Wind blade composite project from ORNL wins green design innovation award

DOE/Oak Ridge National Laboratory

 

image: 

From left, Dexter Nelson, Vipin Kumar, Gary Vance, Josh Crabtree and Subhabrata Saha were part of a team that won an ACE award for innovation in green composites design for their fully-recyclable wind turbine blade tip incorporating low-cost carbon fiber. 

view more 

Credit: Carlos Jones/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy

Researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory were recently honored with a prestigious ACE Award for Composites Excellence by the American Composites Manufacturers Association. The team won the “innovation in green composites design” prize for creating a fully recyclable, lightweight wind turbine blade tip that incorporates low-cost carbon fiber and conductive coating for enhanced protection against lightning strikes. 

The award recognizes a composite product that demonstrates the greatest innovation for reducing its environmental footprint or extending its life cycle. ACE Winners were announced at the tenth annual Composites and Advanced Materials Expo, or CAMX, in San Diego.

“This one award encompassed three different technologies from ORNL: We made the blade with ORNL’s low-cost carbon fiber, treated it with a conductive coating we developed and designed it to be 100% recyclable,” said ORNL researcher Vipin Kumar, who led the project. 

The wind blade tip and its low-cost carbon fiber were created in DOE’s Carbon Fiber Technology Facility. Incorporating a recyclable thermoset epoxy resin with multiple layers of carbon and glass fiber, the blade tip is 41% lighter for greater efficiency at capturing energy to generate electricity. After the turbine blade’s normal life cycle, the fabrics within can be fully recovered, leaving only a polymer residue which can be used in new products. 

“This project is another fantastic example of the innovative thinking coming from our composites research,” said Yarom Polsky, director of the Manufacturing Science Division at ORNL. “The relatively simple approach for breaking down and collecting the resin for reuse, while keeping the fiber largely intact, addresses many of the current challenges to recycling blades that are conventionally manufactured.”

To easily integrate the technology with existing manufacturing processes, researchers used industry-standard equipment and methods, demonstrating a path toward even greater sustainability for the wind industry. Researchers developed a final conductive coating added to the blade exterior, which makes the blade surface more resistant to lightning strike damage. 

“This project demonstrates the versatility and potential of our low-cost carbon fiber to support the circular economy, in this case helping connect enhanced turbine blade performance with the environmental benefits of wind energy,” said Merlin Theodore, who leads the Advanced Fiber Manufacturing group at ORNL, which was integral to the project.

Theodore added that the innovative ideas could only be carried out because of the combined expertise and effort of technicians, post-doctoral researchers and skilled research professionals. Subhabrata Saha acted as technical lead for the ORNL project team, which also included Vlastimil Kunc, Ahmed Arabi Hassen, Josh Crabtree, Gary Vance, Jake Helton, Dexter Nelson and Julian Charron. The project was funded by the Advanced Materials and Manufacturing Technologies Office within DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

This was the seventh CAMX award for Kumar, who led ORNL researchers to win the headlining Combined Strength Award in 2022 for an additive manufacturing compression molding technology that has since been licensed by Orbital Composites. Kumar was also a member of a team led by Halil Tekinalp which won an “Outstanding Technical Paper” award at this year’s expo for “Multiplexing Extrusion System Development for Increased throughput, Flow Accuracy and Improved Microstructure.”

UT-Battelle manages ORNL for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States. The Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

 

Gonzalez receives award to study causes of racial disparities in amputation rates in Indiana

Regenstrief Institute

INDIANAPOLIS --More than 8 million people, ages 40 and older, living in the U.S. are affected by peripheral arterial disease, a lifelong medical condition and the most common cause of limb amputation in the country. A data scientist, health services researcher and vascular surgeon who studies health equity, Andrew A. Gonzalez, M.D., J.D., MPH, of the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University School of Medicine, has received a 2024 Ralph W. and Grace M. Showalter Research Trust award to conduct a new study, Exploring Causes of Racial Disparities in Amputation Rates in Indiana.

Dr. Gonzalez will analyze statewide clinical data from the Indiana Network for Patient Care (INPC) to explore racial disparities in vascular care leading to peripheral arterial disease associated amputation in Indiana, including whether minority patients have lower rates of adherence to best practices associated with better outcomes in both the pre-operative and post-operative phases of care for peripheral arterial disease.

He will also identify upstream drivers of racial disparities in peripheral arterial disease.

The INPC, created by the Regenstrief Institute and now managed by the Indiana Health Information Exchange, is the nation’s largest inter-organizational clinical and claims data repository, containing more than 16 billion clinical data items from throughout the state. 

Black individuals have a significantly higher lifetime risk of peripheral arterial disease than Whites or Hispanics but are less likely to be diagnosed and treated. Treatment of peripheral arterial disease may reduce the risk of amputation, heart attack or stroke.

Dr. Gonzalez notes, “The Showalter award supports work that will enable our ability to conduct more sophisticated future studies that will involve injecting context such as geographic specificity. We will also develop empirical data to support interventional studies targeting particular upstream drivers of racial disparities in amputation rates that we identify.”

The Ralph W. and Grace M. Showalter Research Trust was established in 1975 to support medical and scientific research at Indiana University and Purdue University. Priority for support is given to projects that have a high potential to compete for or leverage federal funding and to create programs with a life span longer than the Showalter award.

Andrew Gonzalez, M.D., J.D., MPH

In addition to his role as a research scientist and associate director for data science with the William M. Tierney Center for Health Services Research at Regenstrief Institute, Andrew Gonzalez, M.D., J.D., MPH, is a practicing vascular surgeon and an assistant professor of surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Gonzalez is also a faculty affiliate with the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering at Purdue University.

 

"islands" of regularity discovered in the famously chaotic three-body problem

University of Copenhagen - Faculty of Science

 

image: 

Millions of simulations form a rough map of all conceivable outcomes when three objects meet, like a vast tapestry woven from the threads of initial configurations. This is where the isles of regularity appear.

view more 

Credit: Image by Alessandro Alberto Trani

When three massive objects meet in space, they influence each other through gravity in ways that evolve unpredictably. In a word: Chaos. That is the conventional understanding. Now, a researcher from the University of Copenhagen has discovered that such encounters often avoid chaos and instead follow regular patterns, where one of the objects is quickly expelled from the system. This new insight may prove vital for our understanding of gravitational waves and many other aspects of the universe.

 

The most popular show on Netflix at the moment is the science fiction series 3-Body Problem. Based on a Chinese novel series by Liu Cixin, the series involves a menagerie of characters, time periods and even extraterrestrial visitors. But the central premise is concerned with a star system in which three stars gravitate around one another.

Such a system, with three objects influencing each other's gravity, has fascinated scientists ever since the “father of gravity”, Isaac Newton, first described it. While the interaction between two objects meeting in space is predictable, the introduction of a third massive object makes the triadic encounter not just complex, but chaotic.

"The Three-Body Problem is one of the most famous unsolvable problems in mathematics and theoretical physics. The theory states that when three objects meet, their interaction evolves chaotically, without regularity and completely detached from the starting point. But our millions of simulations demonstrate that there are gaps in this chaos – ‘isles of regularity’ – which directly depend on how the three objects are positioned relative to each other when they meet, as well as their speed and angle of approach," explains Alessandro Alberto Trani of the University of Copenhagen’s Niels Bohr Institute.

Trani hopes that the discovery will pave the way for improved astrophysics models, as the Three-Body Problem is not just a theoretical challenge. The encounter of three objects in the universe is a common occurrence and its understanding is crucial.

"If we are to understand gravitational waves, which are emitted from black holes and other massive objects in motion, the interactions of black holes as they meet and merge are essential. Immense forces are at play, particularly when three of them meet. Therefore, our understanding of such encounters could be a key to comprehending phenomena such as gravitational waves, gravity itself and many other fundamental mysteries of the universe," says the researcher.

A Tsunami of Simulations

To investigate the phenomenon, Trani coded his own software program, Tsunami, which can calculate the movements of astronomical objects based on the knowledge we have about the laws of nature, such as Newton’s gravity and Einstein’s general relativity. Trani set it to run millions of simulations of three-body encounters within certain defined parameters.

The initial parameters for the simulations were the positions of two of the objects in their mutual orbit – i.e., their phase along a 360-degree axis. Then, the angle of approach of the third object – varying by 90 degrees.

The millions of simulations were spread across the various possible combinations within this framework. As a whole, the results form a rough map of all conceivable outcomes like a vast tapestry woven from the threads of initial configurations. This is where the isles of regularity appear.

The colours represent the object that is eventually ejected from the system after the encounter. In most cases, this is the object with the lowest mass.

“If the three-body problem were purely chaotic, we would see only a chaotic mix of indistinguishable dots, with all three outcomes blending together without any discernible order. Instead, regular “isles” emerge from this chaotic sea, where the system behaves predictably, leading to uniform outcomes—and therefore, uniform colours,” Trani explains.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

This discovery holds great promises for a deeper understanding of an otherwise impossible phenomenon. In the short term, however, it represents a challenge for researchers. Pure chaos is something they already know how to calculate using statistical methods, but when chaos is interrupted by regularities, the calculations become more complex.

"When some regions in this map of possible outcomes suddenly become regular, it throws off statistical probability calculations, leading to inaccurate predictions. Our challenge now is to learn how to blend statistical methods with the so-called numerical calculations, which offer high precision when the system behaves regularly," says Alessandro Alberto Trani.

"In that sense, my results have set us back to square one, but at the same time, they offer hope for an entirely new level of understanding in the long run," he says.

 

*

 

Extra info: 4-Body Problem

During the pandemic, Alessandro Alberto Trani started a side project to investigate fractal universes within the Three-Body Problem. It was then that he came up with the idea of mapping the outcomes in search of regularities.

He knew the famous problem from his studies, but hadn’t delved into the works of fiction – the recent Netflix show or the novel behind it: “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin. Nevertheless, out of curiosity, he familiarized himself with the plot enough to conclude that it actually deals with a "4-Body Problem."

"As I understand it, it involves a star system with three stars and one planet, which is regularly thrown into chaotic developments. Such a system is actually best defined as a Four-Body Problem. However you define it though, according to my simulations, the most likely outcome is that the planet would quickly be destroyed by one of the three stars. So it would soon become a Three-Body-Problem," the researcher grins.

Behind the research

The following researchers contributed to the project:

Alessandro Alberto Trani

Niels Bohr International Academy at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

Research Center for the Early Universe, University of Tokyo

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

 

Nathan W. C. Leigh

Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de Concepción, Chile

Department of Astrophysics, American Museum of Natural History

 

Tjarda C. N. Boekholt

NASA Ames Research Center

 

Simon Portegies Zwart

Leiden Observatory, Leiden University

---

Journal

Astronomy and Astrophysics

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/202449862 

Article Title

Isles of regularity in a sea of chaos amid the gravitational three-body problem

 AMERIKA

Study suggests spike in emergency visits for life threatening pregnancy complication

PRE-DOBBS

Findings suggest significant increase in emergency department utilization for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy over 14 year span

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, the second leading cause of maternal deaths worldwide, may be sending a significantly higher number of pregnant people to the emergency department.

Between 2006 and 2020, researchers found a surge in emergency visits and admissions for the condition that causes serious maternal and neonatal complications and accounts for 6.3% of all pregnancy-related deaths in the United States.

The study, which appears in JAMA Network Open, also suggests greater emergency utilization for the disease among underrepresented racial and ethnic groups. 

“Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy often develop suddenly, even in healthy women, and symptoms may appear without warning and progress rapidly,” said senior author Erica Marsh, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Michigan Medical School and chief of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at U-M Health Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital, of Michigan Medicine.

“Ideally, this risk would be detected during prenatal care and lead to early intervention. Our study indicates more people turning to the emergency department, which may reflect a higher prevalence of the condition or an increased awareness for prompt assessment and treatment.”

Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, which could include preeclampsia, gestational hypertension, and eclampsia, are serious complications that involve elevated blood pressure. 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends management of severe blood pressure in pregnancy within 30 to 60 minutes of diagnosis to prevent complications such as stroke, myocardial ischemia, seizure, placental abruption, and maternal and neonatal mortality.

Disparities in ED reliance, disease severity

Researchers analyzed nationally representative data, finding a 76% increase in emergency encounters related to the condition over the 14-year span, up from 31, 623 to 55, 893, and nearly 1.5 times as many ED admissions – up from 17,338 to 43,563.

Concerns about costs, time constraints, misconceptions about the necessity of early care or barriers to accessing prenatal care may be possible factors for the increase, authors say.

“The disparities in reliance on emergency rooms for this disease may imply limited access to timely outpatient care or other health system barriers,” said lead author Courtney Townsel, M.D., M.Sc., who was at Michigan Medicine at the time of the study and is now at the University of Maryland.

Black, Hispanic, and Asian or Pacific Islander groups were also more likely to both utilize emergency care and be admitted to the hospital for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

“The disproportionate rate of admissions among certain racial and ethnic groups suggests worse disease severity by the time people seek care,” Townsel said.

“Racial differences in emergency care utilization for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy underscore the ongoing racial disparities in U.S. maternal morbidity and mortality and highlight a critical need for accessible, culturally competent community-level interventions for all.”

---

Journal

JAMA Network Open

 

Ferments du Futur, a unique European public-private partnership for R&D on the food of the future

INRAE - National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment

 

image: 

From left to right:

Antoine Baule, President of Ferments du Futur and vice-president for innovation of ANIA

Philippe Mauguin, CEO of INRAE

Bruno Bonnell, Secretary general for investment in charge of France 2030

view more 

Credit: INRAE

The cutting-edge centre is open to all and will help accelerate research and innovation in one of the most promising fields for the future of food. The project was made possible by the work of dozens of resolutely action-oriented public and private partners who believe in the value of cooperation. 

Focus groups, multi-year meetings and much informal discussion all contributed to creating a powerful momentum for action that established key areas in which to accelerate innovation and enable scientific and technological breakthroughs. Initial and ongoing training was identified as fundamental to supporting the development of careers in fermentation. The team has promoted the potential of fermentation through regular public speaking opportunities, events and publications. All of this has created a climate of trust and mutual respect conducive to cooperation between researchers, industry stakeholders and start-ups.

The ball is now rolling, and the coming years will see the appearance of new, safe, healthy and sustainable products and processes.

What I find most remarkable about Ferments du Futur is how much people from different backgrounds, with different areas of interest, enjoy coming together to discuss their visions, challenges and instincts, making this joint tool a major asset for their respective research and innovation strategies while reconciling cooperation and competition!”
Damien Paineau, Executive Director of Ferments du Futur

 CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M BUSINESS AS USUAL

Payments by drug and medical device manufacturers to US peer reviewers of major medical journals

JAMA

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JAMA Network

About The Study: 

More than half of the 1,962 U.S. physicians included in this study who peer reviewed for the most influential medical journals received industry payments in 2020-2022, with most payments for research. Research payments, especially those provided to an institution, may have different implications than general payments for conflicts of interest.

Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Christopher J. D. Wallis, MD, PhD, email wallis.cjd@gmail.com.

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

(doi:10.1001/jama.2024.17681)

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

#  #  #

Embed this link to provide your readers free access to the full-text article 

 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/10.1001/jama.2024.17681?guestAccessKey=4bbabdcb-70df-4352-883e-026fc020919b&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=101024

 

---

Journal

JAMA

 

Unwanted travellers: mosquitoes carrying Plasmodium parasite and imported through air travel, parcels and luggage are causing Odyssean malaria in Europe

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

Malaria cases resulting from bites of mosquitoes transported by aircraft from areas where is common have increased, according to both a retrospective analysis in France and a systematic review of studies in Europe, which have been published in Eurosurveillance.

After malaria was eradicated in western Europe in the 1970s, most cases in the EU/EEA have been reported among travellers returning from countries where malaria is established. Of the 6,131 cases reported in the EU/EEA in 2022, 99% were travel related.

Locally-acquired infections are reported sporadically every year in western Europe. These include introduced infections, which are transmitted by a local mosquito after it has bitten an infected returning traveller carrying plasmodia in their blood; induced cases, which are related to other means of transmission such as a healthcare-associated infection or mother-to-child transmission; and Odyssean malaria, which refers to cases resulting from the bite of an infected mosquito transported by aircraft, luggage or parcel from an endemic area.

Findings of systematic review of studies in Europe

The systematic review analysed studies in Europe indexed from 1969 to January 2024 in the MEDLINE, Embase and OpenGrey databases. Numbers were supplemented by a data call to EU/EEA and UK public health authorities launched in 2022. [1]

Of the 145 cases described from nine countries, 105 were classified as airport malaria, 32 as luggage malaria, and eight as either type of malaria. Most cases were reported in France, Belgium, and Germany, and half resided or worked near or at an international airport. Case reports of airport and luggage malaria were found to be rising, with one third of cases reported over the last five years, even as air traffic declined during the COVID-19 pandemic.

People infected with malaria had a mean age of 37.9 years and were more likely to be male than female, at a ratio of 1.5:1. For the cases with a known outcome, 124 recovered and nine died. Patients that died were older on average, with a mean age of 57.2 years. Forty eight of 145 cases were epidemiologically linked to at least one other case.

Locally-acquired malaria over nearly three decades in France

Similar trends were observed in a retrospective analysis of surveillance and case investigation data in France on locally acquired malaria from 1995 to 2022. Cases were classified by the most likely mode of transmission, using a classification derived from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). A descriptive analysis was also conducted to identify spatial and temporal patterns of cases. [2]

Researchers found a total of 117 locally acquired malaria cases reported in European France. They also found that locally acquired infections remained constant overall, with more Odyssean cases being reported since 2011. Fifty one of the 117 cases identified were categorised as Odyssean, 36 as induced, 27 as cryptic (where the investigation was inconclusive), and three as introduced.

Most cases were among males with a median age of 34.5 years. Half of patients were born in an country in Africa where malaria is common, and the other half were born in France. More than half of cases were reported in the region Île-de-France. 102 were admitted to hospital, and seven patients died. Among patients with locally-acquired malaria, severe cases and death was more frequent than in imported cases.

Public health implications

To tackle the risk of Odyssean malaria, researchers of the retrospective analysis in France advised the strict enforcement of disinsectisation of aircrafts. To improve treatment, they also recommended that physicians consider the possibility of locally-acquired malaria for patients with an unexplained fever early, even if there is no travel history.

Authors of the systematic review highlighted the need for more structured surveillance of malaria cases in Europe, including a standardised case definition. They also recommended the implementation of prevention measures and to assess the effectiveness and compliance for measures currently in place.

[1] Hallmaier-Wacker Luisa K, van Eick Merel D, Briët Olivier, Delamare Hugues, Falkenhorst Gerhard, Houzé Sandrine, Noël Harold, Rebolledo Javiera, Van Bortel Wim, Gossner Céline M. Airport and luggage (Odyssean) malaria in Europe: a systematic review. Euro Surveill. 2024;29(41):pii=2400237. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.41.2400237

[2] Delamare Hugues, Tarantola Arnaud, Thellier Marc, Calba Clémentine, Gaget Olivier, Consigny Paul-Henri, Simard Frederic, Manguin Sylvie, Brottet Elise, Paty Marie-Claire, Houze Sandrine, De Valk Henriette, Noël Harold. Locally acquired malaria: a retrospective analysis of long-term surveillance data, European France, 1995 to 2022. Euro Surveill. 2024;29(41):pii=2400133. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2024.29.41.2400133

---

Journal

Eurosurveillance

Method of Research

Systematic review

Subject of Research

People

Article Publication Date

10-Oct-2024

 

Students who feel more university connection may be more likely to binge drink

Penn State

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Students who feel a sense of belonging at their university are more likely to binge drink than those who do not feel the same connection, according to a new study by researchers at Penn State, the University of California, Santa Cruz and University of Oregon.

In the study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, scientists — including researchers in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development — found that college students with “good” mental health who felt connected to their university were more likely to binge drink than those who did not feel as connected to their university.

Stephane Lanza, professor of biobehavioral health and Edna P. Bennett Faculty Fellow in Prevention Research, studied the topic with Danny Rahal and Kristin Perry when both were postdoctoral trainees in the Penn State Prevention and Methodology Training Program. The researchers examined the ways that both positive and negative aspects of mental health can contribute to the risk of binge drinking, cannabis use and nicotine use.

“In 2021, students at many universities were returning to campus after the COVID-19 shutdown — and some students were attending in-person college classes for the first time,” said Rahal, lead author of this research and assistant professor of psychology at University of California Santa Cruz. “Data from that time indicated that many students felt disconnected from their school. Universities wanted to foster a sense of connectedness among their students for many good reasons, but we wanted to know if there was something positive — specifically a sense of belonging — that is related to substance use. Our study showed that feeling connected to one’s university is associated with higher rates of substance use.”

The researchers examined data from 4,018 university students collected during the 2022-23 school year. Participants answered questions about substance use, their sense of belonging at their school and their mental health — specifically about anxiety, depressive symptoms, perceived stress, flourishing in life and confidence in their academic success.

A statistical modeling technique called latent profile analysis allowed the researchers to simultaneously account for all these measures by combining them to identify five profiles of student mental health. In this study, a student was considered to have good mental health if they had lower levels of stress, depressive symptoms and anxiety, as well as higher flourishing and academic confidence than their peers.

The researchers found that students with average or good mental health were more likely to have engaged in binge drinking in the past month if they felt connected to their university than if they did not feel that connection.

The researchers said this does not mean that connectedness is bad for students to experience; rather, the results are nuanced.

“We want to cultivate connectedness among students,” said Perry, assistant professor of family and human services at University of Oregon. “Connectedness gets them involved. It can be a really powerful protective factor against negative mental health outcomes and can help keep students in school. But connectedness at school can go hand in hand with binge drinking if there is a culture of drinking at the school.”

Though the researchers said they expected these results about drinking, they were surprised to learn that students with poor mental health who felt connected to their university were more likely to use non-vaped tobacco products than students with poor mental health who did not feel connected to their university. The results around cannabis were less conclusive, but the researchers said the trend was clear.

“Generally, students who felt connected to their university were more likely to use substances than disconnected students with the same level of mental health,” Rahal said.

While a sense of belonging was related to substance use, it could also be part of the solution, according to the researchers.

“Cultivating belonging for all students is an important way that universities can embrace diversity and help all students thrive,” Lanza said.

Though drinking is common on university campuses, many students believe that it is far more common than it is, the researchers explained. In this dataset, slightly fewer than one-third of students reported binge drinking in the last month. Despite the fact that two-thirds of students had not engaged in binge drinking, the researchers also found that students believed a typical student consumed three to five drinks multiple times each week. The researchers said this disconnect between perception and reality points to an opportunity to change the culture — by creating ample opportunities for all students to socially engage and participate in alcohol-free environments — so that alcohol feels less central to student life.

Minoritized college students, in particular, often face messages that make them feel unwelcome based on their race, gender, socioeconomic status or other factors, according to the researchers.

“We cannot expect students to stay enrolled unless they are engaged with the campus community,” Lanza continued. “If universities lose students from a specific group, the campus becomes less diverse, and the entire university community becomes less rich. Additionally, when members of those groups leave school, they miss educational opportunities and the earning potential that comes with a college degree. By providing all students with diverse opportunities to build a real sense of belonging at their universities, we can improve campus life while putting people on the path to a healthier life.”

The National Institute on Drug Abuse and Penn State funded this research.

---

Journal

Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs

DOI

10.15288/jsad.23-00382 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Mental Health Modulates Associations between Institutional Belonging and Substance Use Risk

U of M Medical School receives $2.5M grant to study the effect of pain on how people drink

University of Minnesota Medical School

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL (10/10/2024) — The University of Minnesota Medical School recently received a five-year, $2.5 million grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to study how pain influences drinking behavior. 

This research aims to better understand how pain affects drinking in individuals, both with and without chronic temporomandibular disorder (TMD) pain. TMD is characterized by ongoing pain or discomfort in the jaw and the muscles that control jaw movement, making it difficult to chew and speak. Those with TMD often experience headaches and pain that can extend to the face, neck or ears. 

Individuals with TMD pain are at elevated risk for alcohol-related health problems, including alcohol use disorder, and growing evidence suggests pain is a significant motivator for alcohol use in many individuals. 

“It's common for people with chronic pain, including facial pain, to use alcohol to help manage their symptoms. Unfortunately, using alcohol for pain relief can actually make pain worse in the long run,” said Dr. Jeff Boissoneault, an associate professor at the U of M Medical School and director of the Minnesota Alcohol and Pain Lab. “By studying how pain affects the way that people drink both in the laboratory and in daily life, we hope to find new treatment targets to help people with pain avoid alcohol-related problems.”

Dr. Boissoneault and his team are currently preparing for participant enrollment, which is anticipated to begin in January 2025.

-30-

About the University of Minnesota Medical School
The University of Minnesota Medical School is at the forefront of learning and discovery, transforming medical care and educating the next generation of physicians. Our graduates and faculty produce high-impact biomedical research and advance the practice of medicine. We acknowledge that the U of M Medical School is located on traditional, ancestral and contemporary lands of the Dakota and the Ojibwe, and scores of other Indigenous people, and we affirm our commitment to tribal communities and their sovereignty as we seek to improve and strengthen our relations with tribal nations. For more information about the U of M Medical School, please visit med.umn.edu. 

 

Bilingualism makes the brain more efficient, especially when learned at a young age

MRI data from large sample shows increased whole-brain connectivity in people with a second language

McGill University

Neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to build connections within itself, adapting to the surrounding environment. The brain is most plastic in childhood, forming new pathways in reaction to stimuli such as language.  

Past research has shown that learning a second language may positively affect attention, healthy aging and even recovery after brain injury. A new study from The Neuro (Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital) of McGill university, the University of Ottawa and the University of Zaragoza in Spain elaborates on bilingualism’s role in cognition, showing increased efficiency of communication between brain regions.  

Scientists recruited 151 participants who either spoke French, English, or both languages, and recorded the age at which they learned their second language. The participants were scanned using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to record whole-brain connectivity, rather than focusing on specific regions as was done in previous bilingualism studies.  

fMRI scans revealed that bilingual participants had increased connectivity between brain regions than monolingual participants, and this connectivity was stronger in those who learned their second language at a younger age. This effect was particularly strong between the cerebellum and the left frontal cortex.  

The results mirror previous studies which have shown that brain regions do not work in isolation, but interact with others to understand and produce language. Research has also shown that whole-brain efficiency aids cognitive performance.  

This latest study reveals more about how bilingualism influences the brain connections we use to think, communicate and experience the world around us.  

“Our work suggests learning a second language during childhood helps build a more efficient brain organization in terms of functional connectivity,” says Zeus Gracia Tabuenca, the paper’s first author. “The results indicate that the earlier the second language experience, the broader extent of brain areas involved in neuroplasticity. That's why we are observing higher connectivity of the cerebellum with the cortex in earlier exposures to a second language.”  

The research was published in the journal Communications Biology on [???]. It was funded with the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Blema and Arnold Steinberg Family Foundation, The Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music via the Fonds de recherche du Québec, Brain Canada, the Canada Research Chair program, the European Union's NextGeneration programme and the Spanish Ministry of Universities’ Margarita Salas Program. 

About The Neuro 

The Neuro – The Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital – is a bilingual, world-leading destination for brain research and advanced patient care. Since its founding in 1934 by renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Wilder Penfield, it has grown to be the largest specialized neuroscience research and clinical center in Canada, and one of the largest in the world. The seamless integration of research, patient care, and training of the world’s top minds make The Neuro uniquely positioned to have a significant impact on the understanding and treatment of nervous system disorders. It was the first academic institute in the world to fully adopt Open Science, to help accelerate the generation of knowledge and discovery of novel effective treatments for brain disorders. The Neuro is a McGill University research and teaching institute and part of the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre. For more information, please visit www.theneuro.ca 

---

Journal

Communications Biology

DOI

10.1038/s42003-024-06965-1 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Enhanced efficiency in the bilingual brain through the inter-hemispheric cortico- cerebellar pathway in early second language acquisition

Article Publication Date

10-Oct-2024