Culture

The Fenton reaction is a chemical transition involving hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the ferrous (iron) ion, which acts as a catalyst. This process is used to destroy hazardous contaminants in wastewater through oxidation. In the atmosphere, a similar reaction, or "Fenton-like" reaction, occurs continuously with ferric oxalate([Fe(III)(C2O4)3]3-) and aerosols suspended in the air. This is the most frequent chemical reaction that occurs in the atmosphere. A particle's ability to oxidize is directly related to its phase, either gaseous or aqueous, which has an important impact on secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation. Therefore, research is necessary not only to evaluate the contribution of this Fenton-like reaction to atmospheric oxidation, but also to improve the consistency of model-simulated and field-observed SOA budgets.

"It is generally believed that the contribution of the Fenton reaction to atmospheric oxidation comes from the generation of hydroxyl radicals." said Prof. Wenbo Dong from the Department of Environmental Science & Engineering, Fudan University. "Scientists have not frequently addressed the role of superoxide radicals, which is generally regarded as the source of hydrogen peroxide and hydroxyl radicals."

Methacrolein (CH2=C(CH3)CHO) is the primary oxidation product of isoprene(CH2=C(CH3)CH=CH2), which is the most abundant biological volatile organic compound (VOC) in the atmosphere. It can directly react with superoxide radicals to generate SOAs. While this is a common reaction, this process shows that other paths to VOC oxidation exist.

"Previous studies believed that superoxide radicals do not react with most organic compounds." remarked Prof. Dong.

Some VOCs in the atmosphere may react with superoxide radicals just like methacrolein. However, SOA production potential from any VOC with attendant superoxide radicals and hydroxyl radicals is distinct from the methacrolein reaction. Researchers focused on the oxidation process of organic pollutants caused by these free radicals. They found that the oxidation process is related to the reaction mechanism of the organic matter accompanying these free radicals.

Previous studies have shown that the change in aqueous aerosol absorbance is attributed to the formation of brown carbon. However, in the case of photo-oxidation of methacrolein with ferric oxalate, Prof. Dong's research group noticed a substantial increase in aerosol absorbance without formation of brown carbon. Further analysis is provided in their research article titled "Photooxidation of Methacrolein in Fe(III)-Oxalate Aqueous System and Its Atmospheric Implication" published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

"When the Fenton-like reaction with a high concentration of iron occurs, the absorbance of the solution will change significantly, with the solution turning yellow." said Prof. Dong. "This may not be the only situation with methacrolein, as it can come up with the Fenton-like reaction of other organic compounds."

Prof. Dong continued, "The formation of insoluble or colloidal iron hydroxide increases the absorbance of atmospheric aerosols, affecting the radiative forcing, which has been overlooked for a long time."

Researchers from University of Adelaide published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines how advertising can increase the informativeness of a firm's stock price by reducing its stock price synchronicity.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Tarred with the Same Brush? Advertising Share of Voice and Stock Price Synchronicity" and is authored by Chee Cheong, Arvid Hoffmann, and Ralf Zurbruegg.

Firms are sometimes "tarred with the same brush" by investors instead of being traded based on firm-specific information. This is problematic when influential incidents happen, such as product recalls, because firms in the same industry as the offender also experience a drop in firm value despite not being involved in the incident themselves. This study demonstrates that advertising can help firms avoid such a situation by differentiating themselves from their financial market competitors through communicating firm-specific information to investors.

The researchers argue that advertising provides information to investors in financial markets, analogous to its role for customers in product markets. Hoffmann explains that "Although advertising is typically intended to increase awareness of and provide information about a firm's products rather than its shares, it also attracts investor attention, constitutes an important source of information, and is eventually internalized by investors to affect stock trading behavior. We expect that advertising can increase the informativeness of a firm's stock price by reducing its stock price synchronicity, or the extent to which its stock price is driven by general market and industry trends instead of firm-specific information."

The study uses a comprehensive data set based on all U.S. publicly listed firms from 1994 to 2018 and supplements this quantitative data with qualitative data from in-depth interviews with executives of such publicly listed firms to examine three interrelated research questions.

First, if a firm advertises more relative to its industry peers, does this increase its stock price informativeness and thus reduce its stock price synchronicity? The researchers expect that the larger a firm's so-called "advertising share of voice," the more visible it will be among (potential) investors, thus making it more likely that investors incorporate in their pricing the firm-specific information conveyed in the firm's advertising.

Second, is the effect of advertising more pronounced if there is more demand for information about the firm in the financial market (for example, because the firm has more complex products)? In such situations, advertising would potentially be more valuable and informative for investors.

Third, is the effect of advertising less pronounced if there is more supply of information about the firm in the financial market (for example, because institutional ownership is greater as these professional investors have access to better information)?

Cheong says that "We find support for our expectation that firms with a larger advertising share of voice are more successful in differentiating themselves in the financial market, as expressed by having a lower stock price synchronicity. Furthermore, this effect is stronger for firms with more complex products and weaker for firms with a larger proportion of institutional ownership." Sensitivity analyses show that the effect of advertising is also more pronounced when there is congruence between a firm's corporate name and its ticker symbol and when a firm has a corporate branding strategy, providing actionable insights for managers. An event study analyzing product recalls as influential marketing-relevant incidents illustrates the practical importance of the results. Firms with high synchronicity are "tarred with the same brush" in terms of experiencing negative abnormal returns when competitors have a recall, while firms with low synchronicity are not affected.

Managers can tap advertising not just to help consumers understand the benefits of the firm's products, but also to communicate firm-specific information to (potential) investors. Ultimately, when stock prices are more informative, investors experience less information asymmetry and are more willing to provide capital to a firm, allowing it to invest in profitable projects.

"To maximize the benefit of the positive spillover effects between product-market advertising and financial market outcomes, managers of publicly listed firms should ensure that investors can easily link the product names as used in advertising campaigns to their corporate name in the stock market; for example, by having a congruent ticker symbol and a corporate branding strategy instead of a house of brands or mixed branding strategy," says Zurbruegg. Finally, it is critical to realize that the results of advertising are above and beyond the effect of a firm's news coverage, meaning that advertising provides new information to investors that they did not yet obtain from other media. Accordingly, the marketing and finance functions of firms should work together when designing ad campaigns.

When is a weed not a weed?

Can native plants be weeds?

Sweet pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum) was once a well-behaved tree growing in gullies from Gippsland in Victoria up to Brisbane in Queensland.

But it is now a major problem, leading to an almost complete suppression of native vegetation where it has invaded. Programs to clear it have successfully allowed indigenous plants to return, and within 15 years, with moderate follow up, treated sites are well on the way to successful restoration.

However, there has been some debate on whether this is good or bad for birds such as the threatened Powerful Owl.

New research by Monash University scientists from the School of Biological Sciences published today in Ecological Solutions and Evidence shows that the richness and abundance of birds is much reduced in areas with dense Pittosporum canopies.

"The almost complete absence of any understory vegetation and no ground cover means there is very little for birds to eat in invaded sites," said lead study author Dr Ben O'Leary, who conducted the surveys as part of his PhD.

"Most habitat components for birds exists within the Eucalyptus overstorey and mid canopy. The presence or removal of Pittosporum doesn't appear to greatly influence ground storey bird species, which have been in long-term decline."

The study found that there are also fewer carnivorous birds in Pittosporum-invaded sites, probably because there is less prey on the ground and the dense Pittosporum canopy makes it hard for these large birds to navigate through these areas.

"While invaded sites are not great habitat, restoration projects need to ensure that the full range of habitats continue to be available during the transition period," Dr O'Leary said.

One difficulty in overseeing the removal of an invasive tree species is that these trees, in certain circumstances, provide structural value to local flora and fauna. There is a lag time between the invaders' removal and its replacement by indigenous alternatives.

"The trick is balancing the progression of weed control with the retention of enough structure to support local plants and animals," Dr O'Leary said.

Project leader and co-author Professor Ros Gleadow also from the School of Biological Sciences, has been studying Pittosporum for over 40 years.

"It is important to get rid of the Pittosporum now," Professor Gleadow said.

"Not only does it suppress the understorey, but in all these years, I have never seen a eucalypt seedling growing under a Pittosporum canopy," she said.

"Once the old eucalypts at a site die, that's it and it of both native vegetation and birds is impossible without major intervention".

Previous work by the group showed that areas can be restored to their original state if there are healthy remnant sites nearby.

"For areas where Pittosporum is native, like around Sydney, management is philosophically complicated but there is no doubt that clearing will to help preserve biodiversity," Professor Gleadow said.

Progressively clearing the Pittosporum over time, leaving some canopy in place in adjacent areas has the double benefit of providing potential roosting sites for the Powerful Owls, as well as increasing the number of prey.

Once the new shrubs and trees have grown, then clearing could progress to the next area.

Astronomers from University of Warwick and University of Exeter modelling the future of unusual planetary system found a solar system of planets that will 'pinball' off one another

Today, the system consists of four massive planets locked in a perfect rhythm

Study shows that this perfect rhythm is likely to hold for 3 billion years - but the death of its sun will cause a chain reaction and set the interplanetary pinball game in motion

Four planets locked in a perfect rhythm around a nearby star are destined to be pinballed around their solar system when their sun eventually dies, according to a study led by the University of Warwick that peers into its future.

Astronomers have modelled how the change in gravitational forces in the system as a result of the star becoming a white dwarf will cause its planets to fly loose from their orbits and bounce off each other's gravity, like balls bouncing off a bumper in a game of pinball.

In the process, they will knock nearby debris into their dying sun, offering scientists new insight into how the white dwarfs with polluted atmospheres that we see today originally evolved. The conclusions by astronomers from the University of Warwick and the University of Exeter are published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The HR 8799 system is 135 light years away and comprises a 30-40 million year-old A type star and four unusually massive planets, all over five times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting very close to each other. The system also contains two debris discs, inside the orbit of the innermost planet and another outside the outermost. Recent research has shown that the four planets are locked in a perfect rhythm that sees each one completing double the orbit of its neighbour: so for every orbit the furthest completes, the next closest completes two, the next completes four, while the closest completes eight.

The team from Warwick and Exeter decided to learn the ultimate fate of the system by creating a model that allowed them to play 'planetary pinball' with the planets, investigating what may cause the perfect rhythm to destabilise.

They determined that the resonance that locks the four planets is likely to hold firm for the next 3 billion years, despite the effects of Galactic tides and close flybys of other stars. However, it always breaks once the star enters the phase in which it becomes a red giant, when it will expand to several hundred times its current size and eject nearly half its mass, ending up as a white dwarf.

The planets will then start to pinball and become a highly chaotic system where their movements become very uncertain. Even changing a planet's position by a centimetre at the start of the process can dramatically change the outcome.

Lead author Dr Dimitri Veras from the University of Warwick Department of Physics said: "The planets will gravitationally scatter off of one another. In one case, the innermost planet could be ejected from the system. Or, in another case, the third planet may be ejected. Or the second and fourth planets could switch positions. Any combination is possible just with little tweaks.

"They are so big and so close to each other the only thing that's keeping them in this perfect rhythm right now is the locations of their orbits. All four are connected in this chain. As soon as the star loses mass their locations will deviate, then two of them will scatter off one another, causing a chain reaction amongst all four."

Dr Veras was supported by an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, part of UK Research and Innovation.

Regardless of the precise movements of the planets, one thing that the team is certain of is that the planets will move around enough to dislodge material from the system's debris discs into the atmosphere of the star. It is this type of debris that astronomers are analysing today to discover the histories of other white dwarf systems.

Dr Veras adds: "These planets move around the white dwarf at different locations and can easily kick whatever debris is still there into the white dwarf, polluting it.

"The HR 8799 planetary system represents a foretaste of the polluted white dwarf systems that we see today. It's a demonstration of the value of computing the fates of planetary systems, rather than just looking at their formation."

Co-author Professor Sasha Hinkley of the University of Exeter said: "The HR 8799 system has been so iconic for exoplanetary science since its discovery nearly 13 years ago, and so it is fascinating to see into the future, and watch it evolve from a harmonious collection of planets into a chaotic scene."

Astronomers have spotted a giant 'blinking' star towards the centre of the Milky Way, more than 25,000 light years away.

An international team of astronomers observed the star, VVV-WIT-08, decreasing in brightness by a factor of 30, so that it nearly disappeared from the sky. While many stars change in brightness because they pulsate or are eclipsed by another star in a binary system, it's exceptionally rare for a star to become fainter over a period of several months and then brighten again.

The researchers believe that VVV-WIT-08 may belong to a new class of 'blinking giant' binary star system, where a giant star ? 100 times larger than the Sun ? is eclipsed once every few decades by an as-yet unseen orbital companion. The companion, which may be another star or a planet, is surrounded by an opaque disc, which covers the giant star, causing it to disappear and reappear in the sky. The study is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The discovery was led by Dr Leigh Smith from Cambridge's Institute of Astronomy, working with scientists at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Hertfordshire, the University of Warsaw in Poland and Universidad Andres Bello in Chile.

"It's amazing that we just observed a dark, large and elongated object pass between us and the distant star and we can only speculate what its origin is," said co-author Dr Sergey Koposov from the University of Edinburgh.

Since the star is located in a dense region of the Milky Way, the researchers considered whether some unknown dark object could have simply drifted in front of the giant star by chance. However, simulations showed that there would have to be an implausibly large number of dark bodies floating around the Galaxy for this scenario to be likely.

One other star system of this sort has been known for a long time. The giant star Epsilon Aurigae is partly eclipsed by a huge disc of dust every 27 years, but only dims by about 50%. A second example, TYC 2505-672-1, was found a few years ago, and holds the current record for the eclipsing binary star system with the longest orbital period ? 69 years ? a record for which VVV-WIT-08 is currently a contender.

The UK-based team has also found two more of these peculiar giant stars in addition to VVV-WIT-08, suggesting that these may be a new class of 'blinking giant' stars for astronomers to investigate.

VVV-WIT-08 was found by the VISTA Variables in the Via Lactea survey (VVV), a project using the British-built VISTA telescope in Chile and operated by the European Southern Observatory, that has been observing the same one billion stars for nearly a decade to search for examples with varying brightness in the infrared part of the spectrum.

Project co-leader Professor Philip Lucas from the University of Hertfordshire said, "Occasionally we find variable stars that don't fit into any established category, which we call 'what-is-this?', or 'WIT' objects. We really don't know how these blinking giants came to be. It's exciting to see such discoveries from VVV after so many years planning and gathering the data."

While VVV-WIT-08 was discovered using VVV data, the dimming of the star was also observed by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE), a long-running observation campaign run by the University of Warsaw. OGLE makes more frequent observations, but closer to the visible part of the spectrum. These frequent observations were key for modelling VVV-WIT-08, and they showed that the giant star dimmed by the same amount in both the visible and infrared light.

There now appear to be around half a dozen potential known star systems of this type, containing giant stars and large opaque discs. "There are certainly more to be found, but the challenge now is in figuring out what the hidden companions are, and how they came to be surrounded by discs, despite orbiting so far from the giant star," said Smith. "In doing so, we might learn something new about how these kinds of systems evolve."

Oncotarget published "The presence of polymorphisms in genes controlling neurotransmitter metabolism and disease prognosis in patients with prostate cancer: a possible link with schizophrenia" reported that polymorphisms of neurotransmitter metabolism genes were studied in patients with prostate cancer (PC) characterized by either reduced or extended serum prostate-specific antigen doubling time corresponding to unfavorable and favorable disease prognosis respectively.

The following gene polymorphisms known to be associated with neuropsychiatric disorders were investigated:

A. The STin2 VNTR in the serotonin transporter SLC6A4 gene;

B. The 30-bp VNTR in the monoamine oxidase A MAOA gene;

C. The Val158Met polymorphism in the catechol-ortho-methyltransferase COMT gene;

D. The promoter region C-521T polymorphism and the 48 VNTR in the third exon of the dopamine receptor DRD4 gene.

The STin2 12R/10R variant of the SLC6A4 gene and the -521T/T homozygosity of the DRD4 gene tended to be overrepresented in PC patients with unfavorable disease prognosis.

These gene variants are regarded as protective against schizophrenia, and the observed trend may be directly related to a reduced PC risk described for schizophrenia patients.

These results warrant further investigation of the potential role of neurotransmitter metabolism gene polymorphisms in PC pathogenesis.

Dr. Vladimir N. Anisimov from The Petrov National Medical Research Center of Oncology said, "The importance of complex networks of heterotypic interactions between multiple distinct cell types (both malignant and normal) and regulatory circuits has now become widely recognized."

The importance of complex networks of heterotypic interactions between multiple distinct cell types (both malignant and normal) and regulatory circuits has now become widely recognized.

The traditional tumor-centric view focused exclusively on malignant cell populations has largely been replaced with a concept of tumor microenvironment, the latter being regarded as a "dynamic interaction arena in which tumor cells interact with the extracellular matrix, resident and recruited cells, and soluble factors".

Although there is a general consensus that chronic stress and depression tend to result in an impairment of the immune responses and might facilitate cancer initiation and progression, while the risk of developing some cancers appears to be decreased in patients with schizophrenia.

Pancreatic Cancer is not only the second most common cancer in men, but this is also a condition characterized by a wide variation of severity that ranges from indolent to highly aggressive disease.

The latter feature of PC makes tumor growth monitoring a very important prerequisite for successful disease management, and repeated measurement of the concentration of a blood biomarker of PC, prostate-specific antigen, is generally accepted as an important prognostic tool for routinely monitoring patients with this condition.

It was noted above that psychiatric disorders may be associated with a seriously altered PC risk, but little is known about possible influences of patients' genetic background both on this phenomenon and on disease prognosis when PC is already present.

The Anisimov Research Team concluded in their Oncotarget Research Output that oncological conditions are known to occur less frequently in schizophrenia patients, and this phenomenon primarily affects men, being especially pronounced for PC.

Interestingly, PC has recently emerged as a cancer, development of which strongly depends on neurogenic regulatory pathways provided by nerves growing as an important TME component.

Furthermore, neurotransmitters, such as serotonin and dopamine, are now regarded as major factors modulating neoplastic growth through influences on angiogenesis and neoplastic cell proliferation.

The results presented in this paper indicate that the presence of certain polymorphic variants of the SLC6A4 and DRD4 genes related to serotonin and dopamine signaling pathways respectively appears to correlate with PC prognosis.

Further larger studies are needed for clarifying the role of neurotransmitter metabolism gene polymorphisms in PC pathogenesis.

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and NEC Corporation jointly develop a 28-GHz phased-array transceiver that supports efficient and reliable 5G communications. The proposed transceiver outperforms previous designs in various regards by adapting fast beam switching and leakage cancellation mechanism.

With the recent emergence of innovative technologies, such as the Internet of Things, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and smart mobility, our world is on the brink of a new age. This stimulates the use of millimeter-wave bands, which have far more signal bandwidth, to accommodate these new ideas. 5G can offer data rates over 10 Gbit/s through the use of these millimeter-waves and multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) technology--a technology that employs multiple transmitters and receivers to transfer more data at the same time.

Large-scale phased-array transceivers are crucial for the implementation of these MIMO systems. While MIMO systems boost spectral performance, large-scale phased-array systems face several challenges, such as increased power dissipation and implementation costs. One such critical challenge is latency caused by beam switching time. Beam switching is an important feature that enables the selection of the most optimal beam for each terminal. A design that optimizes beam switching time and device cost is, thus, the need of the hour.

Motivated by this, scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology and NEC Corporation in Japan collaborated to develop a 28-GHz phased-array transceiver that supports fast beam switching and high-speed data communication. Their findings will be discussed at the 2021 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, an international conference that explores emerging trends and innovative concepts in semiconductor technology and circuits.

The proposed design facilitates dual-polarized operation, in which data is transmitted simultaneously through horizontal and vertical-polarized waves. However, one issue with these systems is cross-polarization leakage, which results in signal degradation, especially in the millimeter-wave band. The research team delved into the issue and developed a solution. Prof. Kenichi Okada, who led the research team, says, "Fortunately, we were able to devise a cross-polarization detection and cancellation methodology, using which we could suppress the leakages in both transmit and receive mode."

One critical feature of the proposed mechanism is the ability to achieve low-latency beam switching and high-accuracy beam control. Static elements control the building blocks of the mechanism, while on-chip SRAM is used to store the settings for different beams (Figure 1). This mechanism leads to fast beam switching with ultra-low latency being achieved. It also enables fast switching in transmit and receive modes due to the use of separate registers for each mode.

Another aspect of the proposed transceiver is its low cost and small size. The transceiver has a bi-directional architecture, which allows for a smaller chip size of 5 × 4.5 mm2 (Figure 2). For a total of 256-pattern beam settings stored within the on-chip SRAM, a beam switching time of only 4 nanoseconds was achieved! Error vector magnitude (EVM)--a measure to quantify the efficiency of digitally modulated signals such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM)--was calculated for the proposed transceiver. The transceiver was supported with EVMs of 5.5% in 64QAM and 3.5% in 256QAM.

When compared with state-of-the-art 5G phased-array transceivers, the system has a faster beam switching time and excellent MIMO efficiency. Okada is optimistic about the future of the 28-GHz 5G phased-array transceiver. He concludes, "The technology we developed for the 5G NR network supports high-volume data streaming with low latency. Thanks to its rapid beam switching capabilities, it can be used in scenarios where enhanced multi-user perception is required. This device sets the stage for a myriad of applications, including machine connectivity and the construction of smart cities and factories."

For over a century, researchers have known about "the bends", a serious condition affecting scuba divers. However, we still know relatively little about its physiological basis. Doctors do not yet have a definitive test for the bends, instead relying on symptoms to diagnose it. A new study in Frontiers in Physiology is the first to investigate genetic changes in divers with this condition, finding that genes involved in inflammation and white blood cell activity are upregulated. The findings cast light on the processes underlying the bends, and may lead to biomarkers that will help doctors to diagnose the condition more precisely.

The bends, more formally known as decompression sickness, is a potentially lethal condition that can affect divers. Symptoms include joint pain, a skin rash, and visual disturbances. In some patients, the condition can be severe, potentially leading to paralysis and death.

Researchers have known about the condition for a long time. A paper published in 1908 correctly hypothesized that it involves bubbles of gas forming in the blood and tissue because of a decrease in pressure. However, despite this, researchers do not yet fully understand the precise mechanisms underlying the condition. Animal studies have suggested that inflammatory processes may have a role in decompression sickness, but no-one had studied this in humans.

Divers have developed methods to reduce the risk of the bends, including controlled ascents from the depths, and it is now relatively rare. However, for suspected cases, doctors have no way to test for the condition, and instead rely on observing symptoms and seeing whether patients respond to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which involves breathing oxygen at high pressures.

To investigate the basis of decompression sickness, the researchers behind this new study took blood samples from divers who had been diagnosed with decompression sickness and divers who had completed a dive without developing the condition. The researchers took blood samples at two distinct times: within 8 hours of the divers emerging from the water, and 48 hours afterwards, when the divers with decompression sickness had undergone hyperbaric oxygen treatment. They performed RNA sequencing analysis to measure gene expression changes in white blood cells.

"We showed that decompression sickness activates genes involved in white blood cell activity, inflammation and the generation of inflammatory proteins called cytokines," explained Dr Nikolai Pace of the University of Malta, a researcher involved in the study. "Basically, decompression sickness activates some of the most primitive body defense mechanisms that are carried out by certain white blood cells."

Interestingly, these genetic changes had diminished in samples taken at 48 hours after the dive, after the patients had been treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The findings provide a first step towards potentially developing a diagnostic test for decompression sickness, and may also reveal new treatment targets.

"We hope that our findings can aid the development of a blood-based biomarker test for human decompression sickness that can facilitate diagnosis or monitoring of treatment response," said Prof Ingrid Eftedal of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, who was also involved in the project. "This will require further evaluation and replication in larger groups of patients."

BOSTON -- Obesity increases one's risk for many diseases and often prevents patients from receiving other necessary medical procedures. One of the most effective ways for patients with severe obesity to lose weight is through bariatric surgery, but it's not clear how often this option is raised. In a new study published in Obesity, investigators from Brigham and Women's Hospital find that eligible patients who discuss bariatric surgery options with their primary care providers or specialists from disciplines ranging from cardiology to urology are more likely to undergo surgery and lose more weight than those who do not have such discussions. But the team also found that these pivotal discussions were exceedingly rare, with fewer than 10 percent of eligible patients having a conversation over the course of a year.

"Obesity is a very significant health problem in the United States and increases the risk of almost every disease, from heart disease to diabetes and kidney failure," said Alexander Turchin, MD, MS, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension. "The most effective treatment for people with severe obesity is weight loss surgery. However, fewer than 1 percent of eligible patients every year undergo these operations in the U.S. We wanted to explore why that is."

Turchin and colleagues conducted an observational study from 2000 to 2015, collecting data from 30,560 patients with obesity. They looked at the frequency of patient-provider conversations about bariatric surgery and correlated patient weight-loss outcomes. Researchers analyzed clinicians' electronic notes through artificial intelligence, using natural language processing (NLP) software, and searched for provider documentation of conversations about weight loss surgery.

Many patients with a body mass index of 35 or greater are eligible for weight loss surgery. Notably, investigators found that less than 10 percent of potentially eligible patients had discussions about bariatric surgery with their providers. Patients who had these discussions were 10 times more likely to undergo weight loss surgery than those who did not. Patients who engaged in these conversations were also more likely to lose weight over time, even without surgery, and lost more weight than patients who did not talk with their providers about surgery options at all.

Authors note that one limitation of this study is that they do not know who initiated these discussions. In some cases, the providers may have first brought up bariatric surgery, while in others, patients may have first asked questions about it.

"Even without surgery, such discussions emphasize the seriousness of obesity and may prompt patients to explore ways to lose weight," said Turchin. "It's important for clinicians to initiate these discussions but also support them when patients bring them up themselves."

Looking forward, Turchin's team aims to investigate which medical specialists are most likely to have these discussions and evaluate whether prompting these conversations is an effective intervention for weight-related illnesses.

"Usually, when we talk about clinical outcomes, we look at whether we changed a patient's medication or started a new treatment," said Turchin. "What we miss, though, is that the first step in reaching a treatment goal is to talk to the patient. We need to talk to our patients more about the options available and help them to become better informed about their care."

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Treating transplant patients with mild to moderate cases of COVID-19 with monoclonal antibodies is safe and helps prevent serious illness, according to a Mayo Clinic study recently published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. These results are especially important because transplant patients who are infected with COVID-19 have a higher risk of severe illness and death.

"Monoclonal antibody therapy is really important for the transplant population because they are less likely to develop their own immunity. Providing them with these antibodies helps them recover from COVID-19," says Raymund Razonable, M.D., a Mayo Clinic infectious diseases specialist and the study's senior author.

The retrospective study focused on the first 73 solid organ transplant patients who received monoclonal antibody infusions for treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 between Nov. 19, 2020, and Jan. 23 at Mayo Clinic. Eleven patients had an emergency department visit and nine patients were hospitalized. Most significantly, no patients required mechanical ventilation, died or experienced organ rejection.

"While we expected monoclonal antibody therapy would be beneficial for patients, we were pleasantly surprised by the results. Only one patient required care in the ICU for non-COVID-19 indication, and, most importantly, there were no deaths," Dr. Razonable says.

Monoclonal antibodies help prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from attaching to human cells, which helps block the spread of infection. In fall 2020, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of bamlanivimab and casirivimab-imdevimab to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in patients with a high risk of becoming seriously ill. But since the safety and efficacy of these therapies for transplant patients remained unknown due to the limited clinical data, many health care institutions initially hesitated to set up infusion centers, Dr. Razonable says.

The study's results highlight the important role monoclonal antibodies can play in treating transplant patients with mild to moderate COVID-19. Knowing how best to treat these patients remains crucial given that recent studies indicate that COVID-19 vaccines are not as effective for transplant patients.

"It is important that these patients have early access to monoclonal antibody treatment," Dr. Razonable says. "Our data show the outcomes for patients are better if they get infused earlier." The study's lead author is Zachary Yetmar, M.D., Mayo Clinic. Other co-authors are Elena Beam, M.D.; Jack O'Horo, M.D.; Ravindra Ganesh, M.B.B.S., M.D.; Dennis Bierle, M.D.; Lisa Brumble, M.D.; and Teresa Seville, M.D. ? all of Mayo Clinic.

Previous studies have shown that children with attention difficulties and/or ADHD solve cognitive tasks better when they are exposed to auditory white noise. However, this is the first time that such a link has been demonstrated between visual white noise and cognitive abilities such as memory, reading and non-word decoding in children with reading and writing difficulties.

"The white noise to which we exposed the children, also called visual pixel noise, can be compared with giving children glasses. The effect on reading and memory was immediate," explains Göran Söderlund, Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Gothenburg and Professor of Special Education at the Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

11-year-olds tested

The study was conducted on around 80 students in the Småland region of southern Sweden. The children who took part were selected following a word recognition test and were split into three groups: good readers, children with some reading difficulties and children with major reading difficulties (i.e. having phonological impairments).

In the study, the children were asked to read 12 words while being exposed to four different levels of visual white noise, from zero to high. The test involved assessing how many of the words the children could read correctly and how many words they were able to recall afterwards.

White noise improves reading skills and memory

The results showed that the group with major reading difficulties, particularly phonological difficulties, performed significantly better when exposed to visual pixel noise. They read more words correctly and also recalled more words in the moderate noise conditions. The white noise had no effect or negative effects on the good readers and those with only minor reading problems.

"This is the first evidence of visual white noise having effects on higher-level cognition, in this case both reading and memory," says Göran Söderlund.

Right amount of white noise key

The children were exposed to different levels of white noise, with the results showing that the amount of noise is critical for reading and memory.

"You can compare it with being shortsighted and needing glasses. We saw that when we exposed the children to a medium level of white noise, their reading improved. However, their reading skills were less good when there was no noise or a high level of noise," adds Göran.

"These results show that children with reading and writing difficulties can be helped with an incredibly simple intervention. By adjusting screens in school or at home, we hope to be able to resolve their problems at a stroke. This is the first study of its kind, and replications are needed."

Further research required

Göran Söderlund now wants to further investigate the effects of white noise. He hopes that new studies can answer the question of whether practising with white noise for a prolonged period can lead to lasting improvements.

"It's worth exploring, as we just don't know. This first study of ours is basic research. But our results show that the children improved immediately, so it's important to continue with new studies to establish whether this simple measure, which everyone can do on their own laptop, will actually provide enduring help for these children."

The study "Sensory white noise improves reading skills and memory recall in children with reading disability" was published in the scientific journal Brain and Behavior. The study was conducted by Göran Söderlund, Jakob Åsberg Johnels (Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre at the University of Gothenburg) and Andreas Magnusson, plus Bodil Rothén, Ellen Torstensson-Hultberg and Linda Fälth (Linnaeus University).

People who are more prone to boredom and who are socially conservative are more likely to break public-health rules, according to new psychology research.

While previous research demonstrated a connection between being highly prone to boredom and breaking social-distancing rules, this study demonstrated the association was more prominent as participants' social conservatism increased.

"Many public-health measures such as wearing a mask or getting a vaccine have become highly politicized," said James Danckert, professor of psychology at the University of Waterloo. "People who find these measures a threat to their identity, and who suffer from boredom a lot, find breaking the rules helps them re-establish a sense of meaning and identity. Boredom threatens our need to make meaning out of life and some things such as politics can strengthen our sense of identity and meaning."

For the study, researchers asked more than 900 people to respond to questions about boredom, political ideology and adhering to public-health measures such as wearing a mask or not socializing outside one's household. They then applied a variety of statistical analysis techniques to explore the relations that underly these elements.

As the pandemic continues, the work has implications for public-health policy and communications. For instance, focusing on what people can do rather than what they are restricted from doing. Such messaging could help provide a more positive framework to help people ground their sense of identity and control.

"Many of the restrictions have become heavily politicized and much of the messaging from governments has focused on personal responsibility," Danckert said. "But this can become finger pointing and blaming and most of us recoil from that. What we need is to promote our shared values - the things we all have in common and the positive things we can get back if we all pull together.

"It can be difficult for some people to cope with boredom and that can have serious consequences for an individual and for society at large. Boredom is not a trivial experience - it's worth paying attention to it."

In cultures that place a high value on conventional gender norms, particularly those that prize men as the breadwinners in a family, their unemployment plays an outsized role in whether a romantic relationship ultimately succeeds or fails.

That's according to new research from sociologists Pilar Gonalons-Pons of the University of Pennsylvania and Markus Gangl of Goethe University Frankfurt. They published their findings in the journal American Sociological Review.

"This study is really about how the association between men's unemployment and divorce or separation varies across countries," says Gonalons-Pons, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology. "It also points to how much views about gender really shape the length of romantic relationships."

For the past five years, Gonalons-Pons has been conducting research on gender, labor, families, and public policy. Though the literature includes plenty of work on predictors of relationship longevity, most of it focuses on economic conditions like financial stressors or on the psychological, determining whether two people actually make a good match.

"There were no studies showing empirically how gender culture is its own important determinant," she says. So Gonalons-Pons and Gangl took on this question.

Given the data available, they chose to concentrate on heterosexual couples from the United States and 28 high-income countries in Europe. These fell on a continuum, from the most gender-conservative, where about a third of the population believes a man's role is as primary breadwinner, to more gender-progressive, where that number drops to about 4%. In total, the researchers followed couples for four years, looking for events of unemployment as well as separation or divorce.

They hypothesized that in gender-conservative countries, the stress of men's unemployment wouldn't be solely financial but also related to cultural norms. "We thought that when a man loses his jobs and doesn't get another one right away it might cast this pressure, this feeling of failure or lack of a sense of status and social identity," Gonalons-Pons says.

The results played out as the researchers expected. Countries that place greater value on a man's role as breadwinner experience a stronger association between men's unemployment and relationship breakup, whether separation or divorce. In places where the idea of "man as head of household" isn't as pronounced, there's less criticism of masculine identity following a job loss.

The findings make sense to Gonalons-Pons. "In a more hostile context, a gender-conservative context, men's unemployment will leave a more negative psychological impact on the man, which reverberates within the couple," she says. "You'll have more friends, more family saying, 'What's wrong with your partner? What's happening here?' That doesn't make either person feel any better and leads to this cultural pressure that can accentuate stress and ultimately result in a breakup."

Interestingly, the researchers didn't see the effect to the same extent for cohabiting couples, a finding that aligns with previous research on non-married couples who live together. Gonalons-Pons suspects this stems from the fact that the pressure to conform to conventional gender norms increases with marriage.

Though the work as a whole focused on a subset of high-income countries and on heterosexual couples only, the researchers say it potentially has broader implications for other places and other kinds of relationships--though the questions may be slightly different. For example, how do those beliefs affect the longevity of a romantic partnership between two men or two women?

"These cultural ideas create support for those who conform to these norms," she says. "The flip side is they create pressure that can negatively affect people who do not."

Gonalons-Pons stresses that her work does not equate to a crystal ball for any single relationship. "None of this is to say that if you break a gender norm, you're destined to break up," she says. "It's to highlight that these norms do matter; they do influence a relationship. Social norms are part of what shapes the well-being of a couple."

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine (KSOM) of USC are among the contributors to a large-scale ethnically diverse genetic study that has expanded what we know about potential causes of type 2 diabetes.

The research, published in Nature Genetics, was conducted by the international MAGIC collaboration, made up of 400 global academics and led by researchers at the University of Exeter.

The study, a genome-wide meta-analysis, has identified more regions of the genome that are linked to blood glucose and insulin levels, features that contribute to the risk of type 2 diabetes. The findings demonstrate that, while 80-85 percent of genes linked to glucose and insulin levels are the same across different ethnic groups, a significant minority are present in only one or two ethnic groups. Thus, including different multi-ethnic participants yields more and better results. This new approach may ultimately help researchers and health care providers move toward a more precise approach in the diagnosis and management of diabetes in diverse populations.

Making research more diverse

According to the GWAS Diversity Monitor, launched in Nature Genetics in 2020 as a way to track participants included across all published genome-wide association studies in real time, more than 88 percent of research has been conducted in Europeans. This means the results of these studies may not offer the same kind of benefit to people from non-European ancestry as they do people of European descent.

To help rectify this, the MAGIC team analyzed data from 280,000 people without diabetes across a wide range of ethnicities, including individuals of East Asian, Hispanic, African American, South Asian and sub-Saharan African origin. Researchers looked at glycemic traits, which are used to diagnose diabetes and monitor sugar and insulin levels in the blood.

By including multi-ethnic participants, the team discovered 24 more regions of the genome--called loci--that are linked to glycemic traits than if they had conducted the research on Europeans alone.

Research diversity key to precision medicine

Professor Inês Barroso, PhD, of the University of Exeter, who led the research, said,"Type 2 diabetes is an increasingly huge global health challenge--with most of the biggest increases occurring outside of Europe. While there are a lot of shared genetic factors between different countries and cultures, our research tells us that they do differ, in ways that we need to understand. It's critical to ensuring we can deliver a precision diabetes medicine approach that optimises treatment and care for everyone."

KSOM's Thomas Buchanan, MD, professor of medicine, Bernard J. Hanley Chair in Medicine, and vice dean for research, and Richard Watanabe, PhD, professor of preventive medicine and associate dean for health and population science programs, provided a large set of samples from Latino participants. Watanabe also plays a leadership role in MAGIC as a member of the steering committee.

"We have known for a very long time that some racial and ethnic groups have particularly high rates of diabetes in our current environment, which has easy access to food with little requirements for physical activity," Buchanan said. "This study begins to shed some light on the possible genetic contributors to racial/ethnic-specific diabetes risk."

"Genetic studies to date have primarily been in populations of northern European ancestry," Watanabe added. "So this study points to key genetic determinants that not only identify similarities across these diverse groups, but also key differences that may exist. These findings are the first step in moving us towards precision-based medicine, which may eventually improve the quality of life for our local Hispanic population from which the samples we contributed were obtained."

Hokkaido University researchers have developed a simple method that converts existing generic polymers into luminescent polymers using mechanical force.

Researchers from Hokkaido University have successfully developed a new method to give luminescent properties to generic polymers, such as polystyrene and polyethylene. The technique, which was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition, makes it possible to easily prepare luminescent polymers without using complicated organic synthetic methods.

"Luminescent polymers are widely used in modern society, in applications such as organic lasers, solar cells, sensors and bioimaging, but their preparation often requires multiple chemical synthesis steps, which are both time and labor intensive," explains Professor Hajime Ito, one of the authors of the study and Vice Director of the Institute for Chemical Reaction Design and Discovery (WPI-ICReDD) at Hokkaido University.

To overcome this problem, the research team investigated whether luminescent polymers could be prepared using mechanical force as opposed to sophisticated chemical synthesis.

"It is well known that mechanically stimulating polymers, for example by grinding or crushing them, generates reactive species called free radicals," says Associate Professor Koji Kubota from Hokkaido University, a paper co-author. "Inspired by this phenomenon, as well as our previous research into mechanical-force-induced luminescence and reactions, we wanted to investigate whether we could find a simpler method for preparing functional luminescent materials."

In this study, the researchers placed the polymer and pre-fluorescent radical reactants together in a ball milling jar containing stainless steel balls. The jar was then shaken, causing the balls to grind the solid compounds and initiate a reaction. During this process, the covalent bonds in the polymer chains were cleaved and the pre-fluorescent molecules were inserted into the polymer, gaining significantly higher emission intensity. The researchers successfully applied this method to polystyrene, polyethylene, polyphenylene sulfide, polysulfone, and other generic polymers.

"With further development, the method could potentially be adapted to introduce other functions to generic polymers," says Hokkaido University Assistant Professor Mingoo Jin.

"In the future, we hope to use this method to develop novel sensing and recording materials that change colour in response to mechanical stimuli," Hajime Ito added.

This could pave the way for "smart" materials for a wide range of applications, such as bioimaging reagents and pressure-sensitive sensors.