Search

This article presents a case study of commercial cannabis in the United States. Drawing on 56 interviews with cannabis stakeholders collected between 2018–2020, I examine how different governmentalities of surveillance became distorted by the contradiction between state and federal cannabis laws. As in other regulated markets, these governmentalities informed state-sponsored surveillance initiatives to stop, contain, or support certain forms of deviance by commercial cannabis businesses. Due to fragmented governance, the efficacy of these initiatives depended in part upon the actions of the regulated cannabis industry. Commercial cannabis businesses looked to how surveillance was configured to develop strategies that could help them overcome challenges stemming from their semi-legality. These strategies included incorporating practices that were not required by law, partnering with the state in surveillance efforts, and engaging in activities to combat the black market. I argue that the embedded relationship between governmentalities, surveillance initiatives, and commercial cannabis activities transformed these strategies into mechanisms through which structure emerged in this nascent market. This paper introduces a set of surveillance categories, proposes new directions for research on social control and markets, and offers a novel study of commercial cannabis that can help to explain the trajectory of this market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective The primary aim of this paper is to accelerate the number of randomized experimental studies of the reliability and validity in-home tele-neuropsychological testing (tele-np-t). Method We conducted a critical review of the tele-neuropsychology literature. We discuss this research in the context of the United States' public and private healthcare payer systems, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) coding system's telehealth lists, and existing disparities in healthcare access. Results The number of tele-np publications has been stagnant since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are less published experimental studies of tele-neuropsychology (tele-np), and particularly in-home tele-np-t, than other tele-np publications. There is strong foundational evidence of the acceptability, feasibility, and reliability of tele-np-t, but relatively few studies of the reliability and validity of in-home tele-np-t using randomization methodology. Conclusions More studies of the reliability and validity of in-home tele-np-t using randomization methodology are necessary to support inclusion of tele-np-t codes on the CMS and CPT telehealth lists, and subsequently, the integration and delivery of in-home tele-np-t services across providers and institutions. These actions are needed to maintain equitable reimbursement of in-home tele-np-t services and address the widespread disparities in healthcare access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: For many years, United States' dietary policy recommended limiting egg intake to no more than 3/wk in the belief that restricting dietary cholesterol would lower plasma cholesterol levels and thereby reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease. The evidence supporting these recommendations is controversial. Objectives: To examine the impact of eggs, a major contributor to dietary cholesterol intake, on lipid levels and to determine whether these egg effects are modified by other healthy dietary factors in adults. Methods: Males and females aged 30-64 y with available 3-d diet record data, without cardiovascular disease and not taking lipid- or glucose-lowering medications in the prospective Framingham Offspring cohort were included (n = 1852). Analysis of covariance models were used to compare mean follow-up lipid levels adjusting for age, sex, BMI, and dietary factors. Cox proportional hazard's models were used to estimate risk for elevated lipid levels. Results: Consuming -5 eggs/wk was not adversely associated with lipid outcomes. Among men, consuming -5 (compared with <0.5) eggs/wk was associated with an 8.6 mg/dL lower total cholesterol level and a 5.9 mg/dL lower LDL cholesterol level, as well as lower triglycerides. Overall, higher egg intake combined with higher dietary fiber (compared with lower intakes of both) was associated with the lowest total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol-to-HDL cholesterol ratio. Finally, diets with higher (compared with lower) egg intakes in combination with higher total fish or fiber intakes, respectively, were associated with lower risks of developing elevated (>160 mg/dL) LDL cholesterol levels (hazard ratio: 0.61; 95% confidence interval: 0.44, 0.84; and HR: 0.70; 95% confidence interval: 0.49, 0.98, respectively). Conclusions: Higher egg intakes were beneficially associated with serum lipids among healthy adults, particularly those who consumed more fish and dietary fiber. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do states' positions across multiple and interconnected economic networks affect their power? The Weaponized Interdependence (WI) scholarship emphasizes that states centrally located in global economic networks have access to new sources of coercion. In this paper, we look at how their positions across multiple networks interact with each other to create new opportunities and vulnerabilities. We use network analysis to map the semiconductor supply chain and show that it can be viewed as four interrelated networks: (1) design, (2) raw material, (3) manufacturing equipment, and (4) assembled chips. We then highlight how states' centrality varies across these networks and how it shapes their respective opportunities for coercion. Looking specifically at the United States, we emphasize how its centrality in the design network enables it to weaponize chokepoints in the trade network of assembled chips. In so doing the paper makes three contributions. First, it highlights how interactions among multiple economic networks provide new opportunities for states to weaponize interdependence. Second, it contributes to recent attempts using network analysis to analyze structural power on the global stage. Last, it demonstrates how network methodology can help detect potential (ab)uses of WI and how the potential for weaponization evolves over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Aging populations and an increasing number of immigrants in recent years have led to numerous changes in intergenerational relationships. Although many studies have investigated the impact of providing care to a parent with dementia, little is known about the impact of caregiving activities provided from a distance, such as in the case of immigration, and over a long period of time to a person with dementia. Our understanding of how transnational caregiving for a person with dementia affects relationships is also limited. Using the Intergenerational Solidarity Theory as a theoretical framework, this paper examines the experiences of adult children and immigrant caregivers of a parent with dementia living in Poland. Methods A qualitative, semistructured interview was conducted with 37 caregivers living in the United States while providing transnational care to a parent with Alzheimer's disease or other forms of dementia. The data analysis was based on the thematic analysis strategy. Results Four themes were identified: (1) filial obligations and solidarity, (2) caregivers' contradictory emotions regarding transnational care, (3) financial and emotional exhaustion, and (4) challenges of nursing home dilemmas. Discussion Transnational caregivers represent a unique group who face distinctive challenges related to competing demands and limited resources. This study contributes to a better understanding of their experiences whereas the findings highlight the importance of addressing the mental and physical well-being of immigrant caregivers of individuals with dementia and have important implications for health care professionals and immigration policies. Implications for future research were also identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the real effects of foreign real estate capital inflows. Using transaction-level data, we document (i) a "China shock" in the U.S. housing market characterized by surging foreign Chinese housing purchases after 2008, and (ii) "home bias" in these purchases, as they concentrate in neighborhoods historically populated by ethnic Chinese. Exploiting their temporal and spatial variation, we find that these capital inflows raise local employment, with the effect transmitted through a housing net worth channel. However, they displace local lower-income residents. Our results show that real estate capital inflows can both stimulate the real economy and induce gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between the reservation system's creation in 1851 and its partial dismantling in the Dawes Allotment Act of 1887, the Office (now Bureau) of Indian Affairs tasked Indian agents with administering a complicated mixture of goods and services known as "annuities," which were designed to make reservations viable and survivable for Native people. This article demonstrates that Indian agents instead systematically swindled Native people of their promised payments, intensifying crippling poverty at a crucial moment in Native history and deepening a climate of distrust and acrimony across much of the American West. Rather than strengthening Native communities, federal expenditures enriched the settler communities that surrounded them, becoming in effect a backdoor subsidy for westward expansion and a key source of economic power in frontier communities. Meanwhile, the supposed failure of reservations to become economically viable in these early decades provided justification for reformers who sought to impose more coercive forms of control and assimilation on Native people, such as boarding schools and land allotment. By focusing on the financial workings of the underexamined early reservation period, this article demonstrates how corruption in the Office of Indian Affairs shaped both Native American and western history in profound and irreversible ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and Canada began major efforts to acquire territory in North America's interior in the nineteenth century. In 1803, the United States purchased approximately 827,192 square miles of territory from France. Canada began to govern 1,409,900 square miles of territory known as Rupert's Land in 1869. Historical accounts of American and Canadian officials' efforts in Washington and Ottawa to obtain these vast territories are abundant. Historians have devoted less attention, however, to expansionists who supported American expansion in Louisiana and Canadian expansion in Rupert's Land. Daniel Clark, U.S. Consul to New Orleans, used his office to promote American acquisition of Spanish Louisiana. Canadian John Christian Schultz, an influential "doctor" and businessperson at Red River, became the owner of the only newspaper in the settlement and used it to advocate for Canadian possession of Rupert's Land. Clark arrived in Louisiana from Ireland in 1786 and Schultz from Upper Canada between 1859 and 1861. Clark and Schultz were opportunists who understood that American and Canadian territorial ambitions presented them with opportunities to advance their business and political careers. Far less important to both men were the futures of other residents of New Orleans and Red River. Clark and Schultz for example, both argued that representative local government should not be immediately introduced in their regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2021, Deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) persons made up ~3.4% of the United States population however, there was no sub-categorical data about race. This dearth of data makes it challenging to quantify the health disparities amongst Black DHH individuals. This paper aims to identify trends and disparities to improve health outcomes for DHH and Black patients seeking dermatologic care. Black patients utilize less preventative service, have lower post-trauma survival, and a 3-fold higher risk of maternal mortality than White patients. DHH patients experience delayed cancer treatment, more emergency department visits, and higher intimate partner violence than hearing patients. Black DHH patients have a higher likelihood of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and lung disease than Black-hearing patients. Black patients have lower survival rates with certain cutaneous neoplasms and poorer disease control than White counterparts. The literature lacks dermatologic care outcomes for Black DHH patients. Shared themes impacting Black and DHH patients' care include audism and racism, medical mistrust, and poor communication with clinicians. Unfortunately, the dermatological experiences of Black DHH patients are poorly documented. To minimize disparities for this population, clinicians must acknowledge them and partner with the community to investigate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Frailty represents an integrative prognostic marker of risk that associates with a myriad of age-related adverse outcomes in older adults. As a concept, frailty can help to target scarce resources and identify subgroups of vulnerable older adults that may benefit from interventions or changes in medical management, such as pursing less aggressive glycaemic targets for frail older adults with diabetes. In practice, however, there are several operational challenges to implementing frailty screening outside the confines of geriatric medicine. Electronic frailty indices (eFIs) based on the theory of deficit accumulation, derived from routine data housed in the electronic health record, have emerged as a rapid, feasible and valid approach to screen for frailty at scale. The goal of this paper is to describe the early experience of three diverse groups in developing, implementing and adopting eFIs (The English National Health Service, US Department of Veterans Affairs and Atrium Health—Wake Forest Baptist). These groups span different countries and organisational complexity, using eFIs for both research and clinical care, and represent different levels of progress with clinical implementation. Using an implementation science framework, we describe common elements of successful implementation in these settings and set an agenda for future research and expansion of eFI-informed initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Novel creatinine-based equations have recently been proposed but their predictive performance for cardiovascular outcomes in participants at high cardiovascular risk in comparison to the established CKD-EPI 2009 equation is unknown. Method In 9361 participants from the United States included in the randomized controlled SPRINT trial, we calculated baseline estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using the CKD-EPI 2009, CKD-EPI 2021, and EKFC equations and compared their predictive value of cardiovascular events. The statistical metric used is the net reclassification improvement (NRI) presented separately for those with and those without events. Results During a mean follow-up of 3.1 ± 0.9 years, the primary endpoint occurred in 559 participants (6.0%). When using the CKD-EPI 2009, the CKD-EPI 2021, and the EKFC equations, the prevalence of CKD (eGFR <60 ml/min/1.73 m2 or >60 ml/min/1.73 m2 with an ACR ≥30 mg/g) was 37% vs. 35.3% (P  = 0.02) vs. 46.4% (P  < 0.001), respectively. The corresponding mean eGFR was 72.5 ± 20.1 ml/min/1.73 m2 vs. 73.2 ± 19.4 ml/min/1.73 m2 (P  < 0.001) vs. 64.6 ± 17.4 ml/min/1.73 m2 (P  < 0.001). Neither reclassification according to the CKD-EPI 2021 equation [CKD-EPI 2021 vs. CKD-EPI 2009: NRIevents: −9.5% (95% confidence interval (CI) −13.0% to −5.9%); NRInonevents: 4.8% (95% CI 3.9% to 5.7%)], nor reclassification according to the EKFC equation allowed better prediction of cardiovascular events compared to the CKD-EPI 2009 equation (EKFC vs. CKD-EPI 2009: NRIevents: 31.2% (95% CI 27.5% to 35.0%); NRInonevents: −31.1% (95% CI −32.1% to −30.1%)). Conclusion Substituting the CKD-EPI 2009 with the CKD-EPI 2021 or the EKFC equation for calculation of eGFR in participants with high cardiovascular risk without diabetes changed the prevalence of CKD but was not associated with improved risk prediction of cardiovascular events for both those with and without the event. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Objectives Evidence-based practices to manage distress behaviors in dementia (DBD) are not consistently implemented despite demonstrated effectiveness. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) trained teams to implement Staff Training in Assisted Living Residences (STAR)-VA, an intervention to manage DBD in VA nursing home settings, or Community Living Centers (CLCs). This paper summarizes multiyear formative evaluation results including challenges, adaptations, and lessons learned to support sustained integration into usual care across CLCs nationwide. Research Design and Methods STAR was selected as an evidence-based practice for DBD, adapted for and piloted in VA (STAR-VA), and implemented through a train-the-trainer program from 2013 to 2018. Training and consultation were provided to 92 CLC teams. Evaluation before and after training and consultation included descriptive statistics of measures of clinical impact and survey feedback from site teams regarding self-confidence, engagement, resource quality, and content analysis of implementation facilitators and challenges. Results STAR-VA training and consultation increased staff confidence and resulted in significant decreases in DBD, depression, anxiety, and agitation for Veterans engaged in the intervention. Implementation outcomes demonstrated feasibility and identified facilitators and barriers. Key findings were interpreted using implementation frameworks and informed subsequent modifications to sustain implementation. Discussion and Implications STAR-VA successfully prepared teams to manage DBD and resulted in improved outcomes. Lessons learned include importance of behavioral health–nursing partnerships, continuous engagement, iterative feedback and adaptations, and sustainment planning. Evaluation of sustainment factors has informed selection of implementation strategies to address sustainment barriers. Lessons learned have implications for integrating team-based practices into system-level practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Repeated claims that a dwindling supply of potential caregivers is creating a crisis in care for the U.S. aging population have not been well-grounded in empirical research. Concerns about the supply of family care do not adequately recognize factors that may modify the availability and willingness of family and friends to provide care to older persons in need of assistance or the increasing heterogeneity of the older population. In this paper, we set forth a framework that places family caregiving in the context of older adults' care needs, the alternatives available to them, and the outcomes of that care. We focus on care networks, rather than individuals, and discuss the demographic and social changes that may alter the formation of care networks in the future. Last, we identify research areas to prioritize in order to better support planning efforts to care for the aging U.S. population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New entrants and incumbent firms rely on new knowledge to innovate and compete in the market. One way to acquire new knowledge is through the recruitment of new employees from competitors, a phenomenon popularly known as "poaching." Digital labor platforms are widely used by firms for this aim. We argue that job titles represent the first and most visible public source of information about knowledge workers and thus play a key role in navigating the vast spectrum of competencies available in digital platforms. Our analyses of the career trajectories of 11,644 knowledge workers in the United States between 2004 and 2014 suggest that increases in the ambiguity of a job title claimed by an employee are negatively associated with the likelihood of the employee being hired by a new employer. This finding appears stronger in the case of transitions to incumbent firms rather than new entrants. In the concluding section of the paper, we take stock of the various analyses presented and reflect on the potential role of job titles in the strategic management of human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background How cannabis products are being used by cancer patients and survivors in the United States is poorly understood. This study reviewed observational data to understand the modes, patterns, reasons, discontinuation, and adverse experiences of cannabis use. Methods PubMed and PsycINFO database searches were conducted between May 2022 and November 2022. Of the 1162 studies identified, 27 studies met the inclusion criteria. The intercoder agreement was strong (0.81). Results The majority (74%) of the studies were cross-sectional in design. Study samples were approximately equal proportions of men and women and majority White participants. The prevalence of cannabis use based on national samples ranged between 4.8% and 22%. The most common modes of cannabis intake were topical application (80%), smoking (73%), vaping (12%), and ingestion of edible products (10%). Younger age, male gender, being a current or former smoker, and higher socioeconomic status were associated with greater likelihood of cannabis use. The main motive for cannabis use was management of symptoms due to cancer or cancer treatment such as pain, nausea, lack of sleep, and anxiety. A majority of the participants across studies reported that cannabis helped reduce these symptoms. Lack of symptom improvement, side effects such as fatigue and paranoia, cost, and social stigma were identified as some of the reasons for discontinuing cannabis use. Conclusions It appears that cannabis may help cancer patients and survivors manage symptoms. However, more longitudinal studies are needed to determine whether positive experiences of cannabis use outweigh adverse experiences over time in this vulnerable population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context Chemicals used in plastics have been described to contribute to disease and disability, but attributable fractions have not been quantified to assess specific contributions. Without this information, interventions proposed as part of the Global Plastics Treaty cannot be evaluated for potential benefits. Objective To accurately inform the tradeoffs involved in the ongoing reliance on plastic production as a source of economic productivity in the United States, we calculated the attributable disease burden and cost due to chemicals used in plastic materials in 2018. Methods We first analyzed the existing literature to identify plastic-related fractions (PRF) of disease and disability for specific polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDE), phthalates, bisphenols, and polyfluoroalkyl substances and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). We then updated previously published disease burden and cost estimates for these chemicals in the United States to 2018. By uniting these data, we computed estimates of attributable disease burden and costs due to plastics in the United States. Results We identified PRFs of 97.5% for bisphenol A (96.25-98.75% for sensitivity analysis), 98% (96%-99%) for di-2-ethylhexylphthalate, 100% (71%-100%) for butyl phthalates and benzyl phthalates, 98% (97%-99%) for PBDE-47, and 93% (16%-96%) for PFAS. In total, we estimate $249 billion (sensitivity analysis: $226 billion-$289 billion) in plastic-attributable disease burden in 2018. The majority of these costs arose as a result of PBDE exposure, though $66.7 billion ($64.7 billion-67.3 billion) was due to phthalate exposure and $22.4 billion was due to PFAS exposure (sensitivity analysis: $3.85-$60.1 billion). Conclusion Plastics contribute substantially to disease and associated social costs in the United States, accounting for 1.22% of the gross domestic product. The costs of plastic pollution will continue to accumulate as long as exposures continue at current levels. Actions through the Global Plastics Treaty and other policy initiatives will reduce these costs in proportion to the actual reductions in chemical exposures achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This study examined the trends and patterns of opioid and non-opioid pharmacotherapy use among a large national sample of privately insured pediatric patients with cancer in the United States. Materials and Methods We identified pediatric (aged < 21) patients diagnosed with central nervous system (CNS), lymphoma, gonadal, leukemia, or bone cancer from MarketScan data 2005-2019. We examined the proportion of patients who filled a prescription for the following 5 types of pharmacotherapy: opioid, anticonvulsant, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), antidepressant, and muscle relaxant during active cancer treatment. We assessed the trends and patterns in pharmacotherapy using multivariable logistic regressions. Results Among 4174 patients included, 2979 (71%) had an opioid prescription; 746 (18%), 384 (9%), 202 (5%), and 169 (4%) had anticonvulsant, NSAID, antidepressant and muscle relaxant prescriptions, respectively. Multivariable logistic regression showed a nonlinear trend in the use of opioids among pediatric patients with cancer over time such that use slightly increased until 2012 (OR of 1.40 [95% CI, 1.12-1.73] for 2012 vs. 2006) but then decreased thereafter (OR of 0.51 [0.37-0.68] for 2018 vs. 2012). The use of anticonvulsants, NSAIDs, and muscle relaxants increased significantly linearly over time (all P  < .005). Conclusion There has been a downward trend in the use of opioids in recent years among pediatric patients with cancer and an upward trend in the use of non-opioid pharmacotherapy for pain management potentially as an alternative to opioids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) are an urgent public health threat in the United States. Objective Describe the clinical and molecular epidemiology of CRE in a multicenter pediatric cohort. Methods CRACKLE-1 and CRACKLE-2 are prospective cohort studies with consecutive enrollment of hospitalized patients with CRE infection or colonization between 24 December 2011 and 31 August 2017. Patients younger than age 18 years and enrolled in the CRACKLE studies were included in this analysis. Clinical data were obtained from the electronic health record. Carbapenemase genes were detected using polymerase chain reaction and whole-genome sequencing. Results Fifty-one children were identified at 18 healthcare system study sites representing all U.S. census regions. The median age was 8 months, with 67% younger than age 2 years. Median number of days from admission to culture collection was 11. Seventy-three percent of patients had required intensive care and 41% had a history of mechanical ventilation. More than half of children had no documented comorbidities (Q1, Q3 0, 2). Sixty-seven percent previously received antibiotics during their hospitalization. The most common species isolated were Enterobacter species (41%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (27%), and Escherichia coli (20%). Carbapenemase genes were detected in 29% of isolates tested, which was lower than previously described in adults from this cohort (61%). Thirty-four patients were empirically treated on the date of culture collection, but only 6 received an antibiotic to which the CRE isolate was confirmed susceptible in vitro. Thirty-day mortality was 13.7%. Conclusions CRE infection or colonization in U.S. children was geographically widespread, predominantly affected children younger than age 2 years, associated with significant mortality, and less commonly caused by carbapenemase-producing strains than in adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We described the oral nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (NMV/r) and molnupiravir (MOV) uptake among a subgroup of highly vaccinated adults in a US national prospective cohort who were infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) between 12/2021 and 10/2022. Methods We estimate antiviral uptake within 5 days of SARS-CoV-2 infection, as well as age- and gender-adjusted antiviral uptake prevalence ratios by antiviral eligibility (based on age and comorbidities), sociodemographic characteristics, and clinical characteristics including vaccination status and history of long coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID). Results NMV/r uptake was 13.6% (95% CI, 11.9%–15.2%) among 1594 participants, and MOV uptake was 1.4% (95% CI, 0.8%–2.1%) among 1398 participants. NMV/r uptake increased over time (1.9%; 95% CI, 1.0%–2.9%; between 12/2021 and 3/2022; 16.5%; 95% CI, 13.0%–20.0%; between 4/2022 and 7/2022; and 25.3%; 95% CI, 21.6%–29.0%; between 8/2022 and 10/2022). Participants age ≥65 and those who had comorbidities for severe COVID-19 had higher NMV/r uptake. There was lower NMV/r uptake among non-Hispanic Black participants (7.2%; 95% CI, 2.4%–12.0%; relative to other racial/ethnic groups) and among individuals in the lowest income groups (10.6%; 95% CI, 7.3%–13.8%; relative to higher income groups). Among a subset of 278 participants with SARS-CoV-2 infection after 12/2021 who also had a history of prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, those with (vs without) a history of long COVID reported greater NMV/r uptake (22.0% vs 7.9%; P =.001). Among those prescribed NMV/r (n = 216), 137 (63%; 95% CI, 57%–70%) reported that NMV/r was helpful for reducing COVID-19 symptoms. Conclusions Despite proven effectiveness against severe outcomes, COVID-19 antiviral uptake remains low among those with SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United States. Further outreach to providers and patients to improve awareness of COVID-19 oral antivirals and indications is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As pressure increases to support social justice, coalitions try to understand their role in oppression while implementing practices to create equitable environments. Twenty-six education-focused community coalitions in the United States participated in the study. Coalition interviews and membership rosters are used to evaluate the degree to which these coalitions engage in community engagement practices conducive to empowerment. Involvement practices emphasize communication strategies and participatory design structures. Systems change practices emphasize agenda-setting processes and a level of awareness of structural sources that create social marginalization. This work investigates how these two practices create empowerment. This study uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to examine the impact of community poverty, coalition age, government representation, coalition size, school district size, and coalition governance on involvement and systems change practices. The results demonstrate combinations of these conditions in four mutually exclusive solutions for involvement practices and two mutually exclusive solutions for systems change practices. The paper ends by identifying cases that coincide with these solutions and how communities thoughtfully configure their collaborations to coincide with empowerment theory. Additionally, we identify potential trade-offs between involvement and systems change practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the price of home heating affects mortality in the United States. Exposure to cold is one reason that mortality peaks in winter, and a higher heating price increases exposure to cold by reducing heating use. Our empirical approach combines spatial variation in the energy source used for home heating and temporal variation in the national prices of natural gas and electricity. We find that a lower heating price reduces winter mortality, driven mostly by cardiovascular and respiratory causes. Our estimates imply that the 42% drop in the natural gas price in the late 2000s, mostly driven by the shale gas boom, averted 12,500 deaths per year in the United States. The effect appears to be especially large in high-poverty communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a measure of gender inequality, the gender wage gap has come to play an important role both in academic research and the public debate. In 2016, the majority of full-time employed women in the United States earned significantly less than comparable men. The extent to which women were affected by gender inequality in earnings, however, depended greatly on socio-economic characteristics, such as marital status or educational attainment. In this paper, we analyse data from the 2016 American Community Survey using a high-dimensional wage regression and applying double lasso to quantify heterogeneity in the gender wage gap. We find that the wage gap varied substantially across women and that the magnitude of the gap varied primarily by marital status, having children at home, race, occupation, industry, and educational attainment. These insights are helpful in designing policies that can reduce discrimination and unequal pay more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the link between electrification and the rise in female labour force participation (LFP), and presents theoretical and empirical evidence showing that electrification triggered a rise in female LFP by increasing market opportunities for skilled women. I formalize my theory in an overlapping generations model and find that my mechanism explains one quarter of the rise in female LFP during the rollout of electricity in the U.S. (1880–1940), and matches the slow decline in female home production hours during this period. I then present micro-evidence supporting my theory using newly digitized data on the early electrification of the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Nutrition incentive (NI) programs help low-income households better afford fruits and vegetables (FVs) by providing incentives to spend on FVs (e.g., spend $10 to receive an additional $10 for FVs). NI programs are heterogeneous in programmatic implementation and operate in food retail outlets, including brick-and-mortar and farm-direct sites. Objective: This study aimed to explore NI program implementation factors and the amount of incentives redeemed. Methods: A total of 28 NI projects across the United States including 487 brick-and-mortar and 1078 farm-direct sites reported data between 2020 and 2021. Descriptive statistics and linear regression analyses (outcome: incentives redeemed) were applied. Results: Traditional brick-and-mortar stores had 0.48 times the incentives redeemed compared with small brick-and-mortar stores. At brick-and-mortar sites, automatic discounts had 3.47 times the incentives redeemed compared with physical discounts; and auxiliary services and marketing led to greater redemption. Farm-direct sites using multilingual and direct promotional marketing had greater incentives redeemed. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first national study to focus on NI program implementation across sites nationwide. Factors identified can help inform future programming and research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Music therapists may have strategic advantages for collaborative and interdisciplinary research. As such, there is a need to analyze authorship teams as well as funding in the premiere United States-based music therapy research journal. The purpose of this descriptive study was to analyze independent, collaborative, interdisciplinary, and funded research in the Journal of Music Therapy (JMT) from 1998 to 2021. We built a database of JMT articles from 1998 to 2021 and (1) counted the number of authors contributing to articles, (2) categorized articles as independent, collaborative, or interdisciplinary, and (3) counted the number of articles that received funding. From 1998 to 2021, there were 423 total articles that met our inclusion criteria published in JMT. Although two or more authors contributed to most papers, a high percentage of articles were published by single authors (n = 185, 43.74%). More articles were interdisciplinary (n = 162, 38.30%) than collaborative (n = 90, 21.28%). There was a trend for fewer independent articles in more recent years. Although most articles were not funded (n = 312, 73.76%), interdisciplinary articles were most likely to be funded (n = 72, 64.86% of funded articles) while independent articles were least likely to be funded (n = 17, 15.32% of funded articles). General trends indicate higher frequencies of funded papers in more recent years. Research articles published in JMT have become increasingly team-based, interdisciplinary, and funded. Implications regarding the future of music therapy research, Music Therapy Research 2025, limitations of the study, and suggestions for future research are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper links Native American racial self-identification with the rise in tribal gaming across the United States. We find that state policy changes allowing tribes to open casinos are associated with an increase in the probability that individuals with American Indian ancestors will self-identify as Native American and a decrease in the probability that individuals with no American Indian ancestry will self-identify as Native American. Moreover, we find that the magnitudes of the impacts are increasing in the strength of American Indian ancestral ties. Similar results hold when causal identification comes from American Indian casino openings across states over time and suggestive evidence shows stronger impacts if casinos are likely to pay per capita dividend payments to their members. These results are consistent with a conceptual framework in which we tie racial identification to economic motivations as well as social stigma associated with affiliating with a racial group for those without documented ancestral ties. Our results underscore the importance of economic incentives and social factors underlying the individual choice of racial identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This paper examines the family ties of older adults in the United States and how they are associated with mental health and social activity. We compare older adults with 4 types of family ties: adults "close" to family in proximity and social network, "kinless" older adults without a partner or children, "distanced" adults who live far from close kin, and "disconnected" older adults who do not report kin in their social network or do not report a location for some kin. Methods Using pooled data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study 2015–2019 for older adults aged 70 and older (N = 24,818 person-waves), we examine how family ties are associated with mental health and social activity, and whether lacking family is tied to poor well-being because older adults' needs are not being met. Results Kinless older adults and disconnected older adults have poorer outcomes (lower mental health scores and less social activity), compared to those close to their family. These findings suggest that both the presence and quality of the connection, as measured here via both location and social network, are critical for understanding which older adults are "at risk." Older adults who were not geographically proximate to their close kin (i.e. distanced) were not disadvantaged relative to those close to their families. Unmet needs do not help explain these patterns. Discussion Our results highlight that family ties are important for older adults well-being, not just through their existence but also their quality and strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2021 American Rescue Plan included the temporary expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC)--the largest individual income tax credit program in the United States--for most families with children. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, how did the public perceive this social policy benefit for families, especially in relation to other traditional social programs? By focusing on the CTC, an understudied policy area, and presenting original survey data, this paper first shows that, while the majority of respondents favored the CTC, levels of support for these benefits were lower than support for other social programs. Second, the paper suggests that, compared to older people and people with disabilities, Americans view families as part of the "undeserving" population. Third, by presenting panel data, we show that there is no change in levels of CTC support even among recipients of these benefits. Overall, these findings shed light on important challenges to the development and implementation of family policy in the USA, as well as the possibility of recalibrating the US liberal welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the racial and ethnic politics associated with mask wearing early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Using panel and cross-sectional data from the National Panel Study of COVID-19 (n = 1,996) fielded in March and April 2020, we asked Americans about their self-reported race/ethnicity, their political party affiliation, and if they have worn a mask or scarf in public to stop the spread of the coronavirus. We also asked respondents who reported wearing a mask in public if they worry they might be mistaken for a criminal. Our logistic regression models found that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to wear a mask or scarf over their faces to prevent the spread of COVID-19 despite being more likely to worry about being criminalized by police or security while wearing a mask. We argue that proximal contact with the virus, because racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be affected by COVID-19, leads to increased willingness by people in these groups to protect themselves and others. Democrats were also more likely to wear masks compared with Republican respondents. and those living in Republican-led states were less likely to wear a mask in public and more likely to be criminalized for wearing a mask. Was mask use during the early COVID-19 pandemic political? In our paper, we use panel and cross-sectional data from the National Panel Study of COVID-19 fielded in March and April 2020 when we asked Americans whether they had worn masks. We also asked those who wore a mask if they felt criminalized while wearing a mask. Our findings show that there are stark differences in mask use between demographic groups and worrying about being criminalized while wearing one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives This study examined the association between hospital participation in Bundled Payments for Care Improvement (BPCI) or Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) and the timely initiation of home health rehabilitation services for lower extremity joint replacements. Furthermore, this study examined the association between the timely initiation of home health rehabilitation services with improvement in self-care, mobility, and 90-day hospital readmission. Method This retrospective cohort study used Medicare inpatient claims and home health assessment data from 2016 to 2017 for older adults discharged to home with home health following hospitalization after joint replacement. Multilevel multivariate logistic regression was used to examine the association between hospital participation in BPCI or CJR programs and timely initiation of home health rehabilitation service. A 2-staged generalized boosted model was used to examine the association between delay in home health initiation and improvement in self-care, mobility, and 90-day risk-adjusted hospital readmission. Results Compared with patients discharged from hospitals that did not have BPCI or CJR, patients discharged from hospitals with these programs had a lower likelihood of delayed initiation of home health rehabilitation services for both knees and hip replacement. Using propensity scores as the inverse probability of treatment weights, delay in the initiation of home health rehabilitation services was associated with lower improvement in self-care (odds ratio [OR] = 1.23; 95% CI = 1.20–1.26), mobility (OR = 1.15; 95% CI = 1.13–1.18), and higher rate of 90-day hospital readmission (OR = 1.19; 95% CI = 1.15–1.24) for knee replacement. Likewise, delayed initiation of home health rehabilitation services was associated with lower improvement in self-care (OR = 1.16; 95% CI = 1.13–1.20) and mobility (OR = 1.26; 95% CI = 1.22–1.30) for hip replacement. Conclusion Hospital participation in BPCI or comprehensive CJR was associated with early home health rehabilitation care initiation, which was further associated with significant increases in functional recovery and lower risks of hospital readmission. Impact Policy makers may consider incentivizing health care providers to initiate early home health services and care coordination in value-based payment models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opposition to LGBT rights remains a contemporary fixture within the United States in spite of increasingly liberalizing attitudes toward LGBT individuals. In this paper, I argue that a potentially overlooked factor driving this opposition is rural identity—or an individual's psychological attachment to a rural area. Using data from the 2020 ANES, I find that rural identity predicts less favorable estimations of LGBT individuals. Rural identifiers are also less likely to support pro-LGBT policy measures than nonrural identifiers. Nevertheless, I find the magnitude of the effects of rural identity on anti-LGBT views to be surprisingly small. It is also the case that, on average, rural identifiers exhibit net-positive estimations of LGBT individuals and are broadly supportive of LGBT rights, suggesting that elected officials enacting anti-LGBT legislation in rural areas of the United States are potentially out of step with the preferences of their electorate. These findings also have implications for what it means to hold a rural identity beyond a generalized animosity toward urban areas, and for understanding urban-rural divergences in US public opinion on issues such as LGBT rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we analyze trends in Americans' immigration attitudes and policy preferences nationally and across partisan and racial/ethnic groups. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Democrats and Republicans shared similarly negative attitudes toward immigrants and high levels of support for restrictionist immigration policies. Beginning in the 2010s and continuing through the early 2020s, however, Democrats' aggregate immigration opinions liberalized considerably. We observed increasingly liberal immigration preferences among Democrats of all racial and ethnic backgrounds after 2016, but this trend was especially pronounced among white Democrats. Among Republicans, opinion on immigration remained mostly stable over this period, although in some cases it became more conservative (e.g. border security) and more liberal on others (e.g. amnesty). The marked liberalization in immigration opinion among Democrats has left partisans more divided on immigration than at any point since national surveys began consistently measuring immigration opinion in the late twentieth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perverseness of racial and ethnic inequities in the United States continues to implore the investigation of their causes. While there have been improvements in the health of the US population, these improvements have not been equally distributed. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the American Journal of Epidemiology , in this commentary, we aim to highlight the Journal 's contributions to: 1) the definition and use of race and ethnicity in research, and 2) understanding racial and ethnic inequities, both empirically and methodologically, over the past decade. We commend the Journal for its contributions and for spearheading many of the challenges related to measuring and interpreting racial and ethnic data for the past 20 years. We identify 3 additional areas in which the Journal could make further impact to address racial and ethnic inequities: 1) devote a section in every issue of the Journal to scientific papers that make substantive epidemiologic or methodological contributions to racial and ethnic inequities in health; 2) update the Journal 's guidelines for authors to include justifying the use of race and ethnicity; and 3) diversify the field of epidemiology by bringing a new cadre of scholars from minoritized racial and ethnic groups who represent the most affected communities into the research process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change is increasingly impacting marine fisheries worldwide. Concurrently, scientific interest has grown to understand how these systems can cope and adapt, with research shifting from examining vulnerability to assessing risks to focusing on determining and operationalizing resilience. As fisheries-climate-resilience researchers and practitioners navigating a sea of frameworks, toolkits, strategies, policy goals, and management desires, we take stock to ask: what does resilience mean to us? Drawing on our experiences in the northeast United States, we discuss the challenges and ambiguity we encounter in concepts of social-ecological resilience and explore implications for research and implementation. We bring together perspectives to discuss various approaches to resilience, highlighting shared and unique challenges we face. We outline three key considerations as we move forward in resilience research and practice: (1) the need for greater transparency and reflexivity among researchers regarding how they frame and approach resilience; (2) the value of increasing coordination and communication among fisheries groups working on these topics; and (3) the use of co-developed and co-produced resilience research and strategies. We urge for greater centring of communities in these discussions and to explicitly consider how resilience interacts with equity outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We often look to the examples set by other countries when thinking about how to deal with problems at home. But what explains why some countries are more likely to serve as role models than others? Are people influenced mainly by the examples set by countries that are considered to be particularly successful in a given policy area? Or are they influenced to a greater extent by countries that are more familiar to them, or that appear more similar to their own? In this paper, we test these hypotheses using two large (n |$\ > {\rm{\ }}$| 2,000) survey-based experiments conducted in the United States. The first focuses on environmental issues, while the second focuses on human rights issues. In both studies, the respondents were presented with a randomly drawn list of countries and asked to indicate how relevant the examples that these countries set should be to policy discussions in the United States. Our results suggest that the US public's perception of the relevance of other countries' experiences is driven primarily by the extent to which the respondent perceives the other countries as familiar to them, or similar to the United States, rather than by more objective measures of policy success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant amount of researcher and practitioner effort has focused on developing new chemical controls for the parasitic Varroa destructor mite in beekeeping. One outcome of that has been the development and testing of "glycerol–oxalic acid" mixtures to place in colonies for extended periods of time, an off-label use of the otherwise legal miticide oxalic acid. The majority of circulated work on this approach was led by practitioners and published in nonacademic journals, highlighting a lack of effective partnership between practitioners and scientists and a possible failure of the extension mandate in beekeeping in the United States. Here, we summarize the practitioner-led studies we could locate and partner with a commercial beekeeper in the Southeast of the United States to test the "shop towel–oxalic acid–glycerol" delivery system developed by those practitioners. Our study, using 129 commercial colonies between honey flows in 2017 split into 4 treatment groups, showed no effectiveness in reducing Varroa parasitism in colonies exposed to oxalic acid–glycerol shop towels. We highlight the discrepancy between our results and those circulated by practitioners, at least for the Southeast, and the failure of extension to support practitioners engaged in research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The nest-scavenging beetle Aethina tumida remains a persistent problem for beekeepers in parts of the Southeast United States, where warm wet soils allow beetle populations to grow rapidly and overwhelm colonies, especially during the summer dearth. Furthermore, small hive beetle infestation prevents beekeepers from easily provisioning colonies with additional pollen or protein feed (patties), preventing holistic management of honey bee health via improved nutrition, and reducing the economic potential of package and nucleus colony rearing in the Southeast. Here, we demonstrate using both in vitro laboratory trials and a small in vivo field trial that the differential specificity of anthranilic diamide insecticides (specifically, chlorantraniliprole) between bees and beetles allows for the control and prevention of small hive beetle infestation in honey bee colonies even when feeding with large patties. Honey bees show orders of magnitude higher tolerance to chlorantraniliprole compared to small hive beetles, opening new avenues for improving bee health including during spring splits and throughout the summer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This retrospective, real-world study evaluated the prevalence of brain metastases, clinicodemographic characteristics, systemic treatments, and factors associated with overall survival among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) in the US. We also described the genomic characterization of 180 brain metastatic specimens and frequency of clinically actionable genes. Materials and Methods: De-identified electronic health records-derived data of adult patients diagnosed with aNSCLC between 2011 and 2017 were analyzed from a US-nationwide clinicogenomic database. Results: Of 3257 adult patients with aNSCLC included in the study, approximately 31% (n = 1018) had brain metastases. Of these 1018 patients, 71% (n = 726) were diagnosed with brain metastases at initial NSCLC diagnosis; 57% (n = 583) of patients with brain metastases received systemic treatment. Platinum-based chemotherapy combinations were the most common first-line therapy; single-agent chemotherapies, epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitors, and platinum-based chemotherapy combinations were used in second line. Patients with brain metastases had a 1.56 times greater risk of death versus those with no brain metastases. In the brain metastatic specimens (n = 180), a high frequency of genomic alterations in the p53, MAPK, PI3K, mTOR, and cell-cycle associated pathways was observed. Conclusion: The frequency of brain metastases at initial clinical presentation and associated poor prognosis for patients in this cohort underscores the importance of early screening for brain metastasis in NSCLC. Genomic alterations frequently identified in this study emphasize the continued need for genomic research and investigation of targeted therapies in patients with brain metastases. This article evaluates the prevalence of brain metastases, clinicodemographic characteristics, systemic treatments, and factors associated with overall survival among patients with advanced non–small cell lung cancer in the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an updated global guideline on physical activity and sedentary behavior, including recommendations for sub-populations living with chronic conditions or disabilities. We aimed to examine the prevalence of meeting the WHO recommendations among these sub-populations in the USA. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study using data from the 2017 to 2018 cycle of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Results We revealed variations in physical activity levels among individuals with chronic conditions and disability. US adults with diabetes, hypertension or disability had a lower prevalence of recommended physical activity levels than the general population. In addition, certain demographic groups such as being female, older and having lower socioeconomic status were associated with a lower likelihood of meeting the WHO recommendations on physical activity. Conclusions Our findings underscore the importance of promoting physical activity levels among US adults, especially those with older age, low socioeconomic status, hypertension and disability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claims about the deterrent role of forward military deployments often depend on the argument that attacks on troops stationed abroad will activate a "tripwire effect." It is assumed that this effect would generate strong domestic pressure for further military intervention by the country whose troops have come under attack. In theory, the anticipation of a strong tripwire effect prospectively ties the hands of leaders, thereby bolstering the reliability of extended deterrent threats and promises. In this paper, we define the tripwire effect and use both conjoint and vignette survey experiments to evaluate its operation and magnitude among Americans. Results suggest that the tripwire effect is, at best, far weaker than many analysts and policymakers commonly assume. This finding raises serious questions about a core logic underpinning the United States' forward military posture and highlights the need for more research on the deterrent functions of forward deployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pronounced disparities exist in detecting and treating breast cancer in women with disabilities, leading to cancer detection at advanced stages. This paper provides an overview of disparities for women with disabilities related to breast cancer screening and care, primarily focusing on clinically significant mobility disabilities. Current care gaps include screening barriers related to accessibility and inequitable treatment options, with race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic location, and disability severity factors mediating the disparities for this population. The reasons for these disparities are myriad and stem from both system-level deficiencies and individual-level clinician bias. Although structural changes are warranted, individual healthcare professionals must also be incorporated into the requisite change. Intersectionality is critical to disparities and inequities and should be central to any discussion of strategies for improving care for people with disabilities, many of whom have intersectional identities. Efforts to reduce screening rate disparities for breast cancer in women with mobility-related disabilities should start with improving accessibility through removing structural barriers, establishing comprehensive accessibility standards, and addressing healthcare professional bias. Future interventional studies are needed to implement and assess the value of programs to improve breast cancer screening rates in women with disabilities. Increasing the representation of women with disabilities in clinical trials may provide another avenue for reducing treatment disparities because these trials often provide breakthrough treatment to women with cancer diagnosed at later stages. Ultimately, attention to the specific needs of patients with disabilities should be improved across the United States to promote inclusive and effective cancer screening and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commercial beekeepers transporting honey bees across the United States to provide almond pollination services have reported honey bee deaths, possibly due to pesticide applications made during crop bloom. Pesticides are often applied as "tank mixes", or mixtures of fungicides and insecticides combined into a single application. Spray adjuvants are often added to tank mixes to improve the application characteristics of a pesticide and include spreaders, stickers, or surfactants. The goal of this research was to determine toxicity of adjuvants to adult worker honey bees, both when applied alone and in adjuvant-pesticide tank mixtures. Field-relevant combinations of formulated products were applied to 3-day-old adult worker honey bees using a Potter Spray Tower, and mortality was assessed 48 h following exposure. Adjuvants tested included Activator-90, Attach, Choice Weather Master, Cohere, Dyne-Amic, Induce, Kinetic, LI 700, Liberate, Nu-Film P, PHT Latron B-1956, and Surf-90; fungicides tested include Luna Sensation (Fluopyram and Trifloxystrobin), Pristine (Pyraclostrobin and Boscalid), Tilt (Propiconazole), and Vangard (Cyprodinil), and insecticides tested include Altacor (Chlorantraniliprole), Intrepid 2F (Methoxyfenozide), and a positive control Mustang Maxx (Zeta-cypermethrin). Results demonstrated that exposure to some adjuvants causes acute honey bee mortality at near-field application rates, both when applied alone and in combination with pesticides. Some adjuvant-pesticide combinations demonstrated increased toxicity compared with the adjuvant alone, while others demonstrated decreased toxicity. A better understanding of adjuvant and adjuvant-pesticide tank mixture toxicity to honey bees will play a key role in informing "Best Management Practices" for pesticide applicators using spray adjuvants during bloom when honey bee exposure is likely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Asian cockroach, Blattella asahinai Mizukubo, is a peridomestic nuisance pest in the southeastern United States. Blattella asahinai is the closest relative to Blattella germanica (L.), the German cockroach, one of the most prolific and widespread domestic pests. Because these two species live in different habitats, they are expected to have differential development patterns reflecting environmental adaptations. Development of B. asahinai and B. germanica cockroach nymphs were observed at six constant temperatures ranging from 10 to 35 °C. At 10 °C and 15 °C, all nymphs died in the first instar, but B. germanica nymphs survived longer (10 °C: 12.9 d; 15 °C: 42.9 d) than B. asahinai nymphs (10 °C 8.2 d; 15 °C 18.4 d) at both temperatures. At 20 °C, 25 °C, and 30 °C, B. asahinai consistently had more instars and longer stadia than B. germanica. At 35 °C, only B. germanica was able to complete nymphal development; cannibalism among B. asahinai nymphs during molting was often observed at this temperature. The results for B. asahinai corroborated previously estimated growth patterns. The lower nymphal development threshold was 14.1 °C for B. germanica and 13.7 °C for B. asahinai. Comparing the development of B. germanica directly with its closest relative reveals specific physiological adaptations that B. germanica has developed for the indoor biome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant pathogens that are transmitted by insect vectors cause considerable damage to crops when pests or pathogens are not detected early in the season and populations are not controlled. Knowledge of pathogen prevalence in insect pest populations can aid growers in their insect pest management decisions but requires the timely dissemination of results. This process requires that specimen capture, identification, nucleic acid extraction, and molecular detection of a pathogen(s) occur alongside a platform for sharing results. The potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli , Sulc; Hemiptera: Triozidae) and beet leafhopper (Circulifer tenellus , Baker; Hemiptera: Cicadellidae) transmit pathogens to potato and other vegetable or seed crops each season in the northwestern United States. While the potato psyllid has been tested for pathogen occurrence for the past decade, testing of the beet leafhopper is a new endeavor and substantially increases the specimen number that must be tested by our laboratories each season. To aid in the rapid processing of individual insect specimens, we optimized and validated a new high-throughput 96-well plate nucleic acid extraction method for use in place of a standard 1.5-ml single-tube extraction method. Processing efficiency, in terms of total specimens processed over a 2-day period, improved 2.5-fold, and the cost associated with processing a single sample was nearly cut in half with this newly developed plate nucleic acid extraction method. Overall, this method has proven to be an excellent tool for the rapid testing of large numbers of small, individual insect vectors to enable timely dissemination of data on pathogen prevalence to growers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the near universe of U.S. consumer credit cards, we show that banks transmit their wholesale funding shocks to consumers by reducing their credit card limits. Credit-constrained consumers who are unable to hedge against the transmitted shock by accessing other credit cards experience a stronger and more persistent reduction in aggregate credit card limits at the consumer level. Consequently, these credit-constrained consumers reduce their aggregate credit card borrowing. Our results document a credit card lending channel for the transmission of adverse bank shocks and show who bears the costs of fragile bank funding structures. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does creditor health affect the pass-through of monetary policy to households? Using data on the universe of U.S. credit unions, I document that creditor asset losses increase the sensitivity of consumer credit to monetary policy. Identification exploits plausibly exogenous variation in asset losses and high-frequency identification of monetary policy shocks. Weaker lenders can respond more if they face financial frictions that easing alleviates. The estimates imply constraints on monetary policy become more costly in financial crises featuring creditor asset losses and that an additional benefit of monetary easing is that it weakens the causal, contractionary effect of asset losses. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the stock market effects of the arrival of the three rounds of "stimulus checks" to U.S. taxpayers and the single round of direct payments to Hong Kong citizens. The first two rounds of U.S. checks appear to have increased retail buying and share prices of retail-dominated portfolios. The Hong Kong payments increased overall turnover and share prices on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. We cannot rule out that these price effects were permanent. The findings raise novel questions about the role of fiscal stimulus in the stock market. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The micro-randomized trial is a sequential randomized experimental design to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of mobile health intervention components that may be delivered at hundreds or thousands of decision points. Micro-randomized trials have motivated a new class of causal estimands, termed causal excursion effects , for which semiparametric inference can be conducted via a weighted, centred least-squares criterion (Boruvka et al. 2018). Causal excursion effects allow health scientists to answer important scientific questions about how intervention effectiveness may change over time or may be moderated by individual characteristics, time-varying context or past responses. Existing definitions and associated methods assume between-subject independence and noninterference. Deviations from these assumptions often occur. In this paper, causal excursion effects are revisited under potential cluster-level treatment effect heterogeneity and interference, where the treatment effect of interest may depend on cluster-level moderators. Utility of the proposed methods is shown by analysing data from a multi-institution cohort of first-year medical residents in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite inherent resiliency and strengths, Indigenous Peoples in the United States and Canada have been impacted by colonialism, which has led to a loss of land, culture, and identity. Loss of land in particular has had substantial impacts on Indigenous food system practices. Indigenous food sovereignty (IFS) has been determined to be a mechanism for Indigenous communities to build their capacity to address food insecurity. A systematic review methodology was therefore engaged to gather and analyze the currently published literature to date to identify common elements of successful IFS interventions within Indigenous communities in the United States and Canada. We carried out a systematic search of the following electronic databases: Academic Search Premier, Agricola, PubMed, CINAHL Complete, Indigenous Studies Portal, the Native Health Database, SocIndex, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool was used to apply a methodologic quality score to the included articles. We used a 2-stage process for article selection with 2 independent reviewers screening the titles and abstracts of articles identified. Relevant databases were initially searched up to June 2022 with an updated search occurring in January 2023. Content analysis was carried out on the included articles using qualitative analysis software. Twenty articles met the inclusion criteria of the review. Four main categories of successful elements within IFS interventions were identified, including 1) transmission of knowledge and skills within the community through workshops, 2) cultural connectedness through cultivation practices, 3) preparation and consumption of traditional foods through community programs, and 4) community-based partnerships and collaborations. An IFS approach has led to the development of several intervention strategies within Indigenous communities, which have been highlighted in this review. The successful elements identified in this review may serve to support future food sovereignty-related programmatic and intervention development within Indigenous communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first nationwide analysis detailing the scope and scale of labor-intensive forestry contracts performed on National Forest System lands and examines the businesses contracted, location and types of work performed, and distance traveled by businesses between 2001 and 2020. During the study period, 61,698 contracts were awarded to 7,896 businesses, totaling $12.9 billion, to perform labor-intensive forestry work, with most work being contracted for wildfire-related activities. Businesses were typically located in western states and non-minority owned businesses received the majority of contracts. Of minority-owned businesses, Hispanic American–owned businesses received the most contracts. The median distance that businesses traveled to accomplish work increased significantly through time but differed by business type. Understanding the scope and work of businesses awarded contracts provides insight into the workforce and its relationship to marginalized populations. Strategic investment in this workforce may have widespread impacts on federal, state, and local economies and the livelihoods of forest workers. Study Implications: Between 2001–2020, the USDA Forest Service spent billions of dollars on contracts with thousands of businesses to conduct labor-intensive forestry projects; however, project locations and awarded businesses were not evenly distributed through space and time. Emerging and minority businesses represented a small proportion of contracts awarded. Advancing understanding of the businesses conducting labor-intensive forestry work lays the foundation for inquiry into the working conditions forest workers experience as well as disparities in contract capture. Some regions may have benefitted more from contract capture than others. Understanding factors enabling places and businesses to capture these contract dollars may help identify others that may benefit from investment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]