Wednesday, January 17, 2024

National collaborative for health equity roundtable: a call for unity and the power of racial healing

MARY ANN LIEBERT, INC./GENETIC ENGINEERING NEWS

A new Roundtable discussion in the peer-reviewed journal Health Equity explores the results of a poll conducted by the National Collaborative for Health Equity (NCHE), called the “Heart of America Annual Survey.” The survey found that more than 80% of respondents want a national leader that unifies rather than divides us, suggesting that there is a readiness in the country to put polarization and division behind us so that we can solve our collective and common challenges and problems. Click here to read the Roundtable now.

Moderating the Roundtable is Gail Christopher, DN, Executive Director of the NCHE. The expert panel includes Brian Smedley, PhD, former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, and Susan Eaton, EdD, a professor, activist, and scholar; Mike Winger, an author and activist for racial equity, and Heather McGhee, a renowned thought leader and author.

Dr. Christopher raised the issue of the critical role that elected and appointed officials play in helping the nation move forward in overcoming the legacy of racism, racial hierarchy, and the actual codified belief in a false hierarchy of human value. She pointed to separation as the primary vehicle for maintaining racial hierarchy, with the second being the legal system and the third the economy. Dr. Susan Eaton provided examples of how the separation and inequalities we see in contemporary society are direct outgrowths of racial hierarchy ideology in the distant past, the recent past and today.

Heather McGhee explains that in writing her book The Sum of Us—What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together” she learned “that racism in our politics and our making is so pervasive that it leaves no system that shapes our lives untouched, and in so doing, it creates a cost for everyone. One of the main vehicles for this racist thinking in our politics and our policy making is a zero-sum mindset.”

When asked how they would advise others based on their experiences, Mark Herring said, “I would also share with public officials that sometimes you are not even aware of the ways in which this work can make people’s lives better at the time you set out to do it. Going back to the overruling of prior attorney general opinions that were rooted in a false hierarchy…I heard from so many people how much it meant to them, especially those who had live through it or remembered stories from their parents who lived through it, to have an attorney general acknowledge the role attorneys general had—and the role the legal system had—in perpetuating racism and injustice and formally renouncing those opinions.”

About the Journal
Health Equity is a peer-reviewed open access journal that meets the urgent need for authoritative information about health disparities and health equity among vulnerable populations. With coverage ranging from translational research to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of disease and illness, the Journal serves as a primary resource for organizations and individuals who serve these populations at the community, state, regional, tribal, and national levels. Complete information is available on the Health Equity website.

About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a global media company dedicated to creating, curating, and delivering impactful peer-reviewed research and authoritative content services to advance the fields of biotechnology and the life sciences, specialized clinical medicine, and public health and policy. For complete information, please visit the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. website.

JOURNAL

Health Equity

DOI

10.1089/heq.2023.29041.nche

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Survey

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

Insect populations flourish in the restored habitats of solar energy facilities

In less than five years, insect abundance tripled

Peer-Reviewed Publication

DOE/ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY

Solar Panels With Flowers — IMAGE:
A SOLAR-POLLINATOR HABITAT, DOMINATED BY PURPLE PRAIRIE CLOVER AND BLACK-EYED SUSAN FLOWERING PLANTS.
view more
CREDIT: (IMAGE BY ARGONNE NATIONAL LABORATORY/LEE WALSTON.)

Bumblebees buzz from flower to flower, stopping for a moment under a clear blue Minnesota sky. Birds chirp, and tall grasses blow in the breeze. This isn’t a scene from a pristine nature preserve or national park. It is nestled between photovoltaic (PV) solar arrays on rehabilitated farmland.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and National Renewable Energy Laboratory wanted to understand the ecological value of PV solar energy sites planted with native grasses and wildflowers. They examined how vegetation would establish and how insect communities would respond to the newly established habitat. The five-year field study looked at two solar sites in southern Minnesota operated by Enel Green Power North America. Both sites were built on retired agricultural land.

“This research highlights the relatively rapid insect community responses to habitat restoration at solar energy sites. It demonstrates that, if properly sited, habitat-friendly solar energy can be a feasible way to safeguard insect populations and can improve the pollination services in adjacent agricultural fields.” — Lee Walston, landscape ecologist and environmental scientist

Smart land use choices provide multiple benefits

Global insect biodiversity has been in decline due to habitat loss, pesticides and climate change. Restoration of insect habitat paired with smart land use changes toward renewable energy developments could help reverse the course.

For instance, as a carbon-neutral source of electricity, expanded PV solar energy development is critical to mitigating climate change. According to the DOE’s Solar Futures Study, approximately 10 million acres of land in the U.S. will be needed for large-scale solar development by 2050 in order to meet grid decarbonization and climate change goals. But some lands are better suited for PV solar development than others. Disturbed lands such as former agricultural fields are ideal locations to hold rows of solar panels compared to lands that have been previously undisturbed.

Even more strategies can be added to this winning combination to support insect conservation. Agrivoltaics is the combination of solar energy production with agricultural and vegetation management practices. One type of agrivoltaics focuses on the establishment of habitat for insect pollinators and other wildlife that can provide important ecosystem services, such as pollination. Pairing solar energy facilities on previously disturbed lands with habitat enhancement sounds like a logical win-win strategy to address energy and biodiversity challenges. To date, however, there has been little field data available to document the feasibility and the ecological benefits of this novel land use approach.

If you build it, will they come?

The two studied solar sites were planted with native grasses and flowering plants in early 2018. From August 2018 through August 2022, the researchers conducted 358 observational surveys for flowering vegetation and insect communities. They evaluated changes in plant and insect abundance and diversity with each visit.

“The effort to obtain these data was considerable, returning to each site four times per summer to record pollinator counts,” said Heidi Hartmann, manager of the Land Resources and Energy Policy Program in Argonne’s Environmental Sciences division, and one of the study’s co-authors. “Over time we saw the numbers and types of flowering plants increase as the habitat matured. Measuring the corresponding positive impact for pollinators was very gratifying.”

By the end of the field campaign, the team observed increases for all habitat and biodiversity metrics. There was an increase in native plant species diversity and flower abundance. In addition, the team observed increases in the abundance and diversity of native insect pollinators and agriculturally beneficial insects, which included honeybees, native bees, wasps, hornets, hoverflies, other flies, moths, butterflies and beetles. Flowers and flowering plant species increased as well. Total insect abundance tripled, while native bees showed a 20-fold increase in numbers. The most numerous insect groups observed were beetles, flies and moths.

In an added benefit, the researchers found that pollinators from the solar sites also visited soybean flowers in adjacent crop fields, providing additional pollination services.

The benefits of solar-pollinator habitats

“This research highlights the relatively rapid insect community responses to habitat restoration at solar energy sites,” said Lee Walston, an Argonne landscape ecologist and environmental scientist who was lead author of the study. “It demonstrates, if properly sited, habitat-friendly solar energy can be a feasible way to safeguard insect populations and can improve the pollination services in adjacent agricultural fields.” Walston also serves as head of the Ecology, Natural Resources, and Managed Systems department in Argonne’s Environmental Science division.

The research findings suggest two important implications of habitat-friendly solar energy. One is that habitat-friendly solar sites can play an important role in conserving biodiversity. Large amounts of ground-mounted solar is expected to be developed in the future, but if properly sited, habitat-friendly solar can offset the losses of natural areas to provide biodiversity benefits. Second, habitat-friendly solar sites can help mitigate land-use conflicts associated with the conversion of farmland for solar energy production. As approximately 80% of future ground-mounted solar development could occur on agricultural lands, the proper siting of habitat-friendly solar energy on marginal farmland can not only preserve prime farmland, but it could make prime farmland more productive through the pollination services provided by habitat-friendly solar energy.

Overall, additional research is needed to understand the feasibility of habitat-friendly solar across different regions and to meet different ecological goals such as conserving a target insect or wildlife species.

Funding was provided by the InSPIRE project through the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Solar Energy Technologies Office.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit https://energy.gov/science.

JOURNAL

Environmental Research

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/ad0f72

ARTICLE TITLE

If you build it, will they come? Insect community responses to habitat establishment at solar energy facilities in Minnesota, USA

Women farmers quantitatively linked to better community well-being

Penn State and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that counties with more women farmers also have longer life expectancies and lower poverty rates

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PENN STATE

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Having more women in agriculture is associated with greater community well-being, according to researchers at Penn State and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Their work is the first to quantitatively assess this link, and their findings suggest that women farmers approach their operations in ways that positively impact their communities.

The study, published Jan. 16 in Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, revealed that U.S. counties with a higher share of farms owned or operated by women have higher rates of nonfarm entrepreneurship, longer life expectancies and lower poverty rates.

“We know from previous qualitative research that women farmers tend to enter into farming for different reasons than men and often make decisions with the greater good in mind,” said Claudia Schmidt, assistant professor of marketing and local/regional food systems at Penn State and the study’s lead author. “For example, they strive to meet a social need in their community or they prioritize environmental stewardship over profits. Our study is the first to use quantitative research methods to explore whether this concept of ‘civic agriculture’ actually translates to improved community well-being in places with higher shares of women farmers.”

Using U.S. county-level data from the most recent U.S. Census and the Census of Agriculture, the researchers conducted a series of analyses to model the independent effect of women farmers on three local economic variables: the poverty rate, average life expectancy and the rate of new business formation. The researchers chose these measures to approximate a community’s quality of life. For example, the rate of new business formation relates to the entrepreneurial energy in a community, which is a good indicator of economic health, said co-author Steve Deller, Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor and Community Development Extension Specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who constructed the statistical models.

“Communities with more people starting businesses tend to be more dynamic and resilient to shocks, thus enhancing community well-being,” Deller said. “Similarly, a county with less poverty, and where people tend to have longer lifespans, is likely to be a better place to live than a county with higher poverty rates and shorter lifespans.”

They also controlled for the possibility that their findings could be attributed to other community factors, such as the racial composition, the number of single-parent households and the number of college graduates.

The researchers found that the positive association with women farmers spilled over into neighboring counties, meaning that more women farmers in one county was associated with greater community well-being in neighboring counties, too.

“The fact that these spillovers exist suggests having a critical mass of female farmers within a larger region, and not just within a county, has an even greater impact on regional well-being,” said co-author Stephan Goetz, professor of agricultural economics and regional economics at Penn State and director of the Northeast Regional Center for Rural Development.

Although the findings do not establish causality, they warrant a closer look by policy makers concerned with rural poverty and well-being, according to Goetz.

“Anything that can help reduce rural poverty is worth looking at more closely,” Goetz said. “Even though women farmers tend to be less profit-driven and operate smaller farms than their male counterparts, our findings suggest that having more of them is good for a community.”

The number of farms operated by women has increased over the past 20 years, according to Schmidt.

“Along with more women participating in agriculture than we've seen historically, we’re also beginning to see more research investigating their role and impact in the United States,” Schmidt said, noting that the trend is timely, especially given that the most recent Nobel Prize in economics was awarded for research on the previously unrecognized positive role of women in the general economy. “I’m hoping our study will encourage more research in this area, because there are so many more questions to explore and perspectives to draw from — such as those from women of color or farmers who identify as a gender other than male or female. We need to understand these dynamics to develop sound rural policy strategies and to support greater participation in agriculture.”

The United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), the USDA NIFA and Multistate/Regional Research and Extension Appropriations, and the U.S. Department of Commerce supported this research in part.

JOURNAL

Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy

DOI

10.1002/aepp.13406

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Women farmers and community well-being under modeling uncertainty

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

16-Jan-2024

Predicting others’ preference-based choices is cross-cultural and uniquely human

Children can anticipate food choices based on the preferences of others, but non-human great apes do not

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Children across cultures can anticipate other individuals’ choices based on their preferences, according to a study publishing January 17 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Juliane Kaminski at the University of Portsmouth and colleagues. However, non-human great apes appear to lack this ability.

Understanding the beliefs, desires, and preferences of others is known as ‘theory of mind’, but whether or not this ability is unique to humans remains unclear. Researchers investigated if children and non-human great apes could predict the food choices of others based on their preferences. They tested 71 children aged 5 to 11 years from Namibia, Germany, and Samoa, and 25 great apes from four species: chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), bonobos (Pan paniscus), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), and orangutans (Pongo abelii).

The children and apes were paired with an adult human competitor, who indicated a food preference that either matched or differed from their own. Each participant was asked to choose one of three food rewards, after their competitor had made a selection in private. Children refrained from choosing their preferred option when paired with a competitor who shared their preference, thereby maximizing the chance that their chosen option was still available. But they selected their favored food when their competitor’s preference differed from theirs. In contrast, the great apes tended to choose their preferred option regardless of their competitor’s preference.

These findings support the hypothesis that recognizing the preferences of others, even when they differ from our own, is a uniquely human trait. The researchers found children across diverse societies considered their partners’ preferences, indicating that this facet of childhood theory of mind is remarkably robust to cultural influence. According to the authors, the study suggests the ability to understand that others can have different preferences and to take this into account when making decisions is universal in humans and independent of culture.

The authors add: "Our results suggest that the tendency to anticipate others’ preferences is cross-culturally robust and, among the great apes, most likely specific to humans."

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295221

Citation: Kaminski J, Stengelin R, Girndt A, Haun D, Liebal K (2024) Understanding others’ preferences: A comparison across primate species and human societies. PLoS ONE 19(1): e0295221. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295221

Author Countries: Germany, Namibia, UK

Funding: Research funded by grant from Volkswagenstiftung (ROSI, #83 592)’ awarded to JK, KL & DH The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0295221

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Understanding others’ preferences: A comparison across primate species and human societies

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024

Social networks of sanctuary-living Grauer’s gorillas provide unique insights into the behavior of a critically endangered species and inform on their care and future release

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Social networks of sanctuary-living Grauer’s gorillas provide unique insights into the behavior of a critically endangered species and inform on their care and future release.

Adult female gorillas are at the centre of social networks in a sanctuary-living Grauer's Gorilla group, according to social network analysis which also finds them to be the most gregarious.

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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295561

Article Title: Group structure and individual relationships of sanctuary-living Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri)

Author Countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, USA

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0295561

ARTICLE TITLE

Group structure and individual relationships of sanctuary-living Grauer’s gorillas (Gorilla beringei graueri)

Worldwide, we are living longer and the male-female longevity gap is shrinking

Mortality patterns can be roughly grouped by continent, but are converging and share common trends

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Convergence and divergence in mortality: A global study from 1990 to 2030 — IMAGE:
WORLDWIDE, WE ARE LIVING LONGER AND THE MALE-FEMALE LONGEVITY GAP IS SHRINKING.
view more
CREDIT: HELENA LOPES, PEXELS, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)

When it comes to trends in mortality over the last thirty years, countries around the world can be grouped into five clusters, roughly representing the five continents, according to a new study published January 17, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by David Atance of Universidad de Alcalá, Spain, and colleagues. While the clusters follow different trajectories, they share some commonalities, including longer life expectancies and fewer disparities between genders and groups of countries with different mortality and longevity indicators.

Most countries in the world have seen improvements in longevity over the last two centuries, and scientists have wondered whether there is convergence or divergence towards a unique pattern of mortality and longevity across countries. In the new study, Atance and colleagues used new statistical approaches to analyze not only life expectancy at birth, but eight other mortality indicators using data from 194 countries from the United Nations Populations Division records.

The study found that in 1990 and 2010 those countries could be clustered into five groups based on their mortality/longevity characteristics. Several countries changed clusters between the two timepoints—often based on wars and deleterious socioeconomic and political conditions—but in general the clusters represent the configuration of continents. Among all convergence clubs and countries, the life expectancy is increasing and the male-female gap in mortality is shrinking. The researchers used their model to predict groupings in 2030 and found continuation of these trends.

The authors conclude that their approach is able to show new insight into the historical evolution of the mortality convergence groupings in the period 1990-2020 and expands their score to include projections of their expected future evolution.

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295842

Citation: Atance D, Claramunt MM, Varea X, Aburto JM (2024) Convergence and divergence in mortality: A global study from 1990 to 2030. PLoS ONE 19(1): e0295842. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0295842

Author Countries: Spain, UK

Funding: This work was partially supported by the funded chair UB-Longevity Institute. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0295842

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Convergence and divergence in mortality: A global study from 1990 to 2030

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024

Arsenic concentrations are predicted to increase significantly in Bangladesh's drinking well water, consumed by around 97% of Bangladeshis, thanks to sea level rise from climate change

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

Sea level rise from climate change is expected to increase the release of arsenic into Bangladesh’s drinking well water by reduction and by the salt effect — IMAGE:
CHRONIC ARSENIC POISONING FROM DRINKING WELL WATER IN BANGLADESH CAUSES KERATOSIS OF THE PALMS AND OTHER SYMPTOMS.
view more
CREDIT: SETH H. FRISBIE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

Arsenic concentrations are predicted to increase significantly in Bangladesh's drinking well water, consumed by around 97% of Bangladeshis, thanks to sea level rise from climate change

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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295172

Article Title: Sea level rise from climate change is expected to increase the release of arsenic into Bangladesh’s drinking well water by reduction and by the salt effect

Author Countries: USA

Funding: The fieldwork in Bangladesh was funded by the United States Agency of International Development (USAID; contract number US AID RE III 388-0070; https://www.usaid.gov/). This fieldwork began in July of 1997 and ended in August of 1997. USAID is an international development agency that is funded by the United States government. USAID employed Seth H. Frisbie (SHF) and paid his salary during these two months in 1997. After August 1997, SHF received no specific funding for this work. Erika J. Mitchell (EJM) and Azizur R. Molla (ARM) received no specific funding for this work. No commercial companies funded the study or the authors. All other costs have been paid from the personal savings of the authors. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0295172

ARTICLE TITLE

Sea level rise from climate change is expected to increase the release of arsenic into Bangladesh’s drinking well water by reduction and by the salt effect

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024

A third of surveyed United Nations staff working in Geneva report having personally experienced racial discrimination, and a third having witnessed colleagues being racially discriminated against

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

A third of surveyed United Nations staff working in Geneva report having personally experienced racial discrimination, and a third having witnessed colleagues being racially discriminated against

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Article URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0295715

Article Title: Racial discrimination within United Nations offices in Geneva: Results from an online survey

Author Countries: Germany, USA

Funding: The article was produced as part of the project "Racism and Mental Health: A Qualitative Study with Humanitarian Workers". The project is led by the first author (H.S.) and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); grant number 01KA2215. The funder did not play any role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. BMBF project website: https://www.gesundheitsforschung-bmbf.de/de/rassismus-und-psychische-gesundheit-eine-qualitative-studie-mit-humanitaren-helfenden-15897.php.

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0295715

ARTICLE TITLE

Racial discrimination within United Nations offices in Geneva: Results from an online survey

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

17-Jan-2024