Possible sarcopenia, sarcopenic obesity phenotypes and their association with diabetes: Evidence from LASI wave-1 (2017-18).

Aims: To assess the prevalence of possible sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity phenotypes and investigate their association with self-reported diabetes among community-dwelling individuals aged 45 or above.

Methods: Utilizing data from 62,899 individuals in LASI wave-1 (2017-18), the assessment of possible sarcopenia was done on two critical parameters: muscle (handgrip) strength and physical performance (gait speed), following the 2019 guidelines from the Asian working group on sarcopenia (AWGS). BMI, WC, WHR, and WHtR defined sarcopenic obesity phenotypes.

The partisanship of mayors has no detectable effect on police spending, police employment, crime, or arrests.

In this paper, we examine whether mayors' partisan affiliations lead to differences in crime and policing. We use a large new dataset on mayoral elections and three different modern causal inference research designs (a regression discontinuity design centered around close elections and two robust difference-in-differences methods) to determine the causal effect of mayoral partisanship on crime, arrests, and racial differences in arrest patterns in medium and large US cities. We find no evidence that mayoral partisanship affects police employment or expenditures, police force or leadership demographics, overall crime rates, or numbers of arrests.

Ethnic and racial discrimination in maternal health care in Mexico: a neglected challenge in the search for universal health coverage.

Background: Ethnic and racial discrimination in maternal health care has been overlooked in academic literature and yet it is critical for achieving universal health coverage (UHC). There is a lack of empirical evidence on its impact on the effective coverage of maternal health interventions (ECMH) for Indigenous women in Mexico. Documenting progress in reducing maternal health inequities, particularly given the disproportionate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on ethnic minorities, is essential to improving equity in health systems.

University Students Implement a Nutrition and Cooking Education Curriculum With Fidelity.

Objective: To assess the ability of trained university students to implement Cooking Matters for Kids, a hands-on nutrition and cooking education curriculum for third through fifth-grade children.

Methods: Process evaluation data were collected from 6 Cooking Matters for Kids courses led by university students in the fall of 2019 and spring of 2020 at 6 afterschool programs in Orange County, North Carolina. Trained research assistants observed lessons and reported whether key intervention components were implemented as planned, the level of participant engagement, what worked well, and what could be improved on.

The relationship of medical and recreational cannabis laws with opioid misuse and opioid use disorder in the USA: Does it depend on prior history of cannabis use?

Background: Wider availability of cannabis through medical and recreational legalization (MCL alone and RCL+MCL) has been hypothesized to contribute to reductions in opioid use, misuse, and related harms. We examined whether state adoption of cannabis laws was associated with changes in opioid outcomes overall and stratified by cannabis use.

Methods: Using National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) data from 2015 to 2019, we estimated cannabis law associations with opioid (prescription opioid misuse and/or heroin use) misuse and use disorder.

Expected profitability, independence, and risk assessment of small farmers in the wave of GM crop collectivization--evidence from Xinjiang and Guangdong.

As a longstanding and indispensable part of developing countries, small farmers face challenges brought by the dissemination of GM technology. Despite governments' efforts to promote collective cultivation of GM crops through top-down policies aimed at enhancing small farmers' production efficiency and market competitiveness, actual participation rates among small farmers in many developing countries remain low. This reflects a gap and mismatch between policy design and the actual needs of small farmers.

Irritability and Social Media Use in US Adults.

Importance: Efforts to understand the complex association between social media use and mental health have focused on depression, with little investigation of other forms of negative affect, such as irritability and anxiety.

Objective: To characterize the association between self-reported use of individual social media platforms and irritability among US adults.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This survey study analyzed data from 2 waves of the COVID States Project, a nonprobability web-based survey conducted between November 2, 2023, and January 8, 2024, and applied multiple linear regression models to estimate associations with irritability.

The Exposome and Cardiovascular Health: Webcast December 12 2024.

This 61-minute webcast features a conversation about "The Exposome and Cardiovascular Health"-the focus of Issue 20.5. Led by the issue's editors, the discussion engages the authors on emerging themes and lessons learned while researching and writing the articles.

How critical is SME financial literacy and digital financial access for financial and economic development in the expanded BRICS block?

Introduction: The expanded BRICS block presents significant opportunities for SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises), but challenges related to financial literacy and digital access hinder their potential. While global efforts emphasize financial literacy and digitization as key drivers of economic growth, especially in developing regions, their specific impact on SMEs in the BRICS block remains underexplored. This paper contributes to the literature by contextualizing how financial literacy and digital financial access influence SME sustainability and economic progress, particularly in light of ongoing efforts to bridge the digital divide.

Provider capacity during Medicaid expansion and a public health emergency.

Objectives: To assess the capacity of Medicaid providers to take on new patients during a time of unprecedented growth in program enrollment due to Medicaid expansion and the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Study Design: We conducted a survey of Medicaid providers in Missouri in 2023 about their patient load and capacity to accept new patients.

Methods: We recruited 141 Missouri Medicaid providers through probability sampling and 109 additional providers through convenience sampling for a total sample size of 250, representing 0.

Electrospun Nanofibers from Plant Natural Products: A New Approach Toward Efficient Wound Healing.

Globally, wound care has become a significant burden on public health, with annual medical costs reaching billions of dollars, particularly for the long-term treatment of chronic wounds. Traditional treatments, such as gauze and bandages, often fail to provide an ideal healing environment due to their lack of effective biological activity. Consequently, researchers have increasingly focused on developing new dressings.

Prediction and analysis of toxic and side effects of tigecycline based on deep learning.

Background: In recent years, with the increase of antibiotic resistance, tigecycline has attracted much attention as a new broad-spectrum glycylcycline antibiotic. It is widely used in the treatment of complex skin and soft tissue infections, complex abdominal infections and hospital-acquired pneumonia by inhibiting bacterial protein synthesis. Tigecycline can exhibit significant time-dependent bactericidal activity, and its efficacy is closely related to pharmacokinetics.

Up to the mountains and down to the wetlands: Thirty years' migration of cropland in China since 1990.

Cropland changes are crucial aspects of land-use/land-cover changes (LUCC), which profoundly influence agricultural sustainability and terrestrial ecosystem health. In the context of dynamic shifts within the natural environment, coupled with the evolution of agricultural practices and the transformation of agrarian systems and policies, the trajectory of farmland alteration has exhibited significant divergence across various nations and regions. This article delves into the intriguing phenomenon of China's cropland migrating up to mountains and down to wetlands and analyses its spatiotemporal pattern evolution from 1990 to 2020.

Mapping employment dynamics in public agencies with payroll data: A methodological framework with an application to Chile.

This study introduces a novel, replicable methodology for analyzing employment dynamics within public sector agencies, focusing on turnover and staff longevity. The methodology is designed to be generalizable and applicable to diverse national contexts where detailed administrative data is available. Using payroll data from over 325,000 Chilean civil servants (2006-2020), we apply mixed-effects Cox survival models and linear mixed models to examine patterns of employment stability across state agencies.

Study protocol: A national cross-sectional study on psychology and behavior investigation of Chinese residents in 2023.

Introduction: This study protocol specifies the primary research line and theoretical framework of the 2023 Survey of the Psychology and Behavior of the Chinese Population. It aims to establish a consistent database of Chinese residents' psychological and behavioral surveys through multi-center and large-sample cross-sectional surveys to provide robust data support for developing research in related fields. It will track the public's physical and psychological health more comprehensively and systematically.

The impact of transient air pollution exposure on worker performance in Chinese soccer players.

Using a unique dataset on the performance of soccer players in China (retrieved from 632 matches involving 24 teams during the 2014 to 2016 seasons), we investigate the effect of air pollution on different performance indicators that rely on different mixtures of the physical and cognitive inputs of players. To ensure a causal interpretation, we implement an instrumental variable (IV) approach using thermal inversion as the instrument for air pollution. We found that players' performance indicators, especially those more related to cognitive factors, are more strongly influenced by air pollution.

Fiscal decentralization, local government behavior and environmental pollution: Evidence from "Province-Managing-County" reform in China.

The impact of fiscal decentralization on environmental pollution is a widely debated topic that remains inconclusive. Central to this discussion is whether local governments pursue a "race to the top" or "race to the bottom" competitive strategy. The environmental federalism theory provides insight into this dynamic within federal system but falls short in explaining similar phenomenon in non-federal systems.

Mental Health Treatment Access: Experience, Hypotheticals, and Public Opinion.

Unlabelled: Policy Points Policymakers should consider both material (e.g., cost) and attitudinal (e.

Challenges and barriers to WIC participation vary by participation status and language: Findings from focus groups in Missouri.

The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is one of the largest federal food and nutrition program serving women and young children and has a low coverage rate of about 50 percent. There is no peer-reviewed article that compares maternal perceptions of challenges and barriers to WIC participation by language and participation status. We compare challenges and barriers faced by English-speaking mothers to those faced by Spanish-speaking mothers to enrollment and retention in WIC within each group: current participants (n = 43), prior participants (dropouts; n = 27), and eligible non-participants (n = 18), using focus groups we conducted in Missouri in 2021-2023.

Why are people with dementia overlooked in long-term care insurance policy in Guangzhou, China?

Background And Objectives: There is a growing demand for dementia care to be funded by long-term care insurance (LTCI). However, evidence indicates that people with dementia are overlooked in China's LTCI policy and empirical research on this issue is notably scarce. Among the first seven LTCI pilot cities that officially enrolled people with dementia, Guangzhou is unique for roll-back LTCI policies related to eligibility criteria and benefits.

The current status, relevance and impact of the sense of gain and social participation among Chinese youth: A study based on the CSS2021 database.

Youth symbolize the future and promise of the country. The contributions of youth are integral to the comprehensive development, the social participation of youth is crucial for their holistic development and the betterment of society. As the people's sense of gain has evolved into a fundamental aspect of high-quality development in the new era of China, investigating the influence mechanism of the youth's sense of gain on social participation holds significant historical and practical relevance.

A Narrative-Gamified Mental Health App (Kuamsha) for Adolescents in Uganda: Mixed Methods Feasibility and Acceptability Study.

Background: Many adolescents in Uganda are affected by common mental disorders, but only a few affordable treatment options are available. Digital mental health interventions offer promising opportunities to reduce these large treatment gaps, but interventions specifically tailored for Ugandan adolescents are limited.

Objective: This study aimed to determine the feasibility and acceptability of the Kuamsha program, an intervention delivered through a gamified app with low-intensity telephonic guidance, as a way to promote mental health among adolescents from the general population in Uganda.