MULTIDIMENSIONAL OUTPUT INDICES

This abstract describes alternative output aggregates that provide both cross-sectional and temporal comparisons appropriate for the analysis of panel data sets. Several of these multidimensional output indices are constructed using detailed data on agricultural production to illustrate the effects of fixing price weights over time, employing sample average price weights, and choosing between alternative approximations of Divisia indices.Research Methods/ Statistical Methods,

PATTERNS OF AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE UNITED STATES

International Development,

Smoking related disease risk, area deprivation and health behaviours

Acknowledgements We thank Professor Luke Vale, Dr Diane Stockton and participants at the Faculty of Public Health conference, Aviemore, Scotland, November 2011 and UK Society for Behavioural Medicine conference, Stirling, Scotland, December 2011 for helpful comments. Funding This work was supported by the Medical Research Council National Preventive Research Initiative Phase 2 [G0701874]; see http://www.npri.org.uk. The Funding Partners relevant to this award are: British Heart Foundation; Cancer Research UK; Department of Health; Diabetes UK; Economic and Social Research Council; Medical Research Council; Research and Development Office for the Northern Ireland Health and Social Services; Chief Scientist Office; Scottish Government Health Directorates; The Stroke Association; Welsh Assembly Government and World Cancer Research Fund. The Health Economics Research Unit is funded by the Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care DirectoratePeer reviewedPostprin

Periplasmic determinants of virulence in Salmonella enterica

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is a facultative intracellular pathogen that is capable of causing systemic infection in mammals. Its normal course of infection brings this organism into the diverse environments of the stomach, the small intestine, the large intestine, and in the case of susceptible hosts, the phagosomal compartments of macrophages. Not only does S. typhimurium induce the expression of myriad virulence factors in order to successfully establish an infection, this organism must adjust its metabolism to the changing conditions present in the host in order to grow. S. typhimurium has a flexible respiratory chain that is capable of utilizing numerous terminal electron acceptors. I present evidence that although S. typhimurium passes through the microaerobic, shifting to anaerobic, conditions of the intestine, and it is capable of respiring anaerobically, it only grows in the presence of oxygen in the mouse host. When Salmonella passes from the gut to the systemic environment, it encounters oxidative stress brought on by the respiratory burst of phagocytes. Superoxide is the reactive oxygen species generated in macrophages in response to phagocytosis. S. typhimurium encodes a superoxide dismutase, SodCI, that is important for resistance to phagocytic superoxide. Currently it is not known how phagocytic superoxide kills or damages microorganisms taken up by macrophages. However, I have shown that phagocytic superoxide does not damage the DNA of S. typhimurium, and that SodCI protects an extracytoplasmic target from this exogenous superoxide. Superoxide can only directly damage a class of enzymes with a solvent exposed [4Fe-4S] cluster, and this type of enzyme is not known to be transported out of the cytoplasm. However, if an enzyme of this type were to be exported, it would be transported via the Twin Arginine Transport (Tat) system, which translocates folded proteins into the periplasm. This transport system is important for virulence in mice, but it is not needed for most growth conditions in the laboratory. I found that SodCI does not protect a Tat substrate, but I did find that strains with mutations that inactivate this transport system are attenuated because of mislocalization of three proteins involved in cell septation: AmiA, AmiC, and SufI

INTERNATIONAL AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY PATTERNS

In this paper we present measures of land and labor productivity for a group of 98 developed and developing countries using an entirely new data set with annual observations spanning the past three decades. The substantial cross-country and intertemporal variation in productivity in our sample is linked to both natural and economic factors. We extend previous work by dealing with multiple sources of measurement error in conventional agricultural inputs when accounting for observed differences in productivity. In addition to the mix of conventional inputs in agriculture, we find that indicators of quality change in these inputs and the amount of publicly provided infrastructure are significant in explaining cross-sectional differences in productivity patterns.Productivity Analysis,

U.S. AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH DEFLATORS: 1890-1985

Using newly developed time series on U.S. public sector agricultural research expenditures, two new deflators for agricultural research are constructed. These deflators differ from others currently used in the literature in that factor level price indices are weighted with time varying weights which capture the shifting factor mix of research spending by the state agricultural experiment stations (SAES). The substantial differences in measuring real resource allocation to agricultural research using these deflators and alternatives found in the literature, including that used by the National Science Foundation to report official R&D statistics, are demonstrated. In addition, the factor level expenditure series are used to contrast measurement of resource allocation in agricultural research from 1890 to the present using real research service flows as opposed to real research expenditures.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Naming and forgetting

Sowa Rigpa is generally translated as ‘the science of healing’ and often used synonymously for ‘Tibetan medicine’. Historically, Sowa Rigpa can be considered a borrowed term from Sanskrit, accompanied by an adopted sense of ‘science’, which initially signified all forms of medicine known to the Tibetan world, regardless of their place of origin. Over the centuries, Sowa Rigpa became linked to local, indigenous, and ‘enskilled’ practices; later, to nationalist political sensibilities; and of late to cultural belonging. The term evokes territoriality, claims to ownership of knowledge, concerns over sustaining national identities, and considerations about how place-based healing practices and material resources relate to the globalizing ideas about traditional Asian medicines. Textual and ethnographic analyses and interviews with practitioners from China, India, and Nepal show how Sowa Rigpa exists at once as a marker of shared intellectual and cultural histories and forms of medical practice and as a label for a globally circulating medical system with distinct interpretations. Looking at Sowa Rigpa as operating in de- and reterritorialized global spaces makes visible how, why, and to what end modernity forgets (Connerton 2009), thereby allowing for broader conclusions applicable to other medical contexts

How does electronic fetal heart rate monitoring affect labor and delivery outcomes?

Continuous electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) reduces the risk of neonatal seizure by 50% compared with intermittent auscultation (IA) (strength of recommendation [SOR]: A, systematic review of randomized controlled trials [RCTs]). EFM increases the incidence of cesarean section by 66% and the incidence of operative vaginal delivery by 16% (SOR: A, systematic review of RCTs). It has no effect on the rates of cerebral palsy or neonatal mortality (SOR: A, systematic review of RCTs). An estimate from a Cochrane meta-analysis suggests that a cohort of 628 women receiving EFM could expect to experience 1 less neonatal seizure and 11 more cesarean sections compared with IA controls