Spatial effects with missing data

We read the case of Chikungunya fever (CF) reported by doctors Hwang and Lee with interest [1].We report a similar case, but from western South America.CF cases have been reported in western Europe, South America, Africa, and most recently in the Caribbean.Clinically, CF is characterized by persistent severe arthralgia [2].In South America, CF, Mayaro fever (MF), and dengue fever (DF) share a similar geographic distribution and may resemble each other.CF, MF, and DF present with fever, chills, headache, myalgias/arthralgias, and rash.Arthralgias in CF typically persist for months, while those in MF and DF are usually transient and self-limited [3].Serum transaminase and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) elevations are common in CF, MF, and DF [2,[4][5][6].A 37-year-old man travelled to western South America, including Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, and the Peruvian Amazon for 8 months (fall 2012 to spring 2013).He suffered many mosquito bites during his travels.Subsequently, he developed a fever of 39.5℃, chills, headache, myalgias, and se-

Considerable uncertainty exists regarding the migratory destinations of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) from the Antarctic Peninsula region and the breeding grounds off the coasts of South America. Evidence is presented on the migratory patterns of Antarctic humpback whales based upon movements of individuals identified by natural markings as part of a large-scale international collaboration. Recapture rates were compared between animals from the low latitude breeding and calving areas along the northeastern (n=288) and northwestern (n=325) margins of South America with those identified in the high-latitude feeding areas in the region of the Antarctic Peninsula (n=535). The number of individuals re-sighted in the Antarctic Peninsula differed dramatically between eastern and western South America (c2=40.98, p=1.5 3 10–10). No individuals from Brazil were re-sighted in either the Antarctic Peninsula or off western South America. In contrast, 43 individuals from western South America were identified off the Antarctic Peninsula. These findings suggest that the northwest coast of South America represents an important breeding ground destination for at least some of the humpback whales that feed near the Antarctic Peninsula, but provide no support for movement between the Antarctic Peninsula and the east coast of South America.

10 - The West Indies and Middle America: Contrasting Origins and Diversity

Polypropylene (PP) fibres and yarns are sometimes called polyolefin (PO) when, along with PP, reference is made to polyethylene (PE), which comprise a minor part of them or fibres based on ethylene and propylene polymers. Currently, in terms of global production volume, PP fibres occupy the second place among all types of chemical fibres, lagging much behind polyester fibres [1], but taking part in realization of a growing raw material potential (Fig. 1) that will maintain the trend toward rising demand and capacities of the original polymer for a foreseeable period [2]. In Europe, to which PO fibres owe their origin, they comprise, according to European Textile Polyolefin Association data, 45.2 % of the chemical fibres produced [3]. On the average, about 12 % of the PP granulate produced is processed into fibres and yarns in the world, including Russia, although higher figures are often cited in some sources, which depends on specific regions, the range of products manufactured there, technological direction, level of development of the processing branches, and other factors. In 2011, all polyolefins (PO) of most widespread types of fibre products (Table 1), primarily film yarns, registered growth (+3 %) [4]. Outputs of complex yarns, which include BCF carpet tow, monofilament, and spunbond, attained a high level in Western Europe, China, USA, and Africa, and India, Canada, and South America recorded the highest growth rate. Large PP staple fibre production plants are concentrated in Western Europe, USA, and China (the growth rate relative to 2010 was the highest in the latter). In addition to spunbond, the most actively growing textile products from PP are film yarns (raffia) where China, Western Europe, Africa, Turkey, USA, South America, and Eastern Europe remain the leaders in terms of production volume, and South America, Japan, and Africa, in terms of growth rate in 2011 (+9, +7, and +5 %, respectively). From an analysis of Table 1 we find that a marked decline in production of all types of PO fibres in USA and Mexico. In USA, for example, complex yarn production capacity shrunk by 6 % over the past five years [5], and production of other yarns remained practically at the same level (Table 2). Let us describe in some more detail the situation in the European market since it significantly affects the Russian market. The share of PP fibres in the demand for all types of textile raw material in Europe is 38.9 % and in chemical fibre output is 44.3 % [3]. In this continent, 24.1 % of PP granulate is used for producing fibrous materials (Fig. 2). In the above-noted figures the share of polyethylene is minuscule. New PP spunbond production capacities are being actively introduced in Europe, especially in its eastern part, primarily in Russia where the annual growth rate is the highest in the world, and in Turkey (Table 3). In the context of the European Commission Directive 94/62/EC, PP spunbond must substitute PE film for making packages because it has the best performance properties (high strength, attractive exterior look, and wide-ranging decorative possibilities), reduces deleterious effect on the environment, the packages are capable of being used in a variety of ways and of undergoing secondary processing. Production of PP spunbond has been rising steadily: since 2010 the number of applications from different continents rose to 23 for installation of high-efficiency plants with total capacities of 400,000 tons/yr, which will meet in the period 2012-2015 the rising demand for this relatively light and strong material [6]. Appearance of new plants in South Africa, China, South America, and Indonesia is contributing to the growth of PP spunbond output in these regions. Among the known methods of nonwoven materials (spunlaid, airlaid, carding, spunlace, etc.) production, spunbond is the most popular right now. It accounts for almost one-half of the global production of all types of nonwoven materials (NM), more than 36 % of which is manufactured from PP (Fig. 3). In output volume, the second place belongs to NM produced by carding technique (cloth making from staple fibre) with an output of 3.4M tons in 2012 [4]. Needle-

Aim Recent studies suggest that if constrained by prevailing wind or ocean currents dispersal may produce predictable, repeated distribution patterns. Dispersal mediated by the West Wind Drift (WWD) and Antarctic Circumpolar Current (AAC) has often been invoked to explain the floristic similarities of Australia, South America and New Zealand. If these systems have been important dispersal vectors then eastward dispersal – from Australia to New Zealand and the western Pacific to South America – is expected to predominate. We investigate whether phylogenies for Southern Hemisphere plant groups provide evidence of historical dispersal asymmetry and more specifically whether inferred asymmetries are consistent with the direction of the WWD/AAC.Location Southern Hemisphere.Methods We assembled a data set of 23 published phylogenies for plant groups that occur in New Zealand, Australia and/or South America. We used parsimony‐based tree fitting to infer the number and direction of dispersals within each group. Observed dispersal asymmetries were tested for significance against a distribution of expected values.Results Our analyses suggest that dispersal has played a major role in establishing present distributions and that there are significant patterns of asymmetry in Southern Hemisphere dispersal. Consistent with the eastward direction of the WWD/ACC, dispersal from Australia to New Zealand was inferred significantly more often than in the reverse direction. No significant patterns of dispersal asymmetry were found between the western Pacific landmasses and South America. However, eastward dispersal was more frequently inferred between Australia and South America, while for New Zealand–South American events westward dispersal was more common.Main conclusions Our results suggest that eastward circumpolar currents have constrained the dispersal of plants between Australia and New Zealand. However, the WWD/ACC appear to have had less of an influence on dispersal between the western Pacific landmasses and South America. This observation may suggest that differences in dispersal mechanism are important – direct wind or water dispersal vs. stepping‐stone dispersal along the Antarctic coast. While our analyses provide useful preliminary insights into dispersal asymmetry in the Southern Hemisphere we will need larger data sets and additional methodological advances in order to test fully these dispersal patterns and infer processes from phylogenetic data.

It is quite apparent from the papers given at this symposium that molecular biology is now making great contributions to our understanding of the origin and evolution of crop plants. I should point out, however, that the more traditional approaches still have something to offer as was exemplified by Newstrom's paper on the chayote. I do not intend to examine all of the papers in any great detail; rather I prefer to see how some of them relate to two more general topics-(l1) the diffusion of crops between Middle America and South America and (2) the beginnings of domestication in eastern North America. In 1965 I reviewed all of the major crops of the Americas (Heiser 1965) and additional information was incorporated in later papers (Pickersgill and Heiser 1977; Heiser 1979). Although studies in the last two decades have given us a much better understanding of the early history of some of the plants, most of what I wrote in 1965 still holds. Surprisingly few of the crops of Mexico reached South America in prehistoric times and even fewer had penetrated Mexico from South America, particularly so if we accept an independent domestication of some crops in the two areas, such as species of beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L. and P. lunatus L.) which I suggested in 1965. Evidence for such has been presented here by Gepts. For some crops it was difficult to determine if their movement from one area to the other occurred in the preor post-historical period, and this is still true for some of them. Maize (Zea mays L.) is nearly always central to any discussion of prehistoric American agriculture, so it is most appropriate that I begin with it. In 1965, although it was clear that maize had one origin in Middle America, the question of a separate origin in South America was still maintained as a possibility. Bonavia and Grobman (1 9 89) still hold to a separate South American origin of maize, but I think that it is clearly one of the few Middle American plants to have reached South America from Middle America in prehistoric times. As Doebley has told us in this symposium, maize is derived from teosinte and moreover, as a result of his studies, we can now be fairly certain as to which of the teosintes gave rise to it. Some people, however, are still proposing that a wild maize was the progenitor (see Goodman 1987). Recently Lathrap (1987) has stated that among the "proto-crops" that flowed from tropical South America north were cotton and cacao. He cites Pickersgill and Heiser (1977) for cotton but, as they point out, there is no evidence for an interchange of the cultivated cottons (Gossypium hirsutum L. and G. barbadense L.) between Mexico and Peru in prehistoric times. For cacao he cites Marcos (1 9 73). However, I would still maintain my 19 65 assignment of the domestication of cacao to Middle America. My principal sources at the time were Sauer (1 9 51) and Cuatrecasas (1 964). The extensive and most valuable review of the early literature by Patiiio (1 9 63) also supports this position. Although wild Theobroma

We examine the relationship between convectively coupled waves, the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO), and extreme precipitation over the western coast of South America during Coastal El Niño (COEN) events for the period spanning 1980–2023. Two types of COEN can be distinguished: (i) that occur in association with large-scale El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (e.g. 1982/83, 1997/98), and (ii) more ‘local’ COEN–when anomalous sea surface temperature take place over the far-eastern equatorial Pacific only (e.g. 2017, 2023). During both types of COEN events, increased rainfall along the western coast of South America is associated with intense Kelvin wave activity. In addition, westward inertio-gravity (WIG) waves, Rossby waves, and the MJO exhibit increased activity during local COEN events. During the recent extreme COEN 2017 and 2023, heavy rainfall occurred alongside significant WIGs, Kelvin, Rossby, and MJO events with unprecedented amplitudes propagating along western South America. Our results suggest that the probability of extreme precipitation under Coastal ENSO in western South America is strongly modulated by wave activity.

A compilation of lithospheric stress directions for continental South America and the inferred major patterns of the regional intraplate stress field are presented. Stress orientations are based primarily on earthquake focal mechanisms and Quaternary fault slip inversion published in the literature. Four new focal mechanisms based on short‐period P wave modeling, and selected centroid‐moment‐tensor solutions (published by U.S. Geological Survey) consistent with P wave first motions at South American and other World‐Wide Standard Seismograph Network stations are also included in the data base. The observed patterns of intraplate stresses may be useful in constraining numerical models of the plate driving forces in the South American plate. In the Andean plateau (altitudes greater than 3000 m), N‐S extensional stresses predominate. E‐W compressional stresses are observed in the sub‐Andean and platform regions extending up to about 1000 km east of the Andes. The maximum horizontal stress (SHmax) is uniformly oriented in the E‐W direction throughout western South America. Averages of the SHmax direction at grid points spaced 2.5° were taken as representing the “regional” field. The E‐W direction of this regional field is not affected by the change of strike of the Andean chain nor by the contact of a flat subducted slab underneath. The regional SHmax direction is oriented 15° more clockwise than the direction of the Nazca plate convergence. The difference between the regional SHmax orientations and the absolute plate motion may be only about 6°. This may indicate that contact forces with the Nazca plate may not be the only major contributor to the intraplate stresses in western South America. The eastern limit of this Andean stress province seems to coincide with aseismic regions in the Upper Amazon basin and in the Parana basin. In the central Amazonian region, seismicity and stress data suggest a seismic province with N‐S compressional stresses. The origin of these stresses is not yet clearly understood but could possibly be related to lower crustal loading along the middle Amazon basin. In northeastern Brazil, seismicity is characterized by upper crustal strike‐slip earthquakes bordering the Potiguar marginal basin. A model is proposed for this region in which the stress field is the result of a superposition of regional E‐W compressional stresses and local extensional stresses (oriented perpendicular to the continental margin) possibly related to density contrasts and sediment loading in the continental shelf.

Neotropical skinks are unique among lizards and other vertebrates in their degree of convergence, in reproductive traits,with eutherian mammals. They have also been famously difficult to classify into species, largely because of a conservativebody plan and paucity of conventional diagnostic characters. Currently there are 26 recognized species, six of which occuronly on Caribbean islands. All are placed in a single genus, Mabuya. We conducted a systematic revision of Neotropicalskinks using both conventional and unconventional morphological characters, supplemented by DNA sequence analyses.We define 61 species grouped into 16 clades, recognized here as genera. They include three available generic names(Copeoglossum, Mabuya, and Spondylurus) and 13 new genera: Alinea gen. nov., Aspronema gen. nov., Brasiliscincusgen. nov., Capitellum gen. nov., Exila gen. nov., Manciola gen. nov., Maracaiba gen. nov., Marisora gen. nov., Noto-mabuya gen. nov., Orosaura gen. nov., Panopa gen. nov., Psychosaura gen. nov., and Varzea gen. nov. These 16 generaof skinks form a monophyletic group and are placed in the Subfamily Mabuyinae of the skink Family Mabuyidae. Sixother skink families are recognized: Acontidae, Egerniidae, Eugongylidae, Lygosomidae, Scincidae, and Sphenomorphi-dae. We describe three new subfamilies of Mabuyidae: Chioniniinae subfam. nov., Dasiinae subfam. nov., and Trachyl-epidinae subfam. nov. We describe 24 new species of mabuyines: Capitellum mariagalantae sp. nov., Capitellumparvicruzae sp. nov., Copeoglossum aurae sp. nov., Copeoglossum margaritae sp. nov., Copeoglossum redondae sp.nov., Mabuya cochonae sp. nov., Mabuya desiradae sp. nov., Mabuya grandisterrae sp. nov., Mabuya guadeloupae sp.nov., Mabuya hispaniolae sp. nov., Mabuya montserratae sp. nov., Marisora aurulae sp. nov., Marisora magnacornaesp. nov., Marisora roatanae sp. nov., Spondylurus anegadae sp. nov., Spondylurus culebrae sp. nov., Spondylurus caico-sae sp. nov., Spondylurus haitiae sp. nov., Spondylurus magnacruzae sp. nov., Spondylurus martinae sp. nov., Spondy-lurus monae sp. nov., Spondylurus monitae sp. nov., Spondylurus powelli sp. nov., and Spondylurus turksae sp. nov. Wealso resurrect 10 species from synonymies: Alinea lanceolata comb. nov., Alinea luciae comb. nov., Capitellum metalli-cum comb. nov., Mabuya dominicana, Marisora alliacea comb. nov., Marisora brachypoda comb. nov., Spondylurusfulgidus comb. nov., Spondylurus nitidus comb. nov., Spondylurus semitaeniatus comb. nov., and Spondylurus spilonotuscomb. nov. Of the 61 total species of mabuyine skinks, 39 occur on Caribbean islands, 38 are endemic to those islands,and 33 of those occur in the West Indies. Most species on Caribbean islands are allopatric, single-island endemics, al-though three species are known from Hispaniola, three from St. Thomas, and two from Culebra, St. Croix, Salt Island,Martinique, the southern Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, and Tobago. Co-occurring species typically differ in body size and be-long to different genera. Three ecomorphs are described to account for associations of ecology and morphology: terrestri-al, scansorial, and cryptozoic. Parturition occurs at the transition between the dry and wet seasons, and the number ofyoung (1–7) is correlated with body size and taxonomic group. Molecular phylogenies indicate the presence of many un-named species in Middle and South America. A molecular timetree shows that mabuyines dispersed from Africa to SouthAmerica 18 (25–9) million years ago, and that diversification occurred initially in South America but soon led to coloni-zation of Caribbean islands and Middle America. The six genera present on Caribbean islands each represent separate dis-persals, over water, from the mainland during the last 10 million years. Considerable dispersal and speciation alsooccurred on and among Caribbean islands, probably enhanced by Pleistocene glacial cycles and their concomitant sea lev-el changes. Based on IUCN Redlist criteria, all of the 38 endemic Caribbean island species are threatened with extinction.Twenty-seven species (71%) are Critically Endangered, six species (16%) are Endangered, and five species (13%) are Vul-nerable. Sixteen of the Critically Endangered species are extinct, or possibly extinct, because of human activities duringthe last two centuries. Several of the surviving species are near extinction and in need of immediate protection. Analysisof collection records indicates that the decline or loss of 14 skink species can be attributed to predation by the Small IndianMongoose. That invasive predator was introduced as a biological control of rats in sugar cane fields in the late nineteenthcentury (1872–1900), immediately resulting in a mass extinction of skinks and other reptiles. The ground-dwelling and diurnal habits of skinks have made them particularly susceptible to mongoose predation.

A long-standing debate on the dynamics of population growth in human history has become polarized between a Malthusian stance and a Boserupian one. The former tends to view population growth as limited by carrying capacity, dependent on environment and technology, whereas the latter sees population growth itself as a major inducement to social, economic and technological developments. In this paper the authors experiment with approaching this debate by using recent developments in evolutionary theory. According to these, evolutionary principles, as expounded by Charles Darwin and subsequent evolutionary scientists, apply not only to biological evolution but also to social or cultural evolution. Here, the role of genes is taken over by culture and, since culture is much more pliable than our DNA, evolution speeds up. As the only organisms on Earth whose evolution relies as heavily on culture as on genes, humans have become extremely adaptable. Their hyper-adaptability suggest that humans, through their cultural evolution, have managed increasingly to adapt to their own growing population, thus succeeding in accommodating ever-growing numbers. This hypothesis fits the Boserupian approach to population very well but less so the Malthusian one, perhaps indicating a gradual shift from a Malthusian regime to a Boserupian one in human history. The hypothesis is discussed and examined through four case studies: The beginning of farming around Gobekli Tepe in southeast Turkey, the productive farming systems of Tiwanaku in South America, the population crisis of late medieval and early modern Iceland, and the ‘collapse’ of Rapa Nui (Easter Island).

Middle America (also called Mesoamerica, henceforth MA), as a product of the culture area concept, is only one of the approximately 35 areas into which most anthropologists (and others) interested in the concept would divide the pre-Columbian New World. MA is of special interest in that (a) ‘civilization’ — by whatever definition — first appeared in the New World in MA, and (b) in political terms MA is divided between just two2 contemporary nations — Mexico and Guatemala — both of them officiall using Spanish as the national language.

A plate-tectonic model for the evolution of Middle America and the Gulf of Mexico-Caribbean Sea region is presented. The model, which is based upon the existence of the Mojave-Sonora megashear, incorporates into the Triassic Pangea reconstruction three microplates between North and South America, thus avoiding the overlap of the Bullard fit. These plates are the Yaqui, bounded on the north by the Mojave-Sonora megashear; the east and west Maya plates, bounded on the north by the Mexican volcanic zone and on the south by a predecessor of the Motagua fault zone; and the Chortis plate (parts of Guatemala and Honduras). During Late Jurassic time, as North America split away from Europe, Africa, and South America, shear, with left-lateral sense of displacement, occurred along the transform faults that bounded the micro-plates. If ∼800 km of left-lateral displacement along the Mojave-Sonora megashear, ∼300 km along the Mexican volcanic belt, and ∼1,300 km along a proto-Motagua megashear are restored, and if Yucatan and Cuba are rotated to fit against northern South America, then (1) a curvilinear belt of late Paleozoic rocks that show lithologic as well as paleontologic similarities extends across the reconstruction and links outcrops in Texas, eastern Mexico, nuclear Central America, and Colombia; (2) a Mediterranean-like sea is delineated that was a precursor of most of the present Gulf of Mexico; (3) correlation is implied between the distinctive quartzose San Cayetano Formation of Cuba and the Caracas and Juan Griego Groups of Venezuela. Geometric constraints suggest that probably shear initially occurred along the Mexican volcanic zone near the end of the Middle Jurassic. Subsequently, probably about 160 m.y. ago, displacements that total ∼800 km began along the Mojave-Sonora megashear. Contemporaneously, Yucatan and fragments of pre-Cretaceous rocks that compose parts of central and western Cuba migrated northward toward their present positions. Rotation of Yucatan was facilitated by considerable displacement along the proto-Motagua zone and along a zone that is probably coincident with the modern Salina Cruz fault. Accumulation of widespread major salt units of Late Jurassic (Callovian to early Oxfordian) age in the Gulf Basin probably occurred contemporaneously with the arrival of these blocks at their present positions. Clastic units that interfinger with some of the youngest salt units and rim the Gulf of Mexico have not recorded major recognized translations since their accumulation. Clockwise rotation of South America and the Chortis plate occurred during Early Cretaceous time. This movement, which was manifested by subduction of Jurassic ocean floor against the previously rifted precursor of the island of Cuba and under parts of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico, is recorded by circum-Caribbean orogeny. Abrupt changes in the relative motions between North and South America during Late Cretaceous time may have resulted in extension and outpourings of basalt upon the Jurassic rocks of the ocean floor of the Venezuelan Basin. West of Beata Ridge, sea-floor spreading formed the Colombian Basin. Related subduction occurred as the Chortis plate (including part of Central America, the Nicaraguan Rise, and southeastern Cuba) was sutured against the Maya East plate along the present Motagua fault and Cayman Trench. Our model is constrained by published geologic data, the relative positions of North and South America from Atlantic sea-floor magnetic anomalies, and the requirement that the major transform faults be compatible with the poles of rotation for the appropriate relative motions between North and South America. Paleomagnetic data from Middle America are sparse but do not conflict with the predicted motions of some of the microplates, especially Chortis.

We tested the hypothesis that the increase in soil stiffness, induced by variations in bulk density and water content at the tire-soil contact interface, causes a reduction in the contact area. For this, we examined the contact area from different tire-ground contact scenarios and compared the measurements and simulations using a contact area description model. Front and rear tractor tires were used for the measurement of the contact area under tilled soil, sugarcane field, unpaved road, and paved ground scenarios, which induced different bulk densities and water content levels. The results revealed that soil stiffness reduced the tire-soil contact area. The tire-soil contact area increased as the water content increased and the bulk density was reduced. For the front tractor tire, the theoretical contact area was similar to the values found for tilled soil, but there was a large difference between the measurements (2,200 cm2, for the tilled soil) and the theoretical estimates (3,100 cm2) for the rear tractor tire (likely induced by tire dimensions). Our results suggest that increases in soil stiffness reduce the tire-soil contact area. The higher the soil bulk density and the lower the soil moisture, the lower the contact area. The results also revealed that the tire tractor tread might reduce the contact at the hard surface, making the shape of the contact area more geometrically irregular and different from those predicted by models using regular geometry (e.g., cycles, ellipses, or rectangles). This study suggests that two-body (soil and tire) contact models for deformable surfaces should be used in future tire-soil contact models of agricultural field vehicles.

It is now possible to use newly available information to extend the study of metallogenic provinces throughout the Cordillera of western North and South America, encompassing approximately one-half of the “circle of fire” surrounding the Pacific Ocean. This study confirms the concept that a theory of metallogenesis requires a primitive sub-crustal heterogeneity of metals. The study further indicates that, in this area, a subduction process related to a plate tectonic hypothesis is incompatible with observed relationships of tectonism, magmatism, and metallogenesis. Attempts to maintain this hypothesis undoubtedly hinder the development of metallogenic theory.

Malnutrition remains a pressing public health issue, with a prevalence of over 30% among women causing severe consequences on their health, households and national development. The many types of malnutrition that affect adults are typically evaluated using the body mass index (BMI), a technique that is frequently used to determine whether a person is overweight or underweight for their height. Using data from the Women’s Individual Recode dataset of the Nigerian Demographic and Health Surveys (NDHS) conducted in 2003, 2008, 2013, and 2018, comprising 90,563 non-pregnant women aged 15–49 years, we explored a comprehensive range of malnutrition determinants, including socio-demographic factors, dietary patterns, healthcare access, and environmental conditions. With these derived data, we implemented stability selection, a technique that allows for subsampling in high dimensional selection algorithm, to identify relevant predictors amidst a large pool of potential variables. Additionally, we incorporated a Bayesian additive model for location, shape, and scale, allowing for the exploration of spatial and contextual effects, enabling a nuanced understanding of how geographic location and social determinants intersect to influence women’s nutritional status. Of the variables retained by the stability selection algorithm, the majority were related to the sigma parameter of the response distribution, while only three related to the mean parameter. The findings indicate that women from at least the poorer households are less likely to be malnourished, with higher variability among the richer and the richest households. Our findings regarding spatial effects have intriguingly revealed that malnutrition among women in Nigeria exhibits spatial structures wherein neighboring states across various geopolitical zones of the country demonstrate similar patterns. These findings demonstrate the unequal allocation of resources among various geographic places within the states, especially in the cases of states with notable deviations.