Wednesday, February 15, 2023

Instagram can be a positive force for women with mental illness, according to Concordia researcher

Fanny Gravel-Patry says that some users find relief, comfort and validation on the much-maligned app

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

The image-based social media app Instagram has come under repeated and sustained attacks over the negative mental-health effects it has on its users, in particular young women and girls, over the past few years. The extent of Instagram’s potential for harm is still being widely debated, but a Concordia researcher argues in a new paper that regular use of the app is not necessarily a bad thing. And it can in some instances be beneficial to women with mental-health issues, including eating disorders and anxiety.

In a paper published in the journal Feminist Media Studies, Concordia PhD candidate and 2021 Public Scholar Fanny Gravel-Patry conducts an in-depth study of women’s use of Instagram in their daily lives. The study follows the social media habits of three Quebec women living with mental illness who have incorporated Instagram use into their daily habits and found that it has positive effects on their mental health. She notes that they use the app in a variety of ways depending on their personalities, whether creating and finding mental-health resources, sharing their healing journeys or capturing screen shots of inspirational posts. Gravel-Patry says Instagram has a soothing effect on these women that helps them cope with limited access to mental-health resources.

“I was interested in why they are turning to the platform, what kind of content they consume and create and what they find there they can’t find elsewhere,” Gravel-Patry notes.

Healing digital habits

She says there are good reasons to focus on women's digital habits. First, adopting regular habits is often the first step people living with mental illness can do to improve their mental health, whether it is taking up exercise, going to therapy, crafting, writing in a journal or spending constructive time online. Second, she was interested in seeing how the women she interviewed were able to break away from the pattern of repetitive images portraying women as hysterical or prone to insanity to create new, more positive discourses. And third, she wanted to see if social media habits can produce a healing transformation in the long run.

“I was trying to put all of this together to see how social media fits here as something that assists in recovery and not as something that hinders it,” she says. “I also wanted to consider it not as the best tool necessarily, but because it is a tool that is available to them.”

All three women Gravel-Patry focuses on for her study are Quebec graduate students. One suffers from an eating disorder, another is dealing with generalized anxiety and an eating disorder and the third lives with anxiety, body image issues and traumas related to her childhood experiences of racism.

All of them use Instagram regularly as a way of coping with their mental illness but in different ways. One decided to share her recovery process through her account, while the other two preferred a more anonymous approach, such as taking screenshots of positive memes or following accounts with content that allays feelings of anxiety.

Mental health meets platform capitalism

She notes that Instagram is not inherently beneficial. As a company operating in the platform-capitalism paradigm, it bears its share of responsibility for contributing to an economic system that profits off women and girls who can be negatively impacted by it. This takes on added relevance at a time when mental health–care funding is targeted to self-care initiatives such as developing digital mental-health tools.

“Because there are limited resources, people do not have the choice but to take care of their own mental health and go on apps like Instagram,” she says. “But these are apps that ultimately encourage the structure of individualized commodification.”

Read the cited paper: “A series of little high fives”: mental health and digital habituation in women’s Instagram practices.”

JOURNAL

Feminist Media Studies

DOI

10.1080/14680777.2022.2149603

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

“A series of little high fives”: mental health and digital habituation in women’s Instagram practices

New research shows female selfie posting can be driven by aggression

New research from Swansea University shows that female selfie posting is associated with intimidatory self-presentation strategies, linked to higher levels of aggression.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY

New research from Swansea University shows that female selfie posting is associated with intimidatory self-presentation strategies, linked to higher levels of aggression.

The study, conducted by Professor Phil Reed from the University’s Faculty of Science and Engineering and academics from the University of Strathclyde, has been published in the Journal of Social Media in Society.

The team examined the posting of selfies and non-selfies on social media by 150 individuals, separately assessing the degree to which they adopted different types of self-presentation strategies; how people act with others to make an impression.

On average, females posted five selfies and ten non-selfies a month, compared to two selfies and six non-selfies by males. However, there was a large range of selfie posts, with some people posting more than 40 selfies a month.

For females, the strongest predictor of selfie posting was the degree to which they adopted intimidatory self-presentational strategies. The more they tended to emit actions in the real world with an intent to project a powerful and dangerous personality to induce fear in others, the more they posted selfies. These selfies were not directed specifically at either males or females, but at the online community in general.

Males did not show any relationship between real-world intimidatory self-presentation and selfie posting, but their desire to avoid punishment, that is, to fit in and be accepted, predicted the sharing of selfies.

This finding contrasts with previous studies conducted in real-world situations, where females do not display associations between this aggressive characteristic and their behaviours as strongly as males.

Professor Phil Reed from Swansea University’s School of Psychology said: “When the usual social constraints that operate in the ‘real world’ are removed, it could facilitate the expression of this aggressive facet of female personality.”

Professor Reed added: “These results suggest that traditional androcentric views of aggression need to be altered.

“Thinking of aggression by females as a result of some slightly male-like physiology in those females or as a mating strategy directed against other females will not do.

“Rather, digital behaviour suggests women are not programmed to be passive but are just as actively aggressive as men, and, in some circumstances, more so – and not just when getting a mate.”

This research follows earlier work by the team published in the journal, Personality and Individual Differences, which also found that intimidatory self-presentation was most strongly associated with selfie posting by females.

The data further revealed that, while males were generally more assertive than females in the real world, there was no difference in the use of real-world aggressive self-presentation strategies between genders; in fact, males tended to show higher levels of ingratiation strategies than females.

Professor Reed said: “While males reported being more assertive in the real world, these behaviours were not always associated with their online behaviour, where females tended to let their aggressive traits guide their behaviour more than males. This may reflect the operation of a different set of social-role norms or their absence in online settings."

-END-

Note to editors:

When reporting this story, please use Swansea University hyperlinks.

Founded in 1920, Swansea University is a world-class, research-led, dual campus university offering an exceptional student experience to more than 22,000 students. The University celebrated its centenary in 2020 and commemorative events to mark the occasion will continue in 2021. The 2014 Research Excellence Framework ranked Swansea University 26th in the UK for research excellence, and in 2018 the University achieved a gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Swansea is a UK top 25 institution, having climbed to 24th the Guardian University Guide 2021, and was ranked 6th for overall student satisfaction in the National Student Survey 2020. Swansea currently offers around 450 undergraduate courses and 350 postgraduate courses.

Swansea University is a registered charity. No. 1138342.

For more information, please contact Ffion White, Swansea University Press Office Call 01792 602706 or Email: F.E.White@Swansea.ac.uk

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/swanseauniversity

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Intimidatory assertive self-presentation in selfie posting is greater in females than males

New report exposes steep declines in data science skills among fourth- and eighth-graders nationwide

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

CHICAGO – A new report from the Data Science 4 Everyone coalition reveals that data literacy skills among fourth and eighth-grade students have declined significantly over the last decade even as these skills have become increasingly essential in our modern, data-driven society.

Based on data from the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress results, the report uncovered several trends that raise concerns about whether the nation’s educational system is sufficiently preparing young people for a world reshaped by the rise of big data and artificial intelligence.

Key findings include:

The pandemic decline is part of a much longer-term trend. Between 2019 and 2022, scores in the data analysis, statistics, and probability section of the NAEP math exam fell by 10 points for eighth-graders and by four points for fourth-graders. Declining scores are part of a longer-term trend, with scores down 17 points for eighth-graders and down 10 points for fourth-graders over the last decade. That means today’s eighth-graders have the data literacy of sixth-graders from a decade ago, and today’s fourth-graders have the data literacy of third-graders from a decade ago.
There are large racial gaps in scores. These gaps exist across all grade levels but are at times most dramatic in the middle and high school levels. For instance, fourth-grade Black students scored 28 points lower – the equivalent of nearly three grade levels – than their white peers in data analysis, statistics, and probability.
Data-related instruction is in decline. Every state except Alabama reported a decline or stagnant trend in data-related instruction, with some states – like Maryland and Iowa – seeing double-digit drops. The national share of fourth-grade math teachers reporting “moderate” or “heavy” emphasis on data analysis dropped five percentage points between 2019 and 2022.

“The ability to interpret, understand, and work with data is central to so many aspects of our lives and careers today. Data literacy is a must-have for every employee, every business owner, and every participant in our democracy,” said Zarek Drozda, the director of Data Science 4 Everyone, and author of the report. “Schools that prioritize teaching these skills are setting their students up for success in the modern economy, opening doors to a wider variety of options post-graduation, and building confidence for students to pursue these disciplines in higher education, including in STEM.”

Beyond STEM, the report recommends that schools build data literacy connections within subjects across the curriculum, such as social studies or English. “Digital Humanities” is an emerging field that uses data to reveal new insights into literature and history, for example. Data Science 4 Everyone is similarly encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration via their lesson plan challenge, which provides cash prizes to teachers working together to teach data science principles.

To download a copy of the full report, visit Data Science 4 Everyone’s website, or https://tinyurl.com/3ud9mfay.

About Data Science 4 Everyone

Data Science 4 Everyone (DS4E) is a coalition and national initiative advancing data science education so that every K-12 student is equipped with the data literacy skills needed to succeed in our modern world. Equitable access to data science education is an opportunity to open doors to higher education, high-paying careers, and an engaged community. DS4E is based at the University of Chicago.

Hospitality and real estate sectors have highest rates of common mental health problems, study finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Mental health problems such as depression are most common in the hospitality and real estate sectors, but – at least prior to the COVID-19 pandemic – were on the increase across the board, according to new research.

Researchers from the University of Cambridge and University College London found significant gender disparities of common mental health problems against females in over half of the twenty industries studied, with the smallest gap being in the transport and storage industry and the highest gap being in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry.

In the UK, around one in seven people in the workplace experiences mental health problems, and women are nearly twice as likely to have mental health problems as men. More than half of all sickness absence days can be attributed to mental health conditions. It is estimated that economic losses caused by mental health problems account for about 4.1% of UK GDP, and that better mental health support in the workplace can save UK businesses up to £8 billion per year.

The researchers analysed data from almost 20,000 people aged between 16 and 65 across 20 industries. This data was collected as part of the Health Survey for England, a representative repeated cross-sectional survey of people in England, looking at changes in the health and lifestyles of people all over the country. The results are published in Frontiers in Public Health.

The team found an overall increase in the proportion of people reporting mental health problems, up from 16.0% in 2012-14 to 18.8% in 2016-2018. None of the industries studied experienced significant decreases in prevalence, but three industries – wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; construction; and other service activities – saw significant increases.

Common mental health problems were most prevalent among those who were not working, with around one in three (33.7%) people reporting problems. In the hospitality sector (accommodation and food services) and real estate, just under one in four people (23.8% and 23.6, respectively) reported mental health problems.

The lowest prevalence was seen among professional, scientific and technical activities (15.0%), agriculture, forestry and fishing (9.6%) and mining and quarrying (6.2%).

Dr Shanquan Chen from the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, said: “Jobs that involve working face to face with the public, particularly where the employee has a degree of responsibility, and those that involve working irregular and long hours can all be emotionally demanding or even expose employees to violence and verbal aggression. This in turn could contribute to higher rates of mental health problems.”

“Nevertheless, we would still strongly encourage industry leaders – particularly in those sectors that fare worst, such as the hospitality and real estate sectors – to take an urgent look and try to identify and address the underlying issues.”

In the majority of industries (11 out of 20), mental health problems were more common among females than they were among males. This was highest in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, where more than one in four women (26.0%) reported problems compared to around one in 20 (5.6%) of men. Not working also appeared to have a much bigger impact on females (45.0%) compared to males (21.7%).

From 2012-2014 to 2016-2018, gender disparities had widened in all but two sectors - human health and social work activities, and transport storage.

Previous studies have identified some risk factors that have gender-specific impacts on mental health. For example, working full-time decreases the risk of mental problems among males, but not among females; fixed-term contract only increases the risk of mental problems among females; males are more affected by changes in tasks at work, while lack of training, low motivation and weak social support are drivers of mental problems among females. However, the researchers say that the existing evidence cannot explain why there were disparities in some industries but not others.

The study was supported by the Medical Research Council and the NIHR Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre.

Reference
Chen, S & Wang, Y. Industry-specific prevalence and gender disparity of common mental health problems in the UK: A national repetitive cross-sectional study. Frontiers in Public Health; 9 Feb 2023; DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1054964

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Public Health

DOI

10.3389/fpubh.2023.1054964

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Industry-specific prevalence and gender disparity of common mental health problems in the UK: A national repetitive cross-sectional study

When it comes to financial uncertainty, men go out on a limb

Research finds men take more risks on spending decisions when the prospects of financial returns are unknown

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

In everyday life, people have to make decisions in uncertain situations in which they have incomplete information, but how individuals behave in such instances is influenced by their gender. Men are more likely to interpret any information about an investment opportunity “optimistically” and can more easily be persuaded into making risky financial decisions, suggests new research from the Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego.

The study, which is forthcoming in the journal Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, builds on existing research that shows women are more risk averse than men. However, “risk” in previous research is most usually defined as situations in which people know the specific probabilities involved, like a 50% chance of winning a coin flip.

“The uncertainty we encounter in everyday life rarely includes such precise odds – usually people have to make a decision with partial or incomplete information,” said Uma Karmarkar, study author and assistant professor of marketing and innovation at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management and School of Global Policy and Strategy. “This research finds that men and women actually show very similar responses in low-information, uncertain financial decisions. However, it also shows a key difference: as information is added, men tend to interpret it favorably, which in turn convinces them to increase the amount of money they’re willing to invest.”

The more information you give men – good or bad – the more they pay compared to women

The research has implications for how men and women might make decisions in a range of professional settings, such as women’s likelihood to compete for leadership roles or their financial investing performance.

The primary findings were shown in two specific experiments conducted in person and online with almost 500 participants.

The experiments in the study were modeled after real-world investment decision-making, in which participants had to make spending choices using real money.

Participants in the in-person experiments were asked to play games involving actual cash stakes. For each game, they considered a bag filled with 100 red and blue poker chips. Participants had to choose how much they were willing to pay – up to $10 for a “ticket” to play a game where a single chip would be drawn from the bag. If a red chip was drawn, they would win $20. If a blue chip was drawn, they’d win nothing. However, players did not know how much of each color was in the bag. In each game, they were given a little bit of information about the colors of some of the chips, which left them overall uncertain. And each player had the option not to bet at all and pocket the $10.

“The information we added was intentionally kept ambiguous,” Karmarkar said. “We would give them some good information, some bad information and we kept some information missing. For example, we would tell them that the bag has at least 17 red chips and at least 20 blue chips, so that information on the rest of the chips is still clearly missing, with participants having to ‘gamble’ on the probability that a red chip would be pulled from the bag.”

The results revealed that when there is little information overall, both men and women are wary about spending, but the more information you give men – good or bad – the more they pay compared to women. As the total amount of information increases, the gap in behavior continues to widen.

“Missing information clearly bothers women more than men in this experiment,” Karmarkar said. “As such, this research implies that men can be more easily persuaded to spend, but this is significantly related to the availability of relevant information about the situation.”

The in-person experiment was conducted on the UC San Diego campus and included over 200 participants, mostly students, with about 58% women and about 42% men whose average age was 20. The results were replicated online with 274 participants. These individuals ranged in age from 19 to 77 (with an average age of 42), and they did not play the games with real money. The online participants consisted of about 48% women and 52% men. The replication included basic controls for factors like education, age and income and still found significant differences in decisions between genders.

For a copy of the full study, “Gender Differences in ‘Optimistic’ Information Processing in Uncertain Decisions,” please email Christine Clark at ceclark@ucsd.edu.

JOURNAL

Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Gender Differences in ‘Optimistic’ Information Processing in Uncertain Decisions

Smart contact lens with navigation function, made with 3D printer!

Micro-pattern printing even on curved non-conductors without applying voltage

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

[Figure1] Meniscus phenomenon — IMAGE: IMAGE SHOWING MENISCUS PHENOMENON view more
CREDIT: KOREA ELECTROTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Dr. Seol Seung-Kwon's Smart 3D Printing Research Team at KERI and Professor Lim-Doo Jeong's team at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) developed core technology for smart contact lenses that can implement augmented reality (AR)-based navigation, with a 3D printing process.

A smart contact lens is a product attached to the human eye like a normal lens and provides various information. Research on the lens is being conducted mainly on diagnosing and treating health. Recently, Google and others are developing smart contact lenses for displays that can implement AR. Still, many obstacles to commercialization exist due to severe technical challenges.

In implementing AR with smart contact lenses, electrochromic1) displays that can be driven with low power are suitable, and "Pure Prussian Blue" color, with high price competitiveness and quick contrast and transition between colors, is attracting attention as the lens’ material. However, in the past, the color was coated on the substrate in the form of a film using the electric plating method2), which limited the production of advanced displays that can express various information (letters, numbers, images)."

The achievement of KERI-UNIST lies in the fact that it is a technology that can realize AR by printing micro-patterns on a lens display using a 3D printer without applying voltage. The key is the Meniscus of used ink. The Meniscus is a phenomenon in which a curved surface is formed on the outer wall without water droplets bursting due to capillary action when water droplets are gently pressed or pulled with a certain pressure.

Prussian blue is crystallized through solvent evaporation in the Meniscus formed between the micronozzle and the substrate. The meniscus of the acidic-ferric-ferricyanide ink is formed on the substrate when the ink-filled micronozzle and substrate come in contact. Heterogeneous crystallization of FeFe(CN)6 occurs on the substrate within the meniscus via spontaneous reactions of the precursor ions (Fe3+ and Fe(CN)3−) at room temperature. Simultaneously, the solvent evaporation is occurred at the meniscus surface. When water evaporates from the meniscus, the water molecules and precursor ions move toward the meniscus surface by convective flow, generating a preferential accumulation of the precursor ions in the outer part of the meniscus. This phenomenon induces the edge-enhanced crystallization of FeFe(CN)6; this is crucial for controlling the factors that influence the crystallization of FeFe(CN)6 in the printing step to obtain uniformly printed PB patterns on a substrate. As with conventional electroplating, the substrate used to have to be a conductor when voltage was applied, but a great advantage of using the meniscus phenomenon is that there is no restriction on the substrate that can be used because crystallization occurs by natural evaporation of the solvent.

Through the precise movement of the nozzle, the crystallization of Prussian blue is continuously performed, thereby forming micro-patterns. Patterns can be formed not only on flat surfaces but also on curved surfaces. The research team's micro-pattern technology is very fine (7.2 micrometers) that can be applied to smart contact lens displays for AR, and the color is continuous and uniform.

The main expected application area is navigation. Simply by wearing a lens, navigation unfolds in front of a person's eyes through AR. Games such as the popular 'Pokemon Go' can also be enjoyed with smart contact lenses, not smartphones.

Dr. Seol Seung-Kwon's of KERI said, "Our achievement is a development of 3D printing technology that can print functional micro-patterns on non-planner substrate that can commercialize advanced smart contact lenses to implement AR." He added, "It will greatly contribute to the miniaturization and versatility of AR devices."

The related research results were recently published as a cover articler in Advanced Science (IF 17.521/JCR 4.71%), a world-renowned academic journal in the field of materials science, in recognition of its excellence.

The research team believes that this achievement will attract a lot of attention from companies related to batteries and biosensors that require micro-patterning of Prussian blue as well as the AR field, and plans to find related demand companies and promote technology transfer.

Meanwhile, KERI is a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT's National Research Council for Science and Technology. Dr. Seol Seung-Kwon is also a professor at the KERI campus of the University of Science and Technology (UST). <KERI>

1) Electrochromism: a phenomenon where the color of a substance changes reversibly due to an electrochemical reaction.

2) Plating is the process of applying a thin layer of another metal to improve the surface condition of an object. In this process, if electrical energy is used, it is called 'electroplating,' and if chemical reactions are utilized without electricity, it is referred to as 'electroless plating.' Particularly electroplating is mainly used in the production of jewelry such as rings.

Crystallization of FeFe(CN)6 occurs on the substrate in a region confined by the meniscus, forming the uniform pattern. FeFe(CN)6 pattern is converted to the PB (Fe4[Fe(CN)6]3) via thermal reduction.

Image presents a schematic of the PB-based EC display with a navigation function in an AR smart contact lens that shows directions to the destination to a user on the EC display by receiving GPS coordinates in real time.

Cover image of Advanced Science Meniscus-guided micro-printing of Prussian Blue is realized by the localized crystallization of FeFe(CN)6 on the substrate confined by the ink meniscus and thermal reduction of the crystallized FeFe(CN)6. This strategy is capable of being used as an electrochromic display to give real-time directions on an augmented reality (AR) smart contact lens device.

CREDIT

Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute

JOURNAL

Advanced Science

DOI

10.1002/advs.202205588

ARTICLE TITLE

Meniscus-Guided Micro-Printing of Prussian Blue for Smart Electrochromic Display

Cocaine addiction makes the brain age faster, suggests study

Scientists find differences in DNA methylation inside brain region important for inhibitory control in people with cocaine use disorder

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FRONTIERS

Scientists tend to view substance addiction as primarily a disease of the brain. When we enjoy sex, food, music, or hobbies, regions of our brain within the reward pathway are flooded with pleasure-inducing dopamine. Drugs like cocaine copy this effect, except up to ten times more strongly. Healthy brains aren’t at the mercy of such dopamine rushes, however: there, the prefrontal cortex weighs options and can decide to forego pleasurable activities when it’s not the time or place. In contrast, such ‘inhibitory control’ is impaired in the addicted brain, making it hard to resist. But what are the biochemical changes in the prefrontal cortex that cause this impairment?

Now, scientists from Germany and Canada have shown in Frontiers in Psychiatry that in humans, cocaine use disorder (CUD) leads to changes in the ‘methylome’ of a subregion within the prefrontal cortex, Brodmann Area 9, thought to be important for self-awareness and inhibitory control. Typically, a greater degree of DNA methylation leads to the ‘dialing down’ of nearby genes.

“As DNA methylation is an important regulatory mechanism for gene expression, the identified DNA methylation alterations might contribute to functional changes in the human brain and thereby to the associated behavioral aspects of addiction,” said first author Eric Poisel, a PhD student at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany.

Because the study of the brain methylome is invasive, the study was done on the cryo-preserved brains of 42 deceased male donors, of whom half had had CUD while the other half had not. This is important, because most earlier studies in this field were done on the brains of rats.

Brain cells may age faster in people addicted to cocaine

The researchers found evidence that cells in Brodmann Area 9 appear biologically ‘older’ in people with CUD, evidence that these cells age faster than in people without substance use disorders. Here, they used patterns of DNA methylation as a measure of the biological age of cells in Brodmann Area 9. The biological age of cells, tissues, and organs can be greater or less than their chronological age, depending on diet, lifestyle, and exposure to disease or harmful environmental factors. Scientists can thus estimate the biological age from methylome data with established mathematical algorithms.

“We detected a trend towards stronger biological aging of the brain in individuals with cocaine use disorder compared to individuals without cocaine use disorder. This could be caused by cocaine-related disease processes in the brain, such as inflammation or cell death,” said lead author Dr Stephanie Witt, a researcher at the same institute.

“As biological age estimation is a very recent concept in addiction research and is influenced by many factors, further studies are required to investigate this phenomenon, with larger sample sizes than were possible here.”

Associations between CUD and methylated genes

Poisel and colleagues also looked at differences in the degree of methylation at 654,448 sites in the human genome, and looked for associations with the presence or absence of CUD in the life of each donor. They corrected for differences in the donor’s age, the time since death, the brain pH, and further diseases such as depressive disorder and alcohol use disorder.

They found 17 genomic regions that were more methylated in donors with CUD than in donors without CUD, and three regions that were less methylated in donors with CUD than in donors without CUD.

“We were surprised that in our network analysis changes in DNA methylation were especially prominent among genes that regulate the activity of neurons and the connectivity between them. Interestingly, differential DNA methylation was related to several transcription factors and proteins with DNA binding domains, which implies direct effects of these DNA methylation changes on gene expression. This needs to be followed up in further studies,” said Poisel.

“Also, it was fascinating that among those genes that showed the strongest changes in DNA methylation levels in our study, two genes were previously reported to regulate behavioral aspects of cocaine intake in rodent experiments,” said Witt.

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Psychiatry

DOI

10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1075250

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Human tissue samples

ARTICLE TITLE

DNA methylation in cocaine use disorder – an epigenome-wide approach in the human prefrontal cortex

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Feb-2023

COI STATEMENT

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest

DNA damage levels similar in vapers and smokers, study finds

Among never smokers who vaped exclusively, the frequency of vaping and the use of certain popular devices and flavors were associated with the highest levels of DNA damage, according to new research from the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

KECK SCHOOL OF MEDICINE OF USC

E-cigarettes—used regularly by more than 10% of U.S. teens and more than 3% of adults—were once pitched as a healthy alternative to tobacco cigarettes. But research increasingly links the use of e-cigarettes, or vaping, to many of the same life-threatening diseases that plague smokers.

In a breakthrough study, a group of researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC analyzed epithelial cells taken from the mouths of vapers, smokers, and people who had never vaped or smoked. They found that vapers and smokers had similar levels of DNA damage—more than twice the amount found in non-users. DNA damage was higher among those who vaped or smoked more frequently. It was also higher in vapers who used vape pods and mods, as well as sweet-, fruit- or mint-flavored vapes.

“For the first time, we showed that the more vapers used e-cigarettes, and the longer they used them, the more DNA damage occurred in their oral cells,” said Ahmad Besaratinia, PhD, MPH, professor of research population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine and the study’s senior author.

“The same pattern held up in smokers.”

DNA damage to oral epithelial cells, which line the mouth, is an early change that is associated with an increased risk for many types of chronic disease, including cancer and inflammatory diseases.

The research, just published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, is the first to clearly distinguish between the DNA damage that occurs in exclusive vapers versus smokers and to provide details about the risks vapers face based on how often they vape and what devices and flavors they use. Vapers are difficult to study because they typically have a history of cigarette smoking or are dual users, who both vape and smoke tobacco cigarettes.

“We designed our study to tease out the effects of vaping in e-cigarette users who were neither cigarette smokers nor dual users at any point in their lives,” said Besaratinia.

The new study builds on earlier research from Besaratinia and his team, which showed that vaping is linked to alterations in gene expression, epigenetic changes and other biological changes that are implicated in disease development.

“The devices and flavors that are most popular and highly consumed by youth vapers, as well as adults, are the ones that are associated with the most DNA damage,” Besaratinia said. “Clearly these results have significant implications, both for public health and regulatory agencies.”

More use, more damage

The researchers recruited 72 healthy adults and split them into three groups, matched for age, race and gender: current vapers (who had never smoked), current smokers (who had never vaped) and people with no history of smoking or vaping. They verified the history of each participant using detailed questionnaires, interviews and biochemical tests to ensure that any observed effects could be directly linked to either vaping or smoking.

Besaratinia and his team also collected data on how often, and for how long, participants had smoked or vaped, and in the case of vaping, what devices and flavors they used. Then, they collected a sample of epithelial cells from each participant’s mouth and tested for damage to specific genes known to indicate assault to the genome.

The tests showed similar levels of DNA damage between vapers and smokers: 2.6 times and 2.2 times that of non-users, respectively. In terms of devices, vapers who used pods had the highest levels of DNA damage, followed by those who used mods. In terms of flavors, sweet-flavored vapes were linked to the highest levels of DNA damage, followed by mint/menthol- and fruit-flavored vapes.

Popular—but harmful

The findings are highly relevant for public health agencies and regulators who aim to keep dangerous products away from vulnerable groups, including children and adolescents, Besaratinia said. The most popular products, including flavored vapes—which are used by about 85% of teens who vape—also appear to be the most harmful, in terms of producing DNA damage.

The team’s next task is to replicate the findings in a larger group of participants. They also plan to study other biological effects resulting from DNA damage that are even more closely related to the onset of chronic disease.

About this study

In addition to Besaratinia, the study’s other authors are Stella Tommasi and Hannah Blumenfeld of the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC.

This work was supported by the National Cancer Institute [1R21CA268197]; the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research [1R01DE026043]; and the University of California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program [T31IR1839, T32IR5144].

JOURNAL

Nicotine & Tobacco Research

DOI

10.1093/ntr/ntad003

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Vaping dose, device type, and e-liquid flavor are determinants of DNA damage in electronic cigarette users

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Feb-2023

Antibiotic consumption is currently not the main driver of aminoglycoside resistance spread, study suggests

Drug resistance to aminoglycosides, a class of antibiotics, may be driven more by exchanges between ecosystems than by drug consumption

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ELIFE

The spread of antibiotic resistance, where infectious bacteria are able to defeat the drugs intended to kill them, may not be primarily driven by antibiotic consumption, according to a study published today in eLife.

Rather, the study suggests that the prevalence of antibiotic resistance across Europe between 1997 and 2018 is mostly explained by exchanges between ecosystems, and human exchanges such as merchandise imports or travel.

The results support the idea that interventional strategies based on reducing antibiotic use should be complemented by a stronger control of exchanges, especially between ecosystems.

Antibiotic resistance represents one of the largest threats to global public health, food security and global development faced today. Due to the spread of antibiotic resistance, a growing number of infections, such as pneumonia and tuberculosis, are becoming harder to treat, leading to longer hospital stays, greater costs and increased mortality.

“Many public health agencies have recommended reducing antibiotic use in response to the challenges caused by resistance,” explains co-author Léa Pradier, a former PhD student at University of Montpellier, France. Pradier conducted the study alongside Stéphanie Bedhomme, a researcher at CNRS,. “However, there are cases where developed countries have reduced their antibiotic consumption and not halted the spread of antibiotic resistance genes across bacterial populations, implying other factors are at play,” continues Pradier.

To explain this, Pradier and Bedhomme set out to describe the genetic, geographical and ecological distribution of resistances to a class of antibiotics called aminoglycosides, and from this information, quantify the relative contribution of different factors driving the spread of antibiotic resistance. Aminoglycosides have limited clinical use in humans, but are often a last resort for treating multi-resistant infections. They are also commonly used in the treatment of farmyard animals, meaning that resistance to them poses a significant threat to global food security.

They utilised a computational approach to screen the genetic information of over 160,000 bacteria genomes, looking for genes encoding aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes (AMEs) – the most common mechanism of aminoglycoside resistance. They detected AME genes in around a quarter of genomes screened, and in samples from all continents (excluding Antarctica) and all biomes investigated. The majority of AME-gene-carrying bacteria were found in clinical samples (55.3%), human samples (22.1%) and farm samples (12.3%).

Pradier and Bedhommme then focused on the distribution of AME genes across Europe, from 1997–2018, when the most detailed data was available. During this period, aminoglycoside usage remained relatively constant, but was highly variable between countries. Comparing the prevalence of AME genes between countries with different aminoglycoside usage over time, the team determined that aminoglycoside consumption was only a minor explanatory factor, with few positive or directional effects on AME gene prevalence.

Instead, the dataset implies that human exchanges through trade and migration, and exchanges between biomes, explain most of the spread and maintenance of antibiotic resistance when modelled over time, space and ecology. AME genes can be carried over continents by plant and animal products, and international trade and travellers, and may then spread to local strains of bacteria through a process called horizontal gene transfer – the movement of genetic information between organisms. The pool of AME genes sampled from plants, wild animals and soil had the strongest overlap with other communities, suggesting these biomes are major hubs for AME gene propagation, either by horizontal resistance gene transfer or by resistant bacteria movement.

The findings suggest that the largest cause of AME gene spread is through the movement of antibiotic-resistant bacteria between ecosystems and biomes. This spread is aided by mobile genetic elements, which increase the likelihood for a genome to carry several copies of the same AME gene. This increases the expression of transferred AME genes and allows bacteria to evolve new antibiotic resistance functions through the duplicated sequences.

These findings are preliminary, as limited by the use of publicly available data, rather than deploying a dedicated sampling method. In addition, the genetic data sourced from multiple different research projects caused a sampling bias towards industrialised countries and biomes with clinical interest, leading to some locations and biomes being over-represented.

“Our study provides a broad overview of the spatial, temporal and ecological distributions of AME genes, and establishes that the recent variations of AME bacteria in Europe are first explained by ecology, then human exchanges and lastly by antibiotic consumption,” concludes Bedhomme. “Although the conclusions of this study should not be extended to antibiotic genes other than AMEs, the methods used could easily be applied to further studies on other antibiotic resistance gene families.”

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About eLife

eLife transforms research communication to create a future where a diverse, global community of scientists and researchers produces open and trusted results for the benefit of all. Independent, not-for-profit and supported by funders, we improve the way science is practised and shared. From the research we publish, to the tools we build, to the people we work with, we’ve earned a reputation for quality, integrity and the flexibility to bring about real change. eLife receives financial support and strategic guidance from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about.

To read the latest Ecology research published in eLife, visit https://elifesciences.org/subjects/ecology.

And for the latest in Epidemiology and Global Health, see https://elifesciences.org/subjects/epidemiology-global-health.

JOURNAL

eLife

DOI

10.7554/eLife.77015

ARTICLE TITLE

Ecology, more than antibiotics consumption, is the major predictor for the global distribution of aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Feb-2023