Use of twitter data for waste minimisation in beef supply chain

Approximately one third of the food produced is discarded or lost, which accounts for 1.3 billion tons per annum. The waste is being generated throughout the supply chain viz. farmers, wholesalers/processors, logistics, retailers and consumers. The majority of waste occurs at the interface of retailers and consumers. Many global retailers are making efforts to extract intelligence from customer’s complaints left at retail store to backtrack their supply chain to mitigate the waste. However, majority of the customers don’t leave the complaints in the store because of various reasons like inconvenience, lack of time, distance, ignorance etc. In current digital world, consumers are active on social media and express their sentiments, thoughts, and opinions about a particular product freely. For example, on an average, 45,000 tweets are tweeted daily related to beef products to express their likes and dislikes. These tweets are large in volume, scattered and unstructured in nature. In this study, twitter data is utilised to develop waste minimization strategies by backtracking the supply chain. The execution process of proposed framework is demonstrated for beef supply chain. The proposed model is generic enough and can be applied to other domains as well

Reporting randomised clinical trials of analgesics after traumatic or orthopaedic surgery is inadequate: a systematic review

Background Several randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of analgesics in postoperative pain after traumatic or orthopaedic surgery (TOS) have been published, but no studies have assessed the quality of these reports. We aimed to examine the quality of reporting RCTs on analgesics for postoperative pain after TOS. Methods Reports of RCTs assessing analgesics in postoperative pain after TOS were systematically searched from electronic databases. The quality of reports was assessed using the CONSORT checklist (scoring range from 0 to 22). The quality was considered poor when scoring was 12 or lesser. The publication year and the impact factor of journals were recorded. Results A total of 92 reports of RCTs were identified and 69 (75%) scored 12 or lesser in CONSORT checklist (range 5-17). The mean (SD) CONSORT score of all reports was 10.6 (2.7). Missing CONSORT items included primary and secondary outcome measures (11%), the specific objectives and hypothesis definition (12%), the sample size calculation (12%), the dates defining the periods of recruitment (12%), the discussion of external validity of findings (14%), the allocation sequence generation (24%), and the interpretation of potential bias or imprecision of results (25%). There was a little improvement in CONSORT scores over time (r = 0.62; p < 0.001) and with impact factor of journals (r = 0.30; p < 0.001). Conclusion Quality of reporting RCTs on analgesics after TOS is poor. Reporting of those RCTs should be improved according to methodological standard checklists in the next years

Allergen Uptake, Activation, and IL-23 Production by Pulmonary Myeloid DCs Drives Airway Hyperresponsiveness in Asthma-Susceptible Mice

Maladaptive, Th2-polarized inflammatory responses are integral to the pathogenesis of allergic asthma. As regulators of T cell activation, dendritic cells (DCs) are important mediators of allergic asthma, yet the precise signals which render endogenous DCs “pro-asthmatic”, and the extent to which these signals are regulated by the pulmonary environment and host genetics, remains unclear. Comparative phenotypic and functional analysis of pulmonary DC populations in mice susceptible (A/J), or resistant (C3H) to experimental asthma, revealed that susceptibility to airway hyperresponsiveness is associated with preferential myeloid DC (mDC) allergen uptake, and production of Th17-skewing cytokines (IL-6, IL-23), whereas resistance is associated with increased allergen uptake by plasmacytoid DCs. Surprisingly, adoptive transfer of syngeneic HDM-pulsed bone marrow derived mDCs (BMDCs) to the lungs of C3H mice markedly enhanced lung IL-17A production, and rendered them susceptible to allergen-driven airway hyperresponsiveness. Characterization of these BMDCs revealed levels of antigen uptake, and Th17 promoting cytokine production similar to that observed in pulmonary mDCs from susceptible A/J mice. Collectively these data demonstrate that the lung environment present in asthma-resistant mice promotes robust pDC allergen uptake, activation, and limits Th17-skewing cytokine production responsible for driving pathologic T cell responses central to the development of allergen-induced airway hyperresponsiveness

A wake-active locomotion circuit depolarizes a sleep-active neuron to switch on sleep

Sleep-active neurons depolarize during sleep to suppress wakefulness circuits. Wake-active wake-promoting neurons in turn shut down sleep-active neurons, thus forming a bipartite flip-flop switch. However, how sleep is switched on is unclear because it is not known how wakefulness is translated into sleep-active neuron depolarization when the system is set to sleep. Using optogenetics in Caenorhabditis elegans, we solved the presynaptic circuit for depolarization of the sleep-active RIS neuron during developmentally regulated sleep, also known as lethargus. Surprisingly, we found that RIS activation requires neurons that have known roles in wakefulness and locomotion behavior. The RIM interneurons-which are active during and can induce reverse locomotion-play a complex role and can act as inhibitors of RIS when they are strongly depolarized and as activators of RIS when they are modestly depolarized. The PVC command interneurons, which are known to promote forward locomotion during wakefulness, act as major activators of RIS. The properties of these locomotion neurons are modulated during lethargus. The RIMs become less excitable. The PVCs become resistant to inhibition and have an increased capacity to activate RIS. Separate activation of neither the PVCs nor the RIMs appears to be sufficient for sleep induction; instead, our data suggest that they act in concert to activate RIS. Forward and reverse circuit activity is normally mutually exclusive. Our data suggest that RIS may be activated at the transition between forward and reverse locomotion states, perhaps when both forward (PVC) and reverse (including RIM) circuit activity overlap. While RIS is not strongly activated outside of lethargus, altered activity of the locomotion interneurons during lethargus favors strong RIS activation and thus sleep. The control of sleep-active neurons by locomotion circuits suggests that sleep control may have evolved from locomotion control. The flip-flop sleep switch in C. elegans thus requires an additional component, wake-active sleep-promoting neurons that translate wakefulness into the depolarization of a sleep-active neuron when the worm is sleepy. Wake-active sleep-promoting circuits may also be required for sleep state switching in other animals, including in mammals

Enduring relations: exploring a paradox of new materialism

In this paper we examine tensions between understandings of material things as either bundles of relations or as things-in-themselves. Rather than take either of these positions, we instead set out an argument for approaches that allow us to modulate between these understandings whilst treating both as relational. Taking such a position allows us to understand how things endure through time without returning to any notion of essence. We explore the theoretical arguments through an analysis of one particular enduring material phenomenon: the Neolithic chambered tomb of West Kennet

High-throughput amplicon sequencing and stream benthic bacteria: identifying the best taxonomic level for multiple-stressor research

Disentangling the individual and interactive effects of multiple stressors on microbial communities is a key challenge to our understanding and management of ecosystems. Advances in molecular techniques allow studying microbial communities in situ and with high taxonomic resolution. However, the taxonomic level which provides the best trade-off between our ability to detect multiple-stressor effects versus the goal of studying entire communities remains unknown. We used outdoor mesocosms simulating small streams to investigate the effects of four agricultural stressors (nutrient enrichment, the nitrification inhibitor dicyandiamide (DCD), fine sediment and flow velocity reduction) on stream bacteria (phyla, orders, genera, and species represented by Operational Taxonomic Units with 97% sequence similarity). Community composition was assessed using amplicon sequencing (16S rRNA gene, V3-V4 region). DCD was the most pervasive stressor, affecting evenness and most abundant taxa, followed by sediment and flow velocity. Stressor pervasiveness was similar across taxonomic levels and lower levels did not perform better in detecting stressor effects. Community coverage decreased from 96% of all sequences for abundant phyla to 28% for species. Order-level responses were generally representative of responses of corresponding genera and species, suggesting that this level may represent the best compromise between stressor sensitivity and coverage of bacterial communities