SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT

Danish student solves how the Universe is reflected near black holes

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

Research News

IMAGE: A DISK OF GLOWING GAS SWIRLS INTO THE BLACK HOLE "GARGANTUA " FROM THE MOVIE INTERSTELLAR. BECAUSE SPACE CURVES AROUND THE BLACK HOLE, IT IS POSSIBLE TO LOOK ROUND ITS FAR... view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: INTERSTELLAR.WIKI/CC BY-NC LICENSE.

In the vicinity of black holes, space is so warped that even light rays may curve around them several times. This phenomenon may enable us to see multiple versions of the same thing. While this has been known for decades, only now do we have an exact, mathematical expression, thanks to Albert Sneppen, student at the Niels Bohr Institute. The result, which even is more useful in realistic black holes, has just been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

You have probably heard of black holes -- the marvelous lumps of gravity from which not even light can escape. You may also have heard that space itself and even time behave oddly near black holes; space is warped.

In the vicinity of a black hole, space curves so much that light rays are deflected, and very nearby light can be deflected so much that it travels several times around the black hole. Hence, when we observe a distant background galaxy (or some other celestial body), we may be lucky to see the same image of the galaxy multiple times, albeit more and more distorted.

Galaxies in multiple versions

The mechanism is shown on the figure below: A distant galaxy shines in all directions -- some of its light comes close to the black hole and is lightly deflected; some light comes even closer and circumvolves the hole a single time before escaping down to us, and so on. Looking near the black hole, we see more and more versions of the same galaxy, the closer to the edge of the hole we are looking.

How much closer to the black hole do you have to look from one image to see the next image? The result has been known for over 40 years, and is some 500 times (for the math aficionados, it is more accurately the "exponential function of two pi", written e2π).

Calculating this is so complicated that, until recently, we had not yet developed a mathematical and physical intuition as to why it happens to be this exact factor. But using some clever, mathematical tricks, master's student Albert Sneppen from the Cosmic Dawn Center -- a basic research center under both the Niels Bohr Institute and DTU Space -- has now succeeded in proving why.

"There is something fantastically beautiful in now understanding why the images repeat themselves in such an elegant way. On top of that, it provides new opportunities to test our understanding of gravity and black holes," Albert Sneppen clarifies.

Proving something mathematically is not only satisfying in itself; indeed, it brings us closer to an understanding of this marvelous phenomenon. The factor "500" follows directly from how black holes and gravity work, so the repetitions of the images now become a way to examine and test gravity.

CAPTION

Light from the background galaxy circles a black hole an increasing number of times, the closer it passes the hole, and we therefore see the same galaxy in several directions

CREDIT

credit: Peter Laursen.

Spinning black holes

As a completely new feature, Sneppen's method can also be generalized to apply not only to "trivial" black holes, but also to black holes that rotate. Which, in fact, they all do.

"It turns out that when the it rotates really fast, you no longer have to get closer to the black hole by a factor 500, but significantly less. In fact, each image is now only 50, or 5, or even down to just 2 times closer to the edge of the black hole", explains Albert Sneppen.

Having to look 500 times closer to the black hole for each new image, means that the images are quickly "squeezed" into one annular image, as seen in the figure on the right. In practice, the many images will be difficult to observe. But when black holes rotate, there is more room for the "extra" images, so we can hope to confirm the theory observationally in a not-too-distant future. In this way, we can learn about not just black holes, but also the galaxies behind them:

The travel time of the light increases, the more times it has to go around the black hole, so the images become increasingly "delayed". If, for example, a star explodes as a supernova in a background galaxy, one would be able to see this explosion again and again.

CAPTION

The situation seen "face-on", i.e. how we would actually observe it from Earth. The extra images of the galaxy become increasingly squeezed and distorted, the closer we look at the black hole.

CREDIT

credit: Peter Laursen.

 

Rise in Southeast Asia forest clearance increasing greenhouse gases

UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS

Research News

IMAGE: FORESTS CLEARED FOR AGRICULTURE ON VIETNAM MOUNTAINS view more 

CREDIT: DOMINICK SPRACKLEN

Forest clearance in Southeast Asia is accelerating, leading to unprecedented increases in carbon emissions, according to new research.

The findings, revealed by a research team including University of Leeds academics, show that forests are being cut down at increasingly higher altitudes and on steeper slopes in order to make way for agricultural intensification.

As a result, more than 400 million metric tons of carbon are released into the atmosphere every year as forests are cleared in the region, with that emissions figure increasing in recent years.

The study, "Upward expansion and acceleration of forest clearance in the mountains of Southeast Asia", is published in Nature Sustainability.

Co-author Professor Dominick Spracklen, of Leeds' School of Earth and Environment, said: "Most lowland tropical forests in Southeast Asia have already been cleared for agriculture.

"In the past, mountain forests were often spared from clearance because steep slopes and high elevations made deforestation more difficult.

"Our work shows that deforestation has now moved into these mountain regions and has accelerated rapidly in the past 10 years.

"These mountain forests are amazingly rich in biodiversity and are crucial stores of carbon, so it is worrying to see that the frontier of deforestation is now moving upwards into the mountains of Southeast Asia.

"Loss of these forests will be a devasting blow for nature and will further accelerate climate change."

Southeast Asia contains about half of all tropical mountain forests, which are rich in biodiversity and contain a large amount of the planet's carbon.

The authors found that forest clearance in Southeast Asia's mountains has accelerated during the 21st century, accounting for a third of total forest loss in the region. New plantations primarily drove deforestation at high elevations.

Analysing high-resolution satellite data, the researchers found that average annual forest loss in the region was 3.22?million hectares per year during 2001-2019, with 31% occurring on mountains.

Over the last decade the average altitude of forest loss increased by 150 m and advanced onto steeper slopes that have high forest carbon density relative to the lowlands.

These shifts led to unprecedented annual forest carbon loss of 424?million metric tons of carbon?per year, but at an accelerating rate in recent years.

Co-author Professor Joseph Holden, from Leeds' School of Geography, said: "Forested mountains are critical zones for biodiversity, future climate resilience, water supplies and carbon storage.

"The loss of forests at higher elevations in mountain regions of southeast Asia over the last 20 years is therefore of major concern, particularly given that these regions are also concentrated zones of sensitive species and where carbon stocks are high.

"This research shows the value of high resolution satellite data for detecting change, and also highlights that the international community needs to continue to work hard to support forest conservation and carbon management."

The research was led by Associate Professor Zhenzhong Zeng at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) in Shenzhen, China.

Combining forest loss data with a forest biomass carbon map, they discovered that carbon loss resulting from forest clearance was mainly in the lowlands in the 2000s, for example in Indonesia.

In the 2010s, however, lowland forest carbon loss decreased while mountain forest carbon loss in regions like Myanmar and Laos increased significantly.

CAPTION

Forests cleared for agriculture on Vietnam mountain

CREDIT

Dominick Spracklen

Further information

The project was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the start-up fund provided by SUSTech.

Paper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-021-00738-y

For further details, contact Ian Rosser in the University of Leeds press office i.rosser@leeds.ac.uk.

Sussex mathematicians develop ground-breaking modelling toolkit to predict local COVID-19 impact

UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

Research News

IMAGE: OUTPUT OF THE COMPARTMENTAL MODEL AND COMPARISON WITH DATA. THE SOLID LINE REPRESENTS THE OUTPUT OF THE MODEL WITH THE PARAMETERS INFERRED FROM THE DATA. THE SHADED REGION DEPICTS THE... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX

A Sussex team - including university mathematicians - have created a new modelling toolkit which predicts the impact of COVID-19 at a local level with unprecedented accuracy. The details are published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, and are available for other local authorities to use online, just as the UK looks as though it may head into another wave of infections.

The study used the local Sussex hospital and healthcare daily COVID-19 situation reports, including admissions, discharges, bed occupancy and deaths.

Through the pandemic, the newly-published modelling has been used by local NHS and public health services to predict infection levels so that public services can plan when and how to allocate health resources - and it has been conclusively shown to be accurate. The team are now making their modelling available to other local authorities to use via the Halogen toolkit.

Anotida Madzvamuse, professor of mathematical and computational biology within the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of Sussex, who led of the study, said:

"We undertook this study as a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our objective was to provide support and enhance the capability of local NHS and Public Health teams to accurately predict and forecast the impact of local outbreaks to guide healthcare demand and capacity, policy making, and public health decisions."

"Working with outstanding mathematicians, Dr James Van Yperen and Dr Eduard Campillo-Funollet, we formulated an epidemiological model and inferred model parameters by fitting the model to local datasets to allow for short, and medium-term predictions and forecasts of the impact of COVID-19 outbreaks.

"I'm really pleased that our modelling has been of such value to local health services and people. The modelling approach can be used by local authorities to predict the dynamics of other conditions such as winter flu and mental health problems."

Professor Anjum Memon, Chair in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine at BSMS and co-author of the study, said:

"The world is in the cusp of experiencing local and regional hotspots and spikes of COVID-19 infections. Our epidemiological model, which is based on local data, can be used by all local authorities in the UK and other countries to inform healthcare demand and capacity, emergency planning and response to the supply of medications and oxygen, formulation, tightening or lifting of legal restrictions and implementation of preventive measures."

"The model will also serve as an excellent tool to monitor the situation after the legal COVID-19 restrictions are lifted in England on 19 July, and during winter months with competing respiratory infections."

Kate Gilchrist, Head of Public Health Intelligence at Brighton & Hove City Council and co-author of the study, said:

"This unique piece of work demonstrated that by using local datasets, model predictions and forecasting allowed us to plan adequately the healthcare demand and capacity, as well as policy-making and public health decisions to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the local population. Understanding how future COVID-19 spikes and waves could possibly affect the local populations empowers us to ensure that contingency measures are in place and the timely commissioning and organisation of services."

Dr Sue Baxter, Director of Innovations and Business Partnerships at the University of Sussex, said:

"The University is delighted that this innovative modelling approach and philosophy has been translated from the mathematical drawing board into a web-based tool-kit called Halogen, which can be used by NHS hospitals, local authorities and public health departments locally and across the UK to help save lives and improve capability for hard pressed public health workers. The successful commercialisation of this kind of innovation illustrates just one of the transformational impacts that the Higher Education Innovation Fund can make when applied in a targeted way."

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The study is published in the International Journal of Epidemiology. It was supported by the Higher Education Innovation Fund (University of Sussex); Global Challenges Research Fund (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council); UK-Africa Postgraduate Advanced Study Institute in Mathematical Sciences; Wellcome Trust; Health Foundation; the NIHR; and Dr Perry James (Jim) Browne Research Centre on Mathematics and its Applications (University of Sussex).

 

Improving transitional care improves outcomes important to patients in the 'real world'

Special PCORI supplement to Medical Care reports on 'Future Directions in Transitional Care Research'

WOLTERS KLUWER HEALTH

Research News

 

IMAGE: A REVIEW OF NINE OF THE TRANSITIONAL CARE STUDIES FUNDED BY THE PATIENT-CENTERED OUTCOMES RESEARCH INSTITUTE (PCORI). view more 

CREDIT: GESELL ET AL. (2021), MEDICAL CARE, DOI: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001591

July 12, 2021 - Transitions between healthcare sites - such as from the hospital to home or to a skilled nursing facility - carry known risks to patient safety. Many programs have attempted to improve continuity of care during transitions, but it remains difficult to establish and compare the benefits of these complex interventions. An update on patient-centered approaches to transitional care research and implementation is presented in a supplement to the August issue of Medical Care, sponsored by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). Medical Care is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

Titled Future Directions in Transitional Care Research, the special issue "focus[es] on opportunities and challenges involved in conducting patient-centered clinical comparative effectiveness research in transitional care," according to an introductory editorial by Carly Parry, PhD, MSW, of PCORI and co-authors. The supplement papers present an overview and update on early findings from PCORI's transitional care research portfolio.

Update on research 'toward a more holistic understanding of transitional care'

Recognizing the high risks and increased costs associated with care transitions has led to new research on interventions to enhance communication and continuity of care. However, new evidence has not always translated into meaningful improvement in the outcomes most important to patients. For this reason, in addition to important outcomes like hospital readmission rates, PCORI has supported research on patient-centered outcomes such as quality of life, caregiver burden, and healthcare decision-making.

A particular challenge is comparing results between studies, or identifying the most important aspects of these multi-component interventions. Providing evidence about the comparative effectiveness of interventions to improve decision making is a key goal of PCORI's investment in transitional care. The supplement presents findings from 11 of the 30 PCORI-funded transitional care studies, representing a wide range of health conditions, healthcare settings, patient characteristics, and patient outcomes.

A paper by Sabina B. Gesell, PhD, of Wake Forest School of Medicine and colleagues highlights the findings and implications of the PCORI transitional care portfolio so far. In discussions with researchers from nine studies, the authors identify three key themes:

• Delineating the function versus form of transitional care interventions. While "function" refers to the core purposes of the intervention, "form" refers to the strategies and activities needed to carry out its function. It is critical to distinguish functions from forms. A pragmatic approach would allow for "flexible options for delivery while maintaining appropriate fidelity to the intervention."
• Evaluating the process supporting implementation and the impact of interventions. Understanding the processes involved in program adaptations - planned and unplanned - is essential to assessing their actual effects, intended or unintended.
• Engaging stakeholders in the design and delivery of interventions. A key aspect of the PCORI approach is engaging stakeholders - including patients, healthcare providers, and advocacy groups or policymakers - in the design and delivery of interventions. Partnering with stakeholders is critical for ensuring that appropriate interventions are designed and successfully disseminated, especially interventions that involve system change. Stakeholders can also play a key role in disseminating the research findings to broader audiences.

The introduction includes an overview of PCORI's Transitional Care Evidence to Action Network: a learning community designed to promote collaboration among researchers and stakeholders, and thus to enhance the collective impact of the new research PCORI has funded on patient-centered transitional care interventions.

"The papers in this Special Issue articulate challenges and lessons learned, and identify new directions for measurement, patient and stakeholder engagement, implementation, and methodological approaches that reflect the complexity of transitional care research," Dr. Parry and coauthors conclude. "They also move us toward a more holistic understanding of transitional care that integrates social needs and lifespan developmental transitions into our approaches to improving transitional care."

Click here to read "Implementation of Complex Interventions: Lessons Learned From the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute Transitional Care Portfolio."

DOI: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001591

Click here to read "Patient-Centered Approaches to Transitional Care Research and Implementation: Overview and Insights From Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute's Transitional Care Portfolio."

DOI: 10.1097/MLR.0000000000001593

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About Medical Care

Rated as one of the top ten journals in health care administration, Medical Care is devoted to all aspects of the administration and delivery of health care. This scholarly journal publishes original, peer-reviewed papers documenting the most current developments in the rapidly changing field of health care. Medical Care provides timely reports on the findings of original investigations into issues related to the research, planning, organization, financing, provision, and evaluation of health services. In addition, numerous special supplementary issues that focus on specialized topics are produced with each volume. Medical Care is the official journal of the Medical Care Section of the American Public Health Association.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the clinicians, nurses, accountants, lawyers, and tax, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2020 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,200 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. We support clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.

For more information, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

 

A third of teens, young adults reported worsening mental health during pandemic

Disrupted social connections a factor, study finds

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- As typical social and academic interaction screeched to a halt last year, many young people began experiencing declines in mental health, a problem that appeared to be worse for those whose connections to family and friends weren't as tight, a new study has found.

In June 2020, researchers invited participants in an ongoing study of teenage boys and young men in urban and Appalachian Ohio to complete a survey examining changes to mood, anxiety, closeness to family and friends, and other ways the pandemic affected their lives. The study, co-led by researchers at The Ohio State University and Kenyon College, appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Nearly a third of the 571 participants reported that their mood had worsened or their anxiety had increased between March 2020 and June 2020. The study found that worsening mood and increased anxiety during the pandemic were more likely in those with higher socioeconomic status, those who felt decreasing closeness to friends and family and those who were older. Self-reported increases in anxiety were more common among those with a history of depression and/or anxiety.

One example of feedback from a participant: "A return to a much more introverted, anxious and sedentary lifestyle, after recently making attempts to become more social, outgoing and level-headed."

The research team said the study shines light on those who could be most vulnerable to mental health struggles during a pandemic, and potentially during other situations in which they find themselves isolated from their typical social interaction.

"Though serious cases of COVID-19 have been rare among young people, the pandemic appears to have taken another toll on them," said study senior author Amy Ferketich, a professor of epidemiology at Ohio State.

Eleanor Tetreault, the study's lead author and a recent graduate of Kenyon College, said the existing relationships formed within the ongoing Buckeye Teen Health Study provided an opportunity to quickly assess any perceived changes in mood or anxiety at the onset of the pandemic.

Though the findings about worsening mental health are concerning, Tetreault said there were some surprising positive themes that emerged as she and fellow researchers dived into the respondents' answers to open-ended survey questions.

"The group that had really positive experiences talked about the opportunity for self-exploration, having more time to sit and think or get more connected to their family -- at this age, most people are just going, going, going all the time and all the sudden they had this period of time where they could slow down," said Tetrault, who completed a Pelotonia Summer Research Internship at Ohio State's Comprehensive Cancer Center in 2020.

Though the researchers can't be sure what contributed to the worsening mood and anxiety among some respondents, they do have theories.

Being cooped up with parents who were struggling to work from home and manage the stress of the pandemic could be distressing to young people, Ferketich said, adding that those whose home lives weren't stable to begin with would be hardest hit. Participants from higher socioeconomic groups may have been more likely to have parents who were able to work from home and were more likely to report worsening mental health in the first months of the pandemic.

And though the break from the usual routine "might have been kind of nice at first, it did seem that for some people that changed over time, leading them more toward social isolation, anxiety and depression," Tetreault said.

Though pandemics are rare, the findings from the study don't apply just to a global crisis, she said.

"I think this could apply to any kind of really big change or change in routine for an adolescent or group of adolescents. It highlights the importance of finding ways to maintain social connection, and to help young people maintain those connections when normal social interactions are disrupted."

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Other study co-authors, all from Ohio State, are Andreas Teferra, Brittney Keller-Hamilton, Soliana Kahassai, Hayley Curran and Electra Paskett.

The project received support from Pelotonia.

CONTACT: Amy Ferketich, Ferketich.1@osu.edu

Written by Misti Crane, 614-292-3739; Crane.11@osu.edu

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy 

 

Preferred life expectancy and its association with hypothetical adverse life scenarios

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY'S MAILMAN SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH

Research News

 

July 12, 2021-- A new study sheds light on how the specter of dementia and chronic pain reduce people's desire to live into older ages. Among Norwegians 60 years of age and older the desire to live into advanced ages was significantly reduced by hypothetical adverse life scenarios with the strongest effect caused by dementia and chronic pain, according to research conducted at the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center based at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health.

The paper is among the first to study Preferred Life Expectancy (PLE) based on hypothetical health and living conditions. The findings are published in the July issue of the journal Age and Ageing.

The research team was led by Vegard Skirbekk, PhD, professor of Population and Family Health, who used data from Norway, because of its relatively high life expectancy at birth. He investigated how six adverse health and living conditions affected PLE after the age of 60 and assessed each by age, sex, education, marital status, cognitive function, self-reported loneliness and chronic pain.

The analysis included data from the population-based NORSE-Oppland County study of health and living conditions based on a representative sample of the population aged 60-69 years, 70-79 years and 80 years and older. The data collection was done in three waves in 2017, 2018 and 2019. A total of 948 individuals participated in the interviews and health examinations.

Skirbekk and colleagues asked the 825 community dwellers aged 60 and older the question, "If you could choose freely, until which age would you wish to live?" The results showed that among Norwegians over 60, the desire to live into advanced ages was significantly reduced by hypothetical adverse life scenarios, such as effects of dementia and chronic pain. Weaker negative PLE effects were found for the prospect of losing one's spouse or being subject to poverty

According to Skirbekk, "Dementia tops the list of conditions where people would prefer to live shorter lives - which is a particular challenge given the rapid increase in dementia in the years ahead."

The average Preferred Life Expectancy was 91.4 years of age and there was no difference between men and women, but older participants had higher PLE than younger participants. PLE among singles was not affected by the prospect of feeling lonely. The higher educated had lower PLE for dementia and chronic pain.

"Despite the fact that rising life expectancy to a large extent occurs at later ages, where the experience of loss and disability are widespread, there had been remarkably little scientific evidence on how long individuals would like to live given the impact of such adverse life conditions,' noted Skirbekk.

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Other authors are Ellen Melby Langballe, Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Ageing and Health, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Norway; and Bjørn Heine Strand, Norwegian Institute of Public Health and Norwegian National Advisory Unit on Ageing and Health, Vestfold Hospital Trust, Norway.

The study was supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence, project number 262700.

Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

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

 

Fear of rejection vs. joy of inclusion: Faith communities from LGBTQ+ perspectives

"I was interested in conducting peer-reviewed research that illuminated the gap of the healing stories about how LGBTQ+ people engaged in faith communities in ways that were beneficial to them," said Megan Gandy with the WVU School of Social Work.

WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: NEW RESEARCH BY MEGAN GANDY WITH THE WVU SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK SUGGESTS THAT FAITH COMMUNITIES CAN BENEFIT LGBTQ+ INDIVIDUALS. view more 

CREDIT: JENNIFER SHEPHARD/WVU PHOTO

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Some LGBTQ+ people want to be part of faith communities. And though they have concerns about inclusion, they hope to find a faith community that feels like a home, based on West Virginia University research.

Megan Gandy, BSW program director at the WVU School of Social Work, is a lesbian and former fundamentalist evangelical Christian whose personal experiences told a story that differed from research available in 2015 when she conceptualized her study.

Gandy said the existing research either focused on the positive impacts of faith communities (which excluded LGBTQ+ people) or highlighted the harms done by faith communities to LGBTQ+ people.

Gandy wanted to tell the whole story: that LGBTQ+ people can also benefit from faith communities. Her findings are published in Spirituality in Clinical Practice.

"I was interested in conducting peer-reviewed research that illuminated the gap of the healing stories about how LGBTQ+ people engaged in faith communities in ways that were beneficial to them," Gandy explained.

For the study, Gandy and her colleagues Anthony Natale and Denise Levy, interviewed 30 participants from the nonprofit Q Christian Fellowship, formerly known as the Gay Christian Network. Gandy and her team asked participants about their experiences in faith communities with the goal of exploring why they stay in those communities.

One major theme stood out to Gandy: The fear of rejection vs. the joy of inclusion. For those that stay, the sense of a inclusion is a feeling of indescribable joy and relief.

"This theme illustrated how much psychological stress is involved in the fear of rejection for LGBTQ+ people who choose to stay in faith communities," she said. "That fear can have detrimental effects on the physical and mental health of LGBTQ+ people in the form of what's called 'minority stress.'"

The stress comes from a constant questioning of whether they are accepted or not, whether they will be asked to leave, if they will be "outed" in a harmful way and if they will have to start over with a new faith community, Gandy added.

"However, the joy of inclusion was a way to alter that stress, eliminate it and even heal from it," she said. "LGBTQ+ people who were completely included in their faith communities experienced joy that they didn't know was possible. It was a part of the research that really lifted up my spirits, and was even something that many participants wanted to share with other LGBTQ+ people who weren't involved in a faith community but who wanted to be."

Not all stories were feel-good ones.

One participant, identified with a pseudonym as "Olivia," lost her job as a priest because her church didn't have a policy that accepted transgender or gender-diverse leadership. Although, the church was in one of the more well-known denominations that has accepted gay and lesbian people for decades and allowed them to become ordained.

"If she came out as gay or lesbian, she would have kept her job, and much of the extreme difficulties associated with unemployment she has faced since would never have happened," Gandy said. "That felt like a gut-punch to me because sexual minorities don't often see themselves as privileged in the church, but compared to transgender and gender diverse people, apparently some do have more privileges than they realize."

Gandy emphasized that, although her study provides many interesting insights, it doesn't represent all LGBTQ+ individuals in faith communities.

However, the findings might be "transferrable" to other LGBTQ+ people, meaning that the study could be relatable to those not in the study, she said. Gandy hopes it is.

"They (the participants) wanted to send the message that it is possible to find a home and a family in a faith community, even if you've experienced rejection and shame from other faith communities," she said. "Those words of 'home' and 'family' were prominent in the stories that participants told, and held importance for how deep the connection felt for these LGBTQ+ people."

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Citation: "We shared a heartbeat": Protective functions of faith communities in the lives of LGBTQ+ people

 

Study shows mental health, support, not just substance misuse key in parental neglect

Rates of clinical depression, substance use key in predicting neglectful behavior

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

Research News

 

LAWRENCE -- Substance use disorder has long been considered a key factor in cases of parental neglect. But new research from the University of Kansas shows that such substance abuse does not happen in a vacuum. When examining whether parents investigated by Child Protective Services engaged in neglectful behaviors over the past year, a picture emerges that suggests case workers should look at substance misuse within the context of other factors, like mental health and social supports, to better prevent child neglect and help families.

KU researchers analyzed data of parents investigated for neglectful behavior toward children aged 2-17 and gauged the level of their substance use as well as if they met the criteria for clinical depression. Researchers also studied whether parents had positive social supports such as friends or family, help with children or financial assistance. The results showed that the relationship between parental substance use behaviors and neglect behaviors varied depending on whether the parent was also experiencing clinical depression in the past year and the types of social supports present in their life. For example, substance use disorder among parents with no co-occurring clinical depression contributes to higher annual neglect frequencies compared to substance use disorder among parents with co-occurring clinical depression.

Nancy Kepple"Substance use may matter differently across different contexts. When a parent is already experiencing clinical levels of depression, does substance misuse exacerbate already present neglect behaviors? Nobody really knows; the evidence is mixed," said Nancy Kepple, associate professor of social welfare at KU and lead author of the study. "This study is a part of building a case that it's not one single story when it comes to thinking about how parental substance use is associated with neglectful behaviors."

The study, co-written with recent KU doctoral graduate Amittia Parker, was published in the journal Children and Youth Services Review.

The study analyzed data from 3,545 parents of children from Wave 4 of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. Parents in the survey reported their levels of substance use as well as symptoms of depression and data on different types of social supports. Previously, little research had been done on the interaction of substance use, clinical depression and social support for parental neglect, as substance use has been viewed as the primary factor in such behaviors. Neglect is a difficult topic to study, Kepple said, as it is the omission of a behavior -- providing care and basic needs for a child -- as opposed to enacting physical or emotional harm.

Findings showing that the presence of clinical depression and varying types of social support alters the established relationship between substance use disorder and child neglect, suggesting that treatment should look beyond simply promoting abstinence among parents misusing alcohol and other drugs, the researchers said.

For parents without clinical depression, the types of social support alone did not explain neglectful behaviors. But, for their counterparts, it did. Parents experiencing clinical depression were associated with lower neglect frequency when they had people present in their life who they perceived could help raise their children, but those who reported having more friends to spend time with socially had higher rates of neglect.

"For parents who have clinical depression, their substance use does not seem to have as large of an effect if they have social supports that can provide tangible resources to help care for the child," Kepple said. "Interestingly, having more people to spend time with and who can pull parents out of their home may create opportunities for neglect. People in our lives can pull us away from our responsibilities as much as they can help us navigate through challenges."

The relationship between substance use and social supports is more complicated for parents with no co-occurring clinical depression. Social companionship could be protective or risky, depending on the type of substance use behaviors that a parent reported. For example, the study found neglect rates were comparable among parents reporting no people in their lives who provided opportunities for recreational activities, regardless of substance use behaviors. In contrast, researchers observed higher neglect risk for parents reporting either harmful/risky substance use or substance use disorders for parents reporting one to two people providing social companionship. Yet, findings showed parents reporting three or more sources of social companionship only increased neglect risks for the subsample of parents reporting past year substance use disorder.

Kepple said future research will further examine the types of social interactions parents have with individuals within their social networks and how that influenced neglectful or harmful behaviors. She also plans to work with parents in recovery from prior substance use disorder to understand how their experiences in recovery services and communities have affected their parenting.

Study results show the importance of not simply relying on a single factor to make determinations in services or treatment for parents who have neglected or are at risk of neglecting their children. To better serve families, evaluating the big picture, including factors like clinical depression, social supports and substance use is necessary, researchers argue. It may require more time, resources and clinical thinking; the data supports modern interventions that are providing comprehensive services that support recovery and well-being of parents to address neglect behaviors.

"Neglect is highly contextual," Kepple said. "There are lots of reasons it might be occurring, and that's what we need to understand and further explore. We can't just say 'there's substance misuse, that's a problem,' or 'they have social support, that's good.' When you break these things down, context matters. These findings suggest an individualized plan is likely the best plan, given the complex interactions that are occurring among different risk and protective factors. If systems mandate a parent remain abstinent from alcohol or substance use without addressing underlying mental health or social supports needs, we are not addressing the whole picture."

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FLOWER OF THE RUS

Genetic analysis to help predict sunflower oil properties

SKOLKOVO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (SKOLTECH)

Research News

 

Skoltech researchers and their colleagues from the University of Southern California have performed genetic analysis of a Russian sunflower collection and identified genetic markers that can help predict the oil's fatty acid composition. The research was published in BMC Genomics.

Genomic selection, which helps quickly create new crop varieties, has been a much-discussed topic worldwide for the last 10 years. DNA sequencing and extensive genotyping have been applied to obtain genetic profiles of crops. When analyzed and compared to field data, those profiles help identify genetic markers for traits of interest to farming and predict the properties and value of a crop based on its genetic profile alone.

"Our work is the first large-scale study of the Russian sunflower genetic collection and one of the first attempts to create new varieties using genomic selection. Predicting what a plant will be like before actually planting it - an idea that seemed utterly unrealistic until recently - has become commonplace in many countries thanks to technological advances. Classical breeding can hardly cope with the challenges posed by the global climate change, growing human needs, and evolving food quality requirements. To get a head start, we should turn to genetics," Alina Chernova, Skoltech PhD and lead author of the study, notes.

This long-term research project has been carried out by a joint team led by Skoltech professor Philipp Khaitovich and featuring scientists from Skoltech, the University of Southern California, Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources, and Pustovoit All-Russian Research Institute of Oil Crops, joined by breeders from the seed-producing company Agroplasma.

The team looked at species from two major Russian sunflower gene banks and Agroplasma's collection. Their genetic analysis covered 601 lines of cultivated sunflower to check genetic diversity against the global collection and compare the results with chemical tests of oil obtained from these lines. Bioinformatic analysis revealed genetic markers that can help control the oil's fatty acid content.

"The reason we chose the sunflower is that it is a key source of vegetable fats, and Russia is the world's leading supplier of sunflower oil. You can vary the oil's fatty acid composition - which was the focus of our research - to obtain oils with different properties suitable for roasting, dressings or industrial uses," Skoltech PhD student and study co-author Rim Gubaev says.

"Thanks to this project, we have gained valuable insights and built a team of like-minded people keen on helping breeders to introduce genetics in their work. We have founded Oil Gene - it's a startup that will focus on practical tasks and provide genomic selection services," Gubaev adds.

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Skoltech is a private international university located in Russia. Established in 2011 in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Skoltech is cultivating a new generation of leaders in the fields of science, technology, and business, conducting research in breakthrough fields, and promoting technological innovation with the goal of solving critical problems that face Russia and the world. Skoltech is focusing on six priority areas: data science and artificial intelligence, life sciences, advanced materials and modern design methods, energy efficiency, photonics and quantum technologies, and advanced research. Website: https://www.skoltech.ru/.