Plant clock could be the key to producing more food for the world

Night time clock helps plants know when to grow

UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

Research News

 

IMAGE: PLANTS CAN'T STUMBLE TO THE FRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IF THEY GET HUNGRY SO THEY HAVE TO PREDICT THE LENGTH OF THE NIGHT SO THERE'S ENOUGH ENERGY... view more 

CREDIT: GETTY

A University of Melbourne led study has established how plants use their metabolism to tell time and know when to grow - a discovery that could help leverage growing crops in different environments, including different seasons, different latitudes or even in artificial environments and vertical gardens.

Published in the PNAS journal, Superoxide is promoted by sucrose and affects amplitude of circadian rhythms in the evening, details how plants use their metabolism to sense time at dusk and help conserve energy produced from sunlight during the day.

Lead researcher Dr Mike Haydon, from the School of BioSciences, said while plants don't sleep as humans do, their metabolism is adjusted during the night to conserve energy for the big day ahead of making their own food using energy from sunlight, or photosynthesis.

"Getting the timing of this daily cycle of metabolism right is really important because getting it wrong is detrimental to growth and survival," Dr Haydon said. "Plants can't stumble to the fridge in the middle of the night if they get hungry so they have to predict the length of the night so there's enough energy to last until sunrise; a bit like setting an alarm clock."

Dr Haydon and collaborators had earlier shown that the accumulation of sugars produced from photosynthesis give the plant important information about the amount of sugar generated in the morning and sends signals to what's known as the circadian clock, to adjust its pace.

"We have now found that a different metabolic signal, called superoxide, acts at dusk and changes the activity of circadian clock genes in the evening," said Dr Haydon. "We also found that this signal affects plant growth. We think this signal could be providing information to the plant about metabolic activity as the sun sets."

Researchers hope the study will be invaluable in the world producing more food, more reliably.

"As we strive to produce more food for the increasing global population in the face of changing climate, we may need to grow crops in different environments such as different seasons, different latitudes or even in artificial environments like vertical gardens," Dr Haydon said.

"Understanding how plants optimise rhythms of metabolism could be useful information to allow us to fine-tune their circadian clocks to suit these conditions and maximise future yields."

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UNESCO reveals largest carbon stores found in Australian World Heritage Sites

Australia's marine World Heritage Sites are among the world's largest stores of carbon dioxide according to a new report from the United Nations, co-authored by an ECU marine science expert.

EDITH COWAN UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Australia's marine World Heritage Sites are among the world's largest stores of carbon dioxide according to a new report from the United Nations, co-authored by an ECU marine science expert.

The UNESCO report found Australia's six marine World Heritage Sites hold 40 per cent of the estimated 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide stored in mangrove, seagrass and tidal marsh ecosystems within UNESCO sites.

The report quantifies the enormous amounts of so-called blue carbon absorbed and stored by those ecosystems across the world's 50 UNESCO marine World Heritage Sites.

Despite covering less than 1 per cent of the world's surface, blue carbon ecosystems are responsible for around half of the carbon dioxide absorbed by the world's oceans while it is estimated they absorb carbon dioxide at a rate about 30 times faster than rainforests.

Australia a 'Blue Carbon' hotspot

Report author and ECU Research Fellow Dr Oscar Serrano said Australia's Great Barrier Reef, Ningaloo Coast and Shark Bay World Heritage areas contained the vast majority of Australia's blue carbon ecosystems.

"We know Australia contains some of the world's largest stores of blue carbon due to the enormous size and diversity of our marine ecosystems," he said.

"However here in Australia and around the world, these ecosystems are under threat from human development and climate change.

"While they're healthy, blue carbon ecosystems are excellent stores of carbon dioxide, but if they are damaged, they can release huge amounts of carbon dioxide stored over millennia back into the atmosphere."

Climate change turns up the heat on seagrass

In 2011 seagrass meadows in the Shark Bay World Heritage Site in Western Australia released up to nine million tons of stored carbon dioxide after a marine heatwave devastated more than 1000sqkm of seagrass meadows.

The UNESCO Report's authors have outlined the potential for the countries including Australia to use the global carbon trading market to fund conservation and restoration efforts at marine World Heritage Sites including here in Australia.

Dr Serrano said both Shark Bay and the Great Barrier Reef ecosystems are at risk due to climate change and human development.

"There are significant opportunities for both the Great Barrier Reef and Shark Bay to be protected and restored to ensure they survive and thrive in the future," he said.

"Australia also has plenty of marine ecosystems in need of protection not contained within a World Heritage Site which are worthy of our attention.

Money to be made in carbon market

Dr Serrano's previous research has highlighted the millions of dollars in potential conservation and restoration projects of blue carbon ecosystems while also helping Australia and other countries achieve their commitments to the Paris Climate Agreement.

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The report was led by Professor Carlos Duarte and a team of collaborators from Australia, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, the United States, Kenya and the United Kingdom.

The UNESCO Marine World Heritage report is titled 'Custodians of the globes' blue carbon assets' and can be accessed at the UNESCO webpage.

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Dinosaur species: 'Everyone's unique'

Paleontologists from the Universities of Bonn and Liverpool examined 14 skulls of Plateosaurus trossingensis

UNIVERSITY OF BONN

Research News

 

IMAGE: ON LOAN FROM THE FRICK DINOSAUR MUSEUM, ON DISPLAY AT THE ZOOLOGICAL RESEARCH MUSEUM ALEXANDER KOENIG (ZFMK) IN BONN. view more 

CREDIT: © VOLKER LANNERT/UNI BONN

"Everyone's unique" is a popular maxim. All people are equal, but there are of course individual differences. This was no different with dinosaurs. A study by researchers at the University of Bonn and the Dinosaur Museum Frick in Switzerland has now revealed that the variability of Plateosaurus trossingensis was much greater than previously assumed. The paleontologists examined a total of 14 complete skulls of this species, eight of which they described for the first time. The results have now been published in the scientific journal "Acta Palaeontologica Polonica".

Plateosaurus lived during the Late Triassic, about 217 to 201 million years ago. "With well over 100 skeletons, some of them completely preserved, it is one of the best known dinosaurs," says Dr. Jens Lallensack, who researched dinosaur biology at the University of Bonn and has been working at Liverpool John Moores University (UK) for several months. The herbivore had a small skull, a long neck and tail, powerful hind legs and strong grasping hands. The spectrum is considerable: Adult specimens ranged from a few to ten meters in length, weighing between about half a ton and four tons.

The first bones of Plateosaurus were found as early as 1834 near Nuremberg, making it the first dinosaur found in Germany, and one of the first ever. Between 1911 and 1938, excavations unearthed dozens of skeletons from dinosaur "graveyards" in Halberstadt (Saxony-Anhalt) and Trossingen (Baden-Württemberg). A third such cemetery was discovered in the 1960s in Frick, Switzerland. "It's the only one where there are still digs every year," Lallensack says. The material from Frick, which is described in detail for the first time, includes eight complete and seven fragmentary skulls excavated by Swiss paleontologist and dinosaur researcher Dr. Ben Pabst and his team.

CAPTION

of Plateosaurus trossingensis (top) and a reconstruction of the skull with the different bones highlighted in colour (bottom).

CREDIT

© Jens Lallensack

Natural variation between individuals

Dinosaurs have been preserved for posterity mainly through bones. Paleontologists rely on anatomical details to distinguish different species. "A perpetual difficulty with this is that such anatomical differences can also occur within a species, as natural variation between individuals," Lallensack reports. Researchers at the University of Bonn and the Dinosaur Museum Frick (Switzerland) have now been able to show that Plateosaurus anatomy was significantly more variable than previously thought - and the validity of some species needs to be re-examined. These findings were made possible by analyses of 14 complete and additional incomplete skulls of Plateosaurus. "Such a large number of early dinosaurs is unique," says paleontologist Prof. Dr. Martin Sander of the University of Bonn.

Can all these fossils from Germany and Switzerland really be assigned to a single species? Answering this question has become all the more urgent since Martin Sander and Nicole Klein of the University of Bonn published in "Science" in 2005. According to this, Plateosaurus was probably already warm-blooded like today's birds, but was able to adapt its growth to the environmental conditions - something that today can only be observed in cold-blooded animals. "This hypothesis is of great importance for our understanding of the evolution of warm-bloodedness," reports Lallensack. However, until now the observed individually distinct growth patterns could alternatively be explained by the assumption that there was not only one, but several species present. The current study debunks this.

CAPTION

of a Plateosaurus trossingensis skull deformed by loading during fossilisation.

CREDIT

© Jens Lallensack

Bone deformations during fossilization

The researchers have now carefully documented the variations in skulls of different sizes. A significant portion of the differences can be attributed to bone deformation during fossilization deep below the Earth's surface. Individual variations must be distinguished from this: The posterior branch of the zygomatic bone, which is sometimes bifurcated and sometimes not, appeared most striking to the researchers. A strongly sculptured bone bridge over the eye was also present only in some skulls. The relative size of the nasal opening also varies.

"It becomes apparent that each skull has a unique combination of features," Lallensack notes, emphasizing the distinct individuality of these dinosaurs. The uniquely large number of skulls studied made it possible to show that the differences in characteristics were variations within a species and not different species. "Only if as many finds as possible are excavated and secured will we obtain the high quantities needed to prove species affiliation and answer fundamental questions of biology" says Sander.

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Funding:

The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The project received financial support for the excavation and preparation from the municipality of Frick and the Canton of Aargau (Swisslos Fund) of Switzerland.

Publication: Lallensack, J.N., Teschner, E.M., Pabst, B., and Sander, P.M.: New skulls of the basal sauropodomorph Plateosaurus trossingensis from Frick, Switzerland: Is there more than one species? Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, DOI: https://doi.org/10.4202/app.00804.2020; http://app.pan.pl/article/item/app008042020.html

 

Neandertals had the capacity to perceive and produce human speech

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: 3D MODEL AND VIRTUAL RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EAR IN A MODERN HUMAN (LEFT) AND THE AMUD 1 NEANDERTAL (RIGHT). view more 

CREDIT: MERCEDES CONDE-VALVERDE

BINGHAMTON, NY -- Neandertals -- the closest ancestor to modern humans -- possessed the ability to perceive and produce human speech, according to a new study published by an international multidisciplinary team of researchers including Binghamton University anthropology professor Rolf Quam and graduate student Alex Velez.

"This is one of the most important studies I have been involved in during my career", says Quam. "The results are solid and clearly show the Neandertals had the capacity to perceive and produce human speech. This is one of the very few current, ongoing research lines relying on fossil evidence to study the evolution of language, a notoriously tricky subject in anthropology."

The evolution of language, and the linguistic capacities in Neandertals in particular, is a long-standing question in human evolution.

"For decades, one of the central questions in human evolutionary studies has been whether the human form of communication, spoken language, was also present in any other species of human ancestor, especially the Neandertals," says coauthor Juan Luis Arsuaga, Professor of Paleontology at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and co-director of the excavations and research at the Atapuerca sites. The latest study has reconstructed how Neandertals heard to draw some inferences about how they may have communicated.

The study relied on high resolution CT scans to create virtual 3D models of the ear structures in Homo sapiens and Neandertals as well as earlier fossils from the site of Atapuerca that represent ancestors of the Neandertals. Data collected on the 3D models were entered into a software-based model, developed in the field of auditory bioengineering, to estimate the hearing abilities up to 5 kHz, which encompasses most of the frequency range of modern human speech sounds. Compared with the Atapuerca fossils, the Neandertals showed slightly better hearing between 4-5 kHz, resembling modern humans more closely.

CAPTION

Reconstructed hearing patterns in modern humans, Neandertals and the Sima de los Huesos based on their ear anatomy. Compared with their ancestors from the Sima de los Huesos, the Neandertals more closely resemble modern humans in showing a heightened sensitivity between 3.5-5 kHz, a frequency range that contains acoustic information related to consonant production in human spoken language.

CREDIT

Mercedes Conde-Valverde

In addition, the researchers were able to calculate the frequency range of maximum sensitivity, technically known as the occupied bandwidth, in each species. The occupied bandwidth is related to the communication system, such that a wider bandwidth allows for a larger number of easily distinguishable acoustic signals to be used in the oral communication of a species. This, in turn, improves the efficiency of communication, the ability to deliver a clear message in the shortest amount of time. The Neandertals show a wider bandwidth compared with their ancestors from Atapuerca, more closely resembling modern humans in this feature.

"This really is the key," says Mercedes Conde-Valverde, professor at the Universidad de Alcalá in Spain and lead author of the study. "The presence of similar hearing abilities, particularly the bandwidth, demonstrates that the Neandertals possessed a communication system that was as complex and efficient as modern human speech."

"One of the other interesting results from the study was the suggestion that Neandertal speech likely included an increased use of consonants," said Quam. "Most previous studies of Neandertal speech capacities focused on their ability to produce the main vowels in English spoken language. However, we feel this emphasis is misplaced, since the use of consonants is a way to include more information in the vocal signal and it also separates human speech and language from the communication patterns in nearly all other primates. The fact that our study picked up on this is a really interesting aspect of the research and is a novel suggestion regarding the linguistic capacities in our fossil ancestors."

Thus, Neandertals had a similar capacity to us to produce the sounds of human speech, and their ear was "tuned" to perceive these frequencies. This change in the auditory capacities in Neandertals, compared with their ancestors from Atapuerca, parallels archaeological evidence for increasingly complex behavioral patterns, including changes in stone tool technology, domestication of fire and possible symbolic practices. Thus, the study provides strong evidence in favor of the coevolution of increasingly complex behaviors and increasing efficiency in vocal communication throughout the course of human evolution.

The team behind the new study has been developing this research line for nearly two decades, and has ongoing collaborations to extend the analyses to additional fossil species. For the moment, however, the new results are exciting.

"These results are particularly gratifying," said Ignacio Martinez from Universidad de Alcalá in Spain. "We believe, after more than a century of research into this question, that we have provided a conclusive answer to the question of Neandertal speech capacities."

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The study, "Neandertals and modern humans had similar auditory and speech capacities," was published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

First ever detailed description of a volcanic eruption from Sierra Negra

TRINITY COLLEGE DUBLIN

Research News

 

A volcanic eruption in the Galápagos Islands has given scientists a fresh insight into how volcanoes behave and provided vital information that will help to predict future hazards on the islands.

Irish scientists, based at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) and Trinity College Dublin respectively, were members of an international research team from Ireland, United Kingdom, United States, France and Ecuador that made the discovery.

The research published today (02.03.21) in Nature Communications reveals the first ever detailed description of a volcanic eruption from Sierra Negra - one of the world's most active volcanoes - found on Isabela Island, the largest of the Galápagos archipelago and home to nearly 2,000 people.

The new understandings developed from the research will allow Ecuadorian volcanologists to track the evolution of unrest for future eruptions in the Galápagos Islands, and communicate it to local authorities and the public.

The research process

The eruption in June 2018 began after 13 years of earthquakes and uplift of the surface marked the gradual accumulation of molten rock (magma) under the volcano. They were amongst the largest signals ever recorded before an eruption. Strong earthquakes allowed new fissures to open in the shield volcano, feeding lava flows that extended 16 km to the coast, and were active for nearly two months.

When the eruption finished, the hills within the 10 km wide caldera of the volcano were nearly two metres higher than at the start. This phenomenon, known as 'caldera resurgence', is important for understanding when and where eruptions happen, but is rare and had never been observed in such detail.

Despite their significance, the Galápagos Islands' remote location means that this is the first eruption there to have been recorded by modern monitoring instruments, including seismometers and GPS. Consequently, there have been no previous multidisciplinary studies into the volcanic processes behind Galápagos Island volcanism.

The international research team combined the latest data recorded by instruments on the ground, by satellites, and by analysis of the chemical composition of the erupted lava. They showed how ascending magma permanently uplifted a 'trapdoor' in the floor of the caldera, raising the surface, and triggering large earthquakes.

Comments from the research team

Professor Chris Bean, Head of the Geophysics Section and Director of the School of Cosmic Physics at DIAS, who was a member of the research team said:

"It was fantastic to represent DIAS on this international research team, we managed to examine the Sierra Negra volcano with an unprecedented level of detail which has produced some ground-breaking results. Although the volcano had been slowly inflating for over a decade, the final trigger to the eruption was a violent earthquake strong enough to make anything that wasn't tied down hop clear off the ground. Stress changes related to this event unzip subterranean fractures through which magma flowed to the surface in a spectacular eruption."

Dr Michael Stock, Assistant Professor of Geology at Trinity College Dublin, who was also a member of the research team, said:

"This is a genuinely multidisciplinary study which brought together a diverse team of international scientists to produce one of the most detailed records of pre-eruptive processes at an active volcano to date. The data will be invaluable in improving volcano monitoring in Galapagos, where eruptions pose a risk to the unique and fragile ecosystem. However, it also has far-reaching global implications, demonstrating that not all volcanoes are created equally - our current understanding of volcano monitoring data is largely based on well-studied eruptions in Iceland and Hawaii and may need to be urgently reassessed to effectively manage volcanic hazards in other locations."

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Further information about the project is available at http://www.dias.ie/geo-recent-research-activities/ .

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Lead up to volcanic eruption in Galapagos captured in rare detail

PENN STATE

Research News

 

IMAGE: FIELD CREW DOWNLOADING DATA FROM A CONTINUOUSLY OPERATING GLOBAL POSITIONING STATION IN THE SIERRA NEGRA CALDERA, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS, ECUADOR. view more 

CREDIT: KEITH WILLIAMS (UMAVCO, INC).

Hours before the 2018 eruption of Sierra Negra, the Galápagos Islands' largest volcano, an earthquake rumbled and raised the ground more than 6 feet in an instant. The event, which triggered the eruption, was captured in rare detail by an international team of scientists, who said it offers new insights into one of the world's most active volcanoes.

"The power of this study is that it's one of the first times we've been able to see a full eruptive cycle in this detail at almost any volcano," said Peter La Femina, associate professor of geosciences at Penn State. "We've monitored Sierra Negra from when it last erupted in 2005 through the 2018 eruption and beyond, and we have this beautiful record that's a rarity in itself."

For nearly two months in 2018, lava erupted from the volcano, covering about 19 square miles of Isabela Island, the largest island in the Galápagos and home to about 2,000 people and endangered animal species like the Galápagos giant tortoise.

"The 2018 eruption of Sierra Negra was a really spectacular volcanic event, occurring in the 'living laboratory' of the Galápagos Islands," said Andrew Bell, a volcanologist at the University of Edinburgh. "Great teamwork, and a bit of luck, allowed us to capture this unique dataset that provide us with important new understanding as to how these volcanoes behave, and how we might be able to better forecast future eruptions."

While Sierra Negra is among the world's most active volcanos, its remote location previously made monitoring difficult. Scientists now use networks of ground-based seismic and GPS monitoring stations and satellite observations to observe the volcano.

"Based on constant monitoring of activity of Galapagos volcanoes, we detected a dramatic increase of seismicity and a steady uplift of crater floor at Sierra Negra," said Mario Ruiz, director of the Ecuador Geophysical Institute, the country's national monitoring agency. "Soon we contacted colleagues from the United Kingdom, United States and Ireland and proposed them to work together to investigate the mechanisms leading to an impending eruption of this volcano. This research is an example of international collaboration and partnership."

The scientists captured data over 13 years as the volcano's magma chamber gradually refilled following the 2005 eruption, stressing the surrounding crust and creating earthquakes. This continued until June 2018, when an earthquake occurred on the calderas fault system and triggered the subsequent eruption, the scientists said.

"We have this story of magma coming in and stressing the system to the point of failure and the whole system draining again through the eruption of lava flows," La Femina said. "This is the first time anyone's seen that in the Galápagos to this detail. This is the first time we've had the data to say, 'okay, this is what happened here.'"

Often during volcanic eruptions, as magma chambers empty the ground above them sinks and forms a bowl-like depression, or a caldera. But Sierra Negra experienced a caldera resurgence, leaving this area higher in elevation than it was before the eruption, the scientists said.

Inside the Sierra Negra caldera is a "trap-door fault," which is hinged at one end while the other can be uplifted by rising magma. The scientists found the fault caused hills inside of the six-mile-wide caldera to lift vertically by more than 6 feet during the earthquake that triggered the eruption.

Caldera resurgence, important to better understanding eruptions, had not been previously observed in such detail, the scientists reported in the journal Nature Communications.

"Resurgence is typical of explosive calderas at volcanoes like Yellowstone, not the kind of shield volcanoes we see in the Galápagos or Hawaii," La Femina said. "This gives us the ability to look at other volcanoes in the Galápagos and say, 'well that's what could have happened to form that caldera or that resurgent ridge.'"

The scientists said the findings could help their counterparts in Ecuador better track unrest and warn of future eruptions.

"There are people who live on Isabella Island, so studying and understanding how these eruptions occur is important to manage the hazards and risks to local populations," La Femina said.

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Other Penn State researchers on the project were Machel Higgins and Andres Gorki Ruiz, doctoral students, and Nathan Meier, a former undergraduate student.

Scientists from the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Cambridge, the University of Miami, Tulane University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory also contributed to the study.

The National Science Foundation, NASA and the Nature Environment Research Council funded this res

Adverse childhood and combat experiences may drive veterans' suicidal thoughts

PENN STATE

Research News

 

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The rate of suicide among post-9/11 military veterans has been rising for nearly a decade. While there are a number of factors associated with suicide, veterans have unique experiences that may contribute to them thinking about killing themselves.

"Compared to their civilian peers, veterans are more likely to report having experienced traumatic adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as physical and emotional abuse," stated Keith Aronson, associate director of the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness at Penn State and the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI). "Veterans also engage in life-threatening combat and witness the corollaries of combat such as seeing colleagues killed or wounded."

A recent study of nearly 10,000 post-9/11 veterans sought to determine if traumatic childhood and combat experiences were associated with suicidal thinking.

The research published on Feb. 24 in the Journal of Community Psychology.

Compared to veterans who had no ACEs or combat exposure (reference group), male and female veterans who had experienced one ACE but no combat were two-and-a-half times more likely to report thoughts of suicide. Females who experienced three or more ACEs but no combat were five times more likely to think of suicide, while males were three times more likely compared to the reference group.

"This data shows that veterans' suicidal thinking and mental well-being is influenced by factors that happen both before and during military," noted Daniel Perkins, principal scientist at the Clearinghouse and professor of Family and Youth Resiliency and Policy in the College of Agricultural Sciences who is also an SSRI cofunded faculty member.

Female veterans who were exposed to three or more ACEs and corollaries of combat were more than five times more likely and males were more than three times more likely to have thoughts of suicide compared to the reference group.

Female veterans who only were exposed to combat were nine times more likely to have thoughts of suicide, while males were four times more likely. Female veterans exposed to one or more ACEs and combat were more than eight times more likely to think about suicide than females in the reference group. Males exposed to one or more ACEs and combat were between two and five times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than male veterans in the reference group.

There was no association between suicidal thinking and exposure to the corollaries of combat irrespective of exposure to ACEs.

"Clearly exposure to ACEs and combat increase the odds that post-9/11 veterans will think about suicide," said Nicole Morgan, assistant research professor at the Clearinghouse. "Female veterans appear particularly vulnerable to suicidal thinking and they likely need enhanced support and programs to decrease their suicidality and work to resolve their childhood and combat traumatic experiences through appropriate evidence-based treatment."

The study is a part of The Veterans Metrics Initiative (TVMI). The initiative focuses on understanding veterans' use and non-use of VA and non-VA resources designed to support healthy reintegration over the first three-years of military disconnection.

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The Veterans Metrics Initiative (TVMI) research was managed by the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc., and it was collaboratively sponsored by the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Health Net Federal Services, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine Inc. (HJF), Lockheed Martin Corporation, Marge and Philip Odeen, May and Stanley Smith Charitable Trust, National Endowment for the Humanities, Northrop Grumman, Prudential, Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Rumsfeld Foundation, Schultz Family Foundation, The Heinz Endowments, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research and Development Service, Walmart Foundation, and Wounded Warrior Project Inc.

About the Clearinghouse for Military Family Readiness

The Clearinghouse is an applied research center committed to advancing the health and well-being of service members and their families. The Clearinghouse takes a solution-oriented approach that includes conducting applied research studies, building workforce expertise through training and resource provision, implementing and evaluating evidence-informed programs and practices, and delivering objective data and policy-relevant findings so that decisions are based on the best science and evidence available. The Clearinghouse is located within Penn State's Social Science Research Institute.

About HJF

The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine, Inc. is a global nonprofit organization with the mission to advance military medicine. HJF's scientific, administrative and program operations services empower investigators, clinicians, and medical researchers around the world to make medical discoveries in all areas of medicine. With more than 35 years of experience, HJF serves as a trusted and responsive link between the military medical community, federal and private partners, and the millions of warfighters, veterans, and civilians who benefit from military medicine.

'Silent epidemic of grief' leaves bereaved and bereavement care practitioners struggling

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

 

Major changes in bereavement care have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a flood of demand for help from bereaved people, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. The first major study of pandemic-related changes in bereavement care has found that the switch to remote working has helped some services to reach out, but many practitioners feel they do not have capacity to meet people's needs.

It is estimated that for every death, nine people are affected by bereavement. The scale of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on those bereaved is now becoming apparent, whether the death was from COVID or from other causes.

Those whose loved ones have died with COVID-19 have had to cope with sudden and unexpected death, deaths in intensive care units, and with seeing loved ones suffer severe symptoms including breathlessness and agitation at the end of life. Social distancing measures have meant restricted visiting at the end of life, leaving some to die alone. Viewing the deceased person's body and funeral proceedings have been severely curtailed, with major impact on those bereaved from all causes, not only from COVID-19. All these factors mean that the risks of complicated and prolonged grief responses have become higher during the pandemic.

In research published today in BMJ Open, researchers at Cambridge's Department of Public Health and Primary Care report the results of an online survey sent to health and social care staff in August 2020, inviting them to describe their experiences and views about changes in bereavement care. 805 people responded, including those working in community, care home, hospital and hospice settings across the UK and Ireland.

Services faced initial challenges adapting to changing national government guidelines. Some bereavement services were suspended due to staff being furloughed or redeployed, particularly specialist bereavement services. Volunteer support in hospitals and hospices was reduced and some services saw increased waiting lists.

"We had 600% increase in deaths for a 3-week period. Dealing with the backlog of bereavement support was challenging," said one palliative medicine doctor.

Bereavement care fell to a wider range of staff members, including some with limited experience. Some people reported that services were under-resourced before the pandemic and that the pandemic would worsen the situation and add new difficulties due to the complex grief reactions.

The biggest change has been the switch to remote methods of providing support - such as telephone and video - which was reported by 90% of respondents. Adapting care to online or telephone formats was particularly challenging, with limited access to the equipment needed and limited staff training in their use.

The move to remote support has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, it increased some opportunities for bereavement support. Services supporting children and young people at times reported these groups to be more receptive to online support and hospices and hospital teams reported widening access to their bereavement support. However, practitioners described the remote work as "draining" and difficult to manage, alongside their own emotional strains during the pandemic.

Some practitioners feared being overwhelmed by demand: "We are really only seeing those who have been bereaved in Jan/Feb so far, so there may be many more to come," said one Community Listening Service Coordinator.

The changes to services were reported to have disrupted the ability to offer emotional support: "It has felt as though we are dealing with them at arm's length whereas we would be there to hold their hands, give them a hug as needed," said a palliative medicine doctor.

Many respondents expressed grave concerns over the long-term impacts on bereaved people, highlighting the inability or restrictions on being with the dying patient as having a profound impact in bereavement.

"Many people who died were denied opportunity to die in their preferred place of care / preferred place of death and died in suboptimal environments to receive their care in last days," said a GP.

While those bereaved from COVID-19 and non-COVID conditions were similarly affected by the restrictions, specific challenges related to COVID-19 were reported. Some respondents described relatives' anger at having COVID-19 on the death certificate. One Bereavement Specialist Liaison Nurse said that the disease "seemed to have a 'stigma' for some". This sense of stigma was thought to exacerbate peoples' feelings of having failed to protect their family member from COVID-19.

Concerns were raised over a large and 'invisible cohort of people' who may not access support or for whom support will be restricted, leading to greater unmet need. "There may be a silent epidemic of grief that we have not yet picked up on," said a Palliative Medicine Doctor.

Dr Caroline Pearce, the lead researcher, said: "Bereavement care has undergone major changes in both acute and community settings affecting bereaved people, clinicians, support workers and the wider health and social care system. The increased need for bereavement care has challenged practitioners as they have taken on new responsibilities and skills and shifted to remote and electronic working. The increased potential for prolonged and complicated grief responses among those bereaved during this period is particularly concerning."

Andy Langford, Clinical Director, CRUSE Bereavement Care, added: "Speaking about grief remains an area of public discomfort, and it is important practitioners encourage bereaved people to view grief as a 'valid' reason to seek help from health and community services, as well as from those they trust in their communities. It was heartening that many respondents reported the development of new and expanded services, but it is imperative that these are made sustainable in the longer-term. The need isn't going away."

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This study was funded by National Institute of Health Research, School for Primary Care Research.

Reference

Pearce, C et al. 'A silent epidemic of grief': a survey of bereavement care provision in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ Open; 1 March 2021; DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046872

In era of online learning, new testing method aims to reduce cheating

Rensselaer-developed method proven effective in reducing collusion among students

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Research News

 

TROY, N.Y. -- The era of widespread remote learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic requires online testing methods that effectively prevent cheating, especially in the form of collusion among students. With concerns about cheating on the rise across the country, a solution that also maintains student privacy is particularly valuable.

In research published today in npj Science of Learning, engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrate how a testing strategy they call "distanced online testing" can effectively reduce students' ability to receive help from one another in order to score higher on a test taken at individual homes during social distancing.

"Often in remote online exams, students can talk over the phone or internet to discuss answers," said Ge Wang, an endowed chair professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer and the corresponding author on this paper. "The key idea of our method is to minimize this chance via discrete optimization aided by knowledge of a student's competencies."

When a distanced online test is performed, students receive the same questions, but at varying times depending on their skill level. For instance, students of highest mastery levels receive each question after other groups of students have already answered those questions. This approach, Wang said, reduces the incentive for students to receive help from those who have more mastery of the material. In order to determine the order of each student's questions, their competence levels are estimated using their grade point averages, SAT scores, or midterm scores, depending on what is available at a specific point in the semester.

According to statistical tests and post-exam surveys, this method reduced the points gained through collusion by orders of magnitude when compared to conventional exam methods. As an added benefit, Wang said, when students knew collusion would not be possible, they were more motivated to study class material. Wang and his collaborators hope to share this pedagogical innovation beyond the Rensselaer campus.

"We plan to develop a good platform so that others can easily use this method," said Wang, a member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer.

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Mengzhou Li, a graduate student in biomedical engineering, was first author on this paper. Li and Wang were joined in this work by Hisham Mohamed and Uwe Kruger, also from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Lirong Xia, a professor of computer science, as well as teaching assistants and graduate students within their labs.

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America's first technological research university. Rensselaer encompasses five schools, 32 research centers, more than 145 academic programs, and a dynamic community made up of more than 7,600 students and over 100,000 living alumni. Rensselaer faculty and alumni include more than 145 National Academy members, six members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six National Medal of Technology winners, five National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With nearly 200 years of experience advancing scientific and technological knowledge, Rensselaer remains focused on addressing global challenges with a spirit of ingenuity and collaboration. To learn more, please visit http://www.rpi.edu.

Why some rural enrollees in Medicare Advantage are switching to traditional Medicare

DREXEL UNIVERSITY

Research News

Philadelphia, Pa. -- More than one out of every 10 seniors (10.5%) enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, also known as a Medicare managed care option, and living in a rural area, switched to traditional Medicare during 2010-2016. The switch was driven primarily due to low satisfaction with care access, according to a study published this week in Health Affairs from researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health. By contrast, only 1.7% of rural traditional Medicare enrollees made the switch to Medicare Advantage during this period.

The findings, among the first to look at rates of switching between the two options among rural versus nonrural enrollees, found a similar, yet more muted, effect among nonrural enrollees, with 2.2% of traditional Medicare enrollees and 5% of Medicare Advantage enrollees making the switch.

Switching was most common among Medicare Advantage enrollees who experienced higher costs, such as hospitalization or long-term facility stay. Among those requiring more expensive services, rural enrollees were about twice as likely to switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare as nonrural enrollees (16.8% versus 8.3%), suggesting that limited provider options in rural areas were a major factor leading consumers to change their coverage plan.

"We studied 11 factors that might make someone switch their health insurance and found that much of this transfer from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare among rural residents came from limited provider availability. However, care quality or out-of-pocket costs played a limited role." said lead author Sungchul Park, PhD, an assistant professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health. "It's not that rural patients were sicker than nonrural patients, they might just have a much tougher time than their counterparts did when it came to finding an approved medical provider."

Unlike traditional Medicare, which is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicare Advantage is operated by private companies approved by the government. Both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage include hospital (Part A) and medical (Part B) insurance. However, funding for the two programs differs and influences how they're delivered. In traditional Medicare, the federal government pays for services performed, but the government pays Medicare Advantage insurers using fixed, pre-negotiated rates. This creates incentive for Medicare Advantage plans to implement cost-saving measures, such as programs to keep their enrollees healthy, implement networks and require prior authorization restrictions to care.

"Medicare Advantage plans might have lower premiums and/or supplemental coverage in some areas, but that value is not enough for patients in more restrictive provider networks that prevent them from accessing care they need," said Park. "We found that levels of satisfaction with out-of-pocket costs had little very little influence in patients who decided to change their plan."

Data was gathered from a nationally representative sample of seniors over age 65 from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey from 2010-2016, (expect for 2014, when data was not reported), including demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, health data and satisfaction with care. Rural residency was based on county-level 2013 data from the Department of Agriculture.

The authors suggest the importance of developing policies to incentivize the health care workforce to practice in rural areas. For example, loan repayment or forgiveness programs may attract needed health care professionals to areas of shortages. Also, the federal government could consider changing Medicare Advantage network adequacy standards for rural areas to make sure that there are enough providers included. Finally, offering a rural payment add-on for Medicare Advantage plans that operate in rural areas may improve access to high-quality Medicare Advantage plans among rural enrollees.

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In addition to Park, authors on this paper include David J. Meyers, PhD, of Brown University and senior author Brent A. Langellier, PhD, of Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health.

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health.