SPACE RACE 2.0

SpaceX rocket fueled for launch this week to send Korean mission to moon

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is seen at Launch Complex 39A the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida on July 14. The Korean mission will be launched into space with a Falcon 9 rocket. Photo by Joe Marino/UPI | License Photo

Aug. 1 (UPI) -- South Korea and SpaceX are fueled and ready to send a spacecraft on a long journey this week that will ultimately take it around the moon.

The Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter is scheduled to launch on Tuesday night from Cape Canaveral in Florida on the back of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The KPLO is expected to go into a low-altitude orbit around the moon after it breaks free of the Earth's gravity. South Korean engineers who traveled to the United States for the flight have completed fueling and testing.

"We want to develop critical technology for space exploration as well as for scientific investigation," Eunhyeuk Kim, a KPLO project scientist at the Korean Aerospace Research Institute, said according to Space.org

The launch is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.

Eventually, the KPLO will go into a polar orbit 62 miles above the lunar surface and perform observations for at least a year.

The key objectives of the project are to measure the magnetic force above the lunar surface and examine lunar resources such as water ice, uranium, helium-3, silicon and aluminum.

The $180 million mission will take a low-energy, fuel-efficient lunar path that's being pioneered by NASA's CAPSTONE spacecraft, which launched last month.

The mission will also create a topographic map that will help scientists on Earth choose future moon landing sites. NASA's Artemis program is aiming to return humans to the lunar surface in 2024.

The KPLO mission is the first step for South Korea's burgeoning lunar exploration program, which plans to put a robotic lander onto the lunar surface by 2030. The country is also planning an asteroid sample-return mission.

RELATEDNASA loses contact with CAPSTONE lunar orbiter after leaving Earth orbit

If it launches this week, the KPLO spacecraft should reach lunar orbit in mid-December.

Dynamic travel restrictions can prevent rapid dispersion of new COVID-19 variants

A study of COVID-19 transmission dynamics in Canada illustrates the role of travel restrictions in buying time to scale up testing, tracing and healthcare interventions

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ELIFE

A study of COVID-19 variant transmission into and across Canada shows that international travel restrictions were a key intervention for reducing or slowing spread, according to a report published today in eLife.

The results suggest that reducing the number of virus importations that can spark domestic outbreaks within a country through dynamic travel bans allows governments more time to prepare for a new variant – by ramping up testing, contact tracing and vaccination programmes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of genomic epidemiology – that is, genetic sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 samples from different regions and times – to understand the origin and movement of virus variants internationally, especially variants of concern or interest. These methods have been used widely in the UK, US, Brazil, New Zealand and Europe, and have illustrated the variation in epidemic dynamics between countries that took different public health approaches to containing the virus.

“Large-scale SARS-CoV-2 genomic epidemiology analyses in Canada have so far been limited to a study on the early epidemic within Quebec,” says lead author Angela McLaughlin, Research Assistant at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and a PhD candidate in Bioinformatics, University of British Columbia, Canada. “We wanted to elaborate on this research with a national-scale analysis for the first and second COVID-19 waves. We also wanted to evaluate the impact of international travel restrictions in March 2020 on international importations of the virus and to understand why the virus persisted into 2021.”

The team used available sequence data from Canadian COVID-19 cases and data on the prevalence of circulating variants in other countries to estimate the viruses’ geographical origins. From this, they identified more than 2,260 introductions of new variants into Canada, including 680 sublineages – viruses introduced from other countries that went on to circulate within the Canadian population. They also identified 1,582 singletons – ­viruses introduced that did not appear to spread within the Canadian population.

Just as travel restrictions were introduced in April 2020, the importation rate reached its maximum (58.5 sublineages per week), including 31.8 from the US and 31.2 introduced solely into Quebec. Two weeks after travel restrictions took effect, the overall sublineage importation rate had dropped 3.4-fold and within four weeks had dropped 10.3-fold.

Despite these reductions, however, new virus variants continued to be introduced at a low level until August 2020 when there was a small spike in cases leading into the second wave. This suggests that wildtype sublineages introduced in the summer when prevalence and immunity were low contributed the highest proportion of COVID-19 cases in the second wave. In turn, this implies that even a low level of ongoing virus importations of similarly transmissible variants can contribute to viral persistence. By mid-October, travel restrictions were relaxed further, and importation rates rebounded quickly and contributed to the second wave.

By categorising transmission sources as within-province, between province, the US and other international sources, the team could see where the new virus importations were originating. They found that most first-wave virus introductions (January to July 2020) came from the US, followed by Russia, Italy, India, Spain and the UK, and were primarily imported into Quebec and Ontario. In the second wave (August 2020 to end February 2021), the origin of new sublineages was still dominated by the US, with increased relative contributions from India, the UK, Asia, Europe and Africa.

That the US was a large contributor of COVID-19 cases in 2020 was not unanticipated by the authors, given its high COVID-19 prevalence throughout 2020 and the long land border shared between the two countries. Even when international arrivals into Canada declined by 77.8% from 2019 to 2020, the number of truck drivers and crew members (air, ship and train) only declined by 24.8%, and accounted for almost half of all international arrivals after April 2020. Although essential key workers supporting the supply chain, these arrivals may have inadvertently facilitated additional importations from the US – suggesting this is one area where better public health measures, such as contact tracing and rapid testing, could have helped prevent the movement of new variants.

“These analyses shed light on the natural epidemiological history of SARS-CoV-2 in the context of public health interventions and show how sublineage-based genomic surveillance can be used to identify gaps in a country’s epidemic response,” concludes senior author Jeffrey Joy, Research Scientist at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and Assistant Professor at the Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia. “Broad and longstanding restrictions against non-essential international travel is not necessarily an advisable policy in light of economic impacts. However, our analysis suggests that swift and stringent travel bans towards localities harbouring a high frequency of a new variant of concern, or an outbreak of an entirely new virus, not yet identified domestically, should be seriously considered to reduce the probability of seeding multiple, simultaneous outbreaks and overwhelming healthcare systems.”

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eLife

e.packer@elifesciences.org

+44 (0)1223 855373

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+1 (236) 885-4617

echu@bccfe.ca

About eLife

eLife transforms research communication to create a future where a diverse, global community of scientists and researchers produces open and trusted results for the benefit of all. Independent, not-for-profit and supported by funders, we improve the way science is practised and shared. From the research we publish, to the tools we build, to the people we work with, we’ve earned a reputation for quality, integrity and the flexibility to bring about real change. eLife receives financial support and strategic guidance from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome. Learn more at https://elifesciences.org/about.

To read the latest Epidemiology and Global Health research published in eLife, visit https://elifesciences.org/subjects/epidemiology-global-health.

And for the latest in Evolutionary Biology, see https://elifesciences.org/subjects/evolutionary-biology.

About the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is Canada’s largest HIV/AIDS research, treatment and education facility – nationally and internationally recognised as an innovative world leader in combating HIV/AIDS and related diseases. The made-in-BC Treatment as Prevention® strategy (TasP®), pioneered by BC-CfE and supported by UNAIDS since 2011, inspired the ambitious global target for HIV treatment – known as the 90-90-90 Target – to end AIDS as a pandemic by 2030. The BC-CfE is applying TasP® to therapeutic areas beyond HIV/AIDS, including viral hepatitis and addiction, to promote Targeted Disease Elimination® as a means to contribute to healthcare sustainability. The BC-CfE works in close collaboration with key stakeholders, including government, health authorities, healthcare providers, academics, and the community to decrease the health burden of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C and addictions across Canada and around the world.

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JOURNAL

eLife

DOI

10.7554/eLife.73896 

ARTICLE TITLE

Genomic epidemiology of the first two waves of SARS-CoV-2 in Canada

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Aug-2022

SILVER LINING

The health risks of COVID-19 spurred more smokers to quit

New UC San Diego Rady School of Management study is first to track smoking behavior at the individual level during the pandemic

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

 

IMAGE: SALLY SADOFF, THE RAFAEL AND MARINA PASTOR CHANCELLOR’S RADY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT ENDOWED FACULTY FELLOWSHIP AND ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND STRATEGY. view more 

CREDIT: UC SAN DIEGO'S RADY SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

Being a smoker makes it more likely for a person to have severe COVID-19 symptoms, require hospitalization or die, which may explain a sharp decrease in smoking behavior among the Danish population during the pandemic, according to new research.

The study from the University of California San Diego’s Rady School of Management. reveals that cigarette purchases among regular smokers decreased by about 20-30% and quitting rates increased by about 10 percentage points from March 2020 to January of 2021. Regular smokers not only purchased cigarettes less frequently, they also cut down on the quantity.

“The pandemic led to reductions in physical activity, increases in stress and declines in mental well-being, all factors commonly associated with triggering higher tobacco use; however, we find evidence of sustained decreases in smoking, which could be a bright spot in the pandemic,” said Sally Sadoff, corresponding author of the study and associate professor of economics and strategy at the Rady School of Management. “The health risks associated with COVID-19 and smoking may help some smokers overcome a key barrier to quitting – that the enjoyment of smoking is felt in the present and health costs are usually felt in the future.”

The paper published in the journal Communications Medicine, shows that declines in smoking were sustained for at least the first year of the pandemic and quitting rates lasted at least six months. These findings suggests COVID-19 may lead to a persistent decline in smoking.

In Denmark, about 17% of the population smokes and in the U.S., about 12.5% percent of the population are smokers.

“Though we cannot make an apples-to-apples comparison to the U.S. due to data limitations, we suspect there was a decline in smoking in this country and others during the same time period,” Sadoff said.

This study is the first to utilize cigarette sales data for both smokers and non-smokers during the pandemic, rather than survey information. The data in the study were made available through Spenderlog, an app that allows users to track their spending on groceries.

Sadoff and co-authors analyzed the grocery purchasing data of 4,042 Danish residents who use the Spenderlog app. The sample is largely representative of the Danish population in terms of age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status and education level.

The researchers find that weekly cigarette purchase rates declined by 24% and average quantities declined by 12% between March 2020 and the end of that year.

However, the data also reveals that social smoking had a slight increase during this same time.

“Contrary to some assumptions, social distancing was not reason there was a drop in smoking because our data reveals that regular smokers, those more likely to smoke alone and those at the highest health risk from smoking, had the strongest reaction to the threat of COVID-19,” Sadoff said.

She continued, “If the decline in smoking we document persists, not only could it help decrease the risks from COVID-19 as new variants emerge, but also have meaningful, longer-term benefits on population health and life expectancy beyond the pandemic.”

The paper “Sustained decline in tobacco purchasing in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic” was co-authored by Toke R. Fosgaard of the University of Copenhagen and Alice Pizzo of the Copenhagen Business School.

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JOURNAL

Communications Medicine

DOI

10.1038/s43856-022-00160-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Sustained decline in tobacco purchasing in Denmark during the COVID-19 pandemic

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2022

Long COVID patient registry could support long-term monitoring and service improvements

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SAGE

Recommendations for a voluntary Long COVID patient registry or similar mechanism to monitor the condition in Wales over the long-term offer could support service improvement and offer insight for other future patient registries and health policy decisions, according to the authors of a paper published today by the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.

The recommendations were developed by leading independent think tank for health and care, the Bevan Commission. Recommendations include improving healthcare quality by involving both patients and healthcare professionals in the design of a registry and, to promote equity of access, allowing patients to join the registry through self-referral.

The prevalence of Long COVID across the UK remains highly uncertain, but modelling suggests a significant increase. Therefore, managing the long-term consequences in the population will remain a major challenge for health and care services during the next stage of the pandemic.

Baroness Ilora Finlay, Co-Vice Chair of the Bevan Commission and one of the paper’s authors, said: “Despite the uncertainties of Long COVID, the need for long-term monitoring is essential to support research, service improvement and patient engagement. Our recommendations for establishing a Long COVID Registry for Wales, or similar mechanism, provide valuable insight to inform both health policy decisions and patient registries in alternative contexts.”

The Bevan Commission’s other recommendations include the consolidation of digital infrastructures to realise the full potential of a registry, developing a registry with the dual purpose of research and service improvement, and adopting the concept of prudent healthcare, an approach underpinning the work of the Bevan Commission that considers how to collaborate with others, make effective use of the available resources and ensure high quality and consistent care.

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JOURNAL

Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine

DOI

10.1177/01410768221114964 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Recommendations for a voluntary Long COVID Registry

Why breast-fed premature infants have a healthier gut than formula-fed ones

A probiotic bacteria strain in preemies seems to protect and strengthen the gut

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

Human breastmilk has long been considered “liquid gold” among clinicians treating premature infants in a newborn intensive care unit (NICU). Breastmilk-fed “preemies” are healthier, on average, than those fed formula. Why is that true, however, has remained a mystery.

New research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine’s (UMSOM) Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS), published online in the journal mBio in June found it is not just the content of breastmilk that makes the difference. It is also the way the babies digest it.

The research, led by Bing Ma, PhD, Assistant Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at UMSOM and a researcher at IGS, discovered a strain of the Bifidobacterium breve bacteria or B. breve in the gut of breastfed babies who received higher volumes of breastmilk than their counterparts. Those preemies had better nutrient absorption because they developed an intact intestinal wall, one week after birth. B. breve was much less prevalent in both formula-fed babies and breastfed babies with “leaky gut.” Babies with leaky gut do not develop a barrier to protect against bacteria and digested food from getting into the bloodstream. For the first time, the team also found that the way B. breve metabolizes breastmilk keeps breastfed babies healthier and allows them to gain weight by strengthening their underdeveloped intestinal barrier.

An immature or “leaky” gut can lead to necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), which is the third leading cause of newborn death in United States and worldwide. In fact, NEC impacts up to 10 percent of premature babies with a devasting mortality rate as high as 50 percent.

“Our discovery could lead to promising and practical clinical interventions to strengthen the babies’ gut and, therefore, increase survival rates of the most vulnerable preemies,” said Dr. Ma.

Bifidobacterium in the gut or microbiome has long been known to have health benefits. It includes a diverse set of strains that have very different properties. Some strains are only found in adults; some are mostly in adolescence. One strain, Bifidobacterium infantis, has been seen predominantly in full-term infants.

The researchers followed 113 premature babies who were born between 24 and 32 weeks’ gestation. This study found Bifidobacterium breve (B. breve) only in preemies who had improved gut barrier function within one week after birth. Dr. Ma and her colleagues discovered that Bifidobacterium breve is genetically equipped to digest nutrients within the cell membrane rather than the more typical external digestion process in which bacteria secrete digestive enzymes onto nutrients to break them down.

At the most basic level, the gut microbiome in these breastfed preemies with more B. breve metabolizes carbohydrates differently than it does formula. The researchers say they hypothesize that this process of metabolism then strengthens and matures the intestinal barrier faster, protecting fragile newborns from disease.

“We now know that it is not the breastmilk alone that helps preemies develop their intestinal barrier faster,” Dr. Ma said. “We will need to find the best way to prophylactically administer B. breve early in life, rather than rely on transmission from breastmilk or even the mother’s gut or vaginal microbiota during the birthing process. This is especially critical in formula-fed preemies.”

Dr. Ma said that more studies are needed to determine if the B. breve originated in the breastmilk, gut, mother’s vagina, or even environment.

E. Albert Reece, MD, PhD, MBA, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, University of Maryland, Baltimore, the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished Professor, and Dean at  UMSOM said, “This research can have a far-reaching impact globally. It could ultimately save thousands of premature babies from permanent disability or death associated with an immature and permeable intestine that allows deadly bacteria in.”

Authors from the Institute for Genome Sciences include Dr. Ma; Michael France, PhD, Post-Doc Fellow; Elias McComb, BS, Research Technician; Lindsay Rutt, MS, Laboratory Research Manager; Pawal Gajer, PhD, Research Associate, Microbiology and Immunology; Li Fu, BS, Laboratory Research Specialist; Hongqiu Yang, PhD, Microbiome Service Laboratory; Mike Humphrys, MS, Microbiome Service Laboratory Director; Luke J. Tallon, BA, Executive Scientific Director, Maryland Genomics; Lisa Sadzewicz, PhD, Executive Director, Maryland Genomics Administration; and Jacques Ravel, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Associate Director, Genomics, and Interim Director, IGS.

Authors from other departments within the University of Maryland School of Medicine include Sripriya Sundararajan, MBBS, MD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Neonatal Director of OB-MFM Relations; Gita Nadimpalli, MD, PhD, MPH, Graduate Research Assistant; Jose M. Lemme-Dumit, PhD, Post-Doc Fellow, Pediatrics; Elise Janofsky, Pediatrics; Lisa S. Roskes, MD, Pediatrics; Marcela F. Pasetti, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology and Immunology; and Rose M. Viscardi, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics and Medicine.

This study was supported in part by a Gerber Foundation 2018 award (project identifier 6361), the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) (grant number R21DK123674), and the Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) at the University of Maryland Accelerated Translational Incubator Pilot (ATIP) award.

The authors have no conflict of interest.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 46 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs, and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished two-time winner of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research.  With an operating budget of more than $1.3 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically based care for nearly 2 million patients each year. The School of Medicine has nearly $600 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding.  As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total population of nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, including 2,500 students, trainees, residents, and fellows. The combined School of Medicine and Medical System (“University of Maryland Medicine”) has an annual budget of over $6 billion and an economic impact of nearly $20 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine, which ranks as the 8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity (according to the Association of American Medical Colleges profile) is an innovator in translational medicine, with 606 active patents and 52 start-up companies.  In the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking of the Best Medical Schools, published in 2021, the UM School of Medicine is ranked #9 among the 92 public medical schools in the U.S., and in the top 15 percent (#27) of all 192 public and private U.S. medical schools.  The School of Medicine works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu

About the Institute for Genome Sciences: The Institute for Genome Sciences (IGS) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine has revolutionized genomic discoveries in medicine, agriculture, environmental science, and biodefense since its founding in 2007. IGS investigators research areas of genomics and the microbiome to better understand health and disease, including treatments, cures, and prevention. IGS investigators also lead the development of the new field of microbial forensics. IGS is a leading center for major biological initiatives currently underway including the NIH-funded Human Microbiome Project (HMP) and the NIAID-sponsored Genomic Sequencing Center for Infectious Diseases (GSCID). Follow us on Twitter @GenomeScience.

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

mBio

DOI

10.1128/mbio.01299-22 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Highly Specialized Carbohydrate Metabolism Capability in Bifidobacterium Strains Associated with Intestinal Barrier Maturation in Early Preterm Infants

New CABI-led study highlights institutional and policy bottlenecks to Integrated Pest Management in Africa

A new publication led by CABI has highlighted institutional and policy bottlenecks to using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to fight a range of potentially devastating crop pests in Africa

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CABI

 

IMAGE: A FARMER WITH A LOCAL REMEDY TO FIGHT PEST OF MAIZE view more 

CREDIT: CABI

A new publication led by CABI has highlighted institutional and policy bottlenecks to using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to fight a range of potentially devastating crop pests in Africa.

In the paper – published in the journal Current Opinion in Insect Science – the authors say that IPM is essential to achieve sustainability of food systems. But even though there are good examples of IPM delivering both economic and environmental benefits, its uptake is described as “patchy.”

Lead author Dr Roger Day (CABI’s Global Advisor, Plant Health), and a team of researchers from Michigan State University, the University of South Africa, the University of Nairobi and the African Union Commission, identify several areas where policy hinders IPM.

Regional and national agricultural policy often prioritises production and productivity above environmental sustainability. In this policy context, it’s not surprising that synthetic pesticides have become the default pest-control method for many farmers, even though their drawbacks are well-known.

Agricultural research is generally underfunded in Africa, but evidence shows agroecological research, including IPM, is particularly lacking support.  Although demand-led research is increasing, it is still common for research to be undertaken on single solutions to single pests in single crops, rather than looking at agriculture from the farmer’s point of view. Weak policy on intellectual policy can also discourage innovation.

Many factors affect farmers’ uptake of IPM. Farmer training and access to advice is usually necessary, so extension policy affects adoption. IPM is said to be “knowledge intensive”, so face-to-face extension methods are most effective, but they are expensive and extension systems may be poorly funded.

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be beneficial but care needs to be taken to avoid gender bias in the differential access to such technology.

Policies around credit, insurance and subsidy also affect farmers’ choice of pest control method, and the authors note that when Fall Armyworm arrived in Africa, many governments provided free pesticides, so encouraging chemical control.

Food-safety regulations and market standards can incentivise the use of IPM, particularly when there is effective compliance monitoring and capacity to meet the standards, such as in Kenya’s high-value export horticulture.

An important, and sometimes overlooked, policy area affecting IPM is input regulation. Regulatory systems for chemical pesticides, seeds, biopesticides and biological controls can encourage or constrain the adoption of IPM by affecting input availability and cost. 

If lower risk pest control products are as expensive to register as toxic pesticides, there is little incentive to the private sector to register them, especially as they may be more pest-specific and so have smaller market size than broad-spectrum chemicals. Weak regulatory enforcement also depresses the price of traditional pesticides, making it harder for innovative lower risk products to compete.

Finally, the way in which policy is developed can be improved by providing greater opportunity for participation in policy processes by stakeholders, particularly farmers. Research to support agricultural policy in IPM and related areas is often lacking – such as the external costs of chemical pesticides, and even the level of loss that pests cause (see www.croploss.org).

The authors conclude that: “Ultimately, the best chance for securing an enabling policy environment is for IPM to be seen not as a fire-brigade response to a problem, but as a key element of the food-system transformation that is increasingly being called for.”

Additional information

Main image: A farmer with a local remedy to fight pest of maize (Credit: CABI).

Full paper reference

Roger Day, Steven Haggblade, Shadrack Moephuli, Agnes Mwang’ombe, Simplice Nouala, ‘Institutional and policy bottlenecks to IPM,’ Current Opinion in Insect Science, Volume 52, 2022, DOI: 10.1016/j.cois.2022.100946.

This paper can be read in full open access here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214574522000815?via%3Dihub

Acknowledgements

CABI is an international intergovernmental organisation, and we gratefully acknowledge the core financial support from our member countries (and lead agencies), including the United Kingdom (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office — FCDO), China (Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs), Australia (Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research), Canada (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada), Netherlands (Directorate-General for International Cooperation — DGIS) and Switzerland (Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation). See https://www.cabi.org/about-cabi/who-we-work-with/key-donors/ for details.

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JOURNAL

Current Opinion in Insect Science

DOI

10.1016/j.cois.2022.100946 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Literature review

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Institutional and policy bottlenecks to IPM

Services combine for homeless solution

Hundreds in secure housing in Australia's first social impact bond for people experiencing chronic homelessness

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

The majority of 575 people in South Australia with a history of chronic homelessness have found stable housing and are well on the way to a better life after three years of intensive support under the ‘Aspire’ program – Australia’s first social impact bond targeting homelessness.

“It’s a gift that I can’t even begin to explain to you,” one participant says, ahead of an event to launch the final evaluation of the program on 1 August 2022.

"Aspire is clearly a successful program which has had a positive impact on so many lives, not just helping people in their moment of crisis but setting them up for the longer term,"  says the South Australian State Premier Peter Malinauskas:

The State Minister for Housing Services Nat Cook says the results show the benefits of intensive wrap-around supports for people who have experienced lengthy or re-current homelessness, complex needs and multiple barriers to housing. “These barriers can be incredibly difficult to overcome, and this report shows what really works in terms of helping people overcome those barriers,” she says.

Flinders University Professor of Social Impact Ian Goodwin-Smith says: “What Aspire shows is that if you stick with people experiencing chronic homelessness and work with them closely, you get great results for people and great results for the community.

“That’s what the evidence shows. That’s what the investment in Aspire has achieved – massive improvements in people’s lives and a significant return on investment in terms of savings to the public purse.”.

The evaluation, by experts from the Centre for Social Impact at Flinders University and the University of Western Australia, found many major achievements from the ‘intensive wraparound’ program which included help with securing stable housing and support for trauma, disability, or tri-morbidity issues (co-existing physical, mental health and drug and alcohol issues).

The final report found:

• By June 2021, 369 Aspire participants had secured a tenancy, mostly in public housing, and among those participants, 93% were maintaining their tenancies.
• Participants accessing Specialist Homelessness Services – down 78%; hospital emergency department visits – down 27%; and inpatient stays – down 26%.
• Aspire participants court system interactions – down 70%.
• So far this has led to $8.9m in service costs saved by the South Australian Government.
• Aspire participants’ overall wellbeing scores increased by 15% and they reported improvements in their interpersonal relationships and community connections.
• Another indicator of enhanced wellbeing was that participants recorded significant reductions in their access to hospital services for mental health and alcohol/drug related issues.

“Some of the Aspire participants said no other program had worked for them, and they had lost all hope by the time they came to the program,” says Flinders University research fellow Dr Veronica Coram.

“However, the final report finds Aspire was a life-changer for many participants who avoided continued rough sleeping, jail or hospitalisation, and whose health and wellbeing would otherwise have declined further.”

The average Aspire participant was a 39-year-old male who, on entry to the program, had been without stable housing for more than three years and was experiencing tri-morbidity issues.

Aspire’s success is largely attributable to its long duration, its capacity to provide flexible and holistic supports addressing multiple life domains, and the strong levels of trust and respect participants form with their case navigators.

“What Aspire has done for so many people is to give them the sustained support they needed to maintain a stable tenancy and achieve the dignity of having their own home, secure employment and undertake education,” says Ian Cox, who leads the Office for Homelessness Sector Integration at the SA Housing Authority.

Aspire was made possible by a strong, cross-sectoral collaborative partnership between multiple SA Government agencies, the Hutt St Centre and housing providers, Social Ventures Australia (SVA) and private investors.

The benefits of providing wrap-around services has given participants a sense of purpose and the confidence to live with more certainty, says Hutt St Centre CEO Chris Burns.

“By providing wrap-around services we can lessen the demands on our health and hospital services, correctional services and on social services including emergency accommodation. It has also given our participants a sense of purpose and the confidence to live with more certainty.”

Social impact bonds (SIBs), which were pioneered in Australia by Social Ventures Australia, involve private investors financing the delivery of social service programs, with governments repaying the investors when positive outcomes are achieved.

Social Ventures Australia CEO Suzie Riddell says: “SVA’s vision is for an Australia where all people and communities can thrive and we’re delighted that the Aspire SIB has made a lasting difference to hundreds of people experiencing persistent homelessness in Adelaide,” says Ms Riddell.

“We design SIBs to generate very high quality evidence about whether a program works, as well as show how governments can save money across departments – including health, housing and justices – by investing in high-quality programs that can change lives.

“We know that this SIB and the evaluation will contribute to the growing evidence base for intensive ‘housing first’ approaches, with sustained wraparound support for people experiencing homelessness which can be used to create impact at an even greater scale,” she says.

Evaluation of the Aspire Social Impact Bond: Final Report (2022) by V Coram, L Lester, S Tually, M Kyron, K McKinley, P Flatau and I Goodwin-Smith from the Centre for Social Impact at Flinders University and Centre for Social Impact, University of Western Australia is available online here: https://doi.org/10.25916/202z-ey67 

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DOI

10.25916/202z-ey67 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Evaluation of the Aspire Social Impact Bond: Final Report

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

31-Jul-2022

New study finds global forest area per capita has decreased by over 60%

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IOP PUBLISHING

Over the past 60 years, the global forest area has declined by 81.7 million hectares, a loss that contributed to the more than 60% decline in global forest area per capita. This loss threatens the future of biodiversity and impacts the lives of 1.6 billion people worldwide, according to a new study published today by IOP Publishing in the journal Environmental Research Letters. 

A team of researchers, led by Ronald C. Estoque from the Center for Biodiversity and Climate Change, Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI) in Japan, have found that the global forest area has declined by 81.7 million hectares from 1960 to 2019, equivalent to an area of more than 10% of the entire Borneo Island, with gross forest loss (437.3 million hectares) outweighing gross forest gain (355.6 million hectares).  

The team used global land use dataset to examine how global forests have changed over space and time. Consequently, the decline in global forests combined with the increase in global population over the 60-year period has resulted in a decrease of the global forest area per capita by over 60%, from 1.4 hectares in 1960 to 0.5 hectares in 2019. 

The authors explain, “the continuous loss and degradation of forests affect the integrity of forest ecosystems, reducing their ability to generate and provide essential services and sustain biodiversity. It also impacts the lives of at least 1.6 billion people worldwide, predominantly in developing countries, who depend on forests for various purposes.”  

The results also revealed that the change in the spatiotemporal pattern of global forests supports the forest transition theory, with forest losses occurring primarily in the lower-income countries in the tropics and forest gains in the higher-income countries in the extratropics. Ronald C. Estoque, the lead author of the study, explains, “despite this spatial pattern of forest loss occurring primarily in the less developed countries, the role of more developed nations in this said forest loss also needs to be studied more deeply. With the strengthening of forest conservation in more developed countries, forest loss is displaced to the less developed countries, especially in the tropics.” 

“Today, monitoring of the world’s forests is an integral part of various global environmental and social initiatives, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Climate Agreement and the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. To help achieve the goals of these initiatives, there is a profound need to reverse, or at least flatten, the global net forest loss curve by conserving the world’s remaining forests and restoring and rehabilitating degraded forest landscapes,” the authors further explain. 

ENDS 

About Environmental Research Letters 

Environmental Research Letters is an open access journal published by society publisher, IOP Publishing. The journal covers high-quality research in all areas of environmental science. All submissions are expected to meet a high standard of scientific rigour and contribute to advancing knowledge in the field.  

 

About IOP Publishing  
IOP Publishing is a society-owned scientific publisher, delivering impact, recognition, and value to the scientific community. Its mission is to expand the world of physics, offering a portfolio of journals, eBooks, conference proceedings and science news resources globally. As a wholly owned subsidiary of the Institute of Physics, a not-for-profit society, IOP Publishing supports the Institute’s work to inspire people to develop their knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of physics. Go to http://ioppublishing.org or follow us @IOPPublishing.    

IOP Publishing contact: juliet.hannay@ioppublishing.org 

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JOURNAL

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/ac7df5 

ARTICLE TITLE

Spatiotemporal pattern of global forest change over the past 60 years and the forest transition theory

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Aug-2022