Winter cover crops could reduce nitrogen in Illinois drainage water by 30%

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL, CONSUMER AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

URBANA, Ill. – As Corn Belt states seek ways to curb nitrogen flow from farms into the Gulf of Mexico, new University of Illinois research adds evidence for winter cover crops as an important part of the solution. A simulation study published in Science of the Total Environment finds widespread planting of cereal rye in Illinois could reduce nitrate in the state’s tile drainage water by 30%.

The research team, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) and The Grainger College of Engineering at Illinois, knew from small-scale studies that cover crops are capable of sucking nitrate out of soil water, with long-lasting effects throughout the growing season. Their new study is the first to estimate cereal rye’s potential on a statewide level.

The team simulated both cover crop planting (yes or no) and fertilizer timing (fall or spring) under real climatic conditions in Illinois between 2001 and 2020. They used a crop simulation model known as Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer (DSSAT), which allows multi-year growth projections for more than 42 crops. Although cereal rye wasn’t among them, the researchers adapted the model’s parameters for winter wheat, the most similar crop in DSSAT.

“Two management implications were revealed in this paper. One is that farmers should apply a winter cover crop, such as cereal rye, to reduce tile water flow and nitrate loss by 25 and 30%, respectively. Our data also reinforced that farmers should switch to spring fertilization, if possible. We compared spring versus fall fertilization with and without the cover crop, and fall was worse for nitrate loss in both scenarios,” says study co-author Rabin Bhattarai, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, a shared unit of ACES and Grainger.  

The model also simulated cover crop effects on cash crop yield and found, overall, that cereal rye had a slight positive impact on corn and soybean under both fertilization schedules. Bhattarai says there was some variation among years and locations across the state, but over the 20-year simulation, there was no evidence of a yield penalty. 

Cover crop adoption remains low in Illinois and the Midwest despite the availability of cost-sharing programs and growing evidence touting benefits to soil health, water quality, and more.

“Our research shows cover crops work,” Bhattarai says. “They have the potential to reduce erosion as well as nutrient loss from our fields, especially with tile drainage. We wanted to explore the benefits on the whole-state level to show what could happen if thousands of farmers adopted this conservation practice simultaneously,” he says. “The water quality benefits would be significant.”

No simulation model is perfect, and Bhattarai’s struggled a little in the hillier southern section of Illinois. But when compared with real-world corn and soybean yields, the yields forecast by the model were a close match, suggesting the model was likely accurate overall.

Early phases of the project began with small-scale field experiments to understand cover crop and fertilizer timing effects on nitrate loss in tile and runoff water. These early experiments were used to develop the modified DSSAT model capable of scaling up to the entire state. They also informed an online decision-support tool, funded by the Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council, for farmers considering cover crops in their own fields. 

“Using our dashboard, farmers can get simulated results of cereal rye growing as a cover crop in their actual fields. At different dates within a two-week window of expected planting for the cash crop, farmers can compare potential biomass in the field, C:N ratio in that biomass, nitrogen uptake, and nitrogen loss reduction. To improve results further, farmers can provide more specific information for their fields, including cropping history and management programs,” says co-author Jonathan Coppess, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics in ACES.

A full article on the tool was published in farmdoc.

The article, “Evaluation of long-term impact of cereal rye as a winter cover crop in Illinois,” is published in Science of the Total Environment [DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162956]. Additional authors include Rishabh Gupta, Prasanta Kalita, Hamze Dokoohaki, and Shalamar Armstrong. Funding for the project came from the Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council and USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The work made use of the Illinois Campus Cluster Program in conjunction with the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, funded by the University of Illinois.

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JOURNAL

Science of The Total Environment

DOI

10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162956 

Mudskippers could be key to understanding evolution of blinking

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

 

IMAGE: MUDSKIPPER view more 

CREDIT: GEORGIA TECH

Blinking is crucial for the eye. It’s how animals clean their eyes, protect them, and even communicate. But how and why did blinking originate? Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Seton Hill University, and Pennsylvania State University studied the mudskipper, an amphibious fish that spends most of its day on land, to better understand why blinking is a fundamental behavior for life on land.

Although mudskippers are distantly related to tetrapods, the group that includes humans and other four-limbed vertebrates, researchers believed studying the fish could unlock how blinking evolved as these animals began to move on land. 

The research team, which included several undergraduates, published their findings in the paper, “The Origin of Blinking in Both Mudskippers and Tetrapods Is Linked to Life on Land,” in Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

“By comparing the anatomy and behavior of mudskippers to the fossil record of early tetrapods, we argue that blinking emerged in both groups as an adaptation to life on land,” said Tom Stewart, an assistant professor at Penn State and an author of the paper. “These results help us understand our own biology and raise a whole set of new questions about the variety of blinking behaviors we see in living species.”

Breaking Down Blinking

Mudskippers blink by sucking their eye downward into their eye socket. The evolution of this behavior did not require the evolution of a lot of new parts such as new muscles or special glands, though. Instead, mudskippers use their existing set of eye muscles in a new way.

“This is a very exciting result because it demonstrates that the evolution of a new, complex behavior can be achieved using a relatively rudimentary set of structures,” said Brett Aiello, a former postdoctoral fellow in the Agile Systems Lab and now assistant professor at Seton Hill.

Next, the research team set out to determine why mudskippers blink. In a series of experiments, they found that mudskippers blink for three main functions: to wet, clean, and protect the eye. These functions are also why humans and other land-dwelling vertebrates blink.

“We find that a single behavior can be deployed to accomplish three complex, distinct functions,” said Aiello. “These results not only help humans understand our own history, but also help us reevaluate the adaptations necessary for major transitions in the evolutionary history of vertebrates, like moving from water to land.”

Blinking isn’t just a unique research question, but also an important mechanism to understand, according to Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and author on the paper.

“We all blink without thinking, and understanding why we blink is just such a beautiful puzzle right in front of our eyes,” Bhamla said. “Through our research on mudskippers and by conducting biophysical and morphological analyses, we expose how blinking serves a multitude of functions for adapting to life out of water.”

Engaging Undergraduates

To explore such open-ended questions, the researchers engaged the Vertically Integrated Projects (VIP) program, which allows undergraduates to conduct long-term, large-scale research projects as part of their coursework at Georgia Tech.

“The structure of the VIP course empowers students to really lean on their own creativity and drive the project in the directions that are most exciting to them,” said Aiello. “It helps our students gain the ability to solve unknown problems on the ground as they arise — a lot of people become scientists to push research somewhere where nobody else has tried to go before.”

The VIP structure is inherently multidisciplinary. While Aiello is a biologist, most students were engineers and brought their respective expertise. Manognya Sripathi was a biomedical engineering major with a minor in computer science and offered her unique experience to the mudskipper problem.

“I used my computer science skills to gather raw data and analyze and plot them using programs like MATLAB or Python,” Sripathi said. “I also used engineering skills to help build the experimental equipment, allowing us to apply engineering methods to study a biological problem in a unique way.”

Moving Beyond Mudskippers

Te research didn’t just expand knowledge of mudskippers — it also contributed to each student’s future aspirations. For example, Kendra Washington’s trajectory was influenced by the two semesters she spent in the lab.

“VIP drew me closer to the programming and device areas of my biomedical engineering major and solidified why I picked up a computer science minor,” she said. “I continued to pursue that fusion through later internships and research, and now work with hemodynamic monitoring. But in a sense, I still help characterize physiology through programming.”

VIP also expanded the students’ knowledge and scientific experience that have propelled them far beyond the lab. Hajime Minoguchi, a biomedical engineering graduate, now works as a systems integration research and development engineer thanks to his experience in the class.

“Working in an interdisciplinary team like this has allowed me to learn how to understand and communicate ideas between disciplines, which allowed me to be a more well-rounded engineer,” Minoguchi said. “My work requires a thorough understanding of biology, electrical circuitry, software, firmware, mechanical interactions, and physics. This VIP experience was instrumental for me in being successful at my current job.”

The research is far greater than the sum of its parts and brings a greater understanding of evolution, noted Simon Sponberg, an associate professor in the School of Physics and the School of Biological Sciences.

“Blinking is a reflection of a bigger question,” Sponberg said. “How did major evolutionary transitions occur that enabled organisms to inhabit basically every environment on this planet? What we learned is you don't need the evolution of a lot of specialized musculature or glands; evolution can tinker with the structures that are already there, allowing them to be used in a new way and for a new behavior.”

CITATION: Aiello BR, MS Bhamla, J Gau, JGL Morris, K Bomar, S da Cunha, H Fu, J Laws, H Minoguchi, M Sripathi, K Washington,G Wong, NH Shubin†, S Sponberg†, TA Stewart. The origin of blinking in mudskippers and tetrapods is linked to life on land.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2220404120

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The Georgia Institute of Technology, or Georgia Tech, is one of the top public research universities in the U.S., developing leaders who advance technology and improve the human condition. The Institute offers business, computing, design, engineering, liberal arts, and sciences degrees. Its more than 45,000 undergraduate and graduate students, representing 50 states and more than 148 countries, study at the main campus in Atlanta, at campuses in France and China, and through distance and online learning. As a leading technological university, Georgia Tech is an engine of economic development for Georgia, the Southeast, and the nation, conducting more than $1 billion in research annually for government, industry, and society.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2220404120 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Apr-2023

Q & A with Shanna van Trigt, Vrije Universiteit author of “Autistic Traits and Self-Conscious Emotions in Early Childhood” Child Development

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Research shows that given the difficulties in navigating social relationships, children with more autistic traits might be prone to less attuned self-conscious emotions after transgression (displaying less guilt and embarrassment and more shame). A new study released in Child Development by researchers at Vrije Universiteit and the University of Amsterdam investigated for the first time the association between autistic traits and self-conscious emotions of guilt, embarrassment, and shame in young children. 

Researchers also further examined whether children with more autistic traits experience these non-attuned self-conscious emotions due to lower levels of Theory of Mind (i.e., ability to understand and reason about people’s mental states, including beliefs), which was not the case. The findings provided initial evidence that children with more autistic traits do not show less guilt and embarrassment, but they show increased shame-like avoidance), which could hinder their reparation of social relationships after transgressions. 

The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) had the opportunity to chat with lead author Shanna van Trigt about this important research.

SRCD: In your opinion, why is this the first time the association between autistic traits and self-conscious emotions were investigated? 

van Trigt: The association between autistic traits and self-conscious emotions has been investigated in older children and adolescents. However, this is the first time these associations were investigated in early childhood. One reason may be that, traditionally, it has been assumed that self-conscious emotions develop only later in childhood. However, more recent research shows that very young children can display rudimentary forms of self-conscious emotions, too. Another reason may be that although research on emotions is rapidly growing, most of this research examines the so-called basic emotions and much less is known about more complex self-conscious emotions. 

SRCD: Describe your hypothesis.

van Trigt: We hypothesized that young children with more autistic traits would show less guilt, less embarrassment, and more shame-like avoidance after accidentally harming another person (i.e., breaking their “favorite” toy), and that these associations would be partially explained by lower Theory of Mind. 

SRCD: Your work showed that children with more autistic traits have lower Theory of Mind and show more shame-like avoidance after a transgression in early childhood.  Expand on why this is important.

van Trigt: Shame is known to hinder the repairment of social relationships after a transgression, making it difficult for children with higher levels of autistic traits to engage with others and feel socially connected after transgressions. It is important to note that although autistic traits were related to lower Theory of Mind, this did not explain the higher levels of shame-like avoidance after transgression in our study. Children with more autistic traits seem not to show any deficits in the Theory of Mind ability that matters most for the experience of self-conscious emotions-the understanding of emotions. They show lower understanding of others’ (false) beliefs, which, importantly, did not seem to play a role in the experience of self-conscious emotions. This is why we think that the social skills training focusing on enhancing socio-cognitive skills in autism may not necessarily bring about improvements in emotional experiences and wellbeing.

SRCD: What are some implications of your research for early interventions for children with autistic traits?

Van Trigt: Our results imply that deficits in Theory of Mind, although related to more autistic traits, may not predict less attuned self-conscious emotions, at least not yet in early childhood. Previous intervention studies found that interventions for autism that focus on Theory of Mind and related socio-cognitive skills, improve socio-cognitive skills, but fail to result in wider improvements in real-life social behavior. As Theory of Mind skills do not necessarily relate to non-attuned self-conscious emotions that children with high levels of autistic traits may experience in a wide range of social situations, support efforts focusing on the regulation of self-conscious emotions may need to focus on targeting these emotions directly. For example, in the case of frequent and intense shame experiences, enhancing (self-) compassion with mindfulness interventions may be a useful option helping young children with high levels of autistic traits to regulate these emotions, thereby increasing their wellbeing and the quality of relationships with others.

SRCD: What were the limitations in your research?

van Trigt: Our study has several limitations that warrant attention when interpreting our results. First, we had a community sample of children, and we measured autistic traits with parents’ reports. Future studies may involve young children on the autism spectrum to investigate whether autism may be related to non-attuned self-conscious emotions, too. Our families came from the Netherlands – a Western country and parents were relatively highly educated. This prevents us from generalizing our results to different cultures and to families with lower socio-economic status. Also, our study was cross-sectional, which does not allow drawing any causal conclusions, for example, our mediation analyses to assess the role of Theory of Mind do not prove temporal ordering or causality. Longitudinal studies may be useful in the future to uncover bidirectional effects between autistic traits and self-conscious emotions over time.

SRCD: What are your recommendations on future work in this area? 

van Trigt: Future studies may build on our findings by inspecting the development of self-conscious emotions in children with more autistic traits from early to late childhood in a longitudinal study. Moreover, mechanisms explaining the relationship between autistic traits and self-conscious emotions other than Theory of Mind can be investigated. For example, communication deficits or elevated levels of social anxiety may play a role in less attuned self-conscious emotions in children with more autistic traits. Also, investigating these associations in young children on the autism spectrum can tell us if our findings translate to autism as well.

SRCD: If you could offer one quote or takeaway about the research, what might that be? 

van Trigt: Children with more autistic traits may show disturbances in some, but not all, self-conscious emotions after transgression, which could hinder their social engagement and the feeling of connection to others. Therefore, new support strategies to regulate self-conscious emotions through enhancing (self-)compassion, such as mindfulness interventions, may be considered when targeting young children with more autistic traits.

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This work was funded by the Research Institute of Child Development and Education, University of Amsterdam and grants from the Jacobs Foundation and the Dutch Research Council. 

Summarized from Child Development, Autistic Traits and Self-Conscious Emotions in Early Childhood by van Trigt, S. (Vrije Universiteit), Colonnesi, C., Brummelman, E., Jorgensen, T.D., and Nikolić, M. (University of Amsterdam). Copyright 2023 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 

 

 

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JOURNAL

Child Development

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Autistic Traits and Self-Conscious Emotions in Early Childhood

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Apr-2023

How do you define shyness? A new study analyzes shyness in children

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT

What is shyness? Research has shown that shyness is characterized by fear and nervousness in response to social novelty and/or social evaluation. Shyness can manifest on behavioral, affective, and physiological levels, but little is known about how these components cluster. Longstanding theories note that shyness may be conceptualized as a trait that is relatively stable across development, which is described as temperamental shyness. Shyness may also be conceptualized as an emotion that is felt in a certain social situation, which is described as state shyness. To help better understand shyness in children, a new study released in Child Development by researchers at McMaster University in Canada examined a child’s behavioral, affective, and physiological responses to a speech task. The findings showed that temperamental shyness may exist in a distinct group of children over time, while a larger subset of children may experience shyness as an emotional state in some situations. 

“Our findings provide empirical support for the long-theorized idea that there may be a subset of temperamentally shy children who manifest heightened behavioral, affective, and physiological reactivity in response to a social stressor, as well as a subset of children who may experience only the affective component which may reflect state shyness,” as explained by Kristie Poole who conducted the study at McMaster University and is now a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at Brock University. “This highlights the multiple components and developmental course of temperamental shyness and the features that distinguish temperamental and state shyness in middle to late childhood.”

The current study included 152 Canadian children (73 girls) aged 7-8 years and their primary caregivers. The children were born in a local hospital and were recruited from a child database at McMaster University containing birth records of infants whose parents consented to their infant’s inclusion. Ninety percent of participating caregivers were mothers and 10% were fathers. Children were primarily White (81.6%), followed by mixed race (9.9%), Asian (3.9%), Black (2.6%), and Latin American (2%). Children were primarily from middle to upper socioeconomic class families. 

Children were fitted with an ambulatory electrocardiogram and completed activities with an experimenter in a room adjacent to their parent. During this time, parents completed online questionnaires related to the child’s temperament while monitoring their child on a muted closed-circuit monitor. Children prepared a two-minute speech about their last birthday and recited their speech in front of a video camera and mirror. They were told the speech would be videotaped for other children to watch later. This was designed to induce stress. The study team coded children’s avoidance/inhibition (i.e., behavior), children self-reported their nervousness (i.e., affect), and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (i.e. physiology) was measured.  

For their time, families were given $20 gift cards and children received a Junior Scientist Certificate. At one- and two-years post evaluations, parents completed an online follow-up survey on their child’s temperament. They responded to statements such as “child acts shy around new people.” This examined how a children’s responses to the speech were related to their temperament across time. Parents were given a $10 gift card at each follow-up. 

“The findings showed that approximately 10 percent of children in our study showed social stress reactivity to the speech on behavioral, affective, and physiological levels, and also had a pattern of relatively higher, stable parent-reported temperamental shyness across time, providing evidence that they may be characterized as temperamentally shy,” Poole continued. “A second subset of approximately 25 percent of children showed a pattern of social stress reactivity only on an affective level (i.e., self-reported feeling nervous), and did not show relatively high levels of parent-reported temperamental shyness, providing evidence that they may be characterized by state shyness. The findings have implications for the conceptualization of shyness in that different types of shyness may differ in kind rather than degree.” 

The findings provide empirical evidence for long-standing ideas first articulated by the late Jerome Kagan several decades ago. He argued that temperamental shyness may exist as a distinct category for some children and the features that define this category are relatively stable across time and context. In addition to this subset of temperamentally shy children, researchers found that a larger subset of children may experience shyness as an emotional state in some situations. It is likely that the experience of state shyness in response to a speech task is a relatively common, normative experience for children at this age. For a smaller group of temperamentally shy children, however, being the center of attention may be stressful across time and various contexts. Since we know that not all children are alike and early temperamental shyness is a risk factor for internalizing-related problems, future work should examine the consequences of these findings for children’s social, psychological, and academic adjustment. 

The authors acknowledge several limitations in their research. The study only measured behavioral, affective, and physiological components at one point in time, so they do not have the means to measure whether these components remain stable across development. The authors recommend that future research include more diverse samples of children as this study was primarily of White children from middle to upper socioeconomic status families making it difficult to generalize the findings. 

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This work was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Doctoral Award, an Elizabeth Munsterberg Koppitz Fellowship from the American Psychological Foundation, and funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

Summarized from Child Development, Latent profiles of children’s shyness: behavioral, affective, and physiological components by Poole, K.L. and Schmidt, L.A. (McMaster University). Copyright 2023 The Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 

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JOURNAL

Child Development

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Latent profiles of children's shyness: Behavioral, affective, and physiological components

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Apr-2023

Common ear, nose, and throat issues in pre-schoolers may be linked to later autism risk

Early identification and treatment of these conditions may improve their quality of life

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Young children with common ear, nose, and throat (ENT) issues may be at subsequent risk of autism or high levels of demonstrable autism traits, suggests research published online in the open access journal BMJ Open.

Early identification and treatment of ENT conditions may improve these children’s quality of life and potentially help shed light on some of the origins of autism, say the researchers. 

The causes of autism are likely to involve an interplay of genetic, environmental, and biological factors, and the origins of each autistic trait may also differ, note the researchers.

Previous research suggests that ENT conditions, such as ear infections, ‘glue ear’, and sleep disordered breathing, may have a role in the development of autism.  But most of this evidence is based on health records, which may have biased these findings, because parents of children with suspected autism may be more likely than other parents to seek medical help for their offspring, explain the researchers.

To avoid this, the researchers drew on participants in the long term Children of the 90s study, also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). This has tracked the health of more than 14,000 children since birth and that of their parents from the early 1990s onwards.

The current study is based on comprehensive data for more than 10,000 young children who were closely monitored throughout their first 4 years. 

Their mothers completed 3 questionnaires when their children were aged 18, 30, and 42 months, which were designed to record the frequency of 9 different signs and symptoms relating to the ear, nose, and throat as well as any hearing problems.

They also completed 3 questionnaires when their children were just over 3, nearly 6, and 9 years old. These were designed to pinpoint speech coherence, social and communication issues, repetitive and abnormal behaviours, and sociability, traits which are characteristic of autism.  A diagnosis of autism was confirmed from educational records and parental feedback, among other sources.

Adjustments were made for 10 potentially influential ‘environmental’ factors: early or late birth; sex; number of mother’s previous pregnancies resulting in a live or stillbirth; breast feeding; postnatal depression; mother’s educational achievements; mother’s smoking at 18 weeks of pregnancy; mother’s belief in her own agency; child’s exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at 15 months; child’s attendance at a crèche/other daycare by the age of 30 months.

In all, 177 children had a probable diagnosis of autism:139 boys and 38 girls. Those with autism traits were defined as the 10% of the sample with the highest trait scores. 

Early evidence of breathing through the mouth, snoring, ear pulling or poking, reddened and sore ears, worse hearing during a cold, and rarely listening were all more commonly associated with high scores on each of the 4 autism traits, and with a diagnosis of autism.

Pus or sticky discharge from the ears was also associated with autism and with poor coherent speech. 

Among the different ages tested, strong associations were particularly observed when the child was aged 30 and 42 months. Children with high scores on autistic traits at 30 months had more ENT signs. Autism itself was significantly associated with all signs except for symptoms of sleep apnoea  (interrupted breathing during sleep).

Factoring in the 10 environmental features made little difference to the results. For example, children with discharge from their  ears were more than 3 times as likely to have autism, while those with impaired hearing during a cold were more than twice as likely to do so. And children who failed to react to nearby noise were more than 6 times as likely to have autism at this age.

However, the researchers point out: ** “These ENT signs and symptoms are very common in childhood and most children who experience them do not go on to be diagnosed with autism. For example, of the group of around 1700 children who snored at age 30 months, most (1660) weren’t diagnosed with autism later on.” 

The researchers acknowledge various limitations, including the loss of some children to subsequent monitoring, as is the case with any long term study, and the lack of ethnic diversity among the Children of the 90s participants, limiting the wider applicability of the findings.

What’s more, the children weren’t examined consistently to determine a diagnosis of autism; rather, a strategy to assess the probability of a diagnosis using a variety of different sources was used instead.

But they nevertheless conclude that the associations they found “may be important because (1) these ear and respiratory signs may be early markers of increased risk of autism, (2) they may inform the origins of autism, or (3) they may highlight co-occurring conditions that if treated may lead to a better quality of life for children with autism.” 

They add: “This study adds to the evidence that, compared with a typical population of the same age, early ear and upper respiratory symptoms are more common in those subsequently diagnosed with autism or with extreme levels of autistic traits.”

But they caution: “It is not possible to determine whether these ENT conditions have a causal role in the development of autistic traits or are related to an unmeasured factor. 

“One possibility, for example, could be the consequence of the increased prevalence of minor physical anomalies in individuals with autism, including anatomical differences in the structure and/or positioning of the ear, with such differences in ear morphology increasing the risk of ENT conditions.”

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JOURNAL

BMJ Open

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2022-067682 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Associations between autistic traits and early ear and upper respiratory signs: a prospective observational study of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) geographically defined childhood population

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Apr-2023

Doctors more extroverted, but also more neurotic and less open than patients: Study

Character trait differences might have clinical implications for doctor-patient relationships

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Doctors are more extroverted, agreeable, and conscientious, but also more neurotic and less open than their patients, finds an analysis of responses to two nationally representative Australian surveys, published online in the open access journal BMJ Open.

These character trait differences might have clinical implications for the doctor-patient relationship, suggest the researchers. 

The selection and training of doctors may accentuate personality characteristics that differ from their patients, say the researchers, adding that, in turn, these differences may create a mismatch between how doctors deliver information and how patients receive it.

The available body of research on doctors’ personality is dominated by convenience samples, low sample sizes and response rates, and limited by a focus on specific types of doctors, medical schools, or geographic areas, point out the researchers.

To avoid these issues, the researchers drew on two nationally representative Australian surveys, in which respondents were asked to assess their own personality traits.

The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey of 25,358 members of the general public aged 20-85 included 18,705 patients, 1261 highly educated people, and 5814 professional carers.

The Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) survey of 19,351 doctors included 5844 general practitioners, 1776 patient-oriented specialists, and 3245 ‘technique-oriented’ specialists.

The researchers wanted to find out if there were personality trait differences between doctors and all the other groups, and if there might be equivalent differences between the two groups of medical specialists.

They focused on the ‘big 5’ personality traits of conscientiousness, agreeableness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness as well as locus of control—belief in personal agency (internal) rather than external forces, such as fate, a higher power, or powerful others (external). 

Agreeableness encapsulates empathy, kindness, cooperation, and warmth; conscientious includes the descriptors orderly, systematic, efficient, careful, and organised; extroverts are talkative, confident, loud, bold and lively; neurotics describe themselves as envious, moody, touchy, jealous, temperamental and fretful; while the descriptors philosophical, creative, intellectual, complex, and imaginative apply to openness.

Not unexpectedly, doctors were more agreeable and extroverted than all the other groups, but they were also more neurotic. And both doctors and caring professionals were more agreeable than patients. But doctors were significantly more agreeable than caring professionals.

Somewhat unexpectedly, doctors more strongly believed themselves subject to external forces beyond their control than the general public. Although significant, this difference was relatively small, and there were no significant differences between doctors and patients, caring professionals, or the highly educated, caution the researchers.

Finally, differences among doctors across medical specialties were, overall, smaller than those between doctors and patients and the public, with family doctors (GPs) standing out for their higher level of agreeableness.

Women doctors seemed to differ more strongly from the other groups relative to men, the survey responses suggested. This was particularly noticeable for neuroticism, with women doctors scoring significantly higher on this trait than female members of the general public.

The researchers acknowledge certain limitations to their findings. Although based on well known and validated instruments, the scales used to assess personality traits were self-rated. And the ‘big 5’ descriptors differed slightly between the two surveys. 

Nevertheless, the researchers suggest that these personality differences might have implications for the doctor-patient relationship and ultimately the success of treatment.

“For example, being more conscientious has implications for treatment adherence as conscientious doctors may overestimate their patients’ ability to follow recommendations. Higher doctor neuroticism, which is related to stress, could lead doctors to see stress as a normal part of life, and, thus, underestimate the impact of [it] on patient wellbeing,” they write. 

“Doctor agreeableness and conscientiousness increase patient satisfaction with care, but could potentially lead doctors to view patients—in contrast to themselves—as more confrontational and less conscientious than patients actually are, causing an asymmetry in doctor and patient judgements of one another, which could impact outcomes,” they add.

“By taking into account these differences, doctors can better calibrate their judgments of patients and gain insight into factors that influence their patient interactions,” they suggest. 

And a range of different personalities is also likely to be better for clinical team performance, they add. “The lack of personality difference we found between doctor specialties suggests that adding more doctors to a team will not increase diversity of personality-base perspectives. However, the differences found between doctors and those in other caring professions suggest that including non-doctor caring professionals in clinical teams will increase personality diversity and, thus, team performance.” 

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JOURNAL

BMJ Open

DOI

10.1136/bmjopen-2022-069850 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Does doctors’ personality differ from those of patients, the highly educated and other caring professions? An observational study using two nationally representative Australian surveys

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-Apr-2023

Better social drinkers don’t earn more

Alcohol-tolerant men in East Asia don’t financially benefit over their intolerant colleagues

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TOKYO

Social drinking after work is traditionally seen as an important way to build relationships in East Asia. There’s sometimes even a fear that missing out could leave you on the back foot when climbing the career ladder. However, a joint paper looking at the drinking habits and economic situation of working men in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea has found that those who can drink more do not seem to have a financial leg-up over their alcohol-intolerant and less-drinking colleagues. As almost half of the population in East Asia has some intolerance to alcohol, and with the growth of the sober-curious lifestyle, this result may come as good news to those who don’t want to have to drink to get ahead.

Have you ever felt pressured to join an afterwork drinking party, even if you’re more inclined to having some tea than getting tipsy? In East Asia, drinking with your colleagues is traditionally seen as an almost essential part of the working culture. Drinking parties are used to build trust, get closer to your boss or subordinates, and discuss topics more candidly than in the workplace. However, a joint study between researchers in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea appears to show that those who drink more don’t necessarily reap extra financial benefits at work, compared to those who drink less.

“We found no justification for drinking for the purpose of improving labor market outcomes,” said Professor Daiji Kawaguchi, an economist from the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo. “Despite the widespread perception that drinking is important for business communication in East Asia, we did not find evidence supporting the idea. Health research has already found that there is no benefit of heavy alcohol consumption in terms of improving health outcomes, so I think this is important knowledge for when a person decides to drink or not.”

The team surveyed working men aged 25 to 59 years old with a list of 45 questions, including ones on health, drinking habits, finances and weekly working hours. Respondents also self-checked their alcohol tolerance using a simple stick-on alcohol patch test. In total, about 3,500 men from across the three regions participated. The researchers were particularly interested in Asian men not only because of the work-related drinking culture, but also because of alcohol flush, or “Asian flush,” syndrome (AFS), which causes people’s faces to turn red while they also quickly experience headaches, sickness and other symptoms due to a genetic inability to digest alcohol.

“We wanted to find out if a wage premium existed for those with a higher alcohol tolerance,” explained Kawaguchi. “Although our results showed that alcohol-tolerant men do drink more often and more each time than alcohol-intolerant men, there was no significant difference across the three populations in terms of working hours or earnings between them.” About 52% of the respondents in Japan and Taiwan and about 60% in South Korea were alcohol intolerant, which the researchers say is in line with figures reported in medical literature.

A limitation of the study was that the South Korean sample size was smaller (around 500 people, compared to 1,000 from Taiwan and 2,000 from Japan), restricted to the capital city of Seoul, and included a disproportionate number of college-educated respondents (92%) compared to the national educational average. “We would like to do a similar analysis again,” said Kawaguchi, “but next time with a much larger data set and in collaboration with other specialists, to look in more detail at genome bank data and alcohol digestive ability in combination with socioeconomic outcomes.”  

With a general trend in young people from high-income countries towards drinking less — which in 2022 led Japan’s National Tax Agency to even encourage the country’s youth to drink more (due to declining tax revenues) — this result will hopefully come as good news that you don’t have to get drinking to get ahead. “I enjoy social drinking despite my intolerance to alcohol,” Kawaguchi said. “However, no one should be pressured to drink.”

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Paper Title:

Daiji Kawaguchi, Jungmin Lee, Ming-Jen Lin, Izumi Yokoyama. Is Asian Flushing Syndrome a Disadvantage in the Labor Market? Health Economics. DOI: 10.1002/hec.4675

 

Funding:

This research was supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), grant number 16K13369. Lee’s work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A3A2A02104190).

Useful Link
Graduate School of Public Policy: http://www.pp.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ 

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JOURNAL

Health Economics

DOI

10.1002/hec.4675 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Is Asian Flushing Syndrome a Disadvantage in the Labor Market?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

25-Apr-2023