A culturally tailored intervention to reduce risk of alcohol-exposed pregnancies in American Indian communities: Rationale, design, and methods.

Introduction: Prenatal exposure to alcohol can cause lifelong physical and cognitive challenges in the form of fetal alcohol syndrome and other fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs). The prevention of prenatal alcohol exposure is thus a public health priority - and one that should account for the particular needs of subpopulations, including in American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities. Prior to conception, alcohol-exposed pregnancy prevention is accomplished by encouraging the reduction or elimination of risky alcohol use and/or promoting effective contraceptive use among risky drinkers who could become pregnant.

The Conundrum of Giglio Island: Unraveling the dynamics of an apparent resistance to COVID-19 - A descriptive study.

Objectives: Despite an extensive risk of exposure to COVID-19, the residents of Giglio Island, Italy, did not develop any symptom of SARS-CoV-2. The present study aims to characterize the nature of exposure and to describe the local population dynamics underlying its apparent resistance to COVID-19.

Methods: Descriptive study of an islander partially-segregated population cohort based on a seroprevalence screening conducted from Aprile 29 to May 3, 2020 and including SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and viral prevalence in samples of saliva assessed through RT-qPCR.

The role of short-term changes in cognitive capacity on economic expenditure among Kenyan agro-pastoralists.

The increased exposure of pastoralist communities in East Africa to climatic shocks has focused attention on the resilience of these communities. Although many social scientists directly or indirectly infer versions of homo-economic agents, increasing evidence in development behavioral economics, indicates that such assumptions may be misplaced. Despite on-going advances in the science concerning the effects of stress on dynamic changes in short-term cognitive capacity, there remains limited understanding of the effects of changes in cognitive capacity on economic decision making.

Wagyu-Angus cross improves meat tenderness compared to Angus cattle but unaffected by mild protein restriction during late gestation.

For the spring-calving beef herds, late gestation coincides with winter and early spring, when cows are dependent on feed supplements with low quality hay, which is hard to meet their nutrient requirements. However, the effects of deficiencies of metabolizable protein intake during late gestation on offspring beef quality are unclear. Wagyu cattle have excellent marbling, and insemination with Wagyu vs Angus semen is a practical option for beef producers to improve beef quality.

Risk perception and oil and gasoline markets under COVID-19.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) exposed individuals to a great uncertainty about its health and economic ramifications, especially in the early days and weeks of the outbreak. This study documents oil and gasoline market implications of individuals' behavior upon such uncertainty by analyzing the relationship between Google search queries related to COVID-19-information search that reflects one's level of concern about the subject (risk perception)-and the performance of oil and gasoline markets during the pandemic. The empirical analysis based on daily data and a structural vector autoregressive model reveals that a unit increase in the popularity of COVID-19 related global search queries, after controlling for COVID-19 cases, results in 0.

Classification and characterisation of livestock production systems in northern Tanzania.

Livestock keepers in sub-Saharan Africa face a range of pressures, including climate change, land loss, restrictive policies, and population increase. Widespread adaptation in response can lead to the emergence of new, non-traditional typologies of livestock production. We sought to characterise livestock production systems in two administrative regions in northern Tanzania, an area undergoing rapid social, economic, and environmental change.

Breaking the Culture-specific Silence of Women Glass Bead Makers in Ghana: Towards Empowerment.

Background: The production of glass beads in Ghana is greatly impacted by the ingenuity of Ghanaian women. Preliminary investigations revealed the lack of interest on the part of women due to poor working conditions as a result of the influence of culture-specific silence. Therefore, the study investigated the poor working conditions faced by these industrious women with the ultimate goal of suggesting ways they can be empowered.

Information Search and Financial Markets under COVID-19.

The discovery and sudden spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) exposed individuals to a great uncertainty about the potential health and economic ramifications of the virus, which triggered a surge in demand for information about COVID-19. To understand financial market implications of individuals' behavior upon such uncertainty, we explore the relationship between Google search queries related to COVID-19-information search that reflects one's level of concern or risk perception-and the performance of major financial indices. The empirical analysis based on the Bayesian inference of a structural vector autoregressive model shows that one unit increase in the popularity of COVID-19-related global search queries, after controlling for COVID-19 cases, results in 0.

Variable Cognition in ABM Decision-Making: An Application to Livestock Vaccine Choice.

Modeling realistic human decision-making is an important feature of good policy design processes. The use of an agent-based modeling framework allows for quantitative human decision-models that assume fully rational agents. This research introduces a dynamic human decision-making sub-model.

Predicting access to healthful food retailers with machine learning.

Many U.S. households lack access to healthful food and rely on inexpensive, processed food with low nutritional value.

Local attitudes toward the cultural seasonal hunting bans in Ghana's Bomfobiri Wildlife Sanctuary: Implications for sustainable wildlife management and tourism.

This study investigated the attitudes of the people living in three adjacent communities close to the Bomfobiri wildlife sanctuary in Ghana concerning the observation of the cultural, seasonal closures of hunting. The cognitive and motivational approaches to attitude theory in wildlife management guided, under the phenomenology method, the collection of qualitative data on the importance of the seasonal closure of hunting and its implementation challenges. This inquiry was deemed crucial to improving the disjointed relationship between park management and local communities that often make wildlife conservation and tourism difficult at the Bomfobiri Wildlife Sanctuary.

Water rights shape crop yield and revenue volatility tradeoffs for adaptation in snow dependent systems.

Irrigated agriculture in snow-dependent regions contributes significantly to global food production. This study quantifies the impacts of climate change on irrigated agriculture in the snow-dependent Yakima River Basin (YRB) in the Pacific Northwest United States. Here we show that increasingly severe droughts and temperature driven reductions in growing season significantly reduces expected annual agricultural productivity.

Enhancing livestock vaccination decision-making through rapid diagnostic testing.

•Compared to vaccination, the collective approach to diagnostic testing presents a low-fixed cost.•Existing household livestock-health behaviors increase the likelihood for uptake of preventative health practices.•Initial evidence to support household investments in livestock preventative health over therapeutic treatments.

Economically Optimal Wheat Yield, Protein and Nitrogen Use Component Responses to Varying N Supply and Genotype.

Improvements in market value of hard red spring wheat (HRS, .) are linked to breeding efforts to increase grain protein concentration (GPC). Numerous studies have been conducted on the identification, isolation of a chromosome region () of Wild emmer wheat ( spp.

An integrated health delivery platform, targeting soil-transmitted helminths (STH) and canine mediated human rabies, results in cost savings and increased breadth of treatment for STH in remote communities in Tanzania.

Background: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of a 90% reduction in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) by 2030 requires innovative control strategies. This proof-of-concept study examined the effectiveness of integrating control programs for two NTDs: mass drug administration (MDA) for soil-transmitted helminths in humans and mass dog rabies vaccination (MDRV).

Methods: The study was carried out in 24 Tanzanian villages.

A Rational Explanation of Limited FMD Vaccine Uptake in Endemic Regions.

Vaccination for foot-and-mouth (FMD) disease remains low in parts of Africa despite the existence of vaccines. In East Africa, the presence of multiple virus serotypes and sub-types makes matching a vaccine with the circulating virus type in the field, or providing a high potency vaccine, a challenge. In this paper we use game theory to show that the resulting vaccine uncertainty associated with these vaccination conditions in an endemic setting help explain the low vaccine uptake.

Healthcare demand in response to rabies elimination campaigns in Latin America.

The World Health Organization, the World Organization for Animal Health, and the Food and Agriculture Organization have resolved to eliminate human rabies deaths due to dog bites by 2030, and the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) has added human rabies vaccines to their investments for 2021-2025. Implementing these goals cost-effectively and sustainably requires understanding the complex connections between dog rabies vaccination and human risk and response. The objective of this paper is to estimate how dog rabies vaccinations affect human rabies deaths, mediated through dog rabies cases, dog bite reporting, and post-exposure human rabies vaccination.

Why isn't everyone using the thermotolerant vaccine? Preferences for Newcastle disease vaccines by chicken-owning households in Tanzania.

Understanding preferences for veterinary vaccines in low and middle-income countries is important for increasing vaccination coverage against infectious diseases, especially when the consumer is responsible for choosing between similar vaccines. Over-the-counter sales of vaccines without a prescription gives decision-making power to consumers who may value vaccine traits differently from national or international experts and vaccine producers and distributers. We examine consumer preferences for La Sota and I-2 Newcastle disease vaccines in Tanzania to understand why two vaccines co-exist in the market when I-2 is considered technically superior because of its thermotolerance.

Investigating the nature of competition facing private healthcare facilities: the case of maternity care in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The private healthcare sector in low- and middle-income countries is increasingly seen as of public health importance, with widespread interest in improving private provider engagement. However, there is relatively little literature providing an in-depth understanding of the operation of private providers. We conducted a mixed methods analysis of the nature of competition faced by private delivery providers in Uttar Pradesh, India, where maternal mortality remains very high.

Developing a Management Strategy for Little Cherry Disease: The Case of Washington State.

Little cherry disease (LCD) threatens the long-term economic sustainability of the Pacific Northwest sweet cherry () industry. Results from a series of partial budget analyses indicate that additional investments in monitoring, testing, spraying to control for insect vectors, and removing infected trees are lower than the reduced profit losses compared with the do-nothing scenario. Also, management can prevent or lessen the negative impacts of higher little cherry virus (Velarivirus little cherry virus 1, Ampelovirus little cherry virus 2) spread rates.

Exploring the Potential Health Risks Faced by Waste Pickers on Landfills in South Africa: A Socio-Ecological Perspective.

Landfill and street waste pickers in South Africa are responsible for collecting substantial volumes of recyclable material, saving municipalities millions and contributing to a generally healthier and cleaner environment. Yet waste pickers continue to operate on the fringes of the economy and are exposed to many risks, particularly health risks which have a direct impact on the sustainability of their livelihoods. This article, using a mixed-methods approach, explores the health risks to which waste pickers working on nine different landfills in the country are exposed.

Emergency department utilization among individuals with idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Purpose: Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) can be a debilitating disorder that is difficult to identify and treat. Failure to adequately manage IIH symptoms may force patients to present at emergency departments (EDs) seeking symptom relief. The purpose of this paper is to empirically characterize ED use by previously diagnosed IIH patients.