Flexible, supportive company culture makes for better remote work

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: FREQUENCY HEATMAP FOR THE MOST POPULAR 30 TERMS IN THE DESIRED AND LESS DESIRED ORGANIZATION REVIEWS. view more 

CREDIT: GEORGIA TECH

The pandemic made remote work the norm for many, but that doesn’t mean it was always a positive experience. Remote work can have many advantages: increased flexibility, inclusivity for parents and people with disabilities, and work-life balance. But it can also cause issues with collaboration, communication, and the overall work environment.

New research from the Georgia Institute of Technology used data from the employee review website Glassdoor to determine what made remote work successful. Companies that catered to employees’ interests, gave employees independence, fostered collaboration, and had flexible policies were most likely to have strong remote workplaces.

“One of the biggest changes during the pandemic for all of us, for better or worse, was remote work,” said Munmun De Choudhury, an associate professor in the School of Interactive Computing. “The motivation for us in this research was to understand what makes some organizations more suitable for remote work and others not. We found that cultural aspects matter the most.”

De Choudhury and her Ph.D. student Mohit Chandra presented the research in the paper, “What Makes Some Workplaces More Favorable to Remote Work? Unpacking Employee Experiences During Covid-19 Via Glassdoor,” at Proceedings of the 15th ACM Web Science Conference.

Data Discovery

Glassdoor made for an ideal dataset because employees can post anonymously, leading to more authentic reviews. Although review sites are known for attracting people with strong views, this bias worked in the researchers’ favor — they were looking for people with strong opinions on company culture.

“We are missing the people who are in the middle, but it also actually works in our favor because we really were interested in those positives and negatives,” De Choudhury said. “We recognize the bias, but at the same time, it was still a pretty good data set for us to know the extremes of how people felt.”

Ultimately, they collected more than 140,000 reviews from current employees at 52 Fortune 500 companies that allowed remote work from March 2019 to March 2021, which overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic. Some of these companies included Verizon, Walmart, and Salesforce. Their textual analysis mostly focused on the pros and cons section of the Glassdoor reviews.

To analyze the data, the researchers created an algorithmic prediction task to identify which cultural attributes a company had prior to the pandemic would lead to favorable remote work environments. Their model used statistical and deep learning methods and correctly predicted a company’s favorable remote work environment 76% of the time.

Using organizational behavior theory, the researchers divided company culture into 41 different dimensions categorized into seven subgroups: interests, work values, work activities, social skills, job structural characteristics, work styles, and interpersonal relationships.

The Company Culture Curve

Companies with a positive culture for remote work excelled in three main categories:

• Interests: Companies that empower employees to pursue their own goals, interests, and how they conduct their work were viewed more favorably.
• Work values: Companies that give their employees freedom to make their own decisions and work in a collaborative environment led to more satisfaction.
• Structured job characteristics: Companies with flexible remote work and hours were more likely to entice employees.

“We found these keywords in reviews like ‘work-life balance’ or ‘flexible work’ occurring frequently in the pros section of good companies,” Chandra said.

Conversely, companies with toxic cultures frequently failed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; made workers feel disrespected; and acted unethically.

Ultimately, the researchers believe these results reflect generational differences in what’s most valuable to employees.

“There are a lot of reports of quiet quitting and the great resignation because millennials or Gen Z value culture a lot, in contrast to previous generations like Baby Boomers, for whom job satisfaction was largely about compensation,” said De Choudhury. “Younger generations might say they’re OK with an average salary if they can have that flexibility in work hours, and that’s what makes these companies more favorable to remote work.”

CITATION: Mohit Chandra and Munmun De Choudhury. 2023. What Makes Some Workplaces More Favorable to Remote Work? Unpacking Employee Experiences During COVID-19 Via Glassdoor. In Proceedings of the 15th ACM Web Science Conference 2023 (WebSci '23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 312–323. https://doi.org/10.1145/3578503.3583602

 

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The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its more than 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students, representing 50 states and more than 148 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.

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DOI

10.1145/3578503.3583602 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

BioOne extends partnership with the Entomological Society of America to preserve and disseminate entomological research spanning 100+ years

ESA eBook Collection is accessible to libraries via the BioOne Digital Library

Business Announcement

BIOONE

WASHINGTON, D.C., June 27, 2023 – A trove of more than 160 eBooks in insect science is now available on the BioOne Digital Library, through an extension of BioOne’s partnership with the Entomological Society of America (ESA).

With the launch of the ESA eBook Collection, BioOne and ESA have partnered to source, digitize, and make fully searchable critical books from ESA’s catalog. Through this collaboration, BioOne and ESA share a commitment to make scientific research more accessible with the preservation of over 100 years of natural history and entomological research that also covers a broad range of subjects including agricultural entomology, pest management, insect ecology, and biodiversity. The ESA eBook Collection may be licensed by institutions under a one-time purchase model directly from BioOne. Essential ESA titles available in digital format for the first time include the Handbook of Small Grain Insects, Bees and Crop Pollination - Crises, Crossroads, Conservation, and The Larval Ixodid Ticks of the Eastern United States.

 

“Some of these titles are challenging for libraries to find,” said ESA Director of Publications, Communications, and Marketing Matt Hudson. “Creating the ESA eBook Collection on the BioOne Digital Library allows us to make the comprehensive research in this collection broadly accessible, while sustainably covering the substantial costs of digitizing content.”

 

“We’re proud to partner with ESA on this exciting endeavor,” said BioOne President/CEO Lauren Kane. “This project also represents the power of collaboration among BioOne’s community network to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. Partners from across our publishing, library, and research community came together in support, and we appreciate the hard work of our platform partner, SPIE, and library sourcing partners at Iowa State University, the William F. Barr Entomological Museum at the University of Idaho, and the University of California, Berkeley.”

 

About BioOne

BioOne is an innovative nonprofit collaborative and the leading content aggregator in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. More than 150 global scientific societies and nonprofit publishing organizations include their journals in BioOne’s flagship product, BioOne Complete, for the benefit of 3,500 accessing institutions and millions of researchers worldwide. Since 2001, BioOne has returned more than $68 million in royalty sharing back to its participants, with a commitment to share research more broadly, equitably, and sustainably. For more information visit www.bioonepublishing.org.

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About the Entomological Society of America

ESA is the largest organization in the world serving the professional and scientific needs of entomologists and people in related disciplines. Founded in 1889, ESA today has more than 7,000 members affiliated with educational institutions, health agencies, private industry, and government. Headquartered in Annapolis, Maryland, the Society stands ready as a non-partisan scientific and educational resource for all insect-related topics. For more information, visit www.entsoc.org.

Poverty negatively impacts structural wiring in children’s brains, study indicates

Reducing obesity, boosting cognitive enrichment may improve kids’ brain health

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that growing up in poverty may influence the wiring of a child’s brain.

The study, published June 27 in JAMA Network Open, indicates a link between both neighborhood and household poverty and the brain’s white matter tracts, which allow for communication between brain regions. White matter plays a critical role in helping the brain process information.

The findings stem from the largest long-term study of brain development and child health conducted in the U.S. — the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, which was launched by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2015. Washington University is a national leader in studies of the developing brain and is one of 21 study sites around the country participating in the ABCD Study, which is following nearly 12,000 children, beginning at ages 9 to 10, for at least a decade.

“White matter integrity is very important in brain development,” said first author Zhaolong (Adrian) Li, a neuroimaging research technician in the Department of Psychiatry. “For example, weaknesses in white matter are linked to visuospatial and mental health challenges in children. If we can capture how socioeconomic status affects white matter early on in a child’s life, the hope is we can, one day, translate these findings to preventive measures.”

The researchers also found that childhood obesity and lower cognitive function may explain, at least partially, poverty’s influence on white matter differences. Generally, children who grow up in poverty have a higher risk of obesity and score lower on tests of cognitive function than their peers in higher income neighborhoods and households. The latter could be due, in part, to limited access to enriching sensory, social and cognitive stimulation.

“Our finding that obesity and cognitive enrichment may be relevant mediators, if confirmed, would provide strong support for managing healthy weight and encouraging cognitively stimulating activities to support brain health in disadvantaged children,” said Tamara Hershey, PhD, the James S. McDonnell Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and a professor of psychiatry and of radiology.

The research was conducted in the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center in the university’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology.

White matter, the densely packed nerve fibers deep in the brain, gets its white color from the fatty substance that surrounds nerve fibers. The fatty coating is responsible for the rapid transmission of information along nerve cell tracts. The organization and connectivity between these tracts support learning and proper communication across brain regions. Disruption in these communication pathways has been linked to physical challenges as well as worse mental health outcomes.

The scientists used the publicly available ABCD Study database, through which they were able to model water movement as an indicator of white matter integrity in the brain scans of 8,842 children ages 9 to 11. Just like rocks, pebbles and boulders impact the flow of water in a river, diverse brain cell structures create barriers that hinder water diffusion. The researchers found less directional movement of water molecules in the brains of children living in poverty, signifying structural changes in white matter regions. They also found higher water content in spherical spaces in the brain, which hinted at possible neuroinflammation in children who live in poverty.

A child’s environment is complex, involving both neighborhood and family influences. Disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer disproportionately from unemployment, poverty, and income disparity. Single-parent homes are more common, and residents are typically less educated, earn a lower income, and own less property.

“Our analysis revealed that neighborhood poverty is linked to white matter differences and putative immune cell presence. We found a similar link when looking at household socioeconomic status, taking into account annual income and parental education,” Li said.

“Wealth and income inequality are accelerating in the U.S.,” said co-corresponding author Scott Marek, PhD, an assistant professor of radiology and of psychiatry. “We and others are starting to scratch the surface of how inequality may harm the developing brain and affect mental health outcomes. Our findings emphasize shifting away from the thinking that socioeconomics is a unitary construct. It’s not schools or parenting alone that matter for brain health. It’s likely the collection of many neighborhood and familial life factors.”

Hershey, who directs the Neuroimaging Labs Research Center and is a co-corresponding author, cautioned that the study only looked at one time point. Therefore, it is too soon to know if poverty triggered the brain differences seen in the study, she said. However, the ABCD Study continues to track enrolled children through brain scans and cognitive testing with the potential for future long-term brain development studies in disadvantaged children.

“We hope this work encourages future studies to examine modifiable health risk factors in large and longitudinal samples that would one day translate to intervention,” Hershey said.

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.20276 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Associations Between Socioeconomic Status, Obesity, Cognition, and White Matter Microstructure in Children.

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2023

STOP THE PRESS

Humans' ancestors survived the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

A Cretaceous origin for placental mammals, the group that includes humans, dogs and bats, has been revealed by in-depth analysis of the fossil record, showing they co-existed with dinosaurs for a short time before the dinosaurs went extinct.

The catastrophic destruction triggered by the asteroid hitting the Earth resulted in the death of all non-avian dinosaurs in an event termed the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) mass extinction. Debate has long raged among researchers over whether placental mammals were present alongside the dinosaurs before the mass extinction, or whether they only evolved after the dinosaurs were done away with. Fossils of placental mammals are only found in rocks younger than 66 million years old, which is when the asteroid hit Earth, suggesting that the group evolved after the mass extinction. However, molecular data has long suggested an older age for placental mammals.

In a new paper published in the journal Current Biology, a team of palaeobiologists from the University of Bristol and the University of Fribourg used statistical analysis of the fossil record to determine that placental mammals originated before the mass extinction, meaning they co-existed with dinosaurs for a short time. However, it was only after the asteroid impact that modern lineages of placental mammals began to evolve, suggesting that they were better able to diversify once the dinosaurs were gone.

The researchers collected extensive fossil data from placental mammal groups extending all the way back to the mass extinction 66 million years ago.

Lead author Emily Carlisle of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences said: “We pulled together thousands of fossils of placental mammals and were able to see the patterns of origination and extinction of the different groups. Based on this, we could estimate when placental mammals evolved.”

Co-author Daniele Silvestro (University of Fribourg) explained: “The model we used estimates origination ages based on when lineages first appear in the fossil record and the pattern of species diversity through time for the lineage. It can also estimate extinction ages based on last appearances when the group is extinct.”

Co-author Professor Phil Donoghue, also from Bristol, added: “By examining both origins and extinctions, we can more clearly see the impact of events such as the K-Pg mass extinction or the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM).”

Primates, the group that includes the human lineage, as well as Lagomorpha (rabbits and hares) and Carnivora (dogs and cats) were shown to have evolved just before the K-Pg mass extinction, which means their ancestors were mingling with dinosaurs. After they survived the asteroid impact, placental mammals rapidly diversified, perhaps spurred on by the loss of competition from the dinosaurs.

 

Paper:

‘A timescale for placental mammal diversification based on Bayesian modelling of the fossil record’ by Emily Carlisle, Phil Donoghue et al in Current Biology.

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A timescale for placental mammal diversification based on Bayesian modelling of the fossil record

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2023

New study sheds light on the evolution of animals

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

 

IMAGE: RECONSTRUCTION OF THE EDIACARAN SEAFLOOR FROM THE NAMA GROUP, NAMIBIA, SHOWING EARLY ANIMAL DIVERSITY. CREDIT: OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY / MIGHTY FOSSILS view more 

CREDIT: OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY / MIGHTY FOSSILS

Key points:

• Scientists have been mystified as to why animals are missing in much of the fossil record;
• Researchers have developed a new method to determine if animals really were absent during certain geological eras, or if they were present but too fragile to be preserved;
• The findings establish a new maximum point at which animals first evolved on Earth.

A study led by the University of Oxford has brought us one step closer to solving a mystery that has puzzled naturalists since Charles Darwin: when did animals first appear in the history of Earth? The results have been published today in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution.

Animals* first occur in the fossil record around 574 million years ago. Their arrival appears as a sudden ‘explosion’ in rocks from the Cambrian period (539 million years ago to 485 million years ago) and seems to counter the typically gradual pace of evolutionary change. Many scientists (including Darwin himself) believe that the first animals actually evolved long before the Cambrian period, but they cannot explain why they are missing from the fossil record.

The ‘molecular clock’ method, for instance, suggests that animals first evolved 800 million years ago, during the early part of the Neoproterozoic era (1,000 million years ago to 539 million years ago). This approach uses the rates at which genes accumulate mutations to determine the point in time when two or more living species last shared a common ancestor. But although rocks from the early Neoproterozoic contain fossil microorganisms, such as bacteria and protists, no animal fossils have been found.

This posed a dilemma for palaeontologists: does the molecular clock method overestimate the point at which animals first evolved? Or were animals present during the early Neoproterozoic, but too soft and fragile to be preserved?

To investigate this, a team of researchers led by Dr Ross Anderson from the University of Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences have carried out the most thorough assessment to date of the preservation conditions that would be expected to capture the earliest animal fossils.

Lead author Dr Ross Anderson said: ‘The first animals presumably lacked mineral-based shells or skeletons, and would have required exceptional conditions to be fossilised. But certain Cambrian mudstone deposits demonstrate exceptional preservation, even of soft and fragile animal tissues. We reasoned that if these conditions, known as Burgess Shale-Type (BST) preservation, also occurred in Neoproterozoic rocks, then a lack of fossils would suggest a real absence of animals at that time.’

To investigate this, the research team used a range of analytical techniques on samples of Cambrian mudstone deposits from almost 20 sites, to compare those hosting BST fossils with those preserving only mineral-based remains (such as trilobites). These methods included energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction carried out at the University of Oxford’s Departments of Earth Sciences and Materials, besides infrared spectroscopy carried out at Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron.

The analysis found that fossils with exceptional BST-type preservation were particularly enriched in an antibacterial clay called berthierine. Samples with a composition of at least 20% berthierine yielded BST fossils in around 90% of cases.

Microscale mineral mapping of BST fossils revealed that another antibacterial clay, called kaolinite, appeared to directly bind to decaying tissues at an early stage, forming a protective halo during fossilisation.

‘The presence of these clays was the main predictor of whether rocks would harbour BST fossils’ added Dr Anderson. ‘This suggests that the clay particles act as an antibacterial barrier that prevents bacteria and other microorganisms from breaking down organic materials.’

The researchers then applied these techniques to analyse samples from numerous fossil-rich Neoproterozoic mudstone deposits. The analysis revealed that most did not have the compositions necessary for BST preservation. However, three deposits in Nunavut (Canada), Siberia (Russia), and Svalbard (Norway) had almost identical compositions to BST-rocks from the Cambrian period. Nevertheless, none of the samples from these three deposits contained animal fossils, even though conditions were likely favourable for their preservation.

Dr Anderson added: ‘Similarities in the distribution of clays with fossils in these rare early Neoproterozoic samples and with exceptional Cambrian deposits suggest that, in both cases, clays were attached to decaying tissues, and that conditions conducive to BST preservation were available in both time periods. This provides the first “evidence for absence” and supports the view that animals had not evolved by the early Neoproterozoic era, contrary to some molecular clock estimates.’

According to the researchers, the study suggests a possible maximum age to the origin of animals of around 789 million years: the youngest estimated age of the Svalbard formation. The group now intend to search for progressively younger Neoproterozoic deposits with conditions for BST preservation. This will confirm the age of rocks in which animals are missing from the fossil record because they really were absent, rather than because conditions did not enable them to be fossilised. They also intend to perform laboratory experiments to investigate the mechanisms that underpin clay-organic interactions in BST preservation.

Dr Anderson added: ‘Mapping the compositions of these rocks at the microscale is allowing us to understand the nature of the exceptional fossil record in a way that we have never been able to do before. Ultimately, this could help determine how the fossil record may be biased towards preserving certain species and tissues, altering our perception of biodiversity across different geological eras.’

*‘Animals’ can be defined as multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals feed on organic matter, breathe oxygen, reproduce sexually, have specialized sense organs and a nervous system, and are able to respond rapidly to stimuli.

Dickinsonia, one of the oldest animal fossils from the Ediacara Biota, Ediacaran Rawnsley Quartzite Formation, Australia. 560–550 million years old. Credit: Lidya Tarhan

CREDIT

Lidya Tarhan

Image of one of the Tonian sites with BST preservation but no animal fossils from fieldwork. Svanbergfjellet Formation, De Geerbukta, Svalbard, Norway. Credit: Ross Anderson / University of Oxford

CREDIT

Credit: Ross Anderson / University of Oxford

Reconstruction of Charnia, a candidate for the first animal fossil from the Ediacaran Period as old as 574 million years ago. Credit: Oxford University Museum of Natural History / Mighty Fossils

CREDIT

Credit: Oxford University Museum of Natural History / Mighty Fossils

Notes for editors:

For interview requests and media enquiries, please contact Dr Ross Anderson: ross.anderson@earth.ox.ac.uk. A package of photographs and images for media use (including captions) is available at https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1veGl8EGPdmoynExnfgsVNcY1Vhix19f5

The study ‘Fossilisation processes and our reading of animal antiquity’ will be published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution. On Tuesday 27 June at 16:00 BST/ 11:00 ET: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.014. To view a copy of the paper under embargo before this, please contact Dr Ross Anderson: ross.anderson@earth.ox.ac.uk.

About the University of Oxford

 Oxford University has been placed number 1 in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings for the seventh year running, and ​number 2 in the QS World Rankings 2022. At the heart of this success are the twin-pillars of our ground-breaking research and innovation and our distinctive educational offer.

Oxford is world-famous for research and teaching excellence and home to some of the most talented people from across the globe. Our work helps the lives of millions, solving real-world problems through a huge network of partnerships and collaborations. The breadth and interdisciplinary nature of our research alongside our personalised approach to teaching sparks imaginative and inventive insights and solutions.

Through its research commercialisation arm, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford is the highest university patent filer in the UK and is ranked first in the UK for university spinouts, having created more than 200 new companies since 1988. Over a third of these companies have been created in the past three years. The university is a catalyst for prosperity in Oxfordshire and the United Kingdom, contributing £15.7 billion to the UK economy in 2018/19, and supports more than 28,000 full time jobs.

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JOURNAL

Trends in Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1016/j.tree.2023.05.014 

ARTICLE TITLE

Fossilisation processes and our reading of animal antiquity

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2023

Chemical imbalance in the forebrain discovered in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

• Using a high-powered MRI scanner, scientists have discovered an imbalance between neurochemicals in parts of OCD patients’ brains key to decision-making and habit.

• Chemical imbalances were related to OCD symptom severity, as well as habitual tendencies in a decision-making task.

• A similar but less pronounced neurochemical imbalance was also detected in healthy individuals with milder compulsive tendencies.    

• Neuroscientists argue that the findings are a “major piece of the puzzle” in understanding OCD, and could open up new lines of treatment.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have used powerful new brain imaging techniques to reveal a neurochemical imbalance within regions of the frontal lobes in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

The study shows that the balance between glutamate and GABA – two major neurotransmitter chemicals – is “disrupted” in OCD patients in two frontal regions of the brain.

Researchers also found that people who do not have OCD but are prone to habitual and compulsive behaviour have increased glutamate levels in one of these brain regions.

Neuroscientists behind the study say the findings will open up new avenues for treating OCD, a psychiatric disorder that affects up to 3% of Western populations and can be deeply disabling.

Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, the researchers measured levels of glutamate and GABA in regions of the cerebral cortex, the outermost and most highly developed part of the human brain.

Glutamate is an “excitatory” neurochemical: it facilitates electrical impulses that fire neurons to send information around brain networks. GABA is an “inhibitory” neurotransmitter that works in opposition to glutamate by dampening neural excitability, creating a balance.

OCD sufferers had higher levels of glutamate and lower levels of GABA in the anterior cingulate cortex, compared to people without OCD.

Additionally, the severity of OCD symptoms, along with the inclination towards habitual and compulsive behaviour, was related to higher glutamate levels in the supplementary motor region. This was found to be the case in OCD patients as well as in healthy participants with milder compulsive tendencies.

The anterior cingulate cortex and the supplementary motor area are both centrally involved in deciding the balance between our conscious goals and more automatic habits. The research suggests that “compulsions arise from a dysregulated brain system for controlling habits” say scientists.

The research is funded by the Wellcome Trust, and the latest findings are published today in the journal Nature Communications. 

“Understanding obsessive-compulsive disorder is a central question for psychiatry. We have now shown definitive changes in these key neurotransmitters in OCD sufferers,” said senior author Prof Trevor Robbins from Cambridge’s Department of Psychology. “Excess glutamate and reduced GABA is disrupting the neural circuitry in key regions of the OCD brain.”

“Our findings are a major piece of the puzzle for understanding the mechanisms behind OCD. The results suggest new strategies for medication in OCD based on available drugs that regulate glutamate. In particular, drugs that inhibit presynaptic glutamate receptors,” said Robbins. A presynaptic receptor is the part of a nerve cell that controls release of neurotransmitter chemicals.

Severe OCD is a mental health disorder that causes untold misery for some sufferers. It can lead to loss of work and relationships, and social isolation. “Symptoms of intrusive thoughts and repetitive rituals can confine patients to their homes for months on end,” said Robbins. In extreme cases, the lack of control and sense of hopelessness caused by OCD can result in thoughts of suicide .

Current treatments for OCD are limited. While people with milder symptoms can benefit from some anti-depressants, for those with severe symptoms there are few options – often extreme – such as deep-brain stimulation and even neurosurgery to remove the anterior cingulate cortex entirely.

“Some treatments already target glutamate imbalance in a roundabout way,” said Dr Marjan Biria, study lead author, who conducted the work in Robbins’ Cambridge lab. “Now we have the evidence for why certain approaches seem to have some beneficial effects.”

The Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre at Cambridge is home to one of only seven ultra-powerful 7-Tesla Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) scanners in the UK. For the latest study, researchers scanned 31 clinically-diagnosed OCD sufferers, and 30 healthy volunteers as a control group.

“Standard MRS scanners can be quite crude, not picking up the glutamate signal very accurately. The 7-Tesla machine allows us to separate the overlapping signals and measure glutamate and GABA more precisely,” said Biria.

In addition to scans, researchers conducted tests and questionnaires with all participants to gauge obsessive-compulsive and habitual tendencies. The test used a computer-based task to establish a link between an action and reward. The scientists then uncoupled this link and observed whether participants continued to respond as a measure of habit.

“We tested whether people were more prone to repeating the same responses, like a habit, or adapting their behaviour to better pursue goals,” said Robbins. “Compulsions and habits are not the same, but impaired regulation of habits can be the basis of compulsions and shift people away from their goal-directed behaviour."

“In the supplementary motor area, which is a likely controller of the habit system, even the more mildly repetitive behaviour of healthy volunteers was related to the glutamate-GABA ratio.”

However, only clinical OCD sufferers showed excess glutamate and reduced GABA in their anterior cingulate cortex.

The researchers say that raised glutamate levels may prove to be a “biomarker” for OCD. This could guide new therapies, including medication but also non-invasive use of magnetic stimulation through the scalp, an approach which is showing some promise for treatment of OCD.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-38695-z 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Imaging analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Cortical glutamate and GABA are related to compulsive behaviour in individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder and healthy controls

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2023

Prevalence of iron deficiency, iron-deficiency anemia in females ages 12-21

JAMA

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA NETWORK

About The Study: Among 12- to 21-year-old U.S. females between 2003 and 2020, iron deficiency affected almost 40% and iron deficiency anemia affected 6%, with variation by the ferritin or hemoglobin thresholds used. Menstruation was a risk factor for both, but more than one-quarter of premenarchal individuals had iron deficiency. 

Authors: Angela C. Weyand, M.D., of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, is the corresponding author.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi:10.1001/jama.2023.8020)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article 

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JOURNAL

JAMA

Fondant: Where baking and thermodynamics mix

Automated kneading and microscopy yield new findings in how sugar crystals form in confectionery, showing promise for improved texture control and potential for healthier, low-calorie alternatives

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

 

IMAGE: A TYPICAL CRYSTALLIZATION PROCESS DURING THE PREPARATION OF FONDANT, WITH SKETCHES OF THE CRYSTALS ON MICROSCOPIC SCALE. CREDIT: HANNAH M. HARTGE view more 

CREDIT: A TYPICAL CRYSTALLIZATION PROCESS DURING THE PREPARATION OF FONDANT, WITH SKETCHES OF THE CRYSTALS ON MICROSCOPIC SCALE. CREDIT: HANNAH M. HARTGE

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2023 – With their unique appearance, texture, and mouthfeel, fondants have intrigued bakers and physicists for years. They present an appetizing enigma in the world of confectionery, an intriguing combination of sugar, water, and heat that, when manipulated correctly, yields a delectably creamy product.

Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research and Technische Universität Berlin studied the kinetic and thermodynamic processes of sugar crystallization in the making of fondant. In Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, they combined a controlled kneading machine with light microscopy to precisely observe the process of fondant creation and link it to theoretical physics models. This allowed the team to track how different preparation methods influence the final structure and texture of fondant.

Such work is poised to provide new ways to better predict and control fondant texture, mouthfeel, and flow process.

“Our works shows the interplay between crystallization speeds and process parameters. Thus, we can predict structure and function,” said author Hannah Hartge. “So far, food systems like fondants were rarely explored in scientific research, especially physics.”

Historically, it has been difficult to reproducibly research thicker sugar solutions because they crystalize under cooling and stirring. To address this challenge, the group required a method with more control than a standard kitchen.

To study fondant creation, the researchers used a laboratory kneader, which allowed them to observe how fondants are produced and how they crystallize under high-force stirring.

As the kneading progressed and more sugar was pulled out of solution into crystals, the torque of the kneader dropped, which indicates a smoother texture. With further kneading, however, the large sugar crystals began to break up, leading to a peak in torque and resulting in a thicker solution more characteristic of a fondant.

“It was surprising to see the sugar crystals in the solution grow first during the early stages of stirring, and then the biggest get smaller again due to the stirring,” said author Thomas Vilgis. “Finally, their sizes adjust themselves, which leads to this fine creamy texture of fondants, provided the concentration, temperatures, and stirring speed are chosen correctly.”

This peak in thickness was highly dependent on the temperature and stirring speed, mimicking a well-established model – called classical nucleation theory – for how dissolved particles glom onto each other.

In future work, Hartge and Vilgis hope to explore the behavior of fondants created with sugar alternatives, such as erythritol and isomalt, paving the way for healthier, low-calorie fondant options. They aspire to inspire more studies on food systems from a fundamental physics perspective.

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The article “Crystallization in highly supersaturated, agitated sucrose solutions” is authored by Hannah Maria Hartge, Eckhard Flöter, and Thomas A. Vilgis. It will appear in Physics of Fluids on June 27, 2023 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0150227). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0150227.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex fluids. See https://aip.scitation.org/journal/phf.

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JOURNAL

Physics of Fluids

DOI

10.1063/5.0150227 

ARTICLE TITLE

Crystallization in highly supersaturated, agitated sucrose solutions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

27-Jun-2023