Nominal versus variable approaches for understanding group differences

ABSTRACT

What produces and sustains inequality in socioeconomic position and integration across immigrant groups? Luthra, Soehl and Waldinger engage with this core sociological question in their book “Origins and Destinations”. They argue that nominal approaches, which compare and contrast whole national origin groups, are insufficient. Rather, they implement a variable approach. They use data on second generation immigrants living in New York and Los Angeles in the late 1990s to explore empirically what it is about immigrant groups that confers advantages and disadvantages to their offspring in the United States. Rather than comparing whole groups, they use measured data about each group’s characteristics and circumstances to help explain group differences. I describe their innovative approach and provide suggestions for how future research might build on it, such as by accounting for more variation in the context of reception, or by extending the temporal dimensions of inquiry across three or more generations.     

Transdisciplinary research and clinical priorities for better health

Modern medicine makes it possible for many people to live with multiple chronic diseases for decades, but this has enormous social, financial, and environmental consequences. Preclinical, epidemiological, and clinical trial data have shown that many of the most common chronic diseases are largely preventable with nutritional and lifestyle interventions that are targeting well-characterized signaling pathways and the symbiotic relationship with our microbiome. Most of the research priorities and spending for health are focused on finding new molecular targets for the development of biotech and pharmaceutical products. Very little is invested in mechanism-based preventive science, medicine, and education. We believe that overly enthusiastic expectations regarding the benefits of pharmacological research for disease treatment have the potential to impact and distort not only medical research and practice but also environmental health and sustainable economic growth. Transitioning from a primarily disease-centered medical system to a balanced preventive and personalized treatment healthcare system is key to reduce social disparities in health and achieve financially sustainable, universal health coverage for all. In this Perspective article, we discuss a range of science-based strategies, policies, and structural reforms to design an entire new disease prevention–centered science, educational, and healthcare system that maximizes both human and environmental health.

Luigi Fontana and co-authors discuss present and future challenges, and possible solutions, for global health and health care provision.

Environmental degradation, global warming, and rising pollution are impairing planetary health even as lifestyle- and age-related chronic diseases and emerging infectious diseases are devastating human lives. These are among the greatest challenges facing society today, since people are living longer but often not healthier lives. More than 65% of people over 65 years have 2 or more chronic diseases [1,2]. The current epidemic of obesity, beginning in children, is laying the foundation for even greater problems in the near future, including a reduction in healthy life expectancy. Governmental health expenditure as a percentage of gross domestic product is expected to more than double by 2050, making many existing health funding models unsustainable [3]. Additionally, the present medical approach to chronic diseases in the United States and other affluent countries has vast consequences on planetary health and global economic development. In brief, this reactive “sick-care” medical system is not efficient, equitable, or even viable. Similar problems are now affecting low-income countries, where the epidemiological transition to noncommunicable diseases is coupled with a still high incidence of infectious diseases, dramatic environmental dilapidation, lack of medical resources, and limited support for social and health promotion activities, resulting in increasing inequalities and poverty.     

Three research priorities for just and sustainable urban systems: Now is the time to refocus

Now is the time to refocus efforts in urban research and design. A changing climate and extreme weather events are presenting unique challenges to urban systems around the world. These challenges illuminate the social barriers that accompany disruptive events such as resource inequities and injustices. In this perspective, we provide three research priorities for just and sustainable urban systems that help to address these matters. The three research priorities are: (1) social equity and justice, (2) circularity, and (3) digital twins. Conceptual context and future research directions are provided for each. For social equity and justice, the future directions are mandatory equity analysis and inclusionary practices, understanding and reconciling historical injustices, and intentional integration with diverse community stakeholders. For circularity applications, they are better metrics for integration, more robust evaluation frameworks, and dynamic modeling at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Future directions for digital twins include developing principles to reduce complexity, integrating model and system components, and reducing barriers to data access. These research priorities are core to meeting several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (i.e., 1—No Poverty, 8—Decent Work and Economic Growth, 10—Reduced Inequalities, and 11—Sustainable Cities and Communities). Useful social and technical matters are discussed throughout, where we highlight the importance of prioritizing localized research efforts, provide guidance for community-engaged research and co-development practices, and explain how these priorities interact to align with the evolving field of industrial ecology.     

Biosafety: future priorities for research in health care

Currently the public interest in biosafety issues has focussed on the discussions surrounding the use of genetically modified organisms, very specifically on the use of transgenic plants in agriculture. Although many of the questions raised in connection with genetically modified organisms are of legitimate scientific interest, attention should be drawn back to a number of other more classical biosafety research areas, namely the problem of control of new and reemerging infectious diseases, the need for new vaccines, control of transport and routes of dissemination, biosafety information exchange and networking, where research results are dearly needed. In the area of modern biotechnology new applications such as gene therapy and transgenic animals will be on the list of future priorities for biosafety related activities and research.     

A reliable whole cell clamp technique

This article describes a simple whole cell formation technique that the author invented in teaching and experiments. The implementation of the invented technique is a syringe with a hole and slot. With the newly invented technique, novices will shorten their learning curve and veterans will increase their success rate. The invented technique lightens the labor of the experimenter and improves the success rate and quality of whole cell preparations. The article also provides an idea to design an automated whole cell formation implementation. The tools developed in this technique make the patch-clamp experiment easy to teach and learn.     

Biofilm dispersal: deciding when it is better to travel

Bacteria live predominantly in biofilms, and the internal signal cyclic diguanylate (c‐di‐GMP) is a universal signal that governs the formation and the dispersal of these communities. Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one of the most important reference systems for studying bacterial biofilms and contains numerous diguanylate cyclases (DGCs) for synthesizing c‐di‐GMP and phosphodiesterases (PDEs) for degrading c‐di‐GMP. However, few studies have discerned how cells in biofilms respond to their environment to regulate c‐di‐GMP concentrations through this sophisticated network of enzymes. Basu Roy and Sauer (2014) provide insights on how cells disperse in response to an increase in nutrient levels. Their results show that the inner membrane protein NicD is a DGC that controls dispersal by sensing nutrient levels: when glutamate concentrations are increased, NicD is dephosphorylated, which increases c‐di‐GMP levels and leads to phosphorylation and processing of dispersal regulator BdlA. Processing of BdlA leads to activation of PDE DipA, which results in a net reduction of c‐di‐GMP and biofilm dispersal. These results suggest biofilm dispersal relies on surprisingly dynamic c‐di‐GMP concentrations as a result of a sophisticated interaction between DGCs and PDEs.     

Variance deficit is not reliable evidence for niche limitation

Variance deficit in the number of species per sampling unit, as compared to a null model with species occurring independently of each other has been considered by various authors to be evidence for niche limitation. I show that simpler mechanisms could explain this phenomenon. Of those, the competition of individuals for space limits the number of individuals per sampling unit, resulting in decrease of variance in species richness. Testing the proportions of species belonging to various guilds seems to be more ecologically interesting, although here also the variance deficit can hardly be taken as reliable evidence for niche limitation.     

Stakeholder survey reveals priorities for African boxthorn biocontrol research in Australia

ABSTRACT

Insufficient engagement with stakeholders and regulators has been identified as a limiting factor for effective adoption of biocontrol globally. A survey was conducted to engage stakeholders affected by African boxthorn, to ask them about their perceived impacts of the weed and management expectations from biocontrol. Management objectives gleaned from the survey now guide selection and evaluation of candidate biocontrol agents for African boxthorn in Australia. Surveys such as this are an inexpensive way to understand how biocontrol can most effectively intersect with stakeholder perceptions and management priorities, and are likely to facilitate the acceptance and adoption of biocontrol.     

Science priorities for seamounts: research links to conservation and management

Seamounts shape the topography of all ocean basins and can be hotspots of biological activity in the deep sea. The Census of Marine Life on Seamounts (CenSeam) was a field program that examined seamounts as part of the global Census of Marine Life (CoML) initiative from 2005 to 2010. CenSeam progressed seamount science by collating historical data, collecting new data, undertaking regional and global analyses of seamount biodiversity, mapping species and habitat distributions, challenging established paradigms of seamount ecology, developing new hypotheses, and documenting the impacts of human activities on seamounts. However, because of the large number of seamounts globally, much about the structure, function and connectivity of seamount ecosystems remains unexplored and unknown. Continual, and potentially increasing, threats to seamount resources from fishing and seabed mining are creating a pressing demand for research to inform conservation and management strategies. To meet this need, intensive science effort in the following areas will be needed: 1) Improved physical and biological data; of particular importance is information on seamount location, physical characteristics (e.g. habitat heterogeneity and complexity), more complete and intensive biodiversity inventories, and increased understanding of seamount connectivity and faunal dispersal; 2) New human impact data; these shall encompass better studies on the effects of human activities on seamount ecosystems, as well as monitoring long-term changes in seamount assemblages following impacts (e.g. recovery); 3) Global data repositories; there is a pressing need for more comprehensive fisheries catch and effort data, especially on the high seas, and compilation or maintenance of geological and biodiversity databases that underpin regional and global analyses; 4) Application of support tools in a data-poor environment; conservation and management will have to increasingly rely on predictive modelling techniques, critical evaluation of environmental surrogates as faunal "proxies", and ecological risk assessment.     

Setting priorities: is there a role for citizens' juries?

Citizens'' juries are an attempt to meaningfully involve members of the public in decisions which affect them in their own communities. The Institute for Public Policy Research and Cambridge and Huntingdon Health Authority have recently piloted the first jury in the United Kingdom. Sixteen jurors sat for four days, hearing evidence from a number of expert witnesses. The jurors were asked to consider how priorities for health care should be set, according to what criteria, and to what extent the public should be involved in this process. This pilot was also an attempt to assess the process itself, and our initial evaluation indicates that, given enough time and information, the public is willing and able to contribute to the debate about priority setting in health care.