Neuroinflammation, Mast Cells, and Glia: Dangerous Liaisons

The perspective of neuroinflammation as an epiphenomenon following neuron damage is being replaced by the awareness of glia and their importance in neural functions and disorders. Systemic inflammation generates signals that communicate with the brain and leads to changes in metabolism and behavior, with microglia assuming a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Identification of potential peripheral-to-central cellular links is thus a critical step in designing effective therapeutics. Mast cells may fulfill such a role. These resident immune cells are found close to and within peripheral nerves and in brain parenchyma/meninges, where they exercise a key role in orchestrating the inflammatory process from initiation through chronic activation. Mast cells and glia engage in crosstalk that contributes to accelerate disease progression; such interactions become exaggerated with aging and increased cell sensitivity to stress. Emerging evidence for oligodendrocytes, independent of myelin and support of axonal integrity, points to their having strong immune functions, innate immune receptor expression, and production/response to chemokines and cytokines that modulate immune responses in the central nervous system while engaging in crosstalk with microglia and astrocytes. In this review, we summarize the findings related to our understanding of the biology and cellular signaling mechanisms of neuroinflammation, with emphasis on mast cell-glia interactions

The Diversity of Religious Diversity. Using Census and NCS Methodology in Order to Map and Assess the Religious Diversity of a Whole Country

Religious diversity is often captured in “mapping studies” that use mostly qualitative methods in order to map and assess the religious communities in a given area. While these studies are useful, they often present weaknesses in that they treat only limited geographic regions, provide limited possibilities for comparing across religious groups and cannot test theories. In this article, we show how a census and a quantitative national congregations study (NCS) methodology can be combined in order to map and assess the religious diversity of a whole country (Switzerland), overcoming the problems mentioned above. We outline the methodological steps and selected results concerning organizational, geographic, structural, and cultural diversity

Analyzing Stakeholder Water Source Preference Based upon Social Capital: a Case Study of the Fajr Jam Gas Refinery in Iran

Gas refineries are among the most water-intensive industries in the world. The Fajr Jam gas refinery is one such example, located in the southern Iran. The indiscriminate use of aquifer resources for this highly profitable industry creates tragedy of the commons effects, causing significant environmental controversy and threatening the long-term water security of the region. It behooves decision makers, therefore, to examine a broad range of adaptive water management strategies for this industry. The implementation of such strategies requires understanding the preferences and potential conflicts that may emerge among competing stakeholder interests. This quantitative social scientific study examines stakeholder preferences among water management options through the lens of social capital. Elite stakeholder representatives (including agricultural organizations, governmental organizations, the Water, and Power Authority, Department of Health, Bureau of Water and Wastewater) were canvassed through a survey instrument using paired comparisons. Data were analyzed using Expert Choice software and an analytic hierarchy process technique. The results show that accountability is the main criterion for selecting the best water sources and ranked first with the Eigenvector 0.62. Also, the results show that the least important criterion was social cohesion with the Eigenvalue 0.033. The criteria of partnership and trust ranked as two and three with Eigenvalues 0.215 and 0.133, respectively. The results indicate that the construction of salt water transmission from the sea (A = 0.240) is the preferred option among other alternatives, and this is confirmed by sensitivity analysis

The model minority stereotype and the national identity question: the challenges facing Asian immigrants and their children*

A central issue in contemporary debates over immigration concerns how immigrants from diverse origins become integrated into their host nation. The children of Asian immigrants in the United States often give the impression of fitting neatly into American society and therefore into the American nation as a model minority. We argue, however, that such perception is a misleading overgeneralization and can bring about simplistic interpretations. The apparently successful integration of Asian Americans is not due to intrinsic cultural characteristics, but to the positive modes of incorporation juxtaposing unique patterns of selective acculturation. Moreover, the model minority image renders the continued distinctiveness and diversity of the Asian American population invisible and often has unanticipated consequences for individual group members. The seemingly positive outcomes result in new stereotypes, which serve as mechanisms of social exclusion for even the highly integrated immigrant groups and create new complications for understanding the national identity question

Adolescents’ Educational Outcomes: Racial and Ethnic Variations in Peer Network Importance

Little attention has been paid to the role of peer social capital in the school context, especially as a predictor of adolescents’ academic outcomes. This study uses a nationally representative (N = 13,738, female = 51%), longitudinal sample and multilevel models to examine how peer networks impact educational achievement and attainment. Results reveal that, in addition to those factors typically associated with academic outcomes (e.g., school composition), two individual-level peer network measures, SES and heterogeneity, had significant effects. Although educational attainment was generally worse in low SES schools, for all ethnic groups higher attainment was associated with attending schools with higher concentrations of minority students. At the individual level, however, membership in integrated peer networks was negatively related to high school graduation for Asians, Latinos, and non-Hispanic whites, and to GPA for Asians and Latinos, as only African-American achievement increased in more racially/ethnically heterogeneous peer networks. Our results suggest that co-ethnic and co-racial peer friendship networks should not be viewed as obstacles to the educational accomplishments of today’s youth. In fact, in many cases the opposite was true, as results generally support the ethnic social capital hypothesis while providing little corroboration for oppositional culture theory. Results also suggest that co-racial and co-ethnic ties may mediate the negative effects of school choice, or more specifically of between-school socioeconomic segregation. Consequently, we conclude that school policies aimed at socioeconomic desegregation are likely to beneficially affect the academic outcomes of all race/ethnic groups

Understanding the Role of Social Factors in Farmworker Housing and Health

Differences in social advantage significantly influence health conditions and life expectancy within any population. Such factors reproduce historic class, race, and ethnic disparities in community success. Few populations in the United States face more social and economic disadvantage than farmworkers, and farmworker housing has significant potential to ameliorate or amplify the health impact of those disadvantages. Drawing on the limited direct research on farmworkers, and on additional research about poor, isolated, and immigrant societies, we propose four mechanisms through which housing can be expected to affect farmworker health: quality of social capital within farmworker communities, stress effects of poor housing situations, effects of housing on social support for healthy behaviors, and interactions among these factors, especially effects on children that can last for generations. Policy and planning definitions of adequate farmworker housing should take a more holistic view of housing needs to support specific social and community benefits in design decisions. The Author(s) 2015