Tech

Their proof-of-concept experiment may have broad implications for efficient harvesting, storing, and control of energy flow for mechanical and optical applications

The findings may facilitate improved technology for monitoring the structural integrity of bridges and other structural components

The discovery may also lead to improved methods for energy harvesting and storage, wireless charging of electric vehicles, and may also have applications in quantum computing and ultralow-energy photonics

NEW YORK, August 30, 2019 -- Light and sound waves are at the basis of energy and signal transport and fundamental to some of our most basic technologies -- from cell phones to engines. Scientists, however, have yet to devise a method that allows them to store a wave intact for an indefinite period of time and then direct it toward a desired location on demand. Such a development would greatly facilitate the ability to manipulate waves for a variety of desired uses, including energy harvesting, quantum computing, structural-integrity monitoring, information storage, and more.

In a newly published paper in Science Advances, a group of researchers led by Andrea Alù, founding director of the Photonics Initiative at the Advanced Science Research Center (ASRC) at The Graduate Center, CUNY, and by Massimo Ruzzene, professor of Aeronautics Engineering at Georgia Tech, have experimentally shown that it is possible to efficiently capture and store a wave intact then guide it towards a specific location.

"Our experiment proves that unconventional forms of excitation open new opportunities to gain control over wave propagation and scattering," said Alù. "By carefully tailoring the time dependence of the excitation, it is possible to trick the wave to be efficiently stored in a cavity, and then release it on demand towards the desired direction."

Methodology

To achieve their goal, the scientists had to devise a way for changing the basic interaction between waves and materials. When a light or sound wave hits an obstacle, it is either partially absorbed or reflected and scattered. The absorption process entails immediately converting of the wave into heat or other forms of energy. Materials that can't absorb waves only reflect and scatter them. The researchers' goal was to find a way to mimic the absorbtion process without converting the wave into other forms of energy and instead storing it in the material. This concept, introduced theoretically two years ago by the ASRC group, is known as coherent virtual absorption.

To prove their theory, the researchers reasoned that they needed to tailor the waves' time evolution so that when they came in contact with non-abosorbing materials, they wouldn't be reflected, scattered, or transmitted. This would prevent the wave impinging on the structure from escaping, and it would be efficiently trapped inside as if it were being absorbed. The stored wave could then be released on demand.

During their experiment, researchers propagated two mechanical waves traveling in opposite directions along a carbon steel waveguide bar that contained a cavity. The time variations of each wave were carefully controlled to ensure that the cavity would retain all of the impinging energy. Then, by stopping the excitation or detuning one of the waves, they were able to control the release of the stored energy and send it towards a desired direction on demand.

"While we ran our proof-of-concept experiment using elastic waves traveling in a solid material, our findings are also applicable to radiowaves and light, offering exciting prospects for efficient energy harvesting, wireless power transfer, low-energy photonics, and generally enhanced control over wave propagation," said Ruzzene.

HOUSTON -- (Aug. 30, 2019) -- Thomas Jones' "universal break-up criterion" won't help with meltdowns of the heart, but it will help volcanologists study changing lava conditions in common volcanic eruptions.

Jones, of Rice University, studies the behavior of low-viscosity lava, the runny kind that's found at most volcanoes. About two years ago, he began a series of lab experiments and field observations that provided the raw inputs for a new fluid dynamic model of lava break-up. The work is described in a paper in Nature Communications.

Low-viscosity lava is the red-hot, flowing type one might see at Hawaii's famed Kilauea volcano, and Jones said it usually behaves in one of two ways.

"It can bubble or spew out, breaking into chunks that spatter about the vent, or it can flow smoothly, forming lava streams that can rapidly move downhill," he said.

But that behavior can sometimes change quickly during the course of an eruption, and so can the associated dangers: While spattering eruptions throw hot lava fragments into the air, lava flows can threaten to destroy whole neighborhoods and towns.

Jones' model, the first of its kind, allows scientists to calculate when an eruption will transition from a spattering spray to a flowing stream, based upon the liquid properties of the lava itself and the eruption conditions at the vent.

Jones said additional work is needed to refine the tool, and he looks forward to doing some of it himself.

"We will validate this by going to an active volcano, taking some high-speed videos and seeing when things break apart and under what conditions," he said. "We also plan to look at the effect of adding bubbles and crystals, because real magmas aren't as simple as the idealized liquid in our mathematical model. Real magmas can also have bubbles and crystals in them. I'm sure those will change things. We want to find out how."

Jones said pairing the new model with real-time information about a lava's liquid properties and eruption conditions could allow emergency officials to predict when an eruption will change style and become a hazard to at-risk communities.

"We want to use this as a forecasting tool for eruption behavior," he said. "By developing a model of what's happening in the subsurface we can then watch for indications that it's about to cross the tipping point and change behavior."

Type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease that typically emerges before the age of 20, wipes out the body's ability to produce insulin--a hormone that's essential to life. Diagnosis often comes after symptoms arise, at which point the disease has taken hold. But if there were a way to test at-risk patients for very early signs of the disease, it may be possible to delay its onset.

In new research published in Science Immunology, scientists at Scripps Research have discovered what may be the earliest possible biological marker of type 1 diabetes, formerly known as juvenile diabetes. If their mouse study can be replicated in humans, which they are now attempting to do, the timing of therapeutic intervention may be drastically improved for patients who are on course to develop the disease.

"The translational aspect of this study is what's most exciting to me," says Luc Teyton, MD, PhD, professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research, who led the research. "By using single-cell technologies to study the prediabetic phase of disease, we have been able to mechanistically link specific anti-insulin T cells with the autoimmune response seen in type 1 diabetes. And that has given us the confirmation we needed to move into human studies."

Roughly 1.25 million American children and adults have type 1 diabetes, and the incidence rate is increasing for reasons that aren't fully understood. For those with the disease, the immune system attacks pancreatic beta cells that are solely responsible for producing insulin. Without insulin, their body is unable to move sugars out of the bloodstream and into cells, where glucose is needed for energy. Because of this, people with type 1 diabetes need to closely monitor their blood-glucose levels and inject insulin daily to survive.

The scientific community has known for a long time--ever since a landmark genetic study of type 1 diabetes more than 25 years ago--that among people with type 1 diabetes, a distinct genetic signature is always present among a certain class of immune-regulating molecules known as HLAs (short for human leukocyte antigens). HLA proteins sit on the surface of cells, telling the immune system whether to attack. While this signaling is normally helpful in destroying dangerous cells, it can become life-threatening when the molecule is sending the wrong messages.

In the case of type 1 diabetes, the mutated HLA protein binds to fragments of insulin made by beta cells, prompting destruction by the immune system.

While the connection between the HLA genetic mutation and type 1 diabetes is well-established, the scientific community could never discern the mode by which the immune system's T cells are drawn to this problematic molecule.

That's what Teyton's team set out to answer through experiments spanning five years. Their work involved evaluating blood samples of non-obese diabetic mice during the very early phase of disease, using cutting-edge structural and computational biology techniques to understand how the cells bring about disease.

The single-cell analysis they conducted had never been done before for these types of cells, unearthing new information, Teyton says. Working in concert with Scripps Research's Department of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology, the team sequenced the DNA of individual T cells for an extremely high-resolution view of cell function and genetic variation. In all, the study produced more than 4 terabytes of data.

Among their key findings was a structural mechanism they dubbed the "P9 switch" that allows CD4+ T cells to recognize the mutated HLA protein and attack beta cells. They also discovered that the dangerous anti-insulin T cells always reside in islets, which are small tissue structures in the pancreas where beta cells are located. Previously, it was not known where the anti-insulin T cells originated, and some suspected they may be produced in pancreatic lymph nodes.

Notably, the P9 switch drove an early burst of anti-insulin response in mice, then rapidly disappeared. If this phenomenon carries over to humans, immune cells equipped with the P9 switch would be detectable only in those who are in early stages of developing the disease. Thus, a blood test that reveals the presence of these cells could provide the earliest-possible indication of disease and enable intervention.

Armed with this research, Teyton has received approval to move forward with a study in humans. His team will collect blood samples from up to 30 at-risk individuals per year and analyze the samples for precursors to disease. Type 1 diabetes has a strong genetic link; those who have an immediate relative with disease are up to 20 times more likely than the general population to get it themselves, making this a well-defined group to monitor for biomarkers, Teyton says.

An early diagnosis during the five years of pre-clinical progression and the ability to monitor beta cell destruction in real time will allow a series of new therapeutic interventions aimed at preventing type 1 diabetes and insulin dependence, Teyton says.

MOUNT VERNON, WASHINGTON--Hand-harvested versus Machine-harvested Juice and Cider Apples: A Comparison of Phenolic Profiles

A study out of Washington State University sought to determine if there is a measurable impact of harvest method on the phenolic profile of 'Brown Snout' juice and cider to better inform equipment adoption.

Travis Alexander, Thomas Collins, and Carol Miles also evaluated whether different extraction methods would yield differing output in either quantity or quality of 'Brown Snout' apple juice and cider. Their comprehensive findings are illustrated in their article, "Comparison of the Phenolic Profiles of Juice and Cider Derived from Machine- and Hand-Harvested 'Brown Snout' Specialty Cider Apples in Northwest Washington" as found in the open-access journal HortTechnology, published by the American Society for Horticultural Science.

Phenolics are secondary metabolites that have attracted increasing interest in science and industry in recent years due to their beneficial health effects, primarily for their antioxidant properties. They have been proven to act as reducing agents to free radicals. Phenolics contribute significantly to the sensory profile of fermented cider, especially in those made from cider apple fruit. "Phenolics can impact the pressing of fruit, the clarification of juice, the maturation of cider, and final cider quality, including the attributes of aroma, color, taste, and mouthfeel. And so, we wanted to determine if there was a change in phenolics due to harvest method" stated Collins.

"The 'Brown Snout' specialty cider apple is desired by cider makers for its relatively high levels of phenolics, and over-the-row machine harvesting of 'Brown Snout' has been demonstrated to provide similar yield to hand harvest at a significantly lower cost" says Alexander.

To carry out their research, Miles said they planted a block of 'Brown Snout' apple trees on a low trellis system so that trees were a suitable size to fit the over-the-row small fruit harvester. Each of the eight main plots consisted of an average of nine trees. When the fruit was fully ripe, harvesting was divided equally between hand harvesting by four relatively unskilled agricultural workers and machine harvest by an over-the-row small fruit harvester. When application of the two harvest methods was complete, equal qualities of 'Brown Snout' apples were randomly selected from each yield supply for further evaluation.

The selected fruit were pressed separately and fermented and allowed to mature for 5 months before final assessments were conducted. At that time, the researchers determined that harvest method and duration of storage were nonsignificant for all parameters measured on juice and cider samples.

Over-the-row machine harvesting resulted in a final product of similar quality at reduced labor costs, and thus shows potential for increasing the commercial sustainability of cider apple operations.

As Hurricane Dorian was upgraded to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, NASA's fleet of satellites were gathering data during the day to assist weather forecasters and scientists. At 2:00 pm EDT the National Hurricane Center (NHC) posted a supplemental advisory. NHC reports that "extremely dangerous Hurricane Dorian poses a significant threat to Florida and the northwestern Bahamas. The Hurricane Hunter plane finds Dorian is now a major hurricane."

NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission satellite uses its IMERG algorithm with data from a fleet of satellites to provide global estimates of the precipitation within the storm every 30 minutes. This map is showing the estimates early on the morning of August 30 prior to Dorian becoming a Category 3 storm.

NOAA-NASA's Suomi NPP satellite uses its complement of instruments onboard to dissect storms and provide information on many different aspects of the hurricane including storm strength, cloudtop temperature, circulation, and rainfall, among others, within the structure of the storm. The next three images are all from the Suomi NPP satellite and its instruments which help scientists figure out the intensity of the storm and help predict where it will ultimately end up.

Hurricane Dorian is currently at latitude 24.8N and longitude 70.3W which is about 445 miles (715 km) east of the northwestern Bahamas and about 625 miles (1005 km) east of West Palm Beach, FL. The NHC forecast is: "A slower west-northwestward to westward motion should begin tonight and continue into early next week. On this track, the core of Dorian should move over the Atlantic well north of the southeastern and central Bahamas today and tomorrow, be near or over the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday, and be near the Florida peninsula late Monday."

Currently the storm's maximum sustained winds are 115 mph (185 km/h) with higher gusts, and is moving northwest at 10 mph (17 km/h). Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105 miles (165 km). The minimum central pressure is 970 mb.

Bottom Line: This observational study used United Network for Organ Sharing data to examine how wait-listed kidney transplant candidates fared after deceased donor kidneys were offered but declined by transplant centers on patients' behalf. The study included 280,041 wait-listed patients who received at least one donor kidney offer between 2008 and 2015. Among the patients, 81,750 received a deceased donor kidney transplant; 30,870 received a kidney from a living donor; 25,967 died on the waiting list; 59,359 were removed from the waiting list; and 82,095 remained on the waiting list. Most kidneys (84 percent) were declined on behalf of at least one candidate before eventually being accepted for transplant into other patients with lower priority on the match list. Concerns over organ or donor quality accounted for about 93 percent of all declined donor kidney offers. Study authors report patients who received a deceased donor kidney had a median of 17 organ offers before transplant, those who died on the waiting list had a median of 16 offers, and those who were removed from the list had a median of 15 organ offers. The study estimates that overall 10 patients with at least one previous offer of a donor kidney died each day during the study period. The odds of dying on the waiting list after receiving an offer of a kidney varied across the United States. The results suggest declined deceased donor kidney offers appear to be missed opportunities for transplants for some patients. Limitations of the study include a lack of detail for reasons reported by transplant centers for declining organ offers and limited data since 2014 when the criteria for prioritizing patients for certain organs changed.

Authors: Sumit Mohan, M.D., M.P.H., Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, and coauthors

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.10312)

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.

Scientists have found that the air pollution absorbs and disperses sunlight and thereby reduces the amount that reaches the Earth's surface. The latest study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences on Aug 20, 2019 also reports that the smaller the particles, the more harmful the impacts are.

The study highlights findings that have several implications, the most consequential of which is the negative effect of air pollution on renewable energy harvest and the associated economic burden. These findings also increase awareness of how pollution affects air purity and can thereby usher in potential methods to enhance it and thereby increase air quality.

The sun delivers energy to Earth's surface in the form of solar radiation, called surface solar radiation (SSR). The amount of sunlight that reaches Earth's surface fluctuates over time. Cloud cover and aerosols - particulates like dust or ash, kicked up into the air or coughed out of smokestacks - can disperse or scatter sunlight, resulting in less of it actually arriving on Earth.

China is the world's largest producer of photovoltaic (PV) power, the power that is generated from solar panels. At the same time, however, East Asia, especially China, has become one of the most populated and rapidly developing regions in the world over the past several decades. This is because the ever-growing population and human activity have led to a rapid and continued increase in the emission of aerosols and their precursors such as condensation gases. A key precursor gas is sulfuric acid that is produced in the atmosphere by degradation of fossil fuel combustion, volcanoes, and other sources. Other precursor gases originate from degradation of byproducts created by living organisms as well as emissions.

Based on observations and numerical simulations, the study aimed to determine how much air pollution affects SSR under cloud-free skies in Nanjing, China. Previous studies have either focused on determining the effects of air pollution on sunlight from different perspectives - either focusing on differences in effect between different years and seasons, this research specifically focused on teasing apart different amounts of pollution without any other possible obstructions, such as clouds or precipitation.

"To the best of our knowledge, few studies have analyzed the effects of different levels of air pollution on SSR under clear skies," adds Yong Han, Ph D and professor at the school of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China. The comprehensive study has gathered information during all four seasons and under different weather and light conditions.

The researchers report that the ratio of scattered radiation to global radiation increases with the increase in air pollution levels, meaning that less sunlight is actually reaching the Earth's surface. They find that an increased amount in particulate matter prevents the direct incidence of solar radiation to the surface of the Earth and improves the ability of solar radiation in the polluted atmosphere to scatter away. In addition, the variation of scattered radiation is dominated by fine particles, and coarse particles have little effects. When considered in the context of solar power energy, this means that air pollution could potentially reduce the amount of energy that is gained from solar panels as it blocks a considerable amount of sunlight reaching the Earth's surface. This could have consequential implications for future solar power efforts to obtain renewable energy both in China and worldwide.

The next step is to collect long-term data at different observational sites and analyze the data under both clear and cloudy skies, emphasizing the relations between impurities, clouds and radiation. "Our ultimate goal is to understand processes related to aerosol, cloud and radiation, and develop measurable parameters to improve climate and weather prediction models," adds corresponding author Chunsong Lu, PhD and professor at the Key Laboratory for Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, China.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami reports that an Air Force plane is finding Dorian a "little stronger" as of the 8:00am EDT advisory put out today, Aug. 30, 2019.  Data from an Air Force Reserve reconnaissance aircraft indicate that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 110 mph (175 km/h) with higher gusts. That is in keeping with what weather forecasters are predicting for the storm.

On Aug. 29, 2019, NASA's Aqua satellite captured this infrared image with the AIRS instrument which analyzed cloud top temperatures in the storm.  The coldest temperatures AIRS found were in the center of the storm where the strongest thunderstorms are found.  These storms were as cold as or colder than minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 53 degrees Celsius).  NASA research has found that cloud top temperatures that cold indicate strong storms with the potential to generate heavy rainfall.

At 8:00 am EDT (1200 UTC), the NHC reported that "the the center of Hurricane Dorian was located near latitude 24.2 North, longitude 69.4 West. Dorian is moving toward the northwest near 12 mph (19 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue through today. A slower west-northwestward to westward motion is forecast to begin tonight and continue through the weekend. On this track, Dorian should move over the Atlantic well east of the southeastern and central Bahamas today, approach
the northwestern Bahamas Saturday, and move near or over portions of
the northwestern Bahamas on Sunday."

Dorian is expected to strengthen during the next few days, and become a major hurricane later today (Aug. 30). Dorian is likely to remain an extremely dangerous hurricane while it moves near the northwestern Bahamas and approaches the Florida peninsula through the weekend.

Currently hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 25 miles (35 km) from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 105
miles (165 km).  Yesterday the barometric pressure inside the storm was 991 mb.  Today the minimum central pressure just reported by the Air Force reconnaissance plane was 972 mb (28.70 inches).  The lower the barometric pressure in hurricanes, the higher the wind speeds-- and the more dangerous the storm.

Hurricane conditions are possible within the watch area by
Sunday, with tropical storm conditions possible by Saturday
night or Sunday morning.

A life-threatening storm surge will raise water levels
by as much as 10 to 15 feet above normal tide levels in areas of
onshore winds in the northwestern Bahamas. Near the coast,the surge
will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.

Dorian is expected to produce the following rainfall
accumulations this weekend into the middle of next week:

Northwestern Bahamas and coastal sections of the Southeast
United States...6 to 12 inches, isolated 15 inches.
Central Bahamas...1 to 2 inches, isolated 4 inches.

This rainfall may cause life-threatening flash floods.

Swells are likely to begin affecting the east-facing shores
of the Bahamas and the southeastern United States coast during the
next few days. These swells are likely to cause life-threatening
surf and rip current conditions.

Sept. 3, 2019--The American Thoracic Society has published an official clinical guideline on laboratory diagnosis of fungal infections in pulmonary and critical care medicine in the Society's Aug. 30 American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Though less common than bacterial and viral infections, fungal infections have surged in recent decades and present an important health care challenge to patients, particularly those whose immune systems are compromised because of illness or drugs they are taking. The guideline covers the diagnosis of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, invasive candidiasis and the three most common endemic mycoses: blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis and histoplasmosis.

Effective treatment of patients with these infections depends on rapid, accurate diagnosis of the infection and on timely treatment. Delays in diagnosis and treatment can be debilitating, leading to long hospital stays, high medical costs and even, death.

"Our goal was to produce a concise evidence-based clinical practice guideline that will help clinicians use newer laboratory methods in diagnosis of these important infections," said guideline co-chair Andrew H. Limper, MD, Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Associate Dean of Practice Transformation, and the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Professor of Pulmonary Medicine at Mayo Clinic, in Rochester, Minn. "This guideline summarizes the best available evidence on the use of common laboratory tests to diagnose invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, invasive candidiasis, as well as histoplasmosis, blastomycosis and coccidioidomycosis."

The 11-member panel that produced the guideline included experts in pulmonary and critical care, infectious disease and invasive procedures. The group conducted a systematic review of medical studies on diagnosing fungal infections published from 1980 to April 2016. Diagnostic methods for fungal infections include antigen testing in urine, blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; serological testing to detect antibodies to fungal components; and nucleic acid-based assays using polymerase chain reaction approaches.

The panel asked four clinical questions that clinicians face when they care for patients with suspected fungal infections. Using the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) framework, the panel made a series of recommendations based on those questions:

1) Is serum and/or bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) galactomannan (GM) testing sufficiently accurate to guide therapeutic decisions in place of histopathology and/or fungal culture in patients with impaired immunity suspected of having invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA)?

* In patients with severe immune compromise, such as those with hematologic malignancy or recipients of hematologic stem cell or solid organ transplants, who present with unexplained lung infiltrates suspected of IPA, we recommend the use of serum GM testing. (Strong recommendation, high quality evidence)

* In patients, suspected of having invasive fungal diseases, including those with a negative serum GM, but strong risk factors for IPA, or positive serum GM but confounding factors for false positive GM results (e.g., those patients undergoing chemotherapy or at risk for mucositis where cross-reactive epitopes from other fungi or bacteria can penetrate the intestinal mucosa causing positivity of the test), we recommend BAL testing with GM (Strong recommendation, high quality evidence)

2) Should diagnosis of suspected aspergillus infections in severely immunocompromised patients be based on the application of polymerase chain reaction (PCR)?

* In patients with severe immune compromise, such as those with hematologic malignancy or recipients of hematologic stem cell or solid organ transplants, who are suspected of having IPA, we recommend the use of blood or serum Aspergillus PCR testing. (Strong recommendation, high quality evidence)

* In patients with severe immune compromise, such as those with hematologic malignancy or recipients of hematologic stem cell or solid organ transplants, who are suspected of having IPA, we recommend the inclusion of Aspergillus PCR on BAL testing as part of the evaluation. (Strong recommendation, high quality evidence)

* In patients with severe immune compromise, such as those with hematologic malignancy or recipients of hematologic stem cell or solid organ transplants, who are strongly suspected of having IPA, but in whom PCR testing for Aspergillus is negative, we suggest consideration of biopsy and/or additional testing with or without additional PCR or galactomannan testing. (Conditional recommendation, low quality evidence)

3) In critically ill patients with suspected invasive

candidiasis, is the (1?3)-β-D-glucan (BDG) assay alone sufficient for diagnostic decision-making?

* In critically ill patients in whom there is clinical concern for invasive candidiasis, we suggest against reliance solely on results of serum BDG testing alone for diagnostic decision-making. (Conditional recommendation, low quality evidence)

4) Should diagnosis of the common endemic mycoses (i.e., histoplasmosis, blastomycosis, coccidioidomycosis) be based on serology and antigen testing?

* We recommend the use of Histoplasma antigen in urine or serum for rapid diagnosis of suspected disseminated and acute pulmonary histoplasmosis where timely diagnosis and treatment are paramount to outcome. (Strong recommendation, high quality evidence)

* We suggest the use of Histoplasma serologies in immunocompetent patients with suspected pulmonary histoplasmosis. Adding Histoplasma antigen to serological testing might improve the diagnostic yield. (Conditional recommendation, moderate quality evidence)

* In patients with appropriate geographic exposure and illness compatible with infection or pneumonia due to blastomycosis, we suggest using more than one diagnostic test, including direct visualization and culture of sputum BAL or other biopsy material, urine antigen testing, and serum antibody testing. The current evidence cannot support a single best test as being sensitive enough to be ordered in isolation of other testing. The approach should be tailored based on the severity of illness, the clinical context and availability of tests. (Conditional recommendation, moderate quality evidence)

* In patients with suspected blastomycosis, we suggest that serum antibody testing specifically directed against the anti-BAD-1 antigen for blastomycosis be used along with clinical and epidemiological data to establish the diagnosis. (Conditional recommendation, low quality evidence)

* In patients with suspected blastomycosis, particularly in immunocompromised patients, we suggest that urinary antigen testing for blastomycosis be used along with clinical and epidemiological data to establish the diagnosis. (Conditional recommendation, moderate quality evidence)

* In patients with appropriate geographic exposure and illness compatible with infection or pneumonia due to coccidioidomycosis, we suggest using more than one diagnostic test, including direct visualization and culture of sputum, BAL, or other biopsy material, urine and serum antigen testing, and serology (serum antibody testing). The current evidence cannot support a single best test. The approach should be tailored based on the severity of illness, the clinical context and availability of tests. (Conditional recommendation, moderate quality evidence)

* In patients with suspected coccidioidomycosis, particularly in immunocompromised patients, we suggest performing urinary and serum antigen testing to aid in establishing the diagnosis. (Conditional recommendation, moderate quality evidence)

* In patients with suspected community acquired pneumonia from the endemic area, we suggest initial serological testing with close clinical follow up and serial testing. (Conditional recommendation, moderate quality evidence)

Due to the increasing incidence of invasive fungal infections, Dr. Limper said that clinicians must be attentive to the serious complications they can cause in immune compromised and critically ill patients. "As always, application of any guideline information must be integrated into the overall clinical context for an individual patient when confirming the diagnosis of invasive fungal infection," he added.

Leesburg, VA, August 30, 2019--According to an ahead-of-print article published in the December issue of the American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), researchers have validated a first-of-its-kind machine learning-based model to evaluate immunohistochemical (IHC) characteristics in patients with suspected thyroid nodules, achieving "excellent performance" for individualized noninvasive prediction of the presence of cytokeratin 19, galectin 3, and thyroperoxidase based upon CT images.

"When IHC information is hidden on CT images," principal investigator Jiabing Gu explained, "it may be possible to discern the relation between this information and radiomics by use of texture analysis."

To assess whether texture analysis could be utilized to predict IHC characteristics of suspected thyroid nodules, Gu and colleagues from China's University of Jinan enrolled 103 patients (training cohort-to-validation cohort ratio, ? 3:1) with suspected thyroid nodules who had undergone thyroidectomy and IHC analysis from January 2013 to January 2016. All 103 patients--28 men, 75 women; median age, 58 years; range, 33-70 years--underwent CT before surgery, and 3D Slicer v 4.8.1 was used to analyze images of the surgical specimen.

To facilitate test-retest methods, 20 patients were imaged in two sets of CT series within 10-15 minutes, using the same scanner (LightSpeed 16, Philips Healthcare) and protocols, without contrast administration. These images were used only to select reproducible and nonredundant features, not to establish or verify the radiomic model.

The Kruskal-Wallis test (SPSS v 19, IBM) was employed to improve classification performance between texture feature and IHC characteristic. Gu et al. considered characteristics with p

The best performance of the cytokeratin 19 radiomic model yielded accuracy of 84.4% in the training cohort and 80.0% in the validation cohort. Meanwhile, the thyroperoxidase and galectin 3 predictive models evidenced accuracies of 81.4% and 82.5% in the training cohort and 84.2% and 85.0% in the validation cohort, respectively.

Noting that cytokeratin 19 and galectin 3 levels are high in papillary carcinoma, Gu maintained that these models can help radiologists and oncologists to identify papillary thyroid cancers, "which is beneficial for diagnosing papillary thyroid cancers earlier and choosing treatment options in a timely manner."

Ultimately, asserted Gu, "this model may be used to identify benign and malignant thyroid nodules."

Boulder, Colo., USA: Arctic sea-ice has decreased rapidly during the last decades in concert with substantial global surface warming. Both have happened much faster than predicted by climate models, and observed Arctic warming is much stronger than the global average. Projections suggest that Arctic summer sea-ice may virtually disappear within the course of the next fifty or even thirty years.

Although Arctic-wide warming during the 20th century is well documented, little is known about the response of sea-ice to abrupt warming and it is unclear when the sea-ice decline started. Data coverage in this region is highly restricted, with observation-based satellite data only available since the 1970s, too short to accurately calibrate climate models.

Limited observational records therefore hamper the assessment of long-term changes in sea-ice, leading to large uncertainties in predictions of its future evolution under global warming. In the absence of instrumental data, natural archives of environmental changes, so-called proxies can be used to extend climate data further back in time.

In this study published in Geology, Steffen Hetzinger and colleagues present the first annually resolved 200-year record of past sea-ice variability from High Arctic Svalbard (79.9°N) using a newly developed in situ proxy from long-lived encrusting coralline algae. Annual growth and Mg/Ca ratios in this photosynthesizing benthic marine plant are strongly dependent on light availability on the shallow seafloor, recording the duration of seasonal sea-ice cover.

This proxy opens up a new possibility to study past sea-ice variability, and unlike previously available reconstructions from mainly land-based archives, it provides an annually resolved direct in situ proxy from the surface ocean.

Due to the limited availability of instrumental data, current research largely focuses on sea-ice decline since the late 20th century. The results of this study provide evidence for an earlier start of Arctic sea-ice decline at the beginning of the 20th century, not captured by shorter observational records and land-based reconstructions.

The algae also show that lowest sea-ice values within the past 200 years occurred from the 1980s to the early 2000s. These results may help reduce the large uncertainties that exist among ocean model simulations, providing a new approach for the detection and verification of long-term Arctic sea-ice changes.

Persistent abnormally hot weather can cause negative impacts on human health, agriculture, and natural environments. A heat wave -- a spell of hot days with the mercury rising much higher than the average temperature -- has been reported more frequently in Europe and Northeast Asia in recent years.

"Internal atmosphere-land interactions in Eurasia are believed to be an important factor in triggering abnormal summer temperatures. However, the exact reasons for such interactions causing heat waves remain largely unclear," says Associate Professor Tomonori Sato of the research team.

In the present study published in Scientific Reports, Tomonori Sato and Tetsu Nakamura of Hokkaido University examined a large dataset derived from the "database for Policy Decision making for Future climate change" (d4PDF). The database comprises data spanning over a 60-year period (1951-2010) which incorporates observed sea surface temperature, sea ice, and natural and anthropogenic forcing.

The researchers analyzed 6,000 patterns in the spatial distribution of summer temperatures in Eurasia, and succeeded in dividing past summer temperature variations into two groups--one attributable to global warming and the other attributable to natural changes. The former exhibited the rising temperatures in Eurasia since around 1990, while the latter showed the spatial distribution of low and high temperatures that correspond to the meandering of the westerlies. The distribution shows a wave train-like structure - which demonstrates that when some regions experienced abnormally high temperatures, the surrounding areas were hit by abnormally low temperatures.

The researchers then discovered that when Western Russia had a deeper-than-usual snow cover in late winter and spring, the wave train-like distribution of temperatures appeared. When deeper snow accumulation occurs, more moisture retains in the soil after snowmelt. The soil moisture then prevents the summer temperature from rising, which is a likely cause for making the westerlies meander, thus causing the surrounding regions to experience high temperatures.

For the past several years, University of Illinois researcher Kyle Smith has proven his growing expertise in the field of water desalination, with a range of research results that could address the immediate need to combat diminishing clean water sources around the world.

Now, with a new publication and new research project funded by the National Science Foundation, he continues to build on his highly praised work to develop new methods of deionizing saltwater.

The paper, "Effect of Conductive Additives on the Transport Properties of Porous Flow-Through Electrodes with Insulative Particles and their Optimization for Faradaic Deionization," published this week in Water Research, demonstrated promising results for energy-efficient desalination of alternative water resources. Smith's newest work, spear-headed by his doctoral student Erik Reale, involves deionization devices that can reversibly store and release cations using intercalation materials, a class of materials commonly used for rechargeable batteries. This work in particular addresses the challenge of cycling intercalation materials with fast rates of electron, ion, and fluid transport, features that are difficult to achieve simultaneously in a single system.

His team fabricated optimized electrodes containing insulative Prussian Blue analogue particles, and used them in an experimental cation intercalation desalination (CID) cell with symmetric electrodes. They witnessed results of a nearly 10-fold increase in the rate of salt removal at similar energy consumption levels to past CID demonstrations.

"High salt removal rates are needed in electrochemical water treatment devices because smaller units can be constructed to achieve the same total production of treated water if salt can be removed faster. Following that line of thinking, the capital cost to construct a system will be lower for a fixed water productivity level," said Smith.

In his new three-year NSF-funded research project, "Enabling Minimal Brine Discharge Desalination Using Intercalation Reactions," Smith will be using battery materials to overcome the limitation in the volume of waste brine that is produced during water desalination using reverse osmosis (RO). Brine disposal has major environmental sustainability issues, including increased earthquakes when injected into the earth and danger to aquatic ecosystems when disposed of in bodies of water. While RO brine generation is dictated by the pressure driving force used (and thus imposes mechanical limitations), Smith plans to use electric fields to concentrate salt ions, which, he proposes, could concentrate salts to levels near saturation in solution.

The University of Illinois previously reported, in 2016, that Smith had discovered the technology that charges batteries for electronic devices could provide fresh water from salty seas. He developed a novel device - a saltwater-filled battery with electricity running through it - that deionized water using the least amount of energy possible at the time. This work earned a spot on the list of top 10 most-read articles from the Journal of the Electrochemical Society in 2016.

Just a year later, in 2017, Smith and his team took saltwater desalination a step further, focusing on new materials to improve the economic viability and energy efficiency of the process in collaboration with Wetsus, the European Centre of Excellence for Water Technology. They created a battery-like device that uses electrodes made from a material that could remove not only sodium ions but also potassium, calcium, magnesium, and others--an important technological improvement because saltwater and brackish waters often contain a mix of other salts like potassium, calcium, and manganese chloride. This work was published in the journal Electrochimica Acta.

The present experimental work also follows work published by Smith and his students using computational modeling of electrochemical transport to guide the design of battery-based desalination cells. Their group has also recently used quantum mechanical modeling, combined with experiments and thermodynamic analysis, to understand how the battery materials used in their desalination cells absorb sodium, as well as magnesium and calcium, at the atomic scale.

More recently, Smith won the 2018 ISE-Elsevier Prize for Applied Electrochemistry--a recognition based entirely on his mathematical modeling of battery-based desalination devices, lithium-ion batteries, and flow batteries.

Researchers from Aarhus University Hospital and Aarhus University in Denmark in collaboration with researchers from Colorado in the United States have found a new way to treat the inflammation involved in chronic diseases such as psoriasis, asthma and HIV. A group of transmitter substances (cytokines) in the immune system, the so-called IL-1 family, has been shown to play an important role in many of these diseases by regulating the body's immune responses.

Professor Charles A. Dinarello from University of Colorado Denver is also an honorary doctor at Aarhus University. He is an expert in regulation and transmission of these cytokines. He is primarily known for discovering the important cytokine IL-1(-β), which plays an important role in countless diseases. In collaboration with Charles Dinarello, the Danish researchers have investigated a more efficient way of reducing the effect of the IL-1 family and in this way improve treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases.

Previous research has often focused on blocking a single cytokine or signaling pathway at a time. However, many diseases and sequela are driven by more than one cytokine. This has caused researchers to wonder if it could be possible to block more important signaling pathways of the IL-1 family at the same time, and in this way make it possible to develop better treatments. The researchers try to find a broader anti-inflammatory treatment impacting several important cytokines at the same time, but also trying to avoid that this causes unintended side-effects.

In this study, the researchers have investigated if a receptor (IL-1R3), which is not just involved in the signaling of one but six different inflammatory cytokines in the IL-1 family, could be a possible target in the treatment of chronic inflammatory disease. Using an antibody to block the effect of IL-1R3, it was possible for the researchers to investigate the effects in both studies on cells and mice.

In this way, researchers could study some of the consequences of the blocking of this receptor on the immune system. At the same time, the researchers specifically studied the effect of blocking IL-1R3 in mice with either gout, acute allergic inflammation (asthma) or psoriasis.

- The experiments showed that it was possible to effectively block the receptor and reduce manifestation of diseases, which underlines the potentials in our new approach, says MD and PhD Jesper Falkesgaard Højen.

- Even though new questions arise as a consequences of these results, we have managed to describe a new and effective approach to block IL-1 family driven inflammation, and in this way we have possibly contributed with a new direction to study and treat chronic inflammatory conditions driven by the IL-1 family.

Health warnings printed on individual cigarettes could play a key role in reducing smoking, according to new research from the University of Stirling.

Experts from Stirling's Institute of Social Marketing examined smokers' perceptions of the warning 'Smoking kills' on individual cigarettes - as opposed to the message only appearing on packs.

The team, led by Dr Crawford Moodie, found that smokers felt the innovative approach has the potential to discourage smoking among young people, those starting to smoke, and non-smokers.

Participants felt that a warning on each cigarette would prolong the health message, as it would be visible when taken from a pack, lit, left in an ashtray, and with each draw, thus making avoidant behaviour more difficult.

The visibility of the warning to others was perceived as off-putting for some because it was associated with a negative image. Within several female groups, the warnings were viewed as depressing, worrying and frightening; with it suggested that people would not feel good smoking cigarettes displaying a warning.

The possibility of warnings on cigarettes is included in the Scottish Government's tobacco-control action plan, 'Raising Scotland's Tobacco-free Generation'. It suggests changes to "colour, composition and/or warning messages on each stick".

The Canadian Government have also held a consultation on the proposals and published their findings earlier this month [August 2019].

The Stirling study canvassed the opinion of 120 smokers, aged 16 and over, in 20 focus groups held in Edinburgh and Glasgow in 2015. Within every group, participants felt that warnings on individual cigarettes would potentially have an impact on themselves or others.

"The consensus was that individual cigarettes emblazoned with warnings would be off-putting for young people, those starting to smoke, and non-smokers," Dr Moodie said. "This study suggests that the introduction of such warnings could impact the decision-making of these groups. It shows that this approach is a viable policy option and one which would - for the first time - extend health messaging to the consumption experience."

The research - funded by Cancer Research UK - also involved: Dr Rachel O'Donnell, Joy Fleming, Dr Richard Purves and Jennifer McKell (all of the ISM at Stirling), and Fiona Dobbie, of the Usher Institute of Population Health at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK's prevention expert, said: "Too many young people are still taking up smoking. Government anti-smoking campaigns and tax rises on cigarettes remain the most effective methods to stop young people starting smoking, but we need to continue to explore innovative ways to deter them from using cigarettes to ensure that youth smoking rates continue to drop.

"This study shows that tactics like making the cigarettes themselves unappealing could be an effective way of doing this."