Advanced light source upgrade approved to start construction

Berkeley Lab’s biggest project in three decades now moves from planning to execution. The ALS upgrade will make brighter beams for research into new materials, chemical reactions, and biological processes

Business Announcement

DOE/LAWRENCE BERKELEY NATIONAL LABORATORY

 

IMAGE: THE UPGRADE TO THE ADVANCED LIGHT SOURCE AT BERKELEY LAB WILL ADD TWO NEW PARTICLE ACCELERATOR RINGS WITHIN THE ICONIC BUILDING’S FOOTPRINT. view more 

CREDIT: THOR SWIFT/BERKELEY LAB

The Advanced Light Source (ALS), a scientific user facility at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), has received federal approval to start construction on an upgrade that will boost the brightness of its X-ray beams at least a hundredfold. 

“The ALS upgrade is an amazing engineering undertaking that is going to give us an even more powerful scientific tool,” said Berkeley Lab Director Michael Witherell. “I can’t wait to see the many ways researchers use it to improve the world and tackle some of the biggest challenges facing society today.”

Scientists will use the upgraded ALS for research spanning biology; chemistry; physics; and materials, energy, and environmental sciences. The brighter, more laser-like light will help experts better understand what’s happening at extremely small scales as reactions and processes take place. These insights can have a huge array of applications, such as improving batteries and clean energy technologies, creating new materials for sensors and computing, and investigating biological matter to develop better medicines.

“That’s the wonderful thing about the ALS: The applications are so broad and the impact is so profound,” said Dave Robin, the project director for the ALS upgrade. “What really excites me every day is knowing that, when it’s complete, the ALS upgrade will enable researchers to make scientific advances in many different areas for the next 30 to 40 years.”

The DOE approval, known as Critical Decision 3 (CD-3), formally releases funds for purchasing, building, and installing upgrades to the ALS. This includes constructing an entirely new storage ring and accumulator ring, building four feature (two new and two upgraded) beamlines, and installing seismic and shielding upgrades for the concrete structure housing the equipment. The $590 million project is the biggest investment at Berkeley Lab since the ALS was built in 1993. 

“Our team has spent years designing every single magnet, vacuum system component, RF [radio-frequency] cavity, power supply, and the rest of the custom design,” said Robbie Leftwich-Vann, Berkeley Lab’s project manager for the upgrade. “It’s exciting to get off the paper and into the world of installing things and making it real.”

Brighter beams, better science

The ALS generates X-rays by circulating electrons through a 600-foot-circumference storage ring. As the electrons travel through this series of magnets, they radiate light along beamlines to stations where researchers conduct experiments. The light comes in many wavelengths, but the ALS specializes in “soft” X-rays that reveal the electronic, magnetic, and chemical properties of materials. 

The upgraded ALS will use a new storage ring with more advanced magnets that can better steer and focus the electrons, in turn creating brighter, tighter beams of light. This will squeeze the X-ray beams from about 100 microns (thousandths of a millimeter) to only a few microns wide, meaning researchers can image their samples with even finer resolution and over shorter timescales. It’s like switching from a cell phone camera in dim light to a top-of-the-line high-speed camera in vivid daylight.

“With the upgrade, we’ll be able to routinely study how samples change in 3D – something that is currently very difficult to do,” said Andreas Scholl, a physicist at Berkeley Lab and the interim division director for the ALS. “One of our goals is to find and develop the materials that will be essential for the next generation of technologies in areas like energy storage and computing.”

With 40 beamlines and more than 1,600 users per year, the ALS supports a variety of research. For example, researchers can look at how microbes break down toxins, study how substances interact to produce better solar cells or biofuels, and test magnetic materials that could have applications in microelectronics. Teams will build two new beamlines optimized to take advantage of the improved light, and realign and upgrade several existing beamlines.

One crucial element of the upgrade already underway is a second ring known as the accumulator, which will take electrons made by the accelerator complex and prepare them for the new storage ring. Construction began on the accumulator in 2020 with a special advance approval known as CD-3a. By installing and testing the accumulator first, teams can minimize how long ALS operations will be paused to complete the upgrade.

A cutaway view of the Advanced Light Source shows the new accumulator and storage ring that will be installed during the ALS Upgrade project.

CREDIT

Berkeley Lab

This animation shows a section of storage ring traveling through the accelerator tunnel. The accumulator ring is visible at the bottom. Simulations ensure all the different pieces of the upgrade will be able to travel in and out of the cramped space.

CREDIT

Christopher Bullock/Berkeley Lab

 

The beam profile of Berkeley Lab’s Advanced Light Source today (left), compared to the highly focused beam (right) that will be available after the upgrade.

CREDIT

Berkeley Lab

Building a ship in a bottle

If you’ve ever tried to maneuver large furniture into a second-floor apartment, you understand a taste of what installing the new ALS storage ring will involve.

“The biggest challenge for ALS-U is space,” said Daniela Leitner, who leads the removal and installation team for the project. “We are literally measuring whether we can put a hand into a particular area.”

Many elements in the accelerator tunnel can’t be moved, including the new accumulator ring that will run along the inner tunnel wall. Experts have used extensive modeling and simulations to make sure that the current storage ring can be safely removed along designated access paths and replaced with the new rafts of magnets.

Over the next three years, teams will procure and build all of the pieces for the new storage ring and other improvements. With everything prepared, the ALS will enter roughly one year of “dark time” for installation and initial commissioning.

“When the accelerator shuts down, the clock starts,” Leitner said. “Things need to run like a choreographed ballet.”

Four teams working in parallel will strip out the current ALS storage ring. That means moving almost 500 tons of equipment, including magnets, cables, and support girders (which will need to be plasma cut into three pieces before they can be extracted). Then they’ll move in 500 tons of state-of-the-art equipment, carefully connect all the components, and bring an improved ALS back to life. It will then be the most intense source of coherent (laser-like) soft x-rays in the world.

“Preparing for this upgrade has been a lab-wide effort that is going to have a great impact on the scientific community,” Witherell said. “I congratulate the entire ALS-U team on their commitment and hard work.”

The Advanced Light Source is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

More on ALS-U:

• Overview: The Advanced Light Source Upgrade (ALS-U) project
• VIDEO: Toward a New Light: ALS Upgrade Project Moves Forward

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Founded in 1931 on the belief that the biggest scientific challenges are best addressed by teams, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and its scientists have been recognized with 16 Nobel Prizes. Today, Berkeley Lab researchers develop sustainable energy and environmental solutions, create useful new materials, advance the frontiers of computing, and probe the mysteries of life, matter, and the universe. Scientists from around the world rely on the Lab’s facilities for their own discovery science. Berkeley Lab is a multiprogram national laboratory, managed by the University of California for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

DOE’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.

Study: teachers experienced more anxiety than healthcare and other workers during the pandemic

Teachers were 40 percent more likely to report anxiety than healthcare workers

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATION

Washington, November 15, 2022—Teachers experienced significantly more anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic than healthcare, office, and other workers, according to new research released today. Those teaching remotely reported substantially higher rates of depression and feelings of isolation than those teaching in person. The study, published in Educational Researcher, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Educational Research Association, was conducted by Joseph M. Kush at James Madison University and Elena Badillo Goicoechea, Rashelle J. Musci, and Elizabeth A. Stuart at Johns Hopkins University.

The authors found that U.S. teachers were 40 percent more likely to report anxiety symptoms than healthcare workers, 20 percent more likely than office workers, and 30 percent more likely than workers in other occupations, such as military, farming, and legal professions. Among teachers, those who taught remotely were 60 percent more likely to report feelings of isolation than their in-person peers. Female teachers were 70 percent more likely to experience anxiety than male teachers.

“Even before the pandemic, teacher well-being was a major concern for school leaders,” said Kush, an assistant professor of graduate psychology at James Madison University. “Our results demonstrate just how stressful the pandemic has been for teachers, especially those who are female and those who taught remotely.”

Kush said he and his co-authors were surprised that teachers reported significantly higher rates of anxiety than healthcare workers. “We would have guessed healthcare workers battling COVID-19 on the front lines during a public health crisis would display the most anxiety,” said Kush.

The authors also found that, in comparison to teachers, healthcare workers were less likely to report depression and feelings of isolation, although the size of the difference was small.

“Although our study didn’t examine the reasons behind teachers’ anxiety levels,” Kush said, “we might expect particularly high levels of stress due to the uncertainty over how schools were planning to provide instruction, abrupt changes to lesson plans and teaching methods for remote-learning environments, and the rapid adoption of new technologies.”

Across all occupations, women were 90 percent more likely than men to have anxiety and 40 percent more likely to experience depression. Women were also 20 percent more likely to have feelings of isolation.

To examine the mental health of pre-K–12 teachers and professionals in other occupations, the authors used data collected from adult participants between September 8, 2020, and March 28, 2021, from the U.S. COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey, a large national online survey developed by Carnegie Mellon University’s Delphi Group and Facebook. The survey respondents, who included nearly 3 million employed individuals, including 130,000 teachers, were asked to rate whether they had felt symptoms of anxiety, depression, and isolation during the previous seven days.

According to the authors, their study is the first to empirically assess teacher mental health during the pandemic using a large national dataset, with the results highly generalizable to teachers across the U.S. 

Kush said the findings show the need for tools and programs to support and safeguard the mental health of teachers and consistent lines of communication among school leaders, teachers, staff, and students.

“Teachers’ well-being ultimately impacts their ability to effectively teach,” said Kush. “When teachers feel supported, it boosts retention and student learning outcomes. Their voices must be included in decision-making processes, as their well-being is paramount for effective learning environments.” 

The authors noted that more data and analyses will be needed to assess how long lasting the impact of the pandemic will be on teachers’ well-being.

Study Citation: Kush, J. M., Badillo Goicoechea, E., Musci, R. J., & Stuart, E. A. (2022). Teacher mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Educational Researcher. Prepublished November 15, 2022. https://www.doi.org/10.3102/0013189X221134281.

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About AERA
The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the largest national interdisciplinary research association devoted to the scientific study of education and learning. Founded in 1916, AERA advances knowledge about education, encourages scholarly inquiry related to education, and promotes the use of research to improve education and serve the public good. Find AERA on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

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JOURNAL

Educational Researcher

DOI

10.3102/0013189X221134281 

ARTICLE TITLE

Teacher Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

15-Nov-2022

‘Bike boxes’ can improve urban intersections for cyclists, Oregon State research shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: DEPICTION OF A BIKE BOX. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE PROVIDED BY DAVID HURWITZ, OSU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

CORVALLIS, Ore. – A roadway setup known as the “bike box,” a painted-off area for bicyclists at the front of an intersection, can help them stay safe at urban, signalized intersections, research by the Oregon State University College of Engineering indicates.

The findings, published in Accident Analysis & Prevention, are important because the number of cyclists killed in collisions with motor vehicles is on the rise, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and nearly half of all bicycle-car crashes happen at intersections.

In 2020, the latest year for which numbers are available, 932 bicyclists in the United States were killed in collisions with motor vehicles, the agency’s data show – an 8.9% increase from the 856 killed in 2019. And according to the National Safety Council, another group that tracks bicycle fatality data, deaths from bicycle transportation incidents have increased 44% in the last decade.

David Hurwitz, a transportation engineering professor at Oregon State, and Logan Scott-Deeter, a civil engineering graduate research assistant, led the study in conjunction with Brendan Russo of Northern Arizona University.

The project employed a bicycling simulator that replicates traffic conditions to examine the safety enhancement ability of three types of intersection treatments – a mixing zone, bicycle signals and the bike box.

In a mixing zone, the bike lane goes away just before an intersection and is replaced by other lane markings including “sharrows” that indicate bicycles will be sharing a lane with cars seeking to cross the former bike lane area to execute a right turn.

A bicycle signal, as its name suggests, is a traffic light specific to bikes; when the signal turns green, the bicyclist is free to cross the intersection.

With the bike box treatment, the idea is to use paint to box off the front of the intersection from cars, essentially holding them back so bicycles in the bike lane get a head start through the intersection and are more visible to motorists.

Hurwitz, Scott-Deeter, Russo and Sirisha Kothuri of Portland State University put 40 research subjects through multiple scenarios in the simulator for each intersection treatment – the riders pedaled a stationary bike in front of a large screen displaying the roadway, scenery, vehicles, etc.

To measure how well each design worked for each rider, the researchers administered a survey, tracked the subjects’ eye movements, measured stress levels and the charted the paths the riders took.

The conclusion: Among the treatments studied, the bike box was the most versatile, providing a balance of increased safety while also requiring the rider to perceive potential danger and be ready to respond accordingly, the researchers note.

“Time-space measurements showed that the mixing zone treatment correlated with the most unpredictable riding behaviors,” Hurwitz said. “With a bicycle signal, analysis of the participants’ eye movements revealed a lower rate of detecting a potential conflict vehicle. The bike box proved the most effective treatment for encouraging safe riding habits while also providing enhanced safety for bicyclists at signalized intersections.”

The mixing zone treatment “created the most discomfort” among the riders, the paper notes, but also made them the most careful.

“The mixing zone has potential as a treatment if we are limited by available right of way for other design alternatives,” Scott-Deeter said. “Positioning data indicate cyclists are willing to merge with the traffic, but the sporadic and unpredictable riding habits associated with a mixing zone may expose bicyclists to higher risk.”

A bicycle signal gave riders the highest levels of comfort, but they tended to assume the signals would protect them and thus showed less caution, including making fewer eye movements to help ensure they weren’t riding into danger.

“That might increase the risk of crashing with errant drivers,” Hurwitz said. “The eye-tracking data clearly showed reduced vigilance in searching for potential conflicts at the intersections. Thus we’d recommend installing bicycle signals only when there is a clear need for them.”

The Oregon Department of Transportation supported this study, based on research for ODOT’s Impacts of Intersection Treatments and Traffic Characteristics on Bicyclist Safety report.

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JOURNAL

Accident Analysis & Prevention

DOI

10.1016/j.aap.2022.106877 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Assessing the impact of three intersection treatments on bicyclist safety using a bicycling simulator

Multilevel brain atlases provide tools for better diagnosis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HUMAN BRAIN PRO

 

IMAGE: THE JULICH BRAIN ATLAS FORMS A CENTERPIECE OF THE OPEN ACCESS MULTILEVEL HUMAN BRAIN ATLAS OF THE DIGITAL RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE EBRAINS, WHICH HAS BEEN BUILT BY THE HUMAN BRAIN PROJECT (HBP). view more 

CREDIT: AMUNTS K, MOHLBERG H, BLUDAU S, ZILLES K. (2020) JULICH-BRAIN: A 3D PROBABILISTIC ATLAS OF THE HUMAN BRAIN'S CYTOARCHITECTURE. SCIENCE 369: 988-992

The multilevel Julich Brain Atlas developed by researchers in the Human Brain Project, could help in studying psychiatric and aging disorders by correlating brain networks with their underlying anatomical structure. By mapping microarchitecture with unprecedented levels of detail, the atlas allows for better understanding of brain connectivity and function. Researchers of the HBP have provided an overview of the Julich Brain Atlas in the journal Biological Psychiatry. The paper focuses on the cytoarchitecture and receptor architecture of the human brain, and how to apply the atlas in the field of psychiatric research.

Cytoarchitecture, the study of the distribution, density and morphology of cells in the nervous system, has a long standing history in brain mapping. Neuroscientists first noticed structural differences between areas of the cortex back in the late 1800s and started dividing it into distinct areas. The areas have been considered important correlates with brain function and dysfunction. In addition to the cellular architecture, the Julich Brain Atlas also includes maps of the distribution of receptors for the neurotransmitters which modulate brain activity. Neurotransmitter receptors differ not only between areas, but also between the different layers of an area and thus are closely related to its connectivity pattern, and relevant for its role in larger networks. Based on the data collected from post mortem brains, the atlas accounts for the naturally occurring variability between subjects by producing probabilistic maps in 3D spaces instead of the map of an individual brain only.

The Julich Brain Atlas is a “living” atlas that grows with new insights into the parcellation of the brain constantly being integrated. It is linked to other maps, e.g., coming from studies of fiber tracts in the living human brain. Such macroscopic and microscopic data are integrated in the HBP’s Multilevel Human Brain Atlas, which is openly accessible on the EBRAINS digital research infrastructure through the siibra software tool suite.

The researchers listed recent use cases of the tools in different peer-reviewed studies. Users can, for example, analyse and share high-resolution imaging data and compare it with fMRI datasets. They can look into the cytoarchitecture of a certain region and its connectivity, both within itself and with other regions. With a special tool called JuGEX, the maps can be linked to gene expression data from the Allen Brain Atlas, allowing deep multimodal investigations: For example, using the Julich Brain Atlas, researchers had identified new brain areas that play a role in major depressive disorder. Neuroimaging data from patients revealed area-specific changes in gray matter volume and activation. With JuGEX, these findings were further linked to local differences in the expression of several candidate genes for major depressive disorder. From large population studies, individual, personalised maps of aging or dysfunction can also be extracted to provide diagnostic tools for dementia. 

CAPTION

User interface of the interactive 3D viewer for accessing the multilevel brain atlas hosted at https://atlases.ebrains.eu

CREDIT

Zachlod et al. 2022

CAPTION

User interface of the interactive 3D viewer for accessing the multilevel brain atlas hosted at https://atlases.ebrains.eu

CREDIT

Zachlod et al. 2022

Text by Roberto Inchingolo

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JOURNAL

Biological Psychiatry

DOI

10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.09.014 

ARTICLE TITLE

Mapping cyto- and receptor architectonics to understand brain function and connectivity

USU leads international space mission to shed new light on Brazil’s vexing GPS problem

Reports and Proceedings

UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE SPORT SATELLITE IS THE SIZE OF TWO LOAVES OF BREAD AND WILL HELP SCIENTISTS TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHY PLASMA BUBBLES FORM IN THE IONOSPHERE. view more 

CREDIT: SYDNEY DAHLE/USU

In certain regions of Brazil, don’t be surprised if your GPS device behaves erratically. For years, researchers have been scratching their heads, looking for a solution to the unreliable GPS signals in regions near the Amazon. The cause? Plasma bubbles in space.

Next week, NASA will launch a joint U.S.-Brazil satellite that will be deployed from the International Space Station, with scientific instruments developed by Utah State University and collaborators. The goal of the mission is to investigate plasma bubbles that form high in the ionosphere over the equator.

Charles Swenson, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at USU, has worked with Brazil’s Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica for years, developing the satellite and researching answers to why this area of the globe is so highly affected by the space weather phenomenon.

The Scintillation Prediction Observation Research Task, or SPORT, is a joint mission between the United States and Brazil designed to measure the state of the ionosphere, which lies 50 to 600 miles above the earth’s surface, and to determine why plasma bubbles sometimes form there.

The satellite, built by Brazil, is about the size of two loaves of bread and hosts the scientific space weather measurements provided by U.S. collaborators led by Swenson.

When radio waves from GPS satellites travel across plasma bubbles in the ionosphere, the signals can become distorted. This distortion is known as scintillation, a problem that impacts GPS reliability and negatively impacts Brazil’s military, precision agriculture and automated landing systems at the country’s airports.

Understanding the conditions that lead to plasma bubbles will help electrical engineers design GPS technology that is less susceptible to scintillation.

“The answers to these questions can improve the ability of researchers to predict the formation of plasma bubbles and understand the conditions under which density anomalies develop in the ionosphere,” Swenson said.

Radio receivers on the ground in Brazil will record the scintillation pattern on waves that pass through the ionosphere and compare them to the satellite measurement of turbulent plasma in space.

Brazil is located under what is known as the South Atlantic Anomaly or the South American Magnetic Anomaly, which occurs when space radiation dips too close to Earth due to a weakness in the magnetic field. Researchers want to know if this region is different than other equatorial sites for plasma bubbles.

Swenson and collaborators plan to use SPORT to apply the same procedures to other longitudes around the globe that might be suffering from ionospheric irregularities as well. He is the principal investigator on the Joint NASA-Brazil SPORT CubeSat mission to study the conditions and potential triggers for plasma bubbles in space.

The Sport CubeSat mission is scheduled to launch no earlier than Nov. 21 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center as a part of the SpaceX-26 commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station.

Study: COVID-19 policies harmed minority women's perinatal experiences, magnified inequities

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, NEWS BUREAU

 

IMAGE: SOCIAL WORK PROFESSORS KAREN TABB DINA AND TUYET-MAI (MAI) HA HOANG CO-WROTE A STUDY ABOUT THE CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED BY WOMEN OF COLOR WHO WERE PREGNANT OR GAVE BIRTH DURING THE PANDEMIC. THE TEAM, FROM LEFT: TABB DINA, DOCTORAL CANDIDATE B. ANDI LEE, HOANG AND KAYLEE LUKACENA, A RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT MANAGER WITH THE CENTER FOR SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY FRED ZWICKY

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Black, Indigenous and other women of color who were pregnant or gave birth during the pandemic said these experiences were overshadowed by isolation, confusion and fear, much of it caused by unclear or frequently changing institutional policies, according to a new study.

Women from across the U.S. who participated in online focus groups said medical providers’ COVID-19 safety protocols and the lack of clarity from federal public health officials magnified existing health care disparities, compromised the quality of care they received and increased the trauma of giving birth, said first author Tuyet-Mai (Mai) Ha Hoang, a professor of social work at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

The 41 women who participated in the study believed that these policies deeply affected their experiences and “made (their) pregnancies less about the celebration of birth and more about the management of trauma and loss,” Hoang and her co-authors wrote.

Hoang and co-author Karen Tabb Dina, a professor in the same department, experienced some of these difficulties firsthand, as both gave birth during the pandemic. Hoang, who is Vietnamese American, delivered two babies – the first in December 2019 and the second in March 2022 – and Tabb Dina, who is African American, gave birth in May 2021. 

“My child’s birth in March was really hard due to hospital policies that restricted visitors and the support people allowed in the room,” Hoang said. “Giving birth is a traumatic experience in itself and not having a support person there made it more difficult.”

Tabb Dina, who birthed her third child during the pandemic, said her husband was deeply disappointed that he was not allowed to attend the ultrasound appointment with her because of the health care provider’s policies at the time, and she felt a profound sense of isolation after the baby’s birth due to the hospital’s visitor restrictions.

“We found very consistent themes across the U.S., regardless of whether women were in big cities or rural areas,” Hoang said about the study, which included women who ranged from 19-45 years old.

About half the study participants were African American, one-fourth were Latina, and 20% were Asian or Pacific Islanders. Two participants identified themselves as multiracial and one person as Indigenous.

Published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, the findings may shed light on some of the structural factors behind what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called “alarming” increases in maternal death rates for women of color from 2019-20.

During that time, maternal death rates increased from 44.8% to 55.3% among Black women, and from 17.9% to 18.2% among Hispanic women, according to a report from the CDC published on the U.S. Government Accountability Office website.

“We’re in a maternal and infant mortality crisis,” Hoang said. “People need to recognize that the way the health care system is set up right now is not treating pregnant patients correctly. It exacerbates risks rather than protections, especially with minoritized and marginalized communities.”

Study participants said medical providers’ erratic COVID-19 policies increased their difficulty navigating the health care system and obtaining care. Appointments for regular perinatal care or treatment for sudden complications were nonexistent or handled very quickly, and patients struggled to coordinate tests and procedures with multiple providers.

An Indigenous woman identified in the study as “M” told the researchers that in the early stages of pregnancy, she was losing 15 pounds per week, but emergency room providers kept telling her that what she was going through was normal. She said she was frustrated that she had to go to the ER “maybe six times before they would get me in to schedule an appointment.”

Some of the women felt that providers were unsympathetic or indifferent to their physical pain, dignity or bodily autonomy – mirroring racial disparities that were well documented in prior research, Hoang said. These patients believed that COVID-19 testing “trumped everything, including their pain, and they had to wait for relief,” the researchers wrote.

A mother of two children called “R” in the study told the team: “I was getting an IV in my left arm and the COVID test at the same time. I was having contractions, and everyone was working. I was still a human, and I was like ‘I’m in pain, can you stop?’ and they didn’t listen.”

Women in the study said medical providers’ communication lacked empathy, and these patients felt shamed or discriminated against for refusing COVID-19 vaccines when they were pregnant or breastfeeding because they were concerned about the side effects on their babies.

Those who were forced to attend appointments such as sonograms and genetic counseling alone said they felt providers bombarded them with too much information while leaving important questions unanswered – causing them to feel overwhelmed and confused.

Conversely, many informational workshops and childbirth classes were suspended during lockdowns, leaving some expectant mothers without access to vital information and disrupting their birthing plans, the researchers found.

The “trickle-down effect” of these COVID-19 mitigation policies was that they exacerbated patients’ stress, and those in the study said it was evident that perinatal patients were not involved in the decision-making processes.  

U. of I. scholars Kaylee M. Lukacena, a research development manager with the Center for Social and Behavioral Science; then-doctoral student Wen-Jung (Wendy) Hsieh; and doctoral candidate B. Andi Lee also co-wrote the study.

Hoang holds son Nikola, age 7 months; and Tabb Dina holds daughter Cleopatra, age 17 months, while the children play with autumn leaves.

CREDIT

Photo by Fred Zwicky

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JOURNAL

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

DOI

10.3390/ijerph192013698 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Navigating pregnancy and the healthcare system during COVID-19: A qualitative study with perinatal women of color

International team of leading Israeli universities finds oldest evidence of the controlled use of fire to cook food

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: DR. IRIT ZOHAR, DR. MARION PRÉVOST, PROF. NAAMA GOREN, DR. GUY SISMA-VENTURA, PROF. NIRA ALPERSON-AFIL, PROF. ISRAEL HERSHKOVITZ view more 

CREDIT: TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

International Team of Leading Israeli Universities Finds Oldest Evidence of the Controlled Use of Fire to Cook Food

The remains of a huge carp fish (2 meters/6.5 feet length), analyzed by the Hebrew University, Bar-Ilan University Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Oranim Academic College, the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research institution, the Natural History Museum in London, and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, mark the earliest signs of cooking by prehistoric human to 780,000 years ago, predating the available data by some 600,000 years.

A remarkable scientific discovery has been made by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU), Tel Aviv University (TAU), and Bar-Ilan University (BIU), in collaboration with the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Oranim Academic College, the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research (IOLR) institution, the Natural History Museum in London, and the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz. A close analysis of the remains of a carp-like fish found at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov (GBY) archaeological site in Israel shows that the fish were cooked roughly 780,000 years ago.  Cooking is defined as the ability to process food by controlling the temperature at which it is heated and includes a wide range of methods. Until now, the earliest evidence of cooking dates to approximately 170,000 years ago. The question of when early man began using fire to cook food has been the subject of much scientific discussion for over a century. These findings shed new light on the matter and was published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

  

The carp skull presented is from the Natural History Collections housed at the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, Tel Aviv University

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

The study was led by a team of researchers:  Dr. Irit Zohar, a researcher at TAU’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and curator of the Beit Margolin Biological Collections at Oranim Academic College, and HU Professor Naama Goren-Inbar, director of the excavation site.  The research team also included Dr. Marion Prevost at HU’s Institute of Archaeology; Prof. Nira Alperson-Afil at BIU’s Department for Israel Studies and Archaeology; Dr. Jens Najorka of the Natural History Museum in London; Dr. Guy Sisma-Ventura of the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute; Prof. Thomas Tütken of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and Prof. Israel Hershkovitz at TAU’s Faculty of Medicine. 

Dr. Zohar and Dr. Prevost: “This study demonstrates the huge importance of fish in the life of prehistoric humans, for their diet and economic stability. Further, by studying the fish remains found at Gesher Benot Ya’aqob we were able to reconstruct, for the first time, the fish population of the ancient Hula Lake and to show that the lake held fish species that became extinct over time. These species included giant barbs (carp like fish) that reached up to 2 meters in length. The large quantity of fish remains found at the site proves their frequent consumption by early humans, who developed special cooking techniques. These new findings demonstrate not only the importance of freshwater habitats and the fish they contained for the sustenance of prehistoric man, but also illustrate prehistoric humans’ ability to control fire in order to cook food, and their understanding the benefits of cooking fish before eating it.”

An illustration of hominins exploiting and cooking Luciobarbus longiceps (large barb, Cyprinidae) on the shores of paleo Lake Hula (illustration by Ella Maru)

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

In the study, the researchers focused on pharyngeal teeth (used to grind up hard food such as shells) belonging to fish from the carp family. These teeth were found in large quantities at different archaeological strata at the site. By studying the structure of the crystals that form the teeth enamel (whose size increases through exposure to heat), the researchers were able to prove that the fish caught at the ancient Hula Lake, adjacent to the site, were exposed to temperatures suitable for cooking, and were not simply burned by a spontaneous fire.

Until now, evidence of the use of fire for cooking had been limited to sites that came into use much later than the GBY site--by some 600,000 years, and ones most are associated with the emergence of our own species, homo sapiens.

 

Location of Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY) archeological site on Home erectus route out of Africa.

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

Prof. Goren-Inbar added: “The fact that the cooking of fish is evident over such a long and unbroken period of settlement at the site indicates a continuous tradition of cooking food. This is another in a series of discoveries relating to the high cognitive capabilities of the Acheulian hunter-gatherers who were active in the ancient Hula Valley region. These groups were deeply familiar with their environment and the various resources it offered them.  Further, it shows they had extensive knowledge of the life cycles of different plant and animal species. Gaining the skill required to cook food marks a significant evolutionary advance, as it provided an additional means for making optimal use of available food resources. It is even possible that cooking was not limited to fish, but also included various types of animals and plants.”

Prof. Hershkovitz and Dr. Zohar note that the transition from eating raw food to eating cooked food had dramatic implications for human development and behavior.  Eating cooked food reduces the bodily energy required to break down and digest food, allowing other physical systems to develop.  It also leads to changes in the structure of the human jaw and skull. This change freed humans from the daily, intensive work of searching for and digesting raw food, providing them free time in which to develop new social and behavioral systems. Some scientists view eating fish as a milestone in the quantum leap in human cognitive evolution, providing a central catalyst for the development of the human brain.  They claim that eating fish is what made us human. Even today, it is widely known that the contents of fish flesh, such as omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, iodine and more, contribute greatly to brain development.

CAPTION

Luciobarbus longiceps skull

CREDIT

Tel Aviv University

The research team believe that the location of freshwater areas, some of them in areas that have long since dried up and become arid deserts, determined the route of the migration of early man from Africa to the Levant and beyond. Not only did these habitats provide drinking water and attracted animals to the area but catching fish in shallow water is a relatively simple and safe task with a very high nutritional reward.

The team posits that exploiting fish in freshwater habitats was the first step on prehistoric humans’ route out of Africa. Early man began to eat fish around 2 million years ago but cooking fish—as found in this study—represented a real revolution in the Acheulian diet and is an important foundation for understanding the relationship between man, the environment, climate, and migration when attempting to reconstruct the history of early humans.

It should be noted that evidence of the use of fire at the site—the oldest such evidence in Eurasia—was identified first by BIU’s Prof. Nira Alperson-Afil. “The use of fire is a behavior that characterizes the entire continuum of settlement at the site,” she explained. “This affected the spatial organization of the site and the activity conducted there, which revolved around fireplaces.” Alperson-Afil’s research of fire at the site was revolutionary for its time and showed that the use of fire began hundreds of thousands of years before previously thought.

HU’s Goren-Inbar added that the archaeological site of GBY documents a continuum of repeated settlement by groups of hunter-gatherers on the shores of the ancient Hula Lake which lasting tens of thousands of years. “These groups made use of the rich array of resources provided by the ancient Hula Valley and left behind a long settlement continuum with over 20 settlement strata,” Goren-Inbar explained. The excavations at the site have uncovered the material culture of these ancient hominins, including flint, basalt, and limestone tools, as well as their food sources, which were characterized by a rich diversity of plant species from the lake and its shores (including fruit, nuts, and seeds) and by many species of land mammals, both medium-sized and large.

Dr. Jens Najorka of the Natural History Museum in London explained: “In this study, we used geochemical methods to identify changes in the size of the tooth enamel crystals, as a result of exposure to different cooking temperatures. When they are burnt by fire, it is easy to identify the dramatic change in the size of the enamel crystals, but it is more difficult to identify the changes caused by cooking at temperatures between 200 and 500 degrees Celsius. The experiments I conducted with Dr. Zohar allowed us to identify the changes caused by cooking at low temperatures. We do not know exactly how the fish were cooked but given the lack of evidence of exposure to high temperatures, it is clear that they were not cooked directly in fire, and were not thrown into a fire as waste or as material for burning.”

Dr. Guy Sisma-Ventura of the Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research Institute and Prof. Thomas Tütken of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz were also part of the research group, providing analysis of the isotope composition of oxygen and carbon in the enamel of the fishes’ teeth. “This study of isotopes is a real breakthrough, as it allowed us to reconstruct the hydrological conditions in this ancient lake throughout the seasons, and thus to determine that the fish were not a seasonal economic resource but were caught and eaten all year round. Thus, fish provided a constant source of nutrition that reduced the need for seasonal migration.”

Link to the article:

 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-022-01910-z

 

Link to all images:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1rnGAr3SpqYfy2XE93chBSvyIBvni3qwQ?usp=share_link

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Ecology & Evolution