The research, by academics from the University of Cambridge and RTI International, attempts to quantify the scale of learning loss that children from poor and marginalised communities in the Global South may have experienced, and the extent to which home support and access to learning resources could ameliorate it.

While it is known that the education of these children has suffered disproportionately during the pandemic, it is much harder to measure exactly how much their academic progress has been impeded while schools have been closed.

The researchers used data from Ghana to model the likely impact of closures for children in remote and deprived parts of that country. They found that on average, 66% of the learning gains made in foundational numeracy during the academic year are lost during three months out of school. The outcome is, however, far worse for children without adequate home learning resources or support.

The authors suggest these findings provide a glimpse of a much wider pattern of learning loss that is being experienced by millions of disadvantaged children around the world.

Co-author Ricardo Sabates, from the REAL Centre in the University’s Faculty of Education, said: “Despite teachers’ best efforts, we know school closures have held up, or reversed, the progress of millions of children. This study is one approach to estimate how much learning could have been lost, and how much worse this may have been for children from disadvantaged settings.”

“These figures represent an estimate of learning loss for children who spent 3 to 4 months out of school. We expect that as schools remained closed for longer, losses could be higher. We also acknowledge the important support that many families and communities provided with supplementary learning, which may have in turn limited the potential loss overall.”

The study built on earlier research that highlighted the significant learning losses that occur when certain groups of children in developing countries move from one academic year to the next, particularly those who change language of instruction, and disadvantaged girls.

The researchers used data charting the progress of more than 1,100 students on Ghana’s Complementary Basic Education (CBE) programme between 2016 and 2018. This programme supports children aged eight to 14 who would not normally attend school, providing them with education in their own language and at flexible times. On completion, students are encouraged to enrol at a local government school, but the start of that school year occurs after a three-month gap, during which they receive no education.

The researchers compared participants’ scores in foundational maths tests at four stages: when they started the CBE, when they finished, when they joined a government school, and after their first year in government school. They also accessed data about how much home learning support the students had – for example, whether they had books at home, or could seek help from an adult when struggling with homework.

During the CBE programme, the students’ test scores improved, on average, by 27 percentage points. When they were tested again after the three-month gap, however, their scores had reduced by an average of 18 percentage points. Two-thirds of the gains these students had made during the previous academic year were therefore lost while they were out of school. The researchers argue that this is an upper estimate of the expected scale of loss during an equivalent period of school closures due to COVID-19. Fortunately, during the pandemic community efforts to enhance learning may have mitigated this effect for some children.

In spite of this, they also found that the basic learning loss was compounded among children who lacked support to study at home. For example:

• Children without access to reading and learning resources at home (such as books) experienced a learning loss above 80%.
• Children who said that they never asked adults in their household for help experienced a learning loss of around 85%.

Encouragingly, the study showed that in the first year of formal education, students not only recouped their learning loss, but improved, while the attainment gap between more and less advantaged students narrowed.

In many countries, however, it is becoming clear that many disadvantaged students – especially marginalised groups such as disabled children and many girls – are not returning to school. Therefore, the researchers suggest supporting access to diverse forms of education for students from less-advantaged backgrounds. There is evidence to show that community-based programmes, for example, can enhance a range of learning skills for these children. “Learning at home and in communities has to be reimagined if rapid gains are to be achieved as we continue to face the COVID-19 situation,” the authors say.

The pattern of learning loss charted in Ghana may also apply far beyond the Global South. “This is an international challenge,” said co-author Emma Carter, also from the REAL Centre. “In Europe and the US, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds will similarly be experiencing severe learning loss. The levels of attainment may differ between countries, but it is highly likely that the pattern of loss remains.”

The evaluation data used in the study was commissioned and funded by FCDO Ghana. The research is published in the International Journal of Educational Development.

Researchers have found direct evidence that a 500-year-old manuscript was worn during childbirth by using “biomolecular analysis” to detect ancient proteins from cervico-vaginal fluid within the weave of the parchment.

The medieval “birthing girdle”, now part of the Wellcome Collection, dates from around 1500, and is a rare example of the kind of talisman or relic that was offered to anxious pregnant women by the Pre-Reformation English Church.

Childbearing in medieval Europe was perilous, with risks ranging from uterine prolapse to postpartum infection. Complications during or resulting from labour caused a high death toll among women: neonatal mortality rates of the time for mother and child together are estimated to have been 30 to 60 per cent.

Made from a variety of materials – such as silk, paper and parchment – and inscribed with prayers and invocations for safe delivery, birthing girdles were one of the most common spiritual charms loaned out by monasteries to their parishioners in England.

Talismanic items from the Roman Church such as girdles were targeted during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which began in 1536 under King Henry VIII, and many were destroyed. The stained, three-metre-long sheepskin scroll now held by Wellcome (MS.632) is one of the few birthing girdles that survived.     

Despite a ban on girdles by bishops in the wake of the Reformation, women were known to have used them surreptitiously up until the early 17th century, and this may have been one of the clandestine birthing girdles that remained in circulation.

A research team led by Dr Sarah Fiddyment of the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge used erasers to delicately rub the fragile parchment and collect tiny crumbs of material without damaging the artefact, from which they were able to extract proteins.

The proteomic analysis used by Fiddyment and colleagues, a non-invasive sampling technique called eZooms, was originally developed to identify the animal species from which ancient parchments were made. Their findings have been published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Along with a large number of proteins matching cervico-vaginal fluid, indicating that the manuscript was indeed actively worn during labour, the researchers also found various non-human proteins: honey, milk, egg and plants such as broad beans – all of which have been documented in medieval texts as treatments relating to pregnancy and childbirth.

“Although these birth girdles are thought to have been used during pregnancy and childbirth, there has been no direct evidence that they were actually worn until now,” said Fiddyment, lead author of the new study.

“Many contain prayers for general protection of the individual, but this particular girdle also contains very specific prayers to protect women in childbirth and references various saints also related to women and childbirth.”

“This girdle is especially interesting as it has visual evidence of having been used and worn, as some of the images and writing have been worn away through use and it has many stains and blemishes,” Fiddyment said.

Alongside names of apostles and saints associated with childbirth, such as the Saints Julitta and Quiricus, mother and son martyrs, the manuscript also features the assurance that “yf a woman travell wyth chylde gyrdes thys mesure abowte hyr wombe and she shall be delyvyrs wythowte parelle.” (“If a woman travailing with child girds this measure about her womb, she shall be delivered safely without peril.”)

The researchers write that the manuscripts “severe abrasions” imply that it was often touched or kissed as well as worn. They say that the narrow width of the scroll and the traces of folds suggest it was wrapped around a woman’s body so that particular payers could be strategically places against her womb.

“We do not know how the girdles were worn, but there are suggestions that due to the dimensions of the object – long and narrow – they were worn like a chastity belt, to help support the pregnant women both physically and spiritually,” said Fiddyment.

The study’s senior author, Professor Matthew Collins, also of the McDonald Institute, said the research highlights the role of proteomics within a new field called “biocodicology”: the study of the biological information storied in ancient manuscripts.

Writing in The BMJ, Professor Tamsin Ford at the University of Cambridge and colleagues say deterioration in mental health is clearest among families already struggling and call for urgent action “to ensure that this generation is not disproportionately disadvantaged by COVID-19.”

They point to evidence that the mental health of the UK’s children and young people was deteriorating before the pandemic, while health, educational, and social outcomes for children with mental health conditions were worse in the 21st century than the late 20th century. For example, between 2004 and 2017 anxiety, depression, and self-harm increased, particularly among teenage girls. 

Given that self-harm is an important risk factor for suicide, it is not surprising that rates of suicide among the UK’s children and young people also increased in recent years, they write, though numbers remain low compared with other age groups - about 100 people aged under 18 died by suicide each year in England between 2014 and 2016.

Studies carried out during the pandemic suggest that although some families are coping well, others are facing financial adversity, struggling to home school, and risk experiencing vicious cycles of increasing stress and distress.

Probable mental health conditions increased from 11% in 2017 to 16% in July 2020 across all age, sex, and ethnic groups according to England’s Mental Health of Children and Young People Survey (MHCYP). In addition, a sample of 2,673 parents recruited through social media reported deteriorating mental health and increased behavioural problems among children aged 4 to 11 years between March and May 2020 (during lockdown) but reduced emotional symptoms among 11-16 year olds.

The more socioeconomically deprived respondents had consistently worse mental health in both surveys, note the authors - a stark warning given that economic recession is expected to increase the numbers of families under financial strain.

The authors acknowledge that deteriorating mental health is by no means uniform. For example, a sizeable proportion of 19,000 8-18 year olds from 237 English schools surveyed during early summer 2020 reported feeling happier, while a quarter of young people in the MHCYP survey reported that lockdown had made their life better.

And while the incidence of self-harm recorded in primary care was substantially lower than expected for 10-17 year olds in April 2020, it returned to pre-pandemic levels by September 2020, with similar patterns detected for all mental health referrals in England.

Data also show a doubling in the number of urgent referrals for eating disorders in England during 2020, despite a smaller increase in non-urgent referrals.

Professor Tamsin Ford from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge said: “Even before the pandemic, we were seeing deteriorating mental health among children and young people, which was amplified by inadequate service provision to support their needs. The lockdown and other measures aimed at tackling the pandemic will only serve to exacerbate these problems – and even more so for some different age groups and socioeconomic circumstances.

“Young people’s lives have been turned upside down by the pandemic, as is the case for lots of people, but their education has also been disrupted and many young people now face an uncertain future. We’re calling on policymakers to recognise the importance of education to social and mental health outcomes alongside an appropriate focus on employment and economic prospects.”

Reference
Ford, T. et al. Mental health of children and young people during pandemic. BMJ; 11 Mar 2020; DOI: 10.1136/bmj.n614

Adapted from a press release by The BMJ

While the volume of soft drinks purchased did not change, the amount of sugar in those drinks was 30g lower per household per week, which the researchers say represents a ‘win-win’ for public health and industry.

Sugary drinks have been linked to a number of health issues, including dental caries, obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. In April 2018, the UK introduced a Soft Drinks Industry Levy explicitly designed to incentivise manufacturers to reduce the sugar content of soft drinks. The levy was placed on manufacturers, importers and bottlers rather than on consumers. It included two levy tiers: 24p per litre for ‘high tier’ drinks containing more than or equal to 8g total sugar per 100ml; and 18p per litre for ‘low tier’ drinks containing more than or equal to 5g and less than 8g total sugar per 100ml.

A team led by researchers from Cambridge’s Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR) at the MRC Epidemiology Unit analysed data from the Kantar Worldpanel, in which participating households are asked to record all food and drink purchases brought into the home. This included approximately 31 million purchases of drinks, confectionery and toiletries from March 2014 to March 2019.

The team divided soft drinks into three categories based on sugar content: high tier drinks, low tier drinks and no levy drinks (those with less than 5g total sugar per 100ml). As the Soft Drinks Industry Levy may have led households to substitute other drinks, they also examined purchasing of drinks exempt from the levy, including milk-based drinks, alcoholic drinks and no-added-sugar fruit juices.

The researchers compared purchases in March 2019 against a ‘counterfactual’ estimate – that is, an estimate based on pre-existing trends of how the purchases would look had the levy not taken place at all. This is the first analysis of the impact of the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy on drink purchases that takes pre-existing trends into account. The results of the study, funded by the NIHR, are published today in The BMJ.

Prior to the introduction of the levy, the volume of high-tier drinks and amount of sugar associated was on a downward trend. However, even taking this trend into consideration, by March 2019, the volume of high tier drinks purchased had fallen by 155ml (44%) per household per week compared to the counterfactual estimate. The amount of sugar purchased in these drinks reduced by 18.0g per household per week, a 46% decrease.

For low tier drinks, the volume of drinks purchased was 177ml (86%) lower per household per week in March 2019 compared with the counterfactual estimate. The amount of sugar fell by 12.5g (an 86% decrease).

Although the volume of no levy drinks purchased didn’t change, as these soft drinks are not sugar-free and some increased in their sugar content, this meant that the sugar purchased from these drinks increased by 15.3g, equivalent to a 166% increase.

Overall, compared to the counterfactual estimate, there was no change in the volume of all soft drinks purchased in March 2019. However, there was a reduction in sugar purchased in all soft drinks (including exempt drinks) combined of 29.5g per household per week, equivalent to a 10% decrease.

The introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy also coincided with significant decreases in purchasing of bottled water. However, the team say this reduction may be due to increases in concern about single-use plastic, which have been attributed, in the UK, to the broadcast of the BBC’s nature documentary series Blue Planet 2.

Dr David Pell from CEDAR, the study’s first author, said: “A 10% drop in the amount of sugar purchased from soft drinks might sound modest, but we know there’s an association between the amount of sugar drinks we consume and the risk of developing conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure. Cutting out even a relatively small amount of sugar should have important impacts on the number of people with obesity and diabetes.”

Professor Martin White, also from the CEDAR, and the project lead, added: “The Soft Drinks Industry Levy appears to have led to a reduction in the amount of sugar that people are purchasing in soft drinks without impacting on the overall volume of soft drinks sold. It’s likely that this is due to manufacturers reformulating their products and reducing the sugar concentration in their drinks, as well as to consumers switching to lower sugar alternatives.

“This represents a valuable win-win for public health and the food industry – potentially improving people’s health with no detrimental effect on the volume of soft drinks that companies are selling.”

The research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research and the Medical Research Council. The Centre for Diet and Activity Research is funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and Wellcome.

Reference
Pell, D et al. Changes in British household purchases of soft drinks associated with implementation of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy: a controlled interrupted time series analysis. BMJ; 11 Mar 2021; DOI: 10.1136/bmj.n254

The planet GJ 1132 b appears to have begun life as a gaseous world with a thick blanket of atmosphere. Starting out at several times the radius of Earth, this ‘sub-Neptune’ quickly lost its primordial hydrogen and helium atmosphere, which was stripped away by the intense radiation from its hot, young star. In a short period of time, it was reduced to a bare core about the size of Earth.

To the surprise of astronomers, new observations from Hubble have uncovered a secondary atmosphere that has replaced the planet’s first atmosphere. It is rich in hydrogen, hydrogen cyanide, methane and ammonia, and also has a hydrocarbon haze. Astronomers theorise that hydrogen from the original atmosphere was absorbed into the planet’s molten magma mantle and is now being slowly released by volcanism to form a new atmosphere. This second atmosphere, which continues to leak away into space, is continually being replenished from the reservoir of hydrogen in the mantle’s magma.

“This second atmosphere comes from the surface and interior of the planet, and so it is a window onto the geology of another world,” said team member Paul Rimmer from the University of Cambridge. “A lot more work needs to be done to properly look through it, but the discovery of this window is of great importance.”

“We first thought that these highly radiated planets would be pretty boring because we believed that they lost their atmospheres,” said team member Raissa Estrela of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, USA. “But we looked at existing observations of this planet with Hubble and realised that there is an atmosphere there.”

“How many terrestrial planets don’t begin as terrestrials? Some may start as sub-Neptunes, and they become terrestrials through a mechanism whereby light evaporates the primordial atmosphere. This process works early in a planet’s life, when the star is hotter,” said team leader Mark Swain of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Then the star cools down and the planet’s just sitting there. So you’ve got this mechanism that can cook off the atmosphere in the first 100 million years, and then things settle down. And if you can regenerate the atmosphere, maybe you can keep it.”

In some ways, GJ 1132 b has various parallels to Earth, but in some ways, it is also very different. Both have similar densities, similar sizes, and similar ages, being about 4.5 billion years old. Both started with a hydrogen-dominated atmosphere, and both were hot before they cooled down. The team’s work even suggests that GJ 1132 b and Earth have similar atmospheric pressure at the surface.

However, the planets’ formation histories are profoundly different. Earth is not believed to be the surviving core of a sub-Neptune. And Earth orbits at a comfortable distance from our yellow dwarf Sun. GJ 1132 b is so close to its host red dwarf star that it completes an orbit the star once every day and a half. This extremely close proximity keeps GJ 1132 b tidally locked, showing the same face to its star at all times — just as our moon keeps one hemisphere permanently facing Earth.

“The question is, what is keeping the mantle hot enough to remain liquid and power volcanism?” asked Swain. “This system is special because it has the opportunity for quite a lot of tidal heating.”

The phenomenon of tidal heating occurs through friction, when energy from a planet’s orbit and rotation is dispersed as heat inside the planet. GJ 1132 b is in an elliptical orbit, and the tidal forces acting on it are strongest when it is closest to or farthest from its host star. At least one other planet in the host star’s system also exerts a gravitational pull on the planet. The consequences are that the planet is squeezed or stretched by this gravitational “pumping.” That tidal heating keeps the mantle liquid for a long time. A nearby example in our own Solar System is the Jovian moon, Io, which has continuous volcanism as a result of a tidal tug-of-war between Jupiter and the neighbouring Jovian moons.

The team believes the crust of GJ 1132 b is extremely thin, perhaps only hundreds of feet thick. That’s much too feeble to support anything resembling volcanic mountains. Its flat terrain may also be cracked like an eggshell by tidal flexing. Hydrogen and other gases could be released through such cracks.

“This atmosphere, if it’s thin — meaning if it has a surface pressure similar to Earth — probably means you can see right down to the ground at infrared wavelengths. That means that if astronomers use the James Webb Space Telescope to observe this planet, there’s a possibility that they will see not the spectrum of the atmosphere, but rather the spectrum of the surface,” said Swain. “And if there are magma pools or volcanism going on, those areas will be hotter. That will generate more emission, and so they’ll potentially be looking at the actual geological activity — which is exciting!”

This result is significant because it gives exoplanet scientists a way to figure out something about a planet's geology from its atmosphere,” said Rimmer, who is affiliated both with Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory and Department of Earth Sciences. “It is also important for understanding where the rocky planets in our own Solar System — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, fit into the bigger picture of comparative planetology, in terms of the availability of hydrogen versus oxygen in the atmosphere.”

Adapted from an ESA/JPL press release.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, yields information on an important period in our planet’s formation, when a deep sea of incandescent magma stretched across Earth’s surface and extended hundreds of kilometres into its interior.

It is the gradual cooling and crystallisation of this ‘magma ocean’ that set the chemistry of Earth’s interior – a defining stage in the assembly of our planet’s structure and the formation of our early atmosphere.

Scientists know that catastrophic impacts during the formation of the Earth and Moon would have generated enough energy to melt our planet's interior. But we don’t know much about this distant and fiery phase of Earth’s history because tectonic processes have recycled almost all rocks older than 4 billion years.

Now researchers have found the chemical remnants of the magma ocean in 3.6-billion-year-old rocks from southwestern Greenland.

The findings support the long-held theory that Earth was once almost entirely molten and provide a window into a time when the planet started to solidify and develop the chemistry that now governs its internal structure. The research suggests that other rocks on Earth’s surface may also preserve evidence of ancient magma oceans.

“There are few opportunities to get geological constraints on the events in the first billion years of Earth’s history. It’s astonishing that we can even hold these rocks in our hands – let alone get so much detail about the early history of our planet,” said lead author Dr Helen Williams, from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences.

The study brings forensic chemical analysis together with thermodynamic modelling in search of the primeval origins of the Greenland rocks, and how they got to the surface.

At first glance, the rocks that makeup Greenland’s Isua supracrustal belt look just like any modern basalt you’d find on the seafloor. But this outcrop, which was first described in the 1960s, is the oldest exposure of rocks on Earth. It is known to contain the earliest evidence of microbial life and plate tectonics.

The new research shows that the Isua rocks also preserve rare evidence which even predates plate tectonics – the residues of some of the crystals left behind as that magma ocean cooled.

“It was a combination of some new chemical analyses we did and the previously published data that flagged to us that the Isua rocks might contain traces of ancient material. The hafnium and neodymium isotopes were really tantalizing, because those isotope systems are very hard to modify – so we had to look at their chemistry in more detail,” said co-author Dr Hanika Rizo, from Carleton University.

Iron isotopic systematics confirmed to Williams and the team that the Isua rocks were derived from parts of the Earth’s interior that formed as a consequence of magma ocean crystallisation.

Most of this primeval rock has been mixed up by convection in the mantle, but scientists think that some isolated zones deep at the mantle-core boundary – ancient crystal graveyards – may have remained undisturbed for billions of years.

It’s the relics of these crystal graveyards that Williams and her colleagues observed in the Isua rock chemistry. “Those samples with the iron fingerprint also have a tungsten anomaly – a signature of Earth’s formation – which makes us think that their origin can be traced back to these primeval crystals,” said Williams.

But how did these signals from the deep mantle find their way up to the surface? Their isotopic makeup shows they were not just funnelled up from melting at the core-mantle boundary. Their journey was more circuitous, involving several stages of crystallization and remelting – a kind of distillation process. The mix of ancient crystals and magma would have first migrated to the upper mantle, where it was churned up to create a ‘marble cake’ of rocks from different depths. Later melting of that hybrid of rocks is what produced the magma which fed this part of Greenland.

The team’s findings suggest that modern hotspot volcanoes, which are thought to have formed relatively recently, may actually be influenced by ancient processes. “The geochemical signals we report in the Greenland rocks bear similarities to rocks erupted from hotspot volcanoes like Hawaii – something we are interested in is whether they might also be tapping into the depths and accessing regions of the interior usually beyond our reach,” said Dr Oliver Shorttle who is jointly based at Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences and Institute of Astronomy.

The team’s findings came out of a project funded by Deep Volatiles, a NERC-funded 5-year research programme. They now plan to continue their quest to understand the magma ocean by widening their search for clues in ancient rocks and experimentally modelling isotopic fractionation in the lower mantle.

“We’ve been able to unpick what one part of our planet’s interior was doing billions of years ago, but to fill in the picture further we must keep searching for more chemical clues in ancient rocks,” said co-author Dr Simon Matthews from the University of Iceland.

Scientists have often been reluctant to look for chemical evidence of these ancient events. “The evidence is often altered by the course of time. But the fact we found what we did suggests that the chemistry of other ancient rocks may yield further insights into the Earth’s formation and evolution - and that’s immensely exciting,” said Williams.

Reference:
Helen M. Williams et al. ‘Iron isotopes trace primordial magma ocean cumulates melting in Earth’s upper mantle.’ Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abc7394

Researchers have found that out of the more than 300 COVID-19 machine learning models described in scientific papers in 2020, none of them is suitable for detecting or diagnosing COVID-19 from standard medical imaging, due to biases, methodological flaws, lack of reproducibility, and ‘Frankenstein datasets.’

The team of researchers, led by the University of Cambridge, carried out a systematic review of scientific manuscripts – published between 1 January and 3 October 2020 – describing machine learning models that claimed to be able to diagnose or prognosticate for COVID-19 from chest radiographs (CXR) and computed tomography (CT) images. Some of these papers had undergone the process of peer-review, while the majority had not.

Their search identified 2,212 studies, of which 415 were included after initial screening and, after quality screening, 62 studies were included in the systematic review. None of the 62 models was of potential clinical use, which is a major weakness, given the urgency with which validated COVID-19 models are needed. The results are reported in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.

Machine learning is a promising and potentially powerful technique for detection and prognosis of disease. Machine learning methods, including where imaging and other data streams are combined with large electronic health databases, could enable a personalised approach to medicine through improved diagnosis and prediction of individual responses to therapies.

“However, any machine learning algorithm is only as good as the data it’s trained on,” said first author Dr Michael Roberts from Cambridge’s Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. “Especially for a brand-new disease like COVID-19, it’s vital that the training data is as diverse as possible because, as we’ve seen throughout this pandemic, there are many different factors that affect what the disease looks like and how it behaves.”

“The international machine learning community went to enormous efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning,” said joint senior author Dr James Rudd, from Cambridge’s Department of Medicine. “These early studies show promise, but they suffer from a high prevalence of deficiencies in methodology and reporting, with none of the literature we reviewed reaching the threshold of robustness and reproducibility essential to support use in clinical practice.”

Many of the studies were hampered by issues with poor quality data, poor application of machine learning methodology, poor reproducibility, and biases in study design. For example, several training datasets used images from children for their ‘non-COVID-19’ data and images from adults for their COVID-19 data. “However, since children are far less likely to get COVID-19 than adults, all the machine learning model could usefully do was to tell the difference between children and adults, since including images from children made the model highly biased,” said Roberts.

Many of the machine learning models were trained on sample datasets that were too small to be effective. “In the early days of the pandemic, there was such a hunger for information, and some publications were no doubt rushed,” said Rudd. “But if you’re basing your model on data from a single hospital, it might not work on data from a hospital in the next town over: the data needs to be diverse and ideally international, or else you’re setting your machine learning model up to fail when it’s tested more widely.”

In many cases, the studies did not specify where their data had come from, or the models were trained and tested on the same data, or they were based on publicly available ‘Frankenstein datasets’ that had evolved and merged over time, making it impossible to reproduce the initial results.

Another widespread flaw in many of the studies was a lack of involvement from radiologists and clinicians. “Whether you’re using machine learning to predict the weather or how a disease might progress, it’s so important to make sure that different specialists are working together and speaking the same language, so the right problems can be focused on,” said Roberts.

Despite the flaws they found in the COVID-19 models, the researchers say that with some key modifications, machine learning can be a powerful tool in combatting the pandemic. For example, they caution against naive use of public datasets, which can lead to significant risks of bias. In addition, datasets should be diverse and of appropriate size to make the model useful for different demographic group and independent external datasets should be curated.

In addition to higher quality datasets, manuscripts with sufficient documentation to be reproducible and external validation are required to increase the likelihood of models being taken forward and integrated into future clinical trials to establish independent technical and clinical validation as well as cost-effectiveness.

Reference:
Michael Roberts et al. ‘Common pitfalls and recommendations for using machine learning to detect and prognosticate for COVID-19 using chest radiographs and CT scans.’ Nature Machine Intelligence (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s42256-021-00307-0

The six-session programme involves providing carefully-prepared feedback to parents about how they can build on positive moments when playing and engaging with their child using video clips of everyday interactions, which are filmed by a health professional while visiting their home.

It was trialled with 300 families of children who had shown early signs of behaviour problems. Half of the families received the programme alongside routine healthcare support, while the other half received routine support alone. When assessed five months later, the children whose families had access to the video-feedback approach displayed significantly reduced behavioural problems compared with those whose families had not.

All of the children were aged just one or two: far younger than the age at which interventions for behaviour problems are normally available. The results suggest that providing tailored support for parents at this earlier stage, if their children show early signs of challenging behaviour – such as very frequent or intense tantrums, or aggressive behaviour – would significantly reduce the chances of those problems worsening.

Children with enduring behaviour problems often experience many other difficulties as they grow up: with physical and mental health, education, and relationships. Behaviour problems currently affect 5% to 10% of all children.

The trial – one of the first ever ‘real-world’ tests of an intervention for challenging behaviours in children who are so young – was carried out by health professionals at six NHS Trusts in England and funded by the National Institute for Health Research. It was part of a wider project called ‘Healthy Start, Happy Start’, which is testing the video-based approach, led by academics at the University of Cambridge and Imperial College London.

Dr Christine O’Farrelly, from the Centre for Play in Education, Development and Learning (PEDAL), Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, said: “Often, as soon as you move a programme like this to a real health service setting, you would expect to see a voltage drop in its effectiveness compared with research conditions. Instead, we saw a clear and striking change in child behaviour.”

Beth Barker, a research assistant at the PEDAL Centre, said: “The fact that this programme was effective with children aged just one or two represents a real opportunity to intervene early and protect against enduring mental health problems. The earlier we can support them, the better we can do at improving their outcomes as they progress through childhood and into adult life.”

The programme, known as the Video-feedback Intervention to promote Positive Parenting and Sensitive Discipline (VIPP-SD), is delivered across six home visits, each lasting about 90 minutes.

Health professionals film the family in everyday situations – such as playing together, or having a meal – and then analyse the content in depth. During the next visit, they review specific clips, highlighting often fleeting moments when the parents and child appear to be ‘in tune’. They discuss what made these successful, as well as any incidents in which more challenging issues arose. This helps the parents to identify particular cues and signals from their children and respond in a manner that helps their children feel understood and reinforces positive engagement and behaviours.

The 300 participating families all had children who scored within the top 20% for behaviour problems during standard healthcare assessments. Misbehaviour is a normal part of toddlerhood, and not all of the children would necessarily have gone on to develop serious problems. All were, however, deemed ‘at-risk’ because they exhibited challenging behaviours like tantrums and rule-breaking more severely and frequently than most. These are often the early symptoms of disruptive behaviour disorders and typically emerge at 12 to 36 months.

The researchers used various tools, principally interviews with the parents, to assess each child’s behaviour before the trial, and again five months after. Each child received a score based on the frequency and severity of challenging behaviours including tantrums, ‘destructive’ behaviours (such as deliberately breaking a toy or spilling a drink); resisting rules and requests; and aggressive behaviour (hitting or biting).

Between the assessments, all 300 families received the routine healthcare available to them for early symptoms of behaviour problems. The researchers describe this as ‘typically minimal’, as there is currently no standard pathway of support for behaviour problems in such young children. Only half of the families were given access to the parenting programme.

In the second assessment, five months later, children from families who received the extra video feedback support scored significantly lower for all measures of behaviour problems than those who only received routine care.

The average difference between the scores of the two groups was 2.03 points. While the exact meaning of this varied depending on the specific problems exhibited by the child, the researchers describe it as roughly equivalent to the difference between having tantrums every day, and having tantrums once or twice a week. Similarly, in the case of destructive behaviours, it represents the disparity between regularly throwing or breaking toys and other items, and barely doing so at all.

Encouragingly, 95% of the participants persevered with the trial to its conclusion, suggesting that most families are able to accommodate the visits.

Paul Ramchandani, Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning at the University of Cambridge, said: “To provide this programme in any health service would require investment, but it can realistically be delivered as part of routine care. Doing so would benefit a group of children who are at risk of going on to have problems with their education, behaviour, future wellbeing and mental health. There is a chance here to invest early and alleviate those difficulties now, potentially preventing problems in the longer term that are far worse.”

The results are reported in JAMA Pediatrics. The Healthy Start, Happy Start project is also reviewing further data from the project – including assessments of the children two years after the trial – which will be reported at a later date.

This is according to researchers at the University of Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) in two articles, published today in the British Medical Journal, cautioning against blinkered use of AI for data-gathering and medical decision-making as we fight to regain some normalcy in 2021.

"Relaxing ethical requirements in a crisis could have unintended harmful consequences that last well beyond the life of the pandemic," said Dr Stephen Cave, Director of CFI and lead author of one of the articles.

"The sudden introduction of complex and opaque AI, automating judgments once made by humans and sucking in personal information, could undermine the health of disadvantaged groups as well as long-term public trust in technology."

In a further paper, co-authored by CFI's Dr Alexa Hagerty, researchers highlight potential consequences arising from the AI now making clinical choices at scale - predicting deterioration rates of patients who might need ventilation, for example - if it does so based on biased data.

Datasets used to "train" and refine machine-learning algorithms are inevitably skewed against groups that access health services less frequently, such as minority ethnic communities and those of "lower socioeconomic status".

"COVID-19 has already had a disproportionate impact on vulnerable communities. We know these systems can discriminate, and any algorithmic bias in treating the disease could land a further brutal punch," Hagerty said.

In December, protests ensued when Stanford Medical Centre's algorithm prioritized home-workers for vaccination over those on the Covid wards. "Algorithms are now used at a local, national and global scale to define vaccine allocation. In many cases, AI plays a central role in determining who is best placed to survive the pandemic," said Hagerty.

"In a health crisis of this magnitude, the stakes for fairness and equity are extremely high."

Along with colleagues, Hagerty highlights the well-established "discrimination creep" found in AI that uses "natural language processing" technology to pick up symptom profiles from medical records - reflecting and exacerbating biases against minorities already in the case notes.

They point out that some hospitals already use these technologies to extract diagnostic information from a range of records, and some are now using this AI to identify symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

Similarly, the use of track-and-trace apps creates the potential for biased datasets. The researchers write that, in the UK, over 20% of those aged over 15 lack essential digital skills, and up to 10% of some population "sub-groups" don't own smartphones.

"Whether originating from medical records or everyday technologies, biased datasets applied in a one-size-fits-all manner to tackle COVID-19 could prove harmful for those already disadvantaged," said Hagerty.

In the BMJ articles, the researchers point to examples such as the fact that a lack of data on skin colour makes it almost impossible for AI models to produce accurate large-scale computation of blood-oxygen levels. Or how an algorithmic tool used by the US prison system to calibrate reoffending - and proven to be racially biased - has been repurposed to manage its COVID-19 infection risk.

The Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence recently launched the UK's first Master's course for ethics in AI. For Cave and colleagues, machine learning in the Covid era should be viewed through the prism of biomedical ethics - in particular the "four pillars".

The first is beneficence. "Use of AI is intended to save lives, but that should not be used as a blanket justification to set otherwise unwelcome precedents, such as widespread use of facial recognition software," said Cave.

In India, biometric identity programs can be linked to vaccination distribution, raising concerns for data privacy and security. Other vaccine allocation algorithms, including some used by the COVAX alliance, are driven by privately owned AI, says Hagerty. "Proprietary algorithms make it hard to look into the 'black box', and see how they determine vaccine priorities."

The second is 'non-maleficence', or avoiding needless harm. A system programmed solely to preserve life will not consider rates of 'long covid', for example. Thirdly, human autonomy must be part of the calculation. Professionals need to trust technologies, and designers should consider how systems affect human behaviour - from personal precautions to treatment decisions.

Finally, data-driven AI must be underpinned by ideals of social justice. "We need to involve diverse communities, and consult a range of experts, from engineers to frontline medical teams. We must be open about the values and trade-offs inherent in these systems," said Cave.

"AI has the potential to help us solve global problems, and the pandemic is unquestionably a major one. But relying on powerful AI in this time of crisis brings ethical challenges that must be considered to secure public trust."

Professor Guillén will officially begin his role as Director on 1 September 2021, succeeding Professor Christoph Loch, who has been Director of the School since 2011.

Professor Guillén has taught at the Wharton School since 1996 and was the Anthony L. Davis Director of the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies from 2007-2019, leading its first-ever fundraising campaign and launching a new curriculum emphasising hands-on learning experiences. He has long been a champion of diversity.

He has furthered the sociological study of the global system, and advanced comparative research on institutions, artistic movements, organisations, business groups, multinational firms, and digital platforms. His scholarship has received numerous distinctions, including Fulbright and Guggenheim fellowships, the Aspen Institute’s Faculty Pioneer Award, the President’s Book Award of the Social Science History Association, and a membership in the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Professor Guillén is also a bestselling author, including the recently published "2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything."

“Professor Mauro Guillén is ideally placed to build on the great work carried out by Professor Christoph Loch and his predecessors. Mauro is a distinguished academic of the highest calibre. His commitment to academic excellence, diversity, and innovation in teaching will ensure Cambridge Judge Business School continues to excel in its next phase of development and growth”, says Professor Stephen J. Toope, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge. “I am delighted that Mauro will be joining us and very much look forward to working with him.”

"I am thrilled to become Director of Cambridge Judge Business School, at the University of Cambridge, and to further its educational and research mission", says Professor Guillén.

During the decade Professor Loch served as Cambridge Judge Director, the School strengthened its degree and Executive Education programmes, and boosted its research quality with a strategy that emphasises innovation and impact over quantity. The result of this was reflected in an improvement in global programme rankings as well as the School’s standing in the U.K.’s Research Excellence Framework (REF) and other indicators.  Over the course of this time, the School doubled in revenues, contributed to the University, and maintained a strong financial position.  

The School’s faculty and research centres now engage with global companies and other organisations in areas ranging from restructuring hospitals for better health outcomes, to creating machine-readable financial regulation, to developing cybersecurity policies. Cambridge Judge faculty and mentors guide companies varying from tech startups to social enterprises on their journey from idea to team building to scaling up for growth.   

New degree programmes launched during Professor Loch’s tenure include Masters degrees in Social Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Accounting, while new research centres now address such issues as alternative finance, strategic philanthropy, leadership gender diversity and the circular economy. Cambridge Judge has also transformed itself physically: the new 5,000-square-metre Simon Sainsbury Centre opened to students and Executive Education delegates in 2018, greatly expanding the School’s lecture, meeting and dining facilities while uniting Cambridge Judge activities under one roof.

Originally published on the Cambridge Judge Business School website.

That is why, like the UK Government, we are committed to leveraging that advantage and growing a 'Global Britain', and to a country which is levelled-up. Universities are powerful allies in helping to deliver these goals.

That said, the scale, immediacy and impact of the announced and potential cuts to UK research budgets, amounting to over £1 billion, will undermine years of investment in our universities and put our research base at risk, not to mention our international reputation. Indeed, there is a real likelihood of the Government’s claims of 'Global Britain' ringing hollow.

Within the UK, no other sector of the economy can claim to have four of the top 20 institutions in the world. This bench-strength has not come about by accident, but from sustained funding, support and investment. Universities have shown we can and do deliver for society and the economy, but we can’t and we won’t if we are subject to swingeing cuts to research budgets.

The first cut was announced in the Budget with the reduction of the international development budget. The consequence is a £120 million cut to research programmes, representing 40-60 per cent of development-funded research activity, with serious real-world effects. Researchers will have to stop programmes in developing countries aimed at tackling malaria and infectious diseases with pandemic potential, enhancing food security, reducing violence towards children, improving maternal health, and building renewable energy sources. This work does not just benefit the developing world but all of us.

Like other universities, we were delighted that the Government secured Associate Status to the EU’s Horizon programme. Now we learn that there is a real threat to the Government’s commitment to fund the cost of being part of the programme. The cost of participation in Horizon may be taken from the UK Research and Innovation budget. If UKRI, the Government body responsible for awarding research grants, is left with a shortfall of £1 billion, the consequences for British science and innovation will be nothing short of calamitous.

The work of our outstanding researchers, much of it funded by UKRI, has put the UK into a position of international competitiveness in key areas, including quantum computation that offers the promise of accelerated materials and drug discovery; low-carbon technologies to support the Government’s binding pledge to net-zero carbon; and a new generation of antibiotics to meet accelerating global anti-microbial resistance. Universities UK, the body which represents all higher education institutions, has also estimated that a cut of this scale could jeopardise 18,000 researchers’ jobs.

World-leading research cannot just be turned on and off like a tap. Once our highly trained young researchers leave our universities they will not come back, and once they leave the country they will not return. We appreciate that the Treasury faces enormously difficult choices but we would plead with them not to do long term economic damage by cutting support for our research base. We know that every £1 invested in university research generates further private sector investment of £1.60, creating the jobs, products and services that drive growth.

We are calling on Government not to renege on its commitments to spend 2.4 per cent of GDP on R&D by 2027 and to support publicly funded research. In particular we are calling on the Government not to fund participation in Horizon Europe by raiding the budgets of UKRI. Our research universities, together with UKRI, other funders and business, have created a national research and innovation system that is the envy of the world. Our R&D activity can be one of the best routes to 'building back better' from the economic ravages wrought by the pandemic, and with Government support, we can be at the centre of that great national effort.

Stephen J Toope is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, and Louise Richardson is Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford

This article appeared in the Daily Telegraph on 19 March 2021

If the trial is successful, it may pave the way for a new treatment to prevent or alleviate the impact of COVID-19 in people on dialysis, people who have had a kidney transplant, and people with auto-immune diseases affecting the kidneys such as vasculitis who require treatment to suppress their immune system. The treatment will last up to nine months.

Led by scientists from the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust and the University of Cambridge, the PROphylaxis for vulnerable paTiEnts at risk of COVID-19 infecTion (PROTECT-V) trial will start in Cambridge with a plan to expand to other UK healthcare centres. It will recruit at least 1,500 kidney patients, who will be randomised to receive either a placebo (or dummy) drug, or UNI911 (niclosamide) as a nasal spray, both provided by the manufacturer UNION therapeutics, in addition to all their usual treatments. Participants can receive the vaccine and still take part in this trial, which will identify whether niclosamide can protect people from the virus either on its own, or in combination with any of the vaccines currently available.

Niclosamide has been re-formulated into a nasal spray so it can be delivered directly to the lining of the nasal cavity, like a hayfever spray. In the trial, people will take one puff up each nostril twice a day, as this is the part of the body where the virus can take hold. This ‘local’ drug delivery is likely to reduce the chances of people experiencing any side effects.

Usually used to treat intestinal worms and taken as a tablet, niclosamide has shown real promise in the lab. Early tests revealed niclosamide could stop SARS-CoV-2 multiplying and entering cells of the upper airways.

Dr Rona Smith, senior research associate at the University of Cambridge and honorary consultant nephrologist at Addenbrooke’s Hospital, who is leading the UK study, said: “It is vital that we find a way to protect patients on haemodialysis and other high-risk kidney patients from catching SARS-CoV-2 and developing COVID-19. If they get it, they are more likely to fall seriously ill or die, and we need to find a way to change that.

“We believe testing niclosamide is particularly important for people who are immunosuppressed and have kidney disease, because their immune responses to vaccines can sometimes be less effective. While the vaccine will offer a level of protection, niclosamide may provide further protection against COVID-19 that doesn’t rely on the immune system mounting a response.

“If successful, our innovative trial could mean that the treatment becomes available to kidney patients more widely within months. It would mean they could receive their regular life-saving dialysis or take their immunosuppressant drugs without additional worry. And if it’s successful it could even be rolled out more widely – and benefit more vulnerable people.”

The trial involves researchers and patients from across the UK. It is funded by LifeArc, Kidney Research UK, the Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust and UNION therapeutics and is supported by the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre. UNION therapeutics is supplying the drug.

Professor Jeremy Hughes, kidney doctor and chair of trustees at Kidney Research UK, said: “Sadly, one in five kidney patients receiving dialysis in hospital or who have a kidney transplant and tested positive for the virus died within four weeks. Many of those on dialysis are having to put themselves at risk and attend their renal unit for life-saving dialysis treatment several times each week. And those who have had a kidney transplant must continue taking their immunosuppressant drugs, despite these making them more susceptible to infection.”

“Repurposing already available drugs or those in the late stage of development offers the fastest route to bring benefit to patients at this critical time,” said Melanie Lee, CEO of LifeArc.

Announcing the PROTECT-V trial, Matt Hancock, Health and Social Care Secretary, said: “Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have worked to find the best treatments the world has to offer for COVID-19.

“We have been clear from the outset that it will be a combination of safe and effective vaccines, testing and therapeutics that will bring an end to this pandemic, and we will not rest until every individual in the country is protected against this awful disease.”

Kidney patients who would like to take part in the PROTECT-V trial should speak to their nephrologist in their local centre to find out if their centre is participating in the trial and if they are eligible to take part.

Adapted from a press release by Kidney Research UK.

Results from the LHCb Collaboration at CERN suggests particles are not behaving the way they should according to the guiding theory of particle physics – suggesting gaps in our understanding of the Universe.

Physicists from the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol, and Imperial College London led the analysis of the data to produce this result, with funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council. The result - which has not yet been peer-reviewed - was announced today at the Moriond Electroweak Physics conference and published as a preprint.

Beyond the Standard Model

Scientists across the world will be paying close attention to this announcement as it hints at the existence of new particles not explained by the Standard Model.

The Standard Model is the current best theory of particle physics, describing all the known fundamental particles that make up our Universe and the forces that they interact with. However, the Standard Model cannot explain some of the deepest mysteries in modern physics, including what dark matter is made of and the imbalance of matter and antimatter in the Universe.

Dr Mitesh Patel of Imperial College London, and one of the leading physicists behind the measurement, said: “We were actually shaking when we first looked at the results, we were that excited. Our hearts did beat a bit faster.

“It’s too early to say if this genuinely is a deviation from the Standard Model but the potential implications are such that these results are the most exciting thing I’ve done in 20 years in the field. It has been a long journey to get here.”

Building blocks of nature

Today’s results were produced by the LHCb experiment, one of four huge particle detectors at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The LHC is the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider – it accelerates subatomic particles to almost the speed of light, before smashing them into each other.

These collisions produces a burst of new particles, which physicists then record and study in order to better understand the basic building blocks of nature.

The LHCb experiment is designed to study particles called ‘beauty quarks’, an exotic type of fundamental particle not usually found in nature but produced in huge numbers at the LHC.

Once the beauty quarks are produced in the collision, they should then decay in a certain way, but the LHCb team now has evidence to suggest these quarks decay in a way not explained by the Standard Model.

Questioning the laws of physics

The updated measurement could question the laws of nature that treat electrons and their heavier cousins, muons, identically, except for small differences due to their different masses. 

According to the Standard Model, muons and electrons interact with all forces in the same way, so beauty quarks created at LHCb should decay into muons just as often as they do to electrons.

But these new measurements suggest this is not happening.

One way these decays could be happening at different rates is if never-before-seen particles were involved in the decay and tipped the scales in favour of electrons.

Dr Paula Alvarez Cartelle from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, was one of the leaders of the team that found the result, said: “This new result offers tantalising hints of the presence of a new fundamental particle or force that interacts differently with these different types of particles.

“The more data we have, the stronger this result has become. This measurement is the most significant in a series of LHCb results from the past decade that all seem to line up – and could all point towards a common explanation.

“The results have not changed, but their uncertainties have shrunk, increasing our ability to see possible differences with the Standard Model.”

Not a foregone conclusion

In particle physics, the gold standard for discovery is five standard deviations – which means there is a 1 in 3.5 million chance of the result being a fluke. This result is three deviations – meaning there is still a 1 in 1000 chance that the measurement is a statistical coincidence.

It is therefore too soon to make any firm conclusions. However, while they are still cautious, the team members are nevertheless excited by this apparent deviation and its potentially far-reaching implications.

The LHCb scientists say there has been a breadcrumb trail of clues leading up to this result – with a number of other, less significant results over the past seven years also challenging the Standard Model in a similar way, though with less certainty.

If this result is what scientists think it is – and hope it is – there may be a whole new area of physics to be explored.

Dr Konstantinos Petridis of the University of Bristol, who also played a lead role in the measurement, said: “The discovery of a new force in nature is the holy grail of particle physics. Our current understanding of the constituents of the Universe falls remarkably short – we do not know what 95% of the Universe is made of or why there is such a large imbalance between matter and anti-matter.

“The discovery of a new fundamental force or particle, as hinted at by the evidence of differences in these measurements could provide the breakthrough required to start to answer these fundamental questions.”

Dr Harry Cliff, LHCb Outreach Co-Convener, from Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, said: “This result is sure to set physicists’ hearts beating a little faster today. We’re in for a terrifically exciting few years as we try to figure out whether we’ve finally caught a glimpse of something altogether new.”

It is now for the LHCb collaboration to further verify their results by collating and analysing more data, to see if the evidence for some new phenomena remains.

Additional information – about the result

The results compare the decay rates of Beauty mesons into final states with electrons with those into muons.

The LHCb experiment is one of the four large experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, and is designed to study decays of particles containing a beauty quark

This is the quark with the highest mass forming bound states. The resulting precision measurements of matter-antimatter differences and rare decays of particles containing a beauty quark allow sensitive tests of the Standard Model of particle physics.

Rather than flying out in all directions, beauty quarks that are created in the collisions of the proton beams at LHC stay close to the beam pipe.

The UK team studied a large number of beauty or b quarks decaying into a strange-quark and two oppositely charged leptons. By measuring how often the b-quark decays into a final state containing a pair of muons or a pair of electrons, they found evidence that the laws of physics might be different, depending on whether the final state contains electrons or muons. 

Since the b-quark is heavy compared to the masses of the electron and muon it is expected that the b-quark decays with the same probability into a final state with electrons and muons. The ratio between the two decay probabilities is hence predicted to be one.

However analysis of the UK team found evidence that the decay probability is less than one.

The Kennel Club Charitable Trust has funded the centre since its initial launch at the Animal Health Trust in 2009. The new centre will continue to be led by Dr Cathryn Mellersh, and will resume its mission to develop DNA tests and breeding tools for some of the most common and debilitating inherited conditions in dogs. 

Professor James Wood, Head of the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, said: “We are delighted that the important work by Cathryn and her team, funded by The Kennel Club Charitable Trust, can now continue through the Canine Genetics Centre at Cambridge Vet School. We look forward to working together for the health and welfare of our much loved canines.”

The Kennel Club and the canine genetics team will work together to ensure that the centre’s research targets conditions that have the greatest impact on the health of dogs. The Kennel Club’s breed health and conservation plans, a project that gathers all available health information and data about each breed, will play a vital role in guiding the centre’s objectives and areas of research.  

During its time at the Animal Health Trust, The Kennel Club Canine Genetics Centre had a significant impact on the health of numerous breeds. Researchers at the centre developed 25 different DNA tests for canine inherited diseases that affect over 50 breeds. Research into the impact of some of these tests revealed that over a ten year period, thanks to uptake of these tests by responsible breeders, the frequency of disease-causing genetic variants in some breeds reduced by a staggering 90%. 

Close collaboration with breed clubs and breeders is essential to the success of the centre, as is the collection of over 40,000 DNA samples that has been developed over the last 20 years. These samples, along with valuable scientific and DNA sequence data, have now been secured and transferred to the University of Cambridge for further analysis.

Dr Cathryn Mellersh, head of The Kennel Club Genetics Centre said: “The last ten years have been incredibly important to dog health and, thanks to the University of Cambridge, especially Professor James Wood for all his assistance in safeguarding our resources and The Kennel Club Charitable Trust, this work can now continue. Our work to support breeders in reducing health problems in dogs is essential and we are eager to continue this important work and are thankful to everyone for their support.”

Further information regarding The Kennel Club’s extensive work in the field of canine health and research can be found on The Kennel Club website.

Adapted from a press release by The Kennel Club.

The clinical trial - named HEAL-COVID - also aims to cut the number of patients being readmitted to hospital with complications as a result of having COVID.

Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests that 29% of patients who are hospitalised due to COVID-19 are readmitted within six months, and more than 12% die within the same period.

HEAL-COVID stands for Helping to Alleviate the Longer-term consequences of COVID-19 and is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.  It will test a number of safe, existing drugs on patients across the UK in order to find effective treatments.  

Study lead Dr Charlotte Summers, from the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke's Hospital, said: "Having survived the trauma of being hospitalised with COVID-19, far too many patients find themselves back in hospital with new or long term complications.

"Unfortunately, many go on to die in the months after being discharged. This trial is the first of its kind to look at what drugs we could use to reduce the devastating impact on patients."

The trial is being led by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and University of Cambridge, in collaboration with Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre at the University of Liverpool, and Aparito Limited. 

HEAL-COVID will enrol patients when they are discharged from hospital, following their first admission for COVID-19.  They will be randomised and given one of two drugs – apixaban and atorvastatin - and their progress tracked. It's hoped a third drug will be introduced to the trial on the recommendation of the UK COVID Therapeutic Advisory Panel in the coming weeks.

Prof Carrol Gamble, Director of the Liverpool Clinical Trials Centre, said: “This is an exciting opportunity to help people in the post-acute phase of COVID-19. The trial is designed to allow us to remove or add-in treatment options in response to patient outcomes. Every effort has been made to design the trial to minimise burden on NHS staff and patients and represents a true team approach to science.”

NHS medical director, Professor Stephen Powis, said: “The NHS led the world in research identifying dexamethasone as the first treatment in the world for COVID-19 and this latest trial could help discover new treatments for the after-effects of COVID, helping to rapidly get world-leading therapies to our patients.

“Long COVID can have a significant impact on someone’s quality of life, which is exactly why in addition to funding research into the condition, the NHS has invested millions into opening dozens of dedicated clinics to help people get back to good health."

Lord Bethell, Minister for Innovation, said:  “The UK is a world-leader in developing life-saving treatments in response to the pandemic and this clinical trial is further evidence of this. It is vital we continue our search for the best treatments for COVID-19, particularly to prevent people developing long-term complications after becoming ill.

“Clinical trials platforms like HEAL are showing how innovative designs can mean we can reach just the right candidates, quickly and emphatically. I am massively grateful to the incredible scientists and clinicians at Cambridge University who are driving forward this life-saving work, which will play a critical role in putting this pandemic behind us.”

Adapted from a press release by Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

This initiative will contribute to the recovery of the physical University in the wake of the pandemic, and is an important signal of Cambridge’s ongoing commitment to the performing arts.

The CMP heralds a step-change in music of all genres for outreach and inclusion, and for wellbeing across collegiate Cambridge. Maintaining a tradition of excellence, it will also seal the University’s position on a world stage for music performance.

The CMP will be a seedbed of experimentation and innovation. A radical commitment to diversity will offer more opportunities to more students than ever before, to explore new styles of music-making and performance.

The Centre will open at the end of the year; in the meantime the search is on for a new Director to take up their post in early autumn.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stephen J Toope, said: "At a time of unprecedented stress for the performing arts, I am proud that Cambridge is creating a new Centre for Music Performance. A step-change in the visibility, breadth, reach and role of music performance, it will nurture the highest aspirations of the very best performers, besides offering a wonderful array of opportunities to those with previously limited experience. In the long run the Centre will be a stimulus for interdisciplinarity, research excellence and all-round personal development. I am thrilled to see the CMP go ahead at Cambridge."

The Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor (Education), Professor Graham Virgo, said: "This is one of the many ways Cambridge University is expressing its commitment to outreach, inclusion and diversity. We expect this Centre to build on our excellent array of musical endeavour to draw more students into the cultural life of the University, building their skills and confidence and supporting their wellbeing."

Dr Anthony Freeling, Chair, Colleges’ Committee, and President of Hughes Hall, said: "The Cambridge Colleges are well-known as a seedbed of musical life; the Centre for Music Performance will not only support this but enhance its connectivity and visibility so that more students are attracted to, and can fully enjoy, the proven benefits of music performance."

Chair of the Faculty Board of Music and 1684 Professor of Music Katharine Ellis said: "The Faculty of Music is delighted to see the new Centre for Music Performance come into being. This new hub will be a game-changer supporting musicians right across the University, from soon-to-be professionals to those for whom music offers precious release from the stresses of intensive study. It will be a beacon for Cambridge’s already rich musical life and will enable students to access its variety more readily than ever before. We look forward to contributing to the CMP’s success."

The Chair of the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) Trustees, Dame Fiona Reynolds, said: "CUMS has carried the flag for excellence in music performance at Cambridge for many years. During that time we have nurtured a host of young people for whom music is life-giving, from world-leading professional musicians to skilled amateurs. The CMP is the opportunity we have been looking for to take this to the next level, offering more students than ever before the opportunity to work with each other and professional artists from a wide range of genres in an atmosphere that fosters creativity and innovation."

Images

Cambridge University Jazz Orchestra, copyright Hideaway Streatham

Conducting and Concerto Competition Winners, Cambridge University Musical Society, copyright Tom Porteous, with kind permission of Cambridge University Botanic Garden

Researchers discovered changes to 12 genetic regions in the DNA of people who have had a lacunar stroke – a type of stroke caused by weakening of the small blood vessels deep within the brain. Over time, damage to the blood vessels and subsequent interruption to blood flow can lead to long-term disability, causing difficulty with thinking, memory, walking and ultimately dementia.

There are few proven drugs to prevent or treat lacunar strokes. The blood vessels affected are less than a millimetre wide and a lacunar stroke can strike without the person knowing. It’s not usually until someone has had a number of these strokes and starts to see signs of dementia that they realise something is wrong.  

To date, only one genetic fault has been associated with lacunar strokes. However, after over a decade of research, Professor Hugh Markus and his team at the University of Cambridge working with researchers from around the world now believe their genetic breakthrough holds the key to finding much-needed treatments for lacunar stroke and vascular dementia.

In research funded by the British Heart Foundation, the team scanned and compared the genetic code of 7,338 patients who had a lacunar stroke with 254,798 people who had not. Participants were recruited from across Europe, United States, South America and Australia after they attended hospital and had an MRI or CT brain scan.

They discovered that many of the 12 genetic regions linked to lacunar strokes were involved in maintaining the neurovascular unit – the part of the brain that separates the blood vessels from the brain and ensures that nerves function normally. These genetic changes are thought to make the small blood vessels ‘leakier’, causing toxic substances to enter the brain, and meaning that messages travelling around the brain slow down or don’t arrive at all.

The team now plan to test whether new treatments can correct these abnormalities on brain cells in the lab. They hope to begin human clinical trials in the next ten years.

The study also highlighted that high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and a history of smoking are causally associated with an increased risk of lacunar stroke, identifying things that we can immediately tackle.

Professor Hugh Markus, leader of the study and neurologist at the University of Cambridge, said: “These small and often silent lacunar strokes have gone under the radar for a long time, and so we haven’t been able treat patients as well as we’d like to. Although small, their consequences for patients can be enormous. They cause a quarter of all strokes and they are the type of stroke which is most likely to lead to vascular dementia.

“We now plan to use this new genetic blueprint as a springboard to develop much needed treatments to prevent lacunar strokes from occurring in the first place and to help stave off dementia.”

Dr Matthew Traylor, first author of the study at Queen Mary University of London, said: “Genetics offers one of the few ways we can discover completely new insights into what causes a disease such as lacunar stroke. It is only by better understanding of what causes the disease that we will be able to develop better treatments.”

Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation, said:

“This is the most extensive genetic search to date which truly gets to grips with what cause lacunar strokes. These findings are a significant leap forward and we now have a much greater understanding of the genetics and biology behind what causes the small blood vessels deep in the brain to become diseased.

“Lacunar strokes affect around 35,000 people in the UK each year. This research provides real hope that we can prevent and treat this devastating type of stroke much better in the

Reference

Traylor, M et al. Genetic basis of lacunar stroke: a pooled analysis of individual patient data and genome-wide association studies. Lancet Neurology; 26 Mar 2021. 

Adapted from a press release by the British Heart Foundation

Despite widespread optimism that educational technology, or ‘EdTech’, can help to level the playing field for young people with disabilities, the study found a significant shortage of evidence about which innovations are best-positioned to help which children, and why; specifically in low-income contexts.

The review also found that many teachers lack training on how to use new technology, or are reluctant to do so.

The study was carried out for the EdTech Hub partnership, by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Glasgow and York. They conducted a detailed search for publications reporting trials or evaluations about how EdTech is being used to help primary school-age children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries. Despite screening 20,000 documents, they found just 51 relevant papers from the past 14 years – few of which assessed any impact on children’s learning outcomes.

Their report describes the paucity of evidence as ‘astonishing’, given the importance of educational technologies to support the learning of children with disabilities. According to the Inclusive Education Initiative, as many as half the estimated 65 million school-age children with disabilities worldwide were out of school even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and most face ongoing, significant barriers to attending or participating in education.

EdTech is widely seen as having the potential to reverse this trend, and numerous devices have been developed to support the education of young people with disabilities. The study itself identifies a kaleidoscopic range of devices to support low vision, sign language programmes, mobile apps which teach braille, and computer screen readers.

It also suggests, however, that there have been very few systematic attempts to test the effectiveness of these devices. Dr Paul Lynch, from the School of Education, University of Glasgow, said: “The evidence for EdTech’s potential to support learners with disabilities is worryingly thin. Even though we commonly hear of interesting innovations taking place across the globe, these are not being rigorously evaluated or documented.”

Professor Nidhi Singal, from the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, said: “There is an urgent need to know which technology works best for children with disabilities, where, and in response to which specific needs. The lack of evidence is a serious problem if we want EdTech to fulfil its potential to improve children’s access to learning, and to increase their independence and agency as they progress through school.”

The report identifies numerous ‘glaring omissions’ in the evaluations that researchers did manage to uncover. Around half were for devices designed to support children with hearing or vision difficulties; hardly any addressed the learning needs of children with autism, dyslexia, or physical disabilities. Most were from trials in Asia or Africa, while South America was underrepresented.

Much of the evidence also concerned EdTech projects which Dr Gill Francis, from the University of York and a co-author, described as ‘in their infancy’. Most focused on whether children liked the tools, or found them easy to use, rather than whether they actually improved curriculum delivery, learner participation and outcomes. Attention was also rarely given to whether the devices could be scaled up – for example, in remote and rural areas where resources such as electricity are often lacking. Few studies appeared to have taken into account the views or experiences of parents or carers, or of learners themselves.

The studies reviewed also suggest that many teachers lack experience with educational technology. For example, one study in Nigeria found that teachers lacked experience of assistive technologies for students with a range of disabilities. Another, undertaken at 10 schools for the blind in Delhi, found that the uptake of modern low-vision devices was extremely limited, because teachers were unaware of their benefits.

Despite the shortage of information overall, the study did uncover some clear evidence about how technology – particularly portable devices – is transforming opportunities for children with disabilities. Deaf and hard-of-hearing pupils, for instance, are increasingly using SMS and social media to access information about lessons and communicate with peers; while visually-impaired pupils have been able to use tablet computers, in particular, to magnify and read learning materials.

Based on this, the report recommends that efforts to support children with disabilities in low- and middle-income countries should focus on the provision of mobile and portable devices, and that strategies should be put in place to ensure that these are sustainable and affordable for parents and schools – as cost was another concern that emerged from the studies cited.

Critically, however, the report states that more structured evidence-gathering is urgently needed to ensure EdTech meets the UN’s stated goal to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning for all’. The authors suggest that there is a need to adopt more robust research designs, which should address a full range of disabilities, and involve pupils, carers and teachers in the process.

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution when working with children with disabilities,” Singal added. “That is why the current lack of substantive evidence is such a concern. It needs to be addressed so that teachers, parents and learners are enabled to make informed judgements about which technological interventions work, and what might work best for them.”

Black and Chinese pupils were 26% and 38% more likely to be autistic respectively and autistic children were much more likely to face significant social disadvantage. The results are published today in JAMA Pediatrics.

The team drew on data from the School Census from the National Pupil Database, collected by the Department for Education from individuals aged 2-21 years old in state-funded schools in England. Of more than 7 million pupils studied, 119,821 pupils had a diagnosis of autism in their record in the English state educational system, of whom 21,660 also had learning difficulties (18.1%). Boys showed a prevalence of autism of 2.8% and girls showed a prevalence of 0.65%, with a boy-to-girl ratio of 4.3:1.

Prevalence was highest in pupils of black ethnicity (2.1%) and lowest in Roma/Irish Travellers (0.85%), with these estimates being the first to be published for these populations. Pupils with a record of autism in schools were 60% more likely to also be socially disadvantaged, and 36% less likely to speak English. The findings reveal significant differences in autism prevalence, as recorded in formal school systems, across ethnic groups and geographical location.

The lead researcher of the study, Dr Andres Roman-Urrestarazu from the Autism Research Centre (ARC) and Cambridge Public Health at the University of Cambridge, said: “We can now see that autism is much more common than previously thought. We also found significant variations in autism diagnosis in different ethnic minorities, though the reason why this should be the case isn’t clear and warrants further research.”

Previous estimates of the prevalence of autism in the UK by the same research group in Cambridge, and based on a school-based survey, suggested that one in 64 children (1.57%) were autistic. The new study, based on school records that usually underestimate the actual proportion of children who meet diagnostic criteria, shows a considerable increase in the autism prevalence in England. The researchers say the increase is likely to be because autism has become better recognised by both parents and schools in recent years.

Professor Carol Brayne, Co-chair of Cambridge Public Health and Professor of Public Health Medicine, said: “This study shows how we can draw on large datasets in a way that is rigorous and valuable for our understanding of autism.”

Professor Fiona Matthews from Newcastle University added: “This study highlights the need for more attention to the unrecognised and differing needs of autistic children from disadvantaged and diverse backgrounds.”

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the ARC, said: “We can now see a snapshot of how many autistic children there are, and can drill down into local and ethnic variation, and reveal links with vulnerability. It is important that we safeguard the rights of children to access diagnostic services and education, tailored to their needs.”

This research was made possible by a generous donation for a Global Public Health Leadership programme by Dennis and Mireille Gillings Fellowship awarded to Dr Andres Roman-Urrestarazu. This study was also supported by the Autism Research Trust, the Wellcome Trust, the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU), the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care East of England at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.

Reference
Roman-Urrestarazu, R et al. Association of Race/Ethnicity and Social Disadvantage With Autism Prevalence in 7 Million School Children in England. JAMA Pediatrics; 29 March 2021; DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2021.0054

Earth has experienced five major extinction events over the last 500 million years, the fifth and most recent responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Massive volcanic eruptions have been identified as a major driver in the environmental change which triggered at least three of these extinctions.

But what dealt the final blow to the dinosaurs – whether an enormous outpouring of lava from the Deccan Traps volcanic province in India or a large asteroid impact or perhaps a combination of the two – has remained open to debate.

Now, a multi-institutional research team, led by scientists from the City University of New York (CUNY), and involving the University of Cambridge, has, for the first time, accurately pinpointed the timing and amount of carbon released from Deccan Traps volcanic province. The new data means scientists can now assess the role of volcanism in climate shifts around the End-Cretaceous mass extinction. 

The team’s data show that CO₂ outgassing from Deccan Traps magmas can explain a warming of Earth’s global temperatures by roughly 3 degrees Celsius during the early phases of Deccan volcanism, but shows that the warming had lessened by the time of the mass extinction event.

Their findings support the theory that later Deccan magmas were not releasing that much CO₂, suggesting that volcanic carbon emissions didn’t play a major role in the dinosaur’s extinction.

“The results are important because they show that major volcanic events can release substantial amounts of CO₂ not just from surface vents, but also from the large and complex plumbing systems that feed them. Even though volcanic carbon emissions alone couldn’t have triggered the mass extinction, our data highlights their influence on our planet's climate and habitability,” said co-author Professor Sally Gibson, from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences.

The team had to search through hundreds of Deccan lava samples to identify suitable candidates to profile for their trapped CO₂ content. “In modern volcanic eruptions, such as the current one in Iceland, the CO₂ is trapped in crystals that are embedded in glassy fragments of rapidly cooled magma, but these are fragile and not preserved in the 65 million-year-old Deccan Traps,” said Gibson.

Recent research has identified a global warming event that occurred several hundred thousand years before the End-Cretaceous extinction. Some scientists have linked the eruption of the Deccan Traps to this warming event, but there is debate over whether the lavas that erupted could have released enough CO₂ into the atmosphere to cause it.  Adding to this mystery, the lava volumes that erupted during this time are relatively small compared to the volumes erupted during subsequent stages of Deccan Traps activity. A major challenge in this debate has been the lack of CO₂ data on Deccan magmas from this time.

“The new data highlights that carbon outgassing from lava volumes alone couldn’t have caused that level of global warming. But, when we factored in outgassing from magmas that froze beneath the surface rather than erupting, we found that the Deccan Traps could have released enough CO₂ to explain this warming event,” said lead-author Andres Hernandez Nava, a PhD student in The Graduate Center, CUNY Earth.

For their study, the team used lasers and beams of ions to measure the amount of CO₂ inside tiny droplets of frozen magma trapped inside Deccan Traps crystals from the End Cretaceous time period. They also measured the amounts of other elements, such as barium and niobium, which are indicators for how much CO₂ the magmas started out with. Finally, they performed modeling of latest Cretaceous climate to test the impacts of Deccan Traps carbon release on surface temperatures.

“Our lack of insight into the carbon released by magmas during some of Earth’s largest volcanic eruptions has been a critical gap for pinning down the role of volcanic activity in shaping Earth’s past climate and extinction events,” said Black, the study’s principal investigator and a professor in the Earth and Environmental Science program at The Graduate Center CUNY and City College of New York. “This work brings us closer to understanding the role of magmas in fundamentally shaping our planet’s climate, and specifically helps us test the contributions of volcanism and the asteroid impact in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.”

Reference:
Hernandez Nava et al. Reconciling early Deccan Traps CO2 outgassing and pre-KPB global climate. PNAS (2021). DOI : 10.1073/pnas.2007797118

Adapted from a press release by The Graduate Center, CUNY.