Filaments curling at the micro and nanoscale produce light waves that twirl as they travel

Bright, twisted light can be produced with technology similar to an Edison light bulb, researchers at the University of Michigan have shown. The finding adds nuance to fundamental physics while offering a new avenue for robotic vision systems and other applications for light that traces out a helix in space.

“It’s hard to generate enough brightness when producing twisted light with traditional ways like electron or photon luminescence,” said Jun Lu, an adjunct research investigator in chemical engineering at U-M and first author of the study on the cover of this week’s Science.

“We gradually noticed that we actually have a very old way to generate these photons—not relying on photon and electron excitations, but like the bulb Edison developed.”

Every object with any heat to it, including yourself, is constantly sending out photons (particles of light) in a spectrum tied to its temperature. When the object is the same temperature as its surroundings, it is also absorbing an equivalent amount of photons—this is idealized as “blackbody radiation” because the color black absorbs all photon frequencies.

While a tungsten lightbulb’s filament is much warmer than its surroundings, the law defining blackbody radiation—Planck’s law—offers a good approximation of the spectrum of photons it sends out. All together, the visible photons look like white light, but when you pass the light through a prism, you can see the rainbow of different photons within it.

This radiation is also why you show up brightly in a thermal image, but even room-temperature objects are constantly emitting and receiving blackbody photons, making them dimly visible as well.

Typically, the shape of the object emitting the radiation doesn’t get much consideration—for most purposes (as so often in physics), the object can be imagined as a sphere. But while shape doesn’t affect the spectrum of wavelengths of the different photons, it can affect a different property: their polarization.

Usually photons from a blackbody source are randomly polarized—their waves may oscillate along any axis. The new study revealed that if the emitter was twisted at the micro or nanoscale, with the length of each twist similar to the wavelength of the emitted light, the blackbody radiation would be twisted too. The strength of the twisting in the light, or its elliptical polarization, depended on two main factors: how close the wavelength of the photon was to the length of each twist and the electronic properties of the material—nanocarbon or metal, in this case.

Twisted light is also called “chiral” because the clockwise and counterclockwise rotations are mirror images of one another. The study was undertaken to demonstrate the premise of a more applied project that the Michigan team would like to pursue: using chiral blackbody radiation to identify objects. They envision robots and self-driving cars that can see like mantis shrimp, differentiating among light waves with different directions of twirl and degrees of twistedness.

“The advancements in physics of blackbody radiation by chiral nanostructures is central to this study. Such emitters are everywhere around us,” said Nicholas Kotov, the Irving Langmuir Distinguished Professor of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, director of NSF Center of Complex Particles and Particle Systems (COMPASS) and corresponding author of the study.

“These findings, for example, could be important for an autonomous vehicle to tell the difference between a deer and a human, which emit light with similar wavelengths but different helicity because deer fur has a different curl from our fabric.”

While brightness is the main advantage of this method for producing twisted light—up to 100 times brighter than other approaches—the light includes a broad spectrum of both wavelengths and twists. The team has ideas about how to address this, including exploring the possibility of building a laser that relies on twisted light-emitting structures.

Kotov also wants to explore further into the infrared spectrum. The peak wavelength of blackbody radiation at room temperature is roughly 10,000 nanometers or 0.01 millimeters.

“This is an area of the spectrum with a lot of noise, but it may be possible to enhance contrast through their elliptical polarization,” Kotov said.

The study was supported by the National Science Foundation via COMPASS, and the Office of Naval Research.

Kotov is also the Joseph B. and Florence V. Cejka Professor of Engineering, a professor of macromolecular science and engineering and a member of U-M’s Biointerfaces Institute. Lu is an incoming assistant professor of chemistry and physics at the National University of Singapore.

The device was built in the COMPASS Lab located at the North Campus Research Complex of U-M and studied at the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization.

A research team including a University of Michigan scientist has discovered a new gold-sulfur complex that helps researchers understand how gold deposits are formed.

Gold in ore deposits associated with volcanoes around the Pacific Ring of Fire originates in Earth’s mantle and is transported by magma to its surface. But how that gold is brought to the surface has been a subject of debate. Now, the research team has used numerical modeling to reveal the specific conditions that lead to the enrichment of gold in magmas that rise from the Earth’s mantle to its surface.

Specifically, the model reveals the importance of a gold-trisulfur complex whose existence has been vigorously debated, according to Adam Simon, U-M professor of earth and environmental sciences and co-author of the study.

The presence of this gold-trisulfur complex under a very specific set of pressures and temperatures in the mantle 30 to 50 miles beneath active volcanoes causes gold to be transferred from the mantle into magmas that eventually move to the Earth’s surface. The team’s results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“This thermodynamic model that we’ve now published is the first to reveal the presence of the gold-trisulfur complex that we previously did not know existed at these conditions,” Simon said. “This offers the most plausible explanation for the very high concentrations of gold in some mineral systems in subduction zone environments.”

Gold deposits associated with volcanoes form in what are called subduction zones. Subduction zones are regions where a continental plate—the Pacific plate, which lies under the Pacific Ocean—is diving under the continental plates that surround it. In these seams where continental plates meet each other, magma from Earth’s mantle has the opportunity to rise to the surface.

“On all of the continents around the Pacific Ocean, from New Zealand to Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Russia, Alaska, the western United States and Canada, all the way down to Chile, we have lots of active volcanoes,” Simon said. “All of those active volcanoes form over or in a subduction zone environment. The same types of processes that result in volcanic eruptions are processes that form gold deposits.”

Gold is happy in Earth’s mantle above the subducting ocean plate. But when the conditions are just right that a fluid containing the trisulfur ion is added from the subducting plate to the mantle, gold strongly prefers to bond with trisulfur to form a gold-trisulfur complex. This complex is highly mobile in magma.

Scientists have previously known that gold complexes with various sulfur ions, but this study, which includes scientists from China, Switzerland, Australia and France, is the first to present a robust thermodynamic model for the existence and importance of the gold-trisulfur complex.

To identify this new complex, the researchers developed a thermodynamic model based on lab experiments in which the researchers control pressure and temperature of the experiment, then measure the results of the experiment. Then, the researchers developed a thermodynamic model that predicts the results of the experiment. This thermodynamic model can then be applied to real-world conditions.

“These results provide a really robust understanding of what causes certain subduction zones to produce very gold-rich ore deposits,” Simon said. “Combining the results of this study with existing studies ultimately improves our understanding of how gold deposits form and can have a positive impact on exploration.”

Wellness influencers showed higher rates of vaccine opposition on social media compared to other users’ accounts, according to a new University of Michigan study.

New work by U-M School of Information lecturer Elle O’Brien, student Ronith Ganjigunta and UMSI assistant professor Paramveer Dhillon found that wellness influencers were more likely to post messages on Twitter in 2020-2022 (rebranded as X in 2023) expressing anti-vaccination stances during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The study, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, reveals higher rates of vaccination opposition among Twitter wellness influencers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper’s goal, O’Brien said, was to better understand the role of wellness influencers online.

Why do wellness influencers exist, why do they attract such large audiences and what void are they filling?

“One hypothesis is that wellness influencers serve as an alternative to traditional authorities like medical professionals and health scientists when trust in public institutions is low,” O’Brien said. “And indeed, we found support for this idea. Part of the role of being a wellness influencer may be to fill a void left over by diminished trust in traditional experts.”

Notably, about 50% of the wellness influencer accounts identified before the pandemic went on to post anti-vaccine messaging, which was about twice as frequent as a control group of accounts.

“They often shared posts urging followers to protect children from the harms of vaccines, or to oppose authoritarian government overreach,” she said.

O’Brien’s interest in how the public forms attitudes on science began during her previous work as a neuroscientist.

“I’m interested in how people present themselves as scientific, even if they’re not engaging with research in the way that working scientists would,” she said. “And I’m interested in how people decide what counts as valid science when they might not have the specialized knowledge to fully understand it.”

EXPERT ADVISORY

To combat climate change, the world needs to pivot away from fossil fuels. But building battery electric vehicles and infrastructure for renewable energy will require enormous amounts of minerals and resources, which can only be obtained in the quantities needed through mining.

Adam Simon, professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Michigan, studies how metals are deposited in Earth’s crust, with the ultimate goal of ensuring a sustainable supply of resources for our growing global population. He recently published a study for the International Energy Forum that showed we currently do not mine copper quickly enough to keep up with the global demand for the energy transition.

He joins the Michigan Minds podcast to discuss minerals needed for the energy transition, and how we will need to access those resources.

Can you talk a little bit about the necessity of the energy transition?

I’ll start by saying that I think of two energy transitions. There’s the energy transition in high-income countries, so the United States, Canada, Japan, Korea, the European Union, Chile, all of the countries that belong to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Our energy transition in high-income countries is transitioning from fossil fuels, from natural gas, from coal, from oil, to renewable energy resources. Our energy transition means that we build solar and wind and nuclear and hydro and other types of energy resources that do not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The other energy transition is the one that is needed for global development. So if we think about the United Nations sustainable development goals, among those development goals is access to clean and affordable energy. If we look at the 8 billion people around the world, there are about 6 billion people who want an energy transition from much less access today to access close to what we enjoy in the United States. The magnitude of difference is extraordinary. So for example, if you look at all 54 countries in Africa, the per person energy consumption per year is about one tenth of the per person energy consumption in the United States. That’s also an energy transition that I think sometimes gets lost when we focus on our own transition from fossil fuels to renewables.

Contact: [email protected]

Michigan Minds is produced by Greta Guest and hosted by Michigan News staff. Jeremy Marble is the audio engineer and Hans Anderson provides social media animations. Listen to all episodes of the podcast.

Consumer sentiment rose for the fifth consecutive month, reaching its highest reading since April 2024.

The prospect of new policies after the White House transition continued to boost the economic outlook of Republicans, while Democrats are more pessimistic about the path of the economy, a reflection of the two groups’ contrasting views on how Donald Trump’s policies will influence the economy, said economist Joanne Hsu, director of the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

Independents remain in the middle, and on balance, consumer views extended their steady upward trajectory in December. Sentiment is currently about midway between the all-time low reached in June 2022 and pre-pandemic readings.

“Broadly speaking, while consumers still do not feel that they are thriving, they view the economy much more favorably than they did two years ago when inflation was at a peak,” Hsu said. “Still, high prices remain a top concern for consumers. Furthermore, many consumers are worried that new policies like tariff hikes might further exacerbate high prices. That said, consumers expect gas prices to remain relatively low, which would be a welcome development heading into the holiday travel season.”

Buying conditions for durables improve amid worries about future inflation

This month’s improvement in Current Conditions was driven by a surge in buying conditions for large durable goods. While favorable buying conditions are typically a sign of strength, this month’s rise in durables was primarily due to a perception that inflation would rebound in the near future.

About 22% of consumers spontaneously reported that purchasing durables now would enable buyers to avoid future price increases—the highest reading since 1990—up from only 10% in both October and November, Hsu said.

Many of these consumers, mostly Democrats and Independents, specifically identified future tariffs as the culprit. Republicans, in contrast, were much more concerned about persistently high prices in the present day.

Consumers disagree on potential effects of new policies

Divergent patterns across the political spectrum reflect, in part, differences in how consumers view the economic policies proposed by the next president, Hsu said.

Throughout this month’s interviews, Democrats voiced concerns that anticipated policy changes would lead to a resurgence in inflation. Republicans disagreed; they expect the next president will usher in an immense slowdown in inflation. About 25% of consumers spontaneously mentioned tariffs during interviews this month, up from 10% in November and only 2% in September. Tariffs were generally mentioned in a negative context.

Consumer Sentiment Index

The Consumer Sentiment Index rose to 74.0 in the December 2024 survey, up from 71.8 in November and above last December’s 69.7. The Current Index rose to 75.1, up from 63.9 in November and above last December’s 73.3. The Expectations Index fell to 73.3, down from 76.9 in November and above last December’s 67.4.

About the surveys

The Surveys of Consumers is a rotating panel survey at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. It is based on a nationally representative sample that gives each household in the coterminous U.S. an equal probability of being selected. Interviews are conducted throughout the month by web. The minimum monthly change required for significance at the 95% level in the Sentiment Index is 4.8 points; for the Current Index and Expectations Index, the minimum is 6 points.

The Big Ten Conference and its football teams have given fans plenty to cheer about in its first year with four new members from the West Coast.

Although the University of Michigan won’t be defending its 2023 national championship, the top-seeded Oregon Ducks have a chance to keep the title in the Big Ten as the College Football Playoff kicks off (as do three other longer-tenured programs).

And U-M’s September matchup with the University of Southern California—the first meeting of the historic programs as in-conference opponents—was a thriller. On fourth down with less than a minute to go, the Wolverines scored a touchdown to secure the victory with a record-setting audience watching on TV.

But as the competition and excitement grow to new levels, so too do the carbon emissions from the teams traveling across the country to play each other.

According to a new report from the U-M Center for Sustainable Systems, the Big Ten’s 2024 expansion will more than double the average conference game emissions for the U-M football team. That’s compared with emissions from 2010 to 2023.

The CSS study also found that the same is true for the average emissions from opponents with the increased distances traveled to play at the Big House in Ann Arbor.

“I’m a big football fan, so I don’t want to see less football happening,” said Paige Greenberg, one of the study’s authors. “But I think this is an important conversation to start having.”

Squad sustainability goals

Greenberg and co-author Molly Russell, both graduate students at U-M, took on the project after being inspired, in part, by reporting on the sustainability of the 2024 Summer Olympics.

As they dug into the literature, they found that researchers at Arizona State University had recently studied emission changes associated with conference restructuring across college football. Russell and Greenberg adapted the approach from that report to focus on the University of Michigan and its opponents.

They found that the Big Ten’s expansions would multiply U-M’s average per game emissions by a factor of 2.3 and their opponents’ by a factor of 2.6.

They also found the combined emissions from U-M and their opponents for the 2024 regular season would be more than 350,000 kilograms, or almost 400 tons, of carbon dioxide.

“That’s equivalent to driving a small internal-combustion SUV around the Earth’s equator over 33 times,” Greenberg said.

That is, however, a relatively small slice of total emissions from the university, let alone college sports, the researchers said. For example, emissions from fan travel, which were not estimated, would be much greater, said study adviser Geoff Lewis.

But reducing U-M’s carbon footprint as the Big Ten’s geographic footprint grows would still be a meaningful change, Lewis said, especially as the university works toward carbon neutrality.

“The thing that kept popping into my head was ‘leaders and best,'” said Lewis, a CSS research specialist, referencing a famous line from the U-M fight song. “The university is stepping up in a lot of ways and this is another opportunity to do something creative or substantive.”

Lewis is also on the internal advisory council for U-M’s Scope 3 Emissions Project, which is working to reduce the university’s emissions from indirect sources such as travel and purchasing.

“The final recommendations from the firm we have engaged to support this work are expected in early 2025, after which U-M will establish Scope 3 goals—filling out U-M’s suite of carbon neutrality goals—and begin implementing reduction efforts,” said Katrina Folsom, the project’s manager with the Office of Campus Sustainability.

“We are fortunate to have an internal resource like the Center for Sustainable Systems, whose research can directly inform U-M’s sustainability efforts.”

Taking care of home field

Although the report was prompted by the expansion of the Big Ten, the result that most surprised its authors was connected to U-M’s out-of-conference opponents.

Their analysis revealed large fluctuations in these emissions—between about 60,000 and 275,000 kilograms of carbon dioxide—depending on where the opponents were from.

“Michigan rarely travels for nonconference games. People come to the Big House to play us,” Greenberg said. “So all of those emissions kind of fall on our opponents.”

In 2016, for example, Michigan’s first three opponents were the University of Hawaii, University of Central Florida and University of Colorado. As a result, those three games accounted for more than 60% of the combined season emissions for U-M and its opponents.

Seeing the emissions data in this light brings forward questions that the university can consider as it works to reduce indirect emissions.

“We bear some of the responsibility for putting Hawaii, UCF and these schools on our schedule,” Lewis said. “We should have a discussion about how we apportion these emissions to both schools.”

Starting discussions like that is the goal of emissions reports from the CSS, said Shoshannah Lenski, the center’s associate director.

“Michigan football is a cherished institution,” said Lenski, who is also an adviser on the report and on the advisory council for the Scope 3 Emissions Project. “Michiganders also love our Great Lakes and our beaches. We love our snowy winters and going up north to ski. We have to recognize the threat that climate change poses to all of those—including football.

“My expectation is the university, having taken a real leadership stance on all things sustainability, will be looking at every decision we make and asking, ‘What is its impact on emissions and is it worth it?'”

The University of Michigan classrooms may be empty, but the arts experiences on campus remain available for a dose of culture, a place to keep warm, and an excuse to venture out of the house during holiday break. Here are five recommendations:

Silver Linings (University of Michigan Museum of Art)
Holiday break is your last chance to view Silver Linings at UMMA—40 works from the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, which was founded in 1996 with a mission to uplift art by and about women of the African diaspora. Spanning 100 years, the collection showcases the rich history of African American art production. Free and open to the public; on view through Jan. 5, 2025.

Down the River with Elzada Clover (Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum)
In summer 1938, on a 41-day river trip, Dr. Elzada Clover and her assistant, Lois Jotter, sampled over 60 specimens of plants on the remote banks of the Colorado River, famed at the time as the most dangerous river in the world. The exhibit explores their remarkable journey and enduring contributions. Free and open to the public; on view through Jan. 26, 2025.

Wonders of Water Community Art Exhibit (Matthaei Botanical Gardens & Nichols Arboretum)
Featuring works from local and regional artists, the Wonders of Water pays homage to the vital roles rivers play in our environment and society. Presented in tandem with the Elzada Clover exhibit, this art showcase connects to her legacy by emphasizing the life and stories carried by our waterways. Free and open to the public; on view through Jan. 26, 2025.

Michelle Hinojosa: Logcabins (Stamps Gallery)
Stamps Gallery commissioned alum Michelle Hinojosa to activate the pillars flanking the gallery on Division Street with public art. Hinojosa has installed colorful “log cabin quilts” on the pillars sewn from outdoor-grade, UV-resistant polyester to withstand the elements. Log cabin quilts traditionally represent the warm hearth at the center of a home with the installation representing home, placemaking and memories of migration. When Hinojosa’s own grandmother crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, she was holding just her babies and her quilts. Publicly displayed on Division Street through May 2025.

La Raza Art and Media Collective (University of Michigan Museum of Art)
Celebrating three generations of U-M Latinx artists, UMMA’s latest exhibition explores the 50-year history of La Raza Art and Media Collective. RAM Collective worked to express the cultural and political views of Chicano, Hispanic and Latin American communities on campus and beyond through self-organized exhibitions, cultural gatherings and its journal. Free and open to the public; on view through July 20, 2025.

EXPERTS ADVISORY

There are, to be sure, disconnects between economic statistics and lived experiences, which seems to have played out in the recent U.S. presidential election.

There are also ongoing questions about the availability of seasonal workers and job insecurity, and technological disruptions to the retail status quo. And hey, we’re not that far removed from a pandemic that wreaked all sorts of havoc on business, the economy and life as usual.

So what to make of it all—or at least some of it?

University of Michigan business experts Scott Rick and Ari Shwayder take a swing on the latest episode of the Business & Society podcast, a joint production of U-M’s Ross School of Business and Michigan News.

Post-election spending

“In the shadow of the election, I would expect a lot of retail therapy, many people curing some questionable feelings through shopping,” Rick said. “And my research suggests that’s not always a bad thing for you personally. You can get out of hand, of course, but it can help sometimes.

“I think some people are feeling kind of overwhelmed with the news and kind of what’s coming in the new year. … I think many people will be turning inward for comfort and personal escape.”

Contact: [email protected]

“We just had sort of the big shopping days and Giving Tuesday and all those sorts of things, and the early data we get shows that things went pretty well,” Shwayder said. “Economists have been looking at this ‘vibecession’ for the last couple of years because we’ve been very confused about it. Some of it is just that economists track different data necessarily than what people are looking at in their everyday lives.

“Also, there’s just a lot of heterogeneity. You know, the average might be great. The top half of the distribution of income or households are feeling fine and doing great, but the bottom half may not be feeling fine and doing great.

“Giving was up this year by a gigantic amount based on early estimates. So it seems like people are willing to open their wallets this year.”

Contact: [email protected]

Business & Society is co-produced by JT Godfrey of the Ross School of Business and Jeff Karoub of Michigan News. The audio engineer is Jonah Brockman and editorial production is provided by Mads Henke. Listen to all episodes of the podcast.

U-M research finds connections between mood and circadian rhythm disruptions in new study using Fitbit data from hundreds of medical interns

Sleep schedules are often one of the first things that people choose to compromise in order to check everything off their to-do lists, especially with the end of the year approaching. But folks hoping for happy holidays should reconsider.

A new study from the University of Michigan shows that when people’s sleep cycles are misaligned with their internal clocks, or circadian rhythms, it can have drastic effects on their moods.

Conversely, however, that means getting sleep when the body’s expecting it provides a potent boost to one’s emotional state and could alleviate symptoms associated with mood disorders, said senior author Daniel Forger.

“This is not going to solve depression. We need to be very, very clear about that,” said Forger, professor in the Department of Mathematics and director of the Michigan Center for Applied and Interdisciplinary Mathematics.

“But this is a key factor that we can actually control. We can’t control someone’s life events. We can’t control their relationships or their genetics. But what we can do is very carefully look at their individual sleep patterns and circadian rhythms to really see how that’s affecting their mood.”

The research is published in the journal npj Digital Medicine.

Interns, Fitbits and questionnaires

People have long known that sleep affects mood, but mostly in a conceptual, almost lighthearted way. For instance, we often use words like “cranky” or “fussy” when discussing this connection.

Yet previous studies have consistently found links between sleep—its duration, quality and disruption—and serious mental health concerns, including suicide risk.

“Sleep is important to us, but maybe not in the same way we care about depression,” Forger said. “But there’s been a tremendous amount of research coming out showing that mood affects circadian rhythms and sleep, and that circadian rhythms and sleep affect mood.”

This research, however, has almost exclusively been performed in controlled settings, Forger said. So he and his team set out to find these effects—and opportunities to use them to improve moods—in the real world.

This project was made possible, in part, by the Intern Health Study, a project funded by the National Institutes of Health at the University of Michigan which works with hundreds of first-year training physicians. As part of the study, the interns complete routine mood surveys while wearing fitness trackers—namely, Fitbits—that monitor their heart rate, activity and sleeping habits. This study was also supported by the National Science Foundation.

Forger and his team have developed algorithms to assess Fitbit data and extract quantitative information about people’s circadian rhythms, their sleep cycles and how well those align. By coupling that with the Intern Health Study’s daily mood surveys and also using quarterly depression screening questionnaires, the team could establish links between those alignments and real-world measures of mental health.

The information from the questionnaire—the nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire, or PHQ-9, which is widely used in research and clinics—yielded a particularly striking figure when it came to people with desynchronized rhythms.

“When people start to get desynchronized, we see the PHQ-9 go up, on average, by 2.5,” Forger said. “That’s clinically important.”

But what exactly is misaligned also matters, said one of the study’s lead authors, Minki Lee.

“It’s not just, ‘If you go to bed earlier, you will be happier,'” said Lee, who is an undergraduate researcher and a 2023 Goldwater Scholar. “To some degree, that will be true, but it will be because your sleep schedule is aligning with your internal rhythms.'”

The rhythms of our bodies

The team was able to extract telling features, or biomarkers, of three different important patterns.

There was the central circadian clock, which keeps time in the suprachiasmatic nuclei of the brain. It also coordinates peripheral circadian clocks in other parts of the body. In its study, the team analyzed the peripheral clock in the heart.

For a typical person, the heart knows that it needs to be ready to be more active at 2 p.m. than at 2 a.m. thanks to its peripheral clock, Forger said.

The final pattern the team could measure was the interns’ sleep cycles.

The team found that, generally speaking, having a sleep cycle out of sync with the peripheral circadian clock—that is, what time your heart thought it was—had a negative effect on mood.

When a person’s central circadian rhythm was out of whack with respect to their sleep cycle, however, a negative effect was seen when an intern was doing shift work. That is, the misalignment between their sleep and central internal clock was driven by their occupation.

And when this mismatch was affecting mood, its effect was more pronounced than in the peripheral mismatch case.

“Specifically, the misalignment between the central circadian clock and sleep exhibited the strongest negative association with mood and depressive symptoms, including poor sleep, appetite issues and even suicidal thoughts,” said Dae Wook Kim, another lead author of the study.

Kim helped conduct the study as a postdoctoral fellow at U-M and is now an assistant professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.

“These findings challenge prior assumptions about the uniform impact of circadian disruptions across different physiological clocks,” Kim said.

Challenging these assumptions opens up new questions about how and when these disruptions manifest in other groups of people, including students, older adults and individuals diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, Kim said. The team is already starting to bring its study methodology to some of those groups.

“This shows us we have to look at different rhythms representing different parts of your body and consider them in light of your working conditions and your lifestyle in general,” Lee said.

It’s not surprising that context matters, the researchers said. After all, students cram for exams and vacationers travel halfway around the world without having the all-nighters or jet lag significantly impair their moods.

But the study shows we understand when these disruptions are impacting us and when getting some rest can remedy that using technology at our fingertips. Or, more accurately, on our wrists.

“That’s why this is scalable,” Forger said. “That’s why I think this could help tons of people.”

Looking at programs from more than 140 countries, a University of Michigan-led study concludes that large-scale, government-funded child cash transfer programs improve child health outcomes.

These programs are an evidence-based way for nations to invest in the future health of their population and economy, says Luke Shaefer, faculty director of U-M’s Poverty Solutions and professor of social work and public policy.

Shaefer and colleagues analyzed evidence from low-income and high-income countries with child cash transfer programs in research that appears this month in The Lancet, one of the nation’s leading peer-reviewed medical journals.

As the United States and other nations consider evidence-based strategies to improve children’s health and well-being, universal child cash transfer programs could be a solution to poor health outcomes for children and child poverty, the researchers say.

“Child cash transfers are not a new idea that needs testing,” Shaefer said. “Countries already have and are seeing success, some for more than a decade. We’ve seen the same kind of results in the U.S. in 2021 with the expanded Child Tax Credit. It is a policy built on mountains of evidence.”

UNICEF, he says, calls unconditional child benefits the “foundational policy” for child social development for a reason. They improve child and mother health and are an investment all nations should be making for their future.

Child cash benefit programs typically make recurring payments of cash (as income or tax transfers) to households with children.

The analysis of these international programs found that:

• Universal child cash benefits increased household income and decreased income instability, with positive effects on housing and food security
• Reduced caregiver stress and cognitive load
• Enabled higher rates of health care use and direct investments in children, such as more time spent engaging with them or enrichment to home learning environments

Children living in poverty are more likely to have experiences of adversity, as well as inadequate access to health care and human services. In turn, healthier children are better equipped to succeed academically and professionally, which ultimately drives economic growth and reduces long-term public health expenditures, Shaefer and colleagues say.

During the 2021 expanded Child Tax Credit, the U.S. joined other high-income countries by introducing a near-universal, unconditional child cash benefit distributed as monthly payments, which was the main driver in slashing child poverty in the U.S. to a historic low of 5.2%. Although the expanded CTC expired, state and local governments and communities have continued to advocate for and implement policies like it.

One example of a child cash transfer is the Rx Kids program, launched this year in Flint, Michigan, by Shaefer and study co-author Mona Hanna of Michigan State University. Rx Kids aims to “prescribe away poverty” by providing all pregnant moms in the Rx Kids community, regardless of income, with no-strings-attached cash of $1,500 during pregnancy and $500 each month throughout the baby’s first year.

To date, more than 1,200 families are enrolled in Rx Kids, with an estimated $5 million in cash prescribed by the end of 2024. Building on global and domestic research, the Rx Kids evaluation team is examining whether the program improves a wide array of individual and community outcomes, from maternal health to economic revitalization.

Early evidence (PDF) finds that the program is associated with markedly increased housing security, improved ability to access food, and improved maternal mental health and well-being, including reduced postpartum depression.

In 2025, the Rx Kids program will expand to other areas of Michigan, with the first expansion city being Kalamazoo. However, Hanna and Shaefer have their sights set on the program, or something similar, becoming a nationwide policy.

The policy paper was among other articles featured in “A Presidential Briefing Book” for the next presidential administration. The paper’s co-authors include David Harris, Columbia University and UNICEF Innocenti Global Office of Research and Foresight; Dominic Richardson, The Learning for Well-being Institute in Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Miriam Laker, GiveDirectly in Kampala, Uganda.

A single conversation with a close family member may not change a young woman’s views on policies protecting their rights, but it can strongly influence young men’s attitudes.

A University of Michigan study found that family opinions heavily shape male youth’s views on women’s rights, while female youth are less affected. This finding builds on evidence that young women receive significantly more information about gendered experiences and discrimination against women from a younger age and helps explain why boys and girls often have different levels of support for women’s rights.

“Our findings highlight how this gendered information gap leads to significant differences in attitudes toward policies protecting and advancing women’s rights,” said Mara Cecilia Ostfeld, associate research professor at the Ford School of Public Policy.

“It reinforces past evidence that men, and especially young men, are simply receiving less information about gendered experiences and disparities, and demonstrates how these differential levels of exposure to information on women’s experiences contribute to significant gender gaps in attitudes toward women’s rights.”

The study demonstrates that the perceived norms within their families more heavily influence men’s attitudes toward women’s rights than women’s attitudes. Researchers found that statements from family members—and not other authority figures like teachers or community leaders—uniquely shape young men’s views on gender equality.

“When people have received less information on a topic, their views tend to be more malleable,” said Ostfeld, also a faculty associate at the Center for Political Studies in the Institute of Social Research. “The fact that young men receive fewer cues about women’s experiences than young women also makes them more open to the influence of additional information—especially from family.”

Based on findings from a comprehensive national survey and an online experimental study focused on teenagers, the research highlights the following:

• Young men’s attitudes toward women’s rights were more malleable than young women’s.
• Family members particularly influenced men’s views on women’s rights, as opposed to less familiar authority figures.
• Reflecting on hypothetical conversations with family members about issues such as women’s rights—like those raised during the #MeToo movement—can significantly shape men’s perspectives.

“These results underscore the importance of speaking to young men—particularly family members speaking to them—about women’s experiences and the disparities that shape their lives and opportunities,” Ostfeld said.

In sexual health, for instance, boys receive less frequent, lower-quality communication from parents compared to girls. Even medical providers are less likely to discuss these topics with young men. This lack of dialogue perpetuates stigma and misinformation about issues like menstruation, birth control and the challenges women face in reproduction and family planning.

“Research indicates that exposure to women’s experiences, whether through raising a daughter or having a meaningful conversation, can significantly increase men’s support for gender equality,” Ostfeld said. “Conversations with young men can play a pivotal role in fostering greater understanding and advocacy for women’s rights.”

Broader Context

The study, co-authored with colleagues Sara Morell and Lauren Hahn, comes against a backdrop of persistent gender inequities. Among many other places, there are disparities in rates of exposure to sexual assault, sexual violence—or intimate partner violence—access to a variety of forms of health care, and gaps in access to leadership roles and pay equity.

“Many efforts to reduce these disparities have focused on the socialization of women,” Ostfeld said. “From encouraging women to ‘lean in’ professionally, to highlighting the work that women’s role models and mentors should be doing, to promoting strategies women can take to mitigate the risks of sexual assault.

“However, men are still more likely than women to hold attitudes in opposition to women’s rights—and there has been surprisingly little attention to understanding the source of this opposition and factors that can change this trend.”

Ostfeld and colleagues call for further research into the long-term effects of family cues on gendered attitudes and the interplay of intersecting identities such as race, class and religion. They also emphasize the importance of exploring other influential factors, including peer groups and media, to complement family-centered approaches.

The University of Michigan is launching a statewide pilot program that will use smartphones in the care of individuals living with substance use disorders by rewarding positive behaviors—like taking medication or engaging in treatment—with money, gift cards and vouchers.

Known as digital contingency management, the first-in-the-state effort is an evidence-based treatment that provides motivational incentives to individuals living with opioid, alcohol and other substance use disorders as they meet treatment goals.

The program addresses health inequities, such as a lack of access to care due to transportation or other issues, by offering easy handheld access to care.

U-M’s program will coincide with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services’ own incentives pilot program, Recovery Incentives. Training with clinics has begun, and both services are set to launch to patients in January 2025.

U-M faculty members Anne Fernandez and Lara Coughlin of Michigan Innovations in Addiction Care through Research and Education and the Opioid Research Institute, have received a $1.17 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to launch and evaluate the program, which will initially engage Medicaid beneficiaries in Michigan.

“Approximately 80%-90% of people with substance use disorders do not access formal addiction treatment services,” said Coughlin, assistant professor of psychiatry. “Offering programs like digital contingency management allows us to expand access to care for individuals who may not otherwise receive it.

“A key strength of digital contingency management is that it can increase reach of highly effective addiction care, reducing health inequities, while also providing a treatment that many find to be highly appealing. We believe digital contingency management is a needed next step in Michigan addiction care to ultimately improve addiction-related outcomes, including overdose prevention.”

Nearly 8 million people in the United States live with both opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder.

The theory behind contingency management is to shift the natural reward pathway of the brain from the reward of substances, such as stimulants and opioids, to nondrug rewards for choosing abstinence. The immediate reward can help tip decision making toward the incentives instead of drugs.

A main component of the program is to reach individuals with no or limited access to more formal addiction treatment care.

“Because digital contingency management is delivered remotely, it can reach anyone with a smartphone, which is increasingly ubiquitous and universally available to Medicaid beneficiaries,” said Fernandez, associate professor of psychiatry and assistant medical director at U-M’s Addiction Treatment Services. “In addition to abstinence promotion, digital contingency management can also incentivize treatment engagement, peer recovery participation and other recovery-oriented activities.”

The program and study that will evaluate it seeks to:

• Identify best practices to engage Medicaid beneficiaries with opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder in digital contingency management through analysis of Medicaid claims data.
• Convene an advisory board to develop a road map for implementation, sustainability and health equity for digital contingency management.
• Test feasibility and acceptability of digital contingency management for co-occurring opioid use disorder and alcohol use disorder.

The pilot program will also help develop a scaling strategy for a future effectiveness and implementation trial. The researchers will conduct exit interviews with participants in order to identify patient and provider perceptions of factors influencing program adoption.

“This program can address multiple recovery-focused behaviors simultaneously with the goal of improving outcomes for co-occurring opioid and alcohol use disorder. We look forward to conducting this research in Michigan and hope that long-term we can scale the program more widely across the state,” Fernandez said.

Adolescent drug use continued to drop in 2024, building on and extending the historically large decreases that occurred during the pandemic onset in 2020.

“I expected adolescent drug use would rebound at least partially after the large declines that took place during the pandemic onset in 2020, which were among the largest ever recorded,” said Richard Miech, team lead of the Monitoring the Future study at U-M’s Institute for Social Research.

“Many experts in the field had anticipated that drug use would resurge as the pandemic receded and social distancing restrictions were lifted. As it turns out, the declines have not only lasted but have dropped further.”

Miech is a principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future Study, which annually surveys eighth, 10th and 12th grade students across the United States.

The number of students who abstained from drug use reached record levels in 2024, with abstention defined as no past 30-day use of alcohol, marijuana or nicotine cigarettes or e-cigarettes.

The percentage of students who abstained from the use of these drugs in 2024 was 67% in 12th grade (compared to 53% in 2017 when it was first measured), 80% in 10th grade (compared to 69% in 2017) and 90% in eighth grade (compared to 87% in 2017). The increases in abstention from 2023 to 2024 were statistically significant in the 12th and 10th grades.

Declines in drug use in 2024 were evident across alcohol, marijuana and nicotine vaping, which are the three most common forms of substance use by adolescents:

• For alcohol, significant decreases in 12th and 10th grades continued a long-standing decline that began in the late 1990s. In 2024, 42% of 12th graders reported using alcohol in the past 12 months, a substantial drop from 75% in 1997. Among 10th graders, the percentage fell to 26% from 65% in 1997; among eighth graders, it dropped to 13% from 46% in 1997.
• For marijuana, decreases in use among students are a more recent development. In all three grades, the percentage who used marijuana in the past 12 months hovered within a tight window of just a few percentage points in the 20 years from 2000 to 2020. In 2021, the first year surveyed after the pandemic onset, substantial declines in marijuana use took place in all three grades. In 12th and 10th grades, these declines have since continued, and past 12-month use levels in 2024 were the lowest in the past three decades, at 26% and 16%, respectively. In eighth grade, the percentage in 2024 was 7%, the same for the past four years after dropping from a pre-pandemic level of 11% in 2020.
• For nicotine vaping, the 2024 declines continue a 180-degree turn centered around the pandemic onset. Before the pandemic, use levels surged from 2017 to 2019 and then held steady in 2020 (before the pandemic onset). Large declines took place during the pandemic, and these declines have since continued to the point where the 2024 levels for the past 12 months of nicotine vaping are close to where they started in 2017, the first year that questions on nicotine vaping were included on the survey. Specifically, past 12-month use was 21% in 12th grade (compared to 35% in 2020 and 19% in 2017), 15% in 10th grade (compared to 31% in 2020 and 16% in 2017) and 10% in eighth grade (compared to 17% in 2020 and 10% in 2017).

The continued declines in adolescent drug use since the pandemic raise important policy and research questions. They suggest that a delay in drug use initiation during adolescence could potentially lower substance use trajectories over a lifetime, Miech says.

Such a delay, he says, may prevent youth from associating with drug-using peer groups that encourage continued use and may forestall biological processes that contribute to the development of addiction.

The Monitoring the Future study is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of Health. It is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan.

The University of Michigan will embed pharmacists in at least five tribal health clinics in Michigan starting in early 2025.

As part of the College of Pharmacy’s Collaborative for Indigenous Resources in Care, Learning and Equity, the pharmacists will work alongside physicians and clinic staff and engage in education and outreach—all to get to know and care for locals and their health and medication needs.

The tribal health clinic collaborative is built on three years of engagement with Michigan’s American Indian and Alaska Native communities by Nicholas Cushman and Emily Mackler, both adjunct faculty at the College of Pharmacy.

Their work led to the creation of the program.

As a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Cushman is uniquely aware of the cultures and customs that shape health and behaviors—and also the equity gaps that worsen health for a community affected by more chronic illnesses and shorter life spans than the general population.

“I’ve seen the strength and resilience of our communities in the face of health care challenges,” said Cushman, who has become a leader on matters of tribal health, including substance use disorder and mental illness.

Cushman is also a commissioned health officer with the U.S. Public Health Service and well positioned to guide pharmacists’ interventions that can treat and prevent illness.

“By partnering with tribal nations, including my own, and my alma mater, we’re building on our cultural values and traditions to implement health care solutions that empower our people and support the prosperity of future generations,” he said.

Michigan is home to more than 240,000 American Indian and Alaska Native residents and 12 federally recognized tribal nations, which are their own sovereign, self-governing entities. As a whole, they experience a disproportionate burden of many chronic conditions, including being three times more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes and twice as likely to die due to complications from the disease compared to the non-Hispanic white population.

“We will be able to leverage the success of integrated pharmacist care for a patient population who has not been part of these programs before and most importantly be able to flex our prior experiences and resources to really meet the priorities of the tribal health clinics and communities,” Mackler said.

Each community has a tribal health clinic that provides basic health care services, including primary and dental care, to both adults and children. For specialized medical needs, patients are generally referred to nontribal facilities across the state.

The program pharmacists in tribal clinics in cities such as Grand Rapids and Fulton are part of an ongoing, broader collaboration between Michigan’s tribal communities and the U-M College of Pharmacy under the leadership of Amy Thompson, clinical professor of pharmacy and director of Community Health and Engagement, and Antoinette (Toni) Coe, assistant professor of pharmacy.

“Our aim is to empower American Indian and Alaska Native communities and advance culturally relevant health care solutions,” Coe said.

In addition to their role as health care providers, Thompson said the plan is for pharmacists to facilitate regular meetings among tribal pharmacists, tailor clinical education programs, participate in community events and enhance student engagement.

“We are committed to advancing a multidisciplinary approach to health care by working with other university schools and programs, with an emphasis on meeting the distinct health care needs of each tribal community,” Thompson said.

The tribal clinic program is similar to the Pharmacy Practice Model developed by College of Pharmacy Associate Dean Hae Mi Choe. It integrates pharmacists in physician practices across the state, enhancing the quality of care and improving patient outcomes. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has recognized and promoted the program as a model for others.

“We are honored to partner with Indigenous communities in this collaborative, working together to address unique health care needs and priorities,” said Vicki Ellingrod, dean of the College of Pharmacy. “By listening and learning, we aim to support culturally informed care that truly reflects the values and strengths of these communities, as well as our values.”

Effort aims to strengthen discourse across difference

University of Michigan President Santa J. Ono will establish an Institute for Civil Discourse to strengthen debate and dialog across the vast spectrum of ideologies and political perspectives on campus and beyond.

Rather than residing in a single school or college, the center will stand alone and serve as a resource for the Ann Arbor, Dearborn and Flint campuses.

“We learn by confronting different arguments and different perspectives. Michigan is the place to do this—to show our community and nation that civil discourse is not just possible, it is the very best way to learn and to solve problems. It is fundamental to our democracy,” Ono said at the December Board of Regents meeting where the institute was announced.

In the coming months, Ono will initiate a search for an inaugural director, appoint an advisory board of academic leaders representing a broad range of ideological viewpoints and solicit financial support from individuals and foundations across a variety of perspectives.

The announcement is the latest in a series of steps taken this year to support diversity of thought and free expression at the university. The regents in January approved the Principles on Diversity of Thought and Freedom of Expression to reinforce the university’s “responsibility to stimulate and support diverse ideas and model constructive engagement with different viewpoints.”

A team led by the University of Michigan aims to bring the extraordinary accuracy of quantum laboratory measurements to real-world devices

Michigan is a contender for a $50 million center aiming to build a quantum technology robust enough for the real world and demonstrate its utility. With a $1 million grant to explore options over the next year, the Michigan-led team is one of 11 funded in the first phase of the National Science Foundation’s Quantum Science and Technology Demonstrations.

The team, whose project is called Quantum Photonic Integration and Deployment, or QuPID, aims to build the first chips that harness the incredible precision of light for real-world measurements in the field with quantum semiconductors. Working with leading industrial partners, the researchers will develop quantum systems that can perform the high-accuracy measurements.

“We’re essentially trying to build quantum gadgets and demonstrate their performance so that people can integrate them into their own devices, whether that’s AI, measuring the purity of a liquid, or predicting major storms months in advance,” said Mackillo Kira, U-M professor of electrical and computer engineering and principal investigator of the project.

The team is targeting applications such as ultrasensitive environmental monitoring, GPS-free navigation, ultrasensitive semiconductor chip quality control and detailed geological mapping of underground structures from the air or satellites.

“Transforming the quantum advantage demonstrated in labs to serve wide applications in the real world comes down to simplifying and packaging the instrumentation needed to manipulate and measure light properties,” said Parag Deotare, U-M associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and deputy director of the project.

“The center will explore creative approaches to achieve a robust quantum system that remains agnostic to the applications. In addition, we will create design kits that can be utilized globally by researchers and industries to adapt for specific applications.”

In the first phase of this competitive program, the team will explore new applications and materials, building on previous successes. Their breakthroughs include detecting previously undetectable radio signals via quantum sensing, discovering new particle-like elements within quantum materials using quantum light, and switching quantum information at speeds millions of times faster than traditional computers. They have also introduced a groundbreaking material: ferroelectric nitrides that store electric fields much like fridge magnets retain magnetization.

“No other material shows such promise as an all-in-one quantum-integration solution,” said Zetian Mi, U-M professor of electrical engineering and computer science and a co-principal investigator.

Ferroelectric nitrides could both produce and detect quantum entangled light, maintain internal quantum states, and convert light across a broad range of wavelengths without losses—all within a single chip. These versatile materials are also compatible with today’s silicon-based microelectronics, paving the way for the planned laboratory-to-chip transition.

A key role of the potential quantum center is to recruit and educate future talent. In addition to collaborating with outreach facilities that are part of U-M, the team has commitments from the Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum and St. Clair County Community College.

The principal and co-principal investigators represent all three components of new technology development: theory, materials research and device integration. Kira’s area is quantum theory, while Mi grows quantum materials atom by atom. Deotare and Jelena Vučković, professor of electrical engineering at Stanford, build quantum photonic devices, and Zheshen Zhang, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at U-M, brings expertise in quantum sensing.

Beyond the team leads, QuPID includes researchers at Ohio State University, Harvard University, Michigan State University, the University of Arizona and the University of Southern California. Participating industry researchers hail from Honeywell, MONSTR Sense Technologies, TOPTICA Photonics, INTEL, KPIT, MITRE, Quantum Opus and Raytheon. The Air Force Research Laboratory and NASA Glenn Research Center are represented, as well as international collaborators from the University of Regensburg in Germany and Polytechnique Montréal in Canada.

By the end of the year, the team will submit a proposal laying out how they would pursue the most promising applications. If it succeeds, they will be awarded a further $4 million over two years to make progress toward demonstrating the technology in the lab—eight of the 10 initial teams are expected to be funded. After that, the NSF has budgeted for six teams to build their real-world-ready quantum devices, supported by up to $50 million over five years.

The Quantum Science and Technology Demonstrations are funded through the National Quantum Initiative Act.

The team will rely on the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility, the Michigan Center for Materials Characterization and individual faculty labs to produce and study quantum materials.

Kira and Deotare also have appointments in physics at U-M.

First open-source 3D digital twin for mobility systems testing could help speed autonomous and connected vehicle research

The first open-source digital twin of the Mcity Test Facility—the University of Michigan’s test center for connected and autonomous vehicles and technologies—is now available to the public, giving researchers around the world a new free tool.

A digital twin is a virtual representation of a physical environment that also exchanges data with that environment, enabling simulation and testing. The new Mcity digital twin, developed with support from the National Science Foundation, is the first open-source digital twin for mobility systems testing, including autonomous driving. It provides a faster, safer, less expensive way to test autonomous and connected vehicle software.

Researchers anywhere can use the facility’s features—with a variety of road materials, markings, signals and intersections—to test their autonomous algorithms without having to make the trip to Ann Arbor.

“This takes our almost 10-year-old track and puts the digital replica directly over it,” said Greg Stevens, Mcity’s director of research. “That’s a living, breathing manifestation of that physical track where people can do mixed reality testing and development.”

The digital twin works with TeraSim, an open-source traffic simulator developed by Mcity researchers. It introduces other road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers, and generates safety-critical events like potential collisions. Using traffic behavioral models calibrated with real-world data, it simulates both normal and high-risk driving scenarios.

Mobility officials have touted AVs, along with connected vehicles and infrastructure, as a path to safer, more efficient and equitable transportation. Still, a great deal of research remains ahead before the technologies will produce everyday benefits for a large portion of the population. Testing in the real world takes time and money and creates a host of safety issues, but virtual testing can enable control software to demonstrate a high level of safety ahead of that stage.

“You can drive millions of miles in your AV in a digital twin built off of a real-world environment before your AV actually touches the real world,” said Darian Hogue, an Mcity software engineer who helped develop the digital twin. “With this, we can control all kinds of factors. That includes controlling and manipulating simulated pedestrian traffic—a factor that is random in the real world. This focuses and accelerates simulated testing.”

Opened in 2015, the Mcity Test Facility is the world’s first purpose-built proving ground for connected and automated vehicles. Its physical features include:

• A simulated downtown area with urban streets.
• A 1,000-foot straightaway, plus access ramps, a curve and a traffic circle.
• Multiple road surfaces with a variety of road markings and crossing types.
• Traffic signals and traffic signs.
• Bridge deck, underpass, guardrails, barriers and crash attenuators.
• House and garage exterior with accessibility ramp for first-mile/last-mile testing, deliveries and ride hailing.

Mcity is continuously adding new features, and officials have worked to make the facility and its technologies available to a larger group of researchers. In 2022, a $5.1 million grant from the National Science Foundation funded development of Mcity’s digital infrastructure, enabling remote use of the Mcity Test Facility—dubbed Mcity 2.0. The 2022 grant also funded creation of the Mcity digital twin.

Mcity officially launched its remote use capabilities in October. Researchers operating from their home bases can test their autonomous algorithms in virtual and mixed reality environments by connecting to Mcity’s cloud-based digital infrastructure. Using 5G wireless communications, they can control physical vehicles and traffic signals on Mcity’s test streets and receive real-time data in return—all while protecting proprietary information.

“What differentiates the Mcity digital twin is that it supports virtual testing, while remote use involves testing a physical vehicle at our physical test track from a remote location,” said Mcity Director Henry Liu, professor of civil and environmental engineering and the Bruce D. Greenshields Collegiate Professor.

“As an open-source tool, the Mcity digital twin lowers barriers to use of the test facility by technology developers and researchers. The digital twin could also help developers better prepare for on-site testing at Mcity.”

EXPERT Q&A

Organic growth strategies, such as opening new plants or expanding existing operations, play a more significant role in the growth of firms and industries compared to transactional growth strategies, such as mergers, acquisitions and selloffs.

However, transactional growth is more positively correlated with future survival.

The findings come from a study by Jagadeesh Sivadasan, professor of business economics and public policy at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. It explores employment growth data from all U.S. companies from 2004 to 2013.

He shares insights from the research, including perspectives on what growth factors help create a more healthy and stable economy.

How do your findings differ from previous understandings of growth modes?

Our framework allows for a comprehensive examination of growth modes to make several novel contributions. Among our findings:

• The typical growth story involves a firm facing opportunities trying to grow through all available modes. That’s opposed to when a firm focuses on one mode, say acquisitions, at the expense of others, such as new establishments.
• In response to competition, primarily from the reduction of tariff barriers to Chinese imports, we find firms reduce size through multiple modes: shrinkage of existing establishments, reduction in acquisitions and greater closures and selloffs. Interestingly, there is no decline in growth from new units, suggesting firms continued to experiment.
• Comparing firms in the same sector and of the same size, those that grew more through transactional growth have stronger future growth and survival.

How did the 2008 financial crisis affect growth modes?

While we do not present these results in our paper, our data show several interesting patterns following the Great Recession. Of course, overall employment growth was negative in 2009 and 2010, and recovery was slow.

The bulk of the decline in growth came from layoffs in continuing establishments. Interestingly, there was less job loss from closures compared to pre-2008 levels, but there was a significant slowdown in the entry of new businesses.

We also find a steep fall in the volume of transactional modes. The results suggest the crisis reduced the available pool of buyers for businesses and assets, reducing the benefits from sales and closures.

What new patterns about the growth of firms across size and age categories does your study find?

Among large firms, young firms show slower growth than old ones. That’s contrary to the conventional notion younger firms grow faster, but aligns with Edith Penrose’s pioneering work suggesting size and growth are limited by managerial expertise.

After a period of growth, firms can be expected to slow down as they need time to build additional expertise. Among small firms, we find that older firms grow slower, in line with conventional wisdom that entrants and young small firms are key sources of growth.

Could you elaborate on the significant correlation you found between transactional growth and future firm survival?

Transactional growth is significantly positively correlated with future growth and survival, whereas growth from organic modes is slightly negatively correlated with survival. One possible explanation is more productive and larger firms attempt acquisitions; another is certain industries experience a period of consolidation from mergers and then growth.

Our analysis controls for firm size and past growth, as well as industry-year effects. Our findings suggest a positive causal effect of transactional growth, possibly through learning ideas or gaining capabilities or resources from the acquired firms. It could also be firms with certain capabilities expand through transactions, helping the firm succeed.

How can your findings influence leaders to develop overall growth?

A key focus of government policy is on supporting small businesses. In line with other recent work, our results suggest small, young businesses have the greatest scope for positive growth. At the same time, a broad reallocation of resources to younger firms is inadvisable, as young firms that have achieved a large size experience significant negative growth on average.

For managers, the positive link between transactional growth and future performance suggests they may want to consider if acquisitions could be beneficial in their context. Managing and integrating acquisitions is challenging. Any gains often go to the shareholders of the target company as acquirers frequently tend to pay too high a price.

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich.—High schooler Ella Black never thought college was in her future. Born and raised in a small town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, known for its rich Native American heritage, she faced structural inequities and cultural challenges that made higher education feel out of reach.

That was until the Indigenous Education Youth Collective program, a research-practice partnership between the University of Michigan, Anishinaabe youth and families, and Lake Superior State University became a turning point in her story. Now, as a sophomore, Black is not only imagining a future in college but is actively working as a researcher to make that dream accessible to others, too.

“I am learning that research plays a crucial role in improving educational opportunities for all, especially those from diverse backgrounds like Native American students,” she said. “By examining the barriers that hinder enrollment, such as financial constraints, lack of information and inadequate support systems, researchers can identify effective strategies to improve accessibility.”

Black’s story is one of many within the collective, a program that supports 15 preteens and teens—aged 11 to 18—and their families by blending cultural heritage with academic opportunities, offering teens a chance to embrace their Native identities and the academic tools to succeed.

This research-practice partnership is based in Sault Ste. Marie—a rural community on the border of the United States and Canada that is home or in close proximity to multiple tribal communities including the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, Bay Mills Indian Community and First Nations communities.

“We know that Native students aren’t experiencing the type of support they need or deserve, both in education and cultural enrichment,” said program co-founder Jeremy Wright-Kim, an assistant professor at U-M’s Marsal Family School of Education. “Also, Indigenous teachings weren’t necessarily being pushed forward for the new generation. So, our program helps students braid their identities, their native and Indigenous ways of knowing, with traditional academic bureaucracies.”

For Wright-Kim, early intervention is critical. Starting conversations in middle school broadens students’ horizons and prevents them from prematurely dismissing college as unattainable. Policies like tuition waivers, while helpful, can unintentionally create a sense of exclusion for students who don’t qualify.

Representation matters deeply—having visible allies and advocates in higher education builds trust and demystifies institutions that may feel out of reach, he said. These elements highlight the program’s comprehensive approach to blending cultural heritage with educational opportunity, making it a vital initiative for Indigenous student empowerment.

“As someone who wanted to go to college but never knew if I could, being part of this group has given me many skills and opportunities for higher education,” Black said. “I now have access to experienced researchers who help me navigate career paths and identify opportunities aligned with my goals. I also work on independent research projects that help me find meaning in the world and build my critical thinking skills.”

Since eighth grade, Black has been investigating issues related to the impacts of tribal disenrollment on Native identity with U-M professor Dave Burke as part of the program.

“Ella’s research is primarily a tool to train a student to use formalized thought processes,” Burke said. “I use research to train individuals to be independent and strategic thinkers. I believe thinking is, in some respects, like a sport. It requires training, the habits of self-discipline and practice. With young people like Ella, we explore things they care about.”

Because of events in her immediate family, Black witnessed the challenges of “What does it mean to identify as a Native American?” and “Who gets to decide if I am a Native American?” Therefore, she decided to focus her research on a combination of documentation of her family history, current rules and regulations around inclusion and exclusion in Native American tribes.

“I don’t know where I would be today without all the mentorship I am getting through this program,” Black said. “Although I struggle with my cultural identity sometimes, thanks to this group, I have support and opportunities to work through the challenges and persevere. They also helped me realize that yes, college is a possibility.”

Bridging gaps

In 2022, U-M alum Chloe Kannan, a Sault Tribe member and adjunct professor at LSSU’s College of Great Lakes Ecology and Education, contacted Wright-Kim, a friend from their time in grad school at the University of Pennsylvania, with a proposal.

“Jeremy is an expert on opportunities for college readiness, researching how public policy shapes and either challenges or reinforces structural inequities in American higher education,” Kannan said. “So, I invited him and a Native community leader to co-found this Native college-access program with me. I knew that together, we could help Native students find their rightful cultural roles and educational pathways.”

A too-good-to-refuse invitation for Wright-Kim.

“Self-identity, self-exploration, and the connection between oneself and one’s educational pursuits matter,” he said. “Though I am not Native or an expert in Indigenous methodologies, I bring expertise in research and college access to support students on their journeys.”

Official data for 2022-23 records 8,500 Native American and Alaskan Native students in Michigan K-12 schools (0.59% of the total student population), but estimates suggest the actual number exceeds 27,000, as many multiracial students are underrepresented. These students also face the state’s second-lowest graduation rate of 71% and the highest dropout rate of 14%, according to the Michigan Department of Education.

To address these disparities, Michigan will begin collecting tribal affiliation data in 2024-25. This new approach aims to improve the accuracy of Native student representation, strengthen partnerships with tribal communities, and unlock federal funding to support Indigenous learners better​.

“We hope that universities can see this project—throughout Michigan and even more broadly—as a model for how we can better partner with Native communities,” said Kannan, now the current director of the collective. “We want to help Native students inform universities how to serve them better, and then universities reciprocally partner to support these students in their pathways.”

Gatherings for the soul

During the school year, the collective students gather biweekly at Native House on Lake Superior’s campus for cultural events, talking circles with tribal elders and community members, research workshops and community-building activities. By blending research, community support and cultural affirmation, the initiative fosters a meaningful space where Native youth can excel academically and personally, empowering the next generation of leaders.

Part of the program since day one, Jay Johnson, a junior at Sault Area High School, joined to learn more about her heritage and to participate in research that could benefit Native students.

“The program has given me a chance to connect with my Native identity, which I didn’t fully understand growing up,” she said. “I have been learning so much. My Indigenous name, Miigis, meaning ‘cowrie shell,’ holds deep cultural significance, which I discovered through participation in ceremonies and a deeper connection to my community’s traditions.”

Johnson has focused her efforts on studying the challenges Native students face in education. Her research examines tokenism, which she describes as a situation where individuals are included primarily for representation rather than their contributions.

“Being a Native student, it can feel like you are included just because representation is needed,” Johnson said. “It’s important for students to be valued for their skills and who they are as people.”

Johnson explores her identity through the Indigenous Education Youth Collective while fostering a supportive environment for Native students, encouraging understanding and deeper connections to personal histories and communities.

“I want students to see our value beyond academics or group affiliations,” she said. “Representation matters, but it shouldn’t define our entire identity.”

Do I belong here?

Kamryn Corbiere, a junior at Sault Area High School & Career Center, has been a part of the program since its beginning. She focuses on Native identity and the media’s portrayal of youth.

“Growing up, I attended a Native school, but I often felt like an outsider,” she said. “I’m not very dark, and many Native students struggle with feeling ‘not dark enough’ because the media rarely shows our diverse skin tones.”

The program has helped Corbiere connect with her Indigenous identity by exposing her to cultural experiences and opportunities, such as the Anishinaabe game of snow snake, ceremonies, powwows and fasting.

“And it is not just about the events,” she said. “I feel like I’ve connected better with people and it’s helped me accept that I am native, even if I don’t look like it.

“I want to educate others and publish my research to inspire the media to be more inclusive. Many kids grew up watching movies like Pocahontas or Peter Pan, where Native characters were portrayed in ways that didn’t reflect the depth or positivity of their cultures. Through my work, I hope to challenge those stereotypes and help create a more accurate and respectful representation.”

Narratives behind numbers point to need for better coordination, support by employers, communities, public health leaders in future crises, especially mental health

In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, University of Michigan researchers dug deeper into the numbers-only data of COVID-19-era suicides and evaluated the narratives contained in reports from coroners, medical examiners, police and vital statistics.

The researchers sought to understand how the crisis influenced suicide deaths in the first year of the pandemic, how the response by governments, employers and others influenced individuals, and if their handling could inform future public health responses.

“Our study adds much-needed context and meaning to the data that have assumed the deaths are linked to the pandemic strictly because of when they occurred,” said Briana Mezuk, professor of epidemiology at U-M’s School of Public Health and its Center for Social Epidemiology and Population Health.

“We felt it was important to delve into the narratives of these deaths, rather than using numbers alone, to learn what roles the pandemic and the public health response to the pandemic might have played in these lost lives.”

In looking at the deaths of individuals 10 years old and above, the researchers found that 6.8% of suicide deaths in 2020, representing 2,502 cases, described an aspect of the pandemic, and 20% had no known circumstances described in death reports.

“Although many individuals experienced heightened emotional distress during that time, and some had feared this would lead to greater suicide mortality in 2020, no overall increase materialized in most countries, including the U.S.,” said Kara Zivin, professor of psychiatry at Michigan Medicine and professor of health management and policy at the School of Public Health.

The study appeared in the PLoS One, Public Library for Science One, and was a collaboration between the School of Public Health, Department of Psychiatry in U-M’s Medical School, School of Information and Institute for Social Research Population Studies Center.

“Scientific studies have just begun to explore this data and the consequences of the pandemic using rigorous scientific studies, including population mental health,” said Mezuk, who is also co-director of Eisenberg Family Depression Center Data and Design Core.

“These narratives often contain information regarding circumstances in the decedent’s life that are salient to their death, including psychosocial factors such as recent difficulties in relationships, work or school, as well as mental and physical problems.”

In looking at the narratives, the researchers found that the reasons behind the suicides are complex and that mental health may have been overlooked as the crisis unfolded.

“We were able to describe a variety of pandemic-related circumstances that were present in the lives of suicide decedents at the time of their deaths,” Zivin said. “Although our study confirms prior work that the COVID-19 pandemic did not lead to an excess in suicide mortality in 2020, that does not mean that the pandemic wasn’t related, in some way, to the deaths that did occur that year.”

To unwind stories behind the deaths, the researchers used the CDC’s National Violent Death Reporting System, which compiles death reports and vital statistics and uses that information to write text narratives that describe the circumstances in the person’s life at the time of their death.

The registry fills an information gap in suicide mortality research, which typically has little access to information behind the numbers. The registry does not identify individuals by name or include details that would reveal identities. A time-series analyses examine how the timing of suicide deaths, over the calendar year, differed in 2020 compared to the pre-pandemic period.

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the U.S.

As the fifth anniversary of the official beginning of the pandemic in the U.S. approaches, Mezuk said she realizes that COVID fatigue may have caused the public to tune out.

“Maybe everyone has moved past COVID in some ways, myself included, but we still have much more to learn, especially to know what to do differently in times of future public health crises,” she said. “What we learned signals a need for empathetic public health.

“What happened in 2020, people being told you can’t go outside, you can’t see people outside your home, you can’t work for some. We have no precedent in living memory for this situation and how it affected people. What we do with that now and going forward is important. I hope our study can help contextualize suicide mortality during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and inform mental health promotion efforts during future public health emergencies.”