Long COVID’s effects on employment: financial distress, fear of judgment

In study, patient perspectives highlight how providers can help

Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Though research has shown that people with long COVID are more likely to be unemployed, the statistics don’t reveal what patients go through before they cut their hours, stop working or lose their jobs.

In a new study involving interviews of people with long COVID, researchers from The Ohio State University describe how the prolonged illness has affected not only patients’ job status, but also their overall well-being.

On top of symptoms including brain fog, fatigue, weakness and headaches, study participants reported lacking enough energy to do anything after work, loss of income and added insurance expenses when employment ended or changed, and emotional distress that comes with managing a misunderstood illness.

“For many individuals we talked to, their lives have been completely changed because of this chronic condition. And that’s really changed how they see themselves, how they experience life, how they interact with their families, how they provide for their families,” said lead author Sarah MacEwan, assistant professor of general internal medicine in Ohio State’s College of Medicine.

“In some cases, incredible financial instability has upended their lives. They’re facing extremely difficult choices and also trying to take care of themselves. It’s so important that we hear from them so we can improve the ways we can support them.”

Awareness of these employment-related challenges may help clinicians provide more holistic care to people with long COVID, researchers say. Examples include connecting patients to financial assistance, referring them to mental health practitioners or expediting requests for workplace accommodations.

The research was published recently in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

MacEwan and colleagues conducted one-on-one interviews in late summer 2022 with 21 adult patients receiving treatment in the post-COVID recovery clinic at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center. Participants reported they had been doing well in daily life before having COVID-19 and were struggling with the effects of lingering symptoms for three or more months after an acute infection. They ranged in age from 19 to 68, three-fourths were women, and most were first infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus in 2020.

Participants reported the illness interfered with both their work responsibilities and efforts to maintain work-life balance.

“Some quit their jobs because they just couldn’t handle working anymore. Some reduced their hours. And then some were involuntarily terminated from their jobs because of their symptoms,” said MacEwan, an investigator in Ohio State’s Center for the Advancement of Team Science, Analytics and Systems Thinking in Health Services and Implementation Science Research.

There were both financial and emotional repercussions. Loss of income followed either being unable to work, changing to a job with lower pay or having to reduce work hours. Those whose insurance status changed often had to spend more on policies that provided less coverage – all in the context of needing more care because they were chronically ill.

Participants also described feelings of loss of identity related to their professional and home lives and fear of judgment and stigma at work and among friends and family. In an earlier paper, the research team noted some patients faced skepticism in health care settings.

“One thing we’ve uncovered through this work is people not being believed by their providers about their symptoms or being brushed off or pushed into other diagnoses that they feel don’t reflect their experience,” MacEwan said. “It’s a real question of whether they are getting what they need from the providers they’re able to reach where they are.”

The current article focused in part on how patients made adjustments to get through the day – developing coping strategies they created or that were recommended by their care team, and accessing employer disability benefits and workplace accommodations.

“Some came up with solutions on their own, but it was wonderful to hear that great suggestions also came from additional specialists or therapists that these individuals were seeing,” MacEwan said.

Respondents reported taking frequent rest breaks, eliminating distractions, making lists, emailing themselves a daily report of completed projects, using visual prompts on whiteboards or talking themselves through tasks. Some patients were encouraged by health care providers to seek short- or long-term disability benefits or workplace accommodations such as remote work and flex time. Many participants said initial support from employers eventually waned.

Long COVID is federally recognized as a potential disability, which provides some employment protection to patients. The study authors noted that clinicians recommending established interventions such as rest and pacing may need to anticipate how such treatment strategies affect employment, financial status and mental health – and be ready to connect patients with resources to address the strains linked to making complex life choices.

“It’s important that we use lived experience to understand the needs of the population and not make assumptions. There are a lot of good ideas already out there, and people with other chronic conditions have solutions for some of these problems,” MacEwan said. “So maybe we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but we certainly need to identify the needs and take steps to fill those gaps.”

This work was supported by a grant from the National Cancer Institute.

Co-authors, all from Ohio State, were Saurabh Rahurkar, Willi Tarver, Leanna Perez Eiterman, Halia Melnyk, Ramona Olvera, Jennifer Eramo, Lauren Teuschler, Alice Gaughan, Laura Rush, Stacy Stanwick, Susan Bowman Burpee, Erin McConnell, Andrew Schamess and Ann Scheck McAlearney.

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Contact: Sarah MacEwan, sarah.macewan@osumc.edu

Written by Emily Caldwell, Caldwell.151@osu.edu; 614-292-8152

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Journal

Journal of General Internal Medicine

DOI

10.1007/s11606-024-09062-5 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The Impact of Long COVID on Employment and Well-Being: A Qualitative Study of Patient Perspectives

In Atlantic City, NJ, pandemic changed police response to mental health needs

Greatest impact related to dispatched calls soon after start of COVID-19

Crime and Justice Research Alliance

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic not only threatened individuals’ physical health but also seriously strained mental health and access to care. A new study analyzed police data from one U.S. city before and after the start of the pandemic to examine whether the frequency of mental health calls for service and police-initiated stops for mental health reasons changed. Police involvement in responding to mental health situations changed slightly after COVID-19 began, with the greatest impact related to dispatched calls in early 2020.

The study, by researchers at Stockton University, is published in Criminal Justice Policy Review.

            “Researchers have amassed evidence of the negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health, with anxiety and depression the most common disorders, and increases in alcohol and recreational drug use,” according to Christine Tartaro, distinguished professor of criminal justice at Stockton University, who led the study. “But while we know that the pandemic changed daily social, work, and leisure routines for many, researchers are still seeking to understand how these adjustments affected components of the criminal justice system.”

Tartaro is an expert whose work is promoted by the NCJA Crime and Justice Research Alliance, which is funded by the National Criminal Justice Association.

            In the early years of COVID-19, the negative effects of the pandemic on mental health were not distributed equally across the population. People from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and with pre-existing mental health challenges and those who lacked access to services reported the most severe problems. In addition, individuals changed how they sought help and organizations limited their face-to-face contact with consumers.

            In this study, researchers sought to determine whether the frequency of police involvement in mental health care changed over the first years of the pandemic. They analyzed more than 2,400 police calls—calls for service and officer-initiated stops that involved mental health—in Atlantic City, NJ, from January 2019 to December 2022. This span represents the period before and after New Jersey’s governor announced stay-at-home orders in mid-March 2020. The study estimated the effect of the pandemic on police involvement in mental health calls using interrupted time-series analysis.

The study found a temporary reduction in dispatched police officers during the first few months of the pandemic, but no long-term trend through 2022. In addition, there was a slight decrease in police-initiated contact for mental health calls after the initiation of COVID-19 restrictions. The study suggests that the pandemic affected how police were involved in providing mental health care, with the greatest impact related to dispatched calls for mental health services in the initial weeks after the COVID-19 outbreak.

The authors suggest that it is unlikely the reduction in dispatched calls early in the pandemic reflected a decline in the need for mental health services. Instead, it was probably the result of a combination of stay-at-home orders that reduced interpersonal contact and a reluctance to call for help during the early days of COVID-19 to avoid hospitals. Reductions in tourism (i.e., fewer people in the city) also likely had an effect.

            Among the study’s limitations, the authors note that because their analysis included only calls labeled exclusively as mental health calls, it likely included just a fraction of total calls the police department received for mental health concerns. In addition, because Atlantic City is a unique location, with a heavy reliance on tourism and a disproportionate amount of homelessness, the findings from this study may not generalize to other jurisdictions.

            “Although research suggests that police limited their proactive enforcement in the early days of the pandemic, our study found that police-initiated contact with people with mental illness in Atlantic City did not change substantially from January 2019 through 2022,” notes Ruibin Lu, associate professor of criminal justice at Stockton University, who coauthored the study. “Future studies might assess why this occurred.”

The research was supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Justice and Mental Health Collaboration Program: Embedding Clinicians in Law Enforcement Agencies.

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Journal

Criminal Justice Policy Review

DOI

10.1177/08874034241303024 

Article Title

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Police Involvement in Mental Health Calls for Service

 

Mcity unveils digital twin, making its physical AV testing facility available for free in the virtual world

First open-source 3D digital twin for mobility systems testing could help speed autonomous and connected vehicle research

University of Michigan

Images of Mcity test track and digital twin

 

The first open-source digital twin of the Mcity Test Facility—the University of Michigan's test center for connected and autonomous vehicles and technologies—is now available to the public, giving researchers around the world a new free tool.

A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical environment that also exchanges data with that environment, enabling simulation and testing. The new Mcity digital twin, developed with support from the National Science Foundation, is the first open-source digital twin for mobility systems testing, including autonomous driving. It provides a faster, safer, less expensive way to test autonomous and connected vehicle software.

Researchers anywhere can use the facility's features—with a variety of road materials, markings, signals and intersections—to test their autonomous algorithms without having to make the trip to Ann Arbor.

"This takes our almost 10-year-old track and puts the digital replica directly over it," said Greg Stevens, Mcity's director of research. "That's a living, breathing manifestation of that physical track where people can do mixed reality testing and development."

The digital twin works with TeraSim, an open-source traffic simulator developed by Mcity researchers. It introduces other road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers, and generates safety-critical events like potential collisions. Using traffic behavioral models calibrated with real-world data, it simulates both normal and high-risk driving scenarios. 

Mobility officials have touted AVs, along with connected vehicles and infrastructure, as a path to safer, more efficient and equitable transportation. Still, a great deal of research remains ahead before the technologies will produce everyday benefits for a large portion of the population. Testing in the real world takes time and money and creates a host of safety issues, but virtual testing can enable control software to demonstrate a high level of safety ahead of that stage.

"You can drive millions of miles in your AV in a digital twin built off of a real-world environment before your AV actually touches the real world," said Darian Hogue, an Mcity software engineer who helped develop the digital twin. "With this, we can control all kinds of factors. That includes controlling and manipulating simulated pedestrian traffic—a factor that is random in the real world. This focuses and accelerates simulated testing."

Opened in 2015, the Mcity Test Facility is the world's first purpose-built proving ground for connected and automated vehicles. Its physical features include: 

• A simulated downtown area with urban streets.
• A 1,000-foot straightaway, plus access ramps, a curve and a traffic circle.
• Multiple road surfaces with a variety of road markings and crossing types.
• Traffic signals and traffic signs.
• Bridge deck, underpass, guardrails, barriers and crash attenuators.
• House and garage exterior with accessibility ramp for first-mile/last-mile testing, deliveries and ride hailing.

Mcity is continuously adding new features, and officials have worked to make the facility and its technologies available to a larger group of researchers. In 2022, a $5.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation funded development of Mcity's digital infrastructure, enabling remote use of the Mcity Test Facility—dubbed Mcity 2.0. The 2022 grant also funded creation of the Mcity digital twin.

Mcity officially launched its remote use capabilities in October. Researchers operating from their home bases can test their autonomous algorithms in virtual and mixed reality environments by connecting to Mcity's cloud-based digital infrastructure. Using 5G wireless communications, they can control physical vehicles and traffic signals on Mcity's test streets and receive real-time data in return—all while protecting proprietary information.

"What differentiates the Mcity digital twin is that it supports virtual testing, while remote use involves testing a physical vehicle at our physical test track from a remote location," said Mcity Director Henry Liu, professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Bruce D. Greenshields Collegiate Professor. 

"As an open-source tool, the Mcity digital twin lowers barriers to use of the test facility by technology developers and researchers. The digital twin could also help developers better prepare for on-site testing at Mcity." 

 

Written by Jim Lynch, U-M College of Engineering

 

Detailed bedbug genome analysis may improve pesticides

UT Arlington study sequencing the pest’s genome may help prevent outbreaks

University of Texas at Arlington

 

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“This new high-quality reference genome provides a valuable resource for enhancing scientific investigations into this medically and economically resurging pest,” said author Todd Castoe, professor of biology at UTA.

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Credit: Courtesy UT Arlington

Bedbugs. Just mentioning the tiny, biting insects that live on human blood and infest mattresses, couches, and bedding strikes fear into most people. In addition to the anxiety, itching, and rashes an outbreak can cause, bedbugs can be difficult to identify and expensive to treat.

Thanks to a new University of Texas at Arlington study published in the Journal of Heredity, scientists now have a better genetic understanding of the insect. The research offers an updated genome analysis of the common bedbug Cimex lectularius, providing new insight for those working to prevent bedbug infestation, develop remediation strategies and track pesticide resistance.

“This new high-quality reference genome provides a valuable resource for enhancing scientific investigations into this medically and economically resurging pest,” said author Todd Castoe, professor of biology at UTA.

“We now have an important additional tool for studying patterns of human-associated evolution and adaption for this insect that has wreaked havoc on human populations since the beginning of civilization,” added co-author Yannick Francioli, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Castoe’s lab.

Although bedbugs have been mentioned in the written record for more than 3,000 years, the pest rose to prominence 1940s, when infestations plagued military bases during World War II. With the introduction of the powerful pesticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane), the insect was thought to be eradicated in many industrialized nations.

In the 1990s, a combination of the elimination of DDT use due to health concerns, increased pesticide resistance among insects, and increased international travel helped fuel a resurgence of bedbug infestations. Bedbug outbreaks around the world now routinely make news headlines, such as the infestation in Paris hotels before the summer 2024 Olympic Games.

To better understand the genetics of the bedbug, Castoe and Francioli, along with researchers from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, the University of Arkansas, the Dana-Farber Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, and the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, obtained a sample specimen of the insect and flash froze it to allow its DNA to be extracted. 

From that extraction, the team was able to create a chromosome-level reference genome for the insect using PacBio long-read and Omni-C proximity genetic sequencing tools. This approach, combined with sampling additional male and female individuals, allowed the team to map a contiguous bedbug genome with 15 chromosomes (13 autosomes and two sex chromosomes: X1 and X2), providing a comprehensive genetic map that enhances our understanding of the pest’s biology, evolution and insecticide resistance.

Specifically, the identification of the sex chromosomes will help researchers understand the genetic basis of sex determination in bedbugs. This can be particularly useful for developing targeted pest control strategies that exploit sex-specific traits.

“The creation of a chromosome-level reference genome gives us a new and highly accurate contiguous map of the bedbug's genetic material,” said Castoe. “This new foundational resource will allow researchers to further understand the genetic basis of traits for the insect that cause issues such as insecticide resistance, which is crucial for developing more effective pest control strategies.”

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (DEB-1754394), startup funds from the University of Tulsa and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and the Joseph R. and Mary W. Wilson Urban Entomology Endowment. Additional funding came from a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DEB-1401747).

About The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA)

Located in the heart of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive teaching, research, and public service institution dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through scholarship and creative work. With an enrollment of approximately 41,000 students, UT Arlington is the second-largest institution in the UT System. UTA’s combination of outstanding academics and innovative research contributes to its designation as a Carnegie R-1 “Very High Research Activity” institution, a significant milestone of excellence. The University is designated as a Hispanic Serving-Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education and has earned the Seal of Excelencia for its commitment to accelerating Latino student success. The University ranks in the top five nationally for veterans and their families (Military Times, 2024), is No. 4 in Texas for advancing social mobility (U.S. News & World Report, 2025), and is No. 6 in the United States for its undergraduate ethnic diversity (U.S. News & World Report, 2025). UT Arlington’s approximately 270,000 alumni occupy leadership positions at many of the 21 Fortune 500 companies headquartered in North Texas and contribute to the University’s $28.8 billion annual economic impact on Texas.

Bedbugs. Just mentioning the tiny, biting insects that live on human blood and infest mattresses, couches, and bedding strikes fear into most people. In addition to the anxiety, itching, and rashes an outbreak can cause, bedbugs can be difficult to identify and expensive to treat.

Credit

Photo courtesy UT Arlington

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Journal

Journal of Heredity

DOI

10.1093/jhered/esae071 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

Cells

Article Title

A chromosome-level reference genome for the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, with identification of sex chromosomes

 

Shrubs can help or hinder a forest’s recovery after wildfire

Timing of tree replanting is key to its success

University of California - Davis

 

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A young pine tree grows among shrubs in a wildfire restoration research plot in the Sierra Nevada.

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Credit: Andrew Latimer, UC Davis

Research from the University of California, Davis, is shedding light on when and where to plant tree seedlings to help restore forests after high-severity wildfires, and it has a lot to do with shrubs. 

In hotter, drier areas where natural regeneration is weaker, well-timed tree planting can boost recovery by up to 200%, but the outcome also depends on competition with shrubs, a paper in the journal Forest Ecology and Management concludes.

“Generally, where there are more shrubs, the climate and soil are more hospitable for plant growth,” lead author and assistant professional researcher Derek Young said. “But what that also means is there’s more competition for trees.”

In areas where a lot of shrubs are present, it’s best to plant seedlings within a year of a wildfire to avoid competition from these woody plants. In areas with fewer shrubs, planting three years after a fire would be more effective because some of these woody plants would have grown back but not so many to consume available nutrients and water. 

“Some vegetation in those really harsh sites might actually facilitate tree establishment by providing shade,” Young said.

Data-based findings

Understanding how to foster recovery is critical to restoration efforts as climate change intensifies the frequency and severity of forest fires. Land managers also must use data to help direct limited resources, said Andrew Latimer, senior author on the paper and a professor in the Department of Plant Sciences. 

“We’re aiming to help optimize tree planting by targeting it to where it’s really needed,” Latimer said. “Doing this matters because we’re facing a reforestation backlog – limited capacity to replant and a lot of severely burned area.”

Look at past events

Researchers surveyed areas in the Sierra Nevada that were representative of a mix of climates and management strategies in California and had been replanted with conifer tree seedlings one to three years after intense wildfires. In each of the five 400-square-meter circular plots, which included replanted and nonplanted areas, the team counted seedlings, shrub cover and other environmental details. 

This allowed researchers to gauge how replanting affects the composition of forests and map out the best strategies across wide swaths of land that would be challenging to survey on foot. 

“I think the real benefit is being able to make those predictions across a huge landscape,” Young said. “Now we have quantified the effects of certain environmental variables that allow us to make those maps.”

Latimer is experimenting to see how removing shrubs two years after a fire affects tree regeneration. Young will soon use aerial imagery and drones at wildfire sites to determine how management actions affected forests in the 40 years since the trees burned. 

Quinn Sorenson, who was in Department of Plant Sciences at the time of the analysis also contributed to the research, which was funded by the Joint Fire Science Program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Hatch Project. 

Surveying forest after fire 

Forestry researchers survey a study plot during fieldwork in the Plumas National Forest.

UC Davis researcher Kevin Welch documents shrub and pine growth at a field site in California's Plumas National Forest.

Credit

Andrew Latimer, UC Davis

Journal

Forest Ecology and Management

DOI

10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122346 

Method of Research

Observational study

Article Title

Tree planting outcomes after severe wildfire depend on climate, competition, and priority

 

Electric vehicle transition could create unwanted air pollution hotspots in China and India

Princeton University, Engineering School

 

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Photo illustration by Bumper DeJesus, Princeton University.

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Credit: Bumper DeJesus, Princeton University

While electric vehicles have become a cornerstone of the global energy transition, new research led by Princeton University has demonstrated that refining the critical minerals needed for electric vehicle batteries could create pollution hotspots near manufacturing hubs.

Focusing on China and India, the researchers found that national sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions could increase by up to 20% over current levels if the countries were to fully domesticize their supply chains for electric vehicles. The overwhelming majority of those SO­2 emissions would come from refining and manufacturing nickel and cobalt — important minerals for today’s electric vehicle batteries.

“Many discussions about electric vehicles focus on minimizing emissions from the transport and power sectors,” said corresponding author Wei Peng, an assistant professor of public and international affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. “But we show here that the impacts of electric vehicles don’t end with vehicle tail-pipe emissions or electricity. It’s also about your entire supply chain.”

Publishing their findings in Environmental Science & Technology, the researchers argued that countries must think strategically about building clean supply chains as they develop decarbonization plans.

 In the case of battery manufacturing, the team underscored the importance of developing and enforcing strict air pollution standards to avoid unintended consequences of the transition to electric vehicles. They also suggested the development of alternative battery chemistries to avoid the process-based SO2 emissions of manufacturing today’s batteries.

“If you dig deep enough into any clean energy technology, you will find there are challenges or tradeoffs,” said first author Anjali Sharma, who completed the work as a postdoctoral researcher in Peng’s group and is now an assistant professor in the Centre for Climate Studies and Ashank Desai Centre for Policy Studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. “The existence of these tradeoffs doesn’t mean that we stop the energy transition, but it does mean that we need to act proactively to mitigate these tradeoffs as much as possible.”

A tale of two countries

Both China and India have good reasons to avoid SO2 emissions: the compound is a precursor to fine particulate matter, contributing to a host of cardiovascular and respiratory problems. The two countries already suffer from high levels of air pollution. In 2019 alone, around 1.4 million premature deaths in China and around 1.7 million premature deaths in India were attributable to fine particulate matter exposure.

However, the two countries are at different stages of development for electric vehicles. Peng said that in China, a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles is the status quo, but that India is still in the early stages of supply chain development. The comparison helped the researchers identify near-term priorities as they continue or begin to build a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles.

“China needs to be thinking about how to clean up a supply chain that already exists, while India has the opportunity to build a better supply chain from the ground up,” said Peng, who is also a core faculty at the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment. “Both situations come with their own challenges and opportunities.”

In India, the lowest-hanging fruit would be to focus first on cleaning up pollution from the power sector. This would require enforcing stringent SO2 pollution control measures for thermal power plants, using mature technologies like flue-gas desulfurization. For China, which already has stringent emissions controls for the power sector, the focus needs to shift to mitigating SO2 emissions from the battery manufacturing process, which the researchers said is less familiar.

However, the researchers underscored that ignoring emissions from battery manufacturing would be a critical misstep. In scenarios where China and India fully onshored their supply chains, prioritizing a cleaner grid did little to nothing to lower SO2 emissions. Instead, only scenarios focused on cleaning up battery manufacturing processes avoided SO2 pollution hotspots.

“People generally assume the transition to a greener technology is always going to be a win-win — there will be climate and air quality benefits,” said Sharma. “But without considering manufacturing, you might lower carbon and nitrogen oxide emissions but end up increasing the air pollution burden for communities near manufacturing centers.”

Human-centered approaches to decarbonization

While the analysis focused on China and India, the researchers argued that if left unaddressed, pollution from battery manufacturing will become an increasingly global challenge as electric vehicle adoption rates rise. Even if countries like China and India were to outsource battery manufacturing, Sharma said that without strategies to mitigate SO2 emissions, they would simply be offloading the problem to another country.

“It’s important to look at electric vehicles from a global supply chain perspective,” Sharma said. “Even if India were to decide against building a domestic supply chain and instead chose to import them from somewhere else, the pollution wouldn’t go away. It would just be outsourced to another country.”

In addition to their policy recommendation for proactive air pollution standards, which would likely happen at the national or subnational level, the researchers also examined how changing the battery chemistry in electric vehicles could avoid unwanted SO2 emissions at a more global scale.

While most electric vehicle batteries today rely on cobalt and nickel, the rise of alternative chemistries that use iron and phosphate (so-called lithium iron phosphate batteries) could circumvent some of the concerns associated with mining and refining cobalt and nickel. By avoiding the two minerals, scenarios with high penetration of lithium phosphate batteries resulted in far fewer SO2 emissions from manufacturing.

In all events, Peng said the findings serve as a reminder to keep people at the top of mind when designing decarbonization plans, as even the most promising technologies could come with unwanted and unintended consequences.

“We know about many of the important technologies for cutting carbon emissions,” said Peng. “But the other part is how people will be affected by those technologies. My approach is to think about the best ways for technologies and people to intersect, because those strategies will have the best outcomes for the greatest number of people.”

The paper, “Multisectoral Emission Impacts of Electric Vehicle Transition in China and India,” was published October 25 in Environmental Science & Technology. In addition to Peng and Sharma, authors include Johannes Urpelainen of Johns Hopkins University, Hancheng Dai of Peking University, and Pallav Purohit and Fabian Wagner of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The work was supported by the Wellcome Trust Climate Change and Health Award, as well as Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs.

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Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.4c02694 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Multisectoral Emission Impacts of Electric Vehicle Transition in China and India

 

Threat of abrupt mortality events keeps endangered monkey population at risk, despite decades of growth

University of Wisconsin-Madison

 

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Karen Strier has been studying this population of northern muriquis for over 40 years.

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Credit: Photo by Joao Marcos Rosa

Despite the population being almost four times larger than it was in 1982, a new study published in the journal Ecology suggests the northern muriqui monkeys remain at risk, especially in the face of ongoing habitat disturbances.

Northern muriquis, which live in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, are much more peaceful and egalitarian compared to other primates. They are also one of the most endangered species of monkey in the world.

Karen Strier, a professor of anthropology at UW–Madison and lead author of the paper, has spent 40 years studying the behavior and ecology of these monkeys in a small, preserved portion of Brazilian forest. She teamed up with Anthony Ives, a professor of ecology and evolution at UW–Madison, who is well versed in modeling demographic changes over time.

 “My goal is simply to put into statistics what Karen already knows,” Ives says. “She knows her data so well, and long-term studies with this level of detail for an endangered species are very rare.”

Strier and her team of Brazilian colleagues not only count the number of animals but also track their unique behavior, birth rates, death rates and relationships with one another. They know these animals as individuals, not just data points.

While the species and the land they live on is protected by Brazilian law, the muriquis’ mortality rate rose suddenly in 2016 and has not fallen since. Strier and Ives have found that the animals are still reproducing at a steady rate, pointing to other causes for the population decline.

“Our data imply that there may be some environmental stressors in the habitat such as a decline in forest productivity, which affects food availability, climate stress or predation causing the elevated mortality,” Strier explains.

The study also confirms the benefit of long-term, detailed studies such as this. By 2015, this population of muriquis had grown to a remarkable 356 animals, compared to the roughly 50 animals it consisted of when Strier had begun her data collection in 1982. Ives used data from the first 33 years of Strier’s study to create a model of what the population should look like over the next several decades under the conditions of 2015. It predicted the population would continue to rise exponentially until it reached a carrying capacity of about 500 animals, hovering around that size for the next few decades.

What that model couldn’t predict though, was the two years of drought that began in 2014 or the bout of yellow fever that swept through the population in 2016.

“If you just had data up to 2015, you’d say the population is great!” Ives explains. But luckily, Strier and her team continued to collect data beyond the drought and the yellow fever epidemic, making it possible to document the ongoing impact of habitat changes.

When Ives modeled the population changes, accounting for this dramatic decrease from 2016 to 2022, he found the population’s predicted carrying capacity to be only about 200 animals. And that’s assuming there won’t be another abrupt change to mortality like the one that started in 2016.

With predation and habitat change pinpointed as possible limiting factors for this muriqui population, conservationists are getting a clearer idea of where and how action may need to be taken.

“As almost all previous work from Karen, this will open a new window to understand and improve the design of our [conservation] strategies,” says Leandro Jerusalinsky, the head of the National Center for Research and Conservation of Brazilian Primates, part of the Ministry of Environment in Brazil.

Strier’s data can also be used alongside different models to predict how other populations of muriquis may react to changes in climate and future diseases. Those challenges grow increasingly more likely as climate models predict a warmer, drier world, resulting in increased environmental stress and food scarcity for muriquis and other primates.

Jerusalinsky hopes the data will help them understand what conditions these populations need to survive in the face of a changing world. Eventually it could inform conservation policies that might improve habitat quality management or create habitat corridors between isolated populations of the muriquis.

“Having a person like Karen developing this long-term research and providing these high-quality results is incredible,” Jerusalinsky says. “Even in the desperation we have facing this situation of (the muriquis), this gives us a lot of hope in effectively designing the best strategies possible to try to save this species.”

 

---Elise Mahon, etmahon@wisc.edu

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Journal

Ecology

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

 

University Hospitals is the first health system in northeast Ohio utilizing Da Vinci 5 Surgical Robot

Newest version provides technological advancements for both surgeons and patients

University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center

 

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University Hospitals is the first health system in Northeast Ohio utilizing the Da Vinci 5 for robotic-assisted surgeries. With substantial improvements over previous models to provide a better experience for surgeons, caregivers and patients, this latest technology represents an evolution in robotic-assisted surgery.

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Credit: University Hospitals

University Hospitals is the first health system in Northeast Ohio utilizing the Da Vinci 5 for robotic-assisted surgeries. With substantial improvements over previous models to provide a better experience for surgeons, caregivers and patients, this latest technology represents an evolution in robotic-assisted surgery. Approximately 26 trained surgeons at UH Cleveland Medical Center will be using this robot for a large variety of cases, including esophagectomies and gastric bypasses.

“The adoption of the DV5 is not just about technology – it reflects UH’s strategic investment in the future of robotics,” explained thoracic surgeon Christopher Towe, MD, the Charles A. Hubay, MD, Chair in Surgery, who performed the first case with the DV5 in November. “This aligns seamlessly with our mission to heal, to teach and to discover, reinforcing our dedication to providing the highest-quality care for our patients while staying at the forefront of medical innovation. By integrating systems like the DV5, we are ensuring that UH remains a leader in both patient outcomes and surgical education.”

The first case was a hiatal hernia repair, and the second case was a resection of a mass in the thymus glad. Both procedures were successful and the patients were able to go home within a day due to the minimally invasive aspect of the DV5.

The DV5’s improvements resulted from a decade of research and more than 14 million procedures performed on earlier models of the da Vinci robot, of which UH Cleveland Medical Center has six. UH currently has eight additional models of da Vinci robots throughout the health system at community hospital locations across Northeast Ohio, with another expected to be added soon.

Benefits of the new DV5 robot include:

• Telepresence – Allows live-streaming of surgical procedures in real-time, enabling education, training, and collaboration with colleagues across the globe.
• Compact design – A smaller footprint so it can be used in various types of operating rooms, even those not originally designed for robotics.
• Enhancements in controls – Improved visualization and haptic feedback, a technology that simulates touch, for more precise minimally invasive procedures.
• Improved ergonomics – A redesigned surgeon console offers customizable positioning to accommodate a wide range of body types and provide more comfort during lengthy procedures.

The new technology benefits more than just surgeons in the operating room. From a nursing perspective, the compact tower of the DV5 also reduces the amount of movement around the room for the circulating nurse. This robot integrates multiple functions, including integrated laparoscopic equipment, into one tower rather than multiple units in the room, taking up less space and enhancing efficiency. Circulators can control the energy for cautery that helps with hemostasis during cases, as well as insufflation -- gas needed to expand the operative space during procedures. 

“This console is more ergonomically satisfying for the surgeons, and the tower enhances efficiency for the circulators,” said UH Cleveland Medical Center Robot Coordinator, Larisa Rebello, RN, BSN. “We can change those settings immediately for the surgeons, and the surgeon can adjust settings easily on their own. It’s the small, but critical, details that make operating a better experience for all. We’re excited to have this new technology and be the first in Northeast Ohio.”

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About University Hospitals / Cleveland, Ohio
Founded in 1866, University Hospitals serves the needs of patients through an integrated network of more than 20 hospitals (including five joint ventures), more than 50 health centers and outpatient facilities, and over 200 physician offices in 16 counties throughout northern Ohio. The system’s flagship quaternary care, academic medical center, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, is affiliated with Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Northeast Ohio Medical University, Oxford University, Taiwan National University College of Medicine and the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. The main campus also includes the UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, ranked among the top children’s hospitals in the nation; UH MacDonald Women's Hospital, Ohio's only hospital for women; and UH Seidman Cancer Center, part of the NCI-designated Case Comprehensive Cancer Center. UH is home to some of the most prestigious clinical and research programs in the nation, with more than 3,000 active clinical trials and research studies underway. UH Cleveland Medical Center is perennially among the highest performers in national ranking surveys, including “America’s Best Hospitals” from U.S. News & World Report. UH is also home to 19 Clinical Care Delivery and Research Institutes. UH is one of the largest employers in Northeast Ohio with more than 30,000 employees. Follow UH on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. For more information, visit UHhospitals.org.