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Scientific Reports Jun 2024Behavioural nudges are often criticised because they "work best in the dark". However, recent experimental evidence suggests that the effectiveness of nudges is not...
Behavioural nudges are often criticised because they "work best in the dark". However, recent experimental evidence suggests that the effectiveness of nudges is not reduced when they are delivered transparently. Most people also endorse transparent nudges. Yet, transparent nudging may undermine human autonomy-a minority may oppose to being nudged and feel manipulated, even if they know what is happening. We propose an alternative way of maintaining autonomy that is not reducible to transparency: individuals can be asked if they consent in advance to being nudged. To assess whether consensual nudges are effective, we ask consent from 1518 UK citizens to be nudged. Subsequently, we default all participants into donating to a charity of their choice, irrespective of self-reported consent. We find that the default nudge is equally effective for both consenting and non-consenting individuals, with negligible difference in average donations. However, non-consenting individuals report higher levels of resentment and regret and lower levels of happiness and support compared to the consenting group. Based on these findings, we argue that ignoring consent can have serious ethical ramifications for policy-making with nudges.
Topics: Humans; Male; Female; Informed Consent; Choice Behavior; Adult; Personal Autonomy; United Kingdom; Middle Aged
PubMed: 38937507
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-65122-0 -
Scientific Reports Jun 2024African pastoralists suffer recurrent droughts that cause high livestock mortality and vulnerability to climate change. The index-based livestock insurance (IBLI)...
African pastoralists suffer recurrent droughts that cause high livestock mortality and vulnerability to climate change. The index-based livestock insurance (IBLI) program offers protection against drought impacts. However, the current IBLI design relying on the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) may pose limitation because it does not consider the mixed composition of rangelands (including herbaceous and woody plants) and the diverse feeding habits of grazers and browsers. To enhance IBLI, we assessed the efficacy of utilizing distinct browse and grazing forage estimates from woody LAI (LAI) and herbaceous LAI (LAI), respectively, derived from aggregate leaf area index (LAI), as an alternative to NDVI for refined IBLI design. Using historical livestock mortality data from northern Kenya as reference ground dataset, our analysis compared two competing models for (1) aggregate forage estimates including sub-models for NDVI, LAI (LAI); and (2) partitioned biomass model (LAI) comprising LAI and LAI. By integrating forage estimates with ancillary environmental variables, we found that LAI, with separate forage estimates, outperformed the aggregate models. For total livestock mortality, LAI yielded the lowest RMSE (5.9 TLUs) and higher R (0.83), surpassing NDVI and LAI models RMSE (9.3 TLUs) and R (0.6). A similar pattern was observed for species-specific livestock mortality. The influence of environmental variables across the models varied, depending on level of mortality aggregation or separation. Overall, forage availability was consistently the most influential variable, with species-specific models showing the different forage preferences in various animal types. These results suggest that deriving distinct browse and grazing forage estimates from LAI has the potential to reduce basis risk by enhancing IBLI index accuracy.
Topics: Animals; Livestock; Kenya; Herbivory; Biomass; Droughts; Climate Change; Animal Feed; Animal Husbandry
PubMed: 38937500
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-62893-4 -
Scientific Data Jun 2024The ongoing biodiversity crisis is strongly threatening amphibians, mostly because of their peculiar physiology, their sensitivity to climate change and the spread of...
The ongoing biodiversity crisis is strongly threatening amphibians, mostly because of their peculiar physiology, their sensitivity to climate change and the spread of diseases. Effective monitoring involving assessments of pressure effects across time and estimation of population trends play a key role in mitigating amphibian decline. To improve implementation of standardized protocols and conservation efforts, we present here a dataset related to one of the amphibian genera whose onservation status is considered the most declining according to the IUCN. We report information on 66 populations of the endangered European cave salamanders, genus Speleomantes, that was collected through a standardized monitoring along a four-year period (2021-2024). Demographics data of the populations and fitness-related data of single individuals are reported. Furthermore, we include 3,836 high quality images of individuals that can allow to perform studies aiming to assess the phenotypic variability within the genus, and to perform long-term capture-mark-recaptured studies.
Topics: Animals; Urodela; Endangered Species; Conservation of Natural Resources; Europe; Biodiversity; Climate Change
PubMed: 38937493
DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-03555-y -
Nature Communications Jun 2024Fossil fuel subsidies continue to be a considerable barrier to meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement. It is thus crucial to understand the political economy of...
Fossil fuel subsidies continue to be a considerable barrier to meeting the targets of the Paris Agreement. It is thus crucial to understand the political economy of fossil fuel subsidies and their reform. To understand these mechanisms in the developed world, we use a database of different types of fossil fuel subsidy reforms among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. We find evidence for four intertwined processes i) a market-power mechanism: higher market shares for renewables ease fossil fuel subsidy reforms, and ii) a policy mechanism: reforms reduce the levels of fossil fuel subsidies. Importantly, both effects are contingent on iii) a polity mechanism where institutional quality influences the feasibility and effectiveness of political reforms, and iv) a feedback mechanism where systemic lock-ins determine the effectiveness of market competition. Our results even suggest that reforms carried out by effective governments with low corruption control are associated with increasing subsidies per capita. Renewable energy support can however provide a leverage point to break path-dependencies in fossil fuel-based economies. This turns out to be more effective when coupled with improvements to institutional quality and the insulation of political processes from pro-subsidy interests.
PubMed: 38937481
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49835-4 -
Nature Communications Jun 2024Future socioeconomic climate pathways have regional water-quality consequences whose severity and equity have not yet been fully understood across geographic and...
Future socioeconomic climate pathways have regional water-quality consequences whose severity and equity have not yet been fully understood across geographic and economic spectra. We use a process-based, terrestrial-freshwater ecosystem model to project 21st-century river nitrogen loads under these pathways. We find that fertilizer usage is the primary determinant of future river nitrogen loads, changing precipitation and warming have limited impacts, and CO fertilization-induced vegetation growth enhancement leads to modest load reductions. Fertilizer applications to produce bioenergy in climate mitigation scenarios cause larger load increases than in the highest emission scenario. Loads generally increase in low-income regions, yet remain stable or decrease in high-income regions where agricultural advances, low food and feed production and waste, and/or well-enforced air pollution policies balance biofuel-associated fertilizer burdens. Consideration of biofuel production options with low fertilizer demand and rapid transfer of agricultural advances from high- to low-income regions may help avoid inequitable water-quality outcomes from climate mitigation.
PubMed: 38937467
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49866-x -
Nature Communications Jun 2024Dams and reservoirs are often needed to provide environmental water and maintain suitable water temperatures for downstream ecosystems. Here, we evaluate if water...
Dams and reservoirs are often needed to provide environmental water and maintain suitable water temperatures for downstream ecosystems. Here, we evaluate if water allocated to the environment, with storage to manage it, might allow environmental water to more reliably meet ecosystem objectives than a proportion of natural flow. We use a priority-based water balance operations model and a reservoir temperature model to evaluate 1) pass-through of a portion of reservoir inflow versus 2) allocating a portion of storage capacity and inflow for downstream flow and stream temperature objectives. We compare trade-offs to other senior and junior priority water demands. In many months, pass-through flows exceed the volumes needed to meet environmental demands. Storage provides the ability to manage release timing to use water efficiently for environmental benefit, with a co-benefit of increasing reservoir storage to protect cold-water at depth in the reservoir.
PubMed: 38937466
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49770-4 -
Global Health, Science and Practice Jun 2024Community health worker (CHW) incentives and remuneration are core issues affecting the performance of CHWs and health programs. There is limited documentation on the...
INTRODUCTION
Community health worker (CHW) incentives and remuneration are core issues affecting the performance of CHWs and health programs. There is limited documentation on the implementation details of CHW financial compensation schemes used in sub-Saharan African countries, including their mechanisms of delivery and effectiveness. We aimed to document CHW financial compensation schemes and understand CHW, government, and other stakeholder perceptions of their effectiveness.
METHODS
A total of 68 semistructured interviews were conducted with a range of purposefully selected key informants in 7 countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Niger, and Zambia. Thematic analysis of coded interview data was conducted, and relevant country documentation was reviewed, including any documents referenced by key informants, to provide contextual background for qualitative interpretation.
RESULTS
Key informants described compensation schemes as effective when payments are regular, distributions are consistent, and amounts are sufficient to support health worker performance and continuity of service delivery. CHW compensation schemes associated with an employed worker status and government payroll mechanisms were most often perceived as effective by stakeholders. Compensation schemes associated with a volunteer status were found to vary widely in their delivery mechanisms (e.g., cash or mobile phone distribution) and were perceived as less effective. Lessons learned in implementing CHW compensation schemes involved the need for government leadership, ministerial coordination, community engagement, partner harmonization, and realistic transitional financing plans.
CONCLUSION
Policymakers should consider these findings in designing compensation schemes for CHWs engaged in routine, continuous health service delivery within the context of their country's health service delivery model. Systematic documentation of the tasks and time commitment of volunteer status CHWs could support more recognition of their health system contributions and better determination of commensurate compensation as recommended by the 2018 World Health Organization
Topics: Humans; Community Health Workers; Africa South of the Sahara; Qualitative Research; Workers' Compensation; Salaries and Fringe Benefits; Documentation; Motivation
PubMed: 38936960
DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-24-00008 -
Global Health, Science and Practice Jun 2024Barriers to achieving and sustaining access to water, sanitation, hygiene, cleaning, and waste management (WASH) in health care facilities include a lack of supportive...
Barriers to achieving and sustaining access to water, sanitation, hygiene, cleaning, and waste management (WASH) in health care facilities include a lack of supportive policy environment and adequate funding. While guidelines exist for assessing needs and making initial infrastructure improvements, there is little guidance on how to develop budgets and policies to sustain WASH services. We conducted costing and advocacy activities in Thakurbaba municipality, Nepal, to develop a budget and operations and maintenance policy for WASH in health care facilities in partnership with the municipal government. Our objectives for this study were to (1) describe the process and methods used for costing and advocacy, (2) report the costs to achieve and maintain basic WASH services in the 8 health care facilities of Thakurbaba municipality, and (3) report the outcomes of advocacy activities and policy development. We applied bottom-up costing to enumerate the resources necessary to achieve and maintain basic WASH services and their costs. The annual costs to achieve, operate, and maintain basic access to WASH services ranged from US$4881-US$9695 per facility. Cost findings were used to prepare annual budgets recommended to achieve, operate, and maintain basic services, which were presented to the municipal government and incorporated into an operations and maintenance policy. To date, the municipality has adopted the policy and established a recovery fund of US$3831 for repair and maintenance of infrastructure and an additional US$153 per facility for discretionary WASH spending, which were to be replenished as they were spent. Advocacy at the national level for WASH in health care facilities is currently being championed by the municipality, and findings from this project have informed the development of a nationally costed plan for universal access. This study is intended to provide a roadmap for how cost data can be collected and applied to inform policy.
Topics: Nepal; Sanitation; Humans; Hygiene; Health Facilities; Budgets; Water Supply; Waste Management
PubMed: 38936959
DOI: 10.9745/GHSP-D-23-00491 -
BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) Jun 2024
Review
Topics: Humans; Low Back Pain; Analgesia; Analgesics
PubMed: 38936847
DOI: 10.1136/bmj-2024-080064 -
Gaceta Sanitaria Jun 2024To examine the presence of women in the organs of the Interterritorial Council of the Spanish National Health System (CISNS).
OBJECTIVE
To examine the presence of women in the organs of the Interterritorial Council of the Spanish National Health System (CISNS).
METHOD
Annual reports of the CISNS from 2005 to 2022 were analyzed. Artificial intelligence was used to assign gender, and percentages of women's participation were calculated. Temporal evolution, vertical segregation, and horizontal segregation were analyzed.
RESULTS
Between 2005 and 2022, there were 14,308 participations in 85 organs, with 52% women, rising from 42% in 2005 to 61% in 2022. There was a higher participation of women in propositional organs (54%), followed by executive ones (50%), and plenary sessions (40%). The General State Administration had 61% women compared to 48% in autonomous communities. Women's participation varied by topic, being higher (82%) in gender violence and lower (35%) in inspection.
CONCLUSIONS
Although there is a slight reduction in the participation gap between women and men, inequalities persist. Women have less presence in higher hierarchical levels (plenary sessions), maintaining vertical segregation. Additionally, women's representation in certain topics remains low, maintaining horizontal segregation. Concrete actions must be taken to continue advancing equality and improving health outcomes in society as a whole.
PubMed: 38936295
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2024.102406