Culture

Even if we study them at school, oxidation numbers have so far eluded any rigorous quantum mechanical definition. A new SISSA study, published in Nature Physics, reverses this state of affairs by providing such a definition, based on the theory of topological quantum numbers, which was honoured with the 2016 Nobel prize in Physics awarded to Thouless, Haldane and Kosterlitz. This result, combined with recent advances in the theory of transport achieved at SISSA, paves the way to an accurate, yet tractable, numerical simulation of a broad class of materials that are important in energy-related technologies and planetary sciences.

Every undergraduate student in the natural sciences learns how to associate an integer oxidation number to a chemical species participating in a reaction. Unfortunately, the very concept of oxidation state has thus far eluded a rigorous quantum mechanical definition, so that no method was known until now to compute oxidation numbers from the fundamental laws of nature, let alone demonstrate that their use in the simulation of charge transport does not spoil the quality of numerical simulations. At the same time, the evaluation of electric currents in ionic conductors, which is required to model their transport properties, is presently based on a cumbersome quantum-mechanical approach that severely limits the feasibility of large-scale computer simulations. Scientists have lately noticed that a simplified model where each atom carries a charge equal to its oxidation number may give results in surprising good agreement with rigorous but much more expensive approaches. By combining the new topological definition of oxidation number with the so-called "gauge invariance" of transport coefficients, recently discovered at SISSA, Federico Grasselli and Stefano Baroni proved that what was considered a mere coincidence stands in fact on solid theoretical grounds, and that the simple integer-charge model captures the electrical transport properties of ionic conductors without any approximations.

Besides solving a fundamental conundrum in condensed matter physics, this result, achieved within the framework of the European MAX Centre of Excellence for supercomputing applications, also represents a breakthrough for applications, enabling computationally feasible quantum simulations of charge transport in ionic systems of paramount importance in energy-related technologies, in the automotive and telecommunications sectors, as well as in planetary sciences. Such applications range from the ionic mixtures adopted in electrolytic cells and heat exchangers in power plants, to solid-state-electrolyte batteries for electric cars and electronic devices, and even to the conducting exotic phases of water occurring in the interior of icy giants, which are supposed to be related to the origin of the magnetic fields in these planets.

The best way to protect corals threatened by climate change is to conserve a wide range of their habitats, according to a study in Nature Climate Change. The finding likely applies to conservation efforts for many other species in the ocean and on land, including trees and birds.

"Rather than conserving just the cold places with corals, we found that the best strategies will conserve a wide diversity of sites," said co-author Malin Pinsky, an associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Natural Resources at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "Hot reefs are important sources of heat-tolerant corals, while cold sites and those in between are important future refuges and stepping stones for corals as the water heats up."

Worldwide, about 500 million people rely on coral reefs for food and livelihoods, with billions of dollars a year boosting economies, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Reefs protect coastlines from storms and erosion; provide habitat as well as spawning and nursery grounds for fish; and result in income from fishing, recreation and tourism, among other benefits.

But corals face several threats, including global warming, warm water bleaching episodes, reef destruction, nutrient pollution and ocean acidification from carbon dioxide emitted when fossils fuels burn.

Predictions about the future of corals are generally grim, the study notes, but there is growing recognition that they can adapt rapidly to a changing climate.

Pinsky and scientists at the University of Washington, Utah State University, Coral Reef Alliance, Stanford University and University of Queensland in Australia modeled how different conservation strategies might help coral reefs survive climate change. Previous research addressed where to establish marine protected areas to help corals, but nearly all studies overlooked the fact that corals can also evolve in response to climate change, Pinsky said.

The researchers evaluated a range of potential conservation strategies, including those that: protected sites where existing coral populations appeared to be "preadapted" to future conditions; conserved sites suitable for corals to move to in the future; conserved sites with large populations of certain species; conserved the smallest populations; or protected reef sites chosen at random. The researchers found that conserving many different kinds of reefs would work best.

"Corals are facing a gauntlet over the coming years and decades from warming oceans, but we found that reef conservation in general can really boost corals' ability to evolve and cope with these changes," Pinsky said. "There is strength in diversity, even when it comes to corals. We need to think not only about saving the cooler places, where corals can best survive in the future, but also the hot places that already have heat-resistant corals. It's about protecting a diversity of habitats, which scientists hadn't fully appreciated before."

The researchers are developing regional models to test conservation strategies for the Caribbean Sea, the central Pacific Ocean and the Coral Triangle in the western Pacific, he said. They want to understand how the most effective conservation strategies differ from one region to the next.

"We are working closely with conservation groups that will be applying the guidelines and findings from this study to coral reef conservation around the world," Pinsky said.

In the contract-based demand response, some of the participants may default in providing the scheduled negawatt energy owing to demand-side fluctuations faults. Thus, the detection of defaulting participants is an important function of the aggregator. A group of Japanese researchers has developed a method to detect defaulting participants based on sparse reconstruction. This enables assured detection of defaulting participants with limited information that aggregator can utilize.

The demand response (DR), i.e., the changes in electricity usage of consumers in response to incentive payments, is expected to be one of the solutions to supply-side anomalies, such as fluctuations in wind and solar generation. The DR takes various forms depending on its design, including price/incentives, prearranged contracts, direct load control, and so on. In contract-based DR, the aggregator contracts with individual consumers for their scheduled amounts of negawatt energy. Meanwhile, it is inevitable that some of the participants default in providing the scheduled negawatt energy owing to demand-side fluctuations such as instrument faults. Therefore, the detection of failure sources (i.e., defaulting participants) is an important function of the aggregator.

The detection of defaulting participants may be easily performed if the aggregator can continuously meter their real-time consumption via smart meters. However, such metering is difficult in practice from the viewpoint of communication costs. Moreover, real-time continuous metering will be a barrier to social acceptance for the DR. Thus, it is preferable to detect defaulting participants with more limited information, e.g., by irreversible data compression and intermittent metering.

A group of researchers of Nagoya University, Hokkaido University, and Tokyo University of Science has developed a method to detect defaulting participants in a contract-based DR program with the data of the time series of the total amount of negawatt energy and the data of the actual negawatt energy of a limited number of participants, which are inspected via smart meters. In the development, they have focused on the fact that the DR is prearranged by contracts, i.e., only a few participants are defaulting on providing their scheduled negawatt energy. On the basis of this prior knowledge, they have considered to apply the technique of the so-called sparse reconstruction, i.e., reconstructing a sparse vector from a small number of scalar equations, to the detection problem. However, the exact solution is not always derived by direct application of the standard sparse reconstruction technique to the detection problem. By observing this result, they have developed an iterative method that improves the sparse reconstruction in each iteration by including inspection data from the previous iteration. For the proposed method, it is theoretically guaranteed that the result is exact. Moreover, the method enables the detection with a small number of inspections.

Global sea levels are expected to rise by at least half a metre by the year 2100 due to climate change. The projected rise can affect important environmental factors such as habitat suitability and availability of light, threatening the health and survival of marine ecosystems.

For the corals dwelling in the sedimented, turbid waters around Singapore, rising sea levels can imperil species, as those living among the deepest waters could starve due to insufficient light for them to make food.

A team from the National University of Singapore (NUS), led by Assistant Professor Huang Danwei from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science, examined nearly 3,000 corals from 124 species at two reef sites in Singapore, namely Pulau Hantu and Raffles Lighthouse.

The research team discovered that the corals in Singapore waters typically do not extend deeper than eight metres, as light levels beyond this depth are not sufficient to support coral growth. The researchers also found that species present in deeper areas are able to tolerate a wider range of conditions, and are unlikely to be threatened by a rise in sea level, provided that other stress factors such as sedimentation do not increase.

The findings, published online in the journal Marine Environmental Research on 19 April 2019, highlight the resilience of coral reefs in Singapore. The results serve to support reef management, and inform conservation efforts especially in the selection of sites and depths for coral restoration.

In a world first, La Trobe University research has shown how peer-led support programs for family and friends who provide regular support to an adult diagnosed with a mental health condition can significantly improve carer well-being.

Family Education Programs (FEPs) - led by trained individuals with their own personal experience of caring for someone with mental health issues - provide education and support for groups of carers.

Over a period of seven years, researchers surveyed 1,016 carers enrolled in 207 FEP courses operated nationally by Wellways Australia.

Lead researcher, La Trobe Associate Professor John Farhall, said the study gives greater confidence to health professionals and funders - as well as to potential participants - that FEPs can be used as a critical first step in reducing carer burden.

"Until now, very little research has been done on how these programs work," Associate Professor Farhall said.

"The results show that the key ingredients of the program - increased knowledge and peer support - were associated with helpful changes reported by carers, including improved communication with the person they were caring for.

"Importantly, it was the degree of peer support that explained reductions in caregivers' overall distress."

When carers were surveyed at the completion of the eight-week program, researchers found:

- Mental health knowledge in carers increased by 16.6 per cent

- Communication between carers and family members improved by 11.7 per cent

- Psychological distress in carers decreased by 8.6 per cent

- Carer self-blame decreased by 5.7 per cent

- Positive feelings between carers and family members increased by 7.6 per cent

- Relationship quality between carers and family members increased by 5.3 per cent

- Carer's stigmatising attitudes toward mental health conditions decreased by 4 per cent

"It's important to note that improvements reported at the end of the main program had been maintained when we followed up with carers 10 months later," Associate Professor Farhall said.

"Peer-led courses such as these can help unpaid caregiving remain rewarding and effective for both the carer and their loved one."

Emma Constantine, research co-author and General Manager of peer education programs at Wellways Australia, said that the findings strengthen the increasing evidence base for peer support.

"These programs build resilience for carers and improve outcomes for the whole family - peer education needs to be part of the standard range of supports available in our mental health and disability system," Ms Constantine said.

DALLAS, July 1, 2019 -- Vitamin D deficiency from birth to early childhood was associated with an increased risk of elevated blood pressure in later childhood and adolescence, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.

Researchers followed 775 children from birth to age 18 at the Boston Medical Center. Most lived in a low-income, urban area and 68% of the children were African American. Low vitamin D levels were defined as less than 11 ng/ml (nanograms per millimeter) in cord blood at birth and less than 25 ng/ml in a child's blood during early childhood.

Compared to children who were born with adequate vitamin D levels:

Children born with low levels of vitamin D had an approximately 60% higher risk of elevated systolic blood pressure between ages 6 and 18;

Children who had persistently low levels of vitamin D through early childhood had double the risk of elevated systolic blood pressure between ages 3 and 18.

Systolic refers to the first or top number in a blood pressure reading. It indicates how much pressure your blood is exerting against your artery walls when your heart beats. High systolic blood pressure readings increase the risk of cardiovascular disease even when diastolic blood pressure, the second number in a blood pressure reading, is controlled.

"Currently, there are no recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics to screen all pregnant women and young children for vitamin D levels. Our findings raise the possibility that screening and treatment of vitamin D deficiency with supplementation during pregnancy and early childhood might be an effective approach to reduce high blood pressure later in life," said Guoying Wang, M.D., Ph.D., the study's lead author and an assistant scientist at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.

Wang added that what constitutes optimal circulating vitamin D levels during pregnancy and early childhood remains an active research question, and that their study results need to be replicated in other large populations.

Vitamin D is needed for the body to absorb calcium for strong bones. It is made by our bodies when we are exposed to sunlight and found in a few foods, such as eggs, salmon and fortified milk products. It is also available as a vitamin supplement.

High blood pressure is a leading, preventable cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. Along with an increase in obesity among children, the prevalence of high blood pressure in children has been on the rise in recent years, especially among African American children. High blood pressure in childhood is an important risk factor for having high blood pressure and developing cardiovascular disease in adulthood.

DALLAS, July 1, 2019 -- The Fontan procedure has allowed more people born with only one ventricle -- the lower pumping chamber of the heart -- to survive into adulthood, but their unique circulatory system requires continued lifelong medical care. A new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, summarizes the current state of knowledge on Fontan circulation and how best to care for these unique patients.

There are two ventricles in a normal heart - one pumps blood to the lungs and the other pumps blood to the rest of the body. In children born with only one ventricle, a surgical procedure (the Fontan procedure) diverts blood returning from the veins directly to the main pulmonary artery leading to the lungs, instead of being pumped from the heart.

Typically, people with Fontan circulation have chronically elevated pressure in their veins and less blood being pumped out of their heart. This can lead to circulatory failure because when the heart pumps less efficiently it is not able to provide enough oxygen to the cells in the body. In addition, these patients often experience ventricular dysfunction, heart failure, heart rhythm disturbances and problems with their liver, kidneys, bones and other organ systems.

The statement provides recommendations for follow-up care for patients with Fontan circulation, including guidance on strategies for maintaining the health of the heart and organs through "surveillance testing" - routine, systematic evaluation of both cardiovascular and other organs affected by Fontan circulation.

Gaps in knowledge and areas for future investigation are also highlighted, with the objective of laying the groundwork for creating a normal quality and duration of life for these unique individuals. "We need more research into the basic biology of single ventricle hearts and whether the damage to other organ systems, such as kidneys, liver and brain can be mitigated or reversed," said writing group chair Jack Rychik, M.D., Robert and Dolores Harrington endowed chair in cardiology and Professor of Pediatrics, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Although life expectancy for people born with one ventricle is lower than average, people with Fontan circulation can live a rich and fulfilling life.

"We are entering a new phase in the management of patients born with one ventricle. Provided that patients undergo regular follow-up with their healthcare provider, adopt a healthy lifestyle and are encouraged to participate in investigational clinical protocols and research, healthcare providers and patients can share an optimistic and hopeful view for a brighter future," Rychik said.

The worldwide population of patients with Fontan circulation grew to an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 patients in 2018, with 40% of patients aged 18 years or older.

"Patients with Fontan circulation are going to consume an ever-increasing amount of resources as they grow in number and age into adult life. Healthcare providers, both pediatric and adult, will need to increase their understanding and knowledge of this unique cardiovascular condition in order to maintain and improve their quality of life" Rychik said.

PISCATAWAY, NJ - Each year, one in five U.S. adults -- an estimated 53 million people -- experience harm because of someone else's drinking, according to new research in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Similar to how policymakers have addressed the effects of secondhand smoke over the last two decades, society needs to combat the secondhand effects of drinking, the authors state, calling alcohol's harm to others "a significant public health issue."

According to the study -- an analysis of U.S. national survey data -- some 21% of women and 23% of men, an estimated 53 million adults, experienced harm because of someone else's drinking in the last 12 months. These harms could be threats or harassment, ruined property or vandalism, physical aggression, harms related to driving, or financial or family problems. The most common harm was threats or harassment, reported by 16% of survey respondents.

The specific types of harm experienced differed by gender. Women were more likely to report financial and family problems, whereas ruined property, vandalism, and physical aggression were more likely to be reported by men.

There is "considerable risk for women from heavy, often male, drinkers in the household and, for men, from drinkers outside their family," the authors write.

Additional factors, including age and the person's own drinking, were also important. People younger than age 25 had a higher risk of experiencing harm from someone else's drinking. Further, almost half of men and women who themselves were heavy drinkers said they had been harmed by someone else's drinking. Even people who drank but not heavily were at two to three times the risk of harassment, threats, and driving-related harm compared with abstainers. Heavy drinking was defined as drinking five or more drinks at a time for men or four or more drinks for women at least monthly.

To conduct the study, researchers led by Madhabika B. Nayak, Ph.D., of the Alcohol Research Group, a program of the Public Health Institute in Oakland, Calif., analyzed data from two telephone surveys conducted in 2015 -- the National Alcohol's Harm to Others Survey and the National Alcohol Survey. The current research, funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, looked at data from 8,750 respondents age 18 and older and provides support for alcohol control policies, such as taxation and pricing to reduce alcohol's harm to persons other than the drinker.

"[T]he freedom to drink alcohol must be counter-balanced by the freedom from being afflicted by others' drinking in ways manifested by homicide, alcohol-related sexual assault, car crashes, domestic abuse, lost household wages, and child neglect," writes Timothy Naimi, M.D., M.P.H., of the Boston Medical Center in an accompanying commentary. Naimi advocates for increased taxes on alcoholic beverages, noting that there is strong evidence that increased alcohol taxes decrease excessive drinking and reduce the harms to people other than the drinker.

In a second commentary, Sven Andréasson, M.D., of the Karolinska Institutet of Stockholm, Sweden, writes, in a similar vein, that setting minimum prices for alcohol is important for reducing the harms caused by drinking.

"There is now a growing literature on the effects of national alcohol policies to reduce not only consumption but also some of the secondhand harms from alcohol, notably the effects of price policies on all forms of violence -- assaults, sexual violence, partner violence, and violence toward children," Andréasson writes. "Recent research on the effects of minimum pricing is particularly relevant in this context, where studies in Canada find reductions in violence after the introduction of minimum pricing."

Nayak agrees. "Control policies, such as alcohol pricing, taxation, reduced availability, and restricting advertising, may be the most effective ways to reduce not only alcohol consumption but also alcohol's harm to persons other than the drinker," she says.

An article published today in the Open Access journal GigaScience [1] might make you squirm if you plan to hit the beach this summer. The article presents the draft genomes of three different jellyfish species. The international group of researchers, lead by Joseph Ryan, chose to examine jellyfish that present a range of physical traits and level of toxicity (from minor annoyance to deadly) -- jellyfish kill more people per year than the combined forces of sharks, stingrays, and sea snakes. Their research identified a range of venom related genes, providing the basis for exploring toxin gene evolution in these fascinating animals.

The three jellyfish species investigated are the deadly winged box jellyfish (Alatina alata), the anatomically interesting upside-down jellyfish (a true jellyfish: Cassiopea xamachana), and the stalked jellyfish (Calvadosia cruxmelitensis) so named for its stinging organs forming a Maltese Cross pattern. The work here finally provides genome sequences for all five lineages of the Medusozoa (a subphylum of Cnidaria).

Corresponding author Joseph Ryan said: "With these new genomes, for the first time, we were able to compare gene content of all 5 classes of cnidarians (Anthozoa, Hydrozoa, Cubozoa, Staurozoa, Scyphozoa). This broad survey provides an important overview of genomic evolution in cnidarians."

Compared with advances in toxicological research in venomous vertebrates, toxicological research in cnidarians has been hampered by the lack of extensive genetic information. The area of cnidarian venom is of particular interest given that box jellyfish can be deadly to beach goers: approximately 100 people die each year from their stings. They are considered so dangerous that they are the only jellyfish to have its own category in the US Weather Report.

Ryan notes: "Box jellyfish are among the most venomous animals on the planet and therefore their genomes are important resources for developing antivenoms as well as potential drugs." He added, "Our survey included a focused assessment of venom-related genes, providing insight into the evolution of cnidarian venom."

To investigate the toxins, the authors identified 117 putative venom proteins, of which 9 were found only in cnidarians. The winged box jellyfish genome was the only one to include a toxin gene called CqTx. The CqTx protein creates pores in the membranes of cells resulting in hemolysis, the breaking down of red blood cells. Given that some box jellyfish can stop someone's heart within 5 minutes, the identification of this toxin in the winged box jellyfish adds another clue to the still unclear mechanisms of how people die from a box jellyfish sting.

Comparisons of the genomes also revealed information about the evolution of cnidarian venom. Gene loss and gene duplication both play large roles in species evolution, and, as an example, the scientists' analysis of another toxin gene, CrTx, showed both. The upside-down jellyfish contained a single CrTx gene, the winged box jellyfish had five copies of this gene; and the stalked jellyfish had none.

Ryan expands on these findings, saying: "Gene loss is an important driver of evolutionary change. Having draft genomes allows for accurate inferences of gene loss and for understanding the phenotypic contribution of gene loss in these animals. Furthermore, these genomes provide information about the order of genes in the genome, which in some cases allow for independent verification of the identification of hard-to-classify genes."

The addition of these three new jellyfish genome sequences means that there are now genome sequences available in all five classes of cnidarians. Having access to this wealth of genetic information will enable the exploration of the genetic underpinnings of this group's incredibly diverse range of biological traits, which includes, but isn't limited to, differences in life cycles, prey preferences, metamorphoses, swimming behaviors, population blooms, sexual behaviors, environmental stress reactions, cell type determination, and stinging capsule development. Truly, within Cnidaria, researchers have a -- now unburied -- treasure chest of information.

Early warning signs that someone may have an eating disorder have been revealed in a large-scale data study conducted by Swansea University researchers.

The results, published in the British Journal of Psychiatry by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, showed that people diagnosed with a disorder had higher rates of other conditions and of prescriptions in the years before their diagnosis. The findings may give GPs a better chance of detecting eating disorders earlier.

Eating disorders - such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder - affect an estimated 1.6 million people in the UK, though the true figure may be higher as many people do not seek help.

They predominantly affect women but also men; most people are diagnosed during adolescence and early adulthood. Eating disorders have the highest mortality of all mental illnesses, both from physical causes and from suicide.

Yet despite the scale of the problem, resources to treat eating disorders are scarce. There are very few specialised treatment centres. People affected are often young and vulnerable, and may avoid detection. However, the earlier a disorder can be diagnosed, the better the likely outcome for the patient.

This is where the new research can make a big difference. It can help GPs to understand what could be early warning signs of a possible eating disorder.

The research team, from Swansea University Medical School, examined anonymised electronic health records from GPs and hospital admissions in Wales. 15,558 people in Wales were diagnosed as having eating disorders between 1990 and 2017.

In the 2 years before their diagnosis, data shows that these 15,558 people had:

Higher levels of other mental disorders such as personality or alcohol disorders and depression

Higher levels of accidents, injuries and self-harm

Higher rate of prescription for central nervous system drugs such as antipsychotics and antidepressants

Higher rate of prescriptions for gastrointestinal drugs (e.g. for constipation and upset stomach) and for dietetic supplements (e.g. multivitamins, iron)

Therefore, looking out for one or a combination of these factors can help GPs identify eating disorders early.

Dr Jacinta Tan, who led the research, is associate professor of psychiatry at Swansea University and the Welsh representative of the Eating Disorder Faculty in the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Dr Tan, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist, said:

"I cannot emphasise enough the importance of detection and early intervention for eating disorders. Delays in receiving diagnosis and treatment are sadly common and also associated with poorer outcomes and great suffering.

This research contributes to the evidence about prevalence of eating disorders and begins to quantify the scale of the problem in the entire country of Wales. The majority of these patients we identified are not known to specialist eating disorder services.

The increased prescriptions by GPs both before and after diagnosis indicates that these patients, even if not known to specialist services, have significantly more difficulties or are struggling. This underlines the clinical need for earlier intervention for these patients and the need to support GPs in their important role in this."

Dr Joanne Demmler, senior data analyst in the National Centre for Population Health and Wellbeing Research, based at Swansea University, said:

"This has been an absolutely fascinating project to work on. We used anonymised clinical data on the whole population of Wales and unravelled it, with codes and statistics, to tell a story about eating disorders.

This 'story-telling' has really been an intricate part of our understanding of this extremely complex data and was only possible through a very close collaboration between data analysts and an extremely dedicated and enthusiastic clinician."

Professor Keith Lloyd, chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Wales, said:

"Eating disorders can have a devastating impact on individuals and their families so this study is very timely.

We're committed to making the case for adequate services and support for people with eating disorders in Wales delivered close to where they live."

(Oslo, Monday, 01 July, 2019) The use of statins is significantly associated with a reduction in the risk of mortality in dementia patients, new research presented today at the 5th European Academy of Neurology (EAN) Congress has shown.

The study, which analysed 44,920 Swedish dementia patients from the Swedish Dementia Registry between 2008-2015, found users of statins had a 22% lower risk of all-cause death compared to matched non-users.

The research also demonstrated that statin users had a 23% reduction in the risk of stroke, which is three times more likely in patients with mild dementia and seven times more likely in those with severe dementia.

The protective effect of statins on survival were strong for patients younger than 75 years (27% reduction) and in men (26% reduction) but women and older patients also benefited (17% and 20% reduction respectively). Patients with vascular dementia - the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer's disease - also saw a 29% lower mortality risk.

"Survival in patients in dementia is variable, and previous studies have identified many factors associated with survival and risk of stroke in these patients", commented first author Bojana Petek, MD, from the University Medical Center Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. "However, the effect of statins on these two outcomes is not clear. The aim of this study was to analyse the association between the use of statins on the risk of death and stroke in patients diagnosed with dementia."

Commenting on their research, lead author Dr Sara Garcia-Ptacek from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, stated, "This is a cohort study, which means patients were not randomized to a treatment like they would be in a clinical trial. For this reason, we can only show an association, and not definitely prove that statins caused this decline in mortality. However, our results are encouraging and suggest that patients with dementia benefit from statins to a similar extent than patients without dementia."

Affecting around 10 million people in Europe, dementia is the leading cause of dependency and disability among older people across the continent. The number of cases is expected to double by 2030, largely due to the ageing population. The prevalence of dementia increases exponentially with age, affecting 5% of the population over 65, and up to 50% by 90 years of age.

Seeing a health professional for a full health screening - even when you feel healthy - from around age 40 enables people to make changes when problems first set in, experts say.

Flinders University research on a group of 561 seemingly healthy adults found that there was an average of five unidentified health problems per person, including undiagnosed blood pressure or early hearing loss.

The 21 health domains tested hearing, memory, lung function, foot sensation, balance, diet and physical activity.

In the 561 seemingly healthy community-dwelling adults aged 40 to 75 years, the average number of health issues was five - irrespective of decade of life.

"People in their middle years are being sucked into the black hole of ageing," says Flinders Strategic Professor Sue Gordon, Chair of Restorative Care in Ageing.

"Small reversible changes in health are accumulating unnoticed while people are time poor and their lives consumed by work and parenting.
"

Often we don't notice the problem until it's too late for the individual to self-manage, and vastly more expensive to address.

"So even 40 and 50 year olds have health issues most of which are amenable to change."

The health issues included:

30% of people with undiagnosed high blood pressure

32% were experiencing memory and cognition problems

34% with undiagnosed functional hearing loss

The good news?

Many of the changes were reversible and six months after getting their report, many can adopt health advice and experience better health. "This shows that individualised screening and self-management recommendations do improve health, even among people who feel healthy. It also may save lives and money later on," Professor Gordon says.

Little is known about the trajectory of ageing through the middle years, known as the 'black hole' of ageing, Professor Gordon says, calling for Australia to increase national spending of just 1.5% of the health budget on health promotion and prevention services.

"Australia needs to move from an over-burdened reactive health system to proactive best health through middle and older life.

"While the baby boomer generation require different health services that are not condition specific or medically focused, the next generation of higher educated and super funded retirees are on their way.

"Individual health screening and self-management should be a cornerstone to empower healthy ageing in Australia and avoid the black hole of middle ageing."

While genes and injuries alter health, lifestyle and health self-management choices are within our control, but only if we know what areas of our health are declining, she says.

Many issues can be reversed or stopped with self-management and directed care.

The study, including input from experts in population, public and digital health, aims to empower and encourage people to stay well, stay in touch and get the most out of life while avoiding frailty and reducing demand on hospital and health services.

Those involved in the health screening received a report about their health with directions to access self-management information to change their health.

Primitive chondrites, un-molten stony meteorites, are believed to be the building blocks of the Earth. Because terrestrial planets have experienced chemical differentiation in the core, mantle, and hydrosphere, the elemental abundance pattern of some elements at the planetary surface is not chondritic. In other words, the non-chondritic abundance pattern of elements on the planetary surface is a key to understanding the chemical differentiation processes of terrestrial planets.

It has been reported that the ratio of fluorine to chlorine in the silicate Earth (mantle + hydrosphere) is super-chondritic. This indicates an enrichment of fluorine in the silicate Earth compared to chlorine during and/or after the formation of the Earth. However, the processes which produced the super-chondritic F/Cl ratio of the Earth are poorly understood. In order to investigate the origin of the non-chondritic F/Cl ratio of the Earth, the research group of Ehime University and the University of Tokyo experimentally simulated fluorine and chlorine fractionation during magma ocean crystallization using a high-pressure apparatus (Kuwahara et al., 2019). The researchers found that fluorine was moderately compatible with bridgmanite, the most dominant mineral in the Earth's mantle, but chlorine was highly incompatible with mantle minerals, including bridgmanite. This indicates that the crystallized mantle, resulting from a magma ocean, would have been enriched in fluorine, and chlorine may have become concentrated in the planetary surface.

After magma ocean crystallization, how was the super-chondritic F/Cl ratio in the silicate Earth established? Kuwahara et al. (2019) have proposed the escape of the hydrosphere during the formation of the Earth. In this scenario, chlorine is selectively lost into space while fluorine is retained in the silicate Earth, elevating the F/Cl ratio. Interestingly, previous studies have also proposed the same scenario to explain the Ar/Xe ratio of the silicate Earth (Shcheka and Keppler, 2012). These results suggest that the earliest atmosphere and, perhaps, ocean of the Earth may not have survived. If this is the case, the current Earth's atmosphere and ocean might both be the second, having their origins in mantle degassing and/or impact delivery of volatiles after the formation of the Earth.

Firms who breach non-accounting securities laws are more likely to subsequently violate accounting rules.

New research published in the Journal of Business Finance & Accounting shows a link between non-compliance with securities laws - such as insider trading, stock manipulation and providing false or misleading information about securities or the company's operation - and future Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) violations.

The team from Australian National University, Lancaster University and Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, studied US firms who faced enforcement action from the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) for breaching non-accounting related laws.

As well as finding a greater number of firms with accounting violations following on from securities laws breaches, they also found that non-compliant firms are more likely to report multiple accounting restatements, demonstrating more severe and systematic problems.

Firms are more likely to breach securities laws if they are larger, younger, performing poorly, and audited by non-Big auditors.

"We found that firms that violate securities laws are more likely to go on to breach GAAP compared to those without non-accounting violations," said report co-author Dr Xiu-Ye Zhang, of Australian National University.

"Importantly, when we looked at the rates of accounting restatements both before and after the noncompliance, it was only afterwards that there were GAPP violations - showing that once firms violate non-accounting laws, they also start to breach GAAP, suggesting how important non-compliance with securities laws is as a leading indicator that GAAP violations may follow."

Their findings suggest systemic internal control issues within firms exposed by securities non-compliance are more likely to be followed-up with GAAP breaches than would be the case for firms who initiate no such misconduct.

Co-author Professor Steve Young, of Lancaster University Management School, said: "The accounting and compliance systems of a firm are built on a common culture, such as ethical values and integrity from the very top. Therefore, a culture of non-compliance in one area may correlate with problems in other areas, such as financial reporting. Our study shows that non-compliance with securities laws typically involves top management.

"Another factor is that firms seeking to circumvent securities laws often revert to manipulating financial data to camouflage such behaviour. Because non-compliance with laws and regulations typically involves misrepresenting economic reality - such as a firm's performance of value - the accounting system reflects these factors as accountants receive misleading information.

"Our results support the view that accounting outcomes are influenced not only by a firm's control over financial reporting, but also by controls over other business decisions. Weaknesses in compliance control may also indicate weaknesses in accounting control - highlighting the importance of considering a firm's internal control mechanisms as a whole, rather than isolating accounting from the rest of a business."

Academics at Edge Hill University have found that spending time on social media, specifically WhatsApp, is good for our wellbeing.

Dr Linda Kaye, a senior lecturer in Psychology found that the text-based messaging app, which offers users group chat functions, has a positive impact on psychological wellbeing.

The research found that the more time people spent on WhatsApp per day, the less lonely they were and the higher their self-esteem as a result of feeling closer to friends and family.

Dr Kaye said: "There's lots of debate about whether spending time on social media is bad for our well-being but we've found it might not be as bad as we think.

"The more time people spent on WhatsApp, the more this related to them feeling close to their friends and family and they perceived these relationships to be good quality.

"As well as this, the more closely bonded these friendships were and the more people felt affiliated with their WhatsApp groups, the more this was related positively to their self-esteem and social competence.

"Group affiliation also meant that WhatsApp users were less lonely. It seems that using WhatsApp to connect with our close friends is favourable for aspects of our well-being."

The research of 200 users, 158 women and 41 men with an average age of 24, found that the average reported daily use of WhatsApp was around 55 minutes, with people using it because of its popularity and group chat function.

Dr Kaye added: "This research contributes to the ongoing debates in this area and provides specific evidence of the role of social factors, along with social support motivations for using communication technology.

"Specifically, the findings show how including factors relating to social bonding capital is highly pertinent within this field as a way of understanding how technology usage relates to psychosocial well-being.

"It gives rise to the notion that social technology such as WhatsApp may stimulate existing relationships and opportunities for communication, thereby enhancing aspects of the users' positive well-being."