Exposure to Common Geographic COVID-19 Prevalence Maps and Public Knowledge, Risk Perceptions, and Behavioral Intentions

Alistair Thorpe, PhD¹; Aaron M. Scherer, PhD²; Paul K. J. Han, MD, MA, MPH³; et alNicole Burpo, MS⁴; Victoria Shaffer, PhD⁵; Laura Scherer, PhD⁶; Angela Fagerlin, PhD^1,7

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(1):e2033538. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.33538

COVID-19 Resource Center 

 

January 6, 2021

Introduction

Several organizations have produced maps showing the prevalence of confirmed coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases across the United States, but there is limited data on what map features are most effective at informing the public about infectious disease risk and motivating engagement with recommended health behaviors.¹ We assessed the association of 6 different COVID-19 maps with knowledge, risk perceptions, and behavioral intentions.

Methods

This survey study included US adults recruited between May 18 and 28, 2020, by Qualtrics Online Panels. This study was deemed exempt by the University of Iowa institutional review board, given the minimal risk to participants and collection of deidentified information. All respondents provided informed consent and were compensated for their participation. The survey was conducted online in English. This study follows the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) reporting guideline.

After providing informed consent, respondents were randomized to see 1 of 6 maps (Figure) or to not receive any information (no map) using an automated function within the Qualtrics software.

Respondents answered questions assessing their knowledge of confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the US (total cases and cases per capita), their perceived risk of COVID-19 (individual and societal), and their intentions to adhere to infection control guidelines.² Total cases and cases per capita knowledge were each assessed on scales of 4 items specifically about the total or per capita confirmed cases. Scores ranged from 0 to 1, with higher scores indicating greater knowledge about total or per capita numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases. Individual risk perception was assessed on a scale of 9 items about perceived susceptibility and severity of getting COVID-19. Scores ranged from 1 to 7, with higher scores indicating greater perceived susceptibility and severity of getting COVID-19. Societal risk perception was assessed on a single item about whether the pandemic would be better or worse in 2 weeks. Scores ranged from 1, (indicating that the COVID-19 pandemic would be much worse in 2 weeks) to 7 (indicating the COVID-19 pandemic would be much better in 2 weeks). Intentions to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines were assessed on a scale of 15 guidelines (eg, “avoid gatherings of >10 people”). Scores ranged from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater intent to adhere to the guidelines. Maps were available alongside questions for reference. Using planned contrasts, we compared these outcomes at 4 levels: map intervention (no map vs maps), visualization type (heat vs bubble), geographic level (state vs county), and case format (total vs per capita). Respondents self-reported demographic information, including age, gender, and race/ethnicity.

All tests were 2-sided with P values adjusted using Holm-Bonferroni³ correction for multiple comparisons. Significance was set at α = .05. Analyses were performed using R Studio statistical software version 1.1.463 (R Project for Statistical Computing).

Results

After excluding 2062 respondents who did not complete the survey, completed the survey in an unrealistically short time (ie, <9 minutes), or indicated that they did not provide high-quality answers (ie, respondents who answered “I will not provide my best answers” or “I can’t promise either way” to the question “Do you commit to thoughtfully provide your best answers to each question in this survey?”), our final sample included 2676 respondents (completion rate, 57%).

In the final sample, the mean (SD) age was 46 (17) years (range, 18-91 years); 1575 respondents (59%) were women, while 933 respondents (35%) were men, 28 respondents (1%) were transgender or another gender identity, and 140 respondents (5%) did not answer this question. A total of 1663 respondents (62%) were non-Hispanic White, 464 respondents (17%) were Hispanic, 315 respondents (12%) were non-Hispanic Black, 153 respondents (6%) were Asian or Asian American, 34 respondents (1%) were another race, and less than 1% of respondents were American Indian/Alaskan Native or Native Hawaiian/other Pacific Islander. Thirty-one respondents (1%) did not report their race/ethnicity. Education was heterogenous: 1022 respondents (38%) had a high school education or less, 1254 respondents (47%) had some college or a 2-year degree, and 400 respondents (15%) had a 4-year degree or higher.

Compared with participants who viewed a map, not viewing a map was associated with greater knowledge about total cases (mean [SD] score, 0.60 [0.28] vs 0.55 [0.30]; difference, 0.05 [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.09]) (Table). However, knowledge about total cases was significantly better for maps showing total cases compared with maps showing per capita cases (mean [SD] score, 0.60 [0.30] vs 0.46 [0.28]; difference, 0.14 [95% CI, 0.11 to 0.17]).

Viewing any map (vs no map) was not associated with knowledge about cases per capita. However, per capita knowledge was significantly better among respondents who viewed a heat map compared with those who viewed a bubble map (mean [SD] score, 0.48 [0.26] vs 0.44 [0.24]; difference, 0.04 [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.06]), the state-level map vs county-level map (mean [SD] score, 0.49 [0.26] vs 0.45 [0.24]; difference, 0.04 [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.07]), and the per capita map vs the total cases map (mean [SD] score, 0.42 [0.24] vs 0.56 [0.26]; difference, −0.13 [95% CI, −0.16 to −0.11]).

Respondents’ perception of their personal risk of getting COVID-19 was not associated with the presence or the type of map. Respondents who saw a map had lower societal risk perceptions, with more optimism that the pandemic would be better in 2 weeks, compared with those who did not see a map (mean [SD] score, 3.77 [1.60] vs 4.02 [1.62]; difference, −0.25 [95% CI, −0.48 to −0.02]). Overall, respondents reported high willingness to adhere to COVID-19 guidelines (mean [SD] score, 86.33 [17.05]), and scores were not significantly different by map provision or type.

Discussion

The findings of this survey study suggest that simply providing maps with COVID-19 case information was not necessarily associated with improved public knowledge, risk perception, or reported intent to adhere to health guidelines.

Limitations of this study include reliance on self-report and potential limited participation from individuals without internet access and lower English proficiency.

Based on the findings of our survey study, we encourage map developers to be mindful of the potential influence of reporting strategies on public knowledge and perception of the pandemic. We suggest developers present cases per capita using state-level heat maps rather than county-level bubble maps, because the former may be associated with improving (or at least maintaining) public knowledge. Knowledge about strategies for effective communication of COVID-19 case information would benefit from research with other stakeholders, such as government officials or policy makers.

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Article Information

Accepted for Publication: November 23, 2020.

Published: January 6, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.33538

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2021 Thorpe A et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Angela Fagerlin, PhD, Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Utah, 295 Chipeta Way, Williams Bldg, Room 1N410, Salt Lake City, UT 84108 (angie.fagerlin@hsc.utah.edu).

Author Contributions: Dr Thorpe had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: All authors.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: Thorpe, A. M. Scherer, Han, L. Scherer, Fagerlin.

Drafting of the manuscript: Thorpe, L. Scherer.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Thorpe, A. M. Scherer, Han, Burpo, Shaffer, Fagerlin.

Statistical analysis: Thorpe.

Administrative, technical, or material support: L. Scherer.

Supervision: Han, Fagerlin.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

Funding/Support: Dr Thorpe was supported by grant No. 51300302 from the American Heart Association Children’s Strategically Focused Research Network fellowship.

Role of the Funder/Sponsor: The funder had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.

Additional Contributions: Karina Pritchett, BA (Department of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Utah), assisted with development of the maps and was not compensated for this work.

References

1.

Fagerlin  A, Valley  TS, Scherer  AM, Knaus  M, Das  E, Zikmund-Fisher  BJ.  Communicating infectious disease prevalence through graphics: results from an international survey.   Vaccine. 2017;35(32):4041-4047. doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2017.05.048PubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref

2.

The White House. The president’s coronavirus guidelines for America: 30 days to slow the spread. Accessed August 7, 2020. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf

3.

Holm  S.  A simple sequentially rejective multiple test procedure.   Scand J Stat. 1979;6(9):65-70.Google Scholar

 

Study: Black Americans, women, conservatives more hesitant to trust COVID-19 vaccine

Thirty-one percent of respondents to a Texas A&M-led survey said they don't intend to be vaccinated against COVID-19

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

A survey of approximately 5,000 Americans suggests that 31.1 percent of the U.S. public does not intend to get the COVID-19 vaccine once it becomes available to them - and the likelihood of vaccine refusal is highest among Black Americans, women and conservatives.

Timothy Callaghan, assistant professor at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, led the study with the aim of better understanding the intentions of the American public regarding vaccines. The results were recently published in Social Science and Medicine.

According to the study, survey respondents answered a series of questions about their behaviors and attitudes about COVID-19, including why or why not they intend to pursue vaccination. Women are 71 percent more likely to not to pursue vaccination, researchers found, followed by Blacks at 41 percent.

Survey results also showed that politics play a role: each one-point increase in conservatism increases the odds of vaccine refusal by 18 percent. Those who said they intended to vote for President Donald Trump in the presidential election - the survey was conducted in mid-2020 - were 29 percent more likely to refuse vaccination.

The study revealed two top reasons for vaccine refusal: concerns about safety and effectiveness. However, reasons for vaccine reluctance varied across sub-populations.

For instance, women who were surveyed said they are hesitant based on safety concerns and effectiveness, while surveyed Black Americans said their hesitancy stems from similar concerns plus a lack of financial resources or health insurance.

For conservatives, Callaghan points to previous studies that have shown these people are generally less trusting of vaccines, as well as medical and scientific professionals.

The finding that most surprised Callaghan is that Black individuals, who are being infected with COVID-19 and dying at higher rates, are less likely to vaccinate because of a combination of concerns, including those related to safety and affordability.

"This points to the need for the medical community and policymakers to find ways to both build trust in the vaccine in the African American community and to ensure that it is delivered affordably," Callaghan said.

The authors of the study also state that anti-vaccine advocacy groups "have made a concerted effort" to target Black Americans, writing that if they are successful in framing COVID-19 vaccination in terms of past medical abuses against minority groups, it could decrease the likelihood that racial minorities will pursue COVID-19 vaccination, particularly in light of recent findings emphasizing the implications of peripheral trauma."

Now that COVID-19 vaccine-hesitant populations have been identified, Callaghan plans to explore what kind of health interventions and health promotion efforts are most effective in promoting the vaccine to these populations. Additionally, he said it is important to explore the similarities and differences between populations that are generally vaccine hesitant and populations that are hesitant specifically toward the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Why we use our smartphone at cafés

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

Maybe you're like us. We're the folks who are on our smartphones almost all the time, even when we're with others. We know it annoys a lot of people, but we do it anyway. Why?

Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) have looked at why people in cafés pull out their phones, and how this affects café life. Three main reasons they identified are: to delay or pause a conversation (interaction suspension); to get out of a conversation (deliberately shielding interaction); and to share something with others (accessing shareables).

But what does that actually mean?

The smartphone is the world's most ubiquitous personal tech gizmo. The vast majority of adults have one.

"This makes the smartphone important, both socially and sociologically," says postdoctoral fellow and first author Ida Marie Henriksen.

She is affiliated with NTNU's Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, and has written an article with Professor Aksel Tjora and PhD candidate Marianne Skaar from the Department of Sociology and Political Science.

The use of smartphones is connected to so many of our activities, both ones we do alone and ones we do with others. We look for tempting cafés online, pay for the bus ticket to the café with it, invite friends to come join us, use the phone to identify the music that the café is playing, and lots of other things.

Smartphones give us even better opportunities to be social. But they also enable us to distance ourselves from others.

The researchers visited 52 people at cafés in Trondheim, and interviewed them in depth about their mobile phone use and how they interacted with other people.

"We focused exclusively on people who seemed to know each other from before and who met to socialize. In addition, we observed 108 other meetings at a distance, kind of like research flies on the wall," says Skaar.

By design, cafés are a place where you can be especially social with others. But some people use it instead as a place to hide away with a good drink for a while and keep a suitable distance from people, or as a workplace, preferably with a laptop or tablet in addition to the ubiquitous mobile phone.

So what do the three main types of cell phone use involve?

Delaying interaction is what happens when we interrupt a conversation with our café partner to check an email, a phone conversation, a picture on Snap or just to make sure we haven't missed anything on social media the last few minutes.

This is also called "phubbing" (from phone + snubbing), when the phone gets your attention instead of the live person you're with.

How this behaviour is perceived depends on how the conversation partners understand the situation. You can get annoyed about it and see it as rude. But that's not necessarily the case.

"On the one hand, how you suspend your interaction plays a role. If you explain to the person you're with why you have to postpone your physical interaction, it's perceived as more polite than if you just disappear and start "phubbing," that is, phoning someone else and ignoring the person who's physically present. At the same time, some people may appreciate a short break from a longer conversation, and using the phone can also be a natural, interwoven part of the social interaction that takes place in the café," says Tjora.

Deliberately shielding interaction is a slightly different, more subtle way of using the phone than suspending interaction exposure.

"When the person you're with gets busy on their smartphone, the other person in the social setting can pick up their smartphone to demonstrate that they're busy too and not being involuntarily left to themselves. Or if you're in a group, you can pick up your phone to avoid a conversation topic by signalling that you are busy. The smartphone offers a break from face-to-face social situations," says Henriksen.

Some of us take this a step further by keeping our cell phone in silent mode. Then we can pretend we've received an important message or conversation, and that we have to hurry to answer it, maybe even leaving the company we're sitting with.

You can escape a lot of boring meetings this way. But it's not exactly pleasant.

Content sharing is the more pleasant or useful sharing side of using a phone and can sometimes be almost the opposite of taking a break from interacting.

"When you take a selfie together, or show pictures of your new girlfriend or kids, or of the house you want to bid on, or the map of where you were on holiday, you're sharing content," says Tjora.

Maybe you have an email, an SMS or a document that you want to show your café partner. That belongs in this category, too. Or when you disagree about what that actor or musician's name was, and a quick web search can tell you which one of you was right.

Content sharing in a café setting often raises new conversation topics and can enrich the interaction. Sharing is probably also the most socially accepted use of mobile phones.

Of course, there are overlapping and grey areas too.

"For example, a mutual understanding can allow those who are meeting to take pictures of the coffee cup at the very beginning of the conversation and perhaps share the picture on social media for uninterested acquaintances. But then they put away their phones, either until a message appears, or perhaps even until the physical meeting comes to an end. If you go to a café to be social, the person with you in real life is the focus," says Henriksen.

Sometimes there are also situations where café partners jointly agree to check this and that on their phones for a short while, but then put them away and concentrate on each other.

Others use their phone while the café partner is ordering at the counter or going to the toilet, simply to have something to do while the other person is away. This is almost like a kind of addiction, where we constantly have to be doing something and fill in all the breaks. The phone is immediately available, willing and able to satisfy this aversion to silence.

The smartphone is a tool for signalling interest or distance, but it can also enrich conversations and be used to share experiences with other people than only those who are physically present.

"The study dispels the myth that everyone is constantly staring at their screens no matter the occasion, and shows that a form of courtesy with the phone has been established, at least in situations where the social aspect is prioritized," says Tjora.

"Whatever the reasons, one thing seems certain: smartphones have changed how we behave socially, for better or for worse. But maybe socializing has just become different in a way we need to become conscious of.

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Reference: Henriksen, I.M .; Skaar, M .; Tjora, A. The Constitutive Practices of Public Smartphone Use. Societies 2020, 10 (4), 78; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc10040078

How can we help victims of torture?

Chronic pain may complicate mental health treatment

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, affects many people who are exposed to extreme situations, such as torture. Recent research suggests that chronic pain may make it more difficult to treat trauma.

"Trauma-focused therapy is effective for many patients with PTSD, enabling them to talk through the trauma they experienced", according to Iselin Solerød Dibaj, a psychologist at Oslo University Hospital.

However, not everyone benefits equally from this form of therapy.

"Torture victims who struggle with both chronic pain and PTSD unfortunately often reap less benefit from ordinary treatment," says Dibaj.

The Red Cross estimates that between 10 000 and 35 000 people with a refugee background who have come to Norway have experienced torture, reflecting the great need for effective treatment in this country as well.

"Torture is one of the most extreme abuses a person can experience. Physical and mental pain is inflicted with the intention of breaking a person down or obtaining information," says Håkon Stenmark, a specialist in clinical psychology at RVTS Midt, a regional resource centre for violence, traumatic stress and suicide prevention in central Norway.

"Mental health therapists find it difficult to provide effective help to victims of torture. They are pushing to increase their knowledge and find more effective methods," says Stenmark.

Now Dibaj and Stenmark, along with Professor Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair and Joar Øveraas Halvorsen, a specialist in clinical psychology and PhD  at the Regional Unit for Trauma Treatment at St. Olavs Hospital, have published an article in the journal Torture about treating this patient group.

Professor Kennair, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, has been a supervisor and the driving force behind the research project that might lead to better treatment of torture victims.

"Exposure therapy" involves delving into patients' memories and trying to talk through the trauma.

"But trauma-focused treatment for torture victims has been criticized in several clinical and academic settings for being too concerned with the traumas and not taking context into account, such as social, political and historical factors," says Dibaj.

Dibaj says they understand this criticism, at the same time as they do not want to write off a trauma treatment for this group that has documented effectiveness in other patient groups.

Other trauma-exposed groups in recent years have shown evidence that chronic pain and PTSD mutually contribute to reinforcing the other condition. One disorder can trigger the other, ensuring that neither disappears.

"So people with both disorders have worse treatment results with both the trauma condition and the chronic pain than if they only had one disorder," says Kennair.

Having both disorders also brings with it a number of additional challenges that therapists do not address specifically and purposefully in either trauma treatment or pain treatment.

"So we're questioning whether these factors are partly to blame for the trauma treatment being less effective for victims of torture," Kennair says.

Effective trauma treatment is largely about experiencing mastery and learning new ways to deal with painful memories.

"But if the patient experiences unmanageable pain, without the tools to deal with it, he or she risks not having this experience. The patient might then drop out or not be willing to delve into the memories," says Dibaj.

In the same way, pain treatment with the physiotherapist rarely works directly with trauma memories. Thus, this therapy can fall into the same trap - that the patient doesn't dare to do the rehabilitative exercises for fear of re-experiencing the trauma.

"We're criticizing the current 'gold standard trauma therapies' for not working purposefully and specifically enough with important maintenance mechanisms for patients who have both pain and PTSD," says Dibaj.

But these patients might actually achieve better outcomes if the therapists worked with the pain and trauma simultaneously.

"In other words, psychologists and physiotherapists should collaborate more in treating these patients," Dibaj says.

"We also have to remember that torture is such an extreme and unique experience that we can't just conclude that the pain problems in these patients are the same as we see in other patients with the same problem," says Dibaj.

Norway has ratified the UN Convention against Torture. It states that people who have been subjected to torture have the right to rehabilitation. In a report from earlier this year, the Red Cross found the services offered to torture victims in Norway to be fragmented and highly person-dependent.

"At the same time, those of us working in the health care services are obliged to offer evidence-based treatment and equal health services," says Halvorsen.

This means that patients with PTSD need to be offered the form of treatment that currently seems to have the best documented effect. This guideline applies regardless of background. The treatment has to be adapted to each individual patient.

"International guidelines for the rehabilitation of torture victims recommend interdisciplinary, specialized follow-up of these patients. However, studies show that even patients who receive such multi-faceted treatment experience only modest effects. We simply need to gain more knowledge about how we can help this group," says Dibaj.

"We've been pointing out that Norway lacks specialized rehabilitation services for victims of torture for a long time. But since we still have limited knowledge of what characterizes effective rehabilitation for this group, funding and implementing clinical studies need to become an integral part of a specialized rehabilitation programme," Halvorsen says.

But why do some people suffer from PTSD?

"From an evolutionary perspective, we can understand the function of both pain and anxiety. These are alarm systems that signal us that something could potentially pose a danger to us. These signals cause us to avoid that situation. This can be adaptive in the short term, so that we steer clear of potential harm," says Dibaj.

With PTSD and/or chronic pain, our alarm system is overactive and fires a series of false alarms about danger.

Avoidance normally decreases when the acute danger is over, but with PTSD and/or chronic pain, our alarm system is overactive and fires a series of false alarms about danger.

"If we respond to these alarms as a real danger and avoid what's triggering the alarm, we risk making the alarm system more sensitive," Dibaj says.

"Research indicates that post-traumatic cognitions or thoughts - that is, thoughts that come up after experiencing a trauma - play an important role in developing and prolonging post-traumatic distress. Examples of this kind of post-traumatic cognition might be, 'The world is a dangerous place' or 'I'm a broken person,'" says Halvorsen.

Both PTSD and chronic pain are characterized by numerous such false alarms. The affected person might have flashbacks, for example, where something dangerous from the past is perceived as dangerous now. Victims can also experience pain signals without connecting them to something actually being wrong in their body.

"Torture is designed to create this form of distress and, especially in recent times, to create pain that doesn't result in visible scars," says Dibaj.

Many victims of torture experience that completely normal movements trigger their alarm system. This naturally leads to less physical activity and also makes a lot of people afraid to move. This condition is called kinesiophobia, when normal activities can lead to severe pain and re-experiencing the trauma.

"When patients develop a fear of completely normal movements, it's difficult to do physiotherapy or other things that could help them get better - and that's why we think that kinesiophobia contributes to reinforcing the ailments. But this is something we rarely focus on in ordinary trauma treatment. Therapists therefore need to broaden their understanding of these connections," says Stenmark.

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References: Iselin Dibaj, M.Sc., Psych., Joar Øveraas Halvorsen, M.Sc., PhD, Leif Edward Ottesen Kennair, M.Sc., Håkon Inge Stenmark, M.Sc. PhD. Painful memories: Challenges in trauma-focused therapy for torture survivors with PTSD and chronic pain - a narrative review. Torture: Journal on Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Prevention of Torture, 30 (2), 35-57.

Australia’s platypus under threat from climate change

The platypus has disappeared from as much as 40 percent of its historical range due to changes wrought by humans.

Scientists say the platypus is being pushed towards extinction as a result of climate change 

[File: Mick Tsikas/Reuters]
20 Jan 2020

Prolonged drought and other effects of climate change are pushing the duck-billed platypus, one of Australia’s most unique species, towards extinction, scientists warned in a study published Monday.

The furry river-dwelling mammal has already disappeared from as much as 40 percent of its historical range on the east coast of Australia due to drought, land clearing, pollution and the construction of dams, the researchers said.

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Scientists from the University of New South Wales’ Centre for Ecosystem Science say if the current threats persist, platypus numbers will fall a further 47-66 percent over the next 50 years.

If projections about worsening climate change are taken into account, the numbers of the egg-laying mammal could plummet up to 73 percent by 2070, they wrote.

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“These dangers further expose the platypus to even worse local extinctions, with no capacity to repopulate areas,” said Gilad Bino, lead author of the study.

Experts say as many as one billion animals may have died in the massive bushfires that took hold of Australia’s tinder-dry bush in September, tearing through vast swaths of the country’s more-populated southeast and destroying crucial animal habitats.

In work published towards the end of last year, Australian scientists found that 100 of Australia’s endemic species had gone extinct since Europeans arrived on the continent.
Extinctions to accelerate

The first extinction likely took place within 10 years of colonisation, they said in their findings which were published in the scientific journal Biological Conservation. At least three extinctions took place in the last decade.

A pig-footed bandicoot, one of 100 species that are known to have become extinct since Europeans landed in Australia [Supplied/Al Jazeera]

They found that the introduction of predators like foxes and cats, as well as environmentally significant events like drought and fire, had harmed indigenous species, with climate change emerging as a factor more recently.

John Woinarski of the Threatened Species Recovery Hub at Charles Darwin University’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods and the report’s lead author, told Al Jazeera the rate of extinction in Australia was the highest of any continent in the world and “highly likely” to accelerate.

Recalling a species of skink he had once held in his hands and was now extinct, Woinarski said the loss of any species was devastating.

“To have held an animal or plant that has gone extinct in your lifetime, it affects your soul,” he told Al Jazeera. “Extinctions are part of us. They aren’t remote entities. They are real things that had life and vitality and that has been extinguished.”

The platypus is listed as “near threatened” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the UNSW scientists said the damage caused by years of minimal rainfall and high temperatures had worsened its prospects.
‘Urgent need’

The scientists said there was an “urgent need” for a national risk assessment to determine if the platypus should be recognised as “vulnerable” and to lay out conservation steps “to minimise any risk of extinction”.

‘It affects your soul’ says scientist John Woinarski of species extinctions, recalling the time he held the Christmas Island forest skink (above), which became extinct in the last decade [Hal Cogger/Al Jazeera]

The study is the first across all platypus habitat zones to establish a so-called “metapopulation” model while also projecting the impacts of climate change on the species going forward.

The survey estimated the total platypus population had fallen by 50 percent since European settlement in 1788.

An earlier study published in November 2018 estimated the population had fallen by 30 percent over that period, to around 200,000.

“Under predicted climate change, the losses forecast were far greater because of increases in extreme drought frequencies and duration, such as the current dry spell,” Bino said of the latest report.

The platypus, which along with four species of echidna are the only mammals that lay eggs, has a tail like a beaver, otter-like feet and a venomous spur on its hind leg.

How Earth's oddest mammal got to be so bizarre

FACULTY OF SCIENCE - UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN

Research News

 

Often considered the world's oddest mammal, Australia's beaver-like, duck-billed platypus exhibits an array of bizarre characteristics: it lays eggs instead of giving birth to live babies, sweats milk, has venomous spurs and is even equipped with 10 sex chromosomes. Now, an international team of researchers led by University of Copenhagen has conducted a unique mapping of the platypus genome and found answers regarding the origins of a few of its stranger features.

It lays eggs, but nurses, it is toothless, has a venomous spur, has webbed feet, fur that glows and has 10 sex chromosomes. Ever since Europeans discovered the platypus in Australia during the late 1700's, the quirky, duck-billed, semiaquatic creature has baffled scientific researchers.

Modern day researchers are still trying to understand how the platypus -- often considered to be the world's oddest mammal -- got to be so unique. Their understandings have now advanced, to a great degree. For the first time, an international team of researchers, led by University of Copenhagen biologists, has mapped a complete platypus genome. The study is published in the scientific journal, Nature.

"The complete genome has provided us with the answers to how a few of the platypus' bizarre features emerged. At the same time, decoding the genome for platypus is important for improving our understanding of how other mammals evolved -- including us humans. It holds the key as to why we and other eutheria mammals evolved to become animals that give birth to live young instead of egg-laying animals," explains Professor Guojie Zhang of the Department of Biology.

The platypus belongs to an ancient group of mammals -- monotremes -- which existed millions of years prior to the emergence of any modern-day mammal.

"Indeed, the platypus belongs to the Mammalia class. But genetically, it is a mixture of mammals, birds and reptiles. It has preserved many of its ancestors' original features -- which probably contribute to its success in adapting to the environment they live in," says Professor Zhang.

Lays eggs, sweats milk and has no teeth

One of the platypus' most unusual characteristics is that, while it lays eggs, it also has mammary glands used to feed its babies, not through nipples, but by milk -- which is sweat from its body.

During our own evolution, we humans lost all three so-called vitellogenin genes, each of which is important for the production of egg yolks. Chickens on the other hand, continue to have all three. The study demonstrates that platypuses still carry one of these three vitellogenin genes, despite having lost the other two roughly 130 million years ago. The platypus continues to lay eggs by virtue of this one remaining gene. This is probably because it is not as dependent on creating yolk proteins as birds and reptiles are, as platypuses produce milk for their young.

In all other mammals, vitellogenin genes have been replaced with casein genes, which are responsible for our ability to produce casein protein, a major component in mammalian milk. The new research demonstrates that the platypus carries casein genes as well, and that the composition of their milk is thereby quite similar to that of cows, humans and other mammals.

"It informs us that milk production in all extant mammal species has been developed through the same set of genes derived from a common ancestor which lived more than 170 million years ago -- alongside the early dinosaurs in the Jurassic period," says Guojie Zhang.

Another trait that makes the platypus so unique is that, unlike the vast majority of mammals, it is toothless. Although this monotremes' nearest ancestors were toothed, the modern platypus is equipped with two horn plates that are used to mash food. The study reveals that the platypus lost its teeth roughly 120 million years ago, when four of the eight genes responsible for tooth development disappeared.

Only animal with 10 sex chromosomes

Yet another platypus oddity investigated by the researchers was how their sex is determined. Both humans and every other mammal on Earth have two sex chromosomes that determine sex - the X and Y chromosome system in which XX is female and XY is male. The monotremes, however, including our duck-billed friends from Down Under, have 10 sex chromosomes, with five Y and five X chromosomes.

Thanks to the near-complete chromosomal level genomes, researchers can now suggest that these 10 sex chromosomes in the ancestors of the monotremes were organized in a ring form which was later broken away into many small pieces of X and Y chromosomes. At the same time, the genome mapping reveals that the majority of monotreme sex chromosomes have more in common with chickens than with humans. But what it shows, is an evolutionary link between mammals and birds.

PLATYPUS FACTS

• The platypus is endemic to eastern Australia and Tasmania. It is a protected species and classified by the IUCN as near-threatened.

• Among the reasons why platypuses are considered mammals: they have mammary glands, grow hair and have three bones in their middle ears. Each trait helps to define a mammal.

• The platypus belongs to the mammalian order monotreme, so named because monotremes use a singular opening for urination, defecation and sexual reproduction.

• The animal is an excellent swimmer and spends much of its time hunting for insects and shellfish in rivers.

• Its distinctive beak is filled with electrical sensors which are used to locate prey in muddy river beds.

• The male platypus has a venomous spur behind each of its hind legs. The venom is poisonous enough to kill a dog and is deployed when males fight for territory.

• Another 2020 study demonstrated that platypus fur is fluorescent. The animal's brown fur reflects a blue-green color when placed under UV light. (source: https://doi.org/10.1515/mammalia-2020-0027)

ABOUT THE STUDY

• Advanced gene sequencing technology that combines numerous cutting-edge methods has allowed the research team to map a near-complete genome at the chromosomal level from both the platypus and its cousin, the echidna-- the only two currently living types of monotreme animals. The gene data fills in 90 percent of the gaps in previous genetic mappings. Over 96% of the genome sequences are placed in the chromosomes now.

• The researchers have compared the monotreme genes and genomes from chickens, humans, rats, Tasmanian devils and lizards.

• In addition to Yang Zhou (lead author) and Guojie Zhang of the University of Copenhagen, the research was carried out by, among others: Linda Shearwin-Whyatt of The University of Adelaide (Australia) and Jing Li of Zhejiang University (China). A complete list of the authors can be found in the research article.

• The study has just been published in the prestigious scientific journal, Nature.

New research finds ginger counters certain autoimmune diseases in mice

The main bioactive compound of ginger root lowers autoantibody production and helps halt disease progression in mice with antiphospholipid syndrome and lupus

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Research News

 

Naturopathic medicine, or herbal medicine, is all the rage, especially among young people. But how much of this is supported by science?

Ginger is known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects, making it a popular herbal supplement to treat inflammatory diseases.

And according to a Michigan Medicine led study published in JCI Insight, the main bioactive compound of ginger root, 6-gingerol, is therapeutic in countering the mechanism that fuels certain autoimmune diseases in mice. Researchers specifically looked at lupus, a disease which attacks the body's own immune system, and its often associated condition antiphospholipid syndrome, which causes blood clots, since both cause widespread inflammation and damage organs overtime.

In mice with either antiphospholipid syndrome or lupus, 6-gingerol prevented neutrophil extracellular trap release, which is triggered by the autoantibodies that these diseases produce.

"Neutrophil extracellular traps, or NETs, come from white blood cells called neutrophils," says lead author Ramadan Ali, Ph.D. "These sticky spider-web like structures are formed when autoantibodies interact with receptors on the neutrophil's surface."

According to Ali, these webs play an important role in the pathogenesis of lupus and antiphospholipid syndrome where they trigger autoantibody formation and contribute to blood vessel clotting and damage.

The study question was, "will the anti-inflammatory properties of ginger extend to neutrophils, and specifically, can this natural medicine stop neutrophils from making NETs that contribute to disease progression?"

"This pre-clinical study in mice offers a surprising and exciting, 'yes'," Ali says.

Ali discovered that after giving 6-gingerol, the mice had lower levels of NETs. Their tendency to make clots was also drastically reduced and 6-gingerol appeared to inhibit neutrophil enzymes called phosphodiesterases, which in turn reduced neutrophil activation.

But the most surprising find of all was that the mice, regardless of whether they had antiphospholipid syndrome or lupus, had reduced autoantibodies suggesting the inflammatory cycle, autoantibodies stimulating NETs which stimulate more autoantibodies, was broken.

Next steps and potential implications

"Through my years of medical training I wasn't taught much about supplements, but it's something that so many patients ask me about," says study author and rheumatologist Jason Knight, M.D. "When Ramadan brought the concept to me, I was enthusiastic to pursue it in my lab, as I knew it would matter to them. Sometimes our patients give us really good ideas!"

Although the study was done in mouse models, Ali and Knight think the preclinical data, showing that 6-gingerol has anti-neutrophil properties that may protect against autoimmune disease progression, encourages clinical trial development.

"As for basically all treatments in our field, one size does not fit all. But, I wonder if there is a subgroup of autoimmune patients with hyperactive neutrophils who might benefit from increased intake of 6-gingerol," Knight says. "It will be important to study neutrophils before and after treatment so we can determine the subgroup most likely to see benefit."

The bioactive compound can't be the primary therapy for someone with active antiphospholipid syndrome or lupus, but the team is interested to see if the natural supplement may help those at high risk for disease development.

"Those that have autoantibodies, but don't have activated disease, may benefit from this treatment if 6-gingerol proves to be a protective agent in humans as it does in mice," Ali says, who's passionate about natural medicine research for rheumatic diseases.

"Patients with active disease take blood thinners, but what if there was also a natural supplement that helped reduce the amount of clots they produce? And what if we could decrease their autoantibodies?"

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Other study authors include Alex A. Gandhi, MS, Lipeng Dai, Ph.D., Julia K. Weiner, Shanea K. Estes, M.L.I, Srilakshmi Yalavarthi, MS, Kelsey Gockman and Duxin Sun, Ph.D.

Paper Cited: "Anti-neutrophil properties of natural gingerols in models of lupus," JCI Insight. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.138385

Researchers turn coal powder into graphite in microwave oven

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING

Research News

 

IMAGE: IN A MICROWAVE OVEN, SPARKS ARE GENERATED INSIDE A GLASS VIAL CONTAINING COAL POWDER AND COPPER FOIL AS PART OF AN EXPERIMENT BY UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING RESEARCHERS. THEY SUCCESSFULLY CONVERTED... view more 

CREDIT: CHRIS MASI

Using copper foil, glass containers and a conventional household microwave oven, University of Wyoming researchers have demonstrated that pulverized coal powder can be converted into higher-value nano-graphite.

The discovery is another step forward in the effort to find alternative uses for Wyoming's Powder River Basin coal, at a time when demand for coal to generate electricity is declining due to concerns about climate change.

In a paper published in the journal Nano-Structures & Nano-Objects, the UW researchers report that they created an environment in a microwave oven to successfully convert raw coal powder into nano-graphite, which is used as a lubricant and in items ranging from fire extinguishers to lithium ion batteries. This "one-step method with metal-assisted microwave treatment" is a new approach that could represent a simple and relatively inexpensive coal-conversion technology.

"This method provides a new route to convert abundant carbon sources to high-value materials with ecological and economic benefits," wrote the research team, led by Associate Professor TeYu Chien, in UW's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Others involved in the project were Professor Jinke Tang, in the Department of Physics and Astronomy; Associate Professor Brian Leonard, in the Department of Chemistry; Professor Maohong Fan, in the Department of Petroleum Engineering and the School of Energy Resources; graduate students Rabindra Dulal, of Nepal, Joann Hilman, of Laramie, Wyo., Chris Masi, of Syracuse, N.Y., and Teneil Schumacher, of Buffalo, Wyo.; and postdoctoral researchers Gaurab Rimal, of Nepal, and Bang Xu, of China.

While previous research has shown that microwaves can be used to reduce the moisture content of coal and remove sulfur and other minerals, most such methods require specific chemical pretreatment of the coal. In their experiment, the UW researchers simply ground raw Powder River Basin coal into powder.

That powder was then placed on copper foil and sealed in glass containers with a gas mixture of argon and hydrogen, before being placed in a microwave oven. A conventional microwave oven was chosen because of convenience and because it provided the desired levels of radiation.

"By cutting the copper foil into a fork shape, the sparks were induced by the microwave radiation, generating an extremely high temperature of more than 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit within a few seconds," says Masi, lead author of the paper. "This is why you shouldn't place a metal fork inside a microwave oven."

The sparks caused by the microwaves generated the high temperatures necessary to transform the coal powder into polycrystalline graphite, with the copper foil and hydrogen gas also contributing to the process.

While the experiment included microwave durations ranging from 3 to 45 minutes, the optimal duration was found to be 15 minutes.

The researchers say this new method of coal conversion could be refined and performed at a larger scale to yield both a higher quality and quantity of nano-graphite materials.

"Finite graphite reserves and environmental concerns for the graphite extraction procedures make this method of converting coal to graphite a great alternative source of graphite production," the scientists wrote.

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'Sniffing out' fruity thiols in hoppy beers

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Research News

 

Hoppy beers such as pale ales are becoming increasingly popular. One reason is their pleasant fruity aroma that partially stems from compounds called thiols. Brewers have been looking for an accurate way to track thiols in beer, but current methods typically are not sensitive enough or require use of potentially harmful substances. Now, researchers in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry present an automated, solvent-less process to assess thiols at very low concentrations.

Thiols, along with other compounds such as terpenes and esters, contribute to the enjoyable odors in "hop-forward" beer styles. Although very small amounts of thiols are present in beer, a little bit of these compounds goes a long way toward achieving a hoppy flavor and fruity aroma. Brewers would like more information about these volatile substances, but it's challenging to accurately detect such small quantities. Previous studies have reported complex, multi-step methods for thiol analysis in beer, but the approaches could not measure all of the thiols brewers want to know about, and some processes used harmful mercury-containing compounds. Thiols also contribute to wine aromas, and researchers have used coated polymers that they can put into the air above the beverage to convert aerosolized wine thiols to more easily measureable compounds. The downside is that this method is not sensitive enough to measure the trace concentrations in beer. To develop a more robust analysis, Nils Rettberg and colleagues wanted to modify previous methods and come up with a safer, faster and more sensitive approach.

In initial experiments to develop the new process, the team modified the sample preparation method used in wine analyses to convert aerosolized thiols to compounds with higher analytical sensitivity. Then, they tweaked and applied a tandem mass spectrometry approach to maximally detect and measure the resulting compounds. Finally, the team tested their new method on 13 commercially available beers from multiple countries made with hop varieties expected to have high thiol content. The distribution of thiols within the selected beers was consistent with prior studies. Surprisingly, the team could only detect one of the three expected thiols in a beer with real grapefruit added, suggesting that the fruit itself likely contributed scent compounds other than thiols. The researchers say the method meets the requirements to detect thiols in beer, while also processing samples in a safer, simpler and quicker manner.

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The authors acknowledge funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

The abstract that accompanies this paper is available here.