Integrating research with NHS clinical practice: Unwelcome intrusion or constructive triangulation?

When embarking on research into the effectiveness of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the NHS or the application of psychoanalytic principles, researchers come up against a number of hurdles: many clinicians still see empirical research as antithetical or disruptive to the practice of psychoanalytic psychotherapy; psychoanalytic psychotherapy has previously fared poorly in evidence-based policy guidelines and this can discourage ambition, and there are technical problems of research design, measurement and standardization. Nevertheless, in a political climate which stresses service evaluation, measurable outcomes and empirical evidence, psychoanalytic psychotherapy must participate to survive. There may be gains from conducting research beyond simply meeting the requirement to provide evidence of effectiveness. Research may be viewed by some clinicians as an unwelcome intruder but it may have the potential to offer triangulation, the perspective of the 'third', and so strengthen the foundations of clinical practice and the development of psychoanalytic thought

Factors determining the degree of commercialization of smallholder agriculture: the case of potato growers in Kombolcha District, East Hararghe, Ethiopia

Potato is one of the most valuable and widely consumed crops in the world in general and in Ethiopia in particular. Similarly, in Kombolcha District, it is among the most important crops grown for sale and consumption by smallholder farmers. Commercializing such crops does have multiple benefits for the smallholder farmers of the district as the district has great potential for commercial vegetable production and there is a growing market opportunity for the products. However, potato growing smallholders in the district are producing at a subsistence level and their participation in the market (degree of commercialization) is not only low but also varies across the district. Hence, this study was initiated to identify factors determining the extent of market participation (degree of commercialization) of potato growers. Five potato growing Peasant Associations (PAs) were selected purposively from a total of 10 Peasant Associations and subsequently 133 respondents were selected using simple random sampling from the sampling frame i.e. potato growers. A formal survey was conducted to collect data, which was supported by focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Both descriptive statistics and Robust OLS model were employed to analyze quantitative 1 Lecturer, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, Haramaya University, Ethiopia 2 Postdoctoral fellow, International Livestock Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 3 Professor, Department of Rural Development and Agricultural Extension, Haramaya University, Ethiopia JAD 2 (1) 2011 Factors Determining the Degree of Commercialization 19 data; whereas qualitative data were analyzed using narrations and interpretations. The OLS results indicated that farm size allocated to potato, access to irrigation and access to market information were found to be significant in affecting extent of market participation (degree of commercialization) at 1 % probability level. Hence, organizing farmers into groups in order to have better access to irrigation, providing market information through networking and institutions and improving extension service and availing improved varieties, overall, modernizing potato production are therefore crucial in enhancing the extent of market participation (the degree of commercialization)

Dynamic interpersonal therapy for moderate to severe depression: A pilot randomized controlled and feasibility trial

Background: Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services treat most patients in England who present to primary care with major depression. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is one of the psychotherapies offered. Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT) is a psychodynamic and mentalization-based treatment for depression. 16 sessions are delivered over approximately 5 months. Neither DIT's effectiveness relative to low-intensity treatment (LIT), nor the feasibility of randomizing patients to psychodynamic or cognitive-behavioural treatments (CBT) in an IAPT setting has been demonstrated. Methods: 147 patients were randomized in a 3:2:1 ratio to DIT (n = 73), LIT (control intervention; n = 54) or CBT (n = 20) in four IAPT treatment services in a combined superiority and feasibility design. Patients meeting criteria for major depressive disorder were assessed at baseline, mid-treatment (3 months) and post-treatment (6 months) using the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD-17), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and other self-rated questionnaire measures. Patients receiving DIT were also followed up 6 months post-completion. Results: The DIT arm showed significantly lower HRSD-17 scores at the 6-month primary end-point compared with LIT (d = 0.70). Significantly more DIT patients (51%) showed clinically significant change on the HRSD-17 compared with LIT (9%). The DIT and CBT arms showed equivalence on most outcomes. Results were similar with the BDI-II. DIT showed benefit across a range of secondary outcomes.ConclusionsDIT delivered in a primary care setting is superior to LIT and can be appropriately compared with CBT in future RCTs

Assessing the efficiency of sweet potato producers in the southern region of Ethiopia

Article purchased; Published online: 27 June 2017Applying stochastic frontier Cobb–Douglas production function, the study assessed the efficiency of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) producers in the Southern region of Ethiopia. The study revealed the existence of fairly large technical inefficiency in sweet potato production. The technical efficiency ranged from 12.6 to 93.7%, with more than half of the producers above the mean efficiency level (66.1%). This suggests that there is room for output gains through technical efficiency improvement. If the average producers in the study region are to achieve the technical efficiency level of the most efficient producer in the sample (93.7%), they can realize nearly 30% output gains. The analysis of allocative efficiency also revealed that sweet potato producers were producing sweet potato with sub-optimal utilization of production inputs, suggesting that potential for output gains remains to be exploited through reconfiguration of the existing resource use. They can make more value out of their sweet potato production by reconfiguring their current utilization of production inputs in favour of more land and manure but less seed rate. Furthermore, age and education are important determinants of the efficiency of sweet potato production. In view of these findings, it is advisable to put in place appropriate extension intervention programmes that enable sweet potato producers to exploit the potential gains in sweet potato output through technical and allocative efficiency improvement

Mushroom: Nature’s Treasure in Ethiopia

Mushroom is a form of fungus having distinct fruit body produced either above ground or below ground. It can be easily noticed in moist habitat in and around forest, grassland, on tree trunks due to their peculiar appearance. Present communication discusses important habit and habitats, medicinal and culinary uses, status of mushrooms in Ethiopia, and sustainable use for sustenance and food security.Keywords: Mushroom, Fungus, Status, Tigray, Ethiopia

Pre-clinical Models for Studying the Interaction between Mesenchymal Stromal Cells and Cancer Cells and the Induction of Stemness

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) have essential functions in building and supporting the tumour microenvironment, providing metastatic niches, and maintaining cancer hallmarks, and it is increasingly evident that the study of the role of MSC in cancer is crucial for paving the way to clinical opportunities for novel anti-cancer therapies. To date, the vast majority of preclinical models that have been used for studying the effect of reactive MSC on cancer growth, metastasis, and response to therapy has been mainly based on in vitro flat biology, including the co-culturing with cell compartmentalization or with cell-to-cell contact, and on in vivo cancer models with different routes of MSC inoculation. More complex in vitro 3D models based on spheroid structures that are formed by intermingled MSC and tumour cells are also capturing the interest in cancer research. These are innovative culture systems tailored on the specific tumour type and that can be combined with a synthetic extracellular matrix, or included in in silico technologies, to more properly mimic the in vivo biological, spatial, biochemical, and biophysical features of tumour tissues. In this review, we summarized the most popular and currently available preclinical models for evaluating the role of MSC in cancer and their specific suitability, for example, in assaying the MSC-driven induction of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition or of stem-like traits in cancer cells. Finally, we enlightened the need to carefully consider those parameters that might unintentionally strongly affect the secretome in MSC-cancer interplay and introduce confounding variables for the interpretation of results

Continuous enzyme-coupled assay of phosphate- or pyrophosphate-releasing enzymes

A coupled enzyme assay able to monitor the kinetics of reactions catalyzed by phosphate- or pyrophosphate-releasing enzymes is presented here. The assay is based on the concerted action of inorganic pyrophosphatase (PPase), purine nucleoside phosphorylase (PNPase), and xanthine oxidase (XOD). In the presence of phosphate, PNPase catalyzes the phosphorolysis of inosine, generating hypoxanthine, which is oxidized to uric acid by XOD. The uric acid accordingly formed can be spectrophotometrically monitored at 293 nm, taking advantage of a molar extinction coefficient which is independent of pH between 6 and 9. The coupled assay was tested using DNA polymerases as a model system. The activity of Klenow enzyme was quantitatively determined, and it was found in agreement with the corresponding activity determined by traditional methods. Moreover, the continuous coupled assay was used to determine K-m and V-max of Klenow enzyme, yielding values in good agreement with previous observations. Finally, the coupled assay was also used to determine the activity of partially purified DNA polymerases, revealing its potential use to monitor purification of phosphate- or pyrophosphate-releasing enzymes

Iminodiacetic acid (IDA) cation-exchange nonwoven membranes for efficient capture of antibodies and antibody fragments

There is strong need to reduce the manufacturing costs and increase the downstream purification efficiency of high-value therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). This paper explores the performance of a weak cation-exchange membrane based on the coupling of IDA to poly(butylene terephthalate) (PBT) nonwoven fabrics. Uniform and conformal layers of poly(glycidyl methacrylate) (GMA) were first grafted to the surface of the nonwovens. Then IDA was coupled to the polyGMA layers under optimized conditions, resulting in membranes with very high permeability and binding capacity. This resulted in IgG dynamic binding capacities at very short residence times (0.1–2.0 min) that are much higher than those achieved by the best cation-exchange resins. Similar results were obtained in the purification of a single-chain (scFv) antibody fragment. As is customary with membrane systems, the dynamic binding capacities did not change significantly over a wide range of residence times. Finally, the excellent separation efficiency and potential reusability of the membrane were confirmed by five consecutive cycles of mAb capture from its cell culture harvest. The present work provides significant evidence that this weak cation-exchange nonwoven fabric platform might be a suitable alternative to packed resin chromatography for low-cost, higher productivity manufacturing of therapeutic mAbs and antibody fragments

An Adaptive Contextual Recommender System: a Slow Intelligence Perspective

This paper introduces an Adaptive Context Aware Recommender system based on the Slow Intelligence approach. The system is made available to the user as an adaptive mobile application, which allows a high degree of customization in recommending services and resources according to his/her current position and global profile. A case study applied to the town of Pittsburgh has been analyzed considering various users (with different profiles as visitors, students, professors) and an experimental campaign has been conducted obtaining interesting result

Acid microenvironment promotes cell survival of human bone sarcoma through the activation of cIAP proteins and NF-κB pathway

Extracellular acidification is a very common cause of stress in tumor microenvironment and of Darwinian pressure. In acid areas of the tumor, most cancer cells are-albeit slowly proliferating-more resistant to cell death than those in well-perfused regions. Tumor acidosis can directly regulate the expression of pro-survival proteins since a low extracellular pH activates the caspase-dependent cell death machinery. This mechanism has never been explored in bone sarcomas. We cultured osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma cells under low pH (pH 6.5), and we performed deep-sequencing and protein analysis. Both in in vitro and in vivo models, acidification activity enhanced tumor cells survival. However, we did not observe any change in ERK1 phosphorylation. On the contrary, both at the mRNA and protein level, we found a significant induction of TRAF adaptor proteins and of cIAP proteins (BIRC2 and/or BIRC3). As a consequence, the downstream nuclear transcription factor kappa B (NF-κB) survival pathway was increased. Furthermore, the treatment with the cIAP inhibitor LCL161 reverted the protection from apoptosis under low pH. In vitro results were confirmed both in Ewing sarcoma xenograft and in osteosarcoma patients, since the analysis of tumor tissues demonstrated that the levels of expression of TRAF1 or NF-κB1 significantly correlate with the level of expression of the vacuolar ATPase (V-ATPase), the most important proton pump in eukaryotes. Moreover, in the tissue sections of xenograft model, the nuclear translocation of RelB, a key subunit of the NF-κB transcriptional complex, localized in the tumor region that also corresponded to the acid microenvironment associated with the highest levels of expression of LAMP2 and V-ATPase, in the internal area of the tumor, as revealed by immunohistochemistry. Our data confirm that tumor acid microenvironment activates a stress-regulated switch to promote cell survival of bone sarcoma, and support the hypothesis that this mechanism is mediated by the recruitment of TRAF/cIAP complexes. Altogether, these results suggest that TRAF/cIAP can be considered as a target for anti-cancer therapies