Inter-community Differences Research Articles

Quantitative analysis of the impact of seasonal cyclicality on serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol concentration in Northwest Arctic

Background: 25-hydroxycholecalciferol also known as 25-hydroxyvitamin D plays a vital role in numerous physiological functions within the human body, and its deficiency is associated with conditions such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune disorders, and certain cancers. In Alaska, sunlight exposure is a critical factor that influences vitamin D levels in the population. Methods: This study involved a review of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels from January 2014 to June 2018 for Alaska residents, including individuals aged 18 years or older who were permanent residents of the area. The exclusion criteria comprised acute or chronic liver or kidney dysfunction, anemia, cancer history, absorption deficiency, and vitamin D supplementation exceeding 500 IU/day within 90 days before the blood draw. Results: A total of 304 participants, including 107 males (35.2%) and 197 females (64.8%), with a mean age of 50.88, were included. The overall mean serum level of 25(OH)D was 22.7 ± 9.89 ng/mL. Females exhibited a higher mean level (23.40 ± 10.24 ng/mL) than males (21.03 ± 9.05 ng/mL) (P <0.05). Participants older than 60 years had a higher average level of 25(OH)D (26.52 ± 10.28 ng/mL) compared to those younger than 45 years (19.85 ± 9.27 ng/mL) (P < 0.05). Seasonal variations were observed, with levels below 20.0 ng/mL from October to March, below 30.0 ng/mL from April to May (insufficient), and slightly above 30.0 ng/mL (desirable) from June to August (P < 0.0001). No significant intercommunity differences were found. Only 24.3% of the participants had a desirable vitamin D level. The association between the 25(OH)D level and the solar zenith angle was linear and markedly negative (r = −0.924; P < 0.0001). Conclusions: This study demonstrates seasonal variations in 25(OH)D serum levels among the Alaska population. Further exploration of factors such as skin pigmentation, daily vitamin D intake, and body mass index is necessary to comprehensively understand the variation in 25(OH)D serum levels in this region.

Plasmodium falciparum infection and naturally acquired immunity to malaria antigens among Ghanaian children in northern Ghana

BackgroundThe surge in malaria cases and deaths in recent years, particularly in Africa, despite the widespread implementation of malaria-control measures could be due to inefficiencies in malaria control and prevention measures in malaria-endemic communities. In this context, this study provides the malaria situation report among children in three Municipalities in Northern Ghana, where Seasonal Malaria Chemotherapy (SMC) is implemented by Ghana Health Service (GHS). MethodsA cross-sectional household survey was carried out to assess the malaria knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) and malaria prevalence in 394 households in 13 rural communities in the Kumbugu, Nanton and Tolon Municipalities, Northern Region, Ghana. This was followed by screening for P. falciparum infection with anti-HRP2 RDT and PCR among children 1–17 years in the households. Plasma levels of IgG specific for crude P. falciparum antigen (3D7) and four recombinant malaria antigens (CSP, GLURP, MSP3, and Pfs230) were assessed by ELISA. The malaria and parasitaemia data were converted into frequency and subgroup proportions and disaggregated by study sites and demographic information of the participants. The ELISA data was converted to arbitrary units (AU) and similarly compared across study sites and demographic information. ResultsThe P. falciparum infection rate and frequency of malaria were high in the study areas with significant age-dependent and inter-community differences, which were reflected by differences in plasma levels of P. falciparum-specific IgG. Over 60% of households reported the use of bed nets and indoor insecticide sprays/coils, and 14% mentioned bush clearing around homes (14%) as malaria preventive measures. Community health centres were the preferred place for households (88%) to seek malaria treatment but over-the-counter drug stores were the major source (66%) of their antimalarials. Overall, malaria preventive and treatment practices were sub-optimal. ConclusionsP. falciparum infection and malaria are still high in the studied communities, indicating that preventive and control measures against the disease in the region remain inadequate. Efforts to ensure high SMC compliance and to improve preventative and treatment practices thus seem cost-beneficial “low-hanging fruits” in the fight against malaria in the Northern Region of Ghana.

Civil Society Involvement and Resultant Health Care Utilization: A Study of Sickle Cell Disease Patients Across Communities in Kerala

Civil society initiatives have helped in attempts to bring equity and efficiency in health systems by providing direct health services to vulnerable sections in society and indulging in health promotion and information exchange. Kerala, despite the presence of civil society in the health sector shows a pattern of ‘health divide’, with tribal communities experiencing a higher health burden than non-tribal communities. This becomes problematic in the case of some peculiar diseases, particularly genetic diseases such as Sickle Cell Disease (SCD). The article explores the involvement of civil society in health systems with a special focus on SCD and enquires into links between socio-economic position and health care utilization patterns. The study identifies the existence of inter-community differences in health care utilization across social classes, depicting the fact that even after the involvement of civil society organizations, socio-economic stratifiers still remain an important impediment in uplifting the health status of SCD patients.

Community food insecurity predicts child maltreatment report rates across Illinois zip codes, 2011–2018

PurposeWe examined how longitudinal changes and inter-community differences of food insecurity rates were associated with child maltreatment report (CMR) rates at the zip code level. We assessed these associations overall, by urbanicity, and within subgroups of age, sex, and maltreatment type. MethodsWe used Illinois statewide zip code-level data from 2011 to 2018. We measured CMR rates based on Illinois child protective services records and food insecurity rates from Feeding America's Map the Meal Gap. We conducted spatial linear modeling to account for spatial dependence with controls for various socioeconomic, demographic, care burden, and instability conditions of communities. ResultsBoth longitudinal changes and inter-community differences of food insecurity rates were significantly associated with increased CMR rates overall and within all subgroups. These associations were significant among all large urban, small urban, and rural areas, while longitudinal changes of food insecurity rates had significantly stronger associations among small urban areas compared with other areas. ConclusionsCommunities experiencing higher food insecurity had higher CMR rates. Increases in food insecurity over time were associated with increases in CMR rates. These associations were reproduced within subgroups of child age, sex, maltreatment type, and urbanicity. Attention and collaborative efforts are warranted for high food insecure communities.

СОЦІАЛЬНІ ПОСЛУГИ ДЛЯ ВРАЗЛИВИХ КАТЕГОРІЙ НАСЕЛЕННЯ В ТЕРИТОРІАЛЬНИХ ГРОМАДАХ УКРАЇНИ

Україна перебуває на етапі переходу на децентралізовану систему соціальних послуг для вразливих категорій населення, у якій має зрости активність територіальних громад у визначенні потреби в цих послугах на місцях, ефективній організації їх надання і планування, моніторингу якості. На основі децентралізації управління створено необхідні передумови для приведення системи соціальних послуг у відповідність з європейськими стандартами. Перевагою цієї системи є розширення повноважень і можливостей органів місцевого самоврядування в забезпеченні соціальних послуг у інтересах самих громад, посиленні їх профілактичного характеру та цільового використання коштів місцевих бюджетів в умовах посилення кризових явищ в економіці, соціальної нерівності та бідності в країні, обумовлених погіршенням епідеміологічної ситуації та наслідками збройного конфлікту на Сході країни. На шляху до змін в організації системи соціальних послуг виникають проблеми їх цифровізації, інфраструктурного і кадрового забезпечення діяльності соціальних служб, посилення міжгромадівських відмінностей у можливостях фінансування цих послуг. Місцева влада поки що не набула досвіду формування пріоритетів політики у цій сфері, а члени територіальних громад – досвіду комунікації з представниками влади, бізнесу, науки. Наразі широкий спектр соціальних проблем концентрується в сільських територіальних громадах, де проживає більшість одержувачів соціальної допомоги. Утворення комплексних установ з надання різноманітних соціальних послуг на базі наявної соціальної інфраструктури, застосування механізму грантової підтримки, субсидій, повного або часткового відшкодування вартості послуг чи сплачених податків дадуть змогу прискорити розвиток цієї системи на місцевому рівні. Успіх формування децентралізованої системи надання соціальних послуг для вразливих категорій населення може бути досягнутий лише за умови плідної співпраці між суб’єктами, залученими до вирішення соціальних проблем на рівні територіальних громад.

Community Food Insecurity and Child Maltreatment Reports: County-Level Analysis of U.S. National Data From 2009 to 2018.

Current literature suggests that food insecurity increases child maltreatment risk. Yet, existing evidence is limited to individual-level associations among low-income, high-risk populations based on local, mostly urban data. This study aims to generalize prior findings to community-level associations in general populations, using national data including all urban-rural areas. We examined, for the first time, if food insecurity rates increase child maltreatment report (CMR) rates at the county level after controlling for potential confounders. We examined both within-community longitudinal changes (i.e., within-effects) and inter-community differences (i.e., between-effects) of food insecurity rates and their associations with CMR rates. We also examined differences by age, sex, race/ethnicity, maltreatment type, and urbanicity. We constructed longitudinal county-level data by linking multiple national databases, including all substantiated and unsubstantiated CMR records, the Map the Meal Gap's community food insecurity estimates, and Census data. The data covered over 96% of U.S. counties from 2009 to 2018. For analysis, we used within-between random effects models. Regarding between-effects, we found that in inter-community comparisons, higher food insecurity rates were significantly associated with increased CMR rates. This association was consistent by age, sex, maltreatment type, and urbanicity. For within-effects, we found that the association between longitudinal changes of food insecurity rates and CMR rates significantly differed by urbanicity. Specifically, longitudinal increases of food insecurity rates significantly increased CMR rates among large urban counties, but not among small urban and rural counties. Study findings highlight the importance of conducting further research to better understand the mechanisms through which food insecurity impact child maltreatment at both individual and community levels. Our community-level findings from general populations especially have significant implications for community-based programs and large-scale policies to achieve population-level impact on child well-being.

Inter-community behavioural variation confirmed through indirect methods in four neighbouring chimpanzee communities in Cantanhez NP, Guinea-Bissau.

Culture, while long viewed as exclusively human, has now been demonstrated across diverse taxa and contexts. However, most animal culture data are constrained to well-studied, habituated groups. This is the case for chimpanzees, arguably the most ‘cultural’ non-human species. While much progress has been made charting wild chimpanzees' cultural repertoire, large gaps remain in our knowledge of the majority of the continent's chimpanzees. Furthermore, few studies have compared neighbouring communities, despite such comparisons providing the strongest evidence for culture, and few have studied communities living in anthropogenic habitats although their culture is in imminent danger of disappearing. Here we combine direct, indirect and remote methods, including camera traps, to study, over 2 years, four unhabituated neighbouring chimpanzee communities inhabiting human-impacted habitats in Cantanhez NP, Guinea-Bissau. From traces collected during 1089 km of reconnaissance walks and 4197 videos from 56 camera trap locations, we identified 18 putative cultural traits. These included some noteworthy novel behaviours for these communities, and behaviours possibly new to the species. We created preliminary behavioural profiles for each community, and found inter-community differences spanning tool use, communication, and social behaviour, demonstrating the importance of comparing neighbouring communities and of studying previously neglected communities including those inhabiting anthropogenic landscapes.

First landscape-scale survey of the background level of COVID-19 face mask litter: Exploring the potential for citizen science data collection during a ‘pollution pilgrimage’ of walking a 250-km roadside transect

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a global problem through the cavalier or deliberate disposal of personal protective equipment (PPE) by the general public. This has raised concerns that the billions of discarded face masks pose a threat to wildlife through entanglement or, when broken down, through ingestion of derived microplastics. Previous quantitative surveys of the magnitude of such litter have focused on areas where people congregate, such as tourist beaches and large cities. The present survey is the first to provide data on the background level of face mask litter through a landscape of variable land-use. A 250-km transect along an historic road between Montreal and Quebec City (Canada) was surveyed during a walking pilgrimage, revealing an overall density of 0.0001 ± 0.00006 face masks m−2. Average densities were significantly higher in areas of human occupation compared to agricultural and forested rural land. However, there was no significant correlation between population size of communities and the number of face masks encountered, nor in litter extent and proximity to municipalities. This may be due to the confounding influence of inter-community differences in scheduled street cleaning operations. Seventy-six percent of face masks were of the disposable surgical variety, with the remaining 24% being reusable cloth masks. This, and the fact that only 10% of the former and none of the latter exhibited broken ear straps, insinuates that the litter could be due to accidental loss rather than inappropriate discarding by individuals en route. Scaling-up these findings in relation to the global road network generates a preliminary background estimate for roadside litter of >17 million face masks. The present study endorses the call made by others to engage citizen scientists in surveying PPE litter, in particular, the thousands who each year walk the medieval pilgrimage routes through the landscape of Europe.

Socially Defined Subpopulations Reveal Demographic Variation in a Giraffe Metapopulation

ABSTRACTPopulations are typically defined as spatially contiguous sets of individuals, but large populations of social species can be composed of discrete social communities that often overlap in space. Masai giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi) of Tanzania live in distinct social subpopulations that overlap spatially, enabling us to simultaneously explore environmental and social factors correlated with demographic variation in a metapopulation of >1,400 adult females and calves. We considered statistically distinct communities in the social network as subpopulations and tested for variation among the 10 subpopulations in adult female survival, calf survival, and reproductive rate (calf‐to‐adult female ratio). We then related variation in demographic rates among subpopulations to differences in vegetation, soil type, proximity to 2 types of human settlements, local giraffe population density, and social metrics of relationship strength and exclusivity among adult females. We did not find any among‐subpopulation effects on adult female survival, suggesting adult female survival is buffered against environmental heterogeneity among subpopulations. Variation in calf demographic rates among subpopulations were correlated with vegetation, soils, anthropogenic factors, and giraffe population density but not with adult female relationship metrics, despite substantial spatial overlap. Subpopulations with more dense bushlands in their ranges had lower calf survival probabilities, and those closer to human settlements had higher reproductive rates, possibly because of spatial gradients in natural predation. Reproductive rates were higher in subpopulations with more volcanic soils, and calf survival probabilities were greater in subpopulations with higher local adult female densities, possibly related to higher‐quality habitat associated with fertile soils or lower predation risk, or to greater competitive ability. The variation in fitness among subpopulations suggests that giraffes do not move unhindered among resource patches to equalize reproductive success, as expected according to an ideal free distribution. The differences in calf survival and reproductive rates could rather indicate intercommunity differences in competitive ability, perception, learning, or experience. Our approach of comparing demography among spatially overlapping yet distinct socially defined subpopulations provides a biologically meaningful way to quantify environmental and social factors influencing fine‐scale demographic variation for social species. © 2021 The Wildlife Society.

Land scarcity, communication gaps and institutional confusions influence the loss of biodiversity in south-eastern Kenya

The success of nature conservation strongly depends on the attitudes and awareness of people, as well as on the level of poverty, land scarcity, communication gaps, and governance structures. In this commentary we elaborate potential effects of inter-community differences on peoples´ attitudes towards nature conservation and the role of land management, communication and governance in nature conservation for three forest regions in south-eastern Kenya. We considered the following areas: the riparian forests in the semi-arid Kitui county, the Arabuko Sokoke coastal forest, and the cloud forests of the Taita Hills. In all three areas, the remaining forests are strongly fragmented and forest habitat quality is degraded, yet still supports outstanding diversity of plant and animal species richness. Despite current efforts to conserve these ecosystems, its degradation continues due to various reasons: (1) Population and economic pressure; (2) Limited land availability and insecure land tenure systems; (3) Inconsistencies between the legislation and governance; and, (4) Communication gaps and a lack of information flow among stakeholders from the national to the local level. Here we identify and present common and diverging coherences among the three study regions. We found that people´s awareness and willingness play a rather marginal role to turn nature conservation into successful management, but shortcomings in policies and governance are the main drivers.

Indigenous community perspectives on dogs in Northern Canada after 10 years of veterinary services indicates improved animal and human welfare

Access to veterinary services in marginalized communities has important implications for people and animals around the world. Subsidized veterinary services are occasionally provided, however, they are seldom evaluated for their value to stakeholders and overall animal health. In 2017, we evaluated a decade-long veterinary program in four remote communities in the Sahtu Settlement Area of the Northwest Territories, Canada to understand if there were changes in dog husbandry and community perceptions of, and experiences with, dogs since an initial assessment at the beginning of the program in 2008. Using questionnaires and a dog census, we found a significant increase over time in dog health indicators, including the proportion of dogs that had received preventive veterinary care and had been sterilized. We documented significant changes in the described purpose of dogs, husbandry practices, experiences with dogs, and attitudes towards dogs and veterinary services. In 2017, respondents commonly described their dog(s) as companions and as part of their family. However, communities differed in the way dogs were housed and fed and in their attitudes towards dogs and dog-related issues. These inter-community differences are noteworthy as they impact service provision, uptake, and evaluation and must be taken into consideration in order to develop effective programs. Regular program evaluations are critical to check in with stakeholders, to ensure the program is meeting community needs, and to optimize effective use of resources.

How bonobo communities deal with tannin rich fruits: Re-ingestion and other feeding processes

This report describes bonobo (Pan paniscus, Hominidae) behavioral flexibility and inter-community differences with high tannin level fruit processing. In fruiting plants, tannin should discourage certain seed dispersers (direct deterrence hypothesis) such as primates. Based on data deriving from five study sites; LuiKotale, Lomako, Wamba, Malebo and Manzano, we compare consumption and dispersal of fruit species rich in tannins: Parinari and Musanga pulp was chewed across all communities probably for saliva tannin neutralisation. However, consumption of the fruits of Canarium schweinfurthii was observed in few communities only with differences in the food process: While bonobos of Wamba, Lomako and Manzano crunched and swallowed the pulp, bonobos of LuiKotale ingested entire fruits, extracted intact fruits from feces, and re-ingested their pulp, spitting the seed after a retention time of 24h in the digestive tract (i.e. endozoochory). We discuss potential functions of this peculiar feeding technique, likely to be a cultural behavior.

Education Exclusion in a Social-class Framework

Education and education exclusion are two mammoth social and political challenges in a society characterized by diverse social groups. Although ‘self-financing regime’ helped to barricade the outflow of money from the state, it also hampered the ‘social equity’ in education and hence germinated the seed of education exclusion in Kerala. The data for the study have been collected through a field survey involving 900 students belonging to three professional study disciplines in a social-class framework based on multi-stage stratified random sampling. Factor analysis, correspondence analysis and binary logistic regression have been used to epitomize the significant factors that play a key role in the process of education exclusion in a social-class framework based on student perception. Empirical realities affirm significant relations for the presence of education exclusion among the marginalized social groups. Skill rating based on social category shows a clear inter-community difference with Scheduled Castes (SCs)/Scheduled Tribes (STs) coming in the low/medium and low skill index, whereas the general and the Other Backward Class (OBC)/other eligible communities (OEC) featuring closer to medium–high and high-skill index. A demand supply evaluation is necessary for policy nesting, with a view of understanding the gap involved in the process as part of the professional education planning in the state.

Does the host match the content? A taxonomical update on online consumption communities

This article proposes a taxonomy of online consumption communities in order to address this rather ambiguously conceptualised research field. Specifically, intercommunity differences are investigated with regard to how content focus (brand vs activity) and its congruency with the type of host (doubled vs mixed) affect consumers’ posting behaviour. Based on an online survey (n = 888), a series of regressions of various benefits on posting behaviour supports the usability of the proposed taxonomy. In particular, social benefits had the strongest effect on consumers’ posting behaviour across all communities, while the effects of functional, altruistic and sharing benefits varied in significance and direction of influence when accounting for the different community characteristics. These findings help marketing managers to design online communities and motivate consumers to contribute.

Sharing the Silver Screen: The Social Experience of Cinemagoing in the Indian Diaspora

Despite the growing attention paid to the social practice of cinemagoing and to Indian diasporic film cultures, little research has combined these two topics. This article looks into issues of community as well as discursive practices occurring at the intersection of these two phenomena. First, it examines the physical community formation generated by the theater space as a setting for watching homeland films, in accordance with more general theories about diasporic communities and media consumption (Georgiou, 2006). Second, it looks into the audience discourses that precede and follow the actual cinemagoing act (Gillespie, 2002; Staiger, 2000). Based on a case study in the Belgian city of Antwerp, large-scale as well as in-depth insights are developed through a multi-method approach, combining analyses of in-depth interviews with the results of an exploratory cinema survey. These revealed that Indian diasporic cinemagoing is limited in its community-forming function (by issues of comfort, audience diversity, as well as behavioral conformism to a Western context) and is characterized by transnational discursive practices informing film preferences. A general change in the social experience of cinemagoing occurred in the diasporic context when compared to India and intercommunity differences found expression in cinemagoing culture.

Analyzing Ethnic Orientation in the quantitative sociolinguistic paradigm

Ethnic Orientation, defined as speakers’ sociolinguistic practices and attitudes, does not affect all communities, languages, or linguistic variables equally. We illustrate that the types of differences that emerge depend on methodological decisions, particularly at the analysis stage. We provide examples of inter-community differences including some that emerge differently depending on the method of analysis. This is accomplished by comparison of Heritage Language patterns among groups of Toronto residents: speakers of Heritage Cantonese, Italian, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish; and English patterns in Chinese-descent and Italian-descent Torontonians, comparing across three generations since immigration. We examine the variables pro-drop and Voice Onset Time in the Heritage Language data. The Canadian Vowel Shift and consonant cluster simplification are examined in English. We show that no Ethnic Orientation facets correlate to all types of linguistic variation. The relationships found between linguistic variables and Ethnic Orientation variables suggest Ethnic Orientation is a key factor in modeling variation in Heritage Language communities – their variation should not be attributed solely to subtractive processes like incomplete acquisition or attrition.

The relationship between regional socioeconomic position and oral health behavior: A multilevel approach analysis

Copyright © 2013 by Journal of Korean Academy of Oral Health This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives: This study was conducted to identify discrepancies in oral health behaviors among communities in cities, counties, and districts (si, gun, and gu administrative divisions of South Korea) and to determine their correlations with socioeconomic status, examined in terms of the social deprivation index. Methods: Data for 220,258 individuals, covering 247 communities, were extracted from a 2008 community health survey, and the frequency of brushing the teeth after lunch, flossing and interdental brushing was calculated and analyzed. Considering the characteristics of the data collected at individual and regional levels, a multilevel random-intercept logistic regression model was used for the analysis. Results: A regional-level discrepancy was found in after-lunch brushing and the use of auxiliary oral hygiene items, with interclass correlations of 0.03 and 0.04, respectively. In particular, the odds ratio of using auxiliary oral hygiene items in the communities with the lowest socioeconomic status was as low as 0.49, compared to the highest level, thus demonstrating a conspicuous intercommunity difference. Conclusions: The regional-level correlation between socioeconomic status and oral health behaviors indicates the need for the establishment of oral health-related intervention policies based on community characteristics.

Pesticide use in banana and plantain production and risk perception among local actors in Talamanca, Costa Rica

The Talamanca County in Costa Rica has large-scale banana and small-scale plantain production, probably causing pesticide exposure in indigenous children. We explored to what extent different community actors are aware of children's pesticide hazards and how their awareness related to socio-economical and cultural conditions. Methods comprised eight focus groups with fathers and mothers separately, 27 semi-structured interviews to key actors, and field observations. As a whole, the indigenous plantain farmers and banana plantation workers had some general knowledge of pesticides concerning crop protection, but little on acute health effects, and hardly any on exposure routes and pathways, and chronic effects. People expressed vague ideas about pesticide risks. Inter-community differences were related to pesticide technologies used in banana and plantain production, employment status on a multinational plantation versus smallholder status, and gender. Compared to formalized practices on transnational company plantations, where workers reported to feel protected, pesticide handling by plantain smallholders was not perceived as hazardous and therefore no safety precautions were applied. Large-scale monoculture was perceived as one of the most important problems leading to pesticide risks in Talamanca on banana plantations, and also on neighboring small plantain farms extending into large areas. Plantain farmers have adopted use of highly toxic pesticides following banana production, but in conditions of extreme poverty. Aerial spraying in banana plantations was considered by most social actors a major determinant of exposure for the population living nearby these plantations, including vulnerable children. We observed violations of legally established aerial spraying distances. Economic considerations were most mentioned as the underlying reason for the pesticide use: economic needs to obtain the production quantity and quality, and pressure to use pesticides by other economic agents such as middlemen. Risk perceptions were modulated by factors such as people's tasks and positions in the production process, gender, and people's possibilities to define their own social conditions (more fatalistic perceptions among banana workers). The challenge for the future is to combine these insights into improved health risk assessment and management that is culturally adequate for each particular community and agricultural context.

Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Relevant to Malaria Control in Remote Island Populations of Manus, Papua New Guinea

A community-based cross-sectional survey of 262 participants in four island communities of Manus, Papua New Guinea was conducted using a structured questionnaire to examine possible factors of malaria prevalence, including education experiences, knowledge, attitudes, and preventive behaviors, in relation to antimalarial antibody titers. Bivariate and multivariate analyses revealed that micro-environmental conditions caused inter-community differences in malaria prevalence. Ninety-nine percent of the subject villagers recognized mosquito bites as a cause of malaria transmission, which explains the high possession rate of bednets. There was a significant correlation between malaria education experience at schools and knowledge (p < 0.01) and between knowledge and bednet use (p < 0.05). However, regular bednet users were only 35% of the total, due primarily to feelings of discomfort, heat, and stuffiness inside the bednet. Villagers’ behavior of consulting an aid post orderly (APO) in case of high fever significantly lowered the titer level (p < 0.05), while their bednet use did not. This unexpected result was attributable to inappropriate bednet use and to daily living patterns, including both subsistence and social activities. We conclude that information regarding lifestyles and attitudes toward bednet use as well as malaria education experience at schools are particularly important for practical malaria prevention.

Distribution of clonal growth forms in wetlands

Clonal multiplication is a predominant type of reproduction in wetland species. However, both wetlands and plant organs of clonal growth are diverse, thus due to different stress factors operating in various wetlands preponderance of plants with specific clonal growth organs (CGOs) can be expected. To test this hypothesis the CGO spectra of wetland communities of the Netherlands were analysed, including a bog, a fen, heathland, a floodplain, river beds, fresh water pools, open salt water and a salt marsh. Moreover, it was evaluated whether different CGOs are characterised by different functional traits (shoot cyclicity, persistence of connections between ramets, number of offspring produced per year and lateral spread per year) in wetland species. Data on types of CGO, i.e., epigeogenous and hypogeogenous rhizomes, fragments and budding plants, stolons, tubers and bulbs, root-splitters, root-sprouters and special adaptations (turions) as well as their functional traits, were taken from the CLO-PLA 3 database. CGO spectra of wetland communities were analysed using two methods: comparison of observed vs. expected CGO spectra based on the presence/absence data and multivariate analysis (CCA) for inter-community differences considering species frequency. Moreover, relationships between CGOs and their functional traits were tested using multidimensional contingency tables. Apart from 26% of non-clonal species, the majority of wetland species was rhizomatous (51%). Other types of CGO were represented in less than 10% of species and root-derived CGOs were underrepresented (<2%) in comparison with terrestrial habitats. Among communities, fresh water pools and open salt water hosted higher proportion of species with fragments (∼10%) and turions (∼30%). Multivariate analysis divided wetland communities along the disturbance and hydric (water) gradients. Highly disturbed communities (salt marshes) were characterised by non-clonal species and species with root-derived CGOs. Aquatic communities (fresh water pools and open salt water) hosted species with the ability to spread by fragmentation and turions, contrary to permanently wet communities (bog and wet heathland) with the prevalence of species with epigeogenous rhizomes. It was also confirmed that the CGOs of wetland species differed in their traits. The most important functional trait characterising individual CGOs in the wetland flora was the degree of lateral spread (explained variability: 53%) followed by duration of persistence of connections between ramets (explained variability: 74%), which is in accordance with earlier distinguished strategies of clonal growth: integrator/splitter and spreading/non-spreading clones.