University of Massachusetts Amherst

Food Commodity Markets in an Age of Overlapping Emergencies: The Case for Price Stabilization

The world has entered an age of overlapping emergencies, with disruptions to food production and transport systems and episodes of extreme price volatility becoming more frequent. In this context, proposals to stabilize food commodity prices have received renewed attention. We ar...

Hospital Variation in Labor After Cesarean and Vaginal Birth After Cesarean in Massachusetts, 2012-2022.

OBJECTIVE: To examine variation in labor after cesarean and vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) across hospitals and to assess the role of hospital characteristics in explaining this variation. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study using data from the Massachusetts Pregn...

Associations Between Natural Language Processing‒Enriched Social Determinants of Health and Fatal Opioid Overdose Among US Veterans, Fiscal Year 2018‒2021.

. 2026;116(10):1575-1585. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2026.308697).

Integrating an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Literacy Feature Into Shared Storybook Reading for Autistic Children Who Need or Rely on AAC

PURPOSE: This study explored the impact of integrating an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) literacy feature (Transition to Literacy [T2L] initial-letter sound feature), adapted to target letter-sound correspondence, within a grid-based AAC topic display on the acc...

Transportation Is Not Just a Ride: How Transportation Shapes Prenatal Care Experiences Among Black Women

Introduction Prenatal care improves maternal and infant outcomes; however, transportation as a social determinant of health influences both access to care and the conditions under which care is experienced. Transportation is often conceptualized as a barrier to appointment attend...

Self-interacting dark matter promotes bar formation in disk galaxies

Abstract Despite its remarkable success on large scales, the standard ΛCDM paradigm faces persistent small-scale challenges that have motivated alternative models for the dark sector. Self-interacting dark matter (SIDM) offers a compelling possibility, in which dark matter partic...

Kombucha-Derived Cellulose Non-Wovens: Growth Optimization, Mechanics, and Re-Processing

Abstract The environmental impact of synthetic textiles has prompted the need for sustainable and re-processable alternatives. Here, we correlated the growth conditions used to produce kombucha-derived cellulose non-woven mats with their mechanical performance as a function of po...

Exploring the Mutual Effects of Excipients and Proteins in Complex Coacervation

Abstract Complex coacervation is a type of associative liquid−liquid phase separation driven by the electrostatic complexation of oppositely-charged macromolecules. Coacervate materials have shown significant potential for the formulation of proteins and viruses with improved the...

Pediatric Literacy Promotion for Latino Families by Texts and Referrals: A 3-Arm RCT

OBJECTIVE: To test 2 strategies designed to enhance primary care-based literacy promotion (LP): (1) text message reminders (texts), and (2) texts plus referral to community resources. METHODS: We recruited 630 Latino caregiver-infant (aged 6 to 12 months) dyads for an effectivene...

Legal Plunder: The Predatory Dimensions of Criminal Justice . By Joshua Page and Joe Soss. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 2025.

In the past two decades, the relationship between punishment and political economy has received renewed attention.This resurgence reflects several developments: influential structural accounts of penal and carceral systems (e.g., David Garland, Alessandro De Giorgi, Ruth Wilson G...

Millisecond-Resolved Electronic pH Microdomains Synchronize Calcium Amplification in Cell Clusters

Abstract A central goal for bioelectronic interfaces is to convert electrical inputs into local chemical commands that regulate cell signaling with defined space and time. However, imposing spatially confined extracellular pH (pHo) cues across cell populations with externally pro...

Transferable FB-GNN-MBE framework for potential energy surfaces: Data-adaptive transfer learning in deep learned many-body expansion theory

Mechanistic understanding and rational design of complex chemical systems depend on fast and accurate predictions of electronic structures beyond individual building blocks. However, if the system exceeds hundreds of atoms, first-principles quantum mechanical (QM) modeling become...

Line outage impact factor (LOIF): A new sensitivity factor for enhanced transmission observability

Undetected transmission line outages degrade operator situational awareness and can increase the risk of incorrect control actions and escalating system stress. To improve transmission observability for outage detection under limited monitoring, this paper introduces the Line Out...

National-Scale Flood Susceptibility Mapping of Nigeria Using Statistical and Machine Learning Models with Satellite-Driven Validation for Data-Sparse Environments

Flooding is the most recurrent and economically devastating natural hazard in Nigeria, yet no standard or consistent nationwide assessment method exists. Spatially explicit flood susceptibility information also remains scarce, particularly given limited hydrometric monitoring. Th...

Fan shareholding and the boundaries of attitudinal factors of consumer behaviors

Purpose Research in consumer and financial markets suggests that holding ownership stakes may be associated with stronger engagement. However, evidence on the relevance of fan shareholding relative to established attitudinal factors of sport consumption remains limited. This stud...

An immersive multicomponent virtual reality intervention for cognitive and emotional health in community-dwelling older adults with mild cognitive impairment: a randomized controlled trial

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is associated with both cognitive decline and increased risk of depression, highlighting the need for integrated interventions targeting multiple domains. Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a promising tool for cognitive stimulation; however, evid...

Resolving the biome debate: ecological and palaeo‐data concur that the extensive tree‐limited grassy biomes of central and north‐western Madagascar are largely anthropogenic

ABSTRACT For millennia, human activities have transformed ecosystems globally. Determining which landscapes are predominantly anthropogenic is crucial to conservation and habitat restoration. Madagascar, a critically‐threatened biodiversity hotspot, is a prominent example. Curren...

Toward reviewable medical evidence synthesis for care delivery

Abstract Large language model systems can retrieve and cite medical evidence, yet their outputs may remain difficult to review during care. We define reviewability through evidence adequacy for action-changing claims, exact source verification, and presentation matched to a speci...

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Health-Related Social Needs, and Cognitive Outcomes in US Veterans

Importance Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and health-related social needs (HRSNs) have been associated with cognitive decline, but their joint associations with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer disease (AD), and AD-related dementias (ADRD) are unclear. Objective T...

XID+PRIMA, II: Stepping Through Hyperspectral Imaging to Deblend PRIMAger Beyond the Extragalactic Confusion Limit

The PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics concept aims to map large areas with spectral coverage and sensitivities inaccessible to previous FIR space telescopes, covering 25-235um. We synthesise images representing a deep imaging survey, with realistic instrumental and conf...