Challenges, Volume 8, Issue 2 (December 2017) – 18 articles

We use the American Time Use Survey (ATUS) to characterize how different consumers in the US might use Autonomous Vehicles (AVs). Our approach is to identify sub-groups of the population likely to benefit from AVs and compare their activity patterns with an otherwise similar group. The first subgroup is working individuals who drive to work with long total travel times. Auto-travelers in the top 20% of travel time number 19 million and travel 1.6 h more on a workday than those in the bottom 80%. For car-commuting professionals, the additional travel time of the long-traveling group comes from 30 min less work, 29 min less sleep, and 30 min less television watching per day. The second subgroup is working individuals with a long travel time and who take public transport. Long public transit riders show very similar differences in activity times as the driving subgroup. Work, sleep, and video functionalities of AVs are presumably in high demand by both groups. The third sub-group identified is elderly retired people. AVs enable mobility-restricted groups to travel more like those without restrictions. We compare two age groups, 60–75 years and >75 years old, the latter, on average, experiencing more mobility restrictions than their younger counterparts. The retired population older than 75 years numbers 16 million and travels 14 min less per day than retirees aged 60–75 years. The main activity change corresponding to this reduced travel is 7 min per day less shopping and 8 min per day less socializing. If older retired people use AVs to match the lifestyle of the 60–75 years old group, this would induce additional personal travel and retail sector demand. The economic, environmental and social implications of AV are very difficult to predict but expected to be transformative. The contribution of this work is that it utilizes time-use surveys to suggest how AV adoption could induce lifestyle changes inside and outside the vehicle. Full article

Attribution of in-stream biological impairment to anthropogenic activities and prioritization for restoration and/or conservation can be challenging in contemporary mixed-land-use watersheds. Critical information necessary to improve decision making can be costly and labor intensive, and thus unobtainable for many municipalities. A reduced cost, rapid stream physical habitat assessment (rPHA) can yield information that, when paired with land use data may reveal causal patterns in aquatic physical habitat degradation, and thus assist targeting sites for restoration. However, a great deal of work is needed to reduce associated costs, and validate the potential of rPHA for documenting fine-scale incremental change in physical habitat conditions in complex contemporary watersheds. The following commentary serves to draw attention to rPHA challenges and research needs including (but not limited to) field-based validation and optimization of new remote sensing technologies, evaluation of the accuracy and representativeness of rapid vegetation survey methods, refinement of analytical methods, and consideration of legacy land use impacts and hydrologic system evolution in rPHA results interpretation. Considering the value of rPHA-generated data for improvement of watershed resource management, such challenges constitute timely, high-impact research opportunities for investigators wishing to advance complex, contemporary aquatic ecosystem management. Full article

In this study, a three-dimensional numerical model for a pile-cap system of an offshore bridge is developed to examine the pile group effect on wave force of pile with different arrangements of the pile group with a pile-cap system. In the present model, the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation is taken as the governing equation for wave motion, while the volume of fluid method is used to trace the free water surface. Based on the present model, a set of analysis was conducted to examine the influence of the pile-cap system on the pile group effect, including the arrangement of the pile group, the submerged depth of the bridge cap, and the existence of the cap. Numerical examples show that the present model overall agreed well with the previous experimental data. The existence of the cap and submerged coefficient of the cap have a significant influence on the pile group effect coefficient. During the study of the pile group effect on the wave force of a pile with a pile-cap system of an offshore bridge, the influence of the existence of the cap on the pile group effect needs to be considered. Full article

Despite an increasing number of molecular biomarkers identified in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the number of approved therapy options targeting these biomarkers remains limited. Although some biomarkers may influence the therapy outcome of a distinct drug and have been shown to be useful in phase 2 or 3 clinical studies, diagnostics of biomarkers without an approved drug available or a possible off-label use is currently too expensive for routine diagnostics in non-academic institutions. For this reason, the present review is intended to summarize the current state of the art of molecular diagnostics that is both available and could lead to therapy guidance in NSCLC courses. Thereby, economic aspects are taken into account in order to take up the cudgels for a more comprehensive, even if more expensive, diagnostic scheme that in turn may save enormous costs by reducing therapy costs. Full article

Background: The establishment of typologies of deaths by suicide using numerical taxonomy of valid and reliable parameters has potential for both understanding suicide and its antecedent circumstances, and as an aid to public health programs of prevention. Methods: We searched the published literature for reports of taxonomic studies of death by suicide, using the methods of cluster analysis, but were only able to locate 12 studies. Results: Published research is sparse, and has produced varied findings, but distinct types of death by suicide clearly exist. Typologies differ between cultures, perhaps because of the varying dominance of fatal methods (e.g., gunshot, jumping from heights). Limitations: The small number of studies located makes generalizations difficult. Conclusions: Taxonomic studies of death suicide need to be undertaken regularly, in all world countries in which valid and reliable data are available, in order to describe changing patterns of suicide and its correlates, and to establish priorities for public health interventions. This need for such research is a challenge for suicidology. Full article

Cell culture laboratories are designed to secure sterile environments for biological studies, and its susceptibility to biological contaminants is a major problem for researchers. Contamination can generally be overcome by frequently disposing of contaminated materials, cleaning and maintaining the sanitation of working areas, but in some cases, it is hard to eradicate the source(s) of contaminating agents completely. In particular, mold and fungal-based contaminants could be a devastating problem for any laboratory. Therefore, various contamination types can repeat over time and result in an increasing problem in the lab. To control and eliminate possible contaminations, a periodic cleaning treatment with disinfectant materials should be a routine procedure of every specialized laboratory, regardless of the existence of any contamination. The conventional method for maintaining hygiene in cell culture laboratories is to clean all surfaces with 70% ethanol; however, this may not be the complete solution. This paper presents a short and easy way to check whether any contamination source(s) are present in laboratories. After identification of the most contaminant-rich areas, without any distinction, each laboratory surface where the culturing samples were taken was comprehensively treated with suggested concentrations of ethanol, sodium hypochlorite and Virkon-S solutions. The method might be useful to regularly check and maintain the cleanliness and hygiene of entire cell culture laboratories to enable the control of possible contaminations in advance. Full article

The evidence about the effectiveness of behaviour change approaches—what works and what does not work—is unclear. What we do know is that single interventions that target a specific behavioural risk have little impact on the determinants that actually cause poor health, especially for vulnerable people. This has not prevented health promoters from continuing to invest in behaviour change interventions which are widely used in a range of programs. The future of behaviour change and health promotion is through the application of a comprehensive strategy with three core components: (1) a behaviour change approach; (2) a strong policy framework that creates a supportive environment and (3) the empowerment of people to gain more control over making healthy lifestyle decisions. This will require the better planning of policy interventions and the coordination of agencies involved in behaviour change and empowerment activities at the community level, with government to help develop policy at the national level. Full article

Recognizing the importance of nutrition as part of the grand challenges faced by humanity—the current epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), sustainability and maintenance of Planetary Health—the United Nations (UN) has declared 2016–2025 the Decade of Nutrition. Research continues to underscore the extent to which ultra-processed foods dominate the contemporary nutritional landscape. Moreover, the dual role played by food technology and marketing in the expansion of ultra-processed foods is under increased scrutiny. As public health experts and clinicians contend with a crisis of NCDs, attempting to untangle a knotted assortment of interrelated strands of causation, an examination of the early origins of highly-marketed ultra-processed foods can provide valuable lessons. Here, we illuminate a little-known piece of history in the annals of ultra-processed nutritional science and childhood welfare. Astrofood was a commercially-marketed, collaborative government-industry effort that brought soy protein-enriched Twinkies as a nutritive breakfast cake to disadvantaged children; its concept and delivery demonstrated an unwillingness to deal with root-cause challenges. Although its official tenure was only about 7 years, we argue that Astrofood and its total food engineering still resonate throughout the global ultra-processed nutritional landscape. New scientific advances in nutritional psychiatry and the microbiome are on a collision course with the profits, marketing and intellectual dishonesty of the ultra-processed food industry. Solutions to the grand challenges of the Decade of Nutrition may be found in lessons from Astrofood. They provide clues to undoing the tangled knots which otherwise maintain an untenable status quo. Full article

The paper uses monthly data on tourism related factors from April 2005–June 2016 for Taiwan that applies factor analysis and Chang’s (2015) novel approach for constructing a tourism financial indicator, namely the Tourism Financial Conditions Index (TFCI). The TFCI is an adaptation and extension of the widely-used Monetary Conditions Index (MCI) and Financial Conditions Index (FCI) to tourism stock data. However, the method of calculation of the TFCI is different from existing methods of constructing the MCI and FCI in that the weights are estimated empirically. The empirical findings show that TFCI is statistically significant using the estimated conditional mean of the tourism stock index returns (RTS). Granger Causality tests show that TFCI shows strong feedback on RTS. An interesting insight is that the empirical results show a significant negative correlation between F1_visitors (Foreign Visitor Arrivals) and RTS, implying that tourism authorities might promote travel by the “rich”, and not only on inbound visitor growth. The use of market returns on the tourism stock sub-index as the sole indicator of the tourism sector, as compared with the general activity of economic variables on tourism stocks, is shown to provide an exaggerated and excessively volatile explanation of tourism financial conditions. Full article

Health promotion has a key role to play in preventing disease and promoting healthy lifestyles. Health promotion work is part science and part art. The science emerges from research and theory and the art emerges from our professional intuition and experience. The goal is to apply the science to achieve the best health promotion outcomes. However, an application of the theory, models and even the evidence, does not guarantee a desired outcome. To achieve this is an art and something that is often missing in practice. An understanding of how best to apply the ‘art and science’ of health promotion requires an appreciation that it is not only about being scientifically right but also about being real. The challenge for health promoters is to understand how they can use their judgement to best apply the available science to deliver successful approaches. Full article

There is a lack of prescribed databases and approaches in place for performing comparable Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of smartphones and other electronic devices in a coherent manner. Hence there is a need within certain eco-rating initiatives for simplified, yet still precise enough, approaches that are expert independent. Here, five independently published Full LCAs (FLCA) of smartphones—and a metal content declaration of a tablet—are analyzed and compared with the simplified LCA method (Open Eco Rating LCA, OLCA) used by the open eco rating (OER) sustainability assessment. OLCA is described in detail. The comparisons use the same characterization factors that are used for climate change and abiotic resource depletion (ARD) midpoint impact categories. The tablet is only analyzed for the ARD indicator (ARDI). The results show that the difference between the FLCAs and the OLCA is up to 20% for the Global Warming Potential indicator (GWPI). The difference is explained by significantly different emission intensities used in FLCAs and OLCA, especially for integrated circuit and screen production. The life cycle use of metals relevant for ARDI is identified in one of the FLCAs of mobile phones, and used in OLCA and compared with the corresponding FLCA ARDI score. The total FLCA ARDI score is 67% (2.0 vs. 1.2 grams Sb—eq.) and 32% (4.98 vs. 3.76 grams Sb—eq.) higher than OLCA ARDI for the mobile phone and the tablet, respectively. The reason is that OLCA only captures a few of the most relevant metals (gold, silver, tin, indium, and tantalum) for the ARDI. However, cobalt—and to some degree copper and lithium—are significant gaps in the OLCA. The conclusion is that OLCA is an efficient and fair approach for LCAs that are focused on the GWPI of smartphones as the divergence to FLCA can easily be explained. However, the circular footprint formulae, renewable electricity options, and ARD characterization indices for cobalt, copper and lithium should be added to OLCA for further precision. The next step is to compare the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) FLCA method with OLCA for GWPI and ARDI evaluations of new smartphones. Moreover, the effect of adding more midpoint or single score indicators could be tested in OLCA. Full article

This paper aims to explore the apparently rising trend of unaffiliated researchers. It does so by analyzing a set of scholarly publications where the authors state “independent researcher” in place of their affiliation. Some of the characteristics of this set are explained along with directions on how to expand research on this topic. Full article

Advances in science have illuminated the role of the “ecological theatre”—the total living environment—in human health. In a rapidly changing epoch known as the anthropocene, microbiome science is identifying functional connections between all life, both seen and unseen. Rather than an easily identifiable era appearing in rock strata, the anthropocene is more of a diagnostic syndrome, a set of signs and symptoms including climate change, gross biodiversity losses, environmental degradation, and an epidemic of non-communicable diseases. The syndrome is intertwined with politics, economics, public policies (or lack thereof), social values, and a global push of calorie-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages. The healing of anthropocene syndrome is the grand challenge of humanity. Expanding on the “Mars Can Wait” argument of Geoffrey Goodman, et al., we focus on the urgency with which health promotion must be prioritized here on Earth. We revive Jonas Salk’s biophilosophy: a call to action for collaboration between biologists, humanists, and scholars of all stripes. From this perspective, lines of distinction between personal, public, and planetary health are removed. We also describe the symbiocene: the possibility of a new epoch in which mutualism will be considered imperative. If society asks the right questions, a transition to the symbiocene is possible; the “stratigraphical” mark of the new epoch will be found in a repudiation of authoritarianism, and the promotion of empathy, cultural competency, emotional intelligence, and commitment to optimism, tolerance, and the facilitation of the WHO definition of health, i.e., the fulfillment of human potential. Full article

Faced with growing stakeholder attention to climate change-related societal impacts, Environmental Research Infrastructures (ERIs) find it difficult to engage beyond their initial user base, which calls for an overarching governance scheme and transnational synergies. Forced by the enormity of tackling climate change, ERIs are indeed broaching collaborative venues, based on the assumption that no given institution can carry out this agenda alone. While strategic, this requires that ERIs address the complexities and barriers towards aligning multiple organizations, national resources and programmatic cultures, including science. Full article

This is a brief note maintaining that financial globalization has been faster than the integration of the remaining sectors of the world economy, thus encouraging wealth inequality, under-production, and under-consumption in line with Say’s Law. Financial investment has become more profitable than real investment, discouraging production ventures, and weakening labor’s relative income position and purchasing power. Moreover, this article works out a model of international government indirect tax competition as a policy means against increasing inequality. The mentality under which this tax policy paradigm is put forward is that the competition of nation states in a fiscal globalism fashion crystallizes the optimal level of centralization under globalism; optimal, that is, from the viewpoint of safeguarding against the manipulation of world markets by financiers. Full article

Virtual reality (VR) is one of the strongest trends for future communication systems. Considering the amounts of VR devices expected to be produced in the coming years, it is relevant to estimate their potential environmental impacts under certain conditions. For the first time, screening life cycle assessment (LCA) single score results are presented for a contemporary VR headset. The weighted results are dependent much on the source of the gold and the electric power used in production. Theoretically, using recycled gold for the VR subparts would be very beneficial seen from an environmental damage cost standpoint. Using low environmental impact electric power in the final assembly of the VR headset, in the final assembly of integrated circuits, and in the preceding wafer processing would also be worthwhile. Distribution of the final product is more pronounced than for other consumer electronics. Full article