British Lung Foundation/United Kingdom primary immunodeficiency network consensus statement on the definition, diagnosis, and management of granulomatous-lymphocytic interstitial lung disease in common variable immunodeficiency disorders

A proportion of people living with common variable immunodeficiency disorders develop granulomatous-lymphocytic interstitial lung disease (GLILD). We aimed to develop a consensus statement on the definition, diagnosis, and management of GLILD. All UK specialist centers were contacted and relevant physicians were invited to take part in a 3-round online Delphi process. Responses were graded as Strongly Agree, Tend to Agree, Neither Agree nor Disagree, Tend to Disagree, and Strongly Disagree, scored +1, +0.5, 0, −0.5, and −1, respectively. Agreement was defined as greater than or equal to 80% consensus. Scores are reported as mean ± SD. There was 100% agreement (score, 0.92 ± 0.19) for the following definition: “GLILD is a distinct clinico-radio-pathological ILD occurring in patients with [common variable immunodeficiency disorders], associated with a lymphocytic infiltrate and/or granuloma in the lung, and in whom other conditions have been considered and where possible excluded.” There was consensus that the workup of suspected GLILD requires chest computed tomography (CT) (0.98 ± 0.01), lung function tests (eg, gas transfer, 0.94 ± 0.17), bronchoscopy to exclude infection (0.63 ± 0.50), and lung biopsy (0.58 ± 0.40). There was no consensus on whether expectant management following optimization of immunoglobulin therapy was acceptable: 67% agreed, 25% disagreed, score 0.38 ± 0.59; 90% agreed that when treatment was required, first-line treatment should be with corticosteroids alone (score, 0.55 ± 0.51)

Sequences of purchases in credit card data reveal lifestyles in urban populations

This is the final version. Available from Nature Research via the DOI in this record.Zipf-like distributions characterize a wide set of phenomena in physics, biology, economics, and social sciences. In human activities, Zipf's law describes, for example, the frequency of appearance of words in a text or the purchase types in shopping patterns. In the latter, the uneven distribution of transaction types is bound with the temporal sequences of purchases of individual choices. In this work, we define a framework using a text compression technique on the sequences of credit card purchases to detect ubiquitous patterns of collective behavior. Clustering the consumers by their similarity in purchase sequences, we detect five consumer groups. Remarkably, post checking, individuals in each group are also similar in their age, total expenditure, gender, and the diversity of their social and mobility networks extracted from their mobile phone records. By properly deconstructing transaction data with Zipf-like distributions, this method uncovers sets of significant sequences that reveal insights on collective human behavior.Gates FoundationUnited Nations FoundationNewton International FellowshipThe Royal SocietyThe British AcademyAcademy of Medical Science

Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals

To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited degree of polygyny in the human societies that practice it, and to the importance of unequally held rival resources to women’s fitness. The muted reproductive inequality observed in humans appears to be linked to several unusual characteristics of our species—including high levels of cooperation among males, high dependence on unequally held rival resources, complementarities between maternal and paternal investment, as well as social and legal institutions that enforce monogamous norms

The food security continuum: a novel tool for understanding food insecurity as a range of experiences

The current lack of consensus on the relationships between hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity frustrates efforts to design good policies and programs to deal with the many problems. Disputes over terminology distract from the need for urgent action. This paper argues that our understanding of food insecurity is incremental: it develops as new research in a variety of food-deprived and nutrition-deprived contexts reveals causes, experiences and consequences and how they are interlinked. If we are to improve beneficiary selection, program targeting and intervention impact assessment, it is vital to coordinate our new understandings. The paper brings convergence to our understanding of food insecurity by introducing a new framework that visualizes levels of food insecurity, and the concomitant consequences and responses, as a continuum. Some potential benefits of using the continuum as a diagnostic tool are increased focus on less extreme but nevertheless urgent manifestations of food insecurity, more accurate targeting of interventions and better follow- up, and improved accountability for donor spending.http://link.springer.com/journal/12571hb201

Mycorrhizal Fungi Respond to Resource Inequalityby Moving Phosphorus from Rich to PoorPatches across Networks

The world’s ecosystems are characterized by an unequal distribution of resources [1 ]. Trade partnerships between organisms of different species—mutualisms—can help individuals cope with such resource inequality [2 , 3 , 4 ]. Trade allows individuals to exchange commodities they can provide at low cost for resources that are otherwise impossible or more difficult to access [5 , 6 ]. However, as resources become increasingly patchy in time or space, it is unknown how organisms alter their trading strategies [7 , 8 ]. Here, we show how a symbiotic fungus mediates trade with a host root in response to different levels of resource inequality across its network. We developed a quantum-dot-tracking technique to quantify phosphorus-trading strategies of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi simultaneously exposed to rich and poor resource patches. By following fluorescent nanoparticles of different colors across fungal networks, we determined where phosphorus was hoarded, relocated, and transferred to plant hosts. We found that increasing exposure to inequality stimulated trade. Fungi responded to high resource variation by (1) increasing the total amount of phosphorus distributed to host roots, (2) decreasing allocation to storage, and (3) differentially moving resources within the network from rich to poor patches. Using single-particle tracking and high-resolution video, we show how dynamic resource movement may help the fungus capitalize on value differences across the trade network, physically moving resources to areas of high demand to gain better returns. Such translocation strategies can help symbiotic organisms cope with exposure to resource inequality

Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals

To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited degree of polygyny in the human societies that practice it, and to the importance of unequally held rival resources to women’s fitness. The muted reproductive inequality observed in humans appears to be linked to several unusual characteristics of our species—including high levels of cooperation among males, high dependence on unequally held rival resources, complementarities between maternal and paternal investment, as well as social and legal institutions that enforce monogamous norms

Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals

To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited degree of polygyny in the human societies that practice it, and to the importance of unequally held rival resources to women's fitness. The muted reproductive inequality observed in humans appears to be linked to several unusual characteristics of our species-including high levels of cooperation among males, high dependence on unequally held rival resources, complementarities between maternal and paternal investment, as well as social and legal institutions that enforce monogamous norms

Resilience isn't the same for all: comparing subjective and objective approaches to resilience measurement

Robust resilience measurement can improve our understanding of how people and societies respond to climate risk. It also allows for the effectiveness of resilience‐building interventions to be tracked over time. To date, the majority of measurement tools use objective methods of evaluation. Broadly speaking, these relate to approaches that solicit little, if any, judgment on behalf of the subject in question. More recently, subjective methods of evaluation have been proposed. These take a contrasting epistemological view, relying on people's self‐assessments of their own capacity to deal with climate risk. Subjective methods offer some promise in complementing objective methods, including: factoring in people's own knowledge of resilience and what contributes to it; more nuanced contextualization; and the potential to reduce survey length and fatigue. Yet, considerable confusion exists in understanding subjectivity and objectivity. Little is also known about the merits and limitations of different approaches to measurement. Here, I clarify the conceptual and practical relationships between objective and subjective forms of measuring resilience, aiming to provide practical guidance in distinguishing between them. In reviewing existing toolkits, I propose a subjectivity–objectivity continuum that groups measurement approaches according to two core tenets: (a) how resilience is defined and (b) how resilience is evaluated. I then use the continuum to explore the strengths and weaknesses of different types of toolkits, allowing comparison across each. I also emphasize that there is no one‐size fits all approach to resilience measurement. As such, evaluators should carefully consider: their epistemology of resilience; core objectives for measurement; as well as resource and data constraints, before choosing which methods to adopt

Gender norms and social norms: differences, similarities and why they matter in prevention science.

Two streams of theory and practice on gender equity have begun to elide. The first is work conducted to change social norms, particularly using theory that emerged from studies in social psychology. The second is work done on gender norms, emerging historically from feminist scholars working to counter gender inequality. As these two streams of work intersect, conceptual clarity is needed to understand differences and similarities between these two traditions. Increased clarity will improve efforts to address harmful norms and practices. In this article, we review similarities and differences between social and gender norms, reviewing the history of the concepts and identifying key tension points of contrast. We identified six areas of comparison that might be helpful for practitioners working for the promotion of global health as they make sense of social and gender norms. We then offer a definition of gender norms for practitioners and researchers working at the intersection between these two theories. Our definition draws from the two different streams of thought of how norms influence people's actions, acknowledging the double nature of gender norms: beliefs nested in people's minds and embedded in institutions that profoundly affect health-related behaviours and shape differential access to health services