It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, March 02, 2023
A bridge between hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of flax fiber: A breakthrough in the multipurpose oil-water separation field
The large number of oily wastewater discharges and oil spills are bringing about severe threats to environment and human health. Corresponding to this challenge, a number of functional materials have been developed and applied in oil-water separation as oil barriers or oil sorbents. These materials can be divided into two main categories which are artificial and natural.
Natural materials such as green bio-materials are generally low cost and abundant with biological degradability, which are also regarded as promising alternatives for oil-water separation and have been paid increasing attention. Many kinds of biomass materials, such as cotton fabrics, plant fibers, and kapoks, had been used for oil-water separation. To further improve the oil-water separation performances of biomass materials, many of them were artificially coated a functional layer with special wettability on their surfaces. However, these modified flax fibers merely have either hydrophobic or hydrophilic property, without the ability of switching between each other (or switchable wettability). Such a limitation may hinder their practical applications in oil-water separation. Functional flax fibers with switchable surface wettability are thus desired.
In this study, the researchers from University of Calgary, University of Regina, Concordia University, Canadian Light Source and McElhanney Inc. aimed to develop a functional flax fiber with switchable wettability for multipurpose oil-water separation. The flax fiber was coated with ZnO-hexadecyltrimethoxysilane (HDTMS) nanocomposites through a plasma-grafted poly (acrylic acid) (PAA) layer which acted as the binding agent. The as-prepared PAA-ZnO-HDTMS flax fiber was hydrophobic initially and could be switched to hydrophilic through UV irradiation. Its hydrophobicity could be easily recovered through being stored in dark environment for several days without UV irradiation. This study entitled “Functional flax fiber with UV-induced switchable wettability for multipurpose oil-water separation” is published online in Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineeringin 2022.
To optimize the performance of the PAA-ZnO-HDTMS flax fiber, the effects of ZnO and HDTMS concentrations on its switchable wettability were investigated. The developed PAA-ZnO-HDTMS flax fiber was comprehensively characterized through contact-angle measurement, SEM imaging, and synchrotron-based FTIR and X-ray analyses. The optimized PAA-ZnO-HDTMS flax fiber had a large water contact angle (~130°) in air and an extremely small oil contact angle (~0°) underwater initially. After UV treatment, the water contact angle was decreased to 30°, while the underwater oil contact angle was increased to more than 150°.
The mechanism of the acquired UV-induced switchable wettability was investigated. It could be concluded that the ZnO-HDTMS nanocomposites immobilized to the flax fiber surface endowed the UV-induced switchable wettability to the asprepared PAA-ZnO-HDTMS flax fiber. During the modification process, the silanol groups of HDTMS bonded with hydroxyl groups on the surfaces of flax fiber and ZnO NPs. Thus, the alkyl groups of HDTMS exposed on the surface of the fresh PAA-ZnO-HDTMS flax fiber, thus the flax fiber exhibited hydrophobic property. Nano-ZnO as a photo-responsive semiconducting material, electronhole pairs could be generated on its surface during UV irradiation. These holes could interact with the lattice oxygen of nano-ZnO to produce oxygen vacancies, which could then adsorb the surrounding water in the atmosphere to generate hydroxyl groups. These hydroxyl groups changed the surface property of modified flax fiber from hydrophobicity to hydrophilicity. When the PAA-ZnOHDTMS flax fibers were stored in a dark environment, ambient oxygen could replace the hydroxyl groups, reconverting the flax fiber surface from hydrophilic to hydrophobic.
Based on this UV-induced switchable wettability, the developed PAA-ZnO-HDTMS flax fiber was applied to remove oil from immiscible oil-water mixtures and oil-in-water emulsion with great reusability for multiple cycles. Thus, the developed flax fiber could be further fabricated into oil barrier or oil sorbent for oil-water separation, which could be an environmentally-friendly alternative in oil spill response and oily wastewater treatment.
A bridge between hydrophobicity and hydrophilicity of flax fiber: a breakthrough in the multipurpose oil-water separation field
Founded in May 1954, Higher Education Press Limited Company (HEP), affiliated with the Ministry of Education, is one of the earliest institutions committed to educational publishing after the establishment of P. R. China in 1949. After striving for six decades, HEP has developed into a major comprehensive publisher, with products in various forms and at different levels. Both for import and export, HEP has been striving to fill in the gap of domestic and foreign markets and meet the demand of global customers by collaborating with more than 200 partners throughout the world and selling products and services in 32 languages globally. Now, HEP ranks among China's top publishers in terms of copyright export volume and the world's top 50 largest publishing enterprises in terms of comprehensive strength.
The Frontiers Journals series published by HEP includes 28 English academic journals, covering the largest academic fields in China at present. Among the series, 13 have been indexed by SCI, 6 by EI, 2 by MEDLINE, 1 by A&HCI. HEP's academic monographs have won about 300 different kinds of publishing funds and awards both at home and abroad.
About Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering
Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering (FESE) is the leading edge forum for peer-reviewed original submissions in English on all main branches of environmental disciplines. FESE welcomes original research papers, review articles, short communications, and views & comments. All the papers will be published within 6 months since they are submitted. The Editors-in-Chief are Prof. Jiuhui Qu from Tsinghua University, and Prof. John C. Crittenden from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA. The journal has been indexed by almost all the authoritative databases such as SCI, Ei, INSPEC, SCOPUS, CSCD, etc.
IMAGE: DR ANITA RADINI, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLINview more
CREDIT: JASON CLARKE PHOTOGRAPHY
The Dan David Prize, the largest history prize in the world, has announced University College Dublin (UCD) Archaeologist, Dr Anita Radini, as one of nine recipients for 2023.
Each of the winners - who work in Kenya, Denmark, Israel, Canada, the US and Ireland - will receive $300,000 (USD) in recognition of their achievements as emerging scholars and to support their future endeavours in the study of the human past. Dr Radini is the first in Ireland to receive this award.
“Our winners represent the next generation of historians,” said Ariel David, board member of the Prize and son of the late founder. “They are changing our understanding of the past by asking new questions, targeting under-researched topics and using innovative methods. Many of the winners we are recognising today are in the early stages of their careers, but they have already challenged how we think about history. Understanding the past, in all its complexity, is critical to illuminating the present and confronting the challenges of the future.”
Dan David, the founder of the Prize, believed that knowledge of the past enriches us and helps us grapple with the challenges of the present. David lived through persecution in Nazi-occupied and then Communist Romania, becoming an accomplished photographer and later an entrepreneur and philanthropist.
The Dan David Prize Selection Committee said: “Anita Radini is developing novel techniques to track the artists and craftspeople of ancient times by their skeletal remains. In addition, Radini studies the elements present in dental calculus in order to obtain data on diet, activities and health. This is a radically pioneering line of research with extraordinary potential to answer fundamental questions about the lifestyles and environmental contexts of past populations. Radini’s multi-disciplinary approach to past diet, environment and health has important implications for society today.”
Professor Orla Feely, UCD Vice-President for Research, Innovation and Impact and incoming University President said: "I congratulate Dr Anita Radini on this very prestigious award. It is wonderful to see a UCD archaeologist recognised on such a global and high-profile platform. We are very proud of Anita's research and I look forward to seeing it continue to flourish."
While we may be familiar with ancient monuments and artwork that exemplify ancient craft skills, the crafters themselves often remain invisible. An Archaeological Scientist and Human Palaeoecologist at UCD School of Archaeology, Dr Radini analyses the tiny remains of dust in dental plaque on ancient people’s teeth to uncover more about their lives.
“Multiple aspects of an individual’s life history are preserved in their teeth for millennia.” Radini said. “These people were exposed to particular kinds of dirt when practising their crafts - wood carving, traditional leather work, fabric dyeing, etc. By approaching the human mouth as a ‘depositional environment’ and using Experimental Archaeology, we can reveal more about who they were and the conditions they worked in.”
In 2019, a unique discovery by Dr Radini and her colleagues helped to illuminate the role of women in mediaeval crafts and to challenge the widespread assumption that male monks were the sole producers of books in the Middle Ages. The team identified particles of blue pigments in the dental plaque of a mediaeval woman’s remains as lapis lazuli, a stone more precious than gold at the time. These findings were the first to provide direct archaeological evidence from skeletal remains that women were involved in illustrating mediaeval manuscripts.
The study suggested potential to track other “dusty” crafts and reveal the invisible workforce behind many ancient forms of art. Dr Radini is currently developing novel methodologies to understand exposure to dirt and pollution and their links to health in past populations.
”Our knowledge of occupational health in ancient times is limited by paucity of historical texts and lack of specific markers on ancient skeletal remains. My research aims to push the boundaries of how we approach labour division, by exploring health impacts and inequalities in past societies I believe we can gain valuable insights for our modern world. Dust entrapped in teeth, combined with demographic (age/sex) and other osteoarchaeological parameters, can reveal many unknown aspects of past lives.”
The significant Dan David Prize fund will help Dr Radini to expand her work in this field and to create a better understanding of how labour division and crafts affect health through time.
“I am thrilled to receive this prize and deeply honoured to be recognised among leading scholars of the human past from all over the world. I am particularly delighted to see the great diversity of studies and people that were awarded the prize.”
Projects from this year’s Dan David Prize recipients include a virtual reality tour of mediaeval Angkor Wat and a digital archive of disappearing architecture in Kenya, as well as explorations of interfaith rifts after the Holocaust, illicit sexuality in colonial Nigeria and white women’s complicity in slave ownership in the US South.
All nine winners for 2023 will be honoured at the Dan David Prize Award Ceremony in Tel Aviv this May. The recipients were selected from hundreds of nominations submitted by colleagues, institutions and the general public in a worldwide open nomination process.
The vital role school nurses can play in addressing the rising number of eating disorders among children and young people has been outlined by a Kingston University student in a leading nursing journal.
Third year children's nursing student Emmie Hopkinson's evidence and practice article in Nursing Children and Young People has drawn on current research and her own clinical experience from placements to provide recommendations for the profession that could inform delivery of care.
Her article reflects on some of the most common types of eating disorders – defined as a mental illness by The National Institute of Mental Health – including anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder.
Drawing on data from NHS England, she highlighted how there had been a 185 per cent increase in eating disorder diagnoses in children and young people between 2016 and 2022, and explored some of the factors that may have contributed to this rise.
"There is an urgent need to address the lack of early intervention, prevention and accessibility to help young people living with eating disorders and those who may potentially develop eating disorders," she said.
The impact of the Covid-19 on people's mental health had let to almost double the number of urgent and routine referrals to children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in 2021, Emmie explained. She also set out how the school nurse had an important role to play in supporting prevention and early intervention for eating disorders, with limited education of these conditions in schools found to be a possible contributing factor.
"The school nurse, who is already skilled in identifying these issues, can help by advocating for regular sessions on mental health to be implemented into the curriculum," she said. "They can educate teachers on some of the misconceptions around eating disorders and how best to approach and support a child and young person who may be going through diagnosis or treatment."
Highlighting research into the negative impact social media can have on body image, Emmie detailed changes she believed could help decrease the risk of young people developing eating disorders.
"Implementing positive changes such as greater restrictions on the age limit to join social media and preventing the use of photo manipulation and filters could make these platforms safer for children and young people to use," she said.
Within the article, the 25 year old student set out some of the barriers to accessing children and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and early intervention services. Citing a need for further funding, she also explored regional differences in the number of young people being diagnosed with eating disorders in recent years, referencing research that found those from a low socioeconomic status or ethnic minority background were less likely to be identified.
Associate Professor in children's nursing at Kingston University and Emmie's personal tutor, Zoe Clark, said the nursing student was raising awareness of an important public health issue and the challenges children and young people face in accessing support and treatment. "Emmie is making a valuable contribution to the increasingly complex challenges around eating disorder treatment and support which could help educate nurses who are not necessarily trained in dealing with these issues," she said.
Emmie is one of 55 students around the country currently enrolled in the Council of Dean of Health's Student Leadership programme, which supports students to develop leadership skills and become advocates in their respective fields. The scheme pairs students with academic mentors, outside of their respective university and from across the country.
Julia Petty, senior lecturer in children's nursing at the University of Hertfordshire, who is Emmie's mentor and worked with her on the article, praised her dedication to children's nursing. "This is a very important health topic that requires attention," she said. "Emmie has demonstrated exemplary leadership as a student nurse by increasing public knowledge and understanding of these serious, life-threatening conditions to a wide range of audiences."
IMAGE: THE WAY YOU USE GIFS MEANS MORE THAN YOU MIGHT REALIZE, ACCORDING TO NEW RESEARCH FROM BYU.view more
CREDIT: NATE EDWARDS, BYU PHOTO
When you get a text from a friend, is your immediate reaction to reply with a GIF? Do you know which GIF to send, or do you begin to scroll, searching for the perfect one? If so, it may mean more than you realize, according to researchers at BYU.
GIF use has become increasingly common — even among older generations — as people realize how effectively they communicate humor, allow users to express themselves, and maintain relationships. BYU communications professor Scott Church said even though people don’t think much about their GIF usage, understanding them and how we use them can help us better understand ourselves and how we communicate in today's media environment.
According to a new study by Church and a team of BYU coauthors, GIF users fall into one of three categories: GIF Enthusiasts, Searchers, or Referentialists. Read on to find out what kind of GIF user you are, and what it says about you.
GIF Enthusiasts
GIF Enthusiasts are those who are savvy in internet culture, Church says, those who know GIFs well and enjoy using them to make others laugh. Enthusiasts see GIFs as a meaningful way to express themselves and like to impress others with their knowledge and familiarity with GIFs.
Enthusiasts love the emotion GIFs allow them to express through text, and understand they are a richer form of media than emojis or pictures. They are mainly motivated by the communicative potential of GIFs, and that motivation comes from focusing on the social benefits of sending GIFs.
“I hate that my body language cannot be expressed through texting; too much of our communication is lost,” said one GIF Enthusiast from this study. “I think GIFs help bring restore a bit of what is lost.”
Enthusiasts are also well-versed in internet culture, and often want to be recognized as such. Emojis can seem stagnant and overused; to avoid the same thing happening with their own GIFs, enthusiasts stay updated on which GIFs are popular and relatable.
Searchers
For Searchers, it’s all about the “thrill of the hunt,” searching for that one perfect GIF. Each situation is unique, and they like to find the GIF that exactly matches what they want to express.
One participant said, “A friend will do something and then I’ll find one that shows what they did.”
Searchers see GIFs as a humorous and lighthearted form of communication and avoid using them to discuss genuine or serious topics. They prefer quick, easy-to-watch, GIFs and don’t think romantic or long GIFs are worth their time. Searchers often enjoy scrolling to find the ideal GIF, viewing it as a challenge, often resulting in obscure GIFs that complement a situation perfectly.
Referentialists
Referentialists are usually involved in pop culture and dislike having to search for GIFs. They are much more likely to use GIFs as a response to a GIF they were sent because it references a common interest such as a TV show or popular meme.
One Referentialist said, “I love using pop culture... it’s kind of like an inside joke,” while another said, “If there’s someone who likes to use GIFs, I try to reciprocate that... to match their style.”
Referentialists often use fandom-specific GIFs, as that helps them avoid the process of searching for GIFs and potentially gives them ways to relate to their audience. They often send GIFs out of social obligation, a reciprocation for one they were sent, and assume that their friends will find it more fun if it is connected to a funny TV show or game.
Referentialists also send GIFs as a method to avoid awkwardness.
“Sometimes people say things that are awkward or in poor taste,” said one study participant. “You don’t really want to respond, but you have the obligation to. So, a GIF is a funny, semi-sarcastic way of responding to it. And it can help divert the situation.”
Most firearm owners keep at least one firearm unlocked, with some viewing gun locks as an unnecessary obstacle to quick access in an emergency, according to a Rutgers study. But when they do lock their firearms, Rutgers researchers found that firearm owners are most likely to use gun safes.
In a study published in JAMA Network Open and funded by the Defense Health Agency,researchers surveyed a national sample of 2,152 English-speaking adult firearm owners, asking them what locking devices they used and why.
Unlike previous studies, participants were presented with both words and images describing each type of locking device. The researchers not only examined different types of locking devices, like gun safes and cable locks but also different types of locking mechanisms. This resulted in a more detailed description of the firearm storage practices of firearm owners in the United States.
Despite evidence that securely stored firearms can help prevent firearm injury and death, the authors found 58.3 percent of firearm owners store at least one firearm unlocked and hidden and 17.9 percent store at least one firearm unlocked and unhidden. Among those who store at least one firearm locked, gun safes are the most frequently used type of option both for devices opened by key, PIN code or dial lock (32.4 percent) and biometric devices (15.6 percent).
“These finding highlight two key points,” said Michael Anestis, executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers, an associate professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and the lead author of the study. “First, it appears firearm owners prefer gun safes relative to cable locks and trigger locks. Most locking device distribution programs provide cable locks and trigger locks, so those programs might be mismatched to firearm owner preferences. Second, very few firearm owners use biometric locks, which could indicate that cost is an issue or that firearm owners do not trust the technology to work when needed.”
Among those who don’t lock their firearms, the most common reasons were a belief that locks are unnecessary (49.3 percent) and that locks will prevent quick access in an emergency (44.8 percent). On the other hand, firearm owners most frequently indicated they would consider locking unlocked firearms to prevent access by a child (48.5 percent), to prevent theft (36.9 percent) and to prevent access by an adolescent or teenager (36.7 percent).
“Given these results, it appears that increasing the use of secure firearm storage will require several things,” Anestis said. “First, to address motivation we need to address disproportionate fears regarding the likelihood of armed home invasions. Similarly, we need to help the public better understand the risks associated with having firearms in the home – above and beyond the risk of unauthorized access by children. Second, we need to create more ready and equitable access to gun safes so that the available locking options align better with the preferences of firearm owners.”
Assessment of firearm storage practices in the US, 2022
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
2-Mar-2023
Genomic study of indigenous Africans paints complex picture of human origins and local adaptation
An international team of researchers led by Penn geneticists sequenced the genomes of 180 indigenous Africans. The results shed light on the origin of modern humans, African population history, and local adaptation.
IMAGE: WITH THE HELP OF A LOCAL TRANSLATOR, SIMON THOMPSON (IN BLUE PLAID SHIRT) FROM SARAH TISHKOFF’S LAB AND DAWIT WOLDE-MESKEL (IN YELLOW SHIRT), A COLLABORATOR FROM ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY, EXPLAIN THE RESEARCH PROJECT ON AFRICAN POPULATION GENETICS TO THE ARGOBBA POPULATION IN ETHIOPIA. NEW FINDINGS FROM A STUDY OF 12 DIVERSE GROUPS IN AFRICA SHED NEW LIGHT ON THE ORIGIN OF MODERN HUMANS, ANCIENT AND MORE RECENT MIGRATIONS, AND LOCAL ADAPTATION.view more
CREDIT: COURTESY OF THE TISHKOFF LABORATORY
Africa, where humans first evolved, today remains a place of remarkable diversity. Diving into that variation, a new analysis of 180 indigenous Africans from a dozen ethnically, culturally, geographically, and linguistically varied populations by an international scientific team offers new insights into human history and biology, and may inform precision medicine approaches of the future.
The work clarifies human migration histories, both historical and more recent, and provides genetic evidence of adaptation to local environments, manifested through traits such as skin color, heart and kidney development, immunity, and bone growth.
The findings, published in the journal Cell and led by University of Pennsylvania researchers, also have implications for understanding health conditions common in people of African ancestry. And, because African populations have been underrepresented in genomic studies, the investigation significantly expands what is known about human genetic diversity. The investigation turns up millions of new genomic variants known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs)—differences in one “letter” of the DNA sequence—including many that appear to play roles in health, laying the groundwork for a broader swath of people to benefit from precision medicine based on individual differences.
“There is a lack of knowledge about genomic variation in African populations, particularly in ethnically diverse populations,” says Sarah Tishkoff, a Penn Integrates Knowledge University professor at Penn and senior author on the work. “We focus on populations who practice more traditional lifestyles, live in remote areas that can be difficult to access, and some of whom have never been studied from this perspective before.”
Origins and migrations
Researchers obtained complete genome sequences for 180 individuals—15 from each of 12 indigenous populations. The study is the first to perform rigorous whole-genome sequencing of such a genetically diverse mix of African groups.
The 12 populations practice, or practiced until recently, traditional livelihoods: farming, livestock herding, or hunting and gathering. Together, they include representatives from each of the four different language families present in Africa: Afroasiatic, Nilo-Saharan, Niger-Congo, and Khoesan.
Placing the new genome sequences from these African populations in context with other, previously sequenced genomes from populations across the globe, the research team crafted a worldwide family tree.
“Inferring African demographic history is very challenging because the history is so complex,” Tishkoff says. “But, with our models, based on shared patterns of genomic variation, you can infer when populations shared a common ancestor, even when accounting for gene flow—populations migrating in and out and interbreeding.”
When the team allowed for gene flow in their models, they found that the southern African Khoesan-speaking group, the San, as well as Central African, rainforest-dwelling hunter-gatherers appeared at the root of the tree. “That’s a very novel result,” Tishkoff says. Previous analyses had pointed to only the San as descending from the most ancient populations.
They also found that the San and Central Africa hunter-gatherer groups split from one another, and from other known populations, more than 200,000 years ago.
Population ancestry models turned up evidence of a now-extinct “ghost” population that may have intermixed with other groups at the time. “We don’t have ancient DNA from fossils because they don’t preserve well in an African environment, but one explanation is there could have been mixing with an archaic population,” Tishkoff says.
The findings add support to linguistics-backed theories of population structure. Linguists have debated whether Khoesan-speaking groups—whose languages share click consonants but are highly distinct in their other features—were truly closely related. According to genomic results, though these groups diverged tens of thousands of years ago, there is evidence that all of them may have shared a common origin in East Africa, and shared more recent gene flow, during the last 10,000 years.
“What we propose is that there may have been an East African origin for these click-speaking groups, and maybe even the rainforest hunter-gatherers as well, though they’ve since lost their original language and adopted the language of the neighboring Bantu-speaking populations,” says Tishkoff. “The groups may have split in different directions, with the Hadza and the Sandawe (Khoesan speakers from Tanzania) staying local and the San (Khoesan speakers from Botswana) moving south.” However, analysis of modern and ancient DNA indicates that there has been gene flow between the ancestors of the Hadza and Sandawe and the ancestors of the San, which could potentially explain some similarities in their language.
Newly understood human genetic diversity
The newly sequenced genomes identified 32 million SNPs, including more than 5 million that had never before been cataloged.
“The 32 million SNPs that were analyzed have just shed a new light on the importance of extending genetic studies in regions that have been previously marginalized around the globe,” says study co-author Thomas B. Nyambo of Kampala International University in Tanzania. “This is the way forward in the elucidation of evolutionary trends and their implication in tailored diagnostics and therapeutics.”
When the research team cross-referenced the previously identified SNPs with those in a widely used database used for clinical studies, they discovered many of the variants found in the African individuals in the study had been classified as pathogenic.
“This does not mean African populations have more ‘pathogenic’ variants,” says Shaohua Fan, a lead study author who completed a postdoc at Penn and is now at China’s Fudan University. “Rather, it emphasizes a strong need to include ethnically diverse populations in human genetic studies, especially because rarity is one criteria for determining a variant’s pathogenicity in clinical studies.”
In other words, some of these variants may have been miscategorized as associated with disease only because they were so uncommon in other populations, such as Europeans, which dominate these clinical databases.
“Comprehensively assessing genetic variants has been used as a strategy to study human disease and provides tremendous power to identify new loci associated with disease susceptibility and progression,” says Sununguko Wata Mpoloka of the University of Botswana. “Including understudied indigenous populations like those from Botswana in such studies will contribute tremendously to an understanding of precision medicine and could lead to tailormade drugs specific to such populations.”
Some of these variants may indeed play a meaningful role in health and disease. To get at these associations, the researchers not only compared mutations to existing databases and published studies, but also looked to see whether the variations occurred in the coding regions for proteins or in regions that could regulate gene expression for biologically relevant pathways and processes. They also looked for versions of a mutation, known as alleles, that occur at significantly different frequencies in different populations. These differences may arise because the alleles play a role in local adaptation to diverse environments and are positively selected, presumably because they confer some advantage to the people who carry them.
Several notable variants emerged from these analyses. In the San population of southern Africa, for example, the team found high numbers of SNPs near the PDPK1 gene, which had been shown by other scientists to play a role in pigmentation in mice. “Based on prior studies in our lab, we know that the San have relatively light skin color compared with other African populations,” says Yuanqing Feng, a postdoctoral researcher in the Tishkoff lab and a study co-author. “Thus, we hypothesized that SNPs near PDPK1 may affect pigmentation in humans.”
To generate mechanistic evidence for that hypothesis, the researchers tested the effect of one of these SNPs—shown to be common in the San—in skin cells grown in a petri dish. They found that inhibiting the region containing the variant altered expression levels of PDPK1 and reduced the levels of the skin pigment melanin in the lab-grown skin cells.
Other connections with health and function emerged from the study. The team’s analysis found a large number of variants near genes associated with bone growth in the Central African hunter-gatherers. These groups are known for their short stature, which is believed to be advantageous for the thick rainforest environment where they live. In pastoralist populations from East Africa, the team discovered enrichment for variants near genes that play a role in kidney development and function, possibly an adaptation to living in arid conditions. And in the Hadza hunter-gatherers in East Africa, they found a unique enrichment of variants near genes that play a role in heart development.
“My lab is now following up with some of these genes to see whether we can learn about the genetics of heart muscle development,” says Tishkoff. “If we understand how these genes are regulated, that could give us a clue as to why some people have a tendency toward cardiovascular disease. To understand abnormal function, you first have to understand normal function, and we speculate that there’s something about these individuals’ lifestyles—having to walk incredibly long distances, for example—that might make it advantageous to have certain changes in how the heart develops and functions.”
In addition, the researchers found gene variants related to blood pressure control in people with Nilo-Congo ancestry, West African groups that share ancestry with people from whom most African Americans are descended. “There’s a high incidence of hypertension and diabetes in people of African ancestry in the United States, and that’s largely due to socioeconomic factors,” Tishkoff says. “But there could be some genetic risk factors that, together with the environment in which they live, influence their risk for disease. Some of these could be adaptive in an African environment but maladaptive in a U.S. environment.”
These new datapoints may one day help inform precision medicine approaches that rely on understanding how genetics and other individual differences affect people’s disease risk, response to drugs, and more.
“There’s a huge amount of genomic variation in Africa that has not yet been well characterized,” Tishkoff adds. “We want to make sure all populations benefit from the genomics revolution, and we want to promote health equity, and therefore we need to include more diverse populations in these studies.”
Sarah Tishkoff is the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology and a Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor with appointments in the Perelman School of Medicine’s Department of Genetics and Department of Medicine and the School of Arts & Sciences’ Department of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania.
Shaohua Fan is a professor at China’s Fudan University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Tishkoff lab at Penn.
Yuanqing Feng is a postdoctoral researcher in the Tishkoff lab at Penn.
Fan and Spence were co-first authors and Tishkoff was senior and corresponding author.
The study was supported primarily by the National Institutes of Health (grants GM134957, AR076241, and GM134922), the American Diabetes Association (Grant 1-19-VS-02), and the Penn Skin Biology and Diseases Resource-based Center (funded by NIH Grant AR069589 and the Perelman School of Medicine).
IMAGE: THE FIGURE SHOWS THE JUSTICE QUESTIONS IN RELATION TO ONE EARTH SYSTEM DOMAIN. ESJ FOCUSES ON THE JUSTICE ISSUES WITH RESPECT TO ENDS (BOUNDARIES, ACCESS TO MINIMUM RESOURCES) AND MEANS (THE ALLOCATION OF REMAINING RESOURCES, RISKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES).view more
CREDIT: LISA JACOBSON AND PAOLA FEZZIGNA
In a new study published in Nature Sustainability an international team of scientists from the Earth Commission, convened by Future Earth, investigates how global biophysical boundaries need to be adjusted to ensure a safe and just future for people, nature and the planet. The Earth Commission is the scientific cornerstone of the Global Commons Alliance
This new framework integrates methods to reduce harm to people, increase access to resources, address tradeoffs, and challenge powerful interests whilst addressing inequality between generations and between humans and nature within discussions on Earth system boundaries.
“These topics still require debates and engagement with different knowledge systems - to meet the principles of procedural and recognition justice - on the structural and systemic changes that are needed to ensure a more just resource consumption so that the needs of all people can be met whilst ensuring justice between species and a stable Earth system”, lead author Joyeeta Gupta, Co-Chair of the Earth Commission and Professor of Environment and Development in the Global South at the University of Amsterdam, explained.
The research comes ahead of an associated Earth Commission report due out in early 2023 that defines ‘safe and just’ ‘Earth System Boundaries’ (ESBs) to safeguard a stable and resilient planet. These ESBs will underpin the setting of new science-based targets for businesses, cities and governments to address the polycrises of: increasing human exposure to the climate emergency, biodiversity decline, mass extinction of species that threaten the stability of the planet.
In the paper, researchers argue that Earth System Boundaries must not only ensure the stability of the planet but also protect humans and other species from significant harm. This might require more stringent targets; however, such stringent targets may also influence the access of people to basic resources and the allocation of resources. Building on the scholarship on justice, they define the concept of Earth system justice, offering a theoretical framework for Earth system justice, operationalizing it and additionally outlining the transformations required to do so. This entails substantive and procedural justice where substantive justice aims at ensuring access to minimum resources, reducing harm, and allocating responsibilities fairly. Procedural justice implies that people should be able to access information, participate in decision making, enjoy civic space and the right to go to courts. Adjusting biophysical targets to ensure that the poor have access to resources and the vulnerable are protected from harm is needed.
“While it is important to establish boundaries for climate change, biodiversity, water, and pollution that ensure a stable and safe earth system we also need to consider how such boundaries can also be just in minimizing harm to humans and nature. This includes avoiding tradeoffs, and ensuring that we meet the goals of sustainable development in ensuring that everyone has access to the energy, food, water and other resources for a dignified life”, said Diana Liverman, Earth Commissioner and Regents professor at the University of Arizona.
“We need to assess who is most responsible for Earth system change, who is most vulnerable to it, and who should take action to reduce the risks and reallocate resources, responses and risks in line with principles of justice”, she added.
At the core of Earth System Justice the researchers consider the need for justice among present nations, communities and individuals (Intragenerational Justice), justice for future generations (Intergenerational justice) and for other living things and Earth system stability (‘Interspecies Justice and Earth system stability’). To operationalise the framework, they evaluate if safe (ecological and physical) Earth system boundaries reduce harm to the most vulnerable while ensuring 'just access’ to food, water, energy and infrastructure.
The authors argue that if we are to achieve truly just and sustainable futures, we need to grapple with what Earth system justice means and how it can be put into practice. This will ensure that historical and present injustices are addressed and not continuously postponed or reproduced. The authors conclude that living within planetary limits must include attention to justice.
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CAPTION
Note: This figure presents the elements of ESJ in terms of concepts (ideal, recognition and epistemic), the subjects of justice (Interspecies & Earth system stability, Intergenerational and Intragenerational justice), and includes procedural justice (access to information, decision-making, civic space and courts), and substantive justice operationalized as ends that include targets that reduce exposure to significant harm and access to resources/services and equitable allocation of resources, risks/harm and responsibilities. Equitable access and allocation within safe and just ESBs is difficult without just means (levers of transformation) which includes addressing the drivers of ecological degradation/vulnerability, liability for harm caused, setting minimum needs and maximum consumption levels and revisiting allocation mechanisms.
CREDIT
Lisa Jacobson and Paola Fezzigna
Figure 3. Mapping exposure to harm from air pollution
Note: The exposure to air pollution (PM 2.5) combined with poverty shows how local boundaries are crossed and how local people may be affected
CREDIT
Lisa Jacobson and Paola Fezzigna
Note: In an unequal world, providing the poor access to minimum needs leads to further crossing the boundaries (see figure 1). Hence, we propose to reserve a certain minimum access level for all people. This provides the foundation for a corridor. The ceiling of the corridor is the safe and just boundary.
