Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) Phase 4 (2018) : Change management in allergic rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity using mobile technology

Allergic Rhinitis and its Impact on Asthma (ARIA) has evolved from a guideline by using the best approach to integrated care pathways using mobile technology in patients with allergic rhinitis (AR) and asthma multimorbidity. The proposed next phase of ARIA is change management, with the aim of providing an active and healthy life to patients with rhinitis and to those with asthma multimorbidity across the lifecycle irrespective of their sex or socioeconomic status to reduce health and social inequities incurred by the disease. ARIA has followed the 8-step model of Kotter to assess and implement the effect of rhinitis on asthma multimorbidity and to propose multimorbid guidelines. A second change management strategy is proposed by ARIA Phase 4 to increase self-medication and shared decision making in rhinitis and asthma multimorbidity. An innovation of ARIA has been the development and validation of information technology evidence-based tools (Mobile Airways Sentinel Network [MASK]) that can inform patient decisions on the basis of a self-care plan proposed by the health care professional.Peer reviewe

Adherence to treatment in allergic rhinitis using mobile technology. The MASK Study

Background: Mobile technology may help to better understand the adherence to treatment. MASK-rhinitis (Mobile Airways Sentinel NetworK for allergic rhinitis) is a patient-centred ICT system. A mobile phone app (the Allergy Diary) central to MASK is available in 22 countries. Objectives: To assess the adherence to treatment in allergic rhinitis patients using the Allergy Diary App. Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was carried out on all users who filled in the Allergy Diary from 1 January 2016 to 1 August 2017. Secondary adherence was assessed by using the modified Medication Possession Ratio (MPR) and the Proportion of days covered (PDC) approach. Results: A total of 12143 users were registered. A total of 6949 users reported at least one VAS data recording. Among them, 1887 users reported >= 7 VAS data. About 1195 subjects were included in the analysis of adherence. One hundred and thirty-six (11.28%) users were adherent (MPR >= 70% and PDC = 70% and PDC = 1.50) and 176 (14.60%) were switchers. On the other hand, 832 (69.05%) users were non-adherent to medications (MPR Conclusion and clinical relevance: Adherence to treatment is low. The relative efficacy of continuous vs on-demand treatment for allergic rhinitis symptoms is still a matter of debate. This study shows an approach for measuring retrospective adherence based on a mobile app. This also represents a novel approach for analysing medication-taking behaviour in a real-world setting.Peer reviewe

3D matching of epicardial surface of the left ventricle and arterial structure

M.S.Norberto F. Ezquerr

Behind the Iron Curtain: Socio-economic and political factors shaped exotic bird introductions into Europe

Little is known about how socio-economic factors quantitatively contribute to shaping introductions of exotic species in space and time. Here, we discover that socio-economic, historical and political factors are largely responsible for shaping exotic bird introductions into Europe. We find that the Cold War and its resulting commercial alliances in Eastern vs. Western Europe led to contrasting patterns in the numbers, composition and origin of birds introduced into each of the two European blocs. The isolation of the Eastern European bloc from the west during the Cold War led to a decline in the number of birds introduced, the number of introduction events and the number of bird species established. Birds introduced during the Cold War originated largely from economically allied countries of each of the two blocs. The Cold War provided a hitherto unexpected benefit to the Eastern European bloc by limiting exotic species introductions, and subsequent population establishment, due to its restrictions on international trade. We suggest that work on the factors shaping invasive species establishment, spread and impacts should incorporate a socio-economic context. Given the ongoing increase in human movement and trade in Europe and the integration of most former Eastern European countries to the European Union, clear policies should be urgently established to prevent inflow of exotic species into formerly more isolated regions and reduce the risk of future biotic invasions. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Effects of non-cropped landscape diversity on spatial dynamics of farmland birds in intensive farming systems

International audienceIncreasing habitats diversity in agricultural landscapes has been proposed as a key measure for reversingthe decline of farmland biodiversity in Europe. However, indicators used for assessing such a potentialcompensation effect usually only rely on species diversity and abundance while ignoring variations inspecies-specific vulnerability. The extent to which habitat diversity may reverse the decline of specialistspecies in Europe to farming systems is thus still unclear. In this study, we investigate whether the effectof non-cropped habitat diversity on farmland birds’ occurrences was dependent on species’ specializationfor habitats. In particular, we focused on the relative effects of non-cropped habitat diversity on species’abilities to persist or to colonize new vacant areas. We used a capture–recapture statistical framework tostudy the spatial dynamics of 20 farmland bird species in France monitored from 2001 to 2007. We foundthat non-cropped landscape diversity reduces both the probabilities that a species becomes extinctlocally and that a species colonizes new vacant areas, and the occupancy rate. Although this suggests apossible stabilizing effect of the surrounding habitat diversity on species occurrence in farming systems,the occupancy was only weakly affected. Moreover, we found that the most specialist species were themore negatively affected by this landscape diversity in terms of colonization abilities. We argue thataccounting for the differences in habitat specialization among farmland species can improve conservationpolicies dedicated to the management of landscape diversity

Forecasting the potential impacts of CAP-associated land use changes on farmland birds at the national level

International audiencetThe European Farmland Bird Indicator (FBI) has been adopted as a Structural and Sustainable Develop-ment Indicator by the EU. It identifies farmland bird trends and uses them as a proxy for wider farmlandbiodiversity health. This study analyzed the potential impacts of future Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)land uses on the abundances of the 20 farmland bird species included in the French FBI. Four agricul-tural policy scenarios were studied using the Common Agricultural Policy Regionalized Impact analysis(CAPRI) agricultural model. These four scenarios describe the most likely changes in crop areas and includeregional bird population data from the French Breeding Bird Survey. A habitat association model was usedto predict the potential effects that changes to five crop categories, as well as the total arable area, wouldhave on species indices and the FBI. Our study demonstrates that the relative abundances of specialistfarmland bird species depend on both crop cover type and the total crop area. Model predictions show ageneral decline in the abundance of farmland birds between 2007 and 2020. However, the loss of farmlandbirds is predicted to be less pronounced in the ‘CAP Greening’ scenario, although the predicted FBI valueshave relatively large errors. Moreover, whatever the forecasted CAP, such uniform agricultural changesdo not affect bird populations or the FBI equally across all regions. The FBI’s geographical variability inresponse to applied agricultural changes clearly indicates that a nationwide policy will not yield equalresults but will instead depend on where in the country the agricultural changes occur. To optimize theeffectiveness of the CAP on biodiversity at the national and continental levels, policies should be tested atsmaller spatial levels, such as regions or farmlands, and then, the policies that represent the best optionsfor biodiversity at these sublevels should be combined to create a national plan

Genetic and environmental effects on puroindoline-a and puroindoline-b content and their relationship to technological properties in French bread wheats

absen

Disentangling the role of environmental and human pressures on biological invasions across Europe

The accelerating rates of international trade, travel, and transport in the latter half of the twentieth century have led to the progressive mixing of biota from across the world and the number of species introduced to new regions continues to increase. The importance of biogeographic, climatic, economic, and demographic factors as drivers of this trend is increasingly being realized but as yet there is no consensus regarding their relative importance. Whereas little may be done to mitigate the effects of geography and climate on invasions, a wider range of options may exist to moderate the impacts of economic and demographic drivers. Here we use the most recent data available from Europe to partition between macroecological, economic, and demographic variables the varia- tion in alien species richness of bryophytes, fungi, vascular plants, terrestrial insects, aquatic invertebrates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Only national wealth and human population density were statistically significant predictors in the majority of models when analyzed jointly with climate, geography, and land cover. The economic and demographic variables reflect the intensity of human activities and integrate the effect of factors that directly determine the outcome of invasion such as propagule pressure, pathways of introduction, eutrophication, and the intensity of anthropogenic disturbance. The strong influence of economic and demographic variables on the levels of invasion by alien species demonstrates that future solutions to the problem of biological invasions at a national scale lie in mitigating the negative environ- mental consequences of human activities that generate wealth and by promoting more sustainable population growthPeer reviewe