The quiet of pandemic-era lockdowns allowed some pumas to venture closer to urban areas

Tracking data show how pumas in California's Santa Cruz Mountains responded to regional shelter-in-place orders

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA CRUZ

Research News

 

IMAGE: A TRAIL CAMERA SHOWS A PUMA RESTING IN THE SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS OF CALIFORNIA. MOUNTAIN LIONS IN THIS REGION NORMALLY AVOID URBAN AREAS OUT OF FEAR OF HUMANS. view more 

CREDIT: SANTA CRUZ PUMA PROJECT

New research from the University of California, Santa Cruz shows how regional shelter-in-place orders during the coronavirus pandemic emboldened local pumas to use habitats they would normally avoid out of fear of humans. This study, published in the journal Current Biology, is part of a growing wave of research working to formally document the types of unusual changes to wildlife movements and behaviors that people around the world reported during pandemic lockdowns.

Golden jackals, for example, were spotted foraging in broad daylight in urban Tel Aviv, Israel, and mountain lions were seen strolling through downtown Santiago, Chile. Urban environments had suddenly become quiet and empty as shelter-in-place orders brought human movement to a grinding halt--an effect some researchers have called the "anthropause." Wildlife seemed to be taking advantage. The new study shows this was certainly true for pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Researchers were able to clearly connect changes in the cats' habitat use with reduced human mobility during shelter-in-place orders.

Chris Wilmers, an environmental studies professor at UC Santa Cruz, led this research. Wilmers is the principal investigator for the Santa Cruz Puma Project, and he has been studying local mountain lion populations for over a decade. In particular, his research uses data from GPS tracking collars placed on wild pumas to show how fear of humans affects mountain lion behavior and ecology. When the pandemic hit, his team was already tracking data from several collared cats, and he recognized a unique research opportunity.

"When the shelter-in-place orders started, it was immediately clear that things were very different," Wilmers said. "You'd go outside and there were very few cars. Entire neighborhoods were completely quiet. So we wondered how this might affect the mountain lion population. Would they respond this quickly to reduced human presence?"

To answer that question, the team analyzed about two years worth of mountain lion tracking data for a set of six collared cats to see where the pumas roamed and what types of habitats they used. Researchers compared these tracks with the distribution of housing density and the geographic boundaries of the "urban edge," which indicates where vehicle and pedestrian traffic is heightened. During regional shelter-in-place orders, they found that cats were significantly more likely to move into or closer to the urban edge. And these changes happened rapidly: within days or weeks of the beginning of COVID-19 lockdowns.

In an effort to hone in on the cause of this change, the team ruled out any influence of natural factors--like topography, vegetation cover, or distance to the nearest water source--that might affect the cats' choice of habitats. They also compared year-over-year tracking data to show that seasonal variability wasn't affecting the results. Pumas do have a strong preference for habitats with lower housing density, but this factor did not change significantly during the study period. The key difference that appeared to be driving the trend of mountain lions moving into urban areas was reduced human mobility during the pandemic.

After regional shelter-in-place orders went into effect on March 17, 2020, local human mobility declined more than 50 percent, according to Apple mobility data, which show the number of navigation requests for driving and walking trips received through Apple Maps. During this time period, when people confined themselves in their homes, the data showed a strong relationship between declining levels of human mobility and pumas' increased willingness to venture closer to or into urban areas.

"We found that they totally relaxed their fear of the urban edge," Wilmers said. "It's not that they weren't scared of cities; they were still scared, but only of high housing density, not the extra impact of human mobility. If you take all the car trips and pedestrian trips and human mobility out of it, then, all of a sudden, mountain lions don't fear the city as much."

Wilmers says this finding helps to build understanding of the unique impacts of human mobility on wildlife. Conservation efforts often focus on the ways that humans are destroying habitats--through development and pollution, for example--but the mere presence of people moving across a landscape also takes a toll on animals that fear humans. And this too is a conservation challenge.

"It's important because our mobility just keeps increasing," Wilmers explained. "In the early part of the 20th century, we got cars, and that really increased our mobility. Now we have things like ride-sharing apps, mountain bikes, and electric bikes, and these are all ways that we're becoming more and more mobile across more types of landscapes. It's an important thing to think about as we try to conserve and manage ecosystems."

Another key point this research illustrates is that fear, or the removal of a source of fear, can bring about rapid changes in animal behavior that ripple out through ecosystems. Ecologists call this concept the "landscape of fear." And the pandemic showed just how integrated into this landscape humans really are. People are usually the ones exerting the influence of fear upon other animals, but there are some things that even we fear.

"Humans have always been the top dog in landscapes of fear, but this study shows that those influences of humans can be reversed relatively quickly by a pathogen, particularly a pandemic-causing pathogen," Wilmers said. "It's interesting from a theoretical perspective, and it's also important in a practical sense because it shows that, not only are pandemics going to have major health consequences for people, but there are also going to be important ecological impacts."

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Vegetation growth in Northern Hemisphere stunted by water constraints in warming climate

Shift may reduce plants' ability to absorb atmospheric CO2, increasing greenhouse gasses

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: THE DEGRADED VEGETATION IN THE HORQIN SAND LAND IN INNER MONGOLIA, CHINA view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY LIXIN WANG, IUPUI

INDIANAPOLIS -- A first-of-its-kind large-scale study of vegetation growth in the Northern Hemisphere over the past 30 years has found that vegetation is becoming increasingly water-limited as global temperatures increase.

The results are significant since vegetation is one of the biggest factors when it comes to controlling water and carbon cycling across Earth, which influences global temperatures. The work by IUPUI and Indiana University Bloomington researchers Wenzhe Jiao, , Qing Chang and Honglang Wang was published in the journal Nature Communications on June 18.

"Without water, living things struggle to survive, including plants," said Lixin Wang, senior author of the study and an associate professor of earth sciences at the School of Science at IUPUI. His ecohydrology group led the study. "Changes in vegetation response to water availability can result in significant shifts of climate-carbon interaction."

Honglang Wang is an assistant professor of statistics at the School of Science at IUPUI. Wenzhe Jiao, the first author, and Qing Chang are Ph.D. students at IUPUI and IU Bloomington, respectively.

This multidisciplinary research between the School of Science at IUPUI, the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at IU Bloomington and two other universities began three years ago to determine vegetation constraints on a global scale. Until now, it was largely unknown, despite the growing interest in predicting global and regional trends in vegetation growth in response to climate change.

"Global temperature and the concentration of atmospheric CO2, or carbon dioxide, have been increasing," Lixin Wang said. These changes are expected to cause increased atmospheric water demand, more frequent extreme hot days, and drought events. All these factors indicate that vegetation growth may have suffered more and more water stress under a warming climate.

"However, quantifying the changes in vegetation constraints at large spatial and temporal scales is challenging," he said.

To overcome this obstacle, the researchers used satellite remote sensing data and meteorology data covering large spatial scales from 1982 to 2015.

"We developed our own metrics to indicate water constraints and then examined the changes in the metrics," Jiao said. "The study is quite computationally extensive since we examined the relationship between vegetation growth and water deficit at each grid cell over the whole extratropical Northern Hemisphere -- 604,800 data points each year -- over more than 30 years."

The data analysis provided strong evidence of a widespread, significant increase in water vegetation constraint in the Northern Hemisphere over the studied period. Some regions, like the Great Plains in the United States, were comparatively worse than others.

Until recently, elevated carbon in the atmosphere increased plant growth, which has the benefit of removing more carbon from the atmosphere. However, this study reveals a cause for concern.

"Increasing water constraints on vegetation productivity may drive a shift from a period of increasing land carbon sink strength to a period in which climate change is reducing land carbon sink strength," Lixin Wang said.

In other words, the warming climate is increasing water constraints, reversing the earlier trend of stronger vegetation carbon uptake.

"Our research shows that increasing water constraints will likely limit continuous vegetation growth, thus slowing down the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere by plants," Jiao said.

"The results emphasize the need for actions that could slow down CO2 emissions," Lixin Wang said. "Without that, water constraints impacting plant growth -- and the weakening of vegetation's ability to removal of CO2 from the atmosphere -- are unlikely to slow."

CAPTION

The saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) of the Sonoran Desert in the Southwest United States

CREDIT

Photo courtesy Lixin Wang, IUPUI

Additional researchers on the study were William K. Smith at the University of Arizona and Paolo D'Odorico at the University of California. The work is supported by the National Science Foundation.

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CAPTION

For the entire study period, the vertical axis of the color legend is the trend of correlation coefficient for the 30 five-year moving windows. No color indicates unvegetated regions. Chartreuse stands for vegetation water surplus regions where surplus has been decreasing; navy indicates regions that have been experiencing an increase in water surplus; magenta is for water deficit regions that have been seeing an increase in water deficit; and regions colored yellow are characterized by water deficit and a decrease in water deficit.

CREDIT

Image by Lixin Wang et. al., IUPUI

Burnout is a widespread reality in today's NHS

Current NHS workforce plans are "a smart looking car minus the engine"

BMJ

Research News

 

Burnout is a widespread reality in today's NHS

Current NHS workforce plans are "a smart looking car minus the engine"

An editorial published by The BMJ today raises important concerns about the health and wellbeing of the NHS workforce after a parliamentary report found "burnout is a widespread reality in today's NHS."

Commenting on the report, Suzie Bailey of the King's Fund says: "Excessive workloads need to be dealt with at every level of the health and care system."

She suggests that ineffective workforce planning is partly to blame, citing evidence given to the House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee by Professor Michael West of The King's Fund, who characterised current NHS workforce plans as "a smart looking car minus the engine."

Bailey points to the 2020 NHS staff survey showing that 44% of staff reported feeling unwell owing to work related stress - the highest level since 2016 - and reported high levels of bullying, harassment, and discrimination experienced by ethnic minority staff.

"Improving staff health and wellbeing is therefore far from being a "nice to have," it is a moral, social, and economic priority," she writes. "The focus must be on tackling the root causes of stress, not on interventions that seek only to manage or mitigate it."

It is encouraging that the committee's recommendations emphasised the importance of compassionate leadership in improving workplace culture, she says, and has called for Health Education England to publish independent annual workforce projections.

But she questions plans to place new workforce responsibilities on integrated care systems (local partnerships designed to help join up health and care services).

Will the health and social care committee's report improve outcomes, she asks?

In part, it will depend on whether multiple leaders across the health and care system can maintain the current momentum behind workforce and workplace transformation, she explains.

She notes that progress is already being made, but says effective workforce planning and purposeful culture change "will require sustained political leadership as well as long term investment at a level commensurate with the urgent need for improvement."

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Externally peer reviewed? No
Evidence type: Editorial; Opinion
Subject: NHS workforce planning

Rude behavior at work not an epidemic, new study shows

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

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IMAGE: SHANNON TAYLOR, AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLOIRDA AND CO-AUTHOR OF THE REPORT SAYS WORKPLACE MISTREATMENT IS HARMFUL AND WIDESPREAD, IT HAS OFTEN BEEN CALLED... view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

Rude behavior at work has come to be expected, like donuts in the breakroom. Two decades of research on employee relationships shows that 98 percent of employees experience rude behavior at work, but now a new study suggests a large majority of workplace relationships are not characterized by rudeness. Isolated incidents of rude behavior at work, although somewhat common, do not point to widespread incivility between employees and their colleagues, according to a new UCF study.

"Because prior research suggests workplace mistreatment is harmful and widespread, it is often called an epidemic, but our findings show that rude behavior is less like the flu and more like cholera," says Shannon Taylor, an associate professor of management and co-author of the report. "It is still harmful, but far less common, and outbreaks are often traced to a single source - much like a contaminated water pump."

While the study was conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taylor says his team's findings are just as applicable to remote work environments. Collaborating remotely presents a variety of challenges that can lead to miscommunication and misinterpretation.

"As employees return to work on-site, our study suggests developing and maintaining good relationships with co-workers is important now more than ever," Taylor says.

The study, co-authored by UCF doctoral student Lauren Locklear, was published this month in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The project takes a closer look at the influence of workplace relationships on disrespectful behavior in the office.

The study examined rude behavior among restaurant, manufacturing, and office workers. Researchers found that while most employees experience rudeness at work, these experiences came from a small number of co-workers. Although 70% of employees experienced rudeness at work, only 16 percent of workplace relationships were characterized by rude behavior.

An employee's individual personality, position and other traits are major factors in determining the level of incivility present in a given workplace. Across all study groups, researchers found that unique relationships between colleagues have just as strong an influence in determining whether workers will be rude to one another.

"Even if one employee is a jerk to everyone and their co-worker is the office punching bag, there is still something about their unique relationship that explains how well they get along together," Taylor says. "Most people do experience rude behavior, but most of their relationships are not characterized by rudeness."

Behavioral expectations and workplace culture also play a key role in influencing employee mistreatment. But an employee's perceptions about how their colleagues should treat each other have a stronger impact on rude behavior than an employee's perceptions about how their colleagues actually treat each other.

"Employees' beliefs about what is 'right and wrong' at work have a big impact on what happens on the job," says Locklear. "Employers should ensure there are strong norms for respect and civility in the workplace. Having a zero-tolerance policy for these rude behaviors is key to stopping mistreatment in its tracks."

Being clear and encouraging positive interactions will be key, the study's authors say.

"Our prior work shows gratitude and appreciation are important aspects to fostering positive employee relationships and decreasing negative workplace behavior," Locklear says. "Expressing these positive behaviors will be essential in determining how smoothly we return to in-person work environments."

CAPTION

An employee's individual personality, position and other traits are major factors in determining the level of incivility present in a given workplace, says UCF doctoral student and co-author Lauren Locklear.

CREDIT

University of Central Florida

Other study authors include: Donald H. Kluemper, an associate professor in University of Illinois at Chicago's Department of Managerial Studies, and Xinxin Lu, a Ph.D. student at University of Illinois at Chicago's Department of Managerial Studies.

Serving larger portions of veggies may increase young kids' veggie consumption

PENN STATE

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UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- It can be difficult to get young kids to eat enough vegetables, but a new Penn State study found that simply adding more veggies to their plates resulted in children consuming more vegetables at the meal.

The researchers found that when they doubled the amount of corn and broccoli served at a meal -- from 60 to 120 grams -- the children ate 68% more of the veggies, or an additional 21 grams. Seasoning the vegetables with butter and salt, however, did not affect consumption.

The daily recommended amount of vegetables for kids is about 1.5 cups a day, according to the official Dietary Guidelines for Americans as set by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.

"The increase we observed is equal to about one third of a serving or 12% of the daily recommended intake for young children," said Hanim Diktas, graduate student in nutritional sciences. "Using this strategy may be useful to parents, caregivers and teachers who are trying to encourage kids to eat the recommended amount of vegetables throughout the day."

Barbara Rolls, Helen A. Guthrie Chair and director of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior at Penn State, said the findings -- recently published in the journal Appetite -- support the MyPlate guidance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which recommends meals high in fruits and vegetables.

"It's important to serve your kids a lot of vegetables, but it's also important to serve them ones they like because they have to compete with the other foods on the plate," Rolls said. "Parents can ease into this by gradually exposing kids to new vegetables, cooking them in a way their child enjoys, and experimenting with different flavors and seasonings as you familiarize them."

According to the researchers, the majority of children in the U.S. don't eat the recommended daily amount of vegetables, which could possibly be explained by children having a low preference for them. And while serving larger portions has been found to increase the amount of food children eat -- called the "portion size effect" -- kids tend to eat smaller amounts of vegetables in response to bigger portions compared to other foods.

For this study, the researchers were curious if increasing just the amount of vegetables while keeping the portions of other foods the same would help increase veggie consumption in kids. They also wanted to experiment with whether adding light butter and salt to the vegetables would increase their palatability and also affect consumption.

For the study, the researchers recruited 67 children between the ages of three and five. Once a week for four weeks, the participants were served lunch with one of four different preparations of vegetables: a regular-sized serving of plain corn and broccoli, a regular-sized serving with added butter and salt, a doubled serving of plain corn and broccoli, and a doubled serving with added butter and salt.

During each meal, the vegetables were served alongside fish sticks, rice, applesauce and milk. Foods were weighed before and after the meal to measure consumption.

"We chose foods that were generally well-liked but also not the kids' favorite foods," Rolls said. "If you offer vegetables alongside, say, chicken nuggets you might be disappointed. Food pairings are something you need to be conscious of, because how palpable the vegetables are compared to the other foods on the plate is going to affect the response to portion size. You need to make sure your vegetables taste pretty good compared to the other foods."

After analyzing the results, the researchers found that while the larger portions of vegetables were associated with greater intake, the addition of butter and salt was not. The children also reported liking both versions -- seasoned and unseasoned -- about the same. About 76% of kids rated the vegetables as "yummy" or "just ok."

"We were surprised that the butter and salt weren't needed to improve intake, but the vegetables we served were corn and broccoli, which may have been already familiar to and well-liked by the kids," Diktas said. "So for less familiar vegetables, it's possible some extra flavoring might help to increase intake."

Diktas said that while serving larger portions may increase vegetable consumption, it also has the potential to increase waste if kids don't eat all of the food that is served.

"We're working on additional research that looks into substituting vegetables for other food instead of just adding more vegetables," Diktas said. "In the future, we may be able to give recommendations about portion size and substituting vegetables for other foods, so we can both limit waste and promote veggie intake in children."

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Liane Roe, research nutritionist; Kathleen Keller, associate professor of nutritional sciences; and Christine Sanchez, lab manager at the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior, also participated in this work.

The National Institute of Diabetes Digestive and Kidney Diseases helped support this research.

 

Real cheese, no animals - More than 70% of consumers want breakthrough cheese

University of Bath press release

UNIVERSITY OF BATH

Research News

 

Berlin and Bath, 24th June 2021 - Precision-fermentation company Formo and the University of Bath co-published the first large-scale study of consumer acceptance for animal-free dairy products.

Researchers surveyed 5,054 individuals from Brazil, Germany, India, the UK, and the USA to understand what consumers think of animal-free dairy products.

Precision fermentation is a process that allows specific proteins to be produced via microorganisms. By inserting a copied stretch of cow DNA, microorganisms produce milk proteins. The process is more efficient than using animals to make proteins and avoids the negative side effects of industrial animal agriculture, which is responsible for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

The findings of the study, published in the journal Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, show that consumers around the world are ready for cheese made from real milk proteins produced by microorganisms.

Across countries and age groups, 79% of consumers are willing to try precision-fermentation-derived dairy cheese, with 71% willing to pay for such products. Across dietary preferences, flexitarians showed the highest levels of enthusiasm for these products.

"Just as we have seen plant-based milk taking an increasing share of the milk market in recent years, we now see that consumers are ready for a new kind of animal-free dairy cheese product." Christopher Bryant, PhD, of the University of Bath, said.

"Seeing the growing consumer groups of flexitarians and young people driving adoption of animal-free cheese is a big indicator that these products will appeal to consumers far beyond the niche markets of current vegan cheese."

Findings highlighted that consumers understood the big taste improvements over current vegan cheese products, while also showing that consumers across countries recognised the environmental and ethical advantages of animal-free dairy, which causes 85-97% less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional dairy.

"Most cheese lovers think current vegan cheeses are nowhere near the flavour or functionality level that meets their cheese needs." said Oscar Zollman Thomas, Formo's lead researcher on the project.

"Precision fermentation is allowing us to fundamentally change that and make real cheese without animals involved."

This was reflected in another major finding of the research, that those who currently eat the most cheese were the most likely to want to buy animal-free dairy cheese.

"That finding was explosive because that's always how we've understood the mission: Initiating change not through consumer sacrifice, but rather through delicious, satisfying products" said Oscar Zollman Thomas.

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Adolescent marijuana, alcohol use held steady during COVID-19 pandemic

NIH/NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG ABUSE

Research News

 

Adolescent marijuana use and binge drinking did not significantly change during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite record decreases in the substances' perceived availability, according to a survey of 12th graders in the United States. The study's findings, which appeared online on June 24, 2021, in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, challenge the idea that reducing adolescent use of drugs can be achieved solely by limiting their supply. The work was led by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

In contrast to consistent rates of marijuana and alcohol use, nicotine vaping in high school seniors declined during the pandemic, along with declines in perceived availability of vaping devices at this time. The legal purchase age is 21 for nicotine products and alcohol in all states, and for cannabis in states that have legalized nonmedical cannabis use.

"Last year brought dramatic changes to adolescents' lives, as many teens remained home with parents and other family members full time," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. "It is striking that despite this monumental shift and teens' perceived decreases in availability of marijuana and alcohol, usage rates held steady for these substances. This indicates that teens were able to obtain them despite barriers caused by the pandemic and despite not being of age to legally purchase them."

The data for the study came from the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of substance use behaviors and related attitudes among adolescents in the United States. In a typical year, MTF surveys thousands of middle and high school students at more than a hundred schools across the country in the spring. MTF has been watching substance use trends for 46 years.

To assess the impact of the pandemic, the investigators issued a survey between mid-July and mid-August 2020, which 12th graders could complete outside of school. This summer survey followed up on investigators' standard MTF spring survey, which gathered responses between mid-February and mid-March 2020 before stopping prematurely due to school closures caused by COVID-19. Of the 3,770 12th graders who responded in the spring, 582 submitted a follow-up survey in the summer. All data and statistical analyses used in the study were weighted to be nationally representative.

Analysis of the responses revealed that students perceived a sharp decrease in availability of marijuana and alcohol in the months after the onset of the pandemic. For marijuana, the fraction of students who reported "fairly" or "very" easy access dropped by 17 percentage points, from 76% in the spring before the pandemic to 59% during the pandemic, and for alcohol it dropped by 24 percentage points, from 86% to 62%. These were the largest year-to-year decreases in perceived availability of marijuana and alcohol ever recorded since the survey began in 1975. Prior to 2020, the largest recorded decreases were only two percentage points for marijuana, and one percentage point for alcohol. Between the spring and summer of 2020, there was also a sharp decrease in respondents who said they could "fairly" or "very" easily obtain a vaping device, going from 73% before the pandemic to 63% during the pandemic.

Despite the reported declines in marijuana and alcohol availability, the levels of use of these substances did not change significantly. Before the pandemic, 23% of students said they had used marijuana in the past 30 days, compared to 20% during the pandemic. For alcohol, 17% reported binge drinking in the past two weeks pre-pandemic, compared to 13% during the pandemic. However, there was a moderate and significant decrease in nicotine vaping - before the pandemic, 24% of respondents said they had vaped nicotine in the past 30 days, compared to 17% during the pandemic.

The study authors cite the wide availability of alcohol and marijuana, even during the pandemic, as a factor in the continued use of these substances. While pandemic-related restrictions limited social interactions, and even with record-breaking decreases in perceived availability among participants, most students said they still had access to marijuana and alcohol. In addition, the authors suggest that when the substances became less available, the students may have intensified their efforts to obtain them.

While a dip in the perceived supply of vaping devices may have contributed to the decline in nicotine vaping that occurred during the pandemic, there may have been other factors as well. The federal minimum age for tobacco product purchases, including vaping devices and liquids, rose from 18 to 21 years and went into effect in early 2020. News reports on vaping-induced lung injuries may have also had a chilling effect on usage.

"These findings suggest that reducing adolescent substance use through attempts to restrict supply alone would be a difficult undertaking," said Richard A. Miech, Ph.D., lead author of the paper and team lead of the Monitoring the Future study at the University of Michigan. "The best strategy is likely to be one that combines approaches to limit the supply of these substances with efforts to decrease demand, through educational and public health campaigns."

Monitoring the Future continues to survey respondents as they progress through adulthood, providing the researchers with the opportunity to explore the impact of the pandemic and the social changes it brought about on future substance use trends.

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Reference: Miech R, et al. Adolescent Drug Use Before and During U.S. National COVID-19 Social Distancing Policies. Drug and Alcohol Dependence. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108822(2021)

About the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world's research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit http://www.nida.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

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Study highlights natural history and conservation importance of Chinese mountain cat

Study highlights the evolutionary uniqueness and premier conservation importance of the elusive Chinese mountain cat

NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: CHINESE MOUNTAIN CAT. view more 

CREDIT: SONG DAZHAO, CFCA

FORT LAUDERDALE/DAVIE, Fla. - We know that the domestic cat has distant relatives that roam the earth - lions, tigers, cheetahs and mountain lions. Less familiar are the 38 distinct species in the Family Felidae, many with strange names like pampas cat, kodkod and rusty spotted cat. The new field of genomics - the unravelling of DNA genomes of separate species - is resolving old conundrums and revealing new secrets across the history of evolutionarily related species among cats, dogs, bears and ourselves.

In the largest-ever study undertaken of Chinese cats, genetic detectives highlight the evolutionary uniqueness and premier conservation importance of the elusive Chinese mountain cat (Felis silvestris bieti), found only in the Tibetan plateau of China. Also called Chinese desert cat or Steppe cat, the Chinese mountain cat has a distinctive appearance of sand colored fur, with faint dark stripes a thick tail and light blue pupils.

The research is published in Science Advances.

This new study compared three different felines living in China: the Chinese mountain cat, Felis silvestris bieti, the Asiatic wildcat Felis silvestris ornata, and feral domestic cats Felis silvestris catus. The Asiatic wildcat has distinguishing spotted coat pattern across a wide range extending from the Caspian Sea in the East through western India and southern Mongolia to parts of western China. Approximately 600 million domestic cats are found across the world.

The study was led by the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at Peking University in Beijing and supported by an international team including lead genetic researchers at Nova Southeastern University, USA and in Malaysia. The genomic data resolves a taxonomic classification uncertainty, reveals the timing of evolutionary divergence and pinpoints the prospects for survival of an important endangered species.

Using 270 individual samples, the molecular genetic study finds that the Chinese mountain cat is a unique subspecies of the wide-ranging Wildcat, Felis silvestris. The wildcat species is found throughout Europe, Africa, and much of Western Asia. The Felis silvestris bieti subspecies, however, is found only in China, being adapted to the prey and alpine climate of the Tibetan plateau.

Applying the molecular clock hypotheses, the date of evolutionary split between F. s. bieti and F. s. ornata was a estimated at ~1.5 million years ago while the genetic distance from both to the closest Felis species relative, the black footed cat, Felis nigripes is twice that at 3.0 MY ago. These different times support the classification of F. s. ornata and F. s. bieti as subspecies of Felis silvestris. A closely related subspecies from Central Asia and north Africa, Felis silvestris lybica , is the clear predecessor of the world's domestic cats, including those throughout China. The cat domestication process happened 10-12,000 years ago in the Near East at around the same time and locale, when humankind ancestors morphed from peripatetic hunter-gatherers to sedentary farmers in the Fertile Crescent region.

The Chinese mountain cat faces several major threats, one from modern agricultural practices that divert precious habitat. A second, more existential threat, is from interbreeding with domestic cats brought by the growing human population in the cat's limited habitat. And finally, climate change, that may be expanding the range of neighboring wildcats into the mountain cat's core homeland.

"This study will help conservation scientists to identify threats and decide the best ways to conserve this special cat in its native range," said Stephen J. O'Brien, Ph.D., a world-renowned geneticist and research scientist at NSU's Halmos College of Arts and Sciences.

The study solidifies the taxonomic status of the mountain cat, Felis silvestris lybica, through an analysis of the cat's genome, placing the cat in an evolutionary context relative to other species and subspecies of cats. These arcane taxonomic distinctions are important for conservation because scientists have to be sure they are all talking about the same animal when discussing strategies, and no less important, because legal protections have to be specific to the group in question. Without an agreed-upon taxonomy, legal protections and conservation come to a stop.

Another important result of this study is the finding that domestic cats in China are derived from the same common stock and origin as domestic cats throughout the world, and that there was not an independent origin of domesticity in China. Previous studies have hinted at close associations between early Chinese farming communities and local wild animals, including Asian mountain cats, and that some of these animals may have begun the crossing from the wild to living with people in settled communities.

What the current study shows is that this did not happen with domestic cats; now the focus of research can move to determining - why? Why were some species domesticated in some place but not in others? Why did these processes happen when they did, and what were the conditions obtaining that allowed, maybe even promoted, the integration of wild animals into human societies? Answering these related questions will help us understand the history of early China, indeed helps us understand the history of the ancient anthropocentric world, in more detail.

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CAPTION

Chinese mountain cat.

CREDIT

Song Dazhao, CFCA

The job you want vs. the job you get

Research connects dream jobs with the future of work

UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

Research News

IMAGE: KEVIN HOFF, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON REPORTS THE EXISTENCE OF IMPORTANT DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN YOUNG PEOPLE'S DREAM JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT REALITIES. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

When it comes to career aspirations for teenagers, a University of Houston psychology researcher believes it's best to shoot for the moon, so you can at least land in the stars. The truth is the moon may sometimes be unreachable.

In the Journal of Career Assessment, Kevin Hoff, assistant professor of psychology, reports the existence of important discrepancies between young people's dream jobs and employment realities.

"Almost 50% of adolescents aspired to investigative or artistic careers, which together account for only 8% of the U.S. labor market," reports Hoff, whose research examined the career aspirations of 3,367 adolescents (age 13-18 years) from 42 U.S. states. Investigative jobs include those in the field of science and research.

Hoff's team conducted a large-scale coding effort using the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) to compile the automation risk levels, educational requirements, and vocational interests of career aspirations.

"Results revealed that most adolescents aspired to careers with low potential for automation. However, there were large discrepancies between adolescents' aspirations and the number of jobs available in the labor market," said Hoff.

For females, the most popular aspirations were doctors, veterinarians, teachers, and nurses. Doctor was most popular in early adolescence (accounting for around 12% of all female aspirations at ages 13-15), whereas veterinarian, teacher, and nurse were more popular in late adolescence (ages 16-18). For males, athlete was overwhelmingly the most popular aspiration during early adolescence (accounting for 22-32% of male aspirations at ages 13-15) but became less popular in late adolescence (accounting for 5-13% at ages 16-18).

"Both males and females showed a similar pattern of increasing variability in their career aspirations with age, indicating more diverse career goals," said Hoff. Indeed, reality may have set in. Many 13-year-old males who wanted to be professional athletes had changed their minds by 18 to aspire towards more attainable jobs.

One of the most important ways to help children find ambitious, yet realistic career goals is through exposing them to a variety of career types they would not naturally see in their daily lives.

"Young girls often want to become teachers because that is what they see every day," said Hoff. "It's equally important to show them that other occupations exist, especially lesser-known careers with growing employment demands, such as those in the STEM fields." Hoff said teachers often struggle with directing students who have very lofty career ambitions but mediocre grades, although there's an upside to having such ambition.

"Adolescents who want to become doctors may end up with a really good job doing something else in the medical field, and that's a positive outcome. The negatives are they might end up working toward an unattainable career, pursuing education that's a bad fit in interest or ability," said Hoff.

Despite a rapidly changing labor market, little research exists on how youth's career goals correspond to projections about the future of work. "This kind of career development research can make a positive impact in helping individuals and societies prepare for the future of work," said Hoff.

In the end, Hoff's work does not discourage ambition, but amplifies the need for a good back-up plan.

"It's good to encourage students to have prestigious careers, but as they get older, parents, teachers or counselors should also be real with them and help them understand how many people actually work in their dream fields, and how likely it is they will get a job in that field," said Hoff.

Spoiler alert: Only 2% of Americans are employed in the arts.

Hoff's team included Drake Van Egdom, University of Houston; Alexis Hanna, University of Nevada-Reno; Chris Napolitano and James Rounds, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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