Home indoor air quality and cognitive function over one year for people working remotely during COVID

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic triggered an increase in remote work-from-home for office workers. Given that many homes now function as offices despite not being designed to support office work, it is critical to research the impact of indoor air quality (IAQ) in homes on the cognitive performance of people working from home. In this study, we followed 206 office workers across the U.S. over one year under remote or hybrid-remote settings during 2021&ndash;2022. Participants placed two real-time, consumer-grade indoor environmental monitors in their home workstation area and bedroom. Using a custom smartphone application geofenced to their residential address, participants responded to surveys and periodic cognitive function tests, including the Stroop color&ndash;word interference test, Arithmetic two-digit addition/subtraction test, and Compound Remote Associates Task (cRAT). Exposures assessed included carbon dioxide (CO2) and thermal conditions (indoor heat index: a combination of temperature and relative humidity) averaged over 30 min prior to each cognitive test. In adjusted longitudinal mixed models (n &le; 126), we found that indoor thermal conditions at home were associated with cognitive function outcomes non-linearly (p &lt; 0.05), with poorer cognitive performance on the Stroop test and poorer creative problem-solving on the cRAT when conditions were either too warm or too cool. Most indoor CO2 levels were &lt;640 ppm, but there was still a slight association between higher CO2 and poorer cognitive performance on Stroop (p = 0.09). Our findings highlight the need to enhance home indoor environmental quality for optimal cognitive function during remote work, with benefits for both employees and employers.</p

Creative and Stylistic Devices Employed by Children During a Storybook Narrative Task: A Cross-Cultural Study

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of culture on the creative and stylistic features children employ when producing narratives based on wordless picture books. Method: Participants included 60 first- and second-grade African American, Latino American, and Caucasian children. A subset of narratives based on wordless picture books collected as part of a larger study was coded and analyzed for the following creative and stylistic conventions: organizational style (topic centered, linear, cyclical), dialogue (direct, indirect), reference to character relationships (nature, naming, conduct), embellishment (fantasy, suspense, conflict), and paralinguistic devices (expressive sounds, exclamatory utterances). Results: Many similarities and differences between ethnic groups were found. No significant differences were found between ethnic groups in organizational style or use of paralinguistic devices. African American children included more fantasy in their stories, Latino children named their characters more often, and Caucasian children made more references to the nature of character relationships. Conclusion: Even within the context of a highly structured narrative task based on wordless picture books, culture influences children’s production of narratives. Enhanced understanding of narrative structure, creativity, and style is necessary to provide ecologically valid narrative assessment and intervention for children from diverse cultural backgrounds

Population rules can apply to individual plants and affect their architecture: an evaluation on the cushion plant Mulinum spinosum (Apiaceae)

Growth units of individual plants may be seen as equivalent to individual plants in plant populations. Some of the principles known to rule plant-to-plant interactions in crowded populations may apply to the interactions between growth units in plants

Weaning U.S. food-animals off antimicrobials: What can we learn from state- and city-level policies?

Antimicrobials are widely used worldwide in food animal production for controlling and preventing disease and for improving feed conversion efficiency and growth promotion. Inappropriate use of antimicrobials in animal agriculture has the potential to promote antimicrobial resistance, which represents a threat to human, animal, and environmental health. State and municipal policies in the United States have recently been implemented to improve antimicrobial use and reporting in this sector. This study analyzed the implementation of two state-level policies (California (CA) and Maryland (MD)) and a city-level policy in San Francisco (SF), California that aimed to reduce the use of antimicrobials in food-animals and increase transparency of antimicrobial use. A qualitative analysis was based on in-depth interviews with key informants (KIs) (n = 19) who had direct experience implementing or working in the context of these sub-national policies. Interviews were recorded and transcriptions were analyzed independently by two researchers using a three-stage, grounded theory coding procedure. This study identified four major findings, including 1) vague language on antimicrobial use within policies reduces policy effectiveness; 2) the lack of reporting by producers challenges the ability to evaluate the impact of the policies on actual use; 3) diverse stakeholders need to be involved in order to develop a more effective policy; and 4) funding should be linked to the policy to provide for reporting and data analysis. This analysis provides insights on the successes and failures of existing policies and serves to inform future sub-national policies aiming to improve the judicious use of antimicrobials in food-animals

The Lancet Breast Cancer Commission

The Lancet Breast Cancer Commission report shows inequities in prevention, detection, treatment, and supportive care, with many groups of people with breast cancer being systematically left behind and forgotten. This is a global error as people with breast cancer are indispensable to our culture and socioeconomic system. New findings: The number of people living with metastatic breast cancer is unknown and many do not receive appropriate care. With adequate resources and a shift in attitudes, it might be possible to cure some people, treat most, alleviate the suffering of all, and abandon no one. Hidden breast cancer costs and suffering can be financial, physical, psychological, emotional, and social, affecting children, families, communities, and wider society. Exposing and reducing costs and suffering provides incentives for policy makers to invest in prevention, early detection, cost-effective therapies, and optimal management of breast cancer. • Improving patient communication in breast cancer improves not only quality of life and body image, but also adherence to therapy, which can affect survival outcomes. Breast cancer can be seen as robbing many patients of power, but through good communication and facilitating patient autonomy, there could be an opportunity to regain power and exercise empowerment in other areas of their lives. Roadmap for change: Our inclusive roadmap addresses urgent breast cancer challenges through six themes:Society should prevent as many as possible of the 3 million new diagnoses of breast cancers that are predicted to occur per year by 2040, through global national policy changes to minimise modifiable risk factors and coordinated, systematic personalised risk prevention programmes. Health-care systems and clinicians should personalise the right treatment at the right time for individuals while respecting their personal needs and preferences. We call for high-quality cancer registry data on cancer relapses to be collected worldwide and include not just those with metastatic breast cancer, but also with other metastatic cancers. Collaboration is key to close the equity gap through global early diagnosis, treatment frameworks, and innovative technologies. We should identify the value that society places on relief of the hidden costs and suffering related to breast cancer and measure the benefits of addressing these costs. Placing patients at the centre of clinical communication and empowering them to exercise their voices about their breast cancer care is an achievable and necessary global goal

Associations between acute exposures to PM2.5 and carbon dioxide indoors and cognitive function in office workers: a multicountry longitudinal prospective observational study

Despite evidence of the air pollution effects on cognitive function, little is known about the acute impact of indoor air pollution on cognitive function among the working-age population. We aimed to understand whether cognitive function was associated with real-time indoor concentrations of particulate matter (PM _2.5 ) and carbon dioxide (CO _2 ). We conducted a prospective observational longitudinal study among 302 office workers in urban commercial buildings located in six countries (China, India, Mexico, Thailand, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom). For 12 months, assessed cognitive function using the Stroop color-word test and addition–subtraction test (ADD) via a mobile research app. We found that higher PM _2.5 and lower ventilation rates, as assessed by CO _2 concentration, were associated with slower response times and reduced accuracy (fewer correct responses per minute) on the Stroop and ADD for eight out ten test metrics. Each interquartile (IQR) increase in PM _2.5 (IQR = 8.8 $\,\mu$ g m ^−3 ) was associated with a 0.82% (95% CI: 0.42, 1.21) increase in Stroop response time, a 6.18% (95% CI: 2.08, 10.3) increase in Stroop interference time, a 0.7% (95% CI: −1.38, −0.01) decrease in Stroop throughput, and a 1.51% (95% CI: −2.65, −0.37) decrease in ADD throughput. For CO _2 , an IQR increase (IQR = 315 ppm) was associated with a 0.85% (95% CI: 0.32, 1.39) increase in Stroop response time, a 7.88% (95% CI: 2.08, 13.86) increase in Stroop interference time, a 1.32% (95% CI: −2.3, −0.38) decrease in Stroop throughput, and a 1.13% (95% CI: 0.18, 2.11) increase in ADD response time. A sensitivity analysis showed significant association between PM _2.5 in four out of five cognitive test performance metrics only at levels above 12 $\,\mu$ g m ^−3 . Enhanced filtration and higher ventilation rates that exceed current minimum targets are essential public health strategies that may improve employee productivity

Exposure to environmental airborne particulate matter caused wide-ranged transcriptional changes and accelerated Alzheimer's-related pathology: A mouse study

Air pollution poses a significant threat to human health, though a clear understanding of its mechanism remains elusive. In this study, we sought to better understand the effects of various sized particulate matter from polluted air on Alzheimer's disease (AD) development using an AD mouse model. We exposed transgenic Alzheimer's mice in their prodromic stage to different sized particulate matter (PM), with filtered clean air as control. After 3 or 6 months of exposure, mouse brains were harvested and analyzed. RNA-seq analysis showed that various PM have differential effects on the brain transcriptome, and these effects seemed to correlate with PM size. Many genes and pathways were affected after PM exposure. Among them, we found a strong activation in mRNA Nonsense Mediated Decay pathway, an inhibition in pathways related to transcription, neurogenesis and survival signaling as well as angiogenesis, and a dramatic downregulation of collagens. Although we did not detect any extracellular Aβ plaques, immunostaining revealed that both intracellular Aβ1–42 and phospho-Tau levels were increased in various PM exposure conditions compared to the clean air control. NanoString GeoMx analysis demonstrated a remarkable activation of immune responses in the PM exposed mouse brain. Surprisingly, our data also indicated a strong activation of various tumor suppressors including RB1, CDKN1A/p21 and CDKN2A/p16. Collectively, our data demonstrated that exposure to airborne PM caused a profound transcriptional dysregulation and accelerated Alzheimer's-related pathology