The economic returns of bonding and bridging social capital for immigrant men in Germany

Using longitudinal data, this paper analyses the effect of different forms of social capital on the likelihood of employment and the occupational status of first generation immigrant men in Germany. This allows me to examine to what extent social capital of the bonding and the bridging types yield different returns. The study considers how contacts with natives, co-ethnic ties and family-based social capital are beneficial to the economic position of immigrant men. Random effects and fixed effects models show that strong inter-ethnic ties are beneficial both for employment and occupational status. There is no effect of co-ethnic ties and family-based social capital. It is concluded that, when using panel data, bridging social capital contributes to a better economic position and bonding social capital does not.     

The Ethiopian community in Israel: Segregation and the creation of a racial cleavage

This study examines the processes that led to the creation of a segregated Ethiopian community in Israel and its implications for the development of a racially-based stratification system. Interviews with thirty Ethiopian immigrants reveal that ethnic ties played an important role in creating a segregated ethnic community. Many families were pushed to the neighbourhood by co-ethnic realtors or were influenced by relatives and friends who had already settled there. However, no ethnic networks were found in the domain of employment. This absence coupled with low human capital made joblessness an acute problem for many Ethiopian immigrants. Overall, Ethiopian immigrants’ high residential concentration was perceived as a barrier for the successful integration of the young generation. Considering Ethiopian immigrants’ lack of social and economic resources, there is concern that their segregation will be exacerbated in the future, leading to social marginalization and the creation of a racial cleavage in Israeli society.     

The intersection of social determinants of health,the microbiome,and health outcomes in immigrants: A scoping review

In the present scoping review, we explore whether existing evidence supports the premise that social determinants of health (SDoH) affect immigrant health outcomes through their effects on the microbiome. We adapt the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities' research framework to propose a conceptual model that considers the intersection of SDoH, the microbiome, and health outcomes in immigrants. We use this conceptual model as a lens through which to explore recent research about SDoH, biological factors associated with changes to immigrants' microbiomes, and long-term health outcomes. In the 17 articles reviewed, dietary acculturation, physical activity, ethnicity, birthplace, age at migration and length of time in the host country, socioeconomic status, and social/linguistic acculturation were important determinants of postmigration microbiome-related transformations. These factors are associated with progressive shifts in microbiome profile with time in host country, increasing the risks for cardiometabolic, mental, immune, and inflammatory disorders and antibiotic resistance. The evidence thus supports the premise that SDoH influence immigrants' health postmigration, at least in part, through their effects on the microbiome. Omission of important postmigration social-ecological variables (e.g., stress, racism, social/family relationships, and environment), limited research among minoritized subgroups of immigrants, complexity and inter- and intra-individual differences in the microbiome, and limited interdisciplinary and biosocial collaboration restrict our understanding of this area of study. To identify potential microbiome-based interventions and promote immigrants' well-being, more research is necessary to understand the intersections of immigrant health with factors from the biological, behavioral/psychosocial, physical/built environment, and sociocultural environment domains at all social-ecological levels.     

The social position of multiracial groups in the United States: evidence from residential segregation

I use multiple perspectives on the racial order in the United States to generate hypotheses about the social position of mixed-race groups. Perspectives that view the racial order as binary, ternary with an undifferentiated middle, or ternary with a stratified middle present different expectations for the social position of multiracial groups. I use a group's level of residential segregation as an index of social position. In 2000, multiracial persons lived in neighbourhoods that were more white than the neighbourhoods of single-race minorities, though more diverse than the neighbourhoods of whites. Thus, multiracial groups appear to occupy an intermediate social position relative to blacks and whites, a finding that supports contemporary arguments about shifting colour-lines in the United States and the emergence of a triracial system of stratification. Yet, findings also suggest that the social space between blacks and whites is, itself, racially stratified.     

Insights into the social life and obscure side of Scedosporium/Lomentospora species: ubiquitous,emerging and multidrug-resistant opportunistic pathogens

The undeniable relevance of fungal infections caused by both yeasts and molds has considerably augmented over the last four decades, becoming a serious health public problem in hospitals worldwide. In this scenario, several fungal species have emerged as human pathogens able to cause diseases in both immucompromised and immunocompetent individuals. In this context, species belonging to the Scedosporium and Lomentospora genera are awakening global attention due to their ubiquitous distribution in human-impacted environments, multidrug–resistance profile and ability to cause severe and debilitating illnesses, which culminate in laborious and meticulous medical care, substantial treatment costs and high (and unacceptable!) morbidity and mortality rates. Together, these reasons have been stimulating the international scientific community to take a hard work in order to circumvent these undesirable situations. In this way, the researchers are trying to decipher the main physiopathological events behind the successful capacity of Scedosporium/Lomentospora species to escape from host immune attacks and to resist the available chemotherapeutic treatment options. Therefore, in an attempt to add some pieces to this puzzle, the present review compiles the main published data on taxonomy, genomic, ecology, diagnosis, epidemiology, clinical manifestations, relevant clinic-epidemiological statistics/metrics, current treatment options, promising alternative therapeutic approaches, expression of virulence attributes, in vitro interaction with phagocytic and non-phagocytic cells, in vivo animal infections and host immune defenses in the Scedosporium/Lomentospora field.     

The evolution of social orienting: evidence from chicks (Gallus gallus) and human newborns

Background

Converging evidence from different species indicates that some newborn vertebrates, including humans, have visual predispositions to attend to the head region of animate creatures. It has been claimed that newborn preferences for faces are domain-relevant and similar in different species. One of the most common criticisms of the work supporting domain-relevant face biases in human newborns is that in most studies they already have several hours of visual experience when tested. This issue can be addressed by testing newly hatched face-naïve chicks (Gallus gallus) whose preferences can be assessed prior to any other visual experience with faces.

Methods

In the present study, for the first time, we test the prediction that both newly hatched chicks and human newborns will demonstrate similar preferences for face stimuli over spatial frequency matched structured noise. Chicks and babies were tested using identical stimuli for the two species. Chicks underwent a spontaneous preference task, in which they have to approach one of two stimuli simultaneously presented at the ends of a runway. Human newborns participated in a preferential looking task.

Results and Significance

We observed a significant preference for orienting toward the face stimulus in both species. Further, human newborns spent more time looking at the face stimulus, and chicks preferentially approached and stood near the face-stimulus. These results confirm the view that widely diverging vertebrates possess similar domain-relevant biases toward faces shortly after hatching or birth and provide a behavioural basis for a comparison with neuroimaging studies using similar stimuli.     

The role of social media in compensating for the lack of field studies: Five new fish species for Mediterranean Egypt

In the Mediterranean Sea, where biological invasions constitute a serious threat, the combination of citizen science and social networks amplified the power of proper field studies, recording species that would have otherwise presumably passed unnoticed. Based on data collected on several Facebook groups, we hereby first report the presence of five fish taxa (Kyphosus sp., Heniochus intermedius, Pomacanthus imperator, Pomacanthus maculosus and Abudefduf sp.) new for the Mediterranean Egypt, revise their distribution in the Mediterranean Sea and discuss their possible introduction pathways. Finally, we provide some considerations on the potentiality of social media for citizen science projects.     

The dark side of coloration: Ecogeographical evidence supports Gloger's rule in American marsupials

Geographical distribution of color phenotypes and associations with ecological predictors remains poorly understood. An important geographic pattern concerning this topic is Gloger's rule, which predicts the increase of pigmentation in endothermic animals from cold and dry to warm and wet environments. Didelphid marsupials exhibit a variety of color patterns, ranging from light and dark uniform to more complex colorations. However, surprisingly little is known about the adaptive significance of dark coloration in this singular group of mammals. Using a phylogenetic comparative approach, we investigated whether coloration in different body regions of didelphids (i.e., dorsum and face) is associated with variables representing heat and humidity of the environment, as predicted by Gloger's rule. We demonstrated that Gloger's rule explains the interspecific color variation in American marsupials, especially when considering the facial region. Thus, dark coloration was more frequent among didelphid species occupying warm and wet environments than cold and dry environments. We also discuss the selective forces that can potentially explain coat color variation in didelphid marsupials, including camouflage, pathogen resistance, and pleiotropy hypotheses.     

A view from the other side: the place of spirits in the Tongan social field

Spirits are part of everyday life in the Kingdom of Tonga. This study explores beliefs about the supernatural by analyzing discourse on spirits and death and by examining two examples of contemporary cultural practice related to spirits and death. The anthropological concepts of the body and its cultural construction and of thirdspace as a landscape of the Tongan islands that emerges out of the physical and the perceived provide the framework for this investigation. Research findings suggest that spirits participate in the natural order of Tongan society and thus serve to help maintain cultural identity in the face of uncertain social change and a popular but contested prodemocracy movement. Spirits also function as a system of representation, mirroring an image of an ideal self, something that is continually under negotiation. Encounters between spirits of ancestors and their living descendants suggest an uneasy acceptance of death and a sense of irony about its inevitability.     

The mobilization of the ethnic vote: A thesis with some Scottish and Welsh evidence*

This article provides a historical and comparative analysis of post‐imperial migrations of ethnic unmixing. It examines the post‐Soviet migration of ethnic Russians to Russia in the light of the migrations of other once‐dominant ‘new minorities’ engendered by transitions from multinational empire to incipient nation‐states: Balkan Muslims during and after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, Hungarians after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, and Germans after the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the German Kaiserreich.     

Indirect genetic effects and the genetic bases of social dominance: evidence from cattle

Genetic studies of social behaviour have currently received new impetus from models including indirect genetic effects (IGEs) of social partners. This study aimed at investigating the contribution of conspecifics in social dominance, considered as response of dyadic interaction that is, winning (dominant individual) or losing (subordinate). A genetic correlation of −1 is expected between the attitude to win and the attitude to loose, and because a population always accounts for half winners and half losers, the heritability of the dominant status should be close to zero. Specifically, social dominance was studied in Aosta Chestnut and Aosta Black Pied (Bos taurus) breeds, alpine rustic cattle famous for traditional tournaments where pairs of cows assess dominant status in bloodless fights. The outcomes of 25 590 dyadic interactions performed by 8159 individuals in 11 years were analysed by applying a classical quantitative model and models including indirect effects. Data were analysed via Bayesian approach on a threshold trait. The assessment of variances revealed a genetic correlation of −0.976 between direct and indirect genetic components. The heritability measured on a liability scale was 0.122 for direct phenotype, but decreased to 0.014 when the total heritable variance (TBV) was considered. The trend of estimated breeding values showed that the total TBV was constant over the years, even though its direct component increased and the indirect part decreased. This result confirms the relevance of IGEs on social behaviour and the assumption that the mean individual social dominance cannot evolve within a population, due to the evolutionary constraints imposed by the ‘social environment''.     

The persistence of race: continuity and change in Germany from the Wilhelmine empire to National Socialism

This article examines Greek-Cypriot teachers' constructions of Turkish-speaking children's identities in the Greek-Cypriot educational system. Drawing on interviews and classroom observations from a two-year ethnographic study conducted in three primary schools in the Republic of Cyprus, the author explores how Turkish-speaking children enrolled in these schools are racialized, ethnicized and classed within the dominant discourse of Greek-Cypriot teachers. The article discusses how the homogenized perceptions expressed by the majority of participating teachers in this study are illustrative of structural racism that reinforces these constructions in teaching practices. Yet, at the same time, resistance is present in the discourse and practice of a few teachers; this resistance is expressed through a counter-positioning of the ‘normal/ized’ identities of Turkish-speaking children. The author argues that without structural transformation, the fact and practice of racism/nationalism/classism will go unaltered in schools.     

The aggregation state of spin-labeled melittin in solution and bound to phospholipid membranes: evidence that membrane-bound melittin is monomeric

Spin-labeled derivatives of the bee venom protein, melittin, were obtained by reacting on the average one of the four amino groups of the protein with succinimidyl-2,2,5,5-tetramethyl-3-pyrroline-1-oxyl-3-carboxylate. All 16 statistically possible reaction products with 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 spin labels per protein were then separated in a single pass with reversed phase high performance liquid chromatography. With the help of trypsin digestion and diode array detection it was possible to assign the primary structure of all 16 eluting fractions. All fractions with only one spin label per protein were purified for electron paramagnetic resonance measurements. The labeling sites cover different regions of the protein: one is at the N-terminus, one at lysine-7, and two are near the C-terminus at lysine-21 and lysine-23, respectively. This set of specifically labeled melittins was used to study the structure and dynamics of melittin in aqueous solutions and when bound to neutral or negatively charged membranes. In aqueous solution a reduction in rotational correlation time and appearance of spin-spin interaction was observed during salt-induced transition from a random coil monomer to a mostly alpha-helical tetramer. Membrane binding to phospholipid bilayers in low or high ionic strength was reflected only in a further decrease in mobility. The absence of any spin interaction in the membrane-bound state suggests that melittin is monomeric under these conditions. All derivatives were able to detect these structural changes, but melittin labeled at the N-terminal amino group was especially valuable. Because of postulated intramolecular hydrogen bonding, this label reflects directly the motion of the entire protein or tetramer. Broadening experiments with chromium oxalate show that all labeled sites are at least partially exposed to the aqueous phase when melittin is bound to membranes. This suggests that an alpha-helical melittin monomer binds to membranes with its axis parallel to the membrane surface.     

The social determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence,prevention and recommendations

People exposed to more unfavourable social circumstances are more vulnerable to poor mental health over their life course, in ways that are often determined by structural factors which generate and perpetuate intergenerational cycles of disadvantage and poor health. Addressing these challenges is an imperative matter of social justice. In this paper we provide a roadmap to address the social determinants that cause mental ill health. Relying as far as possible on high-quality evidence, we first map out the literature that supports a causal link between social determinants and later mental health outcomes. Given the breadth of this topic, we focus on the most pervasive social determinants across the life course, and those that are common across major mental disorders. We draw primarily on the available evidence from the Global North, acknowledging that other global contexts will face both similar and unique sets of social determinants that will require equitable attention. Much of our evidence focuses on mental health in groups who are marginalized, and thus often exposed to a multitude of intersecting social risk factors. These groups include refugees, asylum seekers and displaced persons, as well as ethnoracial minoritized groups; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) groups; and those living in poverty. We then introduce a preventive framework for conceptualizing the link between social determinants and mental health and disorder, which can guide much needed primary prevention strategies capable of reducing inequalities and improving population mental health. Following this, we provide a review of the evidence concerning candidate preventive strategies to intervene on social determinants of mental health. These interventions fall broadly within the scope of universal, selected and indicated primary prevention strategies, but we also briefly review important secondary and tertiary strategies to promote recovery in those with existing mental disorders. Finally, we provide seven key recommendations, framed around social justice, which constitute a roadmap for action in research, policy and public health. Adoption of these recommendations would provide an opportunity to advance efforts to intervene on modifiable social determinants that affect population mental health.     

The multiplier effect: how the accumulation of cultural and social capital explains steep upward social mobility of children of low-educated immigrants

ABSTRACT

We introduce what we have coined the multiplier effect. We explain the steep upward mobility of children of low-educated immigrants by studying how they overcome obstacles on their regular pathway, via alternative routes or through loopholes in the education and labour market system. The idea of the multiplier effect is that they virtually propel themselves forward in their careers. Essential is that each successful step forward offers new possibilities on which they build, thereby accumulating cultural and social capital and multiplying their chances of success. Initial small differences with their less successful co-ethnic peers generate an increasingly wider gap over time. Cultural and social capital theories primarily explain the reproduction of inequalities in society. The multiplier effect explains the breaking of the perpetual cycle of this reproduction, enabling steep upward mobility even when this group does not initially possess the right cultural and social capital to be successful.     

The manipulation of ethnicity: from ethnic cooperation to violence and war in Yugoslavia

The story of the failure of bargaining among ethnic élites and of international diplomacy is well known. What has not been well explained is the spread and support for xenophobic nationalism and ethnic violence among people who had lived cooperatively for thirty-five years. I draw on key ideas of four views on ethnicity and ethnic conflict, and add the concept of cognitive frame in ethnic relations. Yugoslavs possessed two ethnic frames in their minds, an ethnic cooperation and peace frame for normal times, and a crisis frame anchored in World War II memories. Élite contention and mass media propaganda awakened the dormant crisis frame, suppressed the normal frame, and spread insecurity and fear. I explain why ethnic manipulation succeeded, people believed falsehoods, voted for nationalists, how moderates were purged and why men in militias killed innocent civilians.     

The dark side of the ring: role of the DNA sliding surface of PCNA

The proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) sliding clamp lies at the heart of the accurate duplication of eukaryotic genomes. While the outer surface of the PCNA ring interacts with polymerases and other factors, the role of the inner wall facing the DNA is elusive. Recent evidence shows that conserved basic residues in the PCNA central channel create a specific surface that recognizes the DNA backbone and enables the clamp to slide by rotationally tracking the DNA helix. The sliding surface can be modulated (i) through lysine acetylation, which triggers PCNA degradation during nucleotide excision repair (NER) and stimulates repair by homologous recombination (HR) or (ii) through binding of the protein factor p15^PAF, which turns off DNA lesion bypass. Thus, the inner surface of PCNA is unexpectedly highly regulated to control resistance to DNA damage. From a structural viewpoint, we reflect on these findings that open a new perspective on PCNA function and offer opportunities to develop tools to manipulate the DNA damage response in cancer treatment.