Aston University data could improve how Uganda uses its stocks of biomass

Aston University

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EBRI researcher Dan Abudu

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Credit: Dan Abudu

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• Aston University data could improve how Uganda uses its stocks of biomass
• Researchers have been mapping forest biomass - renewable organic material from plants and animals
• They discussed their findings at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) week.

New data from Aston University researchers could improve how Uganda uses its stocks of biomass. 

Experts at the University’s Energy and Bioproducts Research Institute have been mapping forest biomass - renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals – and its availability and community-level energy demand. 

As a result, they have identified areas where demand exceeds supply, where it is balanced or where there is a surplus. This information helps pinpoint where interventions such as tree planting or cooking methods that use cleaner fuels and more efficient stoves are most urgently needed instead of applying the existing one-size-fits-all approach.

Currently in Uganda existing statistics or research methods use data aggregated at a national level. However, the Aston University researchers have developed a real-time dashboard for monitoring biomass, carbon stocks and energy demand at a local level. This allows them to produce more accurate estimates of biomass stocks specific for each community rather than relying on country-wide averages. 

EBRI researcher Dan Abudu presented the findings at the conference  held in the Ugandan capital Kampala in July. 

He said: “Our approach has enabled us to recommend targeted interventions rather than relying on generalised, country-wide solutions. This kind of targeting can help avoid wasting money on interventions in areas that may not need them or are already managing well. 

“Over time, this could save millions of Uganda shillings by preventing deforestation and reducing the cost of future energy crises. While we have not quantified the exact financial savings yet, better data means smarter decisions and more efficient use of limited resources.”

The event hosted by the Ugandan Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development brought together global representatives to discuss current trends, future opportunities and challenges of bioenergy development in Africa. The University’s research impact fund which aims to help shape regional strategies across the continent provided support so the University could co-organise the week’s flagship event.

The research team has since met with Uganda’s Ministry of Energy and the East African Centre of Excellence for Renewable Energy and Efficiency (EACREEE) which asked them to contribute to their baseline strategy meeting on regional clean energy transition. 

Dan added: “We’ve also had interest from Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) who are advising Uganda’s government on clean cooking and have expressed interests in our models and data outputs.

“Our research aligns well with Uganda’s Parish Development Model, which aims to drive development from the grassroots. Our analysis helps align forest and energy planning with this model, ensuring that resources, technologies and support are directed where they are needed most.

“We hope our research may soon influence not just local planning in Uganda, but also wider East African strategies around sustainable energy and forest management.”

 

New study highlights critical communication challenges in European biodiversity research networks

Pensoft Publishers

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A new study published in June reveals that fragmented communication and coordination undermine the effectiveness of Europe's leading biodiversity research infrastructures (BioRIs). The research led by Allan T. Souza, Tomáš Martinovič, Carrie Andrew, Yi-Ming Gan, and Erik Kusch, examined the communication strategies of four major European BioRIs, uncovering issues that hinder scientific collaboration and data integration across the continent.

BioRIs address the complex challenges in biodiversity research, scientific collaboration across disciplines and national boundaries, and inform the public and policymakers about the status and challenges of the European biodiversity. The new study focusing on the communication and coordination amongst BioRIs revealed issues in communication strategies of the key European BioRIs, including DiSSCo, eLTER, GBIF and LifeWatch ERIC. 

The study revealed uneven geographical representation, inconsistent communication practices, and limited data and service cohesion, ultimately impeding collaboration and efficient resource use. The distribution of BioRIs across Europe is imbalanced, leading to unequal research opportunities and capacities between regions. While communication within individual BioRIs is often strong, collaboration between infrastructures remains limited. The absence of shared tools and standard communication channels severely hampers joint efforts and information flow. The study found no standardised approach to communication methods among BioRIs, creating confusion for stakeholders and reducing transparency and accessibility for scientists, policymakers, and the public. Variations in data standards across infrastructures hinder data integration. While some infrastructures share common standards, others maintain highly specialised protocols, restricting broader collaboration and data use. Although some initiatives show promise for harmonisation, broader systemic challenges persist.

"Our findings highlight a critical need for a unified communication framework to break down barriers between these infrastructures," said lead author Allan T. Souza. "Without it, we risk missing opportunities for impactful, cross-disciplinary research vital to tackling Europe’s and the world’s biodiversity challenges." While some initiatives to tackle this issue demonstrate the potential for harmonisation, the broader systemic challenges persist.

To overcome these barriers, the study argues for these urgent steps. The first one recommends a standardised communication framework. Creating a shared platform with tools for chat, mailing, discussion boards, calendars, and clear public and internal information separation. Another recommendation is to increase geographical coverage that proposes long-term balancing of BioRI representation across Europe through coordinated funding and capacity sharing. The authors also suggest promoting data interoperability, while harmonising standards and deepening understanding of cross-domain differences to improve integration. And last but not least, it is important to leverage good practice examples.

Addressing fragmentation within European BioRIs requires improving communication, coordination, and interoperability through both technical and institutional measures. Strategic funding, shared platforms, and community engagement will be key to building a more integrated and efficient research network. The study highlights that changes should be gradual, systematic, and informed by proven models of collaboration.

 

Research article:

Souza A, Martinovič T, Andrew C, Gan Y-M, Kusch E (2025) Fragmented Networks: Challenges in communication and cohesion of European Biodiversity Research Infrastructures. Biodiversity Data Journal 13: e148079. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.13.e148079

 

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Journal

Biodiversity Data Journal

DOI

10.3897/BDJ.13.e148079 

Article Title

Fragmented Networks: Challenges in communication and cohesion of European Biodiversity Research Infrastructures

 

Conflicts of interest on CDC vaccine panel were at historic lows before RFK Jr. dismissal

University of Southern California

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Average annual conflict of interest prevelance rates on CDC and FDA vaccine advisory committees.

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Credit: USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics

When health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. recently fired an entire federal vaccine advisory panel, he described the unprecedented move as necessary to rid the committee of industry influence.

However, new research from the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics finds that reported conflicts on that Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel had been at historic lows for years before Kennedy’s abrupt dismissal. Furthermore, the type of conflict typically considered the most concerning—income from vaccine makers—had been virtually eliminated among members of the CDC panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

Rates were also low on a vaccine advisory panel at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC). The FDA committee advises the agency on whether to approve vaccines, while the CDC committee provides advice on exactly who should take the vaccine and when.

“In the past, there have been high levels of reported conflicts on influential vaccine committees, but there has been substantial progress since the early 2000s. Although it’s important to remain vigilant, conflicts of interest on vaccine advisory committees have been at historically low levels for quite some time,” said lead author Genevieve Kanter, a senior scholar at the Schaeffer Center and associate professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy who studies conflicts of interest at federal agencies.

The study, published Aug.18 in JAMA, comes as Senate Democrats investigate Kennedy’s decision to fire ACIP members and replace them with handpicked advisors, including some who have been critical of vaccines. Meanwhile, Kennedy has continued to overhaul federal advisory panels he claims are too heavily influenced by industry.

Reported conflicts fell amid heightened scrutiny of industry ties

The researchers examined reported financial conflicts of interest among experts on the two federal vaccine advisory committees between 2000 and 2024.

ACIP and VRBPAC each typically meet several times per year to review vaccines. For each product under discussion, committee members are supposed to declare a conflict of interest if they have a tie to the vaccine maker or a competitor and to disclose the nature of the relationship. Members with conflicts may receive a waiver to participate if they are deemed to provide “essential expertise.” If their conflicts are deemed too substantial, they are recused from participating.

Reported conflicts of interest among members were notably high in the early 2000s, with annual rates peaking at 43% for ACIP and 27% for VRBPAC during that decade. But rates of reported conflicts have since dropped significantly and remained low, likely due to heightened public scrutiny of industry influence in health agencies’ decision-making. The FDA also took steps to curb conflicts of interest on its advisory committees.

Since 2016, an average of 6.2% of ACIP members and 1.9% of VRBAC members have reported a financial conflict of interest at any given meeting. During that time, less than 1% of reported conflicts on both committees were related to personal income from vaccine makers, which includes consulting fees, stock, royalties or ownership.

The most frequently reported conflict was related to research grants—a reflection of the committee members’ areas of expertise relevant to evaluating the safety, effectiveness and applicability of vaccines. Research support is generally considered less concerning than financial ties associated with personal income.

“Secretary Kennedy is right that conflict of interest is an important issue, but he is wrong that it is present at substantial levels on HHS vaccine advisory committees,” said co-author Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and former FDA associate commissioner.

For ACIP, Kanter said, the data the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services made available was less granular, and committee members may have reported financial ties that were not technically considered a conflict of interest—for example, industry support for general research on insurance coverage of vaccines. For this reason, the ACIP rates reported in the analysis may have overstated what the government considers a conflict of interest. In addition, CDC rates may be higher because ACIP is more likely than VRBPAC to review multiple products at a single meeting.

“Although financial conflicts of interest and industry influence are certainly concerning in some domains of government decision-making, it’s not obvious that vaccine advisory committees are one of those areas,” Kanter said.

About the Study

Toni Mankowitz of the USC Schaeffer Center is also a co-author. Kanter reported receiving funding from Arnold Ventures for unrelated research about FDA advisory committees. Lurie reported having served as FDA associate commissioner from January 2014 to August 2017 and receiving funding from Arnold Ventures for unrelated work. Lurie’s work on this project was funded by the Harvey Motulsky and Lisa Norton-Motulsky Fund.

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Journal

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jama.2025.13245 

Article Title

Conflicts of Interest on Federal Vaccine Advisory Committees

Article Publication Date

18-Aug-2025

COI Statement

Kanter reported receiving funding from Arnold Ventures for unrelated research about FDA advisory committees. Lurie reported having served as FDA associate commissioner from January 2014 to August 2017 and receiving funding from Arnold Ventures for unrelated work. Lurie’s work on this project was funded by the Harvey Motulsky and Lisa Norton-Motulsky Fund.

Brain abnormalities seen in children exposed prenatally to the pesticide chlorpyrifos

Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health

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A new study reports evidence of a link between prenatal exposure to the widely used insecticide chlorpyrifos (CPF) and structural abnormalities in the brain and poorer motor function in New York City children and adolescents.

The findings are the first to demonstrate enduring and widespread molecular, cellular, and metabolic effects in the brain, as well as poorer fine motor control among youth with prenatal exposure to the insecticide. The study by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and Keck School of Medicine of USC is published in the journal JAMA Neurology.

The 270 children and adolescents are participants in the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health birth cohort study and were born to Latino and African-American mothers. They had measurable quantities of CPF in their umbilical cord blood and were assessed by brain imaging and behavioral tests between the ages of 6 and 14 years. Progressively higher insecticide exposure levels were significantly associated with progressively greater alterations in brain structure, function, and metabolism, as well as poorer measures of motor speed and motor programming. Links between higher CPF and greater anomalies across different neuroimaging measures suggest that prenatal exposure produces enduring disturbances in brain structure, function, and metabolism in direct proportion to the level of exposure.

Residential use was the primary source of CPF exposure in this cohort. Although the EPA banned indoor residential use in 2001, agricultural use continues for non-organic fruits, vegetables, and grains, contributing to toxic exposures carried by outdoor air and dust near agricultural areas.

“Current widespread exposures, at levels comparable to those experienced in this sample, continue to place farm workers, pregnant women, and unborn children in harm’s way. It is vitally important that we continue to monitor the levels of exposure in potentially vulnerable populations, especially in pregnant women in agricultural communities, as their infants continue to be at risk,” said Virginia Rauh, ScD, senior author on the study and the Jane and Alan Batkin Professor of Population and Family Health at Columbia Mailman School.

“The disturbances in brain tissue and metabolism that we observed with prenatal exposure to this one pesticide were remarkably widespread throughout the brain. Other organophosphate pesticides likely produce similar effects, warranting caution to minimize exposures in pregnancy, infancy, and early childhood, when brain development is rapid and especially vulnerable to these toxic chemicals,” says first author Bradley Peterson, MD, Vice Chair for Research and Chief of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Additional co-authors include Howard Andrews, Wanda Garcia, and Frederica Perera at Columbia Mailman; Sahar Delavari, Ravi Bansal, Siddhant Sawardekar, and Chaitanya Gupte at the Institute for the Developing Mind, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; and  Lori A. Hoepner at SUNY Downstate School of Public Health, Brooklyn, New York.

This study was supported by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (grants ES09600, ES015905, ES015579, DA027100, ES08977, ES009089); U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STAR (grants RD834509, RD832141, R827027); National Institute of Mental Health (grants MH068318, K02-74677); and the John and Wendy Neu Family Foundation. The study was also supported by an anonymous donor, Patrice and Mike Harmon, the Inspirit Fund, and the Robert Coury family.

Peterson is President of Evolve Psychiatry Professional Corporation and an advisor to Evolve Adolescent Behavioral Health, for which he receives stock options, and he provides expert testimony. Peterson and Bansal have a U.S. Patent (Number 61/424,172), and Peterson holds two additional U.S. Patents (61/601,772 and 8,143,890B2). All other authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

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Journal

JAMA Neurology

DOI

10.1001/jamaneurol.2025.2818 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Brain Abnormalities in Children Exposed Prenatally to the Pesticide Chlorpyrifos

Article Publication Date

18-Aug-2025

COI Statement

Peterson is President of Evolve Psychiatry Professional Corporation and an advisor to Evolve Adolescent Behavioral Health, for which he receives stock options, and he provides expert testimony. Peterson and Bansal have a U.S. Patent (Number 61/424,172), and Peterson holds two additional U.S. Patents (61/601,772 and 8,143,890B2). All other authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.

Uniteddiversity.cooplibrary.uniteddiversity.coop/More_Books_and_Reports/Silent_Spring-Rachel_Carson-1962.pdf

Silent Spring - United Diversity Library

RACHEL CARSON. Page 8. Foreword. IN 1958, when Rachel Carson undertook to write the book that became Silent Spring, she was fifty years old. She had spent most ...

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Over-the-counter pill boosts access to contraception, OHSU study finds

Nationwide study documents 31% percentage point increase in people shifting from no birth control to the over-the-counter oral contraceptive

Oregon Health & Science University

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Two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration approved the sale of an over-the-counter birth control pill for the first time in the United States without a prescription.

A nationwide study published today reveals the decision has dramatically improved access to contraception, especially among women who otherwise would have had no birth control at all, either because they lack insurance or routine access to health care. The study was conducted by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University.

Published in the journal JAMA Network Open, the study surveyed 986 people in 44 states who obtained the OTC pill either online or at a pharmacy and compared outcomes with people using the pill by prescription.

The research team found a 31.8 percentage point increase in people who shifted to the pill after using no contraceptive method.

The majority of OTC pill users were not using a method of contraception, or a much less effective method, and reported it was extremely important to them to avoid pregnancy.

“This is one of the first studies to show that over-the-counter birth control pills are reaching the very people they’re meant to help — those who face the greatest barriers to care,” said lead author Maria Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H., professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine and director of the OHSU Center for Women’s Health.

Among the group accessing the oral contraceptive pill over the counter, researchers found higher rates of use among racial and ethnic minority groups, adolescents, the uninsured and Medicaid recipients.

“At a time when pregnancy is becoming even more dangerous in the United States — especially for people of color, those with low incomes, and those living in rural communities — our findings underscore that OTC contraception is a powerful tool for reproductive autonomy,” Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez noted that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in 2022 to overturn constitutional protection for access to abortion has decreased access to abortion and contraception, especially for populations at the highest risk for maternal morbidity and mortality. This study suggests that the OTC birth control pill is helping to address the gap in contraceptive access for the populations with the greatest barriers to care.

The study notes that it costs about $50 for a three-month supply of the daily oral medication.

“These findings suggest that removing prescription requirements for [the oral contraceptive pill] can expand contraceptive access, particularly for underserved populations, such as the uninsured and those in rural areas,” the authors conclude. “As reproductive health care access faces growing threats, [over the counter] contraception offers a promising strategy to support reproductive autonomy and reduce disparities in contraceptive use.”

In addition to Rodriguez, co-authors include Haley Burns, M.P.H., Reed Sheridan, B.S., and Alison Edelman, M.D., M.P.H., all of Oregon Health & Science University.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.27438 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Over-the-Counter Oral Contraceptive Use and Initiation of Contraception

Article Publication Date

18-Aug-2025

 

Over-the-counter oral contraceptive use and initiation of contraception

JAMA Network Open

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About The Study:

 In this cross-sectional study of U.S. individuals obtaining oral contraception, the oral contraceptive pill was accessed over-the-counter (OTC) by many who previously used no method or less-effective contraception. These findings suggest that OTC access may improve equitable access to contraception.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Maria I. Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H., email rodrigma@ohsu.edu.

To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/

(doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.27438)

Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support.

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About JAMA Network Open: JAMA Network Open is an online-only open access general medical journal from the JAMA Network. On weekdays, the journal publishes peer-reviewed clinical research and commentary in more than 40 medical and health subject areas. Every article is free online from the day of publication.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open