Tech

TORONTO, CANADA ---International scientists are challenging their colleagues to make Artificial Intelligence (AI) research more transparent and reproducible to accelerate the impact of their findings for cancer patients.

In an article published in Nature on October 14, 2020, scientists at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University of Toronto, Stanford University, Johns Hopkins, Harvard School of Public Health, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and others, challenge scientific journals to hold computational researchers to higher standards of transparency, and call for their colleagues to share their code, models and computational environments in publications.

"Scientific progress depends on the ability of researchers to scrutinize the results of a study and reproduce the main finding to learn from," says Dr. Benjamin Haibe-Kains, Senior Scientist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre and first author of the article. "But in computational research, it's not yet a widespread criterion for the details of an AI study to be fully accessible. This is detrimental to our progress."

The authors voiced their concern about the lack of transparency and reproducibility in AI research after a Google Health study by McKinney et al., published in a prominent scientific journal in January 2020, claimed an artificial intelligence (AI) system could outperform human radiologists in both robustness and speed for breast cancer screening. The study made waves in the scientific community and created a buzz with the public, with headlines appearing in BBC News, CBC, CNBC.

A closer examination raised some concerns: the study lacked a sufficient description of the methods used, including their code and models. The lack of transparency prohibited researchers from learning exactly how the model works and how they could apply it to their own institutions.

"On paper and in theory, the McKinney et al. study is beautiful," says Dr. Haibe-Kains, "But if we can't learn from it then it has little to no scientific value."

According to Dr. Haibe-Kains, who is jointly appointed as Associate Professor in Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto and affiliate at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence, this is just one example of a problematic pattern in computational research.

"Researchers are more incentivized to publish their finding rather than spend time and resources ensuring their study can be replicated," explains Dr. Haibe-Kains. "Journals are vulnerable to the 'hype' of AI and may lower the standards for accepting papers that don't include all the materials required to make the study reproducible--often in contradiction to their own guidelines."

This can actually slow down the translation of AI models into clinical settings. Researchers are not able to learn how the model works and replicate it in a thoughtful way. In some cases, it could lead to unwarranted clinical trials, because a model that works on one group of patients or in one institution, may not be appropriate for another.

In the article titled Transparency and reproducibility in artificial intelligence, the authors offer numerous frameworks and platforms that allow safe and effective sharing to uphold the three pillars of open science to make AI research more transparent and reproducible: sharing data, sharing computer code and sharing predictive models.

"We have high hopes for the utility of AI for our cancer patients," says Dr. Haibe-Kains. "Sharing and building upon our discoveries--that's real scientific impact."

Wearable electronics are getting smaller, more comfortable and increasingly capable of interfacing with the human body. To achieve a truly seamless integration, electronics could someday be printed directly on people's skin. As a step toward this goal, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have safely placed wearable circuits directly onto the surface of human skin to monitor health indicators, such as temperature, blood oxygen, heart rate and blood pressure.

The latest generation of wearable electronics for health monitoring combines soft on-body sensors with flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs) for signal readout and wireless transmission to health care workers. However, before the sensor is attached to the body, it must be printed or lithographed onto a carrier material, which can involve sophisticated fabrication approaches. To simplify the process and improve the performance of the devices, Peng He, Weiwei Zhao, Huanyu Cheng and colleagues wanted to develop a room-temperature method to sinter metal nanoparticles onto paper or fabric for FPCBs and directly onto human skin for on-body sensors. Sintering -- the process of fusing metal or other particles together -- usually requires heat, which wouldn't be suitable for attaching circuits directly to skin.

The researchers designed an electronic health monitoring system that consisted of sensor circuits printed directly on the back of a human hand, as well as a paper-based FPCB attached to the inside of a shirt sleeve. To make the FPCB part of the system, the researchers coated a piece of paper with a novel sintering aid and used an inkjet printer with silver nanoparticle ink to print circuits onto the coating. As solvent evaporated from the ink, the silver nanoparticles sintered at room temperature to form circuits. A commercially available chip was added to wirelessly transmit the data, and the resulting FPCB was attached to a volunteer's sleeve. The team used the same process to sinter circuits on the volunteer's hand, except printing was done with a polymer stamp. As a proof of concept, the researchers made a full electronic health monitoring system that sensed temperature, humidity, blood oxygen, heart rate, blood pressure and electrophysiological signals and analyzed its performance. The signals obtained by these sensors were comparable to or better than those measured by conventional commercial devices. 

Discussions about immigration are heated, even antagonistic. But what happens when supporters and opponents undertake to show more empathy and engage in perspective taking, two types of behaviour that can ease tension? A study carried out at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) --published in the journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications-- reveals that people who support immigration are ready and willing to adopt an empathetic approach and a wider perspective. By contrast, when opponents of immigration are asked to engage in perspective taking, they feel more competition with their "adversary." Although empathy is not the universal key to unlocking healthy, constructive dialogue around immigration, the UNIGE study does show that it is important to take the political leaning and opinions of individuals into account in order to intervene effectively in conflict resolution.

Arguments over immigration have been in the public eye following recent debates about the initiative to limit the influx of political refugees into Europe or the Black Lives Matter movement. UNIGE psychologist and neuroscientist Olga Klimeckiand her colleagues have been trying to ascertain whether empathy-based interventions, which are known to help to resolve certain disputes, could help bring people together and ease tensions.

A showdown between left and right

Previous research has shown marked differences between people who lean towards the right politically and those on the left regarding their willingness to engage in empathy. The Geneva scientists incorporated this factor into their methodology, with Professor Klimecki explaining: "We formed pairs made up of a supporter and opponent of immigration, without telling them about the political orientation of the other member of the duo. The pairs," continues Klimecki, "had to work together to solve ten immigration-related issues." The ten problems included questions such as "When and how should immigrants be naturalised?" and: "How should benefits intended for migrants be distributed?"

Experimenting with empathy

The psychologists formed three groups made up of several pairs, who were issued with three different instructions for solving the task they had been asked to perform. The first group was not given any instructions, and served as a control group; the second group had to try to empathise with each other; and participants in the third group were to attempt to take a wider perspective by considering the other position, thoughts and ideas.

The results of the study showed that people who are pro-immigration are motivated to show empathy towards their opponents. People who are against immigration, by contrast, are not at all inclined to engage in empathy or perspective taking. In addition, when asked to step back and look at the situation from a broader perspective, they have an increased sense of competition. "Competition is generally not a good sign of collaboration. For us psychologists, it is an indicator of a deterioration in social relations".

Finding a way out of the crisis

It follows that empathy and a wider perspective are not ideal techniques for resolving conflicts on the topic of immigration. "Previous research has shown that people who lean towards the right politically are less willing to adopt empathetic behaviour, and are less open to trying out new things. This needs to be taken into account if we intend to resolve conflicts and make the debate around immigration more constructive," continues Professor Klimecki.

The researcher puts forward potential solutions borrowed from other studies to govern emotions in an indirect and more astute manner. "Our study suggests that giving explicit instructions for empathy or perspective taking is not optimal when targeting people of different political opinions. Reading texts or watching films containing positive messages and hopeful scenes, where the topic is not related to the conflict, helps to calm spirits. This needs to be tested in the context of immigration disputes. Finally, we would like to test our empathy-based conflict approach in other cultures and other geopolitical situations."

The cover for Issue 41 of Oncotarget features Figure 7, "IPA ATM-signaling pathway in (A) EFV treated MRC-5 and (B) A549 cells," recently published in "Efavirenz induces DNA damage response pathway in lung cancer" by Marima, et al. which reported that the cell-cycle related genes are potential gene targets in understanding the effects of efavirenz in lung cancer.

The present study aimed at investigating the expression changes of cell-cycle related genes in response to EFV drug treatment in human non-small cell lung carcinoma and normal lung fibroblast cells.

The loss in nuclear integrity in response to EFV was detected by 4′, 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole staining. Gene expression profiling was performed using human cell cycle PathwayFinder RT2 Profiler™ PCR Array.

The expression changes of 84 genes key to the cell cycle pathway in humans following EFV treatment was examined.

Interestingly, the p53 signaling pathway was activated irrespective of the repressed ATM pathway in A549 cells as revealed by the Ingenuity Pathway Analysis.

Dr. Rahaba Marima from The University of Pretoria as well as The University of the Witwatersrand said, "The non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) efavirenz (EFV) is frequently used in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment, and forms part of the first-line Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment (HAART) treatment against HIV/AIDS."

Xulu and Hosie showed that ARV drugs including EFV caused apoptosis in the Human Squamous Cell carcinoma from Uterine Cervix cells and observed a change in morphological features such as rounding-up of cells, retraction of filopodia, blebbing and maintenance of plasma membrane integrity- characteristic features of apoptosis.

Due to the fact that the cell cycle is a tightly regulated process, eukaryotic cells respond to external stimuli such as DNA damage by activating signaling pathways that promote cell cycle arrest and DNA repair.

A previous study performed by the Marima Research group, involved assessing the effects of EFV on lung cancer cells at the cellular level on the physiological health of treated cells.

To date, several studies including Hecht et al., have revealed the cytotoxic effects of EFV against several cancer cells, but to our knowledge, no study yet has shown the anti-proliferative effects of EFV on lung epithelial cancer cells in relation to primary lung fibroblast cells.

In conjunction with preceding studies on EFV′s cyto-and-genotoxicity, this Oncotarget study is the first to reveal EFV mediated ATM/ATR genotoxicity in lung cells.

"In conjunction with preceding studies on EFV′s cyto-and-genotoxicity, this Oncotarget study is the first to reveal EFV mediated ATM/ATR genotoxicity in lung cells"

The Marima Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Paper that the treatment of MRC-5 and A549 cells with EFV alters the gene expression of important factors that are essential in the maintenance of genomic stability in relation to the cell cycle.

This is particularly observed in the cancerous cells, with the significant down-regulation of AURKB and MAD2L2. Even though the normal p53 expression was shown here, p27, CASP3, Cyclin G1 and G2, NBN, RAD1 and RAD17 were significantly up-regulated.

Interestingly, the S-phase and DNA replication genes were downregulated; MCM4 in particular was –3.65 significantly down-regulated.

Depending on the severity of these effects in the physiological health of normal cells, EFV poses as a promising drug that can be used in synergy with chemo/radiotherapy.

Posttranscriptional gene regulation targeted by EFV in lung cells would also be interesting to pursue.

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DOI - https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27725

Full text - https://www.oncotarget.com/article/27725/text/

Correspondence to - Rahaba Marima - rahaba.marima@up.ac.za

Keywords -
efavirenz,
cell cycle,
differential gene expression,
DNA damage response pathway,
lung cancer

About Oncotarget

Oncotarget is a weekly, peer-reviewed, open access biomedical journal covering research on all aspects of oncology.

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Oncotarget is published by Impact Journals, LLC please visit http://www.ImpactJournals.com or connect with @ImpactJrnls

Journal

Oncotarget

DOI

10.18632/oncotarget.27725

Norbert has been meandering around in the Eastern Pacific Ocean for several days as a tropical depression.

At 11 p.m. EDT on Oct.13, Norbert regained tropical storm strength. At that time, the National Hurricane Center noted that Norbert had increased in organization during the evening hours and satellite data showed a tightly curved band of convection wrapping about halfway around the low-level center.

Norbert's Status on Oct. 14

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Norbert was located near latitude 22.1 degrees north and longitude 113.3 degrees west. Norbert is moving toward the northwest near 15 mph (24 kph).  A northwestward motion with a gradual decrease in forward speed is expected through tonight. Maximum sustained winds remain near 40 mph (65 kph) with higher gusts.  Little change in strength is expected this morning, but the tropical storm is forecast to begin weakening by later today. Norbert is forecast to become a remnant low tonight or early Thursday, and dissipate by Thursday night.

Estimating Norbert's Rainfall Rates from Space

NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM or IMERG, which is a NASA satellite rainfall product, estimated on Oct. 14 at 4:30 a.m. EDT (0830 UTC), Norbert was generating as much as 30 mm (1.18 inches) of rain per hour near the center of circulation. The National Hurricane Center noted that the exact location has been difficult to pinpoint in the area of deep convection.

Rainfall throughout most of the storm was estimated as falling at a rate between 5 and 15 mm (0.2 to 0.6 inches) per hour. At the U.S. Naval Laboratory in Washington, D.C., the IMERG rainfall data was overlaid on infrared imagery from NOAA's GOES-16 satellite to provide a full extent of the storm.

What Does IMERG Do?

This near-real time rainfall estimate comes from the NASA's IMERG, which combines observations from a fleet of satellites, in near-real time, to provide near-global estimates of precipitation every 30 minutes. By combining NASA precipitation estimates with other data sources, we can gain a greater understanding of major storms that affect our planet.

What the IMERG does is "morph" high-quality satellite observations along the direction of the steering winds to deliver information about rain at times and places where such satellite overflights did not occur. Information morphing is particularly important over the majority of the world's surface that lacks ground-radar coverage. Basically, IMERG fills in the blanks between weather observation stations.

NASA Researches Tropical Cyclones

Hurricanes/tropical cyclones 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.

For more than five decades, NASA has used the vantage point of space to understand and explore our home planet, improve lives and safeguard our future. NASA brings together technology, science, and unique global Earth observations to provide societal benefits and strengthen our nation. Advancing knowledge of our home planet contributes directly to America's leadership in space and scientific exploration.

For more information about NASA's IMERG, visit: https://pmm.nasa.gov/gpm/imerg-global-image

For forecast updates on hurricanes, visit: http://www.hurricanes.gov

By Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Newly updated Cochrane evidence published today in the Cochrane Library finds that electronic cigarettes containing nicotine could increase the number of people who stop smoking compared to nicotine replacement therapy - such as chewing gum and patches - and compared to no treatment, or electronic cigarettes without nicotine. More information is needed on harms.

Smoking is a significant global health problem. Many people who smoke want to quit, but find it difficult to succeed in the long term. One of the most effective and widely used strategies to help people to give up smoking is to combat the cravings associated with nicotine addiction by delivering nicotine through patches and chewing gum.

Electronic cigarettes have been around in some form for a number of years, but recently their popularity has increased significantly, and they have begun to look and feel less like conventional cigarettes. Unlike chewing gum and patches, they mimic the experience of cigarette smoking because they are hand-held and generate a smoke-like vapour when used. This helps to recreate sensations similar to smoking without exposing users or other people to the smoke from conventional cigarettes, and can be used to provide people who smoke with nicotine.

A team of researchers have updated a Cochrane Review that compares the effects of electronic cigarettes with other ways of delivering nicotine - such as patches and chewing gum - or with dummy electronic cigarettes that do not contain nicotine or no treatment. This updated review now includes 50 studies, an increase of 35 studies since it was last published in 2016. Twenty-four of these are uncontrolled studies, but their results support the data from the randomised controlled trials.

The researchers identified three studies, in 1498 people, that compared nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes with nicotine replacement therapy given as patches or gum. The results showed that more people quit smoking if they used electronic cigarettes containing nicotine than if they used another form of nicotine replacement. If six people in 100 quit by using nicotine replacement therapy, 10 people in 100 would quit by using electronic cigarettes containing nicotine. This means an additional four people in 100 could potentially quit smoking with nicotine containing electronic cigarettes.

Similar results were seen in another three studies, involving 802 people, that compared nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes with electronic cigarettes that did not contain nicotine.

Evidence from four studies (2312 people) showed that more people who used nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes quit smoking than those who received only behavioural support or no support. If four people in 100 quit with no support, an additional six people in 100 might quit by using nicotine electronic cigarettes.

The review authors did not detect any clear evidence of serious harms from nicotine electronic cigarettes. However, evidence about serious harms is uncertain because the overall number of studies was small and serious health problems were very rare in both users and non-users of nicotine electronic cigarettes. There was no information about the effects of long-term use (more than two years) of nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes. The studies showed that throat and mouth irritation, headache, cough, and nausea are the most commonly reported side effects in the short- to medium-term (up to two years). The studies assessed the potential harms of electronic cigarettes when used to help people who smoke quit smoking, so did not assess other potential harms such as whether electronic cigarettes encourage nicotine use among people who do not smoke.

The lead author of this updated Cochrane Review, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce from the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group, said, "The randomised evidence on smoking cessation has increased since the last version of the review and there is now evidence that electronic cigarettes with nicotine are likely to increase the chances of quitting successfully compared to nicotine gum or patches.

Electronic cigarettes are an evolving technology. Modern electronic cigarette products have better nicotine delivery than the early devices that were tested in the trials we found, and more studies are needed to confirm whether quit rates are affected by the type of electronic cigarettes being used.

While there is currently no clear evidence of any serious side effects, there is considerable uncertainty about the harms of electronic cigarettes and longer-term data are needed. Scientific consensus holds that electronic cigarettes are considerably less harmful than traditional cigarettes, but not risk-free.

We are encouraged to see that 20 trials are now underway, and we will be looking for newly published evidence every month from December 2020. It is important that the review continues to provide up-to-date information to people who smoke, healthcare providers and regulators about the potential benefits and harms of electronic cigarettes."

There's a saying that true friendships stand the test of time. But does that apply to Facebook friendships that are tested by differing longtime political beliefs?

As we approach a contentious Election Day 2020 that mirrors or perhaps even ups the ante on the divisiveness of the 2016 cycle, we turned to UNLV communication studies assistant professor Natalie Pennington. Pennington is an expert on social media and relationships, and we asked her for answers about political posturing online, and how it's led to thousands of online breakups among family, friends, coworkers, and acquaintances who just couldn't play nice during partisan political discussions.

Pennington -- in collaboration with Iowa State assistant professor and Catt Center for Women in Politics research and outreach coordinator Kelly Winfrey -- is the co-author of a new study that analyzes what motivates people to engage in politics on social media, and examines why some people are more willing to broach the subject as well as the factors that make some of us hold back.

In this (virtual, of course!) interview, Pennington lets us in on how political talk plays out in our virtual communications, and how increasingly divisive online dialogue could further push us away from compromise.

What prompted you and your colleague to explore this topic?

For both of us, there was a personal level to understanding what was going on: Kelly tends to post about politics online a lot. Me, not so much. As an interpersonal researcher, I saw the arguments people would get into leading up to and following the last election and struggled with the effects I saw it having on people I care about. I wondered whether it was worth it for me to talk about politics and other important issues with someone if it was only going to turn into a fight. At the same time, I also recognize how Kelly, as someone who primarily studies politics, saw sites like Facebook as a way to connect with people and share about important issues we are facing today. So there was this push-pull between the interpersonal and political from the start, creating a great opportunity for us to collaborate and learn more about what motivated people to communicate about politics online.

What are the main motivators that drive people to engage in political talk on Facebook?

A few things that we noticed in our study demonstrated how the political-interpersonal push-pull played out. If someone primarily used social media to build and maintain relationships, they were significantly less likely to post and talk about politics on Facebook. The same was true for those who were really concerned with impression management online. On the flip side, people who were both interested in politics and had high influence goals (i.e., believed it is important to get people to agree with their political views) were more likely to engage in political talk on the site. Those who saw themselves as concerned with relationships were much more likely to avoid political talk than those who were generally interested in politics and motivated by their desire to persuade others to their views, suggesting interpersonal relationships may outweigh the political. But we need more research to know if that's really the case.

So, what's the breaking point for someone to choose whether or not to engage? Informal political talk is really important in encouraging people to get engaged in the political process, and has been a predictor of voting in the past -- but disagreement with friends and family about politics can actually stifle voting or other types of political engagement, which may be why we saw such a strong negative push back from our participants in terms of relationships coming first over sharing their political views on Facebook. Technology, of course, adds a whole other level to the equation because people may misinterpret text-based responses on posts due to a lack of social cues. In exploring the upcoming 2020 election, we hope to delve deeper into this topic to find a balance between these two competing interests.

Can you compare and contrast the social media climate between 2016 and 2020?

Claims about 2020 at this point would be purely speculative. But, from what I've seen within my own social networks, I can say that people continue to be fired up as the political climate has become more contentious in the last several months compared, I think, to what we have seen in a long time. At the same time, the decision to un-friend is not one people take lightly, and more often I see calls to "snooze" (i.e., hide posts from someone) for 30 days in the lead up to the election so people can avoid political content. I've also heard of people taking breaks from social media right now to keep their mental health in check, and I can't blame them. A recent poll from the Pew Research Center indicates 55% of social media users are worn out from political talk online, which suggests that one possible difference from 2016 to 2020 is political talk surrounding the election started earlier, and is occurring more often, leading to this frustration. I'm concerned about the increasing polarization occurring around politics, period. Without learning how to talk with each other, both sides continue to struggle to find civil ways to have productive political conversations. This isn't helpful for anyone involved.

Your study surveyed people across a wide range of ages, as well as a variety of racial/ethnic groups and political leanings. Who is most likely to talk about politics online, and why?

We found that women were slightly more likely to engage in political talk online compared to men. We argue that this may be because we collected our data right around the time Hillary Clinton was a candidate for the 2016 presidential election and the Women's March that followed in the spring of 2017 -- bringing women's rights issues to the forefront. We did not find any major differences across age groups or political parties; however, previous work has found that those who identify as Republican (or Republican leaning) are more likely to avoid talking about politics online for fear that their views are the minority opinion.

What takeaways do you hope the public gleans from this research?

One thing we've seen in our past research is that issue salience can bring people into a political discussion online, and so can emotional involvement. When you care deeply about a topic, or feel like it may affect you, you're more likely to jump into a conversation, regardless of possible adverse outcomes.

We also suspect that people who want to build and sustain relationships online are much less likely to post about politics because of a fear of disagreement; we don't choose our friends (at least at first) because of their political affiliation. As that tie grows stronger, we may struggle with how to balance our perception of that relationship with political views that feel inconsistent, and the concern for disagreement can lead to that pull back. I hope that in future studies we can come to understand how to push past these fears, because civil dialogue across party lines can help to overcome the polarization and contentious political climate we see ourselves in today.

The human intestine is vital for both digestion and absorbing nutrients as well as drugs. For any type of research that involves intestines, scientists require research models that reflect the physiological situation inside human beings with the highest possible accuracy.

Standard cell lines and animal experiments have certain disadvantages. One main issue is the lack of applicability of the results to humans. Now, a multidisciplinary research team covering the areas of nutritional science, general medicine, and chemistry has demonstrated how a modern in vitro model - made from human intestinal biopsies - can answer various questions regarding the molecular processes inside the human gut.

Measuring nutrient and drug transport in the intestines

A few years ago, researchers Eva Rath and Tamara Zietek have already demonstrated some areas of application of intestinal organoids. These are microstructures similar to the gut, which possess utility for the scientific field examining the gastro-intestinal system.

For instance, these miniature intestines can serve as models for investigating hormone release and transport mechanisms of food or medication inside the digestive tract. Previously, these microstructures with their similarity to intestines were grown from mouse tissue. Now the team has found a way to apply this method to miniature intestines grown from human tissue, thereby expanding the methodological spectrum.

Organoids consist of so-called epithelial cells - a cell layer serving as barrier between the content of the bowels including the enteric flora, scientifically known as "microbiota", and the inside of the body. These cells are not only responsible for absorbing nutrients and drugs; their metabolism has an effect on various functions in all parts of the body.

"Many molecular aspects of nutrient absorption in the intestines are still unknown. We do know, however, that some nutrient transporters also play a role in drug absorption," explained Eva Rath, scientist at the Chair of Nutrition and Immunology at TUM.

In their latest publication, the researchers illustrate how the transport of nutrients and drugs and the subsequent metabolic changes can be measured in organoids. "This paves the way for this model to be used in medical and pharmaceutical applications such as drug screening," Rath added.

A better alternative to animal experiments

"When studying diseases or performing drug screenings, it is critical to have access to a human test system such as human organoids in order to prevent obtaining species specific test results," said Tamara Zietek, who is part of the Chair of Nutritional Physiology at TUM.

She added that, "over the course of the last few years, organoids have become one of the most promising in vitro models due to their high physiological relevance; they also present a human-based alternative method to animal experiments."

The processes established by the research team are of particular importance for both fundamental research and drug development, but also regarding regulation in terms of safety testing for chemicals and other agents.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Scanning social media while listening to a lecture. Watching a favorite television series while studying. Today's young people frequently juggle multiple streams of information and entertainment media while doing schoolwork, a trend that researchers call distracted learning.

And while numerous researchers found that simultaneous use of electronic devices has a significant detrimental impact on learning, many students shrug off warnings about the negative consequences because they consider themselves such good multitaskers, said food chemistry professor Shelly J. Schmidt of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In a paper published in the Journal of Food Science Education, Schmidt reviewed recent studies on distracted learning and suggested strategies to help students stay engaged and on task.

Like many teachers, Schmidt, who also serves as a Fellow in the U. of I.'s Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning, has grappled with the problem of students' attention being diverted by their mobile devices during classes.

While some faculty members restrict or ban students' unsanctioned use of cellphones and other devices in the classroom, these policies can be difficult for instructors to enforce and cast technology as "the enemy," she said.

"Banning technology use in the classroom suggests to our students that they are children who can't learn to appropriately handle it, rather than young adults we are helping to grow into professionals," Schmidt said.

"In a world where distractions abound, we have a golden opportunity to help our students and ourselves learn how to control our actions and focus on what really matters. Learning how to become less distractible is an essential and timeless skill for success in education, as well as many other facets of life."

While it's "virtually impossible to make students limit all distractions" in class or out, Schmidt said teachers and parents can encourage youths to develop an internal locus of control - the attitude that they have control over the situation and their success or failure is a result of the effort they invest in their education.

"Armed with an internal locus of control, students are able to recognize and control factors that impede their success, such as distractions while they're trying to learn," she said.

Researchers in psychology, cognitive science and neuroscience found that media multitasking during schoolwork interferes with students' attention and working memory. Students' learning is shallower and spottier; they understand less and have difficulty recalling what they have learned and applying it in new contexts. Their reading comprehension, note-taking ability, test performance and grade point averages all diminish, according to the studies Schmidt reviewed.

"Listening to a lecture, texting, online shopping and socializing on Facebook are all complex, very demanding tasks that draw on the same region of the brain, the prefrontal cortex," Schmidt said. "Under most conditions, the brain can't carry out two complex tasks simultaneously. But if students do not believe their learning is being hampered by this behavior, they have no incentive or motivation to change it, and the problem just continues."

Some researchers suggest that mobile devices can exacerbate a form of social anxiety called the "fear of missing out" that compels people to interrupt their studies and work projects constantly to read and respond to social media posts and messages, negatively affecting their performance.

When working on projects that require sustained concentration, Schmidt said intentionally removing extraneous devices from their workspaces can help people limit distractions and resist the urge to respond to every buzz or ping emitted by their phone.

Another strategy for limiting interruptions and managing one's time is using a work-reward system. For example, a student would commit to studying without distractions for a defined period such as 25 minutes, then reward himself with five minutes of social media use. Or they could limit their web surfing or social media usage to the time of day when they are least productive.

Alternating intensive periods of focused work with preplanned bursts of pleasure helps alleviate boredom - one of the primary reasons people turn to digital media to begin with, she said.

Likewise, fostering a work-hard, play-hard mindset encourages young people to focus exclusively on their schoolwork when they are supposed to be learning, and devote the same attention to recreational activities when it's time to play, Schmidt said.

Moreover, people can improve their ability to focus on tasks with activities that boost brain function and enhance cognitive control, particularly physical exercise.

"Exercise has been shown to be of enormous benefit to both cognitive functioning and well-being, including mental health," Schmidt said. "Teachers could incorporate movement into classroom activities by asking students to pair up and go on a brief walk indoors or outdoors to discuss a concept from the day's lesson."

Schmidt suggested that promoting active learning in the classroom can help teachers keep students engaged with the course content, so they are less inclined to turn to their smartphones for stimulation.

For example, teachers might encourage students to set goals related to their academic performance or to develop course content on topics of their choosing and teach it to other students, strengthening their investment in their learning and deepening their understanding of the subject matter.

Physicists from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Rochester have made a breakthrough in the long sought-after quest for a room-temperature superconductor, what they call the "holy grail" of energy efficiency.

The research team led by University of Rochester physicist Ranga Dias in collaboration with Ashkan Salamat, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UNLV, established room temperature superconductivity in a diamond anvil cell - a small, handheld, and commonly used research device that enables the compression of tiny materials to extreme pressures - pressures that you'd only find at the center of the Earth.

Though the phenomena observed by the research team and reported today as the cover story in the journal Nature was at an early stage, or fundamental level, the discovery has implications for how energy is stored and transmitted. It could also one day change how everyday technological devices - from laptops to MRI machines - are powered, how people and goods are transported, and how the whole of society could operate years into the future.

"It's a revolutionary game changer," said Salamat, who leads the Nevada Extreme Conditions Lab at UNLV, a newly formed, multidisciplinary group that explores fundamental experimental, computational, and engineering problems of materials under high pressure. "The discovery is new, and the technology is in its infancy and a vision of tomorrow, but the possibilities are endless. This could revolutionize the energy grid, and change every device that's electronically driven."

Superconductivity is a remarkable quantum phenomena as its hallmark properties include the expulsion of magnetic fields and zero resistance electrical flow, meaning that the energy current passing through a circuit is conducted infinitely and perfectly, with no loss of power.

Since its first observation in 1911, scientists have observed superconductivity only at very low temperatures -- temperatures within a few degrees of absolute zero, (minus 273 degrees Celsius), which would make widespread and practical application unattainable. In 1968, however, scientists predicted that metallic hydrogen - accessed at very high pressures - could be the key ingredient to discovering superconductivity at or above room temperature.

"Because of the limits of low temperature, materials with such extraordinary properties have not quite transformed the world in the way that many might have imagined. However, our discovery will break down these barriers and open the door to many potential applications," Dias said in a University of Rochester release.

In Dias' lab at the University of Rochester, the research team worked to chemically synthesize hydrogen in an effort to solve the century-old problem. Like a materials search engine, Salamat and Dias used the diamond anvil cell to scan through temperature and pressure space to find the right combination that would drive carbon sulfur hydrogen first into a metallic state, and then even further into a room-temperature superconducting state.

The U.S. energy grid, Salamat notes, which is made up of metallic cables loses about $20 billion a year to dissipating current. Though a metal like copper exhibits the least resistance of nearly all metals, it's still resistant. Running current through copper and other metals generates heat, and as a consequence energy is lost (think of the heat exiting the bottom of your laptop).

Room-temperature superconductivity would allow current to flow through a closed loop forever, meaning that no energy would be lost. In the long distant future, such a state could enable a solar farm in the Southwest U.S. to transport energy to the East Coast with no loss, or MRI machines - which currently need liquid helium to operate - to be deployed to war zones. It could change how electronics are designed and built, and could revolutionize the transportation system.

The discovery of the room-temperature superconductor, Salamat said, was not what you would call a "eureka" moment, but rather, a methodical, targeted effort by he and Dias. Their next step is to develop a protocol that releases the pressure for these materials while also retaining their superconducting properties.

To support their continued work on the problem, Dias and Salamat have started a new company, Unearthly Materials, to find a path to room temperature superconductors that can be produced at scale at ambient pressure.

"We live in a semiconductor society," Salamat said. "With this kind of technology, you can take society from a semi-conducting society into a superconducting society."

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have developed a microchip technology that can convert invisible near-infrared laser light into any one of a panoply of visible laser colors, including red, orange, yellow and green. Their work provides a new approach to generating laser light on integrated microchips.

The technique has applications in precision timekeeping and quantum information science, which often rely on atomic or solid-state systems that must be driven with visible laser light at precisely specified wavelengths. The approach suggests that a wide range of such wavelengths can be accessed using a single, small-scale platform, instead of requiring bulky, tabletop lasers or a series of different semiconductor materials. Constructing such lasers on microchips also provides a low-cost way to integrate lasers with miniature optical circuits needed for optical clocks and quantum communication systems.

The study, reported in the October 20 issue of Optica, contributes to NIST on a Chip, a program that miniaturizes NIST's state-of-the-art measurement-science technology, enabling it to be distributed directly to users in industry, medicine, defense and academia.

Atomic systems that form the heart of the most precise and accurate experimental clocks and new tools for quantum information science typically rely on high-frequency visible (optical) laser light to operate, as opposed to the much lower frequency microwaves that are used to set official time worldwide.

Scientists are now developing atomic optical system technologies that are compact and operate at low power so that they can be used outside the laboratory. While many different elements are required to realize such a vision, one key ingredient is access to visible-light laser systems that are small, lightweight and operate at low power.

Although researchers have made great progress in creating compact, high-performance lasers at the near-infrared wavelengths used in telecommunications, it has been challenging to achieve equivalent performance at visible wavelengths. Some scientists have made strides by employing semiconductor materials to generate compact visible-light lasers. In contrast, Xiyuan Lu, Kartik Srinivasan and their colleagues at NIST and the University of Maryland in College Park adopted a different approach, focusing on a material called silicon nitride, which has a pronounced nonlinear response to light.

Materials such as silicon nitride have a special property: If incoming light has high enough intensity, the color of the exiting light does not necessarily match the color of the light that entered. That is because when bound electrons in a nonlinear optical material interact with high-intensity incident light, the electrons re-radiate that light at frequencies, or colors, that differ from those of the incident light.

(This effect stands in contrast to the everyday experience of seeing light bounce off a mirror or refract through a lens. In those cases, the color of the light always remains the same.)

Lu and his colleagues employed a process known as third-order optical parametric oscillation (OPO), in which the nonlinear material converts incident light in the near-infrared into two different frequencies. One of the frequencies is higher than that of the incident light, placing it in the visible range, and the other is lower in frequency, extending deeper into the infrared. Although researchers have employed OPO for years to create different colors of light in large, table-top optical instruments, the new NIST-led study is the first to apply this effect to produce particular visible-light wavelengths on a microchip that has the potential for mass production.

To miniaturize the OPO method, the researchers directed the near-infrared laser light into a microresonator, a ring-shaped device less than a millionth of a square meter in area and fabricated on a silicon chip. The light inside this microresonator circulates some 5,000 times before it dissipates, building a high enough intensity to access the nonlinear regime where it gets converted to the two different output frequencies.

To create a multitude of visible and infrared colors, the team fabricated dozens of microresonators, each with slightly different dimensions, on each microchip. The researchers carefully chose these dimensions so that the different microresonators would produce output light of different colors. The team showed that this strategy enabled a single near-infrared laser that varied in wavelength by a relatively small amount to generate a wide range of specific visible-light and infrared colors.

In particular, although the input laser operates over a narrow range of near-infrared wavelengths (from 780 nanometers to 790 nm), the microchip system generated visible-light colors ranging from green to red (560 nm to 760 nm) and infrared wavelengths ranging from 800 nm to 1,200 nm.

"The benefit of our approach is that any one of these wavelengths can be accessed just by adjusting the dimensions of our microresonators," said Srinivasan.

"Though a first demonstration," Lu said, "we are excited at the possibility of combining this nonlinear optics technique with well established near-infrared laser technology to create new types of on-chip light sources that can be used in a variety of applications."

Buying a counterfeit driver's license or passport used to require a secret meeting with some shady characters. More recently, it meant having a connection to the dark web. But today, all you need is an internet connection and a search engine, says a Michigan State University researcher.

"I've asked students in a large introductory class, 'how many of you have a fake ID?' and way too many hands go up," said Thomas Holt, a professor and director of the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. "So, I follow my question up with, 'how many of you bought them online?' and about 20% of those students raise their hands."

Holt's research on counterfeit identity documents was published online Oct. 1 in the journal Deviant Behavior.

His team, including doctoral candidate Jin Lee and 10 undergraduate students, monitored the elicit market for physical goods such as driver's licenses or passports and digital goods such as credit card numbers. When the ads appeared, the team took screen captures of the images.

"We were surprised by the quantity of people selling passports and other identity documents," he said. "The way that these products were being sold was kind of novel and it mirrored traditional e-commerce sites like Amazon."

In order to shutdown these websites, the researchers needed to understand how a person partakes in this form of crime. It starts with the creation of an online ad by the vendor that a buyer can find and click on.

Holt and his team studied 19 different vendors and discovered they often used specific language to appeal to their audience, such as how using a fake document can enhance customers' lifestyles. One vendor even sought to pay customers to help pedal product. The vendor would sell a customer affiliate fake Ids at a discounted rate. The affiliate could then charge a higher rate on final sales. The vendor benefited from having a point person on college campuses and other hotspots, increasing the sales potential.

There is a surprising amount of trust and risk that goes into these interactions. Buyers need to trust that vendors they don't know are selling documents that will pass for real. In the counterfeit document world, there is not a public list of reviews.

Even if you are buying a fake ID for fraudulent purposes, you want the best quality that you can get for your money," Holt said. "The biggest downside to these markets is that the buyer is left with the risk of making a buy and seeing if they can use the document."

With many counterfeit documents being bought and sold online, it is a challenge for law enforcement to identify these vendors. Most transactions are done using bitcoin which is often difficult to trace to a specific person. "Bitcoin isn't hard to use, conditionally," he said. "There is a bitcoin ATM near MSU's campus."

But the online trail counterfeiters use can be tracked. Holt and his team have found clues within the vendor's online ads. If a website is using key search terms or advertising on a certain platform in a certain way, law enforcement can identify and disrupt those websites, Holt said.

The number of vendors selling fake documents online also presents an opportunity for law enforcement. The fake documents found for sale ranged from $5 to $5,000. Holt said a clever police tactic to appeal to the psyche of the criminal vendors would involve a made-up listing of dummy vendors and the prices of their "products" on a public website. Such "competition" might pressure the real criminals into making an online mistake that alerts investigators.

Holt and his team learned some surprising things through their research. While passports were the most common counterfeit document sold online, buyers were not looking for U.S. passports. Instead, they wanted passports originating from other countries, especially the European Union. This may be an indication that U.S. passports are more difficult to reproduce because of the security measures in place, or that the people producing these fake documents don't have access to legitimate materials to fully copy a U.S. passport.

Another important finding in the research dispels a common myth about the market for counterfeit documents. "Most people think that the majority of selling and buying of fake documents occurs on the dark web, but we found more opportunities on the open web," Holt said.

While Holt and his team are studying criminal behavior, there are many questions Holt wants to ask the vendors directly. "I would love to partner with law enforcement because of the potential to investigate further how much legitimacy surrounds a product," he said. "We still don't know what the final products offered look like."

New research indicates that glitter could be causing ecological damage to our rivers and lakes.

The study, led by Dr Dannielle Green of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) and published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, is the first to examine the impact of glitter on freshwater habitats.

The research found that after 36 days, the presence of glitter halved the root length of common duckweed (Lemna minor), while levels of chlorophyll in the water were three times lower than in control conditions, indicating reduced levels of phytoplankton, or microalgae.

Glitter is used in a variety of decorative ways, including on clothing, in arts and crafts, and in cosmetics and body paint. Traditional glitter is a form of microplastic consisting of a plastic core made of polyester PET film, which is coated with aluminium and then covered with another thin plastic layer.

Along with other forms of single use microplastics, such as microbeads, there have been efforts to phase out PET glitter with the introduction of more biodegradable alternatives.

One version has a core of modified regenerated cellulose (MRC), sourced mainly from eucalyptus trees, but this is still coated with aluminium for reflectivity and then topped with a thin plastic layer. Another form is mica glitter, which is increasingly used in cosmetics.

However, this new study found that the effects of MRC and mica glitters on root length and chlorophyll levels were almost identical to those of traditional glitter.

The only significant difference was a two-fold increase in the abundance of New Zealand mud snails (Potamopyrgus antipodarum) in water containing the biodegradable MRC glitter. These snails, commonly found in polluted waters, are an invasive species in the UK and an increase in numbers has the potential to disrupt ecosystems, as they can outcompete native species.

Dr Dannielle Green, Senior Lecturer in Biology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), said: "Many of the microplastics found in our rivers and oceans have taken years to form, as larger pieces of plastic are broken down over time, However, glitter is a ready-made microplastic that is commonly found in our homes and, particularly through cosmetics, is washed off in our sinks and into the water system.

"Our study is the first to look at the effects of glitter in a freshwater environment and we found that both conventional and alternative glitters can have a serious ecological impact on aquatic ecosystems within a short period of time.

"All types, including so-called biodegradable glitter, have a negative effect on important primary producers which are the base of the food web, while glitter with a biodegradable cellulose core has an additional impact of encouraging the growth of an invasive species.

"We believe these effects could be caused by leachate from the glitters, possibly from their plastic coating or other materials involved in their production, and our future research will investigate this in greater detail."

Grief is a natural reaction to the death of a loved one, but in cases of tragic or unexpected loss, that sadness can stretch out, affecting day-to-day functioning and reducing quality of life. Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD) is a condition characterized by intense longing for the deceased, and by severe and persistent emotional pain. People who lose close family or friends to terrorism are at a particularly high risk of developing PGD.

In order to better understand grief reactions over time, researchers analyzed the effects of the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway, in which a far-right Norwegian-born terrorist killed 8 people in a car bomb explosion in Oslo, then shot and killed 69 people on Utøya Island, most of whom were teenagers.

"The terror attack in 2011 was a huge national tragedy that affected all of us deeply," says Dr Pål Kristensen at the Centre for Crisis Psychology at the University of Bergen in Norway. "Still, we needed to learn about the long-term mental health effects and how we could help those who were affected the most - the bereaved."

Kristensen and his colleagues assessed grief in parents and siblings of those killed 18 months, 28 months, and 40 months after the attacks and recently published their results in Frontiers in Psychiatry. They found that grief trajectories could be classified into three different tracks: those who had a moderate level of grief 18 months after the attack, which then decreased by 28 months but then plateaued; those who had a high level of grief, which slowly decreased at both 28 and 40 months; and those who had a high level of grief which remained chronic. Nearly 80% of study participants experienced a high level of grief and either no recovery (13%) or a slow recovery (64%). Struggling with intrusive thoughts of the death seems to be a common factor that could explain the high number, as the combination of traumatic reactions and grief is known to delay recovery.

Other studies that examine grief trajectories after a disaster often find a "resilient" track, meaning that some people can adapt and bounce back after such tragedies. Kristensen and his colleagues, however, found no such group among the family members affected by the 2011 attacks, indicating the substantial effects of terrorism on mental health and grief reactions on close family members.

While the study had a fairly good response rate - out of the 208 family members that researchers reached out to, nearly 60% responded - knowledge is limited on how the non-responders are coping. As far as future research goes, Kristensen would like to see more longitudinal studies and more qualitative studies to learn more about how we can better tailor our interventions to the needs of the bereaved. "One size does not seem to fit all," he says."In fact, we have just finished a fourth wave of data collection where we are particularly interested in how those who struggle with prolonged grief have experienced treatment."

In the meantime, it's clear that support is needed for those who are suffering. "We need to reach out to the terror-bereaved to offer help," says Kristensen, "both early after an attack, but particularly across time when the social support is reduced." Recovery is a long road, but with a better understanding of how grief manifests over time, better care is possible.

US schools in poor districts with large non-white student populations are less likely to reopen fully this academic year, according to a major new study published in the peer-reviewed Journal of School Choice.

The data suggests race and deprivation are significant factors influencing education decisions during the pandemic. The findings are based on an analysis during August of back-to-the-classroom plans from every US state and 120 of the largest school districts.

Just 13% of the most disadvantaged education areas intend to offer face-to-face lessons this fall. The picture is similar for those serving a high number of non-white students, with fewer than one in ten (7%) reopening campuses.

The figures compare with more than two-thirds overall of the largest school districts who intend to restrict options to remote learning. This is in the 2020 to 2021 academic year.

The authors say possible explanations include the disproportionate impact the virus has had on people of color. People of color are also more likely to be frontline workers and "place less trust in the government's response to the pandemic."

However, the pandemic is resulting in more learning choices for the majority of children which may or may not transform the public school system, according to the study.

"The disruption caused by the pandemic represents a crossroads for public education in the United States," says lead author David Marshall, from Auburn University.

"Parents may emerge from this moment more empowered than before and be ready to take greater responsibility over their children's education.

"Or they may find themselves weary of the stress caused by the pandemic and ready for a return to what they were accustomed to prior to this disruption."

Their snapshot of reopening guidance from policymakers also provides evidence that:

Nearly all states have strongly recommended mask-wearing or made this mandatory, some for children as young as two.

However, students are allowed mask 'breaks' when social distancing such as outdoors or in ventilated rooms.

Policies vary widely over school sports, with some states postponing football until the spring and switching to lower risk activities. The 19 states proceeding with high school American football seasons are more likely to have backed Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. This is compared with those that have cancelled because of COVID-19.

Among the 18 states with case rates under 10/10,000 (as of 21st August), almost half of them were not playing American football.

Students most at risk from COVID-19 are being offered alternative ways of learning by almost every state. This even applies in districts where children are being sent back to classrooms. Several states are also providing vulnerable staff with options such as remote learning.

Policies on teaching methods vary, with some states switching to remote learning if transmission rates spike. Others say that in-person learning remains the goal and digital alternatives are no replacement.

The academic team are now calling for further research in several areas, including how students fare academically under the various modalities employed, and whether these academic outcomes - or mental, physical, and social health outcomes - vary according to racial and demographic characteristics.

Limitations, the authors state, of this current research include that the reopening of America's schools in the fall of 2020 is a "very fluid event".

"It is highly possible that districts that made one decision as of August 21, 2020 will choose differently before the school year begins, or that individual states' plans will have shifted since our review," they add.