Tech

For many people in Africa and Latin America, beans are an important staple. Historically described as "the meat of the poor", beans are rich in protein and minerals, affordable and suitably filling. That is why they are served daily, often with several meals.

In many regions, however, plant diseases severely reduce bean yields. For example, the dreaded angular leaf spot disease can cause yield losses of up to 80 percent - especially in Africa, where smallholders rarely have the opportunity to protect their crops with fungicides.

Genomics-assisted breeding

Working with Bodo Raatz and his team at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), ETH researchers from the group led by Bruno Studer, Professor of Molecular Plant Breeding, investigated the resistance of beans to angular leaf spot disease. Their findings are now enabling disease-resistant bean varieties to be bred more rapidly and selectively for the world's various bean-producing regions.

Their method is built upon genome analyses of those beans that are potentially suitable for breeding new, resistant varieties. The resulting genetic profiles provide information as to whether the progeny from crossbreeding two varieties will be resistant to the pathogenic fungus's different, locally occurring strains (known as pathotypes).

Genetic profiles created for 316 varieties

Michelle Nay, who carried out the project as part of her doctoral thesis in Studer's group, started by gathering as many different bean seeds as possible from CIAT's seed repository. In total, she collected 316 different varieties that displayed characteristics suitable for breeding resistance to the fungus that causes angular leaf spot disease.

Next, Nay planted the beans from her collection in Uganda and Colombia, both in greenhouses and in the field. Her aim was to find out if and indeed how the different varieties react to the fungus's various pathotypes in each country, and then to identify the genetic basis of disease resistance.

Nay also created a high-resolution genetic profile for each of the 316 bean types based on variations in their DNA known as genetic markers, and identified which markers occurred only in the disease-resistant beans. She subsequently used these markers to predict which progeny would be resistant to which pathotypes in a given country, and which ones would be susceptible to disease.

Improvement on conventional plant breeding

"Our method speeds up the breeding process considerably," Studer says. It's a big step forward because crossbreeding had previously been a numbers game and involved testing every single plant for its resistance, he explains. Now, on the basis of a genetic test, it is possible to predict a plant's resistance without testing it in laborious field trials. "This is a huge help in bean breeding and great news for people who rely heavily on beans as a staple of their diet," Studer says.

The group's work to provide disease-resistant beans will also help to cut down on global pesticide use. As things stand today, Studer explains, fungicide use is common for bean cultivation in Latin America, but almost non-existent in Africa because many farmers don't have access to pesticides, or don't know how to use them safely and efficiently: "Disease-resistant beans are a double win: famers in Latin America can reduce their pesticide use while farmers in Africa can increase their crop yield pesticide-free."

Simple, inexpensive and open-source technology

CIAT distributes the seeds from this project to various sub-organisations who then supply them to breeders. The analytical method for determining genetic markers is relatively simple and inexpensive to apply, making it viable for use in agricultural laboratories in the countries concerned. It costs less than 0.2 CHF to test a genetic marker, Nay explains, which is an affordable amount for laboratories in less affluent countries. What's more, all the findings from this study are available through open access. "This way, our work reaches the people who really need these kind of resources," Nay emphasises.

Nay and Studer worked on this project in close collaboration with CIAT. The global research centre runs the largest breeding programme in the tropics and has several thousand varieties of bean in its seed repository. At its headquarters in Colombia, CIAT breeds new bean varieties, tests the seeds, and, in partnership with the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance, makes the seeds available to farmers for cultivation.

In collaboration with CIAT, Studer and his group will now conduct a follow-up project to refine their breeding method. While the researchers previously focused on markers for one specific disease, the new project will take a more holistic approach as they attempt to use such genome profiles to predict as many plant characteristics as possible.

The 2020 election is approaching--how should we talk with children about this election and about politics more broadly? The findings of a new multisite study of children's reactions to the 2016 U.S. presidential election might inform these conversations.

In the study, a team of researchers sought to learn more about the political development of the nation's children. Given that Hillary Clinton's 2016 candidacy was the first female major party nomination for the presidency, the researchers also examined children's knowledge of gender and politics.

The study was conducted by researchers at the University of Kansas, University of Texas at Austin, Whitman College, University of Texas at Tyler, and University of Kentucky. It appears in the Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development. Accompanying commentaries, videos and teaching materials are available on the Monograph Matters website.

Overall, the study found that children demonstrated interest in and knowledge about the election and candidates, but many had gaps in their knowledge. The researchers argue that children need more input and guidance from adults as they learn about politics and government.

"Our research argues for the establishment of a developmental science of politics that describes and predicts the formation and change of individuals' political knowledge, attitudes, and behavior beginning in childhood and continuing across the life course," said Dr. Meagan Patterson, Associate Professor at the University of Kansas' School of Education.

Researchers interviewed 187 elementary school children (ages 5 to 11 years) before and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election to gain insight about their political knowledge, opinions, and experiences. The sample was drawn from four different states across the U.S. (Kansas, Kentucky, Texas, and Washington) that varied in their voting patterns, and was racially diverse (including predominantly African American, Latinx, and White children).

Highlights show:

Children follow presidential elections: Over 90% of children sampled could provide information about at least one of the candidates (such as a policy proposal or personal characteristic). Nearly all children (99%) expressed a preference for one candidate to win the election and knew the election outcome.

Many children expressed negative views of the candidates: Most children sampled (80%) made at least one reference to a candidate's personal characteristics (such as being smart, nice, mean, or rude). Children were equally likely to mention positive and negative characteristics overall (40% vs 44%), but more children mentioned positive characteristics for Clinton than for Trump. That the majority of children in the sample were drawn from areas in which most voters supported Clinton may explain these findings.

Environments influence children's political development: Both family and community environments appeared to influence children's attitudes. For example, children who participated in the study were more likely to support Trump when they reported that their parents supported Trump. Children's support for candidates also reflected the voting patterns in the children's counties of residence.

Children are largely ignorant of gender/sex issues in politics: Children generally lacked knowledge about women's underrepresentation in government (for example, nearly half of the children sampled reported that 50% or more of all U.S. governors and members of Congress are women whereas the accurate percentages at that time were around 20%). Only 65% of children knew that no woman has ever been president of the United States, a smaller percentage than has been found in past studies.

"Although our study focused on the 2016 United States presidential election in particular, the data emphasize the need for high quality civics education throughout childhood more generally," said Dr. Rebecca Bigler, Professor Emeritx at the University of Texas at Austin. "Additionally, children should be given opportunities to take knowledge and views outside the walls of their own classroom and apply them to larger communities (their schools, neighborhoods, cities). Such activities will continue to foster their interest and political efficacy."

COLUMBUS, Ohio - People with severe flu sometimes develop life-threatening heart problems, even when their hearts have been previously healthy, but the reason for that has been poorly understood.

For the first time, research in mice has shown a link between a genetic mutation, flu and heart irregularities that researchers say might one day improve the care of flu patients. The study, led by Jacob Yount at The Ohio State University, appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Mutations in a gene called IFITM3 are known to increase the risk of flu hospitalizations and deaths in people. The gene is responsible for making a protein critical in the earliest stages of the human immune response, mounting a defense that creates difficulty for viruses trying to invade cells.

"By knocking out this gene in mice, and infecting them with various strains of flu, we were able to show that this gene's absence increases the chances of heart abnormalities - decreased heart rate and irregular heartbeat - and death," Yount said. "There's been no known link between this gene and flu-related heart complications until now."

Yount, an assistant professor of microbial infection and immunity at Ohio State, has long been interested in the IFITM3 gene and was curious about its role in severe flu - how, specifically, it might make people sicker and if it was related to heart problems, particularly in those with no previous cardiovascular disease.

"Flu can exacerbate underlying heart disease, but it can also affect the hearts of people who are otherwise healthy, typically in cases where people are so sick with the flu that they've been hospitalized," said Yount, who is a member of Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center.

About 8 percent of U.S. residents are sickened with flu each year, and children and older adults are most vulnerable. Depending on the severity of the flu viruses circulating in a given season, anywhere from 12,000 to 79,000 people will die each year from flu complications, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Though scientists have been documenting the connection between flu deaths and heart complications since the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed at least 50 million people worldwide, the mechanics of why flu leads to heart trouble haven't been clear.

"A lot of people have assumed that systemic inflammation from the infection stresses or harms the heart, but this new finding suggests that some people may be genetically predisposed to these complications," Yount said.

Previous research has shown the mutations aren't uncommon. About 20 percent of Chinese people and about 4 percent of people of European ancestry have IFITM3 mutations, he said.

Understanding the underlying causes of flu deaths could lead to therapies that might save at-risk people, Yount said. His lab is now working on testing experimental therapies in mice.

When Yount and his collaborators examined the heart tissue from the genetically-altered mice, they confirmed that the heart tissue was infected with flu virus. They also found a possible explanation for connections between the gene, the flu and the heart abnormalities: fibrosis. Fibrosis is the buildup of collagen in tissue. Collagen plays an important role in connecting muscle fibers, but too much can be a problem.

"Too much of this collagen can cause 'bumps in the road' that could disrupt the electrical flow of the heart - that could explain the erratic heart rhythms we saw in this experiment," Yount said.

The study also found varying degrees of flu-related heart abnormalities depending on the virulence of the flu strain. The most harmful flu they tested led to highly erratic heart rhythms, lasting heart damage and greater chance of death. A moderate strain resulted in reversible, temporary heart abnormalities. When gene-deficient mice were given the weakest of three flu strains in the study, heart irregularities weren't seen.

"It's exciting to now have a model to help us answer more questions about why flu is causing these heart problems and to test drugs that might help people," Yount said. "For now, there's no treatment that specifically focuses on the cardiac complications from the flu."

Scientists studying scarlet fever have identified a new strain of disease-causing bacteria, which may explain a rise in more serious Strep A infections in England and Wales, according to results from cases in London and across England and Wales from 2014-16 published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal.

In 2014, England experienced the biggest surge in scarlet fever cases since the 1960s. Numbers continued to increase, with 15,000 cases in 2014, 17,000 in 2015 and over 19,000 in 2016. Symptoms, which affect young children, include a high temperature, sore throat, and a pink-red rash that feels like sandpaper [1]. Scarlet fever is caused by toxins released by the bacterium Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as Strep A, and cases follow a seasonal pattern peaking between March and May. Scarlet fever is easily treated with antibiotics. Cases of invasive infections caused by the same bacterium also increased in 2016 compared to the previous five years.

In this new study, the authors provide an explanation for the association between increased incidence of scarlet fever and increased incidence of more serious invasive infections such as bloodstream infections. They uncovered a new strain of Streptococcus pyogenes with increased capacity to produce scarlet fever toxin.

"Given that this strain has an apparently enhanced ability to cause all types of Strep A infection, it is important to monitor the bacterium both here and globally," says joint first author, Dr Nicola Lynskey from Imperial College London, UK. [2]

The researchers set out to identify the Strep A strains causing infections in London and more widely in England and Wales, as defined by the type of emm gene present. They found that the initial upsurge of scarlet fever in 2014 in London was associated with Strep A strain types emm3 and emm4. However, during the spring of 2015 and 2016, emm1 strains became dominant among throat infections.

In Spring 2014, only 5% (five of 96) of isolates of the bacterium collected in northwest London were emm1 strains, but by 2015, this had increased to 19% (28 of 147). In 2016, emm1 became the single most frequent strain at 33% (47 of 144 isolates).

Analysis confirmed that emm1 strains also became increasingly dominant among strains causing severe invasive infections more widely within England and Wales. By Spring 2016, 42% (267 of 637) of invasive strains collected in England and Wales were emm1 isolates, up from 31% (183 of 587) in Spring 2015.

To investigate the emm1 isolates further, researchers sequenced the genomes of all 135 non-invasive emm1 isolates of the bacterium, collected in northwest London between 2009 and 2016, and all 552 invasive emm1 isolates collected in England and Wales during the seasonal disease spikes between 2013 and 2016, and compared them with one another. They assessed how much toxin was produced by different emm1 strains.

The researchers found that the majority of emm1 strains from 2015 and 2016 were a distinct, breakaway emm1 clone which they refer to as M1UK. The clone had 27 unique mutations, and was associated with significantly increased production of the toxin streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SpeA). This toxin triggers scarlet fever and may contribute to Strep A pharyngitis and some invasive infections. Analysis confirmed that M1UK produces nine times more toxin than other emm1 strains (190 nanograms per millilitre (ng/mL) compared to 21 ng/mL). It was present in England as early as 2010 and by 2016, M1UK represented 84% of all emm1 genomes analysed in England and Wales.

"The new, more toxigenic strain that we have identified has become the dominant cause of more serious emm1 Strep A infections," says joint first author Dr Elita Jauneikaite from Imperial College London, UK. [2]

The authors speculate that the recent increase in activity of the Streptococcus pyogenes bacterium, which coincided with upsurges of scarlet fever, might have provided the conditions required for it to adapt genetically and spread within the UK.

The researchers compared the M1UK strains with 2,800 emm1 genomes from around the world. The M1UK strains were found to be unique and distinct. However, genetic analysis of strains collected in Denmark and the US also revealed single isolates of M1UK. The authors cannot confirm whether the new strain will be suited to environments in other countries, where factors such as climate and management of streptococcal sore throat vary. However, as SpeA toxin was implicated in the global re-emergence of severe invasive infections in the 1980s, they indicate that wider surveillance will be important.

"The distinct bacterial clone we have discovered appears so far to be largely limited to the UK, but the fact that we have identified two examples of it elsewhere suggests it has the potential to spread internationally and may already be present in other countries. However, it's also possible that the lineage will not last. In the past, some lineages have appeared and then disappeared quickly. Only further research on recent strains will provide more insights." says senior author Professor Shiranee Sriskandan from Imperial College London, UK. [2]

Writing in a linked Comment, Professor Mark Walker from the University of Queensland, Australia, says: "The continuing increase in scarlet fever and invasive disease notifications in the UK exemplifies the essential need to install global surveillance systems and address the increased GAS disease activity as a public-health priority. We believe that the report by Lynskey and colleagues sends out an important warning for the global public health community - recently emerging scarlet fever GAS strains have enhanced invasive potential which may have profound implications for the future global health burden."

A team of scientists led by Imperial College London have discovered a new strain of group A streptococcus bacteria.

Group A streptococcus (or Strep A) is known to cause scarlet fever, throat infections and - in very rare cases - invasive disease, where the bacterium enters the bloodstream or tissue and can trigger sepsis and toxic shock.*

The research team, who studied bacterial strains up to 2016 and published their work in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, say the new strain (called M1UK) seems to have emerged in England and Wales since 2010 to become the dominant cause of Strep A infections. The team add the new strain can be easily treated with antibiotics.

The analysis suggests the new strain has increased in numbers among cases of scarlet fever, throat infections and much rarer invasive infections since 2014. The analysis also revealed the new strain produces more of one type of streptococcal toxin than existing strains - making it potentially more likely to cause common throat infections and scarlet fever, which could account for a rise in invasive infection.

The team are now calling for global vigilance to identify further cases of the strain in other countries, and highlight the importance of developing a vaccine against Strep A.

Professor Shiranee Sriskandan, senior author from the Department of Infectious Disease at Imperial said: "We've seen an unprecedented rise in the number of cases of scarlet fever since 2014 but it was only in 2016 there was a rise in the number of serious, invasive cases due to Strep A - which are thankfully very rare- coinciding with the seasonal rise in scarlet fever. Our research, done in collaboration with Public Health England, aimed to determine if there was a link between the increase in scarlet fever and the increase in invasive infections. In undertaking this research, we identified the new strain, linked to increases in both."

"Scarlet fever is a very visible signal of how much Strep A is circulating in the wider community, and causing sore throats. Strains of Strep A that cause these commoner throat infections and scarlet fever are the same strains that cause rarer invasive diseases - and therefore a rise in these commoner throat infections including scarlet fever could lead to increases in all forms of Strep A infection."

Scarlet fever is a contagious disease caused by Strep A that typically infects young children, triggering a high temperature and sore throat. The disease, which peaks around spring time (March to May), is easily treated with antibiotics - but has shown a dramatic surge in recent years, with over 19,000 cases in 2016.

When the bacteria infect the body they release toxins called streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxins (also known as scarlet fever toxins), which are responsible for the disease symptoms in scarlet fever, and promote inflammation in throat infections and invasive disease.

The researchers noticed in the spring of 2016 a 1.5x increase in the number of laboratory-confirmed invasive group A streptococcus infections, compared with the previous five years. This rise occurred at the same time as scarlet fever cases peaked.

The team, who are based in the Department of Infectious Disease and affiliated to the NIHR Health Protection Unit in Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance at Imperial, set out to investigate whether the bacteria causing the Strep A infections were changing in any way.

They were able to investigate this thanks to the Imperial College Infection Biobank that was set up to collect bacterial strains from across North West London with the help of the Diagnostic Laboratory of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, supported by the Imperial NIHR Imperial Biomedical Research Centre. All types of group A streptococcus from scarlet fever or common throat infections are collected along with any invasive strains.

The team studied infections between the spring times of 2014-2016 to identify the main genetic subgroups causing scarlet fever or common throat infections (these subgroups are labelled emm, due to a type of gene the bacteria carry).

The London data revealed that although most cases in 2014 were caused by strains emm3 and emm4, infections of emm1 strain increased year-on-year - responsible for 5 per cent of cases in 2014, 19 per cent in 2015 and 33 per cent in 2016.

This suggested the emm1 strain may have changed in some way - and was potentially getting 'fitter'. To investigate this, the team analysed the genomes of all emm1 strains in North West London between 2009 to 2016. This unmasked a new strain type within the emm1 group of bacteria, which differed from the other emm1 strains by just 27 genetic mutations, some of which were in genes potentially implicated in toxin production.

Experiments by the same team revealed the new strain produces nine-times more streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A (SpeA) than other emm1 strains - possibly providing one explanation for the rise in cases of Strep A.

The researchers dubbed this new strain M1UK.

Among invasive cases of Strep A, it was noted that emm1 strains were the main cause of infections in recent years, and in particular, spring 2016.

The researchers looked for the presence of the new strain in samples from 552 cases of emm1 invasive Strep A in England and Wales between the spring time periods of 2013-2016.

The results revealed 77 per cent of cases of invasive disease caused by emm1 Strep A in England and Wales in spring 2016 were caused by the newly identified M1UK strain.

When the analysis expanded to include all emm1 strains (1240 strains) that had been sequenced over a 10 year period from across the UK, mainly from invasive cases of the disease, this reached 84 per cent of emm1 samples by 2016 .

The team also analysed 2800 Strep A genome sequences from around the world and found single cases of M1UK in Denmark and the USA.

However, the team stressed the new strain did not play a significant role in the initial 2014 rise in UK scarlet fever cases - and it was not the strain behind a Strep A outbreak in Essex this year.

They add this research looked only at strains circulating up until 2016, and analysis of the Strep A strains in the years since then is now needed.
Dr Elita Jauneikaite, first author of the study from Imperial explained: "There is still uncertainty around the cause of the rise in scarlet fever - and whether it is a result of practice change, population or environmental factors. Research investigating the most appropriate way of reducing the burden of Strep A infections is currently underway - including work into developing a vaccine. We may also need to consider whether guidelines for diagnosing and treating throat infections may need to take evolution of new strains and complications like scarlet fever and invasive infections into account."

Dr Nicola Lynskey, co-first author, added: "The emergence of this new strain suggests we may need increased surveillance of the type of strains causing scarlet fever, throat infections and sepsis - both at a UK and global level."

Dr Theresa Lamagni, Public Health England, said: "Public Health England will continue to work with partners to investigate the resurgence of scarlet fever and better understand the spread of this infection in different settings and patient groups. Through monitoring changes we can assess the impact on any new strains on patients and ensure rapid response to emerging threats."

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 10, 2019 - America has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and it's getting worse. Since cardiovascular disease is the primary cause, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Magee-Womens Research Institute (MWRI) created a blood pressure home-monitoring program to rapidly detect concerning trends in postpartum women before their situation becomes critical.

To address the rising maternal mortality rate, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recently upped their recommended frequency for postpartum checkups, starting within three weeks of birth. But right now, only about 66% of new mothers diagnosed with a hypertensive disorder are making it back to the clinic for what is usually a single follow-up appointment around six weeks postpartum. That figure jumped to 88% when the researchers gave women a blood pressure cuff and periodically prompted them to text their readings to a nurse, according to a study published today in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

"We're meeting women where they are instead of saying they have to come to the hospital for all these blood pressure checks when they have a new baby," said lead author Alisse Hauspurg, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Pitt. "I think this is supported by recent ACOG recommendations and is an opportunity to improve care for high-risk women."

Between February 2018 and January 2019, the researchers enrolled 499 patients with preeclampsia, eclampsia or chronic, gestational or postpartum hypertension. Each was discharged from the postpartum unit with an automatic blood pressure cuff and instructions on how to take their own readings at home.

A computerized system integrated with the participants' electronic health records prompts them to take their own blood pressure and heart rate readings once a day for five days. If their readings are normal, their one-week follow-up appointment is automatically cancelled, which was the case for 43% of the women. Patients taking blood pressure medications start to taper down, and patients who aren't taking any medications decrease the frequency of their readings.

Abnormal readings lead to an increase in monitoring frequency and automatically notify the patient's health care provider. Dangerously high readings trigger a trip to the emergency room.

Overall, 83% of participants continued the program beyond three weeks postpartum and 74% continued for four weeks or more.

According to the researchers, this study demonstrates feasibility and high levels of engagement in the program, which should be straightforward to expand.

"One of the big advantages here is scalability," said senior author Hyagriv Simhan, M.D., professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at Pitt, and executive vice chair of obstetrical services UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital. "Connecting women in their 'fourth trimester' to online care allows us to engage a larger number of patients over a larger geography with the infrastructure and workforce we already have."

Of the 250 women who filled out a post-program survey, 94% said they were satisfied with the experience and 82% said they were more comfortable knowing that a nurse was checking on their health every day.

One goal of the program is to bridge care from obstetricians to ongoing -- albeit less intensive -- cardiovascular monitoring. So far, 63% of the study participants have either scheduled an appointment or established care with a primary care provider.

"Home blood pressure monitoring gives patients ownership. They're texting their numbers in," Hauspurg said. "Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy impact women for the rest of their lives, so to have ownership over their own health is really important. We're empowering them to know their numbers."

On trucks, drones and airplanes, 10 promising technologies for finding natural gas leaks swiftly and cheaply competed in the Mobile Monitoring Challenge, the first independent assessment of moving gas leak detectors at well sites. The organizers of the contest - Stanford University's Natural Gas Initiative and the Environmental Defense Fund - describe the outcomes in a study published Sept. 10 in Elementa by University of California Press.

While billed as a "challenge," the organizers had no intention of declaring a winner, as the technologies focused on different aspects of leak detection, such as exact location or size of the leak. While the technologies are still in development, overall, they all found gas leaks quite well.

Leaks in the production, processing and transport of natural gas emit methane - the main constituent of natural gas - into the atmosphere. A greenhouse gas, methane is 36 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency moved to reduce methane emissions across the natural gas industry, which spurred the development of faster, less expensive detection technologies. Late last month, however, the EPA moved to roll back these methane regulations.

"The technologies are generally effective at detecting leaks, and can act as a first line of defense," said Adam Brandt, an associate professor of energy resources engineering and the senior author of the study. "Gas system operators will often want to confirm leaks with conventional optical gas imaging systems, but these mobile technologies usually tell you where to look for leaks very quickly."

A crew of two people using a conventional imaging system can visit four to six well pads a day. All the mobile technologies are considerably faster than that, though their speeds vary a lot. Plane-based systems work more quickly than trucks, which are faster than drones. Because worker time is a large part of detection cost, speeding up detection allows oil and gas companies to find more leaks while spending less money.

Results

As part of the Mobile Monitoring Challenge, nine corporations and a university research team participated last year at controlled testing facilities in Fort Collins, Colorado, and near Sacramento, California. All technologies were effective at detecting leaks. Eight of nine detected leaks correctly 75 percent of the time. (One technology did not have enough flights to be included in the study's summary.) Five of nine systems detected 90 percent or more of the leaks, including tiny emissions of one cubic foot of gas per hour.

However, most of the systems tested need to improve their ability to quantify the size of the leaks. Also, the technologies varied in their ability to detect the precise location of the leaks, though this is often by design.

For example, one startup's drone-based system detected 100 percent of leaks and had no false positives. Further, it accurately identified the leaking piece of equipment - rather than just the well pad - 84 percent of the time. However, when quantifying the size of leaks, the system's estimates were relatively close just 36 percent of the time. For the other eight systems, by the same relatively strict measure, quantification accuracy ranged from 18 to 53 percent.

"This is only the first step to demonstrating that these technologies could help reduce emissions on a level equivalent to existing approaches," Brandt said. "The tests were run in the spring of 2018, and I'm sure most - if not all - of these technologies have been improved since then."

Further advances could be in jeopardy, however.

"The recent U.S. EPA announcement about rolling back methane regulations is not just bad for the environment, but also deprives oil and gas communities of high-paying, local jobs that these innovative technology companies could create. Rolling back the regulations could stifle development of these technologies," said Arvind Ravikumar, lead author of the study. Ravikumar was a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford at the time of the project and is now an assistant professor at the Harrisburg University of Science & Technology.

An assessment like this can help regulators better understand these systems and provide a possible path to large-scale adoption for compliance purposes, the researchers said. The study examined finding leaks at production equipment that can be found in a gas field, not on finding below-ground leaks that might occur from pipes in cities.

Designs for different uses

The Mobile Monitoring Challenge was not a head-to-head competition because the technologies tested are designed to accomplish different things.

"No single technology can meet all the requirements for leak detection and quantification across the natural gas supply chain," Ravikumar said. "The key to large-scale deployment is to match the strength of each technology, like speed, accuracy and cost, with the right leak detection application. What works for a complex processing facility might not work for long-distance transmission pipelines."

The systems of some participants focus on identifying leaks only as coming from a cluster of equipment, which could include a wellhead, a separator and a tank, for example. In such cases, operators would use optical gas imaging systems or similar technology to identify the specific source of the leak before initiating repairs.

Similarly, two of the technologies tested are designed to quickly find big leaks, rather than all leaks. More than half the methane lost in natural gas production and processing comes from just 5 percent of leaks. Finding and fixing these "super-emitters" is critical to reducing methane emissions.

Even without strict regulations, natural gas companies could reduce emissions voluntarily. Inexpensive detectors combined with focused use of optical gas imaging systems could pay for themselves by reducing losses of company product. This is particularly true in parts of the world where natural gas prices are higher than in North America.

Homelessness is a persistent and significant public policy and public health challenge, disproportionately affecting veterans. However, the fiscal year 2020 budget negotiated between President Donald Trump and Speaker Nancy Pelosi includes no growth in funding for the Housing and Urban Development-Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) voucher program.

These vouchers provide chronically homeless veterans with a permanent residence and supportive services to help get their lives back on track. Since 2008, almost 100,000 homeless veterans have benefited from these vouchers, and over this period the number of homeless veterans in the U.S. dropped by roughly 45 percent.

Research led by William Evans, co-founder of the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities (LEO) at the University of Notre Dame, confirms that for every HUD-VASH voucher distributed, one fewer veteran is living on the streets.

"There are few government programs with convincing evidence that the program is delivering as promised," said Evans, whose study conducted with other Notre Dame researchers was recently published in the American Journal of Public Health. "In contrast, HUD-VASH is working as intended at a very large scale. These budget cuts come at a critical time, as the number of post-9/11 veterans is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years. This group is particularly vulnerable to being homeless."

In late 2018, HUD Secretary Ben Carson specifically credited HUD-VASH vouchers, a program started during the Clinton administration and expanded under President George W. Bush, as one of the most effective tools in combating veteran homelessness. The HUD-VASH program is administered through nonprofits where social workers implement a holistic approach to tackling issues veterans face, including homelessness and lack of health care.

After Torrest Rice was honorably discharged from the Army, he bounced around from one living situation to another -- first with his mom, then a stint in prison for a drug charge, then in the home of a girlfriend. When that relationship ended, Rice found himself with nowhere to go. His parents had died, and knee injuries he had sustained in Operation Desert Storm impacted his ability to forge ahead on his own.

Rice made his way to South Bend's Robert L. Miller Sr. Veteran's Center where he learned that he was eligible for a HUD-VASH voucher. Less than three months later, he was moving into his own apartment.

Without HUD-VASH, Rice said, "I would be in a terrible place. I know for a fact I would have relapsed or reverted back to what I was doing. I know I would have." He noted that, because he has stable housing through HUD-VASH, he was able to improve financially, mentally and physically. The support he received from case workers in the HUD-VASH program, he said, has helped him remain clean and sober and gainfully employed. He now works for the South Bend Housing Authority helping other veterans apply for the HUD-VASH program.

"Eliminating new HUD-VASH vouchers in 2020 would put more strain on our already overburdened emergency response and health systems and consign scores of veterans and their families to become permanent members of the nation's homeless," said Heather Reynolds, managing director of LEO. "We have to do better in serving these men and women who have done so much to serve us."

There are at least three species of electric eels (Electrophorus spp.), not just one as previously believed. Two new species have recently been described with São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP's support by a group of researchers affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society, among other institutions. One of the new species can discharge up to 860 volts, the strongest of any known animal.

Electric eels are naked-back knifefishes (Gymnotidae) and are more closely related to catfish and carp than to other eel families.

The study, published in Nature Communications, not only provides new knowledge about the animal more than 250 years after it was first described but also opens up new avenues of research into the origin and production of strong electric discharges in other fish species.

Gymnotiformes, the knifefish family to which Gymnotidae belong, are native to Mexico and South America, are found almost exclusively in freshwater habitats, and are mostly nocturnal. There are currently approximately 250 valid gymnotiform species among 34 genera and five families.

All are capable of producing a weak electric field for communication and navigation (most have very small eyes).

"The electric eel, which can reach 2.5 meters in length, is the only fish that produces such a strong discharge; it uses three electric organs. The shock is used for defense and predation," said Carlos David de Santana, an associate researcher at the US National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), administered by the Smithsonian Institution, and first author of the article.

The study was part of the Thematic Project; "Diversity and evolution of Gymnotiformes (Teleostei, Ostariophysi)"; the principal investigator was Naércio Menezes, Full Professor and researcher at the University of São Paulo's Zoology Museum (MZ-USP) in Brazil.

By correlating DNA, morphology and environmental data, and measuring the discharged voltage, the researchers concluded that the animals in question should be reclassified into three species. The only species of electric eel previously known to science was Electrophorus electricus, which Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus described in 1766.

In addition to E. electricus, now defined as the species that lives in the northernmost part of the Amazon region, the researchers found sufficient differences to add two new species to the genus: E. varii and E. voltai.

The authors of the article also include Luiz Antonio Wanderley Peixoto, currently at MZ-USP for a postdoctoral internship under the supervision of Aléssio Datovo da Silva, coprincipal investigator for the Thematic Project.

"We used voltage as the key differentiation criterion. This has never been done before to identify a new species," Menezes said. During field measurements using a voltmeter, the researchers recorded a discharge of 860 volts, the highest found in any animal, for a specimen of E. voltai. The strongest shock previously recorded was 650 volts.

The name of the species pays homage to Italian physicist Alessandro Volta, who invented the electric battery in 1799, basing its design on the electric eel.

E. varii is named for zoologist Richard P. Vari, a researcher at the Smithsonian who died in 2016. "He was the foreign researcher who most influenced and helped Brazilian students and researchers with the study of fish in South America," Santana said.

Shocking diversity

According to Santana, who has entered many rivers to collect electric eels for research purposes and been shocked more than once, the discharge is high voltage but low amperage (approximately 1 amp), so it is not necessarily dangerous to humans.

As a comparison, a shock from a power outlet can be 10 or 20 amps. If you are unfortunate enough to receive one, you may be unable to pull your finger out, in which case it can be lethal.

The electric eel, however, emits not a direct current but an alternating current (in pulses), and its charge is depleted after a strong shock. Its electric organ takes some time to recharge. Even so, an encounter with a group of these animals in the water can be quite perilous. The shock will not kill a healthy person, but it can be hazardous if you have a weak heart. It can also contribute to a fall or drowning.

"The shock stuns the victim. It's sufficiently strong to help the fish capture prey or scare off a predator," Santana said.

The research conducted by the group has shown that electric eels communicate to convene groups that can electrocute a potential threat. Contrary to what had been previously claimed in the scientific literature, these animals are not solitary and frequently associate in groups of up to ten during adulthood.

The new classification was based on an analysis of 107 specimens collected in different parts of the Amazon in Brazil, Suriname, French Guiana and Guyana. Initially, the researchers used DNA barcoding to sequence the mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I (COI), the de facto standard for animal DNA barcoding. They then sequenced nine other mitochondrial and nuclear genes and performed several other analyses to validate the DNA barcoding results.

"Their body shape is highly conserved. It has not changed much during 10 million years of evolution. Only a few details of their external morphology distinguish them, and only an integrated analysis of morphology, genetics and ecology was able to make robust distinctions between the species," Santana explained.

Ecological separation

In addition to showing clear genetic differences, the sequencing data were cross-referenced with ecological data. The species that has kept the name E. electricus is confined to an area far north of Amazonia known to geologists as the Guiana Shield, encompassing the northern regions of three Brazilian states (Amapá, Amazonas and Roraima), and Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname.

E. voltai inhabits the Brazilian Shield, which encompasses the south of Pará and Amazonas, as well as Rondônia and the north of Mato Grosso. Shield regions are relatively elevated, exceeding 300 meters in altitude. This particular one has rapids and falls, with clear well-oxygenated water, rocky or sandy bottoms, and low amounts of dissolved salts. These characteristics favor both species, which have flat heads that helps them swim nimbly and hunt in fast-flowing water over stony riverbeds.

The small amount of dissolved salts makes the water less electrically conductive. The researchers therefore believe the animals need to produce stronger discharges to capture prey. This is particularly the case for E. voltai, which was found to produce the highest voltage ever recorded in an animal.

In contrast, E. varii inhabits the lowest part of the Amazon Basin, living in turbid rivers with relatively little oxygen and sandy or muddy bottoms. In addition, a relatively large amount of dissolved salts increases the conductivity of the water, favoring the propagation of their electrical discharges, which in this species range from 151 volts to 572 volts.

The researchers estimate that the species diverged twice. The first time was in the Miocene, approximately 7.1 million years ago, when they separated from their common ancestor. It was not until the Pliocene, approximately 3.6 million years ago, that E. voltaiand E. electricus reached their present status.

The researchers plan to conduct further genetic studies to verify the hypothesis that ecological separation (shield environment versus floodplain) was one of the factors that led E. varii (floodplain) and E. electricus and E. voltai (shield) to diverge from their common ancestor. In addition, they continue to capture specimens to measure discharges and confirm the 860 volt record. They expect to find new species among other electric knifefish genera.

"The discovery of new electric eel species in Amazonia, one of the planet's biodiversity hotspots, is suggestive of the vast amount of species that remain to be discovered in nature. Furthermore, the region is of great interest to other scientific fields, such as medicine and biotechnology, reinforcing the need to protect and conserve it, and is important for studies involving partnerships among Brazilian researchers, and between us and groups in other countries, to explore the region's biodiversity," Santana said.

Other groups are currently studying the possibility of using the results of research on electric eels to analyze the enzymes produced by their electric organs to determine their applicability in medication for neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease or as a model to develop batteries for prosthetics and sensors implanted in humans.

South American rivers are home to at least three different species of electric eels, including a newly identified species capable of generating a greater electrical discharge than any other known animal, according to a new analysis of 107 fish collected in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname in recent years.

Scientists have known for more than 250 years that electric eels, which send electricity pulsing through the water to stun their prey, live in the Amazon basin. They are widely distributed in swamps, streams, creeks, and rivers across northern South America, and have long been thought to belong to a single species. With modern genetic and ecological analyses, however, researchers at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History have discovered that electric eels in the Amazon basin belong to three different species that evolved from a shared ancestor millions of years ago. The findings are reported Sept. 10 in the journal Nature Communications.

The identification of two new species of electric eel highlights how much remains to be discovered within the Amazon rainforest--one of Earth's biodiversity hotspots--as well as the importance of protecting and preserving this threatened environment, says study leader C. David de Santana, a research associate in the museum's division of fishes. "These fish grow to be seven to eight feet long. They're really conspicuous," he says. "If you can discover a new eight-foot-long fish after 250 years of scientific exploration, can you imagine what remains to be discovered in that region?"

About 250 species of electricity-generating fish are known to live in South America, although electric eels (which actually are fish with a superficial eel-like appearance) are the only ones that use their electricity to hunt and for self-defense. Like other electric fishes, they also navigate and communicate with the electricity they produce. Electric eels inspired the design of the first battery in 1799, and as researchers have learned more about how they generate enough electricity to stun a large animal, scientists and engineers have gained new ideas about how to improve technology and possibly even treat disease.

Smithsonian scientists have been collaborating with researchers at the University of São Paulo's Museum of Zoology in Brazil and other institutions around the world to explore the diversity of the eels and other electric fishes in South America. As part of that effort, de Santana closely examined the electric eel specimens he and his colleagues had collected in the Amazon over the last six years.

All the specimens looked pretty much the same. Finding no external features on the fish that clearly distinguished different groups on first glance, de Santana turned to the animals' DNA, and found genetic differences that indicated his 107 specimens represented three different species. Reexamining the animals with the genetic results in hand, he found subtle physical differences corresponding to the three genetic groups. He determined that each species has its own unique skull shape, as well as defining characteristics on the pectoral fin and a distinctive arrangement of pores on the body.

Each species has its own geographic distribution, too. The long recognized Electrophorus electricus, once thought to be widely distributed across the continent, actually appears to be confined to the highlands of the Guiana Shield, an ancient geological formation where clear waters tumble over rapids and falls. Electrophorus voltai, one of the two newly discovered species, primarily lives further south on the Brazilian Shield, a similar highland region. The third species, Electrophorus varii, named after the late Smithsonian ichthyologist Richard Vari, swims through murky, slow-flowing lowland waters.

Based on genetic comparisons, de Santana and colleagues determined that two groups of electric eels began to evolve in South America about 7.1 million years ago. One, the common ancestor of E. voltai and E. electricus, lived in the clear waters of the ancient highlands, whereas E. varii lived in the lowlands, whose murky waters were full of minerals and, consequently, conducted electricity more efficiently--an apparently important distinction for electric eels, whose discharge won't travel as far in environments where conductivity is low.

According to the analysis, E. voltai and E. electricus diverged around 3.6 million years ago, around the time the Amazon River changed course, crossing the continent and traversing highland regions. Notably, de Santana's team discovered that E. voltai can discharge up to 860 Volts of electricity--significantly more than the 650 Volts generated by E. electricus. This makes the species the strongest known bioelectric generator, and may be an adaptation to the lower conductivity of highland waters, he says.

De Santana says the previously overlooked diversity his team discovered is exciting since it creates new opportunities to investigate how animals generate high-voltage electricity by sequencing and comparing their genomes. Because the three species of electric eels diverged from one another so long ago, they may have evolved unique systems for electrogenesis, and, in the case of E. voltai,, this system is entirely unexplored. "It could really have different enzymes, different compounds that could be used in medicine or could inspire new technology," he says.

A study of artists who paint with their feet shows that these individuals have finely tuned "toe maps" in their brains, where each toe can be linked with an area of brain activity visualized via fMRI. Although humans have well-defined hand maps, this is the first time that similarly robust toe maps have been identified in people. The findings appear September 10 in the journal Cell Reports and raise questions about how the limbs we use every day come to be represented in the brain.

Researchers in the brain plasticity laboratory of Tamar Makin at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, regularly work with a network of amputee or congenital limbless support groups, limbless musicians, and participants in the Cybathlon (the world's Olympics for robotic prosthetics) to study how the brain adapts to limblessness or changes in limb function. While the group tends to focus mostly on the hand, this research focused on two foot artists who paint with their feet due to being born without arms, to learn more about the mysteries of human toe maps. The artists, Tom Yendell and Peter Longstaff, are two of only three foot artists in United Kingdom. They were born without upper extremities and have developed extreme dexterity with their feet because they use them to perform most daily activities.

"We are interested in the brain area known as the somatosensory cortex because it has incredible organization," says first author Harriett Dempsey-Jones. "Within this brain region, each part of the body is laid out in an organization that roughly approximates what it looks like in the actual human body to form a body map." However, recent research and the availability of high-resolution fMRI has made it clear that the body map is not as organized as previously thought in all body areas.

The researchers knew that handed people do not have toe maps, but non-human primates do. Wondering why humans appear to lack this brain organization, they performed a series of fMRI studies on Yendell and Longstaff and on nine limbed, male volunteers.

While the limbed volunteers were in an fMRI machine, the researchers touched one finger or toe at a time to see what area of the brain was activated. As expected, the fingers of the hand show individual spots of activity right next to each other. But when researchers examined the toes of handed individuals via fMRI using the same methods, they did not show identifiable toe maps. "It turns out that even though we have individual digits on our feet - toes - when we touch each toe in order we do not see a nice organized pattern," says Dempsey-Jones.

The artists, in contrast, both have individualized areas for each of the toes next to each other as they are in the body--that is, they have toe maps. And the maps in the artists are in the same area of the brain and oriented in the same direction as those in non-human primates.

"This was a fun experiment, but it has bigger implications," says study co-author Daan Wesselink (@DaanWess). "It's not important whether it's a hand or a foot but more that we saw what has been thought of as a disorganized area become organized, which opens up questions about organizational principles of the whole body system."

This research suggests many unanswered questions about brain plasticity and why these individuals with extreme toe dexterity have toe maps while others do not. The team points to two different possibilities. Perhaps all primates are born with organized toe maps but they are lost in humans because we do not use our toes or because feet are usually enclosed in shoes. Or perhaps humans are born without toe maps but develop them if we use our bodies in particularly dexterous ways.

"We know there is a critical period of plasticity early in life when the brain seems particularly capable of change," says Wesselink. "It could be that our artists were learning to use their toes when they were children during this time of maximal brain plasticity. We know the adult brain is more fixed once the critical period of plasticity closes. It may be that once that happens you can't really change the brain in a major way, such as this."

The researchers also emphasize that the artists were born without hands. "Perhaps they have a very different brain plasticity history when they were growing up," Wesselink says. "There could be some aspects related to brain changes that dramatically shift because they are born without upper limbs and hands."

Looking ahead, the team will use this information to see if they can incorporate different non-body like technology, such as a robotic prosthesis, into an adult individual's body map. "Whether it's the hand or toe, or any body part, we want to understand more about how the brain copes with these different types of changes," says Dempsey-Jones. "Mapping out finger and toe activity in the brain can help advance brain-machine interface technology where the brain learns how to control each digit of a prosthetic."

Bottom Line: An analysis that included data for nearly 1.5 million patients with end-stage kidney disease looked at whether ownership of dialysis facilities was associated with patients' access to kidney transplants. This observational study included patients treated at 6,511 dialysis facilities in the United States from 2000-2016. The authors report that receiving dialysis at for-profit compared with nonprofit facilities was associated with lower likelihood of being placed on the deceased donor kidney waiting list, receiving a deceased donor kidney transplant, and receiving a living donor kidney transplant. More research is needed to understand the reasons behind this association. Limitations of the study include an inability to determine differences regarding staffing resources, education policies and transplant referral practices, which may be associated with increased access to kidney transplantation. The study also couldn't identify patients truly eligible for transplantation.

Authors: Rachel E. Patzer, Ph.D., M.P.H., Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jama.2019.12803)

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

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 10, 2019 -- Medical implants of the future may feature reconfigurable electronic platforms that can morph in shape and size dynamically as bodies change or transform to relocate from one area to monitor another within our bodies.

In Applied Physics Letters, from AIP Publishing, a group of researchers from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and University of California, Berkeley reports a silicon honeycomb-serpentine reconfigurable electronic platform that can dynamically morph into three different shapes: quatrefoils (four lobes), stars and irregular ones.

"Quatrefoils can be used for rectangular object-based operation, while stars are for more intricate architectures, and irregular-shaped ones are specifically for implanted bioelectronics," said Muhammad Hussain, co-author and a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

With their work, the researchers are introducing a new branch of flexible, stretchable electronics -- opening the door to new engineering challenges and providing opportunities for innovation in biomedical technologies that can be used for drug delivery, health monitoring, diagnosis, therapeutic healing, implants and soft robotics.

Inspiration for the group's honeycomb-shaped platform comes from nature. "Think of how flowers bloom. Based on the same principle, we gathered many videos of flowers blossoming, analyzed their geometric pattern and used them for our first set of designs," Hussain said. "In particular, we analyzed their stress distribution in an iterative manner, taking design architecture, materials and their properties into consideration. It's a tedious process to reach the optimal balance, but this is where engineering helps."

Reconfigurable electronic platforms are designed to undergo physical deformation, such as stretching, bending, folding or twisting to morph into another shape. "Imagine that a lab-on-chip platform is implanted within your body to monitor the growth of a tumor in the shoulder area," said Hussain. "While it is implanted, if we observe some abnormality in lung function, a platform that is equipped enough can change its shape and size, and relocate or expand to go monitor lung function."

Another idea the researchers are actively pursuing is a wearable heart sleeve to monitor heart activity with the ability to mechanically pump the heart by repeated expansion and contraction when needed.

"We still have a long way to go to integrate soft robotics with embedded high-performance flexible complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics on a variety of reconfigurable electronic platforms, which will be of immense importance," Hussain said. "It offers wonderful engineering challenges, requires true multidisciplinary efforts and has the ability to bind a variety of disciplines into applications that are simply not possible with the existing electronics infrastructure."

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Toughening the federal standard for arsenic in 2001 has led to fewer violations by the public systems that supply more than 80 percent of the United States' drinking water, research led by Oregon State University shows.

Researchers found that despite lower allowable arsenic levels, the percentage of public water systems in violation fell from 1.3% in 2008 to 0.55% in 2017, with most of the violations occurring in a handful of counties in California and Texas. In terms of number of people drinking out-of-arsenic-compliance water, the figure fell nationally by more than 1 million, dropping to about 450,000.

"This reinforces the point that safety regulations do work, especially when they come with a carrot-and-stick approach, like increasing resources for systems to comply and giving them flexibility to choose what works best for their community," said the study's corresponding author, Molly Kile, associate professor in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences.

Findings were published today in Environmental Science and Technology.

Sprinkled throughout the Earth's crust, arsenic is a naturally occurring element also found in air, food and water. In the United States, it's particularly common in the West and Southwest, as well as the Northeast and the Great Lakes area.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer categorizes arsenic, which in water is tasteless, odorless and colorless, as a Group 1 human carcinogen, the most severe category that also includes compounds such as asbestos, formaldehyde and mustard gas.

Chronic ingestion of arsenic increases the risk of cancer in the lungs, bladder, liver, kidneys and skin. Arsenic has been federally regulated as a drinking water contaminant since 1942.

Arsenic can leach into ground water through rocks and soil, and has been used in the manufacture of pesticides and wood preservatives. Mining processes, volcanic activity, erosion and forest fires can also cause arsenic to reach the environment.

In ground water used for drinking, arsenic is a widespread problem. Arsenic levels tend to be higher in drinking water that comes from ground sources like wells rather than from surface sources like lakes and reservoirs.

"You can't know whether it's there unless you test for it," Kile said.

Once in the body, arsenic disrupts the cellular process that produces ATP, the molecule responsible for storing and transporting the energy needed for life. In both blocking and competing with the chemicals that form ATP, arsenic affects a broad range of organs and systems.

Kile, Oregon State graduate student Stephanie Foster and collaborators from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which partially funded the research, analyzed 12 years of data from the Safe Drinking Water Information System; the system is a public EPA database, established by the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, of drinking water contamination violations.

The first year of the tracking period, 2006, was five years after the EPA reduced the maximum contaminant level for arsenic with the release of the Final Arsenic Rule, or FAR.

Prior to 2001, drinking water distributed by U.S. public systems - which number greater than 150,000 - could contain up to 50 micrograms of arsenic per liter. The FAR cut the allowable concentration to 10 micrograms per liter.

The FAR, which also mandated better detection and monitoring, went into effect in January 2006; as expected, the number of municipal water systems in violation immediately spiked, since many systems that had been compliant under the old rule no longer were.

But it didn't take long for things to turn around.

"And smaller suppliers showed the most improvement," Kile said. "Part of the controversy around lowering the standard was the economic impact it would have on small systems, but this study shows those systems can adapt and overcome."

Foster noted that after the initial upswing when the new maximum contaminant level went online, arsenic violations in public water systems have consistently happened less frequently. Efforts to reduce the use of arsenic in industry likely are contributing to less public arsenic exposure as well, Kile said.

"Improvements were seen in both ground water and surface water systems," Foster said. "It was also great to have our findings supported by another recently published article by OSU graduate Barrett Welch. He found that urinary arsenic levels among public-water users across the United States also significantly decreased during the time period we studied. This shows that people really are ingesting less arsenic."

The violations found in this research tended toward the western and southwestern regions of the United States, which have geological conditions that lend themselves to elevated arsenic. In the states where violations ran higher, there were usually a small number of counties responsible, suggesting highly localized reasons for the violations.

Kile stresses that this research covered only public drinking water supplies, not wells or any other private sources.

"Those are the responsibility of the owner, and there are many resources available to help people test for arsenic, and if you use a private water supply, you definitely should test for arsenic, along with bacteria and nitrates," she said. "When people drink city water, they do so under the assumption that it is safe. Delivering on this promise requires constant vigilance. It also requires revising regulations and making sure they reflect the best available science. This means regulations change over time to protect our health, and this study demonstrates that with proper support, organizations can comply and will comply with tougher regulations to protect the public's health."

Kile adds that the institution of the Final Arsenic Rule, which included financial assistance to water systems for treatment improvements and gave water systems flexibility on how they would meet the new standards, began with Bill Clinton in the White House and concluded with George W. Bush as president.

"It's an example of presidents continuing to work on important programs that started before they took office and not rolling them back," she said. "The FAR took concerted political effort and will, and it's working."

Cold temperatures are not nearly as deadly as heat, with around 2% of all deaths in Australia related to heat, according to new research from the University of Technology Sydney.

The study, published today in the journal Climatic Change, reveals that in warmer regions of Australia up to 9% of deaths were related to heat, with the elderly facing the greatest risk.

Cold weather had a much smaller impact (-0.4% nationwide) except in the coldest climate zone, where 3.6% of deaths could be linked to cold temperatures.

"Accurately measuring temperature-related mortality is an important step towards understanding the impacts of climate change, particularly across different climate zones," says study author Dr Thomas Longden, from the UTS Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation.

The study is the first to use a national data set of mortality records to calculate the number of deaths linked to heat and cold in Australia. A key part of the analysis was estimating temperature-related deaths across six climate zones.

The climate zones range from areas with hot, humid summers in Northern Australia, to areas with mild summers and cold winters in Tasmania, ACT and parts of NSW and Victoria.

Regions with warm, humid summers, including Brisbane, Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast, had the highest proportion of deaths linked to heat (9.1%).

The coldest climate zone, which encompasses Tasmania and the NSW and Victorian alpine regions, saw 3.6% of deaths attributed to cold temperatures and a 3.3% reduction in deaths during warmer months.

The study also revealed that in some regions, particularly those with warm, humid summers, colder temperatures actually reduced deaths in comparison to the median temperature.

"While the cold is more dangerous in the colder climate zones, in four of the six regions, there was a decrease in deaths during colder weather. This is because most of the cold days in warmer climate zones are quite moderate," says Dr Longden.

Previous studies that used data for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane have suggested that despite increasing temperatures due to climate change, there would be a net reduction in temperature-related deaths due to the reduction in cold-related deaths.

However, this study reveals that nationwide there would be a net cost from climate change, as increased heat-related deaths would not be offset by a reduction in cold-related deaths in most climate zones.

"Whether an increase in heat-related mortality is offset by a reduction in cold-related mortality is crucial to finding a net benefit or cost from climate change when using temperature-mortality relationships," Dr Longden says.

"The main differences between the earlier studies and this one is the use of a national mortality data set, which allows for the analysis of differences between climate zones, and the reference temperature used to measure the relative risk of mortality," says Dr Longden.