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, May 23, 2023
Survivors of firearm injury carry long term physical and mental burdens that are poorly understood
A timely research report evaluating firearm injury survivors has found that despite medical advancements that improve survival from firearm injuries, many survivors experience long-term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and poor physical quality of life. The report is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.
Firearm injury is a public health crisis in the United States. Organizations including the American College of Physicians and Annals of Internal Medicine have called for the consideration of long-term consequences of firearm violence. Interpersonal firearm violence survivors report significantly worse physical health and functioning compared with the general population and other mechanisms of traumatic injury. Yet, there is limited work examining self-reported mental and physical health consequences of firearm violence for survivors acutely after injury, thwarting health care systems’ ability to comprehensively intervene.
Researchers from Medical College of Wisconsin studied 87 survivors of firearm injury between 2014 to 2016 and 2017 to 2021 to describe the mental health symptoms and health-related quality of life of firearm injury survivors. Participants were evaluated at baseline and at 6 months after injury. The authors found that participants experienced chronic PTSD symptoms across time and worsened symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress. Participants also reported poor health-related quality of life at both baseline and 6 months from injury, but their quality of life did not worsen during this period. According to the authors, this preliminary study highlights the need to better understand and manage the mental health consequences of firearm injury. They suggest that early screening and comprehensive care may improve outcomes in this at-risk population.
Note: Annals of Internal Medicine offers a resource hub for firearms-related content to help internal medicine physicians address firearm injury and violence as a public health issue and to provide strategies to help keep patients and their loved ones safe. This article and others are available for free at https://www.acponline.org/firearms.
Media contacts: For an embargoed PDF, please contact Angela Collom at acollom@acponline.org. To speak with corresponding author Sydney Timmer-Murillo, PhD, please contact the Medical College of Wisconsin media office at media@mcw.edu.
Analysis of over 30 years of data has shown the number of cases of low back pain is growing, with modelling suggesting by 2050, 843 million people will be affected by the condition largely due to population increases and ageing of populations.
The continued lack of a consistent approach on back pain treatment, and limited treatment options have researchers concerned that this will lead to a healthcare crisis, as low back pain is the leading cause of disability in the world.
In Australia, there will be a nearly 50 percent increase in cases by 2050. The landscape of back pain cases is set to shift, with the biggest increases in back pain cases to be in Asia and Africa.
The findings are published in Lancet Rheumatology today, and is the new Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 study.
“Our analysis paints a picture of growing low back pain cases globally, putting enormous pressure on our healthcare system. We need to establish a national, consistent approach to managing low back pain that is informed by research,” says lead author, Professor Manuela Ferreira from Sydney Musculoskeletal Health, an initiative of the University of Sydney, Sydney Local Health District and Northern Sydney Local Health District.
“Currently, how we have been responding to back pain has been reactive. Australia is a global leader in back pain research; we can be proactive and lead by example on back pain prevention”, said Professor Ferreira who is based at Sydney’s Kolling Institute.
The study reveals several milestones in back pain cases. Since 2017, the number of low back pain cases has ticked over to more than half a billion people.
In 2020, there were approximately 619 million cases of back pain.
At least one third of the disability burden associated with backpain was attributable to occupational factors, smoking and being overweight.
A widespread misconception is that low back pain mostly affects adults of working age. But researchers say this study has confirmed that low back pain is more common among older people. Low back pain cases were also higher among females compared to males.
This is the most comprehensive and up-to-date available data that includes for the first time global projections and the contribution of GBD risk factors to low back pain. The work was made possible by the joint efforts of The University of Sydney, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine (healthdata.org), IHME’s international collaborators, and the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health (gmusc.com).
“We also know that most available data come from high-income countries, making it sometimes hard to interpret these results for low to mid-income countries. We urgently need more population-based back pain and musculoskeletal data from countries of low to mid-income,” said senior author Professor Lyn March from Sydney Musculoskeletal Health and the Kolling Institute.
The study analysed GBD data from 1990 to 2020 from over 204 countries and territories to map the landscape of back pain cases over time. The GBD is the most comprehensive picture of mortality and disability across countries, time, age, and It is also the first study to be used for modelling the future prevalence of back pain cases.
"Health systems need to respond to this enormous and rising burden of low back pain that is affecting people globally. Much more needs to be done to prevent low back pain and ensure timely access to care, as there are effective ways of helping people in pain” said Prof Anthony Woolf, co-chair of the Global Alliance for Musculoskeletal Health which is calling for priority to be given to addressing the growing burden of musculoskeletal conditions.
“Ministries of health cannot continue ignoring the high prevalence of musculoskeletal conditions including low back pain. These conditions have important social and economic consequences, especially considering the cost of care. Now is the time to learn about effective strategies to address the high burden and to act” said Dr Alarcos Cieza, Unit Head, World Health Organization, Headquarters, Geneva.
National guidelines will form basis of back pain prevention
In 2018, experts (independent to this study) voiced their concerns in The Lancet and gave recommendations, especially regarding exercise and education, about the need for a change in global policy on the best way to prevent and manage low back pain to stop the rise of inappropriate treatments.
However, since then, there has been little change. Common treatments recommended for low back pain have been found to have unknown effectiveness or to be ineffective – this includes some surgeries and opioids.
Professor Ferreira says there is a lack of consistency in how health professionals manage back pain cases and how the healthcare system needs to adapt.
“It may come as a surprise to some that current clinical guidelines for back pain treatment and management do not provide specific recommendations for older people.”
“Older people have more complex medical histories and are more likely to be prescribed strong medication, including opioids for back pain management, compared to younger adults. But this is not ideal and can have a negative impact on their function and quality of life, especially as these analgesics may interfere with their other existing medications. This is just one example of why we need to update clinical guidelines to support our health professionals.”
Co-author Dr Katie de Luca, from CQUniversity, said if the right action is not taken, low back pain can become a precursor to chronic health conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and mental health conditions, invasive medical procedures, and significant disability.
“Low back pain continues to be the greatest cause of disability burden worldwide. There are substantial socio-economic consequences of this condition, and the physical and personal impact directly threatens healthy ageing.”
-ENDS-
Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation | media@healthdata.org
JOURNAL
The Lancet Rheumatology
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Data/statistical analysis
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
Not applicable
ARTICLE TITLE
Global, regional, and national burden of low back pain, 1990–2020, its attributable risk factors, and projections to 2050: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021
Coastal ecosystems are a net greenhouse gas sink, new research shows
From mangroves to fjords, coastal ecosystems can take up or emit greenhouse gases. But globally, they’re a vital sink
IMAGE: FJORDS ARE COASTAL SYSTEMS THAT ACT SIMILAR TO THE OCEAN. THEY TAKE UP LARGE AMOUNTS OF CO2 FROM THE ATMOSPHERE. SOME FJORDS EMIT ALSO N2O AND SMALL AMOUNTS OF CH4. ON BALANCE, FJORDS ARE A GREENHOUSE GAS SINK.view more
CREDIT: DONG ZHANG ON UNSPLASH
A new greenhouse gas budget shows coastal ecosystems globally are a net greenhouse gas sink for carbon dioxide (CO2) but emissions of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) counteract some of the CO2 uptake, according to international researchers led by Australia’s Southern Cross University.
From tropical lagoons to polar fjords, from coastal mangrove forests to underwater seagrass communities, many coastlines around the world show high diversity in greenhouse gas sinks and emissions.
“Understanding how and where greenhouse gases are released and absorbed in coastal ecosystems is an important first step for implementing effective climate mitigation strategies,” said lead researcher, Dr Judith Rosentreter, Senior Research Fellow at Southern Cross University.
“For example, protecting and restoring mangrove and salt marsh habitats is a promising strategy to strengthen the CO2 uptake by these coastal wetlands.”
Other activities to curb human impact, like reducing nutrients, organic matter, and wastewater inputs into coastal waterways, can reduce the amount of CH4 and N2O released to the atmosphere.
The global team of scientists looked at ten different world regions: North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Russia, West Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia and Australasia (see Figure 1).
They found the strongest coastal greenhouse gas (GHG) sink was in Southeast Asia because of its extensive and productive tropical coastal wetlands that take up CO2. A second sink hotspot is North America, with its large areas of coastal wetlands but also CO2-uptaking fjords.
“Our new research shows that fjords around the world take up ~40% of CO2 that would otherwise be released from tidal systems, deltas and lagoons. Most (86%) of this important CO2 uptake by fjords comes from the North America region, mostly Greenland,” said co-author Professor Bradley Eyre, Professor of Biogeochemistry at Southern Cross University.
Dr Rosentreter added: “Other coastal habitats are sources of greenhouse gases. For example, coastal wetlands such as mangrove forests, coastal salt marshes and seagrasses, release more than three-times more CH4 than all estuaries in the world.”
At the same time coastal wetlands, also called coastal ‘blue carbon’ wetlands, can be strong sinks of CO2 and some also take up N2O, which, on balance, makes them a net GHG sink for the atmosphere when all three greenhouse gases are considered.
“In our new study, we show that when we consider all three greenhouse gases (CO2 + CH4 + N2O), eight out of the 10 world regions are a coastal net greenhouse gas sink,” Dr Rosentreter said.
Snapshot: coastal greenhouse gas sinks and sources around the world
A dataset of observations from 738 sites from studies published between 1975 and 2020 was compiled to quantify CO2, CH4, and N2O fluxes in estuaries and coastal vegetation in 10 global regions.
Special coastal features (climate, hydrology, abundance) in each region around the world drive the GHG uptake and/or release from coastal systems.
Strongest coastal greenhouse gas sinks:
Top: the archipelagic region of Southeast Asia, because of its extensive and productive tropical mangrove forests and seagrasses that take up large amounts of CO2.
Next: North America because of its large areas of salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses but also CO2-uptaking fjords.
Third: Africa with large CO2 uptake by mangroves and seagrasses that is moderately reduced by estuarine GHG emissions.
Moderate coastal greenhouse gas sinks:
South America: moderate CO2 uptake by coastal wetlands, especially mangroves, and some estuarine GHG emissions.
Australasia: long stretches of coastal wetlands that take up CO2, but this region also has a large number of estuaries along its coasts, many of which are a source of CO2, CH4 and N2O.
West Asia: weak estuarine GHG source and moderate CO2 uptake by coastal wetlands, mostly seagrasses.
Weak coastal greenhouse gas sinks:
East Asia and South Asia: the moderate coastal wetlands CO2 sink is largely reduced by estuarine GHG emissions.
Weak coastal greenhouse gas sources:
Europe and Russia: both regions release more coastal GHG than they can take up from the atmosphere. These regions have many impacted tidal estuaries that release greenhouse gases; a colder climate also means they have fewer coastal wetlands (eg mangroves) that would otherwise take up large amounts of CO2.
19% of respondents to a survey of academics report that they or someone they know have witnessed unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) — observations of the sky that cannot be identified as aircraft or as known natural phenomena — and 37% report some degree of interest in conducting research into UAP. The findings, which are based on a survey of 1,460 US academics, are published in Humanities and Social Science Communications and highlight that many academics consider the evaluation of UAP to be worthy of academic scrutiny.
Marissa Yingling, Charlton Yingling and Bethany Bell surveyed professors, associate professors, and assistant professors from 144 US universities across 14 academic disciplines in 2022. The survey was sent to 39,984 academics and the response rate was 4%. Participants, who were 62% male and 80% white, were asked about their perceptions of, experiences with and opinions of UAP. Of the 14 different disciplines represented, 10% of participants worked in political science, 10% worked in physics, 10% in psychology and 6% in engineering.
19% of participants (276) reported that they or someone they knew had witnessed UAP and a further 9% (128) reported that they or someone they knew may have witnessed UAP. 39% of all participants reported that they did not know what the most likely explanations for UAP were, while 21% attributed them to natural events and 13% to devices of unknown intelligence. Although only 4% of participants reported that they had conducted academic research related to UAP, 36% (524) reported some degree of interest in conducting research in this area. 43% said they would be more likely to conduct academic research into UAP if a reputable scholar in their discipline did so and 55% said they would be more likely to conduct research into UAP if they could secure funding. 37% of participants ranked the importance of further research into UAP as very important or absolutely essential, while 64% considered academia’s involvement in UAP-related research to be very important or absolutely essential.
The findings suggest that many US academics across disciplines consider academia’s involvement in research into UAP to be important and may be cautiously willing to engage with research into UAP, particularly if others they consider to be reputable within their field do so. The authors suggest that open discussions of UAP among academics could enable greater academic involvement in UAP-related research. However, they note that further surveys in larger and more diverse cohorts are needed to investigate attitudes towards UAP more generally among academics in the USA.
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Article details
Faculty Perceptions of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena
IMAGE: L-R (CLOCKWISE): THE ALLEN TELESCOPE ARRAY, GREEN BANK TELESCOPE AND MEDECINA RADIO ASTRONOMICAL STATIONview more
CREDIT: ALLEN TELESCOPE ARRAY: JOE MARFIA GREEN BANK TELESCOPE: JAY YOUNG MEDECINA RADIO ASTRONOMICAL STATION: MEDECINA RADIO ASTRONOMICAL STATION
First Contact: Global team simulates message from extraterrestrial intelligence to Earth
A Sign in Space imagines how Earth might respond to a signal from aliens and invites the public to help decode an ET message.
May 22, 2023, Mountain View, CA – What would happen if we received a message from an extraterrestrial civilization? Daniela de Paulis, an established interdisciplinary artist and licensed radio operator who currently serves as Artist in Residence at the SETI Institute and the Green Bank Observatory, has brought together a team of international experts, including SETI researchers, space scientists, and artists, to stage her latest project, A Sign in Space. This revolutionary presentation of global theater aims to explore the process of decoding and interpreting an extraterrestrial message by engaging the worldwide SETI community, professionals from different fields and the broader public. This process requires global cooperation, bridging a conversation around SETI, space research and society across multiple cultures and areas of expertise.
As part of the project, on May 24, 2023, the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) in orbit around Mars will transmit an encoded message to Earth to simulate receiving a signal from an extraterrestrial intelligence.
“Throughout history, humanity has searched for meaning in powerful and transformative phenomena,” said Daniela de Paulis, the visionary artist behind the A Sign in Space project. “Receiving a message from an extraterrestrial civilization would be a profoundly transformational experience for all humankind. A Sign in Space offers the unprecedented opportunity to tangibly rehearse and prepare for this scenario through global collaboration, fostering an open-ended search for meaning across all cultures and disciplines.”
Three world-class radio astronomy observatories located across the globe will detect the encoded message. These include the SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA), the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) at the Green Bank Observatory (GBO), and the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station observatory managed by Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). The specific content of the encoded message, developed by de Paulis and her team, is currently undisclosed, allowing the public to contribute to decoding and interpreting the content.
The ESA ExoMars Orbiter will transmit the encoded message on May 24 at 19:00 UTC / 12:00 pm PDT, with receipt on Earth 16 minutes later. To engage the public, the SETI Institute will host a social media live stream event featuring interviews with key team members, including scientists, engineers, artists and more, joining the live stream from around the world, including control rooms from the ATA, the GBT, and Medicina. Hosted by the SETI Institute’s Dr. Franck Marchis and GBO’s Victoria Catlett, the live stream event will begin at 11:15 am PDT here.
“This experiment is an opportunity for the world to learn how the SETI community, in all its diversity, will work together to receive, process, analyze, and understand the meaning of a potential extraterrestrial signal,” said ATA Project Scientist Dr. Wael Farah. “More than astronomy, communicating with ET will require a breadth of knowledge. With “A Sign in Space,” we hope to make the initial steps towards bringing a community together to meet this challenge.”
Following the transmission, ATA, GBT, and Medicina teams will process the signal and then make it available to the public for decoding.
The SETI Institute will securely store the processed data in collaboration with Breakthrough Listen Open Data Archive and Filecoin, the world’s largest decentralized storage network. This collaborative effort ensures the preservation and accessibility of the processed data, safeguarding its availability for further analysis and decoding endeavors.
“We’re thrilled to partner with SETI on this groundbreaking project,” said Stefaan Verveat, Head of Network Growth at Protocol Labs, the company behind Filecoin. “Our decentralized data storage solutions are ideally suited for the secure and reliable storage of the vast amounts of data generated by this project.”
Anyone working to decode and interpret the message can discuss the process in the A Sign in Space Discord server. Submissions of findings, thoughts, and artistic and scientific inputs may be made through the dedicated submission form on the project’s website: https://asignin.space/decode-the-message/
Following the transmission, the A Sign in Space team will host a series of Zoom-based discussions open to the public around topics that consider the societal implications of detecting a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization. The discussions will take place over 6-8 weeks after the transmission. A list of events with registration links is here.
More information about the project can be found at “A Sign in Space” website: https://asignin.space/.
About the SETI Institute
Founded in 1984, the SETI Institute is a non-profit, multi-disciplinary research and education organization whose mission is to lead humanity’s quest to understand the origins and prevalence of life and intelligence in the Universe and to share that knowledge with the world. Its research encompasses the physical and biological sciences and leverages expertise in data analytics, machine learning and advanced signal detection technologies. The SETI Institute is a distinguished research partner for industry, academia and government agencies, including NASA and NSF
About the Green Bank Observatory
The Green Bank Telescope is operated by the Green Bank Observatory, a major facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
About INAF and the Medicina Radio Astronomical Station
The Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, INAF, is the main Italian public research institute dedicated to the study of the Universe. It is present throughout Italy with 16 research facilities and the headquarters in Rome, as well as the Galileo National Telescope in the Canary Islands. Besides optical observatories, INAF manages three radio telescopes in Italy. The Medicina Radio Astronomical Station, located 30 km from Bologna, hosts two radio telescopes: the first Italian radio telescope, the Northern Cross (owned by the University of Bologna) and a 32-m parabolic dish. A second 32-m parabolic antenna, very similar to the Medicina one, is located in Noto (Siracusa, Sicily). More recently, the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) was inaugurated in San Basilio (Cagliari, Sardinia) with a 64-m dish antenna.
About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an international organization, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world. Today, it launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System, and cooperates in the human exploration of space. ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft, and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.
About Filecoin
Filecoin, the world’s largest decentralized storage network, enables users to store, request, and transfer data via a verifiable marketplace. Filecoin’s advanced technology provides a robust foundation to store the world’s most valuable datasets. An alternative to costly cloud storage, the Filecoin network offers efficiently priced and geographically decentralized storage, minimizing financial barriers and allowing users to take advantage of its unmatched network capabilities. Filecoin is completely open source, enabling people from all over the world to participate. For more information about Filecoin, please visit https://filecoin.io/
Modular builds may help construction industry weather a perfect storm
Rising material prices, labour shortages, interest rate hikes and rainy weather have created a perfect storm for the construction industry in the past 12 months, sending many builders to the wall.
Of all these factors, weather is the one that most people would cite as being beyond human control. However, a new study out of the UK and Australia suggests this may not be the case.
Engineers from Aston University, Birmingham, and the University of South Australia (UniSA) have calculated the potential cost savings for builders using modular production techniques where much of the construction happens offsite in controlled conditions.
Buildings are produced in modules in a factory, using the same materials and building codes, but completed in about half the time, with less waste and no building delays due to poor weather.
The researchers produced a cost model that estimated the impact of weather by season on each building activity, including portions of the build (such as bathroom pods) up to the entire structure.
The savings come in at approximately AUD$40,000 (£21,000) on a build worth $6.4 million (£3.4m). This 0.6% saving may initially seem minor but takes on significant meaning in the current climate where average construction profit margins are just 4.2%.
Co-author of the paper Dr Ki Pyung Kim, a senior lecturer in STEM at UniSA, says weather is often identified as one of the top causes for delays and subsequent cost increases in the building industry, affecting 45% of projects worldwide.
“By removing many of the onsite activities and replacing them with modules built offsite, builders can minimise construction delays caused by weather, thereby keeping the costs from blowing out,” Dr Kim says.
Incessant rain in Australia’s eastern states throughout 2022 led to construction costs ballooning, according to the Property Council of Australia, exposing builders to unbudgeted increases and heavy losses.
However, rainfall is the not the only key weather pressure for the construction industry.
Global warming is expected to push temperatures up worldwide, including in Australia, making working conditions more difficult on construction sites, the study authors point out.
“There are many pressures on the construction industry right now, including lack of skilled labour, reductions in profit margins, lack of sustainable materials and low productivity. The financial implications of weather are rarely considered except in extreme cases as the client normally bears the cost,” Dr Kim says.
While modular construction techniques have several benefits – including faster builds and a more controlled working environment which protects high-quality materials from the weather – there are some drawbacks: a limited supply chain and lack of flexibility in both design and supply. The upfront costs of modular components are also expensive, but this needs to be weighed up against losses incurred by weather holdups.
“The global housing sector is dominated by traditional construction methods, but the industry is approaching a crisis point – particularly in relation to a skills shortage – that may force a change to modular and other offsite techniques,” Dr Kim says.
“The Federal Government has set a target of delivering one million affordable homes over five years from 2024. To ensure this target is met, Infrastructure Australia has mandated modular construction for 80% of social housing projects by 2030.”
Construction costs are typically between 43 and 46% of overall costs, which is why much of the existing research focuses on this area.
“When working in a factory environment there is a more protected and controlled atmosphere, and this will improve worker welfare, productivity and reduce health and safety costs, with fewer loss of workdays due to ill health and accident.”
Dr Kim says that the potential cost saving will vary, depending on where the project is built, when the project is started and how long the build is.
JOURNAL
International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development
