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  • Getting under your skin for better health

    Getting under your skin for better health

    Newswise — The next frontier of continuous health monitoring could be skin deep.

    Biomedical engineers at the University of Cincinnati say interstitial fluid, the watery fluid found between and around cells, tissues or organs in the body, could provide an excellent medium for early disease diagnosis or long-term health monitoring.

    In a paper published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, they outlined the potential advantages and technological challenges of using interstitial fluid.

    “Why we see it as a valuable diagnostic fluid is continuous access. With blood, you can’t easily take continuous readings,” said UC doctoral graduate Mark Friedel, co-lead author of the study.

    “Can you imagine going about your day with a needle stuck in your vein all day? So we need other tools.”

    Researchers are looking for alternatives to monitor a person’s health and wellness. Sweat is a good medium for measuring certain things like stress or anxiety because it contains hormones such as cortisol. But the body is stingy with other chemicals that are not so easily released in sweat, Friedel said.

    “Sweat glands are big filters that don’t allow everything to pass through,” he said. “So more than half of the things we want to monitor have no access to sweat at all.”

    Blood is the gold standard for health monitoring. But people also have liters of interstitial fluid that make up as much as 15% of their body weight.

    “The key feature of blood that makes it so advantageous is we understand blood really well,” Friedel said. “If you have something in your blood, we know what will happen to your heart or your liver,” he said.

    Researchers said interstitial fluid contains many of the same chemicals in the same proportions as blood, offering a potential alternative to costly and time-consuming lab work.

    The study outlined the various ways doctors can sample interstitial fluid, from applying suction to the skin to deploying microdialysis.

    “As biomedical engineers, one of our greatest goals is to help people better manage their health by making diagnostics more accessible,” said co-lead author Ian Thompson at Stanford University.

    “A big barrier to this accessibility is that most current diagnostics rely on blood sampling, which can be painful and requires trained personnel to perform. Thus, in recent years there has been growing interest in using interstitial fluid just under the skin as a diagnostic sample that is more accessible and less painful to extract.”

    In UC College of Engineering and Applied Science professor Jason Heikenfeld’s Novel Devices Lab, students are developing sensors to measure hormones and other chemicals in interstitial fluid. They use microneedles less than 1 millimeter in length that pierce the skin through a tiny patch.

    “If you had a splinter, it probably went deeper into your skin than our microneedles,” Friedel said. “They’re generally painless. I don’t feel it most of the time. The most uncomfortable part is removing the tape that holds the device down.”

    But even if you don’t know it’s there, your body does, Friedel said. And this minute reaction can affect the test results.

    “There’s a Schrödinger’s observer effect with interstitial fluid. Any time you try to collect and measure it, you inherently change the fluid itself,” Friedel said. “If you stick a needle in your skin, your body becomes inflamed and then your [sample] levels change. For continuous biomonitoring, we want to know those concentrations as they are when you’re not being poked with a tiny needle.

    “That’s why it’s such a challenging fluid that hasn’t been used outside of diabetes monitoring.”

    Still, researchers say, interstitial fluid holds enormous promise for monitoring health through wearable technology. This could help doctors track the efficacy of drugs to ensure proper dosage or provide early diagnosis of illness by monitoring the immune system.

    But Friedel said there is still a lot to learn.

    “We’re trying to unlock the box and read the instructions inside to understand what’s in interstitial fluid and what the potentials are for exploiting it,” he said.

    Friedel and Thompson worked with co-author Heikenfeld, UC’s James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy, the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico and Southeast Missouri State University.

    The study was funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the U.S. Office of Naval Research.

    University of Cincinnati

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  • Forests face fierce threats from multiple industries, not just agricultural expansion

    Forests face fierce threats from multiple industries, not just agricultural expansion

    Newswise — Intact forests are important climate regulators and harbors of biodiversity, but they are rapidly disappearing. Agriculture is commonly considered to be the major culprit behind forest loss, but the authors of a new paper publishing on January 20 in the journal One Earth show that agriculture isn’t solely to blame. For forest loss associated with the 2014 world economy, over 60% was related to final consumption of non-agricultural products, such as minerals, metals and wood-related goods, and the authors argue that we must consider international trade markets when designing conservation strategies.

    “Regional land use change is no longer simply driven by local demand; it is also indirectly influenced by international markets and the surging consumption of land-based products,” say the authors, led by Bin Chen, a postdoctoral fellow at Fudan University. “Countries with forest conservation goals can import finished land-based products via global supply chains, displacing land-use pressure and related eco-environmental impacts outside their own territory borders.”

    The researchers used multi-source geographic information data and economic modeling to evaluate the direct and indirect causes of intact forest landscape loss. Intact forests support more diverse species, are more resilient to natural disturbances such as wildfires, and in Africa and South America, can store more than three times the amount of carbon per hectare compared to disturbed or managed forests.

    Previous studies have focused on deforestation—the complete removal of tree cover—but focusing on intact forests instead allowed the authors to shine a spotlight on the insidious roles played by degradation and fragmentation.

     “Even the removal of narrow tracts of forests can affect overall forest structure and composition,” say the authors. “Considering the exceptional conservation value of intact forest landscapes in terms of stabilizing terrestrial carbon stocks and harboring biodiversity, intact forest landscapes loss displacement can also reflect potential indirect driving forces behind carbon emissions and biodiversity loss.”

    “It is widely thought that beef production drives deforestation in the Amazon, but it is hard for consumers to realize that the production of highly processed equipment may involve timber and metals produced at the expense of intact forest and that services provided by tertiary sectors may be supported by electricity generated from oil and gas associated with this loss” the authors say. “The more dispersed nature of intact forest loss drivers and their indirect links to individual final consumers call for stronger government engagement and supply-chain interventions.”

    Cell Press

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  • Incorporation of water molecules into layered materials impacts ion storage capability

    Incorporation of water molecules into layered materials impacts ion storage capability

    Newswise — Investigating the interplay between the structure of water molecules that have been incorporated into layered materials such as clays and the configuration of ions in such materials has long proved a great experimental challenge. But researchers have now used a technique elsewhere commonly used to measure extremely tiny masses and molecular interactions at the nano level to observe these interactions for the first time.

    Their research was published in Nature Communications on Oct. 28, 2022.

    Many materials take a layered form at the microscopic or nano-scale. When dry, clays for example resemble a series of sheets stacked upon each other. When such layered materials encounter water however, that water can be confined and integrated into the gaps or holes—or, more accurately, the ‘pores’—between layers.

    Such ‘hydration’ can also occur when water molecules or their constituent elements, notably a hydroxide ion (a negatively charged ion combining a single oxygen and single hydrogen atom) are integrated into the crystalline structure of the material. This type of material, a ‘hydrate’, is not necessarily ‘wet’ even though water is now part of it. Hydration can also substantially change the original material’s structure and properties.

    In this ‘nanoconfinement’, the hydration structures—how water molecules or their constituent elements arrange themselves—determine the ability of the original material to store ions (positively or negatively charged atoms or groups of atoms).

    This storage of water or charge means that such layered materials, from conventional clays to layered metal oxides—and, crucially, their interactions with water—have widespread applications, from water purification to energy storage.

    However, studying the interplay between this hydration structure and the configuration of ions in the ion storage mechanism of such layered materials has proven to be a great challenge. And efforts at analyzing how these hydration structures change over the course of any movement of these ions (‘ion transport’) are even more difficult.

    Recent research has shown that such water structures and interactions with the layered materials play an important role in giving the latter their high ion-storage capacities, all of which in turn depends upon how flexible the layers that host the water are. In the space between layers, any pores that are not filled with ions get filled with water molecules instead, helping to stabilize the layered structure.

    “Put another way, the water structures are sensitive to how the interlayer ions are structured,” said Katsuya Teshima, corresponding author of the study and a materials chemist with the Research Initiative for Supra-Materials at Shinshu University. “And while this ion configuration in many different crystal structures controls how many ions can be stored, such configurations until now had rarely been systematically investigated.”

    So Teshima’s group looked to ‘quartz crystal microbalance with energy dissipation monitoring’ (QCM-D) to assist with their theoretical calculations. QCM-D is essentially an instrument that works like a balance scale that can measure extremely tiny masses and molecular interactions at the nano level. The technique can also measure tiny changes in energy loss.

    The researchers used QCM-D to demonstrate for the first time that the change in the structure of water molecules confined in the nano-space of layered materials can be experimentally observed.

    They did this by measuring the “hardness” of the materials. They investigated the layered double hydroxides (LDHs) of a class of negatively charged clay. They found that the hydration structures were associated with the hardening of the LDHs when any ion exchange reaction happens (a swapping of one kind of ion with a different type of ion but with the same change).

    “In other words, any change in ion interaction originates with the change in the hydration structure that occurs when ions are incorporated into the nano-space,” added Tomohito Sudare, a collaborator on the study now with the University of Tokyo.

    In addition, the researchers found that the hydration structure is highly dependent on the charge density (the amount of charge per unit of volume) of the layered material. This in turn is largely what governs the ion storage capacity.

    The researchers now hope to apply these measurement methods together with the knowledge of the hydration structure of ions to devise new techniques for improving the ion-storage capability of layered materials, potentially opening new avenues for ion separation and sustainable energy storage.

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    About Shinshu University:

    Shinshu University is a national university founded in 1949 located nestling under the Japanese Alps in Nagano known for its stunning natural landscapes. Our motto, “Powered by Nature – strengthening our network with society and applying nature to create innovative solutions for a better tomorrow” reflects the mission of fostering promising creative professionals and deepening the collaborative relationship with local communities, which leads up to our contribution to regional development by innovation in various fields. We’re working on providing solutions for building sustainable society through interdisciplinary research fields: material science (carbon, fiber and composites), biomedical science (for intractable diseases and preventive medicine) and mountain science, and aiming to boost research and innovation capability through collaborative projects with distinguished researchers from the world. For more information visit our website or follow us on Twitter @ShinshuUni for our latest news.

    Shinshu University

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  • An exploration of calibrating activity-based mobility demand of travelers with bounded rationality

    An exploration of calibrating activity-based mobility demand of travelers with bounded rationality

    Newswise — Parameter calibration of the traffic assignment models is vital to travel demand analysis and management. As an extension of the conventional traffic assignment, boundedly rational activity-travel assignment (BR-ATA) combines activity-based modeling and traffic assignment endogenously and can capture the interdependencies between high dimensional choice facets along the activity-travel patterns. The inclusion of multiple episodes of activity participation and bounded rationality behavior enlarges the choice space and poses a challenge for calibrating the BR-ATA models. Till now, no formulation and solution approach for the parameter calibration of BR-ATA has hitherto been developed. To solve this problem, Dong Wang and Feixiong Liao formulated BR-ATA calibration as an optimization problem and used a simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation method to solve it.

    They published their study on January 20, 2023, in Communications in Transportation Research (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.commtr.2023.100092).

    “In virtue of the multi-state supernetwork, we formulate the BR-ATA calibration as an optimization problem and analyze the influence of the two additional components on the calibration problem. Considering the temporal dimension, we also propose a dynamic formulation of the BR-ATA calibration problem. The simultaneous perturbation stochastic approximation algorithm is adopted to solve the proposed calibration problems. Numerical examples are presented to calibrate the activity-based travel demand for illustrations.”, says Dr. Feixiong Liao, a transportation scientist from the Urban Planning and Transportation Group at Eindhoven University of Technology (the Netherlands).

    The BR parameter and activity participation affect the calibrations

    The running times fall within [0.30, 0.40] hours when the BR parameter takes different values. Note that the ATA calibration problem needs more than 2 hours to reach the stopping condition. Regarding the influence of the number of activities, the running time decrease with the increase in the number of activities.

    “We can conclude that the running times with the BR-related parameter falling within [0.05, 0.2] are relatively stable and shorter than that with a smaller parameter (i.e., 0.01 or ATA calibration problem). Besides, fewer activities always result in flows being concentrated in a specific period of time and link. The link congestion leads to more ATPs to equilibrate the OD demands.” Dong Wang, an associate professor at Qingdao University (China), explains.

    Temporal and spatial dimension extensions to the BR-ATA calibration problem

    The SPSA takes 8.2 hours to reach the stopping condition for the BR-ATA calibration problem in the Sioux Falls network and the calibrated demands approximate a priori values. Taking one home location for example, the study observes that the calibrated demand has a relative error of 0.01. For the BR-DATA calibration problem in the Sioux Falls network, the running time is 0.92 hours and the number of iterations is 647. All the calibrated demands approach a priori values. To further illustrate scalability in a larger network, the calibration of the BR-DATA model was carried out with the Eastern Massachusetts network. The SPSA takes more than 10 hours to complete 1000 iterations and the corresponding RMSN (a measurement of error) is as small as  0.06.

    “The results demonstrate that the SPSA algorithm is feasible for the BR-ATA and BR-DATA calibration problems in sizable networks.”, Feixiong Liao says. “Nevertheless, a more effective algorithm is needed for large-scale real-world applications”, he adds.

    The above research is published in Communications in Transportation Research (COMMTR), which is a fully open access journal co-published by Tsinghua University Press and Elsevier. COMMTR publishes peer-reviewed high-quality research representing important advances of significance to emerging transport systems. COMMTR is also among the first transportation journals to make the Replication Package mandatory to facilitate researchers, practitioners, and the general public in understanding and advancing existing knowledge. At its discretion, Tsinghua University Press will pay the open access fee for all published papers from 2021 to 2025.

     

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    About Communications in Transportation Research

    Communications in Transportation Research publishes peer-reviewed high-quality research representing important advances of significance to emerging transport systems. The mission is to provide fair, fast, and expert peer review to authors and insightful theories, impactful advances, and interesting discoveries to readers. We welcome submissions of significant and general topics, of inter-disciplinary nature (transport, civil, control, artificial intelligence, social science, psychological science, medical services, etc.), of complex and inter-related system of systems, of strong evidence of data strength, of visionary analysis and forecasts towards the way forward, and of potentially implementable and utilizable policies/practices. Communications in Transportation Research is indexed in Scopus ten months after its launch.

    Communications in Transportation Research is a fully open access journal. It is co-published by Tsinghua University Press and Elsevier, and co-sponsored by the State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and Energy (Tsinghua University) and China Intelligent Transportation Systems Association (ITS China). At its discretion, Tsinghua University Press will pay the open access fee for all published papers from 2021 to 2025.

     

    About Tsinghua University Press

    Established in 1980, belonging to Tsinghua University, Tsinghua University Press (TUP) is a leading comprehensive higher education and professional publisher in China. Committed to building a top-level global cultural brand, after 41 years of development, TUP has established an outstanding managerial system and enterprise structure, and delivered multimedia and multi-dimensional publications covering books, audio, video, electronic products, journals and digital publications. In addition, TUP actively carries out its strategic transformation from educational publishing to content development and service for teaching & learning and was named First-class National Publisher for achieving remarkable results.

    Tsinghua University Press

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  • American Society of Nephrology Statement on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Draft Research Plan on Screening for Kidney Diseases

    American Society of Nephrology Statement on U.S. Preventive Services Task Force Draft Research Plan on Screening for Kidney Diseases

    Newswise — Washington, DC (January 20, 2023) —The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) is encouraged by the recent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) announcement to solicit comment on USPSTF’s draft research plan on screening for kidney diseases. This development follows more than a decade of advocacy in support of more kidney health screening by ASN and other stakeholders dedicated to intervening earlier to slow or stop the progression of kidney diseases.

    More than 37 million Americans suffer from kidney diseases that impact virtually every aspect of their lives as well as their families and communities. Kidney diseases are the ninth leading cause of death in the United States, yet 90% of Americans with kidney diseases are unaware that they are affected. Prevention and early detection are key to preventing kidney failure and achieving kidney health.

    People with a family history of kidney diseases and people with diabetes, obesity, or other health issues, are at a higher risk of kidney diseases. Older adults, people with lower incomes, and people who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native/Indigenous American, Native Alaskan, Asian, and Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander are also most at risk for kidney diseases and kidney failure. Dialysis, the most common therapy for those with kidney failure, has a 5-year mortality rate worse than nearly all forms of cancer and requires billions of dollars annually to manage and treat. The recent approval of numerous therapies that successfully slow or stop the progression of kidney diseases mean it is more important than ever to screen Americans who are at-risk so they can access these effective, novel drugs as soon as possible.

    “Early screening to drive faster more comprehensive intervention are critical components of a holistic prevention strategy for kidney diseases,” said ASN President Michelle A. Josephson, MD, FASN. “We fully support USPSTF and their efforts to advance the research agenda on this critical public health priority.” Dr. Josephson added, “The entire kidney community has contributed to this decades-long effort and ASN is committed to continuing our work with other advocates, including the Coalition 4 Kidney Health, and the USPSTF to prioritize screening for kidney diseases as USPSTF finalizes its draft research plan.”

    For more information, please visit https://www.asn-online.org/policy/lac.aspx?ID=36

     

    About ASN

    Since 1966, ASN has been leading the fight to prevent, treat, and cure kidney diseases throughout the world by educating health professionals and scientists, advancing research and innovation, communicating new knowledge and advocating for the highest quality care for patients. ASN has more than 20,000 members representing 132 countries. For more information, visit www.asn-online.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

     

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    American Society of Nephrology (ASN)

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  • Overdose deaths involving buprenorphine did not proportionally increase with new flexibilities in prescribing

    Overdose deaths involving buprenorphine did not proportionally increase with new flexibilities in prescribing

    Newswise — The proportion of opioid overdose deaths involving buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder, did not increase in the months after prescribing flexibilities were put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study. These data provide evidence that may help to inform buprenorphine prescribing policies. Published today in JAMA Network Open, this study was a collaborative effort between researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

    These data are consistent with a recent study reporting that COVID-era expansion of methadone access for the treatment of opioid use disorder was not associated with an increase in methadone-involved overdose deaths.

    In 2021, nearly 107,000 people died of a drug overdose, with 75% of those deaths involving an opioid. The overall rise in overdose deaths is largely attributable to the proliferation in the drug supply of illicit fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid. Though the benefits of providing medication for opioid use disorder are well-known, only 22% of people with opioid use disorder receive medications. Buprenorphine, one of these medications, helps reduce opioid misuse, decrease risk for injection-related infectious diseases, and decrease risk for fatal and non-fatal overdoses.

    “Research has shown beyond a doubt that medications for opioid use disorder are overwhelmingly beneficial and can be lifesaving, yet they continue to be vastly underused,” said NIDA Director and senior author, Nora Volkow, M.D. “Expanding more equitable access to these medications for people with substance use disorders is a critical part of our nation’s response to the overdose crisis. The findings from this study strengthen existing evidence suggesting that greater flexibility in prescribing may be one safe method for working toward this goal.”

    While the recently signed Fiscal Year 2023 omnibus appropriations bill amended the Controlled Substances Act to eliminate the requirement that clinicians obtain a specific waiver to prescribe buprenorphine to treat opioid use disorder, buprenorphine remains a Schedule III controlled substance with restrictions on prescribing. During the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States government implemented prescribing flexibilities to facilitate buprenorphine access for patients with opioid use disorder. These updated policies allowed clinicians to remotely prescribe buprenorphine to new patients without conducting in-person examinations, expanded payment for telehealth services, and provided flexibility on accepted communication technologies to deliver clinical care for people with substance use disorders via telehealth. 

    To investigate the impact of these policy changes, researchers used data from the CDC’s State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS) to assess overdose deaths from July 2019 to June 2021 in 46 states and the District of Columbia. SUDORS combines data from death certificates, medical examiner and coroner reports, and postmortem toxicology testing.

    Researchers found that buprenorphine was involved in a very small proportion of drug overdose deaths between July 2019 and June 2021. During this study period, there were 1,955 buprenorphine-involved overdose deaths, which represented 2.2% of the 89,111 total overdose deaths and 2.6% of the 74,474 opioid-involved overdose deaths recorded in the SUDORS dataset. Between April 2020 and June 2021, when buprenorphine prescribing regulations were relaxed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers found that while monthly opioid-involved overdose deaths increased overall, the proportion of those deaths involving buprenorphine did not increase.

    Additionally, the study found that 92.7% of buprenorphine-involved overdose deaths also involved at least one other drug, compared to 67.2% of deaths involving an opioid other than buprenorphine. Specifically, compared with other opioid-involved overdose deaths, buprenorphine-involved overdose deaths were more likely to also involve prescription medications such as benzodiazepines (36.9% vs. 14.5%), antidepressants (13.9% vs. 5.0%), and anticonvulsants (18.6% vs. 5.4%). Buprenorphine-involved overdose deaths were less likely to also involve illicitly manufactured fentanyls (50.2%) compared to other opioid-involved overdose deaths (85.3%).

    “These findings help us better understand the circumstances of overdose deaths involving buprenorphine, which is crucial in our ability to inform policy, ensure safety, and improve clinical outcomes for people with substance use disorders,” said Lauren Tanz, Sc.D., an epidemiologist at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and lead author on the study. “It is important to note the presence of other drugs in overdose deaths involving buprenorphine. The complex nature of substance use disorders and polysubstance use requires specific strategies to address it.”

    Data also showed that non-Hispanic white people represented a higher proportion of the deaths involving buprenorphine (86.1%), compared to deaths related to other opioids (69.4%). In contrast, buprenorphine-involved overdose deaths included fewer Black, non-Hispanic people (5.7%), and Hispanic people (5.5%) compared with other opioid-involved overdose deaths (18.8% and 9.4%, respectively), which the authors note might be related to inequitable access to treatment.

    Regardless of the drugs involved, the investigators found that most people who died of an overdose involving any opioid, including buprenorphine, had no evidence of current treatment for substance use disorders. In addition, most deaths occurred without another person being present, a known risk factor for fatal overdose.

    For more information on substance and mental health treatment programs in your area, call the free and confidential National Helpline 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit www.FindTreatment.gov. 

    Reference: LJ Tanz, et al. Trends and Characteristics of Buprenorphine-Involved Overdose Deaths Prior to and During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Network Open. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.51856 (2023).

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    About the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit www.nida.nih.gov.

    About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

    About substance use disorders: Substance use disorders are chronic, treatable conditions from which people can recover. In 2020, over 40 million people in the United States had at least one substance use disorder. Substance use disorders are defined in part by continued use of substances despite negative consequences. They are also relapsing conditions, in which periods of abstinence (not using substances) can be followed by a return to use. Stigma can make individuals with substance use disorders less likely to seek treatment. Using preferred language can help accurately report on substance use and addiction. View NIDA’s online guide.

    NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

    NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

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  • Rest isn’t best: Getting kids back to school sooner after a concussion can mean a faster recovery

    Rest isn’t best: Getting kids back to school sooner after a concussion can mean a faster recovery

    Newswise — WASHINGTON, D.C. – (Jan. 20, 2023) Contrary to popular belief, rest may not always be the best cure after a concussion, new study published in JAMA Network Open finds. In fact, an early return to school may be associated with a lower symptom burden after suffering a concussion and, ultimately, faster recovery.

    “We know that absence from school can be detrimental to youth in many ways and for many reasons,” says Christopher Vaughan, Psy.D., neuropsychologist at Children’s National Hospital and the study’s lead author. “The results of this study found that, in general, an earlier return to school after a concussion was associated with better outcomes. This helps us feel reassured that returning to some normal activities after a concussion – like going to school – is ultimately beneficial.”  

    In this cohort study, data from over 1,600 youth aged 5 to 18 were collected across nine pediatric emergency departments in Canada. Because of the large sample size, many factors associated with greater symptom burden and prolonged recovery were first accounted for through the complex statistical approach used to examine the data. The authors found that an early return to school was associated with a lower symptom burden 14 days post-injury in the 8 to 12 and 13 to 18-year-old age groups.

    “Clinicians can now confidently inform families that missing at least some school after a concussion is common, often between 2 and 5 days, with older kids typically missing more school,” Dr. Vaughan says. “But the earlier a child can return to school with good symptom management strategies and with appropriate academic supports, the better that we think that their recovery will be.”

    The findings suggest that there could be a mechanism of therapeutic benefit to the early return to school. This could be due to:

    • Socialization (or avoiding the deleterious effects of isolation).
    • Reduced stress from not missing too much school.
    • Maintaining or returning to a normal sleep/wake schedule.
    • Returning to light-to-moderate physical activity sooner (also consistent with previous literature).

    Children’s National has been a leader in clinical services and research for youth with concussion, most notably through its Safe Concussion Outcome Recovery & Education (SCORE) Program. Given the multitude of other factors that can be expected to influence when a child returns to school after a concussion – including injury severity, specific symptoms, and pre-injury factors – a large sample size and complex statistical analytic approach was required. Future randomized clinical trials and other research can help determine the best timing for a student to return to school after suffering a concussion.

     

     

    About Children’s National Hospital

    Children’s National Hospital, based in Washington, D.C., was established in 1870 to help every child grow up stronger. Today, it is the No. 5 children’s hospital in the nation. It is ranked No. 1 for newborn care for the sixth straight year and ranked in all specialties evaluated by U.S. News & World Report. Children’s National is transforming pediatric medicine for all children. The Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus opened in 2021, a first-of-its-kind pediatric hub dedicated to developing new and better ways to care for kids. Children’s National has been designated three times in a row as a Magnet® hospital, demonstrating the highest standards of nursing and patient care delivery. This pediatric academic health system offers expert care through a convenient, community-based primary care network and specialty care locations in the D.C. metropolitan area, including Maryland and Virginia. Children’s National is home to the Children’s National Research Institute and Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. It is recognized for its expertise and innovation in pediatric care and as a strong voice for children through advocacy at the local, regional and national levels. As a non-profit, Children’s National Hospital relies on generous donors to help ensure that every child receives the care they need.

     

    For more information, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn.

    Children’s National Hospital

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  • Female and male hearts respond differently to stress hormone

    Female and male hearts respond differently to stress hormone

    Newswise — (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) A new study published today (Jan. 20) in Science Advances shows female and male hearts respond differently to the stress hormone noradrenaline. The study in mice may have implications for human heart disorders like arrhythmias and heart failure and how different sexes respond to medications.

    The team built a new type of fluorescence imaging system that allows them to use light to see how a mouse heart responds to hormones and neurotransmitters in real time. The mice were exposed to noradrenaline, also known as norepinephrine. Noradrenaline is both a neurotransmitter and hormone associated with the body’s “fight or flight” response.

    The results reveal that male and female mouse hearts respond uniformly at first after exposure to noradrenaline. However, some areas of the female heart return to normal more quickly than the male heart, which produces differences in the heart’s electrical activity.

    “The differences in electrical activity that we observed are called repolarization in the female hearts. Repolarization refers to how the heart resets between each heartbeat and is closely linked to some types of arrhythmias,” said Jessica L. Caldwell, first author of the study. Caldwell is a postdoctoral scholar in the UC Davis School of Medicine Department of Pharmacology. “We know that there are sex differences in the risk for certain types of arrhythmias. The study reveals a new factor that may contribute to different arrhythmia susceptibility between men and women,” Caldwell said.

    Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S.

    Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. It accounted for about 1 in every 4 male deaths and 1 in every 5 female deaths in 2020. Despite the impact on both sexes, cardiology research has largely been performed on male subjects.

    In this study, the researchers were interested in looking at factors that may contribute to arrhythmias. Arrhythmias are a type of heart disorder where the electrical impulses that control heartbeats don’t function properly. They affect somewhere between 1.5% to 5% of the population.

    Methods

    The novel imaging system uses a mouse, called the CAMPER mouse, that has been genetically modified to emit light during a very specific chemical reaction in the heart — cAMP binding.

    The cAMP molecule (an abbreviation of cyclic adenosine 3’,5;-monophosphate) is an intermediate messenger that turns signals from hormones and neurotransmitters, including noradrenaline, into action from heart cells.

    The light signals from the CAMPER mouse are transmitted by a biosensor that uses fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). This FRET signal can be picked up at high speed and high resolution by a new imaging system specially designed for hearts. This allows the researchers to record the heart’s reaction to noradrenaline in real time, along with changes in electrical activity.

    This new imaging approach revealed the differences in the breakdown of cAMP in female and male mice and the associated differences in electrical activity.

    Including female mice leads to discoveries

    The researchers had not planned to study sex-based responses, according to Crystal M. Ripplinger, senior author of the study. But the researchers started seeing a pattern of different reactions, which led them to realize the differences were sex-based.

    Ripplinger, an electrical and biomedical engineer, is a professor in the Department of Pharmacology.

    When she started her lab at the UC Davis School of Medicine over a decade ago, she exclusively used male animals. That was the norm for most research at the time. But several years ago, she began including male and female animals in her studies.

    “Sometimes the data between the two sexes is the same. But if the data start to show variation, the first thing we do is look at sex differences. Using both male and female mice has revealed clues into differences we would never have suspected. Researchers are realizing you can’t extrapolate to both sexes from only studying one,” Ripplinger said.

    She notes that with the current study, it’s not clear what the differences in cAMP and electrical activity may mean.

    “The response in the female mice may be protective — or it may not. But simply documenting that there is a measurable difference in the response to a stress hormone is significant. We are hoping to learn more in future studies,” Ripplinger said.

    Additional authors on the study include I-Ju (Eric) Lee, Lena Ngo, Lianguo Wang, Donald M. Bers, Manuel F. Navedo and Julie Bossuyt from UC Davis; Sherif Bahriz from UC Davis and Mansoura University; Bing (Rita) Xu and Yang K. Xiang from UC Davis and VA Northern California.

    This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the American Heart Association, and the Veterans Administration Merit Grant.

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    UC Davis Health

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  • Science is the best (local, regional, national, global) policy

    Science is the best (local, regional, national, global) policy

    By Eleanor Eckel, BRI Communications Coordinator

    Newswise — A coyote’s lone cry punctuated the darkness as the two biologists hiked the wooded trail, parkas tightly zipped against the chill October night. They had been trekking this route every hour since dusk, winding their way to the mist nets they had set up earlier in the day. Once at a net, they slowly walked along its 36-foot length. When they discovered a northern saw-whet owl lying passively in one of the net pockets, they worked quickly, expertly untangling, banding, sampling, and measuring the tiny raptor in just minutes.

    Since 2009, BRI wildlife biologist Kate Williams and others have studied the migration and movement patterns of birds and bats over the Gulf of Maine and elsewhere on the Atlantic coast. BRI biologists documented that migratory owls fly over open water, taking advantage of islands as stopover sites, and that migratory falcons will fly hundreds of miles out over the Atlantic on their way south to the Caribbean and South America. This new information initiated important discussions about how migrating birds and bats might be affected by offshore structures, such as wind turbines.

    Careful siting of renewable energy development seems to play a key role in minimizing impacts to wildlife, but this requires detailed knowledge of where animals breed, winter, and migrate. To address this need, BRI established a wildlife and renewable energy program in 2009, which has evolved over the past 12 years into BRI’s Center for Research on Offshore Wind and the Environment (CROWE). Offshore wind energy is an essential component of plans to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and mitigate the effects of climate change on wildlife and ecosystems. According to the 2022 International Panel on Climate Change report, it is now “unequivocal” that human influence has warmed the atmosphere. Fossil fuel use has significantly contributed to the acceleration of climate change impacts, and now the “scale of recent changes across the climate system as a whole – and the present state of many aspects of the climate system – are unprecedented over many centuries to many thousands of years.” A path forward involves increased renewable energy technology to limit cumulative CO2 emissions.

    However, as with other energy sources, offshore wind can also present risks to wildlife and their environment. BRI biologists continue to work to understand wildlife distributions and movements and to identify ways to minimize risks from offshore wind energy development.

    CROWE director Kate Williams recognizes the need for rapid, renewable energy development as well as thorough wildlife risk assessments and monitoring. “We are trying to figure out how to mitigate sort of, local scale impacts to wildlife from these developments…but trying to figure out how to minimize that as much as possible for this sort of greater good of trying to figure out how to mitigate climate change to the point that we’re not going to see sort of large-scale extinctions, which is what they’re predicting right now.”

    Specific research conducted by BRI staff intended to determine potential risks to wildlife from offshore wind development include bird field studies and assessments for seabirds, waterfowl, shorebirds, songbirds, and raptors, acoustic studies, transmitter deployment and tracking, observational surveys (vessel- and plane-based), digital aerial surveys, stakeholder engagement and coordination, and development of siting strategies and monitoring and mitigation plans.

    As with all BRI research centers and programs, the offshore wind team utilizes innovative science and cutting-edge technology to provide accurate information. High-definition digital aerial surveys involve survey planes with an array of cameras that point down to the ocean’s surface which can identify species seen in the video. Aerial surveys allow researchers to determine which species are most at risk in areas designated for proposed wind arrays, and that information can be passed on to decision makers and developers. BRI also houses a Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Laboratory (QWERL) that provides large scale population and distribution models that help understand population dynamics in or near offshore wind arrays. Williams notes, “it’s a rare skillset to have that degree of mathematical expertise and also have the ecological expertise to understand how to apply it.” Cutting-edge science, combined with a wide range of ecological expertise, will continue to guide BRI’s wind energy research to provide accurate information to stakeholders and policy makers.

     

    More stories on https://briwildlife.org/bri-blog/.

    Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI)

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  • Something to (re)think about

    Something to (re)think about

    By Alyssa Soucy, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Maine

    Newswise — As the spotlight cuts across the lake, intersecting with the horizon beyond, I saw the trio of Common Loons as only white floating specks surrounded by darkness. Almost like a mirage, they appeared through the fog and the gnats swirling off the surface of the water. I fixed the beam of light on one of the chicks who looked serenely unaware of our approaching boat. My body and mind launched into the sole purpose of illuminating that chick as Carl Brown, BRI’s field biologist leading this loon translocation effort, swung a net over the side of the boat. Under the starry sky that evening, we successfully captured a Common Loon chick for safe relocation and release.

    Iain Stenhouse, field biologist and director of BRI’s Marine Bird Program, is accustomed to experiencing the profoundly mesmerizing, immersive feelings that arise when working closely with wildlife. Whether on a boat off the coast of Maine tracking families of Common Eiders, or surrounded by an Arctic Tern colony in Greenland, Stenhouse is at home in the wild working with the birds. In fact, as he recalls tracking these terns, a species that claim the longest migration distance on record, he becomes awakened by the connection he has with them. “There’s not much to an Arctic Tern, it’s almost all feathers. And, to know that this bird, under its own steam, has been to Antarctica and back again since you last saw it, and it doesn’t look any different is just breathtaking.” Stenhouse describes the feeling he has when holding birds as being unlike any other, “I’ve never known anything that had that same kind of rush of excitement and fascination and just awe.”

    BRI’s field biologists seek out opportunities that put them into close contact with the natural world. In fact, those encounters captivate, awaken, and spark their motivation and passion. Evan Adams, BRI’s director of the Quantitative Wildlife Ecology Research Lab, was drawn to this career after a trip to Costa Rica. Adams recounts, “There’s a hummingbird called the Violet Sabrewing. You could hear them as they flew by you because they sounded like a Harley Davidson, you didn’t even have to look. And I thought that that was super cool, and when returned home, I thought, ‘I want to study birds’—that was kind of it.”

    Helen Yurek, another BRI wildlife biologist, spends many days and nights in remote places. “You just see really cool things; you see animals doing things that you might not have otherwise.” Sarah Dodgin, an ecological analyst for BRI, recently spotted an elusive Upland Sandpiper during fieldwork. She exclaims, “They ran out right in front of the truck and I was like ‘Oh, my gosh, here you are!’ It was a cool feeling.” Similar to my experience working with the loons, and Stenhouse’s in Greenland with Arctic Terns diving overhead, each of us recognizes that sense of awe and wholeness we feel when we are connected with the world around us.

    Through our own experiences we are all describing a concept that psychologists have been studying for decades. The term connectedness to nature refers to the emotional and cognitive connections we have with the natural world. In recent years, interest in the relationship between nature and human well-being has exploded. A growing trend of “park prescriptions” involves doctors encouraging patients to spend time outdoors. Spending time in close contact with nature can lead to positive health outcomes, including lower rates of depression and anxiety, anger and fatigue, and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. Experimental studies have shown that being outside can even improve working memory and task performance, as well as invoke feelings of restorativeness and increase happiness. As Rachel Carson wrote in Silent Spring, “There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature—the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” It is in this personal relationship with nature that we can find solace.

    Questions remain as to why spending time in nature may lead to positive health outcomes. Some answers lie in the specific chemical and biological components contained within natural environments. While others turn to the field of psychology. For example, people experience a great sense of awe in response to nature. The awe and fascination that Stenhouse describes when working closely with birds conveys a sense of fulfillment, connection, and restorativeness. As he notes, “Modern living doesn’t provide many real moments anymore. That moment—feeling that little heartbeat against your fingertips and the warmth of another little creature in the world—is very cool.” The Biophilia Hypothesis further suggests that throughout much of our two-million-year evolutionary history, humans lived in hunter-gatherer societies, coexisting with the natural world. A connection with nature, or “biophilia,” developed and became integral to human survival. A connection to nature then may be rooted in our connection to our ancestral selves.

    Weeks later, when remembering the feel of the loon’s heartbeat and the sound of its haunting call, I am transported back to that night, back to that connection I felt with the loons and the lake, and the sense of purpose that enveloped me. As a social psychologist, I study people. Rarely do I have experiences that bring me in such close physical contact with wildlife; yet, it has taken only that one night to realize that there really is no other feeling like it.

    Social psychologists continue to document feelings of a connectedness to nature that have profound effects on behaviors, attitudes, and health. In doing so, they offer solutions that address both human and environmental well-being by recognizing the interconnections between the two. Whether you experience nature in a remote place while handling an Arctic Tern, out on a lake on a clear summer night surrounded by the calls of loons, or in the local community forest during your weekly walk, a connection and restoration is there waiting for you. As Robin Wall Kimmerer writes, “As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”

     

    More stories on https://briwildlife.org/bri-blog/.

    Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI)

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  • Collision risk and habitat loss: Wind turbines in forests impair threatened bat species

    Collision risk and habitat loss: Wind turbines in forests impair threatened bat species

    Newswise — In order to meet climate protection goals, renewable energies are booming – often wind power. More than 30,000 turbines have already been installed on the German mainland so far, and the industry is currently scrambling to locate increasingly rare suitable sites. Thus, forests are coming into focus as potential sites. A scientific team from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) now demonstrated in a new paper published in the scientific journal “Current Biology” that wind turbines in forests impair endangered bat species: Common noctules (Nyctalus noctula), a species with a high risk of colliding with rotor blades, are attracted to forest wind turbines if these are located near their roosts. Far from roosts, common noctules avoid the turbines, essentially resulting in a loss of foraging space and thus habitat for this species.

    The research results show that common noctules suffer in two ways from wind turbines in forests: If the wind turbines are built near roosts, noctules face an increasing risk of colliding with the turbines, and they lose foraging habitat because they avoid wind turbines far from roosts. In their paper the team concludes that wind power development in forests must be avoided or, if there is no alternative, should be undertaken with great care and caution. The wind turbine should be placed at least at a distance of 500 meters away from bat roosting sites, and loss of foraging habitat should be compensated for by taking forests out of use for wind power (or other anthropogenic activities) elsewhere.

    Wind energy production is an important pillar for the energy transition to renewable energies in Germany and makes a significant contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately eight percent of wind turbines in Germany have already been built in forests. This number is expected to significantly increase in the coming years as suitable sites in open landscapes become increasingly scarce. “A large number of bat species occur in forests because there are many tree roosts and suitable foraging habitats with a high abundance of insects, their prey”, says Christian Voigt, head of the Department of Evolutionary Ecology at the Leibniz-IZW. “These include species such as the common noctule, which is the most common victim among the bat species of wind turbines in Germany. According to the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), common noctule populations are declining throughout Germany. It is therefore a matter of urgency to take a closer look at the interaction of bats with wind turbines in forests.”

    Voigt and his colleagues investigated the space-use behaviour of common noctules using miniaturised GPS loggers. These loggers recorded the flight paths of 60 bats with a high temporal and spatial resolution over 1-2 nights before the loggers automatically came off each animal. “We found that the common noctules were particularly likely to approach wind turbines if the latter were located close to bat roosts”, explains Voigt. As highly social mammals, the bats use exposed structures as meeting spots. This could be the reason why they often approach wind turbines, which rise well above the canopy, if turbines are located near roosts. This poses a high risk to the animals of colliding with the rotor blades. “Wind turbines would therefore have to be erected at a sufficient distance from existing tree roosts”, concludes Christine Reusch, first author of the paper. “As roosts can also be newly created, there is a risk that supposedly safe wind turbines, which were initially erected at a sufficiently large distance from the then existing bat roosts during the approval phase, later become death traps”, Reusch adds.

    The authors also found that further away from tree roosts, common noctules avoided wind turbines. They discovered this after they had carried out a data analysis in which all bat GPS locations in the vicinity of roosts were excluded from the analysis. This showed that bats avoid wind turbines if placed well beyond roosts. “This sounds like good news but it has a problematic side to it”, says Voigt. “Owing to their avoidance behaviour, common noctule bats essentially lose important hunting habitats.” The scientists therefore recommend, firstly, that wind turbines should not be sited in forests, and secondly, that special care should be taken if there are no alternatives. A minimum distance of 500 meters of wind turbines to known bat roosts should be taken into account during the approval procedures and the loss of foraging habitat in the vicinity of wind turbines should be compensated for elsewhere. The expansion of wind energy production into forests is therefore a major challenge to conservation in view of the complex interaction of bats with wind turbines in forests, according to Voigt and Reusch.  

    Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)

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  • CHOP Researchers Develop New, More Accurate Computational Tool for Long-Read RNA Sequencing

    CHOP Researchers Develop New, More Accurate Computational Tool for Long-Read RNA Sequencing

    Newswise — Philadelphia, January 20, 2023—On the journey from gene to protein, a nascent RNA molecule can be cut and joined, or spliced, in different ways before being translated into a protein. This process, known as alternative splicing, allows a single gene to encode several different proteins. Alternative splicing occurs in many biological processes, like when stem cells mature into tissue-specific cells. In the context of disease, however, alternative splicing can be dysregulated. Therefore, it is important to examine the transcriptome – that is, all the RNA molecules that might stem from genes – to understand the root cause of a condition.

    However, historically it has been difficult to “read” RNA molecules in their entirety because they are usually thousands of bases long. Instead, researchers have relied on so-called short-read RNA sequencing, which breaks RNA molecules and sequence them in much shorter pieces – somewhere between 200 to 600 bases, depending on the platform and protocol. Computer programs are then used to reconstruct the full sequences of RNA molecules. Short-read RNA sequencing can give highly accurate sequencing data, with a low per-base error rate of approximately 0.1% (meaning one base is incorrectly determined for every 1,000 bases sequenced). Nevertheless, it is limited in the information that it can provide due to the short length of the sequencing reads. In many ways, short-read RNA sequencing is like breaking a large picture into many jigsaw pieces that are all the same shape and size and then trying to piece the picture back together.

    Recently, “long-read” platforms that can sequence RNA molecules over 10,000 bases in length end-to-end have become available. These platforms do not require RNA molecules to be broken up before they are sequenced, but they have a much higher per-base error rate, typically between 5% to 20%. This well-known limitation has severely hampered the widespread adoption of long-read RNA sequencing. In particular, the high error rate has made it difficult to determine the validity of novel, previously unknown RNA molecules discovered in a particular condition or disease.

    To circumvent this problem, researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a new computational tool that can more accurately discover and quantify RNA molecules from these error-prone long-read RNA sequencing data. The tool, called ESPRESSO (Error Statistics PRomoted Evaluator of Splice Site Options), was reported today in Science Advances.

    “Long-read RNA sequencing is a powerful technology that will allow us to uncover RNA variation in rare genetic diseases and other conditions, like cancer,” said Yi Xing, PhD, director of the Center for Computational and Genomic Medicine at CHOP and senior author of the study. “We are probably at an inflection point in how we discover and analyze RNA molecules. The transition from short-read to long-read RNA sequencing represents an exciting technological transformation, and computational tools that reliably interpret long-read RNA sequencing data are urgently needed.”

    ESPRESSO can accurately discover and quantify different RNA molecules from the same gene – known as RNA isoforms – using error-prone long-read RNA sequencing data alone. To do so, the computational tool compares all long RNA sequencing reads of a given gene to its corresponding genomic DNA, and then uses the error patterns of individual long reads to confidently identify splice junctions – places where the nascent RNA molecule has been cut and joined – as well as their corresponding full-length RNA isoforms. By finding areas of perfect matches between long RNA sequencing reads and genomic DNA, as well as borrowing information across all long RNA sequencing reads of a gene, the tool is able to identify highly reliable splice junctions and RNA isoforms, including those that have not been previously documented in existing databases. 

    The researchers evaluated the performance of ESPRESSO using simulated data and data on real biological samples. They found that ESPRESSO performs better than multiple currently available tools, both in terms of discovering RNA isoforms and quantifying them. The researchers also generated and analyzed over 1 billion long RNA sequencing reads covering 30 human tissue types and three human cell lines, providing a useful resource for studying human transcriptome variation at the resolution of full-length RNA isoforms. 

    “ESPRESSO addresses a long-standing problem of long-read RNA sequencing and could usher in new opportunities of discovery,” Dr. Xing said. “We envision that ESPRESSO will be a useful tool for researchers to explore the RNA repertoire of cells in various biomedical and clinical settings.”

    This work was supported in part by the Immuno-Oncology Translational Network (IOTN) of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Moonshot Initiative (U01CA233074), other National Institutes of Health funding (R01GM088342, R01GM121827, and R56HG012310), along with a National Institutes of Health T32 Training Grant in Computational Genomics (T32HG000046). 

    Gao et al. “ESPRESSO: Robust discovery and quantification of transcript isoforms from error-prone long-read RNA-seq data,” Science Advances, January 20, 2023, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abq5072

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    About Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia: A non-profit, charitable organization, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia was founded in 1855 as the nation’s first pediatric hospital. Through its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional patient care, training new generations of pediatric healthcare professionals, and pioneering major research initiatives, the 595-bed hospital has fostered many discoveries that have benefited children worldwide. Its pediatric research program is among the largest in the country. The institution has a well-established history of providing advanced pediatric care close to home through its CHOP Care Network, which includes more than 50 primary care practices, specialty care and surgical centers, urgent care centers, and community hospital alliances throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as well as a new inpatient hospital with a dedicated pediatric emergency department in King of Prussia. In addition, its unique family-centered care and public service programs have brought Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia recognition as a leading advocate for children and adolescents. For more information, visit http://www.chop.edu.

     

    Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

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  • Suicide Risk Higher Among Individuals with Cancer, New Study Shows

    Suicide Risk Higher Among Individuals with Cancer, New Study Shows

    EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE – 11:00 a.m., ET – January 20, 2023

    Newswise — ATLANTA, January 20, 2023 — According to a new large study led by researchers at the American Cancer Society (ACS), the risk of suicide for individuals diagnosed with cancer in the United States is 26% higher compared with the general population. Geographic, racial/ethnic, socioeconomic, and clinical characteristics contributed to the elevated risk. The study also shows a decline in elevated risk for individuals with cancer compared with the general population from 67% in 2000 to 16% in 2016. The research is to be published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open.

    “Our findings highlight the importance of timely symptom management and targeted interventions for suicide prevention in individuals with cancer,” said Dr. Xuesong Han, scientific director, health services research at the American Cancer Society and senior author of the study. “These require joint efforts by federal and state governments, as well as healthcare providers, to ensure comprehensive health insurance coverage for psycho-oncological, psychosocial, and palliative care, development of appropriate clinical guidelines for suicide risk screening, and inclusion of suicide prevention in survivorship care plans.”

    For the study, researchers analyzed data of 16.8 million individuals diagnosed with cancer in 43 states in the U.S. from 2000-2016. They used the Cancer Incidence in North America (CiNA) Survival dataset compiled by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR), which contained data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) SEER Registries. Standardized Mortality Ratios (SMR) were calculated based on attained age at death, sex, and race/ethnicity to compare suicide risks in individuals with cancer versus the general population. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted to identify cancer-specific risk factors of suicide among individuals diagnosed with cancer.

    The results showed 20,792 individuals with cancer died from suicide during 2000-2016. Compared to the general population, elevated suicide risk was observed across all sociodemographic groups, with particularly higher risks among Hispanics, Medicaid-insured, Medicare-insured aged under 64 years old, or uninsured. The highest suicide risk was observed in the first six months following a cancer diagnosis, with the rate more than seven times higher than the general population. Among individuals diagnosed with cancer, relatively higher suicide risks were observed for poor prognosis cancer types with high symptom burdens in the first two years following diagnosis, including cancers of oral cavity & pharynx, esophagus, stomach, brain, pancreas, and lung. After two years, individuals with cancers subject to long-term quality-of-life impairments, such as oral cavity & pharynx, female breast, uterine, bladder, and leukemia, had higher suicide risks.

    “The overall decreasing trend in suicide risk suggests a positive role of the coinciding promotion of psychosocial and palliative care and advances in symptom control and pain management,” said Xin Hu, Ph.D. candidate at Emory University and lead author of the study. “But more needs to be done. Examining the associations of clinical factors such as cancer treatments as well as policy factors with suicide risk and evaluating psychosocial interventions are important areas for future research.”

    Other ACS study authors include: Jingxuan Zhao, Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, Dr. Jiemin Ma, Dr. Leticia Nogueira, and Dr. Robin Yabroff.

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    About the American Cancer Society The American Cancer Society is a leading cancer-fighting organization with a vision to end cancer as we know it, for everyone. For more than 100 years, we have been improving the lives of people with cancer and their families as the only organization combating cancer through advocacy, research, and patient support. We are committed to ensuring everyone has an opportunity to prevent, detect, treat, and survive cancer. To learn more, visit cancer.org or call our 24/7 helpline at 1-800-227-2345. Connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

    American Cancer Society (ACS)

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  • Comprehensive Performance Evaluation of Electron Microscopes Empowers Local Companies

    Comprehensive Performance Evaluation of Electron Microscopes Empowers Local Companies

    Newswise — Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS, President Hyun-Min Park) has succeeded in developing a high-performance energy analyzer, which is a key technology for determining the performance of electron microscopes. The service will be made available to local equipment companies, to foster the advanced microscope industry.

    The performance of electron microscopes depends on the characteristics of the electron sources that produce the electron beams. This is because electron beams are focused on a lens to observe specimens. To allow precise focusing the energy distribution of the electron particles must be uniform, even when observing extremely small specimens. As such, it is important to accurately measure the energy width, an indicator of the uniformity of energy distribution, in order to develop high-performance electron microscopes.

    Many local companies have successfully developed electron microscopes, but have had to rely on numbers available in the literature instead of actual measurements, because there has been no energy analyzer capable of measuring energy width. The conventional approach does not allow comprehensive performance validation, as slight differences in performance across individual microscopes are overlooked. For companies to enter the high-performance electron microscope market, they must be able to obtain accurate measurements of energy width.

    The KRISS research team developed design technology from simulations performed in 2019, and successfully developed a pre-lens retarding field energy analyzer. The production cost was relatively cheap at around a few million won, and the device can measure an energy distribution broadening of 13.8 meV. This energy analyzer can be utilized to perform evaluations of advanced research equipment, including scanning electron microscopes. It is only 60 mm in size, making it useful as an independent analyzer, or it can be attached inside existing equipment, for microscopes with an integrated electron beam performance evaluation function.

    Energy analyzers can be mainly divided into two types. The hemispherical electron energy analyzer offers outstanding energy resolution, but is expensive and much larger in size (700 mm). The grid-type retarding field energy analyzer is compact and affordable, but is inadequate for performance evaluation as its energy resolution exceeds 300 meV.

    In addition to using the existing measurement test of angular current density, KRISS established an energy width measurement platform, and launched a testing service for local companies in August. By the end of this year KRISS plans to establish an energy resolution performance evaluation platform to assess the influence of magnetic field, noise and vibration.

    In-Yong Park, team leader of the KRISS Scientific Instruments Performance Evaluation Team, said, “Previously, Korea lacked technological self-reliance for high-performance electron microscopes despite their importance in materials, parts, and biotechnology. The new platform for comprehensive performance evaluation, ranging from individual microscope parts to the entire system, will pave the way for local companies to enter the high-performance microscope market.”

     

     

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    As the representative institute in the national measurement standards, the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has been setting the highest measurement standards and ensuring their international equivalence since its inception in 1975. Thereby, we help build solid foundations for the national development in science and technology and for industrial advancements.

     

    The results of the study, funded by KRISS and the Basic Science Research Program under the National Research Foundation of Korea, were published in Microscopy and Microanalysis (IF: 4.099) in September.

    National Research Council of Science and Technology

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  • New study deepens understanding of the regulation of circadian rhythms in the mammalian central clock

    New study deepens understanding of the regulation of circadian rhythms in the mammalian central clock

    Newswise — Circadian rhythms are inherent cycles of approximately 24 hours that regulate various biological processes, such as sleep and wakefulness. A research group at Nagoya University in Japan has recently revealed that neural networks play an important role in the regulation of circadian rhythms through the mediation of an intracellular molecule called cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP).

    This finding may pave the way for new strategies to treat sleep disorders and other chronic health conditions affected by disruption of the circadian rhythm. The study was published in the journal Science Advances.

    In living things, almost every cell contains a biological clock that regulates the cycle of circadian rhythms. In mammals, a group of neurons that form a structure called suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is known as the master clock. It is located in the hypothalamus of the brain and synchronizes biological clocks in the peripheral tissues.

    Circadian rhythms are regulated by the transcription and translation mechanism of clock genes, which encode proteins that regulate daily cycles. However, some scientists suggest that in the SCN, so-called second messengers, such as cAMP and calcium ions, are also involved in the regulation of circadian rhythms. Second messengers are molecules that exist in a cell and mediate cell activity by relaying a signal from extracellular molecules.

    “The functional roles of second messengers in the SCN remain largely unclear,” said Dr. Daisuke Ono, the lead author of the study. “Among second messengers, cAMP is known as a particularly important molecule in various biological functions. Therefore, understanding the roles in the SCN may lead to new strategies for the treatment of sleep disorders and other health problems due to circadian rhythm disruption.”

    To investigate this issue, a Nagoya University research team led by Dr. Ono, in collaboration with Yulong Li of Peking University and Takashi Sugiyama of Evident Corporation, conducted a study focusing on cAMP in the SCN.

    The researchers first visualized the patterns of circadian rhythms of cAMP, using bioluminescent cAMP probes they developed. For comparison, they also visualized the rhythm patterns of calcium ions. When they blocked the function of a neural network, the rhythm of cAMP was lost, whereas the rhythm of calcium ions still existed. This suggests that in the SCN, the rhythm of cAMP is controlled by a neural network, while the rhythm of calcium ions is regulated by intracellular mechanisms.

    They next focused on an extracellular signaling molecule called vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP). Its receptor is known to modulate cAMP in the SCN. To analyze how VIP affects the rhythm of cAMP, they inhibited VIP signaling. Their results showed a loss of the rhythm of cAMP, indicating that the intracellular cAMP rhythms are regulated by VIP in the SCN. If this is correct, then there should also be a circadian rhythm in the VIP release.

    To verify this, they introduced a G-protein-coupled receptor-activation-based (GRAB) VIP sensor using green fluorescent protein. Time-lapse imaging of the VIP release in the SCN revealed a clear circadian rhythm. Furthermore, this VIP release rhythm was abolished by blocking the function of a neural network. These results indicate that VIP is released rhythmically depending on neuronal activity and that the VIP release rhythm regulates the intracellular cAMP rhythm.

    Lastly, to determine how cAMP affects the rhythm of clock genes’ transcription and translation mechanisms, they conducted experiments using mice. They expressed a light-inducible enzyme called adenylate cyclase (bPAC) in the SCN slice and measured the protein level of the clock gene Per2, using bioluminescence imaging. They then irradiated the cells with blue light to verify the effect of cAMP on the circadian rhythm. The results showed that the manipulation of cAMP by blue light changed the circadian rhythm of the clock gene. They also manipulated the rhythm of cAMP in the SCN of living mice and found that the behavioral rhythm also shifted. These results suggest that intracellular cAMP affects both molecular and behavioral circadian rhythms that involve clock genes.

    “We concluded that intracellular cAMP rhythms in the SCN are regulated by VIP-dependent neural networks,” Ono explained. “Furthermore, the network-driven cAMP rhythm coordinates circadian molecular rhythms in the SCN as well as behavioral rhythms. In the future, we would like to elucidate the ancestral circadian clock, which is independent of clock genes and exists universally in life.”

     

    The study, “Network-driven intracellular cAMP coordinates circadian rhythm in the suprachiasmatic nucleus” was published online in the journal Science Advances on January 4, 2023, at DOI: http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq7032.

    Authors:

    Daisuke Ono, Huan Wang, Chi Jung Hung, Hsin-tzu Wang, Naohiro Kon, Akihiro Yamanaka, Yulong Li, and Takashi Sugiyama
     

    Funding:

    This work was supported by the Uehara Memorial Foundation, Kowa Life Science Foundation, Takeda Science Foundation, Kato Memorial Bioscience Foundation, DAIKO FOUNDATION, SECOM Science and Technology Foundation, Research Foundation for Opto-Science and Technology, The Nakatani Foundation for Advancement of Measuring Technologies in Biomedical Engineering, CASIO SCIENCE PROMOTION FOUNDATION, Innovation inspired by Nature” Research Support Program, SEKISUI CHEMICAL CO., LTD., Konica Minolta Science and Technology Foundation, The Inamori Foundation, Suntory Rising Stars Encouragement Program in life Sciences (SunRiSE) (to N.K.), JST FOREST Program (Grant Number JPMJFR211A, Japan), and the JSPS KAKENHI (21K19255, 21H02526, 21H00307, 21H00422, 20KK0177, 18H02477 to D.O.).

    Nagoya University

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  • Stopping a rare childhood cancer in its tracks

    Stopping a rare childhood cancer in its tracks

    Newswise — Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered a new drug target for Ewing sarcoma, a rare kind of cancer usually diagnosed in children and young adults. Their experiments show that the cells causing this cancer can essentially be reprogrammed with the flick of a genetic switch.

    Shutting down a single protein forces the cancer cells to take on a new identity and behave like normal connective tissue cells, a dramatic change that reins in their growth. This discovery suggests researchers may be able to stop Ewing sarcoma by developing a drug that blocks the protein known as ETV6.

    Ewing sarcoma causes tumors to grow in bones or the soft tissues surrounding them. Once a tumor begins to spread to other parts of the body, it can be very difficult to halt the disease’s progression. Even for patients with positive outcomes, treating Ewing sarcoma often causes toxic side effects. New treatments are badly needed, says CSHL Professor Christopher Vakoc, who led the research on ETV6.

    Vakoc and his colleagues became excited about ETV6 when their experiments revealed that Ewing sarcoma cells seem uniquely dependent on this protein. “This protein is present in all cells. But when you perturb the protein, most normal cells don’t care,” he says. “The process by which the sarcoma forms turns this ETV6 molecule—this relatively innocuous, harmless protein that isn’t doing very much—into something that’s now controlling a life-death decision of the tumor cell.”

    Postdoctoral researcher Yuan Gao works in Vakoc’s lab. When Gao blocked ETV6 in Ewing sarcoma cells grown in the lab, she witnessed a dramatic transformation. “The sarcoma cell reverts back into being a normal cell again,” she says. “The shape of the cell changes. The behavior of the cells changes. A lot of the cells will arrest their growth. It’s really an explosive effect.”

    Vakoc and Gao hope other researchers will use what they’ve learned to begin exploring potential therapies for Ewing sarcoma that work by switching off ETV6. They say their biochemical analyses, which identify specific spots in the ETV6 protein that are key to its function in cancer cells, could help guide drug development. Because their experiments have shown that most cells are unaffected by the loss of ETV6 activity, they are optimistic that such a drug might be able to eliminate cancer cells while causing few, if any, side effects.

    Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

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  • Vertical electrochemical transistor pushes wearable electronics forward

    Vertical electrochemical transistor pushes wearable electronics forward

    Newswise — A transdisciplinary Northwestern University research team has developed a revolutionary transistor that is expected be ideal for lightweight, flexible, high-performance bioelectronics.

    The electrochemical transistor is compatible with blood and water and can amplify important signals, making it especially useful for biomedical sensing. Such a transistor could enable wearable devices for onsite signal processing, right at the biology-device interface. Potential applications include measuring heartbeat and levels of sodium and potassium in blood as well as eye motion for studying sleep disorders.

    “All modern electronics use transistors, which rapidly turn current on and off,” said Tobin J. Marks, a co-corresponding author of the study. “Here we use chemistry to enhance the switching. Our electrochemical transistor takes performance to a totally new level. You have all the properties of a conventional transistor but far higher transconductance (a measure of the amplification it can deliver), ultra-stable cycling of the switching properties, a small footprint that can enable high density integration, and easy, low-cost fabrication.”

    Marks is a world leader in the fields of materials science and organic electronics. He is the Vladimir N. Ipatieff Professor of Catalytic Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of materials science and engineering and chemical and biological engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering.

    The vertical electrochemical transistor is based on a new kind of electronic polymer and a vertical, instead of planar, architecture. It conducts both electricity and ions and is stable in air. The design and synthesis of new materials and the transistor’s fabrication and characterization required the collaborative expertise of chemists, materials scientists and biomedical engineers.

    Marks led the research team along with Antonio Facchetti, research professor of chemistry at Weinberg; Wei Huang, now a professor at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China; and Jonathan Rivnay, professor of biomedical engineering at the McCormick School.

    “This exciting new type of transistor allows us to speak the language of both biological systems, which often communicate via ionic signaling, and electronic systems, which communicate with electrons,” Rivnay said. “The ability of the transistors to work very efficiently as ‘mixed conductors’ makes them attractive for bioelectronic diagnostics and therapies.”

    This study detailing the efficient electrochemical transistor and an accompanying News & Views article were published this week by the journal Nature.

    “With their vertical architecture, our electrochemical transistors can be stacked one on top of another,” Facchetti said. “Thus, we can make very dense electrochemical complementary circuits, which is impossible for the conventional planar electrochemical transistors.”

    To make more reliable and powerful electronic circuits, two types of transistors are needed: p-type transistors that carry positive charges and n-type transistors that carry negative charges. These types of circuits are called complementary circuits. The challenge researchers have faced in the past is that n-type transistors are difficult to build and are typically unstable.

    This is the first work to demonstrate electrochemical transistors with similar and very high performance for both types (p+n) electrochemical transistors. This resulted in the fabrication of very efficient electrochemical complementary circuits. 

    The study is entitled “Vertical organic electrochemical transistors for complementary circuits.” Huang, Jianhua Chen and Yao Yao are co-first authors.

    Northwestern University

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  • Turning a poison into food

    Turning a poison into food

    Newswise — Methanogens are microorganisms that produce methane when little or no oxygen is present in their surroundings. Their methane production – for example in the digestive tract of ruminants – is relevant for global carbon cycling, as methane is a very potent greenhouse gas, but can also be used as an energy source to heat our houses.

    A toxic base for growth

    The object of the study now published in Nature Chemical Biology are two marine heat-loving methanogens: Methanothermococcus thermolithotrophicus (lives in geothermally heated sediments at around 65 °C) and Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (prefers deep-sea volcanos with around 85 °C). They obtain their cellular energy by producing methane and receive sulfur for growth in form of sulfide, that is present in their environments.  While sulfide is a poison for most organisms, it is essential for methanogens and they can tolerate even high concentrations of it. However, their Achilles’ heel is the toxic and reactive sulfur compound sulfite, which destroys the enzyme needed to make methane. In their environments, both investigated organisms are occasionally exposed to sulfite, for example, when oxygen enters and reacts with the reduced sulfide. Its partial oxidation results in the formation of sulfite, and thus the methanogens need to protect themselves. But how can they do this?

    A molecular snapshot of the process

    Marion Jespersen and Tristan Wagner from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, together with Antonio Pierik from the University of Kaiserslautern, now provide a snapshot of the enzyme detoxifying the sulfite. This butterfly-shaped enzyme ist known as the F420-dependent sulfite reductase or Fsr. It is capable of turning sulfite into sulfide – a safe source of sulfur that the methanogens require for growth. In the current study, Jespersen and her colleagues describe how the enzyme works. “The enzyme traps the sulfite and directly reduces it to sulfide, which can be incorporated, for example, into amino acids”, Jespersen explains (see figure). “As a result, the methanogen doesn’t get poisoned and even uses the product as its sulfur source. They turn poison into food!”

    It sounds simple. But in fact, Jespersen and her colleagues found that they were dealing with a fascinating and complicated overlap. “There are two ways of sulfite reduction: dissimilatory and assimilatory”, Jespersen explains. “The organism under study uses an enzyme that is built like a dissimilatory one, but it uses an assimilatory mechanism. It combines the best of both worlds, one could say, at least for its living conditions.”

    It is assumed that the enzymes from both the dissimilatory and the assimilatory pathway have evolved from one common ancestor. “Sulfite reductases are ancient enzymes that have a major impact on the global sulfur and carbon cycles”, adds Tristan Wagner, head of the Max Planck Research Group Microbial Metabolism at the Max Planck Institute in Bremen. “Our enzyme, the Fsr, is probably a snapshot of this ancient primordial enzyme, an exciting look back in evolution.”

    Biotechnological applications in view

    The Fsr not only opens up evolutionary implications but also allows us to better understand the fascinating world of marine microbes. Methanogens that can grow only on sulfite circumvent the need to use the dangerous sulfide, their usual sulfur substrate. “This opens opportunities for safer biotechnological applications to study these important microorganisms. An optimal solution would be to find a methanogen that reduces sulfate, which is cheap, abundant, and a completely safe sulfur source”, says Wagner. In fact, this methanogen already exists, it is Methanothermococcus thermolithotrophicus. The researchers hypothesized that Fsr orchestrates the last reaction of this sulfate reduction pathway, because one of its intermediates would be sulfite. “Our next challenge is to understand how it can transform sulfate to sulfite, to get a complete picture of the capabilities of these miracle microbes.”

    Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

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  • Geographic access to pediatric cancer care in US

    Geographic access to pediatric cancer care in US

    About The Study: The results of this study showed that most children, adolescents and young adults in the continental United States had adequate access to pediatric cancer care in 2021, although disparities existed among racial and ethnic groups and residents in rural areas, areas with high deprivation levels, and some Southern and Midwestern states. Reducing these disparities may require innovative approaches, such as expanding the capabilities of local facilities and creating partnerships with adult oncology centers and primary care physicians. 

    Authors: Xiaohui Liu, Ph.D., of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, is the corresponding author. 

     

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

    JAMA – Journal of the American Medical Association

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  • Product images could boost food pantry use

    Product images could boost food pantry use

    Newswise — ITHACA, N.Y. – Even though one in 10 U.S. households is food insecure, only 28% of those 13.5 million households took advantage of food pantries in 2021 – partly because of the perception that food pantry offerings are lower quality than what’s available in grocery stores, according to new Cornell University research.

    Research led by Anne Byrne, now a research agricultural economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS), found that visual depictions of food pantry offerings, including brand names, have an ameliorative effect on negative product perceptions.

    “I think what this research demonstrates,” Byrne said, “is that when we think about food pantries and free food, people still have preferences around the products that they’re going to get. Simply because that outlet is a food pantry doesn’t change the fact that people have preferences and want information about their food.” 

    Byrne is corresponding author of “But It Came From a Food Pantry: Product Stigma and Quality Perceptions of Food Pantry Offerings,” which published Jan. 8 in Agricultural Economics. Co-authors are Cornell professors Chris Barrett and David Just. 

    There are many obstacles to participation in food pantry services, beyond food quality. Transportation, pantry hours that conflict with work schedules, language barriers and the perception of “eroded dignity,” as one report put it, that comes with accepting free food are all factors that can keep people from taking advantage of needed services.

    Byrne and her group chose to focus on food quality, as it was a factor that could be tested, and because the interventions that could address it may be relatively feasible and low-cost for organizations to implement.

    The research started while Byrne was working on her doctorate in applied economics and management. She partnered with the manager of a food pantry for students at Tompkins Cortland Community College, to see whether students’ perceptions of quality varied based on where they got the food.

    “We ran a very small-scale experiment, where we had the exact same food in different locations on campus and gathered some information about perceptions,” she said, noting that they did see differences in perceptions of identical products.

    For the new study, the group asked a total of 2,051 low-income participants from across the country (67% female, 60% white) to evaluate five food items – breakfast cereal, bacon, yogurt, canned soup and grapes – under four different experimental conditions. In one, participants are told the food is from either a grocery store or a food pantry; in the other, they are or are not provided with photos of the food items, including in some cases a popular brand.

    The researchers also found that participants’ pantry use history (never, former or current) played a role in their assessment of the quality of the food pantry products in the study. Generally, median quality assessment of the products was lowest and product stigma was highest among “never users.” 

    “Those who use the pantries know the food is good quality,” Just said. “For those who don’t, their biased perception may be standing in the way of greater food security.” 

    The researchers found that respondents exhibit a negative perception of the quality of food from a pantry, but that their perception is largely offset when they are shown an informative visual depiction of that food. In a second experiment, the researchers included brand information in all treatments, but photos of the products only half the time. Again, they found that negative product stigma can be significantly offset by the presence of even just a recognizable brand name.

    This research is important, the researchers said, as even small shifts in destigmatizing food pantries could have notable consequences if it leads to a greater number of food-insecure individuals accessing food pantries. 

    “The United States enjoys a broad and generous private charitable food assistance network through food banks and pantries that too few food insecure families use.” Barrett said. “We hope this and related research can help food pantries to increase their appeal to better serve their communities.” 

    The research was funded by a grant from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

    “A lot of this research was predicated on findings that come the Household Food Security Report, which is produced by the ERS every year,” Byrne said. “With that particular investment from the USDA, we’re able to learn about the national picture of food security and assistance, and some of the trends that we may want to dig into deeper to better understand why people are, or are not, using pantry services.”

    For additional information, see this Cornell Chronicle story. 

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    Cornell University

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