Paving the way for better recommendations for how biodiversity may be leveraged to promote delivery of ecosystem services

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS JOURNALS

Thousands of studies examine how plant diversity structures predator communities and shapes herbivore pressure. This body of evidence has led to at least 23 separate quantitative syntheses encompassing a wide range of approaches to understanding plant diversity effects. Yet the sheer quantity of primary literature and inconsistency among these syntheses prevents a confident understanding of consensus in plant diversity outcomes.

"A Guide to 23 Global Syntheses of Plant Diversity Effects: Unpacking Consensus and Incongruence across Tropic Levels," a new paper published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, scrutinizes these 23 quantitative syntheses published over three decades on how plant diversity impacts both natural enemies and herbivores in arthropod communities and scrutinizes their divergent patterns to identify key drivers of herbivory.

Amid the 23 syntheses, robust patterns have stood the test of time: divergent outcomes frequently result from insect diet breadth, spatial scale, and plant relatedness variation. “Clarifying these persistent drivers enables us to identify and explore remaining sources of variation in plant diversity effects across trophic levels,” note authors K. D. Holmes and C. K. Blubaugh.

They find that plant diversity consistently attracts more abundant and diverse communities of predators. Herbivore diversity tends to increase in response to plant diversity treatments, while herbivore abundance and plant damage generally decrease. However, these net effects often mask nuanced responses to plant diversity that depend on ecosystem, scale, and specialization. For instance, specialist herbivores often respond negatively to plant diversity, while generalists more often mount positive or neutral responses.

The authors conduct a historical review of the past three decades of syntheses, reporting their approaches, scopes, and findings across trophic levels. They examine core ecological variables that shape the varying outcomes across studies, identify consistent patterns across these ecological factors, and explore mechanisms that explain incongruence between syntheses. Finally, they discuss the complex species interactions and analytical approaches that will be key in resolving context dependency and improving the ability to predict reliably whether biodiversity functions or fails to deliver ecosystem services. 

The authors also present a chronological and conceptual history of the 23 meta-analyses and global syntheses of plant diversity effects, focusing on major developments in this literature, and interpret outcomes for the most commonly reported responses of arthropods and plants, principally, the abundance and species richness of herbivores and predators and productivity and damage in plants. 

Spatial context is key to understanding impacts of diversity at different trophic levels. Studies conducted at greater spatial scales often show a dilution of effects on herbivores but reveal conflicting effects on predators. Plant arrangement is also important, with agricultural studies showing that alternating rows of crops reduces pest populations, while surrounding crop fields with floral borders better supports predators. Meanwhile, research in forests has demonstrated that the arrangement of plant diversity interacts with other elements of plant and herbivore natural history, such as insect diet breadth and plant relatedness, to predict outcomes. Despite the complexity of outcomes, syntheses show that diversifying plant communities hold great promise for enhancing the resilience of managed ecosystems. 

The plethora of syntheses on plant diversity effects reflects the challenge of understanding relationships in complex multitrophic communities, an urgent need for improved predictability in biodiversity-based tools for pest control in agroecosystems, and the rapidly expanding literature. Despite achievements in research and synthesis, the sheer number of meta-analyses with conflicting results means that outcomes of plant diversity for herbivorous insects are not generalizable. “Scrutinizing potential mechanisms underlying variation in outcomes across meta-analyses is vital,” the authors write, “especially now as ‘meta-meta-analyses’ have begun to emerge from this explosive body of work that further pool and simplify results.”

By distilling the varied results of the 23 syntheses, the authors pave the way for stronger and more precise recommendations for how biodiversity may be most effectively leveraged to promote delivery of ecosystem services. “Fine-tuning management of biodiversity will be essential to meet the ever-growing global need to design sustainable agriculture solutions that support both high plant productivity and diverse plant-arthropod communities,” they note.

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JOURNAL

The Quarterly Review of Biology

DOI

10.1086/726687 

ARTICLE TITLE

A Guide to 23 Global Syntheses of Plant Diversity Effects: Unpacking Consensus and Incongruence across Trophic Levels

 

Devices offers long-distance, low-power underwater communication

The system could be used for battery-free underwater communication across kilometer-scale distances, to aid monitoring of climate and coastal change.

Reports and Proceedings

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: THE DEVICE IS AN ARRAY OF PIEZOELECTRIC TRANSDUCERS THAT ENABLES BATTERY-FREE UNDERWATER COMMUNICATION. view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF FADEL ADIB, ET. AL.

MIT researchers have demonstrated the first system for ultra-low-power underwater networking and communication, which can transmit signals across kilometer-scale distances.

This technique, which the researchers began developing several years ago, uses about one-millionth the power that existing underwater communication methods use. By expanding their battery-free system’s communication range, the researchers have made the technology more feasible for applications such as aquaculture, coastal hurricane prediction, and climate change modeling.

“What started as a very exciting intellectual idea a few years ago — underwater communication with a million times lower power — is now practical and realistic. There are still a few interesting technical challenges to address, but there is a clear path from where we are now to deployment,” says Fadel Adib, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and director of the Signal Kinetics group in the MIT Media Lab.

Underwater backscatter enables low-power communication by encoding data in sound waves that it reflects, or scatters, back toward a receiver. These innovations enable reflected signals to be more precisely directed at their source. 

Due to this “retrodirectivity,” less signal scatters in the wrong directions, allowing for more efficient and longer-range communication.

When tested in a river and an ocean, the retrodirective device exhibited a communication range that was more than 15 times farther than previous devices. However, the experiments were limited by the length of the docks available to the researchers.

To better understand the limits of underwater backscatter, the team also developed an analytical model to predict the technology’s maximum range. The model, which they validated using experimental data, showed that their retrodirective system could communicate across kilometer-scale distances.

The researchers shared these findings in two papers which will be presented at this year’s ACM SIGCOMM and MobiCom conferences. Adib, senior author on both papers, is joined on the SIGCOMM paper by co-lead authors Aline Eid, a former postdoc who is now an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, and Jack Rademacher, a research assistant; as well as research assistants Waleed Akbar and Purui Wang, and postdoc Ahmed Allam. The MobiCom paper is also written by co-lead authors Akbar and Allam.

Communicating with sound waves

Underwater backscatter communication devices utilize an array of nodes made from “piezoelectric” materials to receive and reflect sound waves. These materials produce an electric signal when mechanical force is applied to them. 

When sound waves strike the nodes, they vibrate and convert the mechanical energy to an electric charge. The nodes use that charge to scatter some of the acoustic energy back to the source, transmitting data that a receiver decodes based on the sequence of reflections.

But because the backscattered signal travels in all directions, only a small fraction reaches the source, reducing the signal strength and limiting the communication range.

To overcome this challenge, the researchers leveraged a 70-year-old radio device called a Van Atta array, in which symmetric pairs of antennas are connected in such a way that the array reflects energy back in the direction it came from. 

But connecting piezoelectric nodes to make a Van Atta array reduces their efficiency. The researchers avoided this problem by placing a transformer between pairs of connected nodes. The transformer, which transfers electric energy from one circuit to another, allows the nodes to reflect the maximum amount of energy back to the source. 

“Both nodes are receiving and both nodes are reflecting, so it is a very interesting system. As you increase the number of elements in that system, you build an array that allows you to achieve much longer communication ranges,” Eid explains.

In addition, they used a technique called cross-polarity switching to encode binary data in the reflected signal. Each node has a positive and a negative terminal (like a car battery), so when the positive terminals of two nodes are connected and the negative terminals of two nodes are connected, that reflected signal is a “bit one.” 

But if the researchers switch the polarity, and the negative and positive terminals are connected to each other instead, then the reflection is a “bit zero.”

“Just connecting the piezoelectric nodes together is not enough. By alternating the polarities between the two nodes, we are able to transmit data back to the remote receiver,” Rademacher explains.

When building the Van Atta array, the researchers found that if the connected nodes were too close, they would block each other’s signals. They devised a new design with staggered nodes that enables signals to reach the array from any direction. With this scalable design, the more nodes an array has, the greater its communication range. 

They tested the array in more than 1,500 experimental trials in the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Falmouth, Massachusetts, in collaboration with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The device achieved communication ranges of 300 meters, more than 15 times longer than they previously demonstrated.

However, they had to cut the experiments short because they ran out of space on the dock.

Modeling the maximum

That inspired the researchers to build an analytical model to determine the theoretical and practical communication limits of this new underwater backscatter technology.

Building off their group’s work on RFIDs, the team carefully crafted a model that captured the impact of system parameters, like the size of the piezoelectric nodes and the input power of the signal, on the underwater operation range of the device.

“It is not a traditional communication technology, so you need to understand how you can quantify the reflection. What are the roles of the different components in that process?” Akbar says.

For instance, the researchers needed to derive a function that captures the amount of signal reflected out of an underwater piezoelectric node with a specific size, which was among the biggest challenges of developing the model, he adds.

They used these insights to create a plug-and-play model into a which a user could enter information like input power and piezoelectric node dimensions and receive an output that shows the expected range of the system.

They evaluated the model on data from their experimental trials and found that it could accurately predict the range of retrodirected acoustic signals with an average error of less than one decibel. 

Using this model, they showed that an underwater backscatter array can potentially achieve kilometer-long communication ranges.

“We are creating a new ocean technology and propelling it into the realm of the things we have been doing for 6G cellular networks. For us, it is very rewarding because we are starting to see this now very close to reality,” Adib says.

The researchers plan to continue studying underwater backscatter Van Atta arrays, perhaps using boats so they could evaluate longer communication ranges. Along the way, they intend to release tools and datasets so other researchers can build on their work. At the same time, they are beginning to move toward commercialization of this technology. 

This research was funded, in part, by the Office of Naval Research, the Sloan Research Fellowship, the National Science Foundation, the MIT Media Lab, and the Doherty Chair in Ocean Utilization.

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Written by Adam Zewe, MIT News

Paper: “Enabling Long-Range Underwater Backscatter via Van Atta Acoustic Networks”

http://www.mit.edu/~fadel/papers/VAB-paper.pdf

Paper: “The Underwater Backscatter Channel: Theory, Link Budget, and Experimental Validation”

http://www.mit.edu/~fadel/papers/PAB-theory-paper.pdf

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ARTICLE TITLE

“Enabling Long-Range Underwater Backscatter via Van Atta Acoustic Networks”

 

New research highlights opportunities to protect carbon and communities from forest fires

The Nature Conservancy, University of Montana, and USDA Forest Service identify “opportunity hot spots” where proactive forest management can keep carbon in forests and protect communities from wildfires in the West

Peer-Reviewed Publication

USDA FOREST SERVICE - ROCKY MOUNTAIN RESEARCH STATION

 

IMAGE: TREE THINNING-ONLY TREATMENTS ARE LESS EFFECTIVE AT REDUCING WILDFIRE SEVERITY THAN TREATMENTS THAT ALSO ADDRESS SURFACE FUELS. PHOTO SHOWS THE AFTERMATH OF OREGON’S 2021 BOOTLEG FIRE BURNING THROUGH A MIXED CONIFER FOREST WHERE THE KLAMATH TRIBES HAD WORKED WITH THE US FOREST SERVICE TO THIN TREES AND APPLY PRESCRIBED FIRE. IN SOME AREAS, PRESCRIBED FIRE HAD NOT BEEN APPLIED YET. THINNING ONLY WAS NOT AS EFFECTIVE AT REDUCING WILDFIRE SEVERITY AS COMBINING THINNING WITH PRESCRIBED FIRE. view more 

CREDIT: STEVE RONDEAU (PHOTOGRAPHER), KLAMATH TRIBES NATURAL RESOURCES DIRECTOR.

MISSOULA, Mont. Sept. 6, 2023 — As the climate and wildfire crises have intensified, so too have concerns regarding the loss of carbon captured and stored in forests from decades to centuries of tree growth. A new study describes where to optimize ongoing wildfire mitigation efforts and reduce carbon loss due to wildfire, benefitting communities and climate at the same time.

New research published in the journal Environmental Research Letters highlights widespread “opportunity hot spots” in the western United States for using proactive forest management, such as forest thinning, prescribed fire, and cultural burning, to reduce the risk of losing carbon to future wildfires.

The study, a collaboration among The Nature Conservancy, University of Montana, and USDA Forest Service, evaluated where living trees and the carbon they store are at risk of burning in the future. They then compared these areas to areas highlighted in the Forest Service’s Wildfire Crisis Strategy, identifying where human communities most vulnerable to wildfire. Areas of overlap highlight “opportunity hot spots” where action can reduce the risk from wildfire to both carbon and communities.

“Our approach can help land management agencies plan where to invest in proactive forest treatments that simultaneously reduce wildfire-caused carbon loss and protect communities from wildfire,” says the study’s lead author, Jamie Peeler, landscape ecologist and NatureNet Postdoctoral Science Fellow with the University of Montana. “It also could be applied to reduce risk from wildfire to other important values such as municipal water, culturally important plants, recreation, and wildlife habitat.”

USDA Forest Service Chief Randy Moore added, “This type of science collaboration strengthens our efforts to support land managers in designing and implementing effective projects with multiple benefits, making good work even better. It also is key in informing our overall efforts to address the wildfire crisis facing our nation’s forests by doing the right work, in the right place, at the right time.”

During a wildfire, most carbon loss occurs when litter, duff, and downed woody material is consumed by the fire – but over time, trees killed during a fire decompose, producing another source of carbon loss. The study identifies locations where communities and agencies can consider implementing proactive forest management to reduce negative impacts from wildfires, including carbon loss.

Proactive forest management can reduce the number of trees killed in wildfires by reducing excess fuels, reducing the negative impacts of a century of fire suppression and global warming. It also can keep more living trees on the landscape after wildfire, to continue to capture and store carbon from the atmosphere and provide seeds for future forest.

“The need for proactive forest management in California, New Mexico and Arizona is particularly urgent, given that a large portion of their forested area is highly vulnerable to wildfire-caused carbon loss,” says the study’s co-author, Travis Woolley, forest ecologist for The Nature Conservancy in Arizona.

“As governments take action to address the escalating climate and wildfire crises, they do not need to choose between climate- and wildfire-mitigation goals,” says Kerry Metlen, senior forest scientist for The Nature Conservancy in Oregon. “In the western US, opportunities are widespread to achieve both objectives with strategically placed proactive forest management.”

Figure identifies opportunities for using proactive forest management to simultaneously mitigate the greatest risk from wildfire to carbon and human communities in the western US. Researchers observed that 64 high of the 308 opportunity hot spots to reduce carbon overlapped previously published maps of 140 high-risk firesheds for human communities. Those 64 firesheds are depicted in gold to emphasize that improving reciprocal relationships between humans and forests can support multiple ecological, social, and cultural values concurrently. (*note the analysis was completed prior to announcing additional WCS high risk firesheds in November 2022, bringing the total to 250.)

CREDIT

Authors: lead author is Jamie Peeler

About University of Montana

Founded in 1893, the University of Montana is a top-ranked research university and its impact is felt locally and globally. Grizzlies go on to find success abroad and at home, known for their unbridled curiosity and creativity unmatched on either side of the Rockies. The University of Montana strives to be both accessible and accountable – respected worldwide and responsive at home. What’s made at the University of Montana is remaking the world.

About USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station

The Rocky Mountain Research Station is one of five Forest Service research stations serving federal and state agencies, international organizations, Tribes, academia, non-profit groups, and the public. RMRS researchers work in a range of biological, physical, and social science fields to promote sustainable management of the nation's diverse forests and rangelands. The station develops and delivers scientific knowledge and innovative technologies with a focus on informing policy and land-management decisions. Working out of 15 laboratories across the Western U.S., RMRS researchers work in collaboration with a range of partners, including other agencies, academia, nonprofit groups, and industry.

About The Nature Conservancy

Founded in the U.S. through grassroots action in 1951, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has grown to become one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world. Thanks to more than a million members and the dedicated efforts of our diverse staff and over 400 scientists, we impact conservation in 79 countries and territories: 37 by direct conservation impact and 42 through partners.

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/acf05a 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

ARTICLE TITLE

Identifying opportunity hot spots for reducing the risk of wildfire-caused carbon loss in western US conifer forests

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Sep-2023

 

Energy production is powered by more than just physics

Recontextualizing power in social and cultural terms helps students engage in their communities.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS

 

IMAGE: ENERGY TRACKING DIAGRAMS DRAWN BY PHYSICS TEACHERS IN A STUDY EXAMINING EQUITY IN ENERGY. THE AUTHORS DEVELOPED THE DIAGRAMS IN ALIGNMENT WITH THE NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS TO SHOW THE MOVEMENT OF ENERGY WITHIN A POWER PRODUCTION SYSTEM. THEIR LATEST WORK ASKS PHYSICS TEACHERS TO EXPAND THE ANALYSIS FROM FACTORS WITHIN AN ENERGY SYSTEM (POWER PLANT) TO THE VARIETY OF INTERCONNECTED SYSTEMS OUTSIDE, FROM RAW MATERIALS TO THE STATE OF THE LAND AFTER DECOMMISSIONING. view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: RACHEL E. SCHERR, LANE H. SEELEY, AND KARA E. GRAY

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2023 – Large-scale energy generation projects depend on economics and politics as much as they do on the availability of natural resources and raw materials. Power plant output also extends far beyond electricity, producing a variety of scientific, ethical, ecological, and cultural impacts across multiple scales, ranging from local to regional, state, national, and global effects.

Researchers from the University of Washington Bothell and Seattle Pacific University discussed the importance of contextualizing physics principles. In The Physics Teacher, a journal co-published by AIP Publishing and the American Association of Physics Teachers, they outlined how teachers implemented case studies to teach about energy and the realities of power plants.

“During the pandemic, a lot of us had a reexamination of the education that we were offering, a chance to really look at why it is important and what its purpose is,” author Rachel Scherr said. “Ultimately, science education should be providing a basis for decision making, and we should be enabling students to participate in scientifically responsible decisions that affect their lives and their communities.”

Scherr and her collaborators share their latest updates on a multi-year project geared toward supporting physics educators in new forms of teaching about energy that connect students with the realities of physics beyond the classroom. Their study examined how a set of teachers applied this holistic approach to analyze the social and cultural impacts of Plant Scherer in Georgia. The authors also accounted for student experiences in a course investigating dams in the Skagit River Hydroelectric Project, including research on relicensing, local resistance, salmon relocation engineering, and tribal restoration projects.

“We’ve been supporting teachers for a few years now to really think about the equity issues related to power plants and the role of equity in community decision making,” Scherr said. “Equity has to do with not just the power plant itself, but the relationship of the power plant to the lands and waters and air that surround it, as well as human, plant, and animal communities.”

Their work exemplifies that removing abstraction from physics education—and reconnecting power plants to the rest of the planet—prepares students to engage in community decision making and understand energy in its many social and cultural contexts. 

“Technology, infrastructure, and energy resource decisions are partly scientific decisions, and classes that prepare young people to participate in decision making is a shared value for scientists,” Scherr said.

“There is so much to be gained from placing these kinds of analyses in their context, where they have consequences for people and for the natural world. It’s a natural extension that helps to make the physics we learn meaningful.” 

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The article, "Energy in its material and social context: Power plants," is authored by Rachel E. Scherr, Lane H. Seeley, and Kara E. Gray.  It will appear in The Physics Teacher on Sept. 6, 2023 (DOI: 10.1119/5.0111211). After that date, it can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0111211.

ABOUT THE JOURNAL

Dedicated to the strengthening of the teaching of introductory physics at all levels, The Physics Teacher includes tutorial papers, articles on pedagogy, current research, and news in physics, as well as history, philosophy, and biography. See https://pubs.aip.org/aapt/pte.

About AAPT
AAPT is an international organization for physics educators, physicists, and industrial scientists with members worldwide. Dedicated to enhancing the understanding and appreciation of physics through teaching, AAPT provides awards, publications, and programs that encourage teaching practical application of physics principles, support continuing professional development, and reward excellence in physics education. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.

 

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JOURNAL

The Physics Teacher

DOI

10.1119/5.0111211 

ARTICLE TITLE

Energy in its material and social context: Power plants

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Sep-2023

 

Beauty salon–based intervention increases trust of PrEP among Black cisgender women

Stigma about PrEP and consideration of using it also improved somewhat

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WOLTERS KLUWER HEALTH

September 6, 2023 — Among African American and other Black cisgender women, a beauty salon–based intervention improved knowledge and awareness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) against HIV and increased trust in it, according to a pilot study published in the September issue of The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC), the official journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care. JANAC is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer. 

However, most study participants did not self-identify as requiring PrEP or having risk factors for HIV. "Like others, our study found women's willingness to take PrEP increased once they understood how PrEP benefits and protects them, but there remains a gap between willingness and perceived need," lead investigator Schenita D. Randolph, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, of Duke University School of Nursing in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues write. 

Leveraging the social networks of Black women within a trusted environment 

Black women in the U.S. represent just 26% of female PrEP users while constituting 57% of new infections among women. To address the urgent need to increase PrEP uptake in this population, Dr. Randolph's group designed a 3-part intervention called UPDOs Protective Styles: Using PrEP and Doing It for Ourselves: 

• Two-hour training for beauty salon stylists who have Black women as their principal clientele; stylists receive continuing education credit and "Ask Me about PrEP" signage for their salons. 

• A narrative-based educational video series, co-developed with Black women and an established community advisory council, designed to entertain while conveying key messages about HIV, PrEP, and Black women's social contributors to health. 

• Opportunity to reach out to a PrEP navigator. 

The intervention moved the needle on trust of PrEP but uptake was not affected 

In the pilot study, 44 Black women who typically visit their salon at least every two weeks took an online survey before and after watching the videos. 89% were heterosexual and the average age was 42. 

Pre- intervention survey results showed insufficient knowledge and awareness of PrEP and its availability. Only one woman was currently taking PrEP. Post-intervention results showed significant increases in knowledge and awareness, and women's trust of PrEP and providers improved significantly. 

After the intervention, women reported expecting less disapproval from sexual partners, family, and friends about PrEP use. However, there was no change in social stigma scores or PrEP user stereotypes. 

Twenty women (45%) said they had no risk of HIV infection, and 22 (50%) said they had low risk. The other two said they were at medium risk. This is of concern because in 2019, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 84% of new HIV diagnoses among women were attributed to heterosexual sex. 

On the pre-intervention survey, 7% of study participants said they were not considering starting PrEP within the next month, and 86% said they were not currently considering it. Post-intervention, those figures were 32% and 64%.  

"To move Black cisgender women from intention to uptake will happen mainly in how we measure and define risk; there is a need to re-evaluate the messaging," Dr. Randolph and her co-authors recommend. They plan qualitative research to gain a deeper understanding of perceived and actual reasons for women to take PrEP and identify acceptable language that will influence positive views of PrEP use by women. 

Read [UPDOs Protective Styles, a Multilevel Intervention to Improve Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Uptake Among Black Cisgender Women] 

Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. We support clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth. 

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About JANAC 

The Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC) is a peer-reviewed, international nursing journal that covers the full spectrum of the global HIV epidemic, focusing on prevention, evidence-based care management, interprofessional clinical care, research, advocacy, policy, education, social determinants of health, epidemiology, and program development. JANAC functions according to the highest standards of ethical publishing practices and offers innovative publication options, including Open Access and prepublication article posting. 

About the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care 

Since 1987, the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (ANAC) has been the leading nursing organization responding to HIV/AIDS. The mission of ANAC is to foster the professional development of nurses and others involved in the delivery of health care for persons at risk for, living with, and/or affected by HIV and its co-morbidities. ANAC promotes the health, welfare, and rights of people living with HIV around the world. 

About Wolters Kluwer 

Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the healthcare, tax and accounting, financial and corporate compliance, legal and regulatory, and corporate performance and ESG sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with specialized technology and services.  

Wolters Kluwer reported 2022 annual revenues of €5.5 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 20,900 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

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JOURNAL

Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care

ARTICLE TITLE

UPDOs Protective Styles, a Multilevel Intervention to Improve Pre-exposure Prophylaxis Uptake Among Black Cisgender Women

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Sep-2023

 

Canine health data to guide new cancer study

Grant and Award Announcement

MORRIS ANIMAL FOUNDATION

 

IMAGE: A NEWLY FUNDED STUDY WILL EVALUATE BOTH THE FREQUENCY AND MAJOR RISK FACTORS FOR CANCER IN GOLDEN RETRIEVERS. view more 

CREDIT: JL LYNNE

DENVER/Sept. 6, 2023 — A newly funded study will evaluate both the frequency and major risk factors for cancer in golden retrievers, a breed commonly affected by the disease.  

The study will use data from Morris Animal Foundation’s Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, which is one of the largest and most comprehensive canine health studies in the world. The study will also incorporate data from Veterinary Companion Animal Surveillance System (VetCompass), a not-for-profit research project based at the Royal Veterinary College in London, England. VetCompass collects and analyzes data from more than 1,800 veterinary practices in the United Kingdom.  

“The evaluation of major risk factors for canine cancer can highlight potentially modifiable factors that could reduce the risk of cancer for future golden retrievers,” said David Brodbelt, epidemiologist and co-project leader of VetCompass. “This could include for example, certain lifestyle-related factors such as diet and levels of exercise.”   

Moreover, by delving into cancer occurrences, not only in golden retrievers, but across the broader spectrum of dogs using VetCompass data, this research aims to put more intricate and precise findings from the Study into the context of the wider veterinary population, Brodbelt added.  

This work is supported by a $10,000 sponsorship from Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc., an animal health pharmaceutical company. The sponsorship will support the hiring of a new canine cancer epidemiologist at the Royal Veterinary College who will lead cancer epidemiology research both at the college and within the study.  

"Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health is dedicated to providing solutions to unmet clinical needs in oncology,” said Dr. Marlene Hauck, Head of Oncology Research at Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA Inc. “As such, this research will help determine the cancers that would benefit most from innovative therapeutic options.”  

About Morris Animal Foundation  
Morris Animal Foundation’s mission is to bridge science and resources to advance the health of animals. Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Denver, it is one of the largest nonprofit animal health research organizations in the world, funding nearly $160 million in more than 3,000 critical studies across a broad range of species. Learn more at morrisanimalfoundation.org.    

About Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA  
Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health is working on first-in-class innovation for the prediction, prevention, and treatment of diseases in animals. For veterinarians, pet owners, producers, and governments in more than 150 countries, we offer a large and innovative portfolio of products and services to improve the health and well-being of companion animals and livestock.  

As a global leader in the animal health industry and as part of the family-owned Boehringer Ingelheim, we take a long-term perspective. The lives of animals and humans are interconnected in deep and complex ways. We know that when animals are healthy, humans are healthier too. By using the synergies between our Animal Health and Human Pharma businesses and by delivering value through innovation, we enhance the health and well-being of both.   

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health has deep roots in the U.S. from a start in St. Joseph, Missouri, more than 100 years ago, it has grown to encompass seven sites. Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health’s portfolio contains widely used and well-respected vaccines, parasite-control products and therapeutics for pets, horses and livestock including NexGard®, Heartgard®, Pyramid® + Presponse®, VAXXITEK®, Ingelvac CircoFLEX® and Prascend®.  

Learn more about Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA at bi-animalhealth.com    

Media Contact: Annie Mehl

 

Insomnia drug helps prevent oxycodone relapse, Scripps Research study shows

New findings suggest that treating insomnia can stop opioid-seeking behavior, even after ending treatment

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE

LA JOLLA, CA—A good night’s sleep has many proven health benefits, and a new Scripps Research study suggests one more: preventing opioid relapse.

In the new study, published online in Neuropharmacology on August 12, 2023, scientists gave an experimental insomnia treatment to rats experiencing oxycodone withdrawal. The researchers found that the animals were far less likely to seek out drugs again in the future—even after ending the treatment. These findings could eventually lead to therapies to help prevent opioid addiction or relapse in humans.

“These results are very encouraging,” says Rémi Martin-Fardon, PhD, associate professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research and senior author of the study. “We hope in the future this compound may be useful for not only treating sleep disorders, but also drug use disorders.”

Opioids including oxycodone are used to treat pain, but carry a risk of misuse and opioid dependence in people who use them regularly. In 2021, opioid overdoses killed more than 80,000 people in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Researchers know that during opioid withdrawal—which can last for days in people who are dependent on the drug—people experience a range of symptoms including nausea, vomiting, sweating, chills, pain, anxiety and insomnia.

Martin-Fardon and Jessica Illenberger, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Scripps Research and first author of the study, wondered whether treating the insomnia associated with opioid withdrawal might help prevent relapse. This is why they turned to an experimental insomnia drug known as DORA-12, which is like the FDA-approved drug Belsomra (suvorexant).

“A lot of drug use and relapse are primarily motivated by a person’s desire to alleviate these withdrawal symptoms,” says Illenberger. “The idea behind testing this treatment was that if people or animals sleep better during that withdrawal period, then when they wake up, perhaps they won’t feel so much craving and won’t be as likely to relapse.”

In a previous study, the researchers found that suvorexant decreased the amount of oxycodone that opioid-dependent rats self-administered during binge sessions. In the new study, the team focused more on the withdrawal period from oxycodone.

During a 14-day withdrawal period from oxycodone, opioid-dependent rats showed expected withdrawal symptoms, including disturbed circadian rhythms like those seen in insomnia—marked by an increase in activity, eating and drinking during their usual sleeping hours. However, rats given DORA-12 during this withdrawal period showed patterns of behavior and physiological activities more like animals not dependent on opioids. In addition, when once again exposed to cues they had learned to associate with oxycodone, the rats treated with DORA-12 did not show drug-seeking behavior. Signs of opioid addiction in the brain, characterized by the number of certain neuron types, were also reversed by DORA-12, and the effect persisted even if DORA-12 had not been given for days.

Interestingly, Martin-Fardon’s group saw slightly different results between male and female animals. Although all rats had less opioid relapse when treated with DORA-12, the drug was less effective in female animals and the changes to neuron numbers seemed to be more pronounced in males.

“I think this is something really important to follow up on,” says Martin-Fardon. “It may be that women are much more sensitive to the effect of oxycodone and different doses of treatment are required.”

More studies are needed to show the utility of DORA-12 or similar insomnia drugs to treat opioid addiction in people. Already, clinical researchers at the Pearson Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research are studying the use of the insomnia drug suvorexant in people with alcohol use disorder.

In addition to Martin-Fardon and Illenberger, authors of the study, “Daily treatment with the dual orexin receptor antagonist DORA-12 during oxycodone abstinence decreases oxycodone conditioned reinstatement,” include Francisco Flores-Ramirez, Glenn Pascasio and Alessandra Matzeu of Scripps Research.

This work was supported by funding from the Merck Investigator Studies Program (MISP59371), NIH/NIAAA (AA026999, AA028549, AA006420, T32 AA0074560) and NIH/NIDA (DA053443). The DORA-12 was provided by Merck Pharmaceuticals

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JOURNAL

Neuropsychopharmacology

DOI

10.1016/j.neuropharm.2023.109685 

 

Disease affects blackbirds more than previously thought

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LUND UNIVERSITY

The researchers studied birds given a simulated bacterial infection in order to stimulate their immune system. The birds were then compared with birds whose immune system was not stimulated – and their activity was measured for several weeks using miniature data loggers.

“We found that the birds whose immune system was stimulated had reduced activity for three weeks, which is much longer than we expected. We could also see that the "sick" blackbirds stopped their activities almost an hour earlier in the evenings compared to the control group”, says Arne Hegemann, biologist at Lund University.

Previously, researchers assumed that effects from a compromised immune system only take a day or two to resolve. The new study shows that it takes much longer to recover; and that it affects the duration of activity per day rather than the level of activity throughout the day.

“First of all, it is important to understand what happens to wild animals when they are affected by disease. Even mild ailments and short disease spans can have far-reaching consequences for animals, not least because it affects their everyday life”, says Arne Hegemann.

Whether the birds were sleeping or just sitting still is unknown, but the study shows that sick birds go to bed earlier, just like sick people do.

“The difference is that when we humans are sick and have symptoms such as fever, reduced appetite or body pain, we may stay at home for a day or two and then return to normal life. Wild animals have the same symptoms but for them the consequences are greater. If small birds get sick and have 45 minutes less time per day to look for food, it can be the difference between life and death for both them and their young ones”, concludes Arne Hegemann.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences

DOI

10.1098/rspb.2023.0794 

ARTICLE TITLE

Immune challenge reduces daily activity period in free-living birds for three weeks