Virginia Tech lab proves the concept of a natural approach to antiperspirants

VIRGINIA TECH

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE NATURE-INSPIRED FLUIDS AND INTERFACES LAB CREATED A SIMULATED SWEAT GLAND EXPERIMENT TO TEST THE THEORY OF NATURAL CLOGGING OF PORES. view more 

CREDIT: VIRGINIA TECH

Sweating is a natural function of the human body, allowing a body to cool itself as sweat emerges from glands and evaporates. Separately, this process may produce odors as bacteria present on the skin break down sweat proteins. A deodorant kills the bacteria that produce the odor, while an antiperspirant clogs sweat ducts to prevent sweat from emerging in the first place.

This clogging is commonly achieved by the use of metallic salts. There remains debate as to whether or not these metallic salts contribute to heath risks such as cancer, but demand by consumers for more natural alternatives to antiperspirants containing these metals (a sort of "just-in-case" scenario) is rapidly growing.

The Virginia Tech Nature-Inspired Fluids and Interfaces Lab, led by Associate Profesor Jonathan Boreyko, has just made a major breakthrough in the study of natural antiperspirants. Their theory is this: If the sweat can begin to evaporate while still inside of the sweat duct, before it emerges onto the skin, the sweat's own minerals will crystallize to clog the duct. In other words, the mixture of sodium, choride, potassium, calcium, urea, and bicarbonates naturally present in sweat can do the same work as the metallic salts used in commercial antiperspirants.

Testing the theory

To explore this idea, the group constructed an artificial "sweat rig" to investigate the possibilities. They used a microchannel made from pulled glass to serve as an artificial sweat duct, and created the function of a sweat gland by using pressurized gas to push synthetic sweat across tubing and into the connected glass duct.

To prove the concept, three different scenarios were tested. The first was a control, where no product was placed near the artificial sweat duct. For the second test, researchers placed a dry cube of the organic, silicon-based polymer PDMS near the exit of the duct. Finally, for the third test, the PDMS cube was infused with propylene glycol, a chemical that is highly attractive to water. These three scenarios allowed for a direct comparison of how sweat flowed when the duct was completely open, versus near a regular object, versus near an evaporation-inducing object.

The team observed the flow of the synthetic sweat, which has the same minerals as natural sweat, by focusing a microscope on the artificial duct. For the first two scenarios, the sweat flowed freely from the outlet of the sweat duct, which would correspond to sweat emerging onto the skin. But for the third scenario, where the duct was placed close to the evaporation-inducing material, the duct became clogged within seconds. A gel-like plug formed within the duct near the exit, creating a seal. Even when the pressure pushing the liquid was increased, the clog was able to maintain the seal.

"Over the past few years in particular, I've noticed that my wife and many of her friends have been transitioning to more natural cosmetic and cleaning products," said Boreyko. "There is also an increasing push from regulatory agencies, particularly in Europe, to restrict the use of metals in antiperspirants. Our research has discovered the most natural antiperspirant in existence: the minerals within the sweat itself! It is exciting to find that simply making the sweat evaporate faster can cause natural mineral plugs that have the potential of replacing metal-based products in the future."

With the concept proven, the team is moving toward application. Possibilities for extending the concept to human trials could include using an applicator stick, similar in form to current products, or a wearable adhesive. In either case, the next goal is to demonstrate in a human trial that the proper water-attracting product could facilitate natural clogging from the body's own sweat.

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Findings from this research were published in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces on Nov. 16, 2020.

When temperatures rise, dog ticks more likely to choose humans over canines

New study presented at TropMed20 shows how climate change could expand and intensify the risk of disease that kills one in five if not treated early

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE & HYGIENE

VIDEO: FOR THEIR EXPERIMENT, THEY CONSTRUCTED TWO LARGE WOODEN BOXES MEASURING ABOUT 3 FEET TALL AND 2 FEET WIDE, WHICH WERE THEN CONNECTED TO EACH OTHER BY A CLEAR PLASTIC TUBE.... view more

CREDIT: DON PREISLER-UC DAVIS SCHOOL OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

Arlington, Va. (November 16, 2020) -- A variety of ticks that carry the bacteria causing the deadly disease Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) are more than twice as likely to shift their feeding preference from dogs to humans when temperatures rise, a sign that climate change could expand and intensify human disease risks, according to a new study presented today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

"Our work indicates that when the weather gets hot, we should be much more vigilant for infections of RMSF in humans," said Laura Backus, MPH, DVM, who led the study at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (UC-Davis). "We found that when temperatures rose from about 74 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, brown dog ticks that carry the disease were 2.5 times more likely to prefer humans over dogs."

Cases of RMSF and related diseases, collectively known as spotted fever rickettsiosis, have risen dramatically over the last 20 years. The disease is treatable with antibiotics if detected in the first week of infection, but once an infection takes hold, the fatality rate for RMSF victims can exceed 20%. Complications can include damaged blood vessels; inflammation of the heart, lungs or brain; and kidney failure. Over the last 10 years, public health authorities have been particularly alarmed by a rash of deadly RMSF outbreaks among indigenous communities in Arizona and northern Mexico.

Backus said there have been indications from earlier work that brown dog ticks, which are found throughout the continental United States, may be more aggressive toward humans in hot weather. And scientists warn that climate change is greatly expanding areas of the country experiencing multiple days when temperatures top 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 38 degrees Celsius. Backus and her colleagues at UC-Davis wanted to gain more definitive insights into how rising temperatures might elevate the risk of RMSF infections.

For their experiment, they constructed two large wooden boxes measuring about 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide, which were then connected to each other by a clear plastic tube. They conducted a series of tests that involved putting a human in one box, a dog in the other and ticks in the clear plastic tube between them. The researchers then observed, over 20-minute intervals, whether the ticks, which seek out hosts to feed on based on smell, preferred dogs or humans--first at temperatures of around 74 degrees Fahrenheit (23.3 degrees Celsius) and then at 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius).

Backus said that at the higher temperature, one type of brown dog tick, known as the tropical lineage tick, was especially decisive in shifting its preferences from dogs to humans. Currently, tropical lineage brown dog ticks are found across the southern regions of the United States, in places like Arizona, Florida, southern California and southern Georgia. However, Backus said that their range is expected to move northward as climate change causes average temperatures to rise.

Brown dog ticks belonging to another lineage, the temperate lineage, are found throughout the lower 48 states and may also carry RMSF. Backus said that while the temperate ticks showed only a slight increase in preference for humans over dogs in the higher temperature test, they exhibited a pronounced decrease in their preference for dogs. Many ticks simply shifted from clearly pro-dog to neutral--they did not move toward either subject.

"We believe that this decreased preference for dogs--combined with a slight increase in preference for humans--suggests that hot temperatures may also elevate risks of RMSF in areas where the temperate ticks are more common," Backus said.

She added that it's important to identify conditions that can increase infection risks--and put health officials on higher alert--because symptoms in the crucial early phase of RMSF, when it's relatively easy to treat, can be mistaken for a number of more common ailments. They include headache, fever and muscle aches. Backus said there is also a need for better diagnostic tests since the existing test is time-consuming and may produce false negatives.

"The findings from the use of this simple but effective laboratory experiment to gauge how rising temperatures might lead to more human infections with a very dangerous tick-borne pathogen adds to the growing evidence of the increasing connection between climate change and its impact on health," said ASTMH President Joel Breman, MD, DTPH, FASTM. "Climate change is moving so quickly that it is critical to keep pace with the many ways it may alter and intensify the risk of a wide range of infectious diseases so we are better prepared to diagnose, treat and prevent them."

###

About the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, founded in 1903, is the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases and improving global health. It accomplishes this through generating and sharing scientific evidence, informing health policies and practices, fostering career development, recognizing excellence, and advocating for investment in tropical medicine/global health research. For more information, visit astmh.org.

People who purchased firearms during pandemic more likely to be suicidal

Unsafe firearm storage increases the risk of suicide in houses with a firearm, Rutgers study says

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

People who purchase a firearm during the pandemic are more likely to be suicidal than other firearm owners, according to a Rutgers study.

The study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that about 70 percent of those who bought a firearm during the COVID-19 pandemic reported having suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, compared to 37 percent of the rest of the community of gun owners.

"People who were motivated to purchase firearms during COVID-19 might have been driven by anxiety that leaves them vulnerable to suicidal ideation," said Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health. "While this does not guarantee an increase in suicide rates, it represents an unusually large surge in risk made more troubling by the fact that firearms purchased during COVID-19 may remain in homes beyond the pandemic."

According to Anestis, more than 2.5 million Americans became first-time gun owners during the first four months of 2020, with an estimated two million firearms purchased alone in March 2020 when the initial surge of the coronavirus pandemic began.

"Firearm owners are usually no more likely than non-firearm owners to experience suicidal thoughts. It is possible that a higher-risk group is driving the current firearm purchasing surge, introducing long-term suicide risk into the homes of individuals who otherwise may not have acquired firearms during a time of extended social isolation, economic uncertainty and general upheaval," Anestis said.

In the Rutgers study, researchers surveyed 3,500 Americans, approximately one-third of whom were firearm owners, and asked about their reasons for purchasing a gun during the pandemic, their methods of gun storage and whether they had ever experienced thoughts of suicide. The study looked at three groups: people who were existing firearm owners who did not purchase a firearm during the pandemic, people who purchased a firearm during the pandemic and non-firearm owners.

The study found that, of those who bought a firearm during the pandemic, 70 percent had experienced suicidal thoughts throughout their lives, 56 percent had experienced suicidal thoughts during the previous year and 25 percent had experienced suicidal thoughts during the previous month. By contrast, individuals who did not buy guns during the pandemic were only 56 percent, 24 percent and 12 percent respectively likely to have had suicidal thoughts during those time periods.

People who purchased a firearm during the pandemic also were found to be more likely to have storage habits that made the firearms less secure, such as switching between unloading their firearms and loading them before storage; using locking devices and then removing them; or switching between storing a firearm outside and inside the home.

"The increase in firearm purchases is concerning given that suicide is three times more likely in homes with firearms, and there is a hundred-fold increase in an individual's suicide risk immediately following the purchase of a handgun," said Anestis. "And unsafe firearm storage increases that risk."

###

Over the past 50 years cannabis across the world has become  stronger 

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Research News

 

New research shows that over the past 50 years street cannabis across the world has become substantially stronger carrying an increased risk of harm.

The team behind the study from the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath, synthesised data from over 80,000 cannabis samples tested in the past 50 years from street samples collected in the USA, UK, Netherlands, France, Denmark, Italy and New Zealand. Their findings are published in the journal Addiction and the research was funded by the Society for the Study of Addiction.

The researchers investigated how concentrations of THC (the intoxicating component of cannabis responsible for giving users a 'high') had changed over time in different types of cannabis. In herbal cannabis, they found that THC concentrations increased by 14% from 1970 to 2017. This was primarily due to a rising market share of stronger varieties such as sinsemilla relative to traditional herbal cannabis which contains seeds and less THC.

The team have previously found consistent evidence that frequent use of cannabis with higher levels of THC carries an increased risk of problems such as addiction and psychotic disorders.

Lead author Dr Tom Freeman, Director of the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath said: "As the strength of cannabis has increased, so too has the number of people entering treatment for cannabis use problems. More Europeans are now entering drug treatment because of cannabis than heroin or cocaine."

The researchers found that the increases in THC were particularly high for cannabis resin, with THC concentrations rising by 24% between 1975 and 2017. Cannabis resin is extracted from herbal cannabis and is now typically stronger than herbal cannabis according to the findings.

They also looked at concentrations of cannabidiol or CBD, which is not intoxicating but may have potential medical uses such as helping people to quit cannabis. In contrast to THC, they found no evidence for changes in CBD in cannabis over time.

Study co-author Sam Craft also from the Addiction and Mental Health Group at the University of Bath explained: "Cannabis resin - or 'hash' - is often seen as a safer type of cannabis, but our findings show that it is now stronger than herbal cannabis. Traditionally, cannabis resin contained much lower amounts of THC with equal quantities of CBD, however CBD concentrations have remained stable as THC has risen substantially, meaning it is now much more harmful than it was many years ago."

Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the world but has recently been legalised in Canada, Uruguay and several states in the USA. The findings of this new study have particular relevance in light of growing demands to legalise cannabis in an attempt to make it safer. Most recently a referendum in New Zealand (which ultimately failed to receive public support) included measures to limit the strength of cannabis sold through legalisation.

The researchers argue that increases in cannabis strength highlight the need to implement wider strategies for harm reduction similar to those used for alcohol - such as standard units and public guidelines on safer consumption limits.

Dr Tom Freeman added: "As the strength of cannabis has risen, consumers are faced with limited information to help them monitor their intake and guide decisions about relative benefits and risks. The introduction of a standard unit system for cannabis - similar to standard alcohol units - could help people to limit their consumption and use it more safely."

Antibiotic exposure in children under age 2 associated with chronic conditions

Children who take antibiotics early in life are at risk of combinations of health conditions, particularly when given multiple prescriptions, says Rutgers researcher

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Children under age 2 who take antibiotics are at greater risk for childhood-onset asthma, respiratory allergies, eczema, celiac disease, obesity and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a paper written jointly by Mayo Clinic and Rutgers researchers.

In a study published in the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, the researchers looked at 14,572 children born in Olmsted County, Minn., between 2003 and 2011, 70 percent of whom received at least one antibiotic prescription during their first two years, primarily for respiratory or ear infections.

The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the composition of the microbiome - the trillions of beneficial microorganisms that live in and on our bodies - plays a critical role in the early development of immunity, metabolism and behavior.

"The evolution of drug-resistant bacteria exemplifies one unintended consequence of antibiotic overuse," said co-author Martin Blaser, director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers. "The increasing prevalence of health conditions that start in childhood has triggered concern about antibiotic exposures during key developmental periods because of their impact on the microbiome."

While previous studies have looked at the association of antibiotics with single diseases, this is the first to look at the association across many diseases. The study found that antibiotics were associated with metabolic diseases (obesity, being overweight), immunological diseases (asthma, food allergies, hay fever and cognitive conditions or disorders (ADHD, autism), but effects varied among the different antibiotics. Cephalosporins were associated with the most risk for multiple diseases, and uniquely autism and food allergies.

Researchers also found that risk increased with more courses of antibiotics and when given earlier in life -- especially within the first 6 months.

"The findings from Olmsted County provide evidence for broad and delayed effects of early life antibiotic exposures, and should change doctors' practices in how often they prescribe antibiotics, especially for mild conditions," said Blaser.

###

The study was co-authored by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and led by Nathan LeBrasseur.

Half of researchers worried about long-term impact of COVID-19 to funding -- global study

FRONTIERS

Research News

 

The impact of the coronavirus pandemic has created concerns amongst the scientific research community that funding to their area will be impacted in the long term, a global survey shows. Half (47%)?of those surveyed believe less funding will be available in their area in the future because of COVID-19, signaling a potentially lasting impact on the scientific research landscape. Just one in 10 (9%) said they expected an increase.

More than 22,000 researchers responded to the question in the survey report, released by open access publisher Frontiers, which surveyed members of its research community from 152 countries between May and June.

As well as the long-term impact, findings also reveal that COVID-19 has created a sense of uncertainty around funding in the immediate term. When asked 'how has funding in your research area been affected since the pandemic?' results revealed:

One in four (25%) said funding had already been redirected from their research area;

Just 6% indicated an increase in their research area;

One in three (33%) said there had been no changes.

Those in environmental science and geology reported the highest level of long term concern, with 54% and 53% respectively saying funding will be redirected from their area or that less will be available in the future.

Kamila Markram, CEO of Frontiers, said: "The impact of COVID-19 is manifesting itself across the funding landscape. While it is critical that collectively, we do everything we can right now to combat the virus, we must also recognize that diverting or the 'covidization' of funding away from other fields is not a sustainable solution. The environment, for example, is an area we simply cannot afford to neglect. Doing so will have potentially irreversible consequences. We have to adopt a more holistic, interdisciplinary approach to problem solving."

Commenting in the report, Prof. James Wilsdon, professor of research policy at the University of Sheffield, and director of the Research on Research Institute said: "It's useful to see how researchers are perceiving and experiencing the effects of COVID-19 on funding priorities. But we're still at an early stage in understanding such effects, which are likely to come in waves.

"We've already seen the first wave - a vital injection of investment to virology, epidemiology, vaccines, and therapeutics. A second wave - of support for research on the wider effects - is now getting under way. But the likely force of the third wave - longer-term shifts in the priorities of funders - is far less certain. This will be determined as much by the wider economic outlook as by changes to the balance of disciplinary and thematic priorities. We may see the focus extending into broader investment in resilience across a range of economic, social, health and environmental systems and vulnerabilities.

"If this crisis teaches us anything, it should be the importance of investing in wider preparedness and resilience. We need to avoid a lurch into the 'Covid-isation' of research systems, if it comes at the expense of other areas which may be the source of the next crisis, or the one after that."

###

Notes to editors

For media inquiries, please contact: jamie.barclay@frontiersin.org

The full survey report and methodology can be downloaded here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.621563/full

ABOUT FRONTIERS

Frontiers is a leading Open Access research publisher and Open Science platform on a mission to enable healthy lives on a healthy planet. We make research results openly available and empower researchers with cutting-edge tools and technology that radically improves how science is reviewed, published and disseminated.

Currently ranked as the world's 5th most-cited scholarly publisher, we are one of the largest and fastest-growing academic publishing platforms. Headquartered in Lausanne, and with offices in London, Madrid, Seattle, Trivandrum and Beijing, over 100,000 leading academics serve as editors and reviewers on our research journals spanning more than 800 academic disciplines.

For more information, visit http://www.frontier

 

Evidence shows human transmission in deadly outbreak of mysterious disease in Bolivia

At TropMed2020, scientists describe rush to gauge risks of Chapare virus, an emerging hemorrhagic fever seen previously in only one patient

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE & HYGIENE

Research News

 

Arlington, Va. (November 16, 2020) - Researchers have discovered that a deadly virus found in Bolivia can spread from person to person in healthcare settings, raising potential concerns of additional outbreaks in the future, according to new findings presented today at the annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). The research also provides preliminary evidence regarding the species of rodent that carries the virus and may spread it to people or to other animals that can infect humans.

Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) laid out new clues to the many mysteries surrounding the Chapare virus, which caused at least five infections near Bolivia's capital city, La Paz, in 2019--three of them fatal. Prior to that, the only record of the disease was a small cluster and a single confirmed case in 2004 in Bolivia's Chapare Province, about 370 miles east of La Paz. The recent outbreak surprised health authorities, since initially all they knew was that it was a hemorrhagic fever that produced symptoms similar to diseases such as Ebola. It sparked a rapid mobilization of infectious disease experts from Bolivia's Ministry of Health, the CDC and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) to explore the origins of the disease, including securing samples from patients and developing a new diagnostic test.

"Our work confirmed that a young medical resident, an ambulance medic and a gastroenterologist all contracted the virus after encounters with infected patients--and two of these healthcare workers later died," said Caitlin Cossaboom, DVM, PhD, MPH, an epidemiologist with the CDC's Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. "We now believe many bodily fluids can potentially carry the virus."

Cossaboom said the confirmation of human-to-human transmission shows healthcare providers and anyone else dealing with suspected cases must take extreme care to avoid contact with items that may be contaminated with blood, urine, saliva or semen. For example, there is evidence that the medical resident who died from the disease may have been infected while suctioning saliva from a patient. The ambulance medic who was infected, but survived, was likely infected when he resuscitated the same medical resident as she was being transported to the hospital after she fell ill. Researchers also detected viral RNA in the semen of one survivor 168 days after infection, which also raises the possibility of sexual transmission. Further investigation is necessary to learn about other potential routes of transmission.

Chapare belongs to a group of viruses called arenaviruses. They include dangerous pathogens such as Lassa virus, which causes thousands of deaths annually in West Africa, and Machupo virus, which has caused deadly outbreaks in Bolivia. Like those pathogens, Chapare virus can cause hemorrhagic fevers--a condition also seen in Ebola patients that can produce severe problems across multiple organs, leaving patients struggling to survive. Cossaboom noted that patients in the 2019 Chapare outbreak suffered fevers, abdominal pain, vomiting, bleeding gums, skin rash and pain behind the eyes. There is no specific treatment, so patients are treated mainly with intravenous fluids and other supportive care.

There is still much that remains unknown about Chapare virus, chiefly where it originated, how it infects humans, and the likelihood of larger outbreaks in Bolivia and elsewhere in South America. Cossaboom presented new evidence of Chapare viral RNA detected in rodents collected from an area around the home and nearby farmlands of the first patient identified in the 2019 outbreak--an agriculture worker who also died. She cautioned that the evidence stops well short of proving the rodents were the source of his infection--viral RNA is not proof that the rodents were infectious--though it offers an important clue.

"The genome sequence of the RNA we isolated in rodent specimens matches quite well with what we have seen in human cases," she said.

The rodent species that tested positive for viral RNA, commonly known as the pigmy rice rat and the small-eared pigmy rice rat, are found across Bolivia and several neighboring countries. Rodents are a key source or reservoir of similar viruses, including Lassa virus.

Scientists believe the Chapare virus could have been circulating in Bolivia for several years, but infected patients may have been wrongly diagnosed as suffering from dengue, a disease that is common in the region and can produce similar symptoms.

All-Hands on Deck to Solve a Deadly Mystery

Cossaboom's colleague at the CDC, Maria Morales-Betoulle, PhD, described an intensive effort involving Bolivian health officials in La Paz, scientists from the Bolivian Center for Tropical Diseases (CENETROP) in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, colleagues at PAHO and infectious disease experts at CDC headquarters in Atlanta to get a handle on the 2019 outbreak. She said that when it became clear the illness was not caused by dengue, patient samples collected by Bolivian authorities were quickly dispatched to a highly secure biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) CDC laboratory. Once there, they were subjected to analysis with advanced next generation genome sequencing technology. CDC experts were able to identify the virus as Chapare because it matched sequence data derived from the patient involved in the original 2004 infection.

"We isolated the virus, and we were expecting to find a more common disease, but the sequence data pointed to Chapare virus," Morales-Betoulle said. "We were really surprised because the 2019 outbreak in La Paz occurred long after the first case was identified in 2004."

Morales-Betoulle said that the availability of new sequencing tools allowed CDC experts to rapidly develop an RT-PCR test for detecting Chapare--the same type of test often used to diagnose COVID-19, which is considered the gold standard for diagnostics. The investigation then moved back to CENETROP in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, where there is a BSL-3 lab and team capable of securing and analyzing patient samples.

She said several collaborators on the team involved in the Chapare response already were in South America investigating other viral hemorrhagic fevers when the 2019 outbreak occurred.

"That allowed us to mobilize and move really quickly," she said.

Morales-Betoulle and Cossaboom said future work will focus on using the diagnostic tests to conduct surveillance to identify additional human infections and field work to determine whether rodents are involved in spreading the disease. Since the outbreak, CENETROP identified three additional suspected cases, including one involving a child. All are believed to have survived. Additional testing at CDC is anticipated.

"While there is still much that remains unknown about Chapare virus, it's commendable how quickly this team was able to develop a diagnostic test, confirm human-to-human transmission and uncover preliminary evidence of the virus in rodents," said ASTMH President Joel Breman, MD, DTPH, FASTMH. "It's a valuable lesson that international scientific teams, equipped with the latest tools and freely sharing their insights, are our best front-line defense against the disruptive threats of deadly infectious diseases."

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About the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, founded in 1903, is the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases and improving global health. It accomplishes this through generating and sharing scientific evidence, informing health policies and practices, fostering career development, recognizing excellence, and advocating for investment in tropical medicine/global health research. For more information, visit astmh.org.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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More on this News Release

Evidence shows human transmission in deadly outbreak of mysterious disease in Bolivia

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF TROPICAL MEDICINE & HYGIENE

MEETING

American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene 68th Annual Meeting

KEYWORDS

• ECOLOGY/ENVIRONMENT
• EPIDEMIOLOGY
• HEALTH CARE
• INFECTIOUS/EMERGING DISEASES
• MEDICINE/HEALTH
• PUBLIC HEALTH
• TOXICOLOGY
• VIROLOGY

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Design and market sexbots for older adults with disabilities, argues ethicist

Sexual fulfilment of this group important aspect of self-expression, health and wellbeing

BMJ

Research News

 

The sexbot industry should include older adults with disabilities in the design and marketing of its products, to support their emotional health and wellbeing and help counter ageism and stereotyping, argues an ethicist in the Journal of Medical Ethics.

The physiological changes of ageing and increasing vulnerability to conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and arthritis, can interfere with sexual activity, but they don't eliminate older adults' sexual feelings or desires, maintains Dr Nancy Jecker of the University of Washington, Seattle.

She cites a landmark 2007 study of older US adults which showed that more than half (53%) of 65-74 year olds were sexually active, as were more than a quarter (26%) of 75-85 year olds.

Yet older age sex is often neglected by healthcare professionals and ridiculed and stigmatised by society in general, she suggests.

"Given ageist attitudes toward old age sexuality, it should come as no surprise that sex robots are generally not pitched to older people with disabilities. Instead, the current sex robot industry is focused on young, able-bodied, male clientele," Dr Jecker points out.

"Designing and marketing sex robots to older disabled people would represent a sea change from current practice."

But sexual desires are fundamental to a sense of what it is to be human to which everyone is entitled, she says. To enable their expression is integral to human dignity and respect.

Critics of the sexbot industry say that it merely promotes idealised female beauty and the objectification of women and endorses prejudice; that rather than solving problems, it is creating them, she acknowledges.

But sexbots for older people could not only help to generate a powerful counter narrative to pervasive societal ageism, but they could also promote and maintain good health, she suggests.

"Research demonstrates a positive correlation between general health and sexual partnership, frequency of sexual activity, good quality sex life, and interest in sex among middle-aged and older-aged adults," she explains.

"With assistance, older adults can continue to be sexual in ways they value, including sustaining sexually intimate relationships, deriving pleasure from sexual activity, and preserving high-quality sexual lives.

"Just as service robots are being designed to assist older individuals with functions such as eating, dressing and bathing, they might be designed to assist with social functions, serving as sources of affiliation and sexual partnership," she suggests.

Ultimately, sexbots could provide a vital lifeline to intimacy and connectedness and help to dispel loneliness and isolation, the scourge of many older people's lives, she believes.

"Older people suffer disproportionately from disabilities that interfere with their sexual capabilities. When this occurs, they often do not receive the support they need to maintain sexual function," she writes.

"Not only do older adults face ageism and ableism in the communities in which they live, but also healthcare professionals typically do not broach the subject of sexuality, and medicine is peppered with examples of ageist beliefs about later-life sexuality."

She concludes: "...the non-voluntary absence of sex from someone's life is not just a bad thing but also a threat to a person's identity and dignity."

###

Externally peer reviewed? Yes
Evidence type: Opinion
Subjects: Older adults with disabilities

Could robots for sex, friendship improve our aging society?

Social isolation is worsening, so why does the idea of robot companions for seniors sound unseemly? A UW Medicine bioethicist addresses the issue

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON HEALTH SCIENCES/UW MEDICINE

Research News

 

The current U.S. marketplace for sex robots is geared to fulfilling the needs of young, white, able-bodied, heterosexual males - a population perhaps least in need of such assistance - and simultaneously overlooks a vast demographic of potential customers: senior citizens.

A paper published today in the Journal of Medical Ethics calls out the opportunity among socially isolated, lonely people age 65 and over in aging societies, especially America. Many of them would value a robot's companionship and, yes, even its ability to provide sexual gratification, wrote the author, Nancy Jecker. She is a professor of bioethics and humanities at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.

"We apply ageist attitudes and negative stereotypes to older adults. We assume they're too old to indulge in sex and think that older adults having interest in sex is weird or dirty," Jecker said. "We have similar attitudes toward people with disabilities, where most research has focused on protecting them from able-bodied sexual predators instead of considering their sexual needs and desires as human beings."

For decades Jecker has studied the aging of individuals and populations, as well as justice and other human traits and ideas. Robotics entered the picture, she said, when she recognized the declining ranks of workers to help care-dependent older adults, many of whom are physically disabled.

"Designing and marketing sex robots for older, disabled people would represent a sea change from current practice. The reason to do it is to support human dignity and to take seriously the claims of those whose sexuality is diminished by disability or isolation. Society needs to make reasonable efforts to help them," Jecker said.

Western cultures tend to see sex narrowly as an expression of lust, and assume that people over 65, who suffer more chronic disease and disability, lose desire for physical affection, she said. This is evident in the scads of inventions aimed at seniors, which focus on monitoring health and easing physical burdens while ignoring social and emotional fulfillment.

Sexual function, Jecker's paper argues, is an essential human value - linked to capacities for bodily integrity, affiliation, and emotions. A sexual identity can provide a basis for self-respect, not merely physical satisfaction.

But it's not all about sex, either.

"There's a whole spectrum of human desires. It's limiting to think only of sex bots or only of friend bots. Some older people want a companion that can provide both social interaction and physical affection," Jecker said.

Among people 60 and older in the United States, 43% report feeling lonely - largely a function of social isolation, according to research published in February 2020 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Published in book form, the paper described how people 50 and older increasingly live alone, in many wealthy, developed societies. It summarized evidence of the detrimental health effects of loneliness and called on healthcare professionals to try to alleviate the situation.

U.S. and other Western roboticists could take a cue from counterparts in Japan, Jecker said. There, Shinto beliefs hold that spirits (kami) embody both animate and inanimate things, allowing more receptiveness to the idea of robot companions.

"They are much more open to the possibility of pet robots and friend robots. They've been at the forefront of not just the technology but the humanities questions of 'How should we design these robots? What sort of social relationships would you want to have with them?' They don't share the Western roboticists' worry that robots are mechanical empty things that we can't relate to."

Jecker challenges robot designers to "think in terms of robots' capability rather than their utility - not focusing only on the sexual pleasure that a robot gives to an older, disabled adult, but focusing on what the robot enables the person to do and be."

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Does the human brain resemble the Universe?

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

UNIVERSITÀ DI BOLOGNA

Research News

 

IMAGE: LEFT: SECTION OF CEREBELLUM, WITH MAGNIFICATION FACTOR 40X, OBTAINED WITH ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (DR. E. ZUNARELLI, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF MODENA); RIGHT: SECTION OF A COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATION, WITH AN EXTENSION OF 300... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

In their paper published in Frontiers of Physics, Franco Vazza (astrophysicist at the University of Bologna) and Alberto Feletti (neurosurgeon at the University of Verona) investigated the similarities between two of the most challenging and complex systems in nature: the cosmic network of galaxies and the network of neuronal cells in the human brain.

Despite the substantial difference in scale between the two networks (more than 27 orders of magnitude), their quantitative analysis, which sits at the crossroads of cosmology and neurosurgery, suggests that diverse physical processes can build structures characterized by similar levels of complexity and self-organization.

The human brain functions thanks to its wide neuronal network that is deemed to contain approximately 69 billion neurons. On the other hand, the observable universe can count upon a cosmic web of at least 100 billion galaxies. Within both systems, only 30% of their masses are composed of galaxies and neurons. Within both systems, galaxies and neurons arrange themselves in long filaments or nodes between the filaments. Finally, within both systems, 70% of the distribution of mass or energy is composed of components playing an apparently passive role: water in the brain and dark energy in the observable Universe.

Starting from the shared features of the two systems, researchers compared a simulation of the network of galaxies to sections of the cerebral cortex and the cerebellum. The goal was to observe how matter fluctuations scatter over such diverse scales.

"We calculated the spectral density of both systems. This is a technique often employed in cosmology for studying the spatial distribution of galaxies", explains Franco Vazza. "Our analysis showed that the distribution of the fluctuation within the cerebellum neuronal network on a scale from 1 micrometer to 0.1 millimeters follows the same progression of the distribution of matter in the cosmic web but, of course, on a larger scale that goes from 5 million to 500 million light-years".

The two researchers also calculated some parameters characterizing both the neuronal network and the cosmic web: the average number of connections in each node and the tendency of clustering several connections in relevant central nodes within the network.

"Once again, structural parameters have identified unexpected agreement levels. Probably, the connectivity within the two networks evolves following similar physical principles, despite the striking and obvious difference between the physical powers regulating galaxies and neurons", adds Alberto Feletti. "These two complex networks show more similarities than those shared between the cosmic web and a galaxy or a neuronal network and the inside of a neuronal body".

The encouraging results of this pilot study are prompting the researchers to think that new and effective analysis techniques in both fields, cosmology, and neurosurgery, will allow for a better understanding of the routed dynamics underlying the temporal evolution of these two systems.

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This study was published in Frontiers of Physics with the title "The quantitative comparison between the neuronal network and the cosmic web". Its authors are Franco Vazza from the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Bologna, and Alberto Feletti from the Department of Neurosciences, Biomedicine, and Movement of the University of Verona.