Study shows diet causes 84% drop in troublesome menopausal symptoms--without drugs

PHYSICIANS COMMITTEE FOR RESPONSIBLE MEDICINE

Research News

 

WASHINGTON--A new study, published by the North American Menopause Society in the journal Menopause, found a plant-based diet rich in soy reduces moderate-to-severe hot flashes by 84%, from nearly five per day to fewer than one per day. During the 12-week study, nearly 60% of women became totally free of moderate-to-severe hot flashes. Overall hot flashes (including mild ones) decreased by 79%.

The study, called the WAVS trial--the Women's Study for the Alleviation of Vasomotor Symptoms-shows that diet changes can be much more powerful for treating hot flashes than scientists had thought. Vasomotor symptoms refer to night sweats, hot flashes, and flushes.

The study used no hormone medications or extracts. Instead, the research team tested a combination of a low-fat plant-based diet plus 1/2 cup of ordinary soybeans added to a salad or soup each day.

"This is a game changer for women aged 45 and over, most of whom we now know can get prompt relief from the most severe and troubling menopause symptoms without drugs," says lead researcher Neal Barnard, MD, president of the Physicians Committee and adjunct professor at the George Washington University School of Medicine.

As many as 80% of postmenopausal women suffer from hot flashes. Heat wells up from the chest, causing flushing, sweating, and chills. At night, hot flashes interfere with sleep. Estrogen-based medications were once routinely used to treat hot flashes but have been shown to increase the risk of breast cancer and other serious problems. Isoflavone extracts from soybeans work only modestly, leaving women and their doctors with few effective options.

Study Details

Postmenopausal women reporting two or more hot flashes per day were randomly assigned to either an intervention group--consisting of a low-fat, vegan diet, including half a cup of cooked soybeans daily--or to a control group that made no diet changes for 12 weeks. Frequency and severity of hot flashes were recorded using a mobile application, and vasomotor, psychosocial, physical, and sexual symptoms were assessed using the Menopause Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire (MENQOL).

Each participant was given a digital self-calibrating scale to track body weight day by day, a mobile app to track hot flashes in real time, and an Instant Pot to prepare soybeans at home. Each week, the group got together with the research team via Zoom.

"Previous studies have shown that soy could be beneficial, so we decided to put a diet change to the test," says study author Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, director of clinical research for the Physicians Committee. "We believe that the combination is what is important. By the end of the study, the majority of women on a plant-based diet rich in soy reported that they no longer experienced moderate-to-extreme hot flashes at all and that they experienced significant improvements in their quality of life."

Key Findings

Total hot flashes decreased by 79% and moderate-to-severe hot flashes decreased by 84% in the intervention group. At the study's conclusion, 59% of intervention-group participants reported becoming free of moderate and severe hot flashes. There was no change in this variable in the control group.

In previous randomized trials, soy products have been shown to modestly reduce the frequency of hot flashes. The researchers theorize that the effect may be a result of soy products containing isoflavones, which can be metabolized by gut bacteria into equol--a nonsteroidal compound that has been shown in some studies to reduce the incidence and severity of hot flashes. Previous studies have also shown that those following vegetarian or vegan diets produce higher levels of equol. The new study showed a more robust response, using the combination of a plant-based diet plus soy.

Many study participants also reported improvements in sexual symptoms, mood, and overall energy.

"This was basically a lifesaver for me," said one study participant. "I've got my quality of life back." Another said, "I am sleeping better, and my hot flashes diminished tremendously." Several participants also noticed significant weight loss and better digestion.
"Before you jump to any kind of medication, I would try this route, because it's easy," a study participant said. "Anybody can do it."

The study was based on the new approach to menopausal symptoms described by Dr. Barnard in his book Your Body in Balance. After the book was released in 2020, a reader contacted Dr. Barnard to let him know that his method eliminated her hot flashes within five days. Rather than using isoflavone extracts or soy foods such as soy milk or tofu, she used whole soybeans.

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Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in education and research.

 

Measuring nitrogen to improve its management

New study measures how nitrogen is managed in agriculture around the world

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Research News

The business world is familiar with Peter Drucker's assertion that "If you can't measure it, you can't improve it." For the sake of environmental sustainability and food security, there is an urgent need for agriculture to improve its use of nitrogen fertilizers, but can we properly measure it?

A new paper* published in Nature Food offers the first comprehensive comparison of the most advanced international efforts to measure how nitrogen is managed in agriculture. Zhang et al synthesize results from nearly thirty researchers from ten different research groups across the world, including universities, private sector fertilizer associations, and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). They each estimated how much nitrogen is added to croplands as fertilizer and manure, how much of the added nitrogen is harvested in crops, and how much is left over as potential environmental pollution.

"This intercomparison project enables researchers, agronomists, and policy makers to identify where we can improve nitrogen budget estimates," said lead author, Associate Professor Xin Zhang of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "This knowledge is the basis for improving sustainable nitrogen management and for addressing food security and environmental pollution challenges."

Nitrogen matters because it is essential for farmers to obtain good crop yields, but when a large fraction of it is not taken up by the intended crops, it leaks into the environment as nitrate in groundwater, rivers, lakes, and estuaries, where it contributes to noxious and harmful algal blooms and can pose human health risks. Excess nitrogen can also be lost from croplands as gaseous pollutants that pose respiratory human health risks and contribute to climate change and stratospheric ozone destruction. Hence, nitrogen needs to be managed carefully to maximize food production but minimize environmental pollution.

''Learning how to monitor nitrogen use in agriculture is a fundamental component of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda," said coauthor Dr. Francesco Tubiello of the FAO in Italy. "This study supports the development of improved national statistics that can be used to this end.''

"At first blush, this new study demonstrated some surprising and troubling differences among the ten research groups, suggesting that our ability to measure, and thus manage this essential nutrient and potent pollutant is not as good as it needs to be," said Eric Davidson, Professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "Digging into the data more deeply, however, many of these differences were explained by varying definitions and methods used by the different groups."

There is widespread agreement among these experts that use of nitrogen fertilizers in still growing, the average global efficiency of their use is stagnant, and so the surplus nitrogen that is not taken up by crops is also growing at a troubling rate. The types of crops and the geographic regions where improvements in measurement were also identified, thus facilitating needed improvements in both measurements and management.

"The United Nations Environment Programme adopted a resolution in 2019 calling for a global action to promote sustainable nitrogen management," noted contributing author Dr. Luis Lassaletta of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. "Cutting nitrogen waste in half by 2030 would be an ambitious goal that would significantly improve environmental quality," he added.

The first step to action, however, is to obtain good estimates of nitrogen budgets in agricultural systems, as demonstrated in this study, so that we can better manage what we are able to measure with greater confidence.

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*"Quantification of global and national nitrogen budgets for crop production" was published in Nature Food on July 15.

DOI: 10.1038/s43016-021-00318-5. Once the paper is published online, it will be available at the following URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s43016-021-00318-5

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

The University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science leads the way toward better management of Maryland's natural resources and the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay. From a network of laboratories located across the state, UMCES scientists provide sound evidence and advice to help state and national leaders manage the environment, and prepare future scientists to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.

http://www.umces.edu

 

Report outlines how public transit agencies can advance equity

SAGE

Research News

Austin, Texas (July 15, 2021)

Access to high-quality public transportation can make communities more equitable by increasing access to critical opportunities such as employment, health care and healthy food, particularly for low-income individuals and people of color. A new paper published today in the Transportation Research Record identifies six broad categories of equity-advancing practices that reach beyond existing guidelines and could be widely employed by public transit agencies nationwide.

"Many of the established practices for understanding and advancing public transit equity focus on precise quantitative measurements that are disconnected from riders' day-to-day experiences," said Alex Karner, an assistant professor of community and regional planning at The University of Texas at Austin and the study's lead author. "In transit, equity goes far beyond simply assessing how service is distributed. We wanted to lift up practices that agencies were using to create fairer and more just public transit systems."

The report studied eight public transit providers in various cities across the country and identified six practices that can help ensure that public transit works well for those who need it the most. These are:

• Establishing advisory committees to provide more formal, regular and specialized channels for public input than can be achieved through traditional meetings;

• Partnering with advocacy organizations, which can overcome barriers to public involvement and include hard-to-reach populations;

• Incorporating equity into capital planning to ensure that transit vehicles, maintenance and system expansions equitably benefit population groups;

• Planning with other regional transportation agencies that are often a critical venue for equity-related conversations that cross regional boundaries, covering issues such as gentrification, housing affordability, commuter-oriented public transit and other issues;

• Using ride-hailing and microtransit solutions, where appropriate, to facilitate public transit use and reduce gaps in service; and

• Creating an equity culture by altering hiring, contracting and organizational practices to better weave equity principles throughout an entire agency.

In addition to establishing these broad categories, the paper assesses each method, offering insight into its limitations and opportunities by assessing real-world implementation as employed by the eight public transit organizations included in the report. Some of the highlights include the convening of a "Transit Equity Advisory Committee" by the Tri-County Metropolitan District of Oregon (TriMet) that successfully advocated for a reduced-fare program and decriminalized fare evasion; and TriMet's subsequent creation of a dedicated Department of Equity, Inclusion and Community Affairs to assist with their equity-related goals.

"At the end of the day, transportation equity is about fairness," Karner said. "There are many ways that public transit agencies can pursue this goal. Our key result is that the agencies doing the most in this space have made it their mission to incorporate equity into all aspects of their day-to-day operations. And they are the most likely to succeed."

The transit organizations included in the study are Capital Metro in Austin; the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District; LINK Houston, an equity-oriented nonprofit organization in Houston; the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County in the Houston Metro; the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority; the Massachusetts Department of Transportation; TriMet; and rabbittransit, a rural transit provider in southeast Pennsylvania.

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The paper, co-authored by community and regional planning graduate student Kaylyn Levine, was completed in collaboration with Federal Transit Administration partners and a community advisory group assembled to provide input on the broader research effort.

This article, "Equity-Advancing Practices at Public Transit Agencies in the United States", by Alex Karner and Kaylyn Levin and published in Transportation Research Record, will be free to access for a limited time and can be read here https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03611981211016861

About The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture:

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UBCO researchers light the way to cleaner water

Fluorescence lighting helps detect impurities in water

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA OKANAGAN CAMPUS

Research News

IMAGE: UBC RESEARCHERS NICOLAS PELEATO AND LI ZIYU EXAMINE THE DATA AFTER TESTING A WATER SAMPLE WITH A FLORESCENCE SPECTROMETER. view more 

CREDIT: UBC OKANAGAN

Shining a beam of light into potentially contaminated water samples may hold the key to real-time detection of hydrocarbons and pesticides in water.

UBC Okanagan researchers are testing the use of fluorescence to monitor water quality. The results, they say, show great promise.

When a beam of light is shone into the water, it excites the electrons in molecules of certain compounds and causes them to emit light. The characteristics of the emitted light are like a fingerprint and can be used to identify certain contaminants, explains Nicolas Peleato, an assistant professor at UBCO's School of Engineering.

"The challenge with using this fluorescence approach is that they are typically source-specific; meaning we have to calibrate for a particular water source and anticipate what specific contaminants we want to look for," says Peleato. "In our latest work, we have developed a data processing technique that expands the effectiveness from one water source to others."

This means their new technique removes a lot of the guesswork at the beginning of the process. As Peleato points out, every water source has a slightly different composition of organic compounds, which can hide the contaminant signals, so calibrating for each source is crucial for detection accuracy.

Using machine learning algorithms, Peleato and his graduate student Ziyu Li have devised an approach that addresses the challenge of source-specific models through mapping their similarities.

According to Li, it isn't quite a one-size-fits-all method but it is close.

"By establishing a process that identifies similar patterns between water sources, the fluorescence detection becomes a viable option for real-time, accurate detection of hydrocarbons and pesticides," explains Li.

During the testing process, the researchers look for unique shapes of fluorescence signals. Each unique shape indicates the presence of impurities and helps researchers determine what the impurity is and distinguish it from other compounds.

Water contaminated with hydrocarbons is known to be carcinogenic and can be dangerous, or toxic, to flora and fauna.

The researchers are now turning their attention to using this new approach to detect and monitor chemicals, such as the major toxic contaminants in oil sand tailings ponds that may impact surface water and groundwater.

"Building a comprehensive model that seamlessly transitions from one water source to another will speed up monitoring, and has the potential to be a game changer," says Peleato.

CAPTION

Using a new method, UBCO researchers look for unique shapes of fluorescence signals in water. Each unique shape indicates the presence of impurities and helps researchers determine what the impurity is and distinguish it from other compounds.

CREDIT

UBC Okanagan

This work was published in the journal Chemosphere, and funded in part by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

 

Melting High Mountain Asia glaciers are revealed as a potential source of greenhouse gases

KEAI COMMUNICATIONS CO., LTD.

Research News

IMAGE: CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM OF THE CARBON CYCLE WITHIN A GLACIAL BASIN IN THE TIBETAN PLATEAU. view more 

CREDIT: DR. YULAN ZHANG

The cryosphere, a term used to describe the areas of the Earth's surface where water exists in solid form, plays an important role in regulating the Earth's climate. Due to cryospheric retreat; for example, the melting Greenland ice sheet in the Arctic, greenhouse gases that were formerly in "frozen storage" are now being released. High Mountain Asia, also known as the Tibetan Plateau, hosts the largest volume of glaciers outside the polar regions. However, Tibetan glaciers are currently excluded from global greenhouse gas budgets.

According to Shichang Kang, leader of a group of researchers who recently became the first team to measure the flux variations of greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4) in typical glacial basins in High Mountain Asia, it's important that Tibetan glaciers are not only included in budget calculations, but are subject to more thorough investigation.

In a paper published in the KeAi journal Fundamental Research, he and his colleagues report that cryoconite holes on the glacier surface in southern and southeastern regions of the Tibetan Plateau are strong sources of carbon with positive CH4 and CO2 fluxes. However, this is mitigated to some extent by the fact that proglacial river runoff can be a significant sink of atmospheric CO2; a fact not identified in previous studies.

Kang, who is a Professor at the Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, explains: "Glaciers in High Mountain Asia contain large reservoirs of organic carbon that can influence glacial ecosystems under rapid melting. We have estimated the lateral export of carbon from glaciers to the downstream. However, no systematic data exist on the current footprint of greenhouse gases from glacial basins, which limits our understanding of the carbon cycle."

He adds: "Given the current climate change problems we are facing, the impact of glacier shrinking on CH4 and CO2 fluxes in this region needs to be further investigated and understood. Specifically, the CH4 and CO2 fluxes from the cryoconite holes, subglacial sediments and proglacial rivers."

According to Dr. Yulan Zhang, the investigator who led the study: "Until now, there were no estimates on the potential climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions from cryosphere melting in High Mountain Asia. Determining how these data are coupled with biogeochemical models, including feedback between the glacial cryosphere and atmosphere, is required to test the sensitivity of carbon sinks or sources to changes in the terrestrial cryosphere." She adds: "Our results provide new insight about the projections in the cryospheric regions. It's clear that how the climate responds to carbon and nitrogen cycles in High Mountain Asia should be thoroughly studied in the future."

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Contact the corresponding author: Shichang Kang, email: shichang.kang@lzb.ac.cn, ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2115-9005, personal website: http://shichang-kang.sklcs.ac.cn/

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 100 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

 

Data privacy -- are you sure you want a cookie?

COPENHAGEN BUSINESS SCHOOL

Research News

Data privacy is an important topic in the digitalised economy. Recent policy changes have aimed to strengthen users' control over their own data. Yet new research from Copenhagen Business School finds designers of cookie banners can affect users' privacy choices by manipulating the choice architecture and with simple changes can increase absolute consent by 17%.

A website cookie banner is the consent management tool that allows users to give their consent to process their personal data. Given the current legal framework, users need to actively provide consent.

The manipulations of the banner can therefore affect the user decision about whether to make an active choice at all and what the outcome of this choice would be, accept or decline consent. The research findings provide empirical evidence that shows people's data privacy decisions can be easily manipulated.

"Choice architecture should be designed to benefit the user to make more informed decisions, which are essential for free markets to work efficiently. Exploiting psychological mechanisms in design, to manipulate users to the benefit of the website owner is problematic," says Associate Professor Jan Michael Bauer from the department of Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School.

"Detailed user data has become valuable as it allows to better understand customer behaviour and improve the targeting of advertisements. Users and customers deserve and should demand a choice environment that allows their own need satisfaction and not one that benefits the website owner," adds Bauer.

The research highlights that the ability of website owners to manipulate the outcome of user privacy decisions is at odds with the ideals of the ePrivacy Directive and GDPR.

The research paper is published in the Computers in Human Behavior journal.

Privacy manipulation

When the researchers started the project in 2019, there was very little academic research about the impact of cookie banner design elements on acceptance rates. And few guides and rules were available beyond a case ruling about the use of pre-ticked boxes in cookie banners.

The empirical evidence supporting the study's conclusions was gathered through an experiment testing different banner designs on a public website. The researchers analysed how their manipulations affected 1493 user interactions with the cookie banner and the resulting privacy choice, i.e., whether to give or decline consent.

While several official guides on banner design have been published since the experiment was conducted, the researchers argue that website owners remain in a privileged position.

"If they would use their expertise and design skills to elicit their user's privacy preferences in a neutral way, we would potentially welcome this and not have a problem. Nudging users to make a privacy choice is potentially a good thing, manipulating them into providing consent is not and should be opposed," states Bauer.

Protecting user data

Initially, the researchers wanted to create awareness and action by policy makers and acknowledge that the problems of manipulative choice architecture in the digital space - also called dark patterns - remain important topics for debate. They introduce a conceptual distinction between choice-making architecture and choice outcome architecture that might help to have a more structured debate.

"We see this analysis of the choice-making architecture and a choice outcome architecture as a helpful deconstruction of this privacy decision when it comes to protecting user data," says Jan Michael Bauer.

The choice-making architecture captures all elements of the choice environment that might deter or encourage people from/to make a decision - e.g., the complexity of the choice or required effort. The researchers argue there are many cases in which it might be beneficial to nudge people to decide without affecting the outcome (e.g., organ donation and elections). Increasing choice-making is however not the same as nudging people towards one choice outcome.

"In some cases, we might be more confident that selecting one specific option is likely to make users better off and target the choice outcome itself (e.g., cigarettes unhealthy foods). However, interventions that favour a specific outcome is suspect to manipulation and warrants more scrutiny," says Bauer.

Learning about dark patterns

While regulators hopefully catch up with the digital world, the researchers conclude that it will be up to the consumer to detect, avoid and resist manipulative choice architecture. "One way forward for users and consumers could be to learn about the broader issues surrounding dark patterns and the tricks used in websites and apps to hopefully become less responsive to these manipulations. Even though these manipulations are often subtle, they should be called out," adds Bauer.

"One helpful approach can be to treat aggressive prompts and design element that favour a specific choice outcome as a warning sign to pause and reflect: do I really want to share my data? An issue not limited to data privacy as many websites and online shops gear up with dark patterns in the fight for user attention and to increase sales," concludes Bauer.

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Taking the brain out for a walk

A recent study shows that spending time outdoors has a positive effect on our brains

MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Research News

If you're regularly out in the fresh air, you're doing something good for both your brain and your well-being. This is the conclusion reached by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). The longitudinal study recently appeared in The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry.

During the Corona pandemic, walks became a popular and regular pastime. A neuroscientific study suggests that this habit has a good effect not only on our general well-being but also on our brain structure. It shows that the human brain benefits from even short stays outdoors. Until now, it was assumed that environments affect us only over longer periods of time.

The researchers regularly examined six healthy, middle-aged city dwellers for six months. In total, more than 280 scans were taken of their brains using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The focus of the study was on self-reported behavior during the last 24 hours and in particular on the hours that participants spent outdoors prior to imaging. In addition, they were asked about their fluid intake, consumption of caffeinated beverages, the amount of time spent outside, and physical activity, in order to see if these factors altered the association between time spent outside and the brain. In order to be able to include seasonal differences, the duration of sunshine in the study period was also taken into account.

Brain scans show that the time spent outdoors by the participants was positively related to gray matter in the right dorsolateral-prefrontal cortex, which is the superior (dorsal) and lateral part of the frontal lobe in the cerebral cortex. This part of the cortex is involved in the planning and regulation of actions as well as what is referred to as cognitive control. In addition, many psychiatric disorders are known to be associated with a reduction in gray matter in the prefrontal area of the brain.

The results persisted even when the other factors that could also explain the relationship between time spent outdoors and brain structure were kept constant. The researchers performed statistical calculations in order to examine the influence of sunshine duration, number of hours of free time, physical activity, and fluid intake on the results. The calculations revealed that time spent outdoors had a positive effect on the brain regardless of the other influencing factors.

"Our results show that our brain structure and mood improve when we spend time outdoors. This most likely also affects concentration, working memory, and the psyche as a whole. We are investigating this in an ongoing study. The subjects are asked to also solve cognitively challenging tasks and wear numerous sensors that measure the amount of light they are exposed to during the day, among other environmental indicators," says Simone Kühn, head of the Lise Meitner Group for Environmental Neuroscience at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development and lead author of the study.

The results therefore, support the previously assumed positive effects of walking on health and extend them by the concrete positive effects on the brain. Because most psychiatric disorders are associated with deficits in the prefrontal cortex, this is of particular importance to the field of psychiatry.

"These findings provide neuroscientific support for the treatment of mental disorders. Doctors could prescribe a walk in the fresh air as part of the therapy - similar to what is customary for health cures," says Anna Mascherek, post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy of the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and co-author of the study.

In the ongoing studies, the researchers also want to directly compare the effects of green environments vs urban spaces on the brain. In order to understand where exactly the study participants spend their time outdoors, the researchers plan to use GPS (Global Positioning System) data and include other factors that may play a role such as traffic noise and air pollution.

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Human waste contaminating urban water leads to 'superbug' spread -- study

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Research News

Contamination of urban lakes, rivers and surface water by human waste is creating pools of 'superbugs' in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) - but improving access to clean water, sanitation and sewerage infrastructure could help to protect people's health, a new study reveals.

Researchers studied bodies of water in urban and rural sites in three areas of Bangladesh - Mymensingh, Shariatpur and Dhaka. They found more antibiotic resistant faecal coliforms in urban surface water compared to rural settings, consistent with reports of such bacteria in rivers across Asia.

Publishing their findings in mSystems today, researchers from the University of Birmingham and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh call for further research to quantify the drivers of antibiotic resistance in surface waters in Bangladesh.

Lead author Willem van Schaik, Professor of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham, commented: "The rivers and lakes of Dhaka are surrounded by highly-populated slums in which human waste is directly released into the water. The presence of human gut bacteria links to high levels of antibiotic resistance genes, suggesting that such contamination is driving the presence of these 'superbugs' in surface water.

"Interventions aimed at improving access to clean water, sanitation and sewerage infrastructure may thus be important to reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance spreading in Bangladesh and other LMICs. While levels of antibiotic resistance genes are considerably lower in rural than in urban settings, we found that antibiotics are commonly used in fish farming and further policies need to be developed to reduce their use."

The prevalence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria causing infections is increasing globally, but the clinical issues, including significant morbidity and mortality, posed by these bacteria are particularly alarming in LMICs. The prevalence multidrug-resistant E. coli among healthy humans is relatively high in Bangladesh, as it is in other LMICs.

Dhaka, has a population of around 16 million people, with a population density that ranks among the highest of any megacity, but less than 20% of households are directly connected to sewerage infrastructure.

The research team found that urban surface waters in Bangladesh are particularly rich in antibiotic resistance genes, with a higher number of them associated with plasmids indicating that they are more likely to spread through the population.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria that colonize the human gut can be passed into rivers, lakes and coastal areas through the release of untreated wastewater, the overflow of pit latrines during monsoon season or by practices such as open defecation.

These contaminated environments are often used for bathing, for the washing of clothes and food preparation equipment, thus increasing the risk of human gut colonisation by antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

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For more information, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, on +44 (0)782 783 2312. For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165.

Notes for editors

* The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries

* 'Metagenome-wide analysis of rural and urban surface waters and sediments in Bangladesh identifies human waste as driver of antibiotic resistance' - Ross Stuart McInnes, Md. Hassan uz-Zaman, Imam Taskin Alam, Siu Fung Stanley Ho, Robert A. Moran, John D. Clemens, Md. Sirajul Islam, Willem van Schaik is published in mSystems.

 

New research at ESMT Berlin shows potential variance in academic research

ESMT BERLIN

Research News

The research seeks to understand what drives decisions in data analyses and the process through which academics test a hypothesis by comparing the analyses of different researchers who tested the same hypotheses on the same dataset. Analysts reported radically different analyses and dispersed empirical outcomes, including, in some cases, significant effects in opposite directions from each other. Decisions about variable operationalizations explained the lack of consistency in results beyond statistical choices (i.e., which analysis or covariates to use).

"Our findings illustrate the importance of analytical choices and how different statistical methods can lead to different conclusions," says Martin Schweinsberg. "An academic research question can sometimes be investigated in different ways, even if the answers are derived from the same dataset and by analysts without any incentives to find a particular result, and this research highlights this."

To conduct the research, Professor Schweinsberg recruited a crowd of analysts from all over the world to test two hypotheses regarding the effects of scientists' gender and professional status on active participation in group conversations. Using the online academic forum Edge, researchers analyzed group discussion data of scientific discussions from more than two decades (1996-2014). The dataset contained more than 3 million words from 728 contributors and 150 variables related to the conversation, its contributors, or the textual level of the transcript. Then, using the new platform DataExplained, developed by co-authors Michael Feldman, Nicola Staub, and Abraham Bernstein, researchers analyzed the data in R to identify whether there was a link between a scientist's gender or professional status with their levels of verbosity.

Analysts utilized various sets of sample sizes, statistical approaches, and covariates, which led to several different results in relation to the hypotheses. This, therefore, resulted in various, yet defensible findings from the various analysts. By using Data Explained, Professor Schweinsberg and colleagues were able to understand precisely how these analytical choices differed, despite the data and hypotheses being the same. A qualitative study of the R-code used by analysts revealed a process model for the psychology behind data analyses.

Professor Schweinsberg says, "Our study illustrates the benefits of transparent and open science practices. Subjective analytical choices are unavoidable, and we should embrace them because a collection of diverse analytical backgrounds and approaches can reveal the true consistency of an empirical claim."

This research shows the critical role subjective researcher decisions play in influencing reported empirical results. According to the researchers, these findings stress the importance of open data, which is publicly available, systematic robustness checks in academic research, and as much transparency as possible regarding both analytic paths taken and not taken, in order to ensure research is as accurate as possible. They also suggest humility when communicating research findings and caution in applying them to organizational decision-making.

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Revealing the values in mathematics education through a variety of cultural lenses

Mathematics educators, mathematicians, teachers, and students come together to discuss the values that are espoused and developed through mathematics education today in different cultures

CACTUS COMMUNICATIONS

Research News

IMAGE: THE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION CAN OFTEN BE ASSOCIATED WITH ONLY NUMERACY SKILLS. BUT VIEWING THE DISCIPLINE AS A CULTURAL PRODUCT--WHOSE VALUES DIFFER ACROSS CULTURES--REVEALS ITS SIGNIFICANCE BEYOND NUMBERS CRUNCHING. view more 

CREDIT: ECNU REVIEW OF EDUCATION

If you ask an adult what their least favorite subject at school was, they are likely to say mathematics. This response has less to do with mathematics per se than it is about how well it was taught or whether students were supported in their endeavor to learn numbers, master algebra, understand trigonometry, and handle data. To grasp the values of mathematics and how the discipline is viewed by society, we need to see it as a cultural phenomenon first.

It is commonly known that mathematics is the foundation of technology, be it primitive tools or the supercomputers in the 21st century. In turn, this technology shapes our modes of social connection. Thus, learning mathematics is inseparable from the connection with the external environment, and teaching mathematics is also inseparable from the interaction between people. Seen this way, it is hard not to categorize mathematics as a cultural product. Philosophers, educators, and mathematicians who have written about the discipline's cultural contours have noted how intrinsically enmeshed it is with other fields such as anthropology, sociology, education, philosophy, and psychology.

"While people may readily understand the significance of anthropology to our lives and histories, it is often felt that the objective and the scientific nature of mathematics masks its value relevance," says Dr. Qiaoping Zhang from the Education University of Hong Kong. "Because research on values in mathematics education is limited and considered unimportant."

To correct this notion and explore the values that are considered important in teaching and learning mathematics according to various cultures, ECNU Review of Education is putting out a Special Issue this month with Dr. Qiaoping Zhang and Dr. Wee Tiong Seah as its guest editors. Teachers and students in Australia, Pasifika learners in New Zealand, and primary and secondary students in Korea and the Chinese mainland are just some of the participants who will be sharing their stories and ideas about the values they hold dear in mathematics education. This special issue of the journal is being launched as a tribute to the 14th International Congress on Mathematical Education, which is being held from July 14 to 18 in Shanghai, China.

Among the plethora of articles and commentaries in the Special Issue, some of the highlights include:

• Wee Tiong Seah (University of Melbourne), Qiaoping Zhang, and Alan J. Bishop (Monash University) discussing the role that individuals such as teachers and parents play in affecting the development of students' values in mathematics education through their views, decisions, and behavior, and emphasizing the importance of bringing humanity back into mathematics education;

• Yüksel Dede (Gazi University), Veysel Akçakın (Uşak University), and Gürcan Kaya (Burdur Mehmet Akif Ersoy University) exploring the intersection of mathematical values, educational values, and the educational values involved in mathematical modeling tasks in Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America;

• Jodie Hunter from Massey University examining the understanding of mathematics educational values and the reasons for rating values at different levels of importance, according to Pasifika students in New Zealand; and

• Hengjun Tang (Zhejiang Normal University), Wee Tiong Seah, Qiaoping Zhang and Weizhong Zhang (Zhejiang Normal University) using the 'What I Find Important' [WIFI] questionnaire to investigate Chinese mainland students' value structures in mathematics learning across primary, junior secondary, and senior secondary levels.

It must be noted that the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has given greater weight to these discussions. "Prior to the scramble of teachers and students joining online lectures and tutorials last year, it was felt that information and communication technology would have a fundamental influence on mathematics education and could reduce the differences between cultural traditions", Dr. Seah says. "However, after a year of learning online, might digital learning technology have widened the learning opportunity gaps within and amongst cultural traditions instead?"

Examining whether and how teachers and students have changed their values in mathematics learning as a result of online teaching, and how these values are maintained and sustained alongside the wellbeing of everybody involved, remain as the open-ended questions whose answers are of critical importance as we move forward in a world which is (still) suffering from a pandemic.

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Reference

Authors: Qiaoping Zhang, Wee Tiong Seah

Title of original paper: Thematic Issue on Values and Valuing in Mathematics Education: Revisiting Mathematics Education from Cultural Perspectives

Journal: ECNU Review of Education

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/20965311211011628

Affiliations: The Education University of Hong Kong, The University of Melbourne

About ECNU Review of Education

The ECNU Review of Education (ROE) is an international peer review and platinum open access scholarly journal initiated by the East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai, China. It is a peer-reviewed journal that aims to publish impactful research and innovative articles related to current educational issues in China and abroad. The journal encourages articles that use interdisciplinary perspectives and embrace contextual sensitivity. It seeks to build a global community of scholars interested in advancing knowledge, generating big ideas, inducing deep changes, and bringing about a real impact in education.

About Dr. Qiaoping Zhang

Dr. Qiaoping Zhang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK). Prior to joining EdUHK he worked in Hubei University, East China Normal University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He received his PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2010. His research interests are mainly on affects in mathematics education, mathematics teacher education, students' mathematical problem solving, and cross-cultural comparison in mathematics education.

About Dr. Wee Tiong Seah

Dr. Wee Tiong Seah is Professor in Mathematics Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education at The University of Melbourne, Australia. He is best known for utilizing conative and motivational variables such as values to support research and development projects in mathematics education, which often focus on cognitive and affective variables only. One of the applications of this field of knowledge and expertise is in the fostering of positive or enabling mathematical wellbeing, which address issues such as mathematics anxiety and disengagement.