Different histories but similar genetic diversity and structure for black walnut in Indiana and Missouri

—Missouri and Indiana have markedly different histories of glaciation and recolonization by forest trees. These states also differ in land use patterns and degree of anthropogenic landscape change such as forest fragmentation. To determine the overall effects of these and other demographic differences on the levels of genetic diversity and structure in black walnut (Juglans nigra L.) more than 550 total black walnut trees from nine populations in Indiana and 10 in Missouri were sampled and analyzed using 12 nuclear microsatellite loci. Although genetic diversity parameters such as allelic richness and expected heterozygosity were high overall, they varied little among populations and their mean values for the two states were not significantly different. Pairwise genetic distance values between all population pairs ranged from 0.012-0.159, but no significant pattern of isolation by distance was detected. The estimate of the degree of genetic differentiation between states (FPT = 0.0009) was very small and not significant, indicating that differences between states explained an inconsequential portion of the total variance. The observed low levels of local and regional genetic structure indicate that high levels of pollen flow have buffered black walnut from the genetic consequences of founder effects and genetic drift in both geologic and recent time scales

The Development of Videoconference-Based Support for People Living With Rare Dementias and Their Carers: Protocol for a 3-Phase Support Group Evaluation

BACKGROUND: People living with rarer dementias face considerable difficulty accessing tailored information, advice, and peer and professional support. Web-based meeting platforms offer a critical opportunity to connect with others through shared lived experiences, even if they are geographically dispersed, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. OBJECTIVE: We aim to develop facilitated videoconferencing support groups (VSGs) tailored to people living with or caring for someone with familial or sporadic frontotemporal dementia or young-onset Alzheimer disease, primary progressive aphasia, posterior cortical atrophy, or Lewy body dementia. This paper describes the development, coproduction, field testing, and evaluation plan for these groups. METHODS: We describe a 3-phase approach to development. First, information and knowledge were gathered as part of a coproduction process with members of the Rare Dementia Support service. This information, together with literature searches and consultation with experts by experience, clinicians, and academics, shaped the design of the VSGs and session themes. Second, field testing involved 154 Rare Dementia Support members (people living with dementia and carers) participating in 2 rounds of facilitated sessions across 7 themes (health and social care professionals, advance care planning, independence and identity, grief and loss, empowering your identity, couples, and hope and dementia). Third, a detailed evaluation plan for future rounds of VSGs was developed. RESULTS: The development of the small groups program yielded content and structure for 9 themed VSGs (the 7 piloted themes plus a later stages program and creativity club for implementation in rounds 3 and beyond) to be delivered over 4 to 8 sessions. The evaluation plan incorporated a range of quantitative (attendance, demographics, and geography; pre-post well-being ratings and surveys; psycholinguistic analysis of conversation; facial emotion recognition; facilitator ratings; and economic analysis of program delivery) and qualitative (content and thematic analysis) approaches. Pilot data from round 2 groups on the pre-post 3-word surveys indicated an increase in the emotional valence of words selected after the sessions. CONCLUSIONS: The involvement of people with lived experience of a rare dementia was critical to the design, development, and delivery of the small virtual support group program, and evaluation of this program will yield convergent data about the impact of tailored support delivered to geographically dispersed communities. This is the first study to design and plan an evaluation of VSGs specifically for people affected by rare dementias, including both people living with a rare dementia and their carers, and the outcome of the evaluation will be hugely beneficial in shaping specific and targeted support, which is often lacking in this population

Correction to: The relationship between armed conflict and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition status and services in northeastern Nigeria: a mixed-methods case study (Conflict and Health, (2020), 14, 1, (75), 10.1186/s13031-020-00318-5)

© 2021, The Author(s). Following publication of the original article [1], the authors identified an error in the author name of Chinwenwo Weli The incorrect author name is: Chinwewo Weli The correct author name is: Chinwenwo Weli The author group has been updated above and the original article [1] has been corrected

The relationship between armed conflict and reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition status and services in northeastern Nigeria: a mixed-methods case study

© 2020, The Author(s). Background: Armed conflict between the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, other insurgents, and the Nigerian military has principally affected three states of northeastern Nigeria (Borno, Adamawa, Yobe) since 2002. An intensification of the conflict in 2009 brought the situation to increased international visibility. However, full-scale humanitarian intervention did not occur until 2016. Even prior to this period of armed conflict, reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health indicators were extremely low in the region. The presence of local and international humanitarian actors, in the form of United Nations agencies and non-governmental organizations, working in concert with concerned federal, state, and local entities of the Government of Nigeria, were able to prioritize and devise strategies for the delivery of health services that resulted in marked improvement of health status in the subset of the population in which this could be measured. Prospects for the future remain uncertain. Methods: Interviews were conducted with more than 60 respondents from government, United Nations agencies, and national and international non-governmental organizations. Quantitative data on intervention coverage indicators from publicly available national surveys (Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS)), National Nutrition and Health Surveys (NNHS)) were descriptively analyzed. Results: Overall, indicators of low reproductive, maternal, neonatal, and child health (RMNCH) status and intervention coverage were found in the pre-intervention period (prior to 2016) and important improvements were noted following the arrival of international humanitarian assistance, even while armed conflict and adverse conditions persisted. Security issues, workforce limitations, and inadequate financing were frequently cited obstacles. Conclusion: It is assumed that armed conflict would have a negative impact on the health status of the affected population, but pre-conflict indicators can be so depressed that this effect is difficult to measure. When this is the case, health sector intervention by the international community can often result in marked improvements in the accessible population. What might happen upon the departure of the humanitarian organizations cannot be predicted with an appreciable degree of certainty

Embodied intersections: Gender, water and sanitation in Cameroon

A cornerstone of feminist thinking, intersectionality offers a critical analytical tool for exploring how gender intersects with other social structures of power. However, this leaves intersectionality grounded firmly in social analysis. Becoming increasingly salient are the complex political and material relations between social power, infrastructure and water (Linton and Budds, 2014). Intersectionality – centring the entanglement of difference – offers an opportunity to explore the interplay between social relations and difference in the physical world (Thompson, 2016). Drawing on participatory visual research with women and men across four communities in Cameroon, we elaborate how gendered social relations intersect with the material dimensions of water and sanitation. Given gendered and age-based divisions of labour, women and girls play a primary role in household water management. This article centres on women’s concerns about everyday water access, use and control to elaborate how intersectional social dynamics in relation to water also intersect with water in the physical world. Expanding intersectional thinking beyond the social realm, we also demonstrate how gendered intersections shape and are shaped by the material and physical dimensions of water. This suggests that theorising about social difference alone risks missing how environmental factors influence different groups’ experiences of power, privilege and oppression

Merging trial arms.

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Exploratory analysis of time between symptom onset and enrollment.

Post-hoc exploratory analysis of subgroups based on time between symptom onset and enrollment. Subgroups are based on approximate tertiles. Shown are (A) proportional odds ratios from models fit by maximum likelihood within each subgroup, with 95% CIs; (B) the empirical risk of survival for each treatment group within each subgroup, with 95% CIs; and (C) empirical risk differences within each subgroup, with 95% CIs. HCQ/CQ indicates hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. (PDF)</p

Estimated mortality rate in subgroups under both control and HCQ/CQ.

Shown are both plug-in estimates (based on the proportion of deaths in each subgroup) along with 95% CIs, and model-adjusted estimates with 95% credible intervals. The model used is the same as for the primary outcome analysis. HCQ/CQ indicates hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine. (PDF)</p