scholarly journals The impact of environmental mycobiomes on geographic variation in COVID-19 mortality

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Ladau ◽  
Katrina Abuabara ◽  
Angelica M. Walker ◽  
Marcin P. Joachimiak ◽  
Ishan Bansal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Geographic Variation ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Human Microbiome ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Populations ◽  
Indoor Exposure ◽  
Immune System Development ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Impact

Mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic have varied by orders of magnitude across communities in the United States. Individual, socioeconomic, and environmental factors have been linked to health outcomes of COVID-19. It is now widely appreciated that the environmental microbiome, composed of microbial communities associated with soil, water, atmosphere, and the built environment, impacts immune system development and susceptibility to immune-mediated disease. The human microbiome has been linked to individual COVID-19 disease outcomes, but there are limited data on the influence of the environmental microbiome on geographic variation in COVID-19 across populations. To fill this knowledge gap, we used taxonomic profiles of fungal communities associated with 1,135 homes in 494 counties from across the United States in a machine learning analysis to predict COVID-19 Infection Fatality Ratios (the number of deaths caused by COVID-19 per 1000 SARS-CoV-2 infections; 'IFR'). Here we show that exposure to increased fungal diversity, and in particular indoor exposure to outdoor fungi, is associated with reduced SARS-CoV-2 IFR. Further, we identify seven fungal genera that are the predominant drivers of this protective signal and may play a role in suppressing COVID-19 mortality. This relationship is strongest in counties where human populations have remained stable over at least the previous decade, consistent with the importance of early-life microbial exposures. We also assessed the explanatory power of 754 other environmental and socioeconomic factors, and found that indoor-outdoor fungal beta-diversity is amongst the strongest predictors of county-level IFR, on par with the most important known COVID-19 risk factors, including age. We anticipate that our study will be a starting point for further integration of environmental mycobiome data with population health information, providing an important missing link in our capacity to identify vulnerable populations. Ultimately, our identification of specific genera predicted to be protective against COVID-19 mortality may point toward novel, proactive therapeutic approaches to infectious disease.

Testing the efficacy of the economic policy uncertainty index on tourism demand in USMCA: Theory and evidence

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (8) ◽  
pp. 1344-1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cem Işık ◽  
Ercan Sirakaya-Turk ◽  
Serdar Ongan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Policy ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Economic Policies ◽  
Tourism Demand ◽  
Economic Policy Uncertainty ◽  
Demand Models ◽  
The Impact

The global economic outlook is more uncertain than ever before and sensitive to uncertainties related to a variety of economic policies decisions of all stakeholders and governments. These perceived uncertainties may be the culprit in shrinking the size of overall economic activity. Under increasing uncertainties, travel and vacation plans of consumers can be canceled or postponed. Therefore, policy-related economic uncertainties are expected to affect tourism demand beyond well-established economic and noneconomic factors. In this study, we explore the efficacy and the impact of the economic policy uncertainty (EPU) index in predicting the tourism demand on international tourist arrivals (a measure of tourism demand) to the United States from Mexico and Canada over the period of January 1996–September 2017. The findings of the study reveal that EPU is a significant predictor as increases in the EPU index lead to decreases in tourism demand to the United States. Canadian tourists seem to be more sensitive to EPUs. Increases in the EPU index cause them to reduce Canadians’ vacations to the United States proportionally more than the Mexicans. To enhance the explanatory power of current models, the uncertainty can be a theoretically significant construct thus needs to be included when calibrating demand models.

The Red Zinger/Coors Classic Bicycle Race: Commemorations and Re-Cycled Narratives

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-186
Author(s):  
Shelley Lucas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Women's Competition

The Red Zinger Bicycle Classic, later renamed the Coors International Bicycle Classic, is renowned for its influence on the development of men’s and women’s cycle racing in the United States. Recent efforts to create a United States Cycling Monument in Boulder, Colorado, centered on commemorating what is commonly referred to as the Coors Classic. I use the proposed monument as a starting point for exploring how the Coors Classic is being remembered, particularly with respect to the women’s competition. Where do women cyclists and their contests fit into the commemoration of this race? My analysis illuminates gendered aspects of this race and what I refer to as re-cycled narratives. I conclude with a concern about the impact of re-cycled narratives on present-day women’s cycling and consider historian Beverly Southgate’s call for thinking about histories for the future.

The Taxonomy of Legal Systems under Effect of Globalization: Classification of China and the United States

Global Jurist ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lukas Frederik Müller
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
Legal Systems ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Legal Globalization ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Legal Consequences

AbstractThis article examines the scope and nature of current global legal transformations as a result of economic globalization. It takes the idea that legal systems are already by nature highly impacted by economical, political, and societal developments as a starting point and continues to discuss in particular the legal consequences of economic global assimilation and the widespread decline of state sovereignty. Following these ideas, the article discusses how the current substantial legal transformations will affect the comparative method of classifying the legal systems of the world and suggests a modern, unbiased, and flexible model of taxonomy that is suitable to display the ongoing economic and legal globalization trends beyond Euro-American centrism. On the basis of this model of taxonomy, this article considers the classification of the United States and Chinese legal system and evaluates the historic factors that have formed them. In particular, special emphasis is directed towards the impact of professional, political, and traditional social norms and the degree of state sovereignty for each that led to the development of their respective legal systems today.

Wrestling with 9/11: Immigrant Perceptions and Perceptions of Immigrants

2006 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Brettell
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Asian Indians ◽  
World Trade Center ◽  
The United States ◽  
Fort Worth ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Immigrant Populations ◽  
Trade Center ◽  
The Impact

Soon after 9/11 a research project to study new immigration into the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area got under way. In the questionnaire that was administered to 600 immigrants across five different immigrant populations (Asian Indians, Vietnamese, Mexicans, Salvadorans, and Nigerians) between 2003 and 2005 we decided to include a question about the impact of 9/11 on their lives. We asked: “How has the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 affected your position as an immigrant in the United States?” This article analyzes the responses to this question, looking at similarities and differences across different immigrant populations. It also addresses the broader issue of how 9/11 has affected both immigration policy and attitudes toward the foreign-born in the United States. 

Anne O. Krueger, Constantine Michalopoulos and Vernon W. Ruttan. Aid and Development. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1989. xiv + 386 pp.Price: U.S. $ 52.00

1991 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-217
Author(s):  
Mir Annice Mahmood
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
International Development ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Impact

Foreign aid has been the subject of much examination and research ever since it entered the economic armamentarium approximately 45 years ago. This was the time when the Second World War had successfully ended for the Allies in the defeat of Germany and Japan. However, a new enemy, the Soviet Union, had materialized at the end of the conflict. To counter the threat from the East, the United States undertook the implementation of the Marshal Plan, which was extremely successful in rebuilding and revitalizing a shattered Western Europe. Aid had made its impact. The book under review is by three well-known economists and is the outcome of a study sponsored by the Department of State and the United States Agency for International Development. The major objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of assistance, i.e., aid, on economic development. This evaluation however, was to be based on the existing literature on the subject. The book has five major parts: Part One deals with development thought and development assistance; Part Two looks at the relationship between donors and recipients; Part Three evaluates the use of aid by sector; Part Four presents country case-studies; and Part Five synthesizes the lessons from development assistance. Part One of the book is very informative in that it summarises very concisely the theoretical underpinnings of the aid process. In the beginning, aid was thought to be the answer to underdevelopment which could be achieved by a transfer of capital from the rich to the poor. This approach, however, did not succeed as it was simplistic. Capital transfers were not sufficient in themselves to bring about development, as research in this area came to reveal. The development process is a complicated one, with inputs from all sectors of the economy. Thus, it came to be recognized that factors such as low literacy rates, poor health facilities, and lack of social infrastructure are also responsible for economic backwardness. Part One of the book, therefore, sums up appropriately the various trends in development thought. This is important because the book deals primarily with the issue of the effectiveness of aid as a catalyst to further economic development.

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