Biosafety regulatory systems overseeing the use of genetically modified organisms in the Latin America and Caribbean region

The development of a legal framework and the establishment of an administrative system are two fundamental elements when building a biosafety regulatory system. Further, the ability to process applications and make decisions concerning the various uses of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are good indicators of an operational biosafety regulatory system. This study provides an update of the progress made by Latin American and Caribbean countries in the establishment of their biosafety regulatory systems, and focuses especially on the regulation of four key types of GMO use (e.g., contained use, confined use, unconfined use, and importation of GMOs or their derived products for food, feed, or processing purposes). It demonstrates that nine countries have operational biosafety regulatory systems with experience in all four types. The majority of countries, however, have little experience regulating GMOs. In fact, our study highlights common capacity deficiencies of these countries, upon which future assistance can be targeted

Children’s Food and Drink Purchasing Behaviour ‘‘Beyond the School Gate’’ : The Development of a Survey Module

Copyright © 2013 Wendy J.Wills et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly citedMany children eat a diet which supplies a higher than recommended amount of nonmilk extrinsic sugars and saturated fatty acids. The school setting is often targeted for nutrition intervention as many children consume food at school. In Scotland, attempts have been made to improve the nutritional content of food in schools and attention has now turned to food and drink available “beyond the school gate.” This paper describes the development of a module on food and drink purchasing behaviour. The Food Purchasing Module was designed to collect data, for the first time, from a representative sample of children aged 8–16 years about food and drinks purchased on the way to/from school, during break time/free periods, and at lunchtime, from outlets around schools. Cognitive testing of the module highlighted that younger children find self-completion questionnaires problematic. Older children have fewer problems with self-completion questionnaires butmany do not follow question routing, which has implications for the delivery of future surveys. Development of this survey module adds much needed evidence about effectively involving children in surveys. Further research exploring food and drinks purchased beyond the school gate is needed to continue to improve the nutritional quality of children’s dietsPeer reviewe

The public health effects of interventions similar to basic income: a scoping review

Universal, unconditional basic income is attracting increasing policy and academic interest. Income is a key health determinant, and a basic income could affect health through its effect on other determinants, such as employment. However, there is little evidence of its potential effects on public health, because no studies of interventions which meet the definition of basic income have been done. However, there is evidence from studies of interventions with similarities to basic income. Therefore, we aimed to identify these studies and to consider what can be learned from them about the potential effects of such interventions on health and socioeconomic outcomes. We did a systematic scoping review of basic income-like interventions, searching eight bibliographic and eight specialist databases from inception to July, 2019, with extensive hand searching. We included publications in English of quantitative and qualitative studies done in upper-middle-income or high-income countries, of universal, permanent, or subsistence-level interventions providing unconditional payments to individuals or families. We sought to identify the range of outcomes reported by relevant studies, and report health, education, employment, and social outcomes. We extracted and tabulated relevant data and narratively reported effects by intervention and outcome. We identified 27 studies of nine heterogeneous interventions, some universal and permanent, and many evaluated using randomised controlled trials or robust quasi-experimental methods. Evidence on health effects was mixed, with strong positive effects on some outcomes, such as birthweight and mental health, but no effect on others. Employment effects were inconsistent, although mostly small for men and larger for women with young children. There was evidence of spill-over effects in studies measuring effects on large populations. In conclusion, little evidence exists of large reductions in employment, and some evidence suggests positive effects on some other outcomes, including health outcomes. Evidence for macro-level effects is scarce. Quasi-experimental and dynamic modelling approaches are well placed to investigate such effects

Hearing in the Juvenile Green Sea Turtle (Chelonia mydas): A Comparison of Underwater and Aerial Hearing Using Auditory Evoked Potentials

Sea turtles spend much of their life in aquatic environments, but critical portions of their life cycle, such as nesting and hatching, occur in terrestrial environments, suggesting that it may be important for them to detect sounds in both air and water. In this study we compared underwater and aerial hearing sensitivities in five juvenile green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) by measuring auditory evoked potential responses to tone pip stimuli. Green sea turtles detected acoustic stimuli in both media, responding to underwater stimuli between 50 and 1600 Hz and aerial stimuli between 50 and 800 Hz, with maximum sensitivity between 200 and 400 Hz underwater and 300 and 400 Hz in air. When underwater and aerial hearing sensitivities were compared in terms of pressure, green sea turtle aerial sound pressure thresholds were lower than underwater thresholds, however they detected a wider range of frequencies underwater. When thresholds were compared in terms of sound intensity, green sea turtle sound intensity level thresholds were 2–39 dB lower underwater particularly at frequencies below 400 Hz. Acoustic stimuli may provide important environmental cues for sea turtles. Further research is needed to determine how sea turtles behaviorally and physiologically respond to sounds in their environment

Moderators of implicit-explicit exercise cognition concordance

Investigating implicit–explicit concordance can aid in understanding underlying mechanisms and possible intervention effects. This research examined the concordance between implicit associations of exercise with health or appearance and related explicit motives. Variables considered as possible moderators were behavioral regulations, explicit attitudes, and social desirability. Participants (N = 454) completed measures of implicit associations of exercise with health and appearance and questionnaire measures of health and appearance motives, attitudes, social desirability, and behavioral regulations. Attitudes significantly moderated the relationship between implicit associations of exercise with health and health motives. Identified regulations significantly moderated implicit–explicit concordance with respect to associations with appearance. These results suggest that implicit and explicit exercise-related cognitions are not necessarily independent and their relationship to each other may be moderated by attitudes or some forms of behavioral regulation. Future research that takes a dual-processing approach to exercise behavior should consider potential theoretical moderators of concordance.</jats:p

Under One Roof – An Integrated Clinic for Substance Use Disorder and Viral Hepatitis/HIV Treatment

Introduction: Integration of viral hepatitis/HIV care and substance use disorder (SUD) treatment has been shown to improve patient outcomes, but data are lacking in rural states like Maine. Our study objective was to assess the baseline characteristics and outcomes of patients with SUD who receive combined substance use and viral hepatitis/HIV treatment at a recently established “Bridge Program” in our rural state. Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of patients enrolled in the Bridge Program between January 2020 and November 2021. We then performed a descriptive analysis of demographics, health characteristics, preventive services, and treatment outcomes. Results: A total of 14 patients were enrolled in the Bridge Program, of which 13/14 (93%) had hepatitis C, and 3/14 (21%) had HIV. When indicated, 100% of participants received appropriate medication for addiction treatment (buprenorphine/naloxone or naltrexone), naloxone kits, and hepatitis A and B vaccinations. Among patients with hepatitis C, 12/13 (92%) started antiviral treatment, of which 10/12 (83%) either achieved treatment cure or are receiving ongoing treatment. Discussion: Integrated care models can successfully treat SUD and HIV/viral hepatitis as co-occurring medical conditions. These models must consider approaches to reduce the number of visits and travel time required for optimal treatment, and enhance recovery by consistently prescribing evidence-based medication for SUD. Conclusions: Our study shows how an integrated clinic model in a rural state can provide comprehensive care, including SUD treatment, naloxone prescribing, vaccinations, and, importantly, high rates of successful hepatitis C/HIV treatment

What are the non-food impacts of GM crop cultivation on farmers' health?

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Does following an “excellent” candidate in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination affect your checklist score?

Acknowledgements The authors would like to acknowledge Wai-Lum Sung from the Department of Medical Illustration at the University of Aberdeen for creation of Figure 1. Citation Brown, C., Nath, M., Watson, W. and Macleod, M.J. (2023), "Does following an “excellent” candidate in the objective structured clinical examination affect your checklist score?", Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JARHE-02-2023-0079 Funding Not applicablePeer reviewedPostprin

Increasing Doses of Intraoperative Hydromorphone Do Not Reduce Postoperative Pain

Introduction: • Intermediate and long acting opioids are given intraoperatively to reduce pain during emergence from anesthesia. • Recent evidence suggests that intraoperative opioids have inconsistent effects on nociception and pain in the immediate postoperative period. • Multiple potent, short-acting opioids such as remifentanil, sufentanil and fentanyl have been shown to produce dose-related increases in pain scores and opioid consumption in the immediate postoperative recovery period. • Intraoperative doses of longer acting opioids such as morphine and methadone6 have been shown to reduce pain scores and narcotic requirements in the immediate postoperative period. • Hydromorphone is an intermediate duration narcotic which is commonly used intraoperatively but has not been studied for its potential to reduce pain in the immediate postoperative period

The Co-produced Pathway to Impact Describes Knowledge Mobilization Processes

Knowledge mobilization supports research collaborations between university and community partners which can maximize the impacts of research beyond the academy; however, models of knowledge mobilization are complex and create challenges for monitoring research impacts. This inability to sufficiently evaluate is particularly problematic for large collaborative research networks involving multiple partners and research institutions. The Co-produced Pathway to Impact simplifies many of the complex models of knowledge mobilization. It is a logic model based framework for mapping the progress of research -\u3e dissemination -\u3e uptake -\u3e implementation -\u3e impact. This framework is illustrated using collaborative research projects from Promoting Relationships and Eliminating Violence Network (PREVNet), a pan-Canadian community-university network engaging in knowledge mobilization to promote healthy relationships among children and youth and prevent bullying. The Co-produced Pathway to Impact illustrates that research impact occurs when university researchers collaborate with non-academic partners who produce the products, policies, and services that have impacts on the lives of end beneficiaries. Research impact is therefore measured at the level of non-academic partners and identified by surveying research partners to create narrative case studies of research impact