Redefining government's role in agriculture in the nineties

The authors argue that government policies in agriculture have been costly and misdirected worldwide. For them, this inefficiency need not continue. The Urugauy Round is an ideal opportunity for developed and developing nations to strike a bargain. They suggest 1) making agricultural trade subject to the full discipline of the GATT by eliminating waivers and exemptions that have set agricultural commodities apart from other products in their treatment under the GATT, 2) bringing developing countries fully into the GATT, by eliminating their special status, 3) getting all countries to reform their agricultural policies, to reduce the many policy-induced distortions that plague the sector. The authors claim that such a bargain would result in a redefinition of governments'role in agriculture, increased sectoral efficiency nationally, and a more smoothly functioning and tightly knit world agricultural trading system.Crops&Crop Management Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Research

The Prevalence of Sexual Harassment and Bullying Among Norwegian Afghanistan Veterans: Does Workplace Harassment Disproportionately Impact the Mental Health and Life Satisfaction of Female Soldiers?

Experiencing sexual harassment and bullying during military service can lead to negative consequences for a soldier’s mental health and life satisfaction, including increased risk of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress. No studies have to date investigated the prevalence and correlates of sexual harassment and bullying among Norwegian Afghanistan veterans, despite the increased global focus on these topics. In 2020, 6,205 Norwegian Afghanistan veterans (8.3% women) completed an online post-deployment survey, including questions about experiences of sexual harassment, bullying, mental health, and life satisfaction. Compared to their male counterparts, female veterans experienced significantly more sexual harassment and bullying during Afghanistan deployment (3.2% vs. 0.04% for experiencing sexual harassment, and 4.0% vs. 1.0% for bullying) and during other military services (14.3% vs. 0.4% for sexual harassment, and 15.9% vs. 3.7% for bullying). Sexual harassment was associated with younger age and experiencing childhood sexual harassment for both women and men, with men also having longer deployments. Bullying was associated with longer deployments and childhood sexual harassment for women, while men who reported bullying more often had longer deployments, held an officer rank, were less inclined to have a spouse/intimate partner, and reported childhood sexual harassment and bullying. Both sexual harassment and bullying were associated with increased risk of mental health problems and reduced life satisfaction for women, but this was only true for bullying among men. Despite lower reported rates of workplace harassment compared to studies from other cultures, this study demonstrates that sexual harassment and bullying in the military can negatively impact soldiers’ mental health and life satisfaction. Notably, female veterans’ mental health and life satisfaction appear to be particularly affected by sexual harassment during military service, an association not seen in males. This underscores the need for gender-specific, cultural, and context-sensitive prevention and support for workplace harassment experiences.publishedVersio

Feasibility of an Electronic Nose to Aid Biochemical Assessment of Adrenal Lesions

Objectives: Analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath has emerged as a promising noninvasive diagnostic tool for various diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of an electronic nose to differentiate between functional adrenal lesions - pheochromocytoma (PHEO), primary hyperaldosteronism (PHA), and hypercortisolism (CS) - and nonfunctional adrenal lesions. Methods:A pilot study was conducted at 2 tertiary hospitals within the Netherlands. Patients with PHEO, PHA, CS, and nonfunctional adrenal lesions underwent breath testing with an electronic nose between May 2021 and June 2024. Each center employed a distinct electronic nose (device A and B). Comparability of data between the devices was assessed in a t-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding plot, and an artificial neural network was trained to classify breath patterns. Results: Data obtained from the 2 electronic noses were too heterogeneous for pooling and device B had an insufficient sample size for further analysis. Therefore, VOC patterns of 76 functional lesions (27 PHEO, 33 PHA, 16 CS) and 29 nonfunctional adrenal lesions measured exclusively with device A were analyzed. Moderate discriminative performance was observed in the training data: pooled functional lesions (area under the curve [AUC] 0.76), PHEO [AUC 0.76], PHA [AUC 0.72] and CS [AUC 0.58] versus nonfunctional lesions. However, model performance declined significantly when applying the model developed with training data on test data, with wide confidence intervals across all comparisons. Conclusions: While slight differences in VOC patterns were detected between functional and nonfunctional adrenal lesions, the electronic nose demonstrated limited discriminative value for clinical practice.</p

Black earths from Veneto and Piedmont (Northern Italy): origin, composition and potential use in different painting techniques

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Psychometric Properties of Clinical Indicators for Identification and Management of Advanced Parkinson’s Disease:Real-World Evidence From G7 Countries

Introduction: Standardized and validated criteria to define advanced Parkinson’s disease (PD) or identify patient eligibility for device-aided therapy are needed. This study assessed the psychometric properties of clinical indicators of advanced PD and eligibility for device-aided therapy in a large population. Methods: This retrospective analysis of the Adelphi Parkinson’s Disease Specific Programme collected data from device-aided therapy-naïve people with PD in G7 countries. We assessed the presence of 15 clinical indicators of advancing PD and seven indicators of eligibility for device-aided therapy in patients classified with advanced PD or as eligible for device-aided therapy by the treating physician. Accuracy was assessed using area under the curve (AUC) and multivariable logistic regression models. Construct validity was examined via known-group comparisons of disease severity and burden among patients with and without each clinical indicator. Results: Of 4714 PD patients, 14.9% were classified with advanced PD and 17.5% as eligible for device-aided therapy by physician judgment. The presence of each clinical indicator was 1.9- to 7.3-fold more likely in patients classified with advanced PD. Similarly, the presence of device-aided therapy eligibility indicators was 1.8- to 5.5-fold more likely in patients considered eligible for device-aided therapy. All indicators demonstrated high clinical screening accuracy for identifying advanced PD (AUC range 0.84–0.89) and patients eligible for device-aided therapy (AUC range 0.73–0.80). The Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) score, cognitive function, quality of life, and caregiver burden were significantly worse in indicator-positive patients. Conclusion: Specific clinical indicators of advanced PD and eligibility for device-aided therapy demonstrated excellent psychometric properties in a large sample, and thus may provide an objective and reliable approach for patient identification and treatment optimization.</p

Specific heat of classical disordered elastic systems

We study the thermodynamics of disordered elastic systems, applied to vortex lattices in the Bragg glass phase. Using the replica variational method we compute the specific heat of pinned vortons in the classical limit. We find that the contribution of disorder is positive, linear at low temperature, and exhibits a maximum. It is found to be important compared to other contributions, e.g. core electrons, mean field and non linear elasticity that we evaluate. The contribution of droplets is subdominant at weak disorder in $d=3$.Comment: 4 pages, RevTe

Fall-related activity avoidance in relation to a history of falls or near falls, fear of falling and disease severity in people with Parkinson’s disease

Background: There is limited knowledge concerning fall-related activity avoidance in people with Parkinson's disease (PD); such knowledge would be of importance for the development of more efficient PD-care and rehabilitation. This study aimed to examine how fall-related activity avoidance relates to a history of self-reported falls/near falls and fear of falling (FOF) as well as to disease severity in people with PD. Methods: Data were collected from 251 (61 % men) participants with PD; their median (min-max) age and PD duration were 70 (45-93) and 8 (1-43) years, respectively. A self-administered postal survey preceded a home visit which included observations, clinical tests and interview-administered questionnaires. Fall-related activity avoidance was assessed using the modified Survey of Activities and Fear of Falling in the Elderly (mSAFFE) as well as by using a dichotomous (Yes/No) question. Further dichotomous questions concerned: the presence of FOF and the history (past 6 months) of falls or near falls, followed by stating the number of incidents. Disease severity was assessed according to the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) stages. Results: In the total sample (n = 251), 41 % of the participants reported fall-related activity avoidance; the median mSAFFE score was 22. In relation to a history of fall, the proportions of participants (p <0.001) that reported fall-related activity avoidance were: non-fallers (30 %), single fallers (50 %) and recurrent fallers, i.e. ≥ 2 falls (57 %). Among those that reported near falls (but no falls), 51 % (26 out of 51) reported fall-related activity avoidance. Of those that reported FOF, 70 % reported fall-related activity avoidance. Fall-related activity avoidance ranged from 24 % in the early PD-stage (HY I) to 74 % in the most severe stages (HY IV-V). Conclusions: Results indicate that fall-related activity avoidance may be related to a history of self-reported falls/near falls, FOF and disease severity in people with PD. Importantly, fall-related activity avoidance is reported among those that do not fall and already in mild PD-stages (HY I-II). Although further studies are needed, our findings indicate that fall-related activity avoidance needs to be addressed early in order to prevent sedentary behavior and participation restrictions