A landscape persistence-based methodological framework for assessing ecological stability.

Ecological stability is a critical factor in global sustainable development, yet its significance has been overlooked. Here we introduce a landscape-oriented framework to evaluate ecological stability in the Qingzang Plateau (QP). Our findings reveal a medium-high stability level in the QP, with minimal changes over recent years. The driving factors vary across landscape types, with climate and anthropogenic factors emerging as crucial determinants. While anthropogenic factors are strong but unstable due to policy changes and economic development, climatic factors exert a consistent influence. Based on our results, we propose site-specific ecological conservation and restoration measures. The ecological stability assessment framework provides a practical tool to understand the link between environmental conditions and ecosystems.

Molecular characterization of Aeromonas hydrophila isolates from diseased fishes in district Kasur, Punjab, Pakistan / Caracterização molecular de isolados de Aeromonas hydrophila de peixes doentes no distrito de Kasur, Punjab, Paquistão

Abstract Pakistan is an agricultural country and fisheries play a very important role in the economic development of the country. Different diseases are prevalent in Pakistani fish but information related to the causative agents is not well-known. Keeping in view the significance of bacterial pathogens as the causative agents of multiple fish diseases, the present study was conducted for identification, characterization and analysis of virulence genes of Aeromonas spp. isolated from diseased fishes. A total of fifty fish samples having multiple clinical indications were collected from different fish farms of district Kasur, Punjab Pakistan. For isolation of Aeromonas spp. samples were enriched and inoculated on Aeromonas isolation medium. Isolates were identified and characterized by different biochemical tests, Analytical Profile Index (API) 20E kit and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assays. All isolates were screened for three putative virulence genes including aerolysin (aer), haemolysin (hyl) and heat labile cytotonic enterotoxin (alt). Seven isolates of Aeromonas (A.) hydrophila were retrieved and identified based on API 20E. These isolates were further confirmed as A. hydrophila on the basis of PCR assays. Three isolates were detected positive for the presence of virulence genes (alt and hyl). Whereas aerolysin (aer) gene was not present in any of A. hydrophila isolates. The present study confirmed A. hydrophila as the causative agent of epizootic ulcerative syndrome and motile Aeromonas septicemia in fish farms of district Kasur, Punjab Pakistan. Moreover, detection of two virulence genes (alt and hyl) in A. hydrophila isolates is a threat for fish consumers of study area.

Resumo O Paquistão é um país agrícola, onde a pesca desempenha um papel muito importante para o desenvolvimento econômico. Diferentes doenças são prevalentes em peixes do Paquistão, mas as informações relacionadas aos agentes causadores não são bem conhecidas. Tendo em vista a importância dos patógenos bacterianos como agentes causadores de múltiplas doenças em peixes, o presente estudo foi conduzido para identificação, caracterização e análise de genes de virulência de isolados de Aeromonas spp. de peixes doentes. Foram coletadas 50 amostras de peixes com múltiplas indicações clínicas em diferentes fazendas do distrito de Kasur, Punjab, Paquistão. Para isolar Aeromonas spp., as amostras foram enriquecidas e inoculadas em meio de isolamento. Os isolados foram identificados e caracterizados por diferentes testes bioquímicos, kit Analytical Profile Index (API) 20E, e ensaios de reação em cadeia da polimerase (PCR). Todos os isolados foram selecionados para três genes de virulência putativos, incluindo aerolisina (aer), hemolisina (hyl) e enterotoxina citotônica termolábil (alt). Sete isolados de Aeromonas hydrophila foram recuperados e identificados com base no API 20E. Esses isolados foram posteriormente confirmados como A. hydrophila de acordo com ensaios de PCR. Três isolados indicaram a presença de genes de virulência (alt e hyl), enquanto o gene aerolisina (aer) não esteve presente em nenhum dos isolados de A. hydrophila. O presente estudo confirmou A. hydrophila como o agente causador da síndrome ulcerativa epizoótica e septicemia móvel por Aeromonas em fazendas de peixes, no distrito de Kasur, Punjab, Paquistão. Além disso, a detecção de dois genes de virulência (alt e hyl) em isolados de A. hydrophila é uma ameaça para os consumidores de peixes da área de estudo.

AI-Driven Enhancements in Drug Screening and Optimization.

The greatest challenge in drug discovery remains the high rate of attrition across the different phases of the process, which cost the industry billions of dollars every year. While all phases remain crucial to ensure pharmaceutical-level safety, quality, and efficacy of the end product, streamlining these efforts toward compounds with success potential is pivotal for a more efficient and cost-effective process. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) within the pharmaceutical industry aims at just this, and has applications in preclinical screening for biological activity, optimization of pharmacokinetic properties for improved drug formulation, early toxicity prediction which reduces attrition, and pre-emptively screening for genetic changes in the biological target to improve therapeutic longevity. Here, we present a series of in silico tools that address these applications in small molecule development and describe how they can be embedded within the current pharmaceutical development pipeline.

Introduction to Computational Biomedicine.

The domain of computational biomedicine is a new and burgeoning one. Its areas of concern cover all scales of human biology, physiology, and pathology, commonly referred to as medicine, from the genomic to the whole human and beyond, including epidemiology and population health. Computational biomedicine aims to provide high-fidelity descriptions and predictions of the behavior of biomedical systems of both fundamental scientific and clinical importance. Digital twins and virtual humans aim to reproduce the extremely accurate duplicate of real-world human beings in cyberspace, which can be used to make highly accurate predictions that take complicated conditions into account. When that can be done reliably enough for the predictions to be actionable, such an approach will make an impact in the pharmaceutical industry by reducing or even replacing the extremely laboratory-intensive preclinical process of making and testing compounds in laboratories, and in clinical applications by assisting clinicians to make diagnostic and treatment decisions.

Alleviation of PM2.5-induced alveolar macrophage inflammation using extract of fermented Chenopodium formosanum Koidz sprouts via regulation of NF-κB pathway.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) is a dangerous airborne pollutant that has become a global issue due to its detrimental effect on macrophages. Chenopodium formosanum Koidz (Djulis), a native plant from Taiwan well known for its high antioxidant content and is frequently used in ethnomedicine, shows promise as a novel phytomedicine to combat against oxidative stress caused by PM2.5. However, the protective mechanism of Djulis against PM2.5 still remains unclear. AIM OF THE STUDY: This study aimed to characterize the deleterious effect of emerging PM2.5 contaminants on the alveolar macrophage cell of the respiratory system and explore the underlying mechanisms in the suppression of PM2.5-induced inflammation using the extract of fermented Djulis. METHODS AND MATERIALS: RNA sequencing, immunoblot, and ChIP assay approaches were used to gain insight into the deleterious effect of PM2.5 on the macrophage cell at the transcriptional and translational level; and to elucidate the contribution of fermented Djulis extract (FCS) as the remedy of PM-induced MH-S cell inflammation. UHPLC-ESI-MS/MS and LC-QQQ/MS were used to identify the bioactive compounds potentially contributing to phytomedicinal properties in the water fraction of FCS. Multiple ligands docking analysis was conducted to predict the in-silico interaction of Djulis metabolites and NF-κB. RESULTS: Here, we showed that PM2.5 exposure at 200 ppm accelerated the production of intracellular ROS and phosphorylated NF-κB (p-NFκB), and negatively affecting the alveolar macrophage cell viability. Treating the cells with water-extracted FCS can restore their viability to 76% while simultaneously suppressing the generation of ROS and p-NFκB up to 38%. These ameliorative effects can be attributed to the occurrence of bioactive compounds such as gluconic acid, uridine, pantothenic acid, L-pyroglutamic acid, L-(-)-malic acid, and acetyl-L-carnitine in the water-extracted FCS which potentially dock to the RELA subunit site and consequently inhibit NF-κB activity along with its downstream inflammation signaling cascade. CONCLUSION: This work demonstrated the hazardous effect of PM2.5 on alveolar macrophage and unveiled the potential of FCS as a therapeutic phytomedicine to alleviate PM-induced inflammation.

Relação entre benefício e risco em interações medicamentosas nas prescrições médicas de um hospital universitário no estado de São Paulo / Benefit-risk relationship in drug interactions in prescriptions from a university hospital in the state of São Paulo / Relación beneficio-riesgo en interacciones medicamentosas en prescripciones de un hospital universitario del estado de São Paulo

Objetivo: Avaliar interações medicamentosas (IM), em que os riscos se so- brepõem aos benefícios (nível I) ou os benefícios se sobrepõem aos riscos (nível II); a partir da análise retrospectiva de prescrições médicas em um Hospital Universitário no estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Métodos: Foram analisadas 19762 prescrições médicas des- tinadas à farmácia do hospital, de janeiro a setembro de 2009; com o auxílio de programas sobre IM, para categorizar IM de nível I e II. Resultados: Na análise 26,53% apresentaram IM, em que 23,64% foram classificadas em nível I e 76,35% em nível II. Dentre as IM com maior frequência no nível I, estavam: ácido acetilsalicílico (AAS) e clopidogrel, AAS e heparina, captopril e espironolactona, digoxina e hidroclorotiazida. Houve uma redução em percentual de IM de nível I, comparando janeiro representado por 26,5% e setembro representado por 18,4%. Já nas IM de nível II, tem-se as seguintes associações com maior frequência: AAS e propranolol, AAS e insulina regular humana, AAS e ate- nolol, AAS e enalapril, AAS e carvedilol. Conclusão: A atuação dos farmacêuticos cola- borou à redução de IM de nível I, devido à intervenção por meio de comunicação estabe- lecida com os prescritores; sinalizando a importância da equipe interprofissional em saúde.

Objective: To evaluate drug interactions (MI), in which risks outweigh the benefits (level I) or benefits outweigh the risks (level II); from the retrospective analysis of medical prescriptions in a University Hospital in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Methods: 19,762 prescriptions destined to the hospital pharmacy were analyzed, from January to September 2009; with the help of programs on MI, to categorize level I and II MI. Results: In the analysis 26.53% presented MI, in which 23.64% were classified in level I and 76.35% in level II. Among the most frequent level I MI were: acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) and clopidogrel, ASA and heparin, captopril and spironolactone, digoxin and hydrochlorothiazide. There was a reduction in the percentage of level I MI, comparing January, which accounted for 26.5%, and September, which accounted for 18.4%. As for level II MI, the following associations were more frequent: ASA and propranolol, ASA and regular human insulin, ASA and atenolol, ASA and enalapril, ASA and carvedilol. Conclusion: The role of pharmacists collaborated to the reduction of level I MI, due to the intervention by means of communication established with the prescribers; signaling the importance of the interprofessional health team.

Objetivo: Evaluar las interacciones medicamentosas (IM), en las que los riesgos superan a los beneficios (nivel I) o los beneficios superan a los riesgos (nivel II); a partir del análisis retrospectivo de las prescripciones médicas en un Hospital Universitario del estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Métodos: Se analizaron 19.762 prescripciones destinadas a la farmacia del hospital, de enero a septiembre de 2009; con la ayuda de programas sobre IM, para categorizar los IM de nivel I y II. Resultados: En el análisis el 26,53% presentaron IM, en el que el 23,64% se clasificaron en nivel I y el 76,35% en nivel II. Entre los IM de nivel I más frecuentes estaban: ácido acetilsalicílico (AAS) y clopidogrel, AAS y heparina, captopril y espironolactona, digoxina e hidroclorotiazida. Hubo una reducción del porcentaje de IM de nivel I, comparando enero, que supuso el 26,5%, y septiembre, que supuso el 18,4%. En cuanto a los IM de nivel II, fueron más frecuentes las siguientes asociaciones: AAS y propranolol, AAS e insulina humana regular, AAS y atenolol, AAS y enalapril, AAS y carvedilol. Conclusiones: El papel de los farmacéuticos colaboró a la reducción de las IM de nivel I, debido a la intervención mediante la comunicación establecida con los prescriptores; señalando la importancia del equipo sanitario interprofesional.

Metodologías utilizadas por los profesionales de enfermería en la producción de videos educativos: revisión integradora / Methodologies used by Nursing professionals in the production of educational videos: An integrative review / Metodologias utilizadas pelos profissionais de enfermagem na produção de vídeos educativos: revisão integrativa

Objetivo: evaluar la evidencia científica sobre las metodologías que utilizan los profesionales de enfermería para producir videos educativos. Método: revisión integradora. La búsqueda de estudios primarios se realizó en las bases de datos CINAHL, LILACS y MEDLINE/PubMed. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 19 investigaciones. La calidad metodológica de los estudios incluidos se evaluó usando una herramienta propuesta por la Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice y los resultados se analizaron de forma descriptiva. Resultados: las etapas metodológicas utilizadas para el proceso de elaboración y realización de los videos incluyen preproducción, producción y postproducción. Los estudios revelan que, en general, los autores aplicaron y/o describieron correctamente las etapas, además contemplaban el método adoptado. Sin embargo, en 14 estudios no se utilizó un marco metodológico para garantizar el rigor en su realización y en 11 presentaron validación por parte del público objetivo. Conclusión: la síntesis de conocimientos mostró que aún hay necesidad de atención en la construcción de videos educativos en cuanto al marco metodológico y la validación por la población objetivo. La ejecución rigurosa de los procedimientos metodológicos necesarios para el desarrollo de videos educativos, para fomentar la adquisición de habilidades esenciales para la creación de material didáctico de alta calidad.

Objective: to evaluate the diverse scientific evidence on the methodologies used by Nursing professionals in the production of educational videos. Method: an integrative review. The search for primary studies was carried out in the CINAHL, LILACS and MEDLINE/PubMed databases. The sample consisted of 19 research studies. The methodological quality of the studies included was assessed using a tool proposed by the Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice and the results were analyzed in a descriptive form. Results: the methodological stages used for the process to elaborate and make the videos include pre-production, production and post-production. The studies reveal that, for the most part, the stages were properly applied and/or described by the authors, in addition to contemplating the method adopted. However, in 14 studies there was no use of a methodological framework to ensure rigor in their conduction and in 11 presented validation by the target audience. Conclusion: the synthesis of knowledge showed that there is still a need for attention for the construction of educational videos regarding the methodological framework and validation by the target population. The rigorous execution of the methodological procedures necessary for the development of educational videos, aiming to encourage the acquisition of essential skills for the creation of high-quality teaching materials.

Objetivo: avaliar as evidências científicas sobre as metodologias utilizadas pelos profissionais de enfermagem na produção de vídeos educativos. Método: revisão integrativa. A busca dos estudos primários foi realizada nas bases de dados CINAHL, LILACS e MEDLINE/PubMed. A amostra foi composta por 19 pesquisas. A qualidade metodológica dos estudos incluídos foi avaliada por meio ferramenta proposta por Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice e os resultados foram analisados de forma descritiva. Resultados: as etapas metodológicas utilizadas para o processo de elaboração e construção dos vídeos compreendem a pré-produção, produção e pós-produção. Os estudos revelaram que, majoritariamente, as etapas foram aplicadas e/ou descritas corretamente pelos autores, além de contemplar o método adotado. No entanto, em 14 estudos não houve a utilização de referencial metodológico para assegurar o rigor em sua condução e em 11 apresentaram a validação pelo público-alvo. Conclusão: a síntese de conhecimento mostrou que ainda há necessidade de atenção para a construção de vídeos educativos quanto ao referencial metodológico e validação pela população-alvo. A execução rigorosa dos procedimentos metodológicos para o desenvolvimento de vídeos educacionais, permitem fomentar a aquisição de habilidades essenciais para a criação de materiais didáticos de elevada qualidade.

Panorama da produção local de medicamentos no Brasil: Desafios e vulnerabilidades

A parceria entre a Fiocruz e a OPAS tem uma história longa e produtiva de iniciativas de cooperação na área da saúde pública. Juntos, desenvolvem programas e projetos que buscam melhorar a saúde e o bem-estar das populações das Américas. Existem parcerias estratégicas, como os Centros Colaboradores da OPAS/OMS, em que a Fiocruz/ENSP-NAF atua como “Centro Colaborador da OMS para Políticas Farmacêuticas”. Centros, dessa natureza, visam promover o desenvolvimento de capacidades locais (nacionais), interpaíses, regionais, inter- -regionais e globais. O livro aborda questões estratégicas relacionadas à garantia do acesso universal a medicamentos em nossa Região. A publicação analisa as vulnerabilidades e os desafios do setor, caracterizando a indústria farmacêutica nacional e relacionando as questões/linhas gerais da produção local com as políticas que surgiram a partir de debates internacionais, bem como com as parcerias entre a OMS e OMC que também fazem parte do cenário. Essa publicação também aborda a reorganização da assistência farmacêutica, um tema que pode orientar políticas públicas no futuro governo brasileiro e influenciar a formulação de políticas em outros países da nossa Região. É importante destacar a riqueza que surge dessa cooperação e da publicação conjunta, que estão indissociavelmente ligadas.

Monitoring health disparities in healthcare-associated infection surveillance: A Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) Research Network (SRN) Survey.

We investigated whether and how infection prevention programs monitor for health disparities as part of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance through a survey of healthcare epidemiology leaders. Most facilities are not assessing for disparities in HAI rates. Professional society and national guidance should focus on addressing this gap.

Development of an ontology to characterize mental functioning.

PURPOSE OF THE ARTICLE: This article describes a conceptual and methodological approach to integrating functional information into an ontology to categorize mental functioning, which to date is an under-developed area of classification, and supports our work with the United States (U.S.) Social Security Administration (SSA). DESIGN AND METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES: Conceptualizing and defining mental functioning was paramount to develop natural language processing (NLP) tools to support our use case. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) was the framework used to conceptualize mental functioning at the activities and participation level in clinical records. To address challenges that arose when applying the ICF as to what should or should not be classified as mental functioning, a mental functioning domain ontology was developed that rearranged, reclassified and incorporated all ICF key components, concepts, classifications, and their definitions. CONCLUSIONS: Challenges emerged in the extent to which we could directly align components in the ICF into an applied ontology of mental functioning. These conceptual challenges required rearrangement of ICF components to adequately support our use case within the social security disability determination process. Findings also have implications to support future NLP efforts for behavioral health outcomes and policy research.

Mental functioning in everyday life is an important area of inquiry from the perspectives of public health, health policy, healthcare, and overall individual level health and well-being.A domain ontology of mental functioning that defines concepts and their relationships, and provides a common terminology with definitions, would enable interdisciplinary communication, research, and collaboration.A clearer conceptual model of mental functioning can improve the development of software that can identify, codify, and organize mental functioning information within clinical records into data that can be analyzed.The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health was utilized to conceptualize mental functioning and to guide the development of a proposed domain ontology of mental functioning.

Investigation of morbidity, length of stay, and healthcare costs of inpatient paediatric burns.

Burn injuries are the third most common cause of death in children due to trauma. Hospitalizations related to burn injuries are common. Prolonged hospitalization associated with burn treatment can result in increased resource utilization, leading to higher costs. Thus, it is essential to investigate these areas to reduce costs. The study investigated the morbidity and length of hospital stay of paediatric burn patients, as well as calculated the social security costs of hospitalization and treatment. The retrospective observational descriptive study examined the medical records of 774 paediatric patients treated in a burn intensive care unit at a tertiary medical faculty hospital between 01 March 2019 and 31 March 2022. The invoice records of payments made by the Social Security Institution to the hospital in return for health services provided to patients were examined. The healthcare costs were calculated. A total of 57.6% of the participants were boys and 79.2% were between the ages of 1-4. About 90% of the cases involved burns with a total body surface area (TBSA) of less than 20% and a 2nd-degree burn depth. Scalding was the most common cause of burns (88.2%). Among all patients, the mortality rate was 2.1% (n = 16). The mean length of hospital stay was 10.29 ± 9.59 days. The mean cost per day was 212.02 ± 190.94 US dollars ($US), and the cost per 1% TBSA was 241.70 ± 301.32 $US. According to the causes of burn injury, the mean cost of electricity was 5000.77 ± 8101.85 $US, fire 4818.02 ± 5852.22 $US, and chemical 3285.49 ± 4503.2 $US were observed in the first 3 ranks respectively. According to this study, paediatric burn cases occur due to preventable causes, and even though the mortality rate was low, the severity of burns, TBSA%, and presence of complications caused prolonged lengths of hospital stays, which caused social security costs to rise.

Analysis of the factors influencing the water-energy-food system stress in China.

Water, energy and food security are at the heart of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Maintaining water-energy-food (WEF) system security is critical to sustainable socio-economic development. To clarify the trends in China's WEF system stress, this paper analyses the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of WEF system stress using panel data for 30 Chinese provinces from 2002 to 2020. Using an extended STIRPAT model, we discuss the influencing factors of WEF system stress and forecast the WEF system stress index (WEF_SI) for 2021-2030. We find that China's WEF_SI has a significant positive spatial autocorrelation, with energy stress being the dominant stress in China's WEF system. Second, GDP per capita, urban population density, education level per capita, technology level and effective irrigated area have spatial and temporal heterogeneity in their effects on WEF system stress. Third, the prediction results show that China's WEF system stress will decrease in 2021-2030 but to a lesser extent. The government should coordinate the relationship between water, energy and food based on the evolutionary characteristics and projected trends of each element and formulate differentiated policies according to the resource endowment of each region to promote the coordinated development of the WEF system.

Spatial evaluation and zoning strategy of land use elemental conflicts in heavy industrial zones: evidence from central Liaoning Province in Northeast China.

The matching imbalance of resource factors leads to land use elemental conflicts (LUECs), which has become the bottleneck restricting high-quality social and economic development. The heavy industrial zones (HIZ) have become the focus area of LUECs due to the high-resource consumption. Taking the urban group of central Liaoning Province, the area of industrial revitalization in northeast China as a case study area, the study proposed a wavelet coherence approach to identifying the influencing indicators and indicators weight of LUECs for spatial evaluation. Two-dimensional graph theory is used to cluster the evaluation results of LUECs at the plot scale and controls the main indicators to put forward the zoning strategies of LUECs. The results showed that the main indicators affecting LUECs in the western part of the HIZ are mainly human indicators, while the fierce conflicts in the east mainly come from natural indicators. The zoning strategies of LUECs in the HIZ should prevent excessive energy consumption from increasing carbon emissions in intense conflict zone and moderate conflict zone and strengthen the rural settlement arrangement and soil erosion control in mild conflict zone and structure ecological security early warnings in potential conflict zone. This study provides an important reference for land use conflicts in the global heavy industrial urban agglomeration.

Negotiating conservation and competition: national parks and 'victory-over-communism' diplomacy in South Korea.

Focusing on South Korean biologists and their efforts to establish national parks in the 1960s and 1970s, I illuminate the ways in which they negotiated their relationship with the ecological diplomacy of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the anti-communist and developmentalist diplomacy of the South Korean government. To justify their activities, these South Korean biologists emphasized the importance of nature conservation activities in the competition for international recognition and economic development with their northern counterparts. The national-park initiative was thus subsumed into the politics of this legitimacy competition between the two Koreas, or what I call 'victory-over-communism' diplomacy. The IUCN's influence over South Korea was limited to the extent that both the government and scientists recognized the diplomatic merit they could gain in the context of their Cold War competition and developmentalism. It is also shown how, during the short detente period of the two Koreas, South Korean biologists used victory-over-communism diplomacy to renew their government's attention to their activities. This Korean episode contributes to the wider perspective of decentralizing the Cold War history of environmental diplomacy in the free-world bloc by illustrating the importance of its entanglement with the Cold War politics surrounding Asian developmentalism.

A scoping review of the impact of Food Policy Groups on local food systems in high-income countries.

This scoping review aimed to explore international evidence on the impact of Food Policy Groups (FPGs) on local food systems, in urban and rural regions of high-income countries. Peer-reviewed and grey literature were searched to identify 31 documents published between 2002 and 2022 providing evidence on the impact of FPGs. Activities spanned domains including increasing food equity (e.g. strengthening school meals programs); increasing knowledge and/or demand for healthy food (e.g. food literacy programs with children and adults); increasing food access (e.g. enhancing local food procurement); environmental sustainability (e.g. promoting low-waste food items on café menus); economic development (e.g. ensuring local businesses are not outperformed by large food distributors), and increasing food system resiliency (e.g. establishment of local produce schemes). Most FPGs reported conducting activities that positively influenced multiple food system domains and reported activities in urban areas, and to a lesser extent in rural areas. Our study highlighted a range of qualitative and quantitative evaluation strategies used to measure FPGs' impact on local food systems. Our recommendations focus on regular and systematic evaluation and research surrounding the impact of FPGs activities, to build the evidence base of their impact. Ideally, evaluation would utilise comprehensive, and established tools. We recommend exploring the establishment of FPGs across more regions of high-income countries, particularly rural areas; and forming partnerships between FPGs, local government and universities to maximise implementation and evaluation of activities.

Exploring learning needs for community education among older adults from the perspective of active aging: a qualitative study in rural China.

Older adults are often excluded from the category of active learning populations in many cultures. However, Active Aging (AA) Framework highlights that regular participation of older adults in community education activities can enhance opportunities for social participation, thereby promoting successful aging within this demographic. This descriptive qualitative study aimed to explore the learning needs for community education among older adults in rural China from the perspective of active aging. Purposive sampling method and maximum difference sampling were used to recruit 18 participants aged 60 and over. Four core themes emerged from the analysis: the need for health knowledge, the need for participating in social activities, the need for social security knowledge, and the need for educational methods. The findings of this study confirm that older adults in a Chinese village setting have diverse learning needs for community education. Awareness of these needs can assist policy makers and healthcare workers in providing tailored curricula and intervention measures to meet their learning needs.

Importance, quality, and engagement: School mental health providers' perceptions regarding within-district transition care coordination practices.

Although care coordination (CC; i.e., the organization of care activities between professionals to facilitate appropriate service delivery; McDonald et al., 2007) has yet to be studied extensively within schools, preliminary research suggests coordinating school mental health supports can be beneficial (Francis et al., 2021) and that interprofessional and interagency collaboration is warranted to meet student needs (McClain et al., 2022). We examined the perceptions of school mental health providers (SMHPs) regarding importance, quality, and engagement with within-district transition CC practices within a multitiered system of support framework. Participants were 163 SMHPs who endorsed being involved in designing, providing, or implementing mental health services in a U.S. school district. The three scales used to measure engagement with CC practices were based on the Care Coordination Measures Atlas (McDonald et al., 2014) and were found to have promising preliminary psychometrics. Descriptive statistics indicated SMHPs endorsed CC as very important but perceived school and district personnel to view it as less important, reported their own quality of CC was slightly above that of their school and district, and regularly engaged in broad CC practices. Moreover, bivariate correlations indicated SMHP's personal views of CC importance were not associated with the quality of school and district CC, yet engagement in broad CC activities was associated with transition facilitation practices, and attitudes about CC were associated with engagement in broad CC activities. Implications of findings are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

How does population aging affect China's energy consumption?

In China, the proportion of elderly population is growing, influencing economic development and energy consumption. Our study investigates the relationship between population aging and energy consumption in China from 1997 to 2020, considering both short and long-term effects. The analysis employs the pooled mean group (PMG) estimation and explores the underlying mechanisms using mediating effects and threshold effects models. The PMG results reveal a negative long-term impact of population aging on energy consumption, indicating that a 1% increase in population aging leads to a 0.348% decrease in energy consumption. Additionally, GDP per capita and capital stock exhibit positive correlations with energy consumption, while the industrial structure shows a negative correlation. Technological progress is found to significantly increase energy consumption. The mechanism analysis suggests that the mediating role of scale and technological effects contributes to the negative effect of population aging on energy consumption. Furthermore, a nonlinear relationship between population aging and energy consumption is observed, influenced by both population size and technological progress. The policy implications call for a comprehensive approach that addresses elderly population growth, enhances energy efficiency, and promotes sustainable technologies to ensure sustainable economic development.