PLOS ONE is holding a Call For Papers on the topic of New Supply Chain Technologies to highlight the latest research in this field. We interviewed PLOS ONE Academic Editor Sanaa Kaddoura to learn about her research in this field and her perspectives on computer science education and the impact of this topic in wider society.

Dr. Sanaa Kaddoura holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Beirut Arab University, Lebanon. She is currently employed as an assistant professor of information security at the Department of Computing and Applied Technology, College of Technological Innovation, Zayed University, United Arab Emirates. She is also an assistant professor of business analytics for Master’s degree students in the UAE. She is a fellow of Higher Education Academy, Advance HE (FHEA) since 2019, which demonstrates a personal and institutional commitment to professionalism in learning and teaching in higher education. Furthermore, she has been a certified associate from Blackboard Academy since April 2021. In addition to her research interest in cybersecurity and Arabic NLP, she is actively doing research in higher education teaching and learning related to enhancing the quality of instructional delivery to facilitate students’ acquirement of skills and smooth transition to the workplace.

PLOS: Can you tell us a little about your career in science so far? How closely related is your research field to where you started out with your first degree?

SK: Currently, I am working in the education section as an assistant professor of computer science at Zayed University, UAE. Since I started my study of computer science, my career has gone through different stages. I worked as a programmer, technical support manager, and educator. After finishing my Ph.D., I decided to be an educator and researcher. Many other Ph.D. holders may decide to go into industry rather than educational institutions.

The computer science major is changing every day. Daily, new technologies, inventions, and algorithms bring new problems to solve and new research to investigate. Some research topics considered hot topics a few years ago are now considered mature and have less opportunity for research. This might be due to having the problem solved, or the problem has been made irrelevant due to technological changes. The computer science domain is exponentially changing. In previous research works we were required to create our own solution to problems; however, now, there is commercial software that can help us. This is taking the research in this domain to deeper and more advanced places.

From the jobs perspective, computer science is one of the fastest-growing professions in the global economy. One should keep learning new skills to compete in the job market and maintain position. Thus, computer scientists can’t keep doing the same activities they started with when they graduated. Unlike many other jobs in the market, computer science keeps moving people to a newer level with every new technology.

PLOS: What are you working on at the moment? What inspires you about your research and the things you get to do every day?

SK: The research project I started in September 2022, funded by Zayed University,  is about Arabic Natural Language understanding (NLU). NLU is a subtopic of natural language processing. It deals with a computer’s ability to comprehend and understand human language. NLU is considered an AI-hard problem due to the vast data required as training input to the algorithm. The solution to this problem has reached an advanced level in some languages, such as the English language. However, for the Arabic language, this problem still needs a lot of work to enable computers to comprehend Arabic text and voice accurately. The complexity of Arabic NLU is due to its complex syntactic structure, such as having a lot of irregular plural verbs. In addition to the problems in the formal Arabic language, the Arab world has a lot of dialects (spoken language). This makes NLU for the Arabic language more challenging, especially for speech recognition and chatbot applications. Moreover, the Arabic language still lacks the corpus data needed for such algorithms. Working on this problem requires computer scientists and Arabic language professionals to be involved to ensure accurate results.

As an  Arabic native speaker, I am enthusiastic about participating in the research efforts towards empowering the Arabic language in the new smart devices. It is essential to carry the Arabic language as an essential pillar in the 4^th industrial revolution. We can improve machine translation systems, Arab robots, Arabic digital assistants, and others.

PLOS: A lot of your research has focused on the interface between computer science and education. Why is this topic so important, and how can computer science help us understand how to be better educators?

SK: No one can deny that computer science has become part of all other fields, especially education. Computer science contributes in many aspects to the teaching-learning process. Now, no educator can set up a class session without using interactive tools, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. All educators had to go online for their teaching/learning process to continue. To engage students in the classroom, educators are using online gaming platforms, for example. All these tools need computer scientists to create them. Computer science has become a major in demand.

Also, everyone must learn computer science, especially programming. It should be an essential subject in schools, just like math. There is a famous saying from Steve Jobs: “Everyone in this country should learn how to program because it teaches you how to think.” Programming teaches students logical thinking and provides them with problem-solving skills, such as learning how to break a problem into smaller chunks, solve each chunk, and then integrate them all into one complete solution.

Most occupations will soon require some familiarity with computer programming, and as technology develops, so will the skills needed for software engineering positions. In the coming years, computer science is expected to grow significantly. To sum up, a computer science major has become a core part of our life. No one can live without being part of it, either as a developer or a user.

PLOS: PLOS ONE currently has an open Call For Papers on New Supply Chain Technologies (https://collections.plos.org/call-for-papers/new-supply-chain-technologies/). How does machine learning and cybersecurity work in this field, and what open research questions do you foresee when it comes to the future of supply chains?

SK: Currently, machine learning is contributing as a tool for the prediction and classification of data for other domains. One of these domains is the supply chain. Machine learning can be used as a forecasting tool in the supply chain. A robust forecasting system in the supply chain allows a business to respond quickly, be prepared for any issues, and react quickly without disrupting the business. Another example of the power of machine learning in the supply chain is improving customer experience. A critical example of this area is the Amazon e-commerce website. Amazon employs machine learning to find the correlation between the customer and products for a better shopping experience for the customer.

The supply chain is similar to all other digitized domains in the 4th industrial revolution. It has cybersecurity issues that can disrupt its operations in the case of an attack, affecting the business’s revenue. The supply chain can be affected by ransomware, data breach, malware, and other attacks.

There is still a lot of research to be done in this area. The question is always: “what actions should be taken to secure a supply chain?” Although much research has been done in this area, this question will always be open because attackers are changing these attacking techniques and making the attacks more sophisticated. We are always in a race with attackers who want to disrupt business, gain money, and spread malware.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by contributors are solely those of individual contributors, and not necessarily those of PLOS.

The post Computer Science, Education, and Supply Chains: an Interview with PLOS ONE Academic Editor Sanaa Kaddoura appeared first on EveryONE.

PLOS ONE has an open Call for Papers on Physical Oceanography, for which selected publications will be showcased in a special collection. This call for papers aims to highlight the breadth of physical oceanography research across a wide range of regions and disciplines. We welcome submissions including those that feature multidisciplinary research and encourage studies that utilize Open Science resources, such as data and code repositories.

The upcoming collection will be curated by three accomplished researchers in the field, all of whom additionally serve as Editorial Board Members for PLOS: Dr. Maite deCastro (University of Vigo, Spain); Dr. Isabel Iglesias Fernandez (CIIMAR, University of Porto, Portugal); and Dr. Vanesa Magar (CICESE, Mexico).

Here, we chat with Profs. deCastro and Iglesias to learn more about their research, their thoughts on the future of Physical Oceanography and how advances in this field can provide a better understanding of future environmental change.

Tell us about your research.

MdC: My research is clearly aligned with Climate and Renewable Energy, especially on the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems and on wind and wave renewable energy resources. It is also aligned with Food, Bioeconomy, Natural Resources, and Environment, especially in the relationship between climate and species of commercial value.

II: I’d like to say that my research interests are multidisciplinary but always with something in common, and this nexus is physical oceanography. My main research topic is related with estuarine hydrodynamics. I work with numerical models, which are versatile tools that help to unravel the hydrodynamic patterns in these complex areas. Once these models are implemented for a specific region, they can be used for multiple purposes such as representation of sediment, contaminant and marine litter transportation patterns, forecasting the effects of extreme events, anthropic activities or climate change conditions, or even calculating the potential of hydrokinetic energy production. These are some works that I have performed in collaboration with several colleagues and in the scope of national and international research projects.

At the same time, I am also interested in coastal and oceanic dynamics. I have conducted research that related long-term variability sea level anomalies in the North Atlantic with teleconnection patterns; I supervised a study related with wave forecast, and I am collaborating in the generation of a tool to forecast the dispersion patterns of sediment plumes generated by potential deep-sea mining activities in the Atlantic region.

What new finding or growing research topic in the field of physical oceanography are you currently excited about?

MdC: I am very enthusiastic about the research I have carried out in recent years, as it has allowed us to delve into the effect of climate change on historical trends in coastal upwelling, sea surface temperature, and mixed layer, among others, and to analyze its biological impact on species such as sea bream, tuna, and algae. We have also analyzed the future projections of these variables under different climate change scenarios and their possible impacts on bivalves such as mussels, different clam species, and cockles in the Galician estuaries. This approach will allow us to know both the evolution of these ecosystems in the future and to determine what measures will be necessary to mitigate the effect of climate change in order to make these ecosystems more resilient.

II: Ecoengineering. In recent decades, the focus of coastal and estuarine engineering research has shifted from technical approaches towards the integrated combination of technical, ecological, and nature-orientated solutions to reduce environmental impacts. Practical ecoengineering solutions for estuarine regions should be based on numerical modelling tools, which can provide the necessary knowledge of the relevant hydrodynamic processes and an understanding of natural processes, hydrodynamic–ecological interactions, and the impacts of structures on the environment.

At the same time, deep-sea mining is a hot topic. In recent years, deep-sea mining has become an attractive and economically viable solution to provide metals and minerals for the worldwide industry. Although promising, a large proportion of these resources are located in the vicinity of still poorly studied and understood sensitive ecosystems. The generated sediment laden plumes and the trace elements released to the water column that are associated with the extraction procedures can change the biogeochemical equilibrium of the surrounding area. This can alter deep-sea life-support services, damaging the local ecosystems with potential impacts that can persist through decades. Reliable ocean numerical models reproducing the dynamics of deep-sea areas can help to mapping the potential scale of deep-sea mining effects, being one of the key technological advances needed to implement risk assessment and better anticipate possible impacts.

For each of you, your research features an exploration of the effects of wind and the role it plays in ocean and climatological processes. Can you discuss the close link between atmospheric and ocean sciences?

MdC: A part of my most recent research is closely related to the development of renewable energies as an alternative to burning fossil fuels in the fight against climate change. Specifically, my research analyzes future offshore wind and wave energy resources under different climate change scenarios. This research field is an example of the close link between atmospheric and ocean sciences.

II: The atmosphere and the ocean are two different parts of the same system, jointly with the lithosphere, the biosphere and the cryosphere. The atmosphere and the ocean are in contact, constantly exchange mass, momentum and energy between them. The wind is one clear example of this link between the atmosphere and the ocean, generating waves and currents and affecting the sea surface temperature. But there are many others: evaporation, precipitation, heating, cooling, … And these links are the bases of short- (meteorological) and long-term (climatological) processes as winter rainfall, hurricanes or ENSO events, among others.

Many physical oceanographers spend a lot of their time working at a computer – do you ever get to do field work or research cruises?

MdC: At the beginning of my research career, I carried out several oceanographic campaigns in the Galician estuaries to take field measurements that would allow us to characterize their hydrodynamics. These campaigns were carried out jointly with chemists and biologists who analyzed other aspects of the estuaries.

II: Yes! I was in field work in the middle of January and I am expecting to have more campaigns in March and June of this year. Most of the time I am in front of a computer, but numerical models need real data to be calibrated and validated. For that we must go out into the field and measure the physical variables that we need. And although sometimes it hard to start the campaigns at six in the morning, the truth is that it is a breath of fresh air.

There is an undeniable link between anthropogenic pressures on the global environment and changes that we are seeing in marine systems. Can you discuss how you have observed this in your own research and the implications your findings have for the future?

MdC: The enormous increase in global energy consumption, together with the need to avoid the burning of fossil fuels to mitigate climate change, has led the scientific community to make the development of alternative energy sources, such as renewable energies, a priority objective. This has motivated a part of my most recent research where the offshore wind and wave energy resource is analyzed both now and in the near future under different climate change scenarios that take into account different concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions, socioeconomic measures, and land uses. This renewable energy resource analysis is complemented, in some locations, with an economic viability analysis.

II: It is clear that something is happening. Now the effects of the anthropogenic pressures on the global environment are visible. In the Iberian Peninsula we are facing one of the most severe droughts in the last decades. But other recent signals are the floods in western Germany in July 2021, the record-breaking high temperature in Moscow during July 2021, the snowfall in Madrid in January 2021, heavy cyclones and dust storms, or a heavier-than-normal wildfire season. So it is not just something that scientists are saying. It is something that the non-scientific population can see now. And, as the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has warned, the world is reaching a “point of no return”.

The complex estuarine systems can be considered as one of the most sensitive areas to environmental stressors due to the strong coupling between physics, sediments, chemistry and biology. In this sense, the effects of the climate change conditions in estuaries can be diverse based on changes in river flow, in extreme events frequency, and in water temperature and water level, affecting the circulation, salinity distribution, suspended sediments, dissolved oxygen and biogeochemistry. I used numerical models to forecast the effect of sea level rise inside the estuarine regions. It was demonstrated that the sea level rise can cause more severe floods in some estuaries. However, what should be taken into account is that the sea level rise inside the estuaries will produce a change in the circulation patterns and in the water masses configuration. This will undoubtedly affect the ecological and socio-economic aspects, due to the great value of the estuarine ecosystem services.

Historically, women have had to push for equality, respect and recognition in the field of physics. Do you think that the field is changing to become more inclusive, and what do you think research advisors, university leaders and funding agencies can do to better support women in physical oceanography?

MdC: Personally, I have always felt treated exactly the same as any other colleague throughout my scientific career, both in my closest circle and at an institutional level. I think I’ve had the same opportunities and help. I think that in this sense the field of physics, or at least this is my personal perception, is a privileged field. Despite this, I consider that there are still few women in this field compared to men and any activity aimed at making women feel more attracted to the field of physics is necessary.

II: I must say that I never need to fight more than a “man” to achieve the same respect and recognition for my work neither in my research group, nor in my research institute, country or even internationally. I had the same opportunities as anyone being men or woman. And curiously, we are more women in my research group, which develop research topics that were traditionally associated with “man”, like physics, engineering, mathematics, algorithms, numerical modelling, computational sciences, etc. I know that I am lucky, because other women before me pushed hard for equality and recognition and there are other women in different areas that still need to push to gain respect and visibility.

The term Open Science has been used to highlight the fact that transparency in scientific research goes beyond just Open Access publications. In the field of physical oceanography how do you think that making code and data publicly available can benefit researchers and policy makers?

MdC: In general terms, for the sake of transparency and the progress of the investigation, I consider it important to be able to have all the necessary material (code, data) so that any researcher can reproduce the results of another.  We will move faster and save resources if the data generated by other entities are public and if we all have access to each other’s progress instead of repeating what other researchers have already done. All this, of course, is within a framework of respect for the work of each one.

II: In my opinion, the science needs to be open. We are paying science with public funds, and it is not ethical to keep our research only for us on a long term basis. Of course, there must be some nuances regarding data for articles or patents. But I think that, at the end, the generated research should be public available. And it is not only the Open Access publications, which guarantee the transparency and the replicability of the research methodology, but also the numerical codes, the tools and the data generated in the scope of public funded research projects. Only in this way will we manage to advance faster in science, sharing our knowledge with other researchers and supporting the policy makers with proper tools to ensure the safety of populations and the sustainability of ecosystems and services.

About the Guest Editors

Isabel Iglesias holds a PhD in Climatic Sciences: Meteorology, Physical Oceanography and Climatic Change by the University of Vigo (2010). Since 2011 Isabel is working as an Assistant Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine and Environmental Research (CIIMAR) of the University of Porto, Portugal. Her main research topics are related with physical oceanography, atmosphere-ocean interaction, transport (sediments and marine litter), extreme events and climate change. Particularly she has experience in analysing the hydrodynamic behaviour of the water masses and in applying numerical models at oceanic, including surface and deep-sea areas, coastal and estuarine regions. Other areas of expertise include the performance and analysis of physical data obtained in sampling campaigns and the evaluation and analysis of remote sensing data for numerical modelling calibration/validation.

Maite deCastro is a Professor of Applied Physics at the University of Vigo. She obtained her PhD in Physics from the University of Santiago de Compostela (1998). The main focus of her research deals with (a) the study of hydrodynamics, waves and transport phenomena in shallow waters by means of in situ field data and numerical simulations; (b) the analysis of the variability (inter-annual and inter-decadal) of coastal and oceanic sea surface temperature (SST) using numerical and satellite data; (c) the analysis of the water masses around the Iberian Peninsula using salinity and temperature data obtained from the SODA base or ARGO buoys; (d) The effects of meteorological forcing on the ocean using satellite data or reanalysis such as: wind data, Ekman transport, sea level pressure (SLP), SST, teleconnection indices (NAO, EA, EA-WR, SCA, POL…); (e) The analysis of the plume development of rivers using radiance data from the Oceancolor MODIS base. (f) the influence of climate change on oceanographic variables, both present and in the future and, (h) the analysis of present and future wind, solar and wave resources for renewable energy production.

Vanesa Magar holds a BSc in Physics from UNAM, and a master’s in advanced studies in Mathematics and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, UK. She has been working in coastal and physical oceanography since 2002, and in renewable energy research and development since 2008. She joined the Physical Oceanography Department of CICESE as a senior researcher in 2014, where she co-leads the GEMlab (Geophysical and Environmental Modelling Lab) with Dr Markus Gross. Her research interests include wind energy, marine renewable energy, coastal hydrodynamics, and sustainable development issues in relation to renewable energy project development. She is member of the Energy Group of the Institute of Physics (IOP), UK, and a fellow and chartered mathematician from the IMA. She served in the Mexican Geophysical Union director’s board (as Secretary General, Vice President, and President) from 2016 to 2021. Currently, she is part of the Executive Committee of the National Strategic Programme (PRONACE) in Energy and Climate Change of CONACYT (2018- ).

Disclaimer: Views expressed by contributors are solely those of individual contributors, and not necessarily those of PLOS.

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PLOS ONE has an open Call for Papers on Cancer and Social Inequity, with selected submissions to be featured in an upcoming Collection. The aim is to bring together research that highlights the negative impacts of social inequities on health, identifies the effects of social and corporate policies on access to healthcare services, and proposes solutions to promote more equitable cancer outcomes and ultimately, social justice.

We are thrilled to be working with three distinguished researchers in this field as Guest Editors, who helped conceive this Call and will be curating the final Collection: Prof. Vesna Zadnik (Institute of Oncology, Ljubljana, Slovenia), Dr. Nixon Niyonzima (Uganda Cancer Institute, Kampala, Uganda), and Prof. Claudia Allemani (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK).

Technological and medical advances have improved cancer survival although the benefits have not trickled down to many developing countries. Social inequity has widened the gap in cancer outcomes between the rich and the poor. Tackling social inequity will significantly improve cancer survival for everyone regardless of socio-economic status. I am excited about this Collection and publishing in PLOS ONE allows easy access to science all over the world.

Dr. Nixon Niyonzima

Prof. Allemani and Prof. Zadnik share their thoughts on why this topic is important, and their motivations for conducting research in this area.

How does social justice fit within the scope of cancer research?
CA: Universal access to healthcare, and in this particular context to cancer care, should be a human right everywhere in the world. Every cancer patient should have the chance for an early diagnosis and prompt access to optimal treatment, regardless of where they live or their socio-economic status.

VZ: Researchers in the field of cancer epidemiology and public health address challenges in the field of cancer control in a number of national and international research projects, the results of which enable experts and decision-makers to adopt and implement evidence-based programs at the level of primary, secondary, and tertiary cancer prevention. In recent years, a special focus has been given to research on socio-economic inequalities, which can be observed both within populations and globally.

Please tell us a bit about your current research and how it ties in with these issues?
CA: My main interests are world-wide comparisons of population-based survival trends, as indicators of the overall effectiveness of health systems in managing cancer (CONCORD program), patterns of care (VENUSCANCER), and on their impact on policy for cancer control. Differences in patterns of care and survival between countries are often driven by inequalities in access to care, due to the lack of life-saving treatment or to the lack of resources to access it.

VZ: I have co-edited the monograph Social environment and cancer in Europe: towards an evidence-based public health policy published by Springer this year. The monograph addresses the link between the social environment and cancer in Europe. It provides a comprehensive overview of social inequalities in oncology from prevention to survival, offers a comprehensive report of the burden of social inequalities in cancer in Europe, assesses the extent of social inequalities in cancer in Europe based on appropriate data and methodology, and takes an epidemiological approach towards an evidence-based public health policy in Europe for tackling social inequalities in cancer.

Further, I am active within the team that further methodologically develops the European Deprivation Index (EDI) for monitoring and understanding inequalities in health, which is also useful a tool outside of oncology and the healthcare system.

What are the biggest challenges to achieving equitable outcomes in cancer?
CA: To persuade policy-makers about the need to allocate adequate resources for cancer care, including not only adequate machinery (e.g. radiotherapy facilities), but also trained physicians, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where infectious diseases still represent the main priority. COVID-19 has led to about 5 million deaths in two years, but about 18 million individuals are diagnosed with an invasive cancer every year, and about 10 million people die from cancer, again, every year: both numbers are increasing steadily. In addition, policy-makers should support cancer registries to enable routine surveillance of the effectiveness of the health system in managing cancer, and to create a registry for their country if they do not already have one. Without reliable information about inequities in cancer outcome, policy-makers are flying blind.

VZ: The main purpose of public health research in oncology is to provide integrated research and evidence-based cancer control. Completeness, reliability, and quality of data constitute the fundamentals in research. In cancer epidemiology, a major part of research is based on data about patients, their disease and treatment, that are collected by population-based cancer registries. Establishing and maintaining population-based cancer registries is essential, and should be supported by the efficient dissemination of results and their incorporation into the national politics (preferably through national cancer control programs).

How can open science contribute to overcoming these challenges?
CA: Open access, as currently mainly supported by Article Processing Charges (APCs), has fees that are not sustainable for researchers in LMICs. It is good that colleagues in LMICs can freely access more articles, but it would be better if they were able to share their local experience with the rest of the world.

VZ: This approach guarantees that new knowledge is made available immediately to the widest possible spectrum of readers. Still, publishing open access supported by APCs is the privilege of well financially supported research teams. In order to maximize the potential impact of the activities and results of the projects implemented by economically deprived researchers, new approaches are needed as well.

[Note from PLOS ONE staff: PLOS is establishing new business models beyond the APC to support more equitable and regionally appropriate ways for all authors to practice Open Access publishing. PLOS ONE offers alternatives to author fees through institutional partnerships. Our Global Participation Initiative and publication fee assistance program are also available to authors who lack publication fee support.]

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected issues in cancer and social inequity?
CA: Patients affected by COVID-19 have had priority over patients affected by any other disease, including cancer. The long waiting list to access diagnosis, surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy will inevitably lead to a higher proportion of missed diagnoses, patients diagnosed at a late stage, and consequently to poorer outcomes. It has already been shown that people who were already struggling economically have been more affected by the pandemic, increasing the “cancer divide”.

VZ: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the provision and use of healthcare services throughout the world. At several consecutive lockdowns all non-essential health care services were put on hold by a government’s decrees; cancer services were mainly listed as an exception. Nevertheless, cancer management depends also on other health services and additionally major changes in people’s behavior occurred – the effect on cancer diagnostics and treatment during the COVID-19 epidemic is already documented. A sharper fall in the number of referrals for oncological examinations and decrease in the number of diagnostic tests performed is projected for the socio-economically deprived population.

How do you see this field of research evolving in the future?
VZ: We have been aware for years that the burden of cancer to a large extent typically (but not exclusively) falls on the socio-economically deprived. Every year, many cancer patients throughout the world fall ill or die prematurely precisely because of the socio-economic inequalities in our society. Eliminating these inequalities is therefore going to be the focus of attention for specialists, decision-makers, and the general public for several additional years – researchers should be ready to support these decisions with firm evidence.

About our Guest Editors:

Prof. Vesna Zadnik is a public health specialist and a Doctor of Science in the field of cancer epidemiology. She is the Head of the Epidemiology and Cancer Registry Sector at the Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Slovenia.

She directs and carries out detailed epidemiological analysis in order to elucidate a certain condition, e.g. cancer incidence, time series, spatial distribution, survival of cancer patients, efficiency of cancer screening programs, etc. Her special interest goes in explaining socio-economic inequalities in cancer burden.

Dr. Nixon Niyonzima is currently a cancer researcher at the Uganda Cancer Institute where he heads research and training. Dr. Niyonzima is also the laboratory director of the laboratories at the Uganda Cancer Institute where he is working to improve access to cancer diagnostics. He is an investigator on several studies on the molecular characterization of cancers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and development of affordable low-cost diagnostics for diagnosis and prognostication of cancers in resource-limited settings. He is also involved in several initiatives to build health system capacity for cancer care in Uganda.

Dr. Niyonzima qualified as a medical doctor from Makerere University and graduated with a Master of Science in Global Health from Duke University. He did his doctoral studies in Cell and Molecular Biology from the University of Washington before returning to work and undertake cancer research at the Uganda Cancer Institute.

Prof. Claudia Allemani is Professor of Global Public Health at LSHTM. Her main interests are in international comparisons of cancer survival (EUROCARE, HAEMACARE, CONCORD), “high-resolution” studies on patterns of care and short-, medium-, and long-term survival, as well as the estimation of avoidable premature deaths, with a focus on their impact on cancer policy. She has 20 years’ experience in this domain. She is co-Principal Investigator of the CONCORD program for the global surveillance of cancer survival and Principal Investigator of a prestigious European Research Council Consolidator grant to carry out a world-wide study on inequalities in survival from cancers of the breast, cervix, and ovary (VENUSCANCER).

She has published over 150 peer-reviewed articles and 10 book chapters, manuals and reports. Her research has been cited over 13,000 times (h-index 51, i-10 index 76; Google Scholar). She collaborates with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and with several other international agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Health Organisation (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Cancer Society (ACS), and the French National Cancer Institute (INCa), as well as the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC).

Disclaimer: Views expressed by contributors are solely those of individual contributors, and not necessarily those of PLOS.

Researchers are encouraged to submit their research to the PLOS ONE Call for Papers on Cancer and Social Inequity by February 22^nd 2022.

The post Cancer and Social Inequity: Interview with the Guest Editors appeared first on EveryONE.

In 2020, PLOS ONE published a Collection of research articles entitled Plastics in the Environment, submitted to a Call for Papers on this important topic. A year later, we are checking in with some of the authors who are a part of this collection, to hear their thoughts on where this research field is headed, and what all of us can do to support their work.

In this second installment of two, we hear from Lars Hildebrandt (Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon), Bishal Bharadwaj (University of Queensland) and Anton Astner (University of Tennessee, Knoxville). They discuss the importance of open sciences practices to tackle global challenges, sustainable alternatives to plastics in various settings, and the challenges posed by the lack of methodological standards.

What inspired you to want to work in this field? What path did you take to where you are today?

LH: I am inspired by the fact that sound research into environmental particulate plastics, i.e. nano- and microplastics, is extremely demanding analytically on the one hand and highly relevant to society on the other. The social consequences are less abstract than with respect to other chemical-analytical topics. From my point of view, the biggest problems for nano- and microplastics research is the lack of methodological standardization. Consequently, the available studies are hardly comparable. To draw an accurate picture of the real environmental situation, scientists focusing on particulate plastics need to agree on high chemical-analytical and metrological standards. It inspires me to contribute one small piece to this important step: the method that my colleagues and I published in PLOS ONE enables the accurate and metrologically-traceable analysis of trace metals in/on plastic particles. I originally studied Chemistry and Business Studies and entered the field of particulate plastic monitoring through my master thesis. During my PhD thesis at the Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon, I deepened the work and added more aspects to it such as interactions between particulate plastics and trace metals.

BB: After graduating from school in 2001, I proposed my to friends that we do a volunteer cleaning campaign in Ilam (my hometown). We cleaned several places and realized plastic is a menace. It blocks drains and pollutes water sources. This realization motivated us to work against plastic pollution. Then we registered a youth-led NGO with an objective to lobby for a plastic bag ban and work for a clean and green city. Ilam municipality declared a ban on the use of single-use plastic bag in 2010. Other municipalities followed suit. However, the effect was mixed. I was intrigued by the question of ‘why does a plastic ban works in some municipalities and not in others?’ In 2013, SANDEE—a research network in South-Asia, provided a research grant to investigate the question. The study result showed that appropriate policy and its enforcement are key to the effectiveness of the ban. From this study I learned that the ban is helpful but not sufficient to tackle plastic pollution. Working to reduce plastic encouraged me to learn about other aspects of plastic pollution such as the circular economy and behavioural change.    

AA: My early life’s first strong impact was in first grade in Elementary School when our General Biology teacher took our class out for a field trip to collect disposed environmental trash in our town. This hands-on experience opened my eyes, and I realized that plastic debris disposed into the environment is not only aesthetically disturbing; it also may pose harm to terrestrial and aquatic habitats, wildlife, and humans. At this point, I started realizing how biodegradable engineered plastics derived from natural resources could help to reduce the environmental impact through pollution. Another part of this sustainable thinking I have experienced through the family-owned sawmill business. The conversion of logs into lumber yields virtually 100% product recovery by utilizing the main products, slabs, and sawdust. This experience instilled in me to learn more about renewable materials and natural resources.

The following education in Forest Products Technology & Management at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (SUAS), Austria biobased materials, improved my sustainable thinking by efficiently converting and utilizing the lignocellulosic materials.

I have learned the crucial steps for successfully conducting research and developing new products by collaborating with companies during this study. An internship at the Center for Renewable Carbon at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), was one element of my overall academic highlights as an undergraduate student from the SUAS, which has paved the way for the joint venture graduate degree between UTK and SUAS for the following years.

In the subsequent years, I have researched as an associate at the Center for Renewable Carbon and the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science (BESS) department at UTK. Under the supervision of Professor Dr. Hayes, I have gained excellent expertise in conducting research, the publication of research results, and collaborating with a team of students, faculty, and staff.

What do you see are the biggest hurdles that we need to overcome in order to tackle plastic pollution in the environment?

LH: A broad understanding is required that we, humanity, have to stop handling giant masses of plastic waste too carelessly and recklessly. Only global attempts to foster real circular economies, wide usage of biodegradable plastics for packaging and omission of persistent plastic products with a very short lifetime can solve the problem. I want to underline that the plastics used for products with short lifetimes should be really biodegradable and not only a “smart marketing trick”. Additionally, we have to find a way to produce them efficiently in terms of resource consumption.

BB: When I was a kid plastic was not as common as it is today; people used paper pouches, jute bags, iron buckets and wooden chairs. All these things are made of plastic these days. This rapid increase in plastic use with no concrete action is a concern.    

We use plastic for short-term convenience, then throw it away for long-term harm. Plastic looks cheap and convenient. But what about the social cost associated with its carbon emission and the environmental damage for centuries? There is a lack of global commitment against plastic pollution. Although diverse sets of programs are under implementation, many of these are local in scale. For instance, bans or levies on single use plastic bag are typically implemented at the municipality level. We do not see any countrywide regulation or agreement at regional level. Is the knowledge that there are micro-plastics in table-salt insufficient to act against plastic pollution at a global level? If so, until when will we be able to ignore this problem? Why are governments allowing this rapid march to common tragedy? We do not have clear answer to so many questions. This poor understanding is a known challenge.     

AA: Most important is to understand all phases of the plastic materials’ “life cycle” — from creation to utilization to disposal. Therefore, it is crucial to find new ways to reduce waste and better protect the environment and communities. In this context, scientific research can contribute to understanding the critical aspects of the plastic problem. New technologies and product designs, such as developing novel and environmentally benign biodegradable materials, will also be an inherent part of reducing plastic waste.

In agriculture, plastics are frequently used for the cultivation of plants and to increase crop yields. Plastic mulch films are essential materials for the sustainable production of vegetables and other specialty crops by elevating soil temperatures, conserving soil moisture, controlling weed growth, and providing protection against severe weather impacts. However, polyethylene mulches are the most used conventional mulch film materials and are lacking sustainable disposal methods. Improperly disposed materials form smaller particles through environmental impacts (sunlight, wind) and trigger gradual fragmentation into micro- (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs). These small particles may remain in the soil, be mobilized, and distributed by wind, transported via surface run-off to the aquatic environment posing a severe threat to ecosystems.

In recent years, biodegradable plastic mulches (BDMs) became important in the sustainable production of vegetables and other specialty crops, designed to be inexpensively plowed into the soil, where they will fully biodegrade into carbon dioxide, water, and cell biomass.

Our current research focuses on understanding the implications of biodegradation in the field during and after the growing season, the formation of MPs and NPs, and the fate and impact on terrestrial ecosystems.

What are the areas where you see promise for helping us deal with plastic pollution? Either in the short term or long term?

LH: The research about the presence and toxicity of particulate plastics as well as their interactions with co-pollutants is important since it increases the awareness of plastic pollution in general. However, only the consumers and politics can initiate action by the decisive economic sectors. On the one hand, the products should be designed in a smart way that facilitates recycling, which is definitely possible. On the other hand, we have to streamline the recycling system and expand its capacities – especially in countries with alarmingly low recycling rates and high shares of plastic waste discharged directly into the environment.

BB: Inaction against plastic pollution is partly contributed to by the poor knowhow about the social cost of plastic use. We use plastic hundreds of times a day without knowing we used it. What this indicates is that plastic use is deep in our habits and replacing it needs convenient but environmentally friendly substitutes. Finding a substitute is not easy because plastic provides a wide range of advantages to different sectors. We need more research in all aspects of these aspects. However, having a substitute is not enough; economic incentives and behavioral measures are equally important to replace plastics in daily life. Therefore, an integrated approach is crucial. An integrated approach demands a collaborative engagement of researchers from different fields. Behavioral science, for instance, may suggest an intervention to change the plastic use behavior whereas chemical engineering can provide insights about the sustainable substitute of plastic. We need industry, policy makers and civil societies to take the innovation from labs to our households.    

AA: In many countries worldwide, governments, communities, businesses, academia, and researchers work diligently to find solutions and new ways to tackle our global plastic pollution problem. The short-term actions reach from the reduction of single-use-plastics (banning plastic straws, styrofoam containers), implementing efficient waste collection, and conducting research in terrestrial and marine habitats.

In the long term, it will be required to include all “players” in a joint effort to increase awareness of plastic pollution and its consequences by shifting from typical one-way commodity plastics to more environmentally benign materials such as biodegradable/compostable materials.

For agriculture, in the face of increased interest in organically-grown plants and crops, I see a considerable potential for sustainable-oriented farmers who are also encouraged to employ environmentally friendly farming practices.  

How important are open science practices in your field – e.g. data sharing, code sharing, protocols sharing, preprints etc.?

LH: I hold the opinion that open science practices are mandatory in environmental research to maximize its outreach. Ultimately, taxpayers finance most of the work. Thus, access to the results must not be denied to anybody.

BB: Plastic use behavior is a mix of interlinked factors. We cannot tackle plastic pollution only through local action such as municipality bans or product-specific intervention such as targeting plastic straws. These small-scale initiatives are helpful, but plastic has now become a major element of global trade.  Therefore, research and collaboration among all concerned stakeholders is necessary. Research from one field will become a steppingstone for other fields to develop a workable solution. For instance, a chemical engineer can use social science on consumer preferences for a bag to find an effective substitute. This synchronized effort needs open science practices. I am impressed with our open science practice in COVID-19 research and information. The main takeaway from this COVID-19 practice is that open science is crucial to tackling global problems.

AA: Data archiving and sharing with the scientific community is an inherent part of conducting successful research. Therefore, data storage and preservation, and publication will be essential. I believe that data sharing can catalyze new collaborations, increase confidence in findings, and serves as a basis for making progress in specific research areas. Our fundamental research area is essential since the detection and characterization of MPs and NPs lack standards. Therefore, data and information exchange are crucial to building on implementing standardized procedures for peer researchers gradually.  Furthermore, using a digital object identifier (DOI), data sets are becoming easier to cite and independently discoverable. This “citability” gives researchers credit for their data sets and allows researchers to list them on job, tenure, and promotion applications.

How does interdisciplinarity fuel your work? Do you often collaborate with researchers from other fields or others outside of academia?

LH: Working in an interdisciplinary network fuels the overall impact of research on particulate plastics. For instance, analytical chemists must collaborate with biologists and toxicologists since a risk assessment comprises assessment of the exposure and evaluation of the toxic effects as well as effect levels (e.g. LOEC) of a pollutant. In a larger context, microplastic researchers should also cooperate with social scientists to convey the key messages that can be derived from their specific findings. Even if we massively reduce the global discharges of plastic waste into the environment, the fragmentation of the giant amounts of plastics present in all aquatic compartments will continue. One of these messages could be: Action that we take today to tackle plastic pollution might need decades to “become visible”.

BB: Like other environmental problems, the fight against plastic pollution also requires a) identification of workable solutions and then b) their implementation. Initially I started my journey from civil society where we lobbied for a ban and worked on social mobilization against plastic bags. While working in the environment management section of the Ministry of Local Development I realized the complexities of environmental policies and its implementation. That is why, as a researcher, I tried to answer questions that are helpful for policy makers. However, collaboration between academia, industry, civil society, and governments will expedite the fight against plastic pollution. If policy makers or industry, for instance, identify the knowledge gaps on plastic pollution, then researchers can help to fill them.       

AA: Collaboration across different disciplines is crucial in our field of research. In particular, our research areas involve the scientists’ expertise in biosystems and biomolecular engineering, soil physics, polymer science, chemistry, statistics, and nuclear engineering.  Our research team regularly interacts and collaborates with researchers within our academic departments across campus. Our particular research also involves collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, focusing on NPs detection in soil by employing Small-Angle Neutron Scattering (SANS) techniques. Interdisciplinary research allows the synthesis of ideas and characteristics from many disciplines, developing essential, transferable skills.

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in helping with the efforts to reduce plastic pollution – whether as a researcher or a private citizen? How can the rest of the world support the work that you and your colleagues do?

LH: Every private citizen as a consumer has an impact. If we start being very critical about our own behavior when it comes to single-use plastics and plastic beads in cosmetics, for example, the companies will adapt their practices. Actually, there are many parallels to other topic such as the interlink between meat consumption and animal welfare. Sustainability might be an “overused” word in a way. Nevertheless, it starts with everybody’s (consumer) behavior.

BB: We can contribute in several ways. First, being a responsible consumer, we can make a difference. Using reusable bags will reduce the billions of single-use plastic bags. This behavioral change is possible in many dimensions of our day-to-day life, such as straws and coffee cups. Second, even if it is necessary to use plastic, it does not take much effort to make sure the used plastic enters the recycling process. Thirdly, we can contribute from where we are working. For example, an agriculture scientist can investigate the ways to reduce or replace plastic wrapper for cucumbers. Fourthly, being a responsible human being lets us gather evidence and raise our voices for global treaties against plastic pollution as we are doing for climate change. To summarize, let us take plastic pollution seriously and try our best to fight plastic pollution before it is too late.     

AA: An annual amount of eight million metric tons of plastic waste enters the oceans each year, and predictions estimate by 2050 that the amount of plastic in the oceans will have more mass than all fish. The consequent reduction of plastic product utilization can avert this concerning prediction by employing reusable shopping bags, opting for clothing made of cellulose, hemp, wool, and other natural fibers, and choosing products packed in natural raw materials such as corn starch or cotton, just to mention a few options.

As a researcher, I encourage farmers to employ sustainable farming by opting for sustainable plant cultivation using environmentally benign materials such as biodegradable plastics (mulches) to reduce waste.  Furthermore, I motivate communities to avoid plastic waste by creating public awareness and implementing recycling practices, e.g., rigorous waste separation.

In recent years, MPs and NPs have received considerable attention regarding fate and pollution to the various environmental compartments. The long-term fate of plastic fragments in the soil is unknown. Our fundamental research aims to understand the life cycle, the ecotoxicological fate of MPs, and NPs for plant and soil organisms in subsurface agroecosystems. The outcome of our research may provide a pathway for current and prospective researchers interested in understanding the implications and fate of MPs and NPs in the terrestrial environment. 

About the authors:

Lars Hildebrandt: Lars studied Chemistry and Economics at Kiel University (B.Sc. and M.Sc.). In 2017, his master thesis dealt with microplastics in marine sediments. During his PhD work, which he finished in March 2021 at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht, he focused on Nano- and Microplastics as well as the particles’ interactions with trace metals. Currently, he works as a postdoc at the Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon and his research focus is still on environmental particulate plastics as well as trace metals.

Bishal Bharadwaj: Bishal Bharadwaj has worked in environment management and policy for more than a decade. In 2001 Bishal and his friend established an NGO, with the aim to lobby for a ban on plastic bag use and mobilize youth to tackle plastic pollution. Bishal also served in the Government of Nepal, and worked on the Initial Environmental Examination Review committee of Ministry of Local Development and supported drafting of the Environment Friendly Local Governance Framework in 2013. Bishal’s research interests is in the evaluation of environmental policies. He is currently doing PhD at the University of Queensland, where his research aims to understand the influence of decision context on energy access at the subnational regions of Nepal.

Anton Astner: As a native Austrian born in Salzburg, Anton graduated from the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences (SUAS) in 2009, and with a master’s degree in Natural Resources at the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at the Center for Renewable Carbon in 2012. In 2017, he started as a Research Associate in the Department of Biosystems Engineering and Soil Science (BESS) at the Institute of Agriculture, University of Tennessee Knoxville, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Douglas Hayes in collaboration with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with the focus on the formation and dynamics of micro- (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) in the agricultural soil environment. In the fall of 2018, he started pursuing a Ph.D. degree at the BESS department in a joint effort with ORNL, investigating the interactions and fate of MPs and NPs in the terrestrial environment.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by contributors are solely those of individual contributors, and not necessarily those of PLOS.

Featured image: Marine debris litters a beach on Laysan Island in the Hawaiian Islands NationalWildlife Refuge, where it washed ashore. (Susan White/USFWS) CC-BY

The post Plastics in the Environment – Author Perspectives – Part 2 of 2 appeared first on EveryONE.

In 2020, PLOS ONE published a Collection of research entitled Plastics in the Environment, submitted to a Call for Papers on this important topic. A year later, we are checking in with some of the authors who are a part of this collection, to hear their thoughts on where this research field is headed, and what all of us can do to support their work. They discuss their motivations for going into this field in the first place, the importance of reliable data, the collaborative nature of their work, and how recycling might change in the future.

In this first installment of two, we hear from Amanda Laverty (NOAA), Lauge P W Clausen (Technical University of Denmark) and Elisabeth von der Esch (GEOMAR).

What inspired you to want to work in this field? What path did you take to where you are today?

AL: Growing up appreciating the outdoors by way of camping and hiking, I’ve always had a passion for protecting and preserving the environment. Over time, I developed a particular passion for the ocean – likely stemming from my parents’ love for scuba diving. My path wasn’t necessarily linear, but once I discovered that I could go to school to study the ocean, I was all in. Lab research with my undergraduate advisor – and co-author on this paper – Dr. Fred Dobbs, fueled my interest in aquatic microbial ecology and inspired me to attend graduate school. For my master’s thesis, I was determined to incorporate my long-term interest in marine debris with Fred’s background in microbial ecology, and that combination is what ultimately led us to this niche research.

Following graduate school, I headed to Washington, D.C. after receiving Virginia Sea Grant’s John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowship — a year-long fellowship that brings approximately 65 post-graduate students from across the United States to the Nation’s Capital to experience the science-policy interface. During my fellowship, I worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Marine Debris Program and learned about marine debris prevention, removal, research, emergency response, and regional coordination at the federal level. The fellowship was a pivotal point in my life, and ultimately led me to where I am today.

LPWC: The abundance of plastic pollution in the environment has been a main motivator for why I want to address the issue. Also, being part of the solution to a “real” problem and help solve it is of great motivation to me.

I was raised by passionate biologist and thus my interest for nature was nourished in my childhood. As an adult, I pursued a career as an environmental engineer to help solve the many environmental issues we face. After I graduated, I went into consultancy but returned to academia to pursue a Ph.D. within the field of phytoremediation – studying uptake of pollutants to plants and their use for remediation of contaminated sites. During my Ph.D. I grew more and more interested in the regulatory aspects of environmental management and stakeholder inclusion. Using the blatant cases of plastic pollution and nanomaterials as an outset, I got involved on two large projects, MarinePlastic and Mistra Environmental Nanosafety Phase II, providing funding for a 3-year postdoc position at the Technical University of Denmark exploring the topics.   

EvdE: Today I am a Postdoc at GEOMAR and develop sensors to explore the ocean. The path was of course filled with many adventures in chemistry and occasional expeditions. In my PhD at the Technical University of Munich, I chose to work on automating the quantification of microplastic as sometimes the best thing that you can contribute to a problem is reliable data.

What do you see are the biggest hurdles that we need to overcome in order to tackle plastic pollution in the environment?

AL: In my mind, the biggest hurdle to overcoming plastic pollution in the environment is preventing its accumulation in the first place. Removal and research are unquestionably important pieces of this very complex puzzle, but the issue will undoubtedly persist and intensify without prevention. The NOAA Marine Debris Program has a great analogy for this: if we walked into our home and found that our kitchen sink was overflowing, our first step would be to turn off the faucet – not to begin mopping up the water. Without ‘turning off the tap’ on plastic pollution, we will never be able to adequately address the issue. In order to begin effecting change, efforts should focus on behavior change at the individual, community and industry levels, as well as radical policy change at the state, national, and international levels.

LPWC: The transition to a circular plastic economy will be the main obstacle to overcome. To achieve this, a fundamental change to our society will have to be implemented in a scale that have not been seen before. This includes behavioral changes at all levels of the society (industry, policy and consumer level) but also changes in perception and mindset. 

The circular plastic chain is a subtle thing, requiring that one part of the chain deliver services to the next. Failure at one part leads to a break in the chain, making the system fragile. E.g. a producer of a plastic component require a reliable flow of recycled plastics in sufficient quantity and quality to deliver their service to consumers, which must be facilitated by the society. This dependency makes the implementation phase challenging, as implementation at one stage only can be successful when the previous and subsequent steps are mature and ready for the transition.  

EvdE: I believe that plastic is essential for our modern world, as there is just no alternative as versatile and cheap as plastic. This is also true for the packaging industry. Here plastic serves as a very lightweight, durable, safe and recyclable solution to keeping products fresh. The problem however arises, when we don’t recycle our plastic and instead deposit it in landfills, form where it can enter the environment in large quantities. Therefore, improving the recycling of polymers is a key hurdle to overcome. Another large source of microplastic in the environment is the abrasion of car tires, which is unfortunately exactly what we want tires to do to provide grip.

What are the areas where you see promise for helping us deal with plastic pollution? Either in the short term or long term?

AL: I see a lot of promise and hope for our future in younger generations. Young people across the globe are taking ownership of our crises, forming innovative solutions, and calling for urgent action in areas such as plastic pollution, climate change, environmental justice, and many others. With impassioned, dedicated, and emboldened youth, I see real promise in dealing with plastic pollution on a global scale. I’m hopeful that we can each do our parts in lifting up and creating space for the next generation of bright young minds to succeed.

LPWC: My research focuses on bridging societal and regulatory needs. I hope to help regulators identify and address important issues related to plastic pollution and the society by pinpointing where changes can or should be implemented. Also, I hope to raise the citizen awareness and stakeholder engagement with respect to plastic pollution and its consequences, thereby preparing the ground for a smooth(er) transition to a circular plastic economy.    

EvdE: In my opinion, we need to stop designing non-recyclable products and we need to factor in the disposal/recycling cost into the price of a product. As I worked with yogurt cups in my research, I asked myself why these cups are made from Polyethylene, Polyethylene terephthalate and Polystyrene among other polymers if the function of the cup “keeping yogurt fresh” is the same in all instances. Therefore, I would assume that these polymers are equally suited to the task. The recyclability of these polymers however differs. In instances such as these the more recyclable alternative should always preferred by the manufacturer. Applying this mindset or reevaluation could potentially, among many other advancements, help us get towards a more circular economy.

How important are open science practices in your field – e.g. data sharing, code sharing, protocols sharing, preprints etc.?

AL: Open science practices are extremely important in this field. Open science improves the quality of work, increases the reproducibility of findings by other researchers, promotes collaboration, and builds greater confidence in science overall. Without a solid understanding of how other researchers are conducting experiments and collecting data, comparison of our datasets may be ‘apples to oranges’, ultimately proving of little utility in a broader context, limiting understanding, and creating inefficiencies in resource utilization. 

LPWC: In my opinion, the most important thing about open science is that knowledge gets free to everyone – scientists, regulators and not least, the public. Sharing knowledge is a fundamental prerequisite for transparency, which again is paramount for trust making and stakeholder engagement. Further, open science is of major importance for reproducibility of science.

EvdE: Open science is very important to me, as the goal is to solve problems and everyone should be welcome to contribute. Form my experience there is more to research then can ever be achieved by a single person or research group and everyone can benefit from working together on fair and quality controlled terms.

How does interdisciplinarity fuel your work? Do you often collaborate with researchers from other fields or others outside of academia?

AL: The research we published with PLOS ONE included an important collaboration with our coauthors from the Alfred-Wegener-Institute to perform Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Without this collaboration, we would not have had the tools to examine and determine microplastic sample types, which was a vital component of our study.

Though I’ve left my university, I think that if I had decided to pursue a career in academia I would have continued to seek out collaborations with other researchers who could contribute tools, analyses, and varying perspectives that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to. Additionally, I would be certain to engage with policy makers at all levels of government in order to help inform research questions that could prove useful in decision making.

LPWC: My research works at the interface of policy and society. It requires a detailed understanding of the regulatory landscape as well as the societal needs and perceptions. As an environmental engineer working within regulatory engineering, I work with social and environmental scientists and sometimes directly with citizens themselves.

EvdE: I love working with colleagues from other fields! They provide different viewpoints and solutions to questions. For me this is a very important source of inspiration and provides excellent learning opportunities.

What advice would you give to someone who is interested in helping with the efforts to reduce plastic pollution – whether as a researcher or a private citizen? How can the rest of the world support the work that you and your colleagues do?

AL: I would say that each of us play a critical role in the reduction of plastic pollution. It is our job as researchers, global citizens, and change-makers to take responsibility for our actions and their consequences. It is important that we aggressively avoid or limit our use of plastic products, particularly single-use plastics and plastic packaging materials, which contribute to much of the plastic we find in the environment. We can also educate our loved ones, participate in citizen science efforts, and advocate for better policies to help create change beyond our own individual behavior. Solutions to this global issue are challenging and multifaceted, but one thing is certain: our success is hinging on our collective and active participation. 

LPWC: My best advice is to be curious. This entails to stay updated and engage actively in the plastic debate – in the media, on online media and in the scientific literature. Raise questions whenever something is unclear and spread the knowledge gained on the platforms available.

EvdE: The best way to change the lifecycle of plastic from production to disposal is for manufacturers to design more sustainable products and manufacturing chains. Therefore, it is important to demand this change, as it seems that the blame for plastic pollution has been more on the consumer side for a long time and has only recently been shifting towards producers. Because even though all plastics have the recycling logo and a number indicating the polymer type that does not mean that they are collected for recycling. You might sort all of your recyclables and think you are contributing to the solution, but that does not guarantee that there is a demand for your recycled plastic and that it gets recycled at all, as only a fraction of plastic that could be recycled ends up recycled. This needs to change on a systemic rather than individual level.

If you are interested in supporting researchers that want to know where the plastic ends up in the environment, you could join a citizen science project. E.g. https://www.plastic-pirates.eu/en/about. And even though it would be best not to make a mess in the first place you could always join a plastic cleanup near you, as every little bit helps.

About the authors:

Amanda Laverty: Amanda Laverty is a budget analyst with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). In her current role, Amanda primarily assists in the development of the annual NOAA NESDIS President’s Budget and works to ensure timely and effective presentation and use of budget information in support of NESDIS performance, goals, and objectives.

Before coming to NOAA, Amanda obtained her B.S. and M.S. in Ocean and Earth Sciences from Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, VA. She focused her master’s research on plastic pollution as a potential vector for bacteria and human pathogens. Following graduate school, Amanda moved to Washington, D.C. to join the NOAA Marine Debris Program as a 2017 Sea Grant John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellow. During this time, she served as the lead on developing content for outreach products, supported regional partner planning workshops, and led the zero-waste initiative for the Sixth International Marine Debris Conference, held in March 2018.

Lauge P W Clausen: As a Ph.D. student, Lauge studied plant and soils science, with special focus on uptake of pollutants to plants and the use of plants for remediation purposes of soil and groundwater. As a postdoc he has moved into the field of regulatory engineering, studying regulation of plastics and microplastics and nanomaterials with focus on stakeholder analysis.

Elisabeth von der Esch: Dr. Elisabeth von der Esch completed her PhD in analytical chemistry at the Institute of Hydrochemistry of the Technical University of Munich in 2021. Within her work she combined reference material production, statistical sample size reduction and image analysis to enable the development of a Raman Microscopy based automated quantification of microplastic. Based on her interest in automation of analytical chemistry she joined the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, to develop sensors for biogeochemical parameters in the ocean.

Disclaimer: Views expressed by contributors are solely those of individual contributors, and not necessarily those of PLOS.

Disclaimer from Amanda Laverty: All views and opinions expressed here are her own and do not represent the views of her employer.

Disclaimer from Elisabeth von der Esch: All views and opinions expressed here are her own and do not represent the views of her employer.

Featured image: Marine debris litters a beach on Laysan Island in the Hawaiian Islands National Wildlife Refuge, where it washed ashore. (Susan White/USFWS) CC-BY

The post Plastics in the Environment – Author Perspectives – Part 1 of 2 appeared first on EveryONE.

Freshwater ecosystems provide important services to human societies, such as water, food, regulation of hydrological extremes, pollutant attenuation, and carbon sequestration. As freshwater systems are under pressure from human activity and climate change, a more complete understanding of these systems is needed to respond to the environmental changes associated with these processes.

Here Prof Kirsten Seestern Christoffersen and Dr Ben Abbott, Guest Editors of PLOS ONE Call for Papers on Freshwater Ecosystems, share their thoughts on the present and future of freshwater science research.

What are the most interesting scientific advances in freshwater science recently?

KSC: I would say it is the enormous amount of data that is becoming available as we apply more and more continuous recording data loggers with sensitive sensors, drones, unmanned vehicles, all sort of cameras, fast running analytic instruments – and that these great things are also becoming more and more affordable. Because of these advances, it is possible to get data, photos and live videos for almost any part of the World, from the deepest lakes and the permanently ice-covered lakes to boiling mud-holes. And then, it follows from these advances mentioned above that these great challenges require computer power to handle, analyse and store these large amounts of data. So, it is no longer a question of how to get enough data but rather how to manage the wealth of data that we can produce.

BA: Our capacity to measure parameters in more ways has greatly expanded over the past two decades. This opens up the possibility for new spatiotemporal analyses to move beyond just calculating concentrations and loads to understanding the mechanisms driving ecosystem function across the terrestrial-aquatic gradient. The combination of traditional physicochemical parameters with metrics of ecological community and remotely-sensed watershed characteristics is really exciting.

And, on the other hand, what are the main challenges freshwater ecosystems will face in the near future?

KSC: Here I would say all the “usual challenges”: climate change, biodiversity crisis, eutrophication (still an issue despite it has been a problem for many years now). One thing that we really need to do is to establish what the baseline conditions are especially for freshwater ecosystems that have not yet been affected too much – like the freshwaters in the Arctic and alpine regions.

BA: This flood of new data represents a challenge in itself. More numbers do not automatically translate into greater understanding. We need new approaches to extract meaningful patterns and attribute those signals to ecological processes, especially human disturbance. Another challenge is that many of our long-term monitoring stations are at risk because of changes in funding priorities. We need to leverage these long-term data sources and figure out ways to better integrate across sites.

What new approaches are needed to respond to these challenges?

KSC: Awareness, political will and resources.

BA: See my last two responses.

What are your main research interests? What do you consider to be your biggest accomplishment in your career so far?

KSC: My main interests these years are understanding how Arctic freshwater ecosystems are organised under different (natural) environmental conditions and identifying the drivers and stressors that rule the biota. This might be the key elements to understand the uniqueness of pristine ecosystems and also to be able to predict their changes.

BA: There are still two million people who die every year from polluted water. Many more than that are affected by chronic or acute disease associated with exposure to pollutants. At the same time, aquatic ecosystems around the world are experiencing huge declines in biomass and biodiversity. We need to improve global water governance and ensure access to clean water for all people and ecosystems. The biggest accomplishment of my career has been the privilege of working with students, researchers, and water managers who are striving to address these global water crises.

What advice would you give to early-career freshwater researchers that want to make a difference?

KSC: It will be to follow your interests and go for the things that you think is important; if you can’t really get yourself into an enthusiastic mode when doing your research, you should maybe change horse. In other words, don’t necessary follow the main stream and where the money is often good – but follow your sense for what really matters. Another go advice is to talk with other scientists but not only those that are close to you (physically and thematically)!

BA: The distinction between basic and applied research is really counterproductive. Any good research has applications, and we should be seeking to share the relevant information we discover with all interested parties. As an early-career researcher myself, I frequently ask myself, how relevant and important is the work I am doing? Are there other issues or problems that I could be contributing to in a meaningful way? In this time of accelerating consumption and restructuring of human activity, the world needs high-quality information more than ever.

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PLOS ONE has an open Call for Papers on Freshwater Ecosystems. Researchers working on freshwater ecology are encouraged to submit their work before January 8, 2021.

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About our Guest Editors:

Kirsten Seestern Christoffersen is Professor of Freshwater Ecology at the University of Copenhagen

Ben Abbott is an Assistant Professor at Brigham Young University

The post A river of new ecological data – An Interview with the Guest Editors of our Freshwater Ecosystems Call for Papers appeared first on EveryONE.

Nivi is Professor at University of Göttingen, Germany where she leads the “Psychology of Language” research group at the Georg-Elias-Müller Institute for Psychology. Her work examines the factors underlying word learning and recognition in young children and views word learning as the result of a dynamic mutual interaction between the environment and the learner. She is also one of the Guest Editors of an ongoing PLOS ONE Call for Papers in developmental cognitive psychology in collaboration with the Center for Open Science. This Call has a particular emphasis on reproducibility, transparency in reporting, and pre-registration.

Mariella is a postdoctoral researcher in Nivi’s department. She is interested in how children’s interests shape their word learning, which she investigates using several methods, including EEG, online studies, and meta-analytic approaches. Mariella was one of the co-founders of the Open Science initiative at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, where she did her PhD, and was awarded an eLife Community Ambassadorship to promote open science.

I asked them about their views on how open science affects and shapes their research and their field.

Can you tell me about your interest in open science?

MP: The first time I heard about open science and the replication crisis was during a conference I attended during my Master’s, but I only really got into it during my PhD, when I learned much more about it through academic Twitter and started to apply it to my own research. I think the ideas around open science appealed to me as a (then very) early career researcher (ECR) because they were how I, perhaps idealistically, thought science should be done. I have heard the same sentiment from bachelor’s (or undergrad) students when giving lectures about open science practices: “Why wasn’t it always done like this?”. After learning bits and pieces from Twitter and podcasts, such as ReproducibiliTea and the Black Goat, I got in touch with other ECRs at my institute and we founded an open science initiative, organized workshops for our colleagues and ourselves to learn more about open science, and eventually even started our own ReproducibiliTea journal club, where we read and discuss papers about different open science practices.

NM: My interest in open science is relatively recent. I am quite late to the party and my invitation is by virtue of the people in my lab who keep finding better ways to do science. My interest is driven by the fact that the small steps towards transparency and best practice that we take in successive projects not only makes us more confident of the results we report but also makes us calmer in planning projects. What I find interesting and quite marvelous actually, is that this trend towards greater transparency in research and reporting is being spearheaded by young researchers. That’s really amazing to me, because, as a tenured Professor, that next publication – and lingering difficulties associated with publishing null results – is not going to impact my next paycheck but it might well impact the future prospects of the young researchers who are leading this change, who nevertheless weigh doing science well equally with getting cool results!    

How does transparency in reporting affect your own research?

MP: My PhD consisted largely of conceptual replications, that is, I replicated studies previously done with infants and adults with young children. Directly building on previous studies has clearly illustrated the need for transparent reporting for me – because only with transparent reporting and shared materials one can hope to conduct a close replication. Therefore, for my own research, I aim to report my methods as transparently as possible, to make the lives of future researchers wanting to run replications or meta-analyses easier.

NM: I think the best thing to say for it is that it is frees you. There is, on the one hand, more acceptance these days for the publication of null results, but also, more importantly, greater appreciation for the scientific process rather than the scientific result. This makes it a much more relaxing climate to be a researcher in, since you don’t need to find that perfect result, you need only to document that you went about looking for evidence of that effect in an appropriate manner. This makes you more conscious of critically evaluating your methods prior to testing while leaving you rather calm about the result of your manipulation. So for instance in my group, we now routinely write up the Introduction, Methods and Planned analyses of a paper before we start testing. This makes us think much more about what it is we are actually testing, what we plan to analyze, whether we can conduct the analyses we hope to, and whether that analyses actually tests the hypotheses under consideration. I think this way of planning studies not only makes us methodologically rigorous but also makes us more likely to actually find meaningful effects.

Why do you think pre-registration matters in developmental cognitive psychology?

MP: I think pre-registration can be valuable for any confirmatory study, by adding transparency early during the research process, and by decreasing researchers’ analytic flexibility. In developmental cognitive psychology in particular, we deal with unique issues. For example, when working with infants and young children, data collection and drop-outs require special attention. Pre-registration can help us set some of the parameters around these issues beforehand, for example by pre-specifying transparent data-peeking and planning a correction for sequential testing. I work a lot with EEG, where we additionally have a myriad of analytic decisions to make in how to preprocess the data. Also here, pre-registration can decrease researchers’ analytic flexibility and reduce bias by making these decisions before seeing the data.

NM: Developmental research is plagued with many of the issues in cognitive science, unfortunately amplified by difficulties with regards to access to participant pools (babies are more difficult to recruit relative to undergraduate students) and resulting issues in sample size, shorter attention spans of participants (leading to shorter and less well-powered experiments) as well as greater variance in infant responding. Thinking more carefully about the study and what you actually have adequate power to do – as one is forced to with a preregistration – may help us avoid costly mistakes of running under-powered studies that eventually lead to inconclusive results. From a pragmatic point of view, preregistration, in particular, helps us to better motivate analyses choices that may be questioned later in the process – so in a recent review of a paper, we were asked why we chose a particular exclusion criterion. We did not preregister this analysis (it’s a relatively old study that is only now seeing the light of day) but based this exclusion criterion on previous work – had we preregistered this, it would have been easier for us to justify our choice of this particular exclusion criterion. As it stands now, I can see that a skeptical reviewer may be inclined to believe our choice of this exclusion criterion is post-hoc.

How does the field of developmental cognitive psychology differ now compared to 10-15 years ago, and has open science played a role in that?

MP: I have only been in the field for a few years, but even in that time, I think open science has played a role in the development of the field. For example, large-scale replication efforts such as the ManyBabies project help us better understand central findings in our field, such as infants’ preference for speech presented in a child-directed manner. Similarly, platforms such as Wordbank – an open database of children’s vocabulary – and MetaLab –an interactive tool for meta-analysis in cognitive development – are now available for everyone to run their own studies on large-scale data.

there is greater acceptance of such “failed” experiments these days and this is to a large extent due to our increased appreciation for the scientific process (including open science practices) rather than the result.

NM: To be really honest, on a personal level, I am rather shamefaced about the practices that I believed acceptable 10 years ago. For instance, 10 years ago, I posted on social media that my “failed” experiments folder was 1.5 times larger than my “successful” experiments folder. Back then, it didn’t occur to me that the failed experiments folder (null results to be precise) was as important as the published successful experiments folder – and indeed, they were not failures, because they were providing us valuable information about potential contexts in which we do not find evidence for particular effects. However, now, there is greater acceptance of such “failed” experiments these days and this is to a large extent due to our increased appreciation for the scientific process (including open science practices) rather than the result. At the same time, there is greater emphasis on correct reporting of results, which I belatedly realize, I have been on the wrong side of, by not reporting aspects of the analyses that were important to interpretation of the results. I think this is changing too, with greater awareness of what we need to report when it comes to reporting the analyses we perform.  

What do you see as the greatest challenges for the field going forward?

MP: I think with the current development of the field and psychology in general, there are many challenges as well as opportunities. For many, including myself, one of the most direct challenges recently has been the restrictions on data collection due to the pandemic. With studies in the lab, as we know them, not having been possible (or only to a very limited degree) for over half a year now, many projects needed to be delayed, and we have been forced to rethink our way of planning new experiments. However, this unique situation also offers the possibility to conduct studies that we perhaps usually would not have thought of. For example, meta-analyses of previous studies in the literature can be conducted even when the lab is closed, and so can online-studies, of course. Also, the time away from the lab can be used to get started on new open science practices. For example, a registered report can be written and submitted so that the stage 1 protocol [i.e., a Registered Report Protocol at PLOS ONE] is already accepted by the time testing can be resumed.

NM: We seem to have achieved greater understanding of the requirements of good science, but I do worry about the extent to which we can implement these requirements. How can we run well-powered studies in developmental research, given restrictions on access to population pools and infant attention span? Cross-laboratory efforts (like the ManyBabies projects or a recent project on the effect of the Covid-19 lockdown on language development that I am involved in) here may be the way forward, allowing us to pool resources across laboratories. Equally, we are looking more deeply into sequential Bayesian designs, that may potentially allow us to get around some of the problems I have mentioned (sample size, power, inconclusive results). In general, I think we need to get more inventive about how to continue doing good developmental research.

At the same time, I don’t know if we really know how to analyze our data. In asking the more critical questions that the field is asking these days, I don’t really see one correct answer – and unfortunately, I don’t feel qualified to choose one answer over another. Again, I think greater transparency in research reporting helps here, because I get to post my data and my analyses and the results that I obtained with these analyses. This allows someone else to look through my data and analyze it differently to see if the pattern holds. Having said that, I don’t also think we are where we could be with regards to this solution – at least, I know my group isn’t – with regards to how well we archive our data and how transparent it is for others to use. That is definitely going to be one of the challenges we will face going forward.

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