New study shows how social bonds help tool-using monkeys learn new skills

Durham University

 

image: 

A juvenile bearded capuchin observing a female processing a food item in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park. Credit: Camila Galheigo Coelho 

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Credit: Credit: Camila Galheigo Coelho

The research team, led by Durham University’s Department of Anthropology, studied two groups of wild bearded capuchin monkeys in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park. 

The researchers installed a large box in the park which contained food that the monkeys could access by either lifting a door or pulling a knob. 

The team observed which monkeys learned how to access the food, and how that information then spread to the rest of their group. 

The researchers specifically focused on the role played by social tolerance in the learning of the problem-solving behaviour. 

Social tolerance determines who is allowed in proximity to whom and granted access to resources such as food or social information. 

The study indicates that the monkeys mainly learned from others via direct observation and strong social tolerance (e.g. amongst grooming partners) was found to be a good predictor of which monkeys would learn from each other. 

Beyond the influence of social tolerance, naïve monkeys were more likely to observe, and potentially learn from, successful males in the group. 

The findings have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 

Professor Rachel Kendal of Durham University’s Department of Anthropology co-supervised the study. 

She said: “Bearded capuchins possess the largest ‘toolkit’ among monkeys, and this is likely due to social learning, enabling skills to be passed down the generations.  

“Once we’d established that social learning was happening, we wanted to study what influenced the pattern of who was learning from whom. 

“We looked at social tolerance and found that the individuals who displayed strong indicators of social tolerance in their everyday lives, such as grooming or eating close together, were more likely to observe each other when interacting with the puzzle-box. 

“We also found that social tolerance influenced how information about solving the puzzle-box spread among the groups. 

“For example, a skill may not be learnt by others if the individual possessing the skill is not of a sufficient status to be observed or, conversely, is intolerant to the proximity of others and so doesn’t allow themselves to be observed. 

“So, our findings indicate that social tolerance enables social learning, which may be biased towards successful individuals, and this may shed light on the evolutionary forces involved in primate, including human, cultural abilities.” 

The study was co-supervised by Eduardo B. Ottoni of the Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, Brazil. 

The lead authors are Camila Galheigo Coelho and Ivan Garcia-Nisa, both former PhD researchers in the Anthropology Department at Durham University. 

ENDS 

MEDIA INFORMATION 

Interviews 

Professor Rachel Kendal in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University is available to answer media questions via email only. She can be contacted at rachel.kendal@durham.ac.uk 

Alternatively please contact Durham University Marketing and Communications Office on +44 (0)191 334 6075; communications.team@durham.ac.uk 

Images & Captions 

Photographs and videos of the bearded capuchins observed in the study can be accessed via the following link: https://bit.ly/3Z1FHH5 

Bearded capuchin 1:  A juvenile bearded capuchin observing a female processing a food item in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park. Credit: Camila Galheigo Coelho 

Bearded capuchin 2:  A female bearded capuchin, carrying a potentially observing infant, using a tool to crack a pitomba seed in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park. Credit: Camila Galheigo Coelho 

Videos show the capuchins solving the food box task Credit: Camila Galheigo Coelho 

Source information  

The full paper ‘Social tolerance and success-biased social learning underlies the cultural transmission of an induced extractive foraging tradition in a wild tool-using primate’, Galheigo Coelho C. et al, is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).  

The full paper will be available after the embargo lifts via the following DOI link: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2322888121 

An embargoed copy of the paper is only available to journalists via EurekAlert. Journalists can register at http://www.eurekalert.org/register and select Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from the list of embargoed news portals. 

About Durham University  
 
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We are a collegiate university committed to inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham and in the world.  
 
We conduct research that improves lives globally and we are ranked as a world top 100 university with an international reputation in research and education (QS World University Rankings 2025).  
 
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For more information about Durham University visit: www.durham.ac.uk/about/  
 
END OF MEDIA RELEASE – issued by Durham University Communications Office.  

A female bearded capuchin, carrying a potentially observing infant, using a tool to crack a pitomba seed in Brazil’s Serra da Capivara National Park. Credit: Camila Galheigo Coelho 

Credit

Camila Galheigo Coelho

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2322888121 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

‘Social tolerance and success-biased social learning underlies the cultural transmission of an induced extractive foraging tradition in a wild tool-using primate’

Article Publication Date

18-Nov-2024

Summary. Engels begins by stating that labour is not only the fundamental source of wealth and value, but that it represents the “basic condition for all human existence,” in the sense that the human mind and body have been produced by the historical process of labour.

The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man

Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › The_Part_Played_by_...

The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man

Marxists Internet Archive

https://www.marxists.org › archive › marx › works › par...

In short, the animal merely uses its environment, and brings about changes in it simply by its presence; man by his changes makes it serve his ends, masters it.

 

New study: Short-lived soda tax reinforces alternative presumptions on tax impacts on consumer behaviors

Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences

Key Takeaway:

• When policymakers enact consumption taxes to raise revenue for the government, consumers who oppose the tax may decrease their consumption more, leading to a reduction in tax revenue.

 

BALTIMORE, MD, November 18, 2024 – One of the most common assumptions tax policymakers make is that by raising taxes, they will raise revenue for the government. However, a new study that centers on a soda tax in Washington state has reinforced alternative presumptions about tax impacts on consumer behaviors.

Researchers found that when Washington state enacted a tax on soda, it not only generated backlash in the consumer marketplace and political arena, but the related movement to repeal the tax also led to a significant decrease in soda consumption. In effect, Washington realized less tax revenue than it anticipated after instituting the tax.

The peer-reviewed research study published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science is called “Consumption Responses to an Unpopular Policy: Evidence from a Short-Lived Soda Tax,” authored by Andrew Ching of Johns Hopkins University and Daniel Goetz of the University of Toronto Mississauga.

“We decided to investigate whether consumers’ level of agreement with a policy affects how they respond to that policy in the marketplace,” says Goetz. “So, when Washington state enacted a consumption tax on soda, that provided a natural experiment to see whether consumers who disagreed with the tax reduced their consumption, and if that had any implications for tax revenues.”

In 2010, Washington state enacted a soda tax that was primarily publicized as a means to raise tax revenue. Meaning, it was not billed as a means to change unhealthy consumer choices. As a result of the tax, a grassroots movement formed to place the soda tax on the ballot for a voter referendum, in which, ultimately, the voters voted to repeal the tax.

“We were able to use voter data along with data that measured monthly demand for soda while the tax was in place. We merged the highly localized precinct-level data for voting with consumer shopping patterns and shoppers’ home locations to create a novel measure of grocery store-level tax opposition. We then combined this with price and quantity data from grocery stores statewide,” says Goetz.

The study authors found that those stores frequented by opponents of the tax saw a 53% greater reduction in sales of the affected beverage brands. This reduction in sales compares to the consumption trends for stores frequented by those who actually supported the soda tax.

“At the end of the day, the takeaway is that the effectiveness of consumption taxes in raising revenue for the government really depends on how much support there is for that tax. When opposition is strong, you may very well find that a consumption tax will raise much less tax than what you expected,” says Ching.

 

Link to Study

 

About INFORMS and Marketing Science

Marketing Science is a premier peer-reviewed scholarly marketing journal focused on research using quantitative approaches to study all aspects of the interface between consumers and firms. It is published by INFORMS, the leading international association for the data and decision sciences. More information is available at www.informs.org or @informs.

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Journal

Marketing Science

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Consumption Responses to an Unpopular Policy: Evidence from a Short-Lived Soda Tax

 

‘Map of Life’ team wins $2 million prize for innovative rainforest tracking

Yale University

Traditionally, taking inventory of the species in a rainforest requires sending in a team of experts with field guides and binoculars for a multi-day expedition. But the devastating pace of the destruction of the world’s rainforests and increasing urgency to better monitor and protect what remains demand faster, easier, and more efficient approaches.

Several years ago, a Yale-based team devised an alternate approach: they use lightweight, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to collect this critical biodiversity data in remote areas.

Now they’ve collected something else: a coveted international honor.

XPRIZE Rainforest, a $10 million global competition to find the most innovative technology for exploring Earth’s biodiversity, has awarded one of its top prizes to Map of Life Rapid Assessments (MOLRA), an international research group led by Walter Jetz, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences and director of the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change.

The MOLRA team placed second in the five-year competition, earning a $2 million. XPRIZE Rainforest officials made the announcement Nov. 15 at a ceremony associated with the G20 Social Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

“We are immensely excited about this recognition,” said Jetz, who led in the creation of the groundbreaking Map of Life platform more than a decade ago. “In the face of rapid biodiversity loss, more accessible and effective tools to measure and plan for biodiversity are urgently needed. We are beyond grateful as the award will allow us to grow our solution that can quickly and cost-effectively deliver actionable biodiversity insights for locations anywhere.”

Map of Life is a global database that tracks the distribution of known species. It is now used by world leaders to monitor, research, and create policies that protect species worldwide.

MOLRA uses the Map of Life database as an engine to combine biodiversity research, innovative survey technologies, and cutting-edge informatics tools to deliver comprehensive local biodiversity information and support conservation action. The company’s fleet of semi-autonomous UAVs collect audio, visual, and environmental DNA samples with minimal human intervention.

The MOLRA XPRIZE team included members from the Yale Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Rutgers Environmental DNA Lab, the Federal University of Amazonas, Trinity University, the University of East Anglia, and Sony Group Corporation.

The five-year XPRIZE Rainforest competition — which seeks to enhance mankind’s knowledge of the rainforest ecosystem by highlighting innovative technology that expedites the monitoring of tropical biodiversity — began in 2019 with 300 teams from around the world.

In July, the competition’s six finalist teams were asked to survey 100 hectares of tropical rainforest near Manaus, Brazil, in 24 hours. Their task was to produce meaningful, real-time insights from their data within 48 hours. In addition, each team had to demonstrate the scalability of their technology.

The MOLRA team recorded 225 species from 5,500 individual, geolocated identifications, from anteaters to palm trees to frogs — thanks to a fleet of drones that were mostly pre-programmed to fly missions through the canopy. They collected more than 4,000 photos, 26 hours of audio recordings, and 24 eDNA samples (traces of DNA left by organisms in soil, water, and in the air).

The team was able to identify species from raw samples because of its advanced new modeling technology, state-of-the-art artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, innovative eDNA processing techniques, and collaboration with biodiversity experts in Brazil and all over the world. Four of the recorded species are globally threatened with extinction, including the giant anteater, the yellow-footed tortoise, the ringed woodpecker, and the white-crested guan.

In the semifinal round, in 2023, MOL Rapid Assessments identified more than 150 species in the central rainforest of Singapore. This came after accumulating 2,199 visual samples, 292 acoustic samples, and 1,419 species identifications of plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects.

Several factors contributed to the MOLRA team’s success in the XPRIZE Rainforest competition, Jetz said. First, it leveraged the Map of Life to predict what species might be found at any site around the world — helping to guide sampling design and the use of AI. Second, no specialists were needed to operate the system on the ground thanks to MOLRA’s largely autonomous nature. Finally, MOLRA’s combination of AI and human biodiversity experts optimizes the breadth and accuracy of species identifications. 

MOLRA will use the prize money to hire staff and expand its work around the world, Jetz said. With support from Yale Ventures (a university initiative that supports innovation and entrepreneurship campuswide), the team is working with partners across domains and sectors to deliver effective and accessible biodiversity measurement solutions.

“Our goal is to deliver a scalable, easy to use, and low-cost biodiversity assessment solution that empowers local stakeholders to protect the natural places they depend on — at the speed we need to meet the world’s ambitious biodiversity goals,” said Nigel Pitman, a botanist at the Field Museum in Chicago who coordinated the MOLRA plant inventory. 

“The technological advances and automation of biodiversity surveys is a major step towards being able to catalog the distribution of the Earth’s biodiversity efficiently and effectively,” said Izeni Farias, a member of the MOLRA team from the Federal University of Amazonas in Brazil. “The MOLRA tools are accessible and simple to use and can be used to deliver immediate conservation insights to local communities and strategic partners, resulting in meaningful conservation actions.”

The MOLRA team drew on the expertise of more than a dozen taxonomic experts from around the world and received crucial support from Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute), Sony, Google, and the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. 

 

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MSU researchers find trees acclimate to changing temperatures

Michigan State University

Images 

Climate change is a persistent and growing challenge to plant life on our planet. Changes to the environment that plants are unaccustomed to affect how they grow, putting much at risk. Increasingly, plant scientists are trying to determine how these environmental changes will impact plant life and whether plants will be able to acclimate to a new status quo.  

 

Researchers from the Walker lab at the Michigan State University-U.S. Department of Energy Plant Research Laboratory, or PRL, are looking at how paper birch trees adapt to changing environments based on how they manage a vital plant process called photorespiration.  

 

“If plant metabolism was a freeway system, photorespiration would be the second-highest trafficked road,” said Berkley Walker, associate professor in the Department of Plant Biology and at the PRL. “We are interested in understanding if the roads of this important pathway are large enough to handle all this traffic under present and future climate conditions.” 

 

In humans, acclimation happens when we become accustomed to new conditions. We do this when we adjust to the cold weather of winter or while learning the ropes at a new job. 

 

Plants must acclimate to new conditions as well. This is complicated by the fact that the increase of atmospheric carbon dioxide, or CO2, and global warming have the opposite effects on photosynthesis and photorespiration. When temperature increases, so does photorespiration, but when CO2 increases, photorespiration decreases. This tradeoff may alter the efficiency of photorespiration. 

 

In a study published in Scientific Reports, researchers assessed whether paper birch trees adjust the activity of photorespiratory enzymes under different environmental conditions. Paper birch was selected because they live in boreal forest biomes, which are located in the northernmost parts of the planet and are expected to be among the ecosystems hit hardest by climate change. 

 

The growth conditions were designed to mimic current, moderate and extreme climate change scenarios for the boreal forest regions, as simulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In each of these scenarios, the researchers altered the CO2 concentration in the surrounding atmosphere and increased air temperatures in different combinations. 

 

“This study explored whether plants fine-tuned their enzyme capacity based on demand or whether they keep a buffer, so they have extra capacity in reserve to handle unpredictable changes,” said Luke Gregory, former graduate student in the Walker lab and first author on the study. 

 

Into the Biotron 

Trees were grown from seeds by researchers from Professor Danielle Way’s lab at the University of Western Ontario. Way grew paper birch trees under six environmental conditions using the university’s Biotron, a research facility that can simulate nearly any climate on earth. 

 

Way’s lab took measurements of the trees after four months of growth and sent leaf clippings to MSU. Gregory and his team looked at nine enzymes involved in the photorespiratory pathway in these leaves and their activities. 

 

They found that the trees do not, in fact, increase their enzyme capacity depending on the climate they are grown in and instead maintained similar capacities across all six future climate scenarios. However, all the enzyme capacities measured in the study were more than was needed for the photorespiratory pathway — meaning the trees were prepared to grow, even under changing conditions. 

 

“It was really interesting to find that there’s this safety factor that these plants have and it’s across all of these different environments that they’re able to have this buffer capacity,” Gregory said. “At first, we thought there was going to be this specific change to demand, but what we found is that across all of these different plants, they do maintain a buffer. They’re able to deal with these different changes whether under current, moderate or extreme conditions.” 

 

This is good news: the trees have a built-in mechanism that will help them survive despite the changing climate, at least when it comes to photorespiration. 

 

However, this is just one piece of the puzzle in understanding how photorespiration is and will continue to be affected by human-caused climate change. 

 

“It’s important that we understand how plants are responding to current conditions and future conditions because we need them in our lives,” Gregory said. “Understanding if plants can acclimate or whether, over generations, they can adapt to these certain environments is important to understand because they provide a lot of fuel, food and fiber for us.” 

By Kara Headley 

### 

 

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 165 years. One of the world’s leading public research universities, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery to make a better, safer, healthier world for all while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 400 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges. 

 

For MSU news on the web, go to MSUToday or x.com/MSUnews. 

 

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-77049-7 

Article Title

Rubisco activity and activation state dictate photorespiratory plasticity in Betula papyrifera acclimated to future climate conditions

 

High exposure to everyday chemicals linked to asthma risk in children

A groundbreaking study from Kumamoto University

Kumamoto University

 

image: 

By measuring the concentrations of 24 phenols—including nitrophenol, parabens, bisphenol, octylphenol, and nonylphenol—in urine samples collected during the first trimester of pregnancy, and performing logistic regression analysis, researchers identified that high exposure to butylparaben and low exposure to 4-nonylphenol are risk factors for asthma development in children. These findings offer valuable insights for developing recommendations on prenatal phenol exposure.

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Credit: Shohei Kuraoka, Masako Oda,Kumamoto University

A new study from researchers at Kumamoto University sheds light on a potential link between exposure to certain everyday chemicals during pregnancy and the development of asthma in children. The study analyzed data from over 3,500 mother-child pairs as part of the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS), a large-scale nationwide research project.

Key Findings:

• High levels of butylparaben, a chemical commonly used in personal care products like lotions and shampoos, during early pregnancy were associated with a 1.54-fold increase in the odds of asthma development in children (Odds Ratio: 1.54).
• Exposure to 4-nonylphenol, a chemical found in some cleaning products and plastics, showed a striking gender-specific effect. Boys born to mothers exposed to this chemical had 2.09 times higher odds of developing asthma, while no such association was observed in girls.

What Are Phenols? Phenols, including parabens and alkylphenols, are widely used in consumer products for their preservative and antimicrobial properties. While their use is considered safe in small amounts, their potential as endocrine disruptors raises concerns about long-term health effects, such as the recent increase in allergenic diseases such as asthma, particularly during sensitive periods like pregnancy.

The Study: Led by Dr. Shohei Kuraoka and his team at Southern Kyushu and Okinawa Unit Center of Japan Environment and Children’s Study, researchers measured 24 types of phenols in urine samples collected from pregnant women. They then tracked the health of their children until the age of four. The findings highlight the importance of understanding how everyday chemical exposures might contribute to respiratory and allergic conditions in children.

Implications for Public Health: “These results emphasize the need for careful evaluation of chemical exposure during pregnancy,” said Dr. Kuraoka. “Understanding these risks allows us to develop better guidelines to protect maternal and child health.”

While the study provides groundbreaking insights, the researchers acknowledge limitations, such as not measuring phenol levels in children directly. Future studies will aim to explore these mechanisms further and establish safe exposure thresholds.

A new study from researchers at Kumamoto University sheds light on a potential link between exposure to certain everyday chemicals during pregnancy and the development of asthma in children. The study analyzed data from over 3,500 mother-child pairs as part of the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS), a large-scale nationwide research project.

Key Findings:

• High levels of butylparaben, a chemical commonly used in personal care products like lotions and shampoos, during early pregnancy were associated with a 1.54-fold increase in the odds of asthma development in children (Odds Ratio: 1.54).
• Exposure to 4-nonylphenol, a chemical found in some cleaning products and plastics, showed a striking gender-specific effect. Boys born to mothers exposed to this chemical had 2.09 times higher odds of developing asthma, while no such association was observed in girls.

What Are Phenols? Phenols, including parabens and alkylphenols, are widely used in consumer products for their preservative and antimicrobial properties. While their use is considered safe in small amounts, their potential as endocrine disruptors raises concerns about long-term health effects, such as the recent increase in allergenic diseases such as asthma, particularly during sensitive periods like pregnancy.

The Study: Led by Dr. Shohei Kuraoka and his team at Southern Kyushu and Okinawa Unit Center of Japan Environment and Children’s Study, researchers measured 24 types of phenols in urine samples collected from pregnant women. They then tracked the health of their children until the age of four. The findings highlight the importance of understanding how everyday chemical exposures might contribute to respiratory and allergic conditions in children.

Implications for Public Health: “These results emphasize the need for careful evaluation of chemical exposure during pregnancy,” said Dr. Kuraoka. “Understanding these risks allows us to develop better guidelines to protect maternal and child health.”

While the study provides groundbreaking insights, the researchers acknowledge limitations, such as not measuring phenol levels in children directly. Future studies will aim to explore these mechanisms further and establish safe exposure thresholds.

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Journal

Environmental Pollution

DOI

10.1016/j.envpol.2024.124801 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Human tissue samples

Article Title

Association of phenol exposure during pregnancy and asthma development in children: The Japan Environment and Childrenʼs Study

 

Technology innovation and economic expansion likely to curtail India’s transition to renewable energy

University of Sharjah

India, the world's most populous country, could be increasing instead of reducing its dependence on fossil fuels and other non-renewable energy sources in the long-term, a new study has found.

The study, published in the journal Energy, depicts a somewhat gloomy picture for India’s future in terms of reducing carbon emissions by boosting its reliance on renewable energy .

The study examines both short-term and long-term factors affecting consumption of renewable and non-renewable sources of energy in India, Asia’s third largest economy and the world's third largest emitter of fossil fuels.

The study is the product of collaboration among scientists from Universities in Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Taiwan, and Uzbekistan.

The scientists note that India, despite being the most populated country in the world and the world’s third largest electricity consumer, “is incapable of meeting its domestic energy demand with indigenous supplies” turning it into a heavy importer of oil and coal.

The study provides statistics portraying India as a country which predominantly depends on fossil fuels or non-renewables to meet its consumption of energy. “In 2021, more than 65% of India's final energy consumption portfolio was captured by non-renewable energy resources while coal accounted for 75.3% of India's total electricity output in 2015,” they write.

The scientists explore a host of factors affecting India’s consumption of non-renewable sources of energy like coal and the consumption of renewable sources of energy like solar energy.

They write, “A novel attempt is made to not only assess the macroeconomic drivers of annual per capita consumption levels of non-renewable and renewable energy but also to understand whether these drivers reduce or enlarge the vast differences between India's non-renewable and renewable energy consumption levels.

“While existing studies have either investigated how India's Non-renewable Energy Consumption (NREC) level is determined or have evaluated factors affecting Renewable Energy Consumption (REC) levels within the country, no empirical study is available regarding the macroeconomic factors influencing the NREC-REC divide from India's perspective.”

The scientists make clear that their target is not to criticize India’s energy consumption policies but rather “to assist the Indian government in designing proper energy security policies with particular emphasis on boosting clean energy using propensities across India.”

They find that India’s impressive leap in the global technology innovation, a testament to the country’s technological growth and development, could play a negative role in its attempts to lean more on clean energy.

Technological innovation is generally believed to decrease a country’s reliance on fossil fuels and other no-renewable sources of energy; however, the scientists discover that at least in the short-term India’s advances in technological innovation will boost its reliance on non-renewable energy consumption.

In the short term, India may benefit from its integration with the world economy and engaging in financial globalization to reduce reliance on non-renewables and slash current rate of fossil carbon emissions, already among the highest in the world, the scientists say.

But this bit of good news comes with a warning that without adequate measures to curtail carbon emissions, India’s expansion of international trade and further integration into financial globalization and development would “boost NREC in the long-run,” the scientists maintain.

If past trends of energy consumption and carbon emissions are any indication, India’s path to reduce dependence on fossil fuels is still long. The authors mention “multiple constraining factors delaying the RET [Renewable Energy Transition] in India,” emphasizing the country’s “poor state of infrastructure and insufficient financial investment” as among the major ones.

“Moreover, it is worth noting that such failure to undergo the RET has further manifested the need for the Indian government to import coal for generating electricity and meeting the local energy demand.”

The scientists “alarmingly” cite statistics demonstrating “that not only has India failed to undergo the Renewable Energy Transition (RET) within its power sector, but also the nation's fossil fuel reliance has persistently increased over time.

“Notably, in 1990, renewable energy accounted for 53% of India's final energy consumption portfolio; however, this share dropped to below 35% by 2021.”

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Journal

Energy

DOI

10.1016/j.energy.2024.132939 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Macroeconomic determinants of non-renewable and renewable energy consumption in India: The roles of international trade, innovative technologies, financial globalization, carbon emissions, financial development, and urbanization

 

For-profit hospices increasing despite poor performance

Weill Cornell Medicine

Hospices are increasingly owned by private equity firms and publicly traded companies, but recently Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found that they performed substantially worse than hospices owned by not-for-profit agencies. This is concerning as nearly 75% of hospice programs, which care for patients in their last stage of life, are for-profit.

The study, published Nov. 18 in JAMA, highlights the need for policy interventions that focus on increasing transparency and accountability in hospice ownership. “To protect vulnerable patients, policymakers should implement stricter reporting requirements for ownership changes and enforce more rigorous oversight measures, ensuring that financial incentives don’t undermine end-of-life patient care,” said senior author Dr. Robert Tyler Braun, assistant professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine. The first author was Alexander Soltoff, graduate student at Emory University.

The researchers analyzed Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS) data from January 2021 through December 2022. CAHPS, the national standard for assessing the quality of patient care, surveyed the caregivers of those who passed away in hospice by telephone and mail. The researchers compared measures for communication, timely care, treating family members with respect, emotional and religious support, help for symptoms, hospice care training, hospice rating and willingness to recommend.

Of the 2,676 hospices included in the final analysis, approximately 25% were owned by private equity and publicly traded companies and 40% were other types of privately owned for-profit hospices. Though only 25% of the hospices surveyed were not-for-profit, they provided the highest-rated quality care including focus on managing pain, comfort, dignity and quality of life.

Hospices acquired by private equity and publicly traded companies between 2007 and 2021 were found to have the lowest performance ratings across all CAHPS measures. They had worse caregiver-reported experiences including hospitalizations of patients and higher rates of live discharges—removing patients from hospice because they no longer meet the criteria for declining health and then re-enrolling them later. This can be distressing for the patients and create unnecessary stress for the family.

 Although prior research has revealed poorer user experiences in for-profit compared to not-for-profit hospices, this study found that ownership by private equity or publicly traded companies was an especially problematic category of for-profit hospice.

 The paper also noted that the facilities surveyed cared for 87% of all Medicare hospice users. The shift toward for-profit hospices has a profound effect especially on these patients, whose quality of care may suffer from the focus on profit maximization and incentives to generate market returns. “Greater ownership transparency would allow regulators and families to make informed decisions, safeguarding care quality and helping hold hospices accountable when ownership shifts occur,” Dr. Braun said.

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Journal

JAMA

Article Publication Date

18-Nov-2024