How to feel about climate change? A scientist reflects on anger, hope and love.
Marvel's new book is called 'Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet,' and it's organized around emotions. There is anger, grief and fear, of course — but there is also wonder, surprise, hope and love.
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Medscape
an hour ago
- Medscape
America's Favorite Sports Pose a Risk for Orbital Fractures
TOPLINE: Adolescents and men in the US faced a notable burden of orbital fractures and associated ocular injuries from sports such as baseball, softball, and bicycling, underscoring the need for protective glasses and clear safety rules — as well as the strict enforcement — of these regulations to prevent loss of sight during athletic activities. METHODOLOGY: Researchers analyzed data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System from 2014 to 2023 to understand how often individuals suffered from orbital fractures while playing sports in the US. They looked up the database for cases of facial fractures linked to sports, excluding those involving motor vehicles, and reviewed trauma narratives specific to orbital fractures; records of individuals younger than 5 years were not analyzed. The national estimates of orbital fractures were calculated, and details such as the age of the patients, the type of sport played, the location of the fracture, and the frequency of associated ocular injuries were evaluated. TAKEAWAY: This study identified 1468 cases of orbital fractures stemming from sports, corresponding to an estimated 49,765 cases (95% CI, 47,219-52,311) nationwide; the incidence of these injuries remained largely stable throughout the study period. The study population had a mean age of 27.1 years, with men comprising 79% of cases, and the highest frequency of sports-related orbital fractures observed among those aged 10-19 years. Baseball (28.6%), bicycling (23.1%), and softball (6.7%) were the most frequently implicated sports in orbital fractures; most cases of orbital fractures (56.9%) were linked to activities in which participants were required to come into bodily contact with one another. An analysis of narratives specific to orbital fractures revealed that the orbital floor was the most commonly fractured site, accounting for 59.8% of cases; about 14% of patients sustained injuries to the eye or surrounding areas, most often cuts to the eyelid, scratches or cuts to the cornea, cuts to the eyebrow, and bleeding beneath the conjunctival membrane. IN PRACTICE: 'The sustained rates of orbital fractures highlight a critical gap in sporting protective equipment and emphasize the importance of adopting protective equipment specifically designed for orbital injury prevention, including face shields and protective eyewear,' the researchers reported. 'The findings presented here, coupled with evidence that properly fitted protective eyewear or face shields can reduce the risk of ocular injuries by 90%, emphasize the crucial role of eye protection in sports,' they added. SOURCE: This study was led by Niloufar Bineshfar, MD, of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami. It was published online on June 21, 2025, in Ophthalmology. LIMITATIONS: Some injuries may not have been reported or may have been labeled incorrectly, causing inaccuracy in the incidence rates for orbital fractures and related eye injuries. No details were available on the severity of the injuries, how people healed over time, or what care they received. Since injuries to other parts of the body were noted only from 2019 onward, some damage to the eye before that date may have been missed. DISCLOSURES: This study was funded by the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute and a Research to Prevent Blindness Unrestricted Grant. The authors reported having no relevant conflicts of interest. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
News24
an hour ago
- News24
Facing climate change, Swiss trees get mist before they're missed
Swiss pine trees are being sprayed with mist as part of a trial to understand how drier or wetter air may affect their ability to survive. Switzerland is experiencing increasingly dry summers - by 2060, there will be 25% less rain in summer, and droughts will last longer. The objective of the trial is to develop forestry strategies and influence the choice of tree species to plant in future. For more climate change news and analysis, go to News24 Climate Future. In a Swiss pine forest, the treetops are being sprayed with mist in a bid to discover the effect that drier or wetter air has on their ability to survive. Eighteen scaffolding towers have been erected between the trees in the Pfynwald in Switzerland's southern Wallis region. High-pressure nozzles mounted on the towers spray vapour over the canopy of some 60 Scots pines, standing 15 metres tall. The study is a unique experiment designed to separate out and analyse the different effects of soil drought and air dryness in a natural forest ecosystem. "The goal is not to spray forests to save them, but to understand why a lack of water in the atmosphere has such a significant impact on forests," project director Charlotte Grossiord told AFP. The trial is being conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). The vapour studies aim to measure the rate of dieback in trees, where the leaves and branches start to wither away. It should help experts anticipate when similar forests will be affected, said Giovanni Bortolami, one of the researchers. The objective is to develop forestry strategies and influence the choice of tree species to plant in future, as Switzerland experiences increasingly dry summers. By 2060, there will be 25% less rain in the summer and droughts will generally last longer, the environment ministry has said. Another goal is to better understand tree mortality, given that trees "allow us to estimate the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere", with CO2 being the main climate-warming greenhouse gas, said Grossiord, a professor of plant ecology. Thirsty air The Pfynwald is one of the biggest continuous Scots pine forests in Europe. It counts roughly a thousand trees, all around a century old. At 615 metres above sea level, and surrounded by towering Alpine mountains in the Rhone river valley, the forest is one of the hottest and driest places in Switzerland - ideal conditions for the researchers. They have been working in the Pfynwald since 2003, studying the dieback of Scots pines due to soil dryness. Some parts of the forest are irrigated, while in others, translucent plastic prevents rainwater from reaching the soil. The mist-creating sprays were introduced last year to study the effects of air dryness, as climate change is resulting in another worrying environmental parameter: thirsty air. At equal humidity, warm air is more "thirsty" than cold air. This "thirst" is called vapour pressure deficit (VPD). VPD is a major factor in determining how much water trees will evaporate through their leaves. With global warming, VPD is increasing, which can cause water stress in vegetation. "Imagine a glass of water in a desert and a glass of water in a rainforest. The temperature is the same. The glass of water empties very quickly in the desert, but not in the rainforest," said Bortolami. It's "exactly the same for trees", which evaporate much more water if the air is drier and therefore "consume water from the soil more quickly", the plant ecophysiology researcher explained. Surprising results The nozzles diffuse water vapour onto part of the canopy during the day to reduce air "thirst" by about 20-30%. The researchers then compare the data with the trees that did not get the water vapour spray. Cables on the forest floor are hooked up to sensors on the tree trunks, which continuously measure their diameter and sap flow - an indicator of water stress. The researchers take other monthly measurements on site. The study will continue until 2028. The initial results show that a lack of water in the soil speeds up the dieback of foliage - an expected outcome for the researchers. "However, we observed that a dry atmosphere will slow down the dieback process rather than speed it up. That's what really surprised us," said Grossiord. The measurements revealed that with less moisture in the atmosphere, trees close their pores to conserve water. But these acclimatisation mechanisms can only help a tree so much. In the Pfynwald, as in other dry Alpine valleys, Scots pines are dying out while young oak trees, some only waist high, are taking their place.
Medscape
an hour ago
- Medscape
Talk Therapy for Young Depressed Children Shown Effective
A novel psychotherapeutic intervention for depression in preschoolers was associated with reduced use of psychotropics and intensive mental health services in preadolescence, a new study has found. The study was published in Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 'The need to identify depression at the earliest possible developmental point has been increasingly recognized as early onset of depressive symptoms has been associated with increased severity of mental health sequelae into adolescence including future suicidality,' the study's first author Mei Elansary, MD, and her colleagues wrote. Elansary is an attending developmental behavioral pediatrician at Boston University School of Medicine, Boston. 'Earlier identification is also of interest due to the possibility that earlier intervention may be more effective with more powerful treatment responses,' the authors continued. Depression can be a chronic and relapsing condition with high incidence of comorbidities and can affect children as young as 3 years, according to Joan Luby, MD, chair of psychiatry at Washington University Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. Prevalence rates of preschool-onset major depressive disorder in the US between 1% and 2% have been reported, similar to rates in school-aged children. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-Emotion Development (PCIT-ED) pairs therapists with parent-child dyads to help improve the child's emotional awareness and expression, while working with parents to help them reinforce their child's positive behaviors. The aim is to mitigate early signs of depression in the child. The intervention was developed and tested in a randomly controlled trial, by Luby, who is also one of the authors of this PCIT-ED study. Previously, meta-analyses have shown that for depression among youth aged 4-18 years, psychotherapeutic interventions have had only a moderate effect across randomized-controlled trials. Although Luby previously demonstrated high rates of remission upon completion of the 18-week study in her randomly controlled trial of a PCIT-ED intervention in children aged between 3 and 6 years, data regarding longer-term outcomes have been lacking. To fill that gap, Elansary and her colleagues followed 105 trial participants — children between the ages of 8 and 12 years — (4 years after the trial's treatment completion) to find those who'd remitted and any evidence of decreased use of mental health services and psychotropic prescriptions compared with participants who'd not had a response to the treatment. More than two thirds of the participants were men (68.6%). Diagnostic interviews of the children and their primary caregivers were conducted to assess the children for any symptoms of major depressive disorder, such as guilt, sadness, aggression, and sleep problems. The investigators also examined parenting strategies and whether caregivers had depression. Elansary et al found there was a high rate of remission at preadolescence (57.1%). Those in remission at preadolescence had significantly lower rates of lifetime use of alpha agonist, antidepressant, and atypical antipsychotic medication as well as decreased utilization of intensive mental health interventions. Whether a child exhibited externalizing symptoms post-intervention predicted relapse. These included symptoms of diagnoses such asattention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder. Luby credited the enduring effect of this intervention to its effect on parent-child interactions. 'After the treatment ends, the parent continues to interact with the child with greater sensitivity, and that becomes a draw to the child,' Luby said in a media advisory. 'The truth is there's nothing a child wants more than a validating, nurturing caregiver.' One expert lauded the findings, noting that early childhood depression has tended to be overlooked. 'As a society, we might have thought that these children are too young to be depressed, and we might explain it with adverse childhood events or caregiver depression, but the research seems to suggest that this is a distinct problem which is not fully explained by these things and with real downstream consequences. The opportunity to intervene early is essential,' Carl Bryce, MD, told Medscape Medical News . Bryce is the chair of family medicine at Midwestern University's Abrazo Central Campus in Phoenix, Arizona. The implications for clinical practice, according to Bryce, are that primary care physicians need to be able to distinguish depression in young children from typical age-appropriate development, and that qualified mental health providers skilled in the evaluation and treatment of this population will need to be available. 'Every child needs a personal physician with whom parents can discuss any concerns, even mood symptoms at a very young age,' Bryce said. 'And children need effective treatments based on high-quality evidence that we can advocate for and guide them toward. This study is another step toward that future.'
