Anecdotal evidence suggests glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) drugs, typically prescribed to manage diabetes mellitus and assist weight loss, are being misused in elite sport. The objective of this study was to investigate sports medicine physicians’ perceptions of GLP-1 drug use in sport. Following an observational cross-sectional approach, 114 sports medicine physicians completed a survey addressing experiences and perceptions of GLP-1 use in competitive sport. Participants had worked in sports medicine for 16.6 years on average, 63

Background: Overseas-born gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM) in Australia have higher HIV incidence and face barriers to accessing pre‑exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). Behavioural economics-informed “nudges” can support health decision‑making by gently shaping choices without restricting options. This study evaluated whether a community co‑designed, nudge‑based social media advertisement increased engagement with PrEP information compared with a standard information‑based advertisement. Methods: We conducted a two‑week quasi‑experimental social media campaign in March 2024. Jurisdictions and platforms alternated weekly between intervention and control ads using a crossover allocation to minimise bias. Engagement was defined as clicking through to the PAN (PrEPaccessNow, https://www.pan.org.au/) website. Secondary outcomes came from a post‑campaign survey assessing ad recall and subsequent PrEP‑related actions. Descriptive statistics, chi‑square tests, and two‑proportion z‑tests compared differences between arms. Findings: The intervention ad produced 5·0% click‑through rate, (755,935 impressions), outperforming the control ad’s (4·3% click‑through rate; absolute difference 0·7 percentage points; p < 0·0001), a 16·3% relative increase. Among PAN landing‑page participants (n=649 intervention; n=652 control), 45% were overseas‑born in both arms, with no significant engagement differences (p = 0·603). Newly arrived Asia‑born participants showed higher engagement with the intervention which approached statistical significance (47·1% vs. 37·1%; p = 0·076). Of 265 post‑campaign survey respondents, 93 recalled an ad and reported actions such as visiting the PAN website, conducting online PrEP searches, or having PrEP discussions, but there were no statistically significant differences between exposure groups. Two participants reported PrEP purchase, both from the control ad exposure group. Interpretation: The nudge‑based advertisement increased initial engagement but did not influence deeper PrEP‑related behaviours. It may help capture attention among newly arrived Asia‑born GBMSM, but additional strategies are needed to support progression from awareness to PrEP accessing behaviours.

This paper examines how outcome modality in intertemporal choice influences time preferences and whether the process differs across cultures, specifically Japan and the United States. Uni-modal choices are those when the outcomes being compared over time are very similar, and cross-modal choices are those when the outcomes are very different. The cross-modal effect, previously shown in the U.S., is that there is greater patience in cross-modal decisions. In Experiment 1, we employed a between-participants design, in which participants either made uni-modal or cross-modal decisions. In Experiment 2, we employed a within-participants design in which everyone made both types of decision. In both Experiments we replicated the cross-modal effect. Moreover, the magnitude of the effect did not vary with factors known to relate to time preference, such as cognitive ability and social status, and it did not differ across cultures, even though Japanese participants were much more patient than American ones. The effect was stronger in the between- than within-participants experiment. These results strengthen the conclusion that the cross-modal effect is universal and strengthens the argument that it is due to the fundamental process of attentional dilution.

Intertemporal choices are conventionally conceived as decisions about whether to be better off sooner or later. As a reflection of this, most experimental research on the topic has been restricted to choices between single-dated outcomes: One sooner, the other later. Even these decisions, however, can be conceived in a different way: As choices between an option that accumulates faster to its total outcome, and an option that accumulates more slowly to its total outcome. To empirically distinguish between these two interpretations, the experimental design must include options with multiple-dated outcomes, that is, outcome sequences. We report an experiment that includes choices involving outcome sequences as well as choices between single-dated outcomes, where the outcomes are monetary losses, or payments. This design allows us to evaluate a sooner-or-later model and a faster-or-slower model on their ability to predict single-payment choices once calibrated on payment-sequence choices (model generalizability). Moreover, people differ considerably in their preferences for the timing of losses, which we turn to our advantage by evaluating the models on their ability to associate preferences for the timing of multiple payments, as inferred from payment-sequence choices, with preferences for the timing of a single payment, as observed in single-payment choices (parameter generalizability). For that purpose, we develop the classic criteria of convergent validity and discriminant validity in the assessment of construct validity as criteria in the assessment of model validity. The results of a fully Bayesian analysis strongly favored the faster-or-slower model over the sooner-or-later model.

Littering involves throwing away waste in places not designated for it, harming the environment. This study introduces a strategy to encourage more use of Littergram, an app designed to fight littering. Littergram allows users to photograph litter and share these images publicly, alerting local councils to clean up the waste. The study aimed to increase user engagement with Littergram by implementing an intervention designed using the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW), a comprehensive framework for developing behaviour change interventions. We developed and applied a digital campaign through emails, following BCW guidelines. The process began with identifying the behaviour we wanted to change. We conducted a survey to understand what influences this behaviour and selected techniques for changing behaviour based on these insights. The campaign involved sending targeted emails to Littergram users. There was an increase in the use of Littergram during the campaign, and growth returned to initial levels after the campaign ended. This outcome shows that the approach can effectively increase engagement temporarily. Future research should focus on challenges in maintaining long-term behaviour change.

Face coverings can potentially impact how trustworthy someone appears through two channels: by hiding important facial cues associated with trust; or by signalling the wearer's intentions or personal characteristics. The facemasks widely adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic both obscured the face and were associated with pro-social attitudes or intentions. The goal of this paper is to investigate how facemasks impact judgments about the trustworthiness of the wearer, and whether this would affect interactions with others. We report three experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 examined decisions in a two-player trust game when participants interacted with a single masked or unmasked counterpart. Experiment 3 explored whether participants were more likely to trust a masked or an unmasked person in a straight choice between them. In all experiments, masked faces were judged more trustworthy than unmasked ones. While in Experiments 1 and 2 this was not reflected in trust behaviour, in Experiment 3 over 70% of participants chose to trust the masked person, a decision predicted by the difference in perceived trustworthiness between the masked and unmasked counterparts. This suggests that in settings where facemasks or similar trust related cues are more salient, such as in joint evaluation, they can lead to enhanced trust.

Understanding the relationships between bacteria, their ecological and genomic traits, and their environment is important to elucidate microbial community dynamics and their roles in ecosystem functioning. Here, we examined the relationships between soil properties and bacterial traits within highly managed agricultural soil systems subjected to arable crop rotations or management as permanent grass. We assessed the bacterial communities using metabarcoding and assigned each amplicon trait scores for rRNA copy number, genome size, and guanine-cytosine (GC) content, which are classically associated with potential growth rates and specialization. We also calculated the niche breadth trait of each amplicon as a measure of social ubiquity within the examined samples. Within this soil system, we demonstrated that pH was the primary driver of bacterial traits. The weighted mean trait scores of the samples revealed that bacterial communities associated with soils at lower pH (<7) tended to have larger genomes (potential plasticity), have more rRNA (higher growth rate potential), and are more ubiquitous (have less niche specialization) than the bacterial communities from higher pH soils. Our findings highlight not only the association between pH and bacterial community composition but also the importance of pH in driving community functionality by directly influencing genomic and niche traits.

Biodiversity surveys are critical for detecting environmental change; however, undertaking them at scale and capturing all available diversity through observation is challenging and costly. This study evaluated the potential of soil-extracted eDNA to describe plant communities and compared these findings to traditional, observation-based field surveys. We analyzed 789 soil samples using high-throughput amplicon sequencing and compared DNA-based diversity metrics, indicator taxa, predicted vegetation class, and plant cover in a comparison with co-located field survey data. The results indicated that taxonomically aggregated (genus) eDNA-derived data, while showing slightly reduced Shannon's diversity scores, yielded remarkably similar overall richness and composition estimates. However, the DNA indicator taxa and predictive power for vegetation community classification were also lower overall than those recorded by the field survey. In many cases, plant cover could be inferred from amplicon abundance data with some accuracy despite widely differing scales of sampling-0.25 g crumb of soil versus a 1 m2 quadrat. Overall, results from eDNA demonstrated lower sensitivity but were broadly in accordance with traditional surveys, with our findings revealing comparable taxonomic resolution at the genus level. We demonstrate the potential and limitations of a simple molecular method to inform landscape-scale plant biodiversity surveys, a vital tool in the monitoring of land use and environmental change.

OBJECTIVES:Anecdotally, snus is widely used in Europe by professional footballers. However, prevalence and motivations for use have not been determined, alongside a lack of robust data regarding its use on player health and performance. The aims of the current research were to assess snus use amongst professional football players and categorise users through latent class analysis (LCA). DESIGN:Mixed-method design involving a cross-sectional survey study of 628 male and 51 female professional footballers in England, and 16 semi-structured interviews with multidisciplinary football staff conducted during the 2023-24 season. METHODS:The survey included self-reported questions concerning prevalence, motivations, sources, and perceived effects. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and LCA to categorise players through their behaviours. Interview questions addressed perceived prevalence and behaviours, performance and health impacts, and support required. Interview data was analysed using mixed coding to contextualise quantitative analysis. RESULTS:Overall, 18 % and 22 % of male and female footballers reported using snus, rising to 42 % and 39 % respectively for lifetime use. Snus use was initiated and motivated by a mix of factors including socialisation, boredom, relaxation, cravings, and stress management. Players were separated into three classes: occasional, daily, and habitual users demonstrating distinct profiles. CONCLUSIONS:Snus use appears commonplace in both men's and women's professional football, motivated by a complex set of personal and social factors. The identified types of snus users can inform personalised approaches to education and cessation interventions.

The Ganga River (known internationally as the Ganges) is one of the world's most prominent rivers, running from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal and supporting the livelihoods of > 40 % of India's 1.4 billion population. The Ganga River is regionally and globally important, supporting agriculture and industry, yet faces potentially detrimental water quality challenges arising from runoff and discharge from increasing urbanization, industry and agriculture. A ∼ 2700 km longitudinal survey of the nutrient and microbial water quality, including phytoplankton composition, of the Ganga River was undertaken in November 2019. The aim was to investigate if and how anthropogenic activities (e.g. urbanisation, industry, and agriculture) and tributary convergence (potentially reflecting both human activity and flow influences) affect and shift physicochemical, nutrient, and microbial water quality parameters along the river continuum. Segmented regression identified four zones of distinct nutrient/microbial characteristics along the Ganga River, with breakpoints located near Kanpur, Varanasi and downstream of the Farakka Barage, at distances of ∼ 1020, ∼ 1500 and ∼ 2350 km downstream from the Himalayan Ganga source. Population density, land use and urban cover were associated with selected water quality parameters in parts of the catchment, with elevated nutrient, microbial and chemical concentrations likely associated with agriculture, industry, and sewage inputs. Some urban areas (e.g. Kanpur and Varanasi), converging tributaries (e.g. Yamuna and Varuna) and barrages (e.g. Farakka) were associated with changes in nutrient availability, microbial activity/abundance and modelled discharge, likely driving apparent water quality changes in the relevant locations. Downstream shifts in nutrient and microbial water quality parameters were observed throughout the ∼ 2700 km Ganga River continuum. This information can help prioritize locations for targeted monitoring and/or remediation interventions and has illustrated an approach to quantify impacts of anthropogenic inputs on major river systems, such as the Ganga River.

The integration of behavioral science into conservation science and climate science has enabled the development of both novel research questions and practical interventions. However, most behavioral interventions aim to change private, individual behaviors, rather than transform the political economic systems that drive current biodiversity, climate, and social crises. In this paper, we argue that closer collaboration between behavioral scientists working on biodiversity and climate issues, on the one hand, and advocates for radical alternatives to current political economic systems, on the other, could advance such needed systemic transformation. While the work of both groups is subject to some critique, we suggest that closer collaboration could enable the strengths of each to address the others’ weaknesses. This complementarity is particularly true when behavioral interventions are co-designed with advocates and targeted towards powerful individuals whose behavior could affect systems-level transformation. We use the fossil fuel divestment movement as an illustrative example of one way in which this collaboration could be mutually beneficial, and then outline potential political, practical, and ethical implications that may accompany such collaborations in the biodiversity conservation and climate change fields.

Monitoring the governance and management effectiveness of area-based conservation has long been recognized as an important foundation for achieving national and global biodiversity goals and enabling adaptive management. However, there are still many barriers that prevent conservation actors, including those affected by governance and management systems from implementing conservation activities and programs and from gathering and using data on governance and management to inform decision-making across spatial scales and through time. We explored current and past efforts to assess governance and management effectiveness and barriers actors face in using the resulting data and insights to inform conservation decision-making. To help overcome these barriers, we developed Elinor, a free and open-source monitoring tool that builds on the work of Nobel Prize winner Elinor Ostrom to facilitate the gathering, storing, sharing, analyzing, and use of data on environmental governance and management across spatial scales and for areas under different governance and management types. We consider the process of codesigning and piloting Elinor with conservation scientists and practitioners and the main components of the assessment and online data system. We also consider how Elinor complements existing approaches by addressing governance and management in a single assessment at a high level for different types of area-based conservation, providing flexible options for data collection, and integrating a data system with an assessment that can support data use and sharing across different spatial scales, including global monitoring of the Global Biodiversity Framework. Although challenges will continue, the process of developing Elinor and the tool itself offer tangible solutions to barriers that prevent the systematic collection and use of governance and management data. With broader uptake, Elinor can play a valuable role in enabling more effective, inclusive, and durable area-based conservation.

Excessive phytoplankton concentrations in rivers can result in the loss of plant and invertebrate communities, and threaten drinking water supplies. Whilst the physicochemical controls on algal blooms have been identified previously, how these factors combine to control the initiation, size, and cessation of blooms in rivers is not well understood. We applied flow cytometry to quantify diatom, chlorophyte, and cyanobacterial group abundances in the River Thames (UK) at weekly intervals from 2011 to 2022, alongside physicochemical data. A niche modeling approach was used to identify thresholds in water temperature, flow, solar radiation, and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations required to produce periods of phytoplankton growth, with blooms only occurring when all thresholds were met. The thresholds derived from the 2011 to 2018 dataset were applied to a test data set (2019-2022), which predicted the timing and duration of blooms at accuracies of > 80%. Diatoms and nano-chlorophyte blooms were initiated by flow and water temperature, and usually terminated due to temperature and flow going out of the threshold range, or SRP and Si becoming limiting. Cyanobacterial bloom dynamics were primarily controlled by water temperature and solar radiation. This simple methodology provides a key understanding of phytoplankton community succession and inter-annual variation and can be applied to any river with similar water quality and phytoplankton data. It provides early warnings of algal and cyanobacterial bloom timings, which support future catchment management decisions to safeguard water resources, and provides a basis for modeling changing phytoplankton bloom risk due to future climate change.

Background:Medical nonadherence is a significant problem associated with worse clinical outcomes, higher downstream rehospitalization rates, and a higher use of resources. To improve medication adherence, it is vital for researchers and practitioners to have a solid theoretical understanding of what interventions are likely to work. To achieve this understanding, we propose that researchers should focus on creating small-scale laboratory analogs to the larger real-world setting and determine what interventions, such as nudges or incentives, work to change behavior in the laboratory. To do this, we took inspiration from the literature on serious games and gamification and experimental economics. We call our approach "gamified behavioral simulation." In this paper, we modeled everyday life as the state of being engaged in a simple but addictive game, illness as being interruptions to the functionality of that game, treatment as being a series of actions that can be taken to prevent or mitigate those interruptions, and adherence as sticking to a prescribed rule for the application of those actions. Objective:This study carries out a behavioral diagnosis of the medication adherence problem through a theoretically informed framework and then develops the gamified behavioral modeling approach to simulate medication nonadherence. Methods:A laboratory experiment was conducted using a modified popular and addictive open-source video game called "2048," which created an abstract model for the medication adherence behavior observed in real life. In total, 509 participants were assigned to the control and 4 intervention groups ("incentive" group, "reminder" group, "commitment device" group, and "elongated duration for symptoms" group). Results:The results of the modeling experiment showed that having theoretically informed interventions can increase the likelihood for them to be successful. In particular, there is evidence that the use of reminders improves the medication adherence rates for patients, and the same result was found in the modeling experiment, as they improved adherence significantly by 23% (95% CI -33.97% to -11.72%; P<.001). However, providing an incentive did not improve the adherence rate. We also tested the use of commitment devices, which, in line with real-world evidence, did not improve adherence rates. The fourth treatment tested elongated duration for symptoms, which attempted to show the power of modeling experiments where we test a what-if scenario that is extremely difficult to test in a real setting. The results indicated that if symptoms last longer, people did not adhere more to their medication regimen. Conclusions:Gamified behavioral simulation is a useful tool to explain real health behaviors and help in identifying which interventions are most likely to work in a randomized trial.

We examine how consumers respond to what (little) they know about company social and environmental commitments and, in particular, what inferences they make from knowing about one corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative to other possible company CSR initiatives. Building on prior research suggesting a halo effect in which consumers draw inferences about product attributes, we show a halo effect in which information about company CSR initiatives in one domain gives rise to inferences about company CSR initiatives more generally. Two studies provide support for a halo effect within-domain (e.g., environment) and across-domains (e.g., environmental action influences perceptions of employee-related CSR), wherein companies known to engage in specific CSR practices get credited with doing other CSR practices (likelihood halo) and doing a better job of them (performance halo). Beyond conceptualising and testing for the existence of the CSR halo in relation to company CSR programmes, we explore its scope and resilience. We conclude with implications for CSR communications strategy and programme development as well as for public policy and future research, including how to prevent a possible "dark side" to company reputation management.