TEMPERATURE-SENSING BUILDING

MATERIAL CHANGES COLOR TO SAVE

ENERGY

Researchers at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) have designed a chameleon-like building material that changes its infrared color—and how much heat it absorbs or emits—based on the outside temperature. On hot days, the material can emit up to 92 percent of the infrared heat it contains, helping cool the inside of a building. On colder days, however, the material emits just 7 percent of its infrared, helping keep a building warm.

“We’ve essentially figured out a low-energy way to treat a building like a person; you add a layer when you’re cold and take off a layer when you’re hot,” said Asst. Prof. Po-Chun Hsu, who led the research published in Nature Sustainability. “This kind of smart material lets us maintain the temperature in a building without huge amounts of energy.”

 

IMAGE: THE MATERIAL CONTAINS A LAYER THAT CAN TAKE ON TWO CONFORMATIONS: SOLID COPPER THAT RETAINS MOST INFRARED HEAT, WHICH HELPS KEEP THE BUILDING WARM; OR A WATERY SOLUTION THAT EMITS INFRARED, WHICH CAN HELP COOL THE BUILDING. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PME - IMAGE COURTESY OF HSU GR

Driven by climate change
According to some estimates, buildings account for 30 percent of global energy consumption and emit 10 percent of all global greenhouse gas. About half of this energy footprint is attributed to the heating and cooling of interior spaces.

“For a long time, most of us have taken our indoor temperature control for granted, without thinking about how much energy it requires,” said Hsu. “If we want a carbon-negative future, I think we have to consider diverse ways to control building temperature in a more energy-efficient way.”

Researchers have previously developed radiative cooling materials that help keep buildings cool by boosting their ability to emit infrared, the invisible heat that radiates from people and objects. Materials also exist that prevent the emission of infrared in cold climates.

“A simple way to think about it is that if you have a completely black building facing the sun, it’s going to heat up more easily than other buildings,” said PME graduate student Chenxi Sui, the first author of the new manuscript.

That kind of passive heating might be a good thing in the winter, but not in the summer.

As global warming causes increasingly frequent extreme weather events and variable weather, there is a need for buildings to be able to adapt; few climates require year-round heating or year-round air conditioning.

From metal to liquid and back
Hsu and colleagues designed a non-flammable “electrochromic” building material that contains a layer that can take on two conformations: solid copper that retains most infrared heat, or a watery solution that emits infrared. At any chosen trigger temperature, the device can use a tiny amount of electricity to induce the chemical shift between the states by either depositing copper into a thin film, or stripping that copper off.

In the new paper, the researchers detailed how the device can switch rapidly and reversibly between the metal and liquid states. They showed that the ability to switch between the two conformations remained efficient even after 1,800 cycles.

Then, the team created models of how their material could cut energy costs in typical buildings in 15 different U.S. cities. In an average commercial building, they reported, the electricity used to induce electrochromic changes in the material would be less than 0.2% of the total electricity usage of the building, but could save 8.4% of the building’s annual HVAC energy consumption.

“Once you switch between states, you don’t need to apply any more energy to stay in either state,” said Hsu. “So for buildings where you don’t need to switch between these states very frequently, it’s really using a very negligible amount of electricity.”

Hsu Group created models of how their material could cut energy costs in typical buildings in 15 different U.S. cities, finding that, on average, the material would use less than 0.2% of the building’s total electricity, but could save 8.4% of the building’s annual HVAC energy consumption.

CREDIT

University of Chicago PME - Image courtesy of Hsu Grou

Scaling up
So far, Hsu’s group has only created pieces of the material that measure about six centimeters across. However, they imagine that many such patches of the material could be assembled like shingles into larger sheets. They say the material could also be tweaked to use different, custom colors—the watery phase is transparent and nearly any color can be put behind it without impacting its ability to absorb infrared.

The researchers are now investigating different ways of fabricating the material. They also plan to probe how intermediate states of the material could be useful.

“We demonstrated that radiative control can play a role in controlling a wide range of building temperatures throughout different seasons,” said Hsu. “We’re continuing to work with engineers and the building sector to look into how this can contribute to a more sustainable future.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Sustainability

DOI

10.1038/s41893-022-01023-2 

ARTICLE TITLE

Dynamic electrochromism for all-season radiative thermoregulation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Jan-2023

A transnational collaboration leads to the characterization of an emergent plant virus

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN PHYTOPATHOLOGICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: FIGURE 1 OF THE STUDY, SHOWING PICTURES OF NATURAL PHYSOSTEGIA CHLOROTIC MOTTLE VIRUS (PHCMOV)-INFECTED PLANTS. view more 

CREDIT: THE AUTHORS

In the 21st century, “collaboration” has become a popular buzzword, but effectively working together across disciplines and countries is easier said than done. However, authentic collaboration is critical to the fight against plant pathogens; sharing information on plant diseases facilitates early detection, efficient and rapid characterization, and subsequent management. Physostegia chlorotic mottle virus (PhCMoV), a plant disease first identified in Austria in 2018, initially received inadequate characterization. This then sparked studies across Europe as new symptoms emerged on economically important crops. These independent studies converged into one study, newly published in Plant Disease, demonstrating the power of collaboration beyond a mere buzzword.

In the coalescent study, Coline Temple and colleagues from eight laboratories across five European countries utilized prepublication sharing of high throughput sequencing (HTS) data to improve knowledge on PhCMoV biology, epidemiology, and genetic diversity.

The researchers identified PhCMoV in eight European countries, in addition to Austria, and confirmed its presence in samples collected in 2002. Mechanically inoculating PhCMoV to healthy host plants in control conditions enabled the authors to validate the association of the virus with symptoms. Their results show that PhCMoV can infect at least nine plant species and cause severe fruit symptoms on economically important crops such as tomato, eggplant, and cucumber. Additionally, sequencing 21 different infected host plants from various origins allowed for comparison of genomes, which showed that the genomes of two isolates from the same site barely evolved over 17 years. This suggests that the same isolate of the microorganism can survive without adaptation in a specific ecosystem.

In addition to characterizing an emergent plant disease, this study illustrates how solidarity and trust between scientists can accelerate a common goal. Corresponding Author Sébastien Massart reminisces on the process, commenting, “The most exciting moment of this research was when we progressively realized that we were not alone, that different research groups had suddenly and independently detected this virus in different symptomatic host plants and countries all over Europe.”

Uniting against this virus by sharing HTS data prepublication created a collaborative space free from competition, which shows how “trusting colleagues and sharing information on the most recent results between groups can facilitate synergy, accelerate virus characterization, and gather the most information in a single publication,” Massart says.

This research will ultimately benefit all plant health stakeholders and offer a solid foundation of knowledge for further studies on plant rhabdoviruses.

 

For additional details, read Biological and Genetic Characterization of Physostegia Chlorotic Mottle Virus in Europe Based on Host Range, Location, and Time published in Vol. 106, No. 11 November 2022 of Plant Disease.
 

Follow the authors and their affiliations on Twitter

@ColineTemple, @Be_Phytopath, @KrisDeJonghe2, @HeikoZiebell, @ViromeHunter, @DenisKutnjak, @AnaVucurovic, @AgroBioTech, @UniversiteLiege, @_NVWA, @Anses_fr, @INRAE_Intl, @NIB_FITO_SI

 

Follow us on Twitter @PlantDiseaseJ and visit https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/journal/pdis to learn more.

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JOURNAL

Plant Disease

DOI

10.1094/PDIS-12-21-2800-RE 

ARTICLE TITLE

Biological and genetic characterization of physostegia chlorotic mottle virus in Europe based on host range, location, and time

Milk’s packaging influences its flavor

New research in the Journal of Dairy Science® demonstrates that paperboard cartons—which are widely used in school meal programs—do not preserve milk freshness as well as other containers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ELSEVIER

Philadelphia, January 26, 2023 – The dairy industry strives to preserve the quality and safety of milk products while maintaining the freshest possible taste for consumers. To date, the industry has largely focused on packaging milk in light-blocking containers to preserve freshness, but little has been understood about how the packaging itself influences milk flavor. However, a new study in the Journal of Dairy Science®, published by Elsevier, confirms that packaging affects taste—and paperboard cartons do not preserve milk freshness as well as glass and plastic containers.

Lead investigator MaryAnne Drake, PhD, of the North Carolina State University Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, Raleigh, NC, USA, explained that “milk is more susceptible to packaging-related off-flavors than many other beverages because of its mild, delicate taste.” Besides light oxidation, “milk’s taste can be impacted by the exchange of the packaging’s compounds into the milk and by the packaging absorbing food flavors and aromas from the surrounding refrigeration environment.”

To quantify the flavor impacts of packaging, the researchers examined pasteurized whole and skim milk stored in six half pint containers: paperboard cartons, three plastic jugs (made from different plastics), a plastic bag, and glass as a control. The milk was stored in total darkness to control for light oxidation and kept cold at 4°C (39°F).

The samples were tested on the day of first processing, then again at 5, 10, and 15 days after. A trained panel examined the sensory properties of each sample, and the research team conducted a volatile compound analysis to understand how the packaging was intermingling with the milk. Finally, the samples underwent a blind consumer taste test on day 10 to see whether tasters could tell any difference between milk stored in the paperboard carton or the plastic jug compared with milk packaged in glass.

The results showed that package type does influence milk flavor, and skim milk is more susceptible to flavor impacts than whole milk. Of the different packaging types, paperboard cartons and the plastic bag preserved milk freshness the least due to the paperboard’s absorption of milk flavor and the transfer of paperboard flavor into the milk. Milk packaged in paperboard cartons, in fact, showed distinct off-flavors as well as the presence of compounds from the paperboard. The final results show that, while glass remains an ideal container for preserving milk flavor, plastic containers provide additional benefits while also maintaining freshness in the absence of light exposure.

Paperboard cartons are the most widely used packaging type for school meal programs in the United States, so these findings are especially relevant for the consideration of how young children consume and enjoy milk.

“These findings suggest that industry and policymakers might want to consider seeking new package alternatives for milk served during school meals,” said Drake. Over time, the consequences of using milk packaging that contributes significant off-flavors may affect how young children perceive milk in both childhood and adulthood.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Dairy Science

DOI

10.3168/jds.2022-22060 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

The role of packaging on the flavor of fluid milk

FRONT PAGE NEWS ABOVE THE FOLD

Legalizing recreational cannabis does not increase substance abuse, may reduce alcohol-related disorders

A study of 4,000 twins found no relationship between legalization and a wide range of psychological and social problems

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

Legalizing recreational cannabis at the state level does not increase substance use disorders or use of other illicit drugs among adults and, in fact, may reduce alcohol-related problems, according to new CU Boulder research.

The study of more than 4,000 twins from Colorado and Minnesota also found no link between cannabis legalization and increases in cognitive, psychological, social, relationship or financial problems.

“We really didn’t find any support for a lot of the harms people worry about with legalization,” said lead author Stephanie Zellers, who began the research as a graduate student at CU Boulder’s Institute for Behavioral Genetics (IBG). “From a public health perspective, these results are reassuring.”

For the study, published Jan. 5 in the journal Psychological Medicine, researchers at the University of Minnesota, CU Boulder and the CU Anschutz Medical Campus tapped data from two of the nation’s largest and longest-running twin studies: one housed at IBG and the other at the Minnesota Center for Twin Family Research.

Researchers have followed participants, now aged 24 to 49, since adolescence, collecting data on use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis (aka “marijuana”), and several illicit drugs, as well as measures of “psychosocial health.”

In 2014, Colorado became one of the first two states in the U.S. to commence legal sales of recreational marijuana. In Minnesota, recreational use of cannabis remains illegal. 

The power of twin studies

By comparing the 40% of twins who live in recreationally legal states to those who live in states where it is still illegal, the researchers set out to get a general sense of the impact of legalization.

In addition, by specifically comparing twin to twin in 240 pairs in which one lives in a state that has legalized and the other in a state that has not, researchers sought to determine what changes, if any, cannabis legalization causes.

“This co-twin design automatically controls for a wide range of variables, including age, social background, early home life and even genetic inheritance” that can influence health outcomes, said John Hewitt, professor of psychology and neuroscience at CU Boulder. “If the association holds up, it provides strong evidence that the environment, in this case legalization, is having an impact.”

In a previous study, the group found that identical twins living in states where cannabis is legal used it about 20% more frequently than their twin in states where it’s illegal.

The logical next question: Does more use mean more problems?

To find out, the team compared survey results looking at 23 measures of "psychosocial distress," including use of alcohol and illicit drugs such as cocaine and heroin, psychotic behavior, financial distress, cognitive problems, unemployment, and relationships at work and at home.

“We included everything we had data on with the goal of getting a well-rounded look at the impacts on the whole person,” said Zellers. “Big picture, there’s not much there.”

Surprisingly, they found no relationship between legalizing cannabis and heightened risk of cannabis use disorder, or cannabis addiction. 

While many critics of legalization have expressed concern that cannabis could serve as a “gateway drug” to other more harmful substances, the researchers found no changes in illicit drug use after legalization.

“For low-level cannabis use, which was the majority of users, in adults, legalization does not appear to increase the risk of substance use disorders,” said co-author Dr. Christian Hopfer, a medical doctor and professor of psychiatry at IBG and CU Anschutz who studies substance abuse disorders.

Twins in states where cannabis is legal did show fewer symptoms of alcohol use disorder: Specifically, they were less likely to engage in risky behavior after drinking, such as driving while intoxicated.

‘No drug is risk-free’

The authors caution that the study did not look at impacts on adolescents and did not look closely at the kinds and dosages of cannabis people were using.

“Our study suggests that we should not be overly concerned about everyday adult use in a legalized environment, but no drug is risk-free,” said Hewitt. “It would be a mistake to dismiss the risks from higher doses of a drug that is relatively safe in small amounts.”

The study found no evidence that legalizing cannabis benefits psychosocial health, either.

Today, 21 states have legalized recreational cannabis. Half the U.S. population lives in a place where it is legal, and several more—including Minnesota—are considering legalization.

Zellers, who recently earned a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, hopes the paper, and more to come, will help inform policy conversations about legalization.

“I would love for us to get past this question of, ‘Is legalization good or bad?’ and move toward more specific questions like, ‘Who is most at risk? Who can benefit the most? And how?’ So that people can make informed choices,” Zellers said. 

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JOURNAL

Psychological Medicine

DOI

10.1017/S0033291722003762 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Recreational cannabis legalization has had limited effects on a wide range of adult psychiatric and psychosocial outcomes

Outlook for the blue economy

Climate modelers add ocean biogeochemistry and fisheries to forecasts of future upwelling using TACC's Frontera supercomputer

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, TEXAS ADVANCED COMPUTING CENTER

 

IMAGE: PROJECTED CHANGE (DEFINED AS THE MEAN OVER THE FUTURE PERIOD OF 2071–2100 MINUS THE MEAN OVER THE HISTORICAL PERIOD OF 1991–2020) OF ALONGSHORE WIND STRESS (×10−2 N M−2) SHOWN IN LONGITUDE-LATITUDE PLANE (UPPER) FOR CCS (A), CUS (B), P-CUS (C, D), BUS (E), AND PROJECTED CHANGE OF WIND STRESS CURL (×10−7 N M−3) (MIDDLE) FOR CCS (F), CUS (G), P-CUS (H, I), BUS(J). view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: CHANG, P., XU, G., KURIAN, J. ET AL.

A handful of hyper-productive fisheries provide sustenance to a billion people and employ tens of millions. These fisheries occur on the eastern edges of the world's oceans — off the West Coast of the U.S., the Canary Islands, Peru, Chile, and Benguela. There, a process called upwelling brings cold water and nutrients to the surface, which in turn supports large numbers of larger sea creatures that humans depend on for sustenance.

A new project led by researchers at Texas A&M University is seeking to understand how changes to the climate and oceans will impact fisheries in the U.S. and around the world.

"We're interested in how climate change is going to alter upwelling and how the sustainability of the future fisheries will be impacted," said Ping Chang, Louis & Elizabeth Scherck Chair in Oceanography at Texas A&M University (TAMU). "It turns out that when we increase the resolution of our climate models, we find that the upwelling simulation becomes much closer to reality."

Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the project aims to develop medium to long-term fishery forecasts, driven by some of the highest-resolution coupled climate forecasts ever run. It is one of the 16 Convergence Accelerator Phase 1 projects that address the ‘Blue Economy' — the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth. Convergence projects integrate scholars from different science disciplines.

The TAMU team, led by oceanographer Piers Chapman, includes computational climate modelers, marine biogeochemical modelers, fishery modelers, decision support system experts, and risk communications scholars from academia, federal agencies, and industry.

Chang and Gokhan Danabasoglu at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) lead the climate modeling component of the research. They use the Frontera supercomputer at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) — the fastest academic supercomputer in the U.S. — to power their research.

In the 1990s, marine biologist Andrew Bakun proposed that a warming climate would increase upwelling in the eastern boundary regions. He reasoned that since land is warming faster than the oceans, the temperature gradient between land and ocean would drive a stronger wind, which makes upwelling stronger. However, recent historical data suggests the opposite might in fact be the norm.

"A lot of papers written in the past use coarse resolution models that don't resolve upwelling very well," Chang said. "High resolution models so far predict upwelling in most areas, not increasing. The models are predicting warmer, not colder temperatures in these waters. In Chile and Peru, the warming is quite significant — 2-3ºC warming in the worst case scenario, which is business as usual. That can be bad news for upwelling."

The areas where upwelling occur are quite narrow and localized, but their impact on the marine ecosystem is very large. The eastern Pacific upwelling, for instance, is only about 100 kilometers wide. The climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have a resolution of 100 kilometers — and would therefore only produce one data point for the upwelling region, not nearly enough to predict future changes accurately.

On the other hand, the model used by Chang and his colleagues uses a resolution of 10 kilometers in each direction. These are 100 times more resolved than the IPCC models — and require roughly 100 times the compute power.

Chang's study relies on two separate, but related, sets of simulations. The first set involves an ensemble (the same model run with a slightly different starting point to produce a statistically valid result) of high-resolution coupled Earth system models. The second incorporates observed data in the atmosphere to generate realistic ocean states that are then used to initialize the model prediction. Starting from 1982, it will perform five-year retrospective forecasts to determine the skill of the model in forecasting upwelling effects.

"There's a limit to how far out you can make a forecast," Chang said. "Beyond a certain time limit, the model no longer has skill. At five years, our model still shows useful skill."

The team reported their results in Nature's Communications Earth & Environment in January 2023.

The Blue Economy project continues the TAMU-NCAR team's multi-decade effort to upgrade global climate models so they are higher resolution and more physically accurate. The model used by the team was one of a handful of high-resolution Earth system models that were included in the most recent IPCC report and are being explored by an IPCC subcommittee. They represent the future of global climate modeling.

At 10 kilometer resolution, researchers believe it is possible for models to realistically generate extreme weather events like tropical cyclones or atmospheric rivers, as well as more refined predictions of how climate in a specific region will change. However, models at this resolution still cannot resolve clouds, which requires models with a few kilometer resolution and can currently only be integrated for short-term, not climate, timescales.

The effort to capture the Earth system continues to improve.

The TAMU-NCAR project will be one of the first to incorporate biogeochemical models of the ocean and fisheries models into Earth system models at 10 km resolution.

"TACC is unique in providing resources for researchers like us to tackle the fundamental questions of science," Chang said. "Our goal is not routine forecasts. What we want is a better understanding of the Earth system dynamics that are missing in current climate models to make our model and our methods better. Without Frontera, I don't know if we could make simulations like we do. It's critical."

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JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s43247-023-00681-0 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Uncertain future of sustainable fisheries environment in eastern boundary upwelling zones under climate change

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Jan-2023

Ping Chang, Louis & Elizabeth Scherck Chair in Oceanography, Texas A&M University

CREDIT  TAMU

Frontera, the fastest academic supercomputer in the U.S.

CREDIT   Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC)

Transcendental Meditation (TM) effective in reducing burnout and depression symptoms in physicians

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MAHARISHI INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THIS FIGURE SHOWS THE WITHIN-GROUP EFFECT SIZES (MEAN CHANGE DIVIDED BY POOLED STANDARD DEVIATION) FOR THE TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION GROUP AND THE TREATMENT-AS-USUAL CONTROL GROUP ON BURNOUT, AS MEASURED BY THE MASLACH BURNOUT INVENTORY, AND DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS, AS MEASURED BY THE BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY-2. BETWEEN-GROUP STATISTICS COMPARING TM TO THE CONTROL GROUP YIELDED SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GROUPS ON BOTH BURNOUT AND DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS (P VALUES <.02). view more 

CREDIT: MAHARISHI INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

According to a randomized controlled study, published in Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, physicians who practiced the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique showed significant reductions in both burnout and depression symptoms. Research conducted at Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago found that practice of Transcendental Meditation produced large effect sizes in decreasing burnout and depression symptoms in academic physicians; controls exhibited smaller effect sizes. The research was done pre-covid.

Marie Loiselle, PhD, lead author and senior researcher at the Center for Social-Emotional Health at Maharishi International University, stated: “Prior to treatment, the physicians were discouraged by the impact that burnout was having on their work and personal lives. To see both burnout and depression reduced significantly across 1- and 4-month posttests for the Transcendental Meditation group indicates a real possibility for alleviating these symptoms throughout the health profession."

Sanford Nidich, EdD, co-author and director of the Center for Social-Emotional Health, explained that “these findings are consistent with research on Transcendental Meditation recently published in JAMA Network Open and the Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians showing large within-group effect sizes due to TM on burnout and depression symptoms in healthcare provider groups. The findings are also consistent with research on other populations.”

Forty academic physicians were enrolled in the four-month study, comparing the TM technique to treatment-as-usual controls. TM is described as a simple, effortless technique, practiced for 20 minutes twice a day, sitting with eyes closed. TM allows ordinary thinking processes to become more quiescent, resulting in a unique state of restful alertness. Controls continued with their usual care throughout the duration of the study. The primary outcome was total burnout, using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-2) was also used to determine effectiveness of TM on depression symptoms over the same time-period.  

Repeated measures analysis of covariance was used to assess adjusted mean change scores. Significant improvements were found for the TM group compared to controls in total burnout (P=.020) including the MBI dimensions of emotional exhaustion (P=.042) and personal accomplishment (P=.018), and depression (P=.016).  

The following is a sample of responses from semi-structured interviews with TM participants about their experiences:

“I’m more relaxed about things overall, more accepting, calmer, not as revved up by things. I think that is the biggest change.”

“If I am feeling really bothered by the day, I’m able to get over it easier and shift over to focusing on home.”

According to Gregory Gruener, MD, study co-author and Vice Dean for Education, Stritch School of Medicine, Loyola University Chicago: “Longevity in a career that will last 40 to 50 years requires a physician to embrace the ‘long-view’.  While knowledge, skills and attitude are fundamental, Transcendental Meditation provides the clarity of mind and calmness that makes this journey as enjoyable and fulfilling as the destination.”

*

Funding support: This study was supported by grants from Loyola University and other private foundations and individual donors. The article is titled, “Effects of Transcendental Meditation on Academic Physician Burnout and Depression: A Mixed Methods Randomized Controlled Trial.”

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JOURNAL

Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions

DOI

10.1097/CEH0000000000000472 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Effects of transcendental meditation on academic physician burnout and depression: A mixed methods randomized controlled trial

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Jan-2023

Poor literacy linked to worse mental health worldwide, study shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Peer reviewed - Systematic review - humans

People with poor literacy battle more mental health problems worldwide, according to new research from the University of East Anglia.

A new study published today is the first to look at the global picture of literacy and mental health.

Fourteen percent of the world’s population still has little or no literacy – and the study finds that they are more likely to suffer mental health issues such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety.

The team, from UEA’s Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Therapies (CPPT), say their findings disproportionately affect women, who account for two thirds of the world’s illiterate.

Dr Bonnie Teague from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said: “Despite rising literacy rates over the past 50 years, there are still an estimated 773 million adults globally who can’t read or write. Literacy rates are lower in developing countries and those with a history of conflict, and women are disproportionately affected.

“We know that people with better literacy tend to have better social outcomes in terms of things like finding employment, being paid well, and being able to afford better food and housing. Not being able to read or write holds a person back throughout their life and they often become trapped in poverty or more likely to commit crime.

“We also know that lower literacy is related to poorer health, chronic diseases and shorter life expectancy.

“There has been some research examining the potential association between literacy and mental health but this is the first study looking at the issue on a global scale.”

The team reviewed data from 19 studies that measured both literacy and mental health. These studies took place across nine different countries (USA, China, Nepal, Thailand, Iran, India, Ghana, Pakistan, and Brazil) and involved almost two million participants.

Dr Lucy Hunn completed this systematic review as part of her Doctorate in clinical psychology training at UEA. She said: “We used information relating to mental health and literacy to assess the global reported relationship between these two factors.

“What we found is a significant association between literacy and mental health outcomes across multiple countries.

“People with lower literacy had greater mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression.

“We can’t say for sure that poor literacy causes poor mental health, but there is a strong association.

“There may be multiple factors impacting on mental health which also impact literacy - such as poverty or living in an area with a history of conflict. However, what the data does show is that even in these places, you still see worse mental health for those without literacy skills.

“This work highlights the importance of mental health services being aware of and supporting literacy,” she added.

Literacy and Mental Health Across the Globe: A Systematic Review is published in the journal Mental Health and Social Inclusion.

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JOURNAL

Mental Health and Social Inclusion

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Literacy and Mental Health Across the Globe: A Systematic Review

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jan-2023