Preschool child growth attainment and velocity during an agriculture intervention in rural Panama may be diminished by soil-transmitted helminths.

Background: Agricultural interventions are often recommended to address undernutrition in subsistence farming communities. However, intensified agriculture exposure can increase soil transmitted helminth (STH) infections, which are linked with poor child growth. This study examined impacts of the VERASAN public health and agricultural intervention program on preschool child growth attainment (HAZ and WAZ) and relative growth velocity over 7 months [change in height-for-age (∆HAD) and weight-for-age (∆WAD) difference].

The networked micro-decision context: a new lens on transformative urban governance.

Recent large-scale societal disruptions, from the COVID-19 pandemic to intensifying wildfires and weather events, reveal the importance of transforming governance systems so they can address complex, transboundary, and rapidly evolving crises. Yet current knowledge of the decision-making dynamics that yield transformative governance remains scant. Studies typically focus on the aggregate outputs of government decisions, while overlooking their micro-level underpinnings.

Climate policy conflict in the U.S. states: a critical review and way forward.

Many U.S. states have taken significant action on climate change in recent years, demonstrating their commitment despite federal policy gridlock and rollbacks.

Measurement batch differences and between-batch conversion of Alzheimer's disease cerebrospinal fluid biomarker values.

Introduction: Batch differences in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarker measurement can introduce bias into analyses for Alzheimer's disease studies. We evaluated and adjusted for batch differences using statistical methods.

Methods: A total of 792 CSF samples from 528 participants were assayed in three batches for 12 biomarkers and 3 biomarker ratios.

Antagonistic effects of native strains of the soil fungus against gastrointestinal nematode and protozoan parasites of pigs in Panama.

A variety of gastrointestinal parasites naturally infect domestic pigs in Panama which may also occur as zoonotic infections in humans. Anthelmintic drug treatment, including mass drug administration, can lead to drug resistance, reflecting a need for alternatives. The objectives of this exploratory and observational study were: (1) to isolate and cultivate natives species of from natural soils in Panama, and (2) to evaluate isolated strains for their capacity to parasitize endemic gastrointestinal nematode and protozoan parasites recovered from naturally infected domestic pigs by observing cultures for spore adhesion and hyphae penetration phases.

Exploring the landscape of sustainability performance management systems in U.S. local governments.

Municipalities around the globe are increasingly adopting and integrating sustainability goals into their service functions. As with many public programs, local sustainability initiatives benefit from regular and systematic assessment aimed at determining the extent to which efforts are achieving their performance goals. However, there currently is little understanding of how local governments are collecting and tracking data on their sustainability-related performance and to what extent they integrate its lessons into their sustainability management practice.

Demonstration gardens improve agricultural production, food security and preschool child diets in subsistence farming communities in Panama.

Objectives: To explore impacts of a demonstration garden-based agricultural intervention on agricultural knowledge, practices and production, food security and preschool child diet diversity of subsistence farming households.

Design: Observational study of households new to the intervention or participating for 1 or 5 years. Variables measured were agricultural techniques learned from the intervention and used, agricultural production, household food insecurity (FIS) and child diet diversity (DDS), over one agricultural cycle (during land preparation, growing and harvest months).

Household food insecurity in Panamanian subsistence farming communities is associated with indicators of household wealth and constraints on food production.

Objective: To determine if constraints on agricultural production were a novel construct in the Panama Food Security Questionnaire (FSQ) and to characterize agricultural and economic determinants of food insecurity during the planting, growing and harvesting time periods in subsistence farming communities.

Design: This longitudinal study followed households during land preparation, growing and harvest periods in one agricultural cycle. Agricultural production and economic variables were recorded and the Panama FSQ was administered.

Pathway-Specific Polygenic Risk Scores as Predictors of Amyloid-β Deposition and Cognitive Function in a Sample at Increased Risk for Alzheimer's Disease.

Polygenic risk scores (PRSs) have been used to combine the effects of variants with small effects identified by genome-wide association studies. We explore the potential for using pathway-specific PRSs as predictors of early changes in Alzheimer's disease (AD)-related biomarkers and cognitive function. Participants were from the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer's Prevention, a longitudinal study of adults who were cognitively asymptomatic at enrollment and enriched for a parental history of AD.

Insulin resistance is associated with lower arterial blood flow and reduced cortical perfusion in cognitively asymptomatic middle-aged adults.

Insulin resistance (IR) is associated with poor cerebrovascular health and increased risk for dementia. Little is known about the unique effect of IR on both micro- and macrovascular flow particularly in midlife when interventions against dementia may be most effective. We examined the effect of IR as indexed by the Homeostatic Model Assessment of Insulin Resistance (HOMA-IR) on cerebral blood flow in macro- and microvessels utilizing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) among cognitively asymptomatic middle-aged individuals.

Insulin Resistance is Associated with Increased Levels of Cerebrospinal Fluid Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease and Reduced Memory Function in At-Risk Healthy Middle-Aged Adults.

Background: Type 2 diabetes is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Regulation of normal insulin function may be important in reducing the prevalence of dementia due to AD, particularly in individuals who harbor genetic risk for or have a parental family history of AD. The relationship between insulin resistance (IR) and AD pathology remains poorly understood, particularly in midlife prior to the onset of clinical metabolic disease or cognitive decline.

Ascaris and hookworm transmission in preschool children in rural Panama: role of subsistence agricultural activities.

This longitudinal study explored whether aspects of subsistence agriculture were associated with presence and intensity of Ascaris and hookworm in preschool children in rural Panama. Questionnaires were used to collect data on household socio-demographics, child exposure to agriculture and household agricultural practices. Stool samples were collected from children (6 months-5 years) at 3 time points, with albendazole administered after each to clear infections, resulting in 1 baseline and 2 reinfection measures.

Ascaris and hookworm transmission in preschool children from rural Panama: role of yard environment, soil eggs/larvae and hygiene and play behaviours.

This study explored whether the yard environment and child hygiene and play behaviours were associated with presence and intensity of Ascaris and hookworm in preschool children and with eggs and larvae in soil. Data were collected using questionnaires, a visual survey of the yard, soil samples and fecal samples collected at baseline and following re-infection. The presence of eggs/larvae in soil was associated negatively with water storage (eggs) but positively with dogs (eggs) and distance from home to latrine (larvae).

"Not in (or under) my backyard": Geographic proximity and public acceptance of carbon capture and storage facilities.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an innovative technical approach to mitigate the problem of climate change by capturing carbon dioxide emissions and injecting them underground for permanent geological storage. CCS has been perceived both positively, as an innovative approach to facilitate a more environmentally benign use of fossil fuels while also generating local economic benefits, and negatively, as a technology that prolongs the use of carbon-intensive energy sources and burdens local communities with prohibitive costs and ecological and human health risks. This article extends existing research on the "not in my backyard" (NIMBY) phenomenon in a direction that explores the public acceptance of CCS.

Early public impressions of terrestrial carbon capture and storage in a coal-intensive state.

While carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered to be critical to achieving long-term climate-protection goals, public concerns about the CCS practice could pose significant obstacles to its deployment. This study reports findings from the first state-wide survey of public perceptions of CCS in a coal-intensive state, with an analysis of which factors predict early attitudes toward CCS. Nearly three-quarters of an Indiana sample (N = 1001) agree that storing carbon underground is a good approach to protecting the environment, despite 80% of the sample being unaware of CCS prior to participation in the two-wave survey.

Parasite fauna of Etheostoma nigrum (Percidae: Etheostomatinae) in localities of varying pollution stress in the St. Lawrence River, Quebec, Canada.

Parasite communities were examined in johnny darters (Etheostoma nigrum) collected from five localities in the St. Lawrence River in southwestern Quebec: two reference localities, one polluted locality upstream of the Island of Montreal and downstream of industrial and agricultural activity, and two polluted localities downstream of the Island of Montreal in the plume from the wastewater treatment facility. Twenty-four helminth species were found.