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Superheavy elements are intriguing nuclear and atomic quantum systems that challenge experimental probing as they do not occur in nature and, when synthesized, vanish within seconds. Pushing the forefront atomic physics research to these elements requires breakthrough developments towards fast atomic spectroscopy techniques with extreme sensitivity. A joint effort within the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program and led by Dr. Mustapha Laatiaoui from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) culminated in an optical spectroscopy proposal: The so-called Laser Resonance Chromatography (LRC) should enable such investigations even at minute production quantities. The proposal has recently been published in two articles in Physical Review Letters and Physical Review A.

Superheavy elements (SHEs) are found at the bottom part of the periodic table of elements. They represent a fertile ground for the development of understanding on how such exotic atoms can exist and work when an overwhelming number of electrons in atomic shells and protons and neutrons in the nucleus come together. Insights into their electronic structure can be obtained from optical spectroscopy experiments unveiling element-specific emission spectra. These spectra are powerful benchmarks for modern atomic-model calculations and could be useful, for example, when it comes to searching for traces of even heavier elements, which might be created in neutron-star merger events.

LRC approach combines different methods

Although SHEs have been discovered decades ago, their investigation by optical spectroscopy tools lack far behind the synthesis. This is because they are produced at extremely low rates at which traditional methods simply do not work. So far, optical spectroscopy ends at nobelium, element 102 in the periodic table. "Current techniques are at the limit of what is feasible," explained Laatiaoui. From the next heavier element on, the physicochemical properties change abruptly and impede providing samples in suitable atomic states."

Together with research colleagues, the physicist has therefore developed the new LRC approach in optical spectroscopy. This combines element selectivity and spectral precision of laser spectroscopy with ion-mobility mass spectrometry and merges the benefits of a high sensitivity with the "simplicity" of optical probing as in laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. Its key idea is to detect the products of resonant optical excitations not on the basis of fluorescent light as usual, but based on their characteristic drift time to a particle detector.

In their theoretical work, the researchers focused on singly charged lawrencium, element 103, and on its lighter chemical homolog. But the concept offers unparalleled access to laser spectroscopy of many other monoatomic ions across the periodic table, in particular of the transition metals including the high-temperature refractory metals and elements beyond lawrencium. Other ionic species like triply-charged thorium shall be within reach of the LRC approach as well. Moreover, the method enables to optimize signal-to-noise ratios and thus to ease ion mobility spectrometry, state-selected ion chemistry, and other applications.

Dr. Mustapha Laatiaoui came to Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) in February 2018. In late 2018, he received an ERC Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), one of the European Union's most valuable funding grants, for his research into the heaviest elements using laser spectroscopy and ion mobility spectroscopy. The current publications also included work that Laatiaoui had previously carried out at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt and at KU Leuven in Belgium.

This work was conducted in cooperation with Alexei A. Buchachenko from the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology and the Institute of Problems of Chemical Physics, both in Moscow, Russia, and Larry A. Viehland from Chatham University, Pittsburgh, USA.

Ann Arbor, July 13, 2020 -- New research and guidance in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier, focus on critical topics pertaining to community and individual health during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Researchers issue a transdisciplinary "Call to Action" to strengthen pandemic behavioral science to overcome COVID-19
The only evidence-based strategy currently available to halt the transmission of COVID-19 is population-wide behavior change. Although information about COVID-19 protective behaviors such as hand washing, mask wearing, and social distancing has been widely disseminated in the United States by federal and local governments, research has shown significant gaps in the public's understanding and behavior, maybe because of inconsistency and lack of optimal tailoring. Researchers say the narrative is missing the behavioral science expertise that is central to achieving protective behaviors. "Fighting this pandemic will require new 'weapons' and a new resolve on the part of the government and the public," says lead author John Allegrante, PhD, Columbia University's Teachers College and the Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA. "A national historic commitment is needed in which behavior change methodology is a dominant weapon in the nation's public health arsenal." The researchers say there is an urgent need for accurate data about the public understanding of COVID-19 risk and preferred sources for obtaining information about how to stay safe. Better utilization of digital technology would enable more efficient targeting of at-risk individuals and tailoring of behavioral interventions. And, to drive these changes now and for the future, pandemic behavioral science, methodology, and evidence need to be updated and expanded.

"Preventing COVID-19 and Its Sequela: "There is No Magic Bullet . . . It's Just Behaviors," by John P. Allegrante, PhD, M. Elaine Auld, MPH, and Sundar Natarajan, MD, MSc (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.05.004). Journalists wishing to speak with the authors should contact John Allegrante at jpa1@tc.columbia.edu.

Perception of the risk of contracting or dying from COVID-19 strongly influences people's decision to take protective actions, a national survey finds

As coronavirus began to spread across the United States, researchers conducted a cross-sectional national online survey between March 10 and March 31, 2020 asking participants to assess their risk of COVID-19 infection and fatality. They were also asked about behaviors they had taken to protect themselves from infection such as washing hands or avoiding public spaces and crowds. Individuals disagreed about the risks, and those perceiving higher risk were significantly more likely to engage in protective actions. Risk perceptions for getting COVID-19 and people's willingness to act upon them grew stronger in responses provided after March 13, 2020, when many states declared school closures and bans on large gatherings, and the US declared a state of emergency and implemented travel bans. "Our findings suggest that to motivate protective actions, clear and consistent risk messages are needed. This was the case when states were closing down in March 2020. It will likely also be important when states open up again," observes lead investigator Wändi Bruine de Bruin, PhD, Sol Price School of Public Policy, Dornsife Department of Psychology, Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics; and Center for Economic and Social Research, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

"Relationships Between Initial COVID-19 Risk Perceptions and Protective Health Behaviors: A National Survey," by Wändi Bruine de Bruin, PhD, and Daniel Bennett, PhD (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.05.001). Journalists wishing to speak to the authors should contact Stephanie Hedt at hedt@healthpolicy.usc.edu.

Financial strain associated with COVID-19 hospitalization may be felt most by younger patients with lower premium, higher deductible health plans

Out-of-pocket spending associated with hospitalizations for respiratory conditions similar to those caused by COVID-19 from January 2016 through August 2019 were significantly higher for patients who have a consumer-directed health plan (CDHP) that features lower premiums but higher deductibles compared with patients who had a traditional, low deductible plan. The difference was largest for those under 21 years old, and decreased as age increased. The largest increase was in the first half of the year when, the researchers note, younger people have likely not exceeded their deductibles. Although some insurers are waiving cost-sharing payments for a hospitalization related to COVID-19, self-insured employers are exempt. "Congress is now debating whether or not to require all plans to waive cost sharing related to COVID-19 treatment. Our findings suggest they might want to take action on cost-sharing waivers, because those out-of-pockets costs are otherwise going to be high for many people," says lead investigator Matthew Eisenberg, PhD, Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

"Financial Risk for COVID-19 Respiratory Hospitalizations in Consumer-Directed Health Plans," by Matthew D. Eisenberg, PhD, Colleen L. Barry, PhD, MPP, Cameron Schilling, MPH, and Alene Kennedy-Hendricks, PhD (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.05.008). Journalists wishing to speak with the authors should contact Caitlin Hoffman choffman@jhu.edu.

Researchers warn that a lack of a racial/ethnic identifier in health records and medical data may lead to worse health outcomes for Arab Americans during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond

There are increasing calls to better understand the inequities populations of color face in the United States with regard to COVID-19, including increased infection rates, more severe disease, and greater risk of death. Potential health disparities for Arab Americans may never be recognized, however, because most medical data and surveys do not include an option to identify as Arab American. Author Nadia N. Abuelezam, ScD, Boston College William F. Connell School of Nursing, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA, observes that Arab Americans are asked to identify as non-Hispanic white, despite the fact that their health outcomes are significantly different. Arab Americans may be at increased risk for COVID-19 due to xenophobia and stigma, pre-existing conditions, crowded living conditions, lack of social support for new immigrants, and poor adoption of prevention behavior. "Arab Americans have long been 'invisible' in the medical and public health literature due to a lack of an ethnic identifier," explains Dr. Abuelezam. "The COVID-19 crisis has forced the medical and public health community to reimagine the ways that healthcare can be provided and data can be collected in real time. In this moment of reimagination and creativity, we can embrace and enhance our racial and ethnic reporting measures to ensure we are collecting data on all ethnic and racial subgroups in the US."

"Health Equity During COVID-19: The Case of Arab Americans," by Nadia Abuelezam (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.06.004). Journalists wishing to speak to Dr. Abuelezam may contact her at nadia.abuelezam@bc.edu.

AUSTIN, Texas-- More than one in five women at risk of an unplanned pregnancy in the U.S. would use a different method of contraception if cost were not a factor, says a new study from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP) published in Contraception X. Uninsured women (one in three) and publicly insured women (one in four) were more likely to prefer a different method than privately insured women (one in five), indicating the importance of insurance coverage in ensuring access to the contraceptive methods women desire. The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania that employers can refuse to cover birth control for religious or moral reasons. Out-of-pocket costs for contraception will rise for many U.S. women, and they will be less likely to get the birth control they want.

"Whether people are able to afford the type of birth control they want to use is a strong indicator of the quality of reproductive healthcare in the U.S.," says Dr. Kari White, principal investigator of TxPEP and Associate Professor of Social Work and Sociology at The University of Texas at Austin. "The Supreme Court's ruling, along with other recent policies that have limited publicly funded services for low-income women, will likely reverse some of the gains in access and affordability we have seen in recent years."

Affordable access to contraception in the U.S. improved over the last 7 years as a result of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) contraceptive coverage mandate, which made all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive methods available for no charge to women enrolled in most private insurance plans. The Court's ruling will impact an estimated 70,500 - 126,400 women of childbearing age who will now need to pay out-of-pocket for their birth control, and some of the most effective methods, such as female sterilization, IUDs and implants, are very expensive in the U.S. Some women who lose coverage may look for a new provider at a publicly funded health center that offers low-cost contraception. These facilities, which receive federal Title X family planning funds or other federal and state funding to serve low-income women, will likely not be able to meet the demand of new patients, leaving more women with cost barriers to using the birth control method they desire.

The new TxPEP study, based on data collected after the implementation of the ACA, also showed that Black and Hispanic women and those of other races/ethnicities were less likely to be using the birth control they wanted compared with white women, reflecting the structural disadvantage women of color face in the U.S. healthcare system. "Black women can face additional barriers accessing affordable contraceptive care that is free of bias, and affording contraception may be especially challenging for recent and undocumented immigrants, many of whom are Hispanic, due to limited insurance coverage options," says Kristen Burke, a doctoral student in sociology and graduate research associate at TxPEP. "The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted incredible racial disparities in health outcomes, including access to reproductive health services, and the Court's decision will likely exacerbate these gaps in care."

The study used data from the 2015-2017 National Survey of Family Growth, focusing on sexually active women of reproductive age in the United States who were neither pregnant nor trying to become pregnant. Previous studies by TxPEP have shown that women often prefer to use more effective methods such as the IUD, implant, and sterilization, which may not be readily available at publicly funded or private health care providers.

HOUSTON - (July 13, 2020) - Bird poop may pose more health risks than people realize, according to Rice University environmental engineers who study antibiotic resistance.

Their study found high levels of genes that encode antibiotic resistance harbored by opportunistic pathogens in the droppings of common urban ducks, crows and gulls.

The study led by postdoctoral research associate Pingfeng Yu of Rice's Brown School of Engineering appears in the Elsevier journal Environmental Pollution. Yu is a member of the lab of civil and environmental engineer and co-author Pedro Alvarez.

Previous studies determined bird-carried antibiotic resistant genes (ARGs) and bacteria (ARBs) can be transferred to humans through swimming, contact with feces or impacted soil or inhalation of aerosolized fecal particles. Studies have also analyzed bird feces found near ARG hotspots like wastewater treatment plants and drainage from poultry farms.

But the Rice study digs deeper to quantify the abundance, diversity and seasonal persistence of ARGs.

"We still do not fully understand what factors exert selective pressure for the occurrence of ARGs in the gastrointestinal system of wild urban birds," Alvarez said. "Residual antibiotics that are incidentally assimilated during foraging is likely one of these factors, but further research is needed to discern the importance of other potential etiological factors, such as bird diet, age, gut microbiome structure and other stressors."

The team that included lead authors Huiru Zhao, a student at Nankai University in China, and Rice graduate student Ruonan Sun compared "freshly deposited" samples from each species found around Houston during the winter and summer months to samples from poultry and livestock known to carry some of the same mutations.

They found that ARGs in all of the species, regardless of season, encoded significant resistance to tetracycline, beta-lactam and sulfonamide antibiotics. The researchers were surprised to see the relatively high abundance of ARGs were comparable to those found in the fresh feces of poultry occasionally fed with antibiotics.

They also found intI1, an integron that facilitates rapid bacterial acquisition of antibiotic resistance, was five times more abundant in the birds than in farm animals.

"Our results indicate that urban wild birds are an overlooked but potentially important reservoir of antimicrobial resistance genes, although their significance as vectors for direct transmission of resistant infections is possible but improbable due to low frequency of human contact," Alvarez said.

The team also looked for ARGs in soil up to 1 inch deep around bird deposits and discovered they are "moderately persistent" in the environment, with half-lives of up to 11.1 days.

Of the three species, crows showed a significantly lower level of ARGs during the summer compared to ducks and gulls, they reported.

"That's probably due to differences in their ecological niches, foraging patterns and gut microbiome," Sun said. "Crows are omnivores and feed on abundant natural food with less anthropogenic contaminations in the summer. In addition, the composition of their gut microbiome impacts ARG dissemination and enrichment in vivo, and therefore influences ARG levels in the excreted bird feces."

The researchers found that opportunistic pathogens including bacteria that cause urinary tract infections, sepsis and respiratory infections were common in the feces of all of the birds, and another associated with food poisoning was detected in samples collected during the winter.

Winter feces, they wrote, contained more of the bad bacteria that may also harbor ARGs, possibly due to lower sunlight inactivation and differences in moisture levels and temperature.

"Our study raises awareness to avoid direct contact with bird droppings in urban public areas, especially for vulnerable or sensitive populations," Yu said. "Meanwhile, regular cleaning should also help to mitigate associated health risks."

Prolonged exposure to loud noise is more than annoying?it is bad for human health. Beyond the obvious potential damage to hearing, chronic noise exposure has also been linked to adverse cardiovascular effects, such as increased risks of heart attacks and strokes.

Now, for the first time, researchers have provided a causal estimate linking high-level noise exposure to another key health challenge: low birth weight (

Health economists from Lehigh University, Lafayette College and the University of Colorado, Denver were able to pinpoint a causal link by studying residential neighborhoods impacted by recent changes in airplane flight patterns going in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport, one of the largest airports in the United States.

Muzhe Yang, who holds the Francis J. Ingrassia ?75 and Elizabeth McCaul Endowed Professorship in Lehigh's Department of Economics, along with Laura Argys from University of Colorado, Denver and Susan Averett from Lafayette College, used unique birth records from 2004 to 2016 containing information on mothers' home addresses and National Transportation Noise data providing measured noise levels at exact locations. Their analysis revealed an increase of 1.6 percentage points--or 22 percent--in the risk of having a low birth weight baby among mothers living close to the airport, in the direction of the runway, exposed to noise levels over the 55 dB threshold (the threshold used by the EPA and the WHO for the protection of public health), and during the period when the new flight pattern changes were more actively implemented at the airport.

Their paper describing these results, "Residential Noise Exposure and Health: Evidence from Aviation Noise and Birth Outcomes," was published online Friday in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

"Our findings have important policy implications regarding the trade-off between flight pattern optimization and human health," says Yang. "This is especially important given the long-term negative impact of low birth weight on a range of later-life outcomes such as lifetime earnings, educational achievement and long-term health."

Unintended Consequences

The changes in flight patterns around the Newark airport, as well as many airports in the United States, were triggered by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control initiative called the Next Generation Air Transportation System, known as NextGen. Designed to reduce flight time and save fuel, one component of NextGen employs precision satellite monitoring instead of old-fashioned radar to guide airplanes. These satellite-designed optimum routes are made to be more direct. The use of satellite monitoring allows for more planes in the air, safely spaced and flying closer together, so more planes can use the same route.

Usage of these new routes by more and more aircraft and the adoption of a gradual descent approach?resulting in planes coming in to land at lower altitudes-have exposed residents living in areas under the satellite-designed routes to, as one resident impacted by changes in Arizona told CBS News, "a constant barrage of airplanes flying over their homes."

NextGen provided the researchers with a rare circumstance to study the causal effect of noise pollution on birth weight, in which noise exposure is close to being randomly assigned because residents were caught off-guard. The implementation of NextGen by the FAA was exempted by the U.S. Congress from normal environmental impact reviews and public hearings. The randomness and the sharp change in noise exposure are important to ensure that the estimated effect of noise pollution on birth weight is not confounded by other factors that are related to both noise pollution and fetal health, such as air pollution. This study focuses on mothers living close to the airport, where air pollution is likely to be evenly distributed while sharp changes in noise pollution exist.

"The National Transportation Noise data provided a map that revealed sharp changes in noise exposure in areas near the airport," says Yang. "We find that NextGen indeed created a narrow band around the runways, which is a noise pollution corridor. We argue that conditional on those who already live close to the airport, the redistribution of aviation noise, due to NextGen, occurred in a way that is outside of the residents' control--since the NextGen's implementation was exempted from public hearings."

Furthermore, by focusing on those living close to the airport, the research team argues that "people probably do not have the knowledge about the exact landing and takeoff paths of aircraft, or they may think they will be exposed to similar levels aviation noise since landing and takeoff paths, prior to NextGen, were less concentrated." Thus, there is a plausibly exogenous variation in noise exposure among those living near the airport--whether or not the mother lives inside the noise pollution corridor can be random. In their study they focus on mothers living within 5 miles of the airport.

"We hope our study helps people recognize the adverse effect of noise exposure on fetal health," says Yang, "as well as the urgency of finding solutions to the problem of excessive noise endured by communities overflown by aircraft using satellite-designed optimum routes."

URBANA, Ill. - Food additives get a bad rap, but a natural ingredient from orange peels and apple skins, pectin, is a thickener safely added to many food products, most notably jellies. The additive is also the subject of a University of Illinois experiment highlighting both the power and the challenges of public-private partnerships in university research.

The experiment, recently published in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, was pretty simple. It showed neonatal pigs tolerated milk replacer with pectin included at 0.2%. The research was done at the request of and with funding from formula manufacturer Mead Johnson Nutrition (now a division of RB), who hoped to prove the safety of the natural food additive for infants against a backdrop of new European standards.

Translating basic science into actionable industry and practitioner insights is part of the DNA of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) at Illinois. From the college's perspective, public-private partnerships help industry and the public by providing unbiased, transparent science to back up or refute industry claims and practices. These partnerships also give ACES students opportunities to work within the industry landscape before entering the workforce.

"What's beautiful about these public-private partnerships is their ability to more quickly create what's needed on the front lines of agriculture and other industries," says ACES Dean Kim Kidwell. "When industry is talking directly to our talented scientists and students, innovation is inevitable."

Ryan Dilger, study co-author and associate professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at Illinois acknowledges there can be a negative public perception about university scientists working with private companies. "It's tricky, but for us, it's always science first."

In 2015, Mead Johnson approached Dilger with a proposal that would fund construction of a new research center to study infant brain and gut development using the neonatal pig as a preclinical model. Within the scientific community, piglets are accepted as a more informative proxy for human infants than mice and rats. That's because, to a much greater degree than rodents, piglet digestive systems, behavioral responses, and brain development mirror those of human babies.

Dilger worked with neonatal piglets prior to 2015, but he knew having a dedicated building to conduct the research was a major boon with benefits that would go far beyond Mead Johnson's investment.

"We work with other partners using that same infrastructure. Every company we work with makes investments in the tools we need to do cutting-edge research, which then everybody gets access to," Dilger says. "We don't like exclusivity. Public-private investments build up our capacity as university scientists to be steadfast in an ever-changing world."

The partnership with Mead Johnson also led Stephen Fleming, a former doctoral student working with Dilger and co-author on the pectin study, to identify hurdles facing private companies who want to work with university scientists. To address the issue, Fleming and Dilger launched a startup company to help companies traverse the intricacies of the university research landscape. They call it Traverse Science.

"There was no service we knew of, especially in the biological sciences, connecting students and faculty with commercial presences who need help or expertise to perform and publish basic research. Traverse Science does that in the context of food and nutrition," Fleming says.

He points to a growing industry trend to downsize in-house research and development capacity, relying instead on university researchers or contract research organizations. Traverse Science, part of the EnterpriseWorks Incubator at the University of Illinois Research Park, connects companies with Illinois experts and offers project administration, data analysis, and publication services.

"We exist so scientists can focus on the science and business can keep moving forward," Fleming notes. "We think science should enable business, not slow it down."

Many university scientists working with industry are motivated to infuse more transparent, high-quality, peer-reviewed science into product claims, industry practice, and policy.

"Conducting practical research studies is something we want to continue to promote through ACES and Traverse. We want to hold industry to the high standards of our scientific training for the benefit of the public," Dilger says. "We'll always be scientists first."

ITHACA, N.Y. - A single protein derived from a common strain of bacteria found in the soil will offer scientists a more precise way to edit RNA.

The protein, called AcrVIA1, can halt the CRISPR-Cas13 editing process, according to new research from Cornell, Rockefeller University and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center published in the journal Science July 3.

"We're expanding our scientific toolbox to effectively use a CRISPR without causing side effects," said co-author Martin Wiedmann, Ph.D. '97, the Gellert Family Professor in Food Safety and director of Cornell's Food Safety Laboratory and Milk Quality Improvement Program. "Thanks to this bacterium, we're getting a chance to turn off and on our ability to make changes to RNA."

CRISPR, or the clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, is a laboratory mechanism that can act like microscopic scissors and precisely edit the genes contained in DNA. Among the half-dozen types of CRISPRs in use today, CRISPR-Cas13 can edit RNA, which until now had lacked a brake in the editing process.

Since SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease, is an RNA virus, this new editing accessory may be useful to coronavirus researchers, the scientists said.

Lead author Alex Meeske, postdoctoral researcher in the lab of senior author Luciano Marraffini, professor at Rockefeller University, had suspected that a protein (bacteriophage) housed in Listeria could be useful for RNA editing.

At the start of this study, Meeske reached out to Wiedmann, a food safety expert, to obtain genetic bacterial samples from his food pathogen collection. Doctoral candidate in the Wiedmann laboratory Jingqiu Liao narrowed down the prospects from about 1,500 bacterial candidates to 62 strains.

The Wiedmann lab transferred those samples to Rockefeller, where intern Alice Cassel sequenced the 62 strains and isolated 20 candidate proteins.

One strain stood out: Listeria seeligeri, a harmless bacteria found everywhere in the soil. Unlike its fierce cousin - the foodborne pathogen L. monocytogenes - it does not cause human disease.

The Rockefeller scientists found that the protein AcrVIA1 - derived from L. seeligeri - instantly stopped the CRISPR editing process. "AcrVIA1 can be very useful in controlling application of Cas13. Anything that the Cas13 edits, this anti-CRISPR protein can shut off," Meeske said. "It's a 'kill switch' you can use during the CRISPR editing process, and it has become an additional tool we have at our disposal."

Wiedmann explained that scientists can now work on RNA problems with more exacting means. "This tool gives us more precision," he said.

The paper, "A Phage-Encoded Anti-CRISPR Enables Complete Evasion of Type VI-A CRISPR- 2 Cas Immunity," was co-written by senior author Dinshaw J. Patel and Ning Jia, both of Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Albina Kozlova of Rockefeller.

CHICAGO--- Patients who died from COVID in 2020 were almost 12 times more likely to die in a medical facility than patients who died from any cause in 2018, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.

This the first study to look at place of death for patients with COVID-19 and how these distributions compare to previous trends in location of death for non-COVID-19 illnesses.

The paper was published July 9 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

"Where you die is important and reflects end-of-life quality for the patient and the family," said lead author Dr. Sadiya Khan, assistant professor of preventive medicine in epidemiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a Northwestern Medicine physician. "The patients dying of COVID-19 in medical facilities may not have any family with them because of visitor restrictions.

"A loved one dying alone takes a huge mental toll on families," Khan said. "It impairs the family's ability to grieve and cope with the loss. For patients, we've all thought about how terrible it would be to have to die alone. This is the horror happening to thousands of people in medical facilities where no family member or loved one is able to be present with them during their final moments on earth."

The new study analyzed data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for deaths related to COVID-19 from February 1, 2020, to May 23, 2020, and found 68.7% of patients who die of COVID-19 died in medical facilities, 22.7% in nursing homes, 5.2% at home and 1.9% in hospice facilities. When compared with 2018 deaths due to all causes over a similar time period, 35.7% of deaths took place in medical facilities, 19.1% in nursing homes, 31.1% at home, and 7.9% in hospice facilities.

There was significant variability across states, with some states having a much higher proportion of nursing home deaths (e.g. Minnesota, 60%) and home deaths (e.g. New York, 8%) deaths.

"High rates of nursing home deaths in several states reveal a highly vulnerable population and the inability to optimize resources such as PPE (personal protection equipment) to prevent infection transmission these high-risk locations," Khan said. "It's especially important as nursing homes are reopening to visitors and may be exposing residents, especially in areas where there are increasing rates of cases."

But nursing home statistics in the study only capture a glimpse of the high proportion of deaths linked to these facilities. It doesn't include people who contracted COVID-19 in a nursing home and were transferred to a hospital or staff who got it working there.

To address the heightened risk in nursing homes, Khan suggests access to adequate PPE for staff and universal testing/screening of people before they are allowed to enter the facilities, even if they don't have symptoms.

To support lonely COVID-19 patients in hospital beds and nursing homes, Khan said these facilities need a virtual infrastructure.

"We can't just rely on individual's iPhones and iPads," Khan said. "There is a land line phone in every room, why couldn't we have a virtual phone in every room or access to face-to-face communication for each patient and their families?"

"These results highlight yet another way that COVID-19 has impacted the health care system," said first author Dr. Sarah Chuzi, a Northwestern Medicine fellow in cardiovascular diseases. "While recent research shows U.S. deaths in medical facilities are decreasing and deaths at home and in hospice facilities are increasing, the burden of deaths attributed to COVID-19 may reverse these overall trends.

"End-of-life care is a hugely important but understudied aspect of medicine. We wanted to ensure this aspect of patient-centered care was acknowledged and studied in order to motivate efforts to improve our current system," Chuzi added.

A University of Cincinnati researcher is advising against using two widely available sterilization methods to clean disposable surgical masks and N95 respirators for reuse in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

Scarcity of personal protection equipment in medical settings has led many health systems to consider sterilizing and reusing masks developed initially as disposable items, says Sergey Grinshpun, PhD, director of the University of Cincinnati Center for Health-Related Aerosol Studies and professor in the UC Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has allowed reuse of N95 facepiece respirators as a crisis capacity strategy.

Grinshpun tested two brands of N95 respirators along with two types of surgical masks -- one with high filtration and one with low-filtration abilities -- using an autoclave, an apparatus that works similar to a pressure cooker to sterilize items by using steam, heat and pressure during a specific time frame.

"The question for us was, what will happen with the performance of these N95 respirators and the surgical masks after they have spent minutes or longer in the autoclave and to what extent will the heat or steam destroy the structure of the filter making the items less useful," says Grinshpun.

Grinshpun also used another decontamination method which employed soaking the respirators and surgical masks in a 70% ethanol treatment for two hours and then drying the devices before their reuse. Alcohol is readily available in hospital settings and utilized for instrument sterilization.

Tests were conducted with disinfection treatments applied up to five times to simulate reusage that might occur in a healthcare setting.

"It almost didn't matter how often we decontaminated the protective devices-- once, twice or five times -- since the major damage inflicted on the performance characteristics of the items followed the first test," explains Grinshpun. "You are going to lose in performance if these masks or respirators are sterilized using either of these treatments. Of course, quantitatively, the effect differs for different devices."

The findings of the study are available online in the Journal of Hospital Infection. Co-authors of the study include Michael Yermakov, MD, senior research associate in the UC Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, and Marat Khodoun, PhD, research associate professor in the UC Department of Internal Medicine.

The study found that neither sterilization in an autoclave nor alcohol treatment caused visible damages to the surgical masks. The 3M 8210 N95 respirator revealed physical damages after implementing a single autoclave disinfection such as partial disintegration of the soft sealing material around the nose clip, and, importantly, loss of strap elasticity, which made this respiratory protective device not reusable.

Meanwhile, testing of the remaining 3M 1870 N95 respirator produced notable, but moderate damage and some detachment along with a minor deformation of the nose foam after a single and multiple autoclaving.

Experimental design of the study included testing each protective device by mounting it on a frame designed to utilize the entire effective filtration area. An air flow rate through the system was chosen to mimic breathing of a health care worker under a moderate and a strenuous workload. To simulate contamination of the test protective devices the items were soiled with protein.

"When multiple sterilizations were applied, facepieces were soiled before each autoclave treatment to mimic the device usage in air environments contaminated with protein that may be associated with emission of pathogenic virions by infected persons," according to the study. Researchers chose to perform five soil and sterilization cycles to simulate a daily reuse of the filtering facepiece over a period of five days.

Grinshpun also says that N95 respirators and some surgical masks rely on fibers that have an electrostatic charge which allows them to capture small particles and protect the wearer. Autoclaving and alcohol treatment weaken this electrostatic charge.

"What happens when you subject something to alcohol, heat or steam?" asks Grinshpun. "These fibers will lose, maybe not entirely, but at least some of their electric charge. This has a detrimental effect on the filter performance so that these protective devices may not be able to capture aerosol participles, including coronaviruses, as efficiently anymore."

For some N95 respirators their collection efficiency can drop below their certification level of 95% for the most penetrating particle sizes, says Grinshpun.

He adds that performance of surgical masks changes as a result of autoclaving, whether the mask is soiled or not, with the effect being more pronounced for devices which had poor initial filtration capabilities.

He says instead of using autoclaving or ethanol alcohol to disinfect face masks and N95 respirator facepieces, alternative options such as ultraviolet light may be explored. Grinshpun's study did not look at UV primarily because the investigators intended first to examine methods that are readily available in hospitals.

"We anticipated that UV-based and probably other techniques may be almost as efficient as autoclaving and ethanol treatment in inactivating pathogens but at the same time would not damage the fibers of protective detectives so that the particle collection efficiency will not suffer," says Grinshpun. "Similar studies can and should be conducted with alternative decontamination methods."

"The question of how the disinfection treatments impact the performance and integrity of respiratory protective devices remains important for as long as healthcare workers have to reuse these devices due to their shortage of personal protective equipment," says Grinshpun.

Astrophysicists from Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU, Russia), South Korea, and the USA appear in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, suggesting carbon indicates time comets have spent in the Solar System -- the less carbon, the longer they have been in the proximity of the Sun. The proof is their study of the comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4) approaching the Earth in May 2020 and disintegrated with displaying a major outbreak of the carbonaceous particles.

FEFU astrophysicists, Ekaterina Chornaya and Anton Kochergin joined an international team to analyze the composition of dust particles in the coma, i.e. shell, and tail of Comet ATLAS (C/2019 Y4). According to the researchers, the levels of carbonaceous matter inside the comet were very high.

The team suggest that the amount of carbon in the comas of other comets can indicate the time spent by them in the Solar System. The more carbon a comet coma contains, the less it has been around the Sun, and vice versa.

Comet ATLAS approached the Earth in May 2020 drawing a major interest among the researchers from all over the world, having disintegrated almost literally in front of their eyes.

"ATLAS was expected to be the brightest comet of 2020, visible from the Earth with a naked eye. However, instead of observing the comet itself, we witnessed its disintegration. Luckily, we had begun photometric and polarimetric studies before the process started, and because of that, we are able to compare the composition of the coma before and after the disintegration. In the course of disintegration we noticed a dramatic growth of the positive polarization branch which, according to modeling, is consistent with a high concentration of carbonaceous particles," said Ekaterina Chornaya, a postgraduate at the School of Natural Sciences, FEFU.

According to Ekaterina, Comet ATLAS was a long-period comet -- it used to enter the Solar System once in 5,476 years. Long-period comets approach the Sun only occasionally and therefore are rarely subject to heating. Researchers are especially interested in these comets, as they contain a lot of preserved primordial matter, ancient elements that were formed in the early days of the Solar System. Under the influence of solar radiation, the primordial matter starts to evaporate, and that is when the researchers on the Earth get a chance to study it. In short-period comets that approach the Sun frequently the volume of the primordial matter is very low.

Scientists from all over the world study and compare the physical and chemical composition of dust particles from the comas of comets to learn more about the evolution of the Solar System. To do so, they analyze the ability of such particles to absorb, refract, and polarize light.

According to Ekaterina Chornaya, the polarimetric response of the particles from Comet ATLAS matches that of one of the brightest comets in the history of Earth -- Comet Hale-Bopp, or C/1995 O1 (though several epoch suggest that ATLAS is closer to Comet Hyakutake, or C/1996 B2).

The members of the research team represented the School of Natural Studies of FEFU, the College of Humanities of Kyung Hee University (South Korea), the Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences of Kyung Hee University (South Korea), Institute of Applied Astronomy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Institute of Space Sciences (USA).

July 13, 2020 - Specialized mental health units (MHUs) may be critical to managing the high rates of serious mental illness in incarcerated populations. But research data on unit characteristics, services provided, and outcomes achieved by MHUs in correctional facilities are scarce, according to a report in the July/August issue of Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

With the scarcity of formal, peer-reviewed studies, Clinical Psychology PhD student Talia Cohen, Rakesh Karmacharya, MD, PhD, and colleagues of McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., took a different approach to gathering further information on MHUs in US correctional facilities: they Googled it. "Our gathering and collating the published and publicly available information on these 317 units will help bridge the gap in the literature on MHUs and help facilitate the development of additional MHUs," the researchers write.

Google Search Yields Valuable Data on MHUs in Correctional Facilities

Estimates suggest that 20 percent of inmates in jails and 15 percent of inmates in state prisons may have serious mental illness. Many patients, especially those with psychotic disorders, first receive psychiatric treatment after being incarcerated.

"The incarceration of mentally ill patients, who are often imprisoned due to issues related to untreated mental illness, is a major public health issue," the authors write. They set out to perform the first comprehensive compilation and description of MHUs in US correctional facilities.

But a preliminary review of health and criminal justice databases found "scant data": just 11 peer-reviewed articles were identified. To bridge the gap, Ms. Cohen, Dr. Karmacharya and colleagues performed a methodical, in-depth Google search of publicly available sources, including government websites, newspaper articles, and legal reports that led to the identification of 317 MHUs across the United States.

Although the available data varied, the authors analyzed the characteristics of the identified US MHUs:

About 80 percent of units were located in prisons, rather than jails or other settings. About three-fourths served male inmates only.
About half of units offered groups or programs to inmates, one-third provided individual therapy, and less than one-fourth provided both group and individual services.
Just over half of MHUs had dedicated mental health staff, while about one-fourth provided mental health training to correctional officers.
Some units were developed in partnership with other government agencies, nonprofit organizations, or universities. Funding for MHUs came from a variety of sources, most often state budgets or legislation.
Information on the outcomes of mental health care was available for 38 MHUs, most of which reported reductions in violence and injuries. "The reports from these units show promising results for the benefits of implementing MHUs but also demonstrate the urgent need to conduct implementation and effectiveness trials for them," the researchers write.

Based on their experience, the authors make recommendations for creating a successful therapeutic environment at MHUs. They believe that units should be small, serving no more than 40 inmates. For the MHUs identified in the review, average unit size was 73 beds.

Units should offer groups and programming plus individual therapy, should have a trained and dedicated clinical staff, and should provide mental health training to correctional officers, the researchers believe. Only 12 (3.8%)of the MHUs identified in the review met all of these criteria.

While acknowledging the limitations of the evidence in their wide-ranging review, including the use of largely non-peer-reviewed sources, the researchers hope the findings will provide useful descriptive information on MHUs in the United States. The authors conclude: "Future research should collect systematized data from correctional facilities with MHUs in order to get a more comprehensive picture of the programs and to evaluate the effectiveness and feasibility of these treatment units."

NEW YORK, NY (July 13, 2020)--Memories linked with strong emotions often become seared in the brain.

Most people can remember where they were on 9/11, or what the weather was like on the day their first child was born. Memories about world events on Sept 10, or lunch last Tuesday, have long been erased.

Why are memories attached to emotions so strong?

"It makes sense we don't remember everything," says René Hen, PhD, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. "We have limited brain power. We only need to remember what's important for our future wellbeing."

Fear, in this context, is not just a momentary feeling but a learning experience critical to our survival. When a new situation makes us fearful, the brain records the details in our neurons to help us avoid similar situations in the future, or use appropriate caution.

What's still a mystery is why these memories, recorded by the brain's hippocampus, become so strong.

To find out, Hen and Jessica Jimenez, an MD/PhD student at Columbia, placed mice into new, frightening environments and recorded the activity of hippocampal neurons that reach out to the brain's fear center (the amygdala). The neurons' activity was also recorded a day later when the mice tried to retrieve memories of the experience.

Unsurprisingly, neurons that respond to the frightening environment send that information to the brain's fear center.

"What was surprising was that these neurons were synchronized when the mouse later recalled the memory," Hen says.

"We saw that it's the synchrony that is critical to establish the fear memory, and the greater the synchrony, the stronger the memory," Jimenez adds. "These are the types of mechanisms that explain why you remember salient events."

How and when synchronization occurs is still unknown, but the answer could reveal the inner workings of the brain that create lifelong memories and lead to new treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder.

"In people with PTSD, many similar events remind them of the original frightening situation," Hen says, "and it's possible that synchronization of their neurons has become too strong."

"We're really trying to dig into the mechanisms of how emotional memories form to find better treatments for people with PTSD and memory disorders in general."

Biological membranes play important roles in shaping the cell, sensing the external environment, molecule transport, and generating energy for life. One of the most significant biological membranes are the thylakoid membranes produced in plants, algae and cyanobacteria, which carry out the light reactions of photosynthesis.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have uncovered the molecular architecture and organisational landscape of thylakoid membranes from a model cyanobacterium in unprecedented detail. The study, which is published in Nature Plants, could help researchers find new and improved artificial photosynthetic technologies for energy production.

Professor Luning Liu, who led the study, explained: "Cyanobacteria perform plant-like photosynthesis. Hence, thylakoid membranes from laboratory-grown cyanobacteria are the ideal model system for studying and tuning plant photosynthesis."

The researchers used state-of-the-art atomic force microscopy (AFM) to probe the structures and organisation of photosynthetic proteins within the thylakoid membranes. The results reveal how thylakoid membranes modulate the abundance of different photosynthetic proteins and form structurally variable complexes to adapt to the changing environments.

Dr Longsheng Zhao, the first author of this paper, said: "We observed that different protein complexes have their specific locations in the thylakoid membranes. We also visualised that distinct photosynthetic complexes can be close to each other, indicating that these photosynthetic complexes can form 'supercomplex' structures to facilitate electron transport between these protein complexes."

Professor Luning Liu, added: "The development of structural biology approaches has greatly improved our understanding of individual photosynthetic complexes. However, these techniques have limitations for studying membrane multi-protein assembly and interactions in their native membrane environment. Our research has proved the power and potential of AFM in exploring complex, dynamic membrane structures and transient protein assembly."

The researchers hope their ongoing work could help find solutions to modulate the photosynthetic efficiency of crop plants to boost plant growth and productivity.

Highlights:
* Study estimated the cost-effectiveness of esketamine, a novel intranasally dosed antidepressant for patients with treatment-resistant depression
* Researchers employed a decision-analytic model to simulate the effects of treatment with esketamine versus oral antidepressants from both societal and health care sector perspectives
* Study concluded that the price of esketamine must fall by more than 40% to be cost-effective for management of treatment-resistant depression in the United States

A paper authored by researchers from McLean Hospital has determined that esketamine, a nasal spray to treat severe depression, is currently too expensive for widespread use. Titled "Cost-Effectiveness of Esketamine Nasal Spray for Patients With Treatment-Resistant Depression in the United States," the paper was published on July 7 in Psychiatric Services.

The study compared the costs and benefits of esketamine, an antidepressant approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last year for use in treatment-resistant major depressive disorder. Unlike ketamine, a drug delivered intravenously to treat severe depression, esketamine is a nasal spray.

Lead author Eric L. Ross, MD, reported that "most medications don't work as well for people with treatment-resistant depression." However, he said, "Esketamine has been effective in a population where many other treatments haven't worked."

Ross said, "I want people to use esketamine, but it's important that it be cost-effective. I don't want it to put a real strain on our mental health care system."

To estimate the cost-effectiveness of the drug, Ross and his colleagues used a "decision-analytic model" to simulate the effects of treatment with esketamine versus oral antidepressants over five years. The model looked at both societal and health care sector perspectives of using the drug.

Ross explained that the study built on previous investigations of esketamine but added information about cost. Also, he said, the model accounted for issues such as "How much does it cost to have uncontrolled depression?" and "How much does it impact your quality of life?"

The simulations found that, over five years, esketamine was projected to improve quality of life by increasing time in remission for patients. Societal costs and health care sector costs, however, were projected to go up substantially. The authors estimated a greater than 95% likelihood that intranasal esketamine would not be cost-effective in the United States, according to commonly applied standards. Also, they concluded that the price of esketamine must fall by more than 40% from its current price of approximately $240 per dose to be cost-effective for the management of treatment-resistant depression in the U.S.

"Esketamine is too expensive, but it does work," Ross asserted. "The question now is 'How do we get the price down?'"

Ross said that he hopes the paper will encourage policymakers, insurers, and health care leaders to work to reduce the price of esketamine and make it more available to those in need. "At the end of the day, it's not about saving money," he said. "The goal is to make sure we're getting the most clinical benefit we can for the money we spend."

A new study from the University of Georgia finds that users of public insurance are paying more for bariatric weight loss surgery compared to private insurance patients.

The study, which published recently in Clinical Obesity, is the first to break down surgeries by insurance payer type - public versus private insurance - to better understand the economic burden on patients and U.S. health care system overall.

"Bariatric surgery is becoming more common, but there's increasing evidence that bariatric surgery is not happening consistently across all payer types, and there might be cost differences by payer type," said lead study author Janani Thapa, an assistant professor of health policy and management in UGA's College of Public Health.

These differences could point to inequities in health care access that make it more difficult for patients who have Medicaid or Medicare to qualify or pay for bariatric surgery when they need it.

Obesity rates are highest among low-income Americans; this also tends to be a group with less access to obesity treatment options, including bariatric surgery.

"The hoops that they have to jump through may be more [than others] to access the surgery," said Thapa, "and that was our motivation to look into this."

The team analyzed a national dataset of hospitalized patients from 2011 to 2014, looking for trends in bariatric surgery use, costs across insurance types and other demographic factors.

They found obesity diagnoses and surgeries grew among all patients over that time. This could explain why they also found that average national costs associated with bariatric surgery increased, said Thapa.

But they also found that while on average individual patients are paying less for the surgery, the overall cost burden was highest for publicly insured patients. The average cost per surgery was highest among Medicare patients.

Thapa says they can't say why that is, but "as soon as we talk about public insurance, it is taxpayer money that is paying for the surgery," she said.

The next step, the authors said, is to investigate the long-term health outcomes and medical costs of the weight loss surgery.

Despite the study's focus on one clinical intervention, Thapa and her co-authors still advocate for prevention as the best way to reduce the burden of obesity on individuals and the system.