•The importance of the fisheries sector in global food systems is often overlooked.•Nutrition-sensitive fisheries policies are needed to contribute to healthy diets.•Policy focus on aquaculture ...productivity and economic gains inhibits healthy diets.•Complementarity of capture fisheries and aquaculture improves nutrition and health.
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda makes achieving food security and ending malnutrition a global priority. Within this framework, the importance of fisheries in local and global food systems and its contribution to nutrition and health, particularly for the poor are overlooked and undervalued. This paper reviews current fish production and consumption from capture fisheries and aquaculture, highlights opportunities for enhancing healthy diets and outlines key multi-sectoral policy solutions. Mirroring the call for a diversification of agricultural research and investment beyond a few staple grains, it is anticipated that productivity gains for a few farmed aquatic species will not suffice. Capture fisheries and aquaculture have a complementary role to play in increasing fish availability and access, and must be promoted in ways that support measurable nutrition and health gains. This paper argues that the lack of a nutrition-sensitive policy focus on capture fisheries and aquaculture represents an untapped opportunity that must be realised for ensuring sustainable healthy diets for all.
Objective
First Nations children face a greater risk of experiencing mental disorders than other children from the general population because of family and societal factors, yet there is little ...research examining their mental health. This study compares diagnosed mental disorders and suicidal behaviours of First Nations children living on-reserve and off-reserve to all other children living in Manitoba.
Method
The research team, which included First Nations and non-First Nations researchers, utilized population-based administrative data that linked de-identified individual-level records from the 2016 First Nations Research File to health and social information for children living in Manitoba. Adjusted rates and rate ratios of mental disorders and suicide behaviours were calculated using a generalized linear modelling approach to compare First Nations children (n = 40,574) and all other children (n = 197,109) and comparing First Nations children living on- and off-reserve.
Results
Compared with all other children, First Nations children had a higher prevalence of schizophrenia (adjusted rate ratio (aRR): 4.42, 95% confidence interval (CI), 3.36 to 5.82), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; aRR: 1.21, 95% CI, 1.09 to 1.33), substance use disorders (aRR: 5.19; 95% CI, 4.25 to 6.33), hospitalizations for suicide attempts (aRR: 6.96; 95% CI, 4.36 to 11.13) and suicide deaths (aRR: 10.63; 95% CI, 7.08 to 15.95). The prevalence of ADHD and mood/anxiety disorders was significantly higher for First Nations children living off-reserve compared with on-reserve; in contrast, hospitalization rates for suicide attempts were twice as high on-reserve than off-reserve. When the comparison cohort was restricted to only other children in low-income areas, a higher prevalence of almost all disorders remained for First Nations children.
Conclusion
Large disparities were found in mental health indicators between First Nations children and other children in Manitoba, demonstrating that considerable work is required to improve the mental well-being of First Nations children. Equitable access to culturally safe services is urgently needed and these services should be self-determined, planned, and implemented by First Nations people.
Traditional kidney biomarkers are insensitive indicators of acute kidney injury, with meaningful changes occurring late in the course of injury. The aim of this work was to demonstrate the diagnostic ...potential of urinary osteopontin (OPN) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) for drug-induced kidney injury (DIKI) in rats using data from a recent regulatory qualification submission of translational DIKI biomarkers and to compare performance of NGAL and OPN to five previously qualified DIKI urinary biomarkers. Data were compiled from 15 studies of 11 different pharmaceuticals contributed by Critical Path Institute's Predictive Safety Testing Consortium (PSTC) Nephrotoxicity Working Group (NWG). Rats were given doses known to cause DIKI or other target organ toxicity, and urinary levels of the candidate biomarkers were assessed relative to kidney histopathology and serum creatinine (sCr) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN).OPN and NGAL outperformed sCr and BUN in identifying DIKI manifested as renal tubular epithelial degeneration or necrosis. In addition, urinary OPN and NGAL, when used with sCr and BUN, increased the ability to detect renal tubular epithelial degeneration or necrosis. NGAL and OPN had comparable or improved performance relative to Kim-1, clusterin, albumin, total protein, and beta-2 microglobulin. Given these data, both urinary OPN and NGAL are appropriate for use with current methods for assessing nephrotoxicity to identify and monitor DIKI in regulatory toxicology studies in rats. These data also support exploratory use of urinary OPN and NGAL in safety monitoring strategies of early clinical trials to aid in the assurance of patient safety.
This paper explores the seafood sector in Indonesia, using fish supply-demand modeling, with special focus on the growing role of aquaculture in the country's food portfolio. The paper describes six ...scenarios for future fish supply–demand dynamics and examines the role of aquaculture growth in fish supply in Indonesia. A business as usual scenario (BAU) assumed exogenous variables of our supply-demand model following historical trends. Five alternative scenarios explored the implications of stagnant capture fisheries; export-oriented growth of aquaculture; domestic-oriented aquaculture growth; slow growth of aquaculture sector; and disease outbreaks to key aquaculture species. The BAU scenario projected that fish supply and demand in Indonesia continues to increase over time and strong aquaculture growth is critical to meet increasing demand for fish. Stagnant capture fisheries resulted in increasing fish prices and decreasing fish consumption. Export-oriented aquaculture growth benefitted fish supply and exports, but also helped lower domestic prices and thus increase consumption. An emphasis on domestic aquaculture commodities increased fish supply, providing best domestic consumption outcomes and lower consumer prices. Slow aquaculture growth reduced fish supply and led to undesirable increases in domestic prices and decreasing domestic consumption as a consequence. Disease outbreaks in shrimp and carp aquaculture resulted in a short-term reduction in aquaculture output and increasing fish prices, lowering fish consumption.
•According to the AsiaFish projections, supply and demand for fish will increase more than double between 2012 and 2030.•Reported baselines and alternative scenarios results assessing alternative aquaculture growth options.•Constrained domestic fish supply will result in increased consumer prices of fish and lowered fish consumption; Faster fish supply growth will induce higher fish consumption and lower consumer fish prices.•Aquaculture will become increasingly important as a source for fish, overtaking capture fisheries as the major supplier of fish by 2030.
One of the goals of the Critical Path Institute's Predictive Safety Testing Consortium (PSTC) is to promote best practices for evaluating novel markers of drug induced injury. This includes the use ...of sound statistical methods. For rat studies, these practices have centered around comparing the area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve for each novel injury biomarker to those for the standard markers. In addition, the PSTC has previously used the net reclassification index (NRI) and integrated discrimination index (IDI) to assess the increased certainty provided by each novel injury biomarker when added to the information already provided by the standard markers. Due to their relatively simple interpretations, NRI and IDI have generally been popular measures of predictive performance. However recent literature suggests that significance tests for NRI and IDI can have inflated false positive rates and thus, tests based on these metrics should not be relied upon. Instead, when parametric models are employed to assess the added predictive value of a new marker, following (Pepe, M. S., Kerr, K. F., Longton, G., and Wang, Z. (2013). Testing for improvement in prediction model performance. Stat. Med. 32, 1467-1482), the PSTC recommends that likelihood based methods be used for significance testing.
ObjectivesGiven the impact of colonization and responding to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we aimed to provide baseline measures of First Nations children’s health and social outcomes ...in Manitoba, Canada. We also aimed to create a research process where Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers work collaboratively and in culturally safe ways.
ApproachWe formed a team consisting of members of First Nation organizations and academic researchers. Knowledge Keepers from Anishinaabe, Cree, Anishininew, Dakota and Dene Nations guided the study, interpreted results and ensured meaningful knowledge translation. This retrospective cohort study utilized population-based health, social services, education and justice administrative data that allowed de-identified individual-level linkages across all databases through a scrambled health number. Adjusted rates and rate ratios were calculated using a generalized liner modeling approach to compare First Nations children (n=61,726) and all other Manitoba children (n=279,087) and comparing First Nations children living on and off-reserve.
ResultsLarge disparities between First Nations and other Manitoba children were found in birth outcomes, physical and mental health, health services, education, social services, justice system involvement and mortality. First Nations infants had higher rates of preterm births, large-for-gestational-age births, newborn readmissions to hospital and lower rates of breastfeeding initiation compared with other Manitoba infants. Suicide rates among First Nations adolescents were ten times higher than among other adolescents in Manitoba, yet we found few differences in diagnosis of mood and anxiety disorders between the groups. First Nations children were also seven times more likely to apprehended by child protection services and youth were ten times more likely to be criminally accused. Knowledge Keepers offered their perspectives on these findings.
ConclusionThese findings demonstrate that an enormous amount of work is required in virtually every area – health, social, education and justice – to improve First Nations children’s lives. There is an urgent need for equitable access to services, and these services should be self-determined, planned and implemented by First Nations people.
Sex Differences and Personalized Psychiatric Care Eckstrand, Kristen L., MD, PhD; Travis, Michael John, MD; Forbes, Erika E., Ph.D ...
Biological psychiatry (1969),
11/2016, Letnik:
80, Številka:
10
Journal Article
We develop an agent-based artificial general intelligent system that can be implemented in compact and power-efficient electronic hardware. The hardware under development is called the Street Engine, ...which is a hardware-based cognitive architecture for implementing agent-based artificial intelligence. In this paper, we introduce an agent-based system to replicate simple cognitive behaviours. In the processes of this system, numerical data are converted into fuzzy symbolic representations of the surrounding environment, and reasoning rules are included in a modified Fuzzy Inference System to support the cognitive decision-making. We use a case study example, the homing behaviour of the honey bee, to demonstrate constructing production rules and implementing the cognitive and reasoning capabilities of agents. The low level cognitive behaviour is converted into a rule-based fuzzy system, and hardware-based experiments have been conducted to verify the effectiveness of the proposed technique.
The demand for fish in Sub-Saharan Africa, as driven by the trend of diet-shift to fish, economic and demographic growth, outstrips supply. The resulting fish deficit is drawing attention of policy ...makers as it poses threats to economic stability as well as food security in the region. In this paper, a multi-species, multi-sector equilibrium model is developed and applied to Zambia as a case study to provide a tool for policy makers to examine the interaction between fish supply and demand. Projection results show that under business-as-usual scenario, the fish deficit in Zambia will increase and fish import will be a key contributor of fish for consumption in 2030. Increasing import tax will not solve the fish deficit due to a limited substitution between domestic and imported fish, while this tariff restriction may increase the fish price and affect poor people. The model results suggest that further investment in aquaculture could provide a solution if input markets for seed and feed are appropriately developed. Though calibrated to Zambia's fish sector, the model can be applied to analyze the outlook of fish sectors in other developing countries.
•A multi-species model is developed to examine the outlook for Zambian fish sector.•Fish supply mainly relies on capacity-reaching wild catch and is outpaced by demand.•Import tax unlikely solves the fish deficit while it will inflate fish price.•Aquaculture could improve the contribution of fish to food security in Zambia.
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