Saturday, April 17, 2021

Anxiety among fathers is higher than recently reported, new study suggests

A new study explores the prevalence rate of anxiety for fathers during the perinatal period

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS

New research suggests anxiety among men transitioning into parenthood is significantly higher than reported by the global World Health Organization (WHO) regional prevalence rates.

In a new study published in The Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, researchers from the Colorado School of Public Health on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus studied the prevalence of anxiety among fathers during the perinatal period, which includes pregnancy through the first year of postpartum.

"The transition to parenthood is a major life event that's often accompanied with new challenges related to financial, relationship, and work-life balance concerns. Despite those changes happening for both men and women, not much is known about the prevalence of anxiety among new fathers," said Jenn Leiferman, PhD, professor at the Colorado School of Public Health. "To our knowledge, our study is the first meta-analysis to explore the prevalence rates of anxiety among both fathers and mothers during the perinatal period."

The researchers reviewed eligible studies representing more than 40,000 participants that have published between 1995-2020. The researchers found that the overall estimate of anxiety among men during the perinatal period was nearly 11 percent, with rates being lower during pregnancy (9.9 percent) than during the first year postpartum (11.7 percent).

These rates are considerably higher than the global WHO regional prevalence rates for anxiety among men that range between 2.2 to 3.8 percent, suggesting the transition into parenthood may increase risk for anxiety in men.

In terms of anxiety among mothers, the researchers found an estimated 17.6 percent of women experience it during the perinatal period. This is also substantially higher than global WHO regional preferences for anxiety among women, but in line with estimates for maternal anxiety from other meta-analyses.

"The prevalence of anxiety and depression among men is talked about less as a society, even though research shows men are more likely to commit suicide or abuse alcohol than women. It's important that we create more transparency around men's mental health issues. Our hope is by creating awareness, we can help people get help earlier when needed," said Leiferman.

The researchers suggest that many men suffer anxiety during the transition to parenthood, starting as soon as the first trimester throughout the first year postpartum. Given this, identifying appropriate support for new fathers as well as early identification and treatment efforts for paternal anxiety are needed.

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About the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a world-class medical destination at the forefront of transformative science, medicine, education, and patient care. The campus encompasses the University of Colorado health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked independent hospitals that treat more than two million adult and pediatric patients each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, together we deliver life-changing treatments, patient care, professional training, and conduct world-renowned research. For more information, visit http://www.cuanschutz.edu.

EMS workers 3 times more likely to experience mental health issues

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

Research News

Syracuse, N.Y. - Emergency medical service (EMS) workers face triple the risk for significant mental health problems such as depression and posttraumatic stress disorder compared to the general population, according to a recently published study by researchers from Syracuse University.

The study also showed that daily mental health symptoms for EMS workers can be reduced through recovery activities such as exercising, socializing with other people, and finding meaning in the day's challenges.

The study, "Dynamic psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with mental health in Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel," was published recently by the Journal of Affective Disorders. The study is also summarized in the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion research brief "How Do Emergency Medical Service Workers Cope with Daily Stressors?"

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the significant mental health burden experienced by EMS workers. The researchers surveyed EMS workers at American Medical Response in Syracuse, N.Y., for eight consecutive days in 2019 to better understand their mental health symptoms related to daily occupational stressors. These stressors can take the form of routine work demands, critical incidents involving serious harm or death, and social conflicts.

"Together, these occupational stressors negatively impacted mental health each day that they occurred," said researcher Bryce Hruska. "Each additional work demand or critical event that an EMS worker encountered on a given workday was associated with a 5% increase in their PTSD symptom severity levels that day, while each social conflict was associated with a 12% increase in their depression symptom severity levels."

The research team was led by Hruska, a Lerner Faculty Affiliate and assistant professor of public health at Syracuse University's David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics. Here are the team's key findings:

EMS workers experience a diverse array of occupational stressors each day.
These stressors are associated with an elevation in mental health symptoms each day that they occur.
Recovery activities (like exercising or socializing with other people) and looking for meaning in the day's stressors may protect mental health.

The study found that on workdays, the EMS workers engage in approximately three recovery activities during non-work hours, mostly visiting with friends and family, eating a meal with others, and spending quiet time alone.

"These activities had a beneficial impact on mental health; each additional recovery activity in which a worker engaged was associated with a 5% decrease in their depression symptom severity levels that day," Hruska said. "The social nature of the reported recovery activities is notable, given that healthy relationships can alleviate the negative impact of stress on mental health by assisting with coping efforts and helping to reframe the day's stressors.

"Perhaps demonstrating this latter effect, we also found that EMS workers who looked for lessons to learn from the day's challenges experienced a 3% decrease in their daily depression symptoms," Hruska added.

The researchers identified several actionable strategies that build upon the protective behaviors in which the EMS workers naturally engaged and could make some work events less stressful. Here are some instances noted in the study:

Developing or refining communications strategies may be helpful for alleviating the stress associated with managing patients' family and friends and interacting with co-workers.
Recognizing conflicts as an opportunity for learning and growing may be a useful tactic for effectively resolving the situation with fewer negative mental health effects.
Taking time to recharge after a particularly demanding shift offers an opportunity to let emotions cool. For example, when EMS workers respond to a critical event, scheduled downtime may offer an opportunity for recovery and processing of the day's events.

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Support for this research was provided by professional development funds from the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible f

UK
University study into the impact the pandemic has had on nurses

by Lauren Taylor
15/04/2021

© Supplied by RGU

For over a year, Covid-19 has placed significant pressure on the NHS.

And now a team from an Aberdeen university are going to explore the experiences of nurses working in hospitals during the pandemic.

Nurses make up more than 40% of the NHS workforce and are likely to require support to help avoid burnout, so the Robert Gordon University will look at their support systems.

Led by senior research fellow and medical sociologist Dr Aileen Grant, the team will examine the impact the pandemic has had on their wellbeing.

© ShutterstockNurse putting on PPE

Heroic staff accommodating absences

Dr Grant, from the nursing and midwifery school, said: “Our NHS has battled the pandemic for a prolonged period and under extraordinary circumstances. While its staff continue their heroic efforts to ensure patient care, the pandemic has heightened shortages where nurses not only have to respond expediently to changes in delivery but to accommodate for absences caused by the disease, having to self-isolate, shield, or from stress.

“Nurses working in hospitals have very much been in the frontline of the traumas caused by the pandemic and little is known about the effectiveness of measures taken to help them cope.”

The study will focus on those working the acute sector of NHS Grampian.

Messages of support for medical staff were beamed on to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary buildings earlier this year by Grampian Hospital Arts Trust

Fit for purpose support

Dr Grant hopes the research will ensure that support being provided to nurses is fit for purpose. It will also help to retain experienced registered nurses, new graduates and students helping to avoid staff shortages.

The research team also includes RGU’s Professor Catriona Kennedy, Dr Nicola Torrance, Dr Flora Douglas, Professor Angela Kydd, Dr Neil Johnson and Dr Rosaleen O’Brien.

Nurses participating in the study are required to complete a short questionnaire. They can take part in an online interview if they are interested in sharing more with the research team.

For more

Public trust in the CDC falls during coronavirus pandemic

Survey highlights challenges for vaccine campaign

RAND CORPORATION

Research News

Public trust in the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has fallen during the coronavirus pandemic, with the decline bringing overall population-level trust in the agency to the same lower level of trust long held by Black Americans about the agency, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Surveys done among a representative group of Americans in May and October of 2020 show about a 10% decline in trust of the CDC over that period.

In contrast, the same research found that public trust in the U.S. Postal Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency increased significantly over the period, despite those agencies facing their own challenges.

"The Biden administration will have an uphill battle in rehabilitating trust in the CDC at this critical junction in the coronavirus pandemic," said Michael Pollard, lead author of the study and a senior social scientist at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. "A key challenge in the months ahead will be to identify who will be viewed as trusted messengers regarding vaccines and public health policies."

The study found that non-Hispanic white and Hispanic respondents reported significant declines in trust in the CDC, while the changes were not statistically significant for non-Hispanic Black or "other race" respondents.

"There is remarkable consistency and convergence in reported levels of trust in the CDC across these subgroups after the declines," Pollard said. "Lack of trust among Black Americans has been a well-publicized concern regarding the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, and the convergence in lower levels of trust across race/ethnicity highlights a key challenge that the CDC now faces."

Black Americans have historically held a low level of trust in the CDC and other health institutions, widely seen as a legacy of past racism in the nation's health system.

RAND researchers surveyed a representative sample of more than 2,000 Americans in May 2020, asking to rate their trust of the CDC, the USPS and FEMA on a scale of 0 to 10. Most of the participants were surveyed again in October 2020. All participants were part of the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative internet panel.

The survey found that trust in the CDC fell from 7.6 in May to 7 in October. Meanwhile, trust in the Postal Service rose from 6.9 in May to 7.7 in October; trust in FEMA rose from 6.4 in May to 6.7 in October.

Drop in trust of the CDC was particularly significant among people who intended to vote for a candidate other than Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election or did not intend to vote at all, suggesting that views of the CDC are now strongly politicized. Similar politicization was not observed for FEMA or the USPS.

"The public trust in federal government agencies has never been as important as during the current COVID-19 pandemic, yet public suspicions of scientific experts and distrust of government institutions are increasing for a variety of reasons," said Lois Davis, co-author of the report and a senior policy researcher at RAND. "Reasons for this include a blurring of the line between opinion and fact, and access to more sources of conflicting information."

Researchers say one strategy that may help the CDC rebuild trust and depoliticize the public's views of the agency is to ensure that the public understands the scientific rationale for policy changes and guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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The report, "Decline in Trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention During the COVID-19 Pandemic," is available at http://www.rand.org.

RAND Health Care promotes healthier societies by improving health care systems in the United States and other countries.

The RAND Social and Economic Well-Being division seeks to actively improve the health, social and economic well-being of populations and communities throughout the world.

Bizarre neck bones helped pterosaurs support their giraffe-size necks and huge heads

"It is unlike anything seen previously in a vertebra of any animal."

An illustration of the giant pterosaur, Alanqa saharica, whose remains were found in Morocco. (Image credit: Davide Bonadonna)

By Laura Geggel - Editor

During the dinosaur age, azhdarchid pterosaurs — soaring reptiles that could grow as large as airplanes — supported their absurdly long necks and large heads during flight thanks to a never-before-seen internal bone structure in their neck vertebrae, a new study finds.

This unique structure, which looks like the spokes on a bicycle wheel, allowed the largest pterosaurs such as Quetzalcoatlus northropi, which had a wingspan of more than 30 feet (10 meters), to fly with necks that were longer than a giraffe's neck, the researchers found.

"One of our most important findings is the arrangement of cross-struts within the vertebral centrum [the inner wall of the vertebrae]," study co-researcher Dave Martill, a professor of paleobiology of the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, said in a statement. "It is unlike anything seen previously in a vertebra of any animal."

Related: In images: A butterfly-headed winged reptile

The team found that in pterosaurs in the family Azhdarchidae, these rod-like structures connected the interior walls of the largely hollow neck vertebrae. These slender rods had an average diameter of 0.04 inches (1.16 millimeters), and they were "helically arranged along the length of the vertebra," Martill said. "Evolution shaped these creatures into awesome, breathtakingly efficient flyers."

Evolution shaped these creatures into awesome, breathtakingly efficient flyers.Dave Martill, professor of paleobiology

Pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs, but lived alongside them after emerging during the late Triassic period, about 225 million years ago, until they vanished from the fossil record at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 65.5 million years ago.

Until now, researchers suspected that a pterosaur's neck bones had only a simple tube-within-a-tube structure, Martill said. But this proposed structure likely wouldn't have provided the long neck enough support for the pterosaur's head — which could be longer than 5 feet (1.5 m) — especially when it grabbed and carried heavy prey through the air while hunting.

"These animals have ridiculously long necks," study first author Cariad Williams, who majored in paleontology at the University of Portsmouth and is now a doctoral student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in the statement. In some pterosaur species, the fifth neck vertebra from the head is as long as the rest of the animal's body.

"We wanted to know a bit about how this incredibly long neck functioned, as it seems to have very little mobility between each vertebra," Williams said.

To investigate, they did X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans of a well-preserved Cretaceous-age pterosaur specimen (Alanqa saharica) discovered in Morocco. The results showed the helically arranged supportive spider web-like lines crisscrossing the insides of the neck vertebrae.

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Load-bearing calculations of the neck vertebra showed that as few as 50 of these spoke-like supports increased the amount of weight the neck could carry, without buckling, by up to 90%, the researchers said. These spokes, together with the tube-within-a-tube structure, show how pterosaurs could have captured and carried heavy prey without injuring their own long necks.

The finding, which shows how "fantastically complex and sophisticated" pterosaur necks were, Martill said, was published online Wednesday (April 14) in the journal iScience.

Originally published on Live Science.

Mercedes rolls out luxury electric car in duel with Tesla

Mercedes-Benz has a new luxury car and it's electric powered

15 April 2021, 11:09

2 min read

FRANKFURT, Germany -- Daimler AG on Thursday unveiled a battery-powered counterpart to its top Mercedes-Benz luxury sedan as German carmakers ramp up their challenge to electric upstart Tesla.

The EQS is the first Mercedes-Benz vehicle to be built on a framework designed from the start as an electric car, rather than using components from an internal-combustion vehicle.

Mercedes underscored the car's technological features by equipping it with a sweeping touchscreen panel that stretches across the entire front of the car's interior in place of a conventional dashboard. Tesla and other carmakers are also adding large screens to their interiors.

The EQS is the sibling to the company's S-Class large internal-combustion sedan, the luxury brands flagship model that sells for $110,000 and up. The two cars aim at the same upper end of the market, though the EQS is set apart by being build on the company's electric-vehicle architecture, or EVA. Mercedes isn't saying yet how much the EQS will cost when it reaches customers later this year.

Daimler said the vehicle will get 770 kilometers (478 miles) on a full charge under testing standard used in the European Union. The company is offering a year's free charging through Ionity, a network of highway charging stations built by a group of major automakers.

German carmakers were slower to develop all-electric models until tougher environmental regulations and sales lost to California-based Tesla pushed them to ramp up their efforts. Volkswagen sold 422,000 electric vehicles last year and developed the ID.3, a compact it hopes will win over mass-market buyers, while its Porsche division has come out with the Taycan sports car. BMW launched the iX3 electric SUV.

Another Round Of Power Shortages Grips Texas

By Irina Slav - Apr 14, 2021

Another bout of power supply shortages hit Texas this week amid power plant maintenance season, prompting the Electric Reliability Council of Texas to call on Texans to conserve energy

However, unlike during the February Freeze, this time, the shortage was a lot more temporary, with things returning to normal within a day, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Power supplies tightened on Tuesday afternoon, the daily reports, causing electricity prices on the wholesale market to reach up to $2,000 per megawatt-hour. That was up from about $25 per kWh earlier in the day. By the evening, however, supply had ramped up.

Unfortunately, there is a chance for a repeat of yesterday's power supply situation, at least according to ERCOT's vice president in charge of grid planning and operations.

"These (power plants) are big complicated machines," Woody Rickerson said, as quoted by the Chronicle. "They require maintenance. You can't run them continuously. There may be days like today where (power) margins are tighter than we like," the ERCOT official added. "We could be in the same situation in the next few weeks."

Massive power plant outages were among the worst effects of the February Freeze, which left millions of Texans without light and power, and saddled some with huge bills. The Freeze—and the outages—also led to a slew of lawsuits as utilities and gas distributors pointed fingers at each other as the culprits behind the crisis.

Warren Buffet, meanwhile, offered to build 10 GW in new gas-fired generation capacity to boost Texas' energy security.

"We really want to make sure that this never happens again. So we're really wanting to partner with the state," Chris Brown, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy Infrastructure Group, told Bloomberg in an interview last month. "The proposal is simple: state residents should have a reliable source of backup power."

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

Big Oil Is Dead Set On Exploiting The Wind Power Boom

By Alex Kimani - Apr 08, 2021,

Lately, the solar sector has been hogging the renewable energy limelight, and for good reason. Experts such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) have predicted that solar energy will lead to a surge in renewable power supply in the next decade, with IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol tipping solar to become the “new king of the world’s electricity markets”.

But make no mistake about it: Wind energy will play an equally critical role in the shift to clean energy, with the IEA saying that wind and solar will make up a staggering 80% of the electric energy market by the end of the decade.

Wind power is not only the easiest to tap and most efficient renewable fuel for electricity generation. Still, it is also one of the lowest carbon emitters. Offshore wind, in particular, has been enjoying its moment in the sun, with investments quadrupling to $35 billion in the first half of 2020, representing the most growth by any energy sector during the Covid-19 crisis.

Not surprisingly, Big Oil has been one of the investors making a mad dash into offshore wind.

As per a Reuters report, Europe’s top oil firms, including Total SA (NYSE:TOT), BP Inc. (NYSE:BP), and Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) are looking to quickly ramp up their renewable power portfolios and lower their reliance on oil and gas to satisfy governments and investors are among the leading investors in offshore wind.

Indeed, governments worldwide are expected to offer a record of more than 30 gigawatts (GW) in tenders for offshore wind sites and capacity this year alone. For perspective, that is almost as much as the total existing UK wind capacity of 35 GW.Related: Investors Rush To Oil Stocks Despite ESG Push

But some experts are now warning that Big Oil’s love affair with offshore wind could come with undesirable consequences, especially for the consumer.

High option fees

Deep-pocketed oil majors are increasingly willing--and able--to part with huge sums of money to gain a foothold in the offshore wind market, even though margins there are much smaller than their legacy oil and gas businesses.

A good case in point is a leasing round held by the Crown Estate earlier this year for seabed options around the coast of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland whereby BP and German utility EnBW paid around 1 billion pounds ($1.38 billion) to secure two offshore sites representing 3 GW.

Interestingly, traditional offshore wind developers, Orsted, Iberdrola, and SSE were all unsuccessful in the leasing round.

But, perhaps, the biggest revelation: Zero option fees were paid at the last previous Crown Estate offshore round that was held more than a decade ago.

High energy costs

Obviously, option fees are a huge cost component that adds to the overall cost of onshore wind development.

In fact, Mark Lewis, Chief Sustainability Strategist at BNP Paribas, has estimated that the Crown Estate option fee could add as much as 35% to project development costs, at today’s building costs.

The worst part: The consumer could end up bearing the brunt of it all.

“Someone is going to have to pay and it’s probably, at least in part, the consumer,” Duncan Clark, Orsted’s UK head, has warned.

The high fees now threaten to erode the massive cost reductions the wind sector has realized over the past decade and helped it to become cost-competitive with fossil fuels.

Ali Lloyd, Senior Principal, Renewables, AFRY Management, has estimated that the option fees could increase the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of an electricity generation project as a measure of the total lifetime cost of energy, by 4-8%.

Source: AFRY Management

On a brighter note, Lloyd notes that the developers could end up paying the increased cost since many of the winning bidders are relatively new entrants into the UK offshore wind development sector and might be willing to accept lower returns as they look to gain a foothold into the industry.

In other words, we will probably have to wait a bit before we can accurately tell who is paying these massive costs.

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

Executives' Pay Deters Big Oil From Acting On Climate Change

By Irina Slav - Apr 15, 2021

The way executives at large oil companies are paid encourages these companies to extract more fossil fuels, a study has suggested, as reported by The Guardian, who said it was given exclusive access to the findings.

The study came from the Climate Accountability Institute, an organization that says about itself that it "engages in research and education on anthropogenic climate change, dangerous interference with the climate system, and the contribution of fossil fuel producers' carbon production to atmospheric carbon dioxide content."

According to it, the remuneration packages for Big Oil CEOs are tied to metrics that are mutually exclusive with climate action, or, as one of the authors, Richard Heede, puts it:

"We show that executives have personal ownership of tens or hundreds of thousands of shares, which creates an unacknowledged personal desire to explore, extract and sell fossil fuels," Heede said. "That carbon mindset needs to be revised by realigning compensation towards success in lowering absolute emissions."

The study focused on the four biggest oil companies globally: BP, Shell, Exxon, and Chevron. According to the Guardian, it has been tracking these companies since 1990, and until 2019, the four had made combined profits of $2 trillion, only a tiny portion of which was invested in low-carbon energy.

In all fairness, however, at least one of the four has started untying its remuneration scheme from oil and gas production. Back in 2018, Shell said, under pressure from several institutional shareholders, that it would link executive pay to emission reduction targets with reports estimating that some 1,300 senior executives could be affected by the change.

Now, Shell has said it would tie the bonuses for its top executive directors more closely to the group's performance in reaching its net-zero goals, if shareholders approve the plan at the annual general meeting in May.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

Shell To Put Energy Transition Plan To Shareholder Vote

Shell has pledged to become a net-zero energy company by 2050, and said eits oil production peaked in 2019 and was set for a continual decline over the next three decades.

By Charles Kennedy - Apr 15, 2021

Oil supermajor Shell will put its Energy Transition Strategy to a non-binding shareholder vote at its annual general meeting next month, the first time an energy firm will be seeking an advisory approval of its plan to go to net zero.

Shell has pledged to become a net-zero energy company by 2050, and said earlier this year that its oil production peaked in 2019 and was set for a continual decline over the next three decades.

“As we transform our business, it is more important than ever for shareholders to understand and support our approach,” Shell’s chief executive officer Ben van Beurden said in the preface of the company’s Energy Transition Strategy.

“We are asking our shareholders to vote for an energy transition strategy that is designed to bring our energy products, our services, and our investments in line with the goal of the Paris Agreement and the global drive to combat climate change,” van Beurden added.

According to Shell’s strategy, the target for carbon intensity reduction is

6-8 percent by 2023 for the short term, 20 percent by 2030, and 45 percent by 2035, until reaching carbon intensity reduction of 100 percent by 2050.

“The vote is purely advisory and will not be binding. Shell’s Board and Executive Committee remain responsible and accountable for setting and approving Shell’s energy transition strategy,” Shell said in a statement today.

The supermajor will also seek every year, beginning in 2022, an advisory vote from shareholders on its progress in achieving its energy transition strategy.

The Church of England Pensions Board, a shareholder in Shell, will likely support the energy strategy, Adam Matthews, chief responsible investment officer, told The Wall Street Journal.

Shell is also set to tie the bonuses for its top executive directors more closely to the group’s performance in reaching its net-zero goals, if shareholders approve the plan at the annual general meeting in May. The weighting of the progress in the energy transition performance measures in the long-term incentive plans (LTIP) for executive directors is set to grow to 15 percent from 10 percent.

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

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