Tech

MASCARA-2B/KELT-20b is an ultra hot Jupiter. It belongs to a new group of exoplanets, the hottest known until now, which can reach temperatures at the surface of over 2,000 K. The reason for its high temperature is the proximity of its orbit around its host star, causing it to receive a large flux of radiation in the upper layers of its atmosphere.

The team, led by IAC/ULL researcher Núria Casasayas, which had already made initial measurements of the atmosphere during 2018, observed the planet during four transits. This means during four of the times when the planet passed in front of the disc of its star, along our line of sight. For this they used the HARP-N spectrograph on the National Galileo Telescope (TNG) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma) and the CARMENES spectrograph on the 3.5 m telescope of the Calar Alto Observatory (Almería).

"The two instruments sample slightly different wavelength regions, which allows us to sample a wider spectral range", explains Casasayas. And she adds: "We have been able to detect hydrogen beta, singly ionized iron and magnesium with data from HARPS-N while the presence of ionized calcium was detected only by using CARMENES. Neutral sodium and hydrogen alpha are detected with both instruments".

The study of exoplanetary atmospheres has become front line research in recent years. Instruments which perform high resolution spectroscopy allow us not only to discover the atmospheric composition of planets outside the Solar System, but also to measure other important parameters such as the temperatures of the layers where their constituents are found, and other parameters of the dynamics of the atmosphere.

Monkeys living in South America are highly vulnerable to climate change and face an "elevated risk of extinction", according to a new University of Stirling-led study.

The research, involving an international team of scientists, found that a large percentage of non-human primates - including monkeys, lemurs and apes - are facing substantial temperature increases and marked habitat changes over the next 30 years.

The team, led by Dr Joana Carvalho of Stirling's Faculty of Natural Sciences, said that New World monkeys - which live primarily in tropical South America - will be particularly affected.

Dr Carvalho said: "Based on our analysis, it is clear that New World monkeys in particular can be considered highly vulnerable to projected temperature increases, consequently facing an elevated risk of extinction."

The study looked at all 426 species of non-human primates contained within the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List database - and examined their exposure risk to changes in climatic and land use conditions forecast for the year 2050. The authors considered the best-case scenario - slowly declining emissions, with appropriate mitigation measures put in place - and the worst-case scenario, assuming that emissions continue to increase unchecked.

The team identified key regions where future conditions will be particularly bleak for species - with New World monkeys exposed to extreme levels of warming. They said that 86 percent of Neotropical primate ranges will experience maximum temperature increases of greater than 3°C, while extreme warming - of more than 4°C - is likely to affect 41 percent of their ranges, including many areas that presently harbour the highest number of primate species.

Dr Carvalho continued: "Studies that quantify what magnitudes of warming primates are able to tolerate physiologically are lacking. However, we have reason to believe that extreme temperature increases - as those predicted based on the low mitigation scenario - would most likely surpass the thermal tolerance of many species."

Professor Hjalmar Kuehl, senior author of the study and primatologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, said: "Climate-change mitigation measures have not yet been systematically included into on-site management and strategic development of primate conservation.

"Given the timescale on which climate change and resulting impact on primate populations will occur, efforts for integrating climate change mitigation measures need to be enhanced urgently in order to be able to develop and implement appropriate actions."

The study also suggests that anticipated changes in how humans use the land and alter existing primate habitats will exacerbate the negative effects on primate populations brought about by global warming.

According to the authors, about one quarter of Asian and African primates will face up to 50 percent agricultural crop expansion within their range, while undisturbed habitat is expected to disappear nearly entirely across species' ranges and will be replaced by some form of human-disturbed habitat.

The authors conclude that "urgent action" is required - in relation to the implementation of climate-change mitigation measures - to avert primate extinctions on an unprecedented scale.

Speculative memory side-channel attacks are security vulnerabilities in computers for which no efficient solutions have been found. Existing solutions only address specific security threats without solving the underlying issue.

Speculative side-channel attacks exploit a fundamental functionality in microprocessors to expose security vulnerabilities. The first such security threats, Meltdown and Spectre, were announced last year, but many more have been discovered since. Previous security solutions have been limited and often incurred a high performance penalty.

Now, researchers from Uppsala University, NTNU, and University of Murcia have come up with a more appealing solution, which will be presented at the prestigious International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA) at the end of June. https://iscaconf.org/isca2019/

-- Our solution reduces the performance and energy costs, and increases the security of the computer system, when compared to previous solutions, says Christos Sakalis, PhD student at Uppsala University.

Speculation Exploited

The security vulnerability manifests when the microprocessor tries to guess (speculate) on what to do next. If the microprocessor guesses incorrectly (misspeculates), it will undo any work it has done and start anew. Speculation lies at the core of today's high-performance microprocessors and it is necessary for taking full advantage of the microprocessors' capabilities.

-- In theory, any misspeculations should not leave any visible traces, but they do leave traces nonetheless, says Alexandra Jimborean from Uppsala University.

These traces are exploited by Meltdown and Spectre to retrieve information through so called side-channels. The information can be used to circumvent security checks in the microprocessor to access, e.g., passwords and encryption keys. This has proven to be an "Achilles heel for computer security." The work to find methods to prevent such attacks has been intense, involving people and institutions all over the world. Finally, we now have an efficient solution to the problem.

Different Speculation

Christos Sakalis, Stefanos Kaxiras, Alberto Ros, Alexandra Jimborean, and Magnus Själander have been working together to come up with a new solution.

-- We have developed a new method that completely hides the speculation, says Stefanos Kaxiras from the Uppsala Architecture Research Team at Uppsala University.

The proposed method delays part of the speculation and uses another form of speculation to predict the expected value. This form of speculation is completely invisible.

All this is achieved without reducing the performance of the processors more than 11% and with only a 7% energy usage increase. An earlier proposed solution reduced the performance of the processor by 46% and increased the energy usage by 51%.

-- Our solution requires relatively small modifications to existing processor designs, which in combination with the low performance reduction makes our method practical to employ in future microprocessors, says Magnus Själander from NTNU's Department of Computer Science.

Madrid, Spain, 12 June 2019: The results of the low-dose prednisolone in patients with hand osteoarthritis (HOPE) study presented today at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2019) show that low-dose prednisolone significantly improves pain and function in patients with painful hand osteoarthritis.

Hand osteoarthritis is a common joint disease. It is characterised by stiff and painful joints. Given the burden of disease, there is a need for effective therapeutic options.

Treatments are currently limited to topical and oral non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) to relieve pain. However, studies have shown that synovial inflammation is often present in hand osteoarthritis and it is this inflammation that is a main determinant of pain and radiographic disease progression, identifying synovitis as a possible target of treatment. , Prednisolone is a glucocorticoid used to reduce inflammation and has been used in rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, polymyalgia, lupus and vasculitis for a long time. However, glucocorticoid use is currently not recommended in patients with hand osteoarthritis due to a previous lack of evidence.

"Hand osteoarthritis is a common musculoskeletal disease, with prevalence rising steeply with increasing age," said Professor John D. Isaacs, Chairperson of the Abstract Selection Committee, EULAR. "Oral glucocorticoid therapy was not included in the recent treatment guidelines update due to limited conflicting data, therefore we welcome these positive results that provide further, controlled evidence in this area."

Results presented today demonstrate that prednisolone (10mg) provides a significant improvement in pain with an average -16.5 point difference in VAS finger pain (95% confidence interval (CI); -26.1 to -6.9) and a -3.5 point difference in AUSCAN pain* (95% CI; -4.9 to -2.1, p

"Our study provides evidence that local inflammation is a suitable target for drug treatment in hand osteoarthritis," said Féline Kroon, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. "Significant improvements in pain and function were seen in the trial meaning prednisolone could be considered by physicians treating people suffering with hand osteoarthritis."

The study was a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 92 patients with painful hand osteoarthritis (fulfilling American College of Rheumatology criteria) and signs of synovial inflammation. Eligible patients were randomised to receive prednisolone 10mg daily for 6 weeks or placebo, followed by a two-week tapering scheme and six weeks without study medication. The mean age of patients was 63.9 years and 79% were women with baseline characteristics well-balanced between the groups. After tapering, all between group differences disappeared, and adverse events were mostly mild and comparable between groups.1

Annual European Congress of Rheumatology
(EULAR 2019)
Madrid, Spain, 12-15 June 2019

Madrid, Spain, 12 June 2019: The results of a study presented today at the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology (EULAR 2019) demonstrate that occupational exposure to inorganic dust is a previously unknown risk factor for gout and also confirm known risk factors, such as alcoholism and obesity.1

Gout is caused by deposits of crystals of a substance called uric acid (also known as urate) in the joints, which leads to inflammation. Periods of time when gout symptoms appear are called flares. Flares can be unpredictable and debilitating, developing over a few hours and causing severe pain in the joints. However, not all people with a high level of uric acid go on to develop the disease. Additional factors, such as genetics, comorbidities, lifestyle or occupation impact who develops gout.

Inorganic dust is made up of mineral based dust such as asbestos, silica and coal. Some occupations involve high exposure to these substances; such as cleaners, maintenance staff, plumbers, electricians, car fitters, welders, and machinery mechanics.2,3,4,5 This occupational exposure has already been linked to an increased occurrence of other inflammatory rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis but this was the first study to look at a potential link with gout.6,7,8

Initial analysis demonstrated a significant association between gout and occupational exposure to inorganic dust in all patients (Odds Ratio: 1.10, 95% confidence interval (CI):1.04-1.17). The association was further analysed using multivariate analysis to adjust for risk factors found to be related to both gout and exposure to inorganic dust within the study. Once this was done, the relationship was attenuated in all patients (OR:1.07, 95% CI:0.99-1.14) but remained significant in women (OR:1.27, 95% CI:1.07-1.51).1

"This is the first time occupational exposure to inorganic dust has been shown to be associated with the development of gout," said MD Valgerdur Sigurdardottir, University of Gothenburg, Sahlgrenska Academy, Department of Rheumatology and Inflammation Research, Gothenburg, Sweden. "Further study is needed to understand the dangers of exposure to inorganic dust in relation to gout and other inflammatory rheumatic diseases."

The study included data on known risk factors as possible cofounders to occupational exposure to inorganic dust and multivariate analysis showed that gout was very strongly associated with obesity and alcoholism. Results show that gout is more than twice as likely in alcoholic patients (OR:2.26, 95% CI:1.94-2.62), and more than three times as likely in obese patients (OR:3.75, 95% CI:3.36-4.19).1

"Gout is a disabling disease that is very common across Europe," said Professor Thomas Dörner, Chairperson of the Scientific Programme Committee, EULAR. "Identification of risk factors is very important as it allows us to recognise those susceptible to developing the disease and implement early prevention and management strategies."

The study included 6,120 cases who were diagnosed with gout between 2006 and 2012 (with no additional gout diagnoses during the previous six years) from the population-based healthcare database of the Western Swedish Health Care Region. Data on occupation was collected from official registries and a job exposure matrix for inorganic dust previously developed was used to assign exposure status. Each case was matched with up to five controls in the census register by Statistics Sweden based on age, sex, and place of residence who were also employed during the predictor period. Data on predefined comorbidities known to be potential risk factors for gout (psoriasis, renal disease, alcohol abuse, obesity and diuretic treatment) were collected and analysed as possible cofounders to occupational exposure to inorganic dust. Analyses were conducted on the whole population and stratified by gender.1

Abstract number: OP0054

To control pest outbreaks, airplanes sprayed more than 6,280 tons of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) onto forests in New Brunswick, Canada, between 1952 and 1968, according to Environment Canada. By 1970, growing awareness of the harmful effects of DDT on wildlife led to curtailed use of the insecticide in the area. However, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have shown that DDT lingers in sediments from New Brunswick lakes, where it could alter zooplankton communities.

After being applied aerially to forests, DDT can enter lakes and rivers through atmospheric deposition and land runoff. The long-lived insecticide, now banned in most countries, and its toxic breakdown products accumulate in lake sediments and from there, could enter the food web. Previous research has shown that freshwater crustacean zooplankton such as Cladocera, otherwise known as water fleas, are sensitive to DDT. Joshua Kurek and colleagues wondered if elevated DDT use in the 1950s and 60s could have affected zooplankton populations in lakes, and whether these changes, and DDT and its breakdown products, persist today.

To find out, the researchers collected sediment core samples from five remote lakes in New Brunswick. The lake sediment cores captured environmental conditions from about the years 1890 to 2016. The team analyzed the concentrations of DDT and its breakdown products in thin sections of the sediments, finding that peak DDT levels generally occurred during the 1970s and 80s. The most recent sediments still exceeded levels considered safe for aquatic organisms. When the researchers examined the sediments for partially fossilized remains of Cladocera, they found that most lakes showed a shift from large-bodied to small-bodied zooplankton species, which are generally more tolerant to contaminants, beginning in the 1950s when DDT was widely applied in New Brunswick.

Opioids remain a mainstay of treatment for chronic and surgical pain, despite their side effects and risk for addiction and overdose. While conventional local anesthetics block pain very effectively, they wear off quickly and can affect the heart and brain. Now, a study in rats offers up a possible alternative, involving an otherwise lethal pufferfish toxin.

In tiny amounts, in a slow-release formulation that efficiently penetrates nerves, the toxin provided a safe, highly targeted, long-lived nerve block, researchers report today in Nature Communications. The study was led by Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD, director of the Laboratory for Biomaterials and Drug Delivery at Boston Children's Hospital.

Kohane has long been interested in neurotoxins found in marine organisms like pufferfish and algae. In small amounts, they can potentially provide potent pain relief, blocking the sodium channels that conduct pain messages. Kohane's lab has experimented with various ways of packaging and delivering these compounds in tiny particles, activating local drug release with ultrasound and near-infrared light, for example.

For the new study, the team chose tetrodotoxin, a potent, commercially available compound derived from pufferfish. (Tetrodotoxin is notorious for causing fugu poisoning from improperly prepared sashimi.)

Taming a lethal toxin

Rather than load tetrodotoxin into particles as before, the team bound it chemically to a polymer "backbone." The body very slowly degrades the bond between tetrodotoxin and the polymer via hydrolysis, the natural breaking of chemical bonds by water). This releases the drug at a slow, safe rate.

"A lesson we learned is that with our previous delivery systems, the drug can leak out too quickly, leading to systemic toxicity," says Kohane. "In this system, we gave an amount of tetrodotoxin intravenously that would be enough to kill a rat several times over if given in the unbound state, and the animals didn't even seem to notice it."

Kohane's fellows, Chao Zhao, PhD, and Andong Liu, PhD, experimented with different drug loadings and different polymer formulations to get the longest-possible nerve block with the least toxicity.

"We can modulate the polymer composition to control the release rate," Zhao explains.

Enhancing permeation

To further increase safety, the team paired the tetrodotoxin-polymer combination with a chemical penetration enhancer, a compound that made the nerve tissue more permeable. This allowed them to use smaller amounts of tetrodotoxin but still achieve nerve block.

"With the enhancer, drug concentrations that are ineffective become effective, without increasing systemic toxicity," says Kohane. "Each bit of drug you put in packs the most punch possible."

"We show that both the penetration enhancer and the reversible bonding of toxin to polymer are crucial to achieving such prolonged anesthesia," adds Liu.

Good early results

When the researchers injected the combination near the sciatic nerve in rats, they achieved a nerve block for up to three days, with minimal local or systemic toxicity and no apparent sign of tissue injury.

In theory, nerve block in humans could last even longer, since one could administer it more safely than in rats, says Kohane. Using polymers with a longer retention time in tissue would also prolong effects.

"We could think about very long durations of nerve block for patients with cancer pain, for example," he says. "Certainly for days, and maybe for weeks."

Researchers from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) and the group of Eating Disorders, of the Bellvitge University Hospital (HUB), led by Dr. Fernando Fernández-Aranda, published in Scientific Reports (Nature) a study that negatively correlates the concentration of orexin A (a neuropeptide) with the executive functions in anorexic patients. The study is part of the research program "Neurocognition and extreme weight conditions: from anorexia to obesity", carried out at the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN).

"We have evaluated the association between the concentration of the neuropeptide orexin A from blood plasma and the neuropsychological faculties in adult women, and we have been able to establish a negative correlation, i.e. the more concentration of orexin, lesser the adequacy of executive functions in patients" comments Dr. Fernández-Aranda. 102 adult women, 51 of them with anorexia nervosa, all of whom were treated in the HUB, participated in the study; the other half were healthy women. Male representatives have been excluded due to the low prevalence of men in this disorder.

In patients with anorexia, there are usually changes in decision making, difficulties in adapting to new situations (inflexibility) and to see the general context of what they observe (excessive fixation in details), high rigidity and perfectionism and, in some cases, high levels of impulsivity.

Orexins, also called hypocretins, are neuropeptides (substances of the nervous system) used by neurons to communicate with each other. In previous studies it has been observed that orexins are involved in a variety of mechanisms, such as food intake and cognition, sleep disorders, among others.

One of the main objectives of Dr. Fernández Aranda's research group is studying the interaction between biological, cognitive and clinical factors. To achieve this, they are looking for neurobiological markers that can explain cognitive processes and those of diseases (such as anorexia, bulimia or obesity) and behavioral addictions. "That's why we wanted to study whether orexin A could play an important role in psychiatric disorders such as anorexia," justifies Dr. Fernández Aranda.

Once patients with anorexia have recovered, the decision-making levels are also more appropriate, meaning that they are reversible. For this reason, it would be of great interest to explore if the improvement of decision-making observed during the recovery of anorexia is related to changes in levels of orexin A. This way, we could assure a biomarker with potential clinical applications.

Researchers at the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University have made a popular type of dye-sensitized solar cell more efficient by adjusting and updating their structure. Published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS), the team report a series of adaptations with a power conversion efficiency of 10.7%, the highest yet for this kind of dye-sensitized solar cell, the most efficient solar technology available at present.

Current dye-sensitized solar cells are made up of a porous layer of titanium dioxide covered with a molecular dye. As sunlight is taken in, electrons are excited as they pass through, and are collected for power, before being 'recycled', reintroduced into the electrolyte and back to the dye molecule. As they are lightweight and low density, they have a high industry appeal as a replacement material for current rooftop solar panels.

There are different approaches to structuring these solar cells; with aromatic ring fusion to a porphyrin core being the most attractive, as they absorb red light well. Yet they have their downsides: the electrons are only excited for a short lifetime, have a tendency to aggregate, making conversion to power difficult.

In order to improve efficiency, Hiroshi Imahori, Tomohiro Higashino and colleagues investigated the use of a methylene bridged material, fused to the porphyrin core. They believed this would overcome the downsides, particularly by suppressing the aggregation and enhancing energy conversion.

With the new molecular dye, DfZnP-iPr, they achieved a higher efficiency than previously reported. They believe their research will reinvigorate the exploration of aromatic-fused porphyrin sensitizers for these high performance solar cells.

"Growing concern over the use of fossil fuels and environmental issues means we need to work hard on improving sustainable energy systems. Our work improves the efficiency of a lightweight and attractive solar technology and we hope will stimulate the research community to further explore the potential of aromatic-fused porphyrin sensitizers for high performance dye-sensitized solar cells." says Hiroshi Imahori of Kyoto University's Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS)

An international group of researchers has found that antibodies to the human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV16) develop in the body between six to 40 years prior to a clinical diagnosis of throat cancer, and their presence indicates a strong increased risk of the disease.

The study, which is published in the leading cancer journal Annals of Oncology [1] today (Wednesday), also found that having HPV16 antibodies increased the risk of throat cancer far more in white people than in black: nearly 100-fold in white people, but 17-fold in black people.

Patients with HPV-associated throat cancer tend to respond better to treatment than those whose cancer is not associated with the infection; the researchers say this may partly explain the worse survival rates among black patients.

The main causes of throat cancer (known as oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma, OPSCC) are smoking, alcohol use and infection with HPV16. In the USA the proportion of OPSCCs attributable to HPV16 is around 70%; in some European countries a similar proportion is caused by HPV16, although this varies from country to country. [2]

Dr Mattias Johansson, a cancer epidemiologist at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France, who led the research, said: "Importantly, the proportion of throat cancers caused by HPV16 has been increasing over the past few decades, particularly in men, and in some countries the overwhelming majority are now caused by the virus.

"Investigating the range in time prior to diagnosis in which HPV antibodies develop is important to understand how many years an individual who tested positive would be at increased risk, and also gives important insight into the natural history of the disease. In this study we found that antibodies can, in some cases, develop several decades prior to diagnosis of cancer. If rates of throat cancer continue to rise in the future, this biomarker could provide one means to identify individuals at very high risk of the disease who may benefit from specific preventive measures."

The researchers from Europe, North America and Australia, who were part of the HPV Cancer Cohort Consortium, looked at 743 patients with throat cancer and compared them with 5,814 people without cancer who were the control group [3]. In the years before any diagnosis of cancer, all patients provided at least one blood sample, which was tested for antibodies against the HPV16 cancer-causing E6 protein, and 111 patients provided multiple samples over a period of up to 40 years. The median (average) time between first blood sample collection and a diagnosis of OPSCC was just over 11 years.

Specifically, they found that HPV antibodies were present in only 0.4% of people in the control group (22 out of 5814), but were detected in 26.2% of OPSCC patients (195 out of 743). Antibodies were present in 27.2% of white people before diagnosis with OPSCC (191 of 701) and in 7.7% of black people (3 of 39). This means that the presence of HPV16 antibodies was associated with a 98.2-fold increase in the risk of OPSCC in white people and a 17.2-fold increase in black people.

The first author of the study, Dr Aimée Kreimer, senior investigator at the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA, said: "We also found that people diagnosed in more recent calendar years were more likely to have HPV antibodies, which is consistent with what we know about the increase in the proportion of throat cancers that are due to HPV16. Although there were some people with HPV antibodies detected prior to 1995, this was relatively rare."

The researchers found that HPV16 antibodies tended to appear in people aged between about 40 to 80 years old - the median age at which antibodies were detected was 52 years, while the median age of diagnosis with OPSCC was 62. As there is no suitable, evidence-based way to test for OPSCC before symptoms appear, more research will be needed before HPV16 antibodies could be used to detect OPSCC in its early, pre-symptomatic stages.

Dr Kreimer said: "Although HPV16 antibodies could be a way to identify people at very high risk of cancer, we are currently missing the critical next steps in the screening process. Also, even though the antibody marker was very good at discriminating between those who would develop cancer and the controls who would not, with such a rare cancer, many people would still be likely to have a false-positive results."

Dr Johansson concluded: "Future studies will focus on the most appropriate way to follow-up individuals who test positive for HPV16 antibodies and whether there is a way to identify pre-malignant lesions, as well as alternative ways of reducing the risk of eventually developing OPSCC. In other words, there is a long way to go before this biomarker can be used in clinical practice. While vaccination against HPV holds promise in preventing HPV-related cancers, we will not see a resulting reduction in throat cancers for several decades."

Reasons why HPV16-driven throat cancer has increased in recent decades include changes in sexual practices that started in the middle of the 20th century and a decrease in tonsillectomy rates, which results in more tissue being available for infection by the virus.

The main limitation of the study is the difference between the groups of patients who took part in the study. For example, the group with the longest period of time between first collection of blood and diagnosis of OPSCC came from Norway, while other patient groups tended to have fewer blood samples collected over shorter timescales.

The research was carried out in collaboration with Dr Tim Waterboer, Head of Infection and Cancer Epidemiology, at the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Germany, who developed the HPV16 antibody test.

People moving in and out of photographs used to be reserved for the world of Harry Potter. But now computer scientists at the University of Washington have brought that magic to real life.

Their algorithm, Photo Wake-Up, can take a person from a 2D photo or a work of art and make them run, walk or jump out of the frame. The system also allows users to view the animation in three dimensions using augmented reality tools. The researchers will be presenting their results June 19 at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition in Long Beach, California. This research first attracted media attention when it was posted in preprint form in December on ArXiv.

"This is a very hard fundamental problem in computer vision," said co-author Ira Kemelmacher-Shlizerman, an associate professor at the UW's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering. "The big challenge here is that the input is only from a single camera position, so part of the person is invisible. Our work combines technical advancement on an open problem in the field with artistic creative visualization."

Previously, researchers thought it would be impossible to animate a person running out of a single photo.

"There is some previous work that tries to create a 3D character using multiple viewpoints," said co-author Brian Curless, a professor in the Allen School. "But you still couldn't bring someone to life and have them run out of a scene, and you couldn't bring AR into it. It was really surprising that we could get some compelling results with using just one photo."

The applications of Photo Wake-Up are numerous, the team says. The researchers envision this could lead to a new way for gamers to create avatars that actually look like them, a method for visitors to interact with paintings in an art museum -- say sitting down to have tea with Mona Lisa -- or something that lets children to bring their drawings to life. Examples in the research paper include animating the Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry to run off the court, Paul McCartney to leap off the cover of the "Help!" album and Matisse's "Icarus" to leave his frame.

To make the magic a reality, Photo Wake-Up starts by identifying a person in an image and making a mask of the body's outline. From there, it matches a 3D template to the subject's body position. Then the algorithm does something surprising: In order to warp the template so that it actually looks like the person in the photo, it projects the 3D person back into 2D.

"It's very hard to manipulate in 3D precisely," said co-author Chung-Yi Weng, a doctoral student in the Allen School. "Maybe you can do it roughly, but any error will be obvious when you animate the character. So we have to find a way to handle things perfectly, and it's easier to do this in 2D."

Photo Wake-Up stores 3D information for each pixel: its distance from the camera or artist and how a person's joints are connected together. Once the template has been warped to match the person's shape, the algorithm pastes on the texture -- the colors from the image. It also generates the back of the person by using information from the image and the 3D template. Then the tool stitches the two sides together to make a 3D person who will be able to turn around.

Once the 3D character is ready to run, the algorithm needs to set up the background so that the character doesn't leave a blank space behind. Photo Wake-Up fills in the hole behind the person by borrowing information from other parts of the image.

Right now Photo Wake-Up works best with images of people facing forward, and can animate both artistic creations and photographs of real people. The algorithm can also handle some photos where people's arms are blocking part of their bodies, but it is not yet capable of animating people who have their legs crossed or who are blocking large parts of themselves.

"Photo Wake-Up is a new way to interact with photos," Weng said. "It can't do everything yet, but this is just the beginning."

New mechanical modeling of a network of active strike-slip faults in California's Imperial Valley suggests the faults are continuously linked, from the southern San Andreas Fault through the Imperial Fault to the Cerro Prieto fault further to the south of the valley.

Although more studies are needed to understand the slip rates and exact relationships between these faults, linkage could increase the likelihood that they might rupture together and cause larger than expected shaking in Los Angeles, Imperial, Riverside and San Bernardino counties in California, Jacob Dorsett and colleagues suggest in their analysis, published in the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America.

While its faults may not be as well-known as the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults to the north, the region has hosted several damaging earthquakes, including a magnitude 6.9 rupture along the Imperial Fault in 1940 and a magnitude 6.6 earthquake on the same fault in 1979, along with magnitude 6.2 and 6.6 earthquakes on the Elmore Ranch and Superstition Hills faults, respectively, in 1989.

"We know that faults here have hosted earthquakes in the past, but understanding the three-dimensional fault shapes in the area, and specifically how the faults connect to and interact with one another, is necessary to better understand earthquake behavior. This project, to determine fault linkage and how it relates to fault slip rates here, is a necessary first step toward the future goal of mitigating risk," said co-author Elizabeth Madden at Universidade de Brasília, who first advanced the idea of the BSSA study.

Dorsett, who worked on the study as an undergraduate at Appalachian State University and is now pursuing a Master's degree at Indiana University, said the new analysis could prove useful to seismologists working on large-scale computational models to better forecast California earthquakes.

"Our work suggests that the San Andreas effectively does not end at the Salton Sea, but is most likely physically connected to the Imperial fault, and then to the Cerro Prieto fault in Mexico," he said. "All other factors equal, if the San Andreas is connected to these other structures, then it makes the chances of a longer rupture--and a larger magnitude--more likely."

The system of faults in the Imperial Valley accommodate most of the motion between the Pacific and North American tectonic plates in southern California. The complex spatial arrangement of the faults, however, makes it difficult to know whether this motion is mostly transferred via slip along major faults, or through significant off-fault deformation of the crust, Dorsett noted.

To better understand slip rates and linkage among these faults, the researchers created a suite of 3D models that simulate long-term Pacific-North American plate motion, basing the initial fault geometry on the SCEC Community Fault Model 5.0, a comprehensive database of known faults in southern California. They developed four geologically plausible fault configurations with different degrees of connectivity between the Imperial fault and the Coachella (southern) part of the San Andreas Fault to the north and to the Cerro Prieto fault in the south.

They then compared slip rates along those faults, as suggested by the mechanical models, with average fault slip rates calculated by the Uniform California Earthquake Rupture Model version 3, or UCERF3, the most recent earthquake rupture forecast for California.

Their model results suggest the Coachella-San Andreas Fault, the Brawley Seismic Zone, the Imperial Fault and the Cerro Prieto fault are mechanically linked and form a continuous fault structure.

The analysis also suggests that the Dixieland fault in the west part of the valley, in particular, may accommodate a more significant part of the plate motion than previously suspected, Dorsett noted, while the models also indicate that there may be a significant amount of seismic strain that occurs off of the faults.

"Like others before us, we definitely suspected that there could be faults linking the San Andreas to the Imperial and Cerro Prieto faults, and it's great that our study suggests that these linking faults are needed to correctly capture the plate motions," said Dorsett.

DURHAM, N.C., June 11, 2019 - Burt's Bees, a leading provider of personal care products committed to natural skin care solutions, today announced research supporting new findings related to the skin's composition and the role of nature-based regimens to protect the skin against common environmental stressors. The studies will be presented at the 24th World Congress of Dermatology (WCD) Meeting in Milan, Italy, June 10-15, 2019.

These latest research findings from Burt's Bees highlight:

The protective abilities of botanical antioxidants in photo-aging and UV protection

The important role that nature-based skin care products may play in improving barrier and decreasing skin sensitivity in highly polluted environments

Evidence pre/probiotics may dually modulate sebum and the skin microbiome

First-of-its-kind in vivo study examining lip barrier composition

"This promising research helps us better understand how to positively impact and modulate skin health through nature-based ingredients. These ingredient-based studies will help drive understanding of the effects of nature-based ingredients and products on skin health and environmental aggressors such as the sun and pollutants," said Raja K. Sivamani, MD MS AP, Department of Dermatology at the University of California, Davis Medical Center and study investigator.

Burt's Bees posters at WCD 2019 include:

Nature-Based Skin Care Regimen Improves Skin Barrier Function and Reduces Oxidative Damage in Sensitive Skin Population Exposed to High Pollution; Gunt H et al.; E-Poster #3019.

About the Study: The research concludes that products reinforced the skin's epidermal barrier, improved skin hydration and elasticity and protected against oxidative stress, as indicated by reduced carbonyl proteins. Notably, nature-based skin care products may play an important role in decreasing skin sensitivity.

In a 4-week clinical study, 60 female subjects with sensitive skin exposed to high pollution were given a twice-daily regimen: 40 were given a natural-based regimen with ingredients like beeswax, witch hazel and botanical anti-inflammatories, and 20 continued a current synthetic regimen. Evaluations, including stinging test, clinical grading, skin hydration, elasticity and barrier function, were completed at baseline and week 4. Results suggest that nature-based regimen was well-tolerated, reinforcing the epidermal barrier and decreasing skin sensitivity.

A Clinical Demonstration of the Antioxidant Abilities of a Botanically Based Facial Oil; Gunt H et al.; E-Poster #1889.

About the Study: Examined the ability of a nature-based facial oil to decrease oxidative stress, as measured by the development of sunburn cells following exposure to UVB radiation.

In an 8-week clinical assessment, a botanically based facial oil reduced erythema and decreased oxidation, demonstrating the antioxidant abilities of the formula, which includes rosehip and evening primrose seed extracts. The decreased sunburn cells suggests that the natural antioxidants serve as electron donors that stabilize the reactive oxygen species created by solar simulated radiation, providing valuable insight regarding the role of a nature-based photoaging prevention.

Effect of Topical Skin Care Products on the Structure and Diversity of the Human Skin Microbiome; Gunt H et al.; E-Poster #3016.

About the Study: Results suggest that topically applied bacterial extracts, lystates, ferments and prebiotics may modulate the microbiome and have distinctive effects on the skin microbiome and sebum excretion rate, depending on desired skin benefits.

In a one-week clinical study (n=30), subjects were treated twice daily with one of four prebiotic or probiotic-containing formulations to determine their impact on desired skin benefits. One formulation increased diversity, while two others did not alter pre-existing diversity but increased sebum excretion.

Assessment of the Lip Barrier: Microspectroscopic Confocal Raman Spectroscopy and Macroscopic Biophysical Measurements; Gunt H et al.; Oral Presentation during "Skin imaging other than dermatoscopy" at 9:15 a.m. (GMT+2) on June 13 in Room White 1.

About the Study: Lip barrier and structure play an important role as a key visible marker of aging. Yet unlike skin, there has been little research into the biophysical properties and molecular composition of the lips.

In a first-of-its-kind in vivo study, these factors, as well as the lip barrier composition of healthy female lips, were examined to better understand water content and other barrier-relevant components. Water content was lowest on the surface but gradually increased when reaching the stratum granulosum border, continuing to increase at great depths.

"These data provide valuable information about unexplored areas such as the lip barrier function as well as help to uncover key ingredients based in nature that can reduce erythema, decrease oxidative damage and reinforce the epidermal barrier," said Hemali Gunt, Ph.D., Head of Clinical and Scientific Affairs at Burt's Bees. "Unlocking the potential of nature-based ingredients to protect skin against oxidative stress, photoaging and skin inflammation offers important insights into the benefit of nature-based regimens for patients."

Posters will be available onsite June 11-14 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (GMT+2) and June 15 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (GMT+2).

Previous research has shown that falcons intercept prey using the same guidance law as homing missiles, called proportional navigation. This guidance law is optimal against smoothly-manoeuvring aerial targets, but is prone to being thrown off by the zigzagging manoeuvres of terrestrial prey like hares or jackrabbits, and will not necessarily lead to a feasible flight path through the cluttered habitats that hawks frequent.

University of Oxford researchers, Dr Caroline Brighton and Prof Graham Taylor, used high-speed cameras to capture the flight trajectories of five captive-bred Harris' Hawks during 50 flights against an erratically-manoeuvring artificial target.

Dr Brighton said: 'We filmed our hawks flying after a dummy bunny, which was an artificial target that we towed at speed around a series of pulleys laid out to produce an unpredictable course. Using video reconstruction techniques to measure the 3D trajectory of the hawk and its target, we then ran a computer simulation to see how closely the hawk's attack behaviour was modelled by different kinds of guidance law.'

The researchers found that Harris' Hawks use a mixed guidance law, in which their turn rate is determined by feeding back information on the angle between the direction to their target and their current flight direction, together with information on the rate at which the direction to their target is changing. The researchers argue that this mixed guidance law reduces the risk of overshoot in the close pursuits to which hawks are adapted, but would produce an inefficient flight path if used in the long-range interception behaviours of falcons.

The findings have applications to the design of drones for pursuing and capturing rogue drones in cluttered environments.

Prof Taylor said: 'Last year's Gatwick incident showed just how far we are from being able to remove rogue drones quickly and safely from a large open space, let alone the cluttered airspace of an urban environment. Hawks are masters of close pursuit through clutter, so we think they have a thing or two to teach us about how to design a new kind of drone that can safely chase down another.'

GALVESTON, Texas - Using data from privately-insured adults, new findings from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston revealed that there is a lower level of opioids prescribed in states that have allowed the use of medical marijuana.

The findings care currently available in Preventive Medicine.

"We found that the overall prescription opioid use increased by age, which we expected," said senior author Mukaila Raji, UTMB professor and director, Division of Geriatrics Medicine. "But, when we looked at the results within different age groups, opioid prescription rates varied depending on the stringency of state cannabis laws. In particular, states that implemented medical cannabis laws had lower rates of opioid prescription in people aged 18 to 54."

Initially, opioids were seen as a way to ease pain and their use became widespread over time, with little attention paid to possible side effects or the risk of addiction. Over the past 25 years, prescriptions for opioids have nearly tripled and in 2017 there were 29,406 synthetic opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. alone. The desire to reduce the use of opioids has given rise to a search for non-opioid alternatives for pain treatment.

"As more states enact laws legalizing medical use of cannabis, there is growing interest in cannabis as a potential agent to mitigate harmful effects associated with synthetic opioid use," said Raji.

"While this may suggest a public health benefit, it must be carefully examined across different groups of people to prevent unintended downsides of any new cannabis legislation," Raji said. "Earlier studies that analyzed data from Medicaid and Medicare enrollees suggest a relationship between cannabis laws and lower opioid use, but we're the first to explore whether this link is mirrored among commercially insured adults - which encompasses a wide range of ages and other demographics."

The researchers used de-identified data from Clinformatics Data Mart, a database of one of the nation's largest commercial health insurance providers that contains 87 percent of commercial enrollees. They calculated the number of people who had opioid prescriptions for one month and three months within a year and then separated the data into groups by level of legalization of cannabis laws and different age groups.