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The fetal-origins hypothesis has recently achieved \"textbook\" status in medicine (e.g. Rudolph, 2003 and Warrell, 2003) and is drawing increased attention for social sciences (e.g., Case, Fertig and Paxton, 2005; Currie and Moretti, 2005). The hypotheses holds that disruptions to fetal nutrition can exert persistent effects on subsequent health. Recent research has used the 1918 Influenza Pandemic as a natural experiment for studying the effects of fetal health (Almond, 2005). In contrast to typical influenza strains, the 1918 virus disproportionately affects young adults, approximately one-third of pregnant women contracted the debilitating virus. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), this study finds that cohorts in utero during the Pandemic exhibit impaired health outcomes relative to cohorts born a few months earlier or later. That these patterns are manifest 65-80 years after the Pandemic suggests that changes to fetal health can have life-long effects.

There has been concern about the dramatic growth in obesity seen in developed countries. This paper advances the view that relies on changing incentives does surprisingly well in explaining the observed trends, without resorting to psychological, genetic, or addictive models. These paper argues that welfare-improving technological change has simultaneously lower the cost of calories and raised the cost of physical activity by making agricultural production more efficient and world more sedentary. When home or market production involves manual labor, the worker is paid to exercise; in advanced economies, people pay to exercise, primarily in terms of forgone leisure.

Children born to poor parents in the US are more than twice as likely to die within the first year as those born to higher-income parents (Steven Gortmaker and Paul Wise, 1997). It has long been hypothesized that these difference are due, in part, to unequal access to care. In this paper, the authors explore whether, then granted access to those hospital used by the privately insured, poor women choose to use them and if so, whether health gradients decline as a result.

Understanding the relationship among ecosystem services (ESs) is essential to promote ESs management and sustainable development. The relationship between ESs is mutual and can be expressed in terms of trade-offs, synergy, and constraints. The paper selected the InVEST model to assess the water yield (WY), soil conservation (SC), food production (FP), net primary productivity (NPP), and habitat quality (HQ) of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and used the constraint line method to analyze the relationship of paired ecological services at three scales: landscape, watershed, and land category. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) during the study period, the spatial changes of the five ecological services in the YREB did not change much, but the spatial distribution of the ecological services was different. (2) From 2000 to 2015, the constraint line of YREB paired ecological services had a high degree of fit. Under the three levels of landscape, watershed, and land category, the YREB has a variety of constraint types, including negative lines, logarithms, paraboloids, humped shapes, and rectangles. (3) At the three levels, the constraint lines between FP, NPP, WY, and SC and HQ were stable rectangular constraints; WY-SC was hump shaped, FP-NPP, FP-SC, FP-WY, NPP-WY, and NPP-SC changed with the scale, showing different spatial scale changes. (4) The paired ESs directly determined the ecological constraint curve but under the combined effect of other factors, which would affect or change the constraint line. We discussed the effects of weather, topography, and economy on the constraint relationship, and found that all have different degrees of influence.

There have been several strategies developed to increase the diversified supply of energy so that it can meet all of the future demands for energy. As a result, to ensure a healthy and sustainable energy future, it is imperative to warrant reliable and diverse energy supply sources if the “green energy economy” is to be realized. The purpose of developing and deploying clean energy technologies is to improve our overall energy security, reduce our carbon footprint, and ensure that the generation of energy is secure and reliable in the future, making sure that we can spur economic growth in the future. In this paper, advancements in alternative sources of energy sustainability and strategies will be examined to ensure there will be enough fuel to supply all the future demands for energy. Several emerging clean energy technologies rely heavily on the availability of materials that exhibit unique properties that are necessary for their development. This paper examines the roles that rare earth and other energy-critical materials play in securing a clean energy economy and the development of clean energy economies in general. For the development of these technologies to be successful and sustainable, a number of these energy-critical materials are at risk of becoming unavailable. This is due to their limited availability, disruptions in supply, and a lack of suitable resources for their development. An action plan focusing on producing energy-critical materials in energy-efficient ways is discussed as part of an initiative to advance the development of clean and sustainable energy.

Food waste is one of the major sustainability issues that need to be addressed due to its negative impacts on the economy, environment, and food security. To develop food waste reduction policies on regional and global level, it is mandatory to have a clear understanding of the various factors prompting food waste at household level and the extent of the economic losses incurred by food waste. Reducing food waste can decrease household expenditure on food, freeing resources for health, education, and well-being. The current study was aimed to (1) examine the food waste behavior of the respondents and to (2) determine the level of monetary losses from food waste. To address these objectives, a questionnaire survey and sample of food waste generated during 24 h were collected from 51 households in Tehsil Kahror Pakka, District Lodhran, Punjab, Pakistan. The survey focus was on levels of food waste and respondents’ knowledge and behaviors about food waste. Economic estimation of food waste was also done. In the survey, respondents from both high- and low-income households revealed that their fruit and vegetables (31%; 32%) and peel and scrap (53%; 48%) losses were higher while egg losses (4%; 4%) were lower among various food waste categories. Wanting to eat fresh food and having no time to save food were the reasons for food waste. Monetary losses from food waste (US$ 12.8/Rs. 3677.01 per capita per annum) were higher in high-income households compared to low-income households.

Background Mangrove ecosystems recognized for their biodiversity and ecosystem services that offer unique opportunities for sustainable livelihoods such as honey production. This study characterizes the beekeeping practices associated with mangroves in Sabancuy, Campeche, Mexico, emphasizing their ecological and economic significance. Methods Through 28 semi-structured surveys, we have analyzed the socioeconomic and ecological perspectives of the local beekeepers operating in these coastal environments. The surveyed beekeepers, with an average age of 49 years and 23.6 years of experience, primarily engage in complementary honey production, leveraging both migratory and stationary apiary systems. Hive management practices include queen replacement, artificial feeding, colony division, and adherence to organic certification protocols. Results The study highlights an annual average honey production of 65.37 kg per colony, with peak yields occurring during the transition from dry to rainy seasons (May–June). Integrating floral phenology and phylogenetic frameworks the principal plant resources supporting honeybees, enhancing the sustainability of the mangrove-based beekeeping. Conclusion Apiculture not only produces economic opportunities for the local communities; but also contributes to conservation goals by fostering biodiversity and ecosystem restoration. These findings underscore the potential of mangrove beekeeping as a replicable model for sustainable development in other coastal regions worldwide with similar ecosystems. Furthermore, this research seeks to bridge critical knowledge gaps about Apis mellifera in mangrove ecosystems by addressing socio-ecological factors influencing honey production, evaluating its benefits for local communities, and exploring its role within broader conservation strategies.

Background Weeds, which have long seen as nutrient competitors for crops, have made chemical weeding mainstream in agriculture. However, in Guangxi’s Longsheng Terraces, a global agricultural heritage site, the Zhuang, Yao and Dong peoples value them as medicine, food, feed and even tools. This undocumented traditional knowledge, under chemical agriculture and tourism pressures, is on the verge of extinction. Methods This study integrates research methods from ethnobotany and weed science and conducts a survey on weed species across 11 types of farmlands, including paddy fields and corn fields in the Longsheng Terraces. It focuses on traditional knowledge of weed utilization among the Zhuang, Yao, and Dong ethnic groups. A total of 36 key informants were recruited using snowball sampling supplemented by referrals from local government agencies. Through semi-structured interviews, data on the local names, uses, utilized parts, and frequency of use of these weeds were recorded. Additionally, indicators such as frequency of citation (FC), informant consensus factor (FIC) and use value (UV) were employed to analyze their value quantitatively. Results A total of 49 weed species feature traditional utilization value, covering four major categories: medicinal use (41 species, accounting for 81.6%), edible, forage, and tool material use. Among them, Polygonum hydropiper , Plantago asiatica , Lygodium microphyllum , Actinidia chinensis , and Boehmeria nivea had the highest use value. In terms of usage consensus, there was a high level of consensus within the community regarding weed utilization knowledge for conditions such as coryza and snake bites. Notably, 29 medicinal weeds have not been recorded in the Pharmacopoeia of the People’s Republic of China . Among the 14 medicinal weeds that are included in the Pharmacopoeia, the uses of nine species remain unrecorded, which indicates that these weeds have potential development value. Analysis of ethnic differences revealed that the Yao ethnic group utilized the most abundant weed species, followed by the Zhuang and the Dong. The similarity coefficient analysis revealed that the Zhuang and Yao ethnic groups presented the highest similarity in weed utilization knowledge, whereas the similarity between the Zhuang and Dong ethnic groups was the lowest. The inheritance of traditional knowledge showed a significant intergenerational decreasing trend, with no gender difference observed. Additionally, the impact of tourism development on the weed utilization rate did not reach statistical significance. Conclusions This study reveals the multidimensional value of weeds in the Longsheng Terraces and the traditional ecological wisdom they embody, providing significant reference values for biodiversity conservation, traditional knowledge inheritance, and sustainable agricultural development at global agricultural cultural heritage sites. Moreover, systematic research and protective measures are needed to prevent the loss of these valuable resources due to improper management.

The guarantee of wine authenticity arises great concern because of its nutritional and economic importance. Phenolic fingerprints have been used as a source of chemical information for various authentication issues, including botanical and geographical origin, as well as vintage age. The local environment affects wine production and especially its phenolic metabolites. Integrated analytical methodologies combined with chemometrics can be applied in wine fingerprinting studies for the determination and establishment of phenolic markers that contain comprehensive and standardized information about the wine profile and how it can be affected by various environmental factors. This review summarizes all the recent trends in the generation of chemometric models that have been developed for treating chromatographic data and have been used for the investigation of critical wine authenticity issues, revealing phenolic markers responsible for the botanical, geographical, and vintage age classification of wines. Overall, the current review suggests that chromatographic methodologies are promising and powerful techniques that can be used for the accurate determination of phenolic compounds in difficult matrices like wine, highlighting the advantages of the applications of supervised chemometric tools over unsupervised for the construction of prediction models that have been successfully used for the classification based on their territorial and botanical origin.