Racial and Ethnic Differences in Tipping: The Role of Perceived Descriptive and Injunctive Tipping Norms

In U.S. restaurants, racial and ethnic minorities often tip less than whites. These differences in tipping create numerous problems ranging from discriminatory service to restaurant executives’ reluctance to open restaurants in minority communities. Thus, racial differences in tipping need to be sizably reduced, which requires an understanding of their underlying causes. In this paper, we ask a racially and ethnically diverse sample of respondents in an online survey about how much they would tip in a hypothetical dining scenario, how much their best friend would tip, and how much the average person in their area would tip, as well as what the smallest tip a server in their area would consider satisfactory. Analyses of these data indicate that perceived injunctive and descriptive tipping norms independently mediate racial and ethnic differences in tipping. This finding suggests that racial differences in tipping can be reduced with marketing campaigns that promote the dominant 15 to 20 percent injunctive tipping norm and that inform consumers about widespread compliance with that norm

Consumer Racial Profiling in U.S. Restaurants: Exploring Subtle Forms of Service Discrimination against Black Diners

In this paper we advance scholarship on consumer racial profiling (CRP), in general, and the practice as it occurs in restaurant establishments, in particular, by presenting findings from a survey of restaurant consumers that was designed to ascertain the degree to which discriminate service is evident in Black and White customers’ perceptions and evaluations of their servers’ behaviors. We found no evidence of interracial differences in subjects’ perceptions of being the recipients of subtle server behaviors that are discretionally conveyed (e.g., recommend entrée, compliment food choice, joke with, etc.) or those that constitute standard markers of service quality (e.g., eye contact, smiling, expressing appreciation, etc.). We did, however, find some evidence of CRP in customers’ perceptions of their servers’ attentiveness/promptness. Additionally, we found that African Americans’ tend to subjectively appraise their servers’ performance less favorably than their White counterparts and this is the case even when other indicators of service quality are held constant. Findings taken as a whole suggest that servers’ extend similar cues of hospitality but do so in qualitatively different ways (e.g., less sincere) across racial groups. We discuss the implications of these findings and conclude by encouraging additional scholarship on the subtle nature of racial discriminatio

Transcriptome profiling of spinal muscular atrophy motor neurons derived from mouse embryonic stem cells.

Proximal spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an early onset, autosomal recessive motor neuron disease caused by loss of or mutation in SMN1 (survival motor neuron 1). Despite understanding the genetic basis underlying this disease, it is still not known why motor neurons (MNs) are selectively affected by the loss of the ubiquitously expressed SMN protein. Using a mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC) model for severe SMA, the RNA transcript profiles (transcriptomes) between control and severe SMA (SMN2+/+;mSmn-/-) mESC-derived MNs were compared in this study using massively parallel RNA sequencing (RNA-Seq). The MN differentiation efficiencies between control and severe SMA mESCs were similar. RNA-Seq analysis identified 3,094 upregulated and 6,964 downregulated transcripts in SMA mESC-derived MNs when compared against control cells. Pathway and network analysis of the differentially expressed RNA transcripts showed that pluripotency and cell proliferation transcripts were significantly increased in SMA MNs while transcripts related to neuronal development and activity were reduced. The differential expression of selected transcripts such as Crabp1, Crabp2 and Nkx2.2 was validated in a second mESC model for SMA as well as in the spinal cords of low copy SMN2 severe SMA mice. Furthermore, the levels of these selected transcripts were restored in high copy SMN2 rescue mouse spinal cords when compared against low copy SMN2 severe SMA mice. These findings suggest that SMN deficiency affects processes critical for normal development and maintenance of MNs

Effectiveness and reach of a directed-population approach to improving dental health and reducing inequalities: a cross sectional study

Background Childsmile School adopts a directed-population approach to target fluoride varnish applications to 20% of the primary one (P1) population in priority schools selected on the basis of the proportion of enrolled children considered to be at increased-risk of developing dental caries. The study sought to compare the effectiveness of four different methods for identifying individuals most in need when a directed-population approach is taken. <p></p> Methods The 2008 Basic National Dental Inspection Programme (BNDIP) cross-sectional P1 Scottish epidemiological survey dataset was used to model four methods and test three definitions of increased-risk. Effectiveness was determined by the positive predictive value (PPV) and explored in relation to 1-sensitivity and 1-specificity. <p></p> Results Complete data was available on 43470 children (87% of the survey). At the Scotland level, at least half (50%) of the children targeted were at increased-risk irrespective of the method used to target or the definition of increased-risk. There was no one method across all definitions of <i>increased-risk</i> that maximised PPV. Instead, PPV was highest when the targeting method complimented the definition of <i>increased-risk</i>. There was a higher percentage of children at <i>increased-risk</i> who were not targeted (1-sensitivity) when caries experience (rather than deprivation) was used to define <i>increased-risk</i>, irrespective of the method used for targeting. Over all three definitions of <i>increased-risk</i>, there was no one method that minimised (1-sensitivity) although this was lowest when the method and definition of <i>increased-risk</i> were complimentary. The false positive rate (1-specificity) for all methods and all definitions of <i>increased-risk</i> was consistently low (<20%), again being lowest when the method and definition of <i>increased-risk</i> were complimentary. <p></p> Conclusion Developing a method to reach all (or even the vast majority) of individuals at <i>increased-risk</i> defined by either caries experience or deprivation is difficult using a directed-population approach at a group level. There is a need for a wider debate between politicians and public health experts to decide how best to reach those most at need of intervention to improve health and reduce inequalities. <p></p&gt

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Cloning and characterization of genes required for osmoregulation in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Salt stress induces multiple physiological responses in unicellular organisms. Responses include both immediate effects upon membrane permeability to select cytoplasmic solutes and changes in gene expression. This study has sought to isolate genes required for osmoregulation in the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Eighteen mutants, with an inability to grow under osmotically stressed conditions (\rm Osm\sp{s}), and deficient in salt induced glycerol accumulation were isolated. Each of the mutants fell into one of four complementation groups hog1 through hog4 (High Osmolarity Glycerol response). Three genes, HOG1, HOG2, and HOG4, that rescued growth of representative mutants under osmotically stressed conditions were cloned and disruption alleles generated. Disruption mutants of each gene displayed \rm Osm\sp{S} growth and depressed glycerol accumulation following salt stress. Sequence analysis of HOG1 revealed striking sequence homology with mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinases, including 50% identity with FUS3, a MAP kinase in the yeast mating response pathway. Immunoblots of normal and osmotically stressed cells detected an inducible tyrosine phosphorylation of HOG1, an event shown to activate homologous kinases. Site-directed mutagenesis of HOG1 on residues required for activation in related MAP kinases resulted in a loss of complementing activity on high salt plates and a lack of tyrosine phosphorylation of Hog1p when \rm Tyr\sp{176} was mutated to Phe. HOG4 was identified to be a previously sequenced gene, PBS2, with strong sequence homology to MAPK kinases, kinases upstream of MAP kinases and thought to be responsible for the activating phosphorylation events. Hog1p was not tyrosine phosphorylated in a pbs2 mutant consistent with PBS2 being the kinase responsible for Hog1p phosphorylation. Osmotic stress was shown to result in aberrant terminal morphology (elongate, multi-budded, multi-nucleate cells) in both hog1 and pbs2 null mutants. Further characterization of the mutants using time lapse microscopy revealed that salt stress induces bud abandonment and aberrant bud site selection. HOG1 and PBS2 therefore are two genes involved in carrying an osmostress induced signal to stimulate adaptive cellular responses and are required for normal bud site selection following salt stress