Soil origin and land use history determine C cycling in transplanted soils after 21 years

Non-Peer Reviewe

Response of transplanted Chernozems towards C addition after 21 years of identical climatic, topographic, and management practices

Non-Peer Reviewe

Bean quest 2002: the final frontier

Non-Peer ReviewedThe agronomic, economic and genetic pieces of the jigsaw puzzle for developing a dryland bean industry in Saskatchewan are coming together. In 2002, dryland bean growers in Southeastern Saskatchewan made a profit using new varieties of black and pinto bean. Much of the credit for this goes to the hard work, homework, and perseverance of the crop clubs that have developed around the province in the past few years. The research and development effort of the past 10 years is finally starting to pay dividends in the dry bean sector of the pulse industry. In this paper, we would like to briefly summarize some of the key results of various dry bean research and development projects that have been underway in the past few years

Coherent frequentism

By representing the range of fair betting odds according to a pair of confidence set estimators, dual probability measures on parameter space called frequentist posteriors secure the coherence of subjective inference without any prior distribution. The closure of the set of expected losses corresponding to the dual frequentist posteriors constrains decisions without arbitrarily forcing optimization under all circumstances. This decision theory reduces to those that maximize expected utility when the pair of frequentist posteriors is induced by an exact or approximate confidence set estimator or when an automatic reduction rule is applied to the pair. In such cases, the resulting frequentist posterior is coherent in the sense that, as a probability distribution of the parameter of interest, it satisfies the axioms of the decision-theoretic and logic-theoretic systems typically cited in support of the Bayesian posterior. Unlike the p-value, the confidence level of an interval hypothesis derived from such a measure is suitable as an estimator of the indicator of hypothesis truth since it converges in sample-space probability to 1 if the hypothesis is true or to 0 otherwise under general conditions.Comment: The confidence-measure theory of inference and decision is explicitly extended to vector parameters of interest. The derivation of upper and lower confidence levels from valid and nonconservative set estimators is formalize

Opportunities and challenges for delivering non-communicable disease management and services in fragile and post-conflict settings: Perceptions of policy-makers and health providers in Sierra Leone

Sophie Witter - ORCID 0000-0002-7656-6188 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7656-6188Karin Diaconu - ORCID 0000-0002-5810-9725 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5810-9725Background: The growing burden of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries presents substantive challenges for health systems. This is also the case in fragile, post-conflict and post-Ebola Sierra Leone, where NCDs represent an increasingly significant disease burden (around 30% of adult men and women have raised blood pressure). To date, documentation of health system challenges and opportunities for NCD prevention and control is limited in such settings. This paper aims to identify opportunities and challenges in provision of NCD prevention and care and highlight lessons for Sierra Leone and other fragile states in the battle against the growing NCD epidemic.Methods: This paper focuses on the case of Sierra Leone and uses a combination of participatory group model building at national and district level, in rural and urban districts, interviews with 28 key informants and review of secondary data and documents. Data is analysed using the WHO’s health system assessment guide for NCDs.Results: We highlight multiple challenges typical to those encountered in other fragile settings to the delivery of preventive and curative NCD services. There is limited government and donor commitment to financing and implementation of the national NCD policy and strategy, limited and poorly distributed health workforce and pharmaceuticals, high financial barriers for users, and lack of access to quality-assured medicines with consequent high recourse to private and informal care seeking. We identify how to strengthen the system within existing (low) resources, including through improved clinical guides and tools, more effective engagement with communities, and regulatory and fiscal measures.Conclusion: Our study suggests that NCD prevention and control is of low but increasing priority in Sierra Leone; challenges to addressing this burden relate to huge numbers with NCDs (especially hypertension) requiring care, overall resource constraints and wider systemic issues, including poorly supported primary care services and access barriers. In addition to securing and strengthening political will and commitment and directing more resources and attention towards this area, there is a need for in-depth exploratory and implementation research to shape and test NCD interventions in fragile and post-conflict settings.This study/project is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) [NIHR Global Health Research programme (project reference 16/136/ 100)/NIHR Research Unit on Health in Situations of Fragility]. The views expressed are those of the author (s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. We would like to thank all who contributed insights through their participation in our research.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13031-019-0248-314pubpub

Myocardial mechanics in young adult patients with diabetes mellitus: Effects altered load, inotropic state and dynamic exercise

AbstractThe disease entity “diabetic cardiomyopathy” has been extensively described in young patients with diabetes in the absence of ischemic, hypertensive or valvular heart disease. The most convincing data have been a 30% to 40% incidence of decreased radionuclide angiographic left ventricular ejection fraction response to dynamic exercise. In the current study, the hypothesis was tested that this abnormal ejection fraction response was due to alterations in ventricular loading conditions or cardiac autonomic innervation (extrinsic factors), or both, rather than to abnormalities in intrinsic ventricular systolic fiber function (contractility).Twenty normotensive patients with diabetes (mean age 30 ± 5 years, mean duration 15 ± 6 years) and 20 age-matched normal subjects were studied. All patients with diabetes had a normal treadmill exercise tolerance test without evidence of myocardial ischemia. By radionuclide angiography, all normal subjects increased ejection fraction with exercise (62 ± 4% to 69 ± 6%; p < 0.001). In contrast, 11(55%) of 20 patients with diabetes maintained or increased ejection fraction with exercise (group 1; 62 ± 4% to 69 ± 6%; p < 0.001) and 9 (45%) of 20 showed an exercise-induced decrease (group 2; 73 ± 4% to 66 ± 6%; p < 0.001). No difference in the incidence of microangiopathy, as noted by funduscopic examination, was present between the diabetic groups. Despite the abnormal ejection fraction response to exercise in the group 2 patients with diabetes, all patients with diabetes had a nor response to afterload manipulation, normal baseline ventricular contractility as assessed by load- and heart rate-independent end-systolic indexes and normal contractile reserve as assessed with dobutamine challenge.Autonomic dysfunction did not explain the disparate results between the group 2 patients' radionuclide angiographic data and their load-independent tests of ventricular contractility and reserve. In addition, the high ejection fraction at rest in group 2 patients (73±4% versus 62 ± 4% for normal subjects; p < 0.001) was not related to the abnormal tests of autonomic function. Thus, when left ventricular systolic performance was assessed by load- and rate-independent indexes, there was no evidence for cardiomyopathy in young adult patients with diabetes who have normal blood nressure and no ischemie heart disease

Infinite Exchangeability for Sets of Desirable Gambles

Sets of desirable gambles constitute a quite general type of uncertainty model with an interesting geometrical interpretation. We study infinite exchangeability assessments for them, and give a counterpart of de Finetti's infinite representation theorem. We show how the infinite representation in terms of frequency vectors is tied up with multivariate Bernstein (basis) polynomials. We also lay bare the relationships between the representations of updated exchangeable models, and discuss conservative inference (natural extension) under exchangeability

Reasons and Means to Model Preferences as Incomplete

Literature involving preferences of artificial agents or human beings often assume their preferences can be represented using a complete transitive binary relation. Much has been written however on different models of preferences. We review some of the reasons that have been put forward to justify more complex modeling, and review some of the techniques that have been proposed to obtain models of such preferences

Premenopausal endocrine-responsive early breast cancer: who receives chemotherapy?

Background: The role of chemotherapy in addition to combined endocrine therapy for premenopausal women with endocrine-responsive early breast cancer remains an open question, yet trials designed to answer it have repeatedly failed to adequately accrue. The International Breast Cancer Study Group initiated two concurrent trials in this population: in Premenopausal Endocrine Responsive Chemotherapy (PERCHE), chemotherapy use is determined by randomization and in Tamoxifen and Exemestane Trial (TEXT) by physician choice. PERCHE closed with inadequate accrual; TEXT accrued rapidly. Methods: From 2003 to 2006, 1317 patients (890 with baseline data) were randomly assigned to receive ovarian function suppression (OFS) plus tamoxifen or OFS plus exemestane for 5 years in TEXT. We explore patient-related factors according to whether or not chemotherapy was given using descriptive statistics and classification and regression trees. Results: Adjuvant chemotherapy was chosen for 64% of patients. Lymph node status was the predominant determinant of chemotherapy use (88% of node positive treated versus 46% of node negative). Geography, patient age, tumor size and grade were also determinants, but degree of receptor positivity and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 status were not. Conclusions: The perceived estimation of increased risk of relapse is the primary determinant for using chemotherapy despite uncertainties regarding the degree of benefit it offers when added to combined endocrine therapy in this populatio