Tag Archives: environment

Internal Medicine

Melanie Jay, MD: Advancing Equitable Approaches to Improve Obesity Care – MD Magazine

During recent years, it is evident that there has been a shift among health care providers towards understanding the value of equitable approaches in obesity care. This shift reflects a growing awareness of the various types of factors impacting weight management and the necessity for tailored strategies to address such a complex issue.

In this interview segment with Melanie Jay, MD, MS, the editorial team at HCPLive spoke with Jay regarding her presentation at the 2024 American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting titled Advancing Equitable Approaches to Improve Obesity Care. Jay is a general internist and is board-certified in obesity medicine, serving as an associate professor for NYU Langone Health.

This was a topic that's near and dear to my heart, addressing health equity and health disparities, Jay explained. At the intro, we discussed what happened at that session and then I introduced the concept of disparities in obesity care, disparities, health disparities around obesity. Then we also talked about different strategies to address health disparities and health equity and obesity, and really touched on four or five major areas, one of them being to really address obesity stigma.

Jay noted that obesity is a stigmatized condition, adding that over 40% of people with class 2 and class 3 obesity say that they have experienced weight discrimination. Jay added that patients say that they have experienced obesity-related discrimination and bias even in health care settings.

So we talk about how we can provide more compassionate care, not blame the patient, and recognize that obesity is a disease and that it is a chronic disease, Jay said. It's an interplay between our genes and our environment. Personal choices, while important, play a very small role. Things like our food environment, stress levels, our physical activity opportunities, and medications we give our patients can cause weight gain.

Jay explained that when a patient enters the office and they feel blamed, this can impact feelings of stigma. She also noted the importance of advocacy.

As physicians, we have a lot of opportunities to really advocate for our patients, she said. So we can advocate for policies such as Medicaid expansion of obesity care, such as Medicare expansion, as well. There are federal policies right now with the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act. We can locally make sure that our residents and our medical students get adequate training to be able to compassionately and proficiently address obesity. Then we can make sure that we provide interdisciplinary care and that we work with each other.

Jay explained that she believes it is important to engage with patients, adding that research in the space is also essential.

For any further information from this conference interview segment, view the video posted above.

The quotes contained in this discussion were edited for the purposes of clarity. Jay had no relevant disclosures.

Here is the original post:

Melanie Jay, MD: Advancing Equitable Approaches to Improve Obesity Care - MD Magazine

Anatomy

A slice of life inside the Human Anatomy Lab at Cal Poly – Mustang News

When kinesiology junior Luke Hansen walked into the first day of his Human Anatomy and Physiology I class (BIO 231), he expected it to be like any other science class he had taken at Cal Poly. Then, the professor began reading the syllabus. Hansen would soon be hands-deep in a human cadaver, and a few quarters later, dissecting a human neck to remove the whole head.

Hansens interaction with the cadavers wasnt supposed to happen until week six. He said that is when the students get to enter the wet lab, where they get to work with human specimens. But before the week approached, Hansens professor asked during office hours if he wanted to view one of the bodies early.

The first thing he noticed was the overwhelming smell of formaldehyde, the chemical used to preserve the bodies from decay.

It smells so bad. Then you look down and then you can see this whole full specimen, a human body, Hansen said.

The face of the cadaver struck Hansen the hardest.

And I remember the very first thing I had to do was sit down because it was a lot to process, he said. I knew what I was getting into but you dont actually know until youre there.

This cadaver is one of three that are tucked away behind a large metal door which resembles a bank vault on the first floor of Science North in the Human Anatomy Lab (HAL). According to the director of the HAL, Mike Jones, two cadavers are loaned out by the Willed Body Program at University of California San Francisco.

Cal Poly is one of only a few universities where undergraduates have access to real human specimens for dissections, let alone receive fresh ones annually.

The ability to touch and work hands-on with cadavers helps students solidify and strengthen their understanding of anatomy in order to build confidence in real-life situations post-graduation, according to Jones.

I want our graduates to be somebody Im willing to recommend my grandma go see or my mom and dad, right? I want our graduates to be excellent practitioners that we trust and who can do good work in our community, Jones said.

Students work with the cadavers in several ways: through a series of human anatomy courses (BIO 231 and 232), a summer course (BIO S411), the Learn By Doing Lab and senior projects.

During the Advanced Human Gross Anatomy summer course, enrolled students dissect the cadavers and prepare specimens. This includes removing the skin and fat to make certain areas of the body accessible for the universitys anatomy and physiology classes during the year and the Learn By Doing Lab program for isolating and dissecting specific organs.

In The Learn by Doing Lab (SCM 302), undergraduate students use the cadavers to teach San Luis Obispo High School students about human anatomy.

Hansen participated in each program and is now working on his senior project with kinesiology junior Kellie Hintzoglou. Coined the Floppy Head Dissection, Hansen and Hintzoglous work involves dissecting the back of the cadavers neck. Going through the back of the neck allows them to view and study the inner area of the neck and throat.

The interest in this region came one day during the summer course when Hansen free-reigned on the back of a cadavers neck, as Hintzoglou described it. Hansen became fascinated with the nerves and posterior region inside the neck and throat, an area Hintzoglou said they dont explore much in class.

Hintzoglou and Hansen brought the idea to Jones, who helped them polish their project plan, leading to the Floppy Head procedure.

I mean this is literally a dream come true, Hintzoglou said. To really zone in and focus on one specific region, Im just learning so many different things that I would have never learned about before, so its strengthening my confidence too.

The concept of dissection and the benefits of using body donations for research was not new to Hintzoglou, as she did a presentation on cadaver use for her high school senior project. With this project, she said her journey has come full circle.

The students are taught to separate the person from the tissue, as they are only given information about the age, gender, occupation and cause of death of the cadaver. Despite this, they said there are moments when they cannot ignore the human element.

These individuals, they had lives. They had histories. They had loved ones. They had careers and at the end of their life, they made the decision to donate their body for education, Hansen said. And so being able to sit there and to see that this is this persons truly final wish, this is the last thing that they wanted to do, I think it really pulls you back.

These individuals, they had lives. They had histories. They had loved ones at the end of their life, they made the decision to donate their body for education.

One day during the summer dissection course, Hintzoglou and Hansen were hit hard by this realization while dissecting a woman who had died of liver cancer.

We removed some of the bone, we cut open the abdomen and all we saw was liver, Hansen said.

Hintzoglou said she remembers the student director saying that was likely the reason this person donated their body; they were in so much pain and wanted someone to truly see why. Hansen and Hintzoglou were doing just that.

It was just a very humbling. It was such an incredible moment to be there for the very first time and to see that, Hansen said.

For students like Hansen, the lab has even impacted their future careers. Before the lab, Hansen was sure he was going to be a chiropractor.

But the environment in the anatomy lab with Dr. Jones, it was just such a healthy environment, Hansen said. It was so open. It was so comfortable. It was just so much room to grow as a person and as a student that it was just a natural process of learning more and more.

Now, thanks to the HAL, he plans to attend medical school after graduating.

Even amidst existential realizations and ponderings of the human body, Hansen describes the cadaver lab as a space for joy too.

I will never forget cutting open a human skull listening to Baby by Justin Bieber, Hansen said.

While dissecting bodies, the students are often listening to music and chatting about everyday life.

Jones is great at fostering the students appreciation for this kind of opportunity. He encourages students to not take the fun, awe or inspiration out of it, Hintzoglou said.Kinesiology junior Emma Mason said the experience is akin to a celebration of life.

We get to collaboratively be inspired and have open conversations and explore that, Mason said. When youre in a setting like that you kind of expect it to be a little bit more heavy and dark not to take away that importance at all but it is such a celebration and its something thats so unique that you literally cannot get anywhere else.

Inspired by her experience in the Cadaver lab, Mason has started the Creative Anatomy Club, which aims to bridge the gap between science, anatomy and the arts.

After taking BIO 231 and 232 and participating in the Learn By Doing Lab, Mason wanted to stay involved with the HAL, however, she had a scheduling conflict with the summer dissection course. Mason wanted to create a way students could utilize the resources and space available to them without the looming presence of a grade.

My main idea for it is just to create a space where people can socialize and be able to just celebrate the uniqueness of humankind. I think that the arts and human health have been intersected for so long and I think there is just so much value about having open conversation about it, Mason said.

Mason shared some events shes planning with the club: a cartoon lab taught by biology professor and cartoonist Dr. Ed Himelblau, a body painting session, various skills labs in collaboration with other health clubs and participation in the campus beautification program.

Just knowing more about what you know keeps us all connected, Mason said. Were all made of the same things, the same structures, same tissues and I just think that that is a really cool way to like bring everyone together and have a sense of community a little bit.

The rest is here:
A slice of life inside the Human Anatomy Lab at Cal Poly - Mustang News

Biology

Shy sea anemones are more likely to survive heatwaves – EurekAlert

image:

Sea anemones that live on the rocky coasts of the Atlantic are exposed to large differences in water temperature. Depending on the individual's personality, they cope with the heat differently.

Credit: Jack Thomson

Even in nature, pride can prevail. A study with researchers from the University of Gothenburg shows that sea anemones that react more slowly to change can survive a heatwave better than individuals that change their behaviour quickly.

Along the Atlantic coasts of Europe, many species are exposed to abrupt shifts in habitat. Tides, storms and rapid temperature changes are commonplace for the marine species that live there. With climate change, heatwaves are expected to become more frequent, and researchers wanted to find out how coastal marine species cope with extreme water temperatures. They chose to study the sea anemone species Actinia equina, a species that exhibits individual behaviours.

Brave or shy

We call them animal personalities. They are different behavioural life strategies found in the same species. The anemones we studied have two personality traits, bold and shy, and in extreme heat waves the shy anemones do better, says Lynne Sneddon, a zoophysiologist at the University of Gothenburg and co-author of the study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Being a shy or bold anemone describes the individual's risk-taking. Both behaviours have advantages that have made them winners in evolution, otherwise they would not exist. A bold anemone reacts more quickly to changes in the environment than a shy anemone does. This means that the bold ones are quicker than the shy ones to open their tentacles to forage after a change. The bold anemones can trap more of the nutrients in the water, and this gives them a competitive advantage. On the other hand, they become more vulnerable in extreme conditions, such as heat waves. The researchers' study shows that being a shy individual is a better survival strategy when the water is extremely hot.

We measured the metabolism of the anemones and could see that when the water temperature was high, the metabolism of the bold anemones skyrocketed. This meant that they had to increase their nutrient intake so much that they risked dying. The shy anemones' metabolism increased less, so they were better able to cope with the heat stress, says Lynne Sneddon.

Rapid warming at low tide

In coasts with large tidal differences, water collects in rock pools that warm up quickly on the ebb tide before the next flood washes in with colder seawater. Anemones living in these pools are therefore particularly vulnerable to large temperature differences.

Heat waves will become more common in the future and cold-blooded animals may find it difficult to cope. We studied anemones, but we have reason to believe that the phenomenon applies to other species as well. If the animals can't cope, there will be a disruption in the ecosystems and this could have implications for the whole food web, says Lynne Sneddon.

Journal of Experimental Biology

Experimental study

Animals

Differential metabolic responses in bold and shy sea anemones during a simulated heatwave

7-Feb-2024

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Go here to read the rest:

Shy sea anemones are more likely to survive heatwaves - EurekAlert

Emergency Medicine

Emergency Medicine team trains health care professionals in West Africa – UC Davis Health

(SACRAMENTO)

A team from the UC Davis Health Department of Emergency Medicine is training providers in The Gambia to deliver health care using portable ultrasound equipment.

The crucial initiative aims to enhance the diagnostic capabilities of medical professionals in The Gambia and improve access to care. The training program focuses on diagnosing heart and lung conditions.

The UC Davis team is training the providers to use Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS), a convenient diagnostic tool that is increasingly being employed in hard-to-reach communities because of its portability.

POCUS can assess patients wherever they are located. It is a vital tool in remote settings because it enables the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients without having to be in a clinic or hospital.

The Gambia is a perfect environment for portable ultrasounds to make a real difference in patient care and to save lives, said Christine McBeth, assistant professor of Emergency Medicine at UC Davis Health and course director of the training program. These reliable tools provide real-time information on how to best treat patients and allow us to monitor a patients response to their treatment.

During their recent trip to The Gambia, McBeth and her team provided a week of classroom training with interactive team-based learning activities. The training was funded by the Department of Emergency Medicine, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Sustainable Cardiovascular Health Equity Development Alliance (SCHEDA) and Medical Research Council Unit. SCHEDA donated four handheld ultrasound probes along with iPads.

The following week, the group from UC Davis led the local providers in hands-on simulations with real-life patient scenarios.

The goal of the training program was to teach these local health care professionals how to use the POCUS tools so they can provide care to acutely ill patients with respiratory and cardiac conditions after we leave, McBeth added.

The Gambia is one of the smallest countries in continental Africa, sharing its borders entirely with Senegal, except for its picturesque coastline along the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

While the West Africa nation has made substantial strides in health care access and delivery, it still struggles with a scarcity and unequal distribution of its health care workforce. A recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that the country's skilled health care workers stand at a modest 1.33 for 1,000 people, which is short of the WHO benchmark.

Additionally, health care facilities in the country are concentrated in urban regions, which creates disparities between urban and rural communities.

We hope this training will enhance the capacity for health care providers to provide precise and timely medical interventions to patients in these rural and underserved communities, explained McBeth. It is a great starting point, and we will continue with ongoing lectures, quality assurance and follow-up education and training to ensure it is utilized in the best way possible, with patient safety always at the forefront.

The multidisciplinary team's visit to The Gambia in January was in line with UC Davis and UC Davis Healths efforts surrounding global health. Known as One Health, the interdisciplinary approach recognizes the interconnectedness of people, animals, and the environment and aims to identify and address the fundamental causes of poor health to improve the well-being of all.

Our physicians, staff and students can grow through trips like this by gaining practical experience which will reinforce medical knowledge, learning about the many social determinants of health, and gaining experience in cultural competency, explained Shakira Bandolin, director for global health at UC Davis Health. By gaining experience with different populations around the world with different cultures and belief systems global health rotations instill an appreciation for diversity and the importance of practicing among underserved and multicultural populations.

UC Davis Health recently established a new Center for Global Health. The center was created to improve collaboration, organization, financial and administrative support for all specialties and health care providers to improve health and equity for all patients across the globe. Through ongoing collaborations with domestic and international partners, the center creates opportunities for students, residents, fellows and faculty to train to be conscientious health care practitioners. The center also allows UC Davis Health providers to participate in clinical, educational and research endeavors with their global partners.

We understand that a patients health is influenced by many factors including their environment, access to health care, socioeconomic status, and other complex social determinants of health, said Nathan Kuppermann, associate dean for global health at the UC Davis School of Medicine. We are committed to high-quality care for all patients, especially the most vulnerable in our communities and abroad. We aim to collaborate on clinical care, education, research and infrastructure development with our global partners. This commitment raises the bar to care for our patients throughout our health system and across the globe.

More here:

Emergency Medicine team trains health care professionals in West Africa - UC Davis Health

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of groove: Why certain rhythms make us want to dance – PsyPost

Have you ever found yourself tapping your foot or nodding your head to the rhythm of a catchy tune, seemingly without any effort? It turns out, theres a scientific explanation behind our instinctual desire to move along with music. A recent study published in Science Advances sheds light on why certain rhythms make us want to dance more than others.

By analyzing brain activity and the sensation known as groove, researchers discovered that a rhythm of moderate complexity triggers the highest desire to move. This desire is mirrored in our brains, particularly within the left sensorimotor cortex, hinting at a deeply intertwined relationship between motor actions and sensory processes.

Prior studies have shown that even without actual movement, the perception of rhythmic music can activate areas of the brain associated with movement, such as the premotor cortices and basal ganglia. This activation suggests a link between how we process time through movement and how we perceive music.

Building on this foundation, the authors of the new study aimed to unravel the neurophysiological underpinnings of the groove by examining how changes in rhythmic properties of music could induce motor engagement through alterations in audio-motor neural dynamics.

In speech and music, rhythm appears to be a crucial parameter for capturing auditory sensory information. Furthermore, previous studies have implicated the motor-dedicated cortical area in time perception. Initially, we aimed to investigate the implications of these motor dynamics in auditory perception, said Arnaud Zalta, the first author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow at ENS-PSL.

To explore these dynamics, the researchers conducted a series of experiments involving 111 participants across different settings, including online surveys, magnetoencephalography (MEG) sessions, and control tapping tasks. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 71 years, with a majority being females, and were selected without regard to their musical or dance background.

In the core of these experiments was a collection of 12 original melodies, each manipulated to vary in rhythmic predictability by adjusting the degree of syncopation. Syncopation, in this context, refers to the disruption of regular rhythm by placing accents on weak beats, creating a musical hiccup that challenges the listeners temporal expectations.

For the online survey component, participants were directed to a webpage where they listened to each melody through headphones or earphones. After each melody, they rated their level of groove on a Likert scale, expressing how much they felt moved to dance. This straightforward task was designed to capture the subjective experience of groove in a controlled yet flexible online setting.

In the laboratory, the MEG experiment took a deeper dive into the neurological underpinnings of groove. Participants listened to the same set of melodies while their brain activity was recorded using MEG, a technique capable of detecting the magnetic fields generated by neural activity. This allowed the researchers to observe how different rhythms influenced brain dynamics, particularly in areas associated with movement and auditory processing.

Finally, the control tapping experiment provided a behavioral counterpart to the brain imaging data. Participants tapped along to the rhythms of the melodies on a keyboard, offering a tangible measure of their motor engagement with the music. This task complemented the MEG findings by linking the subjective feeling of groove with observable motor responses.

The researchers discovered that our desire to dance, or the feeling of groove, is most strongly elicited by melodies with a medium level of syncopation. This finding implies that rhythms which strike a balance between predictability and rhythmic complexity are the most effective in inducing the urge to dance. In other words, rhythms that are neither too simple nor too complex, but rather those that offer a moderate challenge to our anticipatory and motor systems, are most likely to get us on our feet.

The researchers further uncovered that this groove sensation is closely tied to specific patterns of brain activity. Participants exhibited a unique neural response when listening to syncopated rhythms, with the left sensorimotor cortex a brain region involved in coordinating auditory and motor information playing a pivotal role.

This area of the brain showed increased engagement when participants were exposed to rhythms that evoked a strong desire to move. This suggests that the left sensorimotor cortex not only processes the music we hear but also anticipates and prepares our bodies for movement, acting as a bridge between hearing a rhythm and physically responding to it.

The brain region which is the site of the left sensorimotor cortex is currently considered to be the potential cornerstone of sensorimotor integration, essential for the perception of both music and speech. The fact that it appears in our study as necessary for cooperation between the auditory and motor systems reinforces this hypothesis, especially as we are using natural stimuli here, explained senior author Benjamin Morillon of Aix-Marseille Universit.

Moreover, the study introduced a neurodynamic model to explain the transformation of syncopated rhythms into the subjective experience of groove. This model proposes that our brains interpret the rhythms through a network of oscillators, which then translate these rhythms into motor engagement signals. Interestingly, the degree of syncopation correlated with neural activity at a specific frequency (2 Hz), indicating that our brains response to music involves an interaction between auditory perception and motor preparation.

Motor actions and sensory processes are closely intertwined to help us adapt better to our environment, Zalta told PsyPost. Specifically, when we listen to something, time becomes crucial as the auditory stimuli inherently impose high temporal constraints. When the auditory brain regions struggle to process temporal information accurately, motor dynamics appear to be recruited.

Furthermore, we observed that sensorimotor regions play a mediating role between sensory auditory and motor regions. In short, it is the interplay of these three regions that gives rise to the sensation of groove.

The research also highlighted a spectral gradient along the dorsal auditory pathways when participants listened to music. This means that as one moves from the auditory regions of the brain towards the motor areas, the dominant frequency of brain activity progressively increases. Lower frequencies were noted in regions closer to auditory processing, while higher frequencies were found as the gradient approached areas implicated in motor control.

When we examined the cortical dynamics of the brain during our task, we observed an ascending postero-anterior gradient which was not expected, Zalta said. However, this gradient does not seem to be related to the sensation of groove or the level of syncopation of the stimuli. This phenomenon remains unclear.

Regarding the long-term goals for this line of research, Zalta explained that the dopaminergic system is closely intertwined with motor processes and has been implicated in time perception. I aim to delve deeper into investigating this neurotransmitter.

The study, Neural dynamics of predictive timing and motor engagement in music listening, was authored by Arnaud Zalta, Edward W. Large, Daniele Schn, and Benjamin Morillon.

More:
The neuroscience of groove: Why certain rhythms make us want to dance - PsyPost

Cell Biology

Scientists Unravel the Unusual Cell Biology Behind Toxic Algal Blooms – SciTechDaily

The researchers were able to reconstruct the three-dimensional shape of the single chloroplast from several hundred images. Credit: University of Oldenburg / General and Molecular Microbiology group

What are the cellular mechanisms within a single-celled marine algae species responsible for triggering toxic algal blooms? A research group under the direction of microbiologist Prof. Dr. Ralf Rabus from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, has conducted first detailed analyses of the unusual cell biology of Prorocentrum cordatum, a globally widespread species of the dinoflagellates group, using both advanced microscopic and proteomics approaches.

As the team reports in the science journal Plant Physiology, the photosynthesis process in these microorganisms is organised in an unusual configuration which may help them to better adapt to the changing light conditions in the oceans. The results of the study could lead to an improved understanding of the incidence of harmful algal blooms, which may be becoming more frequent due to climate change.

Dinoflagellates are important organisms in both marine and freshwater ecosystems. These unicellular organisms make up a substantial proportion of free-living phytoplankton, which forms the basis of the food web in oceans and lakes. Some species, including Prorocentrum cordatum, can proliferate in warm, nutrient-rich waters and form harmful algal blooms.

Cross-section of a cell of the microalga Prorocentrum cordatum. The nucleus with the chromosomes is on the right. A single barrel-like chloroplast takes up 40 percent of the cell volume. Credit: University of Oldenburg / General and Molecular Microbiology group

We studied this organism because despite its environmental relevance its cell biology and metabolic physiology are still poorly understood, said Rabus. In addition to studying photosynthesis in the microalgae, the researchers also examined the structure of their cell nuclei and their response to heat stress in collaboration with teams from the Universities of Hanover, Braunschweig, and Munich and set out the findings in two other recently published papers.

Using a powerful scanning electron microscope with a focused ion beam at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitt Munich, the team headed by Rabus and lead author Jana Kalvelage from the Institute of Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM) was able to reconstruct the three-dimensional architecture of the chloroplasts, where photosynthesis takes place. The scientists were able to generate around 600 image layers of a single algae cell and then combine the sections to create a three-dimensional, high-resolution spatial image of the oval-shaped single-celled organisms, which are generally around 10 to 20 thousandths of a millimeter long. The analysis revealed that Prorocentrum cordatum have only a single barrel-like chloroplast that takes up 40 percent of their cell volume.

Proteomic (protein) analyses then revealed marked differences between the photosynthetic apparatus of the microalgae and that of Arabidopsis thaliana, a well-studied model plant in genetics research. In both species, photosynthesis takes place in complex protein structures embedded in the chloroplasts extensive membrane system.

However, in Prorocentrum cordatum the team observed that the conversion of solar energy into biochemical energy takes place in a single large structure consisting of numerous proteins, known as a megacomplex, whereas in the chloroplasts of the plant species, the different steps of photosynthesis occur in spatially separated structures. The team also reported that P. cordatum uses a large number of different pigment-binding proteins to efficiently capture solar energy. This diversity is a special adaptation to the changing light conditions to which the organism is exposed in the oceans, Rabus explained.

Two other studies published last year highlight the microalgaes unusual biology: in the first a German-Australian team of which the ICBM researchers were also members found that the organisms have a very large genome with twice as many base pairs as in humans. The team also discovered that the algae change their metabolism and their rate of growth decelerates in response to heat stress. In a second publication, the team led by Rabus and Kalvelage described the cell nucleus in greater detail, reporting that P. cordatum has 62 chromosomes, an unusually high number that fills almost the entire cell nucleus. The function of a large proportion of the nuclear proteins that were identified by the researchers is currently unknown, the team observed.

We have investigated how this important microalgae functions at the molecular level. These findings form the basis for a better understanding of its role in the environment, Rabus stressed. Further investigations could provide answers to questions such as how the organisms metabolism reacts to other stress factors and why the species is able to adapt to such a wide range of environmental conditions, from those in the tropics to those in temperate climates, he explained.

Reference: Conspicuous chloroplast with light harvesting-photosystem I/II megacomplex in marine Prorocentrum cordatum by Jana Kalvelage, Lars Whlbrand, Jennifer Senkler, Julian Schumacher, Noah Ditz, Kai Bischof, Michael Winklhofer, Andreas Klingl, Hans-Peter Braun and Ralf Rabus, 08 February 2024, Plant Physiology. DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiae052

The study was funded by the German Research Foundation.

More:
Scientists Unravel the Unusual Cell Biology Behind Toxic Algal Blooms - SciTechDaily

Human Behavior

We can’t combat climate change without changing minds. This psychology class explores how. – Northeastern University

Published on

March 7, 2024

PSYC-4660: Humans & Nature is part of a broader academic push at Northeastern to explore the intersection of environmental science and cognitive processing and how it can lead to tangible changes.

When Northeastern professors John Coley and Brian Helmuth tell their students to introduce themselves, they really mean it.

Its a clammy Monday afternoon in mid-January, and the 15 members of PSYC-4660 Humans & Nature: The Psychology of Social-Ecological Systems on Northeastern Universitys Boston campus are taking turns in front of a projector. Theyre going through detailed PowerPoint slides outlining their majors, family backgrounds, college resumes thus far, hobbies, dogs and cats. Some grew up going to grandparents farms and camping every weekend in rural New England; one works part time for a company that sells carbon credits. Eshna Kulshreshtha, born and raised in California, talks about the small arguments she and her Indian immigrant parents have about recycling.

Ive never had a class where we spent an hour just doing introductions, says Kulshreshtha, a second-year marine science major, in an interview a few days later.

In another context it might be oversharing; here it has a point. The central argument of the class is that our personal backgrounds, behaviors and resulting worldviews may hold the key to saving the planet.

A new offering for the spring 2024 semester, PSYC-4660 is a seminar in cognition, a subset of psychology that covers how people encode, represent and process information from the environment in the brain, according to Coley, a psychology professor with a dual appointment in environmental science. Humans & Nature zeros in on how those things inform our interactions with the natural world, and the in-depth intros underscore just how different those can be from person to person based on their backgrounds.

Cataloged as an upper-level psychology class but available to any interested undergrad, the seminar is also part of a larger push at Northeastern to explore the relationship between brain and environmental sciences, including collaborative research papers and a new Ph.D. program currently accepting applicants for the coming fall.

I have become more and more convinced that this is a critical component to getting people and, honestly, agencies and governments to act in a more sustainable way, Coley says.

A marine science professor based at Northeasterns Nahant campus, Helmuth researches how climate change impacts coastal ecosystems. He has spent a large chunk of his career underwater, and more of it than he would like watching many of those ecosystems disappear. In his view, many solutions to issues affecting the planet are clear-cut; how to effectively implement them at scale is another story.

In most environmental problems the issue is not the science, he says a few days after the class meeting. Weve got a lot of solutions. Its the human behavior side thats hard to change. In policy, theres a lot of experimentation, but its kind of trial and error.

Coley is a developmental psychologist by training; early in his career, he researched how very young children categorize the natural world. The first big study I did at Northeastern looked at kids from across Massachusetts from inner-city Boston and Somerville to some very rural places in Western Massachusetts and how [their] experiences led to differences in how kids think about relations among plants and animals, he says. Further research examined how those backgrounds affected college kids learning in biology and other life science classes.

In most environmental problems the issue is not the science. Weve got a lot of solutions. Its the human behavior side thats hard to change.

The two initially met through Nicole Betz, a graduate student in Coleys lab. Last year, the three co-authored a paper on how human exceptionalism the idea that humans are different and set apart from other organisms can hinder sustainable behavior.

Humans & Nature is a further exploration of that type of academic research in a classroom setting with readings, lectures and a heavy emphasis on class discussions, all dealing with questions about how we think comes to bear on biodiversity preservation, food systems and climate change, according to the syllabus.

For the first few weeks, for example, the course content focuses on biodiversity conservation, or preserving the richness of species on Earth. An academic paper by sustainability scientist Thomas McShane explores the trade-offs between preserving biodiversity and human well-being; another, from 2019, explores possible links between a richer array of species and increased mental health in humans. Research from 2016 by a trio of ecologists in the academic journal Global Environmental Change focuses on urban biodiversity, outlining possible ways to marry development and conservation of natural environments in an economically equitable way.

The class is not proscriptive: I dont think there are specific misconceptions that were trying to puncture, Helmuth says. A lot of this is helping the students identify complexities in their different worldviews as they relate to those topics. Id be very surprised, even with a class this size, if they were all at the same starting point.

After introductions, the class breaks into small groups to discuss the assigned reading: a thin textbook called Human Dependence on Nature: How to Help Solve the Environmental Crisis by Haydn Washington. They talk together at length about collectivism and the sense of community in small, rural villages around the world and how it contrasts to the individualist, comparatively isolated routines of Western European and American societies.

We can follow a behavior but not value it in the United States, a student muses. I think its harder. In other societies where [people are more immediately affected by] the general health of their community, it might be easier to implement a belief in sustainability and helping the world around you.

The conversation isnt just geopolitical. Its a group in their early 20s, and millennials catch strays for being off-trend and having a collectively dire outlook on global warming. I recently saw a video that was like Stanley cups are over because the moms have gotten to it now its not cool, one student says. Were getting sick of things a lot faster, and overconsumption speeds up.

Theres a shift in our younger generation thats more inclined towards an understanding and appreciation for nature, which was lost on the millennial population because there was so much talk about climate change and overconsumption that everyone got overwhelmed, says another.

Kulshreshtha has experienced these types of vast differences in attitude even within her family. She grew up frequently visiting relatives in New Delhi and Noida in India. There, she explains, sustainability and eco-friendliness arent talked about nearly as much as they are in the United States, but not because people dont care about it. Rather, sustainable habits and practices are more baked into daily life.

Especially now, in the United States, people constantly pushing you to think about, like, Hey, make sure youre recycling the right thing, she says. Thats always on the forefront of your mind is this thing Im doing environmentally friendly?

With my extended family, its not something that they talk about, but theyre not being as harmful to the environment in their daily lives, she continues. My family in India still gets milk delivered every morning from the milkman, they put the bottles outside again every day. If you get groceries, youre not getting individual plastic bags for your broccoli and carrots. The street food vendors use bowls made out of leaves and wooden utensils. All these things are already integrated into Indian culture, so its not like you have to be actively thinking about how much plastic youre using every day.

Helmuth and Coley both think those types of insights can have direct impacts, particularly at a place like Northeastern. Environmental psychology with a focus on the natural world isnt a totally new concept, but tying it directly to human behavior and policy in an academically rigorous way is a next step. The course dovetails with research the two men have collaborated on, with implications for real-world scenarios like science education curricula and aiding the federal government on more effective environmental messaging and policy (Helmuth was a co-author of the White Houses most recent National Climate Assessment, released in November).

In the fall, Northeastern will begin admission to a new Ph.D. program in Human Behavior and Sustainability Sciences that integrates traditional core requirements of psychology and environmental science graduate programs. The hope is that this sort of interdisciplinary training could lead to more collaborations like theirs. Someone in psychology who [specializes in] decision-making and someone who studies salt marsh restoration could work together, Coley says. We want to provide Ph.D. students with structured opportunities to make those connections across fields.

And theyre optimistic about the future possibilities those collaborations could lead to. One advantage of teaching someplace like this is that these students are going to take over the world, Helmuth says. We already have a lot of students through co-ops working in the city of Boston, in state offices, at NASA. Anything we do in a classroom here is going to multiply itself.

Schuyler Velasco is a Northeastern Global News Magazine senior writer. Email her at s.velasco@northeastern.edu. Follow her on X/Twitter @Schuyler_V.

See original here:
We can't combat climate change without changing minds. This psychology class explores how. - Northeastern University

Genetics

Significance of genetic mutations in toxic tort cases – Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly

The primary question in many toxic tort cases is what caused the disease? When defending these cases, one necessarily asks: (1) is the product/substance I am defending capable of causing the disease in question; and (2) was the plaintiff exposed to enough of it to have done so.

With cases involving cancer, particularly mesothelioma, genetic science is adding to the mix and providing information that, in the right case, changes the equation entirely.

Generally, cancer is a genetic disease caused by gene mutations that control how cells grow and multiply (NIH The Genetics of Cancer, 2022). While cells are the bodys building blocks, genes are sections of DNA in each cell that provide instructions to make required proteins and control cell growth. Hundreds of DNA and genetic changes (variants, mutations or alterations) have been discovered that help cancer form, grow and spread.

My experience with these issues arises from the defense of asbestos cases. The principles raised, however, may well apply to other toxic torts involving cancer.

It is now recognized that there are multiple causes for malignant mesothelioma, a number of which are unrelated to asbestos. Diffuse malignant mesotheliomas are variably associated with prior asbestos exposure, and the strength of the association varies with anatomical tumor site, gender and asbestos fiber type.

The relationship between asbestos and mesothelioma has also evolved and shows significant geographic variation. The epidemiological evidence correlating time trends, incidence by gender, and commercial asbestos use indicates that a majority of pleural mesotheliomas in women, and almost all peritoneal mesotheliomas in women and men, in the United States, appear unrelated to asbestos.

If not asbestos, then what was the cause?

In July 2019, many of the worlds foremost experts on the subject detailed the current state-of-the-art knowledge on the development of mesothelioma. See Carbone, et al., Mesothelioma: Scientific Clues for Prevention, Diagnosis, and Therapy, CA Cancer J Clin., 69:402-429 (2019).

Among the co-authors of the publication were preeminent researchers and practitioners from the University of Hawaii Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Brigham and Womens Hospital, Mayo Clinic, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and MD Anderson Cancer Center. Under a section of the publication entitled The Role of Genetics, the authors state:

Cancer is caused by the accumulation of genetic damage. Genetic damage can be inherited, can develop spontaneously, can be caused by exposure to carcinogens and oncogenic infectious agents, or can be caused by the interplay of a combination of these factors. Currently, there is a very active debate about the relative contribution of these factors to human cancer . [A] growing percentage of cancers are attributed to inherited mutations of DNA repair genes and of other genes that, when mutated, accelerate the accumulation of DNA damage and/or the percentage of cells carrying DNA damage . These concepts apply to mesothelioma.

In broad strokes, there are two types of genetic cases: (1) cases involving somatic or random genetic mutations; and (2) cases involving a germline genetic mutation.

Somatic random mutations develop because of DNA changes that occur during stem cell divisions. These mutations arise naturally and accumulate as a person ages. Age is a significant risk factor for almost all forms of cancer, including spontaneous or naturally occurring mesothelioma.

The basis for age-induced tumorigenesis relates to the hosts generation of critical driver mutations within cells and the subsequent formation of clonally expanded proliferation of mutated cells to form tumors. Stem cell division occurs continuously and requires a faithful replication of the highly complex genetic information contained within the genome and cell nucleus.

Random mistakes or mutations (replication errors) occur continuously and with increasing frequency over time, with the capacity of the host to efficiently identify and correct such mutations diminishing with age.

Because mutation accumulation occurs spontaneously and continuously over time, the risk of spontaneous or naturally occurring mesothelioma, either pleural or peritoneal, increases continuously with age.

Random mutations account for two-thirds of the risk of getting many types of cancer. In such cases, no exposure to an exogenous agent (such as asbestos or therapeutic radiation) is required for tumor initiation. Replicative mutations can be responsible for either initiating the process or driving tumor progression.

The current best available scientific evidence is that some mesotheliomas are linked to inherited germline mutations. Overall, at least 12 percent of mesotheliomas occur in carriers of germline genetic mutations. These germline genetic-induced mesotheliomas typically occur in persons of younger age and are often peritoneal rather than pleural mesotheliomas.

As the cohorts of asbestos workers vanish due to old age, increasing percentages of mesotheliomas, especially peritoneal mesotheliomas, occur in individuals who are not occupationally exposed to asbestos. These mesotheliomas may be caused by environmental exposure, genetic predisposition or both.

When examining a toxic tort/cancer case, it may not always be the environment or the toxin that is the culprit. If a plaintiff has an appropriate family history of cancer, genetic testing may provide a viable defense. Anthony J. Sbarra, Segal McCambridge

Pathogenic germline mutations of BAP1 and, less frequently, of other tumor suppressor genes have also been detected in approximately 12 percent of patients. This subgroup of genetically linked mesotheliomas occurs in younger individuals who rarely report asbestos exposure, and with a M:F ratio of 1:1 and survival ranging from five to 10 or more years.

While heritable gene mutations can predispose an individual to cancer (i.e., lower the amount of exposure necessary to cause disease), they can also be sufficient to cause cancers, including mesothelioma, in and of themselves.

Put another way, the presence of a heritable germline mutation, absent or independent of extrinsic factors such as asbestos exposure, can be a cause of mesothelioma.

While the import of these findings may be largely self-evident, there are some takeaways worth considering. First, when examining a toxic tort/cancer case, it may not always be the environment or the toxin that is the culprit. If a plaintiff has an appropriate family history of cancer, genetic testing may provide a viable defense.

Second, genetic germline mutations do not automatically turn a plaintiff into an eggshell plaintiff. While that argument may work in some cases, given that the mutation can be independently causative, it should not apply in all of them.

Anthony J. Sbarra is a shareholder at Segal McCambridge in Boston and focuses his practice on product liability and toxic tort cases. He can be contacted at [emailprotected].

Read more:
Significance of genetic mutations in toxic tort cases - Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly

Physiology

Understanding how natural genetic variation contributes to adaptive responses to low oxygen – News-Medical.Net

Humans are still evolving, and Tatum Simonson, PhD, founder and co-director of the Center for Physiological Genomics of Low Oxygen at University of California School of Medicine, plans to use evolution to improve healthcare for all.

Her latest research, which was published February 9, 2024 in Science Advances, reveals that a gene variant in some Andean people is associated with reduced red blood cell count at high altitude, enabling them to safely live high in the mountains in low-oxygen conditions. Simonson's UC San Diego lab is applying those findings toward understanding whether there may be a genetic component to why some people with sleep apnea or pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) fare better than others.

There are people with COPD who breathe a lot and maintain a higher oxygen saturation. Others with the same disease don't breathe as much, and their oxygen saturation is low. Researchers suspect there may be genetic differences underlying this variation, similar to the variation we find in pathways important for oxygen sensing and responses underlying natural selection at high altitude."

Tatum Simonson, PhD, founder and co-director of the Center for Physiological Genomics of Low Oxygen at University of California School of Medicine

Our cells need oxygen to survive. When there isn't enough in the environment, our bodies produce extra red blood cells, which transport oxygen throughout the body. Too many red blood cells, however, create a dangerous condition called excessive erythrocytosis (EE), which makes the blood viscous, which could lead to stroke or heart failure.

Her previous research showed that many mountain-dwelling Tibetans exposed to low-oxygen situations are born with innate mechanisms that protect them from poor outcomes at high altitude, including the overproduction of red blood cells. Part of this is due to changes in the regulation of the EPAS1 gene, which lowers hemoglobin concentrations by regulating the pathway that responds to changing oxygen levels. Advances in genetics have shown that modern Tibetans received this genetic advantage from their ancestors who mixed with archaic humans living in Asia tens of thousands of years ago-;a unique evolutionary history confined to this population.

For her latest research, Dr. Simonson, who is also the John B. West Endowed Chair in Respiratory Physiology and associate professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine & Physiology at UC San Diego School of Medicine, zoomed in on the EPAS1 region of the genome. She and her team focused on a mutation in the gene that is present in some people living in the Andes but is absent in all other human populations. When they scanned whole Andean genomes, they found a pattern surrounding this variant suggesting that the genetic change, which alters only a single amino acid in the protein product, happened by chance, relatively recently (from 9,000 to 13,000 years ago), and spread very quickly through hundreds of generations within the Andean population.

Similar to Tibetans, the EPAS1 gene is associated with lower red blood cell count in Andeans who possess it. However, the researchers were surprised to find that the variant works in a completely different way from the Tibetan version of the gene; rather than regulating its levels, the Andean variant changes the genetic makeup of the protein, altering the DNA in every single cell.

"Tibetans have, in general, an average lower hemoglobin concentration, and their physiology deals with low oxygen in a way that doesn't increase their red blood cells to excessively high levels. Now we have the first signs of evidence that Andeans are also going down that path, involving the same gene, but with a protein-coding change. Evolution has worked in these two populations, on the same gene, but in different ways," said Simonson.

This study exemplifies a current approach in research that connects genetic targets of natural selection with complex disease genes-;understanding, for example, how natural genetic variation contributes to adaptive and maladaptive responses to low oxygen, as this study reveals.

In Simonson's lab, that means figuring out what downstream target genes are being turned on in response to low oxygen, among other things. Said Simonson, "This paper shows one gene associated with one particular phenotype, but we think there are many different genes and components of oxygen transport involved. It's just one piece of that puzzle, and could provide researchers with information relevant to other populations."

Simonson and her team are working with Latino populations in San Diego and El Centro, California, as well as Tijuana and Ensenada, Mexico, taking them to high altitudes and recording their breathing while awake and asleep. They're cross-referencing their findings with publicly available databases to determine whether the findings they've made in Andeans are also found in local Latinos who may share some genetic variants with the Andeans.

"In precision medicine, it's important to recognize variation in genetic backgrounds, specifically in historically understudied populations," Simonson said. "If we can find some shared genetic factors in populations in an extreme environment, that may help us understand aspects of health and disease in that group and groups more locally. In that way, this study aims to push research forward, and towards comprehensive personalized medicine approaches in clinics here in San Diego."

Co-authors of the study include: Elijah S. Lawrence, Wanjun Gu, James J. Yu, Erica C. Heinrich, Katie A. O'Brien, Carlos A. Vasquez, Quinn T. Cowan , Patrick T. Bruck , Kysha Mercader, Mona Alotaibi, Tao Long, James E. Hall, Esteban A. Moya, Marco A. Bauk, Jennifer J. Reeves, Mitchell C. Kong, Rany M. Salem, Keolu P. Fox, Atul Malhotra, Frank L. Powel, Mohit Jain and Alexis C. Komor at UC San Diego, Ryan J. Bohlender, Hao Hu and Chad D. Huff at University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Cecilia Anza-Ramirez, Gustavo Vizcardo-Galindo , Jose-Luis Macarlupu , Rmulo Figueroa-Mujca, Daniela Bermudez, Noemi Corante and Francisco C. Villafuerte at Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia, Eduardo Gaio at Universidad de Braslia, Veikko Salomaa and Aki S. Havulinna at Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and Andrew J. Murray at Cambridge University and Gianpiero L. Cavalleri at Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

This study was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health (Grants R01HL145470 [TSS] and T32HL134632 [JEH]), Geographic Society Explorer Award, and John B West Endowment in Respiratory Physiology (TSS), Wellcome Trust Award 107544/Z/15/Z (FCV), Marie Skodowska-Curie grant agreement No 890768 (KAO), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Ford Foundation Fellowship (CAV), National Science Foundation Grant No DGE-2038238 (PTB), Research Corporation for Science Advancement through Cottrell Scholar Award 27502 (ACK), Science Foundation Ireland 12/IP/1727 (GLC), Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research and Juho Vainio Foundation (VS), and Academy of Finland (ASH).

Source:

Journal reference:

Lawrence, E. S., et al. (2024). FunctionalEPAS1/HIF2Amissense variant is associated with hematocrit in Andean highlanders.Science Advances. doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj5661.

Continued here:
Understanding how natural genetic variation contributes to adaptive responses to low oxygen - News-Medical.Net

Emergency Medicine

Health Workers Press for Federal Bill to Prevent Workplace Violence – Medpage Today

WASHINGTON -- With violence and intimidation threatening to destabilize the healthcare workforce, support for federal legislation to criminalize such behavior is growing, said stakeholders during a congressional briefing hosted by the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) and the American Hospital Association (AHA) on Tuesday.

ACEP President Aisha Terry, MD, MPH, of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., said she was sitting at her computer doing chart work when she heard a loud thump. She turned to find a nurse lying on the ground and a patient standing over her. The patient had punched the nurse in the face.

"When we heard that thump ... everything stopped," she said.

At least two nurses are assaulted every hour, according to a 2022 Press Ganey survey. These incidents can have lingering mental and emotional consequences, including post-traumatic stress disorder, Terry said.

Kate FitzPatrick, DNP, RN, chief nurse executive officer for Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, stressed that these incidents also have ripple effects on every hospital worker in the vicinity.

"Our higher-order thinking gets disrupted," she said. The cumulative impacts of even "micro-aggressions" can lead to demoralization, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and absenteeism, as well as nurses leaving bedside care.

Terry said emergency medicine has also seen a decline in applications in recent years, which the environment has contributed to "without a doubt."

Healthcare workers are five times more likely than any other employee to be assaulted on the job, said Rep. Larry Bucshon, MD (R-Ind.), a former cardiothoracic surgeon, citing a Bureau of Labor Statistics report. Yet, no federal law exists to protect hospital employees from being assaulted or intimidated, he added.

The Safety From Violence for Healthcare Employees (SAVE) Act, which Bucshon and Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) introduced last year, mirrors protections adopted for aircraft and airport workers, such as flight attendants. It establishes legal penalties for people who "knowingly and intentionally assault or intimidate hospital employees," according to a press release.

Penalties range from fines to up to 10 years in prison or both, with "enhanced penalties" of up to 20 years for acts that involve "dangerous weapons" or lead to "bodily harm." The bill also includes exceptions for individuals who are "mentally incapacitated due to illness or substance use."

Notably, the bill would also authorize $25 million for every fiscal year from 2023 to 2032 for grant programs used to fund training in de-escalation techniques and to address mental health crises; coordination with state and local law enforcement; and video surveillance, metal detectors, panic buttons, and "safe patient" and "safe staff" rooms, along with other violence prevention measures. Hospitals with a "demonstrated need for improved security" and a "demonstrated need for financial assistance" would be the first to receive the grants.

Mark Boucot, MBA, president and CEO of Garrett Regional Medical Center in Oakland, Maryland, and an AHA board member, noted that making small, rural hospitals safe is challenging.

"You're barely breaking even or at a 1% operating margin, how do you make a decision to hire security guards when you're still struggling to have nurses at the bedside?" Boucot said.

At a time when rural hospitals are scraping for resources, funds to pay for panic buttons and additional security would be very helpful, he said. He also stressed the need for more tertiary mental health facilities to care for patients with chronic and acute behavioral health needs. There are no inpatient psychiatric beds at either of his facilities.

And while the health system borders two states -- Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- a patient enrolled in Maryland's Medicaid program typically can't be transferred to an open bed in either without a great deal of persuasion.

"So, where do you hold these patients?" he asked.

The answer: the emergency department. That is an underlying contributor to these incidents of violence, Boucot said.

When asked about similar state legislation, Chad Golder, JD, general counsel for the AHA, said there's a "patchwork" of state laws but those aren't enough.

"There's something powerful about seeing a sign at the front door that says, 'You will face up to 20 years' imprisonment under federal law if you assault a healthcare worker,'" Golder said.

The bill does not include mention of gun-free zones.

Terry acknowledged that that is another problem that needs to be addressed, but this legislation is still a "great first step," and is bipartisan.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) introduced a companion bill in the Senate last year.

Shannon Firth has been reporting on health policy as MedPage Today's Washington correspondent since 2014. She is also a member of the site's Enterprise & Investigative Reporting team. Follow

See the original post:

Health Workers Press for Federal Bill to Prevent Workplace Violence - Medpage Today