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AbstractTo protect wild deer populations (and their beneficiaries) from the negative consequences of chronic wasting disease (CWD), it is crucial to engage deer hunters in disease prevention. Early qualitative findings suggest CWD-relevant behaviors evoke moral or ethical considerations in deer hunters which may help to explain behaviors. The present study applies norm-activation theory (NAT) to explore the relationship between personal norms and CWD-preventative behavioral intentions. We surveyed 2,000 New York, USA residents licensed to hunt in the bordering CWD-positive state of Pennsylvania, USA, and find most hunters have activated personal norms to help prevent a CWD (re)introduction to New York. We find as perceived effectiveness of the behaviors (in helping to prevent CWD) increases, the odds of activated personal norms increase, as do intentions to perform the behaviors. Our findings offer insights into deer hunter involvement in CWD prevention and the potential influence of internal motivation on the respective behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: There are limited and conflicting data regarding the impact of hepatitis C in pregnancy on adverse birth outcomes. Methods: Using the Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Pregnant People and Infants Network (SET-NET), a large surveillance cohort, we describe birth outcomes among a cohort of people with HCV in pregnancy in total and by reported substance use. Results: Among 1418 infants, 89% were born to people with reported substance use during pregnancy. The proportion born preterm was 20%, 13% were small-for-gestational age and 34% of term infants required intensive care. Conclusions: Assessments of recent changes to recommendations for HCV screening in pregnancy should evaluate the impact on maternal access to care for both HCV treatment as well as comorbidities such as substance use disorder which may contribute to adverse birth outcomes. Significance: Incidence of hepatitis C in pregnancy is increasing. Prematurity, small-for-gestational age, and intensive care unit admission were common among this surveillance cohort of infants born to people with hepatitis C in pregnancy with high frequency of substance use. Assessments of recent changes to recommendations for HCV screening in pregnancy should evaluate the impact on maternal access to care for both HCV treatment as well as comorbidities such as substance use disorder which may contribute to adverse birth outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To examine changes in rural and urban Veterans' utilization of acute inpatient care in Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and non‐VHA hospitals following access expansion from the Veterans Choice Act, which expanded eligibility for VHA‐paid community hospitalization. Methods: Using repeated cross‐sectional data of VHA enrollees' hospitalizations in 9 states (AZ, CA, CT, FL, LA, MA, NY, PA, and SC) between 2012 and 2017, we compared rural and urban Veterans' probability of admission in VHA and non‐VHA hospitals by payer over time for elective and nonelective hospitalizations using multinomial logistic regression to adjust for patient‐level sociodemographic features. We also used generalized linear models to compare rural and urban Veterans' travel distances to hospitals. Findings: Over time, the probability of VHA‐paid community hospitalization increased more for rural Veterans than urban Veterans. For elective inpatient care, rural Veterans' probability of VHA‐paid admission increased from 2.9% (95% CI 2.6%‐3.2%) in 2012 to 6.5% (95% CI 5.8%‐7.1%) in 2017. These changes were associated with a temporal trend that preceded and continued after the implementation of the Veterans Choice Act. Overall travel distances to hospitalizations were similar over time; however, the mean distance traveled decreased from 39.2 miles (95% CI 35.1‐43.3) in 2012 to 32.3 miles (95% CI 30.2‐34.4) in 2017 for rural Veterans receiving elective inpatient care in VHA‐paid hospitals. Conclusions: Despite limited access to rural hospitals, these data demonstrate an increase in rural Veterans' use of non‐VHA hospitals for acute inpatient care and a small reduction in distance traveled to elective inpatient services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Police violence is increasingly recognized as an urgent public health problem. Basic questions about police violence, however, remain unanswered, including which types of law enforcement agency are responsible for fatal police violence deaths. Methods: We estimated the proportion of police violence deaths in the U.S. (2013–2022) that were attributable to local, county, state, federal, or tribal police agencies, using mapping police violence data. We examined proportions overall, by decedent race/ethnicity, and by state. Results: Nationally, 60% of decedents were killed by municipal, 29% by county, 8% by state, and 3% by federal, police, with < 1% killed by tribal or other officers. These proportions varied by race/ethnicity, with 56% of Native American decedents killed by municipal police compared to 70–75% among other racially minoritized people. While municipal police were responsible for most deaths in most states, in the Southeast, county police predominated. In some Northeastern states (and Alaska), state police were responsible for > 40% of deaths. Conclusions: We identify wide geographic & racial/ethnic variation in the agencies responsible for fatal police violence. Findings suggest that the budgetary and infrastructural shifts required to prevent fatal police violence need to occur at multiple levels of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gun violence in school settings has recently been of great concern in the US. However, research on youth carrying a gun to school is limited in numbers and scope. This study strove to improve the understanding of the risk factors associated with gun carrying in the general public and taking a gun to school among middle- and high-school students. Based on a dataset collected from rural, urban, and suburban schools in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (n = 5648), this study explored the predictor value of several potential risk factors derived from two prominent theoretical frameworks: "crime facilitation" and "fear and loathing" on two major outcome variables; carrying a handgun in public, and taking a handgun to school. The predictor variables included measures of bullying, violence against a dating partner, and non-gun delinquency. The bivariate analysis (group comparisons) indicated no significant difference between the likelihood of carrying a hand gun in public and taking a handgun to school among participants. The multivariate analysis indicated that non-gun delinquency was the most important risk factor increasing the likelihood for carrying a hand gun in public and taking a handgun to school. How future risk/threat assessment efforts should interpret these findings is discussed, along with the implications on how taking a gun to school is an extension of general gun carrying and may primarily be shaped by the presence of a delinquent lifestyle, rather than any other possible predictors examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brodie is a high-yielding white-fleshed potato cultivar with resistance to both pathotypes Ro1 and Ro2 of the golden cyst nematode (Globodera rostochiensis) and partial resistance to pathotype Pa2/3 of the pale cyst nematode (G. pallida). It was selected from a cross made at Cornell University in 1998 between Cornell breeding clones NY121 and NY115 and released by the New York Agricultural Experiment Station in 2018. The tubers are oval and slightly flattened, with shallow eyes and smooth attractive skin. In addition to its suitability for tablestock, Brodie also has merit for chipping as its chip color is good, comparable in lightness to the chipping cultivar Snowden when chipped out of two to four months of 6.7 °C storage. Specific gravity of Brodie averaged 1.078 across 63 Northeastern US trials, 0.010 less than Atlantic in the same locations, while marketable yield averaged 115% of Atlantic across 70 trials in New York and Pennsylvania. For growers affected by pathotypes Ro1 and Ro2 of the golden nematode, Brodie provides a means of producing a marketable crop while simultaneously decreasing infestation levels of both Ro1 and Ro2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study that assessed the extent of soil contamination from submarine and aerial lead sheathed communications cables (LSCC) as well as potential risks to children's health. The researchers measured the amount of soil lead levels at submarine sites in Louisiana and aerial sites in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania using a Niton XL3t X-ray Fluorescence Analyzer. The results indicate that LSCC can be transported from the cables and contaminate surrounding soil and dust.

• We exposed 15 amphibian populations to 3 common insecticides. • We examined their tolerance and inducible tolerance. • We found high variation among the populations for all three insecticides. Human impacts on ecological communities are pervasive and species must either move or adapt to changing environmental conditions. For environments polluted by contaminants, researchers have found hundreds of target pest species evolving increased tolerance, but we have substantially fewer cases of evolved tolerance in non-target species. When species do evolve increased tolerance, inducible tolerance can provide immediate protection and favor the evolution of increased tolerance over generations via genetic assimilation. Using a model larval amphibian (wood frogs, Rana sylvatica), we examined the tolerance of 15 populations from western Pennsylvania and eastern New York (USA), when first exposed to no pesticide or sublethal concentrations and subsequently exposed to lethal concentrations of three common insecticides (carbaryl, chlorpyrifos, and diazinon). We found high variation in naïve tolerance among the populations for all three insecticides. We also discovered that nearly half of the populations exhibited inducible tolerance, though the degree of inducible tolerance (magnitude of tolerance plasticity; MoTP) varied. We observed a cross-tolerance pattern of the populations between chlorpyrifos and diazinon, but no pattern of similar MoTP among the pesticides. With populations combined from two regions, increased tolerance was not associated with proximity to agricultural fields, but there were correlations between proximity to agriculture and MoTP. Collectively, these results suggests that amphibian populations possess a wide range of naïve tolerance to common pesticides, with many also being able to rapidly induce increased tolerance. Future research should examine inducible tolerance in a wide variety of other taxa and contaminants to determine the ubiquity of these responses to anthropogenic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]