{"results":[{"id":"doaj_10.3389/fpls.2026.1761774","title":"Impact of water deficiency on cotton ginning efficiency, fiber quality, and seed composition","authors":[{"name":"Fang Bai"},{"name":"Sean P. Donohoe"},{"name":"Abdelraheem Abdelraheem"},{"name":"Nacer Bellaloui"},{"name":"Partson Mubvumba"},{"name":"Linghe Zeng"}],"abstract":"Water deficiency is a prevalent abiotic stress that significantly constrains cotton productivity worldwide. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of water deficiency on ginning efficiency, fiber quality, and seed composition in cotton (Gossypium spp.). Ten cotton genotypes were assessed under irrigated and non-irrigated field conditions. Water deficiency markedly reduced plant height and the number of bolls, with genotypes MD 52ne, MD 25-26ne, and 1517–99 displaying high sensitivity, whereas CIM 432 exhibited notable water deficiency tolerance. Ginning efficiency analysis showed a general reduction in energy requirements under water deficiency, particularly in MD10-5, MD 15, and MD 52ne. CIM 432, however, maintained high boll numbers, and stable ginning rate and ginning energy under stress. Fiber quality traits such as length, strength, and uniformity were adversely affected by water deficiency across most genotypes, although CIM 432, MD 15 and 84524 showed greater stability. Correlation analyses under water deficiency revealed strong positive associations among fiber length, strength, and uniformity, along with a significant negative correlation between lint percentage and oil content, suggesting a trade-off between lint yield and seed oil accumulation. Cottonseed composition analysis indicated that when oil content declined under water deficiency, protein and seed fiber levels remained relatively unaffected. Significant genotypic variation was observed for most traits, with minimal genotype-by-treatment interactions, indicating consistent genotype performance across irrigated and non-irrigated treatments. Overall, CIM 432 emerged as a robust candidate for breeding water deficiency-tolerant cotton, combining agronomic resilience with stable fiber quality. These findings underscore the complexity of genotype-water deficiency stress interactions and highlight the importance of integrated phenotypic assessment for developing water deficiency-tolerant cotton varieties.","source":"DOAJ","year":2026,"language":"","subjects":["Plant culture"],"doi":"10.3389/fpls.2026.1761774","url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpls.2026.1761774/full","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":70},{"id":"doaj_10.3389/fpubh.2025.1730268","title":"Social network diversity and COVID-19 infection and severity risk: a longitudinal population study","authors":[{"name":"Takahiro Suzuki"},{"name":"Takahiro Suzuki"},{"name":"Takeo Fujiwara"},{"name":"Takeo Fujiwara"},{"name":"Takahiro Tabuchi"}],"abstract":"BackgroundClinical evidence on how social network diversity (SND) influences the risk of infection and disease severity during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remains limited. We aim to investigate the associations between SND and the risk of COVID-19 infection and disease severity using a large-scale longitudinal cohort study.MethodsWe analyzed data from participants in a longitudinal study, the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey (JACSIS) between 2020 and 2023. The SND score was calculated as the sum of seven distinct types of social networks. COVID-19 infection was assessed as ever infection, and severity was defined as oxygen-requiring admission, using a self-reported questionnaire. Poisson regression with robust standard errors estimated risk ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for sociodemographic and clinical characteristics.ResultsOf 13,713 participants (mean age 53.2 ± 15.7 years, 46.4% women), 3,251 (23.7%) developed COVID-19, and among infected individuals, 277 (8.5%) required oxygen therapy. Higher SND scores were associated with COVID-19 infection with linear trend (SND score 7 vs. 0: adjusted RR 2.49; 95% CI 2.11–2.95). In contrast, the association between SND score and disease severity followed a U-shaped pattern, with 4–5 SND showing the lowest risk of oxygen-requiring admission (adjusted RR 0.15; 95% CI 0.11–0.30) compared to those with 0 SND.ConclusionWhile higher SND was associated with increased COVID-19 infection risk, moderate social network diversity appeared protective against severe disease outcomes. These findings suggest a complex trade-off between exposure risk and potential health benefits of social networks during infectious disease outbreaks.","source":"DOAJ","year":2026,"language":"","subjects":["Public aspects of medicine"],"doi":"10.3389/fpubh.2025.1730268","url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1730268/full","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":70},{"id":"doaj_10.3389/fpubh.2026.1804524","title":"Challenges of using generative artificial intelligence for diabetes patient education: a cross-platform analysis of the quality, readability, and actionability of text generated by large language models","authors":[{"name":"Zhiqiang Wang"},{"name":"Zhiqiang Wang"},{"name":"Xiaoya Li"},{"name":"Xianglan Tao"},{"name":"Jie Li"},{"name":"Li Zhang"},{"name":"Xiaorong He"},{"name":"Jing Yang"}],"abstract":"ObjectiveTo compare, across large language model (LLM) platforms, the quality, readability, and completeness of action-oriented instructions in diabetes self-management education texts, and to quantify the associations among these domains to inform model selection and risk mitigation.MethodsTen LLM platforms were used to generate diabetes education texts (total n = 200), stratified by topic. Outcomes included the Global Quality Score (GQS), the Patient Education Materials Assessment Tool for Printable Materials (PEMAT-P), and EQIP-36 (Ensuring Quality Information for Patients, 36-item version). Text characteristics, including word count, sentence count, and syllable count, were recorded. Readability was assessed using the Automated Readability Index (ARI), Coleman–Liau Index (CLI), Flesch–Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL), Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Gunning Fog Index (GFOG), Linsear Write (LW), and the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG). Between-platform differences were evaluated using one-way ANOVA or the Kruskal–Wallis test, as appropriate. Associations between readability indices and GQS, PEMAT-P, and EQIP-36 were examined using correlation heat maps and exploratory stepwise multiple linear regression. Because the readability indices were highly intercorrelated, these regression analyses were considered exploratory and were used to identify candidate readability-related correlates rather than definitive independent predictors.ResultsGQS and PEMAT-P differed significantly across platforms (both p \u0026lt; 0.001), whereas EQIP-36 did not (p = 0.062). Text length and readability also varied by platform (most p \u0026lt; 0.001). After stratification by topic, PEMAT-P understandability, PEMAT-P total score, and GQS no longer differed significantly across topics (p = 0.356, p = 0.247, and p = 0.182, respectively), whereas PEMAT-P actionability (p \u0026lt; 0.001), EQIP-36 (p \u0026lt; 0.001), and several readability metrics remained significantly different. Difficulty indices were strongly intercorrelated, and FRES was inversely associated with multiple difficulty indices. Exploratory regression analyses suggested that greater reading burden tended to co-occur with lower GQS, PEMAT-P, and EQIP-36 scores.ConclusionLLM-generated diabetes education texts exhibit marked cross-platform heterogeneity, and exploratory analyses suggest a potential trade-off between readability and both information quality and the completeness of action-oriented instructions. Clinical implementation should therefore combine careful platform selection, structured prompting with templates, human–AI review, and continuous quality monitoring to support safe, readable, and actionable patient education.","source":"DOAJ","year":2026,"language":"","subjects":["Public aspects of medicine"],"doi":"10.3389/fpubh.2026.1804524","url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1804524/full","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":70},{"id":"doaj_10.7554/eLife.102447","title":"Early menarche and childbirth accelerate aging-related outcomes and age-related diseases: Evidence for antagonistic pleiotropy in humans","authors":[{"name":"Yifan Xiang"},{"name":"Vineeta Tanwar"},{"name":"Parminder Singh"},{"name":"Lizellen La Follette"},{"name":"Vikram Pratap Narayan"},{"name":"Pankaj Kapahi"}],"abstract":"Background: Aging can be understood as a consequence of the declining force of natural selection with age. Consistent with this, the antagonistic pleiotropy theory of aging proposes that aging arises from trade-offs that favor early growth and reproduction. However, evidence supporting antagonistic pleiotropy in humans remains limited.\nMethods: Mendelian randomization (MR) was applied to investigate the associations between the ages of menarche or first childbirth and age-related outcomes and diseases. Ingenuity Pathway Analysis was employed to explore gene-related aspects associated with significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) detected in MR analysis. The associations between the age of menarche, childbirth, and the number of childbirths with several age-related outcomes were validated in the UK Biobank by conducting regression analysis of nearly 200,000 subjects.\nResults: Using MR, we demonstrated that later ages of menarche or first childbirth were genetically associated with longer parental lifespan, decreased frailty index, slower epigenetic aging, later menopause, and reduced facial aging. Moreover, later menarche or first childbirth was also genetically associated with a lower risk of several age-related diseases, including late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, essential hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. We identified 158 significant SNPs that influenced age-related outcomes, some of which were involved in known longevity pathways, including insulin-like growth factor 1, growth hormone, AMP-activated protein kinase, and mTOR signaling. Our study also identified higher body mass index as a mediating factor in causing the increased risk of certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart failure, in women with early menarche or early pregnancy. We validated the associations between the age of menarche, childbirth, and the number of childbirths with several age-related outcomes in the UK Biobank by conducting regression analysis of nearly 200,000 subjects. Our results demonstrated that menarche before the age of 11 and childbirth before 21 significantly accelerated the risk of several diseases and almost doubled the risk for diabetes, heart failure, and quadrupled the risk of obesity, supporting the antagonistic pleiotropy theory.\nConclusions: Our study highlights the complex relationship between genetic legacies and modern diseases, emphasizing the need for gender-sensitive healthcare strategies that consider the unique connections between female reproductive health and aging.\nFunding: Hevolution Foundation (PK). National Institute of Health grant R01AG068288 and R01AG045835 (PK). Larry L. Hillblom Foundation (PK), Larry L. Hillblom Foundation (PS), Glenn Foundation (VN).","source":"DOAJ","year":2025,"language":"","subjects":["Medicine","Science","Biology (General)"],"doi":"10.7554/eLife.102447","url":"https://elifesciences.org/articles/102447","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":69},{"id":"doaj_10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113310","title":"Effects of northern bobwhite habitat management on avian species of conservation concern","authors":[{"name":"Johanna M. Ford"},{"name":"Anna M. Tucker"},{"name":"Adam K. Janke"},{"name":"Tyler M. Harms"},{"name":"Riggs O. Wilson"}],"abstract":"The umbrella species concept is often used as a tool to guide management decisions and focus efforts towards one focal species whose habitat needs overlap that of other species. We assessed this concept in the context of an agriculturally dominant landscape using one of the most well-studied avian species in North America as a target for conservation efforts: Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus). This species is often viewed as an umbrella species for grassland and shrubland bird conservation throughout its native range due to its complex, year-round habitat requirements. We assessed the influence of Northern Bobwhite habitat management on six songbird species of conservation concern in Iowa by evaluating similarities and differences in habitat associations between each species. Our objectives were to (1) assess which vegetation characteristics were most strongly associated with Northern Bobwhite occupancy and (2) evaluate whether those characteristics were also associated with abundance of the focal songbird species. We used occupancy and N-mixture models to assess relationships between vegetation characteristics and Northern Bobwhite occupancy and songbird abundance, respectively. We found that the vegetation characteristics most strongly associated with Northern Bobwhite occupancy probability were the amounts of closed canopy forest, early successional woody vegetation, non-vegetated areas, and percent cover of bare ground. We found that for some of these covariates, including the amounts of forest and non-vegetated area, the effect on focal songbird species abundance aligned with Northern Bobwhite occupancy. For others, including the amount of early successional woody vegetation, the effects differed. This assessment of overlap and variability in habitat associations suggests that Northern Bobwhite-targeted management can provide benefits to other grassland and shrubland birds, but may also come with some trade-offs. This work adds to existing literature, further highlighting the nuances of the umbrella species concept in that land management benefits from the assessment of trade-offs and inclusion of local community dynamics.","source":"DOAJ","year":2025,"language":"","subjects":["Ecology"],"doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113310","url":"http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X25002419","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":69},{"id":"doaj_10.3390/plants14243741","title":"Adaptive Strategies Mediating the Diversification of Alpine Plants: The Case of the Himalayan Blue Poppy (\u003ci\u003eMeconopsis\u003c/i\u003e, Papaveraceae)","authors":[{"name":"Na He"},{"name":"Zhimin Li"},{"name":"Yazhou Zhang"},{"name":"Wenguang Sun"}],"abstract":"Alpine habitats, characterized by their high degree of environmental heterogeneity and harsh climatic conditions, support a diverse array of plants with unique adaptive strategies. However, the mechanisms underlying the formation of these adaptive strategies, as well as their intrinsic links to species diversification, remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the evolution of life history traits, fruit characteristics, and variation in the karyotype of alpine species, and their roles in shaping their adaptability to high-altitude environments. We performed a comprehensive analysis of trait diversification, adaptive trait evolution, and their associations with environmental factors in the genus \u003ci\u003eMeconopsis\u003c/i\u003e on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Our results revealed that ancestral floral traits were characterized by solitary inflorescences and blue-purple pigmentation, features that have re-evolved at multiple points throughout the evolutionary history of the genus. We found that increased ploidy levels promoted perennial growth and semelparity (single-time fruiting), suggesting that life history strategies and fruiting frequency are strongly coupled. Furthermore, karyotypic variation and abiotic factors such as altitude, soil pH, and climate were found to accelerate the evolution of a perennial fruiting reproductive strategy. Our findings provide new insights into the evolution of adaptive traits in alpine plants and reveal how these species adjust their life history strategies in response to environmental pressures. Our findings enhance our understanding of resource allocation trade-offs in plants in extreme environments and shed light on the relationship between species diversification and adaptive evolution in alpine ecosystems.","source":"DOAJ","year":2025,"language":"","subjects":["Botany"],"doi":"10.3390/plants14243741","url":"https://www.mdpi.com/2223-7747/14/24/3741","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":69},{"id":"doaj_10.5194/hess-29-3809-2025","title":"Multi-sectoral and systemic drought risk in forested cold climates: stakeholder-informed vulnerability factors from Sweden","authors":[{"name":"E. Stenfors"},{"name":"M. Blicharska"},{"name":"T. Grabs"},{"name":"C. Teutschbein"}],"abstract":"\u003cp\u003eThere is a global call for proactive drought risk management, stressing the need to further our understanding of the systemic nature of drought risk. Proactive drought risk management requires an understanding of not only the drought hazard itself, but also  the underlying vulnerabilities in sociohydrological systems. As a result, drought vulnerability assessments are increasingly being conducted across the globe.  However, drought vulnerability is complex and shaped by the social, ecological, and hydroclimatic context. Thus, understanding how vulnerability is manifested depending on regional, sectoral, or societal differences is crucial. Therefore, here we present an assessment of the practical relevance and relative impact of various drought vulnerability factors for water-dependent sectors and societies in forested cold climates. The analysis was based on the results of an online survey conducted in Sweden, targeting stakeholders from seven water-dependent sectors, working in authorities, private and public enterprises, NGOs, and trade associations.  Respondents were asked to rate a comprehensive list of vulnerability factors, connected to sectoral and societal vulnerability as well as governance, based on their perceived impact on drought risk in their sector as well as for society as a whole. Results showed that the relevance and impact of individual vulnerability factors differed across sectors, with the forestry sector especially standing out compared to other sectors. Furthermore, the results indicate regional differences in societal vulnerability factors. The substantial list of vulnerability factors found to be relevant by the respondents demonstrates the complex nature of drought risk, as well as the importance of using caution when selecting generic vulnerability factors for applied vulnerability assessments.  Furthermore, the results provide a comprehensive guide to both sectoral and societal drought vulnerability in sociohydrological systems located in forested cold climates.\u003c/p\u003e","source":"DOAJ","year":2025,"language":"","subjects":["Technology","Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering","Geography. Anthropology. Recreation","Environmental sciences"],"doi":"10.5194/hess-29-3809-2025","url":"https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/29/3809/2025/hess-29-3809-2025.pdf","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":69},{"id":"ss_edf0cd4150d9ff03a79fd2db07f716dd23d99b5b","title":"Endeavours made by trade associations, pharmaceutical companies and regulators in the replacement, reduction and refinement of animal experimentation in safety testing of pharmaceuticals.","authors":[{"name":"Andrew W. Harrell"},{"name":"Kirsty Reid"},{"name":"J. Vahle"},{"name":"Frederic Brouta"},{"name":"M. Beilmann"},{"name":"Graeme C. Young"},{"name":"Kylie A. Beattie"},{"name":"J. Valentin"},{"name":"Shajahan Shaid"},{"name":"Peter Brinck"}],"abstract":"Following the European Commission decision to develop a roadmap to phase out animal testing and the signing of the US Modernisation Act, there is additional pressure on regulators and the pharmaceutical industry to abandon animal experimentation in safety testing. Often, endeavours already made by governments, regulators, trade associations, and industry to replace, reduce and refine animal experimentation (3Rs) are unnoticed . Herein, we review such endeavours to promote wider application and acceptance of 3Rs. ICH guidelines have stated 3Rs objectives and have enjoyed many successes driven by global consensus. Initiatives driven by US and European regulators such as the removal of the Abnormal Toxicity Test are neutralised by reticent regional regulators. Stream-lined testing requirements have been proposed for new modalities, oncology, impurity management and animal pharmacokinetics/metabolism. Use of virtual controls, value of the second toxicity species, information sharing and expectations for life-threatening diseases, human specific or well-characterised targets are currently being scrutinised. Despite much effort, progress falls short of the ambitious intent of decisionmakers. From a clinical safety and litigation perspective pharmaceutical companies and regulators are reluctant to step away from current paradigms unless replacement approaches are validated and globally accepted. Such consensus has historically been best achieved through ICH initiatives.","source":"Semantic Scholar","year":2024,"language":"en","subjects":["Medicine"],"doi":"10.1016/j.yrtph.2024.105683","url":"https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/edf0cd4150d9ff03a79fd2db07f716dd23d99b5b","pdf_url":"https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yrtph.2024.105683","is_open_access":true,"citations":14,"published_at":"","score":68.42},{"id":"arxiv_2401.02378","title":"Opinion formation in the world trade network","authors":[{"name":"Célestin Coquidé"},{"name":"José Lages"},{"name":"Dima L. Shepelyansky"}],"abstract":"We extend the opinion formation approach to probe the world influence of economical organizations. Our opinion formation model mimics a battle between currencies within the international trade network. Based on the United Nations Comtrade database, we construct the world trade network for the years of the last decade from 2010 to 2020. We consider different core groups constituted by countries preferring to trade in a specific currency. We will consider principally two core groups, namely, 5 Anglo-Saxon countries which prefer to trade in US dollar and the 11 BRICS+ which prefer to trade in a hypothetical currency, hereafter called BRI, pegged to their economies. We determine the trade currency preference of the other countries via a Monte Carlo process depending on the direct transactions between the countries. The results obtained in the frame of this mathematical model show that starting from year 2014 the majority of the world countries would have preferred to trade in BRI than USD. The Monte Carlo process reaches a steady state with 3 distinct groups: two groups of countries preferring, whatever is the initial distribution of the trade currency preferences, to trade, one in BRI and the other in USD, and a third group of countries swinging as a whole between USD and BRI depending on the initial distribution of the trade currency preferences. We also analyze the battle between USD, EUR and BRI, and present the reduced Google matrix description of the trade relations between the Anglo-Saxon countries and the BRICS+.","source":"arXiv","year":2024,"language":"en","subjects":["q-fin.TR","cond-mat.stat-mech","cs.SI","physics.soc-ph"],"doi":"10.3390/e26020141","url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.02378","pdf_url":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2401.02378","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"2024-01-04T17:38:15Z","score":68},{"id":"arxiv_2411.15092","title":"Trade Wars with Trade Deficits","authors":[{"name":"Pau Pujolas"},{"name":"Jack Rossbach"}],"abstract":"Trade imbalances significantly alter the welfare implications of tariffs. Using an illustrative model, we show that trade deficits enhance a country's ability to alter its terms of trade, and thereby benefit from tariffs. Greater trade deficits imply higher optimal, or welfare maximizing, tariffs. We compute optimal unilateral and Nash equilibrium tariffs between the United States and China $\\unicode{x2014}$ the countries with the largest bilateral trade imbalance $\\unicode{x2014}$ using a multi-region, multi-sector applied general equilibrium model with service sectors and input-output linkages, a computationally complex task. Free trade benefits both countries compared to a trade war. Relative to existing tariff rates, however, the United States gains from a trade war with China $\\unicode{x2014}$ a result that hinges on their bilateral trade imbalance.","source":"arXiv","year":2024,"language":"en","subjects":["econ.GN"],"url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.15092","pdf_url":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.15092","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"2024-11-22T17:45:29Z","score":68},{"id":"ss_c641fe1ad17d247c6652f7539228a0a954c89f3b","title":"Reproducing Responsible Gambling through Codes of Conduct: The Role of Trade Associations and Codes of Conduct in Shaping Risk Regulation","authors":[{"name":"Donal Casey"}],"abstract":"Online gambling emerged in the 1990s in the midst of a process of market liberalisation. Here, scholars have argued that the gambling industry actively seeks state regulation to authorise and legitimate its activities. Why then, since the emergence of the online gambling industry, have trade associations continually sought to develop responsible gambling codes of conduct? In this paper, I address this puzzle by documenting and tracing the development and deployment of responsible gambling codes of conduct by trade associations from the emergence of the online gambling industry in the early 1990s and through processes of increased market liberalisation at the national level and market integration at the European Union level. I argue that online gambling trade associations deploy responsible gambling codes of conduct at particular moments of opportunity to shape their members’ external legal and regulatory environment and to reproduce and embed a particular understanding of how gambling-related risks should be regulated.","source":"Semantic Scholar","year":2023,"language":"en","subjects":null,"doi":"10.1017/err.2023.50","url":"https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c641fe1ad17d247c6652f7539228a0a954c89f3b","pdf_url":"https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/2C1053732383B14E752B9866EF3BA2FD/S1867299X23000508a.pdf/div-class-title-reproducing-responsible-gambling-through-codes-of-conduct-the-role-of-trade-associations-and-codes-of-conduct-in-shaping-risk-regulation-div.pdf","is_open_access":true,"citations":4,"published_at":"","score":67.12},{"id":"ss_c26f2867be7f8bbade467e5841f4dfec8d434fda","title":"Following the money: trade associations, political activity and climate change","authors":[{"name":"R. Brulle"},{"name":"C. Downie"}],"abstract":"","source":"Semantic Scholar","year":2022,"language":"en","subjects":null,"doi":"10.1007/s10584-022-03466-0","url":"https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c26f2867be7f8bbade467e5841f4dfec8d434fda","is_open_access":true,"citations":37,"published_at":"","score":67.11},{"id":"doaj_10.1371/journal.pmed.1004147","title":"US and EU Free Trade Agreements and implementation of policies to control tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food and drinks: A quasi-experimental analysis.","authors":[{"name":"Pepita Barlow"},{"name":"Luke N Allen"}],"abstract":"\u003ch4\u003eBackground\u003c/h4\u003eIdentifying and tackling the factors that undermine regulation of unhealthy commodities is an essential component of effective noncommunicable disease (NCD) prevention. Unhealthy commodity producers may use rules in US and EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) to challenge policies targeting their products. We aimed to test whether there was a statistical relationship between US and EU FTA participation and reduced implementation of WHO-recommended policies.\u003ch4\u003eMethods and findings\u003c/h4\u003eWe performed a statistical analysis assessing the probability of at least partially implementing 10 tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food and drink policies in 127 countries in 2014, 2016, and 2019. We assessed differences in implementation of these policies in countries with and without US/EU FTAs. We used matching to conduct 48 covariate-adjusted quasi-experimental comparisons across 27 matched US/EU FTA members (87 country-years) and performed additional analyses and robustness checks to assess alternative explanations for our results. Out of our 48 tests, 19% (9/48) identified a statistically significant decrease in the predicted probability of at least partially implementing the unhealthy commodity policy in question, while 2% (1/48) showed an increase. However, there was marked heterogeneity across policies. At the level of individual policies, US FTA participation was associated with a 37% reduction (95%CI: -0.51 to -0.22) in the probability of fully implementing graphic tobacco warning policies, and a 53% reduction (95%CI: -0.63 to -0.43) in the probability of at least partially implementing smoke-free place policies. EU FTA participation was associated with a 28% reduction (95%CI: -0.45 to -0.10) in the probability of fully implementing graphic tobacco warning policies, and a 25% reduction (95%CI: -0.47 to -0.03) in the probability of fully implementing restrictions on child marketing of unhealthy food and drinks. There was a positive association with implementing fat limits and bans, but this was not robust. Associations with other outcomes were not significant. The main limitations included residual confounding, limited ability to discern precise mechanisms of influence, and potentially limited generalisability to other FTAs.\u003ch4\u003eConclusions\u003c/h4\u003eUS and EU FTA participation may reduce the probability of implementing WHO-recommended tobacco and child food marketing policies by between a quarter and a half-depending on the FTA and outcome in question. Governments negotiating or participating in US/EU FTAs may need to establish robust health protections and mitigation strategies to achieve their NCD mortality reduction targets.","source":"DOAJ","year":2023,"language":"","subjects":["Medicine"],"doi":"10.1371/journal.pmed.1004147","url":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1004147","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":67},{"id":"doaj_10.3389/fonc.2023.1100300","title":"More recent insights into the breast cancer burden across BRICS-Plus: Health consequences in key nations with emerging economies using the global burden of disease study 2019","authors":[{"name":"Sumaira Mubarik"},{"name":"Lisha Luo"},{"name":"Mujahid Iqbal"},{"name":" Nawsherwan"},{"name":"Jianjun Bai"},{"name":"Chuanhua Yu"}],"abstract":"BackgroundBrazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and 30 other Asian nations make up the BRICS-Plus, a group of developing countries that account for about half of the world’s population and contribute significantly to the global illness burden. This study aimed to analyzed the epidemiological burden of female breast cancer (BC) across the BRICS-Plus from 1990 to 2019 and studied the associations with age, period, birth cohort and countries’ sociodemographic index (SDI).MethodsThe BC mortality and incidence estimates came from the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study. We estimated cohort and period effects in BC outcomes between 1990 and 2019 using age-period-cohort (APC) modeling. The maximum likelihood (ML) of the APC-model Poisson with log (Y) based on the natural-spline function was used to estimate the rate ratio (RR). We used annualized rate of change (AROC) to quantify change over the previous 30 years in BC across BRICS-Plus and compare it to the global.ResultsIn 2019, there were about 1.98 million female BC cases (age-standardized rate of 45.86 [95% UI: 41.91, 49.76]) and 0.69 million deaths (age-standardized rate of 15.88 [95% UI: 14.66, 17.07]) around the globe. Among them, 45.4% of incident cases and 51.3% of deaths were attributed to the BRICS-Plus. China (41.1% cases and 26.5% deaths) and India (16.1% cases and 23.1% deaths) had the largest proportion of incident cases and deaths among the BRICS-Plus nations in 2019. Pakistan came in third with 5.6% cases and 8.8% deaths. Over the past three decades, from 1990 to 2019, the BRICS-Plus region’s greatest AROC was seen in Lesotho (2.61%; 95%UI: 1.99-2.99). The birth cohort impacts on BC vary significantly among the BRICS-Plus nations. Overall, the risk of case-fatality rate tended to decline in all BRICS-Plus nations, notably in South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (China-ASEAN FTA) countries, and the drop in risk in the most recent cohort was lowest in China and the Maldives. Additionally, there was a substantial negative link between SDI and case fatality rate (r1990= -0.91, p\u0026lt;0.001; r2019= -0.89, p\u0026lt;0.001) in the BRICS-Plus in both 1990 and 2019, with the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) nations having the highest case fatality rate.ConclusionsThe BC burden varies remarkably between different BRICS-Plus regions. Although the BRICS’ efforts to regulate BC succeeded, the overall improvements lagged behind those in high-income Asia-Pacific nations. Every BRICS-Plus country should strengthen specific public health approaches and policies directed at different priority groups, according to BRIC-Plus and other high-burden nations.","source":"DOAJ","year":2023,"language":"","subjects":["Neoplasms. Tumors. Oncology. Including cancer and carcinogens"],"doi":"10.3389/fonc.2023.1100300","url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2023.1100300/full","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":67},{"id":"doaj_10.3389/fgene.2023.1121462","title":"Sustaining yield and nutritional quality of peanuts in harsh environments: Physiological and molecular basis of drought and heat stress tolerance","authors":[{"name":"Naveen Puppala"},{"name":"Spurthi N. Nayak"},{"name":"Alvaro Sanz-Saez"},{"name":"Charles Chen"},{"name":"Mura Jyostna Devi"},{"name":"Mura Jyostna Devi"},{"name":"Nivedita Nivedita"},{"name":"Yin Bao"},{"name":"Guohao He"},{"name":"Sy M. Traore"},{"name":"David A. Wright"},{"name":"Manish K. Pandey"},{"name":"Vinay Sharma"}],"abstract":"Climate change is significantly impacting agricultural production worldwide. Peanuts provide food and nutritional security to millions of people across the globe because of its high nutritive values. Drought and heat stress alone or in combination cause substantial yield losses to peanut production. The stress, in addition, adversely impact nutritional quality. Peanuts exposed to drought stress at reproductive stage are prone to aflatoxin contamination, which imposes a restriction on use of peanuts as health food and also adversely impact peanut trade. A comprehensive understanding of the impact of drought and heat stress at physiological and molecular levels may accelerate the development of stress tolerant productive peanut cultivars adapted to a given production system. Significant progress has been achieved towards the characterization of germplasm for drought and heat stress tolerance, unlocking the physiological and molecular basis of stress tolerance, identifying significant marker-trait associations as well major QTLs and candidate genes associated with drought tolerance, which after validation may be deployed to initiate marker-assisted breeding for abiotic stress adaptation in peanut. The proof of concept about the use of transgenic technology to add value to peanuts has been demonstrated. Advances in phenomics and artificial intelligence to accelerate the timely and cost-effective collection of phenotyping data in large germplasm/breeding populations have also been discussed. Greater focus is needed to accelerate research on heat stress tolerance in peanut. A suits of technological innovations are now available in the breeders toolbox to enhance productivity and nutritional quality of peanuts in harsh environments. A holistic breeding approach that considers drought and heat-tolerant traits to simultaneously address both stresses could be a successful strategy to produce climate-resilient peanut genotypes with improved nutritional quality.","source":"DOAJ","year":2023,"language":"","subjects":["Genetics"],"doi":"10.3389/fgene.2023.1121462","url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2023.1121462/full","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":67},{"id":"doaj_10.1371/journal.pone.0282271","title":"Polygenic risk scores for asthma and allergic disease associate with COVID-19 severity in 9/11 responders.","authors":[{"name":"Monika A Waszczuk"},{"name":"Olga Morozova"},{"name":"Elizabeth Lhuillier"},{"name":"Anna R Docherty"},{"name":"Andrey A Shabalin"},{"name":"Xiaohua Yang"},{"name":"Melissa A Carr"},{"name":"Sean A P Clouston"},{"name":"Roman Kotov"},{"name":"Benjamin J Luft"}],"abstract":"\u003ch4\u003eBackground\u003c/h4\u003eGenetic factors contribute to individual differences in the severity of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A portion of genetic predisposition can be captured using polygenic risk scores (PRS). Relatively little is known about the associations between PRS and COVID-19 severity or post-acute COVID-19 in community-dwelling individuals.\u003ch4\u003eMethods\u003c/h4\u003eParticipants in this study were 983 World Trade Center responders infected for the first time with SARS-CoV-2 (mean age at infection = 56.06; 93.4% male; 82.7% European ancestry). Seventy-five (7.6%) responders were in the severe COVID-19 category; 306 (31.1%) reported at least one post-acute COVID-19 symptom at 4-week follow-up. Analyses were adjusted for population stratification and demographic covariates.\u003ch4\u003eFindings\u003c/h4\u003eThe asthma PRS was associated with severe COVID-19 category (odds ratio [OR] = 1.61, 95% confidence interval: 1.17-2.21) and more severe COVID-19 symptomatology (β = .09, p = .01), independently of respiratory disease diagnosis. Severe COVID-19 category was also associated with the allergic disease PRS (OR = 1.97, [1.26-3.07]) and the PRS for COVID-19 hospitalization (OR = 1.35, [1.01-1.82]). PRS for coronary artery disease and type II diabetes were not associated with COVID-19 severity.\u003ch4\u003eConclusion\u003c/h4\u003eRecently developed polygenic biomarkers for asthma, allergic disease, and COVID-19 hospitalization capture some of the individual differences in severity and clinical course of COVID-19 illness in a community population.","source":"DOAJ","year":2023,"language":"","subjects":["Medicine","Science"],"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0282271","url":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0282271","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":67},{"id":"arxiv_2305.00585","title":"Prospects of BRICS currency dominance in international trade","authors":[{"name":"Célestin Coquidé"},{"name":"José Lages"},{"name":"Dima L. Shepelyansky"}],"abstract":"During his state visit to China in April 2023, Brazilian President Lula proposed the creation of a trade currency supported by the BRICS countries. Using the United Nations Comtrade database, providing the frame of the world trade network associated to 194 UN countries during the decade 2010 - 2020, we study a mathematical model of influence battle of three currencies, namely, the US dollar, the euro, and such a hypothetical BRICS currency. In this model, a country trade preference for one of the three currencies is determined by a multiplicative factor based on trade flows between countries and their relative weights in the global international trade. The three currency seed groups are formed by 9 eurozone countries for the euro, 5 Anglo-Saxon countries for the US dollar and the 5 BRICS countries for the new proposed currency. The countries belonging to these 3 currency seed groups trade only with their own associated currency whereas the other countries choose their preferred trade currency as a function of the trade relations with their commercial partners. The trade currency preferences of countries are determined on the basis of a Monte Carlo modeling of Ising type interactions in magnetic spin systems commonly used to model opinion formation in social networks. We adapt here these models to the world trade network analysis. The results obtained from our mathematical modeling of the structure of the global trade network show that as early as 2012 about 58 percent of countries would have preferred to trade with the BRICS currency, 23 percent with the euro and 19 percent with the US dollar. Our results announce favorable prospects for a dominance of the BRICS currency in international trade, if only trade relations are taken into account, whereas political and other aspects are neglected.","source":"arXiv","year":2023,"language":"en","subjects":["q-fin.TR","cond-mat.stat-mech","cs.SI","physics.soc-ph"],"doi":"10.1007/s41109-023-00590-3","url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.00585","pdf_url":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2305.00585","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"2023-04-30T21:36:01Z","score":67},{"id":"doaj_10.1371/journal.pone.0270772","title":"The role of tourism in service sector employment: Do market capital, financial development and trade also play a role?","authors":[{"name":"Avishek Khanal"},{"name":"Mohammad Mafizur Rahman"},{"name":"Rasheda Khanam"},{"name":"Eswaran Velayutham"}],"abstract":"Workers' living standards have recently deteriorated in the service sector throughout the world, although a few decades ago, service was among the fastest growing sectors in industrialised nations. However, in recent years, in service sectors tourism especially has been drying up. This paper examines the symmetric and asymmetric effects of tourism, market capital, financial development, and trade on service sector employment in Australia from the period 1991-2019. The results of the cointegration tests, notably the ARDL and NARDL bound tests, reveal that the variables are related in the long run. The positive effect of tourist arrival on service sector employment in Australia is confirmed by long-run estimates from both ARDL and NARDL approaches. Similarly, both approaches also confirm the long-run positive relation of financial development. However, while ARDL shows long-run negative and positive associations of market capital and trade, respectively, the opposite is found in the case of the NARDL approach. As a result, policy proposals like planning and initiating tools for ensuring consistent international arrivals and easing of entry requirements have been recommended by this study to assist Australia in enhancing service sector employment, thus promoting economic development.","source":"DOAJ","year":2022,"language":"","subjects":["Medicine","Science"],"doi":"10.1371/journal.pone.0270772","url":"https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270772","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":66},{"id":"doaj_10.2298/JAS2201083O","title":"The nexus between agricultural loan access and farm income of small-scale cassava processors in Oyo State, Nigeria: An endogenous switching regression approach","authors":[{"name":"Omodara Olabisi D."},{"name":"Adetunji Oluwaseun E."},{"name":"Oluwasola Oluwemimo"}],"abstract":"An agricultural loan is an essential tool for transforming commercial agriculture into a profitable venture. In view of this, this study investigated determinants of access to agricultural loans and the profitability of small-scale cassava processing. It also tested whether access to agricultural loans affected the net farm income of cassava processors in Oyo State using budgetary analysis, endogenous switching regression model (ESRM) and augmented inverse probability weighted regression adjustment (AIPWRA) as a robustness check. A multistage random sampling procedure was employed to gather information from 120 cassava processors. The results revealed that female processors dominated cassava processing, and processors had a mean age of 41.1±7.5 years. Only 23% of the respondents had agricultural loan access, which was primarily sourced informally. Budgetary analysis showed that processors earned an average net farm income of N10,449.87 (US$29.03) in a production cycle. Endogenous switching regression analysis revealed that married and educated cassava processors that were socially inclusive and that had a large processing unit and earned meagre offfarm income were more likely to access agricultural loans. Furthermore, education (b=0.019, p\u003c0.1), number of family members working (b=0.241, p\u003c0.01), processors' experience (b=0.028, p\u003c0.05) and enterprise size (b=0.001, p\u003c0.01) influenced the net farm income of processors that had access to agricultural loans. The treatment effect from the AIPWRA result revealed that ATT and POM for cassava processing were 4.5% and 37%, respectively. Business risks, small enterprise size and high interest rate were the major constraints to agricultural loan access. From the foregoing, a need for a technical support system among cassava processors is inevitable. More so, cassava processors should be encouraged to join trade associations, and young processors should be given priority in credit initiatives for cassava processing.","source":"DOAJ","year":2022,"language":"","subjects":["Agriculture"],"doi":"10.2298/JAS2201083O","url":"https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1450-8109/2022/1450-81092201083O.pdf","pdf_url":"https://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/1450-8109/2022/1450-81092201083O.pdf","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":66},{"id":"doaj_10.30525/2256-0742/2022-8-1-62-74","title":"SUPPORT FOR CLUSTER INITIATIVES AND CLUSTER POLICY (CASE STUDY OF THE EUROREGION \"THE LOWER DANUBE\")","authors":[{"name":"Sergey Kovalenko"},{"name":"Natalia Bykovets"}],"abstract":"The purpose of the article is to investigate the essence and significance of the cluster initiative and the cluster policy as tools for strategic development and increasing of the economy competitiveness of the Euroregion “The Lower Danube” based on the analysis of factors providing state support for cluster initiatives in the context of the promotion of the European Union Strategy for the Danube Region. The theoretical and methodological background is the works of Ukrainian and foreign academic economists studying general systems theory, systemic analysis, and also strategic planning methodology at enterprise, regional and national levels. The research is based on the fundamental provisions of economic theory, the theory of strategic planning, institutionalism, regional and global economics, cluster theory, the location theory, the growth pole theory, M. Porter’s competitive theory, networked economy theory, spatial economic agglomeration, as well as modern theoretical developments on the problems of formation and implementation of the Euroregional policy of the EU. The research hypothesis is the assumption that the cluster approach is the most effective mechanism for the development of international economic cooperation in modern conditions and, eventually, the meso-level of competitive cross-border integration systems and a necessary requirement for qualitative growth of Ukraine’s integration into the European Economic Area. The goal statement can be described as a meso-economic synthesis of concepts of the development of innovation clusters and international integration associations. Based on the analysis of problems of formation and development of clusters, the methods and tools of state support of cluster initiatives are explained, and the most important strategic directions of activity of executive bodies aimed at stimulating the processes of formation and development of clusters in the Euroregion “The Lower Danube” are formulated. Cluster policy aimed at stimulating cluster initiatives with a further formation of cross-border innovation clusters can be considered as one of the effective tools for intensifying innovation activity in the Euroregion “The Lower Danube”. The authors conclude that the creation of cross-border clusters in the Euroregion “The Lower Danube” with the participation of Odesa region of Ukraine is associated with the necessity to form a united cross-border area. At the same time, the state is given a leading role in ensuring a favorable cluster environment (including the reduction of barriers to trade) and stimulating international cooperation. It is proposed to develop meso-level integration processes within the Common Economic Space of Euroregions, with the active participation of Ukraine on the basis of a cluster approach, forming cross-border cluster systems based on competition, cross-border cooperation, virtualization of interinstitutional networks and formation of “clouds” of highly efficient intercluster interactions.","source":"DOAJ","year":2022,"language":"","subjects":["Economic growth, development, planning"],"doi":"10.30525/2256-0742/2022-8-1-62-74","url":"http://baltijapublishing.lv/index.php/issue/article/view/1682","is_open_access":true,"published_at":"","score":66}],"total":6332440,"page":1,"page_size":20,"sources":["CrossRef","DOAJ","arXiv","Semantic Scholar"],"query":"Trade associations"}