It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
New study shows scientists improve communication, education skills after working with teachers
IMAGE: A NEW STUDY SHOWS SCIENTISTS IMPROVED THEIR COMMUNICATION SKILLS AFTER WORKING WITH K-12 TEACHERS DURING A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME FOSSIL DIG MADE POSSIBLE BY THE RECENT EXPANSION OF THE PANAMA CANAL.view more
CREDIT: MEGAN HIGBEE HENDRICKSON
Every summer from 2012 to 2016, Bruce MacFadden and a team of scientists accompanied K-12 teachers on an expedition to collect fossils around the Panama Canal. During this National Science Foundation funded professional development program, educators learned from paleontologists how to identify fossils and worked with scientists to develop lesson plans to bring back to their classrooms. These scientist-teacher partnerships continued long after the expedition ended, as scientists made visits to the teachers’ classrooms.
While many studies have documented how these types of programs benefit teachers, few have looked at the impact on participating scientists. But a new case study led by MacFadden and published in the journal Evolution: Education and Outreach shows that after working with teachers, scientists improved their communication skills, had a better appreciation for the K-12 teaching professions, and many wanted to continue K-12 outreach as part of their careers. The participating scientists spanned many career levels, including graduate students, post-doctoral researchers and professors.
“Speaking for myself as a scientist, I also think the excitement the teachers brought with them into the field reenergized us about our own work,” said MacFadden, distinguished professor and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History and director of the University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute.
“We also learned valuable lessons in patience and willingness to learn and grow from the teachers.”
Because of the documented benefits to teachers, and by extension K-12 students, several programs have prioritized funding for teacher professional development programs led by scientists. For example, from 1999-2011, the National Science Foundation’s GK-12 program awarded more than 300 grants for universities to host these programs in a variety of scientific fields.
During the Panama expeditions, more than 30 scientists and 44 teachers collected fossil vertebrates, invertebrates and plants. When they were not conducting field work, they attended talks, seminars and laboratory tours at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. After a day’s work, scientists and teachers assembled at their hotel for poolside chats to reflect on what they learned that day and to plan for future activities.
In this case study, MacFadden and his team conducted both qualitative interviews and focus groups and distributed quantitative e-surveys to find out how participating in the Panama expeditions with teachers and follow-up classroom visits impacted the scientists’ work.
All the scientists surveyed reported that working with teachers changed their understanding of teaching and learning, particularly in K-12 settings. Specifically, the scientists learned how to develop lesson plans and incorporate standards, how to make opportunities for learning fun and engaging and how to emphasize the importance of classroom management.
“My experiences working with teachers in the field and back in their classroom were among the highlights of my Ph.D. career,” said Catalina Pimiento Hernandez, a biologist and paleontologist at the University of Zurich who participated in the program.
Those that visited a classroom more than once after the field expedition ended reported that they became more comfortable working with students and were able to better communicate their ideas and answer questions.
“The experience demonstrated a pathway to merge my love for scientific research and discovery with education, especially K-12 education in low-income communities,” said Jeanette Pirlo, who was a graduate student during the field experience and is now an assistant professor of evolutionary biology at California State University, Stanislaus.
“It also taught me what works well in classrooms and how to teach to my audience’s background knowledge and life-experiences, as opposed to just teaching the material.”
The key to making these programs effective and engaging, MacFadden said, is to ensure there is two-way communication between the scientists and teachers so that everyone’s expertise is valued equally.
“In this model, the teachers and scientists collaborate and learn together.”
While this case study is one of the first to document how these programs benefit scientists and teachers alike, MacFadden believes the literature will continue to grow. These mutual benefits were part of his inspiration for developing the Scientist in Every Florida School program, which matches teachers with scientists who can help them develop and deliver lesson plans on science topics.
“During our Panama project, we developed a model and framework that helped us develop best practices for subsequent successful scientist-teacher partnerships,” MacFadden said.
IMAGE: FEMALE HOWLER MONKEY (ALOUATTA PALLIATA PALLIATA) USES A CANOPY BRIDGE IN PLAYA HERMOSA, COSTA RICA WITH AN INGENIOUS DESIGN TO SUPPORT PREHENSILE TAIL USE.view more
CREDIT: INES AZOFEIFA
Roads and other forms of human linear infrastructure are a major source of direct mortality for wildlife. They present substantial threats to global ecosystems through collisions with vehicles and bisection of habitats, causing isolation of animal populations on either si de. Such isolation can lead to the loss of access to important resources such as food, shelter and mates and eventually to substantial species decline. The impacts on terrestrial mammals are profound, but in many parts of the world, many species are partially or entirely arboreal or tree-living, and their aversion to coming down to the ground makes the impact of roads even more pronounced.
Canopy bridges — artificial and natural crossing structures over linear infrastructure — are increasingly implemented by scientists and conservation practitioners to help solve this habitat fragmentation problem. The 23 peer-reviewed case studies on research in 14 countries included in the December issue of Folia Primatologicaillustrate the increasing sophistication of canopy bridge research with growing interest by researchers in testing innovative designs and monitoring methods. This new body of literature will substantially contribute to the understanding of canopy bridges, including species' use of different designs, involved costs and materials. These improvements and the transfer of knowledge between research teams will allow the implementation of canopy bridges to be scaled up globally and the challenge of a growing road network to have mitigation solutions for arboreal species.
QUOTES
“Designing and implementing bridges animals will use can be extremely challenging. As the global road system explodes, it is perfect timing for conservationists and practitioners to learn from each other to more efficiently implement solutions that work.” – Tremaine Gregory, lead editor, co-author of three publications and conservation ecologist at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
“This special issue features new insights from researchers and practitioners from all around the globe that can guide important changes toward arboreal species conservation. This range of information is a relevant advance for science and for managing road development in a way that is more sustainable for wildlife.” – Fernanda Abra, co-editor, co-author of two publications and postdoctoral fellow in the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
Abstract: In March 2021, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged, two of us decided to organise a virtual symposium on canopy bridges for the American Society of Primatology and Smithsonian’s Earth Optimism initiative. Afterall, canopy bridges are a conservation solution that invites optimism in the face of all the challenges confronting the natural world. We were astounded by the response to the symposium – we received 540 registration requests from 53 countries, and the seminar itself was a major success, with 130 live attendees (see link to recording on the ASP website: https://www.asp.org/asp-conservation/conservation-videos/). Following that experience, we could tell that interest in the topic of canopy bridges was growing, and we therefore invited our seminar speakers and others – together representing research on five continents – to join us in developing a special issue on the topic for Folia Primatologica. We had the sense that there were many studies waiting to be written, given the discrepancy between the number of studies we had heard of and the number of publications in the scientific literature. At the time of this writing, there were only 32 peer-reviewed papers on bridges worldwide, with another 15 in the grey literature. Once again, we were surprised and excited to have a whopping 33 research teams submit proposals for special issue submissions, with 23 of them submitting and finally publishing their full manuscripts in this issue. These 23 additions represent research from 14 countries and five continents and a 72% increase in the number of peer-reviewed publications on this topic.
Abstract: Canopy bridges are an increasingly popular method to mitigate linear infrastructure fragmentation impacts, but little is known about when, over the course of the day and night, they are used. Natural canopy bridges monitored with camera traps provide an excellent source of information on community-wide arboreal mammal activity patterns, which are otherwise challenging to document. Natural bridges represent a hotspot of activity, being bottleneck crossing points over linear infrastructure, and cameras provide 24-hour monitoring capability. We monitored 20 natural canopy bridges over pipeline clearings distributed at two sites in the Peruvian Amazon for over a year using camera traps. Across 11 492 camera trap nights, we recorded 5165 events of 27 arboreal mammal species and used these events to describe both overall mammal activity in natural canopy bridges and activity patterns for the most frequently registered species: Aotus nigriceps, Potos flavus, Bassaricyon alleni, Caluromys lanatus, Coendou ichillus, and Sapajus apella. The long duration of our study allowed us to investigate potential changes in activity patterns resulting from seasonality and disturbance associated with pipeline construction, and the inclusion of two study sites allowed comparisons between them. We found substantially more mammalian activity in bridges during the night (87.4%) than the day, with only one of the most frequently registered species being diurnal (S. apella). Changes in activity between disturbance phases and seasons were only apparent for C. ichillus, and comparisons across species revealed differences in activity peaks, such as a unique peak early in the night for A. nigriceps. Our data provide some of the first substantial activity information for the species evaluated and help elucidate temporal patterns of canopy bridge usage to be expected for arboreal Neotropical wildlife. Knowing when to expect bridge use helps both guide the design of mitigation plans for future projects that include natural and artificial canopy bridges and identify the best monitoring methods. Given the high rate of nocturnal activity we observed, we recommend mitigation plans consider limiting human activity on linear infrastructure at night, if possible, and consider the requirements of nocturnal species in bridge designs. We also recommend camera trapping for monitoring.
Camera trap photo of a Saki monkey using a natural bridge.
CREDIT
Smithsonian
Gibbon (Hylobates lar) brachiating across a single-line canopy bridge in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand.
CREDIT
Chanpen Saralamba
Endangered blonde capuchin monkey (Sapajus flavius) crossing a lattice bridge in Paraíba, Brazil.
CREDIT
Gerson Buss
Authors
Tremaine Gregory (1), Farah Carrasco-Rueda (1) (2), Diego Balbuena (3) and Joseph Kolowski (1) (4)
Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (U.S.A.)
Keller Science Action Center, Field Museum of Natural History (U.S.A.)
Abstract: Increasing levels of anthropogenic modification, degradation, and fragmentation of arboreal mammal habitats substantially influence wildlife movement and behavior. In Costa Rica, there has been a surge in infrastructure development in the past decade. This infrastructure puts wildlife at high risk of mortality from electrocution, vehicle collisions, falls, and attacks by domestic animals. To prevent and mitigate the mortality of arboreal animals, canopy bridges have been implemented in several parts of the country. In Playa Hermosa, Guanacaste, a coastal community, we implemented a canopy bridge project for mantled howler monkeys (Alouatta palliata palliata). For the first year of our study (2015-2016), we performed monthly three-day censuses and follows of all howler monkey groups. After the first five months of data collection, we identified 20 high-use arboreal pathways that would benefit from reinforcement with canopy bridges and installed camera traps in the pathways to verify their use outside of sampling periods. After use was verified, we installed canopy bridges at those 20 sites. We continued to identify high-use paths via group follows, ad libitum sightings from community members, and annual group censuses between 2018 and 2021 and installed an additional 91bridges (N = 111 total). We also developed a system for community reporting of howler monkey injuries and fatalities and advocated for better insulation of electric cables, with 8341 m insulated between 2015 and 2021. Between 2015 and 2021, we saw the number of monkey groups grow from five to seven, group home ranges grow, the population grow from 59 to 99, and fatalities decrease from five to one annually. We conclude that the bridges likely contribute to howler monkey population growth via decreased fatalities and safer access to feeding resources and mates. Costa Rica is currently adopting legislation to make connectivity mitigation measures for wildlife mandatory in infrastructure development, making it a global leader.
Authors
Inés Azofeifa Rojas (1) (2), Tremaine Gregory (3)
SalveMonos(Costa Rica)
University of Costa Rica, Guanacaste and Occidente Campuses (Costa Rica)
Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (U.S.A.)
Abstract: Brazil is known as a high biodiversity country, but at the same time, it has an extensive road network that threatens its wildlife and ecosystems. The impacts of roads and railways on vertebrates have been documented extensively, and the discussion concerning the implementation of mitigation measures for terrestrial wildlife has increased in the last decade. Arboreal animals are especially affected by the direct loss of individuals due to animal-vehicle collisions and by the barrier effect, because most arboreal species, especially the strictly arboreal ones, avoid going down to the ground to move across the landscape. Here we summarize and review information on existing canopy bridges across Brazil, considering artificial and natural canopy bridge initiatives implemented mainly on road and railway projects. A total of 151 canopy bridges were identified across the country, 112 of which are human-made structures of different materials, while the remaining 39 are natural canopy bridges. We found canopy bridges in three of the six biomes, with higher numbers in the Atlantic Forest and Amazon, the most forested biomes. Most of the canopy bridges are in protected areas (76%) and primates are the most common target taxa for canopy bridge implementation. Our study is the first biogeographic mapping and review of canopy bridges for arboreal wildlife conservation in a megadiverse country. We synthesize the available knowledge concerning canopy bridges in Brazil and highlight gaps that should be addressed by future research and monitoring projects.
Authors
Fernanda Zimmermann Teixeira (1), Lucas Gonçalves da Silva (2) (3), Fernanda Abra (4) (5) (6), Clarissa Rosa (7), Gerson Buss (8), Marcello Guerreiro (9), Edson Rodrigues Costa (10), Aline Souza de Menezes Medeiros (10), Marcelo Gordo (10), and Helio Secco (11) (12)
Núcleo de Ecologia de Rodovias e Ferrovias, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)
MCTI Instituto Nacional da Mata Atlântica (Brazil)
Centro de Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Universidade de Brasília (Brazil)
Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology (U.S.A.)
ViaFAUNA Estudos Ambientais (Brazil)
Instituto Pró-Carnívoros, Atibaia (Brazil)
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Coordenação de Biodiversidade (Brazil)
Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade, Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Primatas Brasileiros (Brazil)
Concessionária Arteris Fluminense (Brazil)
Laboratório de Biologia da Conservação, Projeto Sauim-de-Coleira, Departamento de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) (Brazil)
Instituto de Biodiversidade e Sustentabilidade, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
IMAGE: THE SCIENTISTS ANALYSED CIRCA 550 MILLION-YEAR-OLD CHEMICAL SEDIMENTARY ROCKS, KNOWN AS CHERTS, WHICH FORM FROM SEAWATER AND THE REMAINS OF SILICA-SECRETING ORGANISMS.view more
CREDIT: MICHAEL TATZEL
Several billion years ago, the oceans were probably not as hot as often assumed, but were instead at much more moderate temperatures. This is the conclusion of a research team from the University of Göttingen and the German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Potsdam. The scientists analysed “cherts” – sedimentary rocks that form from seawater and the remains of silica-secreting creatures. Using these "time capsules", the team showed that the oxygen isotope ratios are determined by the cooling of the solid Earth and depend less on the temperatures of seawater. The results were published in PNAS.
How can it be that ancient cherts – between 3.85 and 2.5 billion years old – are so highly enriched with the lighter oxygen isotope (oxygen-16 or 16O)? What information do these valuable time capsules actually record about the history of our Earth? To investigate this decades-old mystery in the geosciences, the research team examined circa 550 million years old cherts from southeast China. These samples document that after the deposition of sedimentary mud, the amorphous precursors of cherts recrystallise hundreds of metres below the Earth's surface, recording temperatures at depth – and not the temperature of the ocean above them. This finding sparked the idea that oxygen isotope ratios could depend on the heat flow from the Earth's interior – a completely new angle on the old mystery.
"Our calculations show that when the flow of heat is higher, the proportion of oxygen-16 becomes higher, because recrystallisation takes place at higher temperatures," says Junior Professor Michael Tatzel from the Geosciences Centre of the University of Göttingen. At the same time, seawater is enriched with oxygen-16 under these conditions. This solves the puzzle of why there is a large proportion of the lighter oxygen isotope in ancient cherts: heat flow on the early Earth was approximately double modern values. "Cherts are obviously no accurate recorders of seawater temperatures in the past. Our findings mean that we need to interpret oxygen isotopes in cherts in a whole new way," says Tatzel.
Co-author Patrick Frings from GFZ Potsdam adds: "I think this work will open the door to some exciting new developments in the coming years, because our understanding of the heat flow effect will allow more accurate reconstructions of seawater temperatures in deep geological time. In addition, we will be able to decipher the thermal structure and tectonic history of ancient sedimentary basins." The calculated effect of heat flow on oxygen isotopes in cherts also means that the isotopically light Archean cherts are indicative of a temperate to warm climate on early Earth – hot oceans seem very unlikely. This conclusion is central to understanding the evolution of life on the young Earth.
On December 1, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin reported new findings on the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron. The team led by Prof. Jan Felix Drexler has now retracted the article, which was published in the journal Science.* Based on new findings, some of the statements made in the study can no longer be proven beyond reasonable doubt. By retracting the article, the researchers are adhering to good scientific practice, to which Charité and the international team of authors are fully committed.
The article entitled “Gradual emergence followed by exponential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Africa”* found that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in western Africa a few months before its eventual discovery in South Africa. Shortly after the article was published, other scientists called into question the plausibility of the genome sequences analyzed in the study. In a subsequent analysis of residual samples, they were found to be contaminated. It is no longer possible to establish the source of the contamination.
One of the article’s messages – that viruses with Omicron sequence signatures existed across the continent before Omicron was officially detected in South Africa – is based on collective data from PCR analysis done independently by laboratories in several African countries. However, the conclusive reconstruction of the virus’s evolution, another of the article’s key messages, is likely to be affected by sequence contamination not detected before analysis.
The contamination also makes it impossible to correct the analyses retrospectively in due time, because this would require additional analyses of thousands of patient samples from Africa that may not be available in sufficient quantity and quality. Therefore, in agreement with all the authors, the entire article is being retracted. The research group that ran the project is currently carrying out an evaluation and review of the analyses. Other research groups and projects at Charité as well as those involving the consortium of authors are not affected.
Prof. Drexler and his team deeply regret the incident and are grateful to their international colleagues for flagging the potential problems following the article’s publication.
Skateboarding is a “polluted” leisure activity which both harms the environment and boosts sustainability, a new study argues.
The sport takes place in “grey spaces” unlike blue and green leisure activities held in rivers, lakes, parks and gardens. But it also occurs in a conceptual grey space of nuance and ambiguity.
Skateboarding has had a remarkable ascent from teen fad and feral subculture to Olympic sport, but researchers say it is still a mix of sport, art, performance, activism, business and play.
The study says greyness can also be seen in skateboarding’s political, social and environmental ambiguities, also found in other sports which use grey spaces, including cycling, parkour and roller blading.
Dr O’Connor, from the University of Exeter, said: “It is easy to assume that skateboarding equates to having a low ecological footprint given how skaters traverse places while relying on their own breath and legs. Yet, skateboarders play in cities with heavy air pollution largely the result of streets perpetually jammed with cars, which are a major cause of skateboarding deaths and a frequent cause of injury. Skateboarders and the production of skateboard media are heavily invested in travel. In contrast, efforts have been made to make skateboard consumption ‘green’ - experiments in bamboo boards, hemp clothing and other sustainable products.”
In north-east England, the skateboarding community is developing and using more environmentally friendly concrete – unrecyclable plastics as aggregate for concrete and testing bioengineering of concrete – to build skateable architecture. Other skaters resist these efforts.
Legislation and defensive architecture exclude skateboarding from many grey urban zones. The study describes how this exclusion pushes skateboarders to seek out appropriate sanctioned spaces in which they can skate, often isolated sites are chosen by those in power so as not to upset residents.
Some skateparks leave those who take part in the sport subject to pollution. Roadside skateparks under highway bridges and flyovers are common worldwide. Many skateparks have been constructed on brownfield and contaminated locations such as waste dumps and former sites of industrialisation and capital extraction.
Dr O’Connor said: “Skateparks are promoted as a greening issue for brownfield sites because the concrete base of these facilities can act as a cap on top of contaminated soil. However, the fact that skateparks are concrete constructions points to the fact that these green spaces are in fact grey spaces, somewhere between a space of contamination and its prevention.
“At some DIY skateparks, weeds and shrubbery have gained a foothold in urban environments that have been left alone. These plants can also hide skateboarding activities from passers-by while in turn the presence of skateboarders helps preserve nascent biodiversity that has managed to return and gain a foothold in urban wasteland zones.
“Skateboarders arguably become caretakers of grey spaces. Sometimes skateboarders bring love to greyness. After the earthquake in Christchurch in 2011 skateboarders seized the opportunity to skate on devastated, twisted and ruptured roads. They brought play to a traumatised community, and hope. Skateboarders evidence how to navigate, rework and revitalise not just grey spaces, but grey times.”
IMAGE: SOME ADULT INDIVIDUALS WATCH OVER THE NEWLY-HATCHED EUROPASAURUS CHICKS WHICH ARE LEAVING THE NEST TO JOIN THEIR HERD.view more
CREDIT: COMMISSIONED ARTWORK BY DAVIDE BONADONNA.
Europasaurus is a long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic, about 154 million years ago, on a small island in modern-day Germany. Recently, scientists from the universities of Vienna and Greifswald examined fossil braincase material of Europasaurus with the aid of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). The digital reconstruction of the inner ear of Europasaurus gave the researchers new insights not only into its hearing ability, but also into its reproductive and social behaviour. The study was recently published in eLife.
Like its famous relative Brachiosaurus, Europasaurus belongs to the group of sauropod dinosaurs, which include the largest land-living animals that ever lived on Earth. Some representatives could attain body lengths of around 40 metres, possibly weighing up to 80 metric tons. However, Europasaurus holgeri was a comparatively small sauropod species with a body height of up to three metres.
Europasaurus, which lived about 154 million years ago on an island in modern-day Germany, constitutes the first dinosaur for which the evolutionary phenomenon of insular dwarfism was demonstrated: large island-dwelling animals become smaller over a number of generations. Possibly, Europasaurus represents the fossil counterpart to the recent Sumatran tiger and rhino, which are smaller than their closest relatives from the mainland.
Fossil skull remains of very young to fully-grown adults have been examined
For the study that has just been published, scientists from the universities of Greifswald and Vienna examined fossil braincase material of Europasaurus, belonging to different age stages: from very young and small individuals to adult ones. In order to learn more about these long extinct animals, the researchers reconstructed the cavities that once housed the brain and inner ears with the aid of micro-CT.
The part of the inner ear being responsible for hearing, the lagena or cochlea, turns out to be relatively long in Europasaurus. This suggests that these animals had a good sense of hearing, rendering intraspecific communication crucial and gregarious behavior likely.
Europasaurus was probably precocial
Another part of the inner ear is relevant for the sense of equilibrium and consists of three tiny arches. The scientists found that the inner ear cavities within very small specimens resemble the respective cavities of adults in form and size. "This supposes that very young individuals of Europasaurus strongly relied on the ability to equilibrate already. Some considered skull remains were so tiny (~2 cm) that they may belong to hatchlings, which renders the species precocial", says Sebastian Stumpf from the University of Vienna. Whereas some sauropods weighed several tens of tons more than their newly-hatched offspring (posing a lethal threat for the latter), the hatchlings of Europasaurus may have immediately followed the herd in some approximation.
They call me the wanderer – Neurovascular anatomy of dwarfed dinosaur implies precociality in sauropods.
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
20-Dec-2022
Hispanic and Latino young males with higher education, greater acculturation are more likely to use e-cigarettes
A Rutgers researcher leads study that is among the first to characterize the use of electronic cigarettes among people of Hispanic and Latino backgrounds
Hispanic and Latino young men with higher levels of education who were born in the United States and speak mostly English at home are more likely to use e-cigarettes, according to a Rutgers researcher.
In a study, published in American Journal of Medicine Open, researchers examined current and former use of e-cigarettes among individuals from six distinct Hispanic and Latino backgrounds.
Electronic cigarettes – also called e-cigarettes or electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) – rose in popularity in 2014 when conventional cigarette use decreased among adults in U.S. However, little is known about e-cigarette use in ethnic minorities who have historically been disproportionately targeted by tobacco marketing and experienced significant tobacco-related health disparities.
While previous research has shown that tobacco use among Hispanic and Latino adults is lower than in non-Hispanic whites, conventional cigarette use is more common among individuals of Puerto Rican and Cuban backgrounds compared with those of Mexican and Central or South American backgrounds. Hispanic and Latino individuals with higher levels of acculturation – being U.S.-born and preferring English – were more likely to use tobacco products.
“ENDS products represent a potential disruptive innovation to traditional tobacco use, with adolescents and young adults experimenting with e-cigarettes,” said Ayana April-Sanders, an instructor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and lead author of the study. “This experimentation is a risk factor for progression to combustible cigarette smoking and nicotine-dependence, which could lead to a ‘tipping point’ phenomenon, where future generations experience a higher prevalence of nicotine dependence and tobacco-related disease compared with previous generations.”
The study, which is among the first to characterize e-cigarette use among people of Hispanic and Latino backgrounds, analyzed data from 11,275 adult participants of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos for current, former and ever use of ENDS products.
The researchers found 2 percent of adults surveyed were current ENDS users, while about 10 percent were former ENDS users. They also found that individuals of Puerto Rican and Mexican backgrounds were more likely to try ENDS than those of Dominican, South American, Cuban or Central American backgrounds.
Among Hispanic and Latino adults, researchers found a high use of ENDS among those under 45 years of age. Additionally, they found that young adults who had never smoked conventional cigarettes were using e-cigarettes, suggesting that ENDS may promote cigarette smoking and increase health risks from chronic exposure to toxic substances in ENDS products.
“Our findings could inform preventive and regulatory interventions targeted at Hispanic and Latino communities to protect public health,” said April-Sanders. “Public health messaging efforts should consider targeting greater acculturated younger Hispanic and Latino individuals and creating bilingual messaging efforts that may be more appropriate for less acculturated, older people.”
April-Sanders said future research needs to examine why non-tobacco users are turning to e-cigarettes and monitor ENDS use.
Collaborators of the study include individuals from the Department of Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; the Institute for Minority Health Research at the University of Illinois College of Medicine; the Department of Social Medicine at the University of North Carolina; the Public Health Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease; Department of Preventive Medicine in the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University; the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Diabetes and Obesity Center at the Institute of Molecular Cardiology at the University of Louisville; and the American Heart Association. The research was conducted as a collaborative study supported by contracts from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to the University of North Carolina (N01‐HC65233), University of Miami (N01‐HC65234), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (N01‐HC65235), Northwestern University (N01‐HC65236), and San Diego State University (N01‐HC652237). Ayana K. April-Sanders, PhD is supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (5T32HL144456–03). Thanh-Huyen T. Vu, MD. PhD was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R03HL144902). Carlos J. Rodriguez, MD, MPH is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01 HL04199, 75N92019D00011, 1U01HL146204–01, 5R01HL144707) and the American Heart Association (5P50HL120163–04).
Prevalence of electronic cigarette use and its determinants in us persons of Hispanic/Latino background: The Hispanic community health study / study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL)
COI STATEMENT
Dr. Rodriguez has received research support from and participated on an Advisory Board for Amgen.
When stars are no longer born: the challenge of the new ERC Red Cardinal project
The unprecedented observations of the James Webb Space Telescope are now combined with the research challenge of a new ERC project to shed light on a still mysterious phase in the history of the Universe: the extinction of the ability to form new stars that occurs during the evolution of massive galaxies.
The project is called Red Cardinal: it is an ERC Starting Grant led by Sirio Belli, a researcher at the Department of Physics and Astronomy "Augusto Righi" at the University of Bologna. The European Research Council (ERC), an EU body that rewards talented scholars engaged in frontier research, funded him with €1.3 million. ERC Starting Grants are funding for early-career researchers with a very promising scientific track record.
"The formation process of massive galaxies and the extinction of their star-forming activity are still mysterious phases in the history of the Universe," explains Belli. "A relevant role might be related to the energy emitted by Active Galactic Nuclei, i.e. supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies. Yet, it is not clear how this mechanism can actually stop new star formation, or whether other physical processes, such as galaxy collisions, are required."
Moreover, it is still unclear whether this phenomenon of star formation extinction occurs in the same way in all galaxies. The most recent studies on the subject suggest that there may be two physically distinct modes: a fast switch-off process and a slow switch-off process.
"Using the observations that will be obtained by the revolutionary James Webb Space Telescope, we will be able to test the soundness of this hypothesis, which predicts two distinct modes of stellar extinction, and identify the physical processes that are responsible for the phenomenon," says Belli.
Other than working on the new ERC Red Cardinal project, Sirio Belli is also Principal Investigator of Blue Jay, a programme involving the first round of observations of the James Webb Space Telescope. The aim is to observe about 150 galaxies located the "Cosmic Noon": an ideal epoch, about 10 billion years ago, for gathering information on the process of stellar extinction.
To achieve these results, Blue Jay will use two of the instruments on board the James Webb Space Telescope: the NIRSpec Near-InfraRed Spectrograph, which can observe more than a hundred galaxies simultaneously, and the NIRCam Near-InfraRed Camera.
"With the information obtained from these observations, at an unprecedented level of detail, it will be possible to reconstruct the history of star formation processes and the duration of the extinction phase," says Belli. "In addition, we will be able to characterise stellar populations, ionised gas and molecular gas in galaxies according to extinction duration, and identify the mechanisms involved in both fast and slow extinction by comparing them with predictions from theoretical models."
