Developing a Decision Support App for Computational Agriculture

In the age of climate change, increasing populations and more limited resources, efficient agricultural production is being sought by farmers across the world. In the case of smallholder farms with limited capacity to cope with years of low production, this is even more important. To help to achieve this aim, data analytics and decision support systems are being used to an ever greater extent. For rice/shrimp farmers in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, trying to tune the conditions so that both crops can be successfully grown simultaneously is an ongoing challenge. In this paper, the design and development of a smartphone app, from a well researched Bayesian Belief Network, is described. This now gives farmers the ability to make better informed planting and harvesting decisions. The app has been initially well received by water management practitioners and farmers alike.Full Tex

Differential relationships of family drinking with alcohol expectancy among urban school children

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Positive alcohol outcome expectancy has consistently been linked with problematic drinking, but there is little population-based evidence on its role on early stages of drinking in childhood. The present study seeks to understand the extent to which drinking of family members is differentially associated with the endorsement of alcohol expectancy in late childhood.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A representative sample of 4th and 6th graders (N = 2455) drawn from 28 public schools in an urban region of Taiwan completed a self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Each student provided information on alcohol expectancy, drinking experiences, and individual and family attributes. Complex survey analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship, with stratification by children's alcohol drinking history.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>An estimated 29% of the 4^thgraders and 43% of the 6^thgraders had initiated alcohol consumption (over 40% of them had drank on three or more occasions). Alcohol drinking-related differences appear in both the endorsement and the correlates of alcohol expectancy. Positive alcohol expectancy was strongly associated with family drinking, particularly the dimension of "enhanced social behaviors"; negative alcohol expectancy was inversely associated with drinking frequency. Among alcohol naïve children, significant connections appear between paternal drinking and three dimensions of positive alcohol expectancy (i.e., enhanced social behaviors:β_wt= 0.15, promoting relaxation or tension reduction:β_wt= 0.18, and global positive transformation:β_wt= 0.22).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Individual tailored strategies that address family influences on alcohol expectancy may be needed in prevention programs targeting drinking behaviors in children.</p

Religiosity and decreased risk of substance use disorders: is the effect mediated by social support or mental health status?

The negative association between religiosity (religious beliefs and church attendance) and the likelihood of substance use disorders is well established, but the mechanism(s) remain poorly understood. We investigated whether this association was mediated by social support or mental health status. We utilized cross-sectional data from the 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 36,370). We first used logistic regression to regress any alcohol use in the past year on sociodemographic and religiosity variables. Then, among individuals who drank in the past year, we regressed past year alcohol abuse/dependence on sociodemographic and religiosity variables. To investigate whether social support mediated the association between religiosity and alcohol use and alcohol abuse/dependence we repeated the above models, adding the social support variables. To the extent that these added predictors modified the magnitude of the effect of the religiosity variables, we interpreted social support as a possible mediator. We also formally tested for mediation using path analysis. We investigated the possible mediating role of mental health status analogously. Parallel sets of analyses were conducted for any drug use, and drug abuse/dependence among those using any drugs as the dependent variables. The addition of social support and mental health status variables to logistic regression models had little effect on the magnitude of the religiosity coefficients in any of the models. While some of the tests of mediation were significant in the path analyses, the results were not always in the expected direction, and the magnitude of the effects was small. The association between religiosity and decreased likelihood of a substance use disorder does not appear to be substantively mediated by either social support or mental health status

Consumo de drogas ilícitas como fator de risco para traumatismo dentário em adolescentes

Resumo Traumatismo dentário e consumo de drogas ilícitas podem comprometer gravemente a saúde dos adolescentes e são considerados sérios problemas de saúde pública. Objetivo Investigar a associação do traumatismo dentário com o uso de drogas ilícitas e condição socioeconômica entre adolescentes de 12 anos de idade. Métodos Estudo transversal envolvendo 633 adolescentes de escolas públicas e privadas da cidade de Diamantina, no Estado de Minas Gerais. Os dados foram coletados por meio de exame clínico e questionários. Traumatismo dentário foi avaliado pela classificação de Andreasen, e consumo de drogas ilícitas, pelo instrumento ASSIST (Teste para Triagem do Envolvimento com Álcool, Cigarro e Outras Substâncias). As associações foram testadas pelo teste do qui-quadrado e teste Exato de Fisher (p<0,05). Resultados A presença do traumatismo dentário foi observada em 176 adolescentes (29,9%). A prevalência reportada do uso de maconha foi de 1,5% (9/588), de cocaína, 0,3% (2/588), e de inalantes, 1,7% (10/588). Traumatismo dentário foi mais prevalente entre adolescentes do sexo masculino (p=0,010) que tinham usado maconha (p=0,024) na vida. Conclusão A associação observada entre o uso de drogas ilícitas e o sexo masculino com o traumatismo dentário sugere a necessidade de adoção de políticas voltadas para o controle efetivo dessas condições, principalmente em idade precoce