The case for the development and use of "ecologically valid" measures of executive function in experimental and clinical neuropsychology

This article considers the scientific process whereby new and better clinical tests of executive function might be developed, and what form they might take. We argue that many of the traditional tests of executive function most commonly in use (e.g., the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; Stroop) are adaptations of procedures that emerged almost coincidentally from conceptual and experimental frameworks far removed from those currently in favour, and that the prolongation of their use has been encouraged by a sustained period of concentration on “construct-driven” experimentation in neuropsychology. This resulted from the special theoretical demands made by the field of executive function, but was not a necessary consequence, and may not even have been a useful one. Whilst useful, these tests may not therefore be optimal for their purpose. We consider as an alternative approach a function-led development programme which in principle could yield tasks better suited to the concerns of the clinician because of the transparency afforded by increased “representativeness” and “generalisability.” We further argue that the requirement of such a programme to represent the interaction between the individual and situational context might also provide useful constraints for purely experimental investigations. We provide an example of such a programme with reference to the Multiple Errands and Six Element tests

Principles behind evaluations of national food and beverage taxes and other regulatory efforts

Non-PRIFPRI3; ISIPHN

Using Microbial Community Interactions within Plant Microbiomes to Advance an Evergreen Agricultural Revolution

Innovative plant breeding and technology transfer fostered the Green Revolution (GR), which transformed agriculture worldwide by increasing grain yields in developing countries. The GR temporarily alleviated world hunger, but also reduced biodiversity, nutrient cycling, and carbon (C) sequestration that agricultural lands can provide. Meanwhile, economic disparity and food insecurity within and among countries continues. Subsequent agricultural advances, focused on objectives such as increasing crop yields or reducing the risk of a specific pest, have failed to meet food demands at the local scale or to restore lost ecosystem services. An increasing human population, climate change, growing per capita food and energy demands, and reduced ecosystem potential to provide agriculturally relevant services have created an unrelenting need for improved crop production practices. Meeting this need in a sustainable fashion will require interdisciplinary approaches that integrate plant and microbial ecology with efforts to advance crop production while mitigating effects of a changing climate. Metagenomic advances are revealing microbial dynamics that can simultaneously improve crop production and soil restoration while enhancing crop resistance to environmental change. Restoring microbial diversity to contemporary agroecosystems could establish ecosystem services while reducing production costs for agricultural producers. Our framework for examining plant-microbial interactions at multiple scales, modeling outcomes to broadly explore potential impacts, and interacting with extension and training networks to transfer microbial based agricultural technologies across socioeconomic scales, offers an integrated strategy for advancing agroecosystem sustainability while minimizing potential for the kind of negative ecological and socioeconomic feedbacks that have resulted from many widely adopted agricultural technologies

Care and phronesis in teaching and coaching: dealing with personality disorder

My aim in this article is to contribute to the discussion about how teachers and coaches come to act in appropriate ways given the complex nature of both practices. I focus on two specific dispositions or qualities from the philosophical literature, namely the virtue of care and the Aristotelian concept of phronesis (or practical wisdom), which have been put forward as possible explanations. I argue that care and phronesis are fundamental qualities for both good teachers and coaches. Talk of care and phronesis in the literature is welcome, but these concepts are themselves complex. Care and phronesis, like other virtues are context-specific, difficult to acquire (or teach) and their particular expression depends on a host of complex factors, not least one's character and personal and professional experience. I illustrate my argument with reference to a former professional football player who exhibited symptoms of personality disorder from an early age and who presented challenges to his teachers and coaches through his disruptive behaviour

First Report of Cocksfoot mottle virus Infecting Dactylis glomerata in Oregon and the United States

Cocksfoot mottle virus (CfMV) is a mechanically and beetle-transmitted, non-seedtransmitted sobemovirus associated with orchardgrass (Dactylis glomerata L.) stand decline in Europe, Japan, New Zealand (Mahy and Van Regenmortel 2010), and Canada (Bittman et al. 2006). Additional hosts, reported from New Zealand (Delmiglio et al. 2010), include Festuca novae-zelandiae, Lolium spp., Poa anceps, Poa cita, Chionochloa rubra, and Dichelachne crinita. To determine if the virus is present in the United States, surveys for CfMV were conducted in 2014 and 2015 in orchardgrass seed production fields in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, where most of the orchardgrass seed produced in the United States is grown. During June, in each of 2014 and 2015, 18 orchardgrass fields were selected arbitrarily. Stand age of the seed production fields ranged from 2 to 24 years. Two of the fields were sampled in both years. Four samples (each containing 4 leaves, one from each of four plants) were collected along each of four transects in an M-shape pattern from each field. All plants sampled appeared healthy. In 2014, samples were placed in separate plastic bags and in 2015 samples were placed in deep well plates (VWR, International LLC, Radnor, PA). In each year, samples were transported over ice and stored at 5°C until processed. Samples were homogenized and tested for CfMV using DAS-ELISA, with antibodies derived from an isolate of CfMV from British Columbia, Canada. In 2014 and 2015, CfMV was detected in 61% and 72% of the fields, respectively. Symptoms were not present at the time of sampling. In 2015, eight ELISA positive samples were further examined with RT-PCR. RNA was extracted with the Direct-zol RNA MiniPrep kit (Zymo Research, Irvine, CA) following the manufacturer’s instructions and used for cDNA synthesis using the SuperScriptIII First-Strand Synthesis SuperMix kit (Life Technologies, ThermoFisher, Waltham, MA). PrimeSTAR HS DNA Polymerase (Takara Clonetech, Kyoto, Japan) was used following the manufacturer’s instructions with CfMV specific primers CfCPF1 (GATGGAGCCAGTCTCTCG) and CfCP-R2 (ATCCGTCAATCTTCAAGC) (Delmiglio 2008) for PCR with the following program: 98°C for 2 min; 40 cycles of 98°C for 15 s, 55°C for 5 s, and 72°C for 45 s; followed by 72°C for 7 min. The predominant band at 750 bp was reamplified and sequenced using CfCP-F1 and CfCP-R1 primers. A BLAST search indicated 94.4 to 95.4% identity with CfMV isolates found in native and exotic grasses of New Zealand (Delmiglio 2008). Sequences were submitted to GenBank (Accession No. KT984653 to KT984660). To our knowledge, this is the first report of CfMV in orchardgrass seed production fields in Oregon and in the United States. Results of this study are significant given the severity of CfMV in Canada and elsewhere, and this could account for the winter die-out occurring in orchardgrass seed-production fields in Oregon. Additional studies will be needed to determine to what extent CfMV is associated with stand decline in Oregon and what vectors may be present

Dietary Salt Intake and Mortality in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes

OBJECTIVE: Many guidelines recommend that patients with type 2 diabetes should aim to reduce their intake of salt. However, the precise relationship between dietary salt intake and mortality in patients with type 2 diabetes has not been previously explored. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Six hundred and thirty-eight patients attending a single diabetes clinic were followed in a prospective cohort study. Baseline sodium excretion was estimated from 24-h urinary collections (24hU(Na)). The predictors of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality were determined by Cox regression and competing risk modeling, respectively. RESULTS: The mean baseline 24hU(Na) was 184 ± 73 mmol/24 h, which remained consistent throughout the follow-up (intraindividual coefficient of variation [CV] 23 ± 11%). Over a median of 9.9 years, there were 175 deaths, 75 (43%) of which were secondary to cardiovascular events. All-cause mortality was inversely associated with 24hU(Na), after adjusting for other baseline risk factors (P < 0.001). For every 100 mmol rise in 24hU(Na), all-cause mortality was 28% lower (95% CI 6-45%, P = 0.02). After adjusting for the competing risk of noncardiovascular death and other predictors, 24hU(Na) was also significantly associated with cardiovascular mortality (sub-hazard ratio 0.65 [95% CI 0.44-0.95]; P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with type 2 diabetes, lower 24-h urinary sodium excretion was paradoxically associated with increased all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Interventional studies are necessary to determine if dietary salt has a causative role in determining adverse outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes and the appropriateness of guidelines advocating salt restriction in this setting

Extended Functionality in Verifiable Searchable Encryption

Abstract. When outsourcing the storage of sensitive data to an (un-trusted) remote server, a data owner may choose to encrypt the data beforehand to preserve confidentiality. However, it is then difficult to efficiently retrieve specific portions of the data as the server is unable to identify the relevant information. Searchable encryption has been well studied as a solution to this problem, allowing data owners and other au-thorised users to generate search queries which the server may execute over the encrypted data to identify relevant data portions. However, many current schemes lack two important properties: verifia-bility of search results, and expressive queries. We introduce Extended Verifiable Searchable Encryption (eVSE) that permits a user to verify that search results are correct and complete. We also permit verifiabl