In a series of studies employing a variety of approaches, we have found that the potential impact of climate change on US agriculture is likely negative. Deschênes and Greenstone (2007) report ...dramatically different results based on regressions of agricultural profits and yields on weather variables. The divergence is explained by (1) missing and incorrect weather and climate data in their study; (2) their use of older climate change projections rather than the more recent and less optimistic projections from the Fourth Assessment Report; and (3) difficulties in their profit measure due to the confounding effects of storage. PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
A recent prospective meta-analysis demonstrated that interleukin-6 antagonists are associated with lower all-cause mortality in hospitalised patients with COVID-19, compared with usual care or ...placebo. However, emerging evidence suggests that clinicians are favouring the use of tocilizumab over sarilumab. A new randomised comparison of these agents from the REMAP-CAP trial shows similar effects on in-hospital mortality. Therefore, we initiated a network meta-analysis, to estimate pairwise associations between tocilizumab, sarilumab and usual care or placebo with 28-day mortality, in COVID-19 patients receiving concomitant corticosteroids and ventilation, based on all available direct and indirect evidence. Eligible trials randomised hospitalised patients with COVID-19 that compared tocilizumab or sarilumab with usual care or placebo in the prospective meta-analysis or that directly compared tocilizumab with sarilumab. Data were restricted to patients receiving corticosteroids and either non-invasive or invasive ventilation at randomisation. One trial (REMAP-CAP) was identified that directly compared tocilizumab with sarilumab and supplied results on all-cause mortality at 28-days. This network meta-analysis was based on 898 eligible patients (278 deaths) from REMAP-CAP and 3710 eligible patients from 18 trials (1278 deaths) from the prospective meta-analysis. Summary ORs were similar for tocilizumab 0·82 0·71-0·95, p = 0·008 and sarilumab 0·80 0·61-1·04, p = 0·09 compared with usual care or placebo. The summary OR for 28-day mortality comparing tocilizumab with sarilumab was 1·03 95%CI 0·81-1·32, p = 0·80. The p-value for the global test of inconsistency was 0·28. Administration of either tocilizumab or sarilumab was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality compared with usual care or placebo. The association is not dependent on the choice of interleukin-6 receptor antagonist.
Although widely cited as strong evidence that sexual selection has shaped human facial-attractiveness judgments, findings suggesting that women’s preferences for masculine characteristics in men’s ...faces are related to women’s hormonal status are equivocal and controversial. Consequently, we conducted the largest-ever longitudinal study of the hormonal correlates of women’s preferences for facial masculinity (N = 584). Analyses showed no compelling evidence that preferences for facial masculinity were related to changes in women’s salivary steroid hormone levels. Furthermore, both within-subjects and between-subjects comparisons showed no evidence that oral contraceptive use decreased masculinity preferences. However, women generally preferred masculinized over feminized versions of men’s faces, particularly when assessing men’s attractiveness for short-term, rather than long-term, relationships. Our results do not support the hypothesized link between women’s preferences for facial masculinity and their hormonal status.
Effective therapies for patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are needed, and clinical trial data have demonstrated that low-dose dexamethasone reduced mortality in hospitalized patients ...with COVID-19 who required respiratory support.
To estimate the association between administration of corticosteroids compared with usual care or placebo and 28-day all-cause mortality.
Prospective meta-analysis that pooled data from 7 randomized clinical trials that evaluated the efficacy of corticosteroids in 1703 critically ill patients with COVID-19. The trials were conducted in 12 countries from February 26, 2020, to June 9, 2020, and the date of final follow-up was July 6, 2020. Pooled data were aggregated from the individual trials, overall, and in predefined subgroups. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias Assessment Tool. Inconsistency among trial results was assessed using the I2 statistic. The primary analysis was an inverse variance-weighted fixed-effect meta-analysis of overall mortality, with the association between the intervention and mortality quantified using odds ratios (ORs). Random-effects meta-analyses also were conducted (with the Paule-Mandel estimate of heterogeneity and the Hartung-Knapp adjustment) and an inverse variance-weighted fixed-effect analysis using risk ratios.
Patients had been randomized to receive systemic dexamethasone, hydrocortisone, or methylprednisolone (678 patients) or to receive usual care or placebo (1025 patients).
The primary outcome measure was all-cause mortality at 28 days after randomization. A secondary outcome was investigator-defined serious adverse events.
A total of 1703 patients (median age, 60 years interquartile range, 52-68 years; 488 29% women) were included in the analysis. Risk of bias was assessed as "low" for 6 of the 7 mortality results and as "some concerns" in 1 trial because of the randomization method. Five trials reported mortality at 28 days, 1 trial at 21 days, and 1 trial at 30 days. There were 222 deaths among the 678 patients randomized to corticosteroids and 425 deaths among the 1025 patients randomized to usual care or placebo (summary OR, 0.66 95% CI, 0.53-0.82; P < .001 based on a fixed-effect meta-analysis). There was little inconsistency between the trial results (I2 = 15.6%; P = .31 for heterogeneity) and the summary OR was 0.70 (95% CI, 0.48-1.01; P = .053) based on the random-effects meta-analysis. The fixed-effect summary OR for the association with mortality was 0.64 (95% CI, 0.50-0.82; P < .001) for dexamethasone compared with usual care or placebo (3 trials, 1282 patients, and 527 deaths), the OR was 0.69 (95% CI, 0.43-1.12; P = .13) for hydrocortisone (3 trials, 374 patients, and 94 deaths), and the OR was 0.91 (95% CI, 0.29-2.87; P = .87) for methylprednisolone (1 trial, 47 patients, and 26 deaths). Among the 6 trials that reported serious adverse events, 64 events occurred among 354 patients randomized to corticosteroids and 80 events occurred among 342 patients randomized to usual care or placebo.
In this prospective meta-analysis of clinical trials of critically ill patients with COVID-19, administration of systemic corticosteroids, compared with usual care or placebo, was associated with lower 28-day all-cause mortality.
There has been a lively debate about the potential impact of global climate change on US agriculture. Most of the early agro-economic studies predicted large damages. In an innovative paper Robert ...Mendelsohn, William D. Nordhaus and Daigee Shaw (MNS), propose a new approach: using the variation of temperature and precipitation across US counties to estimate a reduced-form hedonic equation with the value of farmland as the dependent variable. A change in temperature and/or precipitation is then associated with a change in farmland value, which can be interpreted as the impact of climate change. Several authors have questioned the particular implementation of MNS. Specially, they suggest: 1. the hedonic approach cannot be used to estimate dynamic adjustment costs, 2. the results are not robust across different weighting schemes, and 3. the inadequate treatment of irrigation in the analysis might bias the results.
We link farmland values to climatic, soil, and socioeconomic variables for U.S. counties east of the 100th meridian, the historical boundary of agriculture not primarily dependent on irrigation. ...Degree days, a nonlinear transformation of the climatic variables suggested by agronomic experiments as more relevant to crop yield, gives an improved fit and increased robustness. Estimated coefficients are consistent with the experimental results. The model is employed to estimate the potential impacts on farmland values for a range of recent warming scenarios. The predictions are very robust, and more than 75% of the counties in our sample show a statistically significant effect, ranging from moderate gains to large losses, with losses in the aggregate that can become quite large under scenarios involving sustained heavy use of fossil fuels.
We link farmland values to climatic, soil, and socioeconomic variables for U.S. counties east of the 100th meridian, the historical boundary of agriculture not primarily dependent on irrigation. ...Degree days, a nonlinear transformation of the climatic variables suggested by agronomic experiments as more relevant to crop yield, gives an improved fit and increased robustness. Estimated coefficients are consistent with the experimental results. The model is employed to estimate the potential impacts on farmland values for a range of recent warming scenarios. The predictions are very robust, and more than 75% of the counties in our sample show a statistically significant effect, ranging from moderate gains to large losses, with losses in the aggregate that can become quite large under scenarios involving sustained heavy use of fossil fuels.
Differentiating tumor from normal brain is a major barrier to achieving optimal outcome in brain tumor surgery. New imaging techniques for visualizing tumor margins during surgery are needed to ...improve surgical results. We recently demonstrated the ability of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy, a nondestructive, label-free optical method, to reveal glioma infiltration in animal models. We show that SRS reveals human brain tumor infiltration in fresh, unprocessed surgical specimens from 22 neurosurgical patients. SRS detects tumor infiltration in near-perfect agreement with standard hematoxylin and eosin light microscopy (κ = 0.86). The unique chemical contrast specific to SRS microscopy enables tumor detection by revealing quantifiable alterations in tissue cellularity, axonal density, and protein/lipid ratio in tumor-infiltrated tissues. To ensure that SRS microscopic data can be easily used in brain tumor surgery, without the need for expert interpretation, we created a classifier based on cellularity, axonal density, and protein/lipid ratio in SRS images capable of detecting tumor infiltration with 97.5% sensitivity and 98.5% specificity. Quantitative SRS microscopy detects the spread of tumor cells, even in brain tissue surrounding a tumor that appears grossly normal. By accurately revealing tumor infiltration, quantitative SRS microscopy holds potential for improving the accuracy of brain tumor surgery.
Highlights • Women's facial skin becomes redder when estradiol is high. • This color change is not an artifact of changes in luminance or progesterone level. • Facial coloration may contain ...information about women's fertility.
Objective: While mental health peer support originated in its contemporary form in English-speaking countries, it is now spreading rapidly across the globe. This rapid growth presents two major ...challenges. The first pertains to "role integrity" and the second to the possible culture-bound nature of peer support; a concern which has attended the emergence of peer support in countries that have significantly different worldviews.
Method: Recognizing the growth of peer support and the resulting challenges, this report results from the convening of an international consortium of peer leaders from six continents (all but Antarctica). Following an environmental scan of the state of peer support globally, this group moved to develop consensus on a common, core set of guiding principles and values to ensure a robust future for the development of effective, culturally responsive forms of peer support.
Findings: Key principles, values and practices considered essential to peer support are presented.
Conclusions and implications for practice: Assuming that sufficient political and community support are generated, there can be considerable enthusiasm for the expansion of peer support around the globe. Peer leaders are encouraged, however, to develop and deliver peer support both with integrity to its founding values in a civil rights and social justice framework and with responsiveness to local cultural worldviews.
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