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Abstract: Minority populations have remained in relatively poor health compared to the majority population and continue to be underserved by the health care system. Racial and ethnic health disparities are not new phenomena. Understanding the causes of these disparities continues to evolve. Within the past decade researchers have looked more toward social determinants of health to explain the differences. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care provided documentation to shift the discussion from patient behaviors to the contributions of health care systems, including health care providers, that contribute to health disparities. The report was the first comprehensive study that documented racial and ethnic inequities within the US health care delivery system (ie, differential treatment on the basis of race and ethnicity). The authors of the IOM report indicated that they found some evidence to suggest that bias, prejudice, and stereotyping by providers may contribute to differences in care. It is possible that food and nutrition practitioners have the same biases and are presented with the same systems challenges as the health care providers referenced in the IOM report. It is, therefore, also possible that food and nutrition practitioners may be at risk of contributing to health disparities. This article provides an in-depth look at the recommendations put forth by the IOM, offers discipline-specific recommendations consistent with those outlined in the IOM model, and introduces other models that may be of use as food and nutrition practitioners move forward with developing strategies to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper aims to examine the psychometric properties of social capital indicators, comparing Black and White respondents to identify the extent of measurement invariance in social capital by race. We used data from the longitudinal study Midlife in the United States (MIDUS), waves 1 through 3 (1995-2016). Data were from 6513 respondents (5604 White and 909 Black respondents). Social capital indicators were social cohesion, contributions to community, and community involvement. We used Structural Equation Modeling and Item Response Theory methods to test for measurement invariance in social capital by race. We observed violations of longitudinal and multi-group measurement invariance (MI) at configural and metric levels on two scales. Factor structures and indicator loadings were inconsistent over time. In IRT analysis, 'Many people come for advice' exhibited Differential Item Functioning (DIF), indicating a consistent advantage for White respondents on the contributions to community scale. Despite similar social capital levels (P(χ2,2) = 0.00), DIF was found in all contributions to community items and some community involvement items when examining race and education interaction. Invariance issues in social capital items suggest potential biases in comparing Black and White respondents. Recognizing these biases is essential. Future social capital research should assess existing data assumptions and involve stakeholders from diverse communities in creating new items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Permanent supportive housing (PSH) is one setting which aims to provide stability and community to those who have experienced homelessness. • PSH has not been widely studied with young adults. • This paper uses mixed method to explore how young adult residents experience psychological sense of community (PSOC) before and after moving into PSH. • We find that building community takes time and requires opportunities for voices to be heard, along with ongoing personal growth (often related to substance use recovery). • Future PSH settings for young people should consider how to support residents in their individual journeys, and in building community. Amidst chronic stressors and ongoing instability, many young people who have experienced homelessness and housing instability find communities and settings which offer support and care. Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) is one setting which aims to provide stability and community to those who have experienced homelessness, but it has not been widely studied with young adults (ages 18–25 upon moving into PSH). This paper employs a longitudinal convergent mixed methods approach – with quantitative and qualitative survey data over 1.5 years – to explore how young adult residents (N = 27 at T1; N = 20 at T2, N = 13 at T3) experience sense of community before and after moving into PSH. Using McMillan and Chavis' (1986) four-part Psychological Sense of Community (PSOC) framework to frame data collection and analysis, we find that residents' sense of community is shaped by an ongoing negotiation of personal and collective needs. Building community takes time and requires opportunities for voices to be heard (and shape change), along with ongoing personal growth – especially related to substance use recovery. Our findings offer insights for future PSH settings for young people – as well as other residential and community settings which aim to support young people. We suggest the need for future research which explores the tension of policy decision making, about substance use for example, in low-barrier support services like PSH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Even though the societal and academic attention to geoparks is on the rise, there is a distinct absence of studies on communities and their perceptions of the landscapes institutionalized by geoparks. This paper contributes to the geopark literature by problematizing the geographical awareness, landscape associations and territorial identities of geopark inhabitants. Using a quantitative case study of UNESCO Geopark De Hondsrug (the Netherlands), the paper shows a complex image regarding the inhabitants' affinity with their living environment. At its initiation, the geopark did not build on the landscape associations of local inhabitants. Composite overlap mapping of mental maps drawn by inhabitants shows that the geopark incorporates an area that is substantially larger than the area interpreted by the inhabitants as constituting the Hondsrug. Nevertheless, the core area of the Hondsrug is recognized and lived by the majority of the people, providing a starting point for improving the community's support for the geopark's brand. We conclude that only when there is enough bottom-up recognition and embedding of the brand and its underlying landscape values, a geopark's narrative can be effectively built on for endogenous regional development purposes. Highlights • We study geopark inhabitants' landscape associations and territorial identity. • We use mental maps and scale-based surveys in UNESCO Geopark De Hondsrug, Netherlands. • At its initiation, the geopark did not build on its inhabitants' landscape values. • There is consensus about the core of the Hondsrug region and its compass direction. • Only with community embeddedness, geoparks can be used for regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Despite the proliferation of age-friendly cities in Canada that are intended to support older adults to age well, there are still many inequalities between groups of older adults, particularly, and of concern for this paper, between Indigenous older adults, who experience colonialism's ongoing impacts, and non-Indigenous older adults. A better understanding of factors that inform these inequalities will help in the development of policies and programs that better support Indigenous older adults to age well and, thus, will contribute to ameliorating the inequalities that they face. Using a community-based participatory research approach, informed by a postcolonial theoretical lens, in this paper we addressed the question, "what community-level factors contribute to Indigenous older adults (aged 55 years and over) feeling supported to age well in the city of Ottawa?" We specifically examined this question in relation to the age-friendly communities framework, which guides the City of Ottawa's Older Adult Plan. Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and photovoice with 32 First Nations and Inuit older adults revealed that the participants felt both supported and unsupported to age well. More specifically, there were two main areas in which they felt they could be better supported to age well: the social environment and physical environment. There were three subthemes within the social environment theme: responsive health and community support services, respect and recognition, and communication and information. Within the physical environment theme there were four subthemes: transportation, housing, accessibility, and gathering space. The results demonstrate that despite there being similarities in the areas that the participants felt they needed support and the areas on which the Older Adult Plan focuses, if the domains of aging well initiatives do not better account for the impacts of colonialism, it is unlikely that they will be effective in supporting Indigenous older adults' health and well-being. Highlights • Inequalities continue to exist for Indigenous older adults in urban environments. • Impacts of colonialism hinder support for Indigenous older adults in cities. • Physical and social environments contribute to aging well for participants. • Physical environment factors: Housing, transportation, space, and accessibility. • Social environment factors: Health and social services, communication, and respect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For this paper, I conducted an interdisciplinary qualitative study to investigate transgender experiences accessing gender-affirming healthcare (GAH) in Egypt. I outline how the current health policy on GAH was developed and its negative impact, celebrating the resilience of transgender people in navigating the hostile anti-transgender environment, and conclude by offering some health policy recommendations to improve the GAH situation. Since 2003, Egypt has introduced an Islamic Sharia-influenced policy that banned accessing GAH for transgender people, placing professional and legal liability on healthcare providers. The policy created an anti-transgender medical environment, forcing transgender people to rely on Do-It-Yourself GAH or underground, risky, ill-equipped, and overpriced medical facilities. Other non-medical factors also impacted transgender people's ability to access GAH: social stigma, family rejection, state persecution, and economic insecurity. Despite this multilayered anti-transgender environment, transgender people proved to be innovative and resilient, creating ways to overcome these challenges and continue to exist. Transgender people created communal spaces online to guide each other in navigating the challenges of accessing GAH and used various means to challenge bans on GAH. Egypt, Gender-Affirming Health Care, Islam, Policy, DIY, Transgender, Law. • Egypt's current health policy bans gender-affirming health care for transgender people. • The health policy pushed transgender people into do-it-yourself hormone therapy and underground medical clinics. • Some challenges accessing GAH include financial instability, social stigma, state prosecution, and lack of GAH services. • Transgender people proved innovative and resilient as they mitigated these challenges by relying on communal support. • New possible avenues for reforming the current policy, such as strategic litigation, are being explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older people in slum settings are a vulnerable sub-group during crises, yet have received minimal attention in the development discourse. This paper examines the protective role of different types of social networks for older slum dwellers' wellbeing during adversity by investigating the relationship between social networks, the Kenyan 2007/08 post-election violence, and dimensions of wellbeing namely self-rated health, life satisfaction and happiness amongst older people in the Korogocho slum, Nairobi. The analyses are based on conditional change logistic regression models using data from a unique longitudinal survey of the health and wellbeing of older people. The results show that maintaining or increasing formal local networks reduced the detrimental effects of the post-election violence for older people's wellbeing, whilst household environment and informal local and non-local networks did not influence the relationship. Consequently, the paper provides evidence that supporting inclusive community organisations which are accessible to older people can be valuable in promoting the resilience of this population group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper argues that current mainstream understandings of civil society as ontologically different from the state and essentially positive (either normative or functionally) are problematic in order to understand the development of health care reforms. The paper proposes to ground an explanation of the role of civil society in health care reforms in a Gramscian understanding of civil society as analytically different from the state, and as an arena for hegemonic struggles. The study of health care reform in Israel serves as a case study for this claim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer is a leading cause of death in small island nations and is forecast to increase substantially over the coming years. Governments, regional agencies, and health services of these nations face daunting challenges, including small and fragile economies, unequal distribution of resources, weak or fragmented health services, small population sizes that make sustainable workforce and service development problematic, and the unavailability of specialised cancer services to large parts of the population. Action is required to prevent large human and economic costs relating to cancer. This final Series paper highlights the challenges and opportunities for small island nations, and identifies ways in which the international community can support efforts to improve cancer control in these settings. Our recommendations focus on funding and investment opportunities to strengthen cancer-related health systems to improve sharing of technical assistance for research, surveillance, workforce, and service development, and to support small island nations with policy changes to reduce the consumption of commodities (eg, tobacco and unhealthy food products) that increase cancer risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Considering today's challenges in digital forensics, for password cracking, distributed computing is a necessity. If we limit the selection of password-cracking tools strictly to open-source software, hashcat tool unambiguously wins in speed, repertory of supported hash formats, updates, and community support. Though hashcat itself is by design a single-machine solution, its interface makes it possible to use the tool as a base construction block of a larger distributed system. Creating a "distributed hashcat" which supports the maximum of hashcat's original features requires a smart controller that employs different distribution strategies in different cases. In the paper, we show how to use BOINC framework to control a network of hashcat-equipped nodes and provide a working solution for performing different cracking attacks. We also provide experimental results of multiple cracking tasks to demonstrate the applicability of our approach. Last but not least, we compare our solution to an existing hashcat-based distributed tool - Hashtopolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Interactions among community stakeholders act as a buffer against disasters. • A novel decision support framework to prioritize areas of stakeholder interaction. • The framework integrates a Delphi study with centrality measures. Interactions among community stakeholders act as a buffer against disasters and present a way to build community resilience. Several decision support frameworks have been proposed in the literature to improve community resilience, but none focus on interactions among stakeholders. This paper presents a decision support framework to guide decision-makers in prioritizing areas of interaction based on their mutual impact. The framework is built on three components. The first involved conducting a literature review to identify areas of interaction among community stakeholders; resulting in identifying 27 factors that reflect the various interaction areas. The second was to implement a Delphi study to capture the dependency among the different areas. The third was to prioritize the identified areas of interaction through network analysis techniques to understand the propagating impacts of a change in one area on the others. The framework was applied to Spain, utilizing data provided by Spanish resilience experts. Our findings indicate a high degree of interdependence among all areas of interaction. Decentralization of the decision-making process and effective leading capabilities of emergency organizations have been identified as top priority areas. By utilizing this framework, decision-makers can systematically enhance interactions among diverse stakeholders, creating a roadmap to improve community resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Well-being and distributive justice after natural events are quantified. • Quantification is through novel connectivity-based metrics. • The presented metrics are probabilistic. • The procedure is applied to the transportation network of Seaside, OR. • The procedure is general and applicable to different communities. Transportation infrastructure are critical systems supporting community well-being. Its impairment or failure due to hazardous events can lead to societal consequences which are typically challenging to identify, properly model, and quantify. Additionally, these consequences can exacerbate pre-existing distributive inequalities. The Capability Approach has been used to identify and quantify societal consequences in post-disaster scenarios. This paper introduces novel connectivity-based metrics within a Capability Approach framework to quantify well-being and distributive justice in the aftermath of a hazardous event. The paper proposes a methodology to link the ability of individuals to maintain health, be sheltered, be mobile, be educated, or earn income with the loss or reduction of functionality of transportation infrastructure, investigating both the short-term response (immediate impact), and the long-term recovery on the capabilities. As an example, the paper applies the proposed metrics to a real community subject to a seismic hazard. Results show that the different capabilities are impacted both in the response and recovery phases to different degrees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Host and visitor interactions are important in determining a destination's sustainability. According to social exchange theory, negative outcomes from deviant tourism-related behaviours such as illicit drug-related activities can result in reduced host and guest support for tourism. While drug use may attract some guests it can also deter others and may also result in an inauthentic experience. Thus, reconciling host and visitor perceptions and aspirations can often be problematic. This paper examines how hosts and guests in Nimbin, Australia, a destination with a reputation for a relaxed attitude towards illicit drug use, view tourism. The paper draws upon three studies – an online content analysis, a survey of guest expectations and behaviours, and a stakeholder workshop of hosts – undertaken between 2007 and 2010 to demonstrate how the drug culture image of the town is affecting the host-guest nexus. Online discourse strongly emphasised a permissive drug image within Nimbin while the stakeholder workshop revealed that many hosts are unhappy with this emphasis. A substantial majority of guests to Nimbin are attracted by the town's reputation/image however they appear to be less interested in the drug culture than in the alternative lifestyle. Residents also expressed a desire to lessen the emphasis on drugs to focus on the destination's alternative lifestyle. However, the partially industrialised nature of tourism undermines efforts to achieve a change in destination image. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Many children are reared in less than ideal family conditions (e.g., poverty, violence, substance abuse, family dissonance, family or personal illnesses). Situations such as these may inhibit the normal intellectual, social, and emotional development of children and youth, thus interfering with them reaching their full potential as adults. Conversely, many children encounter such adversities and fair well in spite of the challenges and may be considered to be resilient. This paper offers a review of the literature dating back to the 1970s to the present. In addition, several monumental longitudinal studies dating back to the 1950s are included. The paper reviews the (a) definition of resilience, (b) origins and recent advances in researching resilience, (c) protective factors, (d) models of resilience, (e) issues when researching resilience, (f) measures of resilience, and (g) resilience-based interventions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract Since the late 1990s social enterprises have been increasingly utilised as a means of delivering of health and social care services. However, there is little evidence on if, and how, provision by social enterprise might achieve positive health outcomes, particularly in comparison to other modes of delivery. In this paper, we draw upon the multiple perspectives offered by stakeholders involved in a rural social enterprise initiative based in Scotland, UK, and in a nearby comparator public sector organisation. Both types of organisation aim to increase the physical activity levels of people with chronic health conditions. In order to gain perspectives on the range of mechanisms and outcomes involved in different types of organisation providing similar interventions, realist evaluation of data gathered from in-depth semi-structured interviews (n = 68) was undertaken. Interviews were carried out with beneficiaries, service providers and external stakeholders and Context-Mechanism-Outcome (CMO) configurations developed to support our explanations for how, and in what ways, social enterprise might impact differently on health. Our findings highlight that the social enterprise is differentiated from the publicly-run service in two distinct ways: firstly, the social enterprise was better able to flexibly deliver a bespoke programme designed around the needs of service users; and secondly, their role as a community 'boundary spanner' helped facilitate strong ties and feelings of connectedness between beneficiaries, organisational staff and community stakeholders. However, these advantages were significantly compromised when funding was constrained. Our findings serve as an important basis for future research to better understand the means by which social enterprises might deliver health outcomes, particularly in comparison with public sector providers. Highlights • Presents perspectives on if and how delivery by a social enterprise may influence health outcomes. • Programme Theory is presented, developed from Context-Mechanism-Outcomes configurations. • The flexibility, and boundary-spanning, approaches of social enterprises influence health outcomes. • More research is needed to test and develop theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper is based on the real life stories of child soldiers and children directly affected by armed conflict from different parts of the country from 2005 to 2009. These field based interviews were conducted with about 400 children between ages 12 and 18 from various researches throughout the country and with participants of HimRights programs. This article is based on primary information of children affected by armed conflict. The aim of this paper is to elaborate on the circumstances that led to their involvement as child soldiers, their expectations and harrowing experiences, and the negative and positive impact on children. The paper focuses on how both sides of conflicting parties used children as child soldiers, forcibly or voluntarily. Some children were attracted to Maoists ideology and rhetoric, singing/dancing, food/clothing/education while others were abducted or forced to join through the “one house one person policy”. Some children joined the insurgency as the last resort due to lack of community support, and after the deaths of their parents. It also looks at how schools were used as recruitment centers and battleground during this time. Gender-based violence has occurred rampantly during armed conflict in Nepal but respondents do not want to discuss openly about it, nor are government or civil society. Furthermore, this paper also deals with challenges of reintegration of child soldiers. They have had to face ostracism in their homes, schools and communities and are using substance abuse as a coping mechanism and the need for support and empathy at both the societal and policy level is indicated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Broad general community campaigns were developed to reduce suicide rates. The aim of the current paper was to review such studies in the literature. The MEDLINE search using a combination of the keywords ‘suicide’, ‘education’/‘psychoeducation’ and ‘community’ updated through January 10th 2010, returned 424 references and relevant for the current review were 48 with 14 papers reporting results. Although suicide prevention programs through community education are widespread, the reporting of their efficacy is limited. It seems that only long term programs that utilize a commitment of the society at multiple levels and succeed in establishing a community support network that can effectively reduce suicidal rates. The success of most interventions in changing the attitudes and improving the knowledge of the public concerning suicide is restricted at the theoretical–intellectual level; when it comes to action there seems to be no change. Very short duration interventions don''t seem to have even this slight effect. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As lay publics demand a greater role in the environmental and health decision-making that impacts their lives, policy makers are being forced to find new ways of understanding and incorporating the expertise of professionals with the contextual intelligence that community residents possess. This paper highlights how co-producing science policy, where technical issues are not divorced from their social setting and a plurality of participants engage in everything from problem setting to decision-making, can contribute to more scientifically legitimate and publicly accountable decisions. Through a detailed case study utilizing participant observation, ethnographic field work, semi-structured interviews, and reviews of original documents, this paper highlights how residents in a low income, Latino immigrant neighborhood in New York City organized their knowledge to participate in and significantly alter a U. S. Environmental Protection Agency exposure assessment. This paper reveals both the contributions and limits of local knowledge in environmental health governance and how the co-production framework can contribute to more technically credible science and democratically accountable policy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper documents and analyzes how landholders managed to uplift status of their neighborhood from hazard land as designated by the 1978 master plan to a regularized residential settlement through land regularization in Dar es Salaam city. Specifically, explores policy framework governing land regularization and how the local community explored the opportunities it offers. Documents the local community planning and land regularization processes undertaken focusing on land use planning, drainage construction, and cadastral survey and discuses how financial resources were raised, trust was built as well as factors which sustained community involvement towards meeting their interests of securing tenure. The paper also, draws challenges facing land regularization policy and recommends areas for further interventions commensurate with the human dimension challenges in securing tenure. Underlying community involvement, those aspects of community, which have been connected to the idea of social capital namely existence of committed leadership in land development matters, embracing mechanism for participatory decision making process and educational background to local leaders were particularly important in determining success for the case. Others include economic ability to contribute, high proportion of landholder settlers, land conflict task force formulation, local consensus to solve commonly felt problems, existence of strong community organization, and unwritten norms put in place to regulate individual behavior in building construction. Weak legal recognition of informal settlement, lengthy and bureaucratic procedures in planning and approval of regularization plans, weak knowledge on land management matters, short-term title deeds with low financial betterments, political popularity are identified critical challenges. Some of recommendations put forward include formalization of the grass-roots role in decision-making, decentralizing some of land development control functions to sub-ward leaders and training the same in basic land management matters. Others include definition of norms; by-laws and government facilitation of informal land parceling. Besides community support should be sought so as to create partnership in the promotion of security of tenure in informal areas. The study concludes that, unless land development activities ongoing in informal settlements are closely monitored and regulated as the settlement grow, it will be too costly socially and economically to retrofit once the settlement have identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper analyses the community values of residential neighborhoods in the southwestern region of Saudi Arabia as an approach to a new theory in urbanism. The indigenous masterbuilders and tribemen incorporated planning decisions pertinent to climatic, cultural, social, economic and religious factors when designing physical elements in their built environment. This is what makes every traditional settlement in the southwest region of Saudi Arabia unique in terms of urban form and social structure. As a step to examining and evaluating the process of residential neighborhood development, three stages of practiced urbanism are discussed. These stages are labelled “vernacular”, “transitional” and “new vernacularism”. These are planning concepts used worldwide in the development of residential neighborhoods throughout history until the present. “New Vernacularism” is envisioned in this investigation as a design/planning objective implemented in most recently planned neighborhoods in Al-Horaidhah, Southwest Saudi Arabia. The achievement of successful urbanism underlies the political goals of urban planning practice. The Al-Horaidhah planning concept is conceived in the light of preservation of community values in neighborhood design/planning as a critical issue.The paper aims to investigate and reconcile the conflicts in the planning of residential neighborhoods in a changing world. The conflicts are restricted between retaining traditions of architecture, urban design and planning with the necessary social, economic, and technological changes in urban formation, mainly, the vernacular and modern. The paper illustrates the concept “New Vernacularism” by presenting Al-Horaidhah scheme as a model for community development in three administrative regions along the Red Sea coastline. “New Vernacularism” as a planning concept looks at the community development in Al-Horaidhah in the light of Sharicah, the Islamic Law and Customary norms by emphasizing the importance of the involvement of local residents in the planning process and gives suggestions of how this might best be achieved and later implemented into new communities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Public health orders were introduced in many countries, including Australia, during the COVID-19 pandemic to reduce the spread of the virus. However, for many people this led to an exacerbation of mental health symptoms, particularly those living with severe or persistent mental illness (SPMI). Additionally, the conduct of clinical research was severely impacted during the pandemic, with many difficulties encountered in the conduct of clinical trials. This paper describes the COVID-related impacts experienced during the implementation of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) testing the effectiveness of a community pharmacist-led support service for people living with SPMI in Australia (the PharMIbridge RCT), and the strategies used to successfully implement the RCT. Australian public health orders led to interstate border closures, stay-at-home orders and work-from-home requirements, resulting in necessary changes to allow for the continuation of the RCT including; changes to trial regions, transferring some training materials online while delaying face-to-face (F2F) training components, delays in pharmacy and consumer recruitment, encouraging telehealth service delivery and extensions to timelines with existing funding. Having a solution-focussed and flexible approach, while still ensuring critical trial protocol elements were adhered to, such as providing opportunities for F2F skills-based training for pharmacists, as well as F2F site visits from researchers and mentors to support trial implementation, resulted in high pharmacy and consumer participant retention through to trial conclusion. Future planning for RCTs should consider possible pandemic-related risks and rapid responses from approval bodies to ensure researchers can be agile and adapt to ensure successful trial completion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports how the World Data System International Technology Office (WDS-ITO) has contributed resources in the Polar Research Data Management community. The office has focused on federated search and data enhancement practices that bridge the gap between data holdings in the Arctic and Antarctic polar research communities and has built a shared catalog characterized by harmonized "dialects'' of metadata standards. The portal, referred to as the Polar Federated Search (PFS) site, is part of a larger set of WDS-ITO polar support activities and allows researchers to find data that has been published in multiple repositories serving both Arctic and Antarctic data (World Data System – International Technology Office, 2022). The portal provides federated search capability through a single interface. The PFS indexes repository landing pages that have been enriched with the addition of semantic markup marrying the best practices from the web publishing world with domain specific metadata. This technique leads to broader discovery, notably by Google Dataset Search, and better reuse of data repository holdings. Increasingly, the base ontology that has been adopted for use in these markup activities is Schema.org (SDO) a simple ontology developed in the commercial sector. This article outlines the steps and progressions made throughout the first year of PFS development, its highlights, and describes how these infrastructures move far beyond metadata discovery to include data integration, analysis, visualization and advanced, reproducible workflows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global population of older adults (60 years and older) has been growing steadily; however, inadequate attention is given to the health needs of older persons, particularly within contexts of conflict and migration. This paper reports findings from the qualitative phase of an investigation assessing the mental health status of older adult internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Georgia, a country in the South Caucasus. The study aimed to assess community-wide social and health problems among older adult IDPs, with a focus on mental health problems and healthy functioning, as well as terminology used to describe these problems. Free-list interviews with older adult IDPs (n = 75) and key informant interviews with community members and service providers (n = 45) were conducted in 2010–2011 in three regions of Georgia: Tbilisi, Shida Kartli, and Samegrelo. Findings demonstrated that older IDPs experienced symptoms of distress that could be clustered into depression-like and anxiety-like syndromes. Participants described other psychosocial problems among older IDPs, including feelings of abandonment, isolation, and passivity, as well as conflicts in the family. All problems were linked with displacement-related experiences, such as difficulties with integration, grief, and war trauma. The expression of displacement-related problems was identified as an idiom of distress for this population. Older IDPs coped with these problems through social support mechanisms, including socializing, helping each other, working, and participating in the community. Key modalities for redressing older IDPs' psychosocial problems, improving quality of life, and achieving healthy ‘aging-in-displacement’ include: promoting social connectedness and community engagement, drawing on IDPs' skills, identifying new social roles, and strengthening social support networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This paper outlined an argument as to why history and historians should be included in a healthy settings approach. Study design Qualitative descriptive study. Methods A narrative review of the literature across a broad cross-section of history, health promotion and public health disciplines was undertaken. Results Three reasons for including history were identified relating to the social role of history as a means of analysing social memory, of changing social narratives and by raising social consciousness. This allowed for a distinction between history in health and history of health. Precedents of this social role can be found in the fields of feminist and postcolonial histories, oral history and museums in health. Conclusion Reasons for why historians and health promotion practitioners and researchers have not previously had working relationships were explored, as were some of the factors that would need to be considered for such relationships to work well, including the need to recognise different languages, different understandings of the role of history, and a potential lack of awareness of the health implications of historical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discipline of victimology emerged and continues to develop in response to the need to analyze the phenomenology of victims of crime. In the last decade, a new trend, positive victimology, has emerged; it emphasizes the role of “positive components” in efforts to promote the rehabilitation and recovery of victims. This perspective stresses the role of society and community in acceptance, encouragement, faith, forgiveness, goodness, gratitude, and compassion towards victims. One positive healing concept that has recently been found valuable for victims' well-being is that of self-compassion. The aim of the current paper was to explore the theory of self-compassion, which was first presented by Kristin D. Neff (2003a), as it applies to the lived experience of victimization. A comprehensive review of literature indicated the presence of uncompassionate responses as central in the lived experience of victims. These components include: (a) self-judgment and self-blame; (b) loneliness and alienation; and (c) over-identification and experiential avoidance. Seeing victimization from this perspective can deepen the understanding of victims' needs to increase compassionate and reduce uncompassionate responding. The present exploration also revealed the need, in the case of victimization, to adopt the notion of communal compassion, which expands the focus from self-compassion to compassion in the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that detrimental effects of certain neoliberal fisheries policies are key drivers behind the development of alternative seafood marketing programs in North America. It examines the structures, market and non-market values, and challenges of these programs. The primary aim of the research, based on interviews involving 20 programs and a conference workshop, was to advance understanding of the market value of alternative seafood marketing to fishers and communities. However, the importance of a broader set of non-market values was repeatedly highlighted by those engaged in these programs. Overall, the research suggests that alternative seafood marketing can enable fishers to participate in fisheries managed by neoliberal, market-based policies, through the promotion of market values along their diverse value chains. At the same time, alternative seafood marketing appears to resist market-based fishing systems, sometimes through the promotion of broader, non-market outcomes. Common challenges along these alternative seafood value chains highlight the structural conflicts that exist while simultaneously participating in and resisting neoliberal fisheries structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) has become an increasingly common approach to research involving people who use(d) drugs (PWUD), who are often employed as peer researchers on these projects. This paper seeks to understand the impact of CBPR on PWUD, particularly those living in heavily researched and stigmatized neighbourhoods where CBPR projects are often located. This study draws on 14 in-depth interviews with PWUD who had previous experience as both peer researchers and research participants in CBPR projects conducted between July 2010 and February 2011. The study employed a CBPR approach in its study design, recruitment, interviewing, and analysis. Our analysis indicates that participants were supportive of CBPR in principle and described the ways in which it helped contest stigmatizing assumptions and researcher bias. Participants also reported positive personal gains from participation in CBPR projects. However, many participants had negative experiences with CBPR projects, especially when CBPR principles were implemented in a superficial or incomplete manner. Participants emphasized the importance of inclusiveness and active deconstruction of hierarchy between researchers and community members to successful CBPR among drug using populations. CBPR has been widely adopted as a research approach within marginalized communities but has often been implemented inconsistently. Still, CBPR can empower communities to contest forms of social stigma that are often reproduced through academic research on marginalized communities. Our findings describe how the benefits of CBPR are maximized when CBPR principles are consistently applied and when community-based researchers are supported in ways that reduce power hierarchies. This suggests a need for capacity building within affected communities to develop independent support, training, and grievance processes for peer researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seawater desalination is increasingly being pursued to address freshwater shortages. In California, multiple coastal seawater desalination facilities have been proposed to diversify water portfolios and to increase reliability of water supply. This paper explores local residents support for a newly constructed desalination plant in Carlsbad, a small coastal community in Southern California. The plant is the first high-capacity desalination facility in California and started operation in December 2015. We found strong support for the desalination plant as 71.9% of residents reported support for the plant. Only 15.5% of respondents were undecided indicating that residents had a clear opinion on the plant. Perceptions about local water resources were significant predictors of support. Attitudes may change over time if the state of water resources and perceptions thereof change. Expected outcomes of the plant also predicted support. An increase in available drinking water was a positive predictor, while environmental and social impacts were negative predictors. Economic impacts in terms of an increase in the price of water did not influence local support. Ethnicity and age were the only socio-demographic variables that had an effect on support suggesting that the socio-demographic profile of a community may not be a good predictor of community support or rejection of this water supply technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically examines the Choice Neighborhoods Planning Initiative that was carried out in the Vance Avenue Neighborhood in Memphis Tennessee (USA). It tells the story of the involvements of a coalition of 25 neighborhood organizations in partnership with the City and Regional Planning (CRP) Department at the University of Memphis – called the Vance Avenue Collaborative (VAC) – in the CN Planning Initiative. Launched in 2011 with significant community support, the CN Planning Initiative ended in 2013 with a resident-led oppositional planning effort that challenged the institutional plan. The VAC story explores some of the pitfalls that might arise in institutionally-created spaces for citizen participation, by revealing the broad range of tactics used by public officials to marginalize democratic citizen participation. Based on the issues that emerged during the CN Planning Initiative, the VAC created alternative strategies to respond to those generated through institutional planning. These counter-strategies, framed in Advocacy Planning and Action Research approaches were able to secure some important achievements along the way and might be useful for communities within publicly sponsored urban revitalization efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastal Natural Resources Management (NRM) is a distinct sector in Australia with a focus on biodiversity conservation. It is a sector worthy of scrutiny because coastal and marine environments are arguably more complex and dynamic than their terrestrial counterparts thus creating more diverse challenges for managers. Land tenure at the coast in Australia also sets these environments apart and has direct implications for NRM governance, including reliance on a volunteer workforce. Numerous politically driven federal policy and funding cycles have shaped what has become Australia's current NRM system. It is argued that over time the coastal sector has become increasingly marginalised through these cycles. Here we concentrate on the devolved governance framework established in the mid-2000s as the federal government's 'regional delivery' model. While NRM policy has since re-centralised and shifted focus, regions and their administration have endured and are significant entities but have received little recent attention. This paper presents a brief history of NRM in Australia including the emergence of state NRM architecture and an update of the status of coastal NRM regions. We use a sample of ten NRM regions selected based on coastline length to land area ratios and affluence attributes. The prominence of coasts is considered through three pillars essential to the NRM system: Boards of Management; strategic planning, and support for the volunteer community. While a regional NRM framework is in place, the prominence of coastal and marine environments is questionable in relation to Boards of Management expertise. This has implications for strategic planning. The interrogation of plans suggests that overall, the focus of stakeholders is not primarily on conservation of coastal assets and the past levels of support for coastal volunteers is a but shadow of previous programs. A set of national guidelines or principles to integrate coastal and marine priorities in NRM planning cycles offer one mechanism to amend this situation along with a reinvigoration of a community support program. • 34 coastal regions form an important part of Australia's current NRM system. • Coastal NRM in Australia has become increasingly marginalised through policy cycles. • Coastal expertise is underrepresented on NRM boards of management. • Strategic NRM plans lack focus on conservation of coastal assets. • Support for coastal volunteers by NRM bodies is much reduced than previous systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives One important issue in sport and exercise psychology is to determine to what extent sports and exercise can help to increase self-esteem, and what the underlying mechanism might be. Based on the exercise and self-esteem model (EXSEM) and on findings from the sociometer theory, the mediating effect of physical self-concept and perceived social acceptance on the longitudinal relationship between motor ability and self-esteem was investigated. Design Longitudinal study with three waves of data collection at intervals of ten weeks each. Method 428 adolescents (46.3% girls, M age = 11.9, SD = .55) participated in the study, in which they performed three motor ability tests and completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires for physical self-concept and perceived social acceptance, as well as for self-esteem, at all three measuring points. Results Using structural equation modelling procedures, the multiple mediation model revealed both physical self-concept and perceived social acceptance to be mediators between motor ability and self-esteem in the case of boys. In girls, on the other hand, the mediation between motor ability and self-esteem only takes place via physical self-concept. Conclusions Gender differences in the relationship between motor ability and self-esteem suggest gender-specific interventions aimed at promoting self-concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Increasing interest is concentrating in the investigation of whether socioeconomic interventions yield results for children in the area of protection. AVSI Foundation, in Uganda, leads a consortium implementing the “Sustainable, Comprehensive Responses for Vulnerable Children and their Families” (SCORE) Project. The project targets 25,000 moderately and critically vulnerable households in Uganda and addresses them through a multisectoral intervention package encompassing socio-economic, food security, protection and family strengthening. Data from SCORE's monitoring and evaluation system and the mid-term assessment has become available and is used to investigate the topic. Objective This paper contributes original data and analysis to the discussion of socioeconomic strategies for vulnerability reduction and protection of children. Methods Statistical analysis of Village Savings and Loan Association Management Information System (VSLA MIS) data from 741 VSLAs was supported by the SCORE Project between 2012 and 2013. Statistical analysis of SCORE Vulnerability Assessment Tool (VAT) data covering 13,327 beneficiary households enrolled by SCORE in its first phase (last quarter 2011–first quarter 2012) and corresponding second assessment (second quarter 2013). Data analysis was carried out using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results Between 2011 and 2012, SCORE supported the establishment of 743 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), with a total membership of 20,818. Total saving stands at 1,113,185,960 Uganda Shillings. Saving and loans per capita are at 53,754 and 50,093 Uganda Shillings respectively, with regional variation (ranging 33,008–83,073 for savings, and 24,005–93,280 for lending). The overall loan to saving ratio is at 84.45%, with regional variation and range 60.83%–97.97%. Vulnerability data concerning the protection for 13,326 households supported by SCORE shows a reduction by 52%, with regional variation (range 42%–71%). Conclusion Results show that the VSLA approach can be used, besides community development, for direct vulnerability reduction strategies. VSLA approach can be made more inclusive of the most disenfranchised members of the community without losing in efficiency or effectiveness. SCORE Project data is highly suggestive of a positive linkage between socioeconomic interventions and protection outcomes, thereby reinforcing the current literature. More detailed analysis of SCORE databases may allow further understanding of the pathways linking the two result dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Improving community resilience relies on our ability to evaluate and understand the direct and indirect role of the transportation network. This requires losing our fixation with network functionality in favour of an approach that evaluates whether the network is truly serving the community's needs. In this paper, we present such an approach. With the understanding that sufficient and equitable access to amenities is key to community resilience, we leverage open-source data and routing algorithms to simulate road and service closures under various hazard scenarios. Among our methodological contributions is the ability to efficiently modify entire transportation networks to reflect hazard damage and identify isolated communities. This makes integrating hazard simulation with access and equity evaluations practicable on a large scale. We illustrate this approach in three cities. Ultimately, a broader view of the transportation network's role will better support communities prepare for and respond equitably when a disaster occurs. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although power differentials which enable the components of stigma to unfold have been identified, literature that demonstrates the gendered disparities in stigmatization is scarce. Using a gender-based framework, this paper aims first at understanding the gendered social cues which produce the stigma in mental illness enacted by the general population. Second, it highlights the influence of gender on the everyday experiences of a severe and persistent mental illness and the related stigmatization. Results are drawn from a combination of ethnographic and qualitative methods including a field ethnography of two health centres, one psychiatric hospital, and participants’ households and neighbourhoods, two group discussions with members of the general population participating in gender-specific social support groups (N = 12 women/5 men), and illness narratives of men and women with a severe and persistent mental illness (N = 22), which was conducted from May to August 2006 in a poor, urban district of Peru. It is argued that in a society like that of Peru where gender roles are segregated into specific social and economic fields, gendered expectations shape both the experience of a severe and persistent mental illness and the stigmatization of people with such a mental illness in a gender-specific way. Not only do gender inequalities create the conditions leading to a power differential which enables stigmatization to unfold, but stigma is constructed as much around gendered-defined social roles as it is enacted in distinct social spheres for men and women with a severe and persistent mental illness. The gendered experience of stigmatization must, therefore, be fully understood in order to design more effective interventions that would challenge stereotypical perceptions and discriminatory practices, and reduce their effect on the everyday life of the mentally ill in Peru. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Forced relocation places adolescents in situations in which the social fabric of their community is ruptured. Adults who serve as support often are not functioning as well as community support systems, such as schools and community centers. The trauma of dislocation, the subsequent exposure to violence, and the witnessing of the breakdown of community and governmental authority figures can create difficulties in coping that manifest in a myriad of psychological symptoms. In this paper, the use of an open studio art therapy approach with internally displaced female adolescents is examined. Art therapy was found to benefit the participants by helping them find an empowered voice to tell a narrative of forgetting and remembering, allowing healthy re-enactment of the displacement, restoring a sense of pleasure and normalcy and strengthening social ties. The case study format allowed an in depth observation of the narrative of displacement of this group along with collaborative inquiry aimed at gaining insight into the group''s perceived benefits of art making. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper reviews the initial phase of a coastal education for sustainable development program for Edomae, the innermost reaches of Tokyo Bay. The program has been steered by a working group of Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology faculty members from different academic backgrounds. Although the process began with conventional educational ideas, the ESD practice framework evolved to include more interactive activities. The overall goal is to pursue discussions of a plan for the sustainable use of Tokyo Bay in the coastal communities through a university–community partnership by developing Edomae ESD leaders in the coastal community. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Over 30,000 species of animals and plants that are, or may be, detrimentally affected by international trade are listed on the Appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). The Convention aims to regulate transboundary trade in species and their derivatives through a system of permits and certificates, and to ensure that such trade conforms to the principle of sustainability. In the developing world, a considerable component of its biodiversity lives outside protected areas where governments have limited potential to manage wildlife. Based on selected vertebrate and plant species, this paper concludes that: (1) use of wildlife in developing countries is more likely to be an imperative rather than a choice; (2) the legal instruments of CITES have limited capacities to ensure that international trade is sustainable; (3) sustainable use of species is best achieved by gaining the support of affected local communities; (4) community support can be maximized by the devolution of ownership or user rights of species from the state to, e.g., the communal level, and the development of effective economic incentive structures to prevent alternative land-use strategies; (5) countries in southern Africa have pioneered devolution of ownership/user rights to the district/communal level; (6) in combination with effective CITES trade controls, trade opportunities, rather than trade restrictions, are most likely to assist in the development of incentive-driven conservation strategies; (7) to avoid negative incentives and to increase awareness of livelihoods, the international CITES community may need to consider whether CITES Appendices I and II listing decisions should be based not only on biological/trade criteria but also on socio-economic considerations, if it is in the conservation interest of the species concerned; (8) a strategic cooperation with the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) could improve strategies for sustainable trade; (9) while incentive-driven conservation can provide significant longer-term potential for the protection of animal and plant species, it may be most difficult to achieve for species whose high-value products have a long tradition in medicinal use and (10) the conditions under which incentive-driven conservation is most likely to promote sustainable use need to be clearly identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The global response to infectious diseases has seen a renewed interest in the use of community engagement to support research and relief efforts. From a perspective rooted in the social sciences, the concept of vulnerability offers an especially useful analytical frame for pursuing community engagement in a variety of contexts. However, few have closely examined the concept of vulnerability in community engagement efforts, leading to a need to better understand the various theories that underline the connections between the two. This literature review searched four databases (covering a total of 537 papers), resulting in 15 studies that analyze community engagement using a framing of vulnerability, broadly defined, in the context of an infectious disease, prioritizing historical and structural context and the many ways of constituting communities. The review identified historical and structural factors such as trust in the health system, history of political marginalization, various forms of racism and discrimination, and other aspects of vulnerability that are part and parcel of the main challenges faced by communities. The review found that studies using vulnerability within community engagement share some important characteristics (e.g., focus on local history and structural factors) and identified a few theoretical avenues from the social sciences which integrate a vulnerability-informed approach in community engagement. Finally, the review proposes an approach that brings together the concepts of vulnerability and community engagement, prioritizing participation, empowerment, and intersectoral collaboration. • Infectious disease community engagement may benefit from a focus on vulnerability. • Vulnerability foregrounds historical situatedness, systems, and structures. • Some useful concepts emerge, linking vulnerability and community engagement. • Applications for research and practice can be derived from the emergent concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Material deprivation has been measured in a variety of ways, such as in terms of income shortfalls or the experience of different types of material hardship. This paper tests the extent to which indicators of hardship are associated with income poverty. Using a U.S. dataset with detailed income and poverty information observed over a few years, we find that timing, duration, and depth of poverty are all associated with material hardships (food insecurity, difficulty meeting basic needs, lack of consumer durables, housing problems, neighborhood problems, and fear of crime). Even very short spells of poverty have a measurable impact on material well-being, although not all types of well-being are affected in equal measures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: An offensive alliance in a graph is a set of vertices where for every vertex v in its boundary it holds that the majority of vertices in v''s closed neighborhood are in S. In the case of strong offensive alliance, strict majority is required. An alliance S is called global if it affects every vertex in V\S, that is, S is a dominating set of Γ. The global offensive alliance number (respectively, global strong offensive alliance number ) is the minimum cardinality of a global offensive (respectively, global strong offensive) alliance in Γ. In this paper we obtain several tight bounds on and in terms of several parameters of Γ. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Locality Preserving Projections (LPP) is a linear projective map that arises by solving a variational problem that optimally preserves the neighborhood structure of the data set. Though LPP has been applied in many domains, it has limits to solve recognition problem. Thus, Discriminant Locality Preserving Projections (DLPP) is presented in this paper. The improvement of DLPP algorithm over LPP method benefits mostly from two aspects: One aspect is that DLPP tries to find the subspace that best discriminates different face classes by maximizing the between-class distance, while minimizing the within-class distance; The other aspect is that DLPP reduces the energy of noise and transformation difference as much as possible without sacrificing much of intrinsic difference. In the experiments, DLPP achieves better face recognition performance than LPP. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In contrast with the community without spatial boundaries, this paper focuses on conceptual and theoretical issues of urban spatial relationships, drawing on the author's cross-cultural experiences. In frontier society, neighbors built their residences together, much like "favela" dwellers today. In a capitalist economy, money, social class, race and ethnic origins largely determine residential location and type of dwellings, but all dwellers are anchored in space through their residences which provide for the basic human need of safety and belonging. In order to make explicit the "hidden community" of cross-cultural variation, it is necessary to differentiate between community as a "physical place" and community as a "social place" much as kapungistuminen (translated "becoming city-like") and kaupunkilaistuminen (translated like a "becoming city-dweller") do: a neighborhood impingement typology is created to measure the quality of neighborhood spatial relationships. The more neighborhood-bound the residents are by their life-cycle stages, the more important the neighborhood spatial quality becomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely initiation and sustained adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) are essential to improving the health outcomes of people living with HIV and preventing onward HIV transmission. However, women who use heroin often face challenges to initiating and adhering to ART. In this paper we identify spatial, temporal, and social factors that affect HIV treatment engagement among women who use heroin, drawing from a time geography framework. We conducted in-depth interviews with 30 heroin-using women living with HIV in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania between January and March 2019. We found that unstable housing, high mobility, HIV-related stigma, and unpredictable daily paths due to heroin use and involvement in sex work spatially and temporally constrained women who use heroin from incorporating HIV treatment behaviors into daily routines. Some women, however, were able to overcome these time-space constraints to HIV treatment engagement through social support and social role performance. Time geography, including concepts of time-space constraints and daily paths, is a useful framework for identifying barriers to ART engagement. Structural, relational, and individual interventions aimed at eliminating time-space constraints hold the potential to improve HIV treatment engagement among particularly vulnerable and mobile populations. • Time geography can identify barriers to antiretroviral therapy (ART) engagement. • Multiple time-space constraints hinder ART initiation, adherence, and sustainment. • Heroin-using women in Dar es Salaam have flexible and unpredictable daily paths. • Housing instability, high mobility and stigma constrain HIV treatment adherence. • Support systems and mother role performance may help women overcome barriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme weather events and associated damages to the electricity system are increasing. Actions are being taken to enhance resilience, but the pace of these enhancements do not meet the challenges faced by communities. This paper reviews federal funding programs that support community resilience efforts for electricity resilience, provides case studies, and highlights opportunities to reduce electricity system vulnerabilities including increasing awareness of federal funding opportunities, and adopting hazard-based design standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The ecological consequences of coral mining can be severe, with immediate reduction in reef-associated biodiversity and longer term implications for linked habitats such as mangrove forests and seagrass meadows. However, research into the effects of coral mining must take into account other environmental processes which may affect reef communities and the socio-economic context within which coral mining takes place if appropriate and proportionate management responses are to be identified. This article builds upon recently published research detailing the adverse effects of coral mining in Indonesia to illustrate the significance of these points. We use the previous paper to demonstrate that accurate identification of the ecological impacts of coral mining requires the use of appropriate control sites and recognizing natural stresses which may account for short-term variability in ecological parameters. We also underline the need to appreciate that government institutions can directly or indirectly facilitate coral mining, whilst proposed alternative income-generating activities intended to reduce coral mining should be tailored to the local economic, cultural and environmental context if they are to gain community support. This demonstrates the value of an integrated approach to analyzing marine resource usage which combines information from the natural and social sciences to address environmental problems such as coral mining. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the formal description of three dinoflagellate cyst species recovered from Selandian sediments in the Faroe-Shetland Basin and offshore Norway. These species have been recognized informally by the regional biostratigraphy community to support the sequence stratigraphic subdivision of Paleocene sediments and used as intra-Selandian markers but have never been formally described. This paper outlines the characteristic features and paleogeographical distribution of Glaphyrocysta granulosa sp. nov. and Glaphyrocysta shetlandensis sp. nov., and compares these taxa with known published species of Glaphyrocysta. Both new species of Glaphyrocysta have a sub-spherical/sub-circular outline with processes connected distally by irregular broad trabeculae terminations, however, G. granulosa has a tendency to have a wider body width and a relatively dense granulate central body ornamentation compared with G. shetlandensis which has significantly reduced surface ornament, and punctate wall structure. Spinidinium selandicum sp. nov. is stratigraphically older than the two new Glaphyrocysta species described and is characterized by having an unusually delicate ornamentation and very low sutural ridge which allows for comparison with other species of Spinidinium. The paleogeographical distribution of these new species covers an area ranging from the Faroe-Shetland Basin to the Vøring Basin (offshore Norway). • Three dinoflagellate cysts species from Selandian sediments are described. • All three species are important biostratigraphic markers across offshore Northwest Europe. • Presented taxa exhibit features distinctive from all other species described in the same genera. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Venous leg ulcers represent the most common chronic wound problem managed in Australian primary care. Despite the prevalence of the condition, there is an evidence-practice gap in both diagnosis and management of venous leg ulcers. We used the Theoretical Domains Framework to identify barriers and enablers perceived by primary care practitioners in implementing venous leg ulcer guidelines in clinical practice. We collected data to explore the experiences of practice nurses and general practitioners related to their use of clinical practice guidelines in management of venous leg ulcers. We recruited participants from primary care settings located in metropolitan and rural areas across Victoria, Australia. We recruited general practitioners (15) and practice nurses (20). We conducted 35 semi-structured face-to-face and telephone interviews. Content analysis of health practitioners' statements was performed and barriers to implementing clinical practice guidelines were mapped across the Theoretical Domains Framework theoretical domains. Six main domains from the Theoretical Domains Framework (Environmental context and resources, Knowledge, Skills, Social influences, Social/Professional Role and Identity and Belief about Capabilities) best explained these barriers and enablers. Many participants were not aware of venous leg ulcer clinical practice guidelines. Those that were aware, stated that finding and accessing guidelines was challenging and most participants relied on other sources of information. Venous leg ulcer management was greatly influenced by professional experience and suggestions from colleagues. Other barriers included busy clinical practice, absence of handheld Doppler ultrasonography, insufficient skills and a lack of confidence related to the use of technology to rule out arterial involvement prior to compression application, a particular skill related to venous leg ulcer management that will impact on healing outcomes. We identified a number of barriers and the lack of enablers that influence the uptake of venous leg ulcer clinical practice guidelines in primary care. This paper adds a theoretically sound, systematic approach for understanding and addressing the behaviour change required to improve translation of venous leg ulcer clinical practice guidelines in clinical practice. Tweetable abstract: The need to optimise venous leg ulcer clinical practice guidelines (CPG) has never been greater as the current estimate of health cost is AUD3billion and increasing due to rising epidemics of diabetes and obesity. We found most primary care health practitioners are unaware of CPG and this will impact on health and healing outcomes in Australian primary care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The article evaluates the impacts of a single-use plastic shopping bag ban. • The ban was only mildly successful in reducing plastic bag consumption. • Plastic reductions from single-use bags were largely offset by increases in other bags. • The ban is unlikely to have materially reduced litter or improved other outcomes. • The ban has enjoyed high levels of community support since its introduction in 2011. Bans on single-use plastic shopping bags are amongst the most popular policy interventions taken by governments to address the harms associated with plastics. Yet, there are few published studies on their effectiveness and durability. This article addresses this gap, presenting the results of a study on the impacts of a ban on single-use plastic bags introduced in the Australian Capital Territory in 2011. The study assessed whether the ban has reduced plastic bag consumption and litter, and whether community support for the ban was sustainable. The results suggests the ban has not been overly effective in reducing plastic bag consumption or litter. Over the almost seven-year study period, between 2011 and 2018, the ban reduced consumption of single-use conventional polyethylene bags by ∼2600 tonnes. However, these reductions were largely offset by increases in the consumption of other bags. The net effect of the ban on plastic consumption over the period was relatively minor; a 275 t reduction. Notwithstanding this, the ban is widely supported. When it was first introduced, 58 % of the community supported the ban. By 2018, this had increased to 68 %. The article explores the implications of the results and the need for better information on plastic bag consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The Philadelphia Ujima Coalition for a Healthier Community (Philadelphia Ujima) promotes health improvement of girls, women, and their families using a gender framework and community-based participatory research approach to addressing gender-based disparities. Institutional policies developed through community-based participatory research approaches are integral to sustaining gender-integrated health-promotion programs and necessary for reducing gender health inequities. This paper describes the results of a policy analysis of the Philadelphia Ujima coalition partner sites and highlights two case studies. Methods The policy analysis used a document review and key informant interview transcripts to explore 1) processes that community, faith, and academic organizations engaged in a community participatory process used to develop policies or institutional changes, 2) types of policy changes developed, and 3) initial outcomes and impact of the policy changes on the target population. Results Fifteen policies were developed as a result of the funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office on Women's Health. Policy changes included 1) healthy food options guidance, 2) leadership training on sexual and relationship violence, and 3) curricula and programming inclusion and expansion of a sex and gender focus in high school and medical school. Conclusions Organizational practice changes and policies can be activated through individual-level interventions using a community participatory approach. This approach empowers communities to play an integral role in creating health-promoting policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]