New discovery sheds light on very early supermassive black holes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: THIS SYSTEM CONSISTS OF A PAIR OF GALAXIES, DUBBED IC 694 AND NGC 3690, WHICH MADE A CLOSE PASS SOME 700 MILLION YEARS AGO. AS A RESULT OF THIS INTERACTION, THE SYSTEM UNDERWENT A FIERCE BURST OF STAR FORMATION. IN THE LAST FIFTEEN YEARS OR SO SIX SUPERNOVAE HAVE POPPED OFF IN THE OUTER REACHES OF THE GALAXY, MAKING THIS SYSTEM A DISTINGUISHED SUPERNOVA FACTORY. view more 

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, THE HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/AURA)-ESA/HUBBLE COLLABORATION AND A. EVANS (UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE/NRAO/STONY BROOK UNIVERSITY)

Astronomers from the University of Texas and the University of Arizona have discovered a rapidly growing black hole in one of the most extreme galaxies known in the very early Universe. The discovery of the galaxy and the black hole at its centre provides new clues on the formation of the very first supermassive black holes. The new work is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Using observations taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a radio observatory sited in Chile, the team have determined that the galaxy, named COS-87259, containing this new supermassive black hole is very extreme, forming stars at a rate 1000 times that of our own Milky Way and containing over a billion solar masses worth of interstellar dust. The galaxy shines bright from both this intense burst of star formation and the growing supermassive black hole at its centre.

The black hole is considered to be a new type of primordial black hole – one heavily enshrouded by cosmic “dust”, causing nearly all of its light to be emitted in the mid-infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. The researchers have also found that this growing supermassive black hole (frequently referred to as an active galactic nucleus) is generating a strong jet of material moving at near light speed through the host galaxy.

Today, black holes with masses millions to billions of times greater than that of our own Sun sit at the centre of nearly every galaxy. How these supermassive black holes first formed remains a mystery for scientists, particularly because several of these objects have been found when the Universe was very young. Because the light from these sources takes so long to reach us, we see them as they existed in the past; in this case, just 750 million years after the Big Bang, which is approximately 5% of the current age of the Universe.

What is particularly astonishing about this new object is that it was identified over a relatively small patch of the sky typically used to detect similar objects – less than 10 times the size of the full moon – suggesting there could be thousands of similar sources in the very early Universe. This was completely unexpected from previous data.

The only other class of supermassive black holes we knew about in the very early Universe are quasars, which are active black holes that are relatively unobscured by cosmic dust. These quasars are extremely rare at distances similar to COS-87259, with only a few tens located over the full sky. The surprising discovery of COS-87259 and its black hole raises several questions about the abundance of very early supermassive black holes, as well as the types of galaxies in which they typically form.

Ryan Endsley, the lead author of the paper and now a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Texas at Austin, says “These results suggest that very early supermassive black holes were often heavily obscured by dust, perhaps as a consequence of the intense star formation activity in their host galaxies. This is something others have been predicting for a few years now, and it’s really nice to see the first direct observational evidence supporting this scenario.”

Similar types of objects have been found in the more local, present-day Universe, such as Arp 299 shown here. In this system, two galaxies are crashing together generating an intense starburst as well as heavy obscuration of the growing supermassive black hole in one of the two galaxies.

Endsley adds, “While nobody expected to find this kind of object in the very early Universe, its discovery takes a step towards building a much better understanding of how billion solar mass black holes were able to form so early on in the lifetime of the Universe, as well how the most massive galaxies first evolved.”

---

JOURNAL

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

The war in Ukraine could trigger a land investment rush as happened during the 2008 financial crisis

Science publishes an analysis by the Politecnico di Milano of the new "land rush" caused by the war and its large environmental impacts on local communities and food supply

Peer-Reviewed Publication

POLITECNICO DI MILANO

 

IMAGE: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE view more 

CREDIT: POLITECNICO DI MILANO

Milan, 24 February 2023– One year after the start of the war in Ukraine, researchers Maria Cristina Rulli of the Politecnico di Milano, Jampel Dell'Angelo of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and Paul D'Odorico of the University of California at Berkeley, publish in the prestigious Science journal an analysis the potential impact of the invasion on agriculture and rural livelihoods in developing countries.

In previous global food supply crises, spikes in food and energy prices were followed by new waves of transnational land investment and land grabbing.

The authors provide a detailed analysis of the factors that have been identified as drivers or precursors of the “land races” occurred in the 21st century - such as the food supply crisis in periods of increased demand for agricultural products, the demand for renewable energy or the need for diversification of financial investments – to draw a parallel with current conditions.

“After 2008, in the aftermath of the global financial and food crisis, there was a notable increase in land investments with large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) – explains Maria Cristina Rulli, Professor of Hydrology at the Politecnico di Milano and co-author of the paper - In the last 15 years, LSLAs have been at the centre of a heated debate between those who saw them as an opportunity for rural development and those who instead highlighted their negative social and environmental consequences, such as loss of livelihoods for local communities and environmental damage. The war in Ukraine could stimulate a new global land race that could affect the world's agricultural system. Our previous studies on this topic have shown that large-scale land acquisitions often target forest land that is subsequently "developed" through logging, leading to habitat destruction, increased greenhouse gas emissions and loss of access to ancestral land by local people who historically relied on these forests for firewood, food or shelter.”

“We argue that the shortage of food supplies from the Black Sea region will have a major impact on rural development. Based on the trends seen since the recent food crises, we expect a new wave of large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) resulting in the dispossession of rural communities. These changes will occur through complex and interdependent interactions that will have cascading and long-lasting effects on multiple dimensions of rural development”, said Jampel Dell'Angelo.

Paolo D'Odorico explains that "this study identifies some of the possible responses to the crisis induced by the war and their impact on the global agricultural system, such as, for example, the expansion of agricultural production towards uncultivated land, which could occur at the expense soil conservation programmes and/or nature reserves; agricultural intensification on land acquired by agri-food investors after 2008, which could exacerbate conditions of water scarcity and land degradation; and a new wave of land investment”.

The analysis reflects on the policy implications of the agrarian transition associated with this new wave of land acquisitions, reminding us that the policy frameworks currently in place have historically been ineffective in preventing the previous land rush and its detrimental impacts on livelihoods and the environment.

 

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adf9351 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Will war in Ukraine escalate the global land rush?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Feb-2023

 Conflicts of interest need to be avoided in publishing publicly available crop information

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

 

IMAGE: (A) REGRESSION METHOD WITH INPUTS OF WEATHER FACTORS AND VEGETATION INDICES; (B) IS BIOMASS AND HARVEST INDEX MODEL; (C) IS A CROP GROWTH MODEL WITH INPUT OF WEATHER, SOIL, VEGETATION, FERTILIZATION, PEST AND MANAGEMENT CONDITIONS; (D) IS THE EMERGING DATA-DRIVEN MODELS WITH SUPPORT OF MACHINE OR DEEP LEARNING METHODS. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

The study is led by Prof. Bingfang Wu (Aerospace Information Institute , the Chinese Academy of Sciences), leader of the CropWatch team and co-chair of Group on Earth Observations Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM). Satellite-driven crop monitoring has become a main method to derive crop information at local, regional and global scales. However, there is a lack of quantitative, objective, and robust methods to ensure the reliability of crop information, which will reduce the applicability of crop monitoring and leads to uncertain and undesirable consequences. In this paper, recent progresses in crop monitoring were reviewed and the challenges and opportunities for the future were identified.

"Crop monitoring system is telling us how much food was produced, what kind of food it was, and where it was produced. This information is essential for countries to make decisions. If it is not available or not verified properly, countries will either lack the basic information for their decisions or run the risk of taking decisions based on inaccurate information ", Prof. Wu said.

Crop conditions information is critical for policymaking as well as preventing market disruption and speculation, thereby contributing to an early warning of food insecurity. Most crop monitoring systems have the crop condition component and use simple anomalies of metrics from the average values to investigate crop conditions. However, the anomaly metrics cannot provide quantitative assessments due to a lack of standard categorized methods, especially under crop stress driven by drought, nutrients deficit, diseases and pests. Furthermore, the paper finds that some drought indices published in literature confuse meteorological drought with agricultural drought. They may generate false drought information if applied.

Crop production is forecasted with the support of crop area estimates and yield predictions for specific regions. It is the core element of crop monitoring, but only a few global agricultural monitoring systems include the operational components for crop area estimation and yield prediction. One of the reasons is the lack of ground data outside of the country, not to mention ground data availability globally. Crowdsourcing data could serve as a potential solution for closing the ground data gaps. “With many types of smartphone sensors, everyone could take and upload geo-tagged photos of crops. This information can be used to calibrate crop condition and area estimation models”, said Dr Miao Zhang, a core member of the CropWatch Team. Previously, data collection of the actual crop yield is labor-intensive and costly. A new method involving artificial intelligence and computer vision to count the number of spikes, the number of seeds per spike and the sizes of seeds was developed. “This is a novel method to collect field yield data”, added Dr. Hongwei Zeng, another core member of the CropWatch Team.

In addition, yield prediction component is the weakest element in crop monitoring due to large uncertainties. Current models and/or vegetation indices do not fully capture determinants of crop production. CropWatch has adopted averaged values of multiple yield models to reduce the uncertainty of yield prediction. New sensors need to be explored.

Although satellite images are beautiful and objective, their production and analysis have profound political and economic implications. Knowledge-based analysis of satellite derived metrics might lead to uncertain and undesirable consequences. One solution is to avoid conflicts of interest when organizations publish publicly available crop information. User participation in the complete process of crop monitoring could improve the reliability of crop information. Encouraging users to obtain crop information from multiple sources also could prevent unconscious biases. “The best solution is that users have their own crop monitoring system, but this is difficult for most users to achieve due to the development and maintenance costs and technology constraints. For this reason, all components and functions of CropWatch have been upgraded to provide application programming interfaces (APIs) in the CropWatch-Cloud, which enables users to complete crop monitoring independently and autonomously from the data download to the final synthesized analysis without additional investment in storage and computational resources. For example, the Mozambique Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) have applied CropWatch to enhance its capability and reliability of crop monitoring for Mozambique. This effort was recognized as one of the best rural solutions in 2020 by the International Fund for Agricultural Development and one of the good practices in South-South and Triangular Cooperation for Sustainable Development”, Prof. Wu said.

A new method for field yield measurement involving AI and computer vision to count the numbers of spikes, seed numbers per spike and the sizes of seeds for weight determination.

CREDIT

©Science China Press

See the article:

Challenges and opportunities in remote sensing-based crop monitoring: A review

https://doi.org/10.1093/nsr/nwac290 

---

JOURNAL

National Science Review

DOI

10.1093/nsr/nwac290 

'THE GAME IS AFOOT, WATSON'

Is the middle Cambrian Brooksella a hexactinellid sponge, trace fossil or pseudofossil?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PEERJ

 

IMAGE: BROOKSELLA SHAPES ARE VARIABLE: TYPICAL BROOKSELLA HAVE APPROXIMATELY SIX LOBES (A, B); TWINNED BROOKSELLA CAN ALSO OCCUR (C); OTHERS CAN HAVE MULTIPLE INDISTINCT LOBES (D) OR LOBES THAT ARE COMPLETELY EMBEDDED IN A CONCRETION (E). CONCRETIONS (F–K) ALSO VARY IN SHAPE, BUT ARE MOSTLY ROUND TO OBLONG AND MANY HAVE FOSSILS FRAGMENTS OR WHOLE TRILOBITES EMBEDDED IN THEM. SCALE BARS = ONE CM. BROOKSELLA FIGURED: (A) UGA 1; (B) UGA WSL2.AL2; (C) UGA WSL2.AL16; (D) UGA WSL2.AL4; (E) UGA LSV1.AL2; CONCRETIONS FIGURED: (F) UGA 40; (G) UGA 69; (H) UGA 25; (I) UGA 73; (J) UGA 136; (K) UGA 22. view more 

CREDIT: DOI: 10.7717/PEERJ.14796/FIG-5

More than 100 years ago, Charles Doolittle Walcott from the Smithsonian Institution was asked to examine strange star-shaped fossils with lobes hailing from the ~ 514-million-year-old Conasauga Formation in Alabama. Walcott described these odd fossils as jellyfish that likely floated in the middle Cambrian seas of what is now the southeastern United States. Little did he know that the Cambrian fossil he named would cause over 100 years of controversy.

The controversy hinged on the interpretation of what Brooksella really was: Was it truly a jellyfish that would be important for middle Cambrian marine ecosystems, a time when animals were originating and diversifying for the first time on Earth? Or was Brooksella just preserved gas bubbles? Or maybe it was a type of bulbous algae? Or a glass sponge made of opaline silica?

Or, as hypothesized, perhaps Brooksella was not a fossil at all.

Using shape and chemical analyses combined with high-resolution 3D imaging, we evaluated whether Brooksella was a fossil, like a sponge, a trace fossil, representing the burrows of worm-like animals, or not a fossil. We found that Brooksella lacked characteristics of glass sponges, specially, the opaline-fused spicules that compose the body. Nor did it grow as a sponge would be expected to over its lifetime. Importantly, in the field, its purported excurrent canal (osculum) was always oriented down in the sediment, which would make it very hard—if not impossible— to filter water for food. We also did not find any indication that worms made the iconic star- shaped lobes. We then compared the composition and internal structure of Brooksella to silica concretions from the same middle Cambrian rock beds. We did not find any difference between Brooksella and the concretions, other than Brooksella had lobes and the concretions did not. We thus concluded that Brooksella was not part of early sponge diversification in middle Cambrian seas, but rather, was an unusual type of silica concretion. Concretions can be all kinds of shapes to the point some look like they were organically formed.

The significance of our finding is two-fold: First, there are numerous enigmatic Cambrian fossils that need to be scrutinized to determine if they are really fossils to help paleontologists refine biodiversity estimates for the Cambrian when most of Earth’s major animal groups originated. Second, this is not the first time that unusual fossils and rocks from the Cambrian have puzzled scientists, and our findings highlight the necessity of close scrutiny of early fossil materials, especially using newer, powerful analytical techniques like micro-CT in combination with classic lab and field approaches.

Major Points:

Brooksella is an enigmatic star-shaped fossil from middle Cambrian rocks in Alabama with purported excellent 3D preservation In over 100 years since C. D. Walcott named it, Brooksella has been interpreted as a jellyfish, algae, gas bubbles, burrowing worms, and most recently, a sponge.

Morphological, structural, and chemical analyses did not support any of the previous interpretations for Brooksella, especially that of a glass sponge and worm burrows. Surprisingly, we found that Brooksella’s internal structure and composition was no different from co-occurring silica concretions, which we now claim it is. Our findings highlight the necessity of close scrutiny of early purported fossils especially with the powerful analytical techniques like micro-CT in combination with traditional field and lab approaches.

Quotes from authors:

Morrison Nolan, Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech:

“Brooksella alternata interests me because so many scientists have worked on identifying it and have come to very different conclusions. It really illustrates how difficult it can be to distinguish one type of life from another, and even life from non-life, which is especially challenging for early materials in the geologic record.” 

“Amateur paleontological/geological groups like the Georgia Mineral Society helped me learn about Brooksella and other interesting geological features around me. Such groups do a great job of teaching the public about the geologic past and bringing people to the field to see and learn about these features.”

Sally Walker, Professor of Paleontology at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, USA:

“Brooksella intrigued me because, unlike most fossils, it had a 3D shape like a star-shaped puffed pastry that is unusual for soft-squishy animals like a sponge. A sponge usually gets flattened like roadkill during the fossilization process—especially a fossil more than 500 million years old! Also puzzling was the fact that no one inspected Brooksella where it lived and its orientation; if they did, they would find that most lobes were oriented downward, which does not make sense for a sponge to be eating mud. Lastly, the puzzle of Brooksella continues: What are the physical, chemical and perhaps biological processes that actually formed these strange Brooksella concretions? That is for a future paleontologist to solve!”  

James Schiffbauer, Associate Professor of Geological Sciences, University of Missouri:

“While the applications for microCT have been nearly endless in the materials sciences and engineering fields, its capacities for elucidating the fossil record are really just beginning to be explored. This project is an excellent example of the types of fossil mysteries we can solve with applications of microCT. When we can scrutinize the internal construction of Brooksella with reference to its many past interpretations, it becomes increasingly apparent that none of them really match.”

Sunset at Weiss Lake where Brooksella alternata were collected

CREDIT

Morrison R. Nolan

JOURNAL

PeerJ

DOI

10.7717/peerj.14796 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

ARTICLE TITLE

Is the middle Cambrian Brooksella a hexactinellid sponge, trace fossil or pseudofossil?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Feb-2023

WHO and ESCEO announce collaborative agreement to benefit global osteoporosis and fracture prevention

The comprehensive research plan will deliver valuable new data and evidence on the effectiveness of interventions to support and strengthen osteoporosis and fracture prevention within global healthcare agendas.

Business Announcement

INTERNATIONAL OSTEOPOROSIS FOUNDATION

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) signed an agreement to develop a strategic roadmap on bone health and ageing and advocate for a public health strategy to prevent fractures among older people. The collaboration entails a strategic roadmap of research and publication deliverables, in recognition of the fact that osteoporosis is a major contributor to the Global Burden of Disease.

The collaboration agreement, signed on February 23, 2023, at WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, is an important springboard for osteoporosis, a disease which continues to suffer from under-prioritization in healthcare agendas worldwide. Although globally an estimated one in three women and one in five men aged over 50 years will sustain a potentially life-threatening fragility fracture in their remaining lifetimes, the majority of high-risk individuals remain undiagnosed and untreated. Furthermore, systematic post-fracture care for secondary fracture prevention is not available to the vast majority of fracture patients who are at high risk of recurring fractures.

Professor Jean-Yves Reginster, President of ESCEO, stated: “With the ageing of the world’s populations, musculoskeletal disorders such as osteoporosis are on the rise, posing an increasing and costly burden on healthcare systems. We believe that this important agreement with the WHO signifies recognition that action must be taken to address the fragility fracture crisis. Currently, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Conditions and Ageing, in Liège, Belgium, is the only institution that technically assists WHO in matters concerning musculoskeletal conditions that affect older people as mandated by the WHO Director-General. The impactful data and evidence that we will deliver under the umbrella of this broader agreement, together with the important publications to be actioned by the WHO, are of immense significance.”

Within the framework of the five-year collaboration, commencing in the first quarter of 2023, WHO, in collaboration with the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) and the WHO Collaborating Center for Epidemiology of Musculoskeletal Health and Ageing at the University of Liège, Belgium will commence on a broad range of research. This will include, among other research objectives, collecting data on the prevalence and incidence of osteoporosis and fractures for countries and regions around the world, and reviewing evidence on interventions for preventing fractures in older persons to inform guideline development and evidence-informed decision-making. In return, WHO has committed to generating a range of important publications, including global health estimates on prevalence and incidence, as well as commentary on interventions for preventing fractures.

Together, the impactful data and influential WHO publications are expected to put osteoporosis on the global map, thereby helping to drive much-needed policy action.  

IOF President Professor Cyrus Cooper stated: “We are delighted and honoured to be working with the World Health Organization on this important collaborative initiative. WHO plays an essential role in the global governance of health and disease, including by establishing international standards, and by coordinating multiple actors toward common goals. We expect that the strategic research and publications within the framework of this collaboration will lay the groundwork for the prioritization of osteoporosis and fragility fracture prevention within global healthcare policy. In this sense, the collaboration is truly a game-changer for people with osteoporosis worldwide.”

Dr Anshu Banerjee, Director, Department of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing, added: “The initiative will serve to promote action on musculoskeletal conditions, in keeping with the goals of the Decade of Healthy Ageing 2020-2030 for concerted, sustained collaboration to improve the lives of the world’s older population. We look forward to a productive collaboration in the years ahead.”  

###

About IOF
The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is the world's largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related musculoskeletal diseases. IOF members, including committees of scientific researchers as well as more than 300 patient, medical and research organizations, work together to make fracture prevention and healthy mobility a worldwide heath care priority. www.osteoporosis.foundation @iofbonehealth

About ESCEO
The European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis, Osteoarthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases (ESCEO) is a non-profit organization, dedicated to a close interaction between clinical scientists dealing with rheumatic disorders, pharmaceutical industry developing new compounds in this field, regulators responsible for the registration of such drugs and health policymakers, to integrate the management of osteoporosis and osteoarthritis within the comprehensive perspective of health resources utilization. The objective of ESCEO is to provide practitioners with the latest clinical and economic information, allowing them to organize their daily practice, from an evidence-based medicine perspective, with a cost-conscious perception. www.esceo.org

Health, not age, driving a rise in pregnancy complications

Mothers are getting older, but that’s not why pregnancies are getting riskier

Meeting Announcement

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF CARDIOLOGY

Rising rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, preterm birth and low birthweight, over the past 10 years are largely attributable to the health status of a person before they get pregnant, rather than age, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together With the World Congress of Cardiology.

The study found that the average age of pregnant individuals rose from 27.9 years in 2011 to 29.1 years in 2019, yet age accounted for only a small portion of the marked increase in adverse pregnancy outcomes seen during the same period. Most striking, the rate of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (high blood pressure with or without preeclampsia or eclampsia) rose by over 50% during the decade, yet the shift in age distribution of those giving birth accounted for less than 2% of that change.

“Although mothers are getting older at the time they deliver, that is not what’s causing these adverse birth outcomes,” said Zachary Hughes, MD, an internal medicine physician at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and the study’s lead author. “What’s really driving it is pre-pregnancy health issues like diabetes and hypertension. That’s important to know because these are factors we could potentially modify.”

Using data from the National Center for Health Statistics Natality Files, researchers compared rates of preeclampsia and eclampsia, preterm birth and low birthweight among 3.9 million births in 2011 and 3.7 million births in 2019. The results showed moderate increases in preterm birth and low birthweight (which rose by about 2% and 4%, respectively) and larger increases in hypertensive disorders (a 52% increase). Using statistical methods to analyze the role of age in these changes, researchers found the shift in age distribution accounted for only a small portion of the increase across all outcomes assessed.

Adverse pregnancy outcomes have important health consequences, including an increased risk of heart disease both at the time of pregnancy and later in life—not only for the person giving birth but also for the baby. Researchers said preventing these adverse outcomes could help reduce cardiovascular risk throughout each lifespan.

“I hope these findings can lead more toward a culture change of focusing on health before pregnancy,” Hughes said. “A lot of people don’t establish care with a physician until they get pregnant, but really starting six months or a year before you’re starting to plan a pregnancy, that’s the time to maximize your health as much as possible and minimize the risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes. This also suggests that clinicians and policymakers could put more focus on pre-pregnancy health and managing things like hypertension and diabetes before someone gets pregnant.”

Across all age groups, people giving birth in their late teens to early thirties saw the steepest increases in adverse pregnancy outcomes. Further research is needed to determine which specific health issues—such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension or other factors—are driving these pregnancy complications in younger people, researchers said.

Current medical guidelines recognize pregnancy with anticipated delivery at age 35 or older as a risk factor for adverse outcomes and recommend additional screening and monitoring for these pregnancies. Based on these new study findings, researchers emphasized the importance of clinicians and people considering pregnancy, including those who are younger, to focus on addressing other health conditions to ensure the best possible chance of a healthy pregnancy and child. In addition, individuals diagnosed with gestational diabetes or high blood pressure during pregnancy should include these conditions as part of their health history going forward, even if the conditions resolve after birth, as they may lead to an increased risk of heart disease later in life.

Hughes will present the study, “Association Between Changes in Age Distribution of Birthing Individuals and Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes in the United States, 2011-2019,” in a digital-only format that can be accessed through the ACC.23/WCC eAbstracts site beginning at 8:30 a.m. /14:30 UTC on Saturday, March 4, 2023.

ACC.23/WCC will take place March 4-6, 2023, in New Orleans, bringing together cardiologists and cardiovascular specialists from around the world to share the newest discoveries in treatment and prevention. Follow @ACCinTouch, @ACCMediaCenter and #ACC23/#WCCardio for the latest news from the meeting.

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) is the global leader in transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health for all. As the preeminent source of professional medical education for the entire cardiovascular care team since 1949, ACC credentials cardiovascular professionals in over 140 countries who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. Through its world-renowned family of JACC Journals, NCDR registries, ACC Accreditation Services, global network of Member Sections, CardioSmart patient resources and more, the College is committed to ensuring a world where science, knowledge and innovation optimize patient care and outcomes. Learn more at ACC.org.

 

###

Time in nature may help older adults with improved health, purpose in life

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

PrintEmail App

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Over time, research has demonstrated that spending time in nature confers psychological, emotional and physical benefits. To maximize benefits of spending time in nature for people over the age of 65, researchers from Penn State; National Open University, Taiwan; and Lunghwa University of Science and Technology, Taiwan, studied the attitudes, beliefs and actions of a group of elders — people over the age of 65 — who regularly spent time in a natural area. The researchers found that fostering social connections around nature-based activities may be connected to improved health and quality of life for elders.

In Japan, the term shinrin-yoku, or "forest bathing," was developed to refer to spending time in nature while engaging all of one’s senses: tasting the air, smelling a forest, listening to a stream, and being present with whatever you experience.

For elders who encounter challenges when attempting to hike quickly over difficult trails, forest bathing may present an enjoyable and safe way to spend time in nature. According to the researchers, forest bathing is popular among older adults in Japan, China and Taiwan, where the practice originated, and it is becoming increasingly popular in the United States.

The researchers studied older visitors to the Xitou Education Area, a natural preserve in Taiwan. Between April and June of 2022, the researchers surveyed 292 visitors to the preserve who were at least 65 years old and who visited the park at least once a week. Participants were asked a range of questions, from whether they felt supported by others, to how much they thought about their futures, to how much purpose they felt that their lives had.

The results of the study were published in the journal Leisure Sciences. The researchers found that people who discussed their experiences in nature with others tended to have a greater sense of attachment to forest bathing and a stronger sense of purpose in life.

Prior research supports the conclusion that these factors are related to better physical and mental health and higher quality of life. This finding can guide leisure-service providers working in various settings including community recreation departments and retirement villages on how to facilitate leisure for elders, according to John Dattilo, professor of recreation, park and tourism management at Penn State and co-author of this research.

“Elders can access community and state parks where it is safe for them to spend time in nature: places with walkable paths and convenient, accessible parking, are helpful,” Dattilo explained.” Agencies can publicize these opportunities and help identify the value they offer to elders and others.

“Better yet, leisure-service providers could arrange transportation and then afterwards facilitate social interactions among participants,” Dattilo continued. “Enabling people to get out into nature to experience their surroundings is one aspect of forest bathing. Part of what we found is the linkage between positive social relationships and spending time in nature. So, if leisure-service providers create opportunities for elders to return from an experience, meet over a warm beverage and talk about their experiences, there will be value in these connections for people’s sense of purpose.”

An improved sense of purpose is related to better physical functioning, higher quality of life, and lower fear of death, according to Liang-Chih Chang, professor of living sciences at National Open University in New Taipei City, Taiwan. Forest bathing matters, he continued, because it might be able to help people foster that sense of purpose.

“Forest bathing seems to connect people to the moment and the world,” Chang said. “When elders use that same experience to develop social connections and support, they may experience a broad range of benefits associated with physiological functioning as well as cognitive health. These are associations, not cause and effect, but the potential consequences are exciting to consider.”

The study continues Dattilo’s research on the value of the leisure experience for elders that he has explored with his collaborators in Taiwan as well as locally with colleagues from Penn State’s Center for Healthy Aging.

“We have conducted research on square dancing and karaoke, both of which are common activities for elders in Asia,” Dattilo said. “Forest bathing, is unique in that it is closely tied to hiking, strolling or sitting in nature in which many elders engage across the globe. If leisure-service providers facilitate exposure to nature and help participants build a sense of community around those experiences, then elders could live, not only healthier, but richer and more meaningful lives.”

---

DOI

10.1080/01490400.2023.2174217 

SEE

https://philosophy.hku.hk/ch/zhuang.htm