Adequate zinc nutrition is essential for adequate growth, immunocompetence and neurobehavioral development, but limited information on population zinc status hinders the expansion of interventions to ...control zinc deficiency. The present analyses were conducted to: (1) estimate the country-specific prevalence of inadequate zinc intake; and (2) investigate relationships between country-specific estimated prevalence of dietary zinc inadequacy and dietary patterns and stunting prevalence.
National food balance sheet data were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Country-specific estimated prevalence of inadequate zinc intake were calculated based on the estimated absorbable zinc content of the national food supply, International Zinc Nutrition Consultative Group estimated physiological requirements for absorbed zinc, and demographic data obtained from United Nations estimates. Stunting data were obtained from a recent systematic analysis based on World Health Organization growth standards. An estimated 17.3% of the world's population is at risk of inadequate zinc intake. Country-specific estimated prevalence of inadequate zinc intake was negatively correlated with the total energy and zinc contents of the national food supply and the percent of zinc obtained from animal source foods, and positively correlated with the phytate: zinc molar ratio of the food supply. The estimated prevalence of inadequate zinc intake was correlated with the prevalence of stunting (low height-for-age) in children under five years of age (r = 0.48, P<0.001).
These results, which indicate that inadequate dietary zinc intake may be fairly common, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, allow inter-country comparisons regarding the relative likelihood of zinc deficiency as a public health problem. Data from these analyses should be used to determine the need for direct biochemical and dietary assessments of population zinc status, as part of nationally representative nutritional surveys targeting countries estimated to be at high risk.
Multilevel modeling allows researchers to understand whether relationships between lower-level variables (e.g., individual job satisfaction and individual performance, firm capabilities and ...performance) change as a function of higher-order moderator variables (e.g., leadership climate, market-based conditions). We describe how to estimate such cross-level interaction effects and distill the technical literature for a general readership of management researchers, including a description of the multilevel model building process and an illustration of analyses and results with a data set grounded in substantive theory. In addition, we provide 10 specific best-practice recommendations regarding persistent and important challenges that researchers face before and after data collection to improve the accuracy of substantive conclusions involving cross-level interaction effects. Our recommendations provide guidance on how to define the cross-level interaction effect, compute statistical power and make research design decisions, test hypotheses with various types of moderator variables (e.g., continuous, categorical), rescale (i.e., center) predictors, graph the cross-level interaction effect, interpret interactions given the symmetrical nature of such effects, test multiple cross-level interaction hypotheses, test cross-level interactions involving more than two levels of nesting, compute effect-size estimates and interpret the practical importance of a cross-level interaction effect, and report results regarding the multilevel model building process.
In the Western world, gender has traditionally been viewed as binary and as following directly from biological sex. This view is slowly changing among both experts and the general public, a change ...that has been met with strong opposition. In this article, we explore the psychological processes underlying these dynamics. Drawing on previous work on gender performativity as well as gender as a performance, we develop a psychological framework of the perpetuation and disruption of the gender/sex binary on a stage that facilitates and foregrounds binary gender/sex performance. Whenever character, costume, and script are not aligned the gender/sex binary is disrupted and gender trouble ensues. We integrate various strands of the psychological literature into this framework and explain the processes underlying these reactions. We propose that gender trouble can elicit threat—personal threat, group-based and identity threat, and system threat—which in turn leads to efforts to alleviate this threat through the reinforcement of the gender/sex binary. Our framework challenges the way psychologists have traditionally treated gender/sex in theory and empirical work and proposes new avenues and implications for future research.
The presence of outliers, which are data points that deviate markedly from others, is one of the most enduring and pervasive methodological challenges in organizational science research. We provide ...evidence that different ways of defining, identifying, and handling outliers alter substantive research conclusions. Then, we report results of a literature review of 46 methodological sources (i.e., journal articles, book chapters, and books) addressing the topic of outliers, as well as 232 organizational science journal articles mentioning issues about outliers. Our literature review uncovered (a) 14 unique and mutually exclusive outlier definitions, 39 outlier identification techniques, and 20 different ways of handling outliers; (b) inconsistencies in how outliers are defined, identified, and handled in various methodological sources; and (c) confusion and lack of transparency in how outliers are addressed by substantive researchers. We offer guidelines, including decision-making trees, that researchers can follow to define, identify, and handle error, interesting, and influential (i.e., model fit and prediction) outliers. Although our emphasis is on regression, structural equation modeling, and multilevel modeling, our general framework forms the basis for a research agenda regarding outliers in the context of other data-analytic approaches. Our recommendations can be used by authors as well as journal editors and reviewers to improve the consistency and transparency of practices regarding the treatment of outliers in organizational science research.
We explore how digital technologies are helping address grand challenges to tackle climate change and promote sustainable development. With digital technologies, entrepreneurial organizations have ...adopted innovative approaches to tackle seemingly intractable societal challenges. We refer to these broadly as digital sustainability activities. By focusing on the digital toolbox employed by pioneering organizations, we propose a research agenda that generates novel questions for entrepreneurship, business models, and ecosystems as well as new ways of thinking about trust and institutional logics. We believe that digital sustainability can spur empirical advances in entrepreneurship, innovation, and strategy with potential for positive impact on society.
The current study examines how intersecting stereotypes about gender and race influence faculty perceptions of post-doctoral candidates in STEM fields in the United States. Using a fully-crossed, ...between-subjects experimental design, biology and physics professors (
n
= 251) from eight large, public, U.S. research universities were asked to read one of eight identical curriculum vitae (CVs) depicting a hypothetical doctoral graduate applying for a post-doctoral position in their field, and rate them for competence, hireability, and likeability. The candidate’s name on the CV was used to manipulate race (Asian, Black, Latinx, and White) and gender (female or male), with all other aspects of the CV held constant across conditions. Faculty in physics exhibited a gender bias favoring the male candidates as more competent and more hirable than the otherwise identical female candidates. Further, physics faculty rated Asian and White candidates as more competent and hirable than Black and Latinx candidates, while those in biology rated Asian candidates as more competent and hirable than Black candidates, and as more hireable than Latinx candidates. An interaction between candidate gender and race emerged for those in physics, whereby Black women and Latinx women and men candidates were rated the lowest in hireability compared to all others. Women were rated more likeable than men candidates across departments. Our results highlight how understanding the underrepresentation of women and racial minorities in STEM requires examining both racial and gender biases as well as how they intersect.
The arrangement of β cells within islets of Langerhans is critical for insulin release through the generation of rhythmic activity. A privileged role for individual β cells in orchestrating these ...responses has long been suspected, but not directly demonstrated. We show here that the β cell population in situ is operationally heterogeneous. Mapping of islet functional architecture revealed the presence of hub cells with pacemaker properties, which remain stable over recording periods of 2 to 3 hr. Using a dual optogenetic/photopharmacological strategy, silencing of hubs abolished coordinated islet responses to glucose, whereas specific stimulation restored communication patterns. Hubs were metabolically adapted and targeted by both pro-inflammatory and glucolipotoxic insults to induce widespread β cell dysfunction. Thus, the islet is wired by hubs, whose failure may contribute to type 2 diabetes mellitus.
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•Optogenetic targeting reveals a pacemaker-like β cell subpopulation•These cells, termed hubs, are required for normal insulin release•Hubs are highly metabolic and transcriptionally immature•Hubs are targeted by a diabetic milieu to induce islet failure
Combining optogenetics and photopharmacology, Johnston et al. show that a few (1%–10%) β cells exert disproportionate control over islet responses to glucose. These specialized cells, called hubs, are transcriptionally immature and highly metabolic. Their failure during type 2 diabetes mellitus may lead to reduced insulin secretion and impaired glucose homeostasis.
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