Economic losses from hurricanes become too big to be offset by the US if warming continues

Peer-Reviewed Publication

POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH (PIK)

“Tropical cyclones draw their energy from ocean surface heat. Also, warmer air can hold more water which eventually can get released in heavy rains and flooding that often occur when a hurricane makes landfall,” says Robin Middelanis from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Potsdam University, lead author of the study. “It’s thus clear since long that hurricane damages will become bigger if we continue to heat up our Earth system.” While we might not have more hurricanes in the future, the strongest among them could get more devastating.

“Now, one of the important questions is: can we deal with that, economically? The answer is: not like this, we can’t,” says Middelanis. “Our calculations show, for the first time, that the US economy as one of the strongest on our planet, will eventually not be able to offset the losses in their supply chains on their own. Increasing hurricane damages will exceed the coping capacities of this economic super-power.

Local production losses propagate throughout supply chain networks

The scientists looked at the 2017 hurricane Harvey that hit Texas and Louisiana and already then cost the enormous sum of 125 billion US Dollars in direct damages alone, and computed what its impacts would be like under different levels of warming. Importantly, losses from local business interruption propagate through the national and global supply chain network, leading to additional indirect economic effects. In their simulations of over 7000 regional economic sectors with more than 1.8 million supply chain connections, the scientists find that the US national economy’s supply chains cannot compensate future local production losses from hurricanes if climate change continues.

“We investigated global warming levels of up to 5°C – which unfortunately might be reached by the end of our century if climate policy fails us,” says Anders Levermann, head of complexity science at PIK and scientist at New York’s Columbia University, a co-author of the study. “We do not want to quantify temperature thresholds for the limit of adaptation of the US economy’s national supply chains, since we feel there’s too much uncertainty involved. Yet we are certain that eventually the US economy’s supply chain capacities as they are now will not be enough if global warming continues. There is a limit of how much the US economy can take, we just don’t know exactly where it is.”

"Bad for people"

Ironically, in the case of hurricane Harvey it is in particular the oil and gas industry in Texas which suffers from the impacts of hurricanes driven by global warming – while global warming is in turn driven by the emissions from burning oil and gas, plus of course coal. The fossil fuel extraction sector is big in that region of the US, and it is vulnerable to cyclone damages. The computer simulations show that production losses in the fuel sector will be amongst those which will be most strongly compensated by countries like Canada and Norway, but also Venezuela and Indonesia, at the expense of the US economy.

“When things break and production fails locally, there’s always someone in the world who is happy to make money by selling the replacement goods,” says Levermann. “So why worry? Well, reduced production means increasing prices, and even if that means it’s good for some economies, it is generally bad for the consumers – the people. Also from a global economic perspective, shifts due to disrupted supply chains can mean that less efficient producers step in. It’s a pragmatic, straightforward conclusion that we need to avoid increasing greenhouse gas emissions which amplify this kind of disruptions.”

Article: Robin Middelanis, Sven N. Willner, Christian Otto, Anders Levermann (2022): Economic losses from hurricanes cannot be nationally offset under unabated warming. Environmental Research Letters [DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ac90d8]

JOURNAL

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/ac90d8 

ARTICLE TITLE

Economic losses from hurricanes cannot be nationally offset under unabated warming

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Oct-2022

Telemedicine reduces odds of no-show clinic visits by more than two-thirds for surgical patients

The use of telehealth services is very effective at increasing access to healthcare in vulnerable populations undergoing a range of surgical procedures

Reports and Proceedings

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS

 

IMAGE: SURGICAL PATIENTS MORE LIKELY TO SHOW UP FOR CLINIC VISITS USING TELEMEDICINE view more 

CREDIT: AMERICAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS

Key takeaways 

• Telemedicine significantly lowers likelihood of no-show clinic visits among surgical patients and follow-up care during the post-surgery period.   

• Telemedicine is a convenient tool that can help improve healthcare for all patients, successfully increasing access among vulnerable populations.  

SAN DIEGO: Surgical patients who use telehealth services are much more likely to show up for their initial clinic visit or follow-up appointment during the post-surgery period than those who rely on in-person visits only. Research findings were presented at the Scientific Forum of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2022. During the early months of the COVID pandemic, when everything shut down, telemedicine became an effective tool to reach patients. Building on those successes, more hospitals and clinics are implementing telehealth technology into their patient care practices.  

Telehealth consists of an at-home interactive video and audio telecommunications system, allowing real-time connection between patients, nurses, and doctors. One major benefit to patients is that they avoid the trouble of travel to and from an appointment at a distant hospital or clinic. 

“Low access to transportation is the number one reason for patient no-show visits.* Telemedicine is a feasible way for us to reach out to patients who would otherwise have a lot of barriers to access the healthcare system,” said lead study author Connie Shao, MD, a general surgery resident at the University of Alabama Birmingham.  

“Maintaining routine healthcare such as clinic visits helps prevent emergent visits, which are typically at a point in time when a patient’s condition is much worse. Staying engaged with the healthcare system with timely care before and after surgery improves quality care, reduces costs for the patient, and helps ensure our patients are able to maintain a higher level of health.”  

Even so, little is known about telemedicine use among surgical patients. 

About the study  

For this analysis, researchers evaluated the association between telemedicine use and patient no-show visits. They looked at data collected from seven clinics at the University of Alabama Birmingham among a diverse population of patients, with an average age of 60, undergoing all types of surgery between January 2018 and December 2021. 

Researchers divided the patients into three categories:  

1. a historical control of in-person visits from January 2018 to March 2020 

2. a contemporary control of in-person visits from March 2020 to December 2021 

3. a contemporary group of patients scheduled for telemedicine visits between March 2020 to December 2021  

March 2020 was the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and, with that, a ramping up of telemedicine appointments. The three groups were compared for no-show visits.  

Key findings 

• Of the 553,475 total visits, 11.3% were no-shows. 

• Most clinic visits were in the historical control (54.1%), compared with contemporary control (41.5%), and telemedicine visits—which included audio only and video (4.4%  for both types). 

• The no-show rate was highest among in-person appointments (11.7%) compared to telemedicine visits (2.5%). 

• Telemedicine was effective at reducing no-show visits. Of the small group of telemedicine visits, a multivariable adjusted analysis found a reduction in odds by 79% of no-show visits.  

• No-show visits were also less common among older patients, those insured with Medicare, and the historical in-person visits from January 2018 to March 2020, compared with the contemporary in-person visits from March 2020 to December 2021.  

• Disparities in no-show visits exist. For all visits, male patients were 12% more likely to not complete the appointments than women. Black patients, compared with white patients, were 68% more likely to be no-shows, and Asian patients were 32% more likely to be no-shows.  

• Compared with private insurance, Medicaid patients were twice as likely to not complete the appointment. And patients from counties with a higher Social Vulnerability Index were 13% more likely to not complete the appointment. 

Addressing the digital divide for patients  

“Hopefully with the convenience of telemedicine now, the only bridge that we have to cross is the digital divide. We’ve partnered with a grassroots community program to train people in our community, especially older and more vulnerable people, on how to use telemedicine,” Dr. Shao said. “We can help keep these patients engaged in the healthcare system without having to take up their entire day to come and see us in the hospital.” 

Giving all patients the option to use telehealth services may be of great benefit to surgical patients in the future. Dr. Shao is also developing best practice guidelines for the use of telemedicine for different surgical specialties during the post-surgery period.  

“Telemedicine interventions such as training patients and offering more low-tech options, such as audio only, especially for patients who live far away, is an easier option. Some care is better than no care. And it’s far better for us to get some information at a telemedicine visit to take care of our patients in a timely interval than to wait to see the patient later on when they are sicker and have to be admitted to a hospital,” Dr. Shao said. “There is a time and place to use telemedicine. It certainly is an intervention worth considering to reduce no-show visits and to improve quality care across the board.” 

The main limitation of the study is that the populations that are using telehealth technology are more likely, in general, to show up for a clinic visit (patients with better health literacy and access to the healthcare system disproportionately benefit from telemedicine).  Future studies that incorporate telemedicine training into patient visits will eliminate this confounding.  

The study was supported by the ACS and the University of Alabama Birmingham Health Services and Outcomes Research Group.  

Study coauthors are Marshall C. McLeod, PhD; Andy Hare, BS; Isabel C. Marques, MD; Lauren Gleason, MD, MSPH; Burkely P. Smith, MD; Eric L. Wallace, MD, FACS; and Daniel I. Chu, MD, FACS.   

Citation: Shao C, et al. Telemedicine Associated with Decreased No-show Visits among Surgical Specialties, Scientific Forum, American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2022.    

________________________ 

* Mieloszyk RJ, Rosenbaum JI, Hall CS, et al. Environmental Factors Predictive of No-Show Visits in Radiology: Observations of Three Million Outpatient Imaging Visits Over 16 Years, J Am Coll Radiol, 2016; 16 (4,B) 554-559.  

# # #  

About the American College of Surgeons 
The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and improve the quality of care for all surgical patients. The College is dedicated to the ethical and competent practice of surgery. Its achievements have significantly influenced the course of scientific surgery in America and have established it as an important advocate for all surgical patients. The College has more than 84,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. "FACS" designates that a surgeon is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. 

Patients with clinical depression “stopped seeking treatment” during the COVID waves

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN COLLEGE OF NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

 

IMAGE: PATIENTS HOSPITALISED FOR DEPRESSION, GERMANY 2020 view more 

CREDIT: MAREIKE AICHHOLTZER

In the first study of its kind, German researchers have shown that the COVID pandemic saw a huge drop in the number of patients being admitted to hospital for clinical depression. Independently of these national statistics, the researchers found that the number of outpatients they dealt with increased over the same period in their department. As inpatient treatment offers more intensive levels of care, this implies that many patients did not receive care appropriate to their condition. It is not yet known if this shift in treatment is also seen in other countries.

The researchers, from the University Hospital in Frankfurt, looked at German national databases. They found that during the first COVID wave new hospitalisations for first time clinical depression dropped by 57.5%, from 13457 in January 2020 down to 5723 in April 2020. In the same period, the number of patients being hospitalised for recurrent depression dropped by 56.3%, from 22188 down to 9698.

Lead researcher, Dr Mareike Aichholzer said “We also saw a decrease in inpatient treatment of recurrent depression in our own hospital in Frankfurt. In addition to the stricter admission rules, this rather seemed to be due to a drop in demand from the patients themselves”.  

In contrast, the number of new outpatients being treated for clinical depression at the University Hospital in Frankfurt remained stable and the number of patients with recurrent depression showed a significant increase between 2019 and 2021.  However, Dr Aichholzer notes “This is data from a single centre, so we need to wait to see what other centres say”.

She continued, “The results indicate that patients who have repeatedly suffered from depression during their lives were less likely to be admitted to hospital during the pandemic. However, these patients are often so severely affected by depression that outpatient treatment alone is not sufficient to bring about a satisfactory improvement in symptoms. The result is that patients lose their quality of life in the long term. The actual reason for this observation is unclear. Although our study was not designed to identify the reasons for those changes, we however suspect that clinically depressed patients in particular withdraw more often from society/their friends/their family and that this behaviour was more common during the times of the lock-down and the strict hygiene guidelines. Moreover, we suspect, that clinically depressed patients avoided the hospital, because they were afraid of being infected with COVID-19 on the ward.

The data from our hospital in Frankfurt indicates that patients with clinical depression seem to have withdrawn themselves, rather than seeking adequate mental health help. To be prepared for the winter with potentially increasing COVID numbers, we have to provide easily accessible help and raise awareness for this topic”.

Clinical depression, also known as Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a serious mental illness, affecting more than 6% of Europeans at any one time. The majority of sufferers can be treated with pharmaceuticals and/or counselling, although a minority of patients don’t respond to treatment.

Commenting, Professor Brenda Penninx, Professor of psychiatric epidemiology at the Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre, Amsterdam, said:

“The figures found by the Frankfurt team confirm a familiar pattern. We have recently found that quite a few countries are beginning to report a decreased pattern of mental health care use during the first pandemic years. It is extremely important that in the next few years we follow whether postponed treatments may result in increased mental health problems. This also illustrates that mental health care deserves adequate clinical attention during future pandemics”. 

This is an independent comment, Professor Penninx was not involved in this research.

Notes

Poster P.0127  Impact of covid-19 on German treatment numbers of patients with depression – a gap in care for the mentally ill? (researchers M. Aichholzer, C. Schiweck, C.Uckermark, T.Hamzehloiya, C.Reif-Leonhard, A. Reif, and S. Edwin Thanarajah) will be presented at the 35th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual conference, which takes place in Vienna and online from 15-18 October, see https://www.ecnp.eu/Congress2022/ECNPcongress. Up to 5000 delegates are expected to attend. The ECNP is Europe’s main organisation working in applied neuroscience.

---

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Eating well and avoiding the news gave the best mental health outcomes during COVID

Reports and Proceedings

EUROPEAN COLLEGE OF NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY

 

IMAGE: HOW MUCH ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION DO BEHAVIORS PREVENT? view more 

CREDIT: JOAQUIM RADUA

A healthy diet and avoiding the news helped prevent anxiety and depression during COVID, even better than interacting with friends, following a routine, or pursuing hobbies. A preliminary finding about diet was published earlier this year and the final findings are presented at the ECNP conference in Vienna.

Dr Joaquim Radua led a team of Barcelona-based researchers who compared how various health activities could reduce anxiety and depression during the COVID pandemic.

He said: “We saw, of course, that the COVID-19 pandemic increased anxiety and depressive symptoms in the population. Health bodies recommended several behaviours to cope with them, but no studies had followed the effect of these behaviours on anxiety and depressive symptoms over time; there was no real evidence on how much they work. So we decided to test what worked best”.

The researchers followed 942 Spanish adults for one year. Every 2 weeks, the volunteers rated the frequency of 10 selected coping behaviours and noted their levels of anxiety and depression. At the end of the period, the researchers analysed which behaviours at a given time were associated with fewer anxiety/depressive symptoms in the subsequent four weeks.

They found that some of the behaviours monitored were associated with coping better during the COVID pandemic. These included following a healthy/balanced diet, not reading news updates about COVID too often, physical exercise, staying outdoors, and drinking water. On the other hand, some behaviours that had been generally thought to be beneficial, such as talking with relatives or friends, or following a hobby, had a smaller influence on the mental health outcomes investigated in this study.

Dr Radua said, “This was a little surprising. Like many people, we had assumed that personal contact would play a bigger part in avoiding anxiety and depression during stressful times. The relationships between behaviours and symptoms were difficult to tease out because we were looking at what happens over time rather than just at a single moment of analysis. For example, in a previous pilot study, we found that those who followed a hobby showed less anxiety and depression. However, we did not know whether people first do hobbies and then feel relaxed/happy. Or conversely, people first feel relaxed/happy, and then these feelings make them follow hobbies. We wondered if, rather than the hobbies preventing depression, we were seeing that those who get depressed give up their hobbies. We also needed to correct the effect of past symptoms on future symptoms”.

He continued, “This shows what makes this study unique: it is based on evidence gathered over a long follow-up. We think it’s important that people continue to follow what works for them and that if you enjoy seeing friends or following a hobby, you continue to do so. However, on the basis of these results, we recommend that everybody follows a healthy/balanced diet, avoids watching stressful news too often, spends more time outdoors, does relaxing activities, and does physical exercise. Our work was centred on COVID, but we now need to see if these factors apply to other stressful circumstances. These simple behaviours may prevent anxiety and depression, and prevention is better than cure”.

 

Commenting, Professor Catherine Harmer, Director of the Psychopharmacology and Emotional Research Lab (PERL) at the University Department of Psychiatry in Oxford said:

“This is an interesting study focused on the kinds of coping behaviours that were associated with reduced depression and anxiety over a year of the covid-19 pandemic.  A strength of the study is that it collected responses repeatedly in the same individuals, every 2 weeks, for a year.  The authors then looked at which behaviours were most associated with depression and anxiety over the next 4 weeks (that is which predicted change in symptoms).  The results suggested that healthy eating, avoiding stressful news, drinking water, staying outdoors and taking part in relaxing activities showed a protective effect on mental health during this stressful period.  Interestingly, social contact and hobbies were less important than previously thought.

This study provides some important insights as to which  behaviours may protect our mental health during times of significant stress.  Future work is needed to test whether these associations are causal - is it these behaviours which cause improvements in mood or could it be the other way around - as we feel better we start to engage more positively with our environment?”

Professor Harmer was not involved in this work; this is an independent comment.

This work is presented at the 35th European College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual conference, which takes place in Vienna and online from 15-18 October. Up to 5000 delegates are expected to attend. The ECNP is Europe’s main organisation working in applied neuroscience. see https://www.ecnp.eu/Congress2022/ECNPcongress.

---

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

The more specifics people have on potential dangers, the less fearful they become

Providing detailed information on probabilities can reduce fear of negative outcomes, according to new UC San Diego research

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the personal and social importance as well as the challenges of estimating risks. New research from the University of California San Diego sheds light on how people perceive risks, finding that detailed knowledge of probabilities can make risks seem less risky.

For example, if people are informed that 27% of the population carries at least one copy of a  gene that can cause Alzheimer’s Disease, they may worry they have that gene. However, if you specify that this occurs because 25% have one copy of the gene and 2% have two copies of the gene, the subjective perception of risk becomes less urgent. Yet, it is still true that 27% of people carry a gene that could lead to Alzheimer. 

“There’s something about learning those individual probabilities that shifts the way you think about the risk and causes you to actually reduce your estimate it will occur,” said Uma R. Karmarkar, study co-author and assistant professor of marketing and innovation at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management and School of Global Policy and Strategy.

The robust results, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, are based on findings that were replicated in more than a dozen different experiments with more than 1,500 participants living across the U.S. 

In one experiment, 390 subjects who participated in the study via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform were assigned into three groups. All groups were provided with the information that “every single person has a 58% chance of getting a flea bite that causes a newly discovered bacterial infection.” Then, two groups were given more specific information. One group saw that the bites could come from various types of fleas and this caused them to think a flea bite was more likely. A different group saw the various types of fleas, and the probability of a bite from each type–receiving the explicit probability information led them to perceive the initial warning as less likely to happen. 

“Giving all those independent reasons with their probabilities may seem like it would enhance a recognition of how important an event is, but can actually diminish the overall risk,” Karmarkar said. “When this happens, the ‘unlikelihood effect’ comes into play. One thing that this means is that providing specific information on probabilities can help alleviate fear of negative outcomes.”

While the study focused on health risks, the authors also tested the theory using potential positive outcomes, such as winning a lottery. Alongside the overall probability of hitting the jackpot, some subjects received supplementary information, such as “if I pull a colored ball from this urn, you’ll win 50 dollars.” This additional information made subjects perceive themselves as less likely to win. In positive scenarios, the “unlikelihood effect” still holds.

Karmakar notes that how institutions and policymakers provide information about health risks has become increasingly crucial. 

“When communicating about risks, it’s important to be mindful of the goals of providing such information and what behaviors it is intended to drive,” she said. “This research can help policymakers refine their messaging to make sure their communications are impactful.”  

The paper “The Unlikelihood Effect: When Knowing More Creates the Perception of Less” is co-authored by Daniella Kupor of the Questrom School of Business at Boston University. 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Experimental Psychology

DOI

10.1037/xge0001306 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Unlikelihood Effect: When Knowing More Creates the Perception of Less

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Oct-2022

New study investigates how beliefs and political affiliations shape the public’s understanding about racial inequalities

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

A recently released study coauthored by a Syracuse University researcher reveals how beliefs and political affiliations shape the public’s understanding about racial inequalities.

The paper, “Historical information and beliefs about racial inequality,” was released earlier this year and published in the academic journal Politics, Groups, and Identities.

The researchers—Steven White, Assistant Professor, Syracuse University, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, and Albert Fang, an independent scholar based in New York City—evaluated if learning about historical events, and especially the roots of racist politics and practices in America, impact people’s beliefs about systematic racial inequality.

They analyzed data from two key studies that surveyed adults who were randomly assigned to learn about the effects of systematic housing, education, and job discrimination that has negatively impacted Black communities throughout the United States.  

According to Fang and White, they “find compelling evidence that such arguments can increase beliefs in the existence of Black-white racial inequality and increase beliefs in structural causes of racial inequality, particularly among white Republicans and Independents.” They also find evidence that such information can reduce racial resentment among these groups.

The researchers say this demonstrates that exposure to historical information can induce more nuanced thinking about contemporary racial inequalities in the United States.

The researchers conclude that more study is needed for more questions arising from the research. First, they did not observe consistent effects, especially among white Republicans, of historical information on both beliefs about racial inequality's existence and beliefs in various structural causes of racial inequality. 

“We suspect this reflects differences between acknowledging a problem, acknowledging the causes of a problem, and agreeing on the solution. This suggests that even if more Americans acknowledge that racial inequality exists, agreeing on solutions to meaningfully redress it may be more difficult,” the researchers write in the paper.

Reporters looking to connect with the authors of the report, please contact Ellen James Mbuqe, executive director of media relations at Syracuse University, at 412-496-0551 or ejmbuqe@syr.edu.

 

---

JOURNAL

Politics Groups and Identities

DOI

10.1080/21565503.2022.2104167 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Historical information and beliefs about racial inequality

PRICE GOUGING IS CAPITALI$M

First a disaster. Then a surge in prices

UTA researchers work to predict and counter reconstruction demand surge after disasters

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

 

IMAGE: MOHSEN SHAHANDASHTI view more 

CREDIT: UT ARLINGTON

a natural disaster comes the demand surge. The cost of materials and labor needed for reconstruction rises dramatically. This slows down the rebuilding process and may prevent many people, especially those in vulnerable communities, from rebuilding at all.

Mohsen Shahandashti, associate professor of civil engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington, recently received a three-year, $250,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to develop methods to measure, model and conduct community vulnerability assessments to determine what construction gaps exist so they can prepare for and mitigate demand surge in future disasters. Mahmut Yasar, a professor of economics in the College of Business, is co-principal investigator.

“I know disasters and the build environment, and Dr. Yasar is an expert in economics and human factors. It’s really exciting to be able to study this fundamental problem from both sides of the issue and come up with solutions that will help communities rebuild faster and at lower cost,” Shahandashti said.

The team will address fundamental limitations of existing demand surge models in multiple ways:

• creating non-hazard baselines for housing construction cost variations
• developing a measurement method for quantifying post-disaster construction cost escalations
• creating models to represent the housing reconstruction demand surge
• assessing housing reconstruction vulnerability of communities
• quantifying the impacts of disaster-related policies on housing reconstruction

The greatest costs of rebuilding after a disaster are construction-related materials and labor, Shahandashti said. Some materials are used immediately, while others aren’t needed until later. Costs for some materials may rise immediately, while others may increase in price later as they become less available.

“When we get our results, we can create models to test how demand and needs will actually happen,” he said. “We’ll look not only at whether or not costs change, but why. The results of these models will allow community leaders to evaluate policies to help mitigate demand surge and benefit the citizens of the affected communities.”

• Written by Jeremy Agor, College of Engineering

Breedbase software to help speed crop improvement

New open-source software can help plant breeders make crops more resistant to pests, pathogens, drought, floods and more. These crop improvements will be essential to help feed the world in the current era of population growth and climate change

BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTE

 BTI’s Lukas Mueller and Nicolas Morales in the Institute’s server room.
Credit: Image credit: Boyce Thompson Institute.

ITHACA, NY - To help plant breeders speed crop improvement around the world, Lukas Mueller of the Boyce Thompson Institute worked with an international team of 57 people to create Breedbase, a database software that was described in the July issue of G3.

“In the current era of population growth and climate change, plant breeding needs to be faster to ensure crops survive new pests and pathogens that are expanding their ranges, as well as unpredictable weather patterns,” said Mueller.

Plant breeding is the process by which people improve plant traits, such as increasing yield or making them resistant to disease. Breeders and farmers traditionally have done this by crossing plants that have desirable traits, like larger and tastier fruit. But traditional plant breeding is a long and slow process, taking generations to achieve results.

In today’s genomics era, plant breeding has undergone drastic changes. In an approach termed “Genomic Selection,” breeders determine the genomic properties of plant lines and correlate them with traits, which allows them to predict traits based on genomic information. Plant breeders make decisions based on these predictions much faster than they would with the traditional approach of growing and observing the plants. 

However, genomic approaches generate massive amounts of data that can be challenging to manage, especially for smaller breeding programs in developing countries. To be of use to breeders and researchers, the data need to be stored in specialized databases with precise organization, data management, quality control and analytics.

Up until now, plant breeders and researchers have typically collected data in non-standardized ways using spreadsheets, making it difficult to organize, share and analyze data with each other.

“Breedbase solves these problems by creating a common data language, and a free data tracking system that will change the way plant breeders communicate and archive all important breeding data,” says Nicolas Morales, a graduate student in Mueller’s group.

“Clear, organized data management and analysis is crucial to successful and efficient plant breeding. In order to grow plants that feed people in a nutritious and healthy way, plant breeding data management needs to be simplified, standardized and accessible to everyone who needs it,” says Mueller, who is also an adjunct professor at Cornell University’s School of Integrative Plant Science.

In addition to storing data, Breedbase includes algorithms that a breeder could run, such as predicting whether a plant variety has a particular trait, such as disease resistance or high yield.

“Breedbase makes complicated things easy. It’s like a giant tool box with all the tools you need in one central place,” says Morales, who is co-first author of the paper with former Mueller graduate student Alex Ogbonna.

A key component of Breedbase is the Breeding Application Programming Interface (BrAPI), which standardizes how data are collected. This standardization allows plant breeders to more easily exchange data among disparate databases and computer-based breeding tools. For example, if a person wants to collect data in the field and has no internet connection, they can collect data on a tablet using an app, and then download the data to a database when they return to their computer, using a BrAPI interface behind the scenes.

Importantly, everything is standardized, so that a farmer growing corn in Iowa and another farmer growing corn in Africa will be able to easily share their data with each other, speeding up discoveries to improve crop traits.

“Empowering plant breeders in developing countries allows even smaller breeding programs to leverage genomic information to make breeding selections and help feed the world,” says Mueller.

Breedbase is based on Cassavabase, which the Mueller Lab developed with NextGen Cassava, a project that brought cassava breeding to the next level at institutions in Africa and uses cutting-edge tools to efficiently deliver improved varieties of cassava.

In addition to cassava, at least 50 crop databases already use Breedbase, including yam, bananas, sweet potato, rice, tomatoes and carrots.

About Boyce Thompson Institute:

Opened in 1924, Boyce Thompson Institute is a premier life sciences research institution located in Ithaca, New York. BTI scientists conduct investigations into fundamental plant and life sciences research with the goals of increasing food security, improving environmental sustainability in agriculture, and making basic discoveries that will enhance human health. Throughout this work, BTI is committed to inspiring and educating students and to providing advanced training for the next generation of scientists. BTI is an independent nonprofit research institute that is also affiliated with Cornell University. For more information, please visit BTIscience.org.

Sexual and gender minorities assigned male at birth have higher odds of partner violence

Young bisexual, transgender and low-income individuals are most at risk of psychological and physical victimization, according to a Rutgers study

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

Intimate partner violence is chronic among young sexual and gender minorities assigned male at birth (YSGM-AMAB), with bisexual, transgender and lower-income people in this group having the highest likelihood of victimization, a Rutgers study has found.

“Our findings demonstrate just how common and chronic intimate partner violence is for young gender and sexual minorities,” said Marybec Griffin, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy at Rutgers School of Public Health and coauthor of the study, which was published online ahead of print in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence September issue.

“The common perception is that violence happens only once,” Griffin said. “But victims stay a long time in relationships where there is violence occurring for a number of reasons, and those most vulnerable to this cycle are economic, social and sexual minority groups.”

To determine how chronic and prevalent intimate partner violence is among this group of individuals and to determine whether sociodemographic characteristics have an effect, researchers surveyed 665 young people in New York City.

Data was drawn from Project 18, an ongoing cohort study funded by the National Institutes of Health that began in 2014. Participants recruited in two waves were between ages 18 and 24, self-reported being assigned male at birth, had sex with a male partner in the previous six months and were HIV-negative.

Participants were asked about their gender identity, race and ethnicity, sexual identity and income and education levels.

Nearly half of the participants (47.1 percent) reported being the victim of intimate partner violence in the past year. Psychological violence was the most common form of victimization reported, at 37.6 percent, followed by sexual violence (22.1 percent) and physical violence (19.5 percent). Psychological violence was the most common form of perpetration.

Bisexual, transgender and lower income participants were more likely to report victimization, while participants who were Asian and Pacific Islanders, bisexual, transgender and lower income were more likely to report perpetration of intimate partner violence.

Transgender participants were more likely to report severe psychological or minor and severe injury victimization than cisgender participants. Bisexual participants were more likely to report severe injury and severe sexual victimization than gay participants.

Participants who made less than $5,000 annually (34.6 percent of the sample) were more likely to report severe injury and minor and severe sexual victimization than participants who earned more than $5,000.

The findings suggest that intimate partner violence “is a prevalent and chronic health problem” for many young sexual and gender minorities assigned male at birth and reveal “sociodemographic disparities in [intimate partner violence] experiences in this historically-marginalized group …reflecting larger systems of oppression and privilege in our society,” the researchers noted in the study.

Griffin said the data should be used to develop intimate partner violence prevention and intervention programs and to develop and strengthen education and health policies.

“The takeaway from our work is that the range of people experiencing intimate partner violence is shockingly high, and that for sexual and gender minorities, the violence is often repeated,” Griffin said.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Interpersonal Violence

DOI

10.1177/08862605211021985 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Sociodemographic Differences in Intimate Partner Violence Prevalence, Chronicity, and Severity Among Young Sexual and Gender Minorities Assigned Male at Birth: The P18 Cohort Study

UTA project monitors Texas Gulf Coast climate hazards

Hummel leads effort to help coastal region develop plan for environmental hazards

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON

 

IMAGE: MICHELLE HUMMEL view more 

CREDIT: UT ARLINGTON

A University of Texas at Arlington civil engineer is leading an interdisciplinary team to help Texas coastal communities and nonprofit organizations better monitor climate and industrial changes in their neighborhoods.

Michelle Hummel, assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, is leading a $2.4 million National Science Foundation-funded project titled “SCC-IRG Track 1: Enabling Smart Cities in Coastal Regions of Environmental and Industrial Change: Building Adaptive Capacity Through Sociotechnical Networks on the Texas Gulf Coast.”

Co-principal investigators include Yonghe Liu, associate professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering; Karabi Bezboruah, associate professor of public affairs in the College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA); Oswald Jenewein, assistant professor of architecture in CAPPA; and Kathryn Masten, president and CEO of Maritimatix, a consulting firm that specializes in maritime informatics.

“This integrative research grant will apply a mixed-methods approach to assess how sociotechnical networks can be leveraged to build adaptive capacity in the Coastal Bend region of Texas, where communities are facing pressing environmental and industrial threats,” Hummel said. “Given the prevalence of environmental hazards like flooding and erosion and the proximity to energy, chemical and refining industries, it is imperative that the region has a plan.”

The project aims to strengthen multidisciplinary links among technical and social science professionals from academia, government agencies and community groups. The team will develop and deploy real-time environmental sensors to monitor air and water quality and to collect data on potential hazards and impacts.

“We want to provide our partner communities with usable data to strengthen sustainable planning and policies that benefit residents and the environment,” Hummel said.

The project will use the networking power of community-based organizations to assess how to best serve residents of the Coastal Bend. Community workshops and symposia will provide opportunities to evaluate and refine the solutions the research team develops.

“We aim to develop a framework for the collection, analysis and application of data that can be transferred to other communities and regions facing similar environmental and industrial challenges,” Hummel said.

Melanie Sattler, interim chair and professor in the Department of Civil Engineering, said this multidisciplinary project illustrates the far-reaching impact that university research can have on the world.

“This project will engage so many sectors to help coastal regions everywhere,” Sattler said. “Co-developing the research approach with the communities themselves is integral to the success of the project, as these are the people most impacted when something goes wrong. Bringing them into the data-gathering process to find solutions is great.”

Hummel said this project builds on a 2021 one-year planning grant that focused on one community in the Coastal Bend.

“As a result of our work and team-building efforts during our planning grant, we applied for and received this larger four-year, integrative research grant,” she said. “We will be working in the same area but expanding our reach to engage a diverse set of communities and nonprofits throughout the region.”