Search

Collaborative governance has become a prominent, if not dominant, framework for thinking about multi-scalar and cross-jurisdictional environmental management. The literature broadly and consistently suggests that collaborative capacity and inter-organizational networks provide the institutional framework for addressing social-ecological system challenges. Surprisingly little scholarship addresses processes of social influence (or contagion) in social-ecological systems writ large, or more specifically as it relates to collaborative capacity. In this study, we consider the relationship between network position and structure and "collaborative capacity". We use a linear network autocorrelation model to establish a quantifiable, statistical relationship between an organizational-level outcome (collaborative capacity) for organizations that are relationally connected in a network addressing conservation and management issues in the U.S. sagebrush biome. We test three general hypotheses: (1) that social position – operationalized as network centrality – is related to collaborative capacity, (2) that subgroup or community structure – operationalized as modularity – is related to collaborative capacity, and (3) that there is a social contagion effect of collaborative capacity. Our results identify a positive relationship between collaborative capacity and organizations in positions of brokerage as well as evidence of a "collaborative capacity" contagion effect. This work contributes to our understanding of the role of bridging organizations and networks for large-scale environmental management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The limit personal jurisdiction has on a court's authority has long relied on a three-element test: (1) the defendant must have certain minimum contacts with the forum state, (2) the lawsuit must arise out of or be connected to the defendant's contacts with the forum state, and (3) the exercise of jurisdiction must not offend "traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice."¹ The Supreme Court of the United States has spoken often about element one--""minimum contacts." Many cases detail the nature and quality of a defendant's conduct that can create the requisite contacts with the forum state to justify requiring the defendant to appear and defend in the forum state. One recurring problem in "minimum contacts" cases is what to do about harmful products (whether allegedly defective or infringing on a patent) that the defendant sold outside the forum state which end up causing harm in the forum state. The Court has indicated, using a "stream of commerce" analogy, the defendant may satisfy the requisite contact with the forum state by delivering the product into the stream with knowledge that the product will be sold in the forum state. The Court, however, has never been able to agree about the precise contours of this doctrine and lower courts vary wildly in how they approach so-called stream of commerce problems. The Supreme Court has also laid out the factors courts should consider for element three and has expressly held personal jurisdiction to be improper when personal jurisdiction would not be fair and reasonable. Until recently, however, the Court has never spoken about element two--the "arising out of or connected to" element. The Court spoke twice on the second element--the first time in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court of California, San Francisco County² (BMS) and more recently in Ford Motor Co. v. Montana Eighth Judicial District Court.³ The Court has now provided significant guidance on this second element. This Article considers what the Court's recent pronouncements on element two might tell us about stream of commerce cases and whether such cases satisfy element one (contacts) and/or element two (arising out of/connected to). For jurisdictions that follow the so called "stream of commerce plus" test, the facts of Ford show that a stream of commerce analysis is no longer necessary. A defendant's seemingly unrelated plus conduct is itself the requisite connection between the defendant and the forum. And the inforum injury connects the litigation to the forum after BMS and Ford. The pure stream of commerce theory is less clear. BMS and Ford seem to require some in-forum event, likely the retail sale of the allegedly defective product, so that the litigation is sufficiently connected to the forum. Courts, however, have had mixed reactions to the extent to which these related cases affect a stream of commerce analysis, ranging from complete abrogation of the theory to having no impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To examine the impact of "cross-market" hospital mergers on prices and quality and the extent to which serial acquisitions contribute to any measured effects., Data Sources: 2009-2017 commercial claims from the Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI) and quality measures from Hospital Compare., Study Design: Event study models in which the treated group consisted of hospitals that acquired hospitals further than 50 miles, and the control group was hospitals that were not part of any merger activity (as a target or acquirer) during the study period., Data Extraction Methods: We extracted data for 214 treated hospitals and 955 control hospitals., Principal Findings: Six years after acquisition, cross-market hospital mergers had increased acquirer prices by 12.9% (CI: 0.6%-26.6%) relative to control hospitals, but had no discernible impact on mortality and readmission rates for heart failure, heart attacks and pneumonia. For serial acquirers, the price effect increased to 16.3% (CI: 4.8%-29.1%). For all acquisitions, the price effect was 21.8% (CI: 4.6%-41.7%) when the target's market share was greater than the acquirer's market share versus 9.7% (CI: -0.5% to 20.9%) when the opposite was true. The magnitude of the price effect was similar for out-of-state and in-state cross-market mergers., Conclusions: Additional evidence on the price and quality effects of cross-market mergers is needed at a time when over half of recent hospital mergers have been cross-market. To date, no hospital mergers have been challenged by the Federal Trade Commission on cross-market grounds. Our study is the third to find a positive price effect associated with cross-market mergers and the first to show no quality effect and how serial acquisitions contribute to the price effect. More research is needed to identify the mechanism behind the price effects we observe and analyze price effect heterogeneity., (© 2024 The Authors. Health Services Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Health Research and Educational Trust.)

The surge in firearm sales from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic have been linked to increases in firearm violence, which is of public concern given that having firearms in one's home is associated with increased risk for domestic violence and suicide. Consistent with pre-pandemic trends, individuals tended to purchase firearms for self-protection during COVID-19. Prior work indicates that protective firearm ownership is motivated not only by perceptions that the world (and one's local environment) is dangerous, but also by one's endorsement of masculinity norms found in U.S. cultures of honor (primarily southern and western states). Honor-based masculinity norms emphasis reputation defense, toughness, and an absolute intolerance of disrespect. The present research examined the relative motivating influences of various threat perceptions and masculine honor endorsement in predicting reasons for non-COVID-19 firearm ownership, firearm purchasing during COVID-19, and purchase intentions. Three separate samples (total N = 2483) of mostly White U.S. men completed online surveys during different months of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed measures of their endorsement of masculine honor norms, factors associated with firearm purchasing (e.g., dangerous world beliefs, intolerance of uncertainty), and firearm purchasing behaviors. Results indicated that masculine honor endorsement was higher among (1) protective firearm owners compared to non-owners and non-protective owners, (2) firearm owners who purchased a firearm during COVID-19 compared to non-owners and non-purchasing owners, and (3) firearm owners with intentions to purchase firearms in the next year compared to those without intentions and undecided owners. Relative to other predictors (e.g., COVID-19 concerns, dangerous world beliefs), masculine honor endorsement was consistently the strongest predictor of these outcomes. Findings add to the literature by highlighting the strength of masculine honor endorsement in motivating (protective) firearm ownership. Implications for interpersonal violence and suicide are discussed., Competing Interests: Declaration of Conflicting InterestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Michael D. Anestis receives personal income from book royalties, speaking fees, and consulting on firearms and suicide.

The United States' current Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) and a potential extension are undergoing review, yet quantitative evaluation of the current program is lacking. The SIMP is a traceability program aimed at reducing imports of seafood products that are of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) origin or associated with seafood fraud. We conducted a quantitative examination of the SIMP's current scope and design by synthesizing publicly available trade data along with measures of IUU fishing and seafood mislabeling. We found prioritized shipments amounted to 33% of 2016 imported tonnage. The SIMP species groups had higher IUU scores and mislabeling rates relative to non-SIMP groups, but the difference was consistent with random prioritization suggesting potential benefits from program expansion. Furthermore, two-thirds of imported volume lacked a mislabeling rate and 5% lacked species information, underlining the urgent need for improved open-access data on globalized seafood supply chains., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethical approval: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose other than the funding sources listed in the Acknowledgements., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In March 2018, U.S. President Trump announced that the U.S. would start imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from most exporting countries around the world. This study explores the impact of introducing these tariffs on the equity return of U.S. defense companies. As the defense industry stands among the largest metal consumers in the U.S., it is expected that these import restrictions have deteriorated the business performance of the U.S. defense industry. For this study, a novel trade uncertainty indicator has been constructed that is based on the key events related to the invocation of Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act. This section empowers the President to impose trade restrictions when the quantity of imports threatens to impair national security. My empirical analysis reveals that investors perceived the introduction of the steel and aluminum tariffs as detrimental to U.S. defense companies. The negative abnormal stock returns in the days around several key tariff-related events evidence this. Already in the period before the Department of Commerce released the findings of its investigation, investors were speculating on the possible introduction of trade barriers. However, the height of the imposed tariff exceeded their expectations since the negative sentiment was further reinforced after the official announcement of the tariff by President Trump., Competing Interests: The author has declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2025 Jeroen Klomp. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Place-based health interventions may help reach underserved populations. This scoping review summarizes the peer-reviewed literature on the type and effects of place-based health interventions in unconventional public-facing business settings (e.g., retail and services). A literature search was conducted in PubMed, Google Scholar, and APA PsycNet for studies from 1990-2023. Inclusion criteria for studies were: conducted in the United States, delivered a health intervention, based on an unconventional business setting, and targeted a specific health condition. An initial search yielded 2,727 unduplicated studies, which was filtered to 42 studies included in this review. These 42 studies were categorized based on health conditions of focus, including cardiovascular health (12 studies); HIV (6 studies); diabetes (5 studies); cancers (13 studies); and all other conditions (14 studies). The most common unconventional public-facing business settings for health interventions included barbershops or beauty salons; interventions included health education, preventative screenings, pharmacy services, and connections to local healthcare providers and resources. Notably, 34 (81%) of the studies targeted Black populations. Studies reported positive responses from participants for place-based interventions, increased awareness and screening of health conditions, more referrals to healthcare services, and improved health outcomes. While there have been 9 randomized trials conducted across various health conditions, these trials are limited to focus on a few select settings and lack of objective health outcome measures. These findings highlight the need for more rigorously designed studies in diverse settings that can effectively evaluate the impact of place-based health interventions. The existing literature suggests health interventions delivered in public-facing business settings may be a promising strategy to reach underserved populations., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.)

Trade in wood and forest products spans the global supply chain. Illegal logging and associated trade in forest products present a persistent threat to vulnerable ecosystems and communities. Illegal timber trade has been linked to violations of tax and conservation laws, as well as broader transnational crimes. The United States is the largest importer globally of wood and forest products, such as pulp, paper, flooring, and furniture-importing $78 billion in 2021. Transaction-level data such as shipping container manifests and bills of lading provide a comprehensive data source that can be used to detect and disrupt trade that may be suspected of containing illegally harvested or traded forest products. Owing to the volume, velocity, and complexity of shipment data, an automated decision support system is required for the purposes of detecting suspicious forest product shipments. We present a proof of concept framework using machine learning and big data approaches-combining domain expertise with automation-to achieve this objective. We formulated the underlying machine learning problem as an anomaly detection problem and collected and collated forest sector-specific domain knowledge to filter and target shipments of interest. In this work, we provide the overview of our framework, with the details of domain knowledge extraction and machine learning models, and discuss initial results and analysis of flagged anomalous and potentially suspicious records to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach. The proof of concept work presented here provides the groundwork for an actionable and feasible approach to assisting enforcement agencies with the detection of suspicious shipments that may contain illegally harvested or traded wood., Competing Interests: We have the following interests: Funders (WWF) contracted one of the authors, JS, who is the sole employee at Simeone Consulting, LLC, to help execute the study. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products to declare. This does not alter our adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials., (Copyright: © 2025 Datta et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Background: How excise taxes are passed through to prices determines whether tax policies will be effective in changing smoking behaviours. Though previous literature has documented that cigarette taxes are overly shifted to prices, there is limited evidence on how cigarette tax pass-through to prices is affected by the uptake and evolution of e-cigarettes (ECs) in the US market., Objective: This study investigates how cigarette excise tax pass-through rate varied by price levels (the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentile prices) and the uptake and evolution of ECs., Methods: Tax pass-through rates were assessed using ordinary least squares regressions while controlling for state, year and month fixed effects. Different trends were then tested for the pre-EC uptake era (2006-2011), EC uptake era (2012-2016) and the evolution of nicotine salt-based ECs era (2017 and later)., Findings: Cigarette excise taxes were fully shifted to the 25th and 50th percentile prices and overly shifted to the 75th percentile prices at a 1:1.1 rate. While cigarette excise taxes had a continuous impact on raising prices, the tax pass-through rates were lower for lower priced cigarettes, and states imposed lower taxes., Conclusions: Continuing to raise cigarette taxes may be needed to create financial incentives to encourage people who smoke to switch to ECs. In addition, continuing to raise cigarette taxes and additional pricing policies such as price promotion restrictions are needed to increase retail prices and reduce price minimisation opportunities., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2025. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ Group.)

The QUAD nations' (United States, India, Japan, and Australia) financial markets are deeply integrated with global markets. The burgeoning surge of risk in global markets requires caution, which can be possible by determining the connectedness. This study elucidates the dynamic connectedness between crude oil and the financial markets of QUAD nations, aiming to enhance understanding of its environmental and managerial implications. This study uses Diebold and Yilmaz (2012) model for the empirical investigation. After investigation the connectedness, portfolio weight, and hedge ratio are determined to know the hedge ratio. It is found that the Japanese market and crude oil emerge as the least transmitter and least receiver of the shock, respectively. Additionally, the result reveals that hedging is most expensive in the US market while cheapest in the Australian market. This paper contributes to understanding the influence of energy market fluctuations on financial markets amidst recent global crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with implications for both environmental and economic resilience., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Retail prices for eggs surged during the period from early 2022 to mid-2023 in the U.S. We investigate the impact of egg price fluctuations on online and social media discourse, analyzing the relationship between egg prices and public sentiment. Utilizing online and social media listening data from September 2019 to August 2023, we explore how the total number of statements (i.e., mentions) and sentiment respond to changes in egg prices in the U.S. We find a significant association between increases in egg prices and both the volume of mentions and the sentiment of online discussions. Notably, mentions increased and sentiment became more negative as egg prices rose, highlighting a clear public response to price changes. However, the relationship between egg prices and online and social media attention is complex, which becomes apparent when studying the timing of increased concern with the timing of online news media coverage. Importantly, using regression discontinuity in time, we show that online and social media conversations about eggs and egg prices tend to increase after the rapid rise in online news coverage. Similarly, online and social media conversations about eggs and egg prices tend to decrease after the rapid rise in online news coverage., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Dr. Nicole Widmar reports financial support was provided by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project 7007883. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Background: The 2018 Farm Bill led to new types of derived psychoactive cannabis products (DPCPs) being sold throughout the United States. This study describes the new types and brands of DPCPs sold online. Materials and Methods: In May 2023, data were recorded from three top-trafficked U.S.-based DPCP retail websites, including information about each product ( N =804). Results: DPCP modalities included disposable vapes (43%), edibles (29%), vape carts (18%), pre-rolls (7%), flower (2%), dabs (1%), and vape pods (<1%). Among the 118 brands, the most common were Exhale, Delta Extrax, Cake, URB, Looper, and TRE House. There were 26 different intoxicating compounds overall, the most prevalent being: Delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), THC-P, Delta-9 THC, HHC, THC-A, Delta-10 THC, THC-H, THC-B, THC-JD, THC-X, HHC-P, and Delta-11 THC. Overall, 54% of products were blends, containing two to eight different intoxicating compounds in a single product. Discussion: This is the first study to systematically assess DPCPs sold online. Most of the DPCP market is comprised of vapes and edibles, but these products contain a wide array of compounds and blends. Data from this diverse, rapidly evolving market are needed to examine its consumer impact and inform public health policies and programs.

Retail food environments influence dietary health, yet efforts to improve them have had limited success. Recruiting informants from the food and beverage retail industry for insider information has been challenging due to the sensitivity of inquiries and proprietary protections. Moreover, which recruitment approaches are successful are seldom disseminated. This paper aimed to bridge this gap by detailing the complexities of recruiting and interviewing four food industry insider groups-independent store owners, corporate chain managers, food and beverage distributors, and sales representatives of major companies-to provide insights and specific guidance for future research. From October 2021 to November 2022, we interviewed 49 industry informants to explore business and commercial practices used in the US food retail sector. Recruitment methods were tailored to each group, and qualitative data were collected through in-person or virtual 'walk-along' interviews with customized interview guides. Across the study, we experienced distinct challenges around participant inaccessibility, hierarchy within corporate chains, skepticism, mistrust and variation in knowledge across industry groups. We detail our response to these challenges through four lessons learned, including persistence and flexibility, the importance of vetting, the value of trust-building measures and adapting the study protocol to new information. Given our success in reaching industry groups and accessing insider information, we provide key recommendations that future researchers can use to engage diverse industry groups and advance efforts to promote healthy food retail., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Objectives: This study assessed differences in cannabis retailer practices by neighborhood sociodemographics, which can inform disparity-relevant interventions., Methods: Multilevel multivariable logistic regressions examined retailers' census tract demographics (percent <21 years-old; non-Hispanic White, Black, or other race, Hispanic; median household income [MHHI]) in relation to 2022 audit data regarding marketing (youth-oriented signs, health-claims, exterior ads, price specials, membership programs, delivery/pick-up) and regulatory compliance (pregnancy and health-risk warning signage, exterior minimum-age signage) among 150 randomly-selected retailers in 5 US cities/states (Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California)., Results: 20.7 % had youth-oriented signage, 28.7 % health-claim signage, 27.3 % exterior ads, 75.3 % price specials, 39.3 % membership programs, 28.0 % delivery/pick-up, 72.0 % pregnancy warnings, 38.0 % health-risk warnings, and 64.0 % minimum-age signage. Retailers in tracts with higher percent <21 and non-Hispanic White had lower odds of youth-oriented signage. Higher MHHI had higher odds of health-claims; higher percent Hispanic had lower odds of health-claims. Higher MHHI had lower odds of exterior ads. Higher percent <21 had lower odds of price specials. Higher percent non-Hispanic White had higher odds of membership programs. Higher percent non-Hispanic White, other race, and Hispanic had higher odds of delivery/pick-up; higher MHHI had lower odds of delivery/pick-up. Higher percent non-Hispanic White had higher odds of pregnancy warnings. Higher percent <21 had lowers odds of health-risk warnings. Demographics were unrelated to minimum-age signage., Conclusions: Given key findings (e.g., less regulation-related signage in racial/ethnic minority communities), cannabis retail could exacerbate disparities, underscoring the need for related regulatory and prevention efforts., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors report no conflicting interests., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The rapid growth of dollar stores as retail sources of food in the United States is a phenomenon with implications for diets, nutrition, and well-being. We convened a broadly interdisciplinary group of researchers and experts from government and academia at the 2-day Food Access at Dollar Stores (FADS) workshop, held in Boston, MA in 2022. The event brought together economists, social scientists, public health researchers, and advocates to discuss the concerns and research questions raised by the growth of dollar stores and their increased role in food retail and access. In-person, moderated discussions on day 2 of the workshop generated a range of topics considered important for future research. A subsequent survey, using a modified Delphi approach, identified priority research areas. Nine research area categories emerged as a result of discussion at the FADS workshop and received prioritization from the experts: Local community impacts; Health and nutrition impacts; Policy and programs; Systemic issues - racism, poverty, and food access; Store offerings and locations; Shoppers and customers; Employees and employment; Corporate distribution, strategy, and marketing; and Dollar stores compared with other food sources. The growth of dollar stores as food retailers remains an under-researched area of study for food access and nutrition that requires interdisciplinary expertise and collaboration to understand., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health (National Strategy) encourages actions across government and society to promote nutrition security. Nutrition security includes adequate food, diet quality, and equity, and food retail settings can promote these major concepts. Of all National Strategy whole-of-society calls to action, food retailers can contribute to 15 calls as key actors. However, there is currently no standardized monitoring tool to track food retailers' commitments and actions toward the National Strategy to promote nutrition security. The Business Impact Assessment-Obesity and population-level nutrition (BIA-Obesity), a tool originally developed for corporate accountability monitoring, can be tailored for the National Strategy and nutrition security, given its standardized indicators and process to assess food company policies and commitments across six domains. We discuss the fit of the BIA-Obesity indicators for tracking food retailers' commitments and actions across four pillars of the National Strategy. Existing indicators are appropriate to monitor components of Pillar 1: Improve Food Access and Affordability; Pillar 2: Integrate Nutrition and Health; Pillar 3: Empower All Consumers to Make and Have Access to Healthy Choices; and Pillar 5: Enhance Nutrition and Food Security Research. We suggest expanding current indicators to include equity, local foods, the digital food environment, and food waste reduction to improve alignment of the BIA-Obesity with the National Strategy. Application of the BIA-Obesity as an existing tool can facilitate data cohesion and more rapid assessment of the food retailer landscape to mutually meet nutrition security goals by 2030., (© Society of Behavioral Medicine 2024. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Background: Contracts can be an effective lever to implement and manage health-enabling food retail environments. However, guidance for the effective use of contracts in food retail settings is limited. The use of contracts to create healthy food vending environments is one area where policy attention has been focussed in high income countries. We applied a public health regulatory framework to publicly available guidance documents on healthy vending to develop best practice recommendations for using contracts to create healthy food vending environments., Methods: Document analysis involved i) snowball sampling to identify eligible publicly available healthy vending guidance documents from an identified seed paper; ii) application of a public health regulatory framework to extract data across three domains of form, substance and governance of healthy vending initiatives; and iii) synthesis of data to form best practice recommendations. Eligible documents were those aimed at implementing healthier vending; published from 2000 onwards; accessible online; and included recommendations beyond nutrition standards alone, including a reference to at least one regulatory governance process (administration, implementation, monitoring, enforcement or review)., Results: Twelve of 92 documents identified were eligible and all were from the United States (US). All noted that products need to comply with nutrition standards. Other aspects of regulatory substance (i.e., pricing, promotion, placement, labelling and contract length) were less well considered as were elements of regulatory governance (regulatory rules, administration, implementation, monitoring, enforcement and review). Our adapted framework covers three regulatory domains with nine components, and a further 20 recommendations for best practice application in healthy vending., Conclusions: To be effective, contracts used to manage healthy food vending should include more than the nutrition standards for healthy food and drinks. Clearly stating the contract objectives, operative terms and conditions, and defining responsibilities for monitoring, review and enforcement within the contract, in addition to the nutrition standards, will assist practitioners in creating effective and sustained contract-based initiatives aimed at improving the healthiness of vending, or potentially other food retail environments., Competing Interests: Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate Not applicable. Consent for publication Not applicable. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Background: The beverage industry's role in undermining nutrition-related population health is a growing global concern. Industry strategies that affect policy, science, and public opinion are increasingly exposed. However, those used in the retail space-known as market strategies-remain largely unspecified. The purpose of this study was to uncover the market strategies beverage companies use with US retailers to secure their influence and control in the primary setting where the public purchases their products-food retail., Methods: We conducted a qualitative study based on multiple data sources: 49 interviews with industry insiders, including chain retail managers, independent store owners, and sales representatives and distributors of major food and beverage companies; 15 business files shared by participants, including written beverage marketing agreements and contracts; and 27 purposively sampled, publicly-available industry documents. All data were thematically analyzed., Results: We identified that beverage agreements, which dictate the products, space, marketing, and prices of company products in retail settings, are universal regardless of the retailer's market size. While ubiquitous, the agreement terms, services, and treatment beverage companies provided varied widely-with large US retail chains receiving superior opportunities, such as financial incentives and additional services, and independent and small chain retailers often experiencing disadvantaged, more expensive, non-negotiable terms. Despite this, companies also used several strategies that diminished concerns of differential treatment and thus effectively managed their reputation among independent and small chain retailers., Conclusions: Findings suggest a use of the consolidated power among beverage companies with significant implications for the healthfulness of food retail settings. We conclude by highlighting key policy and legal targets that could be leveraged in the US to address power imbalances in the retailer-beverage company relationship and ultimately shift retail towards promoting public health., Competing Interests: Declarations Consent for publication Not applicable. Consent to participate This study was conducted according to the guidelines laid down in the Declaration of Helsinki and all study procedures involving human participants were approved by the Emory University Institutional Review Board (Protocol STUDY00002768). All participants provided their consent to participate and be recorded prior to the interview. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Fraud and sexual harassment have been haunting academia for years. While the scientific community proposed strategies to overcome misconduct in research, the problem of sexual harassment seems unresolved. One reason for this might be a difference between men and women in the perception of the moral character and competence of sexual harassers. Across four studies (N = 3776), in the UK and the US, men judged the sexual harasser as less immoral than women (Studies 1, 2, and 3a), even though sexual harassment was considered more harmful than fraud (Study 2). Consequently, men demanded less punishment for sexual harassers than women (Studies 1 and 2). This gender difference was not explained by moral rationalization (Study 3a). Further, a sexual harasser was judged as more competent than a fraudster but in an academic, not business, context (Studies 1 and 2). This effect was driven by the moral decoupling process, which participants used to separate competence judgments from moral judgments (Study 3b). Overall, these results suggest that in the academic context, gender interests most likely shape moral and punishment judgments towards sexual harassers, while the decoupling process allows both genders to perceive them as competent and immoral at the same time., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Miazek et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Discoloration of beef products leads retailers to offer discounts or discard beef products, as consumers tend to reject a brownish beef color. This practice contributes to retail food waste and inefficient resource allocation linked to beef production. The objective of this study was to investigate U.S. consumer preferences for beef color and price discounts. After an initial test for screen acuity regarding color perception using a condensed form the ishihara test, data on meat purchasing behavior as well as demographic information was collected for all participants. An additional part of the study undertook a hypothetical discrete choice experiment using digital photos of beef steaks with different meat color, price, and discount labels in retail packaging to examine consumer preferences, willingness to pay, and the effects of discount pricing. Results of a Mixed Logit Model based on choice data show that beef shoppers perceive, see, and prefer color nearly linearly across days of retail display. Consumers' willingness to pay was negative for 4, 7 and 9 days of retail display relative to day zero and decreased with an increase in discoloration. Results indicate that beef shoppers would have to be financially compensated for choosing a steak that was discolored after 9 days of retail display. However, male beef buyers exhibit weaker preferences for color and could be a target segment for promoting discolored beef products to reduce meat waste., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Annika J. Thies reports financial support was provided by German Academic Exchange Service. Annika J. Thies reports financial support was provided by German Agricultural Society. Mahesh N. Nair and Amanda M. Countryman report financial support was provided by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

In light of growing concerns about climate change and environmental issues, investor interest has surged in the new green economy market. However, the existing literature is limited regarding potential price bubbles and co-bubbles within this new domain. This study examines price bubbles and co-bubbles in the new green economy market, covering 31 indexes classified into three groups: the green economy market and its components, geographical regions, and sectors. Using daily data from August 31, 2005, to May 31, 2024, a test procedure is first applied to detect periods of price bubble in the various indexes, then logistic regressions are employed to examine price co-bubble behaviours. The results show evidence of price bubbles in the green economy market, particularly in solar and wind indexes, with peaks during the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine conflict, whereas the water index is the least prone to price bubbles. Regarding geographical region, the USA market exhibits a higher tendency for price bubbles than the Asian or European markets. Several sectors are resistant to price bubbles. The co-bubble analysis reveals a strong reliance of wind index on price bubbles in the solar and water indexes. Price bubbles in Asia significantly influence price bubbles in Europe and the USA. These findings have implications for investment portfolio management and risk management strategies in the new green economy market., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The global attention on industrial policy's effectiveness spans across various sectors, particularly in international trade where the focus is on enhancing the quality of foreign trade, which is crucial to understand how research hotspots and key issues can synergize. We consider the 2018 "new round" of Sino-US trade friction as an external event and analyze panel data from 2009 to 2022 comprising 1141 Chinese A-share listed enterprises. Our empirical research unequivocally demonstrates that industrial policy has significantly propelled China's foreign trade towards high-quality development by 1.8240%. We conducted rigorous tests for robustness, heterogeneity, and endogeneity. Additionally, our results reveal that inhibitory influences arising from industrial policy on total assets or R&D investment attenuate this promotion effect; There exists a diminishing promotion effect between total assets and R&D investment. Our paper provides valuable insights into understanding their logical relationship while offering guidance for enterprises, markets, and governments in overcoming challenges collectively., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Leihua, Fan. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Introduction: The 2019 outbreak of e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) is believed to have been caused by vitamin E acetate, an additive used in some cannabis vaporizer products. Previous studies have primarily focused on changes in sales of electronic nicotine delivery systems following the initial advisory issued by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on August 17, 2019. The present study is intended to examine variation by age groups in sales of regulated cannabis vape products in the state of California before, during, and after the outbreak. Methods: Weekly sales revenue of cannabis vape products (from January 1, 2018, to December 31, 2020) was obtained from a sample of recreational cannabis retailers licensed in California. An interrupted time series analysis, using AutoRegressive, Integrated, Moving Average methods, was employed to estimate changes in the sales and market share of cannabis vape products in the weeks following the CDC advisory. Results: The total volume of regulated cannabis vape product sales increased substantially over the 3-year study period (2018-2020). Sales and market share of cannabis vape products, however, declined in both young and older adults immediately following the advisory, rebounding to pre-EVALI levels only for the young adults. For sales, the potential EVALI effect following the CDC's advisory equates to an 8.0% and 2.2% decline below expected levels in the older and young adults, respectively. Conclusions: The differential age effect on sales may reflect concerns regarding health effects of cannabis vaping products and greater awareness of the outbreak among older adults. Findings highlight the importance of informing consumers about health risks associated with using cannabis vape products acquired from regulated versus illicit sources.

Objective: Gather perspectives on healthy retail policies and strategies from a national sample of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants., Design: Anonymous web-based survey fielded in English and Spanish. The survey measured support for healthy retail policies and strategies., Setting: National Qualtrics panel fielded on September 30 and October 19, 2022., Participants: A total of 1,559 adult SNAP participants (in the last 12 months) participated in the Qualtrics SNAP survey panel., Variables Measured: Overall support for retail policies and strategies was calculated using response frequencies and proportions., Analysis: Cross-tabulations and chi-square tests of independence assessed differences in policy support by online shopping behavior and nutrition security status. Significance was determined at P < 0.05., Results: Most SNAP participants were broadly supportive of policies and strategies to improve the healthy food retail environment. More restrictive policies were less popular than policies that expanded consumer choice. Support also varied by online shopping status and nutrition security status., Conclusions and Implications: Policies and strategies that improve the healthy food retail environment are popular among a national sample of SNAP participants. Policy discussions must understand SNAP participants' perspectives regarding changes to the retail environment that may impact their ability to access healthy foods., (Copyright © 2024 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the largest nationally integrated health system in the United States, is transitioning from its homegrown electronic health record (EHR) to a new vendor-based EHR, Oracle Cerner. Experiences of the first VA site to transition have been widely discussed in the media, but in-depth accounts based on rigorous research are lacking., Objective: We sought to explore employee perspectives on the rationale for, and value of, transitioning from a VA-tailored EHR to a vendor-based product., Methods: As part of a larger mixed methods, multisite, formative evaluation of VA clinician and staff experiences with the EHR transition, we conducted semistructured interviews at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center before, during, and after going live in October 2020. In total, we completed 122 interviews with 26 participants across multiple departments., Results: Before the new vendor-based EHR went live, participants initially expressed cautious optimism about the transition. However, in subsequent interviews following the go-live, participants increasingly critiqued the vendor's understanding of VA's needs, values, and workflows, as well as what they perceived as an inadequate fit between the functionalities of the new vendor-based EHR system and VA's characteristic approach to care. As much as a year after going live, participants reiterated these concerns while also expressing a desire for substantive changes to the transition process, with some questioning the value of continuing with the transition., Conclusions: VA's transition from a homegrown EHR to a vendor-based EHR system has presented substantial challenges, both practical and cultural in nature. Consequently, it is a valuable case study for understanding the sociotechnical dimension of EHR-to-EHR transitions. These findings have implications for both VA leadership and the broader community of policy makers, vendors, informaticists, and others involved in large-scale health information technology implementations., (©Ekaterina Anderson, Megan Moldestad, Julian Brunner, Sherry Ball, Christian Helfrich, Jay Orlander, Seppo Rinne, George Sayre. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 10.09.2024.)

Biosimilars drugs are almost identical copies of original biologic products. Early biosimilars had slower adoption and savings than expected; however, biosimilars launched in recent years have had more success. With several biosimilar launches planned in the next few years, it is important to understand how the state of the market might foretell significant market savings in the future. To do so, we explored how the introduction of biosimilars affected originator-biosimilar markets during the period 2017-22. We found that after biosimilar availability, payers increasingly allowed choice of preferred products. By 2022, 76 percent of commercial payers' coverage policies listed two or more products (originator or biosimilar) as first-line options. Biosimilar market shares exceeded those of originators a mean of three years after first biosimilar launch, and originator-biosimilar market average sales price declined substantially. Taken together, these findings provide evidence of a functioning competitive market.

Using two measures of firm carbon-risk exposure to capture convergent materiality, we examine whether the syndicated loan market considers borrowers' carbon-risk exposure in loan pricing. We find that carbon intensity does not constitute material information for banks, whereas environmental scores have a statistically significant but incidental economic effect on loan spreads. We also find inconclusive evidence that the market differentiates between firms in high and low environmentally sensitive industries. Finally, we show that green banks charge higher loan spreads to more environmentally responsible firms. Overall, we provide strong evidence that environmental scores matter in loan pricing decisions., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Topical corticosteroids are used extensively in dermatology. Class 1 high potency topical steroids (HPTS) can result in unwanted side effects such as skin hypopigmentation, atrophy, and acneiform eruptions. HPTS are only legally available by prescription to ensure appropriate use in the United States (US). The authors have noticed a recent increase in patients presenting with steroid acne after buying HPTS products in beauty supply stores. These products are marketed as fade creams to treat hyperpigmentation and uneven skin tone. We assessed skincare products containing HPTS (clobetasol or betamethasone) in 33 beauty supply stores in Miami, FL; Washington, DC; and Baltimore, MD. Out of 33 beauty supply stores, 14 (42.42%) contained HPTS skincare products, and they were all located in Miami. Out of 15 stores visited in Miami, 14 (93.33%) contained skincare products with clobetasol, and 5 (33.33%) contained skincare products with both clobetasol and betamethasone. Of the stores selling HPTS skincare products, the number of different brands available ranged from 1 to 7, with an average of 4.21 different brands per store. Our study reveals that HPTS are readily available in over-the-counter skincare products in many beauty supply stores. HPTS skincare products were only available in one of three cities suggesting there may be a regional supplier distributing these products. It may also indicate that there is less oversight of retail stores in Miami with HPTS products. More studies are needed to quantify the availability of these products in different locations throughout the US. Further Studies can help identify this problem and raise awareness among consumers of the dangers of HPTS skincare products in beauty supply stores. J Drugs Dermatol. 2024;23(9):709-712. doi:10.36849/JDD.7608.

Public health nursing (PHN) competencies are fundamental for addressing population health inequities. Few pathways exist for employing these competencies in the United States (US). Social entrepreneurship in nursing education might provide opportunities for innovating engagement in population health. Partnerships between business and nursing schools have the potential to fulfill this opportunity., Purpose: Explore opportunities for re-invigorating public health nursing through social entrepreneurship education in nursing-business partnerships in U.S. universities., Methods: Reviewed programs in nursing/business school partnerships from Carnegie-classified R1 Universities. Identified appropriate coursework., Results: Of 96 identified nursing schools, eight had business school partnerships, providing 12 programs. Most programs (n = 11) targeted graduate students and addressed core competencies for entrepreneurship. Five business schools had entrepreneurship expertise. Five nursing schools had PHN expertise. Three programs included population health competencies., Discussion: Despite missed opportunities for advancing social entrepreneurship education among undergraduate and graduate nursing students, existing curricular offerings in the partnerships provide promise. Business/nursing partnerships and PHN knowledge can stimulate the preparation and agency of nurses in addressing population health inequities., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest Nothing to disclose., (Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The modern consensus is that U.S. trade law is made through statute and through large congressional-executive agreements, both of which maintain Congress' constitutional primacy over the regulation of foreign commerce. Contrary to this understanding, however, short, targeted agreements negotiated by the U.S. executive with foreign trading partners -- recently referred to as "mini-deals" -- have become a fixture of the trade law landscape over the last three decades in staggering number. More than 1,200 such agreements govern the movement of goods and services in and out of the United States from and to 130 countries. Such deals are not only now one of the primary ways trade law is made but also are likely to be the principal tool for trade lawmaking in the Biden Administration. Yet, despite their ubiquity, we know almost nothing about them. This Article explains how this transformation in U.S. trade law has occurred as a growing foreign commercial bureaucracy began to engage readily with foreign partners. The Article provides an unprecedented look at trade mini-deals, where they come from, how they are made, and what they do. The data show a growing reliance by the executive on mini-deals to achieve foreign commercial goals in the last thirty years and a significant expansion of their scope in the last five years. They are not so "mini" anymore. The data also reveal that these agreements often slip under the radar of our ordinary accountability and monitoring regimes and have been missed by prior scholarship. Their obscurity has enabled them to grow quietly in importance as a means to achieve trade and regulatory policy aims. They have become a preferred tool for good reason, even if they suffer from procedural flaws. The picture that emerges from this review disrupts prior understandings of the foreign commercial legal topography, demonstrating that both the trade and transnational regulatory landscapes are much more textured than previously understood. The Article uses this hand-collected quantitative and qualitative data set to sketch a more accurate portrait of how our trade law is made. It argues that such agreements serve constructive legislative and rulemaking purposes, supplementing statutes and regulations and sometimes substituting for them. The analysis presented here underscores the profound and cross-cutting bureaucratic authority across foreign relations and the administrative state. Given the importance of this transnational activity and its implications, the Article also opens a new field for interdisciplinary scholarly research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to much current law and theory, a public accommodation that offers a good or service to one customer cannot refuse to provide that same good or service to another patron simply because of the latter's identity. Thus, in many jurisdictions, reception hall owners must rent their spaces to both a Black Baptist Church and the Christian Identity KKK, wedding vendors must sell their goods to a marrying couple no matter the sex of the couple's members, and foster parent agencies must serve same- and opposite-sex parenting duos alike. Call the principle underpinning this policy the "Equal Access" principle: The principle holds that a vendor can choose the products he sells but not the customers he serves; equally, a public service agency can choose its portfolio but not its patrons. The principle lies at the core of recent cases in which religion and sexual orientation, or religion and gender identity, have clashed in public accommodations, and it is pervasive among commentators who seek to ensure that the retail sphere--whether commercial or charitable--remains a discrimination-free zone. This Article champions the egalitarian spirit of Equal Access, but it argues that the principle itself is unworkable, unreliable, and perhaps even incoherent. Equal Access permits impermissible discrimination and forbids refusals of service that in fact promote equality's ends. Further, Equal Access derives support from a problematic conception of the retail sphere--one that sees commerce as amoral and so cannot even make sense of a vendor's interest in exercising their conscience at work. In place of this morally neutered conception, this Article aims to vindicate a picture of the marketplace as richly moral. And in place of Equal Access, this Article aims to offer a more principled and nuanced account of when and why retail discrimination is impermissible. That account would forbid identity-based discrimination but permit refusals of service for projects that foster hate toward protected groups, even where the hate-based project is intimately linked to a protected characteristic (as with religious groups that mandate white supremacy). Far from perpetuating discrimination, these refusals instead promote anti-discrimination norms, and they help realize the vision of the morally inflected marketplace that this Article defends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With more states legalizing recreational cannabis, examining cannabis retail and marketing is crucial, as it may influence consumers' perceptions and behaviors. Particularly understudied is online cannabis retail. Methods: In Spring 2022, coders collected and analyzed data regarding retailer characteristics, age verification, and marketing strategies (e.g., product availability, health-related content, promotions, website imagery) among 195 cannabis retail websites in five U.S. cities (Denver, Colorado; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Las Vegas, Nevada; Los Angeles, California). Descriptive analyses characterized the websites overall and across cities. Results: Overall, 80.5% verified age for website entry, and 92.8% offered online purchases (92.3% of retailers in Seattle, where prohibited). Of these, 82.9% required age verification for purchases, and 30.9% offered delivery. Almost all (>92%) offered flower/bud, concentrates, edibles, vaping devices, topicals, and tinctures. Health warnings were displayed on 38.3% of websites. Although all five states required health warnings regarding use during pregnancy, only 10.3% had these warnings. In addition, 59.0% posted some unsubstantiated health claims, most often indicating physical and mental health benefits (44.6%). Although Colorado, Washington, and Oregon prohibit health claims, 51.2-53.8% of these retailers posted them. Discounts, samples, or promotions were present on 90.8% of websites; 63.6% had subscription/membership programs. Subpopulations represented in website content included the following: 27.2% teens/young adults, 26.2% veterans, 7.2% sexual/gender minorities, and 5.6% racial/ethnic minorities. Imagery also targeted young people (e.g., 29.7% party/cool/popularity, 18.5% celebrity/influencer endorsement). Conclusions: Regulatory efforts are needed to better monitor promotional strategies and regulatory compliance (e.g., health claims, youth-oriented content, underage access) among online cannabis retailers.

Advancing transformative change for sustainability requires population-wide behavior change. Yet, many behavioral interventions tackling environmental problems only examine average effects on the aggregate, overlooking the heterogeneous effects in a population. We developed and preregistered a novel audience segmentation approach to test the diverse impact of conservation messaging on reducing demand for exotic pets (private action - i.e., desire to own exotic pets or visit wildlife entertainment places) and fostering citizen engagement for system-wide change (civic action - e.g., signing a petition or participating in a protest against the exotic pet trade). Through an online survey with US participants (n = 2953), we identified 4 population segments (early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards), representing varying levels of commitment to wildlife conservation and then randomly assigned each segment to one of 3 messaging conditions. Messages highlighting negative consequences of the exotic pet trade and the power of collective action for system change effectively promoted private action among all segments except early adopters (η p 2  = 0.005). Among civic actions, only the collective action message motivated early adopters and the early majority to sign petitions (φ C  = 0.193 and φ C  = 0.097, respectively). Furthermore, the 4 segments showed distinct reasoning for action and inaction on wildlife conservation, with certain relational values, such as care, serving as both motivations and barriers to action. These findings highlight the need for targeted behavioral interventions across diverse populations., (© 2024 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.)

Introduction: The debate over the legal status of many cannabis- and hemp-derived products, including delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is in question. Although low concentrations of delta-8 THC are legal at the Federal level, many states have implemented their own regulations to both allow and restrict its use and sale. Of concern, sellers with unknown legal credentials have appeared online and are actively selling this product. Materials and Methods: We characterized the marketing, sale, and compliance of online delta-8 THC sellers using (1) data collected from the Twitter Application Programming Interface with delta-8 THC-related keywords; (2) unsupervised topic modeling using the Biterm Topic Model to identify clusters of tweets involved in marketing and selling; (3) inductive coding to identify marketing and selling characteristics; and (4) web forensics and simulated shopping to determine compliance with state restrictions for delta-8 THC sales. Results: In total, 110 unique hyperlinks associated with 7085 tweets that included marketing and selling activity for delta-8 THC were collected. From these links, we conducted simulated purchasing in January 2021 to identify compliant and noncompliant websites. Among the vendors, age verification was not found in over half of websites (59, 53.63%); 60 (54.55%) did not report a physical address; and 74 (65.45%) sold delta-8 products direct-to-consumer. Sixty-seven (90.54%) of detected vendors shipped delta-8 products to addresses in states that prohibit sales. Forty-three (64.18%) of Internet Protocol addresses were located within the United States; all others were international. Conclusion: Our analysis suggests that online storefronts are illegally selling and shipping cannabinoid derivatives to U.S. consumers. Further research is needed to understand downstream health and regulatory impacts from this unregulated access.

Changes in the dynamics of prescription drug markets have raised issues regarding whether the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS') Prescription Drug Consumer Price Index (CPI-Rx) has adequately kept up with the evolving marketplace. The CPI-Rx limits its sampling frame to retail outpatient outlets and excludes prescription pharmaceuticals dispensed in non-retail settings such as hospitals, physician/clinic outpatient facilities, and nursing homes. Thus, the CPI-Rx overlooks the increasingly important specialty pharmaceuticals dispensed in non-retail settings, whose transactions are instead captured in the overall hospital and professional services component of the medical care CPI. Specialty drugs now account for about 55% of all U.S. drug spending, double the share of a decade earlier. To the extent specialty drug price growth differs from that of traditional pharmaceuticals, the CPI-Rx could provide an inaccurate measure of overall drug price inflation. We calculate a chained Laspeyres CPI using data from the Merative™ MarketScan® Databases for the years 2010-2019 and IQVIA-designated specialty drugs and offer evidence showing that by not sampling specialty drugs in non-retail settings, the CPI-Rx has understated overall U.S. prescription drug inflation by just under 75 basis points annually. We discuss implications for health care policy and suggest the BLS examine the feasibility of publishing an overall pharmaceutical price index incorporating both traditional and specialty pharmaceuticals dispensed in retail and non-retail settings., (© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Purpose: The 2018 US Farm Bill's definition of hemp resulted in the proliferation of derived psychoactive cannabis products (DPCPs), which appeal to some youth. Despite the importance of restricting youth access, few studies have systematically examined the DPCP retail environment, particularly their online accessibility., Methods: In May 2023, Google incognito mode was used to search "buy delta thc." Among the first 100 results, data were collected from the 20 most trafficked websites that sold and delivered DPCPs. For each site, we documented the following policy-relevant information: 1) age verification measures for site entry and purchase attempts, 2) adult signature reportedly required upon delivery, and 3) shipping restrictions., Results: Overall, 14 websites (70%) required individuals to indicate their age. Most websites (n = 13, 65%) did not verify age at attempted purchase, nor indicated that an adult signature was required upon delivery (n = 15, 75%). Only three websites (15%) had rigorous age verification procedures during checkout that included contact information as well as an image of their photo ID, which would then be validated through a third-party software. None required age verification upon both purchase and delivery. Thirteen websites (65%) mentioned state shipping restrictions; four of these provided conflicting information across different sections of the website., Discussion: As the e-commerce landscape continues to evolve, clearer regulations regarding DPCP online retail sales and related enforcement are needed. In particular, measures are needed to enforce shipping restrictions and prevent youth access, including increasing the rigor of age verification., (Copyright © 2024 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Context: The United States is deeply entangled in an opioid crisis that began with the overuse of prescription painkillers. At the height of the prescription opioid crisis (2006-2012), Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals was the nation's largest opioid manufacturer. This study explores Mallinckrodt's strategies for expanding its market share by promoting a new opioid., Methods: The authors used the Opioid Industry Document Archive to analyze the incentive structures, sales contests, and rhetorical strategy behind Mallinckrodt's "Operation Change Agent," a campaign to switch patients from OxyContin to Mallinckrodt-manufactured painkillers. A structured search of the archive in October 2022 retrieved 464 documents dated between 2010 and 2020., Findings: The authors identified a range of Mallinckrodt's sales force motivational techniques, including hypertargeting high-decile prescribers, providing free trial kits, using emotion-based language to connect with prescribers, and strategies for opposing prescriber resistance. Throughout, managers used specific incentivization metaphors to frame strategies in terms of sport and ultramarathons., Conclusions: This research on internal corporate strategy joins the growing challenges to industry claims that opioid sales teams simply educated providers and helped fill existing demand for their products. It has important implications for regulatory policy and consumer protections that can better protect health in the face of competitive market forces., (Copyright © 2024 by Duke University Press.)

Seafood plays an important role in sustainably feeding the world and is one of the most traded food products globally. However sustainability improvements are often focused on its production (e.g., aquaculture, fishing) rather than trade. Here, we quantify the magnitude and extent of global 'redundant two-way' seafood trade-the exchange of the same quantity of the same taxonomic species between two countries-to examine its prevalence and potential implications across the seafood supply chain. We focused on wild-caught seafood trade and found that redundant two-way trade has increased by 43%, between 2000 and 2015, making up 3.2% (7.7 Mt) of global seafood trade during that period. Although most countries were involved in redundant two-way seafood trade (111 of 212 analyzed), the majority occurred between five trade partners: Canada and the United States (15%), Germany and the Netherlands (11.8%); Denmark and Sweden (10.6%); Germany and Denmark (7.1%); and France and Norway (7%). Nearly 50% of redundant trade is made up of just four species including Atlantic herring, Atlantic cod, Skipjack tuna and Atlantic mackerel. While deficiencies in global seafood trade data mask seasonal and product heterogeneity, redundant trade could have implications for meeting conservation and sustainable development goals. Future research should build upon these findings to explore specific environmental, economic, and social implications associated with redundant two-way trade to benefit producers and consumers within the seafood supply chain., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2024 Kuempel et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

The article examines U.S.-Brazilian soluble coffee dispute between 1966-1971 and the period of negotiations for the renewal of the International Coffee Agreement (ICA). Topics discussed include reason for the improvement in the relationship between Brasilia and Washington in the early 1970s, goal of ICA, which was passed in 1962 due to the intensification of the Cold War in Latin America, and danger posed by the issue of Brazil's export subsidies on sales of soluble coffee to the U.S. It also mentions two initiatives that were at the center of the trade dispute with the U.S. on soluble coffee.

The Northern Pacific Railroad saw Puget Sound harbors as environments uniquely suited to connect the North American interior with the Pacific Ocean and enable U.S. trade with East Asia. But in building the physical infrastructure to link transcontinental trains with transpacific ships, Northern Pacific significantly altered Commencement Bay's shoreline and displaced Puyallups from their traditional territory. The articles uses a terraqueous perspective, emphasizing movement between terrestrial and aqueous environments, to demonstrate how U.S. pursuit of transpacific trade shaped the North American West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the social and legal standing of textiles and clothing during the antebellum period between the Revolutionary and Civil War in the U.S. The author points out that even slaves and married women, as group who had limited legal rights, had the rights to own their own clothing. Topics include the cost and availability of cloth and clothing, cases of infanticide, escaped slaves and their clothing, and the story of slave James whose fancy striped pantaloons were stolen and recovered after being recognized.

In this paper, we first estimate the monthly realised correlation, based on daily data, between stock returns of the United States (US) and Bitcoin returns. Then, we relate the realised correlation over the period October 2011 to May 2019 with a news‐based measure of the growth of trade uncertainty of the US. Our results show that the realised correlation is negatively impacted by increases in trade uncertainty, which continues to hold under alternative robustness checks, suggesting that Bitcoin can act as a hedge relative to the conventional stock market in the wake of heightened trade policy‐related uncertainties, and provide diversification benefits for investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Economics / Economia Internazionale is the property of Camera di Commercio di Genova and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)