Human Diversity Research Articles

Unveiling the Tapestry of Human Experience and Diversity: A Journey Through the Eight Domains of Phenomenology and Research Methods

In this comprehensive book review, the author explores Eight Domains of Phenomenology and Research Methods by Henrik Gert Larsen, delving into the intricate world of phenomenology and its applications in research. The review critically examines Larsen's insightful exploration of the eight domains, providing an analysis of each domain's significance and the research methodologies associated with them. The review also highlights Larsen's expertise in phenomenology, as he skillfully guides readers through the complexities of understanding lived experiences and the intricate interplay between researcher and participant. By exploring the strengths and limitations of Larsen's work, the review offers valuable insights into the book's contributions to the field of phenomenological research. Researchers and scholars interested in phenomenology and its application in qualitative research will find this review informative.

Mindshift in autism: a call to professionals in research, clinical, and educational settings.

Autistic people often have poor outcomes over the life course, including in health, education, employment, and community inclusion. Many professionals working with Autistic adults in research, clinical, and educational settings devote their careers to trying to improve such outcomes. However, we maintain that real progress cannot happen without a fundamental mindshift. The status quo for professionals is to view autism as an illness. Instead, the neurodiversity movement encourages us to value and embrace autism as an aspect of human diversity and asks us to view Autistic people as a marginalized group that experiences significant disparities. While some professionals may be adopting language and concepts from the neurodiversity movement, we argue that making this mindshift fundamentally changes our practice across research, clinical, and educational settings. In this perspective, we call on professionals to embrace this mindshift to reduce discrimination and stigma, halt the spread of harmful ideologies, and help Autistic adults live fulfilling lives.

Engaging an HIV vaccine target through the acquisition of low B cell affinity

Low affinity is common for germline B cell receptors (BCR) seeding development of broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) that engage hypervariable viruses, including HIV. Antibody affinity selection is also non-homogenizing, insuring the survival of low affinity B cell clones. To explore whether this provides a natural window for expanding human B cell lineages against conserved vaccine targets, we deploy transgenic mice mimicking human antibody diversity and somatic hypermutation (SHM) and immunize with simple monomeric HIV glycoprotein envelope immunogens. We report an immunization regimen that focuses B cell memory upon the conserved CD4 binding site (CD4bs) through both conventional affinity maturation and reproducible expansion of low affinity BCR clones with public patterns in SHM. In the latter instance, SHM facilitates target acquisition by decreasing binding strength. This suggests that permissive B cell selection enables the discovery of antibody epitopes, in this case an HIV bnAb site.

Assembly of 43 human Y chromosomes reveals extensive complexity and variation.

The prevalence of highly repetitive sequences within the human Y chromosome has prevented its complete assembly to date1 and led to its systematic omission from genomic analyses. Here we present de novo assemblies of 43 Y chromosomes spanning 182,900 years of human evolution and report considerable diversity in size and structure. Half of the male-specific euchromatic region is subject to large inversions with a greater than twofold higher recurrence rate compared with all other chromosomes2. Ampliconic sequences associated with these inversions show differing mutation rates that are sequence context dependent, and some ampliconic genes exhibit evidence for concerted evolution with the acquisition and purging of lineage-specific pseudogenes. The largest heterochromatic region in the human genome, Yq12, is composed of alternating repeat arrays that show extensive variation in the number, size and distribution, but retain a 1:1 copy-number ratio. Finally, our data suggest that the boundary between the recombining pseudoautosomal region 1 and the non-recombining portions of the X and Y chromosomes lies 500 kb away from the currently established1 boundary. The availability of fully sequence-resolved Y chromosomes from multiple individuals provides a unique opportunity for identifying new associations of traits with specific Y-chromosomal variants and garnering insights into the evolution and function of complex regions of the human genome.

Changing students’ explicit and implicit attitudes toward peers with disabilities: Effects of a curriculum-based intervention programme

Negative peer attitudes are a significant barrier to social participation of students with disabilities in inclusive classrooms. Although many intervention studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of interaction or disability awareness programmes in promoting positive peer attitudes, reliance on students’ self-reported attitudes is prone to social desirability bias and is unable to capture implicit prejudice. The present study examined changes in students’ explicit and implicit attitudes toward peers with disabilities after a curriculum-based intervention programme (“Prinzip Vielfalt”), which aims to promote an open-minded attitude toward human diversity. Teachers in 12 primary school classes in the experimental group (n = 195 students) used the programme for eight weeks, whereas a control group of 12 classes (n = 191 students) used no intervention. Students’ pre- and post-intervention attitudes were assessed using an adapted version of the Chedoke–McMaster Attitudes Towards Children with Handicaps Scale and a disability Implicit Association Test for children. Post-intervention analyses revealed a significant relative improvement in explicit attitudes toward peers with disabilities in the experimental group compared to the control group (b = 0.20, 95% CI = [0.03; 0.37]) but no change in implicit attitudes (b = -0.03, 95% CI = [-0.10; 0.03]). Thus, while the intervention positively affected self-reported attitudes, implicit negative associations were unchanged. Using explicit and implicit measures of attitudes and attitude changes among children can provide valuable insights into the mechanisms and effectiveness of different intervention strategies.

Postmodernism and Logo Design: Take the Memphis Style as an Example

In the context of the post-industrial era, the comprehensive development process of transforming the design purpose into a design concept is particularly prominent in terms of breadth and depth of the impact on product design. Its postmodernism aims to better adapt to the material foundation and spiritual needs of human spiritual and cultural development, and between manufacturing and design. the intersection of the product is the core, so that the performance between the product and the design becomes more and more profound. Using the literature research and analysis method, the comparative research method is used to analyze the changes in the performance of art symbols in postmodernism and summarize the expression methods of Memphis design. The humanization, diversification, personalization, color, etc. of the performance have the characteristics of Memphis style, which fully reflects the needs of human life diversity. The pursuit and performance are also in line with the characteristics of the popularization of art ubiquitous in society. At the same time, the logo performance constantly draws on and adopts the orthogonal spirit of humanism, which closely combines traditional art theory and real cultural life, and closely combines the theory of traditional art with the actual life of modern art, so as to fully oppose Reflecting the pursuit of the universal life of mankind and the increasing needs of social material civilization and real cultural survival.

Paint and Coloring Materials from the Brazilian Amazon Forest: Beyond Urucum and Jenipapo

The Brazilian Legal Amazon region is divided into at least 155 ethnic groups and has the largest concentration of Indigenous people globally. It represents one of the most extraordinary levels of human, cultural, and artistic diversity, but its material culture is one of the least well-studied. This is especially true in technical art history and conservation science, largely due to (1) the limited international awareness of the richness of materials and techniques used by these Indigenous people and (2) the limitations of knowledge access for many scientists to literature usually published in Portuguese within social sciences and humanities. One result is that these arts are marginalized within technical art history, conservation, and conservation science. To address this knowledge gap, the authors explore 70 materials—among them pigments, dyes, binding media, and varnishes—used for paint production and coloring processes, including syntheses. The authors facilitate research possibilities within technical art history, conservation, and conservation science by presenting data from historical texts from the 18th and 19th centuries and more recent scientific literature. The work aims to build a more global, inclusive, and decentralized vision of art history and to create a more pluralistic narrative of Indigenous art history from South America.

Development of oncolytic and gene therapy vectors based on adenovirus serotype 4 as an alternative to adenovirus serotype 5.

Adenoviral vectors are among the most frequently used vectors for gene therapy and cancer treatment. Most vectors are derived from human adenovirus (Ad) serotype 5 despite limited applicability caused by pre-existing immunity and unfavorable liver tropism, whereas the other more than 100 known human serotypes remain largely unused. Here, we screened a library of human Ad types and identified Ad4 as a promising candidate vector. Reporter-gene-expressing viruses representative of the natural human Ad diversity were used to transduce an array of muscle cell lines and two- or three-dimensional tumor cultures. The time-course of transgene expression was monitored by fluorescence or luminescence measurements. To generate replication-deficient Ad4 vector genomes, successive homologous recombination was applied. Ad4, 17 and 50 transduced human cardiomyocytes more efficiently than Ad5, whereas Ad37 was found to be superior in rhabdomyocytes. Despite its moderate transduction efficiency, Ad4 showed efficient and long-lasting gene expression in papillomavirus (HPV) positive tumor organoids. Therefore, we aimed to harness the potential of Ad4 for improved muscle transduction or oncolytic virotherapy of HPV-positive tumors. We deleted the E1 and E3 transcription units to produce first generation Ad vectors for gene therapy. The E1- and E1/E3-deleted vectors were replication-competent in HEK293 cells stably expressing E1 but not in the other cell lines tested. Furthermore, we show that the Ad5 E1 transcription unit can complement the replication of E1-deleted Ad4 vectors. Our Ad4-based gene therapy vector platform contributes to the development of improved Ad vectors based on non-canonical serotypes for a broad range of applications.

SPECIAL EDUCATION, HEALTH AND INCLUSIVE PROCESSES

The article Special Education, Health and Inclusive Processes: The Importance of the School in the Inclusion of Students with Disabilities as a theme, aims to strengthen the attitudes of acceptance of individual differences and appreciation of human diversity, emphasizing the importance of belonging, coexistence, cooperation and the contribution that all people can make to build fairer community lives, healthier, more egalitarian and more satisfying. This is a bibliographic and qualitative study that aimed to survey bibliographic data presented in books and articles on the subject. In this sense, we searched for studies with the following keywords: Inclusion; School; Integration. The word inclusion implies the idea of segregation, since it is only possible to include someone who has already been excluded. Inclusion is supported by the inclusion/exclusion dialectic, with the struggle of minorities in the defense of their rights. The historic milestone of inclusion was in June 1994, with the Declaration of Salamanca, Spain, held by UNESCO at the World Conference on Special Educational Needs. Brazil is a signatory of international documents that define the unconditional insertion of people with disabilities in society, the so-called inclusion. However, it is not enough for Brazil to be a signatory to international treaties, to have fundamental guarantees of great impact, to have a specific status of Persons with Disabilities, with rights and duties, if we do not free ourselves from the mesmerizing positivist dogmas, seeking to ensure the rights already consecrated, in addition to announcing, through the insurgency, rights to those peoples still invisible and knowing that although we have solid constitutional and infraconstitutional matrices on the subject, We cannot settle for the great gulf between the legislative foundation, which is easy to enchant, and the practical reality, the daily life, the barriers and confrontations of those who experience the false inclusion and discrimination that exists today.

INFLUENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ON UNDERGRADUATES’ PERCEPTIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The obvious environmental, social and economic crises across the globe are a reminder of the need for environmental education in institutions of higher learning to provide undergraduates with the competence to live sustainably and promote the quality of life for both present and future generations. The study examined the influence of environmental education on undergraduates’ perception of sustainable development. The study adopted the descriptive research design of the survey type. The population of the study comprised all the 2,892 undergraduates in 2017/2018-2020/2021 academic sessions in the Science Education Department, Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti, Nigeria. The sample for this study was 120 undergraduates from the Department who were purposively selected for the study. The instrument used for the study was a questionnaire. The instrument was validated by experts in the Faculty of Education, Ekiti State University, Ado Ekiti. The reliability coefficient was determined using test-retest and a coefficient of 0.88 was obtained. Frequency counts, percentages and mean were used to answer the research questions while the inferential statistics involving Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used to test the hypothesis at a 0.05 level of significance. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that environmental education should be made compulsory for all students due to its potential to inculcate in students, environmental literacy for environmental quality and decision-making process to encourage a healthy society and sustainable future, and should be included in the curriculum in order to promote sustainable development. It was also recommended that parents should endeavour to inculcate moral values in their children for hard work, respect for nature, human diversity and gender equity so as to promote sustainable development in any environment they find themselves. It was also recommended that the university authorities need to embrace and intensify the learning of environmental education towards giving undergraduates the requisite environmental, social and economic literacy that promotes sustainable development.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0056/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Unraveling Neurodiversity: Insights from Neuroscientific Perspectives

Neurodiversity is a concept and a social movement that addresses and normalizes human neurocognitive heterogeneity to promote acceptance and inclusion of neuro-minorities (e.g., learning disabilities, attention disorders, psychiatric disorders, and more) in contemporary society. Neurodiversity is attributed to nature and nurture factors, and about a fifth of the human population is considered neurodivergent. What does neurodiversity mean neuroscientifically? This question forms the foundation of the present entry, which focuses on existing scientific evidence on neurodiversity including neurodiversity between and within individuals, and the evolutional perspective of neurodiversity. Furthermore, the neuroscientific view will be synergistically integrated with social approaches, particularly in the context of the normalization of neurodiversity and its association with the medical and social models of disability. This multidimensional analysis offers a cohesive and comprehensive understanding of neurodiversity, drawing insights from various vantage points, such as social, psychological, clinical, and neuroscientific viewpoints. This integrated approach fosters a nuanced and holistic discussion on the topic of human diversity.

Le Maroc entre la transition démocratique et une nouvelle renaissance socioculturelle

Beside its role of integrating Morocco in a globalized vision that also takes into account the cultural diversity of the country, there is need for a nuance of the Arab Renaissance’ paradigm in relation to the socio-cultural context of Morocco. This double movement (globality and specificity) correlates with the critical and theoretical perspective of the dialectic intermingling of three different major socio-political horizons: democratic transition as a means and not an end in itself; the region as an indicator of democratic efficiency; and Morocco’s cultural and human diversity. The umbrella theme of these three elements isthe unmitigated political relationship between culture, society and democracy

Human fetal dermal fibroblast-myeloid cell diversity is characterized by dominance of pro-healing Annexin1-FPR1 signaling

Fetal skin achieves scarless wound repair. Dermal fibroblasts play a central role in extracellular matrix deposition and scarring outcomes. Both fetal and gingival wound repair share minimal scarring outcomes. We tested the hypothesis that compared to adult skin fibroblasts, human fetal skin fibroblast diversity is unique and partly overlaps with gingival skin fibroblasts. Human fetal skin (FS, n= 3), gingiva (HGG, n= 13), and mature skin (MS, n= 13) were compared at single-cell resolution. Dermal fibroblasts, the most abundant cluster, were examined to establish a connectome with other skin cells. Annexin1-FPR1 signaling pathway was dominant in both FS as well as HGG fibroblasts and related myeloid cells while scanty in MS fibroblasts. Myeloid-specific FPR1-ORF delivered in murine wound edge using tissue nanotransfection (TNT) technology significantly enhanced the quality of healing. Pseudotime analyses identified the co-existence of an HGG fibroblast subset with FPR1high myeloid cells of fetal origin indicating common underlying biological processes.

Africa-specific human genetic variation near CHD1L associates with HIV-1 load.

HIV-1 remains aglobal health crisis1, highlighting the need to identify new targets for therapies. Here, given the disproportionate HIV-1 burden and marked human genome diversity in Africa2, we assessed the genetic determinants of control of set-point viral load in 3,879 people of African ancestries living with HIV-1 participating in the international collaboration for the genomics of HIV3. We identify a previously undescribed association signal on chromosome 1 where the peak variant associates with an approximately 0.3 log10-transformed copies per ml lower set-point viral load per minor allele copy and is specific to populations of African descent. The top associated variant is intergenic and lies between a long intergenic non-coding RNA (LINC00624) and the coding gene CHD1L, which encodes a helicase that is involved in DNA repair4. Infection assays in iPScell-derived macrophages and other immortalized cell lines showed increased HIV-1 replication in CHD1L-knockdown and CHD1L-knockout cells. We provide evidence from population genetic studies that Africa-specific genetic variation near CHD1L associates with HIV replication in vivo. Although experimental studies suggest that CHD1L is able to limit HIV infection in some cell types in vitro, further investigation is required to understand the mechanisms underlying our observations, including any potential indirect effects of CHD1L on HIV spread in vivo that our cell-based assays cannot recapitulate.

NCOurd: modelling length distributions of NCO events and gene conversion tracts.

Meiotic recombination is the main driving force of human genetic diversity, along with mutations. Recombinations split into crossovers, separating large chromosomal regions originating from different homologous chromosomes, and non-crossovers (NCOs), where a small segment from one chromosome is embedded in a region originating from the homologous chromosome. NCOs are much less studied than mutations and crossovers as NCOs are short and can only be detected at markers heterozygous in the transmitting parent, leaving most of them undetectable. The detectable NCOs, known as gene conversions, hide information about NCOs, including their number and length, waiting to be unveiled. We introduce NCOurd, software, and algorithm, based on an expectation-maximization algorithm, to estimate the number of NCOs and their length distribution from gene conversion data. https://github.com/DecodeGenetics/NCOurd.

Association between Residential Greenness and Human Microbiota: Evidence from Multiple Countries.

Greenness, referring to a measurement of the density of vegetated land (e.g., gardens, parks, grasslands), has been linked with many human health outcomes. However, the evidence on greenness exposure and human microbiota remains limited, inconclusive, drawn from specific regions, and based on only modest sample size. We aimed to study the association between greenness exposure and human microbial diversity and composition in a large sample across 34 countries and regions. We explored associations between residential greenness and human microbial alpha-diversity, composition, and genus abundance using data from 34 countries. Greenness exposure was assessed using the normalized difference vegetation index and the enhanced vegetation index mean values in the month before sampling. We used linear regression models to estimate the association between greenness and microbial alpha-diversity and tested the effect modification of age, sex, climate zone, and pet ownership of participants. Differences in microbial composition were tested by permutational multivariate analysis of variance based on Bray-Curtis distance and differential taxa were detected using the DESeq2 R package between two greenness exposure groups split by median values of greenness. We found that higher greenness was significantly associated with greater richness levels in the palm and gut microbiota but decreased evenness in the gut microbiota. Pet ownership and climate zone modified some associations between greenness and alpha-diversity. Palm and gut microbial composition at the genus level also varied by greenness. Higher abundances of the genera Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, and lower abundances of the genera Anaerotruncus and Streptococcus, were observed in people with higher greenness levels. These findings suggest that residential greenness was associated with microbial richness and composition in the human skin and gut samples, collected across different geographic contexts. Future studies may validate the observed associations and determine whether they correspond to improvements in human health. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12186.

Shibboleth: An agent-based model of signalling mimicry.

Mimicry is an essential strategy for exploiting competitors in competitive co-evolutionary relationships. Protection against mimicry may, furthermore, be a driving force in human linguistic diversity: the potential harm caused by failing to detect mimicked group-identity signals may select for high sensitivity to mimicry of honest group members. Here we describe the results of five agent-based models that simulate multi-generational interactions between two groups of individuals: original members of a group with an honest identity signal, and members of an outsider group who mimic that signal, aiming to pass as members of the in-group. The models correspond to the Biblical story of Shibboleth, where a tribe in conflict with another determines tribe affiliation by asking individuals to pronounce the word, 'Shibboleth.' In the story, failure to reproduce the word phonetically resulted in death. Here, we run five different versions of a 'Shibboleth' model: a first, simple version, which evaluates whether a composite variable of mimicry quality and detection quality is a superior predictor to the model's outcome than is cost of detection. The models thereafter evaluate variations on the simple model, incorporating group-level behaviours such as altruistic punishment. Our results suggest that group members' sensitivity to mimicry of the Shibboleth-signal is a better predictor of whether any signal of group identity goes into fixation in the overall population than is the cost of mimicry detection. Thus, the likelihood of being detected as a mimic may be more important than the costs imposed on mimics who are detected. This suggests that theoretical models in biology should place greater emphasis on the likelihood of detection, which does not explicitly entail costs, rather than on the costs to individuals who are detected. From a language learning perspective, the results suggest that admission to group membership through linguistic signals is powered by the ability to imitate and evade detection as an outsider by existing group members.

Application of Compositional Data Analysis to Study the Relationship between Bacterial Diversity in Human Faeces and Sex, Age, and Weight.

This work uses Compositional Data Analysis (CoDA) to examine the typical human faecal bacterial diversity in 39 healthy volunteers from the Andalusian region (Spain). Stool samples were subjected to high-throughput sequencing of the V3 and V4 regions of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene using Illumina MiSeq. The numbers of sequences per sample and their genus-level assignment were carried out using the Phyloseq R package. The alpha diversity indices of the faecal bacterial population were not influenced by the volunteer's sex (male or female), age (19-46 years), and weight (48.6-99.0 kg). To study the relationship between these variables and the faecal bacterial population, the ALDEx2 and coda4microbiome CoDA packages were used. Applying ALDEx2, a trend suggesting a connection between sex and the genera Senegalimassilia and Negatibacillus (slightly more abundant in females) and Desulfovibrio (more abundant in males) was found. Moreover, age was tentatively associated with Streptococcus, Tizzerella, and Ruminococaceae_UCG-003, while weight was linked to Senegalimassilia. The exploratory tool of the coda4microbiome package revealed numerous bacterial log-ratios strongly related to sex and, to a lesser extent, age and weight. Moreover, the cross-sectional analysis identified bacterial signature balances able to assign sex to samples regardless of controlling for volunteers' age or weight. Desulfovibrio, Faecalitalea, and Romboutsia were relevant in the numerator, while Coprococcus, Streptococcus, and Negatibacillus were prominent in the denominator; the greater presence of these could characterise the female sex. Predictions for age included Caproiciproducens, Coprobacter, and Ruminoclostridium in the numerator and Odoribacter, Ezakiella, and Tyzzerella in the denominator. The predictions depend on the relationship between both groups, but the abundance of the first group and scarcity of the second could be related to older individuals. However, the association of the faecal bacterial population with weight did not yield a satisfactory model, indicating scarce influence. These results demonstrate the usefulness of the CoDA methodology for studying metagenomics data and, specifically, human microbiota.

Mitochondrial DNA in Human Diversity and Health: From the Golden Age to the Omics Era.

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is a small fraction of our hereditary material. However, this molecule has had an overwhelming presence in scientific research for decades until the arrival of high-throughput studies. Several appealing properties justify the application of mtDNA to understand how human populations are-from a genetic perspective-and how individuals exhibit phenotypes of biomedical importance. Here, I review the basics of mitochondrial studies with a focus on the dawn of the field, analysis methods and the connection between two sides of mitochondrial genetics: anthropological and biomedical. The particularities of mtDNA, with respect to inheritance pattern, evolutionary rate and dependence on the nuclear genome, explain the challenges of associating mtDNA composition and diseases. Finally, I consider the relevance of this single locus in the context of omics research. The present work may serve as a tribute to a tool that has provided important insights into the past and present of humankind.

Insights into the Y chromosome human diversity in Uruguay.

With regard to the origin of its population and microevolutionary processes, Uruguay exhibits distinctive features that distinguish it from other countries in Latin America, while at the same time sharing several similarities. In this article, we will focus on the variability of paternal genetic lineages in two geographical regions with different histories that can be considered as examples of distinct populations for the continent. In general terms, the genetic diversity is a result of different demographic processes related to the American conquest and colonisation. These resulted in distinct ancestral components which vary geographical and depend on the distribution by sex within these components. In Uruguay, native maternal haplogroups are significantly more frequent in the North. Although there are several studies about the geneticvariability of Uruguay, little is known about male genetic lineages. The aim of this work is to present an updated study of the male genetic variability of the Uruguayan population. We analyzed 13 biallelic markers and 27 STRs located in the male-specific region of the Y chromosome for 157 males: 98 from the capital, Montevideo, and 59 from Tacuarembó. Almost all haplogroups found in both locations are European (99% and 93.2% respectively). One Sub-Saharan African haplogroup was found in Montevideo (1%) and 2 in Tacuarembó (3%), while Native haplogroups were found only in Tacuarembó, evidencing a strong sex-biased admixture. By crossing genetic and genealogical information we could relate European haplogroups with different waves and times of migrations. Network analysis indicated a very diverse male population, suggesting that European migrants came from heterogeneous geographic locations and in different waves. Tacuarembó has closer population affinities with Iberian populations while Montevideo is more diverse. Male population expansion expansion, can be explained by the large number of migrants that arrived during the XIX century and the first half of the XX century. The Uruguayan male gene pool is the result of several migration waves with diverse origins, with strong sex-biased admixture that can be explained by the European migration, the violence against the indigenous males, and the segregation of the Africansadmixture that can be explained due to European migration, violence against Natives, and segregation against African males.admixture that can be explained due to European migration, violence against Natives, and segregation against African males.admixture that can be explained due to European migration, violence against Natives, and segregation against African males.admixture that can be explained due to European migration, violence against Natives, and segregation of hte Africans.