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SATURDAY Vanguard, FEBRUARY 20, 2021—17<br />
Scientists develop blood test to predict<br />
environmental harms to children<br />
cientists at Columbia University<br />
SMailman School of Public Health have<br />
developed a method <strong>us</strong>ing a DNA biomarker<br />
to easily screen pregnant women for harmful<br />
prenatal environmental contaminants like air<br />
pollution linked to childhood illness and<br />
developmental disorders.<br />
This approach has the potential to prevent<br />
childhood developmental disorders and<br />
chronic illness through the early identification<br />
of children at risk.<br />
While environmental factors — including<br />
air pollutants — have previo<strong>us</strong>ly been<br />
associated with DNA markers, no studies to<br />
date have <strong>us</strong>ed DNA markers to flag<br />
environmental exposures in children. Study<br />
results are published online in the journal<br />
Epigenetics.<br />
There is ample scientific evidence that links<br />
prenatal environmental exposures to poor<br />
outcomes in children, yet so far there is no<br />
early warning system to predict which children accessible biomarker measured in a small<br />
are at highest risk of adverse health amount of blood to distinguish newborns at to other environmental exposures, and could<br />
outcomes.<br />
elevated risk due to prenatal exposure. They<br />
eventually be made into a routine test.<br />
The researchers took a major step toward <strong>us</strong>ed air pollutants as a case study, although The researchers <strong>us</strong>ed machine learning<br />
overcoming this barrier by identifying an they say their approach is easily generalizable analysis of umbilical cord blood collected<br />
through two New York City-based longitudinal<br />
birth cohorts to identify locations on DNA<br />
altered by air pollution. Study participants<br />
had k<strong>now</strong>n levels of exposure to air pollution<br />
measured through personal and ambient air<br />
monitoring during pregnancy, with specific<br />
measures of fine particulate matter, nitrogen<br />
dioxide (NO2), and polycyclic aromatic<br />
hydrocarbons (PAH).<br />
They tested these biomarkers and found that<br />
they could be <strong>us</strong>ed to predict prenatal exposure<br />
to NO2 and PM2.5 (which were monitored<br />
throughout pregnancy), although only with<br />
modest accuracy. PAH (which was only<br />
monitored for a short period during the third<br />
trimester) was less well predicted.<br />
The researchers <strong>now</strong> plan to apply their<br />
biomarker discovery process <strong>us</strong>ing a larger<br />
pool of data collected through the ECHO<br />
consortium, which potentially could lead to<br />
higher levels of predictability. It might also be<br />
possible to link these biomarkers with both<br />
exposures and adverse health outcomes. With<br />
better predictability and lower cost, the<br />
method could become a routine test <strong>us</strong>ed in<br />
hospitals and clinics.<br />
“While further validation is needed, this<br />
approach may help identify newborns at<br />
heightened risk for health problems. With this<br />
information, clinicians could increase<br />
monitoring for high-risk children to see if<br />
problems develop and prescribe interventions,<br />
as needed.”<br />
Polymer optical sensor implant for long-term health monitoring<br />
Researchers have developed an<br />
extremely sensitive miniaturized<br />
optical fibre sensor that could one day be<br />
<strong>us</strong>ed to measure small pressure changes in<br />
the body.<br />
“Our new pressure sensor was designed<br />
for medical applications and overcomes<br />
many of the issues of <strong>us</strong>ing silica-based<br />
fibers,” said research team leader Hwa-Yaw<br />
Tam from The Hong Kong Polytechnic<br />
University.<br />
“It is sensitive enough to measure pressure<br />
inside lungs while breathing, which changes<br />
by j<strong>us</strong>t a few kilopascals.”<br />
The researchers describe their new optical<br />
fibre sensor in The Optical Society (OSA)<br />
journal Optics Letters.<br />
The sensor, which is based on a Fibre Bragg<br />
grating (FBG) inscribed into a fibre made<br />
from a new polymer called Zeonex, was able<br />
to detect pressure changes of j<strong>us</strong>t 2<br />
kilopascals.<br />
“Our FBG sensor could be <strong>us</strong>ed in vario<strong>us</strong><br />
medical applications beca<strong>us</strong>e, in addition to<br />
its biocompatibility, the fibre is chemically<br />
inert and also not sensitive to moisture,” said<br />
Tam.<br />
“Our ultimate objective is to <strong>us</strong>e these types<br />
of sensors to monitor vario<strong>us</strong> parameters —<br />
including pressure, temperature and strain —<br />
inside animals and people.”<br />
Many fibre optic sensors are based on FBGs,<br />
tiny periodic microstructures that can be<br />
inscribed onto a fibre. When pressure rises the<br />
fibre stretches slightly, increasing the grating<br />
period in a way that changes its refractive<br />
index and shifts the light output toward the<br />
red end of the spectrum. Similarly, a decrease<br />
in pressure produces a blue shift.<br />
Making an FBG sensor from a traditional<br />
silica optical fibre is not ideal for medical<br />
applications, especially those involving longterm<br />
<strong>us</strong>e in the body, beca<strong>us</strong>e these fibres<br />
exhibit a relatively high stiffness and can be<br />
brittle.<br />
FBGs embedded in silica fibers also have<br />
limited sensitivity to small pressure changes<br />
beca<strong>us</strong>e the material does not stretch and<br />
contract very easily.<br />
To overcome the hurdles, the researchers<br />
turned to the advanced polymer Zeonex. This<br />
new material is not only chemically inert and<br />
works well in the aqueo<strong>us</strong> environments like<br />
those found in the body, but also exhibits a<br />
higher light shift in response to a pressure<br />
change compared to silica fibres.<br />
To demonstrate the new sensor, the<br />
researchers compared its performance with a<br />
traditional polymer-based sensor<br />
of a similar design.<br />
They found that the Zeonexbased<br />
sensors with the side-hole<br />
design produced a response that<br />
was linear, repeatable and had<br />
negligible lag or errors. The tests<br />
showed that the sensor can be<br />
<strong>us</strong>ed for low pressure<br />
measurement up to 50<br />
kilopascals above or below<br />
atmospheric pressure with a<br />
resolution of 2.0 kilopascals.<br />
The sensitivity of the pressure<br />
measurement is increased by<br />
80 percent compared to a<br />
traditional polymer-based<br />
sensor.<br />
The researchers are <strong>now</strong><br />
working to further reduce the<br />
sensor’s response time, which<br />
is currently few tens of seconds.<br />
They also want to expand the sensor to<br />
measure other physical and chemical<br />
parameters such as pH and to functionalize<br />
the probe so that it can detect the pressure<br />
of a particular gas.<br />
EFCC: Can Bawa challenge Nigeria’s<br />
graft gods?<br />
By Soni Daniel,<br />
Northern Region Editor<br />
•Bawa<br />
With the appointment of a young<br />
ster, Abdulrasheed Bawa, 40, by<br />
President Muhammadu Buhari to<br />
head the country’s anti-graft agency, the Economic<br />
and Financial Crimes Commission,<br />
many have raised both excitement and concern<br />
over the choice. Apart from those criticising<br />
his emergence on the ground that only people<br />
from Bawa’s tribe have headed the organisation<br />
since its inception, others have pointed<br />
out that his choice has flouted the law establishing<br />
the commission, which stipulates that<br />
the chairman should be a <strong>police</strong> officer, not<br />
below the rank of an assistant commissioner<br />
of <strong>police</strong>.<br />
But these issues pale in the face of the superior<br />
fact that Bawa is duly qualified to lead the<br />
EFCC given the fact that he is a trained law<br />
enforcement officer with a law-enforcement<br />
agency. He can also be said to be the right<br />
candidate for the job at the moment given the<br />
thinking in the Presidency that it is high time<br />
the agency was headed by a non-<strong>police</strong> officer<br />
as has been the case since its inception.<br />
Th<strong>us</strong>, Bawa can be rightly presented as one<br />
who has been properly schooled in the art and<br />
science of law enforcement, economic and financial<br />
crimes investigations and prosecution.<br />
Although Bawa, a native of Kebbi State<br />
and a graduate of Economics and International<br />
diplomacy, appears as an innocuo<strong>us</strong> school<br />
boy with a baby face, he comes into the job<br />
with at least 17 years experience, having joined<br />
the EFCC in 2004 at the time he was only 23<br />
years old. From available records, the Kebbi-born<br />
officer, has spent his entire career with<br />
the EFCC and risen to the pinnacle of the establishment<br />
through the instrumentality of<br />
hard work, commitment and dedication to a<br />
single course of detecting and punishing economic<br />
and financial crimes-bank fraud, cybercrimes,<br />
official corruption and fraud cases.<br />
Bawa may be young and inexperienced in<br />
political intrigues that have plagued many<br />
Nigerian leaders and organisations but those<br />
who chose him for the tough job might have<br />
leveraged on his toughness in pursuing and<br />
prosecuting those bent on enriching themselves<br />
through economic and financial crimes and<br />
impoverishing the nation and its people.<br />
But given the ruthlessness of the ‘godfathers’<br />
of graft who define the national political space,<br />
picking and choosing those who should hold<br />
sway in certain places and time, can Bawa withstand<br />
the forces that are already holding Nigeria<br />
on its jugular and selfishly and poignantly<br />
looting its treasury with impunity?<br />
With the EFCC designed to fish out and punish<br />
without fear or favour anyone who dips<br />
their hands into the national treasury and Bawa’s<br />
appointment having to be sanctioned at<br />
the highest political level by some of the kingmakers<br />
who may be facing some unfinished<br />
corruption cases, would he be able to look any<br />
culprit no matter how powerful and influential<br />
in the face and drag them to court without<br />
fearing for his continued stay in office?<br />
Not minding the fanfare that comes with<br />
Bawa’s appointment, the job is as tempting as<br />
it is promotionally huge. He can <strong>us</strong>e the new<br />
post to write his name on the right side of history<br />
and can as well flounder his name and<br />
everything depending on how he goes about<br />
doing the tough job, which has already rubbished<br />
many and sent them to the wrong side<br />
of history while they are still alive.<br />
Although his choice resonates with those who<br />
have been campaigning for more Nigerian<br />
youths to be given prominent positions in government,<br />
the euphoria can easily be disrupted<br />
if Bawa does not deviate significantly from<br />
the malady that has often afflicted some of his<br />
predecessors and created furore over the management<br />
of confiscated assets, selective arrest<br />
and trial of s<strong>us</strong>pects and sometimes ignoring<br />
those who have blood on their hands beca<strong>us</strong>e<br />
of their proximity to the corridors of powers.<br />
The new EFCC boss, if confirmed by the<br />
Senate has an ample opportunity to rewrite<br />
the history of the commission by approaching<br />
the job with unprecedented ruthlessness<br />
and neutrality in dealing with crime s<strong>us</strong>pects<br />
and charging them to court promptly so as to<br />
send the right message to potential criminals<br />
and set a new tone for economic and financial<br />
war in the country. His appointment<br />
should not encourage the <strong>us</strong>ual grandstanding<br />
and flip flop in economic and financial<br />
crime fight, which has encouraged many powerful<br />
and influential elements in the land to<br />
loot with ease and flaunt the illicit wealth with<br />
recklessness. Some even <strong>us</strong>e the proceeds<br />
of crimes to fight back the system and promote<br />
their stooges into high offices in the land,<br />
thereby perpetuating sleaze as a way of life<br />
that pays to indulge in.<br />
That’s why Bawa m<strong>us</strong>t learn fast, act fast<br />
and settle fast to confront the monster that<br />
has eaten deep into our nation’s fabric<br />
and dented the image of Nigeria as a catastrophe<br />
over the years even with the<br />
mantra of ‘fighting corruption’ ringing<br />
boistero<strong>us</strong>ly across the land.<br />
It is either he wins the fight and etches his<br />
name in gold or loses it and burns his fingers<br />
in the cauldron called EFCC, no matter the<br />
good intentions of his godfathers who p<strong>us</strong>hed<br />
him into the job.<br />
The choice to do good to all manner of<br />
people without fear, ill-will or affection<br />
in the discharge of this thankless job,<br />
rests squarely with him!<br />
Welcome on board, Bawa!