Every few thousand years, an unlucky star wanders too close to the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The black hole’s powerful […]

The post Our Galaxy’s Black Hole is Spewing Planet-size “Spitballs” appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Scott J. Neal, Qingxiang Zhou, and Francesca Pignoni

The specification of organs, tissues and cell types results from cell fate restrictions enacted by nuclear transcription factors under the control of conserved signaling pathways. The progenitor epithelium of the Drosophila compound eye, the eye imaginal disc, is a premier model for the study of such processes. Early in development, apposing cells of the eye disc are established as either retinal progenitors or support cells of the peripodial epithelium (PE), in a process whose genetic and mechanistic determinants are poorly understood. We have identified Protein Phosphatase 2A (PP2A), and specifically a STRIPAK-PP2A complex that includes the scaffolding and substrate-specificity components Cka, Strip and SLMAP, as a critical player in the retina-PE fate choice. We show that these factors suppress ectopic retina formation in the presumptive PE and do so via the Hippo signaling axis. STRIPAK-PP2A negatively regulates Hpo kinase, and consequently its substrate Wts, to release the transcriptional co-activator Yki into the nucleus. Thus, a modular higher-order PP2A complex refines the activity of this general phosphatase to act in a precise specification of cell fate.

Ganlu Deng, Yihong Chen, Cao Guo, Ling Yin, Ying Han, Yiyi Li, Yaojie Fu, Changjing Cai, Hong Shen, and Shan Zeng

Epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is a crucial process for cancer cells to acquire metastatic potential, which primarily causes death in gastric cancer (GC) patients. Bone morphogenetic protein 4 (BMP4) is a member of the TGF-β family that plays an indispensable role in human cancers. However, little is known about its roles in GC metastasis. In this study, BMP4 was found to be frequently overexpressed in GC tissues and was correlated with patient's poor prognosis. BMP4 was upregulated in GC cell lines and promoted EMT and metastasis of GC cells both in vitro and in vivo, while knockdown of BMP4 significantly inhibited EMT and metastasis of GC cells. Meanwhile, the inhibitor of DNA binding 1 (Id1) was identified as a downstream target of BMP4 by PCR arrays and upregulated via Smad1/5/8 phosphorylation. Id1 knockdown attenuated BMP4-induced EMT and invasion in GC cells. Moreover, Id1 overexpression in BMP4 knockdown cells restored the promotion of EMT and cell invasion. In summary, BMP4 induced EMT to promote GC metastasis by upregulating Id1 expression. Antagonizing BMP4 may be a potential therapeutic strategy in GC metastasis.

Have an upset stomach? Pop a chalky, chewable antacid. Maybe you’ve got a painful cut or burn. No problem; reach for a healing ointment or […]

The post Glittering, mesmerizing, lifesaving: Hospital exhibit showcases minerals used in medicine appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Crystal structure identification of thin organic films entails a number of technical and methodological challenges. In particular, if molecular crystals are epitaxially grown on single-crystalline substrates a complex scenario of multiple preferred orientations of the adsorbate, several symmetry-related in-plane alignments and the occurrence of unknown polymorphs is frequently observed. In theory, the parameters of the reduced unit cell and its orientation can simply be obtained from the matrix of three linearly independent reciprocal-space vectors. However, if the sample exhibits unit cells in various orientations and/or with different lattice parameters, it is necessary to assign all experimentally obtained reflections to their associated individual origin. In the present work, an effective algorithm is described to accomplish this task in order to determine the unit-cell parameters of complex systems comprising different orientations and polymorphs. This method is applied to a polycrystalline thin film of the conjugated organic material 6,13-pentacene­quinone (PQ) epitaxially grown on an Ag(111) surface. All reciprocal vectors can be allocated to unit cells of the same lattice constants but grown in various orientations [sixfold rotational symmetry for the contact planes (102) and (102)]. The as-determined unit cell is identical to that reported in a previous study determined for a fibre-textured PQ film. Preliminary results further indicate that the algorithm is especially effective in analysing epitaxially grown crystallites not only for various orientations, but also if different polymorphs are present in the film.

“Dunkirk” director, Christopher Nolan, talks to National Air and Space Museu curator, Jeremy Kinney, about one of the movie’s stars, the Spitfire. The movie is based […]

The post “Dunkirk” director talks about the Spitfire appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

Smooth and shiny, the tough body of the South African beetle Pedinorrhina trivittata, a flower eater, appears to be a non-inviting surface for pollen grains […]

The post Caught on camera: Despite hard shells pollen sticks to South African beetles appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

A method is described for indexing grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction data of epitaxially grown thin films comprising various crystal orientations and/or polymorphs by measuring reciprocal-lattice vectors.

Insufficient data on service members exposures to emissions from open-air burn pits for trash on military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan is one of the reasons why it is not possible to say whether these emissions could cause long-term health effects, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine.

Cardiac arrest strikes almost 600,000 people each year, killing the vast majority of those individuals, says a new report from the Institute of Medicine. Every year in the U.S., approximately 395,000 cases of cardiac arrest occur outside of a hospital setting, in which less than 6 percent survive.

Inherent features of registries that rely on voluntary participation and self-reported information make them fundamentally unsuitable for determining whether emissions from military burn pits in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations in Southwest Asia caused health problems in service members who were exposed to them, says a new congressionally mandated report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

For her role in transforming a safety net hospital into a national model for high-quality, cost-efficient health care, the National Academy of Medicine today announced Patricia Gabow is the recipient of the 2019 Gustav O. Lienhard Award for Advancement of Health Care.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds that there is no risk-free setting for giving birth, whether at home, in a birth center, or in a hospital.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wears a mask on Capitol Hill on April 30. Members in the House will not return over coronavirus fears but the Senate is scheduled to return on Monday.; Credit: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a rare joint statement on Saturday, declined an offer from the White House to make rapid COVID-19 tests available for Congress.

"Congress is grateful for the Administration's generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time," Pelosi and McConnell said. "Our country's testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly."

McConnell, R-Ky., plans to bring the Senate back into session on Monday, while Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said this week the House would not bring representatives back over coronavirus fears.

On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Twitter that the Trump administration would send three Abbott "point of care testing machines and 1,000 tests for their use" to Capitol Hill.

President Trump on Saturday tweeted: " No reason to turn it down, except politics. We have plenty of testing. Maybe you need a new Doctor over there. Crazy Nancy will use it as an excuse not to show up to work!"

Pelosi and Hoyer said they made the decision based on advice from the Capitol's attending physician, Brian Monahan. "The House physician's view was that there was a risk to members that was one he would not recommend taking," Hoyer said Tuesday.

So far, Rand Paul of Kentucky is the only senator to have tested positive for the coronavirus. In the House, seven members have tested positive or presumed to be positive for the coronavirus.

On Friday, McConnell shared guidelines from Monahan urging lawmakers and staff to maintain six feet of distance, limit the number of people in offices and to wear masks when possible.

Monahan has told Republican leaders that his office does not have the capacity to proactively test all 100 senators and can only test those who are ill, Politico reported.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, seen in February, has been released from the hospital after treatment for a gallbladder condition.; Credit: Patrick Semansky/AP

After being treated on Tuesday for a gallbladder infection at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was discharged on Wednesday.

"She is doing well and glad to be home," according to a Supreme Court press release.

The court said over the next few weeks Ginsburg will return to Johns Hopkins Hospital for follow-up outpatient visits, and for a nonsurgical procedure to remove the gallstone.

Ginsburg, 87, participated in a virtual Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday from her hospital room. The justices and lawyers held unique oral argument sessions by phone all week because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year Ginsburg underwent three weeks of radiation for a cancerous tumor on her pancreas, and in December she was operated on for lung cancer.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Opera singer Plácido Domingo, shown here speaking in Spain last July, said earlier this month that he tested positive for the coronavirus.; Credit: Ricardo Rubio/Europa Press via Getty Images

Plácido Domingo has been hospitalized because of COVID-19-related complications, according to multiple reports.

He is in stable condition in an Acapulco, Mexico, hospital and will receive medical attention for "as long as the doctors find it necessary until a hoped-for full recovery," a spokesperson for Domingo told Opera News over the weekend.

Domingo's reported hospitalization comes just days after he posted a March 22 message on Facebook revealing that he had tested positive for the disease caused by the coronavirus.

"I feel it is my moral duty to announce that I tested positive for COVID19, also known as the Corona Virus. My family and I are and will remain individually isolated for as long as it is medically necessary. Today we all enjoyed good health, but I presented symptoms of coughing and fever, so I decided to take the test and the result was positive," Domingo said.

Domingo has been one of opera's most reliable and bankable stars and is known for his ability to sing tenor and baritone and in multiple languages, including Italian, English, Russian and Spanish.

Recently, the 79-year-old has been embroiled in controversy as several women accused the Spanish-born singer of sexual misconduct.

On March 10, NPR reported that LA Opera, which Domingo helped establish, announced that its investigation substantiated 10 "inappropriate conduct" claims levied against him dating back to as early as 1986. Domingo resigned as the LA Opera's general director in October.

Prior to that, he withdrew from a production of the Metropolitan Opera's performance of "Macbeth" amid allegations of sexual misconduct.

He has denied the allegations.

Domingo is among a growing list of celebrities who have announced they have tested positive for the coronavirus, including actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, actor Idris Elba, NBA star Kevin Durant, talk show host Andy Cohen and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Andrew J. West stars in Anna Mastro's "Walter"; Credit: "Walter"

It's always dicey to characterize a major film festival based on the movies you personally see there, because no matter how diligent you try to be, your impression will always be statistically anecdotal.

I'll see perhaps 10 percent of the films at this year's Palm Springs International Film Festival by the time they roll up the red carpets for the final time, added to the 25 or so I'd watched before I got here, owing to the festival's unique programming policies.

Not bad considering there are 190 movies being screened. So I think I've got the feel of things here. I wouldn't want my doctor to diagnose me based on a test with a 35 to 40 percent chance of accuracy, but I'm not a doctor. Instead of "Do no harm," I quote Spencer Tracy to myself. He said the secret to the creative process is to "just look 'em in the eye and tell 'em the truth."

And the truth is, with the exception of a couple of documentaries and a horror movie, virtually every film I've seen at Palm Springs so far shared some obvious characteristics: the Palm Springs International Film Festival loves it some poignancy and affirmation.

I've already commented on "Match," the Patrick Stewart acting showcase, and "Cowboys," a very funny Croatian comedy with cross-currents of seriousness. I may comment later about "Today," Iran's Oscar submission. (It's terrific by the way, a deeply affecting story about a burnt out cab driver who gets yanked into the world of a battered, unwed mother who steps into his cab.)

(Still from "Today” (Emrooz) by Iranian filmmaker Reza Mirkarimi)

I also saw an Anne Hathaway passion project called "Song One" here. I'm not going to write about it because I'm not in the mood to stomp on somebody else's butterfly. Plus the dramedy "1001 Grams" by the splendiferous-ly named Norwegian Bent Hamer, whose deadpan satire is routinely compared to Jacques Tati.

WATCH the official trailer for "1001 Grams," which includes some foreign languages

At their best, these are all movies that want to move the audience to tears before bouncing a ray of hope off the screen at them. At their worst, these movies are about pain in the same way Novocain is. They acknowledge its reality, in order to neutralize it.

Filmmaker Anna Mastro's debut film "Walter" (one of the Palm Springs premieres) fits what seems to be the festival's programming model, too, and is, I think, a really quite appealing little indie film, with the by now familiar mildly magical realist bent.

It's is a story about grief, though one with a screwball premise so that it doesn't quite present that way at first. Walter (portrayed with charisma and nuance by Andrew J. West) is a 20-something slacker, but a very uptight one, with a soldier's commitment to dress and routine.

He still lives with mom (Virginia Madsen, now shifting toward the character actress portion of her career with ease and grace) and has a job one rung above fast food worker on the ladder of success: He's a ticket taker at the local multiplex.

But what the world surely sees as failure, Walter knows to be his cover for a far more important vocation. Walter's father died when he was just 10 years old; ever since the funeral, Walter has realized something we don't: His real job in life is to decide where people go after they die.

His snap judgments secretly send people to heaven or hell ... until a dead guy from Walter's past shows up and demands that Walter determine his fate, and then all hell breaks loose.

It's an odd premise, bordering on the labored, but Mastro and her extremely appealing cast pull it off, in part by wearing their influences on their sleeves. The fingerprints of Wes Anderson are all over this picture, especially in terms of the way shots are framed and music is used, and I was able to identify the pivotal contribution of "Beasts of the Southern Wild" co-composer Dan Romer by ear, long before I noticed his screen credit.

I suppose that's supposed to be a damning criticism of a first-timer, but I don't see it that way. Tarantino aped Scorsese for years and virtually remade a minor Hong Kong gangster picture when he debuted with "Reservoir Dogs."

Spielberg acknowledges his debt to David Lean. Hitchcock's apprenticeship at Germany's UFA film studio resulted in a lifelong visual and thematic debt to the great Expressionist master Fritz Lang.

The question is, what do you do with your influences, how do you make them your own? And Mastro — who has a real gift for casting, pacing a scene and maneuvering her actors easily between farce and seriousness — has her own talents. She understands how Anderson's visual syntax has become a cinematic shorthand for quirk, and she deploys it to that effect, then tells the story at hand.

There are some issues with that story, though. There's a girl in concessions (Leven Rambin) Walter likes, and there's a bully at work. For all its surface oddity, the mechanical underpinnings of "Walter" frequently feel like they belong in an "American Pie" sequel.

And yet this movie won me over. I liked its faith in the movie palace as a place that still vibrates with the marvelous. I found a dream sequence, where Rambin undresses to camera while sprawled on a rich yellow bed of movie house popcorn hilarious and deeply expressive.

But I think my affection for this picture is mostly centered on Mastro and her cast, which includes a standout performance by Justin Kirk as a very grounded ghost and a broad but successful cameo from William H. Macy as Walter's psychiatrist. They're all groping toward something rather grim and real about loss, while doing their best to serve up some laughs and wonder along the way.

It touched me, because it feels kind of wise.

Off-Ramp contributor R.H. Greene, former editor of Boxoffice Magazine, is in Palm Spring this week to cover the 26th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival. Look for his missives here, and listen Saturday at noon to Off-Ramp, when he'll interview Chaz Ebert about her late husband Roger Ebert's contributions to the film festival circuit.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. in 2018.; Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent non-surgical treatment Tuesday for a benign gallbladder condition, according to a press release from the Supreme Court. She plans to participate in oral arguments from the hospital on Wednesday, according to the release.

In pain on Monday, Ginsburg went to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington after hearing the first-ever Supreme Court teleconference of oral arguments. At Sibley, she was diagnosed with acute cholecystitis, a condition in which a gallstone migrates to the cystic duct. She nonetheless participated in arguments from home on Tuesday, but was in enough pain that she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for treatment of the infected duct later Tuesday.

Doctors not involved in Ginsburg's care said non-surgical treatment typically involves antibiotics and insertion of a tube to drain the infected duct.

Friends said the justice was in good spirits on Tuesday night, and watching the Metropolitan Opera on her iPad.

Ginsburg's emergency treatment coincides with the U.S. Supreme Court's historic live-streaming of its oral arguments in which the justices are participating by telephone because of the coronavirus. According to the court statement, Ginsburg, 87, is "resting comfortably" and plans to participate in oral arguments again on Wednesday when the court considers an important birth control case.

She is expected to remain in the hospital for another day or two.

Last year, Ginsburg completed three weeks of radiation treatment after a cancerous tumor was discovered on her pancreas. It was the fourth time in 20 years that she had been treated for cancer, and the second time in a year. In December 2019, she was operated on for lung cancer.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Physical and occupational therapists carry bags of personal protective equipment on their way to the room of a COVID-19 patient in a Stamford Hospital intensive care unit in Stamford, Conn., on April 24. This "prone team" turns over COVID-19 to help them breathe.; Credit: John Moore/Getty Images

Intensive care teams inside hospitals are rapidly altering the way they care for patients with COVID-19.

The changes range from new protective gear to new treatment protocols aimed at preventing deadly blood clots.

"Things are moving so fast within this pandemic, it's hard to keep up" says Dr. Angela Hewlett, an infectious diseases physician at University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha and medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. To stay current, she says, ICUs are updating their practices "on an hourly basis."

"We are learning at light speed about the disease," says Dr. Craig Coopersmith , interim director of the critical care center at Emory University. "Things that previously might have taken us years to learn, we're learning in a week or two. Things that might have taken us a month to learn beforehand, we're learning in a day or two."

The most obvious changes involve measures to protect ICU doctors, nurses and staff from the virus.

"There is a true and real probability of infection," says Dr. Tiffany Osborn a critical care specialist at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. "You have to think about everything you touch as if it burned."

So ICUs are adapting measures used at special biocontainment units like the one at the University of Nebraska. These units were designed to care for patients affected by bioterrorism or infected with particularly hazardous communicable diseases like SARS and Ebola.

The Nebraska biocontainment unit "received several patients early on in the pandemic who were medically evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship," Hewlett says. But it didn't have enough beds for the large numbers of local patients who began arriving at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

So the nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians from the biocontainment team have "fanned out and are now working within those COVID units to make sure that all of our principles and protocols are followed there as well," Hewlett says.

Those protocols involve measures like monitoring ICU staff when they remove their protective gear to make sure the virus isn't transmitted, and placing infected patients in negative pressure rooms, which draw air inward, when possible to prevent the virus from escaping.

One of the riskiest ICU procedures is inserting a breathing tube in a COVID-19 patient's airway, which creates a direct path for virus to escape from a patient's lungs. "If you're intubating a patient, that's a much higher risk than, say, going in and doing routine patient care," Hewlett says.

So ICU teams are being advised to add several layers of protection beyond a surgical mask.

Extra personal protective equipment may include an N95 respirator, goggles, a full face shield, a head hood, an impermeable isolation gown and double gloves.

In many ICUs, teams are also placing a clear plastic box or sheet over the patient's head and upper body before inserting the tube. And as a final safety measure, the doctor may guide the tube using a video camera rather than looking directly down a patient's airway.

"It usually takes 30 minutes or so in order to get all of that equipment together, to get all of the right people there," says Dr. Kira Newman, a senior resident physician at UW Medical Center in Seattle. "and that would be a particularly fast intubation."

But most changes in the ICU are in response to an ongoing flood of new information about how COVID-19 affects the body.

There's a growing understanding, for example, that the infection can cause dangerous blood clots to form in many severely ill patients. These clots can kill if they block arteries supplying the lungs or brain. But they also can prevent blood from reaching the kidneys or even a patient's arms and legs.

Clots are a known risk for all ICU patients, Cooperman says, but the frequency and severity appears much greater with COVID-19. "So we're starting them on a higher level of medicine to prevent blood clots and if somebody actually develops blood clots, we have a plan B and a plan C and a plan D," he says.

ICU teams are also recalibrating their approach to ensuring that patients are getting enough oxygen. Early in the pandemic, the idea was to put patients on mechanical ventilator quickly to make sure their oxygen levels didn't fall too far.

But with experience, doctors have found that mechanical ventilators don't seem to work as well for COVID patients as they do for patients with other lung problems. They've also learned that that many COVID-19 patients remain lucid and relatively comfortable even when the oxygen levels in their blood are extremely low.

So many specialists are now recommending alternatives to mechanical ventilation, even for some of the sickest patients. "We're really trying now to not intubate," Osborn says.

Instead, ICU teams are relying on devices that deliver oxygen through the nasal passages, or through a mask that fits tightly over the face. And there's renewed interest in an old technique to help patients breathe. It's called proning.

"Instead of them being on their back, we're turning them on their front," Osborn says. The reason, she says is to open up a part of the lung that is collapsed when a patient is on their back.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Alex Wolff in Human Capital.; Credit: Vertical Entertainment/Human Capital (2019)

Larry Mantle and KPCC film critics Lael Loewenstein, Claudia Puig and Tim Cogshell review this weekend’s new (streaming and VOD) movie releases.

• "Human Capital" on DirecTV

• "Crip Camp" on Netflix

• "The Platform" on Netflix

• "Blow The Man Down" on Amazon Prime Video

• "Phoenix, Oregon" on film's website

• "The Dog Doc" on Amazon Prime Video

• "Hooking Up" on Xfinity OnDemand

​CORRECTION: The film Human Capital is available on all on-demand platforms as of March 20th.

Guests:

Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA); she tweets @ClaudiaPuig

Lael Loewenstein, KPCC film critic and film columnist for the Santa Monica Daily Press; she tweets @LAELLO

Tim Cogshell, film critic for KPCC, Alt-Film Guide and CineGods.com; he tweets @CinemaInMind

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

World War II veterans Pyotr Vorobyev (left), 90, and Pavel Yeroshenko, 94, attend a performance in Minsk by the 120th Rogachev Guards Mechanized Brigade of the Belarusian Armed Forces ahead of the 75th anniversary of the victory in World War II. Belarus is raising eyebrows — and concerns — by going ahead with a mass military parade marking the anniversary on Saturday.; Credit: Natalia Fedosenko/TASS

With the coronavirus forcing much of Europe to tone down public celebrations this week marking the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II, the small nation of Belarus is raising eyebrows — and concerns — by going ahead with a mass military parade in the capital Minsk on Saturday.

The move reflects the business-as-usual approach of the country's longtime president, Alexander Lukashenko — a former Soviet collective farm director leading what the U.S. once dubbed the last dictatorship in Europe.

As the coronavirus has raced across the globe, Lukashenko has dismissed the pandemic as mass "psychosis" — a disease easily cured with a bit of vodka, a hot sauna or time spent playing hockey or doing farm work on one of country's legendary Soviet-designed tractors.

The country's soccer league still competes. Belarus' schools opened after a short delay. And annual Victory Day celebrations will go on.

The government "simply cannot cancel the parade," the Belarusian leader said in a Cabinet meeting this week. "It's an emotional, deeply ideological event."

In a rare concession to at least some social distancing measures, Lukashenko has urged Belarusian men to spend time with their families, rather than their mistresses. But behind the theatrics sits a wily politician who plays to his base in the country's towns and villages, analysts say.

"Lukashenko prioritizes combating panic rather than combating the pandemic," Artyom Shraibman, a Minsk-based political analyst with Sense Analytics, tells NPR. "He downplays the threat, and of course he's very concerned about [the] state of [the] economy."

Shraibman notes similar echoes coming out of the Trump White House.

Belarus has reported over 21,000 suspected coronavirus cases and more than 120 deaths — comparatively low in the global count, but one of the fastest-growing infection rates in Europe, the World Health Organization says.

Amid the growing crisis, Belarusian civil society is rallying to fix what Lukashenko will not. With many Belarusians now self-isolating by choice, even the country's health ministry has endorsed some public distancing measures over Lukashenko's advice.

Volunteers have raised money to buy personal protective gear for hospitals. Restaurants have donated food. Hotels provide rooms pro bono to medical workers. Private businesses have raised funds.

"People who normally don't talk to each other are working together to help," says Andrej Stryzhak of #ByCovid19, a group of volunteer activists leading crowdfunded efforts to equip health workers across the country. "It's been magical and I don't use that word lightly."

Stryzhak says many are bracing for the aftershocks of Saturday's Victory parade, where attendance isn't required but there are reports of pay bonuses given to those who show up.

"We believe in statistics. And the experts and doctors tell us that if there's a crowd, then expect a new spike in cases a week or two later," says Stryzhak. "Belarus isn't Mars," he adds, noting that the country is as susceptible to the virus as any other.

Meanwhile, Lukashenko's contrarian approach has also fueled a rift with Belarus' big brother to the east. Russia has embraced lockdowns amid its own soaring coronavirus infection rates.

This week, the Belarusian leader ordered the expulsion of a journalist from Russia's Channel 1 state television network after it aired a report criticizing Lukashenko for risking lives and ignoring the pandemic.

"Leave us alone and don't count your chickens before they hatch," said Lukashenko. "Later we'll sit and find out who was right."

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Researchers use life-cycle assessment (LCA) as a tool to evaluate the environmental impact of products and technologies across their entire lifetime — from extraction of raw material to end-of-life (disposal or recycling). It is challenging to apply the conventional LCA method to new or emerging technologies, however, due to the sheer quantity of data needed for such studies. This study proposes a screening-to-LCA method that uses available data to systematically evaluate the performance of such technologies, and support the uptake of those that are most environmentally sustainable.

A remote consultation app at Apollo is allowing safety for both the patients and the frontline doctors while using AI to improve diagnostics.

A recent international study has compared different Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) methods and suggests that improved enforcement and compliance would increase implementation of key strategies. It also highlights the potential for environmental impact assessments (EIAs) to develop science and policy integration.

More than 200 pieces of English and EU-wide marine environmental legislation have been analysed in a recent review. While complex, the legislation adequately covered all areas of the marine environment, the authors conclude. However, there is opportunity to remove overlap and conflicts between different legislation and improve cross-border co-operation.

A new study has shown that agricultural products make the largest contribution to the water footprint of the EU and recommends reducing food waste, changes in diet and increased agricultural efficiencies. On average, each EU citizen consumes 4,815 litres of water per day, when the water used to produce all goods and services, including those imported into the EU, is accounted for.

Sujit Bhattacherjee, Group CIO at Amri Hospitals provides insights into how he is leveraging AI and analytics for ensuring better healthcare outcomes.

Recent research has established how forest, wetland and agricultural ecosystems could affect economic growth in Sweden. The findings suggest that regions conventionally considered to be of low economic benefit, are in fact rich in valuable ecosystem resources.

Although the value of biodiversity and ecosystem services has been recognised, it is still not fully integrated into policy-making. A new report has developed an action plan that recommends that governments create a 'Natural Capital' minister in the Finance Ministry, develop a set of Natural Capital Accounts and form an inter-departmental committee to oversee programmes in this area.

The black locust tree can be economically valuable and offer certain environmental benefits, but its dominant and invasive nature in Europe can have an adverse impact on biodiversity. A recent study, which presents an overview of this species’ ecological and socio-economic impacts in Central Europe, recommends tolerating the tree in some areas and eradicating it in others, in order to balance its co-existence with people and nature.

The growing human population and a shift to more resource-intensive habits and behaviours are increasing the demands on global ecosystems. Natural capital is a way to describe Earth’s natural assets, including soil, air, water, and living things, existing as complex ecosystems, which provide a range of services to humans. Depleting and degrading these reserves may irreversibly reduce the availability of benefits to future generations. This In-Depth Report presents an overview of ideas, debates and progress so far in natural capital accounting, in particular in accounting for ecosystems and their services.

New research has modelled the impacts of Athens and Istanbul in the eastern Mediterranean, on local and regional air quality. Results indicate that the impacts of megacity pollution vary significantly according to the time of year and that air quality improvements will require coordinated efforts within the eastern Mediterranean region and beyond.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) enter the environment in large quantities via the combustion of fossil fuels and organic matter. They are a cause for concern given their known toxicity, potential to cause cancer and ability to move large distances in the atmosphere — meaning that they are found in remote or protected areas, such as the Arctic, even if not emitted there. This study explores how PAH levels in the Arctic atmosphere have changed over the past 20 years at three sites in Canada, Norway and Finland. The results show that, despite a global decrease in PAH emissions in the same timeframe, the air concentrations in the Arctic are not significantly declining — possibly partly as a result of local warming causing more volatile PAHs to move from the surface to the air.

70 percent of Americans surveyed by Zillow Mortgages said they would not abandon their home buying plans should interest rates rise to 4.5%

Zillow Group Mortgage analysis shows that the mortgage payment on the typical home in most of the country's housing market would increase by $25 or less should interest rates rise to 4.25%

The post Pop-up hospital may be answer to future pandemic needs appeared first on The Lead SA.

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Media Release

Media Release

Media Release

Media Release

 
 000
 SXCA01 KNHC 091350
 TPTPAN
 PAN AMERICAN TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TABLES
 NWS NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
 800 AM EDT SAT MAY 09 2020
  
 WEATHER AT 800 AM EDT
 LOWEST TEMPERATURE SATURDAY...HIGHEST TEMPERATURES PREVIOUS DAY
 TEMPERATURES IN BOTH FAHRENHEIT AND CELSIUS
 PRECIPITATION FOR THE PAST 6, 12 OR 24 HOURS AS INDICATED
  
 CITY              WEATHER        HIGH     LOW      PCPN    TIME
                                  F/C      F/C       IN      HR
  
 ACAPULCO          FAIR          93 34    71 22               
 BARBADOS          FAIR          88 31    79 26               
 BERMUDA           PTCLDY        70 21    62 17               
 BOGOTA            PTCLDY        68 20    54 12               
 CURACAO           FAIR          91 33    81 27               
 FREEPORT          PTCLDY        83 28    68 20               
 GUADALAJARA       FAIR          88 31    60 16               
 GUADELOUPE        PTCLDY        89 31    76 25    TRACE    24
 HAVANA            FAIR          93 34    72 22               
 KINGSTON          FAIR          90 32    78 26               
 MAZATLAN          FAIR          88 31    MM MM               
 MERIDA            PTCLDY       102 39    80 27               
 MEXICO CITY       PTCLDY        77 25    59 15               
 MONTEGO BAY       FAIR          92 33    77 25    TRACE    24
 MONTERREY         CLOUDY        77 25    63 17               
 NASSAU            PTCLDY        85 30    71 22               
 SAN JUAN PR       FAIR          93 34    79 26               
 ST THOMAS         FAIR          88 31    81 27               
 TEGUCIGALPA       MISSING       86 30    MM MM               
 TRINIDAD          FAIR          93 34    75 24    TRACE    24
 VERACRUZ          HAZE          92 33    78 26               
 
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The two brightest planets in the sky, Venus and Jupiter, will likely draw attention to the western sky as darkness falls this week.

A new report ranks meat and poultry based on outbreaks of foodborne illness.