The war in Ukraine severely limits our ability to track Arctic climate change

Scientists no longer have direct access to data from Russian Arctic research stations. Without this data, our view of climate changes in the region is increasingly biased, new research shows.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

 

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THE LOCATION OF THE INTERACT NORTH-EAST SCIENCE STATION IN RUSSIA IS CHARACTERISED BY THE TRANSITION BETWEEN LOW-ARCTIC AND BOREAL ECOREGIONS AROUND THE TREE LINE. THE POTENTIAL LOSS OF THIS, AND OTHER STATIONS IN RUSSIA, CAN BE DETRIMENTAL FOR TRACKING GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF SHIFTS IN BIODIVERSITY, SUCH AS SHRUBIFICATION, AND ITS FEEDBACK ON CARBON DYNAMICS.

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CREDIT: MAX WILBERT

When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th 2022, the ties between Russian Scientists and their Western counterparts were suddenly cut.

Data that used to flow from Russian Arctic research stations and into the international scientific community stopped coming. And that is a problem because it severely limits our understanding of the rapid changes the Arctic is undergoing, a new study shows.

- Suddenly we don’t have access to data from half of the landmass in the Arctic region. Our study reveals that the exclusion of the Russian stations severely decreases our ability to track Arctic changes, says Dr. Efrén López-Blanco from Aarhus University.

Using Earth System Models López-Blanco and his colleagues have calculated how much the loss of the Russian research stations affect the biases between several essential ecosystem variables related to Arctic change. And not surprisingly, it makes a significant difference. 

Missing data from most of the boreal forests

Before the war, 21 Russian research stations shared their data with the international consortium INTERACT, which is a scientific collaboration between the eight Arctic countries.

Many of the Russian research stations are situated in boreal forests in Siberia. Areas that differ from Greenland, Svalbard and parts of Northern Canada where most of the other research stations are located.

- Half of the research stations in Russia are in the boreal zone. The boreal forest uptakes a substantial amount of carbon, carbon that is accumulated as biomass and soil organic carbon. Siberia is therefore an important part of the arctic climate system. Leaving most of them out, it further increases our bias, says Dr. Efrén López-Blanco.

His colleague and co-author of the paper agrees.

- This will hamper our ability to adequately describe Arctic change. For example, when excluding Russia from INTERACT, the vast taiga forest in Siberia is left out of the network, says professor Niels Martin Schmidt, Aarhus University.

In order to minimize the bias, López-Blanco suggests that we can improve current research infrastructure, but also identify and establish new research stations in northern Scandinavia and in Canada, for example.

- With the metrics we use in the study we could identify other locations with similar conditions to the ones we are currently missing in Russia. We could find places in Northern Canada or Scandinavia. But it costs a lot of money and is for the funding agencies, policymakers and decision planners to decide, he says. 

- Excluding Russian research stations and all the ground-based knowledge they may provide, represents a shift in baseline conditions that is of the same magnitude as the anticipated climate-induced shifts by the end of the century, he says.

Important in the battle against climate changes

The increasing bias in the data from the Arctic region is not only a problem that concerns that part of the world. It affects our understanding of global climate change, Efrén López-Blanco explains.

- The loss of Russian research stations could adversely affect the capacity to track global ecological responses to climate change including permafrost degradation, vegetation shifts, and carbon emissions.

He fears that the bias may affect the solutions we employ to stop global climate change.

- Our ability to track and detect climate changes has deteriorated because of the war. It’s important that we are aware of that when we try to solve or mitigate the effects of climate change around the world, he says.

The INTERACT research stations are represented on the map by squares, and the red squares indicate the positions of the Russian stations.

CREDIT

INTERACT

The location of the INTERACT North-East Science Station in Russia is characterised by the transition between low-Arctic and boreal ecoregions around the tree line. The potential loss of this, and other stations in Russia, can be detrimental for tracking global implications of shifts in biodiversity, such as shrubification, and its feedback on carbon dynamics.

CREDIT

Max Wilbert

DOI

10.1038/s41558-023-01903-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Computational simulation/modeling

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Towards an increasingly biased view on Arctic change

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

22-Jan-2024

 

What coffee with cream can teach us about quantum physics

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

Add a dash of creamer to your morning coffee, and clouds of white liquid will swirl around your cup. But give it a few seconds, and those swirls will disappear, leaving you with an ordinary mug of brown liquid. 

Something similar happens in quantum computer chips—devices that tap into the strange properties of the universe at its smallest scales—where information can quickly jumble up, limiting the memory capabilities of these tools.

That doesn’t have to be the case, said Rahul Nandkishore, associate professor of physics at the University of Colorado Boulder.

In a new coup for theoretical physics, he and his colleagues have used math to show that scientists could create, essentially, a scenario where the milk and coffee never mix—no matter how hard you stir them. 

The group’s findings may lead to new advances in quantum computer chips, potentially providing engineers with new ways to store information in incredibly tiny objects.

“Think of the initial swirling patterns that appear when you add cream to your morning coffee,” said Nandkishore, senior author of the new study. “Imagine if these patterns continued to swirl and dance no matter how long you watched.”

Researchers still need to run experiments in the lab to make sure that these never-ending swirls really are possible. But the group’s results are a major step forward for physicists seeking to create materials that remain out of balance, or equilibrium, for long periods of time—a pursuit known as “ergodicity breaking.”

The team’s findings appeared this week in the latest issue of “Physical Review Letters.”

Quantum memory

The study, which includes co-authors David Stephen and Oliver Hart, postdoctoal researchers in physics at CU Boulder, hinges on a common problem in quantum computing.

Normal computers run on “bits,” which take the form of zeros or ones. Nandkishore explained that quantum computers, in contrast, employ “qubits,” which can exist as zero, one or, through the strangeness of quantum physics, zero and one at the same time. Engineers have made qubits out of a wide range of things, including individual atoms trapped by lasers or tiny devices called superconductors.

But just like that cup of coffee, qubits can become easily mixed up. If you flip, for example, all of your qubits to one, they’ll eventually flip back and forth until the entire chip becomes a disorganized mess. 

In the new research, Nandkishore and his colleagues may have figured a way around that tendency toward mixing. The group calculated that if scientists arrange qubits into particular patterns, these assemblages will retain their information—even if you disturb them using a magnetic field or a similar disruption. That could, the physicist said, allow engineers to build devices with a kind of quantum memory.

“This could be a way of storing information,” he said. “You would write information into these patterns, and the information couldn’t be degraded.”

Tapping into geometry

In the study, the researchers used mathematical modeling tools to envision an array of hundreds to thousands of qubits arranged in a checkerboard-like pattern. 

The trick, they discovered, was to stuff the qubits into a tight spot. If qubits get close enough together, Nadkishore explained, they can influence the behavior of their neighbors, almost like a crowd of people trying to squeeze themselves into a telephone booth. Some of those people might be standing upright or on their heads, but they can’t flip the other way without pushing on everyone else.

The researchers calculated that if they arranged these patterns in just the right way, those patterns might flow around a quantum computer chip and never degrade—much like those clouds of cream swirling forever in your coffee.

“The wonderful thing about this study is that we discovered that we could understand this fundamental phenomenon through what is almost simple geometry,” Nandkishore said. 

The team’s findings could influence a lot more than just quantum computers.

Nandkishore explained that almost everything in the universe, from cups of coffee to vast oceans, tends to move toward what scientists call “thermal equilibrium.” If you drop an ice cube into your mug, for example, heat from your coffee will melt the ice, eventually forming a liquid with a uniform temperature. 

His new findings, however, join a growing body of research that suggests that some small organizations of matter can resist that equilibrium—seemingly breaking some of the most immutable laws of the universe.

“We’re not going to have to redo our math for ice and water,” Nandkishore said. “The field of mathematics that we call statistical physics is incredibly successful for describing things we encounter in everyday life. But there are settings where maybe it doesn’t apply.”

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JOURNAL

Physical Review Letters

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.040401 

ARTICLE TITLE

Ergodicity Breaking Provably Robust to Arbitrary Perturbations

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

23-Jan-2024

U$A

Study: The more people know about pregnancy, the more likely they are to support access to abortion

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY

A new study on public attitudes toward abortion laws finds that the more people know about pregnancy, the more likely they are to oppose legislation that limits women’s access to abortions – regardless of political ideology. The study also found that laws that limit access to abortion after 12 weeks did not have greater support than laws that limit access to abortion after six weeks.

“There is a tremendous amount of research on public attitudes toward abortion in the United States, but very little of that work has been done since the Dobbs v. Jackson decision in 2022 that overturned Roe v. Wade,” says Steven Greene, co-author of the study and a professor of political science at North Carolina State University. “We wanted to ask questions that directly address the policy issues raised in state legislatures in the wake of Dobbs.

“Will people support a politician who promotes six-week bans? Will people support a politician who promotes 12-week bans? Do people who understand that these weeks are counted starting from a woman’s most recent period view abortion laws differently from people who think that these weeks are counted from when a woman actually got pregnant?”

To explore these issues, the researchers surveyed 1,356 U.S. adults. The demographics of the study participants were broadly representative of the U.S. population. Politically, 43% of study participants were Democrats or leaned Democratic; 38% were Republican or leaned Republican; with the remainder being independent.

“We found that people who had a better understanding of pregnancy were more opposed to legislation restricting access to abortion,” Greene says. “Basically, people who knew what a trimester was and who knew how we count the weeks of a pregnancy – that it’s done dating back to a woman’s last period, rather than to conception – are more likely to oppose laws limiting women’s access to the full range of reproductive health care options.”

The researchers also found that 12-week bans did not garner any more political support from study participants than the six-week bans.

“This suggests that efforts by some politicians to promote 12-week bans as a moderate, or compromise, position are likely not effective,” Greene says.

“One possible take-away here is that efforts to educate the public on basic sex education may be a viable strategy for groups trying to build support for women’s access to abortion.”

A paper on the study, “Public Opinion on Abortion in Post-Roe America,” was presented at the Southern Political Science Association Conference, which was held Jan. 10-13 in New Orleans. The paper was co-authored by Laurel Elder of Hartwick College and by Mary-Kate Lizotte of Augusta University. The researchers will be incorporating this work into a forthcoming book on the politics of abortion after Dobbs.

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METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Public Opinion on Abortion in Post-Roe America

 

Facial recognition app for dogs developed to help in fight against rabies

Peer-Reviewed Publication

WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

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RESEARCHERS USE THE NEW FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY TO DETERMINE THE RABIES VACCINATION OF STATUS OF DOGS DURING A RABIES VACCINATION CLINIC IN RURAL TANZANIA.

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CREDIT: WSU COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE

A new mobile phone-based facial recognition application for dogs has the potential to significantly improve rabies vaccination efforts in endemic areas like Africa and Asia, according to a study on the research published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Led by researchers at Washington State University, a team used the app to test its effectiveness at a rabies vaccination clinic in rural Tanzania where they microchipped, vaccinated and registered dogs. The technology proved remarkably accurate during a subsequent visit to surrounding villages once poor images and improperly recorded information were removed from its database. Using the app, operators identified 76.2% of vaccinated dogs and 98.9% of unvaccinated dogs.

“Because domestic dogs are the main reservoir for human rabies, controlling human rabies globally requires the mass vaccination of dogs,” WSU Associate Professor Felix Lankester, the principal investigator of the study, said. “When carrying out mass vaccination, one of the major problems that we face is trying to identify which dogs have and haven’t been vaccinated. For example, microchips are too expensive to use at the scales needed to eliminate rabies, and collars can be removed by owners. We developed this app to see if facial recognition might work, and it’s showing great promise in helping us to achieve that goal.”

Rabies kills an estimated 60,000 people annually. Nearly all cases occur in Africa and Asia, and more than 99% are the result of dog bites. Systematic and consistent vaccination efforts, like those led by WSU’s Rabies Free Africa program, are effective at controlling the disease, but approximately 40% of dogs in an area must be vaccinated at any one time to achieve herd immunity and prevent sustained virus transmission. This makes the ability to accurately and efficiently identify vaccinated dogs vital for successful rabies elimination programs.

The facial recognition algorithm used within the application, developed in collaboration with PiP My Pet, a company located in Vancouver, Canada, and researchers in WSU’s Paul G. Allen School for Global Health, identifies a dog by examining key components of its face and comparing it to images of the faces of other dogs in its archive of previously stored images. Images with the highest number of similar components are returned as possible matches, and the user must decide if there is a match.

The app depends on image quality and information about each dog, including its age, color and sex, being properly recorded. Before poor quality images and incorrect information were removed from the database, users were only able to match 65% of the vaccinated dogs.

Lankester, who also serves as a director of Rabies Free Africa, said the app’s effectiveness could be improved with better technology – like newer smartphones with high-quality cameras – and additional operator training.

In addition to its potential as a tool in identifying vaccinated dogs, the technology holds promise for use in other species, disease control efforts and research purposes where animals might need to be identified.

Currently, users must be online to operate the facial matching component, however, Lankester said the team is also working to compress the size of the “engine” that drives the app’s matching facility to allow it to be downloaded and used offline, which would reduce the app’s reliance on internet access, which is not always available in more remote areas.

“We’re not quite there yet, but I think with investment, the technology  can get there. I’m excited by its potential,” Lankester said, “but we have to find some funding to invest in pushing it forward. I welcome people to get in touch if they have funding ideas or would like to collaborate on this.”

 

Researchers use the new facial recognition technology to determine the rabies vaccination of status of dogs during a rabies vaccination clinic in rural Tanzania.

CREDIT

WSU College of Veterinary Medicine

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-023-49522-2 

ARTICLE TITLE

Testing novel facial recognition technology to identify dogs during vaccination campaigns

 

AMS Science Preview: The “Black Swan” heatwave; volcanic chillers; tornadogenesis

Early online research from journals of the American Meteorological Society

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY

The American Meteorological Society continuously publishes research on climate, weather, and water in its 12 journals. Many of these articles are available for early online access–they are peer-reviewed, but not yet in their final published form.

Below is a selection of articles published early online recently. To view full article text, members of the media can contact kpflaumer@ametsoc.org for press login credentials.

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Searching for the Most Extreme Temperature Events in Recent History
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Ranking the world’s most extreme recent heat/cold events. The authors developed a novel method to identify and rank abnormally extreme (i.e., locally unusual) heat waves and cold spells. Scanning global data from 2003 to 2022, they found the three most extreme heatwaves occurred in Fujian, Hunan, and Jiangxi, China (2003); Alberta, Canada (2021); and Chongqing and Sichuan, China (2022). The most extreme cold spells occurred in south Québec, Canada (2014); western South Africa (2014); and Nord-du Québec, Canada (2015).

The Pacific Northwest Heat Wave of 25-30 June 2021: Synoptic/Mesoscale Conditions and Climate Perspective
Weather and Forecasting

2021 Pacific Northwest heatwave was a chaotic “Black Swan,” global warming played only a minor role. A heatwave over the Pacific Northwest and southwest Canada on 25-30 June 2021 broke previous temperature records by a large margin and led to hundreds of deaths. While anthropogenic warming may have contributed up to 1°C to this heatwave, it was largely due to other factors including a record-breaking high-pressure ridge in the troposphere over British Columbia. Yearly high temperatures in the region are only increasing at the baseline rate of global warming; such all-time record-breaking temperature events have not become more frequent.

“It appears that the extreme Pacific Northwest heatwave of June 2021 was a Black Swan event … global warming may have made a small contribution, but an extreme heatwave, driven by natural variability, would have occurred in any case.”
—Clifford Mass et al. (paper authors)

A New Pathway for Tornadogenesis Exposed by Numerical Simulations of Supercells in Turbulent Environments
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

Simulations reveal previously unknown path for tornado formation. Computer simulations have been vital to understanding tornadogenesis, but until now, those models have not been sensitive enough, nor the data fine enough, to recreate turbulence at the boundary layer (near Earth's surface) as it interacts with a supercell storm. Simulations have therefore been based on the assumption of non-turbulent flow at this level. A new study using a model that incorporates boundary-layer turbulence has identified streaks of vertical spin that serve as a new way that a tornado-like vortex can form—which, if it translates to real life, could provide a new, alternative explanation for how tornadoes form from supercell storms.

Late-Winter and Springtime Temperature Variations throughout New Jersey in a Warming Climate
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

Shifting spring temperatures could harm New Jersey farmers, ecosystems. Many sites in New Jersey, especially the agriculturally intensive south and coastal plain, have experienced an increase since 1950 in spring daytime temperature variation—specifically the number of times that the temperature warms above 60°F (encouraging plant growth), then plunges below freezing again. At three-quarters of measured sites, spring variation in maximum daily temperature has increased since the 1950s.

Irrigated Agriculture Significantly Modifies Seasonal Boundary Layer Atmosphere and Lower Tropospheric Convective Environment
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

Turning Great Plains grasslands into irrigated agriculture has noticeable effects on weather and climate. Data from the Great Plains Irrigation Experiment (GRAINEX) in Nebraska demonstrate that compared with nearby grassland, large areas of irrigation significantly alter near-surface atmospheric characteristics, including cooling the local air, and create favorable conditions for clouds and convection to develop during the growing season.

Severe Global Cooling after Volcanic Super-eruptions? The Answer Hinges on Unknown Aerosol Size
Journal of Climate

Volcanic super-eruptions may not be global freezers after all. It’s theorized that volcanic super-eruptions could trigger massive global cooling events—the eruption of the volcano Toba 74,000 years ago, for example, purportedly threatened human survival—yet the evidence is sketchy. A new study finds that the particle size of emitted sulfate aerosols plays a key role in how much global cooling (or even global warming) an eruption causes, and that even super-eruptions may be incapable of cooling the globe by more than 1.5°C.

The Circum-global Transport of Massive African Dust and its Impacts on the Regional Circulation in Remote Atmosphere
Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

2020 Saharan dust traveled all around the globe, altered climates far away. This paper demonstrates that a June 2020 North African dust event traveled worldwide and decreased rain over northeastern India and central North America, showing that such events can have a broad impact on the global atmosphere. Attempts to model future climate change should also include the impact of African dust.

The Respective Roles of Ocean Heat Transport and Surface Heat Fluxes in Driving Arctic Ocean Warming and Sea-Ice Decline
Journal of Climate

Influx of warm water will become the biggest driver of Arctic sea ice loss. During the 20th and early 21st centuries, the loss of Arctic Ocean sea ice has been primarily driven by atmospheric heat; however, repeated model simulations suggest that over time, the influx of warm water (especially through the Barents Sea Opening) will play a larger role in warming the Arctic Ocean and melting ice.

Atmospheric Rivers Are Responsible for Cyclicity in Sierra Nevada Precipitation
Journal of Climate

Sierra Nevada precipitation proves unpredictable. An important component of California’s water resources, precipitation in the Sierra Nevada mountains appears to show wet and dry cycles over years and decades. The authors attribute these apparent cycles to variations in the number of “atmospheric river” storms each year. However, they could not find any larger scale ocean-atmosphere patterns that would drive cyclical variation in atmospheric rivers, suggesting that observed cycles may not be useful for predicting future precipitation.

Drivers of Widespread Floods in Indian River Basins
Journal of Hydrometeorology

India’s Narmada and Mahanadi rivers are most prone to widespread flooding. A study of widespread flooding in Indian river basins found that basins in South India/peninsular India tend to be the most vulnerable, especially during the summer monsoon, when India receives 80% of its rainfall. In a given year, the Narmada River basin had a 59% chance of experiencing widespread floods, and the Mahanadi River a 50% chance; both are likely to have uniformly high rainfall and soil moisture during the summer, a key factor that makes flooding more likely.

Why Livelihoods Matter in The Gendering of Household Water Insecurity
Weather, Climate, and Society

Water awareness isn’t just about gender. Research has suggested women are more aware of/vulnerable to household water insecurity, but the divide isn’t so simple for households in rural Burkina Faso. In households focused on farming crops, this study found that women perceive more water insecurity; however, in households focused on livestock husbandry, men (usually responsible for securing water for animals) perceived greater water insecurity.

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You can view all research published in AMS Journals at journals.ametsoc.org.

About the American Meteorological Society

The American Meteorological Society advances the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services for the benefit of society. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of around 12,000 professionals, students, and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes 12 atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic science journals—in print and online; sponsors more than 12 conferences annually; and offers numerous programs and services. Visit us at www.ametsoc.org/.

 

Targeted scientific research projects to demonstrate effectiveness of ‘food is medicine’ in health care

Grant and Award Announcement

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

DALLAS, Jan. 24, 2024 — In an effort to identify effective food is medicine approaches for incorporating healthy food into health care delivery, the American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary organization focused on heart and brain health research, now celebrating 100 years of lifesaving work, today announced grants totaling $7.8 million to 19 research projects nationwide as part of its Health Care by Food™ initiative.

The research projects focus on areas including food resource coaching for patients of a safety-net clinic, delivering food is medicine interventions in underserved communities, the impact of a produce delivery program on patients with heart failure and implementing food prescription programs in older adults. Overall, the projects will examine the efficacy of strategic approaches for providing healthy food as part of patient care to help treat, manage and prevent chronic health conditions in ways that alleviate health inequities.

With anchor support from The Rockefeller Foundation and contributions from inaugural collaborator Kroger, with additional support from Instacart, Kaiser Permanente and Walmart Foundation, the Association’s Health Care by Food™ initiative is engaging in scientific research and public policy advocacy to promote the adoption of interventions that reduce chronic health conditions and curb health care costs. The initiative was first announced at the September 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health by the Association and The Rockefeller Foundation.

“With the involvement of stakeholders across the public health ecosystem, we aim to mobilize $250 million toward building a future in which people and communities nationwide have equitable access to healthy food to treat and prevent chronic health conditions,” said Nancy Brown, chief executive officer of the American Heart Association. “Our coordinated research strategy will identify the most effective ways for food to address diet-related conditions, with the goal of making food is medicine interventions a regular and reimbursable component of health care.”

“When people cannot afford or access nutritious foods, they are at greater risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic diseases that contribute to higher health care costs,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “These research trials are an essential step in our efforts to ensure everyone’s health insurance covers effective food is medicine approaches—and can help them have the opportunity to live healthier, better lives.”

An estimated 90% of the $4.3 trillion annual cost of health care in the United States is spent on medical care for chronic health conditions, many of them diet-related, including cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity. The Health Care by Food™ initiative will address barriers to the widespread adoption of healthy food as a treatment for chronic disease and the health inequities that result.

Food is medicine may be defined as providing healthy food resources to treat, manage and prevent specific chronic conditions in coordination with the health care sector. Common food is medicine programs include medically tailored meals, which are often delivered to patients with diet-related health conditions or among those at high risk; produce prescription programs that integrate healthy food into a patient’s health care plan, enabling patients to better follow their health care team’s dietary advice; and medically tailored groceries, which may include a selection of grocery items prescribed by a registered dietitian or nutritionist for patients with diet-related acute and chronic health conditions who can pick up and prepare food at home.

The initiative’s research roadmap is outlined in the 2023 American Heart Association Presidential Advisory on Food Is Medicine, which calls for addressing gaps in the study of current food is medicine interventions resulting from factors including small sample sizes, non-randomized comparisons and broad differences in data collection and measurement. The advisory writing group was chaired by Kevin Volpp, MD, PhD, the research lead for the Health Care by FoodTM initiative, the Mark V Pauly Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine and the Wharton School and Director of the Penn Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics. The advisory proposes a coordinated research approach to examine the cost effectiveness of nutrition-based interventions in treating and preventing disease.

The research efforts announced today are the first to be funded under the Health Care by Food™ initiative. They are led by experts in the food and nutrition, behavioral science, epidemiology and cardiovascular research fields. The projects focus on rigorous pilot testing of ways to equitably increase enrollment and engagement in food is medicine interventions. The projects will test ways to accomplish significant short-term changes in healthy eating behavior to strengthen the foundation for subsequent studies that will assess longer-term behavior change.

The projects receiving awards were chosen because of the creativity of their ideas and their commitment to rigorous evaluations of food Is medicine interventions for people with, or at elevated risk for, chronic conditions. The projects are intended to ensure food is medicine programs serve populations in need, and to learn from their lived experience in assessing how to increase healthy eating behavior. The ultimate aim is to improve health in cost-effective ways through food is medicine interventions to support coverage of effective programs for the millions of people in America living with or at high risk for chronic health conditions. 

“Research studies increasingly show that healthy food is critical to the effective treatment and prevention of chronic health conditions,” said Victor J. Dzau, M.D., president of the National Academy of Medicine. “This initiative is vital to ensure we discover real-world evidence of the most impactful ways to incorporate healthy food into health care and benefit communities that face the biggest challenges accessing the food they need to get and stay healthy.”

The Association receives funding primarily from individuals; foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers and the Association’s overall financial information are available here.

Additional Resources

• Addendum to Research Awards (PDF)
• American Heart Association Health Care by Food™ initiative website
• American Heart Association Statements and Presidential Advisory: ​
  • American Heart Association Presidential Advisory on Food Is Medicine (Sept. 2023)
  • American Heart Association’s 2024 Impact Goal: Every Person Deserves the Opportunity for a Full, Healthy Life (Nov. 2021)
  • American Heart Association Scientific Statement: Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Heath (Nov. 2021)
• Follow AHA news on X (formerly known as Twitter) @HeartNews

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 MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Off-road autonomy: U-M's Automotive Research Center funded with $100 million through 2028

As automakers explore self-driving cars, the Army-funded center will figure out how to take the tech off-road through computer modeling and simulation

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

 

 

Images  

The U.S. Army has extended its long-running relationship with the University of Michigan's Automotive Research Center, reaching a new five-year, agreement of up to $100 million to boost work on autonomous vehicle technologies.

 

This potentially doubles the federal government's financial investment with ARC since the last agreement, reached in 2019. Following its 1994 launch, the ARC has served as a source of technology and first-in-class modeling and simulation for the Army's fleet of vehicles—the largest such fleet in the world. 

 

"We are driving the development of modern mobility systems with our advanced modeling and simulation methods, such as high-fidelity synthetic environments, virtual vehicle prototypes and virtual reality tools for human-autonomy teaming," said ARC director Bogdan Epureanu, the Roger L. McCarthy Professor of Mechanical Engineering and professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

 

"The cost and time needed to collect data through physical experimentation is prohibitive, and the amount of data needed to enable autonomous operation in off-road, military, emergency or disaster relief scenarios is thousands of times larger than that needed for operation in cities. Cutting-edge modeling and simulation approaches such as the ones developed in the ARC provide a critical solution to this enormous challenge."

 

The 14-member collection of universities and institutes, led by U-M, features a total of 84 faculty members, 34 industry partners and four government agencies. It is an ecosystem of research and innovation devoted to transforming ground system technologies. 

 

"The University of Michigan's Automotive Research Center provides invaluable research and partnership to the U.S. Army that has helped propel the development of next-generation ground vehicle systems and other technologies vital to our men and women in uniform," said U.S. Sen. Gary Peters. "As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I have repeatedly fought to ensure the ARC receives the support and resources it needs to continue this important work, and I welcome this news that it will remain an essential partner to the U.S. Army for years to come."

 

In the earliest years of the ARC's partnership, the bulk of its research focused on energy and powertrain issues. That work led to advances such as accurate modeling of combat personnel and their gear to assist with vehicle design, engine designs and performance simulations, blast modeling and simulation techniques, as well as a better understanding of lithium ion battery performance and design. 

 

Some of the results cross over from military to civilian applications, such as digital engineering for reliability-based optimization of vehicle safety. Ramdo Solutions offers vehicle design tools based on technology developed at ARC.

 

In recent years, ARC's focus has shifted toward autonomous technologies that have become increasingly important to the military and beyond.

 

"The ARC is the Army's Center of Excellence in Modeling and Simulation," said David Gorsich, Army chief scientist for ground vehicles. "The research it conducts is crucial to developing the next generation of digital engineering tools to be used by government and industry.   

 

"Using the latest digital engineering tools allows the Army community to design and develop advanced vehicle systems quickly and efficiently, bringing modern capabilities to our soldiers. These modern ground vehicles are more complex than ever before, requiring modern analysis and design tools. They are fuel-efficient, survivable, reliable, semi-autonomous and software-intensive systems. These characteristics reduce our logistical burden while increasing operational effectiveness."

 

The ARC brings together researchers working in engineering, machine learning, human factors and social behavior. And it fits within U-M's broader mission of exploring the future of mobility—from autonomous and connected vehicle technology to battery research for electric vehicles.

 

Participating institutions include: the University of Iowa; Wayne State University; Clemson University; Oakland University; Virginia Tech; Michigan Technological University; Mississippi State University; the University of Alabama at Birmingham; the University of California, Irvine; George Mason University; Central Michigan University; Michigan State University and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.