CRT / DEI

Study: Arrival of boll weevils in U.S. South in early 20th century brought long-term benefits for Black sons born after the agricultural shock

Carnegie Mellon University

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Black-White inequality declined during much of the 20th century as measured by wages and intergenerational mobility. Scholars have attributed this to a variety of reasons, most notably Black migration and increases in Black people’s education levels. In a new study, researchers investigated the long-term impact of the boll weevil, an agricultural pest that destroys cotton crops, which invaded the South in the early 20th century and spurred significant economic changes. They found that this agricultural shock brought about long-term advantages for Black sons born after the boll weevil appeared.

The study, by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and Marquette University, appears in The Economic Journal.

“Our work sheds new light on the improvement in the economic status of Black men in the first half of the 20th century,” says Karen Clay, professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College, who coauthored the study. “Most research has focused on education and migration to the North; we looked at the factors that led to improvement by showing that a large agricultural shock, the boll weevil, generated long-term benefits for Black sons born after its arrival.”

Starting in 1892, the boll weevil began to spread gradually through the cotton-growing region of the United States, infesting all such areas by 1922. As a result, total cotton production fell as much as 50%, affecting nearly a third of the U.S. population and 75% of the Black population, as many farm owners ended or changed tenancy contracts and many households migrated from their counties.

In this study, researchers used cross-Census links from the Census Tree, the largest  database of record ties among historical U.S. censuses, with more than 700 million links for U.S. residents between 1850 and 1940. They examined changes in earnings, occupations, family makeup, and residences, among other measures, for Black males born before and after the boll weevil’s appearance.

The pest’s arrival benefited Black sons in the long term, as reflected in two 1940 measures of income—wages and attributed income—and did not harm White sons, and these differential gains decreased inequality, the study found. In a variety of ways, early life conditions may have improved for Black sons relative to White sons. More specifically:

• Compared to White sons, Black sons born after the agricultural shock experienced relative increases in wages of 11% and relative increases in imputed incomes of 5%. These gains were not driven by migration out of the South; Black sons who remained in the South also had increased wages and incomes.
   
• These differential gains pushed down inequality as measured by wages and income rank. The gains in Black sons’ wages and imputed incomes were substantial, accounting for 6% to 15% of the Black-White wage gap in 1940. Estimates from analyses of intergenerational mobility show that being born after the boll weevil appeared boosted Black sons’ imputed income rank by 1 and had a negative but insignificant effect on White sons’ imputed income rank, representing a 12% rise in average income rank for Black sons.
   
• These surprising improvements appear to have occurred through a range of mechanisms related to the boll weevil. Black sons may have benefited from their fathers’ migration and occupational upgrading; improvements in nutrition and schooling; increases in household resources available to sons, including reductions in the number of children in the household; and reductions in racial violence.

“Our study provides new evidence of the effect of the boll weevil on Black-White wages and intergenerational mobility, as well as on changes in Black fathers’ labor market conditions relative to White fathers and the impact this had on their sons,” explains Ethan J. Schmick, assistant professor of economics at Marquette University, who coauthored the study. “Our work also contributes new evidence on Black individuals’ and White individuals’ early life conditions during an important and understudied historical period, highlighting the role of a range of market mechanisms in mitigating shocks.”

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Journal

The Economic Journal

DOI

10.1093/ej/ueaf110 

Article Title

Early Life Shocks, Market Adjustments, and Black-White Inequality

 

Study: Composite metal foam could lead to safer hazmat transportation

North Carolina State University

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A new study finds that composite metal foam (CMF) can withstand tremendous force – enough to punch a hole in a railroad tank car – at much lower weight than solid steel. The finding raises the possibility of creating a safer generation of tanker cars for transporting hazardous materials.

The researchers have also developed a computational model that can be used to determine what thickness of CMF is needed in order to provide the desired level of protection necessary for any given application.

“Railroad tank cars are responsible for transporting a wide range of hazardous materials, from acids and chemicals to petroleum and liquefied natural gas,” says Afsaneh Rabiei, corresponding author of a paper on the work and a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University. “The safety of these tank cars is important, and the U.S. Department of Transportation has very rigorous testing requirements for any material that might be used to manufacture these tank cars.

“In previous studies, CMF has passed these tests with flying colors, and the next step for us was to see how the material performed in puncture testing,” Rabiei says. “The results were outstanding.”

CMFs are foams that consist of hollow spheres – made of materials such as stainless steel, nickel, or other metals and alloys – embedded in a metallic matrix. The resulting material is both lightweight and remarkably strong at absorbing compressive forces, with potential applications ranging from aircraft wings to vehicle armor and body armor.

In addition, CMF is better at insulating against high heat, and is stronger when exposed to high heat, than conventional metals and alloys, such as steel. The combination of light weight, strength and thermal insulation means that CMF also holds promise for use in storing and transporting nuclear material, hazardous materials, explosives and other heat-sensitive materials.

For the puncture testing, the researchers used a 300,000 pound ram car that runs on train tracks. The ram car was mounted with an indenter – essentially a steel column with a point that measures six inches square. The ram car was accelerated to 5.2 miles per hour, at which point the indenter would collide with the type of high-quality steel plating used in tank cars. The speed and weight of the ram car generate 368 kilojoules of force, distributed across the six-inch by six-inch end of the indenter. 

In the baseline test, the indenter tore a gaping hole in the steel plate. For the experimental test, the researchers placed a piece of CMF that was 30.48 millimeters thick on the end of the indenter. Upon colliding with a steel plate, the CMF absorbed the vast majority of the force, causing the indenter and ram car to bounce off the steel plate, leaving only a small dent. Video of the testing can be seen here.

“The obvious conclusion here is that light-weight CMF can absorb puncture and impact energies more efficiently than solid steel,” Rabiei says. “And we have a model that can be used to figure how much CMF is necessary, which maximizes the efficiency of using CMF as we believe that a lower thickness CMF could have performed even better.”

The paper, “Numerical Model and Experimental Validation of Composite Metal Foam in Protecting Carbon Steel Against Puncture,” is published in Advanced Engineering Materials. First author of the paper is Aman Kaushik, currently a postdoctoral researcher at NC State.

This work was done with support from the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration under project number PH95720-0075.

Rabiei is the inventor of composite metal foams. She has assigned related intellectual property to a small business for which she is a shareholder.

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Note to Editors: The study abstract follows.

“Numerical Model and Experimental Validation of Composite Metal Foam in Protecting Carbon Steel Against Puncture”

Authors: Aman Kaushik and Afsaneh Rabiei, North Carolina State University

Published: Nov. 4, Advanced Engineering Materials

DOI: 10.1002/adem.202501605

Abstract: Puncture testing on carbon steel plates are performed at varying velocities with and without composite metal foam (CMF) buffer panel using numerical and experimental approaches. CMF is lightweight material made with airtight hollow-spheres embedded inside metallic matrix. In this study three numerical modeling approaches are utilized for CMF panel located between puncture head and carbon steel plate. First, homogenous CMF framework is utilized without entrapped air in model. The non-homogenous CMF framework is then extended but led to non-conclusive results due to extra-ordinary resources required owing to the size and complexity of CMF. Finally, a new non-homogenous numerical model is developed to incorporate air using fluid cavity to reduce computation time while maintaining accuracy. The specific energy absorbed via CMF panel in experimental approach compared to that of fluid cavity model and carbon-steel plate model are 28.14, 32.57, and 0.60 J g-1, respectively. This study validates the applicability of fluid cavity model to accurately predict the performance of complex CMF under puncture against experimental testing. Higher energy absorption associated with CMF underscores its significance in preventing puncture in carbon-steel plate. It is concluded that light-weight steel CMF can absorb puncture and impact energies more efficiently than heavy-solid steel.

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Journal

Advanced Engineering Materials

DOI

10.1002/adem.202501605 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Numerical Model and Experimental Validation of Composite Metal Foam in Protecting Carbon Steel Against Puncture

Article Publication Date

4-Nov-2025

COI Statement

Afsaneh Rabiei is the inventor of composite metal foams. She has assigned her related IP to a small business for which she is a shareholder.

 

Social identification with a team boosts fans’ social well-being

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau

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Sport teams and other organizations can boost their supporters’ social well-being through digital platforms and other initiatives that promote a strong group identity and feelings of trust that all members have their collective best interests at heart, according to a study led by recreation, sport and tourism professor Yuhei Inoue found in a study of sport fans in the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

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Credit: Photo by Fred Zwicky

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Sport fans all know that rosy feeling of happiness when we hang out with others who support our favorite team. A new study conducted with sport consumers in the U.S. and the United Kingdom suggests that organizations that want to enhance their supporters’ health and well-being can achieve that by bolstering their social identification with the group.

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign recreation, sport and tourism professors Yuhei Inoue and Mikihiro Sato say that social identification with organizations boosts our social well-being — our ability to form and sustain meaningful relationships — by giving us access to three important social and psychological resources: in-group trust, a sense of purpose and meaning, and perceived progroup norms — which are the beliefs that all group members are prioritizing our collective best interests.

The co-authors of the paper are Steve Swanson, a professor of management at Deakin University; Daniel Lock, the deputy head of sport and event management at Bournemouth University; Florida State University sport management professor James Du; and Daniel C. Funk, a professor and the Ed Rosen Senior Research Fellow in sport, tourism and hospitality management at Temple University.

The authors say that in-group trust — the sense of trust fostered by a shared affinity for the same team or group — is the pivotal element that establishes the relationship between group identification and our social well-being.

The findings were based on two studies — one with 478 fans of sport teams and organizations in the U.S. and one with 490 fans of English Premier League soccer in the U.K. The findings were the same in both studies and apply to other types of service organizations as well, said Inoue, who is the first author of the paper, published in the Journal of Business Research. The Temple Sport Industry Research Center and the Deakin University Department of Management supported the work.

“Social isolation and loneliness have become pressing social issues, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic,” Inoue said. “Our study shows that sport teams and other service organizations —such as recreational centers, fitness clubs, resorts and theme parks — can help address these issues by fostering a sense of shared identity and togetherness among consumers. For this reason, it is important for these organizations to cultivate social communities developed around them.”

The study integrates the perspectives of transformative service research — which explores how various service sectors such as sport, tourism, financial services, art and hospitality contribute to consumer health and well-being — with the social identity approach, which investigates the beneficial effects of group members’ sharing social and psychological resources. 

Prior research on service organizations and well-being focused on individuals’ psychological processes, suggesting that accomplishing personally meaningful goals as part of a group satisfied members’ mental and emotional needs, thereby boosting their well-being.

Building on a framework that Inoue and his colleagues identified in a 2022 paper, the authors of the current study hypothesized that five types of psychosocial resources —  relatedness, purpose and meaning, perceived social support, progroup norms and in-group trust — can be mobilized by consumers’ group identities.

However, in testing these resources’ effects on the social well-being of U.S. and U.K. sport fans, the researchers found that only three — purpose and meaning, progroup norms and in-group trust —influenced the relationship between group identification and well-being. Moreover, the researchers found that in-group trust acted as the antecedent of social well-being, transmitting the indirect effects of progroup norms and of purpose and meaning.

Media coverage of the sports industry primarily focuses on its financial performance, overlooking the psychosocial benefits such as the sense of community that is fostered among fans, Sato said. “We hope that our findings can provide some evidence that sport teams do not exist just for making a profit, selling advertisements or sponsorships, but to create connections and a sense of community that promotes people’s well-being. We believe that is an important aspect of the social value of sports and spectatorship.”

And the best news may be that teams need not win the World Series, the World Cup or even have a stellar record for fans to benefit, Inoue said. “Our previous research found that supporting a team with a poor win-loss record can sometimes provide even greater psychological benefits. We believe this is partly because such benefits arise from the community formed around sport teams — as demonstrated in the current study — rather than from the short-term happiness associated with winning.”

Inoue, Lock, Sato and Funk found in that earlier study, published in Sport Management Review in 2022, that group identification drives members to subjectively judge their favorite team’s on-field performance, a coping strategy that helps fans keep connecting with their team and enhances their social well-being when the team is performing poorly. The study, which included middle-aged and older adults, was conducted while Inoue was on the faculty of Manchester Metropolitan University.

As it turns out, winning really is not everything — or even the main thing in terms of our well-being and happiness. It is the social connectivity and camaraderie with others who cheer along with us and groan in unison when the field goals and jump shots go awry.

Inoue said some sport teams — such as the Cheesehead Nation of Green Bay Packer mega fans — excel at building social communities around fans’ group identity, using digital platforms and apps that increase fan engagement and excitement. Other organizations can use these types of outreach methods to strengthen their members’ social bonds and their identification with the groups, Inoue said.

 

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Journal

Journal of Business Research

DOI

10.1016/j.jbusres.2025.115361 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Psychosocial resources linking consumer identification and social well-being: Integrating the social identity approach with transformative service research

 

Hotter than your average spa bath: Extreme warming of Amazon lakes in 2023

Summary author: Walter Beckwith

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

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An unprecedented heatwave and drought in 2023 turned the Amazon’s lakes into shallow simmering basins, with water temperatures soaring to temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (ºC) in one case and water levels plunging to record lows, researchers report. The extreme temperatures had impacts ranging from isolating remote riverine communities to driving mass die-offs in fish and endangered Amazon river dolphins. The findings confirm a worrisome warming trend across the Amazon’s poorly monitored lakes and rivers and portend escalating climate impacts on tropical freshwater ecosystems worldwide. “Although this study presents data from 2023, in September and October of 2024, another extreme drought occurred in the central Amazon,” write Ayan Fleischmann and colleagues, “with new record-breaking low water levels and severe lake water heating associated with hydrological and meteorological conditions similar to those observed in 2023.” Aquatic ecosystems worldwide are warming rapidly. This increase is projected to continue under ongoing climate change, resulting in more frequent and severe lake heat waves. Although lakes are considered sentinels of climate change, most research has focused on temperate regions. Tropical lakes, like those in the Amazon, are highly vulnerable to intense warming yet remain understudied and poorly monitored.

 

Here, Ayan Fleischmann and colleagues present an analysis of water temperature measurements from 10 central Amazonian lakes during the 2023 drought. Supported by satellite data and hydrodynamic modeling, Fleishmann et al. show how intense drought and heat combined to dramatically raise water temperatures. According to the findings, temperatures in 5 of the 10 lakes experienced exceptionally high daytime water temperatures, exceeding 37 ºC. Notably, temperatures in the shallow waters of Lake Tefé soared as high as 41 ºC – hotter than your average spa bath – throughout its 2-meter water column. According to the authors, a combination of extremely low water levels, strong solar heating, calm winds, and high turbidity created ideal conditions for severe lake heat waves in the Amazon. The findings suggest that low wind speeds were likely the most critical driver of extreme warming, more so than air temperature itself. With little wind, less heat was lost through evaporation and nighttime cooling, allowing lakes to grow progressively hotter under intense sunlight and persistent clear skies. What’s more, the authors show that Amazon lakes have been warming rapidly – roughly 0.3 to 0.8 ºC per decade over the last 30 or so years – rates higher than the global average. Many lakes in the region also shrank dramatically during the 2024 drought, with Lake Tefé losing 75% of its area and Badajós Lake shrinking by 90%.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adr4029 

Article Title

Extreme warming of Amazon waters in a changing climate

Article Publication Date

6-Nov-2025