From Health Affairs: Child mortality lower when women hold office in Brazil

HEALTH AFFAIRS

 

Philipp Hessel from the Alberto Lleras Camargo School of Government at the University of the Andes and coauthors analyzed the association between woman political empowerment and child mortality rates in Brazil for 2000-15, finding that higher representation of women at local, state, and federal levels of decision making leads to reductions in child mortality. Researchers found that electing either 10-19 percent or 20 percent or more women to the federal Chamber of Deputies leads to a reduction in child mortality of 0.038 percentage points and 0.072 percentage points, respectively. At the state level, electing 20% or more women to the respective state legislature reduces child mortality by .038 percentage points. Localities with female leadership also reported higher-than-average participation in social programs that expand primary care, and electing a female mayor was associated with a 0.042 percentage points increase in conditional cash benefits coverage to vulnerable families. This research suggests that electing female leaders decreases under-five mortality--a key focus of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals--by emphasizing social service offerings and increasing enrollment in existing governmental public health efforts.

Also in the issue:

Tackling Social Determinants Of Health Around The Globe, an interview with Professor Sir Michael Marmot by Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief Alan Weil. A renowned thinker, leader, researcher, and author on health equity in England and across the world, Marmot has led research groups on health equity for more than forty years.

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Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal at the intersection of health, health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found through healthaffairs.org, Health Affairs Today, and Health Affairs Sunday Update.

Stay Up To Date With Health Affairs' COVID-19 Resource Center: We've gathered blogs and journal articles, along with relevant content from our journal archive: lessons from previous pandemics, including school closures during the Spanish flu; public health preparedness; and communicating risk.

Project HOPE is a global health and humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has published Health Affairs since 1981.

Nutrients in microalgae: An environmentally friendly alternative to fish 

MARTIN-LUTHER-UNIVERSITÄT HALLE-WITTENBERG

Microalgae could provide an alternative source of healthy omega-3 fatty acids for humans while also being more environmentally friendly to produce than popular fish species. This is the result of a new study by scientists from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The study was recently published in the Journal of Applied Phycology and offers an initial indication of the environmental effects of producing microalgae in Germany.

Microalgae have been the focus of several decades of research - initially as a raw material for alternative fuels, but more recently as a source of nutrients in the human diet. They are mainly produced in open ponds in Asia; however, these ponds are at risk of potential contamination. Also, some species of algae are easier to cultivate in closed systems, so-called photobioreactors. "We wanted to figure out whether microalgae produced in photobioreactors in Germany could provide a more environmentally friendly source of essential nutrients than fish," says Susann Schade from the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences at MLU. Up to now, photobioreactors had usually only been compared to pond cultivation and they often scored worse due to their higher environmental impacts. "However, little research has been done on the precise extent of the environmental impacts of algae produced for human consumption, especially under climatic conditions such as those found in Germany," adds Schade.

For their study, the researchers developed a model to determine location-specific environmental impacts. "One of the things we did was to compare the carbon footprint of nutrients from microalgae and fish. We also analysed how much both food sources increase the acidification and eutrophication in water bodies," explains Dr Toni Meier, head of the Innovation Office nutriCARD at MLU. The researchers were able to show that microalgae farming has a similar impact on the environment as fish production. "However, if we compare the environmental effects in relation to the amount of omega-3 fatty acids produced, fish from aquaculture comes off far worse," says Schade. One advantage of algae cultivation is its low land consumption; even infertile soils can be used. In contrast, both open ponds and the cultivation of feed for aquaculture require very large areas of land. In particular, fish species that are popular in Germany, such as salmon and pangasius, are primarily produced through aquaculture and therefore put the environment under a considerable amount of pressure. However, even fishing wild Alaska pollack had poorer values than microalgae for all environmental indicators.

"Microalgae should not and cannot completely replace fish as a food source. But if microalgae could be established as a common food, it would be another excellent environmentally friendly source of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids," explains Meier. Several algae are already used as a food supplement in powder or tablet form and as an additive to foods such as pasta or cereals. It would be a way to reduce the current gap in the global supply of omega-3 fatty acids. At the same time, it would provide considerable relief to the world's oceans.

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The study was funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the joint project "Novel microalgae species as a sustainable source of bioactive nutrients in human nutrition" (NovAL). In addition to MLU, the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences, the University of Leipzig and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena are involved in the research alliance.

Our animal inheritance: Humans perk up their ears, too, when they hear interesting sounds

SAARLAND UNIVERSITY

 

Many animals, including dogs, cats and various species of monkeys, will move their ears to better focus their attention on a novel sound. That humans also have this capability was not known until now. A research team based in Saarland has demonstrated for the first time that we make minute, unconscious movements of our ears that are directed towards the sound want to focus our attention on. The team discovered this ability by measuring electrical signals in the muscles of the vestigial motor system in the human ear. The results have now been published in the journal eLife.

Asking children to 'perk up their ears' means asking them to listen intently. Nobody seriously thinks that kids literally move their ears the way that cats, dogs or horses do. But the fact is, they do, as researchers at the Systems Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Unit (SNNU) have now shown. The research team, led by Professor Danial Strauss, has shown that the muscles around the ear become active as soon as novel, unusual or goal-relevant sounds are perceived. 'The electrical activity of the ear muscles indicates the direction in which the subject is focusing their auditory attention,' says neuroscientist and computer scientist Strauss. 'It is very likely that humans still possess a rudimentary orientation system that tries to control the movement of the pinna (the visible outer part of the ear). Despite becoming vestigial about 25 million years ago, this system still exists as a "neural fossil" within our brains,' explains Professor Strauss. The question why pinna orienting was lost during the evolution of the primate lineage has still not been completely resolved.

The researchers were able to record the signals that control the minute, generally invisible, movements of the pinna using a technique known as surface electromyography (EMG). Sensors attached to the subject's skin detected the electrical activity of the muscles responsible for moving the pinna or altering its shape. Two types of attention were examined. To assess the reflexive attention that occurs automatically when we hear unexpected sounds, the participants in the study were exposed to novel sounds coming at random intervals from different lateral positions while they silently read a monotonous text. To test the goal-directed attention that we show when actively listening, the participants were asked to listen to a short story coming from one laterally positioned speaker, while ignoring a 'competing' story from a speaker located on the opposite side. Both experiments showed that muscle movements in the vestigial pinna-orienting system indicate the direction of the subject's auditory attention.

To better characterize these minute movements of the ear, the team also made special high-definition video recordings of the subjects during the experiments. The subtle movements of the ears were made visible by applying computer-based motion magnification techniques. Depending on the type of aural stimulus used, the researchers were able to observe different upward movements of the ear as well as differences in the strength of the rearward motion of the pinna's upper-lateral edge.

'Our results show that electromyography of the ear muscles offers a simple means of measuring auditory attention. The technique is not restricted to fundamental research, it also has potential for a number of interesting applications," explains Professor Strauss. One area of great practical relevance would be in developing better hearing aids. 'These devices would be able to amplify the sounds that the wearer is trying to hear, while suppressing the noises that they are trying to ignore. The device would function in a way that reflects the user's auditory intention.' The hearing aid would almost instantaneously register and interpret the electrical activity in the ear muscles. A miniature processor would gauge the direction the user is trying to direct their attention towards and then adjust the gain on the device's directional microphones accordingly.

The research project was conducted by researchers at the Systems Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Unit (SNNU), which is affiliated to both the Medical Faculty at Saarland University and to the School of Engineering at the University of Applied Sciences in Saarland (htw saar). External project partners were Dr. Ronny Hannemann from the hearing aid manufacturer Sivantos GmbH and Steven A. Hackley, Professor of Psychology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, who in 2015 first postulated the existence of a vestigial pinna-orienting system in humans.

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Link to publication:

Daniel J. Strauss, Farah I. Corona-Strauss, Andreas Schroeer, Philipp Flotho, Ronny Hannemann, Steven A. Hackley: 'Vestigial Auriculomotor Activity Indicates the Direction of Auditory Attention in Humans'. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.54536 (https://elifesciences.org/articles/54536)

eLife-Digest: https://elifesciences.org/digests/54536/perk-up-your-ears

The inter-institutional Systems Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Unit (SNNU) is the project lead on numerous German and international research projects at the interface of neuroscience and technology. SNNU is involved in projects whose potential uses range from medical applications to optimized human-machine interactions.

http://www.snnu.uni-saarland.de/

For cleaner air, water, and soil

INSTITUTE OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF THE POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

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IMAGE: TOXIC CHEMICALS STAND NO CHANCE AGAINST A NANOSHIELD CREATED BY SCIENTISTS FROM IPC PAS. PHOTO MADE ON SITE OF THE FRONT MODLIN COMPANY. view more 

CREDIT: IPC PAS, GRZEGORZ KRZYZEWSKI

The air around us is still getting more and more polluted. No wonder many scientists strive to find a way to purify it. Thanks to the work of an international team led by prof. Juan Carlos Colmenares from the Institute of Physical Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, we are a big step closer to achieve this goal. They found a way to make an efficient reactive adsorbent able to purify the air from various toxic compounds, cheaply, and effectively.

"Most important is the material we made at the laboratory," says prof. Colmenares. "It not only adsorbs toxic vapors from the air but also, thanks to its photocatalytic properties, can break them into less toxic elements." Material made by the team consists of two quite cheap and easy to acquire compounds: titanium dioxide and graphite oxide. "We intended to make it widely available," explains the professor, and "environmentally friendly." The innovation here was to use ultrasound to make the two counterparts - one organic and one inorganic - to co-operate. The organic counterpart catches the toxic particles, and the inorganic one destroys them by photocatalysis. Ultrasonic manipulation also significantly widens the active surface and chemical heterogeneity of the new material, allowing for higher detoxification efficiency against the "bad guys" from the air. "Thanks to the ultrasound waves, we get excellent dispersion and the layer of graphite oxide sort of rests on the surface of titanium dioxide," says prof. Colmenares. Initially, researchers planned to incorporate this material as an additional filter layer for soldiers' gas masks, or into fabrics, making uniforms that would protect a soldier from toxic gaseous chemicals on the combat field. All this, providing the day, was sunny, and garment had additional LED lights activating photocatalysis. However, high absorptance can be achieved even in the dark.

However, although the invention has been tested on warfare agents, its potential applications are much broader and more peaceful.

One could, for example, make industrial suits for workers exposed to toxic vapors daily. "Just milligrams in a suit would be sufficient," says professor, "if only dispersed properly. The only downside is that potential fabrics should be artificial polymers rather than natural cotton or flax," he smiles lightly. Scientists would also have to find a way to fasten their nanomaterial to the carrier fabric more securely as clothes get washed. We know that nearly 35% of microplastic found in the environment comes from synthetic clothes and washed linen. "We would not like our nanomaterial to end in rivers and seas," says the professor. "We aim for being environmentally friendly all the way, not only at the level of destroying air toxins." Although, as shown earlier by Dimitrios A. Giannakoudakis, the first author of the current work published in the Chemical Engineering Journal and other members of the international team, by ultrasonication, the active phases can be anchored quickly and stably both on cotton and carbon textiles.

If adequately modified, the same technology could help purify not only air but also water and soil. "We have not examined these possibilities yet," says prof. Colmenares, "but it mainly depends on whether we would safely deposit our nanomaterial on possible future carriers/substrates. While purifying water from toxins, we would not like to pollute it with these oxides; we would not want nanotoxicity, although in theory neither TiO2 nor graphite oxide is toxic to humans," explains the scientist. "After all, who was not chewing on a pencil while at school?"

If we resolved this issue, we could say, "sky is the limit." New material could detoxify sewage in paper and coke industries or even neutralize highly toxic remnants of World War II, lying deep in the Baltic Sea. "For now, we aim at sewage plants," says the professor. "Photocatalysis and nanocomposites can help where microbes cannot because the environment is too toxic for them."

Photocatalysis of the soil is the greatest challenge. However, even this is imaginable with proper mixing, lighting, and a proper photocatalyst, for example, to remove herbicides or pesticides.

Cleaner air is within active reach. For cleaner water and soil, we would have to wait a little longer for an optimum solution, but scientists from IPC PAN are just starting their quest for a better, cleaner environment by sustainable approaches for us all.

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Acknowledgments: the National Science Centre in Poland within OPUS-13 project No 2017/25/B/ST8/01592 and project Miniatura 2 No 2018/02/X/ST5/03531.

The Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (http://www.ichf.edu.pl/) was established in 1955 as one of the first chemical institutes of the PAS. The Institute's scientific profile is strongly related to the newest global trends in the development of physical chemistry and chemical physics. Scientific research is conducted in nine scientific departments. CHEMIPAN R&D Laboratories, operating as part of the Institute, implement, produce and commercialize specialist chemicals to be used, in particular, in agriculture and pharmaceutical industry. The Institute publishes approximately 200 original research papers annually.

Desk-based jobs may offer protection against poor cognition in later life

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

People who work in jobs that require less physical activity - typically office and desk-based jobs - are at a lower risk of subsequent poor cognition than those whose work is more physically active, suggests new research from the University of Cambridge.

Lack of physical activity and exercise are known risk factors for major health conditions, including cognitive impairments such as memory and concentration problems. However, evidence as to whether physical activity actually protects against cognitive decline has often been mixed and inconclusive.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge examined patterns of physical activity among 8,500 men and women who were aged 40-79 years old at the start of the study and who had a wide range of socioeconomic backgrounds and educational attainment. The individuals were all part of the EPIC-Norfolk Cohort. In particular, the team were able to separate physical activity during work and leisure to see if these had different associations with later life cognition.

"The often used mantra 'what is good for the heart, is good for the brain' makes complete sense, but the evidence on what we need to do as individuals can be confusing," said Shabina Hayat from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge. "With our large cohort of volunteers, we were able to explore the relationship between different types of physical activity in a variety of settings."

As part of the study, participants completed a health and lifestyle questionnaire, including information on the level of physical activity during both work and leisure, and underwent a health examination. After an average 12 years, the volunteers were invited back and completed a battery of tests that measured aspects of their cognition, including memory, attention, visual processing speed and a reading ability test that approximates IQ.

While many studies have only been able to report cross-sectional findings, the ability to follow up EPIC-Norfolk participants over a long period allowed the researchers to examine data prospectively. This helped them rule out any bias resulting from people with poor cognition - possibly as a result of cognitive impairment or early dementia - being less likely to be physically active due to poor cognition, rather than poor cognition being a result of physical inactivity.

Among their findings, published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology, the researchers report:

• Individuals with no qualifications were more likely to have physically active jobs, but less likely to be physically active outside of work.
• A physically inactive job (typically a desk-job), is associated with lower risk of poor cognition, irrespective of the level of education. Those who remained in this type of work throughout the study period were the most likely to be in the top 10% of performers.
• Those in manual work had almost three times increased risk of poor cognition than those with an inactive job.

"Our analysis shows that the relationship between physical activity and cognitive is not straightforward," explained Hayat. "While regular physical activity has considerable benefits for protection against many chronic diseases, other factors may influence its effect on future poor cognition.

"People who have less active jobs - typically office-based, desk jobs - performed better at cognitive tests regardless of their education. This suggests that because desk jobs tend to be more mentally challenging than manual occupations, they may offer protection against cognitive decline."

It was not possible to say conclusively that physical activity in leisure time and desk-based work offer protection against cognitive decline. The researchers say that to answer this question, further studies will be required to include a more detailed exploration of the relationship of physical activity with cognition, particularly on inequalities across socio-economic groups and the impact of lower education.

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The research was supported by the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK and the National Institute for Health Research.

Reference

Hayat, SA et al. Cross-sectional and prospective relationship between occupational and leisure time inactivity and cognitive function in an ageing population. The European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition in Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk) Study.

A chemical cocktail of air pollution in Beijing, China during COVID-19 outbreak

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

 

IMAGE: CHANGES IN PRIMARY AEROSOLS, GASEOUS PRECURSORS, AND SECONDARY AEROSOLS DURING THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK AND CHINESE NEW YEAR HOLIDAY. view more 

CREDIT: HAO LI

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spreads rapidly around the world, and has limited people's outdoor activities substantially. Air quality is therefore expected to be improved due to reduced anthropogenic emissions. However, in some megacities it has not been improved as expected and severe haze episodes still occurred during the COVID-19 lockdown.

A research team led by Prof. Yele Sun from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed six-year aerosol particle composition measurements to investigate responses of air quality to the changes in anthropogenic emissions during the COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing, China, as well as the Chinese New Year holiday effects on air pollution.

They found that air pollution during the COVID-19 lockdown was mainly due to different chemical responses of primary and secondary aerosols to changes in anthropogenic emissions.

"Primary gaseous and aerosol species responded directly to emission changes and decreased substantially by 30-50%", said Sun. "However, secondary aerosol species that are formed from oxidation of gaseous precursors and accounted for more than 70% of particulate matter remained small changes of less than 12%. Therefore, fine particle pollution hasn't been improved as expected."

The air quality in Beijing has been improved during the last decade, and the mass concentrations of both primary and secondary pollutants decreased considerably.

However, according to this new study published in Sci. Total Environ, the increased sulfur and nitrogen oxidation capacity have suppressed the effects of emission reductions due to enhanced secondary formation.

These findings highlight a great challenge for mitigating secondary air pollution in regions with a cocktail of high concentrations of gaseous precursors.

"There's an urgent need for a better understanding of the chemical interactions between precursors and secondary aerosol under complex meteorological environments," said Sun.

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Remdesivir can save more lives where ICUs are overwhelmed: BU study

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

 

Amid news that the United States has bought up virtually the entire global supply of remdesivir, a new Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study outlines how the drug could save lives in countries with less hospital capacity, such as South Africa, where COVID-19 is beginning to overwhelm intensive care units (ICUs).

Recent research has suggested that remdesivir can reduce deaths from COVID-19 by as much as 30%, but has a more significant effect on how long patients need intensive care, from an average of 15 days down to an average of 11 days.

The peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, estimates that remdesivir's ability to shorten ICU stays could increase the number of patients treated in South Africa's ICUs by more than 50%. This increased capacity could save as many as 6,862 lives per month as the country's cases peak. Add to that the potential lives saved directly from remdesivir treatment, and the drug could prevent the deaths of as many as 13,647 South Africans by December.

"There are many countries with limited ICU capacity that could benefit from this double impact on mortality," says study lead author Dr. Brooke Nichols, assistant professor of global health at BUSPH.

"Why would you use a drug--that has limited availability--to save one life when that same drug could be used to save two lives?"

Nichols says she is worried by the news that the U.S. has bought up the remdesivir supply, especially if the government doesn't even make sure that priority goes to overwhelmed U.S. locations.

"Because more lives can be saved per person treated when using remdesivir in places where ICU resources are breached, using remdesivir when ICU resources are not breached would be a misallocation of scarce resources," she says.

Nichols and study co-authors in Boston and South Africa have been modeling South Africa's COVID epidemic to help the country's government make informed decisions, and previously predicted that the country's ICU capacity could be overwhelmed as early as this month. The hardest-hit province, the Western Cape, exceeded ICU capacity in June.

For the remdesivir study, the researchers used their South African National COVID-19 Epidemiology model to look at the estimated three to six months when severe cases will exceed the country's 3,450 available ICU beds. If every one of South Africa's ICU patients with COVID received remdesivir, reducing the average ICU stay, the researchers estimated that the number of patients treated in ICUs from June to December would increase from between 23,443 and 32,284 patients to between 36,383 and 47,820.

The mortality rate for COVID-19 in ICUs varies from country to country and hospital to hospital, so the number of lives saved from increased ICU capacity would also vary. The researchers modeled several different scenarios, finding increased ICU capacity in South Africa could save 685 lives per month if a patient who needed intensive care was just as likely to die in an ICU than outside of one. At the other extreme, the researchers estimated that the increased ICU capacity from remdesivir could save as many as 6,682 lives per month if almost all patients who required but didn't receive ICU care died, but those who did receive ICU care had a 50-50 change of surviving.

If direct treatment with remdesivir also saved the lives of an additional 30 percent of patients--the current estimate for the drug--then the researchers estimated that remdesivir's "double impact" could save as many as 13,647 lives in South Africa by December.

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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.

How to tackle climate change, food security and land degradation

Rutgers-led research highlights lesser-known options with fewer trade-offs

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A FARMER TENDS RICE FIELDS IN YEN BAI, VIETNAM, WHERE BALANCING GOALS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF ECOSYSTEMS IS CHALLENGING. OPTIONS LIKE IMPROVED CROPLAND MANAGEMENT, INCREASING SOIL CARBON, AGROFORESTRY,... view more 

CREDIT: PAMELA MCELWEE/RUTGERS UNIVERSITY-NEW BRUNSWICK

How can some of world's biggest problems - climate change, food security and land degradation - be tackled simultaneously?

Some lesser-known options, such as integrated water management and increasing the organic content of soil, have fewer trade-offs than many well-known options, such as planting trees, according to a Rutgers-led study in the journal Global Change Biology.

"We argue that if we want to have an impact on multiple problems, we need to be smart about what options get us multiple benefits and which options come with potential trade-offs," said lead author Pamela McElwee, an associate professor in the Department of Human Ecology in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. "We found that many of the better-known solutions to climate mitigation and land degradation come with a lot of potentially significant trade-offs."

The idea of planting trees in vast areas to remove carbon dioxide from the air and reduce the impact of climate change, for example, has attracted a lot of attention, with some claiming it's the best "low-hanging fruit" approach to pursue, McElwee said. But large-scale tree planting could conflict directly with food security because both compete for available land. It could also diminish biodiversity, if fast-growing exotic trees replace native habitat.

Some potential options that don't get as much attention globally, but are quite promising with fewer trade-offs, include integrated water management, reducing post-harvest losses in agriculture, improving fire management, agroforestry (integrating trees and shrubs with croplands and pastures) and investing in disaster risk management, she said.

The study examined possible synergies and trade-offs with environmental and development goals. It was based on a massive literature review - essentially 1,400 individual literature reviews - conducted by scientists at many institutions. They compared 40 options to tackle the interrelated problems of climate change, food security and land degradation and looked for trade-offs or co-benefits with 18 categories of services provided by ecosystems, such as clean air and clean water, and the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals. The work was done as part of an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate Change and Land released last year. Such reports offer only highlights, and this study includes all the details.

Several interventions show potentially significant negative impacts on sustainable development goals and ecosystem services. These include bioenergy (plant-based sources of energy such as wood fuels or ethanol) and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, large-scale afforestation and some risk-sharing measures, such as commercial crop insurance.

The results show that a better understanding of the benefits and trade-offs of different policy approaches can help decision-makers choose the more effective - or at least the more benign - interventions.

"Policy officials can't always undertake the kind of work we did, so we hope our findings provide a useful shorthand for decision-makers," McElwee said. "We hope it helps them make the choices needed to improve future policy, such as strengthened pledges to tackle climate mitigation under the 2015 Paris Agreement. There are a lot of potential steps for reducing carbon emissions that aren't as well-known but should be on the table."

Soy and wheat proteins helpful for building aging muscles, but not as potent as animal protein

THE PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: THESE MEALS ARE EXAMPLES OF VEGETARIAN MEALS THAT HELP BUILD MUSCLE PROTEINS BECAUSE THEY CONSIST OF A COMPLEMENTARY AND COMPLETE PROFILE OF ALL ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO CREDIT: ANITA BEAN

On a gram for gram basis, animal proteins are more effective than plant proteins in supporting the maintenance of skeletal muscle mass with advancing age, shows research presented this week at The Physiological Society's virtual early career conference Future Physiology 2020.

The number of vegans in the UK has quadrupled since 2006, meaning that there are around 600,000 vegans in Great Britain (1). While we know plant-based diets are beneficial for the environment, we don't actually know how healthy these diets are for keeping muscles strong in elderly people.

Scientists generally agree that the primary driver of muscle loss with age -- at least in healthy individuals -- is a reduction of muscle proteins being built from amino acids. These amino acids come from protein that we eat and are also formed when we exercise.

Oliver Witard of King's College London is presenting research at The Physiological Society's Future Physiology 2020 conference about soy and wheat proteins showing that a larger dose of these plant proteins is required to achieve a comparable response of building muscles.

Simply transitioning from an animal-based protein diet to a plant-based diet, without adjusting total protein intake, will likely to be detrimental to muscle health during ageing. A more balanced and less extreme approach to changing dietary behaviour, meaning eating both animal and plant-based proteins, is best.

Witard and his colleagues conducted carefully controlled laboratory studies in human volunteers that involve the ingestion of plant compared with animal-based protein sources. To test changes in participants' muscles, they use several techniques including stable isotope methodology, blood sampling, and skeletal muscle biopsies to see how quickly the muscles were building up from amino acids.

It's important to note that this research to date has only compared two plant-based protein sources, namely soy and wheat. The researchers in this field will be conducting further research on other promising plant proteins such as oat, quinoa and maize.

Commenting on the research, Oliver Witard said: "This research challenges the broad viewpoint that plant proteins don't help build muscles as much as animal protein by highlighting the potential of alternative plant-based protein sources to maintain the size and quality of ageing muscles."

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Colleges that emphasize activism have more civically engaged students

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

 

BINGHAMTON, NY -- Students tend to be more engaged in activism if the school that they attend emphasizes social and political issues, according to new research featuring faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

A research team including Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Student Affairs Administration John Zilvinskis examined survey responses to an experimental itemset of the National Survey of Student Engagement measuring behaviors related to student activism. The sample included 3,257 seniors from 22 four-year institutions.

The survey items had respondents measure, "How much does your institution emphasize the following?"

- Discussing social or political issues, causes, campaigns or organizations
- Participating in activities focused on social or political issues, causes, campaigns or organizations
- Organizing activities focused on social or political issues, causes, campaigns or organizations
- Being an informed and active citizen focused on social or political issues, causes, campaigns or organizations

For administrators and educators in higher education, the researchers found that institutions with higher averages of emphasized activism had students who were more likely to participate in these behaviors.

"The higher institutional averages could indicate that a culture of emphasizing activism leads to more student engagement in activism; however, there also may be a self-selection effect in that activists choose to attend institutions that hold these values," said Zilvinskis.

The researchers also found that Black students and queer students were significantly more likely than other respondents to participate in activism.

"Our country has a history of marginalizing people from these groups, so I suspect they are more motivated to engage in activism behaviors to create more equitable experiences," said Zilvinskis. "The disappointing counter-finding is that their straight and White peers are not as engaged in activism."

Zilvinskis is now researching student participation in high-impact practices at community colleges and the engagement of students with disabilities at these institutions.

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The paper, "Measuring Institutional Effects on Student Activism," was published in the Journal of College Student Development.