Earth

Forestation is one of the main strategies recommended by the scientific community for climate change mitigation. But, would a European continent completely covered in forests be any cooler than one without forests?

Asking these kinds of questions is fundamental to developing an understanding of the real effects of solutions that have been recommended by the scientific community for the reduction of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, so that decision-makers are prepared to adequately manage the potential consequences that may arise from land use planning policies that include variations in the use of land for climate protection.

What is more, the answer to this particular question may not be so obvious.

The paper "Biogeophysical impacts of forestation in Europe: first results from the LUCAS (Land Use and Climate Across Scales) regional climate model intercomparison", describes the preliminary phase of the CORDEX FPX - LUCAS (Land Use and Climate Across Scales) project. The project aims to investigate the regional and local effects of land use changes on different climate dimensions, from seasonal temperature variability to extreme events (such as heat waves and drought), in the short and long term. Thanks to multi-model experiments, scientists will be able to anticipate the intended and unintended consequences of land use planning policies on regional climates, even with high levels of precision that will reach up to 1-3 km in accuracy.

The newly released study, realized with the contribution of the CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change among other members of EUROCORDEX - key player in the context of European scientific research on regional climate models - compares two ideal scenarios. The two scenarios assume an absence of urban areas and man-made constructions and in turn cover all land in Europe (excluding parts that are already occupied by rivers, lakes, seas, glaciers and deserts) with either trees ("forest" scenario) or grassland ("grass" scenario). Comparing these two idealized scenarios has enabled scientists to study how atmospheric variables, such as temperatures and energy balance, respond in two "extreme" cases of land use. An intermediate step towards the definition of more realistic scenarios in the subsequent phases of the project.

"For the first time an experiment of this type has been carried out with a multi-model ensemble approach, and not by using a single climate model. The use of nine regional models developed by different research institutes, and the comparison of the results obtained by each model, guarantees more reliable results", underlines Paola Mercogliano, director of the Regional Models and geo-Hydrological Impacts (REMHI) division of the CMCC Foundation. "The result of this first phase of the study is not the most intuitive. But what we have learned in recent years is that climate change is not an intuitive phenomenon, it is extremely complex".

A comparison of the two idealized scenarios reveals that land completely covered in trees would generate up to one degree of extra seasonal heating in winter in northern Europe, compared to land completely covered in grass.

"All nine models we used agree on a winter warming effect over Scandinavia in the 'forest' case scenario", explains Mario Raffa, CMCC researcher and one of the authors of the study. "On a physical level, this temperature increase is a direct consequence of the impact of forestation on surface albedo: the forest has a snow-masking effect and, therefore, the surface albedo is greater in the case of a grassland. Grass, once whitened by snowfall, reflects a larger amount of solar radiation than the forest, with a refreshing effect".

Instead, the models disagree on the consequences of the two scenarios in southern Europe and in the summer period, thus highlighting the need for further investigation before conclusions can be drawn.

"The disagreement of the different models in some parts of the study identifies the area of uncertainty that needs to be tackled. The scientific community is working on the development of improved regional climate models to better understand the complexity of the Earth system. This is crucial for supporting the improvement of climate scenarios, and this project is a strong added value in this direction", specifies Paola Mercogliano.

In the 21st century, the search for methods of treating noncommunicable diseases, such as obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes are among the top priorities. Prevention and treatment of these diseases include changing and controlling lifestyle, diet, and the use of pharmaceuticals.

Despite the progress in medicine and pharmacology (developing new solutions for correcting metabolism) and biotechnologies, new effective approaches are still on demand in treating obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes.

Researchers note that adipose tissue is one of the key players in the development of obesity and diabetes. Adipose tissue is classified both by anatomical location and by function (white and brown fat). So, the main functions of white adipose tissue are to save energy in the form of lipids, and it also has an endocrine function - the secretion of hormones, growth factors, cytokines, chemokines, etc.

The function of brown adipose tissue is to generate heat during adaptive thermogenesis (the process of generating heat in response to cold stimulation). In humans, unlike rodents (laboratory animals most widely used in medical experiments, including modeling of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes), brown adipose tissue is present in significant numbers only in newborns and infants. Recently, the existence of active thermogenic adipose tissue in adults has been shown, but this adipose tissue differs from classical brown adipose tissue in several aspects (development, morphology, gene expression, adipokine production, etc.). This adipose tissue is called "brown".

All types of adipocytes (cells that make up adipose tissue mainly) arise from adipose stem cells during differentiation. Currently, the question of the origin of brown adipocytes (from the same stem cell as white adipocytes, or from the same stem cell as brown adipocytes, or from its own stem cell), as well as the ability of white adipose tissue to differentiate into brown adipose tissue.

The ability to control the formation of new adipose tissue, turn white adipose tissue into brown one, or determine the direction of adipocyte stem cell differentiation into a specific subtype is an attractive goal for the development of new pharmacological substances for the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

In addition to the search for new pharmacological substances designed to control the functions of adipose tissue or various other biochemical aspects of energy homeostasis, it is also important to study the role of water in human health, metabolism and the pathogenesis of various diseases. Water is the most abundant chemical substance on Earth and makes up the largest mass fraction in living organisms as a percentage. Water is also a universal solvent in which the basic biochemical processes of living organisms occur.

An important component of a healthy diet is drinking water instead of sugar and soda. So, the modulation of the biological and physico-chemical properties of water is also a promising opportunity to increase the effectiveness of the treatment of said diseases.

Dr. Larisa Litvinova, Ph.D. in Medicine, Head of the Immunology and Cell Biotechnologies Laboratory^

"One of the focuses of modern medicine is the development of deuterium-containing drugs. Another direction relates to the role of the D/H ratio of isotopology and its change in water, which will be used as

an adjuvant in the treatment of cancer. A different D/H ratio manifests itself in the form of a kinetic isotope effect, which is characterized by a change in the rates of biotransformation and excretion of drugs. Moreover, methodological approaches to the quality control of medicines based on isotopology of water could reduce the toxic load on the body".

IKBFU Scientists Larisa Litvinova and Maria Wulf were conducting the research in cooperation with colleagues from Moscow and Kiev and the goal of the research was to find out whether deuterium is engaged in differentiation of adipose tissue stem cells regulation. Adipogenic differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells was chosen as an in vitro model, where the efficiency of the formation of mature fat cells from precursor cells in media with different deuterium contents was evaluated.

The data on the effect of various concentrations of deuterium on the efficiency and direction (formation of brown/beige or white adipocytes) of differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells in an in vitro model system were obtained in the study. Naturally for the possible practical application of these results, additional studies are needed that would allow a more detailed description of the molecular mechanisms of the influence of various concentrations of deuterium at the cellular level, as well as studies at the body level.

The results of the study are published in the article "The influence of deuterium on the effectiveness and type of adipogenic differentiation of stem cells of human adipose tissue in vitro" in the Scientific Reports journal.

The results can serve as the basis for the development of new approaches in the treatment of obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, by regulating the differentiation of fat stem cells and adipocyte functions.

The abundance of large orb web spiders in the Swiss midland has declined drastically over the last 40 years. The main reason for this is the shrinking food supply available to these insectivorous animals. This is demonstrated in a study conducted by researchers from the University of Basel and Ghent University (Belgium), as reported in the scientific journal Insects.

The approximately 48,400 known spider species around the world are among the most important insectivorous animals on earth. One group of these, the orb web spiders, spin conspicuous wheel-shaped webs. The perhaps best known and so far very common orb web spider species in Europe is the European garden spider Araneus diadematus. Apart from house gardens, their preferred habitats include parks, graveyards, hedgerows, forest edges and clearings.

Average population density of the spider about 140 times lower

The European garden spider is easily recognizable by the bright, cross-shaped mark on the upper side of its abdomen. The females of this spider species which measures 10 to 18 mm as adults, legs not included, spins webs with a diameter of about 30 cm. In late summer 2019, the entomologists determined the population density of the European garden spider in the Swiss midland in 20 representative habitats: they counted the spider webs in test plots ranging from 200 to 1,000 square meters and converted these values to the number of webs per square meter.

The results: in comparison with data from the 1970s and 1980s, the abundance of this spider has decreased alarmingly. The average population density in Switzerland, for example, is 140 times lower than the previous European average value. In two thirds of the sample plots inspected, no spider webs were found at all. The webs contained significantly fewer insects than in previous studies. Furthermore, the web threads were found to be considerably thinner, as is the case when spiders are malnourished.

Small flying insects as food

Most species of orb web spiders feed almost exclusively on small flying insects, such as flies, midges, and aphids, which are most affected by insect declines. That the population density of the European garden spider dropped to a very low level in more recent times, has also been shown in a study conducted in Northern Belgium. Not only the European garden spider - which still exists almost everywhere in the Swiss midland - but also other web-spinning spider species are now found less frequently than in the last century. "The results of our study are a strong indication for an insect meltdown in large parts of Europe," says lead author Dr. Martin Nyffeler from the University of Basel. The study furthermore suggests that those animals that feed on insects are affected by it, too: "If the abundance of insects and their natural enemies is decreasing drastically, ecosystems become impoverished and may eventually collapse."

"Three" kinds of regalia such as crown, orb, and sward are often necessary to be a high king for conquering the world. For fighting off cancerous diseases, what do we need? This "triple" chemical modified nanomaterial might be save the patient.

Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. Under this situation, a successful tumor selective drug targeting and minimized toxicity of cancer drug are urgently necessary.

Scientists from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) and Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), and their colleagues have developed a type of nanomedicine based on multi-functional graphene that allows for targeted cancer treatment at molecular level.

Single molecular sheet graphene is a promising carbon nanomaterial for various fundamental and practical applications in the next decade because of its excellent physico-chemical features. Graphene has been also known to have a good biocompatibility and biodegradability, thus leading to explore this nanocarbon as drug delivery carrier. However, it is not easy to modify a lot of individual functional molecules onto a graphene nano-sheet at the same time for its biomedical applications.

Developed by Prof. Eijiro Miyako from JAIST (Nomi, Japan), Dr. Alberto Bianco from CNRS (Strasbourg, France), and their international teams, the multi-functional graphene as a drug delivery carrier are successfully synthesized with "three" type of molecules such as near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe (indocyanine green; ICG), tumor targeting molecule (Folic acid: FA), and anticancer drug (doxorubicin; Dox) by a covalent chemical modification technique (Figure 1). ICG (green color part in the picture) was chosen as fluorophore to follow the uptake and to track the material inside the cells. FA (blue) was covalently bound through a polyethylene glycol (pink) linked to graphene, to specifically target the cancer cells, and Dox (red) was used as anticancer drug.

Aside from testing the therapeutic abilities to eliminate cancer cells in a culture dish, the team found that the unique properties of this multi-functional graphene showed an enhanced anticancer activity with excellent cancer targeting effect. This would open the doors to future biomedical applications of this type of material. The team plans to continue exploring multi-functional graphene towards the cancer therapy using murine animal model.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- MIT researchers have developed a way to incorporate electronic sensors into stretchy fabrics, allowing them to create shirts or other garments that could be used to monitor vital signs such as temperature, respiration, and heart rate.

The sensor-embedded garments, which are machine washable, can be customized to fit close to the body of the person wearing them. The researchers envision that this type of sensing could be used for monitoring people who are ill, either at home or in the hospital, as well as athletes or astronauts.

"We can have any commercially available electronic parts or custom lab-made electronics embedded within the textiles that we wear every day, creating conformable garments," says Canan Dagdeviren, the LG Electronics Career Development Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT. "These are customizable, so we can make garments for anyone who needs to have some physical data from their body like temperature, respiration rate, and so forth."

Dagdeviren is the senior author of a paper describing the new material today in the journal npj Flexible Electronics. MIT graduate student Irmandy Wicaksono is the lead author of the study. Several MIT undergraduates also contributed to the study through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program.

Embedded sensors

Other research groups have developed thin, skin-like patches that can measure temperature and other vital signs, but these are delicate and must be taped to the skin. Dagdeviren's lab set out to create garments more similar to the clothes we normally wear, using a stretchy fabric that has removable electronic sensors incorporated into it.

"In our case, the textile is not electrically functional. It's just a passive element of our garment so that you can wear the devices comfortably and conformably during your daily activities," Dagdeviren says. "Our main goal was to measure the physical activity of the body in terms of temperature, respiration, acceleration, all from the same body part, without requiring any fixture or any tape."

The electronic sensors consist of long, flexible strips that are encased in epoxy and then woven into narrow channels in the fabric. These channels have small openings that allow the sensors to be exposed to the skin. For this study, the researchers designed a prototype shirt with 30 temperature sensors and an accelerometer that can measure the wearer's movement, heart rate, and breathing rate. The garment can then transmit this data wirelessly to a smartphone.

The researchers chose their fabric -- a polyester blend -- for its moisture-wicking properties and its ability to conform to the skin, similar to compression shirts worn during exercise. Last summer, several of the researchers spent time at a factory in Shenzhen, China, to experiment with mass-producing the material used for the garments.

"From the outside it looks like a normal T-shirt, but from the inside, you can see the electronic parts which are touching your skin," Dagdeviren says. "It compresses on your body, and the active parts of the sensors are exposed to the skin."

The garments can be washed with the sensors embedded in them, and the sensors can also be removed and transferred to a different garment.

Remote monitoring

The researchers tested their prototype shirts as wearers exercised at the gym, allowing them to monitor changes in temperature, heart rate, and breathing rate. Because the sensors cover a large surface area of the body, the researchers can observe temperature changes in different parts of the body, and how those changes correlate with each other.

The shirts can be easily manufactured in different sizes to fit an array of ages and body types, Dagdeviren says. She plans to begin developing other types of garments, such as pants, and is working on incorporating additional sensors for monitoring blood oxygen levels and other indicators of health.

This kind of sensing could be useful for personalized telemedicine, allowing doctors to remotely monitor patients while patients remain at home, Dagdeviren says, or to monitor astronauts' health while they're in space.

"You don't need to go to the doctor or do a video call," Dagdeviren says. "Through this kind of data collection, I think doctors can make better assessments and help their patients in a better way."

A receptor in the cell layer that lines the blood vessels from the inside stimulates both the formation of new blood vessels in tumors and metastasis. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg (DKFZ) and the Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg have succeeded in blocking this receptor with an antibody to thus prevent the growth of metastases in mice with breast or lung cancer. In animal experiments, they have thus shown a new principle for slowing down the metastatic dissemination of cancer cells.

Just like healthy tissue, tumors depend on nutrients that they receive via the bloodstream. However, since cancer cells proliferate rapidly and the tumors grow correspondingly fast, a bottleneck can develop here - if new blood vessels do not sprout at the same time. In addition, these new blood vessels are transport routes through which cancer cells reach distant organs where they grow into metastases. One goal in cancer therapy is therefore to prevent angiogenesis, i.e. the formation of new blood vessels, in order to deprive the tumor from nutrients and slow down metastasis. Drugs suppressing angiogenesis have already been in clinical use for more than a decade - albeit with limited efficacy.

Two years ago, Hellmut Augustin's team of researchers from Heidelberg and Mannheim discovered a new target through which this could work: A receptor molecule called Tie1. It is produced in the endothelial cells, i.e. in the cell layer that lines the blood vessels from the inside. It is also known that Tie1 is produced in greater quantities during tumor development and during the growth of blood vessels in the tumor. "We do not know the binding partner of Tie1 and therefore cannot yet say in detail how the receptor works," says DKFZ researcher Mahak Singhal, lead author of the current study. But scientists have found out that as cancer progresses, Tie1 helps the blood vessels and tumors to accelerate their growth. In addition, Tie1 destabilizes the walls of the blood vessels and thus promotes the development of metastases. If Tie1 is genetically knocked out in mice, this suppresses both, tumor growth and metastasis.

Tie1 is therefore an interesting target for cancer therapy. The scientists consequently set out experiments to generate and test a number of antibodies directed against Tie1. In fact, they were able to identify a promising candidate. If mice with breast or lung tumors were treated with the antibody, cancer growth was slowed down. However, there was no noticeable effect on the formation of blood vessels in the tumors. Importantly, the treated animals showed significantly less metastases compared to untreated mice with breast or lung tumors.

This implies that although the antibody is not able to effectively prevent angiogenesis in the tumor, it has the potential to slow down the formation of metastases during cancer therapy. "However, we have only observed the therpeutic potential of the antibody in experimental animals," emphasizes Hellmut Augustin, who is concerned about not raising premature hopes. "Many experiments and studies are still needed before it may one day actually be used to treat cancer patients.

A USC-led international team of scientists has found the precise shape of a key player in human metabolism, which could lead the way to better treatments for obesity and other metabolic disease.

For the study, the scientists focused on a protein in the brain, the melanocortin 4 receptor (or MC4R). This receptor helps with regulating the body's energy balance by controlling how much energy is stored as fat. Mutations in the gene that encodes the MC4R protein are linked to severe childhood obesity and other forms.

Obesity has tripled worldwide since 1975, according to the World Health Organization. More than 40 million children aged 5 and younger are obese, while more than 650 million adults worldwide are.

"A lot of people think obesity is a lifestyle choice," said Raymond Stevens, a USC Provost Professor and director of the Bridge Institute at the USC Michelson Center for Convergent Bioscience. "That's just not true in all cases. Some people have mutations of this gene. And if they have mutations of this gene, many cannot control their eating. It's this receptor causing this issue in the brain."

The results are set to appear in the journal Science on April 23.

Severe obesity is often linked to other health issues. Recent data on coronavirus have shown that adults 65 and older who are severely obese are among the hardest hit by the illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Working with the iHuman Institute at ShanghaiTech University and the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan, Stevens was interested in the MC4R as part of a larger effort to elucidate the structures of a class of proteins called G protein-coupled receptors that control many human functions. MC4R is among them.

As Stevens and his team began to tackle the MC4R structure, they looked for the world's expert in this area and turned to Roger Cone at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute for help on the function of this important receptor.

Scientists at the University of Michigan discovered the MC4R and have been studying its biology and pharmacology for more than 25 years. Since then, four drugs have been developed to target melanocortin receptors in humans. The drug setmelanotide targets the MC4R to treat rare forms of syndromic obesity, which affects about 1 out of 1,500 people. However, the drug is not potent enough to treat dietary obesity -- a more common form of the disease.

By determining the structure of MC4R, the scientists were able to see how it binds to and interacts with other drug molecules. Knowing how the protein is configured will enable scientists to develop and test new therapies that can more precisely treat obesity.

Stevens and Cone, senior author's of the study, highlight the findings as an example of the importance and power of international collaboration.

"We were able to contribute our knowledge of the MC4R to help further the structural biology studies," says Cone. "And key structural findings from the USC and iHuman Institute researchers are helping us answer more questions about how this receptor functions in human metabolism."

STONY BROOK, NY, April 23, 2020 - In a Policy Forum, "Dissolved oxygen and pH criteria leave fisheries at risk" published in the April 24 issue of the journal Science, Stony Brook University's Dr. Christopher J. Gobler, Endowed Chair of Coastal Ecology and Conservation, and Stephen J. Tomasetti, Science Teaching and Research to Inform Decisions (STRIDE) fellow, consider accumulating scientific evidence on the harmful effects of coastal hypoxia (low oxygen) and acidification (decreasing pH, increasing acidity) in coastal ecosystems and suggest approaches that would address current policy shortfalls and facilitate improved protection of aquatic life.

During the past two decades, scientists have learned how hypoxia and acidification can act and interact to harm marine organisms. Hundreds of low oxygen or dead zones have been identified across the globe. Ocean acidification, a process resulting from the continued buildup of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the oceans, has been discovered. And yet, regulation of dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH in coastal waters have remained unchanged.

The Clean Water Act aims to restore and protect the waters of the United States from impairment; waters that do not meet state standards are listed as impaired, a designation that can initiate critical remediation actions. According to Dr. Gobler, the current saltwater DO and pH criteria of many states allow for harmful conditions to persist without amelioration. "Our understanding of the dynamics of DO and pH and the effects on marine life have advanced dramatically this century to the point that it is now clear that criteria for pH and DO are likely to leave important marine species vulnerable to harm", he said.

The reduction of DO and pH in coastal waters can individually have adverse effects on aquatic life, however, current regulations do not consider the combined effects of these stressors which are often experienced in combination and can be more severe than each stressor individually. Not until the scientific field of Ocean Acidification had been established, had their combined effects been broadly considered.

Environmental experts working to protect marine life see the need for better protection of coastal ecosystems. "Together ocean acidification and eutrophication are a double whammy, reinforcing each other - and increasingly harming marine and aquatic life.", said Dr. Lisa Suatoni, Deputy Director of the Oceans Division at the Natural Resources Defense Council. She went on to state, "Tomasetti and Gobler cogently present an emerging truth: to address this combined impact, we need to reexamine our current regulations and the criteria we use to assess water quality."

The Policy Forum suggests that by incorporating recent acidification-research into DO and pH policy, further improvements to coastal ecosystems are achievable. Many coastal states have established advisory groups consisting of researchers, stakeholders, and state officials to share information on the issue of coastal acidification. "We believe that continued collaboration between scientists, community members, and all levels of government can revitalize our coastal waters," said Tomasetti. "Revising DO and pH criteria to reflect the latest science are important actions that will leverage the existing nationwide efforts to improve water quality and will help to produce and maintain the best possible outcomes."

This study concludes with recommendations to improve the protection of coastal animals, suggesting revisions of existing water quality criteria, further scientific experiments, and additional pH-monitoring.

With services overburdened, healthcare professionals are having to decide who should receive treatment. But is it wrong to prioritise younger patients with COVID-19?

Two experts debate the issue in The BMJ this week.

There are three reasons why age should not be used to decide who should and who should not receive potentially life saving treatment, argues Dave Archard, Emeritus Professor at Queen's University in Belfast.

The first is that a simple "younger than" criterion is clearly unsatisfactory. It cannot be that an 18 year old is preferred to a 19 year old on the grounds of one year's difference in age.

This would be not much better morally than tossing a coin or a crude "first come, first served" principle using the time of arrival at a hospital to determine whether care is given, he writes.

Secondly, there is the fair innings argument. This holds that everyone should have an opportunity to lead a life of a certain duration. Resources should then be distributed (and care given selectively) to ensure that those who have yet to live that length of life are prioritised over those who have already managed to do so.

But while this has an intuitive appeal, there is no agreement on what counts as a fair innings. "Someone who has had her fair innings may yet have much to give the world that another who has not may be unable to offer," he says.

Finally, to discriminate between patients in the provision of care on the grounds of age is to send a message about the value of old people, he writes.

Such discrimination publicly expresses the view that older people are of lesser worth or importance than young people. "And it would be hard not to think-- even if it was not intended--that a cull of elderly people was what was being aimed at," he concludes.

But Arthur Caplan, Professor of Bioethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York, argues that age is a valid criterion when supported by data.

He points out that age has played a role for many decades in limiting access to care when rationing life saving treatments, such as access to renal dialysis and organ transplants.

That said, even in conditions of extreme scarcity "it would be discriminatory to simply invoke age to exclude those in need from services," he writes.

The key ethical question, he says, is whether age by itself is ever a morally relevant factor in deciding who gets care when rationing is unavoidable.

Like Archard, he points to the notion of fair innings, but says this commitment to equality of opportunity has nothing to do with the relative contributions of old people versus young people.

However, if the goal is to save the most lives with scarce resources then age may matter if there is a diminishing chance of survival with increased age, he adds.

"Indeed, the relevance of old age as a predictive factor of efficacy--combined with the powerful principle of healthcare affording equality of opportunity to enjoy a life--makes age an important factor in making the terrible choice of who will receive scarce resources in a pandemic," he concludes. "Ageism has no place in rationing, but age may."

A new qualitative systematic review conducted to inform the scope of a new World Health Organization (WHO) post-birth (postnatal) guideline identifies four clear themes for a positive experience in mothers across 15 different countries and cultures, according to a study published April 22, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kenneth Finlayson, research associate at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), UK, and colleagues.

The postnatal period is the phase of a mother's life immediately following childbirth--the specific duration varies across cultures, though the WHO defines the postnatal period as immediately after the baby is born up to six weeks (42 days) after birth. In this study, Finlayson and colleagues aimed to identify what matters to mothers in the postnatal period in order to understand how postnatal services can better meet their needs and those of their new babies.

To perform their systematic literature review, the authors searched several databases for studies reporting first-hand accounts of women who gave birth, published in any language after 2000. After rating each potential study and filtering out those studies with flaws or which didn't fall into the scope of the review, the authors were left with 36 papers from 15 countries published between 2003-2019 to include in their data analysis.

Based on themes recurring throughout these 36 articles, Finlayson and colleagues were able to define a positive postnatal period as one in which women adapt to their new identity and develop confidence as a mother, with emotional and psychological support from their community, and caregivers; adjust to changes in their close relationships; navigate ordinary physical and emotional challenges; and experience personal growth as they adjust to motherhood and parenting in their own cultural context. Based on these findings, family, community, and online sources should be educated and mobilised to provide appropriate reassurance and validation to new mothers.

The authors only found 3 relevant studies from low-income countries, which is a limitation here--the authors also note that most of the studies were conducted in an urban setting, so there may be important differences around birth and the postnatal period in rural settings. Regardless, this systematic review provides a foundation for future work on the postnatal experience for women, and suggests several areas where caregivers may wish to focus in order to help women achieve a positive sense of motherhood post-birth.

Kenny Finlayson, research associate at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and lead author of the study, said: "Our study shows that support during the postnatal phase is an important factor that shapes the entire maternal experience, for both new mothers and their babies. With the right support in place from community, family and healthcare professionals during this crucial period, women around the world can feel more confident and adjust to the significant changes that come with motherhood."

Dr Mercedes Bonet Semenas, medical officer at the UNDP/UNFPA/UNICEF/WHO/World Bank Special Programme of Research, Development and Research Training in Human Reproduction (HRP), World Health Organization (WHO) Department of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Research, co-author, said: "Understanding what women want in the postnatal period will contribute significantly to ensuring that future WHO guidelines include both clinical and non-clinical recommendations to ensure a positive postnatal experience for both women and newborns."

MIAMI--Excessive and sustained rainfall triggered the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano in Hawaii, according to researchers at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The researchers suggest that local rainfall patterns may contribute significantly to the timing and frequency of the eruption at Kīlauea and perhaps at other volcanoes.

In a new study, published in the journal Nature, UM Rosenstiel School scientists Jamie Farquharson and Falk Amelung showed that the eruption was likely initiated by prolonged, and at times extreme, rainfall in the months leading up to the event.

"We knew that changes in the water content in the Earth's subsurface can trigger earthquakes and landslides. Now we know that it can also trigger volcanic eruptions," said Falk Amelung, professor of geophysics at the UM Rosenstiel School and coauthor of the study. "Under pressure from magma, wet rock breaks easier than dry rock. It is as simple as that."

The long-lived eruption of Kīlauea, one of Hawaii's most active volcanoes, entered an extraordinary new phase on May 3, 2018, throwing incandescent lava nearly two hundred feet in the air and spewing lava over 13 square miles across the well-populated east coast of Hawaii's Big Island. The unprecedented eruption, which destroyed hundreds of homes, involved the collapse of the summit caldera before it ceased four months later in September 2018.

Using a combination of ground-based and satellite measurements of rainfall, Farquharson and Amelung modelled the fluid pressure within the volcano's edifice over time--a factor that can directly influence the tendency for mechanical failure in the subsurface, ultimately driving volcanic activity.

The team's results highlight that fluid pressure was at its highest in almost half a century immediately prior to the eruption, which they propose facilitated magma movement beneath the volcano. Their hypothesis also explains why there was no widespread uplift at the volcano in the months prior.

"An eruption happens when the pressure in the magma chamber is high enough to break the surrounding rock and the magma travels to the surface," said Amelung. "This pressurization causes inflation of the ground by tens of centimeters. As we did not see any significant inflation in the year prior to the eruption we started to think about alternative explanations."

While small steam explosions and volcanic earthquakes have been linked to rainfall infiltration at other volcanoes in the past, this is the first time that this mechanism has been invoked to explain deeper magmatic processes.

"Interestingly, when we investigate Kīlauea's historical eruption record, we see that magmatic intrusions and recorded eruptions are almost twice as likely to occur during the wettest parts of the year," said Jamie Farquharson, a postdoctoral researcher at the UM Rosenstiel School and lead author of the study.

The authors highlight that if this process can be detected at Kīlauea, then it is likely to occur elsewhere as well.

"Having established the evidence for rainfall-triggered eruptions at Kīlauea, it will be fascinating to investigate other volcanoes," said Farquharson. "If we can identify regions of the globe where this kind of coupling between rainfall and volcanism exists, it could go a long way towards advanced warning of associated volcanic hazards."

"It has been shown that the melting of ice caps in Iceland led to changes of volcanic productivity," said Farquharson. "As ongoing climate change is predicted to bring about changes in rainfall patterns, we expect that this may similarly influence patterns of volcanic activity."

"This study was only possible thanks to a number of Earth-observing satellites," said Amelung. "We obtained precipitation information from a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese Space Exploration Agency and ground deformation observations from a mission of the European Space Agency."

What The Study Did: Researchers analyzed rates and lethality of 1.2 million suicides and nonfatal suicide attempts from 2006 to 2015 among people ages 10 to 74 using nationally representative data in the U.S.

Authors: Jing Wang, M.D., M.P.H., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2020.0596)

Editor's Note: Please see the articles for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflicts of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

New research indicates that plate tectonics may have been well underway on Earth more than 3.2 billion years ago, adding a new dimension to an ongoing debate about exactly when plate tectonics began influencing the early evolution of the planet. An analysis of lingering magnetism in rocks from the nearly 3.2 billion year-old Honeyeater Basalt of the East Pilbara Craton, a stable block of crust in Western Australia, provides strong evidence for a large change in the latitude of the block relative to the Earth's magnetic poles between 3.35 and 3.18 billion years ago. This evidence pushes back the date for the onset of modern plate tectonics to the late Paleoarchean time period, supporting the theory that changes in the crust have resulted from continuous, uniform processes similar to those we observe today - or at least that the crust has experienced intermittent switching between episodes of movement and immobility. Alec Brenner and colleagues note that these findings will contribute to scientists' understanding of how Earth's crust formed and how plate tectonics may have evolved on other planets. A defining feature of modern plate tectonics is the plates' gradual but steady horizontal motion. Beneath our feet, these titanic slabs of rock collide, pull apart and slide past each other, molding mountains and unleashing earthquakes that rattle the world above. But while plate tectonics is central to the evolution of Earth as we know it, scientists have been uncertain about when, exactly, this geologic process began. To determine whether the lithospheric plates experienced significant motion before the early Neoarchean period some 2.8 billion years ago, Brenner et al. extracted samples from a total of 235 magnetically oriented Honeyeater Basalt cores - igneous rocks that retain a record of Earth's magnetic field at the time of their crystallization. Since the researchers knew the ages of rocks that crystallized at different times within a single block of the crust, they were able to deduce changes in the block's latitude over millions of years. They found that this section of crust drifted at an average rate of at least 2.5 centimeters per year - a velocity comparable to plate motion rates observed today.

Using induced pluripotent stem cells produced from the skin of a patient with a rare, genetic form of insulin-dependent diabetes called Wolfram syndrome, researchers transformed the human stem cells into insulin-producing cells and used the gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to correct a genetic defect that had caused the syndrome. They then implanted the cells into lab mice and cured the unrelenting diabetes in those mice.

The findings, from researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, suggest the CRISPR-Cas9 technique may hold promise as a treatment for diabetes, particularly the forms caused by a single gene mutation, and it also may be useful one day in some patients with the more common forms of diabetes, such as type 1 and type 2.

The study is published online April 22 in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Patients with Wolfram syndrome develop diabetes during childhood or adolescence and quickly require insulin-replacement therapy, requiring insulin injections multiple times each day. Most go on to develop problems with vision and balance, as well as other issues, and in many patients, the syndrome contributes to an early death.

"This is the first time CRISPR has been used to fix a patient's diabetes-causing genetic defect and successfully reverse diabetes," said co-senior investigator Jeffrey R. Millman, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine and of biomedical engineering at Washington University. "For this study, we used cells from a patient with Wolfram syndrome because, conceptually, we knew it would be easier to correct a defect caused by a single gene. But we see this as a stepping stone toward applying gene therapy to a broader population of patients with diabetes."

Wolfram syndrome is caused by mutations to a single gene, providing the researchers an opportunity to determine whether combining stem cell technology with CRISPR to correct the genetic error also might correct the diabetes caused by the mutation.

A few years ago, Millman and his colleagues discovered how to convert human stem cells into pancreatic beta cells. When such cells encounter blood sugar, they secrete insulin. Recently, those same researchers developed a new technique to more efficiently convert human stem cells into beta cells that are considerably better at controlling blood sugar.

In this study, they took the additional steps of deriving these cells from patients and using the CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tool on those cells to correct a mutation to the gene that causes Wolfram syndrome (WFS1). Then, the researchers compared the gene-edited cells to insulin-secreting beta cells from the same batch of stem cells that had not undergone editing with CRISPR.

In the test tube and in mice with a severe form of diabetes, the newly grown beta cells that were edited with CRISPR more efficiently secreted insulin in response to glucose. Diabetes disappeared quickly in mice with the CRISPR-edited cells implanted beneath the skin, and the animals' blood sugar levels remained in normal range for the entire six months they were monitored. Animals receiving unedited beta cells remained diabetic. Their newly implanted beta cells could produce insulin, just not enough to reverse their diabetes.

"We basically were able to use these cells to cure the problem, making normal beta cells by correcting this mutation," said co-senior investigator Fumihiko Urano, MD, PhD, the Samuel E. Schechter Professor of Medicine and a professor of pathology and immunology. "It's a proof of concept demonstrating that correcting gene defects that cause or contribute to diabetes -- in this case, in the Wolfram syndrome gene -- we can make beta cells that more effectively control blood sugar. It's also possible that by correcting the genetic defects in these cells, we may correct other problems Wolfram syndrome patients experience, such as visual impairment and neurodegeneration."

In the future, using CRISPR to correct certain mutations in beta cells may help patients whose diabetes is the result of multiple genetic and environmental factors, such as type 1, caused by an autoimmune process that destroys beta cells, and type 2, which is closely linked to obesity and a systemic process called insulin resistance.

"We're excited about the fact that we were able to combine these two technologies -- growing beta cells from induced pluripotent stem cells and using CRISPR to correct genetic defects," Millman said. "In fact, we found that corrected beta cells were indistinguishable from beta cells made from the stem cells of healthy people without diabetes."

Moving forward, the process of making beta cells from stem cells should get easier, the researchers said. For example, the scientists have developed less intrusive methods, making induced pluripotent stem cells from blood -- and they are working on developing stem cells from urine samples.

"In the future," Urano said, "we may be able to take a few milliliters of urine from a patient, make stem cells that we then can grow into beta cells, correct mutations in those cells with CRISPR, transplant them back into the patient, and cure their diabetes in our clinic. Genetic testing in patients with diabetes will guide us to identify genes that should be corrected, which will lead to a personalized regenerative gene therapy."

SOLOMONS, MD (April 22, 2020)--A new study shows that plant materials originating in Arctic sea ice are significantly incorporated into marine food webs that are used for subsistence in local communities of the greater Bering Strait region.

The study led by scientists from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science traced persistent biological compounds that are uniquely generated by microscopic plants in sea ice and found that the compounds are present throughout the base of the food web. The research has the potential to demonstrate the importance of sea ice ecosystems as a source of food in Arctic waters in Alaska and beyond.

"It is widely thought that the loss of sea ice habitat will have far-reaching implications for Arctic ecosystems," said lead author Chelsea Wegner Koch, a graduate research assistant and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

"As sea ice breakup occurs earlier and forms later each year, the open water period is expanding and the sources of food are shifting away from sea ice and towards greater proportions of open water production. This production in the absence of sea ice differs in the quality, quantity, and timing of delivery to the seafloor," she said.

Efforts to account for the proportional shifts in contributions of ice algae have been incomplete due to the lack of a specific tracer that can be definitively assigned to ice algae rather than open-water phytoplankton. The compounds reaching the seafloor that were studied are associated with food for a range of seafloor animals that in turn provide food for ecologically and culturally important organisms, such as the bearded seal, Pacific walrus, gray whale and spectacled eider that forage on the shallow sea floor.

The study, published in the journal PLOS ONE with scientists from Clark University, Université Laval, and the Scottish Association for Marine Science, used sediment samples collected in the field during research cruises in the Bering and Chukchi seas, as well as samples collected from an automated under-ice moored sediment trap that operates over the winter offshore of Wainwright on Alaska's North Slope.

Findings showed a transition to more dependence on sea ice materials in direct relation to sea ice coverage, but that the sea ice biomarkers persisted year-round and were primarily released as snow melted on the sea ice coverage present in the winter.

"Particularly as sea ice coverage decreases--and in recent years has become negligible in the north Bering Sea--we are entering a new era where we will have to use approaches such as this to evaluate how the ecosystem will obtain the basic building blocks needed to sustain the food web, including human communities that depend upon them for food security," said Koch.

The study also showed that ice-sourced food rapidly reaches the seafloor sediments, suggesting that when significant ice cover is present in the winter and spring, long-term reserves of organic matter can remain accessible to seafloor animals even if production declines.

"These reserves may buffer shifting food sources in the near-term for organisms that live within the surface sediments but are likely to become inaccessible in the future if current sea ice declines continue," said Koch.

The study shows that in the northern Bering Sea, the sea ice biomarkers indicate comparatively minimal inputs of ice algae in recent years and a more open water-dominated system that will favor different organisms than have persisted in this region in the past. One final implication of the work is that it also can be potentially used to provide regional insights into paleoclimate indications of sea ice cover since the sea ice compounds persist in the sediments.

"By incorporating the extensive existing datasets of the physics and chemistry of the region, we can potentially improve interpretations of the sea ice biomarker dynamics to reveal changes in sea ice but also productivity relevant to long-term climate studies in the region," said Koch.