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More than 2 million additional Americans faced food insufficiency following drawdown of pandemic-related SNAP benefits, Penn Medicine study finds

Food insufficiency can contribute to chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

PHILADELPHIA— The recent discontinuation of pandemic-related food assistance benefits, known as the Supplemental Food Assistance Program (SNAP) Emergency Allotments, led to a substantial increase in food insufficiency in the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. The primary goal of SNAP, which distributes cash-like benefits to low-income families to buy food, is to combat food insecurity, which affects 10 percent of U.S. households. The findings were published in JAMA Health Forum today.

Comparing trends in food insufficiency in states that ended Emergency Allotments before the federal government ended them altogether in March 2023 with the rest of the U.S., the researchers found that after the temporary increases to households’ SNAP benefits ended, SNAP recipients experienced a 21 percent relative increase in both food insufficiency and food insufficiency among children. These findings imply that more than two million more American households faced food insufficiency when Emergency Allotments ended in all states.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food insecurity refers to the limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods, or the limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways. Food insufficiency is a more severe condition than food insecurity and measures whether a household generally has enough to eat.

“To our knowledge, this is one of the first studies to evaluate the association between changes in SNAP benefit amounts and food insufficiency,” said Aaron Richterman, MD, MPH, an Instructor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Penn and the study’s lead author. “This study shows the severe consequences of reducing SNAP benefit amounts at a time when inflation was causing rapid rises in food prices, and is especially important because of upcoming federal negotiations surrounding SNAP’s renewal in the Farm Bill at the end of September.”

In addition to influencing chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diabetes, previous research found that mothers with school-aged children who face severe hunger are 56.2 percent more likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder and 53.1 percent more likely to have severe depression. Research has found that diet-related illness increased the risk for severe symptoms and death from COVID-19, with nearly two-thirds of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. were related to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart failure.

Penn researchers analyzed data from more than 3 million survey respondents in the U.S. to assess the impact of losing the SNAP Emergency Allotment benefits. They focused on what happened in 18 states that discontinued the additional benefits earlier than other states in the U.S. by letting their formal public health emergency declarations expire.

“SNAP’s Emergency Allotments represented the largest-ever increases in benefit amounts for SNAP households,” added co-author Harsha Thirumurthy, PhD, a professor of Health Policy at Penn. “Our findings are particularly concerning given previous research linking food insecurity to numerous poor health outcomes. Reducing SNPA benefit amounts will have far-reaching consequences for public health.”

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Penn Medicine is one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, excellence in patient care, and community service. The organization consists of the University of Pennsylvania Health System and Penn’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, founded in 1765 as the nation’s first medical school.

The Perelman School of Medicine is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $550 million awarded in the 2022 fiscal year. Home to a proud history of “firsts” in medicine, Penn Medicine teams have pioneered discoveries and innovations that have shaped modern medicine, including recent breakthroughs such as CAR T cell therapy for cancer and the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System’s patient care facilities stretch from the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania to the New Jersey shore. These include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Health, Penn Medicine Princeton Health, and Pennsylvania Hospital—the nation’s first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is an $11.1 billion enterprise powered by more than 49,000 talented faculty and staff.

 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Health Forum

 

Malaria vaccine candidate appears safe and produces promising immune response in a cohort of Tanzanian infants

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

 

IMAGE: GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT CREDIT MED SILK ET AL. view more 

CREDIT: MED SILK ET AL.

An experimental malaria vaccine appears safe and promotes an immune response in African infants, one of the groups most vulnerable to severe malaria disease. There is currently only one malaria vaccine, “RTS,S” that is approved by the World Health Organization and offers partial disease protection. However, in the results of the early-stage phase Ib trial conducted in Tanzania and published on August 11th in the journal Med, researchers find that targeting RH5 – a protein that the malaria pathogen Plasmodium falciparum uses to invade red blood cells – can generate a promising immune response that is most pronounced in an infant cohort.

"Anti-sporozoite vaccines such as RTS,S need to be 100% effective in stopping the parasite from invading the liver to prevent disease,” says senior author Angela Minassian, a clinician scientist at the University of Oxford. “Even if just one parasite slips through the net, this will then go on to multiply in the liver, burst out into the bloodstream, and then infect red blood cells where the parasites then grow at an exponential rate. Having a blood-stage vaccine like RH5 on board gives you a second line of defense once the parasite has entered the bloodstream, allowing a second chance to stop malaria before it causes illness.”

  A person is infected with malaria when bitten by an infected mosquito, which releases Plasmodium falciparum into the body. RTS,S and many other vaccine candidates teach the immune system how to target the parasite at this sporozoite stage, before it invades the liver. Once the parasite matures and is released from the liver into the bloodstream, Plasmodium falciparum displays RH5 and infects red blood cells, which causes disease. If an anti-sporozoite and an anti-RH5 vaccine were used in combination in the future, individuals could potentially experience more effective protection against malaria for a longer period of time.

“The data in the phase 1b trial reported here confirm, for the first time, that substantial anti-RH5 immune responses can be achieved safely by vaccination in infants from a malaria-endemic area,” say the authors.

The researchers conducted the vaccine trial in Bagamoyo, Tanzania, where the average malaria prevalence throughout the population is 13%. 63 participants aged 6 months to 35 years were enrolled and randomized to receive either the experimental malaria vaccine, called “ChAd63-MVA RH5,” or a control rabies vaccine. The trial was also double-blinded, meaning that neither the participants nor the vaccine administrators knew who received the malaria vaccine or the control. All participants were given the second dose of vaccine two months later and followed for four months after this.

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety of this vaccine in a population where malaria is endemic. Participants in both the control and treatment group reported pain at the injection site and a mild fever shortly after vaccination, but overall the vaccine was well tolerated and there were no safety concerns.

A secondary outcome of the study was whether the vaccine would promote an immune response. Researchers found that participants who received the malaria vaccine developed antibodies against RH5 in their blood upon follow-up. In the laboratory, these antibodies were able to inhibit the growth of the malaria parasite at high levels that are associated with disease protection. “These data justify onward progression to phase IIb field efficacy trials to determine whether parasite growth-inhibition levels of this magnitude can ultimately protect against clinical malaria.” say the authors.

The authors note that they observed the strongest immune responses in infants under 11 months, followed by children aged 1-6 years, then adults. “Why the infants and young children vaccinated with ChAd63-MVA RH5 induced such high levels of antibody remains to be fully understood,” say the authors. “Given that both anti-sporozoite and blood-stage malaria vaccine strategies necessitate very high levels of antibody to protect against parasite infection, current efforts remain focused on infants and young children.”

The researchers note that this was a small study that followed participants for only four months after receiving their full vaccine schedule. They recommend that additional phase Ia/Ib trials should be conducted to optimize the recommended age range, boosting schedule, and delivery platform for anti-RH5 vaccines. Currently, a phase 1b trial is planned in the Gambia which will look at the effects of combining an anti-RH5 vaccine with an anti-sporozoite vaccine.

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This work was supported by the Medical Research Council.  Information about conflicts of interest can be found in the text of the paper.

Med, Silk et al. “Superior antibody immunogenicity of a viral-vectored RH5 blood-stage malaria vaccine in Tanzanian infants as compared to adults” https://www.cell.com/med/fulltext/S2666-6340(23)00226-X 

Med (@MedCellPress), Cell Press' flagship medical journal, publishes transformative, evidence-based science across the clinical and translational research continuum—from large-scale clinical trials to translational studies with demonstrable functional impact, offering novel insights in disease understanding. Visit: https://www.cell.com/med. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.

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JOURNAL

Med

DOI

10.1016/j.medj.2023.07.003 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Superior antibody immunogenicity of a viral-vectored RH5 blood-stage malaria vaccine in Tanzanian infants as compared to adults

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Aug-2023

 

Font size can 'nudge' customers toward healthier food choices

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

PULLMAN, Wash. -- Restaurants can persuade patrons to choose healthier foods by adjusting the font size of numbers attached to nutritional information on menus, according to a study headed by a Washington State University researcher.

Lead researcher Ruiying Cai, an assistant professor in the WSU School of Hospitality Business Management, said U.S. restaurants with more than 20 locations are already required to show the calorie content of food on their menus. By representing these values incongruously — using physically larger numbers on the page when they’re attached to lower-calorie options, and smaller numbers for high-calorie foods — Cai said businesses can successfully “nudge” customers toward healthier choices.

“When restaurants use a larger font size for the calorie content of healthy foods, even though the number itself has a smaller value, it will increase consumers’ preference to order the healthier item,” Cai said.

For the study, recently published in the International Journal of Hospitality Management, participants were asked to choose between a less healthy item like a smoked beef burger and a healthier option like a grilled chicken sandwich. They were then randomly assigned to two groups. In the first group, number values and font size rose and fell together. In the second group, the relationship between the numbers’ magnitude and their size was incongruent, meaning the font size became smaller as the number values rose and vice versa.

Researchers also posed questions to gauge how health-conscious participants were and gave varying time limits to some to measure the effect time constraints have on their decisions. Cai said the study results showed that participants in second group, who saw low calorie counts printed in large fonts, were more likely to lean toward the healthier option. Respondents who indicated they were less health-conscious were also the most affected, particularly when there was a tight timeframe to make the choice.

People who had a high level of health awareness were less likely to be swayed, Cai said, but this is likely because they already favored healthy food.

“Even if you use some of the smart tricks, it does not work as well as for those who are not so knowledgeable about health,” Cai said.

The study leverages a phenomenon called the “numerical Stroop effect,” which uses incongruity to emphasize the lower numbers and slightly slow the decision-making process, to help coax customers toward healthier menu options.

In its classic form, the Stroop effect is described as a delay in reaction time related to stimuli. For example, if the word “purple” is written in green font, it takes respondents longer to call out which color they’re seeing than if the word and the color match. Clinicians use this principle to measure attention capacity and processing speed in patients. Similarly, the numerical Stroop effect is observed when the physical size of the number does not match its actual magnitude — as when the number 50 is in a larger font than the number 80.

Restaurants have an interest in encouraging patrons to make healthier choices, Cai said. However, simply labeling the food as healthy may not have the intended effect.

“Healthy food items could be profitable for restaurants, but whenever a ‘healthy’ label is attached, people may assume it does not taste good,” she said. “We're trying to provide restaurants with subtle cues, rather than saying it out loud.”

Cai's coauthors were Laurie Wu and WSU alumna Lu Lu; both are associate professors at Temple University's Fox School of Business.

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JOURNAL

International Journal of Hospitality Management

DOI

10.1016/j.ijhm.2023.103528 

ARTICLE TITLE

The numerical stroop effect on consumer preference to order healthy food

Addressing sustainability in a round-about way

Nestled in the heart of the University of Warwick campus, lies Britain’s 2024’s Roundabout of the Year. It has been recognised for its colourful kaleidoscope of vibrant flowers that supports a flourishing ecosystem of bees, butterflies

Business Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK

 

IMAGE: WARWICK UNIVERSITY CLOSE UP PIC 1 BY CHRIS HEADON view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT CHRIS HEADON

One of the University of Warwick’s picturesque roundabouts has been crowned Roundabout of the Year 2024, recognising its impact on promoting biodiversity and protecting the local ecosystem of bees, butterflies, and insects.

Featured in ‘The Best of British Roundabouts Calendar 2024’, the roundabout has captivated the UK Roundabout Appreciation Society judges with its design and the inclusion of diverse plant species of Centaurea cyanus, Bellis perennis, Narcissus, Camassia, and Alliums.

This recognition highlights the University of Warwick’s dedication to enhancing the overall appeal and functionality of its campus.  The Garden team has worked hard to combine design with practicality so that the University’s planted areas are both aesthetically pleasing and enhance the local ecosystem.

Warwick University, founded on farmland in 1965, has transformed into a cutting-edge 200-hectare campus that embraces biodiversity. Resembling a thriving mini city, the campus combines wildlife areas, including ancient woodlands and a specially planted nature reserve to mark the millennium.

As climate change challenges us all in the UK our wildlife needs places of shelter and resources to help it survive in extreme weather. Last summer’s heat wave and protracted winter caused stress on the ecosystem and gardeners at Warwick are working hard to ensure the University’s green spaces are designed to improve biodiversity while integrating nature into urban spaces.

The University of Warwick is committed to protecting and enhancing campus biodiversity and recognises the urgent need to provide suitable habitats for plants, insects, and animals to flourish amidst the challenges of climate change. The campus serves as a diverse patchwork of interconnected habitats, fostering wildlife through sensitive management.

Dr. Dave Chandler, a lecturer in entomology and ecology at Warwick’s School of Life Sciences, emphasises the importance of managing these green spaces for wildlife: “In many ways, the University campus represents much of modern Britain, where we need to manage green spaces in urban areas so that people in towns and cities can live alongside nature.

“Even in small spaces, such as roundabouts, the planting of diverse flowers, that attract insects, and other pollinators, are a crucial resource for the many species of bees and other insects that inhabit the campus and also act as food for a range of animals including birds and bats, which in turn affect the whole of the biodiversity in the campus area.”

Renowned for his remarkable contribution to celebrating British roundabouts, Kevin Beresford, President of the Roundabout Association and creator of the Best of British Roundabouts series, has been on a twelve-month quest to discover the nation's most extraordinary circular intersections.

He commented: “The University of Warwick roundabout stood out among the rest due to its unwavering commitment to environmental sustainability.

“Through meticulous planning and sustainable practices, this traffic circle serves as a reminder of the power of conservation and the beauty of nature in the UK. It is a vibrant testament to the harmonious coexistence of nature and human innovation.”

Kevin Beresford's latest creation, Best of British Roundabout Calendar 2024, serves as a captivating tribute to the artistry and enchanting beauty found in everyday landscapes. Featuring a diverse range of scenes, from awe-inspiring sculptures in Grimsby to the serene honey-coloured stone fountain in Bath, the calendar showcases the vibrant roundabout designs that are thriving across the UK.

Kelly Baker, Grounds and Gardens Manager, who leads the grounds and gardens team at the University of Warwick takes pride in the remarkable planting efforts that have contributed to this achievement.

She said, "We are deeply honoured to receive the Roundabout of the Year 2024 title, especially for our role in enhancing biodiversity."

"By initiating re-wilding efforts on our campus, creating wildlife-friendly areas, and restoring natural habitats, we are contributing to the preservation of our ecosystem. Our strategic selection and arrangement of plants and flowers ensure a continuous display of bloom and foliage throughout the seasons, promoting ecological balance and integrating nature into our urban spaces."

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Warwick university roundabout far zoom by Kingfisher Whisper Photographer

A roadmap to help AI technologies speak African languages

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CELL PRESS

From text-generating ChatGPT to voice-activated Siri, artificial intelligence-powered tools are designed to aid our everyday life — as long as you speak a language they support. These technologies are out of reach for billions of people who don’t use English, French, Spanish or other mainstream languages, but researchers in Africa are looking to change that. In a study published August 11 in the journal Patterns, scientists draw a roadmap to develop better AI-driven tools for African languages.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that there are limited AI tools for African languages,” says first author and AI researcher Kathleen Siminyu of the Masakhane Research Foundation, a grassroots network of African scientists who aim to spur accessible AI tools for those who speak African languages. “Inclusion and representation in the advancement of language technology is not a patch you put at the end — it’s something you think about up front.”

Many of these tools rely on a field of AI called natural language processing, a technology that enables computers to understand human languages. Computers can master a language through training, where they pick up on patterns in speech and text data. However, they fail when data in a particular language is scarce, as seen in African languages. To fill the gap, the research team first identified key players involved in developing African language tools and explored their experience, motivation, focuses, and challenges. These people include writers and editors who create and curate content, as well as linguists, software engineers, and entrepreneurs who are crucial in establishing the infrastructure for language tools.

Interviews with the key players revealed four central themes to consider in designing African language tools:

• First, bearing the impact of colonization, Africa is a multilingual society where African language is central to people’s cultural identities and is key to societal participation in education, politics, economy, and more.
• Second, there is a need to support African content creation. This includes building basic tools such as dictionaries, spell checkers, and keyboards for African languages and removing financial and administrative barriers for translating government communications to multiple national languages, which includes African languages.
• Third, the creation of African language technologies will benefit from collaborations between linguistics and computer science. Also, there should be focus on creating tools that are human centered, which help individuals unlock greater potential.
• Fourth, developers should be mindful of communities and ethical practices during the collection, curation, and use of data.

“There’s a growing number of organizations working in this space, and this study allows us to coordinate efforts in building impactful language tools,” says Siminyu. “The findings highlight and articulate what the priorities are, in terms of time and financial investments.”

Next, the team plans to expand the study and include more participants to understand the communities that AI language technologies may impact. They will also address barriers that may hinder people’s access to the technology. The team hopes their study could serve as a roadmap to help develop a wide range of language tools, from translation services to misinformation-catching content moderators. The findings may also pave the way to preserve indigenous African languages.

“I would love for us to live in a world where Africans can have as good quality of life and access to information and opportunities as somebody fluent in English, French, Mandarin, or other languages,” says Siminyu.

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UNESCO and the Knowledge for All Foundation supported this study through funding and administrative support.

Patterns, Siminyu et al. “Consultative engagement of stakeholders toward a roadmap for Africa language technologies.” https://www.cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(23)00189-7

Related editorial:

Patterns, Wang "Different natural languages, equal importance" https://cell.com/patterns/fulltext/S2666-3899(23)00190-3

Patterns (@Patterns_CP), published by Cell Press, is a data science journal publishing original research focusing on solutions to the cross-disciplinary problems that all researchers face when dealing with data, as well as articles about datasets, software code, algorithms, infrastructures, etc., with permanent links to these research outputs. Visit: https://www.cell.com/patterns. To receive Cell Press media alerts, please contact press@cell.com.

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JOURNAL

Patterns

DOI

10.1016/j.patter.2023.100820 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Consultative Engagement of Stakeholders Towards a Roadmap for African Language Technologies

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Aug-2023

Turning ChatGPT into a ‘chemistry assistant’

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

 

IMAGE: THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS CHATGPT AND CHEMISTS TEAMING UP TO GLEAN NEW INSIGHTS ON HOW TO MAKE MOFS, WHICH COULD HAVE APPLICATIONS IN CLEAN ENERGY. view more 

CREDIT: ADAPTED FROM THE JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, 2023, DOI: 10.1021/JACS.3C05819

Developing new materials requires significant time and labor, but some chemists are now hopeful that artificial intelligence (AI) could one day shoulder much of this burden. In a new study in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, a team prompted a popular AI model, ChatGPT, to perform one particularly time-consuming task: searching scientific literature. With that data, they built a second tool, a model to predict experimental results.   

Reports from previous studies offer a vast trove of information that chemists need, but finding and parsing the most relevant details can be laborious. For example, those interested in designing highly porous, crystalline metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) — which have potential applications in areas such as clean energy — must sort through hundreds of scientific papers describing a variety of experimental conditions. Researchers have previously attempted to coax AI to take over this task; however, the language processing models they used required significant technical expertise, and applying them to new topics meant changing the program. Omar Yaghi and colleagues wanted to see if the next generation of language models, which includes ChatGPT, could offer a more accessible, flexible way to extract information.

To analyze text from scientific papers, the team gave ChatGPT prompts, or instructions, guiding it through three processes intended to identify and summarize the experimental information the manuscripts contained. The researchers carefully constructed these prompts to minimize the model’s tendency to make up responses, a phenomenon known as hallucination, and to ensure the best responses possible.

When tested on 228 papers describing MOF syntheses, this system extracted more than 26,000 factors relevant for making roughly 800 of these compounds. With these data, the team trained a separate AI model to predict the crystalline state of MOFs based on these conditions. And finally, to make the data more user friendly, they built a chatbot to answer questions about it. The team notes that, unlike previous AI-based efforts, this one does not require expertise in coding. What’s more, scientists can shift its focus simply by adjusting the narrative language in the prompts. This new system, which they dub the “ChatGPT Chemistry Assistant,” could also be useful in other fields of chemistry, according to the researchers.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Kavli ENSI Graduate Student Fellowship and the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

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JOURNAL

Journal of the American Chemical Society

DOI

10.1021/jacs.3c05819 

ARTICLE TITLE

ChatGPT Chemistry Assistant for Text Mining and the Prediction of MOF Synthesis

 

Gastrointestinal viruses all but disappeared during COVID—but surged back two years on

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MICROBIOLOGY

Washington, D.C. –  Following the first stay-at-home orders issued in the U.S. to curb the spread of COVID-19, gastrointestinal viruses such as norovirus, rotavirus and adenovirus all but disappeared from California communities, and remained at very low levels for nearly 2 years. The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Interestingly, these viruses surged back to pre-pandemic levels in late 2022, said Niaz Banaei, M.D., professor of Pathology and Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Stanford University, and Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Stanford Health Care. “Adenovirus F40/41, the adenovirus strains most frequently associated with gastroenteritis, actually jumped to levels two-fold higher than pre-pandemic levels.” 

Banaei suspects that the surge in viral infections was enabled by the waning of collective community immunity from lack of exposure during the pandemic. “Something similar has been described for the surge in respiratory syncytial virus infections in 2022,” he said. 

To identify changes in the prevalence of gastrointestinal pathogens, the investigators compared detection rates for community acquired gastrointestinal pathogens before, during and after California’s COVID-related shelter-in-place. To that end, they used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) panel test called the BioFire FilmArray GI panel, which tests for 22 of the most common pathogens that cause diarrhea and analyzed about 18,000 tests that were taken from January 2018 to December 2022. 

The motivation for the research was the change in the rate of positives for certain pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Banaei. “It immediately became clear that the pandemic lockdown and shelter-in-place had created a natural experiment to investigate the transmission dynamics of pathogens causing gastroenteritis.” 

The research offers a unique window into the biology of gastrointestinal pathogens, raising some new research questions, said Banaei. “Why did some disappear while others persisted unaffected during lockdown? Why are some now surging to levels we haven’t seen before?” Improved understanding of these phenomena could lead to ways to interrupt pathogens’ spread, particularly in low- to middle-income countries where gastroenteritis remains a major cause of illness and death, especially among children. “It may also help us prepare for future unforeseen pandemics.”
 

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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of 30,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences. 

ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to diverse audiences. 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Novel socio-environmental vulnerability index pinpoints sustainability issues in Brazilian river basins

The innovative approach highlights vulnerability to deforestation, fire and drought, as well as poverty. The results can help formulate public policies for sustainable development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

 

IMAGE: WOMAN WASHING CLOTHES IN THE PARNAÍBA RIVER NEAR NAZÁRIA, PIAUÍ STATE, BRAZIL view more 

CREDIT: WILSON DIAS/AGÊNCIA BRASIL

Brazilian researchers combined environmental physical, social and economic indicators to create an index that measures a region’s vulnerability and used it to analyze the basins of the Parnaíba River and São Francisco River in the Northeast of Brazil. The index is named SEVI (for Socio-Environmental Vulnerability).

The Parnaíba and São Francisco basins are considered crucial to agricultural expansion and biodiversity conservation. They contain more than 780 municipalities and part of the semi-arid Caatinga and savanna-like Cerrado biomes, which are threatened by deforestation as well as adverse effects of climate change.

The study shows that the main obstacles to improving the socio-environmental vulnerability of the Parnaíba basin, the second largest river basin in the Northeast, are deficits in infrastructure, income, and conditions for human development, all of which impair adaptive capacity, defined by the researchers as “the ability of a system to evolve in order to accommodate environmental hazards or anthropogenic impacts”. In the São Francisco basin, the most significant causes of vulnerability are population density, soil degradation/desertification, and climate factors, especially temperature and precipitation.

These findings are reported in an article on the study published in the journal Sustainability. The authors are affiliated with the National Space Research Institute (INPE) and the National Disaster Surveillance and Early Warning Center (CEMADEN). The study was supported by FAPESP and by Forests 2020, part of the United Kingdom Space Agency’s International Partnerships Program (IPP) involving experts on forest monitoring in Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Belize, Ghana and Kenya, as well as the UK.

“The study showed that sustainable development projects should take specific characteristics of each region into consideration and brought to light the deficiencies of some public policies. We analyzed a problem that affects agricultural areas in several countries, especially in the developing world,” biologist Rita Marcia da Silva Pinto Vieira, first author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. She was at INPE when the study was conducted.

Including socio-economic indicators allowed the researchers to strengthen the argument that sustainability is not linked only to climate, environmental factors and soil degradation but also to human activity and biodiversity.

“Vulnerability indicators typically focus on one factor in isolation. By integrating environmental and socio-economic data, we showed that vulnerability has as much to do with exposure to environmental, social and political stress as it does with the system’s capacity to adapt. The index highlights areas where vulnerability is particularly acute,” said Lincoln Muniz Alves, a climatologist at INPE and penultimate author of the article.

The last author is Jean Pierre Ometto, a senior researcher in the Impact, Adaptation and Vulnerability Division of INPE’s Department of Earth Sciences (DIIAV-CGCT).

Methodology

The SEVI index resulted from a combination of indicators relating to adaptation (human development, infrastructure and income), sensitivity (days without rain, land use and cover, temperature, and soil type), and exposure (population density and soil degradation or desertification).

The methodology was based on the environmentally sensitive areas (ESA) approach developed by MEDALUS (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use), a project conducted in eight European Union countries in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The indicators and overall index were weighted from very low to very high.

The area of the regions analyzed totaled about 962,000 square kilometers (km²), with a population of some 20 million, mostly urban. Sixteen million people live in the São Francisco basin. The river runs through six states from Minas Gerais to the Alagoas-Sergipe border. Four million live in the Parnaíba basin.

According to the SEVI index, vulnerability levels were “very high” and “high” in 53% of the São Francisco basin, pointing to 337,569 km² with socio-environmental fragilities, partly coinciding with desertification hotspots officially recognized by the Environment Ministry. In the Parnaíba basin, the proportion was 37% (121,990 km²).

Adaptive capacity was “very low” and “low” in 57% of the area analyzed (549,830 km²). Exposure was “very high” and “high” in 62.8% and 30.7% of the São Francisco and Parnaíba basins respectively. Sensitivity was also high in a significant proportion of both (341,726 km² and 123,666 km²). These results mainly reflected population density, soil degradation, desertification, and the number of days without rain, which directly influences the risk of wildfires during the dry season.

The authors of the article expect these problems to become steadily worse as a consequence of climate change. Previous research using global models projected a drop of 46% and 26% in streamflow in the São Francisco and Parnaíba rivers respectively in the decades ahead, and socio-environmental vulnerability is set to increase significantly, especially in areas where the population is poor, as extreme weather becomes more frequent.

Furthermore, deforestation has hit the region hard in recent years. In the Cerrado, it affected 10,689 km² in 2022, more than in any year since 2015 (11,129 km²), and in the Caatinga, it increased 25% compared with 2021, according to INPE’s monitoring program (PRODES).

This year, the number of deforestation alerts for the Cerrado jumped 35% in the first five months compared with the corresponding period of 2022, according to INPE’s early warning system (DETER).

Protected areas

The researchers also analyzed conservation units located in both basins, concluding that units in the Parnaíba basin were less vulnerable. In the São Francisco basin, 32.4% of the area (12,477 km²) was highly vulnerable within a 5 km buffer zone, indicating human pressure from deforestation and burning in fully protected areas.

On the upside, Lapa Grande State Park in Minas Gerais was the most well-preserved conservation unit in the region, with low vulnerability in 84.6% of its area.

“The study pinpointed the areas with high vulnerability and emphasized the importance of conservation units. In our recommendations, we stress that the sustainable practices used in these units can also be implemented in adjacent areas,” Alves said.

For the authors, it is critically important to extend conservation units, introduce sustainable land management practices in adjacent buffer zones, and develop strategies for the protection of ecosystem services and local vegetation.

These management practices and their modernization should be shared with farmers in the region, according to the article. Many smallholders located in the areas with high socio-environmental vulnerability lack funds, and their traditional land-use practices deplete natural resources and aggravated poverty.

Contributions

According to the authors, the information on socio-environmental vulnerability with regional characteristics provided by the SEVI index contributes to support for programs such as the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (PNA), as well as public policies aimed at rehabilitating degraded areas.

“We used specific variables for the Caatinga and Cerrado, but the methodological framework we developed for SEVI can certainly be applied elsewhere, using the peculiarities of each region and biome,” Vieira said.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

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DOI

10.3390/su15108029 

ARTICLE TITLE

Socio-Environmental Vulnerability to Drought Conditions and Land Degradation: An Assessment in Two Northeastern Brazilian River Basins