Rural Livelihoods: Interplay Between Farm Activities, Non-farm Activities and the Resource Base

A concentration of poor in rural areas has resulted in a research and policy focus on agricultural technologies and (poor) households impact on soil productivity. But farm households do not live of farming alone, non-farm activities play a principal role even in remote areas. With a unique household-level dataset covering seven regions in Africa and two in Asia we analyze (1) the importance of non-farm income in different geographical zones; (2) the role of geographical factors in determining access to non-farm employment; (3) the role of non-farm income in external input use and soil nitrogen balances. Distinguishing geographical zones based on the distance to urban areas we find the share of non-farm income increasing from 12 percent in the remote areas to 35 percent in peri-urban areas. Geographical location is found to explain a major part of the variation in individual non-farm participation, besides characteristics like education and gender. At household level we find non-farm income not playing a role of significance in explaining external input use, inorganic fertilizer use nor changes in the nitrogen balance. Households thus appear not to invest non-farm income in agriculture. This limits the contribution of non-farm income to reducing widespread soil nutrient depletion witnessed in Africa.off-farm income, rural development, micro-economics, Labor and Human Capital, Q12, D1, J43, Q24,

Aspirated capacitor measurements of air conductivity and ion mobility spectra

Measurements of ions in atmospheric air are used to investigate atmospheric electricity and particulate pollution. Commonly studied ion parameters are (1) air conductivity, related to the total ion number concentration, and (2) the ion mobility spectrum, which varies with atmospheric composition. The physical principles of air ion instrumentation are long-established. A recent development is the computerised aspirated capacitor, which measures ions from (a) the current of charged particles at a sensing electrode, and (b) the rate of charge exchange with an electrode at a known initial potential, relaxing to a lower potential. As the voltage decays, only ions of higher and higher mobility are collected by the central electrode and contribute to the further decay of the voltage. This enables extension of the classical theory to calculate ion mobility spectra by inverting voltage decay time series. In indoor air, ion mobility spectra determined from both the novel voltage decay inversion, and an established voltage switching technique, were compared and shown to be of similar shape. Air conductivities calculated by integration were: 5.3 +- 2.5 fS/m and 2.7 +- 1.1 fS/m respectively, with conductivity determined to be 3 fS/m by direct measurement at a constant voltage. Applications of the new Relaxation Potential Inversion Method (RPIM) include air ion mobility spectrum retrieval from historical data, and computation of ion mobility spectra in planetary atmospheres.Comment: To be published in Review of Scientific Instrument

Оформление конструкторской документации на печатные платы в условиях автоматизированного проектирования и подготовки производства

Предложен подход к оформлению чертежей печатных плат, позволяющий значительно упростить документацию, а также упорядочить документооборот

Factors associated with the impact of quality improvement collaboratives in mental healthcare: An exploratory study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Quality improvement collaboratives (QICs) bring together groups of healthcare professionals to work in a structured manner to improve the quality of healthcare delivery within particular domains. We explored which characteristics of the composition, participation, functioning, and organization of these collaboratives related to changes in the healthcare for patients with anxiety disorders, dual diagnosis, or schizophrenia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We studied three QICs involving 29 quality improvement (QI) teams representing a number of mental healthcare organizations in the Netherlands. The aims of the three QICs were the implementation of multidisciplinary practice guidelines in the domains of anxiety disorders, dual diagnosis, and schizophrenia, respectively. We used eight performance indicators to assess the impact of the QI teams on self-reported patient outcomes and process of care outcomes for 1,346 patients. The QI team members completed a questionnaire on the characteristics of the composition, participation in a national program, functioning, and organizational context for their teams. It was expected that an association would be found between these team characteristics and the quality of care for patients with anxiety disorders, dual diagnosis, and schizophrenia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No consistent patterns of association emerged. Theory-based factors did not perform better than practice-based factors. However, QI teams that received support from their management and both active and inspirational team leadership showed better results. Rather surprisingly, a lower average level of education among the team members was associated with better results, although less consistently than the management and leadership characteristics. Team views with regard to the QI goals of the team and attitudes towards multidisciplinary practice guidelines did not correlate with team success.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>No general conclusions about the impact of the characteristics of QI teams on the quality of healthcare can be drawn, but support of the management and active, inspirational team leadership appear to be important. Not only patient outcomes but also the performance indicators of monitoring and screening/assessment showed improvement in many but not all of the QI teams with such characteristics. More studies are needed to identify factors associated with the impact of multidisciplinary practice guidelines in mental healthcare.</p

Coverage and Representativeness of Passive Surveillance Components for Cattle and Swine in The Netherlands

Common aims of animal health surveillance systems are the timely detection of emerging diseases and health status monitoring. This study aimed to evaluate the coverage and representativeness of passive surveillance components for cattle and swine in the Netherlands from 2015–2019. The passive surveillance components consisted of a telephone helpdesk for veterinary advice and diagnostic and postmortem facilities. Spatial analysis showed heterogeneity (range in RR = 0.26–5.37) of participation across the Netherlands. Generalized linear mixed models showed that distance to the diagnostic facility and farm density were associated with the number of contacts of farmers with the helpdesk and postmortem examination. The contact rate of veterinary practices was associated with their number of clients, ranging in RR from 0.39 to 1.59. We concluded that the evaluation indicated differences in coverage of the passive surveillance components across regions, farms and veterinary practices. Due to the absence of emerging infections in the study period, we were unable to estimate the consequences of the observed differences for the early detection of disease. Nevertheless, regions and veterinary practices with low participation in passive surveillance might be a risk for early detection, and consequently, further understanding of the motivation to participate in passive surveillance components is needed

CT characteristics of solid pulmonary nodules of never smokers versus smokers:A population-based study

Purpose: Aim was to assess CT characteristics of lung nodules in never and former smokers compared to current smokers in a population-based setting. Method: We included individuals aged 45–60 years taking part in the ImaLife (Imaging in Lifelines) study, with at least one solid lung nodule (≥30 mm3) on low-dose chest CT. Qualitative (location, shape, margin, nodule type, attached structures) and quantitative (count, diameter, volume) nodule characteristics were evaluated. Based on Fleischner criteria, ‘high risk’ nodules were defined. To examine the association between smoking status and nodule CT characteristics of participants, multi-level multinomial logistic regression corrected for clustering of nodules within participants was performed, where all odds ratios (aORs) were adjusted for age and sex. Results: Overall, 1,639 individuals (median age: 55.0, IQR:50.5–58.5, 50.5% men) were included, with 42.1% never smokers, 35.3% former smokers and 22.6% current smokers. A total of 3,222 solid nodules were identified; 39.7% of individuals had multiple nodules. Nodule size, location, type and attachment were similar for never compared to current smokers. The odds of nodules with an irregular shape and irregular margin was lower in never smokers (aOR:0.64, 95 %CI:0.44–0.93; aOR:0.60, 95 %CI:0.41–0.88, respectively) and former smokers (aOR:0.61, 95 %CI:0.41–0.90; aOR:0.57, 95 %CI:0.38–0.85, respectively) compared to current smokers. The odds of a detected nodule being ‘high risk’ was similar for never versus current smokers (never smokers: aOR = 0.90; 95% CI:0.73–1.11). Conclusions: CT-based characteristics of solid lung nodules in never and former smokers differed only slightly from current smokers. Among individuals with solid nodules, ‘high-risk’ nodules were equally common in never smokers and current smokers

Особенности процесса трещинообразования в массиве при управлении его газодинамикой

Исследован процесс сдерживания перехода угля из потенциально устойчивого состояния в стадию бурного разрушения. Ей, как правило, предшествует некоторый промежуток времени относительного затишья. Особенно важно улавливать этот момент среди массы различных откликов массива на ведение горных работ. Одним из вариантов управления развитием и релаксацией системы трещин может служить физико-химическая обработка.The inhibition process of coal transition from the potentially stable state in the stage of stormy destruction is investigation. As a rule, to it is preceded some interval of relative time calm. It is especially important to catch this moment among mass of different responses of array on the conduct of mountain works. Physical and chemical treatment can serve as one of control variants the development and relaxation of the cracks system

Trends in paediatric inpatient antibiotic therapy in a secondary care setting

There is growing attention for antimicrobial stewardship in paediatrics. Currently, little is known about secondary care antibiotic practice. We analysed trends in time with respect to inpatient antibiotic use in a secondary paediatric care setting. Total inpatient antibiotic consumption per year (2010–2015) and antibiotic prescriptions for urinary tract infection (UTI) and lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI) were analysed. Variables were total, antibiotic-specific, and intravenous days of therapy (DOT/100PD) and for UT

Detecting exacerbations using the Clinical COPD Questionnaire

BACKGROUND: Early treatment of COPD exacerbations has shown to be important. Despite a non-negligible negative impact on health related quality of life, a large proportion of these episodes is not reported (no change in treatment). Little is known whether (low burden) strategies are able to capture these unreported exacerbations. METHODS: The Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) is a short questionnaire with great evaluative properties in measuring health status. The current explorative study evaluates the discriminative properties of weekly CCQ assessment in detecting exacerbations. RESULTS: In a multicentre prospective cohort study, 121 patients, age 67.4 ± 10.5 years, FEV(1 )47.7 ± 18.5% pred were followed for 6 weeks by daily diary card recording and weekly CCQ assessment. Weeks were retrospectively labeled as stable or exacerbation (onset) weeks using the Anthonisen symptom diary-card algorithm. Change in CCQ total scores are significantly higher in exacerbation-onset weeks, 0.35 ± 0.69 compared to -0.04 ± 0.37 in stable weeks (p < 0.001). Performance of the Δ CCQ total score discriminating between stable and exacerbation onset weeks was sufficient (area under the ROC curve 0.75). At a cut off point of 0.2, sensitivity was 62.5 (50.3-73.4), specificity 82.0 (79.3-84.4), and a positive and negative predictive value of 43.5 (35.0-51.0) and 90.8 (87.8-93.5), respectively. Using this cut off point, 22 (out of 38) unreported exacerbations were detected while 39 stable patients would have been false positively 'contacted'. CONCLUSIONS: Weekly CCQ assessment is a promising, low burden method to detect unreported exacerbations. Further research is needed to validate discriminative performance and practical implications of the CCQ in detecting exacerbations in daily care