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Trailblazing treatment by ChristianaCare physical therapists catches attention of NFL
ChristianaCare physical therapists have developed a trailblazing treatment to prevent muscle strains that has caught the attention of numerous sports teams, including the Los Angeles Rams and Baltimore Ravens. The treatment involves using a screening tool called the “core sling screen” to test the strength of trunk muscles, also known as core muscles, and is combined with a specialized exercise program to strengthen those muscles. Weakness in those muscles can lead to common athletic injuries such as strains in the abdomen, groin, quadriceps and lower back. A study on the treatment’s success was published this spring in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation. Following that, ChristianaCare physical therapists, Brian Catania, MPT, SCS, ATC, and Travis Ross, PT, DPT, who co-authored the study and spearheaded the treatment, presented it to the NFL’s Professional Football Athletic Trainer Symposium. Athletic trainers with the Los Angeles Rams and the Baltimore Ravens met directly with Catania and Ross to learn how to use it to prevent their players from sustaining muscle injuries. “The research by ChristianaCare Rehabilitation Services regarding core slings is an extremely effective approach that is based off of sound reasoning and practical application,” said Jon Hernandez, PT, DPT, SCS, ATC, CSCS, physical therapist and assistant athletic trainer for the Rams. “The principles of the sling activation series are incorporated into our daily, clinical practice. Whether it be our injury prevention programs, corrective exercises, or rehabilitation practices, the sling activation series is applicable to a myriad of conditions we see in an NFL athletic training room.” Catania and Ross care for patients at ChristianaCare Rehabilitation Services at Glasgow, in Newark, Del. They began working on ways to increase resilience in core muscles nearly nine years ago. Through their research, they developed a screening tool, that they call the “core sling screen,” which detects weakness in those muscles. Strains are among the most common sports injuries, according to the U.S. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. “We reasoned that if we could identify ways to improve the strength of the core muscles, common lower extremity injuries would be less likely to occur,” said Catania, who also is the program manager at ChristianaCare’s Rehabilitation Services location in Glasgow. “But it had to be a two-part approach. We needed to develop a reliable screening tool to examine the core muscles and then also come up with a targeted exercise program to strengthen those muscles.” The study was conducted by ChristianaCare’s departments of Rehabilitation Services and Sports Medicine. “At ChristianaCare, we are relentlessly curious and we continuously look for ways to innovate,” said Bradley Sandella, D.O., director of Sports Medicine at ChristianaCare, who also co-authored the study. “We don’t want to just treat injuries – we want to prevent them from ever occurring, even if it means that we have to come up with novel and progressive approaches.” A randomized-control study was performed to test out traditional exercises and compare them to a newly developed exercise program that involved rotational movements of the torso, known as rotary-based exercises. The study found that the rotary-based exercises increased the activation of targeted abdominal muscles and could make adjacent areas of the body, such as the groin, less injury-prone. The study included 31 female and male students from the University of Delaware. Catania and Ross have provided further instruction to both the Rams and Ravens. In May, they visited the Ravens’ facility in Owings Mills, Md., to personally instruct Ravens athletic trainers and physical therapists on how to perform the treatment. The treatment also has been presented at the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the Eastern Athletic Trainers Association. “It has been meaningful through this research to contribute to the ongoing evolution in the field of physical therapy and sports medicine,” Ross said. “We are always looking for ways to protect our patients, many of whom are athletes, from injury. It makes physical therapy better, it makes patients better, and it makes players better.” To learn more about this treatment and the expertise ChristianaCare is bringing to organizations like the NFL - contact Bradley Sandella, D.O., director of Sports Medicine at ChristianaCare. He's available to speak with media, simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
Type 2 diabetes: why treatment plans may need to be different for older adults
Around 6% of the world’s population suffer from type 2 diabetes. People of any age can develop the condition, but the number of older adults with type 2 diabetes is rapidly increasing worldwide. In fact, adults over the age of 65 now account for almost half of all adult cases. There are many ways type 2 diabetes can be managed – including controlling weight through diet and exercise, or taking a drug to manage blood sugar levels. But many people may not realise that type 2 diabetes in older adults can be more complicated to manage. This means people over 65 may need to be managed differently when it comes to type 2 diabetes. There are a number of reasons why type 2 diabetes may be more difficult to manage in older adults. First, ageing can affect blood sugar control, as the body’s organs (such as the pancreas, which controls insulin and blood sugar levels) lose their ability to work as well as they used to. On top of this, some research has shown that diabetes may cause people to age faster. It’s thought that this is due to high levels of sugar in the blood stream prematurely ageing the body’s cells. This premature ageing could lead to diseases associated with age-related decline (such as arthritis or dementia) happening sooner. Frailty – a state of health that is associated with reduced physical and mental resilience in older adults – also affects more people with type 2 diabetes than the rest of the population. In fact, an estimated 25% of older adults with type 2 diabetes are also frail. People who are frail and have type 2 diabetes have poorer health and increased risk of death from all causes compared to those who are not frail. Frailty is associated with reduced physical and cognitive functions and increased risk of low blood sugar. Both of these factors can make treating type 2 diabetes more complicated. Dementia, which is more common in older adults, may also make it more difficult to manage type 2 diabetes. This is because the memory problems this condition causes may make it harder for patients to remember to take their medication, or take the proper medication dosage. What’s more, type 2 diabetes in older adults is actually a risk factor for developing dementia – including Alzheimer’s disease. While the link between the two isn’t fully understood, elevated blood sugar levels and insulin not working properly have been suggested as causes. Having other health conditions can also make it more difficult to treat diabetes. Up to 40% of older adults with type 2 diabetes have four or more co-existing diseases – such as heart disease or dementia. These conditions can make it impossible to achieve normal treatment targets and the drugs used to treat them can interact with those used to treat diabetes – which could lead to harm if not managed carefully. Alongside this, poor access to proper medical care, and being more susceptible to low blood sugar in older age are also reasons why treating diabetes can be so difficult in this age group. Managing type 2 diabetes Most medical treatments for type 2 diabetes work to keep blood sugar levels low, and prevent them from spiking. But older adults with type 2 diabetes may actually have an increased risk of developing dangerously low blood sugar levels. This usually happens if the medication is not used at the correct dose, or in people who have had diabetes for a long time. Older adults can also be susceptible to low blood sugar levels. Syda Productions/ Shutterstock Having very low blood sugar levels is dangerous as it can increase the risk of falls – a serious and sometimes life-threatening problem in older adults. Very low blood sugar levels also increase the risk of heart problems. This means that healthcare professionals need to be careful they aren’t being too aggressive in treatment plans for older adults to avoid causing other health problems. Ageing may also alter the body’s response to low blood sugar. This is significant, as when blood sugar falls too low it is extremely dangerous and can even be fatal. Older adults may also be less able to recognise the symptoms of low blood sugar compared to young adults. This is because symptoms such as dizziness and confusion are often less specific in older adults, and can be confused with dementia. Older adults may also take longer to recover from low blood sugar. Given that repeated bouts of low blood sugar can mean that older people are less able to sense when it’s happened in the future, it’s important that drugs prescribed to older adults for type 2 diabetes are given at the correct doses. Care especially needs to be taken prescribing insulin, the body’s blood sugar control hormone, to very old adults as this significantly increases the risk of low blood sugar. Given our ageing population, it is projected that more older adults will have type 2 diabetes in the future. This makes it especially important to improve how we treat diabetes in this age group. Though specific treatment guidelines have been developed, some evidence suggests that care approaches need to be more cautious and personalised to each patient, taking into account their other health conditions, and that treatments consider quality of life for each patient. This article was co-written by Dr James Brown and Dr Srikanth Bellary
Early-stage entrepreneurial activity in 2020 had fallen sharply from its pre-pandemic high in the UK as the economy was essentially shut down for long periods due to COVID-19 This decline was due to fewer nascent entrepreneurs than normal – that is, individuals in the first three months of starting their new business venture Nevertheless, around two-thirds of working-age adults looking to set up a business within three years said the pandemic had influenced their decision to re-assess their future engagement with the labour market As in previous economic downturns it is the small business community that drives the recovery across all sectors of the economy. UK entrepreneurs once again stand ready to rise to the challenges and opportunities created by the Coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout from Brexit, a new report says. The latest Global Entrepreneurship Team (GEM) UK report found that although around of half budding entrepreneurs said that the UK government had so far dealt effectively with the economic consequences of the pandemic, there must be improved programmes, financial support and advice to start-ups and scale-ups through different stages of the business life cycle. GEM is the world’s largest survey of entrepreneurship and is the only global research source that collects data on entrepreneurship directly from individual entrepreneurs. It measures various rates of entrepreneurship in 43 countries in 2020. GEM’s UK team – which is led by Professor Mark Hart of Aston University – compared attitudes, activity and aspirations in the UK, Germany and the United States as well as the four home nations of the UK. Access to finance remained one of the major obstacles to entrepreneurial activity in the UK. Enhanced tax benefits for entrepreneurs, such as tax breaks for start-ups and businesses in difficulty to reduce early exits and better tax incentives for recruitment, investment in managerial and digital practices and skills were also highlighted1. The report also called for more entrepreneurial education, especially at school age as well as improved technical education and improved links between the educational system and industry to boost growth post-COVID and post-Brexit. It found that the UK still lags behind many comparable economies in this respect. Mark Hart, professor of small business and entrepreneurship at Aston Business School and deputy director of the UK’s Enterprise Research Centre, said: “The GEM survey undertaken in the last few months of 2020 showed a sharp fall in the number of individuals in the early stages of setting up a new business compared to the pre-pandemic high in 2019. “This is hardly surprising, but the analysis has also shown that the entrepreneurial foundations of the economy and society are still strong and these will be crucial for the recovery after the pandemic and in dealing with the ongoing economic fallout from Brexit. “Those ethnic-minority communities that have borne the brunt of the pandemic in terms of infection, hospitalisation and sadly deaths demonstrated their resilience by maintaining their previous levels of early-stage entrepreneurial activity (TEA rate) which were significantly higher than for the non-ethnic minority population. “Clearly, the pandemic has had no damaging impact on the level of entrepreneurial activity by immigrants and ethnic-minorities although it has depressed it for life-long residents and the non-ethnic population. “There is undoubtedly an appetite for people to start their own businesses in the next three years and many report new opportunities because of the pandemic but they are delaying the actual decision to get the business operational.” The full GEM UK impact report, sponsored by NatWest, is available for download here.
It’s World Water Week – Have you lined up an expert for your stories and coverage this week?
It’s World Water Week, and as issues with pollution in our oceans, safe drinking water in cities and droughts impacting public safety, public health and key industries across the west dominate the headlines – water is a topic that can’t be overlooked or its importance to society taken for granted. There are a host of angles, aspects and storylines that touch on just about every economic, political and social aspects of modern life, and if you are a reporter looking to cover World Water Week - then let our experts help! Asli Aslan, Ph.D., is a water microbiologist, and her research program bridges ecosystem and human health. She has ongoing funded projects on microbial source tracking, health risk assessment of water resources, and the ecology of pathogens in the aquatic environment. She is available to speak with reporters – simply click her icon to arrange an interview today.
Rishi Sunak kickstarts Help to Grow scheme at Aston Business School
"It was a pleasure to host the chancellor at Aston Business School today. As a small business leader you have to know about all the key business functions and how to optimise them to drive high performance in your business." Paula Whitehouse, Aston Business School Paula Whitehouse (L) & Rishi Sunak (R) The Chancellor of the Exchequer met with Aston University’s deputy vice-chancellor engagement and associate dean enterprise of the College of Business and Social Sciences to launch Help to Grow: Management The scheme will support senior managers of small and medium-sized businesses to boost performance, resilience, and long-term growth The 12-week programme is 90% funded by the Government and participants can complete it alongside full-time work. The Chancellor has called on the leaders of small and medium-sized businesses to sign up to a new programme designed to hone their expertise as he attended one of the first courses in the UK today (August 2). Rishi Sunak joined a class taking part in the government-funded Help to Grow: Management scheme at Aston Business School, Aston University, alongside small business owners, to see first-hand how it is giving them the tools they need to innovate, grow and help drive the recovery from the pandemic. The Chancellor delivered a talk to participants at Aston Business School on the critical role small businesses can play in boosting UK productivity. He then took part in a group activity and led a discussion about their own business models and opportunities for growth. The scheme, which was announced at the March Budget and opened for applications in May, will give 30,000 SMEs access to world-class business expertise on everything from financial management to marketing and is a pivotal part of the government’s Plan for Jobs. Rishi Sunak, the chancellor of the exchequer, said: “Small businesses are key to our innovation and economy and will therefore be an essential part to our recovery from the pandemic, which is why we are levelling up their skills through the Help to Grow schemes. “I want to bring some of the best bits of management training from around the world to help boost productivity here in the UK. “Help to Grow: Management will ensure our brilliant SMEs seize every opportunity to grow, fuelling our Plan for Jobs by boosting productivity in all corners of the UK.” Experts in small business and entrepreneurship from Aston University have played a significant role in developing the programme. Paula Whitehouse, curriculum director for Help to Grow: Management and associate dean enterprise of the College of Business and Social Sciences, said: "It was a pleasure to host the chancellor at Aston Business School today. As a small business leader you have to know about all the key business functions and how to optimise them to drive high performance in your business. “Help to Grow: Management will combine this essential business education with the creation of a like-minded business network and support for the practical application of the learning to ensure businesses get immediate results. “I am excited to be working with Small Business Charter business school colleagues all over the country to roll out the Help to Grow: Management curriculum and ultimately to be introducing many more business leaders from the West Midlands into Aston's vibrant entrepreneurial community." Mark Hart, professor of small business and entrepreneurship at Aston University and associate director of Aston Centre for Growth, said: “The launch of the Government’s Help to Grow: Management programme for SMEs is a welcome addition at a critical time to the range of support available to small business leaders across the UK. “Small firms will drive the recovery as they have always done in previous economic downturns and equipping their leaders with the leadership and management skills from the UK’s leading business schools will ensure that they will build even more resilient, innovative and sustainable businesses capable of responding to the emerging opportunities in their chosen markets. “This is a practical, intensive 12-week programme designed by some of our top academics to provide the skills required to improve the performance and productivity of small firms across all sectors of the economy”. Mark Hart (L) & Rishi Sunak (R) take part in a class at Aston Business School
Aston University cyber security experts shape government policy around resilience of supply chains
"Cyber security of any organisation, inclusive of its supply chain, should be promoted in conjunction with other organisational targets, such as profitability, productivity and financial/operational risk management" Professor Vladlena Benson, Aston University Researchers from Aston University’s Cyber Security Innovation (CSI) Research Centre have been invited to respond to the call for evidence by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) The centre works with businesses to help improve resilience to cyber attacks It comes after a series of high-profile attacks on managed service providers affecting thousands of firms and compromising government agencies. Experts from the Cyber Security Innovation (CSI) Research Centre at Aston University have responded to a call for evidence by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on cyber security in supply chains and managed service providers. The CSI centre works with businesses to help improve their security posture and develops state-of-the-art solutions for supply chain resilience and business continuity. Recent research1 from the centre explored organisational approaches to supply chain management in the West Midlands, specifically in the times of remote arrangements and when traditional business continuity practices in supply chain management have been challenged. It comes as two high profile attacks (SolarWinds and Kesya) on managed service providers threatened the world and brought to a standstill credit card processing for major retail chains in Sweden, while US government officials' personal data was compromised. The €6.9m TRACE project, an EU-funded scheme of which Aston University is a key partner, addresses these issues and kicked off on Friday 9 July 2021. Professor Vladlena Benson, director of the CSI at Aston Business School, recently attended a round table by the Minister of Digital Infrastructure. She said: “Based on the conclusions of our research, we make a recommendation that cyber security of any organisation, inclusive of its supply chain, should be promoted in conjunction with other organisational targets, such as profitability, productivity and financial/operational risk management. “The identification and promotion of synergies between cyber security, profitability and productivity is a strong driver to ensure that, at a senior level, organisations take responsibility and accountability for effective cyber risk management. Dr Donato Masi, from the CSI Centre at Aston University, said: “Profitability or productivity are close to the competitive advantage of the firm and security of the supply chain of any organisation underpins its longevity on the market it operates in. “Investment in cyber security measures, including supply chain risk assessment and counter-threat controls, should be viewed as a ‘cost of doing business’ and business success and/or longevity.” 1Find out more about the research of the CSI Centre here
Emily Baum: Chilling academic exchanges between China and the U.S. Emily Baum is an associate professor of modern Chinese history and director of the Long U.S.-China Institute, which aims to bridge the gaps between academia, journalism and the public sector. Baum says the pandemic will likely affect study abroad for years to come, in both directions, with negative impacts on both sides. There was already a significant disparity with roughly 370,000 Chinese students studying in the U.S. and only 11,000 Americans studying in China annually. “A drop in Chinese enrollments will have major consequences for the future of higher education in the U.S., where many schools rely on the full tuition paid by international students to stay afloat,” Baum says. But equally worrisome: “The educational decoupling that had already begun before COVID-19 — and will be greatly exacerbated by it — means that there will be far fewer opportunities for each country’s students to gain firsthand knowledge of, and mutual understanding about, the other.” Reach Baum at: emily.baum@uci.edu Wang Feng: China has passed its peak Wang Feng is a professor of sociology and an adjunct professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, China. He is an expert on global social and demographic changes and social inequality. He has served on expert panels for the United Nations and the World Economic Forum, as well as he served as a senior fellow and director at the Brookings Institution Brookings-Tsinghua Center for Public Policy. Wang sees the ascendance of China in the last 40 years as the result of a unique confluence of circumstances: a dynamic leader in Deng Xiaoping, plus a significant rural population that moved to cities and provided a huge labor force. In the last 20 years, China has produced 600 billionaires — and gaping wealth disparities. “When China was poor, people thought it would be poor forever. Now that China is rich, people think it will be rich forever. But China has passed its peak,” he says. “The headwinds of an aging population, the legacy of the one-child policy, and tremendous social inequality will present enormous internal challenges in the years ahead.” Reach Wang at fwang@uci.edu. Jeffrey Wasserstrom: China’s box office changes Hollywood portrayals Jeffrey Wasserstrom is a Chancellor’s professor of history. A specialist in modern Chinese history, he has testified before a Congressional-Executive commission on China, conducted a State Department briefing on contemporary Chinese politics, and worked with the Hong Kong International Literary Festival. His articles have been published by TIME, The Nation, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, The New York Times and others. Wasserstrom notes that Hollywood films and TV often negatively present whichever East Asian country is most feared at the time. However, the power of China’s box office is changing that. “Due to concern with the massive market for movies in the People’s Republic of China, you do not often see negative portrayals of that country on American screens,” says Wasserstrom. “A telling example of our living in a new era is that when filmmakers were setting out to make a new version of ‘Red Dawn,’ a film that originally portrayed a Russian invasion of the U.S., the plan was to have Chinese soldiers serve as the enemies. Concern about PRC box office receipts led to a change in nationality — the enemies became North Korean soldiers.” Reach Wasserstrom at: jwassers@uci.edu. Yong Chen: Chinese food in the U.S. and China Yong Chen is the author of several books including "Chop Suey, USA: The Story of Chinese Food in America" (Columbia University Press, 2014). He also co-curated “‘Have You Eaten Yet?’: The Chinese Restaurant in America” in Atwater Kent Museum, Philadelphia (2006), and the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, New York City (2004–05). He is professor of history. He points out that the COVID-19 pandemic hastened changes to culinary habits that were already underway in China, including less consumption of wild animals, greater demand for fast food, and a shift away from communal or “family style” meals. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Chinese restaurants have been hit hard by anti-Asian sentiments, while also showing signs of resilience thanks to the popularity of Chinese takeout. “If the seriously strained relationship between China and the US continues to deteriorate, it is possible that more people in America will lose their appetite for Chinese food, to say the least,” Chen says. Reach Chen at: y3chen@uci.edu.
Local neighborhood conditions are important for children’s brain development
Growing up in a disadvantaged neighborhood is related to children’s brain structure and neurocognitive performance, according to a study published May 3, 2021 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. It is associated with the brain’s cortical structure and volume as well as how children pay attention, their executive function, reading, flexible thinking, and other tasks that support learning. These differences could potentially contribute to other inequities during adolescence as well as later in life for these children, though there is no evidence that such neighborhood-related differences are fixed or immutable. Children’s brains exhibit plasticity, meaning that they can change and grow in response to learning and experience. The study’s findings shine a spotlight on the larger population trend and do not serve as a predictor of any individual child’s outcome. “This points to the importance of investing in policies and programs that help improve local neighborhoods and to support and empower communities to promote children’s neurodevelopment and long-term health and well-being,” said Daniel A. Hackman, assistant professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and lead author of the study. Researchers from the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work and the Keck School of Medicine of USC used data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, collected from October 2016 – 2018. The ABCD Study is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health ever conducted in the United States. “Disadvantaged neighborhoods may lack quality health services, access to nutritional foods, and well-maintained parks and rec facilities,” said Megan Herting, assistant professor in the department of preventive medicine at the Keck School of Medicine at USC and senior author of the study. “They may also expose residents to more pollutants or social stressors.” In addition to Hackman and Herting, study authors include Dora Cserbik, Jiu-Chiuan Chen, and Rob McConnell of the department of preventive medicine at Keck School of Medicine; Bita Minaravesh of the USC Dornsife Spatial Sciences Institute; and Kiros Berhane of the Department of Biostatistics at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Neighborhood disadvantage and the brain The study participants were 8,598 nine- to eleven-year-old children in 21 sites from the ABCD Study, and includes youth from diverse backgrounds, family income levels and neighborhood environments. Using this ABCD data, the multidisciplinary team of researchers tested whether neighborhood disadvantage is associated with neurocognition and brain structure through the National Institute of Health Toolbox Cognition Battery and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Neurocognition refers to specific cognitive functions related to particular neural systems, such as executive function, memory, problem-solving and perception. Executive function is the set of cognitive functions that allows people to select behaviors, make efforts to regulate or control their behavior or thinking in given situations, and to focus on goals despite distractions. Brain structure refers to global and regional measures of the brain’s cortex and subcortex, such as volume and surface area. The researchers found that neighborhood disadvantage was associated with worse neurocognitive performance on nearly all tasks and smaller cortical surface area, as well as cortical volumes and subcortical volumes, across the whole brain. The associations remain after adjusting for family socioeconomic status and largely remain after adjusting for perceptions of neighborhood safety. “Our findings aren't specific to the child's home life, as we accounted for socioeconomic factors at each child's home,” Herting said. “But the research suggests neighborhoods may have different levels of social and educational resources and opportunities that can impact a child's neurodevelopment.” Disadvantaged neighborhoods are those in which people generally have lower levels of income, employment and education. Growing up in these conditions can be stressful for children and adults. However, comparing disadvantaged neighborhoods across the country is challenging to social work researchers, who understand that when looking at national samples they may pick up regional differences for which they must account. Neighborhood similarities and differences The impressive scope and scale of the ABCD study made it possible for these researchers to delve into rich local data that enabled them to understand the similarities and differences of disadvantaged neighborhoods within the context of their cities. Hackman, whose research interests include understanding neighborhoods and the context that children and adolescents grow up in, wanted to be able to look at the research question from both the national perspective as well as the local perspective. “This is the first large, national study of neurodevelopment to determine that the role of neighborhood disadvantage is similar across all regions of the country, and we found that what mattered most were the local differences in neighborhood disadvantage within each city, rather than how cities differ from each other overall” Hackman said. “This highlights the broad relevance of neighborhood disadvantage, and the importance of unique local conditions. His interest was even more piqued when he saw a clear narrative emerge from the data. “The consistency of the data was so compelling,” Hackman said. Though disadvantaged neighborhoods may vary from city to city, the researchers found the associations were largely consistent across 21 metropolitan areas within the U.S. For policymakers, a takeaway is that neighborhoods were related to these important aspects of child development everywhere, and that though each city is different, the unique local conditions are important to address. In addition, the global relationship between neighborhood and overall brain structure and neurocognitive performance suggest that intervention approaches may be most successful if they are comprehensive and focused on improving children’s contexts, rather than narrowly targeted to the development of particular cognitive skills. “This research is important as it not only highlights that neighborhoods matter, but it also suggests that promoting neighborhood equity based on the unique local conditions within cities could be important for the short and longer-term health and overall development of children and adolescents,” Hackman said. According to the study, although the magnitudes of association between disadvantaged neighborhoods and neurocognition and brain structure are statistically small, they are potentially meaningful. One reason is because even small effects may have large consequences as they accumulate over time at a population level. Another reason is because these are comparable to, but smaller, than effect sizes for family socioeconomic status in these models. “There is also considerable evidence of resilience,” Hackman noted, as the authors caution that these associations are not predictive at the individual level. In particular, many youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods outperform their peers from more affluent neighborhoods, and also have larger cortical surface area and subcortical volume as well. In other words, living in a disadvantaged neighborhood is not deterministic and does not automatically predict any pattern of neurocognition and brain structure for any individual. Instead, the association uncovered by these researchers points to more reasons why improvements to neighborhoods can bring positive change. “Future research is needed to determine if our findings are, in fact, attributable to differences in community-based resources or differences in quality of schooling,” Herting said. “However, our findings do add to a growing literature suggesting the importance of neighborhoods and how they may contribute to place-based disparities in health and well-being in America.”
Ten Years Later: Japan Society Remembers the Great East Japan Earthquake (3.11)
To Mark the 10th Anniversary of the Triple Disaster, Japan Society Will Present Programming Reflecting Upon the Aftermath, Recovery and Spirit of Resiliency After the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster devastated the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011 (3.11), Japan Society's Japan Earthquake Relief Fund (JERF) raised over $14 million from more than 24,600 donors from all 50 U.S. states and 55 countries, the largest amount raised by a nonprofit not specializing in disaster and emergency relief and the 7th largest fundraising campaign by a U.S. nonprofit organization. Through a series of events and videos leading up to the 10-year anniversary of 3.11, Japan Society invites our community to remember those who were lost, and to look toward Tohoku’s continued recovery. We also extend our sincere appreciation to all who donated to the Japan Earthquake Relief Fund (JERF), which was launched by Japan Society the day after the tragic events of 3.11. Since 2011, JERF has funded more than 65 grant projects and 45 organizations supporting Tohoku’s immediate relief and reconstruction efforts as well as the mid- to long-term recovery of these communities. In 2021, Japan Society has earmarked the remaining funds to support additional projects facilitating community-building and economic recovery in disaster-hit areas where challenges have become further exacerbated by the onset of the global pandemic and additional disasters that most recently struck the region on February 13. More information on these organizations and projects is available here. To mark the 10th anniversary of the triple disaster, Japan Society will report back on how JERF grants have contributed to Tohoku’s recovery, and highlight stories of what was witnessed in the aftermath of 3.11, including Tohoku’s resiliency, the bravery and initiative of all who responded to unprecedented challenges, the strength of U.S.-Japan relations, and the spirit of human generosity and goodwill. As we remember and draw lessons from the events of 3.11, we hope to nurture hope for the future of Tohoku and the world. “2021 is a year to reflect on resilience and recovery as we navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and remember not just the tragedy of 3.11, but the strength of the Japanese people and the generosity of the world in its aftermath,” said Japan Society President and CEO Joshua W. Walker, Ph.D. “As we mark the 10-year anniversary of these events, we honor those who were lost, and extend our gratitude to the individuals and organizations who offered their support, including the donors to our relief fund.” Events include a contemporary theater performance “Ludic Proxy: Fukushima,” held live on March 6, 7 & 11 and available on demand from March 12 - 16. This video adaptation of Brooklyn-based theater-maker Aya Ogawa’s play Ludic Proxy follows a woman visiting her older sister, who lives on the outskirts of the Fukushima nuclear evacuation zone. The interactive play, which features a unique element of audience participation, explores the theme of human survival in the face of disaster. Taking advantage of our expertise in bringing together American and Japanese experts, a live U.S.-Japan symposium on March 9, 7-9pm EST, “Resilience & Recovery: A U.S.-Japan Dialogue Ten Years after 3.11”, will feature leading voices from Tohoku, Japan and the U.S. to discuss lessons learned from 3.11 on resilience and recovery from catastrophes. The symposium will be co-hosted with JERF recipient, ETIC., a Japanese nonprofit dedicated to nurturing social entrepreneurs and recovery efforts in Tohoku. As its first exhibition upon reopening to the public, Japan Society will also present When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan opening on March 11th. The exhibition celebrates the resilient spirit of Japanese architecture and craftsmanship through woodworking tools, architectural patterns, and models. The site-specific exhibition design, conceived by the esteemed architect Sou Fujimoto in collaboration with Brooklyn-based Popular Architecture, introduces major themes from the exhibition and is in dialogue with the gallery’s spaces, highlighting an enduring connection between traditional Japanese wooden construction and modern architecture. Viewing is available every Thursday through Sunday with advance timed-entry ticket reservations online. Further digital features include: Testimonials on the impact of JERF’s support from recipients and participants in fund-supported programs; A special season of Japan Society’s Tea Time series featuring six short interviews with key leaders from the U.S. and Japan including former U.S. Ambassador John V. Roos and retired General Ryoichi Oriki on their responses and lessons learned from the disaster; Dialogues between social entrepreneurs from Tohoku and their counterparts in New Orleans, LA and Wilmington, OH to discuss their work in using data, nurturing social entrepreneurship, and rebuilding communities recovering from natural disasters and economic crisis. These conversations feature alumni from “U.S.-Japan Leaders Exchange: Three-Year Training & Networking Program for Leaders in Tohoku’s Recovery and Reconstruction,” a multi-year program organized by Japan Society and ETIC from 2013-16. For a full list of programs and more information about JERF and the fund recipients, visit the Japan Society webpage. About Japan Society Founded in 1907, Japan Society in New York City presents sophisticated, topical and accessible experiences of Japanese art and culture, and facilitates the exchange of ideas, knowledge and innovation between the U.S. and Japan. More than 200 events annually encompass world-class exhibitions, dynamic classical and cutting-edge contemporary performing arts, film premieres and retrospectives, workshops and demonstrations, tastings, family activities, language classes, and a range of high-profile talks and expert panels that present open, critical dialogue on issues of vital importance to the U.S., Japan and East Asia. Japan Society is located at 333 East 47th Street between First and Second avenues (accessible by the 4/5/6 and 7 subway at Grand Central or the E and M subway at Lexington Avenue). www.japansociety.org
COVID-19 has raised the stakes for boards, argues Brunswick’s Paddy McGuinness, former UK Deputy National Security Adviser. We now live with COVID-19. Fewer business leaders are making the mistake of talking about “post-COVID” or “when this is over.” The better of them have factored in COVID-19 related constraints to their medium-term plans and are even thinking about how the world may change in the long-term. They are building capacity to take advantage of an early recovery within months, yet they are modeling and encouraging grit for current and indeed harder conditions to last much longer. In the past, when health emergencies—say the Spanish Flu pandemic of a century ago—subsided, there was a greater return to economic normality than had been expected during the crisis. Extreme events often heighten or even distort our perception of wider risks. That old journalistic cliché “one thing is certain, nothing will be the same again” is rarely true. But the pandemic has created the expectation that businesses will be resilient—that they will be able to respond to an event and recover to the state prior to the event, incorporating the lessons learned into business practice. Many business leaders feel they have not done too badly responding to a once-in-a-hundred-years event. Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), which were understandably sketchy for pandemics, were pulled out of second-line risk management and owned and improved in real-time by executive committees. The transition to remote working and, at least in Asia and some of Europe, the gradual return to offices again, has been managed. Services and even vital production have been maintained. Leaders have absorbed the personal and collective strain of this. Good reason then for some satisfaction as they delegate certain COVID-19 responses and focus on the economic tsunami that follows the pandemic. The public seems to largely agree with business leaders’ assessments. While many national and scientific leaders find themselves beset by “blamestorming,” corporate executives have been given more slack. They weren’t expected to have foreseen a pandemic. Their sometimes scrabbling responses are understood. However, behind this lucky pass lurks an expectation that businesses will now be more prepared for crises and foreseeable risks. Resilience cannot be relegated to BCPs and traditional risk-management structures. It is categorically a board issue—regulators, lawyers, politicians and the public say so. The reputations of individual board members and the collective are at stake. Think how fast leaders have been expected to respond to the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement. Alacrity will be required. The speed and scale of decisions in response to the pandemic leaves board committees playing catch up to assure themselves that risks have been managed. The move to working from home has been rapid, so too the digitization of the business. Some see these as new, streamlined ways of working, yet the negative consequences are not yet fully apparent. Working from home, for instance, is attractive to some employees as well as chief financial officers, who may relish the chance to reduce fixed costs. Concerns about the impact on the coherence of the business’s culture, its productivity and innovation, the security of data held at home, hardships for those in difficult home conditions, and, indeed, the needs of the younger demographic who seem to favor a return to the office, need to be given due consideration. It may be a case of “decide in haste, repent at leisure.” Resilience is categorically a board issue—regulators, lawyers, politicians and the public say so. The reputations of individual board members and the collective are at stake. Boards also need assurance that the business has regained its balance and can manage parallel or interrelated crises. In recent weeks we have been helping several clients respond to major cyber events unrelated to the COVID-19 outbreak. They have probably needed more external support than otherwise because their leadership capacity was inevitably denuded by pandemic response. And they have benefitted from us already knowing each other and having experience of how to work together in crisis. After the Great Financial Crash there was a heavy focus on balance-sheet resilience and having the requisite finance skills on boards. Business leaders are now beset by advice on the heightened obligation to be resilient in much a broader sense of the word. Regulators, lawyers and risk consultants are sharing checklists of factors for executive committees to take into account when managing risks and for boards to oversee. The challenge here is defining what changes your specific business needs and how to actually bring those about. Shareholders will be expecting a judicious move away from “just in time” systems to ones that can endure foreseeable risks. This isn’t just about potential legal liability or reputational risk. This is about setting your business culture for success. Undermanage risks and the business is wide open to damage from foreseeable shocks with all the loss of confidence and capability that follows. Overmanage and the business losses its competitive edge just when there is opportunity in the recovery. In order to track broader resilience, boards and their committees will need access to a wider set of skills and insight. Board membership emerges as an obvious area of focus. Yet each board will take more time and belonging to too many—“over boarding”—may well be unacceptable. Risk methodology and information flows will also have to be reviewed, alongside how to strengthen board members’ awareness and skills. Before the pandemic, chairs and CEOs were already wrestling with this for their difficult-to-price risks, such as data, technology risks and cyber. Individual experts on boards created siloed responsibility for what should have been a shared risk. A focus on process and method often led to a focus on the management, rather than genuine oversight of, risks. External advice didn’t always help (as we have learned from the plethora of competing advice around COVID-19). No single intervention will meet the new standard for resilience. Nor will simple prescription. A broader and more articulated approach is required if governance is to maintain stakeholder confidence and corporate reputation.
