Medicaid expansion linked to lower mortality rates for three major types of cancer

DANA-FARBER CANCER INSTITUTE

Research News

 

• Expansion of Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act is associated with decreased mortality for patients with newly diagnosed breast, lung, or colorectal cancer.
• The mortality improvement was due to earlier stage of diagnosis in states that have expanded Medicaid.

BOSTON - In states that have expanded Medicaid availability as part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), mortality rates for three major forms of cancer are significantly lower than in states that have not expanded their Medicaid, a new study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard University shows.

Data from the study, published online today in JAMA Network Open, suggest that the improvement in mortality results from cancers being diagnosed at an earlier stage in states with Medicaid expansion. Early detection of cancer is often critical to successful treatment of the disease.

The ACA, passed in 2010, gave states the option of expanding eligibility for Medicaid - the government-funded health insurance program for low-income families and individuals - to nonelderly adults with incomes at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. Previous studies involving cancer patients have shown Medicaid expansion to be associated with fewer uninsured patients, increased screening, and stage of disease diagnosis. (Currently, 39 states have expanded Medicaid programs.)

"There has been little research into the impact of Medicaid expansion on cancer mortality [the time from initial cancer diagnosis to death]," says the lead author of the new study, Miranda Lam, MD, MBA, of Dana-Farber, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. "It's been thought that expansion might improve mortality by fostering earlier detection, earlier stage of diagnosis, and improved access to treatment. On the other hand, it could worsen mortality by creating an influx of newly covered patients that strains hospitals' resources."

For the study, researchers used the National Cancer Database to track 523,802 patients across the country who were newly diagnosed with breast, lung, or colorectal cancer from 2012 through 2015. They compared mortality rates for these patients in states that expanded their Medicaid programs and those that did not. (Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia expanded their programs on Jan. 1, 2014.)

"We found that Medicaid expansion was associated with a significant decrease in mortality compared to states without such expansion," Lam remarks. The expansion group had a 2% decline in hazard of death from the pre- to the post-expansion period. The non-expansion group, by contrast, showed no change in mortality.

If the 2% reduction was achieved in all states with expanded Medicaid, then among the approximately 69,000 patients diagnosed with cancer in those states, 1,384 lives would be saved yearly, researchers calculated.

The biggest difference between the two groups was in patients whose cancers hadn't reached a metastatic stage and are considered curable. When investigators adjusted for the stage at which cancers were diagnosed, improvements in mortality were no longer seen - whether between expansion and non-expansion states or between the pre-expansion and post-expansion period. This suggests that the decline in mortality associated with Medicaid expansion is a byproduct of diagnosing cancer at an earlier stage.

"Increased Medicaid coverage may remove barriers to accessing the healthcare system for screening and timely symptom evaluation, and that can translate into better outcomes for patients," Lam comments.

The investigators also found that the decrease in mortality in Medicaid-expansion states occurred across population groups. "We were reassured to find that patients living in areas of the lowest quartile of median household income showed a modest decrease in mortality after Medicaid expansion," Lam observes. "We also found that the mortality improvements occurred in both Black and white populations."

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The senior author of the study was Nancy Keating, MD, MPH, of Brigham and Women's and Harvard Medical School. Co-authors are Jessica Phelan, MS, and Ashish Jha, MD, MPH, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; and John Orav, PhD, of Brigham and Women's and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

The study was conducted with the support of a KL2 award from Harvard Catalyst | The Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center (National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health Award KL2 TR002542).

About Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is one of the world's leading centers of cancer research and treatment. Dana-Farber's mission is to reduce the burden of cancer through scientific inquiry, clinical care, education, community engagement, and advocacy. We provide the latest treatments in cancer for adults through Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and for children through Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. Dana-Farber is the only hospital nationwide with a top 10 U.S. News & World Report Best Cancer Hospital ranking in both adult and pediatric care.

As a global leader in oncology, Dana-Farber is dedicated to a unique and equal balance between cancer research and care, translating the results of discovery into new treatments for patients locally and around the world, offering more than 1,100 clinical trials.

 

Crystals reveal the danger of sleeping volcanoes

A new method shows that it's now possible to estimate the volume of magma stored below volcanoes providing essential information about the potential size of future eruptions

UNIVERSITÉ DE GENÈVE

Research News

 

IMAGE: CATHODOLUMINESCENCE IMAGE OF ZIRCON CRYSTALS FROM NEVADO DE TOLUCA VOLCANO IN MEXICO view more 

CREDIT: UNIGE/WEBER

Most active volcanoes on Earth are dormant, meaning that they have not erupted for hundreds or even thousands of years, and are normally not considered hazardous by the local population. A team of volcanologists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), working in collaboration with the University of Heidelberg in Germany, has devised a technique that can predict the devastating potential of volcanoes. The scientists used zircon, a tiny crystal contained in volcanic rocks, to estimate the volume of magma that could be erupted once Nevado de Toluca volcano (Mexico) will wake up from its dormancy. Up to 350 km3 of magma --about four times the volume of water stored in Lake Geneva-- are currently lying below Nevado de Toluca and their eruption could bring devastation. The new technique, applicable to most types of volcano across the globe, is described in the scientific journal Nature Communications.

The largest volcanic eruptions in the last 100 years were sourced from volcanoes that do not erupt frequently and therefore fly under the "radar" of scientists. Yet today, 800 million people around the world live close to volcanoes and are potentially at risk. A determining factor for the dangerousness of volcanoes is the volume of eruptible magma stored in their bellies, as this is related to the magnitude of future eruptions. Unfortunately, this magma is stored at inaccessible depths of 6-10 km and cannot be directly measured.

Tiny watches with a thermometer

The UNIGE volcanologists used a new approach combining zircon geochronology and thermal modelling to determine the volume of potentially-eruptible magma present in the volcanic reservoirs. "Zircon is a small crystal found in rocks erupted by volcanoes, and it contains uranium and thorium", begins Gregor Weber, a postdoctoral fellow at UNIGE and co-author of the study. "The decay of these radioactive elements allows us to date when they crystallised. Additionally, zircon crystallises only in a specific temperature range. With these two parameters, we can determine how fast the magma is cooling below a volcano. Like a pot of water, the larger the pot, the more time it takes to cool it. We analysed the zircons erupted over the last 1.5 million years by Nevado de Toluca thus determining the evolution of temperature of the magma stored below the volcano over time. This information can be converted into a volume of magma using thermal modelling." This approach has a resolution two times higher than that of existing techniques.

Sleeping monster

The methodology in the study was applied to the Mexican volcano Nevado de Toluca, also called Xinantécatl, a representative example of a dormant volcano located in the vicinity of Mexico City. The results were used to determine the maximum possible size of a future eruption from this volcano, which with 350 km3 could have potentially devastating effect. "The system can quickly wake up if the deep magma supply starts again," warns Weber.

Guiding the radars

This finding is essential for assessing volcanic risk quantitatively. "Knowing the size of a volcanic reservoir is important to identify volcanoes that are most likely to produce a large magnitude eruption in the future. Our method is a new way to evaluate the candidates for such eruptions," explains Weber. This approach is applicable to most types of volcanoes, whether active or dormant, and provides valuable insights into which volcanic systems need to be monitored more closely.

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Core value of the Chengjian fauna: evolution of animals and birth of basic human organs

Scientists explain the significance of Chengjiang fauna, exceptionally preserved fossils found in China

CACTUS COMMUNICATIONS

Research News

 

IMAGE: DR DEGAN SHU FROM NORTHWEST UNIVERSITY AND HIS TEAM DISCUSS THEIR FINDINGS AND HIGHLIGHT THE SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DIVERSE FOSSIL SITE CHENGJIANG LAGERSTATTE IN YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA. view more 

CREDIT: EARTH SCIENCE FRONTIERS

Much of what we know regarding how life--as we know it--came into existence is through the recovery of fossils from various sites in the word. The Chengjiang lagerstatte in Yunnan Province, China, is one such unique site containing very well-preserved fossils (also called the "Chengjiang fauna"), which include soft-bodied animals that normally do not get fossilized. Most of these fossils are 520 to 518 million years old, spanning a part of the Cambrian period when life on earth exploded in diversity, leading to a huge increase in number of species--a phenomenon called the "Cambrian explosion." In a new study, two scientists who spent many years digging deeper into this field, including Dr Degan Shu from Northwest University in Xi'an and Dr Jian Han from Northwestern University in Shaanxi Xi'an, present an overview of their research on the Chengjiang fauna and emphasize its significance. These findings, which are published in Earth Science Frontiers, include significant contributions from Chinese paleontologists, including Prof Shu's group, in collaboration with other international scientists.

The research spanned three decades, each decade bringing important developments. The first decade (1984?1994) led to important findings on basal animals (e.g., sponges and jellyfish) and the subkingdom Protostomia (e.g., molluscs). In the second decade (1995?2005), scientists including Shu's team continued to discover newer animal groups, the most significant being deuterostomes (a large group of animals, which includes humans). In the third stage (2005?now), the Chinese teams continued to add new groups to the animal tree and dug deeper into the relationships between the formation of the tree and the multi-episodic Cambrian explosion. This paved the way for not only the formulation of a three-part phylogenetic tree of early animals but also the hypothesis that the Cambrian explosion occurred in three episodes--the evolution and diversification of basal animals, followed by protostomes, and finally deuterostomes--forming the basis of all forms of animal life today.

On the importance of the Chengjiang fauna, Dr Shu comments, "Today, many people still believe in creationism, and a common argument that they use is an incomplete fossil record. We feel that filling the gaps in the evolutionary tree with transitional forms, such as those found at Chengjiang and other sites, will help us to gradually dispel misinformation about the theory of evolution, especially when we consider the question of how humans came to be. In essence, we can trace the origins of all extant animals, including us, to ancestors in the Cambrian."

In particular, Dr Shu points to the discovery of seminal fossils that demonstrate the early forms of our basic organs evolved during the Cambrian explosion. These include the mouth, brain, heart, and vertebrae. It is through comparisons of Chengjiang fossils from the Cambrian period with those from the Precambrian (before Cambrian) period that researchers realized that Precambrian life did not have these basic organs. This reveals the importance of Chengjiang as a reservoir of fossilized soft body parts, such as the nervous system. In fact, some specimens have such well-preserved nervous systems that scientists could use them to infer how certain species behaved, working from the idea that a complex nervous system implies complex behaviors. This incredible insight offered to us by the Chengjiang lagerstatte provides direct evidence explaining the gradual evolution in the animal kingdom. Dr Shu concludes, "As a compelling testimony of Darwinian theory, the Chengjiang fossils have profound scientific and humanistic significance. Our hope is that the fascinating discoveries at this site will help improve scientific literacy in the public, while also providing new generations of scientists with a framework that they can use to flesh out the animal tree of life."

The Chengjiang fauna, indeed, holds immense significance--both scientific and philosophical. And the extensive efforts by scientists like Dr Shu bring us closer to understanding the most fundamental question today: where lies the origin of life?

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Reference

Authors: Degan Shu and Jian Han

Title of original paper: The core value of Chengjiang fauna: the formation of the animal kingdom and the birth of basic human organs

Journal: Earth Science Frontiers

DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2020.10.28

Affiliations: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments (SKLELE), State Key Laboratory of Continental Dynamics, Department of Geology, Northwest University, Xi'an 710069, China Northwestern University Museum, Shaanxi Xi'an 710069, China

About Earth Science Frontiers

Earth Science Frontiers is a bimonthly peer reviewed scholarly journal co-sponsored by the China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. It was first published in 1994, and academician Wang Chengshan is the current Editor-in-Chief. Each issue of the journal is centered on a specific geoscience topic and managed by experts in that field as Guest Editors. Each issue also contains a number of articles on self-select subjects. Articles published in Earth Science Frontiers cover all disciplines of earth sciences with emphasis on frontier and innovative basic research. At the same time, the journal also publishes research findings that may be considered contentious. Over the years, Earth Science Frontiers has won several publisher awards, including "The Internationally Most Influential Journal in Chinese Language" and "The Top 100 Outstanding Chinese Scholarly Journals." In 2019, Earth Science Frontiers was selected among top-tier journals to join a national action plan for achieving excellence in science and technology research publishing in China.

E-mail: frontier@cugb.edu.cn
Website: http://www.earthsciencefrontiers.net.cn

About Dr Degan Shu

Dr Degan Shu is an eminent paleontologist and academician currently working at Northwest University in Xi'an, China, as part of the Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments. He received his undergraduate training in Paleontology at Peking (Beijing) University from 1964 to 1969, obtaining his master's degree at Northwest University (Xi'an) and PhD in China University of Geosciences (Beijing). He was a Visiting Scholar at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., in 1988, a Humboldt Research Fellow at both University of Bonn in 1988-1989 and University of Wuerzburg, Germany, in 1994?1995, as well as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University, UK, in 1998. Dr Shu has authored over 100 papers on the Cambrian Explosion in his long career of over 25 years. Dr Shu has also translated Darwin's Origins of Species into Chinese.

 

New genus of chimaerid fish classified with help from Kazan University expert

Evgeny Popov (Senior Research Associate, Laboratory of the Stratigraphy Oil and Gas Bearing Reservoirs) partook in researching Canadodus suntoki.

KAZAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: CANADODUS SUNTOKI, GEN. ET SP. NOV., RBCM.EH2014.065.0001.001, LEFT MANDIBULAR (L?=?50?MM, KM?=?19?MM) PLATE FROM THE SOOKE FORMATION OF VANCOUVER ISLAND, BRITISH COLUMBIA. A, B, PHOTOGRAPHS OF A, OCCLUSAL AND B, LABIAL... view more 

CREDIT: ROYAL BRITISH COLUMBIA MUSEUM, KAZAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

A dental plate was found by Canadian national Stephen Suntok on the Pacific coast of British Columbia. Evgeny Popov, a renowned expert in chimaerids, was asked to assist in classification.

"The new species and genus is most close to the extant members of Chimaeridae - Chimaera and Hydrolagus. They are quite widely present in the oceans and comprise about 82% of the existing Holocephali fish," explains Popov.

The dental plate shows that the extinct Canadodus was close in appearance to the extant relatives, with length between 83 and 125 centimeters. Its diet most likely consisted of worms, mollusks, and crustaceans. The dental plate never left Canada - it was studied in Russia via high-definition photos, adds Popov.

As the scientists report, the finding was rather lucky, because vertebrate fossils are rarely found on the shores of Juan de Fuca Strait.

The research significantly contributes to the understanding of chimaerid fauna of the late Paleogene in the Pacific Ocean.

 

The first duckbill dinosaur fossil from Africa hints at how dinosaurs once crossed oceans

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Research News

 

IMAGE: DUCKBILL DINOSAURS EVOLVED IN NORTH AMERICA, SPREADING TO SOUTH AMERICA, ASIA, EUROPE, AND FINALLY AFRICA view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: RAUL MARTIN

The first fossils of a duckbilled dinosaur have been discovered in Africa, suggesting dinosaurs crossed hundreds of kilometres of open water to get there.

The study, published in Cretaceous Research, reports the new dinosaur, Ajnabia odysseus, from rocks in Morocco dating to the end of the Cretaceous, 66 million years ago. Ajnabia was a member of the duckbill dinosaurs, diverse plant-eating dinosaurs that grew up to 15 meters long. But the new dinosaur was tiny compared to its kin - at just 3 meters long, it was as big as a pony.

Duckbills evolved in North America and eventually spread to South America, Asia, and Europe. Because Africa was an island continent in the Late Cretaceous, isolated by deep seaways, it seemed impossible for duckbills to get there.

The discovery of the new fossil in a mine a few hours from Casablanca was "about the last thing in the world you would expect," said Dr Nicholas Longrich, of the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath, who led the study. Dr Longrich said: "It was completely out of place, like finding a kangaroo in Scotland. Africa was completely isolated by water - so how did they get there?"

Study of Ajnabia's distinctive teeth and jawbones show it belonged to Lambeosaurinae, a subfamily of duckbills with elaborate bony head crests. Lambeosaurs evolved in North America before spreading to Asia and Europe, but have never been found in Africa before.

Reconstructing duckbill evolution, they found the lambeosaurs evolved in North America, then spread over a land bridge to Asia. From there, they colonised Europe, and finally Africa.

Because Africa was isolated by deep oceans at the time, duckbills must have crossed hundreds of kilometres of open water- rafting on debris, floating, or swimming - to colonise the continent. Duckbills were probably powerful swimmers - they had large tails and powerful legs, and are often found in river deposits and marine rocks, so they may have simply swum the distance.

"Sherlock Holmes said, once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth," said Longrich. "It was impossible to walk to Africa. These dinosaurs evolved long after continental drift split the continents, and we have no evidence of land bridges. The geology tells us Africa was isolated by oceans. If so, the only way to get there is by water."

In reference to this feat, the dinosaur is named "Ajnabia odysseus". Ajnabi being Arabic for "foreigner", and Odysseus referring to the Greek seafarer.

Ocean crossings are rare, improbable events, but have been observed in historic times. In one case, green iguanas travelled between Caribbean islands during a hurricane borne on debris. In another, a tortoise from the Seychelles floated hundreds of kilometres across the Indian Ocean to wash up in Africa.

"Over millions of years," said Longrich, "Once-in-a-century events are likely to happen many times. Ocean crossings are needed to explain how lemurs and hippos got to Madagascar, or how monkeys and rodents crossed from Africa to South America."

But the fact that duckbills and other dinosaur groups spread between continents, even with high sea levels, suggests dinosaurs travelled across oceans as well. "As far as I know, we're the first to suggest ocean crossings for dinosaurs," said Longrich.

The international team of scientists was led by the University of Bath with researchers from the University of the Basque Country UVP/EHU (Spain), George Washington University (USA) and the Natural History Museum of Sorbonne University (France) / Universite Cadi Ayyad (Morocco).

Dr Nour-Eddine Jalil, from the Natural History Museum of Sorbonne University (France) said: "The succession of improbable events (crossing an ocean by a dinosaur, fossilization of a terrestrial animal in a marine environment) highlights the rarity of our find and therefore its importance.

"Ajnabia shows us that hadrosaurs have set foot on African land, telling us that ocean barriers are not always an insurmountable obstacle."

CAPTION

Silhouette showing the size of Ajnabia compared with humans and the contemporary Maastrichtian dinosaur fauna of Morrocco.

 

Two motivational artificial beings are better than one for enhancing learning

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that praise delivered by robots and virtual agents improves offline learning

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Research News

 

IMAGE: A PARTICIPANT TRAINING IN FINGER-TAPPING TASK AND AN AGENT (IN THIS FIGURE, A ROBOT) WATCHING THE TRAINING. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan - Social rewards such as praise are known to enhance various stages of the learning process. Now, researchers from Japan have found that praise delivered by artificial beings such as robots and virtual graphics-based agents can have effects similar to praise delivered by humans, with important practical applications as social services such as education increasingly move to virtual and online platforms.

In a study published this month in PLOS ONE, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have shown that motor task performance in participants was significantly enhanced by praise from either one or two robots or virtual agents.

Although praise from robots and virtual agents has been found to enhance human motivation and performance during a task, whether these interactions have similar effects on offline skill consolidation, which is an essential component of the learning process, has not been investigated. Further, the various conditions associated with the delivery of praise by robot and virtual agents have not been thoroughly explored previously. The researchers at the University of Tsukuba aimed to address these questions in the present study.

"Previous studies have shown that praise from others can positively affect offline improvements in human motor skills," says first author Masahiro Shiomi. "However, whether praise from artificial beings can have similar effects on offline improvements has not been explored previously."

To examine these questions, the researchers asked participants to learn a finger-tapping task under several different conditions, which varied in terms of the timing and frequency of praise, the number of agents, and whether the agents were physically present or presented on a screen. The participants were then asked to repeat the task on the following day, and task performance was compared between the two days.

"We found that praise led to a measurable increase in task performance, indicating increased offline consolidation of the task," explains Professor Takamasa Iio. "Further, two agents led to significantly greater participant performance than one agent, even when the amount of praise was identical."

However, whether the praise was delivered by physical robots or by virtual agents did not influence the effects.

"Our study showed that praise from artificial beings improved skill consolidation in a manner that resembled praise delivered by humans," says first author Masahiro Shiomi. "Such findings may be useful for facilitating learning in children, for instance, or for exercise and rehabilitation applications."

Future work could consider the effects of praise delivered in different environments, for instance, in a VR environment, as well as the effects of greater numbers of agents. A greater understanding of the factors that influence the social effects of robot behavior is essential for improving the quality of human-robot interactions, which are increasingly an important element of education, services, and entertainment applications.

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The article, "Two is Better than One: Social Rewards from Two Agents Enhance Offline Improvements in Motor Skills More than Single Agent" was published in PLOS ONE DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0240622

 

Shining a light on the issue of wine fraud

UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE

Research News

IMAGE: PHD STUDENT RUCHIRA RANAWEERA LOADS A WINE SAMPLE INTO THE AQUALOG SPECTROFLUOROMETER, WITH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DAVID JEFFERY. view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY OF UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE.

University of Adelaide wine researchers are developing a fast and simple method of authenticating wine - a potential solution against the estimated billions of dollars' worth of wine fraud globally, but also offering a possible means of building regional branding.

The team of scientists were able to identify the geographical origins of wines originating from three wine regions of Australia and from Bordeaux in France with 100% accuracy with a novel technique of molecular fingerprinting using 'fluorescence spectroscopy', a technology that analyses fluorescence of molecules.

"Wine fraud is a significant problem for the global wine industry, given a yearly economic impact within Australia alone estimated at several hundred million dollars, and globally thought to be in the billions of dollars," says Ruchira Ranaweera, PhD student in the University's Waite Research Institute, who conducted the research.

"Wine authentication can help to avoid any uncertainty around wine labeling according to origin, variety, or vintage. The application of a relatively simple technique like this could be adapted for use in the supply chain as a robust method for authentication or detection of adulterated wines."

The researchers looked at Cabernet Sauvignon ¬- a globally important grape variety and the second most planted in Australia - from three different wine regions of Australia and Bordeaux in France, the birthplace of Cabernet Sauvignon.

The research has been published in the journal Food Chemistry and was supported by Wine Australia and the Australian Government, the Waite Research Institute and industry partners through the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production.

The researchers compared an existing approach for authentication, which involves measuring elements in wine samples using 'inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry' (ICP-MS), with the more simple, rapid and cost-effective fluorescence spectroscopy technique.

"This method provides a 'fingerprint' of the samples according to the presence of fluorophoric or light-emitting compounds," says Ms Ranaweera. "When used in combination with a robust data analysis using a particular machine learning algorithm, it is proving to be a powerful technique for authentication."

In every wine they tested using the novel combination of fluorescence spectroscopy with machine learning-driven data analysis, they were able to correctly allocate the wine to region with the fluorescence data but not with elements determined by ICP-MS.

There are other useful applications of this technology for the wine industry that are available now or in the pipeline, such as phenolic and wine colour analysis, and smoke taint detection.

Project leader Associate Professor David Jeffery, from the Waite Research Institute and the ARC Training Centre for Innovative Wine Production, says they hope ultimately to identify specific chemical markers that help discriminate between wine regions.

"Other than coming up with a robust method for authenticity testing, we are hoping to use the chemical information obtained from fluorescence data to identify the molecules that are differentiating the wines from the different regions," Associate Professor Jeffery says.

"This may help with regional branding, by understanding how their wines' characteristics are influenced by the region and how they differ from other regions."

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Scientists define binary tropical cyclones

INSTITUTE OF ATMOSPHERIC PHYSICS, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Research News

 

IMAGE: A BINARY TROPICAL CYCLONE (BTC) CASE IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC view more 

CREDIT: CHINA METEOROLOGICAL ADMINISTRATION

In the Northwest Pacific, most tropical cyclones occur alone during their lifetime. However, sometimes two or several tropical cyclones exist simultaneously. Generally, two tropical cyclones occurring simultaneously are referred to as binary tropical cyclones (BTCs), and they concurrently perform a mutual counterclockwise spin and move closer to each other when at a relatively close range. This phenomenon was first noted by Fujihara in 1921.

There are three existing BTC definitions with different criteria based on the separation distance, TC intensity and the coexistence time, which seem to be objective factors. However, as there is so explanation or reason in existence regarding the origins of these definitions, in truth they are mainly subjective.

To address this problem, Prof. Fumin Ren and his research team, from the viewpoints of two important parameters of BTCs--namely, the two TCs moving closer to each other and performing a mutual counterclockwise spin--carried out a study that analyzed two best-track datasets, provided by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) and the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). They established an objective standard, which includes a main standard for defining BTCs and a secondary standard for identifying typical/atypical BTCs, based on the high level of consistency between the two datasets.

"The main standard has two requirements: two coexisting TCs are a pair of BTCs if the separation distance is less than 1800 km, and if this separation maintains for at least 12 hours," says Ren, with Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences.

The above research has been accepted and published by Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-020-9287-3).

BTCs often bring extreme precipitation when they make landfall, and cause serious disasters. For example, the strong typhoon "Morak" in 2009 caused about 700 deaths or disappearances over the southern Taiwan Island.

"We still do not have a clear picture of the characteristics of BTC interactions in China's offshore area, and this is what we are going to investigate next," concludes Ren.

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Tokyo's voluntary standstill may have stopped COVID-19 in its tracks

INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Research News

 

IMAGE: STUDY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE USES MOBILE PHONE LOCATION DATA TO SHOW JAPAN'S NONCOMPULSORY LOCKDOWN DURING FIRST WAVE OF COVID-19 EFFECTIVELY REDUCED TOKYO'S HUMAN MOVEMENT,... view more 

CREDIT: INSTITUTE OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Tokyo - Why did Japan largely contain COVID-19 despite famously jam-packed Tokyo and despite the country's proximity to China? With no penalties and only requests for cooperation, Japan's state of emergency somehow averted the large-scale outbreaks seen elsewhere. At least one viable answer has now emerged.

A new comparative analysis of people's mobility during the virus' first wave illustrates how drastically the Tokyo masses slowed. That slowdown may have throttled the spread of infections.

In a study from The University of Tokyo Institute of Industrial Science, researchers examined location data from more than 200,000 mobile phone users. Using these data, the researchers calculated the human movement in Tokyo before and during the state of emergency. The striking findings were published in Scientific Reports.

"Using anonymized data that represented about 2% of the population, we could compute human movement and contact rates at a 100-meter grid-cell scale," study first author Takahiro Yabe says. "We found that 1 week into the state of emergency, human mobility reduced by 50%, which led to a 70% drop in social contacts."

Less contact implies less disease spread.

Japan declared its state of emergency on April 7, followed by a gradual series of requests to close businesses and work from home, along with aggressive travel entry restrictions. However, under Japanese law, a mandatory lockdown could not be implemented or enforced.

The data spanned from January to April. A look at the major hub train stations around central Tokyo, including Shinjuku Station, the world's busiest, finds April 14 in Tokyo had 76%-87% fewer visits compared with pre-crisis January.

The researchers also analyzed how much and how far people in greater Tokyo traveled, with both showing around a 50% reduction. In other words, people moved less and stayed nearer to home. Social contact could also be computed based on people's spatial proximity. That, too, was substantially reduced, nearly to the 80% reduction level the government had targeted. The decline trends generally corresponded with governmental requests for people to do remote work, for school closures, and the actual state of emergency.

Going a step further, the study paired socioeconomic data with the mobility results. This showed those with higher income were more capable of reducing social contact and, consequently, lower the chance of COVID-19 transmission. Finally, the study put the mobility data against the estimated effective reproduction number, a key statistic estimating how many cases one infection can cause. This validated how the reduced contact also was likely to reduce infections.

"With a noncompulsory and nonpharmaceutical intervention, Tokyo had to rely on citizens' cooperation. Our study shows they cooperated by limiting their movement and contact, subsequently limiting infections," study co-author Yoshihide Sekimoto explains. "These findings offer insights that policymakers can apply when estimating necessary movement restrictions."

Amid the complex human and environmental dynamics behind fighting the spread of COVID-19, there is now stronger evidence that staying home and maintaining distance really work.

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The article, "Non?compulsory measures sufficiently reduced human mobility in Tokyo during the COVID?19 epidemic," was published in Scientific Reports at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75033-5

 

Conflicts in kindergarten can reduce children's interest in reading and math

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND

Research News

 

Teacher-perceived conflict predicts lower interest and pre-academic skills in math and literacy among kindergarteners, a new study from Finland shows.

Kindergarten represents a crucial context in which children develop school-related skills and patterns of engagement that form the basis for the development of later competencies important for academic success. Kindergarten achievement has been found to be highly predictive of later academic skills.

Given the long-lasting effects that kindergarten experiences have on later schooling, it is important to understand the factors associated with children's learning and motivation during this time. The quality of teacher-student interaction has been found to be important in terms of many different academic and socio-emotional outcomes. However, much of the previous work in the field has focused on children in later grades in elementary school and has been conducted in the United States. Fewer studies have been conducted in other educational contexts and in kindergarten specifically.

Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä, the University of Eastern Finland and New York University of Abu Dhabi investigated bidirectional links between the quality of teacher-child relationships and children's interest and pre-academic skills in literacy and math in Finland. Participants were 461 Finnish kindergarteners (6-year-olds) and their teachers (48). The study is part of the Teacher Stress Study, led by Professor Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen and Associate Professor Eija Pakarinen at the University of Jyväskylä.

The results indicated that teacher-perceived conflict predicted lower interest and pre-academic skills in both literacy and math. It is possible that when children experience conflict with teachers, the negative emotions attached to these conflicts are harmful for children's engagement in learning and diminish their interest in academic tasks. It is also possible that children experiencing conflicts are missing out on time on learning literacy and math, either because they are disengaged from instructional activities or because teachers have to spend more instructional time on behavioural management.

The findings highlight the importance of kindergarten teachers being aware of how their relationships with children can in?uence children's later schooling. It would be important to develop pre-service and in-service programmes and interventions to assist teachers in building supportive, low conflict relationships with children. Teacher education programmes may also benefit from educating teachers not only about academic content and pedagogical practices but also in strategies that build supportive relationships with children.

"Compared to daycare, kindergarten introduces children to a more structured learning environment. The experiences children gain in this environment may have long-term consequences on the development of their academic motivation and competencies. Therefore, it is essential that our teachers are aware of the power their interaction with children may have, and that they are supported in finding optimal ways to interact with each child, while taking individual strengths and needs into consideration," Professor Jaana Viljaranta from the University of Eastern Finland says.

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For further information, please contact:

Associate Professor Eija Pakarinen, University of Jyväskylä, eija.k.pakarinen@jyu.fi, tel. +358408053520

Professor Jaana Viljaranta, University of Eastern Finland, jaana.viljaranta@uef.fi, tel. +358503256093

Research article:

Investigating Bidirectional Links Between the Quality of Teacher-Child Relationships and Children's Interest and Pre-Academic Skills in Literacy and Math Eija Pakarinen, Marja-Kristiina Lerkkanen, Jaana Viljaranta, Antje von Suchodoletz. Child Development. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13431