Monday, April 27, 2020

Students often do not question online information

CORA study examines students' ability to critically assess information from the Internet and from social media

JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITAET MAIN Z

The Internet and social media are among the most frequently used sources of information today. Students, too, often prefer online information rather than traditional teaching materials provided by universities. According to a study conducted by Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and Goethe University Frankfurt, students struggle to critically assess information from the Internet and are often influenced by unreliable sources. In this study, students from various disciplines such as medicine and economics took part in an online test, the Critical Online Reasoning Assessment (CORA). "Unfortunately, it is becoming evident that a large proportion of students are tempted to use irrelevant and unreliable information from the Internet when solving the CORA tasks," reported Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia from JGU. The study was carried out as part of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) alliance.

Critical evaluation of online information and online sources are particularly important today

Learning using the Internet offers many opportunities, but it also entails risks. It has become evident that not only "fake news" but also "fake science" with scientifically incorrect information is being spread on the Internet. This problem becomes particularly apparent in the context of controversially discussed social issues such as the current corona crisis, but it actually goes much deeper. "Having a critical attitude alone is not enough. Instead, Internet users need skills that enable them to distinguish reliable from incorrect and manipulative information. It is therefore particularly important for students to question and critically examine online information so they can build their own knowledge and expertise on reliable information," stated Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia.

To investigate how students deal with online information, Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia and her team have developed a new test based on the Civic Online Reasoning (COR) assessment developed by Stanford University. During the assessment, the test takers are presented with short tasks. They are asked to freely browse the Internet, focusing on relevant and reliable information that will help them to solve the tasks within the relatively short time frame of ten minutes, and to justify their solutions using arguments from the online information they used.

CORA testing requires complex and extensive analysis

The analysis of the results is based on the participants' responses to the tasks. In addition, their web search activity while solving the tasks is recorded to examine their strengths and weaknesses in dealing with online information in more detail. "We can see which websites the students accessed during their research and which information they used. Analyzing the entire process requires complex analyses and is very time-consuming," said Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia. The assessments have so far been carried out in two German federal states. To date, 160 students from different disciplines have been assessed; the majority of the participants studied medicine or economics and were in their first or second semester.

Critical online reasoning skills should be specifically promoted in higher education

The results are striking: almost all test participants had difficulties solving the tasks. On a scale of 0 to 2 points per task, the students scored only 0.75 points on average, with the results ranging from 0.50 to 1.38 points. "The majority of the students did not use any scientific sources at all," said Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia, pointing out that no domain-specific knowledge was required to solve the CORA tasks. "We are always testing new groups of students, and the assessment has also been continued as a longitudinal study. Since we first started conducting these assessments two years ago, the results are always similar: the students tend to achieve low scores". However, students in higher semesters perform slightly better than students in their first year of study. Critical online reasoning skills could therefore be promoted during the course of studies. In the United States, a significant increase in these kinds of skills was observed only a few weeks after implementing newly developed training approaches.

The study shows that most students do not succeed in correctly evaluating online sources in the given time and in using relevant information from reliable sources on the Internet to solve the tasks. "As we know from other studies, students are certainly able to adequately judge the reliability of well-known media portals and Internet sources. We could build on this fact and foster the skills required to critically evaluate new sources and online information and to use the Internet in a reflected manner to generate warranted knowledge," concluded Professor Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia.

In research on this topic, skills related to critically dealing with online information and digital sources are regarded as an essential prerequisite for learning in the 21st century. However, there are still very few training approaches and assessments available for students to foster these skills, especially online. "The RMU study is still in the early stages of development. We have only just developed the first test of this kind in Germany," Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia pointed out. "We are currently in the process of developing teaching/learning materials and training courses and of testing their effectiveness. The analysis of the processing will be particularly useful when it comes to offering students targeted support in the future.

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The Rhine-Main Universities (RMU)

As outstanding research universities in the Rhine-Main area, Goethe University Frankfurt, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, and Technische Universität Darmstadt have joined together to form the strategic Rhine-Main Universities alliance. The universities have worked in close cooperation with each other for more than ten years, signing a framework agreement to form a strategic alliance in 2015.

The Rhine-Main Universities are situated in close vicinity to one another in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main metropolitan region and offer a wide range of disciplines from medicine and the natural sciences to the humanities and social science through to engineering. With more than 100,000 students and 1,460 professors, the Rhine-Main Universities collaborate closely in research, learning and teaching, the promotion of young researchers, and the transfer and exchange with business and society.

Arduous farm labor in the past means longer working hours today

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS USA

A new study in The Economic Journal finds that societies with a history of farming crops heavily reliant on labor effort prefer harder work and longer hours.

Researchers used data from the European Social Survey, conducted every two years, from 2002 to 2014. The survey records individual-level information on a number of background characteristics, social attitudes, and human values. Researchers focused predominantly on three measures of work effort: the total number of hours respondents report normally working per week in their main jobs, their desired weekly work hours, and the difference between actual and contracted weekly work hours.

The study shows that differences in measures of work effort across European regions can be explained by variation in those regions' suitability for labor intensive crops. Researchers measured varying labor intensity in the production of different crops, in conditions of traditional agriculture. Using information from studies of the US Department of Agriculture and a Prussian agricultural census, researchers estimated the marginal returns to labor in the production of different crops, finding high labor returns for potatoes, and low returns for cereal crops like oats, barley and wheat. European regions with a higher suitability for crops reliant on labor effort, consistently scored higher in terms of hours worked.

Researchers additionally studied how preferences for hard work come to persist in a society over time. They found that significant aspects of work ethic are transmitted from parents to children, leading to more prominent results in native-born respondents of native-born parents. They also found that the work ethic is stronger in societies that have been reliant on agriculture for longer. High work ethic is correlated with lower preferences for redistribution, suggesting a feedback between culture and institutions that perpetuates cultural preferences.

Ultimately researchers concluded that labor effort with high marginal returns in agricultural production provides an incentive for investment in a preference for work. Other things equal, societies that cultivate crops more dependent on labor effort work more hours. Preferences for longer working hours, and more effort put in during those hours, can then persist through cultural transmission and institutional feedback mechanisms, even after societies have transitioned away from agriculture.

"The laborious nature of rice cultivation has been theorized to have an impact on the work ethic of those societies that have historically depended on it", says author Vasiliki Fouka. "This research shows systematically that this is true for a variety of crops, across the regions of Europe. In areas where hard work paid off, our ancestors engraved a work ethic in our culture that survives until today."

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The paper "Agricultural Returns to Labour and the Origins of Work ethics" by Vasiliki Fouka and Alain Schläpfer is available at: https://academic.oup.com/ej/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ej/ueaa029/5819417

Study estimates revenue produced by top college football players

Researchers find big differences between top players and others

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

COLUMBUS, Ohio

The most elite players in college football increase revenue for their school football programs by an average of $650,000 a year, a first-of-its-kind study suggests.

This is the money brought in by the highest-rated recruits coming out of high school - those given five stars by Rivals, a recruiting news service, according to researchers at The Ohio State University.

Four-star recruits generated about $350,000 a year and three-star recruits increased revenue by about $150,000, while two-star recruits actually reduced revenue by about $13,000 a year for college football programs, the study found.

Amid the continuing national debate about compensation for college athletes, this study offers the first solid numbers on the financial impact of players in the highest-revenue college sport, said Trevon Logan, co-author of the study and professor of economics at Ohio State.

"There have been a lot of numbers put out there about how much college athletes should get under various compensation proposals," Logan said.

"But it's hard to do that when you don't know how players affect the bottom line. That's what we're trying to do here."

Logan conducted the study with Stephen Bergman, a former undergraduate student at Ohio State. The study has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Sports Economics.

For the study, the researchers collected a unique dataset from the federal Office of Postsecondary Education that included annual football-specific revenue and expenses from 2002 to 2012 for all college football bowl subdivision (FBS) schools - the top level in the sport.

To evaluate the quality of football players, the researchers used the high-school rankings of the players from Rivals. Using these rankings are the best way to rate college players for several reasons, Logan said.

One of the most important is that the service rates both defensive and offensive players the same way. Without access to this type of ranking, it would be nearly impossible for researchers to develop their own method to rate the impact of a defensive player's impact on the field on a similar scale to an offensive player, he said.

The researchers then calculated the effect of recruit quality on team performance, including wins and college bowl appearances. They then estimated the effects of team performance on total revenue.

The calculations were completed just before the current college football playoff system was introduced in 2014.

Results showed that five-star recruits had no statistically significant effect on the likelihood of their team getting to a bowl game. This was probably because teams didn't need the best players to get to just any bowl, Logan said.

But a five-star recruit increased the probability of appearing in a Bowl Championship Series (BCS) game - the elite bowls that helped determine a national championship - by more than 4 percent if they played for one of the top schools.

"The best recruits had a significant impact on team performance and their ability to appear in the most lucrative postseason bowls," Logan said.

The study estimated that $650,000 was generated by five-star recruits because of the wins, bowl appearances, BCS bowl appearances and premier bowls that they helped their schools achieve - all of which bring additional revenue to their schools.

For some analyses, the researchers controlled for the fact that football powerhouses like Alabama or Ohio State tend to attract more of the highest-rated players than other schools.

That means that the revenue value of any individual elite player at a top school wouldn't be as high as it would be at other schools.

But the value would still be high, Logan said. When the school effects were taken into account, each five-star recruit still increased revenue by nearly $200,000 a year, while four-star recruits were responsible for nearly $90,000 a year.

The conferences that schools participated in also affected revenue, because many conferences share money earned with all their members, regardless of performance. The researchers also took this into account in their analyses.

Logan said it isn't possible to come up with clear compensation policy recommendations based just on the results of this paper.

One important issue is that the revenue from football supports many other college sports that don't make money, he said.

"If you pay players, especially based on how much they generate, you will also have to reduce the number of other sports available," Logan said.

"What our study can do is bring some hard data to the discussions about compensation."

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Can coral reefs 'have it all'?

ARC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR CORAL REEF STUDIES

A BLACKTIP REEF SHARK (CARCHARHINUS MELANOPTERUS ) SWIMS IN THE SHALLOWS IN THE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS, INDIAN OCEAN. view more
CREDIT: TANE SINCLAIR-TAYLOR

Though coral reefs are in sharp decline across the world, scientists say some reefs can still thrive with plentiful fish stocks, high fish biodiversity, and well-preserved ecosystem functions.

An international team, led by Professor Josh Cinner from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University (Coral CoE at JCU), assessed around 1,800 tropical reefs from 41 countries across the globe.

"Only five percent of the reefs were simultaneously able to meet the combined goals of providing enough fishing stocks, maintaining biodiversity and a working ecosystem," Prof Cinner said.

"These are like the Hollywood A-listers of coral reefs. They have it all, but they're also rare and live in exclusive areas--remote locations with little human pressure. Our study shows how to help other coral reefs get on that A-list."

The research team assessed if no-fishing marine reserves and other fisheries restrictions helped reefs to meet multiple goals. The study found that implementing such local efforts helped, "but only if the management efforts are in the right locations," Prof Cinner said.

"It's all about location, location, location," he said. "Marine reserves placed in areas with low human pressures had the best results for helping reefs get on the A-list."

"We also had a B-list of reefs, which met all the goals, but to a lesser degree. Reserves in areas with intermediate human pressure made the biggest difference to getting reefs on our B-list. Quite simply, they occurred in less exclusive locations than our A-listers."

However, marine reserves made little difference in areas where the environment was so severely degraded that only wider seascape conservation could help.

Co-author Jessica Zamborain-Mason, a Coral CoE and JCU PhD candidate, says coral reefs worldwide are facing intense degradation due to numerous anthropogenic drivers, such as overfishing, pollution, and climate change.

"There is an increasing need to manage coral reefs to meet multiple goals simultaneously," she said.

"Our findings provide guidance on where to strategically place local management to achieve the greatest benefits."

Co-author Professor Nick Graham from Lancaster University says the study uses data to show what works.

"Coral reef science and management is often focussed on meeting just a single goal," Prof Graham said.

"Managing for just one goal at a time is common, but what if you want it all? The multiple goals of biodiversity, fisheries and functioning ecosystems are often required at any given location, yet the science to understand when and how this can be achieved has been lacking."

"We looked at the fish communities, not the coral communities, and these are affected by different drivers--overfishing really drives the former and climate change the latter."

"The study not only has important implications for the placement of new marine reserves, but is also relevant to future socioeconomic changes, such as how infrastructure development and population growth may impact the efficacy of reef conservation," Prof Cinner said.

"We show where managers will be able to maximise multiple goals, and likewise, where they will be wasting their time."

The study concludes that, while international action on climate change is crucial for ensuring a future for coral-dominated reefs, effective management is also critical to sustaining reefs--and the millions of people whose livelihoods depend on them.

PAPER

Cinner J, Zamborain-Mason J, Gurney G, Graham N, MacNeil A, Hoey A, Mora C, Villéger S, Maire E, McClanahan T, Maina J, Kittinger J, Hicks C, D'agata S, Huchery C, Barnes M, Feary D, Williams I, Kulbicki M, Vigliola L, Wantiez L, Edgar G, Stuart-Smith R, Sandin S, Green A, Beger M, Friedlander A, Wilson S, Brokovich E, Brooks A, Cruz-Motta J, Booth D, Chabanet P, Tupper M, Ferse S, Sumaila R, Hardt M, Mouillot D. (2020). Science. 'Meeting fisheries, ecosystem function, and biodiversity goals in a human-dominated world.' DOI: 10.1126/science.aax9412

Study: Cultural variables play important role in perceptions of status, power

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, NEWS BUREAU

CULTURAL VARIABLES PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN PERCEPTIONS OF STATUS AND POWER IN BUSINESS, ACCORDING TO RESEARCH CO-WRITTEN BY CARLOS TORELLI, A PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION AND THE JAMES F.... view more CREDIT: PHOTO BY GIES COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Are powerful individuals such as politicians necessarily viewed by others as having high status? And conversely, are high-status individuals such as tech moguls always seen as powerful? According to new research co-written by a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign expert in consumer behavior and global marketing, the answer depends on one's cultural orientation.

Cultures with a "vertical collectivist orientation," in which the individual willingly submits to authority by subordinating personal goals and accepting hierarchy, respond differently to the power-status dynamic than cultures with a more egalitarian "horizontal collectivistic orientation" that emphasizes communality and pro-social cooperation, said Carlos Torelli, a professor of business administration and the James F. Towey Faculty Fellow at Illinois.

"Power and status are different sources of social hierarchy with distinct consequences," he said. "Power equates to control over resources, while status broadly means respect and admiration. A bill collector has power but doesn't have high status. An Olympic athlete, on the other hand, has high status but doesn't have power. Our paper seeks to advance understanding of social hierarchies by proposing that this variation can be explained, at least in part, by one's cultural orientation."

Across six studies, Torelli and his co-authors used a range of methodologies to investigate the perceptions of the power-status dynamic to better understand the established effects on fairness.

"Power and status are distinct bases of social hierarchy with unique effects," said Torelli, also the executive director of Executive and Professional Education at the Gies College of Business. "Yet evidence suggests wide variation in whether perceptions of status and power are highly correlated versus relatively distinct. We use a cross-cultural lens to explain this variation and suggest that cultural orientation shapes the effect of power on perceived status, and vice versa."

These cultural contingencies, in turn, have implications for established effects of power and status.

Because vertical collectivism - common in east Asia - is associated with a tendency to automatically respect those in positions of power and authority, the extent to which individuals perceive high-power individuals as also having high status increases, according to the research.

"In those cultures, it's not uncommon for powerful leaders - say, a Bill Gates type - to be widely respected and also seen as a high-status individual," Torelli said.

On the other hand, cultures with a horizontal collectivistic orientation - common in some parts of Latin America - view hierarchy in a much dimmer light, he said. As a result, horizontal collectivists don't automatically submit to authority, and believe goals are best achieved via cooperation and pro-sociality toward others. Accordingly, these cultures foster perceptions that high-status individuals - say, a LeBron James type - also have power.

The insights gleaned from the research have practical relevance for organizations and individuals in the global economy, Torelli said.

"The results have important implications for navigating social hierarchies in different cultural settings," he said. "If you're a manager or other high-level executive and you're transferred to a vertical-collectivist culture, you'll automatically be respected. But you also need to exercise that power. You can't lurk in the background. You have to be out front and assert yourself."

If you move to a more horizontal-collective environment, you shouldn't assume that "just because you're the boss, people will automatically respect you," Torelli said.

"You have to earn their respect by showing your employees your interpersonal ability - your empathy, your concern about your subordinates, your level of cooperation. That becomes more important in a horizontal-collectivistic environment, less so in a vertical-hierarchical environment. It's more important to perform in that environment."

Although the U.S. is an individualistic country that doesn't in aggregate subscribe to vertical or horizontal collectivism, pockets of collectivism exist in the southern U.S., Torelli said.

"Immigration patterns are also bringing more cultural diversity to the workplace - for example, collectivism associated with Latin American and east Asian immigrants - and younger generations are increasingly endorsing a horizontal-collectivist orientation," he said. "Managers operating in these settings should also pay attention to perceptions of the power-status dynamics."

Torelli said the research has direct consequences for American managers operating in global environments.

"There are important consequences for C-level executive types who are looking to break into markets in certain parts of east Asia or Latin America," Torelli said. "And that's important because the east Asian market is going to define the global economy for many years to come."

Torelli's co-authors are Lisa M. Leslie, of New York University; Jennifer L. Stoner, of the University of North Dakota; and Christopher To, of Northwestern University.

The paper was published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.

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How did an ancient plant from Latin America become Asia's second-most-important cash crop?

Valued at dining room tables and factory floors alike, cassava is worth about $10 billion in Asia. The continued growth of the commodity faces challenges from climate change, land degradation and limited investment in crop improvement and disease
INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE (CIAT)

ROWS OF YOUNG CASSAVA PLANTS IN A FIELD IN THAILAND. view more
CREDIT: NEIL PALMER / INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE

Half a century ago, cassava was a simple staple crop for some smallholder farmers in Asia eking out a living in harsh landscapes.

The hardy crop that Europeans brought from Latin America many centuries before was a dependable source of nutrition - as long as it was skillfully processed to remove the toxins from bitter types to be turned into food.

While sweet varieties of cassava remain a staple in places like Indonesia, which is the world's third-largest producer, things have changed a lot for Manihot esculenta, the scientific name for yuca, manioc or mandioca.

Today, yields in Asia have increased dramatically and industry is growing bitter varieties for starch, biofuels and a variety of other ingredients. In Southeast Asia, only sugarcane and rice surpass cassava in total tonnage produced. Some 8 million farmers from India to China depend on the crop for food and income.

Ideally suited to flourish despite climate change, cassava is poised to become an even more important crop in the next fifty years in Asia, argue scientists in a comprehensive review of cassava research over the last 50 years in Asia. The article was published in March in Breeding Science.

"We need to continue investment in increasing yields, even more so under climate change, land degradation and new pests and disease outbreaks; the next big thing is improving the resilience of our cassava resources," said Luis Augusto Becerra Lopez-Lavalle, the program leader for cassava at the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT).

The article looks at increases in yields, breeding strategies, development and deployment of different varieties over the last half-century. Countries in the study include China, India, the Philippines, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Authors from more than a dozen institutions contributed to the review, which summarizes major contributions from almost 170 different research articles.

The authors highlight the striking versatility and resilience of cassava, which has been gradually improved and adapted to local needs through cutting-edge plant breeding and agronomy.

Thank the genebanks

Becerra said many advances are due to the rich collection of cassava germplasm at the Alliance's genebank in Colombia, which includes a large collection of native varieties generally more diverse than varieties found further afield. By tapping the resources of the genebank and collections kept by breeding programs around the world, scientists have found traits to make widely used varieties more productive and resistant to disease and climate extremes.

In Vietnam, yields have increased from about 3 tons per hectare to 20 tons, largely through improved varieties and fertilizer management. Intercropping - sowing other crops alongside cassava - and crop rotation to include maize, peanuts, and beans, has improved soil fertility and increase farmer incomes.

"The introduction of germplasm into national breeding programs from the Alliance combined with improved agronomic practices markedly increased cassava yield in the region," said lead author Al Imran Malik, who is based at the Alliance's Lao PDR office. Malik also credited partners who support the new ideas and initiatives.

In Indonesia, breeding has focused on better-tasting and more nutritious cassava. In China, scientists have bred high-starch industrial cassava ideal for higher latitudes, which are generally cooler than those in cassava's native range.

"Over the past decades, cassava researchers in Asia, particularly breeders, have had to respond to changing market and policy conditions to ensure that the crop and the farmers that grow it are competitive in global markets," said Jonathan Newby, the research coordinator for the Alliance's cassava program in Southeast Asia.

Across the region today, researchers study erosion and health of the soil, sustainable intensification, artificial intelligence, and advanced genetics for crop improvement. Scientists are also intensely focused on controlling emerging diseases, which threaten productivity gains. Last year, the Alliance worked with national researchers and partners to draw up an emergency control plan for cassava mosaic disease (CMD), a project led by Becerra.

Becerra is also a global research leader in the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas, which contributed to the study.

Cassava cooperation

One of the great lessons of the review was the extent to which local collaboration and ground-up initiatives were key to cassava improvement in the region.

In particular, the Alliance led partnerships with national agricultural research institutes in the region. NARIs from Vietnam, Thailand, China, Japan, Indonesia, Lao PDR, and Cambodia collaborated on many border-crossing cassava projects in the last few decades.

Partnerships among research organizations in Asia facilitated the understanding of specific contexts, allowing researchers to create appropriate recommendations in breeding and agronomy so farmers could grow cassava in accordance with their needs.

The Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural Sciences (CATAS) emphasized that the development in cassava research in Asia has great potential outside the region.

"This work will not only contribute to the prosperity of cassava in Asia but also contribute to the food security of people in Africa," said Wenjun Ou, a co-author from CATAS.

Outside of research partnerships, Dr. Malik said funders have been key supporters for ongoing, long-term research. Continued partnerships and support are key for controlling CMD, which requires regionally coordinated efforts in research on seed systems, pest and disease control, and capacity-building.

No longer 'a crop for the poor'

While there is still an impression that cassava is a poor man's crop in Asia, Becerra and Newby push back on this notion, highlighting its potential for wealth creation amongst smallholder farmers targeting a wide global market. "The future is bright for cassava as food and as an industrial ingredient in a range of new products that modern consumers demand," said Newby. "It will be critical that cassava breeders keep pace with these changes and opportunities to ensure that smallholder farmers in Asia continue to reap the benefits of this 'hidden' crop in our daily lives."

Becerra emphasized how different regions will contribute to a South-South knowledge transfer to ensure further prosperity for the crop, saying, "The key to cassava improvement is still at its center of origin. We ought to help sub-Saharan African farmers obtain the same genetic gains as Asian resource-poor farmers, where the Alliance built on genetic resources from Latin America."

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About the Alliance

The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) delivers research-based solutions that harness agricultural biodiversity and sustainably transform food systems to improve people's lives. Alliance solutions address the global crises of malnutrition, climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. The Alliance is part of CGIAR, a global research partnership for a food-secure future. http://www.bioversityinternational.org http://www.ciat.cgiar.org http://www.cgiar.org

Relying on 'local food' is a distant dream for most of the world

AALTO UNIVERSITY

Globalisation has revolutionised food production and consumption in recent decades and cultivation has become more efficient As a result, diets have diversified and food availability has increased in various parts of the globe. However, it has also led to a situation where the majority of the world population live in countries that are dependent on, at least partially, imported food. This can intensify vulnerabilities during any kind of global crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, as global food supply chains are disrupted.

Aalto University dissertation researcher, Pekka Kinnunen, says 'There are big differences between different areas and the local foliage. For example, in Europe and North America, temperate crops, such as wheat, can be obtained mostly within a radius of 500 kilometres. In comparison, the global average is about 3,800 kilometres'.

The recent study, published in Nature Food and led by Kinnunen, modelled the minimum distance between crop production and consumption that humans around the world would need to be able to meet their food demand. The study was conducted in collaboration with the University of Columbia, the University of California, the Australian National University and the University of Göttningen. The study factored in six key crop groups for humans: temperate cereals (wheat, barley, rye), rice, corn, tropical grains (millet, sorghum), tropical roots (cassava) and pulses. The researchers modelled globally the distances between production and the consumer for both normal production conditions and scenarios where production chains become more efficient due to reduced food waste and improved farming methods.

It was shown that 27% of the world's population could get their temperate cereal grains within a radius of fewer than 100 kilometres. The share was 22% for tropical cereals, 28% for rice and 27% for pulses. In the case of maize and tropical roots, the proportion was only 11-16%, which Kinnunen says displays the difficulty of relying solely on local resources.

Foodsheds as areas of self-sufficiency

'We defined foodsheds as areas within which food production could be self-sufficient. In addition to food production and demand, food fences describe the impact of transport infrastructure on where food could be obtained', Kinnunen explains.

The study also showed that foodsheds are mostly relatively compact areas for individual crops. When crops are looked at as a whole, foodsheds formed larger areas, spanning the globe. This indicates that the diversity of our current diets creates global, complex dependencies.

According to Associate professor Matti Kummu, who was also involved in the study, the results clearly show that local production alone cannot meet the demand for food; at least not with current production methods and consumption habits. Increasing the share of effectively managed domestic production would probably reduce both food waste and greenhouse gas emissions. However, at the same time, it could lead to new problems such as water pollution and water scarcity in very densely populated areas, as well as vulnerabilities during such occurrences as poor harvests or large-scale migration.

'The ongoing COVID-19 epidemic emphasises the importance of self-sufficiency and local food production. It would be important also to assess the risks that dependence on imported agricultural inputs such as animal feed proteins, fertilisers and energy, might cause', says Kummu.

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Kummu and Kinnunen work in Water and Development Research Group at Aalto School of Engineering. The group focuses on the sustainability of water resources, especially in the context of water used in food production. Read more: https://wdrg.aalto.fi

Mismanagement, not tampering, at root of supply problems for Ugandan farmers

UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT

For years, speculation about the poor quality of vital agricultural supplies in the African nation of Uganda has focused on questions of deliberate tampering with products - adding rocks to bags of seed in order to charge more money for the heavier product, for instance. But in a recent publication, two UConn researchers found no evidence of deliberate adulteration - but plenty of proof that mismanagement and inadequate infrastructure pose a significant problem for Ugandan farmers.

"For whatever reason, there's very little research in Africa on the food supply chain," says Nathan Fiala, Assistant Professor in UConn's Agricultural and Resource Economics department. Part of Fiala's work has been aimed at improving our understanding of these supply chains, so when an organization contacted him and co-author and PhD student Alicia Barriga to further investigate this concerning trend, they were eager to learn more.

Barriga explains that in Uganda, as in some other Sub-Saharan African and developing countries elsewhere, small-scale farmers rely on agriculture for subsistence. The local government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have made efforts to improve agricultural technology and production to ultimately reduce hunger. Overall food security has improved in Uganda, yet it remains uneven across the country, and there are vulnerabilities, especially in regards to weather and internal conflict, says Barriga. For example, in 2019 several districts reported acute an food crisis due to heavy rain, pests, and diseases.

Fiala says that Uganda's supply chain is an interesting one to study because food security and food insecurity are so evident in the country.

"People in Uganda don't eat three meals a day seven days a week generally," he says. "We see lots of skipping of meals, and people oftentimes only eat one or two times a day, generally due to food insecurity and poverty."

In the fertile land of Uganda, Fiala says, you can plant seeds pretty much anywhere and the seeds will grow. Despite this, food productivity remains low, and previous studies revealed discrepancies in the quality of agricultural supplies like seeds and fertilizers.

Agricultural inputs like seeds, fertilizers, and herbicides oftentimes show signs of corruption from other materials. Barriga says that seeds, for example, can be mixed with rocks, dirt, or sand in order to bulk the bags up.

Fiala explains that authors of previous studies surmised the discrepancies were due to adulteration of the product, and as often happens, people jumped to the conclusion that the supplies were being purposefully corrupted. This explanation prevails despite lack of evidence of tampering.

To investigate these claims, Fiala and Barriga sampled along the seed supply chain in a method called a "mystery shopper approach" from seed sellers all the way to the farmer. The seeds were then tested for purity, germination, rigor, and DNA similarity. What they found was surprising.

"We found absolutely no evidence of adulteration. What it looks like is that along the supply chain the materials are being handled improperly. The discrepancies we see in the quality of the supplies is likely due to mismanagement," says Fiala.

"For example, if you get a bag of fertilizer and throw it into the back of a truck and transport it to the north of the country where it's hot and you don't have a refrigerated truck, the fertilizer can lose half its nitrogen. This loss is just through transportation, not adulteration."

The mishandling of the supplies is not malicious or deliberate -- these supplies are being handled this way because there is simply no infrastructure in place to handle them properly. For instance, access to refrigerated trucks or buildings may be minimal or non-existent.

"We use the words 'corruption' and 'adulteration' when we don't really know what that is, and it is hard to distinguish deliberate actions from just incompetence and mismanagement," he says. "When researchers say corruption they are combining corruption and mismanagement together."

Fiala also points out that there remains a market for fertilizer and seed. If the supplies were all bad, it is reasonable to conclude the market would have disappeared.

"The answer is the supplies are not that bad on average but there is high variation, which can be bad news if you are a farmer," he says.

Though this research could have major policy implications, Fiala says it is unlikely to lead to efforts in the near term to improve the supply chain and food security for Ugandan citizens anytime soon.

"I have spoken to the Ugandan government about this and they are really interested in this work but they have no money and there is no political will to react," he says. "The economic return to government is low, and focus is on things like manufacturing and economic growth. Most people don't see the last-mile farmer as a way to improve growth. This will probably only get worse due to the COVID-19 crisis."

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Mutual funds with lower tax burdens have higher returns

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN\

MUTUAL FUNDS A CANADIAN INVENTION LIKE ETF'S

IMAGE: MUTUAL FUNDS WITH LOWER TAX BURDENS HAVE HIGHER RETURNS. view more

CREDIT: SÉBASTIEN THIBAULT

AUSTIN, Texas -- After a wild couple of months of equity market volatility, many mutual fund investors are now cautiously exploring how best to rebalance their portfolios. As they do so, new research from the McCombs School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin says they should keep an important factor in mind: taxable capital gains.

McCombs finance professor Clemens Sialm compared tax burdens and mutual fund performance in a new study published in the April 2020 issue of The Journal of Finance. The results showed a direct correlation in tax rates and performance, indicating that tax-efficient funds provide higher gains for investors and, therefore, more income for shareholders.

"The average equity mutual fund generates quite a bit of tax burden," Sialm said. "Most investors don't consider taxes as much as they should. So, in the coming months, as many investors make many portfolio adjustments meant to maximize their long-term objectives, they would be wise to rethink this issue," he said. "Harvesting losses can help offset future capital gain realizations, for example."

Short-term capital gains on stocks held for less than a year get taxed at rates as high as 37%. Holding stocks more than a year brings the top rate down to 20%.

"Often, it's fairly easy to avoid a higher tax rate on a capital gain," Sialm said. "If I've held a stock for 11 months, it's better to wait one more month to sell it."

In order to see whether minimizing taxes had negative effects on fund performance, Sialm and Hanjiang Zhang of Washington State University looked at U.S. equity mutual funds with more than $10 million in assets from 1990 to 2016. During that period, tax rates rose and fell between a high of 43% and a low of 15%. To calculate the bite taken by capital gains, the researchers used the rates in effect when a fund sold a stock.

What they found proved their theory. Low-tax funds actually outperformed the average fund, both before and after taxes. A 1.18% drop in a fund's tax burden boosted its return 0.55% before taxes and 0.99% after taxes.

"Tax-managed funds aren't sacrificing performance," Sialm said.

What made the tax-efficient funds do so well, Sialm found, is better all-around management. Funds that had lower tax burdens also displayed better stock-picking abilities. They also showed lower trading costs - presumably because they traded less often.

"They have a more sophisticated and more holistic approach," he said. "They take taxes and trading costs into account, and they have better stock-selection abilities."

Based on this research, fund shoppers should look at both fees and taxes when making decisions. The researchers said one way to tamp down taxes is to shop for certain kinds of funds - ones that tend to hold stocks for longer than a year:

Tax-managed funds, which reduce capital gains by balancing them against losses. Their after-tax returns were 0.81% better than similar funds that weren't tax managed.
Momentum funds, which buy stocks while they're rising and sell when they start to fall. "If you have a winning stock, you hold on to it longer," Sialm said. "If it's a losing stock, you sell it and take the capital loss."
Index funds, which try to match indexes like the Standard & Poor's 500. They hang onto a stock for as long as it's part of the index.

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For more details about this research, read the McCombs Big Ideas feature story.

Low-cost, easy-to-build ventilator performs similarly to high-quality commercial device

Ventilator could support coronavirus treatment in low-income regions or where supplies are limited

EUROPEAN LUNG FOUNDATION

LOW-COST, EASY TO BUILD PROTOTYPE VENTILATOR DURING USE. THE VENTILATOR CAN BE USED TO SUPPORT COVID-19 TREATMENT IN LOW INCOME REGIONS OF WHERE VENTILATOR SUPPLIES ARE LIMITED. view more CREDIT: PHOTOS COURTESY OF PROF. RAMON FARRÉ.
A low-cost, easy-to-build non-invasive ventilator aimed at supporting the breathing of patients with respiratory failure performs similarly to conventional commercial devices, according to new research published in the European Respiratory Journal [1].

Non-invasive ventilators are used to treat patients with breathing difficulty and respiratory failure, a common symptom of more severe coronavirus disease. Non-invasive ventilation is delivered using facemasks or nasal masks, which push a set amount of pressurised air into the lungs. This supports the natural breathing process when disease has caused the lungs to fail, enabling the body to fight infection and get better.

The research paper provides a free to replicate, open source description for how to build the ventilator. The researchers say the prototype ventilator could support treatment of coronavirus and other severe respiratory diseases in low income regions or where ventilator supplies are limited.

The study was led by Ramon Farré, Professor of Physiology in the Unit of Biophysics and Bioengineering at the School of Medicine of the University of Barcelona, Spain. He said: "In light of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the escalating need for respiratory support devices around the world, we designed a ventilator that can be built at a low cost using off-the-shelf components. The ventilator is intended to support hospitals and health systems that are struggling to meet the demand for ventilatory support due to coronavirus and other severe lung diseases."

The research team designed, built and tested the low-cost non-invasive ventilator with a small high-pressure blower, two pressure transducers and a controller with a digital display, which are available at a retail cost of less than $75 USD (equivalent to £60 GBP / €67 EUR).

To assess the effectiveness of the ventilator prototype compared with a commercial ventilator, the research team tested the device using 12 healthy volunteers. The participants' breathing was partially hindered by having them wear bands around the chest, mimicking obstruction at the upper airways to simulate different levels of chest tightness and breathing difficulty caused by disease.

The participants wore face masks fitted over the nose to facilitate breathing and were asked to score the level of comfort or discomfort they experienced both with and without ventilatory support.

The researchers observed no faulty triggering of changes to the levels of air pushed from the ventilator during use, and the team says it effectively supported spontaneous breathing rhythm, suggesting that the prototype assists natural breathing well. Further, they found that the feeling of breathing relief provided by the prototype was virtually the same as what was reported using the commercial ventilator.

The team also carried out respiratory "bench testing", where lung modelling is used to assess how well the ventilator supports the breathing of patients with different levels of airflow obstruction or restriction. The ventilator prototype was tested under 16 different simulated conditions, covering real life settings where non-invasive ventilation is used in clinical practice.

The bench test showed that, across all simulated conditions, the prototype ventilator worked effectively to support the lungs to operate efficiently and there was no faulty triggering.

Professor Farré said: "Our tests showed that the prototype would perform similarly to a conventional, high-quality device when providing breathing support for patients who, although with great difficulty, can try to breathe by themselves. This low-cost device could be used to treat patients if commercial devices are not available, and it provides clinicians with a therapeutic tool for treating patients who otherwise would remain untreated."

The researchers highlight that the prototype is a non-invasive ventilator; it is not intended for the most severely diseased patients in intensive care units, who are intubated and require a mechanical ventilator to take full control of the patients' breathing, as the prototype only provides breathing support.

Professor Leo Heunks is an expert in intensive care medicine from the European Respiratory Society and was not involved in the study. He said: "World Health Organization data suggests that around 80% of people who get coronavirus recover without needing hospital treatment, but those who do develop severe symptoms can experience breathing difficulties, which is distressing and puts health systems under additional pressure. Low-cost solutions like the ventilator described in this paper could provide treatment for those patients, potentially improving outcomes and helping to alleviate pressure on health systems by reducing the need for more invasive types of ventilatory support."

An open source description with full technical details on how to build the non-invasive ventilator is included in the research paper. The authors say that to build the device no prior knowledge of ventilation is required, and only basic engineering skills are needed.

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