Policies to Reduce Child Poverty and Child Maltreatment: A Scoping Review and Preliminary Estimates of Indirect Effects.

This study includes a scoping review of prior studies investigating the effects of policy changes on child poverty rates. It further conducts an empirical analysis to estimate the relationship between child poverty rates and child maltreatment report (CMR) rates, utilizing national county-level data. The study then calculates the indirect effects of policy changes on CMR rates, mediated through child poverty rates, by integrating information from previous studies with its own empirical findings.

Rate, Efficiency, and Mechanisms of Electrochemical Perfluorooctanoic Acid Degradation with Boron-Doped Diamond and Plasma Electrodes.

The removal of per- or polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) has received increasing attention because of their extreme stability, our increasing awareness of their toxicity at even low levels, and scientific challenges for traditional treatment methods such as separation by activated carbon or destruction by advanced oxidation processes. Here, we performed a direct and systematic comparison of two electrified approaches that have recently shown promise for effective degradation of PFAS: plasma and conventional electrochemical degradation. We tailored a reactor configuration where one of the electrodes could be a plasma or a boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrode and operated both electrodes galvanostatically by continuous direct current.

Evidence-Based Home Visiting Provisions and Child Maltreatment Report Rates: County-Level Analysis of US National Data From 2016 to 2018.

This observational ecological study examined county-level associations between evidence-based home visiting (EHV) provisions and child maltreatment report (CMR) rates, using national county-level data from 2016-2018. We found that longitudinal changes of EHV provisions were significantly negatively associated with county CMR rates while controlling for potential confounders. Our model estimated that after EHV provisions were launched in counties, their CMR rates decreased (or after they were ceased, rates increased) by 2.

Community Food Insecurity and Child Maltreatment Reports: County-Level Analysis of U.S. National Data From 2009 to 2018.

Current literature suggests that food insecurity increases child maltreatment risk. Yet, existing evidence is limited to individual-level associations among low-income, high-risk populations based on local, mostly urban data. This study aims to generalize prior findings to community-level associations in general populations, using national data including all urban-rural areas.

Cumulative Prevalence of Onset and Recurrence of Child Maltreatment Reports.

Objective: We estimated cumulative probabilities of onset and recurrences of child maltreatment reports from birth to age 11 years. Estimates were provided overall and within subcategories of race/ethnicity, sex, and subtype.

Method: We developed synthetic life tables from national Child Protective Services records (2003-2016) and Census data.

Phytochemical and physical properties of blueberries, tart cherries, strawberries, and cranberries as affected by different drying methods.

The effects of hot-air drying (AD), freeze drying (FD) and Refractance Window drying (RWD) on the retention of anthocyanins, phenolics, flavonoids, vitamin C and B, and antioxidant capacity (ORAC) in blueberries, tart cherries, strawberries, and cranberries, as well as organic acids and proanthocyanins in cranberries and chlorogenic acid and catchins in blueberries were evaluated. Changes in color, glass transition, specific heat, and surface morphology of the dried fruits were also evaluated. The quality retention in the dried fruits was found to be product and drying method specific.

Seasonal variation in diet and nutrition of the northern-most population of Rhinopithecus roxellana.

There is a great deal of spatial and temporal variation in the availability and nutritional quality of foods eaten by animals, particularly in temperate regions where winter brings lengthy periods of leaf and fruit scarcity. We analyzed the availability, dietary composition, and macronutrients of the foods eaten by the northern-most golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana) population in the Qinling Mountains, China to understand food choice in a highly seasonal environment dominated by deciduous trees. During the warm months between April and November, leaves are consumed in proportion to their availability, while during the leaf-scarce months between December and March, bark and leaf/flower buds comprise most of their diet.

Detection of Silver Ions Using Dielectrophoretic Tweezers-Based Force Spectroscopy.

Understanding of the interactions of silver ions (Ag) with polynucleotides is important not only to detect Ag over a wide range of concentrations in a simple, robust, and high-throughput manner but also to investigate the intermolecular interactions of hydrogen and coordinate interactions that are generated due to the interplay of Ag, hydrogen ions (H), and polynucleotides since it is critical to prevent adverse environmental effects that may cause DNA damage and develop strategies to treat this damage. Here, we demonstrate a novel approach to simultaneously detect Ag satisfying the above requirements and examine the combined intermolecular interactions of Ag-polycytosine and H-polycytosine DNA complexes using dielectrophoretic tweezers-based force spectroscopy. For this investigation, we detected Ag over a range of concentrations (1 nM to 100 μM) by quantifying the rupture force of the combined interactions and examined the interplay between the three factors (Ag, H, and polycytosine) using the same assay for the detection of Ag.

Nanostructuring of Palladium with Low-Temperature Helium Plasma.

Impingement of high fluxes of helium ions upon metals at elevated temperatures has given rise to the growth of nanostructured layers on the surface of several metals, such as tungsten and molybdenum. These nanostructured layers grow from the bulk material and have greatly increased surface area over that of a not nanostructured surface. They are also superior to deposited nanostructures due to a lack of worries over adhesion and differences in material properties.

Maternal fucosyltransferase 2 status affects the gut bifidobacterial communities of breastfed infants.

Background: Individuals with inactive alleles of the fucosyltransferase 2 gene (FUT2; termed the 'secretor' gene) are common in many populations. Some members of the genus Bifidobacterium, common infant gut commensals, are known to consume 2'-fucosylated glycans found in the breast milk of secretor mothers. We investigated the effects of maternal secretor status on the developing infant microbiota with a special emphasis on bifidobacterial species abundance.

Effects of speed-accuracy instructions on oculomotor scanning and target recognition in a simulated baggage X-ray screening task.

Visual search tasks are often carried out under high levels of time stress. Transportation security screeners, for example, face demands to achieve high levels of accuracy while maintaining rapid passenger throughput. An experiment examined the strategies by which operators regulate visual search performance under such conditions.