FALL BACK TONIGHT

For immediate release: Daylight saving time clock changes have substantial, but short-lived effect on how much sleep we get

University of Bristol

With the clocks going back this weekend, a new study has found that moving the clocks one hour forward in Spring and one hour back in Autumn has a substantial, but short-lived effect on sleep duration.

The University of Bristol-led study, published in the Journal of Sleep Research today [25 October], analysed sleep data from activity monitors worn by 11,800 people over the Spring and Autumn clock changes in 2013-2015. The study is unique in that it analysed objectively-measured sleep in a large number of people in the UK who are signed up to
UK Biobank. 

It is commonly thought that people lose an hour of sleep in Spring (when the clocks go forward an hour) and gain hour of sleep in Autumn (when the clocks go back an hour). Previous research also suggests that people get less sleep for around a week after both clock changes as they find it difficult to adapt to the new time.

Whilst this new study did find that people slept around an hour less on the Sunday of the Spring clock change than the previous and subsequent Sundays, they did not (or could not) take advantage of the full extra hour of sleep in Autumn. In fact, they only slept for just over half an hour more than the surrounding Sundays.

The study also found that the effect on sleep for the rest of the week differed depending on gender. Men tended to sleep more on the weekdays after both clock changes, although this was more pronounced in Spring. However, this pattern of catch-up sleep was not seen for women. They often slept for less on the weekdays after the clock changes than before. This could be because women experience higher levels of insomnia and sleep difficulties, and that these problems are exacerbated by the clock changes.

Although short-lived, the sleep loss seen over the Spring clock change in this study has serious consequences for health, as just one night of sleep loss has been associated with a decline in mental and physical health. Also, research has found that the clock changes themselves are associated with an increase in heart attacks, strokes, road traffic accidents and depression.

Melanie de Lange, a Wellcome -funded epidemiology PhD student in the Bristol Medical School: Population Health Sciences (PHS) and MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, and study author, said: “With a growing number of countries - including the US and those in the EU - moving to end the clock changes, the practise of daylight saving time is the focus of much current debate.

“Our study adds to the growing body of evidence that the shift forward to daylight saving time in Spring is associated with an acute loss of sleep, which has implications for the health of the UK population. It is crucial that any future review of the UK’s daylight saving time policy considers the effects of the clock changes on sleep and health.”

Paper

‘The effects of daylight saving time clock changes on accelerometer-measured sleep duration in the UK Biobank’ by Melanie A de Lange, Rebecca C Richmond, Kate Birnie, Chin Yang Shapland, Kate Tilling & Neil M Davies in Journal of Sleep Research [open access]

Peer reviewed: Yes

Type of evidence: Experimental study

Subject: People

Note to editors:

To interview Melanie de Lange, please contact Joanne Fryer [Mon to Wed], email joanne.fryer@bristol.ac.uk, mobile: +44 (0)7747 768805 or Caroline Clancy-Cottle [Wed to Fri], email caroline.clancy@bristol.ac.uk, mobile: +44 (0)7776 170238 in the  University of Bristol Media and PR Team.

About the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU)
The MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (IEU) at the University of Bristol conducts some of the UK's most advanced population health science research. It uses genetics, population data and experimental interventions to look for the underlying causes of chronic disease. The unit exploits the latest advances in genetic and epigenetic technologies. They develop new analytic methods to improve our understanding of how our family background behaviours and genes interact to influence health outcomes.

About UK Biobank
UK Biobank is a large-scale biomedical database and research resource containing de-identified genetic, lifestyle and health information and biological samples from half a million UK participants. It is the most comprehensive and widely-used dataset of its kind, and is globally accessible to approved researchers who are undertaking health-related research that is in the public interest, whether they are from academic, commercial, government or charitable settings. UK Biobank is helping to advance modern medicine and enable better understanding of the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of a wide range of serious and life-threatening illnesses – including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Over 30,000 researchers from more than 90 countries are registered to use UK Biobank and more than 10,000 peer-reviewed papers have been published as a result. UK Biobank is supported by Wellcome and the Medical Research Council, as well as the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, the UK Government’s National Institute for Health and Care Research and Department of Science, Innovation and Technology, Griffin Catalyst and Schmidt Futures.

Follow UK Biobank: @uk_biobank, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram

About Wellcome  

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, infectious disease and climate and health. 

Issued by the University of Bristol Media and PR Team

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Journal

Journal of Sleep Research

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The effects of daylight saving time clock changes on accelerometer-measured sleep duration in the UK Biobank’

Article Publication Date

25-Oct-2024

HEAR, HEAR

Sleep experts call for UK to abolish twice-yearly clock changes

A team of leading sleep researchers from the British Sleep Society have called for the government to abolish the twice-yearly clock changes in the UK due to the adverse effects on sleep and circadian health.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Northumbria University

A team of leading sleep researchers from the British Sleep Society have called for the government to abolish the twice-yearly clock changes in the UK due to the adverse effects on sleep and circadian health.

After considering the available scientific evidence that circadian and sleep health are positively affected by the availability of natural daylight during the morning and negatively affected by the twice-yearly changes of clock time, especially when the clocks move forward in spring, the British Sleep Society recommends the abolition of the twice-yearly clock changes in the UK.

With sleep being central to health and wellbeing, the Society has issued a statement saying that it “strongly recommends” for Standard Time – also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) – to run throughout the year.

The statement, which is published in the Journal of Sleep Research today (Wednesday 23 October), is co-authored by academics from across the UK, led by Dr Megan Crawford of the University of Strathcylde, Dr Eva Winnebeck of the University of Surrey, and Professor Malcolm von Schantz of Northumbria University.

The Society has published its statement to coincide with the clocks changing to Standard Time this weekend, an arrangement which began in 1972 with the British Summer Time Act.

Evidence reviewed by the Society shows the changes of clock time to Daylight Saving Time (DST) in late March, more widely known as British Summer Time (BST), can interfere negatively with sleep regulation.

Malcolm von Schantz, Professor of Chronobiology at Northumbria University and a member of the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research, said: “There is an ongoing debate in the UK and in other countries about whether twice-yearly changes into and out of Daylight Saving Time should be abolished.

“Standard Time aligns closely with the natural light-dark cycles of the day and night. In calling for Standard Time to run year-long, the Society emphasises that natural daylight in the morning is crucial for maintaining an optimal alignment of our body clocks with day and night, which is essential for optimal sleep and overall health.”

Professor von Schantz added: “Restoring permanent Standard Time would mean our clocks would be closely aligned to solar time, and while it would mean earlier sunsets in the summer, there would be additional benefits to health from improved sleep and circadian alignment due to increased exposure to morning sunlight from autumn to spring.”

Dr Eva Winnebeck, Lecturer in Chronobiology at the University of Surrey, explains: “What we often don’t realise is that Daylight Saving Time changes our schedules, moving them forward by one hour while daylight remains the same. DST forces us all to get up and go to work or school one hour earlier. In seasons with fewer daylight hours such as now in autumn, it means most of us have to get up and commute in the dark.”

Members of the British Sleep Society assessed the unique geographical context and orientation of the UK in their decision making. Noting that almost the entire UK is located to the west of the Prime Meridian which passes through the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, most of the country experiences later sunrises and later sunsets all year round.

The Society also noted that if the UK considers changes to the current time zone arrangements, then the discussion and decision should be taken in partnership with the Republic of Ireland to avoid a time zone border across the island.

“Discussions around abolishing the twice-yearly clock change keep emerging, alarmingly some want to replace it with Daylight Saving Time all year round” says Dr Megan Crawford, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Strathclyde.

“We consider this a misguided idea from a sleep and circadian health perspective. Mornings are the time when our body clocks have the greatest need for light to stay in synch. At our latitudes there is simply no spare daylight to save during the winter months and given the choice between natural light in the morning and natural light in the afternoon, the scientific evidence favours light in the morning.”

She added: “Other sleep societies have argued against this and the return to all year-round Standard Time, but there is currently no published UK perspective. The unique location and orientation of our UK landmass needs to be considered because permanent DST would over-disadvantage people west and north of London.”

The full position statement from the British Sleep Society, titled DST in the UK, is available to view in the Journal of Sleep Research. It is supported by several organizations, including The Irish Sleep Society, British Paediatric Sleep Society, Capella (Sleep Action), The Sleep Charity, and The British Society of Pharmacy Sleep Services.

Experts in the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research study and treat disorders of sleep and wakefulness, examining how biological, psychological, social and environmental circumstances affect sleep, as well as assessing, diagnosing and treating sleep disorders. Many studies are carried out within the Centre’s purpose-built two-bedroom en suite facility which has a fully integrated kitchen and laboratory control room.

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Journal

Journal of Sleep Research

DOI

10.1111/jsr.14352 

Method of Research

News article

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The British Sleep Society position statement on Daylight Saving Time in the UK: DST in the UK

Article Publication Date

23-Oct-2024

 

British Sleep Society advocates for permanent Standard Time in the UK

Wiley

The British Sleep Society has released a position statement in the Journal of Sleep Research advocating for the abolition of the twice-yearly clock changes in the UK and the restoration of permanent Standard Time (Greenwich Mean Time). This recommendation is based on scientific evidence highlighting the adverse effects of the clock change and Daylight Saving Time (DST) on sleep and circadian health.

The British Sleep Society emphasizes that sleep is central to health and well-being and the enforced changes of clock time to DST can interfere negatively with sleep regulation. “What we often don’t realize is that DST changes our schedules, moving them forward by one hour while daylight remains the same. DST forces us all to get up and go to work or school one hour earlier, often in the dark,” said co-author Eva Winnebeck, PhD, of the University of Surrey. The Society stresses that natural daylight in the morning is crucial for maintaining an alignment of our body clocks with day and night, which is essential for optimal sleep and overall health.

"Some people even advocate switching to DST all year around. We think this is misguided, because it would leave us with dark mornings during the winter, and morning light is critically important for keeping our body clocks synchronized,” says coauthor Malcolm von Schantz, PhD, of Northumbria University.

Other sleep societies have also argued against year-round DST and advocate for the return to year-round Standard Time, but this position statement is the first published UK perspective. “The unique location and orientation of our UK landmass needs to be considered because permanent DST would over-disadvantage people west and north of London,” said first author Megan Crawford, PhD, of the University of Strathclyde.

URL upon publication: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jsr.14352

 

Additional Information
NOTE: The information contained in this release is protected by copyright. Please include journal attribution in all coverage. For more information or to obtain a PDF of any study, please contact: Sara Henning-Stout, newsroom@wiley.com.

About the Journal
The Journal of Sleep Research, owned by the European Sleep Research Society, is an international journal dedicated to basic and clinical sleep research, reflecting the progress in this rapidly expanding field, and promoting the exchange of ideas between scientists at a global level.

About Wiley      
Wiley is one of the world’s largest publishers and a trusted leader in research and learning. Our industry-leading content, services, platforms, and knowledge networks are tailored to meet the evolving needs of our customers and partners, including researchers, students, instructors, professionals, institutions, and corporations. We empower knowledge-seekers to transform today’s biggest obstacles into tomorrow’s brightest opportunities. For more than two centuries, Wiley has been delivering on its timeless mission to unlock human potential. Visit us at Wiley.com. Follow us on Facebook, X, LinkedIn and Instagram.

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Journal

Journal of Sleep Research

DOI

10.1111/jsr.14352 

Article Title

The British Sleep Society position statement on Daylight Saving Time in the UK

Article Publication Date

23-Oct-2024

Professional ice hockey: Depressive symptoms and burnout linked to more concussions


25-Oct-2024

Lund University

Elite ice hockey players with a history of concussion report heightened mental health symptoms, according to a new study from Lund University in Sweden. In addition, one in five female hockey players suffered symptoms of burnout, and both sexes reported an alcohol consumption at a risk-level.

The researchers based their study on Sweden’s two highest hockey divisions for men – the SHL and Hockeyallsvenskan, and the women’s top league, SDHL. A total of 648 players, 180 of them women, completed the researchers’ online questionnaire. The focus of the questions was on alcohol consumption, mental health and concussion history.

A lot of research is undertaken in both Europe and the USA into the effects of concussions on mental health and well-being.

“However, we want to investigate more long-term consequences for Swedish top players – six months or more after a concussion. The players’ responses have provided important insights into the links between concussion and mental health effects,” says Mitchell Andersson, doctoral student in psychiatry at Lund University.

He is behind the study, which has now been published in the journal BMC Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, together with Anders Håkansson, consultant physician and professor of addiction medicine at Lund University. When Lund University researchers collated the reported psychiatric symptoms among players, the male players were shown to have significantly fewer symptoms of depression/anxiety and burnout than other men – whether that be elite athletes in other sports or the wider Swedish male workforce. Thirty per cent of male hockey players did, however, report at-risk levels of alcohol consumption – far more than in the comparison groups.

For female hockey players, the picture was slightly different. The prevalence of depression/anxiety symptoms was comparable to that of the average Swedish woman. Burnout, however, was far more common: over 19 per cent of the women reported living with clinical symptoms of burnout – almost double the rate among Swedish women on average. The female hockey players also reported that they drank a lot of alcohol. The percentage of respondents reporting that they reached the level of at-risk consumption was 36.4 per cent – also far above average.

Concerning concussion, both female and male hockey players who reported more concussions were more likely to report elevations in various psychiatric symptoms (e.g., depression and anxiety) . The correlation was clearest in both sexes after three or more concussions: the risk of developing symptoms of depression doubled, and the risk of burnout was three-and-a-half times higher. More than one in four male and almost one in five female players reported having suffered at least three concussions.

“Other studies have shown that women experience more short-term symptoms after a concussion than men, but it was interesting that the link between concussion and heightened prevalence of symptoms of depression, anxiety and burnout was equally strong for both sexes. This might indicate that the long-term neuropsychiatric recovery process is more similar in men and women than the short-term process,” says Mitchell Andersson.

To meet the criteria for burnout, the individual is to have lived under stress for a least six months and to have developed a number of physical and psychiatric symptoms. According to Mitchell Andersson, however, it can sometimes be difficult to see what is what – long-term symptoms after a concussion are often similar to those of burnout, such as cognitive impairment, irritability, difficulty concentrating and sleep problems.

The results of the study suggest several lines to follow up, argues Mitchell Andersson. One is to dig into why alcohol consumption among elite players is so high.

“Hockey players are physically slightly larger, and are perhaps able to drink a little more. Their own view of themselves, and that of others, may be that they are a bit tougher than others. There can be a sense of pride in being part of such a subculture. Romanticising alcohol can be a part of it, for both men and women,” Mitchell Andersson speculates. He himself played hockey at a non-elite level.

This same self-assumed toughness might contribute to male players actually underreporting possible mental health issues. The fact that such a high proportion of women report burnout symptoms even without concussion might point to a recurring pattern within women’s sport at the highest level: Their salaries are lower than the men’s. They are more likely to have to combine hockey with another job or academic studies. Juggling their responsibilities with late night matches, often far from home, can be an impossible equation.

“Swedish hockey players at elite level need to know where and how they can get help. There is help available aimed at this target group. Imagine that you are an elite athlete who trains regularly, eats healthily, earns good money from the sport you love – and yet you are still struggling. Can you imagine how frightening and isolating that must feel? Not having to feel alone in your state of mind is important,” concludes Mitchell Andersson.

 

Report summarizes findings from a decade of unprecedented gambling research

UMass Amherst team details positive and negative social/health and economic impacts of casinos in Massachusetts

University of Massachusetts Amherst

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have released a comprehensive, 194-page report assessing their decade-long examination of the social and economic impacts that followed the introduction of casino gambling in Massachusetts.

UMass Amherst’s SEIGMA (Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts) is believed to be the most comprehensive investigation of casino impacts ever undertaken. The report was presented Thursday to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission during a public meeting. It synthesizes the findings from 55 interim reports and academic publications. 

“We wanted to do a comprehensive look back and try to understand 10 years of impacts that we’ve been monitoring, with an eye to setting the groundwork for looking at sports betting going into the future,” said lead investigator Rachel Volberg, research professor of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

The SEIGMA study was launched in 2013 two years before the first of three casinos – Plainridge Park (2015), MGM Springfield (2018) and Encore Boston Harbor (2019) – opened in the Bay State. 

“The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is committed to funding research that examines the impact of casinos and gambling on Massachusetts and helps guide policy decisions we make in the commonwealth,” said MGC Interim Chair Jordan Maynard. “The research produced by the SEIGMA team is impactful and essential to the comprehensive and growing body of research supported by the MGC.”

The positive impacts Volberg and team identified were primarily economic. “We also identified a number of significant negative impacts,” she said. “And, as we anticipated, these were primarily not monetary.”

Positive direct impacts include employment opportunities and tax and other revenues:

 

• Construction costs for the three casinos totaled $2.8 billion, and more than 8,000 workers were employed full time.
• The casinos employ about 5,000 people and generate about $1.15 billion in annual gross gaming revenue, as well as about $321 million in annual non-gaming revenue. 

• State revenue from gaming taxes has increased from $78 million in budget year 2016 to $330 million in budget year 2023. That revenue supports 12 funds, the largest of which is passed on to Massachusetts’ 351 municipalities.

“Overall, the three casinos have generated a significant amount of economic activity, both during the construction and operational phases of the casinos. Further, the facilities provided resilience during the post-COVID recovery period,” said Mark Melnik, who leads the SEIGMA economic team at the UMass Donahue Institute.

The report notes one positive social and health impact – the new recreational opportunities associated with the casinos. 

The negative impacts cited in the report are both economic and social. On the economic side, approximately 75% of casino employees left other full-time jobs, resulting in a loss of workforce in other sectors. Also, only 39% of casino employees earn a living wage for their county, though this is higher than typical for the accommodations and food services sector.

The report also pointed out that between 46% and 80% of casino patrons reported spending less on other goods and services, particularly in restaurants and bars. “So [casinos] have had a negative impact for other businesses in terms of where leisure dollars are being spent,” Volberg said.

Melnik added, “Businesses in the recreation and leisure sectors of the economy always compete for the disposable income of consumers. While the Massachusetts casinos attract new consumers from outside of the state, it is not surprising to see some level of competition for both labor and customers in this industry sector.” 

Negative social and health impacts include an increase in vehicle traffic volume, accidents and impaired driving near the casinos, as well a small increase in certain crimes at and near the casinos, and a “small but significant” statewide increase in illegal gambling. 

One key finding from the 10 years of research is that the prevalence of problem gambling has shown no significant increase since casinos opened in Massachusetts. However, the report does reveal that the percentage of casino revenues derived from problem and at-risk gamblers rose from 74% in 2013-’14 to 90% in 2021-’22.

“The biggest negative impact from our perspective is that most of the revenues generated by the casinos come from people who are at risk for or experiencing gambling problems,” Volberg said. 

The research team developed recommendations based on the overall findings, including ways to reduce the reliance on 10% of the population (problem gamblers or those at risk) for 90% of the casino revenue. 

Overall casino patronage in Massachusetts appears to be declining, the researchers found, and attitudes toward gambling have grown more negative. The report further suggests that while the legislation allows for an additional casino property to be licensed, Massachusetts may have reached casino saturation. 

“A much larger proportion of Massachusetts residents in more recent years believe that gambling is too widely available,” Volberg said. “So the message to the Legislature would be to slow their roll on legalizing any other type of gambling.”

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Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

2024 Social and Economic Impacts of Casino Introduction to Massachusetts

Article Publication Date

24-Oct-2024

 

Alliance Bioversity-CIAT inaugurates the most advanced respirometry chambers in Latin America to measure methane emissions from livestock

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture

 

image: 

Livestock in Cali, Colombia.

view more 

Credit: Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT / Isabela Rivas

• 
  
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• The most advanced respirometry chambers in Latin America were inaugurated at the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT campus in Colombia. These are hermetically sealed spaces designed to precisely measure and analyze the concentrations of gases, such as methane and carbon dioxide, produced by animals.

• This advance is part of the Low-Methane Forages, project led by the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT in collaboration with the CGIAR research centers ILRI and ICARDA and their Germplasm Banks.

• The project is evaluating thousands of forage accessions to identify natural plant compounds with anti-methanogenic properties, meaning compounds capable of reducing methane production in the animals that consume them, thereby promoting a more sustainable approach to livestock farming.

Palmira, Valle del Cauca, October 25, 2024. The livestock sector in regions like Latin America and Africa plays a crucial role in the economy and food security. However, it also faces the challenge of adapting to climate change and mitigating its impact. One of the nature-based solutions lies in forages, which, in addition to being the primary source of livestock feed, when well-managed, have the potential to generate environmental and socio-economic benefits, such as soil carbon accumulation, biodiversity conservation, efficient water use, and increased income for small-scale producers.

Forage biodiversity includes a wide variety of plants for animal feed (grasses, shrubs, and legumes) that have been the subject of research to improve their adaptability to abiotic stress factors (drought, flooding, acidic soil), and resistance to pests and diseases, while maintaining high nutritional value for livestock. However, a new possibility has emerged: the composition (naturally occurring compounds) of certain forages can significantly reduce methane emissions from livestock.

With this approach, an innovative research project for development of Low-Methane Forages has been launched, supported by the Bezos Earth Fund and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in coordination with the Global Methane Hub. This project aims to contribute to a 1.5% reduction in global enteric methane emissions by 2030.

The project is currently in its first phase of “Discovery,” which seeks to identify the anti- methanogenic compounds (AMC) of forage diversity accessions from the CGIAR Research Centers' germplasm banks, evaluating approximately 6,000 of the 71,000 forage accessions available. The process involves both in vitro (in the laboratory) and in vivo (using live animals) trials, the latter being a key methodology, as it allows for the integration of the animal component in the early stages of research, which is critical for making informed decisions in the scaling phase.

"Biodiversity has often been the key to overcoming the challenges humanity has faced throughout the agricultural era. With this project, we aim to tap into the rich diversity of forages stored in CGIAR’s genebanks for their potential to reduce enteric methane emissions". Jacobo Arango, Senior Scientist of the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT and Principal Investigator of the Low-Methane Forages Project.

As part of the “Discovery” phase, the most advanced respirometric facility in Latin America has been inaugurated at the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT campus. These chambers will be essential for in vivo validation of the forage accessions with the greatest capacity to reduce methane emissions. Comprising 16 chambers, 8 for sheep and 8 for cattle, this research facility is one of the most advanced in the region for accurately measuring methane and carbon dioxide emissions from livestock in real-time. Its state-of-the-art technology allows for precise monitoring of gas concentrations derived from different dietary options, while its airtight and controlled environment maintains constant temperature, humidity, and airflow, simulating real conditions for future scaling studies in the livestock sector.

“You know the saying 'you can’t manage what you can’t measure' and that really applies with livestock. It’s tough to get a clear picture of how much emissions come from a single animal. That’s why this new infrastructure is so important and opens so many doors for us to understand emissions better and figure out how to reduce them”. Andy Jarvis, Director of Future of Food, Bezos Earth Fund

This infrastructure strengthens the leadership of the Alliance Bioversity-CIAT in methane mitigation research and environmental sustainability in Latin America, reinforcing its commitment to innovation in sustainable livestock solutions. Furthermore, it reflects the organization's dedication to bringing the science developed at the research center to producers in the field, expanding the impact of these solutions in the livestock sector.

 

Ripples of colonialism: Decarbonization strategies perpetuate inequalities in human rights

University of Michigan

Photos

A University of Michigan study of a city in the Democratic Republic of Congo finds that the necessary process of decarbonization is repeating and recreating colonial inequalities.

 

The researchers argue that human rights abuses associated with contemporary cobalt mining, such as child labor, social displacement and structural marginalization, are new forms of old colonial practices. Their study is published in the journal Cities.

 

"We show how those colonial practices emerged through the creation of mining companies and through the establishment of the city of Lubumbashi. We also show that the mining boom for copper and cobalt is a new form of these old practices," said lead author Brandon Marc Finn, an assistant research scientist at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. 

 

"We need these minerals for decarbonization, but I also think it's important for us to understand and confront that in pursuing these materials, there are models of neocolonialism that play out on the ground."

 

Lubumbashi is the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo's southernmost province, Haut-Katanga. Originally named Elisabethville, Lubumbashi was founded in 1910 by Belgian colonialists. The city was established because of its proximity to natural resources, especially copper. 

 

Finn and co-author Patrick Cobinnah of the University of Melbourne wanted to trace the roots of colonialism in Lubumbashi to tie them to contemporary practices. In poring through historical documents, the researchers found that just as in the city's inception, mining today relies on the use of child labor—workers who mine by hand in dangerous conditions—and that wealth derived from the mining industry flows to political elites and foreign mining companies.

 

The use of child labor for mining is older than the city itself, the study found. Finn cites a decree from 1890, signed by Belgian King Leopold II, which gave the Belgian government officials guardianship over orphaned or allegedly abandoned children. In exchange for "maintenance, food, lodging and free medical attention," these children were conscripted into work at the discretion of the Belgian state until they were 25 years old.

 

Much of this work was likely in pursuit of commodities such as mining copper from the region or extracting rubber elsewhere in the country. Belgian colonial control of the city also laid the foundation for who owned the land—in this case, a Belgian mining company that snapped up vast swaths of land. Within the city's 20 years, the region became the fifth-largest exporter of copper in the world, helping to electrify the world.

 

Later in the 20th century, Lubumbashi played an important role in uranium mining, Finn says. Building on the book "Spies in the Congo" by Susan Williams, Finn links the same mining company (UMHK) that owned the copper concessions to the uranium deposits used in the Manhattan Project. This program used Congolese uranium to produce the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. Some of this uranium was dug by hand—just as many small-scale miners today dig minerals from the earth by hand or go through mining waste piles in the DRC.

 

Today, the city is near another material critical to global decarbonization: cobalt. Cobalt is necessary for many lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and renewable energy systems. In 2020, the southern DRC produced more than 69% of the world's total mined cobalt. In the same year, approximately 2% of the DRC’s cobalt-mined output came from child labor.

 

Artisanal and small-scale miners in the Congo still sort and extract minerals by hand, Finn says. Most of the cobalt mining workforce in the DRC—estimates suggest as much as 98%—stems from labor intensive "artisanal" mining, which produces 9%-20% of the national cobalt production. Finn cites research that finds that contemporary miners and mining communities in Katanga have lower life expectancies and increased infant mortality, and higher rates of HIV, tuberculosis and respiratory disorders.

 

"It's important to trace the lineage of those mining practices and socioeconomic inequalities back to the early colonial era. We need these minerals for decarbonization, but we need to fight against neocolonial arrangements that exist on the ground," he said. "If decarbonization is to be equitable, we must contend with justice across space and time. This region has had an outsized influence on global geopolitical events."

 

Finn argues that as the world considers decarbonization, we must also be concerned with the people and places that have historically been involved in the extraction of minerals for global consumption. "We can be pro-decarbonization while still urgently bringing attention to neocolonial modes of extraction and exploitation."

 

"I think we need to address these kinds of bigger structural problems. It's important to hold Congolese political elites to account," he said. "And Swiss, South African, and Chinese mining companies that are often backed by the Chinese state are extracting at an increased pace without distributing enough wealth or skills back to local people, and I think they deserve strong critique. We should embrace decarbonization, but make sure it does not occur through neocolonialism." 

 

Study: Lubumbashi and cobalt: African city at the crossroads of global decarbonization and neocolonialism

 

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Journal

Cities

 

SFSU psychologists develop tool to assess narcissism in job candidates

Using this tool, organizations can prioritize finding the right candidates to maintain healthy work culture

San Francisco State University

It feels like narcissism is everywhere these days: politics, movies and TV, sports, social media. You might even see signs of it at work, where it can be particularly detrimental. Is it possible to keep a workplace free of destructive, manipulative egotists? 

More and more organizations have come to San Francisco State University’s experts in organizational psychology asking for help doing just that. In response, University researchers developed a tool for job interviews to assess narcissistic grandiosity among potential job candidates. San Francisco State Psychology Professors Kevin Eschleman and Chris Wright and four student researchers led the project, published in the Journal of Personality Assessment.

“We focused on narcissism because it’s one of the most commonly talked about characteristics of people. Really, it represents a lot of things that can go bad in terms of a team,” Eschleman said. “But it’s a characteristic that is very attractive in the short-term. [Narcissists] often have tendencies to be very goal-oriented and are often very successful. There’s a lure to somebody who is high in narcissism.” 

The tool developed by the SF State researchers — the Narcissism Interview Scale for Employment (NISE) — is a set of behavioral and situational questions that can be incorporated into a job interview. One question asks respondents to describe their approach to leading a team. Another asks how candidates would procced if they disagree with a plan that the rest of their team likes — and the project requires unanimous consent to move forward. Interviewers are trained to rate candidate responses, providing a more scientific and consistent way to evaluate a candidate’s propensity for narcissistic grandiosity. 

The project started four years ago when Eschleman noticed an uptick in organizations asking about effective teams, candidate selection and how to avoid “bad apples.” It’s easy for organizations to be enticed by how a candidate’s skills appear on paper, but failing to properly consider personality might derail team-oriented environments, Eschleman notes. Employees with narcissistic grandiosity tend to have inflated views of self and make self-focused and short term-focused decisions instead of considering long-term organizational needs. They may also abuse and try to protect their sense of power and control, he adds.

“This isn’t a categorical diagnosis,” Eschleman clarified, noting that everyone probably falls somewhere on the continuum of narcissism. “What we’re looking at are people’s consistencies over time. It’s how they view themselves or how others view them consistently over time. Do they engage in these actions consistently?”

The authors acknowledge that this assessment is not a perfect science. There are many other factors in building a successful team and healthy work environment. But they hope their tool will increase the odds for success.

While the researchers have been studying these topics for years, they wanted to make sure their tool was easy to use and could be adapted by different work environments. It is why they focused on job interviews, something accepted and considered appropriate by both organizations and applicants in the hiring process.

Sharon Pidakala (M.S., ’22), one of the study authors, is now a People & Development Manager at Lawyers On Demand in Singapore. Her work involves talent acquisition, culture, development, organizational policies and employee engagement. 

“I’ve been grateful to put my research into daily use. It’s really important to make sure that these questions are not outrightly direct because you don’t want it to look like you’re asking someone, ‘Are you a narcissist?’” explained Pidakala, whose SFSU thesis focused on developing the NISE tool. “These questions are raised in a way to make it look favorable for the candidate.”

Pidakala came to SF State specifically to get this type of training. With an undergraduate background in psychology, she sought specialized training in organizational psychology to further refine and expand her expertise in the field.

"Attending SF State and studying organizational psychology has been incredibly valuable, equipping me with versatile skills that can be applied globally," she said. 

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Journal

Journal of Personality Assessment

DOI

10.1080/00223891.2024.2409163 

Article Title

Detecting Narcissistic Grandiosity in a Job Interview: The Validation of the Narcissism Interview Scale for Employment

 

Bird study finds sons help their parents less than daughters because they’re scouting future prospects

University of Exeter

 

image: 

Sparrow-weaver pair

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Credit: Andy Young

Male birds help their parents less than females because they’re too busy scouting for new places to live and breed, a remarkable new study shows.

The study, led by researchers at the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter, examined the cooperative behaviour and movement patterns of social birds called white-browed sparrow weavers, which live in the Kalahari desert.

These birds live in family groups in which only a dominant pair breeds – and their grown-up offspring, particularly females, help to feed nestlings.

The new study aimed to understand why in many animal societies one sex tends to invest more in helping within the family than the other.

“Female sparrow-weaver helpers contribute more to cooperative nestling care than males and also stay for longer in their family groups than males,” said Dr Pablo Capilla-Lasheras, who led the study during his PhD at Exeter and now works at the Swiss Ornithological Institute.

“We wanted to understand why such sex differences in cooperation arise across the animal kingdom.

“The leading hypothesis is that the sex that lives for longer in its family group cooperates more because it stands to gain the downstream benefits of cooperation for longer.

“For example, the sex that stays in their family group for longer could receive more help in return from those family members they’ve helped in the past than the sex that leaves earlier.”

Through over a decade of field research monitoring the cooperative behaviour of these birds and a ground-breaking tracking study of their movements, the team’s work suggests that this is not the case after all.

“Our findings point instead to an alternative explanation that has attracted much less attention,” said Dr Andrew Young, who leads the Kalahari sparrow-weaver project.

“Instead, males appear to help less because they spend more time prospecting for opportunities to live and breed elsewhere, and these efforts trade-off against their investments in cooperation at home.”

Based on their findings, the team suggest that this ‘dispersal trade-off hypothesis’ may provide a more general explanation for the evolution of sex differences in cooperation across animal societies than the more widely held view that “the longer you stay, the more you’ll benefit from having helped out”.

This trade-off is an example of a universal challenge that all organisms face, including ourselves; there is never enough time or energy available to do everything well at once.

The study was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.

The paper, published in the journal PLOS Biology, is entitled: “Evolution of sex differences in cooperation can be explained by trade-offs with dispersal.”

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Journal

PLoS Biology

DOI

10.1371/journal.pbio.3002859 

Article Title

Evolution of sex differences in cooperation can be explained by trade-offs with dispersal.

Article Publication Date

24-Oct-2024

 

Human actions cause insect color change

University of Otago

New Zealand’s native stoneflies have changed colour in response to human-driven environmental changes, new research shows.

Just published in the journal Science, the University of Otago study provides arguably the world’s most clear-cut case of animal evolution in response to change made by humans.

Co-author Professor Jon Waters, of the Department of Zoology, says the stonefly has become a different colour due to recent deforestation.

“In natural forested regions, a native species has evolved ‘warning’ colours that mimic those of a poisonous forest species, to trick predators into thinking they are poisonous too.

“But the removal of forests since humans arrived has removed the poisonous species. As a result, in deforested regions the mimicking species has abandoned this strategy – as there is nothing to mimic – instead evolving into a different colour.”

Scientists have long wondered whether humans are causing evolutionary changes in natural populations.

The most well-known example of evolution caused by humans was the peppered moth population in the United Kingdom, which changed colour in response to industrial pollution in the 1800s.

But Professor Waters says even that case has been considered controversial.

This new study shows how humans have changed the way native species interact.

Co-author Dr Graham McCulloch says humans have disrupted ecological interactions between species that evolved over millions of years, but some of our native species are resilient enough to overcome this.

“This study is important because it shows that, at least for some of our native species, there is the possibility of adapting to the environmental changes caused by humans, even when the change is rapid,” Dr McCulloch says.

“It also shows that independent populations have undergone similar changes in response to deforestation – there have been similar shifts independently in different parts of the species’ range – showing that evolution can be a predictable process.”

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.ado5331 

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Human-driven evolution of color in a stonefly mimic

Article Publication Date

24-Oct-2024

“Well-man” thrown from castle identified from 800-year-old Norse saga

Cell Press

 

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Well-man skeleton

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Credit: Åge Hojem NTNU Vitenskapsmuseet

A passage in the Norse Sverris Saga, the 800-year-old story of King Sverre Sigurdsson, describes a military raid that occurred in AD 1197, during which a body was thrown into a well at Sverresborg Castle, outside Trondheim in central Norway, likely as an attempt to poison the main water source for the local inhabitants. A new study published in the Cell Press journal iScience on October 25 describes how researchers used ancient DNA to corroborate the events of the saga and discover details about the “Well-man,” blending history and archaeology with science and setting a precedent for future research on historical figures.

“This is the first time that a person described in these historical texts has actually been found,” says Professor Michael D. Martin of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s University Museum in Trondheim, Norway. “There are a lot of these medieval and ancient remains all around Europe, and they’re increasingly being studied using genomic methods.”

In 1938, bones were found in the well at Sverresborg Castle, but researchers at the time lacked the tools to do much aside from visual analysis. Now, radiocarbon dating and advanced gene-sequencing technology have allowed researchers to craft a more intricate picture of who the Well-man was. Radiocarbon dating confirmed that the body is approximately 900 years old, and studies conducted in 2014 and 2016 confirmed that the body belonged to a male who was between 30 and 40 years old at the time of death.

“The text is not absolutely correct—what we have seen is that the reality is much more complex than the text,” says archaeologist Anna Petersén of the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Heritage Research in Oslo, Norway.

“We can corroborate what actually happened in a more neutral way,” says Dr. Martin Rene Ellegaard of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. As part of his work toward a doctoral degree, Ellegaard used samples of a tooth obtained from the Well-man’s skeleton to sequence his genome. Using this information, the team was able to ascertain that he most likely had blue eyes and blond or light-brown hair, and his ancestors likely hailed from the southernmost Norwegian county of present-day Vest-Agder.

The researchers were able to draw conclusions about the Well-man’s ancestry thanks to a large amount of reference data from the genomes of modern-day Norwegians made available through a collaboration with Professor Agnar Helgason at deCODE Genetics in Iceland. “Most of the work that we do is reliant on having reference data,” says Ellegaard. “So the more ancient genomes that we sequence and the more modern individuals that we sequence, the better the analysis will be in the future.”

“Those reference data are literally thousands of genomes of modern Norwegians and many thousands of other European genomes,” says Martin.

However, this technology has its limitations, as sampling the Well-man’s genome required removing the outer surface from his tooth—to avoid contamination from those who had handled it in non-sterile environments, such as during excavation—and grinding the tooth into a powder. This means that the sample can no longer be used for further tests, and researchers were not able to get data on any pathogens the Well-man may have been carrying at his time of death.

 “It was a compromise between removing surface contamination of the people who have touched the tooth and then removing some of the possible pathogens … there are lots of ethical considerations,” says Ellegaard. “We need to consider what kind of tests we’re doing now because it will limit what we can do in the future.”

The researchers say that they would like to test samples from other historical figures. “The important Norwegian Saint Olaf is thought to be buried somewhere in Trondheim Cathedral,” says Martin, “so I think that if eventually his remains are uncovered, there could be some effort to describe him physically and trace his ancestry using genetic sequencing.”

Speaking to this new technique of blending of history and science, Petersén concludes, “It’s a fantastic result on what Ellegaard and Martin’s method can bring to archaeology in such a strange or rare context like this is.”

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This work was supported by the NTNU Onsager Fellowship, the Norwegian Research Council, the Carlsbergfondet Semper Ardens grant, and the Norwegian Institute of Cultural Research.

 iScience, Ellegaard et al.: “Corroborating written history with ancient DNA: the case of the Well-man described in an Old Norse saga” https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(24)02301-0

iScience (@iScience_CP) is an open access journal from Cell Press that provides a platform for original research and interdisciplinary thinking in the life, physical, and earth sciences. The primary criterion for publication in iScience is a significant contribution to a relevant field combined with robust results and underlying methodology. Visit https://www.cell.com/iscience. To receive Cell Press media alerts, contact press@cell.com. 

Excavation

Credit

Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research

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Journal

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2024.111076 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Corroborating written history with ancient DNA: the case of the Well-man described in an Old Norse saga

Article Publication Date

25-Oct-2024