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Tag: Scientific Meetings

  • New ways to measure curls and kinks could make it easier to care for natural hair

    New ways to measure curls and kinks could make it easier to care for natural hair

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    Newswise — INDIANAPOLIS, March 26, 2023 — Black women and others with curly or kinky hair encounter a vast and confusing array of haircare options. Advice on the best products to use for a certain type of hair is often contradictory, and the results can be highly variable. Now, scientists are bringing order to this chaos by identifying properties such as the number of curls or coils in a given length of hair that could eventually help users pick the perfect product and achieve consistent results.

    The researchers will present their findings today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2023 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person March 26–30, and features more than 10,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

    “As an African American, I was born with very curly, seemingly unmanageable hair, and other ethnicities can possess similar hair properties,” says Michelle Gaines, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator. Gaines used to rely on chemical relaxers to straighten her tresses but stopped when she became pregnant. She was then confronted with an overwhelming variety of products available to style and care for natural hair. Limited guidance about the best options for her particular hair type, and conflicting advice from friends, YouTube videos and other resources, didn’t help the situation.

    Clearly, Gaines says, there is a major knowledge gap that needs to be closed, so she has set out to fill it. “As a polymer chemist and materials scientist, I thought it would be great to start a project where I could study the nuances of my hair, because I felt like it wasn’t very well understood,” she says.

    Most prior research on properties was done on wavy or straight strands from white or Asian people, according to Gaines, who is at Spelman College, a historically Black college for women. Less is known about what has traditionally been called “African” hair, she says, though researchers at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town in South Africa have published some findings.

    L’Oréal, as well as celebrity hair stylist Andre Walker and others, have developed systems to classify different types of hair. Walker’s system ranges from straight to kinky, a category including tight coils and zig-zag strands with angular bends. Although some people believe all of these classification methods convey a preference for a smoother and straighter appearance — a bias with historic links to the preferential treatment of enslaved people who had straighter hair and lighter skin — they’re intended to help users choose the most suitable haircare products. Gaines felt these systems worked well for straight and wavy hair but lacked the nuance to distinguish the many varieties of curly and kinky hair.

    Gaines wanted to see if she could identify differences in properties other than curl shape and tightness, and then use those differences to develop a more precise and quantitative classification system. Undergraduates at Spelman eagerly lined up to help. Gaines and her student, Imani Page, are collaborating with Alfred Crosby, Ph.D., and Gregory Grason, Ph.D., at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; their expertise includes material property characterization and modeling of complex materials and soft matter.

    The team measured the mechanical properties of wavy, curly and kinky hairs with a texture analyzer and a dynamic mechanical analyzer. These instruments measure force, stress and other parameters as a strand is first uncurled and then stretched until it breaks.

    Among other findings, the team recently reported results for the “stretch ratio,” a new parameter they developed to quantify and compare the force required to uncurl a strand until it’s straight. That ratio was found to be negligible for straight hair (since it can’t be uncurled), about 0.8 for wavy, 1.1 for kinky and 1.4 for curly. This measurement could therefore be used as an indicator of the initial curliness of a sample, providing a quantifiable way to distinguish between these types.

    The team also measured geometric properties, such as the diameter, cross section and 3D shape of strands, using optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a camera. In addition, the researchers developed new parameters, including the number of complete waves, curls or coils — known as contours — that they measured on 3-cm lengths of hair. They found that wavy hair has less than one full contour in that length, curly has about two, and kinky/coily has approximately three or more. The results suggest that people will be able to classify their own hair by counting contours, Gaines says.

    In the latest work, Gaines has begun examining the layer that protects the surface of each hair fiber. Known as the cuticle, it consists of flat cells that overlap each other, like roof shingles. Cuticles have a natural tendency to open and close reversibly when exposed to water, shampoo and conditioner. However, excessive acid and moisture retention can cause permanent damage to the cuticles, causing them to remain irreversibly lifted, thus exposing the inner cortex of the hair fiber. Irreversibly lifted cuticles, and cuticles that easily open and close, make the strand more porous, which causes more moisture absorption. Gaines’ preliminary findings show the cuticle layers are larger and spaced further apart in wavy hair than in curly and coily hair. Also, the cuticle edges are smoother in wavy hair. These findings could help the researchers explain why curly and coily locks dry out faster than wavy and straight tresses. Ultimately, Gaines hopes, the team’s findings will identify the best parameters for developers to design and for consumers to select the most suitable products for each of the wondrously varied categories of hair.

    The researchers acknowledge support from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

    A recorded media briefing on this topic will be posted Monday, March 27, by 10 a.m. Eastern time at www.acs.org/acsspring2023briefings. Reporters can request access to media briefings during the embargo period by contacting [email protected].

    For health and safety information for ACS Spring 2023, please visit the FAQ webpage.

    The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

    To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact [email protected].

    Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

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    Title
    Reimagining hair science: A new approach to classify curly hair phenotypes via new quantitative geometrical & structural mechanical parameters 

    Abstract
    Hair science holds a great impact on society in the cosmetics industry and in biomedicine. Over the last few decades, there has been a significant societal paradigm shift for people with curly hair to accept the natural morphological structure of their curls and style their hair according to the innate, distinct, and unique material properties that their curly hair possesses. These societal and cultural shifts have given rise the development of new hair typing systems, beyond the traditional and highly limited ethnicity-based distinction between Caucasian, Mongolian, and African types. L’Oréal developed a hair typing taxonomy based on quantitative geometric features among the four key curl patterns – straight, wavy, curly, and coily, however the system fails to address the complex diversity of curly and coily hair. Andre Walker’s classification system is the existing gold standard for classifying curly hair types, however the system relies upon qualitative measures to classify hair type, which makes the system vague and ambiguous to the full diversity of phenotypic differences. The goal of this research is to use quantitative methods to identify new geometric parameters to better classify curly and coily hair and therefore provide more information on the kinds of personal care products that will resonate best with these curl patterns. The motivation behind employing hair typing is to better categorize hair phenotype and target appropriate personal care products tailored for specific hair phenotypes to maximize the desired appearance and overall hair health. This was accomplished by distinguishing new mechanical and physical properties of several types of human hair samples. Mechanical properties were measured under tensile extension using a texture analyzer (TA) and a dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA). Both instruments measure force as a function of applied displacement, thus allowing the relationship between stress and applied stretch ratio to be measured as a hair strand uncurls and stretches to the point of fracture. Morphological properties were measured using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), photogrammetry, and optical microscopy. From the resulting data, correlations were made between fiber structure and mechanical performance. This data will be used to draw more conclusions on the contribution that morphology has on hair fiber mechanics and will promote cultural inclusion among researchers possessing curly and coily hair.

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    American Chemical Society (ACS)

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  • What do the elements sound like? (video)

    What do the elements sound like? (video)

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    Newswise — INDIANAPOLIS, March 26, 2023 — In chemistry, we have He, Fe and Ca — but what about do, re and mi? Hauntingly beautiful melodies aren’t the first things that come to mind when looking at the periodic table of the elements. However, using a technique called data sonification, a recent college graduate has converted the visible light given off by the elements into audio, creating unique, complex sounds for each one. Today, the researcher reports the first step toward an interactive, musical periodic table.

    The researcher will present his results at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2023 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person March 26–30, and features more than 10,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

    A video on the research is available at www.acs.org/elementmusic.

    Previously, W. Walker Smith, the project’s sole investigator, took his combined passions of music and chemistry and converted the natural vibrations of molecules into a musical composition. “Then I saw visual representations of the discrete wavelengths of light released by the elements, such as scandium,” says Smith. “They were gorgeous and complex, and I thought, ‘Wow, I really want to turn these into music, too.’”

    Elements emit visible light when they are energized. This light is made up of multiple individual wavelengths, or particular colors, with brightness levels that are unique for each element. But on paper, the collections of wavelengths for different elements are hard to tell apart visually, especially for the transition metals, which can have thousands of individual colors, says Smith. Converting the light into sound frequencies could be another way for people to detect the differences between elements.

    However, creating sounds for the elements on the periodic table has been done before. For instance, other scientists have assigned the brightest wavelengths to single notes played by the keys on a traditional piano. But this approach reduced the rich variety of wavelengths released by some elements into just a few sounds, explains Smith, who is currently a researcher at Indiana University.

    To retain as much of the complexity and nuance of the element spectra as possible, Smith consulted faculty mentors at Indiana University, including David Clemmer, Ph.D., a professor in the chemistry department, and Chi Wang, D.M.A., a professor in the Jacobs School of Music. With their assistance, Smith built a computer code for real-time audio that converted each element’s light data into mixtures of notes. The discrete color wavelengths became individual sine waves whose frequency corresponded to that of the light, and their amplitude matched the brightness of the light.

    Early in the research process, Clemmer and Smith discussed the pattern similarities between light and sound vibrations. For instance, within the colors of visible light, violet has almost double the frequency of red, and in music, one doubling of frequency corresponds to an octave. Therefore, visible light can be thought of as an “octave of light.” But this octave of light is at a much higher frequency than the audible range. So, Smith scaled the sine waves’ frequencies down by approximately 10-12, fitting the audio output into a range where human ears are most sensitive to differences in pitch.

    Because some elements had hundreds or thousands of frequencies, the code allowed these notes to be generated in real time, forming harmonies and beating patterns as they mixed together. “The result is that the simpler elements, such as hydrogen and helium, sound vaguely like musical chords, but the rest have a more complex collection of sounds,” says Smith. For example, calcium sounds like bells chiming together with a rhythm resulting from how the frequencies interact with each other. Listening to the notes from some other elements reminded Smith of a spooky background noise, similar to music used in cheesy horror movies. He was especially surprised by the element zinc, which despite having a large number of colors, sounded like “an angelic choir singing a major chord with vibrato.”

    “Some of the notes sound out of tune, but Smith has kept true to that in this translation of the elements into music,” says Clemmer. These off-key tones — known musically as microtones — come from frequencies that are found between the keys of a traditional piano. Agreeing, Wang says, “The decisions as to what’s vital to preserve when doing data sonification are both challenging and rewarding. And Smith did a great job making such decisions from a musical standpoint.”

    The next step is to turn this technology into a new musical instrument with an exhibit at the WonderLab Museum of Science, Health, and Technology in Bloomington, Indiana. “I want to create an interactive, real-time musical periodic table, which allows both children and adults to select an element and see a display of its visible light spectrum and hear it at the same time,” says Smith. He adds that this sound-based approach has potential value as an alternative teaching method in chemistry classrooms, because it’s inclusive to people with visual impairments and different learning styles.

    On Tuesday, March 28, at 3:00 p.m., during the ACS Spring 2023 Meeting, Smith will also perform “The Sound of Molecules,” a show that will feature audio clips of a few of the elements, as well as “compositions” of larger molecules.

    Smith acknowledges support and funding from Indiana University’s Department of Chemistry, Center for Electronic and Computer Music, and Center for Rural Engagement; an Indiana University Undergraduate Research grant; the 2022 Annual Project Jumpstart Innovation Competition; and the Indiana University Hutton Honors College Grant Program.

    A recorded media briefing on this topic will be posted Monday, March 27, by 10 a.m. Eastern time at www.acs.org/acsspring2023briefings. Reporters can request access to media briefings during the embargo period by contacting [email protected].

    For health and safety information for ACS Spring 2023, please visit the FAQ webpage.

    The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

    To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact [email protected].

    Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.

    Follow us: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram

    Title
    Designing an interactive musical periodic table: sonification of visible element emission spectra 

    Abstract

    What does the element helium sound like? What about hydrogen? While these may seem like absurd questions, the process of data sonification can be used to convert the visible spectra of chemical elements into sounds. When stimulated by electricity or heat, elements release distinct wavelengths of light depending on their electron energy levels—a sort of “chemical footprint” unique to every element. These frequencies of light, which we perceive as different colors, can be scaled into the audio range to yield different sonic frequencies, allowing one to hear the different sounds of chemical elements. This research project involved the construction of an interactive musical periodic table, combining musical and visual representations of elemental spectra from high-resolution spectral datasets.

    The interactive periodic table was designed using Max/MSP, a programming language that uses digital signal processing (DSP) algorithms to generate real-time audio and visual outputs. This allows all spectral lines of an element to be played simultaneously (as a “chord”) or for individual lines to be played in succession (as a “melody”). This highly interdisciplinary project has applications spanning data analysis, STEAM (STEM + Arts) education, and public science outreach. Sonification of scientific data provides alternative methods of analysis that can expand access of such data to blind and visually impaired people. Sonification can even enhance data analysis via traditional data visualization by providing a supplementary layer of auditory information, and sonification-based learning models have been shown to improve student engagement and understanding of scientific concepts like protein folding.

    This program is currently being implemented in several middle and high school music and science classes, as well as a public music/science show titled “The Sound of Molecules” at WonderLab Museum of Science. Future work will focus on designing a free and open-source version of the program that does not require specialized DSP software.

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    American Chemical Society (ACS)

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  • HSS Study Shows MISB, a Minimally Invasive Procedure for Treating Bunions, Does Not Affect Flatfoot

    HSS Study Shows MISB, a Minimally Invasive Procedure for Treating Bunions, Does Not Affect Flatfoot

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    Newswise — Existing thought in the orthopedic world is that treating a bunion with the minimally invasive procedure MISB may make a person’s flatfoot worse. A new study by researchers at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City shows that this procedure does not make flatfoot worse in people with asymptomatic flatfoot and may even improve the condition. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS).

    “Because of the way the bunion correction is performed with MISB, there is a thought that it may not help stabilize the foot in the same way that the more extensive, open procedures performed at the midfoot do,” said study senior author Anne Holland Johnson, MD, a foot and ankle surgeon at HSS. “When someone has a flatfoot deformity, which is essentially a fallen arch, the idea is that fixing the bunion through this minimally invasive technique could make the flatfoot worse because we cut the bones closer to the toe. What we found is that it was quite the opposite—that fixing the bunion in a minimally invasive way caused no changes in the overall flatfoot dimensions.”

    “Bunion” is an umbrella term describing a variety of painful deformities at the base of the big toe. In the most common type of bunion, called hallux valgus, the big toe turns inward from its normal position and angles toward the second toe. Hallux valgus often presents with secondary structural deformities such as flatfoot, which can be symptomatic or asymptomatic (causing no symptoms).

    All techniques for treating bunions involve cutting the bones and repositioning them with metal screws. The minimally invasive chevron and akin bunionectomy (MISB) fixes the bunion by cutting the bones through tiny incisions in the skin. “The advantages of doing the surgery through small incisions include minimal to no pain after the surgery; immediate weight bearing, so you can walk normally on the foot; and faster return to day-to-day activities and sports,” said Dr. Johnson.

    The researchers conducted a retrospective study using a patient registry at HSS. In the registry, they identified patients who were over 18 years of age and were diagnosed with a bunion deformity between 2016 and 2021. Of this cohort, patients were included in the study if they underwent a MISB procedure to correct a hallux valgus deformity; reported their outcomes for at least one year and up to two years, as recorded by a patient-reported outcomes tool known as PROMIS; and had x-rays before and three months after surgery, at minimum. Using preoperative x-rays, the team identified individuals who had evidence of flatfoot; using a chart review, they also identified those with an asymptomatic flatfoot. These reviews yielded a study group of 35 patients with asymptomatic flatfoot and 47 patients without flatfoot.

    “We collected PROMIS surveys on all our patients. These are a series of questionnaires that have been validated for use in foot and ankle research and ask the patient about their function, pain, and mental health,” said Rami Mizher, lead author of the study and a research assistant in the Department of Foot and Ankle Surgery at HSS. The researchers found that MISB resulted in similar improvements in the two groups in physical function, pain interference (how often the pain interferes with daily life), pain intensity, and global physical health (overall patient health), as measured by the PROMIS survey. There were no significant preoperative to postoperative changes in PROMIS global mental health and depression measures in either group.

    A chart review showed there was no difference in complications in the two study groups.

    The researchers also examined pre- and post-operative x-rays to clinically assess how well the surgery corrected the bunion deformity and if it changed any of the flatfoot-related measurements. In both groups, there was a similar correction of the bunion deformity. In terms of the flatfoot outcomes, the researchers looked at three different parameters: calcaneal pitch, or the height of the foot arch; Meary’s angle, which measures how much a foot sags; and talonavicular coverage angle, which measures how much the foot turns outward. The first two measures didn’t have any significant changes, while the talonavicular coverage angle improved in the flatfoot group.

    “Our research shows that you can fix the bunion with this comparatively easier procedure and not make the flatfoot worse,” said Dr. Johnson. “It proves that minimally invasive bunion correction is a viable option for patients with flatfoot.”

    Authors: Rami Mizher, BS; Lavan Rajan, BA; Jaeyoung Kim, MD; Syian Srikumar, BS; Elizabeth Cody, MD; Anne Holland Johnson, MD; Scott Ellis, MD (HSS)

    About HSS

    HSS is the world’s leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. At its core is Hospital for Special Surgery, nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics (for the 13th consecutive year), No. 3 in rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report (2022-2023), and the best pediatric orthopedic hospital in NY, NJ and CT by U.S. News & World Report “Best Children’s Hospitals” list (2022-2023). In a survey of medical professionals in more than 20 countries by Newsweek, HSS is ranked world #1 in orthopedics for a third consecutive year (2023). Founded in 1863, the Hospital has the lowest complication and readmission rates in the nation for orthopedics, and among the lowest infection rates. HSS was the first in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center five consecutive times. An affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, HSS has a main campus in New York City and facilities in New Jersey, Connecticut and in the Long Island and Westchester County regions of New York State, as well as in Florida. In addition to patient care, HSS leads the field in research, innovation and education. The HSS Research Institute comprises 20 laboratories and 300 staff members focused on leading the advancement of musculoskeletal health through prevention of degeneration, tissue repair and tissue regeneration. The HSS Innovation Institute works to realize the potential of new drugs, therapeutics and devices. The HSS Education Institute is a trusted leader in advancing musculoskeletal knowledge and research for physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, academic trainees, and consumers in more than 145 countries. The institution is collaborating with medical centers and other organizations to advance the quality and value of musculoskeletal care and to make world-class HSS care more widely accessible nationally and internationally. www.hss.edu.

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  • Adding antipsychotic med to antidepressant may help older adults with treatment-resistant depression

    Adding antipsychotic med to antidepressant may help older adults with treatment-resistant depression

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    BYLINE: Jim Dryden

    Newswise — For older adults with clinical depression that has not responded to standard treatments, adding the drug aripiprazole (brand name Abilify) to an antidepressant they’re already taking is more effective than switching from one antidepressant to another, according to a new multicenter study led by Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

    Aripiprazole originally was approved by the FDA in 2002 as a treatment for schizophrenia but also has been used in lower doses as an add-on treatment for clinical depression in younger patients who do not respond to antidepressants alone.

    The new findings are published March 3 in The New England Journal of Medicine and are to be presented that same day by Eric J. Lenze, MD — principal investigator and head of the Department of Psychiatry at Washington University — and colleagues at the annual meeting of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry in New Orleans.

    Many people with clinical depression don’t respond to medications used to treat the condition. Consequently, some doctors switch such patients to different antidepressants in the pursuit of finding one that works, while other physicians may prescribe another class of drugs to see if a combination of medications helps.

    Both strategies have been recommended by experts as options for older adults with treatment-resistant depression. However, the new study was designed to help determine which strategy is most effective. Augmenting an antidepressant with aripiprazole helped 30% of patients with treatment-resistant depression, compared to only 20% who were switched to another solo antidepressant, results of the study show.

    “Often, unless a patient responds to the first treatment prescribed for depression, physicians follow a pattern in which they try one treatment after another until they land on an effective medication,” said Lenze, the Wallace and Lucille Renard Professor and the study’s corresponding author. “It would be beneficial to have an evidence-based strategy we can rely on to help patients feel better as quickly as possible. We found that adding aripiprazole led to higher rates of depression remission and greater improvements in psychological well-being — which means how positive and satisfied patients felt — and this is good news. However, even that approach helped only about 30% of people in the study with treatment-resistant depression, underscoring the need to find and develop more effective treatments that can help more people.”

    Treatment-resistant depression is no more or less common in older people than younger people, but because it seems to accelerate cognitive decline, identifying more effective ways to treat it is very important.

    Lenze, along with colleagues at Columbia University, UCLA, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Toronto, studied 742 people, ages 60 and older, with treatment-resistant depression, meaning their depression had not responded to at least two different antidepressant medications.

    The researchers evaluated strategies commonly used in clinical practice to help alleviate treatment-resistant depression in older patients and designed the study to have two distinct phases. In the first phase, 619 patients, each of whom was taking an antidepressant such as Prozac, Lexapro or Zoloft, were randomly divided into three groups. In the first group, patients remained on whatever antidepressant drug each already was taking but also received the drug aripiprazole (Abilify). A second group also continued taking antidepressants but added bupropion (brand names Wellbutrin or Zyban), and a third group tapered off of the antidepressant each had been taking and switched to bupropion entirely.

    Over the course of 10 weeks, the participants received biweekly phone calls or in-person visits with study clinicians. At these visits, the medications were adjusted according to the individual patient’s response and side effects. The researchers found that the group that experienced the best overall outcomes was the one in which patients continued with their original antidepressants but added aripiprazole.

    The researchers also anticipated that some people in the study wouldn’t respond to the various treatments, so they added a second phase that included 248 participants. In this phase, patients taking antidepressants such as Prozac, Lexapro and Zoloft were treated with lithium or nortriptyline — medications that were widely used before those other, newer antidepressants were approved more than two decades ago. Rates of alleviating depression in the study’s second phase were low, about 15%. And there was no clear winner when augmentation with lithium was compared with switching to nortriptyline.

    “Those older drugs also are a bit more complicated to use than newer treatments,” Lenze explained. “Lithium, for example, requires blood testing to ensure its safety, and it’s recommended that patients taking nortriptyline receive electrocardiograms periodically to monitor the heart’s electrical activity. Since neither lithium nor nortriptyline were promising against treatment-resistant depression in older adults, those medications are unlikely to be helpful in most cases.”

    But even the best treatment strategy — adding aripiprazole to an antidepressant — was not markedly successful for many older patients with treatment-resistant depression.

    “This really highlights a continuing problem in our field,” said senior author Jordan F. Karp, MD, professor and chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tuscon. “Any given treatment is likely to help only a subset of people, and ideally, we would like to know, in advance, who is most likely to be helped, but we still don’t know how to determine that.”

    Lenze emphasized that overall, antidepressants are highly helpful for the majority of people suffering from clinical depression. At least half of all people with depression feel much better after they begin taking the first medication they try. And almost half of the remainder not helped by a first drug improve when switched to a second drug, But that leaves a sizeable group with clinical depression that does not respond to two treatments.

    The problem is particularly difficult in older adults, many of whom already are taking several medications for other conditions such as high blood pressure, cardiac issues or diabetes,” Lenze said. “So switching to new antidepressants every few weeks or adding other psychiatric drugs can be complicated. In addition, because depression and anxiety in older adults may accelerate cognitive decline, there’s an urgency to find more effective treatment strategies.

    “There definitely is something that makes depression harder to treat in this population, a population that’s only going to keep getting larger as our society gets older,” he added.

    Lenze EJ, et al. Trial of antidepressant augmentation vs. switching in treatment-resistant geriatric depression. The New England Journal of Medicine, March 3, 2023.

    The study was funded by a grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), grant TRD-1511-33321. No in-kind support was received from pharmaceutical companies. Other funding was provided by the Taylor Family Institute for Innovative Psychiatric Research at Washington University School of Medicine. Other support came from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and the National Institute of Mental Health of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Grant numbers: 5RO1 MH114980, K24 AT009198, R01 MH114981. Additional funding provided by the Labatt Family Chair in Biology of Depression in Late-Life Adults at the University of Toronto.

    About Washington University School of Medicine

    WashU Medicine is a global leader in academic medicine, including biomedical research, patient care and educational programs with 2,800 faculty. Its National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding portfolio is the third largest among U.S. medical schools, has grown 52% in the last six years, and, together with institutional investment, WashU Medicine commits well over $1 billion annually to basic and clinical research innovation and training. Its faculty practice is consistently within the top five in the country, with more than 1,800 faculty physicians practicing at 65 locations and who are also the medical staffs of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals of BJC HealthCare. WashU Medicine has a storied history in MD/PhD training, recently dedicated $100 million to scholarships and curriculum renewal for its medical students, and is home to top-notch training programs in every medical subspecialty as well as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and audiology and communications sciences.

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    Washington University in St. Louis

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  • KIST offers a novel paradigm for social robots

    KIST offers a novel paradigm for social robots

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    Newswise — After competing in the finals with the University College London, which presented Bubble Worlds, the research team led by Dr. Sona Kwak from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST; President Seok Jin Yoon) presented “CollaBot” and received the best award in the “hardware, design, and interface” category at the Robot Design Competition hosted by the International Conference on Social Robotics (ICSR) 2022, which was held at the Chamber of Commerce in Florence, Italy (December 13-16, 2022).

    Previous studies on social robots were primarily based on humanoid robots that understand the context of situations and provide a range of situation-specific services. However, the commercialization of humanoid robots that were expected to perform tasks similar to, if not above, the capabilities of an actual human, was inhibited because the humanoid robot did not function as well as expected. In addition, because robotic products focus solely on a specific function, they are limited in terms of providing a wide range of assistance adapted to a consumer’s environment and situation.

    To address these limitations, the research team led by Dr. Kwak (KIST) developed a robotic library system (CollaBot) that understands situational context by integrating data collected by various robotic products, and offers context-customized assistance. This system comprising tables, chairs, bookshelves, and lights, provides a human-robot interaction based on the collaborations between different robotic products.

    The system environment is detailed as follows: the user’s smartphone, door, robotic bookshelf, and robotic chair are all connected; hence, the user can search for and select a book of interest on their smartphone, and the selected book will automatically be brought out from the bookshelf. The chair functions as a ladder by moving near to the user and letting the user step on it or a cart by transporting several books. In other words, in addition to executing its original function, each system component also adapts its function depending on the environment to offer user-friendly assistance.

    Dr. Dahyun Kang of KIST, who designed the interaction of CollaBot said that “the proposed robotic system based on the collaboration between various robotic products provides physical assistance by applying robotics technology to the existing Internet of things to create a hyper-connected society. We expect that this type of system that offers practical assistance in our daily lives can pioneer a novel robotics market.”

    This year’s Robot Design Competition at the 13th ICSR was led by the award chair, Amit Kumar Pandey, who participated in the development of key social robots such as Sophia, Nao, and Pepper.

     

    ###

    This research was conducted via the KIST Institutional Program and KIST Technology Support Center Program. KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

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    National Research Council of Science and Technology

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  • The American Association of Neurological Surgeons Announces Featured Speaker Lineup for the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting

    The American Association of Neurological Surgeons Announces Featured Speaker Lineup for the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting

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    Newswise — The American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) announced that the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting will feature remarks from Anima Anandkumar, director of machine learning research at NVIDA and Bren Professor at CalTech; Michael Annichine, chief executive officer of the Magee-Womens Research Institute; Will Flanary (aka Dr. Glaucomflecken), ophthalmologist and comedian; Fredric B. Meyer, MD, FAANS, professor of neurosurgery at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and Margot Putukian, MD, FACSM, FAMSSM, consultant and chief medical officer with Major League Soccer.

    The four-day weekend meeting will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California, April 21-24, 2023.

     

    Anima Anandkumar

    Anima Anandkumar offers a combination of leading-edge academic research with equally deep experience in business and practical applications. She is the director of machine learning research at NVIDIA, a Bren professor at Caltech and a former principal scientist at Amazon Web Services. Anandkumar received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, a Microsoft Faculty Fellowship, a Google faculty award and a number of other research and best paper awards. Anandkumar will deliver the Louise Eisenhardt Lecture and speak during the AANS/CNS Section on Women in Neurosurgery (WINS) Breakfast, both on Saturday of the meeting.

     

    Michael Annichine

    Michael Annichine is the chief executive officer of Magee-Womens Research Institute and Foundation (MWRIF), the largest research institute in the US focused on women’s health and reproductive biology. Annichine also leads development campaigns that sustain programs and research within UPMC-Magee-Womens Hospital and MWRIF. Under his leadership, MWRIF has expanded its partnerships with industry, academia and national and local foundations. Annichine will be a panelist Friday evening during the Opening Session discussing Concussion in Sports: What Every Neurosurgeon Should Know.

     

    Will Flanary, MD

    Will Flanary, MD, is an ophthalmologist and comedian who moonlights as “Dr. Glaucomflecken,” a social media personality who creates medical-themed comedy shorts for more than three million viewers. Initially used as an outlet to cope with personal health challenges, Dr. Flanary’s comedy has evolved to incorporate biting satire of the US health care system, academic publishing and interpersonal conflicts pervasive in the medical system. Dr. Flanary will entertain meeting attendees with his witty stand-up comedy Friday night during the Opening Session.

     

    Fredric B. Meyer, MD, FAANS

    Fredric B. Meyer, MD, FAANS, has been a member of the Mayo Clinic staff since 1988 and is a consultant and professor of neurologic surgery. He is the enterprise chair of the Department of Neurologic Surgery at Mayo Clinic and is recognized with the Alfred Uihlein Family Professorship in Neurologic Surgery. Dr. Meyer is currently the Juanita Kious Waugh executive dean of education of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and dean of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. Dr. Meyer will give the Hunt Wilson Lecture Sunday morning of the meeting.

     

    Margot Putikian, MD, FACSM, FAMSSM

    Margot Putukian, MD, FACSM, FAMSSM, serves as a consultant with Major League Soccer and is their chief medical officer. Dr. Putukian is the former director of athletic medicine and head team physician at Princeton University (2004-2021). Dr. Putukian is a past president of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, has served as a team physician for the US Men’s National Lacrosse team and currently serves as a team physician for the US Women’s National Soccer teams. Dr. Putikian will be a panelist Friday evening during the Opening Session discussing Concussion in Sports: What Every Neurosurgeon Should Know.

     

    About the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting:

    From April 21-24, 2023, in in Los Angeles, California, neurosurgeons, neurosurgical residents, medical students, neuroscience nurses, clinical specialists, physician assistants, allied health professionals and other medical professionals will join together for the 2023 AANS Annual Scientific Meeting. The annual meeting is the largest gathering of neurosurgeons in the nation, with an emphasis on the field’s latest research and technological advances. The scientific presentations scheduled for the 2023 event represent cutting-edge examples of the incredible developments taking place within the field of neurosurgery.

     

    About the AANS:

    Founded in 1931 as the Harvey Cushing Society, the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) is a scientific and educational association with more than 13,000 members worldwide. The AANS promotes the highest quality of patient care and advances the specialty of neurological surgery. Fellows of the AANS are board-certified by the American Board of Neurological Surgery, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada or the Mexican Council of Neurological Surgery, A.C. Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of disorders that affect the spinal column, spinal cord, brain, nervous system and peripheral nerves.

    For more information, visit www.AANS.org.

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  • Improving the performance of satellites in low Earth orbit

    Improving the performance of satellites in low Earth orbit

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    Newswise — A database updated in 2022 reported around 4,852 active satellites orbiting the earth. These satellites serve many different purposes in space, from GPS and weather tracking to military reconnaissance and early warning systems. Given the wide array of uses for satellites, especially in low Earth orbit (LEO), researchers are constantly trying to develop better ones. In this regard, small satellites have a lot of potential. They can reduce launch costs and increase the number of satellites in orbit, providing a better network with wider coverage. However, due to their smaller size, these satellites have lesser radiation shield. They also have a deployable membrane attached to the main body for a large phased-array transceiver, which causes non-uniform radiation degradation across the transceiver. This affects the performance of the satellite’s radio due to the variation in the strength of signal they can sense—also known as gain variation. Thus, there is a need to mitigate radiation degradation to make small satellites more viable.

    Fortunately, a team of researchers led by Associate Professor Atsushi Shirane of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have reported a novel phased array receiver strategy to reduce the effects of radiation degradation in these satellites. Their findings have been shared and published in the 2023 International Solid-State Circuits Conference. Dr. Shirane explains, “We propose a new phased array receiver strategy which involves on-chip distributed radiation sensors and current-sharing techniques. This helps to drastically reduce the effects of radiation degradation on the radio and power consumption.”

    The team of researchers found out that in the conventional design of the phased-array transceiver on small satellites, the signal from the main lobe degraded by 3.1 dB in a year due to ionizing radiation. To solve this the researchers created a phased-array transceiver with on-chip distributed radiation sensors. These sensors can detect the gain variation between the chips of the antenna. This was combined with current-sharing techniques to mitigate the gain variation and thus reduce the impact of non-uniform ionizing radiation on the radio and power consumption. Upon testing this new strategy, the researchers found that it led to less than 10% of the typical gain variation seen in small satellites. The current sharing techniques also brought down the power consumption of the satellite to the lowest reported value. Overall, this strategy was able to reduce the main lobe degradation and bring down gain variation while using a minimal amount of power, solving two major problems faced by existing small satellites.

    “Using the distributed on-chip radiation sensors and the current sharing techniques, we were able to drastically reduce the impact of radiation degradation and make the phased-array transceiver more energy efficient. This strategy,” concludes Dr. Shirane, “was found to be comparable to other state-of-the-art technologies at reducing gain variation. Thus, we believe that given its performance and efficiency, our strategy may lead to an even greater number of small satellites in lower Earth orbit, and a more well-connected world.”

    We have our fingers crossed for this future!

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    Tokyo Institute of Technology

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  • Cybersecurity Defenders Are Expanding Their AI Toolbox

    Cybersecurity Defenders Are Expanding Their AI Toolbox

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    Newswise — Scientists have taken a key step toward harnessing a form of artificial intelligence known as deep reinforcement learning, or DRL, to protect computer networks.

    When faced with sophisticated cyberattacks in a rigorous simulation setting, deep reinforcement learning was effective at stopping adversaries from reaching their goals up to 95 percent of the time. The outcome offers promise for a role for autonomous AI in proactive cyber defense.

    Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory documented their findings in a research paper and presented their work Feb. 14 at a workshop on AI for Cybersecurity during the annual meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence in Washington, D.C.

    The starting point was the development of a simulation environment to test multistage attack scenarios involving distinct types of adversaries. Creation of such a dynamic attack-defense simulation environment for experimentation itself is a win. The environment offers researchers a way to compare the effectiveness of different AI-based defensive methods under controlled test settings.

    Such tools are essential for evaluating the performance of deep reinforcement learning algorithms. The method is emerging as a powerful decision-support tool for cybersecurity experts—a defense agent with the ability to learn, adapt to quickly changing circumstances, and make decisions autonomously. While other forms ofAI are standard to detect intrusions or filter spam messages, deep reinforcement learning expands defenders’ abilities to orchestrate sequential decision-making plans in their daily face-off with adversaries.

    Deep reinforcement learning offers smarter cybersecurity, the ability to detect changes in the cyber landscape earlier, and the opportunity to take preemptive steps to scuttle a cyberattack.

     

    DRL: Decisions in a broad attack space

    “An effective AI agent for cybersecurity needs to sense, perceive, act and adapt, based on the information it can gather and on the results of decisions that it enacts,” said Samrat Chatterjee, a data scientist who presented the team’s work. “Deep reinforcement learning holds great potential in this space, where the number of system states and action choices can be large.”

    DRL, which combines reinforcement learning and deep learning, is especially adept in situations where a series of decisions in a complex environment need to be made. Good decisions leading to desirable results are reinforced with a positive reward (expressed as a numeric value); bad choices leading to undesirable outcomes are discouraged via a negative cost.

    It’s similar to how people learn many tasks. A child who does their chores might receive positive reinforcement with a desired playdate; a child who doesn’t do their work gets negative reinforcement, like the takeaway of a digital device.

    “It’s the same concept in reinforcement learning,” Chatterjee said. “The agent can choose from a set of actions. With each action comes feedback, good or bad, that becomes part of its memory. There’s an interplay between exploring new opportunities and exploiting past experiences. The goal is to create an agent that learns to make good decisions.”

     

    Open AI Gym and MITRE ATT&CK

    The team used an open-source software toolkit known as Open AI Gym as a basis to create a custom and controlled simulation environment to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of four deep reinforcement learning algorithms.

    The team used the MITRE ATT&CK framework, developed by MITRE Corp., and incorporated seven tactics and 15 techniques deployed by three distinct adversaries. Defenders were equipped with 23 mitigation actions to try to halt or prevent the progression of an attack.

    Stages of the attack included tactics of reconnaissance, execution, persistence, defense evasion, command and control, collection and exfiltration (when data is transferred out of the system). An attack was recorded as a win for the adversary if they successfully reached the final exfiltration stage.

    “Our algorithms operate in a competitive environment—a contest with an adversary intent on breaching the system,” said Chatterjee. “It’s a multistage attack, where the adversary can pursue multiple attack paths that can change over time as they try to go from reconnaissance to exploitation. Our challenge is to show how defenses based on deep reinforcement learning can stop such an attack.”

     

    DQN outpaces other approaches

    The team trained defensive agents based on four deep reinforcement learning algorithms: DQN (Deep Q-Network) and three variations of what’s known as the actor-critic approach. The agents were trained with simulated data about cyberattacks, then tested against attacks that they had not observed in training.

    DQN performed the best.

    • Least sophisticated attacks (based on varying levels of adversary skill and persistence): DQN stopped 79 percent of attacks midway through attack stages and 93 percent by the final stage.
    • Moderately sophisticated attacks: DQN stopped 82 percent of attacks midway and 95 percent by the final stage.
    • Most sophisticated attacks: DQN stopped 57 percent of attacks midway and 84 percent by the final stage—far higher than the other three algorithms.

    “Our goal is to create an autonomous defense agent that can learn the most likely next step of an adversary, plan for it, and then respond in the best way to protect the system,” Chatterjee said.

    Despite the progress, no one is ready to entrust cyber defense entirely up to an AI system. Instead, a DRL-based cybersecurity system would need to work in concert with humans, said coauthor Arnab Bhattacharya, formerly of PNNL.

    “AI can be good at defending against a specific strategy but isn’t as good at understanding all the approaches an adversary might take,” Bhattacharya said. “We are nowhere near the stage where AI can replace human cyber analysts. Human feedback and guidance are important.”

    In addition to Chatterjee and Bhattacharya, authors of the AAAI workshop paper include Mahantesh Halappanavar of PNNL and Ashutosh Dutta, a former PNNL scientist. The work was funded by DOE’s Office of Science. Some of the early work that spurred this specific research was funded by PNNL’s Mathematics for Artificial Reasoning in Science initiative through the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program.

    # # #

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    Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

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  • 10th Annual Regenerative Medicine Essentials Course and World Stem Cell Summit Return to Live with Virtual Option in 2023

    10th Annual Regenerative Medicine Essentials Course and World Stem Cell Summit Return to Live with Virtual Option in 2023

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    Newswise — WINSTON-SALEM, NC, February 9, 2023 – The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) and the Regenerative Medicine Foundation (RMF) have announced the 20th edition of World Stem Cell Summit will be held in conjunction with the 10th annual Regenerative Medicine Essentials Course, uniquely formatted this year for both in person and virtual attendance from June 5-9, 2023.

    Produced by the non-profit RMF, and in its 20th year, the World Stem Cell Summit is the most inclusive and expansive interdisciplinary, networking, and partnering meeting in the stem cell science and regenerative medicine field. With the overarching purpose of fostering translation of biomedical research, funding, and investments targeting cures, the Summit and co-located Course serve a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders and influencers.

    From the science behind pioneering discoveries and clinical applications, to regulatory and manufacturing challenges, the Summit and the Course will provide a comprehensive look at progress to date, current challenges, new “hot” topics as well as future applications.

    The World Stem Cell Summit is the educational and networking focal point for scientists, business leaders, regulators, policy-makers, patient advocates, economic development officers, experts in law and ethics, and visionary gurus from around the world since 2003. The Regenerative Medicine Essentials Course, taught by prominent experts, features a foundational instruction into the field of regenerative medicine, with examination on the structure and function of damaged tissues and organs. 

    Joint single-track programming for the Summit and the Course – the “official course” of RMF – will be held at Wake Forest locations in the Innovation Quarter located in downtown Winston-Salem. Course founder and WFIRM Director Anthony Atala, M.D., serves as co-director with Joan Schanck, MPA, WFIRM’s Chief Education Program Officer, and RMF Executive Director Bernard Siegel, JD.

    “We welcome the World Stem Cell Summit and RMF’s partnership on this venture,” Atala said. “RMF and Bernard Siegel have provided critical leadership to the field for more than 20 years, as a catalyst for the formation of valuable collaborations, while focusing upon patient advocacy, public policy issues, advancing funding initiatives, workforce development and worldwide public awareness.”

    According to Schanck, the program is designed for clinicians, researchers, technicians, students, industry, investors and government representatives. Topics include stem cells, biomaterials, cell therapies, clinical trials, regulatory matters, pathways to market, bio-manufacturing technologies and much more.

    “The Summit and Course showcase the entire regenerative medicine ecosystem and will provide timely information to expand knowledge and provide quality solutions to deliver effective treatments and cures, sooner rather than later – all in a spirit of friendship and cooperation,” Siegel said. “In the next weeks, WFIRM and RMF will announce the strategic partners and institutions supporting this event that will reach a global audience.”

    AlphaMed Press and Stem Cells Translational Medicine, the official journal partner of RMF, endorse the Course and the Summit.

    For more information about the upcoming virtual World Stem Cell Summit, please visit: www.worldstemcellsummit.com. To receive the latest information about the RME schedule, speakers and topics, bookmark this page.

     

     

     

    About Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine: WFIRM is recognized as an international leader in translating scientific discovery into clinical therapies, with many world firsts, including the development and implantation of the first engineered organ in a patient. Over 400 people at the institute, the largest in the world, work on more than 40 different tissues and organs. A number of the basic principles of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine were first developed at the institute. WFIRM researchers have successfully engineered replacement tissues and organs in all four categories – flat structures, tubular tissues, hollow organs and solid organs – and 16 different applications of cell/tissue therapy technologies, such as skin, urethras, cartilage, bladders, muscle, kidney, and vaginal organs, have been successfully used in human patients. The institute, which is part of Wake Forest School of Medicine, is located in the Innovation Quarter in downtown Winston-Salem, NC, and is driven by the urgent needs of patients. The institute is making a global difference in regenerative medicine through collaborations with over 400 entities and institutions worldwide, through its government, academic and industry partnerships, its start-up entities, and through major initiatives in breakthrough technologies, such as tissue engineering, cell therapies, diagnostics, drug discovery, biomanufacturing, nanotechnology, gene editing and 3D printing. 

    About RegenMed Development Organization: The mission of the RegenMed Development Organization (ReMDO) is to accelerate the discovery and translation of regenerative medicine therapies. ReMDO is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that manages a clinical translation initiative that includes thought leaders, representatives from leading US research centers, government representatives, and companies of all sizes. ReMDO conducts research to de-risk technologies and speed up their translation to clinical practice and to the global market. ReMDO manages the world’s first and only professional organization dedicated solely to advancing the regenerative medicine field, the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society (RMMS), and the Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Innovation Consortium (RegMIC), which manages a private-public partnership of industry and academic members focused on scaling up technologies.

    About the World Stem Cell Summit: The World Stem Cell Summit is a project of the nonprofit Regenerative Medicine Foundation. Since 2003, Regenerative Medicine Foundation has built the strongest, most comprehensive and trusted global network for Regenerative Medicine, uniting the world’s leading researchers, medical centers, universities, labs, businesses, funders, policymakers, experts in law, regulation and ethics, medical philanthropies and patient organizations. Our mission is to accelerate regenerative medicine to improve health and deliver cures. We are committed to the ethical advancement of an innovative medicine powered by regenerative, restorative, and curative technologies. All we do is in service of health, life, and the alleviation of human suffering.

    About the Regenerative Medicine Foundation: The nonprofit Regenerative Medicine Foundation fosters strategic collaborations to accelerate the development of regenerative medicine to improve health and deliver cures. RMF unites the world’s leading researchers, medical centers, universities, labs, businesses, funders, policymakers, experts in law, regulation and ethics, medical philanthropies, and patient organizations. We maintain a trusted network of leaders and pursue our mission by producing our flagship World Stem Cell Summit series of conferences and public days, honoring leaders through the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Action Awards, supporting our official journal partner STEM CELLS Translational Medicine (SCTM), promoting solution-focused policy initiatives both nationally and internationally and creating STEM/STEAM educational projects. For more information about RMF, please visit: www.regmedfoundation.org.

     

     

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  • NASA says 2022 fifth warmest year on record, warming trend continues

    NASA says 2022 fifth warmest year on record, warming trend continues

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    Newswise — Earth’s average surface temperature in 2022 tied with 2015 as the fifth warmest on record, according to an analysis by NASA. Continuing the planet’s long-term warming trend, global temperatures in 2022 were 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit (0.89 degrees Celsius) above the average for NASA’s baseline period (1951-1980), scientists from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York reported.

    “This warming trend is alarming,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “Our warming climate is already making a mark: Forest fires are intensifying; hurricanes are getting stronger; droughts are wreaking havoc and sea levels are rising. NASA is deepening our commitment to do our part in addressing climate change. Our Earth System Observatory will provide state-of-the-art data to support our climate modeling, analysis and predictions to help humanity confront our planet’s changing climate.”

    The past nine years have been the warmest years since modern recordkeeping began in 1880. This means Earth in 2022 was about 2 degrees Fahrenheit (or about 1.11 degrees Celsius) warmer than the late 19th century average.

    “The reason for the warming trend is that human activities continue to pump enormous amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and the long-term planetary impacts will also continue,” said Gavin Schmidt, director of GISS, NASA’s leading center for climate modeling.

    Human-driven greenhouse gas emissions have rebounded following a short-lived dip in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, NASA scientists, as well as international scientists, determined carbon dioxide emissions were the highest on record in 2022. NASA also identified some super-emitters of methane – another powerful greenhouse gas – using the Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation instrument that launched to the International Space Station last year.

    The Arctic region continues to experience the strongest warming trends – close to four times the global average – according to GISS research presented at the 2022 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union, as well as a separate study.

    Communities around the world are experiencing impacts scientists see as connected to the warming atmosphere and ocean. Climate change has intensified rainfall and tropical storms, deepened the severity of droughts, and increased the impact of storm surges. Last year brought torrential monsoon rains that devastated Pakistan and a persistent megadrought in the U.S. Southwest. In September, Hurricane Ian became one of the strongest and costliest hurricanes to strike the continental U.S.  

    Tracking Our Changing Planet

    NASA’s global temperature analysis is drawn from data collected by weather stations and Antarctic research stations, as well as instruments mounted on ships and ocean buoys. NASA scientists analyze these measurements to account for uncertainties in the data and to maintain consistent methods for calculating global average surface temperature differences for every year. These ground-based measurements of surface temperature are consistent with satellite data collected since 2002 by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder on NASA’s Aqua satellite and with other estimates.

    NASA uses the period from 1951-1980 as a baseline to understand how global temperatures change over time. That baseline includes climate patterns such as La Niña and El Niño, as well as unusually hot or cold years due to other factors, ensuring it encompasses natural variations in Earth’s temperature.

    Many factors can affect the average temperature in any given year. For example, 2022 was one of the warmest on record despite a third consecutive year of La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean. NASA scientists estimate that La Niña’s cooling influence may have lowered global temperatures slightly (about 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit or 0.06 degrees Celsius) from what the average would have been under more typical ocean conditions.

    A separate, independent analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) concluded that the global surface temperature for 2022 was the sixth highest since 1880. NOAA scientists use much of the same raw temperature data in their analysis and have a different baseline period (1901-2000) and methodology. Although rankings for specific years can differ slightly between the records, they are in broad agreement and both reflect ongoing long-term warming.

    NASA’s full dataset of global surface temperatures through 2022, as well as full details with code of how NASA scientists conducted the analysis, are publicly available from GISS.

    GISS is a NASA laboratory managed by the Earth Sciences Division of the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The laboratory is affiliated with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and School of Engineering and Applied Science in New York.

    For more information about NASA’s Earth science programs, visit: 

    https://www.nasa.gov/earth

     

     -end-

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    NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

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  • New Research, Funding Presentations in Upcoming Scientific Meeting Hosted by American University

    New Research, Funding Presentations in Upcoming Scientific Meeting Hosted by American University

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    Newswise — (WASHINGTON D.C) Jan. 13, 2023 –The Journal of Molecular Evolution, in partnership with American University and the Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine at Temple University, will host a free conference for career scientists, researchers and students at AU in March.

    ABOUT THE CONFERENCE:

    This three-day conference will feature invited talks from the journal’s editorial board members, selected talks on submitted abstracts, a poster session, and presentations for new researchers on the funding landscape for molecular evolution in the United States from National Science Foundation program officer Paco Moore (evolutionary processes) and NASA Astrobiology program officer Lindsay Hays.

    WHERE/WHEN:

    Friday March 17 to Sunday March 19 

    The three-day, all-day conference is open to the public and free. It will take place at American University’s Hall of Science located on AU’s campus at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C. 20016. American University’s 125,000-square-foot Hall of Science officially opened its doors during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, it’s been transformed into a hub of cutting-edge science teaching and research for both undergrad and graduate students. The hall’s state-of-the-art laboratories and classrooms are home to AU’s departments of biology, environmental science, chemistry and neuroscience.

    Complete schedule and reservation information: 

    https://igem.temple.edu/jmev/registration 

    ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 

    Molecular evolution as a distinct discipline began to take shape in the 1960s as insights from biochemistry and population genetics combined with the emerging field of molecular biology, which offered new tools for comparing biomolecules and their sequences across evolutionary distance.

    Just as molecular evolution emerged from the techniques and insights of molecular biology, biological chemistry, and population genetics, the field has kept pace through monumental changes in the life sciences, as advances in molecular biology have brought about the new paradigms of genomics, bioinformatics, and systems biology. In the last 50 years, molecular evolution has provided a clearer understanding of evolutionary history, evolutionary processes, and the diversity of the biosphere. The Journal of Molecular Evolution publishes computational, theoretical, and experimental work in the growing field of molecular evolution and is part of the Springer Nature family of journals.

    Media Contact:

    All visitors to AU’s campus must abide by the university’s policies on COVID-19.

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  • The Society of Thoracic Surgeons 59th Annual Meeting – January 20-23, San Diego

    The Society of Thoracic Surgeons 59th Annual Meeting – January 20-23, San Diego

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    Newswise — Credentialed press representatives are invited to attend The Society of Thoracic Surgeons’ 59th Annual Meeting and Exhibition, which will include late-breaking scientific research, thought-provoking lectures, cutting-edge technologies, and innovative cardiothoracic surgery products. This meeting is the preeminent educational event in cardiothoracic surgery.

    When: Saturday, January 21, to Monday, January 23, 2023

    Where: San Diego Convention Center – Press office is Room 27A

    STS 2023 Highlights:

    • Scientific sessions that cover hot, top-of-mind subjects such as controversies in transplant practices, the future of coronary revasularization, and CABG vs. multivessel percutaneous intervention.
    • Keynote lectures from high-profile speakers:
      • Francisco G. Cigarroa, MD, a renowned transplant surgeon and the first Hispanic to be named Chancellor of The University of Texas System, will share his experiences as a third-generation physician. (Vivien T. Thomas Lecture, Saturday, January 21, 8-9 a.m. PT. Livestream available.)
      • Peter K. Smith, MD, from the Duke University School of Medicine, will describe the evolution of the evidence base available for treatment selection for coronary artery disease. (C. Walton Lillehei Lecture, Monday, January 23, 9-9:45 a.m. PT. Livestream available.)
      • Vivien Thomas Symposium will focus on putting diversity, equity, and inclusion into action and mitigating health disparities. (Monday, January 23, 2:45-3:45 p.m. PT.)
    • A recorded press briefing that spotlights some of the most exciting research from the meeting.

    More details are available in the Annual Meeting program: https://www.eventscribe.net/2023/STS/

    Registered reporters will have access to:

    • Complimentary meeting registration
    • Renowned experts within the cardiothoracic surgery specialty
    • Embargoed press materials, abstracts, and presentation slides, and recorded press briefing

    The press office (Room 27A) can be made available for media use upon request during meeting hours, Saturday, January 21 through Monday, January 23. If no STS staff member is present in the press office,

    Press releases and abstracts will be available in advance of the meeting. Please contact STS Media Relations staff directly to schedule interviews and locate experts before and during the meeting, as well as to learn more information on the guest lecturers.

    ###

    Founded in 1964, The Society of Thoracic Surgeons is a not-for-profit organization representing approximately 7,700 cardiothoracic surgeons, researchers, and allied health care professionals worldwide who are dedicated to ensuring the best possible outcomes for surgeries of the heart, lung, and esophagus, as well as other surgical procedures within the chest. The Society’s mission is to enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality patient care through education, research, and advocacy.

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  • Hubble Finds Hungry Black Hole Twisting Captured Star Into Donut Shape

    Hubble Finds Hungry Black Hole Twisting Captured Star Into Donut Shape

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    FOR RELEASE: 5:15 p.m. (EST) January 12, 2023

    RELEASE: STScI-PR2023-001

     

    Newswise — Black holes are gatherers, not hunters. They lie in wait until a hapless star wanders by. When the star gets close enough, the black hole’s gravitational grasp violently rips it apart and sloppily devours its gasses while belching out intense radiation.

    Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have recorded a star’s final moments in detail as it gets gobbled up by a black hole.

    These are termed “tidal disruption events.” But the wording belies the complex, raw violence of a black hole encounter. There is a balance between the black hole’s gravity pulling in star stuff, and radiation blowing material out. In other words, black holes are messy eaters. Astronomers are using Hubble to find out the details of what happens when a wayward star plunges into the gravitational abyss.

    Hubble can’t photograph the AT2022dsb tidal event’s mayhem up close, since the munched-up star is nearly 300 million light-years away at the core of the galaxy ESO 583-G004. But astronomers used Hubble’s powerful ultraviolet sensitivity to study the light from the shredded star, which include hydrogen, carbon, and more. The spectroscopy provides forensic clues to the black hole homicide.

    About 100 tidal disruption events around black holes have been detected by astronomers using various telescopes. NASA recently reported that several of its high-energy space observatories spotted another black hole tidal disruption event on March 1, 2021, and it happened in another galaxy. Unlike Hubble observations, data was collected in X-ray light from an extremely hot corona around the black hole that formed after the star was already torn apart.

    “However, there are still very few tidal events that are observed in ultraviolet light given the observing time. This is really unfortunate because there’s a lot of information that you can get from the ultraviolet spectra,” said Emily Engelthaler of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “We’re excited because we can get these details about what the debris is doing. The tidal event can tell us a lot about a black hole.” Changes in the doomed star’s condition are taking place on the order of days or months.

    For any given galaxy with a quiescent supermassive black hole at the center, it’s estimated that the stellar shredding happens only a few times in every 100,000 years.

    This AT2022dsb stellar snacking event was first caught on March 1, 2022 by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN or “Assassin”), a network of ground-based telescopes that surveys the extragalactic sky roughly once a week for violent, variable, and transient events that are shaping our universe. This energetic collision was close enough to Earth and bright enough for the Hubble astronomers to do ultraviolet spectroscopy over a longer than normal period of time.

    “Typically, these events are hard to observe. You get maybe a few observations at the beginning of the disruption when it’s really bright. Our program is different in that it is designed to look at a few tidal events over a year to see what happens,” said Peter Maksym of the CfA. “We saw this early enough that we could observe it at these very intense black hole accretion stages. We saw the accretion rate drop as it turned to a trickle over time.”

    The Hubble spectroscopic data are interpreted as coming from a very bright, hot, donut-shaped area of gas that was once the star. This area, known as a torus, is the size of the solar system and is swirling around a black hole in the middle.

    “We’re looking somewhere on the edge of that donut. We’re seeing a stellar wind from the black hole sweeping over the surface that’s being projected towards us at speeds of 20 million miles per hour (three percent the speed of light),” said Maksym. “We really are still getting our heads around the event. You shred the star and then it’s got this material that’s making its way into the black hole. And so you’ve got models where you think you know what is going on, and then you’ve got what you actually see. This is an exciting place for scientists to be: right at the interface of the known and the unknown.”

    The results were reported during a press conference on Jan. 12 at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington. 

    The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble and Webb science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, in Washington, D.C.

    For an artist’s illustration and more information about this study and Hubble, visit:

    https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-001

    http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

     

     

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  • The Marvel-ous world of science

    The Marvel-ous world of science

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    Newswise — Kyra Ricci, a doctoral candidate at the University of Wisconsin Madison and her team of undergraduate collaborators from Binghamton University, set out to test ways to make science more engaging. These undergraduates were the architects behind a graphic novel, managed and graphically designed by Apurva Singh, written by Nora Hines and Christina Jacob, and illustrated by Kathleen Lu and Emma Glemboki. In the spirit of the Pixar blockbusters, this graphic novel tells a story about life from the perspective of a frog in a marsh, to highlight wetland biodiversity.

    In the meantime,  Ricci worked with local school teachers to examine how teaching science as a story affects engagement, knowledge, and trust for science. They developed two different lesson plans containing the same academic material: an “Art” lesson plan that incorporates the undergraduates’ graphic novel highlighting wetland biodiversity, and a ”Traditional” powerpoint lecture. Teachers were then randomly assigned the Art or Traditional lesson plan and taught their third grade students the lesson plan and followed it with a short quiz and survey of their experience.

    It turns out that the use of art in the form of graphic novels led to a more positive perception of science and helped students feel more engaged than they did with a traditional lecture. On the other hand, students taught using the lecture method reported more trust in science and performed better than “Art” students on the quiz. 

    What this tells us is that a holistic approach implementing a mix of art and lecture-based instruction may be the most effective to both educate and engage students in science. And, Ricci reminds us that at this young age, one of the main goals for education is simply getting students engaged. “You can only do so much with one-way communication teaching: actually engaging students is the next step.”

    Ricci is presenting these findings at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in Austin, TX, in January 2023. And keep an eye out for part two, where they take science outside the classroom and into the scenes featured in the graphic novel.  

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  • Scientists Study How Dragonflies Catch Prey in Midair

    Scientists Study How Dragonflies Catch Prey in Midair

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    Newswise — Despite their small size, dragonflies are arguably one of the most impressive predators in the animal kingdom. According to Rachel Crane, a biologist at the University of California Davis, dragonflies often catch up to 95% of the prey they go after, a rate she describes as “wildly high compared to where most predators are.” 

    More incredible still, this prey capture all happens in midair. “Dragonflies are doing these really, really fast, high-speed aerial captures,” says Crane. 

    This ability of dragonflies to successfully intercept airborne prey—a skill many human-designed robots have yet to master—is what drew Crane and her colleagues to study them. The scientists designed a novel method to test how dragonflies adjust to aerial challenges, like catching prey that speed up unpredictably or zig-zag through the air. Crane will present their study results at the January 2023 meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

    To study dragonfly flight, Crane’s team first designed a programmable pulley system that controls the movements of a bead on a string. Dragonflies are such voracious predators that they will readily attack most small objects flying through the air, even if the object is a tiny bead rather than a tasty fly. The bead’s velocity and acceleration can be set by the researchers simply by adjusting the controls, and the bead’s path can be changed by moving the string. 

    “You can make a circular track,” explains Crane, “but you can also pull that out of shape in any direction that you want, and all of a sudden, your bead is doing these really complex paths.”

    The scientists tested out their new dragonfly playground using blue dashers, a dragonfly species common throughout much of North America. They started with a relatively simple task: fly the bead in a straight line at constant velocity and record the dragonfly’s attack with a high-speed camera. They ran this test repeatedly at different bead velocities to see how dragonflies adjust their own speed in response to that of their prey. 

    Crane’s team found that regardless of how fast or slow the bead went, the dragonflies always flew about exactly one meter per second faster than the bead. This speed-matching behavior is similar to what scientists had previously observed dragonflies do while hunting insects. 

    “We’re seeing a similar thing with the beads that we would see with live prey, which is very exciting and reassuring,” says Crane.

    The next step is to examine the dragonflies’ flight patterns in more challenging scenarios, like when prey suddenly speed up or slow down, or change directions unpredictably. These tests could help scientists understand what strategies are most useful for accurately intercepting flying objects. 

    “We can see where they’re succeeding, how they’re succeeding, and how they’re failing,” says Crane, “and that can be helpful for 3D robotics challenges.”

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  • Pollution-fighting superpowers of a common roadside weed

    Pollution-fighting superpowers of a common roadside weed

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    Newswise — Plants are famous for their ability to store carbon, but that’s far from their only superpower when it comes to cleaning up the environment. Scientists have increasingly turned towards plants to help detoxify soils in areas rife with chemical contaminants. Some plants can even suck up heavy metals like lead and mercury and transfer them to their leaves, which are easy to harvest and dispose of safely. 

    This plant-based cleanup strategy, called phytoremediation, relies on finding plants that can grow quickly and easily and also have the ability to extract specific pollutants from the soil. Patrick Wright and Janet Steven, plant biologists at Christopher Newport University, recently identified horseweed as a potential candidate for the phytoremediation of heavy metals. Wright will present their research findings at the January 2023 meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.

    Horseweed is a common sight on roadsides and parking lots, and yet Wright never thought much about it until he was out surveying Superfund sites, which are areas contaminated with hazardous waste. “We just kind of stumbled upon this plant,” he says. 

    During the surveys, Wright carried a special handheld device that uses X-rays to measure the presence and concentrations of heavy metals. After pointing the X-ray device at the leaves of various plants, he noticed that the horseweed growing in Superfund sites had extremely high concentrations of heavy metals. 

    Based on this observation, Wright suspected that horseweed might have the metal-accumulation ability needed for phytoremediation. To test this ability, he grew horseweed plants in the lab, giving some of them clean water and others water contaminated with high concentrations of either lead, barium, zinc, copper, or chromium. Then he measured the plants’ growth and the amount of each metal that the plants accumulated in their leaves.

    Wright found that the horseweed plants were able to efficiently extract and store each of the five heavy metals. The plants grown in zinc-laden water had the most impressive results. “I saw that they accumulate a lot,” says Wright, “almost 1000 times the normal level of zinc.”

    And while plants that were watered with heavy metal solutions did grow less over the eight-week experiment than those with unpolluted water, they still grew substantially.

    The combination of its rapid growth, stress tolerance, and ability to accumulate a range of heavy metals makes horseweed an ideal candidate for phytoremediation. And Wright also points out that since horseweed is native to most of North and Central America, it can be grown throughout the region without fear of spreading a potentially invasive species. 

    Wright hopes that by sharing these findings, he will encourage more research into phytoremediation and more widespread use of this method for cleaning up pollution. “I want to continue pushing for phytoremediation,” he says, “but make sure we’re doing it in a very logical way.”

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  • Birds are Jerks Sometimes: how a Mother’s Quest to Defend her Eggs Against Invaders Influences Offspring Development

    Birds are Jerks Sometimes: how a Mother’s Quest to Defend her Eggs Against Invaders Influences Offspring Development

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    Newswise — The way people behave is influenced by processes such as mood, personality, and (curiously) our social context–it is much easier to find angry people waiting in line at the bank than cycling on Sunday afternoons. However, can the social context of parents affect the behavior of their future children? 

    Leigh Bailey, an M.S. student working with Assistant Professor Alexandra Bentz  at the University of Oklahoma, is interested in the influence that the social environment of female birds has on their offspring’s early development. 

    Tree swallows are a type of migratory bird found throughout North America. When nesting, they return to their favorite breeding grounds to find resources for their future offspring. If resources are scarce, swallows spend most of their time brawling with other birds to defend their territory. 

    The extent to which a bird acts aggressively partly hinges on its genetic makeup, similar to how some people are innately more abrasive, and others empathetic. This is information encoded in an animal’s genes since the moment they are conceived. However, other kinds of information that are not genetically encoded can also have a tremendous impact on behavior.  

    One example are sex hormones such as testosterone (T), a hormone typically associated with men’s sexual development and behavior that is also produced by females and across many species, including tree swallows. “There are two sources of testosterone,” Bailey explains; “circulatory T produced by the offspring later in development, and maternal T deposited by the mother into its eggs before they are laid.” Hormones that ‘come with the package’ communicate specific information about the environment that offspring are about to face. The influence that this information has on offspring development is referred to as a ‘maternal effect’.

    Bailey and colleagues decided to investigate maternal effects in the wild: they divided tree swallows in different groups and either gave them few or many nesting sites, a critical resource during breeding season. “We knew that swallows were territorial, so we exploited this to ramp up aggression and test how maternal T affects the offspring.” 

    Bailey’s preliminary data shows that mothers in groups with few nests behave more aggressively. Based on previous work by her group, she expects this will increase how much maternal T they allocate to their eggs. With heightened levels of maternal T, past studies showed that bird offspring grow faster, demand more food, and act more aggressively, all important traits for surviving in a competitive environment. 

    This work will allow us to understand how maternal effects prepare birds to survive in adverse conditions, but it also highlights the importance of a mother’s environment on the development of her children. “It’s remarkable how quickly these processes happen and have an impact that lasts for the offspring’s entire life.”

    The results of this research project will be presented by Leigh Bailey at SICB 2023 in Austin, TX.

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  • The devil is in the details: how poison-dart frogs avoid poisoning themselves

    The devil is in the details: how poison-dart frogs avoid poisoning themselves

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    Newswise — On a frog-catching expedition to the jungles of Ecuador, Aurora Alvarez-Buylla, a Ph. D candidate from Dr. Lauren O’Connell’s laboratory at Stanford, recounts the astounding expertise of wildlife scientist Dr. Elicio Tapia, the “frog whisperer”. 

    “We drove a dirt road in an old, creaky Toyota. I could not hear a thing.” Tapia, one hand on the wheel and his head out the window, remained alert. The truck stops, the whisperer exclaims: “There’s a frog.” 

    Silence, then: ‘bwap-bwap-bwap’, the characteristic mating call of Oophaga sylvatica, a 1.5 inch-long poison-dart frog with yellow-marbled skin.

    Oophaga sylvatica, known by locals as ‘el Diablito’ (‘the little devil’), brands eye-snatching colors that mean BEWARE; its colorful skin is an honest signal to the frog’s predators–Diablito’s way of saying: “if you munch me, you’ll regret it!”

    Accumulated in el Diablito’s skin are toxic alkaloids; small molecules obtained from the ant and mite-rich diet poison-dart frogs consume. Inside the body of its enemies, these toxins disrupt the nervous system and muscle cells. The consequences can be as mild as a nasty taste, enough to make the predator go “yuck!” and spit Diablito out, or as potent as to cause paralysis or cardiac arrest. 

    Little is known about how poison-dart frogs achieve and survive the accumulation of potentially lethal chemicals. Alvarez-Buylla thinks that poison-dart frogs may achieve this impressive feat with the help of transporter proteins in their blood, which may hang on to the toxins and prevent them from wreaking havoc until they are shuttled to the skin.

    Alvarez-Buylla and her colleagues devised an elegant way to figure this out: they ran experiments to see if proteins in the frog’s blood were interacting with pumiliotoxin (an alkaloid often found in Diablito’s skin) and a mimic of this molecule outfitted with a light-sensitive dye. If proteins bound to the mimic, it lit up; but if the proteins preferentially bound to pumiliotoxin or other alkaloids, then the interaction was invisible. Using this comparison, the researchers were then able to identify the most prevalent protein binding to both the mimic and the alkaloid, and appropriately baptized it alkaloid binding globulin (ABG). 

    With a clear protein candidate, Alvarez-Buylla and colleagues found that ABG is not only present in the blood, but also in the gut, liver, and, most importantly, the skin, highlighting its critical role in toxin transport throughout the body. What’s more, the scientists found that ABG also competes to bind a wider variety of alkaloid toxins. 

    Although Alvarez-Buylla’s work focused on frog toxin metabolism, it may have broader implications for bioengineering and poison therapy. “Studying weird animals is useful because you find examples of how nature has crafted clever solutions to problems, problems we may run into in the future.” 

    The results of this research project will be presented by Aurora Alvarez-Buylla at SICB 2023 in Austin, TX.

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  • Starting small to better understand key steps in the carbon cycle

    Starting small to better understand key steps in the carbon cycle

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    Newswise — December 14, 2022 – Earth’s carbon cycle works on a global scale. But it can be affected by the tiniest of organisms: soil microbes. These microbes decompose organic matter like plant litter and dead organisms, and create simple carbon compounds. These simple carbon compounds can then be used by other organisms, or turned into gases (like carbon dioxide) and released into the atmosphere.

    Much like us, soil microbes can be picky about where they live and work. “Just as we may prefer a certain range of temperature and humidity, soil microbes have their preferable conditions too,” says Alyssa Kim, a researcher at Cornell University.

    Kim is the lead author of a new study that explores how soil conditions, like moisture level and pore size, can affect soil microbes. Understanding how different soil conditions impact microbial activity can give researchers a better handle on ways to increase soil health and fertility, and help combat climate change. For example, “it can be a critical part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural fields after harvests,” says Kim.

    Kim recently presented her work at the 2022 ASA-CSSA-SSSA annual meeting, held in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Kim and her colleagues at Michigan State University compared microbial activity near corn and switchgrass leaf litter. Corn is a vital crop, and farmers in the United States planted nearly 90 million acres in the 2022 growing year. Switchgrass is a promising bioenergy crop with an expanding footprint. “Also, corn and switchgrass have different litter characteristics,” says Kim. “Litter chemistry affects how easily microbes can decompose different litters. The physical characteristics like texture can affect the water and air environment near litters.”

    Kim and her colleagues found that corn and switchgrass litters differ in how they change moisture levels in the soil near them. “We found distinct moisture depletion 0.1 to 1.5 millimeter away from switchgrass residues,” says Kim.

    To study this moisture distribution, Kim used a method called X-ray and Neutron computed tomography. This method works very similarly to medical CT scans. “It’s a very promising, non-destructive way to study soils and water in them,” says Kim.

    It turns out, moisture content is one of the most important factors influencing soil microbial activity. That’s because one way that microbes decompose organic material, like leaf litter, is by releasing chemicals called enzymes. Different enzymes break down different materials. For example, an enzyme called beta-glucosidase can break down plant cell walls. Another enzyme called chitinase can break down the exoskeletons of insects and some fungi. Once the enzymes break down their target materials into simpler chemicals, soil microbes can feast.

    “When soil moisture levels are optimal for microbes, they tend to produce more enzymes,” says Kim. That can lead to faster decomposition of leaf litter and the release of larger amounts of carbon dioxide. That’s exactly what Kim and her colleagues observed. Soil moisture levels were higher near corn litter, and decomposing corn litter released more carbon dioxide quicker than switchgrass litter.

    Although the study focused on millimeter-scale observations, it has large-scale implications. “Studying these microscale dynamics can help us to understand what is actually happening in our vast corn fields, and also, in promising bioenergy cropping systems like switchgrass,” says Kim.

    Kim also tested how soil pore size affects microbial enzyme activity. These pore sizes ranged from 10 to 30 micrometers, slightly smaller than the thickness of a single strand of most human hair. “It is crucial to study soil pore structures because that’s where soil microbes live,” says Kim.  Kim used a method called Zymography, to map the activity of different enzymes. “We add some chemicals onto the soil surface. Such chemicals show fluorescence when decomposed, and that is how we detect the location of enzymes.”

    Soil pore size affects different enzymes differently. Beta-glucosidase – the enzyme that breaks down plant cell walls – worked more efficiently in soils with smaller pores. On the other hand, chitinase enzyme activity was higher in soils with larger pore sizes. “These contrasting results tell us that what is decomposed in soils can depend on soil pore architecture,” says Kim. “That’s because there are different microbes living in pores of different sizes, producing different enzymes.”

    Soils in farm fields have a mix of large and small pores, which indicates a mix of moisture levels and different microbes. “In the future, I would like to look at soil pores and moisture levels on larger scales and test how differences in moisture distribution affects the decomposition process,” says Kim.

    This research was supported by Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research (Award DE – SC0018409); National Science Foundation Long-term Ecological Research Program (DEB 1832042) at the Kellogg Biological Station; Michigan State University AgBioResearch; and special thanks to Dr. Sasha Kravchenko and Kravchenko Lab at Michigan State University, as well as Anders Kaestner at Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland.

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    American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), Soil Science Society of America (SSSA)

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  • Media Invited to Acoustical Society of America Meeting in Nashville, Dec. 5-9

    Media Invited to Acoustical Society of America Meeting in Nashville, Dec. 5-9

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    Newswise — NASHVILLE, Tenn., Nov. 10, 2022 – The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) will hold its 183rd meeting Dec. 5-9 at the Grand Hyatt Nashville Hotel. ASA183 will be an in-person meeting with several hybrid sessions where remote attendance will also be possible.

    The scientific conference brings together acoustical experts and researchers from around the world to share experiments and applications on topics as diverse as dust devils on Mars, therapeutic music apps, 3D printed violins, and using machine learning to detect diarrhea and prevent cholera outbreaks – just to name a few. Conference highlights can be found on social media by searching the #ASA183 hashtag.

    Reporters are invited to attend the meeting at no cost (registration details below) and participate in a series of press conferences featuring a selection of newsworthy sessions. Reporters may also register to join the press conferences virtually. Times and topics will be announced in the coming weeks, and journalists may pre-register here: https://live.webcastplatform.com/go/asa. 

     

    ——————— SAMPLING OF INTERESTING SESSIONS ——————–

    • 1pMU6 – Emotion equalization app: A first study and results.
    • 2aSA4 – Old meets new: 3-D printing and the art of violinmaking
    • 3aPAa6 – Automated detection of dust-devil-induced pressure signatures
    • 5aAB2 – Vocal learning, chorusing seal pups, and the evolution of rhythm.
    • 3pAA1 – Modern movie sound: reality and simulated reality.
    • 1pCA9 – The feces thesis: Using machine learning to detect diarrhea.
    • 1pCA8 – Pneumonia diagnosis algorithm based on room impulse responses using cough sounds
    • 2aAAa7 – Noise from above: A summary of studies regarding the perceived annoyance due to impact sounds

     

    More information on these and all other meeting sessions is available via ASA’s meeting page and in the technical program:

    Main meeting website: https://acousticalsociety.org/asa-meetings/

    Technical program: https://eppro02.ativ.me/web/planner.php?id=ASAFALL22&proof=true

     

    ———————– MORE MEETING INFORMATION ———————–

    ASA PRESS ROOM

    In the coming weeks, ASA’s Press Room will be updated with newsworthy stories and the press conference schedule at https://acoustics.org/asa-press-room/. 

    LAY LANGUAGE PAPERS

    ASA will also share dozens of lay language papers about topics covered at the conference. Lay language papers are 300-500 word summaries of presentations written by scientists for a general audience. They will be accompanied by photos, audio, and video. Learn more at https://acoustics.org/lay-language-papers/.

    PRESS REGISTRATION

    ASA will grant free registration to credentialed and professional freelance journalists. If you are a reporter and would like to attend the meeting or virtual press conferences, contact AIP Media Services at [email protected].  For urgent requests, AIP staff can also help with setting up interviews and obtaining images, sound clips, or background information.

    ABOUT THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

    The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) is the premier international scientific society in acoustics devoted to the science and technology of sound. Its 7,000 members worldwide represent a broad spectrum of the study of acoustics. ASA publications include The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (the world’s leading journal on acoustics), JASA Express Letters, Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, Acoustics Today magazine, books, and standards on acoustics. The society also holds two major scientific meetings each year. See https://acousticalsociety.org/.

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    Acoustical Society of America (ASA)

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