Tech

Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with Russian and international colleagues developed the concept for constructing an "optical vacuum cleaner". Due to its optical properties, it can trap nanoparticles from the environment. Currently, there are no effective devices for this task. The research results were published in Scientific Reports (IF:4,525; Q1). In the future, such "vacuum cleaners" can be utilized for air purification during lab-on-a-chip operations and preparation of clean rooms.

"The size of nanoparticles varies from 1 to a maximum of 100 nanometers. Currently, researchers from all around the world are seeking for the ways to control such small particles and manipulate them for various applications. However, there have been no sufficiently effective and widely used devices for such tasks yet. We offer a new concept for particle manipulation and capture - it is "optical vacuum cleaner" - says Oleg Minin, Professor of the TPU Division for Electronic Engineering.

According to this concept, an "optical vacuum cleaner" is a dielectric microparticle. In the published article, the scientists used particles having the shape of an equilateral cuboid. The particles have a nanoscale gouge or nanohole. When they are exposed to optical radiation, such as laser, there is optical pressure.

"The resultant force is directed inside our cuboid, trapping nanoparticles into the hole. The ?apacity, respectively, depends on the size of the hole",
- says the scientist.

This concept can be implemented in the so-called lab-on-a-chip work in biomedical research. This technique can combine several laboratory functions on a chip, varying in size from a few square millimeters to square centimeters. This advanced on-chip analysis method will allow achieving high-throughput screening and automation. Cleaning chip surface and ambient air from foreign nanoparticles will allow increasing the analyzes sensitivity and the result accuracy.

The study was conduct by Russian and international specialists from Jilin University (China) and Ben-Gurion University (Israel). The next stage will be experimental confirmation of the concept.

Bloodstream infections acquired in UK Intensive Care Units (ICUs) reduced by 80% between 2007 and 2012, according to research funded by the NIHR Guy's and St Thomas' Biomedical Research Centre.

The findings are based on data collected from over 1 million patients admitted to 276 NHS adult ICUs across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The research was a collaboration between clinicians at Guy's and St Thomas' and researchers from the Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC). They found that bloodstream infections overall fell by 80% from 7.3 per 1000 patient days in 2007 to 1.6 per 1000 patient days by 2012.

Bloodstream infections occur when an infection, such as MRSA or E. coli, moves out of the tissue and spreads through the blood to cause a whole-body infection. This type of infection is particularly serious as it can lead to severe sepsis and other complications. Patients on ICUs can develop bloodstream infections from vascular and urinary catheters, surgical wounds and after being on ventilation machines.

Published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the research aimed to measure rates of bloodstream infection after launch of the national infection control campaign on ICUs and across the NHS. It showed reductions in infections caused by all major organisms including MRSA (95%), Candida (72%) and E. coli (57%).

Dr Jonathan Edgeworth, clinical lead of the Guy's and St Thomas' ICU Infection Service and King's College London Professor of Clinical Infectious Diseases said: "The size of this reduction in many of the most serious ICU-acquired infections was frankly unexpected, particularly given that the national focus during that time was recording reductions in MRSA and C. difficile. It implies that improvements in infection control practice were effectively implemented across the board by all members of the ICU team.

"It is notable these lower infection rates have been maintained since 2012 but we need to see if they can be reduced further. The NHS has set new targets for reducing Gram negative bloodstream infection, particularly E. coli, and so this data collection will help monitor progress and also act as an early warning for emergence of new ICU infections."

Professor David Harrison, head statistician, ICNARC, said: "We collect data on all patients admitted to ICU that are then fed back to individual ICUs for their audit purposes. We also use these data for research to track changes and improve practice. This is a great example of how our data coordinators and statisticians working with front-line clinicians and NHS data collectors, can provide powerful data for the NHS to help it track progress and inform plans for the future.

"This infection dataset is probably unique in the world given its coverage of the whole national intensive care unit network and having 13 years of continuously collected data. It is one of the advantages of a National Health Service that helps engagement from all ICUs and embedding common clinical practice and infection prevention activities throughout the country."

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have taken the first step towards trials of vaginal microbiota transplantation (VMT).

Inspired by the success of fecal transplantation, it is hoped that transplants of vaginal fluids from healthy donors will provide the first restorative, curative treatment for bacterial vaginosis.

Published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, the team's donor screening concept aims to ensure that only beneficial microbes are transferred by VMT - and not potential pathogens.

Bacterial vaginosis

For gut health, bacterial diversity is key. But in the vagina, it can spell disaster.

As far back the 1800s, a Lactobacillus-dominated vaginal microbiota was known to reduce the risk of sepsis post-childbirth. Hundreds of years on, loss of this Lactobacillus monoculture - resulting in greater bacterial diversity or 'bacterial vaginosis' (BV) - is associated with increased risk of STIs, UTIs, preterm birth and reproductive tract cancers.

Yet even now, we cannot fix this simplest of bacterial communities. "We have very few treatment options available for BV, none of them fully curative or restorative," says study co-author Dr. Ethel Weld.

In gut dysbiosis, fecal transplants from healthy donors have shown tremendous success in restoring bacterial diversity, with positive health benefits. Could vaginal fluid transplants restore protective Lactobacillus monoculture in BV sufferers?

"There is significant epidemiological evidence that vaginal microbiota transfer already occurs, for example between women who have sex with women," explains Weld, who sees great potential in the vaginal microbiota transplant (VMT). "But before clinical trials of VMT are conducted, we must first determine how to screen donors to find those with minimal risk of transmissible pathogens, and optimal vaginal microbiota for transplant."

Vaginal microbiota transplantation

Weld and colleagues designed a universal screening approach for VMT donors, which they piloted in a small sample of 20 healthy women aged 23-35.

The screening consists of a medical questionnaire with blood, urine, and vaginal swab and fluid testing. As well as checking for exposure to STIs and other infections, analysis of the samples allowed the team to correlate vaginal bacterial community structure with function.

The results support a testing hierarchy, whereby unfit samples can be screened out with cheap but reliable tests. More expensive and prolonged confirmatory testing - like additional safety checks and Lactobacillus 'dose' grading - can then be reserved for the most promising donors.

What constitutes the 'ideal' donor bacterial profile, and whether this depends on the recipient, are open questions. But this pilot study provides some insights. For example, vaginal fluid samples dominated by the Lactobacillus species L. crispatus tended to have higher protective lactic acid content, lower pH, and greater HIV barrier function, in agreement with previous studies.

In search of super donors

What the study shows perhaps best of all about the ideal VMT donor, is that she is rare.

"Based on our exclusion criteria, 7/20 (35%) of these participants might be eligible VMT donors," says co-author Dr. Laura Ensign. "But the actual success rate for participation as a VMT donor in a clinical trial will likely be much lower still."

The participants were selected from the study team's previous clinical studies, increasing the likelihood that they would fulfill the donor criteria. Most were White or East Asian women, who in the U.S. are least likely to have BV. Ensign encourages efforts to recruit a more diverse donor pool, to identify whether there is any impact of race or ethnicity on VMT success.

And besides invasive screening, the privations of vaginal fluid sample collection are likely to deter many would-be donors. "Out of an abundance of caution, we propose that donors abstain from vaginal intercourse for the duration of longitudinal sample collection," suggests Ensign. This could amount to 30 days or more without sex.

As such, the success of VMT might depend on a small number of willing 'super donors'.

"Once a safe donor has been identified using this protocol, she could donate on multiple appropriately screened occasions; the idea of a 'super-donor' with no identified past or current infections and with favorable Lactobacillus-dominated microbiota is one that should be explored."

Ultimately, understanding the role of minority bacterial species and their products could enable VMT to progress beyond the need for donors.

"We anticipate that the trajectory of VMT will likely follow that of fecal transplantation, with efforts to cultivate uniform, standardized transplants that have similar therapeutic efficacy to donor material," concludes Ensign.

Adolescents with higher levels of physical activity performed better in school during transition from primary school to lower secondary school than their physically inactive peers, a new study from Finland shows. However, the researchers, from the University of Jyväskylä, found that increased physical activity did not necessarily result in improved academic performance.

Previous cross-sectional studies have reported that physically more active children and adolescents achieve better school grades than their less active peers do, but there are few longitudinal studies on the topic. A newly published study showed that adolescents with higher levels of physical activity over a follow-up period of two academic years had higher academic performance than did those who were continuously inactive. Furthermore, the study showed that increased levels of physical activity do not automatically result in improved academic performance. Instead, the results suggest that those adolescents who increased their physical activity had lower academic performance during the follow-up compared to their more active peers.

What the results mean

Highly active adolescents performed better in school compared to their less active peers. However, our results showed that increasing physical activity over a period of two academic years did not necessarily improve academic performance.

What the results do not mean

Based on our results, it is not possible to say whether physical activity improves academic performance or if adolescents with higher academic performance choose a physically active lifestyle. Therefore, no causal interpretations can be made. However, the results of the present study do not refute the findings of previous studies showing small but positive effects of physical activity on learning and its neural underpinnings.

'The link between physical activity and academic performance do not always reflect a causal relationship. It is possible that high levels of physical activity and good academic performance share the same attributes, such as high motivation towards the task at hand,' says Eero Haapala, postdoctoral researcher from the University of Jyväskylä.

The study investigated the longitudinal associations of physical activity with academic performance in 635 adolescents who were between 11 and 13 years old at baseline. Physical activity was assessed using a questionnaire and school grades were acquired from the school registers. Several confounding factors such as parental education and pubertal status were controlled for in the analyses.

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 10, 2019 -- If you've ever looked closely at a 3D sand or sediment dune within a river or coastal area, did you wonder how it formed?

After noticing how the construction of dams significantly alter the hydrodynamics of natural rivers and the resulting downstream riverbed evolution, a group of researchers at Tsinghua University in China decided to apply numerical simulations to help determine what's at play in the relationship of sediment motion and flow conditions. They report their findings in Physics of Fluids, from AIP Publishing.

The group's work was inspired in part by the impact of the Three Gorges Dam, which is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River. Since its construction in 2003, 11.7 kilometers (7.2 miles) of flat riverbed downstream within the Yangtze estuary was observed morphing into dune bedforms -- features that form as a result of riverbed material being moved by fluid flow.

"This bed morphology evolution threatened navigation safety and the stability of river dikes, because the mechanism of sediment dune formation was unknown," said Hongwei Fang, a professor at Tsinghua University.

The researchers set out to accurately simulate the fully turbulent flow near the riverbed and link it with the movement of sediment particles.

"We used large eddy simulation technology to obtain accurate near-bed instantaneous flow field, calculate the shear stresses acting on sediment particles and, finally, simulate the evolution of the riverbed," said Fang.

By using visualization and power spectra analysis, the researchers were able to characterize the formation of sediment dunes into three distinct stages and clearly show the mechanism responsible for each.

"Interaction of near-bed flow and sediment particles has been rigorously investigated, but it still wasn't exactly clear what was going on," said Fang. "Partitioning it into three stages helped us clarify this process."

"The initial defects that appear on the bed at the start of the process are closely tied to the instantaneous flow velocity right before the bed is destabilized," he said. "We also discovered that defects with a high instantaneous flow velocity get washed away, while defects with low instantaneous velocity receive sediment deposits and grow in length and height. And, further, a constant wake zone forms downstream of micro sand waves, where sediment accumulates."

As far as applications, this work will "help predict riverbed morphology evolution -- how it forms and changes -- within natural rivers," Fang said. "And it will allow prevention of potential hazards, such as riverbank failure or ship stranding."

Next, the group will explore river meandering, which poses a serious threat to rivers with dams.

"With our success simulating the evolution of riverbeds, we are confident of revealing the mechanism of river meandering, which is very important in river dike construction, lake river management and aquatic habitat protection," Fang said.

PITTSBURGH--Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a computer model that can translate text describing physical movements directly into simple computer-generated animations, a first step toward someday generating movies directly from scripts.

Scientists have made tremendous leaps in getting computers to understand natural language, as well as in generating a series of physical poses to create realistic animations. These capabilities might as well exist in separate worlds, however, because the link between natural language and physical poses has been missing.

Louis-Philippe Morency, associate professor in the Language Technologies Institute (LTI), and Chaitanya Ahuja, an LTI Ph.D. student, are working to bring those worlds together using a neural architecture they call Joint Language-to-Pose, or JL2P. The JL2P model enables sentences and physical motions to be jointly embedded, so it can learn how language is related to action, gestures and movement.

"I think we're in an early stage of this research, but from a modeling, artificial intelligence and theory perspective, it's a very exciting moment," Morency said. "Right now, we're talking about animating virtual characters. Eventually, this link between language and gestures could be applied to robots; we might be able to simply tell a personal assistant robot what we want it to do.

"We also could eventually go the other way -- using this link between language and animation so a computer could describe what is happening in a video," he added.

Ahuja will present JL2P on Sept. 19 at the International Conference on 3D Vision in Quebec City, Canada.

To create JL2P, Ahuja used a curriculum-learning approach that focuses on the model first learning short, easy sequences -- "A person walks forward" -- and then longer, harder sequences - "A person steps forward, then turns around and steps forward again," or "A person jumps over an obstacle while running."

Verbs and adverbs describe the action and speed/acceleration of the action, while nouns and adjectives describe locations and directions. The ultimate goal is to animate complex sequences with multiple actions happening either simultaneously or in sequence, Ahuja said.

For now, the animations are for stick figures.

Making it more complicated is the fact that lots of things are happening at the same time, even in simple sequences, Morency explained.

"Synchrony between body parts is very important," Morency said. "Every time you move your legs, you also move your arms, your torso and possibly your head. The body animations need to coordinate these different components, while at the same time achieving complex actions. Bringing language narrative within this complex animation environment is both challenging and exciting. This is a path toward better understanding of speech and gestures."

Semiconductors are substances that have a conductivity between that of conductors and insulators. Due to their unique properties of conducting current only in specific conditions, they can be controlled or modified to suit our needs. Nowhere is the application of semiconductors more extensive or important than in electrical and electronic devices, such as diodes, transistors, solar cells, and integrated circuits.

Semiconductors can be made of either organic (carbon-based) or inorganic materials. Recent trends in research show that scientists are opting to develop more organic semiconductors, as they have some clear advantages over inorganic semiconductors. Now, scientists, led by Prof Makoto Tadokoro of the Tokyo University of Science, report on the synthesis of a novel organic substance with potential applications as an n-type semiconductor. This study is published in the journal Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry. According to Prof Makoto Tadokoro, "organic semiconductor devices, unlike hard inorganic semiconductor devices, are very soft and are useful for creating adhesive portable devices that can easily fit on a person." However, despite the advantages of organic semiconductors, there are very few known stable molecules that bear the physical properties of n-type semiconductors, compared to inorganic n-type semiconductors.

N-heteroheptacenequinone is a well-known potential candidate for n-type semiconductor materials. However, it has some drawbacks: it is unstable in air and UV-visible light, and it is insoluble in organic solvents. These disadvantages obstruct the practical applications of this substance as a semiconductor.

A team of Japanese scientists--Dr. Kyosuke Isoda (Faculty of Engineering and Design, Kagawa University; ex-Tokyo University of Science), Mr. Mitsuru Matsuzaka (ex-Tokyo University of Science), Dr. Tomoaki Sugaya (Chiba Institute of Technology, ex-Tokyo University of Science), and Prof Tadokoro--aimed to bridge this gap, and identified a novel substance called C6OAHCQ, derived from N-heteroheptacenequinone, that overcomes the drawbacks of N-heteroheptacenequinone.

To obtain this substance, N-heteroheptacenequinone was made to undergo four-step process of chemical reactions involving repetitive refluxing, evaporation, recrystallization, and heating. The final product achieved was C6OAHCQ, a red solid. C6OAHCQ has a unique crystalline near-planar structure involving two tetraazanaphthacene "backbones" and one benzoquinone backbone. It has eight electron-deficient imino-N atoms and two carbonyl moieties.

To confirm its electrochemical properties, C6OAHCQ was made to undergo a series of tests including a UV-visible absorption spectroscopy in the solution state, cyclic voltammetry, and theorical calculation of electrostatic potential. It was also compared with a tetraazapentacenequinone analog.

These tests revealed some unique properties of C6OAHCQ. The electron-deficient imino-N atoms and two carbonyl moieties in C6OAHCQ provide it with an electron-accepting behavior. In fact, the number of electrons accepted by C6OAHCQ is more than that by fullerene C60, which suggests improved conductivity. Cyclic voltammetry showed that C6OAHCQ exhibited reversible four-step, four-electron reduction waves, which indicated that C6OAHCQ is stable and has good electrostatic potential; the UV-visible spectroscopy also showed its stability in UV-visible light. C6OAHCQ also showed electrochromic properties, which enable its potential application in many specialized areas such as the development of smart windows, electrochromic mirrors, and electrochromic display devices. C6OAHCQ was also found to have excellent solubility in common organic solvents. It was overall found to be advantageous and had improved properties compared to the tetraazapentacenequinone analog.

The synthesis of organic C6OAHCQ is a new step forward in semiconductor research, due to its distinctive properties that distinguish it from existing organic semiconductors. C6OAHCQ is also a revolutionary step in the current research scenario dominated by inorganic semiconductors. Prof Tadokoro and team assert the importance of this novel substance, stating, "the identification of this organic acceptor molecular skeleton that has the property of stably receiving electrons is very important, as it can be used to develop molecular devices with new functionality. These devices are soft, unlike hard inorganic semiconductor devices, and can help to create portable devices."

WASHINGTON, DC – Physicians and health professionals from the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) along with rheumatology patients gathered on Capitol Hill this week for the annual Advocates for Arthritis event to urge lawmakers to take action on a range of policy issues affecting patient access to rheumatology care.  

More than 100 advocates met with members of Congress and encouraged them to support bills that would expand the rheumatology workforce and reform insurer practices that often delay patients’ access to medically necessary treatment. Advocates also educated lawmakers on the increasing prevalence of rheumatic diseases, specifically arthritis, that are exacting a toll on Americans of all ages and backgrounds.

"Aligning with Rheumatic Disease Awareness Month, this event is a great opportunity for our members to raise awareness and work with lawmakers to address the myriad challenges rheumatic disease patients currently face," said Paula Marchetta, MD, MBA, president of ACR. "We look forward to working with Congress to make positive and lasting policy changes so that patients can live longer, healthier, and more fulfilling lives."

ACR advocates asked lawmakers to support the following legislation to improve patient access to care:

Safe Step Act of 2019 (H.R. 2279) – Introduced by Representatives Raul Ruiz, MD (D-CA) and Brad Wenstrup, DPM (R-OH), two physicians who have encountered step therapy in their own practices, this bipartisan legislation would place reasonable limits on the use of step therapy in employer-sponsored health plans and create a clear process for patients and doctors to seek exceptions. The legislation builds on reforms passed in 22 states to address this pervasive practice that delays effective care and puts patients at unnecessary risk. While state efforts to limit insurer use of step therapy are an important step forward, Congressional action is needed to address the use of step therapy in employer-provided plans, which are regulated by federal law.

EMPOWER for Health Act (H.R. 2781) – Introduced by Representatives Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Michael C. Burgess, MD (R-TX), this bipartisan legislation would facilitate efforts to increase the number of pediatric subspecialists who practice in underserved areas by providing pediatric subspecialty loan repayment for health professionals who agree to work at least two years in pediatric medicine. The bill would also reauthorize critical funding to ensure a more diverse health care workforce is prepared to meet the needs of the entire patient population.

REDI Act (H.R. 1554) – Introduced by Representative Brian Babin (R-TX), this legislation would amend the Higher Education Act to defer the accumulation of interest on student loans for borrowers while they serve in a medical internship or residency program, thereby making careers in medicine more accessible.

An estimated 1 in 4 Americans have been diagnosed with a rheumatic disease such as osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus. Although there is no known cure for these conditions, early intervention and proper diagnosis and treatment by a specialist can help patients manage symptoms and lifestyle limitations to live longer, healthier lives. 

Unfortunately, a growing shortage of rheumatology specialists threatens patient access to timely diagnosis and treatment. For example, although nearly 300,000 American children have juvenile arthritis, there are fewer than 400 board-certified pediatric rheumatologists in the United States.

Media Contact:
Jocelyn Givens jgivens@rheumatology.org 404-929-4810

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- Heart disease remains the most common cause of death in the western world, and cardiac defects are the most prevalent form of birth defect in the United States and Europe. Yet little is known about the proteins and cellular pathways that lead to the formation of the human heart or the roles various proteins and pathways might play in cardiac disease. Now, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Princeton University scientists have found that unique sets of proteins and pathways present in specific animal models commonly used in research are also present and mutated in human disease.

The results, published in PLOS Biology, provide a glimpse into the evolution of the heart from amphibians to humans. More importantly, they allow researchers to understand which animal models can be used to study heart disease and ultimately test treatments for cardiac disease seen in humans.

First author Joel Federspiel, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton, took a computational approach to profile the abundance of protein complexes across four species. "This allows us to predict the appropriate animal model systems for studying specific cardiac conditions. We think integrating our findings with existing data on proteins responsible for cardiac disease should lead to the development of refined, species-specific models for protein function and disease states," said co-senior author Frank Conlon, PhD, professor of genetics at the UNC School of Medicine

Conlon, who is a member of the UNC McAllister Heart Institute, and Ileana Cristea, PhD, at Princeton University, led experiments to define the protein composition of four model vertebrates that are used to study human heart disease: two frog species, the mouse, and the pig. The labs compared each organism's protein composition to that of human hearts.

The researchers found that all species share a core set of proteins with humans, as well as protein pathways - a series of interactions between proteins inside cells that allow for a biological function to occur, such as the heart to beat properly. But to their surprise, Conlon and Cristea's labs found that each species shares a unique set of proteins with humans, and that these proteins are mutated in human disease states.

"Altogether, our study provides a resource for cardiac proteomes in four major model systems, uncovering conserved and divergent protein pathways and providing insight into selection of appropriate model systems for either modeling cardiac development or investigating disease," the researchers said.

The field of dentistry has a diversity problem. Despite calls for a more diverse workforce, only 15.2 percent of dental school applicants in 2016 were underrepresented minorities, according to the American Dental Education Association.

Having more dentists from diverse backgrounds benefits both patients and peers. Dentists who are underrepresented minorities are more likely to serve communities in need and therefore address disparities in dental care. Studies have also found that a diverse learning environment improves the learning experience for all students through exposure to different ideas and perspectives.

But building the pipeline for more diverse dentists starts well before students apply to dental school. Early exposure to the field is essential, as students need to take science courses in college that can put them on the path to applying to dental school--making high school an ideal time to engage future dentists.

In 2012, two students at NYU College of Dentistry--who are now both full-time faculty members--set out to create a pipeline program for underrepresented and low-income high school students to boost their interest in health professions, including dentistry. The program is called Saturday Academy, and a new paper describing a pilot study of the program, published in the September issue of the Journal of Dental Education, shows that their efforts are working.

"The results of our pilot study suggest that Saturday Academy is a successful example of a pipeline program to increase the future representation of underrepresented minorities in the dental profession by addressing barriers to pursuing a career in the health professions," said Lorel Burns, DDS, who co-founded Saturday Academy as a dental student and is currently an assistant professor of endodontics at NYU College of Dentistry.

Spending Saturdays at NYU College of Dentistry

NYU College of Dentistry has hosted Saturday Academy each fall since 2013, with students gathering at NYU two Saturdays a month. High school students are recruited to apply from schools across New York City; the majority of participants are in their junior year.

The purpose of Saturday Academy is twofold: to mentor and coach underrepresented minority and low-income high school students through the college application process and to expose them to the field of dentistry as a viable career option through both instruction and hands-on learning. Dental students volunteer each year to lead the program, enabling participants to build relationships with the next generation of dentists.

Each session is split into learning about one facet of college preparedness and a hands-on activity about dentistry. College preparedness topics include the SAT and ACT, Common Application, personal statements, and financial aid. Parents are encouraged to attend the session on financial aid.

In the hands-on labs, students learn how to take impressions of teeth, use stone models made with impressions to create mouthguards and wax-ups, and remove plaque and fill cavities on plastic models of teeth.

"While we aimed to create a program that was both informative and engaging for high school students, we also made an effort to address perceived barriers to dental school that influence the dentistry pipeline, including financial resources, family engagement, and mentoring," said Cheryline Pezzullo, DDS, who co-founded Saturday Academy as a student and is currently a clinical instructor of cariology and comprehensive care at NYU College of Dentistry.

The program's impact

The Saturday Academy founders and faculty advisors have surveyed each cohort of participants after completion of the program to measure its success. In the Journal of Dental Education, Burns, Pezzullo, and Eugenia E. Mejia, PhD, assistant dean for admissions and enrollment management at NYU College of Dentistry, report on their findings from the first five years of Saturday Academy (2013-2017).

Fifty-five of the more than 80 students who have completed Saturday Academy completed surveys about the program. All respondents reported graduating from high school and were attending college, with 93 percent enrolled in four-year colleges or universities and 7 percent in community college.

When asked if they were interested in the health professions, 71 percent said yes, and 47 percent wanted to pursue dentistry as a career. Nearly all (96 percent) of those wanting to become dentists attributed their interest to their experience at Saturday Academy.

"The results of this pilot study show that Saturday Academy has been effective in reaching underrepresented minority and low-income high school students to achieve its mission: increased understanding of the college application process and increased interest in the health professions, particularly dentistry, among participants," said Eugenia Mejia, PhD, assistant dean for admissions and enrollment management at NYU College of Dentistry.

NYU College of Dentistry, which provides funding for Saturday Academy, is expanding the program to reach more high school students. The Fall 2019 cohort includes 45 students--nearly triple the average number of students in the first five years of the program (17).

The lifetime risk of lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD), in which leg arteries narrow abnormally, is about 30 percent for black men and 28 percent for black women, with lower but still-substantial risks for Hispanics and whites, according to a study led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

According to the analysis, being a smoker, having diabetes, and also having a history of coronary heart disease or stroke increases the lifetime risk for PAD by as much as five times that of someone of the same race, age, and sex who doesn't have those risk factors. Importantly, race is another strong factor in PAD risk, contributing as much as some other health-related factors.

The study, published online September 10 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, is the first to have quantified the lifetime risk of PAD. The scientists analyzed existing large datasets that include records of PAD tests and determined that lifetime PAD risk varies considerably by race, sex, age, smoking status, and the presence of other diseases such as diabetes. From their analysis, the researchers developed a risk calculator for identifying high-risk patients who might benefit from PAD diagnostic screening.

"A key finding in our study is that blacks have a significantly higher PAD risk than whites and Hispanics, even though current clinical guidelines don't list race as a contributing factor," says study lead author Kunihiro Matsushita, MD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School. "PAD clinical guidelines recommend considering the assessment of PAD among high-risk individuals, but our study highlights the importance of taking into account race in this context."

PAD involves a chronic reduction of blood flow of leg arteries, typically from atherosclerosis, a buildup of fats along arterial walls. If untreated, PAD can lead to leg pain, poor wound healing, and other more serious outcomes including leg amputation. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 8.5 million people in the U.S. have PAD, though about half have no symptoms. In general, there is little public awareness of PAD compared to the awareness of other vascular conditions such as coronary artery disease and stroke.

The datasets used by Matsushita and colleagues for their analysis came from six community-based cohorts in the U.S. and included 38,154 people. These included well known, long-running studies such as the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study and the Framingham Heart Study. The health records in these datasets included a measurement called the ankle-brachial index (ABI), which is the systolic blood pressure at the ankle divided by the systolic pressure at the arm. An ABI of less than 0.9 is considered diagnostic for PAD.

Analyzing the data from these cohorts along with U.S. vital statistics on births, deaths and population, the researchers generated estimates for PAD lifetime risk by race and sex. Black men had the highest lifetime risk estimate at 30 percent, followed by almost 28 percent for black women. Hispanic men and women had estimated lifetime PAD risks of about 22 percent, while for white men and women the figures were about 19 percent each. The analysis suggested that about 9 percent of blacks develop PAD by age 60, while whites and Hispanics take another decade on average to reach that level.

Matsushita and colleagues applied further analytical techniques to their datasets to come up with a "calculator" to estimate the chance that someone has PAD based on race, age, sex, and health-related risk factors. Health-related factors again appeared to have an outsized impact on this probability. For example, according to the data, a 45-year-old black man, non-smoking and without diabetes or a history of cardiovascular disease or stroke would have just a 1.2 percent chance of having PAD whereas a 45-year-old black man with all of those risk factors would have a 10.5 percent chance of having PAD.

"Our PAD risk calculator algorithm can be used to select patients for screening with ABI tests and to guide the selection of treatments based on risk," Matsushita says.

The Atlantic Ocean's Gabrielle has made a second transition and the Global Precipitation Measurement mission or GPM core satellite provided information about the rate in which rain was falling within the now extra-tropical storm.

Gabrielle made its first transition to a post-tropical cyclone on Sept. 6 and regained tropical storm status later that same day. Now, the storm has become extra-tropical.

The GPM or Global Precipitation Measurement mission's core satellite passed over Tropical Storm Gabrielle in the eastern North Atlantic Ocean on Sept. 9 at 3:01 a.m. EDT (0701 UTC). GPM found the heaviest rainfall north of the center where it was falling at a rate of over 25 mm (about 1 inch) per hour. GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA.

NOAA's National Hurricane Center noted at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Sept. 10, "Gabrielle has now completed its transition to an extra-tropical cyclone this morning based on the latest GOES-16 satellite imagery. The center of the storm has now become exposed with convection displaced to the north of the center, and a well-defined baroclinic zone has become established in association with the low center."

When a storm becomes "extra-tropical" it means that a tropical cyclone has lost its "tropical" characteristics. The National Hurricane Center defines "extra-tropical" as a transition that implies both poleward displacement (meaning it moves toward the north or south pole) of the cyclone and the conversion of the cyclone's primary energy source from the release of latent heat of condensation to baroclinic (the temperature contrast between warm and cold air masses) processes. It is important to note that cyclones can become extratropical and still retain winds of hurricane or tropical storm force.

The center of Post-Tropical Cyclone Gabrielle was located near latitude 43.9 degrees north and longitude 37.8 degrees west. That puts the center about 695 miles (1,114 km) northwest of the Azores islands. The post-tropical cyclone is moving toward the northeast at near 29 mph (46 kph), and this general motion with an increase in forward speed is expected over the next couple of days. Maximum sustained winds are near 50 mph (85 kph) with higher gusts. The estimated minimum central pressure is 998 millibars.

Gabrielle is expected to weaken over the next two days and dissipate over the far North Atlantic west of the British Isles on Thursday, Sept. 12.

NASA's Aqua satellite passed over the Northwestern Pacific Ocean from its orbit in space and took an image that showed vertical wind shear was weakening Faxai and the storm had become extra-tropical.

On Sept. 9, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC posted its last advisory on the system as it continues to weaken. At 5 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC), the JTWC stated that Faxai's center was located near latitude 39.4 degrees north and longitude 147.7 degrees east. That is about 254 nautical miles east-southeast of Misawa, Japan. Faxai was moving to the east-northeast. Maximum sustained winds were near 45 knots (52 mph/83 kph). Faxai had begun its extra-tropical transition as it entered the baroclinic zone over the colder waters.

On Sept. 10, 2019 at 0310 UTC (Sept. 9 at 11:10 p.m. EDT) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided a visible image of Tropical Storm Faxai that showed wind shear was pushing clouds and storms east of the center.

In general, wind shear is a measure of how the speed and direction of winds change with altitude. Tropical cyclones are like rotating cylinders of winds. Each level needs to be stacked on top each other vertically in order for the storm to maintain strength or intensify. Wind shear occurs when winds at different levels of the atmosphere push against the rotating cylinder of winds, weakening the rotation by pushing it apart at different levels.

The imagery showed the system continued to rapidly decay and elongate. Faxai had transitioned into an extra-tropical storm and was a strong gale-force cold core low-pressure area with a large wind field. A tropical cyclone becomes extra-tropical when its warm core becomes a cold core, like a typical mid-latitude low-pressure area.

When a storm becomes "extra-tropical", it means that a tropical cyclone has lost its "tropical" characteristics. The National Hurricane Center defines "extra-tropical" as a transition that implies both poleward displacement (meaning it moves toward the north or south pole) of the cyclone and the conversion of the cyclone's primary energy source from the release of latent heat of condensation to baroclinic (the temperature contrast between warm and cold air masses) processes. It is important to note that cyclones can become extratropical and still retain winds of hurricane or tropical storm force.

Faxai will continue to track through the Northern Pacific Ocean as an extra-tropical storm for the next several days.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Golf ball-size clods of weathered crude oil originating from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon catastrophe could remain buried in sandy Gulf Coast beaches for decades, according to a new study by ecologists at Florida State University.

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, FSU Professor of Oceanography Markus Huettel and graduate student Ioana Bociu revealed that these large clumps of oil and sand -- called sediment-oil-agglomerates -- take at least 30 years to decompose.

"This oil contains substances that are harmful to the environment and to humans," Huettel said. "Understanding the fate of this buried oil is critical, as it can persist for long periods of time."

Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill contaminated an estimated 965 kilometers of sandy beaches along the Gulf of Mexico coastline. Portions of that oil were quickly removed: Past research conducted by Huettel his colleague Joel Kostka from the Georgia Institute of Technology found that smaller Deepwater Horizon-derived oil droplets were degraded by sand-dwelling microbes, or pervasive microscopic organisms, within just one year of washing ashore.

In addition to the rapid degradation of smaller droplets, significant amounts of larger oil particles were extracted by sweeping mechanical excavation efforts. But these muscular cleanup operations were not able to unearth all of the harmful oil, some of which was buried as deep as 70 centimeters in the sand.

In order to investigate what could become of the remaining oil contaminants, Huettel and his team conducted a three-year experiment of sediment-oil-agglomerates buried in the white sands of Northwest Florida's Pensacola Beach.

They found that these buried clumps of oil and sediment, usually measuring less than 10 centimeters in diameter, take roughly three decades to fully decompose -- a result of their smaller surface area to volume ratios and the limited oxygen, moisture and nutrients available to their live-in microbes.

While golf-ball size clumps were the most common agglomerates buried along the Gulf Coast beaches, other, more extreme contaminants discovered by the researchers would require even longer periods to completely degrade.

"After the Deepwater Horizon spill, we found sediment-oil-agglomerates at Pensacola Beach that were the size of an office printer, and even larger," Huettel said. "After burial, these would persist in the beach much longer than our golf ball-size agglomerates."

Thirty years from burial to full decomposition may seem like a dangerously prolonged period of decay, but Huettel's study showed that without the unique ecological properties of a sandy beach, the same golf ball-size agglomerates would take more than 100 years to break down.

That, Huettel said, underscores the pivotal biocatalytic filter role of beach sands, which he compared to sand filters used for water purification, swimming pools or aquariums.

"The microbe-colonized beach sands that are flushed by the waves washing onto the shore function in a similar way and thus can clean very large volumes of water," he said.

Farther up the beach, beyond the reach of breaking waves, regular tidal groundwater oscillations play a similarly important role. When groundwater levels fall, warm, oxygen-rich air is drawn into the sands, nourishing oil-degrading microbes and stimulating their biodegradation activity. When groundwater rises, moisture, which is essential for biodegradation, is transported to the microbes, and carbon dioxide resulting from that biodegradation is expelled.

"The beach, breathing in tidal rhythm, thus can be compared to a large organism that aerobically 'digests' the organic matter -- including oil -- by inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide," Huettel said. "The apparent cleanness of the sand that we all enjoy when going to the beach is a reflection of the effective beach biocatalytic decomposition process that removes degradable material in a relatively short time."

Without this natural "breathing" process, oil agglomerates and other toxic material would accumulate in the beach, compromising the area's ecology and putrefying coastal waters.

However, the biocatalytic sand filter is not infallible.

If the load of organic and inorganic particles grows unsustainably, once-pristine beach and coastal sands can become a muddy mess, impenetrable to oxygen and therefore inhospitable to aerobic degraders. This ecological deterioration can result in hypoxic zones -- areas deprived of oxygen -- which are becoming increasingly common around the world.

"Protecting the beaches therefore is critical to maintaining a healthy shore environment," Huettel said.

They say love is blind, but if you're a queen honeybee it could mean true loss of sight.

New research finds male honeybees inject toxins during sex that cause temporary blindness. All sexual activity occurs during a brief early period in a honeybee's life, during which males die and queens can live for many years without ever mating again.

UC Riverside's Boris Baer, a professor of entomology, said males develop vision-impairing toxins to maximize the one fleeting opportunity they may ever get to father offspring.

"The male bees want to ensure their genes are among those that get passed on by discouraging the queen from mating with additional males," said Baer, senior author of the study that discovered these blinding findings published today in the journal eLife. "She can't fly if she can't see properly."

The toxins identified by the team are proteins contained in male bees' seminal fluid, which is a substance that helps maintain sperm. Earlier work by Baer's team also discovered honeybee seminal fluid toxins that kill the sperm of rivals. All honeybees make these proteins, though some may make more of it than others.

Baer first became interested in bees' seminal fluid years ago as a doctoral student. During early projects, he noticed that if bumblebee queens were injected only with the fluid and not the sperm during insemination, the queens stopped mating and became increasingly aggressive toward males. He wanted to understand why.

Roughly 10 years ago, Baer and his international team began analyzing which proteins could be found in honeybees' fluids.

"We found at least 300 of these 'James Bonds,' little secret agents with specific missions," he said.

The team was not entirely surprised to find a protein that attacks the sperm of other males, as this behavior can be found in other insects. But they were surprised to find the protein that impacts genes responsible for vision in the queen's brains.

To test whether the protein had this effect, Baer's team presented inseminated queens with a flickering light, and measured her response to it via tiny electrodes in her brain. The vision and corresponding flight-impairing effects kick in within hours, but Baer notes that it is likely reversible in the long term because queens do tend to fly successfully later in life when they establish new colonies.

Studying the seminal fluid proteins required an interdisciplinary team of entomologists, biologists, biochemists, and more to identify them and examine their effects on the queens.

This team included Baer's wife and co-author, Barbara Baer-Imhoof, a UC Riverside pollination specialist. As part of this project, Baer-Imhoof conducted experiments in which she installed tiny tags on queen bees' backs read by scanners at the hive entrances.

"The tags were similar to those at the self-checkout counter in grocery stores," Baer-Imhoof said. The experiment showed queens had difficulties finding their way back to their colonies if they had been inseminated.

A molecular understanding of honeybee mating habits could eventually be used to improve breeding programs and help insects that pollinate many of the foods we eat.

"More than a third of what we eat depends on bee pollination, and we've taken bees' services for granted for a very long time," Baer said. "However, bees have experienced massive die-offs in the last two decades. Anything we can do to help improve their numbers will benefit humans, too."