How to stop domestic and family violence under lockdown

by Amanda Gearing, The Conversation

Credit: Shutterstock

"I'm trying to work out what to do before I end up in a body bag but that seems unavoidable right now."

This was one of the first replies this month to my research questionnaire on domestic violence. The participant is a young lawyer in regional Australia who has escaped a coercively controlling relationship, during which she received several murder threats and survived two murder attempts.

In the next six months, as coronavirus lock-down regulations bite, she is more terrified of her ex than of COVID-19. This is because she is required to hand over their child weekly to him in order to comply with Family Court orders.

There is no longitudinal research on what happens when families are required by government regulation to stay at home for six months, because it has not happened in living memory.

Victims and their children who live with the perpetrator will be at constant risk.

Victims who have escaped but who have children with the perpetrator, are reporting perpetrators are using COVID-19 as an extra weapon in their arsenal, fearing that the family law system will be hard-pressed to protect them.

Every other person I have surveyed in the past four weeks has reported living in fear of their life—a fear exacerbated enormously under coronavirus isolation regulations. Coercive control generates this fear in victims.

Living with constant threat

Following the publication of my article on Hannah Clarke and her children in The Guardian last month, a dozen women have already contacted me indicating they believe they are at imminent risk of being murdered.

Using the UK Home Office's definition of coercive control - which is a crime in the UK—I have constructed a questionnaire to determine the degree of coercion being exerted on a person. (Coercive control is not a crime in Australia.)

I have also used the eight stages of intimate partner homicide to assess the level of risk of homicide.

The dozen women I have interviewed so far liken their situation to domestic terrorism, in which they are hostages who will spend the next six months trying to protect themselves and their children.

The women report previous threats to kill them by strangulation, shooting or burning. Several have already survived murder attempts by partners or former partners.

In a sinister early finding, one man has disclosed the method by which he plans to commit the murder, including how he intends to escape culpability.

Where the police come in

The usual timeline for research leading to findings and then to forming the basis for evidence-based policy will be far too slow to prevent domestic violence deaths in the COVID-19 crisis.

The danger levels already assessed are so high that I am asking them to forward a copy of their completed questionnaires directly to the relevant police commissioner, police minister and shadow minister in their state.

Federal government responses to COVID-19 have broken all previous expectations for government intervention in order to save lives.

Further intervention could be implemented now to protect families in isolation. The need for safe housing for domestic violence victims who escape has never been more urgent.

Waiting for the evidence of a spike in intimate partner deaths and the deaths of children—especially now that we could copy UK legislation to criminalise coercive control—could be at the cost of too many lives.

How governments can help

A possible solution is for people who own a second home that is standing empty to make them available via police for emergency safe houses, with subsidised rental.

Early indicators are that one consequence is a "pressure-cooker" effect that is already being observed as a 40% spike in the number of counsellors who are reporting increased demand for help.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison responded on March 29 with a promise of A$150million in the form of support for telephone counselling services who address domestic violence, including to 1800 Respect and Mensline.

Forensic criminologist Jane Monckton-Smith, who analysed 372 cases of intimate partner homicide, found that 100% of the relationships involved coercive control by the murderer of their eventual victim.

In many cases, the first physical violence was the murder itself, as exemplified in the murder of Hannah Clarke and her children Aaliyah, 6, Laianah, 4, and Trey, 3 in Brisbane on February 19 this year.

The offender, Rohan Baxter, had controlled his wife—who she could see, what she could wear and every other aspect of her life—for ten years. But it was only when she finally left that Baxter began being physically violent. Within months he killed her and all of their children, and himself.

Monckton-Smith has also identified an eight-stage pattern in intimate partner homicides. They always begin with coercive control.

This finding could potentially save lives in Australia if they are applied to our policing methods, our child safety departments and our family law system.

The eight stages begin with a pre-relationship history of abuse by the perpetrator. The second stage is a new relationship that becomes serious very quickly. In stage three, the perpetrator dominates the victim using coercive control.

Stage four is the first signal of danger—this is when there is a trigger that threatens the perpetrator's control—for example, the relationship ends or the perpetrator gets into financial difficulty.

The final four stages may occur over months but sometimes they develop rapidly—within days or even hours.

This is why police should be far more focused on the history of relationships and the degree of coercive control within a relationship than with physical violence.

Stage five is an escalation in the intensity or frequency of the partner's control tactics, such as by stalking or threatening suicide.

Stage six begins when the perpetrator's thinking changes and he or she decides either to move on to another relationship or to take revenge by injuring or killing.

Stage seven is a red flag that could be detected via electronic surveillance in a similar way to the methods being used by counter-terrorism police. Potential domestic terrorists could be detected searching online for particular key words or for weapons.

Stage eight is the homicide itself.

Where to from here?

In my preliminary questionnaire with women who have escaped abusive relationships, all of the participants so far have disclosed a variety of murder threats and/or murder attempts.

In several cases, the women stayed in the relationship despite the murder threats in order to protect their children. But it was the murder attempts that finally precipitated them to leave with the children.

All the women were subsequently pursued by the perpetrator via the Family Court and were granted access, thus enabling the perpetrator to maintain contact with their intended victim.

Under the coronavirus regime, leaving violent relationships is likely to become far more difficult and dangerous.

The prime minister has acknowledged that for many families, home is not a safe place and more needs to be done to counter the threat.

The problem for all of the women surveyed so far is that current policing that focuses on an incident-based response primarily to physical assaults misses the main driver of intimate partner homicide.

The quiet revolutions in response to the medical and economic threats of COVID-19 at federal level, indicate a similarly determined and focused response to domestic abuse might yield a solution.

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Explore further

Coronavirus lockdown is a dangerous time for victims of domestic abuse: What you need to know

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Provided by The Conversation 

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Citation: How to stop domestic and family violence under lockdown (2020, April 1) retrieved 1 April 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-04-domestic-family-violence-lockdown.html

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Growing gap in children's socio-emotional skills

by University College London

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

The gap between children with the highest and lowest socio-emotional skills has increased over the past three decades, and the socio-economic status of mothers is a significant contributing factor, according to a new UCL study.


The study, published in the Journal of Public Economics, compares the socio-emotional skills of two cohorts of children born in England 30 years apart, and shows for the first time that inequality in these early skills has increased.

Researchers from UCL Economics analyzed data from 9,545 people born in 1970 from the British Cohort Study (BCS) and 5,572 people born in 2000-2002 from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS). The data was collected at the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies, part of UCL Institute of Education.

Associate Professor Gabriella Conti (UCL Economics, UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and IFS), corresponding author on the study said: "We found that inequality in socio-emotional skills at five years of age was lower among children born in the 1970s than among those born in the 2000s. For example, the difference between children of more and less educated mothers, or of mothers who smoked during pregnancy and those who didn't, was greater among those born in the 2000s compared to those born in the 1970s."

The researchers also show that these socio-emotional skills measured at age five, an earlier age than in most of the existing literature, are significant predictors of unhealthy behaviours later in life, such as smoking or having a higher BMI.

Socio-emotional skills are defined as 'internalising' and 'externalising' skills, the former relating to the child's ability to focus their drive and determination and the latter relating to interpersonal skills. A child with high externalising skills exhibits less restless and hyperactive behaviour, and has less anti-social conduct, while a child with better internalising skills is less solitary, neurotic, and worried.

Professor Conti added: "Our findings highlight the role of inequalities in the early years for the process of individual development and health outcomes across someone's life. For example, we find that children with better externalizing skills are less likely to smoke in adolescence. Showing that these early skills are predictive of different outcomes later provides a key rationale for the role of early intervention in reducing life course inequalities."


The research shows that the gap in the socio-emotional skills of children between the 90th percentile and the 10th percentile has increased substantially in thirty years; the increase is particularly pronounced for boys, for whom the gap has increased by 19% for externalizing skills and by 30% for internalizing skills.

While maternal education and behavior is an important determinant of children socioemotional skills in both cohorts, the benefit of having a mother with higher levels of education and are in employment is significantly larger for both boys and girls in the most recent cohort. The inequality has also increased between children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy and those who didn't.

The researchers suggest that significant societal changes account for the increases inequality. The average age of women having children has increased by approximately three years from 26 to 29 years old, the proportion of women in employment has increased from 42% to 62%, and the proportion of unmarried mothers has increased dramatically, from 5% in the BCS to 36% in the MCS.

Co-author on the study, Professor Orazio Attanasio (Yale University and IFS, formerly UCL Economics) commented: "Different factors explain the rise in inequality of children's socio-emotional skills. For example, mothers are having children at an older age, when they are more engaged in the labor market which we find matters for socio-emotional skills. But mothers are also more likely to be unmarried at birth, which might be associated with a more stressful lifestyle. Changes in these factors explain about half of the cross-cohort increase in inequality when it comes to a child's externalizing skills."

Co-author on the study, Professor Richard Blundell (UCL Economics and IFS), said: "The methodology that we apply in this paper is likely to be relevant in many other settings, for example when measuring trends in inequality in other dimensions (such as satisfaction, mental health or well-being) whose measurement might have changed over time.

"The ultimate goal of such research would be to uncover how much inequalities in early human development contribute to income, wealth and health inequalities later in life. The present paper constitutes a first step towards such an endeavor."


Explore furtherChatty kids do better at school
More information: Orazio Attanasio et al. Inequality in socio-emotional skills: A cross-cohort comparison, Journal of Public Economics (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104171

Journal information: Journal of Public Economics


Provided by University College London

The Great Depression, the New Deal, and how disasters change politics

by Kristen De Groot, University of Pennsylvania

Edna Hershman paints a mural in the 1930s as part of a Works Progress Administration Program. Credit: Sol Horn/Archives of American Art

The coronavirus pandemic has the United States facing a social and economic crisis with businesses shutting down, financial markets tumbling, and millions of Americans losing their jobs.

The downturn has some economists wondering if the U.S. will face another depression, and even the president has compared the $2.2 trillion bailout package to the New Deal.

History professor Brent Cebul's current book project, tentatively titled "Illusions of Progress: Business, Poverty, and Liberalism in the American Century," is a history of how liberals from Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal to the New Democrats of Bill Clinton's administration tried to create a foundation for progressive governance by stimulating economic growth.

Cebul spoke to Penn Today about lessons contemporary politicians can take from the Great Depression and the New Deal and how disasters like the current pandemic can change politics.

How did FDR react to the Great Depression, as compared to how this administration is managing the current crisis so far?

One of the things that's really important to think about the New Deal as compared to the relief package Congress just passed, is that the package is a bailout, it's not a long-running agenda to implement a variety of different policies over time, which is what the New Deal was. The New Deal was many different policy ideas and agendas that unfolded and cohered over the course of a decade.

The depression started in October of 1929, so there were three solid years of worsening economic conditions before voters turned the keys of the White House over to Roosevelt, making the New Deal possible. Something the pandemic is doing is showing how interconnected the world is, and that was actually something Roosevelt featured prominently in his first inaugural, that the depression laid bare how deeply interconnected Americans were. That was one of Roosevelt's strengths; he was the narrator-in-chief. He was able to fit the crisis into a framework for active and collective government.

How was FDR's reaction different than the approach to the crisis by his predecessor, Herbert Hoover?

To a certain degree, Hoover approached the depression in a similar way to how the Trump administration is approaching this crisis, but Hoover was far more sophisticated. Hoover didn't want the government to have to step in and mandate things. He worked with business leaders and voluntary associations, who would then set prices and determine what was needed in a given market through associational and voluntary decision-making rather than through government directive.


Hoover had used those strategies and tactics to great effect in World War I and rebuilding efforts in Europe afterwards when he created really robust voluntary and associational solutions for ensuring the food supply and fighting hunger. He was an exceedingly competent broker of private actors. But when he was trying to get volunteers to stand in for the government during the depression, it couldn't work because the scale of the crisis was far beyond what private actors could carry out.

Was the New Deal a tough sell to lawmakers and the public?

It's important to situate the New Deal at the end point of a variety of labor movements, where people were looking for a more active government in terms of moderating capitalism and securing workers against powerful corporations. There was a hunger for bold experimentation.

Some 5,000 banks failed between 1929 and 1933, and what that meant was that everyone's savings in those banks went poof. The FDIC, which insures our savings accounts, was a product of the New Deal; it had to be invented, and that was one of the first things FDR did. He shut down the national system of banking and when it reopened the federal government began insuring savings in banks and even became a shareholder in many banks to ensure they had enough capital on hand to resume regular operations.

Another stat that gets at the scale of the crisis: Around 1,200 cities and counties went bankrupt during these years. In industrial cities like Cleveland and Philadelphia, the number working-age adults out of work approached 40 to 50% at times. Charitable approaches to poverty and hunger just were devastated. One of the really poignant stories from the era was in Detroit, where they decided that they could no longer run the zoo, so all the edible animals were killed to provide for the hungry. The scale boggles the mind today.

The baseline American standard of living had just been devastated, and so Roosevelt had a strong mandate coming in 1932, when he got nearly 60% of the vote. All this expressed a real appetite for bold policy change and a tolerance for stumbles.

Would such social programs ever be possible in today's political environment?

I do believe we are at a similar point especially given that we are more than a decade removed from the 2008 financial crisis, and we didn't get bold changes then. We got a bailout and Obamacare, which is significant certainly but not the kind of paradigm shifting policies that the New Deal brought.

The good news is where this crisis comes in, which is late in Trump's presidency. The depression started in 1929, and Hoover had a lot of runway ahead of him. There is a real opportunity to have a change of administration. But even if Trump is voted out, there's the question of whether the Democrats will have the interest, stomach, and fortitude to build a real sustained program, which is far different than a bailout or a single policy. Could they really implement a vision, a paradigm shift in Americans' relationship with government? Certainly Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were campaigning on such ideas and they were resonating.

One major challenge facing any sustained agenda today is how short our news and political cycles are and how quickly people sour on agendas. The question would be how to sustain something like this.

In this regard, one of the real strengths of the New Deal was it harnessed the self-interest of members of Congress. Some of the classic programs, like the Civilian Conservation Corps and the Works Progress Administration, were profoundly local programs. While they were crucially important to delivering wages to out-of-work Americans, they were also a robust form of pork barrel spending. If a member needed a bridge or public library built, the New Deal was happy to subsidize that.

One challenge any president will have in the current environment is that the earmark system in Congress, which enabled members to use local pork projects as part of negotiations over broader bill, has been significantly curtailed in recent years. I think that is an overlooked cause of paralysis in Congress. Without these sorts of bargaining chips, members of Congress are forced argue about abstract ideologies and principles rather than material interests.

What lessons can today's politicians take from the Great Depression?

Make no small plans. When you have conservatives readily agreeing to a $2 trillion bailout package, now is not the time for anybody to be negotiating against themselves. There is a window of opportunity here where politicians can make big asks. It's become apparent that service workers deserve to be paid better, that there's something peculiar about tying health insurance to a person's ability to hold down a steady job. We have very live and tragic object lessons right now of just how porous and privatized the American system of social provision is.

It was just proven by the bailout that we can afford these things, and you can look at Vermont and Minnesota which have already said child care providers, firefighters, and nurses, doctors, and others are essential employees and are entitled to state-subsidized child care. We see renewed calls for more universal health care and insurance, for government to not simply offer unemployment insurance but to guarantee that private sector employees aren't laid off in a time of crisis and continue to receive wages from government. Emergencies and emergency measures like these invite Americans to ask why wasn't that the case before? Can it be in the future?


Explore further We are entering a recession: What did we learn from the last one?

Provided by University of Pennsylvania

More protein and good for the planet: 9 reasons we should be eating microalgae

by Martina Doblin, Donna Sutherland and Peter Ralph,

The Conversation

Credit: CSIRO

As the climate warms, the land we use for growing energy-intensive crops such as wheat and corn is becoming less productive. We need to find ways to feed the earth's growing population that isn't so burdensome on the environment.


One potential solution is to cultivate microalgae—microscopic aquatic organisms that are packed with nutrients. Microalgae are single-celled organisms that look like tiny pills and taste a bit like grass.

They are relatively easy to cultivate and have several advantages over animal and plant protein.

1. Less environmental impact

Algae don't require pesticides to sustain their productivity. Algae can also be grown in wastewaters (water that has been used in the home or in some industrial process), taking up nutrients and other dissolved substances into their biomass. This results in fewer contaminants being released into the environment and less pollution in our waterways.

2. It can be grown year-round

High growth and reproduction rates mean microalgae can double their biomass in as little as one to three days, depending on the time of the year. While their growth rate is slower in winter, they are not limited to a growing season, such as plants, or a long maturation period, such as animals.

This means microalgae produce more biomass on a given area of land per year, than animals or plants.

High growth rates also mean frequent harvesting. This makes microalgal cultures more resilient to sudden or extreme weather events, where production losses may be only several days of growth rather than the entire annual crop.

3. It has more protein

Algae produce more protein than plant-based foods, including soybean and pulse legumes. While algae produce 3.5-13 tonnes of protein per hectare per year, soybean and pulse legumes produce 0.5-1.8 tonnes of protein per hectare per year.

The higher growth rate of microalgae and ability to produce their own food from the sun, means microalgal protein yields are more than 100 times greater than animal-based proteins, including beef, eggs and dairy (0.01—0.23 tonnes per hectare per year).

Microalgae tastes a bit like grass. Credit: CSIRO

4. Farms can be built anywhere


Algae production systems don't require arable land. They comprise either open ponds or closed vessels with a light source, known as photobioreactors. The systems can be built almost anywhere, including non-productive land or in the sea.

Open ponds are shallow (between 10 and 50 cm deep), and the algae culture is gently circulated by a paddlewheel. Closed photobioreactors consist of an array of tubes or flat panels, through which algae is circulated. Both types of production systems can be modified to suit the environment.

5. It doesn't require fresh water

Thousands of marine and estuarine microalgal species grow best in seawater rather than freshwater. This would reduce our reliance on fresh water for food production.

6. It's nutritious

Algae have long been recognised for their nutritional properties, forming a vital food source in human diets since as early as 14,000 BC. Over the last few decades, microalgae have been used in vitamin supplements and health food products, including protein bars and powders, green smoothies and Omega-3 capsules.

Microalgae contain proteins, fats, carbohydrates and other nutritional components that have wide potential application in the food industry. For example, algae have a broad array of amino acids that support human growth and development; some are comparable with the levels in egg, soy and wheat protein.

To date, microalgae have successfully been incorporated into a range of edible products to increase their nutritional value, including yogurts, biscuits, bread and pasta. Manufacturers have been able to swap plant for algal-protein by simply introducing it as a powder into production streams.

Apart from adding nutrients, microalgae have other properties that facilitate their incorporation into foods, including emulsifying, foaming, gelation, and absorption of fat and water.

Using microalgae in emulsions allows for a decrease in the percentage of oil, showing promise for their potential use in low-fat products. When added to desserts as colouring agents, the cell structure in microalgae protects pigments from thermal degradation during processing, enabling foods to maintain their vibrancy.
Microalgae is commercially produced at Hutt Lagoon in Western Australia. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

7. It's cruelty-free

Algae can be harvested by sedimentation, flotation or filtration, with not an abattoir or live exporter in sight.

8. It can be used in sustainable products

Microalgae are increasingly being used as sustainable components of other products, including cosmetics, nutraceuticals, industrial enzymes and bioplastics, and as a biofuel to replace fossil fuels in niche markets.

Many microalgae have high levels of palmitic acid. This acid is also the principal component of palm oil—a widely used oil in food production which drives mass deforestation and loss of animal habitat. Replacing palm oil with microalgae would reduce reliance on this unsustainable industry.

9. An opportunity for developing regions

The low-tech, basic infrastructure needed for microalgal farming could provide economic opportunities for developing regions. For example, research has shown a number of African nations have suitable land, labor and climatic conditions to grow microalgae as a source of bioenergy.

Where to now?

Microalgae are being produced commercially in Australia, including at Hutt Lagoon in Western Australia, the world's largest microalgae production plant. There, the alga Dunaliella salina is grown to produce beta-carotene, a food pigment and source of vitamin A.

Elsewhere in Australia, microalgae is grown to produce Spirulina, which is marketed as a health food. Researchers are developing the use of microalgae further, including as a feed supplement for beef cattle.

But the current range of microalgae products grown in Australia is limited. The nation has a suitable climate and the technology; now it needs growers and manufacturers.

Government support is required to enable the agricultural and manufacturing sectors to create algae-based products—current stimulus spending provides such an opportunity. This would not only create new jobs, but enable Australian businesses to become more resilient into the future.


Explore furtherProtein factors increasing yield of a biofuel precursor in microscopic algae
Provided by The Conversation

Beyond the garnish: Will a new type of produce get the microgreen light?

by Jeff Dodge, Colorado State University

Sarah Johnson with a tray of microgreens. 

Credit: Colorado State University

Microgreens. They're leafy green vegetables that are relatively new to the dining room, but a study by a Colorado State University team indicates that they will be welcome company at the table.


"You've probably heard of sprouts and baby greens," said lead researcher and registered dietitian nutritionist Sarah Ardanuy Johnson, an assistant professor and director of the Functional Foods & Human Health Laboratory in CSU's Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition. "These are somewhere in the middle."

Microgreens are young and tender leafy greens of most vegetables, grains, herbs and flowers that are harvested when their first leaves appear. Their rapid maturity of a few weeks and affinity for controlled-environment agriculture (also known as indoor farming) means they use very little water and can be harvested quickly. It makes them a model of sustainability: They can be grown indoors, year-round, in cities and rural communities, in greenhouses, warehouses, vertical farms and even homes.

"I came across microgreens and had never heard of them before," said Johnson, who initially studied environmental science and ecology as an undergraduate before realizing her true academic passion was in nutrition and food science. "The need for our food to be more sustainable is greater than ever. I love the idea that they can be grown in an urban environment, indoors in big cities and smaller towns. We can't just grow everything in the soil outside anymore, and we need to conserve what natural resources we still have."

Nutritional benefits

Johnson described them as leafy greens that pack a punch. They carry fewer food safety concerns than sprouts because they are grown in an environment with less moisture and, unlike sprouts, the roots of microgreens are removed during harvest. Nutritionally, they have been shown to have higher concentrations of phytochemicals and nutrients like beta-carotene (which can be converted to Vitamin A) than mature plants.

"Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of blindness worldwide," Johnson said, explaining that microgreens may become a key food source for preventing nutrient deficiencies and promoting global health and environmental sustainability. "That potential is pretty cool."

But she and her fellow researchers wanted to find out if microgreens are acceptable to consumers, and possible factors in how much consumers like or dislike them. They sought to understand if microgreens' appearance, taste and other considerations make them an appealing addition to people's plates. The answer? Signs point to more and more people exhibiting a microgreen palate.


Results of the study were published in March in the Journal of Food Science. Johnson's team surveyed 99 people about their reactions to six different types of microgreens: arugula, broccoli, bull's blood beet, red cabbage, red garnet amaranth and tendril pea. The microgreens were grown in the CSU Horticulture Center. The participants, who didn't know in advance what they would be trying, answered a variety of questions about things like flavor, aroma, texture and appearance.

Images of the microgreens species evaluated in the consumer acceptability and sensory perception test: arugula (A), broccoli (B), bull’s blood beet (C), red cabbage (D), red garnet amaranth (E), and tendril pea (F). Credit: Colorado State University

"Funfetti'

"Some people call them 'vegetable confetti' or 'funfetti' because they're small, colorful and flavorful," Johnson said, adding that they have historically been used as a garnish or topping in restaurants.

The red-colored ones—beet, cabbage and amaranth—received top marks for appearance, but broccoli, red cabbage, and tendril pea got the highest grades overall. Arugula was ranked lowest, on average, likely due to its somewhat spicy and bitter flavor, although many people did like the taste. Overall, microgreens that rated highly for appearance, flavor and texture also scored lower on factors like astringency, bitterness, heat and sourness. Food neophobia, or the fear of trying new foods, was found to also be an important factor driving consumer acceptability.

"But they were all liked well enough that people said they would consume them and purchase them," Johnson said. "I feel like they should be used more as a vegetable and not just a garnish. That's part of the reason why I wanted to do this study."

Increasing demand

In fact, that was one of her key goals in launching the research: Can the appeal of microgreens lead to more popularity, more demand, more production and more grocery stores carrying them? Such products can be expensive due to markup and packaging.

"But people's mindsets are changing," Johnson said. "People don't want to buy something that's going to just end up in the landfill. They are looking for something that can benefit their health and the environment."

Participants said factors they would consider in buying microgreens included familiarity and knowledge, cost, access/availability and freshness/shelf-life.

For the research project, Johnson teamed up with Steven Newman, a professor and greenhouse crops specialist in CSU's Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture. Johnson found him online in her quest to find a collaborator with expertise in greenhouse crops; Newman has provided leafy greens grown in the Horticulture Center to campus dining halls. Newman's team grew the microgreens used in the study with help from Johnson's team, in a classic example of the type of cross-disciplinary research that's on the rise at CSU.

"This has been a fun project with fruitful outcomes," Newman said. "This is how transdisciplinary research is supposed to work."

Credit: Colorado State University

Other partners

Study co-author Marisa Bunning, a food science professor and Extension food safety specialist, has become a microgreens fan and now grows them at home. Laura Bellows, an associate professor with expertise in public health and health behaviors, helped assess factors contributing to consumer acceptability, such as food neophobia.

Other members of Johnson's team included Hanan Isweiri, Newman's former postdoctoral fellow; first author Kiri Michell, one of Johnson's graduate students; graduate student Michelle Dinges; undergraduate Lauren Grabos; Associate Professors Michelle Foster and Tiffany Weir of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition; Assistant Professors Adam Heuberger and Mark Uchanski, Associate Professor Jessica Prenni, and Professor Henry Thompson of the Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture; and Assistant Professor Sangeeta Rao of the Department of Clinical Sciences.

Experts say that by 2050, there will be more than 10 billion people in the world to feed, making it more important than ever to think about ways to produce and grow nutritious food, as well as diversify the food supply in a sustainable way.

"Small but mighty'

"This was a very exciting, interdisciplinary study, and I am glad I was able to take part and help lead it," Michell said. "I look forward to more research regarding these small but mighty greens and their role in our food supply and on human health."

"I don't know that we could have done the advanced interdisciplinary research without Kiri's hard work and leadership," Johnson said. "But this was truly a team effort."

Michell noted that The Foundry dining hall on the CSU campus has started using microgreens in some of its dishes, and even has a viewing window where students can see them being grown.

The large collaboration aims to advance research on microgreens, and to increase knowledge of microgreens and their integration into the global food system. The group is conducting additional research, such as examining the feasibility, tolerability and potential health impacts of daily microgreen consumption at a higher dose (two cups per day, which is a typical serving size for leafy green vegetables), and comparing the nutritional value of microgreens to that of their more mature counterparts.

Researchers look to extend shelf life of nutritious vegetables

More information: Kiri A. Michell et al. Microgreens: Consumer sensory perception and acceptance of an emerging functional food crop, Journal of Food Science (2020). DOI: 10.1111/1750-3841.15075
Journal information: Journal of Food Scienc

 

International borders continue to hinder cross-border cooperation

by University of Eastern Finland

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Cross-border regions have great potential for cooperation, yet very few border regions are integrated, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows. Conducted by Dr. Francesco Cappellano and Professor Teemu Makkonen at the University of Eastern Finland's Karelian Institute, the study sheds light on the fact that although there is plenty of talk about promoting integration in cross-border regions, the reality is very different. In the border region of Cascadia that connects Seattle in the US with Vancouver in Canada, economic cooperation has been modest despite local decision-makers' high regard of it. The region has a long history of initiatives geared towards supporting cross-border cooperation, but visible results remain few and far between.

Published in Planning Practice & Research, the study was carried out within the Cross-Border Fellowship program funded by the Western Washington University in the US and the University of Victoria in Canada.

Cross-border cooperation has very little concrete evidence to show for

The study analyzed concrete outcomes of cross-border cooperation by using survey and statistical data. In particular, the researchers focused on innovation cooperation, i.e. cooperation in science, research and product development, as measured by the number of co-publications, co-patents and networking. The study shows that in Cascadia, the cross-border network of cooperation is very sparse, which can be seen in the scarcity of concrete collaborative scientific outcomes and patents. According to the researchers, this can be considered surprising.

"The economic profiles of Seattle and Vancouver are very similar, and increasingly close collaboration between the two is encouraged. This should foster cross-border cooperation, but it is still very seldom that partners are sought from across the border," Dr. Cappellano says.

The situation is not unique nor specific to border regions in North America alone. Professor Makkonen has observed similar development also in European border regions.

"Although cross-border cooperation in the European Union and in its adjacent areas is supported by, e.g., the Interreg and ENI programs, the outcomes have remained modest in terms of cooperation in science, research and product development. For instance, patents filed as a result of cross-border cooperation are rare."

Cross-border cooperation in the Öresund region connecting Sweden and Denmark is often regarded as a textbook example of well-functioning innovation cooperation. According to Professor Makkonen, however, this cooperation is not very impressive considering the resources, except in certain specific fields of medicine.

The findings of the study highlight the fact that although there is plenty of talk about promoting integration in cross-border regions, concrete outcomes remain few and far between.

"The current relations between the EU and Russia, and the coronavirus pandemic, put the sustainability of cross-border cooperation to test. How to maintain cooperation even at current levels is a cause of concern," Professor Makkonen says.Russia to shut border with China over coronavirus

More information: Francesco Cappellano et al. The Proximity Puzzle in Cross-Border Regions, Planning Practice & Research (2020). DOI: 10.1080/02697459.2020.1743921

Provided by University of Eastern Finland 

Is 2 meters enough for social distancing?

MIT researcher says droplets carrying coronavirus can travel up to 8 meters

by Jordan Culver, Usa Today

Multiphase Turbulent Gas Cloud From a Human Sneeze. Credit: JAMA (2020). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.4756

The novel coronavirus has prompted social distancing measures around the world. One researcher believes wha\]t's being done isn't enough.


Lydia Bourouiba, an associate professor at MIT, has researched the dynamics of exhalations (coughs and sneezes, for instance) for years at The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory and found exhalations cause gaseous clouds that can travel up to 27 feet (8.2 meters).

Her research could have implications for the global COVID-19 pandemic, though measures called for by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization call for six and three feet (0.9 m and 1.8 m) of space, respectively.

"There's an urgency in revising the guidelines currently being given by the WHO and the CDC on the needs for protective equipment, particularly for the frontline health care workers," Bourouiba told U.S. TODAY.

Bourouiba's research calls for better measures to protect health care workers and, potentially, more distance from infected people who are coughing or sneezing. She said current guidelines are based on "large droplets" as the method of transmission for the virus and the idea that those large droplets can only go a certain distance.

In a Journal of the American Medical Association article published last week, Bourouiba said peak exhalation speeds can reach 33 to 100 feet per second (36 km/h and 110 km/h) and "currently used surgical and N95 masks are not tested for these potential characteristics of respiratory emissions."

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Gas Clouds Demonstrate Their Ability to Travel Great Distances. 
Credit: JAMA (2020). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.4756

The idea that droplets "hit a virtual wall and stop there and after that we are safe," is not based on evidence found in her research, Bourouiba said, and also not based on "evidence that we have about COVID transmission."

Bourouiba argued that a "gaseous cloud" that can carry droplets of all sizes is emitted when a person coughs, sneezes or otherwise exhales. The cloud is only partially mitigated by sneezing or coughing into your elbow, she added.

"In terms of the fluid regime—how the exhalations are emitted—the key point that we have shown is that there's a gaseous cloud that carries droplets of all sorts of sizes, not 'large' versus 'small' or 'droplets' versus 'aerosols,'" she said.


How far can coronavirus germs travel 'before they're no longer a threat'?

Dr. Paul Pottinger, an infectious disease professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said questions remain about the distances at which the virus is effective.

"For me, the question is not how far the germs can travel, but how far can they travel before they're no longer a threat. The smaller the germ particles, the lower the risk that they might infect somebody who would breathe them in or get them stuck in their nose or their mouth," Pottinger told U.S. TODAY.

"The biggest threat—we think—with the coronavirus is actually the larger droplets. Droplets of saliva, snot, spit. Droplets that almost look like rain, if you will, when someone sneezes. Those droplets are large enough that gravity still acts on them. Usually, within about six feet of leaving somebody's body, those larger, more infectious droplets will drop to the ground. That's where the six-foot rule comes from."

WHO referred to a recent scientific brief on the methods of transmission, which recommended "droplet and contact precautions for those people caring for COVID-19 patients." The CDC did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

"WHO carefully monitors emerging evidence about this critical topic and will update this scientific brief as more information becomes available," WHO said in a statement. "WHO welcomes modeling studies, which are helpful for planning purposes. WHO teams work with several modeling groups to inform our work."

If the coronavirus were effective at ranges of up to 27 feet (8.2 meters), as Bourouiba contends in her research, Pottinger said he believes more people would be sick.

"It takes a certain number of viral particles, we call them 'virions,' or individual viruses, it takes a certain number of individual viruses to actually get a foothold inside the body and cause that infection to get going," he said.

"Now, we don't know exactly what that number is, but it's probably more than a single virus. If you think about it, if this really traveled very efficiently by air, we wouldn't be having this conversation. Everybody would know it's true because everybody would be infected. If it was a 27-foot radius that was a high risk to somebody, this would be a totally different conversation. It's not."

Bourouiba said she wants to see recommendations made based on current science not "policies based on supply, for example, because we don't have enough PPE (personal protective equipment)." It's well-known PPE is in short supply nationwide and health care workers have been desperately trying to find effective ways to deal with shortages.

"Although there remains a lot of questions to be addressed about how much virus is at a given distance or not, we have no answer one way or another at this time," she said. "Therefore, the precautionary principle should drive the policies to state that we should have high-grade respirators used for health care workers."

"Once that's decided, that's the thrust that's needed to now mobilize most effectively the kind of tremendous high production level that is possible to reach in a great country like the United States. This thrust is not happening."


Explore furtherCoronavirus: Why we should stay 1.5 meters apart from each other

More information: Lydia Bourouiba. Turbulent Gas Clouds and Respiratory Pathogen Emissions, JAMA (2020). DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.4756

Journal information: Journal of the American Medical Association


(c)2020 USA Today
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Art Chat with Gail Potocki
Art Chat, Interview


Influenced by the elegance of Anthony Van Dyck and the mysterious melancholy of the late 19th century Belgian and French Symbolists, Gail Potocki evokes a true hybrid of nostalgia and innovation. As one of the artists participating in the 'Femme Fatale' show opening February 25th, we had a chat with this unique artist. Here Gail talks about the inspiration behind her painting for the show and why being a 'late bloomer' has its advantages.

‘Encouragement for a Heart Growing Fonder’ is a beautiful contemporary painting rendered in the vein of the 19th century Symbolist masters. Tell us a little bit about your inspiration behind this work.

I depicted the “Femme Fatale” as her most villainous self; a seductress who finds satisfaction once her evil or immoral acts result in the destruction of the men who fall under her spell. She proudly displays the trophy skull of her latest conquest adding the “xoxo” on it as her final death kiss farewell.


You’ve described yourself as a ‘late bloomer’ when it came to pursuing a career as an artist. Were you painting solely for yourself up until then? What was the defining moment that encouraged you to pursue art more seriously?

Well, when I say 'late bloomer' I really mean it---I painted my first painting when I was just shy of (I'm not sure I sure say it) 40 years old! Prior to that time, my life was on a completely different path that did not include making art or even a creative career. I experienced a set of personal tragedies at that time, including the death of my mother to whom I was very close. Those type of life experiences teach valuable lessons and I really learned how precious time is and that I needed to spend as much of mine doing what I feel passionate about. That is when I decided to seriously put my creative energy into making paintings.

I often wish I had started painting at a younger age, particularly because I have chosen realism as my language and it takes forever to really master it, but I have so much more to say now about life and the world as I see it than I had back then.

Bees (as well as flies) are a reoccurring theme within the majority of your artwork. What is the symbolism behind these insects in your paintings?

Insects acutely represent life and death. Actually, though we don't usually think of them this way, they are to a great extent what keeps all life, including our own, thriving on the planet. I think of bees as primarily a life force---as animated symbols of the sun, they renew the planet through pollination. I use them in my paintings to symbolize this as well as emotional ideas of renewal and hope.

Flies, although they occupy a necessary place in the scheme of life, I associate with the darker aspects of death, decay and disease---again both literally and emotionally.


If you could hang only one artwork from art history in your home or studio, what would it be and why?

That is such a difficult question because I love so many! I guess I would probably have to pick one of the paintings by the 19th century Belgian artist Fernand Khnopff because his work inspired me to become an artist. I think it would be “Caresses of the Sphinx”---the sense of quiet mystery with a touch of the surreal in this work is mesmerizing.

Tell us something about yourself we wouldn’t necessarily know.

Ohhh....I am sure I could pull something really weird out of my closet, but I will just give you this one instead: I use to have a pet duck named Skippy.

If I were to spend the day with Gail what could I expect?

Let's see, if I wasn't working in my studio, it would either be digging in the garden or picking blueberries by my studio in Michigan, thrift or antique store shopping in Chicago, visiting a friend, playing with the dog and cats, looking at art books or going to an art museum, eating good food, then eating more good food.....

To view more info about the upcoming 'Femme Fatale' show, visit our show info page. To receive an advance online preview, email stephanie@platinumcheese.com.
Art, Art Chat, Contemporary Art, Femme Fatale, Gail Potocki, Interview, Paintings

'How will we eat'? India's coronavirus lockdown threatens millions with severe hardship

by Craig Jeffrey, Febe De Geest and Jane Dyson, The Conversation

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day lockdown for India's 1.3 billion people. With just four hours' notice, the government instructed everyone to remain in their homes, banned public events, closed schools and colleges and shut commercial and industrial outlets across the country.

The World Health Organisation has praised Modi's handling of the COVID-19 crisis. The lockdown may also be crucial in preventing the spread of the virus.

But the recent move to prevent community transmission is having an enormous impact on those most in need in India—the hundreds of millions who live in poverty.

Food aid from government 'feels like a joke'

Over 90% of India's 500 million non-agricultural workers are employed in the informal economy, for example, as construction workers, food vendors, rickshaw drivers or in sales. After the lockdown was announced, many people found their industries or operations had closed, or new rules about travel and social distancing prevented them from working.

One such individual, Anand, belongs to an adivasi, or tribal, migrant community living in a slum colony in the outskirts of Nagpur, a city in Maharashtra, central India. We met Anand (all names in the story are pseudonyms) in the context of research we have been undertaking on social transformation in contemporary India.

Since the start of the lockdown, Anand has not been allowed to work in his usual job, cutting trees. Like most others in the informal economy, he relies on his daily wages and has no employment rights, paid leave, insurance or savings.

With no regular access to clean water or even soap, Anand is concerned about COVID-19. He his even more worried about hunger. "I'm so afraid. How long will this last for? If we can't go to work, how will we get money? And if we don't have money, how will we eat?"

Last week, the federal government announced direct cash transfers to poorer households, mainly through existing government schemes, and provided the elderly, widows and disabled people pension payments for three months in advance.

Two days later, Modi established a Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES fund) to solicit donations from companies and individuals to help those in need.

Several state governments, including Maharashtra, are engaged in similar measures, offering cash transfers and free food to the poor.

But the amounts of money and food provided through government initiatives are insufficient and sometimes delivered slowly. Many migrants are also not formally registered to receive support through existing schemes. Instead, they have to rely on NGOs or find some way to "make do" themselves.

Anand has been relying in recent days on a local NGO, which delivers a small bag of food to feed his family of six. Commenting on the tiny parcels that arrive, he said: "It feels like a joke."

Rural communities worries about returning migrants

There are millions in similar situations across India. Yogesh is a rickshaw driver living on the outskirts of Meerut, a city in Uttar Pradesh, not far from New Delhi. He told us that when his work dries up, "even my shit stops."

The Uttar Pradesh government has promised one-off cash transfers to its residents, but these amount to just 1,000 rupees, or roughly A$21.50, which is hardly enough to feed a family for five days.

Anand and Yogesh still had some form of shelter, but since the lockdown a large number of India's enormous migrant worker population—many of whom receive housing through their employer—have become homeless.

In Delhi, night shelters are grossly overcrowded and thousands of people are stranded at bus and train stations. Many have begun walking home, often journeys of hundreds of kilometres, only to be forced to return to the cities.

These struggles are not confined to urban areas. Vandita, who we also know well through our research, lives in a remote village in the Himalayas. As a subsistence farmer, she has some stores of food and even some savings. But the lockdown scares her.

Last year's crop stores are running dangerously low, and the spring harvest in the mountains is still some months away. Social distancing measures restrict effective agricultural work, particularly the cooperative labour groups so essential to survival in these harsh environments and for the social lives of rural women.

Disrupted supply chains is also making it increasingly difficult to find food to buy at the markets.

The sense of fear and uncertainty is already affecting people's mental health. Vandita speaks about growing rates of depression as isolation measures disrupt the collective work and cohesion on which the social and economic life of the village depends.

If migrant labourers return from the cities, Vandita predicts her village will be "in crisis". Like other villagers, she lacks access to decent health care. Reaching the nearest major hospital would be a journey of several days. If there was an outbreak of coronavirus in the village, it would have rapid and tragic consequences.

India has so far avoided the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, though there has been a spike of cases in recent days. The short-term security of people like Anand, Yohesh and Vandita will depend on the capacity of government to expand its distribution of support.

For many of India's poor, time is running out.India's prime minister decrees 21-day lockdown to curb virus

Adherence to quarantine during COVID-19 pandemic

by King's College London

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Information, social influence, the practicalities of isolation and a clear understanding of the benefits of quarantine are key to people adhering to this measure to contain infectious disease outbreaks, according to new research from King's College London.

Entire cities have already gone into quarantine during the current COVID-19 outbreak and more are likely to follow.

However, quarantine will not work if people do not adhere to it. To provide guidance on how to ensure quarantine measures are effective during the current COVID-19 outbreak, researchers from the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response at King's College London analyzed previous research investigating the factors associated with adherence to quarantine during previous disease outbreaks.

Published online in the journal Public Health, the research identified 14 studies that looked at the adherence of different groups to quarantine protocol during a range of disease outbreaks, including Ebola, SARS, swine flu and Mumps. Analysis showed that people vary in their adherence to quarantine and from the eight studies that reported on this, adherence rates of quarantined individuals ranged from 0 to 92.8%.

One of the major factors affecting adherence to quarantine is knowledge about the infection and the quarantine protocol, according to the study. If instructions or language are unclear then people tend to make up their own rules. Social pressure from others to comply with quarantine is also important.

Cultural factors also played a role, according to the researchers, and when caring for others is inherent in a culture this could mean people might break quarantine in order to follow this cultural norm.

"Our study shows that people vary in their adherence to quarantine during infectious disease outbreaks and to improve this public health officials should provide a timely, clear rationale for quarantine and information about protocols and emphasize social norms to encourage this altruistic behavior," says lead author Dr. Rebecca Webster.

"Our research also showed that messaging around the benefit that engaging in quarantine will have on public health could be influential as well as ensuring that sufficient supplies of food, medication and other essentials are provided." Rebecca said.

If people believed that quarantine was beneficial in controlling the outbreak then adherence was better, particularly if it could be observed in a slowing in the spread of the outbreak. In addition, when the disease itself is believed to be more risky, adherence to quarantine was better.

Practical issues were also influential with fear of running out of supplies and loss income both affecting whether people broke quarantine.

"The effectiveness of quarantine depends on how many people do it so it is important to know what makes people more likely to comply. Our research shows that information and knowledge around the quarantine are central to its effectiveness," says contributing author Professor Sir Simon Wessely, IoPPN.

He continued, "In the era of 'fake news' consistent messaging is difficult but leaving the information needs of the public unmet can be dangerous. Public health teams should provide clear, authoritative information where needed, and then check the messages are getting through. This is happening in this country, but needs to be worldwide."

The paper is still undergoing formatting and copy-editing and may be subject to slight changes.

Quarantine can have long-lasting psychological impacts

More information: Rebecca K. Webster et al. How to improve adherence with quarantine: Rapid review of the evidence, Public Health (2020). DOI: 10.1016/j.puhe.2020.03.007

Journal information: Public Health