Development of Transdisciplinarity Among Students Placed with a Sustainability for Health Research Project

Transdisciplinary education on sustainability for health has been primarily developed in high-income countries, yet the need in countries with limited research and human resource investments remains urgent. Little empiric documentation of the facilitators and barriers to transdisciplinary learning in such countries has been described. We assessed transdisciplinary learning among students of different disciplines collaborating with an Ecuadorian sustainability for health research project. Six undergraduate students from four different disciplinary backgrounds were incorporated through work–study agreements with provincial university academic supervisors. Learning was fostered and monitored through participant observations by a field supervisor. Students’ learning was evaluated through subsequent in-depth interviews and visualization methods. Academic supervisor key informant and co-investigator observations aided triangulation. Qualitative data were analyzed using indicators of transdisciplinary thinking. Principal factors facilitating transdisciplinary learning were interaction with social actors, the integration of work with other disciplines, the use of alternative research techniques and methods, and the constant support of the field supervisor. Inhibiting factors included the existence of rigid academic rules, lack of training of the academic supervisors in diverse research methods, and social pressures to implement unidisciplinary foci. At the end of their link with the project, students had developed both cognitive outcomes and attitudinal values relevant to sustainable development for health. In countries with limited investments in research and human resources development, transdisciplinary approaches with social actors and engaged researchers can sensitize new professionals training in traditional academic contexts to the ecological–social–health problems faced by poor majorities and encourage their subsequent work on sustainability for human health.     

Adapting to the Impacts of Climate Change on Food Security among Inuit in the Western Canadian Arctic

This study examined critical impacts of climate change on Inuit diet and nutritional health in four Inuit communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Western Arctic, Canada. The first objective was to combine data from community observation studies and dietary interview studies to determine potential climate change impacts on nutritional quality. The second objective was to address the scale of data collection and/or availability to compare local versus regional trends, and identify implications for adaptation planning. Information was compiled from 5 reports (4 community reports and 1 synthesis report) of climate change observations, impacts and adaptations in 12 Inuit communities (2005–2006), and from a dietary report of food use from 18 Inuit communities (1997–2000). Changing access to, availability of, quality of, and ability to use traditional food resources has implications for quality of diet. Nutritional implications of lower traditional food use include likely reductions in iron, zinc, protein, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids, among others. The vulnerability of each community to changing food security is differentially influenced by a range of factors, including current harvesting trends, levels of reliance on individual species, opportunities for access to other traditional food species, and exposure to climate change hazards. Understanding linkages between climate change and traditional food security provides a basis for strengthening adaptive capacity and determining effective adaptation options to respond to future change.     

Improving the dialogue between public health and ecosystem science on antimicrobial resistance

The concept of health has evolved markedly from a bio-medical, mechanistic model to include an interdisciplinary perspective where human, animal and ecosystem health are integrated. One Health, EcoHealth and Planetary Health are examples of approaches to health advocating collaboration and interdisciplinarity at multiple levels. In practice, successful integration has been challenging and in particular, understanding of the ecosystem component of health lags behind the human and animal components. Antimicrobial resistance is an important threat to human health, which develops, is maintained and transmitted at the human–animal–environment interface. While the human and livestock components of resistance are well understood, this is not the case for the ecosystem component. This gap in knowledge leads to a poor representation of the environmental dimension of antimicrobial resistance in key policy documents and in interdisciplinary work around this issue. We interviewed a group of leading researchers in public health and ecology to explore their perceptions on the integration of ecosystem and public health research in the context of antimicrobial resistance. Experts from both fields considered that research on antimicrobial resistance is only beginning to consider ecosystems. They highlighted various barriers that have contributed to limited integration, such as conceptual barriers, and a lack of knowledge translators as facilitators. Better interdisciplinary integration is needed to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance. Improving the dialogues between the disciplines is a necessary first step in this process. Greater engagement of ecologists is needed to build a more complete understanding of the role of ecosystems in human health, and identify how human interactions with ecosystems can both contribute to, and restrict, the development of antimicrobial resistance.     

Effects of global climate change on marine and estuarine fishes and fisheries

Global climate change is impacting and will continue to impact marine and estuarine fish and fisheries. Data trends show global climate change effects ranging from increased oxygen consumption rates in fishes, to changes in foraging and migrational patterns in polar seas, to fish community changes in bleached tropical coral reefs. Projections of future conditions portend further impacts on the distribution and abundance of fishes associated with relatively small temperature changes. Changing fish distributions and abundances will undoubtedly affect communities of humans who harvest these stocks. Coastal-based harvesters (subsistence, commercial, recreational) may be impacted (negatively or positively) by changes in fish stocks due to climate change. Furthermore, marine protected area boundaries, low-lying island countries dependent on coastal economies, and disease incidence (in aquatic organisms and humans) are also affected by a relatively small increase in temperature and sea level. Our interpretations of evidence include many uncertainties about the future of affected fish species and their harvesters. Therefore, there is a need to research the physiology and ecology of marine and estuarine fishes, particularly in the tropics where comparatively little research has been conducted. As a broader and deeper information base accumulates, researchers will be able to make more accurate predictions and forge relevant solutions.     

Complexity and Human Health: The Case for a Transdisciplinary Paradigm

Transdisciplinary thinking is an emerging philosophy underpinning health social science. We advance a definition of transdisciplinary thinking and link it with complexity theory. Complexity theory's concern with non-linear relationships, interactive causality and emergent properties of systems compels researchers to adopt a transdisciplinary perspective. We construct a generic framework for analyzing health processes from diverse disciplines and apply it to coronary heart disease in the Australian Coalfields. Insights from this analysis support our argument that transdisciplinary thinking maximizes understanding of the complexity of human health.     

Health at the Sub-catchment Scale: Typhoid and Its Environmental Determinants in Central Division,Fiji

EcoHealth - The impact of environmental change on transmission patterns of waterborne enteric diseases is a major public health concern. This study concerns the burden and spatial nature of enteric...     

A cross-cultural research experience: developing an appropriate methodology that respectfully incorporates both Indigenous and non-Indigenous knowledge systems

This paper engages with the methodology being used within a research project auditing concerns and aspirations in an impoverished Indigenous community in North West Australia. The community is in the heart of booming resource industries and it symbolizes the many challenges and opportunities for contemporary Australia. The paper advances the notion that social scientific research with Indigenous communities can be positioned not just as the result of consultation with the communities but as the authorized product of those communities. Although this adds to the complexity of the governing forces that impact on researchers, it also affords new possibilities for meaningful social change. If research starts with the proposition that social scientific research with Indigenous communities can be about what communities want to know, and finding out what they have to say, we may make more progress than by asking what needs to be done.     

Community engagement in global health research that advances health equity

Community engagement is gaining prominence in global health research. So far, a philosophical rationale for why researchers should perform community engagement during such research has not been provided by ethics scholars. Its absence means that conducting community engagement is still often viewed as no more than a ‘good idea’ or ‘good practice’ rather than ethically required. In this article, we argue that shared health governance can establish grounds for requiring the engagement of low‐ and middle‐income country (LMIC) community members in global health research, where such research aims to help reduce health disparities. This philosophical basis has important implications for the ethical goals ascribed to engagement and the approach adopted to undertake it. We suggest the ethical goals of engagement in equity‐oriented global health research should include: (a) generating research topics and questions that reflect the key problems disadvantaged groups face in accessing healthcare, services and broader social determinants of health and (b) promoting the translation of research findings into policy and practice in ways that benefit the health of disadvantaged groups. We propose engagement practice should have the following features: deliberation with LMIC community members to make a range of project decisions, beginning with setting research topics and questions; inclusion of members of disadvantaged groups and those with the power to change policy and practice to benefit them; and purposeful structuring of deliberations to minimize the impact of power disparities between LMIC community members. Finally, we reflect on how these features differ from those typical of much current community engagement practice in LMICs.     

Planning adaptation to climate change in fast-warming marine regions with seafood-dependent coastal communities

Many coastal communities rely on living marine resources for livelihoods and food security. These resources are commonly under stress from overfishing, pollution, coastal development and habitat degradation. Climate change is an additional stressor beginning to impact coastal systems and communities, but may also lead to opportunities for some species and the people they sustain. We describe the research approach for a multi-country project, focused on the southern hemisphere, designed to contribute to improving fishing community adaptation efforts by characterizing, assessing and predicting the future of coastal-marine food resources, and co-developing adaptation options through the provision and sharing of knowledge across fast-warming marine regions (i.e. marine ‘hotspots’). These hotspots represent natural laboratories for observing change and concomitant human adaptive responses, and for developing adaptation options and management strategies. Focusing on adaptation options and strategies for enhancing coastal resilience at the local level will contribute to capacity building and local empowerment in order to minimise negative outcomes and take advantage of opportunities arising from climate change. However, developing comparative approaches across regions that differ in political institutions, socio-economic community demographics, resource dependency and research capacity is challenging. Here, we describe physical, biological, social and governance tools to allow hotspot comparisons, and several methods to evaluate and enhance interactions within a multi-nation research team. Strong partnerships within and between the focal regions are critical to scientific and political support for development of effective approaches to reduce future vulnerability. Comparing these hotspot regions will enhance local adaptation responses and generate outcomes applicable to other regions.     

An EcoHealth Forum in London: Young Researchers Fill a Training Gap

Despite an increasing recognition that addressing complex problems requires transdisciplinary research, the shortage of formal training for how to conduct such research is a major bottleneck to future progress. In response to this training gap, a group of early career scientists in London created the London EcoHealth Forum. Now in its second year, the Forum has matured into a small but dedicated group that cultivates thought and learning about ecosystem approaches to health. This paper discusses the key challenges faced while setting up the group and how they were overcome. The paper also outlines the main activity of the group, a seminar series devoted to a specific topic—the overconsumption of meat in London—and suggests that this format may be a useful tool for others who wish to set up a similar organization or teaching program.     

Ancillary care in public health intervention research in low-resource settings: researchers' practices and decision-making

Little is known about researchers' practices regarding the provision of ancillary care (AC) in public health intervention studies they have conducted and the factors that influence their decisions about whether to provide ancillary care in low-resource settings. We conducted 52 in-person in-depth interviews with public health researchers. Data analysis was iterative and led to the identification of themes and patterns among themes. We found that researchers who conduct their research in the community setting are more likely to identify and plan for the AC needs of potential research subjects before a study begins, whereas those affiliated with a permanent facility are more likely to deliver AC to research subjects on an ad hoc basis. Our findings suggest that on the whole, at least for public health intervention research in low-resource settings, researchers conducting research in the community setting confront more complex ethical and operational challenges in their decision-making about AC than do researchers conducting facility-based studies.     

Hesitancy Toward a COVID-19 Vaccine

EcoHealth - The scientific community has come together in a mass mobilization to combat the public health risks of COVID-19, including efforts to develop a vaccine. However, the success of any...     

A changing climate for grassland research

Here, we review the current genetic approaches for grass improvement and their potential for the enhanced breeding of new varieties appropriate for a sustainable agriculture in a changing global climate. These generally out-breeding, perennial, self-incompatible species present unique challenges and opportunities for genetic analysis. We emphasise their distinctiveness from model species and from the in-breeding, annual cereals. We describe the modern genetic approaches appropriate for their analysis, including association mapping. Sustainability traits discussed here include stress resistance (drought, cold and pathogeneses) and favourable agronomic characters (nutrient use efficiency, carbohydrate content, fatty acid content, winter survival, flowering time and biomass yield). Global warming will predictably affect temperature-sensitive traits such as vernalisation, and these traits are under investigation. Grass biomass utilisation for carbon-neutral energy generation may contribute to reduced atmospheric carbon emissions. Because the wider potential outcomes of climate change are unpredictable, breeders must be reactive to events and have a range of well-characterised germplasm available for new applications.     

应对全球气候变化的昆虫学研究

大气二氧化碳浓度升高、温度上升、降雨分布不均、灾害性天气出现频次增加等全球气候变化,深刻改变着农林生态系统昆虫群落的组成结构、功能和演替,使昆虫分布区域扩大、发生世代增多、生态适应性变异,从而影响了原有的植物-害虫-天敌间内在联系和各营养层间的固有平衡格局,最终导致一些害虫暴发成灾,一些昆虫种群数量下降,甚至一些昆虫物...     

How can health service users contribute to the NHS research and development programme?

The National Childbirth Trust, along with other groups of health service users, is working with health professionals and researchers in planning clinical trials, setting priorities for research, systematically reviewing research reports, and getting research findings into practice. User groups may bridge the gap between the public and researchers by explaining research issues to a wide audience, presenting the needs and views of health service users to the research community, and suggesting how members of the public may be approached for their views directly. Service users recognise their need for training and support, and they call for development and evaluation of this work.     

Aquatic hyphomycetes in a changing environment

In 1942, Ingold documented an ecologically defined group of fungi, aquatic hyphomycetes, on autumn-shed leaves decaying in streams. They were shown to be vital intermediaries between the nutritionally poor leaf substratum and leaf-eating invertebrates. Research has subsequently emphasized functional aspects such as leaf decomposition and nutritional conditioning by fungi. Structural aspects (community composition) have attracted less attention, partly because of the difficulties of identifying fungal mycelia in situ. Extraction, amplification (PCR, qPCR) and characterization of DNA and RNA, and, more recently, of proteins, allow much greater insights into the presence of fungal taxa, their metabolic status (dead, dormant or active), and their potential and actual participation in decomposition processes. This approach can yield huge amounts of data, and major challenges today are the development and application of suitable bioinformatics techniques. The complexity of data collection and evaluation favour interdisciplinary teams of researchers. Fungi are major players in most ecosystems and are increasingly affected by human impacts. Changing land use, eutrophication/pollution and climate change are among the major factors that affect diversity and ecological functions of aquatic hyphomycetes.     

Using Community-Based Participatory Research Principles to Develop More Understandable Recruitment and Informed Consent Documents in Genomic Research

BackgroundHeart Healthy Lenoir is a transdisciplinary project aimed at creating long-term, sustainable approaches to reduce cardiovascular disease risk disparities in Lenoir County, North Carolina using a design spanning genomic analysis and clinical intervention. We hypothesized that residents of Lenoir County would be unfamiliar and mistrustful of genomic research, and therefore reluctant to participate; additionally, these feelings would be higher in African-Americans.MethodologyTo test our hypothesis, we conducted qualitative research using community-based participatory research principles to ensure our genomic research strategies addressed the needs, priorities, and concerns of the community. African-American (n = 19) and White (n = 16) adults in Lenoir County participated in four focus groups exploring perceptions about genomics and cardiovascular disease. Demographic surveys were administered and a semi-structured interview guide was used to facilitate discussions. The discussions were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed in ATLAS.ti.

Results and Significance

From our analysis, key themes emerged: transparent communication, privacy, participation incentives and barriers, knowledge, and the impact of knowing. African-Americans were more concerned about privacy and community impact compared to Whites, however, African-Americans were still eager to participate in our genomic research project. The results from our formative study were used to improve the informed consent and recruitment processes by: 1) reducing misconceptions of genomic studies; and 2) helping to foster participant understanding and trust with the researchers. Our study demonstrates how community-based participatory research principles can be used to gain deeper insight into the community and increase participation in genomic research studies. Due in part to these efforts 80.3% of eligible African-American participants and 86.9% of eligible White participants enrolled in the Heart Healthy Lenoir Genomics study making our overall enrollment 57.8% African-American. Future research will investigate return of genomic results in the Lenoir community.     

Mosquito-borne disease and climate change in Australia: time for a reality check

Will warming climate increase the risk or prevalence of mosquito-borne disease in Australia, as has been projected in a number of scientific publications and governmental reports? Unfortunately, most of these 'predictions' do not adequately consider the current and historical distribution of the vectors and diseases, their local ecology and epidemiology and the impact of societal features and the capacity for public health interventions in Australia. Overall, a strong case can be made that we are unlikely to see significant changes in the distribution of transmission of the exotic pathogens causing malaria and dengue, and while activity of endemic arboviruses such as Murray Valley encephalitis and Ross River viruses may possibly increase in some areas, it is likely to decrease in others. The ecologies of mosquito-borne diseases can be complex and difficult to predict, and any evaluation of potential effects of changes in climate will need a detailed examination of site-specific vector, host and other factors likely to influence the outcomes on human health. Of itself, climate change as currently projected, is not likely to provide great cause for public health concern with mosquito-borne disease in Australia.