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Abstract The objective of the present study is to address child and maternal malnutrition in nine African countries located in the Western sub-region of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by incorporating three types of agricultural financing (domestic and external) along with energy poverty, human capital and corruption on malnutrition for the 1990–2019 period and present implications for Sustainable development goals (SDGs). This objective is realized by employing recently advanced panel techniques such as the second-generation panel econometrics techniques and the method of moments quantile regression (MMQR) approach. The estimated results reveal that agricultural credit and foreign aid in the agriculture sector significantly and negatively affect the malnutrition of children and mothers, while research spending in agriculture positively influences malnutrition. Energy poverty and human capital exert a negative and significant influence on child and maternal malnutrition, while corruption induces it. The study finally recommends several policy insights for the governments across the SSA region for tackling child and maternal malnutrition and advancing towards the achievement of SDG 3 through investment in SDG 4, SDG 7 and SDG 17.

Md Anwarul Azim Majumder,1 Abdulmuhaimin Aslam Khatib,2 Taha Alhassan,3 Mohammed S Razzaque2,3 1The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados; 2Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Erie, Pennsylvania, USA; 3Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, University of Texas (UTRGV), Edinburg, Texas, USACorrespondence: Mohammed S Razzaque, Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, University of Texas (UTRGV), 1204 W Schunior Street, Edinburg, Texas, 78541, USA, Tel +1 (956) 296 2314, Email mohammed.razzaque@utrgv.eduAbstract: This article describes the evolving landscape of medical education in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, emphasizing the renewed importance of public health, mental well-being, and career choices among medical students. The pandemic has prompted a significant shift in medical student’s career aspirations, highlighting the need for mental health support mechanisms within the medical education framework. Medical students’ career choices are influenced directly and indirectly by the challenges and experiences of the pandemic era, which are discussed in this article under four key themes: traditional values, global health interests and disparities, developing trends, and digital healthcare. There is an urgent need to adjust medical training to the new reality and share the future directions of the medical education landscape by embracing diverse career paths in medicine, integrating technology into medical training, adapting to the changing context of medicine, and strengthening collaboration and communication. The pandemic underscores the importance of evidence-based patient care, necessitating the preparation of tomorrow’s doctors to address the emerging healthcare challenges with resilience, adaptability, and a comprehensive understanding of both local and global health challenges.Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic, mental health, career aspirations, medical students, impact

Currently, the world faces an existential threat of climate change, and every government across the globe is trying to come up with strategies to tackle the severity of climate change in every way possible. To this end, the use of clean energy rather than fossil fuel energy sources is critical, as it can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pave the way for carbon neutrality. This study examines the impact of the energy cleanability gap on four different climate vulnerabilities, such as ecosystem, food, health, and housing vulnerabilities, considering 47 European and non-European high-income countries. The study considers samples from 2002 to 2019. This study precedes the empirical analysis in the context of a quadratic relationship between the energy cleanability gap and climate vulnerability. The study uses system-generalized methods of the moment as the main technique, while panel quantile regression is a robustness analysis. Fixed effect and random effect models have also been incorporated. The study finds that the energy cleanability gap and all four climate vulnerabilities demonstrate a U-shaped relationship in both European and non-European countries, implying that when the energy cleanability gap increases, climate vulnerability decreases, but after reaching a certain threshold, it starts to increase. Development expenditure is found to be negatively affecting food and health vulnerabilities in European nations, while it increases food vulnerability and decreases health vulnerability in non-European nations. Regarding industrialization's impact on climate vulnerabilities, the study finds opposite effects for the European and non-European economies. On the other hand, for both groups, trade openness decreases climate vulnerabilities. Based on these results, the study recommends speeding up the energy transition process from fossil fuel energy resources towards clean energy resources to obtain carbon neutrality in both European and non-European groups.

Dina Keumala Sari,1 M Ichwan,2 Dewi Masyithah,3 Ridha Dharmajaya,4 Alfi Khatib5 1Department of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 2Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 3Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 4Department of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia; 5Kulliyah of Pharmacy, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaCorrespondence: Dina Keumala SariDepartment of Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Dr. Mansyur No. 5, Padang Bulan, Kec. Medan Baru, Kota Medan, Sumatera Utara, Medan, 20155, IndonesiaTel +62 81397177693Email dina@usu.ac.idPurpose: Obesity that occurs in adulthood is influenced by various factors, not only energy balance, especially concerning the amount of energy consumed, but also heredity. The hereditary factors of obese parents on childhood obesity have been studied, but what about adulthood? This study examines the relationship between a history of obesity in adolescence, and maternal and paternal incidences of adult obesity.Patients and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional study that included adult men and women aged 20– 60 years old. The subjects had no chronic or metabolic disease. This research was conducted from April to November, 2020, in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. The parameters studied were demographics, daily food intake, anthropometry and a history of obesity in adolescence, and for the participants’ fathers and mothers. The statistical test used was the chi-squared test/Fisher test.Results: This study included 136 research subjects, 60 male and 76 female; based on the results of the study, 47.8% were found to be obese, but food intake showed a low intake (96.2%). There was a significant relationship between a history of obesity in adolescence and incidences of obesity (≥ 30 kg/m2) in the mother and father, with significance values of p=0.01, p=0.004, and p=0.001, respectively.Conclusion: This study found that there was a significant relationship between a history of obesity in adolescence and incidences of adult obesity (≥ 30kg/m2) in parents, but not with the level of food intake per day. The risk of obesity will increase further with a history of obesity in parents and obesity in adolescence, and this can be used to understand and prevent obesity.Keywords: adolescent, energy, food, heredity, anthropometry

California is the nation’s primary producer of almonds, pistachios, and walnuts, and an important producer of rice. Because of California’s diverse cropping systems, off-target herbicide drift can be a considerable problem, particularly from aerial applications that are commonly used in flooded rice production systems. Triclopyr is an auxin-mimic type herbicide that has been commonly used in rice for many years for control of broadleaf weeds and the industry is familiar with symptoms of off-target triclopyr drift. Florpyrauxifen-benzyl is a newly registered auxin-mimic herbicide in California rice with activity on key weeds and is being rapidly adopted. Although symptoms typically are similar among auxinic herbicides, it is important to understand subtle differences and risks among these herbicides as stewardship for newly registered products. This research was conducted in 2020 and 2021 to determine the relative sensitivity of almond, pistachio, and walnut trees to simulated drift rates of florpyrauxifen-benzyl and triclopyr as well as characterize and compare symptoms caused by these two herbicides. The fractional herbicide rates tested were 1/200X, 1/100X, 1/33X, and 1/10X of the florpyrauxifen-benzyl use rate of 29.4 g·ha21 a.i. and 1/200X, 1/100X, and 1/33X of the triclopyr use rate of 420.3 g·ha21 a.e. Florpyrauxifen-benzyl and triclopyr herbicides were applied directly to one side of the canopy of 1- to 2-year-old almond, pistachio, and walnut trees. The general symptoms of florpyrauxifen-benzyl and triclopyr were chlorosis, chlorotic spots, leaf curling, leaf narrowing, leaf distortion, leaf malformation, leaf crinkling, shoot curling, stem coloring, stunting, terminal bud death, and twisting. The florpyrauxifen-benzyl and triclopyr injury symptoms were compared at the same fractional rates and found to be similar to each other. The herbicide injury was observed on the entire pistachio canopy, particularly on developing leaves and terminal buds. In contrast, injury symptoms on almond and walnut were more apparent on the side of the canopy to which the herbicides were applied. Symptom severity peaked at 14 days after treatment with the 1/10X florpyrauxifen-benzyl rate, when the visible injury was 16%, 48%, and 78% on almond, walnut, and pistachio, respectively. Although almond and walnut symptoms from the 1/10X florpyrauxifen-benzyl rate remained visible longer than all other treatments, all trees gradually recovered throughout the growing season. In contrast, pistachio trees did not recover fully and had injury symptoms that persisted for the remainder of the treatment year and at leaf-out the following spring. When drift occurs, it is typically at rates below 1/100X up to 1/33X of herbicide use rates. This research suggested that proper herbicide drift management practices and application precautions are likely to minimize the risk of significant injury from florpyrauxifen-benzyl drift to almond and walnut because of low injury symptoms at the typical drift rates. However, extra precautions may be needed if there are nearby pistachio orchards.

Converging lines of preclinical and clinical research indicate that females, in stark contrast to males, display an increased prevalence of chronic pain. Females also demonstrate weaker analgesic efficacy in response to opioid therapies when compared with males. These sex-specific differences may be driven by dimorphic endogenous opioidergic responses. In rodent models, analgesia exhibited in males but not females was reversed by inhibiting endogenous opioidergic reception. In humans, the sex-specific endogenous system(s) supporting the direct attenuation of evoked pain has not been identified. To determine whether opioidergic blockade reverses self-regulated analgesia in males as compared to females, the present study combined two operationally analogous clinical trials (n = 98; 51 females and 47 males). In a double-blinded, counterbalanced study involving healthy (n = 39) and chronic low back pain (n = 59) populations, a high-dose naloxone (μ-, κ-, δ-opioid antagonist) vs. placebo-saline cross-over design (15 mg/kg bolus +0.1 mg/kg/h) tested the hypothesis that endogenous opioids mediate analgesia in males but not females. An 11-point visual analog scale (VAS) (0 = no pain; 10 = worst pain imaginable) evaluated pain ratings in response to noxious heat stimulation (49 °C; calf). After baseline pain testing, participants were randomized to a validated four-session mindfulness meditation or sham mindfulness meditation training intervention. Participants practiced their respective meditation during noxious heat, intravenous high-dose naloxone, and placebo saline, respectively. In males and females, meditation significantly lowered evoked pain during saline infusion. Intravenous naloxone inhibited analgesia in males, but pain relief was well preserved in females. The present findings indicate that endogenous opioids mediate self-regulated analgesia in males but not females and underscore the need to establish sex-specific pain therapeutics.

This study examines the impact of religious and educational freedoms on prosperity. The system GMM model is applied by using the data of 45 lower-, middle-, and high-income countries from 2009 to 2018. The results show that religious and academic freedoms are positively and statistically significantly associated with prosperity. It is revealed from the results that the lagged impact of both religious and education freedoms has a higher impact on prosperity than the current level of both variables. Interestingly, the interaction term between academic and religious freedom is also positive and statistically significant, indicating that their combined effect further increases prosperity. Further, the interaction term between government effectiveness and gross fixed capital formation is introduced. Its impact is positive and significant, indicating that capital investment positively affects prosperity in the case of higher government effectiveness. This study uses gross fixed capital formation and trade openness as control variables and these variables have a positive impact on prosperity, but the impact of trade openness on prosperity is insignificant. Thus, this study recommends religious and education freedom to achieve prosperity, especially in low-income countries that are already lagging.

With the growing expectations from the field of education, increases the importance of effective school leadership. The school proves its effectiveness depending on various factors; the principal's leadership style is the main one. The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the female gender and national culture dimensions on the leadership styles of Emirati female school principals, as educational leaders, and the relationships that exist among the different variables. Explanatory sequential mixed method approach was used in two phases for this study. In the first phase, the quantitative data were collected using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (5X-short) survey and the cultural dimensions survey. In the second phase, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews and qualitative observations. The findings of the study indicated that Emirati female leaders tend to be more transformational in their leadership styles while they still practice transactional leadership to a certain degree. They were found to be more "androgynous" carrying the qualities of both male and female leaders. In addition, the leadership styles and their elements proved to have a significant relationship to national culture dimensions except for management by exception (active). Future research should include a larger sample size and the perspectives of the followers as well. It is important to conduct the study in different organizational contexts not only in schools to confirm the finding that women use "androgynous" style in the United Arab Emirate and beyond.

Pyraclonil is a new herbicide to control weeds in California water-seeded rice (Oryza sativa L.). The objectives of this research were to evaluate weed control and rice response from pyraclonil applied alone at different timings and when applied in combinations with other herbicides. In one field study, pyaclonil was applied at 0.3 lbs a.i. ac−1 on pre-seed bare ground, 1-inch flood, 4-inch flood and 3 days after flooding in water-seeded rice. In another study, pyraclonil was applied at 0.3 lbs a.i. ac−1 at day of rice seeding and followed by various registered herbicides. Pyraclonil applications resulted in similar weed control across timings. Pyraclonil provided greater than 92% control of smallflower umbrella sedge (Cyperus difformis L.) and broadleaf weeds but less than 60% control of ricefield bulrush [Schoenoplectus mucronatus (L.) Palla] at 42 days after treatment. Watergrass (Echinochloa spp.) control was achieved with pyraclonil if applied before emergence. Early-season rice injury from pyraclonil was observed; however, rice appeared uninjured later in the season. The addition of other herbicides after a pyraclonil application increased weed control levels across weed species and resulted in grain yields from 6,925 to 8,623 and 9,182 to 10,865 lbs ac−1 in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Pyraclonil provides early-season weed control and, when incorporated with other herbicides, will be a useful herbicide in water-seeded rice.

Assessing the feasibility of 2030 as a target date for global elimination of trachoma, and identification of districts that may require enhanced treatment to meet World Health Organization (WHO) elimination criteria by this date are key challenges in operational planning for trachoma programmes. Here we address these challenges by prospectively evaluating forecasting models of trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) prevalence, leveraging ensemble-based approaches. Seven candidate probabilistic models were developed to forecast district-wise TF prevalence in 11 760 districts, trained using district-level data on the population prevalence of TF in children aged 1-9 years from 2004 to 2022. Geographical location, history of mass drug administration treatment, and previously measured prevalence data were included in these models as key predictors. The best-performing models were included in an ensemble, using weights derived from their relative likelihood scores. To incorporate the inherent stochasticity of disease transmission and challenges of population-level surveillance, we forecasted probability distributions for the TF prevalence in each geographic district, rather than predicting a single value. Based on our probabilistic forecasts, 1.46% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.43-1.48%) of all districts in trachoma-endemic countries, equivalent to 172 districts, will exceed the 5% TF control threshold in 2030 with the current interventions. Global elimination of trachoma as a public health problem by 2030 may require enhanced intervention and/or surveillance of high-risk districts.

Within the scope of this study, a psychoeducation program based on multicultural competencies and Berry's acculturation model was developed to improve the adjustment process of international students. In this study, an explanatory sequential design was used. The study group consisted of 34 international students who volunteered for the study. The quantitative results of the study indicated that the Culture-Based Adjustment Program significantly affected the personal and social adjustment of international students. However, it did not significantly affect the adjustment to the university environment, emotional adjustment, dating relationships, and academic adjustment. The qualitative analysis yielded five major categories: (a) expectations, (b) contributions, (c) evaluation of the program, (d) leader, and (e) suggestions. The findings of this study highlight the importance of psychoeducation programs in the adjustment process of international students.