Culture

A new study led by researchers in the Geography Department at Swansea University reveals the extreme scale of loss and fragmentation of tropical forests, which once covered much of the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan.

The study also reveals that only 10% of the forest that is left remains fire-resistant. The researchers warn that protecting this is crucial for preventing catastrophic fire.

Tropical deforestation exacerbates recurrent peatland fire events in this region. These release globally significant greenhouse gas emissions and produce toxic haze events across South East Asia.

An area of tropical forest and peatland larger than the Netherlands has burned in Indonesia in the past five years, according to Greenpeace.

Yet the study shows that contiguous tracts of undisturbed forests are not susceptible to burning even under current drought conditions.

Dr Tadas Nikonovas of Swansea University, lead author of the research, explained:

"Undisturbed tropical rainforests are naturally resistant to fire due to the humid and cool micro-climate they maintain, effectively acting as a fire barrier. Contrary to the widely-held perception that worsening droughts are threatening the remaining rainforests, tropical forests in Indonesia become susceptible to fire only after human disturbance."

However, the study also reveals that currently only a small fraction (~10%) of the remaining total tropical forest cover remains fire-resistant. The rest (~90%) has been severely fragmented or degraded and therefore is no longer able to maintain a fire-resistant microclimate.

Importantly, fire-resistant forests now cover only 3% of the region's peatlands, leaving large amounts of climate-critical carbon vulnerable to burning.

The authors emphasize that the preventative role tropical forests play against fire is yet another important reason for the preservation and regeneration of the few remaining contiguous tracts of forests.

Dr Allan Spessa of Swansea University, the project leader, added:

"Protecting tropical forest is critical not only for biodiversity and carbon storage but also for preventing future catastrophic fire episodes. This is true for Indonesia, as well as for tropical forest in Africa and South America".

The research was published in a Nature group journal, Communications Earth and Environment

Social holidays improve holiday makers' overall satisfaction with life, as well as satisfaction with the quantity and quality of their leisure time, and social life, according to a new study from the University of Eastern Finland. The study analysed the effect of social holidays on holiday makers' subjective well-being and experience of inclusion.

Social holidays refer to holidays that are granted to disadvantaged persons or families usually on economic, social or health-related grounds, allowing them to go on a holiday away from home that would otherwise be beyond their reach. Different countries have different systems of funding social holidays, and in Finland they are funded by revenues from the state-owned gambling game company, Veikkaus. The researchers were surprised to discover that besides an increase in overall life satisfaction, social holidays also increased, for instance, holiday makers' satisfaction with their employment and economic situation.

"It is possible that going on a holiday away from home makes people look at their life in a more positive light, which may be reflected on our results. Social holidays are all-inclusive and not having to buy groceries can have a very concrete effect on some holiday makers' financial situation," Project Researcher Elli Vento from the University of Eastern Finland says.

The researchers also found that social holidays strengthened feelings of equality among families with children. Earlier studies have shown that disadvantaged parents are well aware that their children are missing out on things that are possible for most of their peers.

"Going on a holiday away from home is, in itself, a very unequal phenomenon. This is often illustrated by examples of children sharing their holidays memories in school. Some children may have travelled abroad and visited theme parks, whereas others don't necessarily have anything to say about their holiday: they've simply stayed home without any possibility for activities typically associated with holidays," Vento says.

The study explored subjective well-being and experience of inclusion among 299 Finnish respondents who had been selected for a social holiday. The researchers surveyed the respondents both before and after their holiday. The study also included a control group of 72 respondents whose application for a social holiday had been rejected and who had not gone on a holiday away from home at their own expense during the review period. During the review period coinciding with the summer holiday season, the control group's experienced equality and satisfaction with their social status decreased, which for its part highlights the significance of holidaying away from home has for experienced well-being and inclusion.

Human activities, such as urban planning, irrigation and agricultural fertilization, can affect terrestrial carbon, nitrogen and water cycle processes and aquatic ecosystems.

Some human activities lead to water stress, ecological environment damage, including groundwater lateral flow, and the movement of frost and thaw fronts. These changes in turn alter energy balance and water budget, and affect weather, climate and environment.

"We need a new land surface model to describe these processes," said Prof. XIE Zhenghui from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, "a comprehensive land surface model can not only provide a platform for water-energy simulations, but also contribute to water resources management, environment protection and sustainable development."

XIE and his team incorporated the schemes of groundwater lateral flow, human water use, soil freeze-thaw front dynamics, riverine nitrogen transport, and urban planning into a land surface model, and thus developed a land surface model CAS-LSM. According to XIE, the current version has improved the descriptions of biogeochemical process and urban modules, compared with the earlier version of this model.

"The new developed model can be applied to the simulation of inland river basins in arid areas to quantitatively evaluate the ecohydrological effects of stream water transfer," XIE said. "Combined with basin simulation and climate system models, CAS-LSM can monitor river water environment. It can also help quantitatively evaluate weather and climate effects of South-to-North water transfer and provide advice for urban planning."

Since time immemorial, people have been fascinated by ways to stop aging. Nearly every culture has stories to tell about people who lived for thousands of years, showing that extending lifespan has always been one a deep desire across humanity. While modern medicine does not strive to find the fountain of youth, keen interest in promoting longevity has prompted research into the mechanisms of aging and the possibility of anti-aging drugs. Researchers now know that mitochondria play an important role in aging. Specifically, when mitochondria are harmed in some way and their function is impaired, a process called mitochondrial unfolded protein response (UPRmt) occurs that repairs mitochondria and benefits cell survival. Therefore, some scientists think it is possible to increase lifespan by identifying drugs that activate UPRmt.

Dr. Eriko Kage-Nakadai and her colleagues from Osaka City University in Japan are one of the many research teams fascinated by aging research. As Dr. Kage-Nakadai explains, "Even though aging is not a disease, drugs may slow down aging and mitigate or prevent its negative effects on our health." Current research shows promising signs. Experiments with Caenorhabditis elegans--a worm commonly used in biological research as a model--have found several compounds that increase the worm's lifespan by triggering UPRmt.

Against the backdrop of these previous studies, this team, in their new study published in Biogerontology, screened about 3,000 drugs in worms that are engineered to glow if drug treatment activates hsp-6, a gene that is highly expressed when UPRmt occurs. It is interesting to note that of these 3000 drugs, 1300 were off-patent drugs approved by the USFDA, EMA, and other agencies, and the remaining 1700 were unapproved bioactive ones.

Through this method, Dr. Kage-Nakadai's team identified metolazone, a drug used to treat heart failure and high blood pressure. They then tested the drug on C. elegans and found that it increased wild-type worm lifespan. Additionally, they found that metolazone did not extend lifespans in worms in whom the genes atfs-1, ubl-5, and nkcc-1 were mutated (non-working). The former two genes are known to be essential for UPRmt function, suggesting that metolazone is acting on the UPRmt pathway. The third gene, nkcc-1, "encodes" a protein that is part of a protein family targeted by metolazone in its usual function as an anti-hypertension drug. The fact that metolazone did not increase the lifespans of nkcc-1 mutated C. elegans suggests that the drug may need to block the nkcc-1 protein to activate the UPRmt pathway. Furthermore, metolazone "induced" hsp-6 (Hspa9 in humans) expression in HeLa cells (a human cell line commonly used in biological research), suggesting that the drug's UPRmt-related effects possibly span multiple species.

When asked about the broader significance of her work, Dr. Kage-Nakadai comments, "What is particularly exciting is that we tested already available approved drugs here, and we have revealed the potential of repurposing existing drugs for aging control. Worms always give us many hints."

As the researchers state, this work is just the start, but it opens up a new road to a future of anti-aging drugs. Perhaps a future where humans live longer than the expected 120 years is one step closer to becoming a reality.

Just as archaeologists dig hoping to find traces of the past, an international group of astrophysicists managed to get into the thick cloud of dust around the centre of the Milky Way (also known as the bulge) discovering primordial clumps of gas and stars never found so far. They named this new class of stellar system "Bulge Fossil Fragments". A research team led by Francesco Ferraro (Department of Physics and Astronomy "Augusto Righi" at the University of Bologna and member of the National Institute for Astrophysics - INAF) carried out a study published in Nature Astronomy.

Researchers found out about this new class while analyzing Liller 1. The latter is a stellar system in the Milky Way bulge that for more than 40 years has been classified as a "globular cluster", i.e. a system composed of millions of same-aged stars (the Milky Way has at least 150 globular clusters). However, researchers observed Liller 1 closely and found out that its real identity is actually more fascinating than so far believed. Indeed, Liller 1 is a fossil fragment of one of the giant stellar clumps that, approximately 12 billion years ago, merged to form the central region (bulge) of the Milky Way.

"Our results clearly show that Liller 1 is not a globular cluster, but a much more complex object", says Professor Francesco Ferraro, first author and coordinator of the study. "It is a stellar relic, a fossil finding that contains the history of the Milky Way formation".

A VALIDATING RESULT

The existence of "cosmic findings" had already been suggested when researchers discovered a similar object, Terzan 5, some years ago. Terzan 5 looked like a globular cluster within our galaxy bulge, but, at a closer analysis, its features were not consistent with those of other globular clusters.

However, an isolated case is just an intriguing anomaly. This is why Liller 1 is so important. Terzan 5 and Liller 1 shared features confirm the existence of a new class of stellar systems unidentified until today.

FOSSIL FRAGMENTS

Which are the feature of the Bulge Fossil Fragments? These objects are disguised as globular clusters, but are fundamentally different, if one looks at the age of the stars composing them. Two stellar populations are in these systems: one is as old as the Milky Way - it formed 12 billion years ago - and the other one is much younger. On the one hand, this shows that these stellar systems appeared during the Milky Way early stages of formation; on the other hand, it demonstrates that they are able to engender multiple events of stellar generation.

"The features of Liller 1 and Terzan 5 stellar populations suggest that both systems formed at the same time of the Milky Way", explains one of the authors of the study, Barbara Lanzoni, Professor at the University of Bologna and INAF member. "Younger stellar populations are richer in iron and tend to cluster in the central areas of the bulge. Indeed, this is in line with a context of self-enrichment in which the gas ejected by older stars forms new ones".

BEYOND THE CLOUDS

Getting to these findings was anything but easy. Liller 1 is located in one of the most obscured regions of our galaxy, where thick clouds of interstellar dust dim starlight making it up to 10,000 times fainter. The only way of getting through these clouds is infrared light. This is why researchers chose Gemini South to perform the inspection of Liller 1. Gemini South is a powerful telescope with a diameter of 8 meters able to compensate for the distortions in stellar images caused by the atmosphere of the Earth.

The sharpness of Gemini South images is unparalleled. Thanks to these incredible pictures, researchers could do a detailed preliminary analysis of Liller 1 stellar population. Despite this preliminary analysis, researchers had still some work to do to have a complete picture of the composition of this stellar system. Indeed, they needed to know if all the stars shown by those images belonged to Liller 1, or if some of them were simply in the same line of sight, but did not belong to it. They managed to solve this issue by resorting to further observations performed through the Hubble Space Telescope.

"After having combined the two sets of images, we removed the stars that did not belong to Liller 1 and finally had a clear and detailed picture of this stellar system", says Cristina Pallanca, a researcher at the University of Bologna and INAF member who co-authored the study. "Our results surprised us: Liller 1 hosts at least two stellar populations with dramatically different ages, the oldest having formed about 12 billion years ago, the same time the Milky Way formed; the second one, much younger, having formed just 1-2 billion years ago".

A discovery that is remarkably similar to what they found out about Terzan 5, which similarly hosts one stellar population as old as the Milky Way and a much younger one (4.5 billion years).

"The discovery that Liller 1 and Terzan 5 share very similar features allowed for the identification of a new class of stellar systems originated from some ancestors that were massive enough to retain the gas ejected by supernovas. What we observed are just some fragments of these massive structures", adds Emanuele Dalessandro, a researcher at INAF - Space Science Observatory (OAS) in Bologna and co-author of the study.

This then confirmed the existence of the "Bulge Fossil Fragments", i.e. stellar systems composed of the relics of massive primordial objects that, 12 billion years ago, gave birth to the Milky Way.

"The history of the Milky Way is written in these fossil remains. The latter are tokens of an age during which the Universe was very young, just 1 billion years old", concludes professor Ferraro. "Now we need to go deeper. Thanks to the discovery of these fossil remains we can start reading the history of the Milky Way and maybe re-define our knowledge about the formation of the bulge".

THE AUTHORS OF THE STUDY

"A new class of fossil fragments from the hierarchical assembly of the Galactic bulge" is the title of this study published in Nature Astronomy. The researchers involved in this study are Francesco R. Ferraro, Cristina Pallanca, Barbara Lanzoni, Chiara Crociati and Alessio Mucciarelli from the Department of Physics and Astronomy "Augusto Righi" of the University of Bologna and INAF. Emanuele Dalessandro and Livia Origlia form the INAF also participated in the study.

Scientists at the University of Exeter have identified a way to "rescue" cells that have genetically mutated, paving the way to a possible new treatment for rare terminal childhood illness such as mitochondrial disease.

The research, funded by the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation in the USA, was led by Professors Matt Whiteman and Tim Etheridge. In the study, published in the Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease, the team used novel drugs being developed at the University of Exeter, which "metabolically reprogramme" mitochondria - the cellular energy production centres in cells, by providing them with an alternative fuel source to generate metabolic energy in the form of minute quantities of hydrogen sulfide.
The team used microscopic worms (C. elegans) with specific genetic mutations affecting energy production, that match mutations that cause human diseases such as Leigh Syndrome. The team found that administering the new compounds to these animals successfully normalised or improved energy production needed to keep them healthy and active.

Professor Tim Etheridge, of the University of Exeter, one of the study authors, said: "Worms are a very powerful genetic tool to study human health and disease and offer an ideal platform to quickly identify new potential therapeutics. The worms used in this study had genetic defects in how their mitochondria regulate cellular energy production to model different human mitochondrial diseases. The novel compounds we are developing at the University of Exeter are able to bypass some of these defects and keep the worms, and their mitochondria healthy. We know this because we saw improvements in physical activity and improvements in muscle and mitochondrial integrity. The animals also lived for longer after treatment but more importantly, they remained active for longer, because of metabolic reprogramming."

The team had previously shown that the compounds had potent therapeutic effects in mammalian models with defective mitochondria. In those studies, the animals' mitochondria became defective as result of a disease process. In the latest study however, the defective mitochondria were the direct cause of the disease, as in human mitochondrial disease and were still successfully treated with the Exeter compounds. The fact that the compounds could reverse some of these inherited defects in energy metabolism strongly suggest that their effect will translate to humans, and the team is confident this can be tested in the near future.

Lead author Professor Matt Whiteman, of the University of Exeter, said: "Mitochondrial diseases, and their related conditions, are areas of huge and desperate unmet clinical need. Our study is an important first step and a lot of work still needs to be done. For the first time, we have demonstrated that our new molecules have successfully metabolically reprogrammed, or rescued, cells in animals with genetic defects in their mitochondria. We're currently testing newer and more potent molecules able to do the same task, through slightly different approaches, and we're looking for commercial partners to help our efforts to progress our molecules through to clinical testing."

The paper is entitled: The mitochondria-targeted hydrogen sulfide donor AP39 improves health and mitochondrial function in a C. elegans primary mitochondrial disease model"

The results could make a significant contribution to combating COVID-19 and have now been published in Advanced Nano-Biomed Research, a journal that is part of the Advanced Science series.

It is generally known that coronaviruses are primarily transmitted via the air. However, several studies have now also identified transmission through contaminated surfaces as an important factor. There is increasing evidence that they can play a key role in the spread of viral infections. So far, however, little is known about the physical-chemical mechanisms of the interactions and how these interactions influence the viability and infectivity of the viruses," explains physicist Dr Adrian Keller, who heads the "Nanobiomaterials" working group at Paderborn University. According to Keller, appropriate knowledge is not only important with regard to the development of antiviral coatings, but also for the adaptation of sterilisation and disinfection protocols when, for example, there are shortages of personal protective equipment and disinfectants.

Using high-speed atomic force microscopy, the researchers can visualise the so-called adsorption, diffusion and interaction dynamics - basically the movement behaviour - of various biomolecules. "Specifically, we are looking at the adsorption of virus particles on abiotic, i.e. non-living, surfaces. One particular SARS-CoV-2 protein subunit plays a key role in this, namely the outermost point of the pathogen's characteristic spiked shell," Keller says.

The surfaces in the experiments were oxide single crystals that were intended to imitate different germ carriers and were brought into contact with protein-containing electrolytes. The latter resembled human mucosal secretions in their properties. Keller explains: "The electrolytes served as carrier fluids for the isolated proteins. Their salt concentrations and pH values were adjusted so that they resembled those of saliva or mucus. The adsorption of the proteins on the surfaces occurs in these media and is intended to simulate the process of coughed-out, virus-laden droplets landing on surfaces."

One of the most significant results is that the adsorption of the spike protein on the oxide surfaces is controlled by electrostatic interactions. Keller explains: "Among other things, this leads to the spike protein adsorbing less strongly on aluminium oxide than on titanium oxide. Under the same conditions and incubation times, the titanium oxide surface therefore has more proteins than the aluminium oxide surface. However, electrostatic interactions can be suppressed relatively easily, for example in concentrated salt solutions. We assume that these correlations between the surface and the spike protein also play a key role in the initial attachment of complete SARS-CoV-2 virus particles to the surfaces. However, after this initial contact, other processes mediated by other proteins may become more important."

According to Keller, however, further studies are required: "To fully elucidate the hierarchy of interactions involved, studies at the molecular level using different isolated envelope components as well as complete SARS-CoV-2 virus particles are necessary."

The ability of cells to sense and respond to their mechanical environment is critical for many cellular processes but the molecular mechanisms underlying cellular mechanosensitivity are still unclear. Researchers at the University of Münster have now discovered how the muscle-specific adhesion molecule metavinculin modulates mechanical force transduction on the molecular level. The research results have just been published in the journal Nature Communications.

Background and methodology

The interaction of cells with their environment is mediated by specialized adhesion structures, which transduce mechanical forces inwards and out of cells. As cellular adhesions consist of hundreds of different proteins, it is still unclear how the mechanical information is transmitted on the molecular level. To study these processes in more detail, the Grashoff laboratory at the WWU Münster develops biosensors that allow the detection of piconewton-scale forces propagated across individual molecules in cells. In their most recent study, the authors applied their microscopy-based technique to the adhesion protein metavinculin, which is expressed in muscle cells and associated with cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disease.

By analyzing a range of genetically modified cells, the authors demonstrate that the presence of metavinculin changes how mechanical forces are transduced in cell adhesion complexes. "Our data indicate that metavinculin could function as a molecular dampener, helping to resist high peak forces observed in muscle tissues", explains Prof. Dr. Carsten Grashoff, principal investigator of the study. "This is a very interesting example of how the presence of a single protein can change the way mechanical information is processed in cells."

Surprisingly, the authors did not observe any indications of cardiomyopathy in mice lacking metavinculin. This suggests that the pathophysiological role of metavinculin is more complex than previously assumed.

A new canine sleep study from North Carolina State University could serve as a baseline for research on chronic pain and cognitive dysfunction in dogs, potentially improving detection and treatment of these conditions.

"The study was necessary because research on dogs and sleep has outpaced our basic knowledge about what a 'normal' sleep/wake cycle looks like," says Margaret Gruen, assistant professor of behavioral medicine at NC State and corresponding author of the work. "The studies currently available are over 20 years old, only followed small numbers of dogs or dogs that were not in a home environment, and didn't really capture data that is relevant to how dogs live (and sleep) now. We designed the study to update these findings and fill the knowledge gap.

"And for me, someone interested in how dogs develop and age, it's a critically missing gap: we talk about a symptom of age-related cognitive dysfunction in dogs as being a disruption in the sleep/wake cycle without really understanding where the baseline is."

The study followed 42 healthy adult dogs - 21 male and 21 female - ranging in age from 2 to 8 years old. The dogs wore activity monitors on their collars for a two-week period, and their owners filled out a questionnaire on the dogs' sleep patterns. Functional linear modeling of the activity data showed that most dogs have two activity peaks during the day: a shorter window from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m., followed by a midday lull and a longer active period from about 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. All dogs were more active during weekends than weekdays.

"Since most of the participants were pets of people who work outside the home, we saw that the dogs were most active when human interaction happens," Gruen says. "There were the occasional outliers - we did capture some midday 'zoomies' - but the pattern held true on average across 14 days for each dog. These findings aren't surprising - they line up with many of the assumptions we've been making, but now the data are characterized and documented."

The research revealed that weight and sex had an effect on the active periods; lighter dogs tended to be more active in a short period just after midnight, while female dogs seemed to be more active during the evening peak than males. Even in these healthy adult dogs, age had an effect; older dogs were less active during the peak activity times.

"Our hope is that this will serve as a foundational study for future work on the relationship between pain, cognitive dysfunction and sleep disruption, and as a study that is relevant to the way dogs live now," Gruen says. "By establishing norms, we can better identify abnormalities and intervene earlier in the process. We can also use this as a baseline to evaluate development of adult sleep patterns in puppies."

(Boston)--Ovarian torsion can cause severe pain and other symptoms because the ovary is not receiving enough blood due to twisting of its blood supply. It can occur at any age and is responsible for nearly three percent of all gynecologic emergencies. An oophorectomy is performed when there is concern that the torsed ovary is nonviable (necrosis) based on its dusky color. However, numerous studies have shown that a surgeon's ability to determine necrosis based on physical appearance is inaccurate.

To determine the factors associated with an increased likelihood for ovary removal during the time of surgery for ovarian torsion, researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM), conducted a retrospective study of patients from a racially diverse, urban safety-net hospital with a diagnosis of ovarian torsion during a four-and-a-half-year period.

Older age, having had more children in the past, larger ovarian size on imaging, having a laparotomy (large surgical incision into the abdominal cavity) and having a gynecologic oncologist perform the surgery were significantly associated with a higher likelihood of oophorectomy in ovarian torsion cases. In contrast to prior studies on oophorectomy, patient race did not impact the likelihood of oophorectomy in this study.

According to the researchers, only 20 percent of the ovaries removed were actually necrotic, consistent with other studies that found that ovarian function could be preserved in 88 to 100 percent of ovarian torsion cases, and none contained cancer. "This suggests that surgeon ability to diagnose ovarian necrosis based on appearance of the ovary as the indication for oophorectomy is poor," explained corresponding author Wendy Kuohung, MD, associate professor of obstetrics & gynecology at BUSM.

The researchers believe there is need to increase awareness that ovarian preservation in premenopausal women is an option. "Understanding the clinical factors associated with a higher likelihood of oophorectomy in ovarian torsion cases may help to reduce unnecessary oophorectomies in the future and thus improve fertility and overall health of premenopausal women," added Kuohung, who also is a reproductive endocrinologist at Boston Medical Center.

If you've ever stayed in a relationship too long or stuck with a project that was going nowhere, you're not alone. Humans are generally reluctant to give up on something they've already committed time and effort to. It's called the "sunk costs" phenomenon, where the more resources we sink into an endeavor, the likelier we are to continue--even if we sense it's futile.

But why would we engage in such potentially self-defeating behavior?

Georgia State researchers think two factors may play a role. First, it may be a deep, evolutionarily ancient mechanism that helps us balance overall cost and benefit. Second, it may be influenced by uncertainty about the outcome (you never know, it might work out, so why not keep trying?)

Julia Watzek, a recent Georgia State University Ph.D. recipient, and her graduate advisor Professor Sarah F. Brosnan have shown that both capuchin monkeys and rhesus macaques are susceptible to the same behavior and that it occurs more often when the monkeys are uncertain about the outcome. Their new study, "Capuchin and rhesus monkeys show sunk cost effects in a psychomotor task," was published recently in Nature's Scientific Reports.

The monkeys are housed at the university's Language Research Center, where they have indoor and outdoor areas to live and play in, and participate in entirely voluntary and non-invasive cognitive and behavioral research, said Brosnan, who is affiliated with the Department of Psychology and the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience. In fact, she has worked with some of these monkeys for over twenty years. "They're like my second set of kids," she said.

In the study, 26 capuchin monkeys and 7 rhesus macaques got to play a simple video game where they operated a joystick, and they needed to move a cursor onto a moving target and keep it there while the target kept moving. If they were successful, they heard a "whoop" sound that indicated success and got a treat. If their cursor lost contact with the moving target, they didn't get a reward and a new round began. After being trained, the experiment tested them on rounds of either 1, 3 or 7 seconds. "Monkeys have really quick reaction times on these games," said Brosnan, "so one second to them is actually a long time."

In fact, Watzek said, "Most rounds lasted only 1 second. So if you didn't get a reward after that, it was actually better to quit and start a new round. That would likely get you a treat sooner than if you had kept going."

The researchers found that both species of monkeys showed sunk cost effects. "They persisted 5 to 7 times longer than was optimal," said Brosnan, "and the longer they had already tried, the more likely they were to complete the entire task."

Uncertainty played a large part, because when the monkeys got a signal that additional work was required, they were less susceptible to sunk cost behavior, though they still did demonstrate it.

Studying this phenomenon in animals "teaches us something about how their minds work, as well as our own," Watzek said.

This is important for several reasons, Brosnan said. First, it suggests that this behavior is likely driven by evolution and deeply embedded across species.

"The epitome of the sunk cost is I've invested so much in this, I'm just going to keep going," Brosnan said. And there may be benefits to this. "Sometimes, you need to have patience," she said. That helps when you're foraging for food, hunting prey, waiting for eggs to hatch, seeking a mate, or building a nest or enclosure.

Second, it shows that human capacities like rationalization, or human concerns like not giving up on something we have publicly committed to, are probably not the main drivers of the sunk cost phenomenon.

And third, it reminds us that there is sometimes a good reason to give up.

"We're predisposed to keep trying," Brosnan said. "And when we find ourselves sticking with things, we should also be a little reflective. Do I have a good reason to keep trying? Or should I leave with no reward, because it will save me more in the long run? That's really hard to do. But hopefully we can use our cognitive abilities to help us overcome the emotional heartache of occasional sunk costs."

Those who consider themselves healthy will be more willing to comply with COVID restrictions if they believe, according to their own estimations, that the expected losses from the disease will be significant, suggest researchers of the Faculty of Economic Sciences at HSE University.

Based on the classic Prisoner's Dilemma, HSE researchers modeled human behavior strategies in the face of COVID restrictions. Their model showed that unequal access to medical care both contributes to irresponsible behavior in some citizens and the independent acceptance of restrictions by others, without any government intervention. The study was published in the journal Public Administration Issues.

During the first wave of infections of the coronavirus pandemic, government decisions were often made at random, based on common sense or epidemiological calculations. Very quickly, implemented measures came into conflict with societal ideas of efficiency and fairness--i.e., economic issues. Meanwhile, simple classical models that economists usually use in their studies can tell a lot about the motives behind citizens' behavior when restrictions are implemented, and about possible options for public policy.

One of the most famous models in game theory is the Prisoner's Dilemma. Two people caught while trying to escape are faced with a choice: to be silent or betray the other? Neither of them knows how the other will act. Both face punishment in the form of an additional term of imprisonment, but its severity depends on how the captured fugitives behave. If one of them testifies against the other, his term will be shortened, and the term of the silent fugitive will be as severe as possible. If both testify against each other, then both will be punished with serious sentences. If both are silent, then each prisoner's punishment will be mild. The benefits of cooperation outweigh the benefits of pursuing one's own interests. Despite this, people do not always agree to mutually beneficial cooperation due to imperfect information.

In the case of pandemic-related restrictions, the logic remains: for example, if everyone voluntarily self-isolates at home, then one person who violates the restriction wins, since they will not get infected and, moreover, retain their usual lifestyle. But, if everyone starts to ignore the restrictions, the increase in the rate of infection leads to a worsening of the situation for everyone (at the very least due to the decrease in the availability of medical care).

However, restrictive measures do not always find support among populations. In a lockdown, even vulnerable citizens ('at-risk groups') will be inclined to violate the bans if they consider freedom of movement important and are confident that they will receive adequate medical care. Individuals who suffer large losses under restrictive measures (quarantine, self-isolation, or bans on work or movement) and, at the same time, have high incomes and access to high-quality health services, will be willing to accept the risks of infection, even if their behavior results in an escalation of the epidemic. Only when citizens consider the likelihood of their receiving quality assistance to be low do they consider following restrictions to be more advantageous.

'Together with my colleagues Ludmila Zasimova, Marina Kolosnitsyna, and Natalia Khorkina, we consistently modeled situations in which all people support or, conversely, violate the imposed restrictions,' says Alexey Kalinin, first author of the study and Associate Professor of the Faculty of Economics at HSE University. 'If there is a significant lack of equal access to medical care in a given state, this can contribute not only to irresponsible behavior among some citizens, but also to the ready acceptance of restrictions by other citizens, without any government intervention.'

Convincing at-risk groups for whom the probability of becoming infected is close to 1 or those who are currently sick to stay home is pointless, the researchers say. The disease is already embedded in their behavior. But there is a clear rationale for conducting information campaigns aimed at healthy populations to convince people of the risk of infection: those who consider themselves healthy will be more willing to comply with restrictions if, according to their own estimations, the expected losses from the disease are significant.

In addition to analyzing individuals' behavior, the HSE researchers examined the model's results in terms of the welfare of society as a whole.

From the standpoint of utilitarianism, that is, maximizing total social welfare, it turns out that the general acceptance of restrictions (all forms of lockdowns) is not advantageous. If there is a sufficiently effective way to distinguish a carrier of the disease from a healthy person, then from the point of view of society, it is enough to isolate only one group, and it does not matter which one. This is what happens in the case of local quarantine bans: if it is known that a certain group is sick or at higher risk, it is sufficient to isolate that group without introducing bans for society as a whole.

At the same time, such an approach does not at all guarantee that partial or even more general restrictions will be better for society than abandoning them, which led to epidemic. This situation develops when the total loss of welfare from restrictions is estimated to be higher than the total damage from the massive spread of infection. This explains the rationality of the decisions of individual states that abandoned the policy of prohibitions as such, as well as the conscious acceptance of epidemics with low mortality--as in the case of seasonal ARVI diseases. This was done, for example, by Sweden (in the first wave of the pandemic), Japan, and South Korea, whose restrictions were advisory in nature.

An alternative approach to public welfare is the Rawlsian approach, where the welfare of the worst-off individuals is important. It unexpectedly leads to a situation where it is beneficial for the state to impose restrictions on the healthy, and not the sick or vulnerable population (which already 'will find a way' to get sick and suffer losses from illness in addition to losses from isolation). The fact that in practice, instead of this approach, general bans are chosen is explained by the impossibility of separating sick and healthy individuals with perfect accuracy: it is more effective to isolate everyone rather than to allow a sharp deterioration in the situation of at least one person.

'In general, the desire for maximum, complete isolation of all groups of the population from the standpoint of social welfare and the effectiveness of public administration turns out to be untenable,' says Kalinin. 'The main issue is whether the restrictions applied in order to divide society into groups that are as isolated and homogeneous as possible are sufficient to prevent direct contact between them (simultaneously being on the street or in public places). A similar approach was used, for example, at the beginning of the epidemic in the Netherlands, where isolation requirements were aimed at the high-risk group--the elderly--and no formal restrictions were introduced for other groups of the population.'

In the absence of reliable quantitative information about the scale of the pandemic, theoretical conclusions drawn from the classic Prisoner's Dilemma and focused on determining how, in principle, people can adjust their behavior, can be useful in justifying decisions made at both the individual and the state level.

Scientists from Japan and NASA have confirmed the presence in meteorites of a key organic molecule which may have been used to build other organic molecules, including some used by life. The discovery validates theories of the formation of organic compounds in extraterrestrial environments.

The chemistry of life runs on organic compounds, molecules containing carbon and hydrogen, which also may include oxygen, nitrogen and other elements. While commonly associated with life, organic molecules also can be created by non-biological processes and are not necessarily indicators of life. An enduring mystery regarding the origin of life is how biology could have arisen from non-biological chemical processes, called prebiotic chemistry. Organic molecules from meteorites may be one of the sources of organic compounds that led to the emergence of life on Earth.

Associate Professor Yasuhiro Oba from Hokkaido University, Japan, led an international team of researchers who discovered the presence of a prebiotic organic molecule called hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) in three different carbon-rich meteorites. Their discovery validates models and theories that propose HMT as an important molecule in the formation of organic compounds in interstellar environments.

"HMT is a key piece of a puzzle which draws the whole picture of chemical evolution in space," said Oba, lead author of a paper about the research published December 7 in the journal Nature Communications. "To explain the formation of meteoritic organic molecules such as amino acids and sugars, two easily vaporized (volatile) molecules, formaldehyde and ammonia, are necessary in asteroids, the parent bodies of many meteorites. However, since they are easily lost from asteroidal environments due to their high volatility, scientists question how enough could have been available to build the meteoritic organic molecules being found. HMT does not vaporize even at room temperature, and it can produce both molecules if it is heated with liquid water inside asteroids. Finding HMT in meteorites confirms the hypothesis that it is a stable source for ammonia and formaldehyde in asteroids."

Early in the solar system's history, many asteroids could have been heated by collisions or the decay of radioactive elements. If some asteroids were warm enough and had liquid water, HMT could have broken down to provide building blocks such as formaldehyde and ammonia that in turn reacted to make other important biological molecules which have been found in meteorites, including amino acids. Some types of amino acids are used by life to make proteins, which are used to build structures like hair and nails, or to speed up or regulate chemical reactions.

"These results shed light on the various ways amino acids can form in extraterrestrial environments," said Jason Dworkin, a co-author of the paper at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "This can be explored further when comparing the samples from Japan's Hayabusa2 and NASA's OSIRIS-REx missions. These spacecraft collected material from asteroids with what appears to be different histories of liquid water. If there is a mission to return a sample from a comet nucleus someday, perhaps we can see if there is a connection between HMT in comets and asteroids."

While the diversity of organic compounds in meteorites is well-documented, many questions remain about the processes by which these compounds were formed. The most important meteorites in this area of research are carbonaceous chondrites, stony meteorites that contain high percentages of water and organic compounds. Experimental models have shown that a combination of water, ammonia and methanol, when subjected to photochemical and thermal conditions common in extraterrestrial environments, give rise to a number of organic compounds, the most common of which is HMT. Interstellar ice is rich in methanol. Hypothetically, HMT should be common in water-containing extraterrestrial materials, but, until this study, it had not been detected.

HMT is likely to break apart when exposed to processes commonly used in the analysis of organic compounds in meteorites, and therefore, may not have been detected in other studies even though it was present. The scientists developed a method that specifically extracted HMT from meteorites with minimal breakdown. This method allowed them to isolate significant quantities of HMT and HMT derivatives from the meteorites Murchison, Murray and Tagish Lake.

Since Earth has abundant life, the researchers had to be confident that the HMT found in the meteorites was in fact extraterrestrial, and not just from contamination by terrestrial life. "The Murchison fragment used in this study was from the Chicago Field Museum that had been stored for many years inside a sealed container, and is the least contaminated and most pristine piece of Murchison we have ever studied for amino acids, giving us more confidence that the HMT detected in this meteorite is in fact extraterrestrial in origin," said Daniel Glavin of NASA Goddard, a co-author on the study.

ITHACA, N.Y. - By delving into scientific, technological, environmental and economic data, Cornell University engineering researchers examined whether New York could achieve a statewide carbon-free economy by 2050. Their finding: Yes, New York can reach this goal - and do it with five years to spare.

Fengqi You, professor in energy systems engineering and Ning Zhao, a doctoral student in the Process-Energy-Environmental Systems Engineering (PEESE) lab, examined a variety of carbon-neutral energy systems and decarbonization methods after the state passed the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) in July 2019. Their new paper, "Can Renewable Generation, Energy Storage and Energy Efficient Technologies Enable Carbon Neutral Energy Transition?" was recently published in Applied Energy.

"Now we have a 2050 'net zero' target," You said. "As New Yorkers, we can commit to making the needed changes on renewable energy transition for electricity and space heating. The law's goals are very feasible from economic and technological perspectives."

Among their research highlights:

By 2050, offshore wind energy will likely be the main source of electricity for the state;

Natural gas will play a role at the early stage of carbon neutral energy transition for both power and space heating sectors, but will approach obsolescence between 2040 and 2050;

Geothermal heating (extracting heat from the Earth) and/or electric air heat pumps will become the top methods to heat homes and buildings, replacing natural gas;

Solar energy will play an important but limited role, the researchers said, due to a lack of winter-time sunlight and other more economically competitive sustainable energy options;

Geothermal technology will play a key role in decarbonizing New York state, but when paired with a carbon tax, the state's economy will become sustainably green more quickly - possibly by 2045, according to the scientists.

To motivate public utility companies and New Yorkers to make the needed changes, You and Zhao suggest partnering a carbon tax with the green ideas, so that New York will enjoy a faster trajectory to force out fossil energy.

December 18, 2020 - The cumulative incidence of hip dislocation following total hip replacement is about 50 percent higher than suggested by simple analysis of hospital data, reports a study in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.

In the first two years following total hip arthroplasty (THA), the "true" rate of hip dislocation is 3.5 percent, according to the report by Lars L. Hermansen, MD, of Hospital of South West Jutland, Esbjerg, Denmark, and colleagues. "Since our results are based on a large cohort over a five-year inclusion period and include all hospital contacts in Denmark within the first two years after THA, we believe to have found the 'true' occurrence of dislocation within this patient group and time frame," the researchers write.

'Comprehensive' approach needed to capture true risks of dislocation after THA

Hip dislocation is a common and devastating complication following THA and is one of the leading reasons for revision. Previous studies have reported widely varying rates of dislocation following THA, reflecting differences in study methods and patient populations. Some dislocations may be treated without a surgical procedure or hospital admission; other patients may undergo revision at a different hospital than where the primary THA was performed.

Dr. Hermansen and colleagues sought to develop a "more thorough and comprehensive method" for estimating the actual cumulative incidence of dislocation. With use of a national database (the Danish Hip Arthroplasty Register), the researchers identified 31,105 cases of primary THA for osteoarthritis performed in Denmark between 2012 and 2014.

The researchers then used a nationwide hospital database (the Danish National Patient Register) to identify patients who underwent treatment for hip dislocation within two years after primary THA. The study used a two-year window because most dislocations of primary hip replacements occur within that time.

"Our review of patient files identified 1,861 dislocations in 1,079 THAs, which corresponds to a two-year cumulative incidence of 3.5 percent," Dr. Hermansen and coauthors write. More than 40 percent of these patients had at least two dislocations. Three-fourths of initial dislocations occurred within the first three months postoperatively.

By linking the hip replacement registry to the national patient database, the researchers identified many dislocations that would otherwise have been missed. Several additional cases were identified by reviewing alternative procedure codes in patient files. The "true" rate of 3.5 percent "was a 50 percent increase compared with the correctly coded dislocations captured by administrative register-data only," the researchers write.

The study also looked at risk factors for dislocation following primary THA. Risk was lower in patients younger than 65 years old, higher in those over 75 years old, and lower in men than women. Patients in better health (according to the American Society of Anesthesiologists Physical Status Classification System) were also at lower risk of dislocation.

Several surgical factors were also associated with a lower risk of dislocation: cemented fixation, lateral surgical approach, larger femoral head size, and use of dual-mobility cups. The researchers note that a large majority of patients underwent THA via the posterior approach, which is more commonly used in Denmark compared to other countries.

The results suggest that rates of hip dislocation following THA - as shown by in-depth analysis of unique and comprehensive Danish health databases - are higher than suggested by administrative hospital data only. Dr. Hermansen and colleagues conclude: "Comprehensive search algorithms are needed in order to identify all dislocations so that this complication can be accurately reported in national registers."