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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 11, 2024 at 9:03am

Auroras caused by head-on blows to Earth's magnetic field could damage critical infrastructure, scientists say

Auroras are beautiful colourful lights that catch our imagination. Poets write poems, artists, including me, create art works based on them,  writers weave stories around them.

They have inspired myths and portents for millennia—but only now, with modern technology dependent on electricity, are we appreciating their true power.

The same forces which cause auroras also cause currents that can damage infrastructure which conducts electricity, like pipelines.

Now scientists writing in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences have demonstrated that the impact angle of interplanetary shocks is key to the currents' strength, offering an opportunity to forecast dangerous shocks and shield critical infrastructure.

Auroras and geomagnetically induced currents are caused by similar space weather drivers. 

The aurora is a visual warning that indicates that electric currents in space can generate these geomagnetically-induced currents on the ground.

The auroral region can greatly expand during severe geomagnetic storms. Usually, its southernmost boundary is around latitudes of 70 degrees, but during extreme events it can go down to 40 degrees or even further, which certainly occurred during the May 2024 storm—the most severe storm in the past two decades.

Auroras are caused by two processes: either particles ejected from the sun reach Earth's magnetic field and cause a geomagnetic storm, or interplanetary shocks compress Earth's magnetic field.

These shocks also generate geomagnetically induced currents, which can damage infrastructure that conducts electricity. More powerful interplanetary shocks mean more powerful currents and auroras—but frequent, less powerful shocks could also do damage.

The most intense deleterious effects on power infrastructure occurred in March 1989 following a severe geomagnetic storm—the Hydro-Quebec system in Canada was shut down for nearly nine hours, leaving millions of people with no electricity.

But weaker, more frequent events such as interplanetary shocks can pose threats to ground conductors over time.  Recent research work shows that considerable geoelectric currents occur quite frequently after shocks, and they deserve attention.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 9:40am

Familial endocrine diseases linked to increased risk of pregnancy loss, new research shows

Women who have close family members with endocrine diseases--including type 2 diabetes, thyroid diseases and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)--are at higher risk of pregnancy loss, a new study has found.

The research, presented recently at the ESHRE 40th Annual Meeting in Amsterdam, examined the association between various endocrine diseases and the incidence of pregnancy loss.

The study investigated 366,539 women in Denmark between 1973 and 2022. The study found that women with parents diagnosed with endocrine diseases faced a 6% higher risk of pregnancy loss compared to those without a family history of endocrine diseases.

Similarly, if a woman's sister had an endocrine disease, her risk of experiencing pregnancy loss increased by 7%. These patterns persisted even when individual cases of the diseases were considered.

The results highlight having a family history of endocrine disease as an important yet previously underexplored factor in assessing the risk of pregnancy loss.

Egerup, P., et al, Familial endocrine disease increases the risk of pregnancy loss and recurrent pregnancy loss– a nationwide register-based study of 366,548 Danish women. Human Reproduction (2024). academic.oup.com/humrep/issue/39/Supplement_1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 9:31am

Modern conflicts are becoming increasingly electronic and less kinetic, as nations vie for information superiority. The radio signal from GPS satellites is easy to disrupt and jam because it is far away. Thus, in any modern conflict, both sides will attempt to deny each other access to these radio signals.
More traditional navigation instruments like inertial systems are un-jammable, as they work by adding up accelerations and rotations to measure our change in position. So they can replace GPS in times of conflict. However, all the errors made also get added up, so researchers are interested in using an atom-based measurement to ensure it is more accurate.
Atomic accelerometers are one example of these inertial systems. These systems are present in sensors on aircraft and ships, guiding their movement through airspaces and waters. However, existing mechanical-based sensors can wear out easily due to friction, leading to them being swapped out every year and costing a lot of money. They are also hard to build because they're small and delicate.
The quantum approach based on atoms pursued by the present researchers could provide acceleration measurements with no moving parts.

For example, if submarines want to be stealthy and quiet in defense scenarios, keeping track of what it's doing and how it's moved through inertial systems is pretty much the only game in town.
Achieving this fine balance between simplicity and accuracy is the researchers' main goal, and they hope that their efforts will translate to real-world prototypes someday.
Source: USC

Part 2

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Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 9:27am

No GPS, no problem: Researchers are making quantum sensing tools more compact and accurate to replace GPS

Fundamental physics—let alone quantum physics—might sound complicated to many, but it can actually be applied to solve everyday problems.

Imagine navigating to an unfamiliar place. Most people would suggest using GPS, but what if you were stuck in an underground tunnel where radio signals from satellites were not able to penetrate? That's where quantum sensing tools come in.

Researchers  are working at making sensing instruments like atomic accelerometers smaller and more accurate so they can be used to navigate when GPS is down.

Atoms are excellent at making accurate measurements because they are all the same. Atomic measurements made in one laboratory would be indistinguishable from those made in another laboratory, as the atoms behave in precisely the same way.

One example of how this physics concept can be applied is making a highly accurate navigation system with these atoms.

As atoms have mass, they can be used to measure accelerations, helping us build atom-based sensors like atomic accelerometers.

The accelerometers let you know how fast and far you're moving in a given direction. They can be coupled with gyroscopes, which tell you whether you've changed directions and how far you've turned, to make a complete measurement. These navigation instruments are useful when you don't have access to GPS. 

One of the challenges they're facing is how they can engineer this in a thoughtful way.

For example, they have to think very carefully about how they can miniaturize atomic accelerometers. These accelerometers have historically operated in big laboratory scale systems, where equipment is heavy and consumes a lot of power. To make the accelerometers suitable for public use, Researchers are investigating how to retain their high precision in a much more compact, power-efficient and attractive medium.

Not only do quantum sensing devices work in areas that don't have access to GPS, they can also be part of an exciting new avenue: national security applications.

Part 1

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 9:14am

How lasers and 2D materials could solve the world's plastic problem

A global research team has developed a way to blast the molecules in plastics and other materials with a laser to break them down into their smallest parts for future reuse.

The discovery, which involves laying these materials on top of two-dimensional materials called transition metal dichalcogenides and then lighting them up, has the potential to improve how we dispose of plastics that are nearly impossible to break down with today's technologies.

By harnessing these unique reactions, we can explore new pathways for transforming environmental pollutants into valuable, reusable chemicals, contributing to the development of a more sustainable and circular economy.

This discovery has significant implications for addressing environmental challenges and advancing the field of green chemistry.

Jingang Li et al, Light-driven C–H activation mediated by 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49783-z

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 7:30am

Hepatitis C leaves 'scars' in immune cells even after successful treatment

Chronic hepatitis C, caused by the hepatitis C virus, can lead to severe complications such as liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. The advent of highly effective direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) has resulted in high cure rates for this chronic viral infection. However, it has been reported that the immune system of patients does not fully recover even after being cured.

This work provided new insights into the lasting effects of chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection on the immune system, even after the disease has been successfully treated.

The research team has discovered that traces of "epigenetic scars" remain in regulatory T cells and exhibit sustained inflammatory properties long after the virus is cleared from the body. The paper is published in the Journal of Hepatology.

So-Young Kim et al, Epigenetic scars in regulatory T cells are retained after successful treatment of chronic hepatitis C with direct-acting antivirals, Journal of Hepatology (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.jhep.2024.06.011

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 7:27am

The researchers further analyzed all bacterial species simultaneously using AI. This revealed a second pattern of 19 different species that were also associated with an increased risk of death.

This is an observational study, and as such, no definitive conclusions can be drawn about the causal roles of particular bacteria.

But, conclude the researchers, "Our results support emerging evidence showing that gut dysbiosis is associated with long-term survival, indicating that gut microbiome targeting therapies might improve patient outcomes, although causal links should be identified first."

 Casper Swarte et al, Multiple indicators of gut dysbiosis predict all-cause and cause-specific mortality in solid organ transplant recipients, Gut (2024). DOI: 10.1136/gutjnl-2023-331441

Part4

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 7:26am

During a follow-up period of up to 6.5 years, 162 recipients died: 88 kidney, 33 liver, 35 lung and six heart recipients. Forty eight (28%) died from an infection, 38 (23%) from cardiovascular disease, 38 (23%) from cancer, and 40 (25%) from other causes.

The researchers looked at several indicators of gut dysbiosis in these samples: microbial diversity; how much their gut microbiomes differed from the average microbiome of the general population; the prevalence of antibiotic resistance genes; and virulence factors which help bacteria to invade cells and evade immune defenses.
The analysis revealed that the more the gut microbiome patterns of the transplant recipients diverged from those of the general population, the more likely they were to die sooner after their procedure, irrespective of the organ transplanted.

Similar associations emerged for the abundance of antibiotic resistance genes and virulence factors.

The researchers identified 23 bacterial species among all the transplant recipients that were associated with either a heightened or lower risk of death from all causes.
Part3

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 7:24am

To find out, they looked at the relationship between gut dysbiosis and death from all and specific causes in solid organ transplant recipients among whom the prevalence of gut dysbiosis is much higher than that of the general population. This makes them an ideal group to study the associations between gut dysbiosis and long term survival, say the researchers.

They analyzed the microbiome profiles from 1,337 fecal samples provided by 766 kidney, 334 liver, 170 lung, and 67 heart transplant recipients and compared those with the gut microbiome profiles of 8,208 people living in the same geographical area of northern Netherlands.

The average age of the transplant recipients was 57, and over half were men (784; 59%). On average, they had received their transplant 7.5 years previously.

Part2

Comment by Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa on July 10, 2024 at 7:23am

'Unhealthy' gut microbiome patterns linked to heightened risk of death after organ transplant

'Unhealthy' gut microbiome patterns are linked to a heightened risk of death after a solid organ transplant, finds research published online in the journal Gut.

While these particular microbial patterns are associated with deaths from any cause, they are specifically associated with deaths from cancer and infection, regardless of the organ—kidney, liver, heart, or lung—transplanted, the findings show.

The make-up of the gut microbiome is associated with various diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease and diabetes. But few studies have had the data to analyze the association between the gut microbiome and long term survival, explain the researchers.

And while a shift away from a normal pattern of microbes to an 'unhealthy' pattern, known as gut dysbiosis, has been linked to a heightened risk of death generally, it's not clear whether this might also be associated with overall survival in specific diseases, they add.

To find out, they looked at the relationship between gut dysbiosis and death from all and specific causes in solid organ transplant recipients among whom the prevalence of gut dysbiosis is much higher than that of the general population. This makes them an ideal group to study the associations between gut dysbiosis and long term survival, say the researchers.

Part1

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