Assessment of the impacts of farmer participation in farmer research groups in the highlands of Kabale, Uganda

The African Highlands Initiative (AHI) is promoting community-based participatory research approaches using farmer research groups (FRG) to catalyse farmer participation in research, and to widen the impact of participatory research. However, there is dearth of systematic empirical studies that evaluates the quality of participation in FRGs, and their impacts. This report summarises the results of an empirical study that investigated the types of participatory research that occurred at the different stages of the research process, how farmer participation occurred, who participates in FRG, what are the factors that determined farmers' participation in FRG, and what criteria to use in monitoring and evaluating the performance of FRG. Results showed that the types of participation were more of functional consultative and collaborative types, but varied in the different stages of the research process as farmers were increasingly taking on more roles and responsibilities. Farmer participation in FRG tend to follow a "U" shaped curve, with high participation at the initial stages of the process, followed by dramatic decrease as many farmers drop out from the groups, and slow increases towards the end of the first seasons. Similarly, there was a significantly higher participation of male farmers at the beginning of the process, compared to women. However, as FRGs progressed, the proportion of men decreased while the relative proportion of women increased dramatically to reach about 67% of farmers in mixed groups, and 24% of the FRGs were women only. These results suggest that FRG proved to be a more effective mechanism to involve women and the resource-poor farmers in research who would otherwise be bypassed by conventional approaches. The results of the Logit regression model confirmed that the probability of participating in FRG was higher for women compared to men, and that there were no significant differences in wealth circumstances between FRG members and the rest of the community. We argue that FRG as an approach has a great potential for catalyzing the participation of farmers as partners in research and development activities. However, this requires significant support and personal commitment of researchers to broaden the scope of FRGs from a functional consultative type to a more collegial empowering type, and from variety evaluation to broader natural resources management research and other developmental issues

Age-Dependent Changes in the Cerebrospinal Fluid Proteome by Slow Off-Rate Modified Aptamer Array

An important precondition for the successful development of diagnostic assays of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers of age-related neurodegenerative diseases is an understanding of the dynamic nature of the CSF proteome during the normal aging process. In this study, a novel proteomic technology was used to quantify hundreds of proteins simultaneously in the CSF from 90 cognitively normal adults 21 to 85 years of age. SomaLogic's highly multiplexed proteomic platform can measure more than 800 proteins simultaneously from small volumes of biological fluids using novel slow off-rate modified aptamer (SOMAmer) protein affinity reagents with sensitivity, specificity, and dynamic ranges that meet or exceed those of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. In the first application of this technology to CSF, we detected 248 proteins that possessed signals greater than twofold over background. Several novel correlations between detected protein concentrations and age were discovered that indicate that both inflammation and response to injury in the central nervous system may increase with age. Applying this powerful proteomic approach to CSF provides potential new insight into the aging of the human central nervous system that may have utility in discovering new disease-related changes in the CSF proteome

The Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) Investigation and the Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS) for the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission

Abstract The Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) Investigation is one of 5 fields-and-particles investigations on the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission. MMS comprises 4 spacecraft flying in close formation in highly elliptical, near-Earth-equatorial orbits targeting understanding of the fundamental physics of the important physical process called magnetic reconnection using Earth’s magnetosphere as a plasma laboratory. EPD comprises two sensor types, the Energetic Ion Spectrometer (EIS) with one instrument on each of the 4 spacecraft, and the Fly’s Eye Energetic Particle Spectrometer (FEEPS) with 2 instruments on each of the 4 spacecraft. EIS measures energetic ion energy, angle and elemental compositional distributions from a required low energy limit of 20 keV for protons and 45 keV for oxygen ions, up to \u3e0.5 MeV (with capabilities to measure up to \u3e1 MeV). FEEPS measures instantaneous all sky images of energetic electrons from 25 keV to \u3e0.5 MeV, and also measures total ion energy distributions from 45 keV to \u3e0.5 MeV to be used in conjunction with EIS to measure all sky ion distributions. In this report we describe the EPD investigation and the details of the EIS sensor. Specifically we describe EPD-level science objectives, the science and measurement requirements, and the challenges that the EPD team had in meeting these requirements. Here we also describe the design and operation of the EIS instruments, their calibrated performances, and the EIS in-flight and ground operations. Blake et al. (The Flys Eye Energetic Particle Spectrometer (FEEPS) contribution to the Energetic Particle Detector (EPD) investigation of the Magnetospheric Magnetoscale (MMS) Mission, this issue) describe the design and operation of the FEEPS instruments, their calibrated performances, and the FEEPS in-flight and ground operations. The MMS spacecraft will launch in early 2015, and over its 2-year mission will provide comprehensive measurements of magnetic reconnection at Earth’s magnetopause during the 18 months that comprise orbital phase 1, and magnetic reconnection within Earth’s magnetotail during the about 6 months that comprise orbital phase 2

Learning From Early Attempts to Generalize Darwinian Principles to Social Evolution

Copyright University of Hertfordshire & author.Evolutionary psychology places the human psyche in the context of evolution, and addresses the Darwinian processes involved, particularly at the level of genetic evolution. A logically separate and potentially complementary argument is to consider the application of Darwinian principles not only to genes but also to social entities and processes. This idea of extending Darwinian principles was suggested by Darwin himself. Attempts to do this appeared as early as the 1870s and proliferated until the early twentieth century. But such ideas remained dormant in the social sciences from the 1920s until after the Second World War. Some lessons can be learned from this earlier period, particularly concerning the problem of specifying the social units of selection or replication

A Manual for the Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended Interview

The Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) has become one of the most widely used outcome instruments to assess global disability and recovery after traumatic brain injury. Achieving consistency in the application of the assessment remains a challenge, particularly in multi-center studies involving many assessors. We present a manual for the GOSE interview that is designed to support both single- and multi-center studies and promote inter-rater agreement. Many patients fall clearly into a particular category; however, patients may have outcomes that are on the borderline between adjacent categories, and cases can present other challenges for assessment. The Manual includes the general principles of assessment, advice on administering each section of the GOSE interview, and guidance on “borderline” and “difficult” cases. Finally, we discuss the properties of the GOSE, including strengths and limitations, and outline recommendations for assessor training, accreditation, and monitoring

Ten Simple Rules for Organizing a Virtual Conference—Anywhere

Etienne P. de Villiers and Sheila C. Ommeh are ILRI author

Imaging and targeted therapy of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma using the theranostic sodium iodide symporter (NIS) gene

The theranostic sodium iodide symporter (NIS) gene allows detailed molecular imaging of transgene expression and application of therapeutic radionuclides. As a crucial step towards clinical application, we investigated tumor specificity and transfection efficiency of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted polyplexes as systemic NIS gene delivery vehicles in an advanced genetically engineered mouse model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) that closely reflects human disease. PDAC was induced in mice by pancreas-specific activation of constitutively active Kras(G12D) and deletion of Trp53. We used tumor-targeted polyplexes (LPEIPEG-GE11/NIS) based on linear polyethylenimine, shielded by polyethylene glycol and coupled with the EGFR-specific peptide ligand GE11, to target a NIS-expressing plasmid to high EGFR-expressing PDAC. In vitro iodide uptake studies in cell explants from murine EGFR-positive and EGFR-ablated PDAC lesions demonstrated high transfection efficiency and EGFR-specificity of LPEI-PEG-GE11/NIS. In vivo I-123 gamma camera imaging and three-dimensional high-resolution I-124 PET showed significant tumor-specific accumulation of radioiodide after systemic LPEI-PEG-GE11/NIS injection. Administration of I-131 in LPEI-PEG-GE11/NIS-treated mice resulted in significantly reduced tumor growth compared to controls as determined by magnetic resonance imaging, though survival was not significantly prolonged. This study opens the exciting prospect of NIS-mediated radionuclide imaging and therapy of PDAC after systemic non-viral NIS gene delivery

Gene Expression Signatures That Predict Radiation Exposure in Mice and Humans

BACKGROUND: The capacity to assess environmental inputs to biological phenotypes is limited by methods that can accurately and quantitatively measure these contributions. One such example can be seen in the context of exposure to ionizing radiation. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We have made use of gene expression analysis of peripheral blood (PB) mononuclear cells to develop expression profiles that accurately reflect prior radiation exposure. We demonstrate that expression profiles can be developed that not only predict radiation exposure in mice but also distinguish the level of radiation exposure, ranging from 50 cGy to 1,000 cGy. Likewise, a molecular signature of radiation response developed solely from irradiated human patient samples can predict and distinguish irradiated human PB samples from nonirradiated samples with an accuracy of 90%, sensitivity of 85%, and specificity of 94%. We further demonstrate that a radiation profile developed in the mouse can correctly distinguish PB samples from irradiated and nonirradiated human patients with an accuracy of 77%, sensitivity of 82%, and specificity of 75%. Taken together, these data demonstrate that molecular profiles can be generated that are highly predictive of different levels of radiation exposure in mice and humans. CONCLUSIONS: We suggest that this approach, with additional refinement, could provide a method to assess the effects of various environmental inputs into biological phenotypes as well as providing a more practical application of a rapid molecular screening test for the diagnosis of radiation exposure

Healing in the Sámi North

There is a special emphasis today on integrating traditional healing within health services. However, most areas in which there is a system of traditional healing have undergone colonization and a number of pressures suppressing tradition for hundreds of years. The question arises as to how one can understand today’s tradition in light of earlier traditions. This article is based on material collected in Sámi areas of Finnmark and Nord-Troms Norway; it compares local healing traditions with what is known of earlier shamanic traditions in the area. The study is based on 27 interviews among healers and their patients. The findings suggest that although local healing traditions among the Sámi in northern Norway have undergone major transformations during the last several hundred years, they may be considered an extension of a long-standing tradition with deep roots in the region. Of special interest are also the new forms tradition may take in today’s changing global society