Search

Following the fast spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19) across Europe and North America in March 2020, many people started stockpiling commodities like toilet paper. Despite the high relevance for public authorities to adequately address stockpiling behavior, empirical studies on the psychological underpinnings of toilet paper stockpiling are still scarce. In this study, we investigated the relation between personality traits, perceived threat of Covid-19, and stockpiling of toilet paper in an online survey (N = 996) across 22 countries. Results suggest that people who felt more threatened by Covid-19 stockpiled more toilet paper. Further, a predisposition towards Emotionality predicted the perceived threat of Covid-19 and affected stockpiling behavior indirectly. Finally, Conscientiousness was related to toilet paper stockpiling, such that individuals higher in Conscientiousness tended to stockpile more toilet paper. These results emphasize the importance of clear communication by public authorities acknowledging anxiety and, at the same time, transmitting a sense of control.

Humans introduced paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) from Taiwan into the Pacific over 5000 years ago as a fiber source to make barkcloth textiles that were, and still are, important cultural artifacts throughout the Pacific. We have used B. papyrifera, a species closely associated to humans, as a proxy to understand the human settlement of the Pacific Islands. We report the first genetic analysis of paper mulberry textiles from historical and archaeological contexts (200 to 50 years before present) and compare our results with genetic data obtained from contemporary and herbarium paper mulberry samples. Following stringent ancient DNA protocols, we extracted DNA from 13 barkcloth textiles. We confirmed that the fiber source is paper mulberry in nine of the 13 textiles studied using the nuclear ITS-1 marker and by statistical estimates. We detected high genetic diversity in historical Pacific paper mulberry barkcloth with a set of ten microsatellites, showing new alleles and specific genetic patterns. These genetic signatures allow tracing connections to plants from the Asian homeland, Near and Remote Oceania, establishing links not observed previously (using the same genetic tools) in extant plants or herbaria samples. These results show that historic barkcloth textiles are cultural materials amenable to genetic analysis to reveal human history and that these artifacts may harbor evidence of greater genetic diversity in Pacific B. papyrifera in the past.

The Panama Papers comprise one of the most recent influential leaks containing detailed information on intermediary companies (such as law firms), offshore entities and company officers, and serve as a valuable source of insight into the operations of (approximately) 214,000 shell companies incorporated in tax havens around the globe over the past half century. Entities and relations in the papers can be used to construct a network that permits, in principle, a systematic and scientific study at scale using techniques developed in the computational social science and network science communities. In this paper, we propose such a study by attempting to quantify and profile the importance of entities. In particular, our research explores whether intermediaries are significantly more influential than offshore entities, and whether different centrality measures lead to varying, or even incompatible, conclusions. Some findings yield conclusions that resemble Simpson’s paradox. We also explore the role that jurisdictions play in determining entity importance.

“There is no problem that a library card can't solve” according to author Eleanor Brown [1]. This advice is sound, probably for both life and science, but even the best tool (like the library) is most effective when accompanied by instructions and a basic understanding of how and when to use it. For many budding scientists, the first day in a new lab setting often involves a stack of papers, an email full of links to pertinent articles, or some promise of a richer understanding so long as one reads enough of the scientific literature. However, the purpose and approach to reading a scientific article is unlike that of reading a news story, novel, or even a textbook and can initially seem unapproachable. Having good habits for reading scientific literature is key to setting oneself up for success, identifying new research questions, and filling in the gaps in one’s current understanding; developing these good habits is the first crucial step. Advice typically centers around two main tips: read actively and read often. However, active reading, or reading with an intent to understand, is both a learned skill and a level of effort. Although there is no one best way to do this, we present 10 simple rules, relevant to novices and seasoned scientists alike, to teach our strategy for active reading based on our experience as readers and as mentors of undergraduate and graduate researchers, medical students, fellows, and early career faculty. Rules 1–5 are big picture recommendations. Rules 6–8 relate to philosophy of reading. Rules 9–10 guide the “now what?” questions one should ask after reading and how to integrate what was learned into one’s own science.

Objective To survey the knowledge, attitude, and practices of Vietnamese pharmacists regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. Method This cross-sectional, paper-based study was conducted from June to August 2020. A validated questionnaire (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.84) was used to interview 1,023 pharmacists in nine provinces of Vietnam. Analysis of covariance was employed to identify factors associated with the knowledge of pharmacists. The best model was chosen by using the Bayesian Model Averaging method in R software version 4.0.4. Results The mean knowledge score was 12.02 ± 1.64 (range: 6–15), which indicated that 93.4% of pharmacists had good knowledge of COVID-19. There was no difference in the average score between males and females (p > 0.05). The multivariate linear regression model revealed that the knowledge was significantly associated with pharmacists’ age, education level, and residence (p < 0.001). About attitude and practices, pharmacists daily sought and updated information on the COVID-19 pandemic through mass media and the internet (social network and online newspapers). Nearly 48% of them conceded that they communicated with customers when at least one person did not wear a face mask at the time of the COVID-19 outbreak. At medicine outlets, many measures were applied to protect pharmacists and customers, such as equipping pharmacists with face masks and hand sanitizers (95.0%), using glass shields (83.0%), and maintaining at least one-meter distance between two people (85.2%). Conclusion The pharmacists’ knowledge of COVID-19 transmission, symptoms, and prevention was good. Many useful measures against the spread of this perilous virus were applied in medicine outlets. However, pharmacists should restrict forgetting to wear face masks in communication with medicine purchasers. The government and health agencies should have practical remedies to reduce the significant differences in the COVID-19 knowledge of pharmacists among provinces and education-level groups.

We propose to use Twitter data as social-spatial sensors. This study deals with the question whether research papers on certain diseases are perceived by people in regions (worldwide) that are especially concerned by these diseases. Since (some) Twitter data contain location information, it is possible to spatially map the activity of Twitter users referring to certain papers (e.g., dealing with tuberculosis). The resulting maps reveal whether heavy activity on Twitter is correlated with large numbers of people having certain diseases. In this study, we focus on tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and malaria, since the World Health Organization ranks these diseases as the top three causes of death worldwide by a single infectious agent. The results of the social-spatial Twitter maps (and additionally performed regression models) reveal the usefulness of the proposed sensor approach. One receives an impression of how research papers on the diseases have been perceived by people in regions that are especially concerned by these diseases. Our study demonstrates a promising approach for using Twitter data for research evaluation purposes beyond simple counting of tweets.

There is demand from science funders, industry, and the public that science should become more risk-taking, more out-of-the-box, and more interdisciplinary. Is it possible to tell how interdisciplinary and out-of-the-box scientific papers are, or which papers are mainstream? Here we use the bibliographic coupling network, derived from all physics papers that were published in the Physical Review journals in the past century, to try to identify them as mainstream, out-of-the-box, or interdisciplinary. We show that the network clusters into scientific fields. The position of individual papers with respect to these clusters allows us to estimate their degree of mainstreamness or interdisciplinary. We show that over the past decades the fraction of mainstream papers increases, the fraction of out-of-the-box decreases, and the fraction of interdisciplinary papers remains constant. Studying the rewards of papers, we find that in terms of absolute citations, both, mainstream and interdisciplinary papers are rewarded. In the long run, mainstream papers perform less than interdisciplinary ones in terms of citation rates. We conclude that to avoid a trend towards mainstreamness a new incentive scheme is necessary., 12 pages, 9 figures

Background Paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera (L.) L'Hér. ex Vent) is a dioecious tree native to East Asia and mainland Southeast-Asia, introduced prehistorically to Polynesia as a source of bark fiber by Austronesian-speaking voyagers. In Oceania, trees are coppiced and harvested for production of bark-cloth, so flowering is generally unknown. A survey of botanical records of paper mulberry revealed a distributional disjunction: the tree is apparently absent in Borneo and the Philippines. A subsequent study of chloroplast haplotypes linked paper mulberry of Remote Oceania directly to a population in southern Taiwan, distinct from known populations in mainland Southeast-Asia. Methodology We describe the optimization and use of a DNA marker designed to identify sex in paper mulberry. We used this marker to determine the sex distribution in selected localities across Asia, Near and Remote Oceania. We also characterized all samples using the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer sequence (ITS) in order to relate results to a previous survey of ITS diversity. Results In Near and Remote Oceania, contemporary paper mulberry plants are all female with the exception of Hawaii, where plants of both sexes are found. In its natural range in Asia, male and female plants are found, as expected. Male plants in Hawaii display an East Asian ITS genotype, consistent with modern introduction, while females in Remote Oceania share a distinctive variant. Conclusions Most paper mulberry plants now present in the Pacific appear to be descended from female clones introduced prehistorically. In Hawaii, the presence of male and female plants is thought to reflect a dual origin, one a prehistoric female introduction and the other a modern male introduction by Japanese/Chinese immigrants. If only female clones were dispersed from a source-region in Taiwan, this may explain the absence of botanical records and breeding populations in the Philippines and Borneo, and Remote Oceania.

Background Physical inactivity is an important cause of noncommunicable diseases. Interventions can increase short-term physical activity (PA), but health benefits require maintenance. Few interventions have evaluated PA objectively beyond 12 months. We followed up two pedometer interventions with positive 12-month effects to examine objective PA levels at 3–4 years. Methods and findings Long-term follow-up of two completed trials: Pedometer And Consultation Evaluation-UP (PACE-UP) 3-arm (postal, nurse support, control) at 3 years and Pedometer Accelerometer Consultation Evaluation-Lift (PACE-Lift) 2-arm (nurse support, control) at 4 years post-baseline. Randomly selected patients from 10 United Kingdom primary care practices were recruited (PACE-UP: 45–75 years, PACE-Lift: 60–75 years). Intervention arms received 12-week walking programmes (pedometer, handbooks, PA diaries) postally (PACE-UP) or with nurse support (PACE-UP, PACE-Lift). Main outcomes were changes in 7-day accelerometer average daily step counts and weekly time in moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) in ≥10-minute bouts in intervention versus control groups, between baseline and 3 years (PACE-UP) and 4 years (PACE-Lift). PACE-UP 3-year follow-up was 67% (681/1,023) (mean age: 59, 64% female), and PACE-Lift 4-year follow-up was 76% (225/298) (mean age: 67, 53% female). PACE-UP 3-year intervention versus control comparisons were as follows: additional steps/day postal +627 (95% CI: 198–1,056), p = 0.004, nurse +670 (95% CI: 237–1,102), p = 0.002; total weekly MVPA in bouts (minutes/week) postal +28 (95% CI: 7–49), p = 0.009, nurse +24 (95% CI: 3–45), p = 0.03. PACE-Lift 4-year intervention versus control comparisons were: +407 (95% CI: −177–992), p = 0.17 steps/day, and +32 (95% CI: 5–60), p = 0.02 minutes/week MVPA in bouts. Neither trial showed sedentary or wear-time differences. Main study limitation was incomplete follow-up; however, results were robust to missing data sensitivity analyses. Conclusions Intervention participants followed up from both trials demonstrated higher levels of objectively measured PA at 3–4 years than controls, similar to previously reported 12-month trial effects. Pedometer interventions, delivered by post or with nurse support, can help address the public health physical inactivity challenge. Trial registrations PACE-UP isrctn.com ISRCTN98538934; PACE-Lift isrctn.com ISRCTN42122561., In this follow-up of participants from two completed trials of pedometer-based walking interventions, Tess Harris and colleagues present evidence that increases in physical activity levels seen at 12 months are still present 3-4 years later., Author summary Why was this study done? Brisk walking for 30 minutes or more daily on most days of the week can help adults and older adults to achieve moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) guidelines for health benefits, yet many do not achieve these levels. Previous pedometer-based walking studies have shown positive effects on increased step counts and time in MVPA for up to 12 months. For sustained health benefits, increased physical activity levels need to be maintained, yet there is a lack of data from interventions assessed using objectively measured physical activity levels beyond 12 months. What did the researchers do and find? We followed up participants from two primary care 12-week pedometer-based walking trials, including both nurse-supported and postal pedometer arms, to establish whether objectively measured physical activity increases seen at 12 months were sustained at 3–4 years. PACE-UP followed up 45–75-year-olds 3 years post-baseline and showed that both nurse-supported and postal pedometer interventions continued to have higher physical activity levels compared to the control group (approximately an extra 28 and 24 minutes/week, respectively, of MVPA in bouts and an extra 670 and 630 steps/day, respectively). PACE-Lift results were very similar. In 60–75-year-olds followed up at 4 years post-baseline, the nurse-supported pedometer intervention group spent about 33 minutes/week more time in MVPA in bouts compared to the control group. What do these findings mean? These findings suggest that adult and older adult participants receiving 12-week pedometer-based walking interventions, provided either by post or with nurse support, are still doing more physical activity 3–4 years later. Pedometer interventions can help address the public health physical inactivity challenge.

Reading primary research literature is an essential skill for all scientists and students on science degree programmes, however little is known about how researchers at different career stages interact with and interpret scientific papers. To explore this, we conducted a survey of 260 undergraduate students and researchers in Biological Sciences at a research intensive UK university. Responses to Likert scale questions demonstrated increases in confidence and skill with reading the literature between individuals at each career stage, including between postdoctoral researchers and faculty academics. The survey indicated that individuals at different career stages valued different sections of scientific papers, and skill in reading the results section develops slowly over the course of an academic career. Inexperienced readers found the methods and results sections of research papers the most difficult to read, and undervalued the importance of the results section and critical interpretation of data. These data highlight a need for structured support with reading scientific literature at multiple career stages, and for senior academics to be aware that junior colleagues may prioritise their reading differently. We propose a model for the development of literature processing skills, and consider the need for training strategies to help inexperienced readers engage with primary literature, and therefore develop important skills that underpin scientific careers. We also encourage researchers to be mindful of language used when writing papers, and to be more inclusive of diverse audiences when disseminating their work.

Chemistry researchers are frequently evaluated on the perceived significance of their work with the citation count as the most commonly-used metric for gauging this property. Recent studies have called for a broader evaluation of significance that includes more nuanced bibliometrics as well as altmetrics to more completely evaluate scientific research. To better understand the relationship between metrics and peer judgements of significance in chemistry, we have conducted a survey of chemists to investigate their perceptions of previously published research. Focusing on a specific issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society published in 2003, respondents were asked to select which articles they thought best matched importance and significance given several contexts: highest number of citations, most significant (subjectively defined), most likely to share among chemists, and most likely to share with a broader audience. The answers to the survey can be summed up in several observations. The ability of respondents to predict the citation counts of established research is markedly lower than the ability of those counts to be predicted by the h-index of the corresponding author of each article. This observation is conserved even when only considering responses from chemists whose expertise falls within the subdiscipline that best describes the work performed in an article. Respondents view both cited papers and significant papers differently than papers that should be shared with chemists. We conclude from our results that peer judgements of importance and significance differ from metrics-based measurements, and that chemists should work with bibliometricians to develop metrics that better capture the nuance of opinions on the importance of a given piece of research.

Good scientific writing is essential to career development and to the progress of science. A well-structured manuscript allows readers and reviewers to get excited about the subject matter, to understand and verify the paper’s contributions, and to integrate these contributions into a broader context. However, many scientists struggle with producing high-quality manuscripts and typically get little training in paper writing. Focusing on how readers consume information, we present a set of 10 simple rules to help you get across the main idea of your paper. These rules are designed to make your paper more influential and the process of writing more efficient and pleasurable.

Moderate-to-severe psoriasis is associated with significant comorbidity, an impaired quality of life, and increased medical costs, including those associated with treatments. Systematic reviews (SRs) and meta-analyses (MAs) of randomized clinical trials are considered two of the best approaches to the summarization of high-quality evidence. However, methodological bias can reduce the validity of conclusions from these types of studies and subsequently impair the quality of decision making. As co-authorship is among the most well-documented forms of research collaboration, the present study aimed to explore whether authors' collaboration methods might influence the methodological quality of SRs and MAs of psoriasis. Methodological quality was assessed by two raters who extracted information from full articles. After calculating total and per-item Assessment of Multiple Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) scores, reviews were classified as low (0-4), medium (5-8), or high (9-11) quality. Article metadata and journal-related bibliometric indices were also obtained. A total of 741 authors from 520 different institutions and 32 countries published 220 reviews that were classified as high (17.2%), moderate (55%), or low (27.7%) methodological quality. The high methodological quality subnetwork was larger but had a lower connection density than the low and moderate methodological quality subnetworks; specifically, the former contained relatively fewer nodes (authors and reviews), reviews by authors, and collaborators per author. Furthermore, the high methodological quality subnetwork was highly compartmentalized, with several modules representing few poorly interconnected communities. In conclusion, structural differences in author-paper affiliation network may influence the methodological quality of SRs and MAs on psoriasis. As the author-paper affiliation network structure affects study quality in this research field, authors who maintain an appropriate balance between scientific quality and productivity are more likely to develop higher quality reviews.

In recent years, the number of reported Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) cases caused by Trypanosoma brucei (T.b.) gambiense has been markedly declining, and the goal of ‘elimination as a public health problem’ is within reach. For the next stage, i.e. interruption of HAT transmission by 2030, intensive screening and surveillance will need to be maintained, but with tools and strategies more efficiently tailored to the very low prevalence. We assessed the sequential use of ELISA and Immune Trypanolysis (ITL) on dried blood spot (DBS) samples as an alternative to the traditional HAT field testing and confirmation approach. A cross-sectional study was conducted in HAT endemic and previously endemic zones in Kongo Central province, and a non-endemic zone in Haut Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Door-to-door visits were performed to collect dried blood spot (DBS) samples on filter paper. ELISA/T.b. gambiense was conducted followed by ITL for those testing positive by ELISA and in a subset of ELISA negatives. In total, 11,642 participants were enrolled. Of these, 11,535 DBS were collected and stored in appropriate condition for ELISA testing. Ninety-seven DBS samples tested positive on ELISA. In the endemic zone, ELISA positivity was 1.34% (95%CI: 1.04–1.64). In the previously endemic zone and non-endemic zone, ELISA positivity was 0.34% (95% CI: 0.13–0.55) and 0.37% (95% CI: 0.15–0.60) respectively. Among the ELISA positives, only two samples had a positive ITL result, both from the endemic zone. One of those was from a former HAT patient treated in 2008 and the other from an individual who unfortunately had deceased prior to the follow-up visit. Our study showed that a surveillance strategy, based on DBS samples and centralized testing with retracing of patients if needed, is feasible in DRC. ELISA seems well suited as initial test with a similar positivity rate as traditional screening tests, but ITL remains complex. Alternatives for the latter, also analyzable on DBS, should be further explored., Author summary Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), also known as sleeping sickness is a parasitic disease, transmitted by tsetse flies, that is usually fatal if untreated. The number of cases have been rapidly declining over the past years indicating that elimination of the disease as a public health problem is within reach. To achieve the next stage, i.e. interruption of HAT transmission by 2030, intensive screening and surveillance will need to be maintained, but with tools and strategies more efficiently tailored to the very low prevalence. In contrast to the traditional approach of sending laboratory expertise to the field, we assessed an alternative approach based on the collection of dried blood samples on filter paper that were tested in a regional laboratory. Samples were taken in endemic, previously endemic and non-endemic villages and tested by ELISA and Immune Trypanolysis. The ELISA positivity rates were similar to those of other screening techniques currently used and Immune Trypanolysis was highly specific. Hence for surveillance in HAT endemic areas, collecting dried blood samples followed by centralized testing could become an alternative to the current strategy of active screening by mobile teams with on the spot confirmation. It has also potential for post-elimination surveillance to monitor resurgence and for exploratory surveillance in historic foci. Though highly specific, Immune Trypanolysis remains too complex for use in intermediate level laboratories, to further expand this strategy an alternative second step test is required.

Scholars traditionally receive career credit for a paper based on where in the author list they appear, but position in an author list often carries little information about what the contribution of each researcher was. “Contributorship” refers to a movement to formally document the nature of each researcher’s contribution to a project. We discuss the emerging CRediT standard for documenting contributions and describe a web-based app and R package called tenzing that is designed to facilitate its use. tenzing can make it easier for researchers on a project to plan and record their planned contributions and to document those contributions in a journal article.

In most low-resource settings, microscopy still is the standard method for diagnosis of cutaneous leishmaniasis, despite its limited sensitivity. In Ethiopia, the more sensitive molecular methods are not yet routinely used. This study compared five PCR methods with microscopy on two sample types collected from patients with a suspected lesion to advise on optimal diagnosis of Leishmania aethiopica. Between May and July 2018, skin scrapings (SS) and blood exudate from the lesion spotted on filter paper (dry blood spot, DBS) were collected for PCR from 111 patients of four zones in Southern Ethiopia. DNA and RNA were simultaneously extracted from both sample types. DNA was evaluated by a conventional PCR targeting ITS-1 and three probe-based real-time PCRs: one targeting the SSU 18S rRNA and two targeting the kDNA minicircle sequence (the ‘Mary kDNA PCR’ and a newly designed ‘LC kDNA PCR’ for improved L. aethiopica detection). RNAs were tested with a SYBR Green-based RT-PCR targeting spliced leader (SL) RNA. Giemsa-stained SS smears were examined by microscopy. Of the 111 SS, 100 were positive with at least two methods. Sensitivity of microscopy, ITS PCR, SSU PCR, Mary kDNA PCR, LC kDNA PCR and SL RNA PCR were respectively 52%, 22%, 64%, 99%, 100% and 94%. Microscopy-based parasite load correlated well with real-time PCR Ct-values. Despite suboptimal sample storage for RNA detection, the SL RNA PCR resulted in congruent results with low Ct-values. DBS collected from the same lesion showed lower PCR positivity rates compared to SS. The kDNA PCRs showed excellent performance for diagnosis of L. aethiopica on SS. Lower-cost SL RNA detection can be a complementary high-throughput tool. DBS can be used for PCR in case microscopy is negative, the SS sample can be sent to the referral health facility where kDNA PCR method is available., Author summary Cutaneous leishmaniasis is a neglected tropical disease and causing a public health problem in Ethiopia. Microscopy is still the standard method for detection of the parasite in Ethiopia, and also in many other low resource settings. A more sensitive method is needed for timely diagnosis and treatment. In this study, we compared five molecular methods on samples collected from patients with a skin lesion suspected of cutaneous leishmaniasis to advice on optimal diagnosis of L. aethiopica. We collected two sample types from the same lesion (skin scrapings and lesion fluid on filter paper) and isolated both DNA and RNA of them. Majority (90.1%) of the samples from skin scrapings were positive in two or more methods and the molecular methods had a higher sensitivity than the conventional methods. Interestingly, we evaluated for the first time a new molecular method designed to improve L. aethiopica detection. Also, we showed that RNA detection performed well for samples that were collected under difficult field conditions. Samples collected on filter paper showed less positive results than skin scraped samples, but could still be the method of choice for easy sampling and transport in resource-limited settings as it performed better than microscopy.

Background Despite elimination efforts, the number of Mycobacterium leprae (M. leprae) infected individuals who develop leprosy, is still substantial. Solid evidence exists that individuals living in close proximity to patients are at increased risk to develop leprosy. Early diagnosis of leprosy in endemic areas requires field-friendly tests that identify individuals at risk of developing the disease before clinical manifestation. Such assays will simultaneously contribute to reduction of current diagnostic delay as well as transmission. Antibody (Ab) levels directed against the M.leprae-specific phenolic glycolipid I (PGL-I) represents a surrogate marker for bacterial load. However, it is insufficiently defined whether anti-PGL-I antibodies can be utilized as prognostic biomarkers for disease in contacts. Particularly, in Bangladesh, where paucibacillary (PB) patients form the majority of leprosy cases, anti-PGL-I serology is an inadequate method for leprosy screening in contacts as a directive for prophylactic treatment. Methods Between 2002 and 2009, fingerstick blood from leprosy patients’ contacts without clinical signs of disease from a field-trial in Bangladesh was collected on filter paper at three time points covering six years of follow-up per person. Analysis of anti-PGL-I Ab levels for 25 contacts who developed leprosy during follow-up and 199 contacts who were not diagnosed with leprosy, was performed by ELISA after elution of bloodspots from filter paper. Results Anti-PGL-I Ab levels at intake did not significantly differ between contacts who developed leprosy during the study and those who remained free of disease. Moreover, anti-PGL-I serology was not prognostic in this population as no significant correlation was identified between anti-PGL-I Ab levels at intake and the onset of leprosy. Conclusion In this highly endemic population in Bangladesh, no association was observed between anti-PGL-I Ab levels and onset of disease, urging the need for an extended, more specific biomarker signature for early detection of leprosy in this area. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov ISRCTN61223447, Author summary Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae, which causes skin and nerve damage. Despite worldwide efforts to eliminate leprosy, the number of infected individuals who develop leprosy, is still substantial. Household contacts of new leprosy patients are especially at risk. Early diagnosis of leprosy is key in preventing lifelong handicaps as well as transmission. This requires field-friendly tests that identify individuals at risk of developing the disease before they develop clinical symptoms so that they can receive (prophylactic) treatment. Measuring antibody levels directed against the M.leprae-specific phenolic glycolipid I (PGL-I) provides an indication of the bacterial load. To identify whether anti-PGL-I Ab levels correlate with the development of leprosy in contacts of newly diagnosed leprosy cases, we analyzed these levels in 25 contacts who developed leprosy during 6 years of follow-up and 199 contacts who were not diagnosed with leprosy at 3 time points in 6 years. This study showed that anti-PGL-I Ab levels at intake did not significantly differ between contacts who developed leprosy during the study and those who remained free of disease. Therefore, anti-PGL-I Ab levels alone do not represent a practical tool for prediction of which household contacts will develop leprosy in an endemic area such as Bangladesh, with high levels of patients with paucibacillary leprosy. This stresses the need for a diagnostic test composed of a biomarker signature consisting of multiple biomarkers.

Background Nigeria has one of the highest burdens of pneumococcal disease in the world, but accurate surveillance is lacking. Molecular detection of infectious pathogens in dried blood spots (DBS) is an ideal method for surveillance of infections in resource-limited settings because of its low cost, minimal blood volumes involved, and ease of storage at ambient temperature. Our study aim was to evaluate a Streptococcus pneumoniae real-time polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) assay on DBS from febrile Nigerian children on Whatman 903 and FTA filter papers, compared to the gold standard of culture. Methods Between September 2011 to May 2015, blood was collected from children 5 years of age or under who presented to six hospital study sites throughout northern and central Nigeria with febrile illness, and inoculated into blood culture bottles or spotted onto Whatman 903 or FTA filter paper. Culture and rt-PCR were performed on all samples. Results A total of 537 DBS specimens from 535 children were included in the study, of which 15 were culture-positive for S. pneumoniae. The rt-PCR assay detected S. pneumoniae in 12 DBS specimens (2.2%). One positive rt-PCR result was identified in a culture-negative specimen from a high-risk subject, and two positive rt-PCR results were negative on repeat testing. Six culture-confirmed cases of S. pneumoniae bacteremia were missed. Compared to culture, the overall sensitivities of Whatman 903 and FTA DBS for detection of S. pneumoniae were 57.1% (95% CI 18.4–90.1%) and 62.5% (95% CI 24.5–91.5%), respectively. Nonspecific amplification was noted in an additional 22 DBS (4.1%). Among these, six were positive for a non-S. pneumoniae pathogen on culture. Conclusions Rt-PCR was able to detect S. pneumoniae from clinical DBS specimens, including from a culture-negative specimen. Our findings show promise of this approach as a surveillance diagnostic, but also raise important cautionary questions. Several DBS specimens were detected as S. pneumoniae by rt-PCR despite growth of a non-S. pneumoniae pathogen on culture. A precise definition of what constitutes a positive result is required to avoid falsely over-identifying specimens.

The green mirid bug Apolygus lucorum is a regional pest of multiple crops in northern China, and the survival and development of diapausing eggs during winter plays an important role in the population dynamics of this species. The effect of water on the survival and development of A. lucorum eggs was investigated using laboratory-induced diapause. Diapausing eggs were exposed to various humidity regimes under three conditions: (1) termination of diapause with exposure to warm long-day (WLD) conditions (i.e., 26 ± 1°C and 75 ± 5% relative humidity (RH) under a photoperiod of 16 hours light and 8 hours dark), (2) termination of diapause by chilling at 4°C, or (3) during the post-diapause stage, i.e., from transfer to WLD conditions after chilling, until the hatching of nymphs. The results indicate that water availability is crucial for the post-diapause resumption of development of A. lucorum. However, exposure to excessive moisture was detrimental, as indicated by a decrease in diapause termination rate and a prolonged pre-hatching period of diapausing eggs, compared to limited moisture conditions. This implies that both too dry and too humid environmental conditions would suppress survival and postpone hatching of overwintered A. lucorum eggs, and might explain why this pest has not caused severe damage in either southern or western China where the respective climates are very humid or dry.

Background Medicine quality screening devices hold great promise for post-market surveillance (PMS). However, there is little independent evidence on their field utility and usability to inform policy decisions. This pilot study in the Lao PDR tested six devices’ utility and usability in detecting substandard and falsified (SF) medicines. Methodology/principal findings Observational time and motion studies of the inspections by 16 Lao medicine inspectors of 1) the stock of an Evaluation Pharmacy (EP), constructed to resemble a Lao pharmacy, and 2) a sample set of medicines (SSM); were conducted without and with six devices: four handheld spectrometers (two near infrared: MicroPHAZIR RX, NIR-S-G1 & two Raman: Progeny, Truscan RM); one portable mid-infrared spectrometer (4500a), and single-use paper analytical devices (PAD). User experiences were documented by interviews and focus group discussions. Significantly more samples were wrongly categorised as pass/fail with the PAD compared to the other devices in EP inspections (p, Author summary Substandard and falsified (SF) medicines threaten the lives of millions of people, especially where pharmaceutical legislation and regulation are limited. Screening for SF medicines in supply chains (‘post-market surveillance’) by medicine inspectors is crucial but currently relies only on subjective visual inspection of medicines in most countries. Many innovative portable screening technologies now exist and could be key additional assets to the current practice, but none have been extensively evaluated for medicine quality post-market surveillance. We assessed the utility and usability of six screening devices in the hands of Lao medicines inspectors in a pharmacy constructed to resemble a Lao pharmacy. Five spectrometers showed promising accuracies to identify falsified medicines, but difficulties to correctly set them up before running tests were observed. Reading and interpreting colour barcodes of the ‘paper analytical cards’–a lab-on-a-chip test by inspectors were difficult, leading to lower accuracy than with spectrometers. The study suggests that overconfidence in devices may cause harm by reducing inspectors’ investment in visual inspection—a crucial step to identify falsified medicines. Advantages/limitations of the devices are also documented to inform policy.

The Sustainable Development Goals include a target on eliminating child marriage, a human rights abuse. Yet, the indicator used in the SDG framework is a summary statistic and does not provide a full picture of the incidence of marriage at different ages. This paper aims to address this limitation by providing an alternative method of measuring child marriage. The paper reviews recent data on nuptiality and captures evidence of changes in the proportion married and in the age at marriage, in 98 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Using data collected from nationally representative Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys, survival analysis is applied to estimate (a) age-specific marriage hazard rates among girls before age 18; and (b) the number of girls that were married before age 18 in 2020. Results show that the vast majority of girls remain unmarried until age 10. Child marriage rates increase gradually until age 14 and accelerate significantly thereafter at ages 15–17. By accounting for both single-year-age-specific child marriage hazard rates and the age structure of the population with a survival analysis approach, lower estimates in countries with a rapid decrease in child marriage and higher estimates in countries with constant or slightly rising child marriage rates relative to the direct approach are obtained.

Epidemiological simulations as a method are used to better understand and predict the spreading of infectious diseases, for example of COVID-19.This paper presents an approach that combines a well-established approach from transportation modelling that uses person-centric data-driven human mobility modelling with a mechanistic infection model and a person-centric disease progression model. The model includes the consequences of different room sizes, air exchange rates, disease import, changed activity participation rates over time (coming from mobility data), masks, indoors vs. outdoors leisure activities, and of contact tracing. The model is validated against the infection dynamics in Berlin (Germany).The model can be used to understand the contributions of different activity types to the infection dynamics over time. The model predicts the effects of contact reductions, school closures/vacations, masks, or the effect of moving leisure activities from outdoors to indoors in fall, and is thus able to quantitatively predict the consequences of interventions. It is shown that these effects are best given as additive changes of the reinfection rate R. The model also explains why contact reductions have decreasing marginal returns, i.e. the first 50% of contact reductions have considerably more effect than the second 50%.Our work shows that is is possible to build detailed epidemiological simulations from microscopic mobility models relatively quickly. They can be used to investigate mechanical aspects of the dynamics, such as the transmission from political decisions via human behavior to infections, consequences of different lockdown measures, or consequences of wearing masks in certain situations. The results can be used to inform political decisions.Author summaryEvidently, there is an interest in models that are able to predict the effect of interventions in the face of pandemic diseases. The so-called compartmental models have difficulties to include effects that stem from spatial, demographic or temporal inhomongeneities. Person-centric models, often using social contact matrices, are difficult and time-consuming to build up. In the present paper, we describe how we built a largely data-driven person-centric infection model within less than a month when COVID-19 took hold in Germany. The model is based on our extensive experience with mobility modelling, and a synthetic data pipeline that starts with mobile phone data, while taking the infection dynamics and the disease progression from the literature. The approach makes the model portable to all places that have similar so-called activity-based models of travel in place, which are many places world-wide, and the number is continuously increasing. The model has been used since its inception to regularly advise the German government on expected consequences of interventions.

Screening plans for prevention and containment of SARS-CoV-2 infection should take into account the epidemic context, the fact that undetected infected individuals may transmit the disease and that the infection spreads through outbreaks, creating clusters in the population. In this paper, we compare through simulations the performance of six screening plans based on poorly sensitive individual tests, in detecting infection outbreaks at the level of single classes in a typical European school context. The performance evaluation is done by simulating different epidemic dynamics within the class during the four weeks following the day of the initial infection. The plans have different costs in terms of number of individual tests required for the screening and are based on recurrent evaluations on all students or subgroups of students in rotation. Especially in scenarios where the rate of contagion is high, at an equal cost, testing half of the class in rotation every week appears to be better in terms of sensitivity than testing all students every two weeks. Similarly, testing one-fourth of the students every week is comparable with testing all students every two weeks, despite the first one is a much cheaper strategy. In conclusion, we show that in the presence of natural clusters in the population, testing subgroups of individuals belonging to the same cluster in rotation may have a better performance than testing all the individuals less frequently. The proposed simulations approach can be extended to evaluate more complex screening plans than those presented in the paper.

Evaluation of tourism competitiveness is useful for measuring the level of regional tourism development. It is of great importance to understand the advantages and disadvantages of tourism development correctly and formulate corresponding development strategies. To investigate tourism competitiveness, this paper established an evaluation index system, including tourism development competitiveness, tourism resource competitiveness, and tourism-support competitiveness, for 14 prefectures and cities in Xinjiang in China. The characteristics and laws of spatial differentiation were analyzed. Factor analysis was applied to examine the spatial differentiation of regional tourism competitiveness. The results showed an obvious spatial differentiation in tourism competitiveness among the 14 prefectures and cities. In terms of development competitiveness, Yili and Urumqi constituted the spatial center, followed by Changji, Altay, and Ba Prefecture. As the provincial capital, Urumqi has political, economic, cultural, transportation, and geographic advantages, but its competitiveness is not prominent in terms of monopoly and efficiency. In terms of resource competitiveness, Yili is the core attraction, while Urumqi, Kashgar, Altay, and Ba Prefecture are dominant attractions. With respect to supporting competitiveness, Bo Prefecture has high value, followed by Urumqi City and Aksu. Hetian and Ke Prefecture have the lowest values. The comprehensive competitiveness of tourism is centered on Yili. Urumqi and Bo Prefecture are subcenters, and Changji, Altay, Ba Prefecture, Aksu, and Kashgar are characterized as multi-polar competition areas. Using the KMO and Bartlett’s sphericity tests, the cumulative contribution variance of the eigenvalues of the eight factors extracted by the maximum variance rotation method was found to be 92.714%. Socio-economic conditions, tourism resources, infrastructure construction, regional cultural influence, ecological environment carrying capacity, tertiary industry development, tourism service level, and living security system are the main driving factors affecting the spatial differentiation of tourism competitiveness in Xinjiang. Analyzing the spatial evolution characteristics and the driving factors of the regional tourism competitiveness in Xinjiang, this paper seeks to promote the optimal allocation of tourism production factors in the macro regional system, and provide theoretical guidance and an empirical basis for the comprehensive and harmonic development of regional tourism.

This paper provides an institutional and empirical analysis of the highly concentrated market of academic publishing, characterized by over proportionally high profit margins for publishing companies. The availability of latest research findings is an important issue for researchers, universities and politicians alike. Open access (OA) publication provides a promising but also costly solution to overcome this problem. However, in this paper we argue that OA publication costs are an important, but by far not the only way for academic publishers to gain access to public funding. In contrast, our study provides a comprehensive overview of the channels through which public expenditure benefits big academic publishing companies. Furthermore, we offer the results of an explorative case study, where we estimate the annual financial flows of public expenditures in Austria for the field of social sciences. In all, these expenditures add up to about 66.55 to 103.2 million € a year, which amounts to a fourth of total public funding for this field. Against this background, we contribute to the debate whether and to what extent public subsidies are justified for economically successful companies.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are considered as the fundamental tool for economic growth, nevertheless, they face continuous financing challenges. SMEs are a major source for generating employment, creation of wealth and alleviating poverty from the rural regions in developing countries. Their access to finance is key to the expansion of this sector. The paper aims to discover the intervening role of “access of SMEs to finance” in the link between SME’s evolution and rural development, in the context of Pakistan. In total 338 entrepreneurs operating SMEs in rural areas completed a survey for the study. Through a multi-stage stratified random sampling technique, entrepreneurs were selected from three districts. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to test hypotheses. This study shows that SME’s evolution has a positive and optimistic influence on rural development. Further, the study also reveals that on SME’s progress a positive influence happens by the “access of SMEs to finance”. Particularly, the study finds that “access of SMEs to finance” significantly mediated the effect of SME’s evolution on rural development. The findings of this paper hold significant implications for both the research society and loan-issuing institutions and departments.

Scientists routinely use images to display data. Readers often examine figures first; therefore, it is important that figures are accessible to a broad audience. Many resources discuss fraudulent image manipulation and technical specifications for image acquisition; however, data on the legibility and interpretability of images are scarce. We systematically examined these factors in non-blot images published in the top 15 journals in 3 fields; plant sciences, cell biology, and physiology (n = 580 papers). Common problems included missing scale bars, misplaced or poorly marked insets, images or labels that were not accessible to colorblind readers, and insufficient explanations of colors, labels, annotations, or the species and tissue or object depicted in the image. Papers that met all good practice criteria examined for all image-based figures were uncommon (physiology 16%, cell biology 12%, plant sciences 2%). We present detailed descriptions and visual examples to help scientists avoid common pitfalls when publishing images. Our recommendations address image magnification, scale information, insets, annotation, and color and may encourage discussion about quality standards for bioimage publishing.

Nations have been competing in sporting competitions for centuries. Therefore, explaining the success of different countries has a long history in sports science. At first, researchers tried to explain success patterns with the help of divergent geographical factors. Later, literature included other determinants on the macro-level which provide evidence that especially the GDP as a proxy for the prosperity of a country has a significant impact on success in sports. Within this broader field of research, also specialization patterns in sports developed into an important topic of research. In line with the literature on factors which lead to (national) success, so far, the discussion mostly concentrates on determinants on a macro-level. We identify the problem that different specialization patterns can be observed in countries that have similar factors on the macro-level, as well. There seems to be a research gap concerning the influencing factors on a meso-level. As a result, the aim of this paper is to show which determinants on the meso-level can affect sports specialization patterns. We provide a model based on the findings of lobbying theory that explains not only different specialization patterns between, e.g., Europe and Africa, but also different specialization patterns within a continent and dissimilar patterns of countries with a similar macro-level can be understood. Overall, our paper contributes to the discussion on specialization in elite sports from an economic perspective, so that future research can build on our work, in particular concerning empirical tests of our approach.

This paper examines the impact of widespread adoption of information and communication technologies (ICT) on urban structure worldwide. Has it offset agglomeration benefits and led to more dispersed spatial structures, or has it strengthened urban externalities and thus resulted in more concentrated spatial structures? Theoretical and empirical studies on this question have produced contradictory findings. The present study recognizes that assumptions made earlier about the evolution of technological capabilities do not necessarily hold today. As cutting-edge digital technologies have matured considerably, a fresh look at this question is called for. The paper addresses this issue by means of several data sets using instrumental variable methods. One is the UN data on Urban Settlements with more than 300, 000 inhabitants. Estimation methods with these data show that increased adoption of ICT has resulted in national urban systems that are less uniform in terms of city sizes and are characterized by higher population concentrations in larger cities, when concentration is proxied the Pareto (Zipf) coefficient for national city size distributions. Two, is disaggregated data for the urban systems of the US, defined as Micropolitan and Metropolitan Areas, and for the UK, defined as Built-up Areas in England and Wales, respectively. These data allow for the impacts to be studied for cities smaller than those included in the cross-country data. Increased internet usage improved a city’s ranking in the US urban system. Similarly, increased download speed improves a built-up area’s ranking in England and Wales.

The paper assessed access to WASH service in the Jariban district of Somalia. One hundred and sixty-seven households were sampled to administer a questionnaire. Central tendency and logistical regression were used to analyse the data in SPSS 26. The findings show that access to safe drinking water sources is 57.5%. Of the 42.5% of respondents who did not access safe drinking water source, only 10.8% confirmed that they treat drinking water at the point of use. The main reason for household water treatment was the positive mindset (.272) of the household head towards water treatment. The majority (80.2%) of the respondents access approximately 13 litres per person per day. Woman-headed households were more likely to treat water before drinking than male-headed households. Only 26.9% of the respondents accessed basic sanitation. Of the respondents, 55.7% did not share latrines, while 44.3% share resulting in open defecation. WASH access in the study area remains low, resulting in health-related risks, including diarrhoeal disease. The limitation is that the paper only focused on access to WASH facilities in fragile contexts. A cross-sectional analysis of biological, physical and chemical properties of water at the source and point of use is recommended for further research.

Background Caste plays a significant role in Indian society and it influences women to health care access in the community. The implementation of the maternal health benefits scheme in India is biased due to caste identity. In this context, the paper investigates access to Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY) among social groups to establish that caste still plays a pivotal role in Indian society. Also, this paper aims to quantify the discrimination against Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes (SCs/STs) in accessing JSY. Methods This paper uses a national-level data set of both NFHS-3 (2005–06) and NFHS-4 (2015–16). Both descriptive statistics and the Fairlie decomposition econometric model have been used to measure the explained and unexplained differences in access to JSY between SCs/STs and non-SCs/STs groups. Results Overall, the total coverage of JSY in India is still, 36.4%. Further, it is found that 72% of access to JSY is explained by endowment variables. The remaining unexplained percentage (28%) indicates that there is caste discrimination (inequity associated social-discrimination) against SCs/STs in access to JSY. The highest difference (54%) between SCs/STs and non-SCs/STs in access to JSY comes from the wealth quintile, with the positive sign indicating that the gap between the two social groups is widening. Discussion and conclusion It is necessary for the government to implement a better way to counter the caste-based discrimination in access to maternal health benefits scheme. In this regard, ASHA and Anganwadi workers must be trained to reduce the influence of dominant caste groups as well as they must be recruited from the same community to identify the right beneficiaries of JSY and in order to reduce inequity associated with social-discrimination.

Water affordability is central to water access but remains a challenge to measure. California enshrined the human right to safe and affordable water in 2012 but the question remains: how should water affordability be measured across the state? This paper contributes to this question in three steps. First, we identify key dimensions of water affordability measures (including scale, volume of water needed to meet ‘basic’ needs, and affordability criteria) and a cross-cutting theme (social equity). Second, using these dimensions, we develop three affordability ratios measured at the water system scale for households with median, poverty level, and deep poverty (i.e., half the poverty level) incomes and estimate the corresponding percentage of households at these income levels. Using multiple measures conveys a fuller picture of affordability given the known limitations of specific affordability measures. Third, we analyze our results disaggregated by a key characteristic of water system vulnerability–water system size. We find that water is relatively affordable for median income households. However, we identify high unaffordability for households in poverty in a large fraction of water systems. We identify several scenarios with different policy implications for the human right to water, such as very small systems with high water bills and low-income households within large water systems. We also characterize how data gaps complicate theoretical ideals and present barriers in human right to water monitoring efforts. This paper presents a systematic approach to measuring affordability and represents the first statewide assessment of water affordability within California’s community water systems.

Drawing on fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from satellite raster data and matching with the county-level socio-economic data from 2008 to 2015 in China, this paper investigates the impacts of the establishment of National Key Ecological Functional Zones (NKEFZ) on environmental quality by employing the difference-in-differences method, which was stablished in June 2011. The results indicate that the establishment of the NKEFZ significantly decreased the concentration values of PM2.5, a drop of about 20% during the study period, after the paper controls for other factors affecting air quality. The robustness tests using the maximum and medium concentration values of PM2.5 show similar results. Through further analysis, the paper finds that the establishment of NKEFZ can improve the ecological utilization efficiency of land.

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) remain endemic to many regions of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) left behind by socioeconomic progress. As such, these diseases are markers of extreme poverty and inequity that are propagated by the political, economic, social, and cultural systems that affect health and wellbeing. As countries embrace and work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the needs of such vulnerable populations need to be addressed in local and global arenas. The research uses primary qualitative data collected from five NTD endemic counties of Kenya: interviews key informants (n = 21) involved in NTD implementation programs and focus groups (n = 5) of affected individuals. Informed by theories of political ecology of health, the research focuses on post-devolution Kenya and identifies the political, economic, social, and cultural factors that propagate NTDs and their effects on health and wellbeing. Our findings indicate that structural factors such as competing political interests, health worker strikes, inadequate budgetary allocations, economic opportunity, marginalization, illiteracy, entrenched cultural norms and practices, poor access to water, sanitation and housing, all serve to propagate NTD transmission and subsequently affect the health and wellbeing of populations. As such, we recommend that post-devolution Kenya ensures local political, economic and socio-cultural structures are equitable, sensitive and responsive to the needs of all people. We also propose poverty alleviation through capacity building and empowerment as a means of tackling NTDs for sustained economic opportunity and productivity at the local and national level., Author summary Wellbeing is currently seen as an avenue that shapes, happiness, productivity, environmental awareness, social inclusion, and justice; however, most countries presently adopting wellbeing measures are in the global north. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) significantly compromise populations’ health and well-being in the global south, causing undesirable effects on the personal, social, and economic capabilities of communities living in endemic regions. As countries work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is paramount that countries in the global south adopt wellbeing measures and, in doing so, capture the lived experiences of individuals experiencing inequities, particularly as these are shaped by NTDs. In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), political and economic power manifests across different scales, determining human-environmental interaction, distribution of resources, and the transmission of infectious agents. This paper uses a political ecology of health approach to identify the political, economic, social and cultural factors that contribute to NTDs, which are among the world’s greatest global health problems. The vast majority of people bearing the burden of NTDs reside in low-income countries. Surprisingly, as the economies of the low-income countries improve to middle-income status, NTDs continue to thrive among sub-populations of low socioeconomic status because of the unequal distribution of economic gains. As a result, NTDs are found in environments characterized by poverty and income inequality, and other inequalities in access to health services, housing, safe water, and sanitation. This paper uses political ecology of health in the primarily biomedical field of NTDs to demonstrate that inequities are embedded within the broad political, socio-cultural, and economic systems that exacerbate NTD infection. The study recommends that NTD endemic countries in SSA formulate policies that enhance equity through capacity building and empowerment enhance population wellbeing.

Citizen science (CS) currently refers to the participation of non-scientist volunteers in any discipline of conventional scientific research. Over the last two decades, nature-based CS has flourished due to innovative technology, novel devices, and widespread digital platforms used to collect and classify species occurrence data. For scientists, CS offers a low-cost approach of collecting species occurrence information at large spatial scales that otherwise would be prohibitively expensive. We examined the trends and gaps linked to the use of CS as a source of data for species distribution models (SDMs), in order to propose guidelines and highlight solutions. We conducted a quantitative literature review of 207 peer-reviewed articles to measure how the representation of different taxa, regions, and data types have changed in SDM publications since the 2010s. Our review shows that the number of papers using CS for SDMs has increased at approximately double the rate of the overall number of SDM papers. However, disparities in taxonomic and geographic coverage remain in studies using CS. Western Europe and North America were the regions with the most coverage (73%). Papers on birds (49%) and mammals (19.3%) outnumbered other taxa. Among invertebrates, flying insects including Lepidoptera, Odonata and Hymenoptera received the most attention. Discrepancies between research interest and availability of data were as especially important for amphibians, reptiles and fishes. Compared to studies on animal taxa, papers on plants using CS data remain rare. Although the aims and scope of papers are diverse, species conservation remained the central theme of SDM using CS data. We present examples of the use of CS and highlight recommendations to motivate further research, such as combining multiple data sources and promoting local and traditional knowledge. We hope our findings will strengthen citizen-researchers partnerships to better inform SDMs, especially for less-studied taxa and regions. Researchers stand to benefit from the large quantity of data available from CS sources to improve global predictions of species distributions.

Political redistricting is the redrawing of electoral district boundaries. It is normally undertaken to reflect population changes. The process can be abused, in what is called gerrymandering, to favor one party or interest group over another, resulting thereby in broadly undemocratic outcomes that misrepresent the views of the voters. Gerrymandering is especially vexing in the United States. This paper introduces an algorithm, with an implementation, for creating districting plans (whether for political redistricting or for other districting applications). The algorithm, Seed-Fill-Shift-Repair (SFSR), is demonstrated for Congressional redistricting in American states. SFSR is able to create thousands of valid redistricting plans, which may then be used as points of departure for public deliberation regarding how best to redistrict a given polity. The main objectives of this paper are: (i) to present SFSR in a broadly accessible form, including code that implements it and test data, so that it may be used for both civic deliberations by the public and for research purposes. (ii) to make the case for what SFSR essays to do, which is to approach redistricting, and districting generally, from a constraint satisfaction perspective and from the perspective of producing a plurality of feasible solutions that may then serve in subsequent deliberations. To further these goals, we make the code publicly available. The paper presents, for illustration purposes, a corpus of 11,206 valid redistricting plans for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (produced by SFSR), using the 2017 American Community Survey, along with descriptive statistics. Also, the paper presents 1,000 plans for each of the states of Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, using the 2018 American Community Survey, along with descriptive statistics on these plans and the computations involved in their creation.

The logistics industry is a derivative industry of manufacturing services extraposition. A variety of strategies to develop the manufacturing industry are important programs of action for China's manufacturing strategic power, and it is of great significance to promote the high-quality development of the logistics industry. This paper takes strong manufacturing provinces with the development of the logistics industry as the research object and applies network DEA measuring the production efficiency and service efficiency of the logistics industry from 2004 to 2017. This paper adopts the "Made in China 2025" strategy as a natural experiment and uses double difference to study the impact of manufacturing policies on the high-quality development of the logistics industry. The empirical results show that compared with the Reference group, the impact of the "Made in China 2025" strategy led to a significant increase in the production efficiency and service efficiency of the experimental group. The group-based test based on innovation type shows that independent innovation has a significant positive effect on the high-quality development of the logistics industry, which shows that from the perspective of technological innovation, independent innovation is the main path of the "Made in China 2025" strategy to promote the high-quality development of the logistics industry. This paper not only identifies the causal relationship between the "Made in China 2025" strategy and the high-quality development of the logistics industry but also helps clarify the mechanism of how manufacturing policies improve the high-quality development of the logistics industry, which has important implications for further promoting the combined development between manufacturing and logistics.

This paper empirically models the dynamics of Brazilian government bond (BGB) yields based on monthly macroeconomic data, in the context of the evolution of the key macroeconomic variables in Brazil. The results show that the current short-term interest rate has a decisive influence on the long-term interest rate on BGBs, after controlling for various key macroeconomic variables, such as inflation and industrial production. These findings support John Maynard Keynes’s claim that the central bank’s actions influence the long-term interest rate on government bonds mainly through the current short-term interest rate. These findings have important policy implications for Brazil. This paper relates the findings of the estimated models to ongoing debates in fiscal and monetary policies.

In recent years, digital finance has become a crucial part of the financial system and reshaped the mode of green finance in China. Digital finance has brought certain impact on economic growth, industrial structure, and resident income, which may affect pollution. The nexus of digital finance and environment in China is thus worth exploring. By revising the traditional Environmental Kuznets Curve model with income inequality variable, this paper decomposes the environmental effects of economic activities into income growth effect, industrial structure effect and income inequality effect, and use panel data of China’s provinces to conduct an empirical analysis. The results reveal the following: (1) the Environmental Kuznets Curve is still valid in sample, and digital finance can reduce air and water pollution (as measured through SO2 and COD emission) directly; (2) in the influence mechanism, digital finance can alleviate income inequality and promote green industrial structure, thus reducing pollution indirectly, but the scale effect of income growth outweighs the technological effect, which increases pollution indirectly; and (3) digital finance has a threshold effect on improving the environment, then an acceleration effect appears after a certain threshold value. From the regional perspective, digital finance development in eastern regions is generally ahead of central and western regions, and the effects of environmental improvement in the eastern regions are greater. According to the study, this paper suggest that digital finance can be an effective way to promote social sustainability by alleviating income inequality and environmental sustainability by reducing pollution.

The starting point of every study on the proportions of Arabic calligraphy is the letter 'Alif. It is considered the reference for all other letters. Usually, it is measured in dots. This paper is an attempt to study the mathematical concepts upon which the historical theory of the 'Alif proportions was based, though not mathematically stated. In order to achieve this, the terms and components of the theory were clearly defined, and analyzed in their textual and visual context, historically, and logically according to our present time. In spite of the frequent use of these terms throughout time, their meanings were not always clear and can accept different interpretations. Some terms, even, indicated different meanings and were loosely used to satisfy different functions, for example, the term "Nuqṭah" (dot). Relating the components of the theory was, also, opened for opinions and interpretations, for example, the number of dots for the 'Alif was never agreed upon. This paper starts with historical research and analysis. Then, it presents the mathematical expressions of the 'Alif proportions both numerically and visually. Later, it discusses how they do apply, how other modern interpretations can fit, and how historical misunderstandings can be understood. Finally, it presents the historical account of how to relate other letters to the 'Alif recommending analyzing their mathematical aspects in future studies.

Approximately 300,000 persons in the United States (US) are infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the protozoan that causes Chagas disease, but less than 1% are estimated to have received antiparasitic treatment. Benznidazole was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for treatment of T. cruzi infection in 2017 and commercialized in May 2018. This paper analyzes factors that affect access to benznidazole following commercialization and suggests directions for future actions to expand access. We applied an access framework to identify barriers, facilitators, and key actors that influence the ability of people with Chagas disease to receive appropriate treatment with benznidazole. Data were collected from the published literature, key informants, and commercial databases. We found that the mean number of persons who obtained benznidazole increased from just under 5 when distributed by the CDC to 13 per month after the commercial launch (from May 2018 to February 2019). Nine key barriers to access were identified: lack of multi-sector coordination, failure of health care providers to use a specific order form, lack of an emergency delivery system, high medical costs for uninsured patients, narrow indications for use of benznidazole, lack of treatment guidelines, limited number of qualified treaters, difficulties for patients to make medical appointments, and inadequate evaluation by providers to determine eligibility for treatment. Our analysis shows that access to benznidazole is still limited after FDA approval. We suggest six areas for strategic action for the pharmaceutical company that markets benznidazole and its allied private foundation to expand access to benznidazole in the US. In addition, we recommend expanding the existing researcher-clinician network by including government agencies, companies and others. This paper’s approach could be applied to access programs for benznidazole in other countries or for other health products that target neglected populations throughout the world., Author summary Less than 1% of persons in the United States with Trypanosoma cruzi infection, the cause of Chagas disease, have received antiparasitic treatment. In this paper, we examine the status of access to benznidazole in the United States following its approval by the FDA for treatment of Chagas disease treatment in 2017 and its commercialization in 2018. We found that the average number of patients who received benznidazole from the manufacturer increased after commercialization from just under 5 (when distributed by the CDC) to 13 patients (when sold in commercial channels) per month. We identified various barriers to access to treatment such as problems in the drug ordering process, low demand from health care providers, inadequate clinical assessment of patient eligibility for treatment, obstacles for patients to make medical appointments or to pay medical costs, and weak coordination among key actors in the health system. To overcome these access barriers, we propose strategic actions that can be taken by the pharmaceutical producer in collaboration with other key actors. Our work contributes to expanding access to Chagas disease treatment in the United States, and our approach could be applied to efforts to expand access to health products for other neglected diseases.

Despite rapid macro-economic growth, one-third of the global burden of childhood stunting is contributed by India. This burden is characterized by wide-spread geographical variation within the country. This paper explores two research questions: (i) are the drivers of severe and moderate stunting similar? (ii) differential endowments or policy-effect, how do community-level nutrition and sanitary practices affect inter-state differences? Using data from Indian National Family and Health Survey 4, 2015-16, six states holding different ranks in the stunting continuum are compared to Tamil Nadu, taken as the benchmark state due to its laudable performance in the health care sector. Applying quantile regression approaches, the difference in state-level performance is decomposed into detailed covariate effects (differential endowments) and coefficient effects (differential strength of association between the drivers and outcome). The explanatory variables are not similarly associated with severe and moderate stunting. Decomposition results demonstrate a significant role of community-level sanitation practices compared to child nutrition behaviour in explaining the inter-state disparity. Coefficient effects play a dominant role in the lower tail of HAZ distribution for the poor performing states indicating that the worse outcomes of these states are due to weaker policy effects of the control variables on stunting. Multi-sectoral approach, identification and differentiation between severe and moderate stunting cases can be more instrumental in managing and reducing the scourge. This paper also advocates the potential benefits of customizing centrally-launched policies as per the state's performance and introducing the concept coproduction in the existing nutrition and health policy framework. This will instigate a feeling of ownership of the problem of childhood stunting among the policy consumers and strengthen the influence of policies on the outcomes.

This paper analyzes the dynamics of the labor market in Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic. After a decade of a virtuous circle of growth with the creation of formal jobs, the pandemic has had an considerable impact on the region’s labor market, generating an unparalleled increase in the proportion of the inactive population, considerable reductions in informality, and, in contrast, smaller fluctuations in formal jobs. In this context, the formal sector, given its lower flexibility, became a "social safety net" that preserved the stability of employment and wages. Based on the findings presented in this paper, it is projected that, starting in 2021, informality will grow to levels higher than those of the pre-COVID-19 era–with 7.56 million additional informal jobs–as a result of the population returning to the labor market to compensate for the declines in incomes. According to the simulations presented, postponing or forgiving income tax payments and social security contributions conditional on the generation of formal jobs could reduce the growth of informality by 50 to 75 percent. Achieving educational improvements has the potential to reduce it by 50 percent.

The paper examines the interest of the commercial banks' stakeholders in Pillar 3 disclosures and their behaviour during the timing of serious market turbulence. The aim is to discover to which extent current banking regulation supports stakeholders' interest in the information required by regulators to be disclosed. The examined data consists of log files that were pre-processed using web mining techniques and from which were extracted frequent item sets by quarters and evaluated in terms of quantity. The authors have proposed a methodology to evaluate frequent item sets of web parts over a dedicated time. Based on the verification of applied methodology on two commercial banks, the results show that stakeholders' interest in disclosures is highest in the first quarter at each year and after turbulent times in 2009 their interests decreased. Moreover, the results suggest that stakeholders expressed higher interest than in regulatory required Pillar 3 information in the following group of information: Pillar3 related information, Annual reports, Information on Group. Following our results, the paper contributes to cover the gap in the research by analysing Pillar 3 disclosures and their compliance with regulatory requirements, which also increase the interest of the relevant stakeholders to conduce them as an effective market discipline tool. Článek zkoumá zájem zainteresovaných stran komerčních bank o zveřejňování informací podle 3. pilíře a jejich chování v době vážných tržních turbulencí. Cílem je zjistit, do jaké míry současná bankovní regulace podporuje zájem zainteresovaných stran o informace, jejichž zveřejnění regulátoři vyžadují. Zkoumaná data se skládají z logů, které byly předem zpracovány pomocí technik web miningu a z nichž byly extrahovány soubory častých položek podle čtvrtletí a vyhodnoceny z hlediska kvantity. Autoři navrhli metodiku vyhodnocování sad častých položek webových částí za vyhrazený čas. Na základě ověření aplikované metodiky na dvou komerčních bankách výsledky ukazují, že zájem zainteresovaných stran o zveřejňované informace je v každém roce nejvyšší v prvním čtvrtletí a po turbulentním období v roce 2009 jejich zájem poklesl. Výsledky dále naznačují, že zainteresované strany projevily vyšší zájem než o regulatorně požadované informace 3. pilíře o následující skupinu informací: Informace související s pilířem 3, Výroční zprávy, Informace o skupině. V návaznosti na naše výsledky přispívá tento článek k pokrytí mezery ve výzkumu analýzou informací zveřejňovaných v rámci Pilíře 3 a jejich souladu s regulatorními požadavky, což také zvyšuje zájem příslušných zainteresovaných stran o jejich vedení jako účinného nástroje tržní disciplíny.

The objective of the paper is to diagnose organisational culture of selected universities and analyse its impact on the innovation processes within them. The subject matter of the study was organisational culture and innovation at universities. The subjects were four selected universities in Poland, Austria, Germany, and Ukraine. The paper provided a definition of organisational culture and its typology. It further discussed the organisational culture of universities and the relationships between organisational culture and innovativeness. The literature review provided foundations for building a model for the formation of a type of organisational culture at universities that is innovation-friendly, which is the added value of the paper. It offers actions worth taking to shape innovation-friendly culture at universities. It is particularly important during difficult time of changing labour market, when universities greatly impact the attitudes of young people. The knowledge of how to shape innovation-friendly organisational culture at universities is necessary for academia to profile future employees in times of continuous changes. To investigate the relationship between organisational culture and the innovativeness of universities, we designed an original survey questionnaire [S1 File]. Organisational culture was diagnosed with the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument by K.S. Cameron and R.E. Quinn. The analyses were conducted in Dell Statistica v. 13.1 (StatSoft Polska). We normalised data from the Likert rating scale using Kaufman’s and Rousseeuw’s formula. We used Spearman’s correlation coefficient and Kendall’s W to calculate correlations. The research shows that the investigated Polish and Austrian universities are dominated by hierarchy and market cultures. On the other hand, the German and Ukrainian universities host all cultures, but clan and adhocracy dominate there. Moreover, the analyses demonstrated that although the adhocracy culture was the least visible in the investigated organisations, it contributes to university innovativeness the most. The conclusions were used to build a model for promoting innovation-friendly organisational culture at universities. The model contains answers to the research questions. In addition, it offers guidelines for shaping organisational culture to bolster innovation at universities. The research identified relationships between organisational culture and university innovativeness and components that create innovation opportunities at universities as its contribution to management theory. When applied in practice, the guidelines can help form the university’s organisational culture bottom-up.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the global Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process and investigate the steps to support consolidated business planning in worldwide operations and large-scale supply chains. The paper conducts a case study at a multinational manufacturing company applying an abductive approach. It combines the deductive logic from theory and the inductive logic from field observation in an attempt to elaborate further on theory on global S&OP. The analysis is structured and guided by a novel framework for global S&OP, which is developed based on the theoretical background and the case study findings. The research findings characterise the S&OP process for global operations and identify challenges related to the need to synchronise the subsidiaries’ S&OP efforts worldwide to deal with different contingencies of these subsidiaries, and to manage and analyse a large amount of information gathered. The research reveals how the subsidiaries’ performance is analysed by top executives along the global S&OP process, feeding strategic initiatives in the organisation and identifying business opportunities like benchmarking among subsidiaries, synergies with other management practices, and global gains. This paper offers a novel investigation of the global steps on S&OP in a real-life setting, offering a well-documented characterisation of the process that goes beyond the traditional local approach. Moreover, it is the first study to reveal challenges and expected outcomes of such a global perspective for S&OP. The theoretical advancements of S&OP research offered herein aid scholars, opening avenues for middle-range theorising, highlighting the cross-disciplinary nature of the domain, and discussing the use of concepts from related disciplines like Economics, Psychology, and Information Systems. The research findings can also assist executives, especially from multinational manufacturers, in their efforts to consolidate global planning.

Drowning is a global public health problem, but accurately estimating drowning risk remains a challenge. Coastal drowning comprises a significant proportion of the drowning burden in Australia and is influenced by a range of behavioural factors (e.g. risk perception, knowledge, attitudes and behaviours) that are poorly understood. These factors, along with those that impact exposure (e.g. coastal visitation and activity participation) all impact on drowning risk. While excellent mortality and morbidity data exists in Australia, a lack of coastal participation data presents challenges to identifying high-risk groups or activities and prioritising prevention efforts. This methods paper describes the development and evolution of an ongoing, annual, nationally representative online survey as an effective tool used to capture valuable data about the Australian population’s relationship with the coast. This paper explores how the survey is structured (12–14 sections spanning multiple topics and themes), the different question types used (including open text, 4-digit responses and categorical questions), the sample size (1400–1600 respondents), sampling strategy (using demographic quota sampling which can then be post-weighted to the population if required) and how topics and themes have changed over time to enhance the quality of data collected (i.e., wording changes to enhance participant comprehension or data usability and changing issue-specific ‘feature’ topics of interest such as campaign evaluation). How the survey is implemented online is described, both practically through to third-party recruitment processes and ethically to maximise anonymity of respondents and ensure data quality. Interim analyses indicate the impact of considering exposure when calculating fatal drowning rates, especially by activity (e.g., crude boating drowning rate 0.12 per 100,000 population vs 0.95 per 100,000 exposed population [relative risk = 8.01; 95% confidence interval: 4.55–14.10]). This study highlights lessons learned in the process of conducting a nationally representative coastal participation survey as well as the strengths and limitations of adopting this approach. Data collected will provide more detailed information on the skills, behaviours, knowledge and attitudes of coastal activity participants. Analyses of this unique dataset will inform research that will underpin development and evaluation of coastal drowning prevention initiatives prioritising those most at risk. It is hoped that the methods detailed within this study may be useful for other countries to develop similar approaches to understanding their own population.

Eggs contain the essential cholesterol and protein for the human body, which plays an irreplaceable role in human survival, production and life. There are significant differences in the development of laying hens feeding in different regions. It is of great significance to improve egg production and reduce pollution emission for China’s laying hens industry. Based on the SBM model, this paper constructs MML index, considering unexpected output under common frontier, to comprehensively evaluate the green total factor productivity on Chinese laying hens (GTCL). The results show that: (1) GTCL shows a large spatial and temporal differentiation under both the common frontier and the regional frontier. Compared with the eastern region and central region, the western region has obvious advantages in GTCL. (2) GTCL overall shows a downward trend, however, it emerges an upward trend in recent years. (3) Compared with small-scale and large-scale, middle-scale GTCL has advantages. According to the above empirical results, combined with the China’s actual national situation, this paper finally puts forward some policy recommendations to improve GTCL.

Supply chain integration plays an important role in the development of the vegetable industry in terms of vegetable quality, vegetable safety, and vegetable security in rural China. This paper explores how agricultural cooperatives integrate the vegetable supply chain by taking a trinity cooperative as an example in China. It explains the translation concatenation of supply chain integration for this cooperative by constructing actor networks in four development stages, including the seed stage, start-up stage, development stage, and mature stage. The findings show that supply chain integration in production cooperation, supply & sales cooperation, and credit cooperation is a useful trinity cooperative model of supply chain integration for investigating vegetable supply chain integration through internal integration and external integration. This paper suggests that cooperatives in the vegetable supply chain should facilitate close coordination among different shareholders and further improve the efficiency of supply chain integration. The government should provide training opportunities and funding to encourage cooperatives to participate in supply chain integration within the vegetable industry.

Drawing on Jakarta, Metro Manila and Singapore as case studies, we explore the paradox of slow political action in addressing subsiding land, particularly along high-density urban coastlines with empirical insights from coastal geography, geodesy analysis, geology, and urban planning. In framing land subsidence as a classic ‘wicked’ policy problem, and also as a hybrid geological and anthropogenic phenomenon that is unevenly experienced across urban contexts, the paper uses a three-step analysis. First, satellite-derived InSAR maps are integrated with Sentinel-1A data in order to reveal the socio-temporal variability of subsidence rates which in turn pose challenges in uniformly applying regulatory action. Second, a multi-sectoral mapping of diverse policies and practices spanning urban water supply, groundwater extraction, land use zoning, building codes, tenurial security, and land reclamation reveal the extent to which the broader coastal governance landscape remains fragmented and incongruous, particularly in arresting a multi-dimensional phenomenon such as subsidence. Finally, in reference to distinct coastal identities of each city–the ‘Sinking Capital’ (Jakarta), ‘Fortress Singapore’, and the ‘Disaster Capital’ (Manila) the paper illustrates how land subsidence is portrayed across the three metropolises in markedly similar ways: as a reversible, quasi-natural, and/or a highly individualized problem.