Correction: Multi-criteria suitability analysis for neglected and underutilised crop species in South Africa.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0244734.].

Multi-criteria suitability analysis for neglected and underutilised crop species in South Africa.

Several neglected and underutilised species (NUS) provide solutions to climate change and creating a Zero Hunger world, the Sustainable Development Goal 2. Several NUS are drought and heat stress-tolerant, making them ideal for improving marginalised cropping systems in drought-prone areas. However, owing to their status as NUS, current crop suitability maps do not include them as part of the crop choices. This study aimed to develop land suitability maps for selected NUS [sorghum, (Sorghum bicolor), cowpea (Vigna unguiculata), amaranth and taro (Colocasia esculenta)] using Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in ArcGIS. Multidisciplinary factors from climatic, soil and landscape, socio-economic and technical indicators overlaid using Weighted Overlay Analysis. Validation was done through field visits, and area under the curve (AUC) was used to measure AHP model performance. The results indicated that sorghum was highly suitable (S1) = 2%, moderately suitable (S2) = 61%, marginally suitable (S3) = 33%, and unsuitable (N1) = 4%, cowpea S1 = 3%, S2 = 56%, S3 = 39%, N1 = 2%, amaranth S1 = 8%, S2 = 81%, S3 = 11%, and taro S1 = 0.4%, S2 = 28%, S3 = 64%, N1 = 7%, of calculated arable land of SA (12 655 859 ha). Overall, the validation showed that the mapping exercises exhibited a high degree of accuracies (i.e. sorghum AUC = 0.87, cowpea AUC = 0.88, amaranth AUC = 0.95 and taro AUC = 0.82). Rainfall was the most critical variable and criteria with the highest impact on land suitability of the NUS. Results of this study suggest that South Africa has a huge potential for NUS production. The maps developed can contribute to evidence-based and site-specific recommendations for NUS and their mainstreaming. Also, the maps can be used to design appropriate production guidelines and to support existing policy frameworks which advocate for sustainable intensification of marginalised cropping systems through increased crop diversity and the use of stress-tolerant food crops.

Structured interview for mild traumatic brain injury after military blast: inter-rater agreement and development of diagnostic algorithm.

The existing gold standard for diagnosing a suspected previous mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is clinical interview. But it is prone to bias, especially for parsing the physical versus psychological effects of traumatic combat events, and its inter-rater reliability is unknown. Several standardized TBI interview instruments have been developed for research use but have similar limitations. Therefore, we developed the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) retrospective concussion diagnostic interview, blast version (VCU rCDI-B), and undertook this cross-sectional study aiming to 1) measure agreement among clinicians' mTBI diagnosis ratings, 2) using clinician consensus develop a fully structured diagnostic algorithm, and 3) assess accuracy of this algorithm in a separate sample. Two samples (n = 66; n = 37) of individuals within 2 years of experiencing blast effects during military deployment underwent semistructured interview regarding their worst blast experience. Five highly trained TBI physicians independently reviewed and interpreted the interview content and gave blinded ratings of whether or not the experience was probably an mTBI. Paired inter-rater reliability was extremely variable, with kappa ranging from 0.194 to 0.825. In sample 1, the physician consensus prevalence of probable mTBI was 84%. Using these diagnosis ratings, an algorithm was developed and refined from the fully structured portion of the VCU rCDI-B. The final algorithm considered certain symptom patterns more specific for mTBI than others. For example, an isolated symptom of "saw stars" was deemed sufficient to indicate mTBI, whereas an isolated symptom of "dazed" was not. The accuracy of this algorithm, when applied against the actual physician consensus in sample 2, was almost perfect (correctly classified = 97%; Cohen's kappa = 0.91). In conclusion, we found that highly trained clinicians often disagree on historical blast-related mTBI determinations. A fully structured interview algorithm was developed from their consensus diagnosis that may serve to enhance diagnostic standardization for clinical research in this population.

Effect of real-time cortical feedback in motor imagery-based mental practice training.

BACKGROUND: Mental practice using motor imagery of limb movement may facilitate motor recovery in persons who have experienced cerebrovascular accident (CVA). However, the lack of a feedback mechanism that can monitor the quality of the motor imagery affects patients' engagement and motivation to participate in the mental practice training program. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the effect of novel real-time motor imagery-associated cortical activity feedback on motor imagery-based mental practice training. METHODS: Ten healthy volunteers were randomly assigned into intervention and control groups. Both groups participated in a five-visit motor imagery-based mental practice training program managed over a period of two months. The intervention group received mental practice training with real-time feedback of movement-associated cortical activity-beta band (16-28 Hz) event-related desynchronization (ERD) in electroencephalography (EEG), using a novel custom-made brain-computer interface (BCI) system. The control group received the mental practice training program without EEG cortical feedback. Motor excitability was assessed by measuring the frequency power magnitude of the EEG rhythmic activity associated with physical execution of wrist extension before and after the motor imagery-based mental practice training. RESULTS: The EEG frequency power magnitude associated with the physical execution of wrist extension was significantly lower (i.e. more desynchronized) after the mental practice training in the intervention group that received real-time cortical feedback (P < 0.05), whereas no significant difference in EEG frequency power magnitude associated with the physical execution of wrist extension was observed before and after mental practice training in the control group who did not receive feedback. CONCLUSIONS: The mental practice training program with motor imagery-associated cortical feedback facilitated motor excitability during the production of voluntary motor control. Motor imagery-based mental practice training with movement-associated cortical activity feedback may provide an effective strategy to facilitate motor recovery in brain injury patients, particularly during the early rehabilitation stage when full participation in physical and occupational therapy programs may not be possible due to excessive motor weakness.

Post-acute brain injury urinary signature: a new resource for molecular diagnostics.

Heterogeneity within brain injury presents a challenge to the development of informative molecular diagnostics. Recent studies show progress, particularly in cerebrospinal fluid, with biomarker assays targeting one or a few structural proteins. Protein-based assays in peripheral fluids, however, have been more challenging to develop, in part because of restricted and intermittent barrier access. Further, a greater number of molecular variables may be required to inform on patient status given the multi-factorial nature of brain injury. Presented is an alternative approach profiling peripheral fluid for a class of small metabolic by-products rendered by ongoing brain pathobiology. Urine specimens were collected for head trauma subjects upon admission to acute brain injury rehabilitation and non-traumatized matched controls. An innovative data-independent mass spectrometry approach was employed for reproducible molecular quantification across osmolarity-normalized samples. The postacute human traumatic brain injury urinary signature encompassed 2476 discriminant variables reproducibly measured in specimens for subject classification. Multiple subprofiles were then discerned in correlation with injury severity per the Glasgow Comma Scale and behavioral and neurocognitive function per the Patient Competency Rating Scale and Frontal Systems Behavioral Scale. Identified peptide constituents were enriched for outgrowth and guidance, extracellular matrix, and post-synaptic density proteins, which were reflective of ongoing post-acute neuroplastic processes demonstrating pathobiological relevance. Taken together, these findings support further development of diagnostics based on brain injury urinary signatures using either combinatorial quantitative models or pattern-recognition methods. Particularly, these findings espouse assay development to address unmet diagnostic and theragnostic needs in brain injury rehabilitative medicine.

Political violence and mental health in Nepal: prospective study.

BACKGROUND: Post-conflict mental health studies in low-income countries have lacked pre-conflict data to evaluate changes in psychiatric morbidity resulting from political violence. AIMS: This prospective study compares mental health before and after exposure to direct political violence during the People's War in Nepal. METHOD: An adult cohort completed the Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory in 2000 prior to conflict violence in their community and in 2007 after the war. RESULTS: Of the original 316 participants, 298 (94%) participated in the post-conflict assessment. Depression increased from 30.9 to 40.6%. Anxiety increased from 26.2 to 47.7%. Post-conflict post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was 14.1%. Controlling for ageing, the depression increase was not significant. The anxiety increase showed a dose-response association with conflict exposure when controlling for ageing and daily stressors. No demographic group displayed unique vulnerability or resilience to the effects of conflict exposure. CONCLUSIONS: Conflict exposure should be considered in the context of other types of psychiatric risk factors. Conflict exposure predicted increases in anxiety whereas socioeconomic factors and non-conflict stressful life events were the major predictors of depression. Research and interventions in post-conflict settings therefore should consider differential trajectories for depression v. anxiety and the importance of addressing chronic social problems ranging from poverty to gender and ethnic/caste discrimination.

Culture in psychiatric epidemiology: using ethnography and multiple mediator models to assess the relationship of caste with depression and anxiety in Nepal.

BACKGROUND: The causes of ethnic and caste-based disparities in mental health are poorly understood. AIM: The study aimed to identify mediators underlying caste-based disparities in mental health in Nepal. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A mixed methods ethnographic and epidemiological study of 307 adults (Dalit/Nepali, n=75; high caste Brahman and Chhetri, n=232) was assessed with Nepali versions of Beck Depression (BDI) and Anxiety (BAI) Inventories. RESULTS: One-third (33.7%) of participants were classified as depressed: Dalit/Nepali 50.0%, high caste 28.4%. One quarter (27.7%) of participants were classified as anxious: Dalit/Nepali 50.7%, high caste 20.3%. Ethnographic research identified four potential mediators: Stressful life events, owning few livestock, no household income, and lack of social support. The direct effect of caste was 1.08 (95% CI -1.10-3.27) on depression score and 4.76 (95% CI 2.33-7.19) on anxiety score. All four variables had significant indirect (mediation) effects on anxiety, and all but social support had significant indirect effects on depression. CONCLUSION: Caste-based disparities in mental health in rural Nepal are statistically mediated by poverty, lack of social support, and stressful life events. Interventions should target these areas to alleviate the excess mental health burden born by Dalit/Nepali women and men.

MDCT assessment of airway wall thickness in COPD patients using a new method: correlations with pulmonary function tests.

Quantitative assessment of airway-wall dimensions by computed tomography (CT) has proven to be a marker of airway-wall remodelling in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. The objective was to correlate the wall thickness of large and small airways with functional parameters of airflow obstruction in COPD patients on multi-detector (MD) CT images using a new quantification procedure from a three-dimensional (3D) approach of the bronchial tree. In 31 patients (smokers/COPD, non-smokers/controls), we quantitatively assessed contiguous MDCT cross-sections reconstructed orthogonally along the airway axis, taking the point-spread function into account to circumvent over-estimation. Wall thickness and wall percentage were measured and the per-patient mean/median correlated with FEV1 and FEV1%. A median of 619 orthogonal airway locations was assessed per patient. Mean wall percentage/mean wall thickness/median wall thickness in non-smokers (29.6%/0.69 mm/0.37 mm) was significantly different from the COPD group (38.9%/0.83 mm/0.54 mm). Correlation coefficients (r) between FEV1 or FEV1% predicted and intra-individual means of the wall percentage were -0.569 and -0.560, respectively, with p < 0.001. Depending on the parameter, they were increased for airways of 4 mm and smaller in total diameter, being -0.621 (FEV1) and -0.537 (FEV1%) with p < 0.002. The wall thickness was significantly higher in smokers than in non-smokers. In COPD patients, the wall thickness measured as a mean for a given patient correlated with the values of FEV1 and FEV1% predicted. Correlation with FEV1 was higher when only small airways were considered.

Ephrin-A5 inhibits growth of embryonic sensory neurons.

EphA-ephrin signaling has recently been implicated in the establishment of motor innervation patterns, in particular in determining whether motor axons project into dorsal versus ventral nerve trunks in the limb. We investigated whether sensory axons, which grow out together with and can be guided by motor axons, are also influenced by Eph-ephrin signaling. We show that multiple EphA receptors are expressed in DRGs when limb innervation is being established, and EphA receptors are present on growth cones of both NGF-dependent (predominantly cutaneous) and NT3-dependent (predominantly proprioceptive) afferents. Both soluble and membrane-attached ephrin-A5 inhibited growth of approximately half of each population of sensory axons in vitro. On average, growth cones that collapsed in response to soluble ephrin-A5 extended more slowly than those that did not, and ephrin-A5 significantly slowed the extension of NGF-dependent growth cones that did not collapse. Finally, we show that ectopic expression of ephrin-A5 in ovo reduced arborization of cutaneous axons in skin on the limb. Together these results suggest that sensory neurons respond directly to A-class ephrins in the limb. Thus, ephrins appear to pattern sensory axon growth in two ways-both directly, and indirectly via their inhibitory effects on neighboring motor axons.