In 2010, USAID catalyzed the formation of One Health University Networks as part of a holistic response designed to promote the One Health approach for addressing complex health challenges. This globally connected One Health University network now includes the African One Health University Network (AFROHUN) and the Southeast Asia University Network (SEAOHUN) and has representation from over 120 universities in 17 countries across Africa and Southeast Asia. Over more than 15 years of USAID investment, these networks have trained more than 85,000 students, in-service professionals and faculty around the world in One Health principles and collaborative problem solving, grounded in One Health core competencies. These One Health practitioners have gone on to contribute to improved global health security in their communities and countries. The evolution and maturation of these networks is a testament to a strong vision and dedication to the task by leadership and donors. As the global academic community continues to refine and adapt training methodologies for ‘future ready’ individuals, resources and examples from One Health University Networks stand as a legacy to build upon.

Due to the high prevalence and incidence of depression among young adults, identifying potential prevention strategies during young adulthood is of great public health importance. Indeed, dietary intake is an important determinant of mental health during this stage of the lifespan. Dietary polyphenols, present in plant and plant-derived foods, have been inversely associated with depression in older cohorts(1). However, the prospective association between polyphenol intake and depression remains unclear, particularly in young adults. As such, this study aimed to assess the prospective association between the intake of total polyphenols, polyphenol classes, and polyphenol subclasses and depressive symptoms in young adults. Data from the Raine Study Generation 2 participants at 20-, 22-, and 27-year follow-ups (n = 1,484; 52.7% female; age range: 18 to 28 years) were used. The exposure variable, polyphenol intake, was estimated from self-reported dietary intakes using the Phenol-Explorer Database. We categorised energy-adjusted polyphenol intake into quartiles. The primary outcome was self-reported depressive symptoms assessed via the 21-item Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS) averaged across the three timepoints. Linear mixed-effects models were used to assess the association between the polyphenol intake exposures and depressive symptoms. Sociodemographic characteristics and lifestyle- and health-related behaviours were adjusted for in multivariable models. Participants in the highest quartiles for flavonol and hydroxybenzoic acid intake had lower depressive symptoms across time than participants in the lowest quartiles [flavonols (Q4 vs Q1 model-adjusted mean difference: −1.42, 95% CI: −2.52, −0.31); hydroxybenzoic acids (Q4 vs Q1: −1.37, CI: −2.48, −0.26)]. We found little to no evidence of a prospective association between depressive symptoms and quartiles of total polyphenols, polyphenol classes, and other polyphenol subclasses. The results from the current study in combination with previous studies in the field suggest that the intake of some, but not all, polyphenol subclasses may be useful targets for novel prevention strategies for depression. However, further mechanistic studies in human populations, and prospective studies in young adults and across the lifespan are required.

Are women legislators punished for not supporting women’s substantive policy interests? We test these gendered expectations. We marshal an original content analysis of cable news coverage and two survey experiments testing voters’ assessment of hypothetical legislators on the issues of abortion and equal pay. We find that voters rate both women and men legislators positively for supporting women’s issues and negatively evaluate legislators of both genders when they do not support women’s interests. We also find that women voters negatively evaluate women legislators who act against women’s interests at a greater rate than men voters. While we do not find evidence of voters holding women legislators to gendered expectations, we do find that legislators, regardless of their gender, have strategic incentives to promote women’s substantive representation. Our results suggest that voters care more about the substantive representation of women’s political interests than who supports those interests.

On Christmas Day 1991, the Red Flag was hauled down from the Kremlin Tower. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ceased to exist. Gorbachev's attempted reform of state socialism, his policy of perestroika, had failed. There followed a transformation of all the former European socialist countries and those of the USSR. The major systemic changes subsequently advocated by the reformers were the removal of the dominant Communist Party and its replacement by democratic forms and a move to markets in place of centralised planning.

Objectives/Goals: The Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) pathway aims to increase the number of health science professionals participating in CTR in their careers throughout the WWAMI Region (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho). Methods/Study Population: The first cohort of thirty-one students started in January 2024 and were organized into three groups that met weekly. One in-person group of students in Anchorage, AK; one in-person group in Seattle, WA; and a group of students from across the WWAMI region convened virtually. Students completed a year-long series of elective courses addressing fundamental concepts of designing, conducting, and presenting the results of a research project. Over the summer between year 1 and year 2 of medical school, students dedicated 8 weeks to full-time research activities under the supervision of their research project mentor. In Fall 2024, students prepared and presented research posters at regional poster sessions and abstracts and oral presentations for submission to the Western Medical Research Conference in January 2025. Results/Anticipated Results: The ultimate goal of the CTR pathway is to increase the number of medical providers across the WWAMI region with significant awareness, interest, and experience in research. Many students hesitate to engage in research due to a perceived lack of necessary skills. The CTR pathway addresses this gap by equipping students with the research competencies needed to participate confidently in scientific inquiry. Feedback from the inaugural cohort has been overwhelmingly positive, with many students highlighting how the CTR pathway enhanced their confidence and knowledge, empowering them to execute their proposed research projects successfully. Our second cohort of students joined the CTR pathway in January 2025. Discussion/Significance of Impact: The CTR pathway positions early medical students to engage in research more deeply during their medical training and prepares them to seek additional training opportunities toward a career in research. The majority of students in the first cohort were located at regional sites and many have interest in practicing in rural or underserved areas.

Objectives/Goals: Originally presented at TS24, we would like to discuss follow-up outcomes and preliminary findings“Building Empowerment Through Fitness” – objectives were designed to address the “whole women” in underserved segments of the population in impoverished and/or underprivileged communities with fewer opportunities and promote economic mobility. Methods/Study Population: A qualitative study design to understand unique cultural context and challenges faced by women residing in the Birmingham Housing Authority, regarding physical activity engagement, including sedentarism. The needs assessment approach examined barriers, support systems, and social networks. Semi-structured, pre, mid, and post program focus groups explored challenges and opportunities for health, such as diet and exercise, and are being analyzed by hand with a thematic analysis. The project framework used movement, home repair tools with a life-building/life repair curriculum to influence self-efficacy and program engagement. The study enrollment included 51 women over two cohorts in a 12-week project. Results/Anticipated Results: Preliminary are results showed the women did face heightened health risks due to sedentary lifestyles, educational gaps, and socioenvironmental barriers. We incorporated tool skills, healthy lifestyles, and social/emotional focus group to explore social/emotional perceptions, concerns, and needs. Although our results were on target, there were some unexpected outcomes related to family dynamics, literacy, housing stability, and peer support. Discussion/Significance of Impact: Women are more likely to be sedentary and have poor health. BeFit served as a solution to addressing problems related to economic mobility barriers, poor health, sedentariness, and low self-esteem/self-efficacy. Additionally, exercise/movement programs can be a powerful tool to address disparities and help prioritize health.

Objectives/Goals: To support the growing number of clinical research professionals (CRP) working in behavioral and social science contexts, relevant formative assessments of research skills are needed. This study examines the development of an objective formative assessment designed to assess skills relevant to conducting social and behavioral research. Methods/Study Population: A multidisciplinary group at the University of Michigan was convened to develop the assessment. Case studies depicting clinical and translational research conducted in behavioral and social science contexts were used to measure proficiency in seven of the eight ECRPTQ competencies: Scientific Concepts & Research Design, Ethical & Participant Safety Concerns, Clinical Trial Operations (Good Clinical Practice), Study & Site Management, Data Management & Informatics, Leadership & Professionalism, Communication, and Teamwork & Team Science. Three difficulty levels of questions were developed: basic, intermediate, and advanced. To reinforce knowledge and skill development, the assessment was designed to give respondents formative feedback after responding to each question. Results/Anticipated Results: A preliminary “pre-pilot” test was conducted with three postdoctoral scholars to ensure that the assessment items were understandable. The assessment was then pilot tested with a larger group of 40 clinical research professionals (CRP) to test for the clarity and difficulty level of the items. A smaller group of 20 of these CRPs agreed to participate in focus groups to obtain feedback on their user experience. Data regarding years of experience as a CRP, types of studies engaged with, and information regarding professional certification were collected and used in the analyses. Demographic data collected were not connected to user responses. Results of the pilot test and focus groups were used to revise the questions on the final version of the assessment. Discussion/Significance of Impact: To our knowledge, this is the first objective assessment of research skills for CRP working in behavioral and social science contexts. We will discuss how other institutions can use this instrument to evaluate the training needs of their social and behavioral research workforce.

Improvements to agricultural sustainability are required to maintain productivity in the face of ongoing global challenges, and growers need multiple kinds of support to adopt new sustainability practices and transform cropping systems. Farms are socio-ecological systems, and developing such systems requires tandem changes to human and nonhuman systems. This study evaluates agricultural sustainability practices and perception in the Oregon hazelnut industry, a small, intensified, and rapidly growing orchard production system in the United States. Using a mixed methods approach based on participant observation and an online survey of hazelnut growers in the spring of 2023, we found that growers were widely receptive to the sustainability messaging of industry groups and had widespread adoption of certain sustainability practices including disease-resistant tree varieties and changes in pesticide use, among other practices promoted by researchers. Larger hazelnut growers were more likely to adopt the sustainability practices in our survey, especially certain pest management practices. Growers with older hazelnut orchards turned to more sources of information but also perceived more barriers to implementing new sustainability practices than growers with younger orchards. Growers voiced different opinions about sustainability costs, with some growers expressing economic concerns about sustainability practices and others recognizing the financial benefits of sustainability practices. Differences in the perceived importance of short- and long-term benefits framed some of these concerns about the costs and benefits of sustainability practices. We argue that successful sustainability outreach will address both the short-term economic benefits of certain practices and the long-term sustainability benefits. Growers widely recognize the importance of sustainability, but more messaging about the multiple benefits of sustainability practices can better address both environmental and economic concerns.

The relationship between ecosystem disturbance and biodiversity levels has been a central focus of ecological research for the past half-century. The intermediate disturbance hypothesis, which suggests that maximum biodiversity is achieved through the coexistence of early and late successional species, however, has been challenged for its lack of clarity regarding the intensity, duration and extent of disturbances. This Perspective article advocates for a broader biocultural framework to move from the notion of disturbance to an understanding of human–environment mediations. Our proposed biocultural hypothesis acknowledges that, in certain cultural contexts, interventions by Homo sapiens at different environmental scales – mainly at the landscape level – can generate peaks in beta and gamma biodiversity compared to reference ecosystems. We illustrate these human–environment mediations through studies conducted in the biocultural region of Mesoamerica and comparative research findings, particularly from the Amazon Basin and West and Central Africa. In our conclusions, we discuss the need to establish collaborative research programmes around the proposed biocultural hypothesis, addressing management and institutional actions that will strengthen the engagement of Indigenous people and rural local communities with their historical territories that we name ‘Priority Biocultural Areas’.

Business and Human Rights (BHR) scholarship has long recognized the exercise of corporate power as resembling functional sovereignty, advocating for the extension of the rule of law to private actors, establishing accountability regimes, and providing remedies for victims. With the proliferation of binding BHR instruments, such as human rights due diligence legislation, the BHR project finds itself at a critical juncture, where calls for hard obligations are no longer sufficient. Our article, and the broader Symposium, seek to push the boundaries of the discourse by interrogating the legal foundations of private power. Drawing from Law and Political Economy scholarship, we challenge the prevailing notion of ‘governance gaps’ that often frames BHR debates. Rather, we argue that the legal infrastructure itself enables and facilitates the forms of exploitation and structural inequality embedded in the global political economy, leading to predictable patterns of human rights violations. By uncovering the institutional foundations of private power, we also show how efforts to leverage mechanisms of private governance, including human rights due diligence, risk naturalizing corporate power and limiting institutional imagination. However, a critique only focused on institutional design does not sufficiently account for the hardwiring of social relations of global production and the systemic constraints these impose on projects of legal reform. Acknowledging these limitations, we outline two modes of critique: an ‘internal’ critique, which seeks to reimagine institutional frameworks, and an ‘immanent’ critique, which emphasizes the role of collective action and social movements in transforming the underlying social relations of production.