Risk sharing, networks and investment choices in rural India

Risk is central in the study of rural development. To cope with risk, smallholder farmers rely on a range of formal and informal insurance mechanisms: an extensive literature has explored their interactions. Yet, our understanding of the implications of these interactions for smallholder farmers’ decision-making is incomplete. This thesis addresses this scholarly gap by shedding new light on the risk-related decisions of smallholder farmers and the mechanisms through which networks affect these decisions. To do so, it relies on a combination of experimental and non-experimental economic analyses. The first chapter draws on a framed field experiment in Gujarat, India to explore the effect of selling weather index insurance to groups (as opposed to individuals) on the investment decisions of the insured. The analysis reveals that group pressure reduces risk taking among individuals with group insurance in contexts with perfect information about peer investment decisions. Group insurance thus suffers from the same potential pitfall as group microcredit. The second chapter examines the extent to which informal transfers can explain take-up of individual weather index insurance. It aims to disentangle two channels through which informal transfers influence decisions to purchase insurance: (i) informal risk sharing and (ii) moral hazard. As in the first chapter, the study draws on a framed field experiment in Gujarat. The main finding of this experiment is that redistribution norms reduce take-up: moral hazard leads to lower levels of insurance coverage. The final chapter builds on these results with a nonexperimental analysis of panel data from a rural household survey in India. It examines how cultural obligations to redistribute within networks affect investments in selfprotection. The empirical evidence suggests that increases in individual income lead to higher investments, but increases in network income lead to lower investments due to moral hazard. Collectively, the three papers nuance our understanding of how redistribution norms affect the risk-related decisions of the rural poor. While not negating their consumption smoothing benefits, this thesis indicates that networks also affect decision-making via group pressure and moral hazard. Such externalities could be forestalled by targeting insurance in rural areas with weaker redistributive norms or modifying insurance policy designs. Further research on the welfare implications of such approaches is thus recommended

Creating and using real-world evidence to answer questions about clinical effectiveness

New forms of evidence are needed to complement evidence generated from randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Real-World Evidence (RWE) is a potential new form of evidence, but remains undefined.This paper sets to fill that gap by defining RWE as the output from a rigorous research process which: (1) includes a clear a priori statement of a hypothesis to be tested or research question to be answered; (2) defines the data sources that will be used and critically appraises their strengths and weaknesses; and (3) applies appropriate methods, including advanced analytics. These elements should be set out in advance of the study commencing, ideally in a published protocol.The strengths of RWE studies are that they are more inclusive than RCTs and can enable an evidence base to be developed around real-world effectiveness and to start to address the complications of managing other real-world problems such as multimorbidity. Computerised medical record systems and big data provide a rich source of data for RWE studies.However, guidance is needed to help assess the rigour of RWE studies so that the strength of recommendations based on their output can be determined. Additionally, RWE advanced analytics methods need better categorisation and validation.We predict that the core role of RCTs will shift towards assessing safety and achieving regulatory compliance. RWE studies, notwithstanding their limitations, may become established as the best vehicle to assess efficacy.

Preliminary Characterisation of NP339, a Novel Polyarginine Peptide with Broad Antifungal Activity

FUNDING SOURCE The study was funded by NovaBiotics with support from The UK Governments’ Department of Health and Social Care, delivered by Innovate UK. Shane Smith and Carol Munro’s contribution to the project was funded by a Scottish Universities Life Sciences Alliance Bioskape grant award.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

NP108, an Antimicrobial Polymer with Activity against Methicillin- and Mupirocin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

D.K.M., L.K.K., D.W.S., J.R., and D.A.O. are employees of NovaBiotics Ltd. D.A.O. is a director and shareholder of NovaBiotics Ltd. D.K.M., L.K.K., F.H., D.W.S., and J.R. carried out the experiments described in the manuscript. D.K.M., L.K.K., and D.A.O. came up with the ideas and designed the experiments conducted in the manuscript. D.K.M., D.A.O., and L.K.K. wrote and edited the manuscript. Samples for electron microscopy were prepared by the microscopy and histology facility at the University of Aberdeen. The work of Laura K. Katvars was partly funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (1091582). Carol Munro was supported by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). AUTHOR CORRECTION Volume 61, no. 9, e00502-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/AAC.00502-17. Page 1: Carol A. Munro should be added to the list of authors. The updated byline and affiliations are shown above. Page 11: the last paragraph of Acknowledgments should be replaced with the following sentences. The work of Laura K. Katvars was partly funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) (1091582). Carol Munro was supported by the MRC Centre for Medical Mycology (MR/N006364/1). Copyright © 2018 American Society for Microbiology.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Chlorination by-products in drinking water and menstrual cycle function.

We analyzed data from a prospective study of menstrual cycle function and early pregnancy loss to explore further the effects of trihalomethanes (THM) on reproductive end points. Premenopausal women ((italic)n(/italic) = 403) collected urine samples daily during an average of 5.6 cycles for measurement of steroid metabolites that were used to define menstrual parameters such as cycle and phase length. Women were asked about consumption of various types of water as well as other habits and demographics. A THM level was estimated for each cycle based on residence and quarterly measurements made by water utilities during a 90-day period beginning 60 days before the cycle start date. We found a monotonic decrease in mean cycle length with increasing total THM (TTHM) level; at > 60 microg/L, the adjusted decrement was 1.1 days [95% confidence interval (CI), -1.8 to -0.40], compared with less than or equal to 40 microg/L. This finding was also reflected as a reduced follicular phase length (difference -0.94 day; 95% CI, -1.6 to -0.24). A decrement in cycle and follicular phase length of 0.18 days (95% CI, -0.29 to -0.07) per 10 microg/L unit increase in TTHM concentration was found. There was little association with luteal phase length, menses length, or cycle variability. Examining the individual THMs by quartile, we found the greatest association with chlorodibromomethane or the sum of the brominated compounds. Incorporating tap water consumption showed a similar pattern of reduced cycle length with increasing TTHM exposure. These findings suggest that THM exposure may affect ovarian function and should be confirmed in other studies

The pH-responsive PacC transcription factor of Aspergillus fumigatus governs epithelial entry and tissue invasion during pulmonary aspergillosis

Data Availability: The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. Raw data have been deposited in the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/geo/) under accession number GSE54810. Funding: This work was supported in part by grants to EMB from the MRC (G0501164) and BBSRC (BB/G009619/1), to EMB and NDR from the Wellcome Trust (WT093596MA), to MB from Imperial College London (Division of Investigative Sciences PhD Studentship), to HH from the ERA-NET PathoGenoMics project TRANSPAT, Austrian Science Foundation (FWF I282-B09), to SGF from the National Institutes of Health, USA (R01AI073829). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Senior Recital, Kevin Newton, horn

The presentation of this senior recital will fulfill in part the requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree in Performance. Kevin Newton studies horn with Dr. Patrick Smith

A Promiscuous Bacterial P450: The Unparalleled Diversity of BM3 in Pharmaceutical Metabolism

CYP102A1 (BM3) is a catalytically self-sufficient flavocytochrome fusion protein isolated from Bacillus megaterium, which displays similar metabolic capabilities to many drug-metabolizing human P450 isoforms. BM3′s high catalytic efficiency, ease of production and malleable active site makes the enzyme a desirable tool in the production of small molecule metabolites, especially for compounds that exhibit drug-like chemical properties. The engineering of select key residues within the BM3 active site vastly expands the catalytic repertoire, generating variants which can perform a range of modifications. This provides an attractive alternative route to the production of valuable compounds that are often laborious to synthesize via traditional organic means. Exten-sive studies have been conducted with the aim of engineering BM3 to expand metabolite pro-duction towards a comprehensive range of drug-like compounds, with many key examples found both in the literature and in the wider industrial bioproduction setting of desirable oxy-metabolite production by both wild-type BM3 and related variants. This review covers the past and current research on the engineering of BM3 to produce drug metabolites and highlights its crucial role in the future of biosynthetic pharmaceutical production

Correction to:Feminist judgments projects at the intersection

On 25th and 26th July 2019, ten members of the African, Indian and Scottish Feminist Judgments Projects (FJPs), comprised of legal academics and legal practitioners, met at Edinburgh Law School in Scotland. We were also joined at various points in our discussions by a number of invited guests from the Scottish academic, legal and feminist activist communities. In the context of ongoing global conversations across diverse FJPs, the purpose of our meeting was to explore the connections between these three then in-progress FJPs, to reflect on the experience of being involved in an FJP within our respective jurisdictions, and to discuss both the pitfalls and possibilities for creating legacies in teaching, scholarship and practice (see also Cowan et al. 2018)