Agricultural input market reforms

The objective of this paper is to derive lessons from selected literature concerning the impact and the conditions of successful agricultural input market reform. The agricultural inputs of interest in this review are: fertilizers, seeds, agricultural equipment, pesticides, and livestock services and health inputs. The paper examines the rationale for market reform, its impact on growth, productivity, and income of farmers, and the conditions for success. Six main conclusions emerge from this review. First, market structures are the result of evolutionary processes that accompany the adoption and the diffusion of modern technology in agriculture. Second, the development of markets and private sector cannot occur unless an adequate infrastructure is in place. Third, markets cannot work unless a favorable institutional environment is created. Fourth, the success of reforms is heavily influenced by the sequencing of various policy measures. Fifth, the participation of the private sector is dependent on the credibility of government policies in support of market reforms. Finally, the scanty evidence on the impact of market reforms on small farmers suggests that these groups are often penalized.Markets Economic policy ,

Reply to the letter of Dr Merdin

Dr Merdin kindly makes suggestions about the design of our study and asks for more information about the infectious and immunosuppressive history of our monoclonal B‐cell lymphocytosis (MBL) patients with monoclonal B‐cell lymphocytosis (MBL). In our study, we incidentally found the coexistence of five cases of MBL and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) in a cohort of kidney transplant recipients at a median of 15 years after transplantation.1 MBL and MGUS are two pre‐malignant lymphoproliferative disorders of terminally differentiated B cells. Clinically, MBL and MGUS share common features, such as an indolent course, a late‐onset age distribution, a low rate of progression and an increased susceptibility to infections. MBL and MGUS are also the precursor states of two hematologic malignancies: chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and multiple myeloma (MM), respectively

Pressure Ulcers due to a Tunneled Central Venous Catheter in a Patient on Chronic Maintenance Hemodialysis

We describe a rare complication given by tunneled central venous catheter (CVC) in a 95-years-old woman on chronic maintenance hemodialysis (HD)

Counterfactual and Semifactual Explanations in Abstract Argumentation: Formal Foundations, Complexity and Computation

Explainable Artificial Intelligence and Formal Argumentation have received significant attention in recent years. Argumentation-based systems often lack explainability while supporting decision-making processes. Counterfactual and semifactual explanations are interpretability techniques that provide insights into the outcome of a model by generating alternative hypothetical instances. While there has been important work on counterfactual and semifactual explanations for Machine Learning models, less attention has been devoted to these kinds of problems in argumentation. In this paper, we explore counterfactual and semifactual reasoning in abstract Argumentation Framework. We investigate the computational complexity of counterfactual- and semifactual-based reasoning problems, showing that they are generally harder than classical argumentation problems such as credulous and skeptical acceptance. Finally, we show that counterfactual and semifactual queries can be encoded in weak-constrained Argumentation Framework, and provide a computational strategy through ASP solvers

Successful treatment of BK virus associated-nephropathy in a human immunodeficiency virus-positive kidney transplant recipient

BK virus (BKV) is an opportunistic pathogen in those with impaired immunity. Viral replication is generally asymptomatic but is able to induce cytopathic alterations in renal cells. If BKV infection is left untreated, it leads to BKV-associated nephropathy (BKVAN) and graft loss. There is scarce experience in the management of BKV infection in kidney transplant recipients living with HIV. We report the successful treatment of BKVAN in an HIV-positive kidney transplant recipient who experienced BKV replication in the immediate post-transplantation period. A change in therapy from calcineurin inhibitor to sirolimus, steroid withdrawal and a short course of an immunomodulatory agent (leflunomide) controlled BKV viremia in the absence of drug side-effects or impairment of graft function

Dynamics in Abstract Argumentation Frameworks with Recursive Attack and Support Relations

Argumentation is an important topic in the field of AI. There is a substantial amount of work about different aspects of Dung's abstract Argumentation Framework (AF). Two relevant aspects considered separately so far are extending the framework to account for recursive attacks and supports, and considering dynamics, i.e., AFs evolving over time. In this paper, we jointly deal with these two aspects.We focus on Attack-Support Argumentation Frameworks (ASAFs) which allow for attack and support relations not only between arguments but also targeting attacks and supports at any level, and propose an approach for the incremental computation of extensions (sets of accepted arguments, attacks and supports) of updated ASAFs. Our approach assumes that an initial ASAF extension is given and uses it for first checking whether updates are irrelevant; for relevant updates, an extension of an updated ASAF is computed by translating the problem to the AF domain and leveraging on AF solvers. We experimentally show our incremental approach outperforms the direct computation of extensions for updated ASAFs.Fil: Alfano, Gianvincenzo. Universita Della Calabria.; ItaliaFil: Cohen, Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Gottifredi, Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; ArgentinaFil: Greco, Sergio. Universita Della Calabria.; ItaliaFil: Parisi, Francesco. Universita Della Calabria.; ItaliaFil: Simari, Guillermo R.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación. Instituto de Ciencias e Ingeniería de la Computación; Argentina24th European Conference on Artificial IntelligenceSantiago de CompostelaEspañaEuropean Association for Artificial IntelligenceUniversidad de Santiago de Compostel

fracture toughness of structural adhesives for the automotive industry

Abstract Adhesive bonding is currently employed by automotive manufacturers to complement (or replace) welding in joining dissimilar materials. In order to reduce the impact on the existing manufacturing infrastructures, structural adhesives are deployed in the body shop but hardening is accomplished in the paint cure oven. Various adhesive formulations have been specifically developed for the implementation in the automotive manufacturing chain. However, it is very important to assess the mechanical behaviour of the joints which results from the peculiar curing strategy. In the present work, automotive grade single component epoxy and two component epoxy modified acrylic adhesives were evaluated. T-joints were fabricated using a cold rolled galvanized steel (FeP04) employed in the production of car body parts. The fracture toughness of the joints was determined using the test protocol proposed by the European Structural Integrity Society (ESIS). Optical microscopy was employed to ascertain the mechanisms of failure. The results indicated that both adhesives were able to provide a fairly good mechanical response with minimum preparation of the mating substrates. Moreover, the obtained values of fracture toughness were shown to be essentially independent of the adhesive layer thickness