Managing Economic Risk from Invasive Species: Bug Options

Invasive insect species cause billions of dollars of direct and indirect damage to U.S. crops each year. The market for insuring insect damage is, however, far from complete. The objective of this study is to design and value insect derivatives, or "bug options," which would offer growers a market-based means for transferring risk of pest damage to speculators or others who may profit from higher insect populations. A bug option valuation model is developed and applied to Bemesia tabaci infestation in cotton. The results show that insect derivatives may become important risk management tools for a wide range of growers.Risk and Uncertainty,

The question of organization: A manifesto for alternatives

This paper is an attempt to articulate some general principles which might guide anarchist thinking about organized alternatives to market managerialism and might be read as a sort of manifesto for defining ‘the alternative’. That is to say, it describes what we include in our list of useful possibilities, and what to exclude on the grounds that it doesn’t fit with our definition of what counts as sufficiently different from the present. We suggest three principles which we believe that radicals should be guided by – autonomy, solidarity and responsibility – and that we think any reflection on the politics of organizing needs to deal with. We wish to encourage forms of organizing which respect personal autonomy, but within a framework of co-operation, and are attentive to the sorts of futures which they will produce. This is a simple statement to make but it produces some complex outcomes since gaining agreement on any of these ideas is not a simple matter

Synthesis report: Social Economy education - a comparative analysis of UK, FR, ES, IT, EL

The synthesis report provides a comprehensive review of educational provisions on the Social Economy (SE) across 5 countries (UK, France, Spain, Italy and Greece) and sets the foundations for understanding the ways in which an SE programme could be designed to meet the needs of various relevant actors (in particular, educators, students and organisations). Our findings suggest that most programmes are quite general in terms of their focus on social economy or social entrepreneurship, with SE actors expressing an increasing appetite for more specialised courses which makes the development of new programmes with an explicit focus on social and solidarity economy strongly advisable. ‘Keeping a strong grounding in SE values whilst reaching out to a diversity of audiences’ Collaborations between Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and SE actors take different forms, yet they tend to be at the delivery stage rather than in the development of the programmes or the co-creation of knowledge, hence the role of SE actors in the designing and delivery of these programmes could be strengthened. Existing provisions do offer a range of innovative practices and any new programmes should build on, and expand, these practices. New programmes should provide a good balance between theory and practice, be flexible in their modes of delivery, create opportunities for networking, and have a strong grounding in SE values whilst being open enough to attract a variety of different audiences and adapt to different and changing environments

Social Economy education: State of the art and needs analysis report for UK

Social Economy education in the United Kingdom: ‘It should be in the DNA of all modules, in all disciplines’ Although there are many short courses on the SE, there is a shortage of HE programmes. But actors across the sectors are demanding Higher education provisions as well as stronger collaboration between Universities and SE organisations. ‘We need programmes designed to bring new, talented, people inside the cooperative sector.’ Despite the apparent difficulties to define social economy in the UK context and the variations across those self-identified as SE actors, there is a general emphasis on the ends pursued (emphasis on social mission) and a set of common values and principles underpinning organisations operating within the wider social economy sector. Universities need to strengthen their collaboration with SE actors; encourage critical thinking, nurture cultural awareness and support ethnic minority groups. There is a strong desire to extend collaborations between HE institutions and SE actors, yet we need to be mindful of existing scarcity of resources. Designing theoretically rigorous and practice-oriented programmes is in high demand. Finding the right balance between theory and practice is certainly a challenge, yet understanding the complexity of organisations operating in the wider social economy sector and helping graduates develop a range of skills and competencies alongside the cultivation of a distinctive, cooperative-driven and community-based, ethos is highly rated. Redefining ‘how people work and produce value’ and helping to ‘change the way that the economy works’, was considered to be among the top priorities of Universities and any programme related to social economy education

Social Economy education: State of the art report for France

Social and Solidarity Economy education in France: Strong HE provisions but the collaboration between HE and SE actors could be developed. France has a long history and tradition in the social economy, and the 2014 law has revitalised its influence and strongly contributed to the current institutionalisation of the sector bringing different forms of social organisations under one banner and setting the principles and criteria guiding it. This is also evident in the existing higher educational provisions in the country under the RIUESS network with over 20 UG courses, 40 PG courses and 19 ‘other’ courses available, perhaps the largest offering of social and solidarity programmes in Europe. All programmes have an explicit focus on social and solidarity economy offering a fine balance between theoretically rigorousness and practical skills. Programmes are modular over 1 or 2 years with the majority of them involving some period of work experience/internship aiming to help students acquire work experience and establish networks. Collaborations, particularly in the delivery of programmes, with SE actors is encouraged, yet is less clear from our findings whether these collaborations extend to the designing of the programmes too

The question of organization: A manifesto for alternatives * *

abstract This paper is an attempt to articulate some general principles which might guide anarchist thinking about organized alternatives to market managerialism and might be read as a sort of manifesto for defining 'the alternative'. That is to say, it describes what we include in our list of useful possibilities, and what to exclude on the grounds that it doesn't fit with our definition of what counts as sufficiently different from the present. We suggest three principles which we believe that radicals should be guided byautonomy, solidarity and responsibility -and that we think any reflection on the politics of organizing needs to deal with. We wish to encourage forms of organizing which respect personal autonomy, but within a framework of co-operation, and are attentive to the sorts of futures which they will produce. This is a simple statement to make but it produces some complex outcomes since gaining agreement on any of these ideas is not a simple matter

Pain in IBD Patients: Very Frequent and Frequently Insufficiently Taken into Account.

Pain is a common symptom related to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In addition to abdominal pain, pain can also be an extraintestinal manifestation of IBD. Pain treatment is challenging and a substantial part of IBD patients are treated with opioids. Therefore, a better knowledge on pain symptoms is crucial for a better therapeutic approach to this clinical problem. Patients of the Swiss IBD Cohort Study (SIBDCS) (n = 2152) received a questionnaire regarding pain intensity, pain localization and impact of pain on daily life and social activities. Furthermore, the questionnaire investigated the use of pain-specific medication. A vast majority of patients (71%) experienced pain during the disease course. For a substantial part of patients (49% in UC and 55% in CD) pain is a longstanding problem (>5 years). Pain in UC was of shorter duration compared to CD (p < 0.01). Abdominal pain (59.5%) and back pain (38.3%) were the main pain localizations. 67% of patients took pain medication; 24% received no pain treatment. The general quality of life was significantly lower in patients suffering of pain compared to those without pain (38 vs. 77; (-100 very bad; 100 very good) p<0.0001). Prevalence of pain is high in patients of the SIBDCS. It is a longstanding problem for the majority of the patients affected. Pain was found to be undertreated in the SIBDCS and was significantly associated with health-related quality of life. Thus, an increased awareness is mandatory to address this frequent complication in the course of IBD

Inflammatory Articular Disease in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Result of the Swiss IBD Cohort Study

BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) are systemic conditions that commonly display extraintestinal manifestations. Inflammatory articular disease (IAD: axial or peripheral) is the most common extraintestinal manifestation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and the clinical characteristics associated with IAD in patients with IBD. METHODS We analyzed patients enrolled in the Swiss IBD cohort study. IAD was defined as persistent or recurrent joint pain with an inflammatory pattern (night pain, progressive relief during the day, morning stiffness lasting at least 30 minutes) or the presence of arthritis as diagnosed by the physicians. A multivariate logistic regression was performed to analyze which disease characteristics were independently associated with the presence of IAD. RESULTS A total of 2353 patients with IBD, 1359 with Crohn's disease, and 994 with ulcerative colitis (UC) were included. Forty-four percent of patients fulfilled the criteria for IAD, whereas 14.5% presented with other extraintestinal manifestations. IAD was associated with Crohn's disease, with female sex, with older age, and generally in patients with more active intestinal disease. Only in UC, IAD was further associated with tobacco smoking and with increasing body mass index. CONCLUSIONS This population of patients with IBD displays a high prevalence of IAD. IAD was more strongly associated with Crohn's disease than UC. Other risk factors for IAD were female sex, advanced age, active digestive disease, and tobacco consumption in patients with UC, which is interesting given the established association between smoking and other inflammatory arthritides

Association of IBD specific treatment and prevalence of pain in the Swiss IBD cohort study.

Extraintestinal manifestations (EIM) contribute significantly to the burden of disease in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Pain is a leading symptom in IBD and could be seen as an EIM itself. Treatment of IBD associated pain is challenging and insufficiently studied. A better knowledge on the association of pain and IBD specific treatment is warranted to improve the management of IBD patients. All patients of the Swiss IBD Cohort Study (SIBDCS) (n = 2152) received a questionnaire regarding pain localization, pain character, and the use of IBD specific medication. 1263 completed questionnaires were received. Twenty-one out of 184 patients (10%) receiving anti-TNF treatment compared to 142 out of 678 patients (21%) not receiving anti-TNF medication reported elbow pain (p = 0.002) while 28 out of 198 patients (14%) receiving steroid treatment significantly more often reported elbow pain compared to 59 from 696 patients (8%) not receiving steroids (p = 0.021). Furthermore, we found significantly more female patients under anti-TNF treatment to report knee/ lower leg pain and ankle/ foot pain compared to their male counterparts (36% vs. 20% and 22% vs. 10%, respectively, p = 0.015 for both comparisons). The frequency of knee, lower leg, ankle and foot pain was especially low in male patients under anti-TNF treatment, indicating a high benefit of male patients from anti-TNF therapy regarding EIM. The frequency of elbow pain was lower in IBD patients treated with anti-TNF but higher in patients treated with steroids

Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus

A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk