Worldwide fertility crisis: Why men really need a hand from science

A consortium of international experts gives 10 recommendations to increase the chances that men will experience the joys of fatherhood and have healthy children

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MONTREAL HOSPITAL RESEARCH CENTRE (CRCHUM)

 

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SARAH KIMMINS, A CRCHUM RESEARCHER AND PROFESSOR AT UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL

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CREDIT: AMÉLIE PHILIBERT I UNIVERSITÉ DE MONTRÉAL

Montreal, October 13, 2023—Infertility now affects one in six couples of reproductive age according to the World Health Organisation. About half the time, it originates from men. As male infertility is increasing worldwide, researcher Sarah Kimmins and 25 international experts highlights that men have a right to meaningful diagnoses and targeted treatments.

Unfortunately, these are currently unavailable in most cases.

The lack of knowledge regarding the causes of male infertility and in combination with limited clinical tools, has resulted in female focussed treatment—burdensome and risky invasive procedures—for male infertility.

In a consensus report published in the journal Nature Reviews Urology, the consortium of 25 scientists led by Moira O’Bryan, Dean of Science at the University of Melbourne, reveal 10 recommendations that could improve the health of men and their children, and decrease the burden on their female partners.

Université de Montréal Professor Sarah Kimmins, a researcher at the CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM), weighs in the report as the first author and a world-leading expert in male fertility and gene-environment interactions.

Lifestyle and Environment Play a Key Role

“The rapid decline in male fertility cannot be explained by genetics, and studies indicate that environmental factors are a driving force, said Sarah Kimmins. These include increased exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals that exist in our daily lives and persist in the environment.”

“Other factors include the rise in overweight and obese men, poor diet, stress, cannabis use, alcohol and smoking or vaping. Unfortunately, men are generally unaware of these factors.”

One of the key recommendations of the report is to increase public awareness through public health campaigns around these lifestyle choices that are hazards to men’s fertility.

“As it takes months to make sperm, men should consider adopting a healthy lifestyle well before planning their families,” said Dr. Jacquetta Trasler, study’s co-author and senior scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

Urgent Need for Better Diagnoses and Treatment

“The clinic is poorly equipped to properly diagnose and treat male reproduction. Current methods are based on outdated techniques,” said Géraldine Delbès, study’s co-author and researcher at Institut national de la recherche scientifique.

Men are currently designated infertile based on family history, physical examination, hormone profiles and a simple semen analysis that has not changed for more than 50 years.

“As health professionals, going forward, we need more funding of research that will allow us to offer men sensitive and accurate tests of sperm health,” said Dr. Trasler.

A Personalized Medicine Approach

Towards that goal Sarah Kimmins and her team have devoted years of research to develop a better male fertility diagnostic.

Aptly named HisTurn, it will be the first genomic diagnostic that offers a personalized medicine approach for male infertility.

While HisTurn is currently being clinically validated the goal is that it’s eventual use in fertility clinics will give men an accurate diagnosis that can better guide treatment, saving couples and clinics time and money, while improving the efficiency and success rates of fertility treatment.

“Decreasing semen quality and increasing frequency of testicular cancer and congenital defects in the urogenital system indicate that, globally, male reproductive health has declined over recent decades. Research is needed to understand why, and how this trend can be reversed. Urgent, worldwide action to implement our recommendations is critical,” states Moira O’Bryan.

 

Science writing: Bruno Geoffroy

 

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About the 10 recommendations

1. Governments, healthcare systems, insurance companies, and the public should understand and acknowledge that male infertility is a common, serious medical condition and patients have a right to meaningful diagnoses and targeted treatments;
2. Establish a global network of registries and biobanks containing standardized clinical and lifestyle information, and tissue from fertile and infertile men, their partners, and children. Link it to national healthcare data systems;
3. Implement protocols and incentives to standardize collection of de-identified tissue and clinical/lifestyle data;
4. Fund more international, collaborative research to understand the interactions and impacts of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors on male fertility in diverse populations;
5. Integrate genomic sequencing into diagnosis of male infertility;  
6. Develop additional diagnostic tests to improve diagnosis and cause of male infertility. 
7. Rigorously test the impact on male fertility of compounds—especially endocrine-disrupting chemicals—in products, the workplace, and the environment. Implement regulations and policies and develop safe alternatives;
8. Rigorously test strategies for medically assisted reproduction before they are integrated into clinical practice;
9. Public education campaigns to promote discussion of male infertility and engagement in health seeking;
10. Improved training for healthcare workers to promote male reproductive health across the lifespan. 

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About the study

“Frequency, morbidity and equity—the case for increased research on male fertility,” by Sarah Kimmins et al., was published online Oct. 12, 2023, in Nature Reviews Urology.

The paper’s 26 authors are world leaders in andrology, gynaecology, urology, cellular biology, endocrinology, environmental hazards, pathology, reproductive medicine, medically assisted reproduction, oncology, genetics, paediatrics, pharmacology, and therapeutics.

 

About the CRCHUM

The CHUM Research Centre (CRCHUM) is one of North America’s leading hospital research centres. It strives to improve the health of adults through a continuum of research spanning disciplines such as basic science, clinical research and population health. More than 2,150 people work at the CRCHUM, including nearly 500 researchers and nearly 650 students and postdoctoral fellows. crchum.com

 

About Université de Montréal

Deeply rooted in Montréal and dedicated to its international mission, Université de Montréal is one of the top universities in the French-speaking world. Founded in 1878, Université de Montréal today has 13 faculties and schools, and together with its two affiliated schools, HEC Montréal and Polytechnique Montréal, constitutes the largest centre of higher education and research in Quebec and one of the major centres in North America. It brings together 2,300 professors and researchers and has close to 67,000 students. umontreal.ca

 

 

 

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JOURNAL

Nature Reviews Urology

DOI

10.1038/s41585-023-00820-4 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Commentary/editorial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Frequency, morbidity and equity — the case for increased research on male fertility

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Oct-2023

 

Historic agreement unites diverse stakeholders to revolutionize large-scale U.S. solar development

Business Announcement

STANFORD WOODS INSTITUTE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA and WASHINGTON, D.C. —  In a landmark accord, major solar developers, conservation groups, agricultural organizations, environmental and environmental justice groups, and tribal entities announced today their agreement to advance large-scale U.S. solar development while championing land conservation and supporting local community interests. The agreement is the result of a 20-month “Solar Uncommon Dialogue” convened by Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

The agreement marks a major turning point in resolving conflicts over developing major U.S. solar projects and related conservation and community concerns.

Over the next 10 years, U.S. solar energy output is expected to increase five-fold, helping to address climate change and bring clean and affordable energy to more communities. The rapid increase in utility- scale solar also means that the industry must address various issues, including agricultural land conversion, wildlife and habitat impacts, and community engagement. The Solar Uncommon Dialogue agreement stresses that the development of large solar projects must be transparent, equitable and efficient and acknowledges that this will require many trade-offs.

Signatories to the Solar Uncommon Dialogue agreement have committed to improving large-scale solar development based on the “3Cs”: climate, conservation, and community.

• Climate emphasizes minimizing carbon emissions through clean energy sources, like solar energy and other tools, including natural climate solutions;

• Conservation seeks to minimize impacts on natural and working lands; and

• Community commits to equitable distribution of renewable energy project benefits.

The signatories are convening six working groups that will address key issues and opportunities including community engagement, siting-related risk assessment and decision-making, energy and agricultural technologies, tribal relations, and policy solutions.

These working groups will focus on advancing the 3Cs via improved public participation practices, solar siting mechanisms, regulation, financial incentives, information tools, and other means. The goal is to create best practices that solar companies, local governments, and other stakeholders can use to effectively site solar projects.

“Major U.S. solar projects are critical to fighting climate change but are increasingly opposed across the nation due to significant community and land conservation concerns,” said Stanford energy scholar Dan Reicher, who launched and leads the solar Uncommon Dialogue. “It’s exciting how motivated the parties are to avoid these conflicts and develop high-impact solutions — a triple play for climate, conservation, and community” added Reicher, who was U.S. Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.

As the solar and storage industry grows, it’s critical that we prioritize local engagement,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “We are thrilled to join our partners in this landmark agreement to help us quickly, responsibly, and equitably deploy solar and storage projects. We’re confident that by thoughtfully addressing stakeholder concerns from the start, we’ll be able to deliver the equitable clean energy future we need to see.”

"We’re committed to accelerating the renewable energy buildout and have to go smart to go fast,” said TNC CEO Jen Morris. “Bringing environmental groups to the table ensures that we strike the right balance, delivering clean energy solutions while safeguarding our precious natural resources and communities.”

The solar agreement grew out of a Stanford-organized “Uncommon Dialogue,” a convening of cross- sector experts and stakeholders designed to find common ground and build consensus around specific environmental challenges. A previous Uncommon Dialogue agreement on hydropower and river conservation led to $2.3 billion in federal funding for implementation of its working groups’ recommendations.

The solar dialogue and agreement have already spawned a new Uncommon Dialogue to address challenges facing U.S. electricity transmission development for solar, wind and other new clean energy projects.

Learn more about the Solar Uncommon Dialogue and how to participate in a working group.

Parties to the Solar Uncommon Dialogue Agreement 

American Farmland Trust 
Appalachian Voices 
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies 
Climate Adaptive Infrastructure 
EDP Renewables 
energyRe 
Intersect Power 
Invenergy 
Land Trust Alliance 
Lightsource bp 
National Audubon Society 
National Wildlife Refuge Association 
Natural Resources Defense Council 
North American Indian Center of Boston
Pine Gate Renewables 
Solar Energy Industries Association 
The Lyme Timber Company 
The Nature Conservancy 
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership 
Union of Concerned Scientists  
WE ACT for Environmental Justice

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About Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment:  
The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment is working toward a future in which societies meet people’s needs for water, food, health and other vital services while sustaining the planet. Part of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Woods is the university's hub for interdisciplinary research about the environment. We bring together Stanford faculty, researchers and students from all seven schools, fostering research collaborations that can tackle challenges too complex for any one discipline to solve alone. Our convening and external engagement efforts cross sectors as well, connecting Stanford's experts to their counterparts in government, business, NGOs, foundations and other academic institutions. These partnerships inform research priorities and link knowledge to action, advancing solutions to the most pressing environmental challenges of today and tomorrow. Learn more: woods.stanford.edu

About the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA):  
The Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA) is leading the transformation to a clean energy economy, creating the framework for solar to achieve 30% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030. SEIA works with its 1,000 member companies and other strategic partners to fight for policies that create jobs in every community and shape fair market rules that promote competition and the growth of reliable, low-cost solar power. Founded in 1974, SEIA is the national trade association for the solar and solar + storage industries, building a comprehensive vision for the Solar+ Decade through research, education and advocacy. Visit SEIA online at www.seia.org and follow @SEIA on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram.  

About The Nature Conservancy: 
The Nature Conservancy is a global conservation organization dedicated to conserving the lands and waters on which all life depends. Guided by science, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that nature and people can thrive together. We are tackling climate change, conserving lands, waters and oceans at an unprecedented scale, providing food and water sustainably and helping make cities more sustainable. Working in 76 countries and territories—37 by direct conservation impact and 39 through partners—we use a collaborative approach that engages local communities, governments, the private sector, and other partners. To learn more, visit www.nature.org or follow @nature_press on Twitter. 

WE NEED CENTRAL PLANNING

Study finds global climate change adaptation actions are too uncoordinated

Impacted individuals and households have borne the main burden of adaptation to the consequences of climate change. A new survey of the literature reveals that systematic networking of various actor groups has generally been insufficient

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE ALLIANCE OF BIOVERSITY INTERNATIONAL AND THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE

 

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FIGURE FROM THE STUDY: RESULTS OF THE CHI-SQUARE TEST CALCULATING  THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE OBSERVED AND THE EXPECTED FREQUENCY OF EACH COMBINATION OF ACTOR AND ADAPTATION ROLE. POSITIVE RESIDUALS (GREEN) INDICATE A HIGHER OBSERVED FREQUENCY OF AN ACTOR–ROLE COMBINATION, AND NEGATIVE RESIDUALS (PURPLE) INDICATE A LOWER-THAN-EXPECTED FREQUENCY. 

HTTPS://WWW.NATURE.COM/ARTICLES/S41558-023-01824-Z/FIGURES/1

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CREDIT: CREDIT TO THE STUDY AUTHORS

How are governments, organizations, companies, and individuals dealing with the impacts of global warming? Indeed, who are the actors, when it comes to reducing climate risks, such as droughts, floods, and forest fires? What do the individual actor groups contribute? And where and how are they already working together in a systematic fashion?

A new study provides the first global analysis of actors engaged in climate adaptation and the roles they are playing. For the publication, an international team of scientists assessed more than 1,400 scientific studies on the subject of climate change adaptation. The results show that there are, across the globe, many gaps in distribution of roles and responsibilities for adaptation. Above all, there is a lack of adaptation that profoundly transforms societies, infrastructure, and risk management in response to the massive impacts of climate change. Further, there is a lack of comprehensive collaborations between various state and non-state actors.

“Comprehensive, fair, and forward-looking adaptation is successful when formal organizations and the various other actor group are integrated at all levels,”

says Dr. Jan Petzold, geographer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany and lead author of the study.

“Our study indicates, however, that adaptation to climate change still tends to be isolated and uncoordinated, with individuals or households the most prominent actors implementing adaptation,”

says Dr. Alcade Segnon, co-author and scientist at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, Senegal. “This situation shows how urgent and important comprehensive adaptation is.”

To date, affected individuals and households have been left to do the heavy lifting of implementing actual adaptation. This is particularly so in the Global South, where individuals and households have had to carry the principal burden of adaptation. By contrast, these groups are hardly involved at all in the design and implementation of institutional changes. It should be noted, however, that the situation differs in urban and non-urban areas. Whereas in rural areas, individual households are the prime actors and there is little in the way of coordination, state actors tend to organize adaptation much more frequently in cities. According to the study, the private sector has engaged in comparatively little adaptation to date and is scarcely involved in joint measures with other actors.

“When it’s primarily individual persons like farmers big and small who are engaging in this work worldwide, this is a sign that collaborations between various actor groups are lacking. For sustainable adaptation projects, however, this would be a necessary condition,”

says Jan Petzold. Many interventions such as the climate-adapted restructuring of forests, the conversion of farmland into uncultivated floodplains, the adjustment of urban infrastructure, or even resettlement from coastal areas urgently require coordinated concepts.

“The results reveal that we need a more intensive and explicit debate on the question as to who should take on which tasks in adapting to the consequences of climate change. This may look very differently from one locality to the next, but it should be organized and structured,”

says Professor Matthias Garschagen, who holds the Chair of Human Geography and heads the Teaching and Research Unit for Human Environment Relations at LMU, and helped coordinate the study. “It’s not only since the massive forest fires, heatwaves, and flood events of the past few months that we’ve known how serious the effects of climate change are. In the most recent IPCC report, we emphasized that all stakeholders must therefore pursue climate change adaptation all the faster, more thoroughly, and with greater coordination, if we are to effectively counter the expected further increase in climate change impacts. Our study shows how we’ve to date struggled to do this globally, and it points out where the gaps are greatest. This knowledge is vitally important to support actors on the road to more effective and more coordinated adaptation.”

“The unique model of AICCRA (Accelerating Impacts of CGIAR Climate Research for Africa) for research and innovation development helping to bridge the “missing middle” between science and action is addressing the gaps identified in the study” says Dr Alcade Segnon, who also the Science Officer for AICCRA in West Africa. “AICCRA works to build and deepen the partnerships between a whole range of organisations and stakeholders to deliver climate-smart innovations in agriculture for African farmers. The stronger partnerships fostered between scientists, researchers, the private sector and public institutions will help collectively identify ‘best-bet’ innovations that help farmers adapt and speed up their deployment”. AICCRA is supported by a grant from the International Development Association of the World Bank and led by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT.

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JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-023-01824-z 

ARTICLE TITLE

A global assessment of actors and their roles in climate change adaptation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Oct-2023

Around the globe, climate adaptation lacks coordination

How are governments, organizations and individuals dealing with the effects of global warming?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF HAMBURG

 

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IN 2023, FARMERS IN NAMIBIA TESTED DIFFERENT VARIETIES, IN THIS CASE SOYBEANS, FOR THEIR RESISTANCE TO INCREASING WATER SHORTAGES.

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CREDIT: UHH/CLICCS/K.JANTKE

Viewed globally, it is above all individuals and households that are pursuing adaptation to the impacts of climate change; systematic networking of the various groups affected is lacking. This is the conclusion reached by an international team of experts from Universität Hamburg’s Cluster of Excellence for climate research (CLICCS) and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU). Their meta-study was just released in the journal Nature Climate Change.

For their meta-study, the 30 authors analyzed more than 1,400 academic studies on climate change adaptation. By doing so, they offer the first global overview of which groups of actors are pursuing adaptation – and how. Their findings show that the global distribution of tasks lacks cohesion. Above all, there are few concepts designed to better prepare societies, infrastructures and risk management for the impacts of climate change. Extensive collaborations between various government and non-government actors are also lacking.

“Our study indicates that climate change adaptation continues to be largely isolated and uncoordinated,” says Dr. Kerstin Jantke, a co-author and environmental researcher at Universität Hamburg’s Cluster of Excellence CLICCS. “That’s disproportionate to how pressing and vital this challenge is.”

Dr. Jan Petzold, the study’s first author, sees a need for action: “Comprehensive, just and forward-thinking adaptation can be considered to be successful when not only official organizations but also a broad range of groups at all levels are involved.” Petzold, currently a geographer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, was a member of the Cluster of Excellence CLICCS until the fall of 2021.

To date, primarily individuals and households are taking measures to adapt to climate change impacts, especially in the Global South; very few of them are integrated into institutional frameworks. However, there is also an urban-rural divide: While individual households are largely active in rural areas, government actors tend to coordinate adaptation in cities. In many cases, the role of governments – global, national and regional – consists in ratifying, planning and financing adaptation measures, while small households are who do most of the technical implementation. According to the study, the scientific community’s involvement in adaptation measures is limited, while that of the private economy is virtually non-existent.

“If, around the globe, it’s predominantly individuals like farmers and smallholders who are doing the heavy lifting, it also shows us the lack of cooperation between different groups of actors – which is a prerequisite for sustainable adaptation projects,” says Jan Petzold. Coordinated concepts are indispensable for far-reaching measures like the climate-aware restructuring of forests, transforming farmland into floodplains, planning new urban infrastructures, and relocating coastal communities.

Involving different groups of actors can also help avoid undesired effects of adaptation measures. “If I only design a given measure to address a single, pressing problem, it could make the situation worse in other areas,” says Kerstin Jantke. For example, levees and dams designed to protect from flooding could destroy coastlines and wetlands, reducing biodiversity or natural CO2 sinks. Consequently, comprehensive measures should ideally be oriented on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), helping ensure it offers solutions that are tenable in the long term.

Publication
Petzold J, Hawxwell T, Jantke K, Gonçalves Gresse E, Mirbach C, (…) Garschagen M (2023): A global assessment of actors and their roles in climate change adaptation; Nature Climate Change; DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01824-z
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01824-z

https://www.cliccs.uni-hamburg.de/about-cliccs/news/2023-news/2023-09-20-anpassungen-klimawandelfolgen

The 30 authors contributing to the study hail from eleven different countries. Eight authors are researchers at Universität Hamburg’s Cluster of Excellence for climate research (CLICCS). 

Contact

Dr. Kerstin Jantke
Universität Hamburg
Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN)
Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS)
Email: kerstin.jantke@uni-hamburg.de
Tel: +49 (0) 40 42838 2147

Dr. Jan Petzold
Department für Geographie
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
E-Mail: jan.petzold@lmu.de
Tel.: +49 (0) 89 / 2180 - 4180

Stephanie Janssen
Public Relations / Outreach
Universität Hamburg
Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN)
Cluster of Excellence “Climate, Climatic Change, and Society” (CLICCS)
Email: stephanie.janssen@uni-hamburg.de
Tel: +49 (0) 40 42838 7596

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JOURNAL

Nature Climate Change

DOI

10.1038/s41558-023-01824-z 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Meta-analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

'A global assessment of actors and their roles in climate change adaptation

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Oct-2023

COI STATEMENT

No conflict of interests.

 

New center addresses global climate change impacts on water, other resources

Grant and Award Announcement

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

 

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WAEL AL-DELAIMY, M.D., PH.D., UC SAN DIEGO HERBERT WERTHEIM SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH AND HUMAN LONGEVITY SCIENCE

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CREDIT: WAEL AL-DELAIMY, MD, PHD

Jordan ranks second among countries with the lowest access to water and is expected to reach water insecurity by 2030. Within the country, the most water deprived communities live in the Northeast region of Mafraq’s Azraq Basin which is also home to approximately 120,000 resettled Syrian refugees who are dependent on water resources.

A new three-year program called the Global Center on Climate Change, Water, Energy, Food, and Health Systems, led by the University of California San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, and supported by an international consortium of universities and community organizations, will address the impacts of climate change in the climate-vulnerable communities in the Azraq Basin.

“The Middle East is the front post or early warning of what a climate change crisis will look like. We need to act now through prevention and preparation to support the region to adapt to and for us to learn from it to prepare the most vulnerable communities locally and globally,” said Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health professor Wael Al-Delaimy, M.D., Ph.D., principal investigator of the Global Center on Climate Change, Water, Energy, Food, and Health Systems.

Funded by a $3.8 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) P20 grant, the program launched in mid-September with 30 scientists from UC San Diego, UC San Francisco, Texas A&M, University of Jordan, Hashemite University, The Royal Scientific Society in Jordan, and six Jordanian community organizations to target rural and refugee communities in the most water-deprived areas of Jordan. The program will address the four core elements of the NIH’s investment in climate health research: health effects research, health equity, intervention research, and training and capacity building.

“This program will provide an important resource for research partnerships and innovation in climate change impacts for disadvantaged communities around the globe,” said Vice Chancellor for Research Corinne Peek-Asa, Ph.D., M.P.H., Distinguished Professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health.

“It is a testament to our broad interdisciplinary and global footprint in climate and health research that UC San Diego successfully competed for an NIH-funded GeoHealth Hub on Climate Change and Health, and this grant will continue UC San Diego’s leadership in global climate change health impacts.”

Al-Delaimy is the director for the newly funded center as well the GeoHealth Hub and will be representing UC San Diego at the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC, more commonly referred to as COP28, which for the first time has dedicated a day to address health impacts of climate change. 

Given its status as the most water scarce-region, the area with the highest records of extreme heat, extreme income disparities between the very poor and very affluent, and political instability among many of the region’s countries, the Middle East is going to be the epicenter of the climate change health impacts, said Al-Delaimy.

Jordan is one of the few politically stable countries in the region and is aggressively looking for solutions to the water crises and has created a high-profile governmental committee to develop policies that can address this crisis in the short and long term.

Texas A&M University Water Energy Food Nexus Research Group is a partnering university within this center, represented by Rabi Mohtar, Ph.D., professor of Biological and Agricultural Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering, and founded the Texas A&M’s Water-Energy-Food Nexus Initiative.

“We are thrilled to receive this support from the NIH. This is an amazing collaboration that will be advancing the field and breaking new grounds by bringing in health as part of the nexus. We will start the initiative in Jordan and then expand it regionally and globally,” said Mohtar.

 

Hostile sexism linked to less responsive parenting

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SOCIETY FOR PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

Fathers and mothers who believe that men should hold the power and authority in the family exhibit less responsive parenting behavior, according to a new article in Social Psychological and Personality Science. This research provides the first behavioral evidence demonstrating that hostile sexism is linked to less responsive parenting by both fathers and mothers.

Hostile sexism is characterized by beliefs that men should hold power and authority in society. Its harmful effects are well-established, especially in predicting harmful behavior toward women. However, this new research highlights its impact on parenting attitudes and behaviors.

"Gender inequality and child well-being are ongoing global challenges, and sexist beliefs about the kinds of roles that are appropriate for men and women contribute to gender inequalities,” says lead author Nickola Overall, of the University of Auckland. “The current results emphasize that the harmful effects of sexist attitudes also involves poorer parenting, which has important long-term consequences for children’s well-being and development.”

In a study with 95 families, fathers with higher levels of hostile sexism self-reported less warm and more controlling parenting attitudes. Importantly, when observing fathers and mothers during family interactions with their five-year-old children, fathers and mothers higher in hostile sexism exhibited less responsive parenting behavior. A second study involved observing 532 family interactions and replicated the effects of Study 1. Both fathers and mothers higher in hostile sexism exhibited less responsive parenting behavior, regardless of children's gender.

Dr. Overall notes that the discovery that mothers who agree with hostile sexism were likely to be less responsive parents was unexpected, and warrants further research.

“Accepting fathers’ authority could mean that mothers higher in hostile sexism follow fathers’ lead in directing family interactions, producing less engaged and child-focused parenting,” Dr. Overall explains. “Another possibility is that mothers higher in hostile sexism guard their role as caregiver by restricting fathers’ parental involvement, which detracts from being responsive to their children.”

Responsive parenting is pivotal to healthy child development, and its absence can lead to behavioral issues, emotional difficulties, and lower academic achievement.

While the findings are insightful, they do not establish that hostile sexism causes less responsive parenting. The associations remained strong even after considering alternative factors, but Dr. Overall notes that other explanations cannot be ruled out.

This study's implications extend beyond academia. To improve child well-being and reduce gender inequality, addressing and challenging hostile attitudes about power dynamics between men and women within families is vital. Educational interventions focusing on these dynamics may effectively reduce sexist beliefs in both men and women, benefiting parenting and child well-being.

This research marks a critical milestone in understanding the impact of sexist attitudes on families and emphasizes the need for further exploration of pathways and interventions to reduce hostile sexism and enhance responsive parenting.

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JOURNAL

Social Psychological and Personality Science

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Fathers’ and Mothers’ Sexism Predict Less Responsive Parenting Behavior During Family Interactions

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Oct-2023

 

Extraordinary fossil find reveals details about the weight and diet of extinct saber-toothed marsupial

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SMITHSONIAN TROPICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

 

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CURRENT LANDSCAPE IN ONE OF THE FOSSILIFEROUS LOCALITIES OF THE LA TATACOA DESERT.

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CREDIT: CATALINA SUAREZ

Recent paleontological explorations in the Tatacoa Desert in Colombia led to the recovery of the most complete skeleton of a "saber-toothed marsupial” discovered in northern South America. The specimen belongs to the species Anachlysictis gracilis, which is part of a group of extinct predatory mammals known as sparassodonts, that lived in South America during the Cenozoic, after the extinction of the dinosaurs.

This species lived approximately 13 million years ago in the area known among paleontologists as ‘La Venta’, in the current La Tatacoa desert, a tropical dry forest that “at that time was a tropical rainforest, similar to the current Amazon,” said Dr. Catalina Suarez, a Swiss National Science Foundation fellow working at the Argentine Institute of Nivology, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences, who led the analysis of the remains and the publication of their results in the scientific journal Geodiversitas.

Prior to this finding, only a piece of a mandible and few additional remains had been found for this species related to living marsupials such as kangaroos, koalas, or opossums. Before it disappeared, A. gracilis was one of a number of terrestrial carnivores in South America, like the pumas, wildcats, foxes, bears and others that currently roam our continent.

“Thanks to this discovery, we were able to learn new details about this fascinating species,” said Suarez. “The analyses allowed us to understand what these extinct predators were like and how they lived in Neotropical South America millions of years ago.”

Suarez began her research on A. gracilis in the laboratory of paleontologist Carlos Jaramillo at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, where she was an intern and a pre- and post-doctoral fellow. She is now a specialist in metatherians, the group that includes marsupials and their extinct relatives, such as the family of Thylacosmilidae to which the fossil of A. gracilis belongs. The most peculiar feature of this family is their curved and flattened canines, resembling the shape of a saber, so they are commonly known as "saber-toothed marsupials".

“Our research confirms that this Colombian fossil ‘saber-tooth marsupial’ A. gracilis, is closely related to Thylacosmilus, which is the most widely recognized ‘saber-tooth marsupial,” said Dr. Javier Luque, a former STRI fellow, co-author of the study and senior research associate at the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology. “Both groups, together with Patagosmilus (another one of these ‘saber-tooth marsupials’), form their own family in the mammal tree of life, known as Thylacosmilidae. This family is characterized by its long and enormous curved and saber-shaped upper canines, and by an extension of the anterior part of the jaw that looks like the sheath of said 'sabers.”

By analyzing the molar teeth, tooth shape and mandible of the remains, it was possible to define the approximate weight and diet type of A. gracilis. The results revealed that it weighed on average about 23 kg (like a lynx) and was a hypercarnivore that ate only meat, not bone. Its potential prey would have included small mammals that inhabited the area, such as marsupials, spiny rats, porcupines, rodents of various sizes and even primates, which were very abundant in the region.

“In a future study we will address all the other bones in its body, which include various sections of the spine, ribs, hip, scapulae —what we call 'shoulder blades' for humans— and bones in its legs," Suarez said. "This will allow us to explore aspects of how it moved, the position in which its neck held its head, whether it was a runner, whether it could climb, whether its hands could hold objects more easily, as many marsupials do when feeding, or whether it was a bit more difficult, as it is for example for a dog or a cat.”

The new fossil of A. gracilis is housed in the La Tatacoa Natural History Museum, in the town of La Victoria in the municipality of Villavieja (department of Huila, Colombia), along with other surprising finds that have been unearthed in one of the most amazing places on the continent.

“The fossil specimen of A. gracilis that we describe in this research constitutes an iconic fossil because of its excellent preservation, three-dimensionality, and importance for understanding the paleobiological aspects of this predatory marsupial that roamed the forests of northern South America approximately 13 million years ago,” added Dr. Edwin Cadena, researcher at Universidad del Rosario and STRI, and co-author of the study. “With this finding we show the importance of continuing to support paleontological scientific activity in the Neotropics, in order to be able to make new discoveries that will help us understand the evolutionary history and paleobiodiversity of this part of the continent.”

This research was the result of an international collaboration between specialists representing institutions from Argentina (IANIGLA-CCT Conicet Mendoza, Museo de La Plata and Unidad Ejecutora Lillo-CONICET, Fundación Miguel Lillo), Colombia (Universidad del Rosario and Museo de Historia Natural La Tatacoa), United States (Field Museum of Natural History), Japan (Ashoro Museum of Paleontology), Panama (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute) and United Kingdom (University of Cambridge).

STRI, headquartered in Panama City, Panama, is a unit of the Smithsonian Institution. The institute furthers the understanding of tropical biodiversity and its importance to human welfare, trains students to conduct research in the tropics and promotes conservation by increasing public awareness of the beauty and importance of tropical ecosystems.

Scheme of the skeleton of Anachlysictis gracilis with the recently discovered remains.

CREDIT

Photography and design by Daniella Carvalho and Aldo Benites-Palomino.

The three species of the family Thylacosmilidae on the South American continent: Anachlysictis gracilis (left, above), Thylacosmilus atrox (right) and Patagosmilus goini (left, below).

CREDIT

Artist: Jorge Blanco

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DOI

10.5252/geodiversitas2023v45a18 

ARTICLE TITLE

A sabre-tooth predator from the Neotropics: Cranial morphology of Anachlysictis gracilis Goin, 1997 (Metatheria, Thylacosmilidae), based on new specimens from La Venta (Middle Miocene, Colombia)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Oct-2023