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Research is scarce on how direct and indirect support seeking strategies affect support exchange in online health communities. Moreover, prior research has relied mostly on content analysis of forum posts at the post level. In order to generate a more fine-grained analysis of support exchange, we conducted content analysis at the utterance level, taking directness of support seeking, quality of provision, forum type, and seeker gender into account. Our analysis of four popular online support forums for people living with human immunodeficiency virus found that type of support sought and provided, support seeking strategy, and quality of emotional support provision differed in care provider/formal forums versus social/informal forums. Interestingly, indirect support seeking tended to elicit more supportive emotional responses than direct support seeking strategies in all forums; we account for this in terms of type of support sought. Practical implications for online support communities are discussed.

Patient-provider communication is an important aspect of successful healthcare, as it can directly lead to positive health outcomes. Previous studies examined factors that facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients in socially marginalized communities, especially developing countries, and applied identified factors to technology development. However, there is limited understanding of how providers work with patients from immigrant populations in a developed country. By conducting semi-structured interviews with 15 providers working with patients from an immigrant community with unique cultural characteristics, we identified providers' effective communication strategies, including acknowledgment, community involvement, gradual care, and adaptive communication practices (i.e., adjusting the communication style). Based on our findings, we highlight cultural competence and discuss design implications for technologies to support health communication in immigrant communities. Our suggestions propose approaches for HCI researchers to identify practical, contextualized cultural competence for their health technology design.

Individuals resettled in a new environment often face challenges in accessing adequate healthcare services, particularly within the complex processes of outpatient clinic care. Cultural differences, language barriers, and low socioeconomic status contribute to these difficulties. While previous studies have identified barriers and proposed technology-mediated solutions for resettled populations, many focus on addressing deficits rather than building on the strengths these communities already possess, which limits the sustainability and relevance of these solutions in everyday life. We conducted two community-based participatory design workshops with 30 Hmong community members in a large metropolitan area in the US. Through this process, we identified four types of assets the community has gradually developed, including intergenerational support for health management and storytelling-based communication practices that facilitate relatable and culturally grounded interactions. We show how participatory design workshops can foster asset-based approaches, and discuss design implications for technologies that leverage patients' existing strengths to support their health management during outpatient visits.

Dengue virus (DENV) is a pathogen with a high impact on human health. It replicates in a wide range of cells involved in the immune response. To efficiently infect humans, DENV must evade or inhibit fundamental elements of the innate immune system, namely the type I interferon response. DENV circumvents the host immune response by expressing proteins that antagonize the cellular innate immunity. We have recently documented the inhibition of type I IFN production by the proteolytic activity of DENV NS2B3 protease complex in human monocyte derived dendritic cells (MDDCs). In the present report we identify the human adaptor molecule STING as a target of the NS2B3 protease complex. We characterize the mechanism of inhibition of type I IFN production in primary human MDDCs by this viral factor. Using different human and mouse primary cells lacking STING, we show enhanced DENV replication. Conversely, mutated versions of STING that cannot be cleaved by the DENV NS2B3 protease induced higher levels of type I IFN after infection with DENV. Additionally, we show that DENV NS2B3 is not able to degrade the mouse version of STING, a phenomenon that severely restricts the replication of DENV in mouse cells, suggesting that STING plays a key role in the inhibition of DENV infection and spread in mice.

Desalinated seawater (DSW) has emerged as a promising solution for irrigation in regions facing water scarcity. However, adopting DSW may impact the existing cultivation model, given the presence of potentially harmful elements, among other factors. A three-year experiment was carried out to assess the short-term effects of four irrigation waters—freshwater (FW), DSW, a mix 1:1 of FW and DSW (MW), and DSW with low boron (B) concentration (DSW–B)—on a ‘Rio Red’ grapefruit orchard. These irrigation waters exhibited varying levels of phytotoxic elements, some potentially harmful to citrus trees. Sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl−) concentrations exceeded citrus thresholds in all treatments, except in DSW−B, whilst B exceeded toxicity levels in DSW and MW treatments. Leaf concentrations of Cl− and Na+ remained low in all treatments, whereas B approached toxic levels only in DSW and MW–irrigated trees. The rapid growth of the trees, preventing excessive accumulation through a dilution effect, protected the plants from significant impacts on nutrition and physiology, such as gas exchange and chlorophyll levels, due to phytotoxic elements accumulation. Minor reductions in photosynthesis in DSW–irrigated trees were attributed to high B in leaves, since Cl− and Na+ remained below toxic levels. The accelerated tree growth effectively prevented the substantial accumulation of phytotoxic elements, thereby limiting adverse effects on tree development and yield. When the maturation of trees reaches maximal growth, the potential accumulation of phytotoxic elements is expected to increase, potentially influencing tree behavior differently. Further study until the trees reach maturity is imperative for comprehensive understanding of the long-term effects of desalinated seawater irrigation.

Climate change will intensify water scarcity, and therefore irrigation must be adapted to save water. Operational tools that provide watering recommendations to end-users are needed. This work presents a new tool, Irrigation-Advisor (IA), which is based on weather forecasts and is able to separately determine soil evaporation and crop transpiration, and thus is adaptable to a broad range of agricultural situations. By calculating several statistical indicators, IA was tested against the FAO-56 crop evapotranspiration (ETcFAO) methodology using local crop coe cients. Additionally, IA recommendations were compared with current standard practices by experienced farmers (F). Six field experiments with four widely cultivated species (endive, lettuce, muskmelon and potato) were performed in Southeast Spain. Irrigation water applied, crop yield, aboveground biomass and water productivity were determined. Crop water needs underestimations (5%–20%) were detected when comparing IA against ETcFAO, although the index of agreement proved reasonable adjustments. The IA recommendations led to water savings up to 13% when compared to F, except for lettuce, with a 31% surplus in irrigation when using IA. Crop yield was not compromised and water productivity was increased by IA. Therefore, IA mimicked the farmers0 irrigation strategies fairly well without deploying sensors on-site. Nevertheless, improvements are needed for increasing the accuracy of IA estimations.

Hurricane Harvey devastated large parts of the US Gulf Coast in 2017, and its floodwaters posed a number of threats to the environment and human health. In particular, an estimated 375 000 Texas residents experienced issues related to the provision of safe drinking water at the peak of the hurricane. In this study, physical, chemical, and biological water quality was monitored in two drinking water systems in Texas following Hurricane Harvey to understand the relationship between water quality parameters and changes in the drinking water microbiota. Results show initial surges in total organic carbon, trihalomethanes, and bacterial concentrations in finished water immediately following Hurricane Harvey. Microbial community analyses highlight the dependence of the distribution system microbiota on distribution system characteristics (i.e. water age), raw water quality, and disinfectant residual, among other factors. While both systems had problems maintaining disinfectant residual in the weeks following the hurricane, stabilization of water quality occurred over time. Overall, this study provides an understanding of the challenges associated with maintaining drinking water quality in the wake of a natural disaster and can be used to better prepare drinking water managers and engineers to combat changing weather patterns in the future.

Grazing by domestic livestock is both the main land use across drylands worldwide and a major desertification and global change driver. The ecological consequences of this key human activity have been studied for decades, and there is a wealth of information on its impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem processes. However, most field assessments of the ecological impacts of grazing on drylands conducted to date have been carried out at local or regional scales and have focused on single ecosystem attributes (e.g., plant productivity) or particular taxa (mainly aboveground, e.g., plants). Here we introduce the BIODESERT survey, the first systematic field survey devoted to evaluating the joint impacts of grazing by domestic livestock and climate on the structure and functioning of dryland ecosystems worldwide. This collaborative global survey was carried out between 2016 and 2019 and has involved the collection of field data and plant, biocrust, and soil samples from a total of 326 45 m × 45 m plots from 98 sites located in 25 countries from 6 continents. Here we describe the major characteristics and the field protocols used in this survey. We also introduce the organizational aspects followed, as these can be helpful to everyone wishing to establish a global collaborative network of researchers. The BIODESERT survey provides baseline data to assess the current status of dryland rangelands worldwide and the impacts of grazing on these key ecosystems, and it constitutes a good example of the power of collaborative research networks to study the ecology of our planet using much-needed field data.

Water deficit and increasing pressure on water resources in semi-arid regions has led to the spread of irrigation with non-conventional water resources, such as desalinated seawater (DSW). The few existent studies to date, mainly carried out in Israel and Spain, have shown that suitable management of irrigation with DSW must be performed to avoid agronomic problems and reductions in crop productivity and fruit quality in the mid-long term. To the best of our knowledge, in the case of citrus, fruit production, and quality, information on the effects of DSW irrigation is not available. In this study, we evaluated the short-term agronomic and economic effects of irrigating a mandarin orchard during two crop cycles (2017–2019) with (i) fresh water (FW), (ii) desalinated seawater (DSW), and (iii) a mix of water composed of 50% FW and 50% DSW. Stem water potential (Ψs < −1 MPa) and gas exchange parameters (net photosynthesis; A > 6.5 µmol/m2/s and stomatal conductance; gs > 65 mmol/m2/s) indicated that trees were well irrigated throughout the experiment. The concentration of Na+ and B3+ in the DSW always exceeded the maximum thresholds for irrigation water proposed in the literature for citrus, and the concentration of Na+ in the leaves exceeded the maximum threshold in summer 2018. Nonetheless, symptoms of toxicity were not observed. Significant differences among treatments were not observed for Ψstem, A, gs, Na+, Cl−, and B3+ in leaves (except in the summer months), yield components, fruit quality, or the economic assessment. The lack of such differences was explained by the large standard deviations caused by the youth of the trees, with figures that on occasion could represent more than 100% of the mean value. These results may justify the agronomic and economic viability of the irrigation of young trees with DSW in the short-term, but further research, considering the effects on adult trees in the long term is still needed.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is an important component of the surface energy and hydrological balance and the main consumptive agriculture water use. Commonly used methodologies to estimate ET require validation with field data to provide accurate results. In addition, the evaluation of the net ecosystem exchange rate (F-NEE) has gained interest in recent times. There is still very little information available about carbon fluxes in citrus orchards. In this study, the eddy covariance (EC) technique was used to determine the actual evapotranspiration (ETe-ec) and the F (NEE) during three irrigated seasons over a flat citrus orchard. Actual seasonal crop coefficients (Kc-ec) were derived by ETe-ec/reference ET. Average ETe-ec for the whole experiment was 1.74 mm/day. Kc-ec showed great variation throughout the year (from 0.40 to 1.20) which was mainly associated with rainfall events. A pronounced variability within both the same season and between seasons was also observed for F-NEE. Based on 2009 data, the only year with a complete database, the citrus orchard acted as a sink for CO2, fixing 3855 kg CO2/ha/year. The results complement previous studies in large lysimeters and provide quantitative information for conducting carbon balance in citrus orchards under Mediterranean conditions.