Brain

In March, in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe, a tweet from the French Health Minister, Olivier Verán, advised patients with COVID-19 not to take ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug with analgesic and antipyretic properties. He even warned that taking it would increase mortality among COVID-19 patients, even though the statement was not backed by any scientifically valid evidence. In spite of this information's spuriousness, it subsequently spread to a number of countries. UOC doctoral student Sergi Xaudiera and Ana Sofía Cardenal, a researcher at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, have studied the digital reach of this unverified, Twitter-propagated information in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands and Italy. The results show that misinformation has a huge impact when credible sources take part in propagating it. Based on a case study of Catalonia, the project also highlights the importance of local channels in disseminating or deactivating misinformation as, according to the study's conclusions, it is precisely the regional channels that have greatest impact in each territory.

Published in the Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) Misinformation Review, the research forms part of Sergi Xaudiera's doctoral thesis, in which he studies cases of misinformation in emergency situations. "Until now, most misinformation campaigns were instigated by unauthoritative users or partisan media. However, this case stands out for the fact that the fake news was echoed by political representatives (specifically, the French Health Minister) and respectable media outlets, who took it to a broader audience," the researcher explained.

From a WhatsApp voice message to the French Minister's Twitter account

The spark that spread the false news about ibuprofen to other European countries was the message posted by the French Minister on Twitter. However, the UOC researchers traced the story's trail back to a WhatsApp voice message in Germany. Following the digital footprint on the microblogging network, they also analysed how, over a period of two weeks, the story spread from its country of origin to users in the Netherlands, France and, finally, Spain and Italy. They looked at the role played by credible sources, such as political representatives and respected media outlets, in giving greater prominence to the misinformation.

The importance of official sources in matters such as these can be seen in the differences in how the information spread between France and Germany. "Even though the message originated in Germany, nobody took it seriously. The voice message was forwarded to different users but, as it was not possible to identify who originally recorded it, it lost credibility and the general tone of comments was basically to debunk it or make jokes about it," the research project's author highlighted. However, in France, where the message was sponsored by a credible source, the fake news had the greatest impact of all the countries studied and the comments refuting the information were virtually non-existent. Indeed, the project showed how other reliable sources, such as the media, reproduced the Minister's tweet without fact-checking, helping to take the information to greater segments of the population.

"Misinformation supported by reliable sources is particularly dangerous because their very credibility induces people to accept the recommendations without doubting or questioning the information on which they are based. In addition, these types of action, occurring during emergency situations, are particularly sensitive and, if treated incorrectly, they may have irreversible consequences," the researcher continued.

The other territories included in the study fall between these two extremes, combining messages that reproduced the fake news with others that said that it was not true. In Spain and Italy, the media and journalists were the first to debunk the misinformation, citing the French Minister's subsequent statements to disprove it. On 18 March, a second wave appeared in all the territories, and was quickly rejected by users. In spite of this, the news re-emerged in Italy and spread quickly between 20 and 23 March.

The power of local media in spreading information

Tracking the path taken by this information highlights the importance of governments' active presence on social media. "By practising active listening to detect conversations about how the emergency is being handled, governments can act quickly whenever inaccurate information attains a certain level of visibility," Xaudiera explained. The study's researchers also found that even though supragovernmental agencies such as the World Health Organization and the European Medicines Agency dismissed the information as untrue, the fake information continued to spread unabated until it was denied by each region's official channels. According to the authors, this points to a strong regional dimension in the dissemination of information.

With the goal of determining the effectiveness of local official sources in discrediting fake news, the researchers studied the specific case of Catalonia. The results showed that most of the Catalan users who contributed to spreading unverified information were not following official sources when the information was published. However, the vast majority of those who shared messages that contributed to discrediting the misinformation were following official channels.

"Misinformation is counteracted most effectively by local sources. When a false narrative starts to circulate in a region, it is the local channels that must help in checking the information and exposing it as fake when necessary. We have seen that following local official channels has a positive effect. However, when it is these channels that are putting out fake information, the region's citizens may become impervious to accurate information," Xaudiera said. In such cases, social media's role becomes particularly complex. "Social platforms (in this case, Twitter) can and must do more to prevent fake information from circulating in their ecosystems. This is particularly critical in cases such as that studied by us, as they are credible, verified channels that are disseminating incorrect information on the platform," he stressed.

Faced with fake information such as the statements about ibuprofen, the researchers recommend following official sources and viewing the information we receive critically, checking it on several sources from different, geographically separate origins, if possible. In addition, on the institutional level, they propose approaching cybersecurity from an information and communication viewpoint. "Until now, cybersecurity was seen purely as a technology issue. However, these cases show that the threat involves much more than technology and the social aspects must be studied as well," Xaudiera concluded.

Key Points

An estimated 15.7% of children hospitalized for severe acute malnutrition die before they are discharged.

Presence of HIV infection, diarrhea, pneumonia, shock, lack of appetite and low weight-to-height ratio raises the risk of mortality among these children, with some studies reporting mortality rates of to up to 40%.

Children with low weight-to-height ratio at hospital admission are at highest risk of mortality.

Early identification of prognostic factors, alongside risk stratification at hospital admission, may reduce mortality.

Better understanding of the underlying pathology of severe acute malnutrition may lead to new treatments to improve recovery.

Rockville, MD - Some 45% of all deaths among children under age five are due to malnutrition, resulting in an estimated 3.1 million deaths per year around the world. In particular, children with severe acute malnutrition, the most serious form of malnutrition, are at highest risk. In fact, some studies report that up to 40% of children hospitalized for severe acute malnutrition do not survive.

Published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the premiere journal of the American Society for Nutrition, "Predictors of Inpatient Mortality among Children Hospitalized for Severe Acute Malnutrition: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis" delved deeper beyond the statistics to find out why so many children hospitalized for severe acute malnutrition die. In particular, the authors sought to determine whether there were additional independent factors that raised the risk of mortality among children afflicted with severe acute malnutrition, with the goal of helping health care providers identify and triage patients at highest risk. Dr. Radhini Karunaratne, Pediatrician at Northwick Park Hospital, and one of the review's lead authors, added, "the hard reality of persistent high mortality rates on malnutrition wards, along with the challenges of managing critically unwell children with complicated severe acute malnutrition in resource limited settings, inspired me to further explore what is known about the predictors of mortality among this population."

To conduct their research, the authors of this scientific review performed a comprehensive search of the scientific literature, leading them to 28 studies that met their criteria. Nineteen of those studies looked at all children with severe acute malnutrition; nine additional studies were more narrowly focused on specific subgroups of children with severe acute malnutrition. The 19 main studies were conducted in eight countries across Sub-Saharan Africa, with an average of 400 children per study.

After conducting their research, the authors found six independent predictors of inpatient mortality among children with severe acute malnutrition: HIV infection, diarrhea, pneumonia, shock, lack of appetite, and low weight-to-height ratio. In particular, most studies that the authors reviewed found that children with lower weight-to-height ratio at hospital admission were at highest risk of mortality. "Early recognition of these prognostic factors within the community, alongside risk stratification at hospital admission, may help reduce inpatient mortality among children with severe acute malnutrition," according to another lead author, Dr. Jonathan Sturgeon, Clinical Research Fellow at the Queen Mary University of London.

The relationship between mortality and other factors was less clear. For example, the effect of edema was mixed across studies. Some found that the presence of edema increased the risk of mortality among children with severe acute malnutrition, whereas others found no association.

Dr. Sturgeon commented, "despite the ongoing unacceptably high worldwide mortality rate, complicated severe acute malnutrition remains a condition that we understand frustratingly little about. We urgently need to rectify this. With a better understanding of the underlying pathology of severe acute malnutrition, we may be able to trial new treatments to improve recovery."

In 2015, a team of specialists in modeling disease outbreaks got together with educators to create Operation Outbreak, an educational platform and simulation intended to teach high school and college students the fundamentals of responses to pandemics. The program, which is open source and freely available, was designed to simulate outbreaks with different variables (such as R0 and mode of transmission) and to generate data in the context of real human behavior. It includes a Bluetooth-based app that carries out contact tracing by recording transmission events between phones. The details are highlighted in a Commentary published August 31 in the journal Cell.

Operation Outbreak came about after Todd Brown, then a middle school teacher in Florida, contacted Pardis Sabeti (@PardisSabeti), a computational biologist at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, after reading a profile of her in a magazine. He and his students were studying the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and he was developing a simulation of how the virus spread using stickers.

As they continued to work together, Sabeti and her team, including Andrés Colubri (@codeanticode), at the time a computational scientist in her lab, began studying mumps outbreaks across Boston college campuses. The idea to create an educational app that "spread" viruses through Bluetooth was soon born. And as recently as December 2019, they were running simulations modeling the outbreak of a virus with a very similar modus operandi to SARS-CoV-2.

"We decided to use a SARS-like virus since it had been high on many pandemic researchers' lists as a concern," says Colubri, who is now at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. "To make the simulation more challenging, we included an element of asymptomatic spread. This was a natural concern that would elevate a pandemic's potential even further."

This summer, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to spread, Operation Outbreak was rolled out to 2,000 students in Chicago who were participating as "social distancing ambassadors" as part of the One Summer Chicago program. Participants used the app to track and trace behaviors and learn how "infections" spread in different parts of the city.

"The platform and curriculum are very flexible from an academic and also an experiential learning standpoint," Brown says. "We tried to gamify the education, so that players' behaviors and decisions affect not only them, but the entire group they're playing with."

The simulation includes elements that have become a familiar part of our daily lives, like limitations in testing abilities and shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). The program also offers the ability to simulate additional elements that could arise in the current pandemic or in future ones, such as other circulating viruses that can complicate diagnosis.

"We are in one of the most unique situations in the history of the world, by virtue of being able to engage students," says Brown, who is now community outreach director at Sarasota Military Academy. "Kids are more primed to learn when something directly affects them and their families. This is a chance for future generations to become aware of how infections spread and to recognize warning signs."

"I hope we can convey that we don't have to wait for the next pandemic to learn how to respond to them," Sabeti says. "Ultimately, we can exquisitely model every aspect of viruses and how they spread, even in the ways that we react through vaccines, protective gear, and diagnostics."

The team has put together a scalable curriculum, including a textbook and series of educational videos, that can be integrated at schools around the country. The materials, which have been funded by philanthropy, are open source and are available for free.

A Dartmouth-led study using multisensor drones has revealed a large circular earthwork at what may be Etzanoa, an archaeological site near Wichita, Kansas. Archaeologists speculate that the site was visited by a Spanish expedition, led by Juan de Oñate, a controversial conquistador, in 1601. The earthwork may be the remains of a so-called "council circle," as it is similar to several other circular earthworks in the region, according to the study's findings published in American Antiquity.

"Our findings demonstrate that undiscovered monumental earthworks may still exist in the Great Plains. You just need a different archeological approach to recognize them," explained lead author, Jesse J. Casana, a professor and chair of the department of anthropology at Dartmouth. "Our results are promising in suggesting that there may be many other impressive archaeological features that have not yet been documented, if we look hard enough," he added.

Archaeological features have various thermal effects. After the ground cools at nighttime, things below the ground cool and emit heat at different rates, enabling researchers to identify features based on thermal infrared radiation. The researchers obtained thermal and multispectral imagery of the site using drones.

The 18-hectare area of the site where the drone survey was conducted is currently home to a ranch property in the lower Walnut River valley, which has been used as a pasture. Topographically, the area is flat with no visible archaeological features. Yet, imagery shows that underground there is an ancient, circular shaped ditch measuring 50 meters wide and approximately 2 meters thick that has been infilled. As the soil erodes, it fills up the ditch with a different type of soil than was there before, and therefore retains water differently giving it unique thermal properties. The water retention levels also impact vegetation. Using near-infrared imagery, the researchers were able to identify areas that had been infilled because grass growth was more vigorous. As the study reports, the results provide evidence for what may have been a "single, sprawling population center" back in its day.

To confirm that the findings were not an anomaly, the team collected a time series of aerial and satellite images of the area from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies. They found that the circular feature was "faintly visible in June 2015 and July 2017 but not in June 2012 or February 2017."

The debate is widespread as to what council circles were used for, whether they were astronomical in nature or made for ceremonial, political and/or defense purposes. Casana added, "While we may never know what the council circles were used for or their significance, new archaeological methods allow us to see that people made these earthworks."

A biologist from RUDN University found the most beneficial concentration of tryptophan for rainbow trout. When added to the diet of the fish, this amino acid supports the immune system and reduces the oxidative stress in the intestinal tract caused by the overpopulation of fish farms. The results of the study were published in the Aquaculture magazine.

The fish in fish farms is under constant stress because of overpopulation, transportation, malnutrition, and low quality of water. All these factors have a negative impact on the health of the fish and cause diseases and death. However, they cannot be completely eliminated: it makes financial sense to keep a lot of fish in small farms, as it increases production volumes. The consequences of overpopulation include weak immunity, changes in chemical processes in fish bodies, and oxidative stress (cell death as a result of oxidation). In particular, oxidative stress can cause intestinal tract walls to become thinner which makes fish more susceptible to dangerous pathogens. A biologist from RUDN University conducted an experiment and found a way to protect the fish from oxidative stress without putting additional financial burden on fish farms.

Tryptophan is an amino acid that affects the immune system and supports the antioxidant response, i.e. a body's ability to resist oxidative stress. Tryptophan is used to treat depression in humans and is also added to animal foodstuff to make it more balanced. Its production is cheap, making it easily available in the market. The scientist from RUDN University studied the effect of tryptophan on enzyme activity and the expression of immune genes in the intestinal tracts of fish.

The subject of the study was Oncorhynchus mykiss or rainbow trout that is quite popular in fish farming. Two groups of trout were kept in an underpopulated (15 kg of fish per 1 square meter) and overpopulated (25 kg per 1 square meter) enclosure respectively. In each group, three subgroups were identified. Each subgroup got its own diet with either no tryptophan, 5 or 10 grams of tryptophan per 1 kg of feed. After 70 days the scientists assessed the level of oxidation stress resistance in the intestinal tracts of the fish by measuring enzyme activity and the expression of genes that participate in immune and antioxidant response.

The fish that consumed 5 g of tryptophan showed higher stress resistance levels than the fish that received no amino acid at all: enzymes and genes in charge of the antioxidant response were 1.5-2 times more active in the former group. However, a higher dosage of tryptophan (10 g) reduced gene expression and slowed down the activity of antioxidant enzymes.

"Adding 5 g of tryptophan per 1 kg of feed increased the immune response in the intestinal tract of rainbow trout and therefore reduced the oxidative stress even in the conditions of overpopulation. However, larger amounts of tryptophan weaken the reaction to stress factors which may be harmful for fish health", said Prof. Morteza Yousefi, PhD from the Department of Veterinary Medicine, RUDN University.

The results of the study can help prevent the death of fish while preserving high density of fish population in farms. Prof. Yousefi plans to focus his future studies on more in-depth details.

WASHINGTON -- Performing acts of kindness and helping other people can be good for people's health and well-being, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. But not all good-hearted behavior is equally beneficial to the giver. The strength of the link depends on many factors, including the type of kindness, the definition of well-being, and the giver's age, gender and other demographic factors.

The study was published in the journal Psychological Bulletin.

"Prosocial behavior--altruism, cooperation, trust and compassion--are all necessary ingredients of a harmonious and well-functioning society," said lead author Bryant P.H. Hui, PhD, a research assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong. "It is part of the shared culture of humankind, and our analysis shows that it also contributes to mental and physical health."

Previous studies have suggested that people who engage in more prosocial behavior are happier and have better mental and physical health than those who don't spend as much time helping others. However, not all studies have found evidence for that link, and the strength of the connection varies widely in the research literature.

To better understand what drives that variation, Hui and his colleagues performed a meta-analysis of 201 independent studies, comprising 198,213 total participants, that looked at the connection between prosocial behavior and well-being. Overall, they found that there was a modest link between the two. Although the effect size was small, it is still meaningful, according to Hui, given how many people perform acts of kindness every day.

"More than a quarter of Americans volunteer, for example," he said. "A modest effect size can still have a significant impact at a societal level when many people are participating in the behavior."

Digging deeper into the research, Hui and his colleagues found that random acts of kindness, such as helping an older neighbor carry groceries, were more strongly associated with overall well-being than formal prosocial behavior, such as scheduled volunteering for a charity. That may be because informal helping is more casual and spontaneous and may more easily lead to forming social connections, according to Hui. Informal giving is also more varied and less likely to become stale or monotonous, he said.

The researchers also found a stronger link between kindness and what is known as eudaimonic well-being (which focuses on self-actualization, realizing one's potential and finding meaning in life), than between kindness and hedonic well-being (which refers to happiness and positive feelings).

The effects varied by age, according to Hui, who began this research at the University of Cambridge. Younger givers reported higher levels of overall well-being, eudaimonic well-being, and psychological functioning, while older givers reported higher levels of physical health. Also, women showed stronger relationships between prosociality and several measures of well-being compared with men--perhaps because women are stereotypically expected to be more caring and giving, and thus derive a stronger sense of good feelings for acting in accordance with those social norms, according to the study.

Finally, the researchers found that studies that were specifically designed to measure the connection between prosociality and well-being showed a stronger link between the two than studies that analyzed data from other large surveys not specifically designed to study the topic.

Future research should examine several other potentially important moderators that the research literature has largely ignored so far, the researchers suggest - for example, the potential effects of givers' ethnicity and social class. Researchers might also examine whether more prosociality is always a good thing, or whether there is an "ideal level" of prosociality beyond which too much kindness and giving become detrimental to the giver, according to Hui.

Hershey, Pa. -- A new technology that uses a protein's structure to predict the inner wiring that controls the protein's function and dynamics is now available for scientists to utilize. The tool, developed by researchers at Penn State, may be useful for protein engineering and drug design.

Nikolay Dokholyan, professor of pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine, and postdoctoral scholar Jian Wang created an algorithm called Ohm that can predict allosteric sites in a protein. These are locations where proteins are particularly sensitive to relay certain changes in their structure and function as a result of external stimuli including other proteins, small molecules, water or ions. Signaling at and between allosteric sites in proteins regulate many biological processes.

According to Dokholyan, Ohm's ability to predict allosteric sites in proteins may be useful for developing targeted therapeutics for certain disease states. He said that many drugs on the market, such as G Protein-Coupled Receptor (GPCR) drugs, may cause unintended side effects because they target proteins that are similar in structure to their intended target.

"Drugs designed to target specific allosteric sites on a protein of interest can hopefully avoid side effects caused by drugs that target similar proteins," Dokholyan said. "Ohm may be useful for biomedical researchers seeking to identify allosteric sites in proteins that play key roles in biological processes of certain diseases."

Proteins carry out essential functions in the body and are built using genetic code inscribed in a person's DNA. Each protein is built using sequences of 20 different amino acids.

Wang and Dokholyan hypothesized that the physical forces from interactions between the atoms that make up the amino acids would allow them to predict allosteric pathways and sites in proteins. Ohm was designed to account for the interactions between atoms and identifies areas of density in proteins to predict allosteric pathways and sites in proteins.

"In a crystalline structure, atoms are spaced evenly apart and energy flows through it in an even fashion," Dokholyan said. "Proteins' structures are heterogeneous, so energy will flow through them in regions where the atoms are more densely packed together. Ohm identifies regions and pathways of atomic density that allow it to predict allosteric sites in proteins."

They tested the functionality of the program by inputting the genetic data from 20 proteins with known allosteric sites to see if the program would accurately predict the same spots. Results from the analysis, published in Nature Communications, showed that Ohm identified many of the same allosteric sites as those predicted from previous methods and experiments.

Dokholyan, a member of the Penn State Cancer Institute, said that Ohm can analyze allosteric paths in any protein and that researchers can access the tool through a server on his lab's website.

"Researchers around the world can use Ohm to predict allosteric sites and pathways in their protein of interest," Wang said. "This tool will be essential for the future of allosteric drug development that seeks to reduce unwanted side effects through specific targeting."

The team produced and studied new active photocatalysts based on natural aluminosilicate nanotubes with cadmium sulfide quantum dots stabilized on their surface synthesized by self-assembly.

Co-author, Chief Research Associate of the Bionanotechnology Lab (Kazan Federal University) Rawil Fakhrullin explains, "Quantum dots are semiconductor nanoparticles up to 10 nanometers in size with unique optical properties. They have found applications in many industries, including photonics, sensor technology, and biomedicine. A joint study has shown that the use of natural aluminosilicate nanotubes as carriers for quantum dots of cadmium sulfide makes it possible to create efficient and low-toxic photocatalysts that are active under visible radiation."

The studied photocatalysts are nanotubes with an inner diameter of up to 20 nanometers, on the surface and inside of which about 50 nanoparticles of cadmium sulfide, doped with ruthenium as a co-catalyst, are formed. This inert metal is used in electronics and as a catalyst and anti-corrosion additive.

"We have developed a method for self-assembly of nanoparticles on the surface of natural nanotubes, which was used to synthesize quantum dots of cadmium sulfide. Its application made it possible to increase the quantum yield of the reaction of hydrogen evolution from aqueous solutions to more than 9%. We chose ruthenium as a co-catalyst. It is known that the addition of small amounts of ruthenium leads to an increase in the activity of such photocatalysts tens and hundreds of times. Its use made it possible to prevent side processes of charge redistribution and reactions that reduce the amount of evolving hydrogen. It is interesting to note that the stability of these photocatalytic systems is greatly influenced by the ratio of sulfur to cadmium in a sulfide nanoparticle; upon reaching a certain value, the stability of the system sharply decreases," says Russian Oil and Gas University employee Anna Stavitskaya.

Dr. Fakhrullin opines that photocatalysts are one of the most promising areas of modern chemistry. They use the most affordable source of energy - sunlight.

"Photocatalysts can be used to decompose water into oxygen and hydrogen, which will make it possible to obtain safe and environmentally friendly fuel in unlimited quantities. With the help of photocatalysts, it is possible to create self-cleaning surfaces (for example, windows that do not need to be washed), easily sterilizable medical instruments that will disinfect light, and also purify water from organic contaminants and pathogenic microorganisms. Heterogeneous catalysts used for photocatalysis should not only have the ability to accelerate the reaction, but also be stable and not cause toxic effects on living systems. This can be achieved by the simultaneous use of ruthenium, quantum dots and halloysite nanotubes," says he.

In this paper, the results of a study of the effect of a system based on natural halloysite nanotubes and quantum dots of cadmium sulfide synthesized on its surface in situ on the nematode organism (distribution of nanomaterials in organs, body length, and reproductive capacity) are presented.

"Investigation of nanostructured photocatalysts in vivo in nematodes showed no acute negative effect. The developed photoactive nanomaterials were not detected in tissues outside the intestinal tract of soil nematodes, which is a good indicator for nanosystems, many of which penetrate into organs and tissues and negatively affect the body," concludes Fakhrullin.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- With just over two months before the 2020 election, three professors at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business offer a comprehensive review of how other nations are seeking to protect their democratic institutions and presents how a multifaceted, targeted approach is needed to achieve that goal in the U.S., where intelligence officials have warned that Russia and other rivals are again attempting to undermine our democracy.

But these concerns over election security are not isolated to the United States and extend far beyond safeguarding insecure voting machines and questions about voting by mail.

Based on an analysis of election reforms by Australia and European Union nations, they outline steps to address election infrastructure security -- such as requiring paper ballots and risk-limiting audits -- as well as deeper structural interventions to limit the spread of misinformation and combat digital repression.

"In the United States, despite post-2016 funding, still more than two-thirds of U.S. counties report insufficient funding to replace outdated, vulnerable paperless voting machines; further help is needed," said Scott Shackelford, associate professor of business law and ethics in the Kelley School, executive director of the Ostrom Workshop and chair of IU's Cybersecurity Program. "No nation, however powerful, or tech firm, regardless of its ambitions, is able to safeguard democracies against the full range of threats they face in 2020 and beyond. Only a multifaceted, polycentric approach that makes necessary changes up and down the stack will be up to the task."

For example, Australia -- which has faced threats from China -- has taken a distinct approach to protect its democratic institutions, including reclassifying its political parties as "critical infrastructure." This is a step that the U.S. government has yet to take despite repeated breaches at both the Democratic and Republican national committees.

The article, "Defending Democracy: Taking Stock of the Global Fight Against Digital Repression, Disinformation and Election Insecurity," has been accepted by Washington and Lee Law Review. Other authors are Anjanette "Angie" Raymond, associate professor of business law and ethics, and Abbey Stemler, assistant professor of business law and ethics, both at Kelley; and Cyanne Loyle, associate professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University and a global fellow at the Peace Research Institute Oslo.

Aside from appropriating sufficient funds to replace outdated voting machines and tabulation systems, the researchers said that Congress should encourage states to refuse to fund voting machines with paperless ballots. The researchers also suggest requiring risk-limiting audits, which use statistical samples of paper ballots to verify official election results.

Other suggested steps include:

-- Congress requiring the National Institute of Standards and Technology to update their voting machine standards, which state and county election officials rely on when deciding which machines to purchase. Australia undertook such a measure.

-- Creating a National Cybersecurity Safety Board to investigate cyberattacks on U.S. election infrastructure and issue post-elections reports to ensure that vulnerabilities are addressed.

-- Working with universities to develop training for election officials nationwide to prepare them for an array of possible scenarios, and creating a cybersecurity guidebook for use by newly elected and appointed election officials.

"With regards to disinformation in particular, the U.S. government could work with the EU to globalize the self-regulatory Code of Practice on Disinformation for social media firms and thus avoiding thorny First Amendment concerns," Raymond said. "It could also work to create new forums for international information sharing and more effective rapid alert and joint sanctions regimes.

"The international community has the tools to act and hold accountable those actors that would threaten democratic institutions," added Stemler, who also is a faculty associate at Harvard University's Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. "Failing the political will to act, pressure from consumer groups and civil society will continue to mount on tech firms, in particular Facebook, which may be sufficient for them to voluntarily expand their efforts in the EU globally, the same way that more firms are beginning to comply with its General Data Protection Regulation globally, as opposed to designing new information systems for each jurisdiction."

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 2, 2020) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred a remarkable number of psychologists across the United States to shift to delivering mental health care to patients remotely, according to a national study led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The study, "The COVID-19 Telepsychology Revolution: A National Study of Pandemic-Based Changes in U.S. Mental Health Care Delivery," which was published in the journal American Psychologist, involved a survey of 2,619 licensed psychologists across the country and found that the amount of clinical work performed via telepsychology had increased 12-fold since the pandemic began.

Prior to the pandemic, psychologists reported performing 7.07% of their clinical work with telepsychology. During the pandemic, that number has soared to 85.53%. And 67.32% of psychologists reported conducting all of their clinical work with telepsychology, the study found.

"I was shocked to see how quickly telepsychology was adopted," said lead author Brad Pierce, a doctoral student in the Department of Psychology in the College of Humanities and Sciences. "The shift from 7% of clinical work to more than 85% represents a lot of heavy lifting in a very short time. There was a concerted effort among the community to identify and remove long-standing barriers. Psychologists sought out additional training, equipment was purchased, and policies were adjusted at every level to facilitate telehealth and telepsychology."

Pierce is part of the Social Justice in Disability and Health Lab at VCU, which aims to understand and dismantle barriers to psychological services confronted by underserved groups with disabilities and chronic health conditions. As part of that work, the lab has conducted studies into the adoption of telepsychology and its potential to address disparities in health care.

"I was proud of the mental health care community's response to COVID-19 when the need for physical distancing became apparent," Pierce said. "People still need psychological services, and the community rolled up their sleeves and got to work. Our team recognized a revolution was taking place and we wanted to gain insight about these changes as they were occurring."

After the pandemic ends, the study found, many psychologists anticipate they will continue to treat patients remotely. According to the study, psychologists projected they would continue to perform 34.96% of their clinical work with telepsychology.

"I'm hopeful that these trends show that psychology as a field is able to adapt to the needs of both providers and patients," said co-author Grace McKee, Ph.D., a Mid-Atlantic Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center Advanced Psychology Fellow at the Central Virginia VA Health Care system, and who is affiliated with the Department of Psychology at VCU. "Of course the initial wave of telepsychology during the pandemic has been out of necessity, but our findings suggest to me that there are benefits to continue offering it in the future even when it is safe to attend in person."

Telepsychology can be more convenient for both providers and patients, McKee said, particularly for people who may have difficulty attending in person -- whether because of financial or transportation limitations, conflicts with work schedules, responsibilities like caring for children or family members, or mobility issues due to illness or disability.

At the same time, she said, many psychologists and patients may prefer in-person treatment, and many patients lack access to the technology and to a private, safe space needed to use telepsychology.

"I think the flexibility to offer both in-person and telepsychology services is critical in being able to meet patients' needs and making psychological services more accessible," McKee said.

While the researchers found a significant shift to telepsychology, the trend was not uniform across the profession.

Psychologists working in outpatient treatment facilities saw particularly high increases, with a more than 26-fold increase in telepsychology use during the pandemic, the study found. Meanwhile, psychologists working in Veterans Affairs medical centers only reported a sevenfold increase, likely due in part to the high rates of telepsychology use in VA medical centers before the pandemic.

A larger increase in the adoption of telepsychology was seen among women, among psychologists who had access to training in telepsychology and supportive organizational policies, and among psychologists who worked in settings specializing in relationship issues, anxiety and women's issues.

"Historically, women have tended to provide the bulk of child care. We think it's possible that women psychologists with children may have needed to use telepsychology at higher rates in order to continue to provide child care in the home, especially when most schools and day cares were closed," McKee said. "In contrast, men may have had the ability to continue some degree of in-person clinical work, particularly if they had a partner who was able to provide child care."

The lowest increases in telepsychology were found among psychologists working in rural areas and in settings that specialized in treating antisocial personality disorder, performing testing and evaluation, and treating rehabilitation populations.

Paul Perrin, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and director of the Social Justice in Disability and Health Lab, said the study documents a "literal revolution in mental health care delivery taking place before our eyes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic."

"No other event in modern history has altered to this extent the landscape of psychological service provision," said Perrin, who is also a co-author of the study and a jointly appointed research psychologist at the Central Virginia Veterans Affairs Health Care System. "Many of the barriers to telepsychology use that have been touted for years have now been dramatically lessened or even fully removed, and we are seeing an unprecedented rollout of technology-based mental health treatment. The field of psychology has put forth a substantial effort to adapt to the demands of the pandemic and unmet mental health needs that are being uncovered across the U.S."

Perrin noted one important limitation of the study: It reflects the rapid and widespread adoption of telepsychology, but does not reveal the extent to which that shift is meeting the mental health care needs of patients, particularly groups of people that experience disparities in health care.

"I believe that much more needs to be done in terms of bringing evidence-based practice to populations often marginalized in traditional mental health care," Perrin said. "The practice of telepsychology assumes a lot of things like patient access to technology, internet or telephone, and even to payment options for telepsychology. Despite the potential of telepsychology to rise to some of the mental health needs laid bare during the pandemic, there are still many limitations and barriers to its use that need to be worked out."

The Gerontological Society of America's highly cited, peer-reviewed journals are continuing to publish scientific articles on COVID-19, and all are free to access. The following were published between July 29 and September 1; all are free to access:

Clinical Characteristics and Outcomes of 821 Older Patients with SARS-Cov-2 Infection Admitted to Acute Care Geriatric Wards: Research article in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences by Lorène Zerah, MD, PhD, Édouard Baudouin, MD, Marion Pépin, MD, PhD, Morgane Mary, MD, Sébastien Krypciak, MD, Céline Bianco, MD, Swasti Roux, MD, Ariane Gross, MD, Charlotte Toméo, MD, Nadège Lemarié, MD, Antoine Dureau, MD, Sophie Bastiani, MD, Flora Ketz, MD, Clémence Boully, MD, Cédric de Villelongue, MD, Mouna Romdhani, MD, Marie-Astrid Desoutter, MD, Emmanuelle Duron, MD, PhD, Jean-Philippe David, MD, PhD, Caroline Thomas, MD, Elena Paillaud, MD, PhD, Pauline de Malglaive, MD, Eric Bouvard, MD, Mathilde Lacrampe, MD, Elise Mercadier, MD, Alexandra Monti, MD, Olivier Hanon, MD, PhD, Virginie Fossey-Diaz, MD, Lauriane Bourdonnec, MD, Bruno Riou, MD, PhD, Hélène Vallet, MD, PhD, and Jacques Boddaert, MD, PhD, and APHP / Universities / Inserm COVID-19 research collaboration

Gender Divides in Engagement with COVID-19 Information on the Internet among U.S. Older Adults: Research report in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences by Celeste Campos-Castillo, PhD

Lost Touch? Implications of Physical Touch for Physical Health: Research report in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences by Patricia A. Thomas, PhD, and Seoyoun Kim, PhD

Nursing Home Social Workers Perceptions of Preparedness and Coping for COVID-19: Research report in The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences by Vivian J Miller, PhD, LSW, Noelle L Fields, PhD, LCSW, Keith A Anderson, PhD, MSW, Nancy Kusmaul, PhD, MSW, and Christy Maxwell, MSW Student

Older Adults with Coronavirus Disease 2019; A Nationwide Study in Turkey: Research article in The Journals of Gerontology, Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences by Mert Esme, MD, Meltem Koca, MD, Ayse Dikmeer, MD, Cafer Balci, MD, Naim Ata, MD, Burcu Balam Dogu, MD, Mustafa Cankurtaran, MD, Meltem Yilmaz, Osman Celik, Gulnihal Gokce Unal, MD, Mustafa Mahir Ulgu, MD, and Suayip Birinci, MD

Age Moderates Perceived COVID-19 Disruption on Well-being: Research article in The Gerontologist by Amy Knepple Carney, PhD, Allyson S. Graf, PhD, Grace Hudson, BS, and Ellen Wilson, MS

Changes in Subjective Age During COVID-19: Research article in The Gerontologist by Antonio Terracciano, PhD, Yannick Stephan, PhD, Damaris Aschwanden, PhD, Ji Hyun Lee, PhD, Amanda A. Sesker, PhD, Jason E. Strickhouser, PhD, Martina Luchetti, PhD, and Angelina R. Sutin, PhD

Media Effects on Individual Worldview and Wellness for Long Term Care Residents Amid The COVID-19 Virus: Forum article in The Gerontologist by David Schroyer, MS, BSW, CTP

The Interpersonal and Psychological Impacts of COVID-19 on Risk for Late-Life Suicide: Forum article in The Gerontologist by Julia L. Sheffler, PhD, Natalie J. Sachs-Ericsson, PhD, Thomas E. Joiner, PhD

New Webinar: “Reframing Aging: A Primer for Health Care Professionals”

Healthcare professionals working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic are confronted daily with communication choices. Research by the FrameWorks Institute on aging and ageism shows that words matter. This webinar presented by the Reframing Aging Initiative covers four ideas to keep in mind when talking about older people and health equity in health care settings during the pandemic.

With many people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, blue jeans are a more popular wardrobe choice than ever. But most people don't think about microscopic remnants of their comfy jeans and other clothing that are shed during laundering. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology Letters have detected indigo denim microfibers not only in wastewater effluent, but also in lakes and remote Arctic marine sediments.

Over the past 100 years, the popularity of denim blue jeans has grown immensely, with many people wearing this type of clothing almost every day. Studies have shown that washing denim and other fabrics releases microfibers -- tiny, elongated particles -- to wastewater. Although most microfibers are removed by wastewater treatment plants, some could still enter the environment through wastewater discharge, also known as effluent. Blue jean denim is composed of natural cotton cellulose fibers, processed with synthetic indigo dye and other chemical additives to improve performance and durability. Miriam Diamond, Samantha Athey and colleagues wondered whether blue jeans were a major source of anthropogenic cellulose microfibers to the aquatic environment.

The researchers used a combination of microscopy and Raman spectroscopy to identify and count indigo denim microfibers in various water samples collected in Canada. Indigo denim made up 23, 12 and 20% of all microfibers in sediments from the Great Lakes, shallow suburban lakes near Toronto, Canada, and the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, respectively. Despite a high abundance of denim microfibers in Great Lake sediments, the team detected only a single denim microfiber in the digestive tract of a type of fish called rainbow smelt. Based on the levels of microfibers found in wastewater effluent, the researchers estimated that the wastewater treatment plants in the study discharged about 1 billion indigo denim microfibers per day. In laundering experiments, the researchers found that a single pair of used jeans could release about 50,000 microfibers per wash cycle. Although the team doesn't know the effects, if any, that the microfibers have on aquatic life, a practical way to reduce denim microfiber pollution would be for consumers to wash their jeans less frequently, they say. Moreover, finding microfibers from blue jeans in the Arctic is a potent indicator of humans' impact on the environment, the researchers add.

Solving the Opioid Crisis Isn't Just a Public Health Challenge--It's a Bioethics Challenge
Travis N. Rieder

It is popular, Rieder observes, to claim that we know what we, as a society, ought to do to solve America's opioid crisis--we simply don't want it badly enough. Those who focus on prescription opioids think we ought to stop prescribing so many powerful opioid painkillers. Public health professionals who focus on illicit drug use think we ought to expand addiction treatment and harm?reduction services. The problem, Rieder argues, is that the second claim is not obvious, and the first claim probably isn't even true. In short, the opioid crisis presents not only a problem of political will but also one of ethics. It will take work to discover or justify our normative claims in this arena. Rieder is a research scholar at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the author of In Pain: A Bioethicist's Personal Struggle with Opioids.

Toward Fair and Humane Pain Policy
Daniel S. Goldberg

Pain policy is not drug policy. If society wants to improve the lives of people in pain and compress the terrible inequalities in its diagnosis and treatment, we have to tailor policy to the root causes driving our problems in treating pain humanely and equitably. In the United States, we do not. Instead, we conflate drug policy with pain policy, relying on arguably magical thinking for the conclusion that by addressing the drug overdose crisis, we are simultaneously addressing the pain crisis. This is a category error, decades of commitment to which have resulted mostly in a worsening of both public health problems. Disentangling our problems in treating pain fairly and equitably from our problems with drugs and substance use is the only path to humane and ethical policy for each. Goldberg is an associate professor in the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

What We're Not Talking about When We Talk about Addiction
Hanna Pickard

The landscape of addiction is dominated by two rival models: a moral model in which addition is partly a matter of choice and a model that characterizes addiction as a neurobiological disease of compulsion, not personal choice. Against both, Pickard offers a scientifically and clinically informed alternative. To help someone overcome addiction, you need to understand and address why they persist in using drugs despite negative consequences. If they are not compelled, then the explanation must advert to the value of drugs for them as an individual. What blocks us from acknowledging this reality is not science but fear: that it will ignite moralism about drugs and condemnation of drug users. The solution is to fight moralism directly. Pickard is a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University.

University of Alberta graduate student Scott Melnyk made an intriguing fossil find during a graduate level course--and ended up identifying the fossilized tracks of a newly discovered wood-boring organism in a new study.

"Apectoichnus lignummasticans is unique in that it is only the third wood-boring trace fossil associated with marine environments," explained Melnyk, graduate student with the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and member of the Ichnology Research Group.

Trace fossils, which include tracks, burrows, and tunnels, are the fossilized evidence of the activities of past life, explained Melnyk, who conducted the research under the supervision of Professor Murray Gingras in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.

"Trace fossils are very useful to interpret environmental characteristics of Earth millions of years ago," said Melnyk. "The marine origin of these fossils, for example, provides evidence that the shallow sea that covered much of Western Canada--the Cretaceous Interior Seaway--extended into west-central Saskatchewan roughly 100 million years ago."

Melnyk came across the fossil during a graduate-level sedimentology course in one of the cores of the University of Alberta's Drill Core Collection. The collection was donated by Shell Canada and contains more than 6,000 metres of drill cores that the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences uses for teaching and research.

"The following year I became a teaching assistant for the course, and brought the fossil to the attention of my advisor, Murray Gingras," said Melnyk. "From there we set out to study whether or not the trace fossils were in fact unique and determine their geological significance."

And while the fossils are significant for their geological rarity, they're also a cause to celebrate the research of graduate students.

"This is only the second time in 20 years that a University of Alberta graduate student has named a new trace fossil," said Gingras. "The fossils are similar in many respects to modern borings in wood by marine isopods--this was a remarkable find and a testament to the importance of our students' work."

The BCG vaccine has a broad, stimulating effect on the immune system. This gives it an effective preventive action against various infections - possibly also against COVID-19. New studies are investigating that. BCG is frequently given to children, but a double-blind randomized clinical study, a collaboration between Radboud university medical center and the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens shows that elderly people also benefit from it. The results are published in Cell.

At Radboudumc, Professor of Experimental Internal Medicine Mihai Netea is conducting research into this protective effect against various infections by the BCG vaccine, an effect called "trained immunity". Prof. Mihai Netea: "Two years ago we started the ACTIVATE study, with the aim of showing whether BCG vaccination could protect against infections in vulnerable elderly people. Patients over 65 years of age who were admitted to hospital were randomized to receive BCG or placebo vaccination at their discharge. We followed them for a year to see if BCG could protect them against a broad range of infections."

Study started before the pandemic

The ACTIVATE study had already started before the corona pandemic. 198 elderly people were given either a placebo or a BCG vaccine upon discharge from the hospital. The last follow-up was scheduled for August 2020, but due to the arrival of COVID-19, the researchers looked at the preliminary results, published today in Cell.

Protective effect

There was a noticeable difference: in the placebo group, 42.3% of the elderly developed an infection, while this was the case in only 25% of the BCG group. It also took longer: the BCG-vaccinated participants had their first infection on average 16 weeks after vaccination, compared to 11 weeks for the placebo group. There was no difference in side effects.

Prof. Evangelos J. Giamarellos-Bourboulis, co-coordinator of the study at the 4th Department of Internal Medicine at ATTIKON University Hospital: "In addition to the clear effect of BCG vaccination on infections in general, the most important observation was that BCG could mainly protect against respiratory infections: BCG-vaccinated elderly people had 75% fewer respiratory infections than the elderly who received placebo."

It is unclear whether it works against the coronavirus

Although most protection seems to have been against respiratory infections of (probably) viral origin, whether or not BCG also works against COVID-19 has not yet been demonstrated, due to the low prevalence of COVID-19 in this study. The study does show that the BCG vaccination is safe to give to the elderly, and that it can protect them against various infections.
Several studies are underway that look specifically at the effects of BCG on COVID-19. Only these follow-up studies can provide clarity as to whether BCG vaccination can also protect against infections with the new coronavirus.