Researching farmer behaviour in climate change adaptation and sustainable agriculture: lessons learned from five case studies

Understanding farmer behaviour is needed for local agricultural systems to produce food sustainably while facing multiple pressures. We synthesize existing literature to identify three fundamental questions that correspond to three distinct areas of knowledge necessary to understand farmer behaviour: 1) decision-making model; 2) cross-scale and cross-level pressures; and 3) temporal dynamics. We use this framework to compare five interdisciplinary case studies of agricultural systems in distinct geographical contexts across the globe. We find that these three areas of knowledge are important to understanding farmer behaviour, and can be used to guide the interdisciplinary design and interpretation of studies in the future. Most importantly, we find that these three areas need to be addressed simultaneously in order to understand farmer behaviour. We also identify three methodological challenges hindering this understanding: the suitability of theoretical frameworks, the trade-offs among methods and the limited timeframe of typical research projects. We propose that a triangulation research strategy that makes use of mixed methods, or collaborations between researchers across mixed disciplines, can be used to successfully address all three areas simultaneously and show how this has been achieved in the case studies. The framework facilitates interdisciplinary research on farmer behaviour by opening up spaces of structured dialogue on assumptions, research questions and methods employed in investigation

Phase 3, Randomized, 20-Month Study of the Efficacy and Safety of Bimatoprost Implant in Patients with Open-Angle Glaucoma and Ocular Hypertension (ARTEMIS 2)

Objective- To evaluate the intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering efficacy and safety of 10 and 15 µg bimatoprost implant in patients with open-angle glaucoma (OAG) or ocular hypertension (OHT). Methods- This randomized, 20-month, multicenter, masked, parallel-group, phase 3 trial enrolled 528 patients with OAG or OHT and an open iridocorneal angle inferiorly in the study eye. Study eyes were administered 10 or 15 µg bimatoprost implant on day 1, week 16, and week 32, or twice-daily topical timolol maleate 0.5%. Primary endpoints were IOP and IOP change from baseline through week 12. Safety measures included treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and corneal endothelial cell density (CECD). Results- Both 10 and 15 µg bimatoprost implant met the primary endpoint of noninferiority to timolol in IOP lowering through 12 weeks. Mean IOP reductions from baseline ranged from 6.2–7.4, 6.5–7.8, and 6.1–6.7 mmHg through week 12 in the 10 µg implant, 15 µg implant, and timolol groups, respectively. IOP lowering was similar after the second and third implant administrations. Probabilities of requiring no IOP-lowering treatment for 1 year after the third administration were 77.5% (10 µg implant) and 79.0% (15 µg implant). The most common TEAE was conjunctival hyperemia, typically temporally associated with the administration procedure. Corneal TEAEs of interest (primarily corneal endothelial cell loss, corneal edema, and corneal touch) were more frequent with the 15 than the 10 µg implant and generally were reported after repeated administrations. Loss in mean CECD from baseline to month 20 was ~ 5% in 10 µg implant-treated eyes and ~ 1% in topical timolol-treated eyes. Visual field progression (change in the mean deviation from baseline) was reduced in the 10 µg implant group compared with the timolol group. Conclusions- The results corroborated the previous phase 3 study of the bimatoprost implant. The bimatoprost implant met the primary endpoint and effectively lowered IOP. The majority of patients required no additional treatment for 12 months after the third administration. The benefit-risk assessment favored the 10 over the 15 µg implant. Studies evaluating other administration regimens with reduced risk of corneal events are ongoing. The bimatoprost implant has the potential to improve adherence and reduce treatment burden in glaucoma

Conversion Discriminative Analysis on Mild Cognitive Impairment Using Multiple Cortical Features from MR Images

Neuroimaging measurements derived from magnetic resonance imaging provide important information required for detecting changes related to the progression of mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Cortical features and changes play a crucial role in revealing unique anatomical patterns of brain regions, and further differentiate MCI patients from normal states. Four cortical features, namely, gray matter volume, cortical thickness, surface area, and mean curvature, were explored for discriminative analysis among three groups including the stable MCI (sMCI), the converted MCI (cMCI), and the normal control (NC) groups. In this study, 158 subjects (72 NC, 46 sMCI, and 40 cMCI) were selected from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. A sparse-constrained regression model based on the l2-1-norm was introduced to reduce the feature dimensionality and retrieve essential features for the discrimination of the three groups by using a support vector machine (SVM). An optimized strategy of feature addition based on the weight of each feature was adopted for the SVM classifier in order to achieve the best classification performance. The baseline cortical features combined with the longitudinal measurements for 2 years of follow-up data yielded prominent classification results. In particular, the cortical thickness produced a classification with 98.84% accuracy, 97.5% sensitivity, and 100% specificity for the sMCI–cMCI comparison; 92.37% accuracy, 84.78% sensitivity, and 97.22% specificity for the cMCI–NC comparison; and 93.75% accuracy, 92.5% sensitivity, and 94.44% specificity for the sMCI–NC comparison. The best performances obtained by the SVM classifier using the essential features were 5–40% more than those using all of the retained features. The feasibility of the cortical features for the recognition of anatomical patterns was certified; thus, the proposed method has the potential to improve the clinical diagnosis of sub-types of MCI and predict the risk of its conversion to Alzheimer's disease

Quantitative 18F-AV1451 Brain Tau PET Imaging in Cognitively Normal Older Adults, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease Patients

Recent developments of tau Positron Emission Tomography (PET) allows assessment of regional neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) deposition in human brain. Among the tau PET molecular probes, 18F-AV1451 is characterized by high selectivity for pathologic tau aggregates over amyloid plaques, limited non-specific binding in white and gray matter, and confined off-target binding. The objectives of the study are (1) to quantitatively characterize regional brain tau deposition measured by 18F-AV1451 PET in cognitively normal older adults (CN), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and AD participants; (2) to evaluate the correlations between cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers or Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and 18F-AV1451 PET standardized uptake value ratio (SUVR); and (3) to evaluate the partial volume effects on 18F-AV1451 brain uptake.Methods: The study included total 115 participants (CN = 49, MCI = 58, and AD = 8) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Preprocessed 18F-AV1451 PET images, structural MRIs, and demographic and clinical assessments were downloaded from the ADNI database. A reblurred Van Cittertiteration method was used for voxelwise partial volume correction (PVC) on PET images. Structural MRIs were used for PET spatial normalization and region of interest (ROI) definition in standard space. The parametric images of 18F-AV1451 SUVR relative to cerebellum were calculated. The ROI SUVR measurements from PVC and non-PVC SUVR images were compared. The correlation between ROI 18F-AV1451 SUVR and the measurements of MMSE, CSF total tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau (p-tau) were also assessed.Results:18F-AV1451 prominently specific binding was found in the amygdala, entorhinal cortex, parahippocampus, fusiform, posterior cingulate, temporal, parietal, and frontal brain regions. Most regional SUVRs showed significantly higher uptake of 18F-AV1451 in AD than MCI and CN participants. SUVRs of small regions like amygdala, entorhinal cortex and parahippocampus were statistically improved by PVC in all groups (p < 0.01). Although there was an increasing tendency of 18F-AV-1451 SUVRs in MCI group compared with CN group, no significant difference of 18F-AV1451 deposition was found between CN and MCI brains with or without PVC (p > 0.05). Declined MMSE score was observed with increasing 18F-AV1451 binding in amygdala, entorhinal cortex, parahippocampus, and fusiform. CSF p-tau was positively correlated with 18F-AV1451 deposition. PVC improved the results of 18F-AV-1451 tau deposition and correlation studies in small brain regions.Conclusion: The typical deposition of 18F-AV1451 tau PET imaging in AD brain was found in amygdala, entorhinal cortex, fusiform and parahippocampus, and these regions were strongly associated with cognitive impairment and CSF biomarkers. Although more deposition was observed in MCI group, the 18F-AV-1451 PET imaging could not differentiate the MCI patients from CN population. More tau deposition related to decreased MMSE score and increased level of CSF p-tau, especially in ROIs of amygdala, entorhinal cortex and parahippocampus. PVC did improve the results of tau deposition and correlation studies in small brain regions and suggest to be routinely used in 18F-AV1451 tau PET quantification

Using Zebrafish Models of Usher Syndrome Type 2A to Investigate Retinal Cell Function and Survival

45 pages. A thesis presented to the Department of Biology and the Clark Honors College of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for degree of Bachelor of Science, Spring 2015.Usher syndrome is the main cause of hereditary deaf-blindness. Patients diagnosed with Usher syndrome experience hearing loss and progressive blindness due to photoreceptor degeneration over several decades. The most common form of Usher syndrome, type 2A, is caused by mutations in the USH2A gene, which encodes the large protein Usherin. In this study, I characterized three different mutations affecting distinct regions of the zebrafish ush2a gene. In these mutant backgrounds, I studied the co-localization of other proteins known to interact with Usherin to test whether the loss of the normal Usherin protein disrupted localization of these other proteins. In humans, photoreceptor cell death takes place over many years, causing slow, progressive vision loss. The USH2A mouse model of Usher syndrome has a mild retinal phenotype compared to the degree of vision loss that human patients experience, perhaps due in part to their shorter lifespan. Zebrafish, similarly, have a much shorter lifespan than humans, so we devised a system that would challenge the retina with increased levels of light in an effort to accelerate the rate of photoreceptor damage. These studies have established a functional zebrafish model of USH2A induced Usher syndrome, which will provide researchers with a valuable tool for investigating treating the functional role of Usherin in vision and hearing, as well as providing a model for which to test new treatment options

Using Zebrafish Models of Usher Syndrome Type 2A to Investigate Retinal Cell Function and Survival

Single page posterUsher syndrome is the most common cause of hereditary deaf blindness and has no cure. Mutations in the USH2A gene, which encodes the protein Usherin, are responsible for Usher syndrome type 2A (USH2A). Patients diagnosed with USH2A have congenital hearing impairment that ranges from moderate to severe and experience progressive vision loss beginning in the second decade of life. This progressive vision loss, called retinitis pigmentosa (RP), is due to degeneration of the photoreceptor cells in the retina, which initially causes night blindness and progresses to tunnel vision. We are investigating retinal symptoms of USH2A using a zebrafish disease model

"Why do farmers behave the way they do and make the decisions they make?”

Farmers feed the world. How do they think about and cope with a changing world

ASCO oral presenters five years later: Leaks in the pipeline?

11019 Background: There is growing awareness of the challenges of retaining oncologists engaged in research, and this leaky academic pipeline is most notable for women in medicine. Studying academic oncologists is challenging due to their many affiliations, but with an estimated attendance of over 30,000 oncologists, the ASCO annual meeting is a highly sought-after stage for presenting new research. To better understand the continued research engagement of oncologists active in research, we used public data from ASCO annual meetings to follow a cohort of oral abstract presenters over 5 years. Methods: To define our initial cohort of oncologists engaged in research, we used the 2016 ASCO Annual Meeting Digital Program to identify first author oral abstract presenters. We tracked if each presenter was subsequently listed as an author of any research type (oral abstract session, poster session, education session, etc.) at the 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 ASCO conferences. We then filtered out researchers who were not listed as authors at ASCO in consecutive years to look at only those researchers who continued to have active ASCO involvement. To evaluate by gender, each presenter’s name was referenced with the publicly available Wiki-Gendersort tool for an unbiased assignment. Results: 209 first author oral abstract presenters were identified at the 2016 ASCO conference. We found that 67.9% of the initial 209 researchers were listed as authors at ASCO in 2017, 55.5% continued to be authors in 2018, 46.9% in 2019, 42.6% in 2020, and only 38.3% were still listed as authors 5 years later in 2021. When looking at sustained first authorship, 8.1% of the initial 209 research cohort continued to be listed as first authors for 5 consecutive years through 2021. We also looked at the breakdown of other types of ASCO presentations and found that 122 of the initial 209 research cohort presented posters in 2016. Of these 122 researchers, 60 (49.2%) remained authors of posters throughout the consecutive 5 years. This is significantly higher than the number of researchers who continued to author oral abstracts in 2021 49.2% vs. 3.8% (P < 0.0001). When evaluating the differences between gender, there were approximately twice as many men presenters as women (122 men vs 65 women; 22 names were unisex or unknown). The rate of retention was similar for men (47 of the initial 122 males, 38.5%) and women (25 of the initial 65 females, 38.5%) at 5 years (P = 1). Conclusions: We conducted a descriptive study evaluating the rate of sustained activity in academic oncology over 5 years. Our research suggests that about one-third of ASCO presenters will continue to have sustained yearly authorship at 5 years post-oral abstract presentation. Compared to men, the leaky academic pipeline is comparable for women in the 5 years following an oral abstract presentation at ASCO