“Envisioning a Just Food System” A Students Teaching Students Course

The alternative food movement (AFM) in the United States is a collection of organizations, communities, and individuals who are united under a common goal to search for and ultimately carry out alternative solutions to the current industrial, pesticide-laden, monocrop agriculture model. As this movement has evolved and become more nuanced, questions surrounding exclusivity related to race, class, socioeconomic status, gender, and identity have begun to surface. Tied to the neoliberalist regime, the AFM as it stands today benefits the dominant group, white middle-to-upper class citizens who are educated, and vastly excludes underserved populations. Through the analysis of a 13-student, Students-Teaching-Students course at the University of Vermont developed and taught by Olivia Burt, Leila Rezvani, and Claire Wiggin in the spring of 2016, our research aims to critically assess the food movement as it stands today and collectively determine how the food movement could be more inclusive and act as a vehicle for positive social change. Using emergent pedagogy including backwards design and safe space, as facilitators we aim to stimulate conversation and thought for a more realistic and just movement that achieves environmental, economic and social sustainability. This course resulted in collective student visions on a just food system that challenges dominant narratives, centering around self-determination, critical thinking, and community over individual empowerment. As facilitators, we were able to communicate course content effectively because of our positionality as students-teaching-students in a small, safe, discussion based learning environment. Overall, this course serves as a vessel to teach social justice through the lens of food

Jeff-CHAT Offers students an Interprofessional Forum to Discuss Experiences

Feelings of frustration, loss, and exhaustion are common among healthcare workers. Students placed among new experiences and in a dependent learning role are not shielded from these emotions but often experience them differently from other members of the healthcare team. In addition to the systematic and individual support available through TJUH, for the past year and a half Jeff‐ CHAT (Compassion, Humanism, Altruism, Trust) has provided a forum for students to discuss and reflect on difficult emotions and situations

Federated learning for generating synthetic data: a scoping review

Introduction Federated Learning (FL) is a decentralised approach to training statistical models, where training is performed across multiple clients, producing one global model. Since the training data remains with each local client and is not shared or exchanged with other clients the use of FL may reduce privacy and security risks (compared to methods where multiple data sources are pooled) and can also address data access and heterogeneity problems. Synthetic data is artificially generated data that has the same structure and statistical properties as the original but that does not contain any of the original data records, therefore minimising disclosure risk. Using FL to produce synthetic data (which we refer to as "federated synthesis") has the potential to combine data from multiple clients without compromising privacy, allowing access to data that may otherwise be inaccessible in its raw format. Objectives The objective was to review current research and practices for using FL to generate synthetic data and determine the extent to which research has been undertaken, the methods and evaluation practices used, and any research gaps. Methods A scoping review was conducted to systematically map and describe the published literature on the use of FL to generate synthetic data. Relevant studies were identified through online databases and the findings are described, grouped, and summarised. Information extracted included article characteristics, documenting the type of data that is synthesised, the model architecture and the methods (if any) used to evaluate utility and privacy risk. Results A total of 69 articles were included in the scoping review; all were published between 2018 and 2023 with two thirds (46) in 2022. 30% (21) were focussed on synthetic data generation as the main model output (with 6 of these generating tabular data), whereas 59% (41) focussed on data augmentation. Of the 21 performing federated synthesis, all used deep learning methods (predominantly Generative Adversarial Networks) to generate the synthetic data. Conclusions Federated synthesis is in its early days but shows promise as a method that can construct a global synthetic dataset without sharing any of the local client data. As a field in its infancy there are areas to explore in terms of the privacy risk associated with the various methods proposed, and more generally in how we measure those risks

Effects of Lidocaine and Articaine on Neuronal Survival and Recovery

The local anesthetics lidocaine and articaine are among the most widely used drugs in the dentist’s arsenal, relieving pain by blocking voltage-dependent Naþ channels and thus preventing transmission of the pain signal. Given reports of infrequent but prolonged paresthesias with 4% articaine, we compared its neurotoxicity and functional impairment by screening cultured neural SH-SY5Y cells with formulations used in patients (2% lidocaine + 1:100,000 epinephrine or 4% articaine + 1:100,000 epinephrine) and with pure formulations of the drugs. Voltage-dependent sodium channels Na(v)1.2 and Na(v)1.7 were expressed in SH-SY5Y cells. To test the effects on viability, cells were exposed to drugs for 5 minutes, and after washing, cells were treated with the ratiometric Live/Dead assay. Articaine had no effect on the survival of SH-SY5Y cells, while lidocaine produced a significant reduction only when used as pure powder. To determine reversibility of blockage, wells were exposed to drugs for 5 minutes and returned for medium for 30 minutes, and the calcium elevation induced by depolarizing cells with a high-potassium solution was measured using the calcium indicator Fura-2. High potassium raised calcium in control SH-SY5Y cells and those treated with articaine, but lidocaine treatment significantly reduced the response. In conclusion, articaine does not damage neural cells more than lidocaine in this in vitro model. While this does not question the safety of lidocaine used clinically, it does suggest that articaine is no more neurotoxic, at least in the in vitro setting. © 2018 by the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology

Phylogenetic And Molecular Variability Studies Reveal A New Genetic Clade Of Citrus Leprosis Virus C

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Citrus leprosis virus C (CiLV-C) causes a severe disease affecting citrus orchards in the Western hemisphere. This study reveals the molecular variability of the virus by analyzing four genomic regions (p29, p15, MP and RNA2-intergenic region) distributed over its two RNAs. Nucleotide diversity (pi) values were relatively low but statistically different over the analyzed genes and subpopulations, indicating their distinct evolutionary history. Values of pi(p29) and pi(MP) were higher than those of pi(p15) and pi(RNA2-IR), whereas pi(MP) was increased due to novel discovered isolates phylogenetically clustered in a divergent clade that we called SJP. Isolate BR_SP_SJP_01 RNA1 and RNA2 sequences, clade SJP, showed an identity of 85.6% and 88.4%, respectively, with those corresponding to CiLV-C, the type member of the genus Cilevirus, and its RNA2 5'-proximal region was revealed as a minor donor in a putative inter-clade recombination event. In addition to citrus, BR_SP_SJP_01 naturally infects the weed Commelina benghalensis and is efficiently transmitted by Brevipalpus yothersi mites. Our data demonstrated that negative selection was the major force operating in the evaluated viral coding regions and defined amino acids putatively relevant for the biological function of cilevirus proteins. This work provides molecular tools and sets up a framework for further epidemiological studies.86Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico [375843/2012-4, 481771/2013-1, 401564/2012-6]Fundacao de Apoio a Pesquisa no Estado de Sao Paulo [2012/18771-0, 2012/20667-7, 2014/08458-9]Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq

Physical Activity, Mental Health and Wellbeing During the First COVID-19 Containment in New Zealand: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Strategies implemented worldwide to contain COVID-19 outbreaks varied in severity across different countries, and established a new normal for work and school life (i.e., from home) for many people, reducing opportunities for physical activity. Positive relationships of physical activity with both mental and physical health are well recognised, and therefore the aim was to ascertain how New Zealand’s lockdown restrictions impacted physical activity, mental health and wellbeing. Participants (n = 4007; mean ± SD: age 46.5 ± 14.7 years, 72% female, 80.7% New Zealand European) completed (10–26 April 2020) an online amalgamated survey (Qualtrics): International Physical Activity Questionnaire: Short Form; Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-9; World Health Organisation-Five Well-Being Index; Stages of Change Scale. Positive dose–response relationships between physical activity levels and wellbeing scores were demonstrated for estimates that were unadjusted (moderate activity OR 3.79, CI 2.88–4.92; high activity OR 8.04, CI 6.07–10.7) and adjusted (confounding variables: age, gender, socioeconomic status, time sitting and co-morbidities) (moderate activity 1.57, CI 1.11–2.52; high activity 2.85, CI 1.97–4.14). The study results support previous research demonstrating beneficial effects of regular physical activity on mental health and wellbeing. Governments may use these results to promote meeting physical activity guidelines in order to protect mental health and wellbeing during the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and future pandemics

Standardised coding of diet records: experiences from INTERMAP UK

Coding diet records is a basic element of most dietary surveys, yet it often receives little attention even though errors in coding can lead to flawed study results. In the INTERnational study of MAcro- and micronutrients and blood Pressure (INTERMAP study), efforts were made to minimise errors in coding the 18 720 diet records. Staff were centrally trained and certified before being able to process study data and ongoing quality control checks were performed. This involved the senior (site) nutritionist re-coding randomly selected diet records. To facilitate standardisation of coding in the UK, a code book was designed; it included information about coding brand items, density and portion size information, and default codes to be assigned when limited information was available for food items. It was found that trainees, despite previous experience in coding elsewhere, made coding errors that resulted in errors in estimates of daily energy and nutrient intakes. As training proceeded, the number of errors decreased. Compilation of the code book was labour-intensive, as information from food manufacturers and retailers had to be collected. Strategies are required to avoid repetition of this effort by other research groups. While the methods used in INTERMAP to reduce coding errors were time consuming, the experiences suggest that such errors are important and that they can be reduced

Localising and democratising goal-based governance for sustainability

Accelerating social and environmental change raises pressing questions about how existing institutions can be reformed to mount a more effective response. In this context, goal-based governance has been widely adopted in order to mobilise existing bodies to agree shared goals and develop common purpose. Increasingly employed in sustainability governance at the international scale, goal-based governance concerns setting pan-organisational goals and mobilising to deliver them. There is growing recognition that this approach needs to be downscaled to the local level in ways that can increase democratic engagement in order to realise significant change. This paper examines the opportunities and challenges involved in doing this in Cornwall, UK. We draw on collaborative research with representatives from statutory organisations as well as civic and civil society to highlight: (1) the significance of institutional structures, culture and relationships; (2) the need to adopt innovative participatory methods to engage and enlist civic and civil society organisations in goal-setting; and (3) the importance of ensuring delivery. The paper explores the extent to which local institutions can engage in goal-based and collaborative governance to respond to the challenges of sustainability in ways that reflect specific geo-political and cultural contexts as well as responding to international demands for greater sustainability. The findings provide insights that have relevance for other contexts as local leaders experiment to better recognise, reflect and respond to the social, ecological and political challenges of our time