The need for the development of discipline-specific approaches to address academic bullying

Background It is now well-documented that academic bullying, mainly driven by power differences, affects all disci-plines and academic people with various positions (from students to senior faculty) of all levels of experience. Our aim is to probe whether academic bullying, in its specific forms, manifests differently across disciplines. Methods We analyzed discipline-specific data from our global survey on academic bullying, which was collected since November 2019. The survey was a cross-sectional global study that was administered via Qualtrics. It reflects responses from 2122 individuals whose participation was solicited through various means including advertisements in Science and Nature magazines and the American Chemical Society. Findings The main finding is that academic bullying does not affect all scientific fields equally. Our cross-sectional global survey of targets of academic bullying indicates that bullying behavior depended strongly on the scientific dis-cipline. Specifically, our comparison of the three major scientific categories, including Applied Sciences, Natural Sci-ences, and Social Sciences revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) in four (out of ten) of the contextual behaviors. Further comparison of the bullying behavior among specific disciplines (e.g., Chemistry, Engineering, Life Sciences, Neuroscience, and Social Sciences) revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) in five of the contextual behaviors. We also noticed that, among the top five disciplines analyzed, respondents in Engineering experienced the highest rate of bullying behaviors. Interpretation The variation in contextual bullying behavior across disciplines suggests the need for specific and nuanced training, monitoring, and actions by stakeholders in addressing academic bullying in a context-specific manner.Copyright (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd

The absence of legal remedies following academic bullying

Currently, victims of discrimination and sexual harassment have institutional reporting systems and legal remedies which support them in finding justice for these crimes. However, victims of academic bullying, who suffer similar repercussions, have no legal or institutional remedies. Because academic bullying is not a crime, targets often suffer in silence because there is no recourse. It is time for institutions to ask for governmental support to create legislation, similar to that for sexual harassment and discrimination, which will bring justice to academic bullies and relief to their victims. In the absence of legislation, institutions should create reporting procedures and educational programs which mirror those they have in place for sexual harassment and discrimination

The urgent need for modification of scientific ranking indexes to facilitate scientific progress and diminish academic bullying

Academic bullying occurs when senior scientists direct abusive behavior such as verbal insults, public shaming, isolation, and threatening toward vulnerable junior colleagues such as postdocs, graduate students and lab members. We believe that one root cause of bullying behavior is the pressure felt by scientists to compete for rankings designed to measure their scientific worth. These ratings, such as the h-index, have several unintended consequences, one of which we believe is academic bullying. Under pressure to achieve higher and higher rankings, in exchange for positive evaluations, grants and recognition, senior scientists exert undue pressure on their junior staff in the form of bullying. Lab members have little or no recourse due to the lack of fair institutional protocols for investigating bullying, dependence on grant or institutional funding, fear of losing time and empirical work by changing labs, and vulnerability to visa cancellation threats among international students. We call for institutions to reconsider their dependence on these over-simplified surrogates for real scientific progress and to provide fair and just protocols that will protect targets of academic bullying from emotional and financial distress

Comparison of BMI Derived from Parent-Reported Height and Weight with Measured Values: Results from the German KiGGS Study

The use of parent-reported height and weight is a cost-efficient instrument to assess the prevalence of children’s weight status in large-scale surveys. This study aimed to examine the accuracy of BMI derived from parent-reported height and weight and to identify potential predictors of the validity of BMI derived from parent-reported data. A subsample of children aged 2–17 years (n = 9,187) was taken from the 2003–2006 cross-sectional German KiGGS study. Parent-reported and measured height and weight were collected and BMI was calculated. Besides descriptive analysis, linear regression models with BMI difference and logistic regression models with weight status misclassification as dependent variables were calculated. Height differences varied by gender and were generally small. Weight and BMI were under-reported in all age groups, the under-reporting getting stronger with increasing age. Overall, the proportion for overweight and obesity based on parental and measured reports differed slightly. In the youngest age group, the proportion of overweight children was overestimated, while it was underestimated for older children and adolescents. Main predictors of the difference between parent reported and measured values were age, gender, weight status and parents’ perception of the child’s weight. In summary, the exclusive use of uncorrected parental reports for assessment of prevalence rates of weight status is not recommended

Evolutionary-thinking in agricultural weed management

Agricultural weeds evolve in response to crop cultivation. Nevertheless, the central importance of evolutionary ecology for understanding weed invasion, persistence and management in agroecosystems is not widely acknowledged. This paper calls for more evolutionarily-enlightened weed management, in which management principles are informed by evolutionary biology to prevent or minimize weed adaptation and spread. As a first step, a greater knowledge of the extent, structure and significance of genetic variation within and between weed populations is required to fully assess the potential for weed adaptation. The evolution of resistance to herbicides is a classic example of weed adaptation. Even here, most research focuses on describing the physiological and molecular basis of resistance, rather than conducting studies to better understand the evolutionary dynamics of selection for resistance. We suggest approaches to increase the application of evolutionary-thinking to herbicide resistance research. Weed population dynamics models are increasingly important tools in weed management, yet these models often ignore intrapopulation and interpopulation variability, neglecting the potential for weed adaptation in response to management. Future agricultural weed management can benefit from greater integration of ecological and evolutionary principles to predict the long-term responses of weed populations to changing weed management, agricultural environments and global climate

Spontaneous development of Epstein-Barr Virus associated human lymphomas in a prostate cancer xenograft program

Prostate cancer research is hampered by the lack of in vivo preclinical models that accurately reflect patient tumour biology and the clinical heterogeneity of human prostate cancer. To overcome these limitations we propagated and characterised a new collection of patient-derived prostate cancer xenografts. Tumour fragments from 147 unsupervised, surgical prostate samples were implanted subcutaneously into immunodeficient Rag2-/-γC-/- mice within 24 hours of surgery. Histologic and molecular characterisation of xenografts was compared with patient characteristics, including androgen-deprivation therapy, and exome sequencing. Xenografts were established from 47 of 147 (32%) implanted primary prostate cancers. Only 14% passaged successfully resulting in 20 stable lines; derived from 20 independent patient samples. Surprisingly, only three of the 20 lines (15%) were confirmed as prostate cancer; one line comprised of mouse stroma, and 16 were verified as human donor-derived lymphoid neoplasms. PCR for Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) nuclear antigen, together with exome sequencing revealed that the lymphomas were exclusively EBV-associated. Genomic analysis determined that 14 of the 16 EBV+ lines had unique monoclonal or oligoclonal immunoglobulin heavy chain gene rearrangements, confirming their B-cell origin. We conclude that the generation of xenografts from tumour fragments can commonly result in B-cell lymphoma from patients carrying latent EBV. We recommend routine screening, of primary outgrowths, for latent EBV to avoid this phenomenon

Evolution of plant–pollinator mutualisms in response to climate change

Climate change has the potential to desynchronize the phenologies of interdependent species, with potentially catastrophic effects on mutualist populations. Phenologies can evolve, but the role of evolution in the response of mutualisms to climate change is poorly understood. We developed a model that explicitly considers both the evolution and the population dynamics of a plant–pollinator mutualism under climate change. How the populations evolve, and thus whether the populations and the mutualism persist, depends not only on the rate of climate change but also on the densities and phenologies of other species in the community. Abundant alternative mutualist partners with broad temporal distributions can make a mutualism more robust to climate change, while abundant alternative partners with narrow temporal distributions can make a mutualism less robust. How community composition and the rate of climate change affect the persistence of mutualisms is mediated by two-species Allee thresholds. Understanding these thresholds will help researchers to identify those mutualisms at highest risk owing to climate change

A Whole-Genome SNP Association Study of NCI60 Cell Line Panel Indicates a Role of Ca2+ Signaling in Selenium Resistance

Epidemiological studies have suggested an association between selenium intake and protection from a variety of cancer. Considering this clinical importance of selenium, we aimed to identify the genes associated with resistance to selenium treatment. We have applied a previous methodology developed by our group, which is based on the genetic and pharmacological data publicly available for the NCI60 cancer cell line panel. In short, we have categorized the NCI60 cell lines as selenium resistant and sensitive based on their growth inhibition (GI50) data. Then, we have utilized the Affymetrix 125K SNP chip data available and carried out a genome-wide case-control association study for the selenium sensitive and resistant NCI60 cell lines. Our results showed statistically significant association of four SNPs in 5q33–34, 10q11.2, 10q22.3 and 14q13.1 with selenium resistance. These SNPs were located in introns of the genes encoding for a kinase-scaffolding protein (AKAP6), a membrane protein (SGCD), a channel protein (KCNMA1), and a protein kinase (PRKG1). The knock-down of KCNMA1 by siRNA showed increased sensitivity to selenium in both LNCaP and PC3 cell lines. Furthermore, SNP-SNP interaction (epistasis) analysis indicated the interactions of the SNPs in AKAP6 with SGCD as well as SNPs in AKAP6 with KCNMA1 with each other, assuming additive genetic model. These genes were also all involved in the Ca2+ signaling, which has a direct role in induction of apoptosis and induction of apoptosis in tumor cells is consistent with the chemopreventive action of selenium. Once our findings are further validated, this knowledge can be translated into clinics where individuals who can benefit from the chemopreventive characteristics of the selenium supplementation will be easily identified using a simple DNA analysis

Chirality transfer in metal-­‐catalysed intermolecular addition reactions involving allenes

Allene chemistry in the presence of transition metal complexes is nowadays a very important topic that underpins many challenges and advances in organic synthesis. The amount of research articles covering new transformations of allenes is vast and the development of enantioselective reactions involving allenes has flourished in the last 10-15 years. In this review we cover three important topics in allene chemistry that we feel are timely appropriate for this special issue celebrating the work of Prof Trost: the metal-catalysed reactions involving chirality transfer from chiral allenes to products; the analysis of the possible racemization processes that have been observed in the interaction of some metals with allenes; and the chirality transfer using racemic allenes in reactions catalysed by metal complexes bearing chiral ligands to produce enantioriched products. We have focussed the review on intermolecular addition reactions as they are still much less explored than the intramolecular version