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Abstract In Commerce City, Colorado, residents contend with multiple environmental hazards and live in the most polluted zip code in the US. Perhaps no source of environmental harm is more visible than the imposing, aging Suncor Oil Refinery. The refinery dominates entire city blocks and residents' daily lives. Since 2005, the refinery has been cited for over nearly 60 environmental and safety violations. Despite this, it continues operating with minor penalties, exemplifying how the state's neoliberalized regulatory approaches prioritize corporate profit over social–environmental protections. We examine how the Suncor Oil Refinery creates harmful environmental injustices, representing a significant instance of state‐facilitated corporate crime, as the state leaves the industry to self‐regulate and violate (or operate without) permits. Bridging green criminology and environmental justice literatures, our findings emphasize the importance of recognizing state‐facilitated corporate crime as a key driver of environmental injustice. Drawing on interviews with 53 community members, educators, and elected officials, this study provides firsthand accounts of the detrimental effects of the refinery's operations on nearby residents and documents their lived experiences of environmental injustice. Our findings illustrate harmful impacts of state‐facilitated corporate crime and contribute to scant research examining people's experiences of harm from living or working near oil refineries. 

ABSTRACT The United States SECURE Water Act states that a study of water use is critical for assessing impacts on water and ecological resources and forecasting whether or not available surface and groundwater supplies will meet future needs. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) plays a key role in the SECURE Water Act by providing nationally consistent information on water quantity, quality, and use. Water‐use data maintained by States and Territories are critical for the USGS water‐use estimation and modeling techniques that underlie these efforts. However, water‐use data availability has not been systematically assessed. This study addresses this gap through a survey of USGS Water Science Centers (WSCs). The results indicate that water‐use information varies in its content and level of detail across the United States. Spatially discrete and comprehensive information about water use, such as site‐specific consumptive use, withdrawals, diversions, return flows, and interbasin transfers, is not widely available to and/or shared between State and Territory water‐resource agencies and USGS WSCs. This article presents the survey results and discusses reported barriers to water‐use data availability and sharing, as well as potential implications of limited water‐use information. This study advances understanding of water‐use data availability and sharing and contributes to broader research on US water data governance. 

Abstract This paper asserts that critiques of political science for neglecting Indigenous politics highlight a critical gap that risks overlooking significant conceptual and practical innovations. It emphasizes how Indigenous autonomy claims challenge traditional notions of sovereignty. Scholars of Indigenous politics in Latin America, publishing in area studies journals, provide essential insights into these autonomy claims and contribute valuable perspectives to the discipline. We identify rigorous scholarly work in English language, peer-reviewed journals exploring Indigenous autonomy, conceptualizing it as a multifaceted notion that encompasses political visions, practices, and social movement agendas. Through a comprehensive meta-analysis of literature in Latin American area studies, we argue that this field offers four fundamental insights. First, Indigenous peoples deploy diverse strategies to assert their rights, positioning themselves as active citizens and political agents rather than passive groups. Second, the emergence of multicultural institutions that integrate individual and collective rights is fundamentally reshaping politics and citizenship, leading to innovative governance structures. Third, accumulation by dispossession remains a crucial driver of wealth creation, severely undermining Indigenous autonomy and degrading their environments. Finally, a renewed emphasis on Indigenous territorial autonomy decisively challenges conventional views of state sovereignty, as Indigenous peoples assert territorial and nonterritorial rights. 

Abstract The recent emergence of agrivoltaic and ecovoltaic approaches to ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) energy provides a much-needed alternative to the environmentally disruptive practices employed in utility-scale solar development. Research on such land-sharing approaches has grown rapidly, with an emphasis on characterizing how PV arrays impact ecosystem processes and agricultural productivity. Although these studies have done well to quantify a variety of dual-use solar practices by employing site-specific sampling designs, this approach has limited our ability to synthesize results across sites, regions, and globally. We call for a network science approach for improved cross-site synthesis of dual-use solar research. We contend that a common approach for data collection and synthesis will facilitate a more rigorous investigation of the agricultural and ecological impacts of PV development across space and over time. The products of this scientifically informed approach can be directly applied to improve sustainable land management. 

Abstract Climate-smart agriculture can be used to build soil carbon stocks, decrease agricultural greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and increase agronomic resilience to climate pressures. The US recently declared its commitment to include the agricultural sector as part of an overall climate-mitigation strategy, and with this comes the need for robust, scientifically valid tools for agricultural GHG flux measurements and modeling. If agriculture is to contribute significantly to climate mitigation, practice adoption should be incentivized on as much land area as possible and mitigation benefits should be accurately quantified. Process-based models are parameterized on data from a limited number of long-term agricultural experiments, which may not fully reflect outcomes on working farms. Space-for-time substitution, paired studies, and long-term monitoring of SOC stocks and GHG emissions on commercial farms using a variety of climate-smart management systems can validate findings from long-term agricultural experiments and provide data for process-based model improvements. Here, we describe a project that worked collaboratively with commercial producers in the Midwest to directly measure and model the soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks of their farms at the field scale. We describe this study, and several unexpected challenges encountered, to facilitate further on-farm data collection and the creation of a secure database of on-farm SOC stock measurements. 

Abstract BackgroundMalnutrition is prevalent throughout southwest Guatemala, where >40% of children suffer from chronic undernutrition. Evidence supports that assessing a community's awareness and readiness to address malnutrition is a critical first step in improving the success of a nutrition intervention program. The objective of this study was to apply the community readiness model (CRM) to assess community readiness to address childhood malnutrition in a rural southwest region of Guatemala. MethodsThirteen key respondents of varied social roles and demographics residing in the region were interviewed. Interview questions related to addressing malnutrition were from the following predefined dimensions: Community Efforts, Community Knowledge of Efforts, Leadership, Community Climate, Community Knowledge, and Resources for Efforts. Interview recordings and notes were analyzed and scored according to the CRM guidelines, and a standardized analysis was conducted. ResultsThe overall community readiness score was 4.26 (preplanning: awareness of the issue). Community Efforts had a total score of 5 (Preparation: preparing to take action on the issue). Community Knowledge of Efforts, Community Climate, Community Knowledge, and Resources for Efforts Dimensions each had a total score of 4 (Preplanning: awareness of the issue). The overall score for the Leadership dimension was 2 (Denial/resistance: belief that the problem does not exist within the community). These scores demonstrate clear recognition for action to address childhood malnutrition as a problem. However, efforts to combat childhood malnutrition are not yet focused nor detailed for community action. ConclusionsThis rural southwest region of Guatemala recognizes that childhood malnutrition is a problem. However, efforts to address malnutrition are not yet focused or detailed enough to have measurable impact in addressing this issue. For the region to advance the stage of community readiness, it is essential to enhance knowledge of dietary strategies aimed at improving nutrition for children and increase engagement from local leadership. 

IntroductionCurrent formulations of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs) to treat severe acute malnutrition (SAM) in children focus on nutrient density and quantity. Less attention is given to foods targeting gut microbiota metabolism and mucosal barrier functions. Heat-stabilised rice bran contains essential nutrients, prebiotics, vitamins and unique phytochemicals that have demonstrated favourable bioactivity to modulate gut microbiota composition and mucosal immunity. This study seeks to examine the impact of RUTF with rice bran on the microbiota during SAM treatment, recovery and post-treatment growth outcomes in Jember, Indonesia. Findings are expected to provide insights into rice bran as a novel food ingredient to improve SAM treatment outcomes. Methods and analysisA total of 200 children aged 6–59 months with uncomplicated SAM (weight-for-height z-scores (WHZ) <−3, or mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) <115 mm or having bilateral pitting oedema +/++) or approaching SAM (WHZ<−2.5) will be enrolled in a double-blinded, randomised controlled trial. Children in the active control arm will receive a locally produced RUTF; those in the intervention arm will receive the local RUTF with 5% rice bran. Children will receive daily RUTF treatment for 8 weeks and be monitored for 8 weeks of follow-up. Primary outcomes include the effectiveness of RUTF as measured by changes in weight, WHO growth z-scores, MUAC and morbidity. Secondary outcomes include modulation of the gut microbiome and dried blood spot metabolome, the percentage of children recovered at weeks 8 and 12, and malnutrition relapse at week 16. An intention-to-treat analysis will be conducted for each outcome. Ethics and disseminationThe findings of this trial will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals and will be presented at relevant conferences. Ethics approval obtained from the Medical and Health Research Ethical Committee at the Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Madain Yogyakarta Ref. No.: KE/FK/0546/EC/2022 and KE/FK/0703/EC/2023 and from Colorado State University IRB#1823, OHRP FWA00000647. Trial registration numberNCT05319717. 

Abstract Food security and the agricultural economy are both dependent on the temporal stability of crop yields. To this end, increasing crop diversity has been suggested as a means to stabilize agricultural yields amidst an ongoing decrease in cropping system diversity across the world. Although diversity confers stability in many natural ecosystems, in agricultural systems the relationship between crop diversity and yield stability is not yet well resolved across spatial scales. Here, we leveraged crop area, production, and price data from 1981 to 2020 to assess the relationship between crop diversity and the stability of both economic and caloric yields at the state level within the USA. We found that, after controlling for climatic instability and differences in irrigated area, crop diversity was positively associated with economic yield stability but negatively associated with caloric yield stability. Further, we found that crops with a propensity for increasing economic yield stability but reducing caloric yield stability were often found in the most diverse states. We propose that price responses to changes in production for high-value crops underly the positive relationship between diversity and economic yield stability. In contrast, spatial concentration of calorie-dense crops in low-diversity states contributes to the negative relationship between diversity and caloric yield stability. Our results suggest that the relationship between crop diversity and yield stability is not universal, but instead dependent on the spatial scale in question and the stability metric of interest. 

Abstract Wildfire smoke is frequently present over the U.S. during the agricultural growing season and will likely increase with climate change. Studies of smoke impacts have largely focused on air quality and human health; however, understanding smoke's impact on photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) is essential for predicting how smoke affects plant growth. We compare surface shortwave irradiance and diffuse fraction (DF) on smoke‐impacted and smoke‐free days from 2006 to 2020 using data from multifilter rotating shadowband radiometers at 10 U.S. Department of Agriculture UV‐B Monitoring and Research Program stations and smoke plume locations from operational satellite products. On average, 20% of growing season days are smoke‐impacted, but smoke prevalence increases over time (r = 0.60,p < 0.05). Smoke presence peaks in the mid to late growing season (i.e., July, August), particularly over the northern Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and Midwest. We find an increase in the distribution of PAR DF on smoke‐impacted days, with larger increases at lower cloud fractions. On clear‐sky days, daily average PAR DF increases by 10 percentage points when smoke is present. Spectral analysis of clear‐sky days shows smoke increases DF (average: +45%) and decreases total irradiance (average: −6%) across all six wavelengths measured from 368 to 870 nm. Optical depth measurements from ground and satellite observations both indicate that spectral DF increases and total spectral irradiance decreases with increasing smoke plume optical depth. Our analysis provides a foundation for understanding smoke's impact on PAR, which carries implications for agricultural crop productivity under a changing climate.