Friday, November 15, 2024

 

New study emphasizes the importance of arts and humanities in neurology training



Boston University School of Medicine





(Boston)—Art and neurology have long been intertwined. Renaissance artwork depicted the nuances of human anatomy and pathology with remarkable accuracy, while Impressionism, Cubism, and other artistic movements utilized the unique features of human vision and perception to achieve artistic impact. Just as artists relied on an intuitive understanding of neuroscience, neuroscientists have long documented their findings with artistic renderings of the brain, giving rise to key scientific observations.

 

Multiple studies have shown that visual arts training improves observational skills, communication and empathy among both medical students and residents in ophthalmology, nuclear medicine, radiology, and dermatology. However, studies examining the benefits of visual arts training for neurology residents remain scarce.

 

In a new study, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center (BMC) have found teaching artistic observation to neurology residents contributed to the development of well-rounded physicians with the capacity to be both skilled clinicians and compassionate healers.

 

“The art of neurologic diagnosis requires meticulous observation, with careful attention paid to a patient’s history, physical examination and neuroimaging. However, resident physicians face heavy workloads, burnout and emotional exhaustion due to the challenging nature of their training. These stressors have the potential to hinder residents’ observational skills,” explained first and corresponding author Tatiana Greige, MD, a former neurology resident at BMC.

 

Currently a vascular neurology fellow at Mass General Brigham, Greige created the Museum Art in Neurology Education Training project to introduce BMC neurology residents to the world of visual arts, improve their observational skills, foster their empathic skills, develop their tolerance for uncertainty encountered in clinical practice and provide them with a unique space for self-expression and personal growth through museum-based sessions.

The study participants were resident physicians undergoing training in both adult and pediatric neurology in the Boston University Neurology Residency Program. They received three custom-designed art observation training sessions between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. Each session was four hours long and led by professional art educators. The residents completed pre- and post-intervention tests to assess for change in their observational skills. The tests included a combination of MRI images, clinical videos and artworks.

 

Following the art training, the researchers found observational skills improved significantly for the residents between the pre- and post-intervention tests. The majority of residents noted a subjective improvement in their communication and observational skills as well as an increase in their empathy skills. All of the residents noted feeling more comfortable with the notion of uncertainty in a clinical setting after attending the museum sessions and all of the residents agreed that this project should be repeated for future years.

 

According to the researchers, humanities can enrich and complement residency curriculum, but beyond any potential educational benefit, they offer a unique and safe space for self-reflection and personal growth. “Art allows for the expression of emotions that may be difficult to convey with words alone. Because art has the potential to capture an expansive breadth of human experience, it may also help medical trainees better grapple with suffering, inequity, and other limitations of the healthcare system,” explained senior author Pria Anand, MD, assistant professor of neurology at the school and director of neurology residency.

 

These findings appear online in the journal Neurology: Education

 

 

USF researchers begin first lifespan study on the effects of digital media use among young people


Research will span 25 years, but data collected every six months will provide ongoing insight



University of South Florida

Justin Martin 

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University of South Florida researcher Justin Martin.

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Credit: USF



  • Past snapshot research has studied the effects of digital media on everything from political discourse to social development, but no long-term study has tracked digital media use and wellbeing from childhood into adulthood.
  • The survey will cover topics such as social media use and addiction, cyberbullying, news consumption, streaming services, parental controls, media literacy, artificial intelligence and more.
  • Many studies of media use among children focus on the 13-to-17-year-old age range. The USF researchers begin with early adolescents at age 11, when nearly half of children in the U.S. do not yet own a smartphone.

TAMPA, Fla. (Nov. 14, 2024) – A groundbreaking new study conducted by the University of South Florida will track young people through 2050 to learn more about the long-term impacts of smartphones, social media and other digital media on individual wellbeing.

Though the long-term research will be conducted over the next 25 years, data collected every six months will give ongoing insight to parents, teachers, researchers, health providers and others on the impact of digital media use on children and as they age into adults.

“We have research from other fields that tracks people across decades, looking at cardiovascular health or work-life balance across the lifespan. We don’t have that yet for digital media use and wellness,” said Justin Martin, the Eleanor Poynter Jamison Chair in Media Ethics & Press Policy at USF St. Petersburg and lead researcher of the study. “We know that digital media affect people, especially children, in meaningful and often adverse ways, so it’s important to study the same individuals across the lifespan.”

The Life in Media Survey will collect insights and experiences from thousands of 11 to 13-year-olds as they pertain to digital media use. Researchers will then track the same participants over decades, to determine how digital media impacts and changes attitudes, behaviors and health throughout their lives.

The survey will cover topics such as social media use and addiction, cyberbullying, news consumption, streaming services, parental controls, media literacy, artificial intelligence and more. Examining responses and patterns over time, researchers will discover possible connections between device ownership and time spent on social media with the prevalence of sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression and other critical wellness indicators.

"Experiences during childhood and adolescence can influence health outcomes later in life. This study will help us understand the impact of digital media use on sleep quality and mental health in adolescents, ultimately informing interventions to mitigate any harmful effects,” said Chighaf Bakour, a USF associate professor of epidemiology.

The USF study differs from previous research on children's media use and wellness.

Prior work has mostly focused on smartphone use, social media use and gaming. The USF study measures these things, but also assesses binge-watching, podcast listening, music streaming and other digital habits. A prior study on streaming that Martin coauthored found that binge-watching, an activity often done with others, was correlated with spending more time in-person with friends and family -- not with social isolation.

Also, many studies of media use among children focus on the 13-to-17-year-old age range. The USF researchers begin with early adolescents at age 11, when nearly half of children in the U.S. do not yet own a smartphone.

Some 1,500 Florida youth will take the survey in November to provide researchers with baseline data. The Harris Poll, a global market research firm that collaborated with the USF team in constructing the questionnaire, is collecting the data and will obtain parental permission before children complete the online survey. Findings and insights from this cohort will be published in a report in the spring of 2025.

Informed by the pilot survey, the research team will then start a nationwide, long-term survey for up to 9,000 children in early adolescence. Researchers will survey these children twice a year, once during the school year and again in the summer.

“The 11 to 13-year-old range is typically, for now, when children acquire their own personal smartphone but are still pretty new to the world of digital media,” said Stephen Song, USF assistant professor in the

Department of Journalism & Digital Communication. “This is a good age to begin to track behavior changes that occur over time.”

Past snapshot research has studied the effects of digital media on everything from political discourse to social development, but no long-term study has tracked digital media use and wellbeing from childhood into adulthood. There are a lot of data, but few conclusive findings, since media and devices can be used in so many different ways, said Wendy Rote, a USF psychology professor and expert on adolescent development.

“Let’s say kids who spend more time on social media and devices have higher rates of depression, which is what some of the data is telling us. Is it because of the device and media itself, or is it because time spent with digital media means kids have less time for sports, clubs and other socialization activities?” Rote asked. “What you can get from a long-term study is broad patterns and trends of media use by individuals and examine those at different times in their life to pick apart and answer such questions.”

The research team comprises experts across various disciplines, including journalism, psychology, public health, political science, sociology and communications.

USF is also collaborating with the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and its MediaWise initiative, which empowers young people with media literacy skills, including digital and AI literacy. Sean Marcus, the interactive learning designer for MediaWise, worked with the team to ensure survey questions were relevant and understandable for the audience.

Since the Life in Media Survey will be conducted twice a year over decades, the scope of change that researchers measure could be vast.

“Media and media literacy move at lightning speed, and this study will allow us to move with it,” Marcus said. “We are in the midst of a major technological revolution with tools like AI. This research will provide us a frame of reference to understand how young people are living their lives with technology and how changes in technology are impacting them.”

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About the University of South Florida

The University of South Florida, a high-impact research university dedicated to student success and committed to community engagement, generates an annual economic impact of more than $6 billion. Across campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota-Manatee and USF Health, USF serves approximately 50,000 students who represent nearly 150 different countries. U.S. News & World Report has ranked USF as one of the nation’s top 50 public universities for six consecutive years and, for the second straight year, as the best value university in Florida. In 2023, USF became the first public university in Florida in nearly 40 years to be invited to join the Association of American Universities, a group of the leading 3% of universities in the United States and Canada. With an all-time high of $692 million in research funding in 2023 and a ranking as a top 15 public university for producing new U.S. patents, USF is a leader in solving global problems and improving lives. USF is a member of the American Athletic Conference. Learn more at  www.usf.edu.

 

LIST and UNHCR to launch early warning system for emergencies



The warning system would help humanitarian actors to better anticipate critical situations, deliver timely alerts and respond accordingly



Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology

LIST and UNHCR to launch early warning system for emergencies 

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From left to right: Lucien Hoffmann (Science Director – LIST),  Georges Ternes (Director - Directorate for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs),  Dirk Fransaer (CEO – LIST), Kelly Clements (UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees), Xavier Bettel (Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade)

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Credit: Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Defence, Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade




The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), in coordination with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), launched today an initiative to develop an advanced global early warning and response system to help humanitarian actors prepare and plan for emergencies.

"As the world faces an increasing number of complex humanitarian emergencies - driven by conflict, violence, natural hazards, climate change, and other forces - the need for robust early warning systems to prepare and plan for rapid, effective humanitarian responses has never been more critical," said Kelly T. Clements, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees.

The new system, which uses the latest AI technology combined with Earth observation data, will help humanitarian actors, local authorities, and local communities to reinforce their preparedness and response by detecting and evaluating risks of events that might trigger forced displacement, and delivering timely alerts ahead of an emergency.

“LIST is pleased to enter this strategic collaboration with the UN Refugee Agency to develop an early warning system for emergency management. Our expertise in natural disaster management and our research outputs estimating the impact of climatic variables on human mobility and infrastructures will help provide timely and actionable insights to better anticipate and respond to critical situations,” declared Lucien Hoffmann, Science Director at LIST.

The innovative project is funded with the generous support of Luxembourg’s Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. It will benefit displaced people directly by helping responders to anticipate humanitarian needs, optimize supply procurement and resource mobilization, minimize response times and avoid the duplication of humanitarian efforts.

The project launched today comprises an initial 15-month rollout of the system in select pilot countries, including early warning and displacement forecasting as well as emergency preparedness. The second phase will incorporate lessons learned during the rollout phase to build a global system.

The initiative is in line with the UN Secretary-General’s prevention agenda, as well as the Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to ensure everyone on Earth is protected from hazardous weather, water, or climate events through life-saving early warning systems by the end of 2027.

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Marxists.org

www.marxists.org/archive/bordiga/works/1951/murder.htm

Murder of the Dead by Amadeo Bordiga 1951

The Italian bourgeoisie is still here, and enthusiastically invests its income in paying for wars and other disasters for which it is then repaid four fold.



 

Reintroduction of resistant frogs facilitates landscape-scale recovery in the presence of a lethal fungal disease



University of California - Santa Barbara
RASI Adult 

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As it’s done to amphibians worldwide, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis has devastated native frog populations in Yosemite.

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Credit: UC Santa Barbara




(Santa Barbara, Calif.) — A remote lakeshore deep inside Yosemite National Park teems with life: coyotes, snakes, birds, tadpoles, frogs. The frogs are at the heart of this scene, which a decade ago was much different. It was quiet — and not in a good way. The frogs that are so central to this ecosystem were absent, extirpated by a deadly fungal disease known as amphibian chytrid fungus.

Now, thanks to the consistent and focused efforts of researchers and conservationists to save, then reintroduce, mountain yellow-legged frogs to this and numerous other lakes in Yosemite, their populations are again thriving.

A new landscape-scale study led by UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) biologist Roland Knapp, with colleagues from UCSB, University of Colorado, Boulder, University of Tennessee, and Yosemite National Park, details the long-term endeavor comprising 24 reintroductions across 12 different sites in Yosemite over 17 years. In that time, remarkably, the frogs have developed some resistance to the chytrid fungusBatrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), allowing them to persist in its presence. The paper is now published in the journal Nature Communications.

“Going back to some of these lakes where frogs are now recovering, and just sitting and watching, reminds you of what has been accomplished,” said Knapp, based at UCSB’s Sierra Nevada Aquatic Research Laboratory. “You sit on the bank and you have tadpoles all around you in the water and adult frogs sitting next to you on the shore. You have birds flying in and feeding on them, and snakes that are feeding on them. You have a lake that’s alive again.”

As it’s done to amphibians worldwide, Bd has devastated native frog populations in Yosemite. Once the most common amphibian in the high elevation portion of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, during the past century the Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frog (Rana sierrae) has disappeared from more than 90% of its historical range. It is currently listed as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act. But in their long-term study, Knapp and co-researchers were able to successfully reestablish breeding populations by translocating Bd-resistant frogs to sites where the species had been wiped out. The success of their recovery efforts is a beacon of hope for amphibian conservation. 

“In our study, results from viability modeling suggest that many reintroduced populations have a high probability of persisting over 50 years,” Knapp said. “These results provide a rare example of how reintroduction of resistant individuals can allow the landscape-scale recovery of disease-impacted species, and have broad implications for amphibians and many other taxa that are threatened with extinction by novel pathogens.”

Amphibians are the most threatened vertebrate class, with more than 40% of species threatened with extinction. In less than a generation, the human-driven emergence of the amphibian chytrid

fungus (Bd) has devastated global amphibian biodiversity, with thousands of populations in decline or extirpated, and dozens of species now extinct in the wild. Even amphibians in the most protected habitats have fallen victim to what Knapp calls an “invisible killer.”

All of which makes the success of this study even more “mind-blowing,” he said. “It’s mind-blowing considering where we were 10 or 15 years ago, when we weren’t sure if we were going to have this frog on the landscape anymore, to see how things are turning around. It’s incredible to see.”

It’s taken some seriously painstaking work to get here. 

The reintroductions require careful planning; when identifying the best locations for reintroduction, team members must factor site elevation, winter severity and predation risk. And monitoring the translocated frogs is an intensive, long-term effort, often requiring researchers to hike in and capture every frog at a site multiple times per year.

Monitoring those translocated populations over several years, the team observed the recruitment of new adult frogs, indicating successful recovery. Conducted within the protected confines of a national park, their efforts, Knapp noted, demonstrate the importance of maintaining and restoring natural processes in these ecosystems. 

What about the prospect of scaling up this approach across the entire Sierra Nevada range — even serving as a proof of concept, and potentially as a model, for similar conservation efforts elsewhere across the globe?

“It’s really important to have that broader perspective,” said Knapp. “We now have a proven strategy that is working in Sierra Nevada yellow legged frogs and is allowing us to recover the frog at a scale of Yosemite National Park. This frog that has been pushed to the verge of extinction by this pathogen is now becoming an example of how we might recover amphibians all around the world.” 

Knapp’s co-authors on the study are Mark Wilber at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture; Maxwell Joseph, of CU Boulder and Planet; Thomas Smith, also of UC Santa Barbara; and Robert Grasso at Yosemite. Funding for the project was provided by the Yosemite Conservancy, National Park Service and National Science Foundation.

 As It Happens

Surprisingly snuggly pythons upend what scientists thought they knew about snakes

Ball pythons, long thought solitary, repeatedly chose to eschew individual shelters and coil up together

Close up of a snake's head. It's yellowish with black spots.
Ball pythons are non-venomous constrictors native to Africa, and popular all over the world as pets. (Kurit Afshen/Shutterstock)

There's no single agreed upon term for a group of snakes, but scientist Morgan Skinner has a suggestion.

"Cuddle of snakes," he told As It Happens host Nil KÓ§ksal. "Maybe that should be the name."

Skinner, a quantitative ecologist, has co-authored a new study that found ball pythons — long believed to be solitary creatures, and often kept as solo pets — seem to enjoy each other's company. 

The findings, published in the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, add to a growing body of research into the surprisingly active social lives of snakes. 

It also comes on the tail of several other studies that suggest other seemingly solitary species, including sharks and octopuses, may be more community-oriented than scientists previously believed. 

Not so solitary after all 

Skinner, who works for an environmental consulting company in Calgary, studied the social dynamics of snakes as part of his doctoral research at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont.

In 2020, he and his colleagues published research showing that garter snakes, when given the choice, prefer to spend time together rather than alone, and even form something akin to friendships, showing preferences for certain individuals over others.

But garter snakes, Skinner says, were already known to hibernate and birth their young in groups. Ball pythons by contrast, lay eggs and do not hibernate. They're also a popular pet around the world, and are often kept in isolation.

"I wanted to see what a snake that was less social — in my thinking and in common perception — would do," he said. "You know, here's my social snakes and what they do. And how does this compare to a non-social snake?"

A group of snakes coiled together in a ball against a bright red backdrop.
Ball pythons, pictured under a red light, are seen coiled together after scientists lifted up the shelter where they chose to congregate inside their enclosure at Wilfrid Laurier University. (Morgan Skinner and Noam Miller/Wilfrid Laurier University)

Skinner and his colleagues put six ball pythons in a large enclosure for 10 days with enough individual shelters for each snake. 

Twice a night the researchers cleaned the enclosure and shuffled the snakes into different shelters. That's what Skinner was doing when he first laid eyes upon a python "cuddle."

"To my surprise, when I started lifting up the shelters, the first one I lifted up, they were all there together in one big group," he said. 

He separated the snakes and left. When he came back later for the second shuffle, they were all back together again. 

In fact, footage shows the snakes slithering around and exploring their enclosure, but ultimately opting to spend the majority of their time together in one shelter. 

"This really challenged my idea of what sociability is in snakes," Skinner said. 

An enclosure, pictured from above through a bright red light, with six boxes, each marked by a different symbol. Snakes can be seen slithering between, and in and out of, the boxes.
Despite having solo spaces available, researchers say the snakes repeatedly chose to congregate together. (Morgan Skinner and Noam Miller/Wilfrid Laurier University)

The team started to wonder if there was just something about that particular shelter they preferred. So they took it out.

The snakes, Skinner said, simply congregated in a different shelter.  

"We tested four more groups, a total of five, and they chose different home bases. So it wasn't something about that location or that shelter in particular," he said. 

Unlike the garters, the pythons didn't form cliques, instead preferring to stick all together. 

Vladimir Dinets, a specialist in reptile social behaviour at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who was not involved in the study, lauded its methodology. 

"I'm kind of impressed at how meticulously they worked out the whole thing and how well they showed this," Dinets told the New York Times. "I tend to look for flaws in things I read, and I couldn't find anything to pick on, here."

Do they also hang out in the wild?

Skinner says he can't be sure whether ball pythons congregate in the wild the same as they do in captivity, but he says he has seen at least one study of wild pythons that references finding them in burrows. 

"It's quite possible that what we're seeing is, to some extent, a natural behaviour," he said. "I think that this social behaviour in snakes inevitably has some benefit to them, whether it's protection from predators or it helps them, you know, maintain heat and moisture so that they can digest better.


Because one meal lasts them a long time, Skinner says they're rarely in competition for food, which could also explain the group dynamics. 

Snakes hunt alone, so when people encounter them above ground, they're usually on their own. That may have led to the misconception that they're anti-social creatures. 

"I think we're very visual, and when we think of social behaviour, we think of animals like flocks of birds," he said. "We don't believe it unless we see it."

Recent research suggests ball pythons are not the only species that my have been too hastily classified as non-social. 

Shark scientists are currently observing two great whites that keep showing up in the same place, challenging the common belief that the apex predators are loners.

A study published this year showed that brown bears interact more frequently outside of mating season than suspected. 

New deepsea research over the last decade has revealed that octopuses, who spend most of their lives alone, breed in large groups called nurseries. And new footage of shallow reefs shows octopuses sometimes hunt in groups with fish

"Most animals need to be social in some way," Skinner said. 

Interview with Morgan Skinner produced by Nishat Chowdhury and Cassie Argao