Environment Interplay Research Articles

Sensescapes in multilingual environments

Abstract Sensescapes refer to the complex multimodal and semiotic assemblages that confer meaning to space as experienced by individuals and groups. The study of sensescapes seeks to understand the nature of these assemblages, how they shape meaning, and with them, individual and collective experiences. This article unpacks sensescapes as an expansive lens to meaning in space, underscoring its potential to investigate the nexus between language and culture. To that end, it integrates existing proposals in linguistic landscapes and translanguaging, and connects them to a working definition of sensescapes drawn from various social sciences and humanities fields. To illustrate the study of sensescapes and their relevance to applied linguistics, the article reports on a case study conducted in the Al-Kissaria district of Nador, Morocco through participatory ethnography. The study provides a phenomenological account of the experiences of two multilingual sisters from neighboring Melilla, Spain, as they navigate a market area. The data illustrate how the sisters’ sensory interactions with the environment interplay with their linguistic and broader semiotic repertoires, activating their previous experiences and shaping their conceptualizations and negotiation of language and culture in this space.

Recent findings and future directions for the intersection of genetic and environmental contributions to schizophrenia

It is well established that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to risk for schizophrenia (SCZ), and much progress has been made in identifying the specific factors conferring risk. However, the nature and extent of interactions between them has long been a topic of debate. Both the data and methods available to address this have evolved rapidly, enabling new prospects for identifying gene–environment interactions in SCZ. To date, there is limited evidence of strong gene–environment interactions, with environmental factors, molecular genetic risk, and family history simultaneously contributing to risk of SCZ. Still, there are several enduring challenges, some of which can likely be addressed with new tools, methods, and approaches for investigating gene–environment interplay. Consequently, advancements in this field will enhance our capacity to identify individuals most vulnerable to specific environmental exposures, which is pivotal for targeted prevention and intervention.

Temporary Organizing with Nature: Reconfiguring the Organization-Natural Environment Interplay

Temporary Organizing with Nature: Reconfiguring the Organization-Natural Environment Interplay

Investigating Gene–Environment Interplay Between Bereavement and Polygenic Risk for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on Externalizing Behaviors During Adolescence

Investigating Gene–Environment Interplay Between Bereavement and Polygenic Risk for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder on Externalizing Behaviors During Adolescence

Research on Gene–Environment Interplay Over Time in Diverse Populations to Inform Public Health Initiatives

Differences in individual genetic predisposition are associated with adaptive and maladaptive behavior. Also, the interplay between genetic predisposition and one's social and contextual environments can work together to influence behavior. This gene–environment interplay can change across development and vary across different racial and ethnic populations. Genetically informed developmental research in diverse populations can enhance understanding of the etiology, risk, and prevention of public health issues. Advancing and translating this research can help identify social and contextual risk factors, as well as protective mechanisms, during specific developmental periods and across diverse populations. This approach can inform public health strategies in promoting health behaviors.

Beyond the border of the athlete-centered approach: a model to understand runners' performance.

Our purpose is to move beyond the borders of the athlete-centered approach by examining the runners' environment interplay as a key factor for performance. Based on the ecological systems theory, the micro-level (intrapersonal, interpersonal, and training characteristics), meso-level (a direct association with athletes is not observed, but the environment plays an influence on the relationships built at the micro-level), and macro-level (contextual features that influence athletic systems) were theorized and contextualized as important factors for the expression of different outcomes, including performance and participation. We also conceptualized the microtime, mesotime, and macrotime as a constraint. Through this model, we aimed to provide applications and conclusions about how this conceptual model provides advances in the scientific research field. By understanding how environmental factors influence their performance, runners can make informed decisions about where and how to train and compete. Furthermore, by recognizing the role of culture and social context in shaping runners' experiences and outcomes, we can work toward creating a more equitable and supportive running culture for all.

Enhancing Fraud Detection and Prevention through Effective Control Environment: A Phenomenological Study


 
 
 
 
 
 This research delves into the pivotal role of the control environment as the bedrock of internal control, shaping the organization's culture and structure. By encompassing integrity, ethical values, organizational structure, human resource policies, and management practices, the control environment significantly influences fraud occurrences. This study aims to explore how the control environment contributes to fraud detection and prevention. Employing a qualitative phenomenological approach, the research probes into human perceptions and experiences, shedding light on the intricate interplay between control environment elements and fraud mitigation efforts. The findings provide valuable insights into the practical implications of cultivating a robust control environment to curb fraudulent activities, thereby fostering a more secure and ethically sound organizational ecosystem
 Highlight:
 
 Foundational Importance: This study examines the central role of the control environment in shaping organizational culture and structure, thereby significantly influencing fraud occurrences.
 Holistic Impact: Encompassing integrity, ethical values, structure, policies, and practices, the control environment's interplay is explored to understand its contribution to fraud detection and prevention.
 Phenomenological Exploration: Employing a qualitative phenomenological approach, the research delves into human perceptions, shedding light on the intricate relationship between control environment elements and efforts to mitigate fraud. The findings offer practical insights for cultivating a robust control environment that fosters a secure and ethically sound organizational ecosystem.
 
 Keyword: Control Environment, Internal Control, Fraud Detection, Prevention, Qualitative Phenomenology
 
 
 
 
 

Studies on Genetic Environment Influences on the Development of Childhood Psychiatric Disorders: A Review

This research article review the key types of genetic research design, methodology involved and emerging and established finding in relation to child and childhood psychiatric disorders, and finally genetic factors seems especially important for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. (Thapar and McGuffin, 2008)1 Twin and adoption study design are now being used to examine gene environment interplay, the effects of environment risk factors co-morbidity phenotype definition and development change Liu et al (2006)11 The ways in which specific gene variant excert risk effects at cellular and biological system are proving to highly competitive (Moffitt et al, 2005).2 Finally, molecular genetic studies also high light the importance of gene environment interply, which seems to be especially important in depression and wide anti social behavior. Liu. et al)11, owen et al 2005)12 , Moffitt, et al, (2005)2

Supplemental Material for Gene–Environment Interplay in Internalizing Problem Behavior

Supplemental Material for Gene–Environment Interplay in Internalizing Problem Behavior

General non-linear imitation leads to limit cycles in eco-evolutionary dynamics

Eco-evolutionary dynamics is crucial to understand how individuals’ behaviors and the surrounding environment interplay with each other. Typically, it is assumed that individuals update their behaviors via linear imitation function, i.e., the replicator dynamics. It has been proved that there cannot be limit circles in such eco-evolutionary dynamics. It suggests that eco-evolutionary dynamics alone is not sufficient to explain the widely observed fluctuating behavior in both the biological and social systems. We extrapolate from the linear imitation function to general imitation function, which can be non-linear. It is shown that the general imitation does not change the internal equilibrium and its local stability. It however leads to limit cycles, which are never present in classical eco-evolutionary dynamics. Moreover, the average cooperation level and average environment state agree with the first and the second component of the internal fixed point. Furthermore, we estimate the location of the emergent limit cycle. On the one hand, our results provide an alternative mechanism to make cooperators and defectors coexist in a periodic way in the “tragedy of the commons” and indicates the global eco-evolutionary dynamics is sensitive to the imitation function. Our work indicates that the way of imitation, i.e., the imitation function, is crucial in eco-evolutionary dynamics, which is not true for evolutionary dynamics with a static environment.

Educational Attainment Polygenic Scores: Examining Evidence for Gene-Environment Interplay with Adolescent Alcohol, Tobacco and Cannabis Use.

Genes associated with educational attainment may be related to or interact with adolescent alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use. Potential gene-environment interplay between educational attainment polygenic scores (EA-PGS) and adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use was evaluated with a series of regression models fitted to data from a sample of 1871 adult Australian twins. All models controlled for age, age², cohort, sex and genetic ancestry as fixed effects, and a genetic relatedness matrix was included as a random effect. Although there was no evidence that adolescent alcohol, tobacco or cannabis use interacted with EA-PGS to influence educational attainment, there was a significant, positive gene-environment correlation with adolescent alcohol use at all PGS thresholds (<i>p</i>s&lt;.02). Higher EA-PGS were associated with an increased likelihood of using alcohol as an adolescent (Δ<i>R</i>² ranged from 0.5% to 1.1%). The positive gene-environment correlation suggests a complex relationship between educational attainment and alcohol use that is due to common genetic factors.

Joint Consideration of Means and Variances Might Change the Understanding of Etiology

Twin and adoption studies compare the similarities of people with differing degrees of relatedness to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to trait population variance. The analytic workhorse of these kinds of variance-focused designs is the intraclass correlation, which estimates similarity between pairs of individuals. Group means, by contrast, play no overt role in estimating genetic and environmental influences. Although this focus on variance has made very important contributions to understanding psychological characteristics, we contend that the exclusion of mean effects from behavioral genetic designs may have obscured key environmental influences and impeded full appreciation of the ubiquity and nature of gene–environment interplay in human outcomes. We provide empirical examples already in the literature and a theoretical framework for thinking through the incorporation of mean effects using largely forgotten, non-Mendelian theory regarding how genes influence human outcomes. We conclude that the field needs to develop models capable of fully incorporating mean effects into twin and adoption studies.

Commentary: Will genomics revolutionise research on gene-environment interplay?

The synthesis of quantitative genetics and molecular genetics is transforming research in the behavioural sciences. The ability to measure inherited DNA differences directly has led to polygenic scores and to new methods to estimate heritability and genetic correlations. This issue provides examples of how these advances can be appllied to research on gene-environment interplay in developmental psychopathology.

ANKK1 and TH gene variants in combination with paternal maltreatment increase susceptibility to both cognitive and attentive impulsivity.

Recent scientific findings suggest that dopamine exerts a central role on impulsivity, as well as that aversive life experiences may promote the high levels of impulsivity that often underlie violent behavior. To deepen our understanding of the complex gene by environment interplay on impulsive behavior, we genotyped six dopaminergic allelic variants (ANKK1-rs1800497, TH-rs6356, DRD4-rs1800955, DRD4-exonIII-VNTR, SLC6A3-VNTR and COMT-rs4680) in 655 US White male inmates convicted for violent crimes, whose impulsivity was assessed by BIS-11 (Barratt Impulsiveness Scale). Furthermore, in a subsample of 216 inmates from the whole group, we also explored the potential interplay between the genotyped dopaminergic variants and parental maltreatment measured by MOPS (Measure of Parental Style) in promoting impulsivity. We found a significant interaction among paternal MOPS scores, ANKK1-rs1800497-T allele and TH-rs6356-A allele, which increased the variance of BIS-11 cognitive/attentive scores explained by paternal maltreatment from 1.8 up to 20.5%. No direct association between any of the individual genetic variants and impulsivity was observed. Our data suggest that paternal maltreatment increases the risk of attentive/cognitive impulsivity and that this risk is higher in carriers of specific dopaminergic alleles that potentiate the dopaminergic neurotransmission. These findings add further evidence to the mutual role that genetics and early environmental factors exert in modulating human behavior and highlight the importance of childhood care interventions.

Polygenic Scores for Plasticity: A New Tool for Studying Gene-Environment Interplay.

Fertility, health, education, and other outcomes of interest to demographers are the product of an individual's genetic makeup and their social environment. Yet, gene × environment (G×E) research deploys a limited toolkit on the genetic side to study the gene-environment interplay, relying on polygenic scores (PGSs) that reflect the influence of genetics on levels of an outcome. In this article, we develop a genetic summary measure better suited for G×E research: variance polygenic scores (vPGSs), which are PGSs that reflect genetic contributions to plasticity in outcomes. First, we use the UK Biobank (N ∼ 408,000 in the analytic sample) and the Health and Retirement Study (N ∼ 5,700 in the analytic sample) to compare four approaches to constructing PGSs for plasticity. The results show that widely used methods for discovering which genetic variants affect outcome variability fail to serve as distinctive new tools for G×E. Second, using the PGSs that do capture distinctive genetic contributions to plasticity, we analyze heterogeneous effects of a UK education reform on health and educational attainment. The results show the properties of a useful new tool for population scientists studying the interplay of nature and nurture and for population-based studies that are releasing PGSs to applied researchers.

Gene and environment interplay in regulating immunotoxicity of different allergens

Allergens can elicit immunotoxic effects in humans. It is often life-threatening and severe that influences the prevalence and course of allergic diseases like asthma, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, and contact dermatitis. Genetic as well as environmental factors may contribute to allergy and related physiological responses. The pathogenesis of asthma and allergy involves the interaction of genetic markers and environmental factors. Various toxic compounds like metals, foods, even certain kinds of drugs can elicit immunotoxicity. Asthma is subjected to inflammation of the airways; of which genes and environment both are responsible in an interactive way. The innate immunity genes particularly CD 14 and Toll like receptors TLR4 and TLR 2 play an important role on susceptibility to asthma and allergy. The genes interrelated to asthma have been found through Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) studies. There are other risk factors associated with allergic diseases which require long-term, effective therapeutic approaches as a treatment regimen. The present study is an attempt to highlight the immunological reactions of certain compounds and gene-environment interplay in developing the pathological symptoms associated with asthma.

Elevated Ozone Concentration and Nitrogen Addition Increase Poplar Rust Severity by Shifting the Phyllosphere Microbial Community.

Tropospheric ozone and nitrogen deposition are two major environmental pollutants. A great deal of research has focused on the negative impacts of elevated O3 and the complementary effect of soil N addition on the physiological properties of trees. However, it has been overlooked how elevated O3 and N addition affect tree immunity in face of pathogen infection, as well as of the important roles of phyllosphere microbiome community in host–pathogen–environment interplay. Here, we examined the effects of elevated O3 and soil N addition on poplar leaf rust [Melampsora larici-populina] severity of two susceptible hybrid poplars [clone ‘107’: Populus euramericana cv. ‘74/76’; clone ‘546’: P. deltoides Í P. cathayana] in Free-Air-Controlled-Environment plots, in addition, the link between Mlp-susceptibility and changes in microbial community was determined using Miseq amplicon sequencing. Rust severity of clone ‘107’ significantly increased under elevated O3 or N addition only; however, the negative impact of elevated O3 could be significantly mitigated when accompanied by N addition, likewise, this trade-off was reflected in its phyllosphere microbial α-diversity responding to elevated O3 and N addition. However, rust severity of clone ‘546’ did not differ significantly in the cases of elevated O3 and N addition. Mlp infection altered microbial community composition and increased its sensitivity to elevated O3, as determined by the markedly different abundance of taxa. Elevated O3 and N addition reduced the complexity of microbial community, which may explain the increased severity of poplar rust. These findings suggest that poplars require a changing phyllosphere microbial associations to optimize plant immunity in response to environmental changes.

Environment and body-brain interplay affect inhibition and decision-making

The fine-tuned interplay of brain and body underlies human ability to cope with changes in the internal and external milieus. Previous research showed that cardiac interoceptive changes (e.g., cardiac phase) affect cognitive functions, notably inhibition that is a key element for adaptive behaviour. Here we investigated the influence on cognition of vestibular signal, which provides the brain with sensory information about body position and movement. We used a centrifuge-based design to disrupt vestibular signal in healthy human volunteers while their inhibition and decision-making functions were assessed with the stop-signal paradigm. Participants performed the standard and a novel, sensorial version of the stop-signal task to determine whether disrupted vestibular signal influences cognition as a function of its relevance to the context. First, we showed that disrupted vestibular signal was associated with a larger variability of longest inhibition latencies, meaning that participants were even slower to inhibit in the trials where they had the most difficulty inhibiting. Second, we revealed that processing of bodily information, as required in the sensorial stop-signal task, also led to a larger variability of longest inhibition latencies, which was all the more important when vestibular signal was disrupted. Lastly, we found that such a degraded response inhibition performance was due in part to the acceleration of decision-making process, meaning that participants made a decision more quickly even when strength of sensory evidence was reduced. Taken together, these novel findings provide direct evidence that vestibular signal affects the cognitive functions of inhibition and decision-making.

Financial strain moderates genetic influences on self-rated health: support for diathesis–stress model of gene–environment interplay

ABSTRACT Data from the Interplay of Genes and Environment across Multiple Studies (IGEMS) consortium were used to examine predictions of different models of gene-by-environment interaction to understand how genetic variance in self-rated health (SRH) varies at different levels of financial strain. A total of 11,359 individuals from 10 twin studies in Australia, Sweden, and the United States contributed relevant data, including 2,074 monozygotic and 2,623 dizygotic twin pairs. Age ranged from 22 to 98 years, with a mean age of 61.05 (SD = 13.24). A factor model was used to create a harmonized measure of financial strain across studies and items. Twin analyses of genetic and environmental variance for SRH incorporating age, age2, sex, and financial strain moderators indicated significant financial strain moderation of genetic influences on self-rated health. Moderation results did not differ across sex or country. Genetic variance for SRH increased as financial strain increased, matching the predictions of the diathesis–stress and social comparison models for components of variance. Under these models, environmental improvements would be expected to reduce genetically based health disparities.

Genetics of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has long been recognized as being a highly heritable condition and our understanding of the genetic contributions to ADHD has grown over the past few decades. This chapter will discuss the studies that have examined its heritability and the efforts to identify specific genetic risk-variants at the molecular genetic level. We outline the various techniques that have been used to characterize genetic contributions to ADHD, describing what we have learnt so far, what there is still to learn and the methodologies that can be used to further our knowledge. In doing so we will discuss research into rare and common genetic variants, polygenic risk scores, and gene-environment interplay, while also describing what genetic studies have revealed about the biological processes involved in ADHD and what they have taught us about the overlap between ADHD and other psychiatric and somatic disorders. Finally, we will discuss the strengths and limitations of the current methodologies and clinical implications of genetic research to date.