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When the most massive stars die, they collapse under their own gravity and leave behind black holes; when stars that are a bit less massive die, they explode in supernovas and leave behind dense, dead remnants of stars called neutron stars. For decades, astronomers have been puzzled by a gap that lies between neutron stars and black holes: the heaviest known neutron star is no more than 2.5 times the mass of our sun, or 2.5 solar masses, and the lightest known black hole is about 5 solar masses. The question remained: does anything lie in this so-called mass gap?

Now, in a new study from the National Science Foundation's Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and the Virgo detector in Europe, scientists have announced the discovery of an object of 2.6 solar masses, placing it firmly in the mass gap. The object was found on August 14, 2019, as it merged with a black hole of 23 solar masses, generating a splash of gravitational waves detected back on Earth by LIGO and Virgo. A paper about the detection is being published today, June 23, in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

"We've been waiting decades to solve this mystery" says co-author Vicky Kalogera, a professor at Northwestern University. "We don't know if this object is the heaviest known neutron star, or the lightest known black hole, but either way it breaks a record."

"This is going to change how scientists talk about neutron stars and black holes," says co-author Patrick Brady, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration spokesperson. "The mass gap may in fact not exist at all but may have been due to limitations in observational capabilities. Time and more observations will tell."

The cosmic merger described in the study, an event dubbed GW190814, resulted in a final black hole about 25 times the mass of the sun (some of the merged mass was converted to a blast of energy in the form of gravitational waves). The newly formed black hole lies about 800 million light-years away from Earth.

Before the two objects merged, their masses differed by a factor of 9, making this the most extreme mass ratio known for a gravitational-wave event. Another recently reported LIGO-Virgo event, called GW190412, occurred between two black holes with a mass ratio of about 4:1.

"It's a challenge for current theoretical models to form merging pairs of compact objects with such a large mass ratio in which the low-mass partner resides in the mass gap. This discovery implies these events occur much more often than we predicted, making this a really intriguing low-mass object," explains Kalogera. "The mystery object may be a neutron star merging with a black hole, an exciting possibility expected theoretically but not yet confirmed observationally. However, at 2.6 times the mass of our sun, it exceeds modern predictions for the maximum mass of neutron stars, and may instead be the lightest black hole ever detected."

When the LIGO and Virgo scientists spotted this merger, they immediately sent out an alert to the astronomical community. Dozens of ground- and space-based telescopes followed up in search of light waves generated in the event, but none picked up any signals. So far, such light counterparts to gravitational-wave signals have been seen only once, in an event called GW170817. That event, discovered by the LIGO-Virgo network in August of 2017, involved a fiery collision between two neutron stars that was subsequently witnessed by dozens of telescopes on Earth and in space. Neutron star collisions are messy affairs with matter flung outward in all directions and are thus expected to shine with light. Conversely, black hole mergers, in most circumstances, are thought not to produce light.

According to the LIGO and Virgo scientists, the August 2019 event was not seen by light-based telescopes for a few possible reasons. First, this event was six times farther away than the merger observed in 2017, making it harder to pick up any light signals. Secondly, if the collision involved two black holes, it likely would have not shone with any light. Thirdly, if the object was in fact a neutron star, its 9-fold more massive black-hole partner might have swallowed it whole; a neutron star consumed whole by a black hole would not give off any light.

"I think of Pac-Man eating a little dot," says Kalogera. "When the masses are highly asymmetric, the smaller neutron star can be eaten in one bite."

How will researchers ever know if the mystery object was a neutron star or a black hole? Future observations with LIGO, Virgo, and possibly other telescopes may catch similar events that would help reveal whether additional objects exist in the mass gap.

"This is the first glimpse of what could be a whole new population of compact binary objects," says Charlie Hoy, a member of the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and a graduate student at Cardiff University. "What is really exciting is that this is just the start. As the detectors get more and more sensitive, we will observe even more of these signals, and we will be able to pinpoint the populations of neutron stars and black holes in the universe."

"The mass gap has been an interesting puzzle for decades, and now we've detected an object that fits just inside it," says Pedro Marronetti, program director for gravitational physics at the National Science Foundation (NSF). "That cannot be explained without defying our understanding of extremely dense matter or what we know about the evolution of stars. This observation is yet another example of the transformative potential of the field of gravitational-wave astronomy, which brings novel insights with every new detection."

For some children, screen time before bed translates to less sleep.

According to a study from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology, media use in the hour preceding bedtime impacts how kids sleep, especially children who struggle to self-regulate their behavior. Frequent media use before bed in these children predicted later bedtimes and less sleep. The work is now available online in Psychological Science.

"Among kids who used the same amount of media in the hour before bed, we found differences that were explained by a personality characteristic called effortful control," said Leah Doane, associate professor of psychology at ASU and senior author on the paper. "Kids who score low on measures of effortful control are the ones who struggle to wait to unwrap a present or are easily distracted. We found a strong association between media use in the hour before bed and when these kids went to sleep and how long they slept. Media use before bed was not associated with the sleep of kids who scored high on measures of effortful control."

The research team spent a week following 547 children, aged 7-9 years. The participant group was socioeconomically diverse and lived in rural and urban areas. The parents kept daily diaries that tracked the children's media use and sleep patterns. They also completed a survey that asked about their children's temperament, including their ability to self-regulate behavior.

For the entire week, the children wore specialized wrist watches called actigraphs that tracked their movement and also ambient light. The actigraph data gave the research team detailed information about when and how long the children slept.

The children slept an average of 8 hours a night and used media before bed for an average of 5 nights during the study week. Children who did not use media before bed during the study week slept 23 minutes more and went to bed 34 minutes earlier than children who used media most nights during the study week.

"Media use was generally associated with a shorter sleep duration, but this effect was most pronounced in children with low effortful control," said Sierra Clifford, a research scientist at ASU and first author on the paper. "The impact of media on sleep was also an average affect, meaning that it reflects habitual media use rather than occasionally staying up late to watch a movie."

The children who scored low on measures of effortful control slept the least amount of time when they consistently used media in the hour before bed during the study week. These children slept approximately 40 minutes less per night. Media use before bed did not affect the sleep of children who scored high on effortful control, which was approximately 35 percent of the study participants.

"Media exposure mattered for the children who measured lowest in effortful control," Clifford said.

Children with low effortful control might struggle with switching their attention from watching media before bed to calming down and falling asleep. But because effortful control is a personality characteristic, it is more difficult to change.

"Instead of parents wondering how to help their child better regulate their behavior, they can try to focus on creating more consistent sleep and media use schedules," Doane said.

The compulsive hoarding of animals is a poorly understood psychiatric disorder in people. Characterised by failure to provide minimum standards of care, it can result in malnourishment, uncontrolled breeding, overcrowding and neglect. Typically there is denial of this failure and its impact on the animals and people involved. Even less well understood is the growing trend of 'institutional hoarding' by organisations masquerading to the public as legitimate shelters or rescue centres. A new epidemiological study by Dr Linda Jacobson, of the Toronto Humane Society (THS), and shelter medicine colleagues at Ontario Veterinary College and JVR Shelter Strategies, California, shows that there are significant welfare concerns for hoarded cats not just from the home environment but from institutional settings also.1

While animal hoarding is recognised to encompass a continuum of harm and severity, attention from the scientific community has mostly focused on large-scale cases and/or those involving legal seizure of animals and prosecutions. Comparatively little attention has been directed at smaller-scale cases, particularly those associated with a collaborative approach and voluntary relinquishment of animals.

Published this month in the Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery, Dr Jacobson's study looked at 371 hoarded cats relinquished over a three-year period to the THS, an adoption guaranteed ('no-kill') shelter with a full-service veterinary hospital. Groups of cats ranged from 10 to 77 in number, with nine groups originating from home environments (designated non-institutional hoarding) and three from rescues (designated institutional hoarding). The majority of cats (95%) were surrendered voluntarily, many with the assistance of a community intermediary who was able to provide a navigable pathway between the animal hoarders and the THS.

The authors documented a range of conditions typical for hoarded cats. Almost 90% of cats were unneutered and 18% of females of breeding age were pregnant. Upper respiratory infection (URI), skin disease, ear mites and oral disease (gingivitis) were found in the largest number of groups. URI, which is associated with stress and overcrowding in cats, was the most common medical condition (38%) overall, followed by skin disease (30%). Notably, the risk of URI, and particularly chronic URI, was significantly greater for institutional hoarding compared with non-institutional hoarding settings.

As part of their study, the authors also analysed outcomes between hoarded and non-hoarded cats. Interestingly, they found similar adoption rates among their sample of 371 hoarded cats and a separate cohort of over 6000 non-hoarded cats that had been surrendered to the THS during the study period. In fact, the hoarded cats had a shorter maximum length of stay in the shelter than the non-hoarded cats. This reflects the fact that most of the hoarded cats were young and most of their medical conditions were curable or manageable, versus the complex medical or behavioural conditions among some non-hoarded cats. This finding, say the authors, underlines a shift in the expectations and abilities of shelters to successfully manage and rehome hoarded cats.

The study concludes that there is a need for a greater focus on institutional hoarding, and also points to the role that can be played by colony cat caregivers and other community intermediaries as an alternative to the legal seizure of animals in hoarding cases. Commenting, Dr Jacobson says: 'The "seize and euthanize" model is outdated and can often be successfully replaced by a least harms model.' This might help to reduce some of the unintended negative consequences associated with the traditional approach, such as delayed response times, stress for the animals and owners and overwhelming costs.

A University of Cambridge team led by Professor Mihaela van der Schaar and intensive care consultant Dr Ari Ercole of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine (CCAIM) is calling for urgent research into the striking differences in COVID-19 deaths they have discovered between the intensive care units of NHS trusts across England.

Using data science techniques, the team revealed that the NHS trust in which a COVID-19 patient ended up in intensive care is as important, in terms of the risk of death, as the strongest patient-specific risk factors such as older age, immunosuppression or chronic heart/kidney disease. In the worst case, COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a particular NHS trust were over four times as likely to die in a given time period than COVID-19 patients in an average trust's ICU.

From the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, clinicians and scientists have been deciphering the risk factors that make someone with COVID-19 more likely to die. The uncovering of determinants of risk has allowed doctors to focus resources on the most vulnerable patients and has proved important in planning for the surge in demand for intensive care units created by the pandemic. It has also informed the public of which groups should take greater measures to shield or socially distance themselves. The new study is the first to reveal the extent to which ICU-patient location is a factor.

"COVID-19 has stretched most ICUs well beyond their normal capacity and necessitated them finding additional space, equipment and skilled staff - in an already stretched NHS - to deal with demand for highly specialist life-supporting therapies," says Dr Ercole. "It is possible that some hospitals found this harder either because they didn't have time to react or the necessary resources. It is crucial to understand the reasons for these between-centre differences as we plan our response to similar situations in the future: how and where to build capacity, and how to use what we have most effectively."

The peer-reviewed paper - "Between-centre differences for COVID-19 ICU mortality from early data in England" - is published in Intensive Care Medicine.

The analysis was carried out on anonymised data from the COVID-19 Hospitalisation in England Surveillance System (CHESS) dataset, supplied by Public Health England. The data were anonymised not only in terms of the patients but also in terms of the NHS trusts. The data covered 8 February to 22 May, during which there were 5062 ICU cases in 94 NHS trusts across England, with 1547 patient deaths and 1618 discharges from ICU.

The researchers call for urgent "comparative effectiveness research" to get to the bottom of these marked differences between NHS trusts. Knowledge gained in this direction could inform how ICUs are optimised and improve best practice in dealing with surges in COVID-19 cases in England, and perhaps beyond.

WHAT:
NIH investigators and colleagues have discovered that when the immune system first responds to infectious agents such as viruses or bacteria, a natural brake on the response prevents overactivation. Their new study in mBio describes this brake and the way pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, turn it on. Their finding provides a potential target for an immunotherapy that might be applied to a wide range of infectious diseases.

When a cell senses an infectious agent with molecules called pathogen recognition receptors, part of its response is to increase cell surface expression of a molecule called CD47, otherwise known as the "don't eat me" signal. Increased CD47 expression dampens the ability of cells called macrophages, the immune system's first responders, to engulf infected cells and further stimulate the immune response. Upregulation of CD47 on cells was observed for diverse types of infections including those caused by mouse retroviruses, lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, LaCrosse virus, SARS CoV-2, and by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi and Salmonella enterica typhi.

By blocking CD47-mediated signaling with antibodies in mice infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, the authors demonstrated they could enhance the speed of pathogen clearance. Furthermore, knocking out the CD47 gene in mice improved their ability to control M. tuberculosis infections and significantly prolonged their survival. In addition, retrospective studies of cells and plasma from people infected with hepatitis C virus indicated that humans also upregulate CD47. In these studies, inflammatory cytokine stimuli and direct infection both promoted increased CD47 expression.

This highly collaborative research project involved 14 different institutions and was led by scientists from NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Hamilton, Montana, and Stanford University in Stanford, California. The findings open the possibility of using CD47 blockade as a new immunotherapeutic to treat a wide range of different infections. "There may be circumstances where host responses need boosting and CD47 represents a novel target for host-directed therapies in such cases," the scientists write, mentioning SARS-CoV-2, HIV, HPV and Ebola virus among several possibilities.

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Using protein and RNA, scientists have created hollow, spherical sacks known as vesicles.

These bubble-like entities -- which form spontaneously when specific protein and RNA molecules are mixed in an aqueous buffer solution -- hold potential as biological storage compartments. They could serve as an alternative to traditional vesicles that are made from water-insoluble organic compounds called lipids, researchers say.

"Our discovery has widespread implications, from understanding basic cell biology to enabling possible biotechnological applications, such as targeted drug delivery or pesticide release," says Priya Banerjee, PhD, assistant professor of physics in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences. "These hollow spheres look and behave like the classical lipid vesicles that people have been utilizing in bioengineering applications for many years, with an important exception: They are not made by lipids."

"Because of the hollow structure resembling lipid vesicles, one may envision a potentially exciting application where protein-RNA vesicles are dispatched into cells for carrying out rescue missions by releasing biomolecules or changing the local subcellular environment," says Davit Potoyan, PhD, assistant professor of chemistry at Iowa State University. "Another reason to be excited is that these vesicles are formed spontaneously from naturally occurring proteins and nucleic acids, which may help to avoid issues of toxicity that might be seen in other polymers designed to mimic lipid vesicles."

The findings were published on June 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Banerjee and Potoyan led the project, along with Ibraheem Alshareedah, a UB physics PhD student, and Mahdi Muhammad Moosa, PhD, a UB physics postdoctoral scholar, who did the experiments; and Muralikrishna Raju, PhD, an Iowa State chemistry postdoctoral scholar who carried out computer simulations.

To make the micron-sized vesicles, scientists mixed naturally occurring cationic proteins with RNA in an aqueous buffer solution. At some concentrations, the protein and RNA molecules clustered together to produce liquid droplets, akin to beads of oil floating in water. But at other concentrations, the protein and RNA instead came together to form the bubble-like vesicles.

As part of the research, the team also mapped out the conditions under which each type of structure forms. Experiments and simulations showed that the protein-RNA complexes coalesce spontaneously and are held together because of weak electrostatic attraction, repulsive interactions and chain entropy. A delicate balance of these forces dictates whether liquid droplets or hollow vesicles will form, the researchers say.

"We argue that there is a tradeoff between these forces," Banerjee says. "When you have too much repulsion, the protein and RNA molecules stay separated. But when you balance these intricate forces, you see a stabilization of these different structures, liquid droplets or hollow condensates."

After discovering the principle of how the vesicles are formed, the team created similar hollow droplets using other building blocks, such as designed polypeptides and synthetic polymers, demonstrating that the findings could have broad applications.

"We also observed that similar lipid-free vesicles can form with many proteins and RNA mimetics," Moosa says. "The ability to pick and choose from a large pool of mimetics will allow customizable biotechnological application of these assemblies."

UB has filed a provisional patent application for the lipid-free protein-RNA vesicles and the methods for making the vesicles.

The new study resulted from Banerjee's past work on protein-RNA complexes, which focused on generating liquid droplets from protein and RNA molecules.

In one experiment, "When we added more RNA to the droplets, immediately these compartments, these beautiful bubble-like structures, started forming inside those droplets," Banerjee recalls. "But it wasn't stable, and it went away in a few minutes."

That curious observation led his team to start investigating how to create the hollow structures and keep them intact for longer periods, which the new study achieves. The research on both liquid and hollow droplets could lead to improved understanding of how similar compartments form spontaneously inside human cells, Banerjee says.

One intriguing aspect of the study is the formation of vesicular geometry, reminiscent of membranes, arising from protein and RNA molecules, the scientists say. Lipids are well-known building blocks for biological membranes, but the new study suggests that other possibilities may exist for creating membrane-like barriers in biological systems that were previously not known, Banerjee says. Future studies could explore whether and how cells might use protein-RNA membranes to perform certain biological functions.

NEW YORK (June 23, 2020) -- Healthcare epidemiologists report using unprecedented methods in response to the unique circumstances resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a new study published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Healthcare epidemiologists have been at the center of hospitals' responses to the challenges presented by limited supplies and emerging evidence. These professionals have used resourceful strategies to keep healthcare personnel and patients safe.

"Hospitals and healthcare facilities managed in extraordinary circumstances to stretch the use of personal protective equipment outside of normal standards to optimize the use of an unpredictable supply," said Michael J. Calderwood, MD, MPH, an author of the study and a hospital epidemiologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire. "Many facilities have had to get creative - taking steps like self-producing PPE and test materials and reprocessing respirators - in an effort to mitigate risk and maximize safety for patients and healthcare providers."

In April 2020, the SHEA Research Network collected survey responses from healthcare epidemiologists at 69 healthcare facilities, including 58 from the U.S. and Canada, and 11 located internationally. These findings provide a 'point-in-time' snapshot of the daunting and urgent experiences hospitals and healthcare personnel have faced in the fight against COVID-19.

Key findings from the survey include:

PPE: Many facilities were feeling shortages with 40% reporting their supply of respirators was either "limited" or at "crisis level."

Extended use and reuse of PPE: Many facilities were optimizing use of PPE. Sixty-eight percent of facilities reported using, or planning to use, one or more strategies to extend the supply of respirators. The most frequently cited strategy, utilized by 52%, was to have health care providers in certain units reuse the same respirator for an entire day. 71% of facilities with supplies at "limited" to "crisis" level were practicing some form of extended use or reuse of respirators. Many facilities also turned to reprocessing PPE with 48% (33) of facilities indicating that they were reprocessing respirators.

Self-producing supplies for testing and PPE: In the "other" field in a question about self-producing test components, 13% of facilities wrote in that they were self-producing PPE, such as face shields and gowns, due to shortages. A quarter of facilities were self-producing testing components, such as swabs, transport media, and collection tubes.

Testing: The vast majority (81%) reported having access to in-house testing for COVID-19. Sixty-four percent of facilities reported testing asymptomatic patients prior to certain procedures.

Ethical guidance: Approximately two-thirds of facilities reported receiving ethical guidance from their institutions regarding potential therapies for COVID-19, PPE contingency strategies, patient triage, equipment modifications, and visitor policies. Only about one-third of survey participants had received ethical guidance from states and professional societies in these areas. PPE contingency strategies was the topic that facilities said they had most frequently sought and received ethical guidance.

"Time and energy spent creating new approaches to address shortages of basic supplies takes resources away from addressing critical health issues," said Mary Hayden, MD, president-elect of SHEA. "We're learning about this virus. With reopening efforts underway, healthcare facilities need more predictable inventories of personal protective equipment and testing supplies. We can't be put in a shortage situation, especially as non-healthcare demands for these supplies will be increasing."

The authors note that the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled institutions to take rapid, practical actions for healthcare personnel and patient safety. Research is needed to assess further the safety and efficacy of these innovative strategies, and approaches must be identified to strengthen facilities and their communities to protect against shortages of critical healthcare supplies, prepare for potential new waves of COVID-19 cases, and be ready for future outbreaks of emerging pathogens.

The survey provides valuable insight into practices in healthcare facilities; however, the results reflect the experiences of the healthcare epidemiologists in 69 facilities that participated in the survey and may not be generalizable to all hospitals.

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- From low-income countries to high-income countries, long-term exposure to fine particulate outdoor air pollution is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease and death, a new Oregon State University study found.

But even small reductions in air pollution levels can result in a reduction of disease risk.

The study shows that countries don't have to immediately eradicate all air pollution to make a difference for people's health, said researcher Perry Hystad, an environmental epidemiologist in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences. Hystad was the lead author on the international study, which also included fellow OSU public health researcher Andrew Larkin. Michael Brauer of the University of British Columbia was the senior author.

"If you reduce the concentration of outdoor air pollution, you're going to see benefits for cardiovascular disease," Hystad said. "Before this study, we were not sure if this was the case. Some studies suggested that at high concentration, as seen in many developing countries, levels would have to be reduced by very large amounts before health benefits would occur."

The massive study, published last week in The Lancet Planetary Health journal, used data from the long-running Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. For the current paper, researchers analyzed 157,436 adults between 35 and 70 years old in 21 countries from 2003-2018.

Overall, the study found a 5% increase in all cardiovascular events for every 10 microgram-per-cubic-meter increase in concentration of air pollutant particles under 2.5 microns in size (PM2.5). Factoring in the vast range of concentrations in PM2.5 recorded across the globe, that means 14% of all cardiovascular events documented in the study can be attributed to PM2.5 exposure.

"That's a big number," Hystad said. "That's a substantial portion of the cardiovascular disease burden."

The risks in low- and middle-income countries were mostly identical to the risks found in high-income countries.

The PURE study chose multiple countries from low, middle and high-income brackets to address a gap in existing research, as most air pollution studies have centered on people in high-income countries with relatively low concentrations of air pollution.

The current study looked at PM2.5 particles because they are small enough to be breathed deep into the lungs where they can cause chronic inflammation, Hystad said. These particles come from a range of combustion sources, including car engines, fireplaces and coal-fired power plants.

Researchers worked with a set of cardiovascular disease risk factors, including individual variables like smoking status, eating habits and pre-existing cardiovascular disease; and household factors like household wealth and use of dirty fuels for indoor cooking. Previous research in the PURE cohort found links between solid fuel use and kerosene use and cardiovascular disease. They also referenced geographical variables, including whether a person's location was rural or urban and general access to quality health care within each country.

In the data's 15-year period, in which participants were followed for roughly nine years each, 9,152 people had cardiovascular disease events, including 4,083 heart attacks and 4,139 strokes. There were 3,219 deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease.

The strongest association between air pollution exposure and health outcomes was for strokes. Hystad says a growing body of research finds that the risk of stroke is strongly impacted by exposure to PM2.5, especially at high concentrations.

Over the study's time frame, some countries' pollution levels improved, while some got worse, Hystad said. He pointed to the U.S.'s Clean Air Act of 1963 and how different air pollution levels are today compared to where they were in the 1970s.

"What I hope -- and this is actually what is happening -- is that developing countries can take these lessons and apply them and reduce the time it takes to achieve some of these air pollution reduction successes," he said. "Maybe instead of 30 years, you can do it in 10 years."

A highly unusual gravitational wave signal, detected by the LIGO and Virgo observatories in the US and Italy, was generated by a new class of binary systems (two astronomical objects orbiting around each other), an international team of astrophysicists has confirmed.

Scientists from the LIGO and Virgo Collaboration, which includes researchers from the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy at the University of Birmingham, detected the signal, named GW190814, in August 2019.

In a new paper, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the team has announced that the signal was generated by a compact object (a neutron star or a black hole) 2.6 times the mass of our sun (2.6 solar masses), merging with a black hole of 23 solar masses.

The new observation is important because it challenges astrophysicists' understanding both of how stars die and how they pair up into binary systems. Although the precise nature of the lighter member of the binary that generated GW190814 is unknown, scientists have confirmed that it is a record breaker: it is more massive than any neutron star and lighter than any black hole yet observed.

"This merger event is one of the most unusual ones observed in gravitational waves to date", says Dr Patricia Schmidt, Lecturer at the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and member of the LIGO team. "It pushes our understanding of the nature of the lighter companion and how it is formed to the limits. This will keep astrophysicists occupied for a while."

Scientists have so far believed that dying stars do not leave remnants, whatever their nature, with a mass between 2.5 and 5 times the mass of the Sun. Now this desert has been populated by one of the objects that produced GW190814.

"From the very outset it was clear that this was a special event," says Dr Geraint Pratten, a researcher at the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, who was involved in producing the initial sky-maps for optical telescopes' follow-ups. "It highlights the need for ever better theoretical models of the emitted gravitational-wave signal, such as those produced here in Birmingham, to mine as much information as possible from the data and understand how such high mass-ratio binaries are formed."

An additional aspect requires further investigation. The disparity in masses between the two objects, with the black hole nine times more massive than its companion object, challenges existing theories about how binary systems of black holes and neutron stars are formed. What is certain, according to the research team, is that GW190814 was produced by a binary system that is quite different from other systems detected so far by LIGO and Virgo.

"We have been itching with excitement since this candidate showed up on our screens," says co-author Professor Alberto Vecchio, director of the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy. "We thought the Universe would be kind of lazy in producing binaries of objects with such different masses, if it did so at all. And guess what, we were wrong! We now know there are cosmic factories hiding somewhere that are actually rather efficient at generating these systems. The journey to figure out what they are and how they work is going to keep us busy for quite some time, but more and better data from LIGO and Virgo are just about a year away, and we are bound to have new surprises".

A further mystery surrounding GW190814 has been its elusiveness for astronomers looking for light from the event. When new gravitational waves are detected, an alert is sent to astronomers world-wide, triggering dozens of ground- and space-based telescopes to start searching for a fireball ignited by the collision. For GW190814, no such glow has yet been detected.

Dr Matt Nicholl is a Lecturer at the Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy, and followed up the event as part of the European ENGRAVE team using the ESO Very Large Telescope, and the US-led team using the Magellan telescopes. He says: "Observatories around the world carried out an intensive search for any light-show produced by the merger. We were able to show that if any light was released, it must have been extremely faint to avoid detection. This means that if the lighter companion was a neutron star, its more massive black hole partner may have simply swallowed it whole! On the other hand, if the collision involved two black holes, it's not likely that it would have shone with any light."

A new study of twins finds that genetics play a significant role in how affectionate women are, but the same can't be said for men.

Researchers examined differences in the level of affection people express in an effort to determine how much affectionate behavior is influenced by genetics versus a person's environment. They found that, in women, variability in affectionate behavior can be explained 45% by hereditary and 55% by environmental influences, such as the media, personal relationships and other unique life experiences.

Genetics do not appear to influence how affectionate men are. Men's variation in affectionate behavior instead seems to be solely influenced by environmental factors, a finding that came as a surprise to the researchers.

The study, published in Communication Monographs, was led by Kory Floyd, a professor in the University Arizona Department of Communication in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences.

"The question that drove the study was: Recognizing that some people are more affectionate than others, what accounts for that variation, and is any part of that variation genetic?" said Floyd, whose research focuses on the communication of affection in close relationships and its effects on stress and physiological functioning.

"In my field, there is a really strong underlying assumption that whenever we see differences in a trait level in people's social behaviors - like how talkative they are or how shy they are or how affectionate they are - those differences are learned; they're a function of the environment," Floyd said. "A study like this makes room for us to talk about the possibility that a number of social and behavioral traits that we automatically assume are learned may also have a genetic component."

Floyd and his collaborators studied 464 pairs of adult twins - about half identical and half fraternal - between the ages 19 and 84.

Twin studies often are used to look at how environmental and genetic factors influence specific traits. Because twins typically are raised in the same household, they've usually had very similar upbringings and early experiences. However, twins' genetic similarities vary based on what type of twins they are. While identical twins share 100% of their genetic material, fraternal twins share only 50% - the same as regular siblings.

Each participant in the study rated a series of statements designed to measure how much affection they typically express. The researchers then looked at how similar each twin pair's responses were.

If genetics didn't play any role, one could assume that the scores of people in fraternal twin pairs would be just as similar as the scores of people in identical twin pairs, who are more alike genetically. However, that was not the case. The identical twin pairs scored more similarly than the fraternal twin pairs - at least in the case of women - suggesting that there is, in fact, a genetic component to affectionate behavior.

The researchers don't know why affectionate behavior seems to be heritable in women but not men. However, Floyd notes that men, on average, tend to express less affection overall than women, as evidenced by previous research.

"When we measure people's tendency to be affectionate and to receive affection from other people, almost without exception we find that women score higher than men," Floyd said. "The trait of being affectionate may be more adaptive for women in an evolutionary sense. There is some speculation that affectionate behavior is more health supportive for women than it is for men, and that it helps women to manage the effects of stress more than it does for men. That may be partly why women are more likely than men to inherit the tendency to behave that way rather than that tendency simply being a product of their environment."

The researchers also found that twins' shared environment - such as how they were raised or their socioeconomic background - had little bearing on how affectionate they were. Rather, unique environmental factors, such as an individual's friends and experiences apart from their twin, were what mattered more.

"It's not exactly what we would expect, but for many behaviors and personality characteristics - including how affectionate you are - what twins do and experience differently in their lives plays a much bigger role than anything they experience together," Floyd said.

It's important to note, Floyd said, that the study's findings are at the population level and not the individual level. In other words, they don't suggest that every woman's level of affectionate behavior can be attributed 45% to heredity and 55% to environmental influences. Nor do they mean a person can't be more or less affectionate than what their genes suggest.

"Our genes simply predispose us to certain kinds of behaviors; that doesn't automatically mean we're going to engage in those behaviors," Floyd said. "And it certainly doesn't mean that we have no control over them."

How 'huggers' can deal with COVID-19 'skin hunger'

Those who are more predisposed to being affectionate might especially miss hugs and handshakes in the era of COVID-19 physical distancing, Floyd said.

But it's not just "huggers" who crave regular affection. We all are wired to need human touch.

"There's something special about touch that I think relates back to the fact that we, as human beings, are born in such a state of immaturity that we have no ability to take care of our own needs," Floyd said. "Touch equals survival as infants. If we don't have someone touching us and helping to meet our needs, then we don't survive."

People who live alone or who are limiting social interactions during the pandemic may experience what's referred to as "skin hunger," Floyd said.

"Just like regular hunger reminds us that we're not getting enough to eat, skin hunger is the recognition that we're not getting enough touch in our lives," Floyd said. "Many people these days are recognizing that they miss getting hugs, they miss touch, and it's maybe the one thing technology hasn't really figured out how to give us yet."

While there is no real substitute for human touch, Floyd says there are a few things people can do.

--Pet your dog or cat. Petting an animal can help relieve stress, which is why canine and equine therapies are so successful, Floyd says. If you don't have a pet, you might consider heading to the local Humane Society or shelter to interact with an animal there.

--Cuddle your pillow or blanket. Many of us grew up with a favorite stuffed toy or security blanket. Adults, too, can experience calm and comfort from snuggling up to a pillow, blanket or other soft object that feels good against the skin, Floyd says.

--Practice self-massage. Some people massage their own necks or shoulders to relieve stress and physical pain. Floyd recommends pressing your thumb into the palm of your opposite hand as one type of stress-relieving massage.

"None of these is a perfect substitute," Floyd said, "but when being able to hug or hold hands with our loved ones isn't feasible or safe for us, these sorts of things are certainly better than nothing."

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Access to green spaces in metro areas--parks, trails, even the tree cover in a neighborhood - is largely associated with income and race, new research indicates.

Researchers combined census-block-group demographic and socio-economic data with satellite imagery to analyze access to green spaces and vegetation in two metropolitan areas: Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia. Their study appears in the August issue of the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.

"Having close and convenient access to green spaces and vegetation within one's neighborhood can bring many ecological and health benefits," said Yujin Park, lead author of the study. Park recently completed her PhD in city and regional planning at The Ohio State University's Knowlton School of Architecture.

"These green resources should be available to anyone, and to any community, and we wanted to see whether this availability was affected by socioeconomic status, income, ethnicity or race."

Income and race may not have the same influence in all cities and counties, results show. Neighborhood location matters to what green space is available, the researchers found.

In the Columbus metropolitan area, a region of around 2 million people and 10 counties, access to green spaces is primarily influenced by income: Wealthier neighborhoods have greater access to parks, trees, greenways and sports fields. In the Atlanta metro area, a region of around 6 million people that covers 29 counties, access is significantly related to race.

Park said the researchers chose Atlanta and Columbus because they are similar in key measures including median incomes, urban core population densities, urban sprawl and car-dependency rates.

The researchers gathered data from both metropolitan areas by census block group from the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2014 Smart Location Database of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They compared that data with four different geospatial datasets that show green spaces: National Land Cover Database (NLCD), Landsat Satellite imagery, OpenStreetMap and USA Parks from ESRI. Then, they analyzed accessibility to six different types of green spaces: vegetation biomass, tree canopies, parks, greenway trails, golf courses and sports fields, and a broad category of green open spaces that includes gardens, lawns, farms and fallow fields.

In Columbus, parks and greenways spanned the city, even reaching some poor neighborhoods. In Atlanta, mature trees covered more than half of the region.

The analysis showed that, in both cities, open green spaces inside the cities are concentrated in affluent, white suburbs near the center of the city.

Affluent suburban communities are also more likely to have access to a broad range of types of green space. In the Columbus area, for example, long-established, relatively affluent suburbs inside the city's beltway have access to both urban green trails and sports fields, as well as green lawns, trees and parks.

"There are very strong associations between community income levels and the density and diversity of green spaces available," Park said. "Affluent areas closer to the cities have a greater variety of choices in the green spaces available to them."

But in both regions, the data shows that less wealthy, racial-minority suburban and exurban communities outside the cities have little access to greenways and public parks. Therefore, disparities in access to green amenities may grow in these outskirt areas.

"Poorer urban communities are less likely to have access to trees and lawns. However, generally, communities in more-dense urban and downtown areas tend to have greater access to parks and green trails, thanks to historical park and trail investments in those areas," Park said. "Therefore, the efforts to increase and protect urban parks are very important, as they are the sources of green access for middle- to lower-income urban communities."

Jean-Michel Guldmann, professor emeritus of city and regional planning at Ohio State and the other author of this study, said future research could examine the quality of those green spaces.

"In the case of Atlanta, for example, there are many trees, but a lot of them are really old, and might not be well-cared-for," he said. "And some parks are not managed well and could feel unsafe to be in. The quality of urban parks can be another avenue for providing improved access."

A device that monitors health conditions in the body using a person's sweat has been developed by Penn State and Xiangtan University researchers, according to Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State.

"We want to be able to analyze the sweat from daily exercise or from the heat of the sun because in sweat we have a lot of biomarkers like pH and glucose that will be a really nice indicator for disease progression or diagnostics," Cheng said.

The device will be on a patch applied to the skin near sweat glands. It consists of a small vial containing multiple chambers that has a hydrophobic -- water repelling -- valve near the opening made of silicone rubber. The channel has a hydrophilic -- water attracting -- coating for easy collection of the sweat. Unlike other devices that require two openings, the single opening reduces the amount of evaporation, leading to longer storage time for later analysis.

On-the-spot analysis can be done using a colorimetric approach in which a color-coded analyte is preplaced in the various chambers. This sensitive chemical responds to the pH or glucose level and can be read by the naked eye or a photo taken with a smartphone. Also, the researchers can analyze the sweat at different time points using different chambers -- called chrono-sampling.

"The two-valve device is more complicated and requires using a clean-room technique called photolithography. Our simpler one-valve device can be made without expensive equipment utilizing micromachining," Cheng said.

The device will be of interest to the healthcare industry, and particularly in athletics, where it can be used to monitor overheating or to adjust exercise levels for optimum performance. The researchers are also collaborating with a researcher at Penn State Hershey Medical School on disease monitoring. The device can have one chamber color-coded for pH, a second for glucose and a third for sodium, all of which are disease markers.

Their results appear online in the journal Lab on a Chip in an article titled "Skin-interfaced microfluidic devices with one-opening chambers and hydrophilic valves for sweat collection and analysis." Lead authors are Yingxue Zhang, co-advised by Cheng and Xiufeng Wang, Xiangtan University, China, and Wang's student Yao Chen.

The National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, and Penn State supported this work.A device that monitors health conditions in the body using a person's sweat has been developed by Penn State and Xiangtan University researchers, according to Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, assistant professor of engineering science and mechanics, Penn State.

"We want to be able to analyze the sweat from daily exercise or from the heat of the sun because in sweat we have a lot of biomarkers like pH and glucose that will be a really nice indicator for disease progression or diagnostics," Cheng said.

The device will be on a patch applied to the skin near sweat glands. It consists of a small vial containing multiple chambers that has a hydrophobic -- water repelling -- valve near the opening made of silicone rubber. The channel has a hydrophilic -- water attracting -- coating for easy collection of the sweat. Unlike other devices that require two openings, the single opening reduces the amount of evaporation, leading to longer storage time for later analysis.

On-the-spot analysis can be done using a colorimetric approach in which a color-coded analyte is preplaced in the various chambers. This sensitive chemical responds to the pH or glucose level and can be read by the naked eye or a photo taken with a smartphone. Also, the researchers can analyze the sweat at different time points using different chambers -- called chrono-sampling.

"The two-valve device is more complicated and requires using a clean-room technique called photolithography. Our simpler one-valve device can be made without expensive equipment utilizing micromachining," Cheng said.

The device will be of interest to the healthcare industry, and particularly in athletics, where it can be used to monitor overheating or to adjust exercise levels for optimum performance. The researchers are also collaborating with a researcher at Penn State Hershey Medical School on disease monitoring. The device can have one chamber color-coded for pH, a second for glucose and a third for sodium, all of which are disease markers.

The BioScience Talks podcast features discussions of topical issues related to the biological sciences.

The pandemic resulting from SARS-CoV-2 has had profound impacts on the conduct of scientific research and education: A large proportion of field research has ground to a halt, and research and science education were forced to move online. In light of these developments, the nation's biodiversity infrastructure--natural history collections housed in museums, herbaria, universities, and colleges, among other locations, and often available digitally--are ready to play an even larger role in enabling important scientific discoveries. Further, collections may also be instrumental in preventing or mitigating future infectious outbreaks.
These developments are highlighted in two BioScience articles published today, both of which call for greater collaboration between the biodiversity collections community and other fields of study. In an Editorial, "Human Health, Interagency Coordination, and the Need for Biodiversity Data", Jennifer M. Zaspel and colleagues note that "massive advances in infrastructure, digitization, and organization of physical specimens and their associated data have transformed their use to address global societal challenges." To build on these successes, the authors argue for greater interagency cooperation and support for the "infrastructure, coordination, and management of biodiversity data."
In a concurrently published Viewpoint, "Integrating Biodiversity Infrastructure into Pathogen Discovery and Mitigation of Emerging Infectious Diseases" Joseph A. Cook and colleagues elaborate the ways in which biodiversity science is a powerful tool for identifying future threats to human well-being. "At its core," the authors write, "the COVID-19 pandemic is a consequence of our fundamental ignorance of our planet's natural ecosystems and the effects of our encroachment on them." If properly supported, they argue, the world's natural history collections, which house 3 billion-plus specimens, can be a powerful tool for combating this ignorance. Such an effort will require new and large-scale collaboration with the biomedical community, report the authors. At present, they say, such efforts are hampered because "these communities are only vaguely aware of each other's resources, despite obvious benefits for both basic and clinical research."
On a recent episode of BioScience Talks, several of the authors of these publications were joined by representatives from the BLUE (Biodiversity Literacy in Undergraduate Education) project and BCEENET (Biological Collections in Ecology and Evolution Network), two efforts that promote student learning via digitized specimens. The conversation ranged from today's publications to the use of collections as an educational tool, with a particular focus on working with digitized specimens in remote-learning environments.
These discussions amplify the call for new investments in research and education that were recently outlined in the Extended Specimen Network--a community-informed strategic vision for new investments in biodiversity science and education.

UC Davis Health researchers took a critical step in defining the possible paths for the severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing COVID-19 to get transmitted from the mother to her newborn baby. The mother to fetal transmission is known as "vertical" transmission.

In an editorial published June 5 in the American Journal of Perinatology, the researchers highlighted the importance of understanding the timing and the route of infection in maternal-fetal transmission.

"There is concern that mother's infection during pregnancy may result in transmission to the baby," said Dean Blumberg, UC Davis chief of pediatric infectious diseases and first author on the article. "We are pleased to have the opportunity to offer a framework to look at different possible transmission pathways."

Mother-to-child transmission of SARS-CoV-2

To date, the spread of SARS-CoV-2 from mother to fetus has not been well-established. Yet, there are three potential mechanisms of vertical transmissions of coronavirus:

Viral transmission from mother to fetus (Intrauterine transmission): Vertical transmission may occur at any time during pregnancy. It is possible that the mother may be viremic (virus in the blood) during acute infection, and the virus may be transmitted to the fetus through the placenta. Infection at different stages of pregnancy might affect the fetus in different ways, depending on the stage of fetal development. If transmission occurs late in pregnancy, the newborn may be actively infected at the time of delivery.

The transmission from mother to baby during or directly after delivery (intrapartum transmission): It can occur if the mother or someone with close contact with the baby is actively infected with the virus in the two weeks before delivery or in the two days after birth. This transmission can be present even with an initial negative swab result of the baby's respiratory tract in the first day after birth, since the incubation period (the interval between exposure to the virus and onset of symptoms) can be up to 14 days. The baby can show a positive swab result between the second day and the 14th day after birth, or a positive test for antibodies during the first two to three weeks of postnatal life. Intrapartum or early postnatal infection could occur through exposure of the newborn to infected maternal blood or secretions.

Superficial exposure to SARS-CoV-2 (transient viremia): It is possible that the child may transiently have a positive test for the virus after delivery without actually being infected. This exposure can happen in case the mother has active viral infection during her last two weeks before delivery or in the first two days after giving birth. If the virus gets detected in the amniotic fluid, umbilical cord blood or in the baby's respiratory or blood sample in the first day after delivery, the baby might have subsequent negative tests and does not have an immune response that indicates infection.

"In case of the mother's confirmed infection with SARS-CoV-2, we recommend as a minimum procedure a swab of the respiratory tract of the newborn in the first and second 24-hour periods," said Satyan Lakshminrusimha, physician-in-chief of UC Davis Children's Hospital. "If initial SARS-CoV-2 swab tests negative, it may be repeated if the baby shows symptoms. There may be a role for antibody testing in selected patients to diagnose past infection."

TROY, N.Y. -- What is the value of a really good bottle of Bordeaux? Not one that can be bought at the neighborhood wine store for $20, nor even a $100 bottle that might be purchased at a fancy restaurant. How much should collectors and wine distributors pay for those rarified fine wines that, when mature, might sell for thousands of dollars?

These are the questions that M. Hakan Hekimoglu answers in research published today in Production and Operations Management. Hekimoglu, an assistant professor in the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and his co-author, Burak Kazaz of Syracuse University, have developed a robust and highly accurate pricing model for Bordeaux wine futures using four factors: temperature, precipitation, market index, and expert reviews.

"Considering that a majority of fine wine is sold in the form of wine futures, even before the wine is bottled, determining realistic prices for these wine futures accurately is one of the most critical decisions in a multimillion-dollar market segment," Hekimoglu said.

Watch this video for more information about Hekimoglu and his research on the pricing of fine wines.

The research is so important that is it has been featured by Liv-ex 100, the global marketplace for fine wine trade similar to the New York Stock Exchange for American stocks. While Hekimoglu's model was first made public in 2018, the latest publication reveals for the first time Hekimoglu's methodology in achieving his results.

"Liv-ex has recently decided to publish our price estimations as 'realistic prices' prior to each year's release of new Bordeaux," Hekimoglu said. "The exchange finds our estimated prices highly accurate and features them as a guidance for buyers. Thus, our realistic prices are expected to be used as the new benchmark prices in the upcoming years."

Hekimoglu's pricing method looks to standardize how the price of fine Bordeaux wines futures are determined. These are the prices that are set by "negociants," the middlemen who buy the wines from the winemakers and sell to collectors and distributors of high-end wines. According to Hekimoglu, the wine industry is incredibly opaque. While weather has always been a factor in determining the value of a bottle of fine wine, the middlemen would previously set prices based on feelings and reputation and a bit of allure, similar to what one expects in the art world. What Hekimoglu has done is to evaluate publicly available, quantifiable data points and gather them in an accessible manner to allow the buyers of fine wine futures to know if they are paying a fair price.

"We are trying to make the industry more efficient by adding transparency," Hekimoglu said. "Sometimes prices will increase by 400% over the previous year. Other times, they'll decrease by 50%. You can often find opportunistic behavior. What we aim to do in this study is take those pricing decisions and come up with estimations. By using these accurate models, we add systemic structure to their decision process so the buyers can use our predictions as a price recommendation."

Hekimoglu's methodology includes interpreting data that dates back to 2002 and robustness checks that include a Lasso analysis, a machine-learning tool that examines more than 8.5 billion unique model combinations.

The motivating factor for Hekimoglu to focus on Bordeaux wines is the extreme year-to-year price point variations found in this niche market. According to Hekimoglu, California fine wines, and even consumer-market Bordeaux, show far more stability in prices because of different market dynamics. However, Hekimoglu believes his research could be used as a foundation for transparency in the wine industry as a whole or even other agricultural products, like olive oil, that rely heavily on temperature and precipitation to determine market prices.

"Though you can't just take these four factors and apply them to a different market," Hekimoglu said, "we do look at some fundamental factors that could be used as a baseline. Our approach could be a foundation in developing studies in other regions and products."