First meta-analysis shows promise for yoga, meditation, mindfulness in concussion

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

Research News

 

When Rebecca Acabchuk was studying mild traumatic brain injuries while working on her doctorate in physiology and neurobiology at UConn, she met a student athlete who had suffered multiple concussions.

"When I started doing research on concussions, people just started coming to me," Acabchuk says. "Families at my daughter's school, anytime somebody had a concussion, I would hear about it - I would hear these personal stories and all the struggles of people who had concussions and their symptoms just didn't resolve."

So it was for the student athlete, who told Acabchuk that she would experience seizures when a smoke alarm went off in her dormitory.

"All of these symptoms she would have to struggle with - really profound symptoms - are an invisible injury," says Acabchuk, who earned her PhD in 2016 and is now a post-doctoral fellow with UConn's Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, or InCHIP. "People think you should be better, the injury happened so long ago. Why aren't you better? And then more frustration comes in when your doctor says just to rest, there's nothing else that can be done, but you're still getting headaches or feeling fatigued or depressed."

Chronic concussion symptoms are notoriously difficult to treat. But Acabchuk - who is also a yoga instructor in Hebron, and has been teaching yoga for 17 years - is hoping that a recently published InCHIP study, the first-ever meta-analysis looking at the use of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness-based interventions for the effective treatment of chronic concussion symptoms, will offer hope to those still struggling with their symptoms. The study was recently published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being.

"This was really a passion project for me in the sense that it combines these two areas of interest, concussion work with yoga and meditation," says Acabchuk, who is the study's lead author. "We know from other studies that yoga and meditation may be helpful for reducing systemic inflammation, and we know that they are helpful for increasing self-compassion and reducing rumination if people are dealing with symptoms of depression."

Most studies looking at the effectiveness of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness on concussions have been small. For their meta-analysis, Acabchuk and her team pulled together data from 22 different studies, including both published and unpublished work, that all together included a total of 539 study participants, and looked at the impact of the three interventions on outcome categories - including mental health, physical health, cognitive performance, quality of life, and social/occupational performance - and on specific health outcomes, like depression, attention, anxiety, and fatigue. The team then applied advanced meta-analytical methods to compile and assess the results of those studies.

"The main results that we saw were significant reductions in depression and fatigue," Acabchuk says. "Especially with fatigue, it was a large effect size, which is impressive in the sense that fatigue is a difficult symptom for patients to deal with."

The meta-analysis found that mind-body interventions consistently provided symptom improvement across nearly all measured outcomes. The trends were remarkable, the researchers noted, because of the variety of patients enrolled in the studies, and the known difficulty of relieving chronic concussion symptoms.

Acabchuk says more and larger studies are needed to further investigate the benefits of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness in concussion treatment plans. She also says that more study is needed to help researchers and the general public understand the mechanisms by which these types of interventions promote healing and reduce concussion symptoms.

But importantly, including some sort of yoga, meditation, or mindfulness practice as part of a treatment plan for a mild traumatic brain injury appears to involve no adverse effects for the patient, she says - so there's little downside to giving it a try.

"Think of the brain almost like an ACL - if you tear your ACL, you're going to rest it, but you're also going to take steps to rehabilitate it," Acabchuk says. "If you think of the brain in that sense, a concussion is also like a rehabilitation injury in that, through rehabilitation, you can strengthen certain pathways in the brain. And we think the tools to help do that are breath-work, meditation, and mindful movement through poses from yoga."

She continues, "Maybe starting with a meditation app or online meditation group to learn the basics, and setting aside time to meditate 10 minutes a day. If you're a person who can't sit still, maybe yoga is better for you. If you're too tired at the end of the day, maybe a simple body scan with deep breathing exercises would be better for you. It's not going to be a miracle cure, but more of something that can provide benefits over time by incorporating these tools into daily life. I really do hope that this helps empower people who are struggling with their symptoms."

###

In addition to Acabchuk, coauthors of the study included principal investigator Blair T. Johnson and Crystal L. Park, both professors in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Psychological Sciences; Julie M. Brisson '22 (CLAS); Olivia A. Parmelee '19 (CLAS); and former InCHIP researcher Noah Babbott-Bryan.

For more information about InCHIP research and funding opportunities, visit chip.uconn.edu.

 

Big data saves lives, and patient safeguards are needed

UMass Amherst research recommends guidelines to instill public trust and better protect people with opioid use disorder

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Research News

 

IMAGE: ELIZABETH EVANS AND COLLEAGUES AT UMASS AMHERST STUDIED BIG DATA PRACTICES AT THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH'S PUBLIC HEALTH DATA WAREHOUSE, A MONITORING AND RESEARCH TOOL TO LINK... view more 

CREDIT: UMASS AMHERST

AMHERST, Mass. - The use of big data to address the opioid epidemic in Massachusetts poses ethical concerns that could undermine its benefits without clear governance guidelines that protect and respect patients and society, a University of Massachusetts Amherst study concludes.

In research published in the open-access journal BMC Medical Ethics, Elizabeth Evans, associate professor in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, sought to identify concerns and develop recommendations for the ethical handling of opioid use disorder (OUD) information stored in the Public Health Data Warehouse (PHD).

"Efforts informed by big data are saving lives, yielding significant benefits," the paper states. "Uses of big data may also undermine public trust in government and cause other unintended harms."

Maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Health, the PHD was established in 2015 as an unprecedented public health monitoring and research tool to link state government data sets and provide timely information to address health priorities, analyze trends and inform public policies. The initial focus was on the devastating opioid crisis.

"It's an amazing resource for research and public health planning," Evans says, "but with a lot of information being linked on about 98% of the population of Massachusetts, I realized that it could cause some ethical issues that have not really been considered."

In 2019, Evans and a team of her students and staff interviewed and conducted focus groups with 39 big data stakeholders, including gatekeepers, researchers and patient advocates who were familiar with or interested in the PHD. They discussed the potential misuses of big data on opioids and how to create safeguards to ensure its ethical use.

"While most participants understood that big data were anonymized and bound by other safeguards designed to preclude individual-level harms, some nevertheless worried that these data could be used to deny health insurance claims or use of social welfare programs, jeopardize employment, threaten parental rights, or increase criminal justice surveillance, prosecution, and incarceration," the study states.

One significant shortcoming of the data is the limited measurement of opioid and other substance use itself. "This blind spot and other ones like it are baked into big data, which can contribute to biased results, unjustified conclusions and policy implications, and not enough attention paid to the upstream or contextual contributors to OUD," says Evans, whose research focuses on how health care systems and public policies can better promote health and wellness among vulnerable and underserved populations. "We know that people have addiction for many years before they come to the attention of public institutions."

A goal of the PHD is to improve health equity; however, "given data limitations, we do not examine or address conditions that enable the [opioid] epidemic, a problem that ultimately contributes to continued health disparities," one focus group participant comments.

The study participants helped develop recommendations for ethical big data governance that would prioritize health equity, set topics and methods that are off-limits and recognize the data's blind spots.

Shared data governance might include establishing community advisory boards, cultivating public trust by instituting safeguards and practicing transparency, and conducting engagement projects and media campaigns that communicate how the PHD serves the greater good.

Special consideration should be given to people with opioid use disorder, the study emphasizes. "When considering big data policies and procedures, it may be useful to view individuals with OUD as a population whose status warrants added protections to guard against potential harms," the paper concludes. "It is also important to ensure that big data research mitigates vulnerabilities rather than creates or exacerbates them.

###

Seismic guidelines underestimate impact of 'The Big One' on metro Vancouver buildings

Older, tall buildings at greater risk

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Research News

 

Scientists examining the effects of a megathrust earthquake in the Pacific Northwest say tall buildings across Metro Vancouver will experience greater shaking than currently accounted for by Canada's national seismic hazard model.

The region lies above the Georgia sedimentary basin, which is made up of layers of glacial and river sediments sitting on top of sedimentary rock. In the event of an earthquake, it would jiggle and amplify the seismic waves, causing more intense and longer-lasting tremors. However, the amplification caused by the sedimentary basin is not explicitly accounted for in the 2015 seismic hazard model, which informs Canada's national building code.

The latest U.S. national seismic hazard model now explicitly accounts for sedimentary basin amplification, but Canada's latest seismic hazard model, released this October, still doesn't, says lead researcher Carlos Molina Hutt, a structural and earthquake engineering professor at UBC.

"As a result, we're underestimating the seismic hazard of a magnitude-9 earthquake in Metro Vancouver, particularly at long periods. This means we're under-predicting the shaking that our tall buildings will experience," he warned. "Fortunately, Natural Resources Canada, responsible for the development of our national seismic hazard model, recognizes the potential importance of basin effects in certain parts of Vancouver and is actively reviewing and participating in research on the topic. They intend to address basin effects in the next seismic hazard model."

Using physics-based computer simulations, the researchers found that regions where the Georgia Basin is deepest will have the greatest seismic amplification. Delta and Richmond will experience the most amplification, followed by Surrey, New Westminster, Burnaby, Vancouver and North Vancouver. West Vancouver, which sits just outside the basin, will have the least.

Older, tall buildings at greater risk

The researchers also evaluated the impact of the magnitude-9 simulations on tall reinforced concrete shear wall buildings, of which there are more than 3,000 located in the Lower Mainland. They found that those built to building codes from the 1980s and earlier are at the greatest risk of severe damage or even collapse, with buildings in the 10- to 20-storey range experiencing the worst impacts.

"We have these pockets of tall buildings within the Georgia Basin--in Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey and New Westminster. In general, based on a comparison of the code requirements in the past versus the code requirements now, many of our older buildings are vulnerable to these large earthquakes, particularly if we consider the amplification effect of the Georgia Basin," said Molina Hutt. The differences in expected performance between new buildings and older constructions reflects continuous improvements in seismic hazard estimates and engineering design provisions.

"When we build a structure, it only needs to meet the code of the time when it was built. If there is a future change in the code, you don't have to go back and upgrade your building. To address vulnerable existing buildings, jurisdictions must explore different seismic risk reduction policy options and adopt the most effective mitigation strategies," Molina Hutt added.

The study, published recently in Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics, notes that concrete is the predominant construction material for buildings taller than eight storeys in the city of Vancouver, constituting 90 per cent of a total 752 buildings identified. Of these, more than 300 are reinforced concrete shear wall constructions that pre-date 1980.

"Typically, people think that, if we have a magnitude-9 Cascadia subduction zone earthquake, it will be worse in Victoria, because they're closer to the seismic source. But the reality is that, for tall buildings, we're going to be worse off in Vancouver, because this basin amplifies the shaking in taller structures," Molina Hutt noted. The probability of a magnitude 8 or 9 Cascadia earthquake is estimated to be 14 per cent in the next 50 years.

"We're collaborating closely with our neighbours to the south, who are taking active steps to account for these basin amplification effects," said Molina Hutt. "Our work attempts to assess the impacts of neglecting these effects so we can appreciate their significance and take action."

###

"Impacts of simulated M9 Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquakes considering amplifications due to the Georgia sedimentary basin on reinforced concrete shear wall buildings" was published recently in Earthquake Engineering & Structural Dynamics. https://doi.org/10.1002/eqe.3361

 

Earthquake scenario for large German city

The GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences helps with the question of what to expect in the event of a major earthquake near Cologne contributing to the government's "Risk Analysis in Civil Protection 2019"

GFZ GEOFORSCHUNGSZENTRUM POTSDAM, HELMHOLTZ CENTRE

Research News

IMAGE: CITY OF COLOGNE: PROBABILITIES OF OCCURRENCE OF NO (LEFT), WEAK (MIDDLE), OR STRONG (RIGHT) DAMAGE PER BUILDING. OF THE ESTIMATED 170,000 RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS IN THE CITY, WE ESTIMATE THAT MORE... view more 

CREDIT: GFZ

What if there is a major earthquake near Cologne? This scenario is the subject of the "Risk Analysis in Civil Protection 2019", whose report was recently submitted to the German Bundestag (document: Bundestag Drucksache 19/23825). In the 125-page document, a group of experts has listed in detail, on the basis of extensive research work, what effects can be expected in the event of strong ground movements. What Germans usually only know from TV and media reports from other countries is the result of a modeling of a strong earthquake near the megacity of Cologne: ground shaking, damaged and destroyed houses, blocked roads, many injured and dead.

The German Research Center for Geosciences GFZ and its researchers played a central role in this analysis. The GFZ had the task of modeling the ground movements caused by such an earthquake and quantifying possible damage to the city's buildings. In particular, new geophysical models for the Lower Rhine Bay were developed to estimate the influence of the near-surface layers of the subsoil on ground movements. The researchers created a "building-by-building" model of the city in order to quantify the number and vulnerability of buildings that could be affected by the earthquake.

A massive earthquake in the Lower Rhine Bay with a magnitude of 6.5, as assumed for the underlying scenario, is quite possible. The GFZ expert for historical earthquakes, Gottfried Grünthal, says: "Statistical analyses show that an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.5 is to be expected in the Lower Rhine Bay approximately every hundred to three hundred years. A quake with a magnitude of 6.5 is to be expected approximately every 1000 to 3000 years.

Marco Pilz, scientist of the GFZ section earthquake hazard and dynamic risks, describes the fictitious initial situation: "At a depth of only a few kilometers, a tectonic fault ruptures in the Lower Rhine Bay. Only seconds later the shock waves reach the surface and the nearby city of Cologne. The ground starts to shake, buildings creak and sometimes collapse, streets are blocked by falling debris. Good knowledge of the local underground conditions has shown us that these conditions must be taken into account for an accurate modeling of the shaking".

Based on this, a building-related damage assessment suggests that major impacts can be expected in the city of Cologne. "Old buildings are likely to be particularly affected, so that the distribution of damage in the city area could be quite heterogeneous," adds Cecilia Nievas, a researcher from the same section. "Of the estimated 170,000 residential buildings in the city, more than 10,000 could suffer moderate to severe damage according to our calculations".

The further effects, for example on utilities, are more difficult to assess and require detailed investigations: How many hospitals are affected, what capacities remain for the treatment of the injured, and how well do emergency services reach affected regions? GFZ-researcher Pilz: "Although we at GFZ had contributed a large part to this risk analysis, what was remarkable about the cooperation was the involvement of many experts from federal and state authorities, the district government, the affected districts, the cities and their immediately affected services such as the fire department, THW, railroads and energy suppliers. Everyone has worked together, from the very top down to the local level".

Section head Fabrice Cotton adds: "It was a very productive exchange of information. The elaboration of such scenarios is important because they provide an effective tool for dialogue with the authorities and for understanding their needs when planning relief operations. Such exercises can also help to gain a complete overview of the entire seismic risk chain (from the physics of the earthquake to its effects) and to work at the interface between different scientific disciplines (e.g. here between seismology and civil engineering)".

Biden Stokes First Nomination Fight With Pick for Budget Chief


(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Joe Biden is setting up his first confirmation fight with Senate Republicans by choosing Neera Tanden -- a sometimes-acerbic Democratic policy wonk with an often-partisan Twitter feed -- to serve as his White House budget chief.

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 26: Neera Tanden, president, Center for American Progress, speaks at the “Impeachment Now!” rally in support of an immediate inquiry towards articles of impeachment against U.S. President Donald Trump on the grounds of the U.S. Capital on September 26, 2019in Washington, DC. 

(Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty Images for MoveOn Political Action)

Tanden, the tough-minded head of an influential Democratic think tank, is a veteran Hillary Clinton aide seasoned in Washington battles over Obamacare and Donald Trump’s presidency. Her selection Monday as Biden’s nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget drew swift objections from GOP senators who could block her confirmation, with Senator John Cornyn of Texas calling her selection “radioactive.”

“Most Republicans are open to any reasonable nominee by the incoming administration,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill. “We’re prepared to try to work with the vice president once the vote’s certified, but she certainly strikes me as his worst nominee so far.”

Republicans have so far refrained from voicing outright opposition to Biden’s other intended nominees, including former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to be Treasury secretary, or Antony Blinken for secretary of State. Yet they are drawing the line with Tanden, 50, who will be formally introduced to the public along with other economic team nominees by Biden during an event Tuesday in Wilmington, Delaware.

Tanden was one of six nominees Biden announced Monday for his economic team, including Yellen, Cecilia Rouse to be chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Jared Bernstein and Heather Boushey to be members of the CEA, and Adewale Adeyemo for deputy Treasury secretary. He has also picked Brian Deese to lead the National Economic Council in the White House, according to people familiar with his plans.

Read More: Biden Fills Yellen-Led Economy Team, Risks Clash on Budget Chief

Tanden has been an outspoken backer of Democrats on Twitter and cable news channels, a role that is helping fuel the vehemence of Republican opposition. She tweeted “Love it,” when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was tagged “Moscow Mitch” for blocking legislation to protect elections from foreign interference and criticized Republican Senator Susan Collins for a “pathetically bad faith argument” in supporting confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

The Biden transition team recommended Tanden knowing that she would provoke Republican lawmakers, said a person familiar with the matter, but didn’t want to shrink from nominating someone they considered highly qualified.

The team plans to promote her personal story as part of their pitch that Biden’s economic advisers will understand the problems of working-class and poor people and work to reduce wealth inequality. The daughter of Indian immigrants, she was raised by a single mother who for part of Tanden’s childhood depended on federal housing assistance and food stamps.

Tanden didn’t return phone or email messages. Like other Biden transition officials, she referred to her mother’s time on public assistance in a statement she posted on Twitter.

“After my parents were divorced when I was young, my mother relied on public food and housing programs to get by,” Tanden said. “Now, I’m being nominated to help ensure those programs are secure, and ensure families like mine can live with dignity. I am beyond honored.”

The OMB director is responsible for overseeing the president’s annual budget and usually is one of the administration’s main negotiators with Congress on spending legislation. OMB also has extensive authority over federal agencies’ regulatory power, reviewing proposed rule changes on behalf of the White House.

Tanden’s nomination is a departure in a post that, especially early in a new administration, has often gone to people who spent years enmeshed in the intricacies of the congressional budgeting process such as Leon Panetta, who led the House Budget Committee for four years before Bill Clinton nominated him, and Peter Orszag, who was director of the Congressional Budget Office when chosen by Barack Obama.

Yet Tanden brings a firm grounding in health policy at a time when the expansions in coverage Biden seeks may depend on her undoing federal regulations that Trump used to undercut Obamacare. Her years as the director of the Center for American Progress think tank, founded during the George W. Bush administration to promote liberal policies, also have placed her in the middle of the party’s debates.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, likely to be chairman of the Budget Committee that would have to first confirm Tanden, predicted an “uphill” battle.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” he said. “She had a lot to say. Going to be a long hearing.”

Collins, whose support is key to getting 51 votes in a GOP Senate, said, “I do not know her much about her but I’ve heard that she’s a very prolific user of Twitter,” and declined further comment.

Tanden wouldn’t be the first political choice for the job. Trump selected Republican Congressman Mick Mulvaney, a founding member of the conservative Freedom Caucus and a follower of the Tea Party movement as his budget director, setting a precedent for the job to go to a fierce partisan warrior.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York scoffed at “overblown complaints” about Tanden’s past criticisms of Republicans.

“Honestly, the hypocrisy is astounding,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “If Republicans are concerned about criticism on Twitter, their complaints are better directed at President Trump.”
Clinton Ties

Tanden’s long connection with the Clinton family, stretching back to Bill Clinton’s White House and including roles as a policy adviser in Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign and 2008 presidential campaign, also have led to tangles with progressives in the party.

Senator Bernie Sanders, a former Democratic presidential candidate, sent a scathing letter in 2019 to the board of the Center for American Progress after a publication associated with the organization produced a video that went viral mocking Sanders for his status as a millionaire despite vilifying the wealthy in his campaigns. He accused Tanden of “maligning my staff and supporters and belittling progressive ideas.”

Sanders press representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment. A spokeswoman for Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, another progressive former presidential candidate, said she would back Tanden’s confirmation. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who also ran in this year’s Democratic presidential contest, extolled her in a Twitter post as “brilliant and laser-focused on making our country a fairer place for all.”

Tanden quickly moved past the bad blood in the 2008 Democratic primaries to shift from Clinton’s campaign to a role as chief domestic policy adviser to Obama in the general election. She was closely involved in the struggle for Obamacare as a senior adviser for health reform at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Biden’s incoming White House chief of staff, Ron Klain was closely involved in the Center for American Progress, including holding a position on the board of its affiliated action fund, and developed a high opinion of Tanden, said a person familiar with the transition.

For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Calgary hospitals told to conserve oxygen, 

but doctors fear request is a red flag

© Submitted by AHS/Leah Hennel 

Staff on the ICU unit at Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary are pictured in this file photo from April 17, 2020.

Alberta Health Services says a memo urging Calgary hospital staff to reduce use of oxygen is a proactive response to an anticipated increase in demand as COVID-19 hospitalizations climb.

But some doctors say the request is concerning and not something they've seen before.

"Due to the limitations of the bulk oxygen systems at some adult acute care sites in Calgary and the expected increase in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to reduce the demand on the bulk oxygen system," wrote Calgary zone respiratory program leads Carmella Steinke and Dr. Jonathan Gaudet on Friday.


Bulk oxygen refers to how oxygen is stored in a large volume in hospitals in liquid form. It is delivered to each patient's room by pipes — almost like tap water.

"Clinical measures require everyone to engage in oxygen conservation measures immediately."

The memo advises doctors and nurses to assess patients to see if their oxygen use can be reduced and to "target the lowest tolerable" levels of oxygen saturation in a patient's blood.

It said the sites most affected are Foothills Medical Centre, Rockyview General Hospital, and Peter Lougheed Centre, all of which currently have COVID-19 outbreaks.

Dr. David Zygun, Edmonton zone medical director for Alberta Health Services, said during Monday's provincial COVID-19 update that the memo was part of an "anticipatory" plan to make sure there are ample resources.

An AHS spokesperson told CBC that Calgary has an adequate supply of oxygen to meet patient's needs, and that any limitation is not in the oxygen supply itself but instead in the capacity of the pipes that deliver oxygen from a centralized source.

"The O2 monitoring and conservation memo circulated was to remind clinicians to provide oxygen therapy in an evidence-informed, responsible manner and to be proactive in safeguarding the resource recognizing that we anticipate a potential increase in patients in need of oxygen therapy," AHS said.

Infrastructure upgrades on the system are underway to be completed by June next year, and AHS said in the meantime it's working with health-care providers to appropriately conserve oxygen resources.
'Restrictions are alarming'

However, Dr. Kerri Johannson said the memo was a first in her 15 years working as a pulmonary medicine specialist in Calgary.

"These restrictions are alarming in that we've never been asked to ration or limit oxygen in an acute care setting before," said Johannson, who is also a clinical assistant professor in the departments of medicine and community health sciences at the University of Calgary.

Johannson said the measures the memo calls for likely don't pose any harm to patients, but they do show strain on the health-care system.

"Oxygen is fundamental supportive care for many hospitalized patients and certainly in patients with COVID-19. So I think while these current measures seem reasonable and I don't think they're compromising patient safety, they raise a major red flag in that we don't know what's going to be rationed next. We've heard of doubling up of ICU beds happening in Edmonton," she said.

"I think what this signifies to me is just the fact that we plan for a certain volume of health-care delivery and in usual times, this would not be a problem."

NDP Opposition health critic David Shepherd told the house on Monday that the memo indicates a reason for concern.

"Even as our hospitals are packed full of the critically sick, AHS is running short on oxygen," he said.

Health Minister Tyler Shandro responded saying that was not the case, and that the memo represented a contingency plan and something that happens "often throughout any given year."

On Monday there were 453 people in hospital and 96 in intensive care in the province.

Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency doctor and clinical assistant professor at the University of Calgary, said with the number of patients in hospital doubling every few weeks, the system will hit pinch points.

"I am concerned because I don't know what the future holds," he said.

GM sent back to drawing board after most South Korea union members reject labour deal

By Heekyong Yang 


 

© Reuters/KIM HONG-JI 

The logo of GM Korea is seen at an its plant in Incheon

SEOUL (Reuters) - General Motors Co, which has long struggled with labour relations in South Korea, will have to renegotiate a preliminary labour deal after a majority of union members voted against it.

Only about 45% of members were in favour of an agreement reached with union negotiators last week for each member to receive a lump sum payment of 4 million won ($3,615) by early 2021, a union official said on Tuesday.

The union stepped up demands this year as wages have been frozen since 2018, when the U.S. automaker received a state-backed rescue package to stay in the country.

GM has rejected employee demands to raise the retirement age by five years to 65 and to build more vehicles at one of its South Korean plants.

The two sides have had 24 rounds of negotiations since July and GM's South Korean workers staged two four-hour strikes daily over 14 days last month in protest.

That has cost the automaker about 25,000 vehicles in lost production, according to an official at GM's Korea unit, which comes on top of some 60,000 units lost earlier in the year due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

This month, the automaker issued its strongest warning yet that the unrest could in the long term drive it out of the country.

(Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple reportedly lobbied to weaken a bill aimed at preventing them from manufacturing products in China using forced Uighur labor

tsonnemaker@businessinsider.com (Tyler Sonnemaker) 

© REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Hong Kong protesters rally in support of Xinjiang Uighurs' human rights in Hong Kong, China, December 22, 2019. 

Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple were among the companies that lobbied to weaken a bill aimed at banning US firms from relying on Chinese forced labor, The New York Times reported Sunday.

HSBC, American Apparel, and several industry groups also lobbied on the bill, which would ban many goods imported from Xinjiang unless companies prove they weren't made with forced labor.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, as it's called, passed the House in September by a 406-3 margin, and according to The New York Times, has the support needed to pass the Senate.

Various reports have linked Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple, and other major US companies to suppliers in the region, where China has been accused of detaining and violating the rights of as many as one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.

Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple all sought to weaken proposed legislation aimed at barring US companies from relying on the forced labor of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China's Xinjiang region, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would ban US companies from importing a wide range of goods made in Xinjiang, where China has been accused of mass human rights violations unless companies can prove that the goods weren't made using forced labor.

The bill passed the House in September by a margin of 406 to 3, and aides told The Times that it has enough support to pass the Senate.

Other companies and trade groups, including HSBC, American Apparel, the National Retail Federation, and the US Chamber of Commerce also lobbied on the bill, according to lobbying disclosure forms.

None of the above organizations responded to a request for comment on this story.

Apple took issue with the claim that it tried to water down the bill in a statement to The Times.

Nike's global communications director, Greg Rossiter, told The Times that the company "did not lobby against" the bill but rather had "constructive discussions" with congressional staffers.

Coca-Cola told The Times in a statement that it "strictly prohibits any type of forced labor in our supply chain."

The US Chamber of Commerce declined to comment to The Times. It instead referred it to a letter it and other groups wrote in November, saying they supported addressing forced labor.

Human rights groups, media reports, and other independent researchers have extensively documented China's mass surveillance and detainment of as many as one million Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minority groups in internment camps, where reports allege they are subjected to torture, sexual abuse, and forced labor for little or no pay.

In March, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which estimated that 80,000 Uighurs have been forcibly relocated to factories across China, found evidence of forced Uighur labor at four separate factories in Apple's supply chain as well as the supply chains of Nike, BMW, and Amazon.

Also in March, the Congressional-Executive Commission said in a report that Nike and Coca-Cola, as well as major brands such as Adidas, Campbell Soup, Costco, H&M, Kraft Heinz, Patagonia, and Tommy Hilfiger, were suspected of relying on forced Chinese labor.

Nike claimed in a March statement that it "does not source products" from Xinjiang and that it "confirmed with our contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region." Nike also told The Times that a factory in Qingdao that makes its shoes stopped using Uighur labor in 2019, though the ASPI report, citing Chinese state media, found that 800 Uighurs were still forced to work there as of November 2019.

Coca-Cola told The Times that a COFCO Tunhe plant in Xinjiang — that The Wall Street Journal reported last year was using forced labor — passed an independent audit in 2019 as well.

Amid growing bipartisan support for punishing China over the alleged human rights abuses, as well as holding companies accountable for exploiting it, US lawmakers introduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act earlier this year. The bill could force companies — especially those with substantial supply chains in China, such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple — to make major changes to how and where they manufacture their products, and is viewed as having more teeth than current laws.

In response, many companies have sought to weaken the disclosure and compliance requirements proposed in the bill.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Apple had lobbied against the bill, and according to The Times, the tech giant pushed for longer deadlines to reach compliance, less disclosure to the general public, and putting more onus on the US government to assess whether Chinese entities are complicit in the oppression of Muslims.

Apple, Nike, and Coca-Cola have over the years been accused by human rights groups of a variety of labor abuses and worker exploitation, particularly in China. They have also made various pledges and taken some steps to address that criticism.

Monitoring that, however, has become difficult. Five major auditing groups hired by Western firms told The Wall Street Journal in September that they are no longer carrying out supply chain inspections in China because restrictions imposed by government officials have made it too difficult to effectively and independently evaluate working conditions in the country.
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Biden urged to pick California attorney who fought sweatshop slavery as new head of Labor Department

cdavis@insider.com (Charles Davis) 

California Labor Secretary Julie Su is photographed at her home in Cerritos, California. Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California labor activists are asking President-elect Joe Biden to select Julie Su as his Secretary of Labor.

Su, once dubbed the "bane of deadbeat employers," has served as California's Labor Secretary since 2019.

Previously, Su served as the state's labor commissioner. She also co-founded the group Sweatshop Watch.

"Thinking about Julie Su as Secretary of Labor is almost a physical sense of relief," one source in the labor movement told Business Insider.

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Labor organizers in Southern California are pushing President-elect Joe Biden to pick a progressive, hometown hero for Labor Secretary, arguing that the state's top labor official — an anti-sweatshop campaigner dubbed the "bane of the deadbeat employer" — is supremely qualified to protect workers' rights during the pandemic.


Julie Su has served in statewide office since 2011, when former Gov. Jerry Brown picked her to lead the state's enforcement of labor laws. Before that, at the age of 26, she represented dozens of undocumented Thai workers who were effectively enslaved at a garment factory outside Los Angeles, a landmark case that prompted federal and state efforts to combat human trafficking; that work was cited by the MacArthur Foundation, which awarded her its "genius" award in 2001.

As labor commissioner, Su turned the state's under-resourced team of worker advocates into "what could be the most aggressive and effective state labor law enforcement division in the country," according to a 2013 report from In These Times, a progressive magazine.

Under Su's reign, California sought the largest-ever judgment against an employer in state history, assessing almost $12 million in citations against a construction company. "[E]mployers who steal from workers will end up paying for it," she said at the time.

In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom promoted her to Secretary of Labor, a role that has seen her oversee worker safety and unemployment checks amid a pandemic and recession — experience her advocates believe has well prepared her to do the same on a larger scale.

"Workers, especially workers of color, are hurting across the country," Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles, told Business Insider. "They need and deserve someone with a demonstrated record of leadership and expertise in fighting for working individuals and families, and Julie's record is exemplary."

 Julie Su received a 2001 "genius" grant from the MacAuthur Foundation for her efforts to protect undocumented immigrant workers. 

Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

As Bloomberg Law reported last week, Su's odds for a cabinet pick have been aided by a split in union support among contenders who are better known on the national stage, such as US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Andy Levin. "I think she's very, very viable," Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, a supporter, told Bloomberg. "She's really been a warrior for us."

But, the outlet noted, a lack of public support from organized labor has also been one factor hindering Su's candidacy.

A letter sent to the president-elect on Sunday aims to address that gap.

"It is a critical time for women's leadership and we need a strong woman as US Secretary of Labor, especially a woman of color who understand what it's like to grow up in an immigrant household," states the letter signed by Dolores Huerta, the famed farm worker organizer, and the leaders of groups such as the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.

"She fully enforced the rights of farm workers, janitors, and domestic workers," the letter says. "In short, Su has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative policies and enforcement strategies in our state's history.

A senior staffer at a national labor organization, requesting anonymity to speak freely, said a Su cabinet post would be seen as a big win for the labor movement.

"Thinking about Julie Su as Secretary of Labor is almost a physical sense of relief," the source told Business Insider. She's spent years leading enforcement in the world's fifth-largest economy and before that fought for workers' rights as an activist exposing labor conditions in the garment industry.

"She is widely respected as a labor rights and civil rights attorney, so she truly 'speaks the language' of workers' issues," the source said, noting she is also fluent in both Spanish and Mandarin.

Su "will walk in that door fully capable, ready to work, and without any serious shadows of past transactional relationships or controversies," they added.

 

Robot probes the Red Sea's carbon storage system

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)

Research News 

IMAGE: BY STUDYING THE FATE OF ORGANIC CARBON IN THE RED SEA, KAUST RESEARCHERS HOPE TO REFINE MODELS THAT PREDICT THE CARBON SINK CAPACITY OF THE WORLD'S OCEANS IN THE FUTURE.... view more 

CREDIT: © SUSANN ROSSBACH

Warming waters and oxygen depletion in the Red Sea could slow the flow of organic carbon from the surface into the deep ocean where it can be stored, out of reach of the atmosphere. A KAUST team has used an underwater robot to investigate the little-studied mesopelagic, or "twilight," zone, at depths of between 100 and 1000 meters.

The oceans absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere each year that either dissolves or is transformed into organic carbon by plants and phytoplankton in the sunlit shallows (0 - 100m). Most of this organic carbon is converted back into CO2 by microorganisms as it falls through the mesopelagic zone, but some of it eventually sinks into the deep ocean, where it can remain for centuries.

Understanding what controls the fate of organic carbon at different depths could help scientists predict how the oceans will absorb and store atmospheric CO2 in the future. Malika Kheireddine and her team used an underwater robot equipped with bio-optical sensors to measure particulate organic carbon (POC) variations between the surface and the bottom of the mesopelagic zone in the northern Red Sea, where sea temperatures are rising particularly fast. "The Red Sea offers unrivalled opportunities as a natural laboratory for studying the impact of climate change on the fate of organic carbon," says Kheireddine.

Throughout 2016, the device also measured water temperature, salinity, density and oxygen concentrations. "Our observations allowed us to estimate the rates at which POC is converted back into CO2 by marine microorganisms," explains Giorgio Dall'Olmo, a co-author from the UK National Centre for Earth Observation, "and how these microorganisms are affected by temperature and oxygen levels."

In the Red Sea's warm and oxygen-starved waters, the conversion occurred mainly in the shallowest, most productive layer of the mesopelagic zone; only 10 percent of POC sank below 350 meters. "The conversion rates could be expressed as a function of temperature and oxygen concentration," adds Kheireddine, "which could help us predict how climate change will affect these rates in the future."

The team was surprised to find that more than 85 percent of POC was broken down within a few days of entering the mesopelagic zone, whereas the rest drifted for weeks to months before being consumed. There are multiple drivers of organic carbon transfer and transformation in tropical seas.

"Underwater gliders in the Red Sea are collecting continuous data that could reveal the effects of physical processes, such as eddies and coastal currents, on these biogeochemical processes," says group leader Burton Jones, a marine scientist at KAUST.

"The fate of organic carbon in the oceans affects the global climate," says Kheireddine. "Our findings will help refine models showing whether the amount of carbon sinking in the ocean is increasing or decreasing." The deeper organic carbon sinks before it is converted to CO2, the longer it is likely to remain there, locked away from the atmosphere.

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Men tuning into Insta-spiration

Clothed or bare-chested, is influence growing?

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: FLINDERS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY MARIKA TIGGEMANN. view more 

CREDIT: FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

New research confirms men and teens are affected by Instagram influencers who set global benchmarks for ideal body shape, fashion and even facial trends.

While perhaps not as focused on 'thinness' as women appear to be from female influencers, the Flinders University study confirms males are responding to the body image and fitness messages shared by Instagram leaders, some with millions of followers.

This may mean men are less exposed to some of the negatives of social media but confirms the influence of fitspiration ('fitspo') and body image on this online platform, says psychology Professor Marika Tiggemann and Isabella Anderberg in a new paper in Body Image.

"Despite the rise in use of social media, there haven't been many studies into its effect on men and our new study found there are similarities and differences between women and men," says lead author Professor Tiggemann, who has extensively researched the power of social media images on body image, eating and other behaviours in women.

"While participants all had some vulnerable responses to some types of social media imagery, results typically obtained for women cannot simply be generalised to men."

Co-author Isabella Anderberg says the new study shows there is a high level of response to fitspiration goals via Instagram influencers.

"It is interesting that both the fitspiration and fashion images made participants feel more inspired to exercise, and we have certainly seen a rise in men following international fitspo and professional sporting hero influencers."

The Flinders research studied responses from 300 US adult men aged 18-30 who were randomly shown images of bare-chested (fitspiration), clothed (fashion) and control images, similar to those posted by Instagram influencers.

It was found that exposure to bare-chested and muscular images resulted in significantly lower body satisfaction relative to viewing clothed fashion images or scenery images.

"It's important to expand this research, including on the 'Brotox' facial ideals set in social media which is leading to more men reportedly using skin products and even cosmetic fillers and botox to keep up to influencers," Ms Anderberg adds.

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The new paper, Muscles and bare chests on Instagram: The effect of Influencers' fashion and fitspiration images on men's body image (2020) by Marika Tiggemann and Isabella Anderberg has been published in Body Image DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.10.001 Volume 35, December 2020, Pages 237-244

 

Area burned by severe fire increased 8-fold in western US over past four decades

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

Research News

 

WASHINGTON--The number of wildfires and the amount of land they consume in the western U.S. has substantially increased since the 1980s, a trend often attributed to ongoing climate change. Now, new research finds fires are not only becoming more common in the western U.S. but the area burned at high severity is also increasing, a trend that may lead to long-term forest loss.

The new findings show warmer temperatures and drier conditions are driving an eight-fold increase in annual area burned by high severity fire across western forests from 1985-2017. In total, annual area burned by high severity wildfires -- defined as those that kill more than 95% of trees -- increased by more than 450,000 acres.

"As more area burns at high severity, the likelihood of conversion to different forest types or even to non-forest increases," said Sean Parks, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and lead author of the new study. "At the same time, the post-fire climate is making it increasingly difficult for seedlings to establish and survive, further reducing the potential for forests to return to their pre-fire condition."

Parks will present the results Wednesday, 9 December at AGU's Fall Meeting 2020. The findings are also published in AGU's journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

Scientists have known for years that wildfires are on the rise in the western U.S., coincident with recent long-term droughts and warmer temperatures. Many western states, especially parts of California, have undergone several multi-year droughts over the past four decades, a fact scientists attribute to human-caused changes to the climate. However, it is less clear how fire severity has changed over the past half century.

In the new study, Parks and John Abatzoglou, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California Merced, used satellite imagery to assess fire severity in four large regions in the western U.S. from 1985 to 2017. Rather than analyze the amount of area burned each year, they instead looked at the area burned at high severity, which is more likely to adversely impact forest ecosystems and human safety and infrastructure.

"The amount of area burned during a given year is an imperfect metric for assessing fire impacts," Parks said. "There was a substantial amount of fire in the western U.S. prior to Euro-American colonization, but that fire did not likely have the extreme effects that we're seeing now."

Beneficial fires

Wildfires were historically a common component of many forest ecosystems, especially in dry areas that receive little or sporadic rainfall. Fire was such a common occurrence in some regions that many tree species - especially certain species of pine - evolved traits that allow them to not only survive fires but to facilitate their ignition as well.

In the mountainous slopes of California, for example, ponderosa pines, sugar pines and giant sequoias sport thick bark that keeps the living tissue underneath insulated from extreme heat. Some tree species also drop the branches growing closest to the ground, which might otherwise allow fires to climb up into the canopy.

Species like jack pines are so dependent on fire that their seeds are unable to effectively disperse until a passing blaze melts the resinous coating surrounding their cones. And the slender, needle-like leaves of pines dry out more quickly than the broad leaves of deciduous hardwoods, making them excellent kindling.

The catch is these trees evolved to cope with frequent, low-intensity fires. During a severe fire, even the most well-adapted plants can succumb to mortality. If too many trees die, forest regrowth can be impeded by the lack of viable seeds.

"Forest burned at high severity bears the biggest ecological impacts from a fire," said Philip Dennison, a fire scientist at the University of Utah who was unaffiliated with the study. "These are the areas that are going to take the longest to recover, and in many places that recovery has been put into question due to higher temperatures and drought."

A 2019 study authored by Parks found up to 15% of intermountain forests in the western U.S. are at risk of disappearing. In dry regions, such as the southwestern U.S., that number increases to 30% when assuming fires burn under extreme weather.

As western North America continues to reel from the vice-like grip of droughts and increasing temperatures, scientists expect severe fires will become even more common.

"One take home message is that fire severity is elevated in warmer and drier years in the western U.S., and we expect that climate change will result in even warmer and drier years in the future," Parks said.

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Notes for Journalists

This research study is freely available through December 31. Download a PDF copy of the paper here. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Sean Parks will present the results of this work at AGU Fall Meeting 2020. The oral presentation has been pre-recorded and will be available online starting 1 December to members of the press who are registered for Fall Meeting 2020. Register for the meeting here. A live Q&A with Parks will take place on Wednesday, 9 December during a scientific session on ecosystem resilience.

Session information: B044 - Fire-Vegetation Interactions and Ecosystem Resilience in a Warmer World I, Wednesday, 9 December, 23:30-00:30 PT.

Presentation abstract: B044-01 - Observed and Expected Increases in Fire Severity Weaken Stabilizing Feedbacks that Promote Forest Resilience

For information about Fall Meeting 2020, including the schedule of press events, visit the Fall Meeting 2020 Media Center.

Neither the paper, presentation, nor this press release is under embargo.

This press release and accompanying images are available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/area-burned-by-severe-fire-has-increased-8-fold-in-western-u-s-forests-over-past-four-decades/

Area burned by severe fire has increased 8-fold in western U.S. forests over past four decades

AGU press contact: Lauren Lipuma, +1 (202) 777-7396, news@agu.org

Contact information for the researchers: Sean A. Parks, U.S. Forest Service, sean.parks@usda.gov (U.S. Mountain Time, UTC-7)