Search

Copyright of Agronomy Journal is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Producers and crop insurance providers will benefit from an accurate assessment of yield reduction after hailstorms that considers crop management, weather, growth stage, and impacted part of crop (hail affected canopy position). But, limited information is available. The main objectives of this study were to quantify wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) yield losses associated with simulated hail damage timing and canopy position. The study was conducted in two locations (Garden City [irrigated], and Manhattan [rainfed]) in Kansas, from 2018 to 2020 and 2016 to 2018, respectively. Treatments were an incomplete factorial combination of stem bending at seven flowering stages, above or below the flag leaf and a nontreated control. Results of the study indicated 11%–22% wheat yield reduction due to simulated hail damage above the flag leaf and 32%–52% due to hail impact below the flag leaf under irrigated conditions. Within the high‐yielding rainfed environment, hail damage caused up to 20% yield reduction compared with the control. In rainfed and low‐yielding environments, the impact of hail damage was mainly dependent on the growth stage of wheat at hail occurrence. Hail damage at Feekes 11.2–11.4 stages decreased yield by 20%–50% from the rainfed control. Hail damage at Feekes 10.0–10.5.4 decreased yield by 50%–70% from the rainfed control. We provide empirical evidence that indicates hail damage on wheat is dependent on the interaction effect of in‐season crop water management, weather, canopy position and crop growth stage, and estimates of yield loss due to hail should consider these factors. Core Ideas: Irrigated wheat yield reduced by 11%–22% due to above flag leaf and 32%–52% below flag leaf hail damage.Hail early at flowering stage decreased yield by 50%–70% in the rainfed low yielding environment (LYE).Hail late after flowering stage decreased yield by 20%–50% in rainfed LYE.Hail damage was mainly dependent on the canopy position in irrigated wheat.Hail damage was mainly dependent on growth stage in rainfed wheat at LYE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nurses are key to the delivery of global primary health care services. However, there appears to be a lack of evaluation of primary health care nursing delivery models in the published literature. This evaluation is vital to the improvement of patient experiences, national and global health outcomes, and the justification of future investment in primary health care nursing services. The purpose of this review was to explore and analyze the literature that reports on the evaluation of primary health care nursing services, to ascertain the nature and utility of these evaluation methods, and identify opportunities for future research in this area. A systematic review of the published literature was conducted following PRISMA guidelines, using the databases CINAHL, Joanna Briggs Institute, MEDLINE, and Proquest. Thirty‐two articles published between 2010 and 2022 were selected. Results were organized using the Donabedian model. A paucity of research into the evaluation of nurse‐led primary health care services was noted. Where evident, evaluation of primary health care nursing services tended to reflect the medical model. Medical outcomes measures dominated evaluation criteria including diagnosis rates, prescription costs, and disease outcomes. Primary health care principles such as service accessibility, cultural appropriateness, and availability were rarely used. The perspectives and experiences of nurses were not sought in service evaluation, including most of the nurse‐led services. Development of an evidence‐base of nursing primary health care services that are informed by the nursing experience and apply a framework of universal primary health care principles across the structure, process, and outcomes aspects of the service is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective team communication is an essential aspect of care delivery and the coordination of patients in primary care settings. With the rapid evolution of health information technology (HIT), including the implementation of electronic health records, there remains a gap in the literature about preferred methods of primary care team communication and the subsequent impact of provider and team outcomes (e.g., team cohesiveness; burnout). This study explores the impact of varying modes of communication across provider disciplines and by geographic settings during primary care delivery.Methods: We used a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from a random convenience sample of PCPs (physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants) (n = 314) in New York State (NYS). We mailed a paper survey with validated measures for communication methods, team cohesiveness, and provider outcomes (burnout, job dissatisfaction, and the intention to leave position). Descriptive statistics, linear regression models, and crude and adjusted odds ratios while controlling for individual and practice characteristics were calculated.Results: In-person communication was found to yield greater job satisfaction and less intention to leave current position in the next year (p=0.02) compared to other forms of communication including electronic health record features. The odds of job satisfaction was 1.51 times higher with in-person communication (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.05, 2.19), and the odds of intending to leave a position was 45% less with in-person communication (OR: 0.55, 95% CI: 0.36, 0.85). The odds of reporting burnout at work was 36% less with in-person communication (OR: 0.64, 95% CI: 0.43, 0.92) compared to other communication modalities. There was no significant association between team communication via the EHR and team cohesiveness, provider burnout, or job satisfaction.Conclusion: This study demonstrates evidence that in-person communication is more likely to reduce burnout and job dissatisfaction compared to other forms of communication infrastructure in primary care settings. More research is needed to understand PCP perspectives about the functionality and potential burden that inhibits the use of EHR features for provider-provider communication. In addition, attention to the needs of teams by geographic location and by workforce discipline is warranted to ensure effective HIT communication application adoption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a novel platform for testing the effects of interventions on the life‐ and healthspan of a short‐lived freshwater organism with complex behavior and physiology—the planktonic crustacean Daphnia magna. Within this platform, dozens of complex behavioral features of both routine motion and response to stimuli are continuously quantified over large synchronized cohorts via an automated phenotyping pipeline. We build predictive machine‐learning models calibrated using chronological age and extrapolate onto phenotypic age. We further apply the model to estimate the phenotypic age under pharmacological perturbation. Our platform provides a scalable framework for drug screening and characterization in both life‐long and instant assays as illustrated using a long‐term dose‐response profile of metformin and a short‐term assay of well‐studied substances such as caffeine and alcohol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ferrocene‐derivatives have a well‐defined electrochemical behaviour, which can be changed upon binding to other molecules (including nonelectroactive species), as the conjugate presents a slower diffusion to the electrode surface. Therefore, the binding event can be easily detected by monitoring the decrease in the current intensity of the ferrocene‐derivative oxidation peak. An electrochemical probe composed of ferrocenecarboxylic acid conjugated with Sambucus nigra agglutinin was prepared and used to selectively detect the STn antigen, a pan‐carcinoma glycobiomarker. The probe showed high selectivity towards the STn antigen present in glycoproteins and demonstrated effectiveness in the analysis of serum samples from carcinoma patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Phaseolus vulgaris leukoagglutinin (PHA−L) impedimetric biosensor was developed for the selective detection of cancer‐associated N‐glycans presenting increased β1→6 GlcNAc branching. The increase in the biosensor's impedance after sample incubation was indicative of lectin recognition and complex formation between PHA−L and N‐glycans with increased β1→6 GlcNAc branching, present in serum glycoproteins. Bovine thyroglobulin was used as a model glycoprotein and a linear correlation was found between glycoprotein concentration and analytical signal from 0.05 to 2.0 mg ml−1. The biosensor was validated by analyzing serum samples from patients with diverse types of carcinomas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenazine 5,10-dioxides (PDOs) are a new class of bioreductive cytotoxins, which could act towards tumours containing hypoxic regions. The PDOs selective-hypoxic bioreduction was probed in vitro; however, the mechanism of action has not been completely explained. Besides, PDOs in vivo antitumour activities have not been demonstrated hitherto. We study the mechanism of hypoxic/normoxic cytotoxicity of PDO representative members. Electron spin resonance is used to confirm ⋅OH production, alkaline comet assay to determine genotoxicity, and gel electrophoresis and flow cytometry to analyze DNA fragmentation and cell cycle distribution. Chemically induced rat breast tumours are employed to evaluate in vivo activities. For the most selective cytotoxin, 7(8)-bromo-2-hydroxyphenazine 5,10-dioxide (PDO1), exclusive hypoxic ⋅OH production is evidenced, while for the unselective ones, ⋅OH is produced in both conditions (normoxia and simulated hypoxia). In normoxia (Caco-2 cells), PDO1 induces cell-cycle arrest and DNA fragmentation but does not significantly induce apoptosis neither at IC50 nor IC80. No difference in the comet-assay scores are observed in normoxia and simulated hypoxia being the unselective 2-amino-7(8)-bromophenazine 5,10-dioxide (PDO2) the most genotoxic. The in vivo efficacy with the absence of systemic toxicity of PDO1 and PDO2 is checked out. Results from this study highlight the potential of PDOs as new therapeutics for cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detection of discriminating patterns in gene expression data can be accomplished by using various methods of statistical learning. It has been proposed that sample pooling in this context would have negative effects; however, pooling cannot always be avoided. We propose a simulation framework to explicitly investigate the parameters of patterns, experimental design, noise, and choice of method in order to find out which effects on classification performance are to be expected. We use a two-group classification task and simulated gene expression data with independent differentially expressed genes as well as bivariate linear patterns and the combination of both. Our results show a clear increase of prediction error with pool size. For pooled training sets powered partial least squares discriminant analysis outperforms discriminance analysis, random forests, and support vector machines with linear or radial kernel for two of three simulated scenarios. The proposed simulation approach can be implemented to systematically investigate a number of additional scenarios of practical interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Statistics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Early and comprehensive endoscopic detection of colonic dysplasia—the most clinically significant precursor lesion to colorectal adenocarcinoma—provides an opportunity for timely, minimally invasive intervention to prevent malignant transformation. Here, the development and evaluation of biodegradable near‐infrared fluorescent silica nanoparticles (FSN) that have the potential to improve adenoma detection during fluorescence‐assisted white‐light colonoscopic surveillance in rodent and human‐scale models of colorectal carcinogenesis is described. FSNs are biodegradable (t1/2 of 2.7 weeks), well‐tolerated, and enable detection and delineation of adenomas as small as 0.5 mm2 with high tumor‐to‐background ratios. Furthermore, in the human scale, APC1311/+ porcine model, the clinical feasibility and benefit of using FSN‐guided detection of colorectal adenomas using video‐rate fluorescence‐assisted white‐light endoscopy is demonstrated. Since nanoparticles of similar size (e.g., 100–150 nm) or composition (i.e., silica and silica/gold hybrid) have already been successfully translated to the clinic, and clinical fluorescent/white‐light endoscopy systems are becoming more readily available, there is a viable path towards clinical translation of the proposed strategy for early colorectal cancer detection and prevention in high‐risk patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]