Picking up a book for fun positively affects verbal abilities: Concordia study

Sandra Martin-Chang and Stephanie Kozak find that fiction lovers are especially likely to benefit from reading

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: SANDRA MARTIN-CHANG (LEFT) AND STEPHANIE KOZAK: "FEELING COMPELLED TO READ AN ENTIRE SERIES, FEELING CONNECTED TO CHARACTERS AND AUTHORS, THESE ARE ALL GOOD THINGS. " view more 

CREDIT: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Bring on Twilight. Lee Child's Jack Reacher? Yes, please. More of James Patterson's Alex Cross while we're at it. And let's finish off with revisiting the million-plus words of the Harry Potter saga.

SOME RAYMOND CHANDLER OR THE DROOLING ADJECTIVES OF HP LOVECRAFT

No one will confuse the above book series with high literature. But a new study published in the journal Reading and Writing shows that the more people read any kind of fiction -- even mass market stuff sniffily derided as pulp -- the better their language skills are likely to be.

The piece was written by Sandra Martin-Chang, professor of education in the Faculty of Arts and Science, and PhD student Stephanie Kozak. They found that people who enjoyed reading fiction for leisure and who identified as a reader scored higher on language tests, whereas those who read to access specific information scored more poorly on the same tests. Kyle Levesque of Dalhousie University, Navona Calarco of Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and Raymond Mar of York University also co-authored the paper.

As leisure reading declines as a pastime for younger adults especially, Martin-Chang says emphasizing the fun aspect of it can draw them back to novels while at the same time boost their verbal abilities.

"It's always very positive and heartening to give people permission to delve into the series that they like," Martin-Chang notes. "I liken it to research that says chocolate is good for you: the guilty pleasure of reading fiction is associated with positive cognitive benefits and verbal outcomes."

Habit-forming pastime

Martin-Chang and Kozak used a scale developed by Mar called the Predictors of Leisure Reading (PoLR) to investigate reading behaviour (motivations, obstacles, attitudes and interests). They then examined how well the PoLR predicted the language skills of 200 undergraduate students, with all data gathered at York University.

The researchers note that the age range of the subjects in the study is of key interest. In early adulthood, reading becomes self-directed rather than imposed by others, which makes this a pivotal time for developing one's own reading habits. This population is also rather understudied, with most existing research focusing far more on children.

The researchers administered a series of measures over two separate half-hour sessions. First, the volunteers completed the 48-question PoLR scale measuring various reading factors. They were then given language tests similar to those found in the SAT and a measure of reading habits called the Author Recognition Test. This test asks respondents to select the names of real fiction and non-fiction authors they are familiar with from a long list of real and fake names. Scores on this test correlate with both actual reading behaviour and with verbal abilities: those who scored higher read more and have better verbal abilities than those who scored lower.

After analyzing the data, the researchers concluded that reading enjoyment, positive attitudes and deeply established interests predict better verbal abilities and that they were more strongly associated with exposure to fiction than non-fiction.

The written word: a love story

The many benefits of reading have long been established. Besides having better verbal abilities, lifelong readers are known to be more understanding of others, more empathetic, less prejudiced, to attain higher socioeconomic status and even to live longer, healthier lives than non-readers.

Teachers and parents can nurture a love of reading by letting young people read what they want, without guilt or shame.

"This ingrained interest, wanting to read something over and over again, feeling compelled to read an entire series, feeling connected to characters and authors, these are all good things," Martin-Chang concludes.

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Return to work and the path to recovery after serious injury in Black men

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF NURSING

Research News

IMAGE: SARA F. JACOBY, MPH, MSN, PHD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NURSING view more 

CREDIT: PENN NURSING

PHILADELPHIA (March 16, 20201) - After a traumatic injury, returning to work (RTW) can be a strong indication of healing and rehabilitation and may play a pivotal role in promoting physical and functional recovery. But how does RTW after a traumatic injury affect mental health recovery, particularly in individuals who experience social and economic marginalization?

In a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), researchers investigated the ways that RTW after an injury predict mental health outcomes in Black men living and recovering in Philadelphia. The study found that men who did not RTW after a serious traumatic injury had almost three times the odds of poor mental health when compared to men who did RTW. The study also found that younger age, lack of insurance or public insurance, and experiences of racism within and beyond the workplace were concurrently strong predictors of poor mental health outcomes.

This is the first study to identify the unique contributions of RTW after injury on mental health outcomes in Black men who recover in the context of urban environments where there are stark and persistent racial disparities in labor force opportunity and unemployment. Results of the research appear in the journal Injury. The article "The Relationship Between Work and Mental Health Outcomes in Black Men After Serious Injury," is available online.

"This study identifies the importance of considering RTW, not just as a marker of trauma recovery, but also as an important influence on mental health and recovery after hospitalization," says Sara F. Jacoby, MPH, MSN, PhD, Assistant Professor of Nursing and senior author of the article. "Interventions that support RTW for those who seek job opportunities in ways that attend to post-injury realities, can be situated within or in addition to strategies that enhance engagement with mental health services, especially for patients who meet screening criteria for depression and PTSD."

###

First author of the article is Aimee J. Palumbo of Temple University and past Penn Injury Science Center post-doctoral fellow; co-authors include Therese S. Richmond, PhD, RN, FAAN; Jessica Webster, MS, LPC of Penn Nursing and Christopher Koilor a past Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics SUMR scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. This study was funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health (grant R01NR013503, Richmond) and the Penn Injury Science Center (Palumbo and Jacoby) with support from the Centers for Disease Control (R49CE002474).

About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world's leading schools of nursing. For the fifth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University and is consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools. Penn Nursing is ranked as one of the top schools of nursing in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram.

 

Patient wait times reduced thanks to new study by Dartmouth engineers

THAYER SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AT DARTMOUTH

Research News

 

The first known study to explore optimal outpatient exam scheduling given the flexibility of inpatient exams has resulted in shorter wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patients at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. A team of researchers from Dartmouth Engineering and Philips worked to identify sources of delays for MRI procedures at Lahey Hospital in order to optimize scheduling and reduce overall costs for the hospital by 23 percent.

The Dartmouth-led study, "Stochastic programming for outpatient scheduling with flexible inpatient exam accommodation," was sponsored by Philips and recently published by Health Care Management Science in collaboration with Lahey Hospital.

"Excellence in service and positive patient experiences are a primary focus for the hospital. We continuously monitor various aspects of patient experiences and one key indicator is patient wait times," said Christoph Wald, chair of the department of radiology at Lahey Hospital and professor of radiology at Tufts University Medical School. "With a goal of wanting to improve patient wait times, we worked with data science researchers at Philips and Dartmouth to help identify levers for improvement that might be achieved without impeding access."

Prior to working with the researchers, on an average weekday, outpatients at Lahey Hospital waited about 54 minutes from their arrival until the beginning of their exam. Researchers determined that one of the reasons for the routine delays was a complex scheduling system, which must cater to emergency room patients, inpatients, and outpatients; while exams for inpatients are usually flexible and can be delayed if necessary, other appointments cannot.

"Mathematical models and algorithms are crucial to improve the efficiency of healthcare systems, especially in the current crisis we are going through. By analyzing the patient data, we found that delays were prominent because the schedule was not optimal," said first author Yifei Sun, a Dartmouth Engineering PhD candidate. "This research uses optimization and simulation tools to help the MRI centers of Lahey Hospital better plan their schedule to reduce overall cost, which includes patient waiting time."

First, the researchers reviewed data to analyze and identify sources of delays. They then worked on developing a mathematical model to optimize the length of each exam slot and the placement of inpatient exams within the overall schedule. Finally, the researchers developed an algorithm to minimize the wait time and cost associated with exam delays for outpatients, the idle time of equipment, employee overtime, and cancelled inpatient exams.

"This iterative improvement process did result in measurable improvements of patient wait times," said Wald. "The construction and use of a simulation model have been instrumental in educating the Lahey team about the benefits of dissecting workflow components to arrive at an optimized process outcome. We have extended this approach to identify bottlenecks in our interventional radiology workflow and to add additional capacity under the constraints of staffing schedules."

The researchers believe their solutions are broadly applicable, as the issue is common to many mid-sized hospitals throughout the country.

"We also provided suggestions for hospitals that don't have optimization tools or have different priorities, such as patient waiting times or idle machine times," said Sun, who worked on the paper with her advisor Vikrant Vaze, the Stata Family Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth.

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The other co-authors of the paper are: Usha Nandini Raghavan and Christopher S. Hall, both from Philips, and Patricia Doyle and Stacey Sullivan Richard of Lahey Hospital.

Young adults in a 20-year-long study shed light on what matters for mental health of ethnic diverse youth

Study sets the stage to learn about development of psychopathology and resilience among ethnically diverse children growing up in low resource contexts

ELSEVIER

Research News

 

Washington, DC, March 16, 2021 - A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP), published by Elsevier, reports on the young adult assessment of the now 20-year longitudinal Boricua Youth Study (BYS), a large cohort that brings much needed insight about development and mental health of children from diverse ethnic background growing up in disadvantaged contexts.

The present article, with its companion report on prevalence of conditions and associated factors, provides an update on the study's fourth wave, which follows-up two probability-based population samples of children of Puerto Rican heritage. Unique to the study is its two-site design, which allows for comparison of a single ethnic group in two contexts: one in which the group is an ethnic minority living in an disadvantaged area (South Bronx, NY); and another where though challenges are many, children do not grow up being part of an ethnic minority group (San Juan, Puerto Rico).

"The BYS provides a unique opportunity to understand developmental processes relevant to young adults who are not easily included in clinical, school, internet or telephone-based studies," said lead author Cristiane Duarte, PhD, MPH, Ruane Professor at the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York. "By focusing on an underserved ethnic group (Puerto Ricans), whose risk for future psychiatric disorders has been well documented in the USA, we add relevant information to a rich tradition of population-based longitudinal studies that have informed our knowledge of developmental psychopathology."

Children have been followed since the year 2000, when the original 2,491 participants were between the ages of 5 to 13 years old. Young adults were re-assessed on average 11.3 years after the last study contact, with retention of more than 80 percent of the original sample. The current article presents the cohort composition during young adulthood as it pertains to survival, mobility, parental involvement and other parameters that are crucial to the understanding of developmental psychopathology processes but are not frequently captured by more selective studies.

Hoping to help advance the field, the paper also provides detailed descriptions of methods and measures used, plus strategies utilized to engage and retain a low-income ethnically diverse cohort. The main aim of the first three waves of the study, initiated by Drs. Bird and Canino at the turn of the 21st century was to investigate development, specifically related to antisocial behaviors at the two study sites.

Co-author Glorisa Canino, PhD, Professor at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, said: "The study included the ascertainment of a wide array of putative risk factors that could be related to differences across contexts. After the completion of the first three waves, the question remained as to whether similar patterns observed in childhood would persist into late adolescence and early adulthood."

The risks threatening the positive development of Puerto Rican youth and other diverse racial/ethnic youth, living in disadvantaged contexts, are now likely being compounded by number of relevant factors. These include the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on underserved racial/ethnic minorities; a prolonged economic depression; and a recent major natural disaster (Hurricane Maria) together with the long-term experiences of discrimination and structural racism that have afflicted these same families for centuries.

The BYS gathers data from childhood through young adulthood on areas such as family relationships, cultural stress and psychiatric disorders, with the addition of domains specific to late adolescence and young adulthood (e.g., sexual risk behaviors, substance use, and financial independence). As such, the study is poised to answer questions that are important to the lived experiences of this ethnic group as they might pertain to mental health and has the capacity to assess the role of context and gender in these associations.

"This study is distinctive and even more relevant today as we unpack the role of minority status in the development of Latinx youth," said co-author Margarita Alegria, PhD Professor, Harvard University. "This represents a unique opportunity to identify assets and risks of Latinx youths' mental health as they transition to emerging adults."

Of note, currently Hector Bird, MD, study co-author states, "The retention of over 80 percent of a sample of children, now young adults, seen more than ten years after the last encounter, has been remarkable. We sincerely hope that the current readers and those of years to come will benefit from the results of this work both in informing epidemiologic methodology as well as from the implications of the findings for the mental health of Puerto Rican and other ethnic groups."

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Notes for editors

The article is "Developmental Psychopathology and Ethnicity I: The Young Adulthood Assessment of the Boricua Youth Study," by Cristiane S. Duarte, PhD, Glorisa J. Canino, PhD, Margarita Alegria, PhD, Maria A. Ramos-Olazagasti, PhD, Doryliz Vila, MS, Patricia Miranda, MPH, Vijah Ramjattan, BA, Kiara Alvarez, PhD, George J. Musa, PhD, Katherine Elkington, PhD, Melanie Wall, PhD, Sheri Lapatin, MIA, Hector Bird, MD (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2020.02.015). It currently appears on the JAACAP Articles In Press page and will appear in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, volume 60, issue 3 (March 2021), published by Elsevier.

Copies of this paper are available to credentialed journalists upon request; please contact the JAACAP Editorial Office at support@jaacap.org">support@jaacap.org or +1 202 587 9674. Journalists wishing to interview the authors may contact Gregory Flynn at gregory.flynn@nyspi.columbia.edu">gregory.flynn@nyspi.columbia.edu.

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Health (DA033172 and MH098374).

Investigators are in the process of assessing the next generation Puerto Rican children born out of the original cohort participants as part of the US National NIH program ECHO (Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes). Find out more by visiting the ECHO homepage.

About JAACAP

Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP) is the official publication of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. JAACAP is the leading journal focusing exclusively on today's psychiatric research and treatment of the child and adolescent. Published twelve times per year, each issue is committed to its mission of advancing the science of pediatric mental health and promoting the care of youth and their families.

The Journal's purpose is to advance research, clinical practice, and theory in child and adolescent psychiatry. It is interested in manuscripts from diverse viewpoints, including genetic, epidemiological, neurobiological, cognitive, behavioral, psychodynamic, social, cultural, and economic. Studies of diagnostic reliability and validity, psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatment efficacy, and mental health services effectiveness are encouraged. The Journal also seeks to promote the well-being of children and families by publishing scholarly papers on such subjects as health policy, legislation, advocacy, culture and society, and service provision as they pertain to the mental health of children and families. http://www.jaacap.org

About Elsevier

As a global leader in information and analytics, Elsevier helps researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. We do this by facilitating insights and critical decision-making for customers across the global research and health ecosystems.

In everything we publish, we uphold the highest standards of quality and integrity. We bring that same rigor to our information analytics solutions for researchers, health professionals, institutions and funders.

Elsevier employs 8,100 people worldwide. We have supported the work of our research and health partners for more than 140 years. Growing from our roots in publishing, we offer knowledge and valuable analytics that help our users make breakthroughs and drive societal progress. Digital solutions such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, ClinicalKey and Sherpath support strategic research management, R&D performance, clinical decision support, and health education. Researchers and healthcare professionals rely on our 2,500+ digitized journals, including The Lancet and Cell, our 40,000 eBook titles; and our iconic reference works, such as Gray's Anatomy. With the Elsevier Foundation and our external Inclusion & Diversity Advisory Board, we work in partnership with diverse stakeholders to advance inclusion and diversity in science, research and healthcare in developing countries and around the world.

Elsevier is part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers. http://www.elsevier.com

Media contact

JAACAP Editorial Office
+1 202 587 9674
support@jaacap.org">support@jaacap.org

FSU researchers discover how 'cryptic species' respond differently to coral bleaching

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE CORAL REEF IN MOOREA BEFORE BLEACHING KILLED THE LARGER CORALS IN 2019. view more 

CREDIT: FSU COASTAL AND MARINE LABORATORY/SCOTT BURGESS

Certain brightly colored coral species dotting the seafloor may appear indistinguishable to many divers and snorkelers, but Florida State University researchers have found that these genetically diverse marine invertebrates vary in their response to ocean warming, a finding that has implications for the long-term health of coral reefs.

The researchers used molecular genetics to differentiate among corals that look nearly identical and to understand which species best coped with thermal stress. Their research was published in the journal Ecology.

"Being able to recognize the differences among these coral species that cannot be identified in the field -- which are known as 'cryptic species' -- will help us understand new ways for how coral reefs maintain resilience in the face of disturbance," said Associate Professor of Biological Science Scott Burgess, the paper's lead author.

The researchers were studying the coral ecosystem at the island of Moorea in French Polynesia when a coral bleaching event struck in 2019.

Corals get their color from algae that live in their tissues and with which they have a symbiotic relationship. But when corals are stressed -- by high water temperature, for example -- algae leave the coral, which turns white, hence the term "bleaching." Bleached corals are not dead, but they are more vulnerable and more likely to die.

Most of the coral at Moorea belong to the genus Pocillopora. During the event, the researchers saw that about 72 percent of the coral colonies from this genus bleached, and up to 42 percent died afterward.

At first, it seemed that the largest colonies were more likely to bleach, but when the scientists examined tissue samples from the coral, they found that colonies belonging to a certain genetic lineage, not coral size, was most important in determining the fate of the corals.

"Because Pocillopora species look so similar, they cannot be reliably identified in the field, which, in the past, has forced researchers to study them as a single group," said Erika Johnston, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biological Science and a co-author of the paper. "Molecular genetics allows us to reconstruct their evolutionary ancestry and are an essential step to species identification in this case."

About 86 percent of the Pocillopora corals that died belonged to a group that shares a set of DNA variations, which is known as a haplotype and reflects their common evolutionary ancestry.

"The good news is that not all of the corals died from bleaching, and many species survived," Burgess said. "The bad news is that the species that died is, as far as we are aware at the moment, endemic to that specific region. So on the one hand, we're worried about losing an endemic species, but on the other hand, our results show how co-occurring cryptic species can contribute to coral resilience."

CAPTION

The coral reef at Moorea during the bleaching event in 2019. Most of the corals had turned white because they expelled the algae living in their tissues, a process known as bleaching.

CREDIT

(California State University, Northridge/Peter Edmunds)

It's an ecological analogy to having a diverse financial portfolio, where a variety of investments decreases the likelihood of a complete loss.

"Having multiple species that perform a similar function for the reef ecosystem but differ in how they respond to disturbances should increase the chance that Pocillopora corals continue to perform their role in the system, even though the exact species may be shuffled around," Burgess said.

Maintaining healthy ecological portfolios may be a better management option than attempting to restore a specific species.

"If we maintain the right type of diversity, nature in a way can pick the winners and losers," Burgess said. "However, the worry for us scientists is that unless the leaders of governments and corporations take action to reduce CO2 emissions, ecological portfolios that can maintain coral reef resilience will be increasingly eroded under current and ongoing climate change. This is concerning because coral reef ecosystems provide economic, health, cultural and ecological goods and services that humans rely on."

Future research will look into the composition of the algae that live inside the coral, the depth distributions of each cryptic coral species and the evolutionary relationships among the cryptic species.

###

Researchers from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and California State University, Northridge contributed to this study.

This work was conducted as part of a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Burgess.

The potential economic impact of volcano alerts

While volcano alerts keep risk-area residents informed of volcanic hazards, a new study finds that alerts issued during long periods of volcanic unrest can negatively impact a region's economy

SOCIETY FOR RISK ANALYSIS

Research News

 

The Volcano Alert Level (VAL) system, standardized by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 2006, is meant to save lives and keep citizens living in the shadow of an active volcano informed of their current level of risk.

A new study published in Risk Analysis suggests that, when an alert remains elevated at any level above "normal" due to a period of volcanic unrest, it can cause a decline in the region's housing prices and other economic indicators. Because of this, the authors argue that federal policymakers may need to account for the effects of prolonged volcanic unrest -- not just destructive eruptions -- in the provision of disaster relief funding.

A team of geoscientists and statistical experts examined the historical relationship between volcano alerts issued by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and regional economic growth for three of the country's most dangerous volcanoes: Washington State's Mount St. Helens, Hawaii's K?lauea, and California's Long Valley Caldera.

They analyzed the effect of VALs and their predecessors (such as hazard alerts and volcano alerts) on local housing prices and business patterns over a 42-year period, from 1974 to 2016. The economic indicators used in the analysis included annual housing price, number of business establishments per 1,000 square kilometers, the number of employees per 1,000 inhabitants, and payroll per employee.

The team used econometric models to observe economic indicator trends during times when an increase in volcanic activity above "normal" led to a public alert. "Signs of volcanic unrest include ground deformation, rising C02 emissions, and increased earthquake frequency," says Justin Peers, East Tennessee State University.

Both lower and higher alert level notifications were shown to have short-term effects on housing prices and business indicators in all three regions. The most significant negative impacts were seen for California's Long Valley Caldera area from 1982-83 and 1991-97. Home to Mono Lake, Mammoth Mountain, and the very popular Mammoth Lakes ski area, this complex volcanic region has experienced prolonged episodic unrest.

Not all of the volcanic regions experienced a significant long-term economic impact from an elevated VAL. The greatest exception was Mount St. Helens. Peers suggests this could be due to "volcano tourism and close proximity to the major tech hub of Portland, Oregon." Despite catastrophic volcanic potential, the regional economy in the footprint of Mount St. Helens has benefited from tourism to the volcano -- accelerated by the establishment of Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument in 1982.

The study's findings are consistent with those from other natural hazards studies that have documented temporary declines in housing prices following successive hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. With natural hazards, the mere presence of information about hazard potential in the form of a public alert level notification may have an adverse effect on local economies.

This sheds light on a systemic issue in disaster resilience, the authors argue. The federal government currently provides disaster relief for direct impacts of volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters, but limited or no assistance for the indirect effects experienced from long periods of volcanic unrest. Durations of volcanic unrest are often protracted in comparison to precursory periods for other hazardous events (such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and floods). As Peers points out, this makes the issue of disaster relief for indirect effects particularly important in high-risk volcanic regions.

For experts who study the risks of natural hazards, the team suggests they have developed a repeatable and reliable methodology to test hazard alert effects on local economies using publicly available federal U.S. business statistics. "This could be utilized to examine the impacts of all hazard alerts, such as those for wildfires or earthquakes," the authors write.

And for citizens, "we hope this research will help people better understand that the risks involved with living around a volcano are not entirely from the physical hazards associated with volcanism. It's more financially complicated than that," says Peers.

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About SRA

The Society for Risk Analysis is a multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that provides an open forum for all those interested in risk analysis. SRA was established in 1980 and has published Risk Analysis: An International Journal, the leading scholarly journal in the field, continuously since 1981. For more information, visit http://www.sra.org.

Jupiter's Great Red Spot feeds on smaller storms

The massive storm near the gas giant's equator has been shrinking, but collisions with a series of anticyclones are likely only surface deep

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

Research News

 

IMAGE: A FLAKE OF RED PEELS AWAY FROM JUPITER'S GREAT RED SPOT DURING AN ENCOUNTER WITH A SMALLER ANTICYCLONE, AS SEEN BY THE JUNO SPACECRAFT'S HIGH RESOLUTION JUNOCAM ON 12 FEBRUARY... view more 

CREDIT: AGU/JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH: PLANETS

WASHINGTON-- The stormy, centuries-old maelstrom of Jupiter's Great Red Spot was shaken but not destroyed by a series of anticyclones that crashed into it over the past few years.

The smaller storms cause chunks of red clouds to flake off, shrinking the larger storm in the process. But the new study found that these disruptions are "superficial." They are visible to us, but they are only skin deep on the Red Spot, not affecting its full depth.

The new study was published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, AGU's journal for research on the formation and evolution of the planets, moons and objects of our solar system and beyond.

"The intense vorticity of the [Great Red Spot], together with its larger size and depth compared to the interacting vortices, guarantees its long lifetime," said Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, a professor of applied physics at the Basque Country University in Bilbao, Spain, and lead author of the new paper. As the larger storm absorbs these smaller storms, it "gains energy at the expense of their rotation energy."

The Red Spot has been shrinking for at least the past 150 years, dropping from a length of about 40,000 kilometers (24,850 miles) in 1879 to about 15,000 kilometers (9,320 miles) today, and researchers still aren't sure about the causes of the decrease, or indeed how the spot was formed in the first place. The new findings show the small anticyclones may be helping to maintain the Great Red Spot.

Timothy Dowling, a professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Louisville who is a planetary atmospheric dynamics expert not involved in the new study, said that "it's an exciting time for the Red Spot."

Stormy collisions

Before 2019, the larger storm was only hit by a couple of anticyclones a year while more recently it was hit by as many as two dozen a year. "It's really getting buffeted. It was causing a lot of alarm," Dowling said.

Sánchez-Lavega and his colleagues were curious to see whether these relatively smaller storms had disturbed their big brother's spin.

The iconic feature of the gas giant sits near its equator, dwarfing earthly concepts of a big bad storm for at least 150 years since its first confirmed observation, though observations in 1665 may have been from the same storm. The Great Red Spot is about twice the diameter of Earth and blows at speeds of up to 540 kilometers (335 miles) per hour along its periphery.

"The [Great Red Spot] is the archetype among the vortices in planetary atmospheres," said Sánchez-Lavega, adding that the storm is one of his "favorite features in planetary atmospheres."

Cyclones like hurricanes or typhoons usually spin around a center with low atmospheric pressure, rotating counter-clockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern, whether on Jupiter or Earth. Anticyclones spin the opposite way as cyclones, around a center with high atmospheric pressure. The Great Red Spot is itself an anticyclone, though it is six to seven times as big as the smaller anticyclones that have been colliding with it. But even these smaller storms on Jupiter are about half the size of the Earth, and about 10 times the size of the largest terrestrial hurricanes.

Sánchez-Lavega and his colleagues looked at satellite images of the Great Red Spot for the past three years taken from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Juno spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter and other photos taken by a network of amateur astronomers with telescopes.

Devourer of storms

The team found the smaller anticyclones pass through the high-speed peripheral ring of the Great Red Spot before circling around the red oval. The smaller storms create some chaos in an already dynamic situation, temporarily changing the Red Spot's 90-day oscillation in longitude, and "tearing the red clouds from the main oval and forming streamers," Sánchez-Lavega said.

"This group has done an extremely careful, very thorough job," Dowling said, adding that the flaking of red material we see is akin to a crème brûlée effect, with a swirl apparent for a few kilometers on the surface that doesn't have much impact on the 200-kilometer (125-mile) depth of the Great Red Spot.

The researchers still don't know what has caused the Red Spot to shrink over the decades. But these anticyclones may be maintaining the giant storm for now.

"The ingestion of [anticyclones] is not necessarily destructive; it can increase the GRS rotation speed, and perhaps over a longer period, maintain it in a steady state," Sánchez-Lavega said.

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AGU (http://www.agu.org) supports 130,000 enthusiasts to experts worldwide in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, we advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

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Notes for Journalists

This research study will be free available for 30 days. Download a PDF copy of the paper here. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Paper title:

"Jupiter's Great Red Spot: strong interactions with incoming anticyclones in 2019"

Authors:

• Agustín Sánchez-Lavega, corresponding author, (Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU)
• Asier Anguiano-Arteaga (Universidad del Pais Vasco UPV/EHU)
• Peio Iñurrigarro (Universidad del Pais Vasco UPV/EHU)
• Enrique Garcia-Melendo (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC)
• Jon Legarreta (Universidad del País Vasco)
• Ricardo Hueso (UPV/EHU)
• Jose Francisco Sanz-Requena (Universidad Europea Miguel de Cervantes)
• Santiago Perez-Hoyos (Universidad del Pais Vasco UPV/EHU)
• Iñigo Mendikoa (Universidad del Pais Vasco UPV/EHU)
• Manel Soria (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC)
• Jose Rojas (Universidad del Pais Vasco UPV/EHU)
• Marc Andrés-Carcasona (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC)
• Arnau Prat-Gasull (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya UPC)
• Iñaki Ordoñez-Etxebarria (Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU)
• John Rogers (British Astronomical Association)
• Clyde Foster (Astronomical Society of Southern Africa)
• Shinji Mizumoto (Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers ALPO-Japan)
• Andy Casely (Independent scholar)
• Candice Hansen (Planetary Science Institute)
• Glenn Orton (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)
• Thomas Momary (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
• Gerald Eichstädt (Independent scholar)

 

The impact of childhood trauma on performance-enhancing substance use

New research shows that adverse childhood experiences are linked with performance-enhancing substance use in young adulthood

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

Research News

Toronto, ON -A new study published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse has found that adverse childhood experiences, such as physical and sexual abuse and neglect, predict greater performance-enhancing substance use in young adults.

Analyzing a sample of over 14,000 U.S. young adults from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, researchers found that adverse childhood experiences are strongly associated with both legal (e.g., creatine monohydrate) and illegal (e.g., anabolic-androgenic steroids) performance-enhancing substance use. This relationship was especially strong among individuals who experienced sexual abuse during childhood, where the likelihood of using anabolic-androgenic steroids increased nine times among men and six times among women.

"Performance-enhancing substance use is common among young adults, despite many adverse outcomes associated with their use, such as the development of eating disorders, muscle dysmorphia, and substance use disorders. To date, we've known relatively little about what may lead to the use of these substances," says lead author Kyle T. Ganson, PhD, MSW, assistant professor at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. "While it's been documented that adverse childhood experiences are associated with mental health conditions and other substance use behaviors, this study expands our knowledge by now including performance-enhancing substance use."

Over 25% of both men and women in the study reported physical abuse, while roughly 4% reported sexual abuse in childhood. Over 15% of men reported legal performance-enhancing substance use, while 3% reported anabolic-androgenic steroid use. Among both men and women in the study, experiencing all four of the adverse childhood experiences studied had the strongest effect on use of performance-enhancing substance use.

"Our results continue to confirm that experiencing a greater, cumulative number of adverse childhood experiences is strongly associated with poor outcomes. This was particularly true in our study, as both men and women who reported four adverse childhood experiences were significantly more likely to report performance-enhancing substance use," says Ganson.

Being the first known study to investigate such associations between adverse childhood experiences and performance-enhancing substance use, this article's conclusions add to the growing understanding of risk factors of performance-enhancing substance use, as well as add to the literature on the effects of childhood trauma.

"Experiencing childhood abuse may lead to a desire to develop a large, muscular body to protect against future interpersonal trauma, and young people commonly use performance-enhancing substances to build muscle.," says senior author Jason M. Nagata, MD, MSc, assistant professor at the University of California, San Francisco's Department of Pediatrics. "In addition to other adverse health outcomes, legal performance-enhancing substance use has been linked to anabolic steroid use, which can lead to irritability, aggression, poor mental health, heart disease, and liver damage."

This study provides further insight into the importance of monitoring for potential performance-enhancing substance use among patients with reported adverse childhood experiences, in addition to providing psychoeducation regarding the consequences associated with performance-enhancing substance use.

"Medical and mental health professionals should be aware of the common use of performance-enhancing substances, particularly among boys and men. Screening for performance-enhancing substance use and adverse childhood experiences should be a regular occurrence," says Ganson. "We also need to ensure that current public policy is informed by research to protect the health and well-being of adolescents and young adults from the adverse outcomes associated with adverse childhood experiences and the dangers of performance-enhancing substance use."

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MSU scientists one million 'hops' closer to ending a disease endemic in

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: BRUCELLA (YELLOW OVALS) CAN INFECT A COW THROUGH THE COW'S EYE AND TRAVEL FROM THERE TO THE LYMPH NODES, WHERE THEY REPLICATE. view more 

CREDIT: ARETHA FIEBIG

Many people have never heard of Brucellosis, but farmers and ranchers in the United States forced to cull animals that test positive for the disease and people infected by the animal-transmitted Brucella abortus (B. abortus) pathogen that suffer chronic, Malaria-type symptoms, certainly have.

Brucellosis is an agricultural and human health concern on a global scale. It was introduced over 100 years ago to Bison and elk in Yellowstone National Park by cattle and has been circulating among the wild herds ever since, leading to periodic outbreaks and reinfection. There is no vaccine for humans, and experimental studies of B. abortus in its natural animal hosts are technically difficult, extremely expensive and only a few facilities are capable of conducting these studies.

That did not stop Sean Crosson, MSU Rudolph Hugh Endowed Professor, and colleague Aretha Fiebig, research associate professor in Michigan State University's Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, from bringing sophisticated genomics tools from the lab to the field to gain new insight into how B. abortus infects cattle and help stop the spread of this deadly disease.

The results of their study were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"B. abortus primarily infects cattle, causing pregnant cows to abort the fetus, but the infection is typically studied in mouse models, which are not the true host of the bacterium," explained Crosson, who has been studying the bacteria for more than 14 years. "If you want to understand the infection biology underlying bovine disease, then it's helpful to study things in the natural host in a field context."

In the microbiological equivalent to tagging cattle, Crosson and Fiebig harnessed the hopping ability of specialized DNA called transposons to tag individual strains of B. abortus with unique barcodes. This gave them the ability to count how many B. abortus bacteria made it from the cow's eye, a common point of infection in the field, to the lymph nodes.

"As molecular biologists, we can harness hopping DNA by separating away the enzyme that allows it to continue moving," said Fiebig, who specializes in bacterial regulatory mechanisms. "We temporarily gave DNA the ability to hop into the B. abortus genome, but it didn't hop out again."

The scientists mixed millions of E. coli bacteria carrying transposons with millions of B. abortus in a broth containing amino acids and sugars, initiating mass tagging through a process called bacterial conjugation where transposons hop into and unite with the B. abortus genome. When the remaining E. coli cells were washed away, they were left with a vat of individually barcoded B. abortus strains.

"We were able to make a rich pool of about a million different barcoded strains," Fiebig said. "When we infected the cattle, we could track almost every single strain and ask, 'how many strains got lost, what strains had an advantage and was that advantage for a genetic reason or just chance?'"

Millions of bacteria went in, but surprisingly few came out. And while the genetic identity of strains that made it through was random, the number of strains that managed to infect individual lymph nodes was remarkably similar.

"We knew there was some restriction, or infection bottleneck, but we didn't understand the magnitude until this study," said Fiebig.

The unexpected results required nontraditional computational analysis, so Marianne Huebner, director of MSU's Center for Statistical Training and Consulting, provided expert guidance on the use of mathematical models to assess the population structures of the bacteria that survived the bottleneck.

Infecting a large animal host with a federally regulated pathogen also presented significant methodological challenges. The researchers relied on the highly skilled veterinarians and high-tech facilities at the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service's (USDA-ARS) National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa where the cows in the study were housed and treated.

The challenging field study paid off, providing critical insight into just how good the cow's mucosal barrier is at restricting B. abortus during infection.

"In the end, we gained a quantitative understanding of an infection bottleneck via a common route of bovine infection in the field," Crosson said. "This information is useful for scientists studying the epidemiology of Brucellosis in livestock and wildlife and can help us build better transmission models as we work to stop the spread of this disease."

The proof of principle paper also opened new doors to discovering specific B. abortus genes involved in the devastating disease.

"Going forward, we better understand how to use our library of barcoded mutants over longer timepoints in a pregnant host to find B. abortus genes that influence the most severe outcomes in cattle, including abortion," Crosson said. "This is a goal of the USDA-ARS as well, to know what genes in B. abortus are critical to infection in the bovine host."

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The researchers emphasized that MSU's College of Veterinary Medicine, the College of Natural Science and AgBioResearch in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources were instrumental in supporting the study.