and later collapsed into a three-tier classification of low risk (scores 0-4), high risk (scores 5-8), and extreme risk (scores 9-13) groups.

The performance of the CAPPS prediction scoring system was assessed by assigning prediction scores to the 390 patients in the validation cohort and then comparing these patients' predicted pain control with their reported pain control. The authors found that "predicted probabilities derived from both the eight-tier and three-tier CAPPS score closely matched the incidence of poor pain control observed in the validation cohort" (see figure). Using the three-tier system, the low-, high-, and extreme-risk patient groups had 32%, 63%, and 85% predicted probabilities of experiencing inadequately controlled pain, respectively. These percentages are similar to the observed incidences of 37%, 62%, and 81%, respectively, for the same three groups of patients.

Female sex and younger age of the patient are not modifiable variables. However, the authors discuss other variables that may be adjusted or accommodated for with the goal of better postoperative pain relief. The authors conclude that the CAPPS predictive score "can be used to facilitate preoperative patient education and the development of personalized clinical care pathways to improve postoperative acute pain outcomes."

When asked about the findings of this study, Dr. Michael Yang and Dr. Steven Casha responded, "Our results show that more than half of the patients experience poorly control pain after spine surgery. Identifying patients at increased risk during discussions about management and before surgery, will allow physicians to develop specific treatment strategies for each patient, to improve postoperative pain, and to facilitate patient recovery."

Ann Arbor, September 14, 2020 - New research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) shows that gun laws in neighboring states have an effect on gun death rates in adjoining states. In findings published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, weaker firearm laws in neighboring states correlated with more firearm deaths within a state. This is useful information for state policymakers who sometimes have to justify and defend the need for firearm laws in their state.

"Although stronger state gun policies were associated with decreased firearm deaths, the presence of permissive neighboring states undermined this protective effect," said lead investigator Bisakha Sen, PhD, Blue Cross Blue Shield Endowed Chair in Health Economics, Department of Health Care Organization and Policy in the UAB School of Public Health, Birmingham, AL, USA. "Specifically, higher policy differences across states were associated with increased rates of total firearm deaths, suicides, and homicides, although results were statistically stronger for suicide than homicide."

The study examined 578,022 firearm deaths during the 2000 to 2017 study period. The total number of firearm-related deaths by state was extracted from the Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including deaths from all intent, homicide, and suicide.

The investigators identified four categories of laws that had the potential to impact interstate movement of firearms and firearm-related mortality: background checks, dealer regulations, buyer regulations, and gun trafficking laws. They further assessed the total number of laws a state had within each category.

"A higher count of a state's firearm laws was associated with fewer total firearm deaths, female firearm deaths, male firearm deaths, firearm homicide, and firearm suicide," explained Ye Liu, MD, first author on the study and a doctoral student in the Department of Health Care Organization and Policy at UAB, who developed the empirical framework under Dr. Sen's guidance. "Having adjacent states with fewer laws appeared to increase firearm deaths of the state."

Dr. Sen's team reports that failing to account for weaker firearm laws in neighboring states made it falsely appear that the own states' laws were about 20 percent less effective in reducing firearm deaths than they actually were.

Dr. Sen's team further reports that for each increase of 1 in the between-state law or policy differences, indicating more lax policies in a neighboring state, the incidence rate increased 2.5 percent for firearm homicide, 1.6 percent for total firearm-related deaths, 1.7 percent for female firearm deaths, 1.6 percent for male firearm deaths, and 0.6 percent for firearm suicide.

"This study adds to the growing literature emphasizing the role played by neighboring states' firearm regulations in addition to own-state firearm regulations in firearm deaths," Dr. Sen noted. "Failing to account for neighboring states with weaker laws can, in some instances, make a state's own regulations appear less effective in reducing firearm deaths. The study suggests that without cooperative legislative actions in neighboring states, efforts in one state to strengthen firearm legislation and prevent firearm deaths may be undermined. Federal gun regulations may be particularly useful because they affect all states."

This study also emphasizes the importance of state leaders "reaching across the state border" and trying to foster cooperative legislative actions with neighboring states, as well as the importance of federal gun-policy legislation.

"I think the main message of this study is that in order to solve a nationwide problem we need to think of a nationwide or at least a regional-level (i.e., multistate) approach, like we may also need for the COVID-19 pandemic," added Dr. Liu. "An 'each state on its own' approach is ultimately inadequate to address one of the biggest public health challenges in this country."

Tsukuba, Japan - Researchers led by the University of Tsukuba studied the vibrational modes of an intrinsically disordered protein to understand its anomalously strong response at low frequencies. This work may lead to improvements in our knowledge of materials that lack long-range order, which may influence industrial glass manufacturing.

Glassy materials have many surprising properties. Not quite a solid or a liquid, glasses are made of atoms that are frozen in a disordered, non-crystalline state. Over a century ago, physicist Peter Debye proposed a formula for understanding the possible vibrational modes of solids. While mostly successful, this theory does not explain the surprisingly universal vibrations that can be excited in disordered materials--like glass--by electromagnetic radiation in the terahertz range. This deviation has been seen often enough to gets its own name, the "boson peak," but its origin remains unclear.

Now, researchers at the University of Tsukuba have conducted a series of experiments to investigate the physics behind the boson peak using the protein lysozyme.
"This protein has an intrinsically disordered and fractal structure," first author of the study Professor Tatsuya Mori says. "We believe that it makes sense to consider the entire system as a single supramolecule."

Fractals, which are mathematical structures that exhibit self-similarity over a wide range of scales, are common in nature. Think of trees: they appear similar whether you zoom out to look at the branches, as well as when you come close to inspect the twigs. Fractals have the surprising ability to be described by a non-integer number of dimensions. That is, an object with a fractal dimension of 1.5 is halfway between a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional object, which means that its mass increases with its size to the 1.5 power.

On the basis of the results of terahertz spectroscopy, the mass fractal dimension of the lysozyme molecules was found to be around 2.75. This value was also determined to be related to the absorption coefficient of the material.

"The findings suggest that the fractal properties originate from the self-similarity of the structure of the amino acids of the lysozyme proteins," Professor Mori says. "This research may hold the key to resolving a long-standing puzzle regarding disordered and fractal materials, which can lead to more efficient production of glass or fractal structures."

EUGENE, Ore. - Sept. 15, 2020 - High school students who endure gender harassment in schools that don't respond well enter college and adulthood with potential mental health challenges, according to a University of Oregon study.

The study, published last month in PLOS ONE, found that 97 percent of women and 96 percent of men from a pool of 535 undergraduate college students had endured at least one instance of gender harassment during high school.

Experiences of gender harassment, especially for those who encountered it repeatedly, were associated with clinically relevant levels of trauma-related symptoms in college.

"We found that the more gender harassment and institutional betrayal teens encounter in high school, the more mental, physical and emotional challenges they experience in college," said lead author Monika N. Lind, a UO psychology doctoral student. "Our findings suggest that gender harassment and institutional betrayal may hurt young people, and educators and researchers should pay more attention to these issues."

The study, the three-member UO team noted, served to launch academic research into the responses of high schools to gender harassment, beyond media reports of institutional betrayal by schools since the #MeToo movement began.

Gender harassment, a type of sexual harassment, is characterized by sexist remarks, sexually crude or offensive behavior and the enforcement of traditional gender roles.

Institutional betrayal, a label coined previously by the study's co-author UO psychologist Jennifer Freyd, is the failure of an institution, such as a school, to protect people who depend on it. A high school mishandling a case of gender harassment reported by a student is an example of institutional betrayal.

Participants - 363 females, 168 males, three non-binary and one who did not report gender - initially were not aware of the study's focus.

They completed a 20-item gender harassment questionnaire about their high school experiences and a 12-item questionnaire about their schools' actions or inactions. Trauma symptoms were assessed with a 40-item checklist that explores common posttraumatic symptoms such as headaches, memory problems, anxiety attacks, nightmares, sexual problems and insomnia.

An analysis that considered gender, race, age, gender harassment, institutional betrayal, and the interaction of gender harassment and institutional betrayal significantly predicted trauma-related symptoms, but, Lind said, a subtle surprise emerged.

"We expected to find an interaction effect showing that the relationship between gender harassment and trauma-related symptoms depends on institutional betrayal, such that people who experience high gender harassment have different levels of symptoms depending on how much institutional betrayal they experience," she said. "Instead we found that gender harassment and institutional betrayal are independently related to trauma-related symptoms."

That issue, Lind said, needs to be further explored. It's possible, she said, that the pool of students wasn't large enough or that the measures used were not robust enough. Another factor may be that the study focused more on institutional betrayal than impacts of institutional courage.

"This is like measuring mood and only letting respondents report negative to neutral mood - you're missing a bunch of variability that might be captured if you extended the scale to go from negative to positive," she said. "Expanding the scale to capture institutional courage might increase the likelihood of identifying a meaningful interaction."

How schools might respond to the issues identified in the study should begin with listening to students, Lind said. Asking about problems and listening to responses is an example of institutional courage. Interventions that do not do so often fail.

"Schools should engage in self-study, including interviews, focus groups and anonymous surveys of students, and they should take students' reports and suggestions seriously," Lind said. "When you're trying to intervene in adolescence, you'll do better if you demonstrate respect for teens' autonomy and social status."

Researchers have not focused on such issues in high schools, where students are emerging into early adulthood from the physical, neurological and psychological changes occurring in adolescence, said Freyd, a pioneer in academic research on issues of sexual harassment, institutional betrayal and institutional courage.

"Until now, all of the education-focused institutional betrayal research has considered the experiences of undergraduate and graduate-level college students, as well as those of faculty members," she said. "There also has been work on these issues in the military and workplaces, but we don't know a lot about gender harassment or institutional betrayal in adolescence."

DENVER/September 14, 2020 – A genetic mutation might be the reason dogs with hypothyroidism are less likely to develop T-zone lymphoma (TZL). That’s the finding from Morris Animal Foundation-funded researchers at Colorado State University who tried to identify genetic risk factors for TZL using a genome-wide association study (GWAS) and subsequent targeted sequencing. They recently published their results in the journal BMC Genomics.

“Golden retrievers are predisposed to so many cancers,” said Dr. Julia Labadie, Morris Animal Foundation epidemiologist, who conducted the study as part of her doctoral work. “Any piece of the puzzle we can solve to help us understand why, can really help this breed. Of course, golden retrievers aren’t the only dogs getting this cancer, so what we learn has implications for all dogs at risk for TZL.”

The published study is a follow up to a 2019 publication from the same team that examined associations of environment and health history among golden retrievers with TZL. The team found that both hypothyroidism and omega-3 supplementation are associated with decreased risk of TZL and suggested a genetic predisposition for TZL.

“This gives us one more piece of information which we can add to future studies to ultimately help us understand why dogs get this and other cancers,” said Dr. Janet Patterson-Kane, Morris Animal Foundation Chief Scientific Officer. “With continued research, we are making progress toward the development of preventive measures, earlier diagnosis and successful treatments.”

The team used a subset of banked blood samples from the original study to look more closely for a genetic explanation for their initial findings. The samples used were from 95 dogs that were positive for TZL, 142 from dogs that possessed T-zone like cells that may have been precancerous, and 101 from a control group of dogs that were at least 9 years old and did not have the disease.

Researchers extracted DNA from each sample and genotyped them to identify areas in the dogs’ chromosomes that were associated with having or not having the disease. One region of interest was found in chromosome 8, which has an association with thyroid hormone regulation. While variation in the genes associated with thyroid function has not yet been confirmed, identifying the region containing thyroid hormone genes in the genetic risk factor study as well as hypothyroidism in the environmental risk factor study strongly suggests that this area of the dog’s genome is an important clue to the underlying causes of T-zone lymphoma.

“This study illustrates the value of combined genetic and environmental risk factor analysis, because identifying hypothyroidism in the environmental study, as well as a genetic region that governs thyroid function in the genetic study, highlights the importance of this part of the dog genome in this disease,” said Dr. Anne Avery, Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology at Colorado State University. “The relevant genes may be the thyroid function genes themselves, or other genes in the region, but the strong evidence from the combined studies about the importance of this genetic region means that we can be confident that further focus on this area will be fruitful.”

The CSU team also found four variants on chromosome 14 that were associated with an increased risk of TZL. These same variants were previously found to be associated with risk for mast cell tumors among golden retrievers, which could suggest a shared mechanism underlying development of the two cancers. This unrelated study from the Broad Institute used similar genotyping methods. The CSU team didn’t find that dogs with the chromosomal variants were likely to have both tumors, though.

T-zone lymphoma is a slowly progressive form of the cancer that usually develops in older dogs, comprising about 12% of canine lymphoma cases. It is far more prevalent in golden retrievers than any other breed, with golden retrievers representing over 40% of all reported cases.

Most of the golden retrievers in this study’s control group were drawn from Morris Animal Foundation’s Canine Lifetime Health Project. This is a registry of dogs whose owners are interested in participating in clinical trials and other studies to improve canine health. Many of the dogs entered into the registry during the recruitment phase of Morris Animal Foundation’s Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, but were too old to participate in the Study at the time of their enrollment.

About Morris Animal Foundation

Morris Animal Foundation’s mission is to bridge science and resources to advance the health of animals. Founded by a veterinarian in 1948, we fund and conduct critical health studies for the benefit of all animals. Learn more at morrisanimalfoundation.org.

Journal

BMC Genomics

DOI

10.1186/s12864-020-06872-9

Anxiety and depression are often linked and assumed to be closely related, but now research has shown for the first time that depression and anxiety have different biochemical associations with inflammation and lipid (fat) metabolism. This indicates that different, more targeted treatments may be possible to treat anxiety and depression. This work is presented at the ECNP Congress.

Depression and anxiety share several symptoms, have common risk factors, and often they are treated with the same drugs. Over 50% of patients with depression (Major Depressive Disorder) also have a history of anxiety. Nevertheless, psychiatrists classify them as different disorders, although until now it has been difficult to identify biochemical evidence for this.

Scientists from the Netherlands Study of Anxiety and Depression (NESDA) used blood samples from 304 people with current depression, 548 with anxiety, 531 with both depression and anxiety, 807 with remitted disorders, and 634 healthy controls. Using a nuclear magnetic resonance detector they tested for associations between 40 metabolites found in blood and symptoms of depression, and symptoms of anxiety (such as panic, pathological worry, etc.).

"We have two main findings", said Hilde de Kluiver, of Amsterdam UMC, "firstly we found that the depressed group showed evidence of greater inflammation which was not seen in the anxious group. We also found that the depressed group had very different amounts and types of lipid in their blood. For example, depressed people had high levels of triglycerides, but lower levels of omega-3-fatty acids. In contrast, those people who had anxiety disorder had a lipid composition very similar to the healthy control group.

We also found that those metabolites associated with depression were also associated with the severity of the depression: in other words, if you had more of a lipid associated with depression, your depression tended to be worse".

In recent years, depression has been associated with disturbances in the body's immune system and metabolism, and previous researchers have shown that depressed people tend to have different biochemical markers to those of healthy people. However, no such analysis of such a wide set of markers has been undertaken for anxiety. This work shows, for the first time, that the immune system and lipid metabolism changes in depressed people but not in anxious people.

The researchers hope that these findings will lead to better treatments. "Our group is now planning to test whether depressed people with altered inflammation might respond to treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs", said Hilde de Kluiver.

Commenting, Dr Philippe Nuss (Hôpital Saint-Antoine, Paris) said "This is an important finding for several reasons. First it identifies easy-to-measure blood biomarkers characterising a subtype of depression whose underlying mechanism is specific and will probably need an appropriate treatment. It also emphasises the fact that mental disorders should be seen in a whole body perspective where major regulatory physiological systems such as immunity and lipid metabolism are involved. In addition, both immunity and lipids are strongly involved in brain metabolism. It is thus not surprising that Ms de Kluiver's work shows that the severity of depression is greater in patients with more impaired biomarkers".

Dr Nuss was not involved in this work, this is an independent comment.

Environmental hazards affect populations worldwide and can drive migration under specific conditions. Changes in temperature levels, increased rainfall variability, and rapid-onset disasters, such as tropical storms, are important factors as shown by a new study led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Environmental migration is most pronounced in middle-income and agricultural countries but weaker in low-income countries, where populations often lack resources needed for migration. The findings make it possible to identify geographical regions that may be especially susceptible to migration movements in the future.

"Environmental factors can drive migration, but the size of the effects depends on the particular economic and sociopolitical conditions in the countries," says lead author Roman Hoffmann from PIK and the Vienna Institute of Demography of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. "In both low and high income countries environmental impacts on migration are weaker - presumably because either people are too poor to leave and become basically trapped, or, in wealthy countries, have enough financial means to absorb the consequences. It is mainly in regions with middle incomes and a dependency on agriculture that we see strong effects."

Environmental impacts differ by contexts and types of hazards

The meta-study, which analyzed 30 previously published studies on the topic, reveals a number of fascinating patterns. It shows, for example, that impacts on migration vary by types of environmental hazards and that different hazards can re-inforce each other. "While changing temperatures in a region are found to have the strongest impact on migration, also rapid-onset disasters and changing rainfall variability and anomalies can play a role. Especially smallholder farmers rely on steady climatic conditions and suffer from changes and shocks as they have insufficient capacities to adapt," says co-author Raya Muttarak from the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis and the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Global Human Capital (IIASA, VID/ÖAW, University of Vienna).

The researchers emphasize that there is no automatism at play - environmental migration always depends on a number of economic and sociopolitical factors. The narrative of climate refugees pushing towards Europe or the US may be too simplistic. For instance, the researchers found compelling evidence that environmental changes in vulnerable countries predominantly lead to internal migration or migration to other low- and middle-income countries, rather than cross-border migration to high-income countries. Affected populations often migrate to places within their own region and eventually return to their homes within a relatively short period of time.

Localizing potential migration hotspots

The findings, published in the latest issue of Nature Climate Change, also hint at regions highly vulnerable to climate change where environmental migration may be particularly prevalent. "Our research suggests that populations in Latin America and the Caribbean, several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the Sahel region and East Africa, as well as Western, South and Southeast Asia are particularly at risk," says co-author Anna Dimitrova from the Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Given the expected rise of the global average temperature the researchers believe that the topic of environmental migration will become more important in the future. Consequently, interventions have to be tailored to the actual situations on the ground that reduce vulnerabilities. "The best way to protect those affected is to stabilize the global climate, namely to rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels," concludes Jesus Crespo Cuaresma from the Vienna University of Economics and Business and IIASA. "While migration can be an effective adaptation strategy for households, it can be involuntary and come with unacceptable human suffering - unacceptable because it indeed can be avoided."

In a period defined by an impeachment inquiry, a pandemic, nationwide protests over racial injustice, and a contentious presidential campaign, Americans' knowledge of their First Amendment rights and their ability to name all three branches of the federal government have markedly increased, according to the 2020 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey.

Among the highlights of the annual survey, released before Constitution Day (Sept. 17):

Americans are much more aware of all five rights protected by the First Amendment when asked unprompted to name them;

Nearly three-quarters of Americans (73%) correctly named freedom of speech as one of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment, up from 48% in 2017;

More than half of those surveyed (51%) accurately named all three branches of the federal government, up from 39% last year, the prior high point in this survey.

The civics knowledge survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania was conducted among 1,009 U.S. adults from August 4-9, 2020, prior to the political conventions. It has a margin of error of ± 3.6 percentage points.

"Divided government, the impeachment process, and the number of times political leaders have turned to the courts probably deserve credit for increasing awareness of the three branches, while controversies over the right to peaceably assemble, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech may have done the same for the First Amendment," said Annenberg Public Policy Center Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson.

Improved knowledge of First Amendment rights

Americans' ability to name the five rights protected by the First Amendment has jumped since 2017, when we last asked this question. Their ability to specify some of them more than tripled. Asked to name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment of the Constitution:

73% of Americans named freedom of speech, up from 48% in 2017;

47% named freedom of religion, up from 15% in 2017;

42% named freedom of the press, up from 14% in 2017;

34% named right of assembly, up from 10%;

14% named right to petition the government, up from 3%;

Those who could not name any First Amendment right fell to 19% from 37% in 2017 (total of "can't name any" and "don't know").

This upturn in unprompted recall of First Amendment rights is consistent with increases seen in 2018 and 2019 surveys by the Freedom Forum. (See the Appendix.)

Over half can name the three branches

This year, an unusually high 51% of the U.S. adults surveyed could name the three branches of government - the executive branch (White House), the legislative branch (Congress) and the judicial branch (Supreme Court). That compares with 39% in the 2019 survey, which was the high point in 10 prior surveys, since 2006, when APPC asked this question. In addition:

17% of respondents could name two branches of government, in line with our data since 2006, ranging from 12% to 18%;

8% could name one branch of government, a large drop from 25% in 2019;

23% could not name any branches, essentially unchanged from last year's 22%.

How Supreme Court justices rule

The survey also asked Americans about the fairness and impartiality of the Supreme Court. Asked which is closer to their view of what guides Supreme Court justices in issuing rulings:

56% of respondents agreed that Supreme Court justices set aside their personal and political views and make rulings based on the Constitution, the law, and the facts of the case - a significant increase from 49% in 2019;

By contrast, 37% said that Supreme Court justices nominated by Democratic presidents are more likely to make liberal rulings and that Supreme Court justices nominated by Republicans are more likely to make conservative rulings, regardless of the Constitution, the law, and the facts of the case - down slightly though not significantly from 41% in 2019.

"The actions of the court in the past year appear to have effectively signaled that the justices who cast the decisive votes were guided by the Constitution, laws, and facts of the case more so than by which political party would applaud the outcome," Jamieson noted. "The public probably got that signal from the widely covered rulings that upheld the Obama administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the one written by Justice Gorsuch and supported by Chief Justice Roberts that held that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects gay, lesbian and transgender employees from being discriminated against by employers because of sex."

The balance of power

The survey asked if the president and the Supreme Court differed on whether an action by the president is constitutional, who would have the final responsibility for deciding whether it is constitutional:

Just half the respondents (51%) correctly said the Supreme Court, lower than the 61% in 2019. A growing minority (29%) said it was up to Congress to decide whether the president's acts are constitutional, up from 21% in 2019, which may reflect overgeneralization about congressional authority in a period in which impeachment over alleged unconstitutional action clouded the meaning of the question.

When asked what it means when the Supreme Court rules 5-4 on a case:

Just over half of respondents (54%) correctly knew that the decision is the law and needs to be followed, down significantly from 59% in 2019;

17% of respondents thought the decision is sent back to Congress for reconsideration, up significantly from 12% in 2019;

13% thought the decision is sent back to the federal court of appeals to be decided, up from 10%.

Finally, the survey also asked how much of a majority is required for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives to override a presidential veto. Only 47% correctly said it takes a two-thirds majority to override a veto - the lowest percentage since 2007. There have been no efforts to override a veto in the past year.

Constitution Day and civics

The Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey was conducted for APPC by SSRS, an independent research company. For the question wording and other data, see the Appendix.

The Annenberg Civics Knowledge Survey is released by APPC for Constitution Day, which celebrates the signing of the Constitution in 1787. APPC's activities to enhance civics education include Annenberg Classroom, which offers free classroom resources for teaching the Constitution, and the Civics Renewal Network (CRN), a coalition of over 30 nonpartisan, nonprofit organizations seeking to raise the visibility of civics education by providing free, high-quality resources for teachers.

Efforts to stem the impact of COVID-19 in low to middle income countries could be creating a health time bomb in their slum communities by deepening existing inequalities, according to an international team of health researchers led by the University of Warwick.

Measures to control the coronavirus, such as quarantining and restricting travel, are exacerbating existing economic hardship and limited access to quality healthcare in these communities, creating a 'perfect storm' of factors that harm health in the short and long term.

However, the research - funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) - has identified that adopting mobile consulting and upskilling local providers could be an effective way to provide access to healthcare services for residents.

The conclusions are drawn from research with community leaders, residents, health workers, volunteers and managers working on the ground in slum communities of Bangladesh, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan. The study is published in the journal BMJ Global Health.

The researchers define a slum as an area of high population density that lacks sanitation, clean water, safe and durable housing, as well as basic services. The crowded conditions and poor sanitation in slums makes the recommended methods of controlling COVID-19 - such as regular handwashing and social distancing - a challenge in these communities.

In addition, restrictions on travel and the economy limit work opportunities and access to quality healthcare for these communities, both of which often require people to travel long distances.

Those interviewed by the research team reported that residents were turning more frequently to home remedies, pharmacies or patent medicine vendors, traditional healers and private health centres, due to the disruption in health services. Many of these are not part of formal public health systems, and staff are often not qualified.

In some cases residents were reluctant to travel to formal healthcare facilities due to the risk of infection or stigmatisation. Prior to COVID-19, illnesses that were perceived to be common by local health workers included respiratory, gastric, waterborne and mosquitoborne illnesses and hypertension.

However, the researchers argue that less formal services may play a vital part in communicating health information in slum communities, and that focus should be made by governments to 'upskill' those workers.

Lead author Professor Frances Griffiths of Warwick Medical School said: "Patent medicine vendors and traditional healers live and work in these neighbourhoods. They are in a good position to advise residents and direct them to formal healthcare when it is in the patient's best interest, and should be supported in doing this.

"Local healthcare providers should plan for remote consulting to reduce patient contact and reserve personal protective equipment for necessary face-to-face contact."

To aid in social distancing measures, some health workers and residents reported using their phones for accessing healthcare remotely. The WHO advises the use of mobile consulting to protect health workers and patients but gives little detail about how. However, there is growing evidence of the potential for mobile consulting to enhance provision of healthcare to remote and marginalised populations.

Professor Griffiths added: "These communities are already disadvantaged. There is a danger of them being further disadvantaged by restrictions to control COVID-19 for the wider population and by increasing prices for drugs, healthcare and transport."

The research team were already investigating access to health care in slum communities as part of the NIHR Global Health Research Unit on Improving Health in Slums. In light of the COVID-19-related lockdowns imposed in each country, the team expanded the scope of the project by rapidly employing a new phase of stakeholder engagement focused on the impact of COVID-19.

WASHINGTON (Sept. 14, 2020) -- In a new report commissioned by the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board (GPMB), Georgetown global health experts say the success of any effort to redress pandemic preparedness failures demonstrated by COVID-19 requires a re-centering of governance that would include greater accountability, transparency, equity, participation and the rule of law.

The report, Governance Preparedness: Initial Lessons from COVID-19, was published today by the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed a failure in preparedness arising from a failure of governance in global collective action, including coordination and engagement with multilateral systems, and financing, including chronic underinvestment in preparedness as well as states withdrawing financial support," write the report's authors, global health legal and policy expert Alexandra Phelan, SJD, LLM, LLB and global health security expert Rebecca Katz, PhD, MPH.

The work of this report informed the GPMB 2020 Annual Report also released today.

Phelan and Katz have identified key strategies to re-center and improve governance preparedness:

1. Re-establish global norms of solidarity and multilateral cooperation, including through critical reform of the International Health Regulations;

2. Consider new mechanisms to support data sharing, research and development, and equitable access to diagnostics, treatments, vaccines, and medical goods;

3. Immediately address funding constraints on the World Health Organization through increases in assessed contributions;

4. Develop frameworks and processes for more cohesive and responsive coordination between international institutions and instilling pandemic preparedness in all policies at the international level; and

5. Actively incorporate principles of good governance into international and national decision-making bodies and processes.

Using lessons from governance of other global challenges, the authors say these strategies would ensure better preparedness for collective action and financing in the medium- and long-term future.

The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors. They do not purport to reflect the opinions, views, or recommendations of the GPMB.

Scientists have developed a new genetic tool that can help them better understand and ultimately work to save coral reefs.

"Surprisingly, we still don't know how many coral species live on the Great Barrier Reef, how to identify them, or which species live where. And those are the first steps in saving an ecosystem like that," said Dr Peter Cowman from the ARC Centre of Excellence at James Cook University (Coral CoE at JCU).

Dr Cowman led an international study on coral classification. Classification explains how species are related to each other. Shared similarities and differences provide a key to help identify species. For example, dogs and cats are classified on different branches of the evolutionary tree using their body design.

A seemingly finer detail, like how cats can retract their claws and dogs cannot, helps people decide whether a newly discovered species of small carnivore is more like a dog or a cat.

Dr Cowman said an important challenge when identifying corals is that the same species can grow in many different ways.

"For instance, some species can grow with either a plate or branch structure. The study found classifying corals by their physical characteristics didn't match the classifications based on their genetics," he said.

Species identification underpins almost all biological and ecological research, and the new study challenges more than 200 years of coral classification. The researchers say the 'traditional' method does not accurately capture the differences between species or their evolutionary relationships.

Co-author Professor Andrew Baird, also from Coral CoE at JCU, led a recent scientific journey along the Great Barrier Reef, uncovering 'treasure troves' of new, unidentified coral species.

"The traditional classification of corals is dead," Prof Baird said.

"But these new molecular tools allow us to reinvent a new classification system on the ashes of the old. Hence, the name we have given to the research: Project Phoenix," he said.

"These are exciting times to be a coral taxonomist."

"We need to review the way we currently identify corals," said co-author Dr Tom Bridge from Coral CoE at JCU, who is also the curator of corals at the Queensland Museum.

Dr Bridge said research in the past ten to 20 years has already revolutionised the understanding of the older branches on the evolutionary tree of corals. But, to date, there has been little progress on the more recent twigs of the 'tree'--the living species--particularly with the most diverse and ecologically-important group: the Acropora.

"The Acropora are the branching 'staghorn' corals that dominate reefs," Dr Bridge said. "Yet, even in well-researched locations like the Great Barrier Reef, we can't identify many of these species accurately."

Dr Cowman said the traditional method doesn't reflect the tens of millions of years of coral evolution.

"At the moment, we're flying blind," he said.

Dr Andrea Quattrini, curator of corals at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, developed the new genetic tool. She said it provides a way forward with plans to secure the future of coral reefs.

"By comparing thousands of key genetic coral features, we were able to discern the evolutionary relationships of corals from the Great Barrier Reef and broader Indo-Pacific region," Dr Quattrini said.

"The result is a new classification that provides important scientific knowledge to assess the various intervention strategies currently being proposed on the Great Barrier Reef and elsewhere."

Some of the interventions being proposed on the reef include hybridising species and moving some populations south.

"It's clear we do not know enough about many of the species we're dealing with. This new method can help generate the robust science we need to assess such proposals," Dr Bridge said.

Independent group leaders Eleanor Scerri and Denise Kuehnert of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (MPI-SHH) have teamed up with other colleagues from the institute and beyond to comment in Nature Ecology & Evolution on the future of field-based sciences in a COVID-19 world. The piece outlines the epidemiological characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the COVID-19 pandemic, details its effects on field-based sciences and identifies how working practices can be remodelled to overcome the challenges brought on by the virus.

The authors have wide-ranging expertise in archaeology, the allied geosciences and infectious disease dynamics and represent a diversity of views ranging from the Global North to the South, from large countries to small island nations. Drawing from this broad pool of experience and expertise allowed the authors to consider a wide range of barriers and possible solutions while ensuring ethical and safeguarding standards are in place. For example, the current paper outlines protocols for remote collaboration, key adjustments that need to be made by funding agencies and curriculum changes to accommodate emerging technological problems and solutions.

"This project started as a discussion with international colleagues and collaborators to find positive solutions to the research problems we face," says Dr. Eleanor Scerri, head of the Pan-African Evolution Research Group at the MPI-SHH.

"In the future we will likely see spatially and temporally patchy peaks and troughs in COVID-19 case numbers," adds Dr. Denise Kuehnert, head of the Transmission, Infection, Diversification & Evolution Group. "It seems clear we can't just pause all science fieldwork or persist with short-term mitigation strategies."

Among the recommendations outlined are the creation and use of digital archives with community interpretation - goals that correspond well with an 'Open Science' framework and make scientific research accessible to all. At the same time, the authors argue for greater recognition of the value of technicians and greater investment in technician training and recruitment, as well as greater financial support for method development. To prevent the loss of foundational methods of field interpretation, the paper articulates how virtual training methods can be combined with safe, local and physically distanced training excavations.

In making these points, the authors note that the scientific decarbonization movement has long been advocating for change in fieldwork practices. The movement - which seeks to reduce the travel-related carbon footprint of scientists, among other things - has also made the case for the increased use of technologies that promote remote collaboration.

"We see the barriers we're facing as an opportunity to remodel the way field-based sciences are taught, conducted and funded," says Scerri. "This is an opportunity to develop better collaborations for both social and climate justice while continuing to safely engage with our disciplines to the fullest extent."

Sticky webs of DNA released from immune cells known as neutrophils may cause much of the tissue damage associated with severe COVID-19 infections, according to two new studies published September 14 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM). The research, conducted by independent groups in Belgium and Brazil, suggests that blocking the release of these DNA webs could be a new therapeutic target for the management of severe forms of COVID-19.

While many people infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus experience relatively mild symptoms, some patients mount an excessive inflammatory response that can damage the lungs and cause acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), leading to low blood oxygen levels and, potentially, patient death. An early indicator of severe COVID-19 is an increased number of circulating neutrophils, a type of white blood cell. Neutrophils can catch and kill invading microbes by unwinding their DNA and extruding it from the cell to form sticky webs known as neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs). NETs can also damage surrounding tissue, however, and could therefore cause some of the lung pathology associated with severe COVID-19.

In one of the new studies, a research team from Liege University’s GIGA Institute led by Thomas Marichal, Cécile Oury, and Philippe Delvenne examined the lungs of patients who had succumbed to COVID-19 and found large numbers of NETs dispersed throughout the organ. The researchers saw many NETs in the airway compartment, where they often appeared to almost completely obstruct the small bronchioles and alveoli that mediate gas exchange. NETs were also formed at sites of inflammation located in the interstitial compartment between the alveoli and blood vessels, and could even be seen in the blood vessels themselves near tiny blood clots known as micro-thrombi that can restrict blood flow through the lungs and are a common pathological feature of severe COVID-19 patients.

“NETs can form a platform for the adhesion of platelets and other blood-clotting factors, but whether NETs actually contribute to the formation of COVID-19–associated pulmonary micro-thrombi will require further investigation,” says Thomas Marichal. “Altogether, our study supports the idea that targeting NETs in COVID-19 patients may help the clinical management of severe forms of COVID-19 by alleviating thrombotic events, excessive tissue-damaging inflammation, fibrosis, and airway obstruction.”

In the second study, a team of researchers led by Fernando Queiroz Cunha, Flavio Protasio Veras, and Thiago Mattar Cunha at the University of São Paulo also identified increased numbers of NETs in the lungs of severe COVID-19 patients and found that NET formation was elevated in COVID-19 patients’ blood plasma as well. Moreover, the researchers determined that SARS-CoV-2 can trigger the release of NETs by infecting neutrophils and replicating inside of them. NETs released from SARS-CoV-2–infected neutrophils induce the death of lung cells grown in the lab, the researchers found, but cell death is prevented if NET release is inhibited or the NETs are degraded by an enzyme that chews up DNA.

“Our study supports the use of inhibitors of NET synthesis or promoters of NET fragmentation as a strategy to ameliorate the organ damage associated with severe COVID-19,” says Fernando Queiroz Cunha.