An easy way to reduce socioeconomic disparities

News from the Journal of Marketing

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

 NEWS RELEASE 20-MAR-2021

Research News

Researchers from Columbia University and Temple University published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines how choice architecture can reduce socioeconomic disparities.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Do Nudges Reduce Disparities? Choice Architecture Compensates for Low Consumer Knowledge" and is authored by Kellen Mrkva, Nathaniel Posner, Crystal Reeck, and Eric Johnson.

As Mrkva explains, "Our research demonstrates that people with low socioeconomic status (SES), low numerical ability, and low knowledge are most impacted by nudges. As a result, 'good nudges,' designed to encourage selection of options that are in people's best interests, reduce SES disparities, helping low-SES people more than high-SES people." On the other hand, nudges that encourage selection of inferior options exacerbate disparities relative to "good nudges" because low-SES consumers are more likely to retain inferior default options. In other words, nudges are a double-edged sword that can either reduce disparities or make matters worse because they impact low-SES people most. The research team generalized its findings across three different types of nudges, several different consumer decision contexts, and real retirement decisions.

This research has major implications, including for the COVID vaccination process. Across the country, millions of people are now eligible to get a COVID vaccine. However, the signup process is often unnecessarily complex. New York's nycHealthy sign-up portal, for example, includes as many as 51 questions and requests that you upload your insurance card. As a result, many people, especially the elderly, poor, and less digitally literate, have struggled or failed to make an appointment. As Johnson explains, "Our research suggests that making beneficial behaviors like vaccination simpler has a crucial and underappreciated advantage--it reduces socioeconomic disparities. On the other hand, when these behaviors are unnecessarily complex, it is typically low-SES consumers who are harmed the most."

In five experiments as well as data from real retirement decisions, the researchers show that people who are lower in SES, domain knowledge, and numeracy are impacted more by a variety of nudges. As a result, "good nudges" that facilitate selection of welfare-enhancing options reduce disparities by helping low-SES, low-knowledge, and low-numeracy consumers most.

In Study 1, participants made five consumer financial decisions. For each decision, they were randomly assigned to a "no default," "good default," or "bad default" condition (the latter two pre-selected correct or incorrect options, respectively). After they made these five decisions, participants completed common measures of the three hypothesized moderators--financial literacy, numeracy, and socioeconomic status. As predicted, there was a large default effect. There were also interactions between the default condition and the three moderators; participants lower in these moderators were more impacted by defaults. These effects remained significant when adding survey engagement, comprehension, need for cognition, agreeableness, decision time, and their interactions with condition to the model as covariates.

Study 2 examines whether these effects generalized across three different types of nudges and three decision contexts. It replicated the SES and financial literacy effects of Study 1 across all nudges and contexts. Unlike Study 1 and all subsequent studies, the nudge x numeracy interaction was not significant. The key effects remained significant when controlling for a measure of fluid intelligence.

Study 3 uses syndicated data from stratified random samples of American households about their retirement investment decisions to examine a sample of people who work for companies that use defaults to automatically enroll employees into retirement contributions. Respondents reported whether they retained or opted out of the default contribution amount and default investment allocation. Evidence supports that lower-SES and less financially literate people are more impacted by nudges and thus less likely to opt out of these retirement defaults: Lower-SES participants were less likely to opt out as were participants with lower financial literacy.

Study 4 replicated these effects in the context of COVID-19 health decisions (e.g., deciding whether to wear a mask). Additionally, domain-specific health knowledge moderated default effects whereas other-domain knowledge did not. Studies 5-6 replicated the predicted moderators from Study 1 with incentives. Mediation models suggest that people with lower SES, domain knowledge, and numeracy were more impacted by nudges partly because they experience higher uncertainty and decision anxiety when making decisions.

Across the six studies, nudges influenced choice disparities across people. Posner summarizes the study by saying "Our results suggest that nudges that make behaviors such as retail purchases, vaccine sign-up, and retirement contributions more automatic can reduce socioeconomic inequities."

###

Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242921993186

About the Journal of Marketing

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

About the American Marketing Association (AMA)

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

How our microplastic waste becomes 'hubs' for pathogens, antibiotic-resistant bacteria

A new study shows how microplastics found in our daily personal care products can also host pathogens and boost antibiotic-resistant bacteria by up to 30 times once they wash down household drains and enter municipal wastewater treatment plants

NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Research News

    SHARE

 PRINT  E-MAIL

IMAGE: A SINGLE USE OF A FACIAL EXFOLIATOR CAN RELEASE 5,000 -100,000 MICROPLASTICS TO THE ENVIRONMENT. view more 

CREDIT: NJIT

It's estimated that an average-sized wastewater treatment plant serving roughly 400,000 residents will discharge up to 2,000,000 microplastic particles into the environment each day. Yet, researchers are still learning the environmental and human health impact of these ultra-fine plastic particles, less than 5 millimeters in length, found in everything from cosmetics, toothpaste and clothing microfibers, to our food, air and drinking water.

Now, researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have shown that ubiquitous microplastics can become 'hubs' for antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens to grow once they wash down household drains and enter wastewater treatment plants -- forming a slimy layer of buildup, or biofilm, on their surface that allows pathogenic microorganisms and antibiotic waste to attach and comingle.

In findings published in Elsevier's Journal of Hazardous Materials Letters, researchers found certain strains of bacteria elevated antibiotic resistance by up to 30 times while living on microplastic biofilms that can form inside activated sludge units at municipal wastewater treatment plants.

"A number of recent studies have focused on the negative impacts that millions of tons of microplastic waste a year is having on our freshwater and ocean environments, but until now the role of microplastics in our towns' and cities' wastewater treatment processes has largely been unknown," said Mengyan Li, associate professor of chemistry and environmental science at NJIT and the study's corresponding author. "These wastewater treatment plants can be hotspots where various chemicals, antibiotic-resistant bacteria and pathogens converge and what our study shows is that microplastics can serve as their carriers, posing imminent risks to aquatic biota and human health if they bypass the water treatment process."

"Most wastewater treatment plants are not designed for the removal of microplastics, so they are constantly being released into the receiving environment," added Dung Ngoc Pham, NJIT Ph.D. candidate and first author of the study. "Our goal was to investigate whether or not microplastics are enriching antibiotic-resistant bacteria from activated sludge at municipal wastewater treatment plants, and if so, learn more about the microbial communities involved."

In their study, the team collected batches of sludge samples from three domestic wastewater treatment plants in northern New Jersey, inoculating the samples in the lab with two widespread commercial microplastics -- polyethylene (PE) and polystyrene (PS). The team used a combination of quantitative PCR and next-generation sequencing techniques to identify the species of bacteria that tend to grow on the microplastics, tracking genetic changes of the bacteria along the way.

The analysis revealed that three genes in particular -- sul1, sul2 and intI1-- known to aid resistance to common antibiotics, sulfonamides, were found to be up to 30 times greater on the microplastic biofilms than in the lab's control tests using sand biofilms after just three days.

When the team spiked the samples with the antibiotic, sulfamethoxazole (SMX), they found it further amplified the antibiotic resistance genes by up to 4.5-fold.

"Previously, we thought the presence of antibiotics would be necessary to enhance antibiotic-resistance genes in these microplastic-associated bacteria, but it seems microplastics can naturally allow for uptake of these resistance genes on their own." said Pham. "The presence of antibiotics does have a significant multiplier effect however."

Eight different species of bacteria were found highly enriched on the microplastics. Among these species, the team observed two emerging human pathogens typically linked with respiratory infection, Raoultella ornithinolytica and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, frequently hitchhiking on the microplastic biofilms.

The team say the most common strain found on the microplastics by far, Novosphingobium pokkalii, is likely a key initiator in forming the sticky biofilm that attracts such pathogens -- as it proliferates it may contribute to the deterioration of the plastic and expand the biofilm. At the same time, the team's study highlighted the role of the gene, intI1, a mobile genetic element chiefly responsible for enabling the exchange of antibiotic resistance genes among the microplastic-bound microbes.

"We might think of microplastics as tiny beads, but they provide an enormous surface area for microbes to reside," explained Li. "When these microplastics enter the wastewater treatment plant and mix in with sludge, bacteria like Novosphingobium can accidentally attach to the surface and secrete glue-like extracellular substances. As other bacteria attach to the surface and grow, they can even swap DNA with each other. This is how the antibiotic resistance genes are being spread among the community."

"We have evidence that the bacteria developed resistance to other antibiotics this way as well, such as aminoglycoside, beta-lactam and trimethoprim," added Pham.

Now, Li says the lab is further studying the role of Novosphingobium in biofilm formation on microplastics. The team is also seeking to better understand the extent to which such pathogen-carrying microplastics may be bypassing water treatment processes, by studying resistance of microplastic biofilms during wastewater treatment with disinfectants such as UV light and chlorine.

"Some states are already considering new regulations on the use of microplastics in consumer products. This study raises calls for further investigation on microplastic biofilms in our wastewater systems and development of effective means for removing microplastics in aquatic environments," said Li.

###

Tropical species are moving northward in U.S. as winters warm

Insects, reptiles, fish and plants migrating north as winter freezes in South become less frequent

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY

Research News

 

IMAGE: A MONARCH BUTTERFLY CATERPILLAR. MONARCHS ARE INTOLERANT OF FREEZING WEATHER, AND TYPICALLY OVERWINTERED IN MEXICO. THEY NOW ARE OVERWINTERING IN CALIFORNIA, THANKS TO MILDER WINTER TEMPERATURES. view more 

CREDIT: NOAH WHITEMAN, UC BERKELEY

Notwithstanding last month's cold snap in Texas and Louisiana, climate change is leading to warmer winter weather throughout the southern U.S., creating a golden opportunity for many tropical plants and animals to move north, according to a new study appearing this week in the journal Global Change Biology.

Some of these species may be welcomed, such as sea turtles and the Florida manatee, which are expanding their ranges northward along the Atlantic Coast. Others, like the invasive Burmese python -- in the Florida Everglades, the largest measured 18 feet, end-to-end --maybe less so.

Equally unwelcome, and among the quickest to spread into warming areas, are the insects, including mosquitoes that carry diseases such as West Nile virus, Zika, dengue and yellow fever, and beetles that destroy native trees.

"Quite a few mosquito species are expanding northward, as well as a lot of forestry pests: bark beetles, the southern mountain pine beetle," said Caroline Williams, associate professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and a co-author of the paper. "In our study, we were really focusing on that boundary in the U.S. where we get that quick tropical-temperate transition. Changes in winter conditions are one of the major, if not the major, drivers of shifting distributions."

That transition zone, northward of which freezes occur every winter, has always been a barrier to species that evolved in more stable temperatures, said Williams, who specializes in insect metabolism -- in particular, how winter freezes and snow affect the survival of species.

"For the vast majority of organisms, if they freeze, they die," she said. "Cold snaps like the recent one in Texas might not happen for 30 or 50 or even 100 years, and then you see these widespread mortality events where tropical species that have been creeping northward are suddenly knocked back. But as the return times become longer and longer for these extreme cold events, it enables tropical species to get more and more of a foothold, and even maybe for populations to adapt in situ to allow them to tolerate more cold extremes in the future."

The study, conducted by a team of 16 scientists led by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), focused on the effects warming winters will have on the movement of a broad range of cold-sensitive tropical plants and animals into the Southern U.S., especially into the eight subtropical U.S. mainland states: Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Williams and Katie Marshall of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver co-wrote the section on insects for the study.

The team found that a number of tropical species, including insects, fish, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, grasses, shrubs and trees, are enlarging their ranges to the north. Among them are species native to the U.S., such as mangroves, which are tropical salt-tolerant trees; and snook, a warm water coastal sport fish; and invasive species such as Burmese pythons, Cuban tree frogs, Brazilian pepper trees and buffelgrass.

"We don't expect it to be a continuous process," said USGS research ecologist Michael Osland, the study's lead author. "There's going to be northward expansion, then contraction with extreme cold events, like the one that just occurred in Texas, and then movement again. But by the end of this century, we are expecting tropicalization to occur.

CAPTION

A map showing North America's tropical-to-temperate transition zone. Red, orange and yellow depict the more tropical zones, and blues depict the more temperate zones, based on the coldest recorded temperature for each area between 1980 and 2009. Photos show some cold-sensitive plants and animals with northern range limits governed by winter cold temperature extremes.

CREDIT

USGS

The authors document several decades' worth of changes in the frequency and intensity of extreme cold snaps in San Francisco, Tucson, New Orleans and Tampa - all cities with temperature records stretching back to at least 1948. In each city, they found, mean winter temperatures have risen over time, winter's coldest temperatures have gotten warmer, and there are fewer days each winter when the mercury falls below freezing.

Temperature records from San Francisco International Airport, for example, show that before 1980, each winter would typically see several sub-freezing days. For the past 20 years, there has been only one day with sub-freezing temperatures.

Changes already underway or anticipated in the home ranges of 22 plant and animal species from California to Florida include:

• Continuing displacement of temperate salt marsh plants by cold-sensitive mangrove forests along the Gulf and southern Atlantic coasts. While this encroachment has been happening over the last 30 years, with sea-level rise, mangroves may also move inland, displacing temperate and freshwater forests.
• Buffelgrass and other annual grasses moving into Southwestern deserts, fueling wildfire in native plant communities that have not evolved in conjunction with frequent fire.
• The likelihood that tropical mosquitos that can transmit encephalitis, West Nile virus and other diseases will further expand their ranges, putting millions of people and wildlife species at risk of these diseases.
• Probable northward movement, with warming winters, of the southern pine beetle, a pest that can damage commercially valuable pine forests in the Southeast.
• Recreational and commercial fisheries' disruption by changing migration patterns and the northward movement of coastal fishes.

The changes are expected to result in some temperate zone plant and animal communities found today across the southern U.S. being replaced by tropical communities.

"Unfortunately, the general story is that the species that are going to do really well are the more generalist species -- their host plants or food sources are quite varied or widely distributed, and they have relatively wide thermal tolerance, so they can tolerate a wide range of conditions," Williams said. "And, by definition, these tend to be the pest species -- that is why they are pests: They are adaptable, widespread and relatively unbothered by changes in conditions, whereas, the more specialized or boutique species are tending to decline as they get displaced from their relatively narrow niche."

She cautioned that insect populations overall are falling worldwide.

"We are seeing an alarming decrease in total numbers in natural areas, managed areas, national parks, tropical rain forests -- globally," she said. " So, although we are seeing some widespread pest species increasing, the overall pattern is that insects are declining extremely rapidly."

The authors suggest in-depth laboratory studies to learn how tropical species can adapt to extreme conditions and modeling to show how lengthening intervals between cold snaps will affect plant and animal communities.

"On a hopeful note, it is not that we are heading for extinction of absolutely everything, but we need to prepare for widespread shifts in the distribution of biodiversity as climate, including winter climate, changes," Williams said. "The actions that we take over the next 20 years are going to be critical in determining our trajectory. In addition to obvious shifts, like reducing our carbon footprint, we need to protect and restore habitat for insects. Individuals can create habitat in their own backyards for insects by cultivating native plants that support pollinators and other native insects. Those are little things that people can do and that can be important in providing corridors for species to move through our very fragmented habitats."

COVID-19 transmission rare in schools with masking, distancing, contact tracing

Safe, in-person learning focus of CDC collaboration

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Research News

 

In-school COVID-19 transmission is rare - even among close school contacts of those who test positive for the virus - when schools heed public health precautions such as mandatory masking, social distancing and frequent hand-washing, according to results of a pilot study in Missouri aimed at identifying ways to keep elementary and secondary schools open and safe during the pandemic. A close contact is anyone who has been within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes in a 24-hour period with someone infected with COVID-19.

The study is part of a larger, ongoing collaboration involving the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Saint Louis University, the Springfield-Greene and St. Louis County health departments, and school districts in the St. Louis and Springfield, Mo., areas.

The findings are published March 19 in the CDC's journal, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The Missouri school findings mirror those of schools in other states, demonstrating that COVID-19 prevention efforts can significantly curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among students, teachers and staff.

"This work is imperative because keeping kids in school provides not only educational enrichment but also social, psychological and emotional health benefits, particularly for students who rely on school-based services for nutritional, physical and mental health support," said senior author Johanna S. Salzer, DVM, PhD, a veterinary medical officer with the CDC's National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.

The pilot study involved 57 schools in the Pattonville School District in St. Louis County and the Springfield Public School District in Greene County in southwest Missouri, as well as two private schools in St. Louis County. All schools in the pilot study required students, teachers, staff and visitors to wear masks while on campus or buses.

Other safety measures included a focus on hand hygiene, deep cleaning of facilities, physical distancing in classrooms, daily symptom screenings for COVID-19, installing physical barriers between teachers and students, offering virtual learning options, and increasing ventilation.

For two weeks in December, the schools involved in the pilot project notified the research team of students, teachers and staff who were either infected with COVID-19 or quarantined due to being considered a close contact of someone who had tested positive. In St. Louis, close contacts of students or teachers who had tested positive were placed in quarantine, meaning they were not to leave their homes for 14 days from when last exposed to a positive case. In Springfield, however, some of the close contacts of those who had tested positive were placed in modified quarantine - meaning they could stay in school if they and the infected person were wearing masks when in close contact; in this scenario, the infected person still isolated at home.

Participants in the pilot study included 193 persons across 22 of the 57 schools -- 37 who tested positive for COVID-19 and 156 of their close contacts. Among participants who were COVID-19 positive, 24 (65%) were students, and 13 (35%) were teachers or staff members. Of the close contacts, 137 (88%) were students, and 19 (12%) were teachers or staff members.

Among the 102 close contacts who agreed to testing for COVID-19 using saliva tests, only two people received positive test results indicating probable school-based SARS-CoV-2 secondary transmission. Further, no outbreaks were identified in participating schools despite the high rates of community spread in December, even among the Springfield schools that followed modified quarantine protocols allowing some close contacts of positive individuals to remain in school.

"Schools can operate safely during a pandemic when prevention strategies are followed," said one of the study's leading researchers, Jason Newland, MD, a Washington University professor of pediatrics, who treats patients at St. Louis Children's Hospital. Newland led the pilot program with the CDC and has advised multiple school districts in Missouri on plans for reopening schools. "The pilot study demonstrates low transmission in schools and no student-to-teacher transmission -- and this was during the height of the pandemic in December, with high rates of community spread."

Added Randall Williams, MD, director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services: "Schools with proper prevention strategies remain a safe environment for students and teachers during the pandemic."

Since mid-January, the CDC, Washington University and Saint Louis University researchers, and the St. Louis County and Springfield-Greene County health departments, along with three school districts from St. Louis County, and three school districts in Greene County have been participating in a larger study to further examine the COVID-19 prevention strategies and quarantine policies. The St. Louis County school districts involved are Rockwood, Pattonville and University City; the Greene County school districts involved are Springfield, Republic and Logan-Rogersville.

In addition, the researchers are going into classrooms to measure the distances between desks to evaluate whether the 6-foot social distancing rule can be relaxed in school settings. They're also sending surveys to parents, teachers and staff to assess the stress and mental health challenges surrounding quarantine. In Springfield, the researchers are continuing to study modified quarantine policies.

"We are pleased to continue to work on this joint project with the CDC, Washington University, and the Springfield-Greene County Health Department," said Jean Grabeel, director of health services for Springfield Public Schools. "The initial results helped verify that our mitigation strategies have been successful in the school setting. This continued work will help to further guide the full-time return of students to in-person learning, five days a week, in a safe manner. We deeply appreciate this unique opportunity to collaborate on such a meaningful, impactful project."

Added Mark T. Miles, PhD, superintendent of the Rockwood School District, the largest school system in St. Louis County and one of the largest in the state, with 22,268 students: "I am grateful for Rockwood's opportunity to participate in this collaboration. We all share the same priority: keeping schools safe for students, teachers and staff as well as the community at large."

###

Dawson P, Worrell MC, Orscheln RC, Williams RW, Newland JG, Salzer JS et al and the COVID-19 Surge Laboratory Group. Pilot investigation of SARS-CoV-2 secondary transmission in Kindergarten through Grade 12 schools implementing mitigation strategies - St. Louis County and City of Springfield, Missouri, December 2020. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. March 19, 2021.

Washington University School of Medicine's 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

WHITE PRIVELEGE

More stroke patients receiving mechanical clot removal, yet racial disparities persist

American Stroke Association International Stroke Conference - Late-breaking science presentation LB 9

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Research News

 

DALLAS, March 19, 2021 -- Mechanical removal of blood clots causing a stroke is increasing, yet racial differences in treatment persist, according to late-breaking science presented today at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2021. The virtual meeting is March 17-19, 2021 and is a world premier meeting for researchers and clinicians dedicated to the science of stroke and brain health.

Mechanical clot-removal or endovascular therapy is a non-surgical treatment that uses tiny tubes, or catheters, to remove a blood clot. In 2015, several major clinical trials confirmed that endovascular therapy effectively treated stroke caused by a blockage in a large blood vessel (ischemic stroke). In 2018, the American Heart Association's stroke treatment guidelines were updated to recommend endovascular therapy to improve the odds that certain stroke patients could have functional recovery. However, previous research has indicated members of some under-represented racial/ethnic groups are less likely to receive recommended treatments such as endovascular therapy.

This study compared the use of endovascular therapy and post-stroke recovery among patients of different races/ethnicities before and after 2015. Between April 2012 and June 2019, investigators also reviewed data in the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines®- Stroke program, which includes a large, database of information about stroke treatment at hospitals across the U.S. Since 2003, over 2,000 hospitals have entered more than 5 million patient records into the program's database.

Researchers found:

• Overall, 14% of 302,965 potentially eligible patients received endovascular therapy and, in all groups, endovascular therapy increased over the course of the study.
• However, Black patients were 32% less likely to receive endovascular therapy before 2015 and still 17% less likely to receive it after 2015 when compared to non-Hispanic white patients.
• Differences also emerged related to stroke recovery. In terms of short-term outcomes, patients from under-represented racial and ethnic groups fared better than non-Hispanic white patients. In addition, Black, Hispanic and Asian patients were more likely to return home and less likely to die while hospitalized or to be discharged to hospice care.
• Three months later, however, Black patients were 16% less likely and Asian patients were 30% less likely to be able to function independently, compared to non-Hispanic white patients.

"It is reassuring that the treatment gap for Black patients has narrowed since 2015, yet it remains significant and is concerning. The most surprising finding was the discrepancy between short- and long-term outcomes in non-Hispanic white patients versus the patients in other race and ethnicity groups," said study lead author Faheem G. Sheriff, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at Texas Tech University Health Science Center of El Paso, Texas. "There is a lot of work that remains in terms of figuring out the root causes for these differences and how best to improve equitable access and care for all patients."

Sheriff continued, "Once these root causes are identified, we can focus on formulating an action plan to reduce these differences, for both access to endovascular therapy and recovery afterwards, particularly post-discharge care."

###

According to the American Heart Association's Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics -- 2021 Update, when considered separately from other cardiovascular disease, stroke ranks No. 5 among all causes of death in the U.S., causing 147,810 deaths in 2018. Stroke occurs when a blood vessel to or in the brain either becomes blocked or bursts, preventing blood and oxygen from reaching all of the brain. Treatment to quickly restore blood flow to the brain is essential to improve outcomes and survival.

To recognize stroke symptoms requiring immediate treatment, the American Stroke Association recommends everyone remember the acronym F.A.S.T. for face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty, time to call 9-1-1. Fortunately, most strokes are preventable through healthy lifestyle choices: not smoking; eating healthy foods; being physically active; maintaining a healthy body weight; and controlling high blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure.

Co-authors are Haolin Xu, M.S.; Alberto Maud, M.D.; Vikas Gupta, M.B.B.S., M.S.; Anantha Vellipuram, M.D.; Gregg C. Fonarow, M.D.; Roland A. Matsouaka, Ph.D.; Ying Xian, M.D.; Mathew Reeves, B.V.Sc., Ph.D.; Eric E. Smith, M.D., M.P.H.; Jeff Saver, M.D., Gustavo Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D.; Salvador Cruz-Flores, M.D., M.P.H.; and Lee H. Schwamm, M.D. The list of author disclosures is available in the abstract.

The study was funded by the Get With The Guidelines®- Stroke initiative of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.

Additional Resources:

Multimedia is available on the right column of release link:
https://newsroom.heart.org/news/more-stroke-patients-receiving-mechanical-clot-removal-yet-racial-disparities-persist?preview=d8fae7c2d51ccb1cd54755f2e7a615d8

Size and time impact outcomes when mechanical clot removal used for large core strokes
Mechanical clot removal without clot busters may be sufficient stroke treatment
Clot removal beyond normal treatment time, still improved quality of life after stroke

For more news at ASA International Stroke Conference 2021, follow us on Twitter @HeartNews #ISC21.

Statements and conclusions of studies that are presented at the American Heart Association's scientific meetings are solely those of the study authors and do not necessarily reflect the Association's policy or position. The Association makes no representation or guarantee as to their accuracy or reliability. The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers are available here, and the Association's overall financial information is available here.

The American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference (ISC) is the world's premier meeting dedicated to the science and treatment of cerebrovascular disease. ISC 2021 is virtual, March 17-19, 2021. This 3-day conference features more than 1,200 compelling presentations in 21 categories that emphasize basic, clinical and translational sciences as they evolve toward a better understanding of stroke pathophysiology with the goal of developing more effective therapies. Engage in the International Stroke Conference on social media via #ISC21.

About the American Stroke Association

The American Stroke Association is devoted to saving people from stroke -- the No. 2 cause of death in the world and a leading cause of serious disability. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat stroke. The Dallas-based association officially launched in 1998 as a division of the American Heart Association. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-888-4STROKE or visit stroke.org. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter.

Is it worth investing in solar PV with batteries at home?

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS

Research News

 

IMAGE: A TYPICAL PV INSTALLATION COMPARED TO A PV-STORAGE SYSTEM. view more 

CREDIT: ADAM ISLAAM - INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS (IIASA)

Solar energy is a clean, renewable source of electricity that could potentially play a significant part in fulfilling the world's energy requirements, but there are still some challenges to fully capitalizing on this potential. Researchers looked into some of the issues that hamper the uptake of solar energy and proposed different policies to encourage the use of this technology.

Installing solar panels to offset energy costs and reduce the environmental impact of their homes has been gaining popularity with homeowners in recent years. On a global scale, an increasing number of countries are similarly encouraging the installation of solar photovoltaics (PV) at residential buildings to increase the share of renewable energy in their energy mix and enhance energy security. Despite the promising advantages this mode of electricity generation offers there are still a number of challenges that need to be overcome.

Batteries to store excess electricity

Solar PV electricity generation peaks during the day when electricity demand is low, resulting in overproduction - especially on weekdays when people are usually not at home. Currently, this excess electricity supply is typically exported to the central electricity grid, but ideally, homes that have solar panels should be able to store overproduction of solar electricity, for example, using batteries, and consume it in the evening when demand is high and there is no solar electricity generation. The problem is that the investment cost for batteries is currently quite high, which makes it economically unprofitable for consumers to pair their solar PV with a battery. In their new study published in the journal Applied Energy, researchers from IIASA, University College London, UK, and Aalto University, Finland, looked into this challenge and proposed different policies to encourage residential electricity consumers to pair solar PV with battery energy storage.

"We wanted to determine whether investing in residential solar PV combined with battery energy storage could be profitable under current market conditions for residential consumers and what kind of support policies can be used to enhance the profitability of stand-alone batteries or PV-battery systems. On top if this, we also wanted to compare the system (or regulatory) cost of each PV-battery policy to the benefit of that particular policy for residential consumers who invest in these technologies," explains lead author Behnam Zakeri, a researcher with the IIASA Energy, Climate, and Environment Program.

Benefits of using battery storage

The study shows that without a battery, homeowners only use 30-40% of the electricity from their solar PV panels, while the rest of the electricity is exported to the grid with very little to no benefit for the owner. With a home battery, the self-consumption of solar PV in the building almost doubles, allowing the residents to reduce electricity imports from the grid by up to 84%, which can in turn help the owner to become less dependent on the grid and electricity prices. In addition, the researchers found that while PV-batteries are presently not really profitable for residential consumers, they can become so with the implementation of slightly different policies and regulations, even in high-latitude countries where solar irradiation is relatively low.

Energy policies for a decentralized energy system

The authors propose some novel energy storage polices that offer a positive return on investment between 40% and 70% for residential PV-battery storage, depending on the policy. These include, among others that national renewable energy policies adopt more innovative incentives to enhance the economic profitability of decentralized green energy solutions based on the contribution of these systems to the grid. The results indicate that this can be easily achieved by, for example, rewarding consumers for using their solar PV generation onsite, instead of encouraging them to export the excess solar energy they produce to the grid.

The researchers further posit that the way utility companies and electricity distribution firms generate income today may itself be a hindrance to promoting the self-consumption of renewable energy in buildings, as these companies generally charge consumers for each unit of electricity imported from the grid. If consumers therefore become independent from the grid, grid operators and utility companies would lose a significant part of their income. Such a scenario calls for new business models and operating modes to guarantee that central utilities do not see decentralized solutions as a threat to their revenues.

In today's renewable electricity generation environment, capital subsidies are one option to partly pay for investment in batteries. The study points out that these policies are costly for the system, and may not automatically result in system-level benefits as they do not reward the optimal use of batteries. In this regard, Zakeri and his colleagues propose a "storage policy" that rewards residential battery owners to store and discharge electricity whenever the system needs it. The profitability of PV-battery systems of course also depends on the type of retail pricing mechanism in the system. The findings indicate that dynamic electricity pricing at the consumer side, such as hourly electricity prices with an enhanced gap between off-peak and peak prices, will encourage consumers to use home batteries to benefit from charging at low price hours and discharging the battery when the electricity price is high. This way of operating a home battery could help reduce the pressure on the electricity grid at peak times, which has significant benefits for the system.

"Traditional, central energy structures are transitioning to new systems based on decentralized, renewable energy solutions. This requires more flexible, modern, and effective policies that can guarantee the social and economic benefits of the energy transition. We hope our analysis contributes to a better understanding of the role of some energy policies that can promote decentralized energy solutions," Zakeri concludes.

###

Reference

Zakeri, B., Cross, S., Dodds, P., Castagneto Gissey, G. (2021). Policy options for enhancing economic profitability of residential solar photovoltaic with battery energy storage. Applied Energy DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.116697

Contacts:

Researcher contact
Behnam Zakeri
Research Scholar
Integrated Assessment and Climate Change Research Group (IACC)
Sustainable Service Systems Research Group (S3)
Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Program
Tel: +43 2236 807 532
zakeri@iiasa.ac.at

About IIASA:

The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
http://www.iiasa.ac.at

 

Japan hit by tsunami waves after magnitude 7.2 earthquake

Waves of up to 1 meter have hit parts of Japan's coast following a 7.2 magnitude earthquake near the Miyagi prefecture.

    

Authorities issued a tsunami warning for Japan after a magnitude 7.2 earthquake off the coast of Miyagi prefecture.

The first tsunami waves of up to 1 meter (3.2 feet) hit land shortly after the earthquake, local television channel NHK reported.

The US Consulate in Sapporo told people in the area to "seek higher ground."

Japan's Meteorological Agency (JMA) said that the quake hit at 6:09 p.m. local time (09:09 GMT/UTC) at a depth of 60 kilometers (37 miles) in the Pacific water just off the coast of the Miyagi region.

Tremors were also felt in the capital, Tokyo.

A video shared by NHK showed how the earthquake was felt in Sendai city in Miyagi prefecture.

Pacific 'Ring of Fire'

Saturday's earthquake came not long after the country marked ten years since the deadly 9.0-magnitude quake on March 11, 2011, also affecting the Miyagi region.

The event a decade ago led to a catastrophic triple disaster as a disastrous tsunami was unleashed and the Fukushima nuclear plant went into meltdown.

Dozens were injured last month when another strong earthquake struck.

Japan is on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," an area along the edge of the Pacific ocean which is characterized by strong seismic activity.

Construction regulations in Japan mean that buildings must be built to withstand the frequent earthquakes.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated as more details become available.

UPDATE

Japan hit by minor tsunami waves after magnitude 7.2 earthquake | News | DW | 20.03.2021

Nova Scotia researcher granted $1.2M to study effects of Vietnam War on human aging

HALIFAX — Researchers from Nova Scotia are coming together with an international, multidisciplinary team to study whether the Vietnam War has affected the aging of people who lived through it.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Project leader Zachary Zimmer, Canada Research Chair in Aging and Community at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, said the study will link DNA testing with social surveys to see how traumatic events shape the long-term health of survivors.

Zimmer and his colleagues are trying to determine "whether we can see markers on the genes that are common among people who have had these experiences," he said in a recent interview.

The study, called "The Long-Term Effects of War on Biological Aging: The Case of Vietnam," recently received $1.2 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

It expands on a 2018 project funded by the National Institutes of Health in the United States called the "Vietnam Health and Aging Study."

That study collected data, including biological and sociological information, from some 2,500 people randomly sampled from above the 17th parallel in what once was referred to as North Vietnam. Zimmer's project is analyzing a second set of data collected from participants in the 2018 study.

“From the very, very early analysis that we've done on the first wave of data, it is actually quite astounding how robust the negative effect of wartime exposure seems to be in our sample,” Zimmer said, adding that higher exposure to trauma earlier in life seems to be connected with health problems later on.

Participants include members of the military, of militias and civilians who lived through the height of the war, from 1965 to 1975. The diverse range of people and experiences will offer a variety of sociological and biological markers to showcase how, and if, trauma has long-lasting effects on how the human body ages, he said.

Alan Cohen, Universite de Sherbrooke professor in the faculty of medicine and health sciences, said his role in the study is to analyze participants' biology in order to measure the aging process.

“The goal is to understand how serious trauma gets under our skin,” he said in a recent interview.

“If we want to look at the impact of the Vietnam War or any other war or trauma on the aging process … we need to figure out how do we measure that aging process that might be changing,” he said.

“We know when you were born, but how old is your body? That's a whole other challenge to be able to measure that.”

One of the markers Cohen plans to analyze is called allostatic load, which he said measures the general wear and tear a body experiences from stress.

There is evidence people who live through war are not healthy overall, Cohen said. There is also evidence that people who live through trauma develop a certain resilience.

“Hardening you, but making you more brittle."

Along with biological markers, the study will analyze how social circumstances — related to things such as families, support systems and careers — affect the way trauma imprints itself on the body into old age, Zimmer said.

For University of Utah sociology Prof. Kim Korinek, another key figure in the study, the project will be a way to measure the effects of war on those who may not have had direct contact with the conflict — an area, she said, that’s gone largely unstudied.

“I don't think that studies have paid enough attention to those on the margins of these conflicts, but they have been affected,” Korinek, director of the university's Asia Centre, said in a recent interview.

Zimmer said he hopes the research will reveal the link between how people age and their experiences earlier on in life.

“You can't really understand old age by looking at someone just in old age without asking how they got there, what kind of experiences they've lived through in order to get there.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 18, 2021.

— — —

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Danielle Edwards, The Canadian Press

Critics of Brazil's president being targeted by security law

SAO PAULO — Police in Brazil are starting to employ a dictatorship-era national security law against critics of President Jair Bolsonaro, while lawyers and activists rally to provide them with legal help and accuse the government of trying to silence dissent 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

On Friday, demonstrators challenged police in the capital by parading with anti-Bolsonaro signs a day after four protesters were detained. They had called the president “genocidal” for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and displayed a cartoon depicting him next to a Nazi swastika. Officers took no action Friday as about 40 people protested for an hour.


The national security law, which dates from 1983, near the end of the country's military dictatorship, makes it a crime to harm the heads of the three branches of government or expose them to danger. The vague measure has recently been used to detain or investigate Bolsonaro critics.

Geography teacher Katia Garcia said she showed up in front of the president's office Friday because the arrests had inspired her.

“They were jailed because the description ‘genocidal’ suits our president very well,” Garcia said, wearing a face mask and face shield. “He has contributed to our health care system collapsing, for the lack of vaccines. Police can’t silence us.”

There have been previous news-making charges against prominent critics of the president, including a newspaper columnist, a political cartoonist and a popular YouTube star, but the law is increasingly being employed against ordinary citizens. Courts haven't upheld any of the arrests so far, but lawyers are expressing alarm that the tactic is becoming commonplace.

Both demonstrations in Brasilia called for Bolsonaro’s impeachment due to his administration’s alleged failings in the pandemic, which has caused almost 290,000 deaths in Brazil. The country has reported nearly 3,000 deaths each day this week.

On several instances, the president has complained that he is being unfairly vilified, most recently Thursday night during a live Facebook broadcast.

“They call me a dictator. I want you to point at one thing I did in two years and two months that was autocratic,” he said while complaining about a newspaper column that used the word genocidal to describe him.

Brasilia police said Thursday that the four detained protesters violated the national security law “as they showed a Swastika in association to the symbol of the president of the Republic.” But Brazil’s federal police force, which decides whether cases brought by local police deserve to go ahead in national security crimes, dismissed the case and released three of the four demonstrators. One was held on an outstanding warrant from a previous case.

Federal police have conducted more than 80 investigations under the security law during Bolsonaro's first two years, and more than 10 in the first 45 days of 2021, according to the newspaper O Globo. The yearly average before the conservative leader took office was 11.

The cases appear to almost entirely target Bolsonaro’s critics, human rights organizations and activists say.

One case last year involved a sociologist and a businessman who paid for two billboards that insulted Bolsonaro by saying he wasn't worth a gnawed piece of fruit. That investigation was requested by Justice Minister André Mendonça, who called it a crime against the president’s reputation. It was dismissed in October.

On Friday night, unsuccessful presidential candidate Ciro Gomes said the federal police are investigating him for calling the president “a thief” in a radio interview in November. The request for the probe was signed by Bolsonaro himself, Gomes said on his social media channels.

“I don't particularly care about this act against me, but I think it is serious that Bolsonaro tries to intimidate opponents and adversaries,” the left-leaning Gomes said.

On Monday, police invoked the national security law to force Felipe Neto, a popular YouTuber, to give testimony after he referred to Bolsonaro as "genocidal" in one of his broadcasts. Federal police dismissed the case two days later amid a public outcry.

Neto, who was named by Time magazine lasts year as one of the world's 100 most influential people, was also targeted in November with allegations of corrupting minors. Those charges were also dropped.

“From the start, I knew that this attempt at intimidation was not aimed at scaring me. It was to scare the Brazilian people,” Neto told The Associated Press by phone.

“I have means to defend myself, but most teachers, journalists and members of civil society do not,” added Neto, who this week set up a legal defence fund to help anyone who faces similar charges for criticizing Bolsonaro and needs an attorney.

O Globo said in an editorial Friday that the spirit of the national security law runs counter to Brazil’s constitution in the promotion of civil liberties.

“The national security law should be revoked and replaced by a more modern tool that is capable of reconciliating the protection of the rule of law and the respect to individual rights,” the newspaper said. “Among those are the full — and essential — freedom of speech.”

___ Associated Press photojournalist Eraldo Peres in Brasilia contributed to this report.

Mauricio Savarese, The Associated Press