Gender integration of agricultural innovation: implications for the genetically modified crop product development pipeline.

We provide guidance on how to incorporate best practices around gender integration in the development of genetically improved crops by adapting a gender integration framework for conventional crop breeding to the GM product development pipeline, which places greater emphasis on the discovery and launch phases because the technical nature of the development process means fewer opportunities for farmer engagement or pivoting possibilities between these two ends of the product development spectrum. For crop innovation to be relevant to both women and men producers, during the discovery phase, developers can conduct baseline gender analysis consisting of gender-disaggregated value chain analysis, systematic learning about gender-specific crop trait preferences, and identification of varietal preferences by women and men along the value chain. The latter opportunity in the GM product development pathway for intentional gender integration is deployment, including pre-launch activities such as field demonstrations and consumer testing.

Of Money and Men: A Scoping Review to Map Gender Barriers to Immunization Coverage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Among the multiple factors impeding equitable childhood immunization coverage in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), gender barriers stand out as perhaps the most universal. Despite increasing recognition of the importance of gender considerations in immunization programming, there has not yet been a systematic assessment of the evidence on gender barriers to immunization. We conducted a scoping review to fill that gap, identifying 92 articles that described gender barriers to immunization.

Life skills and reproductive health empowerment intervention for newly married women and their families to reduce unintended pregnancy in India: protocol for the TARANG cluster randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: In South Asia, younger women have high rates of unmet need for family planning and low empowerment. Life skills interventions can equip young women with agency, but the effectiveness of these interventions in reproductive and sexual autonomy and contraception has not been examined.

Methods And Analysis: A two-arm, parallel, cluster randomised controlled trial will evaluate the impact of TARANG (Transforming Actions for Reaching and Nurturing Gender Equity and Empowerment), a life skills and reproductive health empowerment group-based intervention for newly married women, compared with usual services in the community in rural and tribal Rajasthan, India.

Gender and the impact of COVID-19 on demand for and access to health care: Intersectional analysis of before-and-after data from Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Background: Global health emergencies can impact men and women differently due to gender norms related to health care and social and economic disruptions. We investigated the intersectionality of gender differences of the impact of COVID-19 on health care access with educational and socio-economic factors in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.

Methods: Data were collected by Opinion Research Business International using census data as the sampling frame.

Increasing Attendance in Addiction Treatment With Limited Resources: A Narrative Review.

Treatment nonattendance frequently compromises client outcomes in psychosocial addiction treatment services. However, there is limited literature on strategies that increase attendance and retention without a significant resource burden on clinician or organization. This review of 13 studies describes strategies that do not financially reward clients for attendance or require more than 1 day of training/supervision to implement.

Seasonal trends and maternal characteristics as predictors of maternal undernutrition and low birthweight in Eastern Maharashtra, India.

Few studies have assessed whether women and infants in rural and peri-urban communities in South Asia experience seasonal fluctuations in nutritional status; however, a handful of studies have documented seasonal variability in risk factors for undernutrition including food availability, physical activity and infections. We used data from the Maternal and Newborn Health (MNH) registry, a population-based pregnancy and birth registry in Eastern Maharashtra, India, to analyse seasonal trends in birthweight and maternal nutritional status-body mass index (BMI) and haemoglobin-in the first trimester of pregnancy. We plotted monthly and seasonal trends in birthweight, and maternal BMI and haemoglobin, and used multivariable regression models to identify seasonal and maternal characteristics that predicted each outcome.

Ncm, a Photolabile Group for Preparation of Caged Molecules: Synthesis and Biological Application.

Ncm, 6-nitrocoumarin-7-ylmethyl, is a photolabile protective group useful for making "caged" molecules. Ncm marries the reliable photochemistry of 2-nitrobenzyl systems with the excellent stability and spectroscopic properties of the coumarin chromophore. From simple, commercially available starting materials, preparation of Ncm and its caged derivatives is both quick and easy.

Alcohol Outcome Expectancies and Regrettable Drinking-Related Social Behaviors.

Aims: Research has shown that alcohol outcome expectancies are predictive of heavy alcohol consumption, which can lead to risky behavior. The purpose of the present study was to assess the incidence of various low-risk social behaviors while drinking among college students. Such social behaviors may later be regretted (referred to as regrettable social behaviors) and include electronic and in-person communications.

Impulsivity links reward and threat sensitivities to substance use: a functional model.

This study used structural equations modeling and undergraduate student data to examine the effects of reward and threat sensitivities on substance use, along with the extent to which impulsivity explained these effects. Our results suggest that impulsivity may translate inversely related reward and threat sensitivities into substance use, completely mediate the effect between threat sensitivity and substance use, and partially mediate the effect between reward sensitivity and substance use. Our results also suggest that individuals with a combination of higher levels on both reward and threat sensitivities may be most impulsive and vulnerable to heightened substance use.

Effects of gender and motivations on perceptions of nonmedical use of prescription stimulants.

Objective: This study examined the impact on college students' perceptions of nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) of motivation for use and gender.

Participants: Participants were college students (N=695) from 2 universities in different regions of the United States.

Methods: Participants read a vignette describing a college student who used a prescription stimulant for a nonmedical purpose and rated their perception of that individual using a semantic differential.

Interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 compromise the sinonasal epithelial barrier and perturb intercellular junction protein expression.

Background: Altered expression of epithelial intercellular junction proteins has been observed in sinonasal biopsies from nasal polyps and epithelial layers cultured from nasal polyp patients. These alterations comprise a "leaky" epithelial barrier phenotype. We hypothesize that T helper 2 (Th2) cytokines interleukin (IL)-4 and IL-13 modulate epithelial junction proteins, thereby contributing to the leaky epithelial barrier.

Intrinsic properties of and thalamocortical inputs onto identified corticothalamic-VPM neurons.

Corticothalamic (CT) feedback plays an important role in regulating the sensory information that the cortex receives. Within the somatosensory cortex layer VI originates the feedback to the ventral posterior medial (VPM) nucleus of the thalamus, which in turn receives sensory information from the contralateral whiskers. We examined the physiology and morphology of CT neurons in rat somatosensory cortex, focusing on the physiological characteristics of the monosynaptic inputs that they receive from the thalamus.

Reconstruction of upper lip avulsion after dog bite: case report and review of literature.

Importance: Upper lip avulsion after traumatic dog bite is a serious cause of facial disfigurement for which there is no consensus on management in the acute setting.

Objective: This review was prompted by a case at our institution and is intended to display the available evidence in the management of the patient after dog bite injury to the upper lip. Our main goals are to create a management algorithm using current evidence and to stimulate further clinical investigation to improve outcomes in patients with facial dog bite injuries.

Impulsivity, expectancies, and evaluations of expected outcomes as predictors of alcohol use and related problems.

Background: While the association between outcome expectancies and drinking is well documented, few studies have examined whether evaluations of expected outcomes (outcome evaluations) moderate that association.

Objectives: The present study tested the hypotheses that outcome evaluations moderate the outcome expectancy-drinking association and that outcome expectancies mediate the association between impulsive personality and drinking.

Methods: College students (N = 201; 55.

Use of birth certificates to examine maternal occupational exposures and autism spectrum disorders in offspring.

The continuing rise in the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders has led to heightened interest in the role of nongenetic factors, including exogenous exposures, but little research has been conducted. To explore a possible role in autism etiology, we used data available from our prior studies to examine potential occupational exposures, as these may occur at higher levels than environmental exposures. Parental occupation was obtained from birth certificates for 284 children with autism and 659 controls, born in 1994 in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Predictors of nonmedical use of prescription stimulants.

College students across the U.S. engage in nonmedical use of prescription stimulants (NMUPS) at increasing rates.

A comparison of attitudes toward opioid agonist treatment among short-term buprenorphine patients.

Background: Obtaining data on attitudes toward buprenorphine and methadone of opioid-dependent individuals in the United States may help fashion approaches to increase treatment entry and improve patient outcomes.

Objectives: This secondary analysis study compared attitudes toward methadone and buprenorphine of opioid-dependent adults entering short-term buprenorphine treatment (BT) with opioid-dependent adults who are either entering methadone maintenance treatment or not entering treatment.

Methods: The 417 participants included 132 individuals entering short-term BT, 191 individuals entering methadone maintenance, and 94 individuals not seeking treatment.

Collaborative behavioral management among parolees: drug use, crime and re-arrest in the Step'n Out randomized trial.

Aims: To determine whether collaborative behavioral management (CBM) reduces substance use, crime and re-arrest among drug-involved parolees.

Design: Step'n Out was a randomized behavioral trial of CBM versus standard parole (SP) during 2004-08. CBM adapted evidence-based role induction, behavioral contracting and contingent reinforcement to provide parole officer/treatment counselor dyads with positive tools in addition to sanctions to manage parolees' behavior over 12 weeks.

The role of state public health agencies in national efforts to track workplace hazards and the relevance of state experiences to nanomaterial worker surveillance.

Objective: This essay examines the role state public health agencies could play in the surveillance of emerging workplace hazards including nanotechnology.

Methods: This essay describes existing state occupational health surveillance programs in order to demonstrate their potential applicability, and limitations, in regards to nanomaterial worker surveillance.

Results: State public health agencies have access to information and an ability to put surveillance information to use in ways that complement those of industry, academia, regulatory agencies, and federal partners.

Transitioning opioid-dependent patients from detoxification to long-term treatment: efficacy of intensive role induction.

Despite findings that opioid detoxification serves little more than a palliative function, few patients who enter detoxification subsequently transition to long-term treatment. The current study evaluated intensive role induction (IRI), a strategy adapted from a single-session intervention previously shown to facilitate engagement of substance-dependent patients in drug-free treatment. IRI was delivered either alone or combined with case management (IRI+CM) to determine the capacity of each condition to enhance transition and engagement in long-term treatment of detoxification patients.

Excitation of primary afferent neurons by near-infrared light in vitro.

Near-infrared light therapy is an emerging neurostimulation technology, but its cellular mechanism of action remains unresolved. Using standard intracellular recording techniques, we observed that 5-10 ms pulses of 1889 nm light depolarized the membrane potential for hundreds of milliseconds in more than 85% of dorsal root ganglion and nodose ganglion neurons tested. The laser-evoked depolarizations (LEDs) exhibited complex, multiphasic kinetics comprising fast and slow components.

BKCa currents are enriched in a subpopulation of adult rat cutaneous nociceptive dorsal root ganglion neurons.

The biophysical properties and distribution of voltage-dependent, Ca(2+) -modulated K(+) (BK(Ca)) currents among subpopulations of acutely dissociated DiI-labeled cutaneous sensory neurons from the adult rat were characterized with whole-cell patch-clamp techniques. BK(Ca) currents were isolated from total K(+) current with iberiotoxin, charybdotoxin or paxilline. There was considerable variability in biophysical properties of BK(Ca) currents.

Blood transfusion: friend or foe.

The effectiveness of transfusions is often compromised by adverse reactions. Common transfusion reactions (hemolytic transfusion reactions, transfusion-related acute lung injury, transfusion-associated circulatory overload, transfusion-related immunomodulation) are reviewed, including pathogenesis, clinical and laboratory manifestations, and treatment. In addition, artificial blood substitutes are discussed as a way to mitigate the risk of transfusion-related morbidity and mortality.

Brief vs. extended buprenorphine detoxification in a community treatment program: engagement and short-term outcomes.

Background: Despite evidence supporting the efficacy of buprenorphine relative to established detoxification agents such as clonidine, little research has examined: 1) how best to implement buprenorphine detoxification in outpatient settings; and 2) whether extending the length of buprenorphine detoxification improves treatment engagement and outcomes.

Objectives: The current study examined the impact on 1) successful detoxification completion; 2) transition to longer-term treatment; and 3) treatment engagement of two different length opioid detoxifications using buprenorphine.

Methods: The study compared data obtained from two consecutive studies of early treatment engagement strategies.

Collaborative Behavioral Management for Drug-Involved Parolees: Rationale and Design of the Step'n Out Study.

This article describes the rationale, study design, and implementation for the Step'n Out study of the Criminal Justice Drug Abuse Treatment Studies. Step'n Out tests the relative effectiveness of collaborative behavioral management of drug-involved parolees. Collaborative behavioral management integrates the roles of parole officers and treatment counselors to provide role induction counseling, contract for pro-social behavior, and deliver contingent reinforcement of behaviors consistent with treatment objectives.