Issue definition and conflict expansion: the role of risk to human health as an issue definition strategy in an environmental conflict

Conflicts about environmental policies are often focused on the risk to human health posed by a facility or technology. Genetically modified food, oil pipelines, and pesticides are examples of policy issues that have generated tremendous debate related to human health and safety. A key focus of scholarship on such contested policy debates places an emphasis on how these policies are framed, how framing alters the policy process and in turn alters policy outcomes. This research project asks how and why the framing of a policy as a threat to human health influences the policy process and policy outcomes? To answer this question, two case studies of environmental conflicts related to controversial facilities are examined and compared: a waste landfill conflict and a large wind energy conflict. This dissertation seeks to integrate an understanding of the role of risk into theories of public policy by building on the approach to analyzing policy conflicts developed by Sarah Pralle. By using a mix of qualitative, quantitative and process tracing methods in these two cases, this research seeks to understand the role of risk frames in conflict expansion strategies and how such frames are used to include new actors and institutions and thereby alter policy outcomes. The key finding in this study reveals the relationship between the framing of a policy as a threat to human health, the institutional venues in which that policy is contested, and the incentives for strategic venue-shopping these produce. When policy actors are able to successfully frame a facility as a threat to human health, they are able to shift the conflict over that facility to an institutional venue that does not privilege expert understandings of risk. This venue shift opens the opportunity to defeat the facility in a venue more open to non-expert understandings of risk. This finding is not only theoretically important but should serve as warning that institutional venues such as environmental assessment processes that restrict the consideration of risk to expert based assessments will only incentivize opponents to seek out new venues in which to pursue their goals.

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Windmills and Landfills: Framing Controversial Environmental Policies as a Risk to Human Health and Conflict Expansion Strategies

10.32920/14655051.v1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adam Thom

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

Policy Process ◽

Health And Safety ◽

Environmental Policies ◽

Policy Outcomes ◽

Genetically Modified Food ◽

Venue Shopping ◽

Conflict Expansion ◽

Expansion Strategies

Conflicts about environmental policies are often focused on the risk to human health posed by a facility or technology. Genetically modified food, oil pipelines, and pesticides are examples of policy issues that have generated tremendous debate related to human health and safety. A key focus of scholarship on such contested policy debates places an emphasis on how these policies are framed, how framing alters the policy process and in turn alters policy outcomes. This research project asks how and why the framing of a policy as a threat to human health influences the policy process and policy outcomes? To answer this question, two case studies of environmental conflicts related to controversial facilities are examined and compared: a waste landfill conflict and a large wind energy conflict. This dissertation seeks to integrate an understanding of the role of risk into theories of public policy by building on the approach to analyzing policy conflicts developed by Sarah Pralle. By using a mix of qualitative, quantitative and process tracing methods in these two cases, this research seeks to understand the role of risk frames in conflict expansion strategies and how such frames are used to include new actors and institutions and thereby alter policy outcomes. The key finding in this study reveals the relationship between the framing of a policy as a threat to human health, the institutional venues in which that policy is contested, and the incentives for strategic venue-shopping these produce. When policy actors are able to successfully frame a facility as a threat to human health, they are able to shift the conflict over that facility to an institutional venue that does not privilege expert understandings of risk. This venue shift opens the opportunity to defeat the facility in a venue more open to non-expert understandings of risk. This finding is not only theoretically important but should serve as warning that institutional venues such as environmental assessment processes that restrict the consideration of risk to expert based assessments will only incentivize opponents to seek out new venues in which to pursue their goals.

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Role of Nutraceuticals in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention: A Review in the Indian Context

Current Topics in Nutraceutical Research ◽

10.37290/ctnr2641-452x.19:139-145 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 139-145

Author(s):

Sheena Chhabra ◽

Apurva Bakshi ◽

Ravineet Kaur

Keyword(s):

Health Promotion ◽

Disease Prevention ◽

Human Health ◽

Health Issues ◽

Scholarly Literature ◽

Indian Context ◽

The Impact ◽

Immense Potential ◽

Specific Health

Nutraceuticals have been around for quite some time. As the nomenclature suggests, they are placed somewhere between food (nutra-) and medicine (-ceuticals) in terms of their impact on human health. Researches have focused on the impact of various types of nutraceuticals on health, their efficacy in health promotion and disease prevention, and often on suitable uses of certain categories of nutraceuticals for specific health issues. However, we are still far from utilizing the immense potential of nutraceuticals for benefiting human health in a substantial manner. We review the available scholarly literature regarding the role of nutraceuticals in health promotion, their efficacy in disease prevention and the perception of nutraceuticals' health benefits by consumers. Thereafter we analyze the need for regulation of nutraceuticals and various provisions regarding the same.

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Guild-based analysis for understanding gut microbiome in human health and diseases

Genome Medicine ◽

10.1186/s13073-021-00840-y ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Guojun Wu ◽

Naisi Zhao ◽

Chenhong Zhang ◽

Yan Y. Lam ◽

Liping Zhao

Keyword(s):

Gut Microbiota ◽

Human Health ◽

Gut Microbiome ◽

Association Studies ◽

Causative Role ◽

Disease Phenotypes ◽

Genetic Complexity ◽

Causative Agents ◽

Specific Health

AbstractTo demonstrate the causative role of gut microbiome in human health and diseases, we first need to identify, via next-generation sequencing, potentially important functional members associated with specific health outcomes and disease phenotypes. However, due to the strain-level genetic complexity of the gut microbiota, microbiome datasets are highly dimensional and highly sparse in nature, making it challenging to identify putative causative agents of a particular disease phenotype. Members of an ecosystem seldomly live independently from each other. Instead, they develop local interactions and form inter-member organizations to influence the ecosystem’s higher-level patterns and functions. In the ecological study of macro-organisms, members are defined as belonging to the same “guild” if they exploit the same class of resources in a similar way or work together as a coherent functional group. Translating the concept of “guild” to the study of gut microbiota, we redefine guild as a group of bacteria that show consistent co-abundant behavior and likely to work together to contribute to the same ecological function. In this opinion article, we discuss how to use guilds as the aggregation unit to reduce dimensionality and sparsity in microbiome-wide association studies for identifying candidate gut bacteria that may causatively contribute to human health and diseases.

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Liquid–liquid phase separation in human health and diseases

Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy ◽

10.1038/s41392-021-00678-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Bin Wang ◽

Lei Zhang ◽

Tong Dai ◽

Ziran Qin ◽

Huasong Lu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Phase Separation ◽

Liquid Phase ◽

Human Health ◽

Essential Role ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Vital Role ◽

Liquid Phase Separation ◽

Eukaryotic Cells ◽

Liquid Liquid Phase Separation

AbstractEmerging evidence suggests that liquid–liquid phase separation (LLPS) represents a vital and ubiquitous phenomenon underlying the formation of membraneless organelles in eukaryotic cells (also known as biomolecular condensates or droplets). Recent studies have revealed evidences that indicate that LLPS plays a vital role in human health and diseases. In this review, we describe our current understanding of LLPS and summarize its physiological functions. We further describe the role of LLPS in the development of human diseases. Additionally, we review the recently developed methods for studying LLPS. Although LLPS research is in its infancy—but is fast-growing—it is clear that LLPS plays an essential role in the development of pathophysiological conditions. This highlights the need for an overview of the recent advances in the field to translate our current knowledge regarding LLPS into therapeutic discoveries.

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Science communication and mediatised environmental conflict: A cautionary tale

Public Understanding of Science ◽

10.1177/0963662520985134 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 096366252098513

Author(s):

Claire Konkes ◽

Kerrie Foxwell-Norton

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Political Communication ◽

Science Communication ◽

Climate Science ◽

Environmental Conflict ◽

Cautionary Tale ◽

James Cook ◽

Social Sphere ◽

Tenured Position

When Australian physicist, Peter Ridd, lost his tenured position with James Cook University, he was called a ‘whistleblower’, ‘contrarian academic’ and ‘hero of climate science denial’. In this article, we examine the events surrounding his dismissal to better understand the role of science communication in organised climate change scepticism. We discuss the sophistry of his complaint to locate where and through what processes science communication becomes political communication. We argue that the prominence of scientists and scientific knowledge in debates about climate change locates science, as a social sphere or fifth pillar in Hutchins and Lester’s theory of mediatised environmental conflict. In doing so, we provide a model to better understand how science communication can be deployed during politicised debates.

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N-Acetylcysteine (NAC): Impacts on Human Health

Antioxidants ◽

10.3390/antiox10060967 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 10 (6) ◽

pp. 967

Author(s):

Micaely Cristina dos Santos Tenório ◽

Nayara Gomes Graciliano ◽

Fabiana Andréa Moura ◽

Alane Cabral Menezes de Oliveira ◽

Marília Oliveira Fonseca Goulart

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

Therapeutic Potential ◽

Experimental Studies ◽

Primary Role ◽

Necrosis Factor Alpha ◽

Biochemical Basis ◽

Tnf Α ◽

Factor Alpha ◽

Anti Inflammatory

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a medicine widely used to treat paracetamol overdose and as a mucolytic compound. It has a well-established safety profile, and its toxicity is uncommon and dependent on the route of administration and high dosages. Its remarkable antioxidant and anti-inflammatory capacity is the biochemical basis used to treat several diseases related to oxidative stress and inflammation. The primary role of NAC as an antioxidant stems from its ability to increase the intracellular concentration of glutathione (GSH), which is the most crucial biothiol responsible for cellular redox imbalance. As an anti-inflammatory compound, NAC can reduce levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) and interleukins (IL-6 and IL-1β) by suppressing the activity of nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB). Despite NAC’s relevant therapeutic potential, in several experimental studies, its effectiveness in clinical trials, addressing different pathological conditions, is still limited. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of the medicinal effects and applications of NAC to human health based on current therapeutic evidence.

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Role of Proteins and of Some Bioactive Peptides on the Nutritional Quality of Donkey Milk and Their Impact on Human Health

Beverages ◽

10.3390/beverages3030034 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 3 (4) ◽

pp. 34 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Silvia Vincenzetti ◽

Stefania Pucciarelli ◽

Valeria Polzonetti ◽

Paolo Polidori

Keyword(s):

Human Health ◽

Nutritional Quality ◽

Bioactive Peptides ◽

Donkey Milk

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A systems biology approach to studying the role of microbes in human health

Current Opinion in Biotechnology ◽

10.1016/j.copbio.2012.10.001 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 4-12 ◽

Cited By ~ 60

Author(s):

Ines Thiele ◽

Almut Heinken ◽

Ronan MT Fleming

Keyword(s):

Systems Biology ◽

Human Health

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Zanieczyszczenie powietrza jako zagrożenie bezpieczeństwa zdrowotnego w Polsce – w świetle teorii sekurytyzacji

Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej ◽

10.36874/riesw.2021.1.9 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 159-176

Author(s):

Joanna Stryjek

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Qualitative Analysis ◽

Human Health ◽

Early Stage ◽

Security Studies ◽

Health Security ◽

Scientific Debate ◽

Copenhagen School ◽

The Eu

Nowadays, air pollution constitutes one of the most serious threats to human health and life. Poland belongs to the group of countries with the highest level of air pollution in the EU and OECD. The scale of the threat posed by air pollution shows its importance when it comes to the health security of the Polish citizens. However, the ongoing (political and scientific) debate on health security in Poland often ignores the problem of air pollution. The aim of the article is to 1) assess the threat currently posed by air pollution to health security in Poland, 2) locate the threat in the area of health security, and 3) analyse the process of transferring the problem of air pollution from the sphere of politics to the area of security, in accordance with the theory of securitization, developed by the Copenhagen School of Security Studies. Qualitative analysis of documents together with the application of the theory of securitization show that, in Poland, the state has started to play the role of an actor securitizing air pollution as an existential threat. Nevertheless, this process is at an early stage, and its further success depends, inter alia, on decisions and possibilities related to taking extraordinary measures to eliminate the threat posed by air pollution.

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