Assessing the Impact of Agricultural Research: Data Requirements and Quality of Current Statistics in Europe

Assessing the impact of agricultural research on sustainability targets often implies to face two main issues: the complexity of the causal path, and the lack of appropriate data. In this paper, we discuss which data would be necessary to measure short- and long-term impacts in Europe, and suggest a set of indicators to evaluate their quality, exploiting both available metadata (qualitative indicator) and the evidence stemming from the data themselves (quantitative indicator based on missing values, temporal contiguity and outliers). An application is shown for a subset of variables. According to our results, qualitative and quantitative indicators often provide conflicting information

Assessing the impact of agricultural research: Data requirements and quality of current statistics in Europe

Assessing the impact of agricultural research on sustainability targets often implies to face two main issues: the complexity of the causal path, and the lack of appropriate data. In this paper, we discuss which data would be necessary to measure short- and long-term impacts in Europe, and suggest a set of indicators to evaluate their quality, exploiting both available metadata (qualitative indicator) and the evidence stemming from the data themselves (quantitative indicator based on missing values, temporal contiguity and outliers). An application is shown for a subset of variables. According to our results, qualitative and quantitative indicators often provide conflicting information

Simultaneous control of DNA and RNA processing efficiency using a nucleic acid calibration set.

PCR-based detection techniques enables reliable and sensitive nucleic acid target detection. However, quantitative determination methods often fail to control for the efficiency of nucleic acid extraction, reverse transcription, and PCR amplification. This problem is even more prominent when working with clinical samples due to target sequence loss during nucleic acid processing or the co-purification of PCR inhibitors (1,2). Handling processes are often assumed to approach 100% efficiency in the laboratory, even if practical experience shows that this efficiency can be much lower. This inability to ensure accuracy can lead to significant error in uncalibrated DNA sample quantitation. The additional need for reverse transcription of RNA may further increase the quantitative error rate, as yet another enzymatic process is involved. Nucleic acid controls have been developed based upon known sequences to calibrate either DNA or RNA handling; DNA calibrators have been used to control for the amplification of target sequences using realtime PCR methods (3–8), while RNA calibrators have been developed to test reverse transcription and amplification efficiencies (9–11). A nonpathogenic viral particle carrying a sequence for use as an external positive control of extraction and amplification has also been described (12). Unfortunately, most of the established processing controls are only suitable for limited applications (i.e., either DNA or RNA detection). Cross-contamination of biological samples or minute detection from natural sources reveals the need for completely synthetic sequences, with no homology to sequences in the nucleic acid databases. It is, therefore, beneficial to design an internal, synthetic calibration system that can control for both DNA and RNA processing steps in a single tube. This set includes both RNA and DNA targets with identical primer binding sites and, thus, primer binding efficiency, but easily distinguishable sequence characteristics, allowing for simultaneous detection, quantitation, and calibration of nucleic acid processing efficiency. A 150-bp randomly generated nucleic acid sequence was developed for use as a short control (SC). A GCrich 75-bp sequence was inserted in the middle of the 150-bp sequence to generate a 225-bp sequence, long control (LC). Besides size, the two sequences were designed to have easily distinguishable probe binding sites with a predicted product melting temperature difference of 4°C. Calibrator sequences have been published as GenBank® accession nos. EF143258 (DNA control, LC) and EF143257 (RNA control, SC). Simultaneous control of DNA and RNA processing efficiency using a nucleic acid calibration se

Chapter Development of an innovative methodology to define patient-designed quality of life: a new version of a wellknown concept in healthcare

Patient quality of life (QoL) is a pivotal parameter, which is often used by clinicians to evaluate how treatments and therapies influence patients’ functionality and emotional state, aiming to ameliorate interventions and their outcomes. Currently, the majority of questionnaires assessing the QoL are designed with the main contribution of clinicians and, therefore, include items that are cantered on the disease rather than on its multifaceted impact on people’s life. The failure to truly grasp the patients’ perspective, their needs, aspirations, perceptions and emotional state, is a major drawback that sets medical care on clinical parameters alone. We aimed to bridge this gap by establishing an innovative patient-designed QoL index to provide a new, unbiased tool considering the patients’ perception of their own well-being. Based predominantly on patients’ contribution, we defined specific areas (physical, emotional, social, functional, economical) and the respective characterizing features, and applied a pseudo-Delphi methodology combined with customer-satisfaction techniques. For each feature, the degree of agreement and the importance were assessed on a Likert scale. A synthetic QoL index was created by weighting the importance of each item. The methodology tested led to the development of a valid patient-designed QoL index, providing a way forward that could potentially be applied to many different conditions. The areas and the features included are indeed common to all patients, irrespective of their disease. We found that the process of methodology development enhanced the patients’ awareness of their subjective experience with the disease, and enabled them to better present their situation to the clinicians. The patient-designed QoL index provides a descriptive model that can be helpful to patients, clinicians and third parties and that can be further integrated with clinical details to obtain an overall view of the course of treatment for each patient

Comparative Study of Immunogenicity of Split, Intradermal and MF59-adjuvanted Influenza Vaccines in Elderly Institutionalized Subjects

Abstract The reduced immunogenicity and effectiveness of influenza vaccines in subjects presenting high risk of influenza-related complications, hospitalization and death, led the innovative drive to search for new strategies to implement the immune response elicited by influenza vaccines including addition of adjuvants, and use of alternative routes of antigen delivery.In this study we evaluated and compared the immune antibody response induced in 252 elderly volunteers living in nursing homes after immunization with three different 2012-2013 seasonal trivalent inactivated influenza vaccines: a conventional split vaccine (n=26), and two potentiated vaccines (a subunit vaccine adjuvanted with MF59 (n=137) or a split vaccine administered intradermally (n=89)), specially licensed for elderly people. Haemagglutination inhibiting (HI) antibody titers were assessed in blood samples collected before and one month after vaccination.The results were evaluated as increase in HI titers found comparing pre- and post-vaccination sera and according to the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) criteria for approval of influenza vaccines in the elderly. Significant antibody increases and fulfillment of all the three CHMP requirements were observed against A/H3N2 and B antigens following immunization with the two potentiated vaccines. After immunization with conventional vaccine responses were lower against A/H3N2 and equivalent against the B antigen. The two potentiated vaccines induced significant antibody increases against A/H1N1 antigen, however, only one of the CHMP criteria was reached. The HI antibody increases after conventional vaccine were significant only for the geometric mean titer and none of the CHMP criteria was fulfilled. The antibody responses induced by the two potentiated vaccines against the three vaccine antigens wereequivalent although post-vaccination titers against the B antigen tended to be higher in subjects vaccinated with intradermal vaccine than in individuals receiving MF59-adjuvanted vaccine. In conclusion the use of MF59 adjuvant and intradermal vaccination appear to be appropriate strategies to address the challenge of declining immune response in the elderly after influenza vaccination

Growing Strong and Healthy with Mister Bone: An Educational Program to Have Strong Bones Later in Life.

Optimal peak bone mass and bone health later in life are favored by a sufficient calcium intake in infancy, childhood and adolescence. The purpose of this study was to test a new educational program created to monitor and to improve calcium and vitamin D intake in children. Nutritional habits in children were evaluated through a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to assess the intake of calcium, vitamin D, dairy products, and total caloric energy at baseline and after seven months of exposure to a unique educational program applied between November 2013 and May 2014 in 176 schoolchildren (48% male, 52% female) attending the fourth and fifth grades of two selected primary schools in Florence, Italy. A significant increase of calcium (from 870 ± 190 to 1100 ± 200 mg/day, p < 0.05), and vitamin D (from 3.6 ± 1.53 to 4.1 ± 2 µg/day) intake in children was documented after the educational program. The amount of specific foods important for bone health consumed, such as milk and vegetables, increased significantly, both in male and female children (p < 0.05). The proposed educational program appears to be effective in modifying calcium intake in children, with a significant increase in the consumption of dairy products and vegetables, but without a significant change in the total caloric intake

Secreted IgM deficiency leads to increased BCR signaling that results in abnormal splenic B cell development.

Mice lacking secreted IgM (sIgM -/-) antibodies display abnormal splenic B cell development, which results in increased marginal zone and decreased follicular B cell numbers. However, the mechanism by which sIgM exhibit this effect is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that B cells in sIgM -/- mice display increased B cell receptor (BCR) signaling as judged by increased levels of phosphorylated Bruton's tyrosine kinase (pBtk), phosphorylated Spleen tyrosine kinase (pSyk), and nuclear receptor Nur77. Low dosage treatment with the pBtk inhibitor Ibrutinib reversed the altered B cell development in the spleen of sIgM -/- mice, suggesting that sIgM regulate splenic B cell differentiation by decreasing BCR signaling. Mechanistically, we show that B cells, which express BCRs specific to hen egg lysozyme (HEL) display diminished responsiveness to HEL stimulation in presence of soluble anti-HEL IgM antibodies. Our data identify sIgM as negative regulators of BCR signaling and suggest that they can act as decoy receptors for self-antigens that are recognized by membrane bound BCRs