Culture

Companies across the world are competing fiercely to provide high-resolution displays to electronic devices such as TVs and smartphones. In particular, the virtual reality, a keyword of the 4th industrial revolution, requires a much higher resolution to improve the picture quality. A Korean research team developed a technology to produce a 'nano display' with a phenomenal resolution based on the 3D printing technique and posted the result of the study on a SCI journal, garnering much global attention.

A team led by Dr. Jaeyeon Pyo and Dr. Seung Kwon Seol at Nano Hybrid Technology Research Center of Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI), a government-funded research institute under National Research Council of Science & Technology (NST) of the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), developed a 'nanophotonic 3D printing technology' allowing the production of super-high-resolution display devices with high-density integration of nanoscale pixels based on the 3D layout for the first time in the world.

The nanophotonic 3D printing technology of KERI enables the production of three-dimensional (3D) pixels with nanoscale dimensions based on the 3D printing of quantum dots. When stimulated by light or electricity, quantum dots emit light in multiple colors. Thanks to the color purity and high stability, they are widely used as light emitting materials for displays in many electronic devices such as TV, smartphones, tablets.

To manufacture displays applying quantum dots, pixels are produced by coating them lightly in film. Here, a high resolution display device means that it contains many pixels on the screen. As more pixels are densely integrated, users can enjoy a more precise and delicate image or picture.

Companies are making an effort to decrease the pixel size to increase their numbers for an enhanced resolution. However, they faced with a problem of limited intensity of light as the pixel size was reduced. As TVs, smartphones, and other electronic devices largely boost super high resolution displays, securing a higher definition with a smaller pixel size has become the key to lead the highly competitive market.

The KERI research team commenced the R&D project based on the idea that the production of pixels with a 3D structure, instead of using a thin film, would help them secure the intensity of light required for a high resolution. The research team successfully demonstrated the production of pixels with a lateral dimension of 620nm and 10,000nm in height with its own 3D printing technology. Instead of using a 2D patterning, the team applied the 3D structure to overcome the light intensity problem. The 3D layout enabled a 2-fold increase in brightness with full colors (red, green, blue) compared to conventional thin film based structure.

With regard to pixels per inch (PPI), an indicator used to measure the pixel density (resolution), the KERI technology demonstrates the three primary colors in 5,600PPI, overwhelmingly exceeding that of 8K QLED TV (100PPI), laptop (200PPI), and smartphone (800PPI), while surpassing the limit of commercial technology (1,000PPI) by 5 times or more. Such an outstanding pixel density allows the technology to be applied extensively to future innovative displays adopting VR and AR, beam projector, etc., requiring a super-high-resolution. In addition, the 3D printing technology can be applied to ultra-high density data storage medium anti-forgery technology using super-high-resolution encryption pattern in 3D structure camera sensor bio technology etc.

One of the biggest benefits of 'nanophotonic 3D printing technology' of KERI is that 3D printing of quantum dots onto Polyimide (PI) or Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), materials used to produce flexible substrates, is available. Hence, it can be applied to wearable or rollable devices as well.

Dr. Jaeyeon Pyo said, "It is not easy to find cases of using 3D printing techniques to the display industry across the world. We took a different approach from previous 3D printing research, which was mostly relying on foreign tools and equipment. It can be considered as a complete technology independence to develop an 'integrated solution' from 3D printing materials to original technology and equipment."

In recognition of the outstanding outcome of the KERI research, the result was published in ACS Nano (American Chemical Society), the world's most prestigious academic journal in material science (7.31/ First author: Jongcheon Bae in master's course, Corresponding author: Dr. Jaeyeon Pyo, Project leader: Dr. Seung Kwon Seol). With regard to the impact factor used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, it recorded 14.588 and belonged to the top 1.625% among all SCI academic journals.

Research by INRS (Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique) Professor Salim Timo Islam and his PhD student Fares Saïdi has recently revealed that multicellular physiology in the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus--a bacterium that can actively reorganize its community according to the environment in which it is found--is modulated by the secretion of two natural sugar polymers in separate zones of a swarm. Results from their research, done in collaboration with an international team, have been published in the journal PLOS Biology.

Professor Salim Timo Islam has been carrying out research in bacterial physiology for four years, focusing on the interactions of bacterial cells with each other, as well as with underlying surfaces. Along with his PhD student Fares Saïdi, they are investigating the origins of multicellularity. More precisely, their work revolves around the factors that allow cells to multiply, specialize, communicate, interact, and move. These behaviours are all associated with multicellularity as they promote the expansion of a community of cells and the formation of complex structures.

Their research has characterized two compounds contributing to multicellularity and the distinct areas of production, for each, within a community. Exopolysaccharide (EPS) is produced more by cells at the periphery of the swarm. Production of the second sugar polymer, a novel biosurfactant (BPS), is enriched toward the centre of the swarm. "Since the factors contributing to the development of bacterial communities remain poorly understood, it is very exciting to have identified another," mentions Professor Islam, a specialist in microbial biochemistry and co-first author of the study along with his PhD student Fares Saïdi.

A Model Bacterium

Multicellularity is typically associated with organisms such as fungi, plants, and animals. As part of this study, the researchers studied the basis for this evolutionary transition on a smaller scale: the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. This organism has the distinction of being able to reorganize the structure of its population, allowing it to react to different environmental signals and even eat other bacteria.

In response to a hostile environment, such as in instances of nutrient deficiency, this bacterium directs its homogenous population to specialize into three subtypes of cells. These communities thus form 3-dimensional structures, visible to the naked eye. It is thanks to this multicellular lifestyle that they ensure the survival of their community.

Breast screening women aged 40-49 reduces breast cancer mortality, with minimal increased overdiagnosis, according to a study led by Queen Mary University of London that looked at data from 160,000 women.

The UK, along with many other countries, has a breast cancer screening programme offering mammography to women aged 50-70 years every 3 years. However, uncertainty currently exists over whether to start screening at a younger age, including whether it might lead to overdiagnosis of breast cancer.

Between 1990 and 1997, the UK Breast Screening Age Trial randomised more than 160,000 UK women aged 39-41 to receive either annual mammography, or the usual NHS breast screening which commences at age 50. The primary outcome was mortality from breast cancers diagnosed prior to first NHS breast screen.

In a new analysis, published in The Lancet Oncology which presents the 23-year follow-up results of the trial, it was found that screening women aged 40-49 led to a substantial and significant 25 per cent reduction in breast cancer mortality in the first ten years. The total years of life saved from breast cancer in the intervention group was estimated as 620, corresponding to 11.5 years saved per 1,000 women invited to earlier screening.

The results also suggest at worst modest overdiagnosis in this age group, and that any overdiagnosed cancers would otherwise be diagnosed at NHS screening from 50 years of age. Therefore, screening in the age group of 40-49 years does not appear to add to overdiagnosed cases from screening at age 50 years and older.

Lead researcher Professor Stephen Duffy from Queen Mary University of London said: "This is a very long term follow-up of a study which confirms that screening in women under 50 can save lives. The benefit is seen mostly in the first ten years, but the reduction in mortality persists in the long term at about one life saved per thousand women screened.

"We now screen more thoroughly and with better equipment than in the 1990's when most of the screening in this trial took place, so the benefits may be greater than we've seen in this study."

The researchers say that more research is needed to clarify whether progress in early detection technology and treatment of breast cancer might modify the screening-related reduction in mortality in the 40-49 age group. They also did not consider the cost-effectiveness of lowering the screening age.

Children made up a very small proportion--just 1%--of all confirmed COVID-19 cases in England during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, despite the large numbers of them tested, reveals a study based on national monitoring data, and published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The findings confirm that, unlike adults, children aren't an important source of COVID-19 infection, say the researchers.

Children account for only a small proportion of confirmed cases of COVID-19. But it's not clear if this is due to low levels of testing or higher than expected death rates.

To compare disease trends in adults and children during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic in England between January and May 2020, the researchers reviewed COVID-19 test result data for this period.

The data included NHS and Public Health England (PHE) test results plus those carried out by family doctors at 300 general practices contributing to the Royal College of General Practitioners monitoring system for flu-like illness.

Between 16 January and 3 May, a total of 540,305 people, including 35,200 children under the age of 16, were tested for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 infection.

Around one in four (24%) of all those tested (129,704 out of 540,305) had the virus. Children accounted for 1408 of those 129,704 positive results, equal to 1% of the total and 4% of the 35,200 tests carried out on them. This compares with around 19%-35% of adults.

The first confirmed cases of the infection in children were reported on 29 February and these continued to increase before peaking on 11 April, echoing the trends seen in adults.

On average, children were nearly 6 years old when they tested positive for the virus, and just over half (53%; 742) the cases were among boys. The highest number of tests and positive results were among infants, particularly those under 3 months, and among 1 year olds.

In general practice, SARS-CoV-2 positivity was low even in children with acute respiratory infections, the data show.

In all, 2,961 people with respiratory illnesses were tested for SARS-CoV-2 and only 10 children (2.8%) were positive, compared to 9% of 15-44 year olds; 18.5% of 45-64 year olds; 20.5% of 65-79 year olds; and 45.5% of those aged 80 and above.

The total number of deaths among children between January and May in England wasn't higher than expected compared to the same time period in the previous four years. This contrasts sharply with the estimated 56,456 excess deaths occurring among adults in England between March and May.

In all, 8 of the 1,408 children who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 died, but only four died of COVID-19; they were aged between 10 and 15, and three had several co-existing conditions. The others died of other causes, with SARS-CoV-2 confirmed as an incidental or contributory factor.

The case fatality rate for children with COVID-19 in England was estimated to be less than 1 in 200 (0.5%).

The figures are in line with those reported for children in other countries, say the researchers, who write: "The experience in England adds to the growing body of evidence on the limited role of children in the COVID-19 pandemic, with just over 1% of confirmed cases occurring in children.

"With nearly half a million SARS-CoV-2 tests performed during the first 4 months of 2020, the positivity rate among 35, 200 children tested was only 4.0% compared with 19.1%-34.9% in adults and older adults."

In additional comments not found in the text of the paper, lead author Dr Shamez Ladhani says: "It is still not clear why young children have such a low risk of infection compared to older children or adults. One theory is that, compared to adults, children have fewer ACE2 receptors which the virus can bind to in cells that line the respiratory tract.

"The way the immune system reacts to the virus is also likely to be different in children compared to adults."

He adds: "Whilst these numbers are reassuring for children, they include a long period of complete lock down where children were less likely to have been exposed to the virus."

And he cautions: "We need to remain vigilant as the lock down eases and children have increased contact with other children and adults in the coming weeks. In particular, we need more information about asymptomatic infections and silent transmission."

The gender of the human remains found inside a cremation pyre pit in Beisamoun, Israel remains unknown. What is known is that the individual was a young adult injured by a flint projectile several months prior to their death in spring some 9,000 years ago. Preserved due to it being buried, the pit represents the oldest proof of direct (1) cremation in the Middle-East. An international team lead by CNRS archaeo-anthropologist Fanny Bocquentin (2) with aid from PhD candidate Marie Anton and several experts in animal, plant, and mineral remains, discovered and studied the bones found inside the pyre. An analysis of the clay used to coat the inside of the pit showed the 355 bone fragments, some of which were burnt, were exposed to temperatures reaching 700°C. The position of the bones and the preserved joints seem to indicate the body was placed seated onto the pyre and was not moved during or after cremation. Whether used as fuel, as ornamentation, or as a scent, siliceous traces indicated the presence of flowering plants, which made it possible to identify the season the person died. In addition to the exceptional pyre pit, the cremated remains of five other adults were discovered at the site. They dated back to the same period as burials whose traces were discovered among the ruins of abandoned dwellings. The use of cremation indicates an evolution of the relationship to death in the region. The veneration of ancestors and lengthy funerary practices seem to have given way to shorter rituals. This could be evidence of a transition phase because, some two to three centuries later, the dead were no longer buried inside or near villages and their traces are much more difficult to find.

The study is based on joint archaeological digs completed between 2007-2016 by the CNRS, the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Israel Antiquities Authority.

One of the hallmarks of severe COVID-19 is shortness of breath and significantly reduced levels of oxygen in the blood, called hypoxemia. Upon hospitalization, these patients are administered oxygen in an attempt to bring their levels back up to normal. However, a new study hints that this universal therapy may have unintended consequences via an unexpected source--the microbiome.

"It had been assumed that the lungs were relatively clean and free of bacteria," says Shanna Ashley, Ph.D., a former Post-Doctorate Fellow with the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at U-M Medical School. "We now know that the balance of bacteria inside the lungs matters much like it does in the gut." Ashley worked with a team led by Robert Dickson, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, whose lab has spent years exploring the role of the lung microbiome in health and disease. Their work has found that oxygen disrupts this balance, contributing to lung injury.

Scientists have long known that oxygen can damage the lungs. "Oxygen is actually a potent lung toxin," says Dickson. "If I put healthy mice in 100% oxygen, they will die in five days, and they'll have the same kind of severe lung injury that patients with COVID-19 or other lung damage have."

Patients in intensive care are often treated with high concentrations of oxygen for long periods of time. Their team began to explore how therapeutic oxygen was affecting the lung microbiome. They looked at critically ill patients who were on a ventilator for more than 24 hours and studied bacteria detected in specimens from their lungs. They found marked differences in the bacteria species present in samples from patients depending on whether they received low, intermediate, or high concentrations of oxygen. Specifically, patients who received high oxygen concentrations were much more likely to grow Staphylococcus aureus, bacteria that are very oxygen-tolerant and a common cause of lung infections in the ICU.

"Different types of bacteria vary quite a bit from each other in how well they can handle oxygen," Dickson says, "So we wondered if the oxygen we give our patients might be influencing the bacterial communities in their respiratory tract."

To better understand the relationship between oxygen and lung bacteria, the team designed a series of experiments in mice. They first exposed healthy mice to high concentrations of oxygen to determine the effects of oxygen on the lung bacteria of healthy mice.

"When we gave high concentrations of oxygen to healthy mice, their lung communities changed quickly, and just like we predicted," said Ashley. "The oxygen-intolerant bacteria went down, and the oxygen-tolerant bacteria went up." After three days of oxygen therapy, oxygen-tolerant Staphylococcus was by far the most commonly detected bacteria in mouse lungs.

The team next designed experiments to answer a key "chicken or the egg" question: do these altered bacterial communities contribute to lung injury? Or are bacterial communities altered because the lung is injured? They first addressed this by comparing the relative timing of changes in lung bacteria as compared to the onset of lung injury.

Using mice, they were able to demonstrate that while the lung microbiome was changed by high oxygen concentrations after only a day, lung injury wasn't detectable until after 3 days, proving that damage to the lung followed the disruption of the microbiome, and not the other way around. Furthermore, they showed that natural variation in lung bacteria was strongly correlated with variation in the severity of inflammation in oxygen-exposed mice.

To further strengthen the causal link, they turned to germ-free mice, which completely lack a microbiome. "We wanted to see whether there was a selective advantage or disadvantage to having bacteria-free lungs when exposed to therapeutic oxygen," says Ashley. When comparing two groups of genetically identical mice--one with bacteria and one without--the mice without bacteria were protected from oxygen-induced lung injury.

"That was an extraordinary finding for us," said Dickson. "Compared to conventional mice, these germ-free mice have the same genetics and receive the same oxygen dosing, but their lungs are protected from injury. Nothing in our current understanding of oxygen-induced lung injury can explain that finding."

"It really makes the case that the microbiome is somehow playing a role in lung injury," said Ashley.

Targeting the microbiome

Critically ill patients receiving oxygen are typically administered antibiotics as well. The team wondered: Could antibiotics alter the severity of oxygen-induced lung injury in mice? "The short answer is yes, we can affect the severity, but it wasn't in the direction we predicted," says Dickson. Vancomycin, an antibiotic that targets gram-positive bacteria like Staphylococcus, had no effect on lung injury, while ceftriaxone, a gram-negative antibiotic, made things worse.

"The microbiome is not all good and not all bad," comments Dickson. "That's why it's important for us to figure out the mechanisms here. We're currently using very non-specific interventions, when what we need is targeted manipulation of the microbiome."

Ashley agrees. "We need to think about using the microbiome as a therapeutic target to prevent doing further damage to patients' lungs while they are on a ventilator or receiving oxygen."

Dickson cautions against changing clinical practice prematurely based on these findings. "The question of how much oxygen to give critically ill patients is a complex one, and a topic of intense study," says Dickson. "Our findings are exciting, but I still look to randomized controlled trials to inform my decisions about how to dose oxygen in sick patients."

James Kiley, director of the Division of Lung Diseases at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, agrees. "This study provides important insights into the contributions of the microbiome toward inflammation and damage in lungs exposed to varying levels of oxygen, and supports the continued importance of understanding how the microbiome and related factors impact lung disease and clinical outcomes."

NEW YORK, NY (Aug. 12) -- Columbia researchers have uncovered an array of new genes that cause stillbirth, significantly increasing the understanding of the condition's genetic foundations. The findings suggest that genetic analysis could be used to counsel parents who have previously experienced stillbirth and to unlock new human biology.

Using both standard and advanced analysis techniques, the team led by David Goldstein, PhD, and Ronald Wapner, MD, of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (VP&S) identified the likely genetic cause of stillbirth in about one of every 10 cases studied.

"This study shows that careful genetic analyses can often identify the precise genetic causes of stillbirth and demonstrates the importance of diagnostic sequencing in all cases of unexplained stillbirth," says Goldstein, director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. "Of equal importance, the work highlights how little we currently understand about the biology of stillbirth and the role that genomic analysis can play in helping us understand it."

The study was published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine by the Columbia team. Kate Stanley, MS, a research associate in the Goldstein lab, and Jessica Giordano, MS, a research genetic counselor in the reproductive genetics division of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology at VP&S, were co-first authors of the study.

Presumed Genetic Underpinning, but Few Studies

Stillbirth (the in utero death of a fetus after 20 weeks' gestation) occurs in approximately one in 100 pregnancies and is about 10 times more common than sudden infant death syndrome.

But in the majority of cases, the cause of stillbirth is unknown. Some have been linked to maternal medical conditions such as infection and preeclampsia; 10% to 20% are attributed to large and easily detectable chromosomal abnormalities. Only a few genes have been implicated.

"Unlike postnatal childhood conditions that are presumed to be strongly genetic, stillbirth had yet to be systematically analyzed with modern genome sequencing approaches," says Goldstein.

"All too often, we have no explanation to give parents who experience a stillbirth," says Wapner, professor of obstetrics & gynecology. "Not only are they devastated, they're often left to wonder if it's something they did wrong or if it might happen again."

Genomic Sequencing Plus New Bioinformatic Analyses Find Hidden Genetic Causes

Genomic sequencing has been particularly useful in diagnosing otherwise unexplained childhood disorders and fetal structural defects, and the Columbia team used it for the first time to search for genetic variants that cause stillbirth.

The researchers sequenced all protein-encoding genes--where most known disease-causing genetic variants occur--from 246 stillborn fetuses and deployed new statistical analyses to identify the genetic mutations that caused the death of the fetus.

The combination of traditional sequencing and new analytical techniques revealed small changes in 13 genes that caused fetal death; six of the genes had not been previously linked to stillbirth.

"Although these are small changes in only a single site in the genome, they are, in effect, genomic sledgehammers that either dramatically change or knock out essential genes and appear responsible on their own for fetal demise," Goldstein says.

The small genetic changes explained 8.5% of the stillbirths in the study. When combined with a previous analysis of larger genomic alterations in this group, the researchers determined that 18% of the stillbirths had a known genetic cause.

The analysis also showed a critical difference compared with the study of postnatal genetic conditions.

"Interestingly, some of the changes we found in genes known to cause postnatal diseases and conditions appeared to have more profound effects than the mutations linked to postnatal disease," Goldstein adds.

Clinical Implications

Currently, the analyses required to find causal genetic causes of a stillbirth can be conducted in only a few academic medical centers.

But eventually the findings from this study--and future studies--will help physicians counsel parents and guide clinical care.

"To a woman who's just had a stillbirth, specific knowledge about the cause is critical," Wapner says. "They often blame themselves and some decide not to have any more children."

If the stillbirth can be attributed to a genetic mutation that has only occurred in the fetus, not in the parents, the same problem is unlikely to occur in future pregnancies.

"That knowledge would change the way we would provide care," Wapner says, "and facilitate closure and bereavement for families."

Unlocking New Human Biology

Most genetic diagnostic studies focus on genes already known to cause disease. Because stillbirth has been understudied, however, the team wanted to test whether genetic changes in genes not currently linked to disease contribute to stillbirth.

For this assessment, the researchers used a bioinformatic tool pioneered by the Goldstein lab that focuses on genes that are under the strongest natural selection in the human population--known as "intolerant" genes. The lab team showed that at least 5% of stillbirths are likely explained by mutations in intolerant genes that are not currently linked to any known human disease.

"These novel disease genes appear to be critical for early human development, and the only way to discover them is through the analysis of fetuses that do not develop," Goldstein says.

"We're opening up new frontiers in biology and the more we understand about basic human development, the more we can potentially intervene."

ADELPHI, Md. -- In the future, a Soldier and a game controller may be all that's needed to teach robots how to outdrive humans.

At the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command's Army Research Laboratory and the University of Texas at Austin, researchers designed an algorithm that allows an autonomous ground vehicle to improve its existing navigation systems by watching a human drive. The team tested its approach--called adaptive planner parameter learning from demonstration, or APPLD--on one of the Army's experimental autonomous ground vehicles.

"Using approaches like APPLD, current Soldiers in existing training facilities will be able to contribute to improvements in autonomous systems simply by operating their vehicles as normal," said Army researcher Dr. Garrett Warnell. "Techniques like these will be an important contribution to the Army's plans to design and field next-generation combat vehicles that are equipped to navigate autonomously in off-road deployment environments."

The researchers fused machine learning from demonstration algorithms and more classical autonomous navigation systems. Rather than replacing a classical system altogether, APPLD learns how to tune the existing system to behave more like the human demonstration. This paradigm allows for the deployed system to retain all the benefits of classical navigation systems--such as optimality, explainability and safety--while also allowing the system to be flexible and adaptable to new environments, Warnell said.

"A single demonstration of human driving, provided using an everyday Xbox wireless controller, allowed APPLD to learn how to tune the vehicle's existing autonomous navigation system differently depending on the particular local environment," Warnell said. "For example, when in a tight corridor, the human driver slowed down and drove carefully. After observing this behavior, the autonomous system learned to also reduce its maximum speed and increase its computation budget in similar environments. This ultimately allowed the vehicle to successfully navigate autonomously in other tight corridors where it had previously failed."

This research is part of the Army's Open Campus initiative, through which Army scientists in Texas collaborate with academic partners at UT Austin.

"APPLD is yet another example of a growing stream of research results that has been facilitated by the unique collaboration arrangement between UT Austin and the Army Research Lab," said Dr. Peter Stone, professor and chair of the Robotics Consortium at UT Austin. "By having Dr. Warnell embedded at UT Austin full-time, we are able to quickly identify and tackle research problems that are both cutting-edge scientific advances and also immediately relevant to the Army."

The team's experiments showed that, after training, the APPLD system was able to navigate the test environments more quickly and with fewer failures than with the classical system. Additionally, the trained APPLD system often navigated the environment faster than the human who trained it. The peer-reviewed journal, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, published the team's work: APPLD: Adaptive Planner Parameter Learning From Demonstration .

"From a machine learning perspective, APPLD contrasts with so called end-to-end learning systems that attempt to learn the entire navigation system from scratch," Stone said. "These approaches tend to require a lot of data and may lead to behaviors that are neither safe nor robust. APPLD leverages the parts of the control system that have been carefully engineered, while focusing its machine learning effort on the parameter tuning process, which is often done based on a single person's intuition."

APPLD represents a new paradigm in which people without expert-level knowledge in robotics can help train and improve autonomous vehicle navigation in a variety of environments. Rather than small teams of engineers trying to manually tune navigation systems in a small number of test environments, a virtually unlimited number of users would be able to provide the system the data it needs to tune itself to an unlimited number of environments.

"Current autonomous navigation systems typically must be re-tuned by hand for each new deployment environment," said Army researcher Dr. Jonathan Fink. "This process is extremely difficult--it must be done by someone with extensive training in robotics, and it requires a lot of trial and error until the right systems settings can be found. In contrast, APPLD tunes the system automatically by watching a human drive the system--something that anyone can do if they have experience with a video game controller. During deployment, APPLD also allows the system to re-tune itself in real-time as the environment changes."

The Army's focus on modernizing the Next Generation Combat Vehicle includes designing both optionally manned fighting vehicles and robotic combat vehicles that can navigate autonomously in off-road deployment environments. While Soldiers can navigate these environments driving current combat vehicles, the environments remain too challenging for state-of-the-art autonomous navigation systems. APPLD and similar approaches provide a new potential way for the Army to improve existing autonomous navigation capabilities.

"In addition to the immediate relevance to the Army, APPLD also creates the opportunity to bridge the gap between traditional engineering approaches and emerging machine learning techniques, to create robust, adaptive, and versatile mobile robots in the real-world," said Dr. Xuesu Xiao, a postdoctoral researcher at UT Austin and lead author of the paper.

To continue this research, the team will test the APPLD system in a variety of outdoor environments, employ Soldier drivers, and experiment with a wider variety of existing autonomous navigation approaches. Additionally, the researchers will investigate whether including additional sensor information such as camera images can lead to learning more complex behaviors such as tuning the navigation system to operate under varying conditions, such as on different terrain or with other objects present.

Entirely novel materials and known materials alike can be produced by means of self-organization in chemical systems. Applications range from sensors and batteries to fuel cells, among other technological possibilities. Achieving a deeper understanding and control of the processes involved is the goal of the Campinas Electrochemistry Group (CampEG), affiliated with the University of Campinas’s Institute of Chemistry (IQ-UNICAMP) in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, and led by Raphael Nagao.

Some results of the research were published in a recent article in The Journal of Physical Chemistry (JPC). A review of the group’s work as a whole is featured on the cover of ChemElectroChem.

FAPESP supports the group via several grants, especially a Young Investigator Grant to Nagao for the project “Design and control of self-organized electrochemical patterns”.

“In a reactor with electrodes, the electrochemical process in itself creates self-organizing nanometric or micrometric metal structures. The material grows because of oscillations in the electric potential,” Nagao told Agência FAPESP. “Energy conversion is one possible application of the resulting product – for example, as a catalyst of carbon dioxide (CO2) conversion into ethylene (C2H4), which is a more significant molecule in terms of its potential applications.”

A copper solution was used in the experiment reported in the JPC article. “The electrochemical process produced a deposition on the electrode, detected by means of the variation in potential,” Nagao said. “Using two organic ligands to prevent precipitation of the copper, we were able to control two parameters: the electric oscillation amplitude, which can be correlated with the chemical composition of the resulting material, and the oscillation period, which correlates with the thickness of the layer. Advance knowledge of the structure of the ligands therefore enables growth of the deposit to be controlled.”

Nagao added that the group now wants to achieve a detailed understanding of how these processes work from a basic science standpoint. Potential technological applications will be the next step. “Self-organization in chemical systems can be used as a sophisticated molecular construction mechanism. Exploration of catalytic advantages in terms of the selectivity and efficiency of these materials holds considerable promise going forward,” he said.

CHICAGO--August 12, 2020--Excessive opioid prescriptions following childbirth may lead to higher rates of addiction within communities, according to a new report in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. A significant correlation exists between the number of pills supplied and the continued use or abuse of opioids.

Currently, no national guidelines exist for physicians who prescribe opioids to women after childbirth. The new research reveals patients who are prescribed opioids after a vaginal delivery received significantly more pills than were used, with an average of 10 pills remaining. Patients prescribed opioids after a cesarean section had an average of 7.5 unused opioid pills.

"We must prioritize the health of the mother and the community that cares for that child by rethinking the number of opioids given to patients," said Danielle Prentice, DO, an OB-GYN and lead author on the study. "These findings do not minimize the pain women feel postpartum or dispute that physicians are best suited to prescribe appropriate pain medication, but rather act as a call to action to rethink our standard prescribing practices, which are often out of line with a new mom's needs."

Preventive measures needed

The first exposure to opioids for many women of reproductive age is childbirth. The risk of persistent opioid use after the postpartum period is associated with a single prescription, regardless of the drug delivery route.

The mean number of unused opioids across the study was 9.1 pills; however, only 5% of the patients disposed of the unused opioid pills properly. The site of the research study, a community hospital in Oklahoma, averages approximately 1,200 deliveries per year.

"The problem is two-fold," says Dr. Prentice. "Women receive limited guidance about the risks of opioid misuse during a highly stressful period in their lives. Meanwhile, leftover pills--of which there are many--are available and end up circulating throughout their community."

Study outcomes led to a change in opioid prescription practices at the site of the research, which could be replicated at a national level. Additionally, researchers recommend increasing the number of opioid disposal sites available at pediatric clinics because new mothers, in most cases, visit their child's doctor more often than their own physician following childbirth.

About The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association

The JAOA's mission is to serve as an international forum for the dissemination of scientific literature that incorporates an integrative, comprehensive, patient-centered approach to clinical care and improving health. To that end, the JAOA is designed to support and amplify the scholarly voice of osteopathic medicine, publishing research that is meaningful to osteopathic physicians in whatever field they practice. The Journal is indexed by the National Library of Medicine, the Web of Science, and ReadCube. In the Web of Science, the JAOA is part of the Core Collection in the Emerging Sources Citation Index, which allows JAOA content to reach a much wider audience than previously possible. For more information, visit http://www.jaoa.org.

New Rochelle, NY, August 11, 2020--A single intravenous dose of MRG-110, an anti-microRNA drug, significantly reduced miR-92a levels in the blood of healthy humans. Inhibition of miR-92a has shown beneficial effects in animal models, including improved vascularization after myocardial infarction, and accelerated wound healing, according to the peer-reviewed journal Nucleic Acid Therapeutics. Click here http://doi.org/10.1089/nat.2020.0871) to read the article for free through September 12, 2020.

"Based on documented, promising therapeutic potential, locked nucleic acid (LNA)-based anti-miR-92a was further developed and tested in a first in human study," said Stefanie Dimmeler, PhD, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany and coauthors. "MRG-110 caused de-repression of gene targets in human peripheral blood cells."

"This is an important randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-escalating study translating previous work on systemically delivered LNA-modified anti-miR oligonucleotide compounds to efficiently lower miR-92a levels in human peripheral blood," says Executive Editor Graham C. Parker, PhD, The Carman and Ann Adams Department of Pediatrics, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Detroit, MI.

ITHACA, N.Y. - In flood-prone areas of the Hudson River valley in New York state, census areas with more white and affluent home owners tend to file a higher percentage of flood insurance claims than lower-income, minority residents, raising the issue of developing more nuanced, need-based federal flood insurance subsidies in these floodplains, according to a new study.

"Are we taxing America so that people with second homes on the water don't have to pay as much?" asked Brian Rahm, director of the New York State Water Resources Institute at Cornell University.

Rahm is a co-author of the paper "Predicting Flood Insurance Claims with Hydrologic and Socioeconomic Demographics via Machine Learning: Exploring the Roles of Topography, Minority Populations, and Political Dissimilarity," which published in the Journal of Environmental Management. James Knighton, an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut, is lead author of the study.

Flood insurance rate maps determine areas where people with federally backed mortgages are required to buy flood insurance, which is then subsidized by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), lowering the insurance cost and the reducing the risk of living in a floodplain. At the same time, current flood insurance rates do not adequately account for how social demographics affect risk and vulnerability, but FEMA is taking steps to better understand the issues, Rahm said.

"In a lot of areas of society right now, issues of diversity, equity and environmental justice matter," Rahm said. "The study suggests that flooding risk, vulnerability and recovery are influenced by the same types of factors of diversity and equity and access to government."

New York state river and coastal flooding leads to average annual residential insurance claims totaling $110 million, according to FEMA claims datasets.

The researchers combined social demographic data with hydrologic and topographic data to map flood-prone areas. When this data was run through a computer model, the researchers found that while topographic details did predict rates of flood insurance claims, predictions improved when social demographic variables - the percentage of minority residents, the value and age of houses, and political leanings in relation to state politics - were also factored in.

The study showed that places where residents take advantage of the flood insurance claims system tend to be more white, more affluent and, in New York, more Republican leaning, though these areas also have a mix of property values, and lower-income and minority residents, Rahm said.

The study raises implications that flood risk is not the same as flood vulnerability: Two houses may be side by side with the same risk, but only one homeowner may have the resources to raise their house, thereby reducing the house's vulnerability to damage.

Also, by examining political leanings, the researchers tried to tease out how a person's political identity may influence their willingness to engage with the government and file a claim.

"Some people might file claims while others don't, simply because of how they view government and their relationship with government," Rahm said. "At times, folks who have more resources are better able to utilize the system" and file claims, he said.

Traditional models of flood risk often depend purely on hydrologic and topographic factors. "We found that by bringing in some of these social demographic variables, we could actually better predict where the flood claims were coming from," Rahm said.

Humans are not the only social animal struggling with new infectious diseases. When Hamilton College Associate Professor of Biology Andrea Townsend began studying the social behavior of American crows, her work was complicated by West Nile virus, an emerging disease with devastating effects on crow populations. Her research pivoted to investigating the effects of disease on crow social behavior. "It made me wonder how social animals should, in general, respond to novel diseases," Townsend said. "Do other animals 'socially distance' during disease outbreaks, like humans during the COVID-19 pandemic?"

Joined by evolutionary psychologist Keelah Williams (Hamilton College) and disease ecologists Dana Hawley (Virginia Tech) and Jessica Stephenson (University of Pittsburgh), Townsend reviewed studies of species ranging from frogs and wolves to lobsters and bats to examine responses to emerging diseases across the animal kingdom. The review, "Emerging infectious disease and the challenges of social distancing in human and non-human animals" is published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B and accessible at https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2020.1039#d1e1096.

They found that some social species appear to become less social after the emergence of new diseases, but others do not, with responses depending on the importance of these social interactions for each species and the ways in which the diseases are transmitted.

Emerging infectious diseases present a particular challenge for social species because their specific symptoms can be unfamiliar. However, as this review shows, many animals use general cues that might be typical for any disease, like lethargy or unusual appearance, allowing them to respond rapidly to novel pathogens. This overgeneralization of "infection cues" has a downside: it can lead to hypervigilance, particularly when an individual perceives itself to be vulnerable to disease. Across species, infectious disease pressure can increase differentiation among social groups (i.e., ingroup-outgroup awareness); in humans, it can lead to xenophobia and aversion to "foreign others."

In all species, reducing sociality has costs. Social isolation in humans might reduce the risk of COVID-19, for example, but human loneliness has been linked to an elevated risk of non-infectious disease. Solitary gorillas may be less likely to contract Ebola, but might experience higher risk of predation and infanticide. Less aggressive Tasmanian devils may be less likely to contract transmissible cancer from other devils, but may miss out on mating opportunities. Therefore, changing social interactions might not be a sustainable long-term response to infectious disease in all species.

Does technology help when it comes to dealing with social distancing? The evidence is mixed. Social media, for example, can increase loneliness by making observers feel "less happy" by comparison, exacerbating perceived social isolation. In contrast, however, synchronous virtual communication platforms could maintain or even enhance some of the benefits of sociality for humans, buffering us, to some extent, from the negative health effects of perceived isolation and giving us a unique advantage over other animals during periods of social distancing.

Some physicians are ordering thyroid tests for unsupported reasons
While most thyroid ultrasound orders are warranted, researchers say guidelines could be clearer to help reduce overdiagnosis of thyroid cancer

ANN ARBOR, Michigan -- Up to one-third of physicians reported sending patients for a thyroid ultrasound for reasons not supported by clinical care guidelines, a new study led by University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center researchers finds.

Routine use of ultrasounds to detect cancerous thyroid nodules have led to a significant increase in thyroid cancer cases in recent years, although many are low-risk and unlikely to cause serious harm.

Researchers surveyed 610 surgeons, endocrinologists and primary care physicians who were involved in thyroid cancer care. Physicians were given different patient scenarios and asked when they would schedule a thyroid or neck ultrasound.

An overwhelming majority of physicians said they used ultrasound for reasons that are supported by clinical care guidelines, such as a large nodule that can be felt or one seen on another imaging test. But 33% said they ordered an ultrasound because the patient wanted it and 28% said abnormal thyroid function tests drove their decision - a factor the Choosing Wisely Campaign specifically advises against.

Results are published in JAMA Surgery.

"This study is the first to look at why physicians are using thyroid ultrasound for patients. While often it's for clinically relevant reasons, a substantial number of physicians are not ordering them for reasons that are clinically supported," says senior study author Megan R. Haymart, M.D., Nancy Wigginton Endocrinology Research Professor of Thyroid Cancer and professor of internal medicine at Michigan Medicine.

When asked what most influenced their decisions for patients with thyroid nodules, 69% cited recent clinical guidelines. Haymart says this shows the situation is malleable.

"We can change behavior and help physicians use thyroid ultrasound more appropriately, which will reduce the incidence of low-risk thyroid cancer," she says.

Organizations such as the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and the American Thyroid Association offer care guidelines based on data and outcomes from published studies. In addition, the Choosing Wisely campaign, which launched in 2012, identifies tests and procedures that should be discussed between patients and physicians to ensure appropriate and necessary treatment.

"There is not specifically a guideline for when to order a thyroid ultrasound. The guidelines start once you find a nodule," says study first author Debbie W. Chen, M.D., an endocrinology fellow at Michigan Medicine. "Our study suggests there is an opportunity when working on the next set of guidelines to look a little upstream, before a clinical diagnosis, and offer better guidance for when thyroid ultrasound is necessary."

The key, researchers say, is to identify those thyroid cancers that will require treatment but to avoid overdiagnosis by finding nodules that are slow-growing and may never need treatment.

The finding that physicians were ordering thyroid ultrasounds because patients asked for them suggests a need for more education and discussion, Haymart says.

"There's so much emphasis in medicine on patient satisfaction. You do want patients to be satisfied, but physicians also have to do what's medically appropriate," she says. "Developing decision aids could help patients understand and decide when thyroid ultrasound is appropriate and when it's not."

New research using the most comprehensive study of feathered dinosaurs and early birds has revised the evolutionary relationships of dinosaurs at the origin of birds. An international team of researchers, led by Professors Michael Pittman and Rui Pei, at Hong Kong University, from five different countries, including McGill University Professor Hans Larsson published their findings in the journal Current Biology. The team pored over fossils, developed a novel analytical pipeline to search for evolutionary trees, and estimated how each species may have crossed the stringent thresholds for powered flight.

"Our revised evolutionary tree supports the traditional relationship of dromaeosaurid ('raptors') and troodontid theropods as the closest relatives of birds. It also supports the status of the controversial anchiornithine theropods as the earliest birds", said Pei. With this improved evolutionary tree, the team reconstructed the potential of bird-like theropods for powered flight, using proxies borrowed from the study flight in living birds.

The team found that the potential for powered flight evolved at least three times in theropods: once in birds and twice in dromaeosaurids. "The capability for gliding flight in some dromaeosaurids is well established so us finding at least two origins of powered flight potential among dromaeosaurids is really exciting," said Pittman.

"This was a fun collaboration over several years", commented Larsson. "For the first time, we have a well resolved evolutionary tree of these small, feathered dinosaurs to ask questions about how birds originated. We were able to map biomechanical limits to all these species and propose a picture of experimentation within a spectrum of near-flight to fully-flighted capabilities in these wonderful little carnivores. This goes against the simple, linear stepping forward through evolution model of bird origins and instead presents one were an explosive radiation of feathered dinosaurs were experimenting with many kinds of wing-assisted locomotion. I think this is the most realistic view of bird origins to date."