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BackgroundIn the past several decades, obesity has become a major public health issue worldwide, associated with increased rates of chronic disease and death. Like many developing nations, South Africa is experiencing rapid increases in BMI, and as a result, evidence-based preventive strategies are needed to reduce the increasing burden of overweight and obesity. This study aimed to determine the prevalence and predictors of overweight and obesity among a multi-ethnic cohort from the rural Northern Cape of South Africa.MethodsThese data were collected as part of a tuberculosis (TB) case-control study, with 395 healthy control participants included in the final analysis. Overweight and obesity were defined according to WHO classification. Multivariate linear models of BMI were generated using sex, age, education level, smoking, alcohol consumption, and diabetes as predictor variables. We also used multivariable logistic regression analysis to assess the relationship of these factors with overweight and obesity.ResultsThe average BMI in our study cohort was 25.2. The prevalence of overweight was 18.0% and the prevalence of obesity was 25.0%. We find that female sex, being older, having more years of formal education, having diabetes, and being in a rural area are all positively associated with BMI in our dataset. Women (OR = 5.6, 95% CI [3.3-9.8]), rural individuals (OR = 3.3, 95% CI [1.9-6.0]), older individuals (OR = 1.02, 95% CI [1-1.04]), and those with more years of education (OR = 1.2, 95% CI [1.09-1.32]) were all more likely to be overweight or obese. Alternatively, being a smoker is negatively associated with BMI and decreases one's odds of being overweight or obese (OR = 0.28, 95% CI [0.16-0.46]).ConclusionsWe observed a high prevalence of overweight and obesity in this study. The odds of being overweight and obese were higher in women, those living in rural areas, and those with more education, and increases with age. Community-based interventions to control obesity in this region should pay special attention to these groups.

Accurate and timely detection, quantification, and attribution of methane emissions from Underground Gas Storage (UGS) facilities is essential for improving confidence in greenhouse gas inventories, enabling emission mitigation by facility operators, and supporting efforts to assess facility integrity and safety. We conducted multiple airborne surveys of the 12 active UGS facilities in California between January 2016 and November 2017 using advanced remote sensing and in situ observations of near-surface atmospheric methane (CH4). These measurements where combined with wind data to derive spatially and temporally resolved methane emission estimates for California UGS facilities and key components with spatial resolutions as small as 1-3 m and revisit intervals ranging from minutes to months. The study spanned normal operations, malfunctions, and maintenance activity from multiple facilities including the active phase of the Aliso Canyon blowout incident in 2016 and subsequent return to injection operations in summer 2017. We estimate that the net annual methane emissions from the UGS sector in California averaged between 11.0 3.8 GgCH4 yr-1 (remote sensing) and 12.3 3.8 GgCH4 yr-1 (in situ). Net annual methane emissions for the 7 facilities that reported emissions in 2016 were estimated between 9.0 3.2 GgCH4 yr-1 (remote sensing) and 9.5 3.2 GgCH4 yr-1 (in situ), in both cases around 5 times higher than reported. The majority of methane emissions from UGS facilities in this study are likely dominated by anomalous activity: higher than expected compressor loss and leaking bypass isolation valves. Significant variability was observed at different time-scales: daily compressor duty-cycles and infrequent but large emissions from compressor station blow-downs. This observed variability made comparison of remote sensing and in situ observations challenging given measurements were derived largely at different times, however, improved agreement occurred when comparing simultaneous measurements. Temporal variability in emissions remains one of the most challenging aspects of UGS emissions quantification, underscoring the need for more systematic and persistent methane monitoring.

This article presents an approach to teaching how social media impacts the public-sector workplace. Social media creates new challenges for both public administration practitioners and teachers. Yet, the topic does not yet have wide-scale discussion in the public administration education literature. After a review of four approaches to public administration (managerial, legal, political, and ethical), we developed a fictional social media case that was administered in an email survey to a sample of 50 graduates of a Master of Public Administration (MPA) program (37 responded and completed the survey). The case involves a local government employee whose employer wants to terminate because of the employee's use of social media following a city council meeting. The results of our survey provide insight into how administrators would deal with the situation presented in the case and leads to the development of a series of questions for faculty using the case in their classroom. Our teaching case should provoke serious classroom discussions. Our study reveals the importance of the teaching and discussion of social media in public administration courses along with identifying continuing areas of future research.

In the 21st Century, research is increasingly data- and computation-driven. Researchers, funders, and the larger community today emphasize the traits of openness and reproducibility. In March 2017, 13 mostly early-career research leaders who are building their careers around these traits came together with ten university leaders (presidents, vice presidents, and vice provosts), representatives from four funding agencies, and eleven organizers and other stakeholders in an NIH- and NSF-funded one-day, invitation-only workshop titled "Imagining Tomorrow's University." Workshop attendees were charged with launching a new dialog around open research – the current status, opportunities for advancement, and challenges that limit sharing.The workshop examined how the internet-enabled research world has changed, and how universities need to change to adapt commensurately, aiming to understand how universities can and should make themselves competitive and attract the best students, staff, and faculty in this new world. During the workshop, the participants re-imagined scholarship, education, and institutions for an open, networked era, to uncover new opportunities for universities to create value and serve society. They expressed the results of these deliberations as a set of 22 principles of tomorrow's university across six areas: credit and attribution, communities, outreach and engagement, education, preservation and reproducibility, and technologies.Activities that follow on from workshop results take one of three forms. First, since the workshop, a number of workshop authors have further developed and published their white papers to make their reflections and recommendations more concrete. These authors are also conducting efforts to implement these ideas, and to make changes in the university system.  Second, we plan to organise a follow-up workshop that focuses on how these principles could be implemented. Third, we believe that the outcomes of this workshop support and are connected with recent theoretical work on the position and future of open knowledge institutions.

Comparative research has taught us much about the evolution and development of human and animal behavior. Humans share not just physical and biological similarities with other species, but also many behavioral traits and, in some of these cases, the psychological mechanisms behind them. Comparing behavior and cognition across multiple species can help scientists to pinpoint why and when in phylogenetic history a behavior may have evolved, how it evolved, and what the mechanisms behind it are (Tinbergen, 1963). While the comparative approach has proven quite effective in addressing these questions, comparing behavior across multiple species is not as easy and straightforward as it may initially seem. Rigorous methodology and careful interpretation of results is crucial to answering any of these questions definitively. The focus of the current article is on the comparative methodology and the important factors that need to be addressed in order for comparative research to be effective. We first discuss the benefits and importance of comparative research, followed by the challenges that need to be overcome in good comparative work. We then discuss experimental economics as one “model system” for comparative work that has proven particularly good at addressing such issues, and comment on other approaches. We conclude with future directions for comparative research with an eye on important methodological and theoretical considerations.

Methane (CH4) is a potent greenhouse gas and the primary component of natural gas. The San Juan Basin (SJB) is one of the largest coal-bed methane producing regions in North America and, including gas production from conventional and shale sources, contributed ∼2% of U.S. natural gas production in 2015. In this work, we quantify the CH4 flux from the SJB using continuous atmospheric sampling from aircraft collected during the TOPDOWN2015 field campaign in April 2015. Using five independent days of measurements and the aircraft-based mass balance method, we calculate an average CH4 flux of 0.54 ± 0.20 Tg yr-1 (1σ), in close agreement with the previous space-based estimate made for 2003-2009. These results agree within error with the U.S. EPA gridded inventory for 2012. These flights combined with the previous satellite study suggest CH4 emissions have not changed. While there have been significant declines in natural gas production between measurements, recent increases in oil production in the SJB may explain why emission of CH4 has not declined. Airborne quantification of outcrops where seepage occurs are consistent with ground-based studies that indicate these geological sources are a small fraction of the basin total (0.02-0.12 Tg yr-1) and cannot explain basinwide consistent emissions from 2003 to 2015.

Summary: Background: Equine anoplocephalid cestodes are tapeworms that occur worldwide in horses and are known to cause pathological manifestations and clinical disease within the digestive system of horses. Objective: While these clinical manifestations and the efficacy of currently available anthelmintics against equine tapeworms have been well documented, a recent study has demonstrated treatment failure of praziquantel and pyrantel pamoate, suggesting resistance; however, this has not been heavily investigated. Study design: This case study examined 24 Thoroughbred yearlings on one Kentucky Thoroughbred horse farm to investigate the elimination of tapeworm eggs after administration of routine anticestodal anthelmintics after confirmation of positive faecal egg counts. Methods: The Mini‐FLOTAC faecal egg counting method was used to count anoplocephalid eggs in yearlings treated with pyrantel pamoate paste (13.2 mg base/kg), moxidectin‐praziquantel (0.4 and 2.5 mg/kg) and ivermectin‐praziquantel (0.2 and 1 mg/kg) over a 6‐month period in 2022. Results: Data demonstrated that tapeworm egg shedding persisted post‐deworming with all three anthelmintic products. Out of the 24 Thoroughbred enrolled, 11/24 (45.8%) had persistent infections in the month of March and 3/24 (12.5%) had persistent infections in April after deworming with ivermectin‐praziquantel. With moxidectin‐praziquantel, 2/24 (8.3%) remained egg count positive. For pyrantel pamoate, 3/24 (12.5%) were detected with tapeworm eggs post‐treatment. During July and August, selected yearlings had faecal sampling done before and 2 weeks post‐deworming with moxidectin‐praziquantel. For July 1/6 (16.7%) horses had tapeworm eggs both before and after deworming, and one additional horse was positive in the post‐treatment sample only. For the August treatment, 4/14 (28.6%) were egg count positive both before and after deworming, with one additional horse being positive in the post‐treatment sample only. Conclusions: This study demonstrated evidence of anthelmintic treatment failure against equine tapeworms by means of regular faecal egg count monitoring. Veterinarians should be aware of this development and implement strategies to monitor anticestodal treatment success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pay It Forward is a major study conducted by the University of California, Davis, and the California Digital Library, on behalf of the University of California Libraries, and with collaborating libraries at Harvard University, Ohio State University, and the University of British Columbia addressed the financial ramifications for the types of research institutions whose affiliated scholars generate a preponderance of the scholarly literature. The project focused on large, research-intensive universities in North America and defined sustainability as costing those institutions roughly no more than, and ideally considerably less than, current journal subscription costs for comparable journals today, with a rate of growth that will be possible for these institutions to support over time. The project sheds new light on the financial viability of the article processing charge business model to create open access at a much larger scale.

Pay It Forward is a major study conducted by the University of California, Davis, and the California Digital Library, on behalf of the University of California Libraries, and with collaborating libraries at Harvard University, Ohio State University, and the University of British Columbia addressed the financial ramifications for the types of research institutions whose affiliated scholars generate a preponderance of the scholarly literature. The project focused on large, research-intensive universities in North America and defined sustainability as costing those institutions roughly no more than, and ideally considerably less than, current journal subscription costs for comparable journals today, with a rate of growth that will be possible for these institutions to support over time. The project sheds new light on the financial viability of the article processing charge business model to create open access at a much larger scale.

BackgroundNeurocognitive dysfunction is reported in women with breast cancer even prior to receipt of adjuvant therapy; however, there is little understanding of underlying mechanisms. We tested the hypothesis that pretreatment neurocognitive dysfunction in newly diagnosed patients is related to immunological activation, as indexed by pro-inflammatory cytokines.MethodsOne hundred seventy-four postmenopausal patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer underwent a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation (assessment of cognitive function, mood, and fatigue) and measurement of key cytokine levels prior to surgery. Age-matched control participants without cancer were evaluated concurrently. Multivariable regression analyses examined the contribution of circulating Interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra), and soluble TNF receptor type two (sTNF-RII) in predicting neurocognitive performance in patients after controlling for key factors thought to impact functioning. All tests of statistical significance were two-sided.ResultsMemory performance was statistically significantly reduced, in patients compared with controls (P = .02). Of the three cytokines measured, only IL-1ra was statistically significantly elevated in cancer patients when compared with control participants (mean ± SD, 375 ± 239 pg/mL vs 291 ± 169 pg/mL, P = .007). After controlling for age, education, race, mood, fatigue, body mass index, and comorbidity, cytokines independently explained 6.0% of the total variance in memory performance (P = .01) in cancer patients but not control participants, with higher sTNF-RII associated with worse functioning. Exploratory analyses found that comorbidity statistically significantly explained variance in processing speed and executive functioning (P = .03 and P = .03, respectively).ConclusionAn association of TNF with memory, previously reported in patients after exposure to chemotherapy, was found prior to initiation of any treatment, including surgery. This association requires further investigation as sTNF-RII was not higher in cancer patients relative to control participants.