Friday, January 19, 2024

The fallacy of the local bar: do individuals opt to travel farther than the neighborhood watering hole?

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

January 17, 2024-- Individuals travel beyond their residential neighborhood and area of work to bars, but tend to travel to liquor stores closer to home, according to a new study at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Monash University School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine. The findings are published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Review.

“Our study aimed to characterize individuals’ trips to alcohol outlets and describe these trip locations in the context of the mixed results we have seen from previous studies on alcohol outlet density and consumption,” said Christina A. Mehranbod, in the Department of Epidemiology, and first author. “Understanding where people travel to access alcohol outlets, like bars and liquor stores, is essential for understanding the environments to which people are exposed and ultimately influence decisions related to alcohol consumption.”

Using 2014-2018 household travel data from the Victoria Integrated Survey of Travel and Activity from Victoria, Australia, the researchers categorized trip origins and destinations by 10 place types, by total trip distance and duration, and geographic location as well as transport mode, and other personal and household level variables including age, and income, among others.

People were willing to travel to a bar travel farther than the distance and time people were willing to travel to liquor stores. Among 23,512 respondents, 378 or 1.6 percent traveled 18 minutes and approximately 5 miles to visit a bar versus the 79 study participants or 0.3 percent for a liquor store purchase. Bar trips added slightly over 5 miles and 18 minutes to cumulative travel; 41percent attended bars co-located in participants’ home local government area.

“Trips to and from liquor stores were shorter and quicker than trips to and from bars,” observed Christopher Morrison, PhD, assistant professor of Epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School, and senior author.

One-one-way trips to liquor stores had a mean distance of 8.7 miles and took 12.2 minutes, but these trips added only 3 miles and 8.9 minutes to the cumulative travel distance over the full day. “We attribute this variation because trips to liquor stores are commonly part of complex trips involving multiple stops, Morrison noted. Additionally, trips to liquor stores are part of more complex daily journeys — for example, it can be a stop between someone’s workplace and home. Also people might travel farther for unique bar experiences but proximity influences liquor store purchases.”

“This finding highlights the fact that alcohol outlet placement potentially affects populations well beyond the neighborhood in which outlets are placed,” said Morrison.

In addition to describing where people travel to access bars and liquor stores, the research team also tested the impact of alcohol outlet density on trips to alcohol outlets. In sync with other literature, Morrison and team found alcohol outlet density to play a role.

“With alcohol consumption continuing to take a considerable toll on public health, we believe that refining the scientific methods for measuring exposure to alcohol outlets that may influence decisions to consume alcohol remains a research priority,” said Mehranbod.

Co-authors are Ariana Gobaud and Brady Bushover, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. Christopher Morrison is based at Columbia University and has an adjunct appointment at Monash University.

The study was supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (F31AA031193, K01AA026327, R01AA029112), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (T32DA031099), and National Center for Injury Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (R49CE003094).

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the fourth largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master’s and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit www.publichealth.columbia.edu

JOURNAL

Drug and Alcohol Review

DOI

10.1111/dar.13808

From dawn of time to dusk – our evolutionary ability to perceive time in art

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

Scientists have shown that people are able to tell apart morning from evening depictions in paintings using simple and subtle colour clues in the image.

A study by Newcastle University, UK, and Delft University of Technology, Netherlands, published in the Journal of Vision, has found that people use a combination of colour and brightness in a painting to predict the time of day in the image.

For a large range of paintings over three centuries, study participants were able to establish the timing regardless of the exact content or style of painting and this was purely based on the selection of shades used.

Visual perception

In an online behavioural experiment, 51 people rated 104 mostly little-known landscape paintings as depicting either morning, noon, afternoon, evening, or night.

Although the paintings were taken from a range of artists and from across the 17th to 20th century, the time of day ratings people gave them were surprisingly consistent.

In general, paintings with lighter, paler blues and darker yellows were viewed as morning, and those with darker blues and brighter yellows seen as evening.

Anya Hurlbert, Professor of Visual Neuroscience at Newcastle University, who led the study, said: “Our findings show painters tap into fundamental processes of visual perception that adults possess.

“They appear to be subconsciously understanding how the human brain has learned over evolution to interpret changes in daylight and this adds to our understanding of visual perception.

“This research is one of the first to show that painters deploy simple colour and brightness cues to convey something as abstract as time of day.”

From nature to art

The colour and brightness of natural daylight change regularly over the course of the day and offer subtle colour clues that this research showed most people interpreted in the same way.

Experts have shown that daylight is a mixture of direct sunlight and diffuse skylight, meaning the nuances in hue are constrained to follow a curve from blue to orange/yellow.

At dawn, the light changes colour rapidly from a dark blue to a brighter yellow or neutral hue; at dusk, it changes in the opposite direction, becoming bluer as it darkens. In morning and evening, when the sun is close to the horizon, daylight is dimmer than at midday. People were able to pick up on these subtle clues.

Professor Hurlbert said: “The experiment was performed online. A separate experiment in the lab, with a calibrated image display and a smaller number of participants, confirmed the results of the online one.

“Therefore, paintings make a rich source of information for scientists to understand how visual perception works.”

Reference: Time-of-day perception in paintings. Cehao Yu et al. Journal of Vision. DOI: 10.1167/jov.24.1.1

JOURNAL

Journal of Vision

DOI

10.1167/jov.24.1.1

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Content analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Time-of-day perception in paintings

Knowing what dogs like to watch could help veterinarians assess their vision

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have taken a novel approach to assessing canine vision. Their recent study uses a dog's interest in a variety of video content to better measure the quality of its vision.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

griffin3 11_5_21.mov — VIDEO:
IN THIS VIDEO, A VERY GOOD DOG WATCHES A VIDEO OF ANOTHER DOG GOING FOR A WALK.
view more
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–MADISON

Ever wonder what kind of TV shows your dog might choose if they could work the remote control? New research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Veterinary Medicine provides some answers, but the study was more interested in solving a longstanding problem in veterinary medicine than turning canine companions into couch potatoes.

According to Freya Mowat, veterinary ophthalmologist and professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine’s department of surgical sciences, researchers wanted to determine factors, including age and vision, that influence a dog’s interest in interacting with video content. Ultimately, the goal of the study, which launched two years ago, was to support development of more sensitive ways to assess canine vision — something that has been sorely lacking in veterinary medicine.

“The method we currently use to assess vision in dogs is a very low bar. In humans, it would be equivalent to saying yes or no if a person was blind,” says Mowat. “We need more sensitive ways to assess vision in dogs, using a dog eye chart equivalent. We speculate that videos have the potential for sustaining a dog’s attention long enough to assess visual function, but we didn’t know what type of content is most engaging and appealing to dogs.”

Published recently in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, the study found that dogs are most engaged when watching videos that feature other animals. Content featuring other dogs was the most popular. But if a National Geographic documentary about canine evolution seems too highbrow for your four-legged friend, Scooby Doo might be a perfectly acceptable option as well.

To better understand the type of content dogs might be most attracted to on screen, Mowat created a web-based questionnaire for dog owners around the globe to report the TV-watching habits of their canine companions.

Participants responded to questions about the types of screens in their homes, how their dogs interacted with screens, the kinds of content their dogs interacted with the most, as well as information about their dog’s age, sex, breed and where they live. They also provided descriptions of their dogs’ behavior when watching videos. Most commonly, dog owners described their pets’ behavior as active — including running, jumping, tracking action on screen and vocalizing — compared with passive behaviors like lying down or sitting. Dog owners also had the option to show their dog(s) four short videos featuring subjects of possible interest, including a panther, a dog, a bird and traffic moving along a road. They were then asked to rate their dog’s interest in each video and how closely the dog tracked the moving objects on the screen.

Mowat received 1,600 responses from dog owners across the world, including from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the European Union and Australasia. Of those respondents, 1,246 ultimately completed the study. The following are some of the most interesting highlights:

Age and vision were related to how much a dog interacted with a screen.
Sporting and herding dog breeds appear to watch all content more than other breeds.
Video content featuring animals was the most popular, with other dogs being by far the most engaging subjects to watch.
Humans do not appear to be very appealing for dogs to watch, ranking ninth out of 17 predetermined categories.
Cartoons were engaging for more than 10% of dogs.
Movement on screens was a strong motivator for screen attention.

Mowat says she plans to build on the results of this study. Future research will focus on the development and optimization of video-based methods that can assess changes in visual attention as dogs age as well as answer questions that could help our four-legged friends age as gracefully as possible.

“We know that poor vision negatively impacts quality of life in older people, but the effect of aging and vision changes in dogs is largely unknown because we can’t accurately assess it,” she says. “Like people, dogs are living longer, and we want to make sure we support a healthier life for them as well.”

Another goal for Mowat is to compare how a dogs’ vision ages compared with the human or humans they share a home with.

“Dogs have a much shorter lifespan than their owner, of course, and if there are emerging environmental or lifestyle factors that influence visual aging, it might well show up in our dogs decades before it shows up in us,” she explains. “Our dogs could be our sentinels — the canine in the proverbial coal mine.”

This study was supported in part by an NIH career development grant to Mowat (K08EY028628), a Companion Animal Fund Grant from the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine, a grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc. to the UW–Madison Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and a core grant for Vision Research from the NIH to UW–Madison (P30 EY016665).

JOURNAL

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

DOI

10.1016/j.applanim.2023.106151

ARTICLE TITLE

Screen interaction behavior in companion dogs: Results from a dog owner survey

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Jan-2024

Big dogs versus small dogs: Which sizes face higher risks of which diseases?

New study could aid understanding of why smaller dogs tend to live longer

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Big dogs versus small dogs: which sizes face higher risks of which diseases? — IMAGE:
LARGE DOG
view more
CREDIT: PHOTO BY VALERIA BOLTNEVA ON PEXELS

A study of more than 25,000 U.S. dogs and 238 breeds has linked dog size to varying patterns of risk for health conditions over the course of a dog’s lifespan. Yunbi Nam of the University of Washington, U.S., and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on January 17.

On average, smaller dogs tend to live longer than larger dogs. Evidence suggests that larger dogs do not tend to have more health conditions, but that dogs of different sizes may face different levels of risk for different conditions. However, more research is needed to clarify links between dog age, size, and disease prevalence.

To deepen understanding, Nam and colleagues analyzed survey data on 27,541 dogs representing 238 breeds, as reported by dog owners participating in the ongoing Dog Aging Project.

Overall, larger dogs in the study were more likely to have faced certain types of health conditions at some point in their lives, including cancer, bone-related disease, gastrointestinal problems, ear/nose/throat issues, neurological and endocrine conditions, and infectious diseases. Meanwhile, smaller dogs were more likely to have experienced ocular, cardiac, liver/pancreas and respiratory diseases. History of kidney/urinary disease did not differ significantly for larger versus smaller dogs.

For many types of conditions—including cancer, ocular, cardiac, orthopedic, and ear/nose/throat conditions—different dog sizes were associated with differing patterns of risk over the course of a dog’s lifespan.

The results held up even after the researchers statistically accounted for the dogs’ sex, where they lived, and whether they were purebred or mixed-breed.

The researchers note that this study does not confirm any causal relationship between dog size, age, and disease. Still, the findings could help lead to deeper understanding of the types of conditions that may underlie the lower lifespan of larger dogs. For instance, within the disease categories explored in this study, future research could home in on age and size patterns associated with specific conditions.

The authors add: “These results provide insights into the disease categories that may contribute to reduced lifespan in larger dogs and suggest multiple further avenues for further exploration.”

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295840

Citation: Nam Y, White M, Karlsson EK, Creevy KE, Promislow DEL, McClelland RL, et al. (2024) Dog size and patterns of disease history across the canine age spectrum: Results from the Dog Aging Project. PLoS ONE 19(1): e0295840. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295840

Author Countries: USA

Funding: This research is based on publicly available data collected by the Dog Aging Project, which is supported by U19 grant AG057377 from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health, and by additional grants and private donations. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0295840

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Dog size and patterns of disease history across the canine age spectrum: Results from the Dog Aging Project

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024

6 in 10 sampled under-5s in India have micronutrient deficiencies, and 4 in 10 have anaemia, per survey of 17,230 children

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

6 in 10 sampled under-5s in India have micronutrient deficiencies, and 4 in 10 have anaemia, per survey of 17,230 children.

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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0002095

Article Title: Prevalence and determinants of anemia due to micronutrient deficiencies among children aged 12–59 months in India–Evidence from Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, 2016–18

Author Countries: India

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

JOURNAL

PLOS Global Public Health

DOI

10.1371/journal.pgph.0002095

ARTICLE TITLE

Prevalence and determinants of anemia due to micronutrient deficiencies among children aged 12–59 months in India–Evidence from Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, 2016–18

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

Sea otters may be key drivers of changes in California's kelp forests, according to data spanning a century

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Sea otters may be key drivers of changes in California's kelp forests, according to data spanning a century

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Climate: https://journals.plos.org/climate/article?id=10.1371/journal.pclm.0000290

Article Title: Sea otter recovery buffers century-scale declines in California kelp forests

Citation: Nicholson TE, McClenachan L, Tanaka KR, Van Houtan KS (2024) Sea otter recovery buffers century-scale declines in California kelp forests. PLOS Clim 3(1): e0000290. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000290

Author Countries: Canada, US

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

JOURNAL

PLOS Climate

DOI

10.1371/journal.pclm.0000290

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

Norovirus outbreaks are detectable by wastewater monitoring earlier than by other surveillance methods depending on reporting practices, making this a potentially important public health tool

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Norovirus outbreaks are detectable by wastewater monitoring earlier than by other surveillance methods depending on reporting practices, making this a potentially important public health tool.

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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/water/article?id=10.1371/journal.pwat.0000198

Article Title: Norovirus GII wastewater monitoring for epidemiological surveillance

Author Countries: USA

Funding: This study was supported by funding from the University of Michigan through the Public Health Infection Prevention and Response Advisory Committee (PHIPRAC - KRW and MCE co-PIs), and from the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services through the Michigan Sequencing Academic Partnership for Public Health Innovation and Response (MI-SAPPHIRE) grant (S MA-2022 (ELCEDE-UM) 10/01/2021 – 07/31/2024, (BF mPI) and wastewater surveillance program (SEWER network grant, KRW and MCE co-PIs). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

JOURNAL

PLOS Water

DOI

10.1371/journal.pwat.0000198

ARTICLE TITLE

Norovirus GII wastewater monitoring for epidemiological surveillance

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

18-Jan-2024

Endeavor Mining Says Fired CEO to Lose $29.1 Million in Pay

Jacob Lorinc, Bloomberg News

Sebastien de Montessus , Bloomberg

Endeavour Mining Plc is stripping its former Chief Executive Officer Sébastien de Montessus of US$29.1 million in renumeration after he was fired earlier this month for “serious misconduct.”

The London-based gold miner said in a statement Thursday that de Montessus forfeits US$17.6 million, which includes a US$2 million annual bonus for last year and US$15.6 million in unvested share awards. Endeavour Mining is also clawing back US$10 million for a one-off award granted in 2021 and US$1.5 million cash bonus for 2022, the company said.

Endeavour fired de Montessus earlier this month, citing serious misconduct over an alleged irregular payment instruction of US$5.9 million tied to an asset sale. De Montessus has since said he instructed a creditor of Endeavour to make the payment in 2021 to a security company to offset money owed for essential security equipment.

“I am disappointed with the way that this matter has been handled and that I have not been given an opportunity to make proper representations to either the board or the remuneration committee,” de Montessus said in a separate Thursday statement.

The Canadian shares of Endeavour rose 1.2 per cent to $23.88 at 3:44 pm in Toronto.

Sunken WWII Navy Tug Headed for "Disposal"

The U.S. Coast Guard and a team of commercial salvors have raised and defueled an abandoned tug from the bottom of the San Joaquin Delta, northwest of Stockton, California. The area has been a resting place for older vessels for years, and this one - the WWII-era tug Mazapeta - sank at its mooring and began leaking oil last year.

The Mazapeta was a Navy yard tug built in 1942-43 at a shipyard in Florida. She was in naval service until 1976, serving at a variety of ports and bases, and then went to work with a commercial towing company in San Francisco until 1998. For at least the last seven years, she sat at a berth in Little Potato Slough, a meandering backwater off the San Joaquin River.

In September 2023, after a long period sitting idle, Mazapeta sank in the slough with 1,600 gallons of fuel and oil on board. State and federal agencies have had a hard time finding the tug's owner, according to local media, so the Coast Guard has taken over the process of defueling and raising the vessel.

The pollution-abatement operation was completed Wednesday. Over the course of the salvage project, about 600 gallons of petroleum and 26,000 gallons of oily water mixture were recovered, according to the agency.

Images courtesy USCG

Commercial contractor Parker Diving and Salvage raised the Mazapeta using a crane barge and dewatering pumps over the course of last weekend. The response crew sealed, dewatered and defueled the vessel, and removed hazardous-waste items like batteries.

Now that the raising and pollution-abatement operations are completed, the City of Stockton has taken control of the wreck. The city planned to move the vessel this week to Vallejo, and it may be Mazapeta's last destination: according to the Coast Guard, she is headed for "final disposal."

Red Sea Disruption Takes a Toll on Egypt's Finances

Not much to see: a few dozen container ships wait at the north and south ends of the Suez Canal, January 18 (Pole Star)Not much to see: a few dozen container ships wait at the north and south ends of the Suez Canal, January 18 (Pole Star) — Not much to see: a few dozen container ships wait at the north and south ends of the Suez Canal, January 18 (Pole Star)

Egypt's economy may soon be feeling the pinch from the security situation in the Red Sea, which has dramatically reduced traffic through the Suez Canal.

The waterway is a vital, reliable source of income, and it has increased in importance since the recent two-lane expansion program boosted transit capacity. In 2022-23 - with tanker traffic soaring due to the war in Ukraine - transit fees approached $9 billion, accounting for about two percent of Egypt's GDP. Egypt's government uses these dollars to service its $165 billion in public debt (among other purposes).

However, the attacks that Yemen's Houthi rebels have launched on international shipping have reduced canal traffic radically, and revenue with it. Almost all large container ships are now re-routing around the Cape of Good Hope because of the security threat, along with an increasing percentage of bulker and tanker traffic. According to Suez Canal Authority chairman Osama Rabie, canal transits are down by 30 percent year-on-year and dollar revenues from canal fees are down by 40 percent.

The canal's fee structure is part of the equation for shipowners when deciding to divert, according to Paul Tourret of French maritime institute ISEMAR. By skipping the canal and sailing around Africa, the ship saves enough on canal fees to offset the extra cost of fuel, and the longer trip "ends up being about the same price" overall, he told AFP.

An increasing number of owners are reaching this decision, and it is putting a large dent in Egypt's public finances. Egypt has to come up with $29 billion to service its external debts in 2024, according to the nation's central bank. This is unusually high, and it reflects a large volume of debt principal repayments coming due this year.

The disruption comes just at the same time that the war in neighboring Gaza has cut into Egypt's tourism revenue. Tourism is the nation's other major foreign-exchange earner for Egypt, and generates as much as $12 billion in a good year.

Though the Suez disruption is having a material effect on Egypt's sovereign income, its government has not publicly criticized Yemen's Houthi rebels for their actions in the Red Sea. Egypt's navy, the largest in the Arab world, is not a prominent part of the international presence near Bab el-Mandeb.