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Saturday, March 18, 2023

FAU Harbor Branch receives $2.8 million gift to create a queen conch farm in Grand Bahama

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute has received $2.8 million to establish a queen conch hatchery in Grand Bahama. This support expands FAU Harbor Branch’s extensive aquaculture and food security program focused on replenishing queen conch populations throughout the Caribbean. It also enables development of a conceptual master plan for a 25-acre innovation hub on Grand Bahama for researchers working to solve issues of island sustainability.

The project is built on a network of collaborations to secure local support and participation. FAU Harbor Branch will partner with the Bahamian community of Grand Bahama on a pilot-scale queen conch aquaculture farm led by Megan Davis, Ph.D., a research professor, FAU Harbor Branch Aquaculture and Stock Enhancement, and the world’s leading expert on queen conch aquaculture with 40 years of research in the field. Prized for its iconic spiral shell and meat, the species is considered the cornerstone of the Bahamian culture and economy. Through partnerships, the project leads envision developing new economic and environmental opportunities for the community, along with helping to replenish queen conch populations.

“We’re extremely grateful to Builders Initiative for their generous support of our queen conch restoration efforts,” said FAU President Stacy Volnick. “FAU Harbor Branch’s work in aquaculture is helping to meet the growing global demand for food, thanks to partners like Builders Initiative who share our belief in sustainable solutions to environmental challenges.”

This summer, the project will begin with a mobile queen conch lab where scientists, with assistance from Bahamian staff and interns, will grow queen conch from their egg stage to juveniles. It will be located at Coral Vita, a commercial coral farm working to restore coral reefs, which will share resources with FAU Harbor Branch.

Blue Action Lab is a key strategic partner, assisting with permits, negotiations, and other collaborator relationships. Other partners include the Bahamas National Trust, the University of The Bahamas, the Perry Institute of Marine Science, and The Nature Conservancy, which will provide expertise on habitat mapping for conch breeding sites in seagrass beds.

“Having a hatchery operating in the community with full participation from the community will be a great way to not only increase knowledge and awareness of the life cycle of the conch, but it will also allow the opportunity to build relationships, technical skills and solutions together,” said Catherine Booker, program coordinator with the Bahamas National Trust.

The project also will provide research internships for students at the University of The Bahamas and ecotourism opportunities.

Megan Davis, Ph.D., shows queen conch at various developmental stages in The Bahamas

CREDIT

H. Forrest Thomas

Similar opportunities would come about through the 25-acre innovation hub. Known as Conservation Cove, it will be located on 25 acres on Grand Bahama, and it is envisioned to include a tropical aquaculture park, an aquarium, research and education hub, co-working spaces, and a hospitality center. FAU’s MetroLAB Design Collaborative, comprising FAU’s School of Architecture and Harbor Branch, will work with Blue Action Lab on the master plan.

The Grand Bahama queen conch hatchery is the fifth such FAU partnership project to restore the queen conch throughout the Caribbean. FAU Harbor Branch has been working on restoration efforts since 2016 and has established other queen conch farms in Puerto Rico, Curacao, and Great Exuma, Bahamas.

“Our FAU Harbor Branch Queen Conch Lab team together with our partners are making strides to fulfill the vision of a conch farm in every Caribbean nation,” said Davis. “There has never been a more important time to help communities grow queen conch for the sake of the species, ecosystem, and the people who depend on the fishery.”

This support from Builders Initiative, the philanthropic team of Builders Vision, is the largest gift from a private funder to FAU Harbor Branch’s queen conch program. Builders Initiative invests and collaborates with people and organizations working toward sustainable solutions in the areas of food and agriculture, climate and energy, oceans, and community.

“Builders Initiative is thrilled to be an anchor funder of Florida Atlantic University’s innovative program to establish conch aquaculture hatchery facilities across the Caribbean,” said Peter Bryant, oceans program director at Builders Initiative. “We’re committed to accelerating restorative aquaculture solutions in The Bahamas, and this project is a cornerstone of our program, one that will restore conch populations in The Bahamas while also providing benefits to local communities.”

- FAU -

About Florida Atlantic University:
Florida Atlantic University, established in 1961, officially opened its doors in 1964 as the fifth public university in Florida. Today, the University serves more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students across six campuses located along the southeast Florida coast. In recent years, the University has doubled its research expenditures and outpaced its peers in student achievement rates. Through the coexistence of access and excellence, FAU embodies an innovative model where traditional achievement gaps vanish. FAU is designated a Hispanic-serving institution, ranked as a top public university by U.S. News & World Report and a High Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. For more information, visit www.fau.edu.

About Builders Initiative
Builders Initiative is the philanthropic team for Builders Vision, an impact platform dedicated to supporting people and organizations building a more humane and healthy planet through philanthropy, investment, and advocacy. Builders Initiative, through the Builders Initiative Foundation, DAFs, and an impact LLC, invests in and collaborates with non-profits, businesses, and others working toward sustainable solutions to societal and environmental problems across four primary impact areas: Food and Agriculture, Climate and Energy, Oceans, and Community. Learn more at buildersinitiative.org.

Visually navigating on foot uses unique brain region

Occipital place area supports visually guided navigation, but only when walking; not crawling

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NIH/NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE

Views from walking, crawling, or flying. — IMAGE: WATCHING VIDEOS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF WALKING (TOP LEFT) ELICITED ACTIVITY IN THE OCCIPITAL PLACE AREA, WHILE WATCHING VIDEOS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF CRAWLING (TOP RIGHT), FLYING (BOTTOM LEFT), OR SCRAMBLED (BOTTOM RIGHT) DID NOT. view more
CREDIT: IMAGES COURTESY OF DILKS, JONES, AND BYLAND.

Using vision to efficiently move through an area by foot uses a unique region of the brain’s cortex, according to a small study funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI). The region, called the occipital place area (OPA), fails to activate during other modes of moving, such as crawling. The finding may help explain developmental milestones as children learn to interact with and navigate their near environments. The study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex. NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Navigating through a physical environment – anything from a small room to a city -- requires the brain to process several classes of information. Each class of information is processed in its own region of the brain’s cortex, which then work together to support navigation behavior, such as walking. Loss of any one of these regions can affect how or whether someone can successfully navigate.

Two main areas of the cortex are activated as people navigate through an environment: the OPA and the retrosplenial complex (RSC). Daniel Dilks, Ph.D., Emory University, Atlanta, theorizes that each of these areas supports a different kind of navigation. The RSC supports map-based navigation, which involves finding our way from a specific place to some distant, out-of-sight place (for example, finding our way from your house to your favorite restaurant). By contrast, he believes the OPA supports visually guided navigation, which involves finding our way through near environment, avoiding boundaries and obstacles (for example, moving through your kitchen without bumping into things).

However, his theory has been controversial, in part because the OPA doesn’t appear to support visually guided navigation until around 8 years of age. Yet children somehow manage to get around their homes and schools long before that time – even from the earliest ages, when they crawl rather than walk.

“We asked ourselves, does the OPA come on early but just mature slowly?” Dilks said. “Or does crawling use an entirely different system?”

While most adults and older children primarily navigate environments by walking, we retain the ability to crawl as we did in infancy. If OPA just matured slowly, then it should be activated by both modes of movement, Dilks reasoned. So, he and students Christopher Jones and Joshua Byland set out to discover whether the OPA would activate in adults when crawling.

To test this, the scientists recorded videos from the perspective of someone walking through an environment, and then similar videos from the perspective of someone crawling through that same environment. They also patched together random shots of the videos (scrambled) and took videos from a flying-over-the-environment perspective, to include a mode of navigation not accessible to humans.

When viewing videos, our brains often activate as if we were performing the activity ourselves – a sympathetic response that made Dilks’ experiment possible. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers were able to monitor the activation of brain regions in 15 adult study participants as they were viewing each video and imagining themselves moving through the environment.

When the participants viewed the walking video, the region of the brain corresponding to the OPA was activated. But when they viewed the other videos – crawling, flying, or scrambled, OPA was not activated. In contrast, the RSC was activated when viewing all the videos, suggesting that only OPA is specific for walking, as opposed to other modes of visual navigation.

In addition, several other brain areas were activated when the participants viewed the crawling videos, suggesting additional regions that may be involved in navigation early in life.

“Not only does this study suggest that there’s a completely different brain system managing navigation in early versus late childhood, but it suggests that each of these pieces of the navigation system come on at different stages of development,” Dilks said. “Based on our study, we think OPA is specifically tied to mature, efficient walking.”

The study was funded by the National Eye Institute (R01 EY29724).

Reference: Jones CM, Byland J, and Dilks DD. “The occipital place area represents visual information about walking, not crawling.” Cerebral Cortex, March 15, 2023.

###

This press release describes a basic research finding. Basic research increases our understanding of human behavior and biology, which is foundational to advancing new and better ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease. Science is an unpredictable and incremental process— each research advance builds on past discoveries, often in unexpected ways. Most clinical advances would not be possible without the knowledge of fundamental basic research. To learn more about basic research, visit https://www.nih.gov/news-events/basic-research-digital-media-kit.

NEI leads the federal government’s research on the visual system and eye diseases. NEI supports basic and clinical science programs to develop sight-saving treatments and address special needs of people with vision loss. For more information, visit https://www.nei.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit https://www.nih.gov/.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

JOURNAL

Cerebral Cortex

DOI

10.1093/cercor/bhad055

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The occipital place area represents visual information about walking, not crawling

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Mar-2023

When constructing conservation networks, it’s best to have a plan

'You want to try to figure out what kind of habitat types we have and then collect at least one of everything'

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

With increasing rates of extinction and biodiversity loss across the globe, scientists are debating whether we are living during the earth’s sixth mass extinction event, prompting a drive to accelerate our conservation efforts, with researchers working to understand how to protect as many species and ecosystems as possible.

In their recent paper in Biological Conservation, UConn Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology researcher and post-doc Steven Presley and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of the Institute of the Environment Michael Willig and their colleagues looked at three strategies for creating conservation networks and assessed the effectiveness of each.

Human activities like agriculture, urban development, or deforestation are forms of habitat conversion that result in habitat loss and fragmentation. The resulting pockets of land act like isolated islands of habitat, which increase a species’ risk of becoming locally extinct. Connecting those habitat islands by corridors is a way to reduce that risk, because it makes it easier for new members of the same species to emigrate to isolated habitat patches and “rescue” that population.

“Constructing networks as a strategy for minimizing the negative impacts of habitat loss and fragmentation is a great idea,” says Willig, “but: what is the best strategy for constructing such a network, and what are the consequences from a variety of perspectives?”

Willig explains that historically, most conservation work has focused on species richness, which considers all species to be equally different. The researchers wanted to see the consequences of nature preserves constructed based on species richness versus other aspects of biodiversity, like phylogenetic diversity or functional diversity, which may have closer linkages to ecosystem services and the species’ long-term resilience.

“There are a lot of reasons that most conservation work has focused on species richness,” says Willig, “One reason is it’s a relatively easy metric to measure, but that doesn’t mean we have sufficient data on the complete inventories of species,” a necessary characteristic for constructing conservation networks.

Biodiversity is more than just species richness, explains Presley. Each species has its own variety of activities that it performs within an ecosystem; these activities contribute to functional diversity. Phylogenetic diversity reflects the evolutionary history represented in a group of species. It represents evolutionary potential to adapt to circumstances in the future.

“Functional diversity is highly correlated with phylogenetic diversity, so the more distant two species are in an evolutionary tree, often the more dissimilar they are in terms of their function as well. Two species in the same genus probably do the same things,” says Willig. “We have pretty good phylogenetic information on a lot of taxa, but we have pretty poor information about the functions of species so phylogenic information may be a good surrogate for functional information.”

Though limited by the availability of data, the researchers analyzed data from conservation efforts from three different scenarios, each in a very different site, including data for birds in Connecticut, bats in Paraguay, and trees in North Carolina.

The way conservation networks are constructed is mostly by default, says Presley, for instance, with land becoming available by happenstance. The researchers wanted to see how impactful this simple, random approach is compared to more research-intensive strategies.

Two other approaches for constructing networks were analyzed. One is called “the simultaneous strategy,” where for a network of every size, all possible combinations of sites are analyzed to see which will maximize species richness to the greatest effect.

The other strategy is a more realistic, “stepwise approach,” says Willig. In the sequential approach, once any sites are contained in a network, the evaluation of additional sites is based on which would be the best complement to those already in the network.

“We wanted to cover the gamut of strategies, and our gut feeling was the simultaneous approach would be much better than the sequential approach, and both would be better than the random approach in terms of conserving species richness. The consequences in terms of the other two dimensions of biodiversity were not obvious,” he says.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found the non-random strategies are better at consistently maximizing species richness, which occurred when approximately five to 10 interconnected sites were included within a conservation network. Richness-based approaches in general are effective methods to use when constructing a conservation network.

“The good thing was that a reasonably small proportion of the total number of sites that were available needed to be included in a network to maximize the richness that you protect. This was true regardless of which strategies you followed, and was true for birds, bats, and trees,” says Willig.

Presley says the results reflect a happy accident, because the most effective methods reflect how conservation networks tend to be constructed naturally:

“Humans have an innate desire to collect things that look different, so if you’re going to construct a network in Connecticut starting from scratch for instance, you want to try to figure out what kind of habitat types we have and then collect at least one of everything.”

This theoretical network would likely have forests, wetlands, grasslands, and some coastal areas – a little bit of everything — and this natural tendency is a rudimentary way of maximizing species richness. This complementarity happens because each site tends to have more unique species in it compared to the other sites than if they were randomly chosen.

“I think a lot of conservation strategies for constructing networks have been successful because they either maximize the number of habitats are represented, or they maximize the number of species. Both of those approaches reinforce each other at getting to a good solution for conservation,” says Willig.

Presley points out that conservation networks are growing in popularity, and they started from a need to span geopolitical boundaries,

“There are growing collaborations and it gets a little hierarchical, so if states do what they need to do, then by default, the country does what it needs to do, then by default, the continent does what it needs to do so to speak,” he says. “There is network development from local to regional to continental and global. It takes a lot of international cooperation, which is always challenging.”

Though challenging, this work is vital. Willig adds there are millions of species in nature, including millions that have yet to be identified, and it is important to know how effective conservation action is and if it is enough for preserving the full complement of biodiversity.

“We know conservation has a variety of strategies for attaining long-term protection of biodiversity and only by incorporating a multitude of tools and approaches can we hope to preserve what is left, especially during a time when we’re losing diversity at accelerating rates,” he says.

JOURNAL

Biological Conservation

DOI

10.1016/j.biocon.2022.109876

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Protecting biodiversity via conservation networks: Taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic considerations

Dry forests and savannas vital for Brazil’s climate goals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Cerrado savanna — IMAGE: CERRADO SAVANNA view more
CREDIT: TIM HILL

Brazil must protect and restore its dry forests and savannas to achieve its climate goals, new research shows.

Attention in Brazil and worldwide often focusses on the Amazon rainforest – ignoring damage and destruction of these seasonally dry biomes, which contain vast biodiversity and carbon stores.

The new study, led by the universities of Exeter and Campinas, says cost-effective restoration of dry biomes could lock in almost 10 billion tonnes of carbon by 2050-80.

But restoration takes time, and the researchers say protecting existing ecosystems is the best option for Brazil to reach its 2030 climate goals.

“Ongoing land-use change – especially the destruction of ecosystems to create agricultural land – makes Brazil the world’s fifth-biggest greenhouse gas emitting country,” said Dr Lucy Rowland, from Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter.

“But Brazil also has huge potential for ecosystem restoration.

“Focus on the Amazon is understandable, but this has often simply displaced the problem of ecosystem destruction to the Cerrado (savanna) and the Caatinga (dry forest).

“This has been done on the assumption that these ecosystems are worthless – when in fact they have plant species diversity that rivals the Amazon.

“There is huge potential to restore these areas without negative impacts of food production or people’s livelihoods.”

Global carbon markets provide a financially viable way to fund large-scale restoration.

The study combined carbon prices with information such as land availability and carbon storage for 5,475 Brazilian municipalities to assess the potential costs and benefits of restoration.

“We argue that even with a sole focus on carbon, we must restore other tropical biomes – not just rainforests,” said Dr Fernanda de Vasconcellos Barros, also from the University of Exeter.

“Adding dry forests and savannas doubles the area which could be restored in a financially viable manner, increasing the potential carbon storage by more than 40% above that offered by rainforests alone.

“Importantly, we show that conservation will be essential for Brazil to achieve it’s 2030 climate goal, because it can sequester 1.5 to 4.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.

“Restoration takes longer, and so can have less impact by 2030, but in the long-term restoration across all biomes in Brazil could draw down between 3.9 and 9.8 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050-80.”

The new study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP).

The paper, published in the journal Science of The Total Environment, is entitled: “Cost-effective restoration for carbon sequestration across Brazil's biomes.”

JOURNAL

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162600

ARTICLE TITLE

Cost-effective restoration for carbon sequestration across Brazil's biomes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Mar-2023

Aarhus University heading major new European Internet of Skills project

A new project funded by the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme aims to develop technology and upscale the talent pool for the Tactile Internet, also known as the Internet of Skills – a key component in the digital world of the future

Grant and Award Announcement

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

Associate Professor Qi Zhang from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Aarhus University is heading the new international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral project TOAST, that will train doctoral candidates and develop and upscale technologies for the future Tactile Internet, also referred to as the Internet of Skills.

The project has received funding of DKK 20.4 million (EUR 2.74 million), and it gathers 11 European universities and organisations. The project is a major initiative for the Tactile Internet, which includes the communication of touch, allows physical interactions and connect people's skills, regardless of distance.

"The primary focus of TOAST is to nurture the interdisciplinary research required to develop the Tactile Internet, and that’s not just about communication networks. We need a wide range of technologies and areas of application to make sure that the whole system works," says Qi Zhang.

In simple terms, the Tactile Internet is a future internet where you can physically interact with remote environments without actually being physically present, as it were. Via human system interface, remote robot, bi-directional haptic control, and communication networks, you can perform complex tasks in distant or inaccessible environments as if you are actually there, even though you are doing what you are doing many kilometres away. For example, tele-operations or simply just the feeling of shaking someone’s hand.

The Tactile Internet allows physical interaction across distance and access to manipulation skills and expertise, thus sharing skills around the globe faster and more efficiently. The Tactile Internet is expected to be a key component in the digitalised world of the future.

The Tactile Internet requires researchers with interdisciplinary knowledge such as haptic communication, networking, edge computing, machine learning and human perception.

The TOAST project funded by the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme Doctoral Network aims to train creative and entrepreneurial doctoral candidates with interdisciplinary competencies and enable them to carry out research within the Tactile Internet.

"The project offers a unique training programme for ten PhD students at different universities and organisations in Europe. At Aarhus University, we’re recruiting three PhDs for the project, with primary focus on edge intelligence. As we know, communication networks often experience issues such as communication latency and packet losses, in particular, when communicating over large distance, which can jeopardize the stability and transparency in control and even cause cyber-sickness. To ensure immersive user experience in the Tactile Internet, under the physical constraints in communication networks, we need to leverage artificial intelligence at Edge to compensate imperfect communications and make a joint optimisation of communication and computation,” says Qi Zhang.

Besides Aarhus University, the following are also involved: The Technical University of Munich, the Technical University of Dresden, the University of Siena, CentraleSupélec at the Paris-Saclay University, the Polytechnic University of Valencia, the National Centre for Scientific Research at the University of Lorraine University and the companies Wandelbots GmbH, Ericsson AB, Orange S.A. and WEART.

New research establishes how and why western diets high in sugar and fat cause liver disease

Research is unlocking how the food we eat contributes to an epidemic of chronic liver disease

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

New research from the University of Missouri School of Medicine has established a link between western diets high in fat and sugar and the development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the leading cause of chronic liver disease.

The research, based in the Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health Building at MU, has identified the western diet-induced microbial and metabolic contributors to liver disease, advancing our understanding of the gut-liver axis, and in turn the development of dietary and microbial interventions for this global health threat.

“We’re just beginning to understand how food and gut microbiota interact to produce metabolites that contribute to the development of liver disease,” said co-principal investigator, Guangfu Li, PhD, DVM, associate professor in the department of surgery and Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology. “However, the specific bacteria and metabolites, as well as the underlying mechanisms were not well understood until now. This research is unlocking the how and why.”

The gut and liver have a close anatomical and functional connection via the portal vein. Unhealthy diets change the gut microbiota, resulting in the production of pathogenic factors that impact the liver. By feeding mice foods high in fat and sugar, the research team discovered that the mice developed a gut bacteria called Blautia producta and a lipid that caused liver inflammation and fibrosis. That, in turn, caused the mice to develop non-alcoholic steatohepatitis or fatty liver disease, with similar features to the human disease.

“Fatty liver disease is a global health epidemic,” said Kevin Staveley-O’Carroll, MD, PhD, professor in the department of surgery, one of the lead researchers. “Not only is it becoming the leading cause of liver cancer and cirrhosis, but many patients I see with other cancers have fatty liver disease and don't even know it. Often, this makes it impossible for them to undergo potentially curative surgery for their other cancers.”

As part of this study, the researchers tested treating the mice with an antibiotic cocktail administered via drinking water. They found that the antibiotic treatment reduced liver inflammation and lipid accumulation, resulting in a reduction in fatty liver disease. These results suggest that antibiotic-induced changes in the gut microbiota can suppress inflammatory responses and liver fibrosis.

Li, Staveley-O'Carroll and fellow co-principal investigator R. Scott Rector, PhD, Director of NextGen Precision Health Building and Interim Senior Associate Dean for Research — are part of NextGen Precision Health, an initiative to expand collaboration in personalized health care and the translation of interdisciplinary research for the benefit of society. The team recently received a $1.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to fund this ongoing research into the link between gut bacteria and liver disease.

The study, “Western diet contributes to the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in male mice via remodeling gut microbiota and increasing production of 2-oleoylglycerol” was recently published in Nature Communications. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest related to the study.

JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-35861-1

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Western diet contributes to the pathogenesis of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in male mice via remodeling gut microbiota and increasing production of 2-oleoylglycerol

Areas of greater socioeconomic disadvantage linked to 60% greater likelihood of a primary hypertension in youth

Children living in poor neighborhoods may be a at greater risk of preventable heart disease

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NEMOURS

WILMINGTON, Del. (March 15, 2023) – Children living in the most disadvantaged communities have a 60 percent greater likelihood of being diagnosed with primary hypertension, the leading risk factor for developing cardiovascular disease later in life, according to the first U.S. study of its kind, led by researchers at Nemours Children’s Health and published today in JAMA Network.

“The relationship between the level of neighborhood deprivation and primary hypertension in youth has not been well evaluated,” said the study’s lead author Carissa Baker-Smith, MD, MPH, FACC, FAHA, FAAP, director of Pediatric Preventive Cardiology, Nemours Children’s Health, Delaware Valley. “Perhaps as a result, strategies for screening and diagnosis of hypertension do not routinely consider a child’s community as a potential risk factor.”

The study analyzed medical records of more than 65,000 Delaware youth ages 8 to 18 who were covered by Medicaid between 2014 and 2019. Researchers found that the majority of children diagnosed with primary hypertension lived in neighborhoods with an Area Deprivation Index (ADI) of 50 or greater, which represents Delaware’s top neighborhood deprivation quartile. The ADI is a composite created by the Health Resources & Services Administration, based on Census data for 17 variables in income, education, household characteristics and housing to describe a community’s socioeconomic conditions.

Overall, children living in neighborhoods with an ADI of 50 or higher had 60 percent greater odds of a hypertension diagnosis, the study found.

“Knowledge of risk factors for hypertension in youth is essential to improve cardiovascular outcomes later in life,” Baker-Smith added. “Our study highlights the importance of considering neighborhood-related factors when diagnosing hypertension.”

Primary hypertension refers to high blood pressure not caused by another medical condition, such as structural heart disease or renal failure, and has become increasingly common in U.S. children and teens, largely due to the obesity epidemic. An estimated 4 percent of U.S. youth have this type of hypertension. However, physician recognition of the condition in this population is poor, so most cases go undiagnosed, researchers said.

The researchers found that the relationship between neighborhood deprivation and primary hypertension was rivaled only by an obesity diagnosis. Other associated risk factors were older age, male sex and longer duration of full Medicaid coverage. Prevalence of primary hypertension was highest in those aged 13 to 18.

The study did not find an association with race or ethnicity when degree of deprivation was included in the analysis.

These findings are similar to previous studies in adults that have noted a link between neighborhood deprivation and hypertension diagnosis.

The authors urge that screening algorithms and national guidelines consider the importance of neighborhood deprivation when assessing the presence and prevalence of primary hypertension in youth. Hypertension is the primary modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death in the U.S.

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About Nemours Children's Health
Nemours Children’s Health is one of the nation’s largest multistate pediatric health systems, which includes two free-standing children's hospitals and a network of more than 70 primary and specialty care practices. Nemours Children's seeks to transform the health of children by adopting a holistic health model that utilizes innovative, safe, and high-quality care, while also caring for the health of the whole child beyond medicine. Nemours Children's also powers the world’s most-visited website for information on the health of children and teens, Nemours KidsHealth.org.

The Nemours Foundation, established through the legacy and philanthropy of Alfred I. duPont, provides pediatric clinical care, research, education, advocacy, and prevention programs to the children, families and communities it serves. For more information, visit Nemours.org.

JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Association of Area Deprivation With Primary Hypertension Diagnosis Among Youth Medicaid Recipients in Delaware

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Mar-2023

COI STATEMENT

Dr. Wolf reported receiving grants from the Delaware Clinical and Translational Research Program and the National Institutes of Health/National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (U54GM104941) outside the submitted work. No other disclosures were reported.

Study compares NGO communication around migration

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

AMES, IA – Since 1970, the number of people living outside their countries of birth has tripled. Most migrants are looking for work or better economic opportunities. But millions seek to escape violence, persecution or natural disasters. Their integration into a new society often depends on non-governmental organizations that provide services and advocate on their behalf.

A recently published study highlights how the specific political and cultural context of a country affects the NGOs’ communication with the public.

Co-author and Iowa State Professor Daniela Dimitrova specializes in international journalism and global media coverage. She says this study builds on previous research with Emel Özdora-Akşak, an associate professor at Bilkent University in Turkey. Shortly after civil war broke out in Syria in 2011, the two researchers studied how print media in Turkey and Bulgaria reported on the unfolding refugee crisis.

“We noticed that in the Turkish case, there were a lot more NGO references and interviews compared to Bulgaria. It sparked our interest. We were curious why there was such a difference in the news coverage,” said Dimitrova.

After receiving a 2019/2020 ISU Faculty Professional Development Assignment, Dimitrova joined Özdora-Akşak in Turkey to conduct in-depth interviews with professionals from 22 organizations. They ranged from local, grassroot groups to large, international NGOs. The researchers’ 17 interviews with NGO professionals in Bulgaria were virtual in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Neighbors with different responses

Over the last decade, Turkey has received more Syrian refugees than any other country, roughly 3.6 million people. Dimitrova said the public, government and traditional news outlets in Turkey were generally sympathetic and welcoming when Syrian citizens first arrived. The two countries share a border and overlapping histories and cultures. They’re also both predominately Muslim.

“Early on, the popular media referred to Syrian refugees as ‘our brothers and sisters.’ There was a lot of support,” said Dimitrova. “But there was a palpable change over time. There were more negative attitudes and even animosity connected to the notion of refugees taking away limited resources from Turkish citizens.”

The researchers state in their article that the government’s emphasis on the temporary legal status of Syrian refugees has “complicated matters, as it is grounded in the notion of hospitality and not on rights, per se.”

North of Turkey, Bulgaria is much smaller in size and, until recently, had little experience with migrants and refugees. As a member of the European Union, Bulgaria is required to follow EU regulations for asylum seekers, but it has fewer resources and services compared to Turkey. The researchers state that Bulgaria wasn’t prepared for arrival of asylum seekers from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries, which peaked at more than 20,000 applicants in 2015.

“When people from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries started to arrive, there was a lot of ‘othering’ and fear. Today, attitudes are split with more acceptance in urban cities compared to rural communities,” said Dimitrova.

Comparing NGOs from Turkey and Bulgaria

Dimitrova and Özdora-Akşak observed that Turkey has a much higher concentration of NGOs focused on refugees and migrants compared to Bulgaria. Many are large organizations that focus on services. They often have dedicated communications teams that write grants and reports, produce newsletters and glossy handouts, and organize press events for journalists (e.g., a tour of a women’s vocational center.)

In Bulgaria, there aren’t as many NGOs, and they tend to be smaller and more specialized. One might focus more on children while another provides legal assistance. Few have staff who focus solely on external communication. Dimitrova said this smaller, grassroots approach comes with some perks.

“Because there are so many NGOs in Turkey, there is a lot of competition for resources and EU funding. The environment seemed more competitive and territorial. In Bulgaria, it seemed more cooperative and coordinated,” said Dimitrova, adding that representatives from the NGOs in Bulgaria frequently meet to share updates and discuss opportunities to collaborate.

NGOs in both countries use technology and social media to target different audiences (e.g., refugees, donors, government agencies.) But Turkish NGOs tend to relay information in a “one-way communication mode” while those in Bulgaria “seem to have the flexibility to be more innovative” and engage the public. They also tend to emphasize personal stories.

Since a public opinion poll found over 90% of Bulgarians had never met a refugee or migrant at the time, many of the NGOs wanted to “provide a human face” and highlight individual success stories. The researchers gave the example of a Bulgarian NGO that organized an interactive photo exhibit with augmented reality. Participants used their phones to learn more about individual refugees living in the community.

Interviewees from both countries expressed concerns about bureaucracy and anti-migrant political rhetoric. But they emphasized the need to build and maintain positive relationships with lawmakers and governmental agencies. This was especially important in Turkey with a government that “controls direct access to camps for NGO personnel.”

Lessons learned

Dimitrova said the research findings suggest NGOs working on migration in Bulgaria, Turkey and other countries can benefit from:

Regularly communicating with other NGOs and finding ways to collaborate to streamline services and outreach efforts.
Incorporating metrics and evaluations into communication strategies.
Experimenting with more creative projects that highlight personal stories of individuals.
Continuing to work with traditional media while generating content for specific audiences.

In a book Dimitrova edited called “Global Journalism,” one of the chapters focuses on the coverage of conflicts and crises. A case study shows refugees are often framed as victims or threats, which takes away agency from the refugees themselves and makes it harder to accept them into the host society.

“We have these conflicts in different parts of the world, and whether it’s Ukrainians in Poland or Rohingya people in Bangladesh, migration is not slowing down. The lesson to me is that NGOs need to think about the long-term because after the initial response of sympathy and wanting to help, that willingness can diminish over time,” said Dimitrova.

This research project was supported by a Page Legacy Scholar Grant from The Arthur W. Page Center at The Pennsylvania State University.

JOURNAL

Journal of Borderlands Studies

DOI

10.1080/08865655.2022.2161065

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

What a difference context makes: Comparing communication strategies of migration NGOs in two neighboring countries