Large Steps toward Small Donations: Reputational Benefits of Nominal Corporate Generosity

Cause marketing campaigns often highlight two attributes: the percent-of-proceeds from each purchase to be donated, and the maximum amount the company will donate. For example, a recent campaign by Chipotle pledged to donate 50% of its proceeds, up to $35,000, to a zoo. How do consumers process this information when forming perceptions of the brand’s generosity? We find that the percent-of-proceeds attribute is more influential because it is easier to evaluate. As a result, brands can appear highly generous without actually being highly generous (by pledging a high percent-of-proceeds and a low maximum donation). The perceived generosity induced by cause marketing campaigns that donate a high percent-of-proceeds can lead to greater desire for the brand’s products. Comparative context (provided by exposing people to multiple cause marketing campaigns) helps people evaluate the maximum donation attribute and reduces the undue influence of the percent-of-proceeds attribute.https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136602/1/1365_Rick.pd

Assessing Chronic Opioid Management at an Internal Medicine-Pediatrics Clinic

The number of deaths attributed to synthetic opioids has nearly tripled in the US from 1999 to 2014. Although there is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain, a condition estimated to affect 11.2% of the US adult population; opioids are often prescribed for this reason in the outpatient setting. The CDC has produced guidelines regarding safe opioid prescribing methods, however changes are also necessary within clinic systems to improve the safety and management of opioid prescriptions This is particularly important in resident led clinics where multiple providers often see patients over the course of their care. Our quality improvement (QI) project aimed to standardize clinic workflow and management of chronic opioid prescription by implementing routine surveillance screening and creating a new patient survey. Providers were also encouraged to do the following: 1) update problem lists, 2) document specific surveillance dates and signed agreements, and 3) utilize a pre-made progress note template to address specific concerns with chronic opioid use

Pupillary Light Reflexes are Associated with Autonomic Dysfunction in Bolivian Diabetics But Not Chagas Disease Patients

Autonomic dysfunction is common in Chagas disease and diabetes. Patients with either condition complicated by cardiac autonomic dysfunction face increased mortality, but no clinical predictors of autonomic dysfunction exist. Pupillary light reflexes (PLRs) may identify such patients early, allowing for intensified treatment. To evaluate the significance of PLRs, adults were recruited from the outpatient endocrine, cardiology, and surgical clinics at a Bolivian teaching hospital. After testing for Chagas disease and diabetes, participants completed conventional autonomic testing (CAT) evaluating their cardiovascular responses to Valsalva, deep breathing, and orthostatic changes. PLRs were measured using specially designed goggles, then CAT and PLRs were compared as measures of autonomic dysfunction. This study analyzed 163 adults, including 96 with Chagas disease, 35 patients with diabetes, and 32 controls. PLRs were not significantly different between Chagas disease patients and controls. Patients with diabetes had longer latency to onset of pupil constriction, slower maximum constriction velocities, and smaller orthostatic ratios than nonpatients with diabetes. PLRs correlated poorly with CAT results. A PLR-based clinical risk score demonstrated a 2.27-fold increased likelihood of diabetes complicated by autonomic dysfunction compared with the combination of blood tests, CAT, and PLRs (sensitivity 87.9%, specificity 61.3%). PLRs represent a promising tool for evaluating subclinical neuropathy in patients with diabetes without symptomatic autonomic dysfunction. Pupillometry does not have a role in the evaluation of Chagas disease patients

Supply chain risk assessment and management toolkit

The Supply Chain Risk Assessment and Management Toolkit, developed by the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT in collaboration with FMO and Mercon Coffee Group, has the objective of helping companies assess the risks of engaging with or endorsing unlawful/unethical practices in their agricultural supply chains, and defining adequate measures to prevent, minimize and mitigate their impacts. The toolkit groups risks in three major Areas: Labor, Human Rights, and Environment, which are further disaggregated in Sub-Areas and Components. The analysis is carried out at a Macro and Micro level, providing companies a contextualized, nuanced, and granular understanding of the challenges they (may) face, which will guide the development of tailored risk management strategies. The toolkit is comprised of four different tools: i) Macro Risk Assessment, ii) Supply Chain Mapping Tool iii) Micro Risk Assessment and iv) Prioritization and Action Planning. i. Macro Risk Assessment: This tool assesses the risk exposure of engaging with or endorsing unlawful/unethical practices in agricultural supply chains at a national level. The result of the assessment is a relative rating of risk exposure in the three risk areas, based on national statistics and other publicly available databases, indexes, reports, news, and similar sources. ii. Supply Chain Mapping Tool: This tool is designed to help collect and organize data on the company's in-country operations along its supply chain, as well as the importance of the target origin for the company's overall business. This information is useful in considering risk mitigation strategies as well as for prioritizing among countries/origins. iii. Micro Risk Assessment: This tool assesses the risk exposure of engaging with or endorsing unlawful/unethical practices in agricultural supply chains at a local level. The result of the assessment is a relative rating of risk exposure in the three risk areas, based on information available from visits to randomly selected farms coupled with interviews with farmers, workers, company personnel, civil society representatives and other local key informants. iv. Prioritization and Action Planning: This tool supports the process of prioritization and action planning for minimizing the risk exposure of engaging with or endorsing unlawful/unethical practices in agricultural supply chains, by providing guidelines and resources for facilitating relevant discussions among company personnel. It combines the results from the Macro and Micro Risk Assessments with discussions of potential consequences of risks, and the efficacy of current mitigation strategies, for estimating a relative rating of risk exposure in the three risk areas. This information is used to guide the development of recommendations and action planning to prevent, minimize and mitigate risks. Each tool contains specific instructions and is accompanied by relevant supplementary materials, including data collection instruments and templates designed to streamline the process of inputting and analyzing data. All tools have been designed using generic terms to accommodate different commodities and countries. The toolkit includes an introductory file with general information to understand and navigate through the different tools and supplementary files

Minimum guidelines for CSV implementation

Climate-smart village (CSV) has been demonstrated as a good model to practice climate-smart agriculture technologies and practices (CSA T&Ps) for enhancing adaptive capacity and resilience to climate change in rural areas worldwide. This material documents detailed stepwise guidelines for CSV implementation at village level from three CSVs that have been successfully established for three distinctive agroecologies of Yen Bai province. These CSVs were developed in three different projects, such as the CCAFS FP2.1 (2015-2018), VIBE 2018.05 (2019-2021), and NTM (2020) projects. The document will provide technical guidance for improving the implementation of Vietnam’s National Target Program on New Rural Development (NTM) in the 2021-2030 Strategy towards climate adaptation and resilience in vulnerable rural areas

Outcome and impact assessment of the Climate-Smart Village Program in Northern Vietnam

Yen Bai province inherits representative biophysical, socio-economic, smaller-holder farming characteristics to economic marginalization and climatic risks and impacts to agricultural production and local livelihoods of Vietnam’s northern mountain region (NMR). The CCAFS project deployed to Ma Climate-Smart Village (CSV) in Yen Bai in 2015 with bilateral funding support from two other research projects aimed at setting up a demonstration-for-scaling example of a rural community equipped with capacities for enhanced climate adaptation and resilience. This study applied a three tier interview data collection methodology (key informant interviews – focus group discussions – indepth farmer interviews) to thoroughly investigate 120 households about six main outcomes accomplished by the project up until 2021. The project has achieved great outcomes from the village to the provincial levels. However, the project work still has a potential to be scaled to the National Target Program on New Rural Development (NTM) given its interest in developing resilient communities in climate-vulnerable regions across the country applying the CSV approach in its 2021-2025 strategy. Despite the closing of the CCAFS program by December 2021, this most important scaling pathway will be continued by the VIBE 2018.05 (funded by the Irish Aid) and COALESCE/2020/34 (funded by the Irish Research Council) under the management of Vietnam National University of Agriculture – a long-term strategic partner of the CCAFS program in the NRM

Scaling the Climate-Smart Village model in national-level programs: The recommendations for adoption in the implementation of the Nông Thôn Mới (Vietnam’s National Target Program on New Rural Development) 2021-2030 Strategy

The New Rural Development Program or Nông Thôn Mới (NTM) is a national target program of Vietnam that has enabled 57% of rural communes to achieve the NTM status, which aims to raise the socio-economic standard of living of small communities while facilitating agricultural development. Agricultural development is threatened by the impacts of climate change, which carries high risk for an agriculture-dependent country like Vietnam. This Info Note discusses how the Climate-Smart Village (CSV) model can be applied in the NTM to help the communities under this program achieve “advanced” and “demonstration” status based on 19 criteria. Recommendations were listed on how to integrate the CSV model into the NTM

Distinct and shared functions of ALS-associated proteins TDP-43, FUS and TAF15 revealed by multisystem analyses

The RNA-binding protein (RBP) TAF15 is implicated in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). To compare TAF15 function to that of two ALS-associated RBPs, FUS and TDP-43, we integrate CLIP-seq and RNA Bind-N-Seq technologies, and show that TAF15 binds to ∼4,900 RNAs enriched for GGUA motifs in adult mouse brains. TAF15 and FUS exhibit similar binding patterns in introns, are enriched in 3′ untranslated regions and alter genes distinct from TDP-43. However, unlike FUS and TDP-43, TAF15 has a minimal role in alternative splicing. In human neural progenitors, TAF15 and FUS affect turnover of their RNA targets. In human stem cell-derived motor neurons, the RNA profile associated with concomitant loss of both TAF15 and FUS resembles that observed in the presence of the ALS-associated mutation FUS R521G, but contrasts with late-stage sporadic ALS patients. Taken together, our findings reveal convergent and divergent roles for FUS, TAF15 and TDP-43 in RNA metabolism.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant HG007005

Replication of CNTNAP2 association with nonword repetition and support for FOXP2 association with timed reading and motor activities in a dyslexia family sample

Two functionally related genes, FOXP2 and CNTNAP2, influence language abilities in families with rare syndromic and common nonsyndromic forms of impaired language, respectively. We investigated whether these genes are associated with component phenotypes of dyslexia and measures of sequential motor ability. Quantitative transmission disequilibrium testing (QTDT) and linear association modeling were used to evaluate associations with measures of phonological memory (nonword repetition, NWR), expressive language (sentence repetition), reading (real word reading efficiency, RWRE; word attack, WATT), and timed sequential motor activities (rapid alternating place of articulation, RAPA; finger succession in the dominant hand, FS-D) in 188 family trios with a child with dyslexia. Consistent with a prior study of language impairment, QTDT in dyslexia showed evidence of CNTNAP2 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) association with NWR. For FOXP2, we provide the first evidence for SNP association with component phenotypes of dyslexia, specifically NWR and RWRE but not WATT. In addition, FOXP2 SNP associations with both RAPA and FS-D were observed. Our results confirm the role of CNTNAP2 in NWR in a dyslexia sample and motivate new questions about the effects of FOXP2 in neurodevelopmental disorders

Relative Burden of Large CNVs on a Range of Neurodevelopmental Phenotypes

While numerous studies have implicated copy number variants (CNVs) in a range of neurological phenotypes, the impact relative to disease severity has been difficult to ascertain due to small sample sizes, lack of phenotypic details, and heterogeneity in platforms used for discovery. Using a customized microarray enriched for genomic hotspots, we assayed for large CNVs among 1,227 individuals with various neurological deficits including dyslexia (376), sporadic autism (350), and intellectual disability (ID) (501), as well as 337 controls. We show that the frequency of large CNVs (>1 Mbp) is significantly greater for ID–associated phenotypes compared to autism (p = 9.58×10−11, odds ratio = 4.59), dyslexia (p = 3.81×10−18, odds ratio = 14.45), or controls (p = 2.75×10−17, odds ratio = 13.71). There is a striking difference in the frequency of rare CNVs (>50 kbp) in autism (10%, p = 2.4×10−6, odds ratio = 6) or ID (16%, p = 3.55×10−12, odds ratio = 10) compared to dyslexia (2%) with essentially no difference in large CNV burden among dyslexia patients compared to controls. Rare CNVs were more likely to arise de novo (64%) in ID when compared to autism (40%) or dyslexia (0%). We observed a significantly increased large CNV burden in individuals with ID and multiple congenital anomalies (MCA) compared to ID alone (p = 0.001, odds ratio = 2.54). Our data suggest that large CNV burden positively correlates with the severity of childhood disability: ID with MCA being most severely affected and dyslexics being indistinguishable from controls. When autism without ID was considered separately, the increase in CNV burden was modest compared to controls (p = 0.07, odds ratio = 2.33)