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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 18, 2022 at 10:50am

Researchers discover how music could be used to trigger a deadly pathogen release

Researchers  have discovered that the safe operation of a negative pressure room—a space in a hospital or biological research laboratory designed to protect outside areas from exposure to deadly pathogens—can be disrupted by an attacker armed with little more than a smartphone.

According to UCI cyber-physical systems security experts, who shared their findings with attendees at the Association for Computing Machinery's recent Conference on Computer and Communications Security in Los Angeles, mechanisms that control airflow in and out of biocontainment facilities can be tricked into functioning irregularly by a sound of a particular frequency, possibly tucked surreptitiously into a popular song.

Someone could play a piece of music loaded on their smartphone or get it to transmit from a television or other audio device in or near a negative pressure room. If that music is embedded with a tone that matches the resonant frequency of the pressure controls of one of these spaces, it could cause a malfunction and a leak of deadly microbes.

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning infrastructure maintains the flow of fresh air into and contaminated air out of a given space. HVAC systems in scientific facilities typically include room pressure monitors, which in turn utilize differential pressure sensors that compare the atmospheres inside and outside rooms.

The researchers said that commonly used differential pressure sensors (DPSs) are vulnerable to remote manipulation, posing a previously unrealized threat to biosafety facilities. They tested their hypothesis on eight industry-standard DPSs from five manufacturers, demonstrating that all the devices operate with resonant frequencies in the audible range and are, therefore, subject to tampering.

When sound waves collide with the diaphragms inside a DPS, it starts vibrating with the same frequency. An informed attacker can use this technique to artificially displace the diaphragm, changing the pressure reading and causing the whole system to malfunction.

Attackers could thwart negative pressure room systems in a variety of ways. They could manipulate them wirelessly or pose as maintenance personnel to place an audio device inside or near such a room.A more sophisticated attack might involve perpetrators embedding sound-emitting technologies into a DPS before it's installed in a biocontainment facility.

In their conference presentation, the researchers suggested several countermeasures to prevent a musical assault on biosafety facilities. Sound dampening can be achieved by lengthening the sampling tube of a DPS's port by as much as 7 meters. The team also proposed enclosing the pressure port in a boxlike structure. Both these measures would reduce the sensitivity of the DPS.

Anomadarshi Barua et al, A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, Proceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (2022). DOI: 10.1145/3548606.3560643

Full paper (arXiv preprint): A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Spreading Deadly Pathogens Under the Di...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 17, 2022 at 10:34am

Climate change: Increasing heat waves will threaten every child, says UNICEF report

A new report by UNICEF, supported by University of Southampton researchers, says 559 million children currently exposed to high heat waves could rise to 2.02 billion globally by the year 2050.

The report, produced in collaboration with The Data for Children Collaborative, underscores the urgent need to address the impacts of global warming to future generations and follows on from previous work identifying specific risk to children from climate change (Child Climate Risk Index, UNICEF, 2021).

It comes as world leaders meet to discuss climate action this month at the COP27 conference in Egypt.

The report estimates that by 2050, all of the world's 2.02 billion children are expected to be exposed to high heat wave frequency, regardless of whether:

• the world achieves a "low greenhouse gas emission scenario" with an estimated 1.7 degrees of warming, or;
• a "very high greenhouse gas emission scenario" with an estimated 2.4 degrees of warming.

The report found that specifically high heat wave duration currently impacts 538 million (23%) of children globally and by 2050 will rise to:

• 1.6 billion at 1.7 degrees warming or;
• 1.9 billion at 2.4 degrees warming.

Heat waves are especially damaging to children, as they are less able to regulate their body temperature compared to adults, with babies and young children being at greater risk of heat-related mortality.

Further exposure to heat waves can result in children developing health problems such as chronic respiratory conditions, asthma, and cardiovascular diseases.

Heat waves can also affect children's environments, their safety, nutrition and access to water, and their education and future livelihood.

At a minimum, governments must urgently limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius and double adaptation funding by 2025.

"This is the only way to save children's lives and futures—and the future of the planet."

https://www.unicef.org/reports/coldest-year-rest-of-their-lives-chi...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 17, 2022 at 8:51am

Over a billion young people are potentially at risk of hearing loss from headphones, earbuds, loud music venues

More than 1 billion teens and young people are potentially at risk of hearing loss because of their use of headphones and earbuds and attendance at loud music venues, concludes a pooled data analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that over 430 million people worldwide currently have disabling hearing loss. Young people are particularly vulnerable because of their use of personal listening devices (PLDs), such as smartphones, headphones and earbuds, and attendance at loud music venues, amid poor regulatory enforcement. Previously published research suggests that PLD users often choose volumes as high as 105 dB while average sound levels at entertainment venues range from 104 to 112 dB, exceeding permissible levels (80 dB for adults; 75 dB for children) even if for very short periods of time.

A group of 33 studies, corresponding to data from 35 records and 19,046 participants, was included in this research work to come to this conclusion; 17 records focused on PLD use and 18 focused on loud entertainment venues .

The pooled data analysis indicates that the prevalence of unsafe listening practices from PLD use and attendance at loud entertainment venues is common worldwide—24% and 48%, respectively, among teens and young peopel.

Based on these figures, the researchers estimate that the global number of teens and young adults who could potentially be at risk of hearing loss as a result ranges from 0.67 to 1.35 billion.

The researchers acknowledge some limitations to their findings, including the varied study design—a particular feature of the studies on entertainment venues—and the absence of standardized methodology.

These findings   prompted the researchers to conclude, "There is an urgent need for governments, industry, and civil society to prioritize global hearing loss prevention by promoting safe listening practices."

Prevalence and global estimates of unsafe listening practices in adolescents and young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis, BMJ Global Health (2022). DOI: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010501

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 17, 2022 at 8:49am

Earth can regulate its own temperature over millennia, new study finds

The Earth's climate has undergone some big changes, from global volcanism to planet-cooling ice ages and dramatic shifts in solar radiation. And yet life, for the last 3.7 billion years, has kept on beating.

Now, a study by MIT researchers in Science Advances confirms that the planet harbors a "stabilizing feedback" mechanism that acts over hundreds of thousands of years to pull the climate back from the brink, keeping global temperatures within a steady, habitable range. Just how does it accomplish this? A likely mechanism is "silicate weathering"—a geological process by which the slow and steady weathering of silicate rocks involves chemical reactions that ultimately draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and into ocean sediments, trapping the gas in rocks. Scientists have long suspected that silicate weathering plays a major role in regulating the Earth's carbon cycle. The mechanism of silicate weathering could provide a geologically constant force in keeping carbon dioxide—and global temperatures—in check. But there's never been direct evidence for the continual operation of such a feedback, until now. The new findings are based on a study of paleoclimate data that record changes in average global temperatures over the last 66 million years. The MIT team applied a mathematical analysis to see whether the data revealed any patterns characteristic of stabilizing phenomena that reined in global temperatures on a geologic timescale. They found that indeed there appears to be a consistent pattern in which the Earth's temperature swings are dampened over timescales of hundreds of thousands of years. The duration of this effect is similar to the timescales over which silicate weathering is predicted to act. The results are the first to use actual data to confirm the existence of a stabilizing feedback, the mechanism of which is likely silicate weathering. This stabilizing feedback would explain how the Earth has remained habitable through dramatic climate events in the geologic past.

Constantin Arnscheidt, Presence or absence of stabilizing Earth system feedbacks on different timescales, Science Advances (2022). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adc9241

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 17, 2022 at 8:45am

Babies born to mothers with preeclampsia found to be at increased risk of stroke and heart disease later in life

Preeclampsia is a condition involving blood pressure elevation and heightened levels of proteins in urine that can damage kidneys and sometimes other organs of pregnant women. Preeclampsia tends to occur later in pregnancy, though it can sometimes happen earlier. Preeclampsia has been found to stymie fetal growth if not properly treated by causing problems in the arteries that carry blood in the placenta. 

A team of researchers  has found evidence that suggests babies born to mothers with preeclampsia have an increased risk of a stroke and/or heart disease later in life. They also found that it can also lead to other health problems for the baby later in life.

The work involved obtaining and analyzing the medical records of 8.5 million babies born in the 1970s and 1980s and tracking instances of ischemic heart disease (IHD) or stroke in those babies for 40 years after they were born. They found that babies born to mothers experiencing preeclampsia were 33% more likely to develop IHD in later life than babies born to mothers without the condition. They also found a 34% increased risk of stroke. The researchers also found a small increase in risk for stroke in siblings of babies born to mothers with preeclampsia. The researchers suggest the large sample size ensures accuracy of the results and also allowed them to evaluate the role of preterm babies in increased risk of heart disease later on in life. They note also that theirs is the first study to find a link between babies born to mothers with preeclampsia and an increased risk of heart disease and/or stroke later on in life. The researchers note that the risk associations for preeclampsia were more notable in mothers who developed the condition later in their pregnancies than for those who developed it early.

Fen Yang et al, Association of Maternal Preeclampsia With Offspring Risks of Ischemic Heart Disease and Stroke in Nordic Countries, JAMA Network Open (2022). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.42064

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 16, 2022 at 10:56am

How Secrets of the Arctic decoded

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 16, 2022 at 8:26am

Almost All 'Natural' Skincare Products Contain Allergens, Scientists Warn

Nearly 90 percent of the 1,651 personal skin care products studied – including lotions, soaps, and moisturizers – contained at least one of the top 100 most common allergens known to cause contact dermatitis.

Contact dermatitis is more than a fleeting irritation. It's a red, itchy rash that, at its worst, can blister, caused by exposure to substances that either irritate or inflame the skin. The latter is an allergic reaction that occurs once the skin becomes sensitized to an otherwise harmless substance.

According to some estimates, rates of contact dermatitis are on the rise worldwide, up almost three-fold in three decades since 1996.

The researchers say that this uptick in contact dermatitis, a rapidly growing skincare and beauty industry worth billions, and a lack of regulation on its marketing motivated the study.

Contact dermatitis is preventable, so long as you can navigate and interpret the long list of ingredients found in skincare products and know which ones might aggravate the skin. Easier said than done.

A typical skincare or cosmetic product may contain anywhere from 15 to 50 ingredients. Research suggests people could be applying over 500 different chemicals to their skin each day, depending on their skincare routine.

In other words, the more products you use, the more you expose your skin to potential allergens.

Many of the allergens identified in the study were fragrances – think lavender and other botanical extracts – which have become a leading cause of contact dermatitis.

On average, skincare products contained between four and five known allergens. In total, 73 different allergens were listed 7,487 times across the 1,651 products studied.

That's only based on product information available online, but it still gives you a sense of the scale of the problem.

In 2017, another US study found few moisturizers were free from allergens, and even 'fragrance-free' products sometimes contained fragrances, which can irritate the skin.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/article-abstract/2...

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 16, 2022 at 7:56am

Paracetamol: The Most Common Pain Relief Drug in The World Induces Risky Behavior, Study Shows

Acetaminophen, also known as paracetamol and sold widely under the brand names Tylenol and Panadol, also increases risk-taking, according to a study from 2020 that measured changes in people's behavior when under the influence of the common over-the-counter medication.

Acetaminophen seems to make people feel less negative emotion when they consider risky activities – they just don't feel as scared. This reduced risk perceptions and increased risk-taking could have important effects on society.

The findings add to a growing body of research suggesting that acetaminophen's effects on pain reduction also extend to various psychological processes, lowering people's receptivity to hurt feelings, experiencing reduced empathy, and even blunting cognitive functions.

The drug's apparent effects on risk-taking behavior could also be interpreted via other kinds of psychological processes, such as reduced anxiety

In a similar way, the research suggests people's affective ability to perceive and evaluate risks can be impaired when they take acetaminophen. While the effects might be slight, they're definitely worth noting, given acetaminophen is the most common drug ingredient , found in over 600 different kinds of over-the-counter and prescription medicines.

https://academic.oup.com/scan/article/15/7/725/5897711?login=false

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 15, 2022 at 12:01pm

X Chromosome Silenced in Some Cancers in Males

A study finds that XIST, the gene that shuts down one X chromosome in people who have two, is linked to cancer in males. 

Humans only need one active X chromosome, which means that people with two must shut one down to avoid doubling up on its protein products. The gene tasked with inactivating one X, called XIST, codes for a long noncoding RNA that coats and epigenetically silences the extra X chromosome early in the development of people with two X chromosomes. XIST has previously been linked to cancer in females, as well as to testicular cancer. Now, in a study published November 9 in Cell Systems, researchers have found XIST activity in cancers in various somatic tissues of males, too. 

Irregular XIST activity has been linked to testicular cancers, which arise from male germ cells. But in the new study, the researchers found high levels of XIST RNA in male somatic cells sampled from cancerous tissues. While the study doesn’t show a causal link been XIST expression and male cancers, it finds that XIST shuts down X chromosome gene expression in adult male somatic cells, which are thought to need the proteins encoded on the X chromosome. This silencing likely has deleterious effects, the researchers say. 

We’ve known about the testicular cancers having XIST, and we’ve probably suspected that there’s XIST in some other [cancers], but to actually do such a detailed study across all types of cancers and find out the details is really important.

https://www.cell.com/cell-systems/fulltext/S2405-4712(22)00403-3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 15, 2022 at 11:34am

Treated wastewater can be more dependable and less toxic than commo...

Recycled wastewater is not only as safe to drink as conventional potable water, it may even be less toxic than many sources of water we already drink daily, Stanford University engineers have discovered.

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Global carbon emissions at record levels with no signs of shrinking...

Global carbon dioxide emissions from all human activities remain at record highs in 2022, and fossil fuel emissions have risen above pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis by an international body of scientists.

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Safety in space: Synthetic hibernation could provide protection fro...

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Climate change creates complications for concrete

Pennsylvania drivers know the effects that weather can have on paved roads—potholes, cracks and other pavement woes are a common occurrence. Climate change is accelerating the process, with devastating consequences for infrastructure.

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