Author: Futurity (National Geo)

As solar energy development accelerates, a new survey explores how Americans actually feel about those large scale solar farms they see along the highway or near their neighborhood.

The survey finds that for residents living within three miles of a large-scale solar (LSS) development, positive attitudes outnumber negative attitudes by almost a 3-to-1 margin.

The researchers surveyed almost 1,000 residents living near solar projects—the first time a representative survey of this kind has been deployed nationally.

Among these respondents, 42% support additional development in their community, compared to 18% who would oppose further projects. At the same time, more than 80% of the respondents were unaware of the project prior to construction and a third did not know until completing the survey.

“The responses from residents were generally positive, which is good to see considering the amount of solar that is likely to be developed in the coming years,” says Doug Bessette, associate professor for energy systems in the community sustainability department at Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and one of the leads on the project.

“At the same time, we saw more negative attitudes associated with larger projects and somewhat less support amongst neighbors living really close, within a quarter mile of projects, so there’s a lot of work to be done.”

Positive attitudes were indeed more common among residents living farther from LSS projects than for those living closer to them. The largest projects tend to provoke negative attitudes, while projects under 100 megawatts—those requiring less than roughly 600 acres or one square mile—tend to receive mostly positive responses. Factors like aesthetics, economics, and perceptions of fairness in the planning process strongly influence attitudes.

Residents largely oppose increased state-level decision-making on future LSS siting, preferring increased opportunities for community participation and feedback. They also expressed a preference for local hiring, procurement, and ownership.

For reliable information about what impact a proposed project might have on their community, residents trust existing energy project neighbors, community organizations, and university staff.

“Our findings show that LSS neighbors want to be engaged more, with respondents strongly supporting increased opportunities for participation in planning processes,” says Jake White, a doctoral student who contributed to the survey. “This demonstrates a big opportunity for improvement in LSS planning processes—hopefully leading to better outcomes for all.”

When it comes to future LSS projects, respondents favored disturbed sites, such as landfills, as opposed to farmland. There is also a need for communications efforts to increase awareness and engage neighbors when projects come to communities.

So while there is more work to be done, this survey’s results indicate moderate support for solar going forward, with further analysis planned to gauge influencing factors and address equity concerns.

“We were happy to see this last one,” Bessette says.

Source: Michigan State University

Rates of Salmonella in fecal and environmental samples are more prevalent on larger commercial farms than on smaller backyard farms, according to a comparison of differently sized poultry farms.

Perhaps more importantly, multidrug resistance was found in Salmonella samples from both types of production systems, even though antibiotics are not used on backyard farms and are only used sparingly on commercial farms.

The findings could help small and larger farms understand more about the spread of Salmonella in their respective systems.

“We wanted to look at backyard broiler farms; broilers are chickens that are raised for meat consumption rather than egg consumption,” says Jessica Parzygnat, an North Carolina State University PhD graduate and first author of the study in the journal Foodborne Pathogens and Disease.

“Broiler chickens are the top consumed meat in the US and the world, but there’s not much research on backyard farms, which are growing in popularity in the US.

“The Centers for Disease Control has been issuing warnings on Salmonella outbreaks from backyard poultry farms in the last several years, so we wanted to see what pathogens are on backyard farms but also compare that to commercial farms.”

Researchers tested 10 backyard and 10 commercial flocks. The smallest backyard flock was 22 birds and the largest was 1,000 birds; all backyard farm birds lived outdoors. Commercial farms, meanwhile, had tens of thousands of birds that lived indoors.

The researchers tested bird fecal samples, as well as environmental conditions like litter, soil, and feeders, for the presence of Salmonella, in addition to other pathogens. Researchers also examined compost samples on backyard farms.

“We tried to examine where Salmonella is prevalent on farms through testing bird fecal samples and also the environment around them,” Parzygnat says. “We found less Salmonella on backyard farms (19.1% of samples) than commercial farms (52.3% of samples).

“We expected that, because previous studies had shown low rates of Salmonella on backyard farms. At the same time, our rates of Salmonella in samples on backyard farms were higher than in other studies looking at backyard poultry in the US.

“Both types of farm managers need to be careful with their birds,” Parzygnat says. “There’s a feeling that backyard birds are safer than commercial birds, but even though we found less Salmonella, the proportion of Salmonella in backyard farms and commercial farms that were multidrug resistant—meaning that they showed resistance to three or more classes of antibiotics—was actually not significantly different.”

Common-sense prevention measures can help consumers avoid Salmonella effects, including cooking chicken thoroughly and avoiding cross contamination while handling and preparing poultry, Parzygnat says.

“Salmonella can be natural inhabitants of the bird gastrointestinal tract and the birds won’t really show signs of illness,” she says. “I think one of the major concerns my research highlights is the antibiotic resistance associated with it because that really heightens the concern of infection.”

Additional coauthors are from NC State, South Dakota State University, and Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

The USDA NIFA and the FDA GenomeTrakr program funded the work.

Source: NC State

While most parents of preschool and elementary aged children strive to give their kids a balanced, nutritional diet, some of their strategies to promote healthy eating, may backfire, experts say.

For example, three in five parents customize meals if their child doesn’t like what everyone else is eating, according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.

Meanwhile, one in eight parents require children to eat everything on their plate. And while just one in three believe the standard American diet is healthy for kids, few have tried alternative, potentially more nutritional menus at home.

“Feeding young children can be difficult due to general pickiness, hesitancy to try unfamiliar foods, and constantly evolving food preferences,” says Susan Woolford, a pediatrician and codirector of the poll.

“The preschool and elementary age is an important time to establish healthy eating patterns. Yet parents’ concern about whether their child is eating enough or if they’re getting the nutrients they need may lead them to adopt practices that actually sabotage their efforts to get kids to have healthy eating habits in the short and long term.”

The nationally representative report is based on 1,083 responses of parents of children ages 3-10 surveyed in February.

What’s a nutritional diet?

Just a third of parents think the standard American diet is healthy compared to half who seem to rank the Mediterranean higher in nutritional value. Still, few have tried alternative diets for their child.

“Parents may recognize the standard diet in the US includes high amounts of saturated fats, added sugars, sodium, and refined carbohydrates, which can generate an excess intake of calories beyond nutritional needs and contribute to health problems,” Woolford says.

“However, despite this recognition and evidence suggesting that other diet options may help avoid many illnesses, only about 9% have tried the Mediterranean diet for their children and fewer have tried giving their children a vegetarian diet.”

Parents should ensure children are still getting adequate nutrition if they do try diets that eliminate certain food categories, she adds. Diets that limit animal products, for example, will require alternative protein sources such as meat substitutes, tofu, or legumes for children.

And while ketogenic diets have become popular among adults, they are generally not appropriate for children.

Family dining rules

Fifteen percent of parents say their family rule is that kids finish what’s on their plate, while more than half say children must try some of everything and a little less than a third say no to dessert if meals go unfinished.

But parents who try to force kids to eat may encourage portions that go beyond feeling full, Woolford cautions.

“Requiring children to eat everything on their plate, or withholding dessert unless all other foods are eaten, can lead to overconsumption, especially if portion sizes are too large for the child’s age,” she says.

She agrees with the recommendation that “parents provide, and the child decides.” This makes parents responsible for providing healthy options while allowing children to select which foods they will eat and the amount they want to consume.

Sixty percent of parents will make something separate if their child doesn’t like the food that’s on the dinner table—and this often leads to a less healthy alternative, Woolford says.

“Rather than allowing the child to choose an alternate menu, parents should provide a balanced meal with at least one option that their child is typically willing to eat,” she says.

“Then if their child chooses not to eat, parents should not worry as this will not cause healthy children any harm and they will be more likely to eat the options presented at the next meal.”

She points out that children learn through watching and imitating, so it’s beneficial for parents to model healthy eating through a well-balanced diet while their child’s eating habits and taste preferences mature.

Avoiding snacks between meals may also help children have a better appetite and increased willingness to eat offered foods.

Picky eating and protesting veggies

Parents describe their biggest challenges with making sure their child gets a healthy diet as the child being a picky eater, the higher cost of healthy food, and food waste. Fewer say they don’t have time to prepare healthy food.

Nearly all parents polled report trying at least one strategy to get their child to eat vegetables as part of a healthy diet, such as serving vegetables every day, fixing vegetables how their child prefers, trying vegetables their child hasn’t had before, and letting children pick out vegetables at the grocery store.

Others involve children with preparing the vegetables, hide vegetables in other foods, or offer a reward for finishing vegetables.

“Unsurprisingly, parents says pickiness and getting kids to eat veggies were among major challenges during mealtimes,” Woolford says. “Parents should try to include children in meal decisions, avoid pressuring food consumption, and provide a variety of healthy options at each meal so kids feel more control.”

What’s the right portion size?

Portion size is key to mitigating the risk of childhood obesity, but it can be hard for parents to “right-size” a child portion.

In determining portion size for their child, nearly 70% of parents polled give their child slightly less than adults in the family while fewer let their child choose how much to take, use predetermined portions from the package or give their child the same portions as adults.

Woolford recommends parents seek sources to help. The US Department of Agriculture, for example, provides a visual called “MyPlate” that can help parents estimate the recommended balance of the major food groups and offers guidance on estimating portion size.

When grocery shopping or planning meals, parents polled say they try to limit the amount of certain foods to help their child to maintain a healthy diet, with more than half limiting foods with added sugars and processed foods.

But it may be difficult to identify unhealthy food. Added sugars or processing may be present in foods marketed or packaged as healthy, Woolford says.

Parents should read labels, avoiding the marketing on the front of packages and focusing instead on the details on the back. They should pay particular attention to nutrition information and ingredient lists—especially if they’re long with unrecognizable items—as well as sodium, added sugars, and fat.

Woolford also encourages involving children in grocery trips, spending time in the produce section and asking them what they may like to try.

“Have them help in the process of choosing the healthiest options, not ones that necessarily directly advertise to children, but foods that they are willing to try that are lower in sugar, fat, and salt,” she says.

“Spend most of the time in the produce section and try to make it fun by maybe selecting new options from different parts of the world that they haven’t tried before.”

Source: University of Michigan

Social connectedness, a feeling of belonging at school and in the community, can play an important role in suicide prevention among high-risk teens, new research shows.

Teachers, social workers, and even neighbors and community members all can make a difference in vulnerable teens’ lives, says Lauren Berny, a doctoral candidate in prevention science at the University of Oregon’s College of Education and research fellow at the Prevention Science Institute.

Berny is lead author of two new studies that found caring connections with adults and peers can help protect youth who are at high risk for suicide. The studies are published in Children and Youth Services Review and in Child Psychiatry & Human Development.

“This research shows the significant difference it makes when vulnerable teens can say, ‘My teacher cares about me,’ or ‘The adults in my life would be concerned if something was going on with me,’” Berny says. “Both studies point to the need for a comprehensive approach to teen suicide prevention that goes beyond clinical treatment, such as therapy and medication.”

People who are struggling or are in crisis may call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for free, confidential support. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Youth suicide is a critical public health concern in the United States. About 20% of US high school students said they had serious thoughts of suicide, and 9% reported they had attempted suicide over the past year, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey. Yet there is an ongoing national shortage of mental health services.

For her research, Berny analyzed baseline data from nearly 300 teens, ages 13-19, from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Texas who participated in a larger study on the effectiveness of recovery high schools.

The sample was at higher risk for suicide than average teens. More than half the group, 58%, reported that they had thought about or attempted suicide at some point in their life. Nearly all the teens, 98%, had a drug or alcohol use disorder, and 94% met diagnostic criteria for one or more mental health conditions.

One of Berny’s studies explored the links between interpersonal violence, such as sexual or physical abuse or weapon violence, and suicide risk. More than half of the group, 57%, said they had experienced at least one form of that type of violence. Earlier research has found that interpersonal violence was associated with a 10 times higher risk of dying by suicide before age 20.

The other study looked at the association between mental health conditions—major depressive disorder, panic disorder, or disordered eating—and suicide risk. About 80% of the sample met clinical screening criteria for at least one of those mental health conditions.

Berny says she was surprised to discover the risk factors for suicidal thoughts are different from the risk factors for suicide attempts. At the outset of her research, she thought depression would be a major risk factor for both. Depression did turn out to be closely linked to suicidal thoughts, but teens’ history of interpersonal violence was more strongly linked to suicide attempts.

Both studies found that measures of connectedness in school and neighborhoods were associated with a lower risk of suicide attempts among these high-risk teens. The results also showed that sexual abuse survivors who reported strong teacher support and positive interactions with classmates were significantly less likely to report a prior suicide attempt than those with low levels of those measures of school connectedness. Strong neighborhood social connections had the same protective effect for survivors of sexual and physical abuse and teens with disordered eating.

Schools and communities can help foster protective relationships through approaches like peer support groups for teens who are dealing with similar struggles and mentorship programs that pair youth with adult mentors who have shared identities or life experiences.

“For example, a number of schools around the country have Lunch Buddy Programs where adults spend an hour a week with a student who could use some extra support,” Berny says. “I think even small things like that can make a meaningful difference.”

People who are struggling or are in crisis may call the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for free, confidential support. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.

Source: Sherri Buri McDonald for University of Oregon

Climate change will increase the future value of residential rooftop solar panels across the United States by up to 19% by the end of the century, according to new research.

The study defines the value of solar, or VOS, as household-level financial benefits from electricity bill savings plus revenues from selling excess electricity to the grid—minus the initial installation costs.

For many US households, increased earnings from residential rooftop solar could total up to hundreds of dollars annually by the end of the century, the researchers say.

The study is published in Nature Climate Change.

“Given the average 25-year lifespan of a rooftop solar installation, a system built today will nearly experience 2050 weather,” says senior author Michael Craig, assistant professor of energy systems at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability and of industrial and operations engineering at the College of Engineering.

“So, it’s important for households to think of future value when building solar. If households do so, our findings indicate they would see even greater value from solar, and might decide to build more.”

Solar panel benefits in warm and cool locales

Public awareness of the increased future value of rooftop solar could spur greater adoption of the technology, which in turn could accelerate efforts to decarbonize the power-generation system in the United States and globally, the study shows.

The expected financial gains seen in the study were driven largely by increased demand for residential air-conditioning as the climate warms. The other key factor affecting the value of rooftop photovoltaic systems, the researchers say, is future solar-panel performance in response to climate change.

Craig and colleagues analyzed data from 2,000 households in 17 US cities and estimated air-conditioning demand and solar-panel performance under future climates using a moderate climate-warming scenario called RCP-4.5.

The value of rooftop solar panels increased in nearly all the cities, in both warm and cold locations. Miami saw the largest increase in value, while only Minneapolis saw a decrease in the financial benefits of rooftop solar for households.

“This is the first study to quantify the value of rooftop solar under climate change, and we show that households across the US will realize greater cost savings from rooftop solar under future weather than under historic weather,” says lead author Mai Shi, a former University of Michigan visiting doctoral student now at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Greater cooling demands

As home-cooling demands rise, a greater proportion of solar-generated electricity will be used to cool the home, rather than being sold to the electrical grid, benefiting owners of rooftop solar systems, according to the study.

That’s because—in many states—solar energy used to power a home reduces the homeowner’s electric bill by the full retail cost of electricity, while electricity that is sent to the grid is credited at a lower rate.

“Greater cooling demand means more solar power is consumed at the household rather than sent back to the grid,” Craig says. “And it’s generally more valuable for a rooftop photovoltaic owner to consume the power generated by their PV panel, rather than exporting it to the grid.”

Under the moderate RCP-4.5 climate scenario, demand for residential space cooling is expected to increase in all 17 cities studied. Cooling demand will increase by an average of 35% by mid-century and by an average of 64% by the end of the century, across all households in all of the cities, the researchers say.

The other key factor affecting the future value of residential rooftop photovoltaics is solar-panel performance in response to rising air temperatures and changes in cloud cover.

Solar panels work best in cool, sunny weather. As air temperature or cloud cover increase, the amount of electricity generated by a solar panel declines. The study found that future solar-panel performance will vary from place to place across the US, depending on weather conditions.

In cities such as Ann Arbor, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Louisville, and Milwaukee, rising air temperatures will decrease solar panel efficiency, but reduced cloud cover will likely increase the amount of sunlight reaching panels, on average. The two factors “are opposing but roughly comparable,” meaning they cancel each other out, the researchers say.

But cities such as Baltimore, Boston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, and Phoenix are expected to be both warmer and cloudier in response to climate change, which will “significantly decrease” the electrical output of rooftop solar.

Even so, increased cooling demand in all 17 cities will likely outweigh changes in panel electrical output, resulting in financial gains for owners of rooftop solar in nearly every case, according to the study. Minneapolis, where limited future increases in cooling demand will combine with decreased electrical output from rooftop solar panels, is an exception.

While future financial gains from rooftop solar will be reaped mainly by households that can afford to install panels, various programs are in place to increase accessibility, so that more people share in the anticipated benefits, Craig says.

For example, there are programs that defray the costs of solar, opening it up to lower-income individuals. Governments can also install rooftop solar on public buildings, such as subsidized housing, to cover the capital costs while providing solar benefits to tenants. And community solar programs can benefit entire communities, including households that lack the means or ability to access rooftop solar themselves.

The National Key R&D Program of China, the US National Science Foundation, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Carbon Neutrality and Energy System Transformation Project funded the work.

Source: University of Michigan

While a new “electronic tongue” bears little physical resemblance to its namesake, its strand-like sensory probes still outperformed human senses when detecting contaminated wine in a recent study.

In an experiment , the e-tongue identified signs of microorganisms in white wine within a week after contamination—four weeks before a human panel noticed the change in aroma. This was also before those microbes could be grown from the wine in a Petri dish.

Winemakers traditionally rely on these two methods, sniffing the wine and Petri dish testing, to identify potential wine “faults” or spoilage.

The findings, published in the Journal of Food Science, indicate that e-tongue testing could augment those methods and allow winemakers to catch and mitigate problems sooner, says Carolyn Ross, a food science professor at Washington State University and the study’s corresponding author.

“If you ran a sample using the electronic tongue, we could learn after one week if there’s contamination or a wine fault problem, versus waiting up to four weeks running just sensory testing,” says Ross, who is also the director of Washington State’s Sensory Science Center. “It’s really helpful with understanding wine quality.”

When immersed in a liquid, the e-tongue‘s sensors can “taste” it by analyzing for the presence of certain compounds. Ross’ team developed and programmed the instrument for various purposes including taking a type of “fingerprint” of wine, collecting a variety of information that may be of interest to winemakers.

“It gives good information about the holistic quality of the wines,” Ross says, though she notes that this type of analysis is best used to complement, not replace, other methods of judging wine quality.

In the new study, the researchers purposely added four microbes to different bottles of Riesling. These microbes are known to contaminate white wine, causing spoilage and unpleasant odors, including nail polish remover, geranium, and “mousy” odors. They trained a group of 13 volunteers to recognize a range of wine attributes by their aromas, both positive and negative, including these odors.

The trained panel then assessed the aroma of uncontaminated wine as a control and samples of the contaminated wine that had been stored for seven days to 42 days. The e-tongue was set to the same task and identified the contamination of all types after the first seven days of storage. The human sensory panel only started to detect contamination in some of the samples after 35 days of storage, a full 28 days after the e-tongue.

Ross and her colleagues have also tested out the e-tongue with red wine in an earlier study, and the team is continuing to develop the instrument housed at the Sensory Science Center, building up a library to help inform its “tasting” abilities. Ross is currently looking for winery clients interested in the e-tongue capabilities to help assess the quality of their products.

The Washington Wine and Grape Research fund and the US Department of Agriculture. Funded the work.

Additional coauthors are from Washington State and the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

Source: Washington State University

By simply talking to parents about preventing injuries, pediatricians can help families keep kids safer, according to a new study.

Unintentional injuries are a leading cause of suffering and mortality in young children, and doctors agree that many of these injury-related deaths are preventable.

To address this, the American Academy of Pediatrics designed The Injury Prevention Program, or TIPP. Launched in 1983, TIPP helps pediatricians implement injury prevention counseling for parents by providing anticipatory guidance based on child development schedules including what new skills children are learning at each age, potential dangers parents should look out for, and what preventative steps they should be taking.

Despite widespread use of the program, until recently, there has been no formal evaluation to investigate whether TIPP effectively prevents injuries.

A new study, published in the journal Pediatrics, shows that the program dramatically reduces injuries in young children. Eliana Perrin, professor of primary care in the pediatrics department in the School of Medicine and in the School of Nursing at Johns Hopkins University, is the study’s lead author.

Perrin, whose research typically focuses on childhood obesity, says this research began by chance, when TIPP was used as the attention control for a study she was involved in on obesity prevention, the Greenlight Intervention Study.

When her site was randomized into the TIPP arm instead of the obesity prevention arm, Perrin says she was determined to “make lemonade out of lemons.”

“We decided to turn this cluster randomized trial of our obesity prevention program on its head and look at how effective the control was,” Perrin says. “Thanks to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development partnering to support the study of this injury prevention piece, we were able to do a rigorous job of looking at how effective TIPP is at preventing injuries in young children. And, as it turns out, it was very effective.”

The study involved a cluster-randomized trial at four academic medical centers—two implemented TIPP screening and counseling materials at all well-child checks for ages two to 24 months, and two centers implemented obesity prevention.

A total of 781 parent-infant pairs were enrolled in the study. The majority of parents were Hispanic (51%) or Black (28%), and most were insured by Medicaid (87%). Over a period of four years, parents were asked to report the number of injuries since the previous visit at the recommended well-child checks at two, four, six, nine, 12, 15, 18, and 24 months of age as well as whether the injuries were serious enough to require medical attention. Injuries include cuts, burns, falls, choking, unintentional ingestions, drownings, and motor vehicle crashes.

Unsurprisingly, both the number of injuries and the number of injuries requiring medical attention increased with age, with injuries recorded in only 3% of children at two months of age, and in 40% of children at 24 months of age. By far the most common cause of injury reported was falls, followed by “other” in second place, and burns in third. Choking, motor vehicle crashes, poisonings, and near drownings were much less common.

What was unexpected, however, was the magnitude of the impact TIPP had on reducing reported injuries. Children who were enrolled in sites with the injury prevention program had significantly reduced parent-reported injuries compared to children at the control sites.

The estimated risk of reporting injuries averaged across all ages from four months to 24 months was 30% in the control group and only 14% in the group where TIPP was used. So, the TIPP intervention was associated with a more than 50% reduction in the risk of reporting at least one injury compared to the control group.

“Honestly, we were surprised by the results,” says Perrin. “TIPP is a pretty simple program. There’s not a lot of bells or whistles. It’s just bread-and-butter developmentally guided injury prevention anticipatory guidance for parents.

“It reminds us pediatric providers to say to parents, ‘hey, in the next two months, your baby will be reaching and grabbing things, so you might want to make sure that hot coffee and the table cloth it’s on are out of reach from your baby.’ When we were teaching the residents to use this program, we really thought, this is so rote! So, we were not expecting the effect we saw.”

This study highlights the effectiveness of primary care-based injury prevention approaches, and has important public health implications, as the rate of injury reduction could have a significant effect if TIPP were implemented widely.

“We hope this paper will encourage providers to spend time counseling about injury,” Perrin says. “We also hope more will adopt The Injury Prevention Program into their practice because this anticipatory guidance for parents really helps prevent injuries for young children.”

Looking forward, the researchers aim to investigate the mechanisms by which TIPP leads to a reduction in injuries, as well as to investigate TIPP’s impact on serious injury prevention.

“We hope to next look at whether TIPP prevents serious injuries,” says Perrin. “We also hope to look at whether we can enhance TIPP to be even better and best ways to implement this program into busy practice since providers are so strapped for time.”

Source: Annika Weder for Johns Hopkins University