CANADA

'Good riddance' or 'don't unfriend us'? Publishers torn over Meta move to block news

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press

From "good riddance" to "don't unfriend us," independent publishers are expressing mixed feelings about Meta's decision to temporarily block news on Instagram and Facebook for some of its Canadian users. 

The company said it's a response to the Liberal government's Bill C-18, which would require tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing news content. 

Kerry Benjoe, president of Eagle Feather News Media in Saskatchewan, said she relies on Facebook to grow her newspaper's audience and ad revenue. 

If Meta were to permanently block news, it would impact the way she does business.

Eagle Feather News is a monthly newspaper that distributes 10,000 copies to every First Nation in the province. Benjoe said her reach is restricted, considering the size of Saskatchewan, so she leans to social media. 

"It's going to really limit the audience that I want to reach, and not just Indigenous people," Benjoe said in an interview regarding Meta's decision.

"It's really important for the rest of the public to hear these (Indigenous) stories and see all the good things happening in these communities that are so isolated from major urban settings."

Many local news publishers have popped up as a result of newsroom layoffs over the years, and each rely on social media in different ways to either grow their business or audience. 

Darren Krause fully launched his online news site, LiveWire Calgary, about five years ago, after his employer Torstar shuttered its StarMetro newspaper chain, which offered free commuter papers. 

The former managing editor of Metro Calgary built his business on filling the gaps in hyper-local news, and said he now has up to 100,000 page views per month, most of which is driven by Google searches and social media. 

"Being an online news organization, the clicks generate cash," Krause said.

He said he's less concerned about Meta blocking news on Facebook than he is about Google blocking news — a test Google ran earlier this year that removed news links for less than four per cent of its Canadian users. 

"At least 60 per cent of my news is generated by Google's search engine," Krause said. LiveWire Calgary is also part of the Google News Initiative that helps independent newsrooms grow. 

"It's counterintuitive for them, because on one hand they're trying to support better, stronger local news, but they don't want to have to pay for it."

The online news bill could pass as early as this month. If it does, Meta and Google would be required to enter into agreements with news publishers to pay them for news content that appears on their sites if it helps the tech giants generate money. 

Meta said it will comply by ending news on Facebook and Instagram all together. The WhatsApp and Messenger apps will not be affected. Google has also indicated that removing news could be an option. 

The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer released a report last year that projected Bill C-18 will generate over $300 million annually. But the majority of that will likely to go to big Canadian broadcasters, leaving small independent publishers feeling like they'll be getting just a small crumble of the pie. 

Will Pearson, co-publisher of Peterborough Currents, said he's opposed to C-18 because he won't benefit from it, and he believes publishers need to develop new ways to reach people that aren't mediated by tech companies.

He said it's time for media to say "good riddance" to Facebook. Still, he does wonder what misinformation and low-quality news sources would fill that vacuum where reliable sources once existed. 

"I do think the relationship between news and social media is strained. The incentives are not aligned, and I wonder why the government and big media publishers are finding a solution to their budget crisis that locks them in that relationship when we're never going to control Facebook or whether they give us reach," he said. 

Pearson, whose digital news site has 3,6000 newsletter subscriptions, said he's more focused on growing his business through subscriptions, newsletters and interacting with his community in person. 

"Facebook says they don't need news," Pearson said. "I feel like we don't need Facebook."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 2, 2023.

Meta to test blocking news on Instagram,

Facebook for some Canadians

Mickey Djuric, The Canadian Press

Meta is preparing to block news for some Canadians on Facebook and Instagram in a temporary test that is expected to last the majority of the month.

The Silicon Valley tech giant is following in the steps of Google, which blocked news links for about five weeks earlier this year for some of its Canadian users in response to a controversial Liberal government bill.

Bill C-18, which is currently being studied in the Senate, will require tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.

Meta said it's prepared to block news permanently on Facebook and Instagram if the bill passes, which the government said could happen this month.

Rachel Curran, head of public policy for Meta Canada, said this first temporary move will affect one to five per cent of its 24 million Canadian users, with the number of those impacted fluctuating throughout the test.

Randomly selected Canadian users will not be able to see or share news content in Canada either on Instagram or Facebook.

She said that could include news links to articles, reels — which are short-form videos — or stories, which are photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.

However, the experience won't be the same for every user who is subject to the test.

"It won't be a uniform experience, necessarily. Some news links won't be shareable on Facebook, but it might not be that experience on Instagram. It will be a different experience on different surfaces," Curran said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said in a statement Thursday evening that the fact that Facebook is still refusing to work with Canadians shows how deeply irresponsible the company is.

"When a big tech company, whatever the size is, the amount of money and the powerful lawyers they have, they come here and they tell us, 'If you don’t do this or that, then I’m pulling the plug,' – that’s a threat and that is unacceptable," he said in the statement.

"I never did anything because I was afraid of a threat, and I will never do it."

Rodriguez added in a tweet that "Canadians will not be intimidated by these tactics."

Meta said it is picking random news publishers that will be notified that some people in Canada will not be able to see or share their news content throughout the test. They will still be able to access their accounts, pages, businesses suites and advertising.

International news companies such as the New York Times or BBC could also have their content blocked in Canada during the test, if they are randomly selected. However, people outside of Canada will not be affected.

"It's only going to impact your experience ... if you're in Canada," Curran said.

Meta is defining news as it's described in the Liberal government's online news act.

"The legislation states that news outlets are in scope if they primarily report on, investigate or explain current issues or events of public interests," said Curran.

Content that doesn't fall under that definition will not be blocked from Canadians. When Facebook blocked news in Australia in 2021 because of a similar bill, there was widespread concern that trusted sources would be unavailable, while pages that published misinformation flourished.

Curran said affected Canadians will still be able to use their platforms to access information from a variety of sources including government pages, organizations and universities.

"We think all of that is good information. They're also seeing and sharing things that interest them and entertain them. We would not classify that as misinformation. That's great information and that will continue to be shared and to be viewable," Curran said, adding that the company will continue to address misinformation on its site through a global fact-checking program.

Meta's test is designed to ensure that non-news agencies don't get caught in the dragnet should they block news permanently.

The company said it doesn't want to accidentally block emergency services, community organizations, politicians or government pages, which happened in Australia.

Legacy media and broadcasters have praised the federal Liberals' online news bill because it would bring in more money for shrinking newsrooms. Companies such as Meta and Google have been blamed for disrupting and dominating the advertising industry, eclipsing smaller, traditional players.

Curran said removing journalism from Meta's platforms is a business decision, and the company makes "negligible amounts" of revenue from news content.

The company said less than three per cent of what people see in their Facebook feeds are posts with links to news articles, and many of its users believe that is already "too much" news.

"We're facing a lot of competitive pressures and competition for user time and attention. We're also facing some pretty serious economic headwinds, and a macro economic climate that's a bit uncertain," Curran said.

"Of course news have value from a social perspective. It's valuable to our democracy. It just doesn't have much commercial or economic value to our company."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2023.

———

Meta funds a limited number of fellowships that support emerging journalists at The Canadian Press.

Material - Hallucination Engine (1994)

 

0:01 - "Black Light" (Bill Laswell, Wayne Shorter) 7:34 - "Mantra" [Doors of Perception Mix] (Laswell, L. Shankar, Caroline) 16:23 - "Ruins" [Submutation Dub] (Laswell) 25:20 - "Eternal Drift" (Laswell, Nicky Skopelitis) 32:55 - "Words of Advice" (Laswell, William S. Burroughs) 36:56 - "Cucumber Slumber" [Fluxus Mix] (Joe Zawinul, Alphonso Johnson) 44:28 - "The Hidden Garden" (Laswell, Simon Shaheen, Skopelitis) / "Naima" (John Coltrane) 57:31 - "Shadows of Paradise" (Laswell, L. Shankar, Skopelitis)

Smiles and jokes help good managers (OXYMORON) boost hotel staff performance

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

Hotel managers who share a smile and a joke with their teams are more likely to see staff ‘going the extra mile’ when engaging with customers, a new study reveals.

Using humour has the effect of raising team energy and prompting more positive staff behaviour towards guests - particularly among ‘less-traditional’ workers and employees who prefer to have different experiences.

An international team of researchers studied data collected from employees in teams across China’s hotel industry – discovering that ‘more-traditional’ staff members responded less well to humour from their leaders.

Publishing their findings in Tourism Management, the team notes that employees in the hospitality sector are typically under a great deal of stress and organisations must find effective ways to re-energise them, as their behaviour can determine customer satisfaction.

The researchers offer a range of practical suggestions to managers in hospitality organisations, including:

• Use humour more when managing staff - helping employees to better engage with customers;
• Hire managerial candidates who have a good sense of humour – building ‘humour questionnaires’ into the recruitment process;
• Encourage co-workers to evaluate managers’ sense of humour as supporting information for promotions; and
• Provide managers with training programmes that emphasise the importance of humour for an effective leader.

Co-author Dr Ahmed Shaalan, from the University of Birmingham Dubai commented: “We found a strong link between leader humour and hotel staff engaging positively with customers, as well as enhanced levels of energy among these employees – confirming that leader humour could enhance customer service.

“We would, therefore, recommend that managers should consider using humour when they engage with their staff. Given the hospitality sector’s significant contribution to the global economy, leader humour can make a valuable contribution to the performance of a key industry.”

As humour has a greater impact on less traditional employees, the researchers recommend that managers should adopt different strategies to ensure they interact appropriately with employees. This approach helps to re-energise each employee and motivate them to ensure a high level of work efficiency.

Co-author Dr Marwa Tourky, from Cranfield School of Management, commented: “We highlight how cultural values alter the effect of leader humour, by explaining how less traditional employees are more likely to accept leader humour as a form of communication.

“Employees who experience leader humour can obtain additional interpersonal and emotional resources via humorous interaction with their leaders. For example, sharing interesting stories or jokes by leaders can make employees feel relaxed, happy, and  give them more energy to fulfil customer needs and offer extra assistance not required by the organisation.”

The team notes that leader humour can make a valuable contribution to the performance of a key global industry, whose most distinctive feature is its ability to create enjoyment for customers by providing high-quality service and meeting the needs of customers.

Employees play an important role in this process, but the hospitality industry has a higher incidence of stress because of the work-related tasks involved. For example, employees are expected to smile and behave professionally even when dealing with uncivilized customers.

In turn, this reduces their ability to perform at their best in the workplace and it becomes necessary to re-energise employees after serving such customers.

ENDS

For more information, please contact Tony Moran, International Communications Manager, University of Birmingham on +44 (0)782 783 2312 or t.moran@bham.ac.uk. For out-of-hours enquiries, please call +44 (0) 7789 921 165.

Notes to Editors

• The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world’s top 100 institutions, its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers and teachers and more than 8,000 international students from over 150 countries.
• ‘When and how does leader humor promote customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior in hotel employees?’ - Cheng Bao; Dong Yun; Kong Yurou; Ahmed Shaalan; and Marwa Tourky is published by Tourism Management.
• Participating institutions include the University of Birmingham Dubai; Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Sichuan, China; The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, China; Xiamen University, Fujian, China; and Cranfield University, UK.

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JOURNAL

Tourism Management

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

When and how does leader humor promote customer-oriented organizational citizenship behavior in hotel employees?

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Jun-2023

Ultrasound breaks new ground for forearm fractures in children

Peer-Reviewed Publication

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: DR PETER SNELLING USES A PORTABLE ULTRASOUND TO EXAMINE A TRIAL PARTICIPANT'S SUSPECTED FOREARM FRACTURE. view more 

CREDIT: PETER SNELLING

Portable ultrasound devices could provide an alternative to x-ray machines for diagnosing forearm fractures in children in a move that could alleviate waiting times for families in hospital emergency departments (ED). 

Griffith University researchers Professor Robert Ware from the Menzies Health Institute Queensland and Senior Lecturer Peter Snelling from the School of Medicine and Dentistry compared functional outcomes in children given an ultrasound and those who received an x-ray on a suspected distal forearm fracture. 

Dr Snelling said the ultrasounds were performed by nurses, physiotherapists and emergency physicians at four south-east Queensland hospitals. 

"They treated 270 children, aged between five and 15 years, during the randomised trial, which included a check-up 28 days later and another check-in at eight weeks,” Dr Snelling said. 

“The findings show the majority of children had similar recoveries and returned to full physical function.” 

Less than one-third of children who were given an ultrasound needed a follow-up x-ray and care at an orthopaedic clinic. 

Those who didn’t have a buckle fracture or fractured arm were discharged from hospital without the need for further imaging. 

Professor Ware said children who had an ultrasound initially had fewer x-rays, and shorter stays in the ED. 

“Families were also more satisfied with the treatment they received,” he said. 

“The results are promising and have wider implications beyond in hospital diagnosis and follow up care. 

“By using a bedside ultrasound, this frees up the x-ray machine for patients who really need it and can potentially be a cost-cutting measure for hospitals as they reduce the number of x-rays without comprising the safety of patients. 

“It also would be extremely beneficial in rural or remote areas eliminating the need for children and their families to travel to a larger hospital for an x-ray.” 

Dr David Bade, Queensland Children’s Hospital Director of Orthopaedic Surgery said: “This research will allow us to achieve a more efficient diagnostic and treatment service for these common injuries, not only in big tertiary hospitals but possibly also in smaller regional and even rural centres, where there can be a delay for X-ray diagnosis.  

“Collaborative research such as this, allows us to tackle such health inequality in a small but meaningful way.” 

Professor Hugh Grantham ASM, Emergency Medicine Foundation Chair said: “This is a great example of emergency medicine research at its best: identifying practical, translatable interventions that provide immediate positive outcomes for patients, and help relieve the burden on our hospitals and health system.”   

The research was funded through grants from the Emergency Medicine Foundation, Wishlist Sunshine Coast Hospital Foundation, Queensland Advancing Clinical Research Fellowships and the Gold Coast Health Study Education and Research Trust Fund. 

Dr Snelling is a practicing Paediatric Emergency Physician Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service, which offered two of the sites where the study was undertaken. 

The paper ‘Ultrasonography or x-ray for suspected paediatric distal forearm fractures’ has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. 

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JOURNAL

New England Journal of Medicine

DOI

10.1056/NEJMoa2213883 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Ultrasonography or Radiography for Suspected Pediatric Distal Forearm Fractures

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Jun-2023

Discovery of neurons that recognize others

The hippocampus plays a crucial role in assigning positive value through interactions with others

Peer-Reviewed Publication

INSTITUTE FOR BASIC SCIENCE

 

IMAGE: ONE OF THE TWO IMMOBILIZED MICE IS PRESENTED TO THE SUBJECT MOUSE IN RANDOM ORDER. THE SUBJECT MOUSE LEARNS TO RECOGNIZE THE PRESENTED MOUSE AND ASSOCIATES IT WITH THE AVAILABILITY OF WATER REWARD. view more 

CREDIT: INSTITUTE FOR BASIC SCIENCE

Researchers from the Center for Cognition and Sociality (CCS) within the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) recently announced the discovery of neurons that allow us to recognize others. The research team discovered that the neurons that deal with the information associated with different individuals are located in the CA1 region of the hippocampus.

Social animals, including humans, constantly engage in interactions with others. In this process, the ability to recognize the identity of the social counterpart, retrieve relevant information about them from memory, and update it from the current interaction is critical for establishing social relationships. However, there has been limited research on how these processes occur in the brain.

In order to answer this question, past efforts mostly focused on mouse brain studies, particularly in the hippocampus. The hippocampus was thought to be the answer, since it is a brain structure that is well-known to be responsible for memory formation. Within the hippocampus, the Cornu Ammonis (CA) fields, which are numbered CA1, to CA3, are involved in various functions related to memory and spatial processing and were hence key research interests.

So far, the mouse studies on the neural mechanisms of individual recognition mainly focused on the CA2 region of the hippocampus. However, previous studies have used behavioral experiments that only involve distinguishing unfamiliar mice from familiar mice, making it difficult to interpret whether the results reflect the animal’s ability to perceive or truly recognize individual characteristics.

In this study, the IBS-CCS research team developed a new behavioral paradigm using mice to better investigate their ability to recognize other individuals. Their new method involved having the subject mouse associate specific individual mice with rewards and studying their behavior after encountering reward-associated individuals and not associated individuals.

Specifically, two mice were immobilized on a spinning disk and were randomly presented to a subject mouse, which would recognize the neighbor through scent. Water is then supplied from the device to the subject mouse as a reward when licking in response to the reward-associated mouse, but not another. The researchers tried to determine whether the subject mouse could discriminate against different individuals and analyzed the brain cell activity during the experiment.

The stimulus mice on the spinning disk were male littermates and the subject mice were already familiar with the stimulus mice. This means that the subject mice distinguished between stimulus mice solely according to the unique characteristics of the stimulus mice, suggesting the high reliability of the experimental results.

Using this behavioral paradigm, the researchers clearly demonstrated that the dorsal CA1 region of the hippocampus plays an essential role in individual recognition. For example, when the hippocampal CA1 region is suppressed using a neuroinhibitor, the subject mouse was unable to distinguish its neighbor. Also by using a two-photon imaging technique that allows real-time observation of neural cell activity in the deep regions of the brain, the IBS-CCS team even identified the specific neuronal cells in the hippocampal CA1 region that is responsible for the recognition of individual mice.

This was an interesting addition to previous findings, which have proposed the dorsal CA2 region of the hippocampus to be the important brain area for social memory while reporting that the dorsal CA1 region does not play a significant role.

Furthermore, researchers in the past believed that social memories in rodents only last for a short period of time and that they do not form long-term memories about individual subjects. However, the latest study by the IBS-CCS has demonstrated that long-term memories about individuals can indeed be formed in mice.

Dr. LEE Doyun who led this research stated, “We have revealed for the first time how value information about others obtained through positive or negative interactions with them is represented and stored in our brains. Furthermore, this provides significant insights into understanding the role of our brains in building and developing human relationships through various social interactions.”

Beyond that, the researchers have also revealed the presence of specific neurons in the subject mouse’s hippocampal CA1 region that process positive information associated with different individual mice. An important part of forming a social relationship is assigning a positive or negative value to a social encounter with another individual and updating that value. For example, just as it is essential to develop a friendship with a particular individual, it is essential to evaluate how enjoyable and rewarding it was to interact with them.

These specific CA1 neurons were found to be responsive when encountering reward-associated individuals. However, such reward expectation responses were not observed when the subject was exposed to odors that are unrelated to social activity, such as citral or butanol. These findings indicate that the hippocampal CA1 region plays a selectively important role in the formation of associative social memories.

It is hoped that this new discovery can lead to a potential solution for the treatment of various brain disorders that cause difficulty in forming social relationships.

“Our results could be utilized to understand and propose treatment methods for mental disorders such as autism, which exhibit abnormalities in brain functions involved in processing memories and related information about others,” explains Dr. Lee.

When neuroinhibitor muscimol is injected into the dorsal CA1 region of the hippocampus, the subject mouse becomes unable to distinguish the presented mice. However, when the same experiment was performed while presenting odor stimuli unrelated to social activity, this phenomenon was not observed.

Neurons in the dorsal CA1 region of the hippocampus were found to be responsible for distinguishing between two mice within the reward category or between two mice in the non-reward category.

CREDIT

Institute for Basic Science

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-023-38338-3 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Dynamic and stable hippocampal representations of social identity and reward expectation support associative social memory in male mice

It takes guts: how midgut development in insects reveals their evolutionary past

A research group led by the University of Tsukuba finds that the midgut epithelium in firebrats (Thermobia domestica) arises solely from yolk cells, and that bipolar formation of this tissue likely began in Pterygota

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

 

IMAGE: CTENOLEPISMA VILLOSA (FABRICIUS, 1775) view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan—Insects have been around for millions of years, but their evolutionary relationships are still not fully known. Now, researchers from Japan have discovered that an old insect lineage can contribute to a clearer picture of their past.

In a recently published study in Arthropod Structure and Development, a research group led by the University of Tsukuba has revealed that by studying the gut development of insects known as firebrats, the relationship between the ancient wingless and more modern winged insects can be revealed.

Zygentoma, the taxonomic order that includes silverfish and firebrats, is an ancient group of fast-moving apterygotes (wingless insects). Zygentoma is a sister group to Pterygota (the winged insects), and together they comprise Dicondylia. Dicondylia (insects with a mandible attached to the head with two hinges) includes all insects except the jumping bristletails and entognathous (i.e., with mouthparts enclosed within the head capsule) apterygotes.

One area of particular interest regarding insect evolution is the formation of the midgut epithelium, because differences in the way this tissue forms during development reflect the evolutionary steps between groups. "Reports on the origin of this tissue in Zygentoma have been mixed," says Professor Ryuichiro Machida, senior author of the study. "Some indicate that it is derived only from yolk cells, as in other wingless orders, while others indicate a dual origin similar to that in Palaeoptera including mayflies (Ephemeroptera) and dragonflies (Odonata) - the primitive winged insects - within Pterygota.

In several of the older wingless hexapod lineages, including Archaeognatha (jumping bristletails) and entognathous apterygotes (Protura, Collembola, and Diplura), this tissue develops from the yolk cells alone; this is considered one of the ground plan features or a fundamental aspect of hexapods (a group that comprises most arthropod species, including insects). In Neoptera - the group of insects that can flex their wings over their abdomens, and includes most winged insects - the midgut epithelium arises from anlagen (embryonic areas capable of forming a part or organ) that differentiate at or near the ends of the developing foregut and hindgut. This process is called bipolar formation.

In Palaeoptera, the midgut epithelium has two origins. The epithelium at the midpoint of the midgut originates from yolk cells, while at the front and rear of the midgut, this tissue is formed via bipolar formation. This developmental aspect of the Palaeoptera represents the evolutionary transition between wingless insects and neopterans.

The research group studied the midgut epithelium in the firebrat, Thermobia domestica, and found that it was derived solely from yolk cells, without the foregut and hindgut origins. They concluded that the involvement of the anlagen as described above in bipolar formation likely originated in Pterygota rather than Dicondylia.

This study sheds light on the evolutionary stages of insect development. Future studies will need to examine differences between how bipolar formation occurs in Palaeoptera, in which the method of formation is considered to be ancestral, and in Neoptera, in which it is likely derived.

 

###
This work was supported by the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) KAKENHI: Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellow, JP20J00039 to SM; Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research C, JP19K06745 to MM and JP19K06821 to RM.
 

Original Paper

The article, "Revisiting the formation of midgut epithelium in Zygentoma (Insecta) from a developmental study of the firebrat Thermobia domestica (Packard, 1837) (Lepismatidae)," was published in Arthropod Structure and Development at DOI: 10.1016/j.asd.2023.101237

Correspondence

Visiting Professor MACHIDA, Ryuichiro
Sugadaira Research Station, Mountain Science Center, University of Tsukuba

Related Link

Sugadaira Research Station, Mountain Science Center

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JOURNAL

Arthropod Structure & Development

DOI

10.1016/j.asd.2023.10123710.1016/j.asd.2023.101237 

ARTICLE TITLE

Revisiting the formation of midgut epithelium in Zygentoma (Insecta) from a developmental study of the firebrat Thermobia domestica (Packard, 1873) (Lepismatidae)

Increasing effectiveness of home healthcare in Japan

Researchers from the University of Tsukuba find that conventional and enhanced home care support clinics/hospitals provide better in-home emergency and end-of life care than general clinics in Japan

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TSUKUBA

Tsukuba, Japan—One of the ironies of old age is that the more care and support we need, the harder it can be to access it, given increasing limitations in mobility and independence. Now, research from Japan reports that a governmental initiative to shift healthcare from hospitals into the community is alleviating this burden for an increasing number of patients, as well as the health care system.

In a study recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, researchers from the University of Tsukuba have revealed that home healthcare clinics provide better end-of-life care than general clinics.

To meet the increasing demand for home healthcare in Japan, the national healthcare system introduced home care support clinics/hospitals (HCSCs) in 2006. HCSCs were designed to provide emergency house calls in case a patient's condition suddenly deteriorates and to play a central role in end-of-life care at home.

"Despite this innovation in home healthcare, a study in 2012 found that roughly 10% of HCSCs in the Tokyo prefecture did not provide adequate in-home care, and almost half had never provided end-of-life care at home," says lead author of the study Assistant Professor Yu Sun. Yet multiple physician practice HCSCs were more successful in achieving these goals. Thus, the government introduced enhanced HCSCs in 2012. "We sought to assess the current effectiveness of the three types of home care services (general clinics, conventional HCSCs, and enhanced HCSCs) at a national level," continues Assistant Professor Sun.

To do this, the researchers compared the outcomes of home healthcare services among the three models of care, focusing on emergency house calls (as opposed to visits to the emergency room), hospitalizations, and end-of-life care. The analysis included more than 150,000 elderly patients whose information was retrieved from a national database.

"The results were very encouraging," explains Associate Professor Masao Iwagami, second author of the study. "Compared to general clinics, the use of HCSCs was associated with an increased likelihood of emergency house calls and a decreased likelihood of hospitalizations."

In addition, HCSCs provided support for more in-home deaths with a physician present compared to general clinics. The rates of emergency house calls and in-home end-of-life care were slightly higher for enhanced HCSCs than conventional HCSCs.

"These results suggest that HCSCs (especially enhanced HCSCs) are more successful at supporting home healthcare than general clinics," says Professor Nanako Tamiya, senior author of the study.

While more than half of Japanese people would prefer to die at home than in the hospital, only 13% achieved this goal in 2017, suggesting that measures to increase the number of HCSCs are required. Given that more than 70% of physicians at conventional, single-physician HCSCs feel burdened by the 24-hour system, policymakers should consider strategies to increase the number of enhanced HCSCs, which employ three or more full-time doctors.

###
This work was supported by a grant-in-aid from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Policy Research Grants, Japan (grant number: 21AA2006).

 

Original Paper

The article, "Association between types of home healthcare and emergency house calls, hospitalization, and end-of-life care in Japan," was published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society at DOI: 10.1111/jgs.18268

Correspondence

Professor TAMIYA, Nanako
Associate Professor IWAGAMI, Masao
Assistant Professor SUN Yu
Research and Development Center for Health Services, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba

Related Link

Faculty of Medicine
Research and Development Center for Health Services

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JOURNAL

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

DOI

10.1111/jgs.18268 

ARTICLE TITLE

Association between types of home healthcare and emergency house calls, hospitalization, and end-of-life care in Japan

SPACE WEATHER

Supercomputer simulations provide a better picture of the Sun’s magnetic field

The new findings challenge the conventional understanding of solar dynamics and could improve predictions of solar weather in the future

Peer-Reviewed Publication

AALTO UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: COMPUTER SIMULATION OF MAGNETIC STRUCTURES IN SOLAR-LIKE CONDITIONS. view more 

CREDIT: JÖRN WARNECKE / AALTO UNIVERSIT

The Sun’s strong, dynamic magnetic field can catapult huge jets of plasma known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs) out into the solar system. Sometimes these hit Earth, where they can knock out power grids and damage satellites. Scientists don’t fully understand how magnetic fields are generated and amplified inside the Sun, but a study recently published in Nature Astronomy answers one of the fundamental questions about this complex process. By clarifying the dynamics behind solar weather, these findings could help predict major solar events a few days earlier, providing vital extra time for us to prepare.

The Sun’s magnetism comes from a process known as the solar dynamo. It consists of two main parts, the large-scale dynamo and the small-scale dynamo, neither of which scientists have been able to fully model yet. In fact, scientists aren’t even sure whether a small-scale dynamo could exist in the conditions found in the Sun. Addressing that uncertainty is important, because a small-scale dynamo would have a large effect on solar dynamics. 

In the new study, scientists at Aalto University and the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) tackled the small-scale dynamo question by running massive computer simulations on petascale supercomputers in Finland and Germany. The joint computing power enabled the team to directly simulate whether the Sun could have a small-scale dynamo. 

‘Using one of the largest possible computing simulations currently available, we achieved the most realistic setting to date in which to model this dynamo,’ says Maarit Korpi-Lagg, astroinformatics group leader and associate professor at Aalto University’s department of computer science. ‘We showed not only that the small-scale dynamo exists but also that it becomes more feasible as our model more closely resembles the Sun.’

Some previous studies have suggested that the small-scale dynamo might not work under the conditions found in stars like the Sun, which have a very low magnetic Prandtl number (PrM), a measure used in fluid and plasma physics to compare how quickly variations in the magnetic field and velocities even out. Korpi-Lagg’s research team modeled conditions of turbulence with unprecedentedly low PrM values and found that, contrary to what has been thought, a small-scale dynamo can occur at such low values.

‘This is a major step towards understanding magnetic field generation in the Sun and other stars,’ says Jörn Warnecke, a senior postdoctoral researcher at MPS. ‘This result will bring us closer to resolving the riddle of CME formation, which is important for devising protection for the Earth against hazardous space weather.’

The research group is currently expanding their study to even lower magnetic Prandtl number values using GPU-accelerated code on the new pan-European pre-exascale supercomputer LUMI. Next, they plan to study the interaction of the small-scale dynamo with the large-scale dynamo, which is responsible for the 11-year solar cycle.

Reference: Jörn Warnecke, Maarit J. Korpi-Lagg, Frederick A. Gent, & Matthias Rheinhardt (2023). Numerical evidence for a small-scale dynamo approaching solar magnetic Prandtl numbers. In Nature Astronomy. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01975-1

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JOURNAL

Nature Astronomy

DOI

10.1038/s41550-023-01975-1 

ARTICLE TITLE

Numerical evidence for a small-scale dynamo approaching solar magnetic Prandtl numbers