Hackers targeting companies that fake corporate responsibility

New study looks at cyber pirates who aren't just in it for the money

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

Research News

 

A new study suggests some hackers aren't just in it for the money but instead are motivated by their disappointment in a company's attempts to fake social responsibility.

"There is emerging evidence that the hacking community is not homogenous, and at least some hackers appear to be motivated by what they dislike, as opposed to solely financial gain," said John D'Arcy, a co-author and professor of management information systems (MIS) at the University of Delaware. "Recent hacks against the World Health Organization, due to its actions (or supposed inactions) related to the COVID-19 pandemic, are a case in point."

D'Arcy and his coauthors, interested in exploring whether a firm's corporate social performance (CSP) impacts their likelihood of being breached, studied a unique dataset that included information on data breach incidents, external assessments of firms' CSP and other factors. The results, published on Sept. 18 in the Information Systems Research paper "Too Good to Be True: Firm Social Performance and the Risk of Data Breach," were intriguing.

The key to these results, D'Arcy explained, lies in understanding the difference between two different types of corporate social responsibility efforts: those that are more minor and peripheral (like recycling programs or charitable donations) versus those that involve social responsibility being embedded throughout the firm's core business and processes (like diversity initiatives and producing eco-friendly products).

Companies only participating in peripheral efforts and not more deeply embedded ones are sometimes called "greenwashing," attempting to give the appearance of social responsibility without infusing such practices throughout their entire organization. According to D'Arcy's research, firms that do this are more likely to face problems from hackers.

"An example of a firm that has been accused of greenwashing is Walmart," D'Arcy said. "This is because Walmart has touted its investments in charitable causes and environmental programs, but at the same time has been criticized for providing low wages and neglecting investments in employees' physical and psychological working environment."

The study found that hackers of all kinds -- from internal disgruntled employees to external hacktivist groups -- can "sniff out" these actions that only give the appearance of social responsibility. To an even further extent, when companies not only are trying to improve their image but also are using these actions to mask poor overall CSP, they are especially likely to be breached.

"Consequently, these firms are more likely to be victimized by a malicious data breach for these reasons," D'Arcy said. "Firms may be placing a proverbial target on their back, in an information security sense, by engaging in greenwashing efforts."

Conversely, the study found that when firms that engage in more embedded and meaningful forms of corporate responsibility, they are more likely to see solely positive outcomes. In this case, that means fewer hacks and data breaches.

"These same internal and external hackers are likely to see such embedded CSP efforts as genuine attempts at social responsibility (in other words, the company is 'walking its talk' when it comes to social responsibility) and thus they will be less likely to target these firms for a computer attack that results in a breach," D'Arcy said.

What lessons should companies take from this research? D'Arcy warned that companies should be cautious about promoting peripheral CSP efforts if they have otherwise poor records on corporate social issues.

"What was once accepted as meaningful CSP activity may no longer appease certain stakeholders," he said. "And in this era of increased information transparency and greater expectations of the firm's role in society, engaging in only peripheral actions may result in stakeholder backlash. Firms need to be cautious about promoting their CSP activities unless they can defend their actions as embedded in core practices and as authentically motivated."

###

 

Work bubbles can help businesses reopen while limiting risk of COVID-19 outbreaks

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Research News

 

Creating "work bubbles" during the COVID-19 pandemic can help reduce the risk of company-wide outbreaks while helping essential businesses continue to function, as the example of Bombardier Aviation demonstrates in an analysis published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

The need to keep essential businesses open during the pandemic has resulted in large outbreaks in factories and other locations where employees work in close proximity, jeopardizing the safety of employees and the community as well as disrupting supply chains.

"Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe work environment for their employees," says lead author Dr. Jeffrey Shaw, a critical care physician and fellow at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine, Calgary, Alberta. "Creating company cohorts, or work bubbles, can reduce the risk of a company-wide COVID-19 outbreak that could affect the larger community."

Bombardier Aviation example

The authors describe how Bombardier Aviation, a large Canadian company that employs 22 000 people at 7 factories across 4 provinces/states in Canada and the United States, adjusted to the pandemic. Most office staff worked from home, ensuring that only employees who built or supported aircraft delivery were on site. Essential employees were organized into cohorts that interacted only with each other to minimize contact with other staff.

Cohorts were organized on the principles that work bubbles should

• Include the least number of people required to do the job

• Be designed to allow business continuation if another work bubble is removed from the workforce

• Be strictly separated from other bubbles in time and/or space to prevent virus transmission between groups.

Scheduling rotating workdays and disinfecting shared spaces after use by a work bubble can ensure physical separation of employees. Daily symptom screening and rapid isolation of infected employees is also key to containing and preventing outbreaks.

"Adjusting our operational activities to the pandemic was challenging, but we are extremely proud of how proactive and efficient our teams were in adapting to their new working conditions. Keeping our employees safe is our number one priority," says coauthor Nancy Barber, COO, Industrialization, Footprint and Central Planning, Bombardier Aviation.

Despite some challenges, work bubbles offer benefits including

• Reducing the reproduction number of the disease

• Increasing efficiency of contact tracing

• Protecting employees from contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at work

• Increasing employee confidence in workplace safety

• Allowing for business to continue in the case of positive cases

"As we begin to relax the public health measures brought in to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Canada, we must think of how to limit the risk of becoming infected at work," says Dr. Shaw. "Using a work bubbles strategy can help businesses continue to function and ensure the safety of employees."

Listen to a podcast with coauthors Dr. Jeffrey Shaw and Hayley Wickenheiser discussing work bubbles and their practical application to factories, schools and sports.

###

"Working in a bubble: How can businesses reopen while limiting the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks?" is published September 30, 2020.

The article was written by authors from University of Calgary, Alberta; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; Bombardier Aviation, Montreal, Quebec; University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario; and Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Enforcement more effective than financial incentives in reducing harmful peat fires?

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Research News

 

A new study looking at incentives to reduce globally harmful peatland fires suggests that fear of enforcement and public health concerns influence behaviour more than the promise of financial rewards.

The findings come as wildfires devastate the US West Coast and Russian Arctic, and fire season begins in Australia, Indonesia and Brazil.

Led by the University of East Anglia (UEA), the research examined the intervention mix within a leading peat fire prevention programme in Indonesia and found that the incentives had little impact. Instead, communities responded more strongly to the deterrents of sanctions, such as fines, and to raised awareness about the negative health impacts of toxic smoke, or 'haze'. Indeed, fear of sanctions most consistently related to fire-free outcomes.

Indonesian peatlands are globally important for the carbon they store and help protect Southeast Asian biodiversity. However, they are undergoing rapid land-use change. They have been drained and frequently cleared using fire, often to enable the expansion of oil palm and acacia plantations.

Increasing fires are a leading environmental challenge, with impacts ranging from local infringements on public health, livelihoods and daily freedoms through the release of toxic haze, to regional economic losses and global burdens associated with climate change through carbon emissions.

With the fire season in Indonesia imminent, and a bad year in 2019, the authors say their findings have implications for future fire management interventions, including how to balance reward and sanction to ensure equitable and effective fire mitigation.

The study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, involved researchers from UEA, Lancaster University and the University of Cambridge, together with scientists from the US, France and Indonesia.

Lead author Dr Rachel Carmenta, from the Tyndall Centre and School of International Development at UEA, said: "Uncontrolled fires are increasing globally and the trend is predicted to continue. Humid tropical forests that wouldn't normally burn are now sites of extensive mega-fires. These include the Brazilian Amazon, which last year hit record highs, this year the Brazilian wetland ecosystem the Pantanal, which is suffering extensively from uncontrolled fires, and Indonesia's peat swamp forests, where extensive fires are now annual events.

"Our results highlight that incentives were less important than deterrents in shaping environmental outcomes. However, there was also no single pathway to fire-free outcomes, and combinations of interventions were particularly important in high fire risk situations.

"Previous research shows supporting small-scale farmers is the least controversial fire mitigation policy in Indonesian peatlands. But as we find in this study, even a scheme considered to depend heavily on incentives, in practice hinges on deterrents. This raises important equity concerns. While sanctions are effective, they may cause more damage to those most vulnerable and with least alternatives to fire dependence."

Intentional fires to clear land can more easily escape on peatland and result in extensive uncontrolled peat fires. The resulting toxic smoke is responsible for outdoor air pollution, with atmospheric particulate matter concentrations exceeding those considered extremely hazardous to health, and is linked to hundreds of thousands of public health cases.

Many solutions have been proposed, such as forest protection measures, moratoriums on peat expansion, and agricultural support. However, numerous programmes have largely failed, and what policy interventions to combine and how to align these to local conditions remains unclear.

To help address this, the researchers compared 10 Indonesian villages that participated in the Fire Free Village programme in Riau Province, Sumatra. The scheme is operated by a pulp and paper company to incentivise small-scale farmers living in communities adjacent to their acacia tree concession areas to reduce fire, and therefore the prevalence of uncontrolled fires.

If villages prevent local fires, they are rewarded with US$7,000 to support community projects. The programme includes interventions that focus on sanction and deterrent as part of the policy mix towards fire free outcomes.

The team found that effective combinations of interventions depend on the landscape context of the village. In villages with lower fire risk, a single intervention was enough to reduce fire, for example the threat of enforcement for illegal burning. In these villages people had more diverse livelihood options, most land was already being farmed - reducing the need to use fire - and people farmed on mineral soils, which do not burn.

In villages with far higher risks of fire escape, fire was reduced only where at least two methods were combined: feared enforcement and concern about the impacts of fire haze on their health. Again, incentives did not matter.

People in higher fire risk villages were primarily reliant on oil palm for their livelihood. Village areas were on larger extents of highly flammable peatland and much of the land area was not planted, so people were still clearing for agriculture.

###

'Evaluating bundles of interventions to prevent peat-fires in Indonesia', Rachel Carmenta, Aiora Zabala, Bambang Trihadmojo, David Gaveau, Mohammad Agus Salim,Jacob Phelps, is published in Global Environmental Change on October 1.

 

Untapped potential exists for blending hydropower, floating PV

DOE/NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY

Research News

 

Hybrid systems of floating solar panels and hydropower plants may hold the technical potential to produce a significant portion of the electricity generated annually across the globe, according to an analysis by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The researchers estimate that adding floating solar panels to bodies of water that are already home to hydropower stations could produce as much as 7.6 terawatts of potential power a year from the solar PV systems alone, or about 10,600?terawatt-hours of potential annual generation. Those figures do not include the amount generated from hydropower.

For comparison, global final electricity consumption was just over 22,300 terawatt-hours in 2018, the most recent year for which statistics are available, according to the International Energy Agency.

"This is really optimistic," said Nathan Lee, a researcher with NREL's Integrated Decision Support group and lead author of a new paper published in the journal Renewable Energy. "This does not represent what could be economically feasible or what the markets could actually support. Rather, it is an upper-bound estimate of feasible resources that considers waterbody constraints and generation system performance."

The article, "Hybrid floating solar photovoltaics-hydropower systems: Benefits and global assessment of technical potential," was co-authored by NREL colleagues Ursula Grunwald, Evan Rosenlieb, Heather Mirletz, Alexandra Aznar, Robert Spencer, and Sadie Cox.

Floating photovoltaics (PV) remain a nascent technology in the United States, but their use has caught on overseas where space for ground-mounted systems is less available. Previous NREL work estimated that installing floating solar panels on man-made U.S. reservoirs could generate about 10 percent of the nation's annual electricity production.

So far, only a small hybrid floating solar/hydropower system has been installed, and that is in Portugal.

NREL estimates 379,068 freshwater hydropower reservoirs across the planet could host combined floating PV sites with existing hydropower facilities. Additional siting data is needed prior to any implementation because some reservoirs may be dry during parts of the year or may not be otherwise conducive to hosting floating PV.

Potential benefits exist by coupling floating PV with hydropower. For example, a hybrid system would reduce transmission costs by linking to a common substation. Additionally, the two technologies can balance each other. The greatest potential for solar power is during dry seasons, while for hydropower rainy seasons present the best opportunity. Under one scenario, that means operators of a hybrid system could use pumped storage hydropower to store excess solar generation.

###

Funding for the research came from NREL's Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program.

NREL is the U.S. Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for the Energy Department by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy LLC.

 

Why do veterans take their own lives? New study finds surprising answers

A George Mason University study of US veterans found that while social determinants of health can predict suicide, they are not the cause of it -- mental illness is

GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: DR. FARROKH ALEMI, PROFESSOR OF HEALTH INFORMATICS, LED THE STUDY THAT FOUND THAT SOCIAL DETERMINANTS OF HEALTH ARE PREDICTORS OF SUICIDE OR SELF-HARM, BUT THEY ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE CAUSE.... view more 

CREDIT: GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States - and in some age groups, it's even higher - the second leading cause of death for those 10-34, and the fourth for those 35-54. Suicide among veterans continues to rise despite attempts to prevent it through resilience training, stress reduction, crisis centers, and a host of other interventions.

Despite widespread clinical screening, suicide is hard to predict, but a new George Mason University College of Health and Human Services study has found a way.

Dr. Farrokh Alemi, professor of health informatics, led the study published in Health Services Research in September in the Drivers of Health* theme issue.

Alemi and colleagues analyzed U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health record (EHR) data for a population of more than five million veterans. They looked at both medical and social determinants of health (SDOH) data, although SDOH data was less frequently reported.

"We found that social determinants of health, such as homelessness, divorce, unemployment, are predictors of suicide or self-harm, but they are not necessarily the cause. Mental illness causes both these adverse life events and suicide," explains Alemi. "Programs that reduce social risk factors may not reduce suicide and self-harm, unless they also address the root cause-- mental illness," explains Alemi.

They found that SDOH can predict suicide and self-harm on their own, yet medical history, such as diagnosis of major depression, psychosis, or history of self-harm, was an even better predictor than SDOH. The combined medical history and SDOH taken together were not a better predictor of suicide and self-harm than medical history alone.

"Frustration with the rise in suicides have led many to call for abandoning suicide prevention efforts. It seems to not work," explains Alemi. "Our study shows that risk modification efforts could be improved, and will have a larger impact, if they focus on medical issues such as use of antidepressants. Modifying SDOH will improve wellness but may not reduce suicide."

The researchers recommend additional study among larger groups of women and ethnic and racial groups to test the accuracy of these predictions in those groups, as this study used veteran data which includes primarily Caucasian male participants. They also encourage health care providers and claims processors to report SDOH, as these data may be able to help predict suicide, self-harm, and countless other conditions in the future. Finally, they point out that improving wellness, reducing isolation, is an important goal by itself, independent of whether it reduces suicides.

As a supplement to the study, the researchers also developed a Social Determinants of Illness index based on EHRs to assist in predicting impact of stressful life events on suicide.

###

The data used for this study was supported by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, grant number 1U01DP006299-01, Thrope, Lorna (PI).

View the companion Drivers of Health* blog post, "Want to Prevent Suicides? Understand Its Causes."

About George Mason University

George Mason University is Virginia's largest and most diverse public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls 38,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity and commitment to accessibility. For more information, visit https://www2.gmu.edu/.

About the College of Health and Human Services

George Mason University's College of Health and Human Services prepares students to become leaders and shape the public's health through academic excellence, research of consequence, community outreach, and interprofessional clinical practice. George Mason is the fastest-growing Research I institution in the country. The College enrolls 2,260 undergraduate and 1,645 graduate students in its nationally-recognized offerings, including: 5 undergraduate degrees, 13 graduate degrees, and 7 certificate programs. For more information, visit https://chhs.gmu.edu/.

*About Drivers of Health

Drivers of Health is a research and education project aimed at improving our understanding of the social determinants of health. It is run by the Harvard Global Health Institute, a research driven, university-wide entity that facilitates multidisciplinary, collaborative approaches to tackling global health challenges, and made possible with generous support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the United States' largest philanthropic organization devoted to health. Visit https://driversofhealth.org/ to learn more.

 

Natural capital a missing piece in climate policy

Accounting for the unique and long-term impacts of climate change

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - DAVIS

Research News

 

Clean air, clean water and a functioning ecosystem are considered priceless. Yet the economic value of nature remains elusive in cost-benefit analysis of climate policy regulations and greenhouse-gas-reduction efforts.

A study published today in the journal Nature Sustainability incorporates those insights from sustainability science into a classic model of climate change costs. Led by the University of California, Davis, the study shows that accounting for the economic value of nature has large implications for climate policy and that the cost of climate change could be partly alleviated by investing in natural capital.

"It may seem abstract, with terms like 'natural capital,' but these are real things," said senior author Frances Moore, a professor in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy. "What we're talking about is thousands of species being at high risk of extinction and large-scale changes to the ecosystem services we depend on for our lives and our economy. At the end of the day, this paper addresses some fundamental questions of how humans depend on nature for their wellbeing."

NATURAL CAPITAL AN ECONOMIC BUILDING BLOCK

Climate economic models typically represent the economy as made of two building blocks: human capital (labor) and manufactured capital, such as buildings and machines. This study incorporates a third building block--natural capital--which comprises the natural systems and healthy habitats for species. Natural capital translates into tangible benefits for people, such as erosion control, and intangible benefits, such as preserving forests for future generations.

"If lost, such natural processes cannot easily be replaced or substituted," said lead author Bernardo Bastien-Olvera, a Ph.D. candidate in the UC Davis Geography Graduate Group. "The associated economic costs of that loss are damaging in a way not currently represented in climate economic models or policy."

The authors found that under plausible assumptions about how natural capital supports economic production and human welfare, climate damage to natural systems warrants rapid mitigation. Most previous analysis has ignored the pathways by which natural systems support welfare and their unique vulnerability to climate change--potentially missing a critical piece of climate damages.

SOCIAL COST OF CARBON TOO LOW

Federal agencies use the "social cost of carbon" to represent the long-term damage done by a ton of CO2 emissions in a given year. The metric is widely used in cost-benefit analyses of climate and energy policy. Yet standard estimates only roughly account for ecological damages and do not fully account for the unique and long-term costs of climate impacts on natural systems. Because of this, the study finds that the federal social cost of carbon may well be far too low.

"With this new framework, we are more aware of the need to limit emissions," Bastien-Olvera said. "We calculate the emissions pathway that maximizes social welfare in the model. That pathway limits warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100, consistent with goals of the Paris Agreement. The clues keep leading us to the same conclusion--the need to urgently reduce emissions to limit warming."

###

This study was supported by the National Science Foundation, a Hellman Fellowship, a UC Davis John Muir Institute of the Environment Fellowship, and a Fulbright-García Robles Scholarship

 

Volunteers receiving government aid while unemployed face scrutiny, bias from public

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- With the worldwide spike in unemployment caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many people may turn to volunteerism as a way to pass their newly found free time. But new research suggests that volunteers who also receive government aid are often judged negatively as "wasting time" that could be used to find paid employment.

"We found that aid recipients are scrutinized to a greater extent than those who are working, including the underemployed, with observers demonstrating a strong bias toward believing that aid recipients should be using their time to pursue employment opportunities above all else," said Jenny Olson, an assistant professor of marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and corresponding author of the research forthcoming in the International Journal of Research in Marketing. "This is beyond education, personal leisure, and spending time with family and friends.

"As a result, they are given less latitude in how they use their time, and can even be seen as more moral for choosing not to engage in prosocial behaviors, when such behaviors take time away from gaining paid employment," Olson added. "The simple act of volunteering among aid recipients -- versus not mentioning volunteering -- not only shapes judgments of the individual aid recipients, but this information can also impact views toward federal tax policy more broadly."

Although volunteering is a positive activity that partially combats the negative stereotype of a welfare beneficiary, Olson and her colleagues found that it also sparks anger among observing consumers, with aid recipients being perceived as being "less moral for choosing to volunteer." Factors that minimize these judgments include being perceived as taking strides toward gaining employment via education and being perceived as unable to work.

Other co-authors of the paper, "How Income Shapes Moral Judgments of Prosocial Behavior," are Andrea Morales of Arizona State University, Brent McFerran of Simon Fraser University in Canada and Darren Dahl of the University of British Columbia. The research was supported in part by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

According to a 2019 report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, public spending on government assistance averaged more than 20 percent across 36 countries in 2018. Many countries -- including those in Asia, Europe, and the Americas -- have seen a rise in the number of people receiving benefits over the years, a total now reaching into the billions.

The extent to which the welfare state is supported depends, in no small part, on public sentiment. Previous research has shown that support for government spending on welfare programs is directly related to how the voting public perceives the beneficiaries. This is the first paper to document a link between prosocial behavior and support for federal spending on welfare programs.

"Given that individuals perceive opportunity costs for their own time, it stands to reason that they perceive them for others as well," Olson said. "Because government programs are supported by 'their' taxpayer dollars, observers often feel justified in suggesting how aid recipients spend their time."

The research shows that consumers prefer different patterns of tax redistribution as a function of viewing aid recipients making nonfinancial choices. Specifically, consumers support allocating fewer tax dollars toward supporting government assistance programs after hearing about an aid recipient who volunteers his time.

Researchers conducted nine studies across three countries. They randomly presented participants with scenarios about hypothetical aid recipients and asked them to offer judgment about how the recipients used their time, such as engaging in volunteer activities or sending out resumes. Participants were asked how they viewed target individuals on a morality index and how they felt about them emotionally.

###

 

Inequalities in premature deaths have increased between the rich and poor in Canada

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Research News

 

Socioeconomic inequalities in premature deaths in Canada have increased over the last 25 years, according to new research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"Although premature mortality rates have declined over time in Canada, those with lower levels of income and education have not benefitted equally from these overall improvements," says Dr. Faraz Vahid Shahidi, Institute for Work and Health, Toronto, Ontario, with coauthors. "As a result of these uneven gains, socioeconomic inequalities in premature mortality have increased in Canada."

To understand how socioeconomic inequalities in premature mortality have changed, researchers analyzed data on adults aged 25-74 years using the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohorts, which links information from Canada's long-form Census to the Canadian Mortality Database. The study covered the period between 1991 and 2016. Key metrics were socioeconomic status, measured using household income and education, and cause of death.

The relative risk of premature death associated with having a lower income or lower level of education increased steadily over the study period. For example, whereas men in the lowest income group were 110% more likely to die prematurely than their richer counterparts in 1991, they were 180% more likely to die prematurely in 2016. That inequality also increased for lower-income women, who were 70% more likely to die prematurely than their richer counterparts in 1991, but 150% more likely to die prematurely in 2016.

The findings are consistent with those of other international studies that showed increasing mortality gaps between the rich and poor in the United States and Europe.

"We believe that health inequalities are getting worse because underlying social and economic inequalities are getting worse," says Dr. Shahidi. "To resolve health inequalities, governments should pursue policies that will reduce the extent of social and economic inequality in our society, such as raising the minimum wage, improving job security, increasing social assistance rates, and improving access to benefits such as Employment Insurance."

"Trends in socioeconomic inequalities in premature and avoidable mortality in Canada, 1991-2016" is published September 28, 2020.

    SHARE

 PRINT

 

Study shows Massachusetts response to COVID-19 in nursing homes helped stem infection rate

State's innovative program can serve as a national model to ease the devastating impact of future pandemics like COVID-19 on frail nursing home residents

HEBREW SENIORLIFE HINDA AND ARTHUR MARCUS INSTITUTE FOR AGING RESEARCH

Research News

A paper just published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that adherence to infection control processes, especially proper wearing of personal protective equipment (PPE) and cohorting strategies, such as grouping residents based on their risk of infection or whether they tested positive for COVID-19, was significantly associated with declines in weekly infection and mortality rates.

Lewis A. Lipsitz, M.D., Director of the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research and Chief Academic Officer at Hebrew SeniorLife, was the lead author on the report, which analyzed the process and outcome of Massachusetts' novel state-wide COVID-19 infection control program developed to stem the rate of infection among vulnerable nursing home populations.

In April 2020, Massachusetts nursing homes became a hotspot for COVID-19 infections and associated deaths. In response, Governor Charles Baker allocated $130 million in additional nursing home funding for two months. Funding was contingent on compliance with a new set of care criteria, which included mandatory testing of all residents and staff, and a 28-point infection control check-list. The 28 items included:

• six core (must-pass) competencies related to cohorting of COVID-19 cases;
• closing of congregate spaces;
• training and demonstrated proficiency in the donning and removal of PPE;
• proper wearing of PPE;
• the presence of appropriate infection control policies; and
• the ability of staff to recognize and respond to the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

Within two days of the Governor's announcement, Hebrew SeniorLife and the Massachusetts Senior Care Association collaborated to rapidly organize a Central Command Committee and five teams responsible for:

• infection control consultation and training;
• PPE procurement; and
• staffing, testing, and data management.

Eighty nursing homes with previous infection control deficiencies, and 43 additional facilities that failed an initial State Executive Office of Health and Human Services audit, were deemed "special focus" for on-site and virtual consultations, and all Massachusetts facilities were offered weekly webinars and answers to questions regarding infection control procedures. The facilities were also informed by the Massachusetts Senior Care Association of available resources for the acquisition of PPE and back-up staff, and the Massachusetts National Guard was mobilized to provide universal testing.

Review and analysis of data collected from the program showed both resident and staff infection rates in special focus facilities rapidly declined to the same low level in both groups after facilities put recommended infection control interventions in place. For example, special focus resident infection rates declined from 10 percent (May 17) to approximately 0 percent (July 5).

"Massachusetts' innovative program was unprecedented in this country," said Dr. Lipsitz. "It helped long-term care providers increase their knowledge of, and access to, best infection control practices and reduce the risk of COVID-19 spread for both residents and staff."

Lou Woolf, President and CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife said, "We hope to see this intervention replicated in other states, appropriately funded, and sustained in all nursing homes, so that future waves of COVID-19, and other pandemics, can be prevented or mitigated."

"This study shows the importance of prioritizing surveillance testing, funding for wages, and PPE for nursing homes so that we can protect both our staff and our residents," said Tara Gregorio, President of the Massachusetts Senior Care Association. "Until a vaccine is approved and available widely, these remain our best defenses against COVID-19."

###

Co-authors on the study include Alyssa Dufour, Ph.D., and Laurie Herndon, G.N.P., from the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, Alida M. Lujan, M.B.A., M.P.A., from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School, Gary Abrahams and Helen Magliozzi from the Massachusetts Senior Care Association, and Mohammad Dar, M.D., from Massachusetts Medicaid (MassHealth).

About the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research

Scientists at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute seek to transform the human experience of aging by conducting research that will ensure a life of health, dignity, and productivity into advanced age. The Marcus Institute carries out rigorous studies that discover the mechanisms of age-related disease and disability; lead to the prevention, treatment, and cure of disease; advance the standard of care for older people; and inform public decision-making.

About Hebrew SeniorLife

Hebrew SeniorLife, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, is a national senior services leader uniquely dedicated to rethinking, researching, and redefining the possibilities of aging. Based in Boston, the nonprofit organization has provided communities and health care for seniors, research into aging, and education for geriatric care providers since 1903. For more information about Hebrew SeniorLife, visit http://www.hebrewseniorlife.org and our blog, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

About MSCA

The Massachusetts Senior Care Association represents a diverse set of organizations that deliver a broad spectrum of services to meet the needs of older adults and people with disabilities. Its members include more than 400 nursing and rehabilitation facilities, assisted living residences, residential care facilities, and continuing care retirement communities. Forming a crucial link in the continuum of care, Mass. Senior Care facilities provide housing, health care, and support services to more than 100,000 people a year; employ more than 50,000 staff members; and contribute more than $3.5 billion annually to the Massachusetts economy.

 

Research may curb economic losses to power plants after earthquakes

Texas A&M researchers have shown that electrical transformer bushing systems reinforced with steel are more resistant to damage.

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Sitting atop power transformers are wavy shaped bushing systems that play a critical role in supplying communities with electricity. However, these objects are also susceptible to breaking during earthquakes. Once damaged, bushings can cause widespread outages and burden the state with expensive repairs.

In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have shown that during high seismic activity, the structural integrity of bushing systems can be better maintained by reinforcing their bases with steel stiffeners. Also, by using probability-based loss assessment studies, they found that the economic burden due to damage to bushing systems from earthquakes is up to 10 times lower for steel-reinforced transformer bushing systems compared to other bushing configurations.

"Transformer bushing systems are vital to electrical substation networks, and these components are especially vulnerable in high-seismic regions, like in California or parts of the northeast," said Dr. Maria Koliou, assistant professor in the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. "We have conducted a full risk and loss assessment of the impact of damaged bushings in terms of cost and time to recovery for electrical power networks."

The details of the study are provided in the July issue of the journal Structure and Infrastructure Engineering.

An electrical bushing is a sleeve-like covering that surrounds a conductor carrying a high voltage electrical current. Generally found at close proximity to transformers or circuit breakers, these systems ensure that electric currents do not leak out of metal wires. Thus, bushings are made of insulators, porcelain in particular, and are filled with mineral oil.

Despite their ability to withstand strong electric fields, bushings are brittle and can crack easily in the event of high seismic activity. Consequently, any damage to them is an electrical hazard. More extensive structural injuries to the bushing system can cause widespread power outages and high replacement costs.

One possible way to mitigate damage and thereby repair is by strengthening the bushing with steel plates. Just like a strong foundation can improve a building's stability, steel flexural stiffeners as close as possible to the bushing base has been shown to improve bushing stability during earthquakes. However, Koliou said a more comprehensive analysis of the impact of seismic vulnerability on bushing systems in terms of recovery costs has been lacking.

To address this gap, Koliou and her graduate student, Andrew Brennan, conducted a probabilistic analysis to compare the economic losses incurred from the damage of bushings for different intensities of ground motions. They investigated bushings of different geometries representative of medium- and high-voltage scenarios. More importantly, some bushings had steel plate stiffeners and others did not in their original designs.

Koliou and Brennan found that the economic losses for the earthquake intensities considered in the study were 33-55% lesser when the bushings' bases are reinforced with steel plates. In fact, the expected annual losses for bushings without the steel stiffeners were at least 2.5-10 times larger when subjected to different ground motions.

"Our results show that steel stiffeners are effective at preventing bushings from damage, but what 'effective' means for a structural engineer can have little meaning for someone who is not. We wanted to generalize our findings in more practical terms for stakeholders other than engineers," said Koliou. "And so, we quantified the benefit of using steel stiffeners in terms of a dollar value and the time it would take to recover for a variety of earthquake scenarios, which is more easily interpretable."

###

 

Theater improvisation techniques show promising results for science classroom engagement

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY

Research News

 

A researcher at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has developed a unique method to improve class participation in a graduate-level thermodynamics course by incorporating theater improvisation activities in the classroom. Erin Lavik, associate dean for research and faculty development and professor of chemical, biochemical, and environmental engineering at UMBC, wanted to find a way to encourage better participation in a thermodynamics seminar, and thought that allowing students to warm up to each other through theater exercises might improve their confidence when discussing complex topics. Based on her case studies of class participation on days when improv activities were conducted and also on anonymous survey feedback from students, Lavik confirmed that the improv activities led to a higher rate of engagement and participation. The findings are published in Biomedical Engineering Education.

The research was conducted over the course of the Fall 2019, Spring and Summer 2020 terms, and the improvisation techniques were used both in person and digitally, after remote learning became the new normal. Lavik used a variety of improv games at the beginning of class periods. One example is "Yes, and," which encourages students to listen to each other and build upon what the previous person said in order to create a nonsensical story.

The importance of listening in this game fosters an attentive classroom. Everyone is expected to participate at least once in the story, which creates a community of students that are primed to pay attention and respond to one another easily. In the survey data that Lavik collected, students said that when the improv games took place, they felt more alert, engaged, and ready to participate.

These findings are situated in a larger body of evidence indicating that doing improvisation exercises can support alertness. Students who believe that they are able to improvise and think on their feet use that knowledge to reduce their anxiety both in their studies and in general. The positive reinforcement associated with the activities after their completion was intended to leave students feeling more comfortable talking and making mistakes in the course.

Now that most university instruction is taking place online, participation in seminars and discussions is more important than ever, but these platforms make it even less likely that students will participate actively. However, given that the improvisation activities can be done completely online and show promising initial results, Lavik believes that the technique might help to engage everyone more effectively.

"The improv exercises often led to laughter, especially the exercises that were inspired by thermodynamics," says Lavik. "It helps create an environment where it is ok to try out new ideas and experiment. It is easier to ask questions when people feel like they are part of a group."

The use of this interdisciplinary method has proven to be highly effective at engaging students and creating a classroom community, especially important given the common limitations of online learning. Providing a final note on the benefits of this project, Lavik says, "We can do a lot to augment learning by being creative across disciplines. This is just one example of why it is so important to talk across our expertise, sharing ideas and techniques across different fields."

###

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for th

 

Reusing tableware can reduce waste from online food deliveries

UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN

Research News

 

IMAGE: THIS IS A TYPICAL CHINESE MEAL THAT WAS ORDERED ONLINE AND INCLUDES PLASTIC TABLEWARE. view more 

CREDIT: ZHOU ET AL

Lifestyles in China are changing rapidly, and ordering food online is an example. However, those billions of delivery meals produce an enormous amount of plastic waste from packaging, but also from food containers and cutlery; in one year, some 7.3 billion sets of single-use tableware accompany the food. Around one-third of the 553 kilotons of municipal solid waste that is generated each day comes from packaging. That is why a group of scientists analysed whether using paper alternatives or reusable tableware could reduce plastic waste and associated life cycle emissions.

Alternatives

Ya Zhou (associate professor at Guangdong University of Technology) and Yuli Shan are the first authors of this paper. Yuli Shan, Dabo Guan (Professor at Tsinghua University) and Yanpeng Cai (Professor at Guangdong University of Technology) are the corresponding authors.

'We quantified the environmental impact and modelled different alternatives,' explains Shan. The alternatives to the single-use plastic tableware were single-use paper alternatives and reusable silicone tableware that is cleaned either by the restaurants that cook the food or in a central cleaning facility.

Paper substitution

Paper may sound like a good alternative since it can be degraded, but single-use polyethylene-coated paper containers and bags actually increased emissions and total waste volume. 'For those areas without paper waste collection and recycling systems, paper substitution is not the optimal option for addressing the takeaway packaging waste dilemma,' says Zhou. Reusable silicon tableware reduced plastic waste by up to 92 per cent, and environmental emissions (carbon, sulfur and nitrogen dioxides, small particulate matter, dioxins) and chemical oxygen demand) and water consumption by more than two-thirds.

Getting an environmentally friendly and, at the same time, safe system of reusable tableware up and running requires some investments. 'A central cleaning facility would be best, also for health inspections to ensure safety, but this requires a system for collecting the used sets.' That is not easy but also not impossible: 'However, it does need a government effort to realize this.'

Zero waste

The Chinese government is taking steps to drastically reduce waste, as the Nature Food paper explains. A number of initiatives have sought new solutions for municipal solid waste management and plastic reduction, including a sorting implementation plan, a 'zero-waste city' pilot programme that started last year and a nationwide single-use plastic ban as from January 2020.

Would it not be easier to deliver the food without tableware? It may be possible in some cases, but not for all takeaway orders, according to Shan: 'Most meals are not eaten at home but in the classroom, during lunch breaks or at the office, when employees work late.' Zhou added that 'reusing tableware provides a potential solution to reduce waste and emissions from takeaway meals and a new strategy for promoting sustainable and "zero-waste" lifestyles'.

###

Reference: Ya Zhou, Yuli Shan, Dabo Guan, Xi Liang, Yanpeng Cai, Jingru Liu, Wei Xie, Jinjun Xue, Zhuguo Ma & Zhifeng Yang: Sharing tableware reduces waste generation, emissions and water consumption in China's takeaway packaging waste dilemma. Nature Food, 15 September 2020