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Abstract STUDY QUESTION What is the association between BMI and subfertility? SUMMARY ANSWER We observed a J-shaped relationship between BMI and subfertility in both sexes, when using both a standard multivariable regression and Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY High BMI in both women and men is associated with subfertility in observational studies and this relationship is further substantiated by a few small randomized controlled trials of weight reduction and success of assisted reproduction. Women with low BMI also have lower conception rates with assisted reproduction technologies. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION Cohort study (the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study), 28 341 women and 26 252 men, recruited from all over Norway between 1999 and 2008. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS Women (average age 30, average BMI 23.1 kg/m2) and men (average age 33, average BMI 25.5 kg/m2) had available genotype data and provided self-reported information on time-to-pregnancy and BMI. A total of 10% of couples were subfertile (time-to-pregnancy ≥12 months). MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Our findings support a J-shaped association between BMI and subfertility in both sexes using multivariable logistic regression models. Non-linear MR validated this relationship. A 1 kg/m2 greater genetically predicted BMI was linked to 18% greater odds of subfertility (95% CI 5% to 31%) in obese women (≥30.0 kg/m2) and 15% lower odds of subfertility (−24% to −2%) in women with BMI <20.0 kg/m2. A 1 kg/m2 higher genetically predicted BMI was linked to 26% greater odds of subfertility (8–48%) among obese men. Low genetically predicted BMI values were also related to greater subfertility risk in men at the lower end of the BMI distribution. A genetically predicted BMI of 23 and 25 kg/m2 was linked to the lowest subfertility risk in women and men, respectively. LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION The main limitations of our study were that we did not know whether the subfertility was driven by the women, men or both; the exclusive consideration of individuals of northern European ancestry; and the limited amount of participants with obesity or BMI values <20.0 kg/m2. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS Our results support a causal effect of obesity on subfertility in women and men. Our findings also expand the current evidence by indicating that individuals with BMI values <20 kg/m2 may have an increased risk of subfertility. These results suggest that BMI values between 20 and 25 kg/m2 are optimal for a minimal risk of subfertility. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) The MoBa Cohort Study is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. This project received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 947684). It was also partly supported by the Research Council of Norway through its Centres of Excellence funding scheme, project number 262700. Open Access funding was provided by the Folkehelseinstituttet/Norwegian Institute of Public Health. D.A.L. is a UK National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator (NF-SI-0611-10196) and is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (R01 DK10324) and a European Research Council Advanced Grant (DevelopObese; 669545). The funders had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the article for publication. D.A.L. receives (or has received in the last 10 years) research support from National and International government and charitable bodies, Roche Diagnostics and Medtronic for research unrelated to the current work. The rest of the authors declare that no competing interests exist. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER N/A.

International audience ; This article analyzes the emergence of the critique of the "environmental coloniality" of Spain's Francoist dictatorship, and how it connected to the foundation of several environmental injustice struggles in Spain. This coloniality can be observed in contemporary critiques of "internal colonialism", which arose during the 1970s. Green intellectuals, such as Mario Gaviria, went as far as to describe three types of environmental colonialism based on classic colonialism: space colonialism, energy colonialism and extractivism. In this article we argue that the Spanish case illustrates that the global colonial system implies a certain capacity for reversibility. In comparison to liberal democracies, the environmental coloniality of a fascist regime involves more violence and repression in the coloniality of power, knowledge, and being. Such reversibility, along with the old patterns of environmental coloniality, prompts historians to criticize the rhetoric of European economic miracles and high-modernity through the lens of decolonial environmental history. We can describe the concept of environmental coloniality from three perspectives. First is the conceptualization of the environment as an object of capitalist appropriation of scientific processes overseen by the State. This perspective can be described in terms of the commodification of nature. Secondly, and related to this first element, is the coercive nature of a fascist state that annuls any decision-making processes or social participation in the field of environmental management. Finally is a fascist state's violent repression of any form of social contestation. From these three perspectives we can conclude that environmental coloniality gave rise to a cycle of struggles for the defense of land, water, and community life; these struggles can be considered decolonial, because they proposed an alternative model to the authoritarianism of the fascist state. ; Este artigo analisa o surgimento da crítica à "colonialidade ambiental" da ditadura franquista espanhola, e como esta se ligava à fundação de várias lutas de injustiça ambiental em Espanha. Esta colonialidade pode ser observada nas críticas contemporâneas ao "colonialismo interno", que surgiram durante a década de 1970. Intelectuais verdes, tais como Mario Gaviria, chegaram ao ponto de descrever três tipos de colonialismo ambiental baseado no colonialismo clássico: colonialismo espacial, colonialismo energético e extractivismo. Neste artigo argumentamos que o caso espanhol ilustra que o sistema colonial global implica uma certa capacidade de reversibilidade. Em comparação com as democracias iberais, a colonialidade ambiental de um regime fascista envolve mais violência e repressão na colonialidade do poder, do conhecimento, e do ser. Tal reversibilidade, juntamente com os velhos padrões de colonialidade ambiental, leva os historiadores a criticar a retórica dos milagres económicos europeus e da alta modernidade através da lente da história ambiental descolonial. Podemos descrever o conceito de colonialidade ambiental a partir de três perspectivas. A primeira é a conceptualização do ambiente como um objecto de apropriação capitalista dos processos científicos supervisionados pelo Estado. Esta perspectiva pode ser descrita em termos da mercantilização da natureza. Em segundo lugar, e relacionado com este primeiro elemento, está a natureza coerciva de um Estado fascista que anula qualquer processo decisório ou participação social no campo da gestão ambiental. Finalmente, é a repressão violenta de um Estado fascista sobre qualquer forma de contestação social. A partir destas três perspectivas podemos concluir que a colonialidade ambiental deu origem a um ciclo de lutas pela defesa da terra, da água e da vida comunitária; estas lutas podem ser consideradas descoloniais, porque propuseram um modelo alternativo ao autoritarismo do Estado fascista.

Full list of authors: Amati, L.; O'Brien, P. T.; Götz, D.; Bozzo, E.; Santangelo, A.; Tanvir, N. ; Frontera, F.; Mereghetti, S.; Osborne, J. P.; Blain, A.; Basa, S.; Branchesi, M.; Burderi, L.; Caballero-García, M.; Castro-Tirado, A. J.; Christensen, L.; Ciolfi, R.; De Rosa, A.; Doroshenko, V.; Ferrara, A.; Ghirlanda, G.; Hanlon, L.; Heddermann, P.; Hutchinson, I.; Labanti, C.; Le Floch, E.; Lerman, H.; Paltani, S.; Reglero, V.; Rezzolla, L.; Rosati, P.; Salvaterra, R.; Stratta, G.; Tenzer, C.; Theseus Consortium.--This Open Access article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. ; THESEUS, one of the two space mission concepts being studied by ESA as candidates for next M5 mission within its Comsic Vision programme, aims at fully exploiting Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRB) to solve key questions about the early Universe, as well as becoming a cornerstone of multi-messenger and time-domain astrophysics. By investigating the first billion years of the Universe through high-redshift GRBs, THESEUS will shed light on the main open issues in modern cosmology, such as the population of primordial low mass and luminosity galaxies, sources and evolution of cosmic re-ionization, SFR and metallicity evolution up to the "cosmic dawn" and across Pop-III stars. At the same time, the mission will provide a substantial advancement of multi-messenger and time-domain astrophysics by enabling the identification, accurate localisation and study of electromagnetic counterparts to sources of gravitational waves and neutrinos, which will be routinely detected in the late '20s and early '30s by the second and third generation Gravitational Wave (GW) interferometers and future neutrino detectors, as well as of all kinds of GRBs and most classes of other X/gamma-ray transient sources. Under all these respects, THESEUS will provide great synergies with future large observing facilities in the multi-messenger domain. A Guest Observer programme, comprising Target of Opportunity (ToO) observations, will expand the science return of the mission, to include, e.g., solar system minor bodies, exoplanets, and AGN. © 2021, The Author(s). ; The authors, on behalf of the entire THESEUS consortium, are grateful to the ESA-appointed THESEUS Study Scientist Matteo Guainazzi, as well as the entire ESA Study Team for all their work and support across the mission assessment phase (2018-2021). Authors from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) are grateful for the support received through the agreement ASI-INAF n. 2n. 2018-29-HH.0. Open access funding provided by Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica within the CRUI-CARE Agreement. ; With funding from the Spanish government through the Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence accreditation SEV-2017-0709. ; Peer reviewed

Are alternatives to the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in a geology repository conceivable? We present the results of the first phase of a research project on the state of the art in science and technology for alternative disposal options. The project is financed by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management. Most recently, in 2015, the German Commission on the Storage of High-Level Radioactive Waste (Endlagerkommission) evaluated possible disposal technologies and classified them as either promising, conceivable, or to be pursued further. Only final disposal in a geological repository was considered promising. Conceivable, but not immediately available or not advantageous, were storage in deep boreholes (DBs), long-term interim storage (LTIS), and partitioning and transmutation (P&T). All other alternative disposal options by burial, dilution, or removal from the planet were determined not to be worth pursuing. The Disposal Commission did conclude that none of the three conceivable methods (DBs, LTIS, P&T) would result in earlier disposal of high-level radioactive waste than the preferred final disposal in a mine. However, it recommended continued tracking and regular monitoring of the future development of alternative disposal options, e.g., disposal in deep boreholes. Finally, in 2017, with the amended Site Selection Act, the federal government specified disposal in a repository mine with the option of retrieval during operation or recovery for 500 years after closure. In a learning site selection process, the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Disposal (BASE) reviews the proposals of the project managing company, the Federal Company for Radioactive Waste Disposal (BGE), and prepares a reasoned recommendation to the federal government for a site with the best possible safety. Part of the reasoned recommendation is, among other things, a discussion of alternative disposal options to final disposal in deep geological formations. In the presentation, we report on the status of international research on alternative disposal options, discuss advantages and disadvantages of the technologies, and evaluate the potential of the technologies for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste in Germany. The LTIS is designed as dry storage in a building to be constructed above ground or near the surface and is expected to last for a period of several hundred years. With LTIS it would be possible to gain time for the development of a suitable final disposal option; however, this also postpones the disposal issue indefinitely into the future with undetermined methods. DB storage would involve sinking the storage containers into boreholes with depths of up to 5000 m. This could reduce the expense and be particularly advantageous for smaller inventories, although the potential for the use of engineered barriers would be limited and retrievability precluded according to the current state of the art in science and technology. P&T is primarily intended to separate long-lived transuranic elements from high-level radioactive waste and then convert them to short-lived fission products by neutron irradiation in reactors. The main goal is to reduce the necessary containment times in the repository by changing the inventory, but the effort to treat the waste would be significant and a repository for high-level nuclear waste is still needed. More exotic ideas for alternative disposal include deep geological injection of liquid waste, waste forms that melt themselves into rock, storage inside the ocean floor or subduction zones, shipment to space, burial in ice sheets, or dilution in the atmosphere and oceans. None of these exotic options is currently being actively pursued.

This article aims to identify the scientific evidence in Brazil on what works and what does not work to reduce the number of homicides. This is the first systematic review ever conducted in the country on the effectiveness of public security programs, using the same methodology as the Maryland Report, conducted in 1997, which reviewed the studies produced in English and is considered a milestone in the emergence of the so-called evidence-based crime prevention paradigm (EBCP). The review resulted in a total of 13,352 studies, of which 41 met the inclusion criteria, resulting in the identification of 8 types of programs that work, 7 promising programs, 7 programs with undefined results, and 2 programs with evidence that shows they do not work. The study showed that the country has innovative programs that effectively reduce homicides, while actions traditionally cited as solutions do not present scientific evidence that they work. Although lagging behind international development, the EBCP presents the potential to increase the effectiveness of public spending, help the country to reduce violence, and overcome decision-making processes based on beliefs, corporatism, prejudice, and political populism. ; Este artículo tiene como objetivo identificar qué evidencia científica existe hoy en Brasil sobre lo que funciona y lo que no funciona para reducir el número de homicidios, a través de la primera revisión sistemática que se ha realizado en el país sobre la eficacia de los programas de seguridad pública, utilizando la misma metodología del Informe Maryland, realizado en 1997, que revisó los estudios ya realizados en inglés y que se considera un hito en el surgimiento de la llamada seguridad pública basada en la evidencia (SPBE). La búsqueda resultó en un total de 13.352 estudios analizados, de los cuales 41 cumplieron los criterios de inclusión, lo que dio como resultado la identificación de 8 tipos de programas que funcionan, 7 programas prometedores, 7 programas con resultados no definidos y 2 programas con pruebas de que no funcionan. El estudio demostró que el país tiene programas innovadores que son eficaces para reducir los homicidios, mientras que las acciones tradicionalmente citadas como soluciones para el área no presentan evidencia científica de que funcionen. Aunque va a la zaga del desarrollo internacional, el paradigma de la SPBE presenta gran potencial para aumentar la eficacia del gasto público, ayudar al país a reducir la violencia y superar los procesos de toma de decisiones basados en creencias, corporativismo, prejuicios y populismo político. ; Este artigo tem por objetivo identificar quais são as evidências científicas existentes no Brasil, hoje, sobre o que funciona e o que não funciona para reduzir o número de homicídios, por meio da primeira revisão sistemática já realizada no país acerca da efetividade de programas de segurança pública, utilizando a mesma metodologia do Relatório Maryland, realizado em 1997, o qual revisou os estudos já produzidos em língua inglesa e que é considerado um marco no surgimento da chamada segurança pública baseada em evidências (SPBE). A busca resultou em um total de 13.352 estudos analisados, dos quais 41 preencheram os critérios de inclusão, resultando na identificação de 8 tipos de programas que funcionam, 7 programas promissores, 7 programas com resultados indefinidos e 2 programas com evidências que não funcionam. O estudo mostrou que o país dispõe de programas inovadores que são efetivos para reduzir homicídios, enquanto ações tradicionalmente citadas como soluções para a área não apresentam evidências científicas de que funcionem. Embora atrasado em relação ao desenvolvimento internacional, o paradigma da SPBE apresenta grande potencial para aumentar a efetividade do gasto público, auxiliar o país a reduzir a violência e superar processos de tomada de decisão baseados em crenças, corporativismos, preconceitos e populismos políticos.

International audience ; While it has generally been acknowledged that Balochi (an Indo-European language of the Iranic branch) is historically one language, the synchronic variation of the dialects, spread over large areas in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc., is bewildering. There are three major dialect groups (S, W, E), plus one outlier: Koroshi, spoken in Fars province (historically an offshoot of Southern Balochi). The differences are found on all levels of the grammar, and tend to be given in lists of what the respective author regards as salient criteria. Furthermore, the fact of being spoken in different countries exposes the dialects to superstrate influences not coinciding with dialect boundaries. These differences are not usually mentioned in the (few) works on Balochi dialectology. For instance, any Bal. dialect spoken in Pakistan is under the influence of the national languages Urdu and Pakistani English; depending on the region, Brahui, Pashto, Sindhi and other Indo-Aryan languages also play a role. In Iran, the influence of Persian is strong, now ever more so due to TV etc. In Turkmenistan, Balochi encounters Russian and Turkmen while the varieties in Oman are under heavy pressure from Arabic etc. However, for speakers of Balochi, the most important obstacle for communication is the lexicon, a major part of which comes from Persian in Iran and from Urdu and Pakistani English in Pakistan, thus not comprehensible to Baloch from the other country. As for other levels of grammar, the Balochi phonemic system is of an Indo-Aryan type (having merged the inherited fricatives with stops, and acquired retroflexes). In Pakistan, IA influence may help to preserve ergativity and non-finite subordination, while Persian influence results in the use of prepositions and contributes to a weakening of ergativity and to the adoption of modal and aktionsart constructions calqued from Persian, as well as (in recent decades) in loanwords pronounced with fricatives instead of replacing these by stops. Persian influence also results in a major refashioning of the case system in some of Balochi spoken in Iran, while Balochi spoken in Turkmenistan has elaborated a combination of endings into a regular locative case, to the concept of which contact with Turkmen and Russian could have contributed. Another non-trivial problem are the major discrepancies in the available data and descriptions. The only works summarising what was known about Balochi at the time are the substantial chapters by GEIGER 1901 (in the Grundriss der iranischen Philologie) and GRIERSON 1921 (in the Linguistic Survey of India), who had access only to Balochi spoken in British India, and JAHANI & KORN 2009, who include the by then known data from Iran, but not Koroshi, which has been investigated only recently. Conversely, available data from Eastern Balochi chiefly consists of material collected in the 19th century, noted according to the standards of the time -- owing to the political situation, access to the area has been difficult or impossible for foreigners. The only group which is rather well described is Western Balochi, but exactly these varieties are somewhat less interesting from a historical and typological perspective, as they pattern heavily on Persian. The question thus arises how to write a grammar of Balochi, or whether one should refrain from doing so at all and rather consider writing separate grammars for some six (or more) forms of Balochi. -- In this paper, I present thoughts and problems from my work-in-progress on a Balochi grammar. For the sections where this seems feasible, I apply a diachronic approach, starting from Proto-Balochi, from which the attested dialects are derived. I also make use of the concept of Common Balochi, which is an abstract entity describing traits that Bal. varieties typically show.

Cristina Bredicean,1,2 Simona Claudia Tamasan,3 Diana Lungeanu,4 Catalina Giurgi-Oncu,1,5 Ileana-Pepita Stoica,6 Anca-Livia Panfil,3 Claudia Vasilian,3 Ica Secosan,7 Sorin Ursoniu,5,8 Raul Patrascu5,9 1NEUROPSY-COG Center for Cognitive Research in Neuropsychiatric Pathology, Department of Neuroscience, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania; 2Psychiatry Compartment, "Dr. Victor Popescu" Emergency Military Clinical Hospital, Timisoara, Romania; 3Liaison Psychiatry, "Pius Branzeu" County Emergency Hospital, Timisoara, Romania; 4Center for Modeling Biological Systems and Data Analysis, Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania; 5"Pius Branzeu" County Emergency Hospital, Timisoara, Romania; 6Mental Health Center, "Pius Branzeu" County Emergency Hospital, Timisoara, Romania; 7Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, "Pius Branzeu" County Emergency Hospital, Timisoara, Romania; 8Discipline of Public Health and Health Management, Center for Translational Research and Systems Medicine, Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania; 9Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, RomaniaCorrespondence: Diana LungeanuCenter for Modeling Biological Systems and Data Analysis, Department of Functional Sciences, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Piata Eftimie Murgu 2, Timisoara, 300041, RomaniaTel +40-256-190288Fax +40-256-190288Email dlungeanu@umft.roCatalina Giurgi-OncuNEUROPSY-COG Center for Cognitive Research in Neuropsychiatric Pathology, Department of Neuroscience, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Piata Eftimie Murgu 2, Timisoara, 300041, RomaniaEmail catalina.giurgi@umft.roPurpose: The year 2020 was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, massively disruptive at the general population level and for healthcare systems. We aimed to evaluate the psychological distress associated with work-related experiences among medical professionals and supporting staff during the pandemic outbreak.Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted between April and May 2020, employing a self-administered on-line questionnaire that included the collection of socio-demographic and professional status information, Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and a subscale of the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) for empathy. A total of 364 professionals of the county-coordinated area responded. Descriptive statistics summarized the findings and a mediation model was analyzed, applying the causal step strategy. The specific direct and causal mediation effects were estimated with the bias-corrected and accelerated bootstrap sampling method.Results: Anxiety, burnout, stress, resilience, and empathy proved to be significantly associated with both the professional category (ie, consultant, specialty doctor, trainee doctor, senior nurse, trainee nurse or other) and the perceived professional support (the nonparametric multivariate permutation test resulted in p=0.048 and p< 0.001, respectively). When controlling for the marital and professional status, the female gender had an OR=2.26, 95% CI (1.21; 4.22) toward a high level of empathy compared to males. The causal mediation effect of the perceived lack of professional support on empathy through burnout-depersonalization was highly significant (p< 0.001) with an average of 0.0599, 95% CI (0.0238; 0.10), while the direct effect was non-significant (p=0.536) with an average of 0.0295, 95% CI (− 0.0774; 0.15).Conclusion: We highlighted the impact of the lack of professional support on healthcare workers' empathy through burnout-depersonalization in a context of a high workload, time pressure, job stress beyond previous training, and inherently limited organizational support, which are potentially modifiable factors in the mid-term.Keywords: healthcare workers, burnout experience, work engagement, mediation model, Maslach Burnout Inventory, PHQ-9

The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. The project's goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies. The project grew out of the European Values Study and was started in 1981 by its Founder and first President (1981-2013) Professor Ronald Inglehart from the University of Michigan (USA) and his team, and since then has been operating in more than 120 world societies. The main research instrument of the project is a representative comparative social survey which is conducted globally every 5 years. Extensive geographical and thematic scope, free availability of survey data and project findings for broad public turned the WVS into one of the most authoritative and widely-used cross-national surveys in the social sciences. At the moment, WVS is the largest non-commercial cross-national empirical time-series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed. ; The target population is defined as: individuals aged 18 (16/17 is acceptable in the countries with such voting age) or older (with no upper age limit), regardless of their nationality, citizenship or language, that have been residing in the [country] within private households for the past 6 months prior to the date of beginning of fieldwork (or in the date of the first visit to the household, in case of random-route selection). ; The sampling procedures differ from country to country; probability Sample: Multistage Sample Probability Sample, Simple Random SampleRepresentative single stage or multi-stage sampling of the adult population of the country 18 (16) years old and older was used for the WVS 2017-2020. Sample size was set as effective sample size: 1200 for countries with population over 2 million, 1000 for countries with population less than 2 million. Countries with great population size and diversity (e.g. India, China, USA, Russia, Brazil etc.) are requirred to reach an effective sample of N=1500 or larger. Only 2 countries (Argentina, Chile) deviated from the guidelines and planned with an effective sample size below the set threshold. Sample design and other relevant information about sampling were reviewed by the WVS Scientific Advisory Committee and approved prior to contracting of fieldwork agency or starting of data collection. The sampling was documented using the Survey Design Form delivered by the national teams which included the description of the sampling frame and each sampling stage as well as the calculation of the planned gross and net sample size to achieve the required effective sample. Additionally, it included the analytical description of the inclusion probabilities of the sampling design that are used to calculate design weights. ; Interview ; Mode of collection: mixed mode Face-to-face interview: CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) Face-to-face interview: PAPI (Paper and Pencil Interview) Telephone interview: CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) Self-administered questionnaire: CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) Self-administered questionnaire: PaperIn all countries, fieldwork was conducted on the basis of detailed and uniform instructions prepared by the WVS scientific advisory committee and WVSA secretariat. The main data collection mode in WVS 2017-2021 is face to face (interviewer-administered). Several countries employed mixed-mode approach to data collection: USA (CAWI; CATI); Australia and Japan (CAWI; postal survey); Hong Kong SAR (PAPI; CAWI); Malaysia (CAWI; PAPI). The WVS Master Questionnaire was provided in English and each national survey team had to ensure that the questionnaire was translated into all the languages spoken by 15% or more of the population in the country. A central team monitored the translation process.

The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. The project's goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies. The project grew out of the European Values Study and was started in 1981 by its Founder and first President (1981-2013) Professor Ronald Inglehart from the University of Michigan (USA) and his team, and since then has been operating in more than 120 world societies. The main research instrument of the project is a representative comparative social survey which is conducted globally every 5 years. Extensive geographical and thematic scope, free availability of survey data and project findings for broad public turned the WVS into one of the most authoritative and widely-used cross-national surveys in the social sciences. At the moment, WVS is the largest non-commercial cross-national empirical time-series investigation of human beliefs and values ever executed. ; The target population is defined as: individuals aged 18 (16/17 is acceptable in the countries with such voting age) or older (with no upper age limit), regardless of their nationality, citizenship or language, that have been residing in the [country/ territory] within private households for the past 6 months prior to the date of beginning of fieldwork (or in the date of the first visit to the household, in case of random-route selection). ; The sampling procedures differ from country to country; probability sample: Multistage Sample, Probability Sample, Simple Random SampleRepresentative single stage or multi-stage sampling of the adult population of the country 18 (16) years old and older was used for the WVS 2017-2021. Sample size was set as effective sample size: 1200 for countries with population over 2 million, 1000 for countries with population less than 2 million. Countries with great population size and diversity (e.g. India, China, USA, Russia, Brazil etc.) are requirred to reach an effective sample of N=1500 or larger. Only 2 countries (Argentina, Chile) deviated from the guidelines and planned with an effective sample size below the set threshold. Sample design and other relevant information about sampling were reviewed by the WVS Scientific Advisory Committee and approved prior to contracting of fieldwork agency or starting of data collection. The sampling was documented using the Survey Design Form delivered by the national teams which included the description of the sampling frame and each sampling stage as well as the calculation of the planned gross and net sample size to achieve the required effective sample. Additionally, it included the analytical description of the inclusion probabilities of the sampling design that are used to calculate design weights. ; Interview ; Mode of collection: mixed mode Face-to-face interview: CAPI (Computer Assisted Personal Interview) Face-to-face interview: PAPI (Paper and Pencil Interview) Telephone interview: CATI (Computer Assisted Telephone Interview) Self-administered questionnaire: CAWI (Computer-Assisted Web Interview) Self-administered questionnaire: PaperIn all countries, fieldwork was conducted on the basis of detailed and uniform instructions prepared by the WVS scientific advisory committee and WVSA secretariat. The main data collection mode in WVS 2017-2021 is face to face (interviewer-administered). Several countries employed mixed-mode approach to data collection: USA (CAWI; CATI); Australia and Japan (CAWI; postal survey); Hong Kong SAR (PAPI; CAWI); Malaysia (CAWI; PAPI). The WVS Master Questionnaire was provided in English and each national survey team had to ensure that the questionnaire was translated into all the languages spoken by 15% or more of the population in the country. A central team monitored the translation process.

Giardia duodenalis is an enteric parasite commonly detected in children. Exposure to this organism may lead to asymptomatic or symptomatic infection. Additionally, early-life infections by this protozoan have been associated with impaired growth and cognitive function in poor resource settings. The Global Enteric Multicenter Study (GEMS) in Mozambique demonstrated that G. duodenalis was more frequent among controls than in diarrhoeal cases (≥3 loosing stools in the previous 24 hours). However, no molecular investigation was conducted to ascertain the molecular variability of the parasite. Therefore, we describe here the frequency and genetic diversity of G. duodenalis infections in children younger than five years of age with and without diarrhoea from the Manhiça district in southern Mozambique enrolled in the context of GEMS. Genomic DNA from 757 G. duodenalis-positive stool samples by immunoassay collected between 2007-2012, were reanalysed by multiplex PCR targeting the E1-HP and C1-P21 genes for the differentiation of assemblages A and B. Overall, 47% (353) of the samples were successfully amplified in at least one locus. Assemblage B accounted for 90% (319/353) of all positives, followed by assemblage A (8%, 29/353) and mixed A+B infections (1%, 5/353). No association between the presence of a given assemblage and the occurrence of diarrhoea could be demonstrated. A total of 351 samples were further analysed by a multi-locus sequence genotyping (MLSG) approach at the glutamate dehydrogenase (gdh), ß-giardin (bg) and triose phosphate isomerase (tpi) genes. Overall, 63% (222/351) of samples were genotyped and/or sub-genotyped in at least one of the three markers. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of assemblages A (10%; 23/222) and B (90%; 199/222) with high molecular diversity at the nucleotide level within the latter; no mixed infections were identified under the MLSG scheme. Assemblage A sequences were assigned to sub-assemblages AI (0.5%, 1/222), AII (7%, 15/222) or ambiguous AII/AIII (3%, 7/222). Within assemblage B, sequences were assigned to sub-assemblages BIII (13%, 28/222), BIV (14%, 31/222) and ambiguous BIII/BIV (59%, 132/222). BIII/BIV sequences accumulated the majority of the single nucleotide polymorphisms detected, particularly in the form of double peaks at chromatogram inspection. This study demonstrated that the occurrence of gastrointestinal illness (diarrhoea) was not associated to a given genotype of G. duodenalis in Mozambican children younger than five years of age. The assemblage B of the parasite was responsible for nine out of ten infections detected in this paediatric population. The extremely high genetic diversity observed within assemblage B isolates was compatible with an hyperendemic epidemiological scenario where infections and reinfections were common. The obtained molecular data may be indicative of high coinfection rates by different G. duodenalis assemblages/sub-assemblages and/or genetic recombination events, although the exact contribution of both mechanisms to the genetic diversity of the parasite remains unknown. ; GEMS was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Center for Vaccine Development at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine who coordinated GEMS-1 and GEMS-1A, with grant number 38874 (MML) and OPP1033572 (MML), respectively. DC received funding from the Health Institute Carlos III, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Spain), under project PI16CIII/00024.TN received funding from the Fundo Nacional de Investigacão, Ministry of Science and Technology (Mozambique) under project 245-INV. Additional funding was obtained from the USAID Country Office of Mozambique under the Fixed Amount Award Grant No. AID-656-F-16-00002 (IM). CISM is supported by the Government of Mozambique and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. ; Sí

International audience ; While it has generally been acknowledged that Balochi (an Indo-European language of the Iranic branch) is historically one language, the synchronic variation of the dialects, spread over large areas in Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc., is bewildering. There are three major dialect groups (S, W, E), plus one outlier: Koroshi, spoken in Fars province (historically an offshoot of Southern Balochi). The differences are found on all levels of the grammar, and tend to be given in lists of what the respective author regards as salient criteria. Furthermore, the fact of being spoken in different countries exposes the dialects to superstrate influences not coinciding with dialect boundaries. These differences are not usually mentioned in the (few) works on Balochi dialectology. For instance, any Bal. dialect spoken in Pakistan is under the influence of the national languages Urdu and Pakistani English; depending on the region, Brahui, Pashto, Sindhi and other Indo-Aryan languages also play a role. In Iran, the influence of Persian is strong, now ever more so due to TV etc. In Turkmenistan, Balochi encounters Russian and Turkmen while the varieties in Oman are under heavy pressure from Arabic etc. However, for speakers of Balochi, the most important obstacle for communication is the lexicon, a major part of which comes from Persian in Iran and from Urdu and Pakistani English in Pakistan, thus not comprehensible to Baloch from the other country. As for other levels of grammar, the Balochi phonemic system is of an Indo-Aryan type (having merged the inherited fricatives with stops, and acquired retroflexes). In Pakistan, IA influence may help to preserve ergativity and non-finite subordination, while Persian influence results in the use of prepositions and contributes to a weakening of ergativity and to the adoption of modal and aktionsart constructions calqued from Persian, as well as (in recent decades) in loanwords pronounced with fricatives instead of replacing these by stops. Persian influence also results in a major refashioning of the case system in some of Balochi spoken in Iran, while Balochi spoken in Turkmenistan has elaborated a combination of endings into a regular locative case, to the concept of which contact with Turkmen and Russian could have contributed. Another non-trivial problem are the major discrepancies in the available data and descriptions. The only works summarising what was known about Balochi at the time are the substantial chapters by GEIGER 1901 (in the Grundriss der iranischen Philologie) and GRIERSON 1921 (in the Linguistic Survey of India), who had access only to Balochi spoken in British India, and JAHANI & KORN 2009, who include the by then known data from Iran, but not Koroshi, which has been investigated only recently. Conversely, available data from Eastern Balochi chiefly consists of material collected in the 19th century, noted according to the standards of the time -- owing to the political situation, access to the area has been difficult or impossible for foreigners. The only group which is rather well described is Western Balochi, but exactly these varieties are somewhat less interesting from a historical and typological perspective, as they pattern heavily on Persian. The question thus arises how to write a grammar of Balochi, or whether one should refrain from doing so at all and rather consider writing separate grammars for some six (or more) forms of Balochi. -- In this paper, I present thoughts and problems from my work-in-progress on a Balochi grammar. For the sections where this seems feasible, I apply a diachronic approach, starting from Proto-Balochi, from which the attested dialects are derived. I also make use of the concept of Common Balochi, which is an abstract entity describing traits that Bal. varieties typically show.

Executive Summary The 2020 European Seismic Hazard Model (ESHM20) provides an update of the earthquake hazard assessment of the Euro-Mediterranean region. ESHM20 has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.s 730900 of the SERAProject (www.sera-eu.org) The ESHM20 follows the same principles as the ESHM13, with state-of-the art procedures homogeneously applied for the entire pan-European region, without the country-borders issues. The model was built upon recently compiled datasets (i.e. earthquake catalogues, active faults, ground shaking recordings), information (tectonic and geological) and models (seismogenic sources, ground shaking). A fully probabilistic framework was adopted in the hazard model implementation and all datasets and inputs are fully cross-border harmonized. The newly developed seismogenic source model encompass fully harmonized and cross borders seismogenic sources following the recent national earthquake hazard models. The inherent uncertainties in characterizing the earthquake rupture forecast are handled by a complex logic tree, consisting of two main models (branches): an area source-based model and a hybrid fault-smoothed seismicity model. The ground motion characteristic model is built upon the most complete ground shaking recordings in Europe and aims at capturing the effects of source and attenuation path of the expected ground shaking at a site. The regional variability of the ground shaking as constrain by observations is captured by a novel approach of spatial clustering and the overall uncertainties are handled in a backbone logic tree. The master logic tree combines the earthquake rate forecast with the backbone ground motion models into a computational model for assessing the earthquake ground shaking at across the entire Euro- Mediterranean region. Full sets of hazard results (i.e. hazard curves and maps, uniform hazard spectra) for various combinations of return periods and descriptive statistics (mean, median and quantiles) are available. The ESHM20 development process involved several regional workshops where the scientists and experts were consulted and their feedback was acknowledged and considered on the model outcome. Finally, ESHM20 provides the basis to derive informative hazard maps for two key engineering parameters defining the anchoring points of the seismic design spectra for the next version of the European Seismic Design Code (CEN-EC8). The European Facilities for Earthquake Hazard and Risk (EFEHR) will maintain and further develop this model in collaboration with the GEM Foundation and the European Plate Observing System (EPOS). The source data, input models, software and outputs of ESRM20 are thus being openly released with a Creative Commons CC-BY International 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This license allows re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, so long as attribution is given to the creator. The license allows for commercial use. Each product is released with a clear notice on how it should be cited in order to abide by the license. ESHM20 is online available at the www.hazard.EFEHR.org. ; 1. Swiss Seismological Service, ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland, 2. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), 00143 Rome, Italy, 3. German Research Centre for Geociences (GFZ), Section 2.6 Seismic Hazard & Risk Dynamics, 14473 Potsdam, Germany, 4. Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre), IRD, 38058 Grenoble, France, 5. Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), 20133 Milan, Italy, 6. Instituto Superior Tecnico (IST), 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal, 7. Bogazici University, Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute, Department of Earthquake Engineering, 34684, Cengelkoy, Istanbul, Turkey, 8. Institute of Geophysics , ETH Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 5, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland ; Published ; 6T. Studi di pericolosità sismica e da maremoto

Citizen Participation is crucial and significant for a number of important reasons: the increasing frequency of economic crises, the growing lack of democracy at different levels of government, and an aging society. In order to avoid negative consequences, the public sector must constantly look for innovative ways of Citizen Participation in public security, education, health and other important areas of public administration. Active citizenship helps to develop empathy, universal social trust, a community-oriented citizen, to create quality public services, to alleviate the consequences of poverty and social exclusion. Only by actively participating in decision-making processes do citizens help to set policy goals and priorities that affect a person's social, cultural and economic life. Citizen Participation in Youth Policy is an integral process, which is aimed at purposeful activities in order to solve the relevant problems of young people, the aim is to create appropriate conditions for the formation and development of a civic, democratic, intellectual, moral personality. One of the priorities of Youth Policy is to create suitable conditions for young people to realize themselves by choosing the most acceptable form of Participation in society. Researchers note that as emigration increases, the country is losing more and more educated and skilled young people, who are the country's main workforce, which is hampering the country's sustainable development. In order to increase the number of young people in small Lithuanian towns who have the opportunity to meet their needs, the empirical research aimed to identify the factors that Promote the Participation of Citizens in the Implementation of Youth Policy in Šilalė District Municipality. The object of the research is the factors promoting the Participation of Citizens in the Implementation of Youth Policy. The aim of the project is to identify the factors that promote the Participation of Citizens in the Implementation of Youth Policy in Šilalė District Municipality. Objectives of the project: 1. to analyze and systematize the theoretical preconditions for the Participation of Citizens in the Implementation of Youth Policy; 2. identify factors that encourage Citizen Participation; 3. to reveal the conditions for the Participation of Citizens in the Implementation of Youth Policy; 4. to carry out an empirical research and identify the factors that Promote the Participation of Citizens in the Implementation of Youth Policy in Šilalė District Municipality. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, analysis of statistical data, analysis of strategic documents and legal acts, qualitative research. The results of the conducted qualitative research showed that the Participation of Citizens in the Implementation of Youth Policy in Šilalė District Municipality is promoted by socio-economic (income, time, education, which includes acquired competencies related to political literacy and skills), community factors. Both socioeconomic and community factors are attributed to internal factors. Funding factors also influence citizen participation, they are classified as external factors in the scientific literature. The authorities consider that Citizen Participation is influenced by funding factors, and that socio-economic and community factors are crucial for citizens (youth representatives). The master's thesis consists of three main parts, the first part systematizes the concepts, forms and models of civic participation, substantiates the meaning of civic Participation, defines the concepts of public and Youth Policy, and develops a theoretical model of factors promoting civic Participation in youth policy. The second part of the project reviews the public management process in Lithuania, describes its parts, and provides an analysis of secondary data. Legislation and strategic documents related to the implementation of Youth Policy at international, national and regional level are analyzed. The third part of the final project presents the results of the empirical research and provides recommendations related to the Promotion of Citizen Participation in the Implementation of Youth Policy in Šilalė District Municipality.

BACKGROUND: Almost a quarter of the world's undernourished people live in India. We tested the effects of three nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) interventions on maternal and child nutrition in India. METHODS: We did a parallel, four-arm, observer-blind, cluster-randomised trial in Keonjhar district, Odisha, India. A cluster was one or more villages with a combined minimum population of 800 residents. The clusters were allocated 1:1:1:1 to a control group or an intervention group of fortnightly women's groups meetings and household visits over 32 months using: NSA videos (AGRI group); NSA and nutrition-specific videos (AGRI-NUT group); or NSA videos and a nutrition-specific participatory learning and action (PLA) cycle meetings and videos (AGRI-NUT+PLA group). Primary outcomes were the proportion of children aged 6-23 months consuming at least four of seven food groups the previous day and mean maternal body-mass index (BMI). Secondary outcomes were proportion of mothers consuming at least five of ten food groups and child wasting (proportion of children with weight-for-height Z score SD <-2). Outcomes were assessed in children and mothers through cross-sectional surveys at baseline and at endline, 36 months later. Analyses were by intention to treat. Participants and intervention facilitators were not blinded to allocation; the research team were. This trial is registered at ISRCTN, ISRCTN65922679. FINDINGS: 148 of 162 clusters assessed for eligibility were enrolled and randomly allocated to trial groups (37 clusters per group). Baseline surveys took place from Nov 24, 2016, to Jan 24, 2017; clusters were randomised from December, 2016, to January, 2017; and interventions were implemented from March 20, 2017, to Oct 31, 2019, and endline surveys done from Nov 19, 2019, to Jan 12, 2020, in an average of 32 households per cluster. All clusters were included in the analyses. There was an increase in the proportion of children consuming at least four of seven food groups in the AGRI-NUT (adjusted relative risk [RR] 1·19, 95% CI 1·03 to 1·37, p=0·02) and AGRI-NUT+PLA (1·27, 1·11 to 1·46, p=0·001) groups, but not AGRI (1·06, 0·91 to 1·23, p=0·44), compared with the control group. We found no effects on mean maternal BMI (adjusted mean differences vs control, AGRI -0·05, -0·34 to 0·24; AGRI-NUT 0·04, -0·26 to 0·33; AGRI-NUT+PLA -0·03, -0·3 to 0·23). An increase in the proportion of mothers consuming at least five of ten food groups was seen in the AGRI (adjusted RR 1·21, 1·01 to 1·45) and AGRI-NUT+PLA (1·30, 1·10 to 1·53) groups compared with the control group, but not in AGRI-NUT (1·16, 0·98 to 1·38). We found no effects on child wasting (adjusted RR vs control, AGRI 0·95, 0·73 to 1·24; AGRI-NUT 0·96, 0·72 to 1·29; AGRI-NUT+PLA 0·96, 0·73 to 1·26). INTERPRETATION: Women's groups using combinations of NSA videos, nutrition-specific videos, and PLA cycle meetings improved maternal and child diet quality in rural Odisha, India. These components have been implemented separately in several low-income settings; effects could be increased by scaling up together. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UK AID from the UK Government, and US Agency for International Development.

Bilateral relations of Lithuania and Poland have had significant ups and downs since reestablishment of both of their independence after the fall of the Soviet Union. Reasons for these dramatic shifts are colourful and plentiful: ethnic tensions, hot and cold interpersonal relationships of the leaders, joint objective of Euroatlantic integration etc. However, the novel coronavirus pandemic has presented bilateral relations of these two countries with a variable never seen before. Hence, the objective of this Master's thesis research is the impact of COVID-19 pandemic to the strategic partnership of Lithuania and Poland. In this thesis, the object of analysis is theoretically approached from two different angles: in order to explore the effect of the pandemic to strategic partnership of Lithuania in Poland, one must be aware of its historic dynamic and current state. As is pointed out in this thesis, since 2015-2016, bilateral relations are experiencing a period of increased cooperation and more constructive rhetoric, due to new political leadership, common perceived enemy and strategic goals, among various other, less significant reasons. Furthermore, it is vital to grasp the role of International Relations theory in global health, and how the states, according to several classic theories, behave during the pandemic. In this regard, it is concluded, that the theory with the most to offer in explaining states' behaviour during a health crisis is the realist approach. That is precisely the reason why realism is employed as a theoretical basis of the research, which was carried out as a case study, employing qualitative-interpretative method. Taking from the notion of strategic partnership, found in Lithuanian and foreign literature, as well pandemical realism, 4 main qualitative dependent variables were derived: (1) bilateral relationship on a highest political level, as well as attempts to institutionalise them; (2) societal perceptions towards each other; (3) intensive interinstitutional, intersectoral and strategic cooperation; (4) the convergence of strategic goals. In order to achieve the objective, pivotal events were identified, public speaches of the leaders analysed, and various other data sources interpreted and secondary sources analysed. It was concluded that (1) the highest level political bilateral relations, which were, at least quantitavely speaking, on an upward trend, were not significantly affected by the COVID-19 crisis. The pandemic provided an opportunity to cooperate on the highest political level. (2) Societal, in this specific case – expert communities' perception of each other should not and could not be considered good or very good: Lithuanian experts rated Poland's response to the crisis as the poorest in EU27, while Polands experts did not rate Lithuania at all. (3) Although Lithuanian and Polish interinstitutional, intersectional cooperation and strategic infrastructural projects have flowed as per usual so far during the pandemic, however, some opportunities for cooperation were not seized. (4) No new strategic goals of Lithuania and Poland appeared on the agenda, and, by extention, no existing ones were dropped during the pandemic so far. It must be acknowledged, that the pandemic, directly or indirectly, helped widen, deepen and make some of the common strategic objectives more clear. All in all, this Master's thesis concludes that, while several historic "breaking points" of Lithuanain-Polish bilateral relationship, where previously stagnated or outright confrontational relations suddenly were improved and vice-versa, could be identified, however, COVID-19 pandemic so far has not been that. Moreover, as a result of the pandemic, no new strategically incompatible and problematic goals, neither for Lithuania, nor for Poland, were identified. It did, however, spawn a number of opportunities for an even closer cooperation between the two states, but they were not successfully seized.