High-level Access Research Articles

Nexus supplier transparency and supply network accessibility: effects on buyer ESG risk exposure

PurposeThis paper investigates the role of nexus supplier transparency, which involves the collective information disclosure to the public by second-tier nexus suppliers, as an alternative mechanism for mitigating buyer environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk exposure. We also examine buyer supply network accessibility as a moderating factor that facilitates collecting detailed information and undertaking corrective actions accordingly.Design/methodology/approachWe collected a sample of 428 focal buyer firms and their supply networks up to third-tier suppliers. Data were obtained from Bloomberg and RepRisk databases. We identified critical nexus suppliers using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and tested hypotheses using regression analysis.FindingsThe results show that the benefits of nexus supplier transparency, such as reducing buyer ESG risk exposure, differ depending on the type of nexus supplier disclosing information and buyer supply network accessibility. Informational nexus supplier transparency was found to be beneficial. However, the results revealed the double-edged sword of monopolistic nexus supplier transparency, which benefits buyers with higher levels of accessibility but increases risk exposure for buyers with lower accessibility.Originality/valueThis study demonstrates that the transparency of critical second-tier suppliers mitigates buyer ESG risk exposure by providing information about lower tiers in the supply network. Challenging the notion of the focal buyer as the main orchestrator of supply chain initiatives, our alternative perspective opens a new avenue for risk management in multi-tier supply chains.

Antidepressant Herbal Plants: An Updated Review

The symptoms of this illness include mood swings, protracted melancholy, disinterest, and diminished cognitive performance. These symptoms give the patient discomfort and have a substantial negative impact on their capacity to function and lead fulfilling personal, social, and professional lives. Depression treatment has to be comprehensive and involve medicine. For several centuries, herbal chemicals have been the subject of scientific inquiry, and ongoing studies are being conducted to explore their possible medical benefits. Herbs used in traditional medicine have been shown to be highly beneficial in lowering depression and its symptoms as well as enhancing patient function. Plants are used in biology and medicine in a variety of ways. They are an excellent resource for the creation of innovative drugs due to their high levels of safety, accessibility, availability, tolerance, and low levels of toxicity. Depression is caused by a multitude of variables, such as inflammation, brain-derived neurotropic factor (BDNF), hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and monoamine neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin (5-HT), noradrenaline, and 5-HT). Herbal medicines have gained a lot of attention lately since they are less costly and have less adverse effects than traditional depression treatments. Recent years have seen a significant amount of study on the possible application of sedative and antidepressant plants. The primary emphasis of this review has been herbal medications with antidepressant properties. Keywords: Depression, herbal medications. Herb, antidepressant plants

Contributions to a Theoretical Framework for Evaluating the Supply–Demand Matching of Medical Care Facilities in Mega-Cities: Incorporating Location, Scale, and Quality Factors

The rapid urbanization and population growth in mega-cities have led to a significant increase in the demand for medical services, highlighting the critical need for a more efficient alignment between the supply and demand of medical resources. Previous research often focuses on singular factors, such as accessibility or quantity, as the primary criteria for matching medical services, without comprehensively considering the location, scale, and quality factors of medical facilities. Addressing this gap, this study develops a theoretical framework that integrates these three critical factors to assess the supply–demand matching (SDM) of medical care facilities (MCFs) with population needs. This assessment is conducted using geospatial analysis techniques with ArcGIS and Python. The study includes an empirical analysis of 134 streets within the Chongqing municipality. The empirical results reveal significant disparities in the performance of integrated medical care facilities (MCFs), as well as variations across the dimensions of location, scale, and quality. Central districts like Yuzhong demonstrate high levels of accessibility, appropriate scale matching, and satisfactory service quality, whereas rapidly urbanizing peripheral districts such as Yubei suffer from significant mismatches in resource availability and service quality. The theoretical framework contributes to the field of medical care research, and the corresponding empirical findings provide valuable insights for urban planners and policymakers to optimize the allocation of medical resources, improve healthcare accessibility, and enhance service quality across different urban areas.

Deep learning-based authentication for insider threat detection in critical infrastructure

In today’s cyber environment, threats such as data breaches, cyberattacks, and unauthorized access threaten national security, critical infrastructure, and financial stability. This research addresses the challenging task of protecting critical infrastructure from insider threats because of the high level of trust and access these individuals typically receive. Insiders may obtain a system administrator’s password through close observation or by deploying software to gather the information. To solve this issue, an innovative artificial intelligence-based methodology is proposed to identify a user by their password’s keystroke dynamics. This paper also introduces a new Gabor Filter Matrix Transformation method to transform numerical values into images by revealing the behavioral pattern of password typing. A siamese neural network (SNN) with the branches of convolutional neural networks is utilized for image comparison, aiming to detect unauthorized attempts to access critical infrastructure systems. The network analyzes the unique features of a user’s password timestamps transformed into images and compares them with previously submitted user passwords. The obtained results indicate that transforming the numerical values of keystroke dynamics into images and training an SNN leads to a lower equal error rate (EER) and higher user authentication accuracy than those previously reported in other studies. The methodology is validated on publicly available keystroke dynamics collections, the CMU and GREYC-NISLAB datasets, which collectively comprise over 30,000 password samples. It achieves the lowest EER value of 0.04545 compared to state-of-the-art methods for transforming non-image data into images. The paper concludes with a discussion of findings and potential future directions.

Colloidal Templating in Catalyst Design for Thermocatalysis.

Conventional catalyst preparative methods commonly entail the impregnation, precipitation, and/or immobilization of nanoparticles on their supports. While convenient, such methods do not readily afford the ability to control collective ensemble-like nanoparticle properties, such as nanoparticle proximity, placement, and compartmentalization. In this Perspective, we illustrate how incorporating colloidal templating into catalyst design for thermocatalysis confers synthetic advantages to facilitate new catalytic investigations and augment catalytic performance, focusing on three colloid-templated catalyst structures: 3D macroporous structures, hierarchical macro-mesoporous structures, and discrete hollow nanoreactors. We outline how colloidal templating decouples the nanoparticle and support formation steps to devise modular catalyst platforms that can be flexibly tuned at different length scales. Of particular interest is the raspberry colloid templating (RCT) method which confers high thermomechanical stability by partially embedding nanoparticles within its support, while retaining high levels of reactant accessibility. We illustrate how the high modularity of the RCT approach allows one to independently control collective nanoparticle properties, such as nanoparticle proximity and localization, without concomitant changes to other catalytic descriptors that would otherwise confound analyses of their catalytic performance. We next discuss how colloidal templating can be employed to achieve spatially disparate active site functionalization while directing reactant transport within the catalyst structure to enhance selectivity in multistep catalytic cascades. Throughout this Perspective, we highlight developments in advanced characterization that interrogate transport phenomena and/or derive new insights into these catalyst structures. Finally, we offer our outlook on the future roles, applications, and challenges of colloidal templating in catalyst design for thermocatalysis.

Human Firewall Simulator for Enhancing Security Awareness against Business Email Compromise

Chief executive officers (CEOs) can turn out to be the weakest link to an organization’s security and attackers know that if they successfully exploit or impersonate someone who has a high level of access like CEOs or chief finance officers (CFOs), they instantly gain great advantage. The problem comes when attacker manages to take control of email accounts of the CEOs and CFOs and sends an email to another staff in the organization, he/she is likely to take it seriously, act accordingly and quickly as possible, and may be wire cash to an account directed by the “CEO/CFO,” and/or get away with private or sensitive corporate information. Because of the nature of these attack methods, detection and protection are very difficult since the attackers take advantage of the human weakness which is the weakest link. The main aim of this study is to provide a solution to protect every surface of the organization. By developing a human firewall, working with the already existing technical solutions offers the solution to remaining problem of human weakness. This research developed a simulator to train the users with the latest trends the attackers are using making them do it right (flagging, reporting, not clicking suspicions links) and making email security part of their responsibility. This makes employee become human firewall. The results from the simulator are displayed in charts as number of employees who passed the test, number of employees who will click on the malicious links, number of employees who will download the dangerous attachments, number of employees who will reply to phishing emails, average awareness of the organization, and how individual employees performed. While organizations have made progress over the years, security is a never-ending process that requires improvement day by day. Since no one in the organization’s structure is immune including the top most in the cadre (i.e., CEO), complexity in understanding and awareness creation is more wanting than before. Integrating human firewall into existing security measures as the last line of defense in email communication against business email compromise frauds offers this solution because it has preventive as well as reactive measures both geared toward maximizing email security. A simulation of the attacks to analyze the user involvement to breaching the security followed by an evaluation simulation after integrating human firewall to the organization’s email security shows success level. The results from the test show the different success levels, that is, results from pre-assessment definitely show low success level since staff/employees have not been made aware/trained to profile or flag compared to when the employees/staff have gone through the training/awareness. Post-assessment indicates high success level because actions from employees turned into human firewall know how to take proper action, for example, flagging, not clicking malicious links. The organization should update its policies to accommodate and reinforce rules on the employees to ensure that the tool is used regularly and actions taken on user deemed a threat to the organizational email security.

Standards of Accessibility to Health, Education, Culture and Leisure and The Association With Quality of Life For People With Disabilities

Objective: To evaluate the association between standards of accessibility to health, education, culture and leisure and the quality of life of people with disabilities. Theoretical Framework: Four fundamental rights play a vital role in human development: health, education, culture and leisure. These components are crucial for the general well-being and quality of life of all people, including those with some type of disability (DOS SANTOS; PEREIRA, 2023; MITRA et al., 2013; BEST et al., 2022). Method: 101 patients from the Specialized Center for Rehabilitation for People with Disabilities (CER IV), Rio Grande do Sul participated in the study. The Two Step Cluster method was used as an analytical procedure, which analyzes data in two stages and means comparisons. Results and Discussion: There are two patterns of accessibility to health, education, culture and leisure, with one group being characterized by having high levels of accessibility and another group being characterized by a group of participants with low levels of accessibility. High levels of accessibility to health, education, culture and leisure are associated with significantly higher levels of quality of life, both in general and in the physical, psychological, social relationships and environmental domains. Research Implications: The results presented may be useful to professionals who work with people with disabilities. Originality/Value: These results may also be relevant to guide public policies and interventions aimed at improving accessibility to these resources that are fundamental to promoting a higher quality of life in this population.

Factors Associated with Device, Internet and Videoconferencing Use Amongst Individuals with Moderate-to-Severe Traumatic Brain Injury.

Videoconferencing (VC) has the potential to improve access to quality healthcare for individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who require intensive and ongoing rehabilitation post-injury. Gaps in information and communication technology (ICT) use, access, and skills, however, may undermine equitable participation in remotely delivered healthcare and rehabilitation. This cross-sectional study sought to identify which demographic, injury-related, and psychological factors are associated with gaps in digital inclusion amongst individuals with a TBI. Between March 2020 and December 2023, 186 adults with a moderate-to-severe TBI who were aged 18-65 years and were within five years post-injury completed a range of self-report measures. The results demonstrated that most individuals with a moderate-to-severe TBI reported high levels of technology skills and access and used the internet from multiple devices daily. While injury severity was unrelated to technology use, this finding may reflect an overestimation of technology use amongst individuals with the most severe injuries, who were excluded from the study. Several demographic and psychological factors were found to predict VC readiness and are presented within a model to guide clinicians considering client suitability for VC rehabilitation. The current findings indicate that the use of VC in clinical settings following a moderate-to-severe TBI is feasible and suggest that individuals with a TBI may benefit from the greater provision of remotely delivered healthcare than is currently offered.

Environmental determinants of health: Measuring multiple physical environmental exposures at the United States census tract level

Physical environment plays a key role in determining human health risks. Exposure to toxins, weather extremes, degraded air and water quality, high levels of noise and limited accessibility to green areas can negatively affect health. Furthermore, adverse environmental exposures are often correlated with each other and with socioeconomic status, thereby compounding disadvantages in marginalized populations. Moreover, despite their importance in determining human health risks, the role of multiple environmental exposures is not well studied, and only a few resources contain aggregate environmental exposure data and only for selected areas of the contiguous US. To fill these gaps, we took a cumulative approach to measuring the environment by generating a composite Multi-Exposure Environmental Index (MEEI) as a US Census Tract-level summary of key environmental factors with known health effects. This measure quantifies multiple environmental exposures in the same area that can result in additive and synergistic effects on health outcomes. This information is crucial to better understand and possibly leverage environmental determinants of health for informed policy-making and intervention.

O-196 Men who fathered embryos with poor pre-implantation development rates exhibit an increased frequency of sperm with high DNA accessibility

Abstract Study question Do differing levels of DNA accessibility in sperm affect the ability of embryos generated by ART to undergo pre-implantation development? Summary answer Individuals whose sperm generated embryos that failed to efficiently form blastocysts tend to have more sperm with high levels of DNA accessibility. What is known already Chromatin is a complex composed of nucleic acids and proteins that serves to condense and regulate the genome in all eukaryotic cells. Sperm chromatin is packaged into a structure with higher density than that found in precursor germ cells or somatic cells. Samples from individuals with decreased normal semen parameters have previously been shown to possess an increased frequency of sperm with aberrant chromatin packaging. However, existing methodologies for measuring sperm chromatin packaging are indirect and non-quantitative. Study design, size, duration Prospective cohort study, registered January 2020. We adapted an enzymatic methodology for measuring DNA accessibility known as NicE-view (Nicking Endonuclease-mediated visualization), for use in human sperm. DNA accessibility was quantified in three millions of individual sperm from semen obtained from 60 individuals. Both total sperm and sperm selected for motility via swim-up were analyzed for each participant. Participants/materials, setting, methods Participants sought treatment for infertility at Universitätsspital Basel and possessed normospermic levels in conventional semen analysis. Participant partners had normal endocrine parameters and ovulation response to hormonal stimulation. 20 couples obtained pregnancies without the need for ART, while 40 individuals who were treated using ART and divided into two groups differing in pre-implantation development rates: (1) 20 with blastocyst development of > 50% of all zygotes and (2) 20 produced 0-1 blastocyst following embryo culture. Main results and the role of chance We quantified DNA accessibility and the presence of single stranded DNA nicks in more than 3 million sperm derived from 117 samples. We found that while DNA nicks were only present in a small fraction of the sperm analyzed, DNA accessibility levels varied dramatically with the data indicating a bimodal distribution. At a single sperm level, DNA accessibility and the presence of single stranded DNA damage both correlated with nuclear size. We found that DNA nicking was more abundant in total sperm samples compared to sperm selected for motility via swim-up preparation. In contrast, sperm with high levels of DNA accessibility were more abundant following swim-up, perhaps resulting from capacitation. We observed that individuals with a history of low blastocyst development were more likely to have high frequencies of sperm harboring DNA nicks and high DNA accessibility. We also measured increased frequencies of sperm with high DNA accessibility to negatively correlate with conventional semen parameter values. Limitations, reasons for caution Our study cohort consists of only 60 individuals. Variation is also observed between individuals within each participant category, so further analysis with increased participant numbers is required to strengthen these conclusions. Wider implications of the findings Our results suggest measuring DNA accessibility in sperm from normospermic individuals provide additional information about the efficiency of pre-implantation development following ART. Future work examining the sources of increased DNA accessibility in sperm will also be interesting to identify possible treatments for such individuals. Trial registration number SNCTP000003654 | NCT04256668

Compound risk of wildfire and inaccessible shelters is disproportionately impacting disadvantaged communities

This study proposes measuring access to shelters and wildfire risks in tandem rather than in isolation to prevent wildfires from turning into human disasters. By leveraging a human-centered design approach in California, which has an active wildfire history and experience with some of the deadliest wildfires, three key findings are discerned. First, California experiences undesirable resource allocation where regions with a high risk of wildfire are surrounded by regions with a low level of access to emergency shelters, and regions with a low risk of wildfire are surrounded by regions with a high level of access to emergency shelters. Second, neither access to shelters nor wildfire risk is evenly distributed across space. This uneven distribution, however, discriminates against exurban areas. As one moves away from core cities, higher wildfire risk and comparatively limited access to emergency shelters are noticed, underscoring the heightened susceptibility of exurban areas to wildfires. Third, in contrast with existing research solely focusing on wildfire risk, it is revealed that the elderly, people with disabilities, and Hispanics are at a higher risk of experiencing high wildfire risk and low access to shelters. The findings suggest instilling equity into wildfire preparedness strategies while minimizing the gap in access to resources between disadvantaged and advantaged communities, given the trichotomy of exposure to the hazard (risk of wildfire), proximity to aid (access to shelters), and vulnerability to threat (community characteristics).

The influence of age at first regular digital device access on digital reading performance: the mediating effect of cognitive flexibility

Younger generations are receiving their first regular digital device access at progressively earlier ages than previous generations on average, whereas disparities in their early digital device access are still being observed globally. The inequality of first regular digital device access may have profound long-term effects on one’s information and communication technology (ICT) skills, but no evidence has suggested how unequal first regular digital device access impacts one’s digital reading, which enables one to process and comprehend information in this digitized world. Thus, the current study investigated the relationship between the age at which children first regularly access digital devices and their digital reading performance at age 15 while considering the potential mediating effect of cognitive flexibility. A multilevel mediation model was proposed and tested using data from a cross-national sample of 156,277 15-year-old students from 18 OECD countries from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The results suggested that first regular digital device access after age 9 exerted a negative influence on digital reading scores in countries that generally had high levels of early digital access, and after age 13 in countries that had lower levels of early digital access. Additionally, cognitive flexibility mediated the association between the age at first regularly accessing digital devices and digital reading performance. Starting using digital devices regularly only after age 6, more evident at ages 9 to 12, was associated with lower levels of cognitive flexibility, which in turn led to worse digital reading performance. These findings demonstrated the importance of early first regular access to digital devices before school age (age 6) and highlighted the need for the cultivation of cognitive flexibility in family and school uses of digital devices.

Examining the nonlinear relationship between neighborhood environment and residents' health

Although numerous studies have revealed linear associations between the urban environment and health, the nonlinear effects of subjective and objective neighborhood environment on health have been under-researched. Using Beijing as a case study, this study employs the random forest method to investigate the nonlinear relationship between subjective/objective neighborhood environment and physical/mental health, respectively. The findings indicate that the subjective environment is the most important for both physical and mental health, and subjective air and noise pollution are the key factors. Neighborhood environmental variables have nonlinear correlations with health. Improved perception of facility accessibility is positively associated with physical health, whereas extremely high levels of accessibility may inversely decrease the probability of reporting good health. Road connectivity and bus stop density exhibit inverted U-shaped patterns with physical health and mental health, separately. Furthermore, the study highlights different dimensions of green space affect residents' health in diverse ways.

Access to Digital Media and Digital Literacy among Ghanaian Youth: An Explore, Engage, Empower Model Study

ABSTRACT Across Africa, increased availability of mobile devices and internet connectivity means that more young people can participate in digital spaces. Yet media access and use are not universal either across the continent or within countries. Indeed, as the euphoria around technological advancements wanes, researchers and policymakers recognise that technology has the capacity to exacerbate social and other inequalities. This paper problematises the capacity of under-served African youth to effectively use media, given scholarship that suggests that frequent media use enhances digital literacy capacity. It makes use of a quantitative approach by surveying students in senior high schools using a multi-stage sampling approach and draws on the explore, engage, empower (EEE) model to examine young people’s access to digital spaces and how this shapes the acquisition of digital literacy skills. The findings from a nationwide survey of senior high school students in Ghana, using a newly developed media and information literacy (MIL) scale, indicate that Ghana’s youths have reasonably high levels of access to digital spaces (83 per cent) and that such access is related to their development of specific MIL skills, including competencies of accessing, critically evaluating, and creating and sharing information in digital spaces.

The Prevalence and Epidemiological Features of Ischaemic Heart Disease in Sri Lanka.

There is limited evidence on the prevalence of ischaemic heart disease (IHD) and its association with risk factors and socioeconomic status (SES) in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Given the relatively high levels of access to healthcare in Sri Lanka, the association of IHD with SES may be different from that observed in other LMICs. To estimate the prevalence of IHD in Sri Lanka, determine its associated risk factors and its association with SES. We analysed data from 6,513 adults aged ≥18 years examined in the 2018/19 Sri Lanka Health and Ageing Study. We used the Rose angina questionnaire to classify participants as having angina (Angina+) and used self-report or medical records to identify participants with a history of IHD (History+). The association of Angina+ and History+ with age, ethnicity, sector of residence, education level, household SES wealth quintile, area SES wealth quintile, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, total cholesterol, cholesterol-to-HDL ratio, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index were analysed in unadjusted and adjusted models. Additional analyses were performed to investigate sensitivity to correction for missing data and to benchmark estimates against evidence from other studies. We estimated prevalence of History+ of 3.9% (95% CI 3.3%-4.4%) and Angina+ of 3.0% (95% CI 2.4%-3.5%) in adults aged 18 years and over. The prevalence of Angina+ was higher in women than men (3.9% vs. 1.9%, p < 0.001) whilst prevalence of History+ was lower (3.8% vs. 4.0%, p = 0.8), which may suggest a higher rate of undiagnosed IHD in women. A history of IHD was strongly associated with age, hypertension and diabetes status even after adjusting for sociodemographic factors. Though the prevalence of History+ was higher in the most developed area SES tertile and urban areas, History+ was also associated with less education but not household SES, consistent with patterns emerging from other LMICs.

Exploratory data science on supercomputers for quantum mechanical calculations

Literate programming—the bringing together of program code and natural language narratives—has become a ubiquitous approach in the realm of data science. This methodology is appealing as well for the domain of Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations, particularly for interactively developing new methodologies and workflows. However, effective use of literate programming is hampered by old programming paradigms and the difficulties associated with using high performance computing (HPC) resources. Here we present two Python libraries that aim to remove these hurdles. First, we describe the PyBigDFT library, which can be used to setup materials or molecular systems and provides high-level access to the wavelet based BigDFT code. We then present the related remotemanager library, which is able to serialize and execute arbitrary Python functions on remote supercomputers. We show how together these libraries enable transparent access to HPC based DFT calculations and can serve as building blocks for rapid prototyping and data exploration.

Financial Inclusion and Human Development: Evidence from African Countries

Africa is a continent that has experienced significant economic and developmental challenges, including high levels of poverty, income inequality, and limited access to financial services. According to a report by the World Bank in 2020, Africa has the lowest rate of financial inclusion in the world. Financial inclusion is important in that it contributes to the achievement of 7 out of 17 sustainable development goals provided by the United Nations. Apart from having low levels of financial inclusion, African countries are also ranked lowest in terms of human development. There is a growing consensus that financial inclusion is essential for economic growth and human development. This study examined the effect of financial inclusion on human development in African countries. To achieve the research objective, the study employed a panel longitudinal research design that involved collecting secondary data for the period between 2011 and 2020 on an annual basis for each of the 54 African countries. Findings indicate that financial inclusion, measured by bank branches, ATMs, deposit accounts, and loan accounts, has a positive and significant effect on human development in African countries. The study concludes that fostering financial inclusion is crucial for promoting human development in African countries. Policy implications include the need to enhance access to banking services, along with developing supportive regulatory frameworks. The study also emphasizes the need for policymakers to prioritize inclusive finance and implement targeted interventions to address the specific challenges and opportunities within each context.

Energy access challenge and the role of fossil fuels in meeting electricity demand: Promoting renewable energy capacity for sustainable development

The energy access challenge remains a significant barrier to sustainable development, with millions of people still needing access to modern energy services. Fossil fuels have played a crucial role in meeting electricity demand, but they face challenges and drawbacks in terms of environmental sustainability, energy security, and climate change. This study examines how renewable and non-renewable energy generation capacity impacted the environment in 53 upper-middle-income countries from 1990 to 2020, using energy access and alternative energy sources as mediating variables. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the complex relationship between renewable energy generation capacity, energy access, alternative energy sources, and environmental conditions in upper-middle-income countries. The positive relationship between renewable energy generation capacity and environmental conditions emphasizes the importance and potential of renewable energy sources in mitigating environmental degradation. Additionally, the findings indicate that energy access also plays a crucial role in shaping energy generation patterns, with higher levels of access being associated with increased renewable energy generation and decreased reliance on non-renewable energy sources. These findings highlight the urgent need for policies and measures to promote renewable energy adoption and prioritize energy access to mitigate environmental degradation and achieve sustainable development goals.

Women Empowerment Level in Agriculture: A Study in Odisha, India

Women are not given the due record of credit for most of the work they do in agriculture and allied sector as per the present scenario. But according to global institutional study reports, empowering women in agriculture and providing economic gains to them can lead to a more equitable future for all. A study was conducted to ascertain the extent of empowerment of farm women in Odisha. Three districts of Odisha (Puri, Gajapati and Debagarh) were selected representing the three administrative zones (Northern, Southern and Central zone) with 100 women respondents from each district with a total of 300 sample size. Women empowerment has been assessed through their level of cosmopoliteness, access to information, mobility, media exposure, ownership of resources, access to technology etc. Index values have been calculated for each parameter and the average index has also been calculated. Besides, Mean, standard deviation, correlation and regression method were also applied for generalization of collected data. Results of the study indicated that the overall distribution of the sample regarding cosmopoliteness, mobility and media exposure was within medium to high level. Almost all the members found to have high level of access to information. But unfortunately, the distribution of sample regarding access to technology, ownership, membership and leadership was found at low level. The results also showed that selected socio-economic variables of the respondents had notable association with different parameters of empowerment.

Reducing Endometrial Cancer Disparities to Advance Health Equity (REACH Study) [ID 2683434

INTRODUCTION: Racial disparities in endometrial cancer survival have been increasing over the past 10 years. While Black women are diagnosed more often with aggressive histologic subtypes, studies have found tumor characteristics only partially account for their lower rates of survival. The degree to which system factors such as insurance and access to subspecialty care contribute to disparate survival outcomes is unclear. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of individuals diagnosed with endometrial cancer from 2005 to 2021 within a large integrated health care system with high levels of access to gynecologic oncologists. Data were extracted from tumor registry and electronic databases. Multivariable logistic regression was used to evaluate associations between 1- and 5-year survival rates and race. RESULTS: Among 11,249 women, 61.9% identified as White, 15.1% Asian, 7.8% Black, 13.6% Hispanic, and 0.6% mixed or unknown race, with 46.5% having public insurance through Medicare or Medi-Cal. In preliminary analysis, Black women had lower survival compared to White women at 1 year (87.4% versus 92.3%) and 5 years (67% versus 78.7%) (OR 0.57; 95% CI, 0.46–0.71; P&lt;.001). However, when adjusted for histology and stage, survival differences between Black and White women at both 1 year (OR 0.83; 95% CI, 0.65–1.07; P=.15) and 5 years (OR 0.92; 95% CI, 0.73–1.15; P=.45) were no longer significant. CONCLUSION: Among a diverse group of insured individuals receiving care within an integrated health care system, tumor characteristics largely accounted for racial disparities in survival. These findings suggest that disparities in survival not explained by tumor characteristics can be addressed by closing gaps in insurance coverage and access to care.