Latest news with #RowanUniversity
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Increased Toxicity Risk Identified For Children With ADHD, Autism
The number of people being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has risen sharply in recent decades, and research continues to look at factors involved in these conditions. A study published in 2023 revealed there's a difference in how children with autism or ADHD clear the common plastic compound bisphenol A (BPA), compared to neurotypical children. BPA is used in a lot of plastics and plastic production processes, and can also be found inside food and drink cans. However, previous research has also linked it to health issues involving hormone disruption, including breast cancer and infertility. Researchers from Rowan University and Rutgers University in the US looked at three groups of children: 66 with autism, 46 with ADHD, and 37 neurotypical kids. In particular, they analyzed the process of glucuronidation, a chemical process the body uses to clear out toxins within the blood through urine. They found that kids with ASD and ADHD couldn't clear out BPA and another similar compound called diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) with as much efficiency as other kids, potentially leading to longer exposure to their toxic effects. "Detoxification of these two plasticizers is compromised in children with ASD and ADHD," wrote the researchers in their published paper. "Consequently, their tissues are more exposed to these two plasticizers." It was only in the case of BPA that the difference was statistically significant though: the efficiency was reduced by about 11 percent for kids with ASD and 17 percent for kids with ADHD, compared with the control group of children. The researchers think that gene mutations in certain individuals mean that BPA can't be cleared as well as it needs to be, which means the substance sticks around in the body. That potentially could cause damage in terms of neuron development and operation. Conditions like ASD and ADHD are thought to involve a combination of genetic and environmental influences, and this new study brings together both of them. However, it's only part of the story – not every child with a neurodevelopmental disorder had problems flushing out BPA, so there are other factors at play, too. Work is continuing to identify how exactly ASD and ADHD develop in people – whether it's in utero before birth for example, or later on in life – as the data isn't enough to show whether BPA exposure causes either disorder. "There is an extensive body of epidemiological evidence for a relationship between neurodevelopmental disorders and environmental pollutants such as plasticizers," the researchers wrote. "How important plasticizer originated neurodevelopmental disorder is in the overall occurrence of these disorders is not known, but it must account for a significant proportion or would not have been so easy to detect in a metabolic study of moderate size such as this study." The research was published in PLOS ONE. A version of this article was first published in October 2023. Coffee Could Be The Secret to Healthy Aging For Women, Scientists Discover Texas Woman Dies From Brain-Eating Amoeba After Flushing Sinuses Menopause Drug Reduces Breast Cancer Growth In Clinical Trial
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - In-office work mandates are bad for the environment
Office buildings across the country are filling up again as the air outside grows thicker with climate-warming gases. Federal agencies, state governments and many corporations now require employees to commute five days a week, reversing the remote-work flexibility adopted in 2020. Mounting research shows that those mandates carry a heavy environmental cost. A new satellite analysis by Mark Ma at the University of Pittsburgh, Betty Xing at Baylor University and Ling Zhang at Rowan University tracks carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide over the 10 most and 10 least flexible U.S. metropolitan areas. Using both NASA and European satellite instruments, the authors measured concentrations within a 20-mile radius of each downtown from 2017 to 2023. The flexible metros — places where remote and hybrid schedules remain common — kept carbon emission levels roughly flat between 2019 and 2022, whereas the least flexible metros endured a marked uptick. Nitrogen dioxide, a traffic pollutant, plunged everywhere when lockdowns began but rebounded far faster in rigid, office-centric cities. Those findings highlight the commuting tailpipe as a decisive source of urban greenhouse gases. Independent laboratory research aligns with the satellite record. A 2023 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences calculated that moving from full-time office work to full-time work from home slashes an employee's work-related carbon footprint by as much as 58 percent. Employees who stay home two to four days a week still cut emissions 11 to 29 percent, whereas a token 'one day remote' policy trims only 2 percent because extra errands and higher home energy use cancel most of the advantage. Modeling by Cornell University and Microsoft echoes those numbers: fully remote staff register a 54 percent smaller footprint than in-office peers, and hybrid schedules deliver double-digit savings when adopted for at least two days per week. The researchers emphasize that while residential energy efficiency, household size and office design shape the final tally, transportation remains the dominant lever. In turn, a 2024 Applied Energy article comparing 'work from home' and 'work in office' scenarios found that remote arrangements cut daily per-person greenhouse-gas output by 29 percent. Traditional life at home — weekends and evenings — produced 13 percent more emissions than active telework, underscoring how commuting, not laptops, drives the difference. Critics of remote work often cite potential rebound effects. Indeed, a 2023 review in Energy and Buildings reported that heavy teleworkers can increase household energy demand by 16 to 117 percent, sometimes erasing transportation savings if homes rely on inefficient heating and cooling. Yet the same review notes that simple upgrades — heat-pump mini-splits, programmable thermostats, LED lighting — restore the net benefit. Policymakers who pair flexible schedules with residential efficiency incentives can capture the upside without the rebound. Evidence from the transportation sector adds another layer. University of Florida economists estimate that a 10 percent rise in remote workers slices national transportation-sector carbon dioxide by roughly 200 million tons per year — about the annual emissions of 43 million cars — while shrinking transit fare revenue 27 percent. The result calls for a reimagined funding model for buses and subways, not a retreat from telework. A systematic review by Hook, Sovacool, Sorrell and Court examined 39 empirical papers and concluded that 26 recorded net energy savings from telework, often up to 20 percent, largely through reduced vehicle travel. The most conservative analyses revealed smaller, but still positive, gains once added leisure trips and home energy were counted. Taken together, these studies dismantle the assertion that full-time return-to-office orders are climate neutral. The federal government's own sustainability plan pledges to cut agency emissions 65 percent by 2030. Yet more than 400,000 federal employees faced requirements to appear in person, the vast majority full-time, due to the new presidential administration's policies. States such as Texas, Ohio and Tennessee have matched that strictness, while giants like Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs adopted five-day mandates. Each decree forces millions of additional car trips at a moment when the transportation sector already contributes 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases. Remote work is no panacea. It strains public transit budgets, shifts some emissions from city centers to suburbs, and can blur work-life boundaries. Still, the climate math remains clear: widespread telework and well-designed hybrid schedules dramatically curb the largest single source of American emissions: daily driving. Electric vehicles will eventually replace gasoline engines, but fleets turn over slowly; the average U.S. car now stays on the road more than 12 years. Working patterns, by contrast, can change overnight. Congress and the White House should treat flexible schedules as a verified decarbonization tool. Rather than blanket return-to-office edicts, federal agencies could set performance-based targets: for example, trim operational emissions 30 percent below 2019 by 2027 and allow each department to reach that mark through a mix of space consolidation, renewable procurement and telework. States and municipalities could follow suit, tying office occupancy guidelines to regional air-quality goals. Corporations that trumpet net-zero ambitions should publish commuting-related emissions alongside power and supply-chain data, then let employees choose the work pattern that meets both productivity and climate metrics. A few practical steps reinforce the environmental upside. Implementing timed energy audits and upgrade rebates for home offices guards against rebound effects. Converting unused cubicles into shared hoteling stations lets firms shrink leased square footage, cutting HVAC and lighting loads. Redirecting a sliver of those savings toward transit agencies stabilizes service for riders who must travel. Together, these moves build a virtuous cycle: fewer cars on highways, cleaner urban air, and leaner real estate overhead. Short of such reforms, mandatory in-office policies undercut the nation's climate commitments. Telework is already proven, popular and cost-effective. Ignoring its benefits hands an avoidable victory to rising carbon levels. The bottom line is simple. Requiring five days at a desk is no longer just a question of management style; it is an environmental decision whose consequences swirl above city skylines and linger in the atmosphere for centuries. Science delivers the verdict: flexible work shrinks carbon footprints. Policymakers and business executives now face their own test — whether to heed that verdict or watch tailpipe exhaust erase hard-won climate progress. Gleb Tsipursky, Ph.D., serves as the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and authored the best-seller 'Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
In-office work mandates are bad for the environment
Office buildings across the country are filling up again as the air outside grows thicker with climate-warming gases. Federal agencies, state governments and many corporations now require employees to commute five days a week, reversing the remote-work flexibility adopted in 2020. Mounting research shows that those mandates carry a heavy environmental cost. A new satellite analysis by Mark Ma at the University of Pittsburgh, Betty Xing at Baylor University and Ling Zhang at Rowan University tracks carbon dioxide and nitrogen dioxide over the 10 most and 10 least flexible U.S. metropolitan areas. Using both NASA and European satellite instruments, the authors measured concentrations within a 20-mile radius of each downtown from 2017 to 2023. The flexible metros — places where remote and hybrid schedules remain common — kept carbon emission levels roughly flat between 2019 and 2022, whereas the least flexible metros endured a marked uptick. Nitrogen dioxide, a traffic pollutant, plunged everywhere when lockdowns began but rebounded far faster in rigid, office-centric cities. Those findings highlight the commuting tailpipe as a decisive source of urban greenhouse gases. Independent laboratory research aligns with the satellite record. A 2023 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences calculated that moving from full-time office work to full-time work from home slashes an employee's work-related carbon footprint by as much as 58 percent. Employees who stay home two to four days a week still cut emissions 11 to 29 percent, whereas a token 'one day remote' policy trims only 2 percent because extra errands and higher home energy use cancel most of the advantage. Modeling by Cornell University and Microsoft echoes those numbers: fully remote staff register a 54 percent smaller footprint than in-office peers, and hybrid schedules deliver double-digit savings when adopted for at least two days per week. The researchers emphasize that while residential energy efficiency, household size and office design shape the final tally, transportation remains the dominant lever. In turn, a 2024 Applied Energy article comparing 'work from home' and 'work in office' scenarios found that remote arrangements cut daily per-person greenhouse-gas output by 29 percent. Traditional life at home — weekends and evenings — produced 13 percent more emissions than active telework, underscoring how commuting, not laptops, drives the difference. Critics of remote work often cite potential rebound effects. Indeed, a 2023 review in Energy and Buildings reported that heavy teleworkers can increase household energy demand by 16 to 117 percent, sometimes erasing transportation savings if homes rely on inefficient heating and cooling. Yet the same review notes that simple upgrades — heat-pump mini-splits, programmable thermostats, LED lighting — restore the net benefit. Policymakers who pair flexible schedules with residential efficiency incentives can capture the upside without the rebound. Evidence from the transportation sector adds another layer. University of Florida economists estimate that a 10 percent rise in remote workers slices national transportation-sector carbon dioxide by roughly 200 million tons per year — about the annual emissions of 43 million cars — while shrinking transit fare revenue 27 percent. The result calls for a reimagined funding model for buses and subways, not a retreat from telework. A systematic review by Hook, Sovacool, Sorrell and Court examined 39 empirical papers and concluded that 26 recorded net energy savings from telework, often up to 20 percent, largely through reduced vehicle travel. The most conservative analyses revealed smaller, but still positive, gains once added leisure trips and home energy were counted. Taken together, these studies dismantle the assertion that full-time return-to-office orders are climate neutral. The federal government's own sustainability plan pledges to cut agency emissions 65 percent by 2030. Yet more than 400,000 federal employees faced requirements to appear in person, the vast majority full-time, due to the new presidential administration's policies. States such as Texas, Ohio and Tennessee have matched that strictness, while giants like Amazon, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs adopted five-day mandates. Each decree forces millions of additional car trips at a moment when the transportation sector already contributes 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gases. Remote work is no panacea. It strains public transit budgets, shifts some emissions from city centers to suburbs, and can blur work-life boundaries. Still, the climate math remains clear: widespread telework and well-designed hybrid schedules dramatically curb the largest single source of American emissions: daily driving. Electric vehicles will eventually replace gasoline engines, but fleets turn over slowly; the average U.S. car now stays on the road more than 12 years. Working patterns, by contrast, can change overnight. Congress and the White House should treat flexible schedules as a verified decarbonization tool. Rather than blanket return-to-office edicts, federal agencies could set performance-based targets: for example, trim operational emissions 30 percent below 2019 by 2027 and allow each department to reach that mark through a mix of space consolidation, renewable procurement and telework. States and municipalities could follow suit, tying office occupancy guidelines to regional air-quality goals. Corporations that trumpet net-zero ambitions should publish commuting-related emissions alongside power and supply-chain data, then let employees choose the work pattern that meets both productivity and climate metrics. A few practical steps reinforce the environmental upside. Implementing timed energy audits and upgrade rebates for home offices guards against rebound effects. Converting unused cubicles into shared hoteling stations lets firms shrink leased square footage, cutting HVAC and lighting loads. Redirecting a sliver of those savings toward transit agencies stabilizes service for riders who must travel. Together, these moves build a virtuous cycle: fewer cars on highways, cleaner urban air, and leaner real estate overhead. Short of such reforms, mandatory in-office policies undercut the nation's climate commitments. Telework is already proven, popular and cost-effective. Ignoring its benefits hands an avoidable victory to rising carbon levels. The bottom line is simple. Requiring five days at a desk is no longer just a question of management style; it is an environmental decision whose consequences swirl above city skylines and linger in the atmosphere for centuries. Science delivers the verdict: flexible work shrinks carbon footprints. Policymakers and business executives now face their own test — whether to heed that verdict or watch tailpipe exhaust erase hard-won climate progress. Gleb Tsipursky, Ph.D., serves as the CEO of the hybrid work consultancy Disaster Avoidance Experts and authored the best-seller 'Returning to the Office and Leading Hybrid and Remote Teams.'
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A woman donated her brain so scientists could study a pioneering treatment. A laboratory accidentally threw it out
A children's hospital in Wisconsin said it accidentally disposed of the brain of a young woman that was donated for research. The woman had undergone pioneering gene treatments for a rare degenerative disease, and researchers hoped studying her brain would provide them with invaluable data. Ashtyn Fellenz died at age 24 on December 5, 2024. As a child, she was diagnosed with Canavan Disease, a rare genetic disorder that causes the degeneration of the coating that protects nerves and a loss of white matter in the brain, according to Fox 6. Typically, children suffering from the disease progressively lose the ability to move their muscles and effectively become locked in to their own bodies. Without treatment, most children with the disease die before the age of 10. In 2003, when she was three years old, Fellenz underwent experimental surgery that saw a functional gene injected into her brain, with the hopes that it would displace the defective one. While it didn't cure her disease, it did buy her a decade's worth of life. Dr Paola Leone, a professor of Cell Biology at Rowan University, requested that Fellenz's brain be preserved after her death, hoping that it could provide priceless data about both the disease and the body's response to her experimental treatment. While 16 other children also received similar treatment, the circumstances of her death made her brain especially ideal for preservation. According to Leone, most Canavan patients die in their homes, and their brain tissues degrade by the time they can be properly autopsied. Fellenz, however, died at Children's Hospital Wisconsin, where doctors could work quickly to save her brain. "The scenario was perfect," Leone told Fox 6. "She was in the hospital. The dry ice was there, ready to go." Donating the brain was always the plan following her death, according to her parents, Scott and Arlo Fellenz. 'It was no question that we had to do that,' Scott said. 'It was a big part of her legacy.' Unfortunately, the secrets of Fellenz's brain will never be uncovered. When she died on December 5, officials at Children's Wisconsin decided that a previous donation consent form signed by her parents was out of date and that they would need to fill out another before the brain could be shipped to Living BioBank at the Children's Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Despite Leone providing Children's Wisconsin with the consent form, a month passed and the sample still hadn't been sent. On January 13, more than a month after Fellenz's death, Dr Lauren Parsons, Director of Pathology at Children's Wisconsin, wrote an email to Leone thanking her for her "patience" and noting that "holidays and some leadership transitions" had kept the staff tied up, according to Fox 6. Two more months passed without the brain being sent, Leone said, adding that many of her emails questioning the hold up were left unanswered. Scott Fellenz told the broadcaster that Parsons "literally ghosted [Leone] for two months." In March, Arlo Fellenz called the hospital demanding answers. Her call was returned from the hospital's "grief services" workers, who wanted to set up a meeting. She waved off the meeting and demanded they tell her what they needed to say over the phone. The hospital then told the family they had accidentally 'disposed' of Fellenz's brain. "They tossed out her brain. How can you do that with a brain?" Arlo said during an interview with Fox 6. Half of Fellenz's brain did eventually get shipped to Ohio, but Leone was most interested in the information that the other half — the half that had not received the experimental injection — could reveal. Fellenz's father said it felt like he had lost his daughter again. For Leone, the loss also represents a loss of potential knowledge that could have helped people suffering from gene conditions. "This would have just led, just paved the way for any other application of gene therapy into the brain to let us know if gene therapy can persist," she told the broadcaster. "It's a loss of information that would have been precious and cited for the years to come, for the centuries to come, because this is the one and only specimen, not just for Canavan, for any other gene therapy," A spokesperson for Children's Wisconsin said they were 'profoundly sorry' for the error. "We were honored to support Ashtyn's family's wish for her legacy to help others. As we communicated to the family when this error was discovered, and reiterate now, our team is profoundly sorry this happened, and we continue to take steps to reinforce our protocols to help ensure this does not occur again,' they said in a statement. 'The availability of human tissue to support life-changing and lifesaving medical research is critical to offering hope to families. We take seriously our work to support research through proper tissue collection, storage and usage. We are deeply grateful for Ashtyn's life and for her family's advocacy and care, and again offer our most sincere regret and apology." When questioned further by Fox 6, the hospital said they have a 'comprehensive process' to manage donated tissue, aspects of which were 'not followed,' leading to the error. The Fellenz family have now hired an attorney to represent them, and would use any money to help with Canavan research.
The Independent
08-05-2025
- Health
- The Independent
A woman donated her brain so scientists could study a pioneering treatment. A laboratory accidentally threw it out
A children's hospital in Wisconsin said it accidentally disposed of the brain of a young woman that was donated for research. The woman had undergone pioneering gene treatments for a rare degenerative disease, and researchers hoped studying her brain would provide them with invaluable data. Ashtyn Fellenz died at age 24 on December 5, 2024. As a child, she was diagnosed with Canavan Disease, a rare genetic disorder that causes the degeneration of the coating that protects nerves and a loss of white matter in the brain, according to Fox 6. Typically, children suffering from the disease progressively lose the ability to move their muscles and effectively become locked in to their own bodies. Without treatment, most children with the disease die before the age of 10. In 2003, when she was three years old, Fellenz underwent experimental surgery that saw a functional gene injected into her brain, with the hopes that it would displace the defective one. While it didn't cure her disease, it did buy her a decade's worth of life. Dr Paola Leone, a professor of Cell Biology at Rowan University, requested that Fellenz's brain be preserved after her death, hoping that it could provide priceless data about both the disease and the body's response to her experimental treatment. While 16 other children also received similar treatment, the circumstances of her death made her brain especially ideal for preservation. According to Leone, most Canavan patients die in their homes, and their brain tissues degrade by the time they can be properly autopsied. Fellenz, however, died at Children's Hospital Wisconsin, where doctors could work quickly to save her brain. "The scenario was perfect," Leone told Fox 6. "She was in the hospital. The dry ice was there, ready to go." Donating the brain was always the plan following her death, according to her parents, Scott and Arlo Fellenz. 'It was no question that we had to do that,' Scott said. 'It was a big part of her legacy.' Unfortunately, the secrets of Fellenz's brain will never be uncovered. When she died on December 5, officials at Children's Wisconsin decided that a previous donation consent form signed by her parents was out of date and that they would need to fill out another before the brain could be shipped to Living BioBank at the Children's Hospital in Dayton, Ohio. Despite Leone providing Children's Wisconsin with the consent form, a month passed before the brain sample was sent. On January 13, more than a month after Fellenz's death, Dr Lauren Parsons, Director of Pathology at Children's Wisconsin, wrote an email to Leone thanking her for her "patience" and noting that "holidays and some leadership transitions" had kept the staff tied up, according to Fox 6. Two more months passed without the brain being sent, Leone said, adding that many of her emails questioning the hold up were left unanswered. Scott Fellenz told the broadcaster that Parsons "literally ghosted [Leone] for two months." In March, Arlo Fellenz called the hospital demanding answers. Her call was returned from the hospital's "grief services" workers, who wanted to set up a meeting. She waved off the meeting and demanded they tell her what they needed to say over the phone. The hospital told they that they had 'disposed' of Fellenz's brain. "They tossed out her brain. How can you do that with a brain?" Arlo said during an interview with Fox 6. Half of Fellenz's brain did eventually get shipped to Ohio, but Leone was most interested in the information that the other half — the half that had not received the experimental injection — could reveal. Fellenz's father said it felt like he had lost his daughter again. For Leone, the loss also represents a loss of potential knowledge that could have helped people suffering from gene conditions. "This would have just led, just paved the way for any other application of gene therapy into the brain to let us know if gene therapy can persist," she told the broadcaster. "It's a loss of information that would have been precious and cited for the years to come, for the centuries to come, because this is the one and only specimen, not just for Canavan, for any other gene therapy," A spokesperson for Children's Wisconsin said they were 'profoundly sorry' for the error. "We were honored to support Ashtyn's family's wish for her legacy to help others. As we communicated to the family when this error was discovered, and reiterate now, our team is profoundly sorry this happened, and we continue to take steps to reinforce our protocols to help ensure this does not occur again,' they said in a statement. 'The availability of human tissue to support life-changing and lifesaving medical research is critical to offering hope to families. We take seriously our work to support research through proper tissue collection, storage and usage. We are deeply grateful for Ashtyn's life and for her family's advocacy and care, and again offer our most sincere regret and apology." When questioned further by Fox 6, the hospital said they have a 'comprehensive process' to manage donated tissue, aspect of which were 'not followed,' leading to the error. The Fellenz family have now hired an attorney to represent them, and would use any money to help with Canavan research.
