It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, April 27, 2020
SMU professors detail how homeless students are doing educationally in Houston ISD
Simmons professors Alexandra Pavlakis and Meredith Richards look at research information with Kessa Roberts, post doctoral fellow. Credit: SMU
A new report by SMU professors Alexandra Pavlakis and Meredith Richards details how homeless students in Houston ISD are faring educationally.
Released by the Houston Education Research Consortium at Rice University, the report makes clear that homeless students are at an elevated risk of a range of adverse educational outcomes, and the findings also highlight the complexity of the relationship between homelessness and student outcomes. Pavlakis and Richards, who are both assistant professors at SMU's Simmons School of Education & Human Development, looked at students who were homeless from 2012-13 to 2016-17, the years immediately preceding Hurricane Harvey.
Some of the key findings include:
Students experiencing homelessness were more likely to drop out of school than their matched, non-homeless peers.
Students who were homeless four and five years tended to have higher attendance than students who were homeless for shorter periods of time.
Unaccompanied youth had substantially lower attendance than accompanied homeless students, and less likely to pass the STAAR exams than accompanied homeless students.
Where students sleep matters. Attendance gaps were large for unsheltered students and students in motels.
Interestingly, homeless students tended to perform better on STAAR exams than their matched peers. This could hint at the potential value of educational supports and resources inherent in McKinney-Vento Act or provided at shelters or drop-in centers for homelessness. However, homeless students were also somewhat less likely to take STAAR tests—particularly in math.
Pavlakis and Richards also make recommendations on what the school district might consider to improve student outcomes. Simmons post doctoral fellow Kessa Roberts, Ph.D. assisted with the research. The Moody Foundation and SMU's University Research Council supported the research. This is a long-term project for the researchers.
“Pets’ world just suddenly turned upside down,” said Stephanie Borns-Weil. “And while individual dogs and cats may vary in their reactions, change in general is very challenging for most animals.” Credit: Ingimage
As the COVID-19 pandemic closes many schools for the rest of the year and confines nonessential workers and the unemployed to staying at home, many of us are going a little stir crazy, not to mention experiencing feelings of anxiety about what the future holds.
Even the youngest elementary school kid can probably understand to some degree why what's happening is happening—and how she feels about the loss of her usual routine.
But dogs and cats aren't equipped to process what has happened or to guess how to adapt.
"Pets' world just suddenly turned upside down," said Stephanie Borns-Weil, V07, head of the behavior service at Cummings Veterinary Medical Center. "And while individual dogs and cats may vary in their reactions, change in general is very challenging for most animals."
Although our pets may enjoy getting to spend more time with us, the dramatic shift in their routines stresses many of them out. As a result, many people who may have dreamed of being home all day with their pets have realized that, in reality, it can be. . . challenging.
Many pets are acting needier than usual, noted Borns-Weil. This may include constantly being underfoot, relentlessly nosing us to pet them, or barking incessantly to go outside.
"A lot of it is because routines are upended, and pets have no idea how to function in the new world order," she explained. "Some of it is due to opportunity—pets have us around all the time, so why not keep begging for their next meal or sitting at the door? And much of it is that pets are looking for our attention to relieve their own stress or anxiety, and they only have one or two ways of asking us for that."
Other pandemic pet problems are behaviors that probably happened at other times, such as barking at passersby.
"Everybody and their brother are out walking their dogs or taking walks all day because that's the only exercise we can get with the gyms closed and our schedules disrupted," said Borns-Weil. "So now you may be seeing more territorial barking. When you used to experience that on the weekend, it wasn't a big deal. But when you're on a teleconference call with an important client, the constant barking becomes a big issue."
Cats in general experience stress differently than dogs, noted Borns-Weil. "Cats can be overwhelmed by having people around when they weren't expecting them, especially young kids, who tend to add more noise and chaos."
Cats can express stress—as do a much smaller number of dogs—through unwelcome changes in bathroom behavior, such as urinating outside the litter box.
And while dogs are more apt to turn toward us when they're feeling stressed, cats are more prone to turn away, Borns-Weil said. "So that's something to look out for—is your cat becoming depressed and hiding all day? If your cat has the opportunity to engage with members of the family, are they avoiding them instead?"
Although none of these pet-behavior problems are insurmountable, "when we're all trapped in the house together 24/7 and have to get things done, any of these situations can put a lot of tension on the human-animal bond," said Borns-Weil.
“Cats can be overwhelmed by having people around when they weren’t expecting them, especially young kids, who tend to add more noise and chaos,” said Stephanie Borns-Weil. Credit: Depositphotos
Fortunately, there are a few strategies you can follow to get back on track.
Be patient with your pet. For all of us, all the rules have changed, said Borns-Weil. "If you feel yourself getting angry with your pet, remember that they're not trying to be naughty. Animals don't know how to be vindictive.
"They don't know our buttons—so if they push them, it's by accident. Our pets are engaging in frustrating behaviors because they don't know what's going on and are trying to communicate an unmet need. What they're saying is, "I need more enrichment' or "I'm worried and I'm trying to get your attention.'"
Create and stick to a routine. The more consistent we can be with a daily routine, the clearer we are about what pets can expect during this time of change. Stick to regular meal and walk times for your pet and schedule in opportunities for social interactions such as play time and cuddling.
And be proactive about avoiding situations that may inadvertently reinforce attention-seeking behavior. For example, Borns-Weil advised, "just before you sit down in your home office, take your dog for a walk and then give him a Kong or another enrichment toy so he is otherwise occupied while you have a Zoom meeting with that important client."
Give dogs and cats some space. Pets need both quiet time and boundaries. "Being around people all day, every day, can be a lot for animals," said Borns-Weil. "To put it in human terms, they may start to feel like they're like they're always on call."
Give dogs and cats places they can escape to for a break. Whether it's a beanbag bed, open crate, or corner of the couch for your dog or a window perch or chair back for your cat, designate their favorite spot as a place where no one is allowed to bother them.
"And when your pet is in that place, don't let anyone pick them up, move them, pet them, or feed them," she said. "This will help your animal build their resilience and ability to cope with unusually high levels of social interaction."
Ensure a child-safe environment. "Parents may be used to keeping an eye on children around pets for limited periods of time," said Borns-Weil. "But with kids around in the house all day, every day, parents need to re-visit if the home is truly a child-safe environment with respect to the pets."
Never leave babies or small children alone with an animal. Make sure there are plenty of elevated surfaces where your cat can quickly get out of reach of a child before she loses her patience. And install a gate if necessary to keep children away from the dog's feeding area and resting place to prevent common dog-bite situations.
Plan for an eventual return to normal. "If your cat is loving having you home all day, she may start to feel some separation distress when we return to real life," Borns-Weil said. Make sure to guard against that by including some time away from pets in your pandemic routine. Go for a drive or walk or otherwise engage in safe activities elsewhere that do not include pets. This will help dogs and cats retain the skills of being able to entertain themselves and enjoy their alone time.
Although the new stay-at-home normal can be tough on us all, Borns-Weil said there may be a silver lining for our pets. "I think we'll come out of this with a much deeper sense of empathy for what our animals go through when we leave them locked in a house alone all day," she said.
"Look at how hard we are all striving to maintain mental stimulation, physical activity, and social connections now that we are stuck at home all day. When we're not doing our jobs from home, we're doing puzzles, watching movies, working out in our basements, and holding online parties with our friends," she said.
"We have gotten a taste of how most pets lived when they were spending all day home alone, every day, during normal times. But they need mental stimulation, social contact, and exercise during the day to be happy, too. And I hope this universal experience will end up being good for our pets going forward."
A wolf howls in the forest. Credit: Steve Felberg / Pixabay
Around the world, people are collectively making noise while social distancing. In Colorado, we're howling like wolves. Joanna Lambert, a professor in the Program of Environmental Studies, studies wolf communication.
She discusses with CU Boulder Today why wolves howl, why Coloradans may be howling each night to connect with each other, and how to most accurately join in this nightly chorus.
A team of scientists led by Heriot-Watt University has identified a potential new tsunami risk in Indonesia by mapping below the seabed of the Makassar Strait.
The team says their findings mean that coastal communities currently without tsunami warning systems or mitigation systems could be at risk.
This includes the proposed site of the new Indonesian capital on the island of Borneo.
The researchers used seismic data to map underneath the seafloor of the Makassar Strait, a narrow seaway between the islands of Borneo and Sulawesi.
They found evidence of 19 ancient submarine landslides. Submarine landslides have triggered tsunami waves before, such as the 2018 event on Sulawesi in Indonesia, although most tsunamis are caused by large earthquakes.
Dr. Rachel Brackenridge, now at University of Aberdeen, said: "We found evidence of submarine landslides happening over 2.5million years.
"They happened every 160,000 years or so and ranged greatly in size.
"The largest of the landslides comprised 600 km3 of sediment, while the smallest we identified were five km3.
"There will be many smaller events that we have yet to identify."
Dr. Brackenridge explained how they identified the ancient landslides.
"Seismic data allows us to image the subsurface. The different characteristics of rocks below the seabed allow us to reconstruct the conditions they were deposited in.
"We can see a layered and orderly seabed, then there are huge bodies of sediment that appear chaotic.
"We can tell from the internal characteristics that these sediments have spilled down a slope in a rapid, turbulent manner. It's like an underwater avalanche."
The researchers say that the strong ocean current that flows through the Makassar Strait could be behind the prehistoric events and any potential submarine landslides.
Dr. Uisdean Nicholson, who led the research at Heriot-Watt University, said: "The Makassar Strait is an important oceanic gateway. It's through there the main branch of the Indonesian Throughflow transports water—over 10 million cubic metres a second—from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean.
"The current acts as a conveyor belt, transporting sediment from the Mahakam Delta and dumping it on the upper continental slope to the south, making the seabed steeper, weaker and more likely to collapse.
"We estimate the largest, tsunamigenic events—those that displace 100 km3—occurred every 500,000 years.
"Indonesia has mitigation and early warning measures in place in different parts of the country, but not the area that would be affected by a tsunami wave generated from these landslides.
"This includes the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda, which have a combined population of over 1.6 million people.
"Such an event could be concentrated and amplified by Balikpapan Bay, the site selected for the new capital city of Indonesia.
"Our next step is to quantify the risk in this area by building various numerical models of landslide events and tsunami generation.
"This could help us predict a threshold size that causes dangerous tsunamis and help inform any mitigation strategies.
"We also plan to visit the coastal areas of Kalimantan to look for physical evidence for historic or prehistoric tsunamis, to test the model outcomes and further improve our understanding of this hazard."
Professor David Tappin of the British Geological Survey and UCL was involved in the study, and is working on the Sulawesi tsunami, which struck the opposite side of the Makassar Strait in September 2018.
Professor Tappin said: "The new study on submarine landslides is important in demonstrating that the tsunami hazard in this region of Indonesia is possibly greater than previously thought, but more research is necessary to confirm this."
Professor Ben Sapiie from Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, said: "This research enriches the Indonesian geological and geophysical communities' knowledge about sedimentation and landslide hazards in the Makassar Strait. The future of earth sciences research is using an integrated, multi-scientific approach with international collaborators."
Dr. Nicholson recently identified ancient submarine landslides near the Falkland Islands in a separate research project.
More information: Rachel E. Brackenridge et al. Indonesian Throughflow as a preconditioning mechanism for submarine landslides in the Makassar Strait, Geological Society, London, Special Publications (2020). DOI: 10.1144/SP500-2019-171
Pandemics and pollution: A conversation with an atmospheric scientist
You may have seen the striking before-and-after photos: cities previously blanketed by a dense fog of air pollution now sporting clear skies, as COVID-19 stay-at-home orders bring auto traffic and industry to a halt.
But the issue of improved air quality is not as simple as the photos may suggest, says Caltech's Paul Wennberg, the R. Stanton Avery Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry and Environmental Science and Engineering. Wennberg, an atmospheric chemist and environmental geochemist, studies the influence of human activity on the global atmosphere.
We talked with Wennberg by Zoom to get his take on what we can learn by observing COVID-19's impact on air pollution, and why we are not seeing the same dramatic effects in the Los Angeles area that have been observed elsewhere in the world.
Can you describe the effects on the environment that have been attributed to the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders?
It really depends on where you are. We have seen substantial drops in air-pollution levels as indicated by nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels, first in China and then in Europe and North America. But there's a lot of nuance in how you interpret those observations because they're very sensitive to things like weather.
For example, Los Angeles had a very rainy period following the start of the stay-at-home orders, and the rain helps clear the air by removing a lot of the soluble pollutants such as aerosols and particles. Linkages between the reduction in emissions and improvements in the air quality are much easier to make in places like India and China than in a place like Los Angeles.
Why is that?
People sometimes don't realize it, but in Los Angeles cars are thought to contribute only a small fraction of the air pollution. Compared to decades past, cars have gotten incredibly clean. We anticipate that the reduction in car traffic reduced the emissions of major pollutants by maybe 10 percent, which is substantial, but pretty small overall. These days, NOx [nitrogen oxide] emissions in Los Angeles come primarily from trucks and other diesel-fueled engines. If you just go out on the highway now, you'll see there are still plenty of trucks.
What about elsewhere in the world?
In other places, the connection between the reduction in traffic associated with COVID-19 and a reduction in air pollution is easier to establish. In Europe, there are far more diesel cars, which emit a lot of NOx. Taking them off of the road has made a much more noticeable impact.
In India, there's been a substantial reduction in electricity demand—a 26 percent drop in just 10 days—so they're turning off coal plants, which also leads to cleaner air. You can contrast that with California, where electricity consumption is down, but not that much. We're down maybe 5 to 10 percent. We're all at home here, but we're still online, using our computers. A lot of the activities that demand electricity just really haven't changed in the way that they would have in a place like India or China, where the manufacturing sector is so dominant.
Will global weather patterns eventually have a homogenizing effect, causing cleaner air everywhere?
To an extent. We anticipate seeing the background levels of ozone in the atmosphere decrease in a more global way, which is a good thing. But a lot of particulate matter doesn't travel far, so the environment's response to this is still going to be pretty localized.
What impact will the changes in air quality have on cloud formation?
Two aspects of this are being tracked. We are interested in quantifying the role of aircraft in producing high-altitude cirrus clouds, which can be found above 16,500 feet and warm the earth. Studies done following 9/11 tried to pin that down using the lack of aircraft in that week following the attack, and these studies suggested that cirrus-cloud creation accounts for perhaps half of the total climate impact of aviation, trapping heat and contributing to global warming.
With the number of flights worldwide decreasing by about two thirds from the end of February to the end of March, we're seeing the 9/11 effect on a global scale. This will be much easier to interpret because it's persisting for a long time, and because it varies by region. For the most part, air travel decreased in China first, and then in Europe, and then in the United States. Presumably the return to aviation will also be heterogeneous, allowing one to try to disentangle the local effects from the effects of the airplanes themselves.
We're also interested in low-altitude clouds, which occur below 6,500 feet. Every cloud droplet has, at its core, a particle that was pre-existing in the atmosphere, so it has been suggested that aerosol pollution has led to changes in cloudiness, and that this has been an important component of climate forcing. Clouds can trap heat, warming the earth. The reduction in aerosol pollution associated with the COVID-19 situation should provide a very, very useful test of those theories which are hard to evaluate in other ways, because effectively both the climate and the pollution story have been co-evolving over 50 years.
What other research opportunities does this represent?
Right before this happened, we had submitted a proposal to the National Science Foundation to study what Los Angeles and the United States would look like, from an air-quality perspective, if we didn't have emitting vehicles anymore. Now we have a better idea based on hard data. As a side project to that proposal, the Resnick Sustainability Institute and the Ronald and Maxine Linde Center for Global Environmental Science commissioned an air-quality station for campus, and it was assembled by one of my staff members, John Crounse [Ph.D. '11], in January and February, just in time to start observing this.
What other tools will be useful for analyzing this?
Right now, we aren't able to get access to a lot of the national science assets that you'd use to track air quality. Normally, you can say, "Let's go take that National Science Foundation airplane and go fly over and have a look and see what's going on." Now, those planes are grounded.
However, we do have a number of remote-sensing instruments, such as the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, OCO-2 and OCO-3. Most of the images that you'll see in the newspaper and on Twitter come from a Dutch instrument called Tropomi, which is a sensor that was launched just a couple of years ago and maps a number of criteria of pollutants, as we call them, from space at pretty high resolution. In addition, there are a couple of other JPL instruments [JPL is managed by Caltech for NASA] that are tracking changes in, for example, carbon monoxide pollution.
Is this going to have a long-term impact, or will air pollution just go back to where it was when the stay-at-home orders lift?
That's actually more of a social than an environmental question. Once you restart the activities that cause air pollution, it'll come roaring back. But there are places that have historically had really bad air pollution and a lot of the population has never really experienced clean air. Suddenly they're experiencing it, and I just can't believe that won't have an effect. People will have seen something different, and I wouldn't be surprised if they will then demand it. We've shown in the U.S. that you can have both good air quality and substantial economic activity. I think people haven't experienced this in a lot of the rest of the world.
What is next?
Springtime weather in Los Angeles is highly variable, making it complicated to interpret the air-quality data we're gathering now. If the stay-at-home orders go on through the summer—and let's hope they don't—we'll have a much better answer to the scientific question of what happens when you reduce car traffic by a factor of two, or three, or four, or whatever we've done.
From a climate-change standpoint, it's as though we've been conducting a centuries-long global experiment by slowly adding more and more carbon dioxide and particulate pollution into the atmosphere. Our knowledge of the impacts of those emissions is challenged by the lack of historical records. But now we've done the reverse—especially for particulate pollution—in a very dramatic and direct way, and at a time when we have better tools to understand it. Seeing how this plays out should be quite a bit more straightforward.Virus lockdown makes big dent in Paris air pollution: report
Illinois Natural History Survey wildlife biologist Tara Hohoff holds a bat during mist netting to collect data on bat populations in central Illinois. Credit: Steve Taylor
Horseshoe bats in China are a natural wildlife reservoir of SARS-like coronaviruses. Some health experts think wildlife markets—specifically in Wuhan, China—led to the spillover of the new coronavirus into human populations. Though not confirmed, the hypothesis has given bats around the world a bad rap, and public fears of exposure to bats are on the rise. Illinois Natural History Survey wildlife biologist Tara Hohoff, the project coordinator of the Illinois Bat Conservation Program, spoke to News Bureau life sciences editor Diana Yates about bat biology and conservation, and the flying mammals' role in human health.
Are bats a danger to humans?
Generally, no, bats do not endanger people. Bats can be carriers of diseases such as coronaviruses and rabies, but these diseases are not a danger to humans unless people come into contact with bat blood or saliva—a rare occurrence in the U.S. Rabies can be contracted from almost any mammal species, but is commonly reported in bats, raccoons, skunks and foxes. Because bat species are able to withstand and survive infection with many viruses, there is a lot of interest in researching how their immune systems respond to these infections.
What are other common misconceptions about bats?
People tend to believe that bats are like rodents, that all bat species are similar, that they commonly carry dangerous diseases and that they seek to interact with humans—for example, by flying into their hair. But bats are not closely related to rodents and they are an incredibly diverse order of animals. They range from very tiny bumblebee bats that live in caves to large flying foxes. Bat species worldwide eat a wide range of food, including fruit, nectar, insects and fish.
Most bats try to stay as far away from humans as possible, but this is made more challenging as we continue to take away their habitat. Many bat species here in the Midwest prefer to roost in the shaggy bark of dead trees, but as there are fewer trees available, the bats may find their only shelter in people's attics, sheds and garages. This puts them in close proximity to humans where unwanted interactions may occur.
What is the relationship between wildlife markets and the emergence of diseases like the new coronavirus?
Wildlife markets commonly have numerous types of animals that have been harvested from the wild kept in very close proximity to one another. These are animals that would not naturally come into contact with one another. Sometimes live and dead animals are stacked on top of one another, making the transfer of blood or saliva commonplace. People who work in these markets or who purchase animals for the exotic animal trade or for culinary uses are at high risk of exposure to a multitude of diseases.
What is a spillover event? What factors influence whether this occurs?
A spillover event occurs when a pathogen is transferred from its host species to a new species, typically through unnatural contact such as occurs in a wildlife market. The historical host species may have evolved some immunity to the pathogen, while the newly affected species will likely have no natural resistance, making it susceptible to an outbreak.
Some factors that influence the potential for spillover in a wildlife market include the level of infection, sanitary conditions, food preparation methods and the pathogen's compatibility with the newly exposed species. Another interesting factor that influences whether an exposure will turn into an outbreak is how deadly the pathogen is. Diseases that quickly kill their hosts have reduced opportunities to infect new individuals, while less deadly diseases can spread to more individuals.
Is there a solution to this problem?
It is important to reiterate that bats do not choose to interact with humans. We put ourselves at risk when we take animals from the wild and bring them into contact with humans—as occurs, for example, in the Netflix documentary series "Tiger King." We also endanger ourselves when we don't think carefully about how we source animal-derived products, when we destroy habitat, when we live in close proximity to wildlife and when we feed and habituate wildlife to humans. We need to respect wildlife for what it should be, which is wild.
How do bat research and conservation aid human health and society?
Bats are an incredible group of organisms for research because they are so diverse. Their evolution of flight, echolocation (in many species) and adaptations for being nocturnal are all fascinating areas for research. Many species of bats are very long-lived considering their size, so scientists are interested in studying how they age. As mentioned earlier, species such as horseshoe bats have unique immune systems that allow them to survive infectious diseases that are detrimental to other species. We have a lot to learn about how that is possible.
Also, many species of bats perform vital ecosystem services that are useful to human health and economics, such as eating insects, pollinating plants by feeding on nectar and dispersing fruit seeds. For example, researchers at Southern Illinois University estimated that insectivore bat species provide about $1 billion globally in suppression of insects that damage corn crops. Here in Illinois, the suppression of agricultural pests is incredibly important, but we also benefit when local bats consume backyard pests like mosquitoes.Spillover: Why germs jump species from animals to people
Eradicating homelessness in America is possible, but it will take "political will," according Vanderbilt University research professor and author Marybeth Shinn.
"The inequality that leads some to live in mansions while others live on the streets is not an inexorable consequence of market forces; it is a consequence of social policies," says Shinn, Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development. "We can choose differently. We can put an end to it."
Despite an abundance of social programs and interventions, large numbers of people continue to live on the streets and in shelters. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, there are more than 550,000 people who are homeless on any given night and far more over the course of a year. These numbers "will likely rise in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak," she says.
Shinn believes we must address key drivers of homelessness: a lack of affordable housing options; wages that have not kept pace with skyrocketing rent; and discriminatory housing practices. In her new book with Abt Associates researcher Jill Khadduri, "In the Midst of Plenty: Homelessness and What to Do About It" (Wiley-Blackwell 2020), she advocates for long-term subsidies that hold housing costs to 30 percent of income.
"Short term subsidies may be a cheaper and quicker solution, but when they run out, families often end up back in the cycle of homelessness," Shinn says. "Longer-term subsidies not only end homelessness but have radiating benefits for other aspects of family well-being."
The authors advocate for a massive expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher program, with deeper targeting to the neediest households; and robust enforcement of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing mandate.
"Some people will need additional supports," Shinn says. "For people with serious mental illnesses, housing first programs that offer voluntary supportive services without requirements for sobriety or participation in treatment work well. But everyone needs housing."
Especially in times of economic uncertainty, funding and policy changes are needed. But there also must be a change of perception around homelessness in order to end it, Shinn believes.
"Homelessness should not be viewed as a permanent trait or condition. Like unemployment, it's a state that people pass through," she says. "Ultimately, we have the wealth and the knowledge to end homelessness; we need to find the political will. Homelessness is a choice—not a choice by people sleeping on the streets, but a choice by the rest of us to look the other way.
There are various reasons COVID-19 is killing black people at six times the rate of white people, including a lack of access to health care, and poor environmental conditions in black communities.
But one largely unexamined contributor to the disparity, according to a panel of UC Berkeley experts, is the trauma and stress caused by police violence in those communities, and the physical toll of that violence.
"There are levels of chronic stress associated with living in an environment that has more police violence, and the threat of that force on its residents," said Denise Herd, a professor at the School of Public Health who recently examined how that stress can lead to disease in her paper "Cycles of Threat: Graham V. Connor, Police Violence and African American Health Inequities," which will be published in an upcoming issue of the Boston University Law Review.
With the world still in the grips of the pandemic, there is no specific research relating COVID-19 cases to police violence, but Herd said the connection between the chronic stress caused by persistent police-related trauma, and diseases like asthma, diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, which has led to COVID-19 mortality, is clear.
"Those mental health issues often go untreated in African American communities and can lead to diseases that make them more compromised to COVID-19," she added.
Another potentially complicating factor is that asking black people, especially black men, to wear masks, as many public health authorities are requiring, may invite unwarranted attention from police, who have falsely profiled black men as criminals.
"It's a corollary to the 'hoodie' argument from a few years ago, where it is not uncommon for racial minorities wearing hoodies to be considered a threat, while others freely wear them without fear of harassment," said Osagie Obasogie, a Berkeley professor of bioethics.
"Everyday racism continues to be a more immediate concern to communities of color than a pandemic, so some people may decline to wear masks," he added.
"Two Americas, two epidemics'
Herd, who is also associate director of Berkeley's Othering and Belonging Institute, pointed to an array of studies showing black people are more likely to face poor treatment from law enforcement that includes being stopped, injured or even killed by police.
One study, conducted from 2001 to 2014, analyzed 683,000 injuries caused by police that prompted treatment in emergency rooms across the country. The data found that black people were nearly five times more likely to experience police-related injuries than white people, and they also experienced a mortality rate from those injuries twice as high as white patients.
Moreover, Herd said the use of so-called Terry stops, or stop-and-frisk policies, that allow police officers to question, search or detain people they suspect are involved in criminal activity, have been used as a way to hyper-police black communities, creating chronic stress that lowers a person's resistance to disease.
Herd referenced data from the New York Civil Liberties Union that showed between 2004 and 2012, four million Terry stops were conducted predominantly on black and Latino pedestrians. In 2011 alone, 90% of pedestrians stopped were either black or Latino, and 20% of the time police used physical force.
Another study found that men who reported a high number of police stops in their lifetimes were also three times more likely to exhibit post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms and high levels of anxiety and stress.
There isn't just one reason for the health problems in these communities, said Herd. Access to green spaces, affordable housing and other economic factors also play a role. But forms of discrimination and unfair treatment by law enforcement are linked with higher rates of disease in black communities, she said.
In her paper, Herd pointed to research showing that in neighborhoods where pedestrians were more likely to be questioned by police, there was a prevalence of high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma and obesity; health outcomes proven to cause severe COVID-19 symptoms in patients infected with the disease.
"We don't have all the data in yet, but it looks like it's two Americas, two epidemics," said Herd. "In the profile that we saw with affluent white people who had the disease first, it was because of international travel, and the cases tended to be within the older population. I don't think that's going to be true for the African American population. We do also see younger African American people dying."
Wearing a face mask while black
While wearing a face mask in public to stop the spread of COVID-19 may seem like common sense for some, for people of color, particularly black men, wearing or not wearing a mask while out can be a double-edged sword.
Erin Kerrison, an assistant professor at Berkeley's social welfare school who studies how law and legal institutions operate as social determinants of health, said that because of the distrust black people have toward law enforcement, they may not wear masks in public to avoid being viewed as criminals.
For example, following the 2012 shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin, a young black teenager walking around his Florida neighborhood, some people said the killing was justified because "he looked shady," Kerrison said.
"What law enforcement views as a public-safety threat is deeply racialized," said Kerrison. "So, it is a common practice for black citizens to limit, if not altogether avoid, any sort of trigger that would lead to an encounter with a police officer."
For the first time, researchers have traced the origins of shark fins from the retail market in Hong Kong back to the location where the sharks were first caught. This will allow them to identify "high-risk" supply chains for illegal trade and better enforce international trade regulations.
Marine Scientist Demian Chapman from Florida International University in Miami, led a team based in the United States and Hong Kong—the Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China—to conduct DNA analysis on shark fins from scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini). One of the most common and valuable species in the trade, these sharks face an increasing risk of overexploitation—and possibly extinction.
Many female sharks go "home" to a specific region to give birth. This makes it possible for researchers to identify where a shark was born from the DNA it inherits from its mother. This DNA is present in dried, processed shark fins. The team compared the DNA from fin trimmings collected from dried seafood shops in Hong Kong to a global database of genetic samples collected by scientists from all over the world and were able to determine where the sharks originally came from.
Testing revealed the majority of fins originated from the Eastern Pacific—the coastal strip extending from Baja California to Northern Peru—where vanishing scalloped hammerhead populations are listed as "Endangered" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The Eastern Pacific also includes famous island chains like Galapagos and Cocos where tourists go to dive with schools of scalloped hammerheads.
For a species like the scalloped hammerhead, where certain populations in different parts of the world are in severe decline, location information is key for implementing trade restrictions and conducting better fisheries management. Scalloped hammerhead in Hawaii. Credit: Deron Verbeck
"The shark fin trade is a global market and international trade regulations are part of the solution to better manage threatened species like the scalloped hammerhead" Chapman said. "DNA detective work like this helps us understand which regions in the world are most heavily fishing this species and can narrow down where conservation interventions are needed most."
In 2013, scalloped hammerhead sharks received protection by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)—an international agreement protecting animals and plants from over-exploitation in international trade. Listed in Appendix II, all trade of these sharks requires permits certifying they were legally caught and traceable through the supply chain.
Shortly afterward, Chapman and the team conducted DNA testing on more than 9,200 shark fin trimmings and found threatened species continue to be found in the Hong Kong retail market. Scalloped hammerheads were the fourth most common out of more than 80 shark species found and the team estimated that around 60% of them came from the Pacific coast of South and Central America.
This study highlights the global nature of the fin trade and emphasizes the need for increased monitoring and better implementation of CITES regulations throughout the world, particularly in the Eastern Pacific. Chapman also points out that the United States plays an important role in intercepting illegal shipments, since many shipments from the Eastern Pacific pass through major U.S. ports before reaching Asia.
The research is supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, The Pew Fellowship Program and the Roe Foundation. The findings were published this week in Animal Conservation.
More information: A. T. Fields et al. DNA Zip‐coding: identifying the source populations supplying the international trade of a critically endangered coastal shark, Animal Conservation (2020). DOI: 10.1111/acv.12585
Researchers offer glimpse into dinosaur ecosystems by Jeffrey Renaud, University of Western Ontario About 75 million years ago, southern Alberta was a lush and warm coastal floodplain rich in plant and animal life, similar to Louisiana’s environment today. Credit: Luke Dickey // Special to Western News
By casting an eye into the daily lives of dinosaurs millions of years in the past, Western researchers may be helping humanity get a glimpse of its future.
Seventy-five-million years ago, North America was divided into western and eastern landmasses by a shallow inland sea. The west was home to an extremely rich diversity of dinosaurs; it has been a mystery as to how so many big animals co-existed in such a small area.
Researchers have proposed that diversity was maintained by dividing up the landscape and food sources. For example, horned dinosaurs (ceratopsians) may have stuck to coastal areas, while duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) preferred more inland habitats.
This idea remained untested, however, as researchers cannot directly observe dinosaur behavior and ecosystems.
To solve this conundrum, a team including Western researchers has now compared the compositions of stable isotopes in fossil teeth from these dinosaurs.
Stable isotopes are naturally occurring varieties of chemical elements (like carbon or oxygen) that do not change into other elements over time. When animals consume food and water, the stable isotopes of the elements that make up those resources are passed to the animal's tissues, including tooth enamel.
The stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of these herbivorous dinosaurs were measured using various methods. The primary approach was laser gas chromatography isotope ratio mass spectrometry conducted at Western's Laboratory for Stable Isotope Science (LSIS) by Anthropology professor Fred Longstaffe, Western research scientist Li Huang and project lead Thomas Cullen of the Field Museum.
"This approach allowed us to analyze very small samples and, because of that, extend the science of isotope ecology back into the time of the dinosaurs," said Longstaffe, Canada Research Chair in Stable Isotope Science. "Normally, my isotope ecology work is focused on Ice Age animals and the reasons for their disappearance or survival. To attempt to reach back much deeper to the time when the dinosaurs lived was both challenging and exciting."
The study, "Large-scale stable isotope characterization of a Late Cretaceous dinosaur-dominated ecosystem," was recently published in the journal Geology.
The researchers compared results for numerous individuals of each dinosaur species to those of other animals in this ancient ecosystem. While multiple ecological patterns are evident in the results, and differences found in some species, the stable carbon and oxygen isotope ranges for large herbivorous dinosaurs were found to strongly overlap, providing direct evidence against the habitat use hypothesis.
"Measuring the ratios of the different isotopes of elements such as carbon or oxygen in tissues like tooth enamel gives us a unique window into the diet and habitat of an animal who has been extinct for millions of years," Cullen said.
"Dinosaurs lived in a weird world: broad-leafed and flowering plants were much less common; it was warm enough in high latitudes to support crocodilians; carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was higher than it is today; and there was little to no ice at the poles.
"It's not like anything we, as humans, have any direct experience with—but it may be the direction we are headed. It's critical that we understand how ecosystems and environments function under those sorts of conditions so we can better prepare ourselves for the future."
The new study is one of the largest ever conducted on a dinosaur ancient ecosystem, involving more than 350 isotopic measurements from 17 different species whose fossils had all accumulated in a single ancient wetland deposit. Even more uniquely, the authors combined this information with measurements from 16 living species that the team previously sampled from a modern coastal wetland in Louisiana.
About 75 million years ago, southern Alberta was a lush and warm coastal floodplain rich in plant and animal life, similar to Louisiana's environment today.
More information: T.M. Cullen et al. Large-scale stable isotope characterization of a Late Cretaceous dinosaur-dominated ecosystem, Geology (2020). DOI: 10.1130/G47399.1 Journal information: Geology
