New study provides first evidence of African children with severe malaria experiencing partial resistance to world’s most powerful malaria drug

American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene

NEW ORLEANS (November 14, 2024) — A new study from Uganda provides the first evidence to date that resistance to a lifesaving malaria drug may be emerging in the group of patients that accounts for most of the world’s malaria deaths: young African children suffering from serious infections. The study, presented today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), documented partial resistance to the malaria drug artemisinin in 11 of 100 children, ages 6 months to 12 years, who were being treated for “complicated” malaria, that is, malaria with signs of severe disease caused by the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

Also, 10 patients who were thought to have been cured suffered a repeat malaria attack within 28 days from the same strain of malaria that caused the original infection, suggesting that the initial treatment did not fully kill the infecting parasites.

“This is the first study from Africa showing that children with malaria and clear signs of severe disease are experiencing at least partial resistance to artemisinin,” said Chandy John, MD, MS, director of the Indiana University School of Medicine Ryan White Center for Infectious Diseases and Global Health, who is a co-author of the study along with colleagues Ruth Namazzi and Robert Opoka from Makerere University in Kampala in Uganda, Ryan Henrici from University of Pennsylvania, and Colin Sutherland from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

John, who is a former ASTMH president said, “It’s also the first study showing a high rate of African children with severe malaria experiencing a subsequent malaria episode with the same strain within 28 days of standard treatment with artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin, and an artemisinin combination therapy (ACT).”

The arrival of artemisinin therapies some 20 years ago was a major advance in the global fight against malaria due to their power to rapidly cure infections — and because malaria parasites had developed resistance to other drugs. In 2008, there were reports from Cambodia noting partial resistance to artemisinin. By 2013 there was evidence that in some patients, the drug was completely failing. In the last few years, there has been increasing evidence that artemisinin resistance has now spread from that region into East Africa. The prospect of artemisinin losing its efficacy is particularly alarming for Africa and especially for African children. The region accounts for 95% of the 608,000 people who die from malaria each year and a large majority of malaria deaths in Africa are children under 5.  

While all of the children in the study eventually recovered, 10 of them were infected with malaria parasites that harbor genetic mutations that have been linked to artemisinin-resistance in Southeast Asia. The study noted that while these mutations have been documented in Africa in less severe cases, this was the first time they have been seen in parasites that were causing complicated malaria in hospitalized African children. The term “complicated” malaria is used to define cases where the disease is at risk of causing potentially life-threatening complications, like severe anemia or brain-related problems known as cerebral malaria.

John said that researchers classified patients as suffering from partial resistance based on the World Health Organization’s defined half-life cutoff for parasite clearance of more than five hours, meaning requiring more than five hours to reduce a patient’s parasite burden by 50%. Two children required longer than the standard maximum of three days of artesunate therapy because they failed to clear their parasites with three days of therapy. He said longer treatment times increase the risk of poor outcomes. Also, he said that in Southeast Asia, the path to broadly resistant malaria parasites started with evidence of partial artemisinin resistance, and the concern is that pattern will be repeated in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Ugandan children in the study received what is considered to be the gold standard for treating complicated malaria infections: an intravenous infusion of artesunate followed by oral treatment with an ACT that combines another derivative of artemisinin, a drug called artemether, with the malaria drug lumefantrine.

John said the relatively high number of recurrent cases raises concerns that the efficacy of lumefantrine also may be declining. The drug is paired with artemether to make it harder for parasites to develop artemisinin resistance and also because lumefantrine stays in the body longer than artemether. Therefore, it can kill any remaining parasites not cleared by the shorter-acting artemisinin. 

John said the study emerged from ongoing work in Uganda that is investigating outcomes of children who experience episodes of severe malaria. He said researchers pivoted to a focus on drug resistance because they noticed some children appeared to be slower to respond to the infusion of artesunate followed by an oral ACT.

“The fact that we started seeing evidence of drug resistance before we even started specifically looking for it is a troubling sign,” John said. “We were further surprised that, after we turned our focus to resistance, we also ended up finding patients who had recurrence after we thought they had been cured.”

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About the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, founded in 1903, is the largest international scientific organization of experts dedicated to reducing the worldwide burden of tropical infectious diseases and improving global health. It accomplishes this through generating and sharing scientific evidence, informing health policies and practices, fostering career development, recognizing excellence, and advocating for investment in tropical medicine/global health research. For more information, visit astmh.org.

 

Unregulated experts can cause harm to children in family courts in England and Wales

University College London

Unregulated experts appointed by family courts in England and Wales have caused harm to children by separating them from their mothers and forcing them to live with and have contact with fathers accused of violence and abuse, according to a new study by a UCL (University College London) researcher.

The study, published in the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, describes three devastating cases where older children (aged nine to 17) were removed from their mothers against their will, and were forced to live with their fathers despite allegations and sometimes court findings of abuse.

These family court orders were made on the advice and guidance of unregulated experts who proposed to have identified so-called “alienation” – or that the mother was manipulating the children and had unjustly turned them against their father.*

In one of the cases analysed, two children were removed from their mother to live with their father and undergo a “therapeutic residential reunification plan”. The children, who had described coercive and controlling behaviour from the father, escaped in the middle of the night by smashing and jumping through a first-floor window.

In another court case, two children were forced to live with their father and saw contact restricted with their mother despite a previous court having determined that their father had been “coercive and controlling”.

The author Dr Sonja Ayeb-Karlsson (UCL Risk & Disaster Reduction, UCL Everyday Disasters and Violences Research Group) said: “In these shocking cases, the children expressed clear wishes to stay with their mother but were ignored. Once they had been labelled as ‘alienated’, they ended up legally entrapped with their voices silenced and thereby unable to influence proceedings determining their lives.

“These cases show the harm of the ‘alienation’ belief system, which has become a legal weapon that serves to punish and control those who speak up about their lived abuse experiences. They also show the potential harm of the family court-appointed ‘experts’, unregulated as well as regulated, who claim to be trained and able to identify so-called alienation.

“In the analysed case law, the courts went to brutal lengths to reconcile children with their fathers despite the children’s feelings and fears related to living with them.

“We do not know how common these alienation treatment plans and interventions are, but six children are six children too many to be coerced and have their rights violated in this way.

“We must ensure that these High Court cases serve as a cautionary tale rather than providing us with a window into the future conduct of our family courts.”

An unregulated expert is someone who is not registered with and controlled by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). Currently, the HCPC only regulates a few specific psychologist titles such as “clinical psychologist”, meaning that titles such as “psychologist”, “child psychologist”, and “family psychologist” are not protected and there are no legal requirements for using them. “That poses a risk to the public as family court users may be persuaded into believing that a professional put forward in the court is clinically trained to assess and diagnose their children,” said Dr Ayeb-Karlsson. “Unregulated experts should not be guiding the courts on something as valuable as our children’s futures.”

Other actions that could minimise future risk to children, Dr Ayeb-Karlsson said, were a cap on experts’ fees, more transparency in family courts, better evaluations and control of health professionals assessing and treating children through the family court system, and an end to the use of the alienation belief system in court.

The study noted that unregulated experts may seem better placed to be instructed by the family court than regulated psychologists by, for example, calling themselves “child psychologists” who specialise in assessing children.

Cases

In one case, not reported by the media, two girls aged 11 and 13 were ordered by the family court to have contact cut with their mother and moved to the residence and care of the father for 90 days, despite the girls alleging coercive and controlling behaviour including digital surveillance, physical and sexual abuse. The older girl, Z, had previously called mental health emergency services providers from her father’s bedroom, saying she would hang herself if she was unable to go home to her mother.

The plan was proposed by an independent social worker, who moved in with the father and the girls to facilitate their so-called reconciliation. The treatment plan ended disastrously after five days when the sisters escaped by smashing and then jumping through a first-floor window. They were found by roadside workers in the early hours of the morning and transferred to police custody.

A number of judgments later, following a period in foster care and efforts to enforce contact with the father while limiting contact with the mother and her social network, Z was allowed to return to her mother but only after an extended period of suicidal ideation and self-harm, while her younger sister X was allowed to live with the parents of her mother’s new partner as also she was refusing to stay in the father’s care.

In the final High Court judgment, the judge criticises the label of “parental alienation”, saying it had been “thoroughly unhelpful, by embedding conflict” and a sense that one parent was right and justified and the other parent was wrong and had acted inappropriately. She lamented that “somewhere in the history of this case we have lost our humanity”.

In another case described in the study, two children aged nine and 12 were removed by the family court from their mother to live with their father on the grounds of “alienating” behaviour towards the father.

This was despite a district judge previously finding that the father had been “coercive and controlling” towards the mother, with “considerable emotional abuse” in their relationship, indicating the children’s rejection of their father may have been appropriate.

The order also went against the wishes of the children, one of whom had described their father as drunken and violent and alleged they had been hit by him.

The order was made on the advice of another unregulated “parental alienation” expert and the use of a tool from England's Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) that is intended to assess whether “alienating” behaviour is causing or contributing to a child’s refusal to see a parent.

Dr Ayeb-Karlsson said: “It is unclear why the Cafcass Alienating Behaviour Tool was applied in a case where the court had made findings of coercive and controlling behaviour, as Cafcass work according to a framework that acknowledges the existence of domestic abuse as reason for justifiable resistance by the children.

“We may also argue that Cafcass should abandon the use of any working tools and checklists that incorporate the ‘alienation’ belief system, especially after the progress made by the UK Government with the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls report on custody violence published last year, and the wonderful progress made by Cafcass this year through their new approach to dealing with domestic abuse cases.”

The family court also ordered the children to continue seeing a therapist with their father, despite the older child, B, saying the therapy was “making things worse, not better”, as their father had not owned up to what he had done.

In the third case described in the study, two children aged 14 and 11 were forced to move in with their father despite the mother having disclosed a history of abuse by him, including against the children. Their relationship with their mother was also severely damaged due to a no-contact order from the court.

The children wrote a letter to their school alleging physical and emotional abuse – “he hurts us physically and breaks us mentally” – but the judge overseeing proceedings stepped in and hindered the Metropolitan Police and social services from appropriately investigating and interviewing the children on the grounds that he had already deemed the allegations to be unfounded. This decision was thereafter overturned by the Court of Appeal.

After almost two years, the children’s feelings were reported to have changed, or their hopes to reunite with their mother lost, as the final order concludes that they are happy and content with their father’s care. The study notes that the court-induced estrangement from their mother “did not cause the same concern and urgency as their previous ‘estrangement’ from the father”.

The peer reviewed article is the first of its kind to investigate the experiences of the so-called “alienated child” facing “reunification interventions” in the family court system in England and Wales. The author points to a serious gap in the research of studies investigating family court experiences from the point of view of the child.

The legal narrative case law study was published in a special issue of the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law dedicated to the pioneering feminist family law and legal scholar Professor Felicity Kaganas of Brunel University London, edited by Professor Alison Diduck (UCL Laws) and Dr Adrienne Barnett of Brunel University London.

* The highly contested concept of “parental alienation” was criticised last year by the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, who called upon governments to ban the use of the label in custody and family law proceedings, citing “the tendency of family courts to dismiss the history of domestic violence and abuse in custody cases, especially where mothers and/or children have brought forward credible allegations of domestic abuse, including coercive control, physical or sexual abuse”. 

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Journal

Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law

DOI

10.1080/09649069.2024.2414625 

Article Title

‘We have lost our humanity’: Incomplete citizens, dangerous experts, and ‘(residential) reunification interventions’ that entrap, punish and harm the so-called ‘alienated’ child within England and Wales family court system

Article Publication Date

13-Nov-2024

 

How conflicting memories of sex and starvation compete to drive behavior

University College London

Two conflicting memories can both be activated in a worm’s brain, even if only one memory actively drives the animal’s behaviour, finds a new study by UCL researchers.

In the paper published in Current Biology, the researchers showed how an animal’s sex drive can at times outweigh the need to eat when determining behaviour, as they investigated what happens when a worm smells an odour that has been linked to both good experiences (mating) and bad experiences (starvation).

The scientists were seeking to understand how an animal’s brain decides if something it encounters is good or bad, and how this determines the animal’s response.

They found that by conditioning male worms to have both positive and negative associations with an odour, both memories will be activated when the worm smells the odour, but only one will impact the animal’s behaviour.

The researchers say their findings can be further investigated to gain insight into health conditions where this process goes wrong, such as in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), where memories that should remain latent (dormant) are still problematically influencing behaviours and emotions.

Lead author Dr Arantza Barrios (UCL Cell & Developmental Biology) said: “For our study, we were looking into the brain of the male worm, in order to understand the cellular or molecular mechanisms that determine if a particular memory impacts behaviour. An important part of how we learn is that our brains are able to adapt to new information and override previous associations.”

Co-first author Dr Susana Colinas Fischer (UCL Cell & Developmental Biology) added: “By understanding what a very small worm is thinking, we are able to learn more about the processes underlying our own more complex thinking patterns.”

The study was undertaken with male C. elegans roundworms, a species of worm 1mm in length that is very commonly used as a model organism in scientific research. The worms were presented with an odour that is innately attractive to them, which the researchers say is akin to a person smelling a delicious dinner.

In a series of experiments, the researchers modified the worms’ preference for the odour and monitored their behaviour and brain activity.

The worms’ instinct to approach the odour was overridden with aversive conditioning, in which the worms experienced the odour together with a punishment of starvation. The researchers then sought to override this learned avoidance with further conditioning, whereby the odour was presented alongside a female mate and some sexual experience, so that the male worms developed a new positive association with the odour.

The analysis identified a circuit of brain cells that represents both positive and negative associations with things the animal has encountered previously, centred on a particular neuropeptide (a chemical messenger in the brain) that stores the memories of both the starvation and mating associations with the odour.

The researchers found that in worms that had been conditioned to associate the odour with starvation and mating, both memories were activated in the brain. But only one of them – the mating association – still caused the worm to approach the odour.

The researchers say this indicates that the prospect of a mating reward overrode the prospect of a starvation punishment, even though both memories remained intact – while the worm no longer avoided the odour, the negative memory of starvation was still represented in the brain activity.

Co-first author Dr Laura Molina-García (UCL Cell & Developmental Biology) said: “We found that even in an animal with a very small brain like that of a roundworm, two conflicting memories can both be activated at the same time, with one memory impacting behaviour and one memory remaining latent.

“The way an animal’s brain can flexibly represent something that is partly good and partly bad helps it to learn and adapt to new information. By understanding how some memories can override other conflicting memories, we hope to inform research into treating the maladaptation of this process such as in PTSD.”

The research was supported by the Royal Society, Wellcome and Leverhulme Trust.

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.024 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Conflict during learning reconfigures the neural representation of positive valence and approach behaviour

Article Publication Date

14-Nov-2024

 

Kidney patients’ lives could be saved by international change to donor policies

Newcastle University

 

image: 

Mr Samuel Tingle, Newcastle University, UK

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Credit: Newcastle University, UK

Thousands of kidney disease patients’ lives could be saved around the world each year if countries adopted the UK's rules on organ donation, new research has revealed.

In most countries, organ donation from donors without a heartbeat can only take place if the donor dies within one hour of removing their life sustaining treatment. In the United Kingdom, kidneys can still be donated up to three hours after withdrawing this support.

Now, in a study published today in JAMA Network, scientists at Newcastle University, UK, have shown the quality of donor kidneys is unaffected by the time between withdrawing life support and the donor dying.

Experts are now calling on international organ donation organisations to consider changing their policies to help increase the number of organs available.

Time to death rules

Most countries have strict time to death rules and if the donor has not died within one hour after their life support is removed, the donation team leave, and the organs are not used for transplant.

However, in the UK teams wait a minimum of three hours, and scientists have found that to wait a few extra hours is beneficial to helping save as many lives as possible.

Based on current trends in the United States, if this country alone adopted the three hour rule, this could mean an extra 1,000 kidney transplants in America per year, and many more across the globe.

Samuel Tingle, Clinical Research Fellow at Newcastle University, who led the study, said: “Our study debunks the idea that a one hour time to death is crucial for maintaining the health of organs.

“What we show is that a longer time to death does not impact the quality or success of kidneys, but it does increase the number of kidneys donated. This offers benefits for patients on the waiting list, potential organ donors and donor families.

“Increasing the number of kidneys internationally could have a huge impact on transplant waiting lists, saving many more lives. Getting patients off dialysis also massively improves their quality of life.

“Raising the number of kidneys which are successfully donated from consented donors also makes sure we are respecting the wishes of donors and their families wherever possible.”

The research is a statistical analysis of data from the UK Transplant Registry. Researchers used anonymised information from 7,183 kidney transplant recipients between 2013 and 2021.

It is the largest study ever to focus specifically on time to death policies with kidney donation. Previous research, led by the same Newcastle team, has shown that longer time to death waiting times did not damage livers or pancreases.

‘Wonderfully simple change’

Mr Tingle, also an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We believe that organ donation organisations internationally should implement the UK policy of waiting a minimum of three hours after removing life support from potential donors.

“This is a wonderfully simple change that could be made worldwide to safely increase the number of kidneys available for transplant.”

The study was led by Newcastle University and involved Cambridge University, University of Wisconsin, Guy’s Hospital and NHS Blood and Transplant. It was supported by funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Blood and Transplant Research Unit in Organ Donation and Transplantation, the MRC and Wellcome.

Further research, in collaboration with NHS Blood and Transplant, will look at whether the time to death wait can be increased to more than three hours and still maintain the quality of the organ.

Dale Gardiner, associate medical director for deceased organ donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: "The UK has been a world-leader in this type of organ donation for over a decade.

“It is a privilege to share this expertise with the world so that more lives can be saved through the gift of organ donation."

Reference: Donor time to death and kidney transplant outcomes in a setting of a 3-hour minimum wait policy. Sam J. Tingle et al. JAMA Network. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.43353

Ends

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.43353 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Donor time to death and kidney transplant outcomes in a setting of a 3-hour minimum wait policy

Article Publication Date

14-Nov-2024

 

Deciphering the anomalous properties of water

University of Barcelona team presents an innovative theoretical study to explain the unusual properties of water

University of Barcelona

 

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The paper is featured on the cover of The Journal of Chemical Physics.

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Credit: The Journal of Chemical Physics

Water, a molecule essential for life, has unusual properties — known as anomalies — that define its behaviour. However, there are still many enigmas about the molecular mechanisms that would explain the anomalies that make the water molecule unique. Deciphering and reproducing this particular behaviour of water in different temperature ranges is still a major challenge for the scientific community. Now, a study presents a new theoretical model capable of overcoming the limitations of previous methodologies to understand how water behaves in extreme conditions. The paper, featured on the cover of The Journal of Chemical Physics, is led by Giancarlo Franzese and Luis Enrique Coronas, from the Faculty of Physics and the Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology of the University of Barcelona (IN2UB).

The study not only broadens our understanding of the physics of water, but also has implications for technology, biology and biomedicine, in particular for addressing the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and the development of advanced biotechnologies.

The CVF model: better understanding the physics of wáter

The study, which results from the doctoral thesis that Luis E. Coronas presented in 2023 at the Faculty of Physics of the UB, shows a new theoretical model that responds to the acronym CVF (the initials of the surnames of the researchers Luis E. Coronas, Oriol Vilanova and Giancarlo Franzese). The new CVF model is reliable, efficient, scalable and transferable, and incorporates ab initio quantum calculations that accurately reproduce the thermodynamic properties of water under different conditions.

By applying the new theoretical framework, the study reveals that “there is a critical point between two liquid forms of water, and this critical point is the origin of the anomalies that make water unique and essential for life, as well as for many technological applications”, says Professor Giancarlo Franzese, from the Statistical Physics Section of the Department of Condensed Matter Physics.

“Although this conclusion has already been reached in other water models, none of them have the specific characteristics of the model we have developed in this study”, says Franzese.

Some current models to explain water anomalies cannot adequately reproduce the thermodynamic properties of water, such as its compressibility and heat capacity.

“However, the CVF model does this because it incorporates results from initial quantum calculations of interactions between molecules. These interactions, known as many-body problems, go beyond classical physics and are due to the fact that water molecules share electrons in a way that is difficult to measure experimentally”, says Franzese.

According to the study, “fluctuations in density, energy and entropy in water are regulated by these quantum interactions, with effects ranging from the nanometre to the macroscopic scale”, says researcher Luis E. Coronas.

“For example — Coronas continues —, water regulates the exchange of energy and molecules, as well as the state of aggregation of proteins and nucleic acids in cells. Defects in these processes are suspected to cause serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Understanding how water fluctuations contribute to these processes could therefore be key to finding treatments for these diseases”.

Fostering the development of new biotechnologies

The CVF model also offers new advantages that allow calculations to be performed where other models fail, either because they are computationally too heavy or because they deviate significantly from experimental results.

In the field of technological development, some laboratories are developing biotechnologies to replace muscles (mechanical actuators) that take advantage of the quantum interactions of water; water-based memristors to create memory devices (with a capacity millions of times greater than current ones), or the application of graphene sponges that separate water from impurities thanks to fluctuations in the density of water in nanopores.

There are also implications for understanding the physics of water. “This model can reproduce the properties of liquid water at virtually all temperatures and pressures found on our planet, although it deviates at extreme conditions reached in laboratories”, say the experts. “This shows that effects not included in the model — nuclear quantum effects — are also important at these extreme pressures and temperatures. Thus, the limitations of the model guide us where to improve in order to arrive at a definitive formulation of the model”, they conclude.
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Journal

The Journal of Chemical Physics

DOI

10.1063/5.0219313 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Phase behavior of metastable water from large-scale simulations of a quantitatively accurate model near ambient conditions: The liquid–liquid critical point

Rice WaTER Institute and Yokogawa partner on autonomous water treatment

Partnership aims to integrate automation and modular treatment solutions

Rice University

 

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CAPTION: Eric Willman, executive director of the Rice WaTER Institute and the Nanosystems Engineering Research Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment (NEWT) (from left); Kevin McMillen, chief executive and global vice president of Yokogawa Corporation of America; Qilin Li, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rice and co-director of the NEWT Center; Pedro Alvarez, Rice’s George R. Brown Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and Steve Hayden, industry director of Yokogawa Corporation of America.

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Credit: (Credit: Yokogawa Corporation of America)

HOUSTON – (Nov. 14, 2024) – The Water Technologies Entrepreneurship and Research (WaTER) Institute at Rice University and Yokogawa Corporation of America, a provider of industrial automation and test and measurement solutions, announced today a new partnership in support of modular autonomous water treatment and reuse processes.

The agreement will leverage the complementary expertise and unique capabilities of both partners, officials said. The WaTER Institute has researched and developed modular treatment solutions, while Yokogawa is implementing system control and automation. The integration of these approaches sets the stage for more widespread adoption of autonomous water treatment processes.

“The agreement is mutually beneficial, providing Rice students with opportunities to engage in educational and research initiatives driven by real-world needs,” said Eric Willman, executive director of the WaTER Institute. “This practical experience will enhance their knowledge and skills, equipping them with the ability to shape a better future through entrepreneurship, research and advocacy.”

Rice and Yokogawa plan to develop a consortium of organizations and institutions based on a shared commitment to implement safe, secure and sustainable water solutions in support of the United Nations’ sustainable development goal to “ensure available and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Prospective partners would provide experience and practical insights on economic assessment, community outreach, market research, laboratory analysis, industry approvals, manufacturing and commercialization.

“Partnering with Rice will provide us with access to real-time operational data for analysis,” said Steve Hayden, industry director of Yokogawa Corporation of America. “The open, transparent market insights and technology validation will enable us to expeditiously bring the benefits of the technology to the industry. In addition, partnering in workforce development will provide Rice students with placement opportunities in a range of organizations.”

The partnership is guided by the vision of bringing together a diverse coalition of collaborators, shaping a framework for the consortium and establishing guiding principles and priority tasks for the first year of operations, including determining funding sources, selecting a leadership team and securing executive sponsorship.

Launched earlier this year, the Rice WaTER Institute leads cutting-edge, multidisciplinary research and technological innovation focusing on three key areas: public health, energy transitions and resilient infrastructure.

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This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.

About Rice:

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Texas, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering and computing, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. Internationally, the university maintains the Rice Global Paris Center, a hub for innovative collaboration, research and inspired teaching located in the heart of Paris. With 4,776 undergraduates and 4,104 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction and No. 7 for best-run colleges by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by the Wall Street Journal and is included on Forbes’ exclusive list of “New Ivies.”

About Yokogawa:

Yokogawa provides advanced solutions in the areas of measurement, control and information to customers across a broad range of industries, including energy, chemicals, materials, pharmaceuticals and food. Yokogawa addresses customer issues regarding the optimization of production, assets and the supply chain with the effective application of digital technologies, enabling the transition to autonomous operations.

Founded in Tokyo in 1915, Yokogawa continues to work toward a sustainable society through its 17,000-plus employees in a global network of 126 companies spanning 60 countries. For more information, visit www.yokogawa.com.

 

How can we reduce adolescent pregnancies in low- and middle-income countries?

New study from the University of Bergen (Norway) and the University of Zambia published Nov. 14, 2024

The University of Bergen

Many young girls in low- and middle-income countries become pregnant early, which can be dangerous for them and for their babies. Studies show that girls who stay in school are less likely to get pregnant at a young age. Financial support can encourage girls to stay in school and delay pregnancy and marriage in some settings. However, a new large study from Zambia found that two years of financial support combined with comprehensive sexuality education and community dialogue meetings, moderately reduced births during the support period, but not after the financial support ended. As a result, the overall effect on births before age 18 was limited over the 4.5 years study period even though more girls completed junior secondary school. Longer-term efforts to make high school more affordable are likely to be important to keep girls in school and more clearly reduce adolescent pregnancies in low- and middle-income countries.

The study, to be published in eClinicalmedicine on 14th November, randomized 157 rural Zambian schools into three groups: one received economic support, another received economic support plus sexuality education and community dialogue, and the third served as a control group. The study included 5000 girls about to finish primary school (average age 14). Researchers from the University of Zambia, University of Bergen, Chr. Michelsen Institute, and the Norwegian School of Economics conducted the trial.

Previous research shows that poverty is a major reason why girls drop out of school and get pregnant early. Other reasons include social pressure to have children, and lack of knowledge about and access to birth control. The limited effects of the studied support package probably reflect that the support period was too short and many families could not afford school fees after the financial support ended. Most participants were around 16 and still at risk of early pregnancy. If the support had continued until they finished secondary school or turned 18, fewer girls may have gotten pregnant before 18. Also, better access to health services and contraceptives for young people is probably needed to reduce teenage pregnancies more effectively.

According to Professor Ingvild Sandøy, at the University of Bergen in Norway, the study is in line with previous research indicating that short-term poverty-reducing measures such as cash transfers should be combined with other initiatives to achieve substantial reductions in teenage pregnancies in low- and middle-income countries. Professor Patrick Musonda from the University of Zambia adds that Zambia’s recent removal of secondary school fees is a good initiative. It will likely keep children in school longer and help prevent many young girls from getting pregnant.

The funding for the study came from the Research Council of Norway, and the Swedish International Development Agency (through the Swedish Embassy in Zambia).

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Journal

Clinical Medicine

DOI

10.1016/j.eclinm.2024.102934 

Method of Research

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

Subject of Research

People

Article Publication Date

14-Nov-2024

 

When sun protection begets malnutrition: vitamin D deficiency in Japanese women

Development of a low-cost, easy-to-use tool for assessing the lack of essential nutrients

Osaka Metropolitan University

 

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ViDDPreS is a low-cost tool for indicating vitamin D deficiency.

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Credit: Osaka Metropolitan University

Vitamin D, an essential nutrient, is naturally produced through sun exposure and certain foods. However, excessive sunburn prevention measures are causing a severe problem of vitamin D deficiency, particularly among young women in Japan.

Since vitamin D deficiency is also related to pregnancy-induced hypertension and low birth weight in children, it is important to quickly identify those at high risk and provide appropriate health guidance. However, the method currently established for measuring serum vitamin D levels is expensive and invasive; therefore, there is a need for the development of simpler risk assessment tools.

Thus, a research group led by Professor Akiko Kuwabara at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Graduate School of Human Life and Ecology conducted a cross-sectional survey of 583 Japanese women aged 18 to 40 who were affiliated with a university specializing in nutrition. The survey items were age, residential area, time of blood collection, current medical history, medication status, smoking status, drinking status, frequency of exercise, sun exposure habits and conditions, frequency of fish intake, and vitamin D supplement use.

The dietary survey was conducted using the self-administered dietary history questionnaire (DHQ), and the average and cumulative ultraviolet irradiation dose for the 30 days prior to blood collection in each region was calculated. As a result, the team was able to develop a non-invasive, low-cost tool for assessing the risk of vitamin D deficiency in young women called ViDDPreS (Vitamin D Deficiency Predicting Scoring).

“The ViDDPreS developed in this study can identify populations in need of intervention at a low cost and estimate the factors of vitamin D deficiency,” stated Professor Kuwabara. “In addition, the use of vitamin D supplements is likely to have a beneficial effect in people deficient in this essential nutrient, so it is hoped that the use of ViDDPreS will lead to the appropriate use of supplements.”

The findings were published in Public Health Nutrition.

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Journal

Public Health Nutrition

DOI

10.1017/S1368980024001708 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Development of a predictive scoring system for vitamin D deficiency ‘Vitamin D Deficiency Predicting Scoring (ViDDPreS)’ based on the vitamin D status in young Japanese women: a nationwide cross-sectional study