Heaviest neutron star to date is a ‘black widow’ eating its mate

Observations of faint, planet-size star helps weigh it’s millisecond pulsar companion

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - BERKELEY

 

IMAGE: ASTRONOMERS MEASURED THE VELOCITY OF A FAINT STAR (GREEN CIRCLE) THAT HAS BEEN STRIPPED OF NEARLY ITS ENTIRE MASS BY AN INVISIBLE COMPANION, A NEUTRON STAR AND MILLISECOND PULSAR THAT THEY DETERMINED TO BE THE MOST MASSIVE YET FOUND AND PERHAPS THE UPPER LIMIT FOR NEUTRON STARS. THE OBJECTS ARE IN THE CONSTELLATION SEXTANS. view more 

CREDIT: W. M. KECK OBSERVATORY, ROGER W. ROMANI, ALEX FILIPPENKO

A dense, collapsed star spinning 707 times per second — making it one of the fastest spinning neutron stars in the Milky Way galaxy — has shredded and consumed nearly the entire mass of its stellar companion and, in the process, grown into the heaviest neutron star observed to date.

Weighing this record-setting neutron star, which tops the charts at 2.35 times the mass of the sun, helps astronomers understand the weird quantum state of matter inside these dense objects, which — if they get much heavier than that — collapse entirely and disappear as a black hole.

“We know roughly how matter behaves at nuclear densities, like in the nucleus of a uranium atom,” said Alex Filippenko, Distinguished Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. “A neutron star is like one giant nucleus, but when you have one-and-a-half solar masses of this stuff, which is about 500,000 Earth masses of nuclei all clinging together, it's not at all clear how they will behave.”

Roger W. Romani, professor of astrophysics at Stanford University, noted that neutron stars are so dense — 1 cubic inch weighs over 10 billion tons — that their cores are the densest matter in the universe short of black holes, which because they are hidden behind their event horizon are impossible to study. The neutron star, a pulsar designated PSR J0952-0607, is thus the densest object within sight of Earth.
 
The measurement of the neutron star’s mass was possible thanks to the extreme sensitivity of the 10-meter Keck I telescope on Maunakea in Hawai'i, which was just able to record a spectrum of visible light from the hotly glowing companion star, now reduced to the size of a large gaseous planet. The stars are about 3,000 light years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Sextans.

Discovered in 2017, PSR J0952-0607 is referred to as a “black widow” pulsar — an analogy to the tendency of female black widow spiders to consume the much smaller male after mating. Filippenko and Romani have been studying black widow systems for more than a decade, hoping to establish the upper limit on how large neutron stars/pulsars can grow.

“By combining this measurement with those of several other black widows, we show that neutron stars must reach at least this mass, 2.35 plus or minus 0.17 solar masses,” said Romani, who is a professor of physics in Stanford’s School of Humanities and Sciences and member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology. “In turn, this provides some of the strongest constraints on the property of matter at several times the density seen in atomic nuclei. Indeed, many otherwise popular models of dense-matter physics are excluded by this result.”

If 2.35 solar masses is close to the upper limit of neutron stars, the researchers say, then the interior is likely to be a soup of neutrons as well as up and down quarks — the constituents of normal protons and neutrons — but not exotic matter, such as “strange” quarks or kaons, which are particles that contain a strange quark.

“A high maximum mass for neutron stars suggests that it is a mixture of nuclei and their dissolved up and down quarks all the way to the core,” Romani said. “This excludes many proposed states of matter, especially those with exotic interior composition.”

Romani, Filippenko and Stanford graduate student Dinesh Kandel are co-authors of a paper describing the team’s results that has been accepted for publication by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

CAPTION

A spinning neutron star periodically swings its radio (green) and gamma-ray (magenta) beams past Earth in this artist's concept of a black widow pulsar. The pulsar heats the facing side of its stellar partner to temperatures twice as hot as the sun's surface and slowly evaporates it.

CREDIT

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

How large can they grow?

Astronomers generally agree that when a star with a core larger than about 1.4 solar masses collapses at the end of its life, it forms a dense, compact object with an interior under such high pressure that all atoms are smashed together to form a sea of neutrons and their subnuclear constituents, quarks. These neutron stars are born spinning, and though too dim to be seen in visible light, reveal themselves as pulsars, emitting beams of light — radio waves, X-rays or even gamma rays — that flash Earth as they spin, much like the rotating beam of a lighthouse.

“Ordinary” pulsars spin and flash about once per second, on average, a speed that can easily be explained given the normal rotation of a star before it collapses. But some pulsars repeat hundreds or up to 1,000 times per second, which is hard to explain unless matter has fallen onto the neutron star and spun it up. But for some millisecond pulsars, no companion is visible.

One possible explanation for isolated millisecond pulsars is that each did once have a companion, but it stripped it down to nothing.

“The evolutionary pathway is absolutely fascinating. Double exclamation point,” Filippenko said. “As the companion star evolves and starts becoming a red giant, material spills over to the neutron star, and that spins up the neutron star. By spinning up, it now becomes incredibly energized, and a wind of particles starts coming out from the neutron star. That wind then hits the donor star and starts stripping material off, and over time, the donor star’s mass decreases to that of a planet, and if even more time passes, it disappears altogether. So, that's how lone millisecond pulsars could be formed. They weren't all alone to begin with — they had to be in a binary pair — but they gradually evaporated away their companions, and now they're solitary.”

The pulsar PSR J0952-0607 and its faint companion star support this origin story for millisecond pulsars.

“These planet-like objects are the dregs of normal stars which have contributed mass and angular momentum, spinning up their pulsar mates to millisecond periods and increasing their mass in the process,” Romani said.

“In a case of cosmic ingratitude, the black widow pulsar, which has devoured a large part of its mate, now heats and evaporates the companion down to planetary masses and perhaps complete annihilation,” said Filippenko.

Spider pulsars include redbacks and tidarrens

Finding black widow pulsars in which the companion is small, but not too small to detect, is one of few ways to weigh neutron stars. In the case of this binary system, the companion star — now only 20 times the mass of Jupiter — is distorted by the mass of the neutron star and tidally locked, similar to the way our moon is locked in orbit so that we see only one side. The neutron star-facing side is heated to temperatures of about 6,200 Kelvin, or 10,700 degrees Fahrenheit, a bit hotter than our sun, and just bright enough to see with a large telescope.

Filippenko and Romani turned the Keck I telescope on PSR J0952-0607 on six occasions over the last four years, each time observing with the Low Resolution Imaging Spectrometer in 15-minute chunks to catch the faint companion at specific points in its 6.4-hour orbit of the pulsar. By comparing the spectra to that of similar sun-like stars, they were able to measure the orbital velocity of the companion star and calculate the mass of the neutron star.

Filippenko and Romani have examined about a dozen black widow systems so far, though only six had companion stars bright enough to let them calculate a mass. All involved neutron stars less massive than the pulsar PSR J0952-060. They’re hoping to study more black widow pulsars, as well as their cousins: redbacks, named for the Australian equivalent of black widow pulsars, which have companions closer to one-tenth the mass of the sun; and what Romani dubbed tidarrens — where the companion is around one-hundredth of a solar mass — after a relative of the black widow spider. The male of this species, Tidarren sisyphoides, is about 1% of the female’s size.

“We can keep looking for black widows and similar neutron stars that skate even closer to the black hole brink. But if we don't find any, it tightens the argument that 2.3 solar masses is the true limit, beyond which they become black holes,” Filippenko said.

“This is right at the limit of what the Keck telescope can do, so barring fantastic observing conditions, tightening the measurement of PSR J0952-0607 likely awaits the 30-meter telescope era,” added Romani.

Other co-authors of the ApJ Letters paper are UC Berkeley researchers Thomas Brink and WeiKang Zheng. The work was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (80NSSC17K0024, 80NSSC17K0502), the Christopher R. Redlich Fund, the TABASGO Foundation, and UC Berkeley’s Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science.

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JOURNAL

The Astrophysical Journal Letters

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

PSR J0952-0607: The Fastest and Heaviest Known Galactic Neutron Star

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

26-Jul-2022

Marine conservation effort in U.S. Virgin Islands aids key fish species, Oregon State research finds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: RED HIND IN CUBA. view more 

CREDIT: SCOTT HEPPELL

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A more than 30-year marine conservation effort in the U.S. Virgin Islands helped aid the recovery of a fish species important in commercial, recreational and subsistence fisheries, a new Oregon State University study found.

Red hind, a species of grouper in the Caribbean, historically experienced intense fishing pressure, which led managers to implement progressively restrictive fishing closures in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

In a study just published in Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers at Oregon State and the University of the Virgin Islands found that the fishing restrictions at the location they studied helped lead to a more than 35% increase in average fish size and the recovery of the population to a benchmark considered sustainable for many fish species.

“This is a management and conservation success,” said Claire Rosemond, an Oregon State doctoral student and lead author of the study. “The recovery of the red hind population at the spawning aggregation tracks management decisions, so it appears that fishing restrictions are helping to accomplish the intended goal of recovering the red hind population and fishery.”

Globally, more than 200 species of marine fishes, including red hind, reproduce by forming spawning aggregations at specific times and locations. The predictability of these mass spawning events makes the aggregations susceptible to intense fishing pressure.

Locations of many fish spawning aggregations in the Caribbean have been known and fished for decades. This has led to population collapse of several important species, including red hind, which are an important source of income and food for local people.

By the late 1980s, the red hind population at a spawning site near St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands showed signs of decline with a decrease in average fish length and an extremely skewed ratio of females to males because fishing disproportionately removed the larger males.

This led fisheries managers in 1990 to establish the Red Hind Bank Marine Conservation District to protect the fish spawning site by seasonally closing the area to fishing during the months of peak spawning activity (December through February). In 1999, the district was permanently closed to fishing.

The just-published research focused on that spawning site. The scientists used historical data collected by other researchers between 1988 and 2009 and gathered their own data during several trips to the U.S. Virgin Islands between 2018 and 2020.

During those trips the resarchers caught, measured, and released 1,203 red hind. The mean size of the fish they caught was almost 16 inches, more than four inches longer than the mean size reported from data from 1988-89. Meanwhile, the female to male ratio at the spawning aggregation became less skewed over time.

By a measure known as spawning potential ratio, the red hind are now at a benchmark considered sustainable for many fisheries, the researchers note, but that does not mean that continued recovery is guaranteed.

“To me the take home message is this management measure worked, but it also means this management measure is currently working, so at this point in time let’s keep it the way it is,” said Scott Heppell, a co-author of the paper who is a professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences at Oregon State in Oregon State’s College of Agricultural Sciences.

The recovery of the red hind population at the spawning aggregation site is due in part to management decisions, fishers adhering to closures and long-term monitoring.

“The Marine Conservation District is a conservation success due to the participation of people from many different sectors,” Rosemond said. “I think management agencies and fishers would be excited to know that their work and potential sacrifices, like not fishing in closed areas, have paid off.”

Richard Nemeth of the University of the Virgin Islands is also a co-author of this paper.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Puerto Rico Sea Grant College Program, and the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Sciences funded this research.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Marine Science

DOI

10.3389/fmars.2022.93140 

ARTICLE TITLE

Demographic recovery of a reef fish population over 30 years of spawning aggregation site protection

Practices leverage telehealth to enhance access to abortion services

Remote delivery in reproductive health care: Operation of direct-to-patient telehealth medication abortion services in diverse settings

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS

 

IMAGE: HOW DO DIRECT-TO-PATIENT TELEHEALTH ABORTION SERVICES OPERATE IN DIFFERENT PRACTICE TYPES AND SETTINGS? view more 

CREDIT: ANNALS OF FAMILY MEDICINE

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the delivery of many health services, including abortion, prompting researchers in Seattle to examine the feasibility of telehealth to improve access to this important care. Researchers conducted 21 interviews with clinical staff from four practice settings: independent primary care practices; specialized family planning clinics; online medical services; and primary care clinics within multispecialty health systems. Across all practice settings, the researchers found similar operational procedures for remote medication abortion services, with each site following five basic steps for care provision: patient engagement, care consultations, payment, medication dispensing and follow-up communication.

Though the overarching structure of services remained consistent across clinics, each site adapted services to their specific setting, local laws and regulations, and the needs of their patient populations. Service sites used multiple methods of medication delivery, including on-site pharmacies, medication dispensing protocols, and partner pharmacies. Family planning and health system clinics mailed medications from clinic stock or internal pharmacies, while independent clinics and online services often used mail-order pharmacies. The authors assert that these findings demonstrate the feasibility of offering abortion services in a variety of medical settings and highlight the potential variations that can be made to adapt the service to patient needs.

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JOURNAL

The Annals of Family Medicine

DOI

10.1370/afm.2821 

ARTICLE TITLE

Remote delivery in reproductive health care: Operation of direct-to-patient telehealth medication abortion services in diverse settings

Researchers recycle CDs into flexible biosensors

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: A GOLD CD’S THIN METALLIC LAYER CAN BE SEPARATED FROM THE RIGID PLASTIC AND FASHIONED INTO SENSORS TO MONITOR ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY IN HUMAN HEARTS AND MUSCLES AS WELL AS LACTATE, GLUCOSE, PH AND OXYGEN LEVELS. view more 

CREDIT: MATTHEW BROWN

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- New research from Binghamton University, State University of New York offers a second life for CDs: Turn them into flexible biosensors that are inexpensive and easy to manufacture.

In a paper published this month in Nature Communications, Matthew Brown, PhD ’22, and Assistant Professor Ahyeon Koh from the Department of Biomedical Engineering show how a gold CD’s thin metallic layer can be separated from the rigid plastic and fashioned into sensors to monitor electrical activity in human hearts and muscles as well as lactate, glucose, pH and oxygen levels. The sensors can communicate with a smartphone via Bluetooth.

The fabrication is completed in 20 to 30 minutes without releasing toxic chemicals or needing expensive equipment, and it costs about $1.50 per device. According to the paper, “this sustainable approach for upcycling electronic waste provides an advantageous research-based waste stream that does not require cutting-edge microfabrication facilities, expensive materials or high-caliber engineering skills.”

Also contributing to the research are BME Professor Gretchen Mahler; Melissa Mendoza, PhD ’22; and Louis Somma, MS ’22, as well as Assistant Professor Yeonsik Noh from the University of Massachusetts - Amherst. Nature Communications has honored the article among its Editors’ Highlights, showcasing the 50 best papers recently published in a research area.

Koh said she first considered the idea of converting the CDs into sensors while doing postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois.

“I had an idea: Maybe we could harvest the critical material from the CD and then upcycle to sensing systems,” she said. “I talked to Matt about my idea during the early stage of his dissertation research, and he wanted to continue this research.”

Brown investigated previous research on biosensors made from CDs, but he found that those sensors retained a rigid structure and had a more limited number of applications than he and Koh hoped to achieve. The first step is removing the metallic coating from the plastic beneath using a chemical process and adhesive tape.

“When you pick up your hair on your clothes with sticky tape, that is essentially the same mechanism,” Koh said. “We loosen the layer of metals from the CD and then pick up that metal layer with tape, so we just peel it off. That thin layer is then processed and flexible.”

To create the sensors, Binghamton researchers used a Cricut cutter, an off-the-shelf machine for crafters that generally cuts designs from materials like paper, vinyl, card stock and iron-on transfers. The flexible circuits then would be removed and stuck onto a person. With the help of a smartphone app, medical professionals or patients could get readings and track progress over time.

As Brown’s PhD advisor, Koh is thrilled to see something she speculated could be possible almost a decade ago is now a reality.

“I was so lucky to have Matt in the lab, because otherwise it would have stayed an idea from my postdoc research,” she said. “Some of my postdoc colleagues remember me talking about this idea to them, and they’re so excited about it.”

Brown is headed to San Diego to work for Dexcom, which makes continuous glucose monitors, but he has ideas about how the CD-to-sensor technology could be improved: “We used gold CDs, and we want to explore silver-based CDs, which I believe are more common. How can we upcycle those types of CDs with the same kind of process? We also want to look at if we can utilize laser engraving rather than using the fabric-based cutter to improve the upcycling speed even further.”

Like her former student, Koh would like to expand the CD-to-sensor research as well, possibly with the help of the campus community.

 “Maybe we can create a box on campus where we could collect CDs,” she said. “We also could have more generalized step-by-step instructions on how to make them in a day, without any engineering skills. Everybody can create those kinds of sensors for their users. We want these to become more accessible and affordable, and more easily distributed to the public.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-31338-9 

ARTICLE TITLE

Upcycling Compact Discs for Flexible and Stretchable Bioelectronic Applications

Green tea extract promotes gut health, lowers blood sugar

Study shows potential to reduce risks of metabolic syndrome

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research in people with a cluster of heart disease risk factors has shown that consuming green tea extract for four weeks can reduce blood sugar levels and improve gut health by lowering inflammation and decreasing “leaky gut.”

Researchers said this is the first study assessing whether the health risks linked to the condition known as metabolic syndrome, which affects about one-third of Americans, may be diminished by green tea’s anti-inflammatory benefits in the gut.

“There is much evidence that greater consumption of green tea is associated with good levels of cholesterol, glucose and triglycerides, but no studies have linked its benefits at the gut to those health factors,” said Richard Bruno, senior study author and professor of human nutrition at The Ohio State University.

The team conducted the clinical trial in 40 individuals as a follow-up to a 2019 study that associated lower obesity and fewer health risks in mice that consumed green tea supplements with improvements to gut health.

In the new study, green tea extract also lowered blood sugar, or glucose, and decreased gut inflammation and permeability in healthy people – an unexpected finding.

“What this tells us is that within one month we’re able to lower blood glucose in both people with metabolic syndrome and healthy people, and the lowering of blood glucose appears to be related to decreasing leaky gut and decreasing gut inflammation – regardless of health status,” Bruno said.

Articles on the glucose results and lowered gut permeability and inflammation were published recently in Current Developments in Nutrition.

People with metabolic syndrome are diagnosed with at least three of five factors that increase the risk for heart disease, diabetes and other health problems – excess belly fat, high blood pressure, low HDL (good) cholesterol, and high levels of fasting blood glucose and triglycerides, a type of fat in the blood.

The tricky thing about these risk factors that constitute metabolic syndrome is that they are often only slightly altered and do not yet require drug management, but still impose great risk to health, Bruno said.

“Most physicians will initially recommend weight loss and exercise. Unfortunately, we know most persons can’t comply with lifestyle modifications for various reasons,” he said. “Our work is aiming to give people a new food-based tool to help manage their risk for metabolic syndrome or to reverse metabolic syndrome.”

Forty participants – 21 with metabolic syndrome and 19 healthy adults – consumed gummy confections containing green tea extract rich in anti-inflammatory compounds called catechins for 28 days. The daily dose equaled five cups of green tea. In the randomized double-blind crossover trial, all participants spent another 28 days taking a placebo, with a month off of any supplement between the treatments.

Researchers confirmed that participants, as advised, followed a diet low in polyphenols – naturally occurring antioxidants in fruits, vegetables, teas and spices – during the placebo and green tea extract confection phases of the study so any results could be attributed to the effects of green tea alone.

Results showed that fasting blood glucose levels for all participants were significantly lower after taking green tea extract compared to levels after taking the placebo. Decreased gut inflammation due to the green tea treatment in all participants was established through an analysis that showed a reduction in pro-inflammatory proteins in fecal samples. Using a technique to assess sugar ratios in urine samples, researchers also found that with green tea, participants’ small intestine permeability favorably decreased.

Gut permeability, or leaky gut, enables intestinal bacteria and related toxic compounds to enter the bloodstream, stimulating low-grade chronic inflammation.

“That absorption of gut-derived products is thought to be an initiating factor for obesity and insulin resistance, which are central to all cardiometabolic disorders,” Bruno said. “If we can improve gut integrity and reduce leaky gut, the thought is we’ll be able to not only alleviate low-grade inflammation that initiates cardiometabolic disorders, but potentially reverse them.

“We did not attempt to cure metabolic syndrome with a one-month study,” he said. “But based on what we know about the causal factors behind metabolic syndrome, there is potential for green tea to be acting at least in part at the gut level to alleviate the risk for either developing it or reversing it if you already have metabolic syndrome.”

Bruno’s lab is completing further analyses of microbial communities in the guts of study participants and levels of bacteria-related toxins in their blood.

This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center at Ohio State.

Ohio State co-authors of both papers include Min Zeng, Geoffrey Sasaki, Sisi Cao, Yael Vodovotz and Joanna Hodges. Avinash Pokala and Shahabeddin Rezaei also co-authored the paper on glucose reduction.

#

 

Contact: Richard Bruno, Bruno.27@osu.edu

Written by Emily Caldwell, Caldwell.151@osu.edu; 614-292-8152

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JOURNAL

Current Developments in Nutrition

DOI

10.1093/cdn/nzac068.010 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Catechin-Rich Green Tea Extract Reduced Intestinal Inflammation and Fasting Glucose in Metabolic Syndrome and Healthy Adults: A Randomized, Controlled, Crossover Trial

World’s first HIV-positive to HIV-positive heart transplant performed at Montefiore Health System

Transformative surgery occurs almost a decade after the passage of the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act

Business Announcement

ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE

NEW YORK (July 26, 2022) – The world’s first HIV-positive to HIV-positive heart transplant has been successfully performed at Montefiore Health System in the Bronx. The patient, in her sixties, suffered from advanced heart failure and received the life-saving donation, along with a simultaneous kidney transplant, in early Spring. After the four-hour surgery, she spent five weeks recovering in the hospital and now sees her transplant physicians at Montefiore for monitoring.

Montefiore is one of only 25 centers in the United States eligible to offer this complex surgery, having met prior surgical benchmarks and outcomes set by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. Its Heart Transplantation Team is internationally renowned for spearheading innovative methods, like transplanting a heart from a donor who died after their heart stopped beating– a novel approach that has the potential to save hundreds more people in need of a new heart each year.

“The goal of the Montefiore heart transplant team is to constantly push and establish new standards so that anyone who is appropriate for an organ transplant can benefit from this life-saving procedure,” said Daniel Goldstein, M.D., professor and Vice Chair, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery and Surgical Director, Cardiothoracic & Vascular Surgery Cardiac Transplantation & Mechanical Assistance Programs, Montefiore and Albert Einstein College of Medicine (Einstein).

In 2013, the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act enabled people living with HIV to donate their organs to a HIV-positive recipient, but it has taken almost 10 years for this opportunity to become a reality for heart transplantation.

“Thanks to significant medical advances, people living with HIV are able to control the disease so well that they can now save the lives of other people living with this condition. This surgery is a milestone in the history of organ donation and offers new hope to people who once had nowhere to turn,” said Ulrich P. Jorde, MD, Section Head - Heart Failure, Cardiac Transplantation & Mechanical Circulatory Support, and Vice Chief, Division of Cardiology at Montefiore and Professor of Medicine at Einstein.

In the United States, there are between 60,000 and 100,000 people who could benefit from a new heart, however only around 3,800 transplants were performed in 2021.

“This was a complicated case and a true multidisciplinary effort by cardiology, surgery, nephrology, infectious disease, critical care and immunology,” said the patient’s cardiologist, Dr. Omar Saeed, who is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Einstein. “Making this option available to people living with HIV expands the pool of donors and means more people, with or without HIV, will have quicker access to a lifesaving organ. To say we are proud of what this means for our patients and the medical community at large, is an understatement.”

###

About Montefiore Health System
Montefiore Health System is one of New York’s premier academic health systems and is a recognized leader in providing exceptional quality and personalized, accountable care to approximately three million people in communities across the Bronx, Westchester and the Hudson Valley. It is comprised of 10 hospitals, including the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, Burke Rehabilitation Hospital and more than 200 outpatient ambulatory care sites. The advanced clinical and translational research at its medical school, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, directly informs patient care and improves outcomes. From the Montefiore-Einstein Centers of Excellence in cancer, cardiology and vascular care, pediatrics, and transplantation, to its preeminent school-based health program, Montefiore is a fully integrated healthcare delivery system providing coordinated, comprehensive care to patients and their families. For more information please visit www.montefiore.org. Follow us on Twitter and view us on Facebook and YouTube.

Cocoa shown to reduce blood pressure and arterial stiffness in first real-life study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

Cocoa only reduces blood pressure and arterial stiffness when elevated, a new study from the University of Surrey finds.

Cocoa flavanols have previously been found to lower blood pressure and arterial stiffness as much as some blood pressure medication. However, how effective flavanols are in everyday life in reducing blood pressure has remained unknown, as previous studies in this area have been performed in tightly controlled experimental settings.

Surrey’s new research reduces concerns that cocoa as a treatment for raised blood pressure could pose health risks by decreasing blood pressure when it is not raised, paving the way for it to be potentially used in clinical practice.

In the first study of its kind study, researchers set out to investigate the use of flavanols, a compound found in cocoa, in lowering blood pressure and arterial stiffness in individuals outside of clinical settings.

Christian Heiss, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Surrey, said:

“High blood pressure and arterial stiffness increases a person’s risk of heart disease and strokes, so it is crucial that we investigate innovative ways to treat such conditions.

“Before we even consider introducing cocoa into clinical practices, we need to test if the results previously reported in laboratory settings safely translate into real-world settings, with people going about their everyday lives.”

For several days, eleven healthy participants consumed, on alternating days, either six cocoa flavanol capsules or six placebo capsules containing brown sugar. Participants were provided with an upper arm blood pressure monitor and a finger clip measuring pulse wave velocity (PWV) which gauges levels of arterial stiffness.

Measurements of blood pressure and PWV were taken prior to consumption of the capsules and every 30 minutes after ingestion for the first three hours, and then hourly for the remaining nine hours. Researchers found that blood pressure and arterial stiffness were only lowered in participants if it was high, and there was no effect when the blood pressure was low in the morning.

Significantly, effects were also, for the first time, identified at eight hours after cocoa was consumed. Researchers believe that this second peak may be due to how bacteria in the gut metabolise cocoa flavanols.

Professor Heiss added:

“The positive impact cocoa flavanols have on our cardiovascular system, in particular, blood vessel function and blood pressure, is undeniable. Doctors often fear that some blood pressure tablets can decrease the blood pressure too much on some days.

“What we have found indicates that cocoa flavanols only decrease blood pressure if it is elevated. Working with participants’ personal health technologies showed us how variable blood pressure and arterial stiffness can be from day to day and shows the role of personal health monitors in developing and implementing effective personalised care.”

The research was published in Frontiers in Nutrition.

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JOURNAL

Frontiers in Nutrition

DOI

10.3389/fnut.2022.886597 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessing Variability in Vascular Response to Cocoa With Personal Devices: A Series of Double-Blind Randomized Crossover n-of-1 Trials

Linking diversity at performing arts non-profits with marketing, funding, location

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: EMPTY SEATS BEFORE A PERFORMANCE AT C.Y. STEPHENS AUDITORIUM, AMES, IA, 2022. view more 

CREDIT: CHRISTOPHER GANNON/IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

AMES, IA – While arts and cultural organizations across the U.S. have increasingly prioritized diversifying their customer base, many struggle to know if their efforts are moving the needle.

Findings from a new study, published in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, may be able to help. The researchers tracked changes in the racial makeup and income levels of customers at two dozen nonprofit performing arts organizations over seven years. They then investigated how marketing and other factors, like location and funders, impacted what they define as customer diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

“One of the missions of arts and cultural organizations is to serve the public, but the perception is that the arts are for wealthy, white people. Our study examines the role that marketing can play in promoting customer DEI,” said Young Woong Park, co-author and assistant professor of information systems and business analytics at Iowa State University.

The arts organizations participating in the study produced and presented ballet, opera, theater, and symphonies in mid- to large-sized cities in the U.S. Park and his research team first conducted semi-structured interviews with 33 professionals at the organizations to identify their DEI priorities and challenges.

The researchers then built a model to analyze 18 million credit and debit card transactions (provided by the performing arts organizations) from 2011-2017. They filtered the data to include only addresses from households within 31 miles of each venue and matched it with U.S. Census Bureau data to estimate the racial and income make-up of the customers. The model also allowed the researchers to link certain factors (e.g., program diversity, targeted advertising, funding sources, venue location) to changes in the customer base. 

The findings and recommendations

The researchers’ study found boosting diverse program offerings and investing in advertising to reach underrepresented groups improved both racial and income representativeness (i.e., the extent to which the proportion of non-white/low-income customers matches the proportion in the community.)

Government funding had the greatest positive effect on racial and income representativeness, followed by funding from foundations. Individual support exerted less influence, and high corporate support actually decreased income representativeness. An interviewee shared many of the corporate sponsors are luxury brands and financial services, which may be more motivated to get their product or name in front of wealthy attendees.  

The study also found higher ticket prices negatively affected both forms of diversity but especially income representativeness. The researchers pointed out a 10% targeted price discount can increase income representativeness by nearly 3 percentage points.

The existing customer base impacts DEI, as well. A predominately white, wealthy crowd reinforces more of the same, said Park.

One of the interviewees said, “Getting a diverse audience to see diverse work can be more difficult than providing the work itself” when the venue is surrounded by predominately white neighborhoods.”

The researchers explained barriers to a performing arts venue can be physical (long distance from neighborhoods where people of color live) or psychological (neighborhood is or appears to be racially or economically exclusionary).

They emphasized communities could boost DEI in the arts by being more strategic about where they invest in new venues.

“When cities are developing arts districts, they could locate arts venues in lower income or more racially diverse neighborhoods, which could act as both an economic stimulus for the community and as a commitment to serving neighborhoods in a more equitable manner,” said Park.

Park calculated nonprofit performing arts venues in predominately non-white census tracts attract 70% more people of color than venues in predominately white census tracts. For predominately low-income census tracts, venues attract 41% more low-income customers than venues in predominately high-income census tracts.

The authors state “demographic trends and mounting societal pressures will likely make customer DEI increasingly relevant” in the performing arts and other sectors in the U.S. They view their study as something that can open the door to more research and help people feel like they belong in more spaces.

Glenn Voss and Zannie Voss at Southern Methodist University co-authored the paper.

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JOURNAL

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

DOI

10.1007/s11747-022-00883-6 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Advancing customer diversity, equity, and inclusion: Measurement, stakeholder influence, and the role of marketing

Study on Sub-Saharan Africa: Lower chances of individual prosperity in regions far from the coast

The further people in Sub-Saharan Africa live from the coast, the greater the likelihood of a comparatively low standard of living. This is the conclusion reached by economists at the University of Bayreuth in a study of 17 African coastal countries.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITÄT BAYREUTH

The further people in Sub-Saharan Africa live from the coast, the greater the likelihood of a comparatively low standard of living. This is the conclusion reached by economists at the University of Bayreuth in a study of 17 African coastal countries published in the Review of Development Economics. Proximity to ports attracts people with higher levels of knowledge and education, promotes the growth of cities and the expansion of infrastructure, and thus increases prosperity. To achieve similar standards of living, geographically determined disadvantages in regions of Africa far from the coast would have to be offset by targeted measures, which often do not happen.

The study draws on data encompassing 128,609 people in 11,261 locations in 17 coastal Sub-Saharan African countries. Overall, the data cover a 20-year period. The analysis reveals a statistically significant relationship between distance from the coast and the standard of living of private households. The closer people settle to ports, the more likely they are to own radio and television sets and motor vehicles. The farther they live from the coasts, the less likely they are to have full- or part-time employment. The scarcity of money, medicine, food, and water also increases with distance from the coast.

"Previously, in development economics research, there has been evidence that ports, as national and international trade centres, positively affect standard of living in the immediately adjacent inland region, and that more distant regions are significantly less likely to reap these benefits. We have contributed new evidence on this in other research as well. In our current study, however, we have for the first time been able to demonstrate significant correlations between people's individual prosperity and their distance from the coasts. Factors that play a central role and are significantly strengthened by proximity to ports are education and knowledge, urbanization, and infrastructure," says Prof. Dr. David Stadelmann, Professor of Economic Policy & Economic Development at the University of Bayreuth.

Using statistical calculations, he and his research assistant Frederik Wild have succeeded in clearly distinguishing the impact of coastal proximity on the prosperity of the population from the influence of other factors relevant to prosperity. These include, for example, climate and extreme weather events, people's access to rivers and lakes, the fertility of arable land, the risk of malaria, and landscape features that promote or hinder the movement of people and goods. The effects of demographic features such as the age structure of the population, settlement density, and proximity to major cities were also considered.

The two authors included data from surveys conducted by the Pan-African opinion research institute "Afrobarometer." Among other things, these included the assessment of organizations that serve cross-regional economic integration. "People in Sub-Saharan Africa who are farther from the coasts are more inclined to describe their respective regional economic communities – the Regional Economic Communities – or even the African Union as a whole, as helpful for their country. This expresses the expectation that regional economic integration can help strengthen trade in regions that are far from the coast and are thus disadvantaged," says Frederik Wild, who is studying trade integration in Africa as part of a research project in the Africa Multiple cluster of excellence at the University of Bayreuth.

The Bayreuth development economists emphasize that isolation from the coast by no means inevitably means people will be less prosperous. "Our research in recent years has shown that good governance also has a significant impact on the standard of living of the population. Political leaders at both national and regional levels can, for example, compensate for the economic disadvantages caused by unfavourable geographic factors by specifically strengthening access to educational institutions, developing infrastructure, providing advantageous investment conditions, and curbing corruption," Stadelmann explains.

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JOURNAL

Review of Development Economics

DOI

10.1111/rode.12901 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

News article

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Coastal proximity and individual living standards: Econometric evidence from georeferenced household surveys in sub-Saharan Africa