Agricultural economists and world poverty: progress and prospects

New development paradigms come and go, seemingly with increasing rapidity, yet poverty remains the scourge of the developing nations. As we enter the new millennium, we fear that still more development fads and fancies will emerge, to be taken up and then dropped by the development community. These swings in fashion bring with them the danger that the ‘basics’ of effective development strategies for poverty reduction will be neglected. In this article, we advance some personal and perhaps controversial views about the virtues of getting agriculture moving as a means of reducing poverty, and about the role that agricultural economists can and should play in that endeavour.Food Security and Poverty,

A benchmark activity on the fatigue life assessment of AlSi10Mg components manufactured by L-PBF

One of the challenges associated with additive manufacturing (AM) is the definition of an assessment route which considers the main process signatures of the AM process. To this end, this work presents a complete benchmark activity for the assessment of an AlSi10Mg component produced by a laser pow- der bed fusion process, aimed at advancing the understanding of the fatigue resistance of AM materials with particular focus on the comparison between the fatigue performances of small coupons and demon- strators. Four builds of AlSi10Mg specimen geometries were manufactured to: (i) determine the fatigue curves for both as-built and machined conditions; (ii) measure the fatigue crack growth rate; (iii) produce and test under fatigue a benchmark component used as a reference for the validation of the fatigue assessment procedure. Tools and concepts of flaw tolerance were then used to perform the fatigue assess- ment of the benchmark component and were shown to be successful in the life prediction. Results obtained from this wide database (related to internal defects and surface features) show that only a fracture-based fatigue assessment is able to provide precise life estimates consistent with material crack growth properties. Eventually, all the experimental results including specimens design, analysis of frac- ture surfaces and raw tests’ data will be made available in a database which can be accessed and used by the industrial and scientific communities to calibrate and validate alternative fatigue assessment proce- dures of AM parts

Personal wellbeing in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Association with PTSD symptoms during and following treatment

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: It remains unclear to what extent treatment-related gains in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms translate to improvements in broader domains of personal wellbeing, such as community connectedness, life achievement and security. We sought to determine whether: 1. personal wellbeing improves during the course of a treatment program and 2. changes in core symptom domains (PTSD, anxiety and depression) were associated with improvements in overall personal wellbeing. Methods: Participants (N=124) completed the PTSD Checklist, the Depression and Anxiety Stress Scales and the Personal Wellbeing Index at the start and end of a 4-week Trauma Focused CBT residential program, as well as 3- and 9-months post-treatment. Results: Personal wellbeing improved significantly across the 9-months of the study. Generalised estimating equations analyses indicated that (older) age and improvements in PTSD and depressive symptoms were independent predictors of personal wellbeing across time. Conclusions: Although personal wellbeing improved in tandem with PTSD symptoms, the magnitude of improvement was small. These findings highlight a need to better understand how improvements in personal wellbeing can be optimised following PTSD treatment

Early conscious prone positioning in patients with COVID-19 receiving continuous positive airway pressure: A retrospective analysis

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has challenged the management of hypoxaemic respiratory failure and strained intensive care unit resources. While prone positioning (PP) is an established therapy in mechanically ventilated patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), its role in conscious patients is less well defined. We retrospectively reviewed our experience of implementing early PP in a cohort of 24 patients with acute hypoxaemic respiratory failure due to COVID-19 who required support with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP). The use of PP alongside CPAP significantly increased both the ROX index and arterial oxygen pressure:fractional inspired oxygen (PaO 2:FiO 2) ratio from baseline values (ROX index: 7.0±2.5 baseline vs 11.4±3.7 CPAP+PP,

Characterisation of a refined rat model of respiratory infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the effect of ciprofloxacin

AbstractBackgroundWe sought to characterise a refined rat model of respiratory infection with P. aeruginosa over an acute time course and test the antibiotic ciprofloxacin.MethodsAgar beads were prepared±SPAN®80. Rats were inoculated with sterile agar beads or those containing 105 colony forming units (cfu) P. aeruginosa via intra-tracheal dosing. Bacterial load and inflammatory parameters were measured.ResultsDiffering concentrations of SPAN® 80 modified median agar bead diameter and reduced particle size distribution. Beads prepared with 0.01% v/v SPAN®80 were evaluated in vivo. A stable lung infection up to 7days post infection was achieved and induced BALF neutrophilia 2 and 5days post infection. Ciprofloxacin (50mg/kg) significantly attenuated infection without affecting the inflammatory parameters measured.ConclusionSPAN® 80 can control the particle size and lung distribution of agar beads and P. aeruginosa-embedded beads prepared with 0.01%v/v SPAN®80 can induce infection and inflammation over 7days

An imaging system for standardized quantitative analysis of C. elegans behavior

BACKGROUND: The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is widely used for the genetic analysis of neuronal cell biology, development, and behavior. Because traditional methods for evaluating behavioral phenotypes are qualitative and imprecise, there is a need for tools that allow quantitation and standardization of C. elegans behavioral assays. RESULTS: Here we describe a tracking and imaging system for the automated analysis of C. elegans morphology and behavior. Using this system, it is possible to record the behavior of individual nematodes over long time periods and quantify 144 specific phenotypic parameters. CONCLUSIONS: These tools for phenotypic analysis will provide reliable, comprehensive scoring of a wide range of behavioral abnormalities, and will make it possible to standardize assays such that behavioral data from different labs can readily be compared. In addition, this system will facilitate high-throughput collection of phenotypic data that can ultimately be used to generate a comprehensive database of C. elegans phenotypic information. AVAILABILITY: The hardware configuration and software for the system are available from [email protected]

Functional imaging in asthma and COPD: design of the NOVELTY ADPro substudy

The NOVEL observational longiTudinal studY (NOVELTY; ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT02760329) is a global, prospective, observational study of ∼12 000 patients with a diagnosis of asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Here we describe the design of the Advanced Diagnostic Profiling (ADPro) substudy of NOVELTY being conducted in a subset of ∼180 patients recruited from two primary care sites in York, UK. ADPro is employing a combination of novel functional imaging and physiological and metabolic modalities to explore structural and functional changes in the lungs, and their association with different phenotypes and endotypes. Patients participating in the ADPro substudy will attend two visits at the University of Sheffield, UK, 12±2 months apart, at which they will undergo imaging and physiological lung function testing. The primary endpoints are the distributions of whole lung functional and morphological measurements assessed with Xenon-129 magnetic resonance imaging, including ventilation, gas transfer and airway microstructural indices. Physiological assessments of pulmonary function include spirometry, bronchodilator reversibility, static lung volumes via body plethysmography, transfer factor of the lung for carbon monoxide, multiple-breath nitrogen washout and airway oscillometry. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide will be measured as a marker of Type-2 airways inflammation. Regional and global assessment of lung function using these techniques will enable more precise phenotyping of patients with physician-assigned asthma and/or COPD. These techniques will be assessed for their sensitivity to markers of early disease progression

Comprehensive policy review of anti-trafficking projects funded by the EU

The study reviews the 300+ projects that were funded by the EU in relation to their anti-trafficking policy, between 2012-2016, at a cost of 158.5m euros. The study explores the nature and geographic distribution of these projects. It also examines the activity and outcomes related to them for areas of good practice. Using this information the study examines the current EC strategy and makes recommendations for the future strategy

A Systematic Approach to Multiple Breath Nitrogen Washout Test Quality

Background: Accurate estimates of multiple breath washout (MBW) outcomes require correct operation of the device, appropriate distraction of the subject to ensure they breathe in a manner representative of their relaxed tidal breathing pattern, and appropriate interpretation of the acquired data. Based on available recommendations for an acceptable MBW test, we aimed to develop a protocol to systematically evaluate MBW measurements based on these criteria. Methods: 50MBWtest occasions were systematically reviewed for technical elements and whether the breathing pattern was representative of relaxed tidal breathing by an experienced MBW operator. The impact of qualitative and quantitative criteria on inter-observer agreement was assessed across eight MBW operators (n = 20 test occasions, compared using a Kappa statistic). Results: Using qualitative criteria, 46/168 trials were rejected: 16.6%were technically unacceptable and 10.7% were excluded due to inappropriate breathing pattern. Reviewer agreement was good using qualitative criteria and further improved with quantitative criteria from (κ = 0.53– 0.83%) to (κ 0.73–0.97%), but at the cost of exclusion of further test occasions in this retrospective data analysis. Conclusions: The application of the systematic review improved inter-observer agreement but did not affect reported MBW outcomes

‘Friends call me racist’: Experiences of repercussions from writing comments on newspaper websites

acceptedVersio