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Since 2000, many countries have achieved considerable success in improving child survival, but localized progress remains unclear. To inform efforts towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3.2-to end preventable child deaths by 2030-we need consistently estimated data at the subnational level regarding child mortality rates and trends. Here we quantified, for the period 2000-2017, the subnational variation in mortality rates and number of deaths of neonates, infants and children under 5 years of age within 99 low- and middle-income countries using a geostatistical survival model. We estimated that 32% of children under 5 in these countries lived in districts that had attained rates of 25 or fewer child deaths per 1,000 live births by 2017, and that 58% of child deaths between 2000 and 2017 in these countries could have been averted in the absence of geographical inequality. This study enables the identification of high-mortality clusters, patterns of progress and geographical inequalities to inform appropriate investments and implementations that will help to improve the health of all populations.

Background: Occupational stress is a significant challenge for healthcare systems worldwide. It compromises the quality of healthcare and jeopardizes patient safety. Globally, the estimated economic impact of occupational stress in the healthcare system ranges from US $221.13 million to US $187 billion. Emotional intelligence has been recognized as a behavioral buffer against occupational stress. Hence, this study investigated whether nurses' perceptions of emotional intelligence impact their self‐perceived occupational stress. Design: A predictive correlational design was utilized. Method: A prior power analysis using G ∗ Power 3.1 was conducted. A convenience sample of 734 nurses was recruited from Taif Health Cluster. Data were coded and analyzed using IBM® SPSS® Statistics for Windows v.25. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used. A hierarchical regression technique was used. The level of significance was established at p < 0.05. The process of data collection started at August 2022 and continued through October 2022. Results: The results indicated that nurses' age and working area predicted occupational stress perceptions in the first model (β = −0.28 and β = 0.21, p = 0.001, respectively). The second model showed a significant improvement (ΔF(7,727) = 162.35, p < 0.000, ΔR2 = 0.226) and indicated a negative correlation between nurses' perceptions of emotional intelligence and occupational stress (β = −0.45, t = −12.8, p < 0.000). The nurses' sociodemographic characteristics in the first model explained 2.4% of the variance. The second model represented 25.0% of the variance when nurses' emotional intelligence perception was included. Conclusion: Our study shows a novel framework that indicates a positive perceived effect of emotional intelligence on nurses' perceptions of occupational stress in Saudi Arabia. Our findings propose that emotional intelligence is a significantly effective mechanism against occupational stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Scientific literature is presented in complex language, most frequently in English, and includes technical jargon that represents a challenge to comprehension of an English as a foreign language (EFL) nursing student. Yet scientific literature is a powerful and trustworthy source of evidence to guide nursing practice. Purpose: The aim is to examine two reading interventions (Translation vs Synthesization) and to determine which one produces long-term sustainability effects in scientific research reading comprehension. Method: A two-group posttest-only randomized comparative design was used in which 120 participants were randomly assigned to two groups. Several instruments were used to collect the data. Results: Study findings showed that the synthesization group significantly produced better results when compared with the translation group on both the immediate (p = 0.01) and the delayed (p = 0.013) reading comprehension tests. It shows also that gender differences have a significant impact on reading comprehension with a favor to males in the long-term reading comprehension outcome (p = 0.038) of synthesization and females in the short-term reading comprehension outcome (p = 0.015) of translation. English proficiency was significant with determination, metacognitive, and social skills in the synthesization group (p = 0.00, p = 0.01, p = 0.007 respectively). Conclusion: The results suggested that synthesization could be an effective reading approach in improving EFL nursing students' reading comprehension of scientific literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Horticultural crops are vulnerable to diverse microbial infections, which have a detrimental impact on their growth, fruit quality, and productivity. Currently, chemical pesticides are widely employed to manage diseases in horticultural crops, but they have negative effects on the environment, human health, soil physiochemical properties, and biodiversity. Additionally, the use of pesticides has facilitated the development and spread of resistant pathovars, which have emerged as a serious concern in contemporary agriculture. Nonetheless, the adverse consequences of chemical pesticides on the environment and public health have worried scientists greatly in recent years, which has led to a switch to the use of biocontrol agents such as bacteria, fungi, and insects to control plant pathogens. Biocontrol agents (BCAs) form an integral part of organic farming, which is regarded as the future of sustainable agriculture. Hence, harnessing the potential of BCAs is an important viable strategy to control microbial disease in horticultural crops in a way that is also ecofriendly and can improve the soil health. Here, we discuss the role of the biological control of microbial diseases in crops. We also discuss different microbial-based BCAs such as fungal, bacterial, and viral and their role in disease management. Next, we discuss the factors that affect the performance of the BCAs under field conditions. This review also highlights the genetic engineering of BCAs to enhance their biocontrol efficiency and other growth traits. Finally, we highlight the challenges and opportunities of biocontrol-based disease management in horticulture crops and future research directions to boost their efficacy and applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study aimed to identify the level of awareness of parasitic infections among middle school students in Al-Ahsa Governorate, Saudi Arabia. The focus was on the students' awareness of the term parasites, their impact on public health, modes of transmission, and prevention methods of infection, especially in schools. The descriptive method was used. We administered the questionnaire face-to-face to a random sample of middle school students (94 M., 103 F.) in the Al-Ahsa Governorate. The study's findings indicate that middle school students possess a high level of awareness regarding ways to prevent parasitic diseases and limit their spread in schools, but they have a moderate level of awareness about the term parasites, their impact on human health, and the methods of parasite transmission in the school environment. The study revealed statistically significant differences between males and females' students, with males showing a higher level of awareness about parasitic infections at a significance level of less than 0.05. The variables of the students' place of residence (city and village) and the mother's educational level (secondary or lower & bachelor's or higher) did not reveal any significant variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]