Climate changed the size of our bodies and, to some extent, our brains

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

IMAGE: SKULLS: - LEFT: AMUD 1, NEANDERTHAL, 55.000 YEARS AGO, ~1750 CM³ - MIDDLE: CRO MAGNON, HOMO SAPIENS, 32.000 YEARS AGO, ~1570 CM³ - RIGHT: ATAPUERCA 5, MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE HOMO, 430.000 YEARS AGO,... view more 

CREDIT: MANUEL WILL

• The average body size of humans has fluctuated significantly over the last million years and is strongly linked to temperature.
• Colder, harsher climates drove the evolution of larger body sizes, while warmer climates led to smaller bodies.

  Brain size also changed dramatically but did not evolve in tandem with body size.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers, led by the Universities of Cambridge and Tübingen, has gathered measurements of body and brain size for over 300 fossils from the genus Homo found across the globe. By combining this data with a reconstruction of the world's regional climates over the last million years, they have pinpointed the specific climate experienced by each fossil when it was a living human.

The study reveals that the average body size of humans has fluctuated significantly over the last million years, with larger bodies evolving in colder regions. Larger size is thought to act as a buffer against colder temperatures: less heat is lost from a body when its mass is large relative to its surface area. The results are published today in the journal Nature Communications.

Our species, Homo sapiens, emerged around 300,000 years ago in Africa. The genus Homo has existed for much longer, and includes the Neanderthals and other extinct, related species such as Homo habilis and Homo erectus.

A defining trait of the evolution of our genus is a trend of increasing body and brain size; compared to earlier species such as Homo habilis, we are 50% heavier and our brains are three times larger. But the drivers behind such changes remain highly debated.

"Our study indicates that climate - particularly temperature - has been the main driver of changes in body size for the past million years," said Professor Andrea Manica, a researcher in the University of Cambridge's Department of Zoology who led the study.

He added: "We can see from people living today that those in warmer climates tend to be smaller, and those living in colder climates tend to be bigger. We now know that the same climatic influences have been at work for the last million years."

The researchers also looked at the effect of environmental factors on brain size in the genus Homo, but correlations were generally weak. Brain size tended to be larger when Homo was living in habitats with less vegetation, like open steppes and grasslands, but also in ecologically more stable areas. In combination with archaeological data, the results suggest that people living in these habitats hunted large animals as food - a complex task that might have driven the evolution of larger brains.

"We found that different factors determine brain size and body size - they're not under the same evolutionary pressures. The environment has a much greater influence on our body size than our brain size," said Dr Manuel Will at the University of Tubingen, Germany, first author of the study.

He added: "There is an indirect environmental influence on brain size in more stable and open areas: the amount of nutrients gained from the environment had to be sufficient to allow for the maintenance and growth of our large and particularly energy-demanding brains."

This research also suggests that non-environmental factors were more important for driving larger brains than climate, prime candidates being the added cognitive challenges of increasingly complex social lives, more diverse diets, and more sophisticated technology.

The researchers say there is good evidence that human body and brain size continue to evolve. The human physique is still adapting to different temperatures, with on average larger-bodied people living in colder climates today. Brain size in our species appears to have been shrinking since the beginning of the Holocene (around 11,650 years ago). The increasing dependence on technology, such as an outsourcing of complex tasks to computers, may cause brains to shrink even more over the next few thousand years.

"It's fun to speculate about what will happen to body and brain sizes in the future, but we should be careful not to extrapolate too much based on the last million years because so many factors can change," said Manica.

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EHR alerts go unread, do not lead to deprescribing of medicines linked to dementia

REGENSTRIEF INSTITUTE

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE VAST MAJORITY OF ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORD (EHR) ALERTS ATTEMPTING TO REDUCE THE PRESCRIBING OF HIGH-RISK MEDICATIONS LINKED TO DEMENTIA IN OLDER ADULTS WENT UNREAD IN A STUDY LED BY... view more 

CREDIT: REGENSTRIEF INSTITUTE

INDIANAPOLIS -- The vast majority of electronic health record (EHR) alerts attempting to reduce the prescribing of high-risk medications linked to dementia in older adults went unread in a study led by research scientists from Regenstrief Institute, Purdue University and Indiana University School of Medicine. The goal of the intervention was to facilitate the deprescribing of anticholinergics through both provider and patient-based alerts, however, engagement with the alerts was so low, the study team was unable to conclude if this approach could be an effective method.

Anticholinergics are drugs which affect the brain by blocking acetylcholine, a nervous system neurotransmitter that influences memory, alertness and planning skills. They are linked to dementia and prescribed for many conditions common in older adults including depression, urinary incontinence, irritable bowel syndrome and Parkinson's disease. These medications are used by approximately one in four older adults each year, and nearly half of older adults have used this type of medication at least once in a five-year period.

Many medical groups have come out in support of deprescribing anticholinergics, but it is challenging to execute in an already busy primary care environment.

"Deprescribing is very complex and rarely prioritized over common medical problems during visits with primary care providers," said study lead author Noll Campbell, PharmD, M.S., research scientist at the IU Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief and assistant professor of pharmacy at Purdue University College of Pharmacy. "In this study, we used principles of behavioral economics in the design of EHR nudges directed at both providers and patients to promote the deprescribing of high-risk anticholinergic medications. However, very few of the alerts were viewed by either recipient, so we are now evaluating how we can change or improve this approach."

In this study, an alert let the provider know that the patient had high-risk anticholinergic medications prescribed in the medical record and offered alternatives to those medications. Alerts also prompted staff to play a video providing education about the medicines and modeling a discussion that led to a change in prescription for patients who were prescribed one of the target medications.

The research team conducted the cluster randomized trial in Eskenazi Health clinics and compared the medication records to the previous year to see if there were any changes. They found there were no significant differences in deprescribing between the control group and the intervention group.

During the course of the study, 85 percent of alerts to providers and 95 percent of alerts to medical assistants went unread, so study authors cannot conclude that priming patients and providers for the discussion is not a feasible strategy, only that the methods used in this study were not successful in reaching the target recipients.

"One option going forward is to experiment with different design approaches in EMR-based nudges," said Dr. Campbell. "Alternatively, a shift towards human-based interventions that can manage the complexity of deprescribing activities may be more effective at deprescribing high-risk anticholinergic medications. While we pursue the goal of understanding clinical implications, we are also cognizant of the scalability of interventions if there is clinical benefit realized by reducing these high-risk medications."

Dr. Campbell and his colleagues at Regenstrief are currently conducting a clinical trial designed to determine if stopping anticholinergic medications results in sustained improvements in cognition. This trial involves clinical pharmacists working with physicians and patients to switch to safer medicines.

Another study at the IU Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief is testing an app called BrainSafe, which provides information on anticholinergics to patients with the goal of leading them to initiate a deprescribing conversation.

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"Multicomponent behavioral intervention to reduce exposure to anticholinergics in primary care older adults" is published in the June print issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. This study was supported by a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (P30HS24384).

In addition to Dr. Campbell, authors on the paper are Richard Holden, PhD of Regenstrief, the Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation, IU School of Medicine and the Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science; Qing Tang, M.S. of IU School of Medicine; Malaz Boustani, M.D., MPH of Regenstrief, the Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation, IU School of Medicine and the Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science; Evgenia Teal, M.A. of Regenstrief; Jennifer Hillstrom, B.S. of the Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation; Wanzhu Tu, PhD of Regenstrief Institute and IU School of Medicine; Daniel O. Clark, PhD of Regenstrief, the Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation and IU School of Medicine and Christopher M. Callahan, M.D. of Regenstrief, the Sandra Eskenazi Center for Brain Care Innovation and IU School of Medicine.

About Regenstrief Institute

Founded in 1969 in Indianapolis, the Regenstrief Institute is a local, national and global leader dedicated to a world where better information empowers people to end disease and realize true health. A key research partner to Indiana University, Regenstrief and its research scientists are responsible for a growing number of major healthcare innovations and studies. Examples range from the development of global health information technology standards that enable the use and interoperability of electronic health records to improving patient-physician communications, to creating models of care that inform practice and improve the lives of patients around the globe.

Sam Regenstrief, a nationally successful entrepreneur from Connersville, Indiana, founded the institute with the goal of making healthcare more efficient and accessible for everyone. His vision continues to guide the institute's research mission.

About Purdue University College of Pharmacy

The mission of the Purdue University College of Pharmacy is to advance scientific discovery and development, maximize global health outcomes through patient care and public service, and educate and train students to become leading pharmacists and scientists. The goal is to transform the practice and science of pharmacy to lead advances in human health.

About IU School of Medicine

IU School of Medicine is the largest medical school in the U.S. and is annually ranked among the top medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. The school offers high-quality medical education, access to leading medical research and rich campus life in nine Indiana cities, including rural and urban locations consistently recognized for livability.

About Noll Campbell, PharmD, M.S.

In addition to his role as a research scientist at Regenstrief Institute, Noll Campbell, PharmD, M.S., is an assistant professor of pharmacy practice at the Purdue University College of Pharmacy.

SCIENCE SEZ

Discrimination, stress linked to poorer heart health in transgender, gender diverse adults

American Heart Association Scientific Statement

AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION

Research News

DALLAS, July 8, 2021 -- The stress of experiencing discrimination in multiple ways, including transphobia, interpersonal discrimination, violence and public policies specifically targeting transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, is linked to higher rates of heart disease among the TGD population, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, published today in Circulation, the Association's flagship journal. A scientific statement is an expert analysis of current research and may inform future guidelines.

The statement, Assessing and Addressing Cardiovascular Health in People Who Are Transgender and Gender Diverse, examines existing research about TGD-specific cardiovascular health disparities, identifies research gaps and provides suggestions for systematically improving overall heart health and care of TGD people. The statement writing group suggests improving overall heart health within the TGD community will require a multi-pronged approach that includes health care professionals, educators, researchers and policymakers.

In terms of health, transgender, gender diverse and gender non-conforming people are considered "gender minorities." Expanding on the minority stress theory, statement writing group members documented how chronically high levels of stress faced by members of stigmatized, underrepresented populations associate with poor health outcomes and health disparities. They concluded that higher rates of cardiovascular prevalence and deaths among TGD people, while related to traditional cardiovascular risk factors, are also significantly driven by psychosocial stressors across the lifespan at multiple levels, including structural violence, discrimination, lack of affordable housing and access to health care.

"Heart health of transgender and gender diverse people is an important and understudied topic, and it's critical we highlight what we know and what we need to know about heart health among these populations," said Carl G. Streed, Jr., M.D., M.P.H., chair of the writing group for the statement, an assistant professor of internal medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and the research lead at the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Boston Medical Center. "Addressing these issues will require a focus on 'traditional' risk factors for heart attack and stroke, and a commitment to fight transphobia in order to decrease the additional stress experienced by this population."

This statement, specific to TGD persons, builds upon the Association's 2020 scientific statement, Assessing and Addressing Cardiovascular Health in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (or Questioning) Adults, which noted that more than half (56%) of LGBTQ adults and 70% of those who are transgender or gender non-conforming reported experiencing some form of discrimination from a health care professional.

The new statement notes a growing body of research indicates TGD populations may be at a significantly greater risk for cardiovascular disease compared to their cisgender peers. Transgender men are twice as likely to have a heart attack than cisgender men and four times as likely than cisgender women. TGD people are also more likely to experience blood clots when undergoing estrogen hormone therapy. The writing group points out more investigation is urgently needed to explain these disparities.

TGD populations also face unique psychological stressors, including gender non-affirmation (e.g., being called by the incorrect pronoun), discrimination, rejection or concealment of gender identity and violence based on gender identity. These factors contribute to higher overall levels of stress, which, in turn, negatively affect heart health. Additionally, TGD people who are also part of historically excluded racial or ethnic groups experience multiple layers of stress, such as lower income levels or limited access to health care. Research on how these complex and intertwined factors affect heart health within TGD populations is limited.

Most gender identification options in a clinical or research setting include only "male" and "female," so while population-based studies can help in understanding some cardiovascular health risk factors, data on TGD people is scarce. The statement suggests studies should standardize measures of gender identity and expression to collect larger samples of underrepresented groups among TGD populations.

Data collected through electronic health records (EHRs) does present an advancement in terms of data access, however, EHRs often lack the ability to capture sociocultural factors relevant to heart health among TGD persons. It's important to note that TGD individuals who do not regularly access health care services are less likely to be included in EHR data, and TGD people who are uncomfortable disclosing gender identity to health care professionals will be unlikely to be identified as TGD in EHR systems.

While the ability to document sexual orientation and gender identity has been required for electronic health records since 2018, additional steps are needed to ensure culturally responsive and supportive care. The statement details the critical need for researchers and clinicians to use gender-affirming pronouns and obtain an anatomy inventory where appropriate, noting that assumptions about a TGD person's identity or anatomy may negatively impact clinical decisions.

The writing group suggests increased training across health professions would enhance clinical practices and foster more compassionate care for TGD persons. While many institutions acknowledge the need for TGD educational content, efforts to include these topics into clinical curricula have not progressed. The statement suggests a collaborative effort with organizational-level mandates across governing bodies is needed to create a curriculum that encompasses gender affirming hormone therapy, surgical procedures, anatomy-based preventive health, social determinants of health and the proper assessment of sex and gender in health care settings.

While the statement emphasizes existing data is limited, it reviews research on disparities among TGD people as it relates to the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 to measure ideal heart health and how hormone therapy may affect heart health for TGD people. Current research on blood pressure, lipid profiles or blood sugar levels for TGD persons is too sparse and inconclusive, although the writing group does suggest several areas of Life's Simple 7 that are directly linked to heart attacks and strokes. The evaluation of existing research found:

TGD people are more likely (24%) to report tobacco use than the remainder of the U.S. population (18%).

Transgender men are less likely to exercise, especially in older age.

TGD persons undergoing gender-affirming hormone therapy are more physically active, which may be because they report being more satisfied with their bodies.

TGD youth report eating more fast food and using unsafe ways of trying to manage their weight (e.g., diet pills, fasting or laxative abuse).

TGD people report overall higher body mass index (BMI), yet they may experience additional stress about their weight since many surgeons have strict BMI cut-offs above which they will not perform gender-affirming surgeries.

"Discrimination also contributes to disparities in social determinants of health among TGD populations, and many TGD persons are at even greater risk of heart disease and stroke due to transphobia and experiences of discrimination based on gender non-conformity," said Lauren B. Beach, Ph.D., J.D., vice-chair of the statement writing group and research assistant professor in the department of medical social sciences at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "Systematic transphobic discrimination results in a higher burden of workplace discrimination, job loss and unemployment among TGD populations. Combined with experiences of discrimination in health care settings, lack of access to a stable income further limits health care access among TGD people. These structural factors combine to result simultaneously in higher levels of chronic stress and in lower levels of resources to prevent or manage a broad variety of health conditions including cardiovascular disease."

The writing group also cited studies showing that TGD persons experience disproportionate burdens of additional cardiovascular risk factors, including living with HIV, vascular dysfunction, trouble sleeping and alcohol abuse.

The writing group acknowledges limited data and encourages further research to understand the numerous and complex issues faced by TGD individuals and as a community. The statement emphasizes available information does illustrate that TGD people often experience challenges due to unique stressors, including internalizing gender identity, sexual victimization and concerns about hormone therapies and gender-affirming surgeries.

"Data specific to transgender and gender diverse persons lag behind what is needed to understand and improve individual and community heart health. The information available is rapidly improving, though," Streed said. "This statement summarizes the available evidence showing that addressing traditional cardiovascular risk factors and decreasing stigma-linked stress, together, would improve the heart health of TGD people. By focusing on the unique issues affecting the well-being of transgender and gender diverse persons, we have the potential to do better for everyone."

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This scientific statement was prepared by the volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association's Council on Peripheral Vascular Disease; the Council on Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology; the Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; the Council on Cardiovascular Radiology and Intervention, the Council on Hypertension; and the Stroke Council. The statement is endorsed by the American Academy of Physician Assistants. The American Medical Association affirms the educational benefit of this scientific statement.

Co-authors and members of the volunteer writing group are Billy A. Caceres, Ph.D., R.N., FAHA; Nadia L. Dowshen, M.D., M.S.H.P.; Kerrie L. Moreau, Ph.D.; Monica Mukherjee, M.D., M.P.H.; Tonia Poteat, Ph.D., P.A.-C., M.P.H.; Asa Radix, M.D. Ph.D., M.P.H.; Sari L. Reisner, Sc.D.; and Vineeta Singh, M.D., FAHA. Author disclosures are in the manuscript.

Additional Resources:

Multimedia is available on the right column of the release link: https://newsroom.heart.org/news/discrimination-stress-linked-to-poorer-heart-health-in-transgender-gender-diverse-adults?preview=129cf7aad1a1ed3c6844e742bbfbba87

The Association receives funding primarily from individuals. Foundations and corporations (including pharmaceutical, device manufacturers and other companies) also make donations and fund specific Association programs and events. The Association has strict policies to prevent these relationships from influencing the science content. Revenues from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, device manufacturers and health insurance providers and the Association's overall financial information are available here.

About the American Heart Association

The American Heart Association is a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives. We are dedicated to ensuring equitable health in all communities. Through collaboration with numerous organizations, and powered by millions of volunteers, we fund innovative research, advocate for the public's health and share lifesaving resources. The Dallas-based organization has been a leading source of health information for nearly a century. Connect with us on heart.org , Facebook , Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

 

Yoga helps reduce work-related stress

WILEY

Research News

 

Physical relaxation through yoga or other practices can help reduce work-related stress, according to an analysis of studies conducted in healthcare staff.

The analysis, which is published in the Journal of Occupational Health, included 15 randomized clinical trials with a total of 688 healthcare workers. The studies examined the effects of yoga, massage therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, and stretching on alleviating stress and improving physical and mental health.

Overall, the physical relaxation methods reduced measures of occupational stress compared with no intervention. More detailed analyses indicated that only yoga and massage therapy were more effective than no intervention, with yoga being the best method.

"Work-related stress has been linked with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and other serious causes of morbidity. Our results suggest that physical relaxation methods are helpful in reducing occupational stress," said lead author Michael Zhang, MD, of the Southern Nevada Health District. "Yoga is particularly effective and can be delivered virtually, making it convenient for employers to offer distance options to promote worker health."

 

How can counselors address social justice amid climate change?

WILEY

Research News

 

We're currently living in what many scientists are calling the Anthropocene, the period during which human activity has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment. An article published in the Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development discusses how counselors can promote environmental justice during this time.

The Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies."

The article accomplishes three goals:

• It builds awareness about climate change and the Anthropocene among counselors.
• It expands knowledge regarding how climate change may exacerbate issues of social inequality.
• And it demonstrates how counselors can address environmental justice issues affecting clients and their communities.

The article's author, Alexander J. Hilert, PhD, LPC, CCTP, of William & Mary, provides examples of how counselors can make a difference, noting that they can use their skills, such as group facilitation, to help educate communities on the climate crisis or to help environment activists process their grief to help prevent burnout. Also, counselor educators can help lead the way by focusing research on the implications of the climate crisis on marginalized communities.

"As counselors, it is our ethical duty to respond to issues of systemic injustice that affect the lives of our clients," said Hilert. "Using the framework of environmental justice, counselors can better understand the disproportionate impacts of climate change on communities experiencing marginalization and oppression, and how we can respond through advocacy and outreach."

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Improving transparency of integrated assessment models related to climate change

WILEY

Research News

Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) connect trends in future socio-economic and technological development with impacts on the environment, such as global climate change. Critics have taken issue with the transparency of IAM methods and assumptions as well as the transparency of assessments of IAMs by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.

An article published in WIREs Climate Change that's co-authored by officials at the IPCC documents various activities underway to enhance the transparency of IAMs and their assessments.

"The purpose of this paper is to document how both the IAM community and IPCC are working to enhance transparency and to suggest some criteria for judging the success of these efforts," the authors wrote. "Transparency does not in itself guarantee scientific closure, but it facilitates debate and provides a clearer evidence base for policymakers."

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Wage inequality negatively impacts customer satisfaction and does not improve long-term firm performance

News from the Journal of Marketing

AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION

Research News

 

Researchers from University of Mannheim published a new paper in the Journal of Marketing that examines the effect of wage inequality on customer satisfaction and firm performance.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "Wage Inequality: Its Impact on Customer Satisfaction and Firm Performance" and is authored by Boas Bamberger, Christian Homburg, and Dominik M. Wielgos.

Irrespective of wage cuts and employee layoffs, the wages of top managers rose to record levels during the pandemic and wage inequality continues to grow worldwide. However, according to a 2015 OECD report, "wage inequality is harmful to long-term economic growth and undermines societal cohesion." This situation raises the question: Do firms have an incentive to raise wage inequality?

This new study addresses this question by examining the impact of wage inequality on customer satisfaction and firm performance. The researchers surveyed more than 100 top sales and marketing managers in public firms selling to businesses in three countries. They analyzed the responses and company financial data to understand how wage inequality impacts customer satisfaction and firm performance.

Results show that unequal wages between top managers and employees can boost the short-term profitability of a firm. As Bamberger explains, "In the long run, however, this benefit fades. What persists is that wage inequality motivates employees to opportunistically exploit customers and weakens a firm's customer-oriented culture, thereby harming customer satisfaction.

How does this happen? Suppose a firm has high wage inequality. Thus, the ultimate prize in a tournament setting, to gradually rise to top management, is a strong incentive for employees at all levels. But in the process, they may engage in opportunistic behaviors and also collaborate less with coworkers.

For example, to enhance her chances for promotion, an employee might show more effort by interacting with customers more frequently to better understand and fulfill their needs to boost sales. By contrast, she could also distort facts about products to close deals more quickly.

Non-customer-facing employees could also be affected. Take, for instance, an R&D employee. He could interact with customers more often to learn and adapt innovations to their needs to increase sales. Conversely, he could also design products to fail to force customers to buy a product over and over again.

"Through customer-directed effort or opportunism, employees may improve their chances of getting promoted to the next higher level. Our results show that wage inequality does raise customer-directed effort and opportunism," says Homburg.

At the same time, wage inequality might also weaken collaboration among coworkers. An employee who worries about advancing to the next higher level is less concerned about their coworkers. But less collaboration impairs the flows of information and knowledge about customers throughout the firm. This, in turn, can lead to worse coordination between departments. Ultimately, the firm becomes less responsive to the changing needs of customers. Thus, wage inequality weakens the customer-oriented culture of a firm.

The adverse impact wage inequality has on opportunism and customer-oriented culture extends to customer satisfaction and reduces the short-term profitability of a firm. At the same time, wage inequality also raises a firm's short-run profits through a direct path. Despite the harm through the customer path, the total impact of wage inequality on short-term profitability is slightly positive.

This slightly positive effect on short-term profitability holds in a different sample with more than 500 observations of U.S. firms selling to consumers. Wielgos explains that "When we analyzed how wage inequality plays out in the long run, the situation reverses. The harm that wage inequality causes to customer satisfaction leads to long-term performance decline. In sum, a firm sees no profitability lift from wage inequality in the long run."

Do firms have an incentive to raise wage inequality? In terms of bottom-line impact, the answer is: "Yes" in the short run and "No" in the long run. However, when looking at the customer impact, the answer is "No" because of the negative impact of wage inequality on customer satisfaction, which weakens firm profits.

What can managers learn? If the goal is short-term profitability, go with higher wage inequality, but keep an eye on customer satisfaction. If managers are interested in the long-term success of the firm, consider reducing wage inequality to help employees orient toward customers.

What can shareholders learn? Suppose that you care about the long-term profitability of your investment. In that case, make sure to reward top managers for achieving sustainable profitability and good customer relationships.

What can policymakers learn? Wage inequality is not in a firm's long-term interest. This argument can help to create a consensus with managers to restrain wage inequality. However, short-term-oriented managers might care little about the damage wage inequality does to society. It thus might be necessary to disincentivize them from raising wage inequality.

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Full article and author contact information available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/00222429211026655

Researchers detail the most ancient bat fossil ever discovered in Asia

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

Research News

 

IMAGE: RESEARCHERS BAGGING UP SEDIMENT FOR SCREENWASHING AT THE JUNGGAR BASIN FIELD SITE. view more 

CREDIT: MATTHEW JONES

LAWRENCE -- A new paper appearing in Biology Letters describes the oldest-known fragmentary bat fossils from Asia, pushing back the evolutionary record for bats on that continent to the dawn of the Eocene and boosting the possibility that the bat family's "mysterious" origins someday might be traced to Asia.

A team based at the University of Kansas and China performed the fieldwork in the Junggar Basin -- a very remote sedimentary basin in northwest China -- to discover two fossil teeth belonging to two separate specimens of the bat, dubbed Altaynycteris aurora.

The new fossil specimens help scientists better understand bat evolution and geographic distribution and better grasp how mammals developed in general.

"Bats show up in the fossil record out of the blue about 55-ish million years ago -- and they're already scattered on different parts of the globe," said lead author Matthew Jones, a doctoral student at the KU Biodiversity Institute and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. "Before this, the earliest bats are known from a couple of places in Europe -- Portugal and southern France -- and Australia. So, when they show up early in the fossil record as these fragmentary fossils they're already effectively worldwide. By the time we get their earliest known full skeletons, they look modern -- they can fly, and most of them are able to echolocate. But we don't really know anything about this transitional period from non-bats to bats. We don't even really know what their closest living relatives are among mammals. It's a really big evolutionary mystery where bats came from and how they evolved and became so specialized."

Jones' co-authors were K. Christopher Beard, senior curator at the KU Biodiversity Institute and Foundation Distinguished Professor of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at KU; and Qiang Li and Xijun Ni of the Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The ancient bat teeth were discovered through painstaking fieldwork in the Junggar Basin, where the KU researchers worked at an isolated field site established by their Chinese colleagues, one of two sites in the region the team hope will continue yielding interesting fossils.

"This was concerted effort over a long period of time by our Chinese colleagues," Jones said.

"They suspected that there were fossiliferous deposits from the Paleocene and Eocene, and they spent several years going out there, identifying where to find fossils. Chris was a part of several seasons of fieldwork there. I was a part of one season of fieldwork there. What we did was collect a bunch of sediment to screen wash, which is sort of like panning for gold. You pour a bunch of sediment into a sievelike apparatus and let all the dirt and everything fall out, and you're only left with particles of a certain size, but also fossils."

Beard said the fieldwork was an outgrowth of long-standing relationships between the KU team and its Chinese counterparts.

"We've been fortunate enough to be able to host our Chinese colleagues here in Lawrence for extended research visits, and they've more than reciprocated by hosting us for research and fieldwork in China. This work in the Junggar Basin is really trailblazing work because the fossil record in this part of China is only just barely beginning to emerge, and this area is very removed and isolated. It's just a giant empty place. There are some camels, some snakes and lizards, but you don't see many people there. That remoteness makes the logistics to do fieldwork there quite difficult and expensive because you've got to bring in all your food and water from far outside -- all of that hindered research in this area previously."

Following the challenging fieldwork, the residue left behind from the screen washing at the site was sorted at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing.

"In 2017, after we got back from the field, Xijun said. 'Hey, one of the technicians picking through this sediment thinks they found a bat,'" Jones said. "Knowing I was interested in bats, they showed it to me. The next year, the other tooth was found -- so there's two teeth."

Through meticulous morphological analysis of the teeth, along with biostratigraphy -- or analyzing the position of layers of fossil remains in the deposits -- the authors were able to date the specimens to the advent of the Eocene, the earliest period when bat fossils have been found anywhere on Earth. Indeed, the presence of these ancient bat fossils in Asia bolsters a theory that bats could have emerged from there in the first place, then distributed themselves worldwide when they later developed flight.

More fieldwork in the area is ongoing, and Jones and Beard said they were hopeful to find even older specimens, perhaps even dating to the Paleocene, the epoch before the Eocene, when researchers believe bats probably originated. Yet the particulars of Altaynycteris aurora remain hazy -- for instance, it's impossible to say from teeth fragments if the animal could fly or echolocate.

"These teeth look intermediate, in between what we would expect a bat ancestor to look like -- and in fact, what a lot of early Cenozoic insectivorous mammals to do look like -- and what true bat looks like," Jones said. "So, they have some features that are characteristic of bats that we can point to and say, 'These are bats.' But then they have some features that we can call for simplicity's sake 'primitive.'"

The researchers said the new fossils help fill in a gap to understanding the evolution of bats, which remains a puzzle to experts -- and could teach us more about mammals in general.

"I can think of two mammal groups that are alive today that are really weird," Beard said. "One of them is bats, because they fly -- and that's just ridiculous. The other one is whales, because they're completely adapted to life in the ocean, they can swim, obviously, and they do a little bit of sonar echolocation themselves. We know a lot about transitional fossils for whales. There are fossils from places like Pakistan that were quadrupedal mammals that looked vaguely doglike. We have a whole sequence of fossils linking these things that were clearly terrestrial animals walking around on land, through almost every kind of transitional phase you can imagine, to a modern whale. This isn't true for bats. For bats, literally you've got a normal mammal and then you've got bats -- and anytime you've got a fossil record that's a giant vacuum, we need work that can fill partly that. This paper is at least a step along that path."

CAPTION

Upper molar of Altaynycteris aurora.

CREDIT

Li Qiang

Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port fire: A timeline of explosions in the UAE

Fire crews battled an inferno on a ship anchored at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port in the early hours Thursday after an explosion onboard the container vessel that had flammable materials. (Photo credit: Twitter)

Jennifer Bell, Al Arabiya English
Published: 08 July ,2021: 

Fire crews battled an inferno on a ship anchored at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port in the early hours Thursday after an explosion onboard the container vessel that had flammable materials, marking one of the biggest explosions reported in the United Arab Emirates in years.

A Dubai Government official told Al Arabiya that the fire – which happened just before midnight on Wednesday - was due to a natural accident and the blaze was brought under control hours later, with all crew members safely evacuated.

The explosion is one of several blasts that have been reported in the Gulf country in recent years.



Here are some of the biggest incidents:

September 2020: Three people died, and several others were injured after a gas explosion in an Abu Dhabi building. An incorrectly installed gas canister blew up on Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Street – also known as Airport Road – in a blast which destroyed a KFC, a neighboring Hardee’s and other shops nearby.

July 2020: Two restaurants in Al Qusais, in Dubai, after a powerful blast caused by a gas explosion.

June 2016: One person was injured in a Dubai restaurant explosion when a gas pipeline burst at an eatery in Karama.

March 2016: Fifteen people were injured after a suspected gas explosion ripped through a building in Abu Dhabi’s Al Khalidiya neighborhood, which left buildings and ten vehicles damaged.

October 2015: In another restaurant explosion, a Turkish eatery in Dubai - the Bosphorus Restaurant in Umm Suqeim - was destroyed after a suspected gas leak caused a massive explosion. No injuries were reported.

July 2015: An Emirati family escaped unharmed after a house in Fujairah caught fire following a gas cylinder explosion.

November 2014: Two men were injured in an explosion at a restaurant on Red Island in Ras Al Khaimah. Investigations revealed that the blast took place because of a leak in an LPG cylinder at the eatery.

June 2014: A Pakistani worker was killed and other one sustained severe injuries after a gas cylinder exploded inside their room in a labor accommodation in Al Sajjah area in Sharjah.

June 2014: Two Pakistanis received serious burn injuries in a gas explosion at a jewelry shop in Al Maraijah area in Sharjah. A third man received minor injuries.

October 2013: Nine people were injured as result of an explosion which occurred in a laundry shop in the Raffa area in Dubai.

May 2012: A fire broke out in an apartment in the Swan area of Ajman on Sunday night after a gas cylinder exploded. The residents were abroad.

March 2008: A massive explosion at an illegal fireworks warehouse in the Al Quoz industrial area of Dubai sparked a huge fire, with black smoke stretching for miles across the city. The explosion left two people dead and led to the evacuation of nearby schools. At the time General Saif Al Shafar, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior at the time, described the incident as the biggest fire in the UAE’s history.


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Fire at Dubai port natural accident from container with flammable materials: Govt

WATCH: Major fire erupts in Dubai residential tower

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK
The dark, dangerous side of Dutch tolerance


The attempted murder of the crime reporter Peter R. de Vries is the latest sign of the growing reach of drug gangs.

Bystanders laying flowers and candles in support of journalist Peter R. de Vries in Amsterdam | Koen Van Weel/ANP/AFP via Getty Images

BY BEN COATES

POLITICO EU
July 7, 2021 


GOUDA, Netherlands — For a journalist to be gunned down in any city would be a shocking event. But in Amsterdam, famed as the most liberal city in the world, it feels like an earthquake.

Since Tuesday evening, when the famous crime reporter Peter R. de Vries was shot in the head in a busy street, Dutch media and politicians have talked of little else. This is, after all, a country where crime rates are low, prisons are being closed because there are not enough prisoners to fill them and the prime minister usually has no bodyguards and cycles around on his own. Things like this aren’t supposed to happen here.


In some ways, though, the shooting feels grimly inevitable. The Netherlands is rightly famous for its habits of tolerance and compromise — but recently there’s been growing bitterness in the public sphere, including an increasing number of threats and assaults against journalists and media outlets.

Last year, the state broadcaster NOS announced it was removing its logo from its roaming broadcast vans because “almost daily, journalists and technicians on the road to report are confronted with verbal abuse, garbage is thrown, vans are blocked [and] people bang on their sides or urinate on them.”

“It has all changed so quickly in a short time,” the NOS chief news editor said.

As in some other countries, it’s also become routine for leading politicians to denounce the press on a regular basis. Last month, for instance, the far-right politician and rabble-rouser Geert Wilders tweeted that “Journalists are — with exceptions — just scum of the ledge,” to which his fellow parliamentarian Thierry Baudet promptly agreed: “It is so.”

There’s clearly a huge difference between scorning journalists like this and shooting them, and many of those who usually enjoy taunting the press have been quick to condemn this week’s attack. But it’s also clear that the Dutch media climate is increasingly fraught: According to one government minister, reported threats and acts of aggression against journalists roughly trebled between 2019 and 2020 alone.

A couple of years ago, someone even fired an anti-tank rocket at the Amsterdam headquarters of a crime magazine. Against that backdrop, incidents like this week’s shooting feel less surprising than they should.


At the time of writing, De Vries is fighting for his life and police have arrested several suspects, but much else about the case remains unclear. However, it’s widely assumed that De Vries was attacked not simply for being a journalist, but because of his role as a confidant of a key witness in a major drug gang trial — one of a series of high-profile incidents which have exposed some other dark elements of Dutch society.

The Netherlands has been known for its unusually tolerant approach to drugs for years. Under a policy known as gedoogbeleid, marijuana is technically illegal here, but its sale and consumption are widely tolerated by authorities, including in the famous Amsterdam “coffee shops” where people consume a lot more than just coffee.

For a long time, the “ban it but tolerate it” policy seemed like a masterful bit of Dutch difference-splitting: The police were free to focus on more serious problems, and there was little evidence marijuana use harmed wider society.

The stereotypical coffee shop in Amsterdam or elsewhere looked less like a seedy drug den and more like a friendly neighborhood establishment, run by a cheerfully rumpled proprietor who’d been sitting there for decades.

In recent years, however, the Dutch drug trade has been transformed. The oddities of the gedoogbeleid mean that while soft drug use is tolerated, supplying larger quantities remains illegal. This means that the main source of large quantities of marijuana is, by definition, criminal organizations.

As demand for drugs in Amsterdam has soared due to tourism, many of the rumpled old coffee shop owners have been forced out, and professional criminal gangs have moved in, running supply networks that are headed by rich foreign masterminds and stretch across Europe.

Trade in cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs has boomed, and there have been widespread reports of new shops and bars being opened purely to launder drug money, as part of what the Telegraaf newspaper called “a golden age for the Amsterdam drug criminals.”

In 2019, a report commissioned by Amsterdam authorities warned that the city had “given free rein … to a motley crew of drugs criminals, a ring of hustlers and parasites, middle-men and extortionists, of dubious notaries and real estate agents.”

“We definitely have the characteristics of a narco-state,” the chairman of a Dutch police union told the BBC.

Faced with such challenges, the authorities in Amsterdam and elsewhere have made repeated efforts to clamp down, including trying to restrict the sale of marijuana to foreign tourists. The government itself has even tried to muscle in on the drug trade, licensing a few legal marijuana growers to keep the coffee shops supplied.

However, while some dodgy shops have closed, its effect on the bigger problems seems limited, and there have been violent gangland turf wars. In 2018, Amsterdam’s police chief Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg gave a sensational television interview in which he complained it was almost impossible to tackle minor crimes because his force was “dealing with assassinations for 60 to 70 percent [of the time], and for the rest, mainly with radicalization and terrorism investigations.”

That may have been an exaggeration, but a visitor arriving in the Netherlands bearing cheerful clichés about laid-back liberals and endless cycle paths might still be shocked to open a newspaper, only to read how often hand grenades are left lying in doorways as threats from one gang to another. According to RTL news, in one four-month spell in 2019 alone, there were 23 incidents involving hand grenades being left at homes or workplaces, many of them in Amsterdam.

In some circles, there’s a tendency to dismiss such incidents as just “criminals hurting criminals” — and to assume that organized crime is nothing for law-abiding people to worry about. But that odd cordon sanitaire has also begun to fray lately, and violent gang disputes have spilled over to affect reporters and the public too.

In 2016, the crime blogger Martin Kok was shot dead after reporting on several controversial cases. Three years later, Derk Wiersum, a 44-year-old father of two, working as a lawyer in the same drug trial which Peter de Vries was involved in, was shot dead in front of his wife in a suburban Amsterdam street. Two months after that, another lawyer narrowly survived a shooting while walking his dog near the German border. And now De Vries himself, a Dutch celebrity known for his work exposing drug dealers, kidnappers and others, has been attacked in broad daylight.

Individually, these events would be shocking enough, but together they feel like something worse: a fresh confirmation that there are real threats to the freedoms we Dutch hold dear. On Wednesday, King Willem-Alexander denounced the latest shooting as an assault on a cornerstone of the rechtsstaat — using a hard-to-translate Dutch phrase referring to the constellation of institutions and individuals that underpin the rule of law.

It’s important to emphasize that, overall, the Netherlands remains a remarkably successful and peaceful society. Around where I live, to the south of Amsterdam, you’re still more likely to run into a dairy farmer wearing clogs than a vicious drug lord.

But it’s also clear that although Dutch tolerance brings many delights, it also has a seamy side. Underneath the country’s pretty façade there’s a dark undercurrent, which may be getting stronger.

Ben Coates is the author of the books “Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2015) and “The Rhine: Following Europe’s Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2018).