Wednesday, August 11, 2021

150% SUGARS AND 50% PLASTICS

Ultraprocessed foods now comprise 2/3

of calories in children and teen diets

sugary snacks — Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

The calories that children and adolescents consumed from ultraprocessed foods jumped from 61% to 67% of total caloric intake from 1999 to 2018, according to a new study from researchers at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University. Published August 10, 2021, in JAMA, the study analyzed dietary intake from 33,795 children and adolescents nationwide.

"Some whole grain breads and dairy foods are ultraprocessed, and they're healthier than other ultraprocessed foods. Processing can keep food fresher longer, allows for food fortification and enrichment, and enhances consumer convenience," said senior and corresponding author Fang Fang Zhang, nutrition epidemiologist at the Friedman School. "But many ultraprocessed foods are less healthy, with more sugar and salt, and less fiber, than unprocessed and minimally processed foods, and the increase in their consumption by children and teenagers is concerning."

The largest spike in calories came from such ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat dishes as takeout and frozen pizza and burgers: from 2.2% to 11.2% of calories. The second largest spike in calories came from packaged sweet snacks and desserts, the consumption of which grew from 10.6% to 12.9%.

There was a larger increase in the consumption of ultraprocessed foods among non-Hispanic Blacks (10.3%) and Mexican Americans (7.6%) than non-Hispanic Whites (5.2%). Trends in other racial/ethnic groups were not assessed due to lack of sufficient data that allow for nationally representative estimates across survey cycles.

There were no statistically significant differences in the overall findings by parental education and family income. "The lack of disparities based on parental education and family income indicates that ultraprocessed foods are pervasive in children's diets," said Zhang. "This finding supports the need for researchers to track trends in food consumption more fully, taking into account consumption of ultraprocessed foods."

Over the study period, calories from often healthier unprocessed or minimally processed foods decreased from 28.8% to 23.5%. The remaining percentage of calories came from moderately processed foods such as cheese and canned fruits and vegetables, and consumer-added flavor enhancers such as sugar, honey, maple syrup, and butter.

There was good news: Calories from sugar-sweetened beverages dropped from 10.8% to 5.3% of overall calories, a 51% drop.

"This finding shows the benefits of the concerted campaign over the past few years to reduce overall consumption of sugary drinks," said Zhang. "We need to mobilize the same energy and level of commitment when it comes to other unhealthy ultraprocessed foods such as cakes, cookies, doughnuts and brownies."

"In additional analyses, we compared the composition of ultraprocessed foods to non-ultra processed foods using data from the 2017-2018 period. We found that ultraprocessed foods contain a substantially higher percent of calories from carbohydrates and added sugars, and higher levels of sodium, but also had less fiber and a lower percentage of calories from protein," said the study's first author, Lu Wang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedman School.

"Food processing is an often-overlooked dimension in nutrition research. We may need to consider that ultraprocessing of some foods may be associated with health risks, independent of the poor nutrient profile of ultraprocessed foods generally," concluded Zhang.

Ultraprocessed Foods

Ultraprocessed foods are ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat items often high in added sugar, sodium, and carbohydrates, and low in fiber, protein, vitamins, and minerals. They typically contain added sugars, hydrogenated oils, and flavor enhancers. Examples include packaged sweet snacks and desserts, sugary breakfast cereals, French fries, fast food burgers, and some lunchmeats such as bologna and salami. When consumed in excess, these foods are linked with diabetes, obesity, and other serious medical conditions, such as certain cancers.

Methodology

This new study is part of a series led by Friedman School researchers investigating patterns and trends in diet quality among U.S. adults and children. The study characterized trends in ultraprocessed food consumption among U.S. children aged 2-19 years from 1999 to 2018, overall and among population subgroups, using data from 10 consecutive cycles of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). It further assessed major ultraprocessed food subgroups consumed by U.S. children in the latest cycle of NHANES (2017-2018) and associated nutrient profiles. The average age of participants was 10.7 years and was roughly equally divided between boys and girls. It relied on 24-hour dietary recall interviews conducted by trained personnel; older children and teens directly reported on the foods they ate while parents and caregivers did so for younger children. The percentage of calories consumed by participants was determined using the NOVA food classification system developed by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Breaking down calories

More information: Trends in Consumption of Ultraprocessed Foods Among US Youths Aged 2-19 Years, 1999-2018, JAMA (2021). jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/ … 1001/jama.2021.10238

Journal information: Journal of the American Medical Association

Provided by Tufts University

‘Heartbreaking’: Calgary bee habitat, volunteer project mowed down

By Adam Toy Global News
Posted August 10, 2021

WATCH: Some hardworking Calgary volunteers are heartbroken and devastated after the destruction of their community project. As Gil Tucker reports, they’re now asking for help getting to the bottom of it, as they hunt for a man with a mower.

Countless hours of volunteer work over the past three years was wiped out Monday after a boulevard was mowed down.

“It was starting to get to the point where all the flowers were showing and it was nice to walk by,” said Moraig McCabe, Coventry Hills resident and Creating Coventry founder.

The two-block stretch of Coventry Hills Way N.E. near Nose Creek School is one of two “bee boulevards,” a specialized corridor containing native grasses, flowers and shrubs that are salt tolerant and drought resistant. Rather than be conventionally attractive for curb appeal, they’re meant to attract native pollinators.

Volunteers with Creating Coventry had been tending to the slivers of land in the road medians for years, starting with planting, watering and weeding. The native roses, grasses, yarrow and other plants can take some time to establish.

Both the city and the community volunteer group had signs up along the stretch, some of which read “Nature at work,” with pictures of bees and an explanation on why the median was being grown out with native plants.

“It says ‘No mowing.’ It’s very clear,” volunteer gardener Nikki Pike told Global News.

Monday evening, all that work was razed to the ground.

“We know that from a witness, someone had taken the signs out, mowed it down, and then put the signs back up,” Pike said. “So we know they saw the signs.”
CLICK TO SHARE QUOTE ON TWITTER: "WE KNOW THAT FROM A WITNESS, SOMEONE HAD TAKEN THE SIGNS OUT, MOWED IT DOWN, AND THEN PUT THE SIGNS BACK UP," PIKE SAID. "SO WE KNOW THEY SAW THE SIGNS."

Pike said the volunteer group has dashcam video and are doing some “sleuthing” to try to find the culprit. They confirmed it wasn’t an errant city mower, and have informed bylaw and parks, which are also looking into the incident.

“It’s so heartbreaking. It’s so much work down the drain,” Pike said. “It really was a community effort and we’d like to know how and why this happened.”

1:42Barrage of big bees could be a good sign in AlbertaBarrage of big bees could be a good sign in Alberta – Jun 2, 2021

On top of the untold hours of community effort, the creation and maintenance of the bee boulevard in the city’s north-central neighbourhood cost about $10,000 from city coffers.

McCabe said the idea of creating a habitat friendly to bees came from community consultations in 2017.

“They wanted to save the butterflies and the bees,” McCabe told Global News. “At the time, the city was piloting places to naturalize spaces. We looked and these two medians looked prime because they were full of dandelions and no grass.”

Another bee boulevard exists in Canyon Meadows.

Calgary was named Canada’s 36th bee city, recognizing the city’s commitment to protecting pollinators.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N., bees and other pollinators play an important, but often underappreciated, role in ecosystems that include green vegetation.

“Many species of plants and animals would not survive if bees were missing,” an FAO report reads.

An estimated 80 per cent of flowering plants require pollinators in order to reproduce, the FAO said, and honeybees originally developed in forests.

According to the U.N. body, improving the number and diversity of pollinators can boost crop yields, too.

McCabe said the pollinator corridor also served as a way to educate citizens about the important role pollinators like bees, birds and bats play in an ecosystem.

“We need pollinators. Alberta is an agricultural province — we need bees to keep our province going.”

#BDS #BOYCOTTISRAEL #FREEPALESTINE
Ben And Jerry’s Taps Beinart to Defend Israel Boycott to Franchisees
By Adam Kredo - 2 Elul 5781 – August 10, 2021 0

Photo Credit: Joe Mabel / Wikimedia

Peter Beinart: The "pundit" at work

Ben & Jerry’s brought in vocal Israel critic and anti-Zionist author Peter Beinart to talk to its store owners about Israel’s “illegal occupation” earlier this week, after franchisees raised concerns about the company’s boycott of the Jewish state, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

On the conference call with Ben & Jerry’s franchisees and store managers, Beinart argued that Israel is illegally occupying territory that it seized from Jordan in an offensive war in 1967 and claimed that the Jewish state sends soldiers into Palestinian villages to abduct minors, according to a source familiar with the content of the call.

The company’s decision to invite Beinart—an advocate for the Israel boycott movement who has called for the abolition of the Jewish state—to address insider objections indicates that it is doubling down on its criticism of Israel in the face of internal and external fallout. Thirty Ben & Jerry’s franchise store owners recently sent a letter to the company, which is owned by Unilever, asking it to “re-examine and withdraw” its boycott decision. Unilever has responded with reassurances that the company remains committed to doing business in the Jewish state even as its subsidiary continues its boycott.

Beinart told the Washington Free Beacon that he was not compensated by Ben & Jerry’s or Unilever and has no financial arrangement with either company. He said he was invited to speak on the call because he has publicly promoted boycotts of contested areas of Israel.

“I wrote a NYT op-ed calling for settlement boycott in 2012. I’ve espoused this view for a long time,” said Beinart.

Beinart said he could not recall if the descriptions of his comments during the call were “entirely accurate,” and said it was “very unlikely I said ‘offensive war’ given how I generally speak about 1967.” He declined to provide additional details about his remarks.

The ice cream company sent a memo to franchisees inviting them to “join us for a learning opportunity and respectful discussion with author and Middle East expert, Peter Beinart.”

Beinart recently disclosed in his newsletter that he has “spoken privately to [Ben & Jerry’s] executives and encouraged their efforts” on the boycott campaign, adding that “no one has produced any independent evidence that the company is hostile to Jews.”

Beinart was one of the most prominent supporters of the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq while serving as the editor of an unapologetically Zionist New Republic in the early 2000s. In the years since, he has offered countless apologies and repositioned himself as a leading critic of Israel and Zionism, landing a New York Times column in the process. Beinart now calls Israel an apartheid state and says that the pro-Israel community silences and intimidates critics.

In July 2020, Beinart took his criticism of Israel to new heights when he penned an editorial stating, “I no longer believe in a Jewish state”—a position that is shared by those who want to see Israel destroyed, including Palestinian terror groups.

Ben & Jerry’s did not respond to a request for comment. Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, did not respond to a request for comment.

Concerned franchisees of the ice cream company recently sent a letter to Ben & Jerry’s leadership asking them to reconsider the decision to halt product sales in the West Bank, arguing that it “not only distorts the situation on the ground—it has imposed, and will to continue to impose, substantial financial costs on all of us.”

The company has also faced backlash from state and local governments over its decision. Florida placed Ben & Jerry’s on a list of “scrutinized” companies earlier this month, and Maryland is reviewing its state contracts with the ice cream maker.

{Reposted from the Washington Free Beacon}

Corruption in Chicago before and during Prohibition varied based on time, position, and context

by American Society of Criminology

organized crime — Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Corruption occurs when individuals criminally leverage their positions of power for financial gain. A new study examines how corruption varied by position of power and within criminal contexts by measuring the actions of corrupt players in Chicago before and during Prohibition. The study found that corruption by politicians, law enforcement, and others in organized crime varied by timeline (i.e., before and during Prohibition); the context of the crime; and individuals' position and depth of involvement.

The study, by researchers at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis) and the University of Toronto (UofT), appears in Criminology, a publication of the American Society of Criminology.

"We found that everyday corruption was more frequent but less deeply embedded in corruption when criminal contexts were only moderately profitable," explains Jared Joseph, a Ph.D. candidate in the sociology department at UC Davis, who coauthored the study. "However, as criminal contexts increased in profitability during Prohibition, corruption moved up the political ladder to include fewer people who were more deeply involved."

The connection between corruption and organized crime is well established in criminology, but studies on the topic have focused on the biggest players, with less attention to involvement by people in smaller roles. In this study, researchers compared Chicago's organized crime network before Prohibition (1900-1919) to during Prohibition (1920-1933) to examine how the composition of corruption and the depth of individuals' involvement changed when organized crime grew in size and centralized in power.

Data for the study came from the Capone Database, which includes archival material from the Chicago Crime Commission and other historical entities. The database is among the largest and most detailed relational databases on organized crime in Chicago; this study—the first to use the database to examine how embedded corruption was—measured organized crime as the largest component of criminal relationships before and during Prohibition.

In the pre-Prohibition period, Chicago's organized crime network consisted of 267 individuals with 789 criminal relationships among them. During Prohibition, the network grew considerably, totaling 937 individuals with 3,250 criminal relationships among them, according to the study.

The researchers found that before Prohibition, more police were involved in organized crime than politicians, but the small group of politicians who were involved were more deeply embedded. During Prohibition, as the content, structure, and profitability of corruption changed, members of law enforcement engaging in crime decreased in proportion, dropping from 14 percent to 2.6 percent; they also became less embedded in organized crime and their positions were more randomly distributed. In contrast, politicians maintained their proportion (5 percent) in the organized crime network and also remained deeply embedded.

The study concluded that the larger and more profitable the criminal organization, the more likely corruption would involve fewer people who were more deeply embedded, and include individuals higher on the ladder of political influence.

One limitation of the study, the authors note, is that the Capone Database includes only known, recorded, preserved incidents of Chicago organized crime activity, and as such, may include inaccuracies and misinformation.

"Using public positions for personal gain is not a new phenomenon, but it is usually kept in the shadows of backroom deals and unexplained campaign contributions," notes Chris M. Smith, assistant professor of sociology at the UofT, the study's coauthor. "A fuller understanding of the mechanisms that allow illegal enterprises to flourish has implications for combating organized crime, corruption, and their overlap."

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation as well as the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice.

Beyond Goodfellas and The Godfather: the Cosa Nostra families' rise and fall

More information: The Ties That Bribe: Corruption's Embeddedness in Chicago Organized Crime, Criminology (2021)

.Journal information: Criminology

Provided by American Society of Criminology

The digital ban on political ads: Only the small guys got hurt

by Duke University School of Nursing

vote — Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

At a critical time in the days before election day in 2020, several digital platforms—including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Amazon, Spotify, and TikTok—and other key digital platforms took the exceptional step of banning political ads. These policy changes were intended to prevent the spread of misinformation.

The effort was announced to wide acclaim at the time, but a new report by the Duke Center on Science & Technology Policy is casting a skeptical eye on what the policy actually accomplished. The report was authored by Matt Perault, the director of the Center on Science & Technology Policy, and J. Scott Babwah Brennen, a senior policy associate.

The report, "The Only People Who Got Hurt Were the Small Guys: Assessing Winners and Losers from the 2020 Platform Political Ad Bans," finds that the ad bans failed in their goal of slowing the spread of misinformation and even hurt poorer campaigns and Democrats more than wealthier campaigns and Republicans.

The report found that:

There is little evidence that either Facebook's or Google's bans meaningfully reduced the impact of misinformation. In fact, the bans may have been counterproductive by making it harder for committees to address misleading organic content.
The bans likely hurt poorer campaigns more than wealthier ones. Both bans required innovation in ad spending that benefited wealthier campaigns.
The bans likely hurt Democrats more than Republicans.

"Looking forward to the 2022 midterms, it is essential that we understand better how these policy experiments impacted campaigns in the 2020 election," Brennen said.

The authors said the study is an example of the importance of studying the effects of policy experiments during the 2020 elections, noting how they can help us understand how shifts in platform political ads policies can influence elections.

The impact on small campaigns was noticed by the candidates, the report said. One North Carolina candidate said the companies "made all of their decisions only thinking of big, expensive national attention type of campaigns. And when they did that, they gave no consideration whatsoever for small campaigns, which is the vast majority of campaigns going on across the country during an election. That's who got held back. They were never even considered when the rules were put in place."

Another candidate told the authors, "The only people that got held up [by Facebook's ad ban] were people who couldn't afford to hire people or didn't have the volunteer base that I ended up getting. So again, the only people that got hurt were the small guys."

The report, the second in a series of briefs by the center studying the impact of political ad bans, offers five policy recommendations, including that digital platforms should resume running political ads, platforms should provide advertisers with more time and resources to navigate political ads policy changes, and calling for enactment of legislation criminalizing the dissemination of political misinformation with the intent of suppressing the vote.

Report builds framework for 'digital political ethics' in 2020

More information: Policy brief: scienceandsociety.duke.edu/wor … STPBrief_PPAB_V8.pdf

Provided by Duke University School of Nursing

Black Lives Matter in Europe: What remains of the movement?

by Chemnitz University of Technology

The violent death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, sparked protests across the U.S. that soon after spilled over into Europe and other regions of the world. Under the slogan "Black Lives Matter" (BLM), a worldwide protest movement formed after Floyd's death to demonstrate against racism and police violence. How did the protests form in Europe? Who were the organizers in the countries, and what remains of the movement—especially after the conviction of Floyd's murderer?

An international research team with participation from Chemnitz University of Technology has studied and compared the scope, form, and resonance of BLM protests in Germany, Italy, Denmark, and Poland. Part of the team was Dr. Piotr Kocyba, research assistant at the Professorship for Central and Eastern European Studies at Chemnitz University of Technology. Kocyba conducted research in Poland for this study.

The researchers show different characteristics and emphases of the protests in the countries studied. In addition, they conclude that the BLM protest wave mobilized new activists and gave rise to new organizations. In addition, they say, the issues of racism and police violence have become more prominent in the public's mind. Still, BLM in Europe is still at the beginning, he said.

The results of the study have been published in the DeZIM Research Note series with the title "Black Lives Matter in Europe—Transnational Diffusion, Local Translation, and Resonance of Anti-Racist Protest in Germany, Italy, Denmark, and Poland" and are available online. The study was conducted for the German Center for Integration and Migration Research DeZIM e. V., which is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women, and Youth (BMFSFJ).

Particularly large rallies in Germany and Denmark

The data collected was based on newspaper reports and interviews with organizers of the protests. This revealed similarities in the form of the protests, which were often organized by young Black and People of Color (PoC) activists. It was also noticeable that they rarely had protest experience or connections to established social movements. However, there were also striking differences in the size and geographic distribution as well as the orientation of the protests.

Accordingly, the rallies have been particularly large in Germany, with a focus on Berlin and Munich, but also in Denmark. In Italy, there have been the most protests. Thus, about 200,000 people in Germany had participated in more than 80 rallies between the end of May and the end of July 2020.

Moreover, the protests were driven by solidarity with the movement in the United States. However, the basic themes were each "translated" into a specific local context.

Dealing with racism in one's own country—refugees less in focus at BLM protests in Germany than in Italy or Denmark

For example, the BLM protests represented a turning point for the racism debate in Germany. The protests have raised awareness here that racism is about more than individual prejudices or even right-wing extremist ideologies—but that it is also a structural problem. In addition, there has been a positive response to the protests, in part because PoC activists were able to speak out publicly for the first time.

Basically, in the course of the BLM protests, Germany also dealt extensively with racism in its own country. In Germany, however, there was little or no discussion of the situation of refugees, who were one of the main focuses of the protests in Italy and Denmark.

Domestic political disputes are the main focus in Poland

Dr. Piotr Kocyba experienced a different situation in Poland, which was the focus of his research. According to him, there were clear differences in the composition of the protesters here in comparison. While in Germany more young black women became active, in Poland it was mainly white activists who took to the streets.

In general, the BLM protest wave in Poland was overshadowed by internal political disputes, which also explain the comparatively low level of mobilization. For example, there were only 17 BLM protests in Poland, in which a total of only about 7,000 people participated.

Another specific feature in Poland was the presidential elections, which took place during the international BLM protest wave. In the course of these, the re-elected president Andrzej Duda increasingly put forward homophobic content. Because of this, the focus of protests in Poland has increasingly shifted. This has led progressive activists to advocate primarily for the rights of the LGBTIQ+ community during the BLM Summer 2020 in Poland.

BLM protests in Europe—breakthrough of a new movement?

The BLM Summer 2020 protest wave mobilized new activists, gave rise to new organizations, and made the issues of racism and police violence the focus of public debates. Also, in Germany, for example, with the Cabinet Committee to Combat Right-Wing Extremism and Racism, the first concrete political successes can be recorded. "Nevertheless, the BLM movement is at its very beginning," says Piotr Kocyba. "Under the difficult conditions of the pandemic, people have managed to network and draw public attention to their own concerns. But whether it will have a lasting effect, in other words, whether individual BLM movements will be able to establish and develop in the various European societies, remains to be seen." This exciting question will be pursued in a follow-up project that will allow for a more intensive as well as longer-term investigation of European BLM movements. A consortium to this end is currently being established.

Do black lives matter protests impact fatal police interactions and crime?

More information: Study results: www.dezim-institut.de/fileadmi … _RZ_210702_web-1.pdf

Provided by Chemnitz University of Technology

Black offenders more likely than white offenders to be eligible for life sentences, study finds

by American Society of Criminology

Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is one of the most distinctive and least studied aspects of the U.S. criminal justice system. A new study analyzed seven years of federal sentencing data to investigate the associations between life sentences in federal courts and race/ethnicity. The study found that Black and Hispanic offenders were more likely to be eligible for life sentences under federal sentencing guidelines but not more likely to receive life sentences.

The study, by researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) and Arizona State University (ASU), appears in Criminology.

"Two out of three people serving life terms are defendants of color, and some believe that life sentences are fraught with racial bias," notes Brian D. Johnson, professor of criminology and criminal justice at the UMD, who led the study. "If there are racial disparities in this type of sentencing, we must investigate the mechanisms that contribute to them."

Johnson and his colleagues analyzed data on more than 366,000 non-immigration offenders convicted and sentenced in 90 federal district courts from 2010 to 2017. They considered the demographic and legal factors associated with eligibility for life sentences, as well as the factors that shape judicial decisions to impose such sentences. They also examined intermediate punishment processes that may indirectly contribute to racial disparity.

The study separated eligibility for a life sentence from its imposition. This is an important distinction, the researchers say, because many federal offenders are not eligible for a life sentence and most fall outside the guidelines that recommend it. Including all offenders in an analysis of life imprisonment can provide valuable information on its overall prevalence, but it conflates the legal and procedural mechanisms that shape eligibility for life with judicial decisions to impose it, the researchers suggest.

Of the total number of offenders studied, more than 4,800 were eligible for life imprisonment and almost 1,200 received life sentences, the study found. Offenders who were eligible for life imprisonment differed from other federal defendants in several ways: Black offenders accounted for fewer than a third of all cases but constituted nearly half of those eligible for life sentences. By comparison, White offenders accounted for more than a third of all cases but constituted less than a quarter of those eligible for life sentences.

As a whole, Black offenders were more likely to be sentenced to life, but once the process-related variables were factored in, the racial disparity disappeared and ethnic disparity favoring Hispanics emerged. This suggests that race and ethnicity are indirectly related to life sentences through these intermediate procedural mechanisms, such as the mode of conviction, mandatory minimums, and departures from sentencing guidelines.

"Our findings suggest that racial inequality in the justice system can be understood as the combined output of the sum of individual decisions by court actors, and the set of broader institutionalized biases embedded in formal policies, procedures, and practices of the courts," says Cassia Spohn, professor of criminology and criminal justice at ASU, who coauthored the study.

Among the study's limitations, the authors note their focus on the federal system, which is unique in its caseload composition, guidelines, and punishment procedures, and thus, not generalizable to state systems. In addition, the study was limited to convicted offenders and lacks information on initial charging or plea bargaining decisions.

Informal penalties associated with parole status increase the probability of prison sentences

Journal information: Criminology

Provided by American Society of Criminology

Fostering anti-racism in ecology, evolution and conservation biology

by Tim Stephens, University of California - Santa Cruz

Academic departments in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology are increasingly aware of the need to address longstanding barriers and challenges faced by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in these disciplines. A diverse group of faculty, staff, and students in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) at UC Santa Cruz has now compiled a set of tools and strategies which departments can use to address shortcomings in equity and inclusion.

Published August 9 in Nature Ecology & Evolution, the recommendations are based on a review of the literature in an effort to identify evidence-based interventions for fostering anti-racism in the classroom, within research labs, and department-wide.

"There's nothing novel in our recommendations. These are empirically-based approaches developed by people who study these issues, and we've put them all in one place and tailored them for the disciplines of ecology, evolution, and conservation biology," said first author Melissa Cronin, a Ph.D. candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology at UCSC.

Cronin said she and senior author Erika Zavaleta, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, saw a growing need for an easily accessible set of resources to help departments wanting to address historic and current inequities in their fields.

"There is greater awareness now, and a lot more departments are thinking about how to address these issues, so we thought this would be a helpful contribution," Cronin said. "This paper is not a perfect response to the systemic racism we see in scientific life today, but we hope it is a useful tool for those scientists and departments looking to take action at the local level."

The paper addresses the problematic histories of racist policies and ideas in the fields of ecology, evolution, and conservation biology, such as the use of pseudoscientific interpretations of evolutionary biology to advance eugenics and racist ideologies. These historic legacies have contributed to racial gaps by discouraging BIPOC participation in those fields.

Cronin noted that, while people of color are underrepresented in science generally, the gaps are even greater in ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. "Underrepresented groups are even more underrepresented in these disciplines than in other areas of science, so these disciplines are a high priority," she said.

Cronin and Zavaleta recruited a diverse group of students, faculty, and staff within their department to work on the paper, which has 26 coauthors.

"It was a really positive and constructive experience for our department to work together on this paper," Cronin said. "And we built on this incredibly rich tradition of scholarship at UC Santa Cruz in critical race studies, a field which historically has not always intersected with the STEM fields."

Field courses boost student success, support STEM diversity efforts, study reveals

More information: Melissa R. Cronin et al, Anti-racist interventions to transform ecology, evolution and conservation biology departments, Nature Ecology & Evolution (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41559-021-01522-z

Journal information: Nature Ecology & Evolution

Provided by University of California - Santa Cruz

Study highlights 'vicious cycle' of workplace incivility

by Cristina Rojas, Portland State University

Workplace incivility is on the rise and a new Portland State University study found that employees who experience or witness incivilites are more likely to be uncivil to others, a worrying trend that could intensify as people return to in-person work.

"People have gotten used to not having to engage in interpersonal communication as much and that can take an already distressing or tense situation and exacerbate it because people are out of practice of not having to have difficult conversations," said Larry Martinez, associate professor of industrial-organizational psychology and co-author of the study. "These spirals that we're seeing might be stronger in a post-pandemic world."

Uncivil behavior at work can range from criticizing someone in public, rude or obnoxious behavior or withholding important information to more subtle acts such as arriving late to a meeting, checking email or texting during a meeting, or ignoring or interrupting a colleague.

Incivility can mean different things to different people, so it can be easily overlooked or missed.

"Incivility is typically ambiguous and not very intense, but it has harmful effects all the same," said Lauren Park, a recent Ph.D. graduate in industrial-organizational psychology who now works as an HR research scientist.

Park and Martinez's study is the first comprehensive review of its kind to analyze the factors that predict uncivil behavior in workplaces. They focused on the instigator's perspective to better understand incivility and how to stop it at its source.

Among the findings:

Employees who have more control over their jobs are less likely to reciprocate incivility. Researchers suggest that employees with greater job control have more freedom in deciding when and how their work tasks are completed, offering them the time and energy to seek social or organizational support, mentally and/or physically detach from work, reflect on the situation, or confront their uncivil colleague.
Employees whose immediate team or workgroup engages in more civil behavior are less likely to reciprocate incivility.
Employees who are older are less likely to reciprocate incivility.

In a remote working world, Park and Martinez said incivility could more easily go unchecked as people hide behind Zoom boxes or chat messages and it can be difficult to discern intent from text without body language or tone of voice. Even as people return to work, organizations may choose to adopt a hybrid model where employees may only come in for team-based work.

"There will inevitably be some conflict as people might be meeting coworkers in person for the first time or they'll be working together again in the same physical space," Martinez said. "Relationships will need to be renegotiated in different kinds of ways and the likelihood that people are going to be able to address these situations in a conducive manner as compared to before the pandemic will decrease."

Park said it's key that organizations provide support to employees who've experienced incivility.

"They're at a high risk of starting these vicious cycles," she said. "Providing support is not only the right thing to do but it stops that behavior from spiraling through the organization."

Martinez added that complaints about uncivil behavior shouldn't be discounted and organizations should have policies and practices in place that take incidents seriously and address them in a way that curtails them from continuing.

The study was published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

How incivility spreads in the workplace

More information: Lauren S. Park et al, An "I" for an "I": A systematic review and meta-analysis of instigated and reciprocal incivility., Journal of Occupational Health Psychology (2021). DOI: 10.1037/ocp0000293

Journal information: Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Large number of Americans reported financial anxiety and stress even before the pandemic

by George Washington University

anxiety covid — Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

A substantial number of adults in the United States between the ages of 21 and 62 felt anxiety and stress about their personal finances well before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report published today. Researchers found that financial stress and anxiety are highly linked to low levels of financial literacy, problematic financial behaviors and decreased financial security.

Researchers at the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center at the George Washington University and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation used data from the foundation's 2018 National Financial Capability Study, as well as focus groups conducted in December 2020, to examine the prevalence of financial anxiety and stress among adults in the U.S. and the factors that likely contribute to higher levels. They also looked at the long-term consequences of these feelings.

"Our research offers important findings on the newly explored topic of financial stress and anxiety. Alarmingly, we find that even prior to the pandemic, more than half of American adults were experiencing financial anxiety," Annamaria Lusardi, Ph.D., academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center and University Professor of Economics and Accountancy at GW, said. "A multifaceted approach will be needed to address this problem; including a systematic increase in financial knowledge, which can happen through policy and programs."

The researchers looked at survey answers from more than 19,000 adults in the U.S. and analyzed evidence collected during focus groups. Here are the key findings from the report:

60% of respondents indicated feeling anxious when thinking about their personal finances, while 50% of respondents indicated feeling stressed when discussing their finances.
65% of women indicated feeling anxious about their personal finances compared to 54% of men.
Major factors contributing to high levels of financial anxiety and stress include a lack of assets and insufficient income, high debt, money management challenges and low financial literacy.
Women, young adults, people with financially dependent children, and those who are low-income, unmarried and unemployed are most financially anxious.
People with high financial anxiety were more likely to have past-due bills for the treatment of a health problem.
Focus group respondents said that having too many expenses and monthly bills, especially medical expenses, were major factors contributing to high anxiety.

"These findings are sobering. Over the past year, Americans' financial struggles, anxiety and stress levels have likely worsened," Andrea Hasler, Ph.D., deputy academic director of the Global Financial Literacy Excellence Center and an assistant research professor of financial literacy at GW, said. "Focus group discussions reveal that for most participants, the pandemic seems to have exacerbated existing financial anxiety, rather than creating new anxiety that was not present pre-pandemic. Thus, it's more important than ever to build financial resilience and make it part of the recovery path."

"What our research reveals about the arc and the extent of financial anxiety and stress in America prior to the global pandemic is troubling," Gerri Wash, president of the FINRA Foundation, said. "Our qualitative interviews underscore the potential severity of the pandemic's impact on Americans' mental and financial health today, as well as the important role of financial literacy."

Given the connection between low financial literacy and anxiety and stress, the researchers recommend increasing efforts aimed at improving financial knowledge levels especially among high-risk groups. Other recommendations provided by the researchers to help ease financial anxiety and stress include:

Adults, particularly those at risk of experiencing financial anxiety or stress, should be encouraged to set aside emergency savings. Even small savings can help buffer against future financial shocks, potentially providing relief to stressed and anxiety-ridden households.
Employers can offer workplace financial wellness programs that address money management topics and options to automatically save for the future.
Employers can also offer resources to help individuals cope with the anxiety and stress stemming from their financial situation.
Personal finance experts—such as advisors, counselors and planners—should take heed of the harmful effects of financial anxiety and stress on their clients
Large number of Americans reported financial anxiety before the pandemic
Provided by George Washington University
More information: Report: gflec.org/wp-content/uploads/2 … NRA-FINAL.pdf?x85507

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