'Silent epidemic of grief' leaves bereaved and bereavement care practitioners struggling

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

 

Major changes in bereavement care have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, amid a flood of demand for help from bereaved people, according to new research from the University of Cambridge. The first major study of pandemic-related changes in bereavement care has found that the switch to remote working has helped some services to reach out, but many practitioners feel they do not have capacity to meet people's needs.

It is estimated that for every death, nine people are affected by bereavement. The scale of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on those bereaved is now becoming apparent, whether the death was from COVID or from other causes.

Those whose loved ones have died with COVID-19 have had to cope with sudden and unexpected death, deaths in intensive care units, and with seeing loved ones suffer severe symptoms including breathlessness and agitation at the end of life. Social distancing measures have meant restricted visiting at the end of life, leaving some to die alone. Viewing the deceased person's body and funeral proceedings have been severely curtailed, with major impact on those bereaved from all causes, not only from COVID-19. All these factors mean that the risks of complicated and prolonged grief responses have become higher during the pandemic.

In research published today in BMJ Open, researchers at Cambridge's Department of Public Health and Primary Care report the results of an online survey sent to health and social care staff in August 2020, inviting them to describe their experiences and views about changes in bereavement care. 805 people responded, including those working in community, care home, hospital and hospice settings across the UK and Ireland.

Services faced initial challenges adapting to changing national government guidelines. Some bereavement services were suspended due to staff being furloughed or redeployed, particularly specialist bereavement services. Volunteer support in hospitals and hospices was reduced and some services saw increased waiting lists.

"We had 600% increase in deaths for a 3-week period. Dealing with the backlog of bereavement support was challenging," said one palliative medicine doctor.

Bereavement care fell to a wider range of staff members, including some with limited experience. Some people reported that services were under-resourced before the pandemic and that the pandemic would worsen the situation and add new difficulties due to the complex grief reactions.

The biggest change has been the switch to remote methods of providing support - such as telephone and video - which was reported by 90% of respondents. Adapting care to online or telephone formats was particularly challenging, with limited access to the equipment needed and limited staff training in their use.

The move to remote support has been a double-edged sword. On one hand, it increased some opportunities for bereavement support. Services supporting children and young people at times reported these groups to be more receptive to online support and hospices and hospital teams reported widening access to their bereavement support. However, practitioners described the remote work as "draining" and difficult to manage, alongside their own emotional strains during the pandemic.

Some practitioners feared being overwhelmed by demand: "We are really only seeing those who have been bereaved in Jan/Feb so far, so there may be many more to come," said one Community Listening Service Coordinator.

The changes to services were reported to have disrupted the ability to offer emotional support: "It has felt as though we are dealing with them at arm's length whereas we would be there to hold their hands, give them a hug as needed," said a palliative medicine doctor.

Many respondents expressed grave concerns over the long-term impacts on bereaved people, highlighting the inability or restrictions on being with the dying patient as having a profound impact in bereavement.

"Many people who died were denied opportunity to die in their preferred place of care / preferred place of death and died in suboptimal environments to receive their care in last days," said a GP.

While those bereaved from COVID-19 and non-COVID conditions were similarly affected by the restrictions, specific challenges related to COVID-19 were reported. Some respondents described relatives' anger at having COVID-19 on the death certificate. One Bereavement Specialist Liaison Nurse said that the disease "seemed to have a 'stigma' for some". This sense of stigma was thought to exacerbate peoples' feelings of having failed to protect their family member from COVID-19.

Concerns were raised over a large and 'invisible cohort of people' who may not access support or for whom support will be restricted, leading to greater unmet need. "There may be a silent epidemic of grief that we have not yet picked up on," said a Palliative Medicine Doctor.

Dr Caroline Pearce, the lead researcher, said: "Bereavement care has undergone major changes in both acute and community settings affecting bereaved people, clinicians, support workers and the wider health and social care system. The increased need for bereavement care has challenged practitioners as they have taken on new responsibilities and skills and shifted to remote and electronic working. The increased potential for prolonged and complicated grief responses among those bereaved during this period is particularly concerning."

Andy Langford, Clinical Director, CRUSE Bereavement Care, added: "Speaking about grief remains an area of public discomfort, and it is important practitioners encourage bereaved people to view grief as a 'valid' reason to seek help from health and community services, as well as from those they trust in their communities. It was heartening that many respondents reported the development of new and expanded services, but it is imperative that these are made sustainable in the longer-term. The need isn't going away."

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This study was funded by National Institute of Health Research, School for Primary Care Research.

Reference

Pearce, C et al. 'A silent epidemic of grief': a survey of bereavement care provision in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMJ Open; 1 March 2021; DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046872

In era of online learning, new testing method aims to reduce cheating

Rensselaer-developed method proven effective in reducing collusion among students

RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE

Research News

 

TROY, N.Y. -- The era of widespread remote learning brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic requires online testing methods that effectively prevent cheating, especially in the form of collusion among students. With concerns about cheating on the rise across the country, a solution that also maintains student privacy is particularly valuable.

In research published today in npj Science of Learning, engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrate how a testing strategy they call "distanced online testing" can effectively reduce students' ability to receive help from one another in order to score higher on a test taken at individual homes during social distancing.

"Often in remote online exams, students can talk over the phone or internet to discuss answers," said Ge Wang, an endowed chair professor of biomedical engineering at Rensselaer and the corresponding author on this paper. "The key idea of our method is to minimize this chance via discrete optimization aided by knowledge of a student's competencies."

When a distanced online test is performed, students receive the same questions, but at varying times depending on their skill level. For instance, students of highest mastery levels receive each question after other groups of students have already answered those questions. This approach, Wang said, reduces the incentive for students to receive help from those who have more mastery of the material. In order to determine the order of each student's questions, their competence levels are estimated using their grade point averages, SAT scores, or midterm scores, depending on what is available at a specific point in the semester.

According to statistical tests and post-exam surveys, this method reduced the points gained through collusion by orders of magnitude when compared to conventional exam methods. As an added benefit, Wang said, when students knew collusion would not be possible, they were more motivated to study class material. Wang and his collaborators hope to share this pedagogical innovation beyond the Rensselaer campus.

"We plan to develop a good platform so that others can easily use this method," said Wang, a member of the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies at Rensselaer.

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Mengzhou Li, a graduate student in biomedical engineering, was first author on this paper. Li and Wang were joined in this work by Hisham Mohamed and Uwe Kruger, also from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Lirong Xia, a professor of computer science, as well as teaching assistants and graduate students within their labs.

About Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America's first technological research university. Rensselaer encompasses five schools, 32 research centers, more than 145 academic programs, and a dynamic community made up of more than 7,600 students and over 100,000 living alumni. Rensselaer faculty and alumni include more than 145 National Academy members, six members of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, six National Medal of Technology winners, five National Medal of Science winners, and a Nobel Prize winner in Physics. With nearly 200 years of experience advancing scientific and technological knowledge, Rensselaer remains focused on addressing global challenges with a spirit of ingenuity and collaboration. To learn more, please visit http://www.rpi.edu.

Why some rural enrollees in Medicare Advantage are switching to traditional Medicare

DREXEL UNIVERSITY

Research News

Philadelphia, Pa. -- More than one out of every 10 seniors (10.5%) enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, also known as a Medicare managed care option, and living in a rural area, switched to traditional Medicare during 2010-2016. The switch was driven primarily due to low satisfaction with care access, according to a study published this week in Health Affairs from researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health. By contrast, only 1.7% of rural traditional Medicare enrollees made the switch to Medicare Advantage during this period.

The findings, among the first to look at rates of switching between the two options among rural versus nonrural enrollees, found a similar, yet more muted, effect among nonrural enrollees, with 2.2% of traditional Medicare enrollees and 5% of Medicare Advantage enrollees making the switch.

Switching was most common among Medicare Advantage enrollees who experienced higher costs, such as hospitalization or long-term facility stay. Among those requiring more expensive services, rural enrollees were about twice as likely to switch from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare as nonrural enrollees (16.8% versus 8.3%), suggesting that limited provider options in rural areas were a major factor leading consumers to change their coverage plan.

"We studied 11 factors that might make someone switch their health insurance and found that much of this transfer from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare among rural residents came from limited provider availability. However, care quality or out-of-pocket costs played a limited role." said lead author Sungchul Park, PhD, an assistant professor in the Dornsife School of Public Health. "It's not that rural patients were sicker than nonrural patients, they might just have a much tougher time than their counterparts did when it came to finding an approved medical provider."

Unlike traditional Medicare, which is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Medicare Advantage is operated by private companies approved by the government. Both traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage include hospital (Part A) and medical (Part B) insurance. However, funding for the two programs differs and influences how they're delivered. In traditional Medicare, the federal government pays for services performed, but the government pays Medicare Advantage insurers using fixed, pre-negotiated rates. This creates incentive for Medicare Advantage plans to implement cost-saving measures, such as programs to keep their enrollees healthy, implement networks and require prior authorization restrictions to care.

"Medicare Advantage plans might have lower premiums and/or supplemental coverage in some areas, but that value is not enough for patients in more restrictive provider networks that prevent them from accessing care they need," said Park. "We found that levels of satisfaction with out-of-pocket costs had little very little influence in patients who decided to change their plan."

Data was gathered from a nationally representative sample of seniors over age 65 from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey from 2010-2016, (expect for 2014, when data was not reported), including demographics, socioeconomic characteristics, health data and satisfaction with care. Rural residency was based on county-level 2013 data from the Department of Agriculture.

The authors suggest the importance of developing policies to incentivize the health care workforce to practice in rural areas. For example, loan repayment or forgiveness programs may attract needed health care professionals to areas of shortages. Also, the federal government could consider changing Medicare Advantage network adequacy standards for rural areas to make sure that there are enough providers included. Finally, offering a rural payment add-on for Medicare Advantage plans that operate in rural areas may improve access to high-quality Medicare Advantage plans among rural enrollees.

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In addition to Park, authors on this paper include David J. Meyers, PhD, of Brown University and senior author Brent A. Langellier, PhD, of Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health.

This study was supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health.

Study examines what makes people susceptible to fake health news

Source credibility, how info is presented have little influence; tagging unverified content makes difference

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

Research News

 

LAWRENCE -- A new study from University of Kansas journalism & mass communication researchers examines what influences people to be susceptible to false information about health and argues big tech companies have a responsibility to help prevent the spread of misleading and dangerous information.

Researchers shared a fake news story with more than 750 participants that claimed a deficiency of vitamin B17 could cause cancer. Researchers then measured if how the article was presented -- including author credentials, writing style and whether the article was labeled as "suspicious" or "unverified" -- affected how participants perceived its credibility and whether they would adhere to the article's recommendations or share it on social media. The findings showed that information presentation did not influence how people perceived it and that only social media efficacy played a role in whether respondents said they would share it.

Hong Tien Vu, assistant professor of journalism & mass communications, and Yvonnes Chen, associate professor of journalism & mass communications at KU, co-wrote the study. They will present their work, funded by a KU General Research Fund grant, at the 2021 International Communication Association Conference.

Vu and Chen shared eight versions of an article verified as false with respondents that claimed a lack of vitamin B17, which does not exist, could be a cause of cancer. In one version, it included a doctor's byline, including a short description of her medical credentials. In another version, the author was described as a mother of two with a background in creative writing who was a lifestyle blogger in another. Some versions followed a journalistic style, while others used more casual language.

"We wanted to test two skills that are often employed in media literacy training programs around the world, author credentials and writing style, as well as flagging," Vu said. "The results suggest relying on audience members to do the work to determine fake news may be a long way to go. When people have to evaluate the credibility of information, it requires mental work. When surfing the web in general, we tend to rely on big tech companies to verify information."

Respondents who showed higher levels of social media efficacy, or were more savvy in using the technology, evaluated information more carefully and reported they would be less likely to share the article. Health orientation, or whether or not respondents were interested in or sought out health information, did not play a role in discerning accuracy of information. It is significant, however, as those highly interested in health information are more likely to share news they find, whether credible or not, the authors said.

Results showed that author credentials and how the story was written did not have significant differences on how people perceived its credibility, whether they would adhere to its recommendations or share it. However, those who saw the article presented with any sort of flagging stating it was not verified information were significantly less likely to find it credible, adhere to recommendations or share it.

While the study took place before the COVID-19 pandemic, its findings are especially relevant, as misinformation and politicized information about the pandemic have proliferated. It shows seemingly innocuous misinformation can be dangerous as well.

"One problem with fake news studies is the topic becomes so politicized," Vu said. "Fake news can be about something that is not politicized or polarizing as well. Talking about vitamin B17 seems to be harmless, but people believed it. People can spend time, money and efforts on trying to find a cure, and that can be very dangerous if you don't follow a doctor's advice and come across false information."

The fact that any sort of flagging information significantly affected readers' perceptions and intentions to share show how important it is for big technology companies such as social media platforms to verify information or label content that has false, unverified or dangerous information, the authors wrote.

"Whenever we see information that has been flagged, we immediately raise our skepticism, even if we don't agree with it. Big tech companies have a very important role to play in ensuring a healthy, clean information environment," Vu said.

Metal whispering: Finding a better way to recover precious metals from electronic waste

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: NEW TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED BY IOWA STATE ENGINEERS USES HEAT AND OXIDATION TO RECOVER PURE AND PRECIOUS METALS FROM ELECTRONIC WASTE. IT WORKS IN TWO WAYS -- IT CAN BRING THE... view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF MARTIN THUO/IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY.

AMES, Iowa - Inspired by nature's work to build spiky structures in caves, engineers at Iowa State University have developed technology capable of recovering pure and precious metals from the alloys in our old phones and other electrical waste.

Using controlled applications of oxygen and relatively low temperatures, the engineers say they can dealloy a metal by slowly moving the most reactive components to the surface where they form stalagmite-like spikes of metal oxides.

That leaves the least-reactive components in a purified, liquid core surrounded by brittle metal-oxide spikes "to create a so-called 'ship-in-a-bottle structure,'" said Martin Thuo, the leader of the research project and an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Iowa State University.

"The structure formed when the metal is molten is analogous to filled cave structures such as stalactites or stalagmites," Thuo said. "But instead of water, we are using oxidation to create these structures."

A paper describing the new technology, "Passivation-driven speciation, dealloying and purification," has recently been published by the journal Materials Horizons. (See sidebar for the paper's co-authors.)

University startup funds and part of a U.S. Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research grant supported development of the technology.

Thuo noted this project is the exact opposite of his research group's previous work to develop heat-free solder.

"With heat-free solder, we wanted to put things together," he said. "With this, we want to make things fall apart."

But not just fall apart any which way. Thuo and the engineers in his research group want to control exactly how and where alloy components fall apart, or dealloy.

"It's like being a metal whisperer," he said. "We make things go the way we want."

The engineers offered a more precise description in their paper: "This work demonstrates the controlled behavior of surface oxidation in metals and its potential in design of new particle structures or purification/dealloying. By tuning oxidation via temperature, oxidant partial pressure, time and composition, a balance between reactivity and thermal deformation enables unprecedented morphologies."

Those unprecedented forms and structures could be very useful.

"We need new methods to recover precious metals from e-waste or mixed metal materials," Thuo said. "What we demonstrate here is that the traditional electrochemical or high-temperature methods (above 1,832 degrees Fahrenheit) may not be necessary in metal purification as the metal's reactivity can be used to drive separation."

Thuo said the oxidation technology works well at temperatures of 500 to 700 degrees Fahrenheit. ("This is set in an oven and getting metals to separate," he said.)

Besides metal purification and recovery, this new idea could also be applied to metal speciation - the ability to dictate creation and distribution of certain metal components. One use could be production of complex catalysts to drive multi-stage reactions.

Let's say chemists need a tin oxide catalyst followed by a bismuth oxide catalyst. They'll start with an alloy with the bismuth oxide buried beneath the tin oxide. They'll run the reaction with the tin oxide catalyst. Then they'll raise the temperature to the point that the bismuth oxide comes to the surface as spikes. And then they'll run the reaction with the bismuth oxide catalyst.

Thuo credits development of the new technology to working with talented students and two collaborators.

"We built on this big idea very slowly," he said. "And working together, we were able to break into this knowledge gap."

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The collaborators/co-authors

Martin Thuo, an associate professor of materials science and engineering at Iowa State University, is the project leader and the paper's corresponding author. Collaborators and co-authors are:

Andrew Martin, an Iowa State graduate with a doctorate in materials science and engineering who's now at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Boyce Chang, an Iowa State graduate with a doctorate in materials science and engineering who's now at the University of California Berkeley

Joel Cutinho, an Iowa State graduate with a master's degree in materials science and engineering who now works for Nanolab Technologies

Liyang Shen, an Iowa State doctoral student in chemical and biological engineering

Thomas Ward, an associate professor of aerospace engineering, who contributed work in mass transport

Eric Cochran, a professor of chemical and biological engineering, who contributed work in X-ray diffraction and characterization

Read the paper
"Passivation-driven speciation, dealloying and purification," Materials Horizons, published online Jan. 19, 2021,
https://doi.org/10.1039/D0MH01832E

Transmission risk of COVID-19 from sewage spills into rivers can now be quickly quantified

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

Scientists have identified that the COVID-19 virus could be transmitted through faecal contaminated river water.

A team of researchers, including water quality, epidemiology, remote sensing and modelling experts, led by Dr Jamie Shutler at the University of Exeter, have developed a fast and simple way to assess the potential risk of water-borne transmission of the COVID-19 virus, posed by sewage spills into open and closed freshwater networks.

The new study, published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology - Water, identifies the relative risk of viral transmission by sewerage spills, across 39 different counties.

The study used information on the environment, a population's infection rate, and water usage to calculate the potential potency of viral loads in the event of a sewerage spill.

The research team believe the new study could provide fresh impetus in identifying new ways in which to prevent the spread of the virus amongst communities and the environment.

Dr Jamie Shutler, lead author of the study and at the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall said: "it's important to identify and break all viable transmission routes if we want to stop any future outbreaks".

Airborne water droplets have previously been highlighted as the main route for transmission of the virus which causes COVID-19, but we know that other forms of transmission are likely to exist.

Previous studies have shown that COVID-19 viral pathogens can be found in untreated wastewater, in concentrations consistent with population infection rates. While studies are still relatively early in relation to COVID-19, other human coronaviruses are documented to survive in wastewater, with colder water temperature likely to increase viral survival.

Using this knowledge and existing methods, the research team identified how the transmission risk from water contaminated with sewage reduces over time.

This issue is likely to be especially problematic in parts of the world with a large proportion of temporary settlements, such as shanty towns, favellas or refugee camps, which are less likely to have safe sanitisation systems. Or any densely populated region that has high infection rates that also suffers from a sewage spill.

Modifying established pollution analysis methods, the team were able to estimate the viral concentration in rivers after a sewage spill. This meant they could calculate the relative transmission risk posed to humans by contaminated waterways for 39 countries.

These methods, the team argue, provides a fast way to assess the transmission risk associated to sewage spills through the use of easily available population, infection rate and environmental data, allowing evidence based guidance following a spill.

Dr Shutler added: "we hope that water companies or NGOs will use our simple spreadsheet calculator, that is freely available, to estimate the transmission risk after a spill. They can then use this information to advise the public."

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This research was partially funded by the European Union project Aquasense, which is focussing on novel methods to study and monitor water quality.

The research resulted from a collaboration between the University of Exeter in Cornwall, the University of Glasgow, the ?ukasiewicz-Institute of Electron Technology in Poland, and the University of Agriculture in Kraków, Poland.

The fully open access paper is available here:
Shutler et al., (2021) Rapid Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission Risk for Fecally Contaminated River Water, Environmental Science and Technology Water.

WHO expert panel strongly advises against use of hydroxychloroquine to prevent covid-19

Drug is no longer a research priority; resources should focus on other more promising drugs to prevent covid-19

BMJ

Research News

 

The anti-inflammatory drug hydroxychloroquine should not be used to prevent infection in people who do not have covid-19, say a WHO Guideline Development Group (GDG) panel of international experts in The BMJ today.

Their strong recommendation is based on high certainty evidence from six randomised controlled trials involving over 6,000 participants with and without known exposure to a person with covid-19 infection.

High certainty evidence showed that hydroxychloroquine had no meaningful effect on death and admission to hospital, while moderate certainty evidence showed that hydroxychloroquine had no meaningful effect on laboratory confirmed covid-19 infection and it probably increases the risk of adverse effects.

As such, the panel considers that this drug is no longer a research priority and that resources should be used to evaluate other more promising drugs to prevent covid-19.

This guideline applies to all individuals who do not have covid-19, regardless of their exposure to a person with covid-19 infection.

The panel judged that almost all people would not consider this drug worthwhile, and also decided that factors such as resources, feasibility, acceptability, and equity for countries and healthcare systems were unlikely to alter the recommendation.

Today's recommendation is the first version of a living guideline for drugs to prevent covid-19, developed by the World Health Organization with the methodological support of MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation. It's aim is to provide trustworthy guidance on the management of covid-19 and help doctors make better decisions with their patients.

Living guidelines are useful in fast moving research areas like covid-19 because they allow researchers to update previously vetted and peer reviewed evidence summaries.

New recommendations for other preventive drugs for covid-19 will be added to this guideline as more evidence becomes available.

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Peer reviewed? Yes
Evidence type: Clinical practice guideline
Subjects: Drugs to prevent covid-19

AI shows public attitude toward COVID-19 is more 'infectious' than disease itself

The more retweets, the more people believe it--even if it's not true

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

CHICAGO --- Public attitude toward COVID-19 and its treatments is more "infectious" than the disease itself, according to a new Northwestern Medicine study using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze tweets about the virus. Researchers studied the influence of Twitter on COVID-19 health beliefs as well as the competing influence of scientific evidence versus the speeches of politicians.

The study's key findings:

• People's biases are magnified when they read tweets about COVID-19 from other users, and the more times it has been retweeted, the more they tend to believe it and retweet it themselves.
• Scientific events, such as scientific publications, and non-scientific events, such as speeches of politicians, equally influence health belief trends on social media.

"In the pandemic, social media has contributed to much of the information and misinformation and bias of the public's attitude toward the disease, treatment and policy," said corresponding study author Yuan Luo, chief Artificial Intelligence officer at the Institute for Augmented Intelligence in Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

"Our study helps people to realize and re-think the personal decisions that they make when facing the pandemic," Luo said. "The study sends an 'alert' to the audience that the information they encounter daily might be right or wrong, and guide them to pick the information endorsed by solid scientific evidence. We also wanted to provide useful insight for scientists or health care providers, so that they can more effectively broadcast their voice to targeted audiences."

The study was published recently in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

How can scientists counter inaccurate information from politicians?

"Politicians may talk inaccurately about a certain treatment's effectiveness or say that COVID-19 is no big deal; it's just like the flu," said Luo said, also chief AI officer at Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute. "These comments have as strong effect as real scientific evidence and drive people's beliefs. This is what we are concerned about."

By understanding how the public's attitudes are affected, scientists can take actions to make sure scientific fact and evidence have a loud enough voice.

"As a scientist, you need to be aware that you need to get the science out to people. If you don't put energy into this, your efforts can be easily offset by those who talk irresponsibly," Luo said. "Going forward, we may want to pay more attention to a public information campaign to educate people about the vaccine in order to maximize the inoculation impact."

How are people's attitudes toward COVID-19 influenced by tweets?

"As a lay person, you should become aware of what you retweet and do a fact check first," Luo said. "And be aware anything you see on Twitter is shaping your attitude. You need to become aware of this before you let others' tweets and opinions shape yours and you become part of that megaphone."

"A lot of people aren't aware of how much their beliefs are impacted by tweets, and don't bother to fact check what they read and retweet. When the information is biased, they ignore or did not notice it. It's like a viral marketing effect. It's just about catching eyeballs on a trending topic, but it affects everyone on social media."

How is this study novel?

The study is novel because it integrates machine learning algorithms and classic epidemiology models to retrospectively investigate the contents on social media and its effects, Luo said.

The study also allows other researchers to "look under the hood" to understand how this AI algorithm works.

Machine learning and deep learning algorithms are usually opaque, blackbox mechanisms. But in this study, investigators paid special attention to improve the model's interpretability.

"We identified the fluctuating trends of public attitudes from the tweets, then aligned the important scientific and non-scientific events that are associated with these trends," Luo said. "As a result, we are offering insights people can take action on."

How many tweets did the AI analyze?

Luo's team, led by the study's first author Hanyin Wang, a Ph.D. student in the Driskill Graduate Program, retrospectively collected COVID-19-related tweets using the Twitter API. In total, they retrieved 92,687,660 tweets corresponding to 8,967,986 users from January 6 to June 21, 2020. To train the AI model, they randomly selected 5,000 of the tweets for annotation. Each tweet was doubly reviewed to decide if it met any of the four core constructs of the health belief model, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits and perceived barriers.

Next step: using AI to analyze how social media affects attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines

Luo's team is currently integrating machine learning and deep learning in the study of how social media can affect the general public's attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines. The goal is to identify specific public concerns and inform targeted vaccination campaigns to maximize inoculation impact. They are also looking at using social media data as a way to detect gender or race disparities in and out of the pandemic.

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Other Northwestern authors include Yikuan Li, Meghan Hutch and Andrew Naidech.

The study was funded in part by grant R01LM013337 from the National Library of Medicine of the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists describe 'hidden biodiversity crisis' as variation within species is lost

Many of the benefits people receive from nature depend on diversity within species, but this intraspecific variation is poorly understood and declining rapidly

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA CRUZ

Research News

 

IMAGE: NATURE HAS ALWAYS BEEN A SOURCE OF ARTISTIC INSPIRATION AND MATERIALS, AND VARIATION, BOTH ACROSS SPECIES AND WITHIN SPECIES, AN IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTOR TO ART AND CULTURE. THIS PAINTING ILLUSTRATES INTRASPECIFIC... view more 

CREDIT: SIMONE DES ROCHES

The rapid loss of variation within species is a hidden biodiversity crisis, according to the authors of a new study looking at how this variation supports essential ecological functions and the benefits nature provides for people.

Published March 1 in Nature Ecology and Evolution, the study highlights the need to better understand and conserve variation within species in order to safeguard nature's contributions to people.

"Biodiversity means more than the number of species, and when we focus on species-level extinctions we are missing part of the story," said corresponding author Eric Palkovacs, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz. "Intraspecific variation is a neglected aspect of biodiversity, but it has value for people, and we need to start recognizing that and protecting this form of biodiversity."

An earlier study led by first author Simone Des Roches, a postdoctoral researcher at UC Santa Cruz now at the University of Washington, showed that the loss of variation within species can have serious ecological consequences. This got Des Roches and Palkovacs thinking about the broader implications of their findings for the values and services nature provides to people, from forest materials and clean water to commercial fisheries and medicines derived from natural products.

For the new study, they surveyed the scientific literature for studies showing how intraspecific variation supports ecosystem services and other aspects of nature's contributions to people. They found well documented connections across a wide variety of species, including fish and commercial fisheries, insects and crop pollination, woody plants and forestry products, many different crops and their wild ancestors, and more.

"There is a whole suite of documented cases, including several examples of what happens when we lose intraspecific variation," Palkovacs said. "One of the best examples is commercial fisheries, where diverse fish stocks help to stabilize the overall population."

Subpopulations of salmon, for example, are locally adapted to the conditions of different watersheds, allowing the overall population to remain stable even as environmental fluctuations cause declines in some subpopulations and increases in others. These "portfolio effects" in salmon are undermined by dams, which block subpopulations from critical spawning habitat, and by hatchery production, which can reduce genetic variation. The loss of intraspecific variation in salmon can lead to boom-bust population cycles that are detrimental to the long-term value of the fishery.

Des Roches noted that people have long depended on variation within domesticated and agriculturally important species. "Our coevolutionary history with hundreds of domesticated species is characterized by our continued selection for unusual and beneficial variants within species," she said. "We've often taken this too far and have thus lost critical genetic diversity in domesticated species. We depend on outbreeding with more genetically variable wild type or ancestral populations (when they exist) to restore this diversity."

Plants with medicinal value provide other well documented examples of the value of intraspecific variation, Palkovacs said. "Different varieties of the same plant species may have different compounds with different medicinal properties, such as different antimalarial drugs that depend on the genetic diversity of the plants they are derived from."

The authors emphasized the importance of collaborating with local and indigenous groups who have deep knowledge of the relationships between intraspecific variation and the natural products and services they use. "We need to take advantage of the local knowledge systems to inform our understanding of these connections," Palkovacs said.

He noted that Western science has focused overwhelmingly on species-level extinctions, and only the most well-studied groups of organisms have been characterized from the standpoint of intraspecific variation. Of all the species evaluated by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), for example, only about 1 percent have been evaluated below the species level, and many of those show precipitous declines in diversity.

"There is strong evidence that the loss of intraspecific variation may be a very widespread problem, but we don't even know what is being lost," Palkovacs said.

There are practical steps that can be taken now, he said, to better document this variation, preserve biodiversity, and protect its contributions to the wellbeing of people. New genomic tools, for example, are available to quickly and systematically characterize the variation within species. This intraspecific variation can be directly incorporated into biodiversity assessments, such as those done by the IUCN and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

Addressing this aspect of biodiversity should be a major goal of global conservation efforts, the authors said. "The available evidence strongly suggests that the benefits of studying and conserving intraspecific variation will far outweigh the costs," Palkovacs said.

He noted that variation within species is the raw material of adaptive evolution. In a rapidly changing world, this variation is critically important to enable species to adapt to the conditions of an unpredictable future.

CAPTION

Intraspecific variation in foundation species such as mangroves (above), corals, and kelp forests serves to maintain ecosystem resilience in the face of a rapidly changing climate.

CREDIT

Photo by Simone Des Roches

In addition to Palkovacs and Des Roches, the coauthors of the paper include environmental economist Linwood Pendleton, senior vice president for science at the Centre for the 4th Industrial Revolution, and Beth Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. This work was supported by the University of California and NOAA.

Behavior of wild capuchin monkeys can be identified by marks left on their tools

Scientists who study capuchin monkeys on a nature reserve in Brazil found that stone tools are used for digging, seed pounding, and stone-on-stone percussion. The monkeys can serve as a model to help understand how humans evolved to use tools

.FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Research News

 

IMAGE: STONE TOOLS ARE USED FOR DIGGING, SEED POUNDING, AND STONE-ON-STONE PERCUSSION. THE MONKEYS CAN SERVE AS A MODEL TO HELP UNDERSTAND HOW HUMANS EVOLVED TO USE TOOLS view more 

CREDIT: TIAGO FALÓTICO/EACH-USP

A group of researchers including Tiago Falótico, a Brazilian primatologist at the University of São Paulo's School of Arts, Sciences and Humanities (EACH-USP), archeologists at Spain's Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) and University College London in the UK, and an anthropologist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, have published an article in the Journal of Archeological Science: Reports describing an analysis of stone tools used by bearded capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) that inhabit Serra da Capivara National Park in Piauí State, Brazil. It is the first systematic study to characterize the tools used by capuchin monkeys living in the wild.

The animals use the tools for digging, seed pounding, nut cracking, and stone-on-stone percussion. The ultimate aim of the study was to find out whether these different activities created use-wear marks that pointed to the purpose for which the tools were used.

"Archeologists in the field analyze the tools found in a dig and the use-wear marks they bear," Falótico said. "In our case, we had both the tools used by these monkeys and the chance to observe their behavior, to see how they used the tools. This is the first comparative analysis of the different tools used by wild capuchin monkeys for different purposes. We concluded that the tools displayed different patterns of use and wear in accordance with the activities involved and that these use-wear marks served to identify the activities performed by each type of tool and by the individuals that used the tools."

The animals concerned inhabit the Caatinga, Brazil's semi-arid shrubland and thorn forest biome. To crack open encapsulated seeds or fruits, such as locust fruit or jatoba (Hymenaea courbaril) and cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale), they pound them with a stone on another that serves as an anvil. They also use stones to dig or scrape the soil in search of tubers, roots, and spiders.

"They also hammerstones with other stones. The purpose of this stone-on-stone percussion, in the case of the groups we studied in Serra da Capivara, is to crush quartzite cobbles so that they can lick the powder and smear it on their bodies," Falótico said. "We've only ever observed this behavior by the animals inhabiting the study site. We have a few theories to explain it, such as the use of quartz to combat parasites by eating the dust, or ectoparasites such as lice by rubbing themselves with it. We have yet to test these hypotheses. The behavior isn't seen all the time but it's commonplace in the population concerned."

The research is supported by São Paulo Research Foundation - FAPESP via a Young Investigator Grant for the project "Cultural variation in robust capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)".

Evolutionary environment

The capuchin monkeys found in the Caatinga and the Cerrado, Brazil's savanna biome, are more terrestrial than those in the Amazon or Atlantic Rainforest. "The latter don't use stone tools. They're arboreal and rarely seen on the ground. These tools are used on the ground," Falótico said. As an evolutionary environment, he added, Serra da Capivara is very similar to that of the first hominins.

According to reputable sources, the term hominin is now defined as the group consisting of modern humans, extinct human species, and all our immediate ancestors (including members of the genera Homo, Australopithecus, Paranthropus, and Ardipithecus).

As these ancestors evolved, they too began spending more time on the ground and using stone tools. "Capuchin monkeys can serve as a model to help us understand which factors led to the use of tools by the first hominins," Falótico explained.

Individuals may use the same tool in more than one activity, but this is unusual. "It also depends on the environment. In Serra da Capivara, there are lots of rocks and stones, so they can easily switch between tools," he said. "In places with less stone available, they may use the same tool for different purposes. We have sightings of monkeys using a stone to dig and then pound a tuber they've found by digging."

The capuchin monkeys of Serra da Capivara also use twigs, sticks, and other kinds of wood as tools. "In this case, the tools may be used off the ground, and they modify the shape and size by removing leaves and branches, for example. They may understand the physical properties of these tools," he said. "We expected to observe this behavior in other less terrestrial populations, but it appears not to be the case. We have reports that it occurs occasionally but not habitually, as in Serra da Capivara." The monkeys may also use different tools in the same activity. "They may use a stone to enlarge a rock crevice and then use a twig to probe the hole for food, for example," he said.

As a rule, males handle objects more than females, but skill does not vary by sex. "Males and females are good at manipulation once they've become adult and acquired the skill," he said.

Primate tool library

Primate archeology, Falótico explained, is a relatively new field. Among non-human primates, only chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys, and long-tailed or crab-eating macaques use tools. "We now know that when capuchin monkeys bang stones together, they create flakes that closely resemble those made by the first humans," Falótico said. "The same goes for the simpler percussive tools - stones used for hammering and pounding - which can be confused with tools used by humans for the same purposes. In short, we provide more data for archeologists, who often come across these remains."

Creating a primate tool library is one of the aims of the Young Investigator project. "If the tools are described, it will be easier for archeologists and anthropologists to know at a later stage which groups used them and for what purpose," he said.

In this study specifically, the sample comprised 29 tools: 16 were used solely for pounding, 12 for digging, and one for stone-to-stone percussion. The technological analysis was based on a classification into active elements (hammers) and passive elements (anvils). The scientists set out to establish use-wear patterns, and to this end analyzed attributes such as general tool metrics, raw material, and surface traces such as fractures, impact points, battered areas formed by superimposed impacts, and percussive mark location.

The digging tools had fewer conspicuous use-wear marks on their surfaces when analyzed microscopically. Tools used to crush quartz most frequently had perceptible use-wear traces. Soft fruit and cashew nut processing tools displayed a wider spatial distribution of pounding marks than digging tools, although they also displayed a low degree of physical modification.

According to Falótico, tools differed more in terms of size than in terms of use-wear marks, especially those used for stone-to-stone percussion, which were much larger and heavier than the rest. "Digging stones are typically smaller," he said. "Pounding stones vary according to the chosen object. The monkeys prefer larger stones to crack open a hard object."

The researchers looked for traces of pollen among the residues found on the tools, in order to discover which plant species the monkeys preferred. "We identified starch grains and other non-pollen palynomorphs, such as fungal spores, algae and other organic elements found alongside pollen in palynology, the subdiscipline of botany in which pollen grains are examined and identified," Falótico said. "We experienced some difficulty for lack of a reference library to identify the origin of the pollens and starches occurring in this part of the Caatinga."

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About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at http://www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at http://www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe

The Part Played by Labor in the Transition From Ape to Man

www.marxists.org › marx › works › part-played-labour

The first operations for which our ancestors gradually learned to adapt their hands during the many thousands of years of transition from ape to man could have been only very simple ones. ... Thus the hand is not only the organ of labour, it is also the product of labour.