The opioid epidemic demands the development, implementation, and evaluation of innovative, research-informed practices such as diversion programs. Aritürk et al. have articulated important bioethical considerations for implementing diversion programs in resource-constrained service environments. In this commentary, we expand and advance Aritürk et al.’s discussion by discussing existing resources that can be utilized to implement diversion programs that prevent or otherwise minimize the issues of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice identified by Aritürk et al.

The death of a loved one – bereavement – is a universal experience that marks the human mental health condition. Grief – the cognitive, emotional, and behavioral responses to bereavement – is thus experienced by virtually everyone at some point in life, while mourning is a process through which grievers come to terms with the loss envisioning life without the deceased. Although distress subsides over time among most bereaved individuals, a minority will develop a condition recently identified as prolonged grief disorder (PGD). The present review provides a global perspective on bereavement, grief reactions, and PGD. Although the loss of a loved one and grief reactions are in general experienced consistently across different cultures, differences and variations in their expression may exist across cultures. Especially within specific populations that may be more at risk for PGD, possibly due to risk factors associated with the mechanisms of loss (e.g., refugees, migrants, and conflict survivors). The diagnostic criteria for PGD are mostly based on Western grieving populations, and cultural adaptations of PGD treatments are limited. Therefore, cross-cultural development and validation of PGD screening/assessment is critical to support future research on grief reactions and PGD, especially in non-Western contexts, and concerning the potential future global changes and challenges that appear to have a major impact on PGD. More transcultural research on PGD is needed to contextualize and will lead to culture-bound symptom identification of PGD, and the adaptation of current treatment protocols, which may ultimately improve health at the individual level, and health-care systems.

Influenced by proposals (spanning back to the Kaiser Reich) to hinder the urban-rural divide, Hessian Social Democrats introduced the Hessenplan in 1951 to rebuild the war-torn cities, reconstruct state infrastructure, and integrate displaced persons. A key component of this plan was the establishment of rural community centres, which provided modern amenities and leisure activities, attempted to reduce the hardship of the rural lifestyle through the mechanisation of labour, as well as reinforced democratic principles – all in an attempt to hinder the rural exodus. Branded ‘Castles of Peace’, the rural community centres also represented an environment and a tool for political transformation through democratic re-education. They provided an opportunity to help balance the social, cultural, and economic inequalities between urban and rural communities, were used to prevent further individual anomie, and to instill within the rural populace the importance of becoming responsible citizens in the new democratic age.

Children with asthma face serious mental health risk, but the pathways remain unclear. This study aimed to examine bullying victimisation and perpetration in children with asthma and a comparison sample without a chronic health condition, and the role of bullying in moderating psychosocial adjustment outcomes for those with asthma. A sample of children with (n = 24) and without asthma (n = 39), and their parents, were recruited from hospital clinics. Parents rated children’s psychosocial adjustment; children provided self-report of bullying victimisation and perpetration; from which co-occurring bully/victim status was derived. No differences in mean perpetration or victimisation were found, but children with asthma were more likely to be bully/victims (involved both as target and perpetrator), compared to those without asthma. Children with asthma who were victims of bullying had greater peer problems and overall adjustment problems; bully/victims did not show this pattern. Children with asthma may be more likely to be bully/victims, and those who are victims of bullying may be at elevated risk for psychosocial adjustment problems and require particular support in this area from school counsellors and psychologists.

Despite nematodes routinely being the most frequent soil- and bryophyte-associated animals in maritime Antarctica, there is a lack of clarity about the influence of warming on their populations in the region. Here, we report the results of a field experiment on Adelaide Island that tested the effects of warming with open-top chambers (OTCs) for 37 months on nematodes associated with the bryophytes Cephaloziella varians and Sanionia uncinata. Over the experiment's duration, OTCs increased the population density of the nematode Plectus belgicae in mats of both bryophytes by six-fold, with four- to seven-fold increases in the abundances of male, female and juvenile P. belgicae in warmed mats, and with the largest effects on the abundances of juveniles. Despite C. varians, which is black in colour, warming to a greater extent than S. uncinata during summer, no interactive effects of OTCs and bryophyte species were recorded on the population density of P. belgicae. Our results corroborate a previous study showing that warming increases Plectus population densities in maritime Antarctic soils, with implications for the region's terrestrial food webs.

Nivation is a collective noun identifying a set of geomorphic processes, comprised of an indeterminate number of elements and of unknown relative importance, for which there is little likelihood of ever producing a precise definition. Instead, attention should first be directed towards the relationships between snow-packs and individual geomorphic processes. The relationship between freezing amplitude in the bedrock, snow cover, and aspect at an Arctic site in northern Norway and an alpine site in the Front Range, Colorado, U.S.A. is complex. Comparison of field data and laboratory criteria permit several conflicting interpretations. If oscillations across 0°C, regardless of freezing amplitude, are critical, the alpine site is potentially a more active freeze-thaw weathering regime, with a primary springtime peak and a secondary fall peak. If a freezing amplitude of –5°C is required for effective freeze-thaw weathering then the alpine site is largely inactive and the Arctic active (but with only a single fall peak). Chemical weathering is much more important at snow-patch sites than has traditionally been recognized. Mass wasting at colluvial sites subject to snow patches is dominated by interaction between overland flow and solifluction when the site is unvegetated, and by solifluction when it is vegetated. Given contemporary knowledge of snow and glacial geomorphology, there appears to be no threshold, only differences of intensity. Resolution of the disruptive mechanism associated with bedrock freezing and its constraining temperature and moisture requirements is the most pressing present problem in the field of snow geomorphology.

A Research Committee was established by the Weed Science Society of America to outline the direction of weed science research during the next decade. Weeds adversely affect humans in both agricultural and nonagricultural environments. It is the opinion of the research committee that weed science will be advantageously positioned for the future if research focuses on research decision processes, weed biology and ecology, weed control and management practices, herbicide resistance, issues related to transgenic plants, environmental issues, and potential benefits of weeds. These future weed science research directions endorse those of the commodity and grower input group Coalition for Research on Plant Systems (CROPS)'99, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-supported initiative. The future of weed science is dependent on a joint effort from industry, government regulators, and the public sector consisting of grower groups, as well as USDA, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC), and university researchers. It is our opinion that efforts spent on these research areas will benefit not only growers, commodity groups, homeowners, and industry, but society at large, through the maintenance and improvement of the food and fiber production system, and the environment in North America.

Auxinic herbicides are widely used for control of broadleaf weeds in cereal crops and turfgrass. These herbicides are structurally similar to the natural plant hormone auxin, and induce several of the same physiological and biochemical responses at low concentrations. After several decades of research to understand the auxin signal transduction pathway, the receptors for auxin binding and resultant biochemical and physiological responses have recently been discovered in plants. However, the precise mode of action for the auxinic herbicides is not completely understood despite their extensive use in agriculture for over six decades. Auxinic herbicide-resistant weed biotypes offer excellent model species for uncovering the mode of action as well as resistance to these compounds. Compared with other herbicide families, the incidence of resistance to auxinic herbicides is relatively low, with only 29 auxinic herbicide-resistant weed species discovered to date. The relatively low incidence of resistance to auxinic herbicides has been attributed to the presence of rare alleles imparting resistance in natural weed populations, the potential for fitness penalties due to mutations conferring resistance in weeds, and the complex mode of action of auxinic herbicides in sensitive dicot plants. This review discusses recent advances in the auxin signal transduction pathway and its relation to auxinic herbicide mode of action. Furthermore, comprehensive information about the genetics and inheritance of auxinic herbicide resistance and case studies examining mechanisms of resistance in auxinic herbicide-resistant broadleaf weed biotypes are provided. Within the context of recent findings pertaining to auxin biology and mechanisms of resistance to auxinic herbicides, agronomic implications of the evolution of resistance to these herbicides are discussed in light of new auxinic herbicide-resistant crops that will be commercialized in the near future.

This paper provides a metric for determining whether a given pair of English words is perceived to be morphologically related, based on objective measurements of the words’ orthographic, phonetic, and semantic similarity to each other. The metric is developed on the basis of results from a behavioural study in which participants were asked to judge the relative similarity of pairs of words. The metric is intended to help researchers determine which forms in a language plausibly have segments that alternate; as an example, it is applied to the lexicon of English to illustrate its utility in calculating the frequency of alternation of [s] and [ʃ].