Coming out as bisexual associated with increased risk of smoking: BU study

BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

For many years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual (LGB+) folks have been known to be more likely to smoke than their straight counterparts.

But a new, first-of-its-kind Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) study paints a more precise picture by looking at LGB+ identities separately and over time, finding that bisexuality is the identity most associated with smoking, especially around the time of coming out.

Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the nationally-representative cohort study followed 7,843 youth and young adults over three years, finding that those who came out as bisexual were twice as likely as consistently-heterosexual participants to start smoking. Coming out as lesbian, gay, or another non-heterosexual identity, or having a consistent LG+ identity, was not associated with being more likely to smoke.

The study "highlights the importance of moving beyond static measures of sexual identity towards more dynamic measures that capture critical periods of vulnerability," says Dr. Andrew Stokes, assistant professor of global health at BUSPH and the study's corresponding author.

"This approach turned out to be really important, because it revealed disparities that would have otherwise been missed if we measured identity at one time point, or grouped all LGB+ identities together," says study lead author Alyssa Harlow, a doctoral candidate at BUSPH.

"Bisexual young people may face unique forms of discrimination and stigma that increase their risk for smoking or other substance use behaviors," she says. "For example, they may experience stigma from heterosexual individuals as well as from within the LGB+ community. There's also prior research that shows that bisexual populations have worse mental health outcomes than LG+ populations.

'The findings point to a need for public health interventions specifically designed to address the unique needs, experiences, and stressors associated with coming out and identifying as bisexual," Harlow says.

For the study, the researchers used data from the first four waves of the nationwide Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, which surveyed the same 14-29-year-olds three times between 2013 and 2018. (There were too few transgender respondents in this sample for the researchers to include gender identity in their analysis.) The researchers adjusted for other variables including sex, age, race/ethnicity, education level (for participants over 18) and parents' education level (for participants under 18), and where participants lived (urban/nonurban, and region of the U.S.).

By the third wave, 14% of the respondents had smoked at some point, and 6% were current smokers. The researchers found that the same sexual identity patterns held true both for having smoked at any point in the study period and for being a current smoker.

The researchers found that, compared to a consistent heterosexual identity, coming out as bisexual was associated with being more than twice as likely to smoke. Participants with LG+ identities in the first wave who shifted to a bisexual identity, or vice versa, were twice as likely to smoke.

On the other hand, participants with a consistent LG+ identity throughout the three waves of the study and participants who started out identifying as heterosexual and came out as LG+ were not more likely to smoke than those with a consistent heterosexual identity--while those with a consistent bisexual identity were slightly more likely to smoke.

The researchers say that the study's unique approach to LGB+ identities--separated and over time--could provide valuable insights for other issues that disproportionately affect the community, including mental health issues and substance use.

But to make that possible, more national surveys need to ask youth about their sexual orientation and gender identity, says study co-author Dielle Lundberg, a research fellow at BUSPH.

"The PATH study is unique because it asks youth about their sexual orientation and gender identity. Most national surveys do not," Lundberg says.

"We must advocate for better data. Whenever national surveys fail to ask about sexual orientation and gender identity, they are directly contributing to health inequities for LGBTQ+ populations."

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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.

 

Study suggests most humans are vulnerable to type 2 diabetes

INDIANA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS AT IU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE HAVE PUBLISHED A STUDY SUGGESTING MOST HUMANS ARE VULNERABLE TO TYPE 2 DIABETES. view more 

CREDIT: IU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Scientists have found that insulin has met an evolutionary cul-de-sac, limiting its ability to adapt to obesity and thereby rendering most people vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes.

A recent study from scientists at Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and Case Western Reserve University has determined that the sequence of insulin has become entrenched at the edge of impaired production, an intrinsic vulnerability unmasked by rare mutations in the insulin gene causing diabetes in childhood. The study exploits biophysical concepts and methods to relate protein chemistry to the emerging field of evolutionary medicine.

Insulin is produced by a series of highly specific processes that occur in specialized cells, called beta cells. A key step is the folding of a biosynthetic precursor, called proinsulin, to achieve the hormone's functional three-dimensional structure. Past studies from this and other groups have suggested that impaired biosynthesis could be the result of diverse mutations that hinder the foldability of proinsulin.

This group sought to determine if the evolution of insulin in vertebrates--including humans--has encountered a roadblock. Has a complex series of steps imposed constraints that have frozen the sequence of insulin at a precipice of non-foldability? And if so, has this left humankind vulnerable to Type 2 diabetes as a pandemic disease of civilization?

According to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the answers are yes and yes.

"Biological processes ordinarily evolve to be robust, and this protects us in the majority of cases from birth defects and diseases," said Michael Weiss, MD, PhD, Distinguished Professor at IU School of Medicine and lead investigator of the study. "Yet diabetes seems to be an exception."

Weiss and team looked at a subtle mutation in human insulin in relation to the insulins of other animals, such as cows and porcupines. The mutant human insulin functions within the range of natural variation among animal insulins, and yet this mutation has been excluded by evolution. The answer to this seeming paradox is that the forbidden mutation selectively blocks the folding of proinsulin and stresses beta cells.

The group discovered that even the slightest variation of the insulin-sequencing process not only impairs insulin folding (and eventual insulin secretion) but also induces cellular stress that leads to beta cell dysfunction and eventually permanent damage.

Weiss, who is also Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and a Precision Health Initiative Professor, said that the study highlights the importance of folding efficiency as a critical but hidden factor in the evolution of insulin over the past 540 million years. Humans have evolved to be vulnerable to diverse mutations in the insulin gene and that this vulnerability underlies a rare monogenic form of diabetes and provides an evolutionary backdrop to the present obesity-related diabetes pandemic.

National experts agree that this discovery provides key insight to better understanding the development of Type 2 diabetes in adults and children--which both are rising at alarming rates in Indiana and around the world.

"This study is a tour de force unraveling key elements of the structural biology of insulin that affect its synthesis and function," said Barbara Kahn, MD, George R. Minot Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. "The authors highlight the fact that the insulin gene has been susceptible throughout evolution to mutations that impair insulin's function or stress beta cells. As we approach the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin, these elegant observations might lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of Type 2 diabetes."

Director of the University of Chicago Kolver Diabetes Center Louis Philipson, MD, agreed, adding that findings will shape future approaches to research in this area.

"The present findings define a major question for the future: whether harmful misfolding of proinsulin seen in patients bearing INS gene variants may also occur, at lower levels perhaps, but more broadly in the population of human Type 2 diabetes patients around the world," Philipson said.

Next, the group will work to fully define the sequence determinants that make proinsulin foldable in beta cells. Their hope is that this work will eventually lead to a new category of drugs that mitigate the cellular stress caused by proinsulin's precarious foldability and target cellular stress in beta cells, thereby preserving insulin-production for high-risk patients.

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This study was led by co-first authors Nischay Rege, MD, PhD, of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine; Ming Liu, MD, PhD, of the University of Michigan Medical School; and Yanwu Yang, PhD, of IU School of Medicine. Additional authors are Balamurugan Dhayalan, PhD, and Yen-Shan Chen, PhD, at IU School of Medicine; Nalinda P. Wickramasinghe, PhD, Leili Rahimi, MD, Nelson Phillips, PhD, and Faramarz Ismail-Beigi, MD, PhD at Case Western Reserve University; and Huan Guo, MS, Leena Haataja, PhD, Jinhong Sun, MD, and Peter Arvan, MD, PhD, at the University of Michigan.

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health to Professors Weiss, Ismail-Beigi, Phillips and Arvan.

 

Astronomers discover clues that unveil the mystery of fast radio bursts

UNLV astrophysicist Bing Zhang contributes to understanding the physical mechanisms of fast radio bursts in three papers published in Nature

UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, LAS VEGAS

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE FIVE-HUNDRED-METER APERTURE SPHERICAL RADIO TELESCOPE (FAST) IN GUIZHOU, CHINA. view more 

CREDIT: (PHOTO CREDIT: BOJUN WANG, JINCHEN JIANG & QISHENG CUI)

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs - powerful, millisecond-duration radio waves coming from deep space outside the Milky Way Galaxy - have been among the most mysterious astronomical phenomena ever observed. Since FRBs were first discovered in 2007, astronomers from around the world have used radio telescopes to trace the bursts and look for clues on where they come from and how they're produced. 

UNLV astrophysicist Bing Zhang and international collaborators recently observed some of these mysterious sources, which led to a series of breakthrough discoveries reported in the journal Nature that may finally shed light into the physical mechanism of FRBs.

The first paper, for which Zhang is a corresponding author and leading theorist, was published in the Oct. 28 issue of Nature. 

"There are two main questions regarding the origin of FRBs," said Zhang, whose team made the observation using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou, China. "The first is what are the engines of FRBs and the second is what is the mechanism to produce FRBs. We found the answer to the second question in this paper."

Two competing theories have been proposed to interpret the mechanism of FRBs. One theory is that they're similar to gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful explosions in the universe. The other theory likens them more to radio pulsars, which are spinning neutron stars that emit bright, coherent radio pulses. The GRB-like models predict a non-varying polarization angle within each burst whereas the pulsar-like models predict variations of the polarization angle.

The team used FAST to observe one repeating FRB source and discovered 11 bursts from it. Surprisingly, seven of the 11 bright bursts showed diverse polarization angle swings during each burst. The polarization angles not only varied in each burst, the variation patterns were also diverse among bursts. 

"Our observations essentially rules out the GRB-like models and offers support to the pulsar-like models," said K.-J. Lee from the Kavli Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Peking University, and corresponding author of the paper.

Four other papers on FRBs were published in Nature on Nov. 4. These include multiple research articles published by the FAST team led by Zhang and collaborators from the National Astronomical Observatories of China and Peking University. Researchers affiliated with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and the Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2) group also partnered on the publications.

"Much like the first paper advanced our understanding of the mechanism behind FRBs, these papers solved the challenge of their mysterious origin," explained Zhang. 

Magnetars are incredibly dense, city-sized neutron stars that possess the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe. Magnetars occasionally make short X-ray or soft gamma-ray bursts through dissipation of magnetic fields, so they have been long speculated as plausible sources to power FRBs during high-energy bursts. 

The first conclusive evidence of this came on April 28, 2020, when an extremely bright radio burst was detected from a magnetar sitting right in our backyard - at a distance of about 30,000 light years from Earth in the Milky Way Galaxy. As expected, the FRB was associated with a bright X-ray burst. 

"We now know that the most magnetized objects in the universe, the so-called magnetars, can produce at least some or possibly all FRBs in the universe," said Zhang. 

The event was detected by CHIME and STARE2, two telescope arrays with many small radio telescopes that are suitable for detecting bright events from a large area of the sky. 

Zhang's team has been using FAST to observe the magnetar source for some time. Unfortunately, when the FRB occurred, FAST was not looking at the source. Nonetheless, FAST made some intriguing "non-detection" discoveries and reported them in one of the Nov. 4 Nature articles. During the FAST observational campaign, there were another 29 X-ray bursts emitted from the magnetar. However, none of these bursts were accompanied by a radio burst. 

"Our non-detections and the detections by the CHIME and STARE2 teams delineate a complete picture of FRB-magnetar associations," Zhang said. 

To put it all into perspective, Zhang also worked with Nature to publish a single-author review of the various discoveries and their implications for the field of astronomy. 

"Thanks to recent observational breakthroughs, the FRB theories can finally be reviewed critically," said Zhang. "The mechanisms of producing FRBs are greatly narrowed down. Yet, many open questions remain. This will be an exciting field in the years to come."

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Read More

"No pulsed radio emission during a bursting phase of a Galactic magnetar," published in the Nov. 4 issue of Nature.

"The physical mechanisms of fast radio bursts," published in the Nov. 4 issue of Nature. 

"Diverse polarization angle swings from a repeating fast radio burst source," published in the Oct. 28 issue of Nature. 

Cockroach mating habits and developmental features help uncover insect evolution

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that a "lost" family of cockroaches may be the missing link in the evolution of insects from prehistoric times to the present day

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Research News

 

IMAGE: FLUORESCENCE MICROSCOPY OF EMBRYO OF NOCTICOLA SP. (PHOTO BY FUJITA MARI) view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan - Often associated with dirty living conditions and the spread of disease, cockroaches understandably have a bad reputation. But of the 4,600 cockroach species alive today, only a few are considered pests, with most choosing to live in leaf litter, rotten logs, or caves, well away from human habitation.

Despite the discovery of fossils dating to the Carboniferous period ~320 million years ago, the evolution of modern cockroaches from these prehistoric ancestors remains a little hazy. To better understand the relationships among modern cockroaches and potentially shed light on their evolutionary history, researchers led by the University of Tsukuba turned to an often-overlooked group of predominantly cave-dwelling cockroaches called the Nocticolidae.

"Previous work indicated that Nocticolidae are a sister group to Corydiidae (sand-dwelling cockroaches), and that these two families, together with Lamproblattidae, are the most basal subgroups of the order Blattodea, which comprises cockroaches and termites," explains senior author of the study Professor Ryuichiro Machida. "Interestingly, similarities in wing design suggest that Nocticolidae species may also be the closest relatives of the extinct insect order Miomoptera, which is often thought to be the common ancestor of many present-day insects."

Somewhat unusually, mating habits and embryonic development can be used to classify and distinguish the various cockroach families. The researchers therefore examined the mating behavior, ootheca (egg sac) handling, and embryonic development of Nocticola sp. cockroaches, which belong to the family Nocticolidae.

Publishing their findings in a recent issue of Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny, the researchers observed that short-winged male Nocticola sp. cockroaches rapidly flapped their wings near females before entering into end-to-end copulation. After copulation, females produced an ootheca, which they carried for several days before depositing on the ground. Although such a unique wing-flapping behavior has not previously been observed in cockroaches, the other observed behaviors are consistent with the mating and ootheca handling of Corydiidae species, suggesting a close evolutionary relationship.

Notably though, symbiotic bacteria, which are common to other cockroach families, were not observed in Nocticola sp. However, the egg shape and embryonic development, with the embryo's orientation remaining unchanged, in Nocticola sp. were again consistent with Corydiidae.

"Given the consistencies in mating behavior, egg structure, ootheca handing, and embryonic development between Nocticola sp. and Corydiidae, we predict that there is a close association between Nocticolidae and Corydiidae, supporting a shared common ancestor," says Professor Machida. "Furthering our understanding of the phylogenetic position of Nocticolidae within Blattodea is essential for inferring the higher phylogeny and evolution of insects."

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The article, "Reproductive biology and embryonic development of Nocticola sp. (Blattodea: Nocticolidae)," was published in Arthropod Systematics & Phylogeny at DOI: 10.26049/ASP78-3-2020-03.

 

Game 'pre-bunks' political misinformation by letting players undermine democracy

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE TITLE SCREEN OF ONLINE BROWSER GAME HARMONY SQUARE. view more 

CREDIT: GUSMANSON

A short online game in which players are recruited as a "Chief Disinformation Officer", using tactics such as trolling to sabotage elections in a peaceful town, has been shown to reduce susceptibility to political misinformation in its users.

The free-to-play Harmony Square is released to the public today, along with a study on its effectiveness published in the Harvard Misinformation Review.

It has been created by University of Cambridge psychologists with support from the US Department of State's Global Engagement Center and Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The gameplay is based on "inoculation theory": that exposing people to a weak "dose" of common techniques used to spread fake news allows them to better identify and disregard misinformation when they encounter it in future.

In this case, by understanding how to incite political division in the game using everything from bots and conspiracies to fake experts, players get a form of "psychological vaccine" against the product of these techniques in the real world.

"Trying to debunk misinformation after it has spread is like shutting the barn door after the horse has bolted. By pre-bunking, we aim to stop the spread of fake news in the first place," said Dr Sander van der Linden, Director of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making lab and senior author of the new study.

Twitter has started using a "pre-bunk" approach: highlighting types of fake news likely to be encountered in feeds during the US election. However, researchers argue that familiarising people with techniques behind misinformation builds a "general inoculation", reducing the need to rebut each individual conspiracy.

In the 10-minute game Harmony Square, a small town neighbourhood "obsessed with democracy" comes under fire as players bait the square's "living statute", spread falsehoods about its candidate for "bear controller", and set up a disreputable online news site to attack the local TV anchor.

"The game itself is quick, easy and tongue-in-cheek, but the experiential learning that underpins it means that people are more likely to spot misinformation, and less likely to share it, next time they log on to Facebook or YouTube," said Dr Jon Roozenbeek, a Cambridge psychologist and lead author of the study.

Over the course of four short levels, users learn about five manipulation techniques: trolling to provoke outrage; exploiting emotional language to create anger and fear; artificially amplifying reach through bots and fake followers; creating and spreading conspiracy theories; polarizing audiences.

In a randomized controlled trial, researchers took 681 people and asked them to rate the reliability of a series of news and social media posts: some real, some misinformation, and even some faked misinformation created for the study, in case participants had already come across real-world examples.

They gave roughly half the sample Harmony Square to play, while the other half played Tetris, and then asked them to rate another series of news posts.

The perceived reliability of misinformation dropped an average of 16% in those who completed Harmony Square compared to their assessment prior to playing. The game also reduced willingness to share fake news with others by 11%. Importantly, the players' own politics - whether they leaned left or right - made no difference.

Having the "control group" who played Tetris allowed the scientists to determine an "effect size" of 0.54 for the study, said Van der Linden.

"The effect size suggests that if the population was split equally like the study sample, 63% of the half that played the game would go on to find misinformation significantly less reliable, compared to just 37% of the half left to navigate online information without the inoculation of Harmony Square," he said.

The project follows other playful attempts by CISA to illustrate how "foreign influencers" use disinformation to target "hot button" issues. A previous demonstration took the example of whether pineapple belongs on pizza.

However, Harmony Square is based on the findings of a number of studies from the Cambridge team showing how similar gamified approaches to digital literacy significantly reduce susceptibility to fake news and online conspiracies.

The team behind the game, which includes the Dutch media agency DROG and designers Gusmanson, have recently worked with the UK Cabinet Office on Go Viral!, an intervention that specifically tackles conspiracies around COVID-19.

Harmony Square is geared towards the politically charged misinformation that has plagued many democracies over the last decade. "The aftermath of this week's election day is likely to see an explosion of dangerous online falsehoods as tensions reach fever pitch," said Van der Linden.

"Fake news and online conspiracies will continue to chip away at the democratic process until we take seriously the need to improve digital media literacy across populations. The effectiveness of interventions such as Harmony Square are a promising start," he said.

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Scientists and students publish blueprints for a cheaper single-molecule microscope

UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

Research News

 

Scientists and students publish blueprints for a cheaper single-molecule microscope to make the specialist technique more widely available

• A team of scientists and students from the University of Sheffield has published the blueprints for a specialist single-molecule microscope they built for a tenth of the cost of commercially available equipment
• Their paper in Nature Communications provides labs with the build instructions and software needed to run the microscope
• The single-molecule method this microscope is capable of is currently only available in a few specialist labs throughout the world

A team of scientists and students from the University of Sheffield has designed and built a specialist microscope, and shared the build instructions to help make this equipment available to many labs across the world.

The microscope, called the smfBox, is capable of single-molecule measurements allowing scientists to look at one molecule at a time rather than generating an average result from bulk samples and works just as well as commercially available instruments.

This single-molecule method is currently only available at a few specialist labs throughout the world due to the cost of commercially available microscopes.

Today (6 November 2020), the team has published a paper in the journal Nature Communications which provides all the build instructions and software needed to run the microscope, to help make this single-molecule method accessible to labs across the world.

The interdisciplinary team spanning the University of Sheffield's Departments of Chemistry and Physics, and the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, spent a relatively modest £40,000 to build a piece of kit that would normally cost around £400,000 to buy.

The microscope was built with simplicity in mind so that researchers interested in biological problems can use it with little training, and the lasers have been shielded in such a way that it can be used in normal lighting conditions, and is no more dangerous than a CD player.

Dr Tim Craggs, the lead academic on the project from the University of Sheffield, said: "We wanted to democratise single-use molecule measurements to make this method available for many labs, not just a few labs throughout the world. This work takes what was a very expensive, specialist piece of kit, and gives every lab the blueprint and software to build it for themselves, at a fraction of the cost.

"Many medical diagnostics are moving towards increased sensitivity, and there is nothing more sensitive than detecting single molecules. In fact, many new COVID tests currently under development work at this level. This instrument is a good starting point for further development towards new medical diagnostics."

The original smfBox was built by a team of academics and undergraduate students at the University of Sheffield.

Ben Ambrose, the PhD lead on the project, said: "This project was an excellent opportunity to work with researchers at all levels, from undergraduates to scientists in national facilities. Between biophysicists and engineers, we have created a new and accessible platform to do some cutting edge science without breaking the bank. We are already starting to do some great work with this microscope ourselves, but I am excited to see what it will do in the hands of other labs who have already begun to build their own."

The Craggs Lab at the University of Sheffield has already used the smfBox in its research to investigate fundamental biological processes, such as DNA damage detection, where improved understanding in this field could lead to better therapies for diseases including cancer.

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 Here's how to improve packaged foods nutrition

News from the Journal of Marketing

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Research News

 

Researchers from Illinois State University, North Carolina State University, University of South Carolina, and University of Maryland published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the impact of moving nutrition labels, typically placed on the back of product packages, to the front.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Competitive Effects of Front-of-Package Nutrition Labeling Adoption on Nutritional Quality: Evidence from Facts Up Front Style Labels" and is authored by Joon Ho Lim, Rishika Rishika, Ramkumar Janakiraman, and P.K. Kannan.

Can changing food packaging improve product nutrition quality? While this change may be simple, there's a lot at stake.

Diet-related chronic diseases impose a growing burden on the United States economy by increasing costs of health care and widening diet-related health disparities. Since the 1970s, the American diet has shifted considerably towards foods higher in calories and lower in nutritional quality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, more than one-third of American adults are obese. Childhood and adolescent obesity rates have also skyrocketed in the last 30 years with one in five school-aged children considered obese. To combat this disconcerting trend, public policy makers, food manufacturers, and grocery retailers have made efforts over time to design nutrition labels that can educate consumers about the nutritional value of the foods they purchase and help consumers make healthier choices. The World Health Organization (WHO) also considers nutrition labeling to be a key policy option for promoting healthier diets.

The packaged food industry has voluntarily taken steps to inform consumers about the nutritional value of food products so that consumers can make better choices. One such initiative undertaken by is the Front-of-Package (FOP) nutrition label. FOP nutrition labels are voluntarily adopted by food manufacturers and provide nutrient information on the front of food packaging in a clear, simple, and easy-to-read format. The FOP labels present the key information listed on the Nutrition Facts Panel (NFP; displayed on the back or side of food packages) more concisely and often include calorie content and the amounts of key nutrients to limit (e.g., saturated fat, sugar, and sodium per serving). In an innovative study, our research team assessed the effect of the introduction of a FOP nutrition label in a product category on the nutritional quality of food products in the category.

The study reports four sets of findings. First, the adoption of FOP nutrition labeling in a product category results in a significant improvement in the nutritional quality of food products in that category. Second, the effect of FOP is stronger for premium (high-priced) brands and brands with a narrower product line breadth. Third, the FOP adoption effect is stronger for unhealthy categories and categories with a higher competitive intensity. Fourth, manufacturers increase the nutritional quality of products by reducing the calorie content and limiting nutrients such as sugar, sodium, and saturated fat.

Lim explains that "This implies that policy makers, in partnership with food manufacturers and retailers, should encourage adoption of voluntary, standardized, and transparent labeling programs and consider options for broadening the information presented in FOP labels. We believe that policy makers should also invest in educational campaigns that inform consumers about the value of FOP labels and that would further incentivize food manufacturers to offer nutritionally better products."

For food manufacturers, the results suggest that they must devote significant resources to product innovation to stay competitive. Specifically, manufacturers in unhealthy and more competitive categories can be more strategic and invest in innovation so they are ready to provide better products following FOP adoption. Rishika adds that "Food retailers should partner with manufacturers and give them incentives to adopt FOP because this can lead to better-quality products for their consumers and help build a positive brand image. Retailers can also promote products with FOP labels, especially in more competitive and unhealthy product categories, which can spur manufacturers toward more innovation and lead to an increase in the nutritional quality of foods over time." The researchers encourage retailers to invest in measures that help monitor and track sales of products with FOP labels and provide this feedback to their manufacturers regularly to speed up the competitive effect of FOP labels. For consumers, the study finds that the brands that adopted FOP labeling offer nutritionally superior products than those that did not adopt the labeling. This result is particularly helpful for time-starved consumers looking to purchase relatively healthier products.

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Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0022242920942563

About the Journal of Marketing

The Journal of Marketing develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions useful to scholars, educators, managers, policy makers, consumers, and other societal stakeholders around the world. Published by the American Marketing Association since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline. Christine Moorman (T. Austin Finch, Sr. Professor of Business Administration at the Fuqua School of Business, Duke University) serves as the current Editor in Chief.

https://www.ama.org/jm

About the American Marketing Association (AMA)

As the largest chapter-based marketing association in the world, the AMA is trusted by marketing and sales professionals to help them discover what's coming next in the industry. The AMA has a community of local chapters in more than 70 cities and 350 college campuses throughout North America. The AMA is home to award-winning content, PCM® professional certification, premiere academic journals, and industry-leading training events and conferences.

https://www.ama.org

Keeping our cool

To limit global warming, the global food system must be reimagined

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA BARBARA

Research News

 

Fossil fuel burning accounts for the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions, and to the world's credit, several countries are working to reduce their use and the heat-trapping emissions that ensue. The goal is to keep global temperatures under a 1.5° to 2°C increase above preindustrial levels -- the upper limits of the Paris Climate Agreement.

If we stopped burning all fossil fuels this minute, would that be enough to keep a lid on global warming?

Acording to UC Santa Barbara ecology professor David Tilman, petroleum energy sources are only part of the picture. In a paper published in the journal Science, Tilman and colleagues predict that even in the absence of fossil fuels, cumulative greenhouse gas emissions could still cause global temperatures to exceed climate change targets in just a few decades.

The source? Our food system.

"Global food demand and the greenhouse gases associated with it are on a trajectory to push the world past the one-and-a-half degree goal, and make it hard to stay under the two degree limit," said Tilman, who holds a dual appointment at UCSB's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and at the University of Minnesota. The world's growing population as well as its diet are driving food production practices that generate and release massive and increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. According to the paper, left unchecked, agricultural emissions alone could exceed the 1.5°C limit by about 2050.

These findings are especially concerning given that we haven't stopped using fossil fuels, Tilman said. And with a 1°C average increase in global temperature since 1880, we've got only a slim margin before global warming results in widespread sea level rise, ocean acidification, biodiversity loss and other effects that will change life as we know it.

"All it would take for us to exceed the two degree warming limit is for food emissions to remain on their path and one additional year of current fossil fuel emissions," Tilman said. "And I guarantee you, we're not going to stop fossil fuel emissions in a year."

Reducing the emissions from food production, "will likely be essential" to keeping the planet livable in its current state, according to the scientists.

Seeds of Solutions

"It's well known that agriculture releases about 30% of all greenhouse gases," Tilman said. Major sources include deforestation and land clearing, fertilizer overuse and gassy livestock, all of which are increasing as the global population increases. In "high-yield" countries such as the U.S., which have the benefit of large scale modern agriculture, intensive animal farming and heavy-handed fertilizer use are major contributors of greenhouse gases. Meanwhile, in "low yield" countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, population growth and increasing affluence are driving demand for more food, and toward more "urban" diets that are richer in meat and meat products, Tilman explained.

"Their demand for food is going up, but the farmers don't have the resources to have high yields, so they just clear more and more land," he said.

And yet, it isn't as though we can just stop producing food, which is perhaps the main reason why agricultural emissions have received less attention than fossil fuels as a target for reduction, according to the researchers.

"You can't look at agriculture as if we can somehow get rid of it," said Tilman, whose research focuses on the environmental impacts of agriculture, as well as the links between diet, environment and health. "We need it; it's essential for society."

But, according to the paper's authors, global warming does not have to be an unavoidable impact of feeding the the world. Through early and widespread adoption of several feasible food system strategies, it is possible to limit emissions from agriculture in a way that keeps us from exceeding the 2°C limit by the end of the century while feeding a growing population.

The most effective, according to the paper, is a switch toward more plant-rich diets, which aren't just healthier overall, but also reduce the demand for beef and other ruminant meats. That, in turn, reduces the pressure to clear for grazing land or produce the grains and grasses (more farming, more fertilizer) required to feed them.

"We're not saying these diets have to be vegetarian or vegan," Tilman said. Widespread reduction of red meat consumption to once a week and having protein come from other sources such as chicken or fish, while increasing fruits and vegetables, in conjunction with decreasing fossil fuel use, could help keep the planet livably cool in the long run.

Another strategy: ease up on fertilizer.

"Many countries have high yields because from 1960 until now they have been using more and more fertilizer," he said. "But recent research has shown that almost all of these countries are actually using much more than they need to attain the yield they have." A drop of roughly 30% in fertilizer use would not only save the farmer money for the same yield, it prevents the release of nitrous oxide that occurs when excess fertilizer goes unused.

"About 40% of all future climate warming from agriculture may come from nitrous oxide from fertilizer," Tilman added. "So adding the right amount of fertilizer has a large benefit for climate change and would save farmers money."

Other strategies the researchers explored included adjusting global per capita calorie consumption to healthy levels; improving yields to help meet demand where it may reduce the pressure to clear more land; and reducing food waste by half.

"The nice thing is that we can do each of these things sort of halfway and still solve the problem," Tilman said. The sooner we employ these strategies, the closer we can get to keeping the Earth cool and avoiding the wholesale changes we would have to adopt if we wait too much longer, he added.

"I'm optimistic," he said. "We have a viable path for achieving global environmental sustainability and better lives for all of us."

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Ecologically friendly agriculture doesn't compromise crop yields

Increasing diversity in crop production benefits biodiversity without compromising yields, according to an international study examining diversified and simplified agricultural practices.

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Research News

 

IMAGE: INCREASING DIVERSITY IN CROP PRODUCTION BENEFITS BIODIVERSITY WITHOUT COMPROMISING CROP YIELDS, ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH. view more 

CREDIT: JAMIL RHAJIAK / UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, COMMUNICATIONS & MARKETING.

Increasing diversity in crop production benefits biodiversity without compromising crop yields, according to an international study comparing 42,000 examples of diversified and simplified agricultural practices.

Diversification includes practices such as growing multiple crops in rotation, planting flower strips, reducing tillage, adding organic amendments that enrich soil life, and establishing or restoring species-rich habitat in the landscape surrounding the crop field.

"The trend is that we're simplifying major cropping systems worldwide," says Giovanni Tamburini at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and lead author of the study. "We grow monoculture on enlarged fields in homogenized landscapes. According to our study diversification can reverse the negative impacts that we observe in simplified forms of cropping on the environment and on production itself."

The research, published in Science Advances, is based on 5,188 studies with 41,946 comparisons between diversified and simplified agricultural practices. Crop yield was in general maintained at the same level or even increased under diversified practices. The enhanced biodiversity benefited pollination and pest regulation by natural predation. It also improved water regulation and preserved soil fertility. Diversification, however, had variable effects on climate regulation. In some cases, it increased greenhouse gas emissions.

"By bringing together so much data, this work powerfully shows the potential for diversified farming to maintain productivity while reducing environmental harms and sustaining biodiversity and ecosystem services," says Claire Kremen at the University of British Columbia and co-author of the study.

"However, we need to tune these techniques to specific crops and regions, maximize these benefits and reduce trade-offs that otherwise occur. Much more investment is needed to support adoption of diversified farming practices, through research, management incentives and extension programs."

Increasing biodiversity is assumed to enhance yields and ecosystem services such as pollination, pest regulation by natural enemies, nutrient turnover, water quality and climate change mitigation by carbon sequestration. Although much research has been invested to explore this, outcomes of diversification had not previously been synthesized. Further, the focus had mainly been diversification of crops and vegetation. Diversification of soil organisms is seldom recognized.

"An important next step is to identify which practices and conditions that result in positive or negative climate mitigation, and to avoid practices that give negative impacts," says Sara Hallin at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and co-author of the study.

Studies where yield had been examined together with one or more other ecosystem services were few but still many enough to analyze occurrence of win-win, trade-off and lose-lose situations. Win-win outcomes between yield and another service dominated with 63 % of the cases, but all other possible outcomes (i.e. representing tradeoffs between yield and ecosystem services) were also represented.

Many of the tested diversification practices are in use already today, but can be more widely adopted and combined both on and off the crop field.

How can we diversify our farming systems?

There are many ways to increase diversity both on and off the crop field. Farms can add crop species to crop rotations, or grow crops together in the same field with intercropping. Flowering crops provide pollen and nectar for pollinating and predatory insects. Farms can also support below-ground biodiversity by mulching crop residues and adding manure or minimizing soil disturbance by reducing tillage.

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Climate change and food demand could shrink species' habitats by almost a quarter by 2100

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

 

Mammals, birds and amphibians worldwide have lost on average 18% of their natural habitat range as a result of changes in land use and climate change, a new study has found. In a worst-case scenario this loss could increase to 23% over the next 80 years.

The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, analysed changes in the geographical range of 16,919 species from 1700 to the present day. The data were also used to predict future changes up to the year 2100 under 16 different climate and socio-economic scenarios.

A diverse abundance of species underpins essential ecosystem functions from pest regulation to carbon storage. Species' vulnerability to extinction is strongly impacted by their geographical range size, and devising effective conservation strategies requires a better understanding of how ranges have changed in the past, and how they will change under alternative future scenarios.

"The habitat size of almost all known birds, mammals and amphibians is shrinking, primarily because of land conversion by humans as we continue to expand our agricultural and urban areas," said Dr Robert Beyer in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology, first author of the report.

Some species are more heavily impacted than others. A worrying 16% of species have lost over half their estimated natural historical range, a figure that could rise to 26% by the end of the century.

Species' geographical ranges were found to have recently shrunk most significantly in tropical areas. Until around 50 years ago, most agricultural development was in Europe and North America. Since then, large areas of land have been converted for agriculture in the tropics: clearance of rainforest for oil palm plantations in South East Asia, and for pasture land in South America, for example.

As humans move their activities deeper into the tropics, the effect on species ranges is becoming disproportionately larger because of a greater species richness in these areas, and because the natural ranges of these species are smaller to begin with.

"The tropics are biodiversity hotspots with lots of small-range species. If one hectare of tropical forest is converted to agricultural land, a lot more species lose larger proportions of their home than in places like Europe," said Beyer.

The results predict that climate change will have an increasing impact on species' geographical ranges. Rising temperatures and changing rainfall patterns will alter habitats significantly, for example: other studies have predicted that without climate action, large parts of the Amazon may change from canopy rainforest to a savannah-like mix of woodland and open grassland in the next 100 years.

"Species in the Amazon have adapted to living in a tropical rainforest. If climate change causes this ecosystem to change, many of those species won't be able to survive - or they will at least be pushed into smaller areas of remaining rainforest," said Beyer.

He added: "We found that the higher the carbon emissions, the worse it gets for most species in terms of habitat loss."

The results provide quantitative support for policy measures aiming at limiting the global area of agricultural land - for example by sustainably intensifying food production, encouraging dietary shifts towards eating less meat, and stabilising population growth.

The conversion of natural vegetation to agricultural and urban land, and the transformation of suitable habitat caused by climate change are major causes of the decline in range sizes, and two of the most important threats to global terrestrial biodiversity.

"Whether these past trends in habitat range losses will reverse, continue, or accelerate will depend on future global carbon emissions and societal choices in the coming years and decades," Professor Andrea Manica in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology, who led the study.

He added: "While our study quantifies the drastic consequences for species' ranges if global land use and climate change are left unchecked, they also demonstrate the tremendous potential of timely and concerted policy action for halting - and indeed partially reversing - previous trends in global range contractions. It all depends on what we do next."

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