Correction: Bayesian space-time SIR modeling of Covid-19 in two US states during the 2020-2021 pandemic.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Maternal exposure to pyrethroid insecticides during pregnancy and respiratory allergy symptoms among children participating in the Venda Health Examination of Mothers, Babies and their Environment (VHEMBE).

Background: Pyrethroid insecticides use for indoor residual spraying (IRS) in malaria-endemic areas results in high levels of exposure to local populations. Pyrethroids may cause asthma and respiratory allergies but no prior study has investigated this question in an IRS area.

Methods: We measured maternal urinary concentrations of pyrethroid metabolites (cis-DBCA, cis-DCCA, trans-DCCA, 3-PBA) in samples collected at delivery from 751 mothers participating in the Venda Health Examination of Mothers, Babies, and their Environment (VHEMBE), a birth cohort study based in Limpopo, South Africa.

The Association between Mediated Deprivation and Ovarian Cancer Survival among African American Women.

Background: Deprivation indices are often used to adjust for socio-economic disparities in health studies. Their role has been partially evaluated for certain population-level cancer outcomes, but examination of their role in ovarian cancer is limited. In this study, we evaluated a range of well-recognized deprivation indices in relation to cancer survival in a cohort of self-identified Black women diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Evaluation of Bayesian spatiotemporal infectious disease models for prospective surveillance analysis.

Background: COVID-19 brought enormous challenges to public health surveillance and underscored the importance of developing and maintaining robust systems for accurate surveillance. As public health data collection efforts expand, there is a critical need for infectious disease modeling researchers to continue to develop prospective surveillance metrics and statistical models to accommodate the modeling of large disease counts and variability. This paper evaluated different likelihoods for the disease count model and various spatiotemporal mean models for prospective surveillance.

Deprivation and segregation in ovarian cancer survival among African American women: a mediation analysis.

Purpose: Deprivation and segregation indices are often examined as possible explanations for observed health disparities in population-based studies. In this study, we assessed the role of recognized deprivation and segregation indices specifically as they affect survival in a cohort of self-identified Black women diagnosed with ovarian cancer who enrolled in the African American Cancer Epidemiology Study.

Methods: Mediation analysis was used to examine the direct and indirect effects between deprivation or segregation and overall survival via a Bayesian structural equation model with Gibbs variable selection.

Exposure to pesticides and risk of Hodgkin lymphoma in an international consortium of agricultural cohorts (AGRICOH).

Purpose: Some pesticides may increase the risk of certain lymphoid malignancies, but few studies have examined Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). In this exploratory study, we examined associations between agricultural use of 22 individual active ingredients and 13 chemical groups and HL incidence.

Methods: We used data from three agricultural cohorts participating in the AGRICOH consortium: the French Agriculture and Cancer Cohort (2005-2009), Cancer in the Norwegian Agricultural Population (1993-2011), and the US Agricultural Health Study (1993-2011).

Subjective and objective sleep quality does not predict behavioural episodic foresight in younger or older adults.

Episodic foresight refers to one's capacity to use imagined scenarios to guide future-directed behaviors. It is important in facilitating complex activities of daily living, such as managing finances. Broader literature shows that older adults perform more poorly on tests of episodic foresight relative to their younger counterparts.

Bayesian space-time SIR modeling of Covid-19 in two US states during the 2020-2021 pandemic.

This paper describes the Bayesian SIR modeling of the 3 waves of Covid-19 in two contrasting US states during 2020-2021. A variety of models are evaluated at the county level for goodness-of-fit and an assessment of confounding predictors is also made. It is found that models with three deprivation predictors and neighborhood effects are important.

Assessment of Practices Affecting Racial and Ethnic COVID-19 Vaccination Equity in 10 Large US Cities.

Context: In the United States, COVID-19 vaccines have been unequally distributed between different racial and ethnic groups. Public reporting of race and ethnicity data for COVID-19 vaccination has the potential to help guide public health responses aimed at promoting vaccination equity. However, there is evidence that such data are not readily available.

Guidance on review type selection for health technology assessments: key factors and considerations for deciding when to conduct a de novo systematic review, an update of a systematic review, or an overview of systematic reviews.

Background: A systematic review (SR) helps us make sense of a body of research while minimizing bias and is routinely conducted to evaluate intervention effects in a health technology assessment (HTA). In addition to the traditional de novo SR, which combines the results of multiple primary studies, there are alternative review types that use systematic methods and leverage existing SRs, namely updates of SRs and overviews of SRs. This paper shares guidance that can be used to select the most appropriate review type to conduct when evaluating intervention effects in an HTA, with a goal to leverage existing SRs and reduce research waste where possible.

Issues in Bayesian prospective surveillance of spatial health data.

In this paper I review some of the major issues that arise when geo-referenced health data are to be the subject of prospective surveillance. The review focusses on modelbased approaches to this activity, and proposes the Bayesian paradigm as a convenient vehicle for modeling. Various posterior functional measures are discussed including the SCPO and SKL and a number of extensions to these are considered.

Prenatal exposure to insecticides and child cardiometabolic risk factors in the VHEMBE birth cohort.

Unlabelled: As part of malaria control programs, many countries spray dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) or pyrethroid insecticides inside dwellings in a practice called indoor residual spraying that results in high levels of exposure to local populations. Gestational exposure to these endocrine- and metabolism-disrupting chemicals may influence child cardiometabolic health.

Methods: We measured the serum concentration of DDT and dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE) and urinary concentration of pyrethroid metabolites (-DBCA, -DCCA, -DCCA, 3-PBA) in peripartum samples collected between August 2012 and December 2013 from 637 women participating in the Venda Health Examination of Mothers, Babies and their Environment (VHEMBE), a birth cohort study based in Limpopo, South Africa.

Prenatal Exposure to Insecticides and Weight Trajectories Among South African Children in the VHEMBE Birth Cohort.

Background: Dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) or pyrethroid insecticides are sprayed inside dwellings for malaria vector control, resulting in high exposure to millions of people, including pregnant women. These chemicals disrupt endocrine function and may affect child growth. To our knowledge, few studies have investigated the potential impact of prenatal exposure to DDT or pyrethroids on growth trajectories.

Occupational Exposure to Wood Dust and the Burden of Nasopharynx and Sinonasal Cancer in Canada.

Background: Millions of workers around the world are exposed to wood dust, as a by-product of woodworking. Nasopharynx cancers (NPCs) and sinonasal cancers (SNCs) are two cancers that can be caused by occupational exposure to wood dust, but there is little evidence regarding their burden in Canada.

Objective: the aim of this study was to estimate the incidence and economic burden of newly diagnosed cases of NPC and SNC in 2011 in Canada, attributable to occupational exposures to wood dust.

Randomized clinical trial of a brief, scalable intervention for mental health sequelae in college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This randomized clinical trial aimed to determine feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of brief Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills videos in reducing psychological distress among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over six weeks, 153 undergraduates at a large, public American university completed pre-assessment, intervention, and post-assessment periods. During the intervention, participants were randomized to receive animated DBT skills videos for 14 successive days (n = 99) or continue assessment (n = 54).

Metabolic health measurements of shift workers in a national cross-sectional study: Results from the Canadian Health Measures Survey.

Background: Shift work exposure may be a concern for a range of health effects, including metabolic health outcomes such as insulin resistance, high body weight, and abdominal obesity.

Methods: We analyzed shift work and indicators of metabolic health (overweight/obesity defined by body mass index, self-reported changes in body mass index (BMI) in previous 1 and 10 years, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio, and insulin resistance assessed by the homeostasis model assessment 2 (HOMA-2-IR)) in the cross-sectional Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS). We analyzed descriptive characteristics of shift workers (regular night, evening, and rotating shift) and used multivariable linear regression to examine the association between two definitions of shift work exposure and measures of metabolic health, adjusted for age, sex, daily energy expenditure, sleep, and poor dietary quality.

Does task-irrelevant music affect gaze allocation during real-world scene viewing?

Gaze control manifests from a dynamic integration of visual and auditory information, with sound providing important cues for how a viewer should behave. Some past research suggests that music, even if entirely irrelevant to the current task demands, may also sway the timing and frequency of fixations. The current work sought to further assess this idea as well as investigate whether task-irrelevant music could also impact how gaze is spatially allocated.

Predicting Energetics Materials' Crystalline Density from Chemical Structure by Machine Learning.

To expedite new molecular compound development, a long-sought goal within the chemistry community has been to predict molecules' bulk properties of interest a priori to synthesis from a chemical structure alone. In this work, we demonstrate that machine learning methods can indeed be used to directly learn the relationship between chemical structures and bulk crystalline properties of molecules, even in the absence of any crystal structure information or quantum mechanical calculations. We focus specifically on a class of organic compounds categorized as energetic materials called high explosives (HE) and predicting their crystalline density.

Space-time covid-19 Bayesian SIR modeling in South Carolina.

The Covid-19 pandemic has spread across the world since the beginning of 2020. Many regions have experienced its effects. The state of South Carolina in the USA has seen cases since early March 2020 and a primary peak in early April 2020.