(DOE/Argonne National Laboratory) A group of the world's best X-ray science facilities has developed a strategy for cooperatively combating COVID-19.

(American Chemical Society) Antiviral drugs could help us fight the new coronavirus, but currently, we don't have a highly potent, effective antiviral that cures COVID-19. Why not? We called a few virologists to find out: https://youtu.be/AIpeZDR9i3E.

(University of California - Davis) In the tropical atmosphere, cold air rises due to an overlooked effect -- the lightness of water vapor. This effect helps to stabilize tropical climates, and the impacts of a warming climate would be much worse without it.

(University of Michigan) The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted just how reliant the United States and other countries are on Chinese manufacturing, with widespread shortages of protective medical gear produced there.

(Florida Museum of Natural History) Florida and Georgia archaeologists have discovered the location of Fort San Antón de Carlos, home of one of the first Jesuit missions in North America. The Spanish fort was built in 1566 in the capital of the Calusa, the most powerful Native American tribe in the region, on present-day Mound Key in the center of Estero Bay on Florida's Gulf Coast.

(University of Helsinki) A multidisciplinary research group coordinated by the University of Helsinki dated the bones of dozens of Iron Age residents of the Levänluhta site in Finland, and studied the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios. The results provide an overview of the dietary habits based on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems, as well as of sources of livelihoods throughout the Levänluhta era.

(University of Warwick) 21st century X-ray technology has allowed University of Warwick scientists to peer back through time at the production of the armour worn by the crew of Henry VIII's favoured warship, the Mary Rose.

(Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History) What makes our species unique compared to other hominins? High profile genetic, fossil and material culture discoveries present scientists working in the Late Pleistocene with an ever-more complex picture of interactions between early hominin populations. One distinctive characteristic of Homo sapiens, however, appears to be its global distribution. Exploring how Homo sapiens colonized most of the world's continents in a relatively short period could reveal the exceptional capacities of humans relative to other hominins.

(Florida Museum of Natural History) More than a thousand years ago, people from across the Southeast regularly traveled to a small island on Florida's Gulf Coast to bond over oysters, likely as a means of coping with climate change and social upheaval.

(Perot Museum of Nature and Science) Published in PLOS ONE today, a study by an international team from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas and Hokkaido University in Japan further explores the proliferation of the most commonly occurring duck-billed dinosaur of the ancient Arctic as the genus Edmontosaurus. The findings reinforce that the hadrosaurs -- dubbed 'caribou of the Cretaceous' -- had a geographical distribution of approximately 60 degrees of latitude, spanning the North American West from Alaska to Colorado.

(University of Plymouth) Researchers say a fossil found on the Jurassic coast of southern England in the 19th century demonstrates the world's oldest known example of a squid-like creature attacking its prey.

(Ohio State University) The land masses of Japan shifted from east to west to east again in the months before the strongest earthquake in the country's recorded history, a 2011 magnitude-9 earthquake that killed more than 15,500 people, new research shows.

(University of Washington) By comparing new measurements from NASA's ICESat-2 mission with the original ICESat mission, which operated from 2003 to 2009, scientists were able to measure precisely how the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have changed over 16 years.

(Brown University) A new study shows that coastal sea ice used by Arctic residents for hunting and fishing will be reduced as the planet warms.

(University of Hawaii at Manoa) In a study published in Scientific Reports, researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, found in the next few decades, sea level rise will likely cause large and increasing percentages of land area to be impacted simultaneously by the three flood mechanisms. Further, they found direct marine inundation represents the least extensive--only three percent of the predicted flooding, while groundwater inundation represents the most extensive flood source.

(Oregon State University) The world's oceans play a critical role in climate regulation, mitigation and adaptation and should be integrated into comprehensive 'green new deal' proposals being promoted by elected officials and agency policymakers.

Palestinian officials said Friday that Israel is forcing banks in the occupied West Bank to close accounts held by the families of prisoners in Israeli jails to prevent the Palestinian Authority from providing stipends to them. Israel has long objected to the Palestinian Authority's payments to the families of prisoners and those killed in the conflict, including militants, saying it rewards terrorism. The Palestinians view the payments as a social safety net for those living under decades of military occupation.

Chief Justice Patience Roggensack faced backlash for her comment, with some people calling it "elitist" to separate meatpackers from "regular folks."

The streets of Chicago may be largely empty as residents hunker down from coronavirus but some of the city's most deprived neighborhoods are still echoing to the sound of deadly gunfire and raucous partying. While significant falls in crime have been one of the few positive side effects of lockdowns in much of the United States and elsewhere, they have barely made a dent in the homicide rate in Chicago, a city that has long recorded the most murders in the country. Chicago police say 56 murders were committed in April despite statewide stay-at-home orders -- only a fraction lower than the 61 for the same month in 2019 -- while last weekend, the first of the new month, four people were killed and 46 others shot and wounded.

As businesses slowly reopen, experts warn that social distancing may need to be dialed back up: ‘It’s not an on-off switch’ * Coronavirus – latest US updates * Coronavirus – latest global updatesSome California businesses on Friday began opening their doors for business – at least partially.As states and counties across the nation contend with pressure to lift the stay-at-home measures that have destroyed local economies, California is taking an especially cautious approach, walking a fine line between political and economic pressure to reopen and the public health imperative to stop the spread of disease.Public health experts told the Guardian that while no US state was equipped with enough coronavirus testing and surveillance to feel fully confident reopening, California’s slow, piecemeal recovery plan – though far from perfect – seemed like the least risky option. The planSeven weeks after the governor, Gavin Newsom, ordered his 40 million constituents to shelter in place and all non-essential businesses to close, California on Friday entered phase two of its grand reopening plan.Some retail stores, including bookshops, florists, music stores, clothing and sporting goods retailers, can reopen if they organize curbside pickup. Some manufacturing and logistics in the retail supply chain can restart as well, as long as they follow safety and hygiene protocols. And local authorities are allowed to ease regulations further than the state guidelines if they meet certain testing and sanitation requirements.Phase three of the plan – potentially months away – could see salons, gyms, movie theaters and in-person church services resume. Phase four would end all restrictions. The timingFriday’s reopenings come as California has avoided the surge of infections states like New York have seen. And although California has seen more than 61,000 cases and 2,500 deaths, its hospitals have not been overwhelmed.Last week, state officials reported the first week-over-week decline in Covid-19 deaths.The new guidelines also follow small but sustained protests across the state to demand a relaxation of regulations to revive the state’s crippled economy, and some rural counties have partially reopened in defiance of the lockdown measures. The caveatsHowever, California still hasn’t seen the two weeks of declining cases that the White House suggested as a criterion for easing restrictions and that several European countries have used as a benchmark.The state also lacks the robust testing and tracking systems that countries such as Germany and South Korea have used.The state has ramped up its ability to administer and process tests, although for now, its rate of 29,414 tests a day is below the figure required by some analyses.Authorities are working to put a robust contact tracing effort in place to make sure those who test positive get the care they need and are able to isolate themselves until they recover. Although some counties and communities have spearheaded community-wide testing and tracing programs, overall, the state isn’t at the point where its system is as widespread or efficient as a country like Germany’s.Experts say California should also have a system in place to make sure vulnerable, unhoused populations have access to shelter and medical care – to prevent infection flare-ups in homeless shelters and encampments. Progress on those measures heavily varies county by county.And ideally, there would be a treatment or a vaccine before reopening, said Dr Richard Jackson, a professor emeritus at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and the former head of the California department of public health. While we await a cure, Jackson cautioned, “no one should feel completely safe as we remove restrictions.” The trade-offsCalifornia’s reopening strategy stands in sharp contrast to the approach of states like Georgia, which suddenly allowed gyms, barber shops, hair salons, tattoo parlors and bowling alleys to welcome customers last week.“What certain places have done, where they’ve just thrown open the doors and said, ‘OK, we don’t have to keep our distance any more,’ is a colossal mistake,” Jackson said. Reopening businesses that put lots of people into close contact and speed the spread of disease will reverse the success of shelter-in-place rules, he noted, and overwhelm hospitals as cases surge. “Doing it very cautiously and carefully does make sense at this point in time,” he said.“I get that governors have to balance the public health goals with the economic goals,” said Dr Robert Tsai, surgeon and health policy researcher at Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston and the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. “But this stage of the pandemic is really all about trade-offs,” he noted. The weeks aheadIn the coming weeks, state and local leaders will have to watch closely and prepare to dial the distancing back up if the number of cases surges, said Tsai.“Social distancing isn’t an on-off switch. What it needs to be is a dial, which can be turned up or down depending on what the data show on the ground in terms of how the Covid-19 epidemic is progressing.“Reopening is going to be a very complicated process, and it should be complicated,” he added. “Because this is about making sure that people don’t end up in the hospital or dying.”That California’s plan allows for counties to maintain stricter distancing guidelines or ease up measures could be both a strength and a liability.The flexibility has allowed hotspots like the Bay Area and Los Angeles to take a more cautious approach, but it has also already caused confusion. In San Diego, where curbside shopping has already begun, business owners were unsure what, if anything, would change on Friday. In Bakersfield, restaurants allowed patrons to dine in on Monday and Tuesday, in defiance of the state’s guidelines.A hodgepodge reopening could cause surges in cases; Californians who travel between more lax and more strict counties could spread infections. Moreover, a rush to reopen fast in some areas could be counterproductive to economic recovery, said Alessandro Rebucci, an economist at the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business.“If you reopen when the pandemic is still out there, people and businesses will not just go back to normal,” Rebucci noted. Based on research from China, it seems clear that fear of contracting the illness will keep businesses owners and patrons home until they feel it’s safe enough, he said.

Restaurant workers in a reopened Dallas eatery say they are being asked to weigh their safety against their jobs.

Russia's GRU military intelligence service appears to have got hold of many emails from Chancellor Angela Merkel's constituency office in a 2015 hack attack on Germany's parliament, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday, without citing its sources. A spokesman for the German government had no immediate comment. Der Spiegel said federal criminal police and the federal cyber agency had been able to partially reconstruct the attack and found that two email inboxes from Merkel's office had been targeted.

(American Geriatrics Society) The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the AGS Health in Aging Foundation today conferred one of their newest honors, the Arti Hurria Memorial Award for Emerging Investigators in Internal Medicine Focused on the Care of Older Adults, on two experts: Rasheeda Hall, MD, a board-certified nephrologist and assistant professor of medicine at Duke University; and Kah Poh (Melissa) Loh, MBBCh, BAO, a board-certified internist, hematologist, and oncologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

(American Geriatrics Society) The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) today named James Lin, DO, MS, MHSA, president of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) Institute for Successful Aging in Erie, Pa., its 2020 Clinician of the Year. Lin will be honored at the AGS 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting (#AGS21), May 13-15, 2021, in Chicago, Ill., following the cancellation of the AGS 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting due to COVID-19.

(American Geriatrics Society) The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and AGS Health in Aging Foundation today announced that Alexander K. Smith, MD, MPH, an associate professor of medicine at UCSF and one of geriatrics' most influential rising researchers and advocates, will be honored with the 2020/2021 Thomas and Catherine Yoshikawa Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement in Clinical Investigation.

(American Geriatrics Society) The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) will this year honor past AGS President Todd Semla, PharmD, MS, AGSF, with the prestigious Nascher/Manning Award, given biannually at the AGS Annual Scientific Meeting (#AGS21, to be held next year May 13-15 in Chicago, Ill., following the cancellation of the AGS 2020 Annual Scientific Meeting due to COVID-19).

(University of Texas at Austin) Global warming is approaching a tipping point that during this century could reawaken an ancient climate pattern similar to El Niño in the Indian Ocean, new research led by scientists from the University of Texas at Austin has found.

(Purdue University) New environmentally friendly technologies promise to be 'game changers' in the rare earth metals field and enable the US to create a more stable and reliable domestic source of these essential metals. Purdue University patented extraction and purifying processes using ligand-assisted chromatography are shown to remove and purify such metals from coal ash, recycled magnets and raw ore safely, efficiently and with virtually no detrimental environmental impact.

(Stanford School of Engineering) After analyzing 95 million traffic stop records, filed by officers with 21 state patrol agencies and 35 municipal police forces from 2011 to 2018, a Stanford-led research team concluded that 'police stops and search decisions suffer from persistent racial bias.'

Apr 1, 2004; 17:97-101
Articles

He's celebrating 10 years of dancing both competitively and in the street, and the co-founder of Unruly Skankaz, Devon Brown, says he is looking to expand the brand. The once three-member male dance group has grown to five, he told THE WEEKEND...

The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics spoke with Anna Houseman '21 about her daily routine, personal ethics, and staying productive during the pandemic. 

Research Event

Event participants

This event is now full and registration has closed.

Participants include

Zeinab Badawi, Presenter, BBC Global Questions and HardTalk
Lakhdar Brahimi, The Elders; Chair, Panel on United Nations Peace Operations (2000)
Alan Doss, President, Kofi Annan Foundation 
Raila Odinga, High Representative for Infrastructure Development, African Union; Prime Minister of Kenya (2008-13)
Patrick Gaspard, President, Open Society Foundations
Michèle Griffin, Senior Policy Advisor to the UN Secretary-General
Ian Martin, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General in East Timor (1999), Nepal (2007-09) and Libya (2011-12)
Strive Masiyiwa, Chair of the Board, AGRA; CEO, Econet Wireless
Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General, United Nations
Kumi Naidoo, Secretary-General, Amnesty International
Danny Sriskandarajah, Chief Executive, Oxfam
Mark Suzman, Chief Strategy Officer and President of Global Policy and Advocacy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Liye Chen
May 1, 2020; 19:871-883
Research

Customized malware used to compromise physical and virtual firewalls

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Usama Otman Essed, Libya Center for Strategic & Future Studies
Chair: Tim Eaton, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

4 March 2020 , Volume 96, Number 2

Research Event

Event participants

Ahmed Tabaqchali, Chief Investment Officer, Asia Frontier Capital Iraq Fund; Adjunct Assistant Professor, American University of Iraq Sulaimani
Moderator: Renad Mansour, Senior Research Fellow, Middle East and North Africa Programme, Chatham House

7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3

7 May 2020 , Volume 96, Number 3

¹⁸F-PI-2620 is a positron emission tomography (PET) tracer with high binding affinity for aggregated tau, a key pathologic feature of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. Preclinically, ¹⁸F-PI-2620 binds to both, 3R and 4R tau isoforms. The purpose of this first-in-human study was to evaluate the ability of ¹⁸F-PI-2620 to detect tau pathology in AD patients using PET imaging, as well as to assess its safety and tolerability of this new tau PET tracer. Methods: Participants with clinical diagnosis of probable AD and healthy controls (HC) underwent dynamic ¹⁸F-PI-2620 PET imaging for 180 min. ¹⁸F-PI-2620 binding was assessed visually and quantitatively using Distribution Volume Ratios (DVR) estimated from non-invasive tracer kinetics and standardized uptake value ratios (SUVR) measured at different time points post-injection (p.i.) with the cerebellar cortex as the reference region. Time-activity curves and SUVR were assessed in AD and HC, as well as DVR and SUVR correlations and effect size (Cohen’s d) over time. Results: ¹⁸F-PI-2620 showed peak brain uptake around 5 min p.i. and fast wash-out in non-target regions. In AD subjects, focal asymmetric uptake was evident in temporal and parietal lobes, precuneus, and posterior cingulate cortex. DVR and SUVR in these regions were significantly higher in AD compared to HC. Very low background signal was observed in HC. ¹⁸F-PI-2620 administration was safe and well tolerated. SUVR time activity curves in most regions and subjects achieved a secular equilibrium after 40 min p.i.. A strong correlation (R² > 0.93) was found between non-invasive DVR and SUVR for all imaging windows starting >30 min p.i.. Similar effect sizes between AD and HC groups were obtained across the different imaging windows. ¹⁸F-PI-2620 uptake in neocortical regions was significantly correlated with the degree of cognitive impairment. Conclusion: Initial clinical data obtained in AD and HC demonstrate the high image quality with excellent signal-to-noise of ¹⁸F-PI-2620 PET for imaging tau deposition in AD subjects. Non-invasive quantification using DVR and SUVR for 30 min imaging windows between 30-90 min p.i., e.g. 45-75 min, provides robust and significant discrimination between AD and HC subjects. ¹⁸F-PI-2620 uptake in expected regions is highly correlated to neurocognitive performance.

Purpose: The main objective of this prospective study was to determine the impact of multi-phasic acquisition of ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT in the detection of recurrent prostate cancer (PCa) in the early stage of biochemical recurrence (BR) with prostate-serum-antigen (PSA) level <1ng/ml. Also, ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT positivity was correlated with clinical parameters for the assessment of predictive markers. Methods: A prospective monocentric study was conducted on 135 PCa patients with BR and PSA<1ng/ml. All patients have undergone initial prostatectomy with additional radiation therapy in 19.3% and androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) in 7.4% of patients. Dynamic acquisition [1–8min. post-injection (p.i.)] from the prostate bed, standard whole-body (60min. p.i.) and limited bed positions of delayed studies (120-150min. p.i.), were performed. Studies were reviewed by two board-certified nuclear medicine specialists, independently. A combination of visual and semi-quantitative analyses and correlation with morphological (e.g. MRI) and/or clinical follow-up findings was used for the final interpretation of abnormal lesions as benign or malignant. ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT positivity was also correlated with primary clinical findings. Results: Incorporating the information of all phases, 116 lesions were detected in 49.6% of patients (22 local recurrences, 63 lymph nodes, and 31 distant metastases). The detection rates were 31.8%, 44.9%, and 71.4% for PSA<0.2ng/ml, 0.2≤PSA<0.5, and 0.5≤PSA<1, respectively. Additional dynamic and/or delayed phases resulted in better determination of equivocal lesions and a higher diagnostic performance in 25.9% of patients. Stand-alone dynamic and delayed images led to better interpretation of equivocal findings in the prostate bed (31.4%) and other (lymph node/bone) lesions (20%), respectively. Conclusion: ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT revealed promising results for the early detection of recurrent disease in patients with PSA level of 0.5-1.0ng/ml. However, it showed limited value in cases with PSA<0.5ng/ml. Multi-phasic ⁶⁸Ga-PSMA PET/CT led to better determination of equivocal findings. Although, dynamic images may provide helpful information in assessment of the prostate bed; however, delayed acquisitions seem to have higher impact in clarifying of the equivocal findings.

It was hypothesized that the brain β-amyloid buildup curve plateaus at an early symptomatic Alzheimer's disease (AD) stage. Atrophy-related partial volume effects (PVEs) degrade signal in hot-spot imaging techniques, such as amyloid positron emission tomography (PET). This longitudinal analysis of amyloid-sensitive PET data investigated the shape of the β-amyloid curve in AD applying PVE correction (PVEC). We analyzed baseline and 2-year follow-up data of 216 symptomatic individuals on the AD continuum (positive amyloid status) enrolled in Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (17 AD dementia, 199 mild cognitive impairment), including 18F-florbetapir PET, magnetic resonance imaging and mini mental state examination (MMSE) scores. For PVEC, the modified Müller-Gärtner method was performed. Compared to non-PVE-corrected data, PVE-corrected data yielded significantly higher regional and composite standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR) changes over time (P=0.0002 for composite SUVRs). Longitudinal SUVR changes in relation to MMSE decreases showed a significantly higher slope of the regression line in the PVE-corrected as compared to the non-PVE-corrected PET data (F=7.1, P=0.008). These PVEC results indicate that the β-amyloid buildup curve does not plateau at an early symptomatic disease stage. A further evaluation of the impact of PVEC on the in-vivo characterization of time-dependent AD pathology, including the reliable assessment and comparison of other amyloid tracers, is warranted.

Invitation Only Research Event

Event participants

Hon Guillaume Soro, Chairman, Rassemblement Pour la Côte d’Ivoire (RACI)
Chair: Paul Melly, Consulting Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House

Members Event

Event participants

Carien du Plessis, Journalist; Co-Author, Understanding South Africa

James Hamill, Associate Fellow, International Institute for Strategic Studies; Author, Africa's Lost Leader: South Africa's Continental Role Since Apartheid

Martin Plaut, Senior Researcher, Institute of Commonwealth Studies; Co-Author, Understanding South Africa

Chair: Pumela Salela, UK Country Head, Brand South Africa 

6 November 2019 , Volume 95, Number 6

6 November 2019 , Volume 95, Number 6

Research Event

Event participants

Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame, Leader, Wadajir Party, Federal Republic of Somalia
Chair: Ahmed Soliman, Research Fellow, Africa Programme, Chatham House