Trends in crops

Cover title."This bulletin is one of a series of four reports from the Department of Agricultural Economics Research Project 428, 'Trends in the Agricultural and Economic Development of Missouri'"--Page 3

Elementary forms and their dynamics: revisiting Mary Douglas

Mary Douglas's oeuvre furnishes the social sciences with one of the most profound and ambitious bodies of social theory ever to emerge from within anthropology. This article uses the occasion of the publication of Fardon's two volumes of her previously uncollected papers to restate her core arguments about the limited plurality of elementary forms of social organisation, about the institutional dynamics of conflict, and about conflict attenuation. In reviewing these two volumes, the article considers what those anthropologists who have been sceptical either of Douglas's importance or of the Durkheimian traditions generally, will want from these books to convince them to look afresh at her work. It concludes that the two collections will provide open-minded anthropologists with enough evidence of the creativity and significance of her achievement to encourage them to reopen her major theoretical works. An internal critique of some aspects of Douglas's handling of her arguments is offered, before the conclusion identifies the wider significance of her arguments for the social science

The new Mobile Universal Lexicon Evaluation System (MULES): A test of rapid picture naming for concussion sized for the sidelines

© 2018 Objective: Measures of rapid automatized naming (RAN) have been used for over 50 years to capture vision-based aspects of cognition. The Mobile Universal Lexicon Evaluation System (MULES) is a test of rapid picture naming under investigation for detection of concussion and other neurological disorders. MULES was designed as a series of 54 grouped color photographs (fruits, random objects, animals) that integrates saccades, color perception and contextual object identification. Recent changes to the MULES test have been made to improve ease of use on the athletic sidelines. Originally an 11 × 17-inch single-sided paper, the test has been reduced to a laminated 8.5 × 11-inch double-sided version. We identified performance changes associated with transition to the new, MULES, now sized for the sidelines, and examined MULES on the sideline for sports-related concussion. Methods: We administered the new laminated MULES to a group of adult office volunteers as well as youth and collegiate athletes during pre-season baseline testing. Athletes with concussion underwent sideline testing after injury. Time scores for the new laminated MULES were compared to those for the larger version (big MULES). Results: Among 501 athletes and office volunteers (age 16 ± 7 years, range 6–59, 29% female), average test times at baseline were 44.4 ± 14.4 s for the new laminated MULES (n = 196) and 46.5 ± 16.3 s for big MULES (n = 248). Both versions were completed by 57 participants, with excellent agreement (p \u3c 0.001, linear regression, accounting for age). Age was a predictor of test times for both MULES versions, with longer times noted for younger participants (p \u3c 0.001). Among 6 athletes with concussion thus far during the fall sports season (median age 15 years, range 11–21) all showed worsening of MULES scores from pre-season baseline (median 4.0 s, range 2.1–16.4). Conclusion: The MULES test has been converted to an 11 × 8.5-inch laminated version, with excellent agreement between versions across age groups. Feasibly administered at pre-season and in an office setting, the MULES test shows preliminary evidence of capacity to identify athletes with sports-related concussion

β2-Adrenergic receptor promoter haplotype influences the severity of acute viral respiratory tract infection during infancy: a prospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Despite the significant interest in β2-Adrenergic receptor (ADRB2) polymorphisms related to asthma, whether ADRB2 genetic variants are similarly associated with acute respiratory tract infections have not been studied. We hypothesized that genetic variants in ADRB2 associated with a response to asthma therapy during an asthma exacerbation were also associated with severity of acute respiratory tract infections. METHODS: To test this hypothesis, we genotyped 5 common polymorphisms in the promoter region and coding block of the ADRB2 gene (loci -2387, -2274, -1343, +46, and +79) from 374 Caucasian and African American term infants who were enrolled at the time of acute respiratory illness over four respiratory viral seasons. Severity of respiratory tract infections was measured using a bronchiolitis severity score (BSS; range = 0-12, clinically significant difference = 0.5) with a higher score indicating more severe disease. We assigned the promoter, coding and combined promoter and coding haplotypes to the unphased genotype data. The associations between each of these five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) as well as the haplotypes and infant BSS were analyzed using nonparametric univariate analysis and multivariable proportional odds model separately in Caucasians and African Americans. RESULTS: There was no significant association between infant BSS and each of the SNPs in both Caucasians and African Americans. However, promoter haplotype CCA was associated with a decreased BSS in African Americans in a dose dependent manner. The median (interquartile range) BSS of infants with no copies of the CCA haplotype, one copy, and two copies of the CCA haplotype were 5.5 (2.0, 8.0), 4.0 (1.0, 7.5), and 3.0 (1.0, 4.0), respectively. This dose dependent relationship persisted after adjusting for infant age, gender, daycare exposure, secondhand smoke exposure, prior history of breastfeeding, siblings at home, and enrollment season (adjusted odds ratio: 0.59, 95 % confidence interval: 0.36, 0.98). There was no similar protective relationship of haplotype CCA on severity of respiratory tract infections identified in Caucasians. CONCLUSIONS: ADRB2 genotype may be predictive of severity of acute respiratory tract infections in African Americans, and potentially identify a subset of infants who may respond to beta-agonist therapy

Inflammatory and antioxidant pattern unbalance in "clopidogrel-resistant" patients during acute coronary syndrome.

Background. In acute coronary syndrome (ACS), inflammation and redox response are associated with increased residual platelet reactivity (RPR) on clopidogrel therapy. We investigated whether clopidogrel interaction affects platelet function and modulates factors related to inflammation and oxidation in ACS patients differently responding to clopidogrel. Material andMethods. Platelet aggregation was measured in 29 ACS patients on dual (aspirin/clopidogrel) antiplatelet therapy. Nonresponders (NR) were defined as RPR ≥70% by ADP. Several inflammatory and redox parameters were assayed and platelet proteome was determined. Results. Eight (28%) out of 29 ACS patients resulted NR to clopidogrel. At 24 hours, the levels of Th2-type cytokines IL-4, IFN, andMCP-1 were higher in NR, while blood GSH (r-GSHbl) levels were lower in NR than responders (R). Proteomic analysis evidenced an upregulated level of platelet adhesion molecule, CD226, and a downregulation of the antioxidant peroxiredoxin-4. In R patients the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 decreased, while the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-1Ra increased. Conclusions. In patients with high RPR on clopidogrel therapy, an unbalance of inflammatory factors, platelet adhesion molecules, and circulatory and platelet antioxidantmolecules was observed during the acute phase. Proinflammatory milieu persists in nonresponders for a long time after the acute event while antioxidant blood factors tend to conform to normal responsiveness