United States National Research Council Research Articles

Designing an Observing System to Study the Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) of the Earth in the 2020s.

Observations of planet Earth from space are a critical resource for science and society. Satellite measurements represent very large investments and United States (US) agencies organize their effort to maximize the return on that investment. The US National Research Council conducts a survey of Earth science and applications to prioritize observations for the coming decade. The most recent survey prioritized a visible to shortwave infrared imaging spectrometer and a multispectral thermal infrared imager to meet a range of needs for studying Surface Biology and Geology (SBG). SBG will be the premier integrated observatory for observing the emerging impacts of climate change by characterizing the diversity of plant life and resolving chemical and physiological signatures. It will address wildfire risk, behavior, and recovery as well as responses to hazards such as oil spills, toxic minerals in minelands, harmful algal blooms, landslides, and other geological hazards. The SBG team analyzed needed instrument characteristics (spatial, temporal, and spectral resolutions, measurement uncertainty) and assessed the cost, mass, power, volume, and risk of different architectures. We present an overview of the Research and Applications trade-study analysis of algorithms, calibration and validation needs, and societal applications with specifics of substudies detailed in other articles in this special collection. We provide a value framework to converge from hundreds down to three candidate architectures recommended for development. The analysis identified valuable opportunities for international collaboration to increase the revisit frequency, adding value for all partners, leading to a clear measurement strategy for an observing system architecture.

Diversity and Discrepancies in Water‐related University Rankings: Is There a Need for More Consistency or Is There Value in Breadth?

Diversity and Discrepancies in Water‐related University Rankings: Is There a Need for More Consistency or Is There Value in Breadth?

Stem Cells for Next Level Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century.

The call for a paradigm change in toxicology from the United States National Research Council in 2007 initiates awareness for the invention and use of human-relevant alternative methods for toxicological hazard assessment. Simple 2D in vitro systems may serve as first screening tools, however, recent developments infer the need for more complex, multicellular organotypic models, which are superior in mimicking the complexity of human organs. In this review article most critical organs for toxicity assessment, i.e., skin, brain, thyroid system, lung, heart, liver, kidney, and intestine are discussed with regards to their functions in health and disease. Embracing the manifold modes-of-action how xenobiotic compounds can interfere with physiological organ functions and cause toxicity, the need for translation of such multifaceted organ features into the dish seems obvious. Currently used in vitro methods for toxicological applications and ongoing developments not yet arrived in toxicity testing are discussed, especially highlighting the potential of models based on embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells of human origin. Finally, the application of innovative technologies like organs-on-a-chip and genome editing point toward a toxicological paradigm change moves into action.

Probing Physical Sciences Teachers’ Chemical Laboratory Safety Awareness in Some South African High Schools

There is a scarcity of studies that focus on how South African high school physical sciences teachers are grappling with chemical laboratory safety (CLS). This is despite the fact that the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements in the South African school system increased emphasis on laboratory activities in the physical sciences. Department of Basic Education authorities have increased the supply of resources, including chemicals, in schools to ensure the successful implementation of the practical component. This quantitative study investigates physical sciences teachers’ levels of CLS awareness through a conceptual framework developed by the United States National Research Council aimed at promoting chemical laboratory safety in developing countries. A laboratory safety survey questionnaire for teachers was administered to 72 physical sciences teachers from 72 schools in one province. The questionnaire consisted of 14 statements with a four-point Likert scale. Teacher CLS awareness was found to be generally suboptimal, especially concerning awareness of safe chemical storage and waste disposal, and emergency laboratory safety procedures. Results from the computed Pearson chi-squared tests for statistical significance suggest that teachers from better-resourced schools and those who had majored in chemistry had greater awareness than those from less well-resourced schools and those who had not majored in chemistry. Authorities could consider safety awareness training to accompany the provision of resources to schools and target those teachers who may not have majored in chemistry. Such training could include, but not be limited to, online laboratory awareness courses that exploit the use of multiple virtual tools.

Imagining the public: anticipatory discourses in China’s push for precision medicine

Precision medicine (PM) has become a buzzword in global scientific and medical circles ever since the United States National Research Council 2011 report and the Obama Administration’s unveiling of its PM Initiative in 2015. In response in 2016, the Chinese government pledged $9 billion USD to PM research in the coming years and has designated PM as a key projects in various national plans. While promises of PM in China has similarities to those found in the U.S. and elsewhere, the way in which PM is anticipated stems from an imagination of the Chinese public as separate from the processes of scientific work and policymaking. Based on an analysis of documents and interviews with researchers and entrepreneurs in PM, this paper identifies aspects of the Chinese sociotechnical imaginary of the public and delineates three strands of anticipatory discourse used to galvanize support for PM in China: anxieties over demographic and developmental transitions, unlocking innovation in the “new normal” of slowing economic growth, and techno-nationalist competitions between the U.S. and China.

Arbitrage opportunities in publication and ghost authors

In some research evaluation systems, credit awarded to an article depends on the number of co-authors on the article with total credit to the article increasing with the number of co-authors. There are many examples of such evaluation systems (e.g., the United States National Research Council evaluation of graduate programs gave full credit to each co-author). Such credit systems run the risk of encouraging ghost or honorary authorships. In a recent article, Antonio Osorio and Lutz Bornmann (2019) propose a scheme to discourage ghost authorships but increase the total credit to a paper when co-authorships increase. It is shown that if articles are valued more highly as the number of co-authorships increases, then there are opportunities to increase credit by mutually agreeing to add each other as authors. Unrelated authors of unrelated papers may all benefit by expanding their co-author list. I call this phenomena arbitrage--a term borrowed from economics and finance--since the content of the articles do not change, but the value increases by moving to a "market" of more co-authors where articles are valued differently.

Comparison of body mass index range criteria and their association with cognition, functioning and depression: a cross-sectional study in Mexican older adults

BackgroundWorld population is living longer, demanding adjustments in public health policies. Body mass index (BMI) is widely known and used as a parameter and predictor of health status although an adapted criterion for older adults is usually overlooked. BMI has been extensively analysed in relation to mortality but fewer studies address its association with cognition, functioning and depression in older adults. The present study aimed at 1) comparing BMI distribution according to the ranges proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United States National Research Council Committee on Diet and Health (CDH), 2) analysing their association with cognitive functioning, physical functioning and depression and 3) analysing a possible, interaction of BMI criteria with sex on the outcome measures.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 395 participants recruited by convenience sampling; 283 (71.6%) women and 112 (24.58%) men. Mean age was 74.68 (SD = 8.50, range: 60–98). Outcome measures included the Short Portable Mental State Questionnaire for cognitive status, the Barthel’s Index of Activities of Daily Living for physical functioning, and the Geriatric Depression Scale.ResultsWHO criterion classified most cases (65.3%) as overweight, followed by normal weight (32.2%) and underweight (2.5%) whereas CDH criterion considered most (48.1%) as normal weight, and followed by overweight (31.4%) and underweight (20.5%). Analysing cognitive status, independent physical functioning and depression mean scores, significant differences (p ≤ .001) were found when comparing the three weight groups (underweight, normal weight and overweight) using either the WHO- or the CDH criterion. Post-hoc tests revealed that in all comparisons the underweight group scored the lowest in all three outcome measures. According to the CDH criterion, overweight was favourable for females but unfavourable for males regarding cognitive status (interaction F(2,389) = 4.52, p ≤ .01) and independent functioning (interaction F(2,389) = 3.86, p ≤ .05).ConclusionsBMI and its associations to relevant outcome measures in the older adults must rely on criteria that take into account the particular features of this population, such as the CDH criterion. Underweight was associated with decremented cognition, less independent physical functioning and more depression. Overweight seemed favourable for women but unfavourable for men.

Understanding chronic stress: a narrative review of literature

Though commonly used to describe the ‘emotions’ in daily life, stress is a scientifically valued concept which has slowly evolved since the late 1970s to become a vital area of research interest, expanding its scope in relation to humans, animals, and plants. In today’s context, chronic stress is identified as one of the main determinants of physical and mental disorders. The concept of chronic stress has a complex diversity and several multi-dimensional constructs. There had always been controversies on the mechanism and measurement of chronic stress, leading to confusion and disagreement among the scientific community, hence the slow progression in research related to chronic stress. These fundamental deficiencies and the emerging public interest were recognised in the early 1980s by the United States National Research Council and as a result, several organizations such as the International Institute of Stress in Montreal and Hans Selye Foundation were established to uplift the research work on stress. The first World Congress on stress was held in 1994 during which the current issues pertaining to stress were discussed extensively. A narrative review of the literature was conducted to explore the concept of chronic stress using several electronic databases.

High-throughput screening and environmental risk assessment: State of the science and emerging applications.

In 2007 the United States National Research Council (NRC) published a vision for toxicity testing in the 21st century that emphasized the use of in vitro high-throughput screening (HTS) methods and predictive models as an alternative to in vivo animal testing. In the present study we examine the state of the science of HTS and the progress that has been made in implementing and expanding on the NRC vision, as well as challenges to implementation that remain. Overall, significant progress has been made with regard to the availability of HTS data, aggregation of chemical property and toxicity information into online databases, and the development of various models and frameworks to support extrapolation of HTS data. However, HTS data and associated predictive models have not yet been widely applied in risk assessment. Major barriers include the disconnect between the endpoints measured in HTS assays and the assessment endpoints considered in risk assessments as well as the rapid pace at which new tools and models are evolving in contrast with the slow pace at which regulatory structures change. Nonetheless, there are opportunities for environmental scientists and policymakers alike to take an impactful role in the ongoing development and implementation of the NRC vision. Six specific areas for scientific coordination and/or policy engagement are identified. Environ Toxicol Chem 2019;38:12-26. Published 2018 Wiley Periodicals Inc. on behalf of SETAC. This article is a US government work and, as such, is in the public domain in the United States of America.

The history of science in the science classroom: The past is the key to the future in science education

In many science classes, students encounter ‘final form’ science (Duschl 1990, 1994) in which scientific knowledge is presented as a rhetoric of conclusions (Schwab 1962). Incorporation of the history of science in modern science classrooms combats this false image of linear science progression. History of science can facilitate student understanding of the nature of science, pique student interest, and expose the cultural and societal constraints in which a science developed, revealing science's ‘human side’ (Matthews 1994). Carefully selected and researched episodes from the history of science illustrate that scientists sometimes chose incorrect hypotheses, misinterpreted data, and argued about data analysis. Our research documented that historical vignettes can hook students' attention, and past controversies can be used to develop students' analysis and argumentation skills before turning class attention to modern controversial issues. Historical graphics also have educational potential, as they reveal the progression of a science and offer alternative vehicles for data interpretation. In the United States, the National Science Education Standards (United States National Research Council 1996) acknowledged the importance of the History and Nature of Science by designating it as one of eight science content strands. However, the new United States Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve 2013) no longer include this strand, although the importance of the nature of science is still emphasized in the science framework (United States National Research Council 2012). Therefore, it is crucial that science education researchers continue to research and implement the history of science via interdisciplinary approaches to ensure its inclusion in United States science classrooms for better student understanding of the nature of science.

Energy and the Environment: New Data Supports Need for Climate Vulnerability Assessment by Transmission Providers

AbstractIn the December 2013 issue of Natural Gas & Electricity, I presented a case for the reality of climate change and described policy considerations that should be used by the electric industry when implementing adaptation measures to reduce their climate change vulnerability. In this follow‐up article, I present an update that describes three events that have occurred since preparation of that article: Typhoon Haiyan, publication of an important research paper in Nature Geoscience, and publication of an assessment of abrupt climate change by the United States National Research Council (NRC).

Genetics and Society—Educating Scientifically Literate Citizens: Introduction to the Thematic Issue

Advances in molecular genetics and genomics, and their applications in personalised medicine and other fields, are raising important socio-scientific issues. If the aim of science teaching is to educate scientifically literate citizens, the implications of current genetic and genomic technologies for our lives have to be addressed in science courses. Educational policies in all industrialized societies consider science literacy as a main goal of education. The science standards in several European Union member states (Eurydice Network 2011) and the United States (National Research Council 2012) have stated similar goals. Given the key role attributed to genes as determinants of human identity, health, and behavior, genetics is a scientific field about which science literacy is particularly important. With the wide media attention given to the identification of the genetic basis of human traits and the increasing availability of direct-to-consumer genetic tests it is important that non-experts understand what kinds of reliable genetic knowledge can be acquired and what their implications for society are. Thus, science educators and teachers need to be informed about the current status of genetics and genomics research, the technological state of the art, its biomedical applications, and the relevant ethical issues. The contribution of research scientists to the public understanding of science is important in this respect (Reydon et al. 2012).

Methodology of Metal Criticality Determination

A comprehensive methodology has been created to quantify the degree of criticality of the metals of the periodic table. In this paper, we present and discuss the methodology, which is comprised of three dimensions: supply risk, environmental implications, and vulnerability to supply restriction. Supply risk differs with the time scale (medium or long), and at its more complex involves several components, themselves composed of a number of distinct indicators drawn from readily available peer-reviewed indexes and public information. Vulnerability to supply restriction differs with the organizational level (i.e., global, national, and corporate). The criticality methodology, an enhancement of a United States National Research Council template, is designed to help corporate, national, and global stakeholders conduct risk evaluation and to inform resource utilization and strategic decision-making. Although we believe our methodological choices lead to the most robust results, the framework has been constructed to permit flexibility by the user. Specific indicators can be deleted or added as desired and weighted as the user deems appropriate. The value of each indicator will evolve over time, and our future research will focus on this evolution. The methodology has proven to be sufficiently robust as to make it applicable across the entire spectrum of metals and organizational levels and provides a structural approach that reflects the multifaceted factors influencing the availability of metals in the 21st century.

Special Issue on Urban Storm-Water Management in the 21st Century

As the practice of storm-water management evolves, so has our understanding of the tools. As we move away from a myopic flood control perspective, new tools to include what we now call green infrastructure best management practices (BMPs) were developed. Green roofs, rain gardens, and porous pavements appeared, with much of the design elements based on reasonable estimates of performance, thus the term “best.” Now we as a profession are moving toward a more engineered approach, with designs based on scientific knowledge of the processes, from soil physics and chemistry to hydrology and hydraulics. Soon it may be time to retire BMPs and move forward with the term “storm-water control measures,” as recommended by the National Academies authors of Urban Stormwater in the United States (National Research Council 2008). This issue of the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering is devoted to this evolving field of storm-water sustainability, and the effort to predict performance of our storm-water control measures. The 10 papers in this special issue reflect this evolution. Papers range from evaluating the concentration of effluent scoured from catch basins to cost-estimation tools, plus the inclusion of green-infrastructure tools within the International Stormwater BMP Database. Green and stone roofs are represented as are level spreaders. Bioretention/bioinfiltration rain gardens, however, received the most attention with papers on media depth, phosphorus removal, process modeling, mounding, and fines accumulation. This collection truly demonstrates our increasing knowledge base. This effort is a result of collaboration between the Stormwater Infrastructure Committee and Urban Water Resources Research Council, together with the Journal of Irrigation and Drainage Engineering Publications Committee. Conference proceedings from recent Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) congresses and low-impact development (LID) conferences were reviewed, and a select group of authors was invited to expand and revise their work. These papers passed through the standard journal peer-review process. We hope that this set of papers is of use to the profession. We would like to thank all the contributing authors, the reviewers, and William Ritter, as editor, for their efforts in this special issue.

Forensic psychology and forensic science: A proposed agenda for the next decade.

The field of forensic psychology has matured as a discipline, having made considerable progress toward the goal of a close integration of foundational science with practice. Substantial challenges remain, however. This article first reviews the progress of the discipline over the past 3 decades by considering the recommendations made by previous commentators (Grisso, 1987; Otto & Heilbrun, 2002; Poythress, 1979) and the extent to which identified priorities have been met. Next, it analyzes a recent multidisciplinary report addressing the current state of forensic science in the United States (National Research Council, 2009), using the recommendations from this report as another source of guidance for tracking the progress in forensic psychology. Finally, it identifies important priorities for the field of forensic psychology for the next decade in light of this discussion.

Land-Use/Land-Cover Change and Its Impacts on Weather and Climate

Land-use and land-cover changes (LULCC) significantly affect weather and climate as iswell documented in the scientific literature. These impacts include changes in air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric moisture content, energy fluxes, and mesoscale and potentially large-scale circulations. Recently, the United States National Research Council (2005) highlighted the importance of LULCC and recommended the broadening of the climate-change issue to include land-use/land-cover processes as an important climate forcing. The report noted that, “Regional variations in radiative forcing may have important regional and global climatic implications that are not resolved by the concept of global mean radiative forcing. Tropospheric aerosols and landscape changes have particularly heterogeneous forcings. To date, there have been only limited studies of regional radiative forcing and response. Indeed, it is not clear how best to diagnose a regional forcing and response in the observational record; regional forcings can lead to global climate responses, while global forcings can be associated with regional climate responses. Regional diabatic heating can also cause atmospheric teleconnections that influence regional climate thousands of kilometres away from the point of forcing. Improving societally relevant projections of regional climate impacts will require a better understanding of the magnitudes of regional forcings and the associated climate responses.” Therefore, it is critical that we further investigate and understand the impacts of LULCC on weather and climate predictability. In this context, an National Science Foundation (NSF) funded workshop was organized in Boulder, Colorado, USA in 2007 to further highlight the importance of LULCC, to present results of new research in LULCC, and to discuss the challenges of the monitoring and modelling of LULCC at various temporal and spatial scales. The articles included in this

Bringing toxicology into the 21st century: A global call to action

Conventional toxicological testing methods are often decades old, costly and low-throughput, with questionable relevance to the human condition. Several of these factors have contributed to a backlog of chemicals that have been inadequately assessed for toxicity. Some authorities have responded to this challenge by implementing large-scale testing programmes. Others have concluded that a paradigm shift in toxicology is warranted. One such call came in 2007 from the United States National Research Council (NRC), which articulated a vision of “21st century toxicology” based predominantly on non-animal techniques. Potential advantages of such an approach include the capacity to examine a far greater number of chemicals and biological outcomes at more relevant exposure levels; a substantial reduction in testing costs, time and animal use; and the grounding of regulatory decisions on human rather than rodent biology. In order for the NRC’s and similar proposals to make a significant impact on regulatory toxicology in the foreseeable future, they must be translated into sustained multidisciplinary research programmes that are well co-ordinated and funded on a multinational level. The Humane Society is calling for a “big biology” project to meet this challenge. We are in the process of forging an international, multi-stakeholder consortium dedicated to implementing the NRC vision.

Evaluating new methodologies for estimating performance on two-lane highways

This paper examines two new methodologies for field estimation of percent time spent following (PTSF) on two-lane highways. Using speed and time headway data, the two methodologies estimate the percentage of vehicles trapped in platoons, unable to pass slow-moving vehicles. A total of 236 h of field data, including individual speeds and headways, were collected at three study sites in the state of Montana. The study examined the sensitivity of PTSF estimates to some important platooning variables. The study also included a comparison of PTSF estimates from the new methods versus those found using the current United States National Research Council Highway capacity manual (HCM) analytical procedures. Study results showed that the two new methodologies were successful in capturing the effect of platooning variables on PTSF estimates and outperformed the HCM procedures in this regard. Further, the results strongly attest to the promise of the proposed methods in advancing the current analytical procedures for estimating performance on two-lane highways.

Meeting the Future Challenges of Air Quality Management in the United States

The U.S. Clean Air Act (CAA, or the Act) and its amendments has achieved substantial progress in cleaning up the nation's air. Over the past 30 years, the CAA reduced emissions of the 6 principal (“criteria”) pollutants by over 25%, even while gross domestic product (GDP) has increased over 150% and population and energy consumption rose by nearly 40%. However, despite the tremendous gains the Act has brought, the country's air quality management (AQM) system still faces substantial challenges. In response to a congressional request for an independent evaluation of the overall effectiveness of the CAA, the National Research Council formed the Committee on Air Quality Management. Composed of 25 members with diverse areas of air quality expertise, the committee was charged with developing scientific and technical recommendations for strengthening the nation's AQM system. In 2004, the National Academies published their recommendations in a text entitled Air Quality Management in the United States (National Research Council, 2004).

Overview of US national research council evaluation of spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste transportation in the United States

A study undertaken by the United States National Research Council concluded in mid-2006 that there are no fundamental technical barriers to the safe transport of spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste in the United States. When conducted in strict adherence to existing regulations, such transport is a low radiological risk activity with manageable safety, health and environmental consequences. However, there are a number of social and institutional challenges to the successful initial implementation of large quantity shipping programmes.