Five-year Intervals Research Articles

Psycholinguistic Dimensions of Designing the Future by Adolescents and Youth

In today's rapidly changing society, the ability of an individual to effectively design their future becomes highly important. It is the youth when a person acquires the ability to realize the project of their future. Constructing life goals and plans for their implementation by youth is carried out in the process of information exchange, life experience expansion and reflection of their semantic cognitions in social communications. The success depends on the characteristics of their image transformation into concepts, their statements' reflection, and their interpretation of other people's statements. The article aims to reveal the psycholinguistic features of designing the future by adolescents and youth. The method of the free association test, along with Leontyev's (2003) method of five-year intervals, was used for empirical research. 120 undergraduate and graduate students aged 17 to 21 from the National Pedagogical Drahomanov University, Ukraine, participated in the study held in 2021. Its results showed that most respondents created their goals mainly in marital, family, or professional modes. The objectives of spiritual growth and personal self-realization were autonomously constructed only by a few respondents. Participants with explicit nuclear semantic cognitions and corresponding associative fields, including altruistic associations, revealed prolonged, consistent, realistic structures of their life goals. In contrast, respondents with underdeveloped structures of semantic fields mostly created intermittent, time-limited structures of life goals with somewhat formal cognitions of satisfying their needs in the future.

Declining Trend in Adolescent Alcohol Use: Does It Have Any Significance for Drinking Behaviour in Young Adulthood?

Since 2000, adolescent alcohol use has declined substantially in many high-income countries, particularly in Northern Europe. This study examined whether birth cohorts in Norway who experienced different levels of alcohol consumption in mid-adolescence differed in drinking behaviour when they reached young adulthood. We analysed data from annual population surveys in Norway (2012–2021). The analytic sample comprised data from respondents aged 20–29 years (N = 5266), and we applied four birth cohorts (i.e., 1983–1987, 1988–1992, 1993–1996 and 1997–2001). We applied age categories with two- and five-year intervals and tested whether drinking frequency, heavy episodic drinking (HED) and usual number of drinks per drinking occasion during the past 12 months differed by birth cohort in age-specific strata. Possible cohort differences within age groups were tested using Pearson’s Chi square. There were no statistically significant differences between cohorts with respect to drinking frequency or HED frequency. However, the youngest cohort had fewer drinks per occasion when in their early 20s compared to older cohorts. This study showed that birth cohorts who differed substantially in levels of alcohol consumption in mid-adolescence, only to a little extent differed in drinking behaviour in young adulthood.

A new cross-country index measuring the heterogenous effects of informal institutions

ABSTRACT Studies have identified two fundamentally different types of informal institutions: public and private informal institutions. Empirically, most studies have focused on public informal institutions such as social trust, since indexes measuring private informal institutions such as closed trust have been rare. This research introduces a new index of private informal institutions that captures whether private informal institutions hinder or enhance development by complementing, accommodating, competing, or substituting formal institutions. To this end, we introduce an empirical strategy to measure the four types of private informal institutions for more than 120 countries for the years 1990–2010 in a five-year interval. The extracted index reveals that advanced industrial democracies have complementing and accommodating private informal institutions, whereas post-communist and resource-rich countries have substituting private informal institutions, and countries with some experience of democratization and development display competing private informal institutions. The index also shows that private informal institutions can change rapidly, which can expedite and enhance institutional quality for some countries but deteriorate it for others.

Immigration - Trade Relationship in ASEAN: What Does the Evidence Show?

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region has become more integrated through trade and migration. Yet, public policies in ASEAN do not consider the interrelations between trade and immigration policies. Therefore, the paper employs a static panel gravity model for the 10 ASEAN countries over five-year intervals between 1990 and 2020 to identify the direct connections between migration and trade (exports, imports and intra-industry trade). The empirical results support a pro-import immigrant effect but not a pro-export immigrant effect. The negative effect of the stock of immigrants on the share of bilateral intra-industry trade implies that immigration better explains one-way trade or inter-industry trade. The limited presence of the immigrant-link effects reflects the large stock of unskilled ASEAN immigrants that reduces the possibilities of creating networks between the home and host countries. The significant immigration-import links, however, is sufficient to justify the importance for ASEAN to work towards connecting migration and trade policies.

Analysis of the spatiotemporal evolution of the coastline of Jiaozhou Bay and its driving factors

Studying the spatiotemporal changes in coastlines and the underlying mechanisms is important for the rational development and utilization of coastal resources and sustainable economic development. For the first time, this study analyzes twenty years of spatiotemporal changes in the coastline of Jiaozhou Bay (JB), Qingdao, by integrating high-resolution remote sensing images from Google Maps and Landsat time series data at five-year intervals from 2000 to 2020. Five coastlines were extracted using the normalized difference water index and Otsu threshold segmentation method. The index of coastline type diversity (ICTD), index of coastline utilization degree (ICUD), and end point rate were applied to the systematic study of the evolution of the coastline of JB for the first time. The results show that the total length of coastline decreased, with the natural coastline accounting for only approximately 10% of the sharp decrease in the first five years and slow increase in the last 15 years. The ICTD was >0.7, and the ICUD increased from 231.7 to 261.5, indicating an increase in the influence of humans. The coastline also moved seaward with an average accretion rate of 47.5 km/year, resulting in a 24.5 km2 reduction in the area of the bay over the 20 years. This was caused by human activities such as port construction. In addition, the degree of correlation between coastline changes and socioeconomic factors was analyzed using grey correlation analysis. Based on this, the forces driving the changes to the coastline were explored, and suggestions for coastal zone management were proposed.

Land use/land cover and change detection mapping in Rahuri watershed area (MS), India using the google earth engine and machine learning approach

The change detection and land use and land cover (LULC) maps are more important powerful forces behind numerous ecological systems and fallow land. The current research focuses on demarcating the spatiotemporal LULC changes, NDVI and change detections maps. These effects directly affect the ecosystem, land resources, cropping pattern and agriculture. LULC assessment and surveillance are essential for long-term planning and sustainable use of natural resources. However, we have developed the soft computing machine learning algorithm for mapping land use and land cover based on the Google earth engine (GEE) platform and change detection mapping done by SAGA GIS software. It is significantly used for ecological safety and planning under various climate variations. To accurately describe the land use and land cover classes with changes are identified in the area. This area exclusively uses the multitemporal Landsat-5 (30 m) and Sentinel-2 (10 m) imageries in LULC mapping. The GEE is a cloud-computing platform with the prevailing classification ability of random forest (RF) models to make five-year interval LULC maps for 2010, 2015 and 2020. To unique multiple RF models established as a classifier in the algorithm created by JavaScript and GEE. SAGA GIS has provided the best platform for detecting changes in land use and land cover classes. NDVI maps are created based on the cloud-based platform. These maps value ranges between −0.68 to −0.15, 0.76 to −0.29 and 0.66 to −0.11 in 2010, 2015 and 2020. Experimental outcomes indicate five classes such as water bodies, built up, barren, cropland and fallow land during 2010, 2015 and 2020. The overall accuracy of User and Producer for 2010, 2015 and 2019 years in between 86.23%, 88.34%, 85.53% and 92.51%, 94.34% and 91.54%, respectively. We have observed that (2010, 2015 − 2020) agriculture and built-up land increased by 1040.76 ha, 1246.32 ha, 1500.93 ha and 34.96 ha, 37.08 ha, 42.58 ha, respectively. Other side degraded land, fallow land, waterbodies areas (953.19 ha, 679.23 ha, 937.24 ha and 1385.73 ha, 1513.53 ha, 991.08 ha and 32.85 ha, 21.33 ha, 25.66 ha) are increased during the year of 2010, 2015 and 2020, respectively. While results have been done by GEE cloud platform and remote sensing data, this developed algorithm easily classified the land use maps from Landsat-5 and Sentinel-2 TM imagery in the machine learning approach. The determined 30-m and 10-m three-year LULC maps are made-up to deliver vital data on the changes, monitoring and understanding of which types of LULC classes and changes have occupied a place in the Rahuri area.

Breast cancer screening in persons experiencing homelessness.

6515 Background: Persons experiencing homelessness (PEH) suffer from poor health outcomes, including worse cancer mortality, compared to persons not experiencing homelessness. A portion of the disparity in cancer outcomes is attributable to reduced access to cancer screening, leading to more advanced-stage disease and a higher risk of death compared to the general population. Data regarding cancer screening rates in PEH are scarce. We therefore sought to evaluate baseline rates of breast cancer screening in PEH. Methods: All patients presenting for care from January 1, 2014 onward at a hospital system spanning five counties in a populous Midwestern state were screened for homelessness. Homelessness was identified by two criteria: presence of the Z-code for homelessness (Z59) in the patient’s electronic medical record, and/or patient’s address on record listed as an address matching that of a regional homeless shelter, transitional housing, or “homeless.” Identified PEH were maintained in a prospective registry. For each female PEH in the screening age range, billing data for completed breast cancer screening mammography performed in the previous five years (1/1/17-12/31/21) were extracted (CPT codes 77063, 77067). Data were also extracted for a cohort of non-PEH patients eligible for screening. Demographic and clinical data were extracted for all patients. This study was approved by the hospital system’s IRB. Results: A total of 3,474 female (biological sex) PEH were identified, with 1,320 eligible for screening mammography (alive and between the ages of 40 and 79) in the study timeframe. The median age was 53.5 years old; 44% were Black, 48% White, 8.5% unknown/other race, and 3% Hispanic ethnicity. 28% of PEH were uninsured, and 67% had government insurance; 66% had an assigned primary care physician (PCP). Of PEH eligible for screening mammography, 237 (18%) had at least one screening mammogram during this five-year interval (2017, 2.2%; 2018, 4.3%; 2019, 3.6%; 2020, 3.7%; 2021, 4.3%). In a cohort of 6,240 non-PEH eligible for screening over the same timeframe, the screening mammography rate was 32%, which was significantly higher than the screening rate for PEH (p < 0.00001). Compared to PEH who did not undergo screening mammography, PEH who underwent screening mammography were more likely to have an assigned PCP (90% vs 38%, p < 0.00001), to be a non-current tobacco user (56% vs 35%, p < 0.00001), and to be a non-current illicit drug user (84 % vs 68%, p = 0.0015). PEH who underwent screening mammography were significantly less likely to be uninsured (12% vs 31%, p < 0.00001). Conclusions: In the largest study of its kind to date, we identified low rates of breast cancer screening in female PEH. Interventions to increase breast cancer screening in this vulnerable population are urgently needed and may include increased access to PCPs, tobacco and drug cessation programs, and provision of health insurance.

Higher obesity and lower screening rates in Hispanic women and associated increased breast cancer in the United States.

10555 Background: To evaluate trends in postmenopausal breast cancer and mammogram utilization in Hispanic and White women in the United States. Methods: Data on postmenopausal breast cancer was obtained from the United States Cancer Statistics Public Use Database between 2001 and 2018. Rates of mammogram screening for women ages 18 and older were evaluated using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from 2000 and 2018. Obesity rates for women ages 18 and older were extracted from BRFSS between 2001 and 2016. SEER*Stat 8.3.8 and Joinpoint regression program 4.8.0.1 were used to calculate incidence trends. Breast cancer and obesity incidence and trends were described using average annual percent change (AAPC). Mammogram screening trends were described using average biennial percent change (ABPC). Age groups were divided into five-year or ten-year intervals. Results: Over the past eighteen years, early-stage breast cancer in Hispanic women has increased annually by 1.06% (p = 0.000) and advanced-stage has also increased annually by 0.81% (p = 0.000). In contrast, there was no increase in early-stage cancer in White women, however, advanced stage increased by 1.06% annually (p = 0.000). Compared to White woomen, Hispanic women are more likely to be unscreened with mammograms (18.17% vs. 40.06%). Over time, the unscreened population is decreasing at 3.43% for White women compared to only 1.24% in Hispanic women (p = 0.000, p = 0.001). Overall in the U.S., the never-screened population has decreased biennially by 2.88% (p = 0.000). In 2016, 33.16% of Hispanic women and 28.13% of White women were considered obese, and this obesity rate has been increasing at 2.6% and 2.4%, respectively (p = 0.000). Conclusions: Our data showed that early- and advanced-stage breast cancer has been increasing in Hispanic women in the United States. Hispanic women were also more likely to be obese and less likely to undergo screening compared to White women.

Increase in incidence of advanced-stage breast cancer in Asian women versus White women: Can this be explained by the lower utilization of mammograms?

10524 Background: To examine trends in postmenopausal breast cancer and mammogram utilization in Asian and White women in the United States. Methods: Data on postmenopausal breast cancer was obtained from the United States Cancer Statistics Public Use Database from 2001 and 2018. Rates of mammogram screening for women ages 18 and older were evaluated using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) between 2000 and 2018. Obesity rates for women ages 18 and older were extracted from BRFSS between 2001 and 2016. SEER*Stat 8.3.8 and Joinpoint regression program 4.8.0.1 were used to calculate incidence trends. Breast cancer incidence and trends were described using average annual percent change (AAPC). Mammogram screening trends were described using average biennial percent change (ABPC). Obesity trends were described using AAPC. Age groups were divided into five-year or ten-year intervals. Results: The incidence of metastatic postmenopausal breast cancer in women was 19.48/100,000 in 2018 has increased by 1.03% annually over the past eighteen years (p = 0.000). In 2018, the incidence of advanced-stage breast cancer in Asian and White women was 12.17/100,000 and 19.17/100,000 respectively. Over time, the incidence of advanced-stage breast cancer has increased in Asian women by 2.19% annually (p = 0.000), but remained stable in White women. In a subset analysis of early-stage breast cancer, there was no difference in both Asian and White women. Using the BRFSS data, we evaluated the utilization of mammograms. In the overall population, 20.92% were newer screened and this was higher in Asian women at 40.99% compared to 18.17% in White women in the year 2018. Given the potential association of obesity and breast cancer, we then evaluated the rate of obesity in these two groups. Our data showed that the incidence of obesity was low in Asian women at 12.8% compared to 28.13% in White women. Conclusions: There is an increased incidence of advanced-stage breast cancer in Asian women in the U.S. Although Asian women are less obese but they are also less likely to undergo screening compared to White women.

Does access to agricultural credit help disaster-affected farming households to invest more on agricultural input?

PurposeNatural calamities impair agricultural households' ability to invest in their farms. Facilitating access to agricultural credit may assist farmers in the face of negative revenue shocks. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of agricultural credit on the agricultural input expenditure of disaster-affected farmers in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe study utilizes data on 2,519 disaster-affected farming households from Bangladesh's Household Income and Expenditure Study (HIES) 2016–2017, which employs a nationwide representative five-year interval survey. Further, propensity score matching (PSM) identification strategy is used to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET), and Mahalanobis distance matching (MDM) is used for the robustness test. In addition, heterogeneous analysis has been conducted to explore the impact of agricultural credit on different types of farming households.FindingsThe findings reveal that access to agricultural credit has a favorable and significant effect on farm input expenditure for disaster-affected farmers. Therefore, agricultural credit accessibility could be utilized as a policy tool to assist disaster-affected farmers in improving their investment capacity, and hence, agricultural output.Originality/valueThis study, using a quasi-experimental design of access to agricultural credit on agricultural input expenditures of the disaster-affected farming households in coastal areas of Bangladesh to estimate the causal effect.

Parsing Long-Term Tree Recruitment, Growth, and Mortality to Identify Hurricane Effects on Structural and Compositional Change in a Tropical Forest

After hurricane disturbances in tropical forests, the size structure and species composition are affected by immediate mortality, and subsequent recruitment and individual growth. Often, immediate post-disturbance stand-level data are presented but understanding of the components that affect changes in growth and longer-term responses to forest structure and composition are lacking. To answer questions about how mortality, recruitment, and growth change among successional Plant Functional Types (PFT) through time after a hurricane disturbance, we use long-term census data (1989–2014) collected in the Luquillo Experimental Forest, Puerto Rico. We developed an algorithm to fill missing diameter data from the long-term data set that was collected three months after Hurricane Hugo; and subsequently at five-year intervals. Both the immediate hurricane-induced mortality and subsequent mortality were lower in stems with larger diameters, but varied among successional PFTs Early, Mid, Late, and Palm. Tree growth rates were observed to decrease with time since the hurricane disturbance. Five years after the hurricane, mortality was minimal but then increased gradually with time. In contrast, recruitment was highest five years after the hurricane and then decreased with time. The palm Prestoea montana became the most abundant species in the forest after the hurricane, as it had the lowest immediate hurricane-induced and subsequent mortality, and the highest recruitment. Twenty-five years after the hurricane, the palm and the Late PFT dominate the forest after shifting species composition from pre-hurricane conditions.

Analysis of maritime transportation research capability: authors, affiliations, and nationalities

ABSTRACT With the continuous development of the maritime transportation industry, many researchers paid highly attention to the research field of maritime transportation, and numerous related studies were conducted. Therefore, it is very timely and necessary to examine the active authors, affiliations and nationalities focused on this research field, so as to enable new researchers to quickly build an understanding of this field. Based on 2,972 papers published in 66 journals from 2011 to 2020, this paper uses three indicators: number of papers, the weighted score, and the impact score, to rank top fifty authors, affiliations, and nationalities in the research field of maritime transportation, and show their ranking changes in five-year intervals. Finally, this paper counts the frequency of keywords from all papers and surveys the number of research topics in the past ten years from the four research fields of ‘shipping’ ‘port’ ‘maritime fleet’ and ‘green shipping’ to help researchers identify research hotspots and grasp future directions.

Relationship Between Age-Related Changes in Skeletal Muscle Mass and Physical Function: A Cross-Sectional Study of an Elderly Japanese Population.

Skeletal muscle mass and muscle strength are positively correlated, but the relationship between grip strength and global muscle strength is controversial. This study aimed to clarify the changes in site-specific skeletal muscle mass by age group and determine the relationship between site-specific, age-related changes in skeletal muscle mass and physical function in community-dwelling elderly people in Japan. The participants were divided into age groups of five-year intervals (65-69 years, 70-74 years, 75-79 years, and ≥80 years) and were also categorized by sex. The skeletal muscle mass of the upper limbs, lower limbs, and trunk was measured using multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analyzers (InBody 430 (Biospace Co., Ltd., Seoul, Korea) and InBody 470 (InBody Japan Inc., Tokyo, Japan)). For physical function assessment, we measured grip strength, quadriceps strength, sit-up count, sit-and-reach distance, and standing time on one leg with eyes open and performed the timed up and go (TUG) test. The results showed that skeletal muscle mass decreased with age regardless of sex at all measured sites. Furthermore, a partial correlation analysis adjusted for age, physical constitution, and the presence/absence of exercise habits revealed that the highest correlation was between skeletal muscle mass in all sites and grip strength. Thus, monitoring grip strength may be used as a representative of systemic skeletal mass even in Japanese people.

Observed Changes in the Frequency, Intensity, and Spatial Patterns of Nine Natural Hazards in the United States from 2000 to 2019.

There is increasing evidence from across the globe that climate change results in changes in the frequency, location, and impact of natural hazards. Much of this evidence is conceptual, inferential, or simply assumed. To provide objective support to confirm these hypotheses, we constructed county-level time-series datasets (2000-2019) for nine natural hazards for the entire United States. Hazards considered for this study included hurricanes, tropical storms, landslides, wildfires, earthquakes, drought, inland flooding, coastal flooding, and tornadoes. Geospatial analysis techniques were used to calculate the percentage (range: 0-100) of land area in each county exposed to each natural hazard for all the years that hazard data were available. The best available data were acquired from publicly accessible sources. Cumulative distribution functions were calculated for each hazard in five-year intervals to test for statistically significant changes in distribution patterns across the five-year time periods using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. There were significant changes in hurricanes, tropical storms, and drought over the two decades; changes in tornadoes, landslides, and wildfires were not significant in terms of frequency, likely due to the site-specific nature of their occurrences. The intensity and spatial distribution and an emerging hot spot and spatial trend analyses and an emerging hot spot and spatial trend analyses were also completed (except for flooding events and earthquakes due to insufficient data). All datasets provide empirical support for earlier inferences concerning the connections between the hazards and climate change. Analyses showed apparent changes in the frequency and intensity of hurricanes, tropical storms, and drought-related to climate change factors. Internal and coastal flooding also demonstrated these connections, although the length of the dataset did not permit significant testing but shows significant hot spots and trending locations. Tornadoes, landslides, and wildfires showed significant hot spots and trending locations, but the specific locational nature of the data did not show significant changes in frequency. Earthquakes showed no significant changes over the time period.

Does Weight-Motivation for Exercise Predict Physical Activity Levels Across the Life Course From Adolescence to Adulthood?

Healthcare professionals may motivate their patients to exercise to lose weight, but it is unknown how weight-focused motivations influence young peoples’ PA trajectories. PurposeTo examine if weight-motivated exercise predicts moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) from adolescence to adulthood in a population-based sample and if this relationship differs by age and body mass index (BMI). MethodsParticipants (N = 1,428; 13–18 years at baseline; 48.6% female; 49.0% white) responded to surveys in the 15-year longitudinal study, Project EAT (Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults). Weight-motivated exercise was examined as a predictor of MVPA across the life course at five-year intervals using linear regression generalized estimating equations and adjusting for demographics (age modeled continuously), BMI (modeled continuously), weight-related intentions, and prior MVPA. ResultsWeight-motivated exercise predicted higher subsequent MVPA at five-year intervals among females (B = .57, 95% CI:0.13, 1.00) but not males (B = .31, 95% CI:-.09, .72). The association differed by BMI in females (p = .02); weight-motivated exercise was associated with higher subsequent MVPA at lower BMI but lower subsequent MVPA at higher BMI. The association also differed by age in males (p = .008), such that older males who reported weight-motivated exercise had higher subsequent MVPA, whereas this association was not present in younger males. ConclusionWeight-motivated exercise may have a deleterious influence on MVPA for females with higher BMI and may have an advantageous influence on older males. Understanding how motivations for exercise may influence PA trajectories can inform PA promotion over the life course by providing more nuanced guidance by age, BMI, and sex.

Dynamics of land cover transitions and agricultural abandonment in a mountainous agricultural landscape: Case of Ifugao rice terraces, Philippines

Mountainous agricultural landscapes experienced large-scale land cover changes in the past decades due to traditional land modification practices and increasing permanent agricultural abandonment. However, there is lack of observation of short-period land cover transitions and paddy field dynamics of fallowing and recultivation. This study was implemented in the Philippines’ Ifugao rice terraces with three aims. The first aim is to analyze rapid land cover transitions by mapping land cover maps in consistent five-year intervals from 1990 to 2020. The second aim is to analyze paddy field dynamics that involve permanent abandonment, fallowing, first-time cultivations, and recultivation by developing an analysis framework involving time-series land cover maps. The third aim is to confirm the relationship between abundance of vegetation land covers and permanent abandonment of paddy fields by implementing regression analysis. Results show that a two-step process involving low vegetation as an intermediary land cover typically occurs in between agricultural abandonment and afforestation that was widely observed in mountainous agricultural landscapes. Observed temporal dynamics of paddy fields aligned with historical records such as high rates of permanent abandonment in the 1990s and recultivation (416% increase) in the 2000s. Regression analysis revealed that there is a significant correlation between low vegetation cover abundance and subsequent paddy field permanent abandonment (P = 0.0498), which confirms that afforestation in the landscape decreased the water yield and promoted agricultural abandonment. The findings suggest that planning of mountainous agricultural landscapes should address social and environmental driving factors to mitigate the land-transition feedback loop that further promotes agricultural abandonment.

시설보호아동의 학교적응에 대한 미래관이나 후원자지지의 관계

Objectives: This longitudinal study was done to identify the relationship of school adjustment and sponsor support or future time perspective and the differences of these 3 variables between 1st and 2nd survey of children having Didimseed account in institutional care. Methods: Participants were 25 elementary fourth to sixth grade children who are living on one facility that located in G. metropolitan area at 1st survey and 2nd survey was done at five-year intervals. Data were collected from September 2012 to September 2017 and were analyzed using t-test, paired t-test, ANOVA, post-hoc test and Pearson's correlation coefficients. Results: The level of school adjustment knowledge was not different significantly according to grade, gender and admission period at 1st survey. At 2nd survey, the level of school adjustment was different significantly according to grade only. The level of school adjustment was associated with positive future time perspective(r=.74) and negative future time perspective(r=-.54) at 1st survey, and that was associated with negative future time perspective(r=-.49) and meeting frequency of sponsor(r=-.43) at 2nd survey. There were not significantly different school adjustment and future time perspective variables between both surveys. But meeting frequency of sponsor at 2nd survey was lower significantly than that at 1st survey. Conclusions: Based on the results of this study, it would be necessary to prepare the policies that could have their positive future time perspective to increase school adjustment of institutionalized children. Also the effective strategies to increase not only Didimseed account support but emotional support through qualified meeting with sponsors should be developed.

Effects of Increasing Fire Frequency on Conservation Values in Eucalyptus Grassy Woodland in the Process of Invasion by Allocasuarina verticillata

Woody thickening is a widespread phenomenon in the grassy woodlands of the world, often with deleterious effects on nature conservation values. We aimed to determine whether increasing the frequency of planned fire prevented woody thickening and improved conservation values in a Eucalyptus viminalis grassy woodland in the process of invasion by Allocasuarina verticillata (henceforth Allocasuarina) in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. We used a before–after control intervention design. Ten plots from which detailed vegetation data were collected in 2018 (before the burns), 2019 (between burns), 2020 (between burns) and 2021 (after the burns) were randomly located in each of four blocks. Two of the blocks were burned in both 2018 and 2021. One block was burned only in 2021, and another was not burned at all. Mechanical thinning of Allocasuarina took place in 2021 in six plots in one unburned block and in three twice-burned plots. The fires were low intensity and patchy, reflecting the reality of planned burns in this environment. Thus, there were unburned plots mixed with burned plots in each of the three burned blocks. We compared changes in vegetation and cover attributes between a preburn survey in 2018 and a postburn survey in 2021, between five fire history/thinning classes (unburned, no thinning; unburned, thinning; twice burned; burned in 2018 only; burned in 2021 only). Fires in both 2018 and 2021 resulted in lower litter cover and higher exotic species richness than one fire in 2021. Exotic species richness increase between 2018 and 2021 was greater after fires in 2018 and 2021 than after a fire in 2021 alone. Exotic species richness was lowest six years after fire and highest one to three years after fire. The basal area of Allocasuarina was, counter-intuitively, less reduced by two fires in four years than by one. Mechanical thinning reduced shrub layer cover, which largely consisted of small trees, but did not affect basal area. Our data suggested that grass cover increased until five years after a fire, declining back to a low level by eight years. The implications of the results for conservation management are that the mechanical removal of young Allocasuarina may be successful in preventing its thickening and that burning at a five-year interval is likely to best maintain understorey conservation values. The counter-intuitive results related to Allocasuarina basal area emphasise the importance of understanding cumulative effects of fire regimes on fuel cycles and the consequent effects on tree mortality.

A Cohort Study on Cancer Incidence among Women Exposed to Environmental Asbestos in Childhood with a Focus on Female Cancers, including Breast Cancer.

Objectives: To examine the risk of cancer in former school children exposed to environmental asbestos in childhood with a focus on female cancers, including breast cancer. Methods: We retrieved a cohort of females (n = 6024) attending four schools located in the neighborhood of a large asbestos cement plant in Denmark. A reference cohort was frequency-matched 1:9 (n = 54,200) in sex and five-year age intervals. Using Danish registries, we linked information on historical employments, relatives’ employments, cancer, and vital status. We calculated standardized incidence rates (SIRs) for all and specific cancers, comparing these rates with the reference cohort. Hazard ratios were calculated for selected cancers adjusted for occupational and familial asbestos exposure. Results: For cancer of the corpus uteri (SIR 1.29, 95% CI 1.01–1.66) and malignant mesothelioma (SIR 7.26, 95% CI 3.26–16.15), we observed significantly increased incidences. Occupationally, asbestos exposure had a significantly increased hazard ratio for cancer in the cervix, however, a significantly lower risk of ovarian cancer. The overall cancer incidence was similar to that of the reference cohort (SIR 1.02, 95% CI 0.96–1.07). The risk of cancer of the lung was increased for those exposed to occupational asbestos, those with family members occupationally exposed to asbestos and for tobacco smokers. Conclusions: In our study, environmental asbestos exposure in childhood is associated with an increased risk of cancer of the corpus uteri and malignant mesothelioma in women.

The Relationship Between Sexual Assault History and Cervical Cancer Screening Completion Among Women Veterans in the Veterans Health Administration.

Background: Sexual assault affects one in three U.S. women and may have lifelong consequences for women's health, including potential barriers to completing cervical cancer screening and more than twofold higher cervical cancer risk. The objective of this study was to determine whether a history of sexual assault is associated with reduced cervical cancer screening completion among women Veterans. Materials and Methods: We analyzed data from a 2015 survey of women Veterans who use primary care or women's health services at 12 Veterans Health Administration facilities (VA's) in nine states. We linked survey responses with VA electronic health record data and used logistic regression to examine the association of lifetime sexual assault with cervical cancer screening completion within a guideline-concordant interval. Results: The sample included 1049 women, of whom 616 (58.7%) reported lifetime sexual assault. Women with a history of sexual assault were more likely to report a high level of distress related to pelvic examinations, and to report ever delaying a gynecologic examination due to distress. However, in the final adjusted model, lifetime sexual assault was not significantly associated with reduced odds of cervical cancer screening completion (OR 1.35, 95% CI 0.93-1.97). Conclusions: Contrary to our expectations, sexual assault was not significantly associated with gaps in cervical cancer screening completion. Three- to five-year screening intervals may provide sufficient time to complete screening, despite barriers. Trauma-sensitive care practices promoted in the VA may allow women to overcome the distress and discomfort of pelvic examinations to complete needed screening. ClinicalTrials.gov (#NCT02039856).