Smart phones are empowering women worldwide

Mobile-phone access is associated with increased use of contraception, lower gender inequality, and lower maternal and child mortality

MCGILL UNIVERSITY

 

By giving women access to information they otherwise wouldn't have, mobile phones are transforming lives. Putting smart phones in women's hands could be a powerful tool to support sustainable development goals in the developing world, according to researchers from McGill University, University of Oxford and Bocconi University.

The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences covers 209 countries between 1993 and 2017, and shows that access to mobile phones is associated with multiple indicators linked to global social development, such as good health, gender equality, and poverty reduction. The link between mobile phone access and female empowerment is stronger in less- and least-developed countries.

Survey of women in Sub-Saharan Africa

In an effort to better understand how mobile phones empower women, the authors also conducted an individual level analysis on 100,000 women from Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe between 2015 and 2017. Though these sub-Saharan countries show slow fertility decline and infant and maternal mortality rates remain high, the adoption of mobile phones is fast spreading.

Results indicate that, other things being equal, women who own a mobile phone have a 1% higher probability of being involved in decision-making processes about contraception, 2% higher likelihood of using modern contraceptive methods, and a 3% higher likelihood of knowing where to get tested for HIV with respect to women who do not own a phone. These effects are sizeable, as they are comparable to, if not bigger than, the effects of living in an urban area compared to living in a rural area. Similar effects are estimated on higher overall decision-making power within the household.

According to the researchers, improved knowledge and enhanced decision-making power are the likely pathways through which the macro-level results emerge. The analysis of individual data also confirms that the effects are stronger in poorer and more isolated areas.

Digital divides in the developing world

Still, despite the proliferation of mobile networks, the researchers acknowledge that digital divides by gender and socioeconomic strata persist in the developing world. Women are less likely to own mobile phones on their own, use them less often when they have access, and have poorer information and communications technology skills compared to men, creating second-level (skill-related) digital divides on top of first-level (access-related) ones.

"Our results suggest that deploying mobile-phone technology might serve to complement the role of other development processes such as educational expansion and economic growth rather than a replacement for it," says Luca Maria Pesando, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Centre on Population Dynamics at McGill University.

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About the study

"Leveraging mobile phones to attain sustainable development" by Valentina Rotondi, Ridhi Kashyap, Luca Maria Pesando, Simone Spinelli, and Francesco C. Billari is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909326117

About McGill University

Founded in Montreal, Quebec, in 1821, McGill University is Canada's top ranked medical doctoral university. McGill is consistently ranked as one of the top universities, both nationally and internationally. It?is a world-renowned institution of higher learning with research activities spanning two campuses, 11 faculties, 13 professional schools, 300 programs of study and over 40,000 students, including more than 10,200 graduate students. McGill attracts students from over 150 countries around the world, its 12,800 international students making up 31% of the student body. Over half of McGill students claim a first language other than English, including approximately 19% of our students who say French is their mother tongue.

Research determines financial benefit from driving electric vehicles

Over a 15-year life, EVs can save thousands of dollars in fuel costs compared to gasoline vehicles

DOE/NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

 

Motorists can save as much as $14,500 on fuel costs over 15 years by driving an electric vehicle instead of a similar one fueled by gasoline, according to a new analysis conducted by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL).

Previous studies assumed a singular value for the cost to charge an electric vehicle (EV), but this new work provides an unprecedented state-level assessment of the cost of EV charging that considers when, where, and how a vehicle is charged, and considers thousands of electricity retail tariffs and real-world charging equipment and installation costs. The cost of charging is compared against the price of gasoline to estimate total fuel cost savings over a vehicle's lifetime.

"Finding out the purchase price of a vehicle is relatively simple, but the savings related to fuel aren't readily available, especially since electricity cost varies greatly for different locations and charging options," said Matteo Muratori, a senior systems engineer at NREL and co-author of the article, "Levelized Cost of Charging Electric Vehicles in the United States." The research appears in Joule and is led by Brennan Borlaug from NREL and co-authored by Shawn Salisbury and Mindy Gerdes from INL.

The researchers developed a baseline scenario based on current vehicle use and charging behavior to estimate the average levelized cost of charging (LCOC) for electric vehicles.

The cost to charge an EV varies widely. The key factors include differences in the price of electricity, the types of equipment used (slow or fast charging), the cost of installation, and vehicle use (miles driven). The national average cost to charge a battery EV ranges from 8 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 27 cents, with an average of 15 cents. That corresponds to an average lifetime fuel cost savings of $3,000 to $10,500.

In addition to this variation, considering state-by-state differences can push savings to $14,500 (in Washington state) or, in the case of four states (Alabama, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Tennessee), fail to provide any savings when compared to a conventional gasoline vehicle under certain scenarios. The researchers examined vehicles of the same class and size and driven the same number of miles a year.

In calculating costs, the researchers also considered the nature of the charging stations. For a slow charge, a motorist can use a traditional outlet at home without any special equipment. Upgrading to a higher-powered residential charger costs about $1,800, including installation. But charging at home can be done at night when electricity prices are currently at their lowest, which is considered the best-case scenario from a cost perspective.

The average cost of 15 cents per kWh assumes 81% of charging was done at home, 14% at the workplace or public station, and 5% with a DC fast charger (DCFC), in line with current empirical data. Exclusively charging at DCFC stations increases the national LCOC to 18 cents per kWh, while the price falls to 11 cents per kWh for motorists who only charged their EV using a dedicated household outlet. The cost can be further reduced to 8 cents by charging during off-peak periods.

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This research is funded by the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by The Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.

BU study: High deductible health plans are widening racial health gaps

First-of-its-kind study finds that black cancer survivors on these plans are far more likely to struggle to afford health care and medicine than their white counterparts, while black and white cancer survivors on other types of plans are equally unlikely

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

First-of-its-kind study finds that black cancer survivors on these plans are far more likely to struggle to afford health care and medicine than their white counterparts, while black and white cancer survivors on other types of plans are equally unlikely to face these challenges.

The growing Black Lives Matter movement has brought more attention to the myriad structures that reinforce racial inequities, in everything from policing to hiring to maternal mortality. Now, a new Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study points to a previously-unidentified factor widening the racial health gap: high deductible health plans.

Published in JAMA Network Open, the first-of-its-kind study finds that black cancer survivors on high deductible health plans face more cost-related barriers to care than white cancer survivors on the same plan, including needing to skip a medication or delay a refill to save money, and not being able to see a specialist.

For example, 22.8% of black versus 8.0% of white cancer survivors on high deductible plans skipped medication to save money. But among cancer survivors on other kinds of plans, 7.7% of black versus 5.4% of white patients skipped medication.

"As enrollment in high deductible health plans continues to rise, this has really concerning implications for racial equity among cancer survivors," says study lead author Dr. Megan B. Cole, assistant professor of health law, policy & management at BUSPH. High deductible plans now cover nearly a third of all people who have employer-sponsored health insurance, and half of cancer survivors with private insurance.

"Enrollment in HDHPs may compound the many structural inequities that black cancer survivors are already facing, which may further drive disparities in health outcomes for survivors," Cole says. "Policies that limit deductible sizes and extend cost-sharing subsidies to high-risk groups, while limiting the types of services to which a deductible applies, may help to mitigate observed effects.

"But more broadly, we need policies that really tackle the structural inequities and institutional racism that lie at the root of these disparities."

Cole and colleagues used National Health Interview Survey data from 2013 through 2018 on 3,713 adults with a past or current cancer diagnosis, and analyzed the relationships between race, health plan type, and eight common indicators of difficulty accessing care and medicine.

In addition to skipping medication, the researchers found major disparities in other areas:

• Took less medication to save money: 24.6% of black versus 8.6% of white patients on high deductible plans (compared to 8.5% of black and 5.4% of white patients on other types of plans).
• Delayed filling a prescription: 28.1% of black versus 7.7% of white patients on high deductible plans (compared to 16.2% of black and 7.1% of white patients on other types of plans).
• Unable to afford to see a specialist: 14.9% of black versus 6.2% of white patients on high deductible plans (compared to 4.9% of black and 2.9% of white patients on other plans).

Overall, the researchers also found that the percentage of privately-insured cancer survivors on high deductible plans rose from 37% in 2013 to 50% in 2018.

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About the Boston University School of Public Health

Founded in 1976, the Boston University School of Public Health is one of the top five ranked private schools of public health in the world. It offers master's- and doctoral-level education in public health. The faculty in six departments conduct policy-changing public health research around the world, with the mission of improving the health of populations--especially the disadvantaged, underserved, and vulnerable--locally and globally.

Tropical forest loss

New UD study shows that tropical forest loss is increased by large-scale land acquisitions

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

 

IMAGE: UD ASSISTANT PROFESSOR KYLE DAVIS HAS PUBLISHED A NEW STUDY THAT LOOKS AT WHICH TYPES OF LARGE-SCALE LAND INVESTMENTS MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH INCREASES IN TROPICAL DEFORESTATION. DAVIS IS PICTURED... view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE DAVIS

In recent years, there has been a rise in foreign and domestic large-scale land acquisitions--defined as being at least roughly one square mile--in Latin America, Asia, and Africa where investing countries and multinational investors take out long-term contracts to use the land for various enterprises.

In some cases, this leads to the creation of new jobs for local communities, and governments often welcome these investments as a means to promote the transfer of technologies and the inflow of capital. But the investments can also have adverse outcomes for local people, who rely on the acquired areas for food and income but have no legal claim to the land, and the environment-- as the land will likely need to be converted to serve its intended use.

An international group of researchers led by the University of Delaware's Kyle Davis has recently published a study in Nature Geoscience to see which types of large-scale land investments may be associated with increases in tropical deforestation. They found that investment types focusing on establishing new tree plantations -- where an area is cleared of existing trees and planted with a single tree species that is harvested for timber -- as well as plantations for producing palm oil and wood fiber, consistently had higher rates of forest loss than surrounding non-investment areas.

The study's findings show that large-scale land acquisitions can lead to elevated deforestation of tropical forests and highlight the role of local policies in the sustainable management of these ecosystems.

Analyzing land deals, forest cover

Researchers used a georeferenced database of more than 82,000 land deals -- covering 15 countries in Latin American, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia -- with global data on annual forest cover and loss between 2000 and 2018.

They found that since the start of the century, 76% of all large-scale land acquisitions in the Global South -- an emerging term which refers to the regions of Latin America, Asia, Africa and Oceania -- can be attributed to foreign land investment. These land acquisitions covered anywhere from 6% to 59% of a particular country's land area and 2% to 79% of its forests.

The information came from the Global Forest Watch database run by the World Resources Institute as well as other sources such as government ministries, which provides information for thousands of individual investments that show the exact area, boundary and intended use.

"This collection of datasets on individual land investments provided me with information on the exact area, boundary, and intended use of each deal. I then combined these data with satellite information on forest cover and forest loss to understand whether large-scale land investments are associated with increased rates of forest loss," said Davis, assistant professor in the Department of Geography and Spatial Sciences in UD's College of Earth, Ocean and Environment and the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Environmentally damaging, globalized industries

With regards to the environmental damage done by oil palm, wood fiber and tree plantations, Davis said a lot of it has to do with the ways in which those products are grown.

"Investments to establish new oil palm or tree plantations seem to consistently have higher rates of forest loss, and that makes sense because basically, you have to completely clear the land in order to convert it to that intended use," said Davis. "If you want to establish a tree plantation or a palm oil plantation in place of natural vegetation, you've first got to cut down the forest."

For the other investment types, such as logging and mining, however, the results were much more mixed. Logging investments, in fact, served a small, protective role where the rates of forest loss in logging concessions were slightly lower than the rates of forest loss in surrounding, comparable areas. Davis attributed this to the specific requirements for the logging industry where only trees of a certain size or species can often be harvested.

These large-scale land acquisitions are now widespread across the planet, which was caused largely by rising globalization and the world's increasing interconnectedness.

"There's been a rapid increase in land investments in recent decades due to growing global demands for food, fuel, and fiber," said Davis.

He pointed to the global food crisis in 2008 when many import-reliant countries realized they were vulnerable to food or resource shortages. To help offset that vulnerability, they have pursued investments abroad to expand the pool of resources available to them in case another large-scale shock occurs.

Government information

Davis emphasized the importance for governments to provide detailed information on land investments, to ensure that these deals were carried out transparently and to allow researchers to objectively assess their effects.

He also said that by performing this comparison across different countries, it makes it possible to start identifying specific policies that are more effective in protecting forests.

"If you see deals in one country that aren't leading to enhanced forest loss but the same type of investment in another country is accelerating deforestation, then this suggests that there are opportunities to compare the policies in both places and leverage what's working in one country and adapt that to another context," said Davis. "But it also clearly shows that countries will inevitably experience deforestation should they seek to promote certain investments such as palm oil, wood fiber, and tree plantations, which we found were consistently associated with increased forest loss."

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75% of US workers can't work exclusively from home, face greater risks during pandemic

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

 

About three-quarters of U.S. workers, or 108 million people, are in jobs that cannot be done from home during a pandemic, putting these workers at increased risk of exposure to disease. This majority of workers are also at higher risk for other job disruptions such as layoffs, furloughs or hours reductions, a University of Washington study shows.

Such job disruptions can cause stress, anxiety and other mental health outcomes that could persist even as the United States reopens its economic and social life, said author Marissa Baker, an assistant professor in the UW Department of Environmental & Occupational Health Sciences.

These workers also represent some of the lowest paid workers in the U.S. workforce, Baker emphasized.

The remaining 25% of U.S. workers, or 35.6 million people, are in jobs that can be done at home. These jobs are typically in highly-paid occupational sectors such as finance, administration, computer, engineering and technology. Even as the economy begins to reopen, these workers will continue to be better shielded from exposure to the virus, reduced hours, furloughs or joblessness and have an increased ability to care for a child at home -- further growing the disparity between the top quarter of the workforce and the rest, the study found.

"This pandemic has really exacerbated existing vulnerabilities in American society, with workers most affected by the pandemic and stay-at-home orders being significantly lower paid and now also at increased risk for mental health outcomes associated with job insecurity and displacement, in addition to increased risk of exposure to COVID-19 if they keep going to work," said Baker.

"The most privileged workers will have a job that can be done at home, reducing their risk of exposure, and enabling them to continue to work even as office buildings were closed. Unfortunately, only a quarter of the U.S. workforce falls into this category. The fact that these are some of the highest paid workers in the U.S. is no surprise," Baker added.

In the study, published June 18 in the American Journal of Public Health, Baker examined 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics data characterizing the importance of interacting with the public and the importance of using a computer at work to understand which workers could work from home during a pandemic event, and which workers would experience work disruptions due to COVID-19.

Using these two characteristics of work and how important they are in different types of jobs, Baker's analysis determined four main groups of occupations:

• Work that relies on the use of computers but not as much on interaction with the public -- jobs in business and finance, software development, architecture, engineering and the sciences, for instance -- made up 25% of the workforce or 35.6 million workers. These workers had a median income of nearly $63,000.
• Work that relies on both interaction with the public and computer use -- such as positions in management, healthcare, policing and education, most classified as essential during the pandemic -- comprised 36.4% of the workforce or 52.7 million workers. These workers had a median income of roughly $57,000.
• Jobs in which interaction with the public and computer use are not important -- construction, maintenance, production, farming or forestry -- are 20.1% of the workforce or 29 million workers who make a median wage of $40,000.
• Lastly, jobs in which computer work is not important but interacting with the public is -- retail, food and beauty services, protective services and delivery of goods -- were 18.9% of the workforce, or 27.4 million workers, with a median income of $32,000.

"The workers for whom computer use is not important at work but interactions with the public is are some of the lowest paid workers," Baker said. "And during this pandemic, they face compounding risks of exposure to COVID-19, job loss and adverse mental health outcomes associated with job loss."

As the economy reopens, some workers who have been unable to work at home but did continue to go to work during the pandemic -- such as some healthcare workers, security guards or bus drivers -- may now face layoffs as organizations adjust to reduced demand and economic pressures force layoffs, Baker explains. On the upside, workers in construction, manufacturing, production or freight transport who may have been laid off or furloughed during the pandemic will likely be some of the first industries to rebound and hire workers back.

However, the 18.9% of workers in occupations such as retail or food services, many of whom were laid off during the pandemic, may not have a job to go back to, further extending their job displacement and increasing adverse health effects associated with job loss. Those who are able to go back to work face a higher risk of exposure to the novel coronavirus still active in populations across the country.

Given the relationship between job insecurity or job displacement and mental health outcomes including stress, depression or anxiety, there could be a large burden of mental health outcomes among these workers.

"These results underscore the important role that work plays in public health. Workplace policies and practices enacted during a pandemic event or other public health emergency should aim to establish and maintain secure employment and living wages for all workers and consider both physical and mental health outcomes, even after the emergency subsides," Baker said.

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Baker's research was supported by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health under Federal Training Grant T42OH008433.

UK

Striking differences revealed in COVID-19 mortality between NHS trusts

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

A University of Cambridge team led by Professor Mihaela van der Schaar and intensive care consultant Dr Ari Ercole of the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine (CCAIM) is calling for urgent research into the striking differences in COVID-19 deaths they have discovered between the intensive care units of NHS trusts across England.

Using data science techniques, the team revealed that the NHS trust in which a COVID-19 patient ended up in intensive care is as important, in terms of the risk of death, as the strongest patient-specific risk factors such as older age, immunosuppression or chronic heart/kidney disease. In the worst case, COVID-19 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) of a particular NHS trust were over four times as likely to die in a given time period than COVID-19 patients in an average trust's ICU.

From the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic, clinicians and scientists have been deciphering the risk factors that make someone with COVID-19 more likely to die. The uncovering of determinants of risk has allowed doctors to focus resources on the most vulnerable patients and has proved important in planning for the surge in demand for intensive care units created by the pandemic. It has also informed the public of which groups should take greater measures to shield or socially distance themselves. The new study is the first to reveal the extent to which ICU-patient location is a factor.

"COVID-19 has stretched most ICUs well beyond their normal capacity and necessitated them finding additional space, equipment and skilled staff - in an already stretched NHS - to deal with demand for highly specialist life-supporting therapies," says Dr Ercole. "It is possible that some hospitals found this harder either because they didn't have time to react or the necessary resources. It is crucial to understand the reasons for these between-centre differences as we plan our response to similar situations in the future: how and where to build capacity, and how to use what we have most effectively."

The peer-reviewed paper - "Between-centre differences for COVID-19 ICU mortality from early data in England" - is published in Intensive Care Medicine.

The analysis was carried out on anonymised data from the COVID-19 Hospitalisation in England Surveillance System (CHESS) dataset, supplied by Public Health England. The data were anonymised not only in terms of the patients but also in terms of the NHS trusts. The data covered 8 February to 22 May, during which there were 5062 ICU cases in 94 NHS trusts across England, with 1547 patient deaths and 1618 discharges from ICU.

The researchers call for urgent "comparative effectiveness research" to get to the bottom of these marked differences between NHS trusts. Knowledge gained in this direction could inform how ICUs are optimised and improve best practice in dealing with surges in COVID-19 cases in England, and perhaps beyond.

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Study: Air pollution major risk for cardiovascular disease regardless of country income

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- From low-income countries to high-income countries, long-term exposure to fine particulate outdoor air pollution is a major contributor to cardiovascular disease and death, a new Oregon State University study found.

But even small reductions in air pollution levels can result in a reduction of disease risk.

The study shows that countries don't have to immediately eradicate all air pollution to make a difference for people's health, said researcher Perry Hystad, an environmental epidemiologist in OSU's College of Public Health and Human Sciences. Hystad was the lead author on the international study, which also included fellow OSU public health researcher Andrew Larkin. Michael Brauer of the University of British Columbia was the senior author.

"If you reduce the concentration of outdoor air pollution, you're going to see benefits for cardiovascular disease," Hystad said. "Before this study, we were not sure if this was the case. Some studies suggested that at high concentration, as seen in many developing countries, levels would have to be reduced by very large amounts before health benefits would occur."

The massive study, published last week in The Lancet Planetary Health journal, used data from the long-running Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study. For the current paper, researchers analyzed 157,436 adults between 35 and 70 years old in 21 countries from 2003-2018.

Overall, the study found a 5% increase in all cardiovascular events for every 10 microgram-per-cubic-meter increase in concentration of air pollutant particles under 2.5 microns in size (PM2.5). Factoring in the vast range of concentrations in PM2.5 recorded across the globe, that means 14% of all cardiovascular events documented in the study can be attributed to PM2.5 exposure.

"That's a big number," Hystad said. "That's a substantial portion of the cardiovascular disease burden."

The risks in low- and middle-income countries were mostly identical to the risks found in high-income countries.

The PURE study chose multiple countries from low, middle and high-income brackets to address a gap in existing research, as most air pollution studies have centered on people in high-income countries with relatively low concentrations of air pollution.

The current study looked at PM2.5 particles because they are small enough to be breathed deep into the lungs where they can cause chronic inflammation, Hystad said. These particles come from a range of combustion sources, including car engines, fireplaces and coal-fired power plants.

Researchers worked with a set of cardiovascular disease risk factors, including individual variables like smoking status, eating habits and pre-existing cardiovascular disease; and household factors like household wealth and use of dirty fuels for indoor cooking. Previous research in the PURE cohort found links between solid fuel use and kerosene use and cardiovascular disease. They also referenced geographical variables, including whether a person's location was rural or urban and general access to quality health care within each country.

In the data's 15-year period, in which participants were followed for roughly nine years each, 9,152 people had cardiovascular disease events, including 4,083 heart attacks and 4,139 strokes. There were 3,219 deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease.

The strongest association between air pollution exposure and health outcomes was for strokes. Hystad says a growing body of research finds that the risk of stroke is strongly impacted by exposure to PM2.5, especially at high concentrations.

Over the study's time frame, some countries' pollution levels improved, while some got worse, Hystad said. He pointed to the U.S.'s Clean Air Act of 1963 and how different air pollution levels are today compared to where they were in the 1970s.

"What I hope -- and this is actually what is happening -- is that developing countries can take these lessons and apply them and reduce the time it takes to achieve some of these air pollution reduction successes," he said. "Maybe instead of 30 years, you can do it in 10 years."

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The PURE study is led by Salim Yusuf at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in Hamilton, Canada. The PURE-AIR study is led by Hystad and Brauer.

Machine learning has a flaw; it's gullible

Research shows how humans can shield machine learning from manipulation

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

Artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies are poised to supercharge productivity in the knowledge economy, transforming the future of work. But they're far from perfect.

Machine learning (ML) - technology in which algorithms "learn" from existing patterns in data to conduct statistically driven predictions and facilitate decisions - has been found in multiple contexts to reveal bias. An example is Amazon.com coming under fire for a hiring algorithm that revealed gender and racial bias. Such biases often result from slanted training data or skewed algorithms.

And in other business contexts, there's another potential source of bias. It comes when outside individuals stand to benefit from bias predictions, and work to strategically alter the inputs. In other words, they're gaming the ML systems. A couple of the most common contexts are perhaps job applicants and people making a claim against their insurance. ML algorithms are built for these contexts. They can review resumes faster than any recruiter and comb through insurance claims faster than any human processor. But people who submit resumes and insurance claims have a strategic interest in getting positive outcomes - and some of them know how to outthink the algorithm.

Rajshree Agarwal and Evan Starr, researchers at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business worked with Prithwiraj Choudhury at Harvard Business School to set out to answer "Can ML correct for such strategic behavior?"

They found that two critical attributes of humans serve as important complements to machine learning in correcting for these biases. The more obvious one is vintage-specific skills, this ensures that humans have the ability to properly interface with machine learning so they can guide it appropriately. The other important attribute is domain-specific expertise, the knowledge that humans can provide machines on how to correct for the incompleteness of inputs.

Their work is forthcoming in Strategic Management Journal as "Machine Learning and Human Capital Complementarities: Experimental Evidence on Bias Mitigation."

Prior research in so-called "adversarial" ML looked closely at attempts to "trick" ML technologies, and generally concluded that it's extremely challenging to prepare the ML technology to account for every possible input and manipulation. In other words, ML is trickable.

What should firms do about it? Can they limit ML prediction bias? And, is there a role for humans to work with ML to do so? Agarwal, Choudhury and Starr honed their focus on patent examination, a context rife with potential trickery. "Patent examiners face a time-consuming challenge of accurately determining the novelty and nonobviousness of a patent application by sifting through ever-expanding amounts of 'prior art,'" or inventions that have come before, the researchers explain. It's challenging work.

Compounding the challenge: patent applicants are permitted by law to create hyphenated words and assign new meaning to existing words to describe their inventions. It's an opportunity, the researchers explain, for applicants to strategically write their applications in a strategic, ML-targeting way. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is generally wise to this. It has invited in ML technology that "reads" the text of applications, with the goal of spotting the most relevant prior art quicker and leading to more accurate decisions. "Although it is theoretically feasible for ML algorithms to continually learn and correct for ways that patent applicants attempt to manipulate the algorithm, the potential for patent applicants to dynamically update their writing strategies makes it practically impossible to train an ML algorithm to correct for this behavior," the researchers write.

In its study, the team conducted observational and experimental research. They found that patent language changes over time, making it highly challenging for any ML tool to operate perfectly on its own. The ML benefited strongly, they found, from human collaboration.

People with skills and knowledge accumulated through prior learning within a domain complement ML in mitigating bias stemming from applicant manipulation, the researchers found, because domain experts bring relevant outside information to correct for strategically altered inputs. And individuals with vintage-specific skills - skills and knowledge accumulated through prior familiarity of tasks with the technology - are better able to handle the complexities in ML technology interfaces.

They caution that although the provision of expert advice and vintage-specific human capital increases initial productivity, it remains unclear whether constant exposure and learning-by-doing by workers would cause the relative differences between the groups to grow or shrink over time. They encourage further research into the evolution in the productivity of all ML technologies, and their contingencies.

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The research drew the 2019 Best Conference Paper Award from the Strategic Management Society and won the Best Interdisciplinary Paper Award from the Strategic Human Capital Interest Group at Strategic Management Society 2019.

Those with IDD living in group homes more likely to die from COVID-19, study shows

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

 

Syracuse, N.Y. - A new study published recently in ScienceDirect by researchers from Syracuse University and SUNY Upstate Medical University shows that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) living in residential group homes are more likely to be diagnosed with COVID-19 and die from the virus than those without IDD.

According to the researchers, the disparity is likely related to a higher prevalence of comorbid diseases among those with IDD, and/or a higher percentage of people with IDD living in congregate residential settings.

Their study, "COVID-19 Outcomes among People with Intellectual and Developmental Disability Living in Residential Group Homes in New York State," was published in the Disability and Health Journal. Utilizing data from the New York Disability Advocates (NYDA) and the New York State Department of Health COVID-19 Tracker, the study compared COVID-19 outcomes between 20,431 people with IDD who live in residential group homes in the state of New York to the overall outcomes for New York State.

"The rates of COVID-19 diagnosis and death were substantially higher for people with IDD living in residential group homes," said researcher Scott Landes, an associate professor of Sociology at Syracuse University's Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and a research affiliate for the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion. "This may partly be due to many individuals in this population having pre-existing health conditions that are associated with more severe COVID-19 outcomes.

"However, we are concerned that these severe outcomes may be more related to the current design of the IDD service system in the United States, in which states rely heavily on providing care in congregate settings with limited support and resources," Landes said. "This is proving deadly during the current pandemic."

The study was conducted by: Landes; two researchers from SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, N.Y., Dr. Margaret Turk, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, and Dr. Margaret Formica, associate professor of Public Health & Preventative Medicine and associate professor of urology; Katherine McDonald, professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics at Syracuse University; and Dalton Stevens, a sociology PhD candidate at Syracuse University. Here is a more detailed look at their findings:

People with IDD living in residential group homes in New York State were at greater risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes:

* Case rates (a measure of the number of people diagnosed with COVID-19):

o 7,841 per 100,000 for people with IDD.
o 1,910 per 100,000 for New York State.

* Case-fatality (a measure of the proportion of death among those who contract the disease indicating disease severity):

o 15 percent for people with IDD.
o 7.9 percent for New York State.

* Mortality rate (a measure of the rate of death from a disease among a total population indicating burden of deaths due to a specific disease):

o 1,175 per 100,000 for people with IDD.
o 151 per 100,000 for New York State.

The study also examined each of these COVID-19 outcomes across regions of New York State. The differences in cases and mortality rate were confirmed across all regions of the state. However, case-fatality rate was only higher for people with IDD in and around the New York City region.

"The results of this present study reinforce our initial study that showed higher case-fatality rates among people with IDD using the TriNetX COVID-19 Research Network platform," researcher Dr. Margaret Turk said. "People with IDD are a poorly recognized and vulnerable group that does not often receive adequate attention within society in general, and within our healthcare system in particular. Further research is needed to determine the possible effects that access to - or quality of - medical care has on COVID-19 outcomes for this group."

Although U.S. states have been collecting data on COVID-19 outcomes among people with IDD served by the residential group home system, very few have publicly shared any of this data, and those that have shared data have done so sparingly.

Due to the increased severity of COVID-19 outcomes among people with IDD found in this study, the authors conclude that: "In order for us to have a full accounting of COVID-19 on the IDD population, or other vulnerable populations living in congregate settings, it is imperative that the entities that provide services for or monitor any segment of this population begin to openly share all relevant data they have on COVID-19 outcomes among people with IDD."

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Income, race are associated with disparities in access to green spaces

Study of two metro areas finds where parks, trees and other green spaces are located

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Access to green spaces in metro areas--parks, trails, even the tree cover in a neighborhood - is largely associated with income and race, new research indicates.

Researchers combined census-block-group demographic and socio-economic data with satellite imagery to analyze access to green spaces and vegetation in two metropolitan areas: Columbus, Ohio, and Atlanta, Georgia. Their study appears in the August issue of the journal Landscape and Urban Planning.

"Having close and convenient access to green spaces and vegetation within one's neighborhood can bring many ecological and health benefits," said Yujin Park, lead author of the study. Park recently completed her PhD in city and regional planning at The Ohio State University's Knowlton School of Architecture.

"These green resources should be available to anyone, and to any community, and we wanted to see whether this availability was affected by socioeconomic status, income, ethnicity or race."

Income and race may not have the same influence in all cities and counties, results show. Neighborhood location matters to what green space is available, the researchers found.

In the Columbus metropolitan area, a region of around 2 million people and 10 counties, access to green spaces is primarily influenced by income: Wealthier neighborhoods have greater access to parks, trees, greenways and sports fields. In the Atlanta metro area, a region of around 6 million people that covers 29 counties, access is significantly related to race.

Park said the researchers chose Atlanta and Columbus because they are similar in key measures including median incomes, urban core population densities, urban sprawl and car-dependency rates.

The researchers gathered data from both metropolitan areas by census block group from the 2010 U.S. Census and the 2014 Smart Location Database of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. They compared that data with four different geospatial datasets that show green spaces: National Land Cover Database (NLCD), Landsat Satellite imagery, OpenStreetMap and USA Parks from ESRI. Then, they analyzed accessibility to six different types of green spaces: vegetation biomass, tree canopies, parks, greenway trails, golf courses and sports fields, and a broad category of green open spaces that includes gardens, lawns, farms and fallow fields.

In Columbus, parks and greenways spanned the city, even reaching some poor neighborhoods. In Atlanta, mature trees covered more than half of the region.

The analysis showed that, in both cities, open green spaces inside the cities are concentrated in affluent, white suburbs near the center of the city.

Affluent suburban communities are also more likely to have access to a broad range of types of green space. In the Columbus area, for example, long-established, relatively affluent suburbs inside the city's beltway have access to both urban green trails and sports fields, as well as green lawns, trees and parks.

"There are very strong associations between community income levels and the density and diversity of green spaces available," Park said. "Affluent areas closer to the cities have a greater variety of choices in the green spaces available to them."

But in both regions, the data shows that less wealthy, racial-minority suburban and exurban communities outside the cities have little access to greenways and public parks. Therefore, disparities in access to green amenities may grow in these outskirt areas.

"Poorer urban communities are less likely to have access to trees and lawns. However, generally, communities in more-dense urban and downtown areas tend to have greater access to parks and green trails, thanks to historical park and trail investments in those areas," Park said. "Therefore, the efforts to increase and protect urban parks are very important, as they are the sources of green access for middle- to lower-income urban communities."

Jean-Michel Guldmann, professor emeritus of city and regional planning at Ohio State and the other author of this study, said future research could examine the quality of those green spaces.

"In the case of Atlanta, for example, there are many trees, but a lot of them are really old, and might not be well-cared-for," he said. "And some parks are not managed well and could feel unsafe to be in. The quality of urban parks can be another avenue for providing improved access."

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CONTACT: Yujin Park, park.2329@osu.edu Jean-Michel Guldmann, guldmann.1@osu.edu

Written by Laura Arenschield, arenschield.2@osu.edu