THE COMMODIFICATION OF ART

Support for art and other cultural objects can be strengthened by highlighting their collective value, finds new Rotman School research

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO, ROTMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

 

IMAGE: SIYIN CHEN IS A PH.D. CANDIDATE IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO’S ROTMAN SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT. SHE IS A FIELD RESEARCHER INTERESTED IN THE COMMODIFICATION OF PERSONALIZED WORK – THE DIFFICULT EXPERIENCE OF SELLING WORK THAT CLOSELY DEFINES WORKERS’ SENSE OF SELF. SHE STUDIES THIS PHENOMENON THROUGH THE THEORETICAL LENSES OF IDENTITY AND MORALITY, USING BOTH QUALITATIVE (E.G., ETHNOGRAPHY, INTERVIEWS), AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS (E.G., FIELD EXPERIMENTS, SURVEYS). IN HER DISSERTATION, SHE STUDIED HOW PORCELAIN ARTISTS IN CHINA NAVIGATED A MARKET SHOCK THAT FORCED THEM TO COMMODIFY ART FOR MASS MARKET AUDIENCES. IT RECEIVED THE BEST STUDENT PAPER AWARD (FIRST PLACE) FROM THE EUROPEAN GROUP FOR ORGANIZATIONAL STUDIES (EGOS) AND THE DISSERTATION AWARD FROM THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR CHINESE MANAGEMENT RESEARCH (IACMR). HER DISSERTATION PROPOSAL WAS SELECTED AS A FINALIST FOR THE 2022 ORGANIZATION SCIENCE/INFORMS DISSERTATION PROPOSAL COMPETITION. view more 

CREDIT: SIYIN CHEN

Toronto - New research into the sacredness of artistic objects shows that it’s possible to get people to see just about any artwork as sacred – even an amateur drawing -- so long as they believe that the art connects humanity to something bigger than itself. And when people do that, they are more willing to put themselves out to ensure it’s protected.

“Art and sacredness have been documented in a lot of disciplines. They can be traced back to philosophy, art history, sociology,” says Siyin Chen, lead researcher and a doctoral student in organizational behaviour and human resource management at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management. “We are showing what is making the art sacred. It can have a broader function that binds you to all of humanity, transcending your own community.”

Ms. Chen and her two co-investigators happened on this notion of “collective transcendence” as they searched for the mechanism that underpins people’s judgments about what makes something sacred when they have no other personal connection to it. Since Ms. Chen’s dissertation work has been about the art industry, she chose art as a case study for this current research.

The researchers conducted nearly a dozen experiments using human subjects and a variety of artistic mediums, including music, sculpture, painting and interactive public park art. When asked which artworks they considered sacred and why, study participants frequently mentioned the Mona Lisa, and that such art was collectively meaningful, spiritual or held historical significance.

Some experiments showed that people could be influenced into judging something as sacred when its spiritual or historical qualities were emphasised, even when the “facts” were made up. In one experiment, the researchers showed participants a drawing by Ms. Chen of the other two researchers. But some participants were told either that “The Portrait,” was made by people more than 3,000 years ago or that it depicted followers of Buddhism and was spiritually significant. Both groups rated the drawing as more sacred compared to a control group, where only the drawing’s unique artistic qualities were pointed out. Participants in the spiritual and historical condition groups were also willing to donate more towards conserving the artwork when told it had been damaged.

The findings give clues for how to cultivate greater public support for the arts, says Ms. Chen, such as highlighting the historical and spiritual significance of artistic works in accompanying information at a gallery or in marketing materials.

The mechanism the researchers identified may even be transferable to other contexts, she says: “Can we make the environment collectively transcendent, leading to people protecting the environment even more? That would be an exciting future avenue for us to explore.”

The research was co-authored by Rachel Ruttan, an assistant professor, and Matthew Feinberg, an associate professor, who are both in the organizational behaviour and human resource management area at the Rotman School.

The study appeared in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology: Attitudes and Social Cognition.

Bringing together high-impact faculty research and thought leadership on one searchable platform, the new Rotman Insights Hub offers articles, podcasts, opinions, books and videos representing the latest in management thinking and providing insights into the key issues facing business and society.

Visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca/insightshub.

The Rotman School of Management is part of the University of Toronto, a global centre of research and teaching excellence at the heart of Canada’s commercial capital. Rotman is a catalyst for transformative learning, insights and public engagement, bringing together diverse views and initiatives around a defining purpose: to create value for business and society. For more information, visit www.rotman.utoronto.ca

-30-

JOURNAL

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

DOI

10.1037/pspa0000319 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Collective transcendence beliefs shape the sacredness of objects: The case of art.

NOT GOP STUPID

Texas A&M AgriLife to lead historic investment in Texas’ efforts to become ‘climate-smart’

Texas A&M AgriLife Research receives largest competitive grant in its history

Grant and Award Announcement

TEXAS A&M AGRILIFE COMMUNICATION

Texas A&M AgriLife Research is anticipating the largest competitive grant in the organization’s history, up to $65 million, to execute a five-year multi-commodity project to work with Texas’ large agricultural sector on expanding climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices.

The grants are not just historic for The Texas A&M University System, but for the nation, as part of a federal investment in 70 partnerships recently announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

According to the USDA announcement, these federal projects will expand markets for climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture, including for small and underserved producers.

“We are proud to lead this major effort,” said Chancellor John Sharp. “The diversity of Texas’ climates, soils and agriculture allows a carefully crafted Texas Climate-Smart Initiative to serve as a model for future climate-smart programs nationwide. This grant further cements Texas A&M as the No. 1 research university in Texas and the Southwest.”

“Production agriculture is the backbone of the Texas economy,” said Jeffrey W. Savell, Ph.D., vice chancellor and dean for Agriculture and Life Sciences. “This grant proves that when we assemble a team of expert researchers and leaders, while simultaneously staying focused on being responsive to the needs of Texas and key priority areas, that real magic can happen. We’re proud to be creating meaningful solutions for the people of Texas.”

Project partners will be tasked with providing technical and financial assistance to producers to implement climate-smart production practices on a voluntary basis on working lands.

“Sustainable production systems that strengthen economies and bolster human health are cornerstone priorities for our research enterprise,” said Cliff Lamb, Ph.D., director of AgriLife Research. “Over the next five years, we will build on all the competitive advantages that make AgriLife Research the premier agency to lead a research initiative of this magnitude in Texas.”

Texas A&M AgriLife's internal members for this initiative include AgriLife Research, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M Forest Service and the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

For The Texas Climate-Smart Initiative, AgriLife Research will partner with the Texas Soil and Water Conservation Board, Prairie View A&M University, University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley, Tarleton State University, BCarbon, Nori, Plains Cotton Growers Association, Texas Wheat Producers Board, Texas Corn Producers Board, Texas Sorghum Producers Board, Texas Rice Producers Board, U.S. Rice Producers Association, Texas Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, Texas International Produce Association, Texas Citrus Mutual, Texas Pecan Growers Association, Texas Small Farmers and Ranchers Organization, 100Ranchers, Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Texas Association of Dairymen, Texas Poultry Federation, Texas Forestry Association, Texas Chapter of National Women in Agriculture, Global Revive, Small Producers Initiative and American Plant Food.

Additional commodity-specific funding awarded to Texas A&M AgriLife Research for projects relating to climate-smart production  

Texas A&M AgriLife also will serve as a major contributor to four other partnership projects totaling $185 million that focus on cotton, beef and bison production, and sorghum systems:

• U.S. Climate-Smart Cotton Program, led by US Cotton Trust Protocol: This project, with potential funding up to $90 million, will build markets for climate-smart cotton and aid more than 1,000 cotton farmers, including historically underserved cotton producers, across the country.
• Climate-Smart Cotton through a Sustainable & Innovative Supply Chain Approach, led by ECOM USA, LLC: This project, with potential funding of $30 million, will strive to implement methods to restore soil and ecosystem health in cotton production through regenerative farming and best practices based on specific regions and needs.
• Climate-Smart Beef and Bison Commodities, led by South Dakota State University: This project, with potential funding up to $80 million, will create stronger market opportunities for beef and bison producers, educate producers on practices best suited for their operations and manage large-scale data.
• National Sorghum Producers Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project, led by National Sorghum Producers Association: This project, with potential funding up to $65 million, plans to implement climate-smart production practices across hundreds of thousands of acres of sorghum working lands over a five-year period, with the goal to reduce hundreds of millions of pounds of carbon emissions and develop markets for sorghum as a climate-smart commodity.

For a comprehensive listing of projects and participating organizations included, visit: https://www.usda.gov/climate-solutions/climate-smart-commodities/projects.

-30-

Does exercise drive development? In the sea anemone, the way you move matters

Researchers from EMBL’s Ikmi group employed an interdisciplinary approach to show how sea anemone “exercise” changes their developing size and shape, uncovering an intimate relationship between behavior and body development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

EUROPEAN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: SEA ANEMONES, IT TURNS OUT, ALSO BENEFIT FROM MAINTAINING AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE, PARTICULARLY AS THEY GROW FROM OVOID-SHAPED SWIMMING LARVAE TO SEDENTARY, TUBULAR POLYPS. THE TISSUE IS VISUALIZED USING ACTIN-STAINING. view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: IKMI GROUP/EMBL AND ALMF/EMBL

As humans, we know that an active lifestyle gives us some control over our form. When we hit the pavement, track our steps, and head to the gym, we can maintain muscle development and reduce body fat. Our physical activity helps shape our physical figure. But what if we sustained similar aerobics in our earlier forms? Is it possible that our embryos also exercised?

Researchers at EMBL’s Ikmi group turned these questions towards the sea anemone to understand how behaviour impacts body shape during early development. Sea anemones, it turns out, also benefit from maintaining an active lifestyle, particularly as they grow from ovoid-shaped swimming larvae to sedentary, tubular polyps. This morphological transformation is a fundamental transition in the life history of many cnidarian species, including the immortal jellyfish and the builders of our planet’s richest and most complex ecosystem, coral reefs.

During development, starlet sea anemone larvae (Nematostella) perform a specific pattern of gymnastic movements. Too much or too little muscle activity or a drastic change in the organization of their muscles can deviate the sea anemone from its normal shape.

In a new paper published in Current Biology, the Ikmi group explores how this kind of behaviour impacts animal development. With expertise in live imaging, computational methodology, biophysics, and genetics, the multidisciplinary team of scientists turned 2D and 3D live imaging into quantitative features to track changes in the body. They found that developing sea anemones behave like hydraulic pumps, regulating body pressure through muscle activity, and using hydraulics to sculpt the larval tissue.

“Humans use a skeleton made of muscles and bones to exercise. In contrast, sea anemones use a hydroskeleton made of muscles and a cavity filled with water,” said Aissam Ikmi, EMBL group leader. The same hydraulic muscles that help the developing sea anemones move also seem to impact how they develop. Using an image analysis pipeline to measure body column length, diameter, estimated volume, and motility in large data sets, scientists found that Nematostella larvae naturally divide themselves into two groups: slow- and fast-developing larvae. To the team’s surprise, the more active the larvae, the longer they take to develop. “Our work shows how developing sea anemones essentially ‘exercise’ to build their morphology, but it seems that they cannot use their hydroskeleton to move and develop simultaneously,” Ikmi said.

Making microscopes and building balloons

“There were many challenges to doing this research,” explains first author and former EMBL predoc Anniek Stokkermans, now a postdoc at the Hubrecht Institute in the Netherlands. “This animal is very active. Most microscopes cannot record fast enough to keep up with the animal’s movements, resulting in blurry images, especially when you want to look at it in 3D. Additionally, the animal is quite dense, so most microscopes cannot even see halfway through the animal.”

To look both deeper and faster, Ling Wang, an application engineer in the Prevedel group at EMBL, built a microscope to capture living, developing sea anemone larvae in 3D during its natural behaviour.

“For this project, Ling has specifically adapted one of our core technologies, Optical Coherence Microscopy or OCM. The key advantage of OCM is that it allows the animals to move freely under the microscope while still providing a clear, detailed look inside, and in 3D.” said Robert Prevedel, EMBL group leader. “It has been an exciting project that shows the many different interfaces between EMBL groups and disciplines.”

With this specialized tool, the researchers were able to quantify volumetric changes in tissue and body cavity. “To increase their size, sea anemones inflate like a balloon by taking up water from the environment,” Stokkermans explained. “Then, by contracting different types of muscles, they can regulate their short-term shape, much like squeezing an inflated balloon on one side, and watching it expand on the other side. We think this pressure-driven local expansion helps stretch tissue, so the animal slowly becomes more elongated. In this way, contractions can have both short-term and a long-term effects.”

Balloons and sea anemones

To better understand the hydraulics and their function, researchers collaborated with experts across disciplines. Prachiti Moghe, an EMBL predoc in the Hiiragi group, measured pressure changes driving body deformations. Additionally, mathematician L. Mahadevan and engineer Aditi Chakrabarti from Harvard University introduced a mathematical model to quantify the role of hydraulic pressures in driving system-level changes in shape. They also engineered reinforced balloons with bands and tapes that mimic the range of shapes and sizes seen in both normal and muscle-defective animals.

“Given the ubiquity of hydrostatic skeletons in the animal kingdom, especially in marine invertebrates, our study suggests that active muscular hydraulics play a broad role in the design principle of soft-bodied animals,” Ikmi said. “In many engineered systems, hydraulics is defined by the ability to harness pressure and flow into mechanical work, with long-range effects in space-time. As animal multicellularity evolved in an aquatic environment, we propose that early animals likely exploited the same physics, with hydraulics driving both developmental and behavioural decisions.”

As the Ikmi group previously studied the connections between diet and tentacle development, this research adds a new layer to understanding how body forms develop.

“We still have many questions from these new findings. Why are there different activity levels? How do cells exactly sense and translate pressure into a developmental outcome?” Stokkermans ponders as she considers where this research leads. “Furthermore, since tube-like structures form the basis of many of our organs, studying the mechanisms that apply to Nematostella will also help gain further understanding in how hydraulics play a role in organ development and function.”

In the sea anemone, the way you move matters (VIDEO)

---

JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2022.08.065 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Muscular hydraulics drives larva-polyp morphogenesis.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Sep-2022

FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE

Prevalence and Risk Factors for Medical Debt and Subsequent Changes in Social Determinants of Health in the US

David U. Himmelstein, MD^1,2,3,4; Samuel L. Dickman, MD⁵; Danny McCormick, MD, MPH^2,3; et alDavid H. Bor, MD^2,3; Adam Gaffney, MD, MPH^2,3; Steffie Woolhandler, MD, MPH^1,2,3,4

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(9):e2231898. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.31898

Original Investigation 

Health Policy

September 16, 2022

Key Points

Question  What are the prevalence and risk factors associated with medical debt in the US?

Findings  In this cross-sectional and cohort study of survey data from 2017 to 2019, 10.8% of adults carried medical debt, including 10.5% of the privately insured, and 9.6% of residents of Medicaid-expansion states, significantly fewer than in nonexpansion states. Over 3 years, decreases in health status and coverage loss were significant risk factors associated with acquiring medical debt, which was, in turn associated with a significant 1.7-fold to 3.1-fold higher risk of worsening housing and food security.

Meaning  Results of this study suggest that medical indebtedness is common, even among the insured, and may be associated with subsequent worsening of social determinants of health.

Abstract

Importance  Cost barriers discourage many US residents from seeking medical care and many who obtain it experience financial hardship. However, little is known about the association between medical debt and social determinants of health (SDOH).

Objective  To determine the prevalence of and risk factors associated with medical debt and the association of medical debt with subsequent changes in the key SDOH of food and housing security.

Design, Setting, and Participants  Cross-sectional analyses using multivariable logistic regression models controlled for demographic, financial, insurance, and health-related factors, and prospective cohort analyses assessing changes over time using the 2018, 2019, and 2020 Surveys of Income and Program Participation. Participants were nationally representative samples of US adults surveyed for 1 to 3 years.

Exposures  Insurance-related and health-related characteristics as risk factors for medical debt; Newly incurred medical debt as a risk factor for deterioration in SDOHs.

Main Outcomes and Measures  Prevalence and amounts of medical debt; 4 SDOHs: inability to pay rent or mortgage or utilities; eviction or foreclosure; and food insecurity.

Results  Among 51 872 adults surveyed regarding 2017, 40 784 regarding 2018 and 43 220 regarding 2019, 51.6% were female, 16.8% Hispanic, 6.0% were non-Hispanic Asian, 11.9% non-Hispanic Black, 62.6% non-Hispanic White, and 2.18% other non-Hispanic. A total of 10.8% (95% CI, 10.6-11.0) of individuals and approximately 18.1% of households carried medical debt. Persons with low and middle incomes had similar rates: 15.3%; (95% CI,14.4-16.2) of uninsured persons had debt, as did 10.5% (95% CI, 10.2-18.8) of the privately-insured. In 2018 the mean medical debt was $21 687/debtor (median $2000 [IQR, $597-$5000]). In cross-sectional analyses, hospitalization, disability, and having private high-deductible, Medicare Advantage, or no coverage were risk factors associated with medical indebtedness; residing in a Medicaid-expansion state was protective (2019 odds ratio [OR], 0.76; 95% CI, 0.70-0.83). Prospective findings were similar, eg, losing insurance coverage between 2017 and 2019 was associated with acquiring medical debt by 2019 (OR, 1.63; 95% CI, 1.23-2.14), as was becoming newly disabled (OR, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.95-3.00) or newly hospitalized (OR, 2.95; 95% CI, 2.40-3.62). Acquiring medical debt between 2017 and 2019 was a risk factor associated with worsening SDOHs, with ORs of 2.20 (95% CI,1.58-3.05) for becoming food insecure; 2.29 (95% CI, 1.73-3.03) for losing ability to pay rent or mortgage; 2.37 (95% CI, 1.75-3.23) for losing ability to pay utilities; and 2.95 (95% CI, 1.38-6.31) for eviction or foreclosure in 2019.

Conclusions and Relevance  In this cross-sectional and cohort study, medical indebtedness was common, even among insured individuals. Acquiring such debt may worsen SDOHs. Expanded and improved health coverage could ameliorate financial distress, and improve housing and food security.

READ/DOWNLOAD THE STUDY HERE

Pythons are true choke artists

Size alone doesn't explain how invasive Burmese pythons eat such big prey

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI

 

IMAGE: ECOLOGISTS WITH THE CONSERVANCY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA CAPTURE A 215-POUND BURMESE PYTHON IN EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK. view more 

CREDIT: IAN BARTOSZEK/CONSERVANCY OF SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

Burmese pythons are not just big snakes, growing to more than 18 feet and 200 pounds, but big eaters, taking on prey as large as a deer.

Biologists at the University of Cincinnati found that it’s not just the size of its head and body that puts almost everything on a python’s menu. They evolved super-stretchy skin between their lower jaws that allows them to consume prey up to six times larger than similar-sized snakes.

The study, funded in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, was published in the journal Integrative Organismal Biology.

Since most snakes swallow prey whole, they must have wide mouths to accommodate a meal. Unlike our lower jawbone, the lower jawbones of snakes are not connected, allowing them to open wide.

“The stretchy skin between left and right lower jaws is radically different in pythons. Just over 40% of their total gape area on average is from stretchy skin,” lead author and UC biology professor Bruce Jayne said. “Even after you correct for their large heads, their gape is enormous.”

Pythons are constrictors. They bite their prey and wrap their powerful coils around it, fatally cutting off the animal’s vital blood flow, before consuming it whole at their leisure.

The bigger the prey, the more energy a snake derives from a meal. For pythons, that means not having to hunt as often, which can carry extensive risk in a world full of busy roads and dangerous predators.

Along with pythons, Jayne studied the gape size of brown tree snakes, a mildly venomous arboreal specialist that hunts birds and other animals in the forest canopy. Brown tree snakes were introduced in the 1950s to Guam, wiping out many bird species.

Besides measuring the snakes, Jayne also measured the dimensions and weight of potential prey animals. This allowed Jayne to use snake size to predict the maximal size of its prey and the relative benefits of consuming different types such as alligators, chickens, rats or deer.  

Small snakes derive greater benefits in relative prey mass from a modest increase in gape size, the study found. This gives python babies an early advantage in taking on a broader range of prey compared to other snakes their size, Jayne said.

Being big also helps snakes avoid becoming meals themselves. Snakes fall prey to everything from wading birds to minks and raccoons to alligators and other snakes.

“Once those pythons get to a reasonable size, it’s pretty much just alligators that can eat them,” Jayne said. “And pythons eat alligators.”

Like invasive brown tree snakes in Guam, Burmese pythons are wreaking havoc on the ecology of Everglades National Park where they were introduced due to the release of captive animals from the exotic pet trade in the 1980s.

Study co-author Ian Bartoszek works as an environmental science project manager for the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, where he has led a project to track pythons. They implant radio transmitters in male snakes during breeding season to find females before they can lay more clutches of eggs. A big female python can lay more than 100 eggs.

Researchers routinely find deer hooves and the remains of other big animals in their stomachs. Bartoszek photographed one python regurgitating a full-grown white-tailed deer.

“The Everglades ecosystem is changing in real time based on one species, the Burmese python,” Bartoszek said.

The good news is that pythons rarely attack people. Bartoszek said the only defensive encounters he’s had with wild pythons are with females guarding their nests.

“It’s way more dangerous to drive there than to work with the snakes,” he said.

CAPTION

University of Cincinnati professor Bruce Jayne demonstrates the gape of a euthanized Burmese python specimen in his lab.

CREDIT

Bruce Jayne

CAPTION

A Burmese python in Everglades National Park regurgitates a white-tailed deer.

CREDIT

Ian Bartoszek/Conservancy of Southwest Florida

CAPTION

University of Cincinnati professor Bruce Jayne works with a brown tree snake in his biology lab.

CREDIT

Joseph Fuqua II/UC

---

JOURNAL

Integrative Organismal Biology

DOI

10.1093/iob/obac033 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Scaling Relationships of Maximal Gape in Two Species of Large Invasive Snakes, Brown Treesnakes and Burmese Pythons, and Implications for Maximal Prey Size

York University study: Even smartest AI models don’t match human visual processing

York University study highlights how deep-network models take potentially dangerous ‘shortcuts’ in solving complex recognition tasks

Peer-Reviewed Publication

YORK UNIVERSITY

TORONTO, Sept. 16, 2022 –  Deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) don’t see objects the way humans do – using configural shape perception – and that could be dangerous in real-world AI applications, says Professor James Elder, co-author of a York University study published today.

Published in the Cell Press journal iScience, Deep learning models fail to capture the configural nature of human shape perception is a collaborative study by Elder, who holds the York Research Chair in Human and Computer Vision and is Co-Director of York’s Centre for AI & Society, and Assistant Psychology Professor Nicholas Baker at Loyola College in Chicago, a former VISTA postdoctoral fellow at York.

The study employed novel visual stimuli called “Frankensteins” to explore how the human brain and DCNNs process holistic, configural object properties.

“Frankensteins are simply objects that have been taken apart and put back together the wrong way around,” says Elder.  “As a result, they have all the right local features, but in the wrong places.” 

The investigators found that while the human visual system is confused by Frankensteins, DCNNs are not – revealing an insensitivity to configural object properties.

“Our results explain why deep AI models fail under certain conditions and point to the need to consider tasks beyond object recognition in order to understand visual processing in the brain,” Elder says. “These deep models tend to take ‘shortcuts’ when solving complex recognition tasks. While these shortcuts may work in many cases, they can be dangerous in some of the real-world AI applications we are currently working on with our industry and government partners,” Elder points out.

One such application is traffic video safety systems: “The objects in a busy traffic scene – the vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians – obstruct each other and arrive at the eye of a driver as a jumble of disconnected fragments,” explains Elder. “The brain needs to correctly group those fragments to identify the correct categories and locations of the objects. An AI system for traffic safety monitoring that is only able to perceive the fragments individually will fail at this task, potentially misunderstanding risks to vulnerable road users.”

According to the researchers, modifications to training and architecture aimed at making networks more brain-like did not lead to configural processing, and none of the networks were able to accurately predict trial-by-trial human object judgements. "We speculate that to match human configural sensitivity, networks must be trained to solve broader range of object tasks beyond category recognition," notes Elder.  

York University is a modern, multi-campus, urban university located in Toronto, Ontario. Backed by a diverse group of students, faculty, staff, alumni and partners, we bring a uniquely global perspective to help solve societal challenges, drive positive change and prepare our students for success. York's fully bilingual Glendon Campus is home to Southern Ontario's Centre of Excellence for French Language and Bilingual Postsecondary Education. York’s campuses in Costa Rica and India offer students exceptional transnational learning opportunities and innovative programs. Together, we can make things right for our communities, our planet, and our future. 

Media Contact:

Gloria Suhasini, York University Media Relations, 647.463.4354, suhasini@yorku.ca

---

JOURNAL

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2022.104913 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Deep learning models fail to capture the configural nature of human shape perception

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Sep-2022

PRISON KILLS

Incarceration associated with higher cancer mortality, Yale study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

YALE UNIVERSITY

New Haven, Conn. — New research from Yale Cancer Center reveals a higher risk of cancer mortality in incarcerated adults, as well as among those diagnosed with cancer in the first year after release from prison.

The findings are published in the journal PLOS ONE.

“Cancer is the leading cause of death among people in prison, accounting for about 30% of all deaths, and yet the complex relationship between incarceration and cancer survival had not been thoroughly evaluated,” said Dr. Emily Wang, professor of medicine (General Medicine) and of public health (Social and Behavioral Sciences) and senior author of the study. She is also director of the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice at Yale.

The study compared data using a statewide link between tumor registry and correctional system data for adults in Connecticut diagnosed with invasive cancer from 2005 through 2016.

After accounting for demographics and cancer characteristics, including stage of diagnosis, the risk for cancer-related death at five years was significantly higher among those diagnosed while incarcerated and those recently released compared to the remainder of the population.

“This is a call to action,” said co-author Dr. Cary Gross, professor of medicine (General Medicine) and of epidemiology (Chronic Diseases), and founding director of the Cancer Outcomes, Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale School of Medicine. “Cancer prevention and treatment efforts should target people while in prison and identify why incarceration is associated with worse outcomes.” 

Those diagnosed with invasive cancer while incarcerated and within one year after release were also more likely to be younger, male, and non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic. Cancers originating from the gastrointestinal system were the most common cancers in this population, followed by lung and prostate cancer, and leukemia and lymphoma.

“Possible reasons for the high risk of death include having limited access to high quality cancer care, access to palliative care, and attention to patients’ social determinants of health, including social support and food,” said Wang.

While prior studies have identified the association between incarceration and cancer survival time, this study illuminates the immediate post-release period as a particularly high-risk period.

“Our findings highlight the value and importance of transition centers for individuals released from carceral settings, the significant barriers associated with cancer care include screening, timely primary care, housing and food security, employment and other structural barriers faced by those re-integrating into society,” said lead author Dr. Oluwadamilola Oladeru, an assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Florida. Oladeru is also the co-clinical leader of the University of Florida Breast Center.

“Primary care for people recently released from correctional systems should include screening for treatable cancers, evaluation of symptoms, and addressing social determinants to mitigate these disparities in cancer related deaths,” said Gross. “Our findings may also be pertinent to other state prison systems as the national data reveal that cancer is now the leading cause of death among incarcerated individuals.” 

This research was supported by a National Institutes of Health grant.

Additional Yale authors include Pamela Soulos and Jenerius A. Aminawung.

---

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

Climate change from the ground up: Researchers explore sea level rise impact on building foundations

Study examines hidden costs to building foundations due to sea level rise

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

Researchers have considered how flooding from rising sea levels and storm surges will damage the built environment along the coast, but what about climate change’s less noticeable impacts below the surface?

A new study by Colorado State University civil engineers examines the hidden costs to building foundations due to sea level rise. They propose a method for inspection and repair to lower the cost associated with deterioration from saltwater corrosion.

The researchers, who are part of the NIST Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning at CSU, say it is important to plan ahead – especially considering there are more than 16 million buildings along the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

“This is a problem, and it’s going to cost a lot of money,” said Hussam Mahmoud, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and co-author on the study.

One at-risk location

Engineers looked at nearly 137,000 residential buildings in low-lying regions in Mobile County, Alabama, and estimated probable foundation damage from saltwater corrosion.

As sea level rises, so does the groundwater table, and saltwater is more corrosive than freshwater. Using existing predictions for sea level rise and water table levels based on wells in Mobile, they predicted how long it would take for saltwater to reach the buildings’ foundations.

Under the most extreme sea level rise projections, they estimated the annual repair cost for foundations in Mobile could total $90 million by 2100.

“The significance here is that this value that we found for one of the saltwater intrusion scenarios is just for 137,000 buildings in Mobile,” Mahmoud said. “If you calculated the cost for the entire East Coast – or from the East to the West Coast – it would be staggering.”

Providing a solution

The engineers developed a formula to help building owners determine when to inspect and repair their buildings based on building location and the probability of saltwater corrosion. They say waiting for the right time to repair the foundation – but not so long that damage has been done – will save building owners money.

They also proposed the use of low-cost sensors to monitor the water table level near a building’s foundation and protect against uncertainties.

The researchers chose to study Mobile because it is an industrial port city with a large economically disadvantaged population. They have started investigating the impact of natural disasters on Mobile’s vulnerable communities to figure out the best way to allocate resources to help them recover in an emergency.

“In order for us to assess social and economic impact, we have to have a good understanding of the impact of the hazard on the built environment,” Mahmoud said.

Next, the team plans to examine structural performance beyond the foundation and how that affects people in the area. For example, how much wind and water surge during a hurricane can a structure withstand before alternative housing or shelters are needed?

“This work will allow us to be proactive about finding solutions quickly to help those in need, instead of waiting until it’s bad,” Mahmoud said.

Helping communities recover from natural disasters is the focus of the CSU-led Center for Risk-Based Community Resilience Planning, a $20 million partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology that involves collaborators from more than a dozen other universities.

The study, “Hidden costs to building foundations due to sea level rise in a changing climate,” is published in Scientific Reports. In addition to Mahmoud, authors are Mohamed A. Abdelhafez, a Civil and Environmental Engineering Ph.D. student, and Bruce Ellingwood, a recently retired professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

---

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Hidden costs to building foundations due to sea level rise in a changing climate