Multi-level socioecological drivers of agrarian change:Longitudinal evidence from mixed rice-livestock-aquaculture farming systems of Bangladesh

Coastal systems are facing natural and human-driven change coupled with a rising population. With increasing shifts in socioecological conditions during the past several decades, it is important to understand how socioecological drivers at different hierarchical levels: -micro, -meso, and -macro affect coastal farming systems, which play a crucial role in the livelihoods of coastal dwellers. Mixed rice-livestock-aquaculture farming in Southern Bangladesh exemplifies the rapid change occurring in many of the world's coastal farming systems in response to these drivers. We used panel data observations from the above study area and modeled trajectories of farm typologies, and the impact of multi-level socioecological drivers by a novel approach. Our approach integrates: (1) a well-articulated conceptual frame of change observed using (2) a temporal view of the potential drivers, change process and farm type outcomes, with the twenty years panel data of 502 households that is analyzed by means of (3) multivariate statistics in conjunction with panel data models that operationalize the conceptual frame. Our approach allows (a) estimating dynamic effects over time that typically cannot be estimated in a cross-sectional data set, (b) distinguishing between time-invariant fixed and time dependent random effects of multi-level socioecological drivers, and (c) controlling for omitted variables to a certain extent. Considering farming systems both within and outside of polder embankment systems intended to protect against oceanic water intrusion, we found a gradual shift from heterogeneous, rice-livestock farm types to more homogenous farms with less livestock and more off-farm activities. Micro-level factors including farm plot fragmentation, farmers' experience in cropping, machinery, salinity and soil fertility were influencing changes in farming systems. Meso-level factors including markets, road infrastructure, labor availability, access to extension and land tenure also affect the trajectory of farming systems change. Among macro-level drivers, increasing population density positively and significantly influenced cropping intensity among farms outside polder systems. Within polders, a positive but non-significant trend was observed for the influence of population density on cropping intensity. Our data also indicate negative and significant influence of cyclonic storms on cropping intensity over time in both areas. Our results underscore the importance of accounting for multiple levels of socioecological drivers of change when developing appropriate policy options for sustainable development in South Asia's coastal farming systems

Position of the umbilical venous catheter in neonatal resuscitation

The article summarizes many years of experience with radiographs in the neonatal intensive care unit (ICU), provides criteria for the correct and acceptable position of the umbilical venous catheter (UVC). Of the 180 cases observed by the authors, images of 16 clinical cases with incorrectly set UVC, were selected and presented in the article. All radiographs shown are classified depending on the depth of insertion and inadmissible location of the catheter; rationale and interpretation of images are given, with an explanation of possible complications in each case. Based on the above material, the need for "input control" upon admission of a newborn from the maternity ward (transfer to a specialized hospital) was proved in order to prevent the development of complications: pulmonary embolism, iatrogeny

Conduction delays in the visual pathways of progressive multiple sclerosis patients covary with brain structure

In developed countries, multiple sclerosis (MS) is the leading cause of non-traumatic neurological disability in young adults. MS is a chronic demyelinating disease of the central nervous system, in which myelin is attacked, changing white matter structure and leaving lesions. The demyelination has a direct effect on white matter conductivity. This effect can be examined in the visual system, where damage is highly prevalent in MS, leading to substantial delays in conduction, commonly measured with visual evoked potentials (VEPs). The structural damage to the visual system in MS is often estimated with MRI measurements in the white matter. Recent developments in quantitative MRI (qMRI) provide improved sensitivity to myelin content and new structural methods allow better modeling of the axonal structure, leading researchers to link white matter microstructure to conduction properties of action potentials along fiber tracts. This study attempts to explain the variance in conduction latencies down the visual pathway using structural measurements of both the retina and the optic radiation (OR). Forty-eight progressive MS patients, participants in a longitudinal stem-cell therapy clinical trial, were included in this study, three and six months post final treatment. Twenty-seven patients had no history of optic neuritis, and were the main focus of this study. All participants underwent conventional MRI scans, as well as diffusion MRI and qMRI sequences to account for white matter microstructure. Optical coherence tomography scans were also obtained, and peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer (pRNFL) thickness and macular volume measurements were extracted. Finally, latencies of recorded VEPs were estimated. Our results show that in non-optic neuritis progressive MS patients there is a relationship between the VEP latency and both retinal damage and OR lesion load. In addition, we find that qMRI values, sampled along the OR, are also correlated with VEP latency. Finally, we show that combining these parameters using PCA we can explain more than 40% of the inter-subject variance in VEP latency. In conclusion, this study contributes to understanding the relationship between the structural properties and conduction in the visual system in disease. We focus on the visual system, where the conduction latencies can be estimated, but the conclusions could be generalized to other brain systems where the white matter structure can be measured. It also highlights the importance of having multiple parameters when assessing the clinical stages of MS patients, which could have major implications for future studies of other white matter diseases

New Antarctic gravity anomaly grid for enhanced geodetic and geophysical studies in Antarctica

Gravity surveying is challenging in Antarctica because of its hostile environment and inaccessibility. Nevertheless, many ground-based, airborne, and shipborne gravity campaigns have been completed by the geophysical and geodetic communities since the 1980s. We present the first modern Antarctic-wide gravity data compilation derived from 13 million data points covering an area of 10 million km2, which corresponds to 73% coverage of the continent. The remove-compute-restore technique was applied for gridding, which facilitated leveling of the different gravity data sets with respect to an Earth gravity model derived from satellite data alone. The resulting free-air and Bouguer gravity anomaly grids of 10 km resolution are publicly available. These grids will enable new high-resolution combined Earth gravity models to be derived and represent a major step forward toward solving the geodetic polar data gap problem. They provide a new tool to investigate continental-scale lithospheric structure and geological evolution of Antarctica

Protective effect of stromal Dickkopf-3 in prostate cancer: opposing roles for TGFBI and ECM-1

Aberrant transforming growth factor–β (TGF-β) signaling is a hallmark of the stromal microenvironment in cancer. Dickkopf-3 (Dkk-3), shown to inhibit TGF-β signaling, is downregulated in prostate cancer and upregulated in the stroma in benign prostatic hyperplasia, but the function of stromal Dkk-3 is unclear. Here we show that DKK3 silencing in WPMY-1 prostate stromal cells increases TGF-β signaling activity and that stromal cellconditioned media inhibit prostate cancer cell invasion in a Dkk-3-dependent manner. DKK3 silencing increased the level of the cell-adhesion regulator TGF-β–induced protein (TGFBI) in stromal and epithelial cell-conditioned media, and recombinant TGFBI increased prostate cancer cell invasion. Reduced expression of Dkk-3 in patient tumors was associated with increased expression of TGFBI. DKK3 silencing reduced the level of extracellular matrix protein-1 (ECM-1) in prostate stromal cell-conditioned media but increased it in epithelial cell-conditioned media, and recombinant ECM-1 inhibited TGFBI-induced prostate cancer cell invasion. Increased ECM1 and DKK3 mRNA expression in prostate tumors was associated with increased relapse-free survival. These observations are consistent with a model in which the loss of Dkk-3 in prostate cancer leads to increased secretion of TGFBI and ECM-1, which have tumor-promoting and tumor-protective roles, respectively. Determining how the balance between the opposing roles of extracellular factors influences prostate carcinogenesis will be key to developing therapies that target the tumor microenvironment

Large-scale rollout of extension training in Bangladesh: Challenges and opportunities for gender-inclusive participation

Despite the recognized importance of women’s participation in agricultural extension services, research continues to show inequalities in women’s participation. Emerging capacities for conducting large-scale extension training using information and communication technologies (ICTs) now afford opportunities for generating the rich datasets needed to analyze situational factors that affect women’s participation. Data was recorded from 1,070 video-based agricultural extension training events (131,073 farmers) in four Administrative Divisions of Bangladesh (Rangpur, Dhaka, Khulna, and Rajshahi). The study analyzed the effect of gender of the trainer, time of the day, day of the week, month of the year, Bangladesh Administrative Division, and venue type on (1) the expected number of extension event attendees and (2) the odds of females attending the event conditioned on the total number of attendees. The study revealed strong gender specific training preferences. Several factors that increased total participation, decreased female attendance (e.g., male-led training event held after 3:30 pm in Rangpur). These findings highlight the dilemma faced by extension trainers seeking to maximize attendance at training events while avoiding exacerbating gender inequalities. The study concludes with a discussion of ways to mitigate gender exclusion in extension training by extending data collection processes, incorporating machine learning to understand gender preferences, and applying optimization theory to increase total participation while concurrently improving gender inclusivity

Elevated levels of Dickkopf-related protein 3 in seminal plasma of prostate cancer patients

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Expression of Dkk-3, a secreted putative tumor suppressor, is altered in age-related proliferative disorders of the human prostate. We now investigated the suitability of Dkk-3 as a diagnostic biomarker for prostate cancer (PCa) in seminal plasma (SP).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>SP samples were obtained from 81 patients prior to TRUS-guided prostate biopsies on the basis of elevated serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA; > 4 ng/mL) levels and/or abnormal digital rectal examination. A sensitive indirect immunoenzymometric assay for Dkk-3 was developed and characterized in detail. SP Dkk-3 and PSA levels were determined and normalized to total SP protein. The diagnostic accuracies of single markers including serum PSA and multivariate models to discriminate patients with positive (N = 40) and negative (N = 41) biopsy findings were investigated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Biopsy-confirmed PCa showed significantly higher SP Dkk-3 levels (100.9 ± 12.3 vs. 69.2 ± 9.4 fmol/mg; <it>p </it>= 0.026). Diagnostic accuracy (AUC) of SP Dkk-3 levels (0.633) was enhanced in multivariate models by including serum PSA (model A; AUC 0.658) or both, serum and SP PSA levels (model B; AUC 0.710). In a subpopulation with clinical follow-up > 3 years post-biopsy to ensure veracity of negative biopsy status (positive biopsy N = 21; negative biopsy N = 25) AUCs for SP Dkk-3, model A and B increased to 0.667, 0.724 and 0.777, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In multivariate models to detect PCa, inclusion of SP Dkk-3 levels, which were significantly elevated in biopsy-confirmed PCa patients, improved the diagnostic performance compared with serum PSA only.</p

Global Assemblages, Resilience, and Earth Stewardship in the Anthropocene

In this paper, we argue that the Anthropocene is an epoch characterized not only by the anthropogenic dominance of the Earth\u27s ecosystems but also by new forms of environmental governance and institutions. Echoing the literature in political ecology, we call these new forms of environmental governance “global assemblages”. Socioecological changes associated with global assemblages disproportionately impact poorer nations and communities along the development continuum, or the “Global South”, and others who depend on natural resources for subsistence. Although global assemblages are powerful mechanisms of socioecological change, we show how transnational networks of grassroots organizations are able to resist their negative social and environmental impacts, and thus foster socioecological resilience

Operationalizing local ecological knowledge in climate change research : challenges and opportunities of citizen science

Current research on the local impacts of climate change is based on contrasting results from the simulation of historical trends in climatic variables produced with global models against climate data from independent observations. To date, these observations have mostly consisted of weather data from standardized meteorological stations. Given that the spatial distribution of weather stations is patchy, climate scientists have called for the exploration of new data sources. Knowledge developed by Indigenous Peoples and local communities with a long history of interaction with their environment has been proposed as a data source with untapped potential to contribute to our understanding of the local impacts of climate change. In this chapter, we discuss an approach that aims to bring insights from local knowledge systems to climate change research. First, we present a number of theoretical arguments that give support to the idea that local knowledge systems can contribute in original ways to the endeavors of climate change research. Then, we explore the potential of using information and communication technologies to gather and share local knowledge of climate change impacts. We do so through the examination of a citizen science initiative aiming to collect local indicators of climate change impacts: the LICCI project (www.licci.eu). Our findings illustrate that citizen science can inspire new approaches to articulate the inclusion of local knowledge systems in climate change research. However, this requires outlining careful approaches, with high ethical standards, toward knowledge validation and recognizing that there are aspects of local ecological knowledge that are incommensurable with scientific knowledge