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Retention in healthcare and health behavior remains a critical issue, contributing to inequitable distribution of intervention benefits. In diseases such as HIV, where half of the new infections occur among racial and sexual minorities, it is important that interventions do not enlarge pre-existing health disparities. To effectively combat this public health issue, it is crucial that we quantify the magnitude of racial/ethnic disparity in retention. Further, there is a need to identify mediating factors to this relationship to inform equitable intervention design. In the present study, we assess the racial/ethnic disparity in retention in a peer-led online behavioral intervention to increase HIV self-testing behavior and identify explanatory factors. The research used data collected from the Harnessing Online Peer Education (HOPE) HIV Study that included 899 primarily African American and Latinx men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States. Results show that African American participants had higher lost-to-follow-up rates at 12-week follow-up compared to Latinx participants (11.1% and 5.8% respectively, Odds Ratio = 2.18, 95% confidence interval: 1.12 - 4.11, p = 0.02), which is substantially mediated by participants' self-rated health score (14.1% of the variation in the African American v.s. Latinx difference in lost-follow-up, p = 0.006). Thus, how MSM perceive their health may play an important role in their retention in HIV-related behavioral intervention programs and its racial/ethnic disparity.

Unprecedented public engagement with social media has provided viable and culturally relevant platforms for application in sexual health interventions, yet there are concerns that methods for evaluating engagement in these interventions have not kept pace with their implementation. More recently, the rise of social media analytics (SMA) and online marketing has spawned the development of analytic tools that boast promise for such a task. In this paper, we review a sample of the most popular of these tools, paying particular attention to: (1) the social media platforms that can be analyzed; (2) analytic capabilities; and (3) measures of engagement. We follow this with a review of sexual health intervention studies that apply these tools in evaluation efforts. Our findings suggest that these tools have numerous analytic capabilities that would be useful for evaluating interventions more efficiently. However, in nearly all cases, the tools we reviewed alone would not be sufficient to fully grasp engagement dynamics, as they need to be complemented with additional tools for textual analysis and social network analysis. Therefore, we consider this fertile ground for future collaborations between software developers and behavioral health scientists to develop more comprehensive analytic platforms with applications for public health research.

The U.S. Tropical Pacific (USTP) is a globally important area for seabirds with tens of millions of individuals of 32 species breeding in the region. The two greatest threats to breeding seabirds in the USTP are inundation of colonies caused by global climate change and non-native predators. We assessed the status of seabird species breeding in the USTP and which species would benefit most from restoration activities. We scored each species for nine criteria that reflected their extinction risk and vulnerability to climate change and invasive predators, then summed the scores of all criteria to obtain an overall score and ranked the species in terms of overall conservation need. The top five species at risk (in order) were Hawaiian Petrel (Pterodroma sandwichensis), Newell's Shearwater (Puffinus newelli), Polynesian Storm-Petrel (Nesofregetta fuliginosa), Phoenix Petrel (Pterodroma alba), and Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes). We also assessed 86 locations in the USTP as potential source and restoration sites for seabirds to mitigate the impacts of sea level rise and invasive predators. Some restoration actions are underway for three of the top five species in the USTP, but more actions are needed. Two of the top species (Polynesian Storm-petrel and Phoenix Petrel) occur primarily outside the USTP. Actions within the USTP are needed to complement existing conservation measures underway elsewhere in the Pacific and should be prioritized for future management actions. Keywords: assisted colonization, climate change, invasive predators, managed relocation, sea level rise, seabirds, social attraction, translocation, SEABIRDS ARE AMONG the most threatened groups of vertebrates worldwide, with 70% of the 368 species experiencing population declines and up to a third imminently threatened with extinction (Dias et [...]

This study draws on social normative and social learning theories to examine the masspersonal safer sex communication (i.e., Facebook posts about safer sex) and safer sex behavior (i.e., condom use) in a cohort of Black sexual minority men (BSMM) (N = 340), with an eye toward understanding their relationship with the safer sex communication and behaviors of their BSMM Facebook friends. Using linear network autocorrelation regression models, results showed that BSMM's safer sex communication and condom use behavior were each associated with the communication and behavior of their online peers. Specifically, BSMM's condom use was positively associated with their friends' condom use and friends' safer sex communication, and BSMMs' safer sex communication was positively associated with friends' safer sex communication. Moreover, contrary to prior research, BSSM's safer sex communication and condom use were not related to one another, suggesting that talking about safer sex on social media should not be interpreted to be an indication of engageDment in safer sex behavior. These findings underscore an opportunity to leverage peer influence in social media networks, particularly in the form of masspersonal communication, to encourage cascades of safer sex messaging among peers and adoption of safer sex behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1960s and 1970s, Laysan Albatrosses Phoebastria immutabilis colonized several sites in the Pacific from which they had been extirpated or had not been known to nest previously, including the US Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF) on Kaua'i, Hawai'i, USA, where they increased to become a bird aircraft strike hazard (BASH). To reduce their population at PMRF, albatross eggs were destroyed or removed as part of a BASH reduction program until 2005, when an alternate plan was devised by the Navy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, in which eggs from PMRF were placed in foster nests at other colonies on Kaua'i where the natural egg was infertile or had died. During 2009-2022, we placed 500 eggs from PMRF in foster nests on Kaua'i and the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. The egg viability rate in all colonies was 73% and varied among years. The hatching rate of foster eggs was 53%, fledging rate was 72%, and overall reproductive success was 38%, rates that were slightly lower than in natural eggs at the same sites. This project resulted in 189 fledged Laysan Albatross that otherwise would have died, and it helped solve a human-wildlife conflict. Several useful management techniques and egg translocation methods were developed during this project that can be used in similar projects with other seabirds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Translocations of chicks are increasingly being used in seabird restoration projects, along with social attraction of adults using acoustic and visual cues, to establish new colonies or re‐establish extirpated colonies. Many seabird species exhibit high rates of natal philopatry, where most chicks return to the nesting colonies from which they fledged. This makes them ideal candidates for translocation projects since they have a high likelihood of returning to translocation sites if they are relocated prior to imprinting on a natal site. Starting in 2017, Black‐footed Albatross (BFAL) chicks were translocated from populations in the low‐lying Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, where they face habitat loss due to sea level rise, to the higher elevation island of O'ahu, in an attempt to establish a new colony for this species. Additionally, social attraction was utilized at the site to attract potential nesting adults and provide social stimuli for the translocated chicks. Our study examined the response of translocated BFAL chicks to visual and audio stimuli inside a mammalian predator exclusion fence at James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge on the island of O'ahu. Decoys constructed in two different poses, representing courtship and resting postures of adult BFAL, were placed in various combinations with playback speakers around the perimeter of artificial shelters. Motion‐activated cameras were used to record and compare the number of visits by chicks to different combinations of visual and acoustic stimuli. We found the number of visits was highest at setups that included a combination of a decoy pair and a playback speaker, suggesting that a combination of visual and audio cues of adult BFAL are most attractive to the chicks. Future studies are needed to evaluate the long‐term impacts of exposure to artificial visual and audio stimuli as chicks on return rates to translocation site and social behavior as adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Invasive species are the primary threat to island ecosystems globally and are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all island species extinctions in the past 400 years. Non-native mammals—primarily rats, cats, mongooses, goats, sheep, and pigs—have had devastating impacts on at-risk species and are major factors in population declines and extinctions in Hawaiʻi. With the development of fencing technology that can exclude all mammalian predators, the focus for some locations in Hawaiʻi shifted from predator control to local eradication. Methods: This article describes all existing and planned full predator exclusion fences in Hawaiʻi by documenting the size and design of each fence, the outcomes the predator eradications, maintenance issues at each fence, and the resulting native species responses. Results: Twelve predator exclusion fences were constructed in the Hawaiian Islands from 2011–2023 and six more were planned or under construction; all were for the protection of native seabirds and waterbirds. Fences ranged in length from 304–4,877 m and enclosed 1.2–640 ha. One-third of the 18 fences were peninsula-style with open ends; the remaining two-thirds of the fences were complete enclosures. The purpose of twelve of the fences (67%) was to protect existing bird populations, and six (33%) were initiated for mitigation required under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Of the six mitigation fences, 83% were for the social attraction of seabirds and one fence was for translocation of seabirds; none of the mitigation fences protected existing bird populations. Rats and mice were present in every predator exclusion fence site; mice were eradicated from five of six sites (83%) where they were targeted and rats (three species) were eradicated from eight of 11 sites (72%). Mongoose, cats, pigs, and deer were eradicated from every site where they were targeted. Predator incursions occurred in every fence. Rat and mouse incursions were in many cases chronic or complete reinvasions, but cat and mongoose incursions were occasional and depended on fence type (i.e., enclosed vs. peninsula). The advent of predator exclusion fencing has resulted in great gains for protecting existing seabirds and waterbirds, which demonstrated dramatic increases in reproductive success and colony growth. With threats from invasive species expected to increase in the future, predator exclusion fencing will become an increasingly important tool in protecting island species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hawaiian Islands’ first predator exclusion fence project is planned for spring 2010 at the Ka`ena Point Natural Area Reserve, on the Island of Oahu. The Reserve hosts one of the largest seabird colonies in the main Hawaiian Islands and is home to threatened and endangered Hawaiian plants. Both avian and plant species in the Reserve are impacted by non-native mammalian predators. Although predator control operations have been ongoing for over a decade, predator ingress into the Reserve is continual and results in the annual loss of up to 15% of fledgling seabirds. It is projected that the planned predator exclusion fence and subsequent mammal removal will be more cost effective and provide an impervious means of keeping mammalian predators out of the Reserve, thus preserving and improving critical habitat. Because non-native mammalian predators cause biological damage to many of Hawai`i’s fragile avian and plant species in almost every ecosystem island-wide, this project will lead the way in further developing a new management strategy for the protection and preservation of island ecosystems.