Using precise measurements of krypton isotopes, UC Davis researchers prove that volatile organic compounds were incorporated into the Earth earlier than they thought 

By MONICA MANMADKAR — science@theaggie.org

According to a new study published in Nature by UC Davis researchers, krypton (Kr) isotopes provide better insight into how, when and where carbon, nitrogen and water were brought to Earth. The study of these volatile organic compounds is an extremely important component of understanding Earth’s history and, by extension, the history of other planets. 

Pulling these isotopes together from the Galápagos Islands, researchers Sandrine Péron and Sujoy Mukhopadhyay analyzed these isotopes for chemical fingerprints. According to the study, since krypton is composed of both meteoritic and atmospheric isotopes, this element can tell us a lot about Earth’s history and how its volatile elements like carbon, nitrogen and water initially developed. 

“This study will allow [researchers] to better understand how Earth came to be and more importantly when these volatile elements developed in Earth’s history,” said Sandrine Péron, the lead author of the study and a current Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at ETH Zürich in Switzerland.

Péron conducted the research at UC Davis as a postdoctoral fellow working with Professor in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences Sujoy Mukhopadhyay. She described how the deep mantle krypton remains unchanged from the moon’s formation, which is why the isotopes can be used to deduce when volatile compounds came to Earth. The volcanic spots at the Galápagos Islands pull magma from the mantle, which is near the Earth’s iron core. Collecting the lava plumes themselves, researchers can use this magma to extract krypton isotopes. However, even with the lava, researchers are only able to collect a few million atoms of the most abundant krypton isotopes. 

“Since the process of deducing their impact poses a challenge, [Péron] was able to come up with a better method for measuring the mantle krypton with mass spectrometry,” Mukhopadhyay said. “[She] was able to concentrate the krypton from rock samples where the samples would be void of air contamination and separated from argon and xenon.” 

Péron continued to explain how their study was the first one to exactly calculate all krypton isotopes, including the rarest krypton isotopes, Kr-78 and Kr-80. Using these isotopes like a fingerprint, the researchers hoped to find where the volatile elements and compounds initially arose from the asteroid belt, the inner solar system or somewhere else. 

“These isotopes are basically acting as the DNA in terms of their lineage, [and are answering questions like] where did these elements come from and which bodies delivered these elements that are essential for life,” Mukhopadhyay said. 

The researchers soon discovered that the isotopes’ fingerprints contained traces of primitive, carbon-rich meteorites which originated from very early in Earth’s history. 

This reveals two novel discoveries, Péron said. Firstly, although the isotopes show that the volatile elements arose very early in Earth’s history, not all of the isotopes were accounted for in the known meteorites. Secondly, the researchers found that the ratio of deep mantle krypton doesn’t match the atmospheric krypton isotope levels, which means that some of the ones in the atmosphere were delivered during the moon formation. If not, then the ratio for the deep mantle krypton and the atmospheric one would be the same, Péron explained. 

Keeping this research in mind, Mukhopadhyay’s lab hopes to continue answering questions about why the fingerprint of krypton in the Earth’s atmosphere is different from the deep mantle and how representative the study’s measurements are of the entire interior of the Earth’s mantle. 

Written by: Monica Manmadkar — science@theaggie.org

As the upward trend of omicron cases is seeming to decline, experts say it is important to stay cautious while returning in-person classes 

By MONICA MANMADKAR — science@theaggie.org

With students, faculty and other UC Davis members coming back to campus for in-person learning, it is still important to keep COVID-19 in mind and take the necessary precautions to keep everyone safe. UC Davis health professionals emphasize the necessity of keeping masks on and testing in a timely manner.

In interviews with The California Aggie, UC Davis public health experts, infectious disease professionals and epidemiologists answered some common questions and noted measures that everyone should take to continue staying safe. 

What is the omicron variant and what makes it different? 

Like any virus, COVID-19 evolves and mutates, which allows the strains to continue infecting people at increasing rates, according to Dr. Dean Blumberg, the chief of pediatric infectious diseases at UC Davis Children’s Hospital. The original strain has 32 mutations, which is much less compared to the omicron variant which has over 50 more mutations. With these mutations, the virus can more easily attach to cells, hence initiating infection. 

“Some of these mutations result in stronger binding of the spike protein to our receptors, some enhance viral replication, and some avoid neutralizing antibodies from infection of immunization with previous strains,” Blumberg said via email.

Is the omicron variant more transmissible and why?

Since the omicron variant can bind easily to receptors and cause infection, the variant is more transmissible. Blumberg explained how stronger binding to the cell’s receptors leads to a higher viral replication rate and thus higher virus concentrations. This results in omicron being two to five times more transmissible than the former delta variant. 

“With the virus’ rapid replication, the mutation rate is much higher and so is the evolution of the virus,” said Dr. Bradley H. Pollock, a professor of epidemiology and chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences. “Omicron is one of the results of the mutations that the original virus made and is continuing a prominent variant due to its evolution into being so contagious.” 

Why should people still continue to get tested even if the symptoms of omicron are milder?

The omicron variant is extremely infectious. Dr. Lorena Garcia, an epidemiologist and professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, explained that although people may not feel the effects of the symptoms, they can still infect others such as immunocompromised individuals. Those who are unvaccinated and not boosted are also more susceptible to severe symptoms than the vaccinated population. 

“If you infect someone who is unvaccinated, that person can go on to have severe outcomes, including hospitalization, severe illness and even death,” Garcia said. 

Garcia also detailed that individuals have died due to omicron across age groups. Hence, it is important that individuals get tested, even if they are asymptomatic, and if they test positive, to quarantine and inform those with whom they’ve had close contact. Garcia added that the viral load of omicron is much higher than delta and the other variants, which is why someone with omicron is more infectious. 

How long are omicron symptoms contagious? Are the symptoms different?

“For all intents and purposes, you may be seeing maybe not the same frequency and effect of the symptoms with the omicron variant,” Pollock said. “However, the core symptoms remain the same — loss of smell, coughing, fever, etc.” 

In terms of the timeframe, Blumberg described that people may still be contagious for up to 10 days from the onset of symptoms. But they are no longer considered infectious after that if they are clinically improving and do not have a fever without using fever-reducing medications.

What type of masks should students wear? Is it okay to keep using cloth masks?

Pollock explained that the highest efficacy mask would be N95s or equivalent masks, followed by surgical masks and then the cloth masks without a filter. 

“The surgical masks are much better than the cloth masks, but they would be even more effective if you can put a cloth mask over it,” Pollock said. 

The cloth masks keep the surgical masks tightly in place on the face, firmly covering the nose and mouth completely and avoiding any type of leakage around the facial area.  

What does this surge with the omicron variant tell us about future COVID-19 strains and their effects on the community?

Pollock explained that all omicron can tell us about the virus is that we hope that future variants are milder, and we hope that there will be less hospitalization. 

“However, it is extremely important for everyone to get vaccinated and boosted. With those antibodies, infected individuals will have more mild symptoms and will most likely not be in danger,” Garcia said. 

In addition, we do know that more viral transmission leads to more replication, which increases the chances for variants to arise. That is why it is so important to increase efforts to vaccinate more people worldwide, Blumberg said. 

As a whole, experts say it is important to stay safe and wear masks even with declining cases. The omicron variant is still in the community and is extremely transmissible, they said.

Written by: Monica Manmadkar — science@theaggie.org

The UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing took part in a collaborative project that created educational videos about wound care, mobility and more to assist caregivers in caring for family or friends at home

By SONORA SLATER — science@theaggie.org

Nearly one in five American adults are unpaid caregivers for a family or friend with health or functional needs, according to a 2020 report by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and the National Alliance for Caregiving. Often, this can be very difficult and time-consuming — which is why the UC Davis Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing Family Caregiving Institute, in collaboration with AARP, created an educational series made up of videos and articles that seek to give family caregivers the resources they need to take care of their family members or friends at home. 

The idea for the project began with a study done in 2012 by the AARP called the Home Alone Study, according to Heather Young, a professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing and one of the founders of the Family Caregiving Institute at UC Davis. The biggest finding of the study was that more than half of caregivers are now doing “medical nursing tasks.”

“The old way of thinking about caregivers was helping with bathing, maybe cooking a meal,” Young said. “It wasn’t very high tech, and it wasn’t very complicated. But what’s happened in the last decade is that people are getting discharged from hospitals much sicker and much quicker than they used to, and families are being asked to do a lot of things that nurses used to do.”

Tasks like administering injections, facilitating breathing treatments, checking blood sugar and giving medicines are a few examples of the jobs that family caregivers have, and are often unprepared to do.

“What happens is, you’re about to leave the hospital, and you’re taking someone home who is very sick, and someone comes in and says to you, ‘Here’s what you’ve got to do!’” Young said. “They give you a list and a bunch of things really quick, but you don’t have time to process it, to think about it and to be ready to actually do it when you get home.” 

Holly Kirkland-Kyhn, the director of wound care in the patient care services department of the UC Davis Medical Center, described the unpredictability of caregiving. 

“We do a great job when people are in the hospital, but when they go home […] there’s a huge area we need to work on, and they’re calling that transition of care,” Kirkland-Kyhn said. “We try to teach them how to do it here, but oftentimes something happens that you don’t expect.” 

After recognizing the gap in resources, Young said that the Family Caregiving Institute, along with AARP, the Family Caregiving Alliance and the United Hospital Fund, created a formal group called the Home Alone Alliance.

As a group, they then decided that the way they wanted to provide caregiving education was through video. 

“We looked at all the videos that are out there, and realized that they’re not teaching a family caregiver how to do it — they’re teaching a nurse how to do it,” Young said. “So we didn’t find resources for family caregivers to do these complicated nursing things. We’ve got about 42 videos now.”

Kirkland-Kyhn, who participated in making the educational series, shared what sort of content the videos focused on.

“It’s actually kind of basic things [like] how to get yourself from your wheelchair into your car,” Kirkland-Kyhn said. “It’s one of those things that you don’t really think about until you’re at home trying to figure it out.”

According to the AARP website, where the videos are published, there are video series on special diets, operating medical equipment, wound care, mobility, medications and more.  

“They’re based on what caregivers have told us are the most pressing issues for them,” Young said. 

From there, the project expanded into a partnership with the American Journal of Nursing through an article series directed at teaching nurses how to use the videos to teach people.

“We package the videos with an article that goes with them that tells [nurses] how to use the videos, and the evidence that goes with them,” Young said. “The videos are for consumers, the articles are for nurses, and then we also have resource guides for consumers.”

Young went on to talk about the Family Caregiving Institute’s partnership with AARP, and how it has helped make the video series more accessible.

“Our school of nursing has collaborated with the public policy institute for many years,” Young said. “We really like that partnership because we’re an academic partner and we have clinical expertise, and they’re a public-facing consumer organization. […] We can make research come to life together.”

She also emphasized another goal of the video series: recognizing the diversity present in caregivers.

“Caregivers [come] from all ages, and different racial/ethnic groups… We made a real point in this series to try to portray caregivers who are different kinds of caregivers to really reflect the diversity of who’s out there doing care,” Young said.

She then detailed why she thinks it’s important to devote time to making resources and support available to this group of people, and how being a family caregiver can affect a person’s whole life.

“I think it’s an invisible issue,” Young said. “It’s not nearly as visible to employers. It’s also a huge economic issue — if […] you have to reduce your work hours, or you have to not take a promotion at work because you’ve got these family demands, you won’t end up accruing the same amount of wealth in your lifetime. And then when you get to be old, you’ll have less financial means to support your own aging. So, it’s a lot of sacrifice.” 

Young also explained the generational cycle of care that caregiving can lead into.

“We also know that caregivers experience higher rates of depression, loneliness and health problems than the general population,” Young said. “So, in caring for someone else, you’re creating a person who’s going to need more help as well, unless we support them properly.” 

Written by: Sonora Slater — science@theaggie.org