Generation Covid

Following a survey on the impact of the pandemic on early-career researchers, Megan Maunder, A´ine O'Brien, Jack Reid, Dominic M. Bowman, Fred Richards and Steven Gough-Kelly sift the data from Generation Covid. © 2021 Royal Astronomical Society.

Cancer survivors' perceptions of priorities for geriatric oncology research: A qualitative study

Background: People living with and after cancer may experience complex physical and psychosocial issues requiring multidisciplinary support. While adults over the age of 65 are the group most commonly diagnosed with cancer, they also represent the group most under-represented in research. Therefore, this study aims to explore older adults' perceptions of priorities for research in cancer and haematological malignancies. Methods: A descriptive qualitative study was undertaken with sixteen older adults over the age of 65 who were living with or after a diagnosis of cancer. Participants were purposively recruited via a regional cancer centre and cancer advocacy organisations. Participants engaged in a one-to-one semi-structured telephone interview, which discussed their experiences of cancer, and their perceptions of cancer-related issues which they believed were priorities for research in the future. Qualitative data were thematically analysed. Results: Participants were overwhelmingly satisfied with the cancer-related care they received, but discussed a variety of issues related to their experiences of information, symptoms, and support beyond the hospital setting which warranted further research. Forty-two priorities for future research were categorised within six themes, containing a total of eleven sub-themes. Priorities for future research included the recognition of the signs and symptoms of cancer in older adulthood;research about cancer treatments for older adults;supporting the assessment and management of co-morbidities;the unmet needs of older adults living with and after cancer;the impact of COVID-19 on people living with or after cancer and on cancer services;and the impact of cancer on caregivers and family members. Conclusions: The results of this study represent a basis for future priority setting for research in the field of geriatric oncology. The results of this study have the potential to underpin priorities for research which are driven by the population who are most affected by, and most in need of research to address the complex issues associated with diagnosis, treatment, survivorship, and end of life care for people living with or after cancer in older adulthood. Legal entity responsible for the study: University College Dublin. Funding: Irish Research Council. Disclosure: A. Drury: Financial Interests, Personal, Full or part-time Employment: University College Dublin;Financial Interests, Institutional, Research Grant, I am a collaborator on the Pfizer-funded project ABC4Nurses, which is coordinated and managed by EONS: Pfizer;Non-Financial Interests, Invited Speaker: European Oncology Nursing Society;Non-Financial Interests, Advisory Role, I am an advisor on several EONS projects, including ABC4Nurses and RCC & HCC PROMS: European Oncology Nursing Society. All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

THE UK FIREBALL ALLIANCE: LESSONS LEARNED FROM TWO METEORITE FIELD SEARCHES IN THE UK

Introduction: The UK currently has six meteor camera networks that are coordinated through the UK Fireball Alliance (UKFAll) [1]. Together, these networks currently image much of the UK's night sky. Since its formal establishment in 2020, the UKFAll has organised field searches following two detected fireball events that dropped meteorites in the UK: one at 21:54 (UTC) 28th February 2021 in Gloucestershire, England, and another at 23:45 (UTC) 14th April 2022 in Shropshire, England. The former fireball detection led to the recovery of the Winchcombe CM chondrite, the first UK meteorite in 30 years [2-4], whilst our search for the Shropshire meteorite have not yet located any stones. Here, we report some lessons learned as a citizen-science and academic collaboration, and from engaging with both local and national communities in searching for meteorites in Gloucestershire and Shropshire, UK. Camera Networks: UKFAll includes the UK Meteor Network (UKMON), Network for Meteor Triangulation and Orbit Determination (NEMETODE), the UK Fireball Network (UKFN), the Fireball Recovery and InterPlanetary Observation Network (FRIPON), the Global Meteor Network (GMN), and the AllSky7 network. Orbital calculations and dark flight modelling are a collaborative effort by researchers from the Global Fireball Observatory based at Curtin University, Australia, as well as the University of Western Ontario, Canada, and FRIPON, France. Winchcombe: Since the Winchcombe meteorite fell during a national lockdown, we issued a press release asking residents in Gloucestershire to report possible meteorite finds following the fireball, as opposed to sending a search party immediately. This approach was successful, with the Wilcock family waking to find a pile of dark rocks and powder on their driveway, and having seen the news, collecting the material and contacting the UKMON. Following verification of the meteorite fall, and additional refinement of the strewn field, a small (~15 scientists) search party assembled in Gloucestershire on 4th March 2021. This led to the recovery of the largest 152 g stone at Rushbury House farm on 6th March 2021. Field Experience: Members of UKFAll with meteorite searching experience led small teams of 4 - 8 people. The search was conducted in a unique situation due to COVID. Care was taken to remain socially distanced at all times, which made coordination of the search efforts challenging. Positive engagement with the local community was prioritised from the outset, with team leaders contacting landowners for permission to search and emphasising our safety precautions and risk assessments. News of the meteorite fall spread quickly, and residents were very hospitable and enthusiastic about our activities. The UK countryside is full of "meteorwrongs", and the rural terrain was difficult to search due to long grass, bushes etc. A game was devised to help boost morale - and to see if a meteorite would be found in that field - where a convincing meteorwrong was thrown into each new area by one team member to be found by the search team. During the field search, we also received many enquiries. These were managed by dedicated UKFAll team members, who replied to emails and visited potential meteorite finds in the area. The press interest in the story following the announcement that the meteorite had been found was significant, with journalists soon arriving in Winchcombe. This press release came after the main UKFAll search had ended, and there were many requests from the the media for interviews. Following several busy days, a key lesson learned was to the need to have a designated media liaison for any future press releases. Shropshire: This meteorite search was carried out over six days by ~20 scientists in an agricultural area south of Shrewsbury that included grazing land for sheep, wheat and rapeseed fields, and woodland. Searching in mid-April proved more challenging due to the increased vegetation cover. In order to train more people in meteorite hunting strategy, search line leaders were alternated each day. An initial small team arrived for the first two days to engage with the community. This "recon" was used to assess the terrain, identify key areas, and obtain permissions, and to avoid inundating small communities with search teams without advance notice. Early on, we engaged with a business owner, who helped to spread the word using local social media groups. Within 24 hours, most residents in the strewn field were aware of the meteorite fall and our presence, with many families conducting their own searches of public land. On 18th April 2022, a press release with an approximate strewn field was issued to local journalists. As with Winchcombe, there was significant national media interest, despite no stone being found to date. This helped us to gain access to search areas, as several landowers were aware of the meteorite before we contacted them. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Meteoritics & Planetary Science is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Urological imaging trends in Australia and the impact of COVID-19: A ten-year analysis of national data

Introduction & Objectives: During the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a drastic shift in access and utilisation of healthcare resources globally. There has been widespread implementation of social distancing policies, isolation to homes and reduced non-essential activities within communities. These public health measures coupled with reductions in non-urgent elective surgeries and a transition to telehealth may have affected presentations of common urological conditions. We hypothesised there may be an impact on the number of common urological imaging studies carried out over this time frame. We have retrospectively analysed the number of CT KUB, US renal tract and mpMRI prostate studies done during the first three months of the COVID-19 outbreak in Australia and compared them to the previous decade. Methods: Australian Medicare Benefit Schedule item statistics reports for US renal tract and CT KUB usage were generated for the months of March, April and May from the Department of Health and Human Services website from 2010 to 2020. Data for 2019 and 2020 was examined for mpMRI prostate. Data was then analysed using GraphPad Prism 8 (La Jolla, CA, USA), one-way ANOVA with Fisher's-LSD post hoc test utilised and statistical significance set at p-value <0.05. Results: From 2010 through to 2019 there was a year-on-year increase in the number of CT KUB and US Renal tract studies performed across Australia. An average increase of 6.0% (±3.6%) for CT KUB and 5.2% (±3.3%) for US Renal tract. A statistically significant decrease was seen in the corresponding months of 2020 of 10.4% and 20.9%, respectively. There was no significant reduction in the number of mpMRI prostate studies performed from March to May 2020. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant decline in the number of some common urological imaging studies across the first 3 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia. We may well see an associated trend of reduced referrals or potentially a spike in delayed diagnoses during and after COVID-19 crisis due to reduced presentations and investigations throughout lockdown periods. Reassuringly, we have not seen a decline in the number of mpMRI prostate studies undertaken during this same time frame.

A highly sensitive cell-based luciferase assay for high-throughput automated screening of SARS-CoV-2 nsp5/3CLpro inhibitors.

Effective drugs against SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed to treat severe cases of infection and for prophylactic use. The main viral protease (nsp5 or 3CLpro) represents an attractive and possibly broad-spectrum target for drug development as it is essential to the virus life cycle and highly conserved among betacoronaviruses. Sensitive and efficient high-throughput screening methods are key for drug discovery. Here we report the development of a gain-of-signal, highly sensitive cell-based luciferase assay to monitor SARS-CoV-2 nsp5 activity and show that it is suitable for the screening of compounds in a 384-well format. A benefit of miniaturisation and automation is that screening can be performed in parallel on a wild-type and a catalytically inactive nsp5, which improves the selectivity of the assay. We performed molecular docking-based screening on a set of 14,468 compounds from an in-house chemical database, selected 359 candidate nsp5 inhibitors and tested them experimentally. We identified two molecules which show anti-nsp5 activity, both in our cell-based assay and in vitro on purified nsp5 protein, and inhibit SARS-CoV-2 replication in A549-ACE2 cells with EC50 values in the 4-8 µM range. The here described high-throughput-compatible assay will allow the screening of large-scale compound libraries for SARS-CoV-2 nsp5 inhibitors. Moreover, we provide evidence that this assay can be adapted to other coronaviruses and viruses which rely on a viral protease.

The COVID-19 impact on symptomatic breast cancer referrals and diagnosis

Aims To determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of new patients attending a symptomatic breast unit and number of patients diagnosed with primary breast cancer. Methods Anonymised data of new attendances and breast cancer diagnoses between February and July 2020 were analysed and compared with data from 2019 and 2018. Results The average number of new patient attendances in February-July 2020 was 2,111 vs 3,008 during the same time period in 2018 and 2019 (30% less). The average number of breast cancers diagnosed in April/May 2020 was 36 vs 73 in April/May 2019 and 2018 (50% less). The number of breast cancers diagnosed in July 2020 was 60 vs 35 in July 2019 and 2018 (43% greater). Conclusion Less breast cancers diagnosed at the height of our nationwide COVID-19 lockdown and higher numbers diagnosed in July 2020 suggests a delay in presentation of these women to their GPs during lockdown.