Vegetables are commonly produced with high inputs of pesticides and fertilisers to boost production and meet cosmetic market standards. Yet, reports on the relationships between agrochemical inputs ...and crop productivity are scattered and an overview is missing. We assessed the relationship between pesticide and nutrient inputs and crop productivity for five vegetable crops in the south of Uruguay at field and farm level and explored the relation with farm resource endowment. We analysed crop yield and input use for tomato, onion, sweet potato, and strawberry with a dataset of 82 farms and 428 fields constructed between 2012 and 2017. Clear crop-specific patterns in pesticide and nutrient input levels were found, despite considerable variation across fields within the same crop. Strawberry and long cycle tomato had the greatest pesticide input regarding of the number of applications (20 and 18, respectively) and pesticide load (21 kg AI ha−1). Cumulative nutrient inputs were greatest for long cycle tomato (1127 kg ha−1). The relationships between inputs and yield were weak or non-significant, indicating inefficiencies and overuse of inputs, and there was no agronomical rationale for input use. We found substantial variation in management practices between fields and farms. In several cases, 21% of the fields and 17% of the farms producing onion, strawberry and tomato, attained relatively high yield levels with limited input levels. Yield and input use levels were not related to farm resource endowment. Our findings question the efficiency of the current high levels of pesticide and nutrient inputs in Uruguayan vegetable systems. The inputs may pose environmental and human health risks and in most cases did not increase yields. Learning from positive deviant farmers in combination with guided farm redesign, high-quality extension services, and use of context-specific knowledge and technologies may equip farmers to use more sustainable management practices.
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•Relations between pesticide and nutrient inputs and yields evaluated for 5 crops•No or weak relations between input use and yields•Input use not related to agronomic criteria or farm resource endowment•Several cases stood out by reaching high yields and low input levels.•Results show the need and opportunities for transitions to more sustainable states.
Meeting the goals of sustainable growth of food production and reducing rural poverty requires assisting family farmers to develop more productive, profitable, resource efficient and environmentally ...friendly farms. Faced with decreasing product prices and increasing production costs during the last two decades family farmers in south Uruguay tried to maintain their income by intensifying their farms, growing larger areas of fewer crops and increasing the use of irrigation and agrochemicals. Soil degradation was aggravated by this process, limiting crop yields, undermining the farmers’ aim of maintaining their income. A model-aided explorative study had shown that decreasing the area of vegetables, introducing crop rotations, cover crops and manure applications, and including beef-cattle production would be a better strategy. To test this hypothesis, a project was started at the end of 2004 and expanded in 2007, involving farmers, technical advisers and scientists in a co-innovation process that combined systemic diagnosis and redesign of the farm systems, social learning and dynamic monitoring and evaluation. The project involved 14 farms representing a large range of variation in resource endowment. Main problems found on all farms were deteriorated soil quality and low labour productivity, which resulted in low income and high work load. At the end of 2–5years of redesign farmers had been able to implement most innovations planned. Irrespective of endowment with land, machinery, irrigation water or labour resources, re-design increased the per capita family income (FIp) and the income per hour of family labour (IH) on 13 out of 14 farms, by 51% and 50%, respectively, averaged over all farms. Soil organic carbon content had increased on 11 out of 14 farms and estimated erosion rates in vegetable fields had halved. Farmers considered ‘multi-year planning’ the most important change introduced into their practice by the project. They concluded that the role of the extension service agents should change from mere consultants of operational–tactical, crop-centred decisions to supporters of the process of farm planning and evaluation. The project showed that even on commercial farms operating under highly competitive conditions, substantial improvements in economic and environmental indicators can be achieved when a whole farm strategic redesign is elaborated.
Crimella C, Baschirotto C, Arnoldi A, Tonelli A, Tenderini E, Airoldi G, Martinuzzi A, Trabacca A, Losito L, Scarlato M, Benedetti S, Scarpini E, Spinicci G, Bresolin N, Bassi MT. Mutations in the ...motor and stalk domains of KIF5A in spastic paraplegia type 10 and in axonal Charcot–Marie–Tooth type 2.
Spastic paraplegia type 10 (SPG10) is an autosomal dominant form of hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) due to mutations in KIF5A, a gene encoding the neuronal kinesin heavy chain implicated in anterograde axonal transport. KIF5A mutations were found in both pure and complicated forms of the disease; a single KIF5A mutation was also detected in a CMT2 patient belonging to an SPG10 mutant family. To confirm the involvement of the KIF5A gene in both CMT2 and SPG10 phenotypes and to define the frequency of KIF5A mutations in an Italian HSP patient population, we performed a genetic screening of this gene in a series of 139 HSP and 36 CMT2 affected subjects. We identified five missense changes, four in five HSP patients and one in a CMT2 subject. All mutations, including the one segregating in the CMT2 patient, are localized in the kinesin motor domain except for one, falling within the stalk domain and predicted to generate protein structure destabilization. The results obtained indicate a KIF5A mutation frequency of 8.8% in the Italian HSP population and identify a region of the kinesin protein, the stalk domain, as a novel target for mutation. In addition, the mutation found in the CMT2 patient strengthens the hypothesis that CMT2 and SPG10 are the extreme phenotypes resulting from mutations in the same gene.
Ensnared by Colorblindness Cunningham, Brooke A.; Scarlato, Andre S. M.
Ethnicity & disease,
08/2018, Letnik:
28, Številka:
Suppl 1
Journal Article
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Race consciousness serves as the foundation for Critical Race Theory (CRT) methodology. Colorblindness minimizes racism as a determinant of outcomes. To achieve the emancipatory intent of CRT and to ...reduce health care disparities, we must understand: 1) how colorblindness "shows up" when health care professionals aim to promote equity; 2) how their colorblindness informs (and is informed by) clinical practice; and 3) ways to overcome colorblindness through strategies grounded in CRT.
We conducted 21 semi-structured interviews with key informants and seven focus groups with personnel employed by a large Minnesota health care system. We coded transcripts inductively and deductively for themes using the constant comparative method. We used a race-conscious approach to examine how respondents' accounts align or diverge from colorblindness.
Evading race, respondents considered socioeconomic status, cultural differences, and patients' choices to be the main contributors to health disparities. Few criticized the behavior of coworkers or that of the organization or acknowledged structural racism. Respondents strongly believed that all patients were treated equally by providers and staff, in part due to race-neutral care processes and guidelines. Respondents also used several semantic moves common to colorblindness to refute suggestions of racial inequality.
Colorblindness upholds the racial status quo and inhibits efforts to promote health equity. Drawing on CRT to guide them, health care leaders will need to develop strategies to counter personnel's tendency to focus on axes of inequality other than race, to decontextualize patients' health behaviors and choices, and to depend heavily on race-neutral care processes to produce equitable outcomes.
Abstract Objective Serum IgG antibodies (Abs) to phosphorylated ribosomal (P ribosomal) proteins have been inconsistently associated with neuropsychiatric manifestations in systemic lupus ...erythematosus (SLE). Our aim was to assess whether serum IgG Abs to ribosomal P proteins are associated with neuropsychiatric SLE. Patients and methods We examined an inception cohort of 219 SLE patients. Neuropsychiatric SLE manifestations were characterized using the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) definition. Serum Abs to P ribosomal proteins were searched for by immunoblotting. In a subgroup of patients, Abs were investigated also in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Results Abs to P ribosomal proteins were detected in 45 (21%) patients, 23 of whom (51%) with neuropsychiatric involvement. Abs to P ribosomal protein were present both in serum and CSF. Abs to P ribosomal proteins significantly correlated with psychosis ( p = 0.017), mononeuropathy multiplex ( p = 0.040), malar rash ( p = 0.004), serum anti-Sm Abs ( p = 0.042), and lupus anticoagulant ( p = 0.036). SLE onset age was significantly younger in patients with Abs to P ribosomal proteins. Logistic regression analysis confirmed the relationship between Abs to P ribosomal proteins and psychosis, malar rash, SLE onset age and lupus anticoagulant. Conclusions Abs to ribosomal P proteins are associated with psychosis and might be associated with peripheral nervous system complications.
Arnoldi A, Crimella C, Tenderini E, Martinuzzi A, D’Angelo MG, Musumeci O, Toscano A, Scarlato M, Fantin M, Bresolin N, Bassi MT. Clinical phenotype variability in patients with hereditary spastic ...paraplegia type 5 associated with CYP7B1 mutations.
Spastic paraplegia type 5 (SPG5) is caused by mutations in CYP7B1, a gene encoding the cytochrome P‐450 oxysterol 7‐α‐hydroxylase, CYP7B1, an enzyme implicated in the cholesterol metabolism. Mutations in CYP7B1 were found in both pure and complicated forms of the disease with a mutation frequency of 7.7% in pure recessive cases. The mutation frequency in complex forms, approximately 6.6%, is more controversial and needs to be refined. We studied in more detail the SPG5‐related spectrum of complex phenotypes by screening CYPB1 for mutations in a large cohort of 105 Italian hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) index patients including 50 patients with a complicated HSP (cHSP) phenotype overlapping the SPG11‐ and the SPG15‐related forms except for the lack of thin corpus callosum and 55 pure patients. Five CYP7B1 mutations, three of which are novel, were identified in four patients, two with a complex form of the disease and two with a pure phenotype. The CYP7B1 mutation frequencies obtained in both complicated and pure familial cases are comparable to the known ones. These results obtained extend the range of SPG5‐related phenotypes and reveal variability in clinical presentation, disease course and functional profile in the SPG5‐related patients while providing with some clues for molecular diagnosis in cHSP.
An Italian multigenerational family with four members affected by an axonal Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2D (CMT-2D) or distal spinal muscular atrophy (dSMA) phenotype with upper limb predominance, ...variable age at onset, degree of disability, and autosomal dominant inheritance is reported. A novel heterozygous missense GARS gene mutation (D500N) was identified.
Recent evidence in animal models suggests that components of the extracellular matrix (ECM) play a primary role in peripheral nerve degeneration and regeneration.
We investigated the expression of ...several ECM molecules in human sural nerves by immunohistochemistry, Western blot, and reverse transcriptase PCR analysis. To unravel the possible role of these molecules in nerve regeneration, we compared results obtained from nerves with abundant signs of regeneration with those with complete absence of axonal regeneration. The role of some ECM components on neurite extension was further tested in dorsal root ganglion cultures.
We observed that the ECM composition significantly differs in regenerating compared with nonregenerating nerves, independently from their etiologic background. Fibronectin was abundantly expressed in regenerating nerves, whereas vitronectin and fibrin(ogen) prevailed in nonregenerating nerves. Whereas fibronectin is secreted by endoneurial cells, in vivo and vitro studies showed that the source of vitronectin and fibrin(ogen) is the bloodstream.
These data indicate that nerve regeneration is impaired in the presence of breaches in the blood-nerve barrier or impaired extracellular matrix (ECM) degradation that leads to accumulation of plasma vitronectin and fibrin(ogen). The transformation into mature, fibronectin-enriched ECM is necessary for efficient nerve regeneration in humans.
Abstract We report a patient with POEMS syndrome (Polyneuropathy, Organomegaly, Endocrinopathy, Monoclonal gammopathy, Skin changes) treated with high dose chemotherapy and auto-Peripheral Blood Stem ...Cell Transplantation (auto-PBSCT) who had a very good response with complete clinical remission. Seven years later, she relapsed and a new sclerotic bone lesion was found. To our knowledge, this is the first POEMS syndrome relapse after successful auto-PBSCT.
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