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People who have survived a suicide attempt are less sensitive to bodily signals related to their heart and breath, and have a higher tolerance for pain, suggest new findings published today in eLife.

Accurately predicting the risk of suicide in an individual is one of the greatest challenges encountered by clinicians. By identifying physical characteristics that differentiate people who have attempted suicide from those who have not, the study paves the way for future research aimed at identifying biological indicators of suicide risk.

Our brain constantly monitors the status of bodily signals that we need to stay alive, such as our heartbeat, our breath and pain caused by tissue damage to our skin. 'Interoception' describes the way the nervous system tracks the internal state of the body, helping us to perceive potential or actual threats and to act accordingly.

"Unlike most organisms, some humans are able to counteract these survival instincts through the act of suicide," explains lead author Danielle DeVille, a PhD student at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, Oklahoma, US. "While experts have strived for decades to understand and prevent these deaths, we still don't know enough about the factors that contribute to suicidal behaviour."

To address this gap, DeVille and her colleagues conducted the first study that looks at whether blunted interoception is associated with a history of suicide attempts in people with psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. Their study involved 34 participants with a history of suicide attempts in the last five years as compared to a matched psychiatric reference sample of 68 participants with no history of suicide attempts.

The team examined interoceptive processing in the participants using a panel of tasks. These include a breath-hold challenge, a cold-pressor test - where an individual immerses a hand in icy water and has their heart rate and skin conductance measured - and heartbeat perception. The researchers found that those who had attempted suicide tolerated the breath-hold and cold-pressor challenges for significantly longer than those who had not. Additionally, this group was less able to accurately perceive their heartbeat than non-attempters.

"We found that this 'interoceptive numbing' was linked to lower brain activity in the insular cortex, a region that closely tracks the internal state of the body," explains senior author Sahib Khalsa, Director of Clinical Operations at the Laureate Institute for Brain Research. "This numbing was not influenced by the presence a psychiatric disorder, by a history of having considered suicide, or by having taken psychiatric medications, and this suggests it was most closely linked to the act of attempting suicide."

Khalsa adds that these findings come with a number of limitations, including the fact that the study did not fully examine whether a history of considering suicide, versus making an actual attempt, has an independent impact on interoception. "It is also difficult to judge from our study whether the observed differences in interoception represent innate characteristics of the individuals involved, or whether they reflect an emerging response as they progressed from suicidal thinking to suicidal action," he says.

Despite these limitations, the authors say their work reveals a possible role of interoceptive dysfunction in distinguishing individuals at risk of suicide. It also lays the groundwork for further studies to determine whether measuring interoception in individuals can improve the ability to predict their suicide risk.

One aspect of bacterial activity is the production of so-called extracellular membrane vesicles (MVs): biological 'packages' wrapped in a lipid-bilayer membrane, carrying for example genetic material. Apart from having specific biological functions, MVs are increasingly used in nanobiotechnological applications, including drug delivery and enzyme transport. In order to better understand the processes involving MVs, a full apprehension of their physical properties is essential. In particular, the degree of heterogeneity of vesicles released by one single type of bacterium is an important point. Now, Azuma Taoka from Kanazawa University, Nobuhiko Nomura from Tsukuba University and colleagues have addressed this question, and demonstrate a previously unrecognized physical heterogeneity in the membrane vesicles of four types of bacterium.

The researchers applied phase imaging atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the physical properties of MVs produced by E. coli, P. aeruginosa, P. denitrificans and B. subtilis. In phase imaging AFM, a sample is 'tapped' with a nano-sized oscillating cantilever tip; the observed delay in the oscillation of the tip compared to free oscillation provides a measure of the energy dissipation due to the interaction with the sample surface. This dissipation, in turn, is related to the physical properties of the surface, including adhesion, elasticity and friction, variations of which are due to compositional differences.

Taoka, Nomura and colleagues recorded phase images of many MVs, and color-coded the MVs on a scale ranging from "non-adherent/hard" (low adhesion, elasticity and/or friction) to "adherent/soft" (high adhesion, elasticity and/or friction). By analyzing these maps, the scientists discovered a high diversity of physical properties of MVs. They checked whether the maps changed during imaging; the physical properties were stable in time, so the diversity could be concluded to be an intrinsic feature of MVs.

The researchers found that the physical heterogeneity is caused by biological factors, as MV size and phase shifts are not correlated. Furthermore, they observed that different types of bacterium form MVs with different physical-property distributions. Finally, the scientists argued that the observed high heterogeneity reflects the chemical composition of the MVs being heterogenous.

The work of Taoka, Nomura and colleagues not only presents important insights into the properties of MVs produced by different bacteria, but also shows the power of phase shift AFM as a tool for biological vesicles. Quoting the researchers: "It is expected that using these cutting-edge techniques for nanoscale physical mapping will contribute to provide further detailed information to undiscovered nature of bacterial MVs and elucidate molecular mechanisms supporting their functions."

Amsterdam, April 7, 2020 - A study published in Technology and Health Care shows that four leading brands of e-cars do not trigger electromagnetic interference (EMI) with cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED). CIEDs like pacemakers and defibrillators may malfunction when they are exposed to strong electromagnetic fields (EMF) generated by powerful motors. While rare events, such errors could have serious consequences for patients. With the increasing use of electric-powered vehicles for public and private transport, there is a critical need to assess the potential risks for this population.

Electromagnetic interference is a rare, but potentially catastrophic event for a CIED patient, resulting in pauses or cardiac arrest in pacemaker patients or inappropriate shock delivery in defibrillator patients. CIED patients frequently worry about triggering such events while interacting with appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, and metal detectors. These concerns are often based on misconceptions and myths exacerbated the limited information available to physicians about the increasing number of electronic and digital devices that emit EMF.

"Our study addresses pressing patient and physician concerns regarding the use of e-cars by patients with CIEDs and we are pleased to report that their use appears safe with current technology. Neither adverse events nor electromagnetic interference were detected while driving or charging the cars during our test," explained co-investigator Dr. Matthew O'Connor, Department of Electrophysiology, Wellington Hospital, New Zealand.

The investigators attribute the safety of the e-cars tested to the shielding used in electric cars to protect onboard computer systems from EMI. This shielding prevents high EMF levels inside the cars and likely protects CIEDs from interference. The strongest EMF levels were detected during the charging of the vehicles.

One hundred and eight CIED patients drove and charged four commercially available e-cars (Nissan LEAF, Tesla Model S P85, BMW i3, und VW eUp) on a roller-bench test, which simulates road driving in a safe environment. Roller-bench testing provides resistance and maximizes motor output and EMF, which was crucial to ensure simulating real-world EMF generation.

Given the rapidly increasing use of these vehicles for private and public transportation, this study provides important information for patients with CIEDs and is the first to do so using only fully electric cars. Hybrid cars were excluded from the study to control for maximal EMF, since the intermittent use of a combustion engine could result in too much variation in EMF exposure.

"It is important to give evidence-based advice on which devices are dangerous EMI sources and which devices are harmless so that CIED patients can avoid unfounded worries and unnecessary restrictions," commented lead investigator PD Dr. med. Carsten Lennerz, Department of Electrophysiology, German Heart Centre Munich, Munich, Germany.

The results of the study should reassure patients with pacemakers/defibrillators that the tested cars are safe for them. PD Dr. med. Lennerz cautioned, however, that while these results as encouraging, rare events may still occur, and the technologies used are rapidly changing.

The majority of New York City residents expect a long disruption to their daily life. While a quarter (25%) think the epidemic will disrupt their life for less than a month, 27% think its impact will last two months, 20% three months, and a substantial plurality, 28%, anticipate more than four months' disruption. The findings are part of the fourth weekly city and statewide tracking survey from CUNY Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy (CUNY SPH), conducted April 3-5.

Forty-three percent (43%) said they know someone who had tested positive for the virus, up substantially from 30% in week three and 15% in week two. An increased number reported having been tested themselves for coronavirus this past week, although the overall numbers remain small: 6% said they had been tested and half (3%) said they had tested positive.

Almost half (48%) of New Yorkers believed they had a high or very high chance of contracting COVID-19, down from 58% last week, but higher than 40% and 43% in the survey's first two weeks. Of the three regions surveyed (NYC, Long Island, and Upstate NY), Long Island residents continued to report the highest perceived risk of infection. This week 64% of Long Islanders believed they had a high or very high chance of getting sick, up from 57% in week three and 46% in week two. Upstate has consistently reported the lowest perception of risk; this week 40%, up from week three at 36% and week two at 34%. Almost one respondent in eight in New York City (12%) said they have someone sick at home who had symptoms of the virus, essentially the same as last week (13%). On Long Island, nearly one in five (19%), said they have someone at home sick, the same percentage as last week. Upstate only 5% reported someone home sick, down from 7% last week.

The most important factor contributing to coronavirus-related anxiety or depression for 40% of NYC residents is fear of a family member or loved one becoming ill with the virus. Getting sick themselves ranked a distant second at 18%, remaining in isolation was at 15% and fear of job loss was ranked fourth most important at 13%.

"We have read numerous accounts of individual accountability, courage, and even creativity during this difficult time," said Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of CUNY SPH. "These findings bear this out. The biggest concern New Yorkers report is not for their own health and safety, their employment or their own isolation, but overwhelmingly for the safety and well-being of their family members and others who are close to them."

More than three quarters of New Yorkers believe that wearing a mask when outside (a measure intended to prevent asymptomatic people who are infected from transmitting the disease) would be helpful in containing the virus. This idea is more popular than a two-week self-quarantine for all New Yorkers which 61% in week three said it was helpful. The closing of schools and Universities in week one had 72% support but by week two saw support grow to 80%.

Mental Health

This week, when asked about hopefulness, 60% of New Yorkers did not feel hopeful about the future. Lack of hope was highest among Asians 68%, compared to Whites 64%, Latinx/Hispanics 59%, and Blacks 51%, suggesting different emotional reactions to the current challenge amongst different ethnic groups.

"The percentage of New Yorkers who expressed serious mental stress remained consistently high over the past two weeks," said Dr. Scott Ratzan, distinguished lecturer at CUNY SPH. "As a number of federal and state officials have said that the current week will be a particularly difficult one, it will be important to be vigilant in observing and responding to the community's level of anxiety, depression and despair."

Mental health risks have been consistently high across the past two weeks - 40% are socially isolated, 44% feel anxious, and 35% feel depressed at least half of the time.

Women tended to be more depressed than men (38% vs 30%) but there were no differences across gender for hopelessness, social isolation, and anxiety.

As in previous weeks, respondents over 60 were more likely to feel socially isolated when compared to 18-29 year olds (45% vs 31%). Paradoxically, the younger age group was more likely to manifest anxiety (54% vs 34%), depression (40% vs 30%), and hopelessness (68% vs 56%) compared with seniors.

There are also race differences in terms of social isolation. Latinx/Hispanics reported the highest rates at 56% compared with other ethnic minority groups that report between 36-39% and Whites who report 28%. However, there are no race differences in percentages of those endorsing depression and anxiety risk. This pattern is consistent across the last two weeks.

When asked about what contributed to their anxiety or depression, the top stressor was concern about family and loved ones getting sick. For Latinx/Hispanics, Whites, and African Americans, concern about getting sick themselves and about remaining in isolation were the second and third top stressors. Notably, for Asians, the second leading stressor was losing a job rather than getting sick themselves.

Jobs

Household job loss held at 35%, the same as last week (36%), up from 28% in week two. A substantial drop in full time employment, from 47% to 38% over the past four weeks, was reported. Unemployment rose nine points and retirements were up two points. The employment sector hardest hit was leisure and hospitality (37% to 26%). Construction and manufacturing sector employees were the second most impacted (23% to 19%).

Household job loss increased perceived risk of contracting COVID-19 (55% vs 45% of those who did not experience household job loss). Similarly, household job loss increased feelings of hopelessness (66% vs 56%), anxiety (49% vs 41%), and depression (41% vs 31%).

Food Access

Eighty-five percent (85%) reported a reduction in food access with 22% saying the reduction was "a lot", 36% "somewhat" and 26% "a little." In week two, 80% had reported reduced food access.

Notably, half of the respondents (50%) said that they believed their diets had become healthier during this time. "More people cooking at home may contribute to a healthier diet," suggests Nick Freudenberg, distinguished professor of public health and director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute.

Additional Findings

Slightly more than one respondent in five (21%) said they sought healthcare or advice from a health professional about coronavirus, which is essentially the same as the previous week (20%).

About the same percentage of respondents (37% vs 36%) said their medical care for other problems has been cancelled due to the epidemic.

The complete survey results and related commentary can be found at https://sph.cuny.edu/research/covid-19-tracking-survey/week-4 and JHC Impact, an initiative of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives.

Can a special diet help in certain cases of asthma? A new study at the University of Bonn at least points to this conclusion. According to the study, mice that were switched to a so-called ketogenic diet showed significantly reduced inflammation of the respiratory tract. The results are now published in the renowned journal Immunity.

Asthma patients react even to low concentrations of some allergens with severe inflammation of the bronchi. This is also accompanied by increased mucus production, which makes breathing even more difficult. A central role here is played by cells of the innate immune system, which were only discovered a few years ago and are called Innate Lymphoid Cells (ILC). They perform an important protective function in the lungs by regenerating damaged mucous membranes. For this purpose they produce inflammatory messengers from the group of cytokines, which stimulate division of the mucosal cells and promote mucus production.

This mechanism is normally very useful: It allows the body to quickly repair damage caused by pathogens or harmful substances. The mucus then transports the pathogens out of the bronchial tubes and protects the respiratory tract against re-infection. "With asthma, however, the inflammatory reaction is much stronger and longer than normal", emphasizes Prof. Dr. Christoph Wilhelm from the Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology, who is a member of the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation at the University of Bonn. The consequences are extreme breathing difficulties, which can even be life-threatening.

Rapid reproduction

The ILCs multiply rapidly during this process and produce large amounts of proinflammatory cytokines. Scientists hope that if their division could be slowed down, it may be possible to bring the excessive reaction under control. In fact, the results now published point in exactly this direction. "We have investigated which metabolic processes are active in the ILCs when they switch to reproduction mode," explains Wilhelm's colleague Dr. Fotios Karagiannis. "Then we tried to block these metabolic pathways and thereby reduce the speed at which the cells divide."

Some metabolic pathways were in fact significantly more active in dividing ILCs. They primarily ensure that the cells are supplied with energy and with the building blocks they require for reproduction. The latter include, for example, fatty acids that are needed to make the cell membrane. This forms a thin skin with which cells separate themselves from their surroundings. "Activated ILCs therefore absorb fatty acids from their environment and store them in their interior in small droplets for a short time, before they utilise them for energy or building membranes," explains Karagiannis.

But what happens if cells are forced to use these fatty acids elsewhere? To answer this question, the researchers put asthmatic mice on a diet that contained mainly fats, but hardly any carbohydrates or proteins. With this diet, also known as a ketogenic diet, the cell metabolism changes: The cells now get the energy they need from burning fat. However, this means that they lack fatty acids, which they need for the formation of new membranes during cell division.

As a consequence, the division activity of the ILCs in the rodents fed a special diet decreased - dramatically: "Normally, contact with allergens increases the number of ILCs in the bronchi fourfold," says Prof. Wilhelm. "In our experimental animals, however, it remained almost unchanged. Both mucus production and other asthma symptoms decreased accordingly."

This is not only due to the switch to fats as an alternative energy source and the resulting shortage of fatty acids. The glucose deficiency presumably also directly contributes to the reduced activity of the ILCs. "The prevalence of asthma has increased dramatically over the last few decades. Perhaps this is also related to an increasingly common high-sugar and high-fat diet," speculates Wilhelm.

The scientists now want to investigate on patients whether a ketogenic diet can prevent asthma attacks. However, this is not completely without long-term risks and should only be carried out in consultation with a doctor. "We are therefore trying to determine which components of the dietary change are responsible for the effect," explains Wilhelm. "Maybe this will open the door to the development of new drugs."

It is known that a ketogenic diet can be an effective therapy for some diseases. For instance, patients with certain forms of epilepsy are treated with this method. And the change in diet is also said to help with some tumors - after all, the cells in them also multiply unusually strongly.

A commonly expressed protein in skin - periostin - can directly activate itch-associated neurons in the skin, according to new research from North Carolina State University. The researchers found that blocking periostin receptors on these neurons reduced the itch response in a mouse model of atopic dermatitis, or eczema. The findings could have implications for treatment of this condition.

Itch sensations are transmitted from neuronal projections in the skin through the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) - which are clusters of sensory cells located at the root of the spinal nerves - then to the spinal cord.

"We have found that periostin, a protein that is produced abundantly in skin as part of an allergic response, can interact directly with sensory neurons in the skin, effectively turning on the itch response," says Santosh Mishra, assistant professor of neuroscience at NC State and lead author of a paper on the work. "Additionally, we identified the neuronal receptor that is the initial connection between periostin and itch response."

Mishra and a team including colleagues from NC State, Wake Forest University and Duke University identified a receptor protein called αvβ3, which is expressed on sensory neurons in skin, as the periostin receptor.

In a chemically-induced mouse model of atopic dermatitis, the team found that exposure to common allergens such as dust mites increased periostin production in skin, exacerbating the itch response. However, when the researchers "turned off" the receptor protein, itch was significantly reduced.

"Periostin and its receptor connect the skin directly to the central nervous system," Mishra says. "We have identified the first junction in the itch pathway associated with eczema. If we can break that connection, we can relieve the itch."

The research appears in Cell Reports, and was funded by NC State's startup fund. Mishra is both first and corresponding author of the work.

PITTSBURGH (April 7, 2020) ... The twisting and bending capabilities of the human muscle system enable a varied and dynamic range of motion, from walking and running to reaching and grasping. Replicating something as seemingly simple as waving a hand in a robot, however, requires a complex series of motors, pumps, actuators and algorithms. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University have recently designed a polymer known as a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) that can be "programmed" to both twist and bend in the presence of light.

The research, published in the journal Science Advances (DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aay5349) was developed at Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering by Anna C. Balazs, Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering and John A. Swanson Chair of Engineering; and James T. Waters, postdoctoral associate and the paper's first author. Other researchers from Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and the John A. Paulson School of Engineering include Joanna Aizenberg, Michael Aizenberg, Michael Lerch, Shucong Li and Yuxing Yao.

These particular LCEs are achiral: the structure and its mirror image are identical. This is not true for a chiral object, such as a human hand, which is not superimposable with a mirror image of itself. In other words, the right hand cannot be spontaneously converted to a left hand. When the achiral LCE is exposed to light, however, it can controllably and reversibly twist to the right or twist to left, forming both right-handed and left-handed structures.

"The chirality of molecules and materials systems often dictates their properties," Dr. Balazs explained. "The ability to dynamically and reversibly alter chirality or drive an achiral structure into a chiral one could provide a unique approach for changing the properties of a given system on-the-fly." To date, however, achieving this level of structural mutability remains a daunting challenge. Hence, these findings are exciting because these LCEs are inherently achiral but can become chiral in the presence of ultraviolet light and revert to achiral when the light is removed."

The researchers uncovered this distinctive dynamic behavior through their computer modeling of a microscopic LCE post anchored to a surface in air. Molecules (the mesogens) that extend from the LCE backbone are all aligned at 45 degrees (with respect to the surface) by a magnetic field; in addition, the LCEs are cross-linked with a light-sensitive material. "When we simulated shining a light in one direction, the LCE molecules would become disorganized and the entire LCE post twists to the left; shine it in the opposite direction and it twists to the right," Dr. Waters described. These modeling results were corroborated by the experimental findings from the Harvard group.

Going a step further, the researchers used their validated computer model to design "chimera" LCE posts where the molecules in the top half of the post are aligned in one direction and are aligned in another direction in the bottom half. With the application of light, these chimera structures can simultaneously bend and twist, mimicking the complex motion enabled by the human muscular system.

"This is much like how a puppeteer controls a marionette, but in this instance the light serves as the strings, and we can create dynamic and reversible movements through coupling chemical, optical, and mechanical energy," Dr. Balazs said. "Being able to understand how to design artificial systems with this complex integration is fundamental to creating adaptive materials that can respond to changes in the environment. Especially in the field of soft robotics, this is essential for building devices that exhibit controllable, dynamic behavior without the need for complex electronic components."

The human knee is a triumph of design. The joint, which evolved fairly rapidly from our common ancestor with the chimpanzee to accommodate our bipedalism, likely contributed to our success as a species. However, as modern medicine extends the human lifespan, our species have learned pain in the form of osteoarthritis that can accompany the locomotion of this biomechanical masterpiece.

In a new study of the genetic features that help make this sophisticated joint possible, an international team of researchers found that the regulatory switches involved in the development of the knee also play a role in osteoarthritis, a partially heritable disease that afflicts at least 250 million people worldwide. The findings are published in the journal Cell.

Terence D. Capellini, Richard B. Wolf Associate Professor in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology and the paper's corresponding author, explained it in terms of the burden our knees literally endure:

"From an evolutionary standpoint, the primate knee went from something that accommodated the forces of walking on four legs to placing all the weight on two legs," he said. "Going from a quadruped to a biped changes the force distribution. All our weight is being transmitted through our hips and our knees down to our ankles. The cells in the joint and the shape of the joint had to change to accommodate those new forces."

With such a specific task - and limited by its origins in the older primate knee - the optimized bipedal knee developed what is known as a constrained morphology, that is, it did not allow much variation. "As you can imagine, when you're designing a part for an airplane, you don't want to stray too much," Capellini said.

To understand how this complex mechanism came to be, researchers looked for evidence of accelerated natural selection: the series of mutations that aided us in walking upright.

"We wanted to know whether or not we could see signs of ancient evolution - ancient selection - in the regions of the genome that specifically sculpt the knee," said Capellini. To do this, they searched for traces of specific regulatory switches, pieces of DNA "responsible for turning on and off the genetic material that make the knee a human knee."

What they found reflects what Capellini suggests is indicative of "positive selection" - evidence that this new knee gave the fledgling bipeds an evolutionary advantage. The highest functioning knees would have been selected, reducing variation in knee shape over time by decreasing the genetic variation in the switches that control the joint's formation. What variation persisted likely didn't substantially matter at that time.

"Later, as human populations expand and drift, you start getting these genetic variants that slightly modify how the knee is shaped or how the knee is maintained," explained Daniel Richard, a Ph.D. candidate in human evolutionary biology and lead author on the paper. "Those slight deviations, acting on this constrained knee, lead to risk for developing osteoarthritis."

Those traits did not affect the success of the bipedal knee because natural selection promotes traits that allow individuals to reach sexual maturity and successfully breed. In essence, because this new knee gave young adults an edge on passing on their genetic material, it continued despite these variants. Our eventual old age had little role in its selection.

"We think that these slight modifications don't so much impact early life," said Richard. "But when you keep on walking up until you're 50 or 60, over that longer time span a super small change in your knee compounds over decades. Eventually it contributes to osteoarthritis disease in the elderly."

As a proof of principle, Capellini and colleagues performed two additional experiments. By studying the knee switches in patients with osteoarthritis compared to the general population, they found that osteoarthritis patients have on average more genetic variants in switches than those who don't have the disease. They also focused on a gene called GDF5 (Growth Differentiation Factor Five) that contributes to osteoarthritis risk in Europeans and Asians. Using CRISPR editing in mice and human cells, they pinpointed a genetic variant, present in billions of people, that effects the function of a key knee switch, thus changing knee shape and increasing osteoarthritis risk.

The stiffness and soreness humans feel today, therefore, may simply have piggybacked on an evolutionary advantage: the osteoarthritis came along with the knee. However, this painful feature may pay off in the study of human evolution, the researchers stress.

"The idea of tying new features with almost new diseases is a good mental framework to think of while studying these diseases of aging," said Richard. "You can't really have your cake and eat it too."

Tropical Cyclone Harold brought heavy rains and hurricane-force winds to Vanuatu and was moving toward Fiji when NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite provided forecasters with an image of the storm.

Visible imagery from NASA satellites help forecasters understand if a storm is organizing or weakening. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument aboard Suomi NPP provided a visible image of Harold on April 7, which showed the western quadrant of the storm east of Vanuatu while eastern quadrant was already affecting Fiji.

The shape of a tropical cyclone provides forecasters with an idea of its organization and strength, and NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellite showed powerful thunderstorms circling the low-level center of circulation with thick, fragmented bands of thunderstorms mostly on the eastern side of the storm. The eye was not visible on the Suomi NPP image. Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted, "Animated enhanced infrared satellite imagery shows deep convection surrounding and obscuring the low level circulation center, possibly indicating an eye may be trying to form."

Warnings are in effect for the Fiji group of islands. On April 7, warnings in Fiji included a hurricane warning for Kadavu and Ono-I-Lau.  A storm warning is in effect for southern parts of Viti Levu [from Momi through to Pacific Harbour], Beqa, Vatulele, Matuku and Vatoa. A storm warning remains in force for Moala, Totoya, Vanuavatu and is now also in force for Yasawa and Mamanuca group, the rest of Viti Levu, Lomaiviti and the rest of Southern Lau group.

A gale warning remains in force for Lakeba and Cicia and the rest of the Lau Group, Vanua Levu, Taveuni and nearby smaller islands. A strong wind warning remains in force for the rest of Fiji.

At 10 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on April 7, Harold had maximum sustained winds near 110 knots (127 mph/204 kph) making it a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Harold was centered near latitude 17.7 degrees south and longitude 174.9 degrees east, about 225 nautical miles west of Suva, Fiji. Harold was moving to the east-southeast at 14 knots (16 mph/26 kph).

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC forecast said, "Through the next 24 hours, the intensity should remain around 105 to 110 knots (121 to 127 mph/194 to 204 kph), although the tropical cyclone may get stronger if an eye were to form."

JTWC forecasts Harold to make a brief landfall over Fiji on April 7 around 8 p.m. EDT (April 8 at 0000 UTC) and move to the southeast near Tonga.

Tropical cyclones/hurricanes are the most powerful weather events on Earth. NASA's expertise in space and scientific exploration contributes to essential services provided to the American people by other federal agencies, such as hurricane weather forecasting.

Often considered desolate, remote, unalterable places, the high seas are, in fact, hotbeds of activity for both people and wildlife. Technology has enabled more human activity in areas once difficult to reach, and that in turn has brought a growing presence of industries such as fishing, mining and transportation in international waters -- the ocean beyond 200 nautical miles from any coast.

This increase is cause for concern to people like UC Santa Barbara researchers Douglas McCauley, Morgan Visalli and Benjamin Best, who are interested in the health and biodiversity of the oceans. That no nation has jurisdiction over international waters has, at least historically, made regulation very difficult and puts sensitive and essential ocean habitats and resources at risk.

"The high seas are the planet's last global commons," said Visalli, a marine scientist at the Benioff Ocean Initiative at UC Santa Barbara. "Yet marine life and resources on the high seas are at risk of being overexploited and degraded under the current fragmented framework of management. The world needs and deserves a comprehensive legal mechanism to protect high seas biodiversity now and into the future."

So when the United Nations turned its efforts toward negotiating the first global high seas treaty for "the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction," the scientists leapt at the chance to put their expertise to work. To kickstart this research, ocean scientists and high seas experts from 13 universities and institutions gathered in a series of workshops held at UC Santa Barbara. Together the team developed a standardized, data-driven strategy to identify hotspots of biodiversity potentially deserving of protection in the high seas.

"One of the goals of these United Nations negotiations is to develop a pathway for the establishment of marine protected areas in the high seas," said Visalli. "This creates an incredible opportunity to leverage new global data assets and data-driven planning tools to identify areas of the high seas that have outstanding conservation value and could be considered high priority areas for spatial protection."

The researchers' results are published in a paper in the journal Marine Policy.

Location, location, location

Marine protected areas -- designated parks in the sea where special measures are taken to protect biodiversity -- are among the most powerful and effective tools marine scientists and managers have at their disposal to look after marine biodiversity, maintain ocean resiliency and enhance the productivity of fishery resources that operate just outside of these parks.

But to get the most out of marine protected areas, they need to be put in the right places. Researchers in this collaboration used big data and an optimization algorithm to try to balance the benefits of protecting certain locations with high biodiversity against costs, such as the loss of fishing in that area. Their aim was to find win-win solutions for the possible placement of these high seas protected areas.

"It is a historic moment for our ocean," said McCauley, a professor of ecology at UC Santa Barbara and director of the Benioff Ocean Initiative. "Places like New York City, that famously included parks for nature and people in their zoning plans before things got busy, have benefited immensely from that foresight. This is our Central Park moment for the high seas."

The researchers took more than 22 billion data points organized into 55 layers that included information on conservation-related factors such as species diversity, ocean productivity, threatened species and fishing in locations across the high seas, which cover about two-thirds of the global ocean. They also future-proofed their analysis by including data layers describing the predicted diversity of species in a future ocean altered by climate change.

"This is important because climate change is rapidly altering our oceans," McCauley said. "Our approach illustrates one way to protect the biodiversity oases of both today and tomorrow."

Each hotspot identified in this analysis was special for its own unique reasons. The research highlighted, for example, the Costa Rica Dome, a dynamic nutrient rich region that attracts endangered blue whales and leatherback sea turtles; the Emperor Seamount Chain, a string of extinct underwater volcanoes that are home to some of the oldest living corals; and the Mascarene Plateau, an area in the Indian Ocean that has the largest contiguous seagrass meadow in the world and provides habitat for many globally unique species. These and other notable biodiversity hotspots across the globe could constitute the critical mass needed to achieve long-term marine sustainability goals, according to the study, and are worthy of consideration as the first generation of high seas marine protected areas.

The Home Stretch

Decades in the making and nearly close to completion, the high seas treaty negotiations were set to embark on their fourth round this month, but have been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Preliminary results from this exercise were presented by UC Santa Barbara scientists at the United Nations during the third negotiation session for the treaty last August.

This analysis, the researchers say, disproves the misconception that there is not enough good data about biodiversity in the high seas to strategically plan for high seas protected areas.

"We have high hopes," McCauley said. "We hope that the United Nations will indeed deliver a strong treaty later this year that includes measures to set up these new international ocean parks. And that science-based analyses, such as these, give them confidence that researchers and experts stand ready to help them strategically put these parks in smart places that will maximize the benefits that these parks will yield for people and nature."

In complex fault zones, multiple seemingly disconnected faults can potentially rupture at once, increasing the chance of a large damaging earthquake. Recent earthquakes including the 1992 Landers, 1999 Hector Mine and 2019 Ridgecrest earthquakes in California, among others, ruptured in this way. But how can seismologists predict whether individual fault segments might be connected and rupture together during a seismic event?

One way might be to look for clues that the segments are connected below the surface, according to David Oglesby, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside. His study published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America suggests that the pattern of slip distributions on fault segments can indicate whether segments separated by a gap at the surface are connected within a few kilometers of the earth's surface.

And in a second paper published in BSSA, Hui Wang of the Chinese Earthquake Administration and colleagues conclude that a rupture along a stepover fault, where parallel fault segments overlap in the direction of a rupture, might be able to "jump" over a wider gap between the fault segments than previously thought.

In both cases, making the connection between fault segments could have a significant impact on assessing seismic hazards for a region. "The potential maximum rupture length, hence the maximum magnitude [of an earthquake], is an important parameter for assessing seismic hazards," said Mian Liu of the University of Missouri-Columbia, a co-author on the Wang study.

"The details of connectivity can have a controlling influence on whether you get a big earthquake that jumps across what appear to be multiple fault segments or a small earthquake that remains on a small segment," Oglesby said.

Oglesby began thinking about this problem of discerning connections at depth after a conference where one of the speakers suggested that completely disconnected faults would have different slip patterns than faults connected at depth. Modeling that looked at slip distribution--broadly, where slip occurs along a fault--might be useful, he thought.

In his 3D dynamic rupture modeling of fault segments disconnected by gaps, Oglesby looked in particular at how rapidly the slip decays to zero at the edge of a fault segment on the surface. Does the amount of slip gradually decrease toward zero at the edge, or does it quickly decrease to zero?

The models suggest that "all things being equal, if a fault appears to be disconnected at the surface but is connected at relatively shallow depth, then typically the slip will decay very rapidly to zero at the edge of the fault segment," Oglesby said.

Shallow depth in this case means that the segments are connected at about 1 to 2 kilometers (0.6 to 1.2 miles) below the surface, he noted. If the fault remains completely disconnected or is connected deeper than 1 to 2 kilometers, "then the slip will not decay to zero as rapidly at the edge of the surface fault segment," Oglesby explained, since the deeper connection is too far away to have a strong effect on surface slip distribution.

Oglesby stressed that his models are simplified, and don't account for other factors such as the high stress and strain and potential rock failure around the edges of fault segments. "And just because you get this rapid decay, it doesn't necessarily mean that [a fault] is connected at depth," he noted. "There are lots of factors that affect fault slip. It's a clue, but not a smoking gun."

In their modeling study, Wang and colleagues took a closer look at what factors might influence a rupture's jump between parallel fault segments in a stepover system. They were prompted by events such as the 2016 magnitude 7.8 Kaikoura, New Zealand, earthquake, where rupture jumped between nearly parallel fault segments as much as 15 to 20 kilometers apart.

The researchers found that by including the background effects of changes in stress in a stepover, ruptures could jump over a wider space than the 5 kilometers (about 3.1 miles) predicted by some earlier studies.

Wang and colleagues' models suggest instead that a rupture may jump more than 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) in a releasing or extensional stepover, or 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) in a restraining or compressive stepover fault.

Their models combine data on long-term tectonic stress changes with changes in stress predicted by fault dynamic rupture models, providing a fuller picture of stress changes along a fault over a timescale of both millions of years and a few seconds. "We realized that we needed to bridge these different fault models to better understand fault mechanics," said Liu.

Liu also cautioned that their models only measure one aspect of complex fault geometry. "Although many factors could contribute to rupture propagation across stepovers, the step width is perhaps one of the easiest to measure, so hopefully our results would lead to more studies and a better understanding of complex fault systems."

Can we tell with the naked eye if any cold-chain food products that we have received have gone bad?

A cold-chain safety sticker was developed, which indicates whether any cold-chain food products, such as fish, meat, and fruits and vegetables, have spoiled.

This cold-chain safety sticker creates an image on it when exposed to room temperature (10? or higher). Room temperature exposure history and time throughout the cold chain delivery process are indicated but cannot be manually edited.

In general, when refrigerated or frozen foods are exposed to room temperature, bacteria begin to grow and reproduce. However, it is difficult to discern if they have gone bad with the unaided eye. This is because certain bacteria do not affect the taste and smell of foods where they live, and frozen foods have almost the same appearance even after a cycle of melting and refreezing.

If this is the case, the cold-chain safety sticker will be able to prevent in advance the occurrence of food poisoning, hamburger disease, etc. which may occur when unknowingly eating spoiled foods resulting from the malfunction of refrigerator or freezer trucks.

Also, this cold-chain safety sticker is thin and flexible and its manufacturing cost is low. The technology is thus expected to have high potential for applications in the rapidly growing fresh food delivery market.

A research team from the Research Center for Bio-based Chemistry of the Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology (KRICT, Dr. Dongyeop Oh, Dr. Sung Yeon Hwang, Dr. Jeyoung Park, Dr. Sejin Choi) developed this technology and published the relevant results in the renowned journal Advanced Materials online, IF:25.809.

The core technology of the cold-chain safety sticker is its nanofiber film. The researchers attempted to attach a typical film on the back of this newly developed nanofiber film to fabricate this sticker.

At low temperatures, this nanofiber film has a stable structure where thin threads intersect each other and thus appears opaque because the light is scattered. However, when exposed to room temperature for a certain period of time, this nanofiber structure collapses. More specifically, these thin threads start to melt and become entangled with each other. This allows light to transmit through the film, thereby making it appear transparent.

Based on this mechanism, when the nanofiber film on the front surface of the sticker becomes transparent after being exposed to room temperature, the image produced on the typical film on the back becomes visible from the front. This change allows users to determine if their food products have spoiled.

Furthermore, the researchers found a way to control the time that is required for this nanofiber film to become transparent when exposed to room temperature. This was attempted based on the reasoning that the time needed before each food goes bad would vary.

Thus, each sticker was designed to become transparent after a minimum of 30 minutes and a maximum of 24 hours of exposure to room temperature. This works in the same way as a timer does. This technique was realized by controlling the composition and thickness of the used nanofiber.

Dr. Dongyeop Oh from the KRICT said, "This sticker, once exposed to room temperature, cannot be restored to its original state even if one attempts to refrigerate or freeze it again. Also, room-temperature exposure time cannot be manually adjusted. This means that there is virtually no room for any manipulation."

The cold-chain safety sticker can be widely used not only for food product applications but also for the cold-chain distribution of expensive medicine and medical supplies. This is because the sticker is thin and flexible, and its estimated manufacturing cost is low at 1 cent each.

Currently, one of the competing goods is a kit that indicates the room-temperature exposure history. It has been developed by global chemical companies to implement the cold-chain distribution of expensive medicine and medical supplies. This kit uses chemical reactions of special-purpose inks to indicate whether it has been exposed to room temperature.

However, it is made of thick plastic and thus it is difficult to attach it to various objects, and its manufacturing costs several thousand won.

Dr. Sejin Choi from KRICT said, "Those existing kits used for the distribution of medicine and medical supplies involve a risk that the special ink contained in them may leak if they are damaged. In contrast, the developed cold-chain safety sticker is free from any risk of chemical leakage even if it is damaged during delivery. It will still function properly even after such damage."

These research achievements were published in the world-renowned journal Advanced Materials online, IF:25.809 on February 5 under the title "A Self-Healing Nanofiber-Based Self-Responsive Time-Temperature Indicator for Securing a Cold-Supply Chain."

GALVESTON, Texas - A multidisciplinary team at The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston working to combat the COVID-19 virus has a system that will unlock researchers' ability to more quickly develop and evaluate developing vaccines, diagnose infected patients and explore whether or how the virus has evolved.

The scientists, led by Pei-Yong Shi, developed the system by engineering a reverse genetic system for SARS coronavirus 2, or SARS-CoV-2, that is causing the current COVID-19 pandemic. The study is currently available in Cell Host & Microbe.

A Reverse genetic system is one of the most useful tools for studying and combatting viruses. The system allows researchers to make the virus in the lab and manipulate it in a petri dish. Using this system, the UTMB team has engineered a version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that is labeled with neon green. When the labeled virus infects a cell, the infected cell turns green.

"The labeled virus could be used to rapidly determine whether a patient has already been infected by the new coronavirus or evaluate how well developing vaccines are inducing antibodies that block infection of the virus. The level of antibodies induced by a vaccine is the most important parameter in predicting how well a vaccine works," said Shi, I.H. Kempner professor of Human Genetics at UTMB. "The neon green labeled virus system allows us to test patients' samples in 12 hours in a high-throughput manner that tests many samples at once. In contrast, the conventional method can only test a few specimens at a time with a long turnaround time of a week."

"This technology can significantly reduce how long it takes to evaluate developing vaccines and ultimately bring them to the market," said Xuping Xie, the UTMB Research Scientist who designed and developed the genetic system. "UTMB will be very happy to make this technology widely available to both academia and industry researchers working to quickly develop countermeasures."

"The genetic system allows us to study the evolution of the new coronavirus. This will help us to understand how the virus jumped from its original host bat species to humans. It remains to be determined if an intermediate host is required for the host switch from the original bats to humans for the new coronavirus," said Vineet Menachery, Assistant Professor at UTMB, who co-senior-authored the study. "The system has provided a critical tool for the research community."

"This is another example of team science at UTMB," said Dr. Ben Raimer, President ad Interim of UTMB. "The collective effort from teams with complementary expertise worked together to deliver this exciting study. We will expand the team science to areas of clinical care and patient diagnosis by deploying the technology for serological testing."

Shi said, "This will not be the last emerging virus that plagues humanity. In the past two decades, we've seen other coronaviruses like SARS and MERS, as well as other viruses like Zika, Ebola and others. It's critically important to have a system that can be used for any new future or re-emerging viruses so that we can very quickly respond to the pathogens and protect peoples' health."

DURHAM, N.C. -- Since the 1980s, a sprawling mountaintop removal mining complex in southern West Virginia has been leaching pollutants -- such as selenium -- into nearby streams at levels deemed unsafe for aquatic life.

Now, even though the mine is closed, researchers have also found high concentrations of selenium in stream insects when they fly out of the water and the spiders that eat them along the banks, an indication that the contaminant moves from water to land as it makes its way up the food chain.

The study shows how "a lot of stream contaminants get out of the water and defy gravity," said co-author Emily Bernhardt, a biologist at Duke University who has been studying the impacts of mountaintop mining on the region for 10 years.

The researchers looked at 23 streams in the Mud River watershed, a network of creeks and streams meandering through the steep forested terrain in Lincoln County, West Virginia. The watershed also happens to drain the 9,900-acre Hobet 21 coal mine, one of the largest mountaintop removal mining operations in Appalachia.

For three decades until its closure in 2015, the mining operation blasted the tops off mountains to get at the coal beneath and pushed the leftover rock into neighboring valleys, burying streams under hundreds of feet of rubble.

The water runoff from this mining waste contains naturally occurring trace elements such as selenium and other dissolved substances.

In a previous study, Bernhardt and colleagues found an uptick in selenium and other trace elements in water samples taken immediately downstream of mining sites in the Mud River watershed.

The new study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, looked at how selenium moves through food webs once it gets in the water.

First author Laura Naslund conducted the research as part of her undergraduate honors thesis in the Bernhardt lab. Over two years, she tested for selenium buildup in the greenish slime growing on rocks in the streambed, or biofilms, which serve as food for mayflies and other stream insects.

She also measured selenium in stream insects as they rose out of the water to mate, and in spiders lying in wait on the banks for the unfortunate insects to blunder into their webs.

Selenium can be 1000 times more concentrated in biofilms than in the surrounding water. It's further concentrated when selenium-rich biofilms become food for aquatic insects grazing on the goo, building up to potentially toxic levels in their tissues.

The team's results show that the more mined land there was upstream, the more selenium there was in stream biofilms. And the more selenium they found in biofilms, the more they found in aquatic insects and the spiders that eat the insects.

Stream insects from mined sites had selenium concentrations that were five times higher than at other sites.

Selenium concentrations in insects and their spider predators from mined streams were as high as 95 and 26 parts per million, respectively -- too high to be considered safe for birds to eat, and some of the highest levels recorded for animal tissues.

The Mud River watershed isn't an isolated example, Bernhardt said. Previous studies have found high selenium levels in water runoff from mountaintop removal mines across Central Appalachia, even decades after the mines have closed.

While selenium concentrations were highest in insects and spiders collected downstream of heavily mined areas, Naslund said that even one stream that was free of contamination had selenium-rich spiders on its banks, suggesting that insects flying out of mined streams can carry pollutants to clean sites too.

The study shows that once mining contaminants wash into streams, "it's hard to get the toothpaste back in the tube," said Naslund, currently a doctoral student at the University of Georgia.

Some islands have such low elevation, that mere inches of sea-level rise will flood them, but higher, larger islands will also be affected by changes in climate and an understanding of ancient practices in times of climate change might help populations survive, according to researchers.

"I'm working in a place (Madagascar) where communities around me are sensing, in the span of a few years, that they are seeing climate change," said Kristina Douglass, assistant professor of anthropology, Penn State. "They have seen climate events take out entire reefs."

Douglass is interested in how the archaeological record can weigh in on climate change. She wants to understand how communities adapted in the past and how historical events have increased vulnerability. She and Jago Cooper, curator of the Americas, British Museum, investigated the Caribbean Islands and the islands in the Southwestern Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa from Kenya to Mozambique.

"If we look back we see that all the communities have been displaced into marginal land," said Douglass, who is also an associate of Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. "If they don't see this, they won't be able to find a solution. They have to consider that around the Caribbean and off of Africa there are historical factors that contribute to the problem."

Both sets of islands have different histories. Indigenous Native American groups originally settled the Caribbean islands around 6,000 years ago, while continental Africans settled most of the Southwestern Indian Ocean islands (SWIO) only 2,000 years ago. Both groups of islands became the target of colonization in the last 1,000 years and both originating populations suffered marginalization. In the Caribbean, introduced diseases decimated the native population which was replaced by colonists and African slaves. Slavery played an important role in both locations.

One of the many problems of colonization was the push in both locations to move from nomadic to stationary lives. The ideal living situation was considered a permanent location with set fields, pastures or fishing areas. Neither group of islanders were stationary before colonization.

According to the researchers, in the Caribbean, in the past, when sea level was rising, the population would notice their coastal sources of fresh water becoming salty and they would then leave coastal areas and move to more inland, higher ground. This prevented storm surge from sweeping away anyone because the people were no longer living in the flood zone.

"For some islands, archaeological and paleoecological research offer an important record of pre-colonial climate change and its interplay with human lives and landscapes," the researchers report today (Apr. 6) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The archaeological record suggests strategies and mechanisms that can inform discussions of resilience in the face of climate change."

The SWIO islands are in the tropics and rainfall varies depending on ocean warming and the El Niño/Southern Oscillation. Coupled with the legacies of colonialism, varying precipitation regimes can bring on food insecurity in southern Madagascar. As recently as 2016, insufficient rainfall caused a catastrophic famine due to crop failures.

"Being nomadic is a way to deal with highly unreliable climate," said Douglass. "But encouraging sedentary lifestyles made it easier to manage local people."

In the past, the prickly pear cactus, introduced from the Americas, served as cattle fodder; a source of water for cattle, people and other plants; and as a defensive barrier for intruders. The Malagasy pastoralists took the non-native plant and adapted it to protect against the vagaries of climate. However, according to the researchers, in the 1930s, French colonists, in an effort to civilize the south, released parasitic cochineal larvae that destroyed the cactus barriers and their water reservoir. This effort to force the people to cultivate cash crops, use irrigation and improve grasslands led to widespread famine during ensuing droughts.

Although 1930s farming practices might not be considered modern today, the push for modernization does not always come from outsiders.

"There is a globalizing influence shaping people to the ideal of what seems to be modern," said Douglass.

Pollution, consumption and waste are real problems on all the islands. For example, islanders resistant to "old fashioned" ideas choose disposable diapers rather than cloth ones, even though there is little space for diaper disposal on an island, said Douglass. Tourism, a major source of income on many islands, also brings increased waste disposal pressures and environmental degradation.

According to Douglass, while traditional housing was usually quickly and cheaply built and rebuilt after storms, modern housing forms are far more expensive and labor-intensive to replace.

"The desire to be modern, the elite status connected to things from overseas is real," said Douglass. "We need ways to shape views on what is a good house."

Housing, agricultural, grazing and fishing practices that are adaptable to the changing climate can be informed by both the archaeological and historic past, but much of that knowledge disappears when people and languages disappear, she added.