Friday, January 31, 2025

 

First-ever ethics checklist for portable MRI brain researchers



University of Minnesota




MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (01/31/2025) — Portable MRI (pMRI) technologies are rapidly transforming the landscape of neuroscience research, allowing neuroscientists to acquire brain data in community settings outside the hospital for the first time. But as neuroscientists increase access to MRI technology and move their research from a lab environment to broad community settings, they face novel ethical, legal, and societal issues (ELSI).

To prepare neuroscientists to address these challenges, an interdisciplinary team of scientists, ethicists, and legal experts, supported by an NIH BRAIN Initiative grant, analyzed the issues. The team released the first-ever checklist tool that offers practical operational guidance for pMRI researchers. 

The “Portable MRI Research ELSI Checklist”, published in the Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, walks pMRI researchers through the entire research lifecycle: creating research protocols, preparing for scanning, conducting scanning, and responding to participant needs after scanning. The tool focuses on ELSI issues and unique challenges such as participant safety, incidental findings, informed consent and data privacy. 

“This is exactly what researchers in the field need — something tangible that they can put into action immediately to improve portable MRI research,” said Damien Fair, director of the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain and MacArthur Fellow.

“Portable MRI researchers are at the cutting edge of science, and they need concrete tools like this Checklist,” said Francis Shen, University of Minnesota professor in the Law School, and lead author of the study. “It will enable more rigorous, inclusive and equitable neuroscience research.”

This research project, funded by a $1.6 million 4-year grant from the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative, is based at the University of Minnesota’s Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences, chaired by Susan Wolf and co-chaired by Francis Shen. 

About the Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences
Founded in 2000, the Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment & the Life Sciences links 22 member centers working across the University of Minnesota on the societal implications of biomedicine and the life sciences. The Consortium publishes groundbreaking work on issues including genetic and genomic research, oversight of nanobiology, cutting-edge neuroscience, and ethical issues raised by advances in bioengineering.
 

Reconstructed garments from Faras on display in Berlin




SWPS University
Presentation of re-created costumes based on wall paintings from the cathedral of Faras 

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Presentation of re-created costumes based on wall paintings from the cathedral of Faras.

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Credit: Photo: Paulina Matusiak, Eddie Wenting




Nubian costumes meticulously recreated of School of Form designers will soon be showcased at Berlin's Bode-Museum. 

Weaving archaeology into costume design

Archaeologists from the University of Warsaw collaborated with designers from the School of Form to recreate five outfits once worn by kings, royal mothers, and a bishop of medieval Nubia—a historical region that encompasses parts of southern Egypt and northern Sudan. Their work was based on wall paintings from the Faras Cathedral, which are now part of the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw and the Sudan National Museum in Khartoum.

Restoring the original colors of the medieval robes was a key aspect of the reconstruction process. The designers used traditional dyeing techniques and natural pigments, drawing on the archaeological research of Dr. Magdalena Woźniak from the University of Warsaw and the expertise of Dr. Katarzyna Schmidt-Przewoźna from the School of Form. The dyed fabrics were then adorned with stencil-printed patterns, hand embroidery, and appliqués.

One of the biggest challenges was translating the silhouettes depicted in the wall paintings into three-dimensional garments. This included incorporating elements not visible in the frescoes but known from Byzantine tradition. The final result was a true team effort, bringing together experts from various fields.

Read more about the costume reconstruction process

Special exhibition in Berlin

The reconstructed costumes were first presented to the public last October during a live event at the Louvre in Paris. Now, they will be displayed at Bode-Museum in Berlin, alongside selected textiles from the collections of the Museum of Byzantine Art and the Museum of Islamic Art.

The exhibition, Dress to Impress: Reconstructions of Medieval Robes from Nubia, runs from February 6 to April 12. A live event featuring models showcasing the garments is planned after the exhibition's closing.

Find exhibition details on the museum's website

Practical information

Dress to Impress. Reconstructions of Medieval Robes from Nubia

Where: Bode-Museum in Berlin

When: February 6–April 12, 2025



 

Ecological Society of America launches new Open Access journal: Earth Stewardship



Ecological Society of America
Earth Stewardship Cover 

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The new Open Access journal Earth Stewardship publishes interdisciplinary scholarship addressing the major socio-environmental challenges of our time.

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Credit: Ecological Society of America/Tone Bjordam





January 30, 2025
For Immediate Release

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) is proud to announce the launch of its newest journal, Earth Stewardship. This Open Access publication is dedicated to fostering a broad, intercultural and participatory foundation for Earth stewardship, integrating applied and theoretical research to address the complex socio-environmental challenges of the Anthropocene.

Earth Stewardship represents a bold step forward for the scientific community,” says ESA Executive Director Catherine O’Riordan. “By bridging diverse knowledge systems — from natural and social sciences to Indigenous and practitioner perspectives — this journal embodies ESA’s commitment to promoting meaningful collaboration and actionable scholarship. We are proud to launch a journal that exemplifies our values and amplifies voices from all corners of the globe.”

The launch of Earth Stewardship builds on ESA’s longstanding leadership in sustainability and conservation initiatives. Rooted in efforts from the 1960s and 1970s, and strengthened by collaborations in the 2010s, the journal provides a transdisciplinary platform for addressing global challenges at multiple scales. It highlights innovative research, biocultural conservation approaches and community-based initiatives, cultivating partnerships across academia, policy-making, Indigenous communities and the arts.

Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald, Earth Stewardship’s first Editor-in-Chief, emphasizes the journal’s unique role: “This new journal’s mission is to promote action-oriented research from a theoretical, conceptual and empirical perspective, while co-generating solution-oriented, socially robust and policy-relevant knowledge. Earth Stewardship invites contributions that inform integrative pathways of sustainable development and transformation aimed at creating an environmentally, socially and ethically just Planet Earth.”

A singular feature of Earth Stewardship is its commitment to multiple forms of expression. The journal requests that authors provide one to three translations of their article abstracts in languages relevant to the research or the region where the study was conducted. In addition to traditional academic articles, the journal also accepts submissions of art and poetry, embracing creative formats to communicate the interconnectedness of humanity and nature.

In that vein, to celebrate the journal’s inauguration, a special virtual collection compiles articles and other content highlighting the “heart model of social change,” a concept beautifully illustrated on the journals’ cover. Key contributions to the virtual collection include an interview with the cover art’s creator, Norwegian visual artist Tone Bjordam, and a perspective article proposing a transformative “heart model” of Earth stewardship that emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration and academic culture change.

Earth Stewardship invites submissions from a diverse range of fields, including natural and social sciences, humanities, arts, conservation and Indigenous knowledge. The journal’s open access format ensures that its groundbreaking content is accessible to all.

By promoting action-oriented, inclusive research, Earth Stewardship seeks to inspire both individual and collective efforts to reshape our relationship with the environment and, ultimately, transform our planet. As Editor-in-Chief Huber-Sannwald explains, “this journal will serve as a global voice for diverse research and perspectives, linking and transforming our understanding of how we think and act.”


Journal contents, as of January 2025:

Editorial
By Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald (journal Editor-in-Chief)

OASIS: On art–science in symbiosis
By Tone Bjordam & Marten Scheffer

A heart model of Earth Stewardship
By Marten Scheffer, John M. Anderies, Tone Bjordam, Johan Bollen, Stephen R. Carpenter, F. Stuart Chapin III, Carl Folke, Francisco Gazitua, Milena Holmgren, Jorge Marcone, Steve Polasky, Elke Weber & Frances Westley

Field notes from a sandbox: Learning wild patience with wild bees
By Eve Bratman

Monitoring of black oak (xánthiip) to center indigenous ecocultural revitalization
By Jessie Thoreson, Kathy McCovey, Colleen Rossier, Frank K. Lake, Reem Hajjar, Chook-Chook Hillman, Arielle Halpern, Bill Tripp & Meg Krawchuk

Ethical principles for ecology and environmental ethics: What ecology can learn about applied ethics from biomedical ethics
By Elizabeth Spike & Jeffrey P. Spike

Transformative Earth stewardship: Principles for shaping a sustainable future for nature and society
By F. Stuart Chapin III

 

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The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world’s largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 8,000 member Society publishes six journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach and education initiatives. The Society’s Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org

Follow ESA on social media:
Twitter/X – @esa_org
Bluesky – @ecologicalsociety.bsky.social
Instagram – @ecologicalsociety
Facebook – @esa.org

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Study reveals high rate of underage tobacco sales 


Nearly half of underage purchase attempts at tobacco retailers in New Jersey resulted in a sale 



Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist





WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – January 30, 2025 – A recent study from researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and Rutgers University shows a high rate of underage tobacco sales despite federal legislation that prohibits the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.  

The study, published today in JAMA Network Open, was conducted at stores across New Jersey from August 2019 to September 2022. In 2017, New Jersey became one of the first states to pass legislation raising the minimum age for purchasing commercial tobacco products from 18 to 21. 

“We randomly sampled tobacco retailers in both high- and low-population density municipalities within a 25-mile radius of New Brunswick,” said Amanda Kong, Ph.D., assistant professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and corresponding author. “We found that businesses sold to underage purchasers 49.5% of the time.” 

Buyers between the ages of 18 and 20 made 2,663 attempts at 70 different retailers to buy items such as cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches. The researchers noted whether an ID was checked during each purchase attempt and whether electronic ID scanning was used. 

Only about 60% of purchase attempts involved an ID check, and about 15% of underage sales were still completed even after an ID check. Electronic ID scanning was implemented in 22.3% of purchase attempts, which resulted in a much lower rate of underage sales (3.2%). 

“Raising New Jersey’s tobacco age of sale to 21 was a significant milestone, but the results of our study suggest that effective implementation of the law continues to be challenging,” said Mary Hrywna, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor at the Rutgers Institute for Nicotine and Tobacco Studies and Rutgers School of Public Health. 

Kong said drug stores had the highest odds of checking IDs, while non-chain convenience stores had the lowest odds compared to chain convenience stores. Purchase attempts for nicotine pouches were less likely to result in an ID check compared to cigarettes. 

“Despite both state and federal legislation that makes it illegal to sell commercial tobacco products to people who are under the age of 21, a large percentage of underage purchase attempts are still resulting in underage sales,” Kong said. 

Future research will focus on factors that contribute to underage sales. 

“We hope to be able to identify modifiable factors that can help inform regulatory efforts, retailer education programs and overall compliance and enforcement to reduce and prevent tobacco use consistently among youth and young adults,” Kong said. 

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute grant R01CA231139. 

 

 

Mortality trends among adults ages 25-44 in the US


JAMA Network Open





About The Study: 

This cross-sectional study found that compared with trends from the early 2000s, early adult (ages 25-44) mortality in the U.S. has risen substantially in 2 stages: 2011 to 2019 and 2020 to 2023. Although mortality rates decreased after the core pandemic years, excess mortality remained higher than expected based on pre-pandemic levels. The largest portion of 2023 excess mortality was driven by drug poisoning, but many other external and natural causes exceeded what prior trends would have projected.


Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, PhD, email ewf@umn.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.57538)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.