Science

After examining local, state and national databases, University of Nebraska–Lincoln researchers have concluded that expanding and enhancing supports for Nebraska’s families is vital to ensure the “good life” for all Nebraska residents.

The team’s analysis found Nebraska families becoming more diverse and complex, due largely to changes in the demographic makeup of the state’s population in recent decades.

With an aging population, evolving immigration and an outward migration of workers seeking jobs elsewhere, keeping up with the changing needs of Nebraska families becomes crucial for promoting health and well-being among current and future generations—and to ensure the state’s economic success.

Lorey Wheeler, director of the Nebraska Academy for Methodology, Analytics and Psychometrics and a research associate professor in the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools, is the lead author of a new manuscript examining Nebraska families based on state priorities.

Those priorities, identified by a Nebraska Extension needs assessment, include developing a skilled workforce, creating statewide economic vitality, retaining and attracting young people, enhancing health and well-being, and leveraging Nebraska’s strengths for sustained success.

The article, “The 2023 State of Nebraska Families: State Priorities and Key Areas of Promise,” was recently published in Marriage & Family Review, a journal that focuses on research, practice, theories and applications related to marriage.

The manuscript describes Nebraska’s geography, demographics and government contexts and reviews where current state policy, programming and resources stand in addressing family-focused needs and issues of the state’s working-age population.

The Husker team concluded that crafting policy that supports accessible high-quality child care, caregiver supports, and health and well-being across the lifespan would enhance worker and family well-being throughout the state. It would also stem the outward migration of workers to other states and improve personal productivity—bolstering Nebraska’s economic vitality in the process.

“Investing resources in the people most important in a worker’s life—their children, parents and families—is crucial,” Wheeler said. “Addressing geographic and racial disparities in health, and access to health care, are essential issues to address in Nebraska for everyone to feel like it is the ‘good life.'”

Data shows that more than 70% of Nebraska’s children live in households where all adults work, highlighting the need for widespread access to child care and paid medical leave policies.

“The divide between rural and urban communities in infrastructure makes it challenging for people with families in the state to access the supports that they need,” said Patty Kuo, assistant professor of child, youth and family studies and a co-author of the review.

“Policy is behind the reality of the structure of working families. Most families in Nebraska do not have a single-earner household, thus requiring the need for paid medical leave policies and access to child care. The state wants people to work, and we want the state to help people who work.”

Wheeler emphasizes that state workforce retention is vital and that meeting the diverse family needs of Nebraska’s working-age population would help address workers leaving the state in search of opportunities elsewhere.

“Many kids go to college here at UNL and then end up moving to another state for better opportunities for their families,” she said. “The goal is to retain an educated workforce, so it’s necessary to ensure workers currently in Nebraska are adequately supported holistically in their responsibilities to their families.”

Kuo said the data shows a need for innovations in policies and programs to create a healthy environment for families.

“We can’t just solve these problems at an individual level,” she said. “People are embedded in families, and the top reason people leave Nebraska is to find another job, or for their families. We want people to see the direct link between state economic priorities and supporting families.”

Lead researcher Dr. Sarah Nason, from Bangor University’s School of History, Law and Social Sciences explained, “Debt, benefits, special educational needs, health care issues, these are everyday problems that many of us face, and it’s only natural to turn to people you know and trust for help and advice. However, we found that having to talk to more people or support services was an indicator that the problem was more complex and difficult to resolve.”

The team studied four distinct areas across England and Wales: Bryngwran, a village on Anglesey in North Wales; Deeplish, a district of Rochdale in Greater Manchester; the town of Dartmouth in Devon; and three wards in the London borough of Hackney.

In total, the researchers conducted individual interviews with 191 people, mapping out who they spoke to on a regular basis, such as friends, family, work colleagues or community volunteers, and who they might turn to with any problems relating to social welfare. They also asked how many of these contacts knew each other, to determine how well-connected the person’s social network was.

The researchers also spoke to community organizations and local authorities, identifying available sources of formal and informal advice and community support in each area.

They found that individuals living in the rural communities in Devon and North Wales had larger networks with more interconnections, compared to smaller, less well-connected networks of people in the urban locations in Hackney. In Deeplish in Rochdale, social networks were comparatively small, but quite well-connected. This was linked to ethnicity, with the primarily South Asian participants in Deeplish also having networks with the highest proportion of family members.

For those with white ethnicity, people who identified as English generally had smaller social networks than those identifying as British or Welsh. The most interconnected networks were among people who identified as Welsh.

The researchers also found greater similarities between social networks within each case study community than between those of people with individual characteristics, such as age, gender, employment status or disability across the case study areas.

Dr. Nason said, “Our research isn’t intended to be statistically representative of the case study areas, as we only spoke to a relatively small group of people in each community. However, from those interviews and from our analysis, location and ethnicity appear to be important factors in understanding how people relate to their community and access support.

“This highlights how important it is to provide local, community-based and culturally sensitive support and advice rather than ‘one size fits all’ services at a national level.”

Although many services are moving to ‘digital by default’ rather than offering face-to-face support, digital services did not meet many people’s needs. In all case study areas, interviewees said that accessing help and advice locally and in-person was important to them, with local access being seen as essential to many people.

Despite the differences between the four areas studied, the researchers found that the size and connectedness of social networks had a limited impact on the likelihood of people’s social welfare problems being resolved.

The biggest factor in resolving problems was the nature of the problem itself. Across all four areas, people with welfare benefits or financial problems were more likely to have received help from formal advice services and to have their problems resolved, than those with problems around housing, social care, special educational needs provision or mental health services.

“There are well-established processes for dealing with welfare disputes or debt, and although these can be daunting, with the right support and advice these issues generally get resolved,” said Dr. Nason.

“However, it’s noticeable that the problems which were least likely to be resolved relate to local authority services which have seen substantial budget cuts over recent decades, and where services are stretched to the point of failure. Stronger social networks and more support and advice can’t completely compensate for this lack of investment in public services.”

Other factors impacting people’s ability to get help were lack of education around rights and entitlements, limited awareness of advice services, feelings of stigma or shame in seeking help, and loss of trust in the state. However, the significance of each of these factors was different across the case study areas.

For example, stigma/shame was perceived as a particular issue in rural North Wales, lack of formal education was a challenge in Rochdale, and mistrust of the state was highest among marginalized communities in Dartmouth and younger people in Hackney.

The study highlights the important role played by community centers or hubs, which provide vital services to their local community, including social welfare advice. However, the researchers caution that these organizations are often under-resourced and cannot be a substitute for more formal legal advice services.

“Across all the communities we studied, the local hubs or centers were really valued by people, providing day-to-day support such as food banks,” explained Dr. Nason.

“However, some problems that people face need specialist legal advice, and these community centers rely on being able to signpost people on to more formal services. Without proper funding for the formal advice sector, problems continue. Communities may be able to access help, but there won’t be access to justice.”

Salty, nutty and irresistibly sweet, caramel can be made in minutes from just a small mound of plain old sugar. The perfect accompaniment to cakes and desserts, caramel is a gourmand’s go-to, and we have a jar of it in my house at all times. Working with sugar can be off-putting, however, because it is so easy to burn it (or yourself) and it can also form grainy crystals rather than smooth, glossy sauce.

So this month, I turned to the professionals for…

A more accurate way to destroy tumours using beams of radioactive particles could help target hard-to-treat cancers that are close to sensitive organs, such as the spinal cord or optic nerve.

Most radiotherapy uses beams of X-rays to destroy cancerous cells, but for tumours deep inside the body, this can damage healthy tissue in the beam’s path.

A “ring of fire” eclipse of the sun is coming. But only a lucky few will be in the path.

The annular solar eclipse will be visible Wednesday over Easter Island and the tips of Argentina and Chile.

Here’s how to safely watch the final solar spectacle of the year.

What is an annular solar eclipse?

Solar eclipses happen when the sun, moon and Earth line up just so. The moon casts a shadow that can partially or totally block the sun’s light.

During an annular eclipse, the moon obscures all but a ring-shaped sliver of the sun. That’s because the moon is at a point in its orbit that’s farther from Earth.

“The moon is just not quite big enough to cover the sun,” said Carolyn Sumners at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

This eclipse will occur mostly over water in the Pacific. Rapa Nui, known as Easter Island, is in the path along with parts of Argentina and Chile.

A partial solar eclipse, when the sun appears as a crescent, can be seen from several locations including Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Hawaii.

Solar eclipses happen about two to five times a year. April’s total eclipse of the sun dazzled skywatchers in parts of Mexico, Canada and the U.S.

How do I safely look at a solar eclipse?

Looking directly at the sun can cause eye damage, even when most of it is covered.

The annular eclipse is safe to spot wearing solar eclipse glasses, which block out ultraviolet light from the sun and nearly all visible light. Sunglasses or binoculars won’t cut it.

Glasses should say they comply with ISO 12312-2 standards, though fake suppliers can also list this on their products.

If you don’t have eclipse glasses, you can still enjoy the spectacle indirectly. Make a pinhole projector using household materials or hold up a colander and look down to see an image of the eclipse projected below.

Peering at the ground under a shady tree can also reveal crescent shadows as the sunlight filters through branches and leaves.

What’s coming next?

Two partial solar eclipses will grace the skies next year in March and September.

The next total solar eclipse won’t arrive until 2026 and will pass over the northern fringes of Greenland, Iceland and Spain.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Young people in Britain could be forgiven for despairing at the financial pressures they face—and feeling that previous generations enjoyed a much fairer economic environment. Then just to add to their worries about home ownership and a precarious jobs market, along comes the gloomy announcement that the UK’s public debt is now 100% of GDP.

That debt burden will have to be carried by tax-payers for decades to come. Paying the interest—just the interest—of the country’s debt currently accounts for around 7.3% of public spending. That’s more than what is spent on defense (4.8%) or transport (3.8%).

And while some of what’s left will go to towards essential future public services, it will also go towards fixing problems caused by a historic lack of public investment (less money being spent by previous generations) in water, railways and other crucial infrastructure.

In fact, in the 1980s much of that infrastructure was used by the UK government to help finance itself, with assets including British Gas sold off at a bargain price. Those baby boomers and older generations who could afford to buy shares often made a decent profit.

There are other kinds of costs that today’s younger generations have had to bear too. During COVID lockdowns, universities and schools were closed as the young were forced to stay at home, predominantly to protect the elderly. They have lost the freedom to live and work in the EU after 60% of retired people voted for Brexit, while most young people voted against. Leaving Europe has also made the UK less well-off.

But not everyone is poorer. In the last 20 years, the average income of pensioners has increased on average by more than 50%, while that of working-age adults has risen by less than 10%. The median income of pensioner households is now higher after housing costs than that of households with children.

Most of the country’s wealth is now in the hands of older people. In 2018, one in four people aged over 65 was living in a household with a total wealth of over a £1 million pounds. Poverty rates of pensioners are now lower than for the rest of the population.

Yet pensioners receive all sorts of unconditional discounts and benefits, such as free or discounted public transport. Their income is exempt from national insurance contributions, and there is a triple-lock on state pensions, which is guaranteed to grow faster than work income.

Until recently, the winter fuel allowance meant that anyone born in 1944 or before received £300 (reduced to £200 for younger pensioners).

Boomer and bust?

While there is mild popular support for limiting the fuel allowance to poorer pensioners, the question of recouping money from older people remains highly sensitive. (Back in 2017, the then prime minister Theresa May had to quickly U-turn when she suggested using pensioners’ wealth to finance the rising cost of care.)

One reason for this reluctance to prise money from older people may be that while most pensioners are doing better (compared to the working population) this is not true of the poorest ones. Also, some pensioners do not claim the benefits they are entitled to, and the last thing a civilized society wants is to let its older people freeze.

But the apparent economic divide raises a broader question about inter-generational justice. What does one generation owe the generations that follow?

And it’s not just about money. Global warming is another thing older people have not spent most of their lives having to pay for, with the burden for repairing environmental damage again falling mostly on the young.

Perhaps a fair philosophical approach would be that it’s OK to leave certain costs to be paid in the future if the next generation can generally expect to live longer and in better health, with more consumer choice and comfort, and an improved quality of life.

But this does not seem to be the expectation right now. Incomes have stalled, and so has life expectancy, while housing prices have not been so expensive relative to earnings since the 19th century.

In that sense, many people, however old they are, would probably sympathize with young people today. And they may even argue that it’s time for the government to focus on policies that explicitly benefit the young—like house building, different forms of taxation or subjecting pension income to national insurance.

There could also be a change in fiscal rules to allow for more investment in national infrastructure, higher taxes on fossil fuels to pay for the energy transition, or sharing the cost of funding higher education more evenly among all graduates, regardless of when they got their degree.

Such changes would provide a dramatic shift towards an economic system which seeks to redistribute wealth not just among citizens—but between the generations.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has just published alarming statistics showing that employee mental health issues result in a US$1 trillion (£747 billion) loss in productivity each year. The WHO has called on employers to take urgent action by introducing comprehensive well-being programs to tackle the escalating mental health crisis in the workplace.

But the problem is that many workplace well-being programs don’t work. A UK study which looked at 46,336 employees from 233 organizations found there was no evidence that a range of common workplace well-being initiatives—including mindfulness and stress management classes, one-to-one mental health coaching, well-being apps or volunteering work—improved employee well-being.

So despite companies investing over US$60 billion annually worldwide in well-being programs, they appear to make little impact.

There are a number of reasons why these programs don’t work—and understanding them is the only way companies will be able to make these programs effective.

Motivation

Organizations often opt for easy-to-implement initiatives, such as hosting well-being talks or offering mindfulness or yoga classes. They then complain that employees don’t attend or don’t appreciate them.

Many employees say they don’t attend these activities because they find them irrelevant, unhelpful or they don’t value them enough to attend—meaning their workplace has failed in identifying their needs.

Understanding what motivates people to participate in well-being programs is crucial in improving its effectiveness. For example, one survey found employees were more interested in learning about healthy lifestyles than having a discussion about stress management. Although not directly related to mental well-being, prioritizing these kinds of talks would have a greater effect on improving well-being in the end.

Content matters

Well-being programs tend to be more effective for people whose well-being is average or below average. So when people with high levels of well-being participate in such programs, they often see little benefit. This can make it appear the program isn’t effective—when in reality, it still is for those who need it most.

This is why it’s so important to determine what type of help employees need most when designing well-being programs.

For employees who aren’t experiencing poor mental health, a program that primarily addresses depression or anxiety may be less effective as they’re probably already practicing many of the strategies such programs would discuss. But if the well-being program goes beyond reducing symptoms and focuses on promoting flourishing, meaning and purpose in life, it could provide value to a broader audience.

This is where a program designed by an expert in positive psychology would be beneficial in workplaces. Positive psychology is the science of well-being. It focuses on building on the positive aspects of life that make life worth living—rather than solely addressing symptoms of mental ill health which only affect 10%–20% of the population.But positive psychology measures still have a positive impact on those who experience mental health issues at the same time. They include such activities as identifying and using your character strengths at work, re-thinking your past events positively, learning optimism or practicing gratitude.

The content of workplace well-being programs is crucial. Avoiding generic self-help approaches will enhance their overall impact.

Everyone is different

Factors such as whether or not an employee enjoys a specific well-being activity or program, whether they believe that well-being can be changed or their level of distress when starting a program can all affect whether or not workplace well-being initiatives work.

Even a person’s genetics can significantly affect whether such programs have any impact. Research shows that people who have a higher genetic predisposition towards change are more likely to benefit disproportionately from these programs—and their positive effect tends to last longer.

All of these factors should be carefully considered when designing a workplace well-being program. And given how difficult this will make it to design one that’s effective, it’s important employee well-being programs are actually developed by experts in the field—not consultants who lack in-depth knowledge of psychology.

Implementation

The way a well-being program is implemented is just as important as its content—though this aspect is often overlooked by well-being consultants.

For instance, overusing gratitude exercises can lead to disengagement from a program. Similarly, offering too many well-being activity options can overwhelm participants and result in them discontinuing the program.

To maximize the impact a well-being program has in the workplace requires careful attention not only to the content but also how it’s implemented.

There are many nuances involved in designing a workplace well-being program. Employers must ensure the programs they offer not only promote well-being but also avoid causing unintended harm to others in the process. Consulting experts who know the nuances of psychology and of well-being programs is key, as they will ensure programs will be effective and helpful. Programs that combine positive psychology and lifestyle medicine (which focus on helping people improve their health and fitness) may be particularly beneficial in workplaces.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The upcoming release of Disney’s live action remake of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” currently scheduled for March 2025, has been surrounded by controversy—so much so that the film’s trailer has received over 1 million dislikes on YouTube. In particular, many fans have taken umbrage with the fact that computer-generated imagery (CGI) will be used for the characters of the seven dwarfs, now renamed the “miners,” rather than having them played by dwarf actors.

To my mind, unless changes are made, it would be better not to release a live action remake of “Snow White” in the first place. My doctoral research has shown that it’s common for people with dwarfism to experience mockery influenced by the representation of dwarfism in “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” But if the film is to go ahead, CGI is a better choice than to cast real people with dwarfism.

Fans lamenting on social media the fact that they will no longer be able to see a film featuring “real dwarfs” ignore the parallels with the Victorian freak show. Frequently their disappointment is masked as supposed concern for the welfare of “actors” with dwarfism who will lose the “opportunity” to play these characters.

But people with dwarfism who play these characters are rarely seen as serious actors. Alice Lambert, an actress with dwarfism, was interviewed for a chapter in my new book, Dwarfism Arts and Advocacy (2024). In it, she recalls that during her time in pantomime, people “would come to the stage door after the show, but I realized that they just wanted to meet ‘a dwarf’ … you are not being represented as a performer, but rather your dwarfism is being paraded for the amusement of others.”

My research has also found that many people still believe that people with dwarfism only work in the entertainment industry. It is not unusual for people to ask someone with dwarfism if they work in pantomime, particularly as one of the seven dwarfs. I have personally lost count of the amount of people who snigger and ask me if I am “Grumpy” or “Happy” (names of two of the dwarf characters) or if I know where Snow White is. If people cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality, then fictional representations need to change to minimize abuse.

Of those people with dwarfism who are actors, many have long refused to play roles that are considered derogatory, including the seven dwarfs. That is because people with dwarfism are capable of so much more.

Worldwide, there are more than 250,000 people with dwarfism. People with dwarfism include geneticist and psychiatrist Judith Badner, lawyer Paul Steven Miller and astrophysicist William A Wheaten.

Many of the fans expressing disappointment that the dwarfs will now be CGI fail to realize how the role impacts people with dwarfism in public. For example, in 2012 German lawyer Silke Schönfleisch-Backofen, who has dwarfism, successfully sued a man after he started laughing and singing Hi Ho, the song the dwarfs sing in the original Disney film, at her in court.

If people cannot tell the difference between fiction and reality, then fictional representations need to change to minimize abuse. Instead of reproducing outdated attitudes, films—and the tales that inspire them—can change with the times to produce stories that are inclusive of everyone.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Earth’s moon will soon have some company—a “mini moon.”

The mini moon is actually an asteroid about the size of a school bus at 33 feet (10 meters). When it whizzes by Earth on Sunday, it will be temporarily trapped by our planet’s gravity and orbit the globe—but only for about two months.

The space rock—2024 PT5—was first spotted in August by astronomers at Complutense University of Madrid using a powerful telescope located in Sutherland, South Africa.

These short-lived mini moons are likely more common than we realize, said Richard Binzel, an astronomer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The last known one was detected in 2020.

“This happens with some frequency, but we rarely see them because they’re very small and very hard to detect,” he said. “Only recently has our survey capability reached the point of spotting them routinely.”

The discovery by Carlos de la Fuente Marcos and Raúl de la Fuente Marcos was published by the American Astronomical Society.

This one won’t be visible to the naked eye or through amateur telescopes, but it “can be observed with relatively large, research-grade telescopes,” Carlos de la Fuente Marcos said in an email.

Binzel, who was not involved in the research, said it’s not clear whether the space rock originated as an asteroid or as “a chunk of the moon that got blasted out.”

The mini moon will circle the globe for almost 57 days but won’t complete a full orbit. On Nov. 25, it will part ways with the Earth and continue its solo trajectory through the cosmos. It’s expected to pass by again in 2055.

© 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

The European Space Agency (ESA) is preparing to launch a unique satellite in 2027, designed specifically to study how satellites break apart upon reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. This mission, named DRACO (Destructive Reentry Assessment Container Object), will be an important step in ESA’s effort to develop technology that limits the creation of space debris. ESA has awarded the contract to Deimos, a European technology company, to build this spacecraft, which will provide invaluable data as it breaks apart during its reentry. This data will help scientists better understand satellite disintegration and its environmental impact.

Understanding Satellite Breakup

The goal of the DRACO mission is to collect data on how satellites disintegrate during reentry. By studying this, researchers aim to design future satellites that will fully burn up during reentry, reducing the risk of debris reaching the Earth’s surface. The mission will also examine how spacecraft reentry affects the atmosphere, including how different materials interact with it and what byproducts are produced.

Innovative DRACO Design

At 200 kilograms, DRACO will be about the size of a washing machine. Its design will allow it to break apart like a normal satellite, but a specially engineered capsule will survive reentry. This capsule, measuring 40 centimetres, will carry four cameras and 200 sensors to record crucial data during the breakup. After reentry, it will deploy a parachute and transmit the collected information before being lost at sea.

Advancing Zero Debris Technology

According to Holger Krag, ESA’s Head of Space Safety, the DRACO mission will play a key role in developing future satellite technology. The data it collects will be used to build more demisable satellites by 2030, aligning with ESA’s Zero Debris charter, which aims to stop the creation of space debris within this decade.

Tim Flohrer, head of ESA’s space debris office, also emphasised the mission’s importance in helping to advance zero-debris technologies, particularly as the number of satellite launches continues to increase worldwide.