Brazilian model vaccination program reduced severe cases of COVID-19 and deaths even from variants

The dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 variant substitution in the town where a clinical trial of vaccination effectiveness was conducted matched the pattern seen elsewhere in the country, but most cases were mild

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

 

IMAGE: THE DYNAMICS OF SARS-COV-2 VARIANT SUBSTITUTION IN THE TOWN WHERE A CLINICAL TRIAL OF VACCINATION EFFECTIVENESS WAS CONDUCTED MATCHED THE PATTERN SEEN ELSEWHERE IN THE COUNTRY, BUT MOST CASES WERE MILD. view more 

CREDIT: BUTANTAN INSTITUTE

A study conducted in Serrana, a small town in São Paulo state used as a model for COVID-19 vaccination in Brazil, shows that mass vaccination reduced the severe case and death rates even while the gamma and delta variants were circulating. Gamma and delta were considered alarming because they spread so much faster than previous variants.

Based on an analysis of the virus’s evolutionary history (phylogeny), the researchers showed that the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 substitution in the town was similar to the pattern seen in the rest of Brazil. The ancestral strains (B.1.1.28 and B.1.1.33) were replaced by gamma, delta (first detected in India in 2020 and originally labeled B.1.617.2) and more recently omicron. In Serrana, however, the study showed that most cases caused by all three variants (88.9%, 98.1% and 99.1% respectively) were mild, thanks to immunization with CoronaVac (Sinovac Biotech-Butantan Institute). Coverage had then reached 80% of the target population. 

The phylogenetic analysis was applied to 4,375 genomes obtained between June 2020 and April 2022, the period between the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 and completion of the double-dose vaccination process. 

According to the authors, their genomic surveillance exercise not only monitored the spread of the key variants in the town but also helped identify some rare variants of interest, such as C.37, which circulated in the Andean countries but was under-represented in Brazil, and alpha, which was detected in Serrana but did not spread elsewhere. All told, the scientists detected 52 sublineages of SARS-CoV-2 in the town.

An article on the study is published in the journal Viruses. Codenamed Project S, the study was conducted by Butantan Institute with FAPESP’s support. The authors are researchers affiliated with Butantan Institute, the Ribeirão Preto Blood Center and the Center for Cell-Based Therapy (CTC), a Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center (RIDC) funded by FAPESP and hosted by the University of São Paulo’s Ribeirão Preto Blood Center and Medical School (FMRP-USP).

Serrana was a model for a clinical study of the first mass vaccination of a town’s entire adult population (over 18) using CoronaVac before the Ministry of Health began official vaccine rollout. A large-scale sequencing program was developed to analyze all SARS-CoV-2 positive samples obtained in the town in real time (read more at: revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/en/a-town-turned-laboratory/). 

“Next-generation sequencing is increasingly affordable and widely used for genetic monitoring of infectious diseases and the viral variants involved. The technologies now available are applicable even in relatively remote areas with scant resources. This type of surveillance helps us prevent outbreaks, understand how novel viral genotypes spread and identify emerging viruses. Detection of novel agents and viral variants provides key input for public health decisions to avoid future pandemics or epidemics,” Svetoslav Nanev Slavov, first author of the article and a researcher at Butantan Institute, told Agência FAPESP.

Results

The 4,375 genomes analyzed in the study broke down as follows by variant: 1,653 delta (37.8%), 1,053 gamma (24.1%), 1,513 omicron (34.6%), 75 zeta (1.7%), and 81 other (1.9%). Most subjects were in the 21-50 age group, although there were participants of all ages.

According to the authors, based on the clinical scores of the subjects who tested positive, vaccination reduced morbidity and mortality in Serrana, especially during the gamma and delta waves. They compared the results with those of São José do Rio Preto, a medium-sized city about 200 km away, where mortality was higher during the gamma wave, especially among unvaccinated young people.

The beneficial effects of vaccination have been observed in other studies, showing that fully vaccinated people are less likely to contract symptomatic or asymptomatic infections. The conclusion is that vaccination reduces infection rates, numbers of severe cases and death rates due to SARS-CoV-2.

“In addition to genomic monitoring of patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in Serrana, the study demonstrated the benefits of early mass vaccination in significantly reducing morbidity and mortality due to this viral agent,” said Simone Kashima, last author of the article and a researcher at the Ribeirão Preto Blood Center.

The study serves as a basis for future research on the genetic monitoring of viral diseases and measures to combat them, she added.

The study was also supported by FAPESP via seven other projects (21/11944-6; 20/10127-1; 20/06441-2; 17/26950-6; 19/22155-2; 18/15826-5 and 14/50947-7).

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe

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JOURNAL

Viruses

DOI

10.3390/v14102148 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Potentially deadly infection has dangerous ally lurking in our guts

Researchers reveal how gut bacteria put people at risk for severe C. difficile

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HEALTH SYSTEM

 

IMAGE: A NEW DISCOVERY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE'S JASON PAPIN, PHD, AND COLLABORATORS COULD HELP DOCTORS IDENTIFY PATIENTS AT RISK FOR SEVERE C. DIFFICILE AND OPEN THE DOOR TO NEW TREATMENTS. view more 

CREDIT: DAN ADDISON | UVA COMMUNICATIONS

New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and collaborators reveals how microorganisms found in our guts can worsen dangerous C. difficile infections. The discovery could help doctors identify patients at risk for severe illness and open the door to new treatments.

C. difficile is a bacterium that can cause potentially deadly infections, particularly among the elderly and people on long-term antibiotics. These infections are characterized by diarrhea, nausea and fever. C. diff, as it is commonly known, strikes more than 350,000 Americans a year. Once infected, patients are prone to suffer re-infections; among those who survive, one in six will develop another case within eight weeks, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As such, C. diff can be a major problem for hospitals and nursing facilities.

UVA’s new findings help explain why certain patients are at particular risk. The researchers determined that a group of antibiotic-resistant “opportunistic pathogens” found in the gut called enterococci can make C. diffmore potent and dangerous. 

“The interactions between C. diff, other microbes and the human gut are highly complex. This study leveraged expertise from a large, multidisciplinary team across several institutions to disentangle these complex interactions and discover key mechanisms that help C. diff cause disease,” said researcher Jason Papin, PhD, of UVA’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, a joint program of the School of Medicine and School of Engineering. “With this greater understanding, we have an opportunity to develop new therapeutic strategies to treat this dangerous infection.”

A More Dangerous C. difficile

Enterococci are bacteria that can, on their own, cause dangerous infections that are difficult to treat. For example, they can cause meningitis, urinary tract infections (which can be very serious in the elderly) and the painful gastrointestinal disease diverticulitis, as well as other illnesses. But the researchers found that the threat they pose does not end there. 

The research team collected stool samples from patients with C. difficile infections at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. They then used a combination of lab tests and advanced computer modeling to better understand how C. diffinteracts with other microorganisms in the gut.  

They found that enterococci make for a dangerous ally for C. diff. Enterococci produce amino acids, including leucine and ornithine, which make C. difficile a more potent threat for patients whose gut compositions have been disrupted by antibiotics.

Papin and his team developed powerful computer models that helped the researchers understand and predict the complex changes in the gut. Their work, combined with lab research performed in other labs, showed that enterococci can dramatically reshape the “metabolome” – the collection of metabolites such as amino acids – in the gut. These changes, the researchers report, ultimately reprogram C. difficile and enhance its disease-causing behaviors.

“The computational modeling that Matthew Jenior [UVA postdoctoral fellow in the Papin lab] performed was instrumental in discovering the role of amino acids in the interaction between C. diff and enterococci,” Papin said. “The computational models that Matthew constructed will continue to help us better understand the molecular processes in C. diff that cause disease.”

By better understanding how C. diff interacts with enterococci and other microorganisms in the gut, doctors will be better positioned to battle this common and serious infection, the researchers say.

“Biology is a data-rich science and the power of computational models to use these data is only in its infancy,” Papin said. “ We’re excited about the innumerable opportunities to use data science and computer modeling to drive biological discovery.”

Findings Published

The researchers have published their findings in the prestigious scientific journal Nature. The team consisted of Alexander B. Smith, Matthew L. Jenior, Orlaith Keenan, Jessica L. Hart, Jonathan Specker, Arwa Abbas, Paula C. Rangel, Chao Di, Jamal Green, Katelyn A. Bustin, Jennifer A. Gaddy, Maribeth R. Nicholson, Clare Laut, Brendan J. Kelly, Megan L. Matthews, Daniel R. Evans, Daria Van Tyne, Emma E. Furth, Papin, Frederic D. Bushman, Jessi Erlichman, Robert N. Baldassano, Michael A. Silverman, Gary M. Dunny, Boone M. Prentice, Eric P. Skaar and Joseph P. Zackular. 

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, grants K22AI7220, R35GM138369, R01AI138581, R01AI145992, R01HD090061, R01AT010253, UL1TR000445, K23 AI121485 and 1DP1DA051620; a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Junior Faculty Pilot Grant; a Cell and Molecular Biology Training Grant, T32GM07229; a UVA TransUniversity Microbiome Initiative Pilot Grant; Chemical and Biology Interface Training Grant 5T32GM071339-15; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant BAA 200-2016-91937; and Commonwealth Universal Research Enhancement programme grant SAP#4100068710.

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog at http://makingofmedicine.virginia.edu.

MORE ON THE BATTLE AGAINST C. DIFFICILE: Powerful computer models identify weaknesses in deadly C. difficile.

 

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-022-05438-x 

Scientists highlight safe access to the outdoors with naming of new plant species

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENSOFT PUBLISHERS

 

IMAGE: PHOTO OF SOLANUM SCALARIUM, A NEWLY-DESCRIBED BUSH TOMATO SPECIES FROM THE NORTHERN TERRITORY, AUSTRALIA, SHOWING THE UNUSUAL LADDER-LIKE ARRANGEMENT OF PRICKLES ON MALE FLORAL STEMS. PLANTS GROWN IN THE ROOKE BIOLOGY RESEARCH GREENHOUSE AT BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY WERE CLOSELY STUDIED BY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT JONATHAN HAYES (BIOLOGY ‘22) UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF DRS. TANISHA WILLIAMS AND CHRIS MARTINE. view more 

CREDIT: JONATHAN HAYES

A new species of Australian bush tomato described from the Garrarnawun Lookout in Judbarra National Park provides a compelling example of the need to provide equal and safe access to natural places. Bucknell University postdoctoral fellow Tanisha Williams and biology professor Chris Martine led the study following a chance encounter with an unusual population of plants during a 2019 research expedition to the Northern Territory.

Martine, who has studied northern Australia’s bush tomatoes for more than 20 years, immediately sensed that the plants were representative of a not-yet-described species, so he, Angela McDonnell (St. Cloud State University), Jason Cantley (San Francisco State University), and Peter Jobson (Northern Territory Herbarium in Alice Springs) combed the local area for plants to closely study and make research collections from. The task was made easier by the fact that the Garrarnawun Lookout is accessible by a set of dozens of human-made stone steps running directly from the unpaved parking area to the peak of the sandstone outcrop – without which the new species might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

The botanists were able to collect numerous new specimens and have now published the new species description in the open-access journal PhytoKeys, choosing the name Solanum scalarium as a nod to the steps leading to the plant and the unusual ladder-like prickles that adorn the flowering stems. The Latin “scalarium” translates to “ladder”, “staircase” or “stairs.”

“This Latin name does relate to the appearance of this species, how it looks,” says first-author Williams. “But it is also a way for us to acknowledge how important it is to create ways for people to interact with nature; not just scientists like us, but everyone.”

According to the authors, a recent study done by the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries in Western Australia found that 8 in 10 people felt it is important to have access to natural spaces, both locally and outside of their current jurisdictions. However, one in three persons felt dissatisfied with the current outdoor spaces available to them and many identified barriers to access and participation in outdoor activities that include urbanization - which is especially credited for the growing number of Australians that lack outdoor experiences.

Importantly, the awareness of who has access and feels safe to participate in outdoor activities is being recognized throughout Australia and the lack of diversity in participation from culturally diverse and marginalized populations has been identified as an issue. Key indices such as ethnic background, socio-economic status, physical abilities and gender, are indicators of low outdoor recreation participation.

“These disparities of who are and are not participating and who feels safe and welcomed are artifacts of historic and current environmental and social injustices,” notes Williams. “To overcome these injustices and increase access and participation from diverse groups, intentional and targeted efforts are needed to provide a range of outdoor experiences that attract people from all of the 270 plus ancestries with which Australians identify with and special attention should be placed on groups historically excluded from outdoor spaces.”

Also now known as the Garrarnawun Bush Tomato, Solanum scalarium is a distant cousin of the cultivated eggplant and a close relative to a number of other Australian species recently discovered by Martine and colleagues that were also published in PhytoKeys including Solanum plastisexum, named to reflect the diversity of sex forms across Earth’s organisms; and Solanum watneyi, named for the space botanist of the book/film The Martian. 

The scientists hope that the naming of this latest new species highlights the importance of building community around natural spaces.

“We suggest the use of Garrarnawun Bush Tomato for the English-language common name of the species,” the authors write, “In recognition of the Garrarnawun Lookout near where the type collection was made, a traditional meeting place of the Wardaman and Nungali-Ngaliwurru peoples whose lands overlap in this area.”

Access to nature is not just a concern in Australia.

“In the United States, where most of the authors of this paper are located, “access” is one thing but safety and equitability are another,” says Martine, “The U.S. National Parks Service reports that around 95% of those who visit federal parks are white. Meanwhile, African Americans, Latinos, women, and members of the LGBTQIA+ communities often report feeling unwelcome or unsafe in outdoor spaces.”

“If African Americans, for example, are already apprehensive in a country where they make up 13% of the population, it should be understandable that they are hesitant to be part of a community where they represent as little as 1% of participants.”

Williams suggests that James Edward Mills, author of The Adventure Gap (2014) put it best:

“It’s not enough to say that the outdoors is free and open for everyone to enjoy. Of course it is! But after four centuries of racial oppression and discrimination that systematically made Black Americans fear for their physical safety, we must also make sure that we create a natural environment where people of color can not only feel welcome but encouraged to become active participants as outdoor enthusiasts and stewards dedicated to the protection of the land.”

Recent Bucknell graduate Jonathan Hayes, who measured and analyzed the physical characters of the new species using plants grown from seed in a campus greenhouse, joins Williams, McDonnell, Cantley, Jobson, and Martine as a co-author on the publication.

 

Research Article:

Williams TM, Hayes J, McDonnell AJ, Cantley JT, Jobson P, Martine CT (2022) Solanum scalarium (Solanaceae), a newly-described dioecious bush tomato from Judbarra/Gregory National Park, Northern Territory, Australia. PhytoKeys 216: 103-116. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.216.85972

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JOURNAL

PhytoKeys

DOI

10.3897/phytokeys.216.85972 

ARTICLE TITLE

Solanum scalarium (Solanaceae), a newly-described dioecious bush tomato from Judbarra/Gregory National Park, Northern Territory, Australia

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Dec-2022

Disclaimer: AAAS

Cross-cultural study examines maternal attitudes and infant development

UK/Ugandan study finds differences and surprising similarities in mothers’ attitudes, parenting behaviors and infant development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: THE STUDY LOOKED AT THE VARIATION IN ATTITUDES TOWARDS PARENTING ACROSS TWO SAMPLES OF PARTICIPANTS FROM DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS, AND FOUND THAT CULTURAL ATTITUDES ABOUT PARENTING SEEM TO RELATE TO INFANT EXPERIENCE IN SOME WAYS, BUT NOT OTHERS. view more 

CREDIT: HOLDEN ET AL., CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)Mothers in the samples from the UK and Uganda have different attitudes toward parenting, but while on a group level the experience and development of their infants sometimes aligns with parenting attitudes, surprisingly, it did not always show such variation, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Eve Holden and Katie Slocombe of University of York, UK, and colleagues.

Early life experiences, including those shaped by parental behaviors, are known to affect infant learning and development. There is considerable cultural variation in parenting practices, which may be underpinned by varying attitudes toward parenting and infant development. Most studies examining how parenting impacts infant development rely on attitude questionnaires or observations of behavior in a single context. It has been unclear whether these attitudes or behavior snapshots are representative of behavior in broader contexts.

In the new work, the researchers studied 53 mother-infant dyads in the UK and 44 mother-infant dyads in Uganda. Mothers and their babies were followed for full eight-hour days at five time points, when the infants were 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15 months old. Data about parental attitudes and behaviors were also collected research sessions of up to 4 hours in participants’ homes.

The study revealed that Ugandan mothers had, on average, more relational attitudes toward parenting, whereas UK mothers tended to more strongly focus on autonomy. This translated into certain differences in parenting behaviors: Ugandan infants received more distributed caregiving (i.e. more caregivers), more body contact with their mothers, and more proximity to mothers at night. However, attitudes toward specific behaviors did not predict infant experience in all contexts. Contrary to the researchers’ expectations, for instance, Ugandan infants were not in closer proximity to their mothers during the day, did not have more people in proximity or more partners for social interaction compared to UK infants. Despite the UK mothers’ greater focus on self-development, more of the Ugandan infants showed earlier physical development compared to UK infants.

The authors describe how “infants’ early life environment varies cross-culturally in many important ways” but add that the findings highlight the importance of measuring behavior, rather than extrapolating expected behavior based on attitudes alone. 

The authors add: “Most of us know that among our friends and family there can be a lot of variation in attitudes towards parenting – in our study we looked at this across two samples of participants from quite different backgrounds and looked at how attitudes may or may not match up to infant experience and development. We found that cultural attitudes about parenting seem to relate to infant experience in some ways, but not others – this shows the interaction between attitudes and infant experience is quite complicated and there could be many things that influence infant experience beyond parents attitudes.”

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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.0278378

Citation: Holden E, Buryn-Weitzel JC, Atim S, Biroch H, Donnellan E, Graham KE, et al. (2022) Maternal attitudes and behaviours differentially shape infant early life experience: A cross cultural study. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0278378. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278378

Author Countries: UK, Uganda, USA

Funding: This research was funded by an ERC (European Research Council: https://erc.europa.eu/funding) Consolidator grant to KES (ERC_CoG 2016_724608). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0278378 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Maternal attitudes and behaviours differentially shape infant early life experience: A cross cultural study

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Dec-2022

COI STATEMENT

Exploring perceptions of faces paired with fake news on Twitter

Study suggests “disputed” tags may do little to sway long-term perceptions of trustworthiness

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: EXAMPLE TWEET STIMULI. STIMULI ENCOUNTERED BY PARTICIPANTS DURING THE STUDY PHASE. FACE STIMULI TAKEN FROM GENERATE PHOTOS (HTTPS://GENERATED.PHOTOS/DATASETS) AND TWEETS CREATED IN (WWW.TWEETGEN.COM). view more 

CREDIT: EGGLESTON ET AL., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

In experiments using made-up tweets, participants rated the trustworthiness of faces paired with positive news headlines more highly than faces paired with negative headlines. Tagging the headlines as “disputed”—Twitter’s indicator of potentially fake news—appeared to have no long-term influence on these ratings. Adam Eggleston of the University of York, U.K., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on December 21. 

Prior research has shown that a person’s facial appearance significantly affects others’ perceptions of their character, and that such perceptions are influenced by knowing about the person’s prior actions. However, research also suggests that, once associations between appearance and traits are learned, they can be difficult to alter, even in light of new information about the person.

To explore how these dynamics might play out on Twitter, Eggleston and colleagues conducted two experiments in which 128 participants viewed made-up tweets that each paired an A.I.-generated photo of a person’s face with a news headline portraying the person in either a positive or negative light. Half of the tweets were tagged as disputed. In one experiment, participants rated the trustworthiness of the faces shortly after viewing them, and in the other, ratings occurred after a 10-minute gap.

In both experiments, participants rated faces paired with positive, undisputed headlines as more trustworthy than faces paired with negative, undisputed headlines. For participants who rated just after viewing, faces paired with positive or negative disputed headlines were perceived as similarly trustworthy. However, for participants who rated after a 10-minute gap, faces paired with positive, disputed headlines were rated as more trustworthy than those paired with negative, disputed headlines.

These findings suggest that disputed tags may not impact people’s long-term perceptions of faces they see on Twitter. This analysis could therefore add to growing concerns about “fake news” on social media and its potential to influence the public’s opinions and actions, including voting behaviors.

The authors note that their experiments differ from real-world settings of Twitter usage, and future research could further deepen understanding of facial perception on Twitter, potentially helping to inform efforts to combat misinformation.

The authors add: “Our data expand upon a growing and important area of research evaluating the effectiveness of measures used to combat fake news. Our results give important insights into how propaganda may potentially spread online.”

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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.0278671

Citation: Eggleston A, Cook R, Over H (2022) The influence of fake news on face-trait learning. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0278671. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278671

Author Countries: UK

Funding: This research was supported by the European Research Council under the European Union‘s Horizon 2020 Programme, grant number ERC-STG- 755719 awarded to HO and grant number ERC-2016-StG-715824 awarded to RC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0278671 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The influence of fake news on face-trait learning

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Dec-2022

Climate impacts are increasing; textbooks aren’t keeping pace

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY FINDS BIOLOGY TEXTBOOKS HAVE DONE A POOR JOB OF INCORPORATING MATERIAL RELATED TO CLIMATE CHANGE. FOR EXAMPLE, THE STUDY FOUND THAT MOST TEXTBOOKS PUBLISHED IN THE 2010S INCLUDED LESS INFORMATION ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE THAN THEY DID IN THE PREVIOUS DECADE – DESPITE SIGNIFICANT ADVANCES IN OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS INFLUENCING ECOSYSTEMS AND THE ENVIRONMENT. TEXTBOOKS ARE ALSO DEVOTING SUBSTANTIALLY LESS SPACE TO ADDRESSING CLIMATE SOLUTIONS NOW THAN THEY DID IN THE 1990S. view more 

CREDIT: JENNIFER LANDIN, NC STATE UNIVERSITY

A new study from North Carolina State University finds that biology textbooks have done a poor job of incorporating material related to climate change. For example, the study found that most textbooks published in the 2010s included less information about climate change than they did in the previous decade – despite significant advances in our understanding of how climate change is influencing ecosystems and the environment.

“In short, we found biology textbooks are failing to share adequate information about climate change, which is a generation-defining topic in the life sciences,” says Jennifer Landin, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of biological sciences at NC State. “These books are the baseline texts for helping students understand the science of life on Earth, yet they are providing very little information about a phenomenon that is having a profound impact on habitats, ecosystems, agriculture – almost every aspect of life on Earth.”

For the study, researchers analyzed coverage of climate change in 57 college biology textbooks published between 1970 and 2019. The researchers found that climate coverage has varied substantially over those five decades.

Prior to 1990, textbooks had a median of fewer than 10 sentences addressing climate change. In the 1990s, the median length of climate content was 30 sentences. The median length of climate content rose to 52 sentences in the 2000s, which is not surprising given the amount of emerging research into climate change and its impacts. However, the researchers found that the amount of climate coverage in textbooks actually declined in the 2010s – dropping to a median of 45 sentences.

In addition to length, the nature of the content has also changed substantially over time. For example, sentences dedicated to actionable solutions to climate change peaked in the 1990s at more than 15% of the climate content. However, in more recent decades, actionable solutions make up only about 3% of the climate content.

“One of the most troubling findings was that textbooks are devoting substantially less space to addressing climate solutions now than they did in the 1990s – even as they focus more on the effects of climate change,” Landin says. “That suggests to students that nothing can be done, which is both wildly misleading and contributes to a sense of fatalism regarding climate change.”

In addition, the position of climate change sections keeps moving further back in the books, from the last 15% of the overall text in the 1970s to the last 2.5% of the text in the 2010s.

“This is important because most instructors present textbook content in order, which means topics at the end of the book are often skipped,” Landin says.

“However, it’s not all bad news,” Landin adds. “Textbooks in the 2000s and 2010s began including a wider variety of climate-relevant information, such as how climate is affecting species distributions, which can help students understand the various impacts of climate change.

“However, we are hoping that this study will serve as a wake-up call for publishers and instructors. We need to do a much better job of incorporating climate change into our courses if we want to prepare students to understand the role that climate change is playing in shaping life on Earth and how we study it.”

The paper, “Coverage of climate change in introductory biology textbooks, 1970-2019,” will be published Dec. 21 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE. First author of the paper is Rabiya Arif Ansari, a former undergraduate at NC State.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Coverage of climate change in introductory biology textbooks, 1970-2019

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Dec-2022

Characters’ actions in movie scripts reflect gender stereotypes

Machine-learning framework finds female characters display less agency and more emotion than male counterparts

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: THE RESEARCHES STARTED WITH THE ANNOTATION PROCESS, WHERE THEY COLLECTED MANUAL ANNOTATIONS FOR 9,613 DESCRIPTIONS AND OVER 1.5 MILLION GENDER EXPRESSION LABELS FOR CHARACTERS. THEN THEY DEVELOPED A MACHINE LEARNING MODEL TO IDENTIFY ACTIONS, AGENTS AND PATIENTS FROM THE NATURAL LANGUAGE FOUND IN THE MOVIE SCRIPTS. IN THE FINAL STEP, THEY UNDERTOOK STATISTICAL ANALYSIS TO UNCOVER PORTRAYAL DIFFERENCES ALONG CHARACTERS’ PORTRAYED ATTRIBUTES. view more 

CREDIT: MARTINEZ ET AL., 2022, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Researchers have developed a novel machine-learning framework that uses scene descriptions in movie scripts to automatically recognize different characters’ actions. Applying the framework to hundreds of movie scripts showed that these actions tend to reflect widespread gender stereotypes, some of which are found to be consistent across time. Victor Martinez and colleagues at the University of Southern California, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on December 21.

Movies, tv shows, and other media consistently portray traditional gender stereotypes, some of which may be harmful. To deepen understanding of this issue, some researchers have explored the use of computational frameworks as an efficient and accurate way to analyze large amounts of character dialogue in scripts. However, some harmful stereotypes might be communicated not through what characters say, but through their actions.

To explore how characters’ actions might reflect stereotypes, Martinez and colleagues used a machine-learning approach to create a computational model that can automatically analyze scene descriptions in movie scripts and identify different characters’ actions. Using this model, the researchers analyzed over 1.2 million scene descriptions from 912 movie scripts produced from 1909 to 2013, identifying fifty thousand actions performed by twenty thousand characters.

Next, the researchers conducted statistical analyses to examine whether there were differences between the types of actions performed by characters of different genders. These analyses identified a number of differences that reflect known gender stereotypes.

For instance, they found that female characters tend to display less agency than male characters, and that female characters are more likely to show affection. Male characters are less likely to “sob” or “cry,” and female characters are more likely to be subjected to “gawking” or “watching” by other characters, highlighting an emphasis on female appearance.

While the researchers' model is limited by the extent of its ability to fully capture nuanced societal context relating the script to each scene and the overall narrative, these findings align with prior research on gender stereotypes in popular media, and could help raise awareness of how media might perpetuate harmful stereotypes and thereby influence people’s real-life beliefs and actions. In the future, the new machine-learning framework could be refined and applied to incorporate notions of intersectionality such as between gender, age, and race, to deepen understanding of this issue

The authors add: “Researchers have proposed using machine-learning methods to identify stereotypes in character dialogues in media, but these methods do not account for harmful stereotypes communicated through character actions. To address this issue, we developed a large-scale machine-learning framework that can identify character actions from movie script descriptions. By collecting 1.2 million scene descriptions from 912 movie scripts, we were able to study systematic gender differences in movie portrayals at a large scale.”

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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.0278604

Citation: Martinez VR, Somandepalli K, Narayanan S (2022) Boys don’t cry (or kiss or dance): A computational linguistic lens into gendered actions in film. PLoS ONE 17(12): e0278604. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278604

Author Countries: USA

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0278604 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Boys don’t cry (or kiss or dance): A computational linguistic lens into gendered actions in film

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Dec-2022

Small turtles cannot legally be sold as pets because of the Salmonella infection risk, but half of online sellers fail to provide information about the law and the disease risk

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: SMALL TURTLES CANNOT LEGALLY BE SOLD AS PETS BECAUSE OF THE SALMONELLA INFECTION RISK. view more 

CREDIT: KRIS-MIKAEL KRISTER, UNSPLASH, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)

Small turtles cannot legally be sold as pets because of the Salmonella infection risk, but half of online sellers fail to provide information about the law and the disease risk

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Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0278443

Article Title: Online sale of small turtles circumvents public health regulations in the United States

Contact: Niamh E. Keane, nkeane@uri.edu, Ph.: +1 781 530 0277; Juliana M. Marcotrigiano, marcotrigianoj@uri.edu, Ph.: +1 908 514 9288

Author Countries: USA

Funding: L.E.M., J.M.M., and N.E. Keane received an Undergraduate Research Grant from the University of Rhode Island (https://web.uri.edu/undergraduate-research/). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. J.A.S. and N.E. Karraker received an award (#2018428) from the National Science Foundation - Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology (https://beta.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/research-coordination-networks-undergraduate-biology-education-rcn-ube). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0278443 

ARTICLE TITLE

Online sale of small turtles circumvents public health regulations in the United States

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

21-Dec-2022

COI STATEMENT

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.