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Early adolescent drinking onset is linked to myriad negative consequences. Using the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) baseline to year 8 data, this study (1) leveraged best subsets selection and Cox Proportional Hazards regressions to identify the most robust predictors of adolescent first and regular drinking onset, and (2) examined the clinical utility of drinking onset in forecasting later binge drinking and withdrawal effects. Baseline predictors included youth psychodevelopmental characteristics, cognition, brain structure, family, peer, and neighborhood domains. Participants (N=538) were alcohol-naïve at baseline. The strongest predictors of first and regular drinking onset were positive alcohol expectancies (Hazard Ratios [HRs]=1.67-1.87), easy home alcohol access (HRs=1.62-1.67), more parental solicitation (e.g., inquiring about activities; HRs=1.72-1.76), and less parental control and knowledge (HRs=.72-.73). Robust linear regressions showed earlier first and regular drinking onset predicted earlier transition into binge and regular binge drinking (βs=0.57-0.95). Zero-inflated Poisson regressions revealed that delayed first and regular drinking increased the likelihood (Incidence Rate Ratios [IRR]=1.62 and IRR=1.29, respectively) of never experiencing withdrawal. Findings identified behavioral and environmental factors predicting temporal paths to youthful drinking, dissociated first from regular drinking initiation, and revealed adverse sequelae of younger drinking initiation, supporting efforts to delay drinking onset.

Heavy alcohol drinking is a major, preventable problem that adversely impacts the physical and mental health of US young adults. Studies seeking drinking risk factors typically focus on young adults who enrolled in 4-year residential college programs (4YCP) even though most high school graduates join the workforce, military, or community colleges. We examined 106 of these understudied young adults (USYA) and 453 4YCPs from the National Consortium on Alcohol and NeuroDevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) by longitudinally following their drinking patterns for 8 years from adolescence to young adulthood. All participants were no-to-low drinkers during high school. Whereas 4YCP individuals were more likely to initiate heavy drinking during college years, USYA participants did so later. Using mental health metrics recorded during high school, machine learning forecasted individual-level risk for initiating heavy drinking after leaving high school. The risk factors differed between demographically matched USYA and 4YCP individuals and between sexes. Predictors for USYA drinkers were sexual abuse, physical abuse for girls, and extraversion for boys, whereas 4YCP drinkers were predicted by the ability to recognize facial emotion and, for boys, greater openness. Thus, alcohol prevention programs need to give special consideration to those joining the workforce, military, or community colleges, who make up the majority of this age group.

The outbreak of COVID-19 in early 2020 has caused a crisis in various sectors, including the economic sector. In fact, its impact on the performance of Islamic banks in the ASEAN region is currently still unknown. Therefore, this study aims to obtain empirical evidence regarding the effect of COVID-19 on profitability performance and maqashid sharia performance in Islamic banks in the ASEAN region. Profitability performance is measured by return on equity (ROE) and return on assets (ROA). The number of observations from this study was 202 with a sample of 30 Islamic commercial banks in the ASEAN region in 2015–2021. The data analysis technique used is EViews 12. The results show that COVID-19 has no significant effect on profitability performance in Islamic banks, whether measured by ROE or ROA. On the other hand, COVID-19 has a significant effect on reducing the maqashid sharia performance. In addition, company size has been proven to positively affect profitability performance and maqashid sharia performance in Islamic banks before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Operating expense ratio (OER) has been proven to affect ROE and ROA, whereas FDR and non-performing financing (NPF) have been proven to only affect ROA. OER influences promoting welfare, while FDR and NPF influence establishing justice. The study results confirm the ability of Islamic banks to generate profits amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. They also confirm the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on three aspects of maqashid sharia performance.

The digital divide in Indonesia is rather big. This study aims to investigate the demographic and socioeconomic determinants affecting the quantity of uses of the Internet in Indonesia. The data used are based on the National Socioeconomic Survey in 2021. The object of the analysis is population aged 15 years and above possessing at least one digital gadget. The dependent variable is the purpose of the Internet use. The independent variables included gender, age, number of household members, marital status, education, employment status, place of dwelling, island of residence, and number of types of digital gadgets owned. A binary logistic regression model was employed in the analysis. The results of the study indicate that a higher quantity of uses of the Internet is associated with a female sex, younger age, smaller number of household members, unmarried status, higher education, dwelling in urban areas, living in Java Island, and owning more than one type of digital gadgets. These findings suggest the need to improve access to the Internet among men, older people, ever-married individuals, rural dwellers, and Outer Java inhabitants, to promote family planning, to improve education and accessibility of more types of digital gadgets in order to bridge the digital divide and to boost the global competitiveness index 4.0 in Indonesia.

This interview presents Professor István Szilágyi’s life and the major events in his career. It includes, among other things, the early school and university years, as well as all those by whom his career has been shaped. The semi-structured interview discusses his research activities, his travels and his advice for the younger generation of geographers. Professor István Szilágyi is a retired professor at the University of Pécs and the former Dean of the Faculty of Modern Philology and Social Sciences at Pannon University. He is a renowned researcher in the theory of international relations, geopolitics and political changes in Latin America and the Hispanic world. The Professor has not only published more than hundreds of papers and book chapters in Hungarian, English, German, Russian, Portuguese and Spanish, but also, he is the author of seventeen monographs. Throughout his career, he has developed significant foreign contacts in Latin America and Europe. As a guest professor, he has visited Valladolid, Paris, Cluj-Napoca, Cadiz, Valencia, La Laguna and Dijon, among others. He has also carried out research in Portugal, Brazil, Chile, Russia and Cuba.

Some studies have reported that the initial music training of primary teachers can be problematic due to gaps in disciplinary and didactic training and a relative neglect of the objectives that music education should address in the school curriculum. Such gaps may lead to low levels of self-confidence in teaching music in the general classroom. Furthermore, the fast transformations occurring in contemporary society in terms of access to and functions of music, demand novel pedagogical approaches that might be better equipped to address current social and educational needs such as creativity, collaborative work and interdisciplinarity. In order to investigate the relationship between the initial musical training of primary teachers and their self-confidence in teaching music, a study was carried out based on an intervention in the Primary Education Teaching degree program at a Spanish university. The intervention was innovative and based on a collaborative, creative, and interdisciplinary approach. The findings, referring both to the processes and products of this intervention, show both an increase in pedagogical reflection and in the transformation of values and beliefs, as well as an improvement of self-confidence in student teachers' musical skills.

THIS REPORT UPDATES PREVIOUS CDC GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS ON PREFERRED PREVENTION AND TREATMENT REGIMENS REGARDING NATURALLY OCCURRING ANTHRAX. ALSO PROVIDED ARE A WIDE RANGE OF ALTERNATIVE REGIMENS TO FIRST-LINE ANTIMICROBIAL DRUGS FOR USE IF PATIENTS HAVE CONTRAINDICATIONS OR INTOLERANCES OR AFTER A WIDE-AREA AEROSOL RELEASE OF: Bacillus anthracis spores if resources become limited or a multidrug-resistant B. anthracis strain is used (Hendricks KA, Wright ME, Shadomy SV, et al.; Workgroup on Anthrax Clinical Guidelines. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expert panel meetings on prevention and treatment of anthrax in adults. Emerg Infect Dis 2014;20:e130687; Meaney-Delman D, Rasmussen SA, Beigi RH, et al. Prophylaxis and treatment of anthrax in pregnant women. Obstet Gynecol 2013;122:885-900; Bradley JS, Peacock G, Krug SE, et al. Pediatric anthrax clinical management. Pediatrics 2014;133:e1411-36). Specifically, this report updates antimicrobial drug and antitoxin use for both postexposure prophylaxis (PEP) and treatment from these previous guidelines best practices and is based on systematic reviews of the literature regarding 1) in vitro antimicrobial drug activity against B. anthracis; 2) in vivo antimicrobial drug efficacy for PEP and treatment; 3) in vivo and human antitoxin efficacy for PEP, treatment, or both; and 4) human survival after antimicrobial drug PEP and treatment of localized anthrax, systemic anthrax, and anthrax meningitis. CHANGES FROM PREVIOUS CDC GUIDELINES AND RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE AN EXPANDED LIST OF ALTERNATIVE ANTIMICROBIAL DRUGS TO USE WHEN FIRST-LINE ANTIMICROBIAL DRUGS ARE CONTRAINDICATED OR NOT TOLERATED OR AFTER A BIOTERRORISM EVENT WHEN FIRST-LINE ANTIMICROBIAL DRUGS ARE DEPLETED OR INEFFECTIVE AGAINST A GENETICALLY ENGINEERED RESISTANT: B. anthracis strain. In addition, these updated guidelines include new recommendations regarding special considerations for the diagnosis and treatment of anthrax meningitis, including comorbid, social, and clinical predictors of anthrax meningitis. The previously published CDC guidelines and recommendations described potentially beneficial critical care measures and clinical assessment tools and procedures for persons with anthrax, which have not changed and are not addressed in this update. In addition, no changes were made to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations for use of anthrax vaccine (Bower WA, Schiffer J, Atmar RL, et al. Use of anthrax vaccine in the United States: recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, 2019. MMWR Recomm Rep 2019;68[No. RR-4]:1-14). The updated guidelines in this report can be used by health care providers to prevent and treat anthrax and guide emergency preparedness officials and planners as they develop and update plans for a wide-area aerosol release of B. anthracis.

Microencapsulation could be employed to coat bacteria with protective compounds to enhance their viability. The freeze-drying method uses low temperatures, thereby reducing heat damage. Bifidobacterium breve was used as a probiotic along with Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus bulgaricus, two common yogurt cultures. Yogurt, a nutrient-rich milk product, has the potential to be an effective probiotic carrier. This research aimed to examine how the freeze-drying process with varying ratios of coating materials affects the viability of the bacteria combination B. breve, S. thermophilus, and L. bulgaricus under acidic and bile salt conditions, as well as the microencapsulation efficiency and particle size. The treatments tested different ratios of whey protein isolate to trehalose as a coating (1:1, 1.5:1, 2:1, 2.5:1, 3:1). The 1:1 ratio yielded the best results, with lactic acid bacteria counts of 6.60 log colony/mL at pH 2.0, 6.84 log colony/mL at pH 3.0, 7.39 log colony/mL at pH 4.0, 7.47 log colony/mL at pH 5.0, 7.70 log colony/mL at pH 6.0, and 7.05 log colony/mL in a bile salt environment. This ratio demonstrated 107.96% microencapsulation efficiency and a particle size of 9.66 μm.

Abstract Introduction Long-acting injectable antiretroviral treatment (LAI-ART) has emerged as a novel alternative to the burden of daily oral pills. The bi-monthly intramuscular injectable containing cabotegravir and rilpivirine holds the promise of improving adherence to ART. The perspectives of potential users of LAI-ART, the majority of whom reside in Eastern and Southern Africa, are still largely unexplored. We set out to understand the experiences of people with HIV (PWH) who received LAI-ART at Fort Portal Regional Referral Hospital in mid-Western Uganda for at least 12 months. Methods This qualitative study, conducted between July and August 2023, was nested within a larger study. We conducted four focus groups with 32 (out of 69) PWH who received intramuscular injections of cabotegravir and rilpivirine. In-depth interviews were held with six health workers who delivered LAI-ART to PWH. Data were analyzed by thematic approach broadly modeled on the five domains of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Results There was high acceptability of LAI-ART (30 /32 or 94%) participants requested to remain on LAI-ART even after the end of the 12-month trial. Adherence to ART was reportedly improved when compared to daily oral treatment. Participants credited LAI-ART with; superior viral load suppression, redemption from the daily psychological reminder of living with HIV, enhanced privacy in HIV care and treatment, reduced HIV-related stigma associated with taking oral pills and that it absolved them from carrying bulky medication packages. Conversely, nine participants reported pain around the injection site and a transient fever soon after administering the injection as side effects of LAI-ART. Missed appointments for receiving the bi-monthly injection were common. Providers identified health system barriers to the prospective scale-up of LAI-ART which include the perceived high cost of LAI-ART, stringent cold chain requirements, physical space limitations, and workforce skills gaps in LAI-ART delivery as potential drawbacks. Conclusion Overall, PWH strongly preferred LAI-ART and expressed a comparatively higher satisfaction with this treatment alternative. Health system barriers to potential scale-up are essential to consider if a broader population of PWH will benefit from this novel HIV treatment option in Uganda and other resource-limited settings. Trial registration Trial Registry Number PACTR ID PACTR202104874490818 (registered on 16/04/2021).