Earth

People can continue using mineral-based aerosol sunscreens without fear of exposure to dangerous levels of nanoparticles or other respirable particulates, according to Penn State research published in the journal Aerosol Science and Engineering.

The findings, reported by a research team led by Jeremy Gernand, associate professor of industrial health and safety, are a result of experiments conducted using three aerosol sunscreens commonly found on store shelves.

Gernand's team simulated the application process for someone using the recommended amount of sunscreen and analyzed the released aerosols. They chose mineral-based sunscreens with silicon dioxide, zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as the active ingredient over chemical-based sunscreens because those are more commonly recommended for children and the ingredients are deemed safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"We simulated what we considered to be a worst-case scenario for someone being exposed to aerosolized nanoparticles while applying sunscreen, and that scenario is a person applying it to their arms because the spray is so close to their face," Gernand said. "And then we pulled air samples from that location."

The goal of the research was to determine the size and concentration of aerosol particles at the location of a realistic breathing zone for the user, and to determine if those factors posed potential health risks.

The team did find trace nanoparticles of the active ingredients but the amounts were hundreds of times less than the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recommended exposure limit. Gernand said previous studies that pointed to dangerous exposure to nanoparticles missed the mark because they relied on an analysis of the contents, rather than field tests. The FDA completed a study on the safety of sunscreens in 2019.

Although only three products were studied, Gernand said it's unlikely other products would produce vastly different amounts of nanoparticles. Researchers found all three products to be similar in aerosolized particles produced.

"For a massive increase in particle exposure, the canister design would have to be dramatically different and most likely so would the amount of and size of the active ingredients inside," Gernand said. "Based on these results, I would be surprised to find variations in brands or formulations that amounted to hundreds of times more exposure. It's just too far away from what we observed."

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State University (MSU) researchers have discovered that one of the most important reactions in the universe can get a huge and unexpected boost inside exploding stars known as supernovae.

This finding also challenges ideas behind how some of the Earth's heavy elements are made. In particular, it upends a theory explaining the planet's unusually high amounts of some forms, or isotopes, of the elements ruthenium and molybdenum.

"It's surprising," said Luke Roberts, an assistant professor at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, FRIB, and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, at MSU. Roberts implemented the computer code that the team used to model the environment inside a supernova. "We certainly spent a lot of time making sure the results were correct."

The results, published online on Dec. 2 in the journal Nature, show that the innermost regions of supernovae can forge carbon atoms over 10 times faster than previously thought. This carbon creation happens through a reaction known as the triple-alpha process.

"The triple-alpha reaction is, in many ways, the most important reaction. It defines our existence," said Hendrik Schatz, one of Roberts's collaborators. Schatz is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams and the director of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Astrophysics - Center for the Evolution of the Elements, or JINA-CEE.

Nearly all of the atoms that make up the Earth and everything on it, people included, were forged in the stars. Fans of the late author and scientist Carl Sagan may remember his famous quote, "We're all made of star stuff." Perhaps no star stuff is more important to life on Earth than the carbon made in the cosmos by the triple-alpha process.

The process starts with alpha particles, which are the cores of helium atoms, or nuclei. Each alpha particle is made up of two protons and two neutrons.

In the triple-alpha process, stars fuse together three alpha particles, creating a new particle with six protons and six neutrons. This is the universe's most common form of carbon. There are other isotopes made by other nuclear processes, but those make up just over 1% of Earth's carbon atoms.

Still, fusing three alpha particles together is usually an inefficient process, Roberts said, unless there's something helping it along. The Spartan team revealed that the innermost regions of supernovae can have such helpers floating around: excess protons. Thus, a supernova rich in protons can speed up the triple-alpha reaction.

But accelerating the triple-alpha reaction also puts the brakes on the supernova's ability to make heavier elements on the periodic table, Roberts said. This is important because scientists have long believed that proton-rich supernovae created Earth's surprising abundance of certain ruthenium and molybdenum isotopes, which contain closer to 100 protons and neutrons.

"You don't make those isotopes in other places," Roberts said.

But based on the new study, you probably don't make them in proton-rich supernovae, either.

"What I find fascinating is that you now have to come up with another way to explain their existence. They should not be here with this abundance," Schatz said of the isotopes. "It's not easy to come up with alternatives."

"It's kind of a bummer in a way," said the project's originator, Sam Austin, an MSU Distinguished Professor Emeritus and former director of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory, FRIB's predecessor. "We thought we knew it, but we don't know it well enough."

There are other ideas out there, the researchers added, but none that nuclear scientists find completely satisfying. Also, no existing theory includes this new discovery yet.

"Whatever comes up next, you have to consider the effects of an accelerated triple-alpha reaction. It's an interesting puzzle," Schatz said.

Although the team has no immediate solutions to that puzzle, the researchers said it will impact upcoming experiments at FRIB, at MSU, which was recently designated as a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science (DOE-SC) user facility.

Furthermore, MSU provides fertile ground for new theories to germinate. It's home to the nation's top-ranked graduate program for training the next generation of nuclear physicists. It's also a core institution of JINA that's promoting collaborations across nuclear physics and astrophysics like this one, which also included Shilun Jin. Jin worked on the project as an MSU postdoc and has since gone on to join the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

So, although Austin expressed a little disappointment that this result contradicts longstanding notions of element creation, he also knows it will fuel new science and a better understanding of the universe.

"Progress comes when there's a contradiction," he said.

"We love progress," Schatz said. "Even when it's destroying our favorite theory."

Seasons of change can be difficult to navigate emotionally, not only for adults, but also for children. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly impacted children's mental health, and as families start planning for the holidays that may look very different this year, it's important to build resilience in kids to prepare them for what's ahead during these winter months.

A new survey by Nationwide Children's Hospital found two-thirds of parents worry the effects of the pandemic on their children's mental health will be more challenging to recover from the longer it continues. With adjustments to a child's home environment, empathetic family conversations and thoughtful planning, parents can set kids up for success.

"Parents should take heart that kids have the ability to be incredibly resilient with the right support," said Parker Huston, PhD, clinical director of On Our Sleeves®, the movement to transform children's mental health, and pediatric psychologist for Big Lots Behavioral Health Services at Nationwide Children's. "As they grow up, children are always changing, adapting to and learning new things. Of course, they do have their own expectations, routines and memories, so when they are told at this time of year that their holidays are going to be different, it can be difficult for them to accept, especially if they feel like they're missing out on some of their favorite parts of the season."

Families should initiate open and honest conversations early on about how usual traditions might be changed this year, and discuss how everyone feels about those changes. Disagreements about the "right" thing to do this holiday season are normal, and it's important that parents share their feelings and listen to their children. Enter the conversation knowing things won't be the same this year, and explore creative solutions.

"As parents, I think it's on us to be more creative this year, considering our kids' favorite parts of this season and coming up with ways they can stay connected and active, even if some traditions need to change or be made new," said Dr. Huston. "A cooking or baking lesson could be a great way to teach kids more about the family recipes they enjoy, and outdoor games can help keep everyone active and engaged with each other."

Families also should remember to tap into gratitude. While kids may be disappointed in what they're missing out on this year, parents can encourage them to identify and talk about what they're grateful for. Practicing gratitude is proven to strengthen mental health in children and adults alike, and can help make a unique holiday season brighter.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, USA - In a new paper, researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) report brain chemistry that may contribute to why drinkers have difficulty paying attention while under the influence.

The work is funded by generous support from the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation and by grants from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the National Institute of Mental Health. Findings were published Dec. 2 in Nature Communications.

"When we want to focus on something, or when we stand up from a chair and become active, a brain stem nucleus releases a chemical called norepinephrine. Acute exposure to alcohol inhibits this signal in the brain," said senior author Martin Paukert, MD, assistant professor of cellular and integrative physiology at UT Health San Antonio. When attention is needed for a task, norepinephrine is secreted by a brain structure called the locus coeruleus. Scientists previously did not understand well what happens next, but Dr. Paukert and the team showed that the norepinephrine attaches to receptors on cells called Bergmann glia. This leads to a calcium rise in these cells.

Bergmann glia are astrocytes (caretaker or supporting cells) in the cerebellum, a region near the brain stem. "To our knowledge, this paper is the first description that norepinephrine in mammals directly binds to receptors on the Bergmann glia and activates them through calcium elevation," Dr. Paukert said.

The researchers focused on the Bergmann glia but also demonstrated that the same phenomenon occurs in cortical astrocytes. "Most likely vigilance-dependent astrocyte calcium activation is inhibited throughout the brain by acute alcohol intoxication," Dr. Paukert said.

Persons under the influence are off-balance when they walk. The researchers expected to find that the inhibition of calcium rise in Bergmann glia would also explain this. It didn't. "The calcium elevation in Bergmann glia is not critical for motor coordination, which is somewhat surprising because the cerebellum is classically known for its role in motor control," Dr. Paukert said. "However, our findings are in line with current suggestions that the cerebellum also plays critical roles in non-motor functions, and that astrocytes are not only supporting basic brain maintenance, but they may actively participate in cognitive function."

The coauthors included Manzoor Bhat, PhD, professor and chairman of cellular and integrative physiology at UT Health San Antonio. "The beauty of the studies reported by Paukert and coauthors is that they have been conducted in real time in living and breathing animals using state-of-the-art technologies," Dr. Bhat said. "The findings will open up new avenues of defining the brain circuits that ultimately determine the state of alertness, and how chemicals that interfere with those circuits essentially dampen this inherent vigilance system of the brain."

The team utilized a technique called two-photon imaging to study specialized mice obtained from collaborators at Johns Hopkins University and Heidelberg University.

New research reveals that some primary school-aged children have self-harmed, prompting calls for intervention efforts to start earlier.

Led by researchers at the University of Melbourne and the Murdoch Children's Research Institute (MCRI), the study assessed more than 1200 children living in Melbourne, Australia, each year from age 8-9 years (wave 1) to 11-12 years (wave 4).

Data were drawn from the MCRI Childhood to Adolescence Transition Study, a longitudinal study with a broad focus on health, education and social adjustment as children make the transition from childhood to adolescence.

The recent study is published today in PLOS ONE and found three per cent of students (28/1059) reported self-harm in grade 6, at age 11 and 12 years. Of those who self-harmed, two thirds (64.3 per cent) were females and one third (35.7 per cent) were males.

In the first three waves of the study (grades 3-5), predictors of future self-harm in grade 6 included persistent symptoms of depression or anxiety, bullying and alcohol consumption.

In the more recent survey (wave 4), associations with self-harm were having few friends, poor emotional control, engaging in anti-social behaviour and being in mid-late puberty.

Participants who reported having few friends, and those who had experienced bullying victimisation, were seven and 24 times more likely to have self-harmed at age 11-12 years, respectively.

In terms of mental health, participants who self-harmed were also more than seven times more likely to report depressive symptoms and five times more likely to report anxiety than their peers who had not self-harmed.

Lead researcher Dr Rohan Borschmann said the findings suggested that mental health, puberty and peer relationships were most strongly associated with self-harm among primary school-aged children.

"Previous studies have focused specifically on children who have sought treatment for mental health problems, or focused on adolescents and young people," Dr Borschmann said.

"Ours is the first study to estimate the prevalence of self-harm among primary school-aged children in the general community, and it sheds light on the impact of peer relationship (including bullying), mental health problems, and puberty on children.

"The transition from childhood to adolescence is a critical time for kids and challenging experiences can have a huge impact on their self-esteem and friendships during this development phase."

Senior author Professor George Patton said the study highlighted the importance of early intervention strategies being introduced in primary school.

"These days many high schools participate in mental health and resilience programs, but our research shows that prevention strategies are needed much earlier," Professor Patton said. "Promoting and nurturing better relationships with other students is also particularly important."

The researchers note that the sample was slightly skewed towards higher socioeconomic status and had a higher percentage of participants who identified as Indigenous than the general Australian population.

If you or anyone you know needs help or support, you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14."

According to scientific estimations, humans are exposed to at least 10,000 to 100,000 environmental and exogenous compounds in an individual lifetime, which are mainly absorbed through our dietary. "Our body can effectively detoxify most of these substances, but various molecules as well as co-exposures can impact drug efficacy," says Benedikt Warth, deputy head of the Department of Food Chemistry and Toxicology at the Faculty of Chemistry and coordinator of the newly founded national exposome research infrastructure, EIRENE Austria.

Fragmented knowledge

Think of the well-known instruction not to drink alcohol in combination with antibiotics or pain relievers. "Ethanol is a well-studied toxin that can alter the effect of the active agent," says Warth. Bisphenol A (BPA) is another popular environmental toxin that practically everybody has accumulated in his or her body, although mostly in very low concentrations not considered to be critical for human health. BPA, a crucial component in the plastics production, has shown to interact with various anti-cancer therapeutics, which can result in drug resistance and reduced effectiveness.

Genistein, a phytoestrogen derived from soybeans and a prominent active agent in hormone drugs for menopausal symptoms, can also affect various drugs, in particular hormone-relevant chemotherapeutics against breast cancer, the researchers explain in their article. These interactions can have negative as well as positive effects.

"Among the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of molecules that humans are exposed to, countless could interact with therapeutics, especially under certain conditions or in critical phases of life such as pregnancy or adolescence", PhD student Manuel Pristner explains.

Exposome & health effects

"Today's high-resolution mass spectrometry enables us to measure a very large number of molecules in parallel. This way, we can systematically investigate the network of relationships between the so-called exposome, i.e. all measurable exposures, and certain active agents," says Warth. Furthermore, improved bio-informatic algorithms enable the researchers to analyse the generated big data sets.

To date, researchers have been specifically looking for the effect of a certain molecule on a specific receptor. "With the new technologies at hand, we can expand the approach and not only use a fishing rod, but a fishing net to implement a comprehensive screening strategy, which might lead to discoveries that we would not have been able to make based on rational hypothesis," say the chemists.

Personalised medicin

There are different reasons why certain active agents work well in one person and less or not at all in another, depending on an individual genome, the presence of certain receptors, the activity of enzymes or simply chemical reactivity.

An improved understanding of exposome-drug interactions could enable physicians to prescribe drugs and drug doses on an individual basis, increasing their effectiveness and minimising or even avoiding side effects. Individualised medication for a patient through a standardised pre-screening of his or her exposome "are still future dreams," according to Warth, "but the systematic approach could be ground-breaking and also benefit the early stages of drug development."

An 81-year-old midnight snapper caught off the coast of Western Australia has taken the title of the oldest tropical reef fish recorded anywhere in the world.

The octogenarian fish was found at the Rowley Shoals--about 300km west of Broome--and was part of a study that has revised what we know about the longevity of tropical fish.

The research identified 11 individual fish that were more than 60 years old, including a 79-year-old red bass also caught at the Rowley Shoals.

Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Fish Biologist Dr Brett Taylor, who led the study, said the midnight snapper beat the previous record holder by two decades.

"Until now, the oldest fish that we've found in shallow, tropical waters have been around 60 years old," he said.

"We've identified two different species here that are becoming octogenarians, and probably older."

Dr Taylor said the research will help us understand how fish length and age will be affected by climate change.

"We're observing fish at different latitudes--with varying water temperatures--to better understand how they might react when temperatures warm everywhere," he said.

The study involved four locations along the WA coast, as well as the protected Chagos Archipelago in the central Indian Ocean.

It looked at three species that are not targeted by fishing in WA; the red bass (Lutjanus bohar), midnight snapper (Macolor macularis), and black and white snapper (Macolor niger).

Co-author Dr Stephen Newman, from the WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development, said long-lived fish were generally considered more vulnerable to fishing pressure.

"Snappers make up a large component of commercial fisheries in tropical Australia and they're also a key target for recreational fishers," he said.

"So, it's important that we manage them well, and WA's fisheries are among the best managed fisheries in the world."

Marine scientists are able to accurately determine the age of a fish by studying their ear bones, or 'otoliths'.

Fish otoliths contain annual growth bands that can be counted in much the same way as tree rings.

Dr Taylor said the oldest red bass was born during World War I.

"It survived the Great Depression and World War II," he said.

"It saw the Beatles take over the world, and it was collected in a fisheries survey after Nirvana came and went."

"It's just incredible for a fish to live on a coral reef for 80 years."

Groundwater reservoirs in Bavaria have warmed considerably over the past few decades. A new study by researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) compares temperatures at 35 measuring stations, taken at different depths, with data from the 1990s. Water found at a depth of 20 metres was almost one degree warmer on average than 30 years ago. The findings were published in the journal "Frontiers in Earth Science".

As the air warms, the ground also becomes warmer over time - ultimately resulting in warmer groundwater. Geologists call this thermal coupling. "Unlike the atmosphere, however, the earth's sub-surface is very sluggish," explains Professor Peter Bayer, a geoscientist at MLU and co-author of the study. Because the ground below the surface does not react to short-term temperature fluctuations and thus tends to reflect long-term trends, it is a good indicator of climate change.

"This ground warming effect has been known to scientists, however there is still little data on it," explains Bayer. For the new study, Bayer and his doctoral student Hannes Hemmerle repeated measurements that had been carried out in the 1990s at 35 measuring stations in groundwater reservoirs in Bavaria. The measuring points are distributed throughout the state, which provides a rare insight into the development of an entire region.

The geologists were able to show that almost all the groundwater reservoirs they investigated had warmed up in a similar way over the decades. "Climate change has a very clear effect at depths starting at around 15 metres; at that point short-term local or seasonal fluctuations can no longer be measured," explains Hemmerle. The groundwater at depths of 20 metres was, on average, nearly 0.9 degrees Celsius warmer than in the 1990s. At depths of 60 metres it was still nearly 0.3 degrees warmer. During the same period, the average air temperature rose by 1.05 degrees Celsius.

"It can be assumed that the groundwater will warm up even more as a delayed reaction to air temperatures and that it will continue to react to rising atmospheric temperatures in the future," says Hemmerle. The consequences of this warming are still difficult to gauge, says Bayer, who adds, higher water temperatures affect the growth of microbes and put pressure on underground ecosystems that are adapted to very constant temperatures.

In order to get a feel for the magnitude of the measurements, Bayer and Hemmerle also compared ground warming at a depth of 15 metres with Bavaria's annual heating requirements. Their findings: the increase in temperature correlates to about ten percent of demand. "At least a portion of the heat could possibly be reused as geothermal energy," says Bayer. However, the results cannot be directly transferred to the whole of Germany. "But it can be assumed that the trend is the same," says Hemmerle.

Scientists have broken the rules of enzyme engineering to unlock a new method for creating chemical reactions that could unlock a wide range of new applications - from creating new drugs to food production.

In their paper published today in Nature Catalysis, Professor Francesca Paradisi and Dr. Martina Contente of the University of Nottingham and the University of Bern show a new method to produce chemical molecules more efficiently through a new one step reaction in the enzyme.

Professor Paradis is Professor of Biocatalysis in the School of Chemistry in Nottingham and Professor of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Bern, she explains: "We have demonstrated how a very simple mutation in one of the key residues of a useful enzyme has dramatically expanded its synthetic scope, enabling the use of the mutant variant in the preparation of challenging chemical molecules, as well as natural metabolites that are vital in many biological processes in the body."

Any textbook on enzymes will report on how the catalytic amino acids in any given enzyme family are highly conserved, they are in fact a signature of the type of chemistry an enzyme can do. Variations do occur and in some cases, if the replacing amino acid is similar, both can be found in significant proportion in Nature, but others can be much less common and are found only in a limited number of species.

"In this study we have explored an untouched area of enzyme engineering and modified the a key catalytic residue in the active site of an enzyme" adds Professor Paradisi, "Previously it was thought that doing this would cause a loss of activity of the enzyme but we have found this is not the case when this biocatalyst is used in a synthetic direction and in fact challenging but very useful molecules can now be made under mild conditions which could be easily scaled up and replicated commercially for use in a wide range of products."

To change the substrate scope of an enzyme the approach has generally been to mutate the residues involved in substrate recognition, whether through rational design or directed evolution, leaving always untouched the catalytic ones.

The mutant variant of an acyl transferase enzyme was rapidly created and while the native biocatalyst would work with alcohols and linear amines, the mutant work with thiols and much more complex amines too. The research demonstrated that indeed the new variant has lost the ability to hydrolyse esters, but for synthetic applications, where an ester or other functional groups need to be made (thioesters and amides) and not cleaved, this is in fact a major advantage.

Dr Martina Contente adds: "We have had fantastic feedback on this study from the scientific community as it is providing a new tool for chemistry that can be applied to a wide range of molecular reactions. The fact that it is a very stable reaction created without the need for specific conditions mean it has the potential for a low cost commercial application in the production of new pharmaceuticals. We believe we have unlocked a new combination in the catalytic triads which nature seem to have disfavoured, possibly to tighten the control on reactivity, but that for a chemist could be a real goldmine."

SUMMARY

Researchers have developed the first report card on biosimilars for three blockbuster cancer drugs marketed by Genentech/Roche: Rituxan, Avastin and Herceptin. In a Policy Review in The Lancet Oncology, Y. Tony Yang, a professor at the George Washington University School of Nursing and Milken Institute School of Public Health, along with researchers at the University of South Carolina, the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, California, the Virginia Mason Cancer Institute and Saint Louis University School of Medicine, identify factors preventing the effective launch of oncology biosimilars in the United States, including the struggle to garner market share and fighting patent litigation lawsuits across the country. They also report inadequate rollouts for the first wave of oncology biosimilars for AMGEN's supportive care cancer drugs Neupogen, Epogen and Neulasta.

FROM THE RESEARCHERS

"The promise of oncology biosimilars leading to an estimated $50 billion in market savings for oncology care is not going to happen unless the Biden Administration and Congress get involved from day one of the new administration. A major hurdle is when AMGEN and Genentech/Roche pay their competitors hundreds of millions of dollars NOT to market their biosimilar version of blockbuster cancer drugs -- the so-called 'Pay-for-Delay' strategy. This strategy is not allowed with generic pharmaceuticals and extension of the end of this strategy for biosimilars under proposed bipartisan legislation led by Amy Klobuchar is imperative."
-Y. Tony Yang, professor at the GW School of Nursing and Milken Institute School of Public Health

"It is apparent that the intersection of law and medicine is proving to be a bigger hurdle than anyone anticipated for oncology biosimilars. Rather than patients having ready access to less costly formulations of blockbuster cancer drugs, 'Pay-for-Delay' deals and a bevy of patent lawsuits by AMGEN and Genentech/Roche hold the oncology biosimilar market hostage. Under the Biden Administration, dramatic changes in these barriers must occur if the U.S. is going to catch-up to the success that is seen in the European Union and Japan."

The Arctic is warming more quickly than almost any other region on Earth as a result of climate change. One of the better known: the continually shrinking summer sea-ice extent in the Arctic. But global warming is also leaving its mark on terrestrial permafrost. For several years, permafrost regions have been thawing more and more intensively in North America, Scandinavia and Siberia - e.g. in the extreme northwest of Alaska. Permafrost is soil that has remained permanently frozen to depths of up to several hundred metres, often since the last glacial period, roughly 20,000 years ago, or in some cases even longer.

The permafrost regions near the city of Kotzebue, Alaska, are dotted with hundreds of thaw lakes. These are formed when the permafrost soils begin to thaw and subside. Meltwater from the soil or from the winter snowfall and summer rainfall collects in the hollows. Some are several thousand years old and were formed since the end of the last glacial period. But in recent years, the lake landscape has changed due to more frequent relatively mild winters there. In summer, the permafrost soils thaw extensively and they don't completely refreeze in winter, which means that the lakes' shores become unstable and collapse, causing water to drain from the lakes. Researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) observed a particularly extreme example of this in the seasons 2017 and 2018: within a year, more lakes drained than ever before - roughly 190 in total. "The scale shocked us," says AWI geographer Ingmar Nitze. "The winter 2017/2018 was extremely wet and warm. Conditions were similar to those our climate models predict will be normal by the end of this century. In a way, we caught a glimpse of the future. By then, widespread lake drainage will have reached a catastrophic scale."

As Nitze and his co-authors report in the journal The Cryosphere, the mean temperature in the 2017/2018 season was circa five degrees Celsius above the long-term average. In Kotzebue, the winter temperature is usually about minus 20 degrees - but in that year the temperature was 10 to 20 degrees higher on several days. Furthermore, as a result of the moist air, there was a significant amount of snow. Since snow insulates the soil against the cold air in winter, the active layer and upper permafrost that had partially thawed in summer did not refreeze sufficiently during this relatively mild winter. A chain of factors likely led to the drainage of the lakes, one of which was the fact that the permafrost around the shores had degraded, facilitating lateral drainage. In addition, the large amount of meltwater from the thawing snow masses increased the lake water levels. Making matters worse, the water was able to drain easily, cutting veritable flood channels through the thawed soil surface layer. "With a depth of one to three metres, the lakes are relatively shallow and so drain quickly," explains Ingmar Nitze. Fortunately, since the region is sparsely populated, no major damage was done. But that's not the point, adds the researcher. "This drainage event simply shows the extreme scale of warming and impacts to tundra and permafrost landscapes that we'll see in the Arctic in the coming decades. But above all, it shows that extreme events won't occur only at the end of the century, but are already taking place and will do so in the years to come." This is a cause for concern, since it means that the ancient plant remains stored in the permafrost soils can become exposed and broken down by microbes. The carbon contained within the plants is then released as carbon dioxide or methane, which exacerbates the greenhouse effect - a vicious circle.

For their study, Ingmar Nitze and his colleagues evaluated satellite images of the region surrounding Kotzebue and northwestern Alaska. In the pictures, the full and drained lakes can be easily distinguished. It is also clear when the lakes begin to drain. Winter 2017/2018 was the warmest in the region since continuous records began at the Kotzebue station in 1949. Accordingly, the experts had expected several lakes to drain. But they hadn't expected it to happen on this scale. "In the mild years 2005 and 2006, several lakes drained - but this time there were twice as many." And that's worrying, the experts warn, because at the same time it means the permafrost's potential to preserve large amounts of carbon is shrinking at an alarming rate.

A protein called CatSper1 may act as a molecular 'barcode' that helps determine which sperm cells will make it to an egg and which are eliminated along the way.

The findings in mice, published recently in eLife, have important implications for understanding the selection process that sperm cells undergo after they enter the female reproductive tract, a key step in reproduction. Learning more about these processes could lead to the development of new approaches to treating infertility.

"Male mammals ejaculate millions of sperm cells into the female's reproductive tract, but only a few arrive at the egg," explains senior author Jean-Ju Chung, Assistant Professor of Cellular & Molecular Physiology at Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, US. "This suggests that sperm cells are selected as they travel through the tract and excess cells are eliminated. But most of our knowledge about fertilisation in mammals has come from studying isolated sperm cells and eggs in a petri dish - an approach that doesn't allow us to see what happens during the sperm selection and elimination processes."

To address this challenge, Chung and colleagues, including lead author Lukas Ded, who was a postdoctoral fellow in the Chung laboratory when the study was carried out, devised a new molecular imaging strategy to observe the sperm selection process within the reproductive tract of mice. Using this technique, and combining it with more traditional molecular biology studies, the team revealed that a sperm protein called CatSper1 must be intact for a sperm cell to fertilise an egg.

The CatSper1 protein is one of four proteins that create a channel to allow calcium to flow into the membrane surrounding the tail of the sperm. This channel is essential for sperm movement and survival. If this protein is lopped off in the reproductive tract, the sperm never makes it to the egg and dies. "This highlights CatSper1 as a kind of barcode for sperm selection and elimination in the female reproductive tract," says Chung.

The findings, and the new imaging platform created by the team, may enable scientists to learn more about the steps in the fertilisation process and what happens afterwards, such as when the egg implants into the mother's uterus.

"Our study opens up new horizons to visualise and analyse molecular events in single sperm cells during fertilisation and the earliest stages of pregnancy," Chung concludes. "This and further studies could ultimately provide new insights to aid the development of novel infertility treatments."

BUFFALO, NY-November 18, 2020 – Each year, an estimated 40,000+ women and men lose the battle against breast cancer in the United States. After skin cancer, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women.

Oncotarget launched the new Special Collections series on the free-to-read and rigorously peer-reviewed journal's website. The first collection in this series is the Special Collection on breast cancer—which includes numerous recently published scientific papers that pertain to breast cancer research in the Oncotarget Journal.

“Special Collections are useful tools for researchers who are interested in learning from previously published studies about a specific topic,” the Oncotarget Media Office explains.

Papers included in this collection relate to new prognostic markers, risk factors, therapies, gene and protein studies, oncogenes, and other target mechanisms that may be used to treat breast cancer. This free-to-read collection is designed to be an open access resource for the medical science community to promote a better understanding of all the latest and most important breast cancer research.

“This new collection can be used as a resource to help researchers and scientists design new studies that may lead to novel breakthroughs in breast cancer treatments and therapies,” the Oncotarget Media Office said.

Cleaning surfaces with hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectants has the potential to pollute the air and pose a health risk, according to research led by University of Saskatchewan (USask).

The research team found that mopping a floor with a commercially available hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectant raised the level of airborne hydrogen peroxide to more than 600 parts per billion--about 60 per cent of the maximum level permitted for exposure over eight hours, and 600 times the level naturally occurring in the air. The results were just published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

"When you're washing surfaces, you are also changing the air you are breathing," said USask chemistry researcher Tara Kahan, senior author of the study and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Analytical Chemistry. "Poor indoor air quality is associated with respiratory issues such as asthma."

Too much exposure to hydrogen peroxide could lead to respiratory, skin, and eye irritation, according to the U.S. Centres for Disease Control.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to increased cleaning and demand for all types of cleaning products, including bleach alternatives that contain hydrogen peroxide.

"At the beginning of the pandemic, we couldn't do research on this topic because hydrogen peroxide solutions were out of stock," Kahan said.

Kahan's team, which also included researchers from Syracuse University, York University (Toronto), and University of York (England), sprayed the vinyl floor in a simulated room environment with 0.88 per cent hydrogen peroxide disinfectant and wiped it dry with paper towel either immediately or after letting it soak in for an hour. The team then tested the air at human head height.

"The real risk is for people who get repeatedly exposed, such as janitors and house cleaners," Kahan said. "We washed the floor and collected measurements at face height--the concentrations will be even stronger at the floor or at the level of a countertop."

Kahan said that the impact on children and pets--those physically closer to the disinfected surfaces--is not yet known.

More than 10 per cent of disinfectants approved by Health Canada that are deemed likely to be effective against SARS-CoV-2 use hydrogen peroxide as the active ingredient. A total of 168 disinfecting products containing hydrogen peroxide as the active ingredient are approved or marketed in Canada.

There are a few ways to reduce risks while disinfecting your home, Kahan says:

Consider using soap and water instead of a disinfectant--soap and water are known to kill the virus that causes COVID-19.

Consider opening a window, turning on a range hood, or using your central air system--ventilation can dramatically reduce levels of pollutants circulating in the air and is one of the most effective methods of removing particles that can carry the virus.

Opt for hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectants over bleach, as Kahan notes "Hydrogen peroxide is still much less potentially harmful than bleach."

Funded by the Canada Research Chairs program and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Kahan's team--mostly women in a discipline which tends to be male-dominated--is currently repeating the experiment in a house and apartment in Saskatoon to determine whether the high numbers occur in a real world environment and to find practical ways to mitigate exposure risks.

ROCHESTER, Minn. ? People who have coronary artery disease, stroke or peripheral artery disease often are prescribed a statin, a cholesterol-lowering drug that reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke.

In a recent publication in JAMA Network Open, Mayo Clinic researchers identify trends in statin use across the U.S. among people with these diseases, as well as among those who already had a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). Their data indicate that only about 60% of patients are getting the recommended therapy.

"Statins are one of the few key medical advancements in recent decades that contribute to the health of broad populations," says Xiaoxi Yao, Ph.D., a health sciences researcher at Mayo Clinic and lead author of the study. "High cholesterol is very common, making statins relevant to many patients."

"Dr. Yao and I were interested in understanding the trends and outcomes related to these medications over the past decade," says Peter Noseworthy, M.D., a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and senior author of the study. "For such a widely used class of medication, this type of research is especially important because it helps us identify gaps for future practice improvement efforts."

Statins have been around long enough that all are available in generic form. This was important to Drs. Yao and Noseworthy, and their research team, because prescription cost is a well-known barrier to medication adherence.

They also were interested in seeing if ACC/AHA guidelines implemented in 2013 had any noticeable effects on statin use for secondary prevention. Among people who already have atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, secondary prevention refers to further exacerbation or adverse events. The guidelines recommend high-intensity statins for patients 75 or younger with this disease.

The researchers used deidentified data, including pharmacy and medical claims data, and linked electronic health records, from the OptumLabs Data Warehouse. OptumLabs is a collaborative center for research and innovation co-founded by Optum Inc. and Mayo Clinic, and focused on improving patient care and patient value.

They examined the records of nearly 300,000 adults in the U.S. who had an initial atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease event between 2007 and 2016. These were divided into three groups: coronary heart disease, ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack, or peripheral artery disease.

When people left the hospital or emergency department in 2007 following a first diagnosis in one of these categories, about half began taking statins within 30 days. By 2016, statin use increased to approximately 60%.

"Based on the guidelines, we hoped to see a much higher uptake among this entire group," says Dr. Noseworthy. "Statin intolerance was only noted for 4%-5% of the patients, which means as many as 35% of patients are not receiving treatment according to the guidelines."

By 2016, the researchers also noted substantial variance between diagnosis and likelihood of receiving statins after the event. While 80.9% of patients with coronary heart disease were given statins, only 65.8% of patients with stroke or transient ischemic attack received the drug. A scant 35.7% of people with peripheral artery disease were prescribed statins.

Also, there were unexpected disparities unrelated to diagnosis:

People ages 65-75 were more likely to receive statins than those who were younger or older.
High-intensity statins were prescribed most frequently to people 65 and younger and least frequently in people 75 or older.

Women were less likely to receive statins than men, regardless of age or recommended dose intensity.
The team observed some other shifts in statin use between 2007 and 2016. Use of generic statins more than doubled as the cost decreased. In general, people were much more likely to consistently take statins a year after the initial event. However, the likelihood of patients continuing their prescribed statins was less likely among women. It also was less likely among people who were not white.

"Many patients with peripheral artery disease, ischemic stroke and TIA, and women, remain undertreated," says Dr. Yao. "The improvement in statin use and adherence was quite modest, despite the substantial decrease in drug cost."

The researchers also were able to analyze clinical outcomes. They saw the risk for patients to have a major adverse cardiac event within a year of the initial event decrease from 8.9% in 2007 to 6.5% in 2016. This corresponded mainly to the increase in the use and intensity of statin.

"The risk of adverse outcomes has decreased overall. However, it is apparent that major treatment gaps exist in our country," says Dr. Noseworthy. "Although the guidelines recommend statins for stroke, TIA and peripheral artery disease, there appears to be an unwillingness to consider these and cardiovascular disease equally treatable with statins."

"Gaps in both prescribing and continuation of statins for at least a year after discharge among women, and Black, Hispanic and Asian people mean that they will be more likely to experience avoidable adverse outcomes," says Dr. Yao. "If your physician prescribes statins, please adhere to the drugs," she says. "Some people say, 'I took the drug for a while, but nothing happened, so I stopped.' A statin is a drug to prevent cardiac events, stroke and death. So 'nothing happened' is actually the goal."

"Most physicians would likely prescribe statins for patients with a heart attack, and perhaps other incidents of cardiovascular disease," says Dr. Noseworthy. "However, in this large group of Americans, we saw that many patients with peripheral artery disease, ischemic stroke and TIA remain undertreated. We need to increase statin use in these patients."