HOUSING IS A RIGHT

Analyzing the impact of college gameday homes in the American south

How vacant gameday homes affect housing prices, neighborhoods in Southern college towns

PROPERTY IS THEFT 

GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

ATLANTA--Absentee property ownership in many small college football towns has a negative impact on permanent residents of those communities, according to a study by a Georgia State University geosciences researcher.

The research is the first known attempt to quantify and map local geographies of gameday home investments.

Each weekend in the fall tens of thousands of football fans flood into college towns to watch their favorite teams kick off against rival schools. Many of them stay in gameday homes, investment properties that sit vacant for much of the year. Taylor Shelton, assistant professor of geosciences and the study's author, examined data from more than a dozen college towns in the South where schools in the Southeastern Conference attract large fan followings. He compared cities like Athens, Ga., Gainesville, Fla., and Auburn, Ala., and developed a study of Starkville, Miss., home of theMississippi State Bulldogs.

"The city of Starkville only has 25,000 people, and Mississippi State students make up nearly another 20,000," saidShelton. "But the football stadium holds over 60,000 fans, so the population of the city doubles or triples on gameday weekends, meaning the entire nature of the town is transformed."

The study, published in Cities: The International Journal of Urban Policy and Planning, analyzed local property ownership records, construction permits and U.S Census data. Shelton found that between five and 10 percent of all housing units in Starkville are likely gameday homes, and much of the town's net growth in housing units over the last 15 years is made up of vacant properties that are suspected to be gameday homes. In some neighborhoods, more than 75 percent of housing units are used as gameday homes.

According to Shelton, these properties -- which have grown significantly in the Southeast in recent years -- are owned by wealthy alumni, fans and investors who rarely occupy the homes, resulting in a net-negative for permanent residents.

"Having so much of the activity in the housing market focused on these limited-use, largely vacant properties drive up housing prices for the people who actually live and work in the area," said Shelton. "A lot of these smaller towns are now seeing rapid growth, but it really cuts into the kind of vibrancy and energy that you expect from a college town."

Changes to zoning and tax laws could ease some of the impacts, according to the study, but Shelton said implementation of these changes has been slow because gameday homes confer financial benefits for state and local governments.

"Bigger cities have implemented vacancy taxes on properties to discourage people from buying homes for speculative or temporary uses," Shelton said. "Being able to access some of that money and then reinvest it directly into affordable housing is a really simple step. But smaller cities are hesitant to do too much because they like the property tax revenue and they don't have the simultaneous burden of providing municipal services to year-round residents."

Cities like Starkville are often hamstrung by state laws that preempt localities from enacting stricter regulations on landlords or developers beyond what's prescribed at the state level, according to Shelton, which means things are likely to get worse over time.

One of the main goals of the study was to develop a reproducible method to identify gameday homes that can be applied in any city or college town across the U.S., helping researchers and policymakers make sense of what's driving this phenomenon.

"I hope this research can provide some legitimacy to efforts to create a more just and equitable housing in these smaller cities," said Shelton. "We should place the focus on what residents actually want and need to make their lives better, rather than having places that cater towards wealthy out-of-town alumni and fans."

###

New research shows ridesharing services reduce sexual assault

INSTITUTE FOR OPERATIONS RESEARCH AND THE MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

Research News

 

Research Study Key Takeaways:

• Ridesharing can reduce a passenger's risk of being a target of sexual assault by providing a more reliable and timely transportation option for traveling to a safer place.

• The entry of Uber into a city contributes to a 6.3% reduction in rape incidents.

• A 1% increase in Uber pickups in a neighborhood translates to a more than 3% decrease in the likelihood of sexual assaults.

CATONSVILLE, MD, May 24, 2021 - Contrary to portraits painted in popular media, new research involving ridesharing services shows they provide an additional level of protection for potential sexual assault victims, particularly in neighborhoods with inadequate public transportation or in circumstances that are more prone to sex crimes.

The study, "The Deterrent Effect of Ride-sharing on Sexual Assault and Investigation of Situational Contingencies," published in the INFORMS journal Information Systems Research, found the entry of Uber into a city in the United States contributes to a 6.3% reduction in rape incidents.

"Even a 1% increase in Uber pickups in a neighborhood translates to a more than 3% decrease in the likelihood of sexual assaults," said Jiyong Park of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The study was conducted by Park alongside Min-Seok Pang of Temple University, Junetae Kim of the National Cancer Center Korea and Byungtae Lee of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

This research investigates the relationship between ridesharing and sexual assault, which has been a controversial, but underexplored topic in public debates on the sharing economy and ridesharing. This study is the first to present systematic empirical evidence that a ridesharing platform can provide a viable means to prevent sexual crimes under certain circumstances.

"Ridesharing can reduce a passenger's risk of being a target of sexual assault by providing a more reliable and timely transportation option for traveling to a safer place," said Park. "Moreover, ridesharing contributes to a more significant reduction in the likelihood of rape occurrences in neighborhoods with limited transportation accessibility, such as the city's outskirts and neighborhoods where a higher percentage of the population is non-Caucasian."

The study also found that ridesharing is more effective in deterring sexual crime in riskier circumstances, such as around alcohol-serving establishments on weekend nights or when the probability of crime occurrences increases.

"Despite the common misconception due to popular media stories, our work proves that digital platforms can be leveraged to solve societal challenges by matching supply and demand closely for relevant services, which calls for spatiotemporal investigations of granular-level data in designing platform businesses and devising policy instruments," concluded Park.

###

About INFORMS and Information Systems Research

Information Systems Research is a premier peer-reviewed scholarly journal that covers the latest theory, research and intellectual developments for information systems in institutions, organizations, the economy and society to advance knowledge about the effective and efficient utilization of information technology. It is published by INFORMS, the leading international association for operations research and analytics professionals. More information is available at http://www.informs.org or @informs.

Contact:

THEY BECOME CAREGIVERS

Helping adults navigate the decision to move back in with parents

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

A recent study offers insight into how adults can navigate the often awkward experience of moving back in with their parents.

"People move back in with their parents for a lot of reasons, and the trend is increasing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic woes," says Lynsey Romo, co-author of the study and an associate professor of communication at North Carolina State University.

"We launched this study before the pandemic happened because we wanted to learn more about how adults who move back in with their parents manage that process," Romo says. "How do they think about it? How do they talk about it?

"We think the findings are valuable because they provide some guidelines people can use to help ensure that 'moving back home' is a step forward instead of a step backward," Romo says.

For this study, researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 31 adults between the ages of 22 and 31. And the findings were straightforward.

"On one hand, study participants were certainly aware of the stigma associated with moving back in with one's parents as an adult," Romo says. "However, it was equally clear that framing the decision to move back in with one's parents as an investment in the future helped people think about the decision in a positive way and communicate about it in a positive way."

Specifically, the researchers found there were four things people did to make the move back home a positive experience for themselves and their parents.

1). Communicate clear expectations: It was important to have clearly defined expectations for both parents and adult children. For example, do the children pay rent? Are they expected to be home by a certain time each evening?

2). Contribute to the household: Things worked more smoothly when grown children made clear what they would do to benefit the larger household, such as attending to domestic chores.

3). Lay out intended timelines: It was good for all parties when the people moving back home had thought out how long they would be living with their parents, what their career and financial goals were, and how living with their parents would help them achieve those goals.

4). Embody adult behavior: Adults returning home should avoid slipping into habits formed when they were children, if they want to be treated as adults. In short, both parents and their grown children should give and expect respect in their relationships.

"Moving back home is a reality for a lot of people right now," Romo says. "Hopefully, this work will help them make the most of that circumstance and avoid any stigma associated with it."

###

The study, "A Normative Approach to Understanding How 'Boomerang Kids' Communicatively Negotiate Moving Back Home," is published in the journal Emerging Adulthood. Corresponding author of the study is Jenna Abetz, an associate professor of communicaton at the College of Charleston.

 UK

Sustainable funding needed to provide nursery places

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

Research News

 PRINT  E-MAILExtra funding should be made available for early years care in the wake of the pandemic, researchers say.

Experts at the University of Leeds, University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University have made the call after assessing the benefits of early childhood education and care (ECEC) for children under three during COVID-19.

They found children who attended childcare outside the home throughout the first UK lockdown made greater gains in language and thinking skills, particularly if they were from less advantaged backgrounds.

And now they are making several policy recommendations including

- A sustainable funding model for nursery provision

- Promotion of funded places in target areas where take-up is low

- Removal of administrative barriers to the take-up of places

Dr Catherine Davies, Associate Professor in Language Development in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies, who co-authored the study, said: "Our data clearly show that children from all backgrounds benefit from attending childcare for all or part of the week. Their cognitive skills become stronger, which will help them in their later learning and development, too. Government investment in sustainable, high-quality early years education and care is crucial so that all families can access this support."

Part of a nationally-funded project on Social Distancing and Development, the aim of the study was to analyse the impact of attending childcare - and of missing out - on children from different backgrounds, and to provide evidence for policymakers planning for further lockdowns and disruptions to early education and care.

The researchers worked with 189 UK families with children aged 8 to 36 months old during spring and winter 2020, when nurseries were closed to all children except those of critical workers or those classed as vulnerable. Between March and June 2020, nursery attendance dropped to less than 10% of usual levels. This was followed by an extended period of quarantine measures, reduced attendance, and disruption to sessions.

The families answered questions about their use of formal childcare such as nursery and childminders before, during and between lockdowns, informal childcare from family members or friends, and about their income, level of education, occupation and neighbourhood. Parents completed surveys about the number of words that their child said or understood, and their child's early thinking skills, or executive functions - the control of attention, behaviour and emotion. They followed up six months later, reporting again on their child's language ability and thinking skills.

Parents were asked to record their child's understanding and use of words across categories such as animals, vehicles and food. They were also asked how often their child exhibited different behaviours, and then played games designed to elicit skills such as waiting, finding, and sorting.

The team then explored associations between time spent at ECEC, the families' socioeconomic background, and children's growth in language and thinking skills.

Their findings showed that a child who regularly attended ECEC one day per week during the pandemic could be expected to understand an average of 24 more new words over the Spring-Winter 2020 period compared with their peers, while a child regularly attending two days could be expected to understand 48 more new words than their peers over the same period, and so on. This effect was greater among children from less affluent backgrounds. Overall, the results suggest that those children who could not attend nursery were disadvantaged by the social distancing measures.

In addition, children from all backgrounds who continued to attend nursery displayed boosted growth in thinking skills.

Study co-author Dr Alexandra Hendry, a research fellow at the University of Oxford, said: "Lower-income families have been disproportionately impacted by infections, deaths, unemployment, and mental ill-health during the pandemic - all stressors which are likely to negatively affect home interactions with children. We have demonstrated that early childhood education and care boosts these children's vocabulary skills, and all children's thinking skills.

"Solid abilities in these areas are likely to have cascading positive effects as children move through their preschool years and beyond. To maintain these benefits for child development and for levelling inequalities, properly-funded, high-quality early childhood education and care is crucial."

The project lead for the Social Distancing and Development Study, Dr Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Oxford Brookes University, noted "Our findings add to the evidence base that providing access to properly-funded, safe, and high-quality early childhood education and care may be a way to level some of the inequalities experienced by children from less privileged background, while still benefiting all children."

The paper, Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) during COVID-19 boosts growth in language and executive function, is published in Infant and Child Development.

The research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council as part of its rapid response to COVID-19.

Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists' chief executive Kamini Gadhok MBE says: "This important research provides clear evidence that young children from disadvantaged backgrounds have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a worrying impact on their language development.

"Given the importance of language skills for young people's life chances, it's imperative that governments across all four nations put support for children's communication and language development at the centre of education recovery plans. This must include action and funding in the early years which supports pre-school settings to work in partnership with speech and language therapists."

###

Notes to editor:

* The Social Distancing and Development Study is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the UK Research and Innovation's rapid response to COVID-19 (ES/V004085/1). The Social Distancing and Development Study has been undertaken by Nayeli Gonzalez-Gomez at the Oxford Brookes University, in collaboration with Catherine Davies at the University of Leeds, Alexandra Hendry at University of Oxford, Theodora Gliga at the University of East Anglia, and Michelle McGillion at the University of Warwick. Dr Hendry is supported by the Scott Family Junior Research Fellowship in Autism, at University College Oxford.

The University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes.

We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2021. Additionally, the University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. Over a third of our academics are involved in applied research or as consultants to industry, and over the last ten years, the University of Leeds has produced more than 100 'spin-out' companies. http://www.leeds.ac.uk

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford's Experimental Psychology Department's mission is to conduct world-leading experimental research to understand the psychological and neural mechanisms relevant to human behaviour. Wherever appropriate, we translate our findings into evidence-based public benefits in mental health and well-being, education, industry, and policy. Key areas of research include Behavioural Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Social Psychology, and Psychological and Brain Health.

Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the fifth year running, and at the heart of this success is our ground-breaking research and innovation. Oxford is world-famous for research excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.

For further information, please contact: Genevieve Juillet, Media Relations Manager (Research and Innovation), University of Oxford, gen.juillet@admin.ox.ac.uk, phone 01865 280534.

* Set in a historic student city, Oxford Brookes is one of the UK's leading universities and enjoys an international reputation for teaching excellence and innovation as well as strong links with business and industry. More information is available on the Oxford Brookes website at http://www.brookes.ac.uk

Further information: For media enquiries, contact University of Leeds press officer Lauren Ballinger via l.ballinger@leeds.ac.uk.

A community health worker intervention reduces hospital readmissions

The benefit was seen among patients discharged to short-term rehabilitation

MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL

Research News

 

BOSTON - The Community CAre Transitions (C-CAT) clinical trial, which paired community health workers (CHWs) with patients admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), has found that fewer intervention group participants were readmitted within 30 days than control group participants. The effect was significant for those discharged to short-term rehabilitation but not for those discharged home. The study has been published in JAMA Network Open.

"These results indicate that CHW interventions may help reduce hospital readmissions and improve preventive care among some clinically complex patients within an accountable care organization," says lead author and C-CAT trial principal investigator Jocelyn Carter, MD, MPH, a physician-scientist in the MGH Division of General Internal Medicine.

Hospital readmissions have been identified as a major contributor to health care costs, accounting for a third of total U.S. health care expenditures. Thirty-day readmissions are common and about 27% of adult 30-day readmissions are estimated to be preventable. Previous studies have identified factors such as medical complexity and social determinants of health as contributing to readmission risk.

While community health workers are one of few interventions demonstrating compelling evidence of improving outcomes in clinically and socially complex populations, most CHW studies have focused on disease-based cohorts. The study of CHW interventions at the time of hospital discharge has been underutilized and prior trial results have been mixed.

In the C-CAT study, CHWs, trained in basic knowledge of clinical conditions, provided health coaching and connected patients to specific low and no-cost resources (e.g., food, transportation, housing-related) contributing to gaps in care. Using the framework of motivational interviewing and psychosocial support, CHWs sought to strengthen patient connections to primary care while addressing unmet needs. To test the effect of CHW care delivery on 30-day readmission in a population insured by a Mass General Brigham accountable care organization, 278 participants were randomized to receive usual care along with the 30-day CHW intervention and 273 participants were randomized to usual care only. Members of the C-CAT study team enrolled patients on six internal medicine units from 2017 to 2019. CHWs met participants in-hospital prior to discharge.

Of the 550 participants analyzed, the mean age was 70.1, 48.4% were women, and 70.5% were Medicare insured. All trial participants had a mean of three hospitalizations in the 12 months prior. Overall, 24.5% of control and 21.7% of intervention participants were discharged to rehabilitation with a mean length of stay of 3.9 days.

Just 12.6% of intervention group participants were readmitted in the 30 days following hospital discharge, as opposed to 24.5% of control participants. However, Carter and her colleagues noted a statistically significant reduction in readmissions among patients discharged to rehabilitation but not in those discharged directly home: Intervention vs. control participants discharged to rehabilitation demonstrated a 32.3% reduction in readmissions (5.0% vs 37.3%) compared to a 5.7% reduction seen in those discharged home (14.7% vs 20.4%) . In addition, fewer intervention than control patients had missed appointments (22.0% vs. 33.7%) and ED visits (11.2% vs. 16.8%).

While the intervention effect was seen in patient discharged to short-stay rehabilitation prior to returning home, the researchers note that prior studies have shown that patients with complex co-morbidities discharged to rehabilitation facilities have markedly elevated rates of readmission, ranging from 28% to 75%. CHWs might have positively influenced these numbers by addressing unmet medical and social issues that occurred during the transition from rehabilitation to home, and improving communication between patients, rehabilitation staff, and the primary care providers after discharge. Carter notes: "Surprisingly, there was a strong and significant reduction in 30-day readmissions for patients discharged to rehabilitation. This is a population with limited demonstrated interventions shown to improve outcomes. Additional research is needed to examine why this effect was seen as well as which patients benefitted most from certain CHW intervention activities."

###

Carter is an instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Senior author Anne Thorndike, MD, MPH, is an investigator in the Division of General Internal Medicine at MGH and associate professor of Medicine at HMS. Additional co-authors are CHW staff members Susan Hassan, B.A., Anne Walton, RN, AsEd AE-C; Karen Donelan, ScD, EdM, of the MGH Department of Medicine and the Mongan Institute and who is also the Stuart H. Altman Chair at the Heller School at Brandeis University; and Liyang Yu, MS Bioinformatics Specialist at MGH.

###

The study was supported by a Partners HealthCare Center for Population Health Delivery System Innovation Implementation Grant and the Healthcare Transformation Lab at MGH.

About the Massachusetts General Hospital

Massachusetts General Hospital, founded in 1811, is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The Mass General Research Institute conducts the largest hospital-based research program in the nation, with annual research operations of more than $1 billion and comprises more than 9,500 researchers working across more than 30 institutes, centers and departments. In August 2020, Mass General was named #6 in the U.S. News & World Report list of "America's Best Hospitals."

New study shows never before seen nutrient exchanges between algae and bacteria

Research co-led by Newcastle University has shed new light on important microscopic scale interactions between algae and bacteria predicated on the mutually beneficial exchange of nutrients.

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE FIGURE SHOWS HOW THE AMOUNT OF LABELLED CARBON IN ALGAE AND BACTERIA GROWING TOGETHER CHANGES WITH TIME (LOW IS BLUE AND HIGH IS RED). ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE,... view more 

CREDIT: THE AUTHORS

Research co-led by Newcastle University has shed new light on important microscopic scale interactions between algae and bacteria predicated on the mutually beneficial exchange of nutrients.

The research was carried out at the University of Cambridge and the Nordsim laboratory at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm by Dr Hannah Laeverenz Schlogelhofer, now at the University of Exeter, and a team led by Dr Ottavio Croze, of Newcastle University's School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics.

They have used an advanced high-spatial resolution isotope mapping technique called 'SIMS' (secondary ion mass spectrometry) to chart for the first time how long it takes for labelled carbon produced by microalgae to be transferred to the bacteria they are growing with.

The study reveals the details of important nutrient exchanges between algae and bacteria. Such exchanges determine the functioning of microbial communities in the environment, relevant to climate change cycles and agricultural productivity. Microbial interactions within microbial communities are important on many levels, ranging from the ecology of aquatic and terrestrial food webs, to wastewater treatment. A key characteristic of the interactions within these communities is the exchange of nutrients between species.

Publishing their findings in the journal PLOS ONE, the research team, involving also scientists from Stockholm University, Sweden, also used a mathematical model to predict how the concentrations of nutrients exchanged between the microbes change with time, including vitamin B12, which occurs in very low concentrations and is not easily trackable.

Many species of algae and bacteria share mutually beneficial resources. In this study, the algae depend on bacteria as a source of vitamin B12, as they can't make it themselves. On the other hand, bacteria rely on carbon produced by algae for their growth. The research combines SIMS and mathematical modelling to show what happens when microbial partners able to exchange nutrients are initially brought together.

Principal investigator of the study, Dr Croze said: "The paper concerns the onset of the mutualistic interaction between microalgae and bacteria, that is microbes that need each other to grow and survive, and the transfer of nutrients between them.

"Our results allow establishing when the microbial partners first form a 'relationship' by growing exclusively on the nutrients they respectively produce. The method we have developed is widely applicable to other microbial systems, and we hope it will contribute to furthering a mechanistic understanding of interactions within microbial communities in the environment and biotechnological applications."

Dr Laeverenz Schlogelhofer added: "It is the interdisciplinary nature of our approach to studying microbial interactions that I think will have broad applications. While the single-cell technique SIMS allowed us to visualise and measure the carbon exchange between algae and bacteria, mathematical modelling provided a link between the experimental observations and our understanding of the underlying nutrient kinetics."

Co-author Dr Rachel Foster, from Stockholm University, said: "I appreciate most that the work takes highly resolved single cell measurements and directly applies them for predicting nutrient acquisitions between cells. Hence we can use calculated rate measurements based on the SIMS measures instead of assuming an activity rate, and this approach should be far-reaching and applicable to many other microbial populations-free and/or symbiotic."

CAPTION

The figure shows a schematic of the processes that we considered in out mathematical model, including the production of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) by the algae and its assimilation by the bacteria, and the production of vitamin B12 by the bacteria an its assimilation by the algae.

CREDIT

The authors

Scientists discover a new feature that distinguishes modern humans from Neanderthals

SKOLKOVO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (SKOLTECH)

Research News

 

IMAGE: SCIENTISTS DISCOVER A NEW FEATURE THAT DISTINGUISHES MODERN HUMANS FROM NEANDERTHALS view more 

CREDIT: PAVEL ODINEV / SKOLTECH

Skoltech scientists and their colleagues from Germany and the United States have analyzed the metabolomes of humans, chimpanzees, and macaques in muscle, kidney, and three different brain regions. The team discovered that the modern human genome undergoes mutation which makes the adenylosuccinate lyase enzyme less stable, leading to a decrease in purine synthesis. This mutation did not occur in Neanderthals, so the scientists believe that it affected metabolism in brain tissues and thereby strongly contributed to modern humans evolving into a separate species. The research was published in the journal eLife.

The predecessors of modern humans split from their closest evolutionary relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, about 600,000 years ago, while the evolutionary divergence between our ancestors and those of modern chimpanzees dates as far back as 65 million years ago. Evolutionary biologists are after the particular genetic features that distinguish modern humans from their ancestors and may give a clue as to why humans are what they are.

Researchers from the Skoltech Center for Neurobiology and Brain Restoration (CNBR) led by Professor Philipp Khaitovich and their colleagues from the Max Planck Institutes in Leipzig, Dresden and Cologne and the University of Denver studied metabolic differences in the brain, kidney and muscle of humans, chimpanzees, and macaques.

The research supervisor was a renowned evolutionary biologist, Professor Svante Pääbo, who earlier on had discovered the Denisovan and led the Neanderthal Genome Project.

The team looked at an interesting human mutation that leads to amino acid substitution in adenylosuccinate lyase, an enzyme involved in the synthesis of purine inside DNA. This substitution reduces the enzyme's activity and stability, which results in a lower concentration of purines in the human brain. The team showed that the new mutation is typical for humans only and does not appear in other primates or Neanderthals. The researchers proved that this mutation is indeed the reason for the metabolic peculiarities in humans by introducing it into the mouse genome. The mice subjected to mutation produced fewer purines, whereas an ancestral gene, when introduced into human cells, led to apparent metabolic changes.

"Although a powerful tool for scientists, the decoded human genome, unfortunately, cannot account for all the phenotypic differences between humans. The study of the metabolic composition of tissues can give clues about why functional changes occur in humans. I am delighted that we have succeeded in predicting the metabolic characteristics of modern humans and validated our hypotheses on mouse and cell models, even though we did not have 'live Neanderthals' to work on," says lead author and Skoltech PhD student Vita Stepanova.

###

Forensic archaeologists begin to recover Spanish Civil War missing bodies

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE MISSING FACES OF THOSE WHOSE BODIES THE TEAM ARE TRYING TO FIND. view more 

CREDIT: GEMA ORTIZ IGLESIAS

Forensic archaeologists and anthropologists from Cranfield University have started to recover the bodies of victims executed by the Franco regime at the end of the Spanish Civil War during an excavation in the Ciudad Real region of Spain.

The team from Cranfield is working with partners from the University Complutense of Madrid (UCM) and social anthropologists from Mapas de Memoria (Maps of Memory) to search for, exhume and identify those executed and buried in the civil cemetery at Almagro between 1939 and 1940.

Several bodies with gunshot wounds to the head, personal effects and parts of clothing have already been recovered and in total the team are searching for 26 people in this excavation which is focused on a separate area of the graveyard that has been closed for decades.

Families of victims have been found in the hope of identifying relatives through DNA analysis and returning the human remains for proper burial.

This exhumation is part of a number of recoveries from the Spanish Civil War which are currently being investigated in Spain. Since 2000, over 7,000 victims have been recovered.

Dr Nicholas Márquez-Grant, Senior Lecturer in Forensic Anthropology at Cranfield Forensic Institute (CFI), who is leading the excavation, said: "This excavation is particularly complex due to the number of victims and subsequent burials in the cemetery during the postwar period. Recovery of the bodies is carried out layer by layer and is only the start of the process to identify and bring dignity to the deceased and help to provide closure and peace to their families."

José Barrios, whose great uncle - also named José Barrios - was executed and buried at the site, said: "When the excavation started I did not feel much but when they found the first body, I saw the skull and the feet of an individual, I thought: we are here now, we are coming to find you."

The excavation period will last until the beginning of June and will be followed by a longer investigation involving anthropological analysis in the laboratory and DNA analysis until the end of 2021 to identify human remains recovered.

The first stage in the overall process was carried out by Maps of Memory to locate the graves through archival research and contact the families of victims through social networks and testimonies from neighbours.

Dr Jorge Moreno, director of Maps of Memory, a project of the National Distance Learning University (UNED), said: "Whilst archaeologists and forensic anthropologists work from the ground down, social anthropologists work from the ground up. Whilst scientists search for human remains, social anthropologists search for families, their histories and stories. Originally we had four families identified for this excavation and in ten days we now have 21 families and 21 stories. We find bodies on the one hand, and stories on the other that later connect."

A total of 11 pits have been identified for the excavation, and several pits have more than one individual in them. Cranfield team members also include graduates and alumni from CFI's Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology MSc.

Once remains are recovered, they are taken to the forensic anthropology laboratory at UCM to identify and determine the circumstances of the death of each of the individuals.

Dr Maria Benito Sanchez, director of the scientific team for the project from the School of Legal Medicine at UCM, said: "As forensic anthropology professionals we have the responsibility of putting our science to the service of the relatives who have been searching for their loved ones for a long time now. Since I started working on mass graves, there have been many rewards which I take with me, and all are for the relatives - they are the engine for this work."

Genetic analysis with samples from family members and bone samples recovered then follows and where checks are positive, family members are identified. Remains will then be passed to the families for burial or returned to the cemetery to be buried again if that isn't possible.

The wider Memory Maps project, which is funded by the Ciudad Real Provincial Council, has located 53 mass graves and named 3,457 people killed in the province of Ciudad Real by the Franco regime over the last ten years. So far the Almagro excavation is the largest mass grave opened in the province, although there are known to be others with hundreds of people buried in them.

CAPTION

Archaelogists and anthropologists from Cranfield University, University Complutense of Madrid (UCM) and Mapas de Memoria (Maps of Memory) in Almagro .

CREDIT

Cranfield Forensic Institute

CAPTION

An aerial view of the dig site in Almagro.

CREDIT

Cranfield Forensic Institute

#

 THIRD WORLD USA

Dual impacts of extreme heat, ozone disproportionately hurt poorer areas

A frequent combination on hot days, high temperatures and ozone disproportionately affect low-income ZIP codes, researchers find

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

Research News

 

Scientists at UC San Diego, San Diego State University and colleagues find that extreme heat and elevated ozone levels, often jointly present during California summers, affect certain ZIP codes more than others.

Those areas across the state most adversely affected tend to be poorer areas with greater numbers of unemployed people and more car traffic. The science team based this finding on data about the elevated numbers of people sent to the hospital for pulmonary distress and respiratory infections in lower-income ZIP codes.

The study identified hotspots throughout the Central Valley, areas of San Diego County east of downtown San Diego, and places like San Bernardino, where Los Angeles basin smog is often trapped by surrounding mountain ranges, among others.

Results appear the week of May 24 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, a division of the California Environmental Protection Agency, funded the research.

"This information can be used to activate measures to protect populations in areas which we know will be at increased risk of experiencing a health burden from these co-occurring environmental events and maximize public health benefits," said study lead author Lara Schwarz, a graduate student who is in a joint doctoral program at San Diego State and the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego.

In places like California, these public health hazards are expected to appear in unison more frequently as the climate continues to warm and heat waves become more prevalent and long-lasting. The study could enable more targeted public health efforts because of its unprecedented consideration of two common hazards in tandem and its relatively high-resolution breakdown of where they are most likely to cause problems. Previous studies had tended only to evaluate city- or regional-level health trends.

"Understanding the health impacts of compounding environmental events such as extreme heat and various air pollutants like tropospheric ozone becomes a priority in a changing climate," said study co-author Tarik Benmarhnia, a climate change epidemiologist with appointments at UC San Diego's Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science. "Such events are more frequent, intense and tend to co-occur, potentially creating synergistic effects on population health impacting the most vulnerable communities."

The work could inform early warning systems and prioritize resources more efficiently than at present, the researchers said.

Ozone, a gas and a variant molecular form of oxygen, is formed in the lower atmosphere by the reaction of various hydrocarbons to sunlight, especially during hot days. Car exhaust produces such hydrocarbons. Ozone can exacerbate asthma and other respiratory conditions among vulnerable people and is more prevalent in urban areas with more traffic.

Extreme heat can similarly affect respiratory health by itself or in combination with high ozone levels.

Schwarz's team notes that vulnerability to the excessive heat/ozone combination seems to be diminished in wealthier ZIP codes and correlated results with factors that include better access to healthcare, lower stress levels, and more exercise.

"When considering the ZIP code level, certain areas observed strong joint-effects," said the study authors. "A lower median income, higher percentage of unemployed residents and exposure to other air pollutants within a ZIP code drove stronger joint-effects; a higher percentage of commuters who walk/bicycle, a marker for neighborhood wealth, showed decreased effects."

###

Besides Schwarz and Benmarhnia, authors include Kristen Hansen of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at UC San Diego, Anna Alari of Sorbonne University in Paris, Sindana Ilango of the University of Washington, Nelson Bernal of the University of Brasilia in Brazil, Rupa Basu of the California Environmental Protection Agency, and Alexander Gershunov of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego.

New insights on animals in the African past

Researchers discover new peptide markers to expand identification of Africana bovid taxa

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AT KNOXVILLE

Research News

 

IMAGE: ANNEKE JANZEN view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, KNOXVILLE

In order to understand foodways and subsistence strategies of humans in the past, as well as distributions of ancient animal species, it is critical for archaeologists to accurately identify animal taxa in archaeological sites. Many sites across sub-Saharan Africa have fragmented and poorly preserved animal bones, leaving the majority of specimens unidentifiable. Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to the greatest diversity of bovids on Earth, including African buffalo, wildebeest, eland, and duikers, as well as domestic sheep, goat, and cattle. The sheer number of osteologically similar animals in Africa presents a major challenge for identifying animal bones.

During the past decade, archaeologists have increasingly used a bone collagen peptide fingerprinting technique called Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify ambiguous or unidentifiable bone fragments. However, the lack of complete reference peptide markers for African animals has hindered its application in Africa. In a new study, "Distinguishing African bovids using Zooarchaeology by Mass Spectrometry (ZooMS): New peptide markers and insights into Iron Age economies in Zambia," published in PLOS ONE, researchers present a complete set of confirmed ZooMS peptide markers for all groups of African bovids, revealing new opportunities for archaeologists to identify these species in archaeological sites.

"Our new reference dataset has the potential to revive research interest in, and add value to, assemblages previously considered too poorly preserved for traditional zooarchaeological analysis," said Anneke Janzen, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and lead author on the study.

Using these new peptide markers, Janzen and her team applied the ZooMS method to extremely fragmented animal bone assemblages from six Iron Age archaeological sites in Zambia and discovered the number of species present is greater than expected.

"With this new data, we discovered that Iron Age populations continued to hunt wild bovids, especially small duikers, in addition to relying on cattle-based pastoralism," Janzen said.

"Our research opens new opportunities for addressing questions of paleoenvironment, subsistence strategies, foodways, the spread of and development of herding economies in the African past," Janzen said.

CAPTION

A yellow backed duiker at the Knoxville Zoo.

CREDIT

University of Tennessee, Knoxville