Acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) is a global public health priority that often disproportionately effects Indigenous populations. While previous research examines the association between meteorological conditions and AGI, little is known about how socio-cultural factors may modify this relationship. This present study seeks to address this research gap by comparing AGI prevalence and determinants between an Indigenous and non-Indigenous population in Uganda. We estimate the 14-day self-reported prevalence of AGI among adults in an Indigenous Batwa population and their non-Indigenous neighbours using cross-sectional panel data collected over four periods spanning typically rainy and dry seasons (January 2013 to April 2014). The independent associations between Indigenous status, precipitation, and AGI are examined with multivariable multi-level logistic regression models, controlling for relative wealth status and clustering at the community level. Estimated prevalence of AGI among the Indigenous Batwa was greater than among the non-Indigenous Bakiga. Our models indicate that both Indigenous identity and decreased levels of precipitation in the weeks preceding the survey period were significantly associated with increased AGI, after adjusting for confounders. Multivariable models stratified by Indigenous identity suggest that Indigenous identity may not modify the association between precipitation and AGI in this context. Our results suggest that short-term changes in precipitation affect both Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations similarly, though from different baseline AGI prevalences, maintaining rather than exacerbating this socially patterned health disparity. In the context of climate change, these results may challenge the assumption that changing weather patterns will necessarily exacerbate existing socially patterned health disparities.

Defects fundamentally govern the properties of all real materials. Correlating molecular defects to macroscopic quantities remains a challenge, particularly in the liquid phase. Herein, we report the influence of hydrogen bonds (HB) acting as defects in mixtures of non‐hydroxyl‐functionalized ionic liquids (ILs) with an increasing concentration of hydroxyl‐functionalized ILs. We observed two types of HB defects: The conventional HBs between cation and anion (c–a), and the elusive HBs between cations (c–c) despite the repulsive Coulomb forces. We use neutron diffraction with isotopic substitution in combination with molecular dynamics simulations for measuring the geometry, strength, and distribution of mobile OH defects in the IL mixtures. In principle, this procedure allows relating the number and stability of defects to macroscopic properties such as diffusion, viscosity, and conductivity, which are of utmost importance for the performance of electrolytes in batteries and other electrical devices.

The kinetics of breaking and re-formation of hydrogen bonds (HBs) in liquid water is a prototype of reversible geminate recombination. HB population correlation functions (HBPCFs) are a means to study the HB kinetics. The long-time limiting behavior of HBPCFs is controlled by translatoric diffusion and shows a t−3/2 time-dependence, which can be described by analytical expressions based on the HB acceptor density and the donor–acceptor inter-diffusion coefficient. If the trajectories are not properly “unwrapped,” the presence of periodic boundary conditions (PBCs) can perturb this long-time limiting behavior. Keeping the trajectories “wrapped,” however, allows for a more efficient calculation of HBPCFs. We discuss the consequences of PBCs in combination with “wrapped” trajectories following from the approximations according to Luzar–Chandler and according to Starr, each deviating in a different fashion from the true long-time limiting behavior, but enveloping the unperturbed function. A simple expression is given for estimating the maximum time up to which the computed HBPCFs reliably describe the long-time limiting behavior. In addition, an exact a posteriori correction for systems with PBCs for “wrapped” trajectories is derived, which can be easily computed and which is able to fully recover the true t−3/2 long-time behavior. For comparison, HBPCFs are computed from MD simulations of TIP4P/2005 model water for varying system sizes and temperatures of 273 and 298 K using this newly introduced correction. Implications for the computations of HB lifetimes and the effect of the system-size are discussed.

The concept of hydrogen bonding is celebrating its 100th birthday. Hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) play a key role in the structure and function of biological molecules, the strength of materials, and molecular binding. Herein, we study H-bonding in mixtures of a hydroxyl-functionalized ionic liquid with the neutral, H-bond-accepting molecular liquid dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) using neutron diffraction experiments and molecular dynamics simulations. We report the geometry, strength, and distribution of three different types of Hbond OH•••O, formed between the hydroxyl group of the cation and either the oxygen atom of another cation, the counteranion, or the neutral molecule. Such a variety of different strengths and distributions of H-bonds in one single mixture could hold the promise of providing solvents with potential applications in H-bond-related chemistry, for example, to alter the natural selectivity patterns of catalytic reactions or the conformation of catalysts.