Articles de revues sur le sujet « National Center for Environmental Assessment (Washington, D.C.) »

School readiness during early childhood establishes the fundamental basis for prospective academic achievement, emphasizing the necessity for a comprehensive preparation that encompasses both mental and physical readiness. The current study examines the impact of child well-being and family support on school readiness among young learners. This Study used a correlational quantitative approach, the research involved 139 children between the ages of 4 and 7, along with their parents and 30 teachers selected through purposive sampling based on their socioeconomic status. The participants included 54.7% boys (n=76) and 45.3% girls (n=63) from families with varying income levels – low-income (25%), middle-income (29%), and upper-middle-income (46%). The results of the regression analysis indicated that both family support and child well-being have a significant influence on children's school readiness. Particularly, there is a notable positive association among all factors, a correlation between school readiness and child well-being at 42% (r = 0.420, p < 0.001), highlighting that higher levels of child well-being are linked to increased school readiness. Furthermore, family support exhibits a positive contribution to school readiness at 37% (r = 0.370, p < 0.001). The findings suggest that preparing children for school should extend beyond academic and motor skills development to include substantial psychological support, thus enhancing their ability to thrive in an academic environment. Keywords: early childhood, Emotion, Emotion regulation, parenting, happiness References: Atkins, R., Deatrick, J. A., Bocage, C., Huc, R., Aromolaran, D., Besseir, E., Hinckson, A., Joseph, M., Kim, D., Lagman, D., Gladsden, V. L., & Lipman, T. H. (2022). School Readiness and Social Determinants of Health: A Collaboration with Community Teachers and Parents. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4090268 Ayriza, Y., Setiawati, F. A., Nurhayati, S. R., Gumelar, S. R., & Sholeha, E. P. D. R. (2019). Does sleep quality serve as a mediator between well-being and academic achievement? Cakrawala Pendidikan, 38(1), 63–74. https://doi.org/10.21831/cp.v38i1.22181 Azra, A., Risnawati, E., Hermaini, B., Hendra, M., Kartikawati, E., Buana, U. M., & Terbuka, U. (2023). How family communication pattern affect a family ’ s capacity for resilience during covid-19 pandemic. 11(1), 117–137. Barnett, M. A., Paschall, K. W., Mastergeorge, A. M., Cutshaw, C. A., & Warren, S. M. (2020). Influences of Parent Engagement in Early Childhood Education Centers and the Home on Kindergarten School Readiness. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 53, 260–273. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2020.05.005 Borualogo;, Ihsana Sabriani, F. C. (2020). Subjective Well-Being of Indonesian Children:A Perspective of Material Well-Being. ANIMA Indonesian Psychological Journal, 44–47. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111634487-006 Borualogo, I. S., & Casas, F. (2022). The children’s worlds psychological well-being scale: Adaptation and fit in the Indonesian context. Cogent Psychology, 9(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2022.2053377 Cress, C. J., Synhorst, L., Epstein, M. H., & Allen, E. (2012). Confirmatory factor analysis of the preschool behavioral and emotional rating scale (PreBERS) with preschool children with disabilities. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 37(4), 203–211. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534508411433499 Cress, C., Lambert, M. C., & Epstein, M. H. (2016). Factor Analysis of the Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale for Children in Head Start Programs. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 34(5), 473–486. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734282915617630 Diener, E., & Ryan, K. (2009). Subjective Well-Being: A General Overview. South African Journal of Psychology, 39(4), 391–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/008124630903900402 El Zaatari, W., & Maalouf, I. (2022). How the Bronfenbrenner Bio-ecological System Theory Explains the Development of Students’ Sense of Belonging to School? SAGE Open, 12(4), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221134089 Golshirazi, F., & Sadeghi, A. (2021). The Effect of Home-to-School Transition Program on Social-Emotional Readiness of Preschool Students. Journal of Counseling Research. https://doi.org/10.18502/qjcr.v20i77.6147 Gómez-Leal, R., Holzer, A. A., Bradley, C., Fernández-Berrocal, P., & Patti, J. (2022). The relationship between emotional intelligence and leadership in school leaders: a systematic review. Cambridge Journal of Education, 52(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2021.1927987 Gregory, T., Dal Grande, E., Brushe, M., Engelhardt, D., Luddy, S., Guhn, M., Gadermann, A., Schonert-Reichl, K. A., & Brinkman, S. (2021). Associations between School Readiness and Student Wellbeing: A Six-Year Follow Up Study. Child Indicators Research, 14(1), 369–390. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-020-09760-6 Halimah, N., & Kawuryan, F. (2010). Kesiapan Memasuki Sekolah Dasar Pada Anak Yang Mengikuti Pendidikan Tk Dengan Yang Tidak Mengikuti Pendidikan Tk Di Kabupaten Kudus. Jurnal Psikologi Universitas Muria Kudus, I(1), 1–8. http://www.pustaka.unpad.ac.id Harrington, E. M., Trevino, S. D., Lopez, S., & Giuliani, N. R. (2020). Emotion regulation in early childhood: Implications for socioemotional and academic components of school readiness. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 20(1), 48–53. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000667 Holzer, J., Bürger, S., Lüftenegger, M., & Schober, B. (2022). Revealing associations between students’ school-related well-being, achievement goals, and academic achievement. Learning and Individual Differences, 95(March), 102140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2022.102140 Hughes, C., White, N., Foley, S., & Devine, R. T. (2018). Family support and gains in school readiness: A longitudinal study. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 88(2), 284–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12188 Jung, S., & Choi, N. (2020). Effect of Family Functioning on Preschoolers’ School Readiness: Mediating Effects of Mothers’ Affective Parenting and Preschoolers’ Self-regulation. Family and Environment Research, 58(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.6115/fer.2020.001 Kokkalia, G., Drigas, A., Economou, A., & Roussos, P. (2019). School readiness from kindergarten to primary school. International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learning, 14(11), 4–18. https://doi.org/10.3991/IJET.V14I11.10090 Lazarus, R. S. (1991). Emotion and Adaptation. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/2075902 Lin, M. L., & Faldowski, R. A. (2023). The Relationship of Parent Support and Child Emotional Regulation to School Readiness. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(6). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20064867 Lombardi, C. M. (2023). Early Maternal Employment And Children’s School Readiness: Changing Associations Over Time? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 32(4), 1032–1047. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02357-3 Lombardi, C. M., & Dearing, E. (2021). Maternal Support of Children’s Math Learning in Associations Between Family Income and Math School Readiness. Child Development, 92(1). https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13436 Luby, J. L., Barch, D. M., Belden, A., Gaffrey, M. S., Tillman, R., Babb, C., Nishino, T., Suzuki, H., & Botteron, K. N. (2012). Maternal support in early childhood predicts larger hippocampal volumes at school age. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(8), 2854–2859. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1118003109 Mariyati, L. I. (2017). Usia dan Jenis Kelamin dengan Kesiapan Masuk Sekolah Dasar. Prosiding Seminar Nasional Psikologi UMG, 095, 331–344. Mashar, R., & Pudji Astuti, F. (2022). Correlation between Parenting Skills, Children’s Emotional and Intelligence Quotient with School Readiness. JPUD - Jurnal Pendidikan Usia Dini, 16(2), 215–223. https://doi.org/10.21009/JPUD.162.02 Nurmaria, H., & Risnawati, E. (2022). The Relationship of Loneliness and Internet Addiction To Psychological Well-Being in Adolescents. Biopsikososial: Jurnal Ilmiah Psikologi Fakultas Psikologi Universitas Mercubuana Jakarta, 5(2), 509. https://doi.org/10.22441/biopsikososial.v5i2.14644 Rahmawati. (2018). Kesiapan sekolah merupakan kesiapan anak untuk memasuki sekolah . Di Indonesia istilah kesiapan sekolah lazim digunakan untuk merujuk kesiapan anak masuk Sekolah Dasar ( SD ), sebagai sekolah f. Jurnal Pendidikan Usia Dini,12(November), 201–210. http://journal.unj.ac.id/unj/index.php/jpud Risnawati, E., Meiliyandrie, L., Wardani, I., Saputra, A. H., Pramitasari, M., Mercu Buana, U., Pendidikan, J., & Dini, U. (2023). Theory of Mind, Roles, and the Development of Emotion Regulation in Early Childhood. 17(2), 1693–1602. https://doi.org/10.21009/JPUD.172.01 Risnawati Erna, Arisandi Alfida, D. R. (2019). Peran Religiusitas dan Psychological Well-Being terhadap Resiliensi Korban KDRT. Journal.Univpancasila.Ac.Id, 10(2), 67–77. http://journal.univpancasila.ac.id/index.php/mindset/article/view/836 Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.57.6.1069 Ryff, C. D., & Keyes, C. L. M. (1995). The Structure of Psychological Well-Being Revisited. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 719–727. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.4.719 Seran, T. N., Haryono, & Anni, C. T. (2017). School Readiness: Readiness Children Seen from The Whole Aspect of Early Childhood Development Article Info. Journel of Primary Education, 6(3), 224–232. http://journal.unnes.ac.id/sju/index.php/jpe St. Laurent, C. W., Burkart, S., Andre, C., & Spencer, R. M. C. (2021). Physical Activity, Fitness, School Readiness, and Cognition in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 18(8), 1004–1013. https://doi.org/10.1123/jpah.2020-0844 Turner, K. M. T., Dittman, C. K., Rusby, J. C., & Lee, S. (2017). Parenting Support in an Early Childhood Learning Context. In M. R. Sanders & T. G. Mazzucchelli (Eds.), The Power of Positive Parenting (pp. 242–251). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med-psych/9780190629069.003.0021

Abstract The Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and the University of Washington (UW) run parallel drought monitoring systems over the continental United States based on the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS). The NCEP system uses four land surface models (LSMs): Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC), Noah, Mosaic, and Sacramento (SAC). The UW system uses VIC, SAC, Noah, and the Community Land Model (CLM). An assessment of differences in drought characteristics using both systems for the period 1979–2008 was performed. For soil moisture (SM) percentiles and runoff indices, differences are relatively small among different LSMs in the same system. However, the ensemble mean differences between the two systems are large over the western United States—in some cases exceeding 20% for SM and runoff percentile differences. These differences are most apparent after 2002 when the NCEP system transitioned to use the real-time North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) and its precipitation gauge station data. (The UW system went into real-time operation in 2005.) Experiments were performed to address the sources of uncertainties. Comparison of simulations using the two systems with different model forcings indicates that the precipitation forcing differences are the primary source of the SM and runoff differences. While temperature, shortwave and longwave radiation, and wind speed forcing differences are also large after 2002, their contributions to SM and runoff differences are much smaller than precipitation.

ABSTRACT The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) hosted the 2002 SONS Gulf National Incident Commander (NIC) Exercise in New Orleans, Louisiana on 23–25 April 2002 and the 2002 SONS Gulf Executive Seminar in Washington, D. C. on 26 April 2002. This massive effort was accomplished through almost two years of planning by a government/industry workgroup representing the USCG, Texas General Land Office (TGLO), Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator's Office, ExxonMobil, Stolt-Nielsen Transportation Group, and Environmental Protection Agency Region VI. The original SONS exercise was scheduled to exercise the Nation's ability to respond to a SONS in a two-part format. The terrorist attacks at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center in September 2001 required that the original SONS exercise plans be delayed and amended. The final SONS exercise format was a three-part series. The first part involved tabletop discussions with port-level responders to determine what actions and issues would result from the exercise scenarios. The second part was a multi-day NIC tabletop exercise to understand the roles and responsibilities of the NIC by exploring the NIC's reactions to the scenarios and the issues raised by the affected ports. The third part was an executive-level seminar attended by senior federal government and industry executives as well as elected officials to discuss reactions to national-level issues identified by the NIC and to enhance interagency communication at the headquarters level.

Abstract. The South China Sea Operational Oceanography Forecasting System (SCSOFS), constructed and operated by the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center of China, has been providing daily updated hydrodynamic forecasting in the South China Sea (SCS) for the next 5 d since 2013. This paper presents recent comprehensive updates to the configurations of the physical model and data assimilation scheme in order to improve the forecasting skill of the SCSOFS. This paper highlights three of the most sensitive updates: the sea surface atmospheric forcing method, the discrete tracer advection scheme, and a modification of the data assimilation scheme. Intercomparison and accuracy assessment among the five sub-versions were performed during the entire upgrading process using the OceanPredict Intercomparison and Validation Task Team Class 4 metrics. The results indicate that remarkable improvements have been made to the SCSOFSv2 with respect to the original version (known as SCSOFSv1). The domain-averaged monthly mean root-mean-square errors of the sea surface temperature and sea level anomaly have decreased from 1.21 to 0.52 ∘C and from 21.6 to 8.5 cm, respectively.

A pesquisa estudou a saída de modelos de mudanças climáticas que melhor expressam a atuação dos Vórtices Ciclônicos em Altos Níveis (VCANs) no Nordeste Brasileiro (NEB). Os VCANs foram quantificados pela sua ocorrência diária durante 5 anos (1995-1999), no período de outubro a março. O objeto de estudo foram 13 modelos do CMIP5/IPCC/AR5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5/Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change/Fifth Assessment Report), comparados com os resultados do NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research), por meio de métodos estatísticos para escolha do modelo que melhor indica a presença dos VCANs no NEB. A primeira análise comparativa foi feita através das correlações de Pearson, Kendall e Spearman, Raiz quadrada do erro quadrático médio, Raiz quadrada do erro quadrático médio normalizada e os índices de Eficiência e desempenho, Nash-Sutcliffe (NSE), Kling-Gupta (KGE) e o Índice de Concordância de Willmott (d). Em seguida foram selecionados os modelos de melhor desempenho e com significância estatística para uma análise posterior de acertos e erros através dos índices: Índice de Proporção Correta (PC), Índice de Sucesso Crítico (ISC), Probabilidade de Detecção (POD), Taxa de alarme Falso (TAF) e Taxa de Tendência (VIÉS). Para os testes estatísticos aplicados na primeira avaliação realizada o modelo MIROC4h foi o que apresentou os melhores índices seguido pelo MIROC-ESM e inmCM4, respectivamente. Além destes, ainda apresentaram correlação estatística significante o MPI-ESM-LR,o MRI-CGCM3 e o CSIRO-MK3-6-0. A segunda análise também apresentou o MIROC4h com os melhores valores de PC, ISC e POD, excetuando-se o VIÉS que apresentou o segundo melhor resultado e o TAF com o pior resultado em relação aos outros 5 modelos. Dessa forma o MIROC4h apresentou-se como o mais indicado entre os modelos do CMIP5 para estudos de cenários presentes e futuros de VCANs no NEB. A B S T R A C T The research studied the output of climate change models that best express the actions of Upper Tropospheric Cyclonic Vortices (UTCV) in high levels in the Northeast Brazil (NEB). The UTCV were quantified by a daily occurrence for 5 years (1995-1999) in the period from October to March. The object of the study were 13 models from CMIP5/IPCC/AR5 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 / Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change / Fifth Assessment Report ), compared with results from the NCEP / NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction / National Center for Atmospheric Research) by means of statistical methods for choosing the model which best indicates the presence of UTCV in the NEB. The first comparative analysis was performed using the Pearson, Spearman and Kendall correlations, mean square error, normalized mean square error and efficiency and performance indices, Nash-Sutcliff (NSE), Kling-Gupta (KGE) and Index of Agreement of the Willmott (d). Then models with better performance and statistical significance for further analysis of successes and mistakes through the indices were selected: Index Proportion Correct (PC), Critical Success Index (CSI), Probability of Detection (POD), False Alarm Rate (FAR) and Trend Rate (BIAS). For the statistical analyzes used in the first test performed MIROC4h model showed the best rates followed by MIROC-ESM and inmCM4 respectively. In addition, further significant statistical correlation MPI-ESM-LR, MRI-CGCM3 and CSIRO-MK3-6-0. The second analysis also showed the MIROC4h with the best values ​​of PC, CSI and POD, except the BIAS that had the second best result and the FAR with the worst result in relation to the other five models considered in this phase. Thus the MIROC4h introduced himself as the most suitable model of the CMIP5 for studies of the present and future scenarios of UTCV in the NEB

Over the past few years, energy security and sustainable development have moved up the global agenda. Energy is what makes an economy run. There is a strong correlation between economic development and energy consumption. Energy security plays an important role in all economic sectors in attaining the long-term vision of inclusive economic growth and development of the economy. The attainment of this vision is difficult as it is challenged by the need to build energy infrastructures that are not only responsive to the growing demand but can withstand the maximum credible natural disaster. One of the primary objectives of sustainable development is to make people without access to enough energy be able to meet their needs through the provision of stable, reliable, clean, safe, and affordable energy services. This research will use the Granger Causality test to analyze the causal relationship among the endogenous variables among (1) GNI per capita; (2) GHG Emissions; and (3) Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) between energy-economic development and the influencing factors of power supply security indicators. In the end, this paper expects to suggest that the paper electric power development plans in the country also have implications for the path that would lead the country to what is known as a green economy. It is in this background that energy security and economic growth development are intertwined by public policy. In a broader development sense, public policy draws in the active involvement of the community in identifying problems. Anchored deeply in the national development agenda, the local community develops its own sets of development goals and pushes itself towards realizing this long-range vision. Hence, the output of public policy supported by strategic planning will require effective monitoring and evaluation of programs. This remains to be both a challenge and priority for both the national and local governments.ReferencesAstana, K. (2011). Greening the economy: mainstreaming the environment into economic development. https://sustainabledevelopment .un.org/content/documents/796unece2.pdfAslan, T., Ayşe, A., & Fatma, Z. (2013). The Impact of Electricity Consumption on Economic Development in. Istanbul University School of Economics.Edomah, N. (2018). Economics of Energy Supply. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-12-409548-9.11713-0..Elahee, K. (2004). Access to Energy: The Key to Poverty Alleviation. Retrieved March 06, 2015, from International Research Foundation for Development Research: http://irfd.org/events/wfsids/virtual/papers/sids_kelahee.pdfEnergy Policy and Planning Bureau - Department of Energy Philippines. (2014). Philippine Energy Plan 2012-2030. Department of Energy.Gradl, C., & Knobloch, C. (2011). Energize the BoP! Energy Business Model Generator for Low-Income Markets (A Practitioners Guide). Enterprise Solutions for Development (ENDEVA).Gujarati, D. (2003). Basic Econometrics (4th Ed.). McGraw-Hill.Hamilton, C., Kellett, J. & Moore, T. (2021). Resourcing A Low Carbon Future.Hossain, Mondal et al. (2018). The Philippines energy future and lowcarbon development strategies. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544218300458International Atomic Energy Agency. (2005). IAEA.( 2005). Energy Indicators for Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies. IAEA.International Energy Agency. (2013). World Energy Outlook 2010. Paris. IEA.Kanchana, K. & Unesaki, H. (2014). ASEAN Energy Security: An Indicator-based Assessment. Energy Procedia. 56. 163–171. DOI: 10.1016/j.egypro.2014.07.145.Leuschner, P. (2014). The Effect of GDP per capita on Renewable Energy Production in China. 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The green economy transition: the challenges of technological change for sustainability. https://sustainableearth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42055-020-00029-yStern, D.I. (2004). Environmental Kuznets Curve: Encyclopedia of Energy. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-andplanetary-sciences/environmental-kuznets-curveStiglitz, J. E., Sen, A., & Fitoussi, J.-P. (2009). Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress. Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE).University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/how-climateworks/greenhouse-effect.U.S. Energy Information Association. (2013, March 22). Today in Energy. Retrieved February 28, 2014, from U.S. Energy Information Association - Independent Statistics and Analysis: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=10491Wen Center for Social Research Method. (n.d.). Research Methods Knowledge Base. 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The present study assessed dairy cow welfare through the application of the Italian National Animal Welfare Reference Center (CReNBA) checklist in 36 dairy farms located in Ragusa (Italy) subjected to two different management conditions, housing with free access to pasture (Group 1, farms n = 17) and indoor housing (Group 2, farms n = 19). Five areas of investigation were considered: Area A, “Farm management and personnel”; Area B, “Facilities and equipment”; Area C, “Animal-based measures”; Area D, “Inspection of microclimatic environmental conditions and alarm systems”; and Area E, “Biosecurity”. Blood samples were collected by coccygeal venipuncture from all animals (4081 cows). The specific antibodies against Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, Chlamydiophila abortus, Neospora caninum, bovine viral diarrhea virus, and the bovine herpesvirus were assessed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) serological test. Group 1 (access to pasture) showed a lower value of percentage score recorded in Area A (p = 0.02) and E (p = 0.01) than Group 2 (indoor housing). Herpesvirus (Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis - IBR - detection of gB antibodies/IBR-gB) blood concentrations were higher in the cows housed indoor versus those with access to pasture (p = 0.01). Farm management and personnel (score A) was correlated with the level of bovine viral diarrhea virus (τ = 0.3754) and bovine-herpesvirus-specific antibodies (IBR-gB) (τ = 0.4159). “Biosecurity” percentage score showed a significant correlation with Chlamydiophila abortus (τ = −0.4621) in the cows with access to pasture and IBR-gB (τ = 0.3435) in the cows housed fully indoors. Group 2 showed a significantly reduced level of antibodies against Neospora caninum. In conclusion, differences in the welfare assessment score were observed in the “Farm management and personnel” and “Biosecurity” between the two management conditions. It had an effect on the prevalence of herpesvirus, which occurred more in cattle with access to pasture. Therefore, an accurate application of the checklist could be an instrument to prevent and control the spread of infections in farms.

BackgroundThe ORAL-surveillance trial showed a higher risk of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) and cancer in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) taking tofacitinib, a Janus kinase inhibitor (JAKi), compared to those taking tumor necrosis factor alpha inhibitors (TNFi’s). However, little is known regarding the comparative safety of these two drug classes relative to non-TNFi biologics.ObjectivesTo assess the comparative safety of TNFi’s, non-TNFi’s, and JAKi’s in RA patients for the risk of MACE (e.g., myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, sudden death, stroke, percutaneous coronary intervention, and coronary artery bypass graft), cancer, deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and pulmonary embolism (PE).MethodsWe performed a retrospective cohort study using IBM Watson MarketScan databases (2012-2019) of RA patients 18-64 years of age who initiated treatment with TNFi’s, non-TNFi’s, or JAKi’s on or after January 2012. We used Cox Proportional hazards models to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for developing MACE, cancer, DVT, and PE within 2 years of initiation in patients on non-TNFi’s or JAKi’s relative to TNFi’s, adjusting for multiple confounders, including age, gender, geographic region, year of initiating a biologic, Charlson Comorbidity Index, frailty status, healthcare utilization within 12 months prior to starting treatment (i.e., major infection requiring hospital admissions, general hospital admissions, outpatient visits, and emergency department visits), and RA severity (i.e. disease-modifying antirheumatic drug, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, glucocorticoid, and opioid fills 3 months prior to starting treatment).ResultsA total of 39,032 drug initiation events met eligibility criteria for our study (73.6% initiation of TNFi’s, 18.6% non-TNFi’s, and 7.80% JAKi’s). The mean age of the patients in each of the groups ranged from 47-49 years old; the majority were female. The mean follow-up time was 349 days for TNFi’s, 272 days for non-TNFi’s, and 266 days for JAKi’s. Non-TNFi’s were associated with an increased risk of MACE, cancer, and DVT, though the incidence of adverse health outcomes overall was still quite low (Table 1). In multivariable models, patients who started non-TNFi’s had a significantly higher risk of MACE (HR 1.75; 1.34-2.28), incident cancer (HR 2.06; 1.70-2.50), and DVT (HR 1.84; 1.45-2.32) compared to those who initiated TNFi’s. Patients who filled JAKi’s had a significantly higher risk of developing cancer compared to those who filled TNFi’s (HR 1.48; 1.09-2.03).ConclusionTNFi’s may be safer for RA treatment than non-TNFi’s and JAKi’s for RA in this generally younger and predominantly female population. However, since most RA patients initiate treatment with TNFi’s, results could be confounded by the possibility of more severe or prolonged disease in patients on non-TNFi’s and JAKi’s. These findings need to be replicated in other study populations. Future steps include looking at the risk conferred by individual non-TNFi’s towards these risks. Studies with longer follow-up are needed for better assessment of cancer risk among these drug classes.Table 1.Incidence per 10,000 person-years of each adverse health outcome* stratified by drug class in RA patients 18-64 years of age.Adverse Health OutcomeTNFi n = 28,716 (73.6%)**Non-TNFi n = 7,290 (18.6%)**JAKi n = 3,026 (7.80%)**MACE72.9162.694.8Cancer132.9296.4192.3DVT90.9216.5107.7PE22.143.924.6*Outcomes are not mutually exclusive; each patient could have experienced multiple outcomes.**Number and percentage of drug class initiation events.Reference[1] Ytterberg, S. R., Bhatt, D. L., Mikuls, T. R., Koch, G. G., Fleischmann, R., Rivas, J. L., Germino, R., Menon, S., Sun, Y., Wang, C., Shapiro, A. B., Kanik, K. S., Connell, C. A., & ORAL Surveillance Investigators (2022). Cardiovascular and Cancer Risk with Tofacitinib in Rheumatoid Arthritis.The New England journal of medicine,386(4), 316–326.AcknowledgementsResearch reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Arthritis And Musculoskeletal And Skin Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number K23AR079588 to Dr. Namrata Singh. This research was supported in part by the University of Washington Clinical Learning, Evidence, And Research (CLEAR) Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders, Administrative, Methodologic and Resource Cores and NIAMS/NIH grant P30AR072572.Disclosure of InterestsXavier Sendaydiego: None declared, Laura Gold: None declared, Jiha Lee: None declared, Radjiv Goulabchand Consultant of: NOVARTIS: involved in board concerning ITP management, Grant Hughes Employee of: Janssen Rheumatology Fellowship in Diagnostic and Therapeutic Disparities in Axial Spondyloarthritis: PI/Program Director, 7/1/2022 – 6/30/2023, Mathilde Pioro: None declared, James Andrews: None declared, Una Makris: None declared, Pradeep Suri: None declared, Jeffrey Jarvik: None declared, Jeffrey Sparks Consultant of: AbbVie, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead, Inova Diagnostics, Janssen, Optum, and Pfizer, Grant/research support from: Bristol Myers Squibb, Siddharth Singh: None declared, Namrata Singh: None declared.

Climate change induced sea-level rise (SLR) is on its increase globally. Regionally the lowlands of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and islands of the Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos are among the world’s most threatened regions. Sea-level rise has major impacts on the ecosystems and society. It threatens coastal populations, economic activities, and fragile ecosystems as mangroves, coastal salt-marches and wetlands. This paper provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of sea level-rise and its effects on both human and natural ecosystems. The focus is on coastal urban areas and low lying deltas in South-East Asia and Vietnam, as one of the most threatened areas in the world. About 3 mm per year reflects the growing consensus on the average SLR worldwide. The trend speeds up during recent decades. The figures are subject to local, temporal and methodological variation. In Vietnam the average values of 3.3 mm per year during the 1993-2014 period are above the worldwide average. Although a basic conceptual understanding exists that the increasing global frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is related with the increasing temperature and SLR, this relationship is insufficiently understood. Moreover the precise, complex environmental, economic, social, and health impacts are currently unclear. SLR, storms and changing precipitation patterns increase flood risks, in particular in urban areas. Part of the current scientific debate is on how urban agglomeration can be made more resilient to flood risks. Where originally mainly technical interventions dominated this discussion, it becomes increasingly clear that proactive special planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery are important, but costly instruments. Next to the main focus on SLR and its effects on resilience, the paper reviews main SLR associated impacts: Floods and inundation, salinization, shoreline change, and effects on mangroves and wetlands. The hazards of SLR related floods increase fastest in urban areas. This is related with both the increasing surface major cities are expected to occupy during the decades to come and the increasing coastal population. In particular Asia and its megacities in the southern part of the continent are increasingly at risk. The discussion points to complexity, inter-disciplinarity, and the related uncertainty, as core characteristics. An integrated combination of mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures is currently considered as the most indicated way to resist SLR today and in the near future.References Aerts J.C.J.H., Hassan A., Savenije H.H.G., Khan M.F., 2000. Using GIS tools and rapid assessment techniques for determining salt intrusion: Stream a river basin management instrument. 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This study aim to attempt mapping out the Land Use or Land Cover (LULC) status of Regional Project Coordination Committee (RPCC) between 2009-2019 with a view of detecting the land consumption rate and the changes that has taken place using RS and GIS techniques; serving as a precursor to the further study on urban induced variations or change in weather pattern of the cityn Rangpur City Corporation(RCC) is the main administrative functional area for both of Rangpur City and Rangpur division and experiencing a rapid changes in the field of urban sprawl, cultural and physical landscape,city growth. These agents of Land use or Land cover (LULC) varieties are responsible for multi-dimensional problems such as traffic congestion, waterlogging, and solid waste disposal, loss of agricultural land. In this regard, this study fulfills LULC changes by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) as well as field survey was conducted for the measurement of change detection. The sources of data were Landsat 7 ETM and landsat 8 OLI/TIRS of both C1 level 1. Then after correcting the data, geometrically and radiometrically change detection and combined classification (supervised & unsupervised) were used. The study finds LULC changes built-up area, water source, agricultural land, bare soil in a change of percentage is 17.23, 2.58, -9.94, -10.19 respectively between 2009 and 2019. Among these changes, bare soil is changed to a great extent, which indicates the expansion of urban areas is utilizing the land to a proper extent. Keywords: Urban expansion; land use; land cover; remote sensing; geographic information system (GIS); Rangpur City Corporation(RCC). References Al Rifat, S. A., & Liu, W. (2019). Quantifying spatiotemporal patterns and major explanatory factors of urban expansion in miami metropolitan area during 1992-2016. Remote Sensing, 11(21) doi:10.3390/rs11212493 Arimoro AO, Fagbeja MA, Eedy W. (2002). The Need and Use of Geographic Information Systems for Environmental Impact Assessment in Africa: With Example from Ten Years Experience in Nigeria. AJEAM/RAGEE, 4(2), 16-27. Belal, A.A. and Moghanm, F.S. (2011).Detecting Urban Growth Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques in Al Gharbiya Governorate, Egypt.The Egyptian Journal of Remote Sensing and Space Science, 14, 73-79. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejrs.2011.09.001 Dewan, A.M. and Yamaguchi, Y. (2009). Using Remote Sensing and GIS to Detect and Monitor and Use and Land Cover Change in Dhaka Metropolitan of Bangladesh during 1960-2005. Environmental Monitor Assessment, 150, 237- 249. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0226-5 Djimadoumngar, K.-N., & Adegoke, J. (2018). Satellite-Based Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover (LULC) Changes around Lake Fitri, Republic of Chad. Journal of Sustainable Development, 11(5), 71. doi:10.5539/jsd.v11n5p71 Edwards, B., Frasch, T., & Jeyacheya, J. (2019). Evaluating the effectiveness of land-use zoning for the protection of built heritage in the bagan archaeological zone, Myanmar—A satellite remote-sensing approach. Land use Policy, 88 doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104174 Fallati, L., Savini, A., Sterlacchini, S., & Galli, P. (2017). Land use and land cover (LULC) of the Republic of the Maldives: first national map and LULC change analysis using remote-sensing data. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 189(8). doi:10.1007/s10661-017-6120-2 Fučík, P., Novák, P., & Žížala, D. (2014). A combined statistical approach for evaluation of the effects of land use, agricultural and urban activities on stream water chemistry in small tile-drained catchments of south bohemia, czech republic. Environmental Earth Sciences, 72(6), 2195-2216. doi:10.1007/s12665-014-3131-y Elbeih, S. F., & El-Zeiny, A. M. (2018). Qualitative assessment of groundwater quality based on land use spectral retrieved indices: Case study sohag governorate, egypt. Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment, 10, 82-92. doi:10.1016/j.rsase.2018.03.001 Fasal, S. (2000). Urban expansion and loss of agricultural land – A GIS based study of Saharanpur City, India. Environment and Urbanization, 12(2), 133 – 149 He, S., Wang, X., Dong, J., Wei, B., Duan, H., Jiao, J., & Xie, Y. (2019). Three-dimensional urban expansion analysis of valley-type cities: A case study of chengguan district, lanzhou, china. Sustainability (Switzerland), 11(20) doi:10.3390/su11205663 Heimlich, R.E and W.D. Anderson. (2001). Development at the Urban Fringe and Beyond: Impacts on Agriculture and Rural Land. 803, Economic Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Washington D.C., pg 80 Im, N., Kawamura, K., Suwandana, E., & Sakuno, Y. (2014). Monitoring land use and land cover effects on water quality in cheung ek lake using ASTER images. American Journal of Environmental Sciences, 11(1), 1-12. doi:10.3844/ajessp.2015.1.12 Kalnay, E., & Cai, M. (2003). Impact of urbanization and land-use change on climate. Nature, 423(6939), 528-531. doi:10.1038/nature01675 Matlhodi, B., Kenabatho, P. K., Parida, B. P., & Maphanyane, J. G. (2019). Evaluating land use and land cover change in the gaborone dam catchment, botswana, from 1984-2015 using GIS and remote sensing. Sustainability (Switzerland), 11(19) doi:10.3390/su11195174 Uddin, M. M. M. (2015). Causal relationship between agriculture, industry and services sector for GDP growth in Bangladesh: An econometric investigation. Journal of Poverty, Investment and Development, 8. Mondal, I., Srivastava, V. K., Roy, P. S., & Talukdar, G. (2014). Using logit model to identify the drivers of landuse landcover change in the lower gangetic basin, india. Paper presented at the International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences - ISPRS Archives, , XL-8(1) 853-859. doi:10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-8-853-2014 Navale, V. B., & Mhaske, S. Y. (2019). Land use/land cover changes in sangamner city by using remote sensing and GIS. International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering, 8(2), 4614-4621. doi:10.35940/ijrte.B3386.078219 Nicolson, L.D. (1987). The Greening of the cities; Routledge and Kegan Paul, London Nong, D., Fox, J., Miura, T., & Saksena, S. (2015). Built-up Area Change Analysis in Hanoi Using Support Vector Machine Classification of Landsat Multi-Temporal Image Stacks and Population Data. Land, 4(4), 1213–1231. doi:10.3390/land4041213 Park, H., Fan, P., John, R., Ouyang, Z., & Chen, J. (2019). Spatiotemporal changes of informal settlements: Ger districts in ulaanbaatar, mongolia. Landscape and Urban Planning, 191 doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103630 Rajeshwari D. (2006). Management of the Urban Environment Using Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems.J. Hum. Ecol., 20(4), 269-277. Retrieved from http://www.krepublishers.com/02_journals/JHE/ Rasul, A., Balzter, H., Ibrahim, G., Hameed, H., Wheeler, J., Adamu, B., … Najmaddin, P. (2018). Applying Built-Up and Bare-Soil Indices from Landsat 8 to Cities in Dry Climates. Land, 7(3), 81. doi:10.3390/land7030081 Risma, Zubair, H., & Paharuddin. (2019). Prediction of land use and land cover (LULC) changes using CA-Markov model in Mamuju Subdistrict. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1341, 082033. doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1341/8/082033 Schilling, K. E., Jha, M. K., Zhang, Y.-K., Gassman, P. W., & Wolter, C. F. (2008). Impact of land use and land cover change on the water balance of a large agricultural watershed: Historical effects and future directions. Water Resources Research, 44(7). doi:10.1029/2007wr006644 Copyright (c) 2019 Geosfera Indonesia Journal and Department of Geography Education, University of Jember This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share A like 4.0 International License

In recent years, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) has received wide attention. STEAM complements early childhood learning needs in honing 2nd century skills. This study aims to introduce a loose section in early childhood learning to pre-service teachers and then to explore their perceptions of how to use loose parts in supporting STEAM. The study design uses qualitative phenomenological methods. FGDs (Focus Group Discussions) are used as data collection instruments. The findings point to two main themes that emerged from the discussion: a loose section that supports freedom of creation and problem solving. Freedom clearly supports science, mathematics and arts education while problem solving significantly supports engineering and technology education. Keywords: Early Childhood Educators, Loose-part, STEAM References: Allen, A. (2016). Don’t Fear STEM: You Already Teach It! Exchange, (231), 56–59. Ansberry, B. K., & Morgan, E. (2019). Seven Myths of STEM. 56(6), 64–67. Bagiati, A., & Evangelou, D. (2015). Engineering curriculum in the preschool classroom: the teacher’s experience. European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 23(1), 112–128. https://doi.org/10.1080/1350293X.2014.991099 Becker, K., & Park, K. (2011). Effects of integrative approaches among science , technology , engineering , and mathematics ( STEM ) subjects on students ’ learning : A preliminary meta-analysis. 12(5), 23–38. Berk, L. E. (2009). Child Development (8th ed.). Boston: Pearson Education. Can, B., Yildiz-Demirtas, V., & Altun, E. (2017). The Effect of Project-based Science Education Programme on Scientific Process Skills and Conception of Kindergargen Students. 16(3), 395–413. Casey, T., Robertson, J., Abel, J., Cairns, M., Caldwell, L., Campbell, K., … Robertson, T. (2016). Loose Parts Play. Edinburgh. Cheung, R. H. P. (2017). Teacher-directed versus child-centred : the challenge of promoting creativity in Chinese preschool classrooms. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 1366(January), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2016.1217253 Clements, D. H., & Sarama, J. (2016). Math, Science, and Technology in the Early Grades. The Future of Children, 26(2), 75–94. Cloward Drown, K. (2014). Dramatic lay affordances of natural and manufactured outdoor settings for preschoolaged children. Dejarnette, N. K. (2018). Early Childhood Steam: Reflections From a Year of Steam Initiatives Implemented in a High-Needs Primary School. Education, 139(2), 96–112. DiGironimo, N. (2011). What is technology? Investigating student conceptions about the nature of technology. International Journal of Science Education, 33(10), 1337–1352. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2010.495400 Dugger, W. E., & Naik, N. (2001). Clarifying Misconceptions between Technology Education and Educational Technology. The Technology Teacher, 61(1), 31–35. Eeuwijk, P. Van, & Zuzana, A. (2017). How to Conduct a Focus Group Discussion ( FGD ) Methodological Manual. Flannigan, C., & Dietze, B. (2018). Children, Outdoor Play, and Loose Parts. Journal of Childhood Studies, 42(4), 53–60. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs.v42i4.18103 Fleer, M. (1998). The Preparation of Australian Teachers in Technology Education : Developing The Preparation of Australian Teachers in Technology Education : Developing Professionals Not Technicians. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education & Development, 1(2), 25–31. Freitas, H., Oliveira, M., Jenkins, M., & Popjoy, O. (1998). The focus group, a qualitative research method: Reviewing the theory, and providing guidelines to its planning. In ISRC, Merrick School of Business, University of Baltimore (MD, EUA)(Vol. 1). Gomes, J., & Fleer, M. (2019). The Development of a Scientific Motive : How Preschool Science and Home Play Reciprocally Contribute to Science Learning. Research in Science Education, 49(2), 613–634. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-017-9631-5 Goris, T., & Dyrenfurth, M. (n.d.). Students ’ Misconceptions in Science , Technology , and Engineering . Gull, C., Bogunovich, J., Goldstein, S. L., & Rosengarten, T. (2019). Definitions of Loose Parts in Early Childhood Outdoor Classrooms: A Scoping Review. The International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 6(3), 37. Hui, A. N. N., He, M. W. J., & Ye, S. S. (2015). Arts education and creativity enhancement in young children in Hong Kong. Educational Psychology, 35(3), 315–327. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2013.875518 Jarvis, T., & Rennie, L. J. (1996). Perceptions about Technology Held by Primary Teachers in England. Research in Science & Technological Education, 14(1), 43–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/0263514960140104 Jeffers, O. (2004). How to Catch a Star. New York: Philomel Books. Kiewra, C., & Veselack, E. (2016). Playing with nature: Supporting preschoolers’ creativity in natural outdoor classrooms. International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education, 4(1), 70–95. Kuh, L., Ponte, I., & Chau, C. (2013). The impact of a natural playscape installation on young children’s play behaviors. Children, Youth and Environments, 23(2), 49–77. Lachapelle, C. P., Cunningham, C. M., & Oh, Y. (2019). What is technology? Development and evaluation of a simple instrument for measuring children’s conceptions of technology. International Journal of Science Education, 41(2), 188–209. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2018.1545101 Liamputtong. (2010). Focus Group Methodology : Introduction and History. In Focus Group MethodoloGy (pp. 1–14). Liao, C. (2016). From Interdisciplinary to Transdisciplinary: An Arts-Integrated Approach to STEAM Education. 69(6), 44–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2016.1224873 Lindeman, K. W., & Anderson, E. M. (2015). Using Blocks to Develop 21st Century Skills. Young Children, 70(1), 36–43. Maxwell, L., Mitchell, M., and Evans, G. (2008). Effects of play equipment and loose parts on preschool children’s outdoor play behavior: An observational study and design intervention. Children, Youth and Environments, 18(2), 36–63. McClure, E., Guernsey, L., Clements, D., Bales, S., Nichols, J., Kendall-Taylor, N., & Levine, M. (2017). How to Integrate STEM Into Early Childhood Education. Science and Children, 055(02), 8–11. https://doi.org/10.2505/4/sc17_055_02_8 McClure, M., Tarr, P., Thompson, C. M., & Eckhoff, A. (2017). Defining quality in visual art education for young children: Building on the position statement of the early childhood art educators. Arts Education Policy Review, 118(3), 154–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/10632913.2016.1245167 Mishra, L. (2016). Focus Group Discussion in Qualitative Research. TechnoLearn: An International Journal of Educational Technology, 6(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.5958/2249-5223.2016.00001.2 Monhardt, L., & Monhardt, R. (2006). Creating a context for the learning of science process skills through picture books. Early Childhood Education Journal, 34(1), 67–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-006-0108-9 Monsalvatge, L., Long, K., & DiBello, L. (2013). Turning our world of learning inside out! Dimensions of Early Childhood, 41(3), 23–30. Moomaw, S. (2012). STEM begins in the early years. School Science & Mathematics, 112(2), 57–58. Moomaw, S. (2016). Move Back the Clock, Educators: STEM Begins at Birth. School Science & Mathematics, 116(5), 237–238. Moomaw, S., & Davis, J. A. (2010). STEM Comes to Preschool. Young Cihildren, 12–18(September), 12–18. Munawar, M., Roshayanti, F., & Sugiyanti. (2019). Implementation of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics)-Based Early Childhood Education Learning in Semarang City. Jurnal CERIA, 2(5), 276–285. National Research Council. (1996). National Science Education Standards. Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences. Nicholson, S. (1972). The Theory of Loose Parts: An important principle for design methodology. Studies in Design Education Craft & Technology, 4(2), 5–12. O.Nyumba, T., Wilson, K., Derrick, C. J., & Mukherjee, N. (2018). The use of focus group discussion methodology: Insights from two decades of application in conservation. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 9(1), 20–32. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.12860 Padilla-Diaz, M. (2015). Phenomenology in Educational Qualitative Research : Philosophy as Science or Philosophical Science ? International Journal of Educational Excellence, 1(2), 101–110. Padilla, M. J. (1990). The Science Process Skills. Research Matters - to the Science Teacher, 1(March), 1–3. Park, D. Y., Park, M. H., & Bates, A. B. (2018). Exploring Young Children’s Understanding About the Concept of Volume Through Engineering Design in a STEM Activity: A Case Study. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 16(2), 275–294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-016-9776-0 Rahardjo, M. M. (2019). Implementasi Pendekatan Saintifik Sebagai Pembentuk Keterampilan Proses Sains Anak Usia Dini. Scholaria: Jurnal Pendidikan Dan Kebudayaan, 9(2), 148–159. https://doi.org/10.24246/j.js.2019.v9.i2.p148-159 Robison, T. (2016). Male Elementary General Music Teachers : A Phenomenological Study. Journal of Music Teacher Education, 26(2), 77–89. https://doi.org/10.1177/1057083715622019 Rocha Fernandes, G. W., Rodrigues, A. M., & Ferreira, C. A. (2018). Conceptions of the Nature of Science and Technology: a Study with Children and Youths in a Non-Formal Science and Technology Education Setting. Research in Science Education, 48(5), 1071–1106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9599-6 Sawyer, R. K. (2006). Educating for innovation. 1(2006), 41–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2005.08.001 Sharapan, H. (2012). ERIC - From STEM to STEAM: How Early Childhood Educators Can Apply Fred Rogers’ Approach, Young Children, 2012-Jan. Young Children, 67(1), 36–40. Siantayani, Y. (2018). STEAM: Science-Technology-Engineering-Art-Mathematics. Semarang: SINAU Teachers Development Center. Sikder, S., & Fleer, M. (2015). Small Science : Infants and Toddlers Experiencing Science in Everyday Family Life. Research in Science Education, 45(3), 445–464. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-014-9431-0 Smith-gilman, S. (2018). The Arts, Loose Parts and Conversations. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 16(1), 90–103. Sohn, B. K., Thomas, S. P., Greenberg, K. H., & Pollio, H. R. (2017). Hearing the Voices of Students and Teachers : A Phenomenological Approach to Educational Research. 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Introduction The IARC (1987)1 has classified arsenic as a group 1 human carcinogen. Chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic can cause cancerous1-4 and non-cancerous health hazards5,6 in humans. Arsenic can get entry into the human body via drinking water, eating food, inhaling dust, and/or ingesting soil. An important limitation on the scientific understanding of arsenic toxicity is the complexity of arsenic metabolism. Differences in susceptibility to arsenic toxicity might be manifested by differences in arsenic metabolism or in the prevalence of arsenic-associated diseases among people of either gender, ages, nutritional factors, polymorphisms of the arsenic biotransformation genes in different ethnic group7,8 and may other unknown factors. Previous studies indicated that females are less susceptible to the arsenic related skin effects than males9-11. Normally, children do not show skin lesions compared to adults when both are drinking same arsenic contaminated water12. The main organ for arsenic metabolism is the liver, but the metabolic pathway of inorganic arsenic is not yet fully clarified7,8. It was thought that the conversion of iAs into methylated arsenic reduced exposure to this toxic effect; that is, methylation was a detoxification process of iAs 13. But now a days, it is clear that some of the metabolites (trivalent forms) are more toxic than others 14, 15. Trivalent arsenic species are more ready to cross cell membrane and inorganic pentavalent arsenate in mostly reduced to trivalent arsenite in the blood stream before entering the cells for further metabolism16,17. Inorg-As is metabolized in the body by alternating reduction of pentavalent arsenic to trivalent form by enzymes and addition of a methyl group from S-adenosylmethionine7,18; it is excreted mainly in urine as DMA (V)19. Inorganic arsenate [Inorg-As (V)] is biotransformed to Inorg-As (III), MMA (V), MMA (III), DMA (V), and DMA (III) (Fig.)7. Therefore, the study of the toxicology of Inorg-As (V) involves at least these six chemical forms of arsenic. Studies reported the presence of 3+ oxidation state arsenic biotransformants [MMA (III) and DMA (III)] in human urine20 and in animal tissues21. The MMA (III) and DMA (III) are more toxic than other arsenicals22,23. In particular MMA (III) is highly toxic22,23. In increased % MMA in urine has been recognized in arsenic toxicity24. In addition, people with a small % MMA in urine show less retention of arsenic25. Thus, the higher prevalence of toxic effects with increased % MMA in urine could be attributed to the presence of toxic MMA (III) in the tissue. Previous studies also indicated that males are more susceptible to the As related skin effects than females24,26. A study in the U.S population reported that females excreted a lower % Inorg-As as well as % MMA, and a higher % DMA than did males27. Another study in Bangladesh reported that the average total urinary arsenic metabolites in children’s urine is higher than adults and total arsenic excretion per kg body weight is also higher for children than adults 12. It has been observed that inorganic arsenic (In-As) in average is 2.36% and MMA is 6.55% lower for children than adults while DMA is 8.91% (average) higher in children than adults. Figure. Biotransformation of inorganic arsenic. The efficiency of the methylation process is also assessed by the ratio between urinary concentration of putative product and putative substrate of the arsenic metabolic pathway. Higher values mean higher methylation capacity. Results show the values of the MMA/In-As ratio for adults and children are 0.93 and 0.74, respectively 12. These results indicate that first reaction of the metabolic pathway is more active in adults than children. But a significant increase in the values of the DMA/MMA ratio in children than adults of exposed group (8.15 vs. 4.11, respectively) indicates 2nd methylation step is more active in children than adults. It has also been shown that the distribution of the values of DMA/MMA ratio to exposed group decrease with increasing age (2nd methylation process). Thus, from these results we may infer those children retain less arsenic in their body than adults. This may also explain why children do not show skin lesions compared to adults when both are drinking same contaminated water. To date, metal or metalloids that may influence arsenic methylation are largely unknown. A study reported that the concentrations of trace elements (for examples: Se, Mn, Hg, etc.) relative to As in urine and blood were positively correlated with urinary % inorg As as well as % MMA, and negatively correlated with % DMA as well as the ratios of % DMA to % MMA. 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Can Gio mangrove forest (CGM) is located downstream of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), situated between an estuarine system of Dong Nai - Sai Gon river and a part of Vam Co river. The CGM is the largest restored mangrove forest in Vietnam and the UNESCO’s Mangrove Biosphere Reserve. The CGM has been gradually facing to numeric challenges of global climate change, environmental degradation and socio-economic development for the last decades. To evaluate sediment quality in the CGM, we collected 13 cores to analyze for sediment grain size, organic matter content, and trace element concentration of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn. Results showed that trace element concentrations ranged from uncontaminated (Cd, Cu, and Zn) to very minor contaminated (Cr, Ni, and Pb). The concentrations were gradually influenced by suspended particle size and the mangrove plants.ReferencesAnh M.T., Chi D.H., Vinh N.N., Loan T.T., Triet L.M., Slootenb K.B.-V., Tarradellas J., 2003. 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The paper presents research findings with 56 Roma children from Macedonia and Serbia between the ages of 3-6 years. The children’s knowledge of Romani as their mother tongue was assessed with a specially designed test. The test measures the children’s comprehension and production of different types of grammatical knowledge such as wh–questions, wh-complements, passive verbs, possessives, tense, aspect, the ability of the children to learn new nouns and new adjectives, and repetition of sentences. In addition, two pictured narratives about Theory of Mind were given to the children. The hypothesis of the authors was that knowledge of the complex grammatical categories by children will help them to understand better the Theory of Mind stories. The results show that Roma children by the age of 5 know most of the grammatical categories in their mother tongue and most of them understand Theory of Mind. References Bakalar, P. (2004). The IQ of Gypsies in Central Europe. 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Hamsters were exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) in drinking water for 6 days. Equal amounts of proteins from urinary bladder or liver extracts of control and arsenic-treated hamsters were labeled with Cy3 and Cy5 dyes, respectively. After differential in gel electrophoresis and analysis by the DeCyder software, several protein spots were found to be down-regulated and several were up regulated. Our experiments indicated that in the bladder tissues of hamsters exposed to arsenite, transgelin was down-regulated and GST-pi was up-regulated. The loss of transgelin expression has been reported to be an important early event in tumor progression and a diagnostic marker for cancer development [29-32]. Down-regulation of transgelin expression may be associated with the carcinogenicity of inorganic arsenic in the urinary bladder. In the liver of arsenite-treated hamsters, ornithine aminotransferase was up-regulated, and senescence marker protein 30 and fatty acid binding protein were down-regulated. The volume ratio changes of these proteins in the bladder and liver of hamsters exposed to arsenite were significantly different than that of control hamsters. Introduction Chronic exposure to inorganic arsenic can cause cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder, kidneys, and liver [1-6]. The molecular mechanisms of the carcinogenicity and toxicity of inorganic arsenic are not well understood [7-9). Humans chronically exposed to inorganic arsenic excrete MMA(V), DMA(V) and the more toxic +3 oxidation state arsenic biotransformants MMA(III) and DMA (III) in their urine [10, 11], which are carcinogen [12]· After injection of mice with sodium arsenate, the highest concentrations of the very toxic MMA(III) and DMA(III) were in the kidneys and urinary bladder tissue, respectively, as shown by experiments of Chowdhury et al [13]. Many mechanisms of arsenic toxicity and carcinogenicity have been suggested [1, 7, 14] including chromosome abnormalities [15], oxidative stress [16, 17], altered growth factors [18], cell proliferation [19], altered DNA repair [20], altered DNA methylation patterns [21], inhibition of several key enzymes [22], gene amplification [23] etc. Some of these mechanisms result in alterations in protein expression. Methods for analyzing multiple proteins have advanced greatly in the last several years. In particularly, mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem MS (MS/MS) are used to analyze peptides following protein isolation using two-dimensional (2-D) gel electrophoresis and proteolytic digestion [24]. In the present study, Differential In Gel Electrophoresis (DIGE) coupled with Mass Spectrometry (MS) has been used to study some of the proteomic changes in the urinary bladder and liver of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite in their drinking water. Our results indicated that transgelin was down-regulated and GST-pi was up-regulated in the bladder tissues. In the liver tissues ornithine aminotransferase was up-regulated, and senescence marker protein 30, and fatty acid binding protein were down-regulated. Materials and Methods Chemicals Tris, Urea, IPG strips, IPG buffer, CHAPS, Dry Strip Cover Fluid, Bind Silane, lodoacetamide, Cy3 and Cy5 were from GE Healthcare (formally known as Amersham Biosciences, Uppsala, Sweden). Thiourea, glycerol, SDS, DTT, and APS were from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO, USA). Glycine was from USB (Cleveland, OH, USA). Acrylamide Bis 40% was from Bio-Rad (Hercules, CA, USA). All other chemicals and biochemicals used were of analytical grade. All solutions were made with Milli-Q water. Animals Male hamsters (Golden Syrian), 4 weeks of age, were purchased from Harlan Sprague Dawley, USA. Upon arrival, hamsters were acclimated in the University of Arizona animal care facility for at least 1 week and maintained in an environmentally controlled animal facility operating on a 12-h dark/12-h light cycle and at 22-24°C. They were provided with Teklad (Indianapolis, IN) 4% Mouse/Rat Diet # 7001 and water, ad libitum, throughout the acclimation and experimentation periods. Sample preparation and labelling Hamsters were exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg) in drinking water for 6 days and the control hamsters were given tap water. On the 6th day hamsters were decapitated rapidly by guillotine. Urinary bladder tissues and liver were removed, blotted on tissue papers (Kimtech Science, Precision Wipes), and weighed. Hamster urinary bladder or liver tissues were homogenized in lysis buffer (30mMTris, 2M thiourea, 7M urea, and 4% w/w CHAPS adjusted to pH 8.5 with dilute HCI), at 4°C using a glass homogenizer and a Teflon coated steel pestle; transferred to a 5 ml acid-washed polypropylene tube, placed on ice and sonicated 3 times for 15 seconds. The sonicate was centrifuged at 12,000 rpm for 10 minutes at 4°C. Small aliquots of the supernatants were stored at -80°C until use (generally within one week). Protein concentration was determined by the method of Bradford [25] using bovine serum albumin as a standard. Fifty micrograms of lysate protein was labeled with 400 pmol of Cy3 Dye (for control homogenate sample) and Cy5 Dye (for arsenic-treated urinary bladder or liver homogenate sample). The samples containing proteins and dyes were incubated for 30 min on ice in the dark. To stop the labeling reaction, 1uL of 10 mM lysine was added followed by incubation for 10 min on ice in the dark. To each of the appropriate dye-labeled protein samples, an additional 200 ug of urinary bladderor liver unlabeled protein from control hamster sample or arsenic-treated hamster sample was added to the appropriate sample. Differentially labeled samples were combined into a single Microfuge tube (total protein 500 ug); protein was mixed with an equal volume of 2x sample buffer [2M thiourea, 7M urea, pH 3-10 pharmalyte for isoelectric focusing 2% (v/v), DTT 2% (w/v), CHAPS 4% (w/v)]; and was incubated on ice in the dark for 10 min. The combined samples containing 500 ug of total protein were mixed with rehydration buffer [CHAPS 4% (w/v), 8M urea, 13mM DTT, IPG buffer (3-10) 1% (v/v) and trace amount of bromophenol blue]. The 450 ul sample containing rehydration buffer was slowly pipetted into the slot of the ImmobilinedryStripReswelling Tray and any large bubbles were removed. The IPG strip (linear pH 3-10, 24 cm) was placed (gel side down) into the slot, covered with drystrip cover fluid (Fig. 1), and the lid of the Reswelling Tray was closed. The ImmobillineDryStrip was allowed to rehydrate at room temperature for 24 hours. First dimension Isoelectric focusing (IEF) The labeled sample was loaded using the cup loading method on universal strip holder. IEF was then carried out on EttanIPGphor II using multistep protocol (6 hr @ 500 V, 6 hr @ 1000 V, 8 hr @ 8000 V). The focused IPG strip was equilibrated in two steps (reduction and alkylation) by equilibrating the strip for 10 min first in 10 ml of 50mM Tris (pH 8.8), 6M urea, 30% (v/v) glycerol, 2% (w/v) SDS, and 0.5% (w/v) DTT, followed by another 10 min in 10 ml of 50mM Tris (pH 8.8), 6M urea, 30% (v/v) glycerol, 2% (w/v) SDS, and 4.5% (w/v) iodoacetamide to prepare it for the second dimension electrophoresis. Second dimension SDS-PAGE The equilibrated IPG strip was used for protein separation by 2D-gel electrophoresis (DIGE). The strip was sealed at the top of the acrylamide gel for the second dimension (vertical) (12.5% polyacrylamide gel, 20x25 cm x 1.5 mm) with 0.5% (w/v) agarose in SDS running buffer [25 mMTris, 192 mM Glycine, and 0.1% (w/v) SDS]. Electrophoresis was performed in an Ettan DALT six electrophoresis unit (Amersham Biosciences) at 1.5 watts per gel, until the tracking dye reached the anodic end of the gel. Image analysis and post-staining The gel then was imaged directly between glass plates on the Typhoon 9410 variable mode imager (Sunnyvale, CA, USA) using optimal excitation/emission wavelength for each DIGE fluor: Cy3 (532/580 nm) and Cy5 (633/670 nm). The DIGE images were previewed and checked with Image Quant software (GE Healthcare) where all the two separate gel images could be viewed as a single gel image. DeCyde v.5.02 was used to analyze the DIGE images as described in the Ettan DIGE User Manual (GE Healthcare). The appropriate up-/down regulated spots were filtered based on an average volume ratio of ± over 1.2 fold. After image acquisition, the gel was fixed overnight in a solution containing 40% ethanol and 10% acetic acid. The fixed gel was stained with SyproRuby (BioRad) according to the manufacturer protocol (Bio-Rad Labs., 2000 Alfred Nobel Drive, Hercules, CA 94547). Identification of proteins by MS Protein spot picking and digestion Sypro Ruby stained gels were imaged using an Investigator ProPic and HT Analyzer software, both from Genomic Solutions (Ann Arbor, MI). Protein spots of interest that matched those imaged using the DIGE Cy3/Cy5 labels were picked robotically, digested using trypsin as described previously [24] and saved for mass spectrometry identification. Liquid chromatography (LC)- MS/MS analysis LC-MS/MS analyses were carried out using a 3D quadrupole ion trap massspectrometer (ThermoFinnigan LCQ DECA XP PLUS; ThermoFinnigan, San Jose, CA) equipped with a Michrom Paradigm MS4 HPLC (MichromBiosources, Auburn, CA) and a nanospray source, or with a linear quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer (ThermoFinnigan LTQ), also equipped with a Michrom MS4 HPLC and a nanospray source. Peptides were eluted from a 15 cm pulled tip capillary column (100 um I.D. x 360 um O.D.; 3-5 um tip opening) packed with 7 cm Vydac C18 (Vydac, Hesperia, CA) material (5 µm, 300 Å pore size), using a gradient of 0-65% solvent B (98% methanol/2% water/0.5% formic acid/0.01% triflouroacetic acid) over a 60 min period at a flow rate of 350 nL/min. The ESI positive mode spray voltage was set at 1.6 kV, and the capillary temperature was set at 200°C. Dependent data scanning was performed by the Xcalibur v 1.3 software on the LCQ DECA XP+ or v 1.4 on the LTQ [27], with a default charge of 2, an isolation width of 1.5 amu, an activation amplitude of 35%, activation time of 50 msec, and a minimal signal of 10,000 ion counts (100 ion counts on the LTQ). Global dependent data settings were as follows: reject mass width of 1.5 amu, dynamic exclusion enabled, exclusion mass width of 1.5 amu, repeat count of 1, repeat duration of a min, and exclusion duration of 5 min. Scan event series were included one full scan with mass range of 350-2000 Da, followed by 3 dependent MS/MS scans of the most intense ion. Database searching Tandem MS spectra of peptides were analyzed with Turbo SEQUEST, version 3.1 (ThermoFinnigan), a program that allows the correlation of experimental tandem MS data with theoretical spectra generated from known protein sequences. All spectra were searched against the latest version of the non redundant protein database from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI 2006; at that time, the database contained 3,783,042 entries). Statistical analysis The means and standard error were calculated. The Student's t-test was used to analyze the significance of the difference between the control and arsenite exposed hamsters. P values less than 0.05 were considered significant. The reproducibility was confirmed in separate experiments. Results Analysis of proteins expression After DIGE (Fig. 1), the gel was scanned by a Typhoon Scanner and the relative amount of protein from sample 1 (treated hamster) as compared to sample 2 (control hamster) was determined (Figs. 2, 3). A green spot indicates that the amount of protein from sodium arsenite-treated hamster sample was less than that of the control sample. A red spot indicates that the amount of protein from the sodium arsenite-treated hamster sample was greater than that of the control sample. A yellow spot indicates sodium arsenite-treated hamster and control hamster each had the same amount of that protein. Several protein spots were up-regulated (red) or down-regulated (green) in the urinary bladder samples of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) for 6 days as compared with the urinary bladder of controls (Fig. 2). In the case of liver, several protein spots were also over-expressed (red) or under-expressed (green) for hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) in drinking water for 6 days (Fig. 3). The urinary bladder samples were collected from the first and second experiments in which hamsters were exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) in drinking water for 6 days and the controls were given tap water. The urinary bladder samples from the 1st and 2nd experiments were run 5 times in DIGE gels on different days. The protein expression is shown in Figure 2 and Table 1. The liver samples from the 1st and 2nd experiments were also run 3 times in DIGE gels on different days. The proteins expression were shown in Figure 3 and Table 2. The volume ratio changed of the protein spots in the urinary bladder and liver of hamsters exposed to arsenite were significantly differences than that of the control hamsters (Table 1 and 2). Protein spots identified by LC-MS/MS Bladder The spots of interest were removed from the gel, digested, and their identities were determined by LC-MS/MS (Fig. 2 and Table 1). The spots 1, 2, & 3 from the gel were analyzed and were repeated for the confirmation of the results (experiments; 173 mg As/L). The proteins for the spots 1, 2, and 3 were identified as transgelin, transgelin, and glutathione S-transferase Pi, respectively (Fig. 2). Liver We also identified some of the proteins in the liver samples of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) in drinking water for 6 days (Fig. 3). The spots 4, 5, & 6 from the gels were analyzed and were repeated for the confirmation of the results. The proteins for the spots 4, 5, and 6 were identified as ornithine aminotransferase, senescence marker protein 30, and fatty acid binding protein, respectively (Fig. 3) Discussion The identification and functional assignment of proteins is helpful for understanding the molecular events involved in disease. Weexposed hamsters to sodium arsenite in drinking water. Controls were given tap water. DIGE coupled with LC-MS/MS was then used to study the proteomic change in arsenite-exposed hamsters. After electrophoresis DeCyder software indicated that several protein spots were down-regulated (green) and several were up-regulated (red). Our overall results as to changes and functions of the proteins we have studied are summarized in Table 3. Bladder In the case of the urinary bladder tissue of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite (173 mg As/L) in drinking water for 6 days, transgelin was down-regulated and GST-pi was up-regulated. This is the first evidence that transgelin is down-regulated in the bladders of animals exposed to sodium arsenite. Transgelin, which is identical to SM22 or WS3-10, is an actin cross linking/gelling protein found in fibroblasts and smooth muscle [28, 29]. It has been suggested that the loss of transgelin expression may be an important early event in tumor progression and a diagnostic marker for cancer development [30-33]. It may function as a tumor suppressor via inhibition of ARA54 (co-regulator of androgen receptor)-enhanced AR (androgen receptor) function. Loss of transgelin and its suppressor function in prostate cancer might contribute to the progression of prostate cancer [30]. Down-regulation of transgelin occurs in the urinary bladders of rats having bladder outlet obstruction [32]. Ras-dependent and Ras-independent mechanisms can cause the down regulation of transgelin in human breast and colon carcinoma cell lines and patient-derived tumorsamples [33]. Transgelin plays a role in contractility, possibly by affecting the actin content of filaments [34]. In our experiments loss of transgelin expression may be associated or preliminary to bladder cancer due to arsenic exposure. Arsenite is a carcinogen [1]. In our experiments, LC-MS/MS analysis showed that two spots (1 and 2) represent transgelin (Fig. 2 and Table 1). In human colonic neoplasms there is a loss of transgelin expression and the appearance of transgelin isoforms (31). GST-pi protein was up-regulated in the bladders of the hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite. GSTs are a large family of multifunctional enzymes involved in the phase II detoxification of foreign compounds [35]. The most abundant GSTS are the classes alpha, mu, and pi classes [36]. They participate in protection against oxidative stress [37]. GST-omega has arsenic reductase activity [38]. Over-expression of GST-pi has been found in colon cancer tissues [39]. Strong expression of GST-pi also has been found in gastric cancer [40], malignant melanoma [41], lung cancer [42], breast cancer [43] and a range of other human tumors [44]. GST-pi has been up-regulated in transitional cell carcinoma of human urinary bladder [45]. Up-regulation of glutathione – related genes and enzyme activities has been found in cultured human cells by sub lethal concentration of inorganic arsenic [46]. There is evidence that arsenic induces DNA damage via the production of ROS (reactive oxygen species) [47]. GST-pi may be over-expressed in the urinary bladder to protect cells against arsenic-induced oxidative stress. Liver In the livers of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite, ornithine amino transferase was over-expressed, senescence marker protein 30 was under-expressed, and fatty acid binding protein was under-expressed. Ornithine amino transferase has been found in the mitochondria of many different mammalian tissues, especially liver, kidney, and small intestine [48]. Ornithine amino transferase knockdown inhuman cervical carcinoma and osteosarcoma cells by RNA interference blocks cell division and causes cell death [49]. It has been suggested that ornithine amino transferase has a role in regulating mitotic cell division and it is required for proper spindle assembly in human cancer cells [49]. Senescence marker protein-30 (SMP30) is a unique enzyme that hydrolyzes diisopropylphosphorofluoridate. SMP30, which is expressed mostly in the liver, protects cells against various injuries by stimulating membrane calcium-pump activity [50]. SMP30 acts to protect cells from apoptosis [51]. In addition it protects the liver from toxic agents [52]. The livers of SMP30 knockout mice accumulate phosphatidylethanolamine, cardiolipin, phosphatidyl-choline, phosphatidylserine, and sphingomyelin [53]. Liver fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP) also was down- regulated. Decreased liver fatty acid-binding capacity and altered liver lipid distribution hasbeen reported in mice lacking the L-FABP gene [54]. High levels of saturated, branched-chain fatty acids are deleterious to cells and animals, resulting in lipid accumulation and cytotoxicity. The expression of fatty acid binding proteins (including L-FABP) protected cells against branched-chain saturated fatty acid toxicity [55]. Limitations: we preferred to study the pronounced spots seen in DIGE gels. Other spots were visible but not as pronounced. Because of limited funds, we did not identify these others protein spots. In conclusion, urinary bladders of hamsters exposed to sodium arsenite had a decrease in the expression of transgelin and an increase in the expression of GST-pi protein. Under-expression of transgelin has been found in various cancer systems and may be associated with arsenic carcinogenicity [30-33). Inorganic arsenic exposure has resulted in bladder cancer as has been reported in the past [1]. Over-expression of GST-pi may protect cells against oxidative stress caused by arsenite. In the liver OAT was up regulated and SMP-30 and FABP were down regulated. These proteomic results may be of help to investigators studying arsenic carcinogenicity. The Superfund Basic Research Program NIEHS Grant Number ES 04940 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences supported this work. Additional support for the mass spectrometry analyses was provided by grants from NIWHS ES06694, NCI CA023074 and the BIOS Institute of the University of Arizona. Acknowledgement The Author wants to dedicate this paper to the memory of his former supervisor Dr. H. VaskenAposhian who passed away in September 6, 2019. He was an emeritus professor of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Arizona. 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This study aims at developing a regional algorithm to quantify chlorophyll-a concentration (Chla) in the Thac Ba Reservoir surface-water using Landsat 8 imagery basing on in-situ data of Chla and above-water reflectance taken in both dry and rainy seasons 2018. In situ datasets obtained from 30 water sampling sites show a strong correlation (R2=0.73) with the reflectance ratio of two Landsat 8 (L8) bands, the green band (band 3: B3) versus the red band (band 4: B4), B3 / B4, by an exponential equation. The algorithm for estimating Chla using this ratio was well-matched up the validation using multiple-dates in-situ datasets (R2 = 0.82; RMSE ~ 5%) and was then applied to L8 images level 2 acquired in both dry and rainy seasons to understand the spatiotemporal distribution of Chla over the reservoir. Obtained maps of Chla present clearly two trends: (1) Chla in the reservoir water in the dry season (averaged at 15.3 mg/m3) is relatively lower than those in the rainy season (averaged at 17.0 mg/m3); (2) In both seasons, Chla increased from water area in front of the Chay River mouth to the center of the reservoir. The algorithm and method outlined in this study could be applied to monitoring Chl in other inland waters having similar features as the Thac Ba Reservoir water.ReferencesAPHA, 1998. Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 20th edition. American Public Health Association, Washington DC, 1220p.Bac N.A., Viet N.D., Ha N.T.T., Huong H.T.T., 2017. Identifying eutrophication status of shallow waters based on estimated trophic state index from satellite data. Journal of Science and Technology, 55(4C), 85-89.Bernardo N., Watanabe F., Rodrigues T., Alcântara E., 2017. 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A comprehensive review on water quality parameters estimation using remote sensing techniques. Sensors, 16(8), 1298.Gitelson A., Stark R., Oron G., Dor I., 1997. Monitoring of polluted water bodies by remote sensing. IAHS Publications-Series of Proceedings and Reports-Intern Assoc Hydrological Sciences, 242, 181-188.Ha N.T.T., Koike K., 2011. Integrating satellite imagery and geostatistics of point samples for monitoring spatio-temporal changes of total suspended solids in bay waters: application to Tien Yen Bay (Northern Vietnam). Frontiers of Earth Science, 5(3), 305.Kutser T., 2009. Passive optical remote sensing of cyanobacteria and other intense phytoplankton blooms in coastal and inland waters. International Journal of Remote Sensing, 30(17), 4401-4425.Kutser T., 2012. The possibility of using the Landsat image archive for monitoring long time trends in coloured dissolved organic matter concentration in lake waters. 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Remote sensing of chlorophyll-a as a measure of cyanobacterial biomass in Lake Bogoria, a hypertrophic, saline-alkaline, flamingo lake, using Landsat ETM+. Remote Sensing of Environment, 135, 92-106.Thuy D.B., Canh B.D., Ha N.T.T., Thao N.T.P., Nhi B.T., 2016. Modeling spatial distribution of total suspended solids concentration in Ha Long Bay water during the first quarter of 2016 using co-kriging interpolation and auxiliary data from Landsat 8 imagery. Proceeding of the 7th International Symposium Hanoi Geoengineering 2016 on Energy and Sustainability, Hanoi, October 21-22, 148-153.Tiwari S.P., Shanmugam P., Ahn Y.H., Ryu J.H., 2012. A Reflectance Model for Relatively Clear and Turbid Waters. Engineering, Technology & Applied Science Research, 3(1), 325-337.UNEP, 2014. Review of existing water quality guidelines for freshwater ecosystems and application of water quality guidelines on basin level to protect ecosystems. 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06–701Boon, Andrew (Toyo Gakuen U, Japan; bromleycross@ hotmail.com), The search for irony: A textual analysis of the lyrics of ‘Ironic’ by Alanis Morissette. The Reading Matrix (Readingmatrix.com) 5.2 (2005), 129–142.06–702Brantmeir, Cindy (Washington U, USA; cbrantme@wustle.edu), The effects of language of assessment and L2 reading performance on advanced readers' recall. The Reading Matrix (Readingmatrix.com) 6.1 (2006), 1–17.06–703Brooks, Wanda (Temple U, Philadelphia, USA), Reading representations of themselves: Urban youth use culture and African American textual features to develop literary understandings. Reading Research Quarterly (International Reading Association) 41.3 (2006), 372–392.06–704Burns, Eila (Jyvaskyla U of Applied Sciences, Finland; eila.burns@jypoly.fi), Pause, prompt and praise – Peer tutored reading for pupils with learning difficulties. British Journal of Special Education (Blackwell) 33.2 (2006), 62–67.06–705Carlisle, Joanne F. & C. 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Equitable care has been recognized as one of the six core components of quality for over two decades, yet scant attention has been paid to understand and address healthcare disparities in the US. There is long-standing evidence of substantial health disparities and poor health outcomes along race, ethnicity and income levels in the US. The COVID-19 pandemic both exacerbated and exposed these inequities and catalyzed a national imperative to achieve equitable healthcare. The objective of this article is to provide a case study of a resource-challenged safety net hospital’s journey to advance health equity in Chicago. Humboldt Park Health (HPH) is a 200-bed independent community teaching hospital located on the West side of Chicago serving a multiracial, multilingual and socioeconomically disadvantaged population. Our journey started with the formation of a multidisciplinary health equity committee in 2021, reporting to the Board of Trustees, that was charged with formulating a strategy, developing an evidence-based framework and priorities for action, and implementing the action plan. We addressed four groups of stakeholders: our patients, our people, our organization, and our community. Our actions to advance equity have included (a) collection of patients’ demographic data such as race, ethnicity, language, sexual orientation, and gender identity; (b) assessment of social determinants of health (SDOH) along with connecting patients with social services; (c) the development of health disparities dashboards for various ambulatory preventive measures for stratification of quality data along race, ethnicity and language; (d) focus on LGBTQ+ community’s access to well-informed and sensitivity-trained behavioral health service providers, and (e) organization-wide training to embed the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusivity in the fabric of the organization. Other initiatives include the building of a community wellness center and a 100-unit affordable housing complex in the community. Digital health equity is an important domain that is being addressed by the launch of a patient portal to empower patients by providing them access to their information, and remote patient monitoring solutions. The next phase of our work involves evaluation studies to understand the impact of our interventions on health disparities and outcomes in our community.

Abstract: Nowadays, Vietnamese women are participating actively in parts of the economy that were previously deemed male domain. Women are involved in business activities at all levels in Vietnam, making significant contributions to the economic development of the country. By December 2011, there were 81,226 small and medium enterprises headed by women, accounting for 25% of the total number of enterprises in the country (GSO, 2013). In Vietnam, despite recent economic development, socio-cultural and legal barriers are still very difficult for women since the general perception in society is that a woman’s main duty is to be a good housewife and mother and they are also often perceived as weak, passive and irrational (VWEC, 2007). Even though the studies related to women entrepreneurship development are quite extensive, amongst them only a limited number of researches on the role of legal and socio - cultural barriers on women entrepreneurs in the context of Vietnam have been investigated. Thus, supported by the World Trade Institute (WTI) in Bern, Switzerland, the researchers have chosen this as the subject of this study. Based on a quantitative survey of 110 companies in Hanoi and adjacent areas, the research has taken legal and socio - cultural barriers and explored their effect on the development of women entrepreneurship in the context of Vietnam in order to indicate how women entrepreneurs perceive the impact of socio-cultural factors, economic impacts, and policy reforms on their entrepreneurial situations and initiatives, and to then provide policy implications for promoting women’s entrepreneurship and gender equality in Vietnam. 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Vienna, Austria.Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council (2007) Women’s entrepreneurship development in Vietnam. International Labor Organization, Vietnam.Vuong, H., and Tran, D. (2009) ‘The Cultural Dimensions of the Vietnamese Private Entrepreneurship’, The IUP Journal of Entrepreneurship Development, 6 (3 & 4), pp. 54 – 78.VWEC (2007), Women’s Entrepreneurship Development in Vietnam, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) Report, Vietnam Women Entrepreneurs Council, available at: www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@asia/@ro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_100456.pdf Williamson, O. (2000) ‘The New Institutional Economics: Taking Stock, Looking ahead’, Economic Literature, 38, pp. 595 – 693.World Bank (2011a) ‘Vietnam Country Gender Assessment’. USA: World Bank. Available at: http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2011/11/15470188/vietnam-country-gender-assessment [Accessed 7 December 2015]. World Bank (2011b). Vietnam development report 2012: Market economy for a middle- income Vietnam, Washington DC: The World Bank.World Bank (2012), Vietnam Country Gender Assessment, World Bank Country Office, HanoiWorld Bank (2015), World Bank Database, Available at: http://data.worldbank.org/country/vietnam [Accessed 9 December 2015].World Development Indicators (WDI) (2012), The World Bank, Washington, DC.Zhu, L., Kara, O., Chu, H.M.,Chu, A. (2015), ‘Women entrepreneurship: Evidence from Vietnam’, Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, vol. 26, no. 3, pp. 103-128 lity in Vietnam.

Despite the fact that the green wave has spread globally over the hotel industry, the characteristics of an environmentally friendly tourist has not yet been clearly clarified and is still controversial. Therefore, the objective of this study is to describe the demographics and behavioral qualities of Vietnamese domestic tourists who are willing patrons in a green hotel. The results show that the distinguishing characteristics of green travelers seeking green lodging are that they belong to the young generation, are female, have high educational accomplishment, and have high levels of participation in daily eco-friendly activities. Keywords: Green tourist, environmentally friendly, demographic, involvement. 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In Seaton, A. V. and Bennett, M. M. (Eds.), Marketing tourism products: Concepts, issues, cases, (1996), London: Thomson Business Press, pp. 28-54.[14] Legoherel, P., “Toward a market segmentation of the tourism trade: Expenditure levels and consumer behavior instability”, Journal of Travel and Tourism Marketing, 7 (1998) 3, 19-39.[15] Mok, C., and Iverson, T., “Expenditure-based segmentation: Taiwanese tourist to Guam”, Tourism Management, 21 (2000) 3, 299-305.[16] Jackson, M., Inbakaran, R., and Schmierer, C., Rationalizing personality typologies in tourism? A lexical analysis, In Aicken, M. and Ryan, C. (Eds), Taking Tourism to the Limits Refereed Research Papers, (2003), University of Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand, 338-360.[17] Inbakaran, R., and Jackson, M., “Understanding resort visitors through segmentation”, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 6 (2005) 1, 53-71.[18] Dimanche F., Havitz, M., and Howard, D., “Testing the involvement profile scale in the context of selected recreational and touristic activities”, Journal of Leisure Research, 23 (1991) 1, 51-66.[19] Wu, S., “An experimental study on the relationship between consumer involvement and advertising effectiveness”, Asis Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 13 (2001) 1, 43-56.[20] Zaichkowsky, J., “Measuring the involvement construct”, Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (1985), 341-352.[21] Lee, M., and Lou, Y., “Consumer reliance on intrinsic and extrinsic cues in product evaluations: A conjoint approach”, Journal of Applied Business Research, 12 (1995) 1, 21-28.[22] Amendah, E. and Park, J., “Consumer involvement and psychological antecedents on eco-friendly destinations: Willingness to pay more”, Journal of Hospitality and Leisure Marketing, 17 (2008) 3-4, 262-283.[23] Shrum, L., McCarty, J., and Lowrey, T., “Buyer characteristics of the green consumer and their implications for advertising strategy”, Journal of Advertising, 24 (1995) 2, 71-82.[24] Laroche, M., Bergeron, J., and Barbaro-Forleo, G., “Targeting consumers who are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, 18 (2001) 6, 503-520.[25] Dolnicar, S. B., “Commonsense segmentation - A systematics of segmentation approaches in tourism”, Journal of Travel Research, 42 (2004) 3, 244-250.[26] Fairweather, J. R., Maslin, C., and Simmons, D. G., “Environmental Values and Response to Ecolabels Among International Visitors to New Zealand”, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 13 (2005) 1, 82-98.[27] Saad, G., and Gill, T., “Application of evolutionary psychology in marketing”, Psychology and Marketing, 17 (2000) 12, 1005-1034.[28] Eagly, A. H. , Sex differences in social behavior: A social-role interpretation, (1987), Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum.[29] Konrad, A. M., Corrigall, E., Lieb, P., and Edgar Ritchie, J., “Sex Differences in Job Attribute Preferences among Managers and Business Students”, Group and Organization Management, 25 (2000) 2, 108-131.[30] McIntyre, R. P., Meloche, M. S., and Lewis, S. L., “National culture as a macro tool for environmental sensitivity segmentation”. In: Cravens, D. W., Dickson, P. R. (Eds.), AMA Summer Educators’ Conference Proceedings 4, (1993), American Marketing Association, Chicago, pp. 153-159.[31] Banerjee, B. and McKeage, K., “How green is my value: exploring the relationship between environmentalism and materialism”. In: Allen, C. T., John, D. R. (Eds.), Advances in Consumer Research 22. (1994), Association for Consumer Research, Provo, UT, pp. 147–152.[32] Homburg, C., and Giering, A., “Personal characteristics as moderators of the relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty: an empirical analysis”, Psychology and Marketing, 18 (2001) 1, 43-66.[33] Im, S., Bayus, B. L., and Mason, C. H., “An empirical study of innate consumer innovativeness, personal characteristics, and new-product adoption behavior”, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 31 (2003) 1, 61-73.[34] Evanschitzky, H., and Wunderlich, M., “An examination of moderator effects: the four stage loyalty model”, Journal of Service Research, 8 (2006) 4, 330-345.[35] Wilson, M. A., ‘Nature Oriented Tourism in Ecuador: Assessment of Industry Structure and Development Needs’, FPEI Working Paper No. 20. Research Triangle Park, (1987), NC: Southeast Center for Forest. [36] Meric, H. J., and Hunt, J., “Ecotourists’ Motivational and Demographic Characteristics: A Case of North Carolina Travelers”, Journal of Travel Research, 36 (1998), 57-61.[37] Gilly, M. C., and Zeithaml, V. A., “The elderly consumer and adoption of technologies”, Journal of Consumer Research, 12 (1985), 353-357.[38] Keaveney, S. M., and Parthasarathy, M., “Customer switching behavior in online services: an exploratory study of the role of selected attitudinal, behavioral, and demographic factors”, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 29 (2001) 4, 374-390.[39] Henion, K. E., “The effect of ecologically relevant information on detergent sales”, Journal of Marketing Research, 9 (1972), 10-14.[40] Roberts, J. A., “Green consumers in the 1990s: profile and implications for advertising”, Journal of Business Research, 36 (1996), 217-231.[41] Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao, “The Relationship between Eco-friendly Practices and Attitudes toward Green Hotels for Domestic Tourists”, VNU Journal of Science: Economics and Business, 33 (2017) 2, 101-111[42] Han, H., Hsu, L., and Lee, J., “Empirical investigation of the roles of attitudes toward green behaviors, overall image, gender, and age in hotel customers’ eco-friendly decision-making process”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28 (2009) 4, 519-528.

During April and May 2006, an archeological team from the Cultural Resources Section of the Planning, Permitting and Licensing Practice of TRC Environmental Corporation’s (TRC) Austin office conducted geoarcheological documentation and data recovery excavations at prehistoric site 41TV2161 (CSJ: 0440-06-006). Investigations were restricted to a 70 centimeter (cm) thick target zone between ca. 220 and 290 cm below surface (bs) on the western side of site 41TV2161 – the Big Hole site in eastern Travis County, Texas. This cultural investigation was necessary under the requirements of Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), the implementing regulations of 36CRF Part 800 and the Antiquities Code of Texas (Texas Natural Resource Code, Title 9, Chapter 191 as amended) to recover a sample of the significant cultural materials prior to destruction by planned construction of State Highway 130 (SH 130). The latter by a private construction firm – Lone Star Infrastructure. This necessary data recovery was for Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), Environmental (ENV) Affairs Division under a Scientific Services Contract No. 577XXSA003 (Work Authorization No. 57701SA003). Over the years since the original award, multiple work authorizations between TxDOT and TRC were implemented and completed towards specific aspects of the analyses and reporting. The final analyses and report were conducted under contract 57-3XXSA004 (Work Authorization 57-311SA004). All work was under Texas Antiquities Committee Permit No. 4064 issued by the Texas Historical Commission (THC) to J. Michael Quigg. Initially, an archeological crew from Hicks & Company encountered site 41TV2161 during an intensive cultural resource inventory conducted south of Pearce Lane along the planned construction zone of SH 130 in the fall of 2005. Following the initial site discovery, archeologists expanded their investigations to the west across the SH 130 right-of-way, and completed excavation of 10 backhoe trenches, 13 shovel tests, and 11 test units at site 41TV2161. The investigations encountered at least seven buried cultural features and 1,034 artifacts, some in relatively good context. The survey and testing report to TxDOT presented their findings and recommendations (Campbell et al. 2006). The ENV Affairs Division of TxDOT and the THC reviewed the initial findings and recommendations, and determined site 41TV2161 was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places and as State Antiquities Landmark as the proposed roadway development was to directly impact this important site and further excavations were required. Subsequently, TRC archeologists led by Paul Matchen (Project Archeologist) and J. Michael Quigg (Principal Investigator) initiated data recovery excavations through the mechanical-removal of between 220 and 250 cm of sediment from a 30-by-40 meter (m) block area (roughly 3,000 m3). This was conducted to allow hand-excavations to start just above the deeply buried, roughly 70 cm thick targeted zone of cultural material. Mechanical stripping by Lone Star Infrastructure staff created a large hole with an irregular bottom that varied between 220 and 260 cmbs. To locate specific areas to initiate hand-excavations within the mechanically stripped area, a geophysical survey that employed ground penetrating radar (GPR) was conducted by Tiffany Osburn then with Geo-Marine in Plano, Texas. Over a dozen electronic anomalies were detected through the GPR investigation. Following processing, data filtering, and assessment, Osburn identified and ranked the anomalies for investigation. The highest ranked anomalies (1 through 8) were thought to have the greatest potential to represent cultural features. Anomalies 1 through 6 were selected and targeted through hand-excavations of 1-by-1 m units that formed continuous excavation blocks of various sizes. Blocks were designated A, B, C, D, E, and F. The type, nature, quantity, and context of encountered cultural materials in each block led the direction and expansion of each excavation block as needed. In total, TRC archeologists hand-excavated 38.5 m3 (150 m2) from a vertically narrow target zone within this deep, multicomponent and stratified prehistoric site. Hand-excavation in the two largest Blocks, B and D (51 m2 and 62 m2 respectively), revealed two vertically separate cultural components between roughly 220 and 290 cmbs. The younger component was restricted to Block B and yielded a Bell/Andice point and point base, plus a complete Big Sandy point. These points were associated with at least eight small burned rock features, one cluster of ground stone tools, limited quantities of lithic debitage, few formal chipped and ground stone tools, and a rare vertebrate faunal assemblage. Roughly 20 to 25 cm below the Bell/Andice component in Block B and across Block D was a component identified by a single corner-notched Martindale dart point. This point was associated with a scattered burned rocks, three charcoal stained hearth features, scattered animal, bird, and fish bones, mussel shells, and less than a dozen formal chipped and ground stone tools. Both identified components contained cultural materials in good stratigraphic context with high spatial integrity. Significant, both were radiocarbon dated by multiple charcoal samples to a narrow 200-year period between 5250 and 5450 B.P. during the middle Holocene. With exception of the well-preserved faunal assemblages, perishable materials were poorly preserved in the moist silty clay loam. Charcoal lacked structure and was reduced to dark stains. Microfossils (e.g., phytoliths and starch gains) were present, although in very limited numbers and deteriorated conditions. The four much smaller Blocks (A, C, E, and F) yielded various quantities of cultural material and features, but these blocks also lacked sufficient charcoal dates and diagnostic artifacts Those artifacts and samples were left unassigned and analyzed separately from the Bell/Andice and Martindale components. The two well-defined components in Blocks B and D are the focus of this technical report. The components provide very significant data towards understanding rare and poorly understood hunter-gatherer populations during late stages of the Altithermal climate period. This final report builds upon the interim report submitted to TxDOT (Quigg et al. 2007) that briefly described the methods, excavations, preliminary findings, initial results from six feasibility studies, and proposed an initial research design for data analyses. Context and integrity of the cultural materials in the two identified components was excellent. This rare circumstance combined with detailed artifact analyses, solid documentation of their ages through multiple radiocarbon dates, and multidisciplinary approach to analyses, allowed significant insights and contributions concerning the two populations involved. Results provide a greater understanding of human behaviors during a rarely identified time in Texas Prehistory. The cultural materials and various collected samples were temporarily curated at TRC’s Austin laboratory. Following completion of analyses and acceptance of this final report, the artifacts, paper records, photographs, and electronic database were permanently curated at the Center for Archaeological Studies (CAS) at Texas State University in San Marcos.

<p align="center"><strong>DETERMINATION OF ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY IN COLOR PLANT EXTRACTS <em>IN VITRO</em></strong></p><p align="center"><strong>G.R. Lamazian, I.M. Sytnik, P.A. Chernovol, I.S. Chekman, M.V. Khaitovych</strong></p><p align="center">Bogomolets National Medical University, Kyiv</p><p><strong>Introduction.</strong> To date, the relationship between free radical oxidation and the development of most pathological processes - endocrinology and cardiovascular diseases is proved. Modern living conditions, the negative impact of environmental factors, emotional stresses, genetic factors - all these are a prerequisite for initiating redox balance disturbances in the body. A key role in this regard belongs to reactive oxygen species (ROS), which cause development of oxidative stress (OS). Recently, the antioxidant properties of medicinal plants (MP) in the prevention and correction of the OS are actively studied. It is commonly known that MP is a source of polyphenolic compounds - powerful natural antioxidants that inhibit free radical oxidation chain reaction through inhibition of oxidative enzymes, the formation of metal chelates or neutralization of radicals.</p><p>The aim of this work was to study the antioxidant activity (AOA) of <em>Hypericum perforatum (L.)</em> and <em>Citrullus colocynthis (L.) Shrad.</em> extracts on the model of superoxide radical inhibition <em>in vitro.</em></p><p><strong>Investigation methods.</strong> Determination of AOA was carried out spectrophotometrically according to the change in absorbance of studied extracts in a model test system of adrenaline autoxidation in an alkaline medium at a wavelength of 340 nm. Assessment of AOA was conducted by the degree of inhibition of superoxide radical, taking into account the impact of extracts’ color that absorbs certain wavelength in the visible spectrum.</p><p><strong>Results and discussion.</strong> Investigated extracts show high AOA in a range of all concentrations, preventing the formation of superoxide radical in vitro. It was somewhat higher in <em>H. perforatum</em> versus <em>C. colocynthis.</em> It should be noted that the AOA of extracts depends on their concentration. The highest value of AOA for <em>H. perforatum</em> (95,77%) is detected at a concentration of 0.5 mg/ml. <em>C. colocynthis</em> showed maximum AOA (88.62%) at a concentration of 0,5˟10-3 mg/ml.</p><p>Values of absorbance after ten minutes exposure indicate that with time the AOA of extracts decreases due to their multi-component composition and interinfluence of biologically active substances, which can be both antagonists and synergists.</p><p>It is known that the antioxidant effect of MP is achieved due to nonenzymatic molecules represented mainly by polyphenolic compounds – flavonoids, phenolcarbonic acids, catechins, stilbenes etc. Activation of cell protective mechanisms by plants polyphenols significantly reduces the manifestations of the OS. Thus, a number of epidemiological and experimental studies indicate that regular action of natural polyphenols improves the quality of patients’ lives with diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, hypertension, metabolic syndrome.</p><p><strong>Conclusions. </strong></p><p>1. In was established that the plant extracts of <em>H. perforatum (L.)</em> and <em>C. colocynthis (L.) Shrad.</em> possess AOA in a range of all concentrations.</p><p>2. Extracts activity depends on the concentration. The highest value of AOA for <em>H. perforatum</em> (95,77%) is detected at a concentration of 0.5 mg/ml and <em>for C. colocynthis </em>(88.62%) - at a concentration of 0,5˟10-3 mg/ml.</p><p>3. The decrease in AOA with time (10 minutes exposure) was revealed, which may be due to the interinfluence of biologically active substances in extracts.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>1. Significance of antioxidant potential of plants and its relevance to therapeutic applications / D. M. Kasote, S. S. Katyare, M. V. Hegde [et al.] // International Journal of Biological Sciences. – 2015. – Vol. 11, № 8. – P. 982–991.</p><p>2. Chemical and molecular mechanisms of antioxidants: experimental approaches and model systems/ Jian-Ming Lüa, P. H. Lin, Q. Yao [at al.] // J Cell Mol Med. – 2010. – Vol.14, № 4. – P.840–860.</p><p>3. Upadhyay S. Role of polyphenols and other phytochemicals on molecular signaling / S. Upadhyay, M. Dixit // Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity. – 2015. – Vol. 2015. – [Elektronnyy resurs].– Rezhym dostupu: <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/504253">http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/504253</a></p><p>4. Praktykum po farmakohnozyy: Ucheb. posobye dlya stud. vuzov / [Kovalev V. N., Popova N. V.y dr.]; pod obshch. red. V. N. Kovaleva.— KH.: Yzd-vo NFaU; Zolotye stranytsy, 2003.— S. 64-65.</p><p>5. Tykhonov A. Y. Tekhnolohyya lekarstv: Ucheb. dlya farmats. vuzov y fak.: Per. s ukr. / A. Y. Tykhonov, T. H. Yarnykh. — KH.: Yzd-vo NFaU; Zolotye stranytsy, 2002. – S. 331-337.</p><p>6. Morhuntsova S.A. Antyoksydantna aktyvnistʹ S-zamishchenykh khinazolinu v umovakh inhibuvannya superoksydradykala in vitro / S.A. Morhuntsova, I.F.Byelenichev // Visnyk Zaporizʹkoho natsionalʹnoho universytetu. – 2009. – № 1. –S.161–165.<br /> 7. Impact of origin and biological source on chemical composition, anticholinesterase and antioxidant properties of some St. Johnʺs Wort species (Hypericum spp., Hypericaceae) from the central Balkans / B. Božin, N. Kladar, N. Grujić [et al.] // Molecules. – 2013. – № 18. – P.11733–11750.</p><p>8. Syrota T.V. Novyy podkhod v yssledovanyy reaktsyy avtookyslenyya adrenalyna: vozmozhnostʹ polyarohrafycheskoho opredelenyya aktyvnosty superoksyddysmutazy y antyoksydantnykh svoystv razlychnykh preparatov / Syrota T.V. // Byomedytsynskaya khymyya. – 2012. – T. 58, vyp. 1. – S. 77–87.</p><p>9. Jayaraman R. Evaluation of Citrullus colocynthis fruits on in vitro antioxidant activity and in vivo DEN/PB induced hepatotoxicity / R. Jayaraman, Christina A.J.M. // IJARNP. – 2013. – Vol. 6, № 1. – P. 1–9.</p><p>10. Flavone c-glycosides and cucurbitacin glycosides from citrullus colocynthis / A. Delazar, S. Gibbons, A. R. Kosari [et al.] // DARU. – 2006. – Vol.14, № 3. – P. 109–114.<br /> 11. Igwenyi I. O. Phytochemical Analysis and Vitamin Composition of Irvigna Gabonesis and Citrullus Colocynthis / I. O. Igwenyi // IOSR-JPBS. – 2014. – Vol. 9, № 3. – P. 37–40.</p><p>12. Pro- ta antyoksydantna systemy i patolohichni protsesy v orhanizmi lyudyny / O.H. Reznikov, O.M. Polumbryk, YA.H. Balʹon [ta in.] // Visn. NAN Ukrayiny. – 2014. – № 10. – S.17–29.</p><p>13. Polyphenol stilbenes: molecular mechanisms of defence against o xidative stress and aging-related diseases / M. Reinisalo, A.Kårlund, A. Koskela [et al.] // Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity. – 2015. – Vol. 2015. –– [Elektronnyy resurs].– Rezhym dostupu: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/340520</p>

Photograph by Gonzalo Echeverria (2010)We need to get some broad-based support, to capture the public’s imagination … so we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements and make little mention of any doubts … each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest (Hulme 347). Acclaimed climate scientist, the late Stephen Schneider, made this comment in 1988. Later he regretted it and said that there are ways of using metaphors that can “convey both urgency and uncertainty” (Hulme 347). What Schneider encapsulates here is the great conundrum for those attempting to communicate climate change to the everyday public. How do scientists capture the public’s imagination and convey the desperation they feel about climate change, but do it ethically? If scientific findings are presented carefully, in boring technical jargon that few can understand, then they are unlikely to attract audiences or provide an impetus for behavioural change. “What can move someone to act?” asks communication theorists Susan Moser and Lisa Dilling (37). “If a red light blinks on in a cockpit” asks Donella Meadows, “should the pilot ignore it until in speaks in an unexcited tone? … Is there any way to say [it] sweetly? Patiently? If one did, would anyone pay attention?” (Moser and Dilling 37). In 2010 Tim Flannery was appointed Panasonic Chair in Environmental Sustainability at Macquarie University. His main teaching role remains within the new science communication programme. One of the first things Flannery was emphatic about was acquainting students with Karl Popper and the origin of the scientific method. “There is no truth in science”, he proclaimed in his first lecture to students “only theories, hypotheses and falsifiabilities”. In other words, science’s epistemological limits are framed such that, as Michael Lemonick argues, “a statement that cannot be proven false is generally not considered to be scientific” (n.p., my emphasis). The impetus for the following paper emanates precisely from this issue of scientific uncertainty — more specifically from teaching a course with Tim Flannery called Communicating climate change to a highly motivated group of undergraduate science communication students. I attempt to illuminate how uncertainty is constructed differently by different groups and that the “public” does not necessarily interpret uncertainty in the same way the sciences do. This paper also analyses how doubt has been politicised and operates polemically in media coverage of climate change. As Andrew Gorman-Murray and Gordon Waitt highlight in an earlier issue of M/C Journal that focused on the climate-culture nexus, an understanding of the science alone is not adequate to deal with the cultural change necessary to address the challenges climate change brings (n.p). Far from being redundant in debates around climate change, the humanities have much to offer. Erosion of Trust in Science The objectives of Macquarie’s science communication program are far more ambitious than it can ever hope to achieve. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. The initiative is a response to declining student numbers in maths and science programmes around the country and is designed to address the perceived lack of communication skills in science graduates that the Australian Council of Deans of Science identified in their 2001 report. According to Macquarie Vice Chancellor Steven Schwartz’s blog, a broader, and much more ambitious aim of the program is to “restore public trust in science and scientists in the face of widespread cynicism” (n.p.). In recent times the erosion of public trust in science was exacerbated through the theft of e-mails from East Anglia University’s Climate Research Unit and the so-called “climategate scandal” which ensued. With the illegal publication of the e-mails came claims against the Research Unit that climate experts had been manipulating scientific data to suit a pro-global warming agenda. Three inquiries later, all the scientists involved were cleared of any wrongdoing, however the damage had already been done. To the public, what this scandal revealed was a certain level of scientific hubris around the uncertainties of the science and an unwillingness to explain the nature of these uncertainties. The prevailing notion remained that the experts were keeping information from public scrutiny and not being totally honest with them, which at least in the short term, damaged the scientists’s credibility. Many argued that this signalled a shift in public opinion and media portrayal on the issue of climate change in late 2009. University of Sydney academic, Rod Tiffen, claimed in the Sydney Morning Herald that the climategate scandal was “one of the pivotal moments in changing the politics of climate change” (n.p). In Australia this had profound implications and meant that the bipartisan agreement on an emissions trading scheme (ETS) that had almost been reached, subsequently collapsed with (climate sceptic) Tony Abbott's defeat of (ETS advocate) Malcolm Turnbull to become opposition leader (Tiffen). Not long after the reputation of science received this almighty blow, albeit unfairly, the federal government released a report in February 2010, Inspiring Australia – A national strategy for engagement with the sciences as part of the country’s innovation agenda. The report outlines a commitment from the Australian government and universities around the country to address the challenges of not only communicating science to the broader community but, in the process, renewing public trust and engagement in science. The report states that: in order to achieve a scientifically engaged Australia, it will be necessary to develop a culture where the sciences are recognized as relevant to everyday life … Our science institutions will be expected to share their knowledge and to help realize full social, economic, health and environmental benefits of scientific research and in return win ongoing public support. (xiv-xv) After launching the report, Innovation Minister Kim Carr went so far as to conflate “hope” with “science” and in the process elevate a discourse of technological determinism: “it’s time for all true friends of science to step up and defend its values and achievements” adding that, "when you denigrate science, you destroy hope” (n.p.). Forever gone is our naïve post-war world when scientists were held in such high esteem that they could virtually use humans as guinea pigs to test out new wonder chemicals; such as organochlorines, of which DDT is the most widely known (Carson). Thanks to government-sponsored nuclear testing programs, if you were born in the 1950s, 1960s or early 1970s, your brain carries a permanent nuclear legacy (Flannery, Here On Earth 158). So surely, for the most part, questioning the authority and hubristic tendencies of science is a good thing. And I might add, it’s not just scientists who bear this critical burden, the same scepticism is directed towards journalists, politicians and academics alike – something that many cultural theorists have noted is characteristic of our contemporary postmodern world (Lyotard). So far from destroying hope, as the former Innovation Minister Kim Carr (now Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research) suggests, surely we need to use the criticisms of science as a vehicle upon which to initiate hope and humility. Different Ways of Knowing: Bayesian Beliefs and Matters of Concern At best, [science] produces a robust consensus based on a process of inquiry that allows for continued scrutiny, re-examination, and revision. (Oreskes 370) In an attempt to capitalise on the Macquarie Science Faculty’s expertise in climate science, I convened a course in second semester 2010 called SCOM201 Science, Media, Community: Communicating Climate Change, with invaluable assistance from Penny Wilson, Elaine Kelly and Liz Morgan. Mike Hulme’s provocative text, Why we disagree about climate change: Understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity provided an invaluable framework for the course. Hulme’s book brings other types of knowledge, beyond the scientific, to bear on our attitudes towards climate change. Climate change, he claims, has moved from being just a physical, scientific, and measurable phenomenon to becoming a social and cultural phenomenon. In order to understand the contested nature of climate change we need to acknowledge the dynamic and varied meanings climate has played in different cultures throughout history as well as the role that our own subjective attitudes and judgements play. Climate change has become a battleground between different ways of knowing, alternative visions of the future, competing ideas about what’s ethical and what’s not. Hulme makes the point that one of the reasons that we disagree about climate change is because we disagree about the role of science in today’s society. He encourages readers to use climate change as a tool to rigorously question the basis of our beliefs, assumptions and prejudices. Since uncertainty was the course’s raison d’etre, I was fortunate to have an extraordinary cohort of students who readily engaged with a course that forced them to confront their own epistemological limits — both personally and in a disciplinary sense. (See their blog: https://scom201.wordpress.com/). Science is often associated with objective realities. It thus tends to distinguish itself from the post-structuralist vein of critique that dominates much of the contemporary humanities. At the core of post-structuralism is scepticism about everyday, commonly accepted “truths” or what some call “meta-narratives” as well as an acknowledgement of the role that subjectivity plays in the pursuit of knowledge (Lyotard). However if we can’t rely on objective truths or impartial facts then where does this leave us when it comes to generating policy or encouraging behavioural change around the issue of climate change? Controversial philosophy of science scholar Bruno Latour sits squarely in the post-structuralist camp. In his 2004 article, “Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern”, he laments the way the right wing has managed to gain ground in the climate change debate through arguing that uncertainty and lack of proof is reason enough to deny demands for action. Or to use his turn-of-phrase, “dangerous extremists are using the very same argument of social construction to destroy hard-won evidence that could save our lives” (Latour n.p). Through co-opting (the Left’s dearly held notion of) scepticism and even calling themselves “climate sceptics”, they exploited doubt as a rationale for why we should do nothing about climate change. Uncertainty is not only an important part of science, but also of the human condition. However, as sociologist Sheila Jasanoff explains in her Nature article, “Technologies of Humility”, uncertainty has become like a disease: Uncertainty has become a threat to collective action, the disease that knowledge must cure. It is the condition that poses cruel dilemmas for decision makers; that must be reduced at all costs; that is tamed with scenarios and assessments; and that feeds the frenzy for new knowledge, much of it scientific. (Jasanoff 33) If we move from talking about climate change as “a matter of fact” to “a matter of concern”, argues Bruno Latour, then we can start talking about useful ways to combat it, rather than talking about whether the science is “in” or not. Facts certainly matter, claims Latour, but they can’t give us the whole story, rather “they assemble with other ingredients to produce a matter of concern” (Potter and Oster 123). Emily Potter and Candice Oster suggest that climate change can’t be understood through either natural or cultural frames alone and, “unlike a matter of fact, matters of concern cannot be explained through a single point of view or discursive frame” (123). This makes a lot of what Hulme argues far more useful because it enables the debate to be taken to another level. Those of us with non-scientific expertise can centre debates around the kinds of societies we want, rather than being caught up in the scientific (un)certainties. If we translate Latour’s concept of climate change being “a matter of concern” into the discourse of environmental management then what we come up with, I think, is the “precautionary principle”. In the YouTube clip, “Stephen Schneider vs Skeptics”, Schneider argues that when in doubt about the potential environmental impacts of climate change, we should always apply the precautionary principle. This principle emerged from the UN conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and concerns the management of scientific risk. However its origins are evident much earlier in documents such as the “Use of Pesticides” from US President’s Science Advisory Committee in 1962. Unlike in criminal and other types of law where the burden of proof is on the prosecutor to show that the person charged is guilty of a particular offence, in environmental law the onus of proof is on the manufacturers to demonstrate the safety of their product. For instance, a pesticide should be restricted or disproved for use if there is “reasonable doubt” about its safety (Oreskes 374). Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development in 1992 has its foundations in the precautionary principle: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible environmental damage, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation” (n.p). According to Environmental Law Online, the Rio declaration suggests that, “The precautionary principle applies where there is a ‘lack of full scientific certainty’ – that is, when science cannot say what consequences to expect, how grave they are, or how likely they are to occur” (n.p.). In order to make predictions about the likelihood of an event occurring, scientists employ a level of subjectivity, or need to “reveal their degree of belief that a prediction will turn out to be correct … [S]omething has to substitute for this lack of certainty” otherwise “the only alternative is to admit that absolutely nothing is known” (Hulme 85). These statements of “subjective probabilities or beliefs” are called Bayesian, after eighteenth century English mathematician Sir Thomas Bayes who developed the theory of evidential probability. These “probabilities” are estimates, or in other words, subjective, informed judgements that draw upon evidence and experience about the likelihood of event occurring. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) uses Bayesian beliefs to determine the risk or likelihood of an event occurring. The IPCC provides the largest international scientific assessment of climate change and often adopts a consensus model where viewpoint reached by the majority of scientists is used to establish knowledge amongst an interdisciplinary community of scientists and then communicate it to the public (Hulme 88). According to the IPCC, this consensus is reached amongst more than more than 450 lead authors, more than 800 contributing authors, and 2500 scientific reviewers. While it is an advisory body and is not policy-prescriptive, the IPCC adopts particular linguistic conventions to indicate the probability of a statement being correct. Stephen Schneider convinced the IPCC to use this approach to systemise uncertainty (Lemonick). So for instance, in the IPCC reports, the term “likely” denotes a chance of 66%-90% of the statement being correct, while “very likely” denotes more than a 90% chance. Note the change from the Third Assessment Report (2001), indicating that “most of the observed warming in over the last fifty years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas emissions” to the Fourth Assessment (February 2007) which more strongly states: “Most of the observed increase in global average temperatures since the mid twentieth century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations” (Hulme 51, my italics). A fiery attack on Tim Flannery by Andrew Bolt on Steve Price’s talkback radio show in June 2010 illustrates just how misunderstood scientific uncertainty is in the broader community. When Price introduces Flannery as former Australian of the Year, Bolt intercedes, claiming Flannery is “Alarmist of the Year”, then goes on to chastise Flannery for making various forecasts which didn’t eventuate, such as that Perth and Brisbane might run out of water by 2009. “How much are you to blame for the swing in sentiment, the retreat from global warming policy and rise of scepticism?” demands Bolt. In the context of the events of late 2009 and early 2010, the fact that these events didn’t materialise made Flannery, and others, seem unreliable. And what Bolt had to say on talkback radio, I suspect, resonated with a good proportion of its audience. What Bolt was trying to do was discredit Flannery’s scientific credentials and in the process erode trust in the expert. Flannery’s response was to claim that, what he said was that these events might eventuate. In much the same way that the climate sceptics have managed to co-opt scepticism and use it as a rationale for inaction on climate change, Andrew Bolt here either misunderstands basic scientific method or quite consciously misleads and manipulates the public. As Naomi Oreskes argues, “proof does not play the role in science that most people think it does (or should), and therefore it cannot play the role in policy that skeptics demand it should” (Oreskes 370). Doubt and ‘Situated’ Hope Uncertainty and ambiguity then emerge here as resources because they force us to confront those things we really want–not safety in some distant, contested future but justice and self-understanding now. (Sheila Jasanoff, cited in Hulme, back cover) In his last published book before his death in mid-2010, Science as a contact sport, Stephen Schneider’s advice to aspiring science communicators is that they should engage with the media “not at all, or a lot”. Climate scientist Ann Henderson-Sellers adds that there are very few scientists “who have the natural ability, and learn or cultivate the talents, of effective communication with and through the media” (430). In order to attract the public’s attention, it was once commonplace for scientists to write editorials and exploit fear-provoking measures by including a “useful catastrophe or two” (Moser and Dilling 37). But are these tactics effective? Susanne Moser thinks not. She argues that “numerous studies show that … fear may change attitudes … but not necessarily increase active engagement or behaviour change” (Moser 70). Furthermore, risk psychologists argue that danger is always context specific (Hulme 196). If the risk or danger is “situated” and “tangible” (such as lead toxicity levels in children in Mt Isa from the Xstrata mine) then the public will engage with it. However if it is “un-situated” (distant, intangible and diffuse) like climate change, the audience is less likely to. In my SCOM201 class we examined the impact of two climate change-related campaigns. The first one was a short film used to promote the 2010 Copenhagen Climate Change Summit (“Scary”) and the second was the State Government of Victoria’s “You have the power: Save Energy” public awareness campaign (“You”). Using Moser’s article to guide them, students evaluated each campaign’s effectiveness. Their conclusions were that the “You have the power” campaign had far more impact because it a) had very clear objectives (to cut domestic power consumption) b) provided a very clear visualisation of carbon dioxide through the metaphor of black balloons wafting up into the atmosphere, c) gave viewers a sense of empowerment and hope through describing simple measures to cut power consumption and, d) used simple but effective metaphors to convey a world progressed beyond human control, such as household appliances robotically operating themselves in the absence of humans. Despite its high production values, in comparison, the Copenhagen Summit promotion was more than ineffective and bordered on propaganda. It actually turned viewers off with its whining, righteous appeal of, “please help the world”. Its message and objectives were ambiguous, it conveyed environmental catastrophe through hackneyed images, exploited children through a narrative based on fear and gave no real sense of hope or empowerment. In contrast the Victorian Government’s campaign focused on just one aspect of climate change that was made both tangible and situated. Doubt and uncertainty are productive tools in the pursuit of knowledge. Whether it is scientific or otherwise, uncertainty will always be the motivation that “feeds the frenzy for new knowledge” (Jasanoff 33). Articulating the importance of Hulme’s book, Sheila Jasanoff indicates we should make doubt our friend, “Without downplaying its seriousness, Hulme demotes climate change from ultimate threat to constant companion, whose murmurs unlock in us the instinct for justice and equality” (Hulme back cover). The “murmurs” that Jasanoff gestures to here, I think, can also be articulated as hope. And it is in this discussion of climate change that doubt and hope sit side-by-side as bedfellows, mutually entangled. Since the “failed” Copenhagen Summit, there has been a distinct shift in climate change discourse from “experts”. We have moved away from doom and gloom discourses and into the realm of what I shall call “situated” hope. “Situated” hope is not based on blind faith alone, but rather hope grounded in evidence, informed judgements and experience. For instance, in distinct contrast to his cautionary tale The Weather Makers: The History & Future Impact of Climate Change, Tim Flannery’s latest book, Here on Earth is a biography of our Earth; a planet that throughout its history has oscillated between Gaian and Medean impulses. However Flannery’s wonder about the natural world and our potential to mitigate the impacts of climate change is not founded on empty rhetoric but rather tempered by evidence; he presents a series of case studies where humanity has managed to come together for a global good. Whether it’s the 1987 Montreal ban on CFCs (chlorinated fluorocarbons) or the lesser-known 2001 Stockholm Convention on POP (Persistent Organic Pollutants), what Flannery envisions is an emerging global civilisation, a giant, intelligent super-organism glued together through social bonds. He says: If that is ever achieved, the greatest transformation in the history of our planet would have occurred, for Earth would then be able to act as if it were as Francis Bacon put it all those centuries ago, ‘one entire, perfect living creature’. (Here on Earth, 279) While science might give us “our most reliable understanding of the natural world” (Oreskes 370), “situated” hope is the only productive and ethical currency we have. ReferencesAustralian Council of Deans of Science. What Did You Do with Your Science Degree? A National Study of Employment Outcomes for Science Degree Holders 1990-2000. Melbourne: Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne, 2001. Australian Government Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Inspiring Australia – A National Strategy for Engagement with the Sciences. Executive summary. Canberra: DIISR, 2010. 24 May 2010 ‹http://www.innovation.gov.au/SCIENCE/INSPIRINGAUSTRALIA/Documents/InspiringAustraliaSummary.pdf›. “Andrew Bolt with Tim Flannery.” Steve Price. Hosted by Steve Price. Melbourne: Melbourne Talkback Radio, 2010. 9 June 2010 ‹http://www.mtr1377.com.au/index2.php?option=com_newsmanager&task=view&id=6209›. Carson, Rachel. Silent Spring. London: Penguin, 1962 (2000). Carr, Kim. “Celebrating Nobel Laureate Professor Elizabeth Blackburn.” Canberra: DIISR, 2010. 19 Feb. 2010 ‹http://minister.innovation.gov.au/Carr/Pages/CELEBRATINGNOBELLAUREATEPROFESSORELIZABETHBLACKBURN.aspx›. Environmental Law Online. “The Precautionary Principle.” N.d. 19 Jan 2011 ‹http://www.envirolaw.org.au/articles/precautionary_principle›. Flannery, Tim. The Weather Makers: The History & Future Impact of Climate Change. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2005. ———. Here on Earth: An Argument for Hope. Melbourne: Text Publishing, 2010. Gorman-Murray, Andrew, and Gordon Waitt. “Climate and Culture.” M/C Journal 12.4 (2009). 9 Mar 2011 ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/184/0›. Harrison, Karey. “How ‘Inconvenient’ Is Al Gore’s Climate Change Message?” M/C Journal 12.4 (2009). 9 Mar 2011 ‹http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/175›. Henderson-Sellers, Ann. “Climate Whispers: Media Communication about Climate Change.” Climatic Change 40 (1998): 421–456. Hulme, Mike. Why We Disagree about Climate Change: Understanding, Controversy, Inaction and Opportunity. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2009. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. A Picture of Climate Change: The Current State of Understanding. 2007. 11 Jan 2011 ‹http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/press-ar4/ipcc-flyer-low.pdf›. Jasanoff, Sheila. “Technologies of Humility.” Nature 450 (2007): 33. Latour, Bruno. “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern.” Critical Inquiry 30.2 (2004). 19 Jan 2011 ‹http://criticalinquiry.uchicago.edu/issues/v30/30n2.Latour.html›. Lemonick, Michael D. “Climate Heretic: Judith Curry Turns on Her Colleagues.” Nature News 1 Nov. 2010. 9 Mar 2011 ‹http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101101/full/news.2010.577.html›. Lyotard, Jean-Francois. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1984. Moser, Susanne, and Lisa Dilling. “Making Climate Hot: Communicating the Urgency and Challenge of Global Climate Change.” Environment 46.10 (2004): 32-46. Moser, Susie. “More Bad News: The Risk of Neglecting Emotional Responses to Climate Change Information.” In Susanne Moser and Lisa Dilling (eds.), Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007. 64-81. Oreskes, Naomi. “Science and Public Policy: What’s Proof Got to Do with It?” Environmental Science and Policy 7 (2004): 369-383. Potter, Emily, and Candice Oster. “Communicating Climate Change: Public Responsiveness and Matters of Concern.” Media International Australia 127 (2008): 116-126. President’s Science Advisory Committee. “Use of Pesticides”. Washington, D.C.: The White House, 1963. United Nations Declaration on Environment and Development. Rio de Janeiro, 1992. 19 Jan 2011 ‹http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=78&ArticleID=1163›. “Scary Global Warming Propaganda Video Shown at the Copenhagen Climate Meeting – 7 Dec. 2009.” YouTube. 21 Mar. 2011‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzSuP_TMFtk&feature=related›. Schneider, Stephen. Science as a Contact Sport: Inside the Battle to Save Earth’s Climate. National Geographic Society, 2010. ———. “Stephen Schneider vs. the Sceptics”. YouTube. 21 Mar. 2011 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rj1QcdEqU0›. Schwartz, Steven. “Science in Search of a New Formula.” 2010. 20 May 2010 ‹http://www.vc.mq.edu.au/blog/2010/03/11/science-in-search-of-a-new-formula/›. Tiffen, Rodney. "You Wouldn't Read about It: Climate Scientists Right." Sydney Morning Herald 26 July 2010. 19 Jan 2011 ‹http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/you-wouldnt-read-about-it-climate-scientists-right-20100727-10t5i.html›. “You Have the Power: Save Energy.” YouTube. 21 Mar. 2011 ‹http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCiS5k_uPbQ›.

A same-but-different dichotomy has recently been encapsulated within the US Food and Drug Administration’s ill-defined concept of “substantial equivalence” (USFDA, FDA). By invoking this concept the genetically modified organism (GMO) industry has escaped the rigors of safety testing that might otherwise apply. The curious concept of “substantial equivalence” grants a presumption of safety to GMO food. This presumption has yet to be earned, and has been used to constrain labelling of both GMO and non-GMO food. It is an idea that well serves corporatism. It enables the claim of difference to secure patent protection, while upholding the contrary claim of sameness to avoid labelling and safety scrutiny. It offers the best of both worlds for corporate food entrepreneurs, and delivers the worst of both worlds to consumers. The term “substantial equivalence” has established its currency within the GMO discourse. As the opportunities for patenting food technologies expand, the GMO recruitment of this concept will likely be a dress rehearsal for the developing debates on the labelling and testing of other techno-foods – including nano-foods and clone-foods. “Substantial Equivalence” “Are the Seven Commandments the same as they used to be, Benjamin?” asks Clover in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. By way of response, Benjamin “read out to her what was written on the wall. There was nothing there now except a single Commandment. It ran: ALL ANIMALS ARE EQUAL BUT SOME ANIMALS ARE MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS”. After this reductionist revelation, further novel and curious events at Manor Farm, “did not seem strange” (Orwell, ch. X). Equality is a concept at the very core of mathematics, but beyond the domain of logic, equality becomes a hotly contested notion – and the domain of food is no exception. A novel food has a regulatory advantage if it can claim to be the same as an established food – a food that has proven its worth over centuries, perhaps even millennia – and thus does not trigger new, perhaps costly and onerous, testing, compliance, and even new and burdensome regulations. On the other hand, such a novel food has an intellectual property (IP) advantage only in terms of its difference. And thus there is an entrenched dissonance for newly technologised foods, between claiming sameness, and claiming difference. The same/different dilemma is erased, so some would have it, by appeal to the curious new dualist doctrine of “substantial equivalence” whereby sameness and difference are claimed simultaneously, thereby creating a win/win for corporatism, and a loss/loss for consumerism. This ground has been pioneered, and to some extent conquered, by the GMO industry. The conquest has ramifications for other cryptic food technologies, that is technologies that are invisible to the consumer and that are not evident to the consumer other than via labelling. Cryptic technologies pertaining to food include GMOs, pesticides, hormone treatments, irradiation and, most recently, manufactured nano-particles introduced into the food production and delivery stream. Genetic modification of plants was reported as early as 1984 by Horsch et al. The case of Diamond v. Chakrabarty resulted in a US Supreme Court decision that upheld the prior decision of the US Court of Customs and Patent Appeal that “the fact that micro-organisms are alive is without legal significance for purposes of the patent law”, and ruled that the “respondent’s micro-organism plainly qualifies as patentable subject matter”. This was a majority decision of nine judges, with four judges dissenting (Burger). It was this Chakrabarty judgement that has seriously opened the Pandora’s box of GMOs because patenting rights makes GMOs an attractive corporate proposition by offering potentially unique monopoly rights over food. The rear guard action against GMOs has most often focussed on health repercussions (Smith, Genetic), food security issues, and also the potential for corporate malfeasance to hide behind a cloak of secrecy citing commercial confidentiality (Smith, Seeds). Others have tilted at the foundational plank on which the economics of the GMO industry sits: “I suggest that the main concern is that we do not want a single molecule of anything we eat to contribute to, or be patented and owned by, a reckless, ruthless chemical organisation” (Grist 22). The GMO industry exhibits bipolar behaviour, invoking the concept of “substantial difference” to claim patent rights by way of “novelty”, and then claiming “substantial equivalence” when dealing with other regulatory authorities including food, drug and pesticide agencies; a case of “having their cake and eating it too” (Engdahl 8). This is a clever slight-of-rhetoric, laying claim to the best of both worlds for corporations, and the worst of both worlds for consumers. Corporations achieve patent protection and no concomitant specific regulatory oversight; while consumers pay the cost of patent monopolization, and are not necessarily apprised, by way of labelling or otherwise, that they are purchasing and eating GMOs, and thereby financing the GMO industry. The lemma of “substantial equivalence” does not bear close scrutiny. It is a fuzzy concept that lacks a tight testable definition. It is exactly this fuzziness that allows lots of wriggle room to keep GMOs out of rigorous testing regimes. Millstone et al. argue that “substantial equivalence is a pseudo-scientific concept because it is a commercial and political judgement masquerading as if it is scientific. It is moreover, inherently anti-scientific because it was created primarily to provide an excuse for not requiring biochemical or toxicological tests. It therefore serves to discourage and inhibit informative scientific research” (526). “Substantial equivalence” grants GMOs the benefit of the doubt regarding safety, and thereby leaves unexamined the ramifications for human consumer health, for farm labourer and food-processor health, for the welfare of farm animals fed a diet of GMO grain, and for the well-being of the ecosystem, both in general and in its particularities. “Substantial equivalence” was introduced into the food discourse by an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report: “safety evaluation of foods derived by modern biotechnology: concepts and principles”. It is from this document that the ongoing mantra of assumed safety of GMOs derives: “modern biotechnology … does not inherently lead to foods that are less safe … . Therefore evaluation of foods and food components obtained from organisms developed by the application of the newer techniques does not necessitate a fundamental change in established principles, nor does it require a different standard of safety” (OECD, “Safety” 10). This was at the time, and remains, an act of faith, a pro-corporatist and a post-cautionary approach. The OECD motto reveals where their priorities lean: “for a better world economy” (OECD, “Better”). The term “substantial equivalence” was preceded by the 1992 USFDA concept of “substantial similarity” (Levidow, Murphy and Carr) and was adopted from a prior usage by the US Food and Drug Agency (USFDA) where it was used pertaining to medical devices (Miller). Even GMO proponents accept that “Substantial equivalence is not intended to be a scientific formulation; it is a conceptual tool for food producers and government regulators” (Miller 1043). And there’s the rub – there is no scientific definition of “substantial equivalence”, no scientific test of proof of concept, and nor is there likely to be, since this is a ‘spinmeister’ term. And yet this is the cornerstone on which rests the presumption of safety of GMOs. Absence of evidence is taken to be evidence of absence. History suggests that this is a fraught presumption. By way of contrast, the patenting of GMOs depends on the antithesis of assumed ‘sameness’. Patenting rests on proven, scrutinised, challengeable and robust tests of difference and novelty. Lightfoot et al. report that transgenic plants exhibit “unexpected changes [that] challenge the usual assumptions of GMO equivalence and suggest genomic, proteomic and metanomic characterization of transgenics is advisable” (1). GMO Milk and Contested Labelling Pesticide company Monsanto markets the genetically engineered hormone rBST (recombinant Bovine Somatotropin; also known as: rbST; rBGH, recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone; and the brand name Prosilac) to dairy farmers who inject it into their cows to increase milk production. This product is not approved for use in many jurisdictions, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan. Even Monsanto accepts that rBST leads to mastitis (inflammation and pus in the udder) and other “cow health problems”, however, it maintains that “these problems did not occur at rates that would prohibit the use of Prosilac” (Monsanto). A European Union study identified an extensive list of health concerns of rBST use (European Commission). The US Dairy Export Council however entertain no doubt. In their background document they ask “is milk from cows treated with rBST safe?” and answer “Absolutely” (USDEC). Meanwhile, Monsanto’s website raises and answers the question: “Is the milk from cows treated with rbST any different from milk from untreated cows? No” (Monsanto). Injecting cows with genetically modified hormones to boost their milk production remains a contested practice, banned in many countries. It is the claimed equivalence that has kept consumers of US dairy products in the dark, shielded rBST dairy farmers from having to declare that their milk production is GMO-enhanced, and has inhibited non-GMO producers from declaring their milk as non-GMO, non rBST, or not hormone enhanced. This is a battle that has simmered, and sometimes raged, for a decade in the US. Finally there is a modest victory for consumers: the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) requires all labels used on milk products to be approved in advance by the department. The standard issued in October 2007 (PDA, “Standards”) signalled to producers that any milk labels claiming rBST-free status would be rejected. This advice was rescinded in January 2008 with new, specific, department-approved textual constructions allowed, and ensuring that any “no rBST” style claim was paired with a PDA-prescribed disclaimer (PDA, “Revised Standards”). However, parsimonious labelling is prohibited: No labeling may contain references such as ‘No Hormones’, ‘Hormone Free’, ‘Free of Hormones’, ‘No BST’, ‘Free of BST’, ‘BST Free’,’No added BST’, or any statement which indicates, implies or could be construed to mean that no natural bovine somatotropin (BST) or synthetic bovine somatotropin (rBST) are contained in or added to the product. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 3) Difference claims are prohibited: In no instance shall any label state or imply that milk from cows not treated with recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST, rbST, RBST or rbst) differs in composition from milk or products made with milk from treated cows, or that rBST is not contained in or added to the product. If a product is represented as, or intended to be represented to consumers as, containing or produced from milk from cows not treated with rBST any labeling information must convey only a difference in farming practices or dairy herd management methods. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 3) The PDA-approved labelling text for non-GMO dairy farmers is specified as follows: ‘From cows not treated with rBST. No significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rBST-treated and non-rBST-treated cows’ or a substantial equivalent. Hereinafter, the first sentence shall be referred to as the ‘Claim’, and the second sentence shall be referred to as the ‘Disclaimer’. (PDA, “Revised Standards” 4) It is onto the non-GMO dairy farmer alone, that the costs of compliance fall. These costs include label preparation and approval, proving non-usage of GMOs, and of creating and maintaining an audit trail. In nearby Ohio a similar consumer versus corporatist pantomime is playing out. This time with the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) calling the shots, and again serving the GMO industry. The ODA prescribed text allowed to non-GMO dairy farmers is “from cows not supplemented with rbST” and this is to be conjoined with the mandatory disclaimer “no significant difference has been shown between milk derived from rbST-supplemented and non-rbST supplemented cows” (Curet). These are “emergency rules”: they apply for 90 days, and are proposed as permanent. Once again, the onus is on the non-GMO dairy farmers to document and prove their claims. GMO dairy farmers face no such governmental requirements, including no disclosure requirement, and thus an asymmetric regulatory impost is placed on the non-GMO farmer which opens up new opportunities for administrative demands and technocratic harassment. Levidow et al. argue, somewhat Eurocentrically, that from its 1990s adoption “as the basis for a harmonized science-based approach to risk assessment” (26) the concept of “substantial equivalence” has “been recast in at least three ways” (58). It is true that the GMO debate has evolved differently in the US and Europe, and with other jurisdictions usually adopting intermediate positions, yet the concept persists. Levidow et al. nominate their three recastings as: firstly an “implicit redefinition” by the appending of “extra phrases in official documents”; secondly, “it has been reinterpreted, as risk assessment processes have … required more evidence of safety than before, especially in Europe”; and thirdly, “it has been demoted in the European Union regulatory procedures so that it can no longer be used to justify the claim that a risk assessment is unnecessary” (58). Romeis et al. have proposed a decision tree approach to GMO risks based on cascading tiers of risk assessment. However what remains is that the defects of the concept of “substantial equivalence” persist. Schauzu identified that: such decisions are a matter of “opinion”; that there is “no clear definition of the term ‘substantial’”; that because genetic modification “is aimed at introducing new traits into organisms, the result will always be a different combination of genes and proteins”; and that “there is no general checklist that could be followed by those who are responsible for allowing a product to be placed on the market” (2). Benchmark for Further Food Novelties? The discourse, contestation, and debate about “substantial equivalence” have largely focussed on the introduction of GMOs into food production processes. GM can best be regarded as the test case, and proof of concept, for establishing “substantial equivalence” as a benchmark for evaluating new and forthcoming food technologies. This is of concern, because the concept of “substantial equivalence” is scientific hokum, and yet its persistence, even entrenchment, within regulatory agencies may be a harbinger of forthcoming same-but-different debates for nanotechnology and other future bioengineering. The appeal of “substantial equivalence” has been a brake on the creation of GMO-specific regulations and on rigorous GMO testing. The food nanotechnology industry can be expected to look to the precedent of the GMO debate to head off specific nano-regulations and nano-testing. As cloning becomes economically viable, then this may be another wave of food innovation that muddies the regulatory waters with the confused – and ultimately self-contradictory – concept of “substantial equivalence”. Nanotechnology engineers particles in the size range 1 to 100 nanometres – a nanometre is one billionth of a metre. This is interesting for manufacturers because at this size chemicals behave differently, or as the Australian Office of Nanotechnology expresses it, “new functionalities are obtained” (AON). Globally, government expenditure on nanotechnology research reached US$4.6 billion in 2006 (Roco 3.12). While there are now many patents (ETC Group; Roco), regulation specific to nanoparticles is lacking (Bowman and Hodge; Miller and Senjen). The USFDA advises that nano-manufacturers “must show a reasonable assurance of safety … or substantial equivalence” (FDA). A recent inventory of nano-products already on the market identified 580 products. Of these 11.4% were categorised as “Food and Beverage” (WWICS). This is at a time when public confidence in regulatory bodies is declining (HRA). In an Australian consumer survey on nanotechnology, 65% of respondents indicated they were concerned about “unknown and long term side effects”, and 71% agreed that it is important “to know if products are made with nanotechnology” (MARS 22). Cloned animals are currently more expensive to produce than traditional animal progeny. In the course of 678 pages, the USFDA Animal Cloning: A Draft Risk Assessment has not a single mention of “substantial equivalence”. However the Federation of Animal Science Societies (FASS) in its single page “Statement in Support of USFDA’s Risk Assessment Conclusion That Food from Cloned Animals Is Safe for Human Consumption” states that “FASS endorses the use of this comparative evaluation process as the foundation of establishing substantial equivalence of any food being evaluated. It must be emphasized that it is the food product itself that should be the focus of the evaluation rather than the technology used to generate cloned animals” (FASS 1). Contrary to the FASS derogation of the importance of process in food production, for consumers both the process and provenance of production is an important and integral aspect of a food product’s value and identity. Some consumers will legitimately insist that their Kalamata olives are from Greece, or their balsamic vinegar is from Modena. It was the British public’s growing awareness that their sugar was being produced by slave labour that enabled the boycotting of the product, and ultimately the outlawing of slavery (Hochschild). When consumers boycott Nestle, because of past or present marketing practices, or boycott produce of USA because of, for example, US foreign policy or animal welfare concerns, they are distinguishing the food based on the narrative of the food, the production process and/or production context which are a part of the identity of the food. Consumers attribute value to food based on production process and provenance information (Paull). Products produced by slave labour, by child labour, by political prisoners, by means of torture, theft, immoral, unethical or unsustainable practices are different from their alternatives. The process of production is a part of the identity of a product and consumers are increasingly interested in food narrative. It requires vigilance to ensure that these narratives are delivered with the product to the consumer, and are neither lost nor suppressed. Throughout the GM debate, the organic sector has successfully skirted the “substantial equivalence” debate by excluding GMOs from the certified organic food production process. This GMO-exclusion from the organic food stream is the one reprieve available to consumers worldwide who are keen to avoid GMOs in their diet. The organic industry carries the expectation of providing food produced without artificial pesticides and fertilizers, and by extension, without GMOs. Most recently, the Soil Association, the leading organic certifier in the UK, claims to be the first organisation in the world to exclude manufactured nonoparticles from their products (Soil Association). There has been the call that engineered nanoparticles be excluded from organic standards worldwide, given that there is no mandatory safety testing and no compulsory labelling in place (Paull and Lyons). The twisted rhetoric of oxymorons does not make the ideal foundation for policy. Setting food policy on the shifting sands of “substantial equivalence” seems foolhardy when we consider the potentially profound ramifications of globally mass marketing a dysfunctional food. If there is a 2×2 matrix of terms – “substantial equivalence”, substantial difference, insubstantial equivalence, insubstantial difference – while only one corner of this matrix is engaged for food policy, and while the elements remain matters of opinion rather than being testable by science, or by some other regime, then the public is the dupe, and potentially the victim. “Substantial equivalence” has served the GMO corporates well and the public poorly, and this asymmetry is slated to escalate if nano-food and clone-food are also folded into the “substantial equivalence” paradigm. Only in Orwellian Newspeak is war peace, or is same different. It is time to jettison the pseudo-scientific doctrine of “substantial equivalence”, as a convenient oxymoron, and embrace full disclosure of provenance, process and difference, so that consumers are not collateral in a continuing asymmetric knowledge war. References Australian Office of Nanotechnology (AON). 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Hart Research Associates, 25 Sep. 2007.Levidow, Les, Joseph Murphy, and Susan Carr. “Recasting ‘Substantial Equivalence’: Transatlantic Governance of GM Food.” Science, Technology, and Human Values 32.1 (Jan. 2007): 26-64.Lightfoot, David, Rajsree Mungur, Rafiqa Ameziane, Anthony Glass, and Karen Berhard. “Transgenic Manipulation of C and N Metabolism: Stretching the GMO Equivalence.” American Society of Plant Biologists Conference: Plant Biology, 2000.MARS. “Final Report: Australian Community Attitudes Held about Nanotechnology – Trends 2005-2007.” Report prepared for Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources (DITR). Miranda, NSW: Market Attitude Research Services, 12 June 2007.Miller, Georgia, and Rye Senjen. “Out of the Laboratory and on to Our Plates: Nanotechnology in Food and Agriculture.” Friends of the Earth, 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://nano.foe.org.au/node/220 >.Miller, Henry. “Substantial Equivalence: Its Uses and Abuses.” Nature Biotechnology 17 (7 Nov. 1999): 1042-1043.Millstone, Erik, Eric Brunner, and Sue Mayer. “Beyond ‘Substantial Equivalence’.” Nature 401 (7 Oct. 1999): 525-526.Monsanto. “Posilac, Bovine Somatotropin by Monsanto: Questions and Answers about bST from the United States Food and Drug Administration.” 2007. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.monsantodairy.com/faqs/fda_safety.html >.Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). “For a Better World Economy.” Paris: OECD, 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.oecd.org/ >.———. “Safety Evaluation of Foods Derived by Modern Biotechnology: Concepts and Principles.” Paris: OECD, 1993.Orwell, George. Animal Farm. 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Bureau of Food Safety and Laboratory Services, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 22 Oct. 2007.Roco, Mihail. “National Nanotechnology Initiative – Past, Present, Future.” In William Goddard, Donald Brenner, Sergy Lyshevski and Gerald Iafrate, eds. Handbook of Nanoscience, Engineering and Technology. 2nd ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2007.Romeis, Jorg, Detlef Bartsch, Franz Bigler, Marco Candolfi, Marco Gielkins, et al. “Assessment of Risk of Insect-Resistant Transgenic Crops to Nontarget Arthropods.” Nature Biotechnology 26.2 (Feb. 2008): 203-208.Schauzu, Marianna. “The Concept of Substantial Equivalence in Safety Assessment of Food Derived from Genetically Modified Organisms.” AgBiotechNet 2 (Apr. 2000): 1-4.Soil Association. “Soil Association First Organisation in the World to Ban Nanoparticles – Potentially Toxic Beauty Products That Get Right under Your Skin.” London: Soil Association, 17 Jan. 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.soilassociation.org/web/sa/saweb.nsf/848d689047 cb466780256a6b00298980/42308d944a3088a6802573d100351790!OpenDocument >.Smith, Jeffrey. Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods. Fairfield, Iowa: Yes! Books, 2007.———. Seeds of Deception. Melbourne: Scribe, 2004.U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC). Bovine Somatotropin (BST) Backgrounder. Arlington, VA: U.S. Dairy Export Council, 2006.U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). Animal Cloning: A Draft Risk Assessment. Rockville, MD: Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 28 Dec. 2006.———. FDA and Nanotechnology Products. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2008. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.fda.gov/nanotechnology/faqs.html >.Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (WWICS). “A Nanotechnology Consumer Products Inventory.” Data set as at Sep. 2007. Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Project on Emerging Technologies, Sep. 2007. 24 Apr. 2008 < http://www.nanotechproject.org/inventories/consumer >.

Introduction The highly contagious COVID-19 virus has presented particularly difficult public policy challenges. The relatively late emergence of an effective treatments and vaccines, the structural stresses on health care systems, the lockdowns and the economic dislocations, the evident structural inequalities in effected societies, as well as the difficulty of prevention have tested social and political cohesion. Moreover, the intrusive nature of many prophylactic measures have led to individual liberty and human rights concerns. As noted by the Victorian (Australia) Ombudsman Report on the COVID-19 lockdown in Melbourne, we may be tempted, during a crisis, to view human rights as expendable in the pursuit of saving human lives. This thinking can lead to dangerous territory. It is not unlawful to curtail fundamental rights and freedoms when there are compelling reasons for doing so; human rights are inherently and inseparably a consideration of human lives. (5) These difficulties have raised issues about the importance of social or community capital in fighting the pandemic. This article discusses the impacts of social and community capital and other factors on the governmental efforts to combat the spread of infectious disease through the maintenance of social distancing and household ‘bubbles’. It argues that the beneficial effects of social and community capital towards fighting the pandemic, such as mutual respect and empathy, which underpins such public health measures as social distancing, the use of personal protective equipment, and lockdowns in the USA, have been undermined as preventive measures because they have been transmogrified to become a salient aspect of the “culture wars” (Peters). In contrast, states that have relatively lower social capital such a China have been able to more effectively arrest transmission of the disease because the government was been able to generate and personify a nationalist response to the virus and thus generate a more robust social consensus regarding the efforts to combat the disease. Social Capital and Culture Wars The response to COVID-19 required individuals, families, communities, and other types of groups to refrain from extensive interaction – to stay in their bubble. In these situations, especially given the asymptomatic nature of many COVID-19 infections and the serious imposition lockdowns and social distancing and isolation, the temptation for individuals to breach public health rules in high. From the perspective of policymakers, the response to fighting COVID-19 is a collective action problem. In studying collective action problems, scholars have paid much attention on the role of social and community capital (Ostrom and Ahn 17-35). Ostrom and Ahn comment that social capital “provides a synthesizing approach to how cultural, social, and institutional aspects of communities of various sizes jointly affect their capacity of dealing with collective-action problems” (24). Social capital is regarded as an evolving social type of cultural trait (Fukuyama; Guiso et al.). Adger argues that social capital “captures the nature of social relations” and “provides an explanation for how individuals use their relationships to other actors in societies for their own and for the collective good” (387). The most frequently used definition of social capital is the one proffered by Putnam who regards it as “features of social organization, such as networks, norms and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit” (Putnam, “Bowling Alone” 65). All these studies suggest that social and community capital has at least two elements: “objective associations” and subjective ties among individuals. Objective associations, or social networks, refer to both formal and informal associations that are formed and engaged in on a voluntary basis by individuals and social groups. Subjective ties or norms, on the other hand, primarily stand for trust and reciprocity (Paxton). High levels of social capital have generally been associated with democratic politics and civil societies whose institutional performance benefits from the coordinated actions and civic culture that has been facilitated by high levels of social capital (Putnam, Democracy 167-9). Alternatively, a “good and fair” state and impartial institutions are important factors in generating and preserving high levels of social capital (Offe 42-87). Yet social capital is not limited to democratic civil societies and research is mixed on whether rising social capital manifests itself in a more vigorous civil society that in turn leads to democratising impulses. Castillo argues that various trust levels for institutions that reinforce submission, hierarchy, and cultural conservatism can be high in authoritarian governments, indicating that high levels of social capital do not necessarily lead to democratic civic societies (Castillo et al.). Roßteutscher concludes after a survey of social capita indicators in authoritarian states that social capital has little effect of democratisation and may in fact reinforce authoritarian rule: in nondemocratic contexts, however, it appears to throw a spanner in the works of democratization. Trust increases the stability of nondemocratic leaderships by generating popular support, by suppressing regime threatening forms of protest activity, and by nourishing undemocratic ideals concerning governance (752). In China, there has been ongoing debate concerning the presence of civil society and the level of social capital found across Chinese society. If one defines civil society as an intermediate associational realm between the state and the family, populated by autonomous organisations which are separate from the state that are formed voluntarily by members of society to protect or extend their interests or values, it is arguable that the PRC had a significant civil society or social capital in the first few decades after its establishment (White). However, most scholars agree that nascent civil society as well as a more salient social and community capital has emerged in China’s reform era. This was evident after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, where the government welcomed community organising and community-driven donation campaigns for a limited period of time, giving the NGO sector and bottom-up social activism a boost, as evidenced in various policy areas such as disaster relief and rural community development (F. Wu 126; Xu 9). Nevertheless, the CCP and the Chinese state have been effective in maintaining significant control over civil society and autonomous groups without attempting to completely eliminate their autonomy or existence. The dramatic economic and social changes that have occurred since the 1978 Opening have unsurprisingly engendered numerous conflicts across the society. In response, the CCP and State have adjusted political economic policies to meet the changing demands of workers, migrants, the unemployed, minorities, farmers, local artisans, entrepreneurs, and the growing middle class. Often the demands arising from these groups have resulted in policy changes, including compensation. In other circumstances, where these groups remain dissatisfied, the government will tolerate them (ignore them but allow them to continue in the advocacy), or, when the need arises, supress the disaffected groups (F. Wu 2). At the same time, social organisations and other groups in civil society have often “refrained from open and broad contestation against the regime”, thereby gaining the space and autonomy to achieve the objectives (F. Wu 2). Studies of Chinese social or community capital suggest that a form of modern social capital has gradually emerged as Chinese society has become increasingly modernised and liberalised (despite being non-democratic), and that this social capital has begun to play an important role in shaping social and economic lives at the local level. However, this more modern form of social capital, arising from developmental and social changes, competes with traditional social values and social capital, which stresses parochial and particularistic feelings among known individuals while modern social capital emphasises general trust and reciprocal feelings among both known and unknown individuals. The objective element of these traditional values are those government-sanctioned, formal mass organisations such as Communist Youth and the All-China Federation of Women's Associations, where members are obliged to obey the organisation leadership. The predominant subjective values are parochial and particularistic feelings among individuals who know one another, such as guanxi and zongzu (Chen and Lu, 426). The concept of social capital emphasises that the underlying cooperative values found in individuals and groups within a culture are an important factor in solving collective problems. In contrast, the notion of “culture war” focusses on those values and differences that divide social and cultural groups. Barry defines culture wars as increases in volatility, expansion of polarisation, and conflict between those who are passionate about religiously motivated politics, traditional morality, and anti-intellectualism, and…those who embrace progressive politics, cultural openness, and scientific and modernist orientations. (90) The contemporary culture wars across the world manifest opposition by various groups in society who hold divergent worldviews and ideological positions. Proponents of culture war understand various issues as part of a broader set of religious, political, and moral/normative positions invoked in opposition to “elite”, “liberal”, or “left” ideologies. Within this Manichean universe opposition to such issues as climate change, Black Lives Matter, same sex rights, prison reform, gun control, and immigration becomes framed in binary terms, and infused with a moral sensibility (Chapman 8-10). In many disputes, the culture war often devolves into an epistemological dispute about the efficacy of scientific knowledge and authority, or a dispute between “practical” and theoretical knowledge. In this environment, even facts can become partisan narratives. For these “cultural” disputes are often how electoral prospects (generally right-wing) are advanced; “not through policies or promises of a better life, but by fostering a sense of threat, a fantasy that something profoundly pure … is constantly at risk of extinction” (Malik). This “zero-sum” social and policy environment that makes it difficult to compromise and has serious consequences for social stability or government policy, especially in a liberal democratic society. Of course, from the perspective of cultural materialism such a reductionist approach to culture and political and social values is not unexpected. “Culture” is one of the many arenas in which dominant social groups seek to express and reproduce their interests and preferences. “Culture” from this sense is “material” and is ultimately connected to the distribution of power, wealth, and resources in society. As such, the various policy areas that are understood as part of the “culture wars” are another domain where various dominant and subordinate groups and interests engaged in conflict express their values and goals. Yet it is unexpected that despite the pervasiveness of information available to individuals the pool of information consumed by individuals who view the “culture wars” as a touchstone for political behaviour and a narrative to categorise events and facts is relatively closed. This lack of balance has been magnified by social media algorithms, conspiracy-laced talk radio, and a media ecosystem that frames and discusses issues in a manner that elides into an easily understood “culture war” narrative. From this perspective, the groups (generally right-wing or traditionalist) exist within an information bubble that reinforces political, social, and cultural predilections. American and Chinese Reponses to COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic first broke out in Wuhan in December 2019. Initially unprepared and unwilling to accept the seriousness of the infection, the Chinese government regrouped from early mistakes and essentially controlled transmission in about three months. This positive outcome has been messaged as an exposition of the superiority of the Chinese governmental system and society both domestically and internationally; a positive, even heroic performance that evidences the populist credentials of the Chinese political leadership and demonstrates national excellence. The recently published White Paper entitled “Fighting COVID-19: China in Action” also summarises China’s “strategic achievement” in the simple language of numbers: in a month, the rising spread was contained; in two months, the daily case increase fell to single digits; and in three months, a “decisive victory” was secured in Wuhan City and Hubei Province (Xinhua). This clear articulation of the positive results has rallied political support. Indeed, a recent survey shows that 89 percent of citizens are satisfied with the government’s information dissemination during the pandemic (C Wu). As part of the effort, the government extensively promoted the provision of “political goods”, such as law and order, national unity and pride, and shared values. For example, severe publishments were introduced for violence against medical professionals and police, producing and selling counterfeit medications, raising commodity prices, spreading ‘rumours’, and being uncooperative with quarantine measures (Xu). Additionally, as an extension the popular anti-corruption campaign, many local political leaders were disciplined or received criminal charges for inappropriate behaviour, abuse of power, and corruption during the pandemic (People.cn, 2 Feb. 2020). Chinese state media also described fighting the virus as a global “competition”. In this competition a nation’s “material power” as well as “mental strength”, that calls for the highest level of nation unity and patriotism, is put to the test. This discourse recalled the global competition in light of the national mythology related to the formation of Chinese nation, the historical “hardship”, and the “heroic Chinese people” (People.cn, 7 Apr. 2020). Moreover, as the threat of infection receded, it was emphasised that China “won this competition” and the Chinese people have demonstrated the “great spirit of China” to the world: a result built upon the “heroism of the whole Party, Army, and Chinese people from all ethnic groups” (People.cn, 7 Apr. 2020). In contrast to the Chinese approach of emphasising national public goods as a justification for fighting the virus, the U.S. Trump Administration used nationalism, deflection, and “culture war” discourse to undermine health responses — an unprecedented response in American public health policy. The seriousness of the disease as well as the statistical evidence of its course through the American population was disputed. The President and various supporters raged against the COVID-19 “hoax”, social distancing, and lockdowns, disparaged public health institutions and advice, and encouraged protesters to “liberate” locked-down states (Russonello). “Our federal overlords say ‘no singing’ and ‘no shouting’ on Thanksgiving”, Representative Paul Gosar, a Republican of Arizona, wrote as he retweeted a Centers for Disease Control list of Thanksgiving safety tips (Weiner). People were encouraged, by way of the White House and Republican leadership, to ignore health regulations and not to comply with social distancing measures and the wearing of masks (Tracy). This encouragement led to threats against proponents of face masks such as Dr Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s foremost experts on infectious diseases, who required bodyguards because of the many threats on his life. Fauci’s critics — including President Trump — countered Fauci’s promotion of mask wearing by stating accusingly that he once said mask-wearing was not necessary for ordinary people (Kelly). Conspiracy theories as to the safety of vaccinations also grew across the course of the year. As the 2020 election approached, the Administration ramped up efforts to downplay the serious of the virus by identifying it with “the media” and illegitimate “partisan” efforts to undermine the Trump presidency. It also ramped up its criticism of China as the source of the infection. This political self-centeredness undermined state and federal efforts to slow transmission (Shear et al.). At the same time, Trump chided health officials for moving too slowly on vaccine approvals, repeated charges that high infection rates were due to increased testing, and argued that COVID-19 deaths were exaggerated by medical providers for political and financial reasons. These claims were amplified by various conservative media personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham of Fox News. The result of this “COVID-19 Denialism” and the alternative narrative of COVID-19 policy told through the lens of culture war has resulted in the United States having the highest number of COVID-19 cases, and the highest number of COVID-19 deaths. At the same time, the underlying social consensus and social capital that have historically assisted in generating positive public health outcomes has been significantly eroded. According to the Pew Research Center, the share of U.S. adults who say public health officials such as those at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are doing an excellent or good job responding to the outbreak decreased from 79% in March to 63% in August, with an especially sharp decrease among Republicans (Pew Research Center 2020). Social Capital and COVID-19 From the perspective of social or community capital, it could be expected that the American response to the Pandemic would be more effective than the Chinese response. Historically, the United States has had high levels of social capital, a highly developed public health system, and strong governmental capacity. In contrast, China has a relatively high level of governmental and public health capacity, but the level of social capital has been lower and there is a significant presence of traditional values which emphasise parochial and particularistic values. Moreover, the antecedent institutions of social capital, such as weak and inefficient formal institutions (Batjargal et al.), environmental turbulence and resource scarcity along with the transactional nature of guanxi (gift-giving and information exchange and relationship dependence) militate against finding a more effective social and community response to the public health emergency. Yet China’s response has been significantly more successful than the Unites States’. Paradoxically, the American response under the Trump Administration and the Chinese response both relied on an externalisation of the both the threat and the justifications for their particular response. In the American case, President Trump, while downplaying the seriousness of the virus, consistently called it the “China virus” in an effort to deflect responsibly as well as a means to avert attention away from the public health impacts. As recently as 3 January 2021, Trump tweeted that the number of “China Virus” cases and deaths in the U.S. were “far exaggerated”, while critically citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's methodology: “When in doubt, call it COVID-19. Fake News!” (Bacon). The Chinese Government, meanwhile, has pursued a more aggressive foreign policy across the South China Sea, on the frontier in the Indian sub-continent, and against states such as Australia who have criticised the initial Chinese response to COVID-19. To this international criticism, the government reiterated its sovereign rights and emphasised its “victimhood” in the face of “anti-China” foreign forces. Chinese state media also highlighted China as “victim” of the coronavirus, but also as a target of Western “political manoeuvres” when investigating the beginning stages of the pandemic. The major difference, however, is that public health policy in the United States was superimposed on other more fundamental political and cultural cleavages, and part of this externalisation process included the assignation of “otherness” and demonisation of internal political opponents or characterising political opponents as bent on destroying the United States. This assignation of “otherness” to various internal groups is a crucial element in the culture wars. While this may have been inevitable given the increasingly frayed nature of American society post-2008, such a characterisation has been activity pushed by local, state, and national leadership in the Republican Party and the Trump Administration (Vogel et al.). In such circumstances, minimising health risks and highlighting civil rights concerns due to public health measures, along with assigning blame to the democratic opposition and foreign states such as China, can have a major impact of public health responses. The result has been that social trust beyond the bubble of one’s immediate circle or those who share similar beliefs is seriously compromised — and the collective action problem presented by COVID-19 remains unsolved. Daniel Aldrich’s study of disasters in Japan, India, and US demonstrates that pre-existing high levels of social capital would lead to stronger resilience and better recovery (Aldrich). Social capital helps coordinate resources and facilitate the reconstruction collectively and therefore would lead to better recovery (Alesch et al.). Yet there has not been much research on how the pool of social capital first came about and how a disaster may affect the creation and store of social capital. Rebecca Solnit has examined five major disasters and describes that after these events, survivors would reach out and work together to confront the challenges they face, therefore increasing the social capital in the community (Solnit). However, there are studies that have concluded that major disasters can damage the social fabric in local communities (Peacock et al.). The COVID-19 epidemic does not have the intensity and suddenness of other disasters but has had significant knock-on effects in increasing or decreasing social capital, depending on the institutional and social responses to the pandemic. In China, it appears that the positive social capital effects have been partially subsumed into a more generalised patriotic or nationalist affirmation of the government’s policy response. Unlike civil society responses to earlier crises, such as the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, there is less evidence of widespread community organisation and response to combat the epidemic at its initial stages. This suggests better institutional responses to the crisis by the government, but also a high degree of porosity between civil society and a national “imagined community” represented by the national state. The result has been an increased legitimacy for the Chinese government. Alternatively, in the United States the transformation of COVID-19 public health policy into a culture war issue has seriously impeded efforts to combat the epidemic in the short term by undermining the social consensus and social capital necessary to fight such a pandemic. Trust in American institutions is historically low, and President Trump’s untrue contention that President Biden’s election was due to “fraud” has further undermined the legitimacy of the American government, as evidenced by the attacks directed at Congress in the U.S. capital on 6 January 2021. As such, the lingering effects the pandemic will have on social, economic, and political institutions will likely reinforce the deep cultural and political cleavages and weaken interpersonal networks in American society. Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic has devastated global public health and impacted deeply on the world economy. Unsurprisingly, given the serious economic, social, and political consequences, different government responses have been highly politicised. Various quarantine and infection case tracking methods have caused concern over state power intruding into private spheres. The usage of face masks, social distancing rules, and intra-state travel restrictions have aroused passionate debate over public health restrictions, individual liberty, and human rights. Yet underlying public health responses grounded in higher levels of social capital enhance the effectiveness of public health measures. In China, a country that has generally been associated with lower social capital, it is likely that the relatively strong policy response to COVID-19 will both enhance feelings of nationalism and Chinese exceptionalism and help create and increase the store of social capital. In the United States, the attribution of COVID-19 public health policy as part of the culture wars will continue to impede efforts to control the pandemic while further damaging the store of American community social capital that has assisted public health efforts over the past decades. References Adger, W. Neil. “Social Capital, Collective Action, and Adaptation to Climate Change.” Economic Geography 79.4 (2003): 387-404. Bacon, John. “Coronavirus Updates: Donald Trump Says US 'China Virus' Data Exaggerated; Dr. Anthony Fauci Protests, Draws President's Wrath.” USA Today 3 Jan. 2021. 4 Jan. 2021 <https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/01/03/COVID-19-update-larry-king-ill-4-million-december-vaccinations-us/4114363001/>. Berry, Kate A. “Beyond the American Culture Wars.” Regions & Cohesion / Regiones y Cohesión / Régions et Cohésion 7.2 (Summer 2017): 90-95. Castillo, Juan C., Daniel Miranda, and Pablo Torres. “Authoritarianism, Social Dominance and Trust in Public Institutions.” Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Istanbul, 9-12 July 2011. 2 Jan. 2021 <https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/>. Chapman, Roger. “Introduction, Culture Wars: Rhetoric and Reality.” Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices. Eds. Roger Chapman and M.E. Sharpe. 2010. 8-10. Chen, Jie, and Chunlong Lu. “Social Capital in Urban China: Attitudinal and Behavioral Effects on Grassroots Self-Government.” Social Science Quarterly 88.2 (June 2007): 422-442. China's State Council Information Office. “Fighting COVID-19: China in Action.” Xinhuanet 7 June 2020. 2 Sep. 2020 <http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-06/07/c_139120424.htm?bsh_bid=551709954>. Fukuyama, Francis. Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity. Hamish Hamilton, 1995. Kelly, Mike. “Welcome to the COVID-19 Culture Wars. Why Are We Fighting about Masks?’ Yahoo News 4 Dec. 2020 <https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/welcome-to-the-COVID-19-culture-wars-why-are-we-fighting-about-masks-mike-kelly/ar-BB1bCOHN>. Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, and Luigi Zingales, “Social Capital as Good Culture.” National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 13712. 2007. 18 ct. 2017 <http://www.nber.org/papers/w13712.pdf>. Malik, Nesrine. “The Right's Culture War Is No Longer a Sideshow to Our Politics – It Is Our Politics.” The Guardian 31 Aug. 2020. 6 Jan. 2021 <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/31/the-rights-culture-war-politics-rightwing-fantasy-elections>. Offe, Carl. “How Can We Trust Our Fellow Citizens?” Democracy and Trust. Ed. M.E. Warren. Cambridge University Press, 1999. 42-87. Ostrom, Elinor, and T.K. Ahn. “The Meaning of Social Capital and Its Link to Collective Action.” Handbook of Social Capital: The Troika of Sociology, Political Science and Economics. Eds. Gert Tinggaard Svendsen and Gunnar Lind Haase Svendsen. Edward Elgar, 2009. 17–35. Paxton, Pamela. “Is Social Capital Declining in the United States? A Multiple Indicator Assessment.” American Journal of Sociology 105.1 (1999): 88-127. People.cn. “Hubeisheng Huanggangshi chufen dangyuan ganbu 337 ren.” [“337 Party Cadres Were Disciplined in Huanggang, Hubei Province.”] 2 Feb. 2020. 10 Sep. 2020 <http://fanfu.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0130/c64371-31565382.html>. ———. “Zai yiqing fangkong douzheng zhong zhangxian weida zhongguo jingshen.” [“Demonstrating the Great Spirit of China in Fighting the Pandemic.”] 7 Apr. 2020. 9 Sep. 2020 <http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2020/0407/c1003-31663076.html>. Peters, Jeremy W. “How Abortion, Guns and Church Closings Made Coronavirus a Culture War.” New York Times 20 Apr. 2020. 6 Jan. 2021 <http://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/us/politics/coronavirus-protests-democrats-republicans.html>. Pew Research Center. “Americans Give the U.S. Low Marks for Its Handling of COVID-19, and So Do People in Other Countries.” 21 Sep. 2020. 15 Jan. 2021 <https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/09/21/americans-give-the-u-s-low-marks-for-its-handling-of-covid-19-and-so-do-people-in-other-countries/>. Putnam, Robert D. “Bowling Alone: America’s Declining Social Capital.” Journal of Democracy 6.1 (1995): 65-78. ———. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton University Press, 1993. Roßteutscher, Sigrid. “Social Capital Worldwide: Potential for Democratization or Stabilizer of Authoritarian Rule?” American Behavioural Scientist 53.5 (2010): 737–757. Russonello, G. “What’s Driving the Right-Wing Protesters Fighting the Quarantine?” New York Times 17 Apr. 2020. 2 Jan. 2021 <http://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/us/politics/poll-watch-quarantine-protesters.html>. Shear, Michael D., Maggie Haberman, Noah Weiland, Sharon LaFraniere, and Mark Mazzetti. “Trump’s Focus as the Pandemic Raged: What Would It Mean for Him?” New York Times 31 Dec. 2020. 2 Jan. 2021 <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/31/us/politics/trump-coronavirus.html>. Tracy, Marc. “Anti-Lockdown Protesters Get in Reporters’ (Masked) Faces.” New York Times 13 May 2020. 5 Jan. 2021 <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/business/media/lockdown-protests-reporters.html>. Victoria Ombudsman. “Investigation into the Detention and Treatment of Public Housing Residents Arising from a COVID-19 ‘Hard Lockdown’ in July 2020.” Dec. 2020. 8 Jan. 2021 <https://assets.ombudsman.vic.gov.au/>. Vogel, Kenneth P., Jim Rutenberg, and Lisa Lerer. “The Quiet Hand of Conservative Groups in the Anti-Lockdown Protests.” New York Times 21 Apr. 2020. 2 Jan. 2021 <http://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/21/us/politics/coronavirus-protests-trump.html>. 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ABSTRACT This article examines the bioethical discourse on polygenic embryo screening (PES) in reproductive medicine in blogs and news stories published during 2021 in response to the first baby’s birth using polygenic risk scores (PRS) derived from genome-wide association studies. We further contextualize the findings by synthesizing the emerging peer-reviewed bioethics literature on the issue, which has emphasized considerations regarding the child-parent future relationship, equity of access, and the absence of professional guidelines. Our media content analysis has established that expert opinion was prominently featured in news coverage, with bioethicists and other academics contributing 38 percent of articles and providing extensive commentary on ethical, social, and policy implications in the articles written by journalists. The overall perspective towards the use of PES was primarily negative (59 percent of the articles), without significant differences in negativity and positivity between experts and science reporters. This indicates a shift from the predominantly neutral attitudes towards the technology in media discourse prior to its deployment in clinical settings. There is heightened awareness that offering these tests to prospective parents is unethical and can create unrealistic expectations, with the two most prominent arguments being uncertainty about the prediction accuracy of polygenic risk scores in this context (72 percent of the articles) and the potential of PES to lead to a eugenic future of human reproduction that normalizes the discrimination of people based on their genetics (59 percent of the articles). INTRODUCTION The possibility of using genetic technologies to engineer the perfect baby has long haunted the public imagination. While some techno-utopians have openly advocated for human genetic enhancement, many critics have warned that advances in DNA technology come with myriads of ethical dilemmas and potentially dangerous social consequences. Literary and cinematic works have offered dystopian visions of our genetic futures—from Aldous Huxley’s powerful socio-political fantasy in his book Brave New World (1932) to cult classics of sci-fi cinema, such as Blade Runner (1982) and Gattaca (1997), there has been no shortage of ominous predictions that genetic engineering would lead to a new form of eugenics, which would ultimately create new social hierarchies grounded on genetic discrimination. Moreover, concerns about the use of genetic and genomic technologies for social control have been entangled with deep philosophical questions about personal autonomy, the right of the child to an open future, and the morality of changing, improving, or redesigning human nature.1 The perennial debate on human enhancement was recently reignited with a new controversy over the use of pre-implantation screening of embryos using polygenic risk scores.2 While the profiling of IVF embryos to detect hereditary, monogenetic diseases has been widely accepted, some companies are now pushing the envelope with unrealistic promises of tests that can predict genetic possibilities for desirable traits such as a child’s intelligence, athletic ability, and physical appearance. One event that prompted a public outcry in late 2021 was news about the birth of the first baby from an embryo selected through polygenic testing, a girl named Aurea.3 Although the embryo screening in Aurea’s case was used to decrease the likelihood for certain health conditions, many commentators believed that it signaled a real possibility of embryo selection for non-medical reasons becoming a commercial procedure in the foreseeable future, especially in the largely unregulated US fertility market.4 In the past, there have been discrepancies in how ethical and policy issues arising from advances in reproductive medicine have been viewed by experts (e.g., bioethicists, philosophers, legal scholars) and presented in the news. Like other advances in medical genetics, gene editing and screening technologies have been frequently characterized by exaggeration, sensationalism, and hype around clinical possibilities.5 Moreover, news media have often amplified the anticipated health benefits of genetic testing while overlooking uncertainty associated with its clinical validity and emerging ethical concerns, as shown in a recent study of the media portrayal of non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT).6 The issue of polygenic embryo screening (PES) initially gained traction in the media in 2017 when the New Jersey biotech startup Genomic Prediction made headlines with claims that its testing technology could identify and avoid implanting embryos with very low IQs.7 The company also claimed that it had the capability to identify embryos with high IQs, although it committed not to offer that procedure for ethical reasons.8 The media coverage of polygenic risk scoring of human embryos between 2017 and 2019 was previously analyzed in a study published in BMC Medical Ethics in September 2021.9 This media content analysis has established that while most news articles were neutral towards the technology, one of the most significant critiques raised by science reporters was the absence of solid scientific evidence for the technology’s predictive accuracy and its practical value in IVF settings. It has also identified five major ethical concerns articulated by science reporters that have also been addressed in the academic discourse and within broader policy debates on reproductive technologies: a slippery slope towards designer babies, well-being of the child and parents, impact on society, deliberate choice, and societal readiness. In this article, we examine the discourse on PES in bioethics blogs, opinion articles, and news stories published in 2021, with a specific focus on reactions to the birth of the first polygenic risk score baby. We compare the perspectives of experts and science reporters to establish their attitudes towards PES, the main ethical themes in press coverage, and the key issues highlighted for a future policy debate. We also juxtapose our findings to the previous study of media coverage to establish if the case of baby Aurea has raised any new issues and pressing ethical concerns. I. Polygenic Embryo Screening in Reproductive Medicine While complex diseases and human traits result from a combination of genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors, genomic medicine is quickly gaining momentum, and demands for genetic tests in clinical practice have significantly increased. Scans and analyses of genomes from various populations, a research area known as genome-wide association studies, have enabled scientists and researchers to identify genetic differences or variants associated with a particular trait or medical condition. These variants can be combined into a polygenic risk score that predicts an individual’s traits or increased risk for a certain disease. For instance, PES have been used to predict a range of diverse common conditions, from diabetes and cancer to attention deficit issues10 and, in some cases, well-being in general.11 This testing modality relies on the probabilistic susceptibility of individuals to certain diseases to offer personalized medical treatments and inform therapeutic interventions. Polygenic embryo screening uses polygenic risk scores to assess an embryo’s statistical risks of developing diseases (e.g., cardiovascular diseases) and potentially traits (e.g., intelligence, athletic ability, among others) and is performed in an IVF setting. It is currently marketed by several US companies such as MyOme, OrchidHealth, and Genomic Prediction to prospective parents as a method to screen pre-implantation embryos for health and non-health related conditions and is accessible to those who can afford to pay for it. As stated in a recent report on companies bringing PES into reproductive medicine, Genomic Prediction has already made their test for polygenic disorders, LifeView, available to couples. In contrast, Orchid Health has only recently invited couples to an early-access program for their testing technology, and MyOme is still in the process of launching its own test.12 In September 2021, Bloomberg first reported the birth of baby Aurea using screening conducted by Genomic Prediction. She was born after her parents used IVF and subsequently PES to select from 33 candidate pre-implantation embryos in 2020.13 Aurea’s embryo was deemed to have the best genetic odds of avoiding conditions such as breast cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and schizophrenia in adulthood. It is worth noting that Genomic Prediction made the announcement almost one year following Aurea’s birth, thus delaying the media’s reaction to this development and the ensuing bioethical and policy debates. II. Ethical, Social, and Policy Implications Some important ethical, social, and regulatory considerations regarding the development and clinical use of PES have been raised within the academic community. The bioethics literature on the issue, however, appears rather thin, which is not surprising given that prior to 2021, the possibility of using this screening method in clinical practice was largely hypothetical. Other genomic technologies that have enabled polygenic embryo selection, such as whole-genome sequencing and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, have received more attention from bioethicists, legal scholars, and Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications (ELSI) researchers. Our analysis of the emerging literature has shown that some proponents of PES advocate its current use and go as far as to suggest a permissive regulatory environment for the purpose of outpacing the ethical concerns and potential restrictions once the technology becomes widely available. This approach suggests that embryo selection should be allowed for or against any trait associated with higher odds for better health and well-being in general, often without further discussion of what accounts for wellbeing.14 Scholars applying the principle of procreative beneficence to defend the use of PES have also argued for regulation that addresses issues of justice and equality and expands access to the procedure for those who are currently unable to afford it. By contrast, opponents have argued that the clinical utility of this embryo selection method is yet to be proven, and its current use may create unrealistic expectations in parents, making it an unethical practice to offer the procedure as part of IVF treatments.15 They state that predictive models from PRS have been developed with data from genomes of adult populations. Therefore, extrapolating results for embryo screening, along with the absence of a research protocol to validate its diagnostic effectiveness, is dangerous and misleading.16 Another layer of complexity is added because PRS already faces many translational hurdles that would undermine its predictive value assessment for certain traits or diseases. Scientists have noted that PRS take into consideration the genetic component of a particular trait putting aside the effects of other non-genetic factors, such as lifestyle and environment, which might interfere and influence the calculation of these scores.17 Discussions on the ethics and societal implications of PES in the bioethics literature can be grouped into three distinct categories: 1) relational issues between parents and the future child (e.g., selection as identity-determining, concerns about the instrumentalization of children and the child’s right to an open future); 2) concerns about social justice and equality (e.g., fears about a new eugenics that establishes new social hierarchy, limited access to the technology due to its cost); and 3) implementation and regulatory concerns (e.g., lack of professional guidelines and advertising of PES by private companies). An important ethical implication of PES relates to the well-being of the future child and the way that selecting children based on their genetic make-up might negatively affect the parent-child relationship. This is in line with previously raised ethical concerns in the literature around cloning and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis that by choosing a child’s genetic predisposition, we are limiting to and, in some cases, denying their right to an open future. For instance, the future child’s options would be restricted if parents chose a genetic predisposition to musicality that might interfere with the child’s ability to make certain life choices.18 On a societal level, there are concerns PES may alter social perceptions of what is “normal” and “healthy,” resulting in discrimination and stigmatization of certain conditions.19 Related to this are fears about encouraging eugenic attitudes that can exacerbate discrimination against people with disabilities. Furthermore, one of the main ethical concerns raised is that the growing use of PES might exacerbate societal pressure to use this technology, influencing parents’ decisions to select the embryo with the “best” genetics giving rise to a generation of “designer babies.” 20 Finally, direct-to-consumer marketing and clinical introduction of the technology prior to the publication of professional guidelines and in the absence of scientific validity for its use, as well as without appropriate regulatory oversight, is seen as a premature step that might erode public trust.21 III. News Stories and Expert Commentary on Polygenic Embryo Screening in 2021 We conducted searches on google news using keywords such as “polygenic embryo screening,” “polygenic risk scores,” “baby Aurea,” and “embryo selection” and selected blogs and articles from major news sources (e.g., Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Times, Guardian, The Times, etc.). An additional effort was made to collect all relevant articles from prominent bioethics blogs such as the Hastings Center Bioethics Forum, Impact Ethics, Bioethics.net, Biopolitical Times (Center for Genetics and Society), among others. The time period for the study was one year, from January 1 to December 31, 2021. While most coverage occurred after the Bloomberg report on the birth of the first baby using PES, there were a number of news stories and blogs in response to a special report on embryo selection based on polygenic risk scores published in the New England Journal of Medicine on July 1, 2020.22 This report, which has received significant attention in the press, warns that companies that offer genetic services can create unrealistic expectations in health providers and prospective parents through their marketing practices. It has further emphasized the scientific uncertainty around the predictive results of PRS in the context of embryo selection. In general, our search has established that the news media coverage on PES over the past year has revolved around these two events – the NEJM Report and the announcement about the first baby born after PES. In total, we collected 29 publications, of which 12 were blog posts and 17 publications under the general category of “news,” including ten news articles, three opinion pieces/perspective articles, two press releases, and one radio broadcast transcript (see Supplementary Material). IV. Methods for content analysis We utilized an inductive-deductive process to develop coding categories for a systematic content analysis of the blogs and new articles. The first author undertook a close reading of the entire dataset to derive inductively recurrent themes and ethical arguments in the media representations of PES. Based on this preliminary analysis, both authors agreed on the categories for textual analysis. The coding book was further refined by using a deductive approach that incorporates themes that have been previously articulated in the scholarly literature on the issue, particularly questions about the perceived attributes of the test, ethical concerns, and emerging policy considerations. The following categories were used to analyze key issues and attitudes towards PES expressed by experts and science journalists: a. Claims that PES is unethical because it violates the future child’s autonomy. b. Concerns about PES as a step towards eugenics and/or genetic discrimination. c. Defenses of PES with arguments that parents have a duty to give the child the healthiest possible start in life (and reduce public health burden). d. Claims that the science behind PRS-based diagnostics is uncertain, and it will take some time to prove its clinical validity. e. Concerns about the equality of access to PES. f. Arguments that PES can exacerbate ethnic and racial inequality (e.g., that most polygenic scores are created using DNA samples from individuals of European ancestries and predictions may not be accurate in other populations). g. Arguments that PES provides health benefits and can help overcome genetic and health inequalities. h. Concerns about the negative impact that PES may have on the child-parent relationship. i. Arguments about the need for better regulatory oversight of PES. j. Suggestions that there is an urgent need for deliberation and debate on the societal and ethical implications of PES. k. Concerns that patients and clinicians may get the impression that the procedure is more effective and less risky than it is. l. Assessment of whether the article’s perspective towards the use of PES is positive, negative, or neutral. We used yes/no questions to detect the frequencies of mentions in each category, except on the last question, which required a more nuanced, qualitative assessment of the overall tone of the articles. We coded articles as “positive” when the authors viewed the technology favorably and emphasized its potential health benefits over its negative implications. Articles that did not condone the current use of PES and expressed strong concerns about the predictive accuracy of this testing method, its readiness for clinical use, and highlighted its controversial ethical and social implications were coded as “negative.” Finally, articles that simply presented information about the topic and quoted experts on the advantages and disadvantages of using PRS for embryo selection without taking a side or expressing value judgments were coded as “neutral.” Acknowledging the complex polysemic nature of media texts, we took into consideration that support or disapproval of PES may be implicit and expressed by giving credence to some experts’ opinions over others. Therefore, we coded articles that mostly cited expert opinion favorable to PES, or alternatively, presented such views as more credible, as “positive”, while we coded articles that emphasized critical perspectives as “negative.” V. Media Discourse and Expert Opinion On PES We found out that perspectives and opinions by experts were prominently featured in both news (17 articles) and blogs (12 articles). The blog posts in our dataset were written by university professors in bioethics (four articles), academics from other disciplines such as medicine, political science, psychology, human genetics, and neurobiology (four articles), and science journalists and editors (four articles). Furthermore, three of the news articles in influential newspapers and magazines such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and The Scientific American were opinion articles or commentaries contributed by academics (e.g., a psychology professor, specializing in personality, individual differences, and behavior genetics, a sociology professor, and a director of research in a graduate program in human genetics). The remaining 14 news articles in our dataset were written by science reporters, editors, or other staff writers. Altogether, experts contributed 38 percent of the media coverage (11 articles) on the issue of PES and its wider societal implications. Experts’ comments were also heavily featured in the 18 articles written by science reporters and other media professionals, which accounted for 68 percent of the dataset. Of these articles, 17 extensively cited experts with academic and research backgrounds (professors and research scientists), seven articles quoted industry representatives (e.g., CEOs and spokespersons of Genomic Prediction and Orchid, other commercial developers), and four articles included opinions by parents seeking PES, particularly Aurea’s father, North Carolina neurologist Rafal Smigrodzki, who argued that a parent’s duty is to prevent disease in their child.23 The overall perspective towards the use of PES was mostly negative – 59 percent (17 articles) expressed negative attitudes, while 24 percent (seven articles) were positive and 17% (five articles) were neutral in tone and did not advance arguments in favor or against the technology and its adoption. However, we did not establish significant differences in negativity and positivity between experts and science reporters. For instance, 49 percent of the articles with negative attitudes were written by experts, while 53 percent were authored by science reports. Similarly, the articles by experts with positive perspectives on PES accounted for 13 percent of the dataset, while science reporters contributed 11 percent of the positive articles. VI. Major Themes and Issues The most discussed issue in media coverage was the prediction accuracy of polygenic risk scores and the uncertainties regarding the utility of these tests in embryo screening. Our analysis has established that 72 percent of the articles (21 out of 29) argued that the science behind PES-based diagnostics is uncertain, and it will take some time to prove its clinical validity. The second most frequently mentioned issue was the potential of PES to lead to a eugenic future of human reproduction. More than half of the articles (59 percent or 17 out of 29) raised concerns that PES could become a step towards a new form of eugenics that could eventually normalize the discrimination of people based on their genetics. Despite concerns about the accuracy of PES testing, many articles gave extensive attention to problems concerning equality of access to PES and related diagnostic services, with 49 percent of the articles (13 out of 29) expressing concerns that the procedure is currently offered at a high cost, it is not covered by health insurance plans, and people of lower socioeconomic status cannot afford it. Furthermore, 41 percent of the articles (12 out of 29) raise concern that the current use of PES reflects the existing ethnic and racial inequalities since most PES are created using DNA samples from individuals of European ancestries, and predictions may not be accurate in other populations. Although it has been reported that Genomic Prediction considers offering the procedure to parents of non-European ancestries, their messaging has suggested it would take a significant time to provide them with predictive models that are as relevant as those for European populations.24 The health benefits of this testing technology, its regulation, and the need for a wider debate on how to realize its promise in a responsible manner were also addressed, albeit to a lesser extent. The potential to overcome genetic and health inequalities by selecting healthy embryos with the best odds against diseases and chronic conditions was emphasized in 41 percent of the articles (12 out of 29). The regulation was a topic covered in 38 percent of the articles (11 out of 29), in which the authors argued that better regulatory oversight of PES is needed, especially in the present condition of an unregulated US market for genetic testing. Additionally, 38 percent suggested that there is an urgent need for deliberation and public debate on the societal and ethical implications of PES. Finally, the issue that patients and clinicians may get the wrong impression that the procedure is more effective and less risky was addressed in 31 percent (nine out of 29). We have established that critical issues about how PES may affect the well-being of the future child and the child-parent relationship have received less attention. For instance, only 17 percent of the articles (five out of 29) supported the clinical use of PES with arguments that parents have a moral obligation to give the child the healthiest possible start in life, a line of thought that is prominent in the bioethics literature on procreative beneficence and procreative autonomy.25 These authors also maintained that the technology has the potential to provide benefits to individuals and reduce the burden of disease and public health expenditure. Similarly, just 10 percent of the articles (three out of 29) expressed concerns about the negative impact that PES may have on the child-parent relationship by causing relational asymmetries between generations and limiting the autonomy of the future child. CONCLUSION Our content analysis has shown that the media discourse on PES and the birth of baby Aurea has been highly influenced by expert opinion. In fact, leading experts from bioethics and a range of other academic disciplines contributed 38 percent of the content in the form of blogs, opinion articles, and commentaries, published on prestigious bioethics fora and in the popular press. Furthermore, as our analysis has shown, science reporters have heavily relied on expert opinion in writing stories about the ethical challenges and societal implications of PES. One important finding of our study is the prevalence of negative attitudes towards the technology, as opposed to past media representations of PES, which had been neutral towards the technology.26 This change in attitudes is likely caused by the amplified voices of bioethics experts reacting to the first clinical use of the technology, which made hypothetical ethical dilemmas a very real possibility. As far as the thematic focus of media representations is concerned, the birth of the first baby using PES has raised ethical concerns similar to those highlighted in the literature on PES and embryo selection through pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, with the most prominent issue being the absence of robust scientific evidence for the predictive accuracy of PRS modeling and its practical value in IVF settings. Although the critical nature of media discourse can contribute to raising public awareness about the ethical acceptability of the technology, bioethicists should also examine the effect of economic forces and societal pressures to have a perfect child that may be driving prospective parents to seek such unproven genetic interventions. PES is an emerging niche in a large, unregulated market for genetic testing services that has the potential to shape the future of reproductive medicine, and there is an urgent need for a policy debate on how it can be developed responsibly and ethically. 1 J. Habermas, "The Debate on the Ethical self-Understanding of the Species," The Future of Human Nature (Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing, 2003): p. 16-100. 2 Polygenic risk scores (PRS) are used in personalized medicine to predict disease risk in different human populations, not necessarily for risk modelling in embryos. Polygenic embryo screening (PES), on the other hand, involves the clinical use of PRS modelling from genome-wide association studies of adult populations for selecting embryos with the lowest probability of developing certain health conditions in adulthood. It could potentially be used to select embryos with a higher probability for inheritance of certain physical traits or complex characteristics. 3 C. Goldberg, "Picking Embryos With Best Health Odds Sparks New DNA Debate," Bloomberg September 17, 2021. 4 D. Conley, "A new age of genetic screening is coming — and we don’t have any rules for it," The Washington Post June 14, 2021. 5 K. Kamenova, A. Reshef, and T. Caulfield, "Angelina Jolie's faulty gene: newspaper coverage of a celebrity's preventive bilateral mastectomy in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom," Genetics in Medicine 16, no. 7 (2014): 522-28. 6 K. Kamenova et al., "Media portrayal of non-invasive prenatal testing: a missing ethical dimension," Journals of Science Communication 15, no. 2 (2016): 1-19. 7 B. Talat, Choosing the "Smartest" Embryo: Embryo Profiling and the Future of Reproductive Technology, (Canadian Institute for Genomics and Society, March 14, 2019), https://www.genomicsandsociety.com/post/choosing-the-smartest-embryo-embryo-profiling-and-the-future-of-reproductive-technology8 E. Parens, S. P. Applebaum, and W. Chung, "Embryo editing for higher IQ is a fantasy. Embryo profiling for it is almost here.," Statnews, February 12, 2019. 9 T. Pagnaer et al., "Polygenic risk scoring of human embryos: a qualitative study of media coverage," BMC Medical Ethics 22, no. 1 (2021): 1-8. 10 E. L. de Zeeuw et al., "Polygenic scores associated with educational attainment in adults predict educational achievement and ADHD symptoms in children," American Journal of Medical Genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric Genetics 165b, no. 6 (2014): 51020. 11 A. Okbay et al., "Genetic variants associated with subjective well-being, depressive symptoms, and neuroticism identified through genome-wide analyses," Nature Genetics 48, no. 6 (2016): 624-33. 12 F. Ray, "Embryo Selection From Polygenic Risk Scores Enters Market as Clinical Value Remains Unproven," (December 22, 2021). https://www.genomeweb.com/sequencing/embryo-selection-polygenic-risk-scores-enters-market-clinical-value-remainsunproven#.YeVWzvhOk2w13 J. Savulescu, "The moral case for eugenics?," IAI News, September 28, 2021, https://iai.tv/articles/the-moral-case-for-eugenicsauid-1916. 14 S. Munday and J. Savulescu, "Three models for the regulation of polygenic scores in reproduction," Journal of Medical Ethics 47, no. 12 (2021): 1-9. 15 F. Forzano et al., "The use of polygenic risk scores in pre-implantation genetic testing: an unproven, unethical practice," European Journal of Human Genetics (2021). 16 Forzano et al., 1-3.; P. Turley et al., "Problems with Using Polygenic Scores to Select Embryos," The New England Jourmal of Medicine 385, no. 1 (2021): 78-86. 17 N. J. Wald and R. Old, "The illusion of polygenic disease risk prediction," Genetics in Medicine 21, no. 8 (2019): 1705-7. 18 M. J. Sandel, "The case against perfection: what's wrong with designer children, bionic athletes, and genetic engineering," Atlantic Monthly 292, no. 3 (2004): 50-4, 56-60, 62. 19 H. Haidar, "Polygenic Risk Scores to Select Embryos: A Need for Societal Debate," Impact Ethics (blog), November 3, 2021, https://impactethics.ca/2021/11/03/polygenic-risk-scores-to-select-embryos-a-need-for-societal-debate/. 20 Pagnaer et al., " 1-8. 21 Forzano et al., 1-8. 22 Turley et al., 78-86. 23 P. Ball, "Polygenic screening of embryos is here, but is it ethical?," The Guardian, October 17, 2021. 24 W. K. Davis, "A New Kind of Embryo Genetics Screening Makes Big Promises on Little Evidence," Slate, July 23, 2021, https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/prs-model-snp-genetic-screening-counseling.html. 25 J. Savulescu, "Procreative beneficence: why we should select the best children," Bioethics 15, no. 5-6 (2001): 413-26. 26 Pagnaer et al., 1-8.

In recent years ecological thinking has been applied to a range of social, cultural, and aesthetic systems, including performing arts as a living system of policy makers, producers, organisations, artists, and audiences. Ecological thinking is systems-based thinking which allows us to see the performing arts as a complex and protean ecosystem; to explain how elements in this system act and interact; and to evaluate its effects on Australia’s social fabric over time. According to Gallasch, ecological thinking is “what we desperately need for the arts.” It enables us to “defeat the fragmentary and utilitarian view of the arts that dominates, to make connections, to establish overviews of the arts that can be shared and debated” (Gallasch NP). The ecological metaphor has featured in debates about the performing arts in Brisbane, Australia, in the last two or three years. A growing state capital on Australia’s eastern seaboard, Brisbane is proud of its performing arts culture. Its main theatre organisations include the state flagship Queensland Theatre Company; the second major presenter of adapted and new text-based performances La Boite Theatre Company; venues which support local and touring performances such as the Judith Wright Centre for Contemporary Arts and the Brisbane Powerhouse; emerging talent incubator Metro Arts; indigenous companies like Kooemba Jdarra; independent physical theatre and circus companies such as Zen Zen Zo and Circa; and contemporary play-producing company 23rd Productions (cf. Baylis 3). Brisbane aspires to be a cultural capital in Australia, Australasia, and the Asia Pacific (Gill). Compared to Australia’s southern capitals Sydney and Melbourne, however, Brisbane does have a relatively low level of performing arts activity across traditional and contemporary theatre, contemporary performance, musicals, circus, and other genres of performance. It has at times been cast as a piecemeal, potentially unsustainable arts centre prone to losing talent to other states. In 2009, John Baylis took up these issues in Mapping Queensland Theatre, an Arts Queensland-funded survey designed to map practices in Brisbane and in Queensland more broadly, and to provide a platform to support future policy-making. This report excited debate amongst artists who, whilst accepting the tenor of Baylis’s criticisms, also lamented the lack of nuanced detail and contextualised relationships its map of Queensland theatre provided. In this paper we propose a new approach to mapping Brisbane’s and Queensland’s theatre that extends Baylis’s “value chain” into a “value ecology” that provides a more textured picture of players, patterns, relationships, and activity levels. A “value chain” approach emphasises linear relationships and gaps between production, distribution, and consumption in a specific sector of the economy. A “value ecology” approach goes further by examining a complex range of rhizomatic relationships between production, distribution, and consumption infrastructure and how they influence each other within a sector of the economy such as the performing arts. Our approach uses a “value ecology” model adapted from Hearn et al. and Cherbo et al. to map and interpret information from the AusStage performing arts database, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and other sources such as previews, reviews, and an ongoing local blogosphere debate. Building upon Baylis’s work, our approach produces literal and conceptual maps of Queensland’s performing arts as they change over time, with analysis of support, infrastructure, and relationships amongst government, arts organisations, artists, and audiences. As debate on Mapping Queensland Theatre gives way to more considered reflection, and as Baylis develops a follow-up report, our approach captures snapshots of Queensland’s performing arts before, during, and after such policy interventions. It supports debate about how Queensland artists might manage their own sustainability, their own ability to balance artistic, cultural, and economic factors that influence their work in a way that allows them to survive long term, and allows policy makers, producers, and other players to better understand, articulate, assess, and address criticisms. The Ecological Metaphor In recent years a number of commentators have understood the performing arts as an “ecology,” a system characterised by interacting elements, engagements, flows, blockages, breaks, and breakthroughs whose “health” (synonymous in this context with sustainability) depends on relationships between players within and without the system. Traditionally, performing arts policies in Australia have concentrated on singular elements in a system. They have, as Hunt and Shaw argue, “concentrate[d] on individual companies or an individual artist’s practice rather than the sector as a whole” (5, cf. 43). The focus has been on how to structure, support, and measure the success—the aesthetic and social benefits—of individual training institutions, artists, administrators, and arts organisations. The “health” of singular elements has been taken as a sign of the “health” of the system. An ecologies approach, by contrast, concentrates on engagements, energies, and flows as signs of health, and thus sustainability, in a system. Ecological thinking enables policy makers, practitioners, and scholars to go beyond debate about the presence of activity, the volume of activity, and the fate of individual agents as signs of the health or non-health of a system. In an ecologies context, level of activity is not the only indicator of health, and low activity does not necessarily equate with instability or unsustainability. An ecological approach is critical in Brisbane, and in Queensland more broadly, where attempts to replicate the nature or level of activity in southern capitals are not necessarily the best way to shore up the “health” of our performing arts system in our own unique environment. As the locus of our study Queensland is unique. While Queensland has 20% of Australia’s population (OESR; ABS ‘ Population Projections’), and is regularly recognised as a rapidly growing “lifestyle superstate” which values innovation, creativity, and cultural infrastructure (Cunningham), it is still home to significantly less than 20% of Australia’s performing arts producers, and many talented people continue to migrate to the south to pursue career opportunities (Baylis 4, 28). An ecologies approach can break into oft-cited anxieties about artist, activity, and audience levels in Brisbane, and in Queensland, and create new ideas about what a “healthy” local performing arts sector might look like. This might start to infuse some of the social media commentary that currently tends to emphasise the gaps in the sector. Ecologies are complex systems. So, as Costanza says, when we consider ecosystem health, we must consider the overall performance of the system, including its ability to deal with “external stress” (240) from macro-level political, legal, social, cultural, economic, or technological currents that change the broader society this particular sector or ecosystem sits within. In Brisbane, there is a growing population and a desire to pursue a cultural capital tag, but the distinctive geographic, demographic, and behavioural characteristics of Brisbane’s population—and the associated ‘stresses’, conditions, or constraints—mean that striving to replicate patterns of activity seen in Sydney or Melbourne may not be the straightest path to a “healthy” or “sustainable” sector here. The attitudes of the players and the pressures influencing the system are different, so this may be like comparing rainforests with deserts (Costanza), and forgetting that different elements and engagements are in fact “healthy” in different ecosystems. From an ecologies point of view, policy makers and practitioners in Brisbane and in Queensland more broadly might be well advised to stop trying to match Sydney or Melbourne, and to instead acknowledge that a “healthy” ecosystem here may look different, and so generate policy, subsidy, and production systems to support this. An ecological approach can help determine how much activity is in fact necessary to ensure a healthy and sustainable local performing arts sector. It can, in other words, provide a fresh approach that inspires new ideas and strategies for sector sustainability. Brisbane, Baylis and the Blogosphere Debate The ecological metaphor has clearly captured the interest of policy makers as they consider how to make Queensland’s performing arts more sustainable and successful. For Arts Queensland: The view of the sector as a complex and interdependent ‘ecosystem’ is forging new thinking, new practices and new business models. Individual practitioners and organisations are rethinking where they sit within the broader ecology, and what they contribute to the health and vitality of the sector, and how they might address the gaps in services and skills (12). This view informed the commissioning of Mapping Queensland Theatre, an assessment of Queensland’s theatre sector which offers a framework for allocation of resources under the Queensland Arts & Cultural Sector Plan 2010-2013. It also offers a framework for negotiation with funded organisations to ensure “their activities and focus support a harmonious ecology” (Baylis 3) in which all types and levels of practice (emerging, established, touring, and so on) are functioning well and are well represented within the overall mix of activities. Utilising primary and secondary survey sources, Mapping Queensland Theatre seeks: to map individuals, institutions, and organisations who have a stake in developing Queensland’s professional theatre sector; and to apply a “value chain” model of production from supply (training, creation, presentation, and distribution) to demand (audiences) to identify problems and gaps in Queensland’s professional theatre sector and recommend actions to address them. The report is critical of the sector. Baylis argues that “the context for great theatre is not yet in place in Queensland … therefore works of outstandingly high quality will be rare” (28).Whilst acknowledging a lack of ready answers about how much activity is required in a vibrant theatre culture, Baylis argues that “comparisons are possible” (27) and he uses various data sets to compare numbers of new Australian productions in different states. He finds that “despite having 20% of the Australian population, [Queensland] generates a dramatically lower amount of theatre activity” (4, cf. 28). The reason, according to Baylis (20, 23, 25, 29, 32, 40-41, 44), is that there are gaps in the “value chain” of Queensland theatre, specifically in: Support for the current wave of emerging and independent artistsSpace for experimentation Connections between artists, companies, venues and festivals, between and within regional centres, and between Queensland companies and their (inter)national peers Professional development for producers to address the issue of market distributionAudience development “Queensland lacks a critical mass of theatre activity to develop a sustainable theatre culture” (48), and the main gap is in pathways for independent artists. Quality new work does not emerge, energy dissipates, and artists move on. The solution, for Baylis, is to increase support for independent companies (especially via co-productions with mainstage companies), to improve (inter)national touring, and to encourage investment in audience development. Naturally, Queensland’s theatre makers responded to this report. Responses were given, for example, in inaugural speeches by new Queensland Theatre Company director Wesley Enoch and new La Boite Theatre Company director David Berthold, in the media, and in blogosphere commentary on a range of articles on Brisbane performing arts in 2010. The blogosphere debate in particular raged for months and warrants more detailed analysis elsewhere. For the purposes of this paper, though, it is sufficient to note that blogosphere debate about the health of Queensland theatre culture acknowledged many of the deficits Baylis identified and called for: More leadershipMore government supportMore venuesMore diversityMore audience, especially for risky work, and better audience engagementMore jobs and retention of artists Whilst these responses endorse Baylis’s findings and companies have since conceived programs that address Baylis’s criticisms (QTC’s introduction of a Studio Season and La Boite’s introduction of an Indie program in 2010 for example) a sense of frustration also emerged. Some, like former QTC Chair Kate Foy, felt that “what’s really needed in the theatre is a discussion that breaks out from the old themes and encourages fresh ideas—approaches to solving whatever problems are perceived to exist in ‘the system’.” For commentators like Foy the blogosphere debate enacted a kind of ritual rehearsal of an all-too-familiar set of concerns: inadequate and ill-deployed funding, insufficient venues, talent drain, and an impoverished local culture of theatre going. “Value Chains” versus “Value Ecologies” Why did responses to this report demand more artists, more arts organisations, more venues, and more activities? Why did they repeat demands for more government-subsidised venues, platforms, and support rather than drive toward new seed- or non- subsidised initiatives? At one level, this is to do with the report’s claims: it is natural for artists who have been told quality work is “rare” amongst them to point to lack of support to achieve success. At another level, though, this is because—as useful as it has been for local theatre makers—Baylis’s map is premised on a linear chain from training, to first productions, to further developed productions (involving established writers, directors, designers and performers), to opportunities to tour (inter)nationally, etc. It provides a linear image of a local performing arts sector in which there are individuals and institutions with potential, but specific gaps in the production-distribution-consumption chain that make it difficult to deliver work to target markets. It emphasises gaps in the linear pathway towards “stability” of financial, venue, and audience support and thus “sustainability” over a whole career for independent artists and the audiences they attract. Accordingly, asking government to plug the gaps through elements added to the system (venues, co-production platforms, producer hubs, subsidy, and entrepreneurial endeavours) seems like a logical solution. Whilst this is true, it does not tell the whole story. To generate a wider story, we need to consider: What the expected elements in a “healthy” ecosystem would be (e.g. more versus alternative activity);What other aesthetic, cultural, or economic pressures affect the “health” of an ecosystem;Why practices might need to cycle, ebb, and flow over time in a “healthy” ecosystem. A look at the way La Boite works before, during, and after Baylis’s analysis of Brisbane theatre illustrates why attention to these elements is necessary. A long-running company which has made the transition from amateur to professional to being a primary developer of new Australian work in its distinctive in-the-round space, La Boite has recently shifted its strategic position. A focus on text-based Australian plays has given way to adapted, contemporary, and new work in a range of genres; regular co-productions with companies in Brisbane and beyond; and an “Indie” program that offers other companies a venue. This could be read as a response to Baylis’s recommendation: the production-distribution-consumption chain gap for Brisbane’s independents is plugged, the problem is solved, the recommendation has led to the desired result. Such a reading might, though, overlook the range of pressures beyond Brisbane, beyond Queensland, and beyond the Baylis report that drive—and thus help, hinder, or otherwise effect—the shift in La Boite’s program strategies. The fact that La Boite recently lost its Australia Council funding, or that La Boite like all theatre companies needs co-productions to keep its venue running as costs increase, or that La Boite has rebranded to appeal to younger audiences interested in postdramatic, do-it-your-self or junkyard style aesthetics. These factors all influence what La Boite might do to sustain itself, and more importantly, what its long-term impact on Brisbane’s theatre ecology will be. To grasp what is happening here, and get beyond repetitive responses to anxieties about Brisbane’s theatre ecology, detail is required not simply on whether programs like La Boite’s “plugged the gap” for independent artists, but on how they had both predicted and unpredicted effects, and how other factors influenced the effects. What is needed is to extend mapping from a “value chain” to a full ”value ecology”? This is something Hearn et al. have called for. A value chain suggests a “single linear process with one stage leading to the next” (5). It ignores the environment and other external enablers and disregards a product’s relationship to other systems or products. In response they prefer a “value creating ecology” in which the “constellation of firms are [sic] dynamic and value flow is multi-directional and works through clusters of networks” (6). Whilst Hearn et al. emphasise “firms” or companies in their value creating ecology, a range of elements—government, arts organisations, artists, audiences, and the media as well as the aesthetic, social, and economic forces that influence them—needs to be mapped in the value creating ecology of the performing arts. Cherbo et al. provide a system of elements or components which, adapted for a local context like Brisbane or Queensland, can better form the basis of a value ecology approach to the way a specific performing arts community works, adapts, changes, breaks down, or breaks through over time. Figure 1 – Performing Arts Sector Map (adapted from Cherbo et. al. 14) Here, the performing arts sector is understood in terms of core artistic workers, companies, a constellation of generic and sector specific support systems, and wider social contexts (Cherbo et al. 15). Together, the shift from “value chain” to “value ecology” that Hearn et al. advocate, and the constellation of ecology elements that Cherbo et al. emphasise, bring a more detailed, dynamic range of relations into play. These include “upstream” production infrastructure (education, suppliers, sponsors), “downstream” distribution infrastructure (venues, outlets, agents), and overall public infrastructure. As a framework for mapping “value ecology” this model offers a more nuanced perspective on production, distribution, and consumption elements in an ecology. It allows for analysis of impact of interventions in dozens of different areas, from dozens of perspectives, and thus provides a more detailed picture of players, relationships, and results to support both practice and policy making around practice. An Aus-e-Stage Value Ecology To provide the more detailed, dynamic image of local theatre culture that a value ecology approach demands—to show players, relations between players, and context in all their complexity—we use the Aus-e-Stage Mapping Service, an online application that maps data about artists, arts organisations, and audiences across cityscapes/landscapes. We use Aus-e-Stage with data drawn from three sources: the AusStage database of over 50,000 entries on Australian performing arts venues, productions, artists, and reviews; the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data on population; and the Local Government Area (LGA) maps the ABS uses to cluster populations. Figure 2 – Using AusStage Interface Figure 3 – AusStage data on theatre venues laid over ABS Local Government Area Map Figure 4 – Using Aus-e-Stage / AusStage to zoom in on Australia, Queensland, Brisbane and La Boite Theatre Company, and generate a list of productions, dates and details Aus-e-Stage produces not just single maps, but a sequential series of snapshots of production ecologies, which visually track who does what when, where, with whom, and for whom. Its sequences can show: The way artists, companies, venues, and audiences relate to each other;The way artists’ relationship to companies, venues, and audiences changes over time;The way “external stressors” changes such as policy, industrial, or population changes affect the elements, roles, and relationships in the ecology from that point forward. Though it can be used in combination with other data sources such as interviews, the advantage of AusStage data is that maps of moving ecologies of practice are based not on descriptions coloured by memory but clear, accurate program, preview, and review data. This allows it to show how factors in the environment—population, policy, infrastructure, or program shifts—effect the ecology, effect players in the ecology, and prompt players to adapt their type, level, or intensity of practice. It extends Baylis’s value chain into a full value ecology that shows the detail on how an ecology works, going beyond demands that government plug perceived gaps and moving towards data- and history- based decisions, ideas and innovation based on what works in Brisbane’s performing arts ecology. Our Aus-e-Stage mapping shows this approach can do a number of useful things. It can create sequences showing breaks, blockages, and absences in an individual or company’s effort to move from emerging to established (e.g. in a sudden burst of activity followed by nothing). It can create sequences showing an individual or company’s moves to other parts of Australia (e.g. to tour or to pursue more permanent work). It can show surprising spaces, relations, and sources of support artists use to further their career (e.g. use of an amateur theatre outside the city such as Brisbane Arts Theatre). It can capture data about venues, programs, or co-production networks that are more or less effective in opening up new opportunities for artists (e.g. moving small-scale experiments in Metro Arts’ “Independents” program to full scale independent productions in La Boite’s “Indie” program, its mainstage program, other mainstage programs, and beyond). It can link to program information, documentation, or commentary to compare anticipated and actual effects. It can lay the map dates and movements across significant policy, infrastructure, or production climate shifts. In the example below, for instance, Aus-e-Stage represents the tour of La Boite’s popular production of a new Australian work Zig Zag Street, based on the Brisbane-focused novel by Nick Earls about a single, twentysomething man’s struggles with life, love, and work. Figure 5 – Zig Zag Street Tour Map In the example below, Aus-e-Stage represents the movements not of a play but of a performer—in this case Christopher Sommers—who has been able to balance employment with new work incubator Metro Arts, mainstage and indie producer La Boite, and stage theatre company QTC with his role with independent theatre company 23rd Productions to create something more protean, more portfolio-based or boundary-less than a traditional linear career trajectory. Figure 6 – Christopher Sommers Network Map and Travel Map This value of this approach, and this technology, is clear. Which independents participate in La Boite Indie (or QTC’s “Studio” or “Greenroom” new work programs, or Metro’s emerging work programs, or others)? What benefits does it bring for artists, for independent companies, or for mainstage companies like La Boite? Is this a launching pad leading to ongoing, sustainable production practices? What do artists, audiences or others say about these launching pads in previews, programs, or reviews? Using Aus-e-Stage as part of a value ecology approach answers these questions. It provides a more detailed picture of what happens, what effect it has on local theatre ecology, and exactly which influences enabled this effect: precisely the data needed to generate informed debate, ideas, and decision making. Conclusion Our ecological approach provides images of a local performing arts ecology in action, drawing out filtered data on different players, relationships, and influencing factors, and thus extending examination of Brisbane’s and Queensland’s performing arts sector into useful new areas. It offers three main advances—first, it adopts a value ecology approach (Hearn et al.), second, it adapts this value ecology approach to include not just companies by all up- and down- stream players, supporters and infrastructure (Cherbo et. al.), and, thirdly, it uses the wealth of data available via Aus-e-Stage maps to fill out and filter images of local theatre ecology. It allows us to develop detailed, meaningful data to support discussion, debate, and development of ideas that is less likely to get bogged down in old, outdated, or inaccurate assumptions about how the sector works. Indeed, our data lends itself to additional analysis in a number of ways, from economic analysis of how shifts in policy influence productivity to sociological analysis of the way practitioners or practices acquire status and cultural capital (Bourdieu) in the field. Whilst descriptions offered here demonstrate the potential of this approach, this is by no means a finished exercise. Indeed, because this approach is about analysing how elements, roles, and relationships in an ecology shift over time, it is an ever-unfinished exercise. As Fortin and Dale argue, ecological studies of this sort are necessarily iterative, with each iteration providing new insights and raising further questions into processes and patterns (3). Given the number of local performing arts producers who have changed their practices significantly since Baylis’s Mapping Queensland Theatre report, and the fact that Baylis is producing a follow-up report, the next step will be to use this approach and the Aus-e-Stage technology that supports it to trace how ongoing shifts impact on Brisbane’s ambitions to become a cultural capital. This process is underway, and promises to open still more new perspectives by understanding anxieties about local theatre culture in terms of ecologies and exploring them cartographically. References Arts Queensland. Queensland Arts & Cultural Sector Plan 2010-2013. Brisbane: Arts Queensland, 2010. 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