The study looked at 72,236 gunshot reports from big cities — including Boston.

“A nighttime gunshot likely disrupts the sleep of nearby community residents due to the sheer sound of the shot, which is then followed by a cacophony of sirens from police vehicles and ambulances,” said Rebecca Robbins, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and one author of the study. “The findings from our study shed light on this potentially significant and underexplored social determinant of sleep and population health.”

The report, titled “Estimating Community Disruption from Nighttime Gunshots in 6 U.S. Cities, 2015 to 2021,” explores how many people hear gunshots during the nighttime, how many nighttime shots are heard and the demographics of the most impacted communities.

Of the most populated U.S. city, researchers were only able to access enough gunshot data for Boston; Philadelphia; Washington D.C.; Baltimore; Portland, Oregon; and New York. In total, the team looked at 72,236 gunshot reports from 2015 to 2021.

The work builds on research looking into the “potential for an exponentially broader community impact” of gun violence than the “staggering” number of direct casualties in the U.S., a release from MGH states.

Overall, the study concluded that gunshots were far more prevalent at night — 72% of the shots across the cities occurred during nighttime — and there may be an estimated 12.5 million individual instances of a person hearing a gunshot in just the six cities annually.

As median household income went up, the study concluded, rates of nearby nighttime gunshots went down.

“Nighttime gunshots may be an additional environmental hindrance to sleep, health, and well-being, particularly in economically vulnerable neighborhoods,” the study concludes. “A greater understanding of the ubiquity of nighttime gun violence in underserved communities, presented here, may inspire future research and practical efforts to forge inter-disciplinary care teams to support communities impacted by these events.”

Boston was excluded from the geographic and income analysis of people impacted because the city does not release specific enough gunshot data.

Boston ran in the middle of the cities measured, with about 919 nighttime gunshots a year and between 1.6 million and 10.1 million individual instances of a person being in range to hear a nighttime gunshot. The city also had the highest rate of shots at night, with 80% of gunshots happening during the nighttime over the time period.

The Boston neighborhood most impacted by nighttime gunshots was Roxbury, the study noted, and the least was Charlestown.

The team plans to continue the research and “study sleep disturbances in response to nighttime gunshots as they work to design community-based sleep interventions to support individuals in communities with high incidences,” the release said.

“The traumatic ripple effects from gunshots can extend across families and entire communities,” co-author Chana Sacks, a researcher from Massachusetts General Hospital. “Our work helps to broaden how we think about who is impacted by these events.”

The renowned hospital Mass General Hospital announced Thursday the world’s first successful transplant of a genetically edited pig kidney into a 62-year-old Weymouth man living with end-stage kidney disease.

“Nearly seven decades after the first successful kidney transplant, our clinicians have once again demonstrated our commitment to provide innovative treatments and help ease the burden of disease for our patients and others around the world,” said Anne Klibanski, MD, President and CEO, Mass General Brigham.

On Saturday, a team of transplant surgeons at the teaching hospital completed a four-hour operation transplanting a genetically modified pig kidney into the human patient, identified as Richard “Rick” Slayman, doctors from MGH said at a press conference Thursday morning.

MGH said Slayman is “recovering well” and expected to be discharged soon.

The cutting-edge CRISPR technology was pivotal in this operation.

The pig kidney was provided by eGenesis of Cambridge from a pig donor that was “genetically-edited using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes to improve its compatibility with humans,” the hospital added in a release.

“We are committed to revolutionizing the treatment of organ failure and transforming transplantation to a system that is more equitable for patients, where supply is no longer a barrier to access,” Mike Curtis, eGenesis CEO, said during the press conference.

Cross-species transplantation, Curtis said, is the “most scalable and sustainable approach” to delivering organs to every patient who needs one. The company’s vision is “a world in which no patient dies waiting for an organ,” the CEO said.

The breakthrough is critical to addressing “unequal access for ethnic minority patients,” who face systemic barriers resulting in wide health disparities in kidney transplants, said Winfred Williams, Associate Chief of the MGH Renal Division.

According to a 2023 review published in the National Library of Medicine, the incidence of end-stage renal disease, being put on the transplant waitlist and receiving a living donor transplants were lower for Black patients than White and other.

Slayman is a system manager at the Department of Transportation who has worked throughout his battle with diabetes and kidney failure, said Williams, who said he has gotten to know and treat the patient for over a decade. Slayman has had diabetes and hypertension for 30 years and received a human kidney transplant in 2018, which eventually failed.

“The real hero today is the patient, Mr. Slayman, as the success of this pioneering surgery, once deemed unimaginable, would not have been possible without his courage and willingness to embark on a journey into uncharted medical territory,” said Dr. Joren C. Madsen, director of the MGH Transplant Center.

“As the global medical community celebrates this monumental achievement, Mr. Slayman becomes a beacon of hope for countless individuals suffering from end-stage renal disease and opens a new frontier in organ transplantation,” the doctor added.

The Weymouth man said in a statement he had the “highest level of trust” in MGH.

“When my transplanted kidney began failing in 2023, I again trusted my care team at MGH to meet my goals of not just improving my quality of life but extending it,” Slayman said. “My nephrologist, Dr. Winfred Williams, MD and the Transplant Center team suggested a pig kidney transplant, carefully explaining the pros and cons of this procedure. I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), more than 100,000 people in the U.S. await an organ for transplant and 17 people die each day waiting for an organ, MGH said.

A kidney, the hospital added, is the most common organ needed for transplant, and end-stage kidney disease rates are estimated to increase 29-68 percent in the U.S. by 2030, according to literature published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

“When we saw the first urine output everyone in the operating room burst into applause,” said Tatsuo Kawai, Director of the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance and Slayman’s primary transplant surgeon. “It was truly the most beautiful kidney I have ever seen.”

“It felt like finally found my lane,” said Johnson of the viral videos that earned him some internet fame and eventually led to his arrest. “People always told me I was funny, I should be a comedian. I found something I was good at, but I took the wrong approach.”

Johnson — who the prosecution described as “something of the social media spokesman” for the drug ring — was arrested in June 2021 with ringleader Vincent “Fatz” Caruso, his mother Laurie Caruso and another co-conspirator and pleaded guilty to a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Judge Leo Sorokin sentenced Johnson to seven and half years in prison — less than the 10 years requested by the prosecution — plus three years supervised release and mandatory mental health treatment and drug and alcohol restrictions.

Vincent and Laurie Caruso were sentenced to over 20 years and nine years respectively in June 2022 on drug and firearm charges related to their multi-million dollar fentanyl empire, which distributed millions of laced pills to gangs on the North Shore and in Maine.

Attorneys for both sides acknowledged Johnson’s separation from the family’s drug business. Though he received $500 a week and shelter from the family for activities like minding the house and kids and driving, there is “not evidence he was a participating member in Caruso’s conspiracy,” defense attorney Kevin Barron said.

Johnson’s arrest stemmed from videos showing him with numerous firearms. Because of prior felony convictions — relating to a firearm offense, threats and misconduct during his incarceration — the social media content creator was not legally allowed to be in possession of guns.

The prosecution showed several of Johnson’s viral videos during the hearing — from exuberant cartwheeling and belting Jennifer Lopez’s “Waiting for Tonight” to tossing high-capacity firearms and talking about “war.”

“The videos are funny, except when they’re not,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip Mallard, arguing the content “glamorized” violence and undermined the perception of justice and accountability in the neighborhood.

The penalty for his offense was vastly increased by his criminal history and an “obliterated” serial number on one of the firearms — details the defense said were mitigated by circumstances including diagnosed PTSD and the fact that the scratched serial number was still legible.

During a personal statement to the court, Johnson said he was sorry to his family, especially his mother, for “embarrassing” them and for “wasting the court’s time with (his) immaturity.

The judge reduced Johnson’s sentence from the “high” guidelines — though still ruled above the defense’s requested five years — and encouraged Johnson to make “better choices.”

“You have some talent it appears,” Judge Leo Sorokin said. “You should focus on fostering that talent.”