scholarly journals Twenty Important Research Questions in Microbial Exposure and Social Equity

mSystems ◽  
2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jake M. Robinson ◽  
Nicole Redvers ◽  
Araceli Camargo ◽  
Christina A. Bosch ◽  
Martin F. Breed ◽  
...  

Social and political policy, human activities, and environmental change affect the ways in which microbial communities assemble and interact with people. These factors determine how different social groups are exposed to beneficial and/or harmful microorganisms, meaning microbial exposure has an important socioecological justice context.

Land ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Marcantonio ◽  
Agustin Fuentes

The impacts of human activities on ecosystems are significantly increasing the rate of environmental change in the earth system, reshaping the global landscape. The rapid rate of environmental change is disrupting the ability of millions of people around the globe to live their everyday lives and maintain their human niche. Evidence suggests that we have entered (or created) a new epoch, the Anthropocene, which is defined as the period in which humans and human activities are the primary drivers of planetary change. The Anthropocene denotes a global shift, but it is the collective of local processes. This is our frame for investigating local accounts of human-caused disruptive environmental change in the Pampana River in Tonkolili District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone. Since the end of the Sierra Leonean civil war in 2002, the country has experienced a rapid increase in extractive industries, namely mining. We explored the effects of this development by working with communities along the Pampana River in Tonkolili, with a specific focus given to engaging local fishermen through ethnographic interviews (N = 21 fishermen and 33 non-fishermen), focus group discussions (N = 21 fishermen), and participant observation. We deployed theoretical and methodological frameworks from human niche construction theory, complex adaptive systems, and ethnography to track disruptive environmental change in and on the Pampana from upstream activities and the concomitant shifts in the local human niche. We highlight the value of integrating ethnographic methods with human evolutionary theory, produce important insights about local human coping processes with disruptive environmental change, and help to further account for and understand the ongoing global process of human modification of the earth system in the Anthropocene.


2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Shuochao Yao ◽  
Jinyang Li ◽  
Dongxin Liu ◽  
Tianshi Wang ◽  
Shengzhong Liu ◽  
...  

Future mobile and embedded systems will be smarter and more user-friendly. They will perceive the physical environment, understand human context, and interact with end-users in a human-like fashion. Daily objects will be capable of leveraging sensor data to perform complex estimation and recognition tasks, such as recognizing visual inputs, understanding voice commands, tracking objects, and interpreting human actions. This raises important research questions on how to endow low-end embedded and mobile devices with the appearance of intelligence despite their resource limitations.


Author(s):  
Svenja Schäfer ◽  
Michael Sülflow ◽  
Liane Reiners

Abstract. Previous research indicates that user comments serve as exemplars and thus have an effect on perceived public opinion. Moreover, they also shape the attitudes of their readers. However, studies almost exclusively focus on controversial issues if they explore the consequences of user comments for attitudes and perceived public opinion. The current study wants to find out if hate speech attacking social groups due to characteristics such as religion or sexual orientation also has an effect on the way people think about these groups and how they think society perceives them. Moreover, we also investigated the effects of hate speech on prejudiced attitudes. To explore the hypotheses and research questions, we preregistered and conducted a 3 × 2 experimental study varying the amount of hate speech (none/few/many hateful comments) and the group that was attacked (Muslims/homosexuals). Results show no effects of the amount of hate speech on perceived public opinion for both groups. However, if homosexuals are attacked, hate speech negatively affects perceived social cohesion. Moreover, for both groups, we find interaction effects between preexisting attitudes and hate speech for discriminating demands. This indicates that hate speech can increase polarization in society.


2016 ◽  

History of justice is not only the history of state justice. Rather, we often deal with a coexistence of state, parastatal and non-state courts. Interesting research questions emerge out of this constellation: Where are notions of just conflict resolution most likely to be enforceable? To what extent is non-state jurisdiction a mode of self-regulation of social groups who define themselves by means of ethnic, religious or functional criteria? How do state and non-state ambitions interact? This collective volume contains contributions exploring non-state and parastatal justice between the 17th century and the present in Europe, Asia, North America as well as from a global perspective.


1995 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas P. Caudell

This paper describes the on-going development of a novel interface approach to understanding complex systems. We present a description of an interface, referred to as a Homunculus, which allows an experimenter to explore complex systems through immersive virtual reality technology. We describe an initial application under development where the Encephalon, a biologically motivated neural architecture, is used to control a robotics system. Encephalon modules are represented in the Homunculus as 3D icons. Information flow between modules of the neural network is represented as graphical animations. Virtual tools will be available to view, manipulate, model, diagnose, analyze, and navigate through the software and multi-dimensional data. We discuss many important research questions revealed by this work.


Geografie ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 121 (1) ◽  
pp. 187-207
Author(s):  
Zdeněk R. Nešpor

The article introduces the field of necrogeography to Czech social geography and provides information on existing (nationwide) data sources. The author takes the issue of Protestant confessional cemeteries as an example, briefly outlines the history of these special types of burial fields (established principally from the end of the 18th century until approximately the mid-20th century), and provides a historical geographical analysis of their regional distribution in the Czech Lands. The article proves the impact of religious and geographical factors on the emergence (and eventual demise) of non-Catholic Christian confessional cemeteries and, at the same time, the research unveiled a number of important research questions to be addressed by Czech necrogeography in the future.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rebecca Rodriguez Carey

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This research study explores the ways in which women who were pregnant and incarcerated discuss how their pregnancy experiences unfolded behind bars. This research is necessary both because this group has not received adequate attention from scholars and also because the number of women who are incarcerated has increased sharply in recent decades. By relying on in-depth interviews with women who were formerly pregnant and incarcerated in prisons across the U.S., this study aims to answer important research questions related to how women construct and account for 1) how they prepared for motherhood while imprisoned, 2) the quality of maternal care they received while incarcerated, and 3) how they felt about being separated from their infants after birth, in addition to how they approached reentry. The findings indicate that the women encountered stigma as a result of their unique entrance into motherhood because their birth stories are inextricably tied to the prison system. The women in this study were tasked with preparing for motherhood under less than ideal circumstances. They all fought difficult battles in their quest to access maternal care, and they all encountered barriers after the births of their infants, including upon release from prison.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishakha Chauhan ◽  
Mahim Sagar

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to systematically review and analyse extant marketing literature on consumer confusion to propose an integrated conceptual framework and highlight important research gaps. Design/methodology/approach Systematic literature review methodology was followed for article selection. Selected articles were subjected to content analysis to derive thematic as well as descriptive results. Findings Antecedents, consequences, moderators, mediators and application of the construct in the different contexts have been reported. An integrated framework along with research questions and future directions has also been proposed. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is notably the first attempt to systematically review the marketing literature on consumer confusion. The conceptual framework and proposed research questions create a research agenda around the problem of consumer confusion and contribute towards the advancement of extant literature.


2005 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 255-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie M. Bryant ◽  
Jennifer B. Kahle ◽  
Brad A. Schafer

This paper provides an overview of the distance education literature, including a review of the definitions, theories, and major issues related to distance education. We introduce a research model for distance education constructs, and review the literature outside accounting within each of the model constructs. Finally, in an effort to advance accounting research in this area, we articulate several important research questions within each of the constructs of the model, and provide suggestions for accounting educators interested in pursuing distance education pedagogy.


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