New Yorkers grow more hesitant about a return to normalcy, poll shows

Employment and housing woes continue

CUNY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HEALTH POLICY

 

IMAGE: AS MAY 2020 BEGAN, 65% OF NEW YORKERS SAID THEY WOULD SEE THEIR DOCTOR FOR A ROUTINE VISIT BEGINNING AT THE START OF THE NEXT MONTH. IN JUNE, THAT NUMBER... view more 

CREDIT: CUNY SPH

New Yorkers continue to report much higher than normal rates of depression and anxiety, but much less than at their peak in mid-April. As they witness the surge in COVID-19 cases in states that re-opened early, New Yorkers have also grown significantly more hesitant about resuming normal activities than they reported in May. Employment and housing worries remain a serious concern for many. These are the major findings of the 13th city and statewide tracking survey from the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), June 26-28.

As May 2020 began, 65% of New Yorkers said they would see their doctor for a routine visit beginning at the start of the next month. In June, that number dropped to 33%. In early May, 46% said they would go for a haircut starting June 1, but by the end of June, only 33% said they would do so as of July 1. The number who thought they would go to a restaurant after the first of the following month dropped from 31% to 20%. Moreover, a far greater number of respondents now say they plan to wait for a safe and effective vaccine to be widely available before they take part in many routine activities. In May, for example, 31% said they would wait for a vaccine before going to an outdoor concert; in June, nearly twice that number (60%) said they would wait for a vaccine.

Less than a third of respondents believe that public schools (27%) and colleges and universities (31%) should reopen for regular classes in the fall. A majority (54%) do not think the pandemic will end until a vaccine is created.

"People follow the news," said Dr. Ayman El-Mohandes, Dean of CUNY SPH. "COVID-19 is under better control in New York now, but people see that it is devastating other cities, states and countries, and they do not want to let their guard down. People here also seem to have become resigned to COVID-19. They don't see the pandemic ending within a finite period of time, instead they link its resolution to the availability of a safe and effective vaccine."

Serious Economic Pressures Continue for Many

Respondents still face serious economic challenges. One in five respondents (20%) who rent their homes said they would not be able to pay their rent this month, while 10% of homeowners said they would not be able to pay their mortgage. This situation remains unchanged since a mid-April CUNY SPH survey, which reported that 23% of respondents were unable to pay their rent, and 11% were unable to pay their mortgage.

Of those facing difficulties with rent or house payments, 51% believe they will be evicted, and 2% said they have already been evicted. The government's moratorium on evictions in New York expires on July 6, although some limited protections will remain in place through the end of August.

About one-fourth (26%) of respondents said they had lost their job as a consequence of the pandemic, of whom 46% were terminated and 54% were furloughed. Of those who were terminated, only 54% said they had found another job; of those who were furloughed, only 36% have been asked to return to their previous work.

It is not surprising, then, that more New Yorkers see the economy as worsening (44%) rather than improving (28%). Three in ten respondents remain worried about paying for housing (30%) and more than a quarter (26%) are concerned about employment.

SNAP Numbers Fail to Keep Pace with the Reality of Food Insecurity

About one-third (32%) of the current survey's respondents report receiving food from SNAP or local non-profit organizations, which is virtually unchanged from late April.

"Despite the determined efforts of public programs to improve access to food assistance, it is disturbing that, four months into the epidemic, less than a third of New Yorkers report receiving such help," said Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor of Public Health and Director of the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute. "This suggests an ongoing gap, as our survey in late May found that 44% of households were experiencing food insecurity. To reduce the high levels of food insecurity that threaten present and future physical and mental health in New York City, public food programs will need to do more to reach those in need."

Testing on the Rise

Indicative of a more positive trend, a greater proportion of New Yorkers (42%) reported last weekend that either they or a member of their household has been tested for COVID-19 since March, with three-fourths (75%) of those being tested within the last four weeks. Of this group, 31% reported that the test had been positive, which represents about one in eight (13%) of all the households in the overall survey population. People who reported being tested in previous CUNY SPH surveys were more likely to report testing positive, which suggests that testing was previously being made available only to individuals who appeared to be ill.

Social Issues

About a quarter (26%) of New Yorkers think the coronavirus appears to be a greater threat to the future of the city than racism and police violence (16%). African Americans rated racism slightly higher (20%) and the coronavirus slightly lower (20%) than respondents overall.

However, almost three in five (58%) of all respondents rated the two threats as equal.

Almost three in ten (28%) of respondents said they took part in the recent protests against racism and police brutality, of whom 60% said it was their first time doing so.

Mental Health

Almost half (46%) of respondents report they have not interacted with family and friends outside of their home in the last two weeks, 27% said they have done so once, 21% said two to three times, with 3% reporting four to five times and another 3% reported six times or more.

New Yorkers appear to be habituating to the stress of the pandemic, as mental health symptoms appear to be steadily declining since their peak in mid-April, when mental health risk rates were about 34-44%. Now, only 21% and 28% of New Yorkers are reporting depression and anxiety risks (i.e., experiencing symptoms half of the time in the past two weeks), respectively.

"Increases in social interactions with family and friends, as well as high participation by New Yorkers in social movements, may be buffering the mental health effects of the pandemic," says Dr. Victoria Ngo, Director of the Center for Innovation in Mental Health at CUNY SPH. "However, only 8% of our latest respondents report that they used free emotional support assistance from city and state resources, like the New York State Office of Mental Health, ThriveNYC, NYCWell, etc. This is worrisome as it suggests that these free resources are not reaching the community."

Trusted Sources of COVID-19 Information

More than a fourth of New Yorkers reported television news (26%) their most trustworthy source of information about coronavirus, and a similar number (25%) said they trusted the CDC, while 15% said Governor Andrew Cuomo, 10% the WHO, 6% social media, 6% the Trump administration, 5% print news, and 3% family and friends.

The complete survey results and related commentary can be found at https://sph.cuny.edu/research/covid-19-tracking-survey/week-16/ and JHC Impact, an initiative of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives.

Survey methodology

The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) survey was conducted by Emerson College Polling from June 26-28, 2020 (week 16). This tracking effort started March 13-15 (week 1).

The sample for the NY Statewide and New York City results were both, n=1,000, with a Credibility Interval (CI) similar to a poll's margin of error (MOE) of +/- 3 percentage points. The data sets were weighted by gender, age, ethnicity, education, and region based on the 2018 1-year American Community Survey model. It is important to remember that subsets based on gender, age, ethnicity, and region carry with them higher margins of error, as the sample size is reduced. In the New York City results, data was collected using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines (n=403), SMS-to-online (n=332), and an online panel provided by MTurk and Survey Monkey (n=232). In the Statewide results, data was collected using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system of landlines (n=404), SMS-to-online (n=329) and an online panel provided by MTurk and Survey Monkey (n=267).

In the statewide survey, regions were broken out into the following:

Region 1: Long Island 14.7% (USC1-4), Shirley, Seaford, Glen Cove, Garden City
Region 2: NYC 45.3% (USC 5-16) Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island, Bronx
Region 3: Upstate 40% (USC 17-27): Albany, Harrison, Carmel, Rhinebeck, Amsterdam, Schuylerville, Utica, Corning, Irondequoit, Buffalo, Rochester

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The CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) is committed to teaching, research, and service that creates a healthier New York City and helps promote equitable, efficient, and evidence-based solutions to pressing health problems facing cities around the world. 

Treatments tested for invasive pest on allium crops; onions, garlic, leeks

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

IMAGE: AN ADULT ALLIUM LEAFMINER. view more 

CREDIT: RILEY HARDING

ITHACA, N.Y. - Native to Europe but discovered in Pennsylvania in 2015, the Allium leafminer is a fly whose larvae feed on crops in the Allium genus, including onions, garlic and leeks.

Since its arrival in the U.S., it has spread to New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland and New Jersey, and is considered a major agricultural threat. A Cornell University-led team of researchers field-tested 14 active ingredients in insecticides, applied in a variety of methods, to understand the best treatment options.

The researchers' findings are described in a study, "Managing Allium Leafminer: An Emerging Pest of Allium Crops in North America," published in the Journal of Economic Entomology.

The research team, led by senior author Brian Nault, professor of entomology at Cornell AgriTech and one of the nation's leading Allium leafminer management experts, found that several traditional chemical insecticides worked best against the invasive insect.

"Problems with the Allium leafminer tend to be worse on organic farms where highly effective management tools - synthetic insecticides - are not used," Nault said.

The Allium leafminer (Phytomyza gymnostoma) has two generations annually, with adults emerging in April and again in mid-September. These two cycles are separated by a pause in the summer, when most onions are grown, which allows the crop to escape the pest. Also, onion bulbs expand rapidly, which does not allow the leafminer maggot time to effectively feed.

Crops with green foliage during either adult leafminer generation are most at risk. In the northeastern U.S., these include chives, scallions and garlic in the spring, and scallions and leeks in the fall. Wild alliums, which cross both generations, can be a reservoir where the insects to grow.

Larvae start feeding at the tops of plants and migrate toward the base to pupate. The larvae can destroy vascular tissue, which can lead to bacterial or fungal infections that cause rot.

The research team tested various management strategies with onions, leeks and scallions in Pennsylvania and New York in 2018 and 2019. Spraying chemical insecticides (dinotefuran, cyantraniliprole and spinetoram) was the most consistent and effective method, with up to 89% reduction in damage and up to 95% eradication of the insect. Dinotefuran and cyantraniliprole applied through a drip irrigation technique were not effective.

Other insecticides (abamectin, acetamiprid, cyromazine, imidacloprid, lambda-cyhalothrin, methomyl and spinosad) also reduced densities of Allium leafminers. Spinosad applied to bare roots, or in plug trays for plant starts, reduced the insect's damage after transplanting by 90%.

Though Allium leafminers have not been an issue in onions so far, researchers and farmers are concerned they may become a problem if they gain traction and move west, where onions are a major crop. "This has been a huge concern for the U.S. onion industry," Nault said.

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Co-authors include Lindsy Iglesias, a postdoctoral researcher in Nault's lab; Shelby Fleischer, an entomology professor at Pennsylvania State University; Ethan Grundberg and Teresa Rusinek, both vegetable specialists at Cornell Cooperative Extension; and Tim Elkner, an extension educator at Pennsylvania State University Extension.

The study was funded by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research's Rapid Outcomes Agriculture Research Program; New York Farm Viability Institute; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Consumption of products derived from vulnerable wildlife species pervasive in Laos

Demand for bear and serow could precipitate 'conservation challenge,' authors say

SAN DIEGO ZOO GLOBAL

A new study of wildlife consumption in northern Laos by San Diego Zoo Global researchers found widespread use of products made from sun bears, Asiatic bears and serows--goat-like mammals found throughout Asia--among other vulnerable species. The findings indicate that efforts are needed to reduce the unsustainable harvest of bears and serows, in particular, "before this demand becomes a significant conservation challenge," the authors wrote.

"Our results indicate the importance of identifying emerging trends in wildlife consumption, which can inform efforts to halt population declines before they become full-blown crises," said Elizabeth Oneita Davis, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate in Community Engagement at San Diego Zoo Global. She co-authored the study, published in April in the journal Animals, with Jenny Glikman, Ph.D., an associate director in Community Engagement at San Diego Zoo Global.

"The research presented here represents a critical first step towards a conservation management solution in northern Laos that incorporates the emerging threat of consumption of serow, which may be excluded from management plans directed at conserving more 'charismatic' fauna," said Davis.

Unsustainable wildlife consumption is widespread in Southeast Asia. Exports to neighboring China and Vietnam have led to the extirpation of tigers and Javan rhinos in Laos, the authors said. Less is known, though, about the demand for wildlife products within Laos. To learn more about use patterns, Davis and Glikman interviewed 100 adults in 18 villages, in the Luang Prabang region of the country.

The most commonly used substances, consumed by about a quarter of those interviewed, were derived from the bile or gallbladder of sun bears and Asiatic bears. While use of bear products in the region had been documented, this study suggests consumption may be more common than previously thought. The second most-consumed items, used by 7% of respondents, were derived from serows. Products derived from serows and bears are similar in form and use, often being made into topicals or consumables to treat bruises or fight fatigue. However, serow products are less expensive than comparable bear products.

Sun bears and Asiatic black bears are listed as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. The Chinese serow is listed as Near Threatened, but the IUCN is in the process of changing its status to the more-urgent Vulnerable, the study authors said.

Overall, interviewees reported they had used or knew someone who had used a wide variety of products derived from animals ranging from elephants to tigers, snakes, porcupines, monkeys and bats. Approximately half of respondents said they viewed wildlife products as a form of traditional medicine. A majority of the species consumed were listed as Vulnerable or Least Threatened on the Red List of Threatened Species.

"Our results of present and prevalent demand for wildlife in northern Laos indicate both that enforcement efforts are not working and that the Laos government's goals of reducing wildlife trade may be challenging to achieve," Davis said.

It isn't known if the current harvest of serows in Laos is sustainable. But it is possible that demand could increase sharply if those who consume bear products turn to less-pricey serow products instead. If that happens, the ungulates "may suffer a sudden, serious and rapid decline in the next decade," the authors wrote.

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About San Diego Zoo Global

Bringing species back from the brink of extinction is the goal of San Diego Zoo Global. As a leader in conservation, the work of San Diego Zoo Global includes on-site wildlife conservation efforts (representing both plants and animals) at the San Diego Zoo, San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research, as well as international field programs on six continents. The work of these entities is made accessible to over 1 billion people annually, reaching 150 countries via social media, our websites and the San Diego Zoo Kids network, in children's hospitals in 12 countries. The work of San Diego Zoo Global is made possible with support from our incredible donors committed to saving species from the brink of extinction. To learn more, visit SanDiegoZooGlobal.org or connect with us on Facebook.

States with highest income inequality experienced a larger number of COVID-19 deaths

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCES

FINDINGS

States with the highest level of income inequality had a larger number of COVID-19-related deaths compared with states with lower income inequality. New York state, with the highest income inequality, had a mortality rate of 51.7 deaths per 100,000. This is 125 times greater than Utah, the state with the lowest income inequality and which had a mortality of 0.41 per 100,000 at the end of the period studied. Looking at the top three in each category, New York was followed by Louisiana with 19 deaths per 100,000, and Connecticut with 16.9 deaths per 100,000. States in addition to Utah with the lowest COVID deaths that were linked to income inequality were South Dakota, with 0.7 deaths per 100,000 and North Dakota, which had one death per 100,000.

BACKGROUND

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, data from New York City and Chicago shows that African Americans and Hispanics have experienced higher rates of infection and death. These groups are largely low income, have less access to health care, hold essential jobs limiting their ability to maintain social distancing, and frequently live in extended family households where the infection risk is higher.

METHODS

The researchers limited their analysis to January 22 through April 13, 2020. They used data on cases and deaths from the COVID-19 Dashboard maintained by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. State income inequality data came from the 2018 American Community Survey as measured by the Gini index, a statistical formula used to measure income distribution.

The authors note some limitations in the findings, such as the effect of co-morbidities on death rates and weaknesses in state-level data that might have missed other associations between inequality and COVID-19 infections.

IMPACT

The findings suggest that social factors such as income inequality may explain why some states experienced more COVID-19 deaths than others. The findings could be useful in developing policies to mitigate the effects of the pandemic on socio-economically vulnerable populations.

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AUTHORS

Dr. Carlos Oronce, Dr. Christopher Scannell, and Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa of UCLA, and Dr. Ichiro Kawachi of Harvard University. Oronce and Scannell also have positions with the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.

JOURNAL

The study is published by the peer-reviewed Journal of General Internal Medicine.

FUNDING

Drs. Oronce and Scannell are supported by the VA Office of Academic Affiliations through the VA/National Clinician Scholars Program.

Media Contact

Enrique Rivero
erivero@mednet.ucla.edu

Men more likely than women to be seen as brilliant

New global study finds an unconscious stereotype linked to gender

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

 

Men are more likely than are women to be seen as "brilliant," finds a new study measuring global perceptions linked to gender. The work concludes that these stereotyped views are an instance of implicit bias, revealing automatic associations that people cannot, or at least do not, report holding when asked directly.

The research, which appears in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, was conducted by scientists at New York University, the University of Denver, and Harvard University.

"Stereotypes that portray brilliance as a male trait are likely to hold women back across a wide range of prestigious careers," observes Daniel Storage, an assistant professor in the University of Denver's Department of Psychology and the paper's lead author.

"Understanding the prevalence and magnitude of this gender-brilliance stereotype can inform future efforts to increase gender equity in career outcomes," adds Andrei Cimpian, an associate professor in NYU's Department of Psychology and the paper's senior author.

Previous work by Cimpian and his colleagues has suggested that women are underrepresented in careers where success is perceived to depend on high levels of intellectual ability (e.g., brilliance, genius), including those in science and technology.

Less understood are the factors that explain this phenomenon. To address this, the new Journal of Experimental Social Psychology study explored the potential impact of stereotypes. For example, perhaps the qualities of genius and brilliance are associated in people's minds with men more than with women--and, as a result, women are less encouraged to pursue these fields--or the atmosphere of these fields is less welcoming to women.

However, accurately measuring stereotyping is a challenge. People are often reluctant to admit they have stereotypes, so asking directly about these beliefs is unlikely to provide an accurate measure of whether they endorse the idea that brilliance is more common among men than it is among women.

To overcome this methodological obstacle, the researchers adopted a test that is geared to measure stereotyping indirectly. Here, the aim is to capture implicit stereotypes--or the automatic associations that come to mind between certain traits (e.g., brilliance) and certain groups (e.g., men). This is in contrast to explicit stereotyping, in which we knowingly and verbally ascribe traits to groups of people.

The team employed a long-established tool, the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which measures the degree of overlap between concepts (e.g., brilliant and male) without explicitly asking subjects whether or not they hold stereotyped views.

The IAT is essentially a speeded sorting task. In the study, participants saw a series of stimuli (such as a picture of a woman or the word "brilliant") on a computer screen and were asked to sort them into two categories by pressing either the E or the I key on their keyboard. For example, in some trials participants were asked to press E if they saw a stimulus that is related to either the category male or the trait brilliant. On other trials, the sorting rule was different. For example, the gender categories were swapped such that participants had to press E if they saw a stimulus that is related to either the category female or the trait brilliant.

The logic of the IAT, the authors explain, is as follows: If brilliant is more associated with male than with female in people's minds, then participants will be faster to sort the stimuli when brilliant and male are paired with the same response key--because the stereotype makes these two concepts seem like they "go together"--than when brilliant and female are paired.

Across a series of five studies, which included U.S. women and men, U.S. girls and boys (ages 9 and 10), and women and men from 78 other countries, the researchers consistently found evidence for an implicit stereotype associating brilliance with men more than with women. The magnitude of this stereotype was striking as well--for example, it was similar in strength to the implicit stereotype that associates men more than women with careers (and women more than men with the family), which was identified in earlier work.

The team also gauged explicit stereotypes, directly asking subjects whether they believed that men are more brilliant than women. In marked contrast to the implicit stereotyping measures, subjects reported disagreeing with this idea--and, in one study, explicitly associated the quality of being "super smart" with women more than with men. The finding is consistent with previous scholarship showing that people are unlikely admit to stereotyping, reinforcing the importance of measuring such perceptions through more subtle means.

Tessa Charlesworth, a doctoral student at Harvard University and co-author of the paper, notes that "a particularly exciting finding from this work is that, if anything, people explicitly say that they associate women with brilliance. Yet implicit measures reveal a different story about the more automatic gender stereotypes that come to mind when thinking about brilliance."

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The paper's author team also included Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard University.

The research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (BCS-1530669, BCS-1733897).

Pet dogs may improve social-emotional development in young children

SPRINGER

 Young children from dog-owning households have better social and emotional wellbeing than children from households who do not own a dog, suggests research published in the journal Pediatric Research.

A team of researchers at the University of Western Australia and Telethon Kids Institute utilised questionnaire data from 1,646 households that included children aged two to five years. The researchers found that, after taking into account children's age, biological sex, sleep habits, screen time and parents' education levels, children from dog-owning households were 23% less likely to have overall difficulties with their emotions and social interactions than children who did not own a dog. Children from dog-owning households were 30% less likely to engage in antisocial behaviours, 40% less likely to have problems interacting with other children, and were 34% more likely to engage in considerate behaviours, such as sharing.

Associate Professor Hayley Christian, the corresponding author said: "While we expected that dog ownership would provide some benefits for young children's wellbeing, we were surprised that the mere presence of a family dog was associated with many positive behaviours and emotions."

Among children from dog-owning households, those who joined their family on dog walks at least once per week were 36% less likely to have poor social and emotional development than those who walked with their family dog less than once per week. Children who played with their family dog three or more times per week were 74% more likely to regularly engage in considerate behaviours than those who played with their dog less than three times per week.

Associate Professor Hayley Christian said: "Our findings indicate that dog ownership may benefit children's development and wellbeing and we speculate that this could be attributed to the attachment between children and their dogs. Stronger attachments between children and their pets may be reflected in the amount of time spent playing and walking together and this may promote social and emotional development."

To examine children's social and emotional development and its possible association with family dog ownership, the authors analysed data collected between 2015 and 2018 as part of the Play Spaces and Environments for Children's Physical Activity (PLAYCE) study. During the study, parents of children aged between two and five years completed a questionnaire assessing their child's physical activity and social-emotional development. . Out of the 1,646 households included in the study, 686 (42%) owned a dog.

The authors caution that due to the observational nature of the study they were not able to determine the exact mechanism by which dog ownership may benefit social and emotional development in young children, or to establish cause and effect. Further research should assess the potential influence of owning different types of pets or the influence that children's attachment to their pets may have on child development.

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Decontamination methods for reuse of filtering facepiece respirators

NEWS RELEASE 2-JUL-2020

JAMA OTOLARYNGOLOGY - HEAD & NECK SURGERY

 What The Article Says: Studies describing various methods of decontamination to allow safe reuse of N95 respirators are summarized in this article.

Authors: Brooke M. Su-Velez, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of California, Los Angeles, is the corresponding author.

(doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2020.1423)

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

#  #  #

Media advisory: The full study is linked to this news release.

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article This link will be live at the embargo time https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/10.1001/jamaoto.2020.1423?guestAccessKey=3479b786-fe51-48b6-af75-5a1b58486b24&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=070220

New platform gauges effects of plastic nanoparticles on human development and health

ALPHAMED PRESS

 

IMAGE: CORRESPONDING AUTHOR MIODRAG STOJKOVIC, PH.D., DVM. view more 

CREDIT: ALPHAMED PRESS

Durham, NC - Plastic pollution is a critical environmental issue facing the world today, yet the impact of all the microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) that have seeped into the food and beverage supply on human health is an "undervalued avenue of research," according to the team behind a revealing new study released today in STEM CELLS. This study outlines the new platform researchers designed that allowed them to investigate the potentially harmful effects of MPs and NPs. The results show not only how these particles can impact a developing infant's health, but also may open novel ways to study this prevalent type of pollution and its contributions to the origin of various diseases.

From 1950 to now, plastic production has increased nearly 200-fold to the current 350 million tons, according to a study published last June in Science of The Total Environment. As of 2018, approximately 6.9 billion tons had become waste, with 79 percent of that accumulated in the natural environment.

"Assuming that only 15 percent of their total caloric intake is from plastic-packaged nutrients, it was calculated that the average person consumes up to 121,000 MP particles per year, while people who drink bottled water consume an additional 90,000 MP. And these numbers don't account for particulates that enter our bodies through occupational exposure (such as construction, boating or the bath and shower industries) and other means. So you can see this number has the potential to increase substantially," said Miodrag Stojkovic, Ph.D., DVM. Dr. Stojkovic is corresponding author of the international study, led by researchers from the Medical Fertility Hospital, Leskovac, Serbia, and Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Serbia, and currently is affiliated with Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Few studies have investigated the potentially harmful effects of MPs/NPs on early human development and health. To further complicate things, the plethora of plastic types, particle sizes and the lack of a reliable model makes studying the impact of rising environmental plastic pollution on human health a real challenge.

"Adding to that," Dr. Stojkovic said, "no clear definition or regulation of MPs/NPs exists on an international basis."

All this led Dr. Stojkovic and his colleagues to develop a new platform that would enable them, for the first time, to estimate gene changes and signaling pathways that might be altered in response to the exposure of pre-implantation human embryos and human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to plastic particles. They focused their work on nanoparticles shed by one of the most prevalent types of plastics used in food and beverage packaging -- polystyrene.

To begin, they analyzed human iPSC growth media that was persistently exposed to plastic (storage bottles, dishes, pipettes and tips, laboratory air and lab coats) using pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (PyGC/MS). The PyGC/MS analysis excluded the additional presence of any known polymer. Next, they exposed thawed early human expanded blastocysts and human iPSCs to nano- (40 nm) and micro- (200 nm) polystyrene items and examined the effects. And lastly, the researchers used the HiPathia method -- a model that allows the estimation of how changes in the expression of genes affect signaling circuits and consequent cell functional decisions -- to enable them to detect any disease mechanisms and predict relevant clinical outcomes.

The collective data from these analyses showed that NPs alter genes that are connected to eye development, cardiac malformations and ischemia.

"Taken together, results obtained with our embryo- and stem cell-based platform and polystyrene NPs clearly demonstrate that an understanding of bio-NP interactions and the implications on human health is, more than ever, of utmost importance, especially in this era of increased environmental plastic pollution and the presence of microscopic plastic particles in the air, soil, food, beverages, and tap water," Dr. Stojkovic said. "We also believe that the study findings make a strong call for an urgent action by scientific and policymaking authorities to create regulatory measures that might lessen NPs' impact, especially given that our platform deciphers the links between environmental and intracellular pollutions, and origin of detrimental diseases."

"This outstanding report provides a sobering look at the effects of plastic nanoparticles on human stem cells. It has been known that these particles are problematic, but this is the first report, to my knowledge, to provide mechanistic, detailed data on how polystyrene nanoplastics affect human iPSCs and embryonic cells," said Jan Nolta, Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS. "This platform will be very useful for future studies evaluating the negative effects of different types of plastic nanoparticle contaminants."

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The full article, "Platform to study intracellular polystyrene nanoplastic pollution and clinical outcomes," can be accessed at https://stemcellsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/stem.3244.

About the Journal: STEM CELLS, a peer reviewed journal published monthly, provides a forum for prompt publication of original investigative papers and concise reviews. The journal covers all aspects of stem cells: embryonic stem cells/induced pluripotent stem cells; tissue-specific stem cells; cancer stem cells; the stem cell niche; stem cell epigenetics, genomics and proteomics; and translational and clinical research. STEM CELLS is co-published by AlphaMed Press and Wiley.

About AlphaMed Press: Established in 1983, AlphaMed Press with offices in Durham, NC, San Francisco, CA, and Belfast, Northern Ireland, publishes three internationally renowned peer-reviewed journals with globally recognized editorial boards dedicated to advancing knowledge and education in their focused disciplines. STEM CELLS® is the world's first journal devoted to this fast paced field of research. THE ONCOLOGIST® is devoted to community and hospital-based oncologists and physicians entrusted with cancer patient care. STEM CELLS TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE® is dedicated to significantly advancing the clinical utilization of stem cell molecular and cellular biology. By bridging stem cell research and clinical trials, SCTM will help move applications of these critical investigations closer to accepted best practices.

Grassroots dog vaccinations can help stop rabies, but not alone

Rabies is preventable. Inequality has kept it a threat.

FIELD MUSEUM

 

IMAGE: VETERINARIANS (JOSEPH NYAGUCHA, LEFT, AND PATRICK MUINDE, RIGHT) VACCINATING A PUPPY AGAINST RABIES IN KENYA'S LAIKIPIA COUNTY. view more 

CREDIT: © RAVI RUPAREL.In the US, dying from rabies is virtually unheard of. But around the world, rabies kills 59,000 people every year. Ninety-nine percent of those deaths are caused by dog bites; half of the people killed are children. There's a relatively simple way of preventing these deaths--vaccinating dogs against the disease--but systemic challenges make that easier said than done. In a new study in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, an international team of researchers reported on a multi-year effort to vaccinate dogs in Kenya and highlighted some of the challenges scientists and public health officials face in eradicating the disease. They found that grassroots efforts helped lots of individuals--but that to stop the disease once and for all, these smaller campaigns must be coupled with large-scale efforts.

"It's important to focus on rabies because it's 100% preventable," says Adam Ferguson, a mammalogist at Chicago's Field Museum and one of the study's lead authors. "There's no reason why people should be dying from rabies. It's not like COVID in the sense that we don't have a vaccine for it or we don't know what to do with it."

Rabies is a virus, and it spreads through saliva in animal bites. It causes brain inflammation, and once a person begins showing symptoms, it's nearly always fatal. Any mammal can carry rabies, but humans are most likely to pick it up from dogs, because we spend more time in close contact with them than with wild animals like raccoons and bats. And while a rabies vaccine was first discovered in 1885, large parts of the world remain vulnerable to the disease to this day. "It disproportionately impacts low-income, rural communities," says Ferguson, who began the project as a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at Kenya's Karatina University. "In the US, we have the luxury that if one person dies of rabies a year, it makes the front page news. In Kenya, an estimated 2,000 people die of the disease every year."

For the new study, Ferguson and his colleagues conducted grassroots dog vaccination campaigns in 2015, 2016, and 2017 in Kenya's Laikipia County. The Laikipia Rabies Vaccination Campaign expanded over the course of the three-year period, and 13,155 dogs were vaccinated. Across different communities, the team set up a central station for people to bring their dogs to get vaccines. "The excitement and commitments by the communities to bring their dogs in the centers was overwhelming. This for sure made the effort feel worth investing into. You could tell that rabies eradication was tending to be more communal than an individual effort," says Dedan Ngatia, a scientist at the University of Wyoming and one of the study's lead authors.

For rural areas, team members used a combination of central stations and door-to-door vaccinations, asking people if they had dogs and offering free rabies vaccines. "We found that in the pastoral communities, you definitely need more door-to-door outreach than you do in the other communities," says Ferguson, partly because of how sparsely populated those areas are, and partly because many of the dogs there are working animals used to herd goats and sheep and wouldn't be used to walking on a leash to go to one of the central vaccination stations.

As the project grew, more and more people were interested in getting their dogs vaccinated. But the project's popularity presented the researchers with a tough decision. They could focus on smaller areas where they could try to get 70% of the dogs vaccinated, the amount needed for risk of dogs spreading the disease to humans to be effectively eliminated. Alternatively, they could vaccinate as many dogs from as many places as possible, without reaching a critical mass of vaccinations necessary for herd immunity. They didn't have the resources to get to 70% immunity on the large scale.

"I think the question grassroots campaigns have to ask themselves is, is that their goal just to have local outreach and help a few individuals, or are they trying to eliminate it at the landscape-level scale, which is the bigger picture goal. I think, going forward, the answer should be, you should have both," says Ferguson. "We need massive, large-scale efforts, but the reality is that money and resources are limited. That's where these grassroots campaigns are helpful. We were able to expand from 5 to 17 communities because we partnered with the national and county government from the get-go."

"Our target of vaccinating more than 70% of dogs in Laikipia County through sustained campaigns will interrupt transmission in the reservoir population so that the disease is eliminated. LRVC does more than just vaccinating dogs against rabies, we visit schools to raise awareness amongst children--the most affected population by the disease--about rabies prevention," says Dishon Muloi, a scientist at International Livestock Research Institute and one of the study's lead authors.

"The need to eradicate rabies is both for the protection of people as well as wildlife, which includes some of the most endangered carnivores like the African wild dogs. For many years, infectious diseases have remained the main cause of endangerment for these species, with rabies playing a leading role in the endangerment of the African wild dogs. With massive vaccinations, and achieving 70% coverage, we will be able to protect both people and wildlife," says Ngatia.

This study was contributed to by scientists from the Field Museum, the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, the University of Edinburgh, the International Livestock Research Institute, Karatina University, Maasai Mara University, the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, the Kenya Zoonotic Disease Unit, Washington State University, the Zoological Society of London, the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, County Government of Laikipia, the University of Liverpool, and the Mpala Research Centre.

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Climate change threat to tropical plants

UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES

 

Tropical plants closer to the equator are most at risk from climate change because it is expected to become too hot for many species to germinate in the next 50 years, UNSW researchers have found.

Their study analysed almost 10,000 records for more than 1300 species from the Kew Gardens' global seed germination database.

The research, published in the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography recently, was the first to look at the big picture impact of climate change on such a large number of plant species worldwide.

Lead author Alex Sentinella, UNSW PhD researcher, said past research had found that animal species closer to the equator would be more at risk from climate change.

"The thought was that because tropical species come from a stable climate where it's always warm, they can only cope with a narrow range of temperatures - whereas species from higher latitudes can cope with a larger range of temperatures because they come from places where the weather varies widely," Mr Sentinella said.

"However, this idea had never been tested for plants.

"Because climate change is a huge issue globally, we wanted to understand these patterns on a global scale and build upon the many studies on plants at an individual level in their environment."

Seeds a key indicator of survival

The researchers examined seed germination data from the Millennium Seed Bank Partnership Data Warehouse, hosted by Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London, to quantify global patterns in germination temperature.

They analysed 9737 records for 1312 plant species from every continent except Antarctica and excluded agricultural crops.

Mr Sentinella said they chose seed data because it was widely available and relevant to the ability of a species to cope with different temperatures.

"With seeds, you can experiment on them quickly, there are a lot of studies about them and importantly, germination directly relates to how a species will survive, because if the seed doesn't germinate the plant won't live," he said.

"So, we collated the data from the Kew Gardens database, examined all experiments on the same species from the same locations, and then determined the range of temperatures each species could tolerate in order to survive."

The researchers also examined climate data for the same locations as the plant species used in the study.

They looked at current temperature - the average temperature of the warmest three months from 1970 to 2000 - and predicted temperature for 2070.

The researchers then compared the temperatures the plants were experiencing now with the forecasted 2070 temperatures.

Tropical plants to hit or exceed temperature limits

The study discovered tropical plants do not have narrower temperature tolerances but were more at risk from global warming, because it would bring them close to their maximum seed germination temperatures.

Mr Sentinella said, on average, the closer a plant was to the equator, the more at risk it would be of exceeding its temperature ceiling by 2070.

"These plants could be more at risk because they are near their upper limits. So, even a small increase in temperature from climate change could push them over the edge," he said.

"The figures are quite shocking because by 2070, more than 20 per cent of tropical plant species, we predict, will face temperatures above their upper limit, which means they won't germinate, and so can't survive."

Mr Sentinella said the researchers also found that more than half of tropical species are expected to experience temperatures exceeding their optimum germination temperatures.

"That's even worse because if those plants can survive it would be at a reduced rate of germination and therefore, they might not be as successful," he said.

"If a seed's germination rate is 100 per cent at its optimum temperature, then it might only manage 50 or 60 per cent, for example, if the temperature is higher than what's ideal."

Mr Sentinella said he was surprised to find that climate change would threaten so many tropical species.

"But our most unexpected discovery was that the hypothesis often used for animals - that those near the equator would struggle to survive the impact of climate change because they have narrower temperature tolerances - was not true for plants," he said.

"We found that regardless of latitude, plant species can germinate at roughly the same breadth of temperatures, which does not align with the animal studies."

The researchers also found 95 per cent of plant species at latitudes above 45 degrees are predicted to benefit from warming, because environmental temperatures are expected to shift closer to the species' optimal germination temperatures.

Findings to help target conservation efforts

Mr Sentinella said it was possible for some plants to slowly evolve to increasing temperatures, but it was difficult to predict which ones would survive.

"The problem with the quick change in temperatures forecasted, is that some species won't be able to adapt fast enough," he said.

"Sometimes plants can migrate by starting to grow further away from the equator or, up a mountain slope where it's cooler. But if a species can't do that it will become extinct.

"There are almost 400,000 plant species worldwide - so, we would expect a number of them to fail to germinate between now and 2070."

Mr Sentinella hopes the researchers' findings will help to conserve plant species under threat from climate change.

"Ideally, we would be able to conserve all ecosystems, but the funding is simply not there. So, our findings could help conservation efforts target resources towards areas which are more vulnerable," he said.

"We also hope our findings further strengthen the global body of research about the risks of climate change.

"Humans have known about dangers of climate change for decades and we already have the answers to tackle it. So, hopefully our study will help encourage people and policy makers to take action now."

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Read the study in Global Ecology and Biogeography: https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13117