Discrimination may lead to inflammation, increased stress hormones associated with lung disease

A new national study published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society finds that bisexual Americans had over two times the rates of asthma and other lung diseases as heterosexual adults. Overall, 29% of bisexual adults reported experiencing lung disease compared to 14% of heterosexual adults. The study analyzed data from 12,209 adults in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.

“Higher levels of discrimination experienced by bisexual people could lead to more stress and lead to inflammation or stress hormones which would worsen asthma,” said lead author, Jason Nagata, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. “Bisexual adults have been shown to have worse health outcomes across a number of physical and mental health domains, and we add to this literature by showing disparities in asthma and other lung diseases.”

ISTANBUL - Just after dawn on Saturday, 4 September 2021, professional race and stunt pilot Dario Costa of Italy wrote a new chapter in aviation history as he flew a raceplane through the narrow confines of two enclosed auto tunnels just outside Istanbul. Closely surrounded by the concrete arc of the walls, Costa executed a tricky takeoff inside the first tunnel, flashed through an open-air gap and then continued his flight at 245 km/h through the second tunnel, flying no more than one meter from the asphalt. Here's everything you need to know about Tunnel Pass:

• Costa, 41, won the top category of the Italian Aerobatic Championship and became first Italian pilot to join, and earn a race win in, the Red Bull Air Race Challenger Class. With over two decades of flying experience, and numerous aviation feats to his credit, he has flown more than 60 aeroplane models and logged over 5,000 hours in the air – more than half in high-performance aerobatics.
• Tunnel Pass was by far Costa's most demanding and complex undertaking yet, requiring a team of 40 people, specially developed training technology and more than a year of preparation. Throughout, the project was shrouded in secrecy to limit variables and distractions, allowing complete focus for a successful flight that was no more than a simple idea on paper 12 months ago.

La conferma dalle misurazioni annuali condotte sulla fronte del ghiacciaio da geografi e glaciologi dell’Università di Padova: sui 9 segnali frontali si registra un arretramento medio di oltre 6 metri rispetto allo scorso anno, il volume perduto in cent’anni arriva quasi al 90%.
La superficie e il volume del ghiacciaio della Marmolada continuano a ridursi. Lo confermano le misurazioni annuali condotte sulla fronte del ghiacciaio da geografi e glaciologi dell’Università di Padova, che tratteggiano di anno in anno un quadro sempre più fosco sullo stato di salute del più importante ghiacciaio delle Dolomiti.

«Nonostante la candida apparenza dovuta a precoci nevicate tardoestive e un'annata tra le più nevose degli ultimi trent'anni – dice Mauro Varotto, responsabile delle misurazioni per il Comitato Glaciologico Italiano – il ghiacciaio della Marmolada continua la sua inesorabile ritirata: le misure effettuate in questi giorni sui 9 segnali frontali registrano infatti un arretramento medio di oltre 6 metri rispetto allo scorso anno». «Le misure – afferma Aldino Bondesan, coordinatore delle campagne glaciologiche per il Triveneto e autore di indagini sullo spessore del ghiaccio mediante georadar assiemeRoberto Francese dell’Università di Pavia – si svolgono tradizionalmente andando a registrare la posizione delle fronti glaciali rispetto a dei segnali noti.

La risposta immunitaria innata stimolata dall’interferone (IFN) di tipo I, rilasciato a sua volta dalle cellule dendritiche plasmacitoidi (pDC) nella fase iniziale dell'infezione da SARS-CoV-2, svolge un ruolo chiave nel prevenire la progressione della malattia da COVID-19.

Un team di ricercatori (Università San Raffaele di Milano, Policlinico di Tor Vergata, Università di Padova, Metabolic Fitness Association) coordinati dall’Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), ha messo sotto la lente di ingrandimento, in uno studio pubblicato su Plos Pathogens, proprio i meccanismi delle risposte immunitarie innate nella patogenesi della COVID-19.
“Abbiamo studiato l'interazione precoce tra SARS-CoV-2 e le cellule del sistema immunitario in un modello sperimentale in vitro basato sulle cellule del sangue periferico umano – spiega Eliana Coccia dell’ISS, a capo dell’indagine - e abbiamo visto che anche in assenza di una replicazione virale produttiva, il virus promuove un importante rilascio di IFN di tipo I e III e di citochine e chemochine infiammatorie (ovvero molecole che agiscono come mediatori dell’immunità naturale e della risposta infiammatoria), note per contribuire alla tempesta di citochine osservata nella COVID-19. È stato interessante osservare che l’IFN di tipo I, rilasciato dalle pDC, è in grado di stimolare la risposta antivirale nelle cellule epiteliali polmonari infette”.

Adults who have received a double vaccination are 49% less likely to have Long COVID should they contract a COVID-19 infection.

Researchers at King’s College London analysed data from participants logging their symptoms, tests and vaccines on the UK ZOE COVID Symptom Study app between 8th December 2020 and 4 July 2021, including 1,240,009 (first dose) and 971,504 (second dose) vaccinated UK adults. The research team assessed a range of factors, including age, frailty and areas of deprivation and compared that with post-vaccination infection.

The study, published today in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, found that in the unlikely event of catching COVID-19 after being double vaccinated, the risk of Long COVID was reduced by almost half. There were also fewer hospitalisations (73% less likely) and lower burden of acute symptoms (31% less likely) among those fully vaccinated. The nature of the most common symptoms were similar to unvaccinated adults – e.g. anosmia,(loss of smell) cough, fever, headaches, and fatigue. All these symptoms were milder and less frequently reported by people who were vaccinated, and they were half as likely to get multiple symptoms in the first week of illness. Sneezing was the only symptom which was more commonly reported in vaccinated people with COVID-19.

Un gruppo internazionale di ricercatori, coordinato dal Dipartimento di Medicina molecolare della Sapienza, ha pubblicato un editoriale sulla rivista Clinical Microbiology and Infection sul ruolo dei mezzi di comunicazione nella pandemia da COVID-19.

Una ricerca internazionale coordinata dal Dipartimento di Medicina molecolare della Sapienza, in collaborazione con l’Università dell’Insubria, con la Banca del Sangue della Toscana nord-occidentale, con l’Aristotle University in Grecia e con l’Università spagnola di Valencia, si interroga sul ruolo dei mezzi di comunicazione nella pandemia da COVID-19. Il lavoro è stato presentato su Clinical Microbiology and Infection, rivista ufficiale della Società europea di microbiologia clinica e malattie infettive.

For 20 years, science has blossomed in Afghanistan. Now many researchers are fleeing and those who remain face lost funding and the threat of persecution.

On Sunday 15 August, geologist Hamidullah Waizy was interviewing job candidates at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in Kabul when he was told the Taliban had entered the city, and he must evacuate. The next morning, he saw armed militants on the streets. Waizy, a researcher at Kabul Polytechnic University who was recently also appointed director-general of prospecting and exploration of mines at the ministry, was shocked by the city’s rapid fall. Since then, he’s lived in limbo, mostly shuttered up in the relative safety of his home.

Across Kabul, most universities and public offices remain closed. The Taliban says it wants officials to continue working, but it is not clear what this will look like. “The future is very uncertain,” Waizy told Nature.

When the fundamentalist group last held the country, in 1996–2001, it brutally enforced a conservative version of Islamic Sharia law, characterized by women’s-rights violations and suppression of freedom of expression. But after it was overthrown in 2001, international funding poured into Afghanistan and universities thrived.

Now, academics fear for their own safety. They also worry that research will languish without money and personal freedoms, and because educated people will flee. Some fear that they could be persecuted for being involved in international collaborations, or because of their fields of study or their ethnicity.

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Announcing a new article publication for Zoonoses journal. In this article the authors Cao Chen, Qi Shi and Xiao-Ping Dong from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China, Center for Biosafety Mega-Science, Wuhan, China and China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China discuss the SARS-CoV-2 Lambda Variant in relation to spatiotemporal distribution and potential public health impact.

Various SARS-CoV-2 variants have continually emerged since the summer of 2020. Recently, the spread and potential effects of the Lambda variant on public health have caused great scientific and public concern. The Lambda variant (C.37), first identified in Peru in December 2020, contains a novel deletion (Δ246–252) and two novel mutations, L452Q and F490S, not present in the ancestral strain and other variants. The Lambda variant was designated a variant of interest in April of 2021. By the end of July, this variant sequence was detected in more than 30 countries worldwide, mostly in South America.
In this study the authors analyse the global spatiotemporal distribution of the Lambda variant from the beginning of January to the end of July from publicly available data. The Lambda variant spread rapidly in Peru and became predominant in March.

Study provides new insights into the base of the marine ecosystem.

All life starts at a small scale, including life in the ocean. Microscopic plants called phytoplankton form an important base for the marine ecosystem, and ultimately determine how fish stocks develop and how much atmospheric carbon dioxide is taken up by the ocean. Understanding the base of the marine ecosystem is important for two essential questions for the future of the human population: nutrition and climate.

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Dalhousie University, the University of Liverpool and GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel have developed a new model for studying phytoplankton growth in the ocean. The research was funded in part by the U.S. National Science Foundation and was published in Science Advances.

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Un incidente evitabile che avrà effetti immediati e a lungo termine sugli ecosistemi costieri della zona.

Una fuoriuscita di petrolio che ha coperto una superficie di 800 chilometri quadrati sta minacciando le coste di Cipro e Turchia, con conseguenze potenzialmente devastanti per la biodiversità marina e gli ecosistemi. Lo sversamento pone seri rischi anche per le comunità e le imprese che dipendono dal turismo e che utilizzano le risorse marine per la loro sopravvivenza.

La fuoriuscita ha avuto origine in Siria, dove, secondo i resoconti locali, la rottura di un serbatoio della centrale termica di Baniyas ha portato allo sversamento in mare di grandi quantità di carburante e ha colpito diversi comuni che hanno già avviato le procedure di pulizia. Seconto quanto dicharato dall’agenzia di stampa statale siriana SANA, il serbatoio che perdeva conteneva 15.000 tonnellate di carburante. Questo recente incidente rappresenta un ulteriore richiamo sui grandi rischi associati all’estrazione e alla lavorazione degli idrocarburi nel bacino semi-chiuso del Mediterraneo, caratterizzato da un pericoloso accumulo degli inquinanti petroliferi e dove le conseguenze di tali incidenti possono causare effetti negativi a lungo termine sugli ecosistemi e sulle comunità che vivono lungo le coste.