Place-Based Industrial and Regional Strategy – Levelling the Playing Field

Over the past decade there has been renewed interest in the role of industrial strategy in enhancing innovation, productivity, and competitiveness within and across firms, sectors and regions with an eye to fostering more balanced regional economic growth. This special issue explores how policymakers could adopt place-based industrial policy measures to foster regional catch up and a more balanced and cohesive regional growth. In doing so, the papers are a mix of contributions that develop theory, provide evidence and highlight ‘state of the art’ or good practice that can inform a level playing field fostering regional industrial strategy

Infiltration and short-term movement of nitrogen in a silt-loam soil typical of rice cultivation in Arkansas

Rice production in Arkansas is one of the top three crop commodities in terms of cash receipts. Researchers and farmers report that nitrogen (N) needs to be managed according to a variety of factors with two important ones being soil and fertilizer type. The objectives of this experiment were to determine: 1) the degree to which floodwater-incorporated N applied as urea or as ammonium sulfate infiltrates intact cores (7.2-cm dia., 10-cm depth) containing DeWitt siltloam soil, and 2) the distribution of N during 12 h of ponding. Inorganic-N concentrations were analyzed at 2-cm depth intervals in cores following removal of the flood. Nitrogen from applied fertilizer was recovered as ammonium. Ammonium sulfate-N remained in the top 4 cm of soil with concentrations of 375 µg N g-1 in the surface 2 cm and 300 µg N g-1 at the 2 - 4 cm depth after 12 hr of ponding. At all depth intervals below 4 cm, ammonium sulfate-N remained below 30 µg N g-1. In contrast, after 12 h of ponding, N in soil receiving urea was 105 µg N g-1 in the top 2 cm and 173 µg N g-1 at 2-4 cm. At 4-6, 6-8, and 8-10 cm, N was 109, 108, and 35 µg N g-1, respectively, after 12 h of ponding. These results demonstrate immediate and deeper movement of ammonium into silt loam soil receiving urea as compared to ammonium sulfate, demonstrating how the form of N in fertilizer affects its movement into the soil profile

The epidemiology of major depression in South Africa: Results from the South African Stress and Health study

Background. Mental disorders are a major contributor to the burden of disease in all regions of the world. There are limited data on the epidemiology of major depressive disorder in South Africa. Methods. A nationally representative household survey was conducted between 2002 and 2004 using the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) to establish a diagnosis of depression. The dataset analysed included 4 351 adult South Africans of all racial groups. Results. The prevalence of major depression was 9.7% for lifetime and 4.9% for the 12 months prior to the interview. The prevalence of depression was significantly higher among females than among males. The prevalence was also higher among those with a low level of education. Over 90% of all respondents with depression reported global role impairment. Conclusion. In comparison with data from other countries, South Africa has lower rates of depression than the USA but higher rates than Nigeria. The findings are broadly consistent with previous findings in South Africa. These findings are the first step in documenting a level of need for care in a context of significant under-funding of mental health services and research in South Africa

An Open-Source Data Manager for Network Models

Developing simulation and optimisation models for resource networks like water or energy systems increasingly involves integrating multiple data sources and software. Connecting multiple models and managing data accessed by different groups of analysts is a software challenge. Many resource systems are represented in computer models as networks of nodes and links, driven by a range of objectives and rules. We present a data storage platform, written in Python, which exploits the commonality of network representations to store data for multiple model types within a single deployment. This open-source platform provides a common source of data to multiple models using consistent data formats, reducing likelihood of error compared to file based data management. When deployed as a web service, it allows data to be shared securely among authorised users over the internet, facilitating collaboration. A case study describes the hosting of a water utility planning model, with an accompanying worked example

Analysis tools to quantify dissemination of pathology in zebrafish larvae

We describe new open source software called QuantiFish for rapid quantitation of fluorescent foci in zebrafish larvae, to support infection research in this animal model. QuantiFish extends the conventional measurements of bacterial load and number of bacterial foci to include measures for dissemination of infection. These are represented by the proportions of bacteria between foci and their spatial distribution. We showcase these measures by comparison of intravenous and hindbrain routes of Mycobacterium marinum infection, which are indistinguishable by measurement of bacterial load and not consistently differentiated by the number of bacterial foci. The intravenous route showed dose dependent dissemination of infection, reflected by increased spatial dispersion of bacteria and lower proportions of bacteria distributed across many foci. In contrast, hindbrain infection resulted in localised disease, limited to a smaller area and higher proportions of bacteria distributed across fewer foci. The application of QuantiFish may extend beyond models of infection, to study other pathologies such as metastatic cancer

Acute Hypersensitivity of Pluripotent Testicular Cancer-Derived Embryonal Carcinoma to Low-Dose 5-Aza Deoxycytidine Is Associated with Global DNA Damage-Associated p53 Activation, Anti-Pluripotency and DNA Demethylation

Human embryonal carcinoma (EC) cells are the stem cells of nonseminoma testicular germ cells tumors (TGCTs) and share remarkable similarities to human embryonic stem (ES) cells. In prior work we found that EC cells are hypersensitive to low nanomolar doses of 5-aza deoxycytidine (5-aza) and that this hypersensitivity partially depended on unusually high levels of the DNA methyltransferase, DNMT3B. We show here that low-dose 5-aza treatment results in DNA damage and induction of p53 in NT2/D1 cells. In addition, low-dose 5-aza results in global and gene specific promoter DNA hypomethylation. Low- dose 5-aza induces a p53 transcriptional signature distinct from that induced with cisplatin in NT2/D1 cells and also uniquely downregulates genes associated with pluripotency including NANOG, SOX2, GDF3 and Myc target genes. Changes in the p53 and pluripotency signatures with 5-aza were to a large extent dependent on high levels of DNMT3B. In contrast to the majority of p53 target genes upregulated by 5-aza that did not show DNA hypomethylation, several other genes induced with 5-aza had corresponding decreases in promoter methylation. These genes include RIN1, SOX15, GPER, and TLR4 and are novel candidate tumors suppressors in TGCTs. Our studies suggest that the hypersensitivity of NT2/D1 cells to low-dose 5-aza is multifactorial and involves the combined activation of p53 targets, repression of pluripotency genes, and activation of genes repressed by DNA methylation. Low-dose 5-aza therapy may be a general strategy to treat those tumors that are sustained by cells with embryonic stem-like properties. GEO number for the microarray data: GSE42647

Global research priorities for interpersonal violence prevention: A modified Delphi study

© 2017, World Health Organization. All rights reserved. Objective To establish global research priorities for interpersonal violence prevention using a systematic approach. Methods Research priorities were identified in a three-round process involving two surveys. In round 1, 95 global experts in violence prevention proposed research questions to be ranked in round 2. Questions were collated and organized according to the four-step public health approach to violence prevention. In round 2, 280 international experts ranked the importance of research in the four steps, and the various substeps, of the public health approach. In round 3, 131 international experts ranked the importance of detailed research questions on the public health step awarded the highest priority in round 2. Findings In round 2, “developing, implementing and evaluating interventions” was the step of the public health approach awarded the highest priority for four of the six types of violence considered (i.e. child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, armed violence and sexual violence) but not for youth violence or elder abuse. In contrast, “scaling up interventions and evaluating their cost-effectiveness” was ranked lowest for all types of violence. In round 3, research into “developing, implementing and evaluating interventions” that addressed parenting or laws to regulate the use of firearms was awarded the highest priority. The key limitations of the study were response and attrition rates among survey respondents. However, these rates were in line with similar priority-setting exercises. Conclusion These findings suggest it is premature to scale up violence prevention interventions. Developing and evaluating smaller-scale interventions should be the funding priority

Temperature dependence of current self-oscillations and electric field domains in sequential tunneling doped superlattices

We examine how the current--voltage characteristics of a doped weakly coupled superlattice depends on temperature. The drift velocity of a discrete drift model of sequential tunneling in a doped GaAs/AlAs superlattice is calculated as a function of temperature. Numerical simulations and theoretical arguments show that increasing temperature favors the appearance of current self-oscillations at the expense of static electric field domain formation. Our findings agree with available experimental evidence.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure