Bachia heteropa

Number of Pages: 10Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Talking about Race in Puerto Rico: Four Descendants of the Transatlantic African Diaspora Share their Experiences

Puerto Ricans are racially characterized by a mix of three races (Spaniard, Taíno, and African). In fact, this statement dominates any other version of the Puerto Rican racial identity, which has limited the discussions about racial issues such as blanqueamiento and racism. In an effort to better understand racial dynamics and the Puerto Rican’s perception of race, four descendants of the African Diaspora engaged in a self-reflective process using a roundtable approach to analyze their experiences in Puerto Rico. The roundtable approach is based in an ethnographic method of the qualitative approach. Each individual journaled each moment from their own perspective, then as a group they came together to discuss the themes, experiences, and impressions of the journey. They did this by attending the Latin American Studies Association Conference that was held in San Juan in 2015.  While visiting the conference, the attending researchers made efforts to learn as much as they could through experiences such as visiting historical sites and engaging with residents. The investigators discussed the themes they observed in Puerto Rico that related to the overarching question, “What does Blackness mean in Puerto Rico?” and the impact of this meaning on the well-being of Black Puerto-Ricans.  These roundtable discussions took place over a year with multiple 2-3 hour meetings. In discussing the themes, the researchers created a space where each author had an equal voice and expertise. This roundtable process not only expanded the authors’ understanding of how Blackness is understood in the diaspora, but also their very own personal understanding of Blackness. The findings from each author were compared to develop a broader and deeper understanding of how each viewed the research questions.  If the themes from the different authors arrived at the same resolution, then their confidence in the themes was strengthened. This process resulted in the team identifying four major themes; the romanticization of belonging to the three races, psychological sense of belonging and resiliencies, tension points in Loíza: resiliency, resistance and social exclusion and the rehabilitation of each individual’s cultural identity as descendants of the Transatlantic African Diaspora. Each individual reproduced their own experiences in this process into these four themes. In regards to the romanticization of belonging to the three races, one member wrote   On my way home I couldn’t believe the day we had. I saw discrimination and racism with my own eyes.  I saw it here in a place I always believed was filled with no racism. In a place, I consider was innocent to color differences and that respected and valued the power of differences. I discover that as Puerto-Ricans we are so used to the fantasy of diversity that we do not see that, for some, diversity is unrealistic; especially when you can’t even acknowledge the basic rights of others.   Using their individual reflections as data, the four researchers were able to identify the resiliency factors that have helped to strengthen their and others’ racial identity. In this process, the researchers were able to have a deeper understanding of their African ancestry and develop a more inclusive Puerto Rican identity.  This process included the researchers examining ways that anti-blackness and colorism are displayed in the Puerto Rican culture, and also detecting areas of racial justice and resiliency throughout their community. The ultimate goal is to determine how transgenerational transmission of resiliency could better inform interventions and strategies targeting racial adversities for all descendants of the Transatlantic African Diaspora while considering its impact on cultural identity development and formation. Collectively, as a result of this project, there is a higher sense of connectedness to African roots.  In team discussions, it was found that a limitation of this paper is not having a person who identifies as Black Puerto-Rican as an author and how this would have added greatly to the roundtable discussions and findings. The authors recognize that there may be tension points that exist for Puerto-Ricans to fully accept their African heritage. The objective of this paper is to start a dialogue to open up spaces and opportunities to engage in this difficult conversation. It is the authors’ hope that this paper can spark conversations and strategies to address the historical and contemporary impact of how Blackness is socially constructed in Puerto Rican Society.  Finally, it is with hopes that this can connect the experiences of Black Puerto Ricans’ historical/contemporary resiliencies to the larger knowledge base of strategies that can help address racial adversities of all people from the Transatlantic African Diaspora

Talking about Race in Puerto Rico: Four Descendants of the Transatlantic African Diaspora Share their Experiences

Puerto Ricans are racially characterized by a mix of three races (Spaniard, Taíno, and African). In fact, this statement dominates any other version of the Puerto Rican racial identity, which has limited the discussions about racial issues such as blanqueamiento and racism. In an effort to better understand racial dynamics and the Puerto Rican’s perception of race, four descendants of the African Diaspora engaged in a self-reflective process using a roundtable approach to analyze their experiences in Puerto Rico. The roundtable approach is based in an ethnographic method of the qualitative approach. Each individual journaled each moment from their own perspective, then as a group they came together to discuss the themes, experiences, and impressions of the journey. They did this by attending the Latin American Studies Association Conference that was held in San Juan in 2015.  While visiting the conference, the attending researchers made efforts to learn as much as they could through experiences such as visiting historical sites and engaging with residents. The investigators discussed the themes they observed in Puerto Rico that related to the overarching question, “What does Blackness mean in Puerto Rico?” and the impact of this meaning on the well-being of Black Puerto-Ricans.  These roundtable discussions took place over a year with multiple 2-3 hour meetings. In discussing the themes, the researchers created a space where each author had an equal voice and expertise. This roundtable process not only expanded the authors’ understanding of how Blackness is understood in the diaspora, but also their very own personal understanding of Blackness. The findings from each author were compared to develop a broader and deeper understanding of how each viewed the research questions.  If the themes from the different authors arrived at the same resolution, then their confidence in the themes was strengthened. This process resulted in the team identifying four major themes; the romanticization of belonging to the three races, psychological sense of belonging and resiliencies, tension points in Loíza: resiliency, resistance and social exclusion and the rehabilitation of each individual’s cultural identity as descendants of the Transatlantic African Diaspora. Each individual reproduced their own experiences in this process into these four themes. In regards to the romanticization of belonging to the three races, one member wrote   On my way home I couldn’t believe the day we had. I saw discrimination and racism with my own eyes.  I saw it here in a place I always believed was filled with no racism. In a place, I consider was innocent to color differences and that respected and valued the power of differences. I discover that as Puerto-Ricans we are so used to the fantasy of diversity that we do not see that, for some, diversity is unrealistic; especially when you can’t even acknowledge the basic rights of others.   Using their individual reflections as data, the four researchers were able to identify the resiliency factors that have helped to strengthen their and others’ racial identity. In this process, the researchers were able to have a deeper understanding of their African ancestry and develop a more inclusive Puerto Rican identity.  This process included the researchers examining ways that anti-blackness and colorism are displayed in the Puerto Rican culture, and also detecting areas of racial justice and resiliency throughout their community. The ultimate goal is to determine how transgenerational transmission of resiliency could better inform interventions and strategies targeting racial adversities for all descendants of the Transatlantic African Diaspora while considering its impact on cultural identity development and formation. Collectively, as a result of this project, there is a higher sense of connectedness to African roots.  In team discussions, it was found that a limitation of this paper is not having a person who identifies as Black Puerto-Rican as an author and how this would have added greatly to the roundtable discussions and findings. The authors recognize that there may be tension points that exist for Puerto-Ricans to fully accept their African heritage. The objective of this paper is to start a dialogue to open up spaces and opportunities to engage in this difficult conversation. It is the authors’ hope that this paper can spark conversations and strategies to address the historical and contemporary impact of how Blackness is socially constructed in Puerto Rican Society.  Finally, it is with hopes that this can connect the experiences of Black Puerto Ricans’ historical/contemporary resiliencies to the larger knowledge base of strategies that can help address racial adversities of all people from the Transatlantic African Diaspora

Children’s and adolescents’ rising animal-source food intakes in 1990–2018 were impacted by age, region, parental education and urbanicity

Animal-source foods (ASF) provide nutrition for children and adolescents’ physical and cognitive development. Here, we use data from the Global Dietary Database and Bayesian hierarchical models to quantify global, regional and national ASF intakes between 1990 and 2018 by age group across 185 countries, representing 93% of the world’s child population. Mean ASF intake was 1.9 servings per day, representing 16% of children consuming at least three daily servings. Intake was similar between boys and girls, but higher among urban children with educated parents. Consumption varied by age from 0.6 at <1 year to 2.5 servings per day at 15–19 years. Between 1990 and 2018, mean ASF intake increased by 0.5 servings per week, with increases in all regions except sub-Saharan Africa. In 2018, total ASF consumption was highest in Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey, and lowest in Uganda, India, Kenya and Bangladesh. These findings can inform policy to address malnutrition through targeted ASF consumption programmes.publishedVersio

Incident type 2 diabetes attributable to suboptimal diet in 184 countries

The global burden of diet-attributable type 2 diabetes (T2D) is not well established. This risk assessment model estimated T2D incidence among adults attributable to direct and body weight-mediated effects of 11 dietary factors in 184 countries in 1990 and 2018. In 2018, suboptimal intake of these dietary factors was estimated to be attributable to 14.1 million (95% uncertainty interval (UI), 13.8–14.4 million) incident T2D cases, representing 70.3% (68.8–71.8%) of new cases globally. Largest T2D burdens were attributable to insufficient whole-grain intake (26.1% (25.0–27.1%)), excess refined rice and wheat intake (24.6% (22.3–27.2%)) and excess processed meat intake (20.3% (18.3–23.5%)). Across regions, highest proportional burdens were in central and eastern Europe and central Asia (85.6% (83.4–87.7%)) and Latin America and the Caribbean (81.8% (80.1–83.4%)); and lowest proportional burdens were in South Asia (55.4% (52.1–60.7%)). Proportions of diet-attributable T2D were generally larger in men than in women and were inversely correlated with age. Diet-attributable T2D was generally larger among urban versus rural residents and higher versus lower educated individuals, except in high-income countries, central and eastern Europe and central Asia, where burdens were larger in rural residents and in lower educated individuals. Compared with 1990, global diet-attributable T2D increased by 2.6 absolute percentage points (8.6 million more cases) in 2018, with variation in these trends by world region and dietary factor. These findings inform nutritional priorities and clinical and public health planning to improve dietary quality and reduce T2D globally.publishedVersio

The Seventeenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: Complete Release of MaNGA, MaStar and APOGEE-2 Data

This paper documents the seventeenth data release (DR17) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys; the fifth and final release from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). DR17 contains the complete release of the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, which reached its goal of surveying over 10,000 nearby galaxies. The complete release of the MaNGA Stellar Library (MaStar) accompanies this data, providing observations of almost 30,000 stars through the MaNGA instrument during bright time. DR17 also contains the complete release of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2) survey which publicly releases infra-red spectra of over 650,000 stars. The main sample from the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), as well as the sub-survey Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) data were fully released in DR16. New single-fiber optical spectroscopy released in DR17 is from the SPectroscipic IDentification of ERosita Survey (SPIDERS) sub-survey and the eBOSS-RM program. Along with the primary data sets, DR17 includes 25 new or updated Value Added Catalogs (VACs). This paper concludes the release of SDSS-IV survey data. SDSS continues into its fifth phase with observations already underway for the Milky Way Mapper (MWM), Local Volume Mapper (LVM) and Black Hole Mapper (BHM) surveys

Mapping genomic loci implicates genes and synaptic biology in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia has a heritability of 60-80%1, much of which is attributable to common risk alleles. Here, in a two-stage genome-wide association study of up to 76,755 individuals with schizophrenia and 243,649 control individuals, we report common variant associations at 287 distinct genomic loci. Associations were concentrated in genes that are expressed in excitatory and inhibitory neurons of the central nervous system, but not in other tissues or cell types. Using fine-mapping and functional genomic data, we identify 120 genes (106 protein-coding) that are likely to underpin associations at some of these loci, including 16 genes with credible causal non-synonymous or untranslated region variation. We also implicate fundamental processes related to neuronal function, including synaptic organization, differentiation and transmission. Fine-mapped candidates were enriched for genes associated with rare disruptive coding variants in people with schizophrenia, including the glutamate receptor subunit GRIN2A and transcription factor SP4, and were also enriched for genes implicated by such variants in neurodevelopmental disorders. We identify biological processes relevant to schizophrenia pathophysiology; show convergence of common and rare variant associations in schizophrenia and neurodevelopmental disorders; and provide a resource of prioritized genes and variants to advance mechanistic studies

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection