NIMBY
Farmers push back against proposed De Havilland facility in Wheatland County

Story by Cami Kepke • Yesterday 

While some Albertans eagerly eye the return of spring weather, patio season and NHL playoffs, Christian Heckle's mind is on calving season. On the family farm just east of Strathmore, Alta., another calf arrived just before her interview with Global News.


Christian Heckle poses with Holstein heifer Martha May on her family farm in Wheatland County.© Tom Reynolds/Global News

And another arrival near her farm threatens her way of life.

"We have just over 180 cows and right now we're still calving. It's kind of nonstop work," Heckle said.

For five generations, her family has farmed a large plot of land in Wheatland County. Heckle and her two brothers are determined to continue the tradition.

"I'm very, very passionate about agriculture and the land is very meaningful to us," Heckle added. "It's very peaceful too, that's why we're happy out here."

That way of life could soon be disrupted as aviation manufacturer De Havilland plans to build a new facility on a neighbouring 1500-acre plot of land.

De Havilland Field is to be the site of final assembly for the DHC-515 Firefighter aircraft, DHC Twin Otter and the Dash 8-400 aircraft.

Video: De Havilland announces new airplane manufacturing plant east of Calgary

Its concept plan also includes facilities for ground tests, fueling and repair, educational space slated for the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and a De Havilland Canada aircraft museum.

For Heckle and others in the area, the project raises concerns about negative impacts from noise, construction, traffic and the loss of agricultural lands.

"It's in the county name: Wheatland County. But they're quite literally taking the wheat out of it and not supporting their young farmers," Heckle said.

"In an average year that land could grow about 100,000 bushels of, let's say, wheat. One hundred thousand bushels of wheat could supply 9 million loaves of bread.

"So maybe to some people, it might not seem like that much land is being destroyed. But in reality, in a food crisis that is a lot of food being taken away."

"There's been fireworks set off at New Year's... and the entire herd has stampeded across the land," Heckle's mother, Leah Matheson, recalled. "They were quite pregnant at that time, and they can break legs in gopher holes. But a jet flying overhead?

"I understand it's providing jobs but it's also taking away precious agricultural land that cities are already encroaching on."

The family attended an open house hosted by De Havilland in the fall, but found there were few answers to be had with the project itself still waiting for zoning approval.

Video: What could a looming shortage of farm workers mean for Canada?

The airplane manufacturer said because the planned facility is not a commercial airport, there won't be many aircraft flying in and out.

"The site will be home to our manufacturing and distribution facilities, and will include a runway that will allow for manufactured aircraft and those in need of maintenance to arrive and depart from the site," De Havilland told Global News in a statement.

"We understand that there are impacts associated with both construction and operation, and are committed to working to minimize the impacts to neighbours by implementing noise and light-reducing techniques when construction is anticipated sometime next year."

The company is currently working with Wheatland County to rezone the site, with construction expected to start in 2024 and the first buildings operational by 2025. But the full buildout could take years.

In the meantime, families in the area still hold out hope that the plant could find a different home.

Heckle is still working to continue the family farm's legacy, but admits if the project goes ahead, there's little opportunity for her to expand operations.

"One in every 10 farms cease operation (annually), (mostly) due to urban and industrial expansion," Heckle said. "I'm terrified to become one of those stats."

Teck ramps up rhetoric against Glencore offer, pushes own plan to spilt company

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

VANCOUVER — Teck Resources Ltd. has ramped up its rhetoric against a unsolicited takeover bid by Swiss mining giant Glencore while arguing for its own restructuring plan.


Teck ramps up rhetoric against Glencore offer, pushes own plan to spilt company© Provided by The Canadian Press

Glencore's proposal is a "non-starter for Teck," said chief executive Jonathan Price on a conference call Monday.

"This is not just about price. We also see serious structural flaws in the proposal that Glencore has put forward, and we believe that that proposal, looked at as a whole, would destroy value for Teck shareholders and that it has significant execution risk.”

Glencore came out last week with a proposed all-share merger that offered a 20 per cent premium to B class shares and would leave Teck investors holding about a quarter of the combined company. Glencore said it planned to split up the combined company into two divisions, with one focused more on metals and another on coal.

The proposition is similar to Teck's existing plan to split along the same lines, which goes to a vote at its annual meeting April 26. But Price said that Glencore's addition to the mix of significant thermal coal, oil trading, and risky countries, plus the regulatory challenges of getting the merger approved, means the entire proposal is highly uncertain and value-destructive.

“The value of Glencore’s rejected proposal is an illusion. In sharp contrast, the pending separation offers up something concrete," said Price.

Teck said its separation will give shareholders more choice and ways to maximize value because they will hold shares in both Teck Metals and Elk Valley Resources.

Along with ESG risks, Price noted that merging with Glencore would also expose Teck shareholders to the risks of operating in countries like Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan and Russia.

"Glencore’s presence in these and other jurisdictions also creates a very real regulatory overhang,” he said.

Teck's presentation Monday also highlighted how Glencore was issued some US$1.75 billion in identifiable fines and penalties in 2022, which were linked to its guilty pleas to foreign bribery and market manipulation schemes.

In summarizing the case, the U.S. Department of Justice said Glencore engaged in a scheme for over a decade to pay more than $100 million to intermediaries with the intention that much of the money be used to pay bribes to officials in Nigeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Brazil, Venezuela, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Price said on the call that maintaining a social license to operate and grow is critical to maximizing shareholder value.

"We know our local partners and how to operate efficiently, sustainably and ethically in these geographies."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 10, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TECK.B, TSX:TECK.A)

The Canadian Press

New textile unravels warmth-trapping secrets of polar bear fur

Team of UMass Amherst engineers invents bilayered fabric, 30% lighter than cotton and far warmer

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

 

IMAGE: INSPIRED BY POLAR BEARS, THIS NEW TEXTILE CREATES AN ON-BODY “GREENHOUSE” EFFECT TO KEEP YOU WARM. view more 

CREDIT: VIOLA ET AL., 10.1021/ACSAMI.2C23075

AMHERST, Mass. – Three engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have invented a fabric that concludes the 80-year quest to make a synthetic textile modeled on Polar bear fur. The results, published recently in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, are already being developed into commercially available products.

Polar bears live in some of the harshest conditions on earth, shrugging off Arctic temperatures as low as -50 Fahrenheit. While the bears have many adaptations that allow them to thrive when the temperature plummets, since the 1940s scientists have focused on one in particular: their fur. How, the scientific community has asked, does a polar bear’s fur keep them warm?

Typically, we think that the way to stay warm is to insulate ourselves from the weather. But there’s another way: One of the major discoveries of the last few decades is that many polar animals actively use the sunlight to maintain their temperature, and polar bear fur is a well-known case in point.

Scientists have known for decades that part of the bears’ secret is their white fur. One might think that black fur would be better at absorbing heat, but it turns out that the polar bears’ fur is extremely effective at transmitting solar radiation toward the bears’ skin.

“But the fur is only half the equation,” says the paper’s senior author,  Trisha L. Andrew, associate professor of chemistry and adjunct in chemical engineering at UMass Amherst. “The other half is the polar bears’ black skin.”

As Andrew explains it, polar bear fur is essentially a natural fiberoptic, conducting sunlight down to the bears’ skin, which absorbs the light, heating the bear. But the fur is also exceptionally good at preventing the now-warmed skin from radiating out all that hard-won warmth. When the sun shines, it’s like having a thick blanket that warms itself up, and then traps that warmth next to your skin.

What Andrew and her team have done is to engineer a bilayer fabric whose top layer is composed of threads that, like polar bear fur, conduct visible light down to the lower layer, which is made of nylon and coated with a dark material called PEDOT. PEDOT, like the polar bears’ skin, warms efficiently.

So efficiently, in fact, that a jacket made of such material is 30% lighter than the same jacket made of cotton yet will keep you comfortable at temperatures 10 degrees Celsius colder than the cotton jacket could handle, as long as the sun is shining or a room is well lit.

“Space heating consumes huge amounts of energy that is mostly fossil fuel-derived,” says Wesley Viola, the paper’s lead author, who completed his Ph.D. in chemical engineering at UMass and is now at Andrew’s startup, Soliyarn, LLC. “While our textile really shines as outerwear on sunny days, the light-heat trapping structure works efficiently enough to imagine using existing indoor lighting to directly heat the body. By focusing energy resources on the ‘personal climate’ around the body, this approach could be far more sustainable than the status quo.”

The research, which was supported by the National Science Foundation, is already being applied, and  Soliyarn has begun production of the PEDOT-coated cloth.

Contacts: Trisha Andrew, tandrew@umass.edu

                 Daegan Miller, drmiller@umass.edu

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JOURNAL

ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces

DOI

10.1021/acsami.2c23075 

ARTICLE TITLE

Solar Thermal Textiles for On-Body Radiative Energy Collection Inspired by Polar Animals

Teachers who struggle to cope with stress report far lower job satisfaction, MU study finds

Findings can help identify coping mechanisms that alleviate teacher stress, which has implications for teacher shortages.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA

 

IMAGE: CLASSROOM view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- As teacher shortages continue to worsen across the United States, a new study at the University of Missouri gives insight into why so many stressed and burnt-out teachers are leaving the profession. The study found teachers who struggle to cope with the stress of their job report far lower job satisfaction compared to teachers who find ways to manage the pressure.

Seth Woods, a former doctoral student at MU, collaborated with Keith Herman, a Curators’ Distinguished Professor in the MU College of Education and Human Development, and others to analyze survey data of 2,300 teachers from Missouri and Oklahoma who were asked to rate how stressed they were at work, if they found ways to cope with work stress and how satisfied they were with their jobs.

Woods said while the findings were not particularly surprising, the study highlights how the ability — or inability — to cope with work stress can be a significant factor contributing to teacher burnout, which ultimately leads many teachers to leave the profession.

“In my 20 years as an educator, I’ve seen many great people leave the profession unfortunately, and this research confirms that we need to start devoting more time and resources into helping teachers identify and adopt healthy coping mechanisms,” said Woods, who is now principal at Beulah Ralph Elementary School in Columbia, Missouri. “Finding ways to mitigate teacher stress and investing in ways to help them cope with stress in positive manners will pay us back in not having to constantly hire and train new teachers all the time. In addition, retaining experienced teachers will likely benefit student achievement as well.”

The researchers explained that positive, healthy coping mechanisms can be quick, easy and free. One healthy coping mechanism Woods suggests for stressed teachers is writing and delivering a short letter of gratitude to a colleague they enjoy working with. Herman, who authored a book titled, “Stress Management for Teachers: A Proactive Guide,” said simple things like increasing positive interactions with students and peers, improving classroom management skills, and avoiding gossip at work can also help.

Herman added that while systematic issues, such as low teacher pay and overburdened teacher workloads remain critical topics to address, school principals, district superintendents and school administrators can all play in a role in supporting stressed teachers who may be struggling to cope.

“Communicating with teachers about their concerns, demonstrating empathy and checking in on their health and well-being shows that you care,” Herman said. “Our overall goal is to create school environments that allow teachers to thrive and give them the tools they need to be successful.”

“The relationship between teacher stress and job satisfaction as moderated by coping” was published in Psychology in the Schools. Funding for the study was provided by the U.S. Department of Education and the National Institute of Justice.

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JOURNAL

Psychology in the Schools

DOI

10.1002/pits.22857 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The relationship between teacher stress and job satisfaction as moderated by coping

Twitter's role in combating vaccine misinformation: New study highlights importance of influential users

Study emphasizes the important role of influencers in promoting accurate health information on social media

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JMIR PUBLICATIONS

 

IMAGE: TWITTER'S ROLE IN COMBATING VACCINE MISINFORMATION: NEW STUDY HIGHLIGHTS IMPORTANCE OF INFLUENTIAL USERS MAGNETICVACCINECONSPIRACY. SOURCE: FREEPIK; COPYRIGHT: FREEPIK; LICENSE: LICENSED BY JMIR view more 

CREDIT: SOURCE: FREEPIK; COPYRIGHT: FREEPIK; LICENSE: LICENSED BY JMIR PUBLICATIONS

A new study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research on March 31, 2023, sheds light on the role of Twitter in combating vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories. The study, titled “Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets,” was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dr Wasim Ahmed and aimed to identify key opinion leaders and accounts sharing the conspiracy on Twitter.

The study examined Twitter posts related to the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory—a false claim that COVID-19 vaccines can magnetize people, which has amplified vaccination skepticism globally. An approach called social network analysis was used to identify the top Twitter influencers who broadcasted against the conspiracy and helped shape the narrative for the wider community.

The study examined Twitter posts related to the magnetic vaccine conspiracy theory—a false claim that COVID-19 vaccines can magnetize people, which has amplified vaccination skepticism globally. An approach called social network analysis was used to identify top Twitter influencers who broadcasted against the conspiracy and helped shape the narrative for the wider community.

Dr Ahmed and team retrieved 18,706 tweets containing the keywords “vaccine magnetic” that were posted between June 1 and June 13, 2021. They also found a total of 22,762 “connections” (including mentions and replies) between Twitter users within their data set. Interestingly, the researchers found that the discussion revolved around only a handful of key influential Twitter users, including a North America–based news account reporting on the conspiracy, an epidemiologist,  a health economist, and a former sports athlete. These influencers had a wide reach beyond their own Twitter followers and were effective in countering the misinformation and promoting accurate information about vaccines. 

Social media influencers can use their social capital to challenge the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation. The researchers highlight the need for trust in influencers with regard to health information, particularly during times of social uncertainty, such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The findings of this study have the potential to inform strategies for monitoring public health trends online and countering vaccine misinformation on social media.

 

If citing original research article, please cite as:

Ahmed W , Das R , Vidal-Alaball J , Hardey M , Fuster-Casanovas A
Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets
Journal of Medical Internet Research 2023;25:e43497
doi: 10.2196/43497

PMID: 36927550

 

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About JMIR Publications

JMIR Publications is a leading, born-digital, open access publisher of 30+ academic journals and other innovative scientific communication products that focus on the intersection of health, and technology. Its flagship journal, the Journal of Medical Internet Research, is the leading digital health journal globally in content breadth and visibility, and is the largest journal in the medical informatics field.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Medical Internet Research

DOI

10.2196/43497 

ARTICLE TITLE

Twitter's Role in Combating the Magnetic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory: Social Network Analysis of Tweets

Study shows families making choices that perpetuate segregation in city with school choice policy

Families returning to city center gamed system, left district in roles that kept schools unequal

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

LAWRENCE — Even though Brown v. Board of Education outlawed school segregation in 1954, racially segregated schools have persisted in practice. In recent years, the decades-long trend of white flight to suburbs has reversed in some areas as some white residents are moving to city centers. New research from the University of Kansas shows that in one such city that also has school choice policy, families are making decisions that perpetuate school segregation despite more opportunities for integration.

Washington, D.C., is a major metropolitan area with a school district policy that allows parents to choose the school their children attend. Data has shown that white families are returning to the city’s core in recent years, and while in theory that could lead to more integrated schools in a city with large minority populations, a new study shows that is not happening. As families regularly move amongst schools to get the most desirable one, they do not use their voice in attempt to improve schools and even game the lottery system that is designed to assign to students equitably among systems.

Bryan Mann, assistant professor of educational leadership & policy studies at KU, was lead author of a study that interviewed nine white parents about how they chose their children’s schools. This was part of a broader study that interviewed 20 parents and triangulated findings with GIS mapping and quantitative data. This portion of the study used Exit, Voice, Loyalty, a framework common in organizational theory and political research. It examines why people choose to stay with or leave an organization. Exit is reflected by those who choose to leave, loyalty is reflected by those who stay, and voice is represented in the choice to advocate for changes and improvements to a system. The study, written with Annah Rogers of the University of West Alabama, was published in the journal Urban Education.

“When you think about community-driven school reform, you think about loyalty and how parents use their voice to change things. I was curious about the school ecosystem in D.C. that has gentrification and if it still tracks with these ideas of loyalty and voice,” Mann said. “Here people can exit a school or exit the system altogether and go to a private school. We found those who have the tools to exit or work within the system to move are more likely to move. That’s part of what exacerbated school segregation.”

The study focused on in-depth interviews with parents who recently moved into the city and whose children attended district schools. Part of a larger study focusing on gentrification and its effects on school integration and choice, it asked parents what they valued in a school and how they behaved in making their choices. Interviewees expressed logistical values such as commute time. Several said they wanted to avoid schools near downtown as that would exacerbate commute time because of heavy traffic. However, those with the means reported making alternate plans to work around such concerns in ways like flexible work schedules if that allowed them to get their child in a desired school. Parents also said they largely valued schools that feed from one elementary into a prestigious middle school, and they largely valued bilingual curriculum. Low-performing schools were said to be schools to avoid, not improve. Few parents mentioned racial makeup of schools, though the ones who did indicated schools with large minority populations were to be avoided.

In terms of behaviors, parents frequently reported playing the school system’s lottery every year. The lottery is intended to distribute students evenly among schools, based on available seats and where a family lives. But parents reported entering their children each year in hopes they would get selected for the one they wanted most. They even reported gaming the system, which it is set up to avoid, using tactics such as establishing a mailing address close to the school they wanted.

“This shows there is competition between children for spots in schools. This is different than competition between schools for children. Competition for spots undermines improvements and equality for schools,” Mann said. “Families showed that with all the ways they compete. It’s a lottery system that is supposed to be fair and ‘ungameable.’ But they still found ways to try to get the schools they viewed as prestigious.”

Parents also routinely mentioned the importance of “playing the long game.” If their student didn’t get the school they wanted one year, they would try again in each subsequent year in hopes of getting their child to a more desirable school to then feed into a better middle school. The lottery system includes public and charter schools, and when students did not get the school they wanted, they also reported having an easier time changing schools in transition grades such as pre-K/kindergarten, fifth and ninth grades. In addition to manipulating the system, others reported a willingness to move out of the city to avoid schools they didn’t want or sending their children to private school.

“Exit is the default, and disloyalty is the norm,” Mann and Rogers wrote about the findings that showed parents rarely used their voice in an attempt to improve schools and preferred leaving schools or the system.

The strategies and choices of parents in the study are important to consider, as “the long game remains separate and unequal,” the authors wrote. Census data shows that in 1954, D.C. public schools enrolled 57% Black/minority and 43% white students with complete segregation. The Brown decision led to white flight on a large scale, and by 1990, the percentages were 96% and 4%, respectively. Gentrification from 2000 to 2019 shows that trend reversing, but not equally, as the authors cite data that shows white enrollment in D.C. schools was 11.9% in the 2018-19 school year, even though white city population had increased to 39.6% in 2020. Racial segregation is persisting in the city’s schools, the data shows.

The results should be considered as part of the national debate about school choice policy and indicate that it tends to result in continued school segregation as affluent families and those with means navigate the systems to their benefit instead of working to improve schools viewed as less prestigious. Even when parents voiced concern about other children, communities and schools, the market-based school and housing system encouraged them to advocate for improving choice mechanisms rather than improving the schools themselves.

“If the ideal is a fully integrated school system, it’s barely trending in that direction, and it is not reaching the ideal,” Mann said. “These lessons are important because policymakers across the country are debating similar ideas, and understanding the outcomes of such policies is vital. This can be an early indicator of what to expect with these types of choice policies. People don’t often talk about what happens when parents are competing for spots in schools. Here it resulted in continued segregation, and we were able to get a better understanding of how families made the decisions that led to it.”

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JOURNAL

Urban Education

DOI

10.1177/00420859231153415 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Inequality of the Long Game in a City With School Choice and Changing Racial Demographics

A new technique opens the door to safer gene editing by reducing the mutation problem in gene therapy

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NAGOYA UNIVERSITY

CRISPR-Cas9 is widely used to edit the genome by studying genes of interest and modifying disease-associated genes. However, this process is associated with side effects including unwanted mutations and toxicity. Therefore, a new technology that reduces these side effects is needed to improve its usefulness in industry and medicine. Now, researchers at Kyushu University in southern Japan and Nagoya University School of Medicine in central Japan have developed an optimized genome-editing method that vastly reduces mutations, opening the door to more effective treatment of genetic diseases with fewer unwanted mutations. Their findings were published in Nature Biomedical Engineering. 

Genome-editing technology centered on CRISPR-Cas9 has revolutionized the food and medicine industries. In the technology, Cas9 nuclease, an enzyme that cuts DNA, is introduced into the cell with a synthetic guide RNA (gRNA) that guides the enzyme to the required location. By cutting the genome, unwanted genes can be deleted, and new (functional) genes can be added in easily and quickly.  

One of the drawbacks of genome editing is that there are growing concerns about mutations and off-target effects. This is often caused by the enzyme targeting genomic sites that have a sequence similar to the target site. Similarly, mutations at the chromosome level can occur when genes are altered, which has hindered clinical trials of gene therapy for cancer and even resulted in the deaths of patients undergoing treatment for muscular dystrophy. The group hypothesized that current editing protocols that use Cas9 cause excessive DNA cleavage, resulting in some of the mutations. 

To test this hypothesis, a group consisting of Assistant Professor Masaki Kawamata at Kyushu University and Professor Hiroshi Suzuki at the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine constructed a system called "AIMS" in mouse cells, which evaluated the activity of Cas9 separately for each chromosome. Their results showed that the commonly used method was associated with very high editing activity. They determined that this high activity was causing some of the unwanted side effects, so they searched for gRNA modification methods that could suppress it. They found that an extra cytosine extension to the 5' end of the gRNA was effective as a "safeguard" for the overactivity and allowed control over DNA cleavage. They called this fine-tuning system ‘safeguard gRNA’ ([C]gRNA).” 

Their results were striking. Using their new technique, off-target effects and cytotoxicity were reduced, the efficiency of single-allele selective editing was increased, and the efficiency of homology-directed repair, the most commonly employed mechanism for DNA double-strand break repair, was enhanced.  

To test its effectiveness in a medical setting, they investigated a rare disease called fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva. Using a mouse model, they were able to create the same genotype as the human version of the disease. Then, using patient-derived iPS cells, they were able to precisely repair damage down to a single nucleotide specifically in the disease-associated allele causing the disease, demonstrating their technique’s usefulness as a safe and efficient gene therapy method. 

The team also constructed the first mathematical model of the correlation between various genome-editing patterns and Cas9 activity, which would enable the user to simulate the results of genome editing in an entire cell population. This breakthrough would allow researchers to determine the Cas9 activity that maximizes efficiency, reducing the enormous costs and labor required. 

“We established a new genome editing platform that can maximize the desired editing efficiency by developing activity-regulating [C]gRNAs with appropriate Cas9 activity. Furthermore, we found that ‘safeguard gRNA’ can be applied to various CRISPR tools that require gRNAs by regulating their activities, such as those using Cas12a, which has a different DNA cleavage mechanism,” said Professor Suzuki. “For techniques that use Cas9 to activate or repress genes of interest, such as CRISPR activation and CRISPR interference, excessive induction or suppression of gene expression may be not useful and even harmful to cells. Controlling expression levels by [C]gRNA is an important technology that can be used for various applications, including the implementation of precise gene therapy.” 

The group is now working on a start-up business plan to spread the new genome editing platform. “In particular, we believe that this technology can make a significant contribution to the medical field,” said Dr. Kawamata. “We are currently evaluating its therapeutic efficacy and safety for selected target diseases in cell and animal experiments and using it to help develop therapeutic drugs and gene therapy methods, especially for rare diseases for which no treatment methods have yet been established.” 

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About Nagoya University

Nagoya University was formally instituted as a National University in 1939. The university has been pursuing excellence since its founding. A number of important discoveries have been made at the University, including the Okazaki DNA Fragments by Reiji and Tsuneko Okazaki; and depletion forces by Sho Asakura and Fumio Oosawa. 

About Kyushu University  

Kyushu University  is one of Japan’s leading research-oriented institutes of higher education since its founding in 1911. Home to around 19,000 students and 8,000 faculty and staff, Kyushu U's world-class research centers cover a wide range of study areas and research fields, from the humanities and arts to engineering and medical sciences. Its multiple campuses—including one of the largest in Japan—are located around Fukuoka City, a coastal metropolis on the southwestern Japanese island of Kyushu that is frequently ranked among the world’s most livable cities and historically known as Japan’s gateway to Asia. Through its Vision 2030, Kyushu U will ‘Drive Social Change with Integrative Knowledge.’ Its synergistic application of knowledge will encompass all of academia and solve issues in society while innovating new systems for a better future. 

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JOURNAL

Nature Biomedical Engineering

DOI

10.1038/s41551-023-01011-7 

ARTICLE TITLE

Optimization of Cas9 activity through the addition of cytosine extensions to single-guide RNAs

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023

U$A

Medicaid ‘cliff’ adds to racial and ethnic disparities in care for near-poor seniors

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

 

IMAGE: ERIC ROBERTS, PH.D. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

PITTSBURGH, April 10, 2023 – Black and Hispanic older adults whose annual income is slightly above the federal poverty level are more likely than their white peers to face cost-related barriers to accessing health care and filling medications for chronic conditions, according to new research led by a University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health scientist. 

Published today in JAMA Internal Medicine, the analysis links these disparities to a Medicaid “cliff” – an abrupt end to supplemental Medicaid insurance when people clear the federal poverty threshold. For older adults, Medicaid helps to lower out-of-pocket health care costs by covering most Medicare co-pays. However, a cutoff in Medicaid eligibility above the poverty threshold leads to a sudden rise in copays, making it harder for Black and Hispanic older adults with modest incomes to afford care, compared to their white counterparts at similar income levels.  

“Chronic disease risks among older adults of color often go unaddressed due to cost-related barriers to care, and our research shows that this Medicaid cliff contributes to these barriers,” said Eric T. Roberts, Ph.D., assistant professor of health policy and management at Pitt Public Health. “Fixing this so that people on Medicare don’t face substantially higher co-pays above the poverty threshold could lessen health care inequities among our nation’s seniors.” 

“One option is to turn the ‘cliff’ into a ‘gentle hill,’ by tapering Medicaid assistance for seniors with incomes slightly above the federal poverty threshold,” Roberts added. 

Medicare, the federal health care insurance program for people age 65 and older and disabled individuals, can come with high cost-sharing, including deductibles and copays. Medicare beneficiaries with income less than 100% of the federal poverty threshold, about $14,600 annually, receive supplemental Medicaid insurance to offset these costs and automatically receive a subsidy to lower out-of-pocket prescription drug costs. However, unlike other federal programs that taper aid on a sliding scale, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program that helps people buy food, those with incomes even slightly above the poverty line are cut off from Medicaid.  

Roberts and his colleagues obtained data on 8,144 Medicare beneficiaries with incomes less than 200% of the federal poverty level. They looked at health care use for beneficiaries on either side of the Medicaid eligibility line, comparing outcomes among Black and Hispanic beneficiaries to white beneficiaries.  

Being just above the federal poverty threshold, and therefore ineligible for Medicaid, was associated with a 21% drop in annual outpatient visits and a 15% drop in prescriptions filled for Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries, but barely any change for white beneficiaries.  

“We found — and other research supports — that white beneficiaries are more likely to have savings to draw upon to cover medical costs,” Roberts said. “The income that the federal government looks at to determine Medicaid eligibility may make it appear that Black and Hispanic beneficiaries have the same ability as their white peers to pay for care. But the reality is that they don’t have the same reserves — and we’re seeing the impact of that in their forgoing doctor’s visits and needed medications.” 

Black and Hispanic Medicare beneficiaries are more likely to have chronic diseases that can be managed with medications, such as diabetes and heart disease, than white beneficiaries.  

“The Medicaid ‘cliff’ is doubly concerning because it results in Black and Hispanic adults filling fewer medications and makes it harder for them to keep up with regular doctor’s appointments, making it harder to get prescription medications in the first place,” Roberts said. 

The findings support broadening Medicaid eligibility for older adults and tapering Medicaid assistance above the poverty threshold. Such changes could complement measures in the Inflation Reduction Act designed to make drug costs more affordable for seniors, the researchers noted. 

Additional authors of this study are Youngmin Kwon, B.A., and Alexandra G. Hames, B.A., both of Pitt; J. Michael McWilliams, M.D., Ph.D., of Harvard University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital; and John Z. Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P., and Renuka Tipirneni, M.D., M.Sc., both of the University of Michigan.  

JOURNAL

JAMA Internal Medicine

DOI

10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.0512 

ARTICLE TITLE

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care Use and Access Associated With Loss of Medicaid Supplemental Insurance Eligibility Above the Federal Poverty Level

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023

Potential drug treats fatty liver disease in animal models, brings hope for first human treatment

Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, is a severe liver disease and impacts millions of people

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

A recently developed amino acid compound successfully treats nonalcoholic fatty liver disease in non-human primates — bringing scientists one step closer to the first human treatment for the condition that is rapidly increasing around the world, a study suggests.

Researchers at Michigan Medicine developed DT-109, a glycine-based tripeptide, to treat the severe form of fatty liver disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. More commonly known as NASH, the disease causes scarring and inflammation in the liver and is estimated to affect up to 6.5% of the global population.

Results reveal that DT-109 reversed fat buildup and prevented scarring in the livers of both mice and primates that had developed NASH. The study, completed in partnership with an international team including the Laboratory Animal Center at Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center and the Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences at Peking University Health Science Center, is published in Cell Metabolism.

“For years, scientists have been trying to develop a medication that treats NASH, but many attempts have failed to show an improvement or have raised safety concerns in clinical trials,” said Eugene Chen, M.D., Ph.D., senior author of the study and Frederick G. L. Huetwell Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at University of Michigan Medical School. “NASH is rising at a staggering rate, and successful treatment of non-human primates with our drug candidate, DT-109, brings us closer than ever to treating the millions of people suffering from this condition.”

NASH is the second stage of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, which is estimated to affect 32% of people worldwide. While fatty liver disease can be treated with exercise and nutritional intervention, the liver damage from NASH is more permanent. It has become the primary cause of chronic liver disease, and NASH-related cirrhosis is now one of the most common reasons for liver transplantation.

Chen and his team developed DT-109 for treating NASH in non-human primates after reports showed that impaired glycine metabolism emerged as a cause of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and NASH.

While hundreds of compounds have successfully treated NASH in mice, including DT-109, Chen says mouse NASH models are limited because not all aspects of the human disease are accurately mimicked and, therefore, are not easily translatable to the clinic. The research team’s non-human primate model for NASH, confirmed using multiomics profiling studies, is among the first to accomplish the feat.

In both non-human primates and mice, investigators in the international collaboration found that treatment with DT-109 reverses fat buildup and prevents fibrosis progression by stimulating fatty acid degradation and antioxidant formation. The drug also inhibited the production of lithocholic acid, a toxic secondary bile acid closely linked to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

“With this significant breakthrough in preclinical models, we can now consider evaluating DT-109 as a potential drug candidate for the treatment of NASH in future clinical trials,” said Jifeng Zhang, Ph.D., co-corresponding author and research associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at Michigan Medicine. “With millions of people suffering from NASH, the need for an effective treatment is more pressing than ever.”

Additional authors include Oren Rom, Ying Zhao, Chao Xue, Yang Zhao, Bo Wen, Duxin Sun, Jiandie Lin, all of University of Michigan, Pengxiang Qu, Linying Jia, Wenbin Cao, Jinpeng Zhao, Liang Bai, Sihai Zhao, Enqi Liu, all of Xi’an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Ke Li, Shusi Ding, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Mingming Zhao, Huiqing Wang, Lemin Zheng, all of Peking University, Xiaojing Gao, Chengshuang Chu, Rong Zeng, all of Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology,  Zhipeng Lui, Purdue University,  Shuangshuang Chen  and Xuelian Xiong, both of  Fudan University,  Alexandra C. Finney, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-Shreveport, Zuowen Zheng, Spring Biological Technology Development Co., Wanqing Liu, Wayne State University.

Disclosure: Chen is an inventor of the compound DT-109. The University of Michigan has patented it and licensed it to Diapin Therapeutics. Chen and the university have an ownership interest in Diapin. Diapin provided DT-109 for this study. The company is further developing the compound.

All procedures performed in mice were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Michigan and performed in accordance with the institutional guidelines. All experimental protocols involving non-human primates were approved by the Laboratory Animal Care Committee of Xi'an Jiaotong University (approval number: 20191278) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Spring Biological Technology Development Co., Ltd. (approval number: 201901). The study was performed in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.

Paper cited: “DT-109 Ameliorates Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis in Non-human Primates,” Cell Metabolism. DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2023.03.013

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JOURNAL

Cell Metabolism

DOI

10.1016/j.cmet.2023.03.013 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

DT-109 Ameliorates Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis in Non-human Primates

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Apr-2023

COI STATEMENT

Disclosure: Chen is an inventor of the compound DT-109. The University of Michigan has patented it and licensed it to Diapin Therapeutics. Chen and the university have an ownership interest in Diapin. Diapin provided DT-109 for this study. The company is further developing the compound. All procedures performed in mice were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at the University of Michigan and performed in accordance with the institutional guidelines. All experimental protocols involving non-human primates were approved by the Laboratory Animal Care Committee of Xi'an Jiaotong University (approval number: 20191278) and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Spring Biological Technology Development Co., Ltd. (approval number: 201901). The study was performed in accordance with the National Institutes of Health Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.