Testing the effect of ecolabels on the environmental impact of food purchases in worksite cafeterias: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: Reducing the environmental impact of foods consumed is important for meeting climate goals. We aimed to conduct a randomised controlled trial to test whether ecolabels reduce the environmental impact of food selected in worksite cafeterias, alone or in combination with increased availability of more sustainable meal options.

Methods: Worksite cafeterias (n = 96) were randomised to one of three study groups, with 54 included for final analysis.

Teacher vaccinations enhance student achievement in Pakistan: The role of role models and theory of mind.

We provide experimental evidence that role models can galvanize prosocial actions amid global crises, exemplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. In a randomized control trial comparing role models, cash incentives, and celebrity endorsements, only role models successfully mitigated vaccine reluctance and ameliorated pandemic-induced educational setbacks. Monthly tracking of vaccination status was achieved via QR-code-verified certificates.

The environmental and social opportunities of reducing sugar intake.

Sugar is the largest agricultural crop by mass and has seen a rapid increase in consumption around the world. There are widespread public health efforts to curb sugar intake through targeted policies given its association with noncommunicable diseases. Although curbing sugar intake aligns with sustainable diets that meet essential environmental and health targets, such a shift may be challenging from a political economy perspective.

A comprehensive Beyond-GDP database to accelerate wellbeing, inclusion, and sustainability research.

"Beyond-GDP" metrics are essential for understanding societal progress. Yet despite their importance, these metrics are scattered across various databases, hindering accessibility and interdisciplinary analysis. Addressing this gap, we present the 'WISE database' - the first extensive collection of important Beyond-GDP metrics organized by Wellbeing, Inclusion, and Sustainability (WISE) dimensions.

The potential of gene drives in malaria vector species to control malaria in African environments.

Gene drives are a promising means of malaria control with the potential to cause sustained reductions in transmission. In real environments, however, their impacts will depend on local ecological and epidemiological factors. We develop a data-driven model to investigate the impacts of gene drives that causes vector population suppression.

Quantifying species biases among multidata sources on illegal wildlife trade and its implications for conservation.

Unsustainable wildlife consumption and illegal wildlife trade (IWT) threaten biodiversity worldwide. Although publicly accessible data sets are increasingly used to generate insights into IWT, little is known about their potential bias. We compared three typical and temporally corresponding data sets (4204 court verdicts, 926 seizure news reports, and 219 bird market surveys) on traded birds native to China and evaluated their possible species biases.

Accurate prediction of protein function using statistics-informed graph networks.

Understanding protein function is pivotal in comprehending the intricate mechanisms that underlie many crucial biological activities, with far-reaching implications in the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and drug development. However, more than 200 million proteins remain uncharacterized, and computational efforts heavily rely on protein structural information to predict annotations of varying quality. Here, we present a method that utilizes statistics-informed graph networks to predict protein functions solely from its sequence.

Early warning of trends in commercial wildlife trade through novel machine-learning analysis of patent filing.

Unsustainable wildlife trade imperils thousands of species, but efforts to identify and reduce these threats are hampered by rapidly evolving commercial markets. Businesses trading wildlife-derived products innovate to remain competitive, and the patents they file to protect their innovations also provide an early-warning of market shifts. Here, we develop a novel machine-learning approach to analyse patent-filing trends and apply it to patents filed from 1970-2020 related to six traded taxa that vary in trade legality, threat level, and use type: rhinoceroses, pangolins, bears, sturgeon, horseshoe crabs, and caterpillar fungus.

Opportunities to produce food from substantially less land.

The vast majority of the food we eat comes from land-based agriculture, but recent technological advances in agriculture and food technology offer the prospect of producing food using substantially less or even virtually no land. For example, indoor vertical farming can achieve very high yields of certain crops with a very small area footprint, and some foods can be synthesized from inorganic precursors in industrial facilities. Animal-based foods require substantial land per unit of protein or per calorie and switching to alternatives could reduce demand for some types of agricultural land.

Ensemble of global climate simulations for temperature in historical, 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C scenarios from HadAM4.

Large ensembles of global temperature are provided for three climate scenarios: historical (2006-16), 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C above pre-industrial levels.

Self-Administration of Aspirin After Chest Pain for the Prevention of Premature Cardiovascular Mortality in the United States: A Population-Based Analysis.

Background: Aspirin, an effective, low-cost pharmaceutical, can significantly reduce mortality if used promptly after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, many AMI survivors do not receive aspirin within a few hours of symptom onset. Our aim was to quantify the mortality benefit of self-administering aspirin at chest pain onset, considering the increased risk of bleeding and costs associated with widespread use.

Projected future climatic forcing on the global distribution of vegetation types.

Most emissions scenarios suggest temperature and precipitation regimes will change dramatically across the globe over the next 500 years. These changes will have large impacts on the biosphere, with species forced to migrate to follow their preferred environmental conditions, therefore moving and fragmenting ecosystems. However, most projections of the impacts of climate change only reach 2100, limiting our understanding of the temporal scope of climate impacts, and potentially impeding suitable adaptive action.

Efficacy of decentralised home-based antihypertensive treatment in older adults with multimorbidity and polypharmacy (ATEMPT): an open-label randomised controlled pilot trial.

Background: Older patients with multimorbidity and polypharmacy have been under-represented in clinical trials. We aimed to assess the effect of different intensities of antihypertensive treatment on changes in blood pressure, major safety outcomes, and patient-reported outcomes in this population.

Methods: ATEMPT was a decentralised, two-armed, parallel-group, open-label randomised controlled pilot trial conducted in the Thames Valley area, South East England.

Sustainability benefits of transitioning from current diets to plant-based alternatives or whole-food diets in Sweden.

Plant-based alternatives (PBAs) are increasingly becoming part of diets. Here, we investigate the environmental, nutritional, and economic implications of replacing animal-source foods (ASFs) with PBAs or whole foods (WFs) in the Swedish diet. Utilising two functional units (mass and energy), we model vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian scenarios, each based on PBAs or WFs.

A restatement of the natural science evidence base concerning grassland management, grazing livestock and soil carbon storage.

Approximately a third of all annual greenhouse gas emissions globally are directly or indirectly associated with the food system, and over a half of these are linked to livestock production. In temperate oceanic regions, such as the UK, most meat and dairy is produced in extensive systems based on pasture. There is much interest in the extent to which such grassland may be able to sequester and store more carbon to partially or completely mitigate other greenhouse gas emissions in the system.

Remote collaboration fuses fewer breakthrough ideas.

Theories of innovation emphasize the role of social networks and teams as facilitators of breakthrough discoveries. Around the world, scientists and inventors are more plentiful and interconnected today than ever before. However, although there are more people making discoveries, and more ideas that can be reconfigured in new ways, research suggests that new ideas are getting harder to find-contradicting recombinant growth theory.

The Anthropocene condition: evolving through social-ecological transformations.

Anthropogenic planetary disruptions, from climate change to biodiversity loss, are unprecedented challenges for human societies. Some societies, social groups, cultural practices, technologies and institutions are already disintegrating or disappearing as a result. However, this coupling of socially produced environmental challenges with disruptive social changes-the Anthropocene condition-is not new.

The effect of immunomodulatory drugs on aortic stenosis: a Mendelian randomisation analysis.

There are currently no approved pharmacological treatment options for aortic stenosis (AS), and there are limited identified drug targets for this chronic condition. It remains unclear whether inflammation plays a role in AS pathogenesis and whether immunomodulation could become a therapeutic target. We evaluated the potentially causal association between inflammation and AS by investigating the genetically proxied effects of tocilizumab (IL6 receptor, IL6R, inhibitor), canakinumab (IL1β inhibitor) and colchicine (β-tubulin inhibitor) through a Mendelian randomisation (MR) approach.

Nature-based solutions are critical for putting Brazil on track towards net-zero emissions by 2050.

Most of the world's nations (around 130) have committed to reaching net-zero carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, yet robust policies rarely underpin these ambitions. To investigate whether existing and expected national policies will allow Brazil to meet its net-zero GHG emissions pledge by 2050, we applied a detailed regional integrated assessment modelling approach. This included quantifying the role of nature-based solutions, such as the protection and restoration of ecosystems, and engineered solutions, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage.