Incorporating ‘Nudge’ in Agri-environmental Program Design to Stimulate BMP Adoption: Does It Work?

Sustainable agriculture refers to an environmentally friendly agriculture sector that ensures safe production for both current and future generations. To address climate change’s impact on Canadian agricultural production and mitigate the harmful environmental effects of agriculture, promoting Best Management Practices (BMPs) is a proposed strategy by researchers. Agri-environmental programs and policies are used to motivate farmers to adopt BMPs. However, there is still a lack of research on how to design those programs to achieve the optimum level of participation. In this thesis, I use a two-paper approach to analyze whether behavioral nudges can effectively encourage farmers toward adoption. The first paper (chapter 2) presents an extensive literature review focusing on behavioral factors in BMP adoption and evidence of using behavioral nudges in the agri-environmental sector. The findings reveal that several behavioral factors could impact farmers’ decision-making regarding BMPs. It also suggests that applying behavioral nudges might effectively help design agri-environmental policies in Canada. The second paper (chapter 3) empirically examines whether incorporating different nudges in agri-environmental program designs can influence Saskatchewan farmers’ participation in those programs. Data for this paper was collected from a large-scale survey conducted on 500 Saskatchewan farmers in 2021. A vignette experiment is used to investigate how farmers rate different hypothetical programs. The results show that although nudges have some positive influence, monetary incentives significantly impact farmers’ decisions to participate in the programs. In this paper, I also analyzed Saskatchewan farmers’ current BMP adoption scenario and discussed their participation in the Environmental Farm Plan (EFP)

Association between fish consumption, long chain omega 3 fatty acids, and risk of cerebrovascular disease: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Objective: To clarify associations of fish consumption and long chain omega 3 fatty acids with risk of cerebrovascular disease for primary and secondary prevention. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources: Studies published before September 2012 identified through electronic searches using Medline, Embase, BIOSIS, and Science Citation Index databases. Eligibility criteria: Prospective cohort studies and randomised controlled trials reporting on associations of fish consumption and long chain omega 3 fatty acids (based on dietary self report), omega 3 fatty acids biomarkers, or supplementations with cerebrovascular disease (defined as any fatal or non-fatal ischaemic stroke, haemorrhagic stroke, cerebrovascular accident, or transient ischaemic attack). Both primary and secondary prevention studies (comprising participants with or without cardiovascular disease at baseline) were eligible. Results: 26 prospective cohort studies and 12 randomised controlled trials with aggregate data on 794 000 non-overlapping people and 34 817 cerebrovascular outcomes were included. In cohort studies comparing categories of fish intake the pooled relative risk for cerebrovascular disease for 2-4 servings a week versus ≤1 servings a week was 0.94 (95% confidence intervals 0.90 to 0.98) and for ≥5 servings a week versus 1 serving a week was 0.88 (0.81 to 0.96). The relative risk for cerebrovascular disease comparing the top thirds of baseline long chain omega 3 fatty acids with the bottom thirds for circulating biomarkers was 1.04 (0.90 to 1.20) and for dietary exposures was 0.90 (0.80 to 1.01). In the randomised controlled trials the relative risk for cerebrovascular disease in the long chain omega 3 supplement compared with the control group in primary prevention trials was 0.98 (0.89 to 1.08) and in secondary prevention trials was 1.17 (0.99 to 1.38). For fish or omega 3 fatty acids the estimates for ischaemic and haemorrhagic cerebrovascular events were broadly similar. Evidence was lacking of heterogeneity and publication bias across studies or within subgroups. Conclusions Available observational data indicate moderate, inverse associations of fish consumption and long chain omega 3 fatty acids with cerebrovascular risk. Long chain omega 3 fatty acids measured as circulating biomarkers in observational studies or supplements in primary and secondary prevention trials were not associated with cerebrovascular disease. The beneficial effect of fish intake on cerebrovascular risk is likely to be mediated through the interplay of a wide range of nutrients abundant in fish

Robust Genomic Prediction and Heritability Estimation using Density Power Divergence

This manuscript delves into the intersection of genomics and phenotypic prediction, focusing on the statistical innovation required to navigate the complexities introduced by noisy covariates and confounders. The primary emphasis is on the development of advanced robust statistical models tailored for genomic prediction from single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data collected from genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in plant and animal breeding and multi-field trials. The manuscript explores the limitations of traditional marker-assisted recurrent selection, highlighting the significance of incorporating all estimated effects of marker loci into the statistical framework and aiming to reduce the high dimensionality of GWAS data while preserving critical information. This paper introduces a new robust statistical framework for genomic prediction, employing one-stage and two-stage linear mixed model analyses along with utilizing the popular robust minimum density power divergence estimator (MDPDE) to estimate genetic effects on phenotypic traits. The study illustrates the superior performance of the proposed MDPDE-based genomic prediction and associated heritability estimation procedures over existing competitors through extensive empirical experiments on artificial datasets and application to a real-life maize breeding dataset. The results showcase the robustness and accuracy of the proposed MDPDE-based approaches, especially in the presence of data contamination, emphasizing their potential applications in improving breeding programs and advancing genomic prediction of phenotyping traits.Comment: Under Revie

De novo chronic lymphocytic leukemia/prolymphocytic leukemia or B-cell prolymphocytic leukemia? The importance of integrating clinico-morphological and immunophenotypic findings in distinguishing chronic lymphoproliferative diseases with circulating phase

B-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (B-PLL) is an extremely rare disease, accounting for approximately 1% of the lymphocytic leukemias. B-PLL generally occurs in older people. It is characterized by the presence of more than 55% prolymphocytes in the peripheral blood (PB), no or minimal lymphadenopathy, massive splenomegaly, and very high white blood cell counts. The prognosis of B-PLL patients is generally poor, with a median survival of 3 years, although a subset of patients may show a prolonged survival. Herein, we report a case of a 70-year-old male with weakness, generalized lymphadenopathy, and moderate splenomegaly at the initial presentation. Hematologic examination revealed lymphocytic leukocytosis, favoring a chronic lymphoproliferative disorder (CLPD). The key to decoding the precise CLPD was a combination of the clinical profile, morphologic findings on the peripheral blood and the bone marrow, immunophenotypic analysis, and cytogenetic study. The best diagnosis proffered was a de novo chronic lymphocytic leukemia/prolymphocytic leukemia. There was no prior history of lymphoproliferative disorder or lymphocytic leukocytosis. Discriminating this entity from other lymphoproliferative disorders is crucial as the treatment and prognosis are varied compared to the other lymphoproliferative disorders. The diagnostic conundrum encountered and the incredible utility of ancillary studies in such a scenario are highlighted in this study

Evaluation of anti-leishmanial activity of artemisinin combined with amphotericin B or miltefosine in Leishmania donovani promastigotes

Background: The increasing incidence of drug resistance in Leishmaniasis necessitates evaluation of combination chemotherapy. Miltefosine and amphotericin B are established anti-leishmanial drugs, while artemisinin has shown significant leishmanicidal activity in experimental models. In this study, we have evaluated the additive/synergistic effect of artemisinin with amphotericin B or miltefosine.Methods: Leishmania parasites were isolated from the bone marrow aspirate of a patient with visceral leishmaniasis. Parasites were typed as Leishmania donovani by restriction fragment length polymorphism of internal transcribed spacer 1 region of Leishmania genome. Promastigotes were incubated in a fixed ratio combination of artemisinin (0-500 µM) and amphotericin B (0-100 nM) or miltefosine (0-100 µM) and cell viability was assessed. An isobologram was constructed to evaluate the additive/synergistic effect, wherein it was considered additive if the mean sum fractional inhibitory concentration (mean ΣFIC) at the IC50 level was <2, but ≥1 and synergism, if the mean ΣFIC was <1.Results: The isobologram showed an additive effect for three combinations of artemisinin-amphotericin B and artemisinin-miltefosine, the mean ΣFICs ranging from 1.02 to 1.44 and 1.08 to 1.33 along with a synergistic effect with one combination, the mean ΣFICs being 0.58 and 0.81 respectively.Conclusions: This study supports the combination use of artemisinin-amphotericin B and artemisinin-miltefosine, worthy of future pharmacological consideration

Scalable Test Generation to Trigger Rare Targets in High-Level Synthesizable IPs for Cloud FPGAs

High-Level Synthesis (HLS) has transformed the development of complex Hardware IPs (HWIP) by offering abstraction and configurability through languages like SystemC/C++, particularly for Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) accelerators in high-performance and cloud computing contexts. These IPs can be synthesized for different FPGA boards in cloud, offering compact area requirements and enhanced flexibility. HLS enables designs to execute directly on ARM processors within modern FPGAs without the need for Register Transfer Level (RTL) synthesis, thereby conserving FPGA resources. While HLS offers flexibility and efficiency, it also introduces potential vulnerabilities such as the presence of hidden circuitry, including the possibility of hosting hardware trojans within designs. In cloud environments, these vulnerabilities pose significant security concerns such as leakage of sensitive data, IP functionality disruption and hardware damage, necessitating the development of robust testing frameworks. This research presents an advanced testing approach for HLS-developed cloud IPs, specifically targeting hidden malicious functionalities that may exist in rare conditions within the design. The proposed method leverages selective instrumentation, combining greybox fuzzing and concolic execution techniques to enhance test generation capabilities. Evaluation conducted on various HLS benchmarks, possessing characteristics of FPGA-based cloud IPs with embedded cloud related threats, demonstrates the effectiveness of our framework in detecting trojans and rare scenarios, showcasing improvements in coverage, time efficiency, memory usage, and testing costs compared to existing methods

Mental stress in infertility: a tertiary care hospital-based study

Background: Most of the couples suffering from infertility report it to be the most stressful and depressing period of their life, more so if it is a primary infertility. Studies regarding the prevalence and role of infertility-specific stress especially in eastern part of India is very limited. The objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of infertility-specific stress and its role in marital adjustment in women diagnosed with infertility.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study done on 80 married couple diagnosed with infertility (both primary and secondary) over 1 year from July 2016 to June,2017. Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), "semi-structured questionnaire" compiled by the authors and "ICD-10 Classification of Mental and Behavioral Disorders (Clinical Descriptions and Diagnostic Guidelines)" were used for the evaluation. The analysis was done using SPSS (version 16) and Chi-square test.Results: Around 86% infertile women and 21% infertile men were found to suffer from mental stress. Infertility related stress were more in patients with primary infertility than in secondary one. Women mostly (56.5%) coped with stress by self-blaming whereas men (58.2%) by blaming the partner.Conclusions: Mental stress was significantly associated with infertility. In fact, maladjustment in marital relation caused by the stress adversely affected the conjugal life and thus also the fertility. Proper counselling of both partners might be helpful to solve this problem

Improving the management of people with a family history of breast cancer in primary care: before and after study of audit-based education

Background: In England, guidance from National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) states women with a family history of breast cancer presenting to primary care should be reassured or referred. We reviewed the evidence for interventions that might be applied in primary care and conducted an audit of whether low risk women are correctly advised and flagged. Methods: We conducted a literature review to identify modifiable risk factors. We extracted routinely collected data from the computerised medical record systems of 6 general practices (population approximately 30,000); of the variables identified in the guidance. We implemented a quality improvement (QI) intervention called audit-based education (ABE) comparing participant practices with guidelines and each other before and after; we report odds ratios (OR) of any change in data recording. Results: The review revealed evidence for advising on: diet, weight control, physical exercise, and alcohol. The proportion of patients with recordings of family history of: disease, neoplasms, and breast cancer were: 39.3%, 5.1% and 1.3% respectively. There was no significant change in the recording of family history of disease or cancer; OR 1.02 (95% CI 0.98-1.06); and 1.08 (95% CI 0.99-1.17) respectively. Recording of alcohol consumption and smoking both increased significantly; OR 1.36 (95% CI 1.30-1.43); and 1.42 (95% CI 1.27-1.60) respectively. Recording lifestyle advice fell; OR 0.84 (95% CI 0.81-0.88). Conclusions: The study informs about current data recording and willingness to engage in ABE. Recording of risk factors improved after the intervention. Further QI is needed to achieve adherence to current guidance