Would menthol cigarettes be banned if the typical consumer was young, white and upper-middle class?

A new paper highlights menthol cigarettes as a social justice issue

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Research News

 

October 1, 2020 -- Menthol could be exacerbating deep social inequities according to a paper just published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research. Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and colleagues at CUNY and Rutgers School of Public Health suggest that a ban on menthol cigarettes could have monumental implications for both the short- and long-term physical and mental health of communities of color.

"Assessing menthol smoking status should be a priority in all substance use research and smoking cessation interventions," observed Renee Goodwin, PhD, an epidemiologist at Columbia Mailman School, and senior author. "A decade after Congress exempted menthol from the flavored cigarette ban, preference for menthol remains more popular among young smokers and extremely high among Black smokers."

Overall estimates indicate that over 630,000 deaths would be averted and that one of three of these would be a Black life if menthol was included in the flavored cigarette ban.

Using data from the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the analysis showed that 10 years after the exemption of menthol from the ban, its preference among cigarette smokers remains inversely correlated with age and race. Among black smokers, 85 percent had a preference for menthol cigarettes while only 29 percent of Non-Hispanic Whites expressed the same penchant.

According to Goodwin, in the context of inaction on menthol, young people and Black smokers are not the only vulnerable populations that warrant attention with respect to menthol smoking. Preference for menthol among cigarette smokers was also disproportionately high among lesbian and gay smokers (51 percent), bisexual smokers (46 percent), and smokers with mental health problems (45 percent). The analyses also highlighted disproportionately high percentages among socioeconomically disadvantaged populations and pregnant women.

"The menthol loophole and subsequent inaction on menthol comes down to policy makers, political influence, and power," noted Cristine Delnevo of Rutgers and the first author. "For decades, tobacco companies have been targeting marginalized populations with advertising for menthol cigarettes. It's clear that a ban on menthol is not only necessary for the protection of public health, but also to achieve health equity in the U.S."

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The work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R21 HL149773-01) and the Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science, National Cancer Institute, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (U54CA229973).

A co-author is Ollie Ganz, Rutgers School of Public Health.

About Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Founded in 1922, the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health pursues an agenda of research, education, and service to address the critical and complex public health issues affecting New Yorkers, the nation and the world. The Columbia Mailman School is the seventh largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health. Its nearly 300 multi-disciplinary faculty members work in more than 100 countries around the world, addressing such issues as preventing infectious and chronic diseases, environmental health, maternal and child health, health policy, climate change and health, and public health preparedness. It is a leader in public health education with more than 1,300 graduate students from 55 nations pursuing a variety of master's and doctoral degree programs. The Columbia Mailman School is also home to numerous world-renowned research centers, including ICAP and the Center for Infection and Immunity. For more information, please visit http://www.mailman.columbia.edu.

 

A social-belonging intervention improves STEM outcomes for ESL students

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: A SOCIAL-BELONGING INTERVENTION IMPROVES STEM OUTCOMES FOR STUDENTS WHO SPEAK ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE. view more 

CREDIT: PROVIDED BY INDIANA UNIVERSITY

A study conducted at 19 universities by IU researchers and their colleagues in the U.S. and Canada, found that a brief social belonging exercise, administered online before students arrive on campus, boosts the performance and persistence of students in STEM disciplines - science, technology, engineering and math - who speak English as a second language.

Published this week in the journal Science Advances, the study demonstrates that the exercise increases ESL students' perception that a sense of belonging on campus will grow over time. It also increases the number of STEM credits ESL students successfully completed, as well as their STEM GPAs.

As Jennifer LaCosse, an IU post-doctoral researcher and lead author on the study, explained, ESL students are greatly underrepresented in U.S. colleges, particularly within STEM fields, and their absence is a disadvantage both to the students themselves and the economy more broadly. Having a college degree, particularly in STEM fields, gives ESL students the opportunity to have higher paying jobs and more successful careers overall. It also creates a diverse and multilingual workforce that is needed to meet the needs of an increasingly globalized economy.

Results of the study suggest that one way to increase the representation and academic success of ESL students in STEM is to target their sense of belonging. "Students often ask themselves, 'Do I belong here?' and we know that this concern can undermine academic performance and persistence," said LaCosse.

Students who speak English as a second language often report concerns about not fitting in with native English-speaking students and a lack of social connections. In addition, many are required to pass language proficiency tests or enroll in special ESL courses during their first few years of college.

"These policies can metaphorically and literally separate ESL students from non-ESL students during the pivotal transition to college when feelings of belonging are critical," said LaCosse. "Finding ways of buttressing ESL students' feelings of belonging may be essential to their academic success--which is what we wanted to examine in our research."

The study utilized data collected at 19 universities from more than 12,000 STEM students by the College Transition Collaborative, a partnership co-founded by IU social psychologist and study co-author Mary Murphy. Students in the study who were randomly assigned to receive the social belonging treatment, read short stories attributed to juniors and seniors describing the challenges they faced in their transition to college. The students in the stories initially questioned the degree to which they belonged in college; and yet, with time they ultimately developed a greater sense of belonging. Study participants followed the readings with a writing exercise about their own experiences.

Results of the study revealed that both ESL and non-ESL students who received the social belonging exercise anticipated greater growth in their sense of belonging than students who received the control treatment. However, these psychological gains in belonging only bolstered the academic persistence and performance of ESL students. Specifically, STEM-interested ESL students who received the social-belonging exercise (vs. the control group, which did not) completed more of the STEM courses that they began in their first term in college--and this effect persisted through the first year. ESL students who completed the social belonging exercise also earned higher STEM GPAs in Term 1 than did their ESL peers who did not.

"People do not often think about ESL students as a disadvantaged group in the same way they do about other disadvantaged students, such as Black or women students," observed LaCosse. "The results of this study, however, provide rigorous empirical evidence that ESL students have similar psychological experiences to these other disadvantaged students."

As co-author Mary Murphy, IU professor of psychological and brain sciences noted, "Because of the large sample size across so many universities this is one of the first studies to quantitatively examine and mitigate this important psychological barrier for ESL students in STEM fields as they begin college."

"The findings are really exciting," said LaCosse, "because ESL students' psychological experiences in higher education have received far less attention than they deserve. Our research suggests that we need to rethink the policies and practices that are in place that create and maintain the underrepresentation of ESL students in higher education."

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In addition to LaCosse and Murphy, other researchers on the team were Elizabeth Canning, assistant professor of psychology at Washington State University and former IU postdoctoral researcher in Murphy's lab; Nicholas Bowman, professor of education at the University of Iowa; and Christine Logel, associate professor of social development studies at Waterloo University.

Funding for the study was provided by the Raikes Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario, and partner schools.

 

A factor limiting recovery from bleaching in corals

NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF NATURAL SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: FLUORESCENT PHOTOGRAPHS OF AIPTASIA POLYPS 3 DAYS AFTER CULTURING WITH SYMBIONT CELLS IN DIFFERENT TREATMENTS, NEITHER SYMBIONTS NOR POLYPS EXPOSED TO HIGH TEMPERATURE (32?°C) FOR 3 DAYS (LEFT), ONLY SYMBIONTS... view more 

CREDIT: NIBB

Increases in seawater temperature can cause coral bleaching through the loss of symbiotic algae. Corals can recover from bleaching by recruiting algae into host cells from the residual symbiont population or from the external environment. However, the high coral mortality that often follows mass-bleaching events suggests that recovery is limited in the wild.

A joint research team from the National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), Tohoku University in Japan, and James Cook University in Australia has examined the effect of pre-exposure to heat stress on the capacity of symbiotic algae to infect cnidarian hosts using the Aiptasia (sea-anemone)-zooxanthellae (algae) model system. They discovered that the symbiotic algae lose their capacity to infect the host once they are exposed to heat stress. These results suggest that recovery from bleaching can be limited by the loss of symbiont infectivity following bleaching-inducing heat stress.

Coral reefs are the cornerstone of biologically enriched coral reef ecosystems, but their existence is in danger due to global change and warming. Coral-algae symbiosis is sensitive to increased seawater temperature, resulting in coral bleaching through loss of the algal symbionts, zooxanthellae. Corals can recover from bleaching by recruiting algae into their cells from the residual symbiont population or from the external environment. However, in the field, recovery from bleaching is often limited, resulting in mortality of corals due to starvation.

In a study published in The ISME Journal, graduate student of the National Institute for Basic Biology, Mariko Kishimoto, focused on the ability of symbiotic algae to infect the host following to heat stress and identified a factor limiting recovery from bleaching.

"In this study, we used Aiptasia (sea-anemone), instead of corals, as Aiptasia are very easy to maintain and use for experiments in the laboratory. And importantly, Aiptasia form the symbiotic relationship with the symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae, and also show bleaching under heat stress like corals do." Ms. Kishimoto said.

Symbiotic algae (CS-164) were cultured at 25 ºC or 32 ºC for 3 days and then their infectivity was tested at 25 ºC by counting the number of symbiotic algae in Aiptasia tentacles.

"The infectivity of algae was apparently lost after culturing at 32 ºC."

"Importantly, culturing Aiptasia, instead of algae, at 32 ºC did not influence infectivity."

"So our results showed that recovery from bleaching can be limited by the loss of symbiont infectivity following bleaching-inducing heat stress.", Ms. Kishimoto said.

Further study showed incubation at 32 ºC was non-lethal for the symbiotic algae which showed recovery of the loss of infectivity after culturing at optimal growth conditions.

The team also found that a different algal strain (CCMP2459) did not lose their infectivity after exposure to heat stress.

Associate Professor Shunichi Takahashi of the National Institute for Basic Biology, who led the research team, said, "Our findings suggest that heat tolerant algal symbionts might give a chance for bleached corals to recover".

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The ISME Journal
"Loss of symbiont infectivity following thermal stress can be a factor limiting recovery from bleaching in cnidarians" by Mariko Kishimoto, Andrew H. Baird, Shinichiro Maruyama, Jun Minagawa, Shunichi Takahashi
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41396-020-00742-8

 

Why writing by hand makes kids smarter

Writing by hand creates much more activity in the sensorimotor parts of the brain, researchers found.

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

IMAGE: TYPING, CLICKING AND WATCHING OCCUPY AN INCREASING NUMBER OF HOURS IN THE AVERAGE CHILD'S DAY. BUT BRAIN RESEARCH SHOWS THAT WRITING BY HAND HELPS PEOPLE REMEMBER BETTER AND LEARN MORE.... view more 

CREDIT: NTNU/MICROSOFT

Professor Audrey van der Meer at NTNU believes that national guidelines should be put into place to ensure that children receive at least a minimum of handwriting training.

Results from several studies have shown that both children and adults learn more and remember better when writing by hand.

Now another study confirms the same: choosing handwriting over keyboard use yields the best learning and memory.

Van der Meer and her colleagues have investigated this several times, first in 2017 and now in 2020.

In 2017, she examined the brain activity of 20 students. She has now published a study in which she examined brain activity in twelve young adults and twelve children.

This is the first time that children have participated in such a study.

Both studies were conducted using an EEG to track and record brain wave activity. The participants wore a hood with over 250 electrodes attached.

The brain produces electrical impulses when it is active. The sensors in the electrodes are very sensitive and pick up the electrical activity that takes place in the brain.

Handwriting gives the brain more hooks to hang memories on

Each examination took 45 minutes per person, and the researchers received 500 data points per second.

The results showed that the brain in both young adults and children is much more active when writing by hand than when typing on a keyboard.

"The use of pen and paper gives the brain more 'hooks' to hang your memories on. Writing by hand creates much more activity in the sensorimotor parts of the brain. A lot of senses are activated by pressing the pen on paper, seeing the letters you write and hearing the sound you make while writing. These sense experiences create contact between different parts of the brain and open the brain up for learning. We both learn better and remember better," says Van der Meer.

She believes that her own and others' studies emphasize the importance of children being challenged to draw and write at an early age, especially at school.

Today's digital reality is that typing, tapping and screen time are a big part of children's and adolescents' everyday lives.

A survey of 19 countries in the EU shows that Norwegian children and teens spend the most time online. The smartphone is a constant companion, followed closely by the PC and tablet.

https://www.lse.ac.uk/media-and-communications/assets/documents/research/eu-kids-online/reports/EU-Kids-Online-2020-10Feb2020.pdf

The survey shows that Norwegian children ages 9 to16 spend almost four hours online every day, double the amount since 2010.

Kids' leisure time spent in front of a screen is now amplified by schools' increasing emphasis on digital learning.

Van der Meer thinks digital learning has many positive aspects, but urges handwriting training.

"Given the development of the last several years, we risk having one or more generations lose the ability to write by hand. Our research and that of others show that this would be a very unfortunate consequence" of increased digital activity, says Meer.

She believes that national guidelines should be put in place that ensure children receive at least a minimum of handwriting training.

"Some schools in Norway have become completely digital and skip handwriting training altogether. Finnish schools are even more digitized than in Norway. Very few schools offer any handwriting training at all," says Van der Meer.

In the debate about handwriting or keyboard use in school, some teachers believe that keyboards create less frustration for children. They point out that children can write longer texts earlier, and are more motivated to write because they experience greater mastery with a keyboard.

"Learning to write by hand is a bit slower process, but it's important for children to go through the tiring phase of learning to write by hand. The intricate hand movements and the shaping of letters are beneficial in several ways. If you use a keyboard, you use the same movement for each letter. Writing by hand requires control of your fine motor skills and senses. It's important to put the brain in a learning state as often as possible. I would use a keyboard to write an essay, but I'd take notes by hand during a lecture," says Van der Meer.

"The brain has evolved over thousands of years. It has evolved to be able to take action and navigate appropriate behaviour. In order for the brain to develop in the best possible way, we need to use it for what it's best at. We need to live an authentic life. We have to use all our senses, be outside, experience all kinds of weather and meet other people. If we don't challenge our brain, it can't reach its full potential. And that can impact school performance," says Van der Meer.

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Reference: The Importance of Cursive Handwriting Over Typewriting for Learning in the Classroom: A High-Density EEG Study of 12-Year-Old Children and Young Adults.

Eva Ose Askvik, F. R. (Ruud) van der Weel and Audrey L. H. van der Meer. Front. Psychol., 28 July 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01810

800 million children still exposed to lead

UNICEF study documents a persistent, dangerous problem

NORWEGIAN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

As many as 800 million children have dangerously high lead values in their blood. The neurotoxin can cause permanent brain damage.

The huge international numbers come from a new report from Pure Earth and UNICEF. Pure Earth works to solve pollution problems that can be harmful to humans.

"A child's earliest years of life are characterized by rapid growth and brain development. This makes children particularly vulnerable to harmful substances in the environment," says Kam Sripada, a postdoc at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) who has contributed to the report.

Sripada collaborates with international organizations to research social health inequalities, especially among children.

"Exposure to lead during pregnancy and early in life can lead to a child never reaching his or her potential," she says.

Sripada works at NTNU's Center for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN) in collaboration with the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and UNICEF.

Lead is an element, but also a powerful neurotoxin that can cause damage at a level as low as five micrograms of lead per decilitre of blood. Lead poisoning can be acute, and can cause everything from stomach pain to brain damage, coma and death.

But lead poisoning can also come on slowly, because it accumulates in the body over a long period of time. The most common symptom is lethargy due to anaemia. High lead levels can attack blood and bone marrow, the nervous system and the kidneys.

Lead poisoning can also contribute to a lower IQ and behavioural problems that can last a lifetime.

"Lead is a health threat to children in every single country in the world. However, children in low- or middle-income countries are the most vulnerable, especially in South Asia and among marginalized groups in general. There are major social differences when it comes to lead exposure and other environmental toxins that we need to address," says Sripada.

A lot of the lead comes from lead-acid batteries that are not responsibly recycled. The number of motor vehicles has tripled in low- and middle-income countries in the last 20 years, which in turn has led to a sharp increase in lead-containing batteries. About half of the batteries are not properly recycled or recovered.

Water pipes, industry, paint and a number of household products such as canned foods, contaminated spices, make-up and toys also contribute. Lead that was previously used in gasoline is still found in the soil to this day.

Indirectly, countries can suffer enormous income losses as the children grow up with these sources of lead exposure. As adults, they often are not able to contribute optimally to the societal economy.

"This is a report with global significance," says NTNU Professor Terje Andreas Eikemo, who heads CHAIN.

Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States believe that the situation requires international measures, such as more information and strengthening of the health care system in several countries.

"This report shines the spotlight on lead as an important global environmental and health problem that is especially tied to children's health and development," says Heidi Aase, who heads the NeuroTox study at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

The NeuroTox study examines relationships between environmental toxins in the mother's womb, including lead, and various measures of brain development. ADHD, autism and cognitive functions are considered in a large sample of Norwegian children. Environmental toxins found in the mother's body during pregnancy can affect the baby's development.

CHAIN will use the NeuroTox study to study relationships between socio-economic factors, such as income, education and living conditions, and levels of lead and other environmental toxins in pregnant women and their children.

"The UNICEF report and other studies show that poverty is associated with higher lead levels and an increased risk of harmful effects on health. We'll investigate whether this picture applies to pregnant women and children in Norway as well," says Aase.

The research results from NeuroTox and CHAIN can also be used in different ways internationally, such as to prevent social inequality in health including the harmful effects of environmental toxins.

The average blood levels of lead in children from low- and middle-income countries in the UNICEF report are far higher than in Norwegian children. Nevertheless, the report has calculated that many Norwegian children may have lead levels above the limit that we know has harmful effects on brain development.

"This is concerning," says NeuroTox researcher Gro Dehli Villanger.

Studies show that damage to the brain and nervous system can occur at far lower lead levels than the limit used in the report.

"As of today, no value limit has been established that is considered safe and therefore the number of children affected could be much higher both in Norway and in other countries," says Villanger.

Source: The toxic truth. Children's exposure to lead pollution undermines a generation of future potential. https://www.unicef.org/reports/toxic-truth-childrens-exposure-to-lead-pollution-2020

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Decent living for all does not have to cost the Earth

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

Research News

Global energy consumption in 2050 could be reduced to the levels of the 1960s and still provide a decent standard of living for a population three times larger, according to a new study.

The study led by the University of Leeds has estimated the energy resource needed for everyone to be provided decent living standards in 2050 - meaning all their basic human needs such as shelter, mobility, food and hygiene are met, while also having access to modern, high quality healthcare, education and information technology.

The findings, published in in the journal Global Environmental Change, reveal that decent living standards could be provided to the entire global population of 10 billion that is expected to be reached by 2050, for less than 40% of today's global energy. This is roughly 25% of that forecast by the International Energy Agency if current trends continue.

This level of global energy consumption is roughly the same as that during the 1960s, when the population was only three billion.

The authors emphasise that achieving this would require sweeping changes in current consumption, widespread deployment of advanced technologies, and the elimination of mass global inequalities.

However, not only do the findings show that the energy required to provide a decent living could likely be met entirely by clean sources, but it also offers a firm rebuttal to reactive claims that reducing global consumption to sustainable levels requires an end to modern comforts and a 'return to the dark ages'.

The authors' tongue in cheek response to the critique that sweeping energy reform would require us all to become 'cave dwellers' was: "Yes, perhaps, but these are rather luxurious caves with highly-efficient facilities for cooking, storing food and washing clothes; comfortable temperatures maintained throughout the year, computer networks -- among other things -- not to mention the larger caves providing universal healthcare and education to all 5-19 year olds."

The study calculated minimum final energy requirements, both direct and indirect, to provide decent living standards. Final energy is that delivered to the consumer's door, for example, heating, electricity or the petrol that goes into a car, rather than the energy embedded in fuels themselves - much of which is lost at power stations in the case of fossil fuels.

The team built a final energy-model, which builds upon a list of basic material needs that underpin human well-being previously developed by Narasimha Rao and Jihoon Min.

The study compared current final energy consumption across 119 countries to the estimates of final energy needed for decent living and found the vast majority of countries are living in significant surplus. In countries that are today's highest per-capita consumers, energy cuts of nearly 95% are possible while still providing decent living standards to all.

Study lead author Dr Joel Millward-Hopkins from the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds said: "Currently, only 17% of global final energy consumption is from non-fossil fuel sources. But that is nearly 50% of what we estimate is needed to provide a decent standard of living for all in 2050."

"Overall, our study is consistent with the long-standing arguments that the technological solutions already exist to support reducing energy consumption to a sustainable level. What we add is that the material sacrifices needed to for these reductions are far smaller than many popular narratives imply."

Study co-author Professor Julia Steinberger leader of the Living Well Within Limits project at the University Leeds and professor at the Université de Lausanne in Switzerland said: "While government official are levelling charges that environmental activists 'threaten our way of life' it is worth re-examining what that way of life should entail. There has been a tendency to simplify the idea of a good life into the notion that more is better.

"It is clearly within our grasp to provide a decent life for everyone while still protecting our climate and ecosystems."

Study co-author Professor Narasimha Rao from Yale University said: "This study also confirms our earlier findings at a global scale that eradicating poverty is not an impediment to climate stabilization, rather it's the pursuit of unmitigated affluence across the world."

Study co-author Yannick Oswald, PhD researcher at the School of Earth and Environment at Leeds said: "To avoid ecological collapse, it is clear that drastic and challenging societal transformations must occur at all levels, from the individual to institutional, and from supply through to demand."

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Further information:

The paper Providing "Decent Living with Minimum Energy: A Global Scenario" was published in Global Environmental Change on 29 September 2020

For additional information contact University of Leeds press officer a.harrison@leeds.ac.uk

University of Leeds

The University of Leeds is one of the largest higher education institutions in the UK, with more than 38,000 students from more than 150 different countries, and a member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universities. The University plays a significant role in the Turing, Rosalind Franklin and Royce Institutes.

We are a top ten university for research and impact power in the UK, according to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, and are in the top 100 of the QS World University Rankings 2021.

The University was awarded a Gold rating by the Government's Teaching Excellence Framework in 2017, recognising its 'consistently outstanding' teaching and learning provision. Twenty-six of our academics have been awarded National Teaching Fellowships - more than any other institution in England, Northern Ireland and Wales - reflecting the excellence of our teaching. ?http://www.leeds.ac.uk

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How scientific leaders can enact anti-racist action in their labs

Researchers lay out 10 guidelines to help scientists who are new to anti-racist work

PLOS

Research News

 

IMAGE: AUTHOR BALA CHAUDHARY AT WORK. CHAUDHARY TEACHES ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND LEADS A RESEARCH GROUP THAT STUDIES MYCORRHIZAS, BENEFICIAL PLANT-FUNGAL SYMBIOSES, AND THEIR BELOWGROUND ECOLOGY. view more 

CREDIT: JAMIE MONCRIEF

A new paper provides 10 steps that principal investigators (PIs) and research group leaders can follow to help cultivate anti-racist professional and learning environments. V. Bala Chaudhary of DePaul University, Chicago, and Asmeret Asefaw Berhe of U.C. Merced present these guidelines in the open-access journal PLOS Computational Biology.

The science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce exhibits disproportionately low racial and ethnic diversity due to a variety of factors that include bias, discrimination, and power imbalances within academia. The STEM community increasingly recognizes low representation of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)--especially at and above the PhD level--as a significant problem. Lab leaders may be able to make considerable progress towards increased diversity by building anti-racist labs, but many lack clarity on how to do so.

To help guide lab leaders who may be new to anti-racist work, Chaudhary and Berhe have developed 10 "simple rules" that can be immediately implemented. These rules include organizing regular discussions among lab members about anti-racism, boosting the voices and recognition of BIPOC scientists in one's field, holding leaders accountable for maintaining healthy workplaces, and cultivating flexible research agendas that may be more likely to amplify and benefit from innovative contributions of BIPOC researchers.

"The global uprising against racist violence that began in May 2020 sparked in the science community a level of interest in anti-racism that I have never seen before," Chaudhary says.

Indeed, recent events such as the death of George Floyd and the racism displayed towards New York City birder Christian Cooper have prompted many Black scientists to share their experiences facing racism while working in STEM. However, science and academia have a long history of racism.

"We wrote this paper to help scientists who are new to anti-racism work identify tangible actions and connect with resources to encourage the development of a more anti-racist STEM environment that will benefit all scientists," Chaudhary says.

The ten simple rules proposed are (in brief) as follows:

1. Lead informed discussions about anti-racism in your lab regularly

2. Address racism in your lab and field safety guidelines

3. Publish papers and write grants with BIPOC colleagues

4. Evaluate your lab's mentoring practices

5. Amplify voices of BIPOC scientists in your field

6. Support BIPOC in their efforts to organize

7. Intentionally recruit BIPOC students and staff

8. Adopt a dynamic research agenda

9. Advocate for racially diverse leadership in science

10. Hold the powerful accountable and don't expect gratitude.

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Computational Biology: https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008210

Citation: Chaudhary VB, Berhe AA (2020) Ten simple rules for building an antiracist lab. PLoS Comput Biol 16(10): e1008210. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008210

Funding: VBC and AAB met on Twitter, where they both sought and found a community of likeminded scholars who are passionate about equity and inclusion in the academy. VBC and AAB are supported by the National Science Foundation (DEB-1844531 and HRD-1725650, respectively). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

 

Hackers targeting companies that fake corporate responsibility

New study looks at cyber pirates who aren't just in it for the money

UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE

Research News

 

A new study suggests some hackers aren't just in it for the money but instead are motivated by their disappointment in a company's attempts to fake social responsibility.

"There is emerging evidence that the hacking community is not homogenous, and at least some hackers appear to be motivated by what they dislike, as opposed to solely financial gain," said John D'Arcy, a co-author and professor of management information systems (MIS) at the University of Delaware. "Recent hacks against the World Health Organization, due to its actions (or supposed inactions) related to the COVID-19 pandemic, are a case in point."

D'Arcy and his coauthors, interested in exploring whether a firm's corporate social performance (CSP) impacts their likelihood of being breached, studied a unique dataset that included information on data breach incidents, external assessments of firms' CSP and other factors. The results, published on Sept. 18 in the Information Systems Research paper "Too Good to Be True: Firm Social Performance and the Risk of Data Breach," were intriguing.

The key to these results, D'Arcy explained, lies in understanding the difference between two different types of corporate social responsibility efforts: those that are more minor and peripheral (like recycling programs or charitable donations) versus those that involve social responsibility being embedded throughout the firm's core business and processes (like diversity initiatives and producing eco-friendly products).

Companies only participating in peripheral efforts and not more deeply embedded ones are sometimes called "greenwashing," attempting to give the appearance of social responsibility without infusing such practices throughout their entire organization. According to D'Arcy's research, firms that do this are more likely to face problems from hackers.

"An example of a firm that has been accused of greenwashing is Walmart," D'Arcy said. "This is because Walmart has touted its investments in charitable causes and environmental programs, but at the same time has been criticized for providing low wages and neglecting investments in employees' physical and psychological working environment."

The study found that hackers of all kinds -- from internal disgruntled employees to external hacktivist groups -- can "sniff out" these actions that only give the appearance of social responsibility. To an even further extent, when companies not only are trying to improve their image but also are using these actions to mask poor overall CSP, they are especially likely to be breached.

"Consequently, these firms are more likely to be victimized by a malicious data breach for these reasons," D'Arcy said. "Firms may be placing a proverbial target on their back, in an information security sense, by engaging in greenwashing efforts."

Conversely, the study found that when firms that engage in more embedded and meaningful forms of corporate responsibility, they are more likely to see solely positive outcomes. In this case, that means fewer hacks and data breaches.

"These same internal and external hackers are likely to see such embedded CSP efforts as genuine attempts at social responsibility (in other words, the company is 'walking its talk' when it comes to social responsibility) and thus they will be less likely to target these firms for a computer attack that results in a breach," D'Arcy said.

What lessons should companies take from this research? D'Arcy warned that companies should be cautious about promoting peripheral CSP efforts if they have otherwise poor records on corporate social issues.

"What was once accepted as meaningful CSP activity may no longer appease certain stakeholders," he said. "And in this era of increased information transparency and greater expectations of the firm's role in society, engaging in only peripheral actions may result in stakeholder backlash. Firms need to be cautious about promoting their CSP activities unless they can defend their actions as embedded in core practices and as authentically motivated."

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Work bubbles can help businesses reopen while limiting risk of COVID-19 outbreaks

CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Research News

 

Creating "work bubbles" during the COVID-19 pandemic can help reduce the risk of company-wide outbreaks while helping essential businesses continue to function, as the example of Bombardier Aviation demonstrates in an analysis published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

The need to keep essential businesses open during the pandemic has resulted in large outbreaks in factories and other locations where employees work in close proximity, jeopardizing the safety of employees and the community as well as disrupting supply chains.

"Employers have a responsibility to provide a safe work environment for their employees," says lead author Dr. Jeffrey Shaw, a critical care physician and fellow at the University of Calgary's Cumming School of Medicine, Calgary, Alberta. "Creating company cohorts, or work bubbles, can reduce the risk of a company-wide COVID-19 outbreak that could affect the larger community."

Bombardier Aviation example

The authors describe how Bombardier Aviation, a large Canadian company that employs 22 000 people at 7 factories across 4 provinces/states in Canada and the United States, adjusted to the pandemic. Most office staff worked from home, ensuring that only employees who built or supported aircraft delivery were on site. Essential employees were organized into cohorts that interacted only with each other to minimize contact with other staff.

Cohorts were organized on the principles that work bubbles should

• Include the least number of people required to do the job

• Be designed to allow business continuation if another work bubble is removed from the workforce

• Be strictly separated from other bubbles in time and/or space to prevent virus transmission between groups.

Scheduling rotating workdays and disinfecting shared spaces after use by a work bubble can ensure physical separation of employees. Daily symptom screening and rapid isolation of infected employees is also key to containing and preventing outbreaks.

"Adjusting our operational activities to the pandemic was challenging, but we are extremely proud of how proactive and efficient our teams were in adapting to their new working conditions. Keeping our employees safe is our number one priority," says coauthor Nancy Barber, COO, Industrialization, Footprint and Central Planning, Bombardier Aviation.

Despite some challenges, work bubbles offer benefits including

• Reducing the reproduction number of the disease

• Increasing efficiency of contact tracing

• Protecting employees from contracting severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) at work

• Increasing employee confidence in workplace safety

• Allowing for business to continue in the case of positive cases

"As we begin to relax the public health measures brought in to slow the spread of COVID-19 in Canada, we must think of how to limit the risk of becoming infected at work," says Dr. Shaw. "Using a work bubbles strategy can help businesses continue to function and ensure the safety of employees."

Listen to a podcast with coauthors Dr. Jeffrey Shaw and Hayley Wickenheiser discussing work bubbles and their practical application to factories, schools and sports.

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"Working in a bubble: How can businesses reopen while limiting the risk of COVID-19 outbreaks?" is published September 30, 2020.

The article was written by authors from University of Calgary, Alberta; Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; Bombardier Aviation, Montreal, Quebec; University of Toronto and University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario; and Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.

 

Enforcement more effective than financial incentives in reducing harmful peat fires?

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Research News

 

A new study looking at incentives to reduce globally harmful peatland fires suggests that fear of enforcement and public health concerns influence behaviour more than the promise of financial rewards.

The findings come as wildfires devastate the US West Coast and Russian Arctic, and fire season begins in Australia, Indonesia and Brazil.

Led by the University of East Anglia (UEA), the research examined the intervention mix within a leading peat fire prevention programme in Indonesia and found that the incentives had little impact. Instead, communities responded more strongly to the deterrents of sanctions, such as fines, and to raised awareness about the negative health impacts of toxic smoke, or 'haze'. Indeed, fear of sanctions most consistently related to fire-free outcomes.

Indonesian peatlands are globally important for the carbon they store and help protect Southeast Asian biodiversity. However, they are undergoing rapid land-use change. They have been drained and frequently cleared using fire, often to enable the expansion of oil palm and acacia plantations.

Increasing fires are a leading environmental challenge, with impacts ranging from local infringements on public health, livelihoods and daily freedoms through the release of toxic haze, to regional economic losses and global burdens associated with climate change through carbon emissions.

With the fire season in Indonesia imminent, and a bad year in 2019, the authors say their findings have implications for future fire management interventions, including how to balance reward and sanction to ensure equitable and effective fire mitigation.

The study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, involved researchers from UEA, Lancaster University and the University of Cambridge, together with scientists from the US, France and Indonesia.

Lead author Dr Rachel Carmenta, from the Tyndall Centre and School of International Development at UEA, said: "Uncontrolled fires are increasing globally and the trend is predicted to continue. Humid tropical forests that wouldn't normally burn are now sites of extensive mega-fires. These include the Brazilian Amazon, which last year hit record highs, this year the Brazilian wetland ecosystem the Pantanal, which is suffering extensively from uncontrolled fires, and Indonesia's peat swamp forests, where extensive fires are now annual events.

"Our results highlight that incentives were less important than deterrents in shaping environmental outcomes. However, there was also no single pathway to fire-free outcomes, and combinations of interventions were particularly important in high fire risk situations.

"Previous research shows supporting small-scale farmers is the least controversial fire mitigation policy in Indonesian peatlands. But as we find in this study, even a scheme considered to depend heavily on incentives, in practice hinges on deterrents. This raises important equity concerns. While sanctions are effective, they may cause more damage to those most vulnerable and with least alternatives to fire dependence."

Intentional fires to clear land can more easily escape on peatland and result in extensive uncontrolled peat fires. The resulting toxic smoke is responsible for outdoor air pollution, with atmospheric particulate matter concentrations exceeding those considered extremely hazardous to health, and is linked to hundreds of thousands of public health cases.

Many solutions have been proposed, such as forest protection measures, moratoriums on peat expansion, and agricultural support. However, numerous programmes have largely failed, and what policy interventions to combine and how to align these to local conditions remains unclear.

To help address this, the researchers compared 10 Indonesian villages that participated in the Fire Free Village programme in Riau Province, Sumatra. The scheme is operated by a pulp and paper company to incentivise small-scale farmers living in communities adjacent to their acacia tree concession areas to reduce fire, and therefore the prevalence of uncontrolled fires.

If villages prevent local fires, they are rewarded with US$7,000 to support community projects. The programme includes interventions that focus on sanction and deterrent as part of the policy mix towards fire free outcomes.

The team found that effective combinations of interventions depend on the landscape context of the village. In villages with lower fire risk, a single intervention was enough to reduce fire, for example the threat of enforcement for illegal burning. In these villages people had more diverse livelihood options, most land was already being farmed - reducing the need to use fire - and people farmed on mineral soils, which do not burn.

In villages with far higher risks of fire escape, fire was reduced only where at least two methods were combined: feared enforcement and concern about the impacts of fire haze on their health. Again, incentives did not matter.

People in higher fire risk villages were primarily reliant on oil palm for their livelihood. Village areas were on larger extents of highly flammable peatland and much of the land area was not planted, so people were still clearing for agriculture.

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'Evaluating bundles of interventions to prevent peat-fires in Indonesia', Rachel Carmenta, Aiora Zabala, Bambang Trihadmojo, David Gaveau, Mohammad Agus Salim,Jacob Phelps, is published in Global Environmental Change on October 1.