Factors that Contribute to Good Food Box (GFB) Program Sustainability: A Survey of all Known Existing and Discontinued GFB Programs in Canada

Access to healthy food, including an adequate supply of fresh fruit and vegetables, is a global health and social issue. The methods of accessing and distributing fresh fruit and vegetables has changed over the past several decades, with greater reliance on import and export of goods, changes in farming and agriculture industries and practices, and acknowledgement of the role of poverty and food insecurity issues. Good Food Box (GFB) programs, primarily intended to reach audiences most vulnerable to food insecurity, distribute fresh fruit and vegetables at affordable, lower than regular retail prices to voluntary participants. This paper explores the factors that contribute to sustainability of GFB programs in Canada, using an online survey methodology of all known existing and discontinued GFB programs across Canada. It tests if the factors identified in the literature search do, in fact, contribute to GFB program sustainability in practice in Canada. Case selection was conducted through a review of GFB qualitative research completed in 2013, a general internet search, and snowball sampling of other programs, through a review of publicly available information of those programs and through known programs referring them to the lead researcher. The research study finds that two of the five factors identified in the literature, bricolage and network collaboration, contribute to GFB program sustainability in Canada. Three other factors, policy alignment, Board of Directors governance, and effective performance management were not found to be statistically significant contributors to GFB program sustainability in Canada

Electrocortical underpinnings of error monitoring in health and pathology

It becomes clear from the literature described above (Chapter 1), that the error monitoring mechanisms play a fundamental role in signalling the need for cognitive control. Many studies already provided a consistent evidence on the existence of peculiar ways in which the brain signals this need through electrophysiological changes. However, the following set of empirical studies aims to gain further insight into these complex processes by measuring brain activity changes in situations that alter the way one experience errors. The second Chapter (Chapter 2) consists of a brief commentary that was made in response to an article on the brain activity to action errors. In this commentary we propose new possibilities to explore our topic of interest, by taking advantage of EEG and modern virtual reality facilities. The thesis includes three EEG-VR studies: one on the error-mechanism in healthy participants (Chapter 3) and two studies on error monitoring system in pathological populations (Chapter 4, 5), as main parts of the core of the thesis. As a collateral project, in the Appendix, there is an EEG study on action observation in elite players (Chapter 7). In the first study (Chapter 3), we investigated a very simple but fundamental question. As we saw in the introduction, error-related signatures are evoked when an error occurs. But it is not clear how much of this is due to the occurrence of a violation of the intended goal or simply to the observation of a rare – thus less predictable – event. To this aim, we used a paradigm developed in the former years in our laboratory (Pavone et al., 2016; Spinelli et al., 2017), characterized by a setup in immersive Virtual Reality (VR) and simultaneous EEG recording. Building on the previous findings, we designed an EEG-VR study in which we manipulated the probability of observing errors in actions. In another study (Chapter 4) we investigated how erroneous actions are experienced by people with brain damage and diagnosis of Apraxia. Apraxic patients are people with hemispheric lesions and defective awareness on a variety of aspects that cover perceptuo-motor, cognitive or emotional domains. This study was developed after the results obtained by Canzano and colleagues (2014) in a behavioral study in which apraxic patients were asked to imitate the actions executed by the experimenter and judge their correctness; results revealed that bucco-facial apraxic patients manifest a specific deficit in detecting their own gestural errors when they are explicitly asked to judge them. With the present study we wanted to investigate apraxic brain’ response to action errors, while they embody an avatar in first person perspective (EEG-VR setup). The third study (Chapter 5) investigates the integrity of the error-monitoring system in Parkinson’s Disease and the impact of the dopaminergic treatment in the brain response to errors. To this aim we used the proposed VR action-observation paradigm, in which Parkinson patients observed successful and unsuccessful reach-to-grasp actions in first person perspective while EEG activity was recorded; the same patients were tested while being under dopaminergic treatment and during a dopaminergic withdrawal state. In another chapter we provide a critical overview of the findings of this work (General Discussion, Chapter 6). In the last chapter, the Appendix (Chapter 7), there is a collateral project of another research line of the Laboratory, in which I have being involved. In this study we are investigating the cortical underpinning of elite players during observation of goal-directed actions, in their domain of expertise. We recorded the EEG activity of elite wheelchair basketball players while observing free-throws performed by paraplegic athletes. We expected their brain correlates to be different from novice players and to be able to easily discriminate whether a basketball shot would be successful or unsuccessful (project still ongoing)

The path towards CAFO in Argentina: The 2020 Argentina-China agreement and the absence of animal welfare considerations in the intensification of animal agriculture

What factors have led Argentina to intensify its pig farming? How did the 2020 government agreement with Chinese investors to build mega pig farms in the country come about? What were stakeholders' response? Did animal welfare matter? This report seeks to throw light on these questions. It explains several key points.First: Argentina's economy and international trade plays a huge role in intensifying the country's animal agriculture, with robust support for the agro-export sector from the government. The introduction of GMO soy in the 1990s led Argentina to pivot toward planting soy to feed Chinese pigs and to intensify its own cattle production.Second: Argentina identifies strongly with agricultural activities, meat production and consumption. Chicken production is almost completely intensified, and products are consumed domestically. Pig production is mainly extensive or semi-intensive, and the sector aims to increase productivity.Third: The 2020 agreement to invest in mega pig farms is best viewed as a chapter of Argentina's economic, diplomatic, and trade relationship with China, which began in the 2000s. But there was a new driver - the outbreak of the African Swine Flu (ASF) that decimated Chinese pork production.Fourth: Socio-environmental groups were the most active stakeholders and initiated the public debate. With the endorsement of animal rights advocates, they led the opposition to the agreement. Small and medium pork producers were involved in the debate because they feared potential competition from the mega farms.Fifth: Animal welfare did not feature in the agreement and was barely mentioned by stakeholders. The legal framework for farm animal welfare in Argentina is vague and inadequate, and animal welfare training opportunities are lacking.Sixth: Changes need to happen on three levels. Structural (e.g. move away from intensified animal agriculture). Institutional (e.g. support agencies such as INTA and CONICET to develop protein alternatives). Individual (e.g. inform the public of farm animal welfare)

Does hypercholesterolemia improve operative outcomes in patients without coronary artery disease who undergo cardiac surgery?

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Video-assisted right supradiaphragmatic thoracic duct ligation for non-traumatic recurrent chylothorax

Background: Chylothorax is an uncommon disorder with respiratory, nutritional and immunological manifestations. Surgical management is indicated in case of recurrence or failure after conservative treatment. We report our experience with video-assisted right-sided supradiaphragmatic thoracic duct ligation for non-traumatic, non-postoperative persistent or recurrent chylothorax. Patients and methods: The medical records of six patients operated at our institution between 1999 and 2004 were retrospectively reviewed. A right-sided chylothorax was found in four patients, a left-sided in one, and a bilateral in one. Three patients developed chylothorax after chemotherapy and chest irradiation for malignant diseases (lymphoma in two patients and breast cancer in one), one in the context of lymphangioleiomyomatosis, one due to a non-diagnosed lymphoma, and one after heart transplantation. Results: The mean operative time was 102 min, with an average length of hospital stay of 14 days. Persistent cessation of chylous effusion within 7 days after surgery was observed in 5/6 patients without recurrence during a mean follow-up time of 41 months. One patient with undiagnosed mediastinal lymphoma required re-operation and thoracic duct ligation on day 8 by right-sided thoracotomy due to persistent chylothorax. No 30-day mortality was recorded. Two patients presented postoperative complications including respiratory insufficiency requiring mechanical ventilation in one, and chylous ascites development requiring peritoneo-venous LeVeen shunting in one patient. Conclusions: Recurrent or persistent non-traumatic chylothorax may be successfully treated by video-assisted right supradiaphragmatic thoracic duct ligatio

Second-harmonic generation in graded metallic films

We study the effective second-harmonic generation (SHG) susceptibility in graded metallic films by invoking the local field effects exactly, and further numerically demonstrate that the graded metallic films can serve as a novel optical material for producing a broad structure in both the linear and SHG response and an enhancement in the SHG signal.Comment: 10 pages, 2 EPS figures. Minor revision

Comment on "Local Accumulation of FOXP3+ Regulatory T Cells: Evidence for an Immune Evasion Mechanism in Patients with Large Condylomata Acuminata"

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La luna nelle tradizioni di Lama dei Peligni

Lama dei Peligni is a village in Abruzzo (province of Chieti) that has undergone various economic and socio-cultural transformations. In this work, after brief general considerations concerning the geography, general mythology and traditions of the moon, we proceed to the listing of all the traditions, anecdotes, proverbs and beliefs concerning the moon in the context for the purpose to preserve their memory and then to analyze and interpret their functions and symbolic meanings. The set of facts collected document that the moon had a great importance in the traditions of the context of investigation since it touches many spheres of human action. In the current situation it feeds: the beliefs according to which besides the tides it would influence other earthly events; the magical thought that has not completely dissolved; the romance of poets, singers and simple lovers who entrust their dreams and love messages to her; various traditions and beliefs recovered and inserted into the mechanisms that ensure the show and collective escape