Culture

A new way to treat acid mine drainage (AMD) could help transform the environmental pollution problem into an important domestic source of the critical rare earth elements needed to produce technology ranging from smart phones to fighter jets, according to Penn State scientists.

"Acid mine drainage has been a significant environmental concern for many decades," said Mohammad Rezaee, assistant professor of mining engineering in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State. "This research shows we can modify existing treatment processes in a way that not only addresses environmental concerns, but at the same time recovers valuable elements and actually decreases the cost of treatment."

A team of Penn State scientists developed a two-stage treatment process that enabled them to recover higher concentrations of rare earth elements using smaller amounts of chemicals than previously possible, the scientists said.

"This technique represents an efficient, low-cost and environmentally friendly method to extract these valuable minerals that are used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products," said Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering and director of the Center for Critical Minerals at Penn State.

Rare earth elements are a group of 17 minerals widely used in advanced technologies and designated by the U.S. as critical to the country's economic and national security. The U.S. currently imports nearly 100% of these materials, with China producing about 85% of the world supply.

AMD from coal mining operations in Appalachia represents a promising domestic source of rare earth elements because it often contains high concentrations of the minerals, and because it is already being collected and treated due to environmental concerns, the scientists said.

"We are currently incurring costs just to treat the water, and in many cases, we are not even collecting all these minerals," Pisupati said. "Now we are able to turn what had been considered a waste product into a valuable resource."

AMD occurs when pyrite rock -- iron sulfide -- unearthed by mining activity interacts with water and air and then oxidizes, creating sulfuric acid. The acid then breaks down surrounding rocks, causing toxic metals to dissolve into the water, the scientists said.

Traditional treatment methods involve collecting the AMD in retention ponds and adding chemicals to neutralize the pH -- an indicator of how acidic or basic a substance is. This causes the dissolved metals to precipitate, or form into solids, and settle out of the water. Up to 70% of rare earth elements can be extracted as a sludge using this process, and the rest are released along with the treated water, according to researchers.

The scientists found they could extract a higher concentration of rare earth elements and other critical minerals by adding carbon dioxide to the AMD and then bringing it to a neutral pH of 7, the target for environmental remediation, in two separate steps.

Using this method, 90% of aluminum was recovered at a pH of 5 and 85% of rare earth elements were recovered by pH 7, the scientists reported in Chemical Engineering Journal.

Adding carbon dioxide to AMD produces chemical reactions that result in the formation of solid minerals called carbonites, the scientists said. The rare earth elements bond with the extra carbonites and precipitate out of the water at lower pH values.

The process, called carbon dioxide mineralization, is an emerging technology being used to remove excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This study represents the first time it has been used to recover large concentrations of rare earth elements from AMD, the scientists said.

Recovering the same concentration of rare earth elements from AMD using traditional treatment methods would require adding additional chemicals to increase the pH beyond 7. The scientists said by lowering recovery costs, the new treatment method could make the domestic rare-earth-element market more competitive.

"With a simple modification of existing treatment processes, industry could use less chemicals and get more value out of AMD waste," Rezaee said. "This is the beauty of this research."

The COVID-19 pandemic exposes weaknesses in the supply chain when countries go into lockdown. Some are small, such as the toilet paper shortages early on, that, while annoying, were eventually resolved. But what happens when the effects of the pandemic reach the food systems of countries highly reliant on food imports and income from abroad, and commerce slows to a halt?

UC Santa Barbara marine conservationist Jacob Eurich and collaborators watched this very situation unfold in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) -- the island nations scattered in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand to French Polynesia, and including the Marshall Islands to Papua New Guinea. While infection with SARS-CoV-2 has been slow there relative to other parts of the world, the global lockdown can have outsized effects on their food systems.

"One of the key messages from the research is to rely less on global food supply chains," said Eurich, a co-author on a paper that appears in the journal Food Security. While this study was specific to the PICT region, areas with few domestic alternatives to global supply chains, he noted, are vulnerable to similar threats to food security when shocks to the system occur.

With their remote locations, lack of arable land and economies dependent on tourism and need for food imports, the PICTs have become reliant on movement in and out of the region for much of the food they consume and also for the money to purchase that food.

But even with commerce slowing down, these countries and territories need not suffer food scarcity and malnutrition, the researchers said. The PICTs are home to large networks of coral reefs that host a diverse array of fish and other seafood.

"Coral reefs should operate as biodiverse, living refrigerators for coastal communities, sourcing replenishable, nutritious food," Eurich said. "Coastal communities can and should be able to depend on traditionally-sourced diets if the resource is healthy."

In fact, the time is ripe to reconsider the role of local production in the region's food systems, according to the researchers. For instance, some areas with farmland could benefit by reinvigorating their production of root crops, which would not only decrease reliance on the global supply chain, but also provide healthy alternatives to imported processed foods.

"Bolstering local production and intraregional trade strengthens the food system," he said. "Consuming more locally produced fresh foods and less non-perishable shelf-stable foods is a step in the right direction."

Meanwhile, a shortening of the supply chain via strong intraregional trade could strengthen the regional economy while also protecting against food insecurity. Significant local processing and storage challenges must be overcome, according to the paper, and intra-island transport and food distribution strengthened. Particularly in the PICT region, where large scale local fish storage is currently inadequate, it helps to prioritize production of less perishable foods (like root crops) over fish, Eurich said.

It's not just about pandemic planning. The same principles for resilient food systems in the face of climate change and natural disaster -- both of which the PICTs have been facing -- could serve as a basis for response to other COVID-19-type scenarios, according to the researchers.

"Climate change and natural disasters can be considered shocks to the system," Eurich said. "The pandemic, while there was time to prepare, was still a shock. We have learned that enhancing storage, production and distribution through coordination and increasing regional transparency are keys of a resilient supply chain when these unexpected changes occur."

Using stem cells to restore lost functions due to spinal cord injury (SCI) has long been an ambition of scientists and doctors. Nearly 18,000 people in the United States suffer SCIs each year, with another 294,000 persons living with an SCI, usually involving some degree of permanent paralysis or diminished physical function, such as bladder control or difficulty breathing.

In a new study, published August 5, 2020 in Cell Stem Cell, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report successfully implanting highly specialized grafts of neural stem cells directly into spinal cord injuries in mice, then documenting how the grafts grew and filled the injury sites, integrating with and mimicking the animals' existing neuronal network.

Until this study, said the study's first author Steven Ceto, a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Translational Neuroscience Institute at UC San Diego School of Medicine, neural stem cell grafts being developed in the lab were sort of a black box.

Although previous research, including published work by Tuszynski and colleagues, had shown improved functioning in SCI animal models after neural stem cell grafts, scientists did not know exactly what was happening.

"We knew that damaged host axons grew extensively into (injury sites), and that graft neurons in turn extended large numbers of axons into the spinal cord, but we had no idea what kind of activity was actually occurring inside the graft itself," said Ceto. "We didn't know if host and graft axons were actually making functional connections, or if they just looked like they could be."

Ceto, Tuszynski and colleagues took advantage of recent technological advances that allow researchers to both stimulate and record the activity of genetically and anatomically defined neuron populations with light rather than electricity. This ensured they knew exactly which host and graft neurons were in play, without having to worry about electric currents spreading through tissue and giving potentially misleading results.

They discovered that even in the absence of a specific stimulus, graft neurons fired spontaneously in distinct clusters of neurons with highly correlated activity, much like in the neural networks of the normal spinal cord. When researchers stimulated regenerating axons coming from the animals' brain, they found that some of the same spontaneously active clusters of graft neurons responded robustly, indicating that these networks receive functional synaptic connections from inputs that typically drive movement. Sensory stimuli, such as a light touch and pinch, also activated graft neurons.

"We showed that we could turn on spinal cord neurons below the injury site by stimulating graft axons extending into these areas," said Ceto. "Putting all these results together, it turns out that neural stem cell grafts have a remarkable ability to self-assemble into spinal cord-like neural networks that functionally integrate with the host nervous system. After years of speculation and inference, we showed directly that each of the building blocks of a neuronal relay across spinal cord injury are in fact functional."

Tuszynski said his team is now working on several avenues to enhance the functional connectivity of stem cell grafts, such as organizing the topology of grafts to mimic that of the normal spinal cord with scaffolds and using electrical stimulation to strengthen the synapses between host and graft neurons.

"While the perfect combination of stem cells, stimulation, rehabilitation and other interventions may be years off, patients are living with spinal cord injury right now," Tuszynski said. "Therefore, we are currently working with regulatory authorities to move our stem cell graft approach into clinical trials as soon as possible. If everything goes well, we could have a therapy within the decade."

Climate change and disruption of the ecosystem have the potential to profoundly impact the human body. Xue Ming, professor of neurology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, who recently published a paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health on the effects of climate change on allergies, autoimmunity and the microbiome -- the beneficial microorganisms that live on and inside the human body -- discusses how the delicate balance of the environment affects conditions such as allergies, autism and immune disorders.

How has climate change affected respiratory allergies?

Climate change has worsened respiratory allergic disease and has altered the immune system's tolerance in responding to toxins, which has led to an increase in the prevalence of immune diseases. People with chronic respiratory allergic disease that affects the nose and eyes, such as asthma and allergies, are at particular risk due to increased exposure to pollen and the increased concentration and distribution of air pollutants.

According to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, climate change has both increased the intensity of the pollen season as well as prolonged its duration. Increases in carbon dioxide were shown to lead to an increase in plant reproduction and total pollen levels, especially those plants that thrive at high carbon dioxide concentrations. For example, ragweed pollen has been increasing in concentration, with models predicting that levels will increase by four times within the next 30 years.

Thunderstorms, which have become more frequent due to rising sea temperatures, have been found to increase concentrations of pollen grains at ground level. After absorbing water, these grains can rupture and release allergenic particles that can induce severe asthmatic symptoms in patients with asthma or hay fever.

Climate change has also been linked to increased concentrations and distribution of air pollutants such as ozone, nitric oxide and other volatile organic chemicals. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that these airborne environmental pollutants may be partially responsible for the substantial increase in allergic respiratory disease seen in industrialized countries over the past several decades.

How do changes to the ecosystem affect allergies and respiratory disorders?

Deforestation and over-logging have led to a dramatic decrease in the diversity of plant species. As one species of plant becomes extinct, new species emerge to take their place. For example, as oak trees have been excessively harvested for architectural purposes, new species of trees have emerged. With these new trees come new forms of tree pollen, which are inhaled and ingested by humans on a daily basis.

Similarly, widespread pesticide use has altered the profile of insects, invertebrates and microorganisms with which we come into contact with through our soil and vegetation. As the environment is altered, our bodies are bombarded with novel organisms. The molecules which make up these organisms -- known as antigens -- are recognized as "foreign" by our bodies and create an inflammatory response.

How might a loss of biodiversity due to climate change affect non-respiratory diseases?

According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history, with nearly 1 million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction due to climate change.

The loss of biodiversity related to climate change may affect the microbiome, potentially leading to inflammatory, autoimmune and neurologic diseases. Immunologic disorders, such as food allergies, are on the rise. For example, several studies have found that increases in carbon dioxide and temperature are correlated with changes in the composition of the peanut, making it more difficult for the body to adapt immunity.

Could disturbances in gut bacteria affect the autism rate?

Disruption of gut bacteria has been linked to neurologic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, autism and Parkinson's disease. In my own research, I found abnormal amino acid metabolism, increased imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants in the body, and altered gut microbiomes among some patients with autism spectrum disorder.

What steps can be taken to minimize the health risks brought on by climate change?

We must end the destruction of our natural environment, decrease emissions of greenhouse gases and adopt more "green" behavior. With research demonstrating links between the microbiome and autoimmune, inflammatory and neurologic diseases, it is critical that we minimize antimicrobial exposure. This may involve altering guidelines for the prescription of antibiotics by medical professionals. In addition, given that the microbiome is directly impacted by our daily environment it is important to regularly immerse ourselves in nature and familiarize ourselves with biodiverse surroundings.

One million years ago, the extinction of large-bodied plant-eaters changed the trajectory of life on Earth. The disappearance of these large herbivores reshaped plant life, altered fire regimes across Earth's landscapes, and modified biogeochemical cycling in such a way that Earth's climate became slightly colder. A new study out today by Utah State University Assistant Professor of Watershed Sciences, Trisha Atwood, suggests that modern-day megaherbivores (plant-eaters weighing more than 1000 kg) could soon suffer the same fate as their ancient ancestors, with unknown consequences for Earth and all of its inhabitants.

Armed with a dataset of the diets of over 24,500 mammals, birds, and reptiles, Atwood and her team set out to answer the question "Are plant-eaters, meat-eaters, or animals who eat both plants and meat, at the greatest risk of extinction?" Their findings, published in the journal Science Advances, would challenge a two-decade-long perception that meat-eating predators were the most likely group to meet the ire of Earth's six mass extinction.

The results indicate that with over a quarter of the world's modern-day herbivores threatened with extinction, plant eaters have the highest representation of at-risk species in the present day. The study also highlights that this attack on herbivores is not a new phenomenon. Human activities have led to the disproportionate extinction of herbivores compared to predators since at least the late Pleistocene (11,000-50,000 years ago).

"The results were somewhat shocking," said Atwood. "Our highly publicized and fraught relationship with predatory animals such as lions and wolves has led to the unfounded perception that we are losing predators more than any other trophic group."

Using evidence-based science to challenge misconceptions like the one Atwood's team uncovered is essential for getting society on the right track towards addressing future extinctions. Because a species' role in its ecosystem is intricately linked to what it eats, understanding whether predators, herbivores, or omnivores are at the highest risk of extinction helps scientists and society understand what the potential consequences of losing those species are.

Already the consequences of declines in modern herbivores from land-use change and hunting have begun to echo those that occurred on Earth 1 million years ago; alterations to plant life, changes to fire regimes, and disruptions to nutrient cycling. This study highlights that we must redouble our efforts to strategically invest in conservation and management of herbivores to avoid future dramatic changes in the functions arising from animals at the base of global foodwebs.

Although the results of the study indicate that herbivores are the most at-risk group, it is not clear sailing for predators. The study also identified scavengers, which eat the remains of recently deceased animals (e.g., vultures) and animals that primarily eat fish, such as seabirds, as having a heightened risk of extinction.

"Our results enable us to identify specialized diets within the carnivores that are associated with higher extinction risk, and also identify the habitats these species live in," says Edd Hammill an Assistant Professor of Watershed Sciences at Utah State University and co-author of the study. "It would appear that seabirds across the globe suffer disproportionately high levels of extinction"

To better inform conservation actions, the researchers are now wrestling to understand what it is about herbivores, scavengers, and piscivores (animals that consume fish) that make them more susceptible to extinction compared to other animals.

"Documenting a pattern in extinctions is only the first step towards curbing the loss of species," says Atwood. "Our next step is to understand the intricacies of why this pattern is occurring; only then will we really have a chance at stopping these future extinctions."

Catalysts speed up chemical reactions and form the backbone of many industrial processes.  For example, they are essential in transforming heavy oil into gasoline or jet fuel. Today, catalysts are involved in over 80 percent of all manufactured products.

A research team, led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory in collaboration with Northern Illinois University, has discovered a new electrocatalyst that converts carbon dioxide (CO2) and water into ethanol with very high energy efficiency, high selectivity for the desired final product and low cost. Ethanol is a particularly desirable commodity because it is an ingredient in nearly all U.S. gasoline and is widely used as an intermediate product in the chemical, pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

“The process resulting from our catalyst would contribute to the circular carbon economy, which entails the reuse of carbon dioxide.” — Di-Jia Liu, senior chemist in Argonne’s Chemical Sciences and Engineering division and a UChicago CASE scientist

“The process resulting from our catalyst would contribute to the circular carbon economy, which entails the reuse of carbon dioxide,” said Di-Jia Liu, senior chemist in Argonne’s Chemical Sciences and Engineering division and a UChicago CASE scientist in the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, University of Chicago. This process would do so by electrochemically converting the CO2 emitted from industrial processes, such as fossil fuel power plants or alcohol fermentation plants, into valuable commodities at reasonable cost.

The team’s catalyst consists of atomically dispersed copper on a carbon-powder support. By an electrochemical reaction, this catalyst breaks down CO2 and water molecules and selectively reassembles the broken molecules into ethanol under an external electric field. The electrocatalytic selectivity, or “Faradaic efficiency,” of the process is over 90 percent, much higher than any other reported process. What is more, the catalyst operates stably over extended operation at low voltage.

“With this research, we’ve discovered a new catalytic mechanism for converting carbon dioxide and water into ethanol,” said Tao Xu, a professor in physical chemistry and nanotechnology from Northern Illinois University. “The mechanism should also provide a foundation for development of highly efficient electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide conversion to a vast array of value-added chemicals.”

Because CO2 is a stable molecule, transforming it into a different molecule is normally energy intensive and costly. However, according to Liu, “We could couple the electrochemical process of CO2-to-ethanol conversion using our catalyst to the electric grid and take advantage of the low-cost electricity available from renewable sources like solar and wind during off-peak hours.” Because the process runs at low temperature and pressure, it can start and stop rapidly in response to the intermittent supply of the renewable electricity.

The team’s research benefited from two DOE Office of Science User Facilities at Argonne — the Advanced Photon Source (APS) and Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) — as well as Argonne’s Laboratory Computing Resource Center (LCRC). “Thanks to the high photon flux of the X-ray beams at the APS, we have captured the structural changes of the catalyst during the electrochemical reaction,’’ said Tao Li, an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Northern Illinois University and an assistant scientist in Argonne’s X-ray Science division. These data along with high-resolution electron microscopy at CNM and computational modeling using the LCRC revealed a reversible transformation from atomically dispersed copper to clusters of three copper atoms each on application of a low voltage. The CO2-to-ethanol catalysis occurs on these tiny copper clusters. This finding is shedding light on ways to further improve the catalyst through rational design. 

“We have prepared several new catalysts using this approach and found that they are all highly efficient in converting CO2 to other hydrocarbons,” said Liu. “We plan to continue this research in collaboration with industry to advance this promising technology.”

Flying insects and parasites are often vectors for disease, but a mosquito needs to first find someone before they can bite them. In a recent study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, researchers examined bird nests in order to understand how insects and parasites detect gases such as carbon dioxide and methane as a way to locate their hosts.

The researchers focused on blue tit bird nest boxes located in a deciduous forest in central Spain. They found that the nests contained more biting midges when concentrations of carbon dioxide were higher inside the nest compared to the forest air. "This is important because biting midges are the main vector of Haemoproteus, the most abundant blood parasite infecting birds in our study area," says Dr. Santiago Merino of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, one of the researchers on the study.

With the looming threat of climate change, rising carbon levels will affect every aspect of our ecosystem - from the largest to the smallest organism. "Predictions expect an increase of diseases in northern latitudes due to climate change," he says, "But factors like gas concentrations and temperature may affect the incidence of diseases," as well.

The first step to understanding the future of course, is studying the present. "We want to know how the relationship between gas concentrations and parasite attraction is changing," Merino says, "in order to adjust our predictions on extension of diseases."

Bird nesting cavities offered a unique opportunity to study the interaction between gas concentration and parasites since the enclosed space allows for better comparisons. In addition to the positive correlation between carbon dioxide and biting midges, Merino and his colleagues found that there were more mites inside the nests when carbon dioxide was higher, and more black flies when methane was lower. The methane concentration may be related to bacteria in the nesting materials.

The authors also factored in variables such as temperature, brood size, and time to their analyses. When there were no nestlings present in the nest boxes, carbon dioxide concentration inside the nest was not significantly different compared with the forest air, indicating that the presence of nestlings caused gas fluctuations.

Merino says that the relationship between humidity and gas concentration is important and, while it was examined in this study, it should be studied further. While the study is limited in its focused approach, the authors would like to collaborate with other researchers working in different environments to see if their results differ in other conditions.

As a global center for petrochemical manufacturing, Houston, Texas, experiences some of the worst air quality in the country, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Evidence suggests that air pollution disproportionately affects low-income, non-white and Hispanic residents, but it's difficult to directly observe differences in pollutants between neighborhoods. Now, researchers reporting in Environmental Science & Technology have used airplanes and a satellite to uncover disparities in nitrogen dioxide amounts in the atmosphere above Houston.

Nitrogen dioxide, a precursor to ground-level ozone and particulate matter, is produced mainly by vehicles and power plants. In Houston, petrochemical refineries and industrial activities also emit this pollutant, which has been linked to respiratory problems. Ground-based nitrogen dioxide monitors and low-resolution satellite observations have historically had limited abilities to capture differences among neighborhoods of the same city. Angelique Demetillo, Sally Pusede and colleagues wanted to use a new high-spatial-resolution dataset from a NASA spectrometer onboard an airplane to investigate neighborhood-level differences in nitrogen dioxide within Houston, and to see whether these differences correlated with race-ethnicity and income of the neighborhoods. They also wanted to use these airborne data to evaluate whether the recently launched, space-based TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) could resolve similar between-neighborhood differences.

The researchers used the NASA airborne spectrometer data to examine differences in population-weighted nitrogen dioxide levels for different census tracts. The areas where the pollutant was highest were where more low-income, non-white and Hispanic people lived. In contrast, where the pollutant was lowest, high-income, white people tended to live there. Most of the disparities could be explained by proximity of the neighborhoods to industrial sources and heavy-duty diesel vehicles. The researchers then used the observations from TROPOMI in a similar analysis, demonstrating that these new space-based measurements could also detect pollution inequalities within Houston. While the aircraft measurements can be collected over one-month periods, the TROPOMI observations are made almost daily and have the potential to be useful to decision-makers as they allocate resources for reducing air pollution, propose emission requirements and invest in public transportation, the researchers say.

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 5, 2020 - Researchers at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and Promundo-US found that men who harbor more harmful attitudes about masculinity -- including beliefs about aggression and homophobia -- also tend toward bullying, sexual harassment, depression and suicidal thoughts.

The study, published today in Preventive Medicine, is based on the "Man Box" Scale developed by Promundo-US, the U.S. member of a global consortium dedicated to promoting gender equality and ending violence, as a way to measure harmful norms and stereotypes about masculinity. The 15-item scale encompasses themes such as self-sufficiency, acting tough, physical attractiveness, rigid masculine gender roles, hypersexuality, and control.

"While there has been a lot of discussion around harmful masculinities in the media and in the research community, no one has agreed on a standardized way to measure the concept," explains Elizabeth Miller, M.D., Ph.D., chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at UPMC Children's Hospital.

The idea of the Man Box originated in the 1980s. Paul Kivel and his colleagues at the Oakland Men's Project developed the "Act Like a Man Box" activity as a way to discuss how society tells men they ought to be. Since then, activist Tony Porter helped popularize the term in a TEDWomen Talk and his book "Breaking Out of the 'Man Box': The Next Generation of Manhood."

Recently, the issue of harmful masculinities received widespread attention in response to the 2018 American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Boys and Men, which presented a series of steps health care practitioners should take to improve the psychological care of boys and men.

The APA was reacting to growing evidence showing that men who strongly align with more harmful masculine gender norms have poorer health outcomes, such as depression and suicidal ideation. In addition, these men perpetrate violence against others at much higher rates. Research shows that boys and men, just like girls and women, are affected by societal norms, and those norms can have real consequences.

Using 2016 data from more than 3,600 men ages 18-30 across three countries, this study found that higher Man Box Scale scores were associated with up to five times higher rates of verbal, online or physical bullying, as well as sexual harassment. Men with higher scores also were about twice as likely to experience depression or suicidal ideation.

"These findings highlight how detrimental harmful masculinities can be to the people who endorse them, as well as their peers, families and communities at large," said lead author Amber Hill, Ph.D., fourth-year medical student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "It's important to remember that individuals of all genders are influenced and impacted by the heteronormative society that we live in."

To help clinicians more efficiently monitor their male patients' attitudes, the researchers developed a shorter version of the survey including only the five items that had the strongest associations with violence and poor mental health:

1. A man shouldn't have to do household chores.

2. Men should use violence to get respect if necessary.

3. A real man should have as many sexual partners as he can.

4. A man who talks a lot about his worries, fears and problems shouldn't really get respect.

5. A gay guy is not a "real man."

"We have found a way to measure the concept of the 'Man Box,' which allows us to clearly see that when men embrace stereotypical ideas about manhood, they're also more likely to harm the well-being of others, as well as impact their own health in adverse ways," said Gary Barker, Ph.D., president and C.E.O. of Promundo-US. "As health care providers, researchers and public health workers, we now have a valid tool in our pockets to help us measure progress toward changing harmful stereotypes and advancing both gender equality and healthier versions of masculinity."

Researchers have examined what's currently known about the neuroendocrine effects of grief and whether biological factors can predict complicated or prolonged grief after the death of a loved one. The findings appear in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology.

The review of the 20 published studies that were deemed relevant found that most studies reported on levels of the stress hormone cortisol, finding higher blood urine, or saliva levels associated with bereavement. While most published studies on the topic were of fair statistical quality only, many found that cortisol levels were altered in bereaved individuals, with possible consequences for health.

The authors called for additional studies encompassing more potential markers of neuroendocrine activity associated with grief. Such efforts may point to new treatment strategies related to psychological and physical adaptations to loss.

"Anticipatory grief and grief after social loss are fundamental stressors and can have long-term health implications for those who lose a loved one. Identifying neuroendocrine factors that are associated with grief might help tailor interventions for the bereaved and help them cope with loss." said senior author Beate Ditzen, PhD, of Heidelberg University Hospital, in Germany.

A new analysis published in IBIS examines whether bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms that are present in wild vultures cause disease in the birds, and whether vultures play a role in spreading or preventing infectious diseases to humans and other animal species.

The analysis examined results from published studies and found that microorganisms, which cause disease in humans, can be found in vultures with some bacterial pathogens showing multi-antibiotic resistance. In some cases, these microorganisms cause health alterations of variable degree in different vulture species, but there was no clear evidence that vultures play a role spreading pathogens to humans and other species. On the contrary, they may actually help to prevent the spread of infectious diseases when they consume and remove decomposing carcasses from the environment.

"Further research should evaluate the potential of vultures in disease regulation to avoid misconceptions and to promote scientific evidence of the ecosystem service they provide. This will help to conserve this globally threatened avian group and maintain the contributions they provide to people," said lead author Pablo Plaza, of INIBIOMA-CONICET-National University of Comahue, in Argentina.

A survey conducted immediately before and after the 2016 US presidential election reveals that the election of Donald Trump had a negative effect on Europeans' image of the United States, but it did not seem to affect the willingness of Europeans to sign a trade and investment agreement with the country.

The authors of the analysis, which is published in Economic Inquiry, noted that the election mainly caused undecided people to adjust their image of the United States in a negative way, rather than cause people with a positive image to take on a negative one.

"We found that the election outcome led to an immediate and sizable negative effect on Europeans' image of the United States," said Tom Coupe, PhD, of the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. "But because people with a positive image are most likely to support a trade agreement, little changed overall," added Oleksandr Shepotylo, PhD, of Aston University, in the UK.

A new study in Review of Economic Studies suggests that a large increase in the stock of immigrants to the United States would have little impact on the wages of native US citizens. Allowing for more high-skill immigration could be detrimental to some highly skilled workers in the country, but disproportionately beneficial to low skilled workers.

The researcher involved in the study, Suphanit Piyapromdee of the economics department at University College London, quanti?ed the impact of immigration in a spatial equilibrium model. Using a framework that incorporates characteristics of workers and local labour markets, Piyapromdee studied welfare implications of changes in the skill mix and stock of immigrants as well as the welfare effects of the border wall between the United States and Mexico. The researcher measured the wage, rent, and welfare effects of immigration on different groups of workers across cities. Piyapromdee also measured the increased rental income accruing to landlords, highlighting a potential bene?t that is often not included in welfare analysis of immigration.

Ultimately the study found that a policy favoring the entry of high-skill immigrants leads to wage gains for natives, particularly those with low skill. The average wage gains are about 4% for low skilled natives and low skilled immigrants. There is a small positive effect on the average wages of high skilled natives. The adverse wage effects, however, are concentrated on the incumbent high skilled immigrants--the average wage loss is about 5%. Although rents may initially go up more proportionately in popular destinations of immigrants and offset some of the wage gains of low skill workers, internal migration can equalize the rent effects across locations. Overall, this policy also reduces local real wage inequality across workers.

"The adverse effects are concentrated on the wages of incumbent high skilled immigrants since they are in direct competition with the new high skilled immigrants," said Piyapromdee. "But since these new arrivals are not close substitutes to high skilled natives, and given some complementarity between the new arrivals and low skill workers, a skill selective policy can lead to higher productivity and raise natives' wages regardless of their skill levels. However, the gains are larger for low than high skilled natives. As a result, this policy can reduce local real wage inequality."

The same research methods were additionally used to analyze the potential benefits of President Donald Trump's proposed border wall between Mexico and the United States, and whether those benefits would outweigh the cost of the wall's construction. The study found the effects on wages, rent, and welfare would be small for workers in the four states adjacent to Mexico as well as in other cities. Given the number of workers, the proposed construction cost of the border would be approximately $47 per worker. Calculations suggest that even if 80% of the in?ow of potentially undocumented immigrants was removed, the additional gains relative to the baseline (the case of no wall) would be $5 per worker. These results show that the potential bene?ts of the border wall are considerably lower than the estimated construction cost.

"In all cases, there is a signi?cant increase in rental income accruing to landlords from increased immigration," said Piyapromdee. "An appropriate tax scheme on rental income and housing regulations would be an important consideration if policymakers want to redistribute gains or losses more evenly."

Minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged
children have significantly higher rates of COVID-19 infection, a new study led by
Children's National Hospital researchers shows. These findings, reported online August
5 in Pediatrics, parallel similar health disparities for the novel coronavirus that have been
found in adults, the authors state.

COVID-19, an infection caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in
late 2019, has infected more than 4.5 million Americans, including tens of thousands of
children. Early in the pandemic, studies highlighted significant disparities in the rates of
infection in the U.S., with minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged adults bearing
much higher burdens of infection. However, says Monika Goyal, M.D., M.S.C.E, a
pediatric emergency medicine specialist and associate division chief in the Division of
Emergency Medicine at Children's National whose research focuses on health
disparities, it's been unclear whether these disproportionate rates of infection also
extend to youth.

To investigate this question, she and her colleagues looked to data collected between
March 21, 2020, and April 28, 2020, from a drive-through/walk-up COVID-19 testing site
affiliated with Children's National -- one of the first exclusively pediatric testing sites for
the virus in the U.S. To access this free testing site, funded by philanthropic support,
patients between the ages of 0 and 22 years needed to meet specific criteria: mild
symptoms and either known exposure, high-risk status, family member with high-risk
status or required testing for work. Physicians referred patients through an online portal
that collected basic demographic information, reported symptoms and the reason for
referral.

When Dr. Goyal and her colleagues analyzed the data from the first 1,000 patients
tested at this site, they found that infection rates differed dramatically among different
racial and ethnic groups. While about 7% of non-Hispanic white children were positive
for COVID-19, about 30% of non-Hispanic Black and 46% of Hispanic children were
positive.

"You're going from about one in 10 non-Hispanic white children to one in three nonHispanic Black children and one in two Hispanic children. It's striking," says Dr. Goyal.
Using data from the American Families Survey, which uses five-year census estimates
derived from home address to estimate median family income, the researchers
separated the group of 1,000 patients into estimated family income quartiles. They found
marked disparities in COVID-19 positivity rates by income levels: while those in the
highest quartile had infection rates of about 9%, about 38% of those in the lowest
quartile were infected.

There were additional disparities in exposure status, Dr. Goyal adds. Of the 10% of
patients who reported known exposure to COVID-19, about 11% of these were nonHispanic white. However, non-Hispanic Black children were triple this number.

Although these numbers show clear disparities in COVID-19 infection rates, the authors
are now trying to understand why these disparities occur and how they can be mitigated.

"Some possible reasons may be socioeconomic factors that increase exposure,
differences in access to health care and resources, as well as structural racism," says
Dr. Goyal.

She adds that Children's National is working to address those factors that might increase
risk for COVID-19 infection and poor outcomes by helping to identify unmet needs --
such as food and/or housing insecurity -- and steer patients toward resources when
patients receive their test results.

"As clinicians and researchers at Children's National, we pride ourselves on not only
being a top-tier research institution that provides cutting-edge care to children, but by
being a hospital that cares about the community we serve," says Denice Cora-Bramble, M.D., M.B.A., chief medical officer of Ambulatory and Community Health Services at
Children's National and the research study's senior author. "There's still so much work to
be done to achieve health equity for children."

Other Children's National researchers who contributed to this study include Joelle N. Simpson, M.D.; Meleah D. Boyle, M.P.H, Gia M. Badolato, M.P.H; Meghan Delaney, D.O,. M.P.H.; and Robert McCarter Jr., Sc.D.

Seemingly everyone has a smartphone in their pocket, and we find new uses for them every day. They can help us avoid traffic jams or connect us to family from afar. They can even translate languages on the fly.

Now, scientists have figured out a new trick. Using a regular smartphone camera and some 3D-printed tools, they've developed an easier way to measure soil density. With the volume and weight of soil samples, scientists can compare the nutrient or carbon stocks in soils so we better manage them. With their new system, they cheaply reproduced expensive, time-consuming methods that require lasers or messy wax.

"The new approach could allow scientists around the world to speed up their work with tools they already have or can easily acquire," says Colby Brungard. Brungard is a researcher at New Mexico State University.

Measuring soil density is simple in principle, but hard in the real world. To determine density, scientists need the weight, or mass, of a clump of soil, along with the volume. Determining weight just requires a scale. But determining the volume of soil clumps - called peds - is traditionally a much more difficult task.

The original method to measure the volume carefully coated the soil ped in wax and then placed it in water. Messy. Three-dimensional laser scanning has emerged as an alternative, but it's pricey and time-consuming.

With these challenges in mind, Brungard was casting about for a better method. Based on a colleague's work, he knew photographs could be used to measure volume. So, he figured all he needed were photos from the right angles and a scale. Brungard decided to pitch the idea of creating a mobile app to students during a guest lecture.

"When I gave the guest lecture, I explained my idea and asked the undergraduate students if any of them had an interest in taking on the project," says Brungard. "Michael Whiting, a student in the class and the lead author of the paper, volunteered and did the research."

The team turned to modern conveniences. They knew that smartphones had cameras good enough to take high-resolution photos of a soil ped. To get a consistent view of the entire soil sample, they used a 3D printer to create a tiny turntable just a few inches across. The turntable had a cradle for the phone, to keep it still. And it had a simple crank allowing it to be turned by hand while the phone grabbed multiple pictures.

The scientists uploaded the pictures to a program that could stitch them together into a 3D image, which gave a measure of the volume. When they compared the smartphone system to the old standbys of laser-scanning or wax-dipping, the final measurements were nearly identical. That accuracy proved true across five different types of soil peds.

The smartphone system was fast, too. It took just 15 minutes per sample, while a laser scan can take an hour and a half. But there was downtime while the computer program analyzed the images, a computationally intensive task. Nonetheless, the method was simple, fast, cheap and accurate. A win-win-win-win.

"The photogrammetry method doesn't involve any complicated or expensive equipment like traditional 3D laser scanners as even low-budget cell phones likely have cameras that are adequate," says Brungard. "Others can quickly replicate this because of the high functionality of cell phones." Plus, plans for the 3D turntable are available online.

Thanks to these widely available tools, other scientists can use smartphones they probably already have and simple 3D printing blueprints to start analyzing this important soil property right away. All with the power they already carry in their pocket.