You’re reading this because an asteroid killed the dinosaurs, allowing mammals to dominate the Earth. But why?

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Almost 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck the Earth, killing all non-avian dinosaurs and allowing mammals to dominate.

But just how did we evolve from rat-like creatures running between the feet of dinosaurs to take over their ecological niches? Dr. Kendra Chritz, assistant professor in the UBC department of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences, aims to find out.

Dr. Chritz is co-leading a new multi-million-dollar research project to learn how ecosystems and organisms recover after a catastrophic, climate-changing event. She explains in this Q&A that clues may lie in the fossilized teeth of mammals.

Why don’t we know much about how mammals rose to dominate the Earth?

The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event was a really tumultuous time in Earth’s history, when a cataclysmic extinction event killed off 75 per cent of the planet’s species. It set Earth on a course to become the world that we have today. If that hadn’t happened, we’d still be tiny rat-like creatures, living underground and running between dinosaur feet.

We don’t know much about this period because fossils of smaller organisms tend to not preserve as well as larger organisms. The fossils are delicate and can become easily damaged over millions of years. Luckily, a few years ago, researchers found a rich trove of mammal fossils from this time period in Colorado a few years ago. We’ll use fossils collected previously from this site, in addition to new fossils dug up by a team led by paleontologists based out of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

How will you use teeth to explore this?

My lab will look at the chemistry of fossilized material in order to explore the ecology and behaviour of organisms through time. We mostly look at teeth because they are very well preserved in the fossil record. They’re like rocks in your mouth – highly mineralized, very dense, and they don’t change throughout the course of your life. All the chemical elements and signatures of your life, such as the climate you’re living in, what you’re eating, where you are in the food web and more, are stored in your teeth.

We will sample these mammal fossils after the asteroid struck and we hope to see an expansion of mammal diet and ecology over one million years immediately after the extinction of the dinosaurs. We want to pinpoint when mammals started to evolve and diversify, and how quickly their evolution took place once dinosaurs were gone. We’ll also explore whether environmental changes, including the appearance of different kinds of plants, or changes in climate, align with differences in tooth shape, body size, brain size and ecology. For instance, this is the first time we see beans appear on the planet – did this correspond with a different type of tooth with which mammals could eat them?

What is the connection between climate change and this mass extinction?

This was a period of lightning-fast climate and biodiversity changes. This project will explore how the biodiversity of ecosystems recover after such an event and may provide data to predict the long-term consequences of our current rapid changes in climate and biodiversity.

There are a lot of parallels with the current climate situation and this mass extinction event. Although the asteroid hit in one day, geologically speaking, current climate change is happening in the blink of an eye as well. And while the aftermath of the asteroid was different from what we’re experiencing now, this project could give us insight into how quickly the planet recovers after a sudden mass extinction event.

It’s important to think long-term about ecosystems and the continuation of our and other species. It’s taken hundreds of millions of years for the planet to get to this point, and we carry the records of our evolution within our own bodies. With this project, we want to explore history more deeply, zooming in on what the planet was like following a traumatic global event, and hopefully this research will provide some important lessons for the future.

FEMICIDE

FGM identified as a leading cause of death in African countries

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a leading cause of death in the countries where it is practised, with over 44,000 additional women and young girls dying each year, a new study reveals.

FGM accounts for more deaths in these countries than any cause other than enteric infections – usually resulting from consuming contaminated food or water – respiratory infections, or malaria and remains legal in five of the 28 countries where it is most practiced.

Researchers are calling for FGM to be made illegal Mali, Malawi, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, given that legal change can lead to cultural change. They also say that efforts must be stepped up to eliminate FGM in countries where it is practiced.

Publishing their findings in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers from the Universities of Birmingham and Exeter analysed the numbers of girls subjected to FGM in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania.

They discovered that a 50% increase in the number of girls undergoing FGM increases their five-year mortality rate and leads to estimated 44,320 excess deaths per year across countries where the practice takes place.

Co-author Professor James Rockey, from the University of Birmingham, commented: “Our findings show that FGM is a leading cause of death amongst girls and young women in countries where it is practised, but lasting change requires changing attitudes towards FGM in these communities.

“There is cause for optimism, as work on non-communicable diseases shows effective interventions are possible, but change in patriarchal attitudes often lags other societal change – an important first step would be for FGM to be made illegal in the countries where it is within the law, given that legal change can lead to cultural change.”

Globally, over 200 million women and girls have been subjected to FGM – a practice which often happens in unsanitary conditions and without clinical supervision with consequent severe pain, bleeding, and infection. It is known to lead to obstetric complications, reductions in sexual function, and other long-term physical health problems, as well as mental health problems.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the aggregate cost of medical treatment for girls and women after FGM was $1.4 billion in 2018. However, until now, there has been no systematic evidence about the role of FGM in the global epidemiology of child mortality – reflecting difficulties in measuring the practice.

A key social dimension of FGM is how it impacts on marriage, for example, the practice influences women’s marriage opportunities in Western Africa - due to patriarchal culture and institutions.

“Our research suggests that decisions about FGM may reflect trade-offs between perceived disadvantages of FGM, such as pain and illegality, and expected benefits such reduced social sanctions and a higher bride-price – people may factor in an increased risk of death as part of that calculation,” added Professor Rockey.

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact Tony Moran, Press Office, University of Birmingham, tel: +44 (0)7827 832312: email: t.moran@bham.ac.uk  or pressoffice@contacts.bham.ac.uk

Notes to editor:

• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
• ‘Estimating excess mortality due to female genital mutilation’ – Arpita Ghosh, Heather Flowe & James Rockey is published in Nature Scientific Reports.

---

JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Estimating excess mortality due to female genital mutilation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Aug-2023

DR. DEE I PRESUME

Demon Hunting: Physicists confirm 67-year-old prediction of massless, neutral composite particle

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS GRAINGER COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS HAVE DISCOVERED PINES' DEMON, A COLLECTION OF ELECTRONS IN A METAL THAT BEHAVES LIKE A MASSLESS WAVE. view more 

CREDIT: THE GRAINGER COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

In 1956, theoretical physicist David Pines predicted that electrons in a solid can do something strange. While they normally have a mass and an electric charge, Pines asserted that they can combine to form a composite particle that is massless, neutral, and does not interact with light. He called this particle a “demon.” Since then, it has been speculated to play an important role in the behaviors of a wide variety of metals. Unfortunately, the same properties that make it interesting have allowed it to elude detection since its prediction.

Now, a team of researchers led by Peter Abbamonte, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, have finally found Pines’ demon 67 years after it was predicted. As the researchers report in the journal Nature, they used a nonstandard experimental technique that directly excites a material’s electronic modes, allowing them to see the demon’s signature in the metal strontium ruthenate.

“Demons have been theoretically conjectured for a long time, but experimentalists never studied them,” Abbamonte said. “In fact, we weren’t even looking for it. But it turned out we were doing exactly the right thing, and we found it.”

The elusive demon

One of the most important discoveries of condensed matter physics is that electrons lose their individuality in solids. Electric interactions make the electrons combine to form collective units. With enough energy, the electrons can even form composite particles called plasmons with a new charge and mass determined by the underlying electric interactions. However, the mass is usually so large that plasmons cannot form with the energies available at room temperature.

Pines found an exception. If a solid has electrons in more than one energy band, as many metals do, he argued that their respective plasmons can combine in an out-of-phase pattern to form a new plasmon that is massless and neutral: a demon. Since demons are massless, they can form with any energy, so they may exist at all temperatures. This has led to speculation that they have important effects on the behavior of multi-band metals.

Demons’ neutrality means that they do not leave a signature in standard condensed matter experiments. “The vast majority of experiments are done with light and measure optical properties, but being electrically neutral means that demons don’t interact with light,” Abbamonte said. “A completely different kind of experiment was needed.”

A serendipitous discovery

Abbamonte recalls that he and his collaborators were studying strontium ruthenate for an unrelated reason—the metal is similar to high-temperature superconductors without being one. Hoping to find clues to why the phenomenon occurs in other systems, they were conducting the first survey of the metal’s electronic properties.

The research group of Yoshi Maeno, a professor of physics at Kyoto University, synthesized high-quality samples of the metal which Abbamonte and former graduate student Ali Husain examined with momentum-resolved electron energy-loss spectroscopy. A nonstandard technique, it uses energy from electrons shot into the metal to directly observe the metal’s features, including plasmons that form. As the researchers were looking through the data, though, they found something unusual: an electronic mode with no mass.

Husain, now a research scientist at Quantinuum, recalled, “At first, we had no idea what it was. Demons are not in the mainstream. The possibility came up early on, and we basically laughed it off. But, as we started ruling things out, we started to suspect that we had really found the demon.”

Edwin Huang, a Moore Postdoctoral Scholar at UIUC and condensed matter theorist, was eventually asked to calculate the features of strontium ruthenate’s electronic structure. “Pines’ prediction of demons necessitates rather specific conditions, and it was not clear to anyone whether strontium ruthenate should have a demon at all,” he said. “We had to perform a microscopic calculation to clarify what was going on. When we did this, we found a particle consisting of two electron bands oscillating out-of-phase with nearly equal magnitude, just like Pines described.”

The importance of just measuring stuff

According to Abbamonte, it was no accident that his group discovered the demon “serendipitously.” He emphasized that he and his group were using a technique that is not widely employed on a substance that has not been well studied. That they found something unexpected and significant is a consequence of simply trying something different, he believes.

“It speaks to the importance of just measuring stuff,” he said. “Most big discoveries are not planned. You go look somewhere new and see what’s there.”

***

Abbamonte is a member of the Materials Research Laboratory at UIUC. Huang is a member of the Institute for Condensed Matter Theory at UIUC.

Professors Philip Phillips of UIUC, Matteo Mitrano of Harvard University, Bruno Uchoa of the University of Oklahoma, and Philip Baston of Rutgers University contributed to this work.

Support was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, the National Science Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

---

JOURNAL

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-023-06318-8 

ARTICLE TITLE

Pines’ demon observed as a 3D acoustic plasmon in Sr2RuO4

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Aug-2023

 

We finally know why quantum ‘strange metals’ are so strange

A new study led by the Flatiron Institute’s Aavishkar Patel has identified a mechanism that explains the unusual behavior of strange metals, considered one of the greatest open challenges in condensed matter physics.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SIMONS FOUNDATION

 

IMAGE: A NEW THEORY EXPLAINS THE UNUSUAL BEHAVIOR OF STRANGE METALS, CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREATEST OPEN CHALLENGES IN CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS. THE THEORY IS BASED ON TWO PROPERTIES OF STRANGE METALS. FIRST, THEIR ELECTRONS CAN BECOME QUANTUM MECHANICALLY ENTANGLED WITH ONE ANOTHER, BINDING THEIR FATES, AND THEY REMAIN ENTANGLED EVEN WHEN DISTANTLY SEPARATED. SECOND, STRANGE METALS HAVE A NONUNIFORM ARRANGEMENT OF ATOMS. view more 

CREDIT: LUCY READING-IKKANDA/SIMONS FOUNDATION

For nearly 40 years, materials called ‘strange metals’ have flummoxed quantum physicists, defying explanation by operating outside the normal rules of electricity.

Now research led by Aavishkar Patel of the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Quantum Physics (CCQ) in New York City has identified, at long last, a mechanism that explains the characteristic properties of strange metals.

In the August 18 issue of Science, Patel and his colleagues present their universal theory of why strange metals are so weird — a solution to one of the greatest unsolved problems in condensed matter physics. Strange metal behavior is found in many quantum materials,  including some that, with small changes, can become superconductors (materials in which electrons flow with zero resistance at low enough temperatures). That relationship suggests that understanding strange metals could help researchers identify new kinds of superconductivity.

The surprisingly simple new theory explains many oddities about strange metals, such as why the change in electrical resistivity — a measure of how easily electrons can flow through the material as electrical current — is directly proportional to the temperature, even down to extremely low temperatures. That relationship means that a strange metal resists the flow of electrons more than an ordinary metal such as gold or copper at the same temperature.

The new theory is based on a combination of two properties of strange metals. First, their electrons can become quantum mechanically entangled with one another, binding their fates, and they remain entangled even when distantly separated. Second, strange metals have a nonuniform, patchwork-like arrangement of atoms.

Neither property alone explains the oddities of strange metals, but taken together, “everything just falls into place,” says Patel, who works as a Flatiron Research Fellow at the CCQ. The irregularity of a strange metal’s atomic layout means that the electron entanglements vary depending on where in the material the entanglement took place. That variety adds randomness to the momentum of the electrons as they move through the material and interact with each other. Instead of all flowing together, the electrons knock each other around in all directions, resulting in electrical resistance. Since the electrons collide more frequently the hotter the material gets, the electrical resistance rises alongside the temperature.

“This interplay of entanglement and nonuniformity is a new effect; it hadn’t been considered ever before for any material,” Patel says. “In retrospect, it’s an extremely simple thing. For a long time, people were making this whole story of strange metals unnecessarily complicated, and that was just not the right thing to do.”

Patel says that a better understanding of strange metals could help physicists develop and fine-tune new superconductors for applications such as quantum computers.

“There are instances where something wants to go superconducting but doesn’t quite do so, because superconductivity is blocked by another competing state,” he says. “One could ask then if the presence of these nonuniformities can destroy these other states that superconductivity competes with and leave the road open for superconductivity.”

Now that strange metals are a bit less strange, the name might seem less fitting than it once was. “I would like to call them unusual metals at this point, not strange,” Patel says.

Patel co-authored the new study with Haoyu Guo, Ilya Esterlis and Subir Sachdev of Harvard University.

An infographic explaining a new theory that explains the odd properties of quantum materials known as strange metals.

CREDIT

Lucy Reading-Ikkanda/Simons Foundation

ABOUT THE FLATIRON INSTITUTE

The Flatiron Institute is the research division of the Simons Foundation. The institute's mission is to advance scientific research through computational methods, including data analysis, theory, modeling and simulation. The institute's Center for Computational Quantum Physics aims to develop the concepts, theories, algorithms and codes needed to solve the quantum many-body problem and to use the solutions to predict the behavior of materials and molecules of scientific and technological interest.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq6011 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Universal theory of strange metals from spatially random interactions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Aug-2023

 

Research gives new insights into fighting antimicrobial resistance

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NOTTINGHAM

Cooking food thoroughly and avoiding some types of vegetables and salad during a course of antibiotic treatment could potentially reduce antibiotic resistance, by preventing bacteria carrying resistance genes getting into the gut, according to a new study.

New research from the University of Nottingham has modelled how antibiotic resistance genes build-up through lifetime exposure from food intake and antibiotic treatment. The research published today in PLOS ONE (add link) gives new insights into long term increase in resistance genes in gut bacteria and how this could be prevented.

Antimicrobial resistant bacterial infections represent one of the most serious contemporary global healthcare crises. Acquisition and spread of resistant infections can occur through community, hospitals, food, water or bacteria that lives inside us or that we may be exposed to -  like E. coli.

The research modelled data from a previous study that found antibiotic gene diversity in gut microbiota is age related. The Nottingham study shows that the long-term increase in resistance in human gut microbiomes can be substantially lowered by reducing exposure to resistance genes found in food and water, alongside reduced medical antibiotic use. 

The research suggests that reducing intake of resistance genes is particularly effective during periods of antibiotic treatment where there is an increased risk of the retainment of genes. The researchers suggest that dietary advice should be given to those undergoing antibiotic treatment to avoid products at higher risk of carrying ARGs,  (even on otherwise harmless bacteria), as well as ensuring that all food consumed during treatment is fully cooked. 

Dov Stekel, Professor of Computational Biology at the University of Nottingham has led the study and said: “When you’re taking antibiotics is exactly when you are most susceptible to creating longer term problems due to drug resistant bacteria from food. If you eat something that has bacteria on it that doesn’t cause you any harm, but which contains some drug resistant genes and you happen to be taking antibiotics when you eat it then those resistances could become established in your gut ecosystem so next time you need antibiotics they may not work effectively.”

The study also demonstrates other factors that can reduce the long-term acquisition and retainment of genes providing resistance to different classes of antibiotics. As genes build up over a lifetime the less exposure to these the better so a conservative approach to antibiotic availability and dosing guidelines, as already implemented in many countries, and as advocated in much of literature on antibiotic resistance, would be a practical approach to reducing the long-term number of acquired resistances. 

Reducing the number of acquired genes over a lifetime could also be achieved by policy and practice changes in the food supply chain, including agriculture and post-harvest food production. Research from Nottingham Vet School is looking into this using artificial intelligence to monitor the gut microbiome in livestock.

Professor Stekel adds: “The level of benefit to be gained from alterations in medical treatment and dietary changes is highly dependent upon the level of antibiotic use, which varies greatly between countries. While our general model demonstrates benefit across all levels of prescribing, a more nuanced approach that considers region- and country-specific practices, along with specific details of antibiotic classes and associated resistance genes, would provide a better means of quantifying the potential advantages of these changes.”

---

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0289941 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

A model of antibiotic resistance genes accumulation through lifetime exposure from food intake and antibiotic treatment

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Aug-2023

 

Public may overestimate pushback against controversial research findings

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ASSOCIATION FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE

Controversial research can put people on the defensive and may even lead to calls to censor findings that conflict with a particular ideological perspective. However, a pair of studies published in Psychological Science, by authors Cory J. Clark (University of Pennsylvania), Maja Graso (University of Groningen), Ilana Redstone (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), and Philip E. Tetlock (University of Pennsylvania), suggest a tendency to overestimate the risk that research findings will fuel public support for harmful actions. 

Harmful actions related to research findings, according to the authors, can include censoring research, defunding related programs, and promoting bias against a community of people. Conversely, helpful reactions could include behaviors such as funding additional research, investing in programs, and offering educational resources. 

“With this set of studies, we learned that expectations about scientific consequences might have a negativity bias,” Clark told APS in an interview. “We found that participants consistently overestimated support for harmful behavioral reactions and consistently underestimated support for helpful behavioral reactions. And those more likely to overestimate harms tended to be more supportive of censoring scientific research.” 

In their first study, Clark and colleagues had 983 online participants read an excerpt from the discussion sections of five real studies with findings that some people might perceive as controversial. Two of these excerpts highlighted findings that the researchers expected would be counter to the expectations of people with liberal views (“female protégés benefit more when they have male than female mentors,” and “there is an absence of evidence of racial discrimination against ethnic minorities in police shootings”). Two excerpts were expected to be surprising to more conservative people (“activating Christian concepts increases racial prejudice,” and “children with same-sex parents are no worse off than children with opposite-sex parents”). The fifth excerpt was intended to be more ideologically neutral (“experiencing child sexual abuse does not cause severe and long-lasting psychological harm for all victims”). The researchers also included two versions of an excerpt from a fictitious study about ideological intolerance suggesting that either liberals or conservatives were less tolerant of ideological differences. 

After reading each excerpt, one third of participants were asked to self-report which of 10 actions they would support taking in response to each study’s findings. After reading about the mentorship study, for example, participants in the self-report group were asked if they would support discouraging early-career female researchers from approaching female mentors, conducting more research on the subject, and investing in mentorship development programs, among other reactions. The remaining two thirds of participants were asked to estimate what percentage of U.S. adults they thought would support the various actions. 

Participants in the estimation group were found to consistently underestimate the percentage of people who would support helpful actions—for example, funding additional research and interventions designed to reduce child sexual abuse and political intolerance. They also overestimated the percentage of adults who would support harmful actions like withdrawing support from a community or blocking groups of people from leadership positions. These harm estimations did not vary based on findings’ perceived offensiveness, but participants were more likely to describe findings that they found more offensive as less comprehensible.  

There was some evidence that participants who were more conservative had a greater tendency to overestimate the percentage of people who would support harmful actions. In addition, more conservative and younger participants were more likely to support censoring research. Participants’ responses to the political intolerance study did not vary based on their own ideology, however. 

Clark and colleagues further tested the honesty of these responses through a study of 882 participants. This time, participants in the self-report group were asked to identify which initiatives they would like the researchers to donate $100 to in response to three scientific findings. To encourage honesty, researchers informed participants that $100 would be donated to each cause that a majority of participants supported. Meanwhile, participants in the estimation group were told that the five participants with the most accurate estimates would receive $100 gift cards. 

Despite this additional financial motivation, participants’ responses largely mirrored those in the first study. A notable exception was that women were found to support censorship at a higher rate than men. 

“Although people accurately predicted that helpful reactions were more supported than harmful ones, their deviation from accuracy was consistently in the negative direction: People overpredicted the costs and underpredicted the benefits,” Clark and colleagues wrote. 

Given that some academic journals have added harm-based criteria to their editorial guidelines, Clark would like to further explore how these findings may apply to editors’ and reviewers’ perceptions of scientific risk, as well as how harm risks can be estimated more accurately. 

“Our results suggest the possibility that these intuitions may be systematically biased toward overestimating harms,” Clark told APS. “Intuitions alone may be untrustworthy and lead to the unnecessary suppression of science.” 

Reference 

Clark, C. J., Graso, M., Redstone, I., & Tetlock, P. E. (2023). Harm hypervigilance in public reactions to scientific evidence. Psychological Science, 34(7), 834–848. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976231168777  

---

JOURNAL

Psychological Science

DOI

10.1177/09567976231168777 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Harm Hypervigilance in Public Reactions to Scientific Evidence

Largest U.S. study of e-cigarettes shows their value as smoking cessation aid

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY SHOWS THERE'S A PLACE FOR E-CIGARETTES FOR ADULT SMOKERS WHO HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO QUIT, SAID MATTHEW CARPENTER, PH.D. view more 

CREDIT: EMMA VOUGHT/MUSC HOLLINGS CANCER CENTER

E-cigarettes do have value as a smoking cessation aid, according to a new study just released by a team of MUSC Hollings Cancer Center researchers.  

Whether e-cigarettes should be considered for smoking cessation is a hotly debated topic, and different countries have taken different approaches. E-cigarettes contain harmful chemicals, which has led many public health advocates to shun them. But they are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, which can cause a dozen types of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. That’s prompted others to say that e-cigarettes should be considered as a step-down method for adults who smoke and haven’t been able to quit using FDA-approved aids, like nicotine replacement gum, lozenges or patches.  

This new study, the largest trial of e-cigarettes in the U.S., showed that e-cigarette usage nudged people toward quitting smoking – even people who had entered the trial saying they had no intention of quitting. The results were published in eClinical Medicine this month.  

“This is not a panacea for smoking cessation,” cautioned Matthew Carpenter, Ph.D., first author on the paper and co-leader of the Cancer Control Research Program at Hollings.  

Nonetheless, he was surprised to find that all of the hypotheses tested in the study were confirmed.  

“It’s rarely the case that you’re proven correct for almost everything that you predicted,” he said. “Here, it was one effect after another: No matter how we looked at it, those who got the e-cigarette product demonstrated greater abstinence and reduced harm as compared to those who didn’t get it.” 

Carpenter and his colleagues, including Hollings members Tracy Smith, Ph.D., Jennifer Dahne, Ph.D., Michael Cummings, Ph.D., and Graham Warren, Ph.D., designed the study in a naturalistic way to mimic real-world conditions as much as possible – also a first for e-cigarette studies.  

Previous studies that have shown a smoking cessation benefit of e-cigarettes have been very structured, Carpenter said, in that they recruited people who wanted to stop smoking and gave them very detailed instructions about how to use the e-cigarettes.  

“Some people have said, ‘That’s fine, but the results of those studies don't apply to the real world because the real world isn’t as structured,’” he explained. “So what we did was take a hands-off approach – we called it a naturalistic approach.” 

“First off, we took smokers who did and did not want to quit. So right off the bat, not everybody wanted to quit. Secondly, we gave them very little instruction on how to use it,” he continued.  

Instead, people were given e-cigarettes and told they could use them or not, as much or as little as they wanted. A control group didn’t receive anything.  

The study showed that people in the e-cigarette group were more likely to report complete abstinence from combustible cigarettes. They were also more likely to report that they’d reduced the number of cigarettes per day that they smoked and their number of “quit attempts.” Quit attempts are an important metric because people usually need multiple tries before they can successfully stop smoking.  

The study included people from 11 cities across the U.S. and spanned four years. At the beginning, Carpenter intended to collect biochemical samples from participants in the Charleston area to verify their self-reports of smoking behavior. However, COVID interrupted that plan and made in-person sample collection impossible.  

Although that was a disappointing aspect of the study, replying on participants’ self-reports of their smoking behavior is still considered highly reliable, he said.  

The study will be another data point for the public health community and policymakers in deciding how to handle e-cigarettes. “No one wants e-cigarettes in the hands of kids, and we should do all we can to stop that. But we shouldn’t do so by denying this option for adult smokers who can’t otherwise quit,” Carpenter said. He noted that other countries have taken a much more liberal approach to e-cigarette use than the U.S.  

For example, in April the U.K. announced a “Swap to Stop” program that will distribute vaping starter kits to 1 million people who smoke. 

In the U.S., e-cigarettes are not approved as smoking cessation aids. But Carpenter and Smith have just received funding for a study that will test e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid for adult smokers who’ve already tried two different FDA-approved methods. And Benjamin Toll, Ph.D., director of the MUSC Health Tobacco Treatment Program, co-authored a commentary this month urging an education campaign for adult smokers to clarify that, while neither option is “safe,” traditional cigarettes are far more harmful than e-cigarettes.  

About  MUSC Hollings Cancer Center 

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center is South Carolina’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center with the largest academic-based cancer research program in the state. The cancer center comprises more than 130 faculty cancer scientists and 20 academic departments. It has an annual research funding portfolio of more than $44 million and sponsors more than 200 clinical trials across the state. Dedicated to preventing and reducing the cancer burden statewide, the Hollings Office of Community Outreach and Engagement works with community organizations to bring cancer education and prevention information to affected populations. Hollings offers state-of-the-art cancer screening, diagnostic capabilities, therapies and surgical techniques within its multidisciplinary clinics. Hollings specialists include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists, pathologists, psychologists and other clinical providers equipped to provide the full range of cancer care, including more than 200 clinical trials across South Carolina. For more information, visit hollingscancercenter.musc.edu. 

---

DOI

10.1016/j.eclinm.2023.102142 

ARTICLE TITLE

Effect of unguided e-cigarette provision on uptake, use, and smoking cessation among adults who smoke in the USA: a naturalistic, randomised, controlled clinical trial

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Aug-2023

COI STATEMENT

KMC has served as a paid expert witness in litigation filed against the tobacco industry. KMG has provided consultation to Jazz Pharmaceuticals and has received research funding from Aelis Farma. MLG has served as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board to Johnson & Johnson; he has also consulted with both the World Health Organization and Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids on toxicity of tobacco products and tobacco control products; MLG is also a Member of the IASLC Tobacco Control and Smoking Cessation Committee; and a leadership role with the American Association for Cancer Research. JD is a co-owner of Behavioral Activation Tech LLC, a small business that develops digital interventions for behavioral health treatment. E-cigarette products (tanks and liquids) were purchased directly from NJoy; no study support provided from industry. All other authors declare no competing interests.

 

Researchers find walkable communities are healthier for both mom and baby

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE

DURHAM, N.H. — Pregnant women that live in walkable communities—with more sidewalks, parks and walking paths—not only engage in more physical activity but are also more likely to experience favorable birth outcomes, according to research from the University of New Hampshire.

The study, published in the journal of Economics and Human Biology, found that expectant mothers living in walkable counties tend to engage in more walking and exercise and have fewer issues with premature births, low birth weight, gestational diabetes and hypertension. Walking is often recommended as a safer, more moderate activity for pregnant women, so the authors reasoned that living in a more walkable area could have health benefits for them.

“Gestational diabetes is a growing issue and low birth weight and preterm babies are always a concern, they can just have so many more complications,” said Karen Conway, professor of economics at UNH’s Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. “At the end of the day, the data shows walkable communities mean mom and the baby are both in better health.”

Conway and her co-author Andrea Menclova, associate professor of economics at the University of Canterbury, combined walkability measures created by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with detailed data on physical activity from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) and pregnancy outcomes from the National Vital Statistics Natality Detail Files (NDF). They found that a 10-point increase in the walkability index—equivalent to transitioning from the "least walkable" to the "most walkable" category—is associated with a more than 70-minute increase in weekly exercise among pregnant women. This same change results in an 0.8 percentage point increase in the likelihood of a full-term birth, a 0.07-week extension in gestational age, a 27g increase in birth weight, and a 27% reduction in the likelihood of gestational diabetes and 16% reduction in hypertension. The study did not find a clear connection between walking and its impact on a mother’s weight gain or high birth weight for the baby, known as macrosomia.

“We know that walkability may have other health benefits beyond encouraging more exercise,” said Conway. “Living in an area more suitable for walking gets people outside and interacting with neighbors and relating to others in the community and all of those types of social and intrinsic activities can contribute to better overall health.”

The professors applied the conceptual and empirical tools of economics to see if there was a causal relationship between walkability and pregnancy outcomes. They note that their study is part of a larger area of health economics that uses established data to analyze factors and policies that affect health outcomes, including those during and after pregnancy. The goal is to provide evidence that can help shape policies and inform city and town managers about cost-effective interventions that may help improve health outcomes of residents.

The University of New Hampshire inspires innovation and transforms lives in our state, nation and world. More than 16,000 students from all 50 states and 71 countries engage with an award-winning faculty in top-ranked programs in business, engineering, law, health and human services, liberal arts and the sciences across more than 200 programs of study. A Carnegie Classification R1 institution, UNH partners with NASA, NOAA, NSF and NIH, and received $260 million in competitive external funding in FY21 to further explore and define the frontiers of land, sea and space.

###

 

---

JOURNAL

Economics & Human Biology