Gender differences exist even among university students' wage expectations

Though both male and female students have optimistic wage expectations compared to actual wages of similar graduates, when given information about actual wages, women tended to decrease their expectations--while men actually increased their expectations

PLOS

Research News

 

Gender wage gaps are a well-documented issue, and expectations related to this phenomenon seem to be present even among university students discussing future employment, according to a study published June 2, 2021 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Ana Fernandes from the Berner Fachhochschule and the University of Fribourg and Martin Huber from the University of Fribourg, and Giannina Vaccaro from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

The gender wage gap is a well-established phenomenon in today's labor market, with elements both explainable (e.g. certain job paths being predominantly held by one gender) and as-yet unexplained. In this paper, the authors assessed the effect of gender on wage expectations in university students.

To gather their data, the authors surveyed a total of 865 students across two Swiss universities. The survey covered general demographic information; professional information, e.g. the type of job and workplace the student hoped to have after graduation and their expected wage (both directly after graduation and three years on); and personal information, e.g. hopes for a future family and/or children, preferences between full- and part-time work in the presence of children, home location, etc. One version of the survey included a bar graph with information on monthly gross income in the private sector.

There was a gender wage gap even among expected wages for surveyed students: this gap was 9.7 percent directly following graduation, and 11.6 percent for wages three years afterward. When comparing expected wages from the students surveyed to averages of actual wages from comparable graduates, the authors found that both men and women were optimistic about their expected wages: on average, male students' expected wages exceeded the actual wages of similar graduates by 13 percent, whereas female students' expected wages exceeded the actual wages of similar graduates by 11.2 percent. Interestingly, for those students given the extra bar graph of gross income information, male students actually increased their average expected wages (incorrectly, based on the actual wages of similar graduates), while female students tended to decrease their average expected wages.

The authors note that including the personal and professional responses in their statistical analysis greatly reduced (by approximately 30 percent) the direct, unexplained effect of gender on wage expectations. Nevertheless, a non-negligible, statistically significant direct, unexplained effect of gender on wage expectations remains for most cases under several statistical models considered.

The authors add: "Males typically forecast higher future earnings than females. We find that a broad set of personal and professional controls -- collected in an own survey of two Swiss institutions of higher education - largely accounts for those gender differences in expectations across most empirical specifications."

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Research article

Peer reviewed; Survey; People

Citation: Fernandes A, Huber M, Vaccaro G (2021) Gender differences in wage expectations. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0250892. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250892

Funding: G.V. Project Grant: P400PS_180732 Swiss National Science Foundation http://www.snf.ch/en/Pages/default.aspx The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250892

Transgender teens may turn to substance use to cope with stress

PLOS

Research News

 

Over half of transgender or gender minority (GM) adolescents engage in substance use, seemingly as a coping strategy in response to GM stressors, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Sabra L. Katz-Wise of Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, US, and colleagues.

Compared to cisgender adolescents, adolescents who have a different gender identity than was their sex assigned at birth report higher rates of emotional distress. Previous studies have found higher prevalence of substance use among GM youth but have not examined longitudinal compounding risk factors and protective factors.

In the new study, researchers surveyed 30 GM adolescents aged 13 to 17 as part of the longitudinal Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project. Participants were asked to complete an online survey every six months for two years. GM-related stressors, including rejection, harassment and threats due to gender identity, were quantified along with substance use and possible risk and protective factors. Most participants were white (73 percent) and participants identified as trans feminine (11), trans masculine (15) and nonbinary (4).

Among all participants at the outset of the study, 17 percent reported any substance use, including tobacco, alcohol and marijuana; by the conclusion of the study two years later, 56 percent of participants reported any substance use. Higher exposure to GM stressors significantly increased the odds of alcohol use (OR=1.59, 95% CI 1.02-2.49) but not tobacco or marijuana use. Internalized transphobia was found to be a significant mediator of the association between these stressors and substance use. Increased resilience and gender-related pride tended to predict lower odds of substance use (all adjusted odds ratios below 1), and family functioning and social support both significantly moderated the association between GM stressors and alcohol use. The authors conclude that future interventions with GM youth should focus on addressing internalized transphobia and strengthening resilience, gender-related pride and family functioning.

The authors add: "This study found that gender minority adolescents use substances to cope with gender minority stress experiences. Interventions to address substance use in gender minority adolescents should focus on addressing internalized transphobia and strengthening resilience, gender-related pride, and family functioning."

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Research article

Peer reviewed; Survey; People

Citation: Katz-Wise SL, Sarda V, Austin SB, Harris SK (2021) Longitudinal effects of gender minority stressors on substance use and related risk and protective factors among gender minority adolescents. PLoS ONE 16(6): e0250500. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0250500

Funding: The Trans Teen and Family Narratives Project was funded by grants from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (K99R00HD082340) and the Boston Children's Hospital Aerosmith Endowment Fund for Prevention and Treatment of AIDS and HIV Infections, both awarded to SKW. SKW and SBA were also funded by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration (Leadership Education in Adolescent Health project 6T71-MC00009). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0250500

US conservatives less able than liberals to distinguish truth from falsehoods in study of responses to 20 political news stories

Conservatives' susceptibility to political misperceptions

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Research News

In a six-month study of more than 1,000 Americans, R. Kelly Garrett and Robert Bond found that U.S. conservatives were less able to distinguish truth from falsehoods in 20 viral political news stories that appeared online between January and July 2019. Differences in the political orientation of these stories may help explain this observation, the researchers note, writing that "we find that high-profile true political claims tend to promote issues and candidates favored by liberals, while falsehoods tend to be better for conservatives." Two-thirds (65%) of the high-profile true stories were characterized as benefiting the political left, compared with only 10% that were described as benefiting the political right. Among high-profile false stories, 45.8% were perceived to benefit the political right while 23.3% benefited the left. While there has been a widespread perception that U.S. conservatives are likely to believe in false political news, most research in this area has focused on a narrow set of "hot-button" issues such as climate change and weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Garrett and Bond sought to assess this idea systematically by measuring responses to a richer dataset of political information. They used a social media monitoring service to identify 10 true and 10 false viral political stories and asked the people in their study about their beliefs about those stories in 12 waves over the course of six months. The researchers then assigned 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk service to evaluate the political slant of these belief statements. The study found that conservatives' propensity to hold misperceptions is partially explained by the political implications of widely shared news; socially-engaging, truthful claims tended to favor the left, while engaging falsehoods disproportionately favored the right. "In such an environment, the belief accuracy of liberals and conservatives would be expected to diverge even if ideological bias is symmetrical," the authors say. "Collectively, these results underscore the importance of policies designed to ensure that news shared in the political information environment is reliable and factually accurate," Garrett and Bond conclude. They note several limitations of their study, including - as with studies before theirs - the inability to provide definitive evidence as to whether bias is ideologically asymmetrical.

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Conservatives more susceptible to believing falsehoods

Study finds news environment hurts ability to find truth

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Conservatives are less able to distinguish political truths from falsehoods than liberals, mainly because of a glut of right-leaning misinformation, a new national study conducted over six months shows.

Researchers found that liberals and conservatives in the United States both tended to believe claims that promoted their political views, but that this more often led conservatives to accept falsehoods while rejecting truths.

One of the main drivers of the findings appeared to be the American media and information environment.

"Both liberals and conservatives tend to make errors that are influenced by what is good for their side," said Kelly Garrett, co-author of the study and professor of communication at The Ohio State University.

"But the deck is stacked against conservatives because there is so much more misinformation that supports conservative positions. As a result, conservatives are more often led astray."

Garrett conducted the study with Robert Bond, associate professor of communication at Ohio State. Their results were published today (June 2, 2021) in the journal Science Advances.

The study involved 1,204 American adults who participated online between January and June 2019.

Every two weeks, the researchers identified viral political news stories, 10 true and 10 false, that received high social media engagement.

The researchers then asked participants to assess a series of 20 statements that were based on these stories. Participants labeled each one as true or false and indicated how confident they were in their label.

In the end, participants had evaluated as many as 240 statements on a broad range of topics and representing many different viewpoints.

A separate group of people, recruited online, were surveyed to determine whether the claims, if true, would be better for liberals or for conservatives, or if they were neutral.

Overall, both liberals and conservatives were more likely to believe stories that favored their side - whether they were true or not.

The differences in beliefs were often stark, Garrett said.

For example, participants rated this true statement that received widespread social media engagement when it came out: "Investigators for the DHS Office of the Inspector General have identified poor conditions in several Texas migrant facilities, including extreme overcrowding and serious health risks."

Results showed that 54% of Democrats correctly said that the statement was "definitely true" - compared to only 18% of Republicans.

Another statement - a false one - was "While serving as Sec. of State, Hillary Clinton colluded with Russia, selling 20% of the U.S. uranium supply to that country in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation."

Here, only 2% of Democrats said this was "definitely true," but 41% of Republicans did.

"These are important factual claims, yet we see vast partisan differences in belief," Garrett said.

One of the major issues identified in the study was that these widely shared truths and falsehoods have different implications for liberals and conservatives.

Two-thirds (65%) of the high-engagement true statements were characterized as benefiting liberals, while only 10% of accurate claims were considered beneficial to conservatives. On the other side, 46% of falsehoods were rated as advantageous to conservatives, compared to 23% of false claims benefiting liberals.

"We saw that viral political falsehoods tended to benefit conservatives, while truths tended to favor liberals. That makes it a lot harder for conservatives to avoid misperceptions," Garrett said.

Although the information environment was the primary reason conservatives were susceptible to misinformation, it may not be the only one.

Results showed that even when the information environment was taken into account, conservatives were slightly more likely to hold misperceptions than were liberals.

"It is difficult to say why that is," Garrett said. "We can't explain the finding with our data alone."

Results did show further distinctions between how conservatives and liberals approached the political claims in the viral stories they evaluated.

Liberals showed greater overall sensitivity, which characterizes an individual's ability to distinguish truths and falsehoods. Conservatives and liberals were equally good at detecting truths and falsehoods when most true stories were labeled politically neutral.

But if more of the factually accurate stories were labeled political - benefiting either liberal or conservative positions - liberals became better than conservatives at distinguishing true from false statements.

"Conservatives did not get any worse, but they did not keep up with liberals who were getting better at discerning truths and falsehoods," Garrett said.

Conservatives also showed a stronger "truth bias," meaning that they were more likely to say that all the claims they were asked about were true.

"That's a problem because some of the claims were outlandish - there should have been no ambiguity about whether they were true or not," he said.

Garrett said a strength of this study, compared to many previous ones, is that it analyzed a wide range of political claims, reflecting the diversity of the media environment that Americans are exposed to. It clearly confirms the point made by many media commentators that conservatives are awash in false statements that support what they want to believe.

"We show that the media environment is shaping people's ability to do this very basic, fundamental task. Democracy depends on people being able to tell the difference between what is true and false and it falters when people have difficulty agreeing on what's real," he said.

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Contact: Kelly Garrett, Garrett.258@osu.edu

Written by Jeff Grabmeier, 614-292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu

WATER IS LIFE

World's lakes losing oxygen rapidly as planet warms

Changes threaten biodiversity and drinking water quality

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Research News

 

IMAGE: OXYGEN LEVELS IN THE WORLD'S TEMPERATE FRESHWATER LAKES ARE DECLINING FASTER THAN IN THE OCEANS. view more 

CREDIT: GRETCHEN HANSEN, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

TROY, N.Y. -- Oxygen levels in the world's temperate freshwater lakes are declining rapidly -- faster than in the oceans -- a trend driven largely by climate change that threatens freshwater biodiversity and drinking water quality.

Research published today in Nature found that oxygen levels in surveyed lakes across the temperate zone have declined 5.5% at the surface and 18.6% in deep waters since 1980. Meanwhile, in a large subset of mostly nutrient-polluted lakes, surface oxygen levels increased as water temperatures crossed a threshold favoring cyanobacteria, which can create toxins when they flourish in the form of harmful algal blooms.

"All complex life depends on oxygen. It's the support system for aquatic food webs. And when you start losing oxygen, you have the potential to lose species," said Kevin Rose , author and professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. "Lakes are losing oxygen 2.75-9.3 times faster than the oceans, a decline that will have impacts throughout the ecosystem."

Researchers analyzed a combined total of over 45,000 dissolved oxygen and temperature profiles collected since 1941 from nearly 400 lakes around the globe. Most long-term records were collected in the temperate zone, which spans 23 to 66 degrees north and south latitude. In addition to biodiversity, the concentration of dissolved oxygen in aquatic ecosystems influences greenhouse gas emissions, nutrient biogeochemistry, and ultimately, human health.

Although lakes make up only about 3% of Earth's land surface, they contain a disproportionate concentration of the planet's biodiversity. Lead author Stephen F. Jane, who completed his Ph.D. with Rose, said the changes are concerning both for their potential impact on freshwater ecosystems and for what they suggest about environmental change in general.

"Lakes are indicators or 'sentinels' of environmental change and potential threats to the environment because they respond to signals from the surrounding landscape and atmosphere. We found that these disproportionally more biodiverse systems are changing rapidly, indicating the extent to which ongoing atmospheric changes have already impacted ecosystems," Jane said.

Watch a video about this research.

Although widespread losses in dissolved oxygen across the studied lakes are linked to climate change, the path between warming climate and changing freshwater oxygen levels is driven by different mechanisms between surface and deep waters.

Deoxygenation of surface waters was mostly driven by the most direct path: physics. As surface water temperatures increased by .38 degrees Centigrade per decade, surface water dissolved oxygen concentrations declined by .11 milligrams per liter per decade.

"Oxygen saturation, or the amount of oxygen that water can hold, goes down as temperatures go up. That's a known physical relationship and it explains most of the trend in surface oxygen that we see," said Rose.

However, some lakes experienced simultaneously increasing dissolved oxygen concentrations and warming temperatures. These lakes tended to be more polluted with nutrient-rich runoff from agricultural and developed watersheds and have high chlorophyll concentrations. Although the study did not include phytoplankton taxonomic measurements, warm temperatures and elevated nutrient content favor cyanobacteria blooms, whose photosynthesis is known to cause dissolved oxygen supersaturation in surface waters.

"The fact that we're seeing increasing dissolved oxygen in those types of lakes is potentially an indicator of widespread increases in algal blooms, some of which produce toxins and are harmful. Absent taxonomic data, however, we can't say that definitively, but nothing else we're aware of can explain this pattern," Rose said.

The loss of oxygen in deeper waters, where water temperatures have remained largely stable, follows a more complex path most likely tied to increasing surface water temperatures and a longer warm period each year. Warming surface waters combined with stable deep-water temperatures means that the difference in density between these layers, known as "stratification," is increasing. The stronger this stratification, the less likely mixing is to occur between layers. The result is that oxygen in deep waters is less likely to get replenished during the warm stratified season, as oxygenation usually comes from processes that occur near the water surface.

"The increase in stratification makes the mixing or renewal of oxygen from the atmosphere to deep waters more difficult and less frequent, and deep-water dissolved oxygen drops as a result," said Rose. Water clarity losses were also associated with deep-water dissolved oxygen losses in some lakes. However, there was no overarching decline in clarity across lakes.

Oxygen concentrations regulate many other characteristics of water quality. When oxygen levels decline, bacteria that thrive in environments without oxygen, such as those that produce the powerful greenhouse gas methane, begin to proliferate. This suggests the potential that lakes are releasing increased amounts of methane to the atmosphere as a result of oxygen loss. Additionally, sediments release more phosphorous under low oxygen conditions, adding nutrients to already stressed waters.

"Ongoing research has shown that oxygen levels are declining rapidly in the world's oceans. This study now proves that the problem is even more severe in fresh waters, threatening our drinking water supplies and the delicate balance that enables complex freshwater ecosystems to thrive," said Curt Breneman, dean of the School of Science. "We hope this finding brings greater urgency to efforts to address the progressively detrimental effects of climate change."

"Widespread deoxygenation of temperate lakes" was published with support from the National Science Foundation. Rose and Jane were joined by dozens of collaborators in GLEON, the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network, and based in universities, environmental consulting firms, and government agencies around the world.

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About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America's first technological research university. Rensselaer encompasses five schools, 32 research centers, more than 145 academic programs, and a dynamic community made up of more than 7,900 students and over 100,000 living alumni. Rensselaer faculty and alumni include more than 145 National Academy members, six members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six National Medal of Technology winners, five National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With nearly 200 years of experience advancing scientific and technological knowledge, Rensselaer remains focused on addressing global challenges with a spirit of ingenuity and collaboration. To learn more, please visit http://www.rpi.edu.

Dead zones formed repeatedly in North Pacific during warm climates, study finds

Over the past 1.2 million years, marine life was repeatedly extinguished in low-oxygen 'dead zones' in the North Pacific Ocean during warm interglacial climates

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA CRUZ

Research News

 

IMAGE: CREW MEMBERS ABROAD THE RESEARCH VESSEL JOIDES RESOLUTION DRILLED SEDIMENT CORES FROM THE SEAFLOOR IN THE BERING SEA DURING A 2009 IODP EXPEDITION ON WHICH UCSC OCEAN SCIENTIST CHRISTINA RAVELO... view more 

CREDIT: CARLOS ALVAREZ ZARIKIAN, IODP/TAMU

An analysis of sediment cores from the Bering Sea has revealed a recurring relationship between warmer climates and abrupt episodes of low-oxygen "dead zones" in the subarctic North Pacific Ocean over the past 1.2 million years.

The new study, led by researchers at UC Santa Cruz, was published June 2 in Science Advances. The findings provide crucial information for understanding the causes of low oxygen or "hypoxia" in the North Pacific and for predicting the occurrence of hypoxic conditions in the future.

"It is essential to understand whether climate change is pushing the oceans toward a 'tipping point' for abrupt and severe hypoxia that would destroy ecosystems, food sources, and economies," said first author Karla Knudson, who led the study as a graduate student in Earth sciences at UCSC.

The researchers based their findings on an analysis of deep sediment cores from a site in the Bering Sea. Over long periods of time, sediments are deposited and build up on the seafloor. The activity of organisms living in the seafloor sediments usually disrupts and mixes them as they accumulate, but if hypoxia has killed those organisms, an orderly pattern of layers is preserved. Thus, scientists can find a record of past hypoxic events in the form of these layered or "laminated" sediments in cores drilled from the seafloor.

Scientists have long known about a major episode of widespread hypoxia in the North Pacific at the end of the last ice age, when the melting of the ice sheets sent a massive influx of fresh water into the ocean. The new study provides the first records of earlier low-oxygen events, and shows that the most recent occurrence was not representative of most of these events in terms of mechanisms or timing.

"It doesn't take a huge perturbation like melting ice sheets for this to happen," said corresponding author Ana Christina Ravelo, professor of ocean sciences at UC Santa Cruz. "These abrupt hypoxic events are actually common in the geologic record, and they are not typically associated with deglaciation. They almost always happen during the warm interglacial periods, like the one we're in now."

The hypoxia occurs after intense growth of phytoplankton (marine algae) in the surface waters. When the phytoplankton die, they sink deeper into the ocean and decompose, which depletes the oxygen and releases carbon dioxide into the water below the surface. What triggers these events, however, remains unclear. Ocean warming, high sea levels, and the availability of iron (a limiting factor for growth of phytoplankton) all seem to play a role.

"Our study shows that high sea levels, which occur during warm interglacial climates, contributed to these hypoxic events," Knudson said. "During high sea levels, dissolved iron from the flooded continental shelves can be transferred to the open ocean and promote intense phytoplankton growth in the surface waters."

Although high sea level is an important background condition, it is not enough to trigger a hypoxic event by itself. Changes in ocean circulation, including intensified upwelling to bring more nutrients into the surface waters and stronger currents that could transfer iron from the continental shelf to the open ocean, may play a critical role, Knudson said.

Currently, regional dead zones occur in coastal areas around the world due to the temperature effects of climate warming, as well as nutrient enrichment of coastal waters from agricultural fertilizers. But even the massive dead zone at the mouth of the Mississippi River pales in comparison to the widespread hypoxia that occurred all across the North Pacific Ocean at the end of the last ice age.

Because the new study is based on sediment cores from a single site, the researchers do not know the extent of the dead zones it records--whether they were confined to the Bering Sea or extended across the North Pacific rim as the most recent event did.

"We don't know how extensive they were, but we do know they were very intense and lasted longer than the deglaciation event that has been so well studied," said Ravelo, who was co-chief scientist of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 323, which recovered the Bering Sea cores in 2009.

Knudson said the cores record multiple events during each interglacial period throughout the Pleistocene, with abrupt transitions where laminated sediments appear and disappear in the core.

The new findings raise concerns about whether climate change and ocean warming will lead to a tipping point that would trigger widespread hypoxia in the North Pacific Ocean.

"The system is primed for this type of event happening," Ravelo said. "We need to know how extensive they were, and we need to rethink how these events are triggered, because we now know that it doesn't take a huge perturbation. This study sets the stage for a lot of follow-up work."

CAPTION

Sediment cores from the Bering Sea hold a record of past low-oxygen events in the form of layered or "laminated" sediments.

CREDIT

IODP

In addition to Knudson and Ravelo, the coauthors of the paper include Ivano Aiello at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, Christina Knudson at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, Michelle Drake at UC Santa Cruz, and Tatsuhiko Sakamoto at Mie University in Japan

#BANFLARING

Mapping intermittent methane emissions across the Permian Basin

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

Research News

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS HAVE MAPPED LARGE, INTERMITTENT SOURCES OF METHANE EMISSIONS (SHOWN FLARING HERE) ACROSS THE PERMIAN BASIN. view more 

CREDIT: LESLIE VON PLESS/ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND (EDF)

The Permian Basin, located in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico, is the largest oil- and gas-producing region in the U.S. The oilfield operations emit methane, but quantifying the greenhouse gas is difficult because of the large area and the fact that many sources are intermittent emitters. Now, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology Letters have conducted an extensive airborne campaign with imaging spectrometers and identified large methane sources across this area.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 38% of the nation's total oil and 17% of natural gas production took place in the Permian Basin in 2020. Therefore, quantifying emissions from these operations, which continue to expand rapidly, is of great interest to environmental scientists. Previous studies have tried to estimate methane leakage in the Permian Basin through satellite images or mobile field studies, but either the spatial resolution was too coarse to quantify methane coming from individual sources, or the studies were limited to small areas or timeframes. So Daniel Cusworth and colleagues from the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the University of Arizona and Arizona State University formed a collaboration. They wanted to quantify strong methane point source emissions (greater than 22-44 pounds of methane per hour) in the Permian Basin using airborne imaging spectrometry, a technology that would allow high-resolution mapping of those sources across large areas and multiple overflights.

From September to November 2019, the researchers conducted repeated flights in airplanes carrying imaging spectrometers, covering about 21,000 square miles and 60,000 active wells in the Permian Basin. The spectrometers detected 1,100 unique large methane point sources that were sampled at least three times. Most of these sources were highly intermittent (detected 25% or fewer of the times sampled). However, sources that were routinely persistent (detected 50-100% of the time) comprised 11% of the methane emitters but 29% of the total detected emissions, possibly indicating leaking equipment that needs repair. Half of the detected methane came from oil and gas production wells, 38% from pipelines and other equipment used to collect and transport oil and gas, and 12% from processing plants. These results show that frequent, high-resolution monitoring is necessary to understand intermittent methane emitters across large areas and to pinpoint persistent leaks for mitigation, the researchers say.

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The authors acknowledge funding from NASA, the University of Arizona, Carbon Mapper Inc. and the High Tide Foundation.

The paper's abstract will be available on June 2 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00173

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS' mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world's scientific knowledge. ACS' main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

 

Acoustic solutions made from natural fibers can reduce buildings' carbon footprints

Aalto University researchers discovered that wood-based pulp fibers are also well-suited for making acoustic materials

AALTO UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: IN HIS RESEARCH, CUCHARERO MODELLED THE EFFECT OF ACOUSTIC SOLUTIONS ON THE SOUNDSCAPE OF THREE DIFFERENT SPACES. ONE EXAMPLE OF THE EFFECTS OF ACOUSTICS BASED ON CELLULOSE FIBRES IS THE... view more 

CREDIT: MIKKO RASKINEN/AALTO UNIVERSITY

Good acoustics in the workspace improve work efficiency and productivity, which is one of the reasons why acoustic materials matter. The acoustic insulation market is already expected to hit 15 billion USD by 2022 as construction firms and industry pay more attention to sound environments. Researchers at Aalto University, in collaboration with Finnish acoustics company Lumir, have now studied how these common elements around us could become more eco-friendly, with the help of cellulose fibres.

'Models for acoustic absorption are based on tests done with synthetic fibres, and natural fibres don't adhere to these models. With natural fibres like cellulose, we can use thinner structures to achieve the same sound absorption as synthetic fibres,' says Jose Cucharero, a doctoral student at Aalto University.

Cucharero's research explores the effect of natural fibres' properties on sound absorption and how these fibres can be used in room acoustics. Synthetic fibres, such as fibreglass and rockwool, are uniform in quality. Cellulose fibres have a complex structure with natural irregularities, which can be an asset for absorbing sound indoors. The origin of fibres also seems to matter: his research has found that hardwood fibres absorb sound better than softwood fibres. Based on the research, this can be attributed to the smaller dimensions of the hardwood fibres.

In addition to their excellent acoustic properties, cellulose fibres also have positive environmental impacts compared to traditional acoustic materials. The production of cellulose fibres is considerably more energy-efficient, and the fibres also absorb significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Using the fibre in construction materials is an effective way to store carbon: buildings last for decades, unlike single-use packaging and paper where cellulose is typically used.

'Acoustics solutions based on cellulose fibres can be applied to a wide range of facilities. For example, acoustic sprays -- which can be used on any surface to create a porous, sound-absorbing layer -- can significantly improve the comfort of buildings under renovation without changing their visual appearance,' Cucharero says.

Research results are already used in product development

Alongside his doctoral dissertation, Jose Cucharero works at Lumir Oy, which produces acoustic solutions in line with the principles of the circular economy. The results of the dissertation are used in the development of new cellulose-based acoustics solutions, and the study has been rapidly applied in product development.

The commercial perspective is also complemented by tests that ensure the products' scalable manufacturing and fire resistance. Based on the results, an industrially scalable process has been developed for the production of acoustic panels based on cellulose fibres.

'Governments around the world have set out to become carbon neutral. We can't achieve this by simply reducing emissions; we need to also absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in products.' , says Lumir's R&D Director Tuomas Hänninen, Doctor of Technology and Jose Cucharero's thesis advisor.

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Findings have been most recently published in Frontiers of Built Environment and Cellulose.

 

Study of UK dental professionals shows extent of occupational risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Research News

 

A University of Birmingham-led study of over a thousand dental professionals has shown their increased occupational risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection during the first wave of the pandemic in the UK.

The observational cohort study, published today (3 June 2021), in the Journal of Dental Research, involved 1,507 Midland dental care practitioners. Blood samples were taken from the cohort at the start of the study in June 2020 to measure their levels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

The team found 16.3% of study participants - which included dentists, dental nurses and dental hygienists - had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, compared to just 6% of the general population at the time. Meanwhile, the percentage of dental practice receptionists, who have no direct patient contact, with SARS-CoV-2 antibodies was comparable to the general population, supporting the hypothesis that occupational risk arose from close exposure to patients.

The study also found ethnicity was also a significant risk factor for infection, with 35% of Black participants and 18.8% of Asian participants having SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, compared to 14.3% of white participants.

Blood samples were taken from participants three months later, in September 2020, when dental practices in England had re-opened with enhanced PPE and infection control measures in place, and once again in January 2021, six months after the start of the study, during the second wave of the pandemic when healthcare workers were being vaccinated.

The results showed that of those who had previous COVID-19 infection, over 70% continued to have SARS-CoV-2 antibodies both at three months and six months later, and they were at a 75% reduced risk of re-infection with the virus.

The study also demonstrated the immunological impact of COVID-19 vaccination, with 97.7% of those without previous infection developing an antibody response at least 12 days after their first Pfizer vaccine. In those with evidence of previous infection, the antibody response was more rapid and higher in magnitude after a single dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Furthermore, none of the cohort with a level of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies greater than 147.6 IU/ml in their blood tested positive for COVID-19 throughout the six-month period from the first to the final blood tests.

First author Dr Adrian Shields, of the University of Birmingham's Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy, said: "Understanding what an antibody test result means to an individual with respect to their risk of infection is essential to controlling the pandemic.

"Our study has taken the first steps in defining the level of antibody in a persons' blood necessary to protect them from infection for six months. Furthermore, by comparing the antibody levels we have found in dentists to those contained in widely available reference material produced by the World Health Organization, we hope the protective level we found can be easily confirmed and compared by other laboratories."

Corresponding author Professor Thomas Dietrich, of the University of Birmingham's School of Dentistry, adds: "Critically, only 5.3% of the cohort developed an antibody response that exceeded this threshold of 147.6 IU/ml following the first wave of the UK pandemic. This suggests that natural infection alone is unlikely to generate meaningful, durable herd immunity."

Co-corresponding author Iain Chapple, Professor of Periodontology at the University of Birmingham and Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at Birmingham Community Healthcare Trust, adds: "Dental professionals are thought to be at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 because they routinely operate within patients' aerodigestive tract and regularly carry out aerosol-generating procedures that result in the production of airborne particles.

"Through our research, we have clearly shown that dental professionals were at increased occupational risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2 prior to the new PHE guidance on PPE. The occupational health measures that have been put in place in general dental practice as a consequence of COVID-19 appear to remove that increased risk, however, this will need to be thoroughly investigated to see if they have successfully interrupted transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory viruses."

Co-corresponding author Professor Alex Richter, also of the University of Birmingham, said: "This is the first time the occupational risk of exposure to a potentially fatal respiratory virus has been studied in a large dental cohort.

"It is important that we now progress our research to ensure we have an understanding of how people are protected from re-infection with COVID-19 following natural infection and vaccination.

"The nature and duration of immunity in these cohorts will be critical to understand as the COVID-19 pandemic progresses, particularly with respect to the efficacy of vaccination strategies -single-dose, multiple-doses, vaccine combinations - and in relation to novel viral variants of concern."

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Notes for Editors

• Shields et al (06, 2021). 'COVID-19: Seroprevalence and Vaccine Responses in UK Dental Care Professionals'. Journal of Dental Research.
• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions, and its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 6,500 international students from nearly 150 countries.

 

Astronomers discover a massive star cluster, of intermediate age, in the constellation Scutum

INSTITUTO DE ASTROFÍSICA DE CANARIAS (IAC)

VIDEO: OPEN STAR CLUSTER VALPARAÍSO 1 view more 

CREDIT: GABRIEL PÉREZ DÍAZ, SMM (IAC).

An international team of astrophysicists led by the Stellar Astrophysics Group of the University of Alicante (UA), the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), and the University of Valparaíso (Chile) has discovered a massive cluster of stars of intermediate age in the direction of the Scutum constellation. This object, which has been named Valparaíso 1, lies some seven thousand light years away from the Sun, and contains at least fifteen thousand stars. To detect it, observations have been combined from ESA's Gaia satellite, and various ground-based telescopes, including the Isaac Newton Telescope at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma, Canary Islands). The result has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).

Open clusters are groups of stars which were born together, and move together, bound by gravity. This makes them natural laboratories for studying the physics and the lives of stars. The more stars there are in a cluster, the more useful it is, because the larger sample gives a better chance to find stars in less frequent evolutionary phases.

This is why astronomers are searching for the most massive clusters in our Galaxy, those with over ten thousand stars. Until twenty years ago it was thought that these are formed only in distant galaxies with exotic properties, but thanks to these searches now we know a dozen very young massive clusters (less than 25 million years old), and a few very old ones (thousands of millions of years old), which are descendants of former young clusters. But there are hardly any massive clusters known with intermediate ages, and it was not clear whether these do not exist, or whether they had not yet been found.

The newly discovered cluster, which they have called Valparaíso 1, is at some seven thousand light years from the sun, and contains at least fifteen thousand stars. Its unexpected discovery, in a well-explored part of the sky, suggests than many other massive clusters might be hidden in the very dense star fields, which observers find when looking towards the centre of our Galaxy.

"Valparaíso 1 contains dozens of stars sufficiently bright to be observable through an amateur telescope, but they are lost in the middle of a crowd of stars which don't belong to the cluster, but which are in front of it or behind it, and which disguise the structure of the cluster", explains Ignacio Negueruela, a researcher at the University of Alicante and the first author of the article.

"Previous searches tried to locate open clusters, but Valparaíso 1 does not look like a cluster similar to those which we usually find, and that is why it was not discovered before", says Ricardo Dorda, an IAC researcher who is a co-author of the article.

The cluster was detectable thanks to the Gaia satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA), a space telescope which gives extremely accurate positions and distances of stars quite far away, and with this information we can measure the tiny motions across the sky shown by the stars over the years. Combining all of the information, we can detect clusters as groups of stars, which are at the same distance from us, and move together, groups of stars easier to detect using physics than just by looking at them on the sky. When the researchers had located this cluster, they used telescopes at the Las Campanas Observatory (in Chile) and the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT) at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma, Canary Islands) to derive the physical properties of its stars.

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Article: I. Negueruela, A-N. Chené, H. M. Tabernero, R. Dorda, J. Borissova, A. Marco, R. Kurtev, "A massive open cluster hiding in full sight". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, April 24, 2021. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1117