In Defense of Communism: Against Critical Pedagogy, Capitalism, and Trump

Curry Malott

26 Pages

1 File ▾

Marxism

In this essay I challenge the anticommunism that has dominated critical pedagogy since its emergence in 1980, which coincided with imperialism's somewhat successful counter-offensive against the global communist movement. It is within the context of the absence of communism and the communist movement that paved the way for the rise of Trump and the far right more generally. The anticommunism central to progressive forms of education, from a non-capitalist perspective, represents nothing less than the crossing of class lines. After outlining the major premises this work is grounded in, situated within a common debate between Marxism and Native studies, I review key responses to anticommunist propaganda. I then provide a brief history of the Soviet Union offering concrete responses to the anticommunism that has infected those of us on the educational left, especially in North America. I then offer a short discussion of the Black Panther Party as another example of the current relevance of the communist legacy in the United States and how this legacy has been systematically under attack. The text concludes with a brief summary of some of the core principles of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) as an example of a contemporary U.S.-based Marxist-Leninist communist party endowed with the necessary analysis and organizational structure to challenge capitalism and imperialism under a Trump presidency

https://www.academia.edu/31633260/In_Defense_of_Communism_Against_Critical_Pedagogy_Capitalism_and_Trump?auto=download&email_work_card=download-paper

 

Some meat eaters disgusted by meat

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

Some meat eaters feel disgusted by meat, according to a new study.

University of Exeter scientists showed food pictures to more than 700 people, including omnivores (who eat meat and other foods), flexitarians (who try to eat less meat) and vegetarians.

About 7% of meat eaters (15% of flexitarians and 3% of omnivores) had a "fairly strong disgust response" to images of meat dishes commonly eaten in the UK, like roast chicken or bacon.

As a group, omnivores rated meat images about twice as disgusting on average as pictures of carbohydrate-rich foods like bread, chips and rice.

Based on the findings, the researchers say harnessing the "yuk factor" may be more effective than relying on willpower for anyone who wants to eat less meat.

"We were surprised to find that so many people are grossed out by meat - even people who eat meat all the time," said Elisa Becker, of the University of Exeter.

"Our results don't explain why these people eat meat, but it's possible that habits, family and cultural traditions all play a part.

"Meat consumption is increasingly seen as unsustainable, unhealthy and unethical, and many people want to eat less meat.

"If you're trying to cut down your meat intake, sheer willpower may not be enough - but harnessing the 'yuk factor' could be the way to go."

The study's 711 participants - 402 omnivores, 203 flexitarians and 106 vegetarians - each completed a survey and took a rapid-response task (measuring instinctive reactions) to test their levels of "meat disgust".

"Meat liking" was also measured. About 75% of omnivores - and more than 20% of vegetarians - showed a fairly strong liking for meat.

To be classified as having "fairly strong" meat disgust, participants had to rate six meat images closer to "very much" than "not at all" on a sliding scale of disgust, and also had to show evidence of meat disgust on the rapid-response task.

Among flexitarians - the only group attempting to reduce their meat intake - meat disgust was a better predictor than self-control (measured in a separate questionnaire) of reduced meat-eating.

Meat disgust was also associated with reduced intake over the following six months.

"We hope that this information can help us develop new interventions to help people reduce their meat intake," said Professor Natalia Lawrence, of the University of Exeter.

"Not everyone wants to reduce their meat consumption - but for those who do, we are working on computer tasks that might help them harness the power of disgust in a fun way.

"It's important to note that our study does not establish causation - so further research is needed to find out whether meat disgust causes people to eat less meat, or whether avoiding meat allows these negative emotional responses to develop or be expressed."

Becker added: "It's interesting to note that almost all of us experience meat disgust from time to time - for example when we see unfamiliar meats or dishes made from parts of animals we don't usually eat, like squirrel meat or beef heart.

"Humans may have evolved a degree of meat disgust because eating spoilt meat can be much more dangerous than eating a carrot that's a bit off."

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The paper, published in the journal Appetite, is entitled: "Meat disgust is negatively associated with meat intake - evidence from a cross-sectional and longitudinal study."

 

How bullying and obesity can affect girls' and boys' mental health

UPPSALA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Depressive symptoms are more common in teenage girls than in their male peers. However, boys' mental health appears to be affected more if they suffer from obesity. Irrespective of gender, bullying is a considerably greater risk factor than overweight for developing depressive symptoms. These conclusions are drawn by researchers at Uppsala University who monitored adolescents for six years in a questionnaire study, now published in the Journal of Public Health.

Peer-review/Observational study/People

"The purpose of our study was to investigate the connection between body mass index (BMI) and depressive symptoms, and to take a close look at whether being subjected to bullying affects this relationship over time. We also wanted to investigate whether any gender differences existed," says Sofia Kanders, a PhD student at Uppsala University's Department of Neuroscience.

In the study young people, born in Västmanland County, replied to questions about their height, weight and depressive symptoms on three separate occasions (2012, 2015 and 2018). The respondents' mean age was 14.4 years on the first occasion and 19.9 years on the last.

Based on BMI, the adolescents were divided into three groups: those with normal weight, overweight and obesity respectively. They were also grouped according to the extent of their depressive symptoms.

Overall, regardless of their weight, the girls stated more frequently that they had depressive symptoms. In 2012, 17 per cent of the girls and 6 per cent of the boys did so. By 2015, the proportions of adolescents with these symptoms had risen to 32 per cent for the girls and 13 per cent for the boys. The corresponding figures for 2018 were 34 and 19 per cent respectively.

A higher BMI did not, as far as the researchers could see, affect the girls' mental well-being to any great extent. Among the boys, however, the pattern observed was entirely different.

"When we analysed girls and boys separately, we saw that for boys with obesity in 2012, the risk for having depressive symptoms in 2015 was, statistically, five times higher than for normal-weight boys. In the girls we found no such connection," Kanders says.

The study has been unable to answer the question of what causes this gender difference, and the researchers think more research is needed in this area.

The young respondents were also asked about bullying -- for example, to state whether, in the past year, they had been physically exposed to blows and kicks, teased or excluded, subjected to cyberbullying (abusive texting or other electronic or web bullying), or bullied by an adult at school.

In every analysis, exposure to bullying was associated with a higher risk of depressive symptoms. This connection was also evident six years later, especially in overweight boys. The researchers believe that these results seem to indicate a gender difference in how BMI and bullying together drive development of future depressive symptoms.

"One key conclusion and take-home message from our study is that bullying can affect mental illness for a long time to come, which therefore makes preventive measures against bullying in schools extremely important," Kanders says.

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Sofia H. Kanders et al. (2021), Body mass index and bullying victimization as antecedents for depressive symptoms in a Swedish youth cohort, Journal of Public Health. DOI: 10.1007/s10389-020-01460-3

Facts about the study

This study is a sub-project in the much larger SALVe (Survey of Adolescent Life in Vestmanland) study (https://www.medfarm.uu.se/ckfvasteras/research/research-fields/salve). In SALVe, teenagers born in 1997 and 1999, and residing in Västmanland County (to the west of Uppsala), were asked in 2012 to answer questions about various ailments, well-being, sleep, computer habits, gaming, enjoyment of school and other aspects of their lives. The purpose is to follow this cohort for 20 years in order to gain knowledge of how inheritance and environment affect mental and physical health.

In this sub-project, 1,729 adolescents (962 girls and 767 boys) replied to the researchers' questions on the first occasion, in 2012. In 2015 there were 1,481 respondents, and in 2018 1,111. This decrease in numbers over time was due to drop-out, with slightly more boys than girls leaving the study.

The adolescents were grouped on the basis of their BMI and prevalence of depressive symptoms. Every answer to a question about the extent of their subjection to bullying was given a point score from 0 to 3. The researchers then compared the various groups' total scores; that is, they did not explore the results at individual level.

 

Migratory songbirds climb to extreme altitudes during daytime

LUND UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Great reed warblers normally migrate by night during its month-long migration from northern Europe to Sub-Saharan Africa. However, researchers have now discovered that during the few occasions when it continues to fly during daytime, it flies at extremely high altitudes (up to 6300 meters). One possible explanation for this unexpected and consistent behaviour could be that the birds want to avoid overheating. The study is published in Science.

Most of the many millions of songbirds that migrate every year between Europe and Africa fly by night and spend the daytime hours resting and eating. Some species, which normally only fly by night, occasionally fly for over 24 consecutive hours to avoid having to stop in inhospitable locations with insufficient access to food, such as deserts and seas. The great reed warbler, Acrocephalus arundinaceus, is such a species. During its month-long migration, it can fly for up to 34 consecutive hours without landing.

A research team from Lund University in Sweden, University of Copenhagen and the Nature Research Centre in Vilnius has used unique data loggers developed at Lund University to study these long migratory flights almost minute by minute. The researchers used the data loggers, weighing no more than 1.2 grams, to track 14 great reed warblers which were captured during the summer at Lake Kvismaren, close to Örebro in Central Sweden.

The data loggers collected data over a full year, thereby providing the researchers with valuable information. As the great reed warblers migrated to and from Africa, the data loggers continuously stored information about altitude, activity and the sun's ascend and descend. The altitude measurements were recorded once per hour and every five minutes the data loggers saved information about whether the birds were flying, looking for food on the ground or resting.

Based on this information, the researchers calculated that the great reed warblers flew at an average altitude of 2400 metres at night. On the few occasions on which the birds flew for more than one consecutive night, they climbed 3000 metres at dawn to fly at an average altitude of 5400 metres during the day. They remained cruising at that altitude until dusk, when they dived 3-4000 metres and continued their flight at an altitude of around 2000 metres the following night.

Sissel Sjöberg and Dennis Hasselquist at Lund University led the study, and the results came as a surprise to them and their colleagues. They describe the great reed warblers' behaviour as very consistent, indicating that the birds may have to fly at more than twice their night-time altitude to manage migrating during daylight hours at all.

There is no definitive explanation as yet. However, the research team rules out the previously predominant explanations for choice of altitudes in migratory birds: winds and air temperature.

"At altitudes over 2000 metres, winds and air temperatures do not change merely going from day to night or vice versa", says Sissel Sjöberg.

Nor are there any high mountains along the migration route that could push the birds up to extreme altitudes. Two possible explanations could be that during daytime, the great reed warblers see further from a great height and that they can avoid birds of prey. But the researchers also suggest another explanation: the birds climb to more than double the altitude during the day to avoid becoming overheated when they are exposed to the additional effect of the sun's heat radiation.

"It is colder higher up in the air and when the birds rise to 5400 metres, they reach a layer of air with a temperature of around minus 9 degrees centigrade. That is 22 degrees colder than the altitude at which the birds fly during the night", says Sissel Sjöberg.

"The wings of migratory songbirds beat several times per second, so they are working extremely hard, which makes their bodies very warm regardless of whether they are flying by day or by night. But if they fly by day, they are also exposed to the heat from the sun's radiation; that is what we suggest they are compensating for when they climb to a much colder layer of air at daytime. It is likely that they would not manage to fly by day without becoming overheated if they did not climb to these extreme altitudes", says Dennis Hasselquist.

The researchers are continuing to study the great reed warblers. In time, they hope to find answers to the question of why the birds behave in this way, which might also help to explain why most birds that migrate to the tropics during the winter fly almost entirely by night, whereas they are active during the day and sleep at night for the rest of the year.

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Study finds racial disparities in concussion symptom knowledge among college athletes

WOLTERS KLUWER HEALTH

Research News

 

May 7, 2021 - Among collegiate football players and other athletes, Black athletes recognize fewer concussion-related symptoms than their White counterparts, reports a study in the May/June issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR). The official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America, JHTR is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

"Despite NCAA concussion education requirements for athletes, Black collegiate-athletes were found to have lower concussion symptom knowledge than White collegiate-athletes," according to the new research by Jessica Wallace, PhD, MPH, LAT, ATC, of University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, and colleagues. The study also finds racial differences in the sources of concussion symptom knowledge.

Need for 'equitable strategies' to communicate concussion information

In the study, 768 collegiate athletes - about 83 percent White and 17 percent Black - completed a standard assessment of concussion symptom knowledge. Participants included 196 football players, of whom 59 percent were White and 41 percent were Black.

Scores on the concussion symptom knowledge questionnaire were compared for Black and White athletes, with adjustment for other characteristics. The athletes were also asked about their sources of information about concussion symptoms.

"Black athletes were more likely to have lower concussion symptom knowledge scores than White athletes," according to the authors. The difference was small: average scores on the 34-point questionnaire were 27.7 for White athletes and 25.9 for Black athletes. However, the between-group difference remained statistically significant after adjustment for other factors. The findings were similar for football players compared to all athletes.

Concussion symptom knowledge varied for a range of sleep, mood, physical, and cognitive symptoms of concussion. In particular, Black athletes were less likely to correctly recognize the symptoms of feeling like "in a fog," nausea or vomiting, and feeling more irritable/angry.

Most athletes identified athletic trainers as a main source of concussion information. White athletes were somewhat more likely to mention other school-based professionals (such as teachers or nurses), online medical sources, or the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Black athletes were more likely to cite referees as a source of concussion information.

Basic knowledge of concussion symptoms is fundamental to prompt recognition and reporting of concussions. Studies have suggested that 50 to 80 percent of concussions may go unreported.

In previous studies, Dr. Wallace and colleagues reported racial disparities in concussion knowledge among high school and youth athletes. Concussion knowledge was lowest for athletes attending schools of lower socioeconomic status and without access to athletic trainers.

These differences in concussion knowledge may extend to the college level, the new study suggests. The disparity may be related to historic and systemic bias/discrimination and inequitable access to healthcare and other resources, or to racial distrust in medical resources and healthcare overall. "All of these contributing factors of inequity and disparity at the community level, youth sports level, and high school sports level could impact exposure and/or receptiveness to concussion education materials that may ultimately explain the lower concussion symptom knowledge of Black collegiate-athletes," Dr. Wallace and coauthors write.

The researchers emphasize the need for strategies to ensure equitable access to concussion education and prevention that do not perpetuate disparity: "Moving forward, a conscious attempt is needed to redevelop concussion education initiatives as racially, culturally, and linguistically inclusive, addressing the needs of all collegiate athletes equally and equitably."

The NCAA provides educational resources on concussion: https://www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/concussion-educational-resources.

Click here to read "Assessing Differences in Concussion Symptom Knowledge and Sources of Information Among Black and White Collegiate-Athletes." DOI: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000672

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About The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation

The Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation is a leading, peer-reviewed resource that provides up-to-date information on the clinical management and rehabilitation of persons with traumatic brain injuries. Six issues each year aspire to the vision of "knowledge informing care" and include a wide range of articles, topical issues, commentaries and special features. It is the official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America.

About the Brain Injury Association of America

The Brain Injury Association of America is the country's oldest and largest nationwide brain injury advocacy organization. Our mission is to advance awareness, research, treatment and education and to improve the quality of life for all individuals impacted by brain injury. Through advocacy, we bring help, hope and healing to millions of individuals living with brain injury, their families and the professionals who serve them.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (WKL) is a global leader in professional information, software solutions, and services for the clinicians, nurses, accountants, lawyers, and tax, finance, audit, risk, compliance, and regulatory sectors. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with advanced technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2020 annual revenues of €4.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 19,200 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

Wolters Kluwer provides trusted clinical technology and evidence-based solutions that engage clinicians, patients, researchers and students in effective decision-making and outcomes across healthcare. We support clinical effectiveness, learning and research, clinical surveillance and compliance, as well as data solutions. For more information about our solutions, visit https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/health and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @WKHealth.

For more information, visit http://www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

 

With bacteria against coral bleaching

Probiotic approaches could protect corals against heat stress

HELMHOLTZ CENTRE FOR OCEAN RESEARCH KIEL (GEOMAR)

Research News 

IMAGE: EXPERIMENTAL FACILITY FOR DEVELOPING AND TESTING MICROBIOME TRANSPLANTATION METHODS. INNOVATIVE MICROBIOME-BASED STRATEGIES FOR CORALS MIGHT SOON HELP THEM SURVIVE HEAT WAVES FOR A SHORT TIME. view more 

CREDIT: A. ROIK.

7 May 2021/Kiel. Corals are the backbone of marine ecosystems in the tropics. They are threatened by rising water temperatures caused by global warming and they are among the first ecosystems worldwide that are on the verge of ecological collapse. Coral bleaching, which is becoming stronger and more frequent due to heat stress, has already wiped out corals at many locations globally. With the help of a microbiome-targeting strategy developed by an international team led by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, it could become feasible to help protect corals from heat stress. The work has now been published in the international journal Microbiome.

Corals are the backbone of marine ecosystems in the tropics. They are threatened by rising water temperatures caused by global warming and they are among the first ecosystems worldwide that are on the verge of ecological collapse. Coral bleaching, which is becoming stronger and more frequent due to heat stress, has already wiped out corals at many locations globally. With the help of a microbiome-targeting strategy developed by an international team led by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, it could become feasible to help protect corals from heat stress. The work has now been published in the international journal Microbiome.

Images of bare, naked white coral reefs have been increasingly circulating around the world. The typically colourful reefs of tropical oceans, which are home to many species of the marine ecosystem, are suffering from rising water temperatures due to global warming. There is no heat relieve for the corals in sight. Scientists are desperately seeking out ways to make the temperature-sensitive organisms more resistant to heat stress. A group of scientists led by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel are developing a promising approach, which is based on a therapeutic treatment known from human medicine. The study was published in the international journal Microbiome.

"The idea is that probiotic bacteria with beneficial functions could help a coral to better withstand heat stress," explains Dr Anna Roik from GEOMAR, lead author of the study, which was funded as part of a Future Ocean Network project at Kiel University. "In the current study, we tested the approach of a 'microbiome transplantation', inspired by microbiome-based applications we know for example from clinical treatments", Roik continues.

The research group conducted coral microbiome transplantation experiments with the reef-building corals Pocillopora and Porites in the Andaman Sea in Thailand. They investigated whether this technique can improve the heat resistance of corals by modifying the bacterial microbiome. The scientists first looked for more heat-tolerant "donor" corals. "We then used material from the coral tissue of the donor corals to inoculate conspecific, heat-sensitive recipients and then documented their bleaching responses and microbiome changes using a genetic analysis method called 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding", explains Dr Roik.

The recipient corals of both species bleached more mildly compared to the control group during a short-term heat stress test (34 °C). "The results show that the inoculated corals were able to resist the heat stress response for a short time", explains Prof. Dr Ute Hentschel Humeida, head of the Marine Symbioses Research Unit at GEOMAR and co-author of the study. "In addition, the microbiome data suggest that the 'inoculated' corals may favour the uptake of putative bacterial symbionts", Dr Anna Roik continues. "However, further experimental studies are required to unravel the exact mechanism of action, as well as long-term field-based studies to test the durability of the effect", says the marine biologist, looking ahead.

CAPTION

A bleached reef-building coral of the genus Porites. These coral species are important builders of most reefs in the entire Indo-Pacific region. Due to increasingly prolonged heat waves and more extreme temperatures, corals and thus marine ecosystems in the tropics are already on the verge of collapse.

CREDIT

A. Roik

Scientific paper:

Doering, T., M. Wall, L. Putchim, T. Ratanawongwan, R. Schroeder, U. Hentschel, and A. Roik, 2021: Towards enhancing coral heat tolerance: a "microbiome transplantation" treatment using inoculations of homogenized coral tissues. Microbiome 9, 102, https://doi.org/10.1186/s40168-021-01053-6

Links:

http://annaroik.org/#video1 Video about the publication.

Soybean and linseed oils added to cows' diet improve the quality of milk

Brazilian researchers show that feed supplementation improves fatty acid profile of milk and promotes a healthier omega-6/omega-3 ratio.

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Research News

 

Inclusion of soybean and linseed oils in the diet of dairy cows made the fatty acid content of their milk even healthier for human nutrition. It also increased the proportions of omega-6 and omega-3, which in the right balance play a key role in preventing cardiovascular diseases, for example, as well as chronic inflammation and some kinds of cancer.

Cardiovascular diseases are one of the world’s main public health problems. In Brazil, they are among the foremost causes of death. Each year some 300,000 Brazilians have heart attacks, dying in 30% of cases, according to the Health Ministry.

Research led by Arlindo Saran Netto, a professor at the University of São Paulo’s School of Animal Science and Food Engineering (FZEA-USP) in Pirassununga, São Paulo state, shows that consumption of these oils by dairy cows reduced the level of saturated fatty acids in their milk and increased the level of unsaturated fatty acids, which help reduce LDL, known as “bad cholesterol”.

An article published in PLOS ONE, reports the results of the research, which was supported by FAPESP. The study was one of a series led by Saran Netto for more than five years with the aim of improving food quality and developing novel types of milk and meat.

“The quality of the milk available on the market is good. In our research, we aim to create more opportunities to make sure milk benefits human health in novel ways. Many consumers want to go on a specific diet,” Saran Netto told Agência FAPESP.

The study showed that supplementing the cows’ feed with these two oils resulted in an omega-6/omega-3 ratio of 2.7:1 in their milk. Given the opposing effects of the two fatty acids, a healthy diet should be properly balanced. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends between 5:1 and 10:1, but 50:1 could result from a diet consisting mostly of ultra-processed food with little fish and vegetables, causing an imbalance and heightening the risk of heart disease and cancer.

Like other mammals, humans cannot synthesize omega-6 or omega-3 and must obtain them from food. “Future studies should evaluate the health benefits of omega-enriched milk in the human diet,” the article concludes.

In the human metabolism, omega-6 and omega-3 compete for the same elongase and desaturase enzymes. Higher levels of omega-6 impair the metabolization of omega-3. Too much omega-6 can raise blood pressure and triglyceride levels, among other problems. Omega-3 can exert anti-inflammatory action and reduce blood lipids. Recent research has shown that diets with the right amounts of both play an important role in disease prevention.

Method

The researchers worked with 18 lactating Holstein dairy cows for 94 days. All animals were fed the same diet for the first ten days, followed by three experimental periods of 28 days. Control was a regular dairy cow diet with no addition of oil. Then soybean oil was added at 2.5% as a source of omega-6, followed by 2.5% linseed oil as a source of omega-3. Both oils corresponded to 2.5% of total dry matter, replacing corn. These levels were chosen because in previous studies by the group they enhanced the fatty acid profile of the milk without significantly altering yield. Milk samples were then analyzed for fat, protein, lactose, and total solids.

Research by Saran Netto’s group published in 2016 showed that the addition of canola oil to the diet of dairy cows also altered the fatty acid profile of their milk, making it healthier (read more at: agencia.fapesp.br/23371/).

Another study, also funded by FAPESP, experimented with supplementation comprising sunflower oil, organic selenium and vitamin E, improving animal health and both milk yield and conservation while showing that children who consumed the milk had increased levels of selenium and vitamin E in their blood.

Demand

Cow’s milk has historically been an important source of nutrients for human consumption. It is rich in proteins, calcium, magnesium, selenium and vitamin B12, among others. In recent decades, however, demand has fallen, especially in the United States and Canada, for several reasons including health and dietary concerns. For example, the fat in milk can cause allergic reactions and normally contains saturated fatty acids associated with weight gain and obesity. A great deal of scientific research has therefore been devoted to the adaptations needed to meet consumer demand for a healthier product.

Brazil ranks fifth among the world’s leading milk producers, with an annual output of 34 billion liters. Dairy is one of the most important segments of its food industry. Annual consumption of milk averages 170 liters per capita, less than the developed-country average (250-300 liters). UHT (long life) milk is the most consumed milk product, but sales of cheese have risen strongly in recent years.

The types of milk obtained by Saran Netto and his group are not yet on sale in Brazil, although the research is more than complete. The main reason, he said, is logistical difficulties with distribution and industrial processing that have delayed commercialization.

“In many cases, the same truck collects milk from several farms. This hinders development of the product because we can’t mix regular milk and milk produced by cows with a specific diet. Likewise in industry: we need a separate production line for special milk,” he said. “Consumer demand isn’t large enough yet to guarantee sales volumes that would make separate processing viable.” In future, he hopes to try to commercialize milk with supplemental omega-3 and antioxidants.

The article “Inclusion of soybean and linseed oils in the diet of lactating dairy cows makes the milk’s fatty acid profile nutritionally healthier for the human diet” is at: journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0246357.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news

 

18.5 million year old vine fossil identified as new species

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

ITHACA, N.Y. - An 18.5 million-year-old fossil found in Panama provides evidence of a new species and is the oldest reliable example of a climbing woody vine known as a liana from the soapberry family. The discovery sheds light on the evolution of climbing plants.

The new species, named Ampelorhiza heteroxylon, belongs to a diverse group of tropical lianas called Paullinieae, within the soapberry family (Sapindaceae). More than 475 species of Paullinieae live in the tropics today.

Researchers identified the species from fossilized roots that revealed features known to be unique to the wood of modern climbing vines, adaptations that allow them to twist, grow and climb.

The study, "Climbing Since the Early Miocene: The Fossil Record of Paullinieae (Sapindaceae)," was published April 7 in the journal PLOS ONE.

"This is evidence that lianas have been creating unusual wood, even in their roots, as far back as 18 million years ago," said wood anatomist Joyce Chery '13, assistant research professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science, Plant Biology Section, in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and a corresponding author of the paper.

"Before this discovery, we knew almost nothing about when or where these lianas evolved or how rapidly they diversified," said first author Nathan Jud, assistant professor of plant biology at William Jewell College and a former Cornell postdoctoral researcher.

Panama was a peninsula 18.5 to 19 million years ago, a volcanic landscape covered with tropical forest in North America and separated from South America by a Central American seaway. While these forests contained North American animals, the plants mostly descended from South American tropical plants that had dispersed across the seaway, Jud said.

"The fossil we described is the oldest macrofossil of these vines," he said, "and they were among the plants that made it to North America long before the Great American Biotic Interchange when large animals moved between the continents some 3 million years ago."

In the study, the researchers made thin slices of the fossil, examined the arrangements and dimensions of tissues and water conducting vessels under a microscope and created a database of all the features. They then studied the literature to see how these features matched up with the living and fossil records of plants.

"We were able to say, it really does look like it's a fossil from the Paullinieae group, given the anatomical characteristics that are similar to species that live today," Chery said.

During their analyses, the researchers identified features that are characteristic of lianas. Most trees and shrubs have water-conducting tissues (which transport water and minerals from roots to leaves) that are all roughly the same size when viewed in a cross-section; in vines, these conduits come in two sizes, big and small, which is exactly what the researchers discovered in the fossil.

"This is a feature that is pretty specific to vines across all sorts of families," Chery said.

The two vessel sizes provide insurance for a twisting and curving plant, as large vessels provide ample water flow, but are also vulnerable to collapse and develop cavities that disrupt flow. The series of smaller vessels offers a less vulnerable backup water transport system, Chery said.

Also, cross-sections of the wood in trees and shrubs are circular, but in the fossil, and in many living vines, such cross-sections are instead irregular and lobed.

Thirdly, on the walls of those vascular vessels, they found long horizontal perforations that allow for water to flow in lateral directions. That is a distinguishing feature of lianas in the soapberry family, Chery said.

In future work, now that they can place the lianas of Sapindaceae to 18.5 million years ago, the researchers intend to continue their 

 

Overcoming tab overload

CMU researchers develop tool to better manage browser tabs

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

If you are reading this, chances are you have several other tabs open in your browser that you mean to get to eventually.

Internet browser tabs are a major source of friction on the internet. People love them. People hate them. For some users, tabs bring order and efficiency to their web browsing. For others, they spiral out of control, shrinking at the top of the screen as their numbers expand.

A research team at Carnegie Mellon University recently completed the first in-depth study of browser tabs in more than a decade. They found that many people struggle with tab overload, an underlying reason being that while tabs serve a variety of functions, they often do so poorly.

"Browser tabs are sort of the most basic tools that you use on the internet," said Joseph Chee Chang, a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Computer Science's Human Computer Interaction Institute (HCII) and a member of the research team. "Despite being so ubiquitous, we noticed that people were having all sorts of issues with them."

The team will present their paper, "When the Tab Comes Due: Challenges in the Cost Structure of Browser Tab Usage," at the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021), May 8-13.

For the study, the team conducted surveys and interviews with people about their tab use. The study details why people kept tabs open, including using them as reminders or fearing they would have to search for the information again. It also looked at why people closed tabs, knowing that tab overload can strain a person's attention and computer resources. About 25% of the participants in one aspect of the study reported that their browser or computer crashed because they had too many tabs open.

The researchers found that people felt invested in the tabs they had open, making it difficult for them to close the tabs even as they started to feel overwhelmed or ashamed by how many they had open.

Tabs first showed up in web browsers in 2001 and haven't changed much since. The internet, however, has. There is about a billion times more information on the web now than there was 20 years ago. Today, one tab could house an email inbox. Another could be used for a music or video player. Articles stashed away to read later could be in other tabs, as could restaurant reviews or information for an upcoming trip. Add in social media sites, news or other pages used for work or play, and it is easy to have a dozen or more tabs or windows open at any given time.

Tabs, it turns out, aren't the best tool for assisting with complex work and life tasks that people perform on the internet. Their simple list structure makes it difficult for users to jump between sets of tasks throughout the day. And despite people using tabs as an external form of memory, they do not capture the rich structure of their thoughts. Researchers found that while users complained about being overwhelmed by the number of tabs they queued up to work on later, they also didn't want to move them out of sight, as they worried about never going back to them.

"People feared that as soon as something went out of sight, it was gone," said Aniket Kittur, a professor in the HCII and head of the research team. "Fear of this black hole effect was so strong that it compelled people to keep tabs open even as the number became unmanageable."

Tab overload also arises from sense-making and decision tasks that require a person to absorb information from many sources, stitch it together and come to a conclusion. For instance, if someone is researching what camera to buy, that person may search several different reviews, how-to guides and shopping sites to compare models.

"Managing this sort of task is really one of the most important aspects of productivity in our lives," Kittur said. "And the number one tool that everyone uses for it is tabs, even though they don't do a good job."

The team believes that today's browsers do not offer a good tool for managing all the information and tasks people head to the internet for. To fix this, they created Skeema, an extension for the Google Chrome browser that reimagines tabs as tasks.

The extension helps users group their tabs into tasks and then organize, prioritize and switch between them. Skeema uses machine learning to make suggestions for grouping open tabs into tasks and supports nested tasks and complex decision-making.

Users of an early version of the tool significantly reduced the number of tabs and windows they kept open, reported much less stress connected to tabs, and remained more focused on the task at hand. Many of the early beta testers started using the tool daily to manage the tabs and tasks in their lives.

"Our task-centric approach allowed users to manage their browser tabs more efficiently, enabling them to better switch between tasks, reduce tab clutter and create task structures that better reflected their mental models," Chang said. "As our online tasks become increasingly complex, new interfaces and interactions that can merge tab management and task management in a browser will become increasingly important. After 20 years of little innovation, Skeema is a first step toward making tabs work better for users."

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Consumption of pornography is widespread among young Internet users

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN

Research News

 

Nearly four-fifths of 16- and 17-year-olds have encountered pornographic content on the Internet

Pornography is a multibillion-dollar business. Pornographic content is virtually ubiquitous on the Internet, and surveys suggest that 25% of all searches lead to explicit content. Given the size of the market, it's not surprising that young people are drawn to such sites, which are only a couple of clicks away.

Professor Neil Thurman of the Department of Media and Communication (IfKW) at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich, in collaboration with statistician Fabian Obster (Universität der Bundeswehr München), has carried out a study on the use of pornographic sites by young people. Based on a survey involving a sample of 1000 British adolescents, the survey also provides pointers for regulators and legislators in Germany.

Overall, 78% of users between the ages of 16 and 17 reported that they had encountered pornography on the Internet. Moreover, many of them stated that they visited dedicated pornographic websites frequently. Those who participated in the survey admitted that, on average, they had last visited such sites 6 days prior to filling in the questionnaire. And many respondents said they watched porno videos and viewed picture galleries on that very day. Analysis of the responses indicated that adolescents spent an average of 2 hours per month on commercial pornographic websites, almost always accessed on their smartphones or tablets. The survey also revealed that young consumers are also turning to social media portals for access to explicit material. Adolescent users of online pornography are more likely to be male.

Well acquainted with VPNs and the Tor browser

In Germany, the UK, France and Canada, efforts are now underway to regulate access to legal online pornography, and in some cases measures have already been implemented. These include provisions for mandatory age verification prior to the admission of users to such websites. But, according to Thurman's survey, around half of the respondents had used VPNs or the Tor browser. Both tools anonymize connection data, thus allowing country-specific restrictions to be circumvented.

"At present, the online pornography market is highly concentrated. It is dominated by a few global firms. Indeed, only a handful of websites account for the majority of consumption," Thurman says. In the context of measures to protect minors, he therefore suggests that, in additional to country-specific measures, there should also be pressure placed on the major global publishers of pornography, to encourage them to introduce effective age restrictions in all the markets in which they operate. In addition, similar regulations should be applied, as is already happening in the UK, to social-media platforms.

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