Prima facie reasons to question enclosed intellectual property regimes and favor open-source regimes for germplasm

In principle, intellectual property protections (IPPs) promote and protect important but costly investment in research and development. However, the empirical reality of IPPs has often gone without critical evaluation, and the potential of alternative approaches to lend equal or greater support for useful innovation is rarely considered. In this paper, we review the mounting evidence that the global intellectual property regime (IPR) for germplasm has been neither necessary nor sufficient to generate socially beneficial improvements in crop plants and maintain agrobiodiversity. Instead, based on our analysis, the dominant global IPR appears to have contributed to consolidation in the seed industry while failing to genuinely engage with the potential of alternatives to support social goods such as food security, adaptability, and resilience. The dominant IPR also constrains collaborative and cumulative plant breeding processes that are built upon the work of countless farmers past and present. Given the likely limits of current IPR, we propose that social goods in agriculture may be better supported by alternative approaches, warranting a rapid move away from the dominant single-dimensional focus on encouraging innovation through ensuring monopoly profits to IPP holders

Pulmonary Outcome in Former Preterm, Very Low Birth Weight Children with Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: A Case-Control Follow-Up at School Age

Objective: To assess and compare long-term pulmonary outcomes in former preterm-born, very low birth weight (VLBW) children with and without bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) born in the surfactant era. Study design: Pulmonary function tests (ie, spirometry, body plethysmography, and gas transfer testing) were performed in children with a history of VLBW and BPD (n = 28) and compared with a matched preterm-born VLBW control group (n = 28). Medical history was evaluated by questionnaire. Results: At time of follow-up (mean age, 9.5 years), respiratory symptoms (36% vs 8%) and receipt of asthma medication (21% vs 0%) were significantly more frequent in the preterm-born children with previous BPD than in those with no history of BPD. The children with a history of BPD had significantly lower values for forced expiratory volume in 1 second (z-score -1.27 vs -0.4; P = .008), forced vital capacity (z-score -1.39 vs -0.71 z-score; P = .022), and forced expiratory flow rate at 50% of forced vital capacity (z-score -2.21 vs -1.04; P = .048) compared with the preterm control group. Conclusion: Preterm-born children with a history of BPD are significantly more likely to have lung function abnormalities, such as airway obstruction and respiratory symptoms, at school age compared with preterm-born children without BPD. © 2013 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved

Early Cumulative Supplemental Oxygen Predicts Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia in High Risk Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns

OBJECTIVE: To assess the prognostic accuracy of early cumulative supplemental oxygen (CSO) exposure for prediction of BPD or death and to evaluate the independent association of CSO with BPD or death STUDY DESIGN: We performed a secondary analysis of the Trial of Late Surfactant, which enrolled 511 infants ≤28 weeks' gestational age who were mechanically ventilated at 7–14 days. Our primary outcome was BPD or death at 36 weeks' post-menstrual age, determined by physiologic oxygen/flow challenge. Average daily supplemental oxygen (FiO(2)−0.21) was calculated. CSO was calculated as the sum of the average daily supplemental oxygen over time periods of interest up to 28 days of age. We generated area under the receiver-operating-curve (AUROC) to evaluate the accuracy of CSO for prediction of BPD or death. We assessed the independent relationship between CSO and BPD or death in multivariate modeling, while adjusting for mean airway pressure. RESULTS: Infants were 25.2±1.2 weeks and 700±165g at birth. At 14 days, AUROC for CSO (0.70, 0.65–0.74) was significantly better than CSO at earlier time points for outcome prediction; it did not increase with addition of later data. In multivariate modeling, an increase of 1 in CSO at 14 days increased the odds of BPD or death (OR=1.7, 1.3–2.2; p<0.0001), which corresponds to a 7% higher daily supplemental oxygen. CONCLUSION: In high-risk ELGAN, the predictive accuracy of CSO plateaus at 14 days. CSO is independently associated with BPD or Death. This index may identify infants who could benefit from early intervention to prevent BPD

A novel cell type-specific role of p38α in the control of autophagy and cell death in colorectal cancer cells

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Development of severe bronchopulmonary dysplasia is associated with alterations in fecal volatile organic compounds

BackgroundAim of this study was to evaluate the potential of fecal volatile organic compounds (VOC), obtained by means of an electronic nose device (Cyranose 320®), as early non-invasive biomarker for BPD.MethodsIn this nested case-control study performed at three Neonatal Intensive Care Units, fecal samples obtained at postnatal age of 7, 14, 21 and 28 days, from preterm infants with severe BPD, were compared with fecal VOC profiles from matched controls. Microbiota analysis was performed by means of IS-pro technique on fecal samples collected at 28 days postnatally.ResultsVOC profiles of infants developing severe BPD (n=15) could be discriminated from matched controls (n=15) at postnatal age of 14 days (area under the curve [±95% confidence interval], p-value, sensitivity, specificity; 0.72 [0.54-0.90], 0.040, 60.0%, 73.3%), 21 days (0.71 [0.52-0.90], 0.049, 66.7%, 73.3%) and 28 days (0.77 [0.59-0.96], 0.017, 69.2%, 69.2%), but not at 7 days. Intestinal microbiota did not differ between BPD subjects and controls.ConclusionFecal VOC profiles of infants developing BPD could be differentiated from controls at postnatal day 14, 21 and 28. VOC differences could not be directed to intestinal microbiota alterations but presumably reflect local and systemic metabolic and inflammatory pathways associated with BPD.Pediatric Research accepted article preview online, 20 October 2017. doi:10.1038/pr.2017.26