The future looks bright for infinitely recyclable plastic

A new environmental and technological analysis suggests that a revolutionary eco-friendly plastic is almost ready to hit the shelves

DOE/LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY

Research News

 

IMAGE: BRETT HELMS, FOREGROUND, PICTURED AT WORK IN THE MOLECULAR FOUNDRY IN 2019. view more 

CREDIT: (CREDIT: THOR SWIFT/BERKELEY LAB)

Plastics are a part of nearly every product we use on a daily basis. The average person in the U.S. generates about 100 kg of plastic waste per year, most of which goes straight to a landfill. A team led by Corinne Scown, Brett Helms, Jay Keasling, and Kristin Persson at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) set out to change that.

Less than two years ago, Helms announced the invention of a new plastic that could tackle the waste crisis head on. Called poly(diketoenamine), or PDK, the material has all the convenient properties of traditional plastics while avoiding the environmental pitfalls, because unlike traditional plastics, PDKs can be recycled indefinitely with no loss in quality.

Now, the team has released a study that shows what can be accomplished if manufacturers began using PDKs on a large scale. The bottom line? PDK-based plastic could quickly become commercially competitive with conventional plastics, and the products will get less expensive and more sustainable as time goes on.

"Plastics were never designed to be recycled. The need to do so was recognized long afterward," explained Nemi Vora, first author on the report and a former postdoctoral fellow who worked with senior author Corinne Scown. "But driving sustainability is the heart of this project. PDKs were designed to be recycled from the get-go, and since the beginning, the team has been working to refine the production and recycling processes for PDK so that the material could be inexpensive and easy enough to be deployed at commercial scales in anything from packaging to cars."

The study presents a simulation for a 20,000-metric-ton-per-year facility that puts out new PDKs and takes in used PDK waste for recycling. The authors calculated the chemical inputs and technology needed, as well as the costs and greenhouse gas emissions, then compared their findings to the equivalent figures for production of conventional plastics.

"These days, there is a huge push for adopting circular economy practices in the industry. Everyone is trying to recycle whatever they're putting out in the market," said Vora. "We started talking to industry about deploying 100% percent infinitely recycled plastics and have received a lot of interest."

"The questions are how much it will cost, what the impact on energy use and emissions will be, and how to get there from where we are today," added Helms, a staff scientist at Berkeley Lab's Molecular Foundry. "The next phase of our collaboration is to answer these questions."

Checking the boxes of cheap and easy

To date, more than 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic material have been produced, and the vast majority of this has ended up in landfills or waste incineration plants. A small proportion of plastics are sent to be recycled "mechanically," meaning they are melted down and then re-shaped into new products. However, this technique has limited benefit. Plastic resin itself is made of many identical molecules (called monomers) bound together into long chains (called polymers). Yet to give plastic its many textures, colors, and capabilities, additives like pigments, heat stabilizers, and flame retardants are added to the resin. When many plastics are melted down together, the polymers become mixed with a slew of potentially incompatible additives, resulting in a new material with much lower quality than newly produced virgin resin from raw materials. As such, less than 10% of plastic is mechanically recycled more than once, and recycled plastic usually also contains virgin resin to make up for the dip in quality.

PDK plastics sidestep this problem entirely - the resin polymers are engineered to easily break down into individual monomers when mixed with an acid. The monomers can then be separated from any additives and gathered to make new plastics without any loss of quality. The team's earlier research shows that this "chemical recycling" process is light on energy and carbon dioxide emissions, and it can be repeated indefinitely, creating a completely circular material lifecycle where there is currently a one-way ticket to waste.

Yet despite these incredible properties, to truly beat plastics at their own game, PDKs also need to be convenient. Recycling traditional petroleum-based plastic might be hard, but making new plastic is very easy.

"We're talking about materials that are basically not recycled," said Scown. "So, in terms of appealing to manufacturers, PDKs aren't competing with recycled plastic - they have to compete with virgin resin. And we were really pleased to see how cheap and how efficient it will be to recycle the material."

Scown, who is a staff scientist in Berkeley Lab's Energy Technologies and Biosciences Areas, specializes in modeling future environmental and financial impacts of emerging technologies. Scown and her team have been working on the PDK project since the outset, helping Helms' group of chemists and fabrication scientists to choose the raw materials, solvents, equipment, and techniques that will lead to the most affordable and eco-friendly product.

"We're taking early stage technology and designing what it would look like at commercial-scale operations" using different inputs and technology, she said. This unique, collaborative modeling process allows Berkeley Lab scientists to identify potential scale-up challenges and make process improvements without costly cycles of trial and error.

The team's report, published in Science Advances, models a commercial-scale PDK production and recycling pipeline based on the plastic's current state of development. "And the main takeaways were that, once you've produced the PDK initially and you've got it in the system, the cost and the greenhouse gas emissions associated with continuing to recycle it back to monomers and make new products could be lower than, or at least on par with, many conventional polymers," said Scown.

Planning to launch

Thanks to optimization from process modeling, recycled PDKs are already drawing interest from companies needing to source plastic. Always looking to the future, Helms and his colleagues have been conducting market research and meeting with people from industry since the project's early days. Their legwork shows that the best initial application for PDKs are markets where the manufacturer will receive their product back at the end of its lifespan, such as the automobile industry (through trade-ins and take-backs) and consumer electronics (through e-waste programs). These companies will then be able to reap the benefits of 100% recyclable PDKs in their product: sustainable branding and long-term savings.

"With PDKs, now people in industry have a choice," said Helms. "We're bringing in partners who are building circularity into their product lines and manufacturing capabilities, and giving them an option that is in line with future best practices."

Added Scown: "We know there's interest at that level. Some countries have plans to charge hefty fees on plastic products that rely on non-recycled material. That shift will provide a strong financial incentive to move away from utilizing virgin resins and should drive a lot of demand for recycled plastics."

After infiltrating the market for durable products like cars and electronics, the team hopes to expand PDKs into shorter-lived, single-use goods such as packaging.

A full circle future

As they forge plans for a commercial launch, the scientists are also continuing their techno-economic collaboration on the PDK production process. Although the cost of recycled PDK is already projected to be competitively low, the scientists are working on additional refinements to lower the cost of virgin PDK, so that companies are not deterred by the initial investment price.

And true to form, the scientists are working two steps ahead at the same time. Scown, who is also vice president for Life-cycle, Economics & Agronomy at the Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI), and Helms are collaborating with Jay Keasling, a leading synthetic biologist at Berkeley Lab and UC Berkeley and CEO of JBEI, to design a process for producing PDK polymers using microbe-made precursor ingredients. The process currently uses industrial chemicals, but was initially designed with Keasling's microbes in mind, thanks to a serendipitous cross-disciplinary seminar.

"Shortly before we started the PDK project, I was in a seminar where Jay was describing all the molecules that they could make at JBEI with their engineered microbes," said Helms. "And I got very excited because I saw that some of those molecules were things that we put in PDKs. Jay and I had a few chats and, we realized that nearly the entire polymer could be made using plant material fermented by engineered microbes."

"In the future, we're going to bring in that biological component, meaning that we can begin to understand the impacts of transitioning from conventional feedstocks to unique and possibly advantaged bio-based feedstocks that might be more sustainable long term on the basis of energy, carbon, or water intensity of production and recycling," Helms continued. "So, where we are now, this is the first step of many, and I think we have a really long runway in front of us, which is exciting."

CAPTION

A GIF showing how PDK plastic readily breaks down when put in an acidic solution. The acid helps to break the bonds between the monomers and separate them from the chemical additives that give plastic its look and feel.

CREDIT

(Credit: Peter Christensen/ Berkeley Lab)

The Molecular Foundry is a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility that specializes in nanoscale science. JBEI is a Bioenergy Research Center funded by DOE's Office of Science.

This work was supported by the DOE's Bioenergy Technologies Office and Berkeley Lab's Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.

PDK technology is available for licensing and collaboration. If interested, please contact Berkeley Lab's Intellectual Property Office, ipo@lbl.gov.

Climate-smart ag strategies may cut nitrous oxide emissions from corn production

PENN STATE

Research News

IMAGE: LEAD RESEARCHER MARIA PONCE DE LEON, A FORMER GRADUATE STUDENT IN PLANT SCIENCE, CARRIES A NITROUS OXIDE EMISSIONS CHAMBER INTO A CORN FIELD AT PENN STATE'S RUSSELL E. LARSON AGRICULTURAL... view more 

CREDIT: HEATHER KARSTEN, PENN STATE

For corn, using dairy manure and legume cover crops in crop rotations can reduce the need for inorganic nitrogen fertilizer and protect water quality, but these practices also can contribute to emissions of nitrous oxide -- a potent greenhouse gas.

That is the conclusion of Penn State researchers, who measured nitrous oxide emissions from the corn phases of two crop rotations -- a corn-soybean rotation and a dairy forage rotation -- under three different management regimens. The results of the study offer clues about how dairy farmers might reduce the amount of nitrogen fertilizer they apply to corn crops, saving money and contributing less to climate change.

The results are important because although nitrous oxide accounts for just 7% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it is significantly more potent than carbon dioxide or methane when it comes to driving climate change, according to Heather Karsten, associate professor of crop production/ecology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Nitrous oxide is almost 300 times more powerful than carbon dioxide and remains in the atmosphere for more than 100 years.

"This research suggests that all nitrogen inputs -- manure, legumes and fertilizer -- contribute to nitrous oxide emissions," she said. "But farmers could reduce nitrous oxide emissions if they could apply manure after the crop is planted, closer to when the corn begins to take up nitrogen.

"And if they could apply manure only when the crop needs it by "side-dressing," she added, "they likely could use less inorganic nitrogen fertilizer. But equipment for side-dressing manure into a growing corn crop is not yet widely available."

Researchers compared the effects of three management treatments for no-till corn and measured nitrous oxide emissions throughout the corn growing season. In the corn-soybean rotation, the team compared nitrous oxide emissions from broadcasting dairy manure, shallow disk manure injection, and the application of inorganic fertilizer in the form of liquid urea ammonium nitrate.

Manure was applied before corn was planted, as most farms do, while in the inorganic fertilizer treatment, fertilizer was applied according to recommended practices -- when the corn was growing and taking up nitrogen.

This better timing for nitrogen application allowed for a reduced total nitrogen application, and the nitrous oxide emissions were lower than with the injected manure treatment. Injecting manure increased nitrous oxide emissions compared to the broadcast manure treatment in one year of the study, indicating that the environmental and nitrogen-conservation benefits of injection should be weighed against the additional emissions when selecting the practice.

The researchers also compared nitrous oxide emissions from corn grown for silage or grain in the no-till, six-year, dairy forage rotation in which corn followed a two-year, mixed alfalfa and orchardgrass forage crop and also a crimson clover cover crop. Manure also was broadcasted before corn planting, and nitrous oxide emissions were compared to the rotation in which corn was planted after soybean with broadcast manure. The nitrous oxide emissions during the corn season didn't differ among the three prior legume treatments.

In both experiments, nitrous oxide emissions peaked a few weeks after manure was applied and for a short period after fertilizer was applied. Since nitrous oxide emissions are influenced by factors that influence microbial processes, the researchers examined what environmental and nitrogen-availability factors were most predictive of nitrous oxide emissions. Increasing temperatures spurring corn growth and factors that influence soil nitrogen availability were important factors in both comparisons.

The study shows that nitrogen availability from organic inputs such as manure and legume cover crops can contribute to nitrous oxide emissions from corn, noted lead researcher Maria Ponce de Leon, former graduate student in Karsten's research group, now a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Davis. Identifying how to time organic nitrogen amendments with corn uptake represents an opportunity, she said, to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from dairy production systems.

Now, dairy farmers apply manure mostly prior to planting corn, and as the manure and the organic legume biomass from the cover crop decompose, the nitrogen content builds in the soil. Some of it can be lost as nitrous oxide emissions or leach into groundwater.

"Until the corn is rapidly taking up nitrogen from the soil, there's potential for both of those environmental losses," Ponce de Leon said. "If we could better synchronize the timing of the manure application to when the corn is growing and taking up nitrogen, we could reduce nitrous oxide missions. That also would help the crop and the farmer better capture the nitrogen that's available in that manure."

CAPTION

Using measuring chambers like those shown here, researchers found that nitrous oxide emissions peaked a few weeks after manure was applied and for a short period after fertilizer was applied. Identifying how to time organic nitrogen amendments with corn uptake represents an opportunity to reduce nitrous oxide emissions from dairy production systems, the researchers said.

CREDIT

Maria Ponce de Leon, Penn State

The research, recently published in Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, was conducted at Penn State's Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Center as part of the much larger "Dairy Cropping Systems" project that has been underway for more than a decade. Initiated in 2010, that parent project aims to sustainably produce the forage and feed for a typical 65-cow, 240-acre dairy farm in Pennsylvania.

Curtis Dell, soil scientist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service Pasture Systems and Watershed Management Research Unit, contributed to the research.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture supported this work.

Two studies analyze survivors exposed to radiation after the Chernobyl accident, and their children

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Research News

 

Children whose parents had been exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant accident in 1986 had no excess germline mutations, a new whole-genome sequencing study shows. "This is one of the first studies to systematically evaluate alterations in human mutation rates in response to a man-made disaster, such as accidental radiation exposure," say the authors. Effects of radiation exposure from the Chernobyl nuclear accident, which occurred at a power plant in Ukraine in April 1986, remain a topic of interest. To date, there have been several studies examining transgenerational risks of radiation exposure from events such as this, but the results have been inconclusive. What's more, no large comprehensive effort has explored germline de novo mutations genome-wide in children born from parents exposed to moderately high amounts of ionizing radiation, even as possible genetic effects from such events have remained a concern for radiation-exposed populations like the Fukushima evacuees. To examine whether rates of germline de novo mutations are elevated in children born to parents exposed to ionizing radiation, Meredith Yeager et al. analyzed the genomes of 130 children and parents from families where one or both parents had experienced gonadal radiation exposure related to the Chernobyl accident and where the children were conceived after the accident - and born between 1987 and 2002. The authors did not find an increase in new germline mutations in this population. The incidence of germline de novo mutations was comparable to that reported in the general population, they say. "[O]ur study does not provide support for a transgenerational effect of ionizing radiation on germline DNA in humans," they conclude.

In a second study examining the effects of radioactive fallout on survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear accident, researchers provide more insights into the process of radiation-induced papillary thyroid cancers - one of the most frequent cancers observed after the Chernobyl event. "These findings substantially extend preliminary reports of radiation-related human tumor characteristics by integrating data from multiple platforms with large sample size and detailed radiation dose data," the authors say. Exposure to radioactive fallout increases the risk of cancer, particularly papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). However, a detailed molecular understanding of these tumors is still lacking, and there are no established markers of radiation-induced cancers. Lindsay Morton et al. analyzed thyroid tumors, normal thyroid tissue, and blood from hundreds of survivors of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and compared them to those of unexposed patients. While no unique radiation-related biomarker was identified, the results reveal radiation dose-related increases in DNA double-strand breaks in human thyroid cancers developing after the Chernobyl accident. Radiation-related genomic alterations were more pronounced for those younger at exposure, the authors say. Their results suggest that thyroid tumor development following radiation exposure results from DNA double-strand breaks in the genome. The authors say their results have implications for radiation protection and public health, particularly for low dose exposure.

NEWS RELEASE 22-APR-2021

International research teams explore genetic effects of Chernobyl radiation

NIH/NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE

Research News

 

In two landmark studies, researchers have used cutting-edge genomic tools to investigate the potential health effects of exposure to ionizing radiation, a known carcinogen, from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northern Ukraine. One study found no evidence that radiation exposure to parents resulted in new genetic changes being passed from parent to child. The second study documented the genetic changes in the tumors of people who developed thyroid cancer after being exposed as children or fetuses to the radiation released by the accident.

The findings, published around the 35th anniversary of the disaster, are from international teams of investigators led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health. The studies were published online in Science on April 22.

"Scientific questions about the effects of radiation on human health have been investigated since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and have been raised again by Chernobyl and by the nuclear accident that followed the tsunami in Fukushima, Japan," said Stephen J. Chanock, M.D., director of NCI's Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics (DCEG). "In recent years, advances in DNA sequencing technology have enabled us to begin to address some of the important questions, in part through comprehensive genomic analyses carried out in well-designed epidemiological studies."

The Chernobyl accident exposed millions of people in the surrounding region to radioactive contaminants. Studies have provided much of today's knowledge about cancers caused by radiation exposures from nuclear power plant accidents. The new research builds on this foundation using next-generation DNA sequencing and other genomic characterization tools to analyze biospecimens from people in Ukraine who were affected by the disaster.

The first study investigated the long-standing question of whether radiation exposure results in genetic changes that can be passed from parent to offspring, as has been suggested by some studies in animals. To answer this question, Dr. Chanock and his colleagues analyzed the complete genomes of 130 people born between 1987 and 2002 and their 105 mother-father pairs.

One or both of the parents had been workers who helped clean up from the accident or had been evacuated because they lived in close proximity to the accident site. Each parent was evaluated for protracted exposure to ionizing radiation, which may have occurred through the consumption of contaminated milk (that is, milk from cows that grazed on pastures that had been contaminated by radioactive fallout). The mothers and fathers experienced a range of radiation doses.

The researchers analyzed the genomes of adult children for an increase in a particular type of inherited genetic change known as de novo mutations. De novo mutations are genetic changes that arise randomly in a person's gametes (sperm and eggs) and can be transmitted to their offspring but are not observed in the parents.

For the range of radiation exposures experienced by the parents in the study, there was no evidence from the whole-genome sequencing data of an increase in the number or types of de novo mutations in their children born between 46 weeks and 15 years after the accident. The number of de novo mutations observed in these children were highly similar to those of the general population with comparable characteristics. As a result, the findings suggest that the ionizing radiation exposure from the accident had a minimal, if any, impact on the health of the subsequent generation.

"We view these results as very reassuring for people who were living in Fukushima at the time of the accident in 2011," said Dr. Chanock. "The radiation doses in Japan are known to have been lower than those recorded at Chernobyl."

In the second study, researchers used next-generation sequencing to profile the genetic changes in thyroid cancers that developed in 359 people exposed as children or in utero to ionizing radiation from radioactive iodine (I-131) released by the Chernobyl nuclear accident and in 81 unexposed individuals born more than nine months after the accident. Increased risk of thyroid cancer has been one of the most important adverse health effects observed after the accident.

The energy from ionizing radiation breaks the chemical bonds in DNA, resulting in a number of different types of damage. The new study highlights the importance of a particular kind of DNA damage that involves breaks in both DNA strands in the thyroid tumors. The association between DNA double-strand breaks and radiation exposure was stronger for children exposed at younger ages.

Next, the researchers identified the candidate "drivers" of the cancer in each tumor -- the key genes in which alterations enabled the cancers to grow and survive. They identified the drivers in more than 95% of the tumors. Nearly all the alterations involved genes in the same signaling pathway, called the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway, including the genes BRAF, RAS, and RET.

The set of affected genes is similar to what has been reported in previous studies of thyroid cancer. However, the researchers observed a shift in the distribution of the types of mutations in the genes. Specifically, in the Chernobyl study, thyroid cancers that occurred in people exposed to higher radiation doses as children were more likely to result from gene fusions (when both strands of DNA are broken and then the wrong pieces are joined back together), whereas those in unexposed people or those exposed to low levels of radiation were more likely to result from point mutations (single base-pair changes in a key part of a gene).

The results suggest that DNA double-strand breaks may be an early genetic change following exposure to radiation in the environment that subsequently enables the growth of thyroid cancers. Their findings provide a foundation for further studies of radiation-induced cancers, particularly those that involve differences in risk as a function of both dose and age, the researchers added.

"An exciting aspect of this research was the opportunity to link the genomic characteristics of the tumor with information about the radiation dose -- the risk factor that potentially caused the cancer," said Lindsay M. Morton, Ph.D., deputy chief of the Radiation Epidemiology Branch in DCEG, who led the study.

"The Cancer Genome Atlas set the standard for how to comprehensively profile tumor characteristics," Dr. Morton continued. "We extended that approach to complete the first large genomic landscape study in which the potential carcinogenic exposure was well-characterized, enabling us to investigate the relationship between specific tumor characteristics and radiation dose."

She noted that the study was made possible by the creation of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank about two decades ago -- long before the technology had been developed to conduct the kind of genomic and molecular studies that are common today.

"These studies represent the first time our group has done molecular studies using the biospecimens that were collected by our colleagues in Ukraine," Dr. Morton said. "The tissue bank was set up by visionary scientists to collect tumor samples from residents in highly contaminated regions who developed thyroid cancer. These scientists recognized that there would be substantial advances in technology in the future, and the research community is now benefiting from their foresight."

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About the National Cancer Institute (NCI): NCI leads the National Cancer Program and NIH's efforts to dramatically reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research into prevention and cancer biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new researchers. For more information about cancer, please visit the NCI website at cancer.gov or call NCI's contact center, the Cancer Information Service, at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit nih.gov

 ALL CAPITALISM IS STATE CAPITALISM

COVID-19 vaccine development built on >$17 billion in NIH funding for vaccine technologies

Broad foundation of NIH-funded research for enabling technologies prior to pandemic provided a tool kit for rapid development of COVID vaccines

BENTLEY UNIVERSITY

Research News

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IMAGE: ANNUAL PROJECT YEARS AND PROJECT COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH NIH-FUNDED PMIDS 2000-2019 view more 

CREDIT: © CENTER FOR INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY AT BENTLEY UNIVERSITY

The unprecedented development of COVID-19 vaccines less than a year after discovery of this virus was enabled by more than $17 billion of research on vaccine technologies funded by the NIH prior to the pandemic, according to new research from Bentley University's Center for Integration of Science and Industry. The article, titled "NIH funding for vaccine readiness before the COVID-19 pandemic," demonstrates the critical role this broad foundation of government-funded research plays in ensuring vaccine readiness.

The report, published today in the journal Vaccine, examined the maturation of research and NIH funding for ten technologies that were applied in candidate COVID-19 vaccines as of July 2020. The maturation of these technologies was described in 51,530 published research papers from 2000-2019, of which 8,420 (16%) acknowledge NIH funding totaling $17.2 billion. Some of these technologies have been employed successfully in vaccines since the mid-20th century. Others, such as the viral vectors employed in the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, emerged from genetic engineering in the 1980s, and were found to be established prior to 2010. Still others, including the mRNA technologies employed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, only recently reached an established point.

"Rapid development of COVID vaccines was only possible because companies had access to a tool kit of established technologies," said Dr. Fred Ledley, Director of the Center for Integration of Science and Industry. "Some of the most recent technologies, including mRNA and viral vectors, proved to be particularly suitable for COVID-19 and the timelines required to combat this pandemic. The substantial public sector investments over the past 20 years that went into the maturation of these technologies needs to be considered in the pricing of these products and their availability to the public."

"This study also found surprisingly little NIH-funded, published research on vaccines for recognized pandemic threats, such as coronavirus, Zika, Ebola, or dengue virus," said Dr. Anthony Kiszewski, lead author of the study and Associate Professor of Natural & Applied Science at Bentley University. "Mechanisms need to be developed for funding research on vaccine technologies that accelerate vaccine development against emergent threats and preempt future pandemics."

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Dr. Anthony Kiszewski was the lead author on this work along with Dr. Ekaterina Galkina Cleary, Dr. Matthew Jackson and Dr. Fred Ledley. This work was supported by a grant from the National Biomedical Research Foundation.

"NIH funding for vaccine readiness before the COVID-19 pandemic" DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.vaccine.2021.03.022. It is published in Vaccine, Volume 39 (2021) published by Elsevier.

THE CENTER FOR INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY at Bentley University focuses on advancing the translation of scientific discoveries to create public value. The Center is an environment for thought leadership and interdisciplinary scholarship spanning basic science, data analytics, business and public policy. For more information, visit http://www.bentley.edu/sciindustry and follow us on Twitter @sciindustry.

BENTLEY UNIVERSITY is more than just one of the nation's top business schools. It is a lifelong-learning community that creates successful leaders who make business a force for positive change. With a combination of business and the arts and sciences and a flexible, personalized approach to education, Bentley provides students with critical thinking and practical skills that prepare them to lead successful, rewarding careers. Founded in 1917, the university enrolls 4,200 undergraduate and 1,000 graduate and PhD students and is set on 163 acres in Waltham, Massachusetts, 10 miles west of Boston. For more information, visit bentley.edu. Follow us on Twitter @BentleyU #BentleyUResearch.

About Vaccine

Vaccine is the pre-eminent journal for those interested in vaccines and vaccination. It is the official journal of The Edward Jenner Society and The Japanese Society for Vaccinology and is published by Elsevier http://www.elsevier.com/locate/vaccine

AUSTRALIA WILDFIRES

Burns victims struggling to pay

Indigenous families face multiple barriers in hospital

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Living away from community and country, Aboriginal families of children with severe burns also face critical financial stress to cover the associated costs of health care and treatment, a new study shows.

An Australian study, led by Flinders researchers Dr Courtney Ryder and Associate Professor Tamara Mackean, found feelings of crisis were common in Aboriginal families with children suffering severe burns, with one family reporting skipping meals and others selling assets to reduce costs while in hospital.

The economic hardship was found to be worse in families who live in rural areas - some households travelling more than five hours for treatment, creating undue financial strain.

Participants included families from SA, NSW and Queensland who are already part of the larger-Australia-wide Coolamon study on burns injuries in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children.

Their children had sustained severe burns that required at least one night in hospital and follow up care.

So far, the Coolamon study has explored the health inequity of burns incidents and severity in Aboriginal children, with hospitalisation rates found to be 2-3 times greater than other Australian children.

This research conducted by Flinders University in conjunction with The George Institute for Global Health and UNSW School of Population Health also found Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children spent five times longer in hospital.

Dr Courtney Ryder, from Flinders University's College of Medicine and Public Health, says out-of-pocket health expenditure are costs not covered by Medicare or health insurance, and could include gap payments, pharmaceutical costs, and travel costs such as transport, car parking, food, and accommodation.

She says results were "astounding" with some families reaching credit card limits, not paying other bills or even selling assets to get by.

"Even though we have Medicare, there are always additional out-of-pocket expenses for health care, and I don't think it's understood the depth or breadth of cost for those Aboriginal families who have a child with an acute burns injury," Dr Ryder says.

"Burns injuries are quite intensive, very invasive and require a lot of follow up. While the expenses might be as simple as sterilised water and bandages, quite often there are additional expenses such as costs associated with travelling away from home.

"One family spoke about having to spend $700 each time they went to town, and they were even staying with family close to the tertiary setting."

Participants also reported not being made aware of government initiatives, such as the Patient Assisted Travel Scheme (PATS), aimed at South Australians who need to travel more than 100km to access medical services.

Dr Ryder says a review of PATS is needed, as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders often face barriers in accessing the scheme, including families who still live in regional areas but within the 100km range.

"There was one family who, because of where they were located, couldn't get assistance through PATS," she says.

"They were having to travel for an hour or more every day to the hospital, then there were parking costs and time spent away from work, so it was still significant."

Despite the stress and financial burden reported by participants, they often commented on the significant role their family networks played in helping and keeping them away from significant financial burden.

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This research is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) project grant, while Dr Courtney Ryder was supported by an NHMRC postgraduate scholarship.

Ryder, C., Mackean, T., Hunter, K., Coombes, J., Holland, A.J. and Ivers, R. (2021), Yarning up about out?of?pocket healthcare expenditure in burns with Aboriginal families. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health. https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.13083

 DISARM, DEFUND, DISBAND

Law professor argues for removing police from traffic enforcement

A new legal framework could enhance public safety and equal treatment by eliminating 'pretextual' traffic stops, which have been tied to cases of police abuse and injustice

UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

Research News

   

IMAGE: JORDAN BLAIR WOODS, UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS

University of Arkansas law professor Jordan Blair Woods challenges the conventional wisdom that only police can enforce traffic laws.

In "Traffic Without Police," to be published in Stanford Law Review, Woods articulates a new legal framework for traffic enforcement, one that separates it from critical police functions, such as preventing and deterring crime, conducting criminal investigations and responding to emergencies.

If not the police, who then would enforce traffic laws? As Woods explains, jurisdictions would delegate most traffic enforcement to newly created traffic agencies. These public offices would operate independently from police departments and would hire their own traffic monitors to conduct and oversee traffic enforcement, including stops. Police officers would become involved in traffic stops only for serious violations that are a criminal offense or public threat.

"Traffic stops are the most frequent interaction between police and civilians today," Woods said. "And because we know traffic enforcement is a common gateway for funneling over-policed and marginalized communities into the criminal justice system, these stops are a persistent source of racial and economic injustice."

Previous research has shown that Black and Latinx motorists are disproportionately stopped by police for traffic violations. Compared to white motorists, these minority groups are also disproportionately questioned, frisked, searched, cited and arrested during traffic stops.

Many of these stops and intrusions are considered "pretextual," according to legal definition, meaning that they enable officers to initiate contact with motorists and to then search for evidence of non-traffic crime without reasonable suspicion or probable cause. In this sense, the traffic stop has functioned as a gateway unfairly targeting Black and Latinx motorists. Pretextual stops sometimes also lead to police mistreatment and abuse.

So far, there is one example of the reorganization that Woods articulates. In July 2020, as part of a comprehensive plan to make structural police reforms, the city of Berkeley, California, voted in favor of a proposal that removes police from conducting traffic stops. The proposal directs the city to create a transportation department staffed by unarmed civil servants who would be in charge of enforcing traffic laws. Other municipalities are considering similar reforms that would remove police from traffic enforcement to varying degrees.

In addition to the social benefits mentioned above, especially for minority communities, removing police from traffic enforcement and adopting traffic law reforms that Woods proposes could put an end to unfair and often subjective reliance on traffic ticket revenue to fund state and local budgets. Likewise, such reform could reduce or eliminate financial and professional incentives that contribute to aggressive and biased traffic enforcement, namely prohibiting the issuing of traffic tickets as a measure of professional performance.

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Woods' study can be downloaded at SSRN.

Woods is the faculty director of the Richard B. Atkinson LGBTQ Law & Policy Program at the University of Arkansas School of Law.

Firearms laws curb rates of gun violence across United States

Number of firearm laws significantly predicted suicide and homicide rates, Rutgers study finds

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

States with stricter firearms laws reported lower suicide and homicide rates, according to a Rutgers study.

The study, conducted by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center, the Rutgers School of Public Health, the Rutgers University-Newark Department of Psychology, the Rutgers School of Criminal Justice, the Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and the Rutgers-Newark Department of Social Work, was published in the Journal of Public Health and examined the association between firearm laws and suicide and homicide rates.

Firearm violence is a major public health concern in the United States, with firearm suicide and homicide accounting for the majority of gun deaths. In 2017, 66,683 people died by suicide and homicide with a majority of the deaths resulting from a firearm: 48 percent for suicide and 74 percent for homicide.

Using the State Firearm Law Database, the Rutgers researchers compared suicide and homicide rates across the United States from 1991 to 2017 with the number of firearm laws in each state. The study found that even with several factors, such as unemployment and overall gun ownership rates, taken into account, the total number of firearm laws in a state was a significant predictor of suicide and homicide rates.

"As states' strictness increased, their suicide and homicide rates decreased," said lead author John F. Gunn III, a postdoctoral researcher at the Rutgers School of Public Health and New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center.

The researchers, who were the first to focus on the impact of the total number of firearms regulations in each state, utilized a general index of states' overall approach to firearms regulation by aggregating the total number of gun laws. This index broadly defined states as restrictive or lenient towards firearms.

"With close to 40, 000 deaths annually from firearm violence, regulations that can limit access to firearms appear to reduce state-level mortality," says senior study author Bernadette Hohl, an assistant professor at Rutgers School of Public Health. "Evidence-based implementation of firearm regulations across the whole of the United States has the potential to significantly reduce the toll of firearm violence."

Previous research supports associations between state suicide and homicide rates and specific gun laws, such as waiting periods and universal background checks, with most work finding that the presence of specific firearm laws is associated with reductions in gun mortality.

Future research is required to continue to holistically examine the relationship between firearm laws and suicide and homicide rates. "Assessing the implications of law changes, regulation enforcement and if there is a correlation with violent crime decline will be necessary," Gunn said.

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Link to study: https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/pubmed/fdab047/6225077?redirectedFrom=fulltext

DWP: DUM WHITE PEEPLE

Individuals in lower-income US counties or high support for former President Trump continue to be less likely to socially distance

A new nearly yearlong study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that lower-income and Republican-leaning communities are less likely to socially distance than other communities during the COVID-19 pandemic

ELSEVIER

Research News

 

IMAGE: COUNTY-LEVEL DISTANCE TRAVELED HAS BEEN AVERAGED BY MONTH AND NORMALIZED TO PRE-COVID-19 LEVELS. NEGATIVE VALUES REPRESENT GREATER PHYSICAL DISTANCING. DATES RANGE FROM MARCH 9, 2020 TO JANUARY 17, 2021. BASED... view more 

CREDIT: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE

Ann Arbor, April 22, 2021 - Using nearly a year of anonymous geolocation data from 15-17 million cell phone users in 3,037 United States counties, investigators have found that individuals with lower income per capita or greater Republican orientation were associated with significantly reduced social distancing throughout the study period from March 2020 through January 2021. Their findings are reported in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, published by Elsevier.

The associations persisted after adjusting for a variety of county-level demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Other county-level characteristics, such as the share of Black and Hispanic residents, were also associated with reduced distancing at various points during the study period.

"We started this project in April 2020 because we wanted to understand the social, economic, and political factors that drive people to engage in social distancing. We ended up tracking these factors for almost a year," explained lead investigator Nolan M. Kavanagh, MPH, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

"A year is a long time to prepare policy responses and educate the public," he said. "Yet, the same kinds of communities that struggled to physically distance early on continue to struggle now."

To measure social distancing, the investigators used county-level averages of distance traveled per person using cell phone location data. They looked at the percentage change in average movement from the start of the pandemic relative to four pre-COVID-19 reference weeks. Statistical analysis was used to estimate the association between a variety of county-level demographic, socioeconomic, and political characteristics. Socioeconomic status was based on income per capita, and political orientation was based on the 2016 vote share for President Trump. Other county-level characteristics examined included the percentage of males, Black and Hispanic residents; share of residents over age 65; share of foreign-born residents; share of the workforce in industries most affected by COVID-19, such as retail, transportation and health, educational and social services; and the share of rural residential plots. These county-level characteristics were chosen based on their expected contribution to a community's ability to physically distance.

Investigators found a sharp reduction in average movement among US counties at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and declaration of a national emergency in March 2020. Social distancing was greatest from late March to early June and then returned to baseline levels by June 2020. Distancing began to increase again in early September. However, even as a national trend evolved, the investigators found substantial variability in social distancing across counties.

While the share of racial and ethnic minorities, immigration, rurality, and employment in transportation were correlated with changes in average movement on many days, the single most consistent predictor of engagement in distancing across the study was higher per capita income. The single most consistent predictor of lack of engagement with distancing across the study was share of vote for President Trump.

Other county level-characteristics varied over time in their degree of association with physical distancing. During the early months of the study, counties with greater shares of Black and Hispanic residents were less likely to engage in social distancing. These adjusted racial and ethnic differences closed during the summer months before re-emerging in the fall. Similarly, rural counties were less likely to engage in distancing early on; by the end of the summer, rurality became the strongest negative predictor of physical distancing.

The investigators suggest a number of barriers that may underlie these findings. For example, lower-income or gig jobs may be incompatible with working from home, and lower income households may not have the necessary liquidity to shop in bulk, requiring more trips for groceries and essential household items. They observe that partisanship has dramatically shaped the government and public response to COVID-19 in the US. These findings show that political differences have continued to shape social distancing behavior, months into the pandemic and extending beyond the 2020 general election. As a result, both low-income and Republican-leaning communities are at greater risk for COVID-19.

"These results suggest that policy responses to the pandemic have failed to level the playing field," said Mr. Kavanagh. "We have not addressed the challenges to physical distancing faced by low-income Americans, such as working from home. And messages by political and public health leaders have not reached populations who may have different beliefs about disease risk. Analyses such as this study that monitor disparities over time can help us target public health and economic interventions to the communities that need them the most."