An optimized irrigation water quality index for evaluating surface water sustainability status of an agricultural watershed.

Maintaining good water quality is essential for drinking and agriculture. High water quality is crucial for irrigation to boost agricultural productivity and ensure sustainable water resource management. This study used in-depth physical and chemical analysis of water samples to evaluate the Kakia-Esamburmbur watershed's irrigation water sustainability.

What are parents' preferences for Human Papillomavirus vaccination promotion messages and communication? Application of a discrete choice experiment to a French Caribbean setting.

Introduction: Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine uptake in the French Caribbean has remained below 25% since introduction in 2007, which is well behind national and international targets. Using a discrete choice experiment (DCE), we explored parental preferences around HPV vaccination and optimized communication content in a sample of parents of middle-school pupils in Guadeloupe.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in public and private middle age schools in Guadeloupe in June 2023 using an online questionnaire.

Sociodemographic determinants of HPV vaccine awareness, uptake, and intention among parents of adolescents in France 2021-22.

Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine coverage was <50% in France in 2022 and even lower among socially disadvantaged populations. We aimed to evaluate socio-demographic determinants of HPV vaccine awareness, uptake, and intention among parents of adolescents, and related attitudes and knowledge items. Parents of adolescents attending middle schools across France, who participated in a randomized trial responded to an anonymous baseline survey, conducted between November 2021 and February 2022.

Optimizing Communication on HPV Vaccination to Parents of 11- to 14-Year-Old Adolescents in France: A Discrete Choice Experiment.

Background: With the aim to optimize communication during HPV vaccination campaigns in France, we elicited parental preferences around HPV vaccination.

Methods: We conducted a single-profile discrete choice experiment (DCE) among parents of 11- to 14-year-old middle-school pupils, who completed an anonymous, self-administered, internet-based questionnaire during 2020-2021. The DCE comprised five attributes (vaccine-preventable disease, justification of optimal age, information on safety, indirect protection and coverage) of vaccination against an unnamed disease that were presented to respondents in ten choice tasks, or scenarios.

Soil quality index (SQI) for evaluating the sustainability status of Kakia-Esamburmbur catchment under three different land use types in Narok County, Kenya.

Land and water degradation caused by soil erosion and climate change pose major environmental threats, particularly in agricultural watersheds. Soil erosion in a catchment leads to low crop yields due to declining soil quality (SQ), productivity and sustainability. However, very few studies have been done to assess soil health in Kenya, and none in Narok County.

Health protective behaviours during the COVID-19 pandemic: Risk adaptation or habituation?

Many epidemiological works show that human behaviours play a fundamental role in the spread of infectious diseases. However, we still do not know much about how people modify their Health Protective Behaviours (HPB), such as hygiene or social distancing measures, over time in response to the health threat during an epidemic. In this study, we examined the role of the epidemiological context in engagement in HPB through two possible mechanisms highlighted by research into decision-making under risk: risk adaptation and risk habituation.

Can physicians and schools mitigate social inequalities in human papillomavirus vaccine awareness, uptake and vaccination intention among adolescents? A cross-sectional study, France, 2021 to 2022.

BackgroundIn France, human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination coverage varies across socioeconomic levels.AimWe aimed at assessing HPV vaccine awareness, uptake and vaccination intention among adolescents in France.MethodsIn a cluster-randomised study, 13-15-year-old students in 61 French middle schools completed a web-based questionnaire.

Psychometric validation of a 7C-model of antecedents of vaccine acceptance among healthcare workers, parents and adolescents in France.

Support for vaccine decision-making requires a tailored approach taking into account psychological antecedents of vaccine acceptance. We aimed at validating an extended 7C-model of antecedents in three different target population groups (healthcare workers [n = 3870], parents [n = 2002] and adolescents [n = 7118]) and two vaccinations (COVID-19, HPV) in France. We performed a secondary analysis of questionnaires collecting sociodemographic characteristics, attitudes and knowledge on vaccination, and vaccine status and intention.

Performance and emission characteristics of a diesel engine fuelled by biodiesel from black soldier fly larvae: Effects of synthesizing catalysts with citric acid.

Biodiesel has several environmental benefits, such as biodegradability, renewability and lower soot emissions. However, biodiesel has undesirable properties such as higher viscosity and density and low calorific value compared to petroleum diesel, resulting in high Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC), reduced Brake Power (BP) and increased NO emissions creating an environmental concerns in biodiesel development. This study investigated the effects of synthesizing transesterification catalysts (CaO and NaOH) with Citric Acid (CA) on the quality of biodiesel and biodiesel blends produced from Black Soldier Fly Larvae (BSFL) (Hermetia ).

Testing a simple and frugal model of health protective behaviour in epidemic times.

The COVID-19 epidemic highlighted the necessity to integrate dynamic human behaviour change into infectious disease transmission models. The adoption of health protective behaviour, such as handwashing or staying at home, depends on both epidemiological and personal variables. However, only a few models have been proposed in the recent literature to account for behavioural change in response to the health threat over time.

Enhancement of anaerobic digestion by co-digesting food waste and water hyacinth in improving treatment of organic waste and bio-methane recovery.

In Kenya, 57% of the municipal solid waste generated is Food waste (FW) which has high organic content. However, the treatment and bioconversion of FW to biogas have always been challenging due to its rapid biodegradation, resulting from rapid hydrolysis and accumulation of volatile fatty acids and lowering pH in the bioreactor. In this study, the anaerobic digestibility of FW as a mono substrate was compared to co-digestion of FW with water hyacinth (WH) for improved biogas production and organic matter removal efficiency in a laboratory batch reactor.

Heating and emission characteristics from combustion of charcoal and co-combustion of charcoal with faecal char-sawdust char briquettes in a ceramic cook stove.

Over reliance on charcoal has accelerated deforestation in sub-Saharan Africa. Seeking alternative sustainable and environmentally friendly sources of biomass energy to meet the escalating energy demand is therefore vital. However, limited evidence exists on the concentrations of toxic emissions of different biomass fuels.

Assessment of hydrological water balance in Lower Nzoia Sub-catchment using SWAT-model: towards improved water governace in Kenya.

Kenya's catchments has both natural and disturbed environments. Within these environments, there has been interaction between hydrological, physical and ecological characteristics. Therefore, impacts of Land Use Land Cover (LULC) change on surface and sub - surface hydrology needs to be well understood due to the increasing population competing for scarce natural resources such as water, trees and forest land.

Perceptions of COVID-19 self-testing and recommendations for implementation and scale-up among Black/African Americans: implications for the COVID-19 STEP project.

Background: COVID-19 self-testing (ST) is an innovative strategy with the potential to increase the access and uptake of testing and ultimately to limit the spread of the virus. To maximize the uptake and reach of this promising strategy and inform intervention development and scale up, research is needed to understand the acceptability of and willingness to use this tool. This is vital to ensure that Black/African Americans are reached by the Biden-Harris Administration's free national COVID-19 ST program.

Cognitive Factors Associated With Public Acceptance of COVID-19 Nonpharmaceutical Prevention Measures: Cross-sectional Study.

Background: During the COVID-19 crisis, protests against restrictions emerged and rule violations increased, provoking peaks in new positive cases, forcing authorities in France to impose fines to slow down the spread of the disease. Due to these challenges, subsequent implementations of preventive measures in response to COVID-19 recurrences or other pandemics could present difficulties for decision makers. A better understanding of the factors underlying the public acceptance of COVID-19 nonpharmaceutical preventive measures may therefore contribute greatly to the design of more effective public communication during future pandemics.

Perception of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic by pregnant women during the first lockdown in France: worry, perceived vulnerability, adoption and maintenance of prevention measures according to the Covimater study.

Background: We aimed to describe pregnant women's worry about the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the associated reasons, their perceived vulnerability to this infection, and factors influencing continued poor/non-existent or decreased implementation of preventive measures over time.

Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted in July 2020 using a web-questionnaire completed by 500 women who were pregnant during the first lockdown in France (March-May 2020). Questions focused on worry caused by the pandemic, perceived vulnerability to infection by SARS-CoV-2 and implementation of preventive measures during and after lockdown.

Perceptions of COVID-19 Self-Testing and Recommendations for Implementation and Scale up Among Black/African Americans: Implications for the COVID-19 STEP Project.

Background COVID-19 self-testing (ST) is an innovative strategy with the potential to increase the access and uptake of testing and ultimately to limit the spread of the virus. To maximize the uptake and reach of this promising strategy and inform intervention development and scale up, research is needed to understand the acceptability of and willingness to use this tool. This is vital to ensure that Black/African Americans are reached by the Biden-Harris Administration’s free national COVID-19 ST program.

Initial risk perception and feeling of preparedness of primary care physicians regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, France and Spain in February 2020.

Background: The knowledge of risk perceptions in primary care could help health authorities to manage epidemics.

Methods: A European multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted in France, Belgium and Spain to describe the perceptions, the level of anxiety and the feeling of preparedness of primary healthcare physicians towards the COVID-19 infection at the beginning of the pandemic. The factors associated with the feeling of preparedness were studied using multivariate logistic regressions.

The Health Professional's View on the Inclusion of Age in the Recommendations for Pneumococcal Vaccination: Results of a Cross-Sectional Survey in France.

Elderly people are at high risk for pneumococcal infections. However, older age is not an eligibility factor for pneumococcal vaccination in France. Adults with certain co-morbidities or immunocompromised states are eligible for vaccination, which leaves adults aged ≥65 years without comorbidities at-risk for pneumococcal infections.

Are People Optimistically Biased about the Risk of COVID-19 Infection? Lessons from the First Wave of the Pandemic in Europe.

Unrealistic optimism, the underestimation of one's risk of experiencing harm, has been investigated extensively to understand better and predict behavioural responses to health threats. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, a relative dearth of research existed in this domain regarding epidemics, which is surprising considering that this optimistic bias has been associated with a lack of engagement in protective behaviours critical in fighting twenty-first-century, emergent, infectious diseases. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating whether people demonstrated optimism bias during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe, how this changed over time, and whether unrealistic optimism was negatively associated with protective measures.

Adsorption and desorption of nutrients from abattoir wastewater: modelling and comparison of rice, coconut and coffee husk biochar.

Enrichment of water bodies with nutrients from wastewater is one of the causes of eutrophication to aquatic ecosystems. This study investigated the use of biochar derived from rice husk, coconut husk, and coffee husk in adsorbing nitrates (NO3-N) and nitrites (NO2-N) from slaughterhouse wastewater. It also explored the desorption efficiencies of the adsorbed nutrients to ascertain the applicability of the enriched biochars as slow-release fertilizers.

[Interest of a geostatistical approach to analyze the geographical disparities in human papillomavirus vaccine coverage in France].

Background: The use of geostatistical methods remains rare in health studies. In order to assess the usefulness of the geostatistical approach in epidemiology, we chose to apply these methods to the vaccination coverage rate (VCR) against human papillomavirus (HPV) in France. Indeed, HPV vaccine coverage remains low in France and geographical disparities are sizable.

Effectiveness of a Multifaceted Informational-Based and Text Message Reminders on Pneumococcal and Influenza Vaccinations in Hospital Emergency Departments: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a multifaceted procedure in improving pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations 6 months after an emergency department (ED) visit among patients aged 65 years and older.

Methods: We conducted a cluster-randomized, controlled, parallel-group, open-label implementation trial in 18 EDs in France and Monaco. Participants were recruited from November 2015 to September 2016.