Diverse Research Settings Research Articles

Guides for facilitating the implementation and evaluation of social prescribing: lessons from the "Access to Resources in the Community" model.

Social prescribing (SP) embodies a comprehensive approach to addressing the social determinants of health. Access to Resources in the Community (ARC) is an innovative SP program offering bilingual services that involves a single point of entry for health and social needs and introduces practice changes to assist primary care providers in engaging patients, along with a nonclinical lay navigator who supports patients in accessing relevant community resources. The ARC team has created a SP toolkit offering practical guidance for setting up, implementing, monitoring the progress of and evaluating SP programs. The four ARC guides can be easily customized for application in diverse practice and research settings.

Integrated Real-World Data Warehouses Across 7 Evolving Asian Health Care Systems: Scoping Review.

Asia consists of diverse nations with extremely variable health care systems. Integrated real-world data (RWD) research warehouses provide vast interconnected data sets that uphold statistical rigor. Yet, their intricate details remain underexplored, restricting their broader applications. Building on our previous research that analyzed integrated RWD warehouses in India, Thailand, and Taiwan, this study extends the research to 7 distinct health care systems: Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, and Vietnam. We aimed to map the evolving landscape of RWD, preferences for methodologies, and database use and archetype the health systems based on existing intrinsic capability for RWD generation. A systematic scoping review methodology was used, centering on contemporary English literature on PubMed (search date: May 9, 2023). Rigorous screening as defined by eligibility criteria identified RWD studies from multiple health care facilities in at least 1 of the 7 target Asian nations. Point estimates and their associated errors were determined for the data collected from eligible studies. Of the 1483 real-world evidence citations identified on May 9, 2023, a total of 369 (24.9%) fulfilled the requirements for data extraction and subsequent analysis. Singapore, Hong Kong, and Malaysia contributed to ≥100 publications, with each country marked by a higher proportion of single-country studies at 51% (80/157), 66.2% (86/130), and 50% (50/100), respectively, and were classified as solo scholars. Indonesia, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Philippines had fewer publications and a higher proportion of cross-country collaboration studies (CCCSs) at 79% (26/33), 58% (18/31), 74% (20/27), and 86% (19/22), respectively, and were classified as global collaborators. Collaboration with countries outside the 7 target nations appeared in 84.2% to 97.7% of the CCCSs of each nation. Among target nations, Singapore and Malaysia emerged as preferred research partners for other nations. From 2018 to 2023, most nations showed an increasing trend in study numbers, with Vietnam (24.5%) and Pakistan (21.2%) leading the growth; the only exception was the Philippines, which declined by -14.5%. Clinical registry databases were predominant across all CCCSs from every target nation. For single-country studies, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines favored clinical registries; Singapore had a balanced use of clinical registries and electronic medical or health records, whereas Hong Kong, Pakistan, and Vietnam leaned toward electronic medical or health records. Overall, 89.9% (310/345) of the studies took >2 years from completion to publication. The observed variations in contemporary RWD publications across the 7 nations in Asia exemplify distinct research landscapes across nations that are partially explained by their diverse economic, clinical, and research settings. Nevertheless, recognizing these variations is pivotal for fostering tailored, synergistic strategies that amplify RWD's potential in guiding future health care research and policy decisions. RR2-10.2196/43741.

Reflections on an Institutional Journey Toward Enhancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Political Science

ABSTRACTAs the political and social challenges facing the world multiply, the discipline of political science requires better tools and creative approaches advanced by a more diverse set of researchers. Yet the discipline has struggled to recruit and admit to graduate programs, and retain as faculty, women and underrepresented minorities. Many individual faculty, departments, and universities have developed innovative programs and sought to create structural changes to address these gaps. This article presents the approach taken by the Department of Government at Georgetown University: launching a week-long Political Science Predoctoral Summer Institute in 2022. We describe the Institute’s contours and structure, provide preliminary data on outcomes, and conclude by offering three ideas for expanding and advancing these types of initiatives across the discipline.

Assessing Educators’ Soft Skills: Developing a Self-Assessment Instrument

Educators play multifaceted roles in supporting students’ academic growth, necessitating a diverse knowledge base and a variety of soft skills. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about significant changes in the education environment, compelling educators to adapt to these new demands. Consequently, nurturing soft skills among educators has become crucial to effectively address evolving educational challenges. This paper presents the development and validation process of an online questionnaire aimed at measuring Te Pūkenga educators’ self-assessment of their soft skills before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire comprises 28 Likert-type scale questions, encompassing 14 identified soft skills, alongside 6 additional questions on sociological and academic factors. A two-stage approach for questionnaire development and validation was used. In stage one, the questionnaire was created through a literature review and the identification of soft skills and independent variables. Stage two involved a content validity check by 10 educators and academic experts, leading to refinement based on their feedback. Subsequently, a pilot study was conducted with 50 random respondents to determine the validity and reliability of the instrument, and a preliminary data analysis was performed. The results of the validation process confirmed the questionnaire’s validity and reliability, as we hypothesised, indicating its potential as a useful research tool for a planned research project. Further research involving a broader range of tertiary institutions can enhance the scale’s validity and reliability, thereby strengthening its applicability to be utilised by diverse educational institutions and in diverse research settings to measure educators’ self-assessments of their acquired soft skills and self-evaluations of how challenging experiences and events in their professional environment influence the implementation of these skills. By embracing and fostering soft skills among educators, educational institutions can better equip their staff to meet the evolving demands and complexities of modern education.

TEQUILA-seq: a versatile and low-cost method for targeted long-read RNA sequencing

Long-read RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) is a powerful technology for transcriptome analysis, but the relatively low throughput of current long-read sequencing platforms limits transcript coverage. One strategy for overcoming this bottleneck is targeted long-read RNA-seq for preselected gene panels. We present TEQUILA-seq, a versatile, easy-to-implement, and low-cost method for targeted long-read RNA-seq utilizing isothermally linear-amplified capture probes. When performed on the Oxford nanopore platform with multiple gene panels of varying sizes, TEQUILA-seq consistently and substantially enriches transcript coverage while preserving transcript quantification. We profile full-length transcript isoforms of 468 actionable cancer genes across 40 representative breast cancer cell lines. We identify transcript isoforms enriched in specific subtypes and discover novel transcript isoforms in extensively studied cancer genes such as TP53. Among cancer genes, tumor suppressor genes (TSGs) are significantly enriched for aberrant transcript isoforms targeted for degradation via mRNA nonsense-mediated decay, revealing a common RNA-associated mechanism for TSG inactivation. TEQUILA-seq reduces the per-reaction cost of targeted capture by 2-3 orders of magnitude, as compared to a standard commercial solution. TEQUILA-seq can be broadly used for targeted sequencing of full-length transcripts in diverse biomedical research settings.

Social responsibility in research and innovation practice and policy across global regions, institutional types, and fields: Interview data and qualitative content analysis outputs revealing the perspectives and experiences of professionals.

The European Commission-funded RRING (Responsible Research and Innovation Networked Globally) Horizon 2020 project aimed to deliver activities that promoted a global understanding of Socially Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI). A necessary first step in this process was to understand how researchers (working across Global North and Global South contexts) implicitly understand and operationalise ideas relating to social responsibility within their day-to-day work. Here, we describe an empirical dataset that was gathered as part of the RRING project to investigate this topic. This Data Note explains the design and implementation of 113 structured qualitative interviews with a geographically diverse set of researchers (across 17 countries) focusing on their perspectives and experiences. Sample selection was aimed at maximising diversity. As well as spanning all five UNESCO world regions, these interview participants were drawn from a range of research fields (including energy; waste management; ICT/digital; bioeconomy) and institutional contexts (including research performing organisations; research funding organisations; industry and business; civil society organisations; policy bodies). This Data Note also indicates how and why a qualitative content analysis was implemented with this interview dataset, resulting in category counts available with the anonymised interview transcripts for public access.

Ethical and practical considerations related to data sharing when collecting patient-reported outcomes in care-based child health research

PurposeThe collection and use of patient reported outcomes (PROs) in care-based child health research raises challenging ethical and logistical questions. This paper offers an analysis of two questions related to PROs in child health research: (1) Is it ethically obligatory, desirable or preferable to share PRO data collected for research with children, families, and health care providers? And if so, (2) What are the characteristics of a model best suited to guide the collection, monitoring, and sharing of these data?MethodsA multidisciplinary team of researchers, providers, patient and family partners, and ethicists examined the literature and identified a need for focus on PRO sharing in pediatric care-based research. We constructed and analyzed three models for managing pediatric PRO data in care-based research, drawing on ethical principles, logistics, and opportunities to engage with children and families.ResultsWe argue that it is preferable to share pediatric PRO data with providers, but to manage expectations and balance the risks and benefits of research, this requires a justifiable data sharing model. We argue that a successful PRO data sharing model will allow children and families to have access to and control over their own PRO data and be engaged in decision-making around how PROs collected for research may be integrated into care, but require support from providers.ConclusionWe propose a PRO data sharing model that can be used across diverse research settings and contributes to improved transparency, communication, and patient-centered care and research.

The Coronavirus Impact Scale: Construction, Validation, and Comparisons in Diverse Clinical Samples

This report is of the construction and initial psychometric properties of the Coronavirus Impact Scale in multiple large and diverse samples of families with children and adolescents. The scale was established to capture the impact of the coronavirus pandemic during its first wave. Differences in impact between samples and internal structure within samples were assessed. A total of 572 caregivers of children and adolescents or expecting mothers in diverse clinical and research settings completed the Coronavirus Impact Scale. Samples differed in regard to developmental stage, background, inpatient/outpatient status, and primary research or clinical setting. Model free methods were used to measure the scale's internal structure and to determine a scoring method. Differences between samples in specific item responses were measured by multivariate ordinal regression. The Coronavirus Impact Scale demonstrated good internal consistency in a variety of clinical and research populations. Across the groups studied, single, immigrant, predominantly Latinx mothers of young children reported the greatest impact of the pandemic, with noteworthy effects on food access and finances reported. Individuals receiving outpatient or inpatient care reported greater impacts on health care access. Elevated scores on the Coronavirus Impact Scale were positively associated with measures of caregiver anxiety and both caregiver- and child-reported stress at a moderate effect size. The Coronavirus Impact Scale is a publicly available scale with adequate psychometric properties for use in measuring the impact of the coronavirus pandemic in diverse populations.

Four ECR papers and Five Essays on the War in Ukraine

The editors' introduction provides a brief overview of the response to our call for papers on Chinese studies and the War in Ukraine and celebrates a diverse set of research by early career researchers in Chinese studies.

PRESIDENTIAL SYMPOSIUM: BUILDING AND LEVERAGING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS THAT EMBRACE DIVERSITY, ENRICH DISCOVERY, AND REIMAGINE AGING

Abstract Are you an ESPO member or early careerist who is interested in creating meaningful and engaging partnerships with different stakeholders? Want to learn how to leverage partnerships across diverse research settings and make impactful change? Or are you unsure of all the “hype” surrounding engaging communities and key stakeholders? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this symposium is for you. The ESPO Presidential Symposium will highlight three speakers who will share their career stories and a discussant with expertise in building and keeping important collaborations that influence aging research. Speakers include Drs. Christopher G. Engeland, Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, and Martina Roes. Dr. Katherine Abbott will serve as the discussant. Starting at the basic science end of the research spectrum, Dr. Engeland will focus on communicating and collaborating at the intersections between research settings to carry science from the bench to the bedside. Next, moving to research that focuses on aging older adults in clinical research, Dr. Gilmore-Bykovskyi will discuss how she has established, maintained, and evolved her career in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias across diverse research paradigms. Lastly, Dr. Roes will provide and international perspective and shares how she builds trust with the co-creation of research with persons living with dementia and their significant others.

Human Capital Resources: Reviewing the First Decade and Establishing a Foundation for Future Research

During the past 10 years, the field of human capital resources (HCR), often referred to as strategic human capital (SHC), has gained interest in both micro and macro disciplines. This increase in attention from a diverse set of researchers has shifted the focus of the field to topics such as identifying different types of HCR, HCR emergence, and links between collective HCR and higher level outcomes. The first decade of dedicated HCR research led to the growth of distinct research streams and forged its own robust and growing literature. However, after a decade of progress, the field is splintered. To unite the field and create a solid foundation for building future research, we provide a cohesive perspective of lessons learned in the first decade of dedicated HCR research, which has primarily focused on collective HCR. This review examines 194 articles, revealing several themes that have emerged, an integrated model that flows from the review, and rich opportunities for future research to both integrate and expand the growing HCR field for the next decade and beyond.

A preliminary classification of different tasks that make use of uncertainty visualizations

Individuals often struggle with tasks that involve uncertainty. Uncertainty visualizations are a type of cognitive aid that provides uncertainty information to help people with performing these tasks. However, the literature has shown that uncertainty visualizations differ in the extent they improve individuals’ task performance. We hypothesize that differences in the tasks can account for some of this variability. In this study, we aimed to create an initial classification of task types based on studies on uncertainty visualizations by reviewing a diverse set of recent research involving uncertainty visualizations. We classified the experimental tasks found in these papers into four groups: uncertainty assessment, forecasting, decision making, and metacognition. Then, we reviewed the result of the experiments in terms of the similarities and differences in the use of uncertainty visualizations within and between tasks. This classification serves as a starting point for further research into the effective design of visualizations of uncertainty.

A preliminary classification of different tasks that make use of uncertainty visualizations

Individuals often struggle with tasks that involve uncertainty. Uncertainty visualizations are a type of cognitive aid that provides uncertainty information to help people with performing these tasks. However, the literature has shown that uncertainty visualizations differ in the extent they improve individuals’ task performance. We hypothesize that differences in the tasks can account for some of this variability. In this study, we aimed to create an initial classification of task types based on studies on uncertainty visualizations by reviewing a diverse set of recent research involving uncertainty visualizations. We classified the experimental tasks found in these papers into four groups: uncertainty assessment, forecasting, decision making, and metacognition. Then, we reviewed the result of the experiments in terms of the similarities and differences in the use of uncertainty visualizations within and between tasks. This classification serves as a starting point for further research into the effective design of visualizations of uncertainty.

Addressing feasibility challenges to delivering intradialytic exercise interventions: a theory-informed qualitative study.

Intradialytic exercise (IDE) may improve physical function and health-related quality of life. However, incorporating IDE into standard hemodialysis care has been slow due to feasibility challenges. We conducted a multicenter qualitative feasibility study to identify potential barriers and enablers to IDE and generate potential solutions to these factors. We conducted 43 semistructured interviews with healthcare providers and patients across 12 hospitals in Ontario, Canada. We used the Theoretical Domains Framework and directed content analysis to analyze the data. We identified eight relevant domains (knowledge, skills, beliefs about consequences, beliefs about capabilities, environmental context and resources, goals, social/professional role and identity, and social influences) represented by three overarching categories: knowledge, skills and expectations: lack of staff expertise to oversee exercise, uncertainty regarding exercise risks, benefits and patient interest, lack of knowledge regarding exercise eligibility; human, material and logistical resources: staff concerns regarding workload, perception that exercise professionals should supervise IDE, space, equipment and scheduling conflict concerns; and social dynamics of the unit: local champions and patient stories contribute to IDE sustainability. We developed a list of actionable solutions by mapping barriers and enablers to behavior change techniques. We also developed a feasibility checklist of 47 questions identifying key factors to address prior to IDE launch. Evidence-based solutions to identified barriers to and enablers of IDE and a feasibility checklist may help recruit and support units, staff and patients and address key challenges to the delivery of IDE in diverse clinical and research settings.

Southwestern Assessment of Processing Speed (SWAPS): A new brief test with demographically-corrected norms in an ethnically and educationally diverse population

Objective. Neuropsychological measures of processing speed have long been used as sensitive indices of cognitive functioning. Most of these commonly used tests are proprietary, and there is a need for brief, freely available tools that can be used in diverse clinical and research settings. The Southwestern Assessment of Processing Speed (SWAPS) is a 60-second digit-symbol transcription task developed as a brief alternative to commercially available coding tests. Demographically-corrected normative data are presented along with reliability and sensitivity/specificity values in older adults with and without cognitive impairment. Method. SWAPS data from 915 healthy aging individuals (NC) and 858 subjects with clinical diagnoses of mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 430) and Alzheimer’s disease clinical syndrome (ADCS; n = 428) were obtained from the Texas Alzheimer’s Research and Care Consortium (TARCC). TARCC participants represent ethnically and educationally diverse community-dwelling individuals age 50+. Results. SWAPS scores showed the expected associations with age, sex, and education, and the interaction between age and education were significant predictors of SWAPS scores. Test-retest reliability in NC was good, and the SWAPS distinguished impaired and non-impaired groups with adequate to excellent sensitivity and specificity for the primary analyses, with optimal cut-off points provided. Raw score- to uncorrected normalized T-scores and demographically-corrected SWAPS T-scores using regression-based norms are presented along with scoring programs for the calculation of each. Conclusions. The SWAPS is a brief, free, easily administered test with demographically-corrected regression-based norms and promising utility for detection of cognitive impairment and efficient assessment of processing speed.

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Test of Practical Judgment alternate form (Form B)

The Test of Practical Judgment (TOP-J) is increasingly used by neuropsychologists to measure everyday judgment ability in older adulthood. In the present study, we developed an alternate TOP-J Form B, which may be used to reduce practice effects for repeat assessment situations or in place of the original Form A. In developing the measure, special attention was given to limiting cultural bias and making items similar in content and difficulty to Form A. The TOP-J Form B was piloted in a clinical geriatric sample (N = 77) in the Midwestern U.S. Subsequently, older adults (N = 130) were recruited from several boroughs of New York City and surrounding areas (mean age = 77; mean years of education = 16; 69% female; 28% Black/African-American, 11% Hispanic). In this validation sample, both the 9-item and 15-item versions of the TOP-J Form B showed strong psychometric properties, including good unidimensional model fit in confirmatory factor analysis, preliminary convergent/divergent and criterion validity evidence, and strong inter-rater reliability, ICC (2, 1) = .93. The means and standard deviations for the TOP-J Form A and Form B were highly similar, particularly for the 9-item forms in which there was less than a one-point mean difference. Preliminary normative data for cognitively intact participants (n = 73) were established. We present means and standard deviations that will allow for the calculation of z scores as Form B scores were normally distributed. The newly developed TOP-J Form B should be useful in diverse clinical and research settings.

The multidimensional clustering of health and its ecological risk factors

A diverse set of research has examined the ways in which population-level health and its ecological risk factors are embedded within self-reinforcing structures. Syndemic theory, for example, focuses on the co-occurrence of multiple diseases, whereas the spatial diffusion literature highlights the concentration of poor health among communities sharing geographic boundaries. This study combines these related but disciplinarily-isolated perspectives to examine the clustering of population-level health and its determinants across four dimensions: co-occurrence, spatial, temporal, and social network. Using data on U.S. county-level health outcomes and health factors from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings, this study estimates associations between health outcomes within communities and the co-occurrence of community-level factors theorized to influence ecological health. Not only do health outcomes and their ecological risk factors cluster within counties, but also between geographically adjacent counties and counties connected via migration network pathways. Moreover, the self-reinforcing structures uncovered across the co-occurrence, spatial and network dimensions persist over time, and this clustering has consequences on county health and well-being. Rather than adopting the perspective that either health and its community-level factors should be broadly targeted and detached from local context or communities are different, have unique needs and thus should be treated in isolation, the approach advanced in this study identifies shared vulnerabilities in a way that allows for the development of knowledge networks between communities dealing with similar issues.

Novel clinical and radiological measures of lower limb obesity.

Osteoarthritis of the knee is strongly associated with central obesity, and the prevalence of obesity in patients undergoing knee arthroplasty procedures is expected to increase. Central obesity is associated with multiple adverse outcomes after knee arthroplasty, but the impact of obesity specifically around the operated knee is poorly understood. One reason for this is the absence of a standardized measure, analogous to BMI for central obesity, to facilitate research. The aim of this study was to develop a radiological limb obesity scoring system which reliably corresponds with anthropometric measurements. Detailed anthropometric and radiological measurements were taken from patients undergoing total and unicompartmental knee replacement. Anthropometric measurements were combined into a composite score using principal components analysis. Different radiological scoring methods were evaluated against the anthropometric measure using correlation and regression analyses. Intraclass correlation coefficients were used to evaluate intra- and inter-observer reliability of the radiographic measurements. Measurements were obtained from fifty patients. There was a significant correlation between the composite anthropometric score and unadjusted radiological soft tissue width at the level of the femoral condyles (p < 0.001). There was also a significant correlation with the ratio of tissue to bone widths at the same level (p < 0.001), and fit was improved by including variables coding for soft tissues overlapping the medial or lateral boundaries of the radiograph. We have demonstrated a methodology for producing standardized radiological limb obesity scores which are strongly correlated with anthropometric measurements, and which can be easily applied in diverse clinical and research settings.

Small-Scale, Low-Cost Flow Cell Platform for Rapid Characterization of Redox Flow Battery Materials

Economic considerations are a primary driver to the adoption of redox flow battery (RFB) technology for grid storage.1 Minimizing area-specific resistance of flow cells is critical to enabling efficient operation at high power, motivating research into redox electrolytes and cell designs.2,3 The ability to effectively test small quantities of materials is essential, as early prototypes will likely require down-selection and refinement to meet desired performance. Further, identifying the causes of device failure can be challenging as they may be related to either materials degradation (e.g., instability, insolubility, incompatibility) or shortcomings in cell design (e.g., crossover, membrane degradation, high resistance). While established methods exist for quantifying electrochemical and transport properties under well-defined conditions and in isolation, translating this knowledge to laboratory-scale flow cells (and beyond) is nontrivial as experimental conditions are complex and results are often convoluted by other processes within the system. To this end, decoupling molecular discovery and engineering science is key: demonstrations of new active materials and design improvements require dedicated toolkits and testing protocols that enable robust comparative evaluations.4 Thus, the development of broadly accessible research platforms, both hardware and software, may help advance scientific understanding and, ultimately, quicken technology growth.Here, we describe efforts to develop a small-scale (2.55 cm2), low-cost flow cell for screening of RFB component materials. Modeled on and validated against state-of-the-art vanadium RFB designs, the small volumes and chemical resistance of the prototype enables evaluation of a wide range of chemistries with minimal materials requirements (e.g., active materials, membranes). In this presentation, we will discuss the key features of this platform, highlight its utility via representative materials design campaigns, and propose future applications of potential scientific and technological value. Ultimately, the aim of this flow cell is to accelerate progress by enabling rapid turnaround (i.e., fail fast) and easing entry into the field of a diverse set of researchers with key subdomain expertise. In this spirit, detailed flow cell designs, bills of material, standard operating procedures, and validation sets are made freely available to the research community to enable internal assessment and potential adoption. References A. Z. Weber et al., J. Appl. Electrochem., 41, 1137–1164 (2011).M. Skyllas-Kazacos, M. H. Chakrabarti, S. A. Hajimolana, F. S. Mjalli, and M. Saleem, J. Electrochem. Soc., 158, R55 (2011).L. Su, J. A. Kowalski, K. J. Carroll, and F. R. Brushett, in Rechargeable Batteries, Green Energy and Technology. Z. Zhang and S. S. Zhang, Editors, p. 673–712, Springer International Publishing, Cham (2015) http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-319-15458-9_24.J. D. Milshtein et al., Energy Environ. Sci., 9, 3531–3543 (2016).

Genetic analysis of QTLs controlling allelopathic characteristics in sorghum.

Mature sorghum herbage is known to contain several water-soluble secondary metabolites (allelochemicals). In this study, we investigated quantitative trait loci (QTLs) associated with allelochemical characteristics in sorghum using linkage mapping and linkage disequilibrium (LD)-based association mapping. A sorghum diversity research set (SDRS) of 107 accessions was used in LD mapping whereas, F2:3 lines derived from a cross between Japanese and African landraces were used in linkage mapping. The QTLs were further confirmed by positional (targeted) association mapping with Q+K model. The inhibitory effect of water-soluble extracts (WSE) was tested on germination and root length of lettuce seedlings in four concentrations (25%, 50%, 75% and 100%). A Significant range of variations was observed among genotypes in both types of mapping populations (P < 0.05). A total of 181 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) derived from antecedently reported map have been used for genotyping of SDRS. A genetic linkage map of 151 sorghum SSR markers was also developed on 134 F2 individuals. The total map length was 1359.3 cM, with an average distance of 8.2 cM between adjacent markers. LD mapping identified three QTLs for inhibition effect on germination and seven QTLs for root length of lettuce seedlings. Whereas, a total of six QTLs for inhibition of germination and ten QTLs for root length were detected in linkage mapping approach. The percent phenotypic variation explained by individual QTL ranged from 6.9% to 27.3% in SDRS and 9.9% to 35.6% in F2:3 lines. Regional association analysis identified four QTLs, three of them are common in other methods too. No QTL was identified in the region where major gene for sorgoleone (SOR1) has been cloned previously on chromosome 5.