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Can awareness reduce (and reverse) identity-driven bias in judgement? Evidence from international cricket
Get PDFCompetitions often suffer from biased judgments by officials tied to their social identities. In international cricket, home nation umpires favoured home teams, but neutral umpires were introduced successfully to address this bias. However, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the return of home umpires, creating a natural experiment amid heightened scrutiny, modern technology, and sometimes empty stadiums. Consistent with the predictions of our behavioural model, we find no evidence of in-group bias during the pandemic; instead, we observe evidence of over-compensation. The pre-pandemic home team advantage in ‘leg before wicket’ decisions vanished, with home umpires seemingly favouring the away opposition, compared with neutral umpires in the period before, especially in more marginal or difficult decisions. This suggests that awareness and scrutiny can not only eliminate identity-driven judgement bias but may even reverse it
Culture machines
Get PDFThis paper discusses the way the concept of culture is discursively con- structed by large language models that are trained on massive collections of cultural artefacts and designed to produce probabilistic representations of culture based on this training data. It makes the argument that, no matter how ‘diverse’ their training data is, large language models will always be prone to stereotyping and over- simplification because of the mathematical models that underpin their operations. Efforts to build ‘guardrails’ into systems to reduce their tendency to stereotype can often result in the opposite problem, with issues around culture and ethnicity being ‘invisiblised’. To illustrate this, examples are provided of the stereotypical linguistic styles and cultural attitudes models produce when asked to portray different kinds of ‘persona’. The tendency of large language models to gravitate towards cultural and linguistic generalities is contrasted with trends in intercultural communication towards more fluid, socially situated understandings of interculturality, and implications for the future of cultural representation are discussed
A preliminary examination of gut microbiota and emotion regulation in 2-to 6-year-old children
Get PDFBackground: It is well known that having maladaptive emotion regulation skills during childhood may predict mental health issues later in life, therefore, establishing links with gut microbiome could help develop gut-derived interventions directed at improving maladaptive emotion regulation skills during this critical developmental period. While differences in gut microbiome diversity and composition have been associated with several mental health problems in adults and in infants, the current study is the first one to examine whether the gut microbiome diversity and composition are related to emotional regulation abilities during early childhood.
Method: In the current cross-sectional study, mothers of seventy-three children aged 2–6 years completed several questionnaires assessing their child's and their own emotion regulation skills and mental health, provided a stool sample from their child (via at-home gut microbiome testing kits), and reported on their child's dietary intake.
Results: Results revealed that compared to children in the low maladaptive emotion regulation group, alpha diversity, relative abundance of butyrate-producing genera (Butyricicoccus and Odoribacter), and vitamin synthesis scores (Vitamins B2, B3, B6, and B9) were significantly lower in the high maladaptive emotion regulation group.
Discussion: These findings suggest that maladaptive emotion regulation skills link to gut microbiome alterations in early childhood, a crucial time of both brain and gut-immune development, hence, may open the way to the development of early novel (dietary or pre/probiotic) interventions
Influence of chirality and sequence in lysine-rich lipopeptide biosurfactants and micellar model colloid systems
Get PDFLipopeptides can self-assemble into diverse nanostructures which can be programmed to incorporate peptide sequences to achieve a remarkable range of bioactivities. Here, the influence of peptide sequence and chirality on micelle structure and interactions is investigated in a series of lipopeptides bearing two lysine or D-lysine residues and tyrosine or tryptophan residues, attached to a hexadecyl lipid chain. All molecules self-assemble into micelles above a critical micelle concentration (CMC). Small-angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) is used to probe micelle shape and structure from the form factor and to probe inter-micellar interactions via analysis of structure factor. The CMC is obtained consistently from surface tension and electrical conductivity measurements. We introduce a method to obtain the zeta potential from the SAXS structure factor which is in good agreement with directly measured values. Atomistic molecular dynamics simulations provide insights into molecular packing and conformation within the lipopeptide micelles which constitute model self-assembling colloidal systems and biomaterials
Animal board invited review: dietary transition from animal to plant-derived foods: are there risks to health?
Get PDFAnimal-derived foods (ADFs) are a very varied group of foods, but many are nutrient rich and contain
higher quality protein than provided by plant-derived foods such that a simple replacement of ADF protein is likely to lead to a reduction in overall protein quality. In addition, many ADFs are richer in some
nutrients than plant-based foods (e.g. Fe, Ca) and these often have a higher bioavailability. ADFs also provide nutrients that plants cannot supply (e.g. vitamin B12) and some provide beneficial health functionality (e.g. hypotensive) which is not explained by traditional nutrition. However, there remains a good
health reason to increase the proportion of plant-derived food in many diets to increase the intake of
dietary fibre which is often consumed at very sub-optimal levels. It seems logical that the increased
plant-derived foods should replace the ADFs that have the least benefit, the greatest risk to health and
the highest environmental impact. Processed meat fits these characteristics and should be an initial target for replacement with plant-based based protein-rich foods that additionally provide the necessary
nutrients and have high-quality dietary fibre. Processed meat covers a wide range of products including
several traditional foods (e.g. sausages) which will make decisions on food replacement challenging.
There is therefore an urgent need for research to better define the relative health risks associated with
the range of processed meat-based foods. The aim of this review is to examine the evidence on the benefits and risks of this dietary transition including the absolute necessity to consider initial nutrient status
before the replacement of ADFs is considere
Female students' perceptions of environmental sustainability: a case study of a university building in the UAE
No full textUniversity campuses are considered high consumers of natural resources and play an important role as leaders in diffusing sustainability concepts and behaviours. The relevant literature highlights the need to investigate the intersection between the micro (individual beliefs and actions) of building users and the macro (organizational programs and management practices) of environmental sustainability in university campuses. Hence, this study aimed to investigate students’ knowledge and perceptions of the environmental sustainability of their university campuses. This study engaged United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) students as researchers and respondents through an in-depth case study of a building on the UAEU campus in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi. The mixed methods analysis sheds light on students’ knowledge of environmental sustainability in general and their perception of sustainability practices for energy conservation, water conservation, waste recycling, sustainable landscaping, and sustainable transportation programs in the case study building. Students’ perceptions were influenced by their ability to realize relevant environmental design elements and university initiatives. Building automation and awareness campaigns are highlighted as potential areas of improvement. As higher education in developing countries accelerates, this study’s findings contribute to emerging literature on the contribution and commitment of higher education institutions to sustainable development
Methodology to evaluate numerical weather predictions using large-aperture scintillometry sensible heat fluxes: demonstration in London
Get PDFTo evaluate numerical weather predictions (NWP) using observations, the horizontal, vertical and temporal resolution characteristics need to be considered to ensure consistency. Here, large aperture scintillometry (LAS) is used to derive turbulent sensible heat fluxes (QH), as the source area extents are comparable to NWP with horizontal grid-box resolutions of order 1 km. We demonstrate our methodology using LAS observations undertaken in central London and the Met Office’s operational forecast model for the UK (UKV). In the horizontal, we ensure consistency between the LAS source area locations and extent, as they vary with wind direction and stability, and therefore the NWP grid-boxes that should be selected for comparison. In the vertical, the appropriate model level needs to be selected relative to the changing effective measurement height (zf) of the observations. The LAS fluxes time and space averaging allows QH to be obtained for time periods similar to the model timestep (e.g., 1 min) but the UKV does not explicitly represent higher frequency turbulent motion.
During two spring days, three to five UKV grid-boxes (1.5 km resolution) fall within the LAS source area (60%). However, with the model land cover data lacking realistic spatial variability modelled effective surface QH spatial variability is small, leaving a central grid-box on the LAS path representative. Larger differences occur between modelled QH at the surface and closest to zf, despite both theoretically being within the inertial sub layer. The modelled QH has better agreement with observed fluxes when averaged over long periods (10+ min cf. 1 min).
As LAS-derived QH has larger source areas than eddy-covariance (EC) measurements, there are benefits to assessing NWP model performance with LAS. With multiple paths spatial variability in response to changes in surface cover could be assessed at shorter times scales than possible with EC
Variation of LDL-cholesterol in response to the replacement of saturated with unsaturated fatty acids: a nonrandomised, sequential dietary intervention; the Reading, Imperial, Surrey, Saturated fat Cholesterol Intervention (“RISSCI”-1) study
Get PDFBackground: Serum LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) shows marked inter-individual variation in response to replacement of saturated fatty acids (SFA) with unsaturated fatty acids (UFA).
Objective: To demonstrate the efficacy of UK guidelines for exchanging dietary SFA for UFA, to reduce serum LDL-C and other CVD risk factors, and to identify determinants of the variability in LDL-C response.
Methods: Healthy males (n=109, mean±SD age 48±11 years BMI 25.1±3.3 kg/m2), consumed a higher-SFA/lower-UFA diet for 4-weeks, followed by an isoenergetic, lower-SFA/higher-UFA diet for 4-weeks (achieved intakes SFA:UFA, 19.1:14.8 and 8.9:24.5% total energy respectively). Serum LDL-C, CVD risk markers, peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) gene expression, and dietary intakes were assessed at baseline and the end of each diet.
Results: Transition from a higher-SFA/lower-UFA to a lower-SFA/higher-UFA diet significantly reduced fasting blood lipids [LDL-C (-0.50 mmol/L; 95%CI:-0.58,-0.42), HDL-C (-0.11 mmol/L; 95%CI:-0.14,-0.08) and total cholesterol (-0.65 mmol/L; 95%CI:-0.75,-0.55)]. The dietary exchange also reduced apolipoprotein (apo)B, TC:HDL-C ratio, non-HDL-C, E-selectin (P<0.0001) and LDL subfraction composition [cholesterol (LDL-I and LDL-II), apoB100 (LDL-I and LDL-II), and TAG (LDL-II)] (P<0.01). There was also an increase in plasma biomarkers of cholesterol intestinal absorption (β-sitosterol, campesterol, cholestanol), and synthesis (desmosterol) (P<0.0001) and fold change in PBMC LDL-receptor mRNA expression relative to the higher-SFA/lower-UFA diet (P=0.035). Marked inter-individual variation in the change in serum LDL-C response (-1.39 to +0.77 mmol/L) to this dietary exchange was observed, with 33.7% of this variation explained by serum LDL-C before the lower-SFA/higher-UFA diet and reduction in dietary SFA intake (adjusted R2 27% and 6.7%, respectively). APOE genotype was unrelated to serum LDL-C response to SFA.
Conclusions: These findings support the efficacy of UK SFA dietary guidelines for the overall lowering of serum LDL-C, but showed marked variation in LDL-C response. Further identification of the determinants of this variation will facilitate targeting and increasing efficacy of these guidelines.
Clinical trial registry: The RISSCI-1 study was registered with ClinicalTrials.Gov (No. NCT03270527)
Exploring UK older adults’ dietary fibre consumption habits and associated factors: a national diet and nutrition survey perspective
Get PDFThe UK population is living longer; therefore, promoting healthy ageing via positive nutrition could have widespread public health implications. Moreover, dietary fibre intake is associated with health benefits; however, intake is below UK recommendations (30 g/d). Utilising national dietary survey data can provide up-to-date information on a large representative cohort of UK older adults, so that tailored solutions can be developed in the future. This study used cross-sectional data from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (years 2008–2009 to 2018–2019) for older adults’ (n 1863; 65–96 years) dietary fibre intake (three-to-four-day food diaries), top ten dietary fibre-rich foods, associated factors (demographics, dietary/lifestyle habits) and various health outcomes (anthropometric, blood and urine). Mean dietary fibre intake was 18·3 g/d (range: 2·9–55·1 g/d); therefore, below the UK dietary recommendations, with compliance at 5·7 %. In addition, there were five significant associations (P < 0·05) related to lower dietary fibre intake such as increasing age group, without own natural teeth, impaired chewing ability, lower education leaving age and poor general health. Older adults’ key foods containing dietary fibre were mainly based on convenience such as baked beans, bread and potatoes. Positively, higher dietary fibre consumption was significantly associated (P = 0·007) with reduced diastolic blood pressure. In summary, the benefits of dietary fibre consumption were identified in terms of health outcomes and oral health were key modulators of intake. Future work should focus on a life course approach and the role of food reformulation to help increase dietary fibre intake
