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Articles on Mapping

Displaying 1 - 20 of 60 articles.

Roads of destruction: we found vast numbers of illegal ‘ghost roads’ used to crack open pristine rainforest

Bill Laurance , James Cook University

The world’s coral reefs are bigger than we thought – but it took satellites, snorkels and machine learning to see them

Mitchell Lyons , The University of Queensland and Stuart Phinn , The University of Queensland

We used AI and satellite imagery to map ocean activities that take place out of sight, including fishing, shipping and energy development

Jennifer Raynor , University of Wisconsin-Madison

They say we know more about the Moon than about the deep sea. They’re wrong

Prema Arasu , The University of Western Australia ; Alan Jamieson , Newcastle University , and Thomas Linley , Newcastle University

New satellite mapping with AI can quickly pinpoint hurricane damage across an entire state to spot where people may be trapped

Zhe Zhu , University of Connecticut and Su Ye , University of Connecticut

Maps show – and hide – key information about Ukraine war

Timothy Barney , University of Richmond

Mountain glaciers may hold less ice than previously thought – here’s what that means for 2 billion downstream water users and sea level rise

Mathieu Morlighem , Dartmouth College

Disaster-mapping drones often neglect deadliest, costliest events and hardest-hit areas

Maja Kucharczyk , University of Calgary and Chris Hugenholtz , University of Calgary

How early Australian settlers drew maps to erase Indigenous people and push ideas of colonial superiority

Imogen Wegman , University of Tasmania

Maps can bridge gaps between citizens, scientists and policymakers

Sukhmani Mantel , Rhodes University

3 medical innovations fueled by COVID-19 that will outlast the pandemic

Deborah Fuller , University of Washington ; Albert H. Titus , University at Buffalo , and Nevan Krogan , University of California, San Francisco

The way we use data is a life or death matter – from the refugee crisis to COVID-19

Doug Specht , University of Westminster and Monika Halkort , Lebanese American University

Marie Tharp pioneered mapping the bottom of the ocean 6 decades ago – scientists are still learning about Earth’s last frontier

Suzanne OConnell , Wesleyan University

Balloon releases have deadly consequences – we’re helping citizen scientists map them

Lara O'Brien , University of Michigan and Shannon Brines , University of Michigan

6 things to ask yourself before you share a bushfire map on social media

Juan Pablo Guerschman , CSIRO

As Digital Earth gains momentum, China is setting the pace

Davina Jackson , University of Kent

Public places through kids’ eyes – what do they value?

Fran Gale , Western Sydney University and Michel Edenborough , Western Sydney University

We mapped how food gets from farms to your home

Megan Konar , University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

These artists paint with their feet – scans show how unique their brains are

Harriet Dempsey-Jones , UCL

Canada’s UN submission will (eventually) draw the last lines on the map

Andrea Charron , University of Manitoba

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Visiting Scholar, Department of Architecture, University of Cambridge

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Distinguished Research Professor and Australian Laureate, James Cook University

Adjunct professor, The University of Western Australia

Professor of Spatial Information, The University of Melbourne

Ethnobotanist, Centre for International Forestry Research

Professor, Graduate School of Business and Law, RMIT University

Professor in Robotics, Queensland University of Technology

Professor in Soil-Landscape Modelling, University of Sydney

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Research Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland

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Research Officer in Forests and Environment Programme, Centre for International Forestry Research

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Mapping science: How GIS transformed our view of the world

It’s a busy day anywhere in the world. You roll out of bed and grab your smartphone. You check a news website or a weather app or look up directions to an appointment. Most people don’t think about it much, but those modern-day conveniences depend on spatial data — on maps that connect and overlay information about different aspects of the world.

That spatial data is organized using geographic information systems (GIS), computer-based tools used to store, visualize, analyze and interpret geographic data. Information about roads, topography, weather conditions, landmarks, businesses and more are organized into layers that can be combined and displayed on maps.

The ubiquity of GIS today goes well beyond your smartphone to systems used by industry — for example, to ensure products and people get where they need to go — to various scientific applications. It helps epidemiologists map the spread of disease, ecologists understand the movement of wildlife and climate scientists understand changes in glaciers, sea levels and regional weather patterns. Furthermore, GIS assists social scientists studying global conflict and immigration and urban planners and engineers determining the best places for new development and infrastructure.

How did our GIS-dependent world and GIS-related science evolve, and where did GIS come from? It turns out the U.S. National Science Foundation played a central role in the technology’s development and growth. And that support continues today. In the last two years alone, NSF has awarded about 180 grants, totaling more than $83 million, to support research related to GIS — in fields ranging from geography to math, computer science, geology, anthropology and education.

From spatial data handling to geographic information science

When GIS was first developed in the 1950s and 60s, it was referred to as spatial data handling, reflecting the field’s origin as a technical pursuit — using computers to manage, display and analyze spatial data.

In 1969, Jack Dangermond and his wife Laura started the Environmental Systems Research Institute, now known as Esri, to help clients use GIS for land-use and planning projects. Over time, that work transformed into a business selling the software that Esri had developed for those projects. “We started really with the idea of abstracting geographic information as layers, putting it into the computer,” Jack Dangermond recalled, “… we had to sort of make up aspects of what we were doing. We had to invent data models.”

By the 80s, practitioners were debating whether GIS was more than just a map-making and analysis technology. In 1988, the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA) was established as an NSF-funded consortium among UC Santa Barbara, the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Maine.

Over the following decade, NCGIA initiatives covered fundamental questions about spatial data, including its accuracy and representation. The program also delved into more technical questions related to using, managing and sharing large datasets and explored GIS applications for studying global change, law, social policy and more. In the midst of this flurry of research activity, the center developed the first core curriculum in GIS.

The research and curricular output of NCGIA helped elevate the study of geographic information systems into a science. “I argued that it would make a lot of sense to use the same acronym, GIS, but with a spectrum of meaning from ‘S equals system’ to ‘S equals science,’” said Michael Goodchild, emeritus distinguished professor at UCSB and former longtime director of NCGIA. “It was a concerted effort to turn GIS into a recognized science.”

A $28 billion industry

As the 1990s wound to a close, NCGIA’s efforts had spun off into several related NSF-supported centers, including the Center for Spatially Integrated Social Science and the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis , both at UCSB. The use of GIS in science had spread from geography to sociology and criminology and from geology to conservation science, ecology and engineering. Thanks in large part to NCGIA’s core curriculum, GIS teaching had also spread.

Use of both open-source and proprietary software, like what Esri offers, has accelerated into what Dangermond estimates is a “$28 billion ecosystem of applications.” The GIS Certification Institute estimated in 2020 that there were more than 675,000 people working as GIS professionals.

“The National Science Foundation's insight to invest in this center has had enormous leverage,” said Dangermond. “It’s perhaps one of the most leveraged investments that NSF has ever made.”

The Center for Spatially Integrated Social Sciences has picked up where NCGIA left off, supporting more research initiatives and focusing on workshops aimed at training social scientists in GIS tools and theory. The intertwined development of GIS science, technology and applications also continues. Dangermond describes them as the sides of a triangle whose proportions change over time. “Sometimes research grows and then technology catches up. ... Sometimes applications push forward, sometimes the basic technology changes things.”

Bringing fields together, guided by maps

GIS was originally developed to integrate maps with computer systems. But now there’s very few technologies that don’t have a GIS component. “Navigation, weather forecasts, delivery systems, it’s all fueled by spatial data science,” said Trisalyn Nelson , the Jack and Laura Dangermond Chair of Geography at UCSB. “And the thing is, people often don’t realize they are using spatial technology, but they would notice if it stopped working.”

UCSB strategically invested in GIS researchers, projects and centers early on. Faculty like Goodchild worked hard to develop the technology into a fully-fledged scientific discipline, and geographic information science has continued to be a strong suit of the university. GIS is integrated into research across campus, and UCSB hosts the Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science, which promotes spatial thinking and analytics across academia, industry and government agencies.

UCSB’s faculty continue to find novel applications for GIS. Somayeh Dodge, an NSF grantee, uses movement to investigate changes and feedback between groups and their environment — from local responses to wildfire to the behavior of big cats in Thailand. Meanwhile, Amy Frazier, also an NSF grantee, uses GIS, machine learning and statistics to inform conservation decisions. She hopes that biological and environmental data can help policy-makers triage which regions to protect in order to maximize benefits to biodiversity and climate resilience.

Nelson herself uses GIS to understand transportation and how big data can inform better urban planning. Nelson led the creation of BikeMaps.org, a web-map and app to gather volunteered geographic information on bicycling collisions and near misses.

Trisalyn Nelson

Trisalyn Nelson is passionate about creating a positive culture and supporting diversity. She values partnerships, particularly connection between industry and academics, that enable innovation of methods and approaches to solving critical issues.

The use of AI to synthesize spatial data also presents opportunities and challenges, along with the creation of digital twins — computer models of real-world systems that are so powerful that they can be used to mimic and predict real-world scenarios. Data sharing and access are also important issues — democratizing the benefits of GIS.

“Artificial intelligence is vastly disrupting the educational system and also the research world,” said Goodchild. “We’ve started using AI for prediction. We’re also using AI for spatial search.”

Whatever comes out of these new developments, GIS has already come a long way, from spatial data handling to a vibrant field of science that forms the basis for integrative approaches to help address some of the most critical issues in modern society.

This story was adapted from a version provided by the National Science Foundation and written by Margaret Pizer.

Harrison Tasoff Science Writer (805) 893-7220 [email protected]

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About UC Santa Barbara

The University of California, Santa Barbara is a leading research institution that also provides a comprehensive liberal arts learning experience. Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration from the beauty and resources of our extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.

Mapping reviews, scoping reviews, and evidence and gap maps (EGMs): the same but different— the “Big Picture” review family

Fiona Campbell ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4141-8863 1 ,
Andrea C. Tricco 2 ,
Zachary Munn 3 ,
Danielle Pollock 3 ,
Ashrita Saran 4 ,
Anthea Sutton 5 ,
Howard White 6 &
Hanan Khalil 7

Systematic Reviews volume 12 , Article number: 45 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 01 April 2023

This article has been updated

Scoping reviews, mapping reviews, and evidence and gap maps are evidence synthesis methodologies that address broad research questions, aiming to describe a bigger picture rather than address a specific question about intervention effectiveness. They are being increasingly used to support a range of purposes including guiding research priorities and decision making. There is however a confusing array of terminology used to describe these different approaches. In this commentary, we aim to describe where there are differences in terminology and where this equates to differences in meaning. We demonstrate the different theoretical routes that underpin these differences. We suggest ways in which the approaches of scoping and mapping reviews may differ in order to guide consistency in reporting and method. We propose that mapping and scoping reviews and evidence and gap maps have similarities that unite them as a group but also have unique differences. Understanding these similarities and differences is important for informing the development of methods used to undertake and report these types of evidence synthesis.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Evidence synthesis(defined broadly as the rigorous collation, evaluation and analysis of literature, studies, and reports) is increasingly viewed as critical to inform decision making in policy and practice. Over the past three decades, as various methods of evidence synthesis have emerged and evolved, the systems and labels used to categorize different review types have proliferated. A recent catalog of evidence synthesis approaches and terms identified 48 distinct review types [ 1 ]. Moher et al. (2015) [ 2 ], describes them as a “family” of evidence synthesis products that have arisen in response to policymakers and other stakeholders needs for diverse forms of information. This growth reflects the increased value placed on evidence synthesis to inform decision making, and we now see evidence synthesis used to address a broader range of research questions beyond effectiveness, along with tailored approaches (in terms of methods and products) to evidence synthesis as appropriate for different research needs, purposes, situations, and audiences [ 3 ].

Examples of approaches that are increasingly seen in the published literature are scoping reviews, mapping reviews, and evidence and gap maps (EGMs). Scoping reviews, mapping reviews, and EGMs are relatively new approaches that rarely appeared before 2009 [ 4 , 5 ]. Scoping reviews, evidence maps, and evidence and gap maps have been grouped together as “Big Picture” approaches due to their shared purpose and approaches. These Big Picture reviews can be contrasted with systematic reviews (addressing interventions, diagnostic test accuracy, prognosis, etc.) as they have a broader scope as compared to the (normally) narrower scope of classic systematic reviews. There have been consistent yearly increases in the publication of scoping, mapping, and evidence and gap maps [ 6 ]. Despite this, there remains confusion as to their application, meaning, and whether differences exist between them. This commentary aims to clarify these approaches, identify any differences between them, and provide recommendations for reviewers.

Terminology matters

This growing and evolving family of evidence synthesis types presents some challenges [ 7 ].

Firstly, there is the challenge of choosing the correct approach, particularly when terms are used inconsistently in the literature. The selection of an appropriate review approach will ensure the correct methods are employed using the appropriate standards for both its conduct and reporting. Indexing and wider dissemination can be challenging for researchers when there is ambiguity in terms [ 8 , 9 ].

Scoping reviews and mapping reviews—how are they used in the literature

Scoping reviews, mapping reviews, and evidence maps are terms that are not used consistently in the literature, with different terms used to describe similar approaches and review objectives. The same term is also used to describe different approaches and review objectives. Within the published literature, the terms scoping reviews and mapping reviews appear to be used in three different ways. Firstly, the terms “mapping” and “scoping” reviews are used interchangeably, referring to the same type of review methodology [ 5 , 6 , 10 ]. This approach is also one that is used in the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) [ 11 ], providing guidance to inform reporting standards [ 12 ]. This may therefore have been influential in increasing the use of the term scoping review over the use of the term mapping review. Examination of published reviews does not reveal differences in method between these approaches (Campbell et al., 2022 publication in press).

Secondly, we see the terms used as complementary to the other. Some definitions tend to use the terms in a way which suggest that mapping is a specific approach to scoping—or vice versa. For example, “scoping reviews can usefully map the evidence in a number of ways” [ 13 ] and “scoping reviews are a way of mapping the key concepts” [ 14 ]. Lukersmith et al. (2016) [ 15 ] and Fernadez-Sotos et al. (2019) [ 16 ] suggest that the term map is a descriptive term used to describe one of the purposes of the scoping review. A mapping review may also scope the literature. It has also been suggested that when the term mapping is included in the description of the method that the review will incorporate a geographical mapping exercise or charting of the data in a tabular or any other visual format that can plot or portray the data.

Finally, we see scoping and mapping used to describe different types of evidence synthesis, and a distinction is made between mapping and scoping reviews [ 1 , 17 ]. These authors suggest that scoping reviews are “preliminary assessment of potential size and scope of available research literature which aims to identify nature and extent of research evidence (usually including ongoing research)”. It also is a term that has emerged within the systematic review field to describe the preliminary work undertaken with information specialists in planning the review, by getting a sense of the size of the literature, to identify key terms and theories and potentially clinical experts [ 18 ]. Within these definitions, mapping reviews are distinguished from a scoping review because the subsequent outcome may involve either further review work or primary research and this outcome is not known beforehand. For the purpose of this paper, we will refer to these as a scoping exercise instead of a formal scoping review methodology. Scoping exercises within this definition would not usually be regarded as a final output in their own right, primarily because of limitations in their rigor mean that they hold the potential for bias.

Gough et al. (2012) [ 19 ] suggest that the term scoping review often describes a more rapid, and so usually non-systematic, approach to describing the nature of the literature on a topic area, sometimes as part of planning for a systematic review compared with a standard systematic review. It is also important to note that there are published rapid scoping reviews where streamlined methods are used, but transparency and rigor are maintained to produce quicker results for decision-making purposes. Examples of these types of rapid scoping reviews include rapid responses to policy questions during the COVID-19 pandemic [ 20 , 21 ].

An alternative view of the difference comes from Bragge et al. (2011) [ 22 ] who suggests that a scoping review is distinguished from mapping by the inclusion of research results in the description of relevant evidence, whereas maps simply describe what is there without collating and summarizing the results of the studies.

So, even where the types of products are seen as different, there is not a consistent approach in this difference. Nevertheless, understanding why they are considered different is important in considering what is lost, in terms of an apt descriptor, if the terms are amalgamated and used interchangeably.

Historical origins

One reason that the terms scoping and mapping have emerged to describe two similar methodological approaches addressing broad types of research questions lies in the academic traditions from which they derive and the epistemological foundations upon which these are built. Scoping reviews and scoping review methodological guidance [ 12 ] tends to cite the framework defined by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) [ 23 ] and later enhancements by Levac et al. (2010) [ 24 ]. These approaches have their roots in sociological sciences. In contrast, the term evidence mapping was first used by Katz et al. (2003) [ 25 ] and has roots in the natural sciences. This was the term adopted by the EPPI Center in an early publication of a mapping review and is the term used by the Center for Environmental Evidence for the environmental sciences. The approach to evidence mapping accompanied by a visual evidence and gap map has been developed by several agencies (see Saran and White, 2018) [ 26 ], most notably by the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) [ 27 ] in the field of international development and subsequently adopted and adapted to a wider a range of sectors through the Campbell Collaboration. These include, for example, transport [ 28 ], youth violence, disability (Saran et al. [ 29 ]), employment (Campbell et al. [ 30 ]), and health and elder abuse [ 31 ] (Table 1 ).

Suggested approaches for distinguishing between mapping reviews and mapping reviews with EGMs and scoping reviews

The emergence of two terms (scoping and mapping) to describe approaches that have much in common in terms of their objectives and methods suggests that the terms used will be shaped more by the academic background of the researcher than by inherent differences in the approaches.

Currently, as we have shown, there are many instances where “mapping and scoping” are used interchangeably. We argue, in this paper, that while there is considerable overlap between these approaches, there is value in creating a distinction between scoping reviews, mapping reviews, and evidence gap maps. They also could be considered complementary, and a review may have elements of both “mapping” and “scoping.” Each approach, within this family of “broad approach and exploratory reviews” however has a shared objective which is to overview a wider research/topic area, rather than to address a tightly focused question. The methods thereafter diverge in part to address the nature of the research question, the research objectives, the topic area, the depth required for the data extraction, and the expertise of the review team.

We propose that a useful distinction is to see mapping, scoping, and EGMs sitting within the same family of types addressing broad questions but sitting on a spectrum in some of their underpinning epistemologies, concepts, and hence objectives (Fig. 1 ).

This is illustrated in the figure below:

The Big Picture review family (commonalities and differences in approaches)

Scoping review

These review types have been variously defined and described in the literature as described above. To address the confusion in this field, a recent formal definition of scoping reviews has been proposed, describing scoping reviews as follows:

It is a type of evidence synthesis that aims to systematically identify and map the breadth of evidence available on a particular topic, field, concept, or issue, often irrespective of source (i.e., primary research, reviews, non-empirical evidence) within or across particular contexts. Scoping reviews can clarify key concepts/definitions in the literature and identify key characteristics or factors related to a concept, including those related to methodological research [ 32 ].

They can be more exploratory than mapping reviews and EGMs, not requiring an a priori set of codes in order to describe data and may draw upon a range of sources of information (i.e., primary research, reviews, non-empirical evidence) within or across particular contexts. The approach can be more iterative, inductive, or deductive [ 32 ]. The nature of the “cataloging” and coding may be in response to what is found within the literature or using pre-defined categorization codes. Scoping reviews can also be used to identify concepts and clarify terms in the literature. In contrast to a mapping review where the process of coding is predefined. Within a scoping review, the data extracted may be textual and descriptive, allowing for example an analysis of concepts and categories using simple content analysis. It may include both predefined coding and also exploration of themes (for example, Kelly-Blake et al. 2018 [ 33 ]). In contrast, along a continuum, mapping reviews will address broader questions, use predefined coding, and adopt less in-depth data extraction.

Mapping review

Mapping reviews are also a transparent, rigorous, and systematic approach to identifying, describing, and cataloging evidence and evidence gaps in a broader topic area. They are to collate, describe, and catalog the available evidence relating to the question of interest [ 18 ]. They aim to answer the question “what do we know about a topic,” or “what and where research exists on a particular area.” A mapping review typically extracts only descriptive information about the studies and applies predefined codes (high level data). In this sense, they may be informed by an “aggregative” logic. A mapping review may or may not be accompanied by an EGM but provides visual summaries in the form of tables and graphs within the text [ 36 ]. These types of reviews may well have broader focus than a scoping review, with more limited data extracted from the included papers.

Evidence and gap maps

Evidence and gap maps are described as “a systematic presentation of all relevant evidence of a specified kind for a particular sector, sub-sector, or geography”. Evidence and gap maps (EGMs) are a systematic evidence synthesis product which displays the available evidence relevant to a specific research question. EGMs consist of primary dimensions or framework (rows and columns) and secondary dimensions or filters, enabling exploration of the map using a particular focus (e.g., looking at particular populations or study designs). It creates a visual, web-based, and interactive output [ 34 ].

This type of evidence synthesis generally uses a deductive approach with a pre-specified framework to classify the data and identify gaps in the literature. However, if no suitable framework is available, then the research team can develop their own by drawing on the range of resources, such as strategy documents, policy document, and funder reports. This is one of the major differences between mapping with an EGM review and scoping reviews (for the latter, an inductive or deductive approach may be used to identify relevant data elements so the framework for classification of the data and identification of gaps does not need to be pre-specified). Evidence gap maps may accompany a mapping review as a visual representation of the included studies or can stand independently from an accompanying mapping review.

All three of these approaches are characterized by seeking to address a broader topic area rather than a specific intervention or exposure. They are an appropriate tool if the research question is one in which multiple dimensions need to be considered, for example, multiple interventions, outcomes, or types of evidence. They do not aim to synthesize data but rather describe, categorize, and catalog findings. They aim to do so by applying defined methods to ensure transparency and rigor in the process of identifying, screening, data extraction, and interpreting findings. By addressing a broad topic area these approaches support the following purposes [ 3 ]:

Knowledge generation to support broad research questions and objectives such as the following:

What types of evidence are available in a given field?

How are concepts or definitions used within the literature?

How and where research is conducted on a certain topic?

The type of broad research question will inform the choice of approach. Scoping reviews are more likely to address open questions and the concepts may be emergent such “how is a key term used within the literature,” in contrast a mapping review may address more closed questions such as “how often the key term is used within the literature and within which population groups.” An evidence gap map will similarly address a closed question, for example, “is the term used in the following types of population group: children, adolescents, older people, and people with chronic conditions.”

Scoping reviews can provide an approach that allows exploration and clarification of key concepts and definitions within the literature, as well as how research is undertaken. As this approach does not require predefined categories, it allows for more descriptive data extraction. Often the question will be narrower than in a mapping review, allowing a greater depth of exploration of the included studies.

These approaches enable a better understanding is gained of phenomena by seeing it within a wider context. Olson et al. 2021 [ 37 ] uses the allegory of the blind monks who examine the elephant, where close inspection of one part of the whole means that meaning is lost. A complete picture is needed to really understand what the elephant is. It is clear, when seeking to operationalize what is meant by a “broad” topic area that perspective matters. For a cell biologist, the cell nucleus might be a broad topic, which a single country might be too narrow a perspective for the geographer. Understanding this unique feature of “Big Picture” reviews is perhaps easier when seen in contrast to the approach used in a systematic review examining the effectiveness of a single intervention. A Big Picture review question will look at multiple interventions or exposures and multiple outcomes or effects, seeking not to synthesize but to describe (Table 2 ).

To provide a foundation for guiding future research priorities and decisions by identifying available evidence and gaps in research

Mapping reviews and EGMs incorporate a framework that is generated during development of the protocol—it is this framework which guides the development of the data extraction tool or coding tool. This framework becomes the “map” against which existing evidence is plotted.

Identifying research gaps is often a stated part of all types of research; indeed, implications for “research and practice” are an expected part of all health and social care-related research. Identifying research gaps is often a primary purpose of scoping, mapping, and mapping reviews with EGMs more than other types of review design. In particular, mapping reviews with or without evidence gap maps address this purpose with a transparency and rigor that is unique.

Evidence and gap maps aim to enable evidence to be located, both by showing what is there but also in demonstrating knowledge gaps. In order to identify knowledge gaps, an EGM begins by developing the framework against which the evidence is plotted. The development of the framework adheres to the following principles. Firstly, it may be constructed using an existing, widely accepted international typology for either interventions, exposures, or outcomes. Secondly, if no suitable framework is available then the research team may draw on a range of resources including consultation with stakeholders and relevant published theories to ensure the comprehensiveness of the framework. Without such a structure, the gaps are not identified in a systematic way, but rather inferred and chosen by the review authors (no doubt well informed) but nevertheless influenced by their own perspectives and bias. This may be particularly apparent where a review is undertaken to pave the way for further primary research by the same team. Review teams could be strongly invested in identifying their own planned research as the “research gap.”

Evidence gap maps are a systematic approach to identifying the evidence and in particular—its gaps. No other review methodology has developed a systematic approach to identifying gaps in the evidence with this level of rigor and transparency. A limitation of the approach is that it only charts what is known and does not allow a more exploratory approach that may be employed in a scoping review.

Mapping and mapping reviews with EGMs aim to describe the state of evidence for a question or topic. The review questions may therefore be open framed and broad. However, the question can be close framed and narrow. Key elements of the question can be formulated by a framework such as PO (population, outcome). For an EGM, the objectives are formalized in the framework which defines the scope of the map [ 34 ].

To inform policy decisions, where an overview of an area may be more helpful than specific questions about specific types of interventions

Mapping (with or without an EGM) and scoping reviews often have pertinence for policy makers as they are able to cover the breadth of science often needed for policy-based questions; however, it needs to be remembered that the mapping approaches do not synthesize the findings and not include quality or risk of bias appraisal. These factors may limit their value to support some types of policy decisions. However, a mapping review with an accompanying EGM can take users to the research papers and facilitate the ready location of relevant evidence. An EGM can take users to the research papers and facilitate the ready location of relevant evidence. One example has been the use of a country evaluation map used by the Office of the Prime Minister of Uganda to identify studies to inform policy work [ 38 ]. Similarly, scoping reviews can inform policy and further research through identifying the available literature pertaining to a particular topic, along with clarifying key concepts and definitions.

As a stepping stone to building the evidence architecture

Evidence mapping and EGMs may be used as a first step towards the generation of evidence-based decision-making products, such as guidance, checklists, and online decision-making tools [ 39 ]. Maps will identify the (i) existing reviews which are suitable to use a basis for guidance, etc., (ii) where there are clusters of primary studies but no review so reviews may be commissioned in priority areas to inform guidance, etc., and (iii) important policy areas in which evidence is missing. To serve this purpose, the map should be regularly updated (maintained).

While the literature is inconsistent in its definitions of these types of reviews, and different reviews use different terminology to describe methods that appear very similar, many of these differences reflect the different research traditions and adoption of terms within organizations undertaking these types of syntheses. We argue that there is value in having these distinct terms to describe the different approaches within this family of broad review types. Scoping reviews allow a more inductive, in-depth approach with, including fewer included studies and a greater level of data extraction compared with mapping reviews. Mapping reviews and evidence gap maps address more closed questions, with pre-specified items defined and code-able when contrasted with scoping reviews. Evidence gap maps offer a visual, interactive output for users to locate evidence. The predefined framework offers a rigor to locating gaps in the existing literature and displaying these differences which is unique to these approaches.

This proposed new “Big Picture” review family within evidence synthesis contributes to the wide array of possible approaches to synthesizing literature. This multitude of choice presents challenges in selecting the correct evidence synthesis methodology. One tool that has been developed to assist in the appropriate selection of a method is the “right review” tool ( https://whatreviewisrightforyou.knowledgetranslation.net/ ). The tool enables researchers to answer a series of simple questions regarding the type of research questions they are undertaking for their review and selects an appropriate type of review based on their answers to the questions. The tool currently includes 41 different types of evidence synthesis methods [ 40 ].

A recent development has been changes made to the SR Toobox ( http://systematicreviewtools.com/index.php ) to include searching for tools to support different review types, as well as for different stages of the review. The Big Picture review family is increasingly well supported by methodological guidance and automation tools to support the process of undertaking high quality systematic reviews.

The existing guidance for the conduct and reporting of scoping reviews also applies to mapping reviews (JBI). Further development is needed in the methods of preparing a coding framework, particularly when the mapping review will also include the development of an interactive EGM. Current models of good practice exist; however, current guidance and reporting standards are limited.

This commentary details and describes some of the broad approaches within the evidence synthesis toolkit, specifically scoping reviews, mapping reviews, and EGMs. We have identified similarities and differences, based on our expert experience, between these reviews. We propose grouping them as a family of evidence synthesis to address broad research question and objectives. In so doing, we advocate that adherence to the principles of rigor and transparency that give users of evidence synthesis confidence in the reliability of the results of the review.

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Acknowledgements

Andrea Tricco is funded by the Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Synthesis.

Zachary Munn is funded by an NHMRC Investigator grant APP1195676.

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Fiona Campbell

Knowledge Translation Program of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health & Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation, Toronto, Canada

Andrea C. Tricco

JBI, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

Zachary Munn & Danielle Pollock

International Development Coordinating Group, Campbell Collaboration, Oslo, Norway

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ScHARR, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

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Evaluation and Evidence Synthesis, Global Development Network, New Delhi, India

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School of Psychology and Public Health, Department of Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

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FC and HW conceived the idea for the paper, and FC initiated the initial draft. HK, AT, HW, ZM, AS, and AS contributed to the comments and edits of subsequent drafts of the paper. HK and FC are co-chairs in the NAVIGATOR method group and took a lead in the preparation of this work. The final manuscript has been read, edited, and agreed by all the contributing authors.

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Campbell, F., Tricco, A.C., Munn, Z. et al. Mapping reviews, scoping reviews, and evidence and gap maps (EGMs): the same but different— the “Big Picture” review family. Syst Rev 12 , 45 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02178-5

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Scientists just drafted an incredibly detailed map of the human brain

A massive suite of papers offers a high-res view of the human and non-human primate brain.

Cassandra Willyard archive page

color lithograph of the rear cross-section of a brain and spine superimposed on an old map

This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review's weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here .

When scientists first looked at brain tissue under a microscope, they saw an impenetrable and jumbled mess. Santiago Ramon y Cajal, the father of modern neuroscience, likened the experience to walking into a forest with a hundred billion trees, “looking each day at blurry pieces of a few of those trees entangled with one another, and, after a few years of this, trying to write an illustrated field guide to the forest,” according to the authors of The Beautiful Brain , a book about Cajal’s work.

Today, scientists have a first draft of that guide. In a set of 21 new papers published across three journals, the teams report that they've developed large-scale whole-brain cell atlases for humans and non-human primates. This work, part of the National Institutes of Health BRAIN Initiative , is the culmination of five years of research. “It's not just an atlas,” says Ed Lein, a neuroscientist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and one of the lead authors. “It's really opening up a whole new field, where you can now look with extremely high cellular resolution in brains of species where this typically hasn't been possible in the past.”

Welcome back to The Checkup. Let’s talk brains.

What is a brain atlas, and what makes this one different?

A brain atlas is a 3-D map of the brain. Some brain atlases already exist, but this new suite of papers provides unprecedented resolution of the whole brain for humans and non-human primates. The human brain atlas includes the location and function of more than 3,000 cell types in adult and developing individuals. “This is far and away the most complete description of the human brain at this kind of level, and the first description in many brain regions,” Lein says. But it’s still a first draft.

The work is part of the BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network , which kicked off in 2017 with the aim of generating a comprehensive 3-D reference brain cell atlas for mice (that project is still in the works). The results reported on October 12 were part of a set of pilot studies to validate whether the methods used in mice would work for bigger brains. Spoiler: those methods did work. Really well, in fact.

What did these initial studies find?

The human brain is really, really complex. I know, shocker! Thus far, the teams have identified more than 3,300 cell types. And as the resolution gets even higher (that’s what they’re working on now), they’re likely to uncover many more. Efforts to develop an atlas of the mouse brain, which are further along, have identified 5,000 cell types. (For more, check out these preprints: 1 and 2 )

But underneath that complexity are some commonalities. Many regions, for example, share cell types, but they have them in different proportions.

And the location of that complexity is surprising. Neuroscience has focused much of its research on the outer shell of the brain, which is responsible for memory, learning, language, and more. But the majority of cellular diversity is actually in older evolutionary structures deep inside the brain, Lein says.

How did they make these atlases?

The classic neuroscience approach to classifying cell types relies on either cell shape–think of star-shaped astrocytes –or the cells’ type of activity–such as fast-spiking interneurons. “These cell atlases capitalize on a new suite of technologies that come from genomics,” Lein says, primarily a technique known as single-cell sequencing.

First, the researchers start with a small piece of frozen brain tissue from a biobank. “You take a tissue, you grind it up, you profile lots of cells to try to make sense of it,” Lein says. They make sense of it by sequencing the cells’ nuclei to look at the genes that are being expressed. “Each cell type has a coherent set of genes that they typically use. And you can measure all these genes and then cluster all the types of cells on the basis of their overall gene expression pattern,” Lein says. Then, using imaging data from the donor brain, they can put this functional information where it belongs spatially.

How can scientists use these brain cell atlases?

So many ways. But one crucial use is to help understand the basis of brain diseases. A reference human brain atlas that describes a normal or neurotypical brain could help researchers understand depression or schizophrenia or many other kinds of diseases, Lein says. Take Alzheimer’s as an example. You could apply these same methods to characterize the brains of people with differing levels of severity of Alzheimer’s, and then compare those brain maps with the reference atlas. “And now you can start to ask questions like, ‘Are certain kinds of cells vulnerable in disease, or are certain kinds of cells causal,” Lein says. (He’s part of a team that’s already working on this .) Rather than investigating plaques and tangles, researchers can ask questions about “very specific kinds of neurons that are the real circuit elements that are likely to be perturbed and have functional consequences,” he says.

What’s the next step?

Better resolution. “The next phase is really moving into very comprehensive coverage of the human and non-human primate brain in adults and development.” In fact, that work has already begun with the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network , a five-year, $500 million project. The aim is to generate a complete reference atlas of cell types in the human brain across the lifespan, and also to map cell interactions that underlie a wide range of brain disorders.

It’s a level of detail that Ramon y Cajal couldn’t have imagined.

Another thing

Gene editing helped chickens resist bird flu. “It could take decades to work through the necessary technical and regulatory steps, but researchers say CRISPR gene editing could eventually save countless chickens’ lives—and transform animal farming,” writes Abdullahi Tsanni .

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Scientists built the largest-ever map of the human brain. Here's what they found

Jon Hamilton

Scientists have built an enormous atlas of the human brain that could help them chart a path toward preventing and treating many different neurological disorders. Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images hide caption

Scientists have built an enormous atlas of the human brain that could help them chart a path toward preventing and treating many different neurological disorders.

Scientists are one step closer to understanding the 170 billion brain cells that allow us to walk, talk, and think.

A newly published atlas offers the most detailed maps yet of the location, structure, and, in some cases, function of more than 3,000 types of brain cells.

"We really need this kind of information if we're going to understand what makes us unique as humans, or what makes us different as individuals, or how the brain develops," says Ed Lein , a senior investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle and one of hundreds of researchers who worked on the maps.

The atlas also offers a new way to study neuropsychiatric conditions ranging from Alzheimer's to depression.

"You can use this map to understand what actually happens in disease and what kinds of cells might be vulnerable or affected," Lein says.

And the atlas is "critical for understanding how well different species can model human brain physiology, pathology and therapeutic response," write Alyssa Weninger and Paola Arlotta in a commentary accompanying the scientific papers.

Brain cells, interrupted: How some genes may cause autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia

Shots - Health News

Brain cells, interrupted: how some genes may cause autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia.

Weninger is a researcher at the University of North Carolina. Arlotta is a professor at Harvard and also holds a position at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass.

The atlas arrived in the form of more than 20 research papers published simultaneously in three scientific journals: Science, Science Advances, and Science Translational Medicine.

Even so, the project still isn't finished. Researchers expect to find even more types of brain cells, and they don't fully understand some of the ones they've already found.

Take "splatter neurons," for example. The name describes what these highly complex cells look like when they're represented in two dimensions, instead of three. (Picture what a bug does when it hits a windshield.)

"When you do that with these types of neurons, it looks a bit like a Rorschach test," Lien says.

Goats and Soda

Risk factor for parkinson's discovered in genes from people of african descent.

In its current form, the atlas amounts to a first draft, Lien says, one that only begins to encompass the full complexity of the human brain.

"But it really has set the stage to show that this is a definable system," he says.

Mice, humans, and gorillas

Already, the atlas is offering a way to see how the human brain differs from animal brains.

Humans have specialized cells for processing visual information that aren't found in mice, says Dr. Trygve Bakken , an assistant investigator at the Allen Institute who worked on the atlas.

"We share kind of a basic plan with mice," he says, "but we see specializations in primates that we don't necessarily see in a mouse."

Those cells are present in chimps and gorillas, whose brains were also mapped as part of the atlas project. But in those species, scientists found subtle differences in the brain areas that humans use to process language.

"There really is a conserved set of cell types that we share with chimpanzees and gorillas," Bakken says. "But the gene expression has changed in those cells."

The changes in gene expression affect the connections between cells. That suggests humans' language abilities are the result of different wiring, not different cells. And that is a job for a whole different effort known as the Human Connectome Project , which is mapping the connections that allow individual brain cells to form vast networks.

Mapping new treatments

The atlas project is funded largely by the National Institutes of Health as part of its ongoing BRAIN Initiative, which was launched a decade ago by president Obama.

One goal of the initiative is to find new treatments for brain disorders. And the atlas could help make that a reality.

Why beautiful sadness — in music, in art — evokes a special pleasure

Alzheimer's, autism, depression and schizophrenia can all be driven by tiny variations in our DNA.

Scientists have found hundreds of these changes. But they have struggled to understand precisely how they affect individual brain cells.

So as part of the atlas project, a team of scientists created a sort of dictionary that allows scientists to link certain genetic changes to specific types of brain cells.

"For example, we found that late- onset Alzheimer's [is] particularly associated with a type of cell we call microglia," says Bing Ren , a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California, San Diego.

Microglia are immune cells that are known to become activated in Alzheimer's patients. Many researchers believe this process contributes to the loss of neurons involved in memory and thinking.

Ren's dictionary also connected one particular set of neurons to genes that raise the risk of major depressive disorder, and linked a different set of neurons to schizophrenia genes.

"I hope our work will allow scientists to develop new strategies for treating these disorders," Ren says.

Even when the cell atlas is complete, it will represent just one part of a much larger effort to understand the human brain. Other parts include mapping the connections between neurons, studying how brain circuits function in real time, and determining how huge networks of brain cells are able to form memories, solve problems, and produce consciousness.

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Mapping the Brain: The Future of Neuroscience

Researchers will map brain circuits controlling behaviors, thoughts, and moods..

Posted August 23, 2022 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

New technologies are needed to connect neural circuits to human behavior and mental activity.
NIH's BRAIN initiative, credited with many neuroscience breakthroughs, next calls for new technologies to link brain circuitry with behavior.
In just a few years, neuroscience may unlock some of the brain’s key secrets.
Technological studies of brain activity and mental states will eventually enhance understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders.

How do the brain’s neurons, circuits, and chemistry create our behaviors, perceptions, thoughts, and moods? This is the overarching question for neuroscience . Developing new technologies is essential for scientists to map neural circuitry and understand the brain.

In 2014, the National Institutes of Health launched the “BRAIN” initiative: Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies. Its mission since its inception has been to develop and apply technology to revolutionize brain science.

BRAIN initially encouraged neuroscientists to create dynamic anatomical, electrical, and chemical maps of brain circuits. This stimulated a wave of new research and data about the brain’s neural circuitry. (Here is a list of the wide range of cutting -edge neuroscience research supported by the BRAIN initiative so far.)

Going forward, the BRAIN initiative is next seeking to further quantify complex human behaviors and integrate them with the brain neural maps and recordings of brain activity. New funding was recently announced for researchers to develop the next generation of tools to explore how neural networks produce human behaviors, thoughts, and moods. This lofty aim is to explore how neural circuits actually create key human behaviors and brain functions.

It may take neuroscience beyond this decade to uncover the intricacies of normal brain functioning, and then expand the science to examine the basis for psychopathology. Future neuroscientists will identify biomarkers to assess brain disorders and track their progression, and will likely be able to visualize pathology at the microscopic level of neural connections. In my view, the BRAIN initiative continues to inspire new innovations to understand brain activity that will eventually lead to improved diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders.

Certainly, the mind is more than a sum of the brain's parts. To understand the amazing machinery of the mind, new technologies are needed. This initiative could expand our future understanding of the most complex organ in the universe—the human brain.

The Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative

BRAIN supported research (publications listing)

BRAIN issues new funding opportunity for cutting-edge tools to understand the neural basis of behavior in humans. Aug. 2022

Jeffrey Pickens, Ph.D. , is a Professor of Psychology and previous Director of Psychology Programs at St. Thomas University in Miami, Florida.

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Scientists Unveil Detailed Cell Maps of the Human Brain and the Nonhuman Primate Brain

Incredibly detailed cell maps help pave the way for new generation of treatments

October 12, 2023 • Press Release

A group of international scientists have mapped the genetic, cellular, and structural makeup of the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain. This understanding of brain structure, achieved by funding through the National Institutes of Health’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies ® Initiative, or The BRAIN Initiative® , allows for a deeper knowledge of the cellular basis of brain function and dysfunction, helping pave the way for a new generation of precision therapeutics for people with mental disorders and other disorders of the brain. The findings appear in a compendium of 24 papers across Science , Science Advances , and Science Translational Medicine .

“Mapping the brain’s cellular landscape is a critical step toward understanding how this vital organ works in health and disease,” said Joshua A. Gordon, M.D., Ph.D. , director of the National Institute of Mental Health. “These new detailed cell atlases of the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain offer a foundation for designing new therapies that can target the specific brain cells and circuits involved in brain disorders.”

The 24 papers in this latest BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network (BICCN) collection detail the exceptionally complex diversity of cells in the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain. The studies identify similarities and differences in how cells are organized and how genes are regulated in the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain. For example:

Three papers in the collection present the first atlas of cells in the adult human brain, mapping the transcriptional and epigenomic landscape of the brain. The transcriptome is the complete set of gene readouts in a cell, which contains instructions for making proteins and other cellular products. The epigenome refers to chemical modifications to a cell’s DNA and chromosomes that alter the way the cell’s genetic information is expressed.
In another paper, a comparison of the cellular and molecular properties of the human brain and several nonhuman primate brains (chimpanzee, gorilla, macaque, and marmoset brains) revealed clear similarities in the types, proportions, and spatial organization of cells in the cerebral cortex of humans and nonhuman primates. Examination of the genetic expression of cortical cells across species suggests that relatively small changes in gene expression in the human lineage led to changes in neuronal wiring and synaptic function that likely allowed for greater brain plasticity in humans, supporting the human brain’s ability to adapt, learn, and change.
A study exploring how cells vary in different brain regions in marmosets found a link between the properties of cells in the adult brain and the properties of those cells during development. The link suggests that developmental programming is embedded in cells when they are formed and maintained into adulthood and that some observable cellular properties in an adult may have their origins very early in life. This finding could lead to new insights into brain development and function across the lifespan.
An exploration of the anatomy and physiology of neurons in the outermost layer of the neocortex—part of the brain involved in higher-order functions such as cognition, motor commands, and language—revealed differences in the human brain and the mouse brain that suggest this region may be an evolutionary hotspot, with changes in humans reflecting the higher demands of regulating humans’ more complex brain circuits.

The core aim of the BICCN, a groundbreaking effort to understand the brain’s cellular makeup, is to develop a comprehensive inventory of the cells in the brain—where they are, how they develop, how they work together, and how they regulate their activity—to better understand how brain disorders develop, progress, and are best treated.

“This suite of studies represents a landmark achievement in illuminating the complexity of the human brain at the cellular level,” said John Ngai, Ph.D. , director of the NIH BRAIN Initiative. “The scientific collaborations forged through BICCN are propelling the field forward at an exponential pace; the progress—and possibilities—have been simply breathtaking.”

The census of brain cell types in the human brain and the nonhuman primate brain presented in this paper collection serves as a key step toward developing the brain treatments of the future. The findings also set the stage for the BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network , a transformative project that, together with two other large-scale projects—the BRAIN Initiative Connectivity Across Scales and the Armamentarium for Precision Brain Cell Access —aim to revolutionize neuroscience research by illuminating foundational principles governing the circuit basis of behavior and informing new approaches to treating human brain disorders.

Maroso, M. (2023). A quest into the human brain. Science . http://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl0913

Projects funded through the NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network

About the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH): The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery and cure. For more information, visit the NIMH website .

The NIH BRAIN Initiative is managed by 10 Institutes and Centers whose missions and current research portfolios complement the goals of The BRAIN Initiative®: National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Eye Institute, National Institute on Aging, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders, National Institute of Mental Health, and National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH) : NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit the NIH website .

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Concept Mapping for Research Projects

Introduction

What is concept mapping in research, what is the purpose of concept mapping, examples of concept maps, how are concept maps used in research, benefits of a concept map, what is the concept mapping process.

Concept mapping is a straightforward yet powerful technique that offers a bird's eye view of scientific knowledge and connections between ideas. Through concept mapping, research can be systematically arranged to allow researchers to analyze complex topics, making it easier to see how different concepts relate to one another.

It transforms abstract thoughts into a clear, visual representation of scientific knowledge, acting as a practical tool for bridging brainstorming and detailed data analysis . Concept mapping is especially beneficial for uncovering relationships between concepts that may not be immediately obvious.

This article outlines what the concept mapping process entails, its purposes, and its advantages. It also provides a step-by-step guide on creating concept maps for your research project, supplemented with examples.

Concept mapping for qualitative studies is a valuable tool that allows researchers to visualize the relationships between different ideas, concepts, or pieces of information. It involves creating a diagram that showcases how various elements are interconnected, often revealing patterns, hierarchies, and associations that might not be evident through text alone. The map starts with a central idea or question and branches out to show how subsidiary ideas connect to it and to each other.

This technique is grounded in the cognitive sciences, reflecting how the brain organizes and structures knowledge. By mapping out concepts, researchers can more easily comprehend the scope of a project, identify gaps in knowledge, and determine the direction of their inquiry. It serves not just as a method for organizing thoughts but also as a tool for critical thinking and analysis.

In the context of research, concept mapping can be used at various stages of a project. Initially, it can help in formulating a research question or questions by visually exploring the key themes and variables involved. Throughout the research process, concept maps can be adapted and expanded to incorporate new findings and insights, making them dynamic tools for understanding and communication.

Moreover, concept mapping fosters collaboration among research team members, providing a shared visual language that can bridge disciplinary divides. It can visually present complex ideas, making discussions more productive and helping to align the team’s understanding and approach.

A concept map shows scientific knowledge in an organized manner. Moreover, it serves as a multifaceted tool designed to enhance comprehension, communication, and collaboration in research. At its core, concept mapping aims to clarify complex ideas and relationships, making abstract concepts more accessible and understandable. This clarity is achieved by visually representing ideas, which helps researchers and stakeholders alike grasp the breadth and depth of a project more intuitively.

One primary objective of concept mapping is to foster critical thinking and analytical skills regarding a particular research topic. By visually laying out the connections between concepts, researchers are encouraged to explore and question the nature of these relationships, potentially uncovering new insights or identifying underlying assumptions. This process promotes a more thorough examination of the subject matter, encouraging a deeper engagement with the material.

Furthermore, using concept maps can aid in the identification of gaps in knowledge. By organizing concepts visually, it becomes easier to spot areas that are underexplored or lacking in evidence. This can guide future research directions, ensuring that efforts are focused on filling these gaps and advancing understanding of the topic.

Another significant purpose of concept mapping is to enhance collaboration among researchers. By providing a clear and shared visual representation of a project’s structure, concept maps facilitate communication among team members, regardless of their disciplinary backgrounds. This shared understanding helps to align research efforts, streamline decision-making processes, and encourage collaborative problem-solving.

Concept maps are versatile tools that can be applied across diverse research areas to clarify complex ideas and foster deeper understanding. Below are conceptual examples from different domains, showcasing how concept maps can be tailored to specific research needs.

Environmental science

Imagine a study that employs mind mapping to focus on the impacts of climate change on coastal ecosystems. Researchers could use concept mapping to illustrate the intricate relationships between species, habitats, and environmental stressors. The map might center on "Coastal Ecosystems," branching out to related concepts like "Sea Level Rise," "Salinity Changes," and "Species Migration." This visual representation could help in understanding the multifaceted effects of climate change, guiding conservation efforts and policy development.

In exploring factors that influence student motivation, educational researchers might create a concept map to visualize connections between the classroom environment, teaching methods, and student engagement. Key elements such as "Active Learning," "Feedback," and "Classroom Climate" could be linked to impact "Student Motivation." This concept map could serve as a foundation for strategies to boost engagement and learning outcomes, demonstrating concept mapping's applicability in educational interventions.

Health sciences

For a study on Alzheimer's disease progression, a concept map could delineate complex pathways leading to neuronal degeneration. Featuring "Alzheimer's Disease" at its center, branches could extend to "Genetic Factors," "Environmental Influences," and "Biochemical Processes." This approach might identify potential therapeutic targets and help address health challenges.

Technology and business

Researching how small businesses adopt new technologies could involve a concept map exploring decision-making factors. The central theme "Technology Adoption" might connect to "Cost-Benefit Analysis," "Organizational Culture," "Market Trends," and "Regulatory Environment." This method could capture the multifaceted nature of technology adoption decisions, aiding in the development of supportive strategies for small businesses.

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Concept maps are utilized in research to facilitate a range of critical activities, from the initial stages of project planning to the dissemination of research findings. Their use enhances the clarity, organization, and effectiveness of research efforts in several key ways.

At the outset of a research project, a concept map can help in defining the scope and objectives. Researchers can use a concept map to identify and visually represent the main themes and questions their project will address. This early visualization aids in pinpointing the focus areas and can highlight potential research questions or hypotheses that warrant further exploration.

Throughout the research process, concept maps serve as dynamic tools for organizing and synthesizing information. As new data is collected and analyzed, the concept map can be updated to reflect new insights, connections between concepts, and emerging patterns. This ongoing adjustment helps researchers maintain a clear overview of their project, ensuring that their data analysis remains structured and focused.

Concept maps also play a crucial role in identifying relationships between variables and in revealing gaps in existing knowledge. By laying out the known connections and highlighting areas with limited information, researchers can more easily identify where further investigation is needed, guiding the direction of subsequent research efforts.

In terms of collaboration and communication, concept maps are invaluable. They provide a visual language that can be shared among team members and stakeholders, facilitating discussions and ensuring that all parties have a common understanding of the project’s framework and findings.

Finally, when presenting research outcomes, concept maps can effectively summarize and convey complex information to diverse audiences. They can be used in reports, presentations, and publications to illustrate the study’s structure, findings, and implications clearly and concisely, making the research accessible to both academic and non-academic audiences.

Concept maps offer a range of benefits that enhance the research process, making complex information more manageable and comprehensible. These benefits can be broadly categorized into improving understanding, facilitating communication, and aiding in the planning and organization of research.

Enhancing understanding

Concept maps help distill complex ideas into visual formats, making abstract concepts more tangible. By laying out the relationships between different pieces of information, these maps enable researchers to see patterns and connections that might not be obvious in textual form. A concept map can lead to a deeper understanding of the subject matter, as it encourages the identification of relationships, hierarchies, and networks within the research topic.

Facilitating communication

One of the key advantages of concept maps is their ability to act as a communication tool among research team members and with external stakeholders. They provide a shared visual language that can help in explaining ideas clearly and succinctly, bridging knowledge gaps between individuals with different expertise or backgrounds. This common ground is especially valuable in multidisciplinary research teams, where understanding each others' perspectives is crucial for collaborative success. Moreover, concept maps can be effective in presentations or publications by conveying findings and theories in a more engaging and understandable way.

Aiding planning and organization

In the context of research planning and organization, concept maps serve as an invaluable tool for structuring projects and outlining research strategies. They allow researchers to visually map out the scope of their study, identify key components and variables, and organize their approach to data collection and analysis. This can support a more efficient use of resources and time, as potential overlaps or gaps in research can be identified early in the process. Furthermore, concept maps can be used to track progress over time, providing a clear overview of how individual pieces of research contribute to the overall project goals.

The process of creating a concept map involves several structured steps that guide researchers from the initial exploration of a topic to the development of a comprehensive visual display of their ideas and findings. This process can be divided into key phases: starting with a literature review , drafting an initial mind map, and refining the concept map into a final version.

Conducting a literature review

The first step to creating a concept map is to conduct a thorough literature review. This stage is crucial for gathering existing knowledge on the topic, identifying key concepts, theories, and relationships that have been previously established. The literature review helps in framing the main idea or question that will be at the center of the concept map. It provides a solid foundation of information from which researchers can begin to build their map, ensuring that it is grounded in established research and theory.

Drafting an initial map

With a clear understanding of the topic from the literature review, the next step is to start drafting an initial concept map. This can begin as a simple mind map, with the main idea at the center and primary concepts branching out from it. Researchers can then add layers of detail, linking related concepts and indicating the nature of their relationships. This initial draft is a flexible tool, allowing for easy adjustments as new ideas emerge or as the structure of the map evolves.

Refining the concept map

The last phase involves refining the initial draft into a final version of the concept map. This step may require multiple revisions, as researchers review their concept map for clarity, coherence, and completeness. It's an opportunity to ensure that all relevant concepts are included and accurately represented. The final version should clearly convey the main idea, its supporting concepts, and their interconnections. This polished concept map can then be used for various purposes, such as the basis for a research project, a visual aid in a blog post, or a tool for communication within a research team.

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New maps reveal the individual brain changes linked to different mental illness

Mapping brain changes in nearly 1,300 people different types of mental illness reveals diversity across conditions.

A breakthrough project mapping brain changes in nearly 1,300 people diagnosed with six different types of mental illness has revealed the extraordinary diversity of brain changes found in people with conditions like major depression and schizophrenia.

The study, published in Nature Neuroscience and led by researchers at Monash University's Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health and School of Psychological Sciences, used brain imaging to measure the size, or volume, of over 1000 different brain regions.

"Over the past few decades, researchers have mapped brain areas showing reduced volume in people diagnosed with a wide variety of mental illness, but this work has largely focused on group averages, which makes it difficult to understand what is happening in the brains of individual people" said PhD student Ms Ashlea Segal, who led the research. "For example, knowing that the average height of the Australian population is about 1.7 m tells me very little about the height of my next-door neighbour" she added.

The team used new statistical techniques developed Prof Andre Marquand at the Donders Institute, Netherlands, who co-led the project, to map regions in the brain showing unusually small or large volumes in people diagnosed with either schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or autism spectrum disorder.

"We used a statistical model to establish expectations about brain size given someone's age and sex. We can then quantify how much an individual person's brain volume deviates from these expectations, much like the growth charts commonly used for height and weight in paediatrics" said Professor Alex Fornito, who led the research team.

"We confirmed earlier findings that the specific brain regions showing large deviations in brain volume vary a lot across individuals, with no more than 7% of people with the same diagnosis showing a major deviation in the same brain area" said Professor Fornito. "This result means that it is difficult to pinpoint treatment targets or causal mechanisms by focusing on group averages alone. It may also explain why people with the same diagnosis show wide variability in their symptom profiles and treatment outcomes" he added.

The team then investigated the connectivity of the areas showing large volume deviations. "Because the brain is a network, dysfunction in one area can spread to affect other, connected sites. We found that, while deviations occurred in distinct brain regions across different people, they were often connected to common upstream or downstream areas, meaning they aggregated within the same brain circuits" said Ms Segal. "It's possible that this circuit-level overlap explains commonalities between people with the same diagnosis, such as, for example, why two people with schizophrenia generally have more symptoms in common than a person with schizophrenia and one with depression."

The team leveraged their new approach to identify potential treatment targets for different disorders. "We found that certain specific brain circuits were preferentially involved in some disorders, suggesting that they are potential treatment targets" explained Ms Segal. "However, our findings suggest that these targets will only be appropriate for a subset of people. For instance, we found evidence that brain circuits linked to frontal areas were preferentially involved in depression. These circuits are commonly used as targets for non-invasive brain stimulation therapies, but our data suggest that they may only effective targets for around 1/3 of people."

The approach developed by the team opens new opportunities for mapping brain changes in mental illness. "The framework we have developed allows us to understand the diversity of brain changes in people with mental illness at different levels, from individual regions through to more widespread brain circuits and networks, offering a deeper insight into how the brain is affected in individual people" said Professor Fornito.

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Story Source:

Materials provided by Monash University . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

Ashlea Segal, Linden Parkes, Kevin Aquino, Seyed Mostafa Kia, Thomas Wolfers, Barbara Franke, Martine Hoogman, Christian F. Beckmann, Lars T. Westlye, Ole A. Andreassen, Andrew Zalesky, Ben J. Harrison, Christopher G. Davey, Carles Soriano-Mas, Narcís Cardoner, Jeggan Tiego, Murat Yücel, Leah Braganza, Chao Suo, Michael Berk, Sue Cotton, Mark A. Bellgrove, Andre F. Marquand, Alex Fornito. Regional, circuit and network heterogeneity of brain abnormalities in psychiatric disorders . Nature Neuroscience , 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01404-6

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Scientists Think They've Found Our 'Neural Compass' That Stops Us Getting Lost

T o keep our bodies properly oriented , our brains perform impressive feats of calculation that track our stumbling meat sack through a mental map of our surrounds.

While a lot of research has focussed on the mapping , little has managed to determine how our neurological wiring monitors our direction within it.

A team of researchers from the University of Birmingham in the UK and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany has identified signature brain activity that describes a kind of 'neural compass' in the hope of understanding how we find our way through the world.

Even the smallest of errors in terms of the way our body is pointing and where we are looking can cause problems – whether it's walking through a door or driving a car – and the study may also inform research into neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's .

"We know that animals such as birds, rats and bats have neural circuitry that keeps them on track, but we know surprisingly little about how the human brain manages this out and about in the real world," says neuroscientist Benjamin Griffiths, from the University of Birmingham.

In two separate experiments, Griffiths and his colleagues prompted 52 healthy volunteers to orient their heads and eyes in different ways while monitoring brain signals via electroencephalogram (EEG) caps connected to the scalp and recording their movements with motion tracking.

Further tests were run on 10 volunteers already fitted with electrodes inside their skulls, for conditions such as epilepsy. This gave the team an even closer look at the brain regions lighting up with activity as the head and eyes were moved.

Factoring out influences on neural firing from muscle movement and sensory input, the researchers identified regions in the medial temporal lobe (involved in memory), the parietal cortex (involved in linking incoming information together), and parahippocampus (involved in place recognition) as being significant contributors to our neural compass.

"Several distinct regions are tuned to changes in head angle, including the parietal lobe and parahippocampus," the researchers explain in their paper. "We identified a signature tuned to current heading angle that is distinguishable from sensory input and muscular activity."

Signals in these regions were sent just before head movements, suggesting they play a crucial role in getting us facing the way we need to be – and making sure we don't lose track of where we are in an environment.

"Isolating these signals enables us to really focus on how the brain processes navigational information and how these signals work alongside other cues such as visual landmarks," says Griffiths.

With a better understanding of how the brain pilots our bodies around we might be able to help prevent this particular bit of neural circuitry from breaking down. The study team also suggests research into navigation tech could also benefit.

The new findings are also interesting in the context of our growing dependence on using technology to find our way around. It might be that our neural compass has been discovered even as our reliance upon it shrinks.

"Our approach has opened up new avenues for exploring these features, with implications for research into neurodegenerative diseases and even for improving navigational technologies in robotics and AI," says Griffiths.

The research has been published in Nature Human Behaviour .

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Science and Technology Directorate

Feature Article: Digital Mapping Helps First Responders Better Navigate Inside Buildings

Agencies are using S&T-funded Mappedin to find their way quickly during critical incidents in schools and public buildings.

Light colored indoor school floor plan on a light gray background. The floor plan is 3D. It shows multiple rectangles and subdivisions representing classrooms labeled with room numbers and various offices. In the upper left part a gym with a basketball floor can be distinguished as well as girls’ and boys’ locker rooms. On the right side of the plan visible are the cafeteria, library and the computer lab with various colorful labels with symbols for phone, the nurse’s room, emergency exits, fire extinguishers and more.

GPS systems may get first responders to incident scenes fast, but navigating buildings’ complex mazes of hallways and corridors in potentially chaotic or low-visibility situations can be tricky. Relying on hard copy or digital building blueprints can be cumbersome or even outdated, adding precious seconds when time is of the essence.

A solution, brought to you by the Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and digital indoor map navigator Mappedin, was completed in 2022 and has since flourished. The online Mappedin mapmaking subscription, which can transform floor plans into interactive and easily maintainable digitized maps, was recently launched and is currently being used by both response agencies and corporate clients. With easy-to-use mapping tools and data, Mappedin provides high-quality 3D map creation, data maintenance, and map sharing to city executives, building owner operators and first responders to make and deliver maps for a variety of safety-related situations—from advance preparation and planning to assistance during emergency incidents.

“With Mappedin, first responders can quickly determine the interior layout of structures before entering a building to make informed decisions,” said Anthony Caracciolo, the S&T program manager who led this effort. “Mappedin assists them with identifying where interior rooms, doors, stairs, key equipment and hazardous materials are located and enables them to possess indoor awareness of a facility before entering.”

Mappedin provides intelligent digitization of floor plans from various sources (e.g., computer-aided design drawings, PDF documents, photographs) and maintains a digital reserve of 3D interactive maps accessible on tablets and cell phones. These maps can be marked up and shared via a private link accessible only to authorized personnel.

To save time in mapmaking, Mappedin leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to create high-quality 3D interactive indoor maps from uploaded floor plan images in 0.5 minutes to 3 minutes. The tool also uses LiDAR, a remote sensing method, to create floor plans from scratch. With an iPhone Pro or iPad Pro and the Mappedin iOS app, users can scan their indoor environment and turn the data into a digital map, which they can further edit and customize by labeling specific rooms and areas and adding attributes such as descriptions, photographs and links.

S&T initially funded Mappedin Inc. in 2019 to develop the indoor mapping tool (then called Response) after S&T's First Responder Resource Group indicated this type of technology was a top need. S&T’s goal was to help responders quickly navigate indoor floor plans in real-time when responding to incidents. Mappedin enables point-to-point wayfinding, like an indoor GPS, and is available to first responders and local governments as a licensed cloud-based service. S&T and Mappedin demonstrated the software in 2022 , when first responders assessed the prototype’s efficiency and recommended improvements before commercialization. First responders found it better than existing technologies and liked its compatibility with many existing software platforms. Then, S&T and Mappedin further improved the software based on feedback from U.S. and Canadian first responders and local governments.

Public schools and fire departments are among users

Mappedin is already in use successfully. Since its official launch in September 2023, more than 4,000 user accounts have been created.

A man’s left hand holds a tablet showing Mappedin floor plan of a building. While his right hand is holding a pen, his finger is touching the tablet’s screen.

Many of Mappedin’s new customers are public schools and fire departments for whom mapping services are free. To provide life-saving technology to schools and first responders, two former firefighters have integrated Mappedin maps into their school safety product, AIKI ClassroomSAFE. The app provides situational awareness and a comprehensive view of other responding agencies, students, and the real-time status of classrooms. According to experienced firefighter and AIKI co-founder, Damian McKeon, Mappedin has taken a multi-hour mapping process down to a couple of minutes.

Some forward-thinking schools in the U.S. and Canada are also looking to use Mappedin. Three pilot Canadian cities–Orangeville, Kitchener and Waterloo–have already adopted the tool to digitize paper floor plans for a variety of building types for pre-planning and educational purposes.

Also, first responders in 911 incident dispatch will be able to access Mappedin-created maps within their safety platform for precise geolocation. By providing Mappedin’s accurate geo-located annotations of key safety equipment before the trucks arrive on scene, the 911 dispatch can be prioritized as the first point of contact. According to Dain Bolling, Founder of Pure Wireless LLC, Mappedin easily creates spatially accurate maps suitable for first responders during critical incidents.

Moreover, efforts are underway to map an entire Florida county. Mappedin is accelerating its Maps for Good initiative to address the needs of schools and first responders. Eligible participants will receive no- to low-cost indoor mapping. “Indoor maps are crucial for situational awareness in built environments, and Mappedin is proud to be part of the solution,” said Hongwei Liu, co-founder and CEO at Mappedin. “With Maps for Good, we’re putting AI-powered indoor mapping directly into the hands of front-line professionals, giving them purpose-built tools to do their jobs and keep people safe.”

Mappedin could be integrated with other tools

The Mappedin free subscription is available for schools and responders, where anyone is encouraged to create their own maps. The paid Plus subscription, released in February 2024, and the Pro subscription, coming later this year, add advanced capabilities, including integration with other tools.

“One such possible integration is with the S&T-developed gunshot detection system that detects and alerts police of gunshots,” said Caracciolo. “If integrated with Mappedin, police would not only be alerted of the gunshots, but they could also receive an interior map of a building depicting where the gunshots are occurring, thus enabling police officers to engage the shooter and locate and start treating victims as soon as possible.”

Additionally, corporate customers, such as airports, stadiums, and office buildings are also using Mappedin for things like complex mapping, wayfinding, and custom integrations.

“Ultimately,” Caracciolo added, “S&T invested in Mappedin to equip first responders with the best tool to pre-plan and navigate building interiors in emergencies.”

Learn more about S&T’s innovative industry partnerships and support for the nation’s first responders . For related media inquiries, contact [email protected] .

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Researchers create a bodywide map of molecular changes linked to exercise and health

A Stanford Medicine-led effort to learn more about exercise’s molecular effects paints the broadest picture yet of why, in the health arena, sweat is king.

May 1, 2024 - By Krista Conger

Researchers at Stanford Medicine and their colleagues conducted nearly 10,000 measurements in nearly 20 types of tissues, learning about the effects of exercise on the immune system, stress response, energy production and metabolism. Alan Poulson Photography/Shutterstock.com

Exercise. It’s associated with increased muscle strength, improved heart health, lower blood sugar and just about every other physical improvement you can name. But how does regularly puffing away on a treadmill, biking up a steep hill or going for a brisk lunchtime walk confer such a dizzying array of health benefits?

We’re now closer to finding out, thanks to a vast new study led by Stanford Medicine. Researchers conducted nearly 10,000 measurements in nearly 20 types of tissues to uncover the effect of eight weeks of endurance exercise in laboratory rats trained to run on rodent-sized treadmills.

Their results highlight striking effects of exercise on the immune system, stress response, energy production and metabolism. They uncovered significant links between exercise, molecules and genes already known to be involved in myriad human diseases and tissue recovery.

The study is one of a series of papers published May 1 by members of a multicenter research group meant to lay the groundwork for understanding — on a bodywide, molecular level — exactly how our tissues and cells react when we push them to perform.

“We all know exercise is beneficial for us,” said professor of pathology Stephen Montgomery , PhD. “But we don’t know much about the molecular signals that manifest across the body when people exercise, or how they may change when people train. Our study is the first to take a holistic, bodywide look at molecular changes, from proteins to genes to metabolites to fats and energy production. It’s the broadest profiling yet of the effects of exercise, and it creates an essential map to how it changes the body.”

Montgomery, who is also a professor of genetics and of biomedical data science, is a senior author of the paper , which published on May 1 in Nature . Other senior authors are Michael Snyder , PhD, the Stanford W. Ascherman, MD, FACS Professor in Genetics, and associate professor of medicine Matthew Wheeler , MD. First authors are former genetics PhD student Nicole Gay, PhD; former postdoctoral scholar David Amar, PhD; and Pierre Jean Beltran, PhD, a former postdoctoral scholar at the Broad Institute.

Additional papers by Stanford Medicine researchers include a related published report in Nature Communications investigating the effect of exercise-induced changes in genes and tissues known to be involved in disease risk as well as a paper published on May 2 in Cell Metabolism , which focuses on the effects of exercise on the cellular energy factors called mitochondria in various tissues. Montgomery is the senior author of the Nature Communications paper and postdoctoral scholar Nikolai Vetr , PhD, is its lead author. Instructor of cardiovascular medicine Malene Lindholm , PhD, is the senior author of the Cell Metabolism paper, and Amar is the lead author.

Stephen Montgomery

“These papers further highlight the multiple impacts exercise training has on metabolism and health,” Montgomery said.

A coordinated look at exercise

The researchers involved in the study and the other simultaneous publications are part of a national group called the Molecular Transducers of Physical Activity Consortium, or MoTrPAC, organized by the National Institutes of Health. The effort was launched in 2015 to investigate in detail exactly how physical exercise improves health and prevents disease.

The Stanford Medicine team took on a lot of the heavy lifting, studying the effects of eight weeks of endurance training on gene expression (the transcriptome), proteins (the proteome), fats (the lipidome), metabolites (the metabolome), the pattern of chemical tags placed on DNA (the epigenome), the immune system (the…you get the idea).

Let’s just call it the sweat-ome.

They performed 9,466 analyses on multiple tissues in rats as the animals were trained to run increasing distances and compared the results with those of rats that loafed about in their cages. They paid special attention to the muscles of the leg, the heart, the liver, the kidney and a type of fat called white adipose tissue (the kind of fat that accumulates as pounds pile on); other tissues included the lungs, brain and brown adipose tissue (a more metabolically active type of fat that helps burn calories). The combination of multiple assays — think of all those -omes! — and tissue types pumped out results numbering in the hundreds of thousands for non-epigenetic changes to more than 2 million distinct changes in the epigenome. The results will keep scientists hopping for years.

Although this study served primarily to create a database for future analysis, some interesting nuggets vaulted to the top. First, they noted that the expression of 22 genes changed with exercise in all six of the tissues they focused on. Many of these genes were involved in what are known as heat shock pathways, which stabilize the structure of proteins when cells undergo stress including changes in temperature (feel that burn?), infection or tissue remodeling (hello new muscle fibers!). Others have been implicated in pathways that reduce blood pressure and increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin, which lowers blood sugar levels.

The researchers also noted that the expression of several genes involved in Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity and kidney disease was reduced in exercising rats as compared with their sedentary counterparts — a clear link between their studies and human health.

Sex differences

Finally, they identified sex differences in how multiple tissues in male and female rats responded to exercise. Male rats lost about 5% of their body fat after eight weeks of exercise while female rats didn’t lose a significant amount. (They did, however, maintain their starting fat percentage while the sedentary females packed on an additional 4% of body fat during the study period.) But the largest difference was observed in gene expression in the rats’ adrenal glands. After one week, genes associated with the generation of steroid hormones like adrenaline and with energy production increased in male rats but decreased in female rats.

Despite these early, tantalizing associations, the researchers caution that exercise science is nowhere near the finish line. It’s more like the starting gun has just fired. But the future is exciting.

“In the long term, it’s unlikely we will find any one magic intervention that reproduces what exercise can do for a person,” Montgomery said. “But we might get closer to the idea of precision exercise — tailoring recommendations based on a person’s genetics, sex, age or other health conditions to generate beneficial whole-body responses.”

A full list of researchers and institutions involved in the study can be found online.

The MoTrPAC study is supported by the National Institutes of Health (grants U24OD026629, U24DK112349, U24DK112342, U24DK112340, U24DK112341, U24DK112326, 612 U24DK112331, U24DK112348, U01AR071133, U01AR071130, 613 U01AR071124, U01AR071128, U01AR071150, U01AR071160, U01AR071158, U24AR071113, U01AG055133, U01AG055137, 615 U01AG055135, 5T32HG000044, P30AG044271 and P30AG003319), the National Science Foundation, and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

About Stanford Medicine

Stanford Medicine is an integrated academic health system comprising the Stanford School of Medicine and adult and pediatric health care delivery systems. Together, they harness the full potential of biomedicine through collaborative research, education and clinical care for patients. For more information, please visit med.stanford.edu .

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Two MIT PhD students awarded J-WAFS fellowships for their research on water

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Since 2014, the Abdul Latif Jameel Water and Food Systems Lab (J-WAFS) has advanced interdisciplinary research aimed at solving the world's most pressing water and food security challenges to meet human needs. In 2017, J-WAFS established the Rasikbhai L. Meswani Water Solutions Fellowship and the J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship. These fellowships provide support to outstanding MIT graduate students who are pursuing research that has the potential to improve water and food systems around the world.

Recently, J-WAFS awarded the 2024-25 fellowships to Jonathan Bessette and Akash Ball, two MIT PhD students dedicated to addressing water scarcity by enhancing desalination and purification processes. This work is of important relevance since the world's freshwater supply has been steadily depleting due to the effects of climate change. In fact, one-third of the global population lacks access to safe drinking water. Bessette and Ball are focused on designing innovative solutions to enhance the resilience and sustainability of global water systems. To support their endeavors, J-WAFS will provide each recipient with funding for one academic semester for continued research and related activities.

“This year, we received many strong fellowship applications,” says J-WAFS executive director Renee J. Robins. “Bessette and Ball both stood out, even in a very competitive pool of candidates. The award of the J-WAFS fellowships to these two students underscores our confidence in their potential to bring transformative solutions to global water challenges.”

2024-25 Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellowship for Water Solutions

The Rasikbhai L. Meswani Fellowship for Water Solutions is a doctoral fellowship for students pursuing research related to water and water supply at MIT. The fellowship is made possible by Elina and Nikhil Meswani and family.

Jonathan Bessette is a doctoral student in the Global Engineering and Research (GEAR) Center within the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, advised by Professor Amos Winter. His research is focused on water treatment systems for the developing world, mainly desalination, or the process in which salts are removed from water. Currently, Bessette is working on designing and constructing a low-cost, deployable, community-scale desalination system for humanitarian crises.

In arid and semi-arid regions, groundwater often serves as the sole water source, despite its common salinity issues. Many remote and developing areas lack reliable centralized power and water systems, making brackish groundwater desalination a vital, sustainable solution for global water scarcity.

“An overlooked need for desalination is inland groundwater aquifers, rather than in coastal areas,” says Bessette. “This is because much of the population lives far enough from a coast that seawater desalination could never reach them. My work involves designing low-cost, sustainable, renewable-powered desalination technologies for highly constrained situations, such as drinking water for remote communities,” he adds.

To achieve this goal, Bessette developed a batteryless, renewable electrodialysis desalination system. The technology is energy-efficient, conserves water, and is particularly suited for challenging environments, as it is decentralized and sustainable. The system offers significant advantages over the conventional reverse osmosis method, especially in terms of reduced energy consumption for treating brackish water. Highlighting Bessette’s capacity for engineering insight, his advisor noted the “simple and elegant solution” that Bessette and a staff engineer, Shane Pratt, devised that negated the need for the system to have large batteries. Bessette is now focusing on simplifying the system’s architecture to make it more reliable and cost-effective for deployment in remote areas.

Growing up in upstate New York, Bessette completed a bachelor's degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo. As an undergrad, he taught middle and high school students in low-income areas of Buffalo about engineering and sustainability. However, he cited his junior-year travel to India and his experience there measuring water contaminants in rural sites as cementing his dedication to a career addressing food, water, and sanitation challenges. In addition to his doctoral research, his commitment to these goals is further evidenced by another project he is pursuing, funded by a J-WAFS India grant, that uses low-cost, remote sensors to better understand water fetching practices. Bessette is conducting this work with fellow MIT student Gokul Sampath in order to help families in rural India gain access to safe drinking water.

2024-25 J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship for Water and Food Solutions

The J-WAFS Graduate Student Fellowship is supported by the J-WAFS Research Affiliate Program , which offers companies the opportunity to engage with MIT on water and food research. Current fellowship support was provided by two J-WAFS Research Affiliates: Xylem , a leading U.S.-based provider of water treatment and infrastructure solutions, and GoAigua , a Spanish company at the forefront of digital transformation in the water industry through innovative solutions.

Akash Ball is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering, advised by Professor Heather Kulik. His research focuses on the computational discovery of novel functional materials for energy-efficient ion separation membranes with high selectivity. Advanced membranes like these are increasingly needed for applications such as water desalination, battery recycling, and removal of heavy metals from industrial wastewater.

“Climate change, water pollution, and scarce freshwater reserves cause severe water distress for about 4 billion people annually, with 2 billion in India and China’s semiarid regions,” Ball notes. “One potential solution to this global water predicament is the desalination of seawater, since seawater accounts for 97 percent of all water on Earth.”

Although several commercial reverse osmosis membranes are currently available, these membranes suffer several problems, like slow water permeation, permeability-selectivity trade-off, and high fabrication costs. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are porous crystalline materials that are promising candidates for highly selective ion separation with fast water transport due to high surface area, the presence of different pore windows, and the tunability of chemical functionality. In the Kulik lab, Ball is developing a systematic understanding of how MOF chemistry and pore geometry affect water transport and ion rejection rates. By the end of his PhD, Ball plans to identify existing, best-performing MOFs with unparalleled water uptake using machine learning models, propose novel hypothetical MOFs tailored to specific ion separations from water, and discover experimental design rules that enable the synthesis of next-generation membranes.

Ball’s advisor praised the creativity he brings to his research, and his leadership skills that benefit her whole lab. Before coming to MIT, Ball obtained a master’s degree in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Jadavpur University in India. During a research internship at IIT Bombay in 2018, he worked on developing a technology for in situ arsenic detection in water. Like Bessette, he noted the impact of this prior research experience on his interest in global water challenges, along with his personal experience growing up in an area in India where access to safe drinking water was not guaranteed.

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New research maps racially restrictive covenants around Alexandria

Alexandria’s history with racially restrictive covenants was a major topic during the Zoning for Housing/Housing for All debate last year, and a new interactive map shows the location of those covenants around Alexandria and surrounding localities.

ARLnow reported that the new interactive map comes from researchers at Marymount University. Many of the covenants listed on the map exclude “any person not of the Caucasian race.”

Those covenants were no longer enforceable under the 1968 Fair Housing Act, though they still remain on the books in some places in Alexandria.

Most of the covenants were created between 1920 and 1950. In Alexandria, nearly all of Rosemont and North Ridge were under racial covenants, as well as much of Del Ray.

In Alexandria, those covenants range from Mount Ida Groves’ covenant created in 1910 up to Malvern Hill, which approved a racial covenant in 1961 — only seven years before those covenants were made illegal.

One of the lead researchers for Documenting Exclusion & Resilience project is Krystyn Moon, a University of Mary Washington historian who also wrote up a report last year for the City of Alexandria on racially restrictive covenants in Alexandria.

“In 1912, Rosemont became the first subdivision in Alexandria to include racial restrictions on specific lots,” Moon wrote. “A year later, an unnamed development on Oronoco, Fayette, Princess, and Payne Streets in the Uptown neighborhood included similar language in its deeds. George Washington Park, which Alexandria annexed from Fairfax County in 1915, had restrictions as early as 1909.”

Moon’s report also found that some of the properties that implemented white-only covenants were purchased from local Black residents.

According to the report:

The practice of purchasing African American property and converting it into white-only subdivisions occurred periodically in Alexandria too. One section of Beverley Hills included thirteen acres owned by Hampshire Fractious and his family who had fled to Alexandria during the American Civil War. In 1903, the property was sold at auction, almost twenty years after Fractious’ death. While his son-in-law, John T. Bailey, tried to purchase it, Charles C. Carlin, an Alexandria-based lawyer and future congressman, outbid him. Fractious’ home, it is speculated, was used as the real estate office for the Beverley Hills subdivision by its developer, Don A. Loftus [Permanesque Homes, Inc.]. It was later incorporated into the development and still stands today. Despite their willingness to purchase African American property, white developers believed that building subdivisions in proximity to African American neighborhoods adversely affected property values for white, middle and upper-class families.

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