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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2022 at 9:50am

Fire in the Amazon is associated more with agricultural burning and...

A Brazilian study shows that the number of fires detected in the entire Amazon region between 2003 and 2020 was influenced more by uncontrolled human use of fire than by drought. According to the researchers, burning of vegetation to prepare areas for pasture and deforestation rather than extreme water deficits were the main cause of fire in most years with large numbers of fires.

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Egg whites can be transformed into a material capable of filtering ...

Researchers at Princeton Engineering have found a way to turn your breakfast food into a new material that can cheaply remove salt and microplastics from seawater.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2022 at 8:19am

Researchers cure man who had COVID for 411 days

Researchers announced recently they have cured a man who was continually infected with COVID for 411 days by analyzing the genetic code of his particular virus to find the right treatment.

Persistent COVID infection—which is different to long COVID or repeated bouts of the disease—occurs in a small number of patients with already weakened immune systems. These patients can test positive for months or even years with the infection "rumbling along the whole time".

The infections can pose a serious threat because around half of patients also have persistent symptoms such as lung inflammation but much remains unknown about the condition.

Now thanks to scientists, this  59-year-old man finally overcame his infection after more than 13 months.

The man, who has a weakened immune system due to a kidney transplant, caught COVID in December 2020 and continued to test positive until January this year.

To discover whether he had contracted COVID numerous times or if it was one persistent infection, the researchers used a rapid genetic analysis with nanopore sequencing technology.

The test, which can deliver results in as little as 24 hours, showed the man had an early B.1 variant which was dominant in late 2020 but has since been replaced by newer strains.

Because he had this early variant, the researchers gave him a combination of the casirivimab and imdevimab monoclonal antibodies from Regeneron.

Like most other antibody treatments, the treatment is no longer widely used because it is ineffective against newer variants such as Omicron.

But it successfully cured the man because he was battling a variant from an earlier phase of the pandemic.

The very new variants that are increasing in prevalence now are resistant to all the antibodies available in most developed countries.

The researchers used several such treatments to try to save a seriously ill 60-year-old man in August this year who had been infected since April.

However none worked.

So the team crushed up two antiviral treatments not previously used together—Paxlovid and remdesivir—and administered them to the unconscious patient via a nasal tube, according to a non-peer-reviewed preprint study on the website ResearchSquare.

Miraculously he cleared and perhaps this is now the avenue for how we treat these very difficult persistent infections.

At the ECCMID conference in April, the team announced the longest-known persistent infection in a man who tested positive for 505 days before his death.

But now now there are treatment options available.

 Real-time whole genome sequencing to guide patient-tailored therapy of SARS-CoV-2 infectionб Clinical Infectious Diseases (2022). DOI: 10.1093/cid/ciac864 , academic.oup.com/cid/advance-a … /cid/ciac864/6785897

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 5, 2022 at 8:07am

 How to reduce the risk of stomach bleeding occasionally caused by regular aspirin use

A new study  has found that the risk of stomach bleeding caused by using aspirin long-term can be reduced with a short course of antibiotics, potentially improving the safety of aspirin when used to prevent heart attacks, strokes and possibly some cancers.

The results of the HEAT (Helicobacter pylori Eradication Aspirin) trial  are published in The Lancet.

Aspirin in low doses is a very useful preventative drug in people at high risk of strokes or heart attacks. However, on rare occasions, it can provoke internal ulcer bleeding. By thinning the blood, aspirin makes ulcers in the stomach bleed. These ulcers may be caused by a particular type of bacteria, Helicobacter pylori.

The HEAT (Helicobacter pylori Eradication Aspirin) Trial was a large trial conducted in 1,208 UK general practices. It was a real-life study that used clinical data routinely stored in general practitioner and hospital records, instead of bringing patients back for follow-up trial visits.

The team wrote to 188,875 patients who were taking aspirin, and 30,166 volunteered and took part in the study. Those who tested positive for H. pylori were randomized to receive antibiotics or placebos (dummy tablets) and were followed for up to 7 years.

Over the first two and a half years, those who had antibiotic treatment were less likely to be admitted to hospital because of ulcer bleeding than those who had dummy tablets (6 versus 17). Protection occurred rapidly: with those who received placebos (dummy treatment), the first hospitalization for ulcer bleeding occurred after 6 days, compared to 525 days following antibiotic treatment.

Over a longer time period, protection appeared to wane. However, the overall rate of hospitalization for ulcer bleeding was lower than expected and this in line with other evidence that ulcer disease is on the decline. Risks for people already on aspirin are low. Risks are higher when people first start aspirin, when searching for H. pylori and treating it is probably worthwhile.

Helicobacter pylori eradication for primary prevention of peptic ulcer bleeding in older patients prescribed aspirin in primary care (HEAT): a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, The Lancet (2022). www.thelancet.com/journals/lan … (22)01843-8/fulltext

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 4, 2022 at 10:02am

Lighting fires using ferro rods

Ferro Rod

Ferrocerium (also known in Europe as Auermetall) is a synthetic pyrophoric alloy of mischmetal (cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, other trace lanthanides and some iron – about 95% lanthanides and 5% iron) hardened by blending in oxides of iron and/or magnesium. When struck with a harder material, the mixture produces hot sparks that can reach temperatures of 3,315 °C (6,000 °F) when rapidly oxidized by the process of striking the rod. Striking both scrapes fragments off, exposing them to the oxygen in the air, and easily ignites them by friction heat due to cerium's remarkably low ignition temperature of ~170 °C (338 °F).
Its easy flammability gives ferrocerium many commercial applications, such as the ignition source for lighters, strikers for gas welding and cutting torches, deoxidization in metallurgy, and ferrocerium rods. Because of ferrocerium's ability to ignite in adverse conditions, rods of ferrocerium (also called ferro rods, spark rods, and flint-spark-lighters are commonly used as an emergency fire lighting device in survival kits.The ferrocerium is referred to as a "flint" in this case despite being dissimilar to natural flint as both are used in conjunction for fire lighting, albeit with opposite mechanical operation.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 4, 2022 at 9:35am

Sunlight-absorbing organic compounds are produced on the wet surfac...

Heterogenous oxidation reactions can occur upon mixing chemicals that are in two different physical states, such a liquid and a gas; for example, in the atmosphere the reaction of gaseous nitrate (NO3) free radicals reaching the wet surface of aerosol particles containing aromatic pollutants from wildfires.

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Can cosmic inflation be ruled out?

A team of astrophysicists say that cosmic inflation—a point in the universe's infancy when space-time expanded exponentially, and what physicists really refer to when they talk about the "Big Bang"—can in principle be ruled out in an assumption-free way.

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Mars: Could life itself have made the planet uninhabitable?

Four billion years ago, the solar system was still young. Almost fully formed, its planets were starting to experience asteroid strikes a little less frequently. Our own planet could have become habitable as long as 3.9 billion years ago, but its primitive biosphere was much different than it is today. Life had not yet invented photosynthesis, which some 500 million years later would become its main source of energy. The primordial microbes—the common ancestors to all current life forms on Earth—in our planet's oceans therefore had to survive on another source of energy. They consumed chemicals released from inside the planet through its hydrothermal systems and volcanoes, which built up as gas in the atmosphere.

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 4, 2022 at 9:23am

Why Does Climate Change Matter?

A scientist explains

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 4, 2022 at 9:17am

How magnetism could help explain the Earth-moon system's formation

There are several theories about how Earth and its moon were formed, most involving a giant impact. Now scientists have analyzed the dynamics of fluids and electrically conducting fluids and concluded that Earth must have been magnetized either before the impact or as a result of it.

They claim this could help to narrow down the theories of the Earth-moon formation and inform future research into what really happened. Their work is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This new idea is to point out that our theoretical understanding of the Earth's magnetic field today can actually tell us something about the very formation of the Earth-moon system. At first glance, this seems somewhat surprising, and previous theories had not recognized this potentially important connection.

This new assessment is based on the resilience of Earth's magnetic field, which is maintained by a rotating and electrically conducting fluid in the outer core, known as a geodynamo.

A peculiar property of the Earth's dynamo is that it can maintain a strong magnetic field but not amplify a weak one.

The scientists therefore concluded that if Earth's field were to get switched off, or even reduced to a very small level, it would not have the capability to kick in again.

It is this remarkable feature that allows us to make deductions about the history of the early Earth; including, possibly, how the moon was formed.

This work says any realistic model of the formation of the Earth–moon system must include magnetic field evolution. 

Fausto Cattaneo et al, How was the Earth-Moon system formed? New insights from the geodynamo, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2120682119

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 4, 2022 at 9:10am

New research discovers new role for blood clotting protein in triggering inflammation

Scientists have discovered a new role for the blood clotting protein known as von Willebrand Factor (VWF), which could lead to the development of new treatments for patients with inflammatory and blood clotting disorders.

The research finds that VWF plays an important role in regulating immune responses at sites of blood vessel injury. This means that the protein has a newly discovered role in repairing damaged blood vessels in addition to its role in blood clotting.

Deficiency in VWF is called "von Willebrand Disease" and occurs in about 1 in 1,000 people in Ireland. People with this condition have increased risk of serious heavy bleeding. In contrast, people with high levels of the protein in their blood are at risk of developing serious blood clots. For example, very high VWF levels have been implicated in the unusual blood clots seen in the lungs of patients with severe COVID-19.

This research shows, for the first time, that VWF not only regulates blood clotting at the site of damage but also triggers local immune responses. Understanding this new biological role for VWF in regulating inflammatory responses may offer the opportunity to develop entirely new treatment options for patients with inflammatory and blood clotting disorders, such as von Willebrand Disease, deep vein thrombosis and myocardial infarction.

von Willebrand factor links primary hemostasis to innate immunity, Nature Communications (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33796-7

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 4, 2022 at 8:29am

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on November 4, 2022 at 8:15am

Researchers find that 60% of home 'compostable' plastic doesn't fully break down and ends up in our soil instead

In a recent study, researchers have found that 60% of home-compostable plastics do not fully disintegrate in home compost bins, and inevitably end up in our soil. The study also found that citizens are confused about the labels of compostable and biodegradable plastics, leading to incorrect plastic waste disposal. These results highlight the need to revise and redesign this supposedly sustainable plastic waste management system.

Global plastic pollution remains one of the biggest environmental challenges of our time. A new OECD report shows that plastic consumption has quadrupled over the past 30 years. Globally, only 9% of plastic waste is recycled, while 50% ends up in landfills, 22% evades waste management systems, and 19% is incinerated.

In response to this pollution crisis, several countries have set targets to eliminate all single-use plastics and to make plastic packaging 100% recyclable, reusable, or compostable by 2025.

Compostable plastics are becoming more common as the demand for sustainable products grows. The main applications of compostable plastics include food packaging, bags; cups and plates, cutlery, and bio-waste bags. But there are some fundamental problems with these types of plastics. They are largely unregulated, and claims around their environmental benefits are often exaggerated.

Now, in a new study published in Frontiers in Sustainability, researchers   have found that consumers are often confused about the meaning of the labels of compostable plastics, and that a large portion of compostable plastics do not fully disintegrate under home composting conditions.

"Compostable plastic" describes a material that can undergo biological degradation in a compost site at a rate consistent with other known compostable materials, leaving no visible (toxic) residues.

However, compostable plastics are currently incompatible with most waste management systems. There exists no harmonized international standard for home compostable plastics. The fate of these plastics, when they are thrown away or sorted for recycling, is therefore either incineration or landfill.

Frontiers in Sustainability (2022). DOI: 10.3389/frsus.2022.942724

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