It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, August 06, 2026
New study shows urban growers rely on accessible educational resources to adopt pollinator-friendly farming practices
A recent study by MSU entomologists Jen Roedel, Karma Thomas and Zsofia Szendrei found that urban growers' use of pollinator management practices is driven more by access to educational resources, labor and other farming supports than by demographics or the pollination needs of their crops.
Urban farming has expanded across the United States, providing food access, food sovereignty and environmental benefits, particularly in underserved communities. Unlike many conventional farms, urban farms often grow a wide variety of crops in smaller urban spaces, many of which depend on insect pollinators.
However, little was known about what factors influence urban growers' decisions to adopt these practices. Roedel and colleagues sought to better understand how growers access information and what motivates them to implement pollinator management strategies.
The researchers surveyed 74 urban growers and assessed how grower demographics, perceptions, motivations and resource accessibility influenced the adoption of common pollinator management strategies and overall crop richness on farms. They also examined which educational resources urban growers use most frequently.
The study showed that grower demographics, [including] age, gender, farm income, education level and years of agricultural experience, did not significantly influence pollinator management decisions. Instead, access to resources such as labor, funding and land had a stronger influence on whether growers implemented pollinator-supportive practices.
"We found that accessibility to resources (labor, money, land accessibility) and educational resource type drove the implementation of these practices, while there was a disconnect between the importance of pollination for crops grown and using these methods," Roedel said.
The most commonly used educational resources were hard-copy books and field guides, conversations with fellow growers and farmers, online Extension articles, and nonprofit organization resources. The findings also suggest that some pollinator management practices may be adopted more effectively when information is delivered through online materials rather than hard-copy formats.
"This work is especially important for extension educators who work with urban growers who want to implement pollinator management practices,” Roedel said. “It gives examples of which educational resources are most preferred and used."
BOZEMAN – A team including a Montana State University snow scientist has published research showing that a severe snow drought, like the one that affected the western U.S. in 2026, would occur four times less frequently during the preindustrial period than in the current era of climate change.
“What we experienced this spring was really strange, and we wanted to use the tools that we have available to increase our understanding of climate and snowpack,” Cowherd said. “When Bridger Bowl closed early and it was warm in February, people wanted to know if this is because of climate change or is this variability from a normal year? We can use statistics to answer that question.”
Operating under the premise that climate change is human caused, a presumption that Cowherd said has been established in previous studies, the team set out to quantify just how unusual the winter of 2026 was in the study area encompassing 11 Pacific and Mountain West states, including Montana. Using a physics-based computer weather model that incorporates satellite observations and measurements of the amount of liquid water in a snowpack, the team compared the recorded snowpack levels on March 15 for every year in that time span. The results indicated that while the 2026 snowpack did not represent a record low, it measured at or below the 10th percentile across the study area since 1987 – the lowest observed in the western U.S. in that 40-year period.
The team then verified that its computer model could reproduce the 2026 western U.S. snow drought before proceeding to simulate winters under two different climates. The first was today’s climate, from the year 2016 projected out to 2036. The second was the climate of the preindustrial world from 1850 to 1900, before large-scale, human-caused carbon emissions were a factor. Cowherd said that the model’s simulations helped researchers understand what the climate was like in the preindustrial period and established statistical distribution, which is useful for understanding if a drought like 2026’s would have occurred without climate change.
The models predicted that snow drought would occur every 6.8 years in the current climate but once every 30 years in the preindustrial climate.
“We found it is not impossible for these types of events to happen without climate change, but they’re so much more rare,” Cowherd said.
Citing World Health Organization data showing that nearly 70% of individuals globally experience at least one potentially traumatic event, the authors highlight how societal shifts—including climate change, inequality, and economic instability—amplify exposure to stress. They emphasize that access to healing resources remains unequally distributed due to structural conditions. The editorial synthesizes research on childhood adversity, protective factors, and the biological embedding of trauma over time. It also examines health equity, noting the disproportionate burden of adversity and discrimination faced by Black populations, including Black transgender women and pregnant individuals.
To address these disparities, the authors call for system-wide transformations, policy updates, and new reimbursement models that support relational, trauma-informed care and protect clinician well-being. They urge health disciplines to embed life-course and structurally focused frameworks across research, practice, education, and policy to eliminate health disparities and promote community healing.
“Exposure to adversity and the resources needed to heal remain deeply unequal in our society," said Alvarez and Jacoby. “Expanding access to relational, trauma-informed care and developing sustainable support systems represent promising approaches to address the enduring effects of chronic stress and trauma among vulnerable populations.”
Co-authors of the editorial include Jada L. Brooks, PhD, MSPH, RN, FAAN (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) and Elizabeth G. NeSmith, PhD, RN, FAAN (Augusta University). As the journal’s Editor in Chief since 2018, Eileen Lake, PhD, RN, FAAN, from Penn Nursing’s Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences and the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, recruited these guest editors and produced the special issue.
# # #
About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) is a global leader in nursing education, research, and practice, and is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS World University (2026), a distinction it has held nine prior times. Penn Nursing also consistently earns top national rankings from U.S. News & World Report for its BSN and graduate programs and is the top National Institutes of Health (NIH)–funded nursing research institution in the United States. By integrating innovation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and evidence-based practice, Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists, clinicians, and leaders to meet the complex health needs of a global society. Follow Penn Nursing: Facebook | LinkedIn | YouTube | Instagram.
Few tax issues generate more public frustration than big corporations paying little, or sometimes nothing, in federal income tax. Since 2018, U.S. corporations have faced a 21% federal corporate income tax rate, the lowest rate in decades and down from a top rate of 53% in 1969.
But their effective tax rates — the percentage of income they pay after using tax breaks such as deductions and credits — are often even lower. In 2025, at least 88 corporations paid zero income tax, according to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Why do some companies pay higher rates than others, and what drives some to pay less in taxes? New research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin sorts through 30 years of research on corporate tax avoidance to uncover the most significant factors. Hint: It’s not primarily manipulation or trickery.
“There’s all this noise about companies that don’t pay taxes or have very low tax rates, but if you dig in, a lot are driven by pretty benign factors,” says Andrew Belnap, assistant professor of accounting.
Drivers of Tax Dodging
With Kaitlyn Kroeger of the University of Iowa and Jacob Thornock of Brigham Young University, Belnap evaluated 31 commonly cited explanations side by side. Using data on more than 8,000 annual observations of publicly traded U.S. companies across two decades, they measured how much each factor explained differences in companies’ effective tax rates. They also highlighted which were most significant.
Investment opportunities. What a company invests in was the biggest driver, explaining 34% of the differences in companies’ cash tax rates — the percentage of income they pay in cash, which can differ from what they record for accounting purposes. They paid significantly lower taxes if they:
Spent heavily on research and development, which generates tax credits.
Held significant intangible assets such as patents and brands, which are easy to move across borders for tax purposes.
Routed income through foreign subsidiaries in low-tax jurisdictions.
Tight money. Financial constraints explained 21% of the variation in cash tax rates. Financially stretched companies are especially motivated to minimize tax bills, because they need every dollar they can keep, Belnap says.
Operating profile. Many tax savings have nothing to do with deliberate tax planning, Belnap notes. They result from the way tax laws interact with a company’s finances.
“Operating metrics such as net operating losses, profitability, and how much debt a company has relative to equity — those explain a lot of variation in effective tax rates,” he says.
Drilling down inside corporate structures revealed another layer of the puzzle. Two divisions of the same company can have strikingly different tax rates. Ford’s car manufacturing arm pays 25%, while its financial services unit pays only 19%.
Managers Matter
As striking as the factors that do relate to tax avoidance are the ones that do not. Several that have attracted attention — such as CEO pay structures, board composition, ownership structure, and company size — explain relatively little of the differences in tax rates, the researchers found.
One significant factor is personal rather than economic: which manager is running the company. Individual executives leave a distinct tax fingerprint that follows them from company to company, with manager-fixed effects accounting for 24% of tax variation.
For policymakers who’d like to increase corporate tax receipts, Belnap hopes the study can offer a rough road map. They can supplement traditional strategies such as corporate governance reforms or increased audits with more targeted rules.
Regulations governing R&D and intangible assets are likely to have the greatest impact.
Authorities can push companies to disclose more about how income is earned across different countries and business units.
“Companies are responding to the incentives that politicians are providing,” Belnap says. “Policymakers who think there is too much tax avoidance need to understand the big drivers, then adjust the incentives being given.”
AURORA, Colo. (Aug. 6, 2026) - Four years after Colorado passed a law requiring county jails to provide medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and to publish their policies for MOUD care, researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz have found that many jails still lack publicly available policies explaining how they provide this lifesaving treatment.
The study, published last week in Health & Justice, reviewed opioid treatment policies from all 46 county jails in Colorado. Researchers found that nearly 40% of jails had no publicly available policies related to opioid use disorder (OUD). Among those that did provide policies, fewer than half indicated they offered all three FDA-approved medications used to treat opioid addiction.
"State legislation is an important first step, but policies also need to be transparent, comprehensive and consistently implemented," said Katherine LeMasters, PhD, MPH, senior author of the study, assistant professor of medicine at CU Anschutz and the Colorado School of Public Health. "Publicly available policies can help healthcare providers, families and community organizations better support people during incarceration and after they're released."
People with opioid use disorder are disproportionately represented in U.S. jails and face an especially high risk of overdose after release. Research has shown that medications such as methadone, buprenorphine and extended-release naltrexone reduce overdose deaths, improve recovery and decrease the likelihood of returning to jail.
Colorado's Fentanyl Accountability and Prevention Act, passed in 2022, requires county jails to develop and publish opioid treatment policies, offer medications for opioid use disorder to eligible individuals and help connect people with treatment after release.
To evaluate how the law has been implemented, researchers collected publicly available policies and additional information provided directly by county jails between June and October 2024.
Among the 28 jails that provided policy information, researchers found:
71% described screening individuals for substance use disorder.
67% outlined policies for providing medications for opioid use disorder.
63% described connecting people with treatment after release.
46% indicated they offered all three FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder.
26% included peer recovery support services.
22% described harm-reduction services such as providing naloxone upon release.
The researchers also found notable differences between urban and rural counties. Urban jails were generally more likely to have comprehensive policies for screening, treatment and post-release care, while rural jails often faced limited access to opioid treatment programs and other community resources.
"Some jails want to offer these medications but face significant barriers," she said. "Methadone, for example, must be dispensed through federally regulated and state-licensed opioid treatment programs, which can make access especially difficult in rural areas. Sustainable funding, technical assistance and partnerships with community providers will be essential to fully implement the law."
Without medication, people experiencing opioid withdrawal while incarcerated can suffer severe physical symptoms and intense cravings, increasing their risk of returning to opioid use after release.
"When these medications aren't available, people may go through painful withdrawal while they're in custody," LeMasters said. "After release, that can increase the risk of returning to opioid use, overdose and death."
The researchers emphasize that the study evaluated written policies rather than actual clinical practice, meaning some jails may provide services that are not reflected in publicly available documents. Still, they say transparency is essential for ensuring continuity of care and identifying where additional resources are needed.
As more states consider requiring medications for opioid use disorder in correctional settings, the researchers say Colorado's experience offers important lessons about the challenges of translating legislation into consistent statewide practice.
"This is ultimately about saving lives," LeMasters said. "Jails are an important place to reach people with opioid use disorder, but they shouldn't be the only place. Expanding access to treatment in communities before people enter the criminal justice system remains just as important."
LeMasters co-authored the study with Paul Christine, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at CU Anschutz, Jarratt Pytell, MD, assistant professor of medicine at CU Anschutz, Alena Gabrielson and Selena Munoz-Jones, PhD students at CU Boulder, Betsy Craft, a Peer Support Specialist and harm reductionist, Hayley Rotello, a social work supervisor at Denver Health, and Ingrid Binswanger, MD, professor of medicine at CU Anschutz and senior clinical investigator at Kaiser Permanente.
About the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
The University of Colorado Anschutz is a world-class academic medical campus leading transformative advances in science, medicine, education and patient care. The campus includes the University of Colorado's health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes, and two nationally ranked independent hospitals—UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children's Hospital Colorado—which see nearly three million adult and pediatric patient visits each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, CU Anschutz delivers life-changing treatments, exceptional patient care and top-tier professional training. The campus conducts world-renowned research supported by $890 million in funding, including $762 million in sponsored awards and $128 million in philanthropic gifts for research.
###
Journal
Health & Justice
Method of Research
Data/statistical analysis
Subject of Research
People
Article Title
Does a state mandate translate into jail policy? Evidence from a policy surveillance study of opioid use disorder care in Colorado jails
Sugars may have helped fuel the evolution of the human brain: new research
Study suggests sugars played a bigger role in brain evolution than previously thought
University of Sydney researchers developed a model spanning approximately four million years of human evolution to examine whether dietary carbohydrates could meet the increasing glucose demands of a growing brain
Credit: Credit: Dennis Della Corte/University of Sydney
Fruit, honey and other naturally sweet foods may have helped fuel the evolution of the human brain, according to new research from the University of Sydney and the University of Glasgow.
Published inScience, the study modelled the glucose needs of humans and their ancestors from four million years ago until recently, finding natural sugars may have supplied energy needed to support growing brains before the advent of cooking made starch-rich foods like tubers and grains easier to digest.
The findings offer a different perspective on the longstanding scientific view that meat consumption was a key driver of human evolution. They may also offer insight into why we often crave sweet food.
“While animal foods were important, the brain’s need for glucose has largely received little attention from anthropologists,” Professor Brand-Miller said.
Over a period of four million years, human brain size increased from around 300 grams in early hominins to about 1500 grams in modern humans. As brains grew, so did demand for glucose, which is required by other tissues including red blood cells, kidneys and reproductive organs.
“The human brain is unusually large for our body size and requires substantial amounts of energy,” Professor Brand-Miller said.
“Glucose is the brain’s primary energy source, and for much of human evolution, would have come from carbohydrates found in foods such as fruit and honey.”
Modelling the nutritional demands of a growing brain
The researchers developed a model spanning approximately four million years of human evolution to examine whether dietary carbohydrates could meet the increasing glucose demands of a growing brain. They calculated what they describe as “obligatory glucose demand” – the glucose required by the brain, red blood cells, kidneys and reproductive tissues including the foetus, placenta and mammary glands – and compared this with likely food sources available to our ancestors at different stages of evolution.
The model included six evolutionary stages and assessed how changing proportions of animal and plant foods affected carbohydrate availability.
The researchers combined evidence from food composition, metabolism, physiology, fossil isotope studies, dental morphology, archaeology, primate diets and genetics to estimate how humans met their glucose needs as brain size increased.
This modelling suggests earliest hominins (such as ‘Lucy’, whose brain was the same size as a chimpanzee, Homo habilis and Homo erectus) were likely highly reliant on carbohydrate-rich foods, particularly fruit. Later, as the use of fire and cooking became more widespread, starches from underground food sources such as wild yams, water lily rhizomes and African potato contributed to glucose intake.
According to Professor Brand-Miller, archaeological evidence suggests grains entered the human diet much later.
“People often think of carbohydrates as breads and cereals, but for most of human evolution carbohydrates came from fruits, honey and underground plant foods,” she said.
“The earliest evidence of seed grinding is 65,000 years ago, when we see the first evidence of grinding stones to make flour.”
The importance of glucose during reproduction
The study highlights nutritional demands during pregnancy and lactation. The researchers estimate reproductive females required substantially more glucose than other adults because of the needs of the foetus, placenta and milk production.
“When we think about the foods that supported human evolution, we need to consider not only brain growth but also the nutritional requirements of pregnancy and raising children,” said Professor David Raubenheimer, co-author and Professor of Nutritional Ecology at the Charles Perkins Centre.
“The foetus and placenta place additional demands on glucose, increasing the need for carbohydrate-rich foods. This helps us understand why pregnant women often crave fruit.”
The findings may also help explain why sweet foods appeal to children.
“Our desire for sweetness is instinctive,” said Professor Brand-Miller.
“Children need more energy in the form of carbohydrate than adults because their brains are claiming as much as two thirds of their basal metabolic rate during development.”
Incorporating natural sugars into our diet
Professor Brand-Miller said the research offers insight into our longstanding preference for sweetness.
“For most of evolution, fruit and honey were valuable sources of energy that helped meet the body’s glucose needs.
“Sugars in nature are typically packaged within foods that also contain fibre, vitamins, minerals and other beneficial compounds.”
“Honey is not ‘empty calories’ as we are often led to believe. For most of human evolution, honey was a highly valued food source that provided energy and other beneficial properties,” Professor Brand-Miller said.
“Understanding the role of carbohydrates alongside meat, fat and protein provides a more complete picture of the human evolutionary journey. Our study suggests sugars and starches may have helped shape the development of the human brain and many of the traits that make us human.”
What can modern humans make of these primordial findings?
"The evidence suggests that carbohydrate-rich foods helped fuel the energy demands of our growing brains. Rather than fearing carbohydrates, people should focus on high-quality sources, including whole fruits, legumes and nutritious grains, and prioritise a range of carbohydrate foods as part of a healthy diet."
-ENDS-
Research
Brand-Miller, Jennie, Hardy, Karen, Copeland, Les, et al., SWEET – sugars, diet and human evolution, Science (2026).
Declaration: The study was funded by the Powerful Plants UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Fund (No. EP/X025160/1). Emeritus Professor Brand-Miller is the co-author of books about carbohydrates and nutrition, including the glycemic index of foods, and oversees a glycemic index testing service at the University of Sydney. She consults to the China National Research Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries and the Novo Foundation (Denmark), sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of Zoe Global, and was the President of the Glycemic Index Foundation from 2002 to 2024.
Interviews: Professor Jennie Brand-Miller, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and Charles Perkins Centre. Please check time in Sydney, Australia before phoning. M: +61 417 658 695 | E: jennie.brandmiller@sydney.edu.au
Media enquiries
Luisa Low | Senior Media Adviser
M: +61 438 021 390 | E: luisa.low@sydney.edu.au
Outside of work hours: please call +61 2 8627 0246 (directs to a mobile number) or email media.office@sydney.edu.au
The study was funded by the Powerful Plants UKRI Horizon Europe Guarantee Fund (No. EP/X025160/1). Emeritus Professor Brand-Miller is the co-author of books about carbohydrates and nutrition, including the glycemic index of foods, and oversees a glycemic index testing service at the University of Sydney. She consults to the China National Research Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries and the Novo Foundation (Denmark), sits on the Scientific Advisory Board of Zoe Global, and was the President of the Glycemic Index Foundation from 2002 to 2024.
