An anthropological history of Nepal's Female Community Health Volunteer program: gender, policy, and social change.

BACKGROUND: Community health workers (CHWs) are central to Primary Health Care globally. Amidst the current flourishing of work on CHWs, there often is a lack of reference to history-even in studies of programs that have been around for decades. This study examines the 35-year trajectory of Nepal's Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs). METHODS: We conducted a content analysis of an archive of primary and secondary research materials, grey literature and government reports collected during 1977-2019 across several regions in Nepal. Documents were coded in MAXQDA using principles of inductive coding. As questions arose from the materials, data were triangulated with published sources. RESULTS: Looking across four decades of the program's history illuminates that issues of gender, workload, and pay-hotly debated in the CHW literature now-have been topics of discussion for observers and FCHVs alike since the inception of the program. Following experiments with predominantly male community volunteers during the 1970s, Nepal scaled up the all-female FCHV program in the late 1980s and early 1990s, in part because of programmatic goals focused on maternal and child health. FCHVs gained legitimacy as health workers in part through participation in donor-funded vertical campaigns. FCHVs received a stable yet modest regular stipend during the early years, but since it was stopped in the 1990s, incentives have been a mix of activity-based payments and in-kind support. With increasing outmigration of men from villages and growing work responsibilities for women, the opportunity cost of health volunteering increased. FCHVs started voicing their dissatisfaction with remuneration, which gave rise to labor movements starting in the 2010s. Government officials have not comprehensively responded to demands by FCHVs for decent work, instead questioning the relevance of FCHVs in a modern, medicalized Nepali health system. CONCLUSIONS: Across public health, an awareness of history is useful in understanding the present and avoiding past mistakes. These histories are often not well-archived, and risk getting lost. Lessons from the history of Nepal's FCHV program have much to offer present-day debates around CHW policies, particularly around gender, workload and payment.

Manifestations, social impact, and decay of conceptual beliefs: A cultural perspective.

INTRODUCTION: Believing comprises multifaceted processes that integrate information from the outside world through meaning-making processes with personal relevance. METHODS: Qualitative Review of the current literature in social cognitive neuroscience. RESULTS: Although believing develops rapidly outside an individual's conscious awareness, it results in the formation of beliefs that are stored in memory and play an important role in determining an individual's behavior. Primal beliefs reflect an individual's experience of objects and events, whereas conceptual beliefs are based on narratives that are held in social groups. Conceptual beliefs can be about autobiographical, political, religious, and other aspects of life and may be encouraged by participation in group rituals. We hypothesize that assertions of future gains and rewards that transcend but are inherent in these codices provide incentives to follow the norms and rules of social groups. CONCLUSION: The power of conceptual beliefs to provide cultural orientation is likely to fade when circumstances and evidence make it clear that what was asserted no longer applies.

Measuring social-emotional development in schoolchildren: A national-level analysis of ECLS-B cohort data.

The present study examined the social-emotional development items assessed by kindergarten teachers in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort to determine the optimal factor structure underlying the items as well as the reliability and validity of the resulting factors. This study identified an empirically derived factor structure for teacher-reported social development, investigated whether there was evidence of bias in teacher assessments of social-emotional constructs, examined factor invariance across demographic characteristics (i.e., race and ethnicity, sex, and poverty status), and examined the external validity of the derived factors by determining the extent to which they were associated with well-established measures of early childhood competencies. Findings suggested a 4-factor solution was optimal, consisting of (a) Interpersonal Skills, (b) Externalizing Behavior, (c) Approaches to Learning, and (d) Perspective Taking. Findings offer suggestive evidence of teacher biases in assessments and some, although not conclusive, support for the invariance of social-emotional dimension across demographic characteristics. Results provide a useful next step toward documenting reliable and valid social-emotional measures for use in early childhood research and challenges users of national datasets to think critically about the use of "scales" without a priori attention to important psychometric properties.

Sleep Quality, Nutrient Intake, and Social Development Index Predict Metabolic Syndrome in the Tlalpan 2020 Cohort: A Machine Learning and Synthetic Data Study.

This study investigated the relationship between Metabolic Syndrome (MetS), sleep disorders, the consumption of some nutrients, and social development factors, focusing on gender differences in an unbalanced dataset from a Mexico City cohort. We used data balancing techniques like SMOTE and ADASYN after employing machine learning models like random forest and RPART to predict MetS. Random forest excelled, achieving significant, balanced accuracy, indicating its robustness in predicting MetS and achieving a balanced accuracy of approximately 87%. Key predictors for men included body mass index and family history of gout, while waist circumference and glucose levels were most significant for women. In relation to diet, sleep quality, and social development, metabolic syndrome in men was associated with high lactose and carbohydrate intake, educational lag, living with a partner without marrying, and lack of durable goods, whereas in women, best predictors in these dimensions include protein, fructose, and cholesterol intake, copper metabolites, snoring, sobbing, drowsiness, sanitary adequacy, and anxiety. These findings underscore the need for personalized approaches in managing MetS and point to a promising direction for future research into the interplay between social factors, sleep disorders, and metabolic health, which mainly depend on nutrient consumption by region.

Differential contribution of canonical and noncanonical NLGN3 pathways to early social development and memory performance.

Neuroligin (NLGN) 3 is a postsynaptic cell adhesion protein organizing synapse formation through two different types of transsynaptic interactions, canonical interaction with neurexins (NRXNs) and a recently identified noncanonical interaction with protein tyrosine phosphatase (PTP) δ. Although, NLGN3 gene is known as a risk gene for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID), the pathogenic contribution of the canonical NLGN3-NRXN and noncanonical NLGN3-PTPδ pathways to these disorders remains elusive. In this study, we utilized Nlgn3 mutant mice selectively lacking the interaction with either NRXNs or PTPδ and investigated their social and memory performance. Neither Nlgn3 mutants showed any social cognitive deficiency in the social novelty recognition test. However, the Nlgn3 mutant mice lacking the PTPδ pathway exhibited significant decline in the social conditioned place preference (sCPP) at the juvenile stage, suggesting the involvement of the NLGN3-PTPδ pathway in the regulation of social motivation and reward. In terms of learning and memory, disrupting the canonical NRXN pathway attenuated contextual fear conditioning while disrupting the noncanonical NLGN3-PTPδ pathway enhanced it. Furthermore, disruption of the NLGN3-PTPδ pathway negatively affected the remote spatial reference memory in the Barnes maze test. These findings highlight the differential contributions of the canonical NLGN3-NRXN and noncanonical NLGN3-PTPδ synaptogenic pathways to the regulation of higher order brain functions associated with ASD and ID.

Evidence from 43 countries that disease leaves cultures unchanged in the short-term.

Did cultures change shortly after, and in response to, the COVID-19 outbreak? If so, then in what way? We study these questions for a set of macro-cultural dimensions: collectivism/individualism, duty/joy, traditionalism/autonomy, and pro-fertility/individual-choice norms. We also study specific perceptions and norms like perceived threats to society (e.g. immigration) and hygiene norms. We draw on Evolutionary Modernization Theory, Parasite Stress Theory, and the Behavioural Immune System, and existing evidence, to make an overarching prediction: the COVID-19 pandemic should increase collectivism, duty, traditionalism, conformity (i.e. pro-fertility), and outgroup prejudice. We derive specific hypotheses from this prediction and use survey data from 29,761 respondents, in 55 cities and 43 countries, collected before (April-December 2019) and recently after the emergence of COVID-19 (April-June 2020) to test them. We exploit variation in disease intensity across regions to test potential mechanisms behind any changes. The macro-cultural dimensions remained stable. In contrast, specific perceptions and norms related to the pandemic changed: norms of hygiene substantially increased as did perceived threats related to disease. Taken together, our findings imply that macro-cultural dimensions are primarily stable while specific perceptions and norms, particularly those related to the pandemic, can change rapidly. Our findings provide new evidence for theories of cultural change and have implications for policy, public health, daily life, and future trajectories of our societies.

Inspecting the "health poverty trap" mechanism: self-reinforcing effect and endogenous force.

INTRODUCTION: The term "health poverty trap" describes a vicious cycle in which developing countries or regions become trapped in low levels of health and poverty during the process of modernization. Although significant progress has been made in alleviating poverty in China, there is still a need to further enhance the living conditions of its impoverished population. METHODS: This research utilizes the data of the three national representative panel surveys from 2014 to 2020. The primary objective is to gain a better understanding of the intricate relationship between health and poverty. To examine the self-reinforcing effects of the cumulative cycle between health and poverty, we employ unconditional quantile regression analysis. RESULT: The low-income group exhibits lower overall health status compared to the average level. Economic constraints partially hinder the ability of low-income individuals to access healthcare resources, thereby reinforcing the cyclical relationship between health and poverty. Additionally, the unique psychological and behavioral preferences of individuals in health poverty act as indirect factors that further strengthen this cycle. Health poverty individuals can generate endogenous force to escape the "health poverty trap" by enhancing their confidence levels and digital literacy. CONCLUSIONS: The research examines the coexistence of health gradients and economic inequality among Chinese residents. Additionally, the study explores the endogenous force mechanism of escaping the health poverty trap from psychological and behavioral perspectives. This research also offers insights into optimizing government poverty alleviation programs to effectively address this issue.

Methodological approaches to exploring the spatial variation in social impacts of protected areas: An intercomparison of Bayesian regression modeling approaches and potential implications.

Protected Areas (PAs) are widely used to conserve biodiversity by protecting and restoring ecosystems while also contributing to socio-economic priorities. An increasing number of studies aim to examine the social impacts of PAs on aspects of people's well-being, such as, quality of life, livelihoods, and connectedness to nature. Despite the increase in literature on this topic, there are still few studies that explore possible robust methodological approaches to capturing and assessing the spatial distribution of impacts in a PA. This study aims to contribute to this research gap by comparing Bayesian spatial regression models that explore links between perceived social impacts and the relative location of local residents and communities in a PA. We use primary data collected from 227 individuals, via structured questionnaires, living in or near the Peak District National Park, United Kingdom. By comparing different models we were able to show that the location of respondents influences their perception of social impacts and that neighboring communities within the national park can have similar perceptions regarding social impacts. Simulation based on existing data using the Bootstrap sub-sampling was also conducted to validate the association between social impacts and mutual proximity of residents. Our findings suggest that this type of data is better treated, in terms of accounting for potential spatial effects, using models that allow for proximity effects to be stronger between people living nearby, e.g. between neighbors in the same community and have minimum effects otherwise. Understanding the spatial clustering of perceived social impacts in and around PA, is key to understanding their causes and to managing and mitigating them. Our findings highlight therefore the need to develop new methodological approaches to assessing and predicting accurately the spatial distribution of social impacts when designating PAs. The findings in this paper will assist practitioners in this regard by proposing approaches to the consideration of the distribution of social impacts when designing the boundaries of PAs alongside typical ecological and socio-economic criteria.

Assessing the social impacts of the COVID-19 crisis using phone helplines. The case of the Balearic Islands, Spain.

Background: Crises and health policies to tackle them can increase health inequalities. We explored the scope and usefulness of helplines set up during the COVID-19 crisis and characterised the vulnerability of their users. This study explored the geographic and socioeconomic effects of the telephone helplines set up by the Balearic Islands Government and aimed to characterise the vulnerability of their users. Methods: Telephonic survey combined with a geographical analysis of a sample of calls made between 15th of March and 30th of June of 2020 to five helplines: COVID-19 general information; psychological, social (minimum vital income), labour (temporary employment regulation), and housing (rental assistance) helps. The questionnaire included sociodemographic and housing characteristics, type of problem, and if it was solved or not. We used multinomial regression to explore factors associated with having solved the problem. We calculated the standardised rate of calls by municipality using Chi-squared and z-test to test differences. Results: 1,321 interviews from 2,678 selected (231 excluded, 608 untraceable, and 518 refusals). 63.8% of women, 48.7% were born in another country. They had no internet at home in 3.1%, only on the phone in 17.3%. The 23.5% had no income at home. The Problem was solved in 25.4%, and partly in 30.9%. Factors associated with not solving the problem were not having income at home (p = 0.021), labour (p = 0.008), economic (p = 0.000) or housing (p = 0.000) problems. People from 55 of 67 municipalities did at least one call. The highest rates of calls were from coastal tourist municipalities. Conclusion: Helplines reached most of the territory of the Balearic Islands and were used mainly in tourist municipalities. It probably has not been helpful for families with more significant deprivation. Digital inequalities have emerged.

Social Impact of Hepatic Encephalopathy.

Hepatic encephalopathy is a medical condition that stems from liver dysfunction, leading to the accumulation of toxins in the bloodstream. This can result in cognitive impairments, mood changes, and motor dysfunction. Its social impact includes challenges in employment, relationships, and daily functioning for affected individuals. Stigma and misunderstanding around the condition can further exacerbate the difficulties faced by both patients and their caregivers. Efforts to raise awareness, improve medical management, and provide support systems can help mitigate the social impact of hepatic encephalopathy.

Spatio-temporal distribution and evolution of the Tujia traditional settlements in China.

The rapid modernization in China has aggravated the reduction of the traditional settlements and aroused concern about the protection and research. This study aims to examine the spatial-temporal variations Tujia traditional settlements in China and to delineate the driving mechanism of the settlement distribution. Previous studies have focused on the characteristics of settlements in provincial or smaller areas, providing lacked information regarding spatial distribution heterogeneity of Tujia traditional settlements in China. In this study, the spatial heterogeneity and influence factors of the distribution of traditional Tujia settlements were examined using the GIS platform and statistical methods. The results reveal that the spatial distribution of settlements exhibits clustering with the pattern of "scattered distribution in a large region, while concentrated in small areas". The settlements were generally built in low hills, gentle slopes, sunny slopes and low-relief terrain areas, with elevation, relief degree of land surface (RDLS), slope and aspect were the key factors affecting the distribution. In Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, settlements showed significant clustering all through, though the location and number of clustering center kept changing. In this process, the history of the Tujia chieftain and the transportation and marketing lines of Sichuan salt had a profound influence on the historical evolution of the settlement.

The prefigurative politics of leadership education: Connecting our practice to broader movements.

Why develop leaders? What politics are implicit in our practice? This paper uses the history and practice of Popular Education as a comparative framework to survey the politics of intentional emergence leadership pedagogy, surfacing potential alliances for building social change movements. Using a case analysis, the article elucidates the ways the classroom embodies an opportunity to explore and enact a prefigurative politics of significant social change that upends traditional relationships to authority, hierarchy, and decision-making. Exploring the opportunities and dangers of connecting the classroom to broader social movements, the article concludes by advocating that such connections could offer a firmer and more explicit stance to the question: why develop leaders?

Online images amplify gender bias.

Each year, people spend less time reading and more time viewing images1, which are proliferating online2-4. Images from platforms such as Google and Wikipedia are downloaded by millions every day2,5,6, and millions more are interacting through social media, such as Instagram and TikTok, that primarily consist of exchanging visual content. In parallel, news agencies and digital advertisers are increasingly capturing attention online through the use of images7,8, which people process more quickly, implicitly and memorably than text9-12. Here we show that the rise of images online significantly exacerbates gender bias, both in its statistical prevalence and its psychological impact. We examine the gender associations of 3,495 social categories (such as 'nurse' or 'banker') in more than one million images from Google, Wikipedia and Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and in billions of words from these platforms. We find that gender bias is consistently more prevalent in images than text for both female- and male-typed categories. We also show that the documented underrepresentation of women online13-18 is substantially worse in images than in text, public opinion and US census data. Finally, we conducted a nationally representative, preregistered experiment that shows that googling for images rather than textual descriptions of occupations amplifies gender bias in participants' beliefs. Addressing the societal effect of this large-scale shift towards visual communication will be essential for developing a fair and inclusive future for the internet.

Assessing the Validity of the Social Impact Scale Among a Longitudinal Cohort of Adolescents and Young Adults Living With Perinatally Acquired HIV.

BACKGROUND: With few psychometrically evaluated HIV-related stigma measures for adolescents and young adults living with HIV, we examined the developmental applicability (ie, validity) of 2 subscales of the commonly used stigma measure, the Social Impact Scale, among a cohort of adolescents and young adults with perinatally acquired HIV. SETTING: Data were obtained from a New York City longitudinal study (N = 340). This study primarily comprised Black and Latinx adolescents and young adults with either perinatally acquired HIV or those with perinatal exposure but who are uninfected. Data for this analysis were obtained from the population with perinatally acquired HIV and spanned approximately a 15-year survey period (2003-2018). METHODS: A confirmatory factor analysis was used at 7 time points to assess whether the Social Rejection and Internalized Shame subscales were consistent in this cohort over time. Overall and individual Cronbach alphas were reported to show the strength of the internal consistency. RESULTS: The mean age from baseline to follow-up 6 ranged from 12 to 23 years over the study period. The Social Rejection subscale was acceptably valid across follow-up periods with strong factor loadings and Cronbach alphas higher than 0.70. However, the Internalized Shame subscale was less valid among younger adolescents. Starting at follow-up 2, we observed better validity with the Internalized Shame subscale performance. CONCLUSION: Future research must consider mechanisms for developing and adapting measures from a developmental perspective to best measure the experiences of HIV-related stigma among younger populations.

Environmental, economic, and social impacts of sugar cane bagasse and eggshell wastes for soil stabilization.

Sustainability is a core topic for all sectors including geotechnical engineering (e.g., design of foundations, earthworks structures, and pavements for major infrastructure and building projects). Despite being comprised of environmental, economic, and social pillars, most sustainability studies in this area have focused on the first. Furthermore, social impacts and the three pillars integration are little explored. As a result, there is a lack of systemic and holistic assessments of innovative geotechnical alternatives. This research advances in this area by performing a complete sustainability assessment and integration of the environmental, economic, and social pillars of two expansive soil stabilization alternatives: (i) sugar cane bagasse ash combined with hydrated eggshell lime alkali-activated by sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and (ii) Portland cement. Individual analyses were carried out to determine the environmental, economic, and social impacts, and the single sustainability index. Alkali-activated binder dosages showed higher impacts in 4 out of 10 environmental categories. For both binders, high-density/low-binder dosages contributed to environmental and economic sustainability as they require lower quantities of raw materials and diesel for materials transportation. The total costs of alkali-activated binder dosages ($189.79 and $154.45) were higher than that of Portland cement ($72.49 and $54.04), mainly due to the high cost of NaOH acquisition. However, the alkali-activated binder dosages implied lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and thus lower social cost of CO2. The alternative binder presented a higher positive social impact. The alkali-activated high-density/low binder dosage is the most sustainable soil stabilization strategy.

Cultural moderation in sports impact: exploring sports-induced effects on educational progress, cognitive focus, and social development in Chinese higher education.

BACKGROUND: This research examines the nuanced challenges confronting Chinese university students within the dynamic milieu of Chinese education. The study comprehensively investigates factors encompassing educational progress, social development, cognitive focus, and Psychological Well-being (PWB), specifically emphasizing the role of sports participation. METHODS: To scrutinize the moderation-mediation nexus between cultural context and social development, a distribution of 500 questionnaires was administered to Chinese university students, yielding 413 responses, corresponding to an 82.6% response rate. Methodologically, this study employed moderation and mediation analyses, incorporating statistical techniques such as a principal component matrix, factor analysis, and hierarchical regression. FINDINGS: Prominent findings underscore the significant impact of age on educational progress, shaping the trajectory of academic advancement. Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) emerges as a promising metric, establishing a link between academic performance and educational progress. Active involvement in sports and physical activities (PSPA) positively affects academic performance and study habits. Participation in sports teams and clubs (ISTC) enriches social development by nurturing interpersonal relationships, teamwork, and leadership skills. Sports activities (ESA) correlate with enhanced cognitive focus and improved psychological well-being. Significantly, the findings unveil a nuanced association between Perceived Social Development Through Sports (PSDTS) and educational progress. CONCLUSIONS: Cultural Context (CC) moderates PSDTS, Sport-induced Cognitive Focus (SICF), and PWB, influencing educational progress. This study emphasizes the need for enhanced support systems-academic guidance, awareness, sports programs, and cultural competence training-to advance student well-being and academic achievement in China, fostering an empowering educational environment for societal progress.