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What The Study Did: Baseline corrected QT interval (QTc) on 12-lead electrocardiograms and ensuing changes among patients with and without COVID-19 are evaluated in this study.

Authors: Marc P. Waase, M.D., Ph.D., and Elaine Y. Wan, M.D., of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, is the corresponding author.

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

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.6842)

Editor's Note: The article includes conflict of interest and funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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DURHAM, N.H.-- Corals and sponges are important foundations in ocean ecosystems providing structure and habitats that shelter a high number of species like fish, crabs and other creatures, particularly in the seamounts and canyons of the deep sea. Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have discovered that when it comes to climate change not all deep-sea corals and sponges are affected the same and some could be threatened if average ocean temperatures continue to increase in the deep sea of the Northwest Atlantic.

"These deep-sea corals and sponges are ecologically important because they are foundational species that contribute to the food web and losing them could eventually lower the biodiversity of the deep sea," said Jennifer Dijkstra, a research assistant professor in UNH's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping.

In their study, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, the researchers combined data about temperature, dissolved oxygen, salinity and depth with high-resolution underwater video of the seafloor. The video was collected by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) along the Northeast Canyons and New England Seamount Chain by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Exploration and Research branch. The researchers analyzed the data and annotated the ROV video to determine the density of the corals and sponges in specific areas, allowing the scientists to identify their location. They linked environmental variables to emerging patterns and high densities in narrow environmental ranges. Although corals and sponges co-occur, climate-related variables temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen contributed to the distribution of sponges, whereas seafloor properties of slope and substrate contributed to the distribution of corals.

"The paper shows that not all deep-sea corals and sponges were influenced by the same environmental variables and each has different levels of sensitivity," said Dijkstra. "Changes in temperature and dissolved oxygen, that go beyond what the deep-sea corals and sponges are used to, could stress the species' physiology affecting growth, tissue loss and reproduction."

In general, deep-sea corals are found 200 to 10,000 feet below sea level where sunlight is nonexistent. Unlike shallow-water coral reefs, which are limited to warm tropical waters, deep-sea corals are found throughout the world's oceans, from tropical to polar regions, forming groves of tree or fan shapes that can reach feet to meters tall. Deep-sea sponge populations can filter water, collect bacteria and process carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Deep-sea corals and sponges have been found on continental shelves, canyons and seamounts in deep seas around the world but their full extent is unknown because only 15 percent of the Earth's seafloor has been mapped with high-resolution imaging.

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have discovered that some skeletal defects associated with a lack of movement in the womb during early development may still be ameliorated after such periods of immobility if movement resumes.

The researchers' discovery was made using chicken embryos, which develop similarly to their human equivalents and which can be easily viewed as development takes place - raising hopes that the finding may also apply to humans and thus have important implications for therapeutic interventions.

The research has just been published in leading international journal, Disease Models and Mechanisms.

Why babies need to move in the womb

Foetal movement in the uterus is a normal part of a healthy pregnancy and previous research by the group has shown that key molecular interactions that guide the cells and tissues of the embryo to build a functionally robust yet malleable skeleton are stimulated by movement.

If an embryo doesn't move, a vital signal may be lost or an inappropriate one delivered in error, which can lead to the development of brittle bones or abnormal joints. As such, reduced or absent movement can lead to problems with development of bones and joints including joint dysplasia and temporary brittle bone disease in infants.

The researchers behind the current work have previously uncovered what precisely goes wrong at a cellular and molecular level when embryo movement is restricted, showing when and which bones and joints are affected (see: https://bit.ly/3crcrS5).

The new findings

In the new study the researchers asked what happens if movement resumes after a defined period of movement restriction early in development. They specifically addressed whether joint and spine formation can recover.

Dr Rebecca Rolfe, Research Fellow in Zoology, in Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, is the first author of the journal article. She said:

"We compared resumption of normal movement to hyperactive movement and found that limb joints recover better than spinal defects and, among specific limb joints, those of the hips and knees recover best under the conditions tested.

"We also found that hyperactive movement led to greater improvement in joint development, especially at the hip, indicating that clinical conditions resulting from reduced activity of the foetus in the womb could be ameliorated with physical movement or manipulation even after an initial problem becomes apparent."

Paula Murphy, Professor in Zoology in Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, and senior author of the journal article, added:

"This work essentially demonstrates that movement post-paralysis can partially recover specific aspects of joint development, which we hope could inform therapeutic approaches to ameliorate the effects of human foetal immobility.

"Skeletal defects at birth can present significant hurdles for infants to overcome in trying to lead normal, healthy lives. Although this will not lead immediately to new therapeutic options it gives specific indications of the types of therapy that would be potentially beneficial."

"Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water." It's a silly rhyme, but one that highlights a simple fact: Humans have long relied on wells -- such as the one on the hill visited by Jack and Jill -- for their primary drinking water supply.

Although the number of people who draw their water by pail is declining as pumps become ever more widespread, groundwater wells still supply drinking water to more than half of the world's population and sustain over 40% of irrigated agriculture. But this vital resource underfoot often gets overlooked.

UC Santa Barbara assistant professors Debra Perrone and Scott Jasechko have compiled the most comprehensive assay of groundwater wells to date, spanning 40 countries that collectively account for half of all global groundwater pumping. Their study, the cover story of the April 23 edition of the journal Science, offers an unprecedented account of the world's groundwater resources.

"We analyzed construction records for tens of millions of groundwater wells around the world," said Jasechko, of the university's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, "and the big take home is that many wells are at risk of running dry." Up to one in five wells in their survey, to be exact.

"These groundwater wells are used to withdraw water for household use or irrigation," added Perrone, a faculty member in the Environmental Studies Program. "Our study is the first time that groundwater wells and water level observations have been stitched together like this, providing local insights at the global scale."

Reaching these conclusions required the better part of six years' work by Perrone and Jasechko. The researchers culled their data from more than 100 unique databases around the world, sometimes in different formats and languages.

The first step involved compiling roughly 39 million records of functional groundwater wells that included depth, purpose, location and construction date. Rather than delegate processing the data to an algorithm or AI, the researchers carefully went through tidying it up manually. "We wanted to be sure we understood the limitations and nuances for each database we analyzed," Jasechko said.

With the data sorted, the authors compared the depths of local water tables against well depths. They found that 6 to 20% of the wells in their global sample were at risk of running dry if water levels continue to decline by just a few meters. They sought to find trends in the depths of new wells compared to existing wells in a given area from 1950 through 2015. While newer wells tended to be deeper than older ones, the trend was not ubiquitous, they said. Functional wells were not getting substantially deeper in many of the areas they surveyed.

The researchers then pulled data from roughly 1.1 million monitoring wells, which provide measurements of groundwater levels and conditions. These records supplied not only an account of where the water table lay, but also how much it fluctuated over the course of the year. Seasonal variation, they found, was typically within one meter.

By comparing depth trends to measurements from nearby monitoring wells, Perrone and Jasechko could also deduce how close functional wells were to drying out. They found that in many areas groundwater levels are declining, yet new wells are not being drilled deeper to keep pace with the falling water table. Since wells aren't getting substantially deeper in many areas, newer wells are at least as vulnerable as older wells should groundwater levels continue to decline.

"In some places, groundwater levels are close to the bottom of wells," Perrone stated. "If groundwater levels continue to decline in these places, wells will go dry, leaving people without access to water."

The two researchers also availed themselves of data from NASA's GRACE mission. The pair of GRACE satellites detect small differences in the Earth's gravitational field as they orbit the planet. This provided Perrone and Jasechko with information about groundwater reserves for regions where data from monitoring wells is limited.

"We only have groundwater level monitoring data for a few dozen countries," Jasechko said, "but GRACE data allows us to explore changes in water storage around the globe." While the resolution was coarse, the additional information confirmed the disconnect between declining groundwater and the construction of deeper wells.

There are many reasons not to drill deeper. It's much more expensive in terms of drilling and operational costs. The quality of groundwater can also decrease at depth, often becoming more saline toward the bottom of an aquifer.

"Drilling wells is expensive," Jasechko remarked. "Even if fresh water exists deep underground, not every individual or household has the capital to drill a new well to access it, which raises concerns about equity when wells run dry."

The pair hope to expand the coverage of their dataset, especially to countries like China, Iran and Pakistan, three major users of groundwater that the researchers could not obtain records from. They also plan to investigate the extent of groundwater decline in future research, looking for information on how quickly water tables are dropping and where the trend is accelerating.

Groundwater can provide a lifeline in even the most arid regions.

Perrone and Jasechko have made a name for themselves in the field of groundwater research by approaching the topic with enormous datasets like this one. The global study comes on the heels of another paper published in Nature on groundwater resources across the United States. There, they revealed the extent to which rivers across the country are losing flow to aquifers, in part due to pumping.

Together, the findings paint a broad picture not just of wells in danger, but of dwindling groundwater resources as a whole. While pumping may have the most direct impact on aquifers, the authors note, human activity has many indirect effects on groundwater quality and levels. Industrial activity, water diversion and even pavement and runoff affect the water beneath our feet. Climate change may exert the greatest influence over the long term, as it alters the distribution and intensity of precipitation and evapotranspiration from plants and soils worldwide.

"These findings highlight the importance of groundwater resources and groundwater management to the global community," Perrone said. "Putting all the data together reveals that declining groundwater levels threaten wells in many places across the world."

Groundwater sustainability is a complex issue with a lot of considerations and tradeoffs, the authors acknowledged. Deciding on a course of action won't be easy, but compiling and analyzing large datasets like this are a critical first-step in tackling the challenge. "With these data, we can make more informed management decisions to help us use groundwater sustainably," Perrone said.

A Southern California high school junior has built a low-cost seismometer device that delivers earthquake early warnings for homes and businesses. Costing less than $100 for her to make today, the seismometer could someday be a regular household safety device akin to a smart smoke detector, says its inventor Vivien He.

About the size of a Rubik's cube and encased in clear acrylic, the seismometer has a sleek, consumer-ready look. The device's geophone detects incoming ground motion, while onboard hardware and software translate the geophone's electrical signals into a digital waveform. The device has detected all earthquakes over magnitude 3.0 around Los Angeles since September 2020.

When earthquakes are stronger than the alert threshold set by the user, the device can sound the onboard alarm for on-site warning, send a text message to local subscribers of the regional warning service, and can be controlled from a smartphone.

He presented her research on the device at the Seismological Society of America (SSA)'s 2021 Annual Meeting.She also won a SSA Student Travel Grant, the only high school student among all recipients, to attend the conference free of charge. She is a student at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School in Rolling Hills Estates. He thanks her science research class teacher, Melissa Klose, for her guidance on scientific research methods and her support in pursuing research opportunities.

He researched, designed, built, and tested the entire device over a summer and fall spent at home under COVID-19 restrictions. Her home lab occupies a corner of a bedroom with "bedside drawers full of little wires and extra geophones and components." she said.

There was also the bathroom she borrowed where the bright light was good for soldering. For acrylic laser cutting, her dad helped her drag a table out of the garage into the yard as a safety precaution.

"I did--don't tell my mom--but I did one time have a little bit of a fire," she admitted.

The seismometer device fills a gap in current earthquake early warning systems, He said, by providing a consumer-friendly, low-cost but built-for-purpose alternative to more expensive, scientific-grade systems like the West Coast's ShakeAlert system. Her device offers a way for people in earthquake zones to gain a few to tens of seconds of warning to take action and automatically shut down utilities and machinery at work.

He has set up a nonprofit, Melior Earth, to help her get the device to those who need an inexpensive earthquake early warning system. "I do have hopes that I would be able to provide this to lower-income families and neighborhoods with less earthquake-proof infrastructure," she said.

Quiet Under Quarantine

He got the idea for the seismometer after reading a paper about the unusual seismic "quiet" that descended over the earth when COVID-19 lockdowns brought a halt to much human activity. "I was wondering whether I would be able to measure that from my own home," she recalled, "and then that quickly evolved into, I wonder if I can measure in my own home and apply it to earthquake early warning?"

She began reading about earthquake early warning and building a giant three-ring binder of highlighted papers, including many from SSA journals. One of her favorite researchers in the field was Richard M. Allen, director of the Berkeley Seismology Lab.

"I really enjoyed the way he explained earthquake early warning systems and the current systems' limitations," He said.

The research gave He the confidence that she could build a low-cost device for earthquake early warning, taking a consumer-based approach versus the conventional public station-based approach. After that, it was time to figure out the components, the programming and the design. She didn't have much expertise going into the project, however, given much of the skills and knowledge needed were outside of school curriculum.

"I went to an MIT hackathon the other day, and what they said is that the secret for hackers is that they just google everything, right?" she said. "And that's kind of like what I did for this project, like, oh, I don't know how this works, just google it!'"

As He will discuss in her SSA presentation, the device evolved over time as her skills improved and she solved design problems along the way. Along with its alert and notification functions, the final design contains a data card that can hold up to four years' worth of standard earthquake waveform files that can also be used for seismological studies.

"Hey, You Guys Hear That?"

He plugged in her first seismometer one night after midnight last September. "And then I went to sleep, and then the next day I woke up and there had been an earthquake in Los Angeles and I was like, oh, it's fate!"

She compared the seismic signal captured by her device to one produced by a U.S. Geological Survey station near her house, "and the waveform looked the same," she recalled.

One of the early successes of her testing period came when "my family was all in the living room and we were all talking and the device started beeping and I said, 'Hey, you guys hear that?' And they were like, 'is it an earthquake?' and then the pendant lights started shaking," she said.

The seismometer has since successfully detected several recent earthquakes in Southern California, and He has competed in science fairs at her school district and Los Angeles County. There, she won the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) Finalist award, which moves her on to compete at the international level next. In addition, she won the Association of Women Geoscientists Award, the Cheryl Saban Self-Worth Foundation for Women & Girls 1st Place Award and Scholarship, and the Professional Engineers in California Government's Marylin Jorgenson-Reece Award of Excellence and Scholarship.

He, who turned 17 in February, is working on getting a utility patent for the device. She plans to use her nonprofit to drive consumer adoption for the device, especially making earthquake early warning accessible for the lower-income countries, regions and population.

"The whole point of it is that it would be a consumer product, but I'm not focused on the monetary gain of it," she explained. "I'm more focused on the science of it and just the impact in general on people and on earthquake disaster prevention."

At the Seismological Society of America's 2021 Annual Meeting, researchers shared how they are using fiber optic cable to detect the small earthquakes that occur in ice in Antarctica.

The results could be used to better understand the movement and deformation of the ice under changing climate conditions, as well as improve future monitoring of carbon capture and storage projects, said Anna Stork, a geophysicist at Silixa Ltd.

Stork discussed how she and her colleagues are refining their methods of distributed acoustic sensing, or DAS, for microseismicity--earthquakes too small to be felt. DAS works by using the tiny internal flaws within an optical fiber as thousands of seismic sensors. An instrument at one end sends laser pulses down the cable and measures the "echo" of each pulse as it is reflected off the fiber's internal flaws.

When the fiber is disturbed by earthquakes or icequakes, there are changes in the size, frequency and phase of laser light scattered back to the DAS receiver that can be used characterize the seismic event.

Michael Kendall of the University of Oxford said the Antarctic research demonstrates how DAS can be used to monitor underground carbon capture and storage at other sites in the world. For instance, the layout of the Antarctic network offers a good example for how a similar network could be configured to best detect microseismicity that could be triggered by carbon storage.

"Our work also demonstrates a method of using DAS fiber arrays to investigate microseismic earthquake source mechanisms in more detail than conventional geophones," said Tom Hudson of the University of Oxford. "If we can analyze the source mechanism--how an earthquake fails or fractures--then we may be able to attribute the earthquake to the movement of fluids like carbon dioxide in a reservoir."

The Antarctic microseismic icequakes recorded by DAS "are approximately magnitude -1, corresponding to approximately the size of a book falling off a table," Hudson explained, "so they are very small earthquakes."

The study by Hudson and colleagues is the first to use DAS to look at icequakes in Antarctica. The fiber optic cable was deployed in a linear and triangular configuration on the ice surface at the Rutford Ice Stream.

Kendall said there are a number of challenges to using fiber optic sensors in the harsh Antarctica environment. The equipment had to travel in pieces by boat and several planes to the study site. The researchers had to bury the fiber to reduce wind noise contaminating the seismic signal, as well as remove the signal of a generator that powered the DAS instrument.

"We housed the instrument in a mountaineering tent, which basically served as a tiny office," Stork explained. "Keeping temperatures within the recommended operating limits was a challenge. The radiative heating from the sun warned the tent to well in the 30s [degrees Celsius], even though it was -10 degrees Celsius outside."

The researchers share their analyses of icequake data with climatologists and other researchers studying the slip of glaciers and other ice movements in Antarctica, Kendall said.

"Hopefully in the future we will interact more with scientists drilling ice cores too, as they use fiber as distributed temperature sensors, but these fibers that they put down boreholes could also be used for seismic studies like ours," he noted.

Anastasia Malashina, a doctoral student at HSE University, has proposed a new method to assess vulnerabilities in encryption systems, which is based on a brute-force search of possible options of symbol deciphering. The algorithm was also implemented in a programme, which can be used to find vulnerabilities in ciphers. The results of the study were published in a paper 'Software development for the study of natural language characteristics'.

Most of online messages are sent in encrypted form since open communication channels are not protected from data interception. Messengers, cloud services, banking systems--all of these need to be protected from data breaches. The problem of data encryption is one of the main issues for cryptographers.

The problem of cipher vulnerability search is always a relevant one. To avoid hacks, it is necessary to reinforce the cipher protection from leaks and to test encryption systems for vulnerabilities.

All ciphers can be split into two big classes: block ciphers and stream ciphers. Stream data has a big advantage: they provide an acceptable speed of information transmission, suitable for images and videos.

Stream ciphering is based on a combination of data with random sequencing on a special algorithm. Special keys are used for this kind of ciphering. There are many requirements to the keys, so that the data coded with their use can be produced and stored. Meanwhile, it is not always possible to ensure that a reliable key is used. That's why stream ciphering systems need to be pre-tested for vulnerabilities.

'I was interested in not only suggesting an algorithm that is able to detect the initial text of a transmitted message, but to find opportunities to restore the text both theoretically and practically in a direct way, without finding the key,' said Anastasia Malashina.

To find vulnerabilities, she used a method that helps assess the possibility of restoring separate parts of a message without a key, in case a vulnerable cipher is used or there is a leak in the communication channel.

The algorithm uses information about possible options for each of the ciphered symbols in the initial message and brutally searches the values for all the other symbols. In case the initial cipher has a vulnerability, this method helps detect it.

The suggested algorithm was implemented in a special programme, part of which has recently been patented. This programme helps assess encryption systems' reliability and breach risks in case of data leaks.

'During my study, I looked at a corpus of social-political texts, and an open corpus of Russian language. A statistical analysis of dictionaries helped me assess the entropy of texts, for which I later assessed the possibility of partial deciphering. Furthermore, corpus-based dictionaries are used in the experimental part of the study to implement a dictionary-based attack. Similar results for the English language were reached based on the iWeb corpus,' said Malashina.

Quantum systems consisting of several particles can be used to measure magnetic or electric fields more precisely. A young physicist at the University of Basel has now proposed a new scheme for such measurements that uses a particular kind of correlation between quantum particles.

In quantum information, the fictitious agents Alice and Bob are often used to illustrate complex communication tasks. In one such process, Alice can use entangled quantum particles such as photons to transmit or "teleport" a quantum state - unknown even to herself - to Bob, something that is not feasible using traditional communications.

However, it has been unclear whether the team Alice-Bob can use similar quantum states for other things besides communication. A young physicist at the University of Basel has now shown how particular types of quantum states can be used to perform measurements with higher precision than quantum physics would ordinarily allow. The results have been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

Quantum steering at a distance

Together with researchers in Great Britain and France, Dr. Matteo Fadel, who works at the Physics Department of the University of Basel, has thought about how high-precision measurement tasks can be tackled with the help of so-called quantum steering.

Quantum steering describes the fact that in certain quantum states of systems consisting of two particles, a measurement on the first particle allows one to make more precise predictions about possible measurement results on the second particle than quantum mechanics would allow if only the measurement on the second particle had been made. It is just as if the measurement on the first particle had "steered" the state of the second one.

This phenomenon is also known as the EPR paradox, named after Albert Einstein, Boris Podolsky and Nathan Rosen, who first described it in 1935. What is remarkable about it is that it works even if the particles are far apart because they are quantum-mechanically ?entangled? and can feel each other at a distance. This is also what allows Alice to transmit her quantum state to Bob in quantum teleportation.

"For quantum steering, the particles have to be entangled with each other in a very particular fashion," Fadel explains. "We were interested in understanding whether this could be used for making better measurements." The measurement procedure he proposes consists of Alice's performing a measurement on her particle and transmitting the result to Bob.

Thanks to quantum steering, Bob can then adjust his measurement apparatus such that the measurement error on his particle is smaller than it would have been without Alice's information. In this way, Bob can measure, for instance, magnetic or electric fields acting on his particles with high precision.

Systematic study of steering-enhanced measurements

The study of Fadel and his colleagues now makes it possible to systematically study and demonstrate the usefulness of quantum steering for metrological applications. "The idea for this arose from an experiment we already did in 2018 in the laboratory of Professor Philipp Treutlein at the University of Basel," says Fadel.

"In that experiment, we were able to measure quantum steering for the first time between two clouds containing hundreds of cold atoms each. After that, we asked ourselves whether it might be possible to do something useful with that." In his work, Fadel has now created a solid mathematical basis for realizing real-life measurement applications that use quantum steering as a resource.

"In a few simple cases, we already knew that there was a connection between the EPR paradox and precision measurements," Treutlein says. "But now we have a general theoretical framework, based on which we can also develop new strategies for quantum metrology." Researchers are already working on demonstrating Fadel's ideas experimentally. In the future, this could result in new quantum-enhanced measurement devices.

Young scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University as a part of the team of Arctic researchers have studied pore waters in three areas of methane release on the surface. They first managed to define in details the composition of pore waters in the cold methane seeps of the Eastern Arctic seas. The research findings are published in the Water academic journal.

The research was based on the samples obtained during the Arctic expedition aboard the research vessel "Akademik Mstislav Keldysh" in 2019. The scientists and students from 12 scientific institutions, including Tomsk Polytechnic University, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, the Research Center of Biotechnology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Zhirmunsky National Scientific Center of Marine Biology of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences and others took part in the expedition arranged by the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of the Russian Academy of Sciences jointly with the Ilichev Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The TPU researchers completed a number of research tasks, including the study of conditions of sediments and pore waters. The pore waters are noteworthy due to their reflection of the composition of seawater and the composition of sediments. Researching the samples of pore waters from the point of view of geochemical, biochemical and hydrochemical data, it is possible to reconstruct processes occurring in the waters and sediments, as well as to forecast the development of the situation.

"During the expedition, we focused on the methane yield areas and the changes of hydrochemical properties in these areas. In total, there were six test cores and 42 samples of pore waters collected at depths of 22 to 68 m. The main focus was on the methane yield areas on the surface. Thuswise, three areas with their features were studied: the Lena River Delta, the continental margin of the Laptev Sea and the central part of the East Siberian Sea. In fact, we compared three cold methane seeps together. Moreover, the samples were collected in the sampling points in the immediate vicinity of methane release on the surface," Yulia Moiseeva, Research Fellow of the TPU Division for Geology, one of the authors of the article, says.

To collect the samples, the scientists used special filters and vacuum test tubes to exclude oxygen and obtain valid results. A part of the analyses was conducted aboard. For instance, rapidly changing indicators, i.e. biogenous elements such as nitrates, nitrites, phosphates, ammonia and total alkalinity were researched. A more detailed study of the samples was continued in the TPU laboratories.

"Having come back from the expedition, we studied the macro- and microcomponent composition of pore waters that was conducted in the accredited TPU Research Laboratory for Hydrogeochemistry using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The data on 66 elements for every sample were obtained, it allowed us to define geochemical indicators of the presence of cold methane seep: in this context, what elements can be in higher or lower concentrations in comparison with background concentrations," Darya Purgina, Research Fellow of the TPU Division for Geology, explains.

The scientists managed to define the regional features of the Eastern Arctic seas, including the features of the methane yield areas. For instance, the stations located in the East Siberian Sea are characterized by the high concentration of Mn, Al, Si, P, Fe, Cu, Ba in comparison with the stations in the Laptev Sea, where there was the high concentration of Li, B, V, Br, U and the low concentration of I, Mn.

In general, the concentration of V, Th, P, Al is increased in the methane yield areas, while the concentration of Co, Fe, Mn, U, Mo, Cu is decreased.

"Thus, we first defined a number of elements that can be used as indicators of methane yield. The research is still ongoing to confirm the results. The extended data have already been obtained on the results of the 2020 Arctic expedition. The materials are currently being processed, however, it is already possible to say that the part of the new data confirms the previously obtained results. Furthermore, the extended data will allow reconstructing processes more detailed, which occur in the methane yield areas. The uniqueness of the obtained data lies in the application of modern sampling methods, which allow minimizing failures, as well as obtaining a wide array of elements with high accuracy. The pore waters in the methane yield areas of the Eastern Arctic have not been studied so detailed and comprehensive yet," the scientists sum up.

Researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) in a pioneering study identify clinical, genetic and histopathological characteristics that may help confirm the diagnosis when nephronophthisis occurs in adults

Tokyo, Japan - Nephronophthisis (NPH) is a kidney disease affecting mainly children. Now, for the first time, researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) have studied a number of adults with NPH and highlighted clinical, genetic and pathological characteristics that could help in confirming this challenging diagnosis.

NPH is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern and, though rare, is the commonest genetic cause of kidney failure in children. The name is derived from 'nephron', the functional filtration units of the kidney and 'phthisis', Greek for 'wasting away'. Recent genetic studies have highlighted that NPH may also present in adults resulting in end-stage renal disease (ESRD). However, there are only a few case-reports and no cohort studies, possibly because of rarity and diagnostic difficulties.

The clinical diagnosis of adult NPH is problematic because clinical, radiologic and histologic features are non-specific. Even the extrarenal features are fewer in adults. Because management includes renal transplantation and genetic counselling, an accurate early diagnosis is essential. Takuya Fujimaru, first author, explains further. "At present, molecular genetic analysis is the only practical method for clinically diagnosing NPH. However, as over 25 genes have been identified, Sanger sequencing (one DNA fragment at a time) is tedious; comprehensive mutation analysis using next generation sequencing (NGS) capable of sequencing millions of fragments is therefore required. Unfortunately, NGS is expensive and has limited availability. We therefore aimed to investigate the genetic background of adult nephronophthisis and evaluate the clinical characteristics and pathological changes in these patients."

The research team, drawn from top medical institutions across Japan, studied 18 patients with adult-onset NPH suspected from kidney biopsy using cutting-edge tools such as low-vacuum scanning electron microscopy and capture-based sequencing. They analyzed 69 genes associated with kidney disease and compared patients with and without mutations. Seven of their patients had NPH-causing mutations; they were comparatively young though not significantly different in classic pathological findings. Interestingly however, thick tubular basement membrane (TBM) duplication was seen in many more tubules in these genetically proven patients.

"Our finding that thick TBM duplication is specific to adult-onset NPH is significant," claims corresponding author Eisei Sohara. "The number of tubules showing this pathologic change has potential as a diagnostic criterion for adult NPH. We also observed that older patients are unlikely to have pathogenic mutations; this could be a novel diagnostic pointer, though comprehensive testing against a target panel of associated genes remains necessary."

Dr. Sabrina Coninx from Ruhr-Universität Bochum and Dr. Peter Stilwell from McGill University, Canada, have investigated how philosophical approaches can be used to think in new ways about pain and its management. The researchers advocate not merely reducing chronic pain management to searching and treating underlying physical changes but instead adopting an approach that focuses on the person as a whole. Their work was published online in the journal "Synthese" on 15 April 2021.

It is not currently possible to treat chronic pain effectively in many cases. This has encouraged researchers from various disciplines to consider new approaches to pain and its management over recent years. "Pain research and clinical practice do not take place in a vacuum, but instead involve implicit assumptions regarding what pain is and how it can be treated," says Sabrina Coninx, research assistant at the Bochum research training group Situated Cognition. "Our aim is to shed light on these assumptions and discover how we can think in new ways about pain and its management with the help of philosophical approaches." In their work, the authors develop a holistic, integrative and action-oriented approach.

Viewing patients as a whole

In specific terms, they suggest three things: firstly, addressing pain should involve more than just looking for and treating underlying physiological changes. A holistic approach places the focus on patients as a whole and creates space for their experiences, concerns, expectations and narratives. The influence of socio-cultural practices in the generation of chronic pain should also be taken into account. For example, pain patients are often initially encouraged to protect themselves from injury and avoid activity, which may be helpful in the beginning but can contribute to chronification in the long run.

Secondly, according to the researchers, chronic pain should be understood as a dynamic process in which many different factors interact in a non-linear way. The initial cause of pain, for instance, is not necessarily the cause of its chronification and also does not need to be the most crucial factor in treatment. The complex interaction of subjective experience, expectations, learned behavioural patterns, neural reorganisation, stigmatisation and other factors therefore needs to be considered.

Focus on action possibilities

Thirdly, according to Coninx and Stilwell, patients should be encouraged to interact with their environment and identify possibilities for action. This is based on the assumption that chronic pain fundamentally changes the way in which patients perceive themselves and their relationship with their environment. Pain treatment could therefore involve helping the patient to increasingly notice positively associated and personally meaningful options for action and view themselves as capable of taking action again. There is then less focus on the body as an obstacle, and instead the patients pay more attention to how they can overcome limitations.

Cardiovascular disease, the most common cause of death, is the result of oxygen deprivation as blood perfusion to affected tissue is prevented. To halt the development of the disease and to promote healing, re-establishment of blood flow is crucial. Researchers at Uppsala University have now discovered that one of the most common immune cells in the human body, macrophages, play an important role in re-establishing and controlling blood flow, something that can be used to develop new drugs.

The classic function of immune cells is to defend the body against attacks from microorganisms and tumour cells. Macrophages are immune cells specialised in killing and consuming microorganisms but they have also been shown to be involved in wound healing and building blood vessels.

A new study published by researchers at Uppsala University demonstrates that macrophages accumulate around blood vessels in damaged tissue in mice, but also in humans after a myocardial infarction or peripheral ischemia. In mice, these macrophages could be seen to regulate blood flow, performing a necessary damage-control function. In healthy tissue, this task is carried out by blood vessel cells.

This discovery led the research group to investigate whether their findings could be developed into a new treatment to increase blood flow to damaged leg muscles, thus stimulating healing and improving function. By increasing the local concentration of certain signal substances that bind to macrophages in the damaged muscle, the research group was able to demonstrate that more macrophages accumulated around the blood vessels, improving their ability to regulate blood flow. This in turn resulted in improved healing and that the mice were able use the injured leg to a far greater extent.

"This is an entirely new function for the cells in our immune system and might mean that in future we can use immunotherapies to treat not only cancer but also cardiovascular diseases," says Mia Phillipson, leader of the research group behind the discovery.

An interdisciplinary group of Spanish scientists, bringing together biologists and chemists from the Universities of Seville, Huelva, the Autonomous University of Madrid and the Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia of the CSIC in Cadiz, have just published the results of their pioneering research studying the management of marinas. The group of scientists, led by the US professor José Manuel Guerra García, studied in detail the sediments in Andalusia's marinas and has proposed a new index, the MEPI (Marinas Environmental Pollution Index) to quantify the level of contamination in these ports.

There has been a proliferation of marinas in recent years, in Spain, other Mediterranean countries and in the rest of the world. Marinas are highly modified ecosystems that have a great impact on marine biota. On the one hand, they alter the area's hydrodynamism, damming ecosystem in and tending to concentrate pollutants (heavy metals, hydrocarbons, etc.). In addition, recreational boats can be responsible for transporting invasive species from one area to another, attached to the boats' hulls.

"It is essential to regulate these marinas. To this end, authorities need scientists to provide tools to manage these ecosystems in the best possible way. Ideally, we should try to build more environmentally sustainable ports and aim to establish minimum ecological quality levels enabling us to identify marinas that make efforts to control environmental conditions and make their waters and sediments higher quality than elsewhere", explains Professor Guerra.

Specifically, the MEPI index is based on parameters such as hydrocarbons, heavy metals, faecal coliforms, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulphur and biocides such as Irgarol, which are used as a base in the manufacture of the antifouling paints applied to prevent organisms from adhering to recreational boats. The MEPI index was developed using national and international sediment quality recommendations and reference values and ranges proposed by legislation in different countries around the world. Together with the new index, the authors have applied a simple and complete ecological analysis method to determine a port's quality in a holistic and integrated way, taking into account both chemical and biological parameters. For this purpose their models used not only the MEPI, but also values relating to the diversity of organisms living in the sediments, biotic indices measuring the quality of the seabed based on these organisms, and biotic pollution indices based on the number and abundance of invasive species. Thus, communities of organisms living on the bottom of the ports were studied, including both macrofauna (those larger than 0.5 mm such crustaceans, molluscs, annelid worms and echinoderms mainly), and meiofauna (smaller than 0.5 mm, mainly copepods and nematodes).

"These small animals that live in ports are the best 'whistleblowers' of port quality, making the role of biologists crucial in understanding how these ecosystems function. Depending on the species we find, we can tell how polluted a port has become," adds the researcher.

The study's innovative approach enabled the integration of both environmental parameters, where the role of chemists was key, and biological parameters as part of a holistic model. Based on all the indicators used, the researchers have proposed a total scoring system (the sum of each parameter's partial score) that allows the ecological quality status of a port to be established using a scale that is easy for authorities to interpret and in line with the European water quality directives. On this basis, colour-coded quality levels can then be established for each marina, ranging from red (very poor quality) to blue (excellent quality).

Thanks to this excellent work, in which the researcher Alejandro Fernández-Romero also participated, and based on the study of the marinas along the Andalusian coast, simple and integrated environmental quality assessment tools are now available for application in any marina anywhere in the world. The information provided can be key, for example, to awarding distinctions, such as the blue flag, to marinas that meet environmental quality requirements. Similarly, Dr. Guerra carried out several studies during his doctoral thesis which demonstrated that the creation of tunnels or hydrodynamic channels in ports, or ports designed with double entrances, such as the port of Ceuta, allow greater water renewal, increase oxygen levels and favour higher levels of biological diversity.

"We must try to move towards 'eco-sustainable' designs that minimise the negative impact of creating or remodelling a port. In this sense, both biologists and chemists can contribute invaluable input for engineers, ensuring they opt for coastal infrastructure designs that are more ecological and less harmful to marine flora and fauna", concludes José Manuel Guerra.

A continental-scale network of conservation sites is likely to remain effective under future climate change scenarios, despite a predicted shift in key species distributions.

New research, led by Durham University and published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, investigates the impacts of potential climate change scenarios on the network of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) across the Caribbean, and Central and South America.

The research was carried out in collaboration with Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, BirdLife International and the National Audubon Society.

IBAs are sites identified as being internationally important for the conservation of bird populations, with over 13,000 sites identified across 200 countries in the last 40 years. Many are covered by formal protected areas, while others are conserved by community-managed reserves or indigenous lands.

Two of the principal responses of species to recent climate change events are changes in range and abundance, leading to a global reshuffling of populations.

Range changes may cause species to disappear from areas they occupy, whilst providing them with opportunities to colonise new sites.

This redistribution could affect the ability of international site networks (including protected areas) to conserve species. Therefore, identifying which sites will continue to provide suitable conditions and which are likely to become unsuitable is important for effective conservation planning as our planet continues to warm.

Estimating the impact of climate change on species' distributions, and the consequences for networks of sites identified to conserve them, can help to inform conservation strategies to ensure that these networks remain effective.

The research modelled the effects of different scenarios of climate change on the wider network.

It determined that, for 73 percent of the 939 species of conservation concern for which IBAs have been identified, more than half of the IBAs in which they currently occur were projected to remain climatically suitable and, for 90 per cent of species, at least a quarter of sites remain suitable.

These results suggest that the network will remain robust under climate change. What is concerning however, is that seven percent of the species of conservation concern are projected to have no suitable climate in the IBAs currently identified for them."

Professor Stephen Willis, Director of Research in the Durham University Department of Biosciences said "The Caribbean and Central and South American region supports about 40% of all the bird species of the world, so this network is vital for a large proportion of the world's birds.

To develop realistic predictions of future changes, we not only considered where suitable climate will occur for species in future but also the likelihood of species dispersing to newly suitable sites.

This information is helping to identify potential management strategies across the IBA network."

Stuart Butchart, Chief Scientist at BirdLife International and a co-author on the study, said: "These results highlight how critical it is to effectively conserve the network of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas across the Americas in order to help safeguard birds in the region under climate change.

"Despite projections of significant shifts in the distributions of individual species, the network as a whole will continue to play a key role in future conservation efforts."

Aurelio Ramos, Senior VP, Audubon International Alliances Program said "Applying this science to secure and strengthen IBAs in the Americas is essential to support the future of birds and people. Audubon, BirdLife International, American Bird Conservancy and REDLAC have partnered in the Americas on a project to strengthen protection of Climate secure IBAs identified in the research called Conserva Aves"

Alke Voskamp of the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre added "The results of this study highlight the importance of a network-wide perspective when making conservation management decisions for individual sites when planning for climate change."

The researchers note that designating protected areas to safeguard biodiversity is a cornerstone of species conservation and the importance of considering local environmental management decisions and their impacts on wider, global conservation networks has never been more relevant.

What The Study Did: Claims data were used to look at opioid use among young people (ages 10 to 21) who had been prescribed opioids for the first time.

Authors: J. Deanna Wilson, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is the corresponding author.

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

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.4552)

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

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