Synthesis of the agrifood systems’ hidden costs analysis in the six FABLE country case studies

This chapter summarizes the main findings about hidden costs in agrifood systems across six countries, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, India, and the United Kingdom building on the results from SOFA 2023, the FABLE Consortium, and the Food System Economic Commission (FSEC) initiative. While the fact that unhealthy diets currently trigger the biggest hidden costs in most countries was a surprise for some stakeholders, there was a consensus that this is an important and growing issue that urgently needs to be addressed. Changing diets and increasing agricultural productivity have the largest impact on reducing the agrifood system’s hidden costs in the future, but implementing an integrated strategy that can also target environmental protection has the largest benefits. Some hidden costs related to undernourishment are covered in the analysis, but they do not accurately reflect the size of the problem, particularly in low-income and lower-middle-income countries. Better local datasets should be used in hidden costs computation for GHG emissions and land cover change, and thresholds for poverty and undernourishment should be aligned with national statistics. There are challenges to communicating the complexity of the hidden costs method, but this topic is gaining momentum for policy planning, and several governments are already either utilizing or planning to develop similar metrics, so this analysis was a timely exercise

The reliability and specificity of c-kit for the diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemias and undifferentiated leukemias

We document findings on c-kit (CD117) expression in 1,937 pediatric and adult de novo acute leukemia cases, diagnosed in five single European centers. All cases were well characterized as to the morphologic, cytochemical, and immunologic features, according to the European Group for the Immunological Classification of Leukemias (EGIL). The cases included 1,103 acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 819 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 11 biphenotypic acute leukemia (BAL), and 4 undifferentiated (AUL). c-kit was expressed in 741 (67%) AML cases, regardless of the French-American-British (FAB) subtype, one third of BAL, all four AUL, but only in 34 (4%) of ALL cases. The minority of c-kit+ ALL cases were classified as: T-cell lineage (two thirds), mainly pro-T-ALL or T-I, and B lineage (one third); cells from 62% of these ALL cases coexpressed other myeloid markers (CD13, CD33, or both). There were no differences in the frequency of c-kit+ AML or ALL cases according to age being similar in the adult and pediatric groups. Our findings demonstrate that c-kit is a reliable and specific marker to detect leukemia cells committed to the myeloid lineage, and therefore should be included in a routine basis for the diagnosis of acute leukemias to demonstrate myeloid commitment of the blasts. c-kit expression should score higher, at least one point, in the system currently applied to the diagnosis of BAL, as its myeloid specificity is greater than CD13 and CD33. Findings in ALL and AUL suggest that c-kit identifies a subgroup of cases, which may correspond to leukemias either arising from early prothymocytes and/or early hematopoietic cells, both able to differentiate to the lymphoid and myeloid pathways

Supplementary Material for: Tracking Cognitive Change over 24 Weeks with Longitudinal Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Alzheimer’s Disease

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Previous studies have revealed that functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal in specific brain regions correlates with cross-sectional performance on standardized clinical trial measures in Alzheimer’s disease (AD); however, the relationship between longitudinal change in fMRI-BOLD signal and neuropsychological performance remains unknown. <b><i>Objective:</i></b> To identify changes in regional fMRI-BOLD activity that tracks change in neuropsychological performance in mild AD dementia over 6 months. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> Twenty-four subjects (mean age 71.6) with mild AD dementia (mean Mini Mental State Examination 21.7, Global Clinical Dementia Rating 1.0) on stable donepezil dosing participated in two task-related fMRI sessions consisting of a face-name paired associative encoding memory paradigm 24 weeks apart during a randomized placebo-controlled pharmaco-fMRI drug study. Regression analysis was used to identify regions where the change in fMRI activity for Novel > Repeated stimulus contrast was associated with the change scores on postscan memory tests and the Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test (FCSRT). <b><i>Results:</i></b> Correlations between changes in postscan memory accuracy and changes in fMRI activity were observed in regions including the angular gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus and cerebellum. Correlations between changes in FCSRT-free recall and changes in fMRI were observed in regions including the inferior parietal lobule, precuneus, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Changes in encoding-related fMRI activity in regions implicated in mnemonic networks correlated with changes in psychometric measures of episodic memory retrieval performed outside the scanner. These exploratory results support the potential of fMRI activity to track cognitive change and detect signals of short-term pharmacologic effect in early-phase AD studies

Estimating Total Cerebral Microinfarct Burden From Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

Conclusions-Detecting even a single DWI lesion suggests an annual incidence of hundreds of new CMI. The cumulative effects of these lesions may directly contribute to small-vessel-related vascular cognitive impairment