The Missing Dimensions of the Human Capabilities Approach: Collective and Productive

In this paper we identify two missing dimensions of the Human Capabilities Approach (HCA)—the collective and the productive—and in doing so we advance a ‘productionist’ perspective on development, centred around the idea of ‘collective productive capabilities’. Bringing production back to the core of the development agenda calls for an integration of the HCA and those contributions which have focused their attention on the social, economic and institutional processes of learning, centred around productive organisations and systems. The lack of this focus on collective productive capabilities undermined the Millenium Development Goals Agenda and is still having negative impacts on the ways in which the Sustainable Development Goals Agenda is understood and implemented

Underuse of indicated medications in elderly

Introduction: Treatment omissions are very important to value the quality of pharmacological therapy. In fact, suboptimal prescribing has been defined as overuse (polypharmacy), inappropriate prescribing (drug whose risks are greater than the benefits in older adults) and underuse of indicated medications. This omission of drug therapy may be linked to certain health outcomes in older patients, such as, for instance, the greater risk of cardiovascular events and mortality Material and methods: A cross-sectional study was performed. The study population comprised 407 community-dwelling residents over the age of 65 on Lanzarote (Canary Islands, Spain), where there are 15 primary healthcare centres. Data recorded included socio-demographic characteristics, clinical status, functional and cognitive assessment, and complete information about drugs intake. Potential prescribing omissions (PPO) were evaluated according to Screening Tool to Alert doctors to Right Treatment (START). Results: A total of 1844 medications were prescribed to the patients included in our study (median number per patient: 4.5 drugs; range: 0-14: polypharmacy prevalence: 45%). Omeprazole was the most frequently used drug followed by aspirin, furosemide and enalapril. START identified PPO in 170 (41.8%) subjects. Sixteen of the 22 START criteria (72.7%) were used to identify these PPO. The endocrine system accounted for over half the omissions (51.8%), followed by the cardiovascular system (26.7%), where the main omission was anticoagulants in the presence of chronic atrial fibrillation. Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that the risk of PPO increased by 60% for every additional point in the Charlson Comorbidity Index (OR 1.60, 95% CI 1.35-1.91). Increasing numbers of medications also independently predicted the odds of at least one PPO according to START criteria (OR 2.19, 95% CI 1.36-3.55). Conclusions: Our findings show high rates of polypharmacy and PPO, as well as a clear relationship between these two concepts.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

review of the social and environmental factors affecting the behavior and welfare of turkeys meleagris gallopavo

ABSTRACT In modern rearing systems, turkey producers often face economic losses due to increased aggression, feather pecking, cannibalism, leg disorders, or injuries among birds, which are also significant welfare issues. The main underlying causes appear to relate to rapid growth, flock size, density, poor environmental complexity, or lighting, which may be deficient in providing the birds with an adequate physical or social environment. To date, there is little information regarding the effect of these factors on turkey welfare. This knowledge is, however, essential to ensure the welfare of turkeys and to improve their quality of life, but may also be beneficial to industry, allowing better bird performance, improved carcass quality, and reduced mortality and condemnations. This paper reviews the available scientific literature related to the behavior of turkeys as influenced by the physical and social environment that may be relevant to advances toward turkey production systems that take welfare into consideration. We addressed the effects that factors such as density, group size, space availability, maturation, lightning, feeding, and transport may have over parameters that may be relevant to ensure welfare of turkeys. Available scientific studies were based in experimental environments and identified individual factors corresponding to particular welfare problems. Most of the studies aimed at finding optimal levels of rearing conditions that allow avoiding or decreasing most severe welfare issues. This paper discusses the importance of these factors for development of production environments that would be better suited from a welfare and economic point of view

“You’re kind of considered like a leper”: A Narrative Inquiry Into How The Significant Academic Struggle of Academic Probation Impacts Women Undergraduate Science Students’ Sense of Belonging at an Institution

While there has been significant research on both how academic struggles impact college students, as well as factors that impact the sense of belonging for college students, there has been little research examining how a significant academic struggle impacts a students’ perception of sense of belonging at that institution. This qualitative study explores how an academic struggle impacts students’ sense of belonging at that institution, as well as other findings from this study

Manipulation of the phenotypic appearance of individuals in groups of laying hens: Effects on stress and immune-related variables

This study evaluated whether phenotypic appearance (PA) alteration during two developmental phases in laying hens, reared in two different group sizes, affects stress and immune responses. After hatching, 750 chicks were randomly assigned to 30 pens at a group size of either 10 or 40 birds. Then, the appearance of 0, 30, 50, 70 or 100% of the chicks in each pen was altered by blackdyeing their head feathers (marked); remaining chicks were unmarked. At 32 weeks, basal and postacute stress plasma corticosterone concentration, leukocyte counts, phytohemagglutinin-p lymphoproliferative and primary antibody responses were measured in six birds/pen. Analysis of variances (ANOVAs) showed no differences among treatment combinations. In a second phase, birds within initially homogeneous pens were sequentially either marked or had dye bleached to alter PA of 70% of hens in each flock (= group in a pen). Hens within initially heterogeneous pens remained unaltered as controls. The above variables were remeasured. Hens in phenotypically manipulated pens showed modified leukocyte counts compared to hens in control pens, indicating a chronic stress reaction in all penmates (whether individual PA was altered or not). Social isolation increased plasma corticosterone concentration. However, within groups of n = 40, phenotypically unaltered hens had lower responses than their altered penmate counterparts, suggesting that remaining in a stable PA group AIDS better coping with challenges. Although all hens in manipulated pens showed modified leukocyte counts, their antibody and lymphoproliferative responses did not differ from controls suggesting that all groupmates were able to immunologically cope with the challenges presented, within the timeframe evaluated.Fil: Nazar, Franco Nicolas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Marin, Raul Hector. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas y Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Liste, Mariano Gonzalo. Centro de Investigación Neiker - Tecnalia; EspañaFil: Campderrich, I.. Centro de Investigación Neiker - Tecnalia; EspañaFil: Estevez, I.. Centro de Investigación Neiker - Tecnalia; Españ

E2 Participation: Electronically Empowering Citizens for Social Innovation through Agreement Technologies

Following the open government trend and based on its three principles - collaboration, transparency and participation; participation initiatives are been conducted by many governments around the world. Despite the wide range and variety of such initiatives, most of them face a common technical challenge - lack of technical tools to automatically summarize stakeholders' opinions and discussions. Addressing the challenge, this paper introduces a new concept on e-Participation research - Electronic Empowerment (E2) Participation, a new approach to automatically identify collective thinking patterns in e-Participation initiatives. The concept was coined as part of a multi-disciplinary research project aiming at integrating Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering techniques and tools with Electronic Governance models and principles to design innovative tools for e-Participation. Since our research work is at its early stages, the main contribution of this paper is introducing the E2 Participation concept and outlining a framework for its implementation.Peer Reviewe